It’s good to see that yet another change of scenery for Marco Belinelli hasn’t impacted his outlook on the game of basketball and the way he wants to play it. From the video evidence presented in this highlights package, we can clearly see that Marco still loves to take three-pointers on the run, and that he still has a predilection towards long two-pointers with defenders swarming him.
This is only the first game of the season, so there aren’t many conclusions to draw from it. However, it would seem to me that Belinelli’s willingess and desire to score the rock can only flourish on a team that does not necessarily have the goal of making the playoffs. In fact, we could go one step further and say that if things really go his way this year, he might take the “Best Italian in the NBA” mantle away from Danilo Gallinari. In this case the “Best Italian” award is simply given to the player who scores the most points per game, not the player who best leads his teams to victory. If the latter statement were true, then obviously Andrea Bargnani would not have so much hardware sitting on his shelf.