Minnesota Sports Forum

Carlos Danger wrote:

Mikkeman wrote:
Raduljica has played total 14 games with around 10 minutes per game in Euroleague. His PER in Euroleague was worse than in NBA. I don't see how anyone could compare him for Bjelica.

I'm assuming Belgrade Serbia is considered part of European League (at least that's what that link stated). So, he played a lot more than 14 games. His Per 40 Euro Stats were over 20 pts and 7+ rebounds. Things always look crazy good when you use Per 40 figures though. Cripes. Anthony Bennett was a 13 pt/10 Rebound guy last year if we use Per 40 adjusted.

BTW, Zgoda had an online chat this afternoon and was asked about Bjelica. Here is his response:

"From an NBA scout I trust last week: Great offensive skills, point guard in a power forward's body, small forward's skills but you'll have to play him at power forward probably to hide his defensive limitations, a backup power forward in the NBA.
by Jerry Zgoda 1:04 PM"

My opinion hasn't changed. He's not the answer to our PF needs. The last thing we need right now is another backup PF/question mark. You guys can keep your opinion he's the next great thing. We'll agree to disagree and move on.

Mikkeman wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:I don't see anyway the Rockets do that trade. Jones is their starting 4, he stretches the floor and protects the rim. You might be able to do NB and the picks for only Jones, but not Jones and the pick. Jones is an underrated player. He's just a good basketball player and next to Dwight they have a good starting frontcourt. He averaged almost 12/7/2 in 27 MPG's which is good production next to Dwight. Bump him up to 34-36 MPG's and he might be a 16/9/2.5 guy (that's his per 36 line). That's worth more than an unknown Euro and 2 2nds let alone throwing in a first round pick.

Jones lost his starting job during his injury to Motiejunas, who did a pretty good job this season. Motiejunas is also better three point shooter than Jones, so they might think that he is better fit to play next to Dwight. After Jones came back from injury, he got opportunity to start only when either Dwight or Motiejunas was injured.

Now it seems that during playoffs Jones lost again starting job, he got after Motiejunas was injured. his time it was for Josh Smith. So I see that it is possible that Houston would trade him but I doubt that Morey would do the trade that Cam suggested unless they value Bjelica really high.

BTW. Motiejunas is maybe pretty good comparison to Bjelica. I just think that Bjelica is little better in almost all areas than Motiejunas. He has better handle, is better passer, shooter and rebounder. He is also more athletic but Motiejunas is maybe stronger and better post scorer.

60WinTim wrote:Toni Kukoc... Which I would gladly take!

Of course, if we can convince Phil Jackson of the same thinking...

khans2k5 wrote:
Jones still has started more games than not this year and last. He's also started 9 of their post season games this year. Montiejunas also took 3 years to start showing something so if Bjelica is a similar talent we're looking at probably 2-3 years before he becomes a fringe starter. I don't see them taking an established good player and turning him into an unknown that will probably take 2-3 years before being a decent contributor if he becomes a good contributor. Maybe Martin and the picks lands Jones as a better secondary scoring option than Jason Terry. Move Harden to the PG spot when needed and put Martin, Ariza and Montiejunas around him. Jones could eat up all the PF time KG doesn't for us. The sad part is we had Jones and Montiejunas and traded both of them.

A Friendly Flatulence wrote:Anybody know how to pronounce his name, I swear I change pronunciations in my head of it daily

Camden wrote:

A Friendly Flatulence wrote:Anybody know how to pronounce his name, I swear I change pronunciations in my head of it daily

Neh-mon-ya
Be-ya-litz-uh.

That's the correct pronunciation from every broadcast of Bjelica's games that I've watched.

Mikkeman wrote:
So if one player has not got even minutes in pretty bad Euroleague team and another is Euroleague MVP in final four team, you cannot use the one, which was not getting minutes as reason why MVP would not success in NBA.

I don't believe that Bjelica would be next big thing but I absolutely believe he could be average starter in NBA.

Carlos Danger wrote:
To me, that sounds a lot more like Mirslav Radujiica than the names you were throwing out there i.e. Marc Gasol and Adrei Kirilenko. And again - let's not forget age. Gasol was 24 when he came over. Kirilenko was 20, Mirotic was 23. Bjelica will be 27 if he comes over this year. To put that in perspective....Darko Milicic is 29. And I don't think anyone believes Darko has much upside left. So even if Bjelica comes over and turns out to be "an average starter in the NBA" as you believe he will be....why would we want to lock up an older, hopefully average player without much upside? Bad contracts can be just as harmful to a franchise as bad players.