The roadmap for a young player to succeed is often under appreciated.
When a young player is drafted in the NBA — especially in the lottery — they’re often given time and patience to succeed, be it with the team that’s drafted them themselves or with their G League affiliate. When it comes down it, playing time and opportunity aren’t roadblocks on the path to greatness for these types of players.
But for others it’s not always so simple and opportunity is the one thing they can’t easily obtain.
On the top teams in Europe — barring top-top talent like a Luka Doncic, for example — young players just aren’t as much of a priority for EuroLeague teams to play and playing time for aspiring players can be extremely limited because (A) young players usually are not as good as the established players already on the roster and (B) why waste time developing a player that has NBA aspirations and you know won’t be part of your setup long term, why get used to depending on them and having them around if you know they’re leaving?