Kleiza Chose The Raptors

[tonious35]

With Kleizas improoved leadership. Does anyone think he can turn out to be a captain or someone the other players will look to for guidance by the end of the season?

Leader? Not really, probably an example for the young gunz. For sure not a distraction on TV with s@#% Pizza Pizza commercials.

[Apollo]

... Right. The term "role player" isn't going anywhere so you might as well learn to accept it.

[Buddahfan]

The difference between Kleiza and Turkoglu is that Kleiza knows he's a role player and fully accepts it. Well that's one main difference anyway. Another would be Kleiza hustles. Another would be Kleiza operates with professionalism and class. You get the idea.

Role player

Every guy that has ever played in the NBA is a friggen role player

MIchael's role was to score and lead the Bulls to NBA titles

Role player has become a dumb derogatory term used by NBA fans to put down a player in a politically correct manner.

End of story.

[Apollo]

The difference between Kleiza and Turkoglu is that Kleiza knows he's a role player and fully accepts it. Well that's one main difference anyway. Another would be Kleiza hustles. Another would be Kleiza operates with professionalism and class. You get the idea.

[Darknemo2000]

As I recall Turk had to talk his wife into agreeing.

Don't know if Kleiza has a wife or not.

Plus Turk to my knowledge didn't want to play for the Raptors when he became a free agent. It just wound up being what he thought was the best deal.

Kleiza wanted to play for the Raptors when he left Denver even without a contract offer. So I don't think it is a valid comparison.

Just saying.

Yeah I also feel like this isn't all that good comparison because it was the best deal for Turk at that time. While Kleiza seemed to wanted to play for the Raptors even without the offer.

[pesterm1]

With Kleizas improoved leadership. Does anyone think he can turn out to be a captain or someone the other players will look to for guidance by the end of the season?

[Buddahfan]

Turkoglu also "chose" the Raptors. (Not meant as a comparison in anyway, just a thought)

As I recall Turk had to talk his wife into agreeing.

Don't know if Kleiza has a wife or not.

Plus Turk to my knowledge didn't want to play for the Raptors when he became a free agent. It just wound up being what he thought was the best deal.

Kleiza wanted to play for the Raptors when he left Denver even without a contract offer. So I don't think it is a valid comparison.

Just saying.

[Macc]

Turkoglu also "chose" the Raptors. (Not meant as a comparison in anyway, just a thought)

[Buddahfan]

Kleiza chose the Raptors
By MIKE GANTER, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: September 6, 2010 11:40pm

ISTANBUL — Linas Kleiza has some unfinished business with the NBA.

And in his mind Toronto is the best possible situation for him to prove that.

It was just over a year ago when Kleiza made the decision to leave the NBA and his Denver Nuggets and accept a two-year $12.5-million deal with Greek powerhouse Olympiakos.

Kleiza wasn’t happy with the way he was being used and what had happened to his game in the four years since he was drafted into the NBA by Portland and then immediately swapped to Denver for one of his Raptors teammates Jarrett Jack.

Kleiza never comes right out and says he was unhappy in Denver, but that is the impression he leaves in a 15-minute interview at the Polat Renaissance Hotel here in Istanbul. It is the hotel of choice for 14 of the 16 teams that qualified for the knockout portion of the tournament. Only the American and Turkish teams are not housed here.

“I just felt it was a good move by me to improve my career and improve as a player,” Kleiza said of the move to Greece. “I had a big role on a very big team, a very good team. That kind of helped improve all my skills and allow me to show what I wasn’t able to do in Denver.

Raptors vice-president Maurizio Gherardini says the year in Greece completely revamped Kleiza’s game.

“He is a more complete player,” Gherardini said, having seen Kleiza in the five games Lithuania played at the FIBA world championship. “He works more at both ends of the floor and I think he has learned more to use his game mixing the inside and outside better. As much as he counts on his three-point shot, he works his man close to the basket. He’s mixing things up in a more consistent way.”

Kleiza doesn’t dispute this, but he does point out that coming out of Missouri he had what he thought was a pretty complete game. He just never got to use it all in Denver.

“I had the inside game in college but once I got to the NBA I was only playing outside,” he said. “I forgot that part of my game and became kind of one- dimensional. Going back here and putting the work in, going back in playing inside, playing outside, I think that I’ve brought back that other dimension to my game that I was missing.”

Just as significantly, particularly where the young Raptors are concerned, Kleiza became accustomed to a leadership role in Greece.

“You appreciate the fact that he played for one of the top teams, got to the final four of the league championship and got to be the man, the go-to guy.

“You feel that not only has his confidence stepped up but he’s become a more important personality to add to the picture.”

comp article here