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 01/23/2008- 01/29/2008)

Cleveland Hurting
The Cleveland Cavs are playing great since the first of the year, but have hit a touch stretch with injuries to Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao. Pavlovic is scheduled to be out for a couple months and Varejao severely sprained his ankle and will be out for about four weeks. I won’t say anything about both of those guys being out a significant chunk of the season with contract disputes.

Roko Leni-Ukic who?
It’s nice to see Jose Calderon getting some press for his consistent, smart, efficient, and emotional leadership. Especially for someone whom was an afterthought because the undrafted Spaniard only finds himself in Toronto only because the Raptor’s 2005 draft pick, Roko Leni-Ukic decided to stay in Europe.

Although Calderon is leading the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (5.44-to1), Jose is surprisingly garnering some buzz to be included in the Eastern conference all-star reserves this year. Is it going to happen? Doubtful, but it’s good press for the Spanaird and it plants the seed in the media’s brains for future considerations.

The third-year guard is having his best season statistically for the 25-20 Toronto Raptors. Calderon is getting 10 more minutes a game this season and putting up career-highs in points (12.3), assists (8.8), rebounds (3.2), steals (1.1), FG% (52.1), 3pt (44.8), and FT% (91.6). Calderon is 26 years old and hitting his prime, so look for him to improve upon his stats in the coming years, well, depending on what happens with TJ Ford.

Should Turkoglu be an All-Star this Year?
Hedo Turkoglu is becoming increasingly under-rated this season. Even with a huge win, on national television, against the best team in the NBA (Boston) it was clear to anyone who was watching that the Magic’s go-to guy in the fourth-quarter was Turkoglu. However, only a sprinkle of the all-star reserve prediction pieces have mention of him, and even then the 27-year old Turkish star still misses the cut in all those all-star-reserve guesses. “If I make it I’ll be the happiest guy in the world,” Turkoglu said, “But if I don’t make it, it just shows that I have a long way to go and I’ll come back next year even harder.”

Understandably, Turkoglu’s nomination puts the voters in a tough spot. Though Hidayet is playing his best ball on a winning team, he still has to beat out players like Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Richard Jefferson, Gerald Wallace, Caron Butler and Antwan Jamison. That will be difficult considering Pierce and Bosh are likely to make the team, and the latter three are also having their best seasons. In my eyes, voters are going to have to decide between Hedo, Jefferson, and Jamison. If New Jersey was winning more games, Jefferson would easily be there, but do the Nets right now deserve two players? I don’t think so. Does the Wizards also deserve two? Maybe.

I Heart Andris Biedrins
Speaking of under-rated, If you’ve been reading my updates, you can tell that I am more than enamored with one Andris Biedrins. I have the benefit of watching him play on a consistent basis and the man is truly unsung when the media talks of the Golden State Warrior’s success.

Perhaps motivated by the Warrior’s attempt to bring back Chris Webber to the bay area to bolster their middle, the Latvian had a career-high 26 rebounds the other night against the New York Knicks. “Of course I take it a little bit personally because that’s my job,” Biedrins said. “My job is at the defensive end, rebound and block shots. I try to do my job as good as I can.” Biedrin’s career-high was also the highest amount a Golden State player has ever pulled in, in over 25 years.

Biedrins had 10 rebounds in the first quarter alone, single-handedly out-rebounding the Knicks by one. Biedrin’s 26 rebounds were the most by a Golden State player since Larry Smith had 31 on March 28, 1981 – before Biedrins was born. Biedrins previous career high in rebounds was 18, which he accomplished four times in his career.

Nene Recovering, Apologizing
Nene issued a statement to apologize for incorrect posting made on his official website that said his testicular cancer tumor was benign, when in fact it was malignant. The doctors that removed the tumor said that the tumor was ioslated and are expecting Nene to make a full recovery. Amazingly, Nene is expected to be back on the this year, some expect to be as early as April of this year.

Sefolosha Getting his Chance
The one good thing about the Bulls under-achieving this season is Thabo Sefolosha getting some run. With the Bulls riddled with injuries and not showing any real potential for turning their season around anytime soon, Chicago has turned to developing their young(er) talent. Thabo Sefolosha, a combo-guard from Switzerland known for his long arms and defense, has had four straight games of double-figures. And Sefolosha has played over 20 minutes in his last ten games (nine of which he has started) and has averaged 10.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.7 steals in 30.6 minutes a game. Thabo has also recorded his first and second double-doubles of his career during the ten game run.

Unfortunately, we can’t say the Bulls have been awesome in that span, they haven’t (they were 4-6 in that span), but it’s nice to see Sefolosha getting some minutes.

Mbenga Back
After being waived by the Golden State Warriors, DJ Mbenga eventually found himself wearing the Laker gold two weeks later. Mbenga was signed to try and fill Andrew Bynum’s shoes after the youngster went down with a knee injury that will keep him off the court for six weeks. The Lakers begin a grueling nine-game road trip that will really test their mettle. They couldn’t have picked a better replacement in Mbenga, who has gone through his share of battles.

International Representation in the 2008 Rookie-Sophmore Game
Four international players will be represented at the annual NBA Rookie-Sophmore game. Andrea Bargnani, whom has had an overall disappointing second season will join second-year sensations Rudy Gay, Brandon Roy, and LaMarcus Aldridge on the sophmores squad. The rookie team is headlined by Kevin Durant with the surprising Chinese seven-footer Yi Jianlian, the tricky, long-range bomber Juan Carlos Navarro from Spain and somewhat-disappointing Argentinian Luis Scola. Jianlian is listed as 20 years old and Bargnani is 22 years old, while Navarro and Scola are both 27-year old and veteran Euroleague players.

Sources: Stein Line All-Star Reserves (ESPN), Calderon’s All-Star Chances Slim (Toronto Star), Hedo beats buzzer, aims for All-Star berth (Turkish Daily News), Biedrins Makes His Case On Boards (San Francisco Chronicle), Mbenga signs (Yahoo Sports), Jackson will be traveling light (LA Times), Roy and Durant lead rosters for NBA Rookie Challenge (Seattle PI)