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Four EuroLeague stars that may play in the NBA next season

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Luka Dončić, Pau Gasol,Manu Ginobili are some of the names that made the “jump” from the EuroLeague to the NBA.

This season we saw some incredible performances from a great number of players. Let’s see which of them could compete in the NBA next season.

Shane Larkin

Photo: EuroLeague Basketball

Shane Larkin had a great season with Anatolu Efes. The swift point guard was a difference maker for the Turkish club on the road to Vitoria’s Final-Four.

Larkin had great impact on the playoff series against Barcelona and in the two “battles” of the Final-Four against Fenerbache and Cska Moscow. He played on “MVP level” in crucial games on this year’s EuroLeague.

Larkin is a great shot-creator with incredible leadership skills, a “lethal” scorer, who created a formidable back-court duo with Micic.

He averaged about 20 points per game on 64% in field goal percentage and 50% from the three point line against Barcelona in EuroLeague’s playoff.

Also, he played insanely good in the Final-Four, in which he averaged about 30 points per game on 58% on field goal percentage and 47% from above the break.

Larkin has previous experience in NBA. He was a member of Boston Celtics in 2017-2018 season and also played in Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks in the past.

Goga Bitadze

Photo: EuroLeague Basketball

Bitadze is expected to be selected in this year draft, which will take place on the 21st of June in New York.

The 20years old center came to Buducnost in January and made a great impact for the Montenegrin club.

The Center from Georgia averaged about 12.1 points per game on 59.7% shooting and about 31% from the three point line.

He played in 13 games in the EuroLeague with the best performance being against Armani Milano, in which he scored 23 points and had 8 rebounds.

Finally, according to NBAdraft.net, Bitadze is expected to be selected as the 17th pick of this year draft and generally is considered a top-20 pick on various mock drafts.

Aaron White

Photo: EuroLeague Basketball

White had a solid season with Zalgiris Kaunas in Euroleague. In his two years tenure with the Lithuanian club, White made great impact and improved his game under Sarunas Jaskevicius.

His contract with Zalgiris is now expired and he has to make a decision about his future.

White became one of the most seminal small forward in the EuroLeague, a great rebounder and a good enough shooter averaging about 57% on field goal percentage and 36% from the three point line.

He can attack the closeouts very effectively, he is very athletic and a good defender. Last week, the player claimed that he may play in the NBA the next season.

White was drafted by Washington Wizards in the 2015 NBA draft and played in Europe for 4 years so far. Maybe, it’s time to make his dream come true.

Nikola Milutinov

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Photo: Gazzetta.gr

Milutinov´s draft rights are owned by San Antonio Spurs, who chose him with the 26th pick of 2015 draft. The Serbian player is improving every season since then by playing with Olympiacos in Euroleague.

Milutinov had a “career year” this past season becoming the focal point for his team’s offense. He averaged a career-high 11.7 points per game on 66% field goal percentage.

Also, he was grabbing 7.9 rebounds and was delivering about 1.5 assists per game. He was the best player of Olympiacos in a mediocre season for them, in which they didn’t qualify in the playoffs of the Euroleague.

The Serbian showed with his performances this year that he may be ready for the next step in his career and why not play under Gregg Popovich next season in the NBA.

*Stats: EuroLeague.net

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