Chicago Bulls centre Nikola Vucevic has downplayed suggestions that the league’s free scoring nature is down to European players dominating rosters and the implications that they are weak in defense.
The big man is averaging 18.1 PPG, 10.7 rebounds and three assists.
Vucevic admitted that it’s ‘very hard’ to defend in the NBA, “I think it’s very hard to play defense in the NBA. Part of it is the change of rules where a lot of it was favoring the offensive players.
“With the 3-point line now, and everybody’s shooting so many threes and you have at least 3-4 guys that can just shoot threes and get hot at any time. It creates so much space and it’s hard to defend now, especially with all the skill set that’s in the NBA.”
When pressed what he felt regarding recent comments made by Gilbert Arenas, that European players are too soft.
“I have nothing to say about that, but I think it’s very hard to play defense in the NBA,” he replied.
