Matt Dellavadova gives his NBL finals MVP to Will Hickey

[robbie84]

Delly hands his finals MVP trophy to Will 'Davo' Hickey

Pretty good sportsmanship from an Australian legend lol.

Watch on YouTube

[-Luke-]

What's the backgroud story? Delly won while on the losing team? Did he have a great series or did they vote for him because he's the big name?

Nice gesture anyway. Delly is a cool guy.

[UcanUwill]

What's the backgroud story? Delly won while on the losing team? Did he have a great series or did they vote for him because he's the big name?

Nice gesture anyway. Delly is a cool guy.

IDK, just checking stats, his stats were good, but I wouldn't say it warranted MVP from losing team. He probably got the bump, but his assists numbers were big, he was probably engine of the team ala Steve Nash. I am a bit surprised Delly is still so good in NBL, I thought that league was a little better than this, but probably not, Vilnius Rytas recently signed guy who dominated NBL, and based on that, and based on Rubstavicius stats, who played in NBL last year, it looks like NBL is still weaker than our Lithuanian LKL, and Lithuanian LKL is not very strong when you compare to very top Euro leagues like ACB, Turkish league, Italian, France leagues etc.

Makes even more baffling to remember Bucks drafted a guy in first round who averaged like 2 points in NBL last year. Has that guy played at all in the NBA this year? I do not remember his name.

[AussieCeltic]

What's the backgroud story? Delly won while on the losing team? Did he have a great series or did they vote for him because he's the big name?

Nice gesture anyway. Delly is a cool guy.

IDK, just checking stats, his stats were good, but I wouldn't say it warranted MVP from losing team. He probably got the bump, but his assists numbers were big, he was probably engine of the team ala Steve Nash. I am a bit surprised Delly is still so good in NBL, I thought that league was a little better than this, but probably not, Vilnius Rytas recently signed guy who dominated NBL, and based on that, and based on Rubstavicius stats, who played in NBL last year, it looks like NBL is still weaker than our Lithuanian LKL, and Lithuanian LKL is not very strong when you compare to very top Euro leagues like ACB, Turkish league, Italian, France leagues etc.

Makes even more baffling to remember Bucks drafted a guy in first round who averaged like 2 points in NBL last year. Has that guy played at all in the NBA this year? I do not remember his name.

First off, the media votes each game on a 3/2/1 basis. Delly had some big games including an 11 assist 0 turnover masterclass in game 3.

If NBA had a voting system like that, more often than not you’d see a player on a losing team win. I definitely don’t agree with the voting system, but it was justified.

Second off, there is no way in hell the Lithuanian league is better than the NBL. Every single roster has NBA experience on it and each year 3-4 guys are getting drafted.

There’s about 15 guys in the NBA who have played in the NBL, and about 20 guys in the NBL who have played in the NBA.

The guy you’re talking about getting drafted by the Bucks was AJ Johnson who was involved in the Middleton/Kuzma trade. He could barely get on the court in the NBL, but is now getting mins with the Wizards.

[UcanUwill]

What's the backgroud story? Delly won while on the losing team? Did he have a great series or did they vote for him because he's the big name?

Nice gesture anyway. Delly is a cool guy.

IDK, just checking stats, his stats were good, but I wouldn't say it warranted MVP from losing team. He probably got the bump, but his assists numbers were big, he was probably engine of the team ala Steve Nash. I am a bit surprised Delly is still so good in NBL, I thought that league was a little better than this, but probably not, Vilnius Rytas recently signed guy who dominated NBL, and based on that, and based on Rubstavicius stats, who played in NBL last year, it looks like NBL is still weaker than our Lithuanian LKL, and Lithuanian LKL is not very strong when you compare to very top Euro leagues like ACB, Turkish league, Italian, France leagues etc.

Makes even more baffling to remember Bucks drafted a guy in first round who averaged like 2 points in NBL last year. Has that guy played at all in the NBA this year? I do not remember his name.

First off, the media votes each game on a 3/2/1 basis. Delly had some big games including an 11 assist 0 turnover masterclass in game 3.

If NBA had a voting system like that, more often than not you’d see a player on a losing team win. I definitely don’t agree with the voting system, but it was justified.

Second off, there is no way in hell the Lithuanian league is better than the NBL. Every single roster has NBA experience on it and each year 3-4 guys are getting drafted.

There’s about 15 guys in the NBA who have played in the NBL, and about 20 guys in the NBL who have played in the NBA.

The guy you’re talking about getting drafted by the Bucks was AJ Johnson who was involved in the Middleton/Kuzma trade. He could barely get on the court in the NBL, but is now getting mins with the Wizards.

Maybe you are right about NBL being better than LKL, thats how I always saw it, but looking at these finalist rosters, IDK man, I think we could whip those teams. I think we could agree that Žalgiris is by far the best team among two leagues, but LKL's problem was always lack of competitiveness to Žalgiris.

X NBA guys and guys getting drafted doesn't mean much. X NBA guys can vary greatly, like last year Žalgiris signs that Edmond Sumner guy, he is NBA experience guy, but he was complete garbage, one of the worst players on a team and is now in China. Chinese CBA has far more X NBA guys than LKL, and we could beat all those teams by 50 points I have no doubt. And guys getting drafted is more of the indication whenever league is young or not. For example Adriatic league always have more guys drafted than lets say ACB or same Euroleague, but Adriatic league is pretty weak in comparison and often has farm teams, ACB and Euroleague are veteran leagues, you will rarely see guy under 21 playing there at all. Mega Leks alone could have more NBA draftees than Entire Euroleague combined, and Megaleks has zero cahnce agains Euroleague teams. So I am not sure those points have convinced me at all.

I think if we ranked teams from both leagues, I think LKL would have best teams, Like Žalgiris, Rytas, Wolves, Lietkabelis, but also worst teams (the rest of the pack), NBL teams would probably settle in the middle I feel. Worst LKL teams are definitely not competitive, its just village clubs basically.

[LewisnotMiller]

What's the backgroud story? Delly won while on the losing team? Did he have a great series or did they vote for him because he's the big name?

Nice gesture anyway. Delly is a cool guy.

IDK, just checking stats, his stats were good, but I wouldn't say it warranted MVP from losing team. He probably got the bump, but his assists numbers were big, he was probably engine of the team ala Steve Nash. I am a bit surprised Delly is still so good in NBL, I thought that league was a little better than this, but probably not, Vilnius Rytas recently signed guy who dominated NBL, and based on that, and based on Rubstavicius stats, who played in NBL last year, it looks like NBL is still weaker than our Lithuanian LKL, and Lithuanian LKL is not very strong when you compare to very top Euro leagues like ACB, Turkish league, Italian, France leagues etc.

Makes even more baffling to remember Bucks drafted a guy in first round who averaged like 2 points in NBL last year. Has that guy played at all in the NBA this year? I do not remember his name.

Delly struggled, then got himself fit and has had a good season. He was strong in the finals, smart and very physical but I wouldn't have given it to him, and it seems like he thought similarly.

Delly wasn't in the all NBL teams (and wasn't a realistic chance) but he was a starter on one of the higher rated teams.

Trying to work out who you might be familiar with...a healthy Montrezz Harrell made all NBL Second Team, he's likely the one you know best.
Xavier Cooks who played recently (briefly) with the Wizards was also second team.

[UcanUwill]

Delly struggled, then got himself fit and has had a good season. He was strong in the finals, smart and very physical but I wouldn't have given it to him, and it seems like he thought similarly.

Delly wasn't in the all NBL teams (and wasn't a realistic chance) but he was a starter on one of the higher rated teams.

Trying to work out who you might be familiar with...a healthy Montrezz Harrell made all NBL Second Team, he's likely the one you know best.
Xavier Cooks who played recently (briefly) with the Wizards was also second team.

I always use RealGM for international league stats, very good site for this that I feel a lot of people don't even know RealGM keeps that, but looking at stat leaders, I admit that a lot of names I do not recogzine, but there are ones I know, like

Parker Jackson-Cartwright who did sign with Vilnius Rytas, thats the guy I mentioned who transfered from NBL to LKL

Freddie Gillespie who wanders between Europe and NBL. he lead NBL in blocks I see. Tacko Fall also among leaders haha. Harrell, Xavier Cooks of course I know. But I mean when Bryce Cotton leads league in scoring with 28 ppg. it is still apparent that NBL has more in common with Chinese CBA than European leagues and I do not buy that it is really better than same LKL. Worst LKL teams would undoubtfully be worst in NBL too, but if we compared best teams, my money would be on LKL teams no doubt.

But just the fact that any team has that X NBA talent, even if its Z graded X NBA talent, but still, and looking at league table, league is balanced, so there is indication that league is growing and has strong foundation in different markets, so there is definitely potential. Like number one seed in NBL was Illawarra with the record of 20-9. If you compare our LKL, number one seed Žalgiris is at 19-2... We do have 1 Euroleague team that just steamrolls the league, 3 lesser European competitions teams who give good effort, but the entire bottom half of our league its just nothing. I think if we look at Potential, NBL definitely has more potential to outpace leagues like LKL in very near future.

[LewisnotMiller]

Delly struggled, then got himself fit and has had a good season. He was strong in the finals, smart and very physical but I wouldn't have given it to him, and it seems like he thought similarly.

Delly wasn't in the all NBL teams (and wasn't a realistic chance) but he was a starter on one of the higher rated teams.

Trying to work out who you might be familiar with...a healthy Montrezz Harrell made all NBL Second Team, he's likely the one you know best.
Xavier Cooks who played recently (briefly) with the Wizards was also second team.

I always use RealGM for international league stats, very good site for this that I feel a lot of people don't even know RealGM keeps that, but looking at stat leaders, I admit that a lot of names I do not recogzine, but there are ones I know, like

Parker Jackson-Cartwright who did sign with Vilnius Rytas, thats the guy I mentioned who transfered from NBL to LKL

Freddie Gillespie who wanders between Europe and NBL. he lead NBL in blocks I see. Tacko Fall also among leaders haha. Harrell, Xavier Cooks of course I know. But I mean when Bryce Cotton leads league in scoring with 28 ppg. it is still apparent that NBL has more in common with Chinese CBA than European leagues and I do not buy that it is really better than same LKL. Worst LKL teams would undoubtfully be worst in NBL too, but if we compared best teams, my money would be on LKL teams no doubt.

But just the fact that any team has that X NBA talent, even if its Z graded X NBA talent, but still, and looking at league table, league is balanced, so there is indication that league is growing and has strong foundation in different markets, so there is definitely potential. Like number one seed in NBL was Illawarra with the record of 20-9. If you compare our LKL, number one seed Žalgiris is at 19-2... We do have 1 Euroleague team that just steamrolls the league, 3 lesser European competitions teams who give good effort, but the entire bottom half of our league its just nothing. I think if we look at Potential, NBL definitely has more potential to outpace leagues like LKL in very near future.

All good.

But just in case you haven't seen him in a while, Cotton is a bucket these days. Greatest import to play in Australia. I know, it sounds crazy when talking about a midget volume scorer, but he gets on heaters like few others and is perpetual motion.

[UcanUwill]

Delly struggled, then got himself fit and has had a good season. He was strong in the finals, smart and very physical but I wouldn't have given it to him, and it seems like he thought similarly.

Delly wasn't in the all NBL teams (and wasn't a realistic chance) but he was a starter on one of the higher rated teams.

Trying to work out who you might be familiar with...a healthy Montrezz Harrell made all NBL Second Team, he's likely the one you know best.
Xavier Cooks who played recently (briefly) with the Wizards was also second team.

I always use RealGM for international league stats, very good site for this that I feel a lot of people don't even know RealGM keeps that, but looking at stat leaders, I admit that a lot of names I do not recogzine, but there are ones I know, like

Parker Jackson-Cartwright who did sign with Vilnius Rytas, thats the guy I mentioned who transfered from NBL to LKL

Freddie Gillespie who wanders between Europe and NBL. he lead NBL in blocks I see. Tacko Fall also among leaders haha. Harrell, Xavier Cooks of course I know. But I mean when Bryce Cotton leads league in scoring with 28 ppg. it is still apparent that NBL has more in common with Chinese CBA than European leagues and I do not buy that it is really better than same LKL. Worst LKL teams would undoubtfully be worst in NBL too, but if we compared best teams, my money would be on LKL teams no doubt.

But just the fact that any team has that X NBA talent, even if its Z graded X NBA talent, but still, and looking at league table, league is balanced, so there is indication that league is growing and has strong foundation in different markets, so there is definitely potential. Like number one seed in NBL was Illawarra with the record of 20-9. If you compare our LKL, number one seed Žalgiris is at 19-2... We do have 1 Euroleague team that just steamrolls the league, 3 lesser European competitions teams who give good effort, but the entire bottom half of our league its just nothing. I think if we look at Potential, NBL definitely has more potential to outpace leagues like LKL in very near future.

All good.

But just in case you haven't seen him in a while, Cotton is a bucket these days. Greatest import to play in Australia. I know, it sounds crazy when talking about a midget volume scorer, but he gets on heaters like few others and is perpetual motion.

No, I have no doubt, just 28 points is a lot, in very few non NBA leagues you see guys score so much, its reminiscent to Chinese CBA

But yeah, in lower levels, these guys work. Like Euroleague is very high level considering, at least in my opinion, but if you compare to NBA, you still see huge gap, because Euroleague has these basically 6'0 Shooting guards who work. They do not have PG skills, and In the NBA, they simply can't work, but in Euroleague they still do.
For example, Kendrick Nunn is one of the best players in Euroleague right now, no doubt, and he is 6'2, 6"3 shooting guard, he is not even a point guard really.
But thats nothing, Carsen Edwards is also very good, he is one of the best players on that Bayern team, and he is like 5'11, and he is not a point guard, he is shooting guard. It helps that their main PG Nick Weiler-Babb, who si like 6'7, so defensively they don't get to play with two midgets most of the time, bust still, Carsen Edwards work, and Euroleague is very high level compared to all these other leagues, but you just understand why in the NBA Edwards couldn't play, he is scorer who is under 6 feet...
Isaiah Cannan and Rodriguez Beauboius are also the same, they shooting experts SG's, but they are shorter than most PG's.

So I totally buy Cotton is very good. But just the sheer number of 28 per game is more stunning to me. In recent times, Euroleague and other Euro leagues also became more individual talent driven, in the past, Euroleagues leading scorers could have averaged under 16 points... Nowadays leading scorers score way more, but these teams are still way deeper, its complete opposite of Chinese teams where random Americans average 32 points. Current Euroleague leaders in PPG. are mentioned Kendrick Nunna and Sasha Vezenkov, both at 20.0 PPG. Thats huge number, but still pretty moderate compared to NBA or CBA or NBL scoring leaders.

[LewisnotMiller]

I always use RealGM for international league stats, very good site for this that I feel a lot of people don't even know RealGM keeps that, but looking at stat leaders, I admit that a lot of names I do not recogzine, but there are ones I know, like

Parker Jackson-Cartwright who did sign with Vilnius Rytas, thats the guy I mentioned who transfered from NBL to LKL

Freddie Gillespie who wanders between Europe and NBL. he lead NBL in blocks I see. Tacko Fall also among leaders haha. Harrell, Xavier Cooks of course I know. But I mean when Bryce Cotton leads league in scoring with 28 ppg. it is still apparent that NBL has more in common with Chinese CBA than European leagues and I do not buy that it is really better than same LKL. Worst LKL teams would undoubtfully be worst in NBL too, but if we compared best teams, my money would be on LKL teams no doubt.

But just the fact that any team has that X NBA talent, even if its Z graded X NBA talent, but still, and looking at league table, league is balanced, so there is indication that league is growing and has strong foundation in different markets, so there is definitely potential. Like number one seed in NBL was Illawarra with the record of 20-9. If you compare our LKL, number one seed Žalgiris is at 19-2... We do have 1 Euroleague team that just steamrolls the league, 3 lesser European competitions teams who give good effort, but the entire bottom half of our league its just nothing. I think if we look at Potential, NBL definitely has more potential to outpace leagues like LKL in very near future.

All good.

But just in case you haven't seen him in a while, Cotton is a bucket these days. Greatest import to play in Australia. I know, it sounds crazy when talking about a midget volume scorer, but he gets on heaters like few others and is perpetual motion.

No, I have no doubt, just 28 points is a lot, in very few non NBA leagues you see guys score so much, its reminiscent to Chinese CBA

But yeah, in lower levels, these guys work. Like Euroleague is very high level considering, at least in my opinion, but if you compare to NBA, you still see huge gap, because Euroleague has these basically 6'0 Shooting guards who work. They do not have PG skills, and In the NBA, they simply can't work, but in Euroleague they still do.
For example, Kendrick Nunn is one of the best players in Euroleague right now, no doubt, and he is 6'2, 6"3 shooting guard, he is not even a point guard really.
But thats nothing, Carsen Edwards is also very good, he is one of the best players on that Bayern team, and he is like 5'11, and he is not a point guard, he is shooting guard. It helps that their main PG Nick Weiler-Babb, who si like 6'7, so defensively they don't get to play with two midgets most of the time, bust still, Carsen Edwards work, and Euroleague is very high level compared to all these other leagues, but you just understand why in the NBA Edwards couldn't play, he is scorer who is under 6 feet...
Isaiah Cannan and Rodriguez Beauboius are also the same, they shooting experts SG's, but they are shorter than most PG's.

So I totally buy Cotton is very good. But just the sheer number of 28 per game is more stunning to me. In recent times, Euroleague and other Euro leagues also became more individual talent driven, in the past, Euroleagues leading scorers could have averaged under 16 points... Nowadays leading scorers score way more, but these teams are still way deeper, its complete opposite of Chinese teams where random Americans average 32 points. Current Euroleague leaders in PPG. are mentioned Kendrick Nunna and Sasha Vezenkov, both at 20.0 PPG. Thats huge number, but still pretty moderate compared to NBA or CBA or NBL scoring leaders.

Yup, agreed. The short guards with NBA level skill but not size are pretty dynamic at the next level (or two) down.

Cotton has been 22 to 23 PPG every year over here, and very good. But his PPG this year have been supercharged deliberately by their coach (John Rillie, former Gonzaga player). Not my preferred coaching approach but it made him worth a watch.

[UcanUwill]

Yup, agreed. The short guards with NBA level skill but not size are pretty dynamic at the next level (or two) down.

Cotton has been 22 to 23 PPG every year over here, and very good. But his PPG this year have been supercharged deliberately by their coach (John Rillie, former Gonzaga player). Not my preferred coaching approach but it made him worth a watch.

I do not really follow my domestic league LKL, the one talked about. So now I checked who is their leading scorer, and it is also some 6'2 white guy from New York, and he is at crazy 21 ppg. in 27 minutes played per game... But he plays for Nevezis, and dynamic of our league, that best player by far on team like Nevezis would have zero chance making Žalgiris roster for example, its not even close. It is teams from same league, but in reality they are not at competition with each other at all, it is just completely different levels.

Tho nowadays we reached the level were at least upsets are possible and we have 4-5 somewhat competitive teams. 20 years ago we had only 2 teams that competed for the title and all of the rest teams had zero chance at even single game upset. Back in the day I knew people who would bet thousands on these games and the cashout after betting 1000, was like 1005, so 5 bucks you win, but it was basically free money...

[AussieCeltic]

Delly struggled, then got himself fit and has had a good season. He was strong in the finals, smart and very physical but I wouldn't have given it to him, and it seems like he thought similarly.

Delly wasn't in the all NBL teams (and wasn't a realistic chance) but he was a starter on one of the higher rated teams.

Trying to work out who you might be familiar with...a healthy Montrezz Harrell made all NBL Second Team, he's likely the one you know best.
Xavier Cooks who played recently (briefly) with the Wizards was also second team.

I always use RealGM for international league stats, very good site for this that I feel a lot of people don't even know RealGM keeps that, but looking at stat leaders, I admit that a lot of names I do not recogzine, but there are ones I know, like

Parker Jackson-Cartwright who did sign with Vilnius Rytas, thats the guy I mentioned who transfered from NBL to LKL

Freddie Gillespie who wanders between Europe and NBL. he lead NBL in blocks I see. Tacko Fall also among leaders haha. Harrell, Xavier Cooks of course I know. But I mean when Bryce Cotton leads league in scoring with 28 ppg. it is still apparent that NBL has more in common with Chinese CBA than European leagues and I do not buy that it is really better than same LKL. Worst LKL teams would undoubtfully be worst in NBL too, but if we compared best teams, my money would be on LKL teams no doubt.

But just the fact that any team has that X NBA talent, even if its Z graded X NBA talent, but still, and looking at league table, league is balanced, so there is indication that league is growing and has strong foundation in different markets, so there is definitely potential. Like number one seed in NBL was Illawarra with the record of 20-9. If you compare our LKL, number one seed Žalgiris is at 19-2... We do have 1 Euroleague team that just steamrolls the league, 3 lesser European competitions teams who give good effort, but the entire bottom half of our league its just nothing. I think if we look at Potential, NBL definitely has more potential to outpace leagues like LKL in very near future.

Freddie Gillespie played a whole 9 games in the NBL. He got cut because he’s not up to NBL standard. I’m sure he’s a fine player in Lithuania though

[sisibilio]

Maybe you are right about NBL being better than LKL, thats how I always saw it, but looking at these finalist rosters, IDK man, I think we could whip those teams. I think we could agree that Žalgiris is by far the best team among two leagues, but LKL's problem was always lack of competitiveness to Žalgiris.

X NBA guys and guys getting drafted doesn't mean much. X NBA guys can vary greatly, like last year Žalgiris signs that Edmond Sumner guy, he is NBA experience guy, but he was complete garbage, one of the worst players on a team and is now in China. Chinese CBA has far more X NBA guys than LKL, and we could beat all those teams by 50 points I have no doubt. And guys getting drafted is more of the indication whenever league is young or not. For example Adriatic league always have more guys drafted than lets say ACB or same Euroleague, but Adriatic league is pretty weak in comparison and often has farm teams, ACB and Euroleague are veteran leagues, you will rarely see guy under 21 playing there at all. Mega Leks alone could have more NBA draftees than Entire Euroleague combined, and Megaleks has zero cahnce agains Euroleague teams. So I am not sure those points have convinced me at all.

I think if we ranked teams from both leagues, I think LKL would have best teams, Like Žalgiris, Rytas, Wolves, Lietkabelis, but also worst teams (the rest of the pack), NBL teams would probably settle in the middle I feel. Worst LKL teams are definitely not competitive, its just village clubs basically.

Isn't there any talk about recreating the Baltic League (without the russians? It would make a lot of sense, moreso now that basketball popularity seems to be growing rapidly in Finland.

[UcanUwill]

Maybe you are right about NBL being better than LKL, thats how I always saw it, but looking at these finalist rosters, IDK man, I think we could whip those teams. I think we could agree that Žalgiris is by far the best team among two leagues, but LKL's problem was always lack of competitiveness to Žalgiris.

X NBA guys and guys getting drafted doesn't mean much. X NBA guys can vary greatly, like last year Žalgiris signs that Edmond Sumner guy, he is NBA experience guy, but he was complete garbage, one of the worst players on a team and is now in China. Chinese CBA has far more X NBA guys than LKL, and we could beat all those teams by 50 points I have no doubt. And guys getting drafted is more of the indication whenever league is young or not. For example Adriatic league always have more guys drafted than lets say ACB or same Euroleague, but Adriatic league is pretty weak in comparison and often has farm teams, ACB and Euroleague are veteran leagues, you will rarely see guy under 21 playing there at all. Mega Leks alone could have more NBA draftees than Entire Euroleague combined, and Megaleks has zero cahnce agains Euroleague teams. So I am not sure those points have convinced me at all.

I think if we ranked teams from both leagues, I think LKL would have best teams, Like Žalgiris, Rytas, Wolves, Lietkabelis, but also worst teams (the rest of the pack), NBL teams would probably settle in the middle I feel. Worst LKL teams are definitely not competitive, its just village clubs basically.

Isn't there any talk about recreating the Baltic League (without the russians? It would make a lot of sense, moreso now that basketball popularity seems to be growing rapidly in Finland.

I haven't heard it. LBBL didn't work before, I think because top teams played 3 fronts, they had European competitions, domestic league AND BBL on top of that. Back then Baltics had only two teams worth the damn, Žalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas. Both of them barely tried in BBL because there were too many games for them to play in, then BBL made those teams special and qualify them for playoffs without even playing regular season, but then those teams just dropped from BBL entirely. So BBL was basically Estonian, Latvian and second tier Lithuanian teams, and I guess interest wasn't there.

To make proper BBL happen (I am not sure, maybe BBL is still a thing, I dodnt even know...), they would have to replace Domestic leagues with that, and I am just not sure people would want to do that. But I would like that, I grew up in town that never had a team, and I never cared for domestic accomplishments and titles, but any time Lithuanian team would play foreigners, I would at least somewhat cheer for them. I am not one of those fans who hate their domestic rivals, I support every Lithuanian team in European competitions, but nowadays I mainly just follow Euroleague Basketball. Lietuvos Rytas was a worthy follow, but they haven't been that good ever since Valanciunas days. Back in they day they would be Eurocup favorites, now they are just irrelevant FIBA Champions league team...

Baltic league never had russians I believe. I think you thinking of VTB United league that is still a thing, and its main Russian competition now when these teams are sanctioned and banned from European tournaments. Top Lithuanian teams played in VTB for a while I believe, but then they dropped just like they did BBL. Not sure the reason was basketball, or they simply didn't want to support Russian project, but yeah, VTB is still a thing and kinda looked down for sheer political reasons nowadays.

[Diop]

Delly struggled, then got himself fit and has had a good season. He was strong in the finals, smart and very physical but I wouldn't have given it to him, and it seems like he thought similarly.

Delly wasn't in the all NBL teams (and wasn't a realistic chance) but he was a starter on one of the higher rated teams.

Trying to work out who you might be familiar with...a healthy Montrezz Harrell made all NBL Second Team, he's likely the one you know best.
Xavier Cooks who played recently (briefly) with the Wizards was also second team.

I always use RealGM for international league stats, very good site for this that I feel a lot of people don't even know RealGM keeps that, but looking at stat leaders, I admit that a lot of names I do not recogzine, but there are ones I know, like

Parker Jackson-Cartwright who did sign with Vilnius Rytas, thats the guy I mentioned who transfered from NBL to LKL

Freddie Gillespie who wanders between Europe and NBL. he lead NBL in blocks I see. Tacko Fall also among leaders haha. Harrell, Xavier Cooks of course I know. But I mean when Bryce Cotton leads league in scoring with 28 ppg. it is still apparent that NBL has more in common with Chinese CBA than European leagues and I do not buy that it is really better than same LKL. Worst LKL teams would undoubtfully be worst in NBL too, but if we compared best teams, my money would be on LKL teams no doubt.

But just the fact that any team has that X NBA talent, even if its Z graded X NBA talent, but still, and looking at league table, league is balanced, so there is indication that league is growing and has strong foundation in different markets, so there is definitely potential. Like number one seed in NBL was Illawarra with the record of 20-9. If you compare our LKL, number one seed Žalgiris is at 19-2... We do have 1 Euroleague team that just steamrolls the league, 3 lesser European competitions teams who give good effort, but the entire bottom half of our league its just nothing. I think if we look at Potential, NBL definitely has more potential to outpace leagues like LKL in very near future.

All good.

But just in case you haven't seen him in a while, Cotton is a bucket these days. Greatest import to play in Australia. I know, it sounds crazy when talking about a midget volume scorer, but he gets on heaters like few others and is perpetual motion.

Watch on YouTube

Bryce is good enough to sit on the end of an NBA bench. Explosive scorer ala Patty Mills, but he fell in love with Perth and got a missus after his first season. Probably a solid life choice compared to bouncing around the league

[UcanUwill]

Freddie Gillespie played a whole 9 games in the NBL. He got cut because he’s not up to NBL standard. I’m sure he’s a fine player in Lithuania though

Gillespie gets some minutes in Euroleague, so I am pretty sure he would be NBL caliber, maybe he didn't work for various reasons, gameshape maybe, hard to make claims if he played 9 games, but even then, his stats were not bad at all for New Zealand breakers, so I imagine you exaggerating.1.8 blocks in 19 minutes is pretty sweat and his advanced metrics are dominant, eDIFF was highest among Breakers my huge amount, +18.0, second highest was Dane Pineau with 11.1. Of course sample size is small.

Yes, of course Freddie Gillespie would be huge for any LKL team not named Žalgiris, he is a player who gets minutes on Olimpia Milan...

[Mirotic12]

The NBL and the LKL are probably about the same level overall. But the LKL has better teams at the top. The top 4 to 5 teams in the LKL are a bit better probably, but the top 3 teams in the LKL are definitely better than the top 3 NBL teams.

The LKL is probably the European league that is closest to the NBL in terms of the level of competition. But the LKL still has better teams at the top of the league.

The two leagues are probably ranked right next to one another in an overall world ranking of basketball leagues.

[KokoKaizer]

That's just awesome to watch

Awesome, I repeat, Awesome