On a slow news day, we thought it would be nice to list out the top 15 international scorers in the NBA through 11/06/2009.

The list is certainly worth looking at, but obviously it’s not definitive as the most games any player has played has been five.

Definitely seeing some surprises on the list.

1. Dirk Nowitzki 26.2
2. Andrea Barganani 22.0
3. Steve Nash 19.6
4. Luol Deng 17.8
5. Marc Gasol 17.6
6. Danilo Gallinari 17.6
7. Tony Parker 16.3
8. Memhet Okur 16.0
9. Leandro Barbosa 15.7
10. Hedo Türkoğlu 15.3
11. Nenê 14.6
12. Manu Ginóbili 13.7
13. Andrei Kirilenko 12.8
14. Kelenna Azubuike 12.0
15. Oleksiy Pecherov 11.2

No surprise with Dirk Nowitzki at number one, and Steve Nash near the top. Pau Gasol hasn’t played a game for the Lakers yet, but could be back tomorrow when the Lakers take on Memphis.

Right behind Nowitzki is Toronto Raptors’ Andrea Bargnani, who is continuing his progress from his breakout last season and Luol Deng is back from injury for the Chicago Bulls, looking good and pulling in a career high 20 rebounds last night.

Two second-year players Marc Gasol and Danilo Gallinari have averaged 17.6 points in their first five games; the question is whether they will be able to maintain that pace. My guess is both players will fall off, and probably end up around 14-15 points per game.

Look for Gasol to continue pulling in double-doubles for the Grizzlies until his backups Hamed Haddadi and Hasheem Thabeet can pick up the slack.

Probably the biggest surprise is 7-0 Ukrainian center Oleksiy Pecherov, who didn’t have his contract extended by the Timberwolves. The 23-year-old Pecherov delivered a career-high 24 points in his third consecutive start.

Oleksiy is averaging 11.2 points and hitting 33.3% from the beyond the arc.

We’ll see what happens to Pechorov’s minutes when Kevin Love returns from a fractured right hand. One thing is for sure, I’ll miss Oleksiy’s weird looking three-point shots.