This week we look at the Anderson Varejao’s return to Cleveland, Manu’s amazing week, Tony Parker without Tim Duncan, international baby-Bulls, Marco Belinelli says no to the NBDL, Jose Calderon’s consistency, and the Seattle Sonics’ Mickael Gelabale, Johan Petro and Mohamed Sene. Every Wednesday during the NBA season, interbasket takes a closer look at ten international NBA players that has caught our eye. (This week is for period 12/06 – 12/11/2007)

Anderson Varejao Debuts (Only 20 games into the Season!)
From causing chaos off the court, to causing chaos back on the court (and getting paid millions for it), Anderson Varejao made his first appearance this season last night vs. the Pacers. We couldn’t get a good reading on how the Cavs fans took to him as he entered the game the same time as the back-from-injury Lebron James and Larry Hughes.

It was a really smart move reportedly initiated by Lebron James, “I thought it would raise the intensity of the fans, having me, Larry and Andy come in at the same time — and it worked,” James said. “I thought by coming in with Andy it might stop some of the boos Andy might get, just protecting my teammates.”

A King manipulating his subjects, unheard of! Though Varejao ended up playing well in his return (6 points and 9 rebounds in 23 minutes), I would have loved to see how the Cleveland crowd would have reacted to a player that basically stated that he would never play for Cleveland again.

In case you’re wondering, I would have boo’ed him.

Manu Ginobili: Where Amazing Happens
Is there any player more unique in the NBA today than the Spur’s Argentine wonder Manu Ginobili? He’s not exactly blessed with overwhelming athleticism, high-flying grace, imposing physical power or the picture-perfect jumpshot, but that’s one of the reasons why it makes him the most unique player in the league.

Without Tim Duncan in the lineup, Manu herked, jerked and sidestepped his way to the hoop and shot his left-handed crossbow jumper to the tune of consecutive 37-point performances. Both came in wins over two very tough teams (Dallas and Utah) before the Spurs (and Manu) fell back to earth in a terrible showing against the equally-unique Golden State Warriors last night. In just 28 minutes, Manu managed only 13 points and 5 turnovers as the Warriors collapsed on Ginobili every time he attacked the basket.

But lets not dwell too much on last night’s game… let’s focus on his two amazing 37 point outings. In these days of detailed player reports (even my mom knows he’s going left) Manu is one of those special players that can get to the basket almost every time down the floor. And he did against the Mavericks and the Jazz, bringing the Spurs to victory despite the odds. Really, would you have thought that the Spurs would have been able to beat Dallas and Utah without Tim Duncan? Me neither.

A little fun fact about Manu: Ginobili’s top-five scoring games in his career (the Spurs have won all five), three of them have come when Tim Duncan has been out of the lineup – Manu went for 40 points against Atlanta, and the aforementioned back-to-back 37 point games.

What makes the Spur’s wins more amazing was the fact that Tony Parker’s perfomances in that same span were terrible. TP shot only 38%, averaged 16.6 pts and only 5.3 assists; stats all well below his season averages. Last week we talked about the critics that were going to watch Mr. Longaria’s boxscores with a discriminating eye, hoping to prove their contentions that Parker is the player he is only because of Tim Duncan. Well, Tony, I have to say that although stats don’t always say everything, you didn’t help your case this last week despite winning 2 of 3.

International Bulls Update: Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni
After the Chicago Bulls had such an awesome 06-07 season, it seemed as if all the Baby Bulls were going to come together this season and make a serious run for the Eastern conference. However, that hasn’t quite happened as the Bulls have struggled waiting for Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon to find their shots. Both are shooting less than 39% from the field this season and it’s not a secret that the Bulls need those two to bring up their percentages in order to succeed. And though much relies on Hinrich and Gordon, the poor-shooting is all over their roster; nine of their 14 players are shooting sub-40% from the field. Hell, even Ben Wallace and Tyrus Thomas are shooting less than 40% and all those two do are mostly dunk the ball – ok that’s not entirely true for Thomas, but it sounds good, right?

Anyways, I wanted to highlight that though the Bulls aren’t meeting expectations, the two main international Bulls are shooting over 40% and are quietly putting up decent stats despite the atmosphere.

Last season it was all about Luol Deng, whom had a breakout season and was on the cusp of becoming a perennial 22 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assist on 50% from the field guy. He was the silent assassin, hitting corner jumpers with ease, going to the boards on both ends, and cutting to the basket for easy layups. Deng is one of those players that does everything right – a coaches dream player.

The Sudanese-born forward had a slow start to the season, but has steadily ratcheted up his game – 17.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists on 47% from the floor – all number below last season, but are climbing as he gets his flow. As the Bulls continue to improve through the course of this season and their offense will begin to flow , look for Deng’s numbers to rise above the 20-point level.

Andres Nocioni is another player that is key to the Bulls success. The aggressive Argentine forward goes hard to the hoop on offense, goes to the floor on defense, and is that energy player for the Bulls. The funny thing about Nocioni, he is one of those rare players that attacks the hoop and plays such intense defense but also has a great three-point shot.

The 28-year old Nocioni is putting up a career-high 15.2 points thus far along with 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists. His shooting isn’t where it has been the last two seasons, but he isn’t too far off from those percentages. Like Deng, Nocioni offense will only benefit when the Bulls fnd their groove, but I wouldn’t look for Andres points to get much higher than they are now, but his FG% should improve. Now get a haircut Noc, that hair is whack.

Steve Nash Passes Out
Steve Nash has been on fire… wait, can you be on-fire when it comes to assists? In the last seven games, Nash has dished AT LEAST 14 assists in each of those seven games — averaging 16 assists in that stretch and good for a gaudy 6-1 assist/turnover ratio. In the same timeframe, Nash has shot an un-Nash like 40% from the field and missed his first three free-throws of the season.

I remember the beginning of the season, Nash was scoring at a higher-pace and not passing out nearly the amount of assists we were used to seeing. Maybe there is a correlation to the change in the mindset of the Nash?

Belinelli would Rather be Tenth than First
Marco Belinelli was given a choice to head down to the NBDL to develop his game, shoot up shots and consistently play in every game. Instead, Beli decided to stay with the team even though it would probably mean he would be tenth man saying “I don’t want to go because I think that I am an NBA player,” Belinelli said. “I think that I can play at this level, and I want to be here, to work with my teammates. We have a beautiful group and I’m part of it.”

And with the Warriors rolling lately, it’s unlikely that Belinelli is going to get his chance anytime soon as he went from getting spots minutes, to accumulating DNPs to the inactive list. It’s not all bad as promising rookie Brandan Wright hasn’t seen much time either this season. No doubt Belinelli will get his shot and the only person that knows that is his coach don Nelson “I love him. I think he can be real good. Not yet, however. He’s got a lot of work to do in practice.” Maybe it’s defense? Toughness? It certainly can’t be confidence.

Not bad for a second-thought
When Roko Leni-Ukic decided to stay in Europe instead of taking the backup PG role for the Raptors.  With Ukic not an option, Toronto decided to go with a free-agent that was not well- known outside of the United States in Spaniard Jose Manuel Calderon.

The funny thing is Ukic signed with Calderon’s European team, Tau Ceramica, so essentially, Ukic and Calderon switched places.

Calderon is still with Toronto today, and has done a great job in making people forget about Ukic. The 6-3 Calderon is doing a solid job his third season in Toronto by going for career highs in points (9.9), assists (7.6), rebounds (2.7), three-point percentage (45%), FT (91%), and is averaging the least amount of turnovers during his career (1.3). His overall FG% is off by less than a percentage point from last year’s high (52.1% to 51.4%). And Calderon is doing this in only 25 minutes a game (also a career-high).

JMC’s minutes looks as if they’ll rise as TJ Ford took a frightening fall on his back last night that had him rushed to the hospital in a stretcher. Considering TJ’s well-known fall several years ago that caused him to have problems with his spine, we can only hope that TJ is alright.

Sleepless in Seattle
Sorry for the crappy cliche title, but it kinda fits, no? It doesn’t bode well for international players Mickael Gelabale’s, Johan Petro’s and ‘s playing time when they can’t even get off the bench for the 2007-08 incarnation of the Sonics. The Seattle Supersonics aren’t exactly setting the world on fire and are basically taking this season off to develop their younger players (see Kevin Durant) so they can fill up stadiums in Oklahoma City come next season.

Unfortunately for Gelabale, Petro and Sene, Oklahoma City doesn’t have a booming French or Senegalese population because those three need all the help they can get in trying to squeeze any type of playing time out of Nate McMillan.

Gelabale is only 24 year old while Petro and Sene are only 21, these three young players are in definite need of development – the problem is that they’re not getting the chance on a crappy team. Most games the three are on the bench as they watch Kevin Durant mature shot-by-shot. Combined, the two Frenchmen (Gelabale and Petro) and the Senegalese center (Sene) are averaging barely 26 minutes together and have a total of 32 DNPs between them.

There could be a number of reasons why these three aren’t seeing any time, so I won’t go into detail and speculate. All I know is if they can’t get decent minutes on this squad, the future’s not looking bright for them.

Sources: Marco Belinelli Chooses Bench (rotoworld), Video: TJ Ford goes down hard against Al Horford and the Atlanta Hawks (YouTube)