PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - A lot of international players are having landmark seasons starting with Pau and Marc Gasol who faced off for the jump ball at the All-Star Game.

Pau's consistency has kept the Chicago Bulls in the hunt despite many injury problems and Marc has led the Memphis Grizzlies to third place in the Western Conference despite stiff competition. Memphis seem to fly under the radar because the franchise doesn't get a lot of media attention but in the coming months we will certainly read alot about Marc's free agency because many teams would love to sign him.

When you scan down the list of Player Efficiency Rating (PER) for this season, you're not surprised to see the Gasol brothers and Tim Duncan in the Top 20 but did you expect to see Nikola Vucevic in 16th place and Rudy Gobert ranked 21st? How about Alexis Ajinca being 33rd just in front of Jonas Valanciunas (34th)?

France's Gobert is playing so well since the Utah Jazz traded a very unhappy Enes Kanter to the Oklahoma City Thunder that he has a fancy nickname that will stick - "The Stifle Tower" ( I love it!).

After the trade, Rudy became a starter and a rebounding, shot-blocking and dunking MACHINE. Thanks to his rim protection, Utah have become a better defensive team and one of the best teams in the West since the All-Star break. Gobert is third in the league in blocked shots behind Anthony Davis and the injured Serge Ibaka and he's averaging a double-double for the month of March! Gobert is a leading candidate for the Most Improved Player (MIP) of the Year award and is considered a viable solution at center for the French national team this summer if Joakim Noah decides not to participate at EuroBasket 2015.

The aforementionned trade also helped Turkey big man Kanter, who said he had lived three and a half years of frustration in Utah, but was enjoying NBA basketball for the first time being on the receiving end of Russell Westbrook's lob passes on his way to eight straight double-doubles! His streak was stopped one rebound short in Sunday's important win against the Phoenix Suns (11 points and 9 rebounds).

It's interesting to note that out of the top 25 rebounders in the NBA, 11 are international players. The traditional search for quality tall players around the world continues!

Another MIP candidate is Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo who has greatly improved his stats and playing time under the direction of new coach Jason Kidd with the Milwaukee Bucks. As is often the case, an injury to a teammate - in this case Jabari Parker - created an opportunity for the Greek national team player and he seized the occasion. The Bucks, who have a number of internationals on the roster playing key roles, will qualify for the playoffs without the star rookie Parker, which is an exceptional result. Bravo!

Last but not least, two international players are battling for Rookie of the Year honors - Spain's Nikola Mirotic and Canada's Andrew Wiggins.

The Canadian was the early favorite, scoring more, but now Mirotic has surpassed him, in my opinion, with a PER of 18 compared to 13.5 for Wiggins.

The Spaniard has carried the Bulls in the month of March as my fellow columnist Jeff Taylor described yesterday and he performs for a much stronger team than Wiggins. An injury to Taj Gibson opened the door to more playing time and responsibilities for Mirotic.

So there you have it - there is an abundance of young international players making a bigger mark on the NBA this season.

This doesn't mean I've overlooked great production, especially on the boards, from veterans like Noah, Al Horford, Omer Asik, Ersan Ilyasova, Andrew Bogut or Marcin Gortat or from younger players like Gorgui Dieng and Steven Adams.

The truth is that international players have become so numerous and influential in the NBA now, that one could write a whole book about them!

George Eddy

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