It’s been quietly lost amongst the clamorous dismay of the Kings’ season so far, but Nemanja “The Serbstomper” Bjelica has been having his best season as a pro. That is, if you discount his MVP season in Europe in 2015. I only count NBA seasons because I can’t really compare between the NBA and any other league; the playstyles and quality of players is too different. Anyway, this is Bjelica’s fifth NBA season and he’s averaging career-bests both in PPG per game (10.2) and field goal percentage (54%). That’s where I’m trying to go with this.
The issue is, Bjelica’s been consistently scoring in the upper single digits and lower double digits. This is his first game this season that makes you sit up and think “that’s actually an okay amount of points.” I literally sat up in my chair and thought that when I was scrolling through the box-scores and saw Bjelica’s 19 points. I didn’t even realize until now that Bjelica was averaging so many points because he was constantly flying under the radar in the box-scores with his middling point totals. Now that he’s had a good game that directly led to a win for the Kings (who maybe aren’t as garbage as we all thought, although they should still fire Walton ASAP), he can start beasting on a more regular basis.
It’s hard to imagine how Bjelica can establish himself as anything other than the fourth or fifth option (Hield, Fox, Bogdanovic, and Barnes are all going to get more touches/shots) but I’m confident he can find a way. If that way involves hiring the Serbian mafia to bust some kneecaps, then that’s the way it has to be.