Best case scenario put him overseas for a while.,.,.,.,. when was the last time that happened and the player was used in a constructive way later on?

Rudy Fernandez(sp?)

Oh snap!

Also, more recently posted by Draft Express on Ingles copncering the NBA combine invite list:

"Six players who are not listed on our mock draft were invited to the NBA combineJeff Adrien, Jon Brockman, DeMarre Carroll, Dionte Christmas, Luke Harangody, and Joe Ingles. Maybe we need to give them another look?"

Here's a great link to keep upt op date on the NBA workouts for Joe Ingles and the other Aussies...

Draft Express: http://linky.com.au/kx44e

Starvin marvin,

"Being stashed overseas somewhere" may not lead to an NBA career but it sure seemed to have helped Newley's game - he and Mills were our best players at the Olympics. If Joe could go to Europe and develop like Newley did then I am looking forward to 2012.

Not to mention it still being a pretty decent achievement for any Australian basketball player.

Newley is certainly an excellent player, but I think he simply maintained the development he showed over his time in Australia. The Greek league and the Eurocup that Newley played in are about the same level as the NBL.

As for Ingles, if he develops some mental and physical toughness, the world is his oyster.

paul - the Greek league and Eurocup are far and away a better standard than the NBL.

-the Greek league and Eurocup are far and away a better standard than the NBL.

Sorry thedoctor they are not, very similar in standard levels, having watched these leagues first hand in euro.

Lets not forget Luis Scola. Think the Spurs are regretting handing him over to the Rockets?

The Greek league boasts a few teams that would belt our NBL teams (Eg. Olympiacos & Panathinaikos), but most of our teams if not all would be competitive and beat a good portion of them.

A, that is interesting that you have seen the Greek League and Eurocup in person and don't feel the standard is much different to the NBL. Most of the time we all hear how much better the standard is in European leagues.

I confess, I don't know, and have just assumed that Euro leagues are generally a higher standard like everyone has been saying. What do others think? I'd like to hear from people who have actually watched a decent cross-section of Euro and NBL games.

A good example that would support Paul's and A's views is the success of Andersen in the Euroleague final 4 over the years. Watching him at the Olympics, I wouldn't have said he was any better than Anstey, who has long been the benchmark for NBL centres.

I think people get the impression that Euro basketball is well ahead of the NBL because most of the focus is on the Euroleague, which is easily the second best league in the world, with teams that can beat good NBA teams under FIBA rules.

But these are the filthy rich Euro clubs, and not at all representative of the standard of European national leagues.

The Spanish ACB is definitely the best national league in the world (this doesnt count NBA or Euroleague) but after that the NBL sits very comfortably with the Greek and Italian leagues, with Division 1 leagues in other strong Euro countries like Russia, Serbia and France close behind.

When you see Euro basketball first hand you come to truly appreciate what we have in Australia.

Just adding to that, Chris Anstey was considered one of the absolute premier big men in Europe during his time their, dominating the Eurocup (then ULEB Cup) to claim MVP and twice being named in the FIBA Europe League All Star five.

He also consistently performed well against CSKA Moscow, which would be one of the best clubs in the world under FIBA rules.

Beantown- from experience, Euro league are extreme diverse in terms of standard of play. Top 10 Euro teams are most definitely better than top NBL teams.

My thoughts are Euro players only are as fundamentally strong as Aussies but they also have better ability to create for themselves when necessary.

PS: It's also kind of hard to compare the standards when the rules are different.

A few seasons back the Sydney Kings under Goorgian played in a 4 team tournament comprising the Chinese National team, CSKA Moscow (I think ) and an Italian team who played in the Euroleage (ie - a good European team). From memory the Kings actually beat the Italian team (found myself uncontrollably baracking for the Kings for the first and last time ever), drew with China (some controversy at the end of the game resulted in no OT being played) and got pumped by CSKA, but they basically acquitted themselves very well.

I've seen a bit of Euro ball on the tele, most of it is ULEB Cup or Euroleague so it's the better sides, and these teams look pretty good, probably a step up from the NBL. If nothing else these teams a lot bigger with plenty of 7 footers going around, it's a very physical style of basketball.

NBL unquestionably vastly superior to the BBL (British Basketball League) but that's not really what you think of when you consider European hoops.

Beantown, LA Boy is spot on here-

-'from experience, Euro league are extreme diverse in terms of standard of play. Top 10 Euro teams are most definitely better than top NBL teams.'


The big reason for this is simply the money, it is crazy for the top tier Euro League teams, and this gets the top talent in Europe. For example, in '07 I was on a train in Athens with a Greek friend and there was an older gentleman sitting in front of me, he pulled out a paper and I noticed a big picture of Sarunas Jasikevicius (the guy from Lithuania who completely destroyed Shane Heal and the Boomers in the 2000 Sydney Olympics - anyone remember that game?). Anyway I wanted to know what this article was about. He told us that Jasikevicius just signed a $20 million Euro($50 million AUS) deal with a Greek club. This was the biggest deal ever for a Euro club at that time.

Point of my story is that mostly the top 2 teams from each country (Spain, Greece, Russia, Lithuania etc)in the Euro League can compete with this kind of money, which makes these teams so good and powerful. But for the rest of the teams/Leagues I honestly believe that the top NBL teams can compete against them, and get favourable results.

We watched a Greek League game in Athens against two Greek teams that were roughly both sitting in the middle of the ladder at that stage, and from what I was told, both were in the Eurocup or ULEB cup(at the time). I remember thinking that night how disappointed I was with the standard, and thought that the top two or three NBL teams would comfortably beat these teams.

Also forgot to mention, In my time in Europe I watched many domestic league games on TV in my down time in countries like Poland, Greece and Spain and let me tell you that they all have some shocking teams around, maybe ABA standard with NBL standard imports.