Editor's Note: Gábor Zsivera, who is the chief editor over at Hungarian basketball site starting5.hu, and follows Spurs draftee Adam Hanga very closely, has agreed to contribute reports on Hanga every other week for Project Spurs. While we try to follow the international players the San Antonio Spurs have rights to frequently, we thought this was another great option for our readers to get regular updates from someone who is closer to all the action and covers it regulalry.
Adam Hanga has stepped up lately in the number one domestic basketball league of Europe as he was selected to the All-Star Five of the month of April in the Spanish ACB League by solobasket.com.
The Spurs draftee (2011, 59th overall) posted 18 points per game in that period, which was the second best performance in the the league. The Hungarian guard finished 2nd in the MVP rankings in April and he was named the best shooting guard of the month as well.
Right after his MVP of the week performance, he scored 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds, handed out three assists, had two steals and one block against CAI Zaragoza, but he couldn't help his team, Basquet Manresa to win on the road (89-62).
A week later, Hanga played his last home game as a member of Manresa and he netted a game high 19 points to go along with three rebounds, six assists (also a game high), three steals and two blocks. Altogether he achieved 24 VAL, another game high, but he was again on the losing side against Cajasol Sevilla (76-92). What really stands out from his numbers is the +13 in the +/- category in a game that his team lost by 16 points and in a game in which he played 25 of the possible 40 minutes.
Although Hanga's team had already been relegated from the first division, he has been improving his game at a really fast pace. Statistics validate his efforts as well. He is now in the Top 15 in the regular season's MVP ranking with 13.8 VAL per game – tied with Real Madrid's former NBA player, Rudy Fernandez. He is currently the 4th in the league in Fouls Drawn category, and he is 9th overall in steals with 1.26 per contest.
The 24 year-old guard has been highly recruited by some top European teams recently – such as the Italian 3rd seeded playoff participant, Virtus Acea Roma, and EuroCup finalist Bilbao Basket -, but he is set to finish his 2012/2013 season in his current jersey after his club and the other interested parties couldn't reach agreement on a possible buyout.
As a result, Hanga will play his very last game as the member of La Bruixa d'Or Manresa against Valencia next Sunday and after that, he will partly become a free agent as his contract has a clause saying he becomes available for a really small buyout as Manresa is relegated from the ACB League.
