Kings trade 49th pick for rights to Sasha Vezenkov

hrdboild said:
How can you compare anyone to Ja Morant and not talk about athleticism? Isn't that his defining characteristic?
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My point was to get him to say how Ivey and Ja are similar, outside of them both being tremendous athletes. He was the one making that claim, not me.
 
The_Jamal said:
My point was to get him to say how Ivey and Ja are similar, outside of them both being tremendous athletes. He was the one making that claim, not me.
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I think the comparison is an easy one to make because: (1) Both guys have eye-popping first steps and get to the rim in a blink when they find daylight (2) Jaden's mom was an assistant coach for Memphis so he got to sit in on practices with Ja Morant and obviously looks up to him as a player (3) Ja's exploits were the talk of the NBA this season so any vaguely athletic PG coming into the league is probably going to get compared to him. Five years ago it was Westbrook and 5 years before that it was probably D Rose.

But other than that, yeah I would agree that's it not a particularly insightful comparison. But most of them aren't. He's a slashing guard who can get to the basket and finish over defenders and he's got some off ball game and range on his jumper (but not enough consistency yet). I could see a little bit of Lillard, a little bit of D. Wade, a little bit of Fox, a little bit of OJ Mayo, a little bit of Russ and he won't be any of those guys but he should be pretty good. I don't want to bet against players who grew up in the gym around WNBA, NBA, and NCAA stars. He has the skillset and athleticism t be a star and he knows how hard players need to work to be stars.
 
sactowndog said:
Not sure he’s coming over. Think this was just another selling 2nds for cash.
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I hope you're wrong, but the cynical part of me thinks it's a great way to get some cash - just trade for a guy who is never coming over from Europe and bank the money.
 
He has a pretty fast release on his jumper, Steph Curry fast it seems like. How is his defense? I don't follow Euro ball all that much.

EDIT*
This is what someone said in the King's reddit about him:
Some information for Vezenkov from a local guy.

He was considered a wonder child in the Greek basketball community and had his first appearance in the Greek league at the age of 16. At the age of 20 had a great year in the greek national league having 18/7.7/1.8.

Then he moved to Barcelona (Spain) but did not impress the Spanish league or the Euroleague.

The last two years had a good presence in the Euroleague with Olympiakos (Greece) and this year had 13.1/7.4/1.7 earning an all-team appearance.

He is 27 years old forward (6'9'') and I believe he deserves a chance in the NBA.

Side note: He chose the Bulgarian national team and not the Greek.
 
If the Kings do sign him imo that's the end of Trey Lyles the #4 pick will be starting and Sasha would than be the back up 4, while Sasha can "play" the 3 he's a 4 man in the NBA imo he's way to slow to guard on the perimeter and is not really known for his D.

I had no idea he was Bulgarian I always thought he was Russian/Ukrainian both from name and physical appearance.

But I have to caution that he could easily go down the road of Nico Mellie (better player than Sasha overall imo, slightly different games although much older when he came to the NBA), where he washes out in a season or two due to his lack of defense and if he does not find his shot. I think there were better Euroleague wings to take a gamble on tbh (e.g Lithuania Rokas Giedraitis).
 
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serbiangoat said:
If the Kings do sign him imo that's the end of Trey Lyles the #4 pick will be starting and Sasha would than be the back up 4, while Sasha can "play" the 3 he's a 4 man in the NBA imo he's way to slow to guard on the perimeter and is not really known for his D.

I had no idea he was Bulgarian I always thought he was Russian/Ukrainian both from name and physical appearance.

But I have to caution that he could easily go down the road of Nico Mellie (better player than Sasha overall imo, slightly different games although much older when he came to the NBA), where he washes out in a season or two due to his lack of defense and if he does not find his shot. I think there were better Euroleague wings to take a gamble on tbh (e.g Lithuania Rokas Giedraitis).
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Can you go ask him if he's coming over?
 
serbiangoat said:
If the Kings do sign him imo that's the end of Trey Lyles the #4 pick will be starting and Sasha would than be the back up 4, while Sasha can "play" the 3 he's a 4 man in the NBA imo he's way to slow to guard on the perimeter and is not really known for his D.

I had no idea he was Bulgarian I always thought he was Russian/Ukrainian both from name and physical appearance.

But I have to caution that he could easily go down the road of Nico Mellie (better player than Sasha overall imo, slightly different games although much older when he came to the NBA), where he washes out in a season or two due to his lack of defense and if he does not find his shot. I think there were better Euroleague wings to take a gamble on tbh (e.g Lithuania Rokas Giedraitis).
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Meli had the unfortunate experience of coming over and playing one year under a coach that was willing to let him do his thing (be a smart solid offensive player) only to have him get fired and replaced by Stan Van Gundy, who immediately had half the team mutiny under his control.
He probably could have caught on with another team if he gave it another year but I can totally understand him deciding to go back to Europe when he did.

If Sasha can just give us 10 or so minutes a game off the bench, it would be a win in my books
 
Tetsujin said:
Meli had the unfortunate experience of coming over and playing one year under a coach that was willing to let him do his thing (be a smart solid offensive player) only to have him get fired and replaced by Stan Van Gundy, who immediately had half the team mutiny under his control.
He probably could have caught on with another team if he gave it another year but I can totally understand him deciding to go back to Europe when he did.

If Sasha can just give us 10 or so minutes a game off the bench, it would be a win in my books
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If you can get 10 minutes a game from 49th pick, it's a win.

Vivek already won in $1.5 million ways from the pick :-)
 
kingsfan101 said:
If you can get 10 minutes a game from 49th pick, it's a win.
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On the other hand, if Vezenkov thinks he'll only get 10 minutes a game if he comes over, he's probably staying. I don't know if he would demand a starting slot, but I'd imagine that if he didn't see a path to 20+ mpg he'd likely just stay put, unless the money is so very much better he can't turn it down.
 

Watching that interview, it sounds like he grinded his way to get big minutes and is very proud of it. I don’t know if he’d be happy taking a demotion from being a starter to a backup 3pt specialist for an NBA team.

He’s in his prime, and I think it would be very beneficial for the Kings to bring him over now.
 
206Fan said:

Watching that interview, it sounds like he grinded his way to get big minutes and is very proud of it. I don’t know if he’d be happy taking a demotion from being a starter to a backup 3pt specialist for an NBA team.

He’s in his prime, and I think it would be very beneficial for the Kings to bring him over now.
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Well you beat me to it. I was just going to post this. His sister played college basketball in the US and his father was a European league player. I've watched a ton of film on him in the last two days, and there's no doubt that he's a very good shooter. I don't think offense will be a problem for him, and I see him strictly as a PF. The real test will be on the defensive side of the ball. He doesn't do too bad a job staying in front of his man, but I'm not sure how well that will translate to the NBA where the players are quicker, and there's a lot more switching. If he comes over, we'll see!
 
midtowner said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1541858920045588480

Hopefully, player Polygamy doesn’t result in the League Office snatching our draft picks.
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Good. The Kings need to get athleticism on the front line. I don't care at all if Murray and Collins play the same positions. If necessary, play them both at the same time. Better yet, get an athletic rangy 3 in addition to Collins and Murray. Then you're talkin'.
 
bajaden said:
Well you beat me to it. I was just going to post this. His sister played college basketball in the US and his father was a European league player. I've watched a ton of film on him in the last two days, and there's no doubt that he's a very good shooter. I don't think offense will be a problem for him, and I see him strictly as a PF. The real test will be on the defensive side of the ball. He doesn't do too bad a job staying in front of his man, but I'm not sure how well that will translate to the NBA where the players are quicker, and there's a lot more switching. If he comes over, we'll see!
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As soon as I heard the coach say that Vezenkov does not take a day off and that he lives for basketball, I understood why Monte liked him lol
 
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