{"id":177790,"date":"2026-02-15T11:33:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T16:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=177790"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:33:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T16:33:40","slug":"german-national-and-former-laker-drawing-nba-interest-a-return-to-nba-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/02\/15\/german-national-and-former-laker-drawing-nba-interest-a-return-to-nba-inevitable\/","title":{"rendered":"German National and Former Laker Drawing NBA Interest, A Return to NBA Inevitable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former 2018 second-round draft pick Isaac Bonga<\/a> has once again drawn interest from NBA<\/a> teams. While Bonga will not be returning to the NBA this year, it appears that the 26-year-old German National<\/a> will play in the world’s best basketball league at some point.<\/p>\n

According to Basket News,<\/a> Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade — Bonga’s club — rejected four lucrative offers by NBA franchises to allow Bonga to return to the league this season.<\/p>\n

“Partizan did not want to part with their most consistent player\u2014even for substantial compensation\u2014and further weaken a team that has already suffered a series of blows this season,” the Basket News story reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

German National and Former Laker Drawing NBA Interest, A Return To NBA Inevitable?<\/h2>\n

Bonga, who drew the attention of NBA teams<\/a> with his play at the EuroBasket 2025 for Germany, is having the best season of his career. Bonga averages 10.1 points, 5.6 rebounds (1.7 offensive), and 1.o steals in 41 games this season.\u00a0 He has also compiled one double-double while shooting 50.5\/31.2\/83.0.<\/p>\n

Partizan sits in 19th place in EuroLeague <\/a>play with a 9-19 record and a -8.0 point differential with 10 games to go. Partisan, which is in danger of finishing in the bottom half of the EuroLeague for the third straight season, has been playing better lately.\u00a0 They have split their last six contests, with all three losses by six points or fewer.<\/p>\n

Partizan has been without Carlik Jones<\/a> (foot), Vanja Marinkovic<\/a> (Achilles), Shake Milton<\/a> (arm), Mario Nakic<\/a> (ACL), and Dylan Osetkowski<\/a> (suspension) for a good portion of the season. On the plus side, Jones and Milton could return at the end of the month,<\/p>\n

Despite Partizan’s Europe troubles, they are tied for first in ABA play with Dubai at 15-1. Former NBA player and Ohio State Buckeye Duane Washington Jr.<\/a> leads the way for Partizan. Former NBA players Sterling Brown<\/a>, Cameron Payne<\/a>, and Jones are also having solid seasons.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/h3>\n

Why Are NBA Teams Interested?<\/h3>\n

Bonga was selected with the No. 39 pick in 2018 by the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/a> The 76ers traded Bonga during the summer of 2018 to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> for cash and a 2019 2nd round draft pick (<\/span>Bruno Fernando<\/a>). The 6-8 versatile wing appeared in 143 career games for the Lakers, Washington Wizards<\/a>, and Toronto Raptors<\/a> from 2018 to 2022. He holds NBA averages of 3.1 points and 2.2 rebounds with shooting splits of 43.2\/30.0\/75.9.<\/p>\n

NBA teams, which can sign international players until the conclusion of the regular season (April 12), are interested in Bonga due to his defensive ability and versatility. He profiles as the type of player NBA teams try to pry from EuroLeague: long, disciplined, low\u2011mistake, and scalable to playoff basketball.<\/p>\n

Bonga, who is long and athletic, is one of the best wing defenders in Europe as he moves extremely well laterally for his size and has excellent anticipation. He is a switchable defender who can guard 1-4.<\/p>\n

Offensively, Bonga is more of a connector, though that doesn’t make him a liability. Bonga is at his best when slashing to the rim, excelling at attacking closeouts and running in transition. He also moves the ball quickly and cuts with precision. Perhaps more importantly, he is a winner.<\/p>\n

NBA Comp and Strengths and Weaknesses<\/h4>\n

Shooting and inability to create are Bonga’s biggest weaknesses.<\/p>\n

While Bonga is a tier-one player in Europe, he projects more as a low-end tier-two or tier-three NBA player. At best, Bonga is a 15-20-minute defensive specialist in the NBA, and at worst, he is a depth player.<\/p>\n

His ideal team switches a lot and values length on the perimeter. Since Bonga is not a creator, the NBA team should have plenty of established creators. Isaac Okoro, <\/span><\/a>Josh Okogie<\/a>, <\/span>Naji Marshall,<\/a> and <\/span>Royce O\u2019Neale are his current NBA comps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Rob Schumacher, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former 2018 second-round draft pick Isaac Bonga has once again drawn interest from NBA teams. While Bonga will not be returning to the NBA this year, it appears that the 26-year-old German National will play in the world’s best basketball league at some point. According to Basket News, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade — Bonga’s club […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":177852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,61,62,3],"tags":[1626],"class_list":["post-177790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-international-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-isaac-bonga"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177790"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177854,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177790\/revisions\/177854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}