One of the best point guards who currently does not wear an NBA uniform is Miloš Teodosić. In statements he made two days after getting married he confirms that he’s finished his CSKA Moscow phase of his life, and moving on. He won a championship with them, and was offered the equivalent of $12 million (US) over three seasons. That’s the type of money Carlos Arroyo made back in the summer where the Utah Jazz also re-signed Andrei Kirilenko, and stole Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur. (Gordan Giricek also got paid that off-season, for those keeping score). This was big money to turn down for Teodosic - as money goes further in Europe - but he could make more playing in the NBA.

What’s the reason for the ‘divorce’ as he puts it? I don’t know, but I felt that CSKA Moscow moved on first when they signed starting point guard Léo Joseph Paul Westermann (a French PG) after talks broke down with Teodosic. I tweeted as much a few hours ago:

Anyway, “Melosh” is dunzo with CSKA. Read it yourself. (Or Google Translate it)

Just because he’s done with CSKA doesn’t mean he’s done with Europe. But he does suggest that the NBA is an actual, real, target for him right now.

As things stand, certainly not staying in CSKA. I would like to know where I will continue my career, but it is not yet known. I would like it to be the United States, the first time seriously thinking about it. I have a great desire to go to the NBA . . . time has come for when you will have to part with the team which last year rose to the throne of Europe.

Translated by Google, via Serbian publication Novosti.Rs

He goes onto saying that the next jersey he is going to wear is Serbia, as they have some games to play this summer. (Which we are all going to pay attention to this July.)

I am encouraged by this new information though, that he really is thinking of going to the NBA. But we’ve read this before from Ante Tomic every time he became a Free Agent. We also heard this from Raul Neto, but he did actually, eventually, come here. Is it time for Milos to spread his wings and fly over to Westeros and take over? I hope so.

And I hope it’s with the Utah Jazz. He is familiar with Quin Snyder who used to be his assistant coach at CSKA. Snyder is the Jazz head coach. He’s also super duper familiar with Igor Kokoškov, who is a Serbian who is an assistant coach for the Jazz. (Igor is the national team coach for Slovenia right now, as well, but Slovenia is not Serbia, so I don’t know if that matters)

Furthermore, at CSKA he probably got a few chances to talk to this Andrei Kirilenko guy, who is the cot-damn director of the Red Army basketball program. (What exactly do you think CSKA stands for?) If there’s one European guy who could talk about the pros and cons of playing in the NBA (big city vs little city), and how great Utah is if you are a family man . . . it’s him. He had his children in Utah. And Teodosic just got married.

Even more furthermore, according to the translated things I’ve read from European message boards, Teodosic’s new bride - who is an actress - really wants to move to America. As we’ve seen with Tomic (who’s lady did NOT want to move to America), this is a big factor.

So I believe that it’s greater than 50/50 that he leaves Europe for the NBA. And I believe that if he leaves for the NBA, it’s greater than 50/50 that he signs with the Jazz. After all, he’d start here - and we know how loyal Snyder is to guys he has coached before. He’s be really, really good in Utah. Is it 60/40 NBA, and 70/30 Utah? I don’t know. But after a while good things have to start happening for us Jazz fans.

You know, besides having Rudy Gobert on the team. Or having two Hall of Famers dominate for 20 years straight. But you get the picture.

Utah could pay Milos a lot of money. Utah also has the Sundance film festival for his wifey. Now I dare to dream that it will happen.

узети на знање

(That’s #TakeNote in Serbian, I hope.)