interesting article on real gm about a FA shooter from israel

David Bluthenthal, the 6-7 American-Israeli Small Forward from Maccabi Tel Aviv has been approached by the Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs according to an interview with the player himself on YNet, one of the top internet sites in Israel.

Bluthenthal says that several teams have contacted his agent Michael Siegel about their interest in his services for next year, including the Spurs, Kings and Dynamo Moscow, the free spending Russian team that has signed Lynn Greer, Ariel McDonald, Maurice Evans, Mirsad Tuckcan and others this summer with their brand new ten million dollar budget.

Bluthenthal is coming off an excellent summer league campaign in the Southern California Summer Pro League where he averaged 19 points, 5 rebounds and 2.5 steals on 54% shooting from behind the arc with the Sacramento Kings. He says he will wait for more offers this upcoming week from various teams before deciding on a final destination. He would not rule out returning to Maccabi Tel Aviv at this point.

Bluthenthal was identified as one of the top overseas free agents on the market 3 weeks ago by RealGM affiliate DraftCity.com. While he looked like the biggest longshot of anyone on that list to make the NBA this summer, he could be the first and possibly only one to actually make it (Andres Nocioni is still working on his buyout from his contract with TAU Vitoria in order to sign with Chicago).

Here is what DraftCity had to say about him:

Bluthenthal is yet another Maccabi player who has a chance at being signed by an NBA team for next season. He will be playing with the Sacramento Kings summer league and has an outside chance of actually making the team considering the Kings’ offense and style of play and the fact that they don’t have a backup small forward. He might even remind them a little of Jim Jackson (today’s version). Unlike Anthony Parker, Bluthenthal actually has a great skill that can be counted on consistently off the bench—he is a tremendous outside shooter--he’s very pure--and he showed that especially well during the final four in Tel Aviv, where he hit 4 threes in 16 minutes off the bench in the final game to finish with 20 points for the game. He isn’t the quickest, most athletic player in Europe right now, and probably lacks the ball-handling skills and explosiveness to be able to create his own shot, but if a team is looking for a smart player who can rebound, post up his man in the paint and flat out shoot the ball, Bluthenthal might be their guy.
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the spurs usually know what they are doing. add the fact that the kings are intersted too, and i myself become interested. we need depth, and it needs to come in the form of shooters. this guy might be worth looking into.