Joel Freeland’s (#7 on rights held ranking) scouting report was just updated back in November, and there isn’t a great deal to add to that besides saying that he’s continued to play well. He’s playing solid minutes in the ACB and continues to score efficiently and pull down plenty of rebounds, particularly on the offensive end. The fact that he ranks 6th in the league in PER while being amongst the league leaders in a host of other categories is obviously no joke considering that he just turned 22.
In the one game we saw in Madrid he did a good job putting his athleticism on display, going after rebounds on both ends, chasing blocks and generally being very active. Offensively, he looked somewhat tentative, not being much of a presence for Gran Canaria, which is not a huge surprise considering his limitations on this end of the floor. He’s mostly a finisher at this point (albeit a very good one at that) and seems to struggle when asked to do much more than that, as he lacks great footwork or much range on his jumper. He’s also somewhat foul prone and clearly not very experienced, averaging a high amount of turnovers relative to his role.
Although it’s pretty clear that that Freeland is not ready to contribute in the NBA, it seems like this summer will be the time for Portland to bring him over if they indeed intend on getting him in a Blazers uniform. He has an NBA escape clause and is drawing major interest around Europe from some of the top teams around, for example Real Madrid, Barcelona and Fortitudo Bologna, who all appear to have interest. It wouldn’t be shocking to see Gran Canaria decide to cash in and sell his rights at some point, which would likely make Freeland’s spot on the NBA rookie scale (around $800k gross) look paltry relative to the new contract he’d receive.
