Should the NBA put greater stock in international prospects?: More examples
Another prime example, of course, is Luka Doncic. Despite playing professionally with Real Madrid by the age of 16, and winning the Euroleague MVP in 2018, there were still some question marks on how his game would translate to the NBA level.
In retrospect, he was the clear number one selection, yet he went three and was then immediately traded to the Mavericks, who had the fifth pick.
It would be wrong not to include the two biggest names in any international discussion, with Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo combining for the last three MVP awards. Neither were at the top of their draft class, taken with the 41st and 13th picks respectively.
But it’s easy to simply identify the success stories, those that have proven of greater value than their draft position may have suggested. In reality, there’s a list of international prospects that, despite their talent, struggled to live up to the billing.
So in short, the league doesn’t need to take greater stock of international leagues and every prospect, but rather identify the type of player with the attributes that will translate to NBA level.