Andrea Bargnani

Player information
Andrea Bargnani

birthday	26th October 1985 (age 34)
place of birth	Rome , Italy
size	213 cm
Weight	111 kg
position	Power Forward / Center
NBA draft	2006 , 1st pick, Toronto Raptors
Clubs as active
2002–2003 Stella Azzurra Rome 2003–2006 Benetton Treviso 2006–2013 Toronto Raptors 2013–2015 New York Knicks 2015–2016 Brooklyn Nets 2016–2017 Laboral KutxaItaly Italy Canada United States United States Spain
National team
000000000 Italy	Italy	73 games

Andrea Bargnani (born October 26, 1985 in Rome ) is a former Italian basketball player who was last active for Laboral Kutxa in the Spanish ACB league. Before that, he played ten years in the North American National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Toronto Raptors , Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks teams . Bargnani was selected by the Raptors at the top of the 2006 NBA draft , but never lived up to the high expectations placed in him. However, he developed into a solid supplementary player.

Career

Italy and Europe

Bargnani began his professional career in 2002/03 with the Stella Azzurra Rome in the second Italian basketball league Legadue and scored 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds per game in 23 games in his first season . For the 2003/04 season he signed a contract with Benetton Treviso in the first division Serie A , one of the top clubs in Europe, with which he could play for the first time in the EuroLeague . In 2006 he won the Rising Star Trophy as the best U-22 player of the 2005/06 Euroleague season. He has also played for the Italian junior and U-20 national team.

At Treviso, Bargnani played a significant role for a young player. He made a name for himself in a preseason game against the Toronto Raptors when he stood up to Raptors star Chris Bosh . In that game on October 20, 2003 at the Air Canada Center in Toronto, Bargnani scored 13 points, five rebounds, a steal and two blocks in 22 minutes.

NBA

As the first European player, Bargagni was selected in first position in the 2006 NBA draft . The Toronto Raptors secured the rights to the Italian in June 2006. Bargnani had a good rookie season averaging 11.6 points, which earned him a place on the NBA All-Rookie Team . He also took part in the Rookie Challenge at the All-Star Weekend . He also succeeded in the 2008/09 season as a sophomore .

Bargnani improved in the years that followed. 2010/11 he had his best season with 21.4 points per game. The following season he finished with 19.5 points per game, but missed much of the season due to an injury. After he continued to sit out many games due to injury and weakened his performance, the Raptors decided in the summer of 2013 to transfer Bargnani to the New York Knicks .

Bargnani as the Raptors' Player (2009)

In the weak Knicks Bargnani was rarely used and completed only 71 of 164 possible NBA games in two years due to recurring injuries. Nevertheless, he scored a good 14.8 points per game in the 2014/15 season . After his contract with the Knicks expired in the summer of 2015, Bargnani moved to city rivals Brooklyn Nets . There he could not convince, however, and was dismissed after half a season.

Return to Europe

In July 2016, Bargnani signed a two-year contract with Spanish first division club Laboral Kutxa . After being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the EuroLeague and due to repeated health problems, Bargnani and the club from the Basque Country dissolved the contract on April 26, 2017 by mutual agreement.

Style of play

Bargnani's strength lay in the fact that, despite his height (2.13 meters), he had an accurate throw. In contrast to many other players of his size, who mainly score near the basket, Bargnani had a long range and was considered a very good three-point shooter . Because of these skills, his mobility, which is above average for his height, and his above-average feel for the ball, Bargnani was compared to the German player Dirk Nowitzki at the beginning of his career .