Well, he's been in the league 3 years but he's still young. If you at what Garnett did per 36 minutes in his 3rd year there's not an enormous difference:

I'm not saying he's going to turn into Garnett, of course, but it's not inconceivable that he would become an all-star type player, even based on what he's done so far (which has generally been considered underachieving).

The numbers you are pulling up for Thomas aren't right. He only averaged 10 points a game last year. The best comparision I would make for him is a Shawn Marion type player. A freaky athlete who can rebound and block shots while playing above the rim.

Those lines are per 36 minutes. He only played like 27 a game last year.

My bad. The problem is that Thomas isn't in the same league as Garnett defensively and Thomas isn't as skilled offensively. 45% for a guy who plays above the rim is pretty weak.

Well, yeh, my point wasn't that Thomas is the next Garnett. I'm just saying his performance up to this point doesn't necessarily suggest that he'll never be an all-star caliber player. There are lots of examples of players who went on to all-star careers who were putting up similar numbers at Thomas' age.

I think his production is a little underrated because of his limited playing time which, to be fair, was a lot of his own fault in his first 2 seasons (he averaged like 6 fouls per 36 his first season!).

His lack of minutes is also because of how he plays. He gets real lazy on defense and doesn't run the floor. He settles a lot for mid-range jumpers which he is just not good at. Has the ability to completely throw off the flow of the team. They've tried everything in their power to make him a 40 minute a night guy but he just has games where he hurts them too much.

You know what´s sad ? I kind of am ... :redface:
And with D´Antoni and the knicks like having zero Cs it might just work if he gets his ass up and looses some weight and gains some of his mobility back (the guy seriously hulked up for no good reason)


Hmm, nice move by the Blazers putting the brakes on the Jazz´ financial situation and force them to make a decicion. If they match they have to get rid of Boozer (and likely not for fair value), if they don´t the Blazers owner will happily pay i guess.
If they somehow work it out and everybody is happy that could be the best 4-men FC next year.

In related news Patty Mills broke his foot the first day of summer league practice. The guy can´t catch a break since declaring for the draft ...

He could have helped himself by pulling out of the draft, heh. Injuries suck, but this was a bad decision from the start on his part.

Orlando fills out their starting five by signing former Mavs PF Brandon Bass to a 4 yr/$18m contract. Good move, now they just need to bolster the bench a little bit.

Orlando C Marcin Gortat is not happy that Orlando matched Dallas's offer, according to his agent.


A good move for Orlando, they can either try to get something back for him midseason in a trade or just keep him and know they have a quality big man on the bench.

I know I get disappointed when I'm guaranteed $35 million.

Should've signed for the appropriate years that would've earned him unrestricted status (one? two?).

Getting a >500% raise in this economy shouldn't feel too harsh, hopefully he gets over it.

I always get a kick out of those type of comments. So because a guy makes a lot of money, he's not allowed to be unhappy at his working conditions?

If I were a talent evaluator, I'd cross Gortat off my list if he didn't get pissed off. He wants to PLAY. He wants to be given a chance to play 30+ minutes a night, not play 10 behind Dwight Howard.

Now, he has the rules of the bargaining agreement to work with. And that's also why a lot of guys sign one year tenders to be unrestricted. All that said, he has every right to be a little upset he's going back to Orlando to backup Dwight.

One quick note: This isn't a scouting report on Gortat either. It doesn't matter how good you think he will or won't be. This is simply the case of a guy who thought he was going to get a chance to start on an NBA team and now gets to be a backup.

Because, as you said in the bold, he chose to take the long-term money. Is there a more perfect use of "having your cake and eating it too" than this? He only should be upset at himself if those working conditions were that bad.

Agree.

He still has a right to be dissapointed and upset they matched.

Now, if he goes into Derek Bell "Operation Shutdown" because of it, I'll have a far bigger problem with him.

Um, like TroyF said. Just because he says he´s not happy that doesn´t mean he will start downing shots and eating burgers all day while smoking on the bench and trying to throw Dwight off of hotel balconies ...
Seriously, he has a perfect reason to be unhappy at this development for the time being, as long as he´s going to do his job for Orlando that´s no reason to be called out for.

Especially since it is pretty surprising. I mean, the guy made the round in Orlando saying his goodbyes at the summer league recently (giving the media guys that did the summer league Gifts and everything) and made comments about Smith letting the whole 7 days go by to let Gortat do a basketball clinic in Poland before having to do a physichal with the Mavs...

And i think the whole thing seems a bit strange, especially with Bass going from Dallas to Orlando. I´m pretty sure right nowwith no Gortat the Mavs would offer him more than Orlando ... Now, if that´s just bad judgement by the Mavs or if there was an agreement broken by Otis Smith is a good question that might be asked.

Griffin (not Taylor) scored 27 in a summer league game. Nice.

Hawks acquire draft pick from Rockets*| ajc.com

The Hawks traded the rights to David Andersen to Houston for a future second-round pick, cash and future considerations, the team announced Tuesday.

A second-round pick of the Hawks in 2002 (37th overall), Andersen has played internationally for the past 11 years.

The Australian-born Andersen, 29, played last season for FC Barcelona in the ACB Spanish League, where he averaged 10.1 points and 4.1 rebounds in 36 games. He averaged 11.1 points and 4.1 rebounds in Euroleague play last season, helping his team to the Euroleague semifinals.

Hm... interesting

SI

Anthony Randolph is going to be a STUD in the coming years.

He set a NBA summer league record today with 42 points. That off of 13-22 shooting with 4 steals and 3 blocked shots. (and NO turnovers) I know it is just summer league, but damn. And he is still only 19 years old! (20 years old as of tomorrow.)

Nikoloz Tskitishvili says hi. ;)

Randolph had some games playing as a rookie in the actual NBA where he went 20-10-5 on very limited minutes. So I am not sure that is a fair comparison. He is the best looking player in the summer league this year, just using it as a basis to re-enforce that he has the talent to be great. (Something many NBA analysts already picked up on last year.)

Robin Lopez had 24 points, 16 boards and 3 blocks yesterday for the Suns. Oh, and he's still a stiff ;)

I was just having fun. Randolph looked better last year than Tskitishvili ever did in real NBA games.

Didn't Kwame Brown blow up in his first summer league game?

Glad to see Afflalo getting a new chance in Denver

If you have size/strength in the post and decent scoring ability its pretty easy to blow up in one or even a few summer league games. As mentioned above, even some NBA bench caliber stiffs can look awesome down low. Blake Griffin looks unstoppable early on this year. I find Randolph's day somewhat more telling than that sort of performance because Randolph is still a skinny kid, so it is not as if he can post up with any strength and get easy buckets all day long. But regardless, in general its the equivalent of 4th quarters in the NFL preseason.

Remember when Kwame averaged like 5 blocks a game for the first 3-4 games back his 2nd or 3rd year. And he was going to "break out."

What a waste

OK, I'm biased, but I think Andersen can play in the NBA. He's one of the best PFs in Europe. I think of him as a sort of Scola-lite.

He was critically under-used in our national team last Olympics.

It's always hilarious if you're >7', and demonstrate how you can play for like 10 games, you get thrown at least 30m in free agency.

This is like the Todd MacCoullough, Jerome James, et al contract.

Search youtube for Kwame's (I think) 30 points 17 rebound game and watch the footwork he shows. I don't know what the hell happened after that game, but he looks like the best PF of our generation on that night.

At least Toddy Mac could play, it was injuries that took him down. Jerome James on the other hand...

weed

Hmmm...so does that indicate that the Rox are going to trade Landry or Scola?

I doubt it, you guys still need as many bigs as possible.

Randolph averaged 15.9 points, 11.6 rebounds, 2.4 blocks, and 1.3 steals per 36 minutes last year as the youngest player in the league.

Yeah, Randolph has supreme talent it would seem. I'm been verging on being really concerned about the Warriors in the near future. I've kind of done an about face in regards to Don Nelson. After the playoff run, the 48 wins or whatever in '07-'08, and success in his previous Warriors tenure, I thought of him as the savior of Warriors basketball. Now I'm, at best, ambivalent, and at worst, pained at the thought of the future holds for the Warriors.

Best case next year:

-Monta Ellis returns to being the player he seemed to be turning into two seasons ago.

-Randolph continues to develop to a unique, awesome player.

-Morrow leads the league in 3-point shooting % again.

-Belinelli makes great strides. I saw something in him last year when he was healthy and got playing time. He seems to have very good instincts, and can shoot the lights out. He tries real hard on defense, although I'm not sure that will turn out to be enough

-Curry shows he's NBA ready. I don't think he is, and I'm not sold on him ever being more than a bench player. You saw how Davidson was last season without a true PG. Maybe it was just the complete lack of talent around him. They were still a decent mid-major team, but they didn't have enough to even qualify for the NCAA tournament, compared to the Elite 8 run of the previous year when they had a point guard. The Warriors don't have a true PG either, which scares me. Maybe combining Monta Ellis' penetration with his outside shooting ability you have something. Then again, maybe you just have two undersized combo guards getting eaten alive on the defensive end.

-Biedrins needs to stay out of foul trouble. He can play, and he's still very young, and seems to be getting better. The Warriors are markedly better when he's on the floor. If you could have him at the 5, and play Turiaf some at the 4, then maybe the team doesn't get murdered on the boards all the time.

Nate Robinson has a 2yr/$10m offer to join Josh Childress at Olympiakos.

What we need is a center, not another PF. I can see the Rox packaging Landry (amongst other players) to bring in a true C...

I think the difference is Gortat can actually play. He's been a terrific player off the bench for two years running now. He's not Dwight Howard good, but he's good enough that he could start at C on a majority of teams in the league IMHO.

Jerome James had PER's of around 10-12 (well below the league average) before the Knicks signed him.

Gortat's PER in both of his years has been above 17. Give him minutes, and he'll be an above average center in this league. Not an star, but a guy who can be a starting center on a championship contender.

James couldn't be a starter on a lottery team.

I really don't see how people are so in to Curry. How much value is there in an unathletic, undersized SG who's not going to do much more than score (maybe) 20 a game on 40% shooting?

Yeah, as a Knick fan I would've killed for Gortat to step into James' contract.

Spanish press says today that Rubio has finally agreed to go to Minnesota, now it's all about dealing with his buyout. Both his USA agent, Fegan, and his Spanish one are in Minnesota right now and had a meeting with the Wolves GM.

One of the possible tricks talked about to bend the NBA rule of $500k Max possible expenses by NBA teams in Euro buyouts, is to deal and buy from DKV both Ricky and their 2nd rounder also from DKV Henk Norel for $1M. That way they help Ricky as the $1M would be towards his buyout, with Norel maybe just being released or resent to DKV.

Gortat played in 6 games in 07-08, and then had 48 minutes in the postseason, so I don't think that really matters in the scheme of things. That's not "terrific for 2 years running"

But anyways, even if he can play, giving someone 33million after 69 career games seems awfully generous.

This is probably a good year to be a 2nd round pick or undrafted FA, with around half a dozen NBA teams who are going to be far more likely to add a minimum contract over a proven veteran due to the economic climate.

Jodie Meeks in Milwaukee has been pretty impressive, doing what he did in college basically, except at a better clip. I'd be shocked if he didn't find his way on to the Bucks' roster, given that they are one of the teams looking to cut costs.

The Pistons and Rockets 2nd rounders also are doing a good job. Summers and Jerebko as well as Budinger, Taylor. Dorsey also looks much better than last year.

The Rockets also traded for the rights to David Andersen btw. Former Draft Pick of the Hawks, now one of Europe´s better PF/C in his prime. Wouldn´t trade if he wouldn´t want to come over, so expect to see him in a Houston Jersey for a good part of the Midlevel. Propably a selling point how well they integrated Scola.
Then again he is more a PF definitely. While he is 6´11/7´ he is also pretty skinny and not much of a shot blocker or rebounder. But propably the best big in Europe at creating his shot off a drible or 2 from the Highpost with good range on a quick release, very good footwork as well and has some serious finesse moves . And since it´s not like the Rockets have a ton of guys that can create their own shot ...
Hayes/Andersen
Scola/Landry

is at least a pretty versatile rotation there. And if Yao comes back sometime this season than Andersen fits great next to him.

I heard an interview with Andersen and yeah, he's coming to the Rockets, didn't mention for how much, but I'd imagine it'd involve the midlevel, considering what he earns in Europe.

Dorsey talked the talk prior to Summer League, good to see him living up to it so far. Last year there I read a few things about his effort and attitude that put me off him, but hopefully he turns it around.

btw : The Warriors really have some promising players showing themselves in this summer league in Morrow and Randolph. Curry has been so-so in the way that his shot is really, really off but he´s getting good looks and also got to the line, so i am pretty sure he´ll be good in that aspect of the game. And his defense was good if you ask me, good job staying in fron of guys and also got in the passing lanes.
Randolph dominated and is just spectacular to watch, he really could be another Lamar Odom with his ability to play like a Guard at the 4 spot. Randolph is also more light-footed.
And Morrow is a ridiculously good shooter (i mean, didn´t shoot 47% by accident as a rookie last year) and could be a very good 6th man or a good starter for some teams.
If the Warriors ever get it together they will be a good team. A fun one definitely.

Biedrins
Randolph
Azubuike
Jackson
Ellis

Magette
Morrow
Curry
Wright
Turiaf
Belinelli
Law
Watson

that´s a pretty good roster on paper and in terms of talent. They should and might look to make a trade as they have kind of a logjam.

And Chase Budinger looks like Rip Hamilton out there. Incredibly efficient scoring in summer league : 18 PPG in 22 MPG on 68% FG (32-47) and 8-11 3s and 17-18 FTs. Thats 1,9 PPS ...
The bad thing is he didn´t do much beside scoring with 5 Assists and 11 Rebounds in 5 games as well as so-so defense (seriously, how does a guy with great size and athleticism get only 2 RPG ?). But he´s a great fit with Adelman´s offense and could very well be in the rotation on opening night.
Dorsey another great game with 11/20, averaged 10/15 with 3/3 BPG/APG.
Houston finished 5-0 without a first round pick in the roster.

Golden State does have some good young players (I like Brandan Wright as well), but Summer league stats really don't mean anything. Last year, for example, Jerryd Bayless scored 30 a game and won the summer league MVP. He averaged 4 ppg on 36% shooting in the regular season.

I agree that Golden State should be fun to watch. And that should mean something since the reason we watch the game is to be entertained.

If my team is one of those "should be above .500, but probably not in the tier of teams who can win the title this season" teams (which is where Golden State seems to be), I'd much rather watch a bunch of young guys having fun and scoring a ton than a team of decent veterans playing grinder ball.