The truth of the matter is that the best player the Rockets have "held overseas" is definitely Eliyahu. And it seems he is never even discussed in this forum. He's clearly the best guy the Rockets have playing overseas.
Alonzo Gee, currently under contract with the Cavs, left Prokom, sending their coach as text message that he flew back to the US and won't come back for 'personal reasons'. I'm not gonna speculate over stuff I don't know, but it sure sounds a little weird. Anyway, tough loss for Prokom, as Gee was probably their best player. Don't see them winning a lot of games against now. Their team was pretty bad to begin with. It may or may not be a blessing in disguise tough as D-Mo will have to take over some (much) of the scoring load. Next Euroleague game is tomorrow at 2:45 PM ET.
I didn't get a chance to watch the game, but it seem like D-Mo will indeed be forced to force the issue with Gee gone, which I think is great for D-Mo's development, considering one of his weaknesses has always been him disappearing at times and not asserting himself enough. His team may not win many games this year, but at least he won't be able to cruise around. Also, and I'm not sure how credible this is, but there are rumors floating around that this may be the last year of Prokom's existence, meaning D-Mo might have to look for a new team next year.
There's this Rockets team that might be interested. Never heard of them, but better than not playing I guess.
Prokom has an A licence in Euroleague. One of 13 teams. That means they play in Euroleague regardless of how they play in their national league (but they still have to make the playoffs in their national league). Then a 14th team, ASVEL has a wildcard contract (they get to the qualifying round). This summer the contracts expire and the league goes to a 16 team closed franchise system with the 16 franchise clubs being permanent, with the remaining places being given out through qualifying rounds. The requirements for that are really high. Big arena, big attendance, big TV ratings, big fan base, big budget, excellent results in Euroleague. So the chances they can get a spot in that 16 are very slim. So, maybe that has the ownership thinking twice about investing in the club. I don't know, I have not heard anything about it, but it would make sense. Especially since they don't have a big enough arena in their own city. They would have to move to a near by city to play in the bigger arena. And the fan base is mainly in the area where they are now.
Found a ncie article on SB Nation. http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/11/11/2553950/euroleague-week-4-donatas-motiejunas-barcelona
If you're not into this whole football thing, you could watch Prokom take on CSKA Moskow tomorrow at 2:00 PM ET. CSKA just might be the best team in Europe, so it'll be good test for D-Mo.
^Well, yes and no. Scoring usually goes down, while rebounding & assists tend to go up. There's no perfect system to translate Euroleague stats into NBA stats. Also keep in mind that it's only one game and rather rare for Euroleague players to put up 17 FGA. The only guy who puts up that many shots on a regular basis is Mirza Teletovic, who hasn't seen a shot he doesn't like (though he's played rather well this season). D-Mo's usage rate in the Unics game would rank him 5th in the Euroleague for the season. Then again, as I alluded to earlier, with Gee gone D-Mo might have to put up that many shots in order for his team to stay competitive, which will be good for his development, however also inflate his stats to some degree.
Game starts in 3 minutes. http://webstream.bashtel.ru/sport or http://www.vshare.tv/live/8ba43a5e44dfc3471d2e3e5cd7743740486d8ebac9f467ae9a/ch1live/1
Yup, he's always had trouble with perimter bigs. Needs to work on his defense stance and how to close out properly. He'll probably always struggle in that area, but there's definitley room to improve. Also the mismatch goes both ways, as there's no way smaller guys can check him on the block. I was switching back between the Texans and Prokom, so I didn't catch all of the first half, but so far D-Mo has looked better than ever on offense. Making good decesions, showing a variety of moves, bringing the ball up the floor against the full court press, avoiding the charge after picking off a pass, moving without the ball and playing within the offense. His engery level has been pretty good so far, though I'd still like to see him play a little harder on defense. Overall his defense has improved, but there're still ways to go.
He's missed every shot in the third quarter so far. 0-5, I think. His frustration was showing right before he got pulled out.
Sorry for the bad spelling/grammar on the previous post. Unfortunately tends to happen when I type fast. Motiejunas had 17 points on only 10 FGA and 13 minutes at the half. He finished with 21 points on 19 FGA. Looked like he rushed it a bit in the 2nd half. I still thought he played well though. Some shots just went in and out and it wasn't like he forced it. Tough loss for Prokom. If one or two plays go the other way they're right there. Played their hearts out, too. Kirilenko didn't play, so CSKA obviously wasn't at full strength, but they're still a quality team without him.
Depending on whether or not you buy into John Hollinger's statistics, a general rule is: Scroll down to the 3rd entry, 6/25/08 Keep in mind this is only for Euroleague games, so what Motiejunas does in a domestic league or the Eurocup wouldn't apply, though you'd assume the conversions would just get worse. Furthermore, there have been a bunch of hits and misses with the system; put it on the level of his draft rater, which is guaranteed to have a few head-scratchers that look ridiculous a couple years out, as well as a couple sleepers that look brilliant. Seems like D-Mo has all the elements to be the future whipping boy of CF once the '09 lottery busts move on: no defense/defensive rebounding, bad on-court body language, faux hawk...
He's obviously talented, but he's thought of as being way too soft in Europe. He's trying to one day develop into the next David Andersen.
