Darjus Lavrinovic on NBA Radar?

[11player]

The bigman is having a great season both at Euroleague and domestic competition. His numbers:

LKL: 18,8pts (41%3pt), 10,8rebs, 2,7ass., 2,5blks
Euroleague: 14,4pts (55%FG, 43% 3pt), 8,2rebs, 2,1as., 2,7blks.

Although he seems to be more of a PF, he has legit size to play C at the NBA at 7'0-235lbs.
He would need to gain about 15lbs of weight and strenght to play there, which is totally possible.
Does anybody know if he has been scouted by the NBA?
Is he athletic enough for the NBA?
Considering the lack of quality bigmen at the 5, he sounds intriguing, could really help an NBA team.
Any news on this?

[SwissExpress]

The bigman is having a great season both at Euroleague and domestic competition. His numbers:

LKL: 18,8pts (41%3pt), 10,8rebs, 2,7ass., 2,5blks
Euroleague: 14,4pts (55%FG, 43% 3pt), 8,2rebs, 2,1as., 2,7blks.

Although he seems to be more of a PF, he has legit size to play C at the NBA at 7'0-235lbs.
He would need to gain about 15lbs of weight and strenght to play there, which is totally possible.
Does anybody know if he has been scouted by the NBA?
Is he athletic enough for the NBA?
Considering the lack of quality bigmen at the 5, he sounds intriguing, could really help an NBA team.
Any news on this?

Yes, by the Raptors. Both he and his brother Ksystof.

They have been sentenced with rape in the past, however, which makes it problematic for their agents to sell them in the image sense.

[Sigma]

No way in hell is he 235lbs, my quess is 245-250lbs. His weight is fine. Don't know about strength, i have mostly seen him against minor competition but he is not weak.

I think he is athletic enough to play in NBA (i have seen him switching to guard ~180cm pg and he held his own).

[11player]

He finished the Euroleague strong and continues to put big numbers in domestic league.
Any word on teams interested in him? Any word on his plans for the offseason?

[11player]

I'm surprised there were no NBA teams interested in Lavrinovic.

In my opinion, NBA basketball wise, he was the best free agent Center available outside the NBA, who could end up a starter for teams like Minessota, Memphis, Atlanta, Charlotte, not to mention make sense, as depht, to more than half of the league.

I guess the rape conviction really hurts his stock, but I can't understand really why.
I think there's the visa problem, then the press and team image problem, but am I missing something?
I mean, the guy is a clear talent, he has no basketball related downside apart from possibly being injury prone, and there are no news of attitude problems, other fellonies or problems of any kind related to him other than the conviction.

Even Euroleague teams shyed away from him, considering he ended up signing for Russia's Unics, meaning he could be had at a reasonable price.

What a waste! the guy is a real player with legit size, is just on the right age and time to go to the NBA. Is he ever gonna have a chance?

Can anybody give me an insight on him? his NBA situation? I feel like I'm not considering something important.

[afrhoop]

I heard his brother Krystof was in jail because of raping a girl and that he was not welcomed by the president after the Lithuanian national team won a medal some time ago (don't ask me, if that was the Olympics, European Champs or the World Champs). Does the rape charge also counts on Darjus ? And where are they orignally from ,as their last name sounds not lithuanian nor polish or russian.

[KristianH]

I'm surprised there were no NBA teams interested in Lavrinovic.

In my opinion, NBA basketball wise, he was the best free agent Center available outside the NBA, who could end up a starter for teams like Minessota, Memphis, Atlanta, Charlotte, not to mention make sense, as depht, to more than half of the league.

I guess the rape conviction really hurts his stock, but I can't understand really why.
I think there's the visa problem, then the press and team image problem, but am I missing something?
I mean, the guy is a clear talent, he has no basketball related downside apart from possibly being injury prone, and there are no news of attitude problems, other fellonies or problems of any kind related to him other than the conviction.

Even Euroleague teams shyed away from him, considering he ended up signing for Russia's Unics, meaning he could be had at a reasonable price.

What a waste! the guy is a real player with legit size, is just on the right age and time to go to the NBA. Is he ever gonna have a chance?

Can anybody give me an insight on him? his NBA situation? I feel like I'm not considering something important.

Well, Unics is very rich....On a negative side, he isn`t too strong, lacks some toughness, isn`t great man-to-man defender, not really that skilled in the low post.

[11player]

Well, Unics is very rich....On a negative side, he isn`t too strong, lacks some toughness, isn`t great man-to-man defender, not really that skilled in the low post.

Yeah, he is not a star, but those are all correctable flaws, wouldn't you say? specially with the NBA training regime and structure.

Unics is rich but I doubt they are paying him a million contract or over, which means a 3year/5million contract would be enough to bring him over and that's a small contract by NBA standards.

[KristianH]

Well, obviously he wasn`t able to land guaranteed contract in the NBA. And i think his contract is atleast very close to 1mil per year, since these same Unics offered 700.000 to Scoonie Penn, and Centers have greater value.

I think he is very good player, but it isn`t sure bet that he would succed in NBA.

[Matiz]

...also, most european players realised that bigger contract means bigger playing time in NBA, so they're willing to settle for less in Europe in order not to warm the bench... 1 mio € in europe practically means almost 2 mio $ in NBA, while the mentality with some is that if the team really needs them they'd be willing to pay full MLE anyway.

[11player]

I have yet to see an european or any other player come to the NBA and get the full MLE.

You know, it's always a risk to bring european free-agents. The game is different, the language is different, the culture is different, the player may not adapt. That's why teams shy away at investing important money at this kind of signing.

[coachjon]

i defiently think he has the ability to be in the nba but i dont think he would play too much of a role. he could make a slava medvedenko type impact for a team being a 9th or 10th man off the bench providing some offense.

i like that at 6-11 he has range all the way out to 3pt land. he is mobile and athletic so he has a nice face up game being able to hit the jumper or take his man off the dribble. he is a good help defender (weakside shot blocker)

i dont like that he basically has no post up game and shies away from contact. he is a good shooter but relies on his shot way too much for his size 6-11. this basically makes him strictly a PF prospect (in the mold of the new inside/outside finesse PF the nba is moving to). SO THOSE WHO SAID HE WAS THE BEST CENTER IN FREE AGENCY HE IS HARDLY A CENTER. he is not a good on ball defender and he lacks strength to guard anyone in the nba down on the blocks. ok rebounder but would like to see him get better.

[Kase4ever]

I heard his brother Krystof was in jail because of raping a girl and that he was not welcomed by the president after the Lithuanian national team won a medal some time ago (don't ask me, if that was the Olympics, European Champs or the World Champs). Does the rape charge also counts on Darjus ? And where are they orignally from ,as their last name sounds not lithuanian nor polish or russian.

Darjus or Darjuš is polish name form of the same common Lithuanian name Darius. The last name Lavrinovic or Lavrinovič (č pronounced as ch), Lithuanians write as Lavrinovičius. The both(Darjus and Ksystof) were born in Vilnius region and they speak the language. They also must know other language specific to the Vilnius region- tuteishi- it is dialect of the polish language, because their Lithuanian isn't flawless. But who cares about that in the basketball court. They both made the national team and they are Lithuanian sons! (There is another common Lithuanian last name, which is Laurinavičius.)

[TheTruth06]

I think they have born in Visaginas(there lives a lot of polish people).
Darjušas played in Kauno "Žalgiris" pretty good, also in the national team, but i don't think he will be good for nba, besause he has better hand than power.
Besides i am not happy then our nation player goes to nba, because then are less chance that the player will play for lithuania, for example, Ilgauskas, he never played for the national team.