Dairis Bertans’ younger brother has played over 200 NBA regular season games, appeared in 18 postseason contests and spent his entire three-year career playing for five-time champion head coach Gregg Popovich. Yet as Dairis begins his own NBA career with the New Orleans Pelicans, the advice San Antonio forward Davis Bertans gave Dairis is quite simple: “Shoot the ball!”
Those instructions have served Dairis, 29, extremely well so far, culminating with the 6-foot-4 guard developing into one of the most accurate perimeter shooters in Europe. During the 2018-19 season in Euroleague and Lega Basket competition, the native of Latvia shot 49.5 percent from beyond the three-point arc; he’s been close to or over 40 percent in five consecutive seasons, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
In an NBA where three-point shooting has become a necessity more than a luxury – Houston drains 15.6 treys per game in ’18-19, compared to 15 years ago, when the ’03-04 team leader in trifectas, Seattle, sank a mere 8.8 a night – Bertans’ skill set is in high demand. He seems to have excellent genes in this category, because younger sibling Davis, 26, is second in the NBA in three-point percentage (46.5 through Friday’s games), trailing only Brooklyn’s Joe Harris (47.1).
“I want to show that I can play here, at this level,” Dairis said, while meeting with New Orleans media after the Pelicans' home loss Friday to Toronto. “That’s my goal, first of all to try to help the team as much as I can in the 14 games left. My goal is to prove myself, that I can be here.”
Bertans’ status for Sunday’s game at Atlanta is to be determined by the New Orleans coaching staff, but he hopes to be able to make his NBA debut soon. Incidentally, the Pelicans and Spurs have already wrapped up their head-to-head season series, so Dairis will have to wait until ’19-20 to face Davis in the NBA, but the brothers are now both in the Southwest Division. Dairis noted that he did not know much about the city of New Orleans prior to signing with the Pelicans, but was aware that it is relatively close in America to where his brother plays in Texas.
“I knew where it was and that I was going to be close to my brother, but that’s it,” Dairis said of the Big Easy. “I had to look it up. But I’m excited to be here.
“I'm super excited about (the opportunity to play in the NBA). I've been trying to get to the NBA before, through summer leagues. I was close, but unfortunately it didn't work out. I’m really happy New Orleans gave me this chance.”
Dairis will become the fourth active Latvian-born NBA player, a group that includes his brother, Brooklyn forward Rodions Kurucs and Dallas forward Kristaps Porzingis. He sounded proud to be part of that quartet.
“Think about it, Latvia is a small country,” he said, “and now we have four NBA players, and two of them are brothers. It’s crazy.”
Dairis will need to shoot extremely well to compete with Davis for the title of best NBA shooter in the Bertans family. The Spurs reserve is a career 41.4 percent shooter from distance, including 39.9 percent as a rookie. Asked who’s the best shooter among the duo, a smiling Dairis responded, “We’ll see (about) that. I shoot better, for sure.”