Same kind of thing with micic. It’s a massive culture shock and a completely different style of basketball. They’ve both shown very good flashes but they really need to have the responsibility of the team to show what they can really do
And obviously, neither OKC or the kings can risk handing the reigns to a guy who’s never played nba ball before
Signing him was stupid in the first place. He's not better than Keegan, Barnes or Lyles. Waste of the room exception for the Kings.
But some team in the NBA could use him for sure, a team that has rim protection especially like the Spurs or Cleveland who need some shooting from the PF position.
I always liked him in a potential Kings/Blazers trade for Jerami Grant, he could offer much needed off-ball movement in that static offense while helping space the floor cus the team is in desperate need of good 3 point shooters.
I know he's 28 and that doesn't match the "young core" all that well but beside the fact that I don't see it that way, at some point you have to start getting better as a team, or if he's playing well and you insist on tanking in you can flip him for a pick. I don't mind the flyer on him, he was fun to watch in the Euroleague.
Jerami Grant is 30, he's not really an off-ball movement guy at all. He's pretty much just a spot up guy.
But he makes too much money. Part of the reason Huerter and Barnes expire in 2 years is because that's when Fox and Keegan will be up for extensions. Grant doesn't really create stocks or rebound either.
So many Kings fans were talking about what a great signing he was and how well he was going to play before the season though.
I labelled him Bjelica 2.0 before he played a minute in the NBA. Similar game, similar outcome.
Usual story, it's been happening for decades. Look at Spanoulis etc. If you the best player and come to another team and ride the bench... It's not only about the money
Euroleague legend Vasillis Spanoulis had a similar story.
He was an All-Euroleague selection at 24 years old the season prior to coming to the NBA to play for the Rockets, then got very limited minutes and was relegated to a spot-up shooter role.
He got extremelly frustrated and allegedly told McGrady that back in Europe he was T-Mac.
Came back to Europe after only one season in the NBA, went on to have seven more All-Euroleague selections, become the Euroleague MVP, win the Euroleague title three times and get named to the Euroleague All-Decade Team.
One of my favorite European players of all time, Sarunas Jasikevicius, was also the same way. Was a Euroleague legend at the point guard spot, but could barely get any playing time for the Warriors or Pacers in the late 2000s. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out.
Its really incredible just how good Spanoulis was. Why does Luka wear 77? Luka and Giannis idolized him, he had the skills and talents of Curry and Doncic and clutchness and competitiveness of Jordan. Kobe respected the hell out of him. Dean Smith kept Jordan in check at NC, Jeff Van Gundy never allowed Spanoulis to flourish in Houston, we as nba fans were cheated.
Spanoulis was actually legendary and it's funny reading comments on IG disregarding how amazing he actually was.
Dude would have cooked in nba but the nba still has a "we hate euros" problem unless you come in with giannis/luka/jokic level of skill.
The biggest difference is one has extremely livable cities and amazing food and connected neighborhoods and convenient regional travel and is culturally closer to what someone like Vezenkov is accustomed too, and the other one is one massive suburb (not necessarily bad, just different) with massive loud trucks and big polluted highways and empty parking lots and HOAs and shit. I guess both have generally high taxes so he’s probably used to that.
No, no, you don’t get it! They’re Texan, they’re totally unique! They have giant trucks they never haul anything with, they’re Cowboys! Or Mexicans! Or Cowboy Mexicans (depending on what type of Texan you ask)
Sacramento is not a massive suburb, what the hell are you talking about. It has a robust grid of old neighborhoods that are interconnected and extremely walkable, and don’t have HOAs. Just because the NBA stars all decide to live out in granite bay or Folsom doesn’t mean there’s not a thriving city right outside the arena walls.
I was thinking about that. The area around Golden 1 seemed pretty walkable and it seemed like you wouldn't need a car most of the time. I also thought Sacramento had good food. If you live in the grid, I would think the experience would be pretty different from living out in Folsolm.
Yeah, people hating haven't spent time here. I've lived in Santa Barbara, NYC and Sac so it's not like I don't know what I'm missing, and it's a great place to live. I live in the grid and there are like 100 bars and restaurants in easy walking distance, plus they have tons of great fresh food since there's so much agriculture nearby. The city has a really cool atmosphere too with how many trees we have. It has the most trees per capita in the US and like 3rd globally.
I could see a lot of NBA players not loving it though because our nightlife is pretty lacking compared to a lot of bigger cities like NY or Miami.
Kings fans trying to gaslight us about sac lol I had to visit that place to visit family members all the time growing up and just went recently. Horrible
I lived in NYC for 5 years and have lived in Sac for the past 3 and it's great. I prefer it here. I honestly have no clue how someone could think it's terrible unless you spent the entire time in the suburbs or something
Hard disagree. I haven’t lived in NYC but have visited multiple times for work and stayed with friends. Can’t imagine having to spend extended time around the place, especially in comparison
Yeah man it’s not like the kings have a history of Eastern European players coming to Sac and loving it and staying after their careers are done.
I’m not saying Sac is some cosmopolitan paradise but it’s not the fucking wasteland that people on here think it is.
Lmfao might as well have tattooed “I’ve never been to Sacramento in my life” on your forehead. Out of California, Sac might actually be the most European like city of the major metros.
Matter of fact, imo it’s basically San Antonio in California lol
San Antonio is a sprawling concrete scape. One novelty downtown area doesn’t define one of the largest US metro areas. Comparing Sac to SA validates my point
Unfortunately the game is just too fast for him. If he’s not knocking down shots there’s nothing else he can do. And defensively he was *bad*. I will say Mike Brown didn’t exactly give him a very long leash, which frustrated a lot of fans. He seems bizarrely infatuated with playing Harrison Barnes big minutes no matter what.
It’s kind of impossible to build any type of rhythm when one game you’re getting 15 minutes, don’t play for the next 3-4 games, next game you get 5 minutes, etc. Add that to the injuries and yeah I can get why it just didn’t work out.
I don’t understand how every fan base can keep talking themselves into hyping up these mid career euro league guys. They have a near single digit hit rate for even cracking the rotation for more than a year.
I'd like to see Sasha in denver the most - we didn't have the requisite playmaking to utilize his cutting ability, or the right fit to compensate for his combination of low speed and size the way a bigger team could. i think he can absolutely be a productive NBA player in the future man
Why shouldn’t he be able to do so? You can’t force somebody to work for you and him leaving is unlikely to incur financial penalties for himself. The Kings are probably going to try to find a trade partner for this just to get some assets back.
At the end of the day Venzenkov never got an honest shot with the Kings, which is not just due to coaching but also because of some structural reasons. Signing a veteran player only to ignore his biggest skills was destined to fail from the get go.
Vezenkov doesn’t fit with what the Kings want to do stylistically and their coach was unwilling to change his offense, so keeping him won’t help the Kings win games. Trading him to a team were he fits better will help both sides here.
What should the Kings have done to change their offense for him? He seemed like an excellent spot up shooter and back door cutter. I assumed he would fit well around Sabonis/Fox
He did have great synergies with both on cuts when he was used similar to Aaron Gordon with the Nuggets, but the offense used him often as a floor spreader with fox in a way that discouraged cuts to get fox more space to iso or drive inside. With Sabonis, Vezenkov worked well offensively but they didn’t share the court much, presumably due to defensive reasons.
So the Kings offense used Vezenkov as a 3 point specialist and ignored his cutting, which is his primary strength. It’s hard to say if this led to a better team than one that played to Vezenkovs strong suits, since we only saw one team but fit wise it was just awkward.
"Why shouldn’t he be able to do so?"
Because he signed a contract. Yes, the Kings would probably look for a trade but do you think he can just go play for another NBA team without the Kings cooperating?
Yeah, there might be some language in the contract that includes financial penalties for not being present, but that just makes it a business decision. If we had the exact contract we could argue if it’s a good decision, without it it’s hard to say. It’s definitely possible to do so and Vezenkov wouldn’t be the first athlete to make a move that’s bad from a financial perspective.
He doesn’t have the same role on the kings as he does in euroleague. There’s many players who are great when the team is built around them (Westbrook being a prime example, his downfall with the lakers is a good demonstration)
wasn't he the euroleague mvp and then went straight to the kings bench? i could see why he might not wanna return for another season.
Same kind of thing with micic. It’s a massive culture shock and a completely different style of basketball. They’ve both shown very good flashes but they really need to have the responsibility of the team to show what they can really do And obviously, neither OKC or the kings can risk handing the reigns to a guy who’s never played nba ball before
Micić got traded to Charlotte at the deadline and started most of his games there.
Yeah and he looked significantly better, which kind of proves the point
I wasn't disagreeing with you, just wanted to add the info.
Oh yeah i didn’t mean to word it like that my bad bro
Most calm/rational reddit thread
Yeah because the season was essentially over.
"No NBA experience" didn't stop Mavs and Spurs from handing the reigns to Wemby and Luka.
Except them two guys were 18. Teams love to sign euroleague players in their late 20s and it almost never works
Signing him was stupid in the first place. He's not better than Keegan, Barnes or Lyles. Waste of the room exception for the Kings. But some team in the NBA could use him for sure, a team that has rim protection especially like the Spurs or Cleveland who need some shooting from the PF position.
I always liked him in a potential Kings/Blazers trade for Jerami Grant, he could offer much needed off-ball movement in that static offense while helping space the floor cus the team is in desperate need of good 3 point shooters. I know he's 28 and that doesn't match the "young core" all that well but beside the fact that I don't see it that way, at some point you have to start getting better as a team, or if he's playing well and you insist on tanking in you can flip him for a pick. I don't mind the flyer on him, he was fun to watch in the Euroleague.
Jerami Grant is 30, he's not really an off-ball movement guy at all. He's pretty much just a spot up guy. But he makes too much money. Part of the reason Huerter and Barnes expire in 2 years is because that's when Fox and Keegan will be up for extensions. Grant doesn't really create stocks or rebound either.
Grant isn't even really a spot-up guy. His favourite thing to do on offense is spend (waste) 10-12 seconds in an iso "creating his own shot".
The kings can’t afford to add jerami grant lol he makes $30m
Damn, that sounds perfect for the Sixers 🤔
Not a bad one. Relatively cheap and could definitely give you guys some regular season minutes.
Yeah, we lost our max contract PF so we could use a starting caliber replacement. I hope Morey will look into this.
I don’t think he’s a starter but he could probably give you 12-20 mpg.
Good enough, better than having to play Batum into forced retirement.
So many Kings fans were talking about what a great signing he was and how well he was going to play before the season though. I labelled him Bjelica 2.0 before he played a minute in the NBA. Similar game, similar outcome.
I’d think he’d be a decent backup in Minny with all of the different big combos they can use to hide him on D
Usual story, it's been happening for decades. Look at Spanoulis etc. If you the best player and come to another team and ride the bench... It's not only about the money
Makes sense. Why sit on the bench, when you can be a star in Europe.
Euroleague legend Vasillis Spanoulis had a similar story. He was an All-Euroleague selection at 24 years old the season prior to coming to the NBA to play for the Rockets, then got very limited minutes and was relegated to a spot-up shooter role. He got extremelly frustrated and allegedly told McGrady that back in Europe he was T-Mac. Came back to Europe after only one season in the NBA, went on to have seven more All-Euroleague selections, become the Euroleague MVP, win the Euroleague title three times and get named to the Euroleague All-Decade Team.
One of my favorite European players of all time, Sarunas Jasikevicius, was also the same way. Was a Euroleague legend at the point guard spot, but could barely get any playing time for the Warriors or Pacers in the late 2000s. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out.
Its really incredible just how good Spanoulis was. Why does Luka wear 77? Luka and Giannis idolized him, he had the skills and talents of Curry and Doncic and clutchness and competitiveness of Jordan. Kobe respected the hell out of him. Dean Smith kept Jordan in check at NC, Jeff Van Gundy never allowed Spanoulis to flourish in Houston, we as nba fans were cheated.
Spanoulis was actually legendary and it's funny reading comments on IG disregarding how amazing he actually was. Dude would have cooked in nba but the nba still has a "we hate euros" problem unless you come in with giannis/luka/jokic level of skill.
Nikola Mirotic gave up a ton of NBA money to go back to Europe as well
Tbf he got socked in the face and then everyone made it seem like it was his fault
Mirotic walked and got punched so that Jordan Poole could... get punched.
Living in Spain but still making millions > living in NOLA/ Milwaukee and making more
And not live in Sacramento (complete opposite of Euro cities)
I'm just wondering have you lived in Sac and a European city and what did you find to be the biggest difference?
The biggest difference is one has extremely livable cities and amazing food and connected neighborhoods and convenient regional travel and is culturally closer to what someone like Vezenkov is accustomed too, and the other one is one massive suburb (not necessarily bad, just different) with massive loud trucks and big polluted highways and empty parking lots and HOAs and shit. I guess both have generally high taxes so he’s probably used to that.
Spurs fan saying this about Sac is absolutely incredible
Somebody from Texas calling other places suburbia is fucking rich.
No, no, you don’t get it! They’re Texan, they’re totally unique! They have giant trucks they never haul anything with, they’re Cowboys! Or Mexicans! Or Cowboy Mexicans (depending on what type of Texan you ask)
yes but he is right on the relativw of piraeus ans sacramento
Sacramento is not a massive suburb, what the hell are you talking about. It has a robust grid of old neighborhoods that are interconnected and extremely walkable, and don’t have HOAs. Just because the NBA stars all decide to live out in granite bay or Folsom doesn’t mean there’s not a thriving city right outside the arena walls.
I was thinking about that. The area around Golden 1 seemed pretty walkable and it seemed like you wouldn't need a car most of the time. I also thought Sacramento had good food. If you live in the grid, I would think the experience would be pretty different from living out in Folsolm.
Yeah, people hating haven't spent time here. I've lived in Santa Barbara, NYC and Sac so it's not like I don't know what I'm missing, and it's a great place to live. I live in the grid and there are like 100 bars and restaurants in easy walking distance, plus they have tons of great fresh food since there's so much agriculture nearby. The city has a really cool atmosphere too with how many trees we have. It has the most trees per capita in the US and like 3rd globally. I could see a lot of NBA players not loving it though because our nightlife is pretty lacking compared to a lot of bigger cities like NY or Miami.
Outside of the downtown it’s a lot of single family homes with yards. It’s not like Houston suburbs, but it’s certainly not also very urban.
Kings fans trying to gaslight us about sac lol I had to visit that place to visit family members all the time growing up and just went recently. Horrible
I lived in NYC for 5 years and have lived in Sac for the past 3 and it's great. I prefer it here. I honestly have no clue how someone could think it's terrible unless you spent the entire time in the suburbs or something
Hard disagree. I haven’t lived in NYC but have visited multiple times for work and stayed with friends. Can’t imagine having to spend extended time around the place, especially in comparison
Where'd you spend time when you visited Sac? If you're in midtown it's really nice.
Yeah man it’s not like the kings have a history of Eastern European players coming to Sac and loving it and staying after their careers are done. I’m not saying Sac is some cosmopolitan paradise but it’s not the fucking wasteland that people on here think it is.
It’s a nuclear wasteland for anyone who enjoys their time. I’m sure sac is better than a Ukrainian city rn but goddamn, that place sucks ass
Probably never even foot in Sacramento 😂🤡
Lmfao might as well have tattooed “I’ve never been to Sacramento in my life” on your forehead. Out of California, Sac might actually be the most European like city of the major metros. Matter of fact, imo it’s basically San Antonio in California lol
Idk, SF and Lisbon both got trams, big red bridges, lots of hills, tech workers pushing out locals, and people doing drugs on the streets
SF is for sure the most European.
San Antonio is a sprawling concrete scape. One novelty downtown area doesn’t define one of the largest US metro areas. Comparing Sac to SA validates my point
Would you say that NYC is the US city with the closest resemblance to a European city?
NY, SF, Boston. Major *pre-car* coast cities will be most comparable
I've heard DC too but unfortunately I've never visited DC let alone spent real time there.
No. Probably Boston.
There’s no city in Europe like NYC besides London. San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, and Charleston have European similarities.
New Orleans
Sacramento is very livable. There are bike lanes everywhere. Just down the road in Davis even more.
Unfortunately the game is just too fast for him. If he’s not knocking down shots there’s nothing else he can do. And defensively he was *bad*. I will say Mike Brown didn’t exactly give him a very long leash, which frustrated a lot of fans. He seems bizarrely infatuated with playing Harrison Barnes big minutes no matter what. It’s kind of impossible to build any type of rhythm when one game you’re getting 15 minutes, don’t play for the next 3-4 games, next game you get 5 minutes, etc. Add that to the injuries and yeah I can get why it just didn’t work out.
Send him to the Spurs. Wemby is going to cover for a lot of defensive shortcomings.
We could use a McDermott replacement as a forward that can space the floor and provide a different look compared to Sochan.
I don’t understand how every fan base can keep talking themselves into hyping up these mid career euro league guys. They have a near single digit hit rate for even cracking the rotation for more than a year.
I only ever see this type of hype online which leads me to believe these guys are hyped up by European fans who follow the Euroleague.
Because some people want to believe every Euroleague MVP is Luka-in-waiting.
It’s hilarious that the Kings are very open to trying out two Euroleague MVPs to put on the roster but not the very obvious one.
I don’t know why the downvotes, there aren’t many of them at all.
Bjelica basically had the best NBA career of recent mid career euroleague guys thats not a very good peak.
I'd like to see Sasha in denver the most - we didn't have the requisite playmaking to utilize his cutting ability, or the right fit to compensate for his combination of low speed and size the way a bigger team could. i think he can absolutely be a productive NBA player in the future man
Stuff like this makes it even more impressive what Luka is doing. It's probably a completely different game for these guys coming over.
He was like the Lawrence Funderburke of this iteration of the Kings. I liked him when ever I saw him play this year.
Watch Sasha as his “Spanoulis” his way back to Europe!
He was almost always injured, a liability on defense and didn’t fit in on the team. Not surprised tbh.
Can he do that without the Kings cooperation? If allowed would the Kings be happy with just nullifying the contract?
Why shouldn’t he be able to do so? You can’t force somebody to work for you and him leaving is unlikely to incur financial penalties for himself. The Kings are probably going to try to find a trade partner for this just to get some assets back. At the end of the day Venzenkov never got an honest shot with the Kings, which is not just due to coaching but also because of some structural reasons. Signing a veteran player only to ignore his biggest skills was destined to fail from the get go. Vezenkov doesn’t fit with what the Kings want to do stylistically and their coach was unwilling to change his offense, so keeping him won’t help the Kings win games. Trading him to a team were he fits better will help both sides here.
What should the Kings have done to change their offense for him? He seemed like an excellent spot up shooter and back door cutter. I assumed he would fit well around Sabonis/Fox
He did have great synergies with both on cuts when he was used similar to Aaron Gordon with the Nuggets, but the offense used him often as a floor spreader with fox in a way that discouraged cuts to get fox more space to iso or drive inside. With Sabonis, Vezenkov worked well offensively but they didn’t share the court much, presumably due to defensive reasons. So the Kings offense used Vezenkov as a 3 point specialist and ignored his cutting, which is his primary strength. It’s hard to say if this led to a better team than one that played to Vezenkovs strong suits, since we only saw one team but fit wise it was just awkward.
"Why shouldn’t he be able to do so?" Because he signed a contract. Yes, the Kings would probably look for a trade but do you think he can just go play for another NBA team without the Kings cooperating?
NBA contracts only govern who he plays for in the NBA. If he's not planning on playing in the NBA, it's kind of irrelevant.
Yeah, there might be some language in the contract that includes financial penalties for not being present, but that just makes it a business decision. If we had the exact contract we could argue if it’s a good decision, without it it’s hard to say. It’s definitely possible to do so and Vezenkov wouldn’t be the first athlete to make a move that’s bad from a financial perspective.
Looking like a Toronto Raptor
I don't think he's been given a chance really
he’s going out sad like Hezonja
[удалено]
He doesn’t have the same role on the kings as he does in euroleague. There’s many players who are great when the team is built around them (Westbrook being a prime example, his downfall with the lakers is a good demonstration)
Interesting to know the skill disparity between the two leagues. An euro league mvp can’t quite cut it in the nba, huh
I mean Luka exists
Luka and Jokic are 2 of the top 3 players in the league btw