Sasha signed!!!

On paper he looks like a tremendous fit. His defense isn't the strongest 1v1 but in a team concept he knows where to be.
This is an underrated aspect of Sasha's D. Team D. He may not be the greatest 1v1 defender but due to his experience and bbiq, there is almost no chance he fails on team defense, switching, zone, junk D, etc. He's not going to be some black hole on defense that some might be fearing.
 
Some interesting points are being discussed here by our European counterparts. They seem to think this is Sasha's peak last season in Euroleague because NBA teams will use him as a role-playing spot-up shooter, wasting away like Nicola Melli, and Maxi Kleiber before him.

 
Some interesting points are being discussed here by our European counterparts. They seem to think this is Sasha's peak last season in Euroleague because NBA teams will use him as a role-playing spot-up shooter, wasting away like Nicola Melli, and Maxi Kleiber before him.

Kleber is a elite defender who is ok from 3 and can finish ok above the rim (nothing like Sasha) and Melli is like Bjelly a all around player who came too late to the NBA and needs the ball to be effective and was only used as a spot up shooter and failed completely. Obviously Sasha will not be a 20ppg guy (at least I don't think so) but if he's giving the Kings 8-14ppg on 40% on 3 that's a amazing return for his contract. Maxi Kleiber is literally only been stopped by injury/no hype from being a All-NBA defender imo or at least regarded as one of the better defending bigs.
 
He should fit in well. I like that the video also highlighted his weaknesses instead of just sugarcoating everything. At the end of the day if he can help stretch the floor by hitting his 3s and be an effective cutter/mover off the ball I think he will help them a lot
 
Kleber is a elite defender who is ok from 3 and can finish ok above the rim (nothing like Sasha) and Melli is like Bjelly a all around player who came too late to the NBA and needs the ball to be effective and was only used as a spot up shooter and failed completely. Obviously Sasha will not be a 20ppg guy (at least I don't think so) but if he's giving the Kings 8-14ppg on 40% on 3 that's a amazing return for his contract. Maxi Kleiber is literally only been stopped by injury/no hype from being a All-NBA defender imo or at least regarded as one of the better defending bigs.
Yeah Kleber has been on my radar for awhile. No coincidence that the Mavs defense fell off a cliff with him hurt for most of the year. If he keeps his spacing consistent, he's an incredible role player for literally any team. Glove fit with any star.
 
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funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
I’m not sure I really see Lauri in Sasha. I wonder how their model actually works.
It's solely statistical data. They state that no measurables are used and that it is also relative to the player's current level of competition. So they are really just comparing basic counting stats along with the frequency of different shot/play types and the efficiencies of them.

Not to mention, the "match" with Markkanen was only 79 out of 100 on their own scale, so I'm not sure there's much to be gleaned here.