Does Bjelica belong in the NBA?

[thedoper]

Started off promising but he is moving into Shved territory.

Shoting under 40% at the 4 this month, seems lost out there. I have lost any hope of him being a starting 4 in this league. If KG isn't going to score we need more from this spot when the backup comes in.

[thedoper]

I should note there is nothing statistically relevant in what I am saying only that the player I see seems to already have given up and has started throwing up shots he has no business taking.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I haven't lost hope yet, but yeah, he's been struggling. Frankly, I think NBA refs are absolutely biased against a) rookies, and especially, b) European rookies. The dude gets absolutely zero benefit of the doubt. It's brutal. The same thing happened with Pek in his rookie year.

The question is whether Bjelica reacts like Shved and loses his confidence or if he can bounce back like Pek did eventually. He's definitely a little older and is physically put together better than Shved, but we'll just have to wait and see. We could really use his shooting and play making.

[thedoper]

I haven't lost hope yet, but yeah, he's been struggling. Frankly, I think NBA refs are absolutely biased against a) rookies, and especially, b) European rookies. The dude gets absolutely zero benefit of the doubt. It's brutal. The same thing happened with Pek in his rookie year.

The question is whether Bjelica reacts like Shved and loses his confidence or if he can bounce back like Pek did eventually. He's definitely a little older and is physically put together better than Shved, but we'll just have to wait and see. We could really use his shooting and play making.

I was very optimistic the first few games. I think there is a player there. But he has been awful the last 6 games.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I haven't lost hope yet, but yeah, he's been struggling. Frankly, I think NBA refs are absolutely biased against a) rookies, and especially, b) European rookies. The dude gets absolutely zero benefit of the doubt. It's brutal. The same thing happened with Pek in his rookie year.

The question is whether Bjelica reacts like Shved and loses his confidence or if he can bounce back like Pek did eventually. He's definitely a little older and is physically put together better than Shved, but we'll just have to wait and see. We could really use his shooting and play making.

I was very optimistic the first few games. I think there is a player there. But he has been awful the last 6 games.

To be fair his minutes have taken almost a 10 per game drop this month compared to November. Some guys just aren't equipped to be stat stuffers in 17 MPG's. They need to play and get their offense within the flow of the game. Maybe it's foul trouble this month (hard to tell from the ESPN splits, but he's only at 3 per game right now in his 17 minutes). A guy like Bazz comes in and shoots like he's thirsty for buckets where NB has always been a bigger ball movement guy trying to get the best shot. When you cut 10 minutes out from that kind of guy his stats can really take a hit. It's his rookie year. You just have to play him through his struggles.

[Carlos Danger]

I was not a fan of Bjelica and never bought into the "Euro MVP" hype. That said, he's actually been better than I thought he'd be up to this point. Yes, he's had a rough couple games. But I like his rebounding which I didn't think would be this good. As Kahns wrote above, it seems like he gets into a better flow when he's playing more minutes. And as Q wrote above, the Refs are absolutely not doing him any favors. To sum it up, I think he's been okay. I'm not sure he's our answer to the starting PF spot. But I like him off the bench.

[worldK]

I think he belongs. He is not going to be a star or a starter but he is a rotation guy. He needs to get back on track though. He has not been as good as he was since he came back form injury.

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

sure he does, big guys out of Europe usually have a lot of troubles in NBA in their first season .. remember PEK in his first season? ..

In Europe a lot more contact is allowed and overall intensity is higher as game is played once a week with all players rested and most European teams prioritize defense (not just talking about defense like most of NBA), so that guys are called for fouls non stop when they come to NBA, they are reaching for the ball and bumping too much etc., travel is also called a bit differently.

Before you crucify me, yes NBA has stronger and faster players and pace is faster (more up and down). And NBA top teams are like 10x better than European.

Also atmosphere by greek/turkish/serbian fans is just insane. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyyYMQMPB9k ) It is different world in here, give the guy some time to adjust. Also not stable rotation and playing time and subpar coaching of Sam will not help.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

sure he does, big guys out of Europe usually have a lot of troubles in NBA in their first season .. remember PEK in his first season? ..

In Europe a lot more contact is allowed and overall intensity is higher as game is played once a week with all players rested and most European teams prioritize defense (not just talking about defense like most of NBA), so that guys are called for fouls non stop when they come to NBA, they are reaching for the ball and bumping too much etc., travel is also called a bit differently.

Before you crucify me, yes NBA has stronger and faster players and pace is faster (more up and down). And NBA top teams are like 10x better than European.

Also atmosphere by greek/turkish/serbian fans is just insane. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyyYMQMPB9k ) It is different world in here, give the guy some time to adjust. Also not stable rotation and playing time and subpar coaching of Sam will not help.

Holy crap M4gor, I knew things were a little nutty over there, but that is some intense fandom going on there.

Here we have the Cameron Indoor Crazies (Duke).......try not to laugh at this too hard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=019GnaR9P0Y

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

sure he does, big guys out of Europe usually have a lot of troubles in NBA in their first season .. remember PEK in his first season? ..

In Europe a lot more contact is allowed and overall intensity is higher as game is played once a week with all players rested and most European teams prioritize defense (not just talking about defense like most of NBA), so that guys are called for fouls non stop when they come to NBA, they are reaching for the ball and bumping too much etc., travel is also called a bit differently.

Before you crucify me, yes NBA has stronger and faster players and pace is faster (more up and down). And NBA top teams are like 10x better than European.

Also atmosphere by greek/turkish/serbian fans is just insane. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyyYMQMPB9k ) It is different world in here, give the guy some time to adjust. Also not stable rotation and playing time and subpar coaching of Sam will not help.

Holy crap M4gor, I knew things were a little nutty over there, but that is some intense fandom going on there.

Here we have the Cameron Indoor Crazies (Duke).......try not to laugh at this too hard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=019GnaR9P0Y

that is nice crowd, energetic young people supporting their team (alma mater), nothing wrong or laughable about that, at least you do not need t-shirt toss to get of your ass and do something :-) ..

when it comes to NBA, people come there to be entertained, which is different starting point, but i am not that much against it either, to me NBA schedule is too erratic to even give people chance to build some active fandom like we have in europe

i mean for fans to group up it would help to get rid of divisions and conferences and play twice a week wednesday and sunday for example, with one home and one away game every week, with that each game would matter much more and fans would group up to help their team to win, also rested players and some actual preparation for given opponent would help the product immensely

does NFL suffer from having only 16 regular season games with most of matches played the same day? i do not think so as every game is important and average product in NFL is like 10 times better than average product in the NBA