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| Well actually...this is more of a 2008-09 player review, but we'll pretend that it isn't. |
Following the 2008-09 season, Kleiza played over in Europe for the Greek team Olympiakos. He was the leading scoring in the Euroleague (17.1 pts/game [a game is 40 minutes over there]) and as such won the Alphonso Ford Trophy. After the season ended he terminated his contract with Olympiakos and signed a 4-year, $20 million deal with the Raptors. Before going over to Europe, Kleiza played 4 seasons with the Nuggets - the last two of which he played at a near-average level. The following table includes his more specialized statistics for these last two NBA seasons as compared to the average SF and SG (the positions he mostly played) as well as - for fun - his Euroleague stats from last year, although please note that these numbers shouldn't be directly compared to NBA numbers.
The numbers show that Kleiza shoots with above-average efficiency, scores, rebounds, and gains possessions at an above-average level. Other than that, he is at or below average with respect to steals, blocks, assists, and fouls. As long as the Raptors don't try to play him as a PF, Kleiza should produce at a near-average to above-average level this year; as a 25 (soon to be 26) year-old, he should also continue to show some improvement. Based on past performance, I'm expecting a WP48 of at least 0.083, and he'll probably reach a WP48 of 0.100.
- Devin.
Wow, take his average and take his top and you have an article. WTF, write a little more.
ReplyDeleteThere's really not much to write in this case. As an international man of mystery, anything else I could write about him would be speculation - and I try to avoid speculation as much as possible (unless it is evidence-based).
ReplyDeletenah man in these slow summer months any sort of raptors news is appreciated!
ReplyDeleteDevin,
ReplyDeleteAnon 1) Take a clip out of the New Zealand hand book and Do It Yourself :)
Devin,
Oddly at first I wanted to thank Toronto for taking Kleiza off our hands but he seems to be a very economical choice. In fact the Nuggets should have matched, which would have helped fill SF-SG spots and then traded Melo for a big man. Looks like your front office did something right.
Yeah, he's better than I thought he'd be. If I can find some numbers, I'm going to write about his performance in Turkey - along with that of the other international Raptors.
ReplyDeleteBut the Raptors still need to trade a couple of 0.100s for a 0.200 or higher...probably twice. Unless Kleiza or someone else magically improves significantly....
You can find numbers for Kleiza in Turkey at the FIBA website, here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/10/fwcm/player/p/eid/4728/pid/36079/rid//sid/4728/tid/2135/profile.html