Former Gonzaga guard Kevin Pangos, who has spent the last several seasons playing in Europe, is garnering interest from the Cavaliers, according to reports from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com and Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com.
Pangos, 28, has carved out an impressive career overseas, having spent time in Spain, Lithuania, and Russia since going undrafted in 2015. In 2020/21, he averaged 13.5 PPG and 6.6 APG on .449/.390/.845 shooting in 39 EuroLeague contests (28.9 MPG) for Zenit Saint Petersburg, earning a spot on the All-EuroLeague First Team.
According to Fedor, Pangos has received “big” offers to remain in Europe, but it sounds like he’s interested in making the move to the NBA. Urbonas and Blake Murphy of The Athletic (Twitter link) both suggest that the Canadian guard would likely need a guaranteed contract offer to justify a return stateside.
As Urbonas writes, the Grizzlies are among the other teams eyeing Pangos, but they already have too many players on guaranteed salaries on their roster and likely aren’t in position to offer more than an Exhibit 10 contract. Murphy names the Raptors as another NBA club with interest.
Cleveland could ultimately be the best fit for Pangos. As Fedor has previously reported, the team remains in the market for one more point guard even after acquiring Ricky Rubio earlier this offseason. The Cavs also have plenty of roster flexibility, with just 10 players on guaranteed contracts so far — Lamar Stevens, Damyean Dotson, Dean Wade, and Mfiondu Kabengele don’t have full guarantees.
Stockton, Dickau, Suggs, Pangos, Raivio, Williams-Goss, Steppe, Ayayi, Pargo… Zags have had some pretty great pgs over the years
Yes and You forgot Frahm
He was more of a shooter wasn’t he
Frahm was a SG.
Don’t forget David Stockton and Josh Perkins.
I have read these stories before about Pangos. He could play in the NBA but will almost certainly have to forfeit some money to do it. I think he stays in Europe.
I don’t know…, there’s a lot of prestige about being an NBA player. I’ve played with hundreds of guys who have played in Europe but only a handful of guys who played in the NBA.. that’s a bigger wow I think for us and in turn I think it’s a bigger wow for the player. As they say in the article, if he can score a guarantee I bet he comes over.
Perk was a BEAST. One of my favorite guards in the country his last couple of yrs
Do it. Then posters can joke about small Cav PGs like they did about Knick PFs last year or two!
Another guard for the Raptors?