Mirza Teletović has grown from being an good adition from the bench to the true sixth man, coming in and changing the course of the game. This is probably his last year coming of the bench as next year he will start in front of probably Mason Plumlee, since Kevin Garnett will retire as it now stands.
Three years ago Teletović was brought to USA as the best scorer in the Euroleague with Caja Laboral, a spot-up shooter and a good clutch player, but his first season was a disappointment, for him, the Nets and all Bosnia-Herzegovina fans staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning just to watch their hero play.
But, with Jason Kidd situation having changed, Teletović got more minutes on the court. The stretch forward started shooting better, playing better defense and generally contributing more for the team, both in regular season and in the playoffs. He might not have yet earned the starting spot but he was a valuable asset in the Nets team rising from the injury to their “best” player Brook Lopez.
Coming into this season, I believed that the Nets had a lot of quesion marks over their heads primarily because of the Deron Williams ankle situation, Lopez foot situation, Bojan Bogdanović skill set translating to the NBA, and Garnett providing fans with insecurity over his future, but Teletović was never in question as we could always expect good things from the sharpshooter.
This year, however, he surpassed expectations, and added one major thing to his game, the drive. The way most defenders act against Teletović is putting their hands up and come close so he cannot shoot, but with the drive to the basket he consistently loses his defender on the first move, and brings a center or a guard out so he has many possibilites to score or pass out for a three.
You know that there will be Williams, Joe Johnson or Bogdanvić waiting potentially for the ball behind the three point line. Also, his defensive play and rebounding improved massively in the offseason and he seems like a new player out there, but he should not start. Teletović is still not consistent enough, he can enter stints and streaks of bad shooting, or just playing very bad but all that is something a shooter must go through in each season, but over time he is making a balanced game not so much centered around his shot, and in a couple of seasons he will be a pretty decent starting power forward who can be used as a stretch forward if the style needs that role.
This rise came at the right time as the team is struggling and although Teletović is one of those who are stuggling he will soon break out of the bad stint, and soon, he will be back to the play which made us love him. All in all, Teletović needs this season to grow a little bit more and next year will be his starting year.
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