I wouldn't say much lower. My reasoning is just take a look at the league leaders in any European league. Take Italy for example. The vast majority of the leaders in scoring, rebounding, assists, etc. are NCAA nobodies. No offense to them, but it's true. The only areas where the Europeans dominate is in FT% and 3pt %, which fits in with my belief that Europeans are great at unguarded shots.I played in the second division in Torrelavega at Juventud Florman. I am aware of the difference in quality you point out. Sabonis (greatest big man ever) played in the ACB shortly after I left Spain.
Kaukenas is/was? better than a lot NBA players. He is not a starter material, but good bench level guy.
First of all, sounds like you had an awesome career. Fantastic!Second, I don't really agree with you about the more all-round thing, judging solely from the Euro players in the NBA. Big guys cannot really handle the ball very well, at least not any better than their US counterparts.All the European centers I can think of playing right now areDiaw Mahinmi Krstic Milicic Biedrins Petro Turiaf Pachulia Koufos Big Z Pecovic Elson GadzuricNone of them strike me as great ball handlers or able to play forward very well, except for Diaw. Maybe they do and can in the European leagues because the defense is not as strong. I don't know. But I disagree with people who make the point about European players being more well-rounded or having more basketball smarts. I think what they are seeing is that European basketball is much much slower than American basketball and much less creative. I'm not trying to bag on European hoops. I loved playing there- pickup and organized- and I think Sabonis is probably the greatest center ever (except maybe Wilt). Now, he was a truly well-rounded basketball player.