Nemanja Bjelica - Hype Thread

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

We're way too ready to trade a Euro MVP for a late first like the guy's not a good player.

PS: Did someone really question if he'd be an upgrade over Adreian Payne? Are you shitting me? Did you watch Payne last year?

[bleedspeed]

Cam, The thing would consider. Is can we replace him with a FA for 5M? If we can I think I would trade him for a pick that would get us a big I listed.

[60WinTim]

The list of Euroleague MVP's doesn't inspire much confidence in Bjelica as an NBA player...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euroleague_MVP

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Interesting you brought that up... Made me miss watching Andrei Kirilenko play basketball so now I'm watching his Jazz highlights. One of the most under-appreciated players of the past two decades.

[Carlos Danger]

We're way too ready to trade a Euro MVP for a late first like the guy's not a good player.

PS: Did someone really question if he'd be an upgrade over Adreian Payne? Are you shitting me? Did you watch Payne last year?

Yeah - that would have been me there Camsie. Take another look at Tim's list of past Euro MVPs. Kirilenko is the only name anyone will recognize. And the year Kirilenko won was after he was already an established NBA star - so I wouldn't even count him as part of that list. And yeah, as bad as Payne was last year, he's still already had a better NBA career than most of those past Euro MVPs. I cringe when I see people putting so much value in Euro stats/honors. The NBA is the Premiere League. Players that go to Europe or other places generally do so because they are not good enough to play in the NBA.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

We're way too ready to trade a Euro MVP for a late first like the guy's not a good player.

PS: Did someone really question if he'd be an upgrade over Adreian Payne? Are you shitting me? Did you watch Payne last year?

Yeah - that would have been me there Camsie. Take another look at Tim's list of past Euro MVPs. Kirilenko is the only name anyone will recognize. And the year Kirilenko won was after he was already an established NBA star - so I wouldn't even count him as part of that list. And yeah, as bad as Payne was last year, he's still already had a better NBA career than most of those past Euro MVPs. I cringe when I see people putting so much value in Euro stats/honors. The NBA is the Premiere League. Players that go to Europe or other places generally do so because they are not good enough to play in the NBA.

Bjelica was on draft wonks' radar years ago because of his intriguing combination of size and skills. Guys like JC Navarro have a harder time in the NBA because their size/athletic profile doesn't translate well, even if they are really skilled. Since first scouted, Bjelica has filled out a ton and he certainly has the height to play PF.

I'm not opposed to trading the guy, but I think his value is greater than a late 1st rounder. And his value to us is that he is better than any other PF we currently have on the roster.

[Carlos Danger]

Bjelica was on draft wonks' radar years ago because of his intriguing combination of size and skills. Guys like JC Navarro have a harder time in the NBA because their size/athletic profile doesn't translate well, even if they are really skilled. Since first scouted, Bjelica has filled out a ton and he certainly has the height to play PF.

I'm not opposed to trading the guy, but I think his value is greater than a late 1st rounder. And his value to us is that he is better than any other PF we currently have on the roster.

We don't know that he's better than what we have until we'd see him play against NBA guys. Maybe he'll be a good player. I don't know. But I'm not seeing anything to indicate he's a "sure thing". And if he's not a sure thing, then he's just another question mark and we have a roster full of those already.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Me thinks you're highly overrating (didn't think it was possible at this point) Payne and Bennett. Truth is, they were tremendously horrific.

[Carlos Danger]

Me thinks you're highly overrating (didn't think it was possible at this point) Payne and Bennett. Truth is, they were tremendously horrific.

Who's doing the overrating?

If Bjelica can't crack the rotation on the worst team in the NBA, I'm not sure why you have him pegged as some sort of Superstar. The fact that they traded for Thad Young, Adreian Payne and Kevin Garnett should sort of tell us the pecking order at PF - right? They think he's worse than all of those guys. Now let's check for upside: Payne is 24. Thad Young is 26. Bjelica is 27. Ugh. He's not the friggin' answer for us at PF. Let's just stop that nonsense. We need to either draft a PF or deal for one to upgrade what we have.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Me thinks you're highly overrating (didn't think it was possible at this point) Payne and Bennett. Truth is, they were tremendously horrific.

Who's doing the overrating?

If Bjelica can't crack the rotation on the worst team in the NBA, I'm not sure why you have him pegged as some sort of Superstar. The fact that they traded for Thad Young, Adreian Payne and Kevin Garnett should sort of tell us the pecking order at PF - right? They think he's worse than all of those guys. Now let's check for upside: Payne is 24. Thad Young is 26. Bjelica is 27. Ugh. He's not the friggin' answer for us at PF. Let's just stop that nonsense. We need to either draft a PF or deal for one to upgrade what we have.

What pecking order? We have a 39-year old Kevin Garnett, a 22-year old Anthony Bennett and a 24-year old Adreian Payne. Bennett and Payne are barely worth rostering at this point let alone being productive off the bench and Garnett's got a 20-minute limit every night, not to mention his ineptitude to play anywhere near 82 games a season.

Enter Nemanja Bjelica, a 27-year old "do-it-all" forward who's coming off a 2014-15 campaign where he averaged 11.6 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 1.8 APG and 1 SPG while shooting 54.4% from the field, 40.4% from three (with 1.0 3PM per game) and 71.4% from the free throw line. This all in 25.9 MPG. The guy's 6'10", 235 lbs and clearly skilled.

I'm not saying Bjelica's gonna be a transformational talent with multiple All-Star nods in the future, but I do think he's a very worthy player of bringing over and would easily be the best power forward on our team. Not to mention he's a three-point shooter who can stretch the floor, which would actually be a good look next to Towns or Okafor.

I have him pegged as a good basketball player. He's a guy that I'd bring over and pay handsomely (Mirotic contract range) this off-season to do so.

Edit: Excuse me, Bjelica turned 27-years old earlier this May. My apologies. Doesn't change my thoughts.