Paulius Murauskas 6'8 2023 F has committed to Arizona!

[WILD]

Paulius Murauskas 6'8 2023 F has committed to Arizona!

Tommy Lloyd has landed another top Euro prospect Paulius Murauskas. Lots of NBA teams had their eyes on Paulius and he was listed on some NBA draft boards. Murauskas plays with the mobility, coordination and fluidity of a wing. His optimal size for the position allows him to create mismatches against opponents in his current league, as he�s too fluid with the ball in his hands for opposing big men, and too strong and physically imposing for opposing guards and wings. He's also a teammate of Motiejus Krivaswho just committed to Arizona yesterday. This is a huge get for coach Lloyd. See full SI article on Paulius below.
https://www.si.com/nba/draft/newsfeed/international-spotlight-paulius-murauskas-shooting-potential

https://twitter.com/BearDownU/status/1658849105966235648

Highlights

[KansasCityCats]

Looks like he has all the tools to play behind Pelle on the depth chart.  Could use a quicker release and more elevation on his jumper but the stroke looks good.  Nice ballhandling.

Best aspects are his defensive and rebounding efforts!  Nice pickup.

[lsg_da_apache]

Welcome to the family and BTFD!

[arxpert]

Looks like he has all the tools to play behind Pelle on the depth chart.  Could use a quicker release and more elevation on his jumper but the stroke looks good.  Nice ballhandling.

Best aspects are his defensive and rebounding efforts!  Nice pickup.

I don't see any strength in either Paulis or Krivas. I see players who are used to a physically weaker level of competition that play as tough as they need to which is the Euro Ball way --- That is, a rougher game overall than the NBA due to rules of contact being different and also age groups around Euroball vary as some pros there are old men, but this is certainly not rougher than American HS Basketball or American College Basketball. Azoulas Tubelis showed us time and time again that the basketball culture these kids come from is not rough nor tough when squaring up against hungry American 18-24 year olds.

[KansasCityCats]

Larsson and Kriisa aren't all Americans but they're two of the toughest players to wear an Arizona jersey over the past decade. They take charges and don't back down from anybody.

Just because they shoot a lot of threes I. Europe, it doesn't mean a player is soft. If they can score AND protect the rim...Arizona will be in great shape moving forward. 

[arxpert]

Larsson and Kriisa aren't all Americans but they're two of the toughest players to wear an Arizona jersey over the past decade. They take charges and don't back down from anybody.

Just because they shoot a lot of threes I. Europe, it doesn't mean a player is soft. If they can score AND protect the rim...Arizona will be in great shape moving forward.

I didn't say anyone is soft. I said Euro Ball is typically ROUGHER than American ball, but that being said - they are rough with each other at the level and size they are. That doesn't always translate. The level these kids are coming from is not the same as Luka's. Euro Ball allows much more hacking and banging than the NBA. But again, consider the source. Who are these kids banging with? It's not exactly a bunch of Bam Adebayo's over there.

And pump at least 1 brake. Kerr is the master of the flop. Just because he absorbs contact doesn't mean he is tough. He's a pesky little pest and once a game he gets a charge call. The rest are flop warnings, blocking fouls, or no calls that put the defense at a disadvantage. Pelle literally just followed suit and never executed the flop as well. I am hoping Pelle forgets every habit he learned from Kerr and plays straight up defense this season.

There have been far tougher defenders over the last decade than those 2. Damn.

[KansasCityCats]

Kerr was a flop machine but he never backed down and wasn't scared to take a real charge. He'd talk trash to anybody.

Pelle actually bangs down low and consistently gets called for garbage fouls while being aggressive. He's taken more shots to the chin than anybody that I can recall over a 3 year period.

These euro recruits are playing semi pro ball while under the age of 18. They're definitely prepared to step right into the college game. The competition isn't as high as the NBA but it's a major step up from the PAC-12.

[mvpreed2]

I understand that Arizona is not able to land enough domestic prospects, but at the rate we are going, Arizona is going to be fully composed of international prospects VERY soon!
I just hope these prospects that Lloyd are bringing in are going to be able to contribute soon, because there is a lot of unproven commodities on this roster with little proven assets to count on.
#BearDown

[arxpert]

I understand that Arizona is not able to land enough domestic prospects, but at the rate we are going, Arizona is going to be fully composed of international prospects VERY soon!
I just hope these prospects that Lloyd are bringing in are going to be able to contribute soon, because there is a lot of unproven commodities on this roster with little proven assets to count on.
#BearDown

This is the fear MVP ---> We have an identity crisis. Half the team are International Stashes. The other half are ready to play College Basketball now, but they have no depth that fits with their games.

I don't really want to see a mix of these 2 types of teams. Either Tommy is going to force Bradley and Boswell into throwing deep lobs all day without any pick and roll offense or Inside-Out passing like he has the last 2 years, or Bradley/Boswell will have to just go out there and create their own offense defying Tommy which Tommy won't have any way of stopping because we only have 2 true Guards on the team.

He can't just yank either one of them and go with Pelle at PG/SG and expect success. It will breed dissention in the ranks of the team. I also don't expect Lewis to get any minutes now. It's sort of a mess. Maybe if Tommy forces some red-shirts it would make more sense, but I doubt he has the balls to do that in the College Professional Paid Player Era.

[WerderBremen]

I understand that Arizona is not able to land enough domestic prospects, but at the rate we are going, Arizona is going to be fully composed of international prospects VERY soon!
I just hope these prospects that Lloyd are bringing in are going to be able to contribute soon, because there is a lot of unproven commodities on this roster with little proven assets to count on.
#BearDown

It actually looks like the number of foreigners will go down from 8 to 6.