SB Nation - DerMarr Johnson

Nuggets get minor facelift by adding Afflalo

Nate Timmons — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:38:16 -0000

More photos » by D. Lippitt/Einstein - NBAE/Getty Images

Welcome to Denver Arron Afflalo. Hope you're up to the Kobe/CP3/Whomever guarding challenge!

Quick note: Thanks to all of you for staying active in my absence. With no internet connection for a week I felt like I was in NBA exile and basically was jonesin' for an NBA news fix ... thanks again and now let's get back to it!

Figures that as soon as I leave town that the Nuggets decide to pull the trigger on yet another trade (hopefully again as one-sided as the Billups trade) with the Detroit Pistons. While this trade is old news for all of you ... I'm just starting to have it sink in since returning from some R&R in the great Northwest.

With the addition of Arron Afflalo the Nuggets continue the trend of adding shooting guards with difficult names to spell ... Yakhouba Diawara, DerMarr Johnson, Dahntay Jones, and now Afflalo. I'll sleep easier knowing that 2010 NBA draft prospect Al-Farouq Aminu out of Wake Forest plays power forward.

Let's delve in a bit more to Denver's newest Nugget after the jump.

I'm fairly confident when I say that adding Afflalo pretty much cements the starting shooting guard spot for J.R. Smith. Afflalo has the ability to be a pretty good perimeter defender and provides some scoring pop that should pretty much wipe out the loss created by Dahntay Jones accepting a deal with the Pacers.

I can't fault Jones for taking the money and a chance at a starting spot, but I applaud the Denver front office for finding a player on the cheap (just a second round pick) that can come in right away and solidify a rotation spot.

via bbs.chinadaily.com.cn
One-third of the 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend's Shooting Stars team is a Denver Nugget.

Afflalo is a 6'5'' and 215 lb. shooting guard (Jones is 6'6'' 210 lbs ... closer to 6'4'') who will be just 24 years old when the 2009-10 season kicks off (celebrating number 24 October 15th.)

Here is what Nuggets executive Mark Warkentien had to say about Afflalo and forward Walter Sharpe via NBA.com:

“We are very pleased to add two young promising prospects like Arron and Walter to our veteran roster,” said Warkentien. “Arron is a proven NBA defender with an incredible work ethic and Walter is a talented but raw player with tremendous upside.”

Arron has seen his stats increase in each of his first two seasons in the league to go along with increased playing time.

	2007-08	2008-09
Minutes	12.9	16.7
FG%	41%	43%
3-pt%	20.8%	40.2%
FT%	78.2%	81.7%
PPG	3.7	4.9

Afflalo's three-point stats are fairly impressive. In his rookie campaign he went just 10-48 from deep, but in his second season he went 43-107 and nearly made as many bombs as took the previous season. It would appear that Afflalo is now comfortable with the NBA three-point line and should fill a nice role in the drive-and-dish Denver system.

Another element that I like from Afflalo is his free throw percentages. He took more foul shots in his rookie season (where he was not shooting as much from downtown) than he did last season, but he should be a steady shot from the freebie line and the Nuggets will welcome that, I know I will.

Afflalo from the foul line:
2007-08: 68-87
2008-09: 58-71

I would suspect that by hopefully averaging roughly 20 minutes a night and in Denver's aggressive offensive system that Afflalo will roughly double his free throw attempts from last season. Dahntay Jones took 151 foul shots for Denver last season in 18.1 minutes per game. Jones probably depended more on getting to the line than Afflalo will have to, since Arron should be more of a threat from the perimeter, but an increase in attempts should be coming.

Afflalo's role with the team:

There has been a lot of chatter about Sonny Weems getting a shot to be Denver's backup shooting guard. It's tough to be sold on a guy who didn't see much NBA action, especially when Denver makes a move to bring in a young guard. The Denver Post has a story today talking about Weems trying to earn playing time through his Summer League play, but the following quote from the story from George Karl doesn't sound promising:

"Sonny is an athletic player that's got to learn how to play basketball," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "At times it looks like he's taking that step, and then at times it doesn't look like he's taking that step. He has 10 days here at summer league. He's going to have to figure out his niche. He's got the talent to play in the league. The question will be: Does he have the mind to play in the league?
"I think, in general, this summer and September and October will be very important to him."

full story here

To me, the backup shooting guard minutes are Afflalo's to lose. Denver would not have made this move if they didn't feel Arron could fill the void at the two guard. Any time you lose a good teammate and a guy who didn't command the ball on offense, like Jones, it's tricky to replace that chemistry and identity. Afflalo is still on the upswing in his NBA career, while we've probably seen Jones' ceiling as an NBA player.

The Nuggets love taking chances on young talent and well, taking chances in general. This move is not the big splash that a lot of fans were hoping for, but this move could pave the way for J.R. Smith to really blossom while at the same time allowing Denver to gain a valuable role player and rising talent.

On paper this is another low radar, but savvy move by Denver's front office team. How it will translate on the court will be determined by the Nuggets' success this season as a team and the individual play of two maturing young players in J.R. Smith and Arron Afflalo.

Welcome to a winner Double A ... you're in the majors now.

via a.espncdn.com

Nickname: Until further notice I'll probably refer to Arron Afflalo as "Double A" ... easy to type. Anybody have suggestions on a nickname? Leave them in the comments section!

ntimmons73@yahoo.com

Is Summer League Worth It?

Jon L — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:30:11 -0000

I know that Summer League is still a few months away, but rather than putting up another post of bullets I thought I'd discuss the Summer Leagues, and specifically whether they have any value for D-League players. Summer League is mainly used by NBA teams to see what their newly-drafted rookies can do and how they stack up to players with a season or two of experience. And then, because rosters need to be filled out, free agents get signed to short contracts. A lot of the players are D-Leaguers or other minor league ballers who are trying to catch a break and make it onto an NBA roster.

But how often does that happen? As I've been writing player profiles, and reading those that Scott has written, a pattern seems to emerge. A player will join a Summer League team, not get much playing time, and either get cut or, in some cases, get a preseason contract where he'll also not get a lot of playing time, then get cut. So why bother playing? What do D-Leaguers get out of going to Summer League?

The problem, as I see it, is that Summer League games aren't real. I don't mean that in the metaphysical/philosophical, "how can we be sure if anything is real" sense, I mean that they just don't matter. Summer League teams are usually coached by assistants (except in some cases, as with first-time head man Vinny Del Negro last year), and the head coach typically watches from the stands or isn't there at all.

Teams run basic plays, as again, Summer League tends more towards being a diagnostic tool to gauge how much work that lottery pick will need. There has been some research done into whether the outcomes or individual statistics put up in the NBA preseason have any bearing on the regular season, and if I recall the results have been somewhat mixed, but lean towards "no, they don't." Well Summer League games matter even less.

This is not to say there haven't been success stories. Denver's Dahntay Jones is probably the most obvious example of this. As D-League President Dan Reed pointed out in his interview with Scott:

He played in our league last year with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and didn't even get a 10-day, much less a contract for the rest of the season. Yet he caught a lot of NBA team's attention through his play for the Mad Ants, which led the Denver Nuggets to target him for their summer league team, which he parlayed into a starting role on the Nuggets, who are currently leading their division. Think he's upset he didn't have a 10-day or get signed for the remainder of the season? Probably not.

There are other examples, too. Anthony Tolliver is another guy who made an impression at Summer League and ended up playing in 19 games for the San Antonio Spurs.

More often than not, though, even if a "D-League guy" makes it past Summer League and plays his way into a preseason contract, NBA teams by that point have already mostly, if not completely, filled their roster with retreads, leaving anyone really working their ass off to get a shot with little chance of seeing a payoff.

I've mentioned it a few times here, but I follow the Washington Wizards. I don't even remember who was on their Summer League team last year, but for preseason they brought in DerMarr Johnson, Linton Johnson, and Taj McCullough. Now I'm not saying that any of those guys would have made a huge impact on the team this past season, but the real problem was that all three were competing with Juan Dixon for the 15th roster spot. Juan Dixon, who in addition to being local and a former Wizard himself, had signed a partially guaranteed contract. Over at Bullets Forever, everyone pretty much assumed that no matter how well either of the Johnsons played (McCullough was a relatively early cut), Dixon was likely to get the roster spot because of his contract.

I can't imagine that's an unusual situation. Other teams may have better salary cap situations, but they're just as likely to keep a guy who they have to pay anyway rather than a guy who's only there on a preseason contract. And even then, if a guy does make it past the preseason onto an NBA roster, he's likely the first one dropped in case of injury.

Witness the Cleveland Cavaliers last year (I really didn't mean to put that reference in there). Jawad Williams impressed them enough in the Summer League and preseason to work his way onto the team, but they had to waive Ronald Dupree, then later dropped Williams to make room for Trey Johnson.

I've strayed a little bit, but while there have been a few successes, I question the value of attending Summer League for most D-League players. The main advantage seems to be getting exposure, but it's not really a situation that always allows players to really show what they can do. If a guy plays solid defense, for example, more often than not teams will approach it as "here is how my new draftee needs to improve," rather than having found a guy who can contribute for them later on.

NBA teams seem to place a higher value on how a player performs during the D-League season and in "real game" situations. A Summer League invite rarely guarantees a spot on an NBA roster, certainly more rarely than just performing well in the D-League. To that end, is the Summer League really worth it?

Toros Wrap-Up 3/16-3/22

Jon L — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:17:32 -0000

For the Sprit of Nelson in All of Us

The Toros continued their March road trip with three games this week, sandwiching a win against Fort Wayne between losses to Erie and Rio Grande Valley. After struggling in his first week since coming to the Toros, guard DeMarcus Nelson stepped up his game, scoring 27 points on 20 shots to go with 7 rebounds and 2 blocks against Erie, 20 points on 16 shots and 8 rebounds against Fort Wayne and an impressive 39 points on 18 shots against RGV.

Wednesday's game against Erie was a low-possession affair, and the Toros turn the ball over too much in general for them to succeed in that kind of game. Marcus Williams "led" the team with six turnovers, and Nelson and DerMarr Johnson each had three of their own. The Bayhawks, on the other hand, only had nine as a team. They were led by Erik Daniels, who had 22 points and 12 assists, and Maureece Rice, who finished with 26 points and seven assists.

Against Fort Wayne, the Toros were running again and able to keep Chris Hunter in check, holding him to six points on 12 shots in 19 and a half minutes. I'm not sure what the full story is on this, as there's no recap on the D-League site and Hunter didn't have any fouls, so I'm just going to assume it was some combination of stout defense (Dwayne Jones had three blocks) and shots just not falling. Austin's backup center Serge Angounou had a solid game (for him), finishing with seven points, seven rebounds and two steals in a little over 20 minutes.

Other than Nelson, the Toros were fairly inefficient against the Vipers. Williams and Squeaky Johnson each had more shot attempts than they had points, and DerMarr Johnson was scoreless in 24 minutes off the bench. Rio Grande Valley's Kurt Looby continues to be a defensive force, finishing with five blocks and 16 rebounds to go with 14 points. Jawad Williams threw in 28 points and Jared Jordan had 15 assists.

Who Guards the Guards?

After talking about Dwayne Jones a few weeks ago and Squeaky Johnson last week, I've decided to devote this section of the wrap-up to talking about a different unheralded Toro. This week: Stanley Burrell. As I noted in those game notes, Burrell is an aggressive man defender, and he doesn't really do much else. He's an inefficient shooter, though he's shown occasional flashes recently of other abilities – he collected five rebounds in 15 minutes on March 7, and had 7 assists on the 13th.

For all of his aggressiveness, though, Burrell really doesn't foul a lot. The contest against Tulsa on the 13th is the only game since he joined the team in mid-February that he's had more than two fouls. He averages about 17 minutes a game, and the Austin starters tend to play a lot of minutes so I don't think he'll see much more than that this year (especially now that DeMarcus Nelson has joined the team), but I also don't think it will take much more work for Burrell to become a lockdown defender.

Going Home, Eventually

The Toros only have one game in the next seven days, so I'm probably going to skip a full wrap-up next week and lump it in with the next. Austin's road trip finally comes to an end with games at Sioux Falls and Reno, before coming back to Texas to play Tulsa and Iowa. It's nearing the home-stretch of the D-League regular season, and Austin is fighting with the Colorado 14ers not just for the top spot in the Southwest Division, but for the best record in the league. Whoever comes out on top, of course, gets to pick their first-round playoff opponent.

Game Notes: Fort Wayne 113, Austin 110

Jon L — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:34:12 -0000

Last night I attended the Toros' only home game this month, against Fort Wayne. The Mad Ants won in overtime, 113-110, behind a triple double from Walker Russell, Jr., who had 19 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Marcus Williams came close to one himself with 34 points on 24 shots to go with 10 assists and 8 rebounds.

The Toros were winning for most of the game, before Fort Wayne clawed its way back with Marcus Williams on the bench in the 4^th quarter. Even after he came back in, FW was able to hold on and match the Toros basket for basket before taking the win in the extra session. Austin had a chance to send the game into double overtime, but DerMarr Johnson's last-second three bricked off the backboard (more on that later). Forthwith, notes on some of tonight's players:

Marcus Williams

If anyone read my initial comment on Scott's "call up Pops" post, they'll see that I've done a 180 on Marcus Williams. I loved his game tonight. He was the focal point of the offense without being overbearing, and it never really seemed like he was forcing anything. As I mentioned above, he was very efficient with 34 points on 24 shots. Reinforcing what Scott wrote in the latest call-up rankings, he's also been playing point-forward and for a stretch of the game was the actual point guard (guarding and being guarded by WRJr.). By my count he had 18 possessions where he brought the ball up the court, and there were probably a few more, enough that it was probably a full quarter of the team's 82 possessions. His passing skills were pretty nice at that. He had a few dunks, including a pair of alley-oops, and one where he drove to the basket and dunked like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Walker Russell Jr.

I'd say he was the second-best player on the court, though to be honest I was a little surprised to see he had a triple double. There were several opportunities for assists that he missed out on because his teammates blew layups. A big part of his game is the drive and kickout, though there were a few times where he sliced through three defenders for a layup that showed he has a little bit of explosiveness (I say a little bit because I only saw it happen a few times). Squeaky Johnson guarded him early on in the game (and the Toros would eventually throw at least three different defenders at him), and he proved to be a real handful on both ends of the court. He did a good job of playing the passing lanes towards the end of the game, stealing the ball on an inbounds pass and dashing for a layup to put Fort Wayne on top 111-110. Russell finished with five turnovers, and the three I saw came from forcing things - trying to force the ball into the post and having it knocked away by Squeaky, getting the ball stripped from him while trying to dribble through traffic, and stepping out of bounds while driving baseline for a kickout.

Dwayne Jones

I really liked the Toros center in the last game I saw, and while he finished with 23 points on 13 shots and 16 rebounds, I felt like he played a bit distracted at a few points in the game, particularly at the outset. To be honest I think he may play better when he's the only big man out there. While Eric Dawson started at PF, he and Jones eventually split time at center until Dawson went out with an injury. Without another player to take up space in the post, Jones is free to use his good instincts to clean up around the basket and pull down rebounds. He's not great when he has to put the ball on the floor; the first time he had to dribble more than twice it resulted in this flip-hook thing that was one of the most awkward shots of the game. He also (along with Dawson) had a tough time guarding Fort Wayne center Chris Hunter; Jones was clearly frustrated at times, and towards the end of the game gave Hunter a couple of forearms to the back on one play.

DerMarr Johnson

DerMarr Johnson's 11 and a half minutes of play were mostly uneventful. To be honest I'm not sure how great of a fit he is in Austin. His game is fairly similar to Marcus Williams (without the passing and rebounding), but they kind of detract from each other when they're on the court together and Williams plays so much that I can't see Johnson getting consistent quality minutes. Johnson missed the last shot of the game, but I don't really put it on him. He was put into the game with one second left in overtime after being on the bench since six and a half minutes remained in the 4^th. I can kind of understand why Austin coach Quin Snyder wanted him the court with a three needed (he was one of four Toros to attempt one in the game), but he must've been stone cold at that point. Also, and this is unrelated to anything, but his ankles are really, really skinny.

Others

Ezra Williams of the Toros showed off a nice three-point stroke in the first half, and he had a nice behind-the head pass to Dawson at one point and a solid block on Sean Sonderleiter. If Austin is going to have a consistent bench contributor as I mentioned in the weekly wrap-up, E. Williams may be a solid bet, though he's going to really have to improve his efficiency.

Stanley Burrell of the Toros is an aggressive on-the-ball defender, something I also noticed in the last game I saw. Even when he was on the floor alongside Squeaky Johnson he took on the responsibility of guarding Walker Russell Jr., and he knocked Russell around a bit. He didn't see much time at the end of the game, probably in part because he's pretty much a non-entity on offense and struggles when putting the ball on the floor. At one point he stole the ball and had a 2-on-2 with DerMarr Johnson, and ended up turning the ball over.

DeMarcus Nelson of the Toros had a few nice sequences, including one where he drove to the basket for a layup, then got back on defense and got a block on the other end, but to be honest I was surprised to see he played 43 minutes. It's true that was focusing more on other players, but I just didn't notice him on the court for long stretches.

Taj McCullough of the Mad Ants, like DerMarr Johnson, spent time on the Washington Wizards preseason roster so I have some prior exposure to him, though he wasn't much of a presence there. He spent most of tonight's game guarding Marcus Williams and hanging out on the perimeter. He had a rough shooting night, needing 18 shots to get 15 points.

Big Names Joining The D-League

Scott Schroeder — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:09:33 -0000

Following in the footsteps last week of Shaun Livingston, more big names have entered the D-League today.

First, this morning, I heard that the Albuquerque Thunderbirds picked up Mouhamed Saer Sene and the Erie Bayhawks picked up Quincy Douby. Now, while following along with the games tonight, I notice Demarcus Nelson started for the Austin Toros.

Albuquerque's pick up is great, as they severely lacked a big man able to guard Courtney Sims this afternoon. Sims had a field day with the two headed monster of 6'7" 280 pounders in Jasper Johnson and Antonio Meeking, scoring 25 points, grabbing 15 boards, and swatting five shots.

Erie's pick-up of Quincy Douby will secure their lineup, as they had been starting Tony Bethel at the 2. Now they'll start Maureece Rice, Douby, Jackie Manuel, Ivan Harris, and Erik Daniels. Erie will be a team to reckon with in a tight division race.

Austin's pick up is the most interesting. I have no idea how they have been able to keep such a strong team for the past couple years. Everytime somebody leaves, a player at least as good comes in and replaces them. Austin has cycled Malik Hairston, Blake Ahearn, Anthony Tolliver, Ian Mahinmi, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Andre Brown, and Charles Gaines through the system. Still, tonight they started Demarcus Nelson, Marcus Williams, and Dwayne Jones, all three with NBA experience. They bring DerMarr Johnson off the bench! I have no idea how they are to able to keep such a solid team. Rather, I have no idea how teams like Tulsa are able to field the roster they do without being able to retool like Austin.

Toros Wrap Up 3/2-3/8

Jon L — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:32:19 -0000

Pops heads north, DerMarr Johnson heads south and the Toros...well, they played three games last week.

Welcome Back

On Tuesday the Toros acquired forward DerMarr Johnson from the player pool. Johnson played for the Toros in 44 games last season, averaging just over 17 points and 4 rebounds. To make room for Johnson, the team waived reserve center Nate Brown for "injury reasons."

The last time I saw Johnson play was during the Wizards' preseason this year. His play was up and down, but there was some real debate among Wizards fans as to whether the team should keep him or Juan Dixon on the roster. In the end Dixon's contract was partially guaranteed, so he ended up with the spot. Here's a scouting report on his last D-League stint from Matt Moore via Bullets Forever.

"If these trends continue...ayyyyyyy."

The Toros dropped all three of their games last week, losing to Colorado, Albuquerque and Reno. Bright spots were Marcus Williams, who had 31 points on 25 shots to go with 11 rebounds and seven assists against Colorado and Eric Dawson, who had 39 points on 21 shots and nine rebounds against Albuquerque. The losses mean Austin has dropped to second place in their division behind the 14ers. Unfortunately for the Toros, there may be no chance for payback, as Wednesday's game was the last regular season meeting between the two teams.

If there was any one culprit this week, it was the Toros bench. Back when Mensah-Bonsu was in Austin, the Toros usually found at least one solid bench contributor each night to help pick up any slack, typically one of the centers Dwayne Jones or Nate Brown. Pops signing with Toronto (and congratulations to him for getting a contract for the rest of the year and having an immediate impact) has moved Jones into the starting lineup, and Brown was released to make room for DerMarr Johnson, so when Jones has a night like he did against Colorado (0-3 with two points and five rebounds), or Marcus Williams needs 23 shots to get 19 points and Squeaky Johnson shoots 1-7 against Albuquerque, or the starting guards can't hit their threes against Reno (a combined 2-13), well, you go 0-3.

About that scouting report...

Going back to DerMarr Johnson, the new old Toro had a rough week, shooting a combined 4-25. He's always had a trigger finger, but for now I'll chalk this up to getting re-acclimated to the team. I think he can really help the team out and take some of the scoring load off of Williams, but he needs to start maximizing his time on the court. Other than grabbing six rebounds against Colorado, he really had no other non-scoring stat of note last week.

The Toros have their only home game this month on Tuesday, and for now I'm planning on attending. I'll try to get some in-game thoughts together and post them on Wednesday.

In the League: March 3, 2009

ben.renz — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:05:59 -0000

Colorado 124, Dakota 112 - Well it looks like I was wrong on this one. The Wizards are slipping. They've lost 3 straight and have won only 4 of their last 10. And I look at their roster and I just don't understand it. The Wizards magically turned the ball over 26 times in this one. Maurice Baker ended with more turnovers (6) than field goals (5). Even Blake Ahearn had 5 of his own. However Blake was a saving grace as usual with 22 points and 6 dimes. Rod Benson and Richard Hendrix had their usual awesome games in tow. Rod with 12 and 12 and Richard Hendrix with 21 and 11 (again, Golden State has the most flawed decision making skills in basketball - and this is coming from a league that includes a team that agreed to trade Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol). Dakota was without Hamed Haddadi and Renaldo Major and it showed as the Wiz didn't have the heart for this one. Colorado snapped their two game skid and looked as great as ever. Dominique Coleman is getting my NOD OF THE NIGHT with a near triple double of 24 points, 9 boards, 8 dimes, and 3 steals for good measure. Coleman's been putting up nice numbers this season. Hint hint. Newcomer John Lucas led all scorers with 29 and had 3 robberies in the win and Josh Davis and Billy Thomas both picked up 19 points a piece and succeeded in having the most boring names on the court. Nice win for the 14ers. HEY COLORADIANS (that can't be right), GO SEE THE 14ERS PLAY. You people have it so good.

Lots of movement yesterday. Iowa has JamesOn Curry back ON their squad. Hopefully you remember JamesOn. He was a beast for the Energy last season, a 20 point scorer. His name is great to make jokes with. And he urinates in public. We do a lot of talking about names here at RU. It's kind of sad really. Probably because we have bland names. Austin has DerMarr Johnson back as well. Yes, DerMarr was a bust. A number 6 pick that didn't pan out for the Hawks. But he has many other good qualities. For one, he's the godbrother of Michael Beasley. He also took Marcus Williams' spot on the Spurs last season (TRAVESTY). And he's a bad driver. Just awful. The worst. And for some reason the Bighorns traded Antonio Meeking to the Thunderbirds for David Noel. Whom Reno decided they did not want. Sounds fair to me.

Tonight we've got 3 games, and I'm liking the Iowa-Sioux Falls matchup. My pick is Iowa, and it's very likely I'll be wrong again.

21 Days Later

Stop-n-Pop — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:27:10 -0000

It was a long 3 weeks folks. 21 days is far too long of a time to go without a win.

This morning's game recap is a little late in happening because yours truly was up in the cities tracking down the 20th anniversary version of the Cities 97 Sampler. My wife is a big fan of the series and it has become something of a Christmas tradition to have one of these CDs waiting under the tree with her name on it. Here in Mankato, our Target had a line of about 100 people waiting at 7 AM (some people were in line at around 2 in the morning). Unfortunately, they didn't have enough CDs to satisfy everyone in line and many people left with nothing. Driving past the Target in Shakopee I saw a throng of about 200 people trying (most of them failing) to walk up to the door at 8 to get their copy of the 2 disc charity set. Folks, here's a little secret: Cities 97 loads the hell out of the Southdale Super Target and you can mosey on in at about 9 and get your precious CD. It's the same deal each and every single year. As a quick aside, can I ask any of our pop music listeners in the audience what in the hell is up with Duffy? I'm a big fan of Memphis soul and early honky tonk so I don't exactly listen to a ton of contemporary adult pop, but I'm absolutely floored that this squeaky chucklehead is able to find her way onto the radio. Listening to her cut on the CD during the ride home made me want to throw the damn thing out the window. Anywho...

Yesterday I closed out the game preview post with this little ditty:

It's a tough choice: kill video game zombies or watch the evil zombie creation of head zombie Kevin McHale. No matter what he screws up...he will always be back.

I received an email from an anonymous reader who was upset that I would compare the players on the team to a bunch of zombies. She wasn't upset about the McHale comment but she thought the "evil zombie creation" line was a bit over the line as far as the players were concerned.

Admittedly, it was an off-hand comment spurred on by a reference to a new video game, but the more I think about it, I think zombie references are the way to go with this squad...for the players and front office. Let me explain.

Zombies are pure instinct. They are who they are. As we learned in the Day of the Dead, mad-genius scientists can't change the nature of even the most cuddly zombie (Bub, in case you are wondering). There are no carrots and there are no sticks; you simply have to understand that the zombies want to eat you and act accordingly.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are an offensively geared small-ball club. Period. You can't teach a rotation of Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, and Al Jefferson to be a taller more defensively-minded group of guys. You can't get mad at them and yank them out of the game when one of them misses a single defensive rotation or forgets to seal their man on a weak-side rebound. You can't not play a rookie zombie like Kevin Love because he misses a few easy bunnies in his first 10 games of his pro career. You get the picture.

Last night Our Beloved Puppies displayed a blueprint for winning zombie basketball: well-spaced, up tempo offensive ball for 3 quarters before banging it down to chief zombie Big Al in the 4th quarter when the pace slows and opposing sleep walkers ratchet up their game in hopes that they can sneak away from Target Center with a V.

Before I get too caught up in the zombie kick, let me take a step back to note that the Wolves won this game for two reasons: solid shooting and free throws. Last night Minny went 51.4% from the field. They are now shooting 43.7% from the field and are the 24th ranked team in the league with eFG at 46.2%. Last night they went 22-30 from the line (compared to 15-23 for Philly). The Wolves have the 3rd best FT% in the league at 79.6% but have the 7th fewest attempts at 18.3/game. Despite outscoring the Sixers by 7 at the line, the Wolves give up an average of 1.3 ppg at the charity stripe to their opponents. Last night the Wolves were outstanding from both the field and the line and it would have been a minor tragedy had they lost the game to a team that went 1-11 from beyond the arc as well as shooting 4% less than Minny from the field.

Why were the Sixers so close? Quite simply, rebounding. Last night the Wolves were out-rebounded in the first (0-10) to (3-14). Coming down the stretch in the 4th they lost out on the glass to the tune of (2-7) to (4-11). Again, the Wolves started with their "tall ball" line up and it was worthless. They ended with Craig Smith at the 4.

Moving on to another part of the zombie blueprint, the Wolves played their most effectively paced game of the year last night. Overall, their pace has creeped up into the teens (18th) but they are still playing too slow for the type of personnel they have and the type of ball opponents allow them to play during the 1st 3 quarters of ball. Last night OBPs took 20 shots in the 1st, 20 shots in the 2nd, 19 shots in the 3rd, and 15 in the 4th. Granted, they had more free throw attempts coming down the stretch, but the game visibly and statistically slowed down (as it tends to do in the 4th when the opposition wakes from their slumber and tries to close out the good guys after 3 quarters of somewhat ambivalent ball.)

When the game did slow down in the 4th, our zombie squad developed something of a plan and a pecking order with Big Al taking 6 of the team's 15 shots in the quarter (all of them coming after the 8:06 mark). Randy Foye, to his great credit, foiled the Wolves' marketing gurus and played his best point of the year; doing little more than getting the ball down to Mr. Jefferson. There is zero need for 4th Quarter Foye when you have a zombie beast like Big Al on the low post.

Since we're on the subject of pecking orders, I'm going to hold true to my promise about not talking about the coaching on this squad, but I am going to take note of the need for this team to start filtering down its rotations. There is no reason on God's green earth that Jason Collins should be starting or taking minutes from K-Love. This squad should be sticking to a strict Miller, Jefferson, Gomes, Foye, Love, McCants, Brewer, Smith, and Sebastian Telfair rotation. These are the only guys who have a chance of sticking around and they are the ones who should be getting the minutes. This post is getting a bit long so I'll save the subject of rotations for another day, but this team should have more of a rotational identity by now; it would benefit the players' confidence and the team's performance.

Let's wrap this up with some bullet points:

KG is coming back to town tomorrow night. What are the odds he takes a swing at Mr. Love? KL fits the bill: big and white.
Minnesota has the highest scoring bench in the league, averaging 40.6 ppg compared to the starters' 60.1 ppg. Last night, led by the Rhino, the bench zombies scored 42 points while the starters went for 60.
Speaking of the Rhino, he had 21 points and 0...let me repeat that: 0 rebounds. We'll get back to the subject in a post about rotations, but even thought Smith had a fantastic night on the offensive end, his lack of rebounding nearly killed the team at the end of the night. Remember, Philly almost won because of rebounding. In a way, this game was both the blueprint and anti-blueprint for victory. They won because up tempo ball allowed their players to do what they do well and they shot well. They almost lost because they didn't put the correct personnel in the game down the stretch when the tempo finally changed and Big Al took over.
Big Al had an interesting tidbit on last night's radio broadcast. He really stuck up for Randy Wittman and said that people criticizing the team should focus on the players, not the coach.
Bassy had a nice game on the stat sheet but in real time he seemed off.
God bless Willie Green and Mo Cheeks. For once it was nice to play against a team that seemed to have more rotation issues than the Wolves. I'm not sure what was going on in Mr. Cheeks' mind but every time Green came in the game (and Thad Young went out) good things happened for the Wovles.
As mentioned yesterday, I wouldn't want to be a Philly fan right now. They have some great young talent in Young and Marreese Speights, but they also have 3 vets in Andre Miller, Elton Brand, and Andre Iguodala who are ahead of them on the pecking order and who place this team in a kind of nether land between young and old that just doesn't seem to pass the smell test.
Last year Samuel Dalembert blocked 9 shots against the Wolves including Big Al's last-gasp attempt to win the game. This year, Big Al ate Sam for lunch. He's a bad man, that Mr. Jefferson.
Outside of being a worthless graduate of the worthless Bloomington Jefferson HS, Kevin Lynch is not exactly filling the shoes of Billy McKinney as the team's color commentator. We all know that Jefferson grads have trouble with complex ideas and many of them are unable to use simple tools, but I expected a bit more from Mr. Lynch due to his time at the U. Of course my view of him may be slightly tarnished due to my time at Bloomington Kennedy but...well, I'm kidding a bit about the former Gopher. He was quick to pick up the team's latest talking point; telling the audience that Mike Miller is incapable of taking bad shots within 5 minutes of the opening tap. Here's hoping he continues to improve and the team can get back to what it had last year with Alan Horton and Mr. McKinney.

Finally, everybody's favorite Belgian Wolves fan, Wim, needs our help getting the NBA to add Belgium to its list of supported League Pass countries. Please click here and ask the NBA to kindly allow Wim to spend his money on their product.

Yesterday in the comments section TMiss (of The Mississippifarian fame) noted that he was upset that the NBA makes its product hard to find for many potential customers. Last night I could not get the Wolves on League Pass here in Mankato. I do not have cable and watch the games via Apple TV and my computer. I paid for the product yet I can't watch it. Each year I pay for league pass even though I know where I can get the product streamed for free. Wim is over in Belgium dying to pay money to watch the NBA's product. I'm down here in the hometown of the team's frickin' owner paying for a product I can't see. Come on NBA, get with the program.

OK, I lied...one more thing: as mentioned before, KG comes back tomorrow night. You can still buy tickets here. We also need to come up with something Big Al can say to KG after last year's epic trash talk where he told KG that they both have something in common: not winning a ring. Now that KG has a ring Big Al is bound to be on the wrong end of some...shall we say, rough KG verbage. Remember that this is a family site and we like to keep it as clean as possible (use "Smurf" or "Smurfin'" for swears) but we'd like to know what you think Big Al should say to KG when the Big Ticket inevitably starts running his mouth at Jefferson about last year's comment.

Until later.

Things you may not have known about the training camp signees

JakeTheSnake — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:14:18 -0000

Today Ivan Carter gave word that the Wizards have signed DerMarr Johnson, Linton Johnson, and Taj MacCullough for this year's training camp. All three players play primarily at small forward, so if you see Dominic McGuire sweating juuust a little more than normal, you'll know why. But enough about that, let's talk about the new guys.

DerMarr Johnson - Antonio Daniels (4th in 1997) and Antawn Jamison (4th in 1998) are the only two Wizards that were drafted higher in their respective drafts than DerMarr (6th in 2000). At first, it might look like he's just another bust from a draft that was full of busts, but I'm more than willing to give him a pass on the bust label.

After his second season in the NBA, he broke his neck in a severe car accident. Understandably, most thought he would never play again, but he overcame the odds, making it back to the NBA in the 03-04 season, joining with the Knicks. After that season, he joined the Nuggets where he would play for 3 seasons, putting up respectable numbers in his time in the Mile High City.

At the end of his third season in Denver, he was arrested by Denver police after being involved in a disturbance at a nightclub. You might find this detail interesting:

Greenwood Village police said Johnson, 27, was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with a peace officer after the 1:30 a.m. incident. He was also "touched briefly with a Taser to gain his compliance with the officer's orders," police said.

Is that a pre-cursor of things to come? We'll see.

After that incident, he went on to sign with the Austin Toros of the D-League, before being called up by the Spurs late in the season. He appeared in 5 games with San Antonio last season averaging 3.4 PPG in 5.4 minutes of playing time per game. In June, he was arrested on DWI charge.

Linton Johnson - When you look up the word journeyman in the dictionary, you'll probably find Linton Johnson's picture somewhere close by. Here are the teams that he's played with since 2002.

Tulane Green Wave
Chicago Bulls
Rockford Lightning
Chicago Bulls (again)
San Antonio Spurs
New Jersey Nets
Tau Ceramica
Phoenix Suns
Toronto Raptors
...and as of today, the Washington Wizards

To stick with your dream is commendable and it would be a great story if he could make the team this season. Maybe if he does, Gilbert will finally learn Linton's last name.

Taj McCullough - If he sounds familiar, it's probably because he was a member of this year's summer league squad. His 2 point, 2 rebound per game average during the Summer League earned him the analysis of "Barely noticed him." in Prada's 10 words or less recap.

You may also remember that it was another small forward from this year's Summer League squad, Gary Forbes, who was originally rumored as someone that might get a look in training camp but he played himself out of that chance based on his performance in Vegas.

To be honest, I was a bit surprised to see his name on this list, but none of us got to see him at practice. Sometimes showing off an impressive work ethic in practice can be enough to get you a training camp invite just to help everyone else out during camp, even if he has no shot to make the team. That could be the case here, or maybe they see as someone who can fit into a very specific role on the team.

This, and many other questions will begin to be answered this Saturday as the Wizards open up training camp. It should be an interesting week at VCU, to say the least.