A Royal Pain
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Omri Casspi Does Work In Eurobasket 2015

By Ti Windisch

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There’s two sides to every story, and NBA players playing in other basketball leagues during the offseason is no different. On one hand there’s the risk of injury–it was devastating to the entire basketball world when Dante Exum tore his ACL while playing for Team Australia.

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But on the other hand there are definite good parts of having players participate in events such as Eurobasket and other FIFA tournaments. Probably the best part is getting to watch your team’s younger players develop and shine among often-lesser competition, like Omri Casspi did earlier today.

Omri dumped 29 points, six rebounds and five assists on Bosnia and Herzegovina in a close overtime loss. The box score really shows just how excellently Casspi played in the match. He ended shooting 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point territory–he averages 43.2 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from deep in his NBA career.

Of course the shortened three-point line in FIBA play helps things from long-range, but no matter the court conditions or competition 29-6-5 is a damn impressive statline. Casspi’s great performance hopefully indicates that he’s going to keep up his trend of improving his own three-point shooting.

His most recent season in Sacramento he shot 40.2 percent from deep. In his combined five seasons before his return to the Kings he shot 35.2 percent from long-range. There’s two ways to look at that–either Casspi is becoming a better shooter and really fitting in well into George Karl‘s offense, or he just happened to peak in a contract year and get himself paid again.

I like to consider myself a pragmatic optimist, so I think it’s the first of the two options. The great shooting percentages he posted in the close loss earlier today are a sign I might just be right. This season will be the real test, however.

As important as the potential All-Stars on the Sacramento Kings are to this team’s success, guys like Casspi and Darren Collison will be about as important to the Kings as DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. Good teams are made up of more than just one or two good players–you need an entire team of solid guys.

Having Omri Casspi shooting lights-out off of the bench will boost every other player on this Kings roster. And it seems now like letting Sacramento’s players participate in Eurobasket 2015 was a really good idea. There’s finally legitimate hope in Sacramento this offseason, for the first time in a long time.

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