European players are still fighting to impose his basketball style in the NBA, and they have achieved it lately more than ever. This time is not German nor Spaniard, is Italian. Andrea Bargnani is Toronto Raptors leader scorer with 21.3 points per game and the 2nd best scorer among centers in the league only behind Dwight (superman) Howard.NBA number 1 draft pick in 2006, 2nd place in rookie of the year award behind Brandon Roy, many said Andrea could not get it because a month sidelined by an appendectomy surgery. Known as "Il Mago", he won twice the rookie of the month award being the third Raptor achieving this with Vince Carter and Damon Stoudamire.
After NBA star Chris Bosh decided to be part of the beach boys project along with D Wade and Lebron James, someone had to stepped up as the offensive leader of the Canadian franchise and it was no other than the Italian center, 2nd best scorer and blocker leader for the team last season.
This is a tough league for the Europeans, only few of them adapt well and a smallest portion succeed the way Dirk Nowitzky or Pau Gasol have done it. I must say I was not expecting much from the Italian at the beginning of the season, but he really has showed maturity and consistency and also has been a key factor in every Toronto win this season raising his average to 24.7 ppg when Raptors win the game.
The 7 feet center has increased almost 50% his scoring capabilities this year compared with his career in the NBA and not only he is scoring more points but he is more effective averaging 3% more in his field goal percentage. This combination plus the fact he is the current go-to man for coach Jay Triano shows how high has the Italian elevated his game this season. We can even say the depart of Chris Bosh hasn't been noted so far because if we end the season today, Raptors are still out of the playoffs in 9th place in the Eastern Conference. As many of the European centers in the NBA, he is an all-around player being able to shoot from long distance or play strong in the post. He might be the decisive player to take Toronto back in the playoffs this season, of course with the contribution of many other key players like De Rozen or Weems.
It comes to my attention how natural he deals with big moments of pressure. As an example I'm referring to the Raptors vs Knicks game on December 8th this year were The Italian scored career high 41 points in the Madison Square Garden including a 3point to tie the game with 28 seconds left in the game. Lets be honest, beside Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller, how many players do you remember making their career highs in NYC? This requires some character.
Enjoy that game recap below.
