National Basketball Association

Nando De Colo deserves another shot in the NBA

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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In the USA’s run to the Gold Medal in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, they had to go through some top international teams. One of them was a French team that boasted five NBA players in Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum and Joffrey Lauvergne. But in Team USA’s narrow victory, it wasn’t any of France’s NBA talent — minus Parker, who missed the game with an injury — that gave the USA problems. It was the guard combo of Thomas Huertal and Nando De Colo.

The duo scored 18 points each, with De Colo scoring all of his points in just 19 minutes of action. De Colo was efficient from the field (7-9 FGs) and he gave the USA problems with his backdoor cuts and drives into the lane. Overall, he was attacking a troubled US defense and taking advantage of their lack of attentiveness.

A performance like that against the United States in the Olympics was a big moment for De Colo because it showed how far he’s come since his first run in the NBA. Remember: De Colo first signed with the Spurs back in 2012 after choosing to leave Valencia in the Euroleague. With Tony Parker manning the starting point guard spot, his role was clearly defined in the form of a backup point guard who could run the Spurs offense and provide them with decent scoring off the bench. Coming from Europe, De Colo was a great point guard who set up opportunities for his teammates and was creative offensively, especially off the pick-and-roll. He had averaged 14.7 points in Europe the season prior, which shed some light on his offensive ability.

In his first season with the Spurs, De Colo played around 13 minutes per game and averaged 3.8 points. De Colo also spent a lot of his time in the D-League with the Austin Spurs, which was a good opportunity for someone who was playing his first year in the NBA. Unfortunately, that was the highest minutes per game average De Colo had until he left in 2014. He was traded midway through the 2013-14 season to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Austin Daye. He then averaged less than 10 minutes a game with the Raptors and played in only one postseason game.

At the time, the style of the NBA was just too much for De Colo. Although he was a great offensive player, he couldn’t create his own shot very well. In the 2012-13 season, 62.9 percent of his shots were assisted, according to Basketball Reference, and the following year it was 64.1 percent. The lack of ability to beat a defender one-on-one really hurt him because it limited his offensive game when he was on the court.

Another problem that hampered De Colo in the NBA was turnovers. He committed 81 turnovers in 2012 — the seventh highest mark on that Spurs team. Yet the alarming stat was that De Colo was the only player who committed over 50 turnovers while playing less than 1,000 minutes in the regular season. Sometimes his playmaking skills hurt him because it made him think he could make a pass through a gap that wasn’t really there.

De Colo’s contract expired that summer and he went back to Europe to play for Russian team CSKA Moscow. It wasn’t a high profile signing at the time, considering his lack of success in the NBA, but De Colo turned out to be a great signing for CSKA. His game has changed and he is taking Europe by storm by turning himself into a scoring machine. He has since become one of the best players in Europe, winning Euroleague MVP this past season and leading CSKA Moscow to a Euroleague championship. The numbers are absolutely ridiculous: De Colo averaged 19.4 points per game while shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 46 percent from deep for an Effective Field Goal Percentage of nearly 60 percent.

To get a better understanding of how De Colo has improved as a scorer, watch him operate in the following clip against Lokomotiv Kuba. With a quick dribble move and step-back, De Colo is able to get separation off his man and knock down a jumper with only seconds remaining in the quarter. It’s a shot few point guards will be able to contest given his significant height advantage at 6-5.

De Colo puts that height advantage to good use in other areas, too. Against Real Madrid in the Euroleague Round of 16, he slowed the ball down in semi-transition to fixate on his matchup against a smaller guard. Rather than giving the ball to someone on the perimeter for a jump shot, he simply backed down his opponent into the paint and knocked down the turnaround jumper. This is a part of his game that wasn’t developed while he was in the NBA.

De Colo’s passing is still a big strength for him, the biggest difference being that the decision making is a lot smarter. He only turned the ball 75 times this season, which is a decent mark for someone who played the second most minutes on the team. The passes aren’t as reckless as they once were and he isn’t forcing anything.

For example, CSKA performed a classic big-on-big screen in the video below and it opened up the lane for a cutter. De Colo saw the gap and fired a one-handed bullet pass right to his man for the easy layup. He didn’t try to force the pass before or during the pick. He patiently waited for the opening and found his teammate with a pass few players can make.

Now that De Colo is recognized by many as the best player in Europe, the question becomes whether or not he can play in the NBA again. The answer should be an overwhelming yes, but his situation makes it slightly more complicated than it should be. While De Colo has clearly gotten better since leaving for Europe — a solid bench player in the NBA could be a very reasonable and attainable role for him at this stage of his career — he signed a three-year deal with CSKA this offseason that doesn’t have any NBA outs. That means, by the time his current deal expires, he will be around 32-years-old.

Time will tell if that prevents De Colo from getting another shot in the NBA. This offseason, we saw the 76ers sign 30-year-old Sergio Rodriguez to a one-year contract, which bodes well for De Colo’s future prospects. As long as he can continue to make a name for himself as one of the best players in Europe, it’s hard to imagine him not getting similar interest when he becomes a free agent again.