His stat line in Europe is similar to what Rubio's was, more efficient offense but a bit less in some other statistics. However it's important to remember that Llull is 3 years older than Rubio, which makes a big difference.
i hope at the very least he can be a good backup pg. this would make dragic expendable in trades. love dragic but you gotta give something to get something!
Only problem then is that Flynn becomes our only backup PG for the rest of the year... if we don't use him as an expiring. That's not good for a playoff run
I don't think any of our overseas players are ever coming. I'm not even sure about Donuts coming after his contract with Poland runs out. Remember Eli aaaaaaa oooooooo? Everyone was big on him and then he just kinda got forgotten.
in the news . . . sort of https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-la...ba-sergio-llull-1540903633?mod=hp_major_pos25 The Last Best Player Not in the NBA The basketball world is now flat. Every great international player eventually comes to the NBA and tries to prove himself. Except for one Spanish guard named Sergio Llull. By Ben Cohen Updated Oct. 30, 2018 2:24 p.m. ET Madrid The Houston Rockets were ahead of their time when they identified the potential of a Spanish basketball player named Sergio Llull. “He’s sort of perfect for the modern NBA,” said Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. He can shoot, pass and handle the ball on offense. He can switch positions on defense. For all those reasons, and because Morey thought it was cool that Llull happens to share a name with a famous 13th-century mathematician, the Rockets invested the most amount of money ever spent on a second-round draft pick to make sure they secured his NBA rights from another team. That was in 2009. They’ve been waiting for him ever since. “We paid $2.5 million,” Morey said, “for the best player not in the NBA.” Real Madrid relies on Sergio Llull to take the team’s biggest shots. Photo: Juan Carlos GarcíA Mate/Pacific Press/Zuma Press The basketball world is now flat. Every international player who’s good enough in Europe attempts to prove himself in the NBA. Some become Dirk Nowitzki and the Gasol brothers. Some become tourists and head back home. But they all come. Llull is the one exception, and it’s not because he’s not good enough. NBA executives discuss his talent and moxie in wistful, almost mythical tones. The league’s general managers named the Real Madrid point guard the No. 1 international player outside the NBA before this season, and every other player at the top of their annual surveys over the last decade eventually crossed the ocean. But in a recent interview on a rainy day in Spain, Llull repeated the message he’s sent to the Rockets for years: He’s not planning to leave Madrid. “It’s home,” said Llull, who is 30. “I came here when I was 19 years old. I was a kid. I grew up here as a player and person. I’m really happy to be here, and this is the place I want to be.” Sergio Llull has experience playing with the Spanish national teams in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Photo: mark ralston/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images There was once a time when European sensations could resist the temptations of the NBA as they continued happily stuffing their faces with paella. But no longer. The best international prospects are now exposed to the NBA at younger, more impressionable ages through their phones, and it’s easy for them to imagine playing for a team like the Rockets instead of Real Madrid. The NBA is too big to ignore. A remarkable number of the league’s most promising star players are foreign. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is Greek. Denver’s Nikola Jokic is Serbian. New Yorkers are in universal agreement about the superiority of their pizza, bagels and Latvian savior Kristaps Porzingis. There is so much international flavor in the NBA that some Americans have no idea why the maneuver LeBron James called “the most swag move in basketball” is better known as the Eurostep. This globalization of basketball means there might never again be a Sergio Llull. Sergio Llull and Luka Doncic: the generational divide of basketball in one backcourt. Photo: juanjo martin/epa-efe/rex/Shutterstock The backcourt of Real Madrid last season, when they were the best team in the best league not named the NBA, was the personification of the sport’s generational shift. Llull was the MVP of the Euroleague in 2017. He stayed. Luka Doncic was the MVP of the Euroleague in 2018. There was no doubt the Slovenian dynamo would leave immediately for the NBA as the most decorated international prospect in recent memory. And the future looks more like Doncic than Llull. So why is he still in Spain? Llull (pronounced Yule) is a 6-foot-4 guard with floppy hair, high socks and a knack for taking and making clutch shots in crucial moments. He’s beloved for his floating 3-pointers that have been called “Las Mandarinas” because he makes them look like he’s tossing fruit, and he poses with orange sorbet on Instagram and frequently uses tangerine emojis on Twitter. He’s technically under contract with Real Madrid for three more years, but there are millions of excellent reasons for him to accept a buyout and leave early for the Rockets. “The money,” Llull said. “They pay a lot of money there.” There is also nothing left for him to accomplish in Spain. He’s a two-time Euroleague champion with Real Madrid and three-time Eurobasket gold medalist with his national team who once played in crunchtime for an Olympic gold medal against LeBron James and Kevin Durant. A star in Europe who doesn’t want to be a backup in the NBA is a classic example of a big fish in a small pond. Llull is more like a whale. But that’s not how he views his situation. The way he sees it, he lives comfortably in the capital of his native country and gets to hunt for championships as the hero of his hometown team, and who could ask for anything more? ▶ To understand why he’s content where he is, it helps to revisit Llull’s childhood on the island of Minorca. He was raised with two rooting interests: Real Madrid and Michael Jordan. His life is now a combination of those dreams. He gets to wear the number 23 of his favorite player for his favorite team. That he never had to leave his country to play basketball might be one more reason that Llull never has. Doncic and Porzingis moved to Spain when they were teenagers. The NBA was simply another work relocation for them. Llull also watched friends like Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro come back to Europe after brief flings as NBA role players, though he says their experiences haven’t shaped his unconventional career. “I have my own way,” he said. Sergio Llull flies by Kyle Lowry in the 2016 Olympics. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images Llull doesn’t watch many NBA games. He’s been known to yell “no English!” at reporters after games even though he speaks perfect English. The only U.S. city he’s visited is Memphis and only because Real Madrid once played an exhibition there. It has been nearly a decade since the Rockets drafted Llull, but he’s never been to Houston. It wouldn’t be unprecedented for someone to be an NBA rookie of Llull’s age, and Rockets executives are still recruiting him. They visit him every year and text him all the time. They’re confident he’ll scratch the itch and one day move to experience the magic of brisket tacos. But on the night the Rockets opened their season, Llull was in Milan chewing his towel and chugging water from a can of Red Bull. By now he might have missed his window to play with James Harden. He was too busy being the James Harden of Madrid. And maybe he’ll regret it. “I don’t think about that,” Llull said. “I just think about the present. I think day by day. Tonight we have a game. In two days we have another game. I spend my time thinking about Real Madrid.” Real Madrid’s fans waited to welcome Sergio Llull back from injury last season. Photo: Jorge Sanz/Pacific Press/Zuma Press The game that night was a useful window into his life. Real Madrid diehards strolled the plaza outside the futuristic glass arena here wearing Llull’s uniform. There were pyrotechnics during player introductions and Drake songs during warmups. Fan groups with names like Berserkers screamed “LLUUUUUUUUUULL” and chanted “Llull! Llull! Llull!” His team won because he was phenomenal, and Llull exited the locker room wearing a T-shirt that could’ve been dirt cheap or outrageously expensive. If you saw him and squinted hard enough, it almost looked like he was playing in the NBA. Sergio Llull and Kyrie Irving may never be on the same court again. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images Write to Ben Cohen at ben.cohen@wsj.com Appeared in the October 31, 2018, print edition.
I’m confused as to why you mentioned me. I skimmed through it but doesn’t it agree with what I was saying?
You voiced confusion and/or bemusement as to the value of Llull’s rights in a trade. Morey explains it better, he is the best player not playing in NBA. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/random-houston-rocket-trade-ideas-2018-19.292299/page-9 And there are more than a few NBA teams that could use Llull’s playmaking, scoring, championship leadership and chutzpah. Orlando being one example.
Right but doesn’t the article also mention how he has shown very little interest in leaving Spain? I didn’t read the article fully, was busy, but he’s 31 isn’t he? And hasn’t really shown any indication he’ll be coming over next year or ever.
The one thing I never heard was why he entered the NBA draft if he never had any interest in joining the NBA. What a waste... of a draft pick.
