Alex Abrines missing valuable Eurobasket playing time
By Tony Heim
The OKC Thunder are full of international players, but only one is playing in the ongoing EuroBasket tournament. Sadly that playtime has only surmounted to 15 minutes.
Basketball fans around the world are currently blessed. The NBA is less than two months away, but EuroBasket 2017 is doing a great job of quenching our thirst. The up-and-coming NBA players (Kristaps Porzingis, Dario Saric) continue to impress while the young unknowns (Cedi Osman, Luka Doncic) are turning heads in the tournament.
Related Story: Analyzing Alex Abrines’ rookie season film
Alex Abrines, representing Spain, is the lone Oklahoma City Thunder player in the tournament – sadly we haven’t got to see much of the new and improved Abrines. The Spaniard Sniper reportedly injured an ankle in the teams first game against Montenegro last week. Luckily the report from Erik Horne of The Oklahoman states he’s sitting out for precautionary reasons.
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Even if the injury isn’t major, this is valuable practice for Abrines. The 24-year old showed flashes as an electric shooter off the bench during his rookie season. Abrines’ biggest problem is one he can’t fix without real-game action: the defensive end.
Abrines played 15 minutes in the 99-60 opener against Montenegro, scoring 7 points and grabbing 2 rebounds. The Spanish team is dominating the competition in general, so it makes sense for them to hold Abrines for the knockout stages if his injury isn’t catastrophic.
Hopefully he comes back so we can see his improvement over the last few months. Abrines has reportedly put on muscle in the offseason – it’d be nice to see how it’s helped his game. If he sits out, we’ll just have to wait until October 3rd for their first preseason game.