Advance to the quarterfinals! The strongest naturalized player! Beat Jokic and Shin Kyung

Men's Basketball European Cup 1/8 finals, Poland eliminated Bosnia and Herzegovina 80-72, Poland successfully advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Cup, and the next quarter-finals will face Türkiye. Bosnia and Herzegovina center Nurkic scored 20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 2 mistakes. In this European Cup, Nurkic averaged 17 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.5 steals and 1 block per game.

The focus of this article is not Nurkic, but Polish naturalized player Jordan Lloyd. In this game, Lloyd played for 35 minutes, made 8 of 17 shots, 3 of 7 three-pointers, 9 of 9 free throws, scored 28 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block and 1 steal, with the highest score in the game. So far in the European Cup, Lloyds have played 6 games, with 4 of them scoring 25+ points!

Look at another set of data: in the top 12 of this European Cup scoring list, only Jordan Lloyd is not an active NBA player. He averaged 31.7 minutes per game, scored 23 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.5 turnovers, and his three shooting percentages: 49.4%, 47.4%, and 85%. He beats stars such as Jokic, Shin Kyung, and Schroeder per game.

Porta only naturalized Jordan Lloyd in early August this year to play in the European Cup. The leader said before that ordinary naturalized players are "mercenary" in nature and they will pay once a competition. In the last European Cup, Spain successfully won the championship, naturalized defender Lorenzo Brown averaged 15.2 points and 7.6 assists per game, and scored 29 points and 6 assists in the semi-finals.

The Spanish Basketball Association has limited funds, Lorenzo Brown participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics and missed the 2023 Basketball World Cup and this year's European Cup. This also indirectly led to the defensive champion Spanish team being eliminated. There is no doubt that Jordan Lloyd is the strongest naturalized player in this European Cup, and he is also at the top level in the world.

Jordan Lloyd was born on July 27, 1993, with a height of 1.93 meters and a wingspan of 1.96 meters. Born and raised in the United States, Jordan Lloyd stayed in college for five years due to issues such as transfer. In his last season of college, he averaged 20.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game, with three shooting percentages: 50.1%, 41.1%, and 85.8%.

2016 NBA Draft, Jordan Lloyd was out. He went to the Development League and averaged 15.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4 assists in his first season. The wages of the Development League were too low, and in the summer of 2017, Lloyd joined the Israeli League. In the summer of 2018, he signed a two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors and won the championship with the team. He was the one who stole the spotlight in the picture below. In the 2018-19 season, Jordan Lloyd played only 12 regular season games with the Raptors, averaging 4.6 minutes per game, scoring 2.4 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.5 assists. In August 2019, the Raptors cut Lloyd and he headed to the European League. He has been to Spain, Serbia, Russia, France and Israel, and played for Monaco, France last season. In the 2024-25 season, Jordan Lloyd averaged 12.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in the French League, with three shooting percentages: 49.7%, 46.9%, and 93.6%. He is not a big star, but his offensive efficiency is very high. I'm afraid Poland would never have expected that a player who averaged 2.4 points per game in the NBA has now become a big killer in the European Cup.

September 9 Türkiye vs. Poland, which team do you think can reach the semi-finals?