Veteran point guard Shane Larkin is drawing serious interest from the Wizards, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com.
A first-round pick out of Miami in 2013, Larkin spent his first three professional seasons in the NBA with Dallas, New York, and Brooklyn, then played for Baskonia in Spain for a year before returning stateside and joining the Celtics for the 2017/18 season. After playing a minor role in Boston, Larkin headed back overseas and has spent the last several years in Turkey playing for Anadolu Efes.
Although he was primarily a reserve in the NBA, starting 41 of his 256 regular season games, Larkin has emerged as a star in Europe. The 29-year-old made the All-EuroLeague Second Team in 2021 and the All-EuroLeague First Team in 2022 and won consecutive EuroLeague titles. He ranked in the league’s top five this season in points (14.7), assists (5.3), and three-pointers (2.4) per game.
According to Urbonas, Larkin’s current team – Anadolu Efes – is making an effort to retain him and is offering a salary similar to what he has made in each of the last two seasons. Sources tell BasketNews that’s around €3.2MM, which currently converts to about $3.43MM.
Larkin said in 2020 that he wouldn’t return to the NBA to be a team’s third point guard, and spoke more recently about being happy to remain overseas and play a starring role in front of passionate European fans. So if the Wizards are serious about signing him, the salary and the role they offer will have to reflect that.
Washington is in the market for help at point guard after last summer’s acquisition of Spencer Dinwiddie didn’t work out. Ish Smith, who has a non-guaranteed $4.7MM salary for 2022/23, is the only point guard currently under contract with the Wizards.
Larkin’s backcourt partner in Istanbul, Vasilije Micic, is also reportedly considering a move to the NBA.
I just saw somewhere Larkin literally said even if he was offered a $100M nba contract that he’d rather stay in Turkey. I figured that would be an impossible statement to stand by & now we’ll get to see how much he meant it
It was a max contract he says he’d turn down. I called bs then & I continue to do so. I appreciate what he meant tho… link to eurohoops.net
I suspect that is more about Larkin expressing his contentment overseas than being unrealistic. He’s making a nice living being the #1 guy. When he was breaking into the NBA, he was a 3rd PG and only getting run during garbage time or when there were a rash of injuries. The Europe move happened at a time when he was likely down to non-guaranteed money or 10 day contracts. Developmentally, he wasn’t where he’s at now either. If the Wizards came in and said, “You’re our starting PG and we’ll offer you 3/$15-$20M,” he’d sign that in a nanosecond. What is it the Wizards have to beat? 1 yr and $3.43 mil in Turkey? Some other minor NBA offers?
How is 14.7 ppg top 5 in Euroleague?
Games are 8mins shorter. And they play a more traditional style over there. Guys that only watch nba are accustomed to paying attention to a few key stars & that’s it. In every other league & every other level of play the shots/touches are more evenly distributed. Nba has the very best (& most expensive) players on the planet, guys that are basically unguardable without double teams. So teams lean on those type guys. Niko Mirotic, Mike James & Shane Larkin are great scorers but not to the extent that you wanna build your offense completely around them. Also it’s a lot more physical & there’s less spacing bc the 3pt line is closer
NBA rules cater to 1v1 play (creating stars w/ high point totals, who can be marketed). International hoops requires more of a team concept (esp due to lower talent levels)
Luka explained it best recently (and has continually said it’s easier to score in the NBA). In the NBA Rudy Gobert has to deal w/ the Defensive 3 seconds rule. In Europe he would be free to camp in the lane all day, making the prospect of scoring a nightmare as he’d always be waiting at the rim if a defender got beat.
This also makes Europe much different than the Chinese league where the best players are racking up video game type lines based on how the league is structured.
This is likewise why NBA players aren’t averaging 30 PPG when they go to the Olympics.
KD’s NBA scoring average is 27 PPG. In FIBA it’s 21 PPG. Different rules/metagame generate different results.
Would be a great pickup for the Wizards!
he was not good when he was in boston, hopefully he got a lot better and a bit taller.
Back in the day, Phil Jackson had some serious beef with Shane Larkins’ hands.