Motiejunas signs two year deal in Poland

[HMMMHMM]

Asseco Prokom reached a two-year agreement with Donatas Motiejunas. The Lithuanian big man spent the last two years in Italy with Benetton Treviso and was selected by Minnesota Timberwolves in the last NBA draft (20th overall pick) and then traded to Houston Rockets. Asseco Prokom will also pay a buyout to Benetton Treviso because Motiejunas has still one year left on the contract with the team. With the new deal with Prokom, Motiejunas has an NBA out and he can leave as soon as he gets a call from Rockets. Now Treviso will likely sign Brian Scalabrine who is practicing with the team since weeks. According to Lrytas.lt, Lottomatica Roma tried to sign Motiejunas but the player turned down the proposal because the Italian team won't play in Euroleague and in any European competition next season.

http://www.sportando.net/eng/europe/...otiejunas.html

[Alvin Choo]

good news. At least he will have a professional team looking after his training while the lock-out is on.

[Dreamin]

What kind of competition will he be up against? Im still pissed he got cut from his national team.

[HMMMHMM]

Originally Posted by Alvin Choo good news. At least he will have a professional team looking after his training while the lock-out is on.

Well, technically he already had a team. He just decided to leave one team for another.

Originally Posted by Dreamin What kind of competition will he be up against? Im still pissed he got cut from his national team.

The Polish league is worse than the Italian League, however Asseco Prokom plays in the Euroleague (best 'league' in Europe), whereas Benetton only plays in the Eurocup, so one could argue that this is a good move.

[mrjohn]

That could help out congestion too. We can leave him and Parsons overseas if we have a season this year? Bud, Morris, and twill need playing time at the sf.

[acshen]

Originally Posted by mrjohn That could help out congestion too. We can leave him and Parsons overseas if we have a season this year? Bud, Morris, and twill need playing time at the sf.

Congestion? He is tall enough to play center.

[BimaThug]

Does D-Mo's new contract have a fixed dollar amount buyout? Or can D-Mo just leave for the NBA "for free"?

If the latter, the Rockets may have just saved themselves some money with this move.

It may not seem like much, but that could be $X more that Les allows Morey to allocate towards purchasing draft picks, including as trade sweeteners, etc.

Every little bit counts.

[AFS]

Originally Posted by mrjohn That could help out congestion too. We can leave him and Parsons overseas if we have a season this year? Bud, Morris, and twill need playing time at the sf.

Parsons is an sf. Motiejunas is not.

Also, Motiejunas and Scalabrine are gonna be teammates! lol

[HMMMHMM]

Originally Posted by BimaThug Does D-Mo's new contract have a fixed dollar amount buyout? Or can D-Mo just leave for the NBA "for free"?

Good question. I'm not certain, but I think it's the latter. Hopefully Feigen will have the details on this.

Originally Posted by AFS Also, Motiejunas and Scalabrine are gonna be teammates! lol

Actually, no. Scalabrine will play for the club that Motiejunas is leaving, which is another reason why one could consider this a good move.
I don't watch as much European competition as OHMSS or anchel - so please educate me, if I'm wrong - but the only half-decent big on Asseco Prokom seems to be Adam Hrycaniuk, whereas Benetton has two pretty solid guys in Scalabrine and Jeff Adrien, so it would seem that Motiejunas is now guaranteed a little more playing time than he would have in Treviso.

[couple of d's]

countdown till ohmss comes in and says how much Motiejunas sucks and the team is terrible.

[dobro1229]

Originally Posted by couple of d's countdown till ohmss comes in and says how much Motiejunas sucks and the team is terrible.

Or when he totally shifts the thread into an 8 page argument about how the NBA is weak and how the Euroleague is better.

[javal_lon]

Impossible as it sounds, Superman surely cant catch him over there...Or can he??

[Houstonas]

http://translate.google.com/translat...n&hl=&ie=UTF-8

Sorry it's google translate :D Asseco Prokom head coach Tomas Pacesas (he is lithuanian too) sad that Donatas will be the leader of his team - it's superb news. Motiejunas will play in Euroleague (strongest league in Europe), VTB (Strong Euroleague clubs like CSKA Moskow, Khimki and more) and also in Poland championships (it's not so strong) So it's a good decision for him becouse he will get more experience, but he will stay in Europe full season, won't go to NBA after lock-out ends T.Pacesas sad that.

[HMMMHMM]

Originally Posted by Houstonas So it's a good decision for him becouse he will get more experience, but he will stay in Europe full season, won't go to NBA after lock-out ends T.Pacesas sad that.

Thanks for the update. That's pretty big news.
Didn't even think of the VTB League until just a few minutes ago when I read OHMSS' post from yesterday, which is pretty spot on:

Originally Posted by OHMSS So they are trying to workout a move to the Polish Euroleague club Prokom. Prokom plays in the VTB League and the Euroleague. VTB League is a higher level league than the Italian League and Euroleague is a higher level league than the Eurocup. So he would be playing at a higher level of European basketball than where he has been playing with a club like Treviso. Also, Prokom is basically somewhere between a small to mid level sized Euroleague club. They are not really a small level Euroleague club, but they are not really quite to mid level either. Which is good and bad. The good part would be that on a team like Prokom he could probably get about 20 minutes a game of playing time. Perhaps more if he performed well. But the bad part of it is also that he most likely would not go any further than the Euroelague regular season stage, as it is doubtful that Prokom is good enough to advance out of their group. So it would be limited Euroleague experience (maybe 10 games). But on the other hand, since Prokom also plays in VTB United League, there would be more games against good teams there. The Polish League and Cup games are not worth mentioning, as that is a low level by European standards.

[AroundTheWorld]

Just leave him there, I doubt he is good enough for the NBA.

[coachbadlee]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld Just leave him there, I doubt he is good enough for the NBA.

At least for a season or two.

[Dreamin]

Originally Posted by coachbadlee At least for a season or two.

Totally agree, way too early for this kid to play in the NBA. I hope he never gets game time under Rox until he removes the "SOFT" label he has and becomes a better defender then Scola at the very least. Not asking for much.

[HMMMHMM]

Motiejunas played his first game today in some sort of pre-season tournament.

His team lost 52-76 to CSKA Moskow (feat. Nenad Krstic & Milos Teodosic).

D-Mo played 26:42 minutes (for comparison Euroleague starters usually play about 28 minutes/game) and finished with 6 Pts (1-7 FG, 1-5 3pt, 4-6 FT) 10 Reb, 2 Ast, 3 TO, 2 Blk & 1 Stl.

Boxscore: http://www.cskabasket.com/gm/?a=boxs...d=1284&lang=en

[dobro1229]

Originally Posted by HMMMHMM Motiejunas played his first game today in some sort of pre-season tournament. His team lost 52-76 to CSKA Moskow (feat. Nenad Krstic & Milos Teodosic). D-Mo played 26:42 minutes (for comparison Euroleague starters usually play about 28 minutes/game) and finished with 6 Pts (1-7 FG, 1-5 3pt, 4-6 FT) 10 Reb, 2 Ast, 3 TO, 2 Blk & 1 Stl. Boxscore: http://www.cskabasket.com/gm/?a=boxs...d=1284&lang=en

I like the Rebounds... thats a good sign. We all know he can score, I just want to see him improve in the paint anyways.

[Yonizzel]

Sca-La-Bree-Nee