Are the NBA teams going a little to much overboard with the International players?

Actually there are more foreign players, Hakeem, Duncan, Divac, Nesterovic, Seattle's center who's name escapes me, Mutombo, and many more. You say you don't want to see a 7ft big man who ends a break with a lay-up, 2 points is 2 points, but I don't want to see a half-court game stalled because a 7ft player can't set a pick, or only knows how to dunk, and can't shoot 5 feet from the basket, or is so devoid of fundamentals that he's just happy to get by on athletics after signing a huge contract *cough* Cato *cough*. People get caught up in dunks, but fundamental and team basketball, the non-flashy stuff, is what wins games, and what wins championships. Dunks just get you on SportsCenter.

 

Rocksmill, I've wondered this for a while, do you mean to make fun of Cuttino in your signature?

 

Nah, he's just showin' off the most hilarious quote in the history of basketball...

 

Trends come and go

Right now. . INternational play a DIFFERENT brand of basketball.
NOT BETTEr . .. NOT WORSE . . . just different. IT may swing
to them for a minute but te american game will adapt . . take
come components of it .. . but will keep alot of it's own components.

The result will be a sythesis of the two . . .
maybe a better products

While everyone says. . . Americans lack fundamentals
yadda yadda yadda . . . all they do is dunk . . .
Try to get on sportscenter

THEY WOULD NOT WANT THE GAME WITHOUT IT!!!
[The highlights] ELSE THE WNBA WOULD BE A MORE
WATCHED SPORT

Rocket RIver

 

The NBA is forced to go international because of all the kids who choose to leave school early, or skip college altogether. I don't know that it's a trend, it's just that with all the kids in the US skipping school, they don't know how to play basketball. Once kids stop coming out early, there will be less international players taken in the draft.

 

i think there will be more foreign players every year. because Basketbal wasn't very popular in europe. but it is beginning to become more popular every day. It is not like europeans can't play any sport. There are more good foreign players, and there wil be more in the future, basketbal is more popular. and if a sport is popular there are more children playing it, so watch the foreign players.

 

I think there is a general trend of American players neglecting fundamentals that has made Europeans (and some other foreigners to a lesser extent) more valuable to the NBA. However, it looks like there is an element of fad in it as well where everyone is picking up Europeans as the next hot thing and a lot of them will be NBA busts simply because they were overvalued in the first place. We had a fad of highschoolers; now we have a counterfad of Europeans; eventually, it may come full circle and the fad will be experienced Div I college seniors.

But, there is another element at work in the second round. Teams that don't have money and/or roster slots to accomodate their picks can go international to get a guy with potential and will know they won't have much trouble with the guy staying in Europe until they need him. This is a low-stakes, potentially high-reward drafting strategy. We will see how well it works this year with Ginobili and Jaric. It worked pretty well with Detroit's Rebraca.

 

The international players are better. It's not just some trend like fashion. They get it done on the court. They play a complete game with better fundamentals.

Jumping and dunking will only get you so far.

 

I don't buy all this crap about picking the euros as being a fad. The NBA sends their scouts to Europe to scout these guys just like they scout the American kids.

 

Here is a pretty good article that discusses the issue.

The above statement, to quote from the article, sounds like the typical "resentment from some quarters of the black sporting public." Barkley's a pontificating putz, but there was an element of truth to be found in his little diatribe on draft night- the US system of developing players is internally flawed. AAU is a higher priority for most young players than high school ball, since it showcases them to a wider audience. College coaches presume that their players are beyond such trivial drills; the 'little things', the making the left hand layups coming from the right side, filling the lanes, making the right decision on a 3 on 2 break.....all are neglected, as Juan Valdez said, even though this fact is overrated by many "purists"....ahem, BobFinn*

Sure, some GM's, given two players with the requisite skills to play in the NBA, one American and one European, may opt for the European because they're more aesthetically appealing, and why not? It's good for the game.

We're on the threshold of a new Golden Age in the NBA, and the globalization of the game has played no small part in making that a reality.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. There is some element of fad in it. That applies more to the teams that don't scout the Euro leagues and draft players simply because they're from Europe. There are some teams that send scouts and coaches to Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America to scout those leagues. They are not picking those players just to be picking an international player, they are picking them because they have done their homework and know for a fact that they're good players.

I think with more international players being taken it's only going to help the NBA. The International players will continue to get better. That will only force the American born player for focus more on fundamentals as well as the fancy stuff. If the American born players want to get selected before the international players they must adapt (and I think they will). It's only going to make the talent pool much better. In the next 10 years we will see teams with 3 and 4 superstars as oppose to just 1 or 2.