Pietro Aradori

Week by week, it’s getting tougher and tougher not to notice the amazing production of Italian swingman Pietro Aradori. With American shooting guard and former NBA player Fred Jones on the shelf the past few weeks, Aradori has stepped up his game in a major way, emerging as arguably the best Italian player in the league. The 1988-born product has scored 20 or more points in each of the last three rounds in the competitive Italian league, while adding another 18 points (plus the game-icing free throws) last week in the EuroCup.

Aradori continues to shoot the ball with excellent consistency, making 50% of his nearly five 3-point attempts per game, all while getting to the line at a great rate, rebounding extremely well, getting in the passing lanes and making plays for others. Statistically-speaking, he might be the most productive player (including imports) in the entire Italian league right now. He currently ranks 3rd in PER.

Beyond the numbers, Aradori brings great toughness and smarts to the table, along with a winning spirit and a penchant for stepping up and making plays in big moments, particularly late in games. The main thing holding him back from being considered a great NBA prospect, though, is his underwhelming physical profile. Only 6-4, and just an average athlete by European standards, Aradori would likely have a much harder time getting his shot off in the NBA. He struggles defending athletes on the perimeter already due to his poor lateral quickness, so it’s safe to say that he would have a very difficult time guarding NBA shooting guards.

With that said, it's tough to argue with the sheer production Aradori is generating right now, and with how down this crop of European prospects appears to be, it’s not out of the question that a roster-conscious team in the 2nd round decides to take a flyer on him. After all, he is clearly a very good basketball player, and there is something to be said for that. So far NBA interest has been fairly lukewarm reportedly, but that could change as the season moves on if he keeps putting up big numbers.

On a similar note, we should point out the terrific early season performance of Italian shooting guard Pietro Aradori. We’ll focus in on him in a lot more depth once we make our annual trek to the lovely town of Biella, but for now it’s worth mentioning that the 20-year old currently ranks in the top 10 in scoring in the Italian league, with 16 points per game. Aradori is putting up those numbers in an efficient manner as well, hitting 57% of his 3-pointers, getting to the free throw line at a very high rate, rebounding the ball extremely well, and getting in the passing lanes nearly 2 times per game. All this combined has him currently ranked 7th in the Italian league in PER, no small feat for a player this young.

Aradori is doing it for a good team too, as Biella currently sits in 3rd place with a 4-1 record, fresh off a terrific road win over Rome this past weekend. Let’s see if Aradori, together with the rest of coach Luca Bechi’s troops at Biella can keep it up, particularly as they begin to play twice a week when the EuroCup kicks off at the end of this month.