Whatever dummy wrote this spelled "dropped" wrong in the subject. How embarrassing for that bloke

Since that news the NBL website has gone down.

Russian aggression???

It's back now. Thanks Vladimir.

It took a war for the JJs to finally drop him.

I was surprised it took this long only played 2 games for a total of 6.5 minutes.

They were russian to get this signed off

Word going around was he had a bad attitude.
Any truth to that?

The first to get cut but not the first to contribute zero (Terry Armstrong).

It's an interesting situation. The kid was proven in the Russian league so was clearly no joke, yet only managed to see SIX MINUTES on court for the entire season. How much of a disciplinary problem was he really, and how much of this was Scott Roth not being willing to give him a chance?

I can understand the issue going a bit both ways: Bad attitude begets benching, which begets an even worse attitude.

This is the other side of the Next Stars program that Jeremy Loeliger is probably brushing under the carpet when talking to these kids in the US right now. For every LaMelo Ball or Josh Giddey there is a Terry Armstrong or a Mikhailovskii. Either of the latter would have been better served in college or the G League.

Obviously a lot of the blame for this falls on Mikhailovskii himself, who was put on a professional team and given some opportunity to prove himself in that environment but the question for me is what responsibility, if any, does the NBL and team coaching staff have to the Next Star? I mean six minutes. Really? We can hold team success as paramount but at the time same, if you've agreed to take on a Next Star, surely you have more than six minutes for even the worst of them.

For every LaMelo Ball or Josh Giddey there is a Terry Armstrong or a Mikhailovskii. Either of the latter would have been better served in college or the G League.

I tend to agree with ME though that a Next Star should get at least 8-10 minutes a game. Beyond 8mpg should be up to the players performance. If you can't agree to that then the club shouldn’t sign them in the first place.

Look at the progress Digbeu is making. That's on the back of having to fix his work ethic and earn the minutes. That's a better experience for him than being gifted minutes.

I think it's fair to say players should earn their minutes but Armstrong and the Russian kid werent even seeing minutes in blow outs. But to be fair I guess I never saw the extent of Mikhailovskii's attitude problem and maybe I would have benched his ass as well. But I think it would have to have been well out of hand to justify six minutes court time in a season.

we'll probably never know, but if he expected to be treated like a little god (which he probably was over there), then he deserved the reality check.

Roth mentioned on The Huddle podcast a few weeks ago that there were also communication problems which were causing difficulties for Mikhailovskii on the defensive end, which in turn caused teammates to lose trust in him (as in, not trusting that he'd be in the right spot defensively, etc.)

Next star or not, Russian kid and Armstrong aren't good enough, it’s as simple as that...

"but Armstrong and the Russian kid werent even seeing minutes in blow outs."

What Armstrong?

I would argue that the point of Next Stars, is to take Next Seasons NBA Stars", polish their profile a BIT, and give them better development which then benefits them in their first NBA season.

Guys like LaMelo, Giddey, Hampton, were always going to play NBA, and probably always going to be drafted relatively early. The NBL didn't create them, it just helped them along a little. PLUS I would definitely say helped their transition to their first NBA season.

So whilst I don't know why Armstrong and Nikita didn't thrive, we have to assume that for whatever reason they just weren't that good.
So ok, maybe they would have gotten more minutes in a College team, (assuming that was even an option?) but that still wouldn't have got them to the NBA.

I'm often surprised at the apparent ease with which players can play internationally, but I think its a given that if somebody wants to play in the NBA, then they need to be able to communicate in English.

Some players are thriving, some are struggling. A few others fall in between those two descriptors. I demand a Royal Commission to unearth the real story.

"but Armstrong and the Russian kid werent even seeing minutes in blow outs."

I know there's an interest in bolstering the reputation of Next Stars, but I assume coaches will invest more minutes in underdone players likely to be a chance for the following season.

Probably also in the interest of an underdone draft hopeful to get DNPs and maybe claim they were sitting out as an injury precaution rather than play garbage time and struggle.