2012 EuroLeague Final Four Guide for NBA Fans
By Rafael Uehara
We are officially within a week from the 2012 EuroLeague Final Four, with this year’s edition taking place in Istanbul. It is that week of the year again and we should be blessed with the best of European basketball at its finest. We can argue the three best teams made it the biggest stage. That combined to Olympiacos’ somewhat Cinderella story should make for one great ride. The event even attracts an NBA fan or two who is curious to check and see how this whole other side of basketball is like. So here is a guide of the 2012 Final Four for NBA fans.
CSKA Moscow has been the best team in the league all year. The Russian powerhouse was the one of continent’s most dominant forces in the 2000’s, posting eight-straight Final Four appearances and winning a couple of titles with now Brooklyn Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokhorov running the club and now Los Angeles Lakers’ assistant Ettore Messina coaching the team. Last year they failed to advance from the initial group stages, officially signaling the end of that cycle. They retooled in the offseason, acquiring former Net, Thunder, Celtic Nenad Krstic and former Jazz Andrei Kirilenko among others, and have now returned to relevancy.
Kirilenko has had an amazing season in Europe. He was already named the defensive player of the year and should be named the league’s MVP in the next week or so. He has displayed all his skills as complete all-around player who can impact the game in so many different ways. Defensively, he is the ace that provides so much flexibility within their scheme and offensively he is a breakdown explorer and bail-out safety net. Kirilenko can cut, spot-up, handle, pass, screen, post-up and crash the offensive glass. So instead of defining one specific thing for him to do, head-coach Jonas Kazlauskas is smart enough to let him to some of everything. And the result of it has been Kirilenko posting one of the most remarkable seasons efficiency-wise (the record-breaking stuff cooled off as the cohesiveness of the team came together and also he dealt with a concussion in early December) in league-history, as he has averaged 1.17 point-per-possession on 66.3% true-shooting and posted a 15% assist-rate on just 20% usage.
Krstic has also gone through a similar European renascence. A simple rotation big in the NBA, Krstic is a true impact player in the EuroLeague. He would in fact be among MVP contenders on a normal year when Kirilenko wouldn’t be around to do the stuff he is doing. He is averaged 1.23 point-per-possession on 68.2% true-shooting and a low 10% turnover-rate considering his 23.7% usage. Krstic is an important part of CSKA Moscow’s offense, the league’s highest scoring this season and don’t be shocked when he has a big game Friday against a strength challenged Panathinaikos’ frontcourt.
Sasha Kaun is another CSKA player that should draw some sort of attention from NBA fans. The Cleveland Cavalier draftee and former Kansas Jayhawk was closer to the league once upon a time but after undergoing knee surgery last season, he is now further away and it’s doubtful the Cavs or any other team will ever have enough interest to make a push for him and inquire whether or not Kahn is interest in coming over.
And a player some fans may be familiar with and perhaps should keep in the back of their minds is Milos Teodosic. There are always rumors about a team or two looking into the Serbian point-guard and wondering whether or not it would make sense taking a flyer on him. Teodosic is extremely mercurial and up until this year, there were doubts about his ability to play simply point-guard in order to fit in with more gifted offensive players but he has answered those questions, running the CSKA’s pick-and-roll heavy offense as well as you could ask him to, although his turnover issues are still there (21.6% turnover-rate). So all those team x might be interested in Milos rumors are closer to actually being true this summer.
CSKA Moscow faces the defending champions Panathinaikos Athens in one of the semifinals. PAO is another European powerhouse whose dictionary definition has the word victory attached to it. Head-coach Zeljko Obradovic has coached the Greens for 13 years now and this is the ninth Final Four he has led his team to over the period, tabbing five championships on the way.
Nick Calathes is the only true NBA prospect on the team and his rights are held by the Dallas Mavericks. After a great Final Four last year, exploding in the semifinal game against Montepaschi Siena, in which he was a key part for them to win that title, many believed Calathes was actually closer to the NBA than expected, already wondering how a Rodrigue Beaubois-Nick Calathes backcourt would look like. But Calathes has failed to take that next step forward on his development, returning to being an inconsistent non-impact player. The hope is perhaps he is just that type of baller that gears up for big moments. I guess we will see if that’s the case next weekend.
Former Xavier Muskeeter Romain Sato could probably hang his own in the league as one of those perimeter players who bring good defense and three-point shooting on the perimeter but I doubt any teams regard him as somebody they should be interested in. And I think the ship has sailed on Mike Batiste, who played for the Memphis Grizzlies. In Europe he is a household name. Don’t think there are many teams knocking on his door either.
Someone you should be aware of is Dimitris Diamantidis. No, there is no chance the 32 year-old would just go ahead and have a cup of coffee in the Association just to see what is like on the other side of the glass, Juan Carlos Navarro style. But you should know that Diamantidis is a sure thing Hall of Famer, three-time EuroLeague winner, two-time league MVP and six-time defensive player of the year. So when he is doing awesome things like locking down his man with historic on-ball defense and running pick-and-rolls to perfection, don’t pull a Mike Krzyzewski and say; “hey, 13 (THIRTEEN!!!) is a nice player.”
The other semifinal features Regal FC Barcelona and Olympiacos Piraeus. That’s a rematch from the championship game of two years ago. While Barça remains an elite class squad, although no longer a dominant force on a level of their own, Oly has changed a lot. A couple of years ago Olympiacos was a team filled with high profile commodities such as Teodosic, Theo Papaloukas, Linas Kleiza, Josh Childress, Ioannis Bouroussis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis. The owners are no longer rich enough to afford talent at that price range and how they made it to the Final Four this year is one great story of roster building through value, a couple of lucky breaks, overachievement and great coaching.
Olympiacos’ game centers around scoring-guard Vassilis Spanoulis, that guy Jeff Van Gundy thought couldn’t hang in the NBA. Spanoulis has had one monster season – averaging 16.5 points on 56.1% effective shooting and a point per possession while also posting a .272 assist percentage on 27.5% usage. In a normal year in which Kirilenko wouldn’t be around, he would be a heavy favorite to win the MVP.
The arrivals of Acie Law and Joey Dorsey midseason have been a huge reason of why Olympiacos took a leap from where they were at season’s start to who they are now, a team capable of making the Final Four. Law has actually been half-decent after already being half-decent with Partizan Belgrade, although shooting their way out of the league there in the end. The same is true for Dorsey, who brought better post-defense, paint protection and rebounding to a team that needed to sure up its frontcourt rotation, that after he had a not so successful stint with Caja Laboral Baskonia.
The star addition, however, was Kyle Hines, who arrived from Brose Baskets of Bamberg in January. Hines is your typical hard working, high energy, high maintenance, undersized, shot blocking big who will definitely crawl his way into the NBA one day. Count on it.
A youngster to keep an eye on is Kostas Papanikolaou. Once upon a time the 22-year-old was regarded as a prospect with a good shot of being one of those second-round picks nobody knows or cares for and then half-a-decade later, BOOM, he is on the Spurs and becomes a fan favorite. But Papanikolaou hasn’t progressed all the much and this year has been a smaller part of the team than last season.
Former Michigan State Spartan Kalin Lucas and former Butler Bulldog Matt Howard started the season with the team but didn’t survive through the year, not all the shocking considering head-coach Dusan Ivkovic is an elderly from Serbia, proven Hall of Famer who returned from retirement after sitting out a few years and doesn’t seem like the patient teacher type, especially to explain to some American kids this whole different game they have probably never had a thought of its existence.
Meanwhile Barcelona is looking at a shot for its second title in three years. Barça arrives with its defense having posted one of the best performances in history. It has held opponents to an average of just 86.1 points per 100 possessions and 45.1% effective shooting, both league-leading statistics by a rather wide margin. Barcelona has rotations, help-defense concepts, switching and forcing opponents to low percentage areas down to an art.
And the enhancer behind that type of performance is Boniface N’Dong who is having the best season of his career at age 34 (officially). The ridiculous long seven-footer (that just sounded wrong) played a single season for the Clippers in 2005-2006 and despite his advanced age (officially) could be a relevant part of a rotation today in the league. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. But in a perfect world, it should. That’s how good a basketball player he still is.
Another of Barcelona’s big-men who have already played in the league and should perhaps be given a shot at a return is Kosta Perovic. The 27-year-old, 7-feet-2 center is a great post defender and could have a place in a rotation. That’s what I thought of Timofey Mozgov, though, and George Karl refuses to throw him out there against Andrew Bynum, so what do I know…
Oh and there’s that Juan Carlos Navarro guy. We all know JC’s deal. He hung out in Memphis for a year, then the Grizzlies traded Pau Gasol and Navarro looked around and said; “nah, man, I’m out of here”. As much as we all hope and dream for a possible return, that’s extremely unlikely and breaks your heart.
Marcelinho Huertas is constantly regarded as someone with a good chance of getting a shot in the league soon but Marcelinho is now 29 and the clock keeps ticking. If it hasn’t happened for him yet, you have to wonder if it ever will.
The two guys on Barcelona’s squad with an actual chance of making into the league, as soon as next year even, are Erazem Lorbek and Fran Vázquez. In fact, it has been reported Lorbek has already decided to join the Spurs, who acquired his rights on the Kawhi Leonard-George Hill trade, next summer. Lorbek is your prototypical skilled low post presence European big, a versatile weapon whose multi-dimensionality of his skill set makes him one of the toughest players to defend in the globe as he can score from the post, off the pick-and-pop, spotting-up…
Oh, Fran Vázquez… Fran was drafted 11th overall by the Orlando Magic in the 2005 draft, which envisioned him to be the perfect frontcourt pairing for Dwight Howard. Vázquez just never crossed the Atlantic. Word is he was about to do it last summer. His contract was up, he declined Barça’s offer for an extension, which resulted in head-coach Xavi Pascual putting him on the doghouse for essentially that whole year. But then the lockout took place and Vázquez re-signed for just one year, possibly signaling he’s really intending to come over.
It remains likely Vázquez will be a pretty good player in the Association. He has the attributes to succeed. Fran is a lengthy athletically big who is a great shot blocker, a fundamentally sound post defender and a legit weapon off the pick-and-roll. His minutes over the last couple of years have been absurd. I figure Pascual and management can’t possibly still be angry over the extension thing so I’m just gonna go ahead and guess he slept with the coach’s wife or did something else terrible of that nature. It just doesn’t add up how little he is onn the court.
The thing is does he even factor in on the Magic’s plans anymore? Orlando has the whole Dwight Howard cloud hanging over their heads, they are likely to re-sign Ryan Anderson and Glen Davis has proven to be not a terrible investment. In theory, it wouldn’t be unreasonably to add Vázquez to that rotation since he would become a true backup to Howard, which neither Anderson nor Davis is, but is this going to be Otis Smith’s thought process? Does Otis Smith have a thought process?
Anyway, these are the storylines and names you, NBA fan, can familiarize yourself with if intending to watch the EuroLeague Final Four this year. It’s a different type of basketball but it is basketball and if you really do love the game, some part of you will be open-minded about the differences and enjoy some. So, feel devotion. You might like it.
Editor's Note: All the statistical data on this post was researched at in-the-game.org, one phenomenal website dedicated to keeping track of advance statistics in the EuroLeague. Simon Jatsch does an amazing job and I hope he knows how much his work is appreciated.
Rafael Uehara is the managing editor of 'The Basketball Post'. More of his work can be found here and he can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara or reached via e-mail at rafael_uehara@live.com
We are officially within a week from the 2012 EuroLeague Final Four, with this year’s edition taking place in Istanbul. It is that week of the year again and we should be blessed with the best of European basketball at its finest. We can argue the three best teams made it the biggest stage. That combined to Olympiacos’ somewhat Cinderella story should make for one great ride. The event even attracts an NBA fan or two who is curious to check and see how this whole other side of basketball is like. So here is a guide of the 2012 Final Four for NBA fans.
CSKA Moscow has been the best team in the league all year. The Russian powerhouse was the one of continent’s most dominant forces in the 2000’s, posting eight-straight Final Four appearances and winning a couple of titles with now Brooklyn Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokhorov running the club and now Los Angeles Lakers’ assistant Ettore Messina coaching the team. Last year they failed to advance from the initial group stages, officially signaling the end of that cycle. They retooled in the offseason, acquiring former Net, Thunder, Celtic Nenad Krstic and former Jazz Andrei Kirilenko among others, and have now returned to relevancy.
Kirilenko has had an amazing season in Europe. He was already named the defensive player of the year and should be named the league’s MVP in the next week or so. He has displayed all his skills as complete all-around player who can impact the game in so many different ways. Defensively, he is the ace that provides so much flexibility within their scheme and offensively he is a breakdown explorer and bail-out safety net. Kirilenko can cut, spot-up, handle, pass, screen, post-up and crash the offensive glass. So instead of defining one specific thing for him to do, head-coach Jonas Kazlauskas is smart enough to let him to some of everything. And the result of it has been Kirilenko posting one of the most remarkable seasons efficiency-wise (the record-breaking stuff cooled off as the cohesiveness of the team came together and also he dealt with a concussion in early December) in league-history, as he has averaged 1.17 point-per-possession on 66.3% true-shooting and posted a 15% assist-rate on just 20% usage.
Krstic has also gone through a similar European renascence. A simple rotation big in the NBA, Krstic is a true impact player in the EuroLeague. He would in fact be among MVP contenders on a normal year when Kirilenko wouldn’t be around to do the stuff he is doing. He is averaged 1.23 point-per-possession on 68.2% true-shooting and a low 10% turnover-rate considering his 23.7% usage. Krstic is an important part of CSKA Moscow’s offense, the league’s highest scoring this season and don’t be shocked when he has a big game Friday against a strength challenged Panathinaikos’ frontcourt.
Sasha Kaun is another CSKA player that should draw some sort of attention from NBA fans. The Cleveland Cavalier draftee and former Kansas Jayhawk was closer to the league once upon a time but after undergoing knee surgery last season, he is now further away and it’s doubtful the Cavs or any other team will ever have enough interest to make a push for him and inquire whether or not Kahn is interest in coming over.
And a player some fans may be familiar with and perhaps should keep in the back of their minds is Milos Teodosic. There are always rumors about a team or two looking into the Serbian point-guard and wondering whether or not it would make sense taking a flyer on him. Teodosic is extremely mercurial and up until this year, there were doubts about his ability to play simply point-guard in order to fit in with more gifted offensive players but he has answered those questions, running the CSKA’s pick-and-roll heavy offense as well as you could ask him to, although his turnover issues are still there (21.6% turnover-rate). So all those team x might be interested in Milos rumors are closer to actually being true this summer.
CSKA Moscow faces the defending champions Panathinaikos Athens in one of the semifinals. PAO is another European powerhouse whose dictionary definition has the word victory attached to it. Head-coach Zeljko Obradovic has coached the Greens for 13 years now and this is the ninth Final Four he has led his team to over the period, tabbing five championships on the way.
Nick Calathes is the only true NBA prospect on the team and his rights are held by the Dallas Mavericks. After a great Final Four last year, exploding in the semifinal game against Montepaschi Siena, in which he was a key part for them to win that title, many believed Calathes was actually closer to the NBA than expected, already wondering how a Rodrigue Beaubois-Nick Calathes backcourt would look like. But Calathes has failed to take that next step forward on his development, returning to being an inconsistent non-impact player. The hope is perhaps he is just that type of baller that gears up for big moments. I guess we will see if that’s the case next weekend.
Former Xavier Muskeeter Romain Sato could probably hang his own in the league as one of those perimeter players who bring good defense and three-point shooting on the perimeter but I doubt any teams regard him as somebody they should be interested in. And I think the ship has sailed on Mike Batiste, who played for the Memphis Grizzlies. In Europe he is a household name. Don’t think there are many teams knocking on his door either.
Someone you should be aware of is Dimitris Diamantidis. No, there is no chance the 32 year-old would just go ahead and have a cup of coffee in the Association just to see what is like on the other side of the glass, Juan Carlos Navarro style. But you should know that Diamantidis is a sure thing Hall of Famer, three-time EuroLeague winner, two-time league MVP and six-time defensive player of the year. So when he is doing awesome things like locking down his man with historic on-ball defense and running pick-and-rolls to perfection, don’t pull a Mike Krzyzewski and say; “hey, 13 (THIRTEEN!!!) is a nice player.”
The other semifinal features Regal FC Barcelona and Olympiacos Piraeus. That’s a rematch from the championship game of two years ago. While Barça remains an elite class squad, although no longer a dominant force on a level of their own, Oly has changed a lot. A couple of years ago Olympiacos was a team filled with high profile commodities such as Teodosic, Theo Papaloukas, Linas Kleiza, Josh Childress, Ioannis Bouroussis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis. The owners are no longer rich enough to afford talent at that price range and how they made it to the Final Four this year is one great story of roster building through value, a couple of lucky breaks, overachievement and great coaching.
Olympiacos’ game centers around scoring-guard Vassilis Spanoulis, that guy Jeff Van Gundy thought couldn’t hang in the NBA. Spanoulis has had one monster season – averaging 16.5 points on 56.1% effective shooting and a point per possession while also posting a .272 assist percentage on 27.5% usage. In a normal year in which Kirilenko wouldn’t be around, he would be a heavy favorite to win the MVP.
The arrivals of Acie Law and Joey Dorsey midseason have been a huge reason of why Olympiacos took a leap from where they were at season’s start to who they are now, a team capable of making the Final Four. Law has actually been half-decent after already being half-decent with Partizan Belgrade, although shooting their way out of the league there in the end. The same is true for Dorsey, who brought better post-defense, paint protection and rebounding to a team that needed to sure up its frontcourt rotation, that after he had a not so successful stint with Caja Laboral Baskonia.
The star addition, however, was Kyle Hines, who arrived from Brose Baskets of Bamberg in January. Hines is your typical hard working, high energy, high maintenance, undersized, shot blocking big who will definitely crawl his way into the NBA one day. Count on it.
A youngster to keep an eye on is Kostas Papanikolaou. Once upon a time the 22-year-old was regarded as a prospect with a good shot of being one of those second-round picks nobody knows or cares for and then half-a-decade later, BOOM, he is on the Spurs and becomes a fan favorite. But Papanikolaou hasn’t progressed all the much and this year has been a smaller part of the team than last season.
Former Michigan State Spartan Kalin Lucas and former Butler Bulldog Matt Howard started the season with the team but didn’t survive through the year, not all the shocking considering head-coach Dusan Ivkovic is an elderly from Serbia, proven Hall of Famer who returned from retirement after sitting out a few years and doesn’t seem like the patient teacher type, especially to explain to some American kids this whole different game they have probably never had a thought of its existence.
Meanwhile Barcelona is looking at a shot for its second title in three years. Barça arrives with its defense having posted one of the best performances in history. It has held opponents to an average of just 86.1 points per 100 possessions and 45.1% effective shooting, both league-leading statistics by a rather wide margin. Barcelona has rotations, help-defense concepts, switching and forcing opponents to low percentage areas down to an art.
And the enhancer behind that type of performance is Boniface N’Dong who is having the best season of his career at age 34 (officially). The ridiculous long seven-footer (that just sounded wrong) played a single season for the Clippers in 2005-2006 and despite his advanced age (officially) could be a relevant part of a rotation today in the league. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. But in a perfect world, it should. That’s how good a basketball player he still is.
Another of Barcelona’s big-men who have already played in the league and should perhaps be given a shot at a return is Kosta Perovic. The 27-year-old, 7-feet-2 center is a great post defender and could have a place in a rotation. That’s what I thought of Timofey Mozgov, though, and George Karl refuses to throw him out there against Andrew Bynum, so what do I know…
Oh and there’s that Juan Carlos Navarro guy. We all know JC’s deal. He hung out in Memphis for a year, then the Grizzlies traded Pau Gasol and Navarro looked around and said; “nah, man, I’m out of here”. As much as we all hope and dream for a possible return, that’s extremely unlikely and breaks your heart.
Marcelinho Huertas is constantly regarded as someone with a good chance of getting a shot in the league soon but Marcelinho is now 29 and the clock keeps ticking. If it hasn’t happened for him yet, you have to wonder if it ever will.
The two guys on Barcelona’s squad with an actual chance of making into the league, as soon as next year even, are Erazem Lorbek and Fran Vázquez. In fact, it has been reported Lorbek has already decided to join the Spurs, who acquired his rights on the Kawhi Leonard-George Hill trade, next summer. Lorbek is your prototypical skilled low post presence European big, a versatile weapon whose multi-dimensionality of his skill set makes him one of the toughest players to defend in the globe as he can score from the post, off the pick-and-pop, spotting-up…
Oh, Fran Vázquez… Fran was drafted 11th overall by the Orlando Magic in the 2005 draft, which envisioned him to be the perfect frontcourt pairing for Dwight Howard. Vázquez just never crossed the Atlantic. Word is he was about to do it last summer. His contract was up, he declined Barça’s offer for an extension, which resulted in head-coach Xavi Pascual putting him on the doghouse for essentially that whole year. But then the lockout took place and Vázquez re-signed for just one year, possibly signaling he’s really intending to come over.
It remains likely Vázquez will be a pretty good player in the Association. He has the attributes to succeed. Fran is a lengthy athletically big who is a great shot blocker, a fundamentally sound post defender and a legit weapon off the pick-and-roll. His minutes over the last couple of years have been absurd. I figure Pascual and management can’t possibly still be angry over the extension thing so I’m just gonna go ahead and guess he slept with the coach’s wife or did something else terrible of that nature. It just doesn’t add up how little he is onn the court.
The thing is does he even factor in on the Magic’s plans anymore? Orlando has the whole Dwight Howard cloud hanging over their heads, they are likely to re-sign Ryan Anderson and Glen Davis has proven to be not a terrible investment. In theory, it wouldn’t be unreasonably to add Vázquez to that rotation since he would become a true backup to Howard, which neither Anderson nor Davis is, but is this going to be Otis Smith’s thought process? Does Otis Smith have a thought process?
Anyway, these are the storylines and names you, NBA fan, can familiarize yourself with if intending to watch the EuroLeague Final Four this year. It’s a different type of basketball but it is basketball and if you really do love the game, some part of you will be open-minded about the differences and enjoy some. So, feel devotion. You might like it.
Editor's Note: All the statistical data on this post was researched at in-the-game.org, one phenomenal website dedicated to keeping track of advance statistics in the EuroLeague. Simon Jatsch does an amazing job and I hope he knows how much his work is appreciated.
Rafael Uehara is the managing editor of 'The Basketball Post'. More of his work can be found here and he can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara or reached via e-mail at rafael_uehara@live.com
Posted by Rafael Uehara at Friday, May 04, 2012 11:58:26 PM 
Categories: Euroleague
Tags: Rafael Uehara
Categories: Euroleague
Tags: Rafael Uehara
Solid article Rafael, hope we can get more of these NBA fans to watch some of the most exciting hoops of the year. Two greek teams playing in Istanbul, it's going to be madness.
The thing with Vazquez is that mentally the dude is totally out of it sometimes. He can usually be found to be the last guy up the court and after games he doesn't play much he's usually the first one out of the locker room and looks all pissed. He's better off in the NBA playing style but I think he wants to stay in Spain and might just be too childish for Stern's league. He might be leveraging playing in the NBA for a better contract in Spain. Overall his talent is just being wasted right now.
You think Calathes every makes a jump back to the USA? I mean if he plays well in yet another Final Four then I think this is the time if he ever wants to make the move.
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Thanks, man.
Obviously can't tell how Fran is in the locker room. Suspected for a while this might probably be the reason for why he doesn't play much, which doesn't make sense considering how productive he is when he is in.
About Calathes: I question how much Dallas sees him in their future. I think a lot depends on what happens to them this summer. And unless he lights up again next weekend, I doubt any other teams have an eye on him like the Spurs had on Lorbek, for example, somebody they liked enough to go ahead and trade for.
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I also question what the Mavs will do but I think with the way Calathes can D up some now and run Panathinaikos, he could easily slide into a backup PG role with most any team.
For me a guy that belongs in the NBA is Alexey Shved. I believe he is past drafting and can just be outright signed by a team. He's got a clean stroke, is slippery to the basket, and can pass off penetration. Sure his game is kind of risky and he looks good playing in Moscow this year, but he has NBA offensive talent. A team would be wise to scoop him up after this Final Four and plug him in as a bench microwave scorer.
Yes, I want my Celtics to grab him.
Anyone else you're looking at? Good to banter with you.
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Yes, his defensive instincts, enhanced by that Obradovic coaching, definitely makes him always in play for the league, but last year's Final Four gave us the impression he would become more assertive offensively and he never followed through, which is tremendously disappointing.
Like Shved a lot too. How could you not? He is a perfect third-guard off the bench for the NBA. Pretty sure the Blazers still hold his draft rights, still part of the LaMarcus Aldridge-Tyrus Thomas trade. That makes it possible somebody still has him in mind but a great Final Four now he doesn't have Langdon in front of him can definitely open some more eyes. Apparently, Wolves are looking into four guys to try out with them next summer. Bjelica, Norel and maybe Prestes, all of whom they hold the rights, are likely three. And I really wished Shved was that fourth. Would fit such a need Minnesota has.
Great talking to you too, man.
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