Bolmaro WILL make it. Here’s why:
TL;DR. Bolmaro’s previous coach is an excellent PG coach. But Bolmaro wasn’t able to play to his strengths there – but he could do it here!
Totally doing this for a chance of a “I told you so” in a year or two, so here goes!
I am a fan of Minnesota Timberwolves AND Žalgiris Kaunas. Our ex-head coach, Šarūnas “Šaras”Jasikevičius moved to Barcelona last season and had his paws on Bolmaro. Here’s what I think about this.
1. Šaras a great PG coach.
Šaras assembled top squads on small budgets and improved his PGs massively. On their 2nd years, our PGs were consistently expected to make massive leaps in their overall play. Some of them (Pangos, Micic) went from fringes to Euro stardom, Pangos now joined the Cavs and Micic is Euroleague’s MVP. He’s got a great track record.
2. His style of play KILLS Bolmaro’s stats.
Šaras is controlling, always pushing PGs to do exactly the “right thing” on every play. Bolmaro, being a 6’7 ball handler, would be incredibly capable of making a shot for himself – and he is! But in Barca schemes, he rarely got a chance to. This is not a problem in the NBA, if anything, it’s a requirement.
Now he’s got the updated knowledge firmware, natural gifts, and mentality.
3. Euro game is a dogfight, and Barca is the alpha.
Barcelona were absolutely starving for victories after 19/20, and came into last season looking to seriously dominate. I know that NBA fans know it by now, but Euro game demands results and immediate success and in that situation there was a lot of pressure. Bolmaro was put in one of the best squads in Europe pushing for victories all the time, with one foot already in the NBA. The club didn’t care enough about him. I am certain he would’ve been a top player for a lower Euro tier team – and then people would be a lot higher on him.
Truly, this is all a lot of conjecture. But that’s sports journalism, baby. I genuinely think that Bolmaro is much more than a G-Leaguer and I’m putting my non-existent name on the line here.
Thank you for reading, you two.