March 24, 2011

As hinted at above, there is no pure point guard behind Huertas. The role is often defaulted to 24 year old Spaniard Pau Ribas (whose unused maternal surname is the unfortunate "Tossas"), yet he's not a playmaking point guard. He defends the position and shoots the three, but that's about the limit of his role. Brad Oleson can also be seen to take an occasional turn at it, yet he, too, is a scorer. (And a pretty bloody good one at that, although he's scoring only 6ppg in Euroleague play this season.) There's also no real small forward backup to incumbent starter Fernando San Emeterio, but this is not a huge problem, considering that San Emeterio plays the vast majority of every game. San Emeterio is the classic late bloomer; never much of a prospect, he was picked up by Caja Laboral in his mid-twenties, purely to provide domestic depth, yet he's since gone on to be one of their most important players. San Emeterio is something of a point forward, a highly capable if unathletic driver who has developed the three point range to match, and whose playmaking skills allow the Ribas/Logan/Oleson trio to cover the point guard spot when Huertas is out of the game. He is the rare example of the player who breaks out after the age of 25; the hard-working, mistake-free, versatile, team-leading glue guy who ranks second on the team in points, minutes and assists, as well as third in rebounding. So it doesn't matter too much that Bjelica is struggling.

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