John E. Sokolowski – USA Today Sports Images
Thus far at Eurobasket 2013, Italy has looked like arguably the best team in the entire tournament. Including wins over a talented Russia team and a feisty Greece squad, the Italians are 4-0, the only undefeated team left in the tournament at this point.
One of the biggest reasons for the success of this Italy team has been the play of one of the San Antonio Spurs’ latest acquisitions, guard Marco Belinelli. Despite serving largely as a reserve in the 2012-2013 NBA season with the Chicago Bulls and likely serving the same type of role in San Antonio, Belinelli has been the star of this Italy team.
Through Italy’s four games, Belinelli is averaging 15.8 points, four rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 31.3 minutes per game while shooting an impressive 38.9 percent from three-point range, though he has shot only 39.6 percent overall. However, that doesn’t encapsulate his total impact on this team.
In Italy’s third game against Finland, Belinelli was pressing and couldn’t really get his shot to fall. He finished that game with only seven points, four boards, zero assists and zero steals on just 2-13 shooting. If you extract that outlier and take his numbers from his other three games, Belinelli is averaging a fantastic 18.7 points, four rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals on 48.6 percent shooting and 42.9 percent three-point shooting. That’s a pretty eye-popping line.
The talent has always been evident when it comes to Belinelli; he’s a quick, aggressive guard with above-average shooting ability. However, he’s never really been in a situation that maximized his potential. Given the history of the Spurs and head coach Gregg Popovich, though, that could change coming into this season. Don’t be surprised if Pop has Belinelli having a career-year off of the bench in the upcoming season and showing similar proficiency to what he’s showing for Italy at Eurobasket.
Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.
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