UcanUwill wrote:Hanlan's team plays against Barcelona this afternoon. Hanlan posted a negative RKG rating in 6 out 9 last games, which is HORRIBLE. He had 0 points (0/5 FG) the last time he met Barcelona.
He definitely played bad in Euroleague. But two things, even ESPN itself said the level of top Euroleague teams is NBA.
I was surprised they admitted this, but I was watching something the other day about the story when Barca offered Kobe a contract, and the ESPN basketball panel all said the best teams in Europe are the same as NBA level, and that info comes from talking to NBA players that have played against them.
So you have to realize, a rookie straight out of college is not going to do much in that level of competition. Also, you need to stop focusing so much on the PIR rating stat. I explained it to you before, that it is nothing at all like PER, and it's just the old Larry Bird stat, or the Hockey plus minus stat.
It does not use a weighted system, and it's extremely heavily biased in favor of big men and rebounders. And in particular it is very biased against passers and also volume shooters. The fact that people in Europe think it is some kind of important stat or measure players by it, just shows the basketball knowledge of stats is like 30 years behind in Europe as compared to the USA.
Don't bring yourself down to that level and fall into that trap. It's not a meaningless stat, but it's close to being meaningless. I actually saw a stat study where a guy looked at PIR across various leagues in Europe, and it actually came out that in about 50% of the times, the guy that lead the league in rebounding, also led the league in PIR. And that even if their other numbers across the board were mediocre, often the best rebounders still led the league in PIR.
So unless you are using it to look at players that are true big men (true power forwards and true centers and that don't play on the perimeter), the stats is pretty much dumb as hell to be perfectly honest about it. I just see you constantly referring to PIR here, and want you to know it's a fairly stupid and meaningless stat. It's something the NBA thought of as an innovation like 35 years ago, and is even dated to about 25 years now when the Spanish League first thought it was a stat innovation.
Just try to imagine how much development there has been in stats evaluation in the last 25-35 years, and then try to grasp that PIR is that outdated as being anything meaningful or worthwhile. It's not even considered an advanced stat really.
Just the simple fact that it counts each stat equally as one point, should tell you that it's basically a joke stat.
With all that being said, like I said, I expect Hanlan to be in 2nd-tier Eurocup (if he is lucky) or D-League next season.
Pangos is a good player and I like him. But All Eurocup 2nd team does not prove anything as far as Euroleague goes. It's a huge level of difference in the leagues. Look at the first team All Eurocup players from every season and many of them fail as Euroleague players.
Even several Eurocup MVPs were decent at best in Euroleague (Eidson, Banic, etc.) and some of them are below average in Euroleague (Calathes), or even outright scrubs in Euroleague (Beverley).
Just on this year's first Eurocup team there is Mardy Collins, and he can only make it in the very worst of the worst Euroleague teams. So, since starting next season those teams all got eliminated from the competition retracting down to only 16 teams, from 24 teams - well, yeah, guys like that would not even be in Euroleague probably.
And keep in mind that also is the case for Pangos now. Now there are only 16 Euroleague teams (the biggest and best) and not 24, and all those joke teams that were really Eurocup level are gone. Many players got in Euroleague only in those lesser clubs, and not in the serious ones.
The fact Pangos can have a European passport (Slovenian-Greek) can help him get a spot though. I'm not saying this about Pangos just as it relates to him. He's a very good player in general (except in defense and point guard knowledge). But, I mean that being 2nd Eurocup team means absolutely jack about proving you should be in Euroleague. Because even the guys often winning the MVP of Eurocup are at best going to be role players in Euroleague.
I remember that Spanoulis finished 2nd in MVP voting for Eurocup when he was 22 (it was an old awards system that no longer even exists now). The next season he got in a big Euroleague club and even made All Euroleague 2nd team. So that is probably how you are thinking the natural progression can go for a young player like that. But back then it was a different league structure, where FIBA Europe still had power in the clubs. So it was way higher level than now.
Nowadays, Eurocup is just basically all the teams that can't get in Euroleague, combined with the worst teams of Euroleague that get parachuted down to it, after they get knocked down in the first round of Euroleague. And believe me, you have to be a pretty damn bad team (Milano, Maccabi) to get knocked down at the regular season stage. Eurocup to Euroleague is a pretty big gap in level, where the best teams in Eurocup, not a single one of them could make it past the first group stage of Euroleague.
If I was Pangos, I would stay 1-2 more years, at the least in Gran Canaria, before I tried to make it in a big Euroleague club. Or if I did go to Euroleague, I would do like Hanlan did, and go to Zalgiris, or a team like Red Star, or Cedevita. The few teams in Euroleague where you don't have to be that good of a player to get playing time.
