All former Golden State Warriors first-round draft pick Nemanja Nedovic wanted to do was play.
Nedovic, who was stuck at the bottom of the point guard depth chart behind the likes of Stephen Curry, Toney Douglas, Steve Blake, Jordan Crawford, and Shaun Livingston throughout his brief career with the Warriors, asked to be waived on Tuesday.
As ESPN’s Marc Stein tweeted yesterday morning, Nedovic was “released yesterday by Warriors because he asked to be let go so he could return to Europe to play regularly.”
The signs were evident of Nedovic’s itch to be running on the floor instead of riding the pine as early as training camp. As Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle reported:
What could have turned into one of the agent and player vs. team and coach soap operas that happens every once in a while in the NBA was snuffed out pretty quickly by the Warriors and second-year guard Nemanja Nedovic, because all parties realized that they want the same thing.
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Just days after Nedovic’s agent, Misko Raznatovic told a Serbian Web site that he is skeptical that the Warriors are giving his client a fair shot, Nedovic played the entire fourth quarter in Wednesday’s preseason-opening win, helping the Warriors outscored the Clippers by 12 points personally compiling 10 points, three assists, a steal and a blocked shot.
Even earlier than that, I sat down with Nedovic at Warriors Media Day on September 29, 2014, to discuss the transition from playing in Europe to playing in the NBA.
After all, we had just witnessed Team USA demolish Nedovic’s team, Serbia, in the FIBA World Cup of Basketball gold medal game. The transition from FIBA to the NBA was not only relevant to Nedovic, but also to Stephen Curry and especially Klay Thompson.
The biggest thing I learned from Nedovic was that adjusting from the culture of how professional basketball is played in Europe, as opposed to the NBA, is not as easy as you’d think.
“Whoever played in Europe and then went to the U.S. knows about it. Whoever played (in the U.S.) then went to Europe knows how hard it is to adapt to different styles, different mentality, culture, different coaches,” Nedovic told me, “If you make it in a short time, you will be good, but it’s really hard.”
“Everything’s different. Everything,” Nedovic explained, “From practicing, from the minutes, from traveling, everything is different. That’s why I said it was a great experience for me last year going up and down (to and from Santa Cruz) Warriors D-League. I’m just hoping to have a healthy season, first of all, and when I’m healthy I can play, so I want to earn my minutes.”
One of the biggest differences is in Europe, players are playing all the time — all the time in practice, too. It makes you wonder about Allen Iverson closing out his career in Turkey.
“There, we practice two times a day, two hours,” said Nedovic, “I know it sounds funny, but it’s hard for me to adapt to one practice a day — just 40 minutes — where it can happen that you don’t get into 5-on-5 drills, 4-on-4 drills, whatever. So you just need to stay in rhythm. In Europe, we play an hour-and-a-half, 5-on-5 in practice. When the game comes, you’re already game-ready. It’s different.”
What made things even more difficult for Nedovic was his numerous injuries, including the stress fracture in his foot which prevented him from playing for the silver-medal-winning Serbian team. One can only imagine how anxious the 23-year-old has been to get out there on the hardwood for some minutes. He was supposed to be in the starting backcourt for Serbia alongside European star Milos Teodisic, who was named to the all-tournament team and is under contract with CSKA Moscow, one of the top teams in Euroleague.
“I didn’t play too much last season so I wasn’t tired. I was just, you know, I just wanted to go out there and play,” said Nedovic.
So the primary driver in all of this isn’t that the Warriors wanted to vacate a roster spot or save money, or that Nedovic necessarily wants to increase his value for the future. He just wants to play. He’s been itching to play. And it’s not happening here. Not even in practice.
Credit Warriors general manager Bob Myers for facilitating this ongoing development by waiving Nedovic. This may work out the better for both sides.
The mustang can finally get out of the barn and run free.
So Nedovic seems on his way to a European team in Valencia, Spain, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein. He gave his teammates and Warriors fans a thank-you tweet: “#DubNation, thanks for being the best fans in the NBA, you guys are amazing! Now it’s time for some basketball…big year for me…”
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