Timberwolves Euro Pipeline: Nemanja Blejica

Blejica will test his skills in the NBA, five years after he was drafted.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are bringing forward Nemanja Blejica to America. The 2014-15 Euroleague Playoff MVP was a 2010 draft pick that has used his time in Europe to greatly expand his basketball abilities and is ready to join the NBA and make an immediate impact for the young and hungry Wolves. If you’ve been living under rocks, in eastern Utah, or just fear any sporting activity that transpires outside the boundaries of the NBA, we can go through a quick rundown of how Bjelica arrived.

Bjelica was selected 35th overall in the 2010 NBA draft by the Washington Wizards. His rights made their way to the Timberwolves via a trade on draft night and they have held those rights since. Most recently, Bjelica has been plying his trade with Fenerbache Ulker in Turkey. He has also had stints in other countries including Spain and Austria.

Initial reports were that Bjelica had big upside but struggled from three-point range, was turnover prone and struggled with lateral quickness on the defensive end. Several years later, the numbers have become much more favorable. In 2011-12 he shot 30.6-percent from three-point range, 42.3-percent on field goals and an Ast/TO ratio of 1.11. Fast-forward to 2014-15 and the numbers have shown great improvement, 37.2-percent from three-point range, 54-percent on field goals and an Ast/TO ratio of 1.38. Probably the most intriguing thing about the numbers is that Bjelica actually was better in 2013-14 than he was in 2014-15 which leaves reason to believe he is even more improved than his most recent numbers suggest.

While the regular season numbers are trending in the right direction, it was his performance in the Euroleague Playoffs that stood out as a testament to his skill. Against the toughest opposition, Bjelica averaged a double-double of 11 points and 13.5 rebounds per game.

There, are we caught up? If this still doesn’t click for you, just go to YouTube and search “Nemanja Bjelica” and you will find a number of random European usernames that splice together all the goodness you’ll need to see to figure it out.

Now, what does this mean for the Timberwolves and Bjelica this coming season? A fair guess is that it means a whole lot of fun, upside and goodness. That pretty much was the Wolves before adding Bjelica, but now they just got really intriguing at the one spot that seemed the most lacking.

It is safe to assume that if healthy, a big if in Minnesota, the Wolves will run out a starting five of Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Adreian Payne and Nikola Pekovic. We know that Rubio, LaVine and Wiggins are fairly safe locks for the starting spots throughout the season, though there is room to shuffle things if LaVine isn’t up for it and Shabazz Muhammad continues to show the same upside he demonstrated last season. And yes, this completely disregards the existence of Kevin Martin on the roster and I am fine with that.

I didn’t get to watch every Summer League game, but what I did watch was glorious. A lot of talented young men were putting in work. However, there was one player that I was not particularly impressed with – Payne. While I wouldn’t expect Bjelica to play rookie year Wiggins type minutes, I would be surprised if he doesn’t eventually earn himself at least equal playing time with whoever else figures to take a crack at the power forward position for Minnesota. Anthony Bennett still lingers, but mostly in the same way that Old Country Buffett lingers. You know all of the potential that is inside, but you’ll probably just end up feeling sad and regret it a few hours later. Minnesota, don’t Old Country Buffett your starting power forward position.

Pek is probably not long for the starting job though he would be hard to move on his current contract if he doesn’t stay healthy and see an slight uptick in production. Gorgui Dieng is a fantasticly raw and exciting player who is about as likely to usurp Karl-Anthony Towns as a non-Wolves fan is to pronounce his name correctly without looking it up.

But, this is about Bjelica. The big man has a tantalizing cross-range of potential. For a time, he was being used similar to what we saw in the Milwaukee phenom, Giannis Antetokounmpo. He was raw and needed to improve his ball-handling skills, struggled from range but towered over opposing backcourts at 6’10” and a light 225 lbs. That weight is actually an increase from where he was when drafted in 2010, so you can imagine a lanky, European talent towering over an opposing guard that is prone to turnovers but could finish in two giant-sized strides if he could get the edge on his defender.

While he isn’t as skilled or refined yet, the passing and ball handling skills he demonstrates are on par with the better big men passers in the league. Think Joakim Noah with better ball-handling skills, no jacked up shooting form, the non-eccentric hair or clapping, playing for the Bulls…. Ugh, nevermind. Look, he has great handles for a big man, can roll to the hoop and can find a pass in traffic.

Bjelica projects to be better than Bennett right away and should be able to catch Payne as he adjusts to the NBA game. He’s also listed as a small forward, which gives him some versatility. While the Wolves are a choose your own adventure team at this point in their rebuilding process, it would not be unreasonable to see them trying to deploy Bjelica at the four, trying to make the most of his range and ability to pull defenders away from the basket, but also engaging him in pick-and-roll action or running him as a point-big from time to time.

Minnesota already projects to be one of the most exciting teams to watch in the next couple of seasons, they really didn’t need to add Bjelica to the mix. Bringing in the Serbian star simply gives them one more option and one more piece to their puzzle, while freeing themselves from the limitations of Payne and Bennett. All we can do is sit back and hope that there will eventually be footage of locker room interactions between Kevin Garnett and Bjelica.