Hapoel Jerusalem completed three signings yesterday (Wednesday), each of which alone could have made headlines in the Israeli sports press the next day (hereinafter: today).
In a way that teaches us perhaps also about communication in general and sports in particular, precisely whoever is perhaps the best player of the three - Sean Kilpatrick - is also the least "interesting" signing.
Because at 31, with a career that began in 4 seasons on the University of Cincinnati's prestigious basketball program, she continued with 81 appearances of 10 points or more in the NBA between 2014 and 2018 (out of 157 games, only 25 of them in the top five), a double with Panathinaikos in 2019 as a player of 9 points per game (both in Greece and in the Euroleague), then with significant output in the 3 teams he has played for since (Bodoczenost, fool, Gran Canaria), Kilpatrick is an experienced professional, a proven scorer, one who can also arrange for himself Shooting and also must not be left alone.
That it's definitely boring.
In the good sense of the word.
Probably in relation to the other two who joined Oren Amiel's gang.
If we continue with the theme and go from the safest / most boring, to the player who is more of a gambler and therefore also more interesting, we come to Thon Maker (yes, that's how you think it).
On the one hand, Micro is a story we've already seen - a unique athlete (2.13 without shoes, and with a jump that allows him to almost hit the ring) who goes straight from high school to the NBA, shows quite a few sparks of something special (supreme blocker, even able to score threes - in 29 of his 263 league appearances scored 2 threes or more), but ultimately fails to atone for his obvious shortcomings and struggles to establish himself in a league where unless you are a superstar, you have no place in it if you are a complementary player who does bring a complex package Of abilities but does not excel at a few basic things.
Thun Maker, courtesy of Hapoel Jerusalem
But in the factories that Hapoel Jerusalem will face this season, its natural benefits can turn it into something that anyone who sees it understands can be: a special basketball player.
This is a scenario we have already seen working many times, mainly due to the differences in athletic level in color.
A micro can certainly be a significant force on both sides of the court.
And we stayed with Anthony Bennett, a guy whose story is so weird - that it somehow makes perfect sense that he would eventually end up at Hapoel Jerusalem.
Because on the one hand, there was never anyone here who played No. 1 in the NBA Draft.
On the other hand, Bennett is probably the worst first choice in history.
On the one hand, he can at any given moment do an action that will make you shout "Well! You see? He's really good!", And then disappear completely for long minutes.
After Cleveland were very surprised when they took him ahead of any other player in the 2013 (appallingly weak) draft - at the end of one pretty good season in college - he opened his NBA career with 15 straight fouls from the field.
And not that it got much better later on - over just 151 games until he saw no more parquet in the league at the end of 2016, he missed more than 60% of his shots.
Anthony Bennett,
However, as he dropped a level to play in the Development League, he put up 13 points and nearly 6 rebounds per game in 68 appearances (the last of which more than two years ago) - with excellent percentages, including 2.3 threes per game at 42.2%.
When it comes to a massive 2.03-height inside player who weighs far more than 100kg, one can perhaps understand why he continues to find teams to bet on.
But then we see him, earlier this summer, play poorly and not find himself even at the end of the rotation of the Canadian team, when it loses at home to the Czech Republic and fails to advance to the Olympic tournament, and the size of the bet becomes clear again. In the end, after almost a decade as a professional basketball player and countless disappointments, the chances that this time it will succeed will not be high.
