Kevin Pangos signed with the Cavs

[Mojo13]

JMHO... but took way too long for him to get picked up. He has been dominating in the Euro leagues. Hope he does great this year.

The timing hasn’t really been right for KP and the NBA until this year. Nor did he really have the resume to deserve it.

He started well in 15/16 in Spain’s ACB as a rookie and the next year he was pulled up to the EuroLeague with Zalgiris (Lithuania) and played well. His second year with Zalgiris he really flourish (2nd Team All EuroLeague). but many thought it was more system and coaching than anything.

He was then signed to big money club Barcelona and it didn’t go well. (about $3MM per year 2 years guaranteed) This was a mix of injuries and not a good system/coach for him. He missed the entire 19/20 season due to injury (foot) and his doubters were again claiming his success at Zalgiris was an aberration. Coming off that injury the big clubs (and the NBA) were not interested, so he signed with Zenit ( a lower level EuroLeague club – St Petersburg, Russia) at a much smaller salary and just killed it last year. He took a bad Zenit club on his shoulders and lead them to the playoffs giving a stacked Real Madrid a real scare. He earned 1st Team All EuroLeague and clearly looked like one of the best 2 or 3 PGs in Europe. This coincided with his free agency. He had almost every EuroLeague club chasing him and reportedly had an offer from the biggest budget club CSKA (Moscow) for 2 years guaranteed at ~$4MM per year. He took a big pay cut to join Cleveland and chase an NBA dream.

I think he can run point in the NBA just fine, but his defense is my concern. The effort and IQ is there, but he is undersized and is attacked in Europe – and it isn’t going to be any easier in the NBA. He can also play off ball as well and could handle SG minutes.

Note that for Team Canada, I’ve convinced he is one of our best true PGs and would have no real problem seeing him start at PG surrounded by NBA players. In the 2019 World Cup Nick Nurse clearly favored Pangos as lead PG and shifted Cory Joseph to SG.

Super smart PG, excellent passer, great in the PR, excellent shooter with a great pull up and floater game. I really hope there is a path to minutes in Cleveland.

Per Synergy Kevin Pangos shot an eFG% of 69% in spot up situations and 55% on pull-up jump shots in the EuroLeague last season.

https://twitter.com/SynergySST/status/1435726074307092482?s=20

Here is a good highlight package of his year in Zenit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKfnq99GGoo

I hope they trade Rubio ASAP....

[Grand Valley Zag]

The timing hasn’t really been right for KP and the NBA until this year. Nor did he really have the resume to deserve it.

He started well in 15/16 in Spain’s ACB as a rookie and the next year he was pulled up to the EuroLeague with Zalgiris (Lithuania) and played well. His second year with Zalgiris he really flourish (2nd Team All EuroLeague). but many thought it was more system and coaching than anything.

He was then signed to big money club Barcelona and it didn’t go well. (about $3MM per year 2 years guaranteed) This was a mix of injuries and not a good system/coach for him. He missed the entire 19/20 season due to injury (foot) and his doubters were again claiming his success at Zalgiris was an aberration. Coming off that injury the big clubs (and the NBA) were not interested, so he signed with Zenit ( a lower level EuroLeague club – St Petersburg, Russia) at a much smaller salary and just killed it last year. He took a bad Zenit club on his shoulders and lead them to the playoffs giving a stacked Real Madrid a real scare. He earned 1st Team All EuroLeague and clearly looked like one of the best 2 or 3 PGs in Europe. This coincided with his free agency. He had almost every EuroLeague club chasing him and reportedly had an offer from the biggest budget club CSKA (Moscow) for 2 years guaranteed at ~$4MM per year. He took a big pay cut to join Cleveland and chase an NBA dream.

I think he can run point in the NBA just fine, but his defense is my concern. The effort and IQ is there, but he is undersized and is attacked in Europe – and it isn’t going to be any easier in the NBA. He can also play off ball as well and could handle SG minutes.

Note that for Team Canada, I’ve convinced he is one of our best true PGs and would have no real problem seeing him start at PG surrounded by NBA players. In the 2019 World Cup Nick Nurse clearly favored Pangos as lead PG and shifted Cory Joseph to SG.

Super smart PG, excellent passer, great in the PR, excellent shooter with a great pull up and floater game. I really hope there is a path to minutes in Cleveland.

Per Synergy Kevin Pangos shot an eFG% of 69% in spot up situations and 55% on pull-up jump shots in the EuroLeague last season.

https://twitter.com/SynergySST/status/1435726074307092482?s=20

Here is a good highlight package of his year in Zenit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKfnq99GGoo

I hope they trade Rubio ASAP....

Zenit played Barca in the playoffs this year. Not Madrid. And Barca was very good. I thought they would win it all, but they fell to Shane Larkin in the final.

[Mojo13]

Zenit played Barca in the playoffs this year. Not Madrid. And Barca was very good. I thought they would win it all, but they fell to Shane Larkin in the final.

Yep sorry - juggled them in my head. KP played awesome that series.

[Grand Valley Zag]

He was outstanding.

[NotoriousZ]

Congrats Kevin!!!

[ZagsGoZags]

all those years of passing to our bigs in the paint looks like it is still paying off for him,
is there more arc on his 3 point shot now?

[GonzagasaurusFlex]

The timing hasn’t really been right for KP and the NBA until this year. Nor did he really have the resume to deserve it.

He started well in 15/16 in Spain’s ACB as a rookie and the next year he was pulled up to the EuroLeague with Zalgiris (Lithuania) and played well. His second year with Zalgiris he really flourish (2nd Team All EuroLeague). but many thought it was more system and coaching than anything.

He was then signed to big money club Barcelona and it didn’t go well. (about $3MM per year 2 years guaranteed) This was a mix of injuries and not a good system/coach for him. He missed the entire 19/20 season due to injury (foot) and his doubters were again claiming his success at Zalgiris was an aberration. Coming off that injury the big clubs (and the NBA) were not interested, so he signed with Zenit ( a lower level EuroLeague club – St Petersburg, Russia) at a much smaller salary and just killed it last year. He took a bad Zenit club on his shoulders and lead them to the playoffs giving a stacked Real Madrid a real scare. He earned 1st Team All EuroLeague and clearly looked like one of the best 2 or 3 PGs in Europe. This coincided with his free agency. He had almost every EuroLeague club chasing him and reportedly had an offer from the biggest budget club CSKA (Moscow) for 2 years guaranteed at ~$4MM per year. He took a big pay cut to join Cleveland and chase an NBA dream.

I think he can run point in the NBA just fine, but his defense is my concern. The effort and IQ is there, but he is undersized and is attacked in Europe – and it isn’t going to be any easier in the NBA. He can also play off ball as well and could handle SG minutes.

Note that for Team Canada, I’ve convinced he is one of our best true PGs and would have no real problem seeing him start at PG surrounded by NBA players. In the 2019 World Cup Nick Nurse clearly favored Pangos as lead PG and shifted Cory Joseph to SG.

Super smart PG, excellent passer, great in the PR, excellent shooter with a great pull up and floater game. I really hope there is a path to minutes in Cleveland.

Per Synergy Kevin Pangos shot an eFG% of 69% in spot up situations and 55% on pull-up jump shots in the EuroLeague last season.

https://twitter.com/SynergySST/status/1435726074307092482?s=20

Here is a good highlight package of his year in Zenit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKfnq99GGoo

I hope they trade Rubio ASAP....

Thank you for this excellent summary of KP’s pro career to date, Mojo. Have always liked KP’s game and dedication to his craft; being willing to turn down much more $ to chase his NBA dream makes me like him even more. Baller. Go get it KP!

[DZ]

Any money he lost not getting the guaranteed $2m/year in Moscow is likely more than offset by not having to live in Moscow (unbelievably expensive in nice areas) and the marketing opportunity, especially in Canada, of being in the NBA.