It s hard to get along in the NBA! Will the former Knicks Ukrainian center switch to the Israeli league?

Israeli League team Hapoel Jerusalem officially announced that former NBA insider Dmytro Skapintsev, who was previously in free agency, completed the signing of the team. What Skapintsev received from the team was a two-year contract, with the second year part including the bounce option.

Skapintsev was born in May 1998 and is 27 years old, 216cm tall and weighs 98kg. He was the undraft in the 2020 NBA Draft. Before coming to the NBA, Skapintsev played in the European arena, and he has played in the Ukrainian League and the Lithuanian League for many years. Until the summer of 2022, he chose to switch to the NBA arena. He first spent a year with the Westchester Knicks, a NBA Development League team in the New York Knicks, and then in the second year after he came to the United States, he received a short ten-day contract from the Knicks and became an NBA player. Unfortunately, after the ten-day short contract ended, he never returned to the NBA. Last season, Scarpinsev first played for the Boston Celtics' NBA Development League team Maine Celtics, and then was sent by the team to the Portland Trail Blazers' NBA Development League team Tear City Mixed.

In the NBA Development League last season, Skapintsev made a total of 44 appearances, averaging 23.8 minutes per game, averaging 8.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.6 steals and 1.6 blocks, and 1.8 turnovers and 2.7 fouls. His shooting percentage was 53.5%, a three-point shooting percentage of 24%, and a free throw shooting percentage of 65.2%. Skapinsev is not completely useless on the court. He also has certain scoring ability at the basket on the offensive end, he also has certain passing ability and support ability, and he also has excellent rebounding ability and basket protection ability on the defensive end. But the problem is that his shortcomings are very obvious. He does have a lot of problems in his movement speed. He is also easily targeted by his opponents on the court, which is also an important factor in his relatively limited playing time.

Considering that Skapintsev is already 27 years old, he has been playing in the NBA and NBA Development League for many years, but he has never made a significant breakthrough in his performance. In this case, he should also know that it is very difficult to get a contract from an NBA team. Instead of staying in the NBA Development League and earning a low salary, it is better to go back to the European arena and get a more stable job and a higher salary. I don’t know what kind of performance Skapintsev will perform after returning to the European arena next season.