LOS ANGELES — Milos Teodosic won’t engage in ranking his best works of art. Teodosic is a Serbian basketball legend who has made passing his canvas and wowed audiences from across the globe — in international competitions, in every country in Europe — with his creativity, flare and fearlessness. He’s been making zany, unconscionable passes “from my second day of playing basketball,” he said, and never sat down to chart every bounce pass between an opponent’s legs, sidearm curveball from halfcourt that caught someone in stride or no-look that made defenses spin in search of the ball while it’s being laid in the hoop.

Plus, he’d rather not look back when there are still so many new and exciting ways to deliver the ball that he’d rather explore what’s next than what’s already been done. Before a recent practice at the Los Angeles Clippers’ training facility, Teodosic asked an inquisitor to tell him, “Which pass do you like the most?” Teodosic’s response to the answer revealed another side of how he views his purpose with those passes: to get buckets for his teammates.

While playing the United States in the preliminary round of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Teodosic pulled off easily the most-discussed pass of the tournament, when he came around a screen from Nikola Jokic to split Paul George and Kevin Durant, dipped into the lane where he froze Carmelo Anthony, then left his feet and got Draymond Green to leave his feet to contest a layup. While everyone in the arena was staring at the rim, Teodosic had his eyes locked elsewhere and whipped an over-the-shoulder, behind-the-back pass to a wide-open Bogdan Bogdanovic at the 3-point line. Reminded of that delectable dish, Teodosic shook his head.

“Bogdanovic missed,” Teodosic said. “Not assist. Nice pass, but not assist.”

Los Angeles has been over-the-top excited about the arrival of the Lakers’ Lonzo Ball, but he isn’t the only rookie point guard who will have folks in this town talking this season. Teodosic, a 30-year-old who had long been regarded as the best active player to have never suited up in the NBA, decided this would be the best time to explore the only remaining bucket-list item of his basketball career.

His contract with Euroleague power CSKA Moscow ended last spring and he no longer had to worry about an expensive buyout. So it was time to see if a Euroleague champion and MVP could hold his own in the world’s best league.

“When we start to play basketball as a kid,” Teodosic told The Vertical, “the highest dream, you know, was the NBA.”

When Chris Paul forced a trade to the Houston Rockets last June, the Clippers landed Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams, giving them two rotation guards to go with Austin Rivers. What they lacked was a playmaker who could possibly set up Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan with the kind of lobs to which they had grown accustomed.

“We targeted him No. 1,” Clippers executive vice president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank told The Vertical of Teodosic. “The skillset that we lost with Chris and looking at free agents, trade targets, we thought, by a wide margin, that he was the best fit because his passing is off the chart. Everyone loves playing with Milos. Why? Because he’s a giver. He’ll pass up open shots to get someone else a shot. Even if it costs him a turnover, he’s willing to do it, to send a message.”

Frank said the Clippers used footage of Teodosic’s passing during their free-agent meeting with Griffin. Amazed by what he saw, Frank said Griffin asked, “You think you can get him?” To which Frank replied, “We’re going to go all out to get him.”

View photos This isn’t the first time Patrick Beverley and Milos Teodosic have been teammates. (Getty Images) More

Fabrizio Besnati, the Clippers’ director of international scouting, has lived the past nine years in Belgrade, Serbia, where he developed a relationship and shared mutual friends with Teodosic during that time. Teodosic, as a friend, had come to Besnati for advice previous times he considered moving to the NBA. After winning a Euroleague title with CSKA in 2016, Teodosic had a greater desire to make the leap. Besnati was not aware the Clippers had used Teodosic in their meeting with Griffin but felt no extra pressure to close the deal. “I was pretty honest,” Besnati told The Vertical. “We needed a point guard, a playmaker. He would play with a great team, great coach and pass the ball to very athletic bigs that want to be fed that way. Knowing Milos, he loves to play. He didn’t want to go to a situation where maybe his position would be clogged up. It was very important that the basketball situation was going to be right and we had a very good fit. That’s pretty much how it went down.”

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