SB Nation - Nick Calathes

Holiday Basketball Camps Hosted by the Orlando Magic

erivera7 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:13:00 -0000

In celebration of the holiday season, the Orlando Magic will host four holiday basketball camps throughout the Central Florida community from December 21 – 23 and December 28 – 30.

Highlights of the holiday basketball camps, which make a great holiday gift, will include:

Three days of expert instruction from the National Basketball Academy (consisting of former college standouts, semi-professional players and top individual trainers).

Stations, drills, skills contests and live games.

Every participant receives an official camp T-shirt as well as various giveaways and prizes, and is recognized during the Orlando Magic Camp awards ceremony on the last day.

Select locations will feature guest appearances by Magic celebrities.

All campers receive a ticket to an Orlando Magic home game.

Magic Camp alumni includes include Marquis Daniels (Boston Celtics), Nick Calathes (2009 Dallas Maverick NBA Draft pick), Darius Washington (formerly of the Chicago Bulls) and scores of Division 1 college basketball players.

Locations: Four convenient locations are offered while local students are off on break at the following locations:

RDV Sportsplex, December 21-23, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

8701 Maitland Summit Blvd.

Orlando, FL 32810

Pro-Health Fitness Center, December 21-23, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

8705 N Wickham Road

Viera, FL 32940

Holy Family Catholic Chruch, December 28-30, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

5125 S. Apopka Vineland Road

Orlando, FL 32810

Lake Mary Preparatory School, December 28-30, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

650 Rantoul Lane

Lake Mary, FL 32746

Participants: Offered to kids ages 7 – 16. From beginner to advanced, all skill levels are welcome.

Cost: $115 per camper

Phoenix Suns Summer League: The Game Plan

Phoenix Stan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:01:09 -0000

In less than a week from now the "Summer Suns" will kick off their five game 2009 Vegas Summer League season.

I along with numerous other SBN bloggers will be on hand taking it all in. This year I will be doing double duty covering our boys both for this site but also working on behalf of Suns flagship radio station Sports 620 KTAR. I will be in Vegas July 12th to the 18th catching three of the Suns five games and taking the opportunity to watch a lot of other young players and perhaps, just maybe have a little fun too.

The key thing to remember about Summer League ball is to ignore the game and focus on the individual play. These are teams thrown together with a wide range of talent. They get little opportunity to practice together and each and every player is out there to show his stuff and advance his own agenda.

Typically, we deride this "me-first" ball but in Vegas it is totally acceptable and expected so in other words ignore the score and focus on who does what in the context of the five on five competition.

Going into anything as monumental as the Vegas Summer League, you have to have a game plan and here's what I've got.

Roster

Our good friends over at Ridiculous Upside have taken the time to give us the skinny on the various roster filler on this year's team, They will have the privilege of mainly watching four guys with guaranteed contracts and one 2nd round draft pick get the majority of the minutes.

There's only two guys in that group that might be of interest. Jiri Hubalek a 6'11" F/C who played (well I thought) for the Suns last season in Vegas before departing early for a contract in Europe and Kaspars Berzins, a 7fter who's athletic and mobile. If nothing else, these big guys will be interesting to watch.

Enough about those guys though, Summer League for the Suns this year anyway isn't about trying to find a diamond in the rough. It's about gauging the development of three or five young Suns players and draft picks

Returning players development

The Suns are one of the only teams that will start three guys with NBA experience (Lopez, Tucker and Dragic) and each one will come to these games with something to show.

Goran Dragic - Goran's summer so far has kept him primarily in the gym. I haven't seen him yet myself but several people have told me how much muscle he's put on and how cut he looks. Aside from that improving his chances with the young Slavic girls at ASU, this additional strength will help him finish after contact and fight through screens. That's the plan anyway and what I will be looking for.

Talent wise, we know that Dragic has average handle and above average court vision and decent shooting and defense. For his development at point guard I am hoping to see a lot more floor leadership. It is a lot to ask from this young kid from Slovenia and I don't expect him to show up and be Chris Paul but I will be looking for how well he handles this team.

Goran's a nice kid with an out-going personality. Good sense of humor. Smart. He's a guy you kind of want to like and perhaps date your daughter but I've yet to see the "eye of a killer" in him. My expectations aren't high in this regard but perhaps on the court against a lot of guys who he will have a significant advantage over he might put the hammer down on occasion. I definitely want to see him respond tough to some physical play. He can be a nice guy off the court. In Vegas he's going to need to starting earning his reputation as a guy that isn't going to be pushed around.

Robin Lopez - The key for Robin has long been his will and desire. He had a tough rookie season playing in the shadow of both a revitalized Shaq and his brother Brook who turned consistent playing time into a great rookie season. How Robin responds to that challenge could be the key to his entire NBA career.

After seeing him down right dominate at times last summer in Vegas, I am convinced he has all the physical tools needed to be a Chandler-like defensive center. He also has the ability to be a better post player than Chandler with decent improvisational moves and counters and the opportunity to have range out to 10 or 12 feet.

In other words, Robin has a LOT of untapped upside and next week will give us a peak into how much of that he's ready to show next season. Or maybe he's just a laid back kid who enjoyed his time off and will coast through his contract until he's out of the league in a few more years. That could happen too.

On the court we probably won't see much post play from the up tempo Gentry-led Suns but we will have plenty of opportunity to see if Robin plays defense with as much intensity as last year but with more smarts. His rebounding was also a big question in his limited minutes with the Suns last year so I will be looking for how much he's learned about cleaning the glass. Offensively, I would be shocked if we don't see him in the pick and roll on numerous occasions. He can catch and finish both over the top and on bounce passes. He's no Amare but he's not a stiff either.

Alando Tucker - Tuck had a fantastic summer last year on both ends of the court. He showed me a lot of maturity and leadership and is a big reason why I am still sold on his potential. Tucker has nothing to prove to me other then his health.

I want to see him fully recovered from his knee surgery and continue to selectively dominate offensively both attacking the rim as well as shooting off screens. Perhaps his biggest room for improvement will be his outside shooting. He's done pretty well from behind the arc but his flat shot is a problem and will limit his consistent range. I am curious to see if he's changed his form.

I fully expect Tucker to be the leader of this team and I think he will have a lot of fun in that role.

Paul Coro recently suggested that the Suns may not want to pay Tucker $1.9m next year to get limited minutes behind Barbosa and Richardson. As much as it pains me, Tucker's main purpose for being in Vegas might be to showcase him to other teams and to increase his trade value.

Rookies first look

Earl Clark - Having never seen Clark play it will all be new for me. I can't wait to see how he uses his size and athleticism on both ends of the floor and I want to see how he interacts with his teammates. There's a fine balance between being overly aggressive and too passive and on a team like the Suns it is hard for guys to get a feel for their role. Jason Richardson struggled with this last season and it might be a tough adjustment for Clark coming into this situation. Obviously, playing in Vegas in July won't be the same thing as playing in Phoenix in November but at least we will get a first look.

The one area that Clark doesn't need to hold back is on the defensive end. If he can come in as a rookie and focus on impacting the game on that end he will earn more playing time and buy himself time to let his offensive game develop.

With that in mind, it may seem boring but I don't want to see Clark taking many (barely any) jump shots and I am hoping to only see him with the ball in his hands on limited occasions.

Taylor Griffin - Taylor by no means is certain to earn a roster spot on this team. He was a bit of a flyer with a second round pick and while he might be a cheap 12th or 13th guy he also is easily replaced by some other non-drafted player that might stand out.

Playing as a tweener 3/4 he's fighting an up hill battle on the Suns team with Dudley, Amundson and now Clark all standing in front of him in line. While the Suns are deep in that 6'7" to 6'9" range they are thin at center. I would not be the least bit surprised if the roster spot Taylor is fighting ends up going to a cheap big man that the Suns see in Vegas. A guy like Steven Hill, Courtney Sims or even one of the two bigs on the Suns squad.

Oh, and did you hear his brother got drafted 1st and is supposed to be pretty good? I am guessing we will see a bit of Blake hanging around the Suns games.

Other big names

My primary mission in Vegas is to cover the Suns with a big fat eye on the items mentioned above. But there's a lot of basketball being played and it is a great opportunity to get a look at some other interesting names. Last year I got my first look at Kevin Love (impressed) and Joe Alexander (meh). I also saw Jerryd Bayless destroy DJ Strawberry's NBA career and was impressed with Aaron Brooks and CJ Watson. It was the last time Alexis Ajinca has been heard from despite being drafted 20th by Charlotte.

I can't wait to see what happens this year. Here's some guys I am going to watch for...

Chicago - Taj Gibson and James Johnson
Denver - Coby Karl, Sonny Weems and Ty Lawson
Detroit - Will Bynum, Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko
Golden State - Stephen Curry and Anthony Randolph
Houston - James Flight White, Joey Dorsey and Chase Budinger
LA Clippers - Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon (this should be a fun tandem!)
LA Lakers - Adam Morrison?? (where's Sun Yue?)
Memphis - Thabeet and Hamed Haddadi (the biggest pair in Vegas since Dolly Parton)
Milwaukee - Joe Alexander, Brandon Jennings and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
Minnesota - Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington and Gerald Hendeson (on load from the Bobcats)
New Orleans - Courtney Sims and Julian Wright
NY Knicks - Nikoloz Tskitishvili (!), Jordan Hill, Blake Ahern and Mouhamed Sene
OKC Thunder - James Harden!, Russel Westbrook, Shaun Livingston, BJ Mullens
Portland - Jerryd Bayless, Jeff Pendergraph, Patty Mills
Sacramento - Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes, Omri Casspi, Donte Green (this team is loaded!)
San Antonio - DeJuan Blair, Malik Hairston, George Hill, Nando De Colo
Washington - Javale McGee, Nick Young
Dallas - Nick Calathes, Mikael Gelabale, Luke Jackson
Cleveland - TBD
Toronto - Demar DeRozan, Nathan Jawai, Brent Petway, Roko Ukic, Quincy Douby, Patick O'Bryant
D-league Select team - Othyus Jeffers, Trey Johnson

Any other interesting talent

There should be a few guys you've never heard of that jump out. Last year a funny looking white guy with a pony tail really stood out for his energy and defensive effort. He was ALL over the court and really made an impression. He turned out pretty good.

Suns matchups

1. Dallas: Monday, 3pm

The Mavericks are one of many weak Summer League teams. It will be interesting to watch Dragic and Calathes hook up but beyond that there's not much here to get excited about. I've always like Gelabale and Luke Jackson is a very good D-league player that has a legit chance at a NBA contract. Rodrigue Beaubois might be interesting to watch as well. He's a 6' point guard from France that the Mavs picked 25th overall. That's all I know about him until I see him on Monday.

2. Toronto: Wednesday, 5pm

This one should be the best game of the week for the Suns. Ukic and Douby can play and should be a good test for Dragic and it will be fun to see how Tucker handles DeRozan. Up front they are thin but Petway is a great defender and O'Bryant and Jawai are...big

3. D-league Select: Friday, 7pm

Ugh...There's a lot of very good D-league players balling in Vegas but most of them are playing for an NBA team. That leaves this group as not much more then a gimmick with only a couple of decent (D-league) players. Othyus Jeffers is nice. Walker Russell is an interesting PG that got a try out from the Suns last year in their big 6 player PG audition. And Trey Johnson can play basketball.

4. Memphis, Saturday, 5pm

The Grizzlies present two big match ups for Robin Lopez and Thabeet and Haddadi. This should definitely be a fun one for Robin to battle those two. He should have the strength advantage on Thabeet and quickness on the big Iranian but still, they are tall. Darrell Arthur was a starting power forward last year in the NBA. That's something. Not much but something. There are no guards to speak of on this team.

5. LA Clippers, Sunday, 730pm

This might be a decent game if it weren't on the last game on the last day of the entire event and is the 3rd game in 3 days for the Summer Suns. In other words, even though Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon are exciting young players this isn't the match up to see them at their best. Shame the Suns aren't playing them on Wednesday or Friday but they aren't and based on last year there's a good chance the big names will barely play in this one.

Here's the full Vegas schedule

It's Vegas Baby!

Aside from having the opportunity for some quality beer, basketball and bullshit time with all sorts of basketball types, my main plan is to crank out a daily podcast with brief interviews with various folks that will be in town for the fun. If you have anyone your interested in hearing from or any specific questions...you know what to do.

Tuesday Morning Roundup

Wes Cox — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:08:45 -0000

More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

Mr. Popular

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Who Knew Nick Calathes Was This Good | Dime Magazine

"With former point guards such as Jason Williams, Teddy Dupay and Taurean Green, Calathes ranks third in Gator history in career assists after just two years, breaking the records for assists and assists per game in each of his first two years - 221 as a freshman (6.1 apg) and 231 (6.4 apg) as a sophomore.

That’s why in a PG heavy Draft, I understood Calathes heading overseas to play in the Greek A1 League with the elite Euroleague champion club Panathinaikos Athens. Making around €2.1 million euros net income over three years, in addition to providing him with a home, car, tax credits, and endorsements, Calathes was getting hooked up

But what I didn’t understand was why Calathes dropped all the way down to the Timberwolves with the 45th pick in the second round before being traded to the Mavericks for a 2010 second round draft pick and cash. In a couple years, that could be one of the best trades Mark Cuban ever made."

Nuggets' Martin says 'everything's fine' between him, Cuban
"He reached out to me," Martin said. "I didn't reach out to him. "But he reached out, and I'll leave it behind. It wasn't negative. Everything's fine. It's over.

DMN: Kidd the big fish, but Dallas Mavericks view Bass as a keeper, too
"Brandon likes Dallas and appreciates the Mavericks," agent Tony Dutt said. "He will certainly look at that, but he will look at other options, too. I'm pretty comfortable in saying he's going to get a ton of interest." Bass will be seeking the mid-level exception. Because he has been with the Mavericks for two seasons, they can offer him any annual salary up to the exception without actually using their exception.

DMN Blog: Kidd Being Recruited in New York
Word has it that Mark Cuban will be in New York at midnight tonight to start the process of conveying the Mavericks' interest in retaining the free agent. This should be viewed as a sign of just how important retaining Kidd is. The Mavericks are making him their No. 1 priority - before Rasheed Wallace or Charlie Villanueva or Ben Gordon or anybody else.

The Curry Conundrum

Stop-n-Pop — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:00:23 -0000

OK, it's the next day. Time to start dealing with some of the tough issues brought about by last night's draft. First and foremost among any issue with the Wolves' selections is the seemingly inexplicable decision to pass on Stephen Curry after taking Ricky Rubio. Forget about Jonny Flynn for a moment. You're the Wolves. You've just drafted the best passing point guard in the draft. You have a roster filled with power forwards and exactly zero players who can hit above 40% of their shots from beyond 15 feet. Do you a) take a 6'2" guard who shoots .387% from 3 (on a ton of attempts; many of them contested), .519% from 2 (mostly mid-range jumpers), has long range, and can shoot the lights out off the screen or in catch-and-shoot situations or b) a 5'11" guy who has Bassy-esque 3 point averages, average defensive numbers, and very modest RSB/40 numbers?

What exactly are you getting with Flynn that you cannot get from Curry? For one, Flynn has superior a/to and ppr numbers. This normally would be something to write home about had you not just spent your previous pick on a guy who will carry the lion's share of insuring that your team had solid a/to and ppr numbers at the same position. (Although, Rubio doesn't exactly have the best turnover ratio at the moment.) Kahn made a point of telling Stuart Scott on ESPN that Flynn was more of a scoring point while Rubio was a conductor of the orchestra. It's pretty hard to dress up Flynn as a scoring point more than Curry. Flynn gets to the line at a higher clip and he is a better finisher than Curry, but in terms of broad scoring efficiency, range, and putting the ball in the bucket, Curry is better at doing what Kahn wants to see in Flynn than what Flynn actually does.

I get that there are intangibles involved here. Flynn is tough as nails, a natural leader, a fantastic interview, and a winner (this three part series will make you love the guy). All of that is great and we here at Hoopus have no way of measuring this sort of thing on the level of what the Wolves have done with interviews and background checks. However, Curry seemed to be so much the BPA that even though I can sympathize with the idea of taking the perceived BPA and working out the messy details later, I just can't get past the idea that anything Flynn brings to the table is either redundant (and outdone) with Rubio (facilitation) or outdone by Curry (scoring). I.E. they seem to have overvalued Flynn.

I don't want this to seem like it's sour grapes on the part of a site who has been calling for the Curry pick for over a year, but there are some real problems with passing on the kid. The Wolves still have zero players on their roster who can shoot the three. They have zero players who can hit the mid-range jumper with any consistency. I know that the roster isn't set and we will likely see some more movement. Maybe they drafted Flynn with the idea that they could move him for value during the off-season. Even if that were true, does he have significantly more value than Curry at the same spot? I don't think he does.

In defense of the pick, I will say that I admire the fact that the Wolves selected the highest guy on their draft board with each pick. This is exactly what a 24 win team with 6 picks should do, damn the positions. If they had the number one pick I would be bitching to all hell had they not taken Blake Griffin. My beef with the pick is that Curry was the clear BPA. It is nice to see that the team's processes have begun to change but it is kind of disheartening to see them take...well, perhaps I shouldn't be too hard on them. They took Ty Lawson at 18 and Nick Calathes at 45. At both spots, they took the best player on the board (although, we now know via David Kahn's interview with Dan Patrick that the Wolves didn't actually pick Lawson). You could even make the case for Ellington being the BPA at 28. Maybe I'm overlooking something with Flynn. If Flynn has value, it will either come on the court or in a future move. I suppose we'll just have to wait to see how it plays out. I just can't get past a bad feeling that they really missed an opportunity with Curry.

Let's flesh this out a bit. What do we know about Curry's game vis-a-vis Flynn? Our two big sources for situational stats are this post from DX and this one from True Hoop. The first thing you will notice here is that both sites use Synergy Sports data and both sites feature some radically different data in a key area. Here's DX on the issue of pick-and-rolling:

...but his 1.3 PPP on the pick and roll is excellent—which leaves a lot of room for optimism.

Here's True Hoop:

Where does Curry need to improve? The pick-and-roll. Curry managed only 0.78 points per possessions -- though the pick-and-roll accounted for only 8% of his offensive possessions.

A few things. First, we have long viewed the DX information as one of the reasons to feel optimistic about Curry's translation to the NBA. His relatively low FT rate combined with a solid 2p% and a solid ppp on the p-n-r led us to believe that this would be Curry's best attribute at the next level. Now, we're not so sure. Either someone is misreading the data, requesting the wrong data, or Synergy Sports doesn't have their you-know-what together.

Secondly, this isn't the first time we have found discrepancies between DX's stats and sites like Kenpom or even our own calculations from official score sheets. DX's own stats don't even always match up with what they print from Synergy. Check out Curry's ppp on DX compared to its Synergy counterpart. 1.05 vs. 0.94 is juuusssst a bit of a difference stretched out over 100 possessions. It's a bit frustrating and from now on we'll link to both sites whenever we talk about college stats. We also recommend that you do as much background checking on DX's stats as possible as they don't always match up with other sites...or even their own.

Putting together a larger picture (and assuming that the rest of the data between those two posts are correct...which may be a mistake), we see that Curry has a large usage rate. He was very good with the open jumper (1.33 ppp), with a hand in his face (1.15 ppp), spot-up shooting (1.19 ppp), and coming off screens (1.3 ppp in 2.6 possessions/game). What he was not exceptional in is scoring in transition. 24% of Curry's possessions came in transition and he shot 41% with 0.94 ppp in these situations. In other words, he probably shot a lot of jumpers in transition. Isolation situations accounted for 27% of Curry's possessions with 0.94 ppp. What does all of this tell us? Curry is a versatile scorer who was able to transition to the point during his last season at Davidson.

Flynn doesn't have a True Hoop Synergy post. He just gets the DX treatment:

Flynn was a standout in two areas: his ability to get to the rim, and his one-on-one skills. Thankfully for him, those are two skills that the NBA values dearly. Clearly, his productivity is grounded in his first step. Flynn got to the rim 8.8 times per game, which accounted for a lot of his scoring, but his 1.24 PPP in unguarded catch and shoot situations and .94 PPP on pull up jumpers are both very respectable. His 4.3 possessions per game on isolations are amongst the best amongst big-conference players, and his 41% shooting on those plays isn’t awful. Couple those tools with his capacity to drive in both directions and his ability to draw fouls (16.1% SF), and it becomes hard not to think that Flynn could be, at the very least, a high quality backup if he improves his efficiency, especially once he masters the pick and roll (.84 PPP).

These stats are reflected in Flynn's superior ability to get to the line (48.1 FtRate compared to Curry's 36.5), his higher 2p% (.521 to .519), and his isolation volume. We know that Curry had a lot of isolation plays (27% of his possessions), and we know that he had a good ppp mark but we don't know what Flynn's ppp and percentage of iso plays are. We know he has a high iso mark amongst big-conference players and we know that he has a decent fg% with lots of trips to the line, and we know that he can draw fouls like nobody else at his size, but we need to know his ppp in order to make a solid comparison with Curry. My guess is that he is in the same neighborhood as Curry in iso situations; possibly even coming out ahead if you factor in trips to the line. We also don't have a good idea of how Flynn performs in transition.

That being said, of all the things we have said about Curry, if the True Hoop post is to believed, and if you can trust the Synergy data at DX, Flynn is actually a more effective pick and roll player than Curry while being able to be effective in unguarded catch-and-shoot situations, pull up situations, and possibly being better in isolation. He clearly doesn't match Curry's excellent shooting numbers (nor does he come close to handling the load that Curry had), but he does match Curry in several areas that could be very useful at the next level.

Ultimately, we don't really have a clear grasp on the situational differences between Curry and Flynn but, after looking at these stats combined with what we already know, we do get a sense of two main things: a) Curry is a far more diverse scorer than one would first guess (even though he's primarily a jump shooter) and b) Flynn combines facilitation and scoring at a bit more even rate than Curry. Curry is a fantastic scorer and shooter who had decent facilitation numbers in his first season at the point. Flynn is a fantastic facilitator who had slightly above average scoring numbers during his college career. I still can't get by Curry's shooting numbers (especially if you give him the ball at a high rate), but perhaps we underestimated Flynn's ability to score the ball within the 3 point line and in isolation situations. We would like to know a lot more about how Flynn dealt with catch-and-shoots and off screens before we can go any further with this.

One more thing about Flynn. One of our favorite writers, Kevin Pelton, actually had him rated above Curry. Here is what he had to say:

5. Jonny Flynn, Syracuse (1.7 WARP)
Age: 20.2 | Translated Stats: 0.401 Win% | 0.491 TS% | 18.3 Usage | 3.8 Reb% | 3.19 Pass

D.J. Augustin (97.7); Deron Williams (96.2); Maurice Williams (96.1); Jerryd Bayless (95.9); Kenny Satterfield (94.4)

Flynn probably combines scoring and passing as well as any point guard in this class, drawing comparisons to a pair of Williamses (as well as Jay Williams) and T.J. Ford. His uncertainty seems to be a little higher than the point guards ahead of him, with a handful of busts amongst his best comps, but there's the chance to become a star, too.

Finally, and with one more defense of the pick, as a long-time Curry proponent, even I have to admit (and remind people) that part of Curry's attractiveness was that he could be a ball-dominant guard. We have made this point at every step of the way with our praise of Curry. Curry led the NCAA with a mind-boggling 38% of his team's possessions with a usage rate just above 25 (DX has it listed above 31). Curry was effective, in part, because he had his ball in his hands and he was a fantastic shooter....with the ball. On the other hand, Flynn factored in 25.2% of his team's possessions along with two other solid guards (Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris) receiving usage and possession rates in the same ball park, 22.6 and 20.5 respectively in terms of team possessions. Curry is a good enough shooter to make a living as an off-the-ball guard a'la Rip Hamilton, but he may not be the prospect we all have been clamoring for without the ability to have a chance to run the point. At Davidson, he was who he was because he factored in more than 1/3 of his team's possessions. Here is what I wrote in a post calling him the 2nd best player in the draft (I highlighted the important part):

Stephen Curry is the 2nd best player in this draft. This one got some steam when Blake Griffin told the world that he believes Curry is Numero Dos next to his Top Dog, but we have rated Curry as the 2nd best player for a long time. Curry is going to be an amazing ball-dominant scoring point guard in the NBA. He will not be faced with the double and triple teams he saw at Davidson and the NBA’s perimeter defensive rules will allow his hesitation-based pick and roll game to become an influential player—-operating as a sort of inverted Tony Parker by making a living off of mid-range pick and roll jumpers and threes (as opposed to Parkers mid-range pick and roll jumpers and layups). If Curry is on the board at #6, you take him and don’t let go.

As I mentioned in the comments in a previous post, Tony Parker wouldn't be Tony Parker next to Ricky Rubio. Being off the ball would turn Parker into an average player. Being off the ball will turn Curry into...well, we don't know because he certainly is a better shooter than Parker. Once the Rubio pick was made, the Wolves had their dominant on-the-ball guard and Curry would have had to step into a significantly different role than what we saw from him in college. The more I think about it, perhaps the Curry Conundrum isn't the real missed pick. Here's what I wrote in our final draft board post (highlights are again added for emphasis):

DeRozan was able to score at USC without even the threat of three point proficiency. He made up for his lack of outside shooting by racking up a 56% mark from 2 with 49% in isolation, 43% in catch-and-shoot, and 41% on pull up jumpers. Throw in an above average OReb% for his position as well as a modest ability to get to the line and you have a player with upper-level athleticism and a....boring middle range workman-like game. Think Ryan Gomes with hops and a higher upside rather than Gerald Green or Vince Carter. DeRozan is the type of player who will need a good point guard at the next level. Until he can develop his dribble-drive game, he will need to be set up in the 1/2 court. While we all wait for that to happen, he has the tools to be a good defender, excellent rebounder for his position, and a solid mid-range player. If the Wolves make a trade up to the two spot for Rubio, DeRozan is exactly the type of player you want to put with him at the off guard spot. Just remember that he's more lunch bucket than someone with that type of athleticism would suggest.

The problem with DeRozan is that even I don't think he was the BPA at 6 with Curry on the board. He would have been a pick for fit and potential more than anything else.

That about does it for this post. Do the Wolves break camp with Flynn and Rubio? Do they make a trade? If so, who do they make a trade with? What say you? Up next we'll work on a post about what Flynn brings to the table and figuring out whether or not he can co-exist with Rubio. We'll then move on to the forgotten pick: Wayne Ellington.

Friday Draft Links

Wes Cox — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:09:02 -0000

More photos » by David Vincent - AP

FILE - In this photograph taken on Oct. 21, 2007, basketball player Rodrigue Beaubois passes the ball during a French basketball league match against Dijon in Cholet, western France. (AP Photo/David Vincent)

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DMN Blog on Beaubois
Just got off the phone with ESPN's Fran Fraschilla who had this to say about Rodrigue Beaubois: "If he was drafted out of Kansas or Texas, Mavericks fans would be holding a block party today."

2009 NBA Draft: Best and worst dressed - Ball Don't Lie
Best Accessories: Rodrigue Beaubois(notes), Oklahoma City Thunder (traded to Dallas), No. 25 Like the watch and pocket square; love the tiny French flag accent on the cuffs. Très excellent!

Dallas Basketball - Breaks down the trades

Step 1 -- Trade No. 22 down to Portland for No. 24, and No. 56, plus Portland's second-rounder in 2010.

Step 2 'Trade No. 24 down to OKC for No. 25 and OKC's second-rounder in 2010.

Step 3 Trade Portland's No. 2 in 2010 plus cash for Minnesota's No. 45. Then. Turn No. 25 into Rodrigue Beaubois, turn No. 45 into Nick Calathes and turn No. 56 into Ahmad Nivins while still retaining OKC's second-rounder in 2010.

DMN Dallas Mavericks - Nelson on Beaubois
"He was milliseconds behind Devin Harris," Nelson said of Beaubois' performance in some of the pre-draft visit tests to measure quickness. "He's just starting to scratch the surface."

Chad Ford Gives Mavs B-
Analysis: I like the Mavericks' second-round picks more than their first-rounder. I'd be willing to bet Calathes becomes a much better player than Beaubois, both in Europe and in the NBA, and Nivins is an up-and-comer. I am not sold on Beaubois and think Toney Douglas would have been a better pick here.

Bill Simmons' 13th annual NBA Draft Diary
B.J. Mullens (this year's token white center who will bounce around for eight years without ever making a dent) to Dallas; Rodrigue Beaubois (the French Leandro Barbosa) to the Zombies

Chad Ford says the Hornets really wanted Mullens
The Mavs are trading this pick to the Thunder for No. 25 and a future second-round pick. The Thunder have been looking to get Mullens for weeks and tried to get up as high as No. 14 to get him. Clearly, Sam Presti sees something he likes. Mullens reminds me a lot of a young Darko Milicic, for both good and bad -- he's skilled and athletic, but he doesn't really know how to play.

Mavericks' Carlisle compares point guard to Celtics' Rondo
"You'll probably hear rumors that he'll stay in Europe, but that's not the plan at all," Carlisle said. "The whole thing went absolutely as we had prepared for. We targeted a guy that we wanted and we felt we could get him a little lower than our pick. "He's a dynamic athlete. He just looks like a basketball player with his length." Carlisle compared Beaubois to Boston point guard Rajon Rondo. And Beaubois said he has heard that comparison, too. He does not consider himself comparable to fellow Frenchman Tony Parker

Dallas Mavericks gamble they'll make noise in free agency
"Wait," said president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. "One shouldn't confuse silence with inactivity. We're prepared for a very active summer." That's tough to do when you see the rest of the league upgrading in the arms race at a rapid pace.

Draft Wrap-Up

Stop-n-Pop — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:48:57 -0000

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Well folks, I'm going to turn in for the night but before I go I just wanted to put up a few quick thoughts about the draft.

First of all, let's take a quick run-down of who is on the team:

Point guards:

Shooting guards:

Forwards/centers:

Obviously, some of these guys aren't going to play even if they're with the team. Madsen, Norel, Pecherov, and Bobby Brown are all 12th-15th men at best. If the status quo remains (and it won't), the Wolves could probably get by with buying out someone like Brown or Madsen.

Getting around to the elephant in the room, the Wolves selected 4 guards, 3 of them points. The bottom line here, for me, is that a 24-win team with a starting back court of Bobby Brown and Sebastian Telfair (yes, that's what they were looking at before the draft) took the 2 top players on their draft board (who were guards) and they didn't have to move anything to do so. That's it. If they had traded 5 and 6 for Rubio we'd all be sitting here excited about the young Spaniard. They got the kid at 5 and their BPA at 6. Even if the Wolves were a loaded team (and they're not), how can you possibly argue against a draft where a team with two top 10 picks gets their top 2 guys? You'd take that every year if you could.

Since most of us are Minnesotans, we are imbued with a deep lack of self worth and we must consciously resist the knee-jerk reaction of looking too much into Rubio's body language after the pick, his dad's comments about staying in Europe, or tall tales of the big city Knicks doing everything they can to get what the Wolves have in hand: the most exciting player in the draft. Right now, enjoy the moment. Instead of worrying about it, think of all of those times you dialed up Rubio on YouTube hoping he'd land at the Target Center. Think of waking up early to watch the Spain/USA Gold Medal game. If Rubio is going to play in Minny, the only way he was going to do so was to land in the Wolves' laps with the 5th pick. It happened. Enjoy it. Let's worry about the buyout, trades, and staying in Europe later. The main thing I'm worried about right now is when I can get my hands on a pair of Rubio shirts for my girls.

Getting around to what we will see on the court, who here thinks that Rubio can run the point better than Randy Foye? OK, good. Now, who here thinks that Jonny Flynn is an upgrade over Sebastian Telfair or Bobby Brown? OK, good. Keep in mind that David Kahn just traded Mike Miller and Randy Foye--two players who would have been gone after the season--for Ricky Rubio. Keep in mind that had the Thunder went with Rubio we would be talking about Harden and Flynn. Could the Wolves have made out better with Curry? I think so but it's hardly a lopsided set of circumstances.

Moving down the draft, the Wolves picked up a serviceable shooting guard at 28 (Ellington) and they will hopefully hang on to Nick Calathes with their top 2nd round pick. Again, going back to the bottom line: a team that was looking at a starting back court of Bobby Brown and Sebastian Telfair at the start of the day walked away with 4 solid guards. They did so in a draft nearly completely void of shooting guards. Could they have reached for DeRozan at 6? Sure, but let's not forget that this draft was beyond thin at that position. It was thin at center. What it did have is a bunch of decent power forwards and a bunch of decent point guards. Here's what I think we're looking at in terms of a rotation:

Rubio/Bassy
Flynn/Ellington
Gomes/Brewer
Love/Songaila
Jefferson/Thomas

I 100% believe that is not what we'll see, but even if it is, it's not a bad thing. This team still has a huge amount of assets to move around in the off-season and before the trading deadline. They have Calathes and Pekovic with European contracts; they have millions of dollars in expiring contracts; they have 2 of the highest rated point guards in the draft; they have serviceable players like Gomes and Smith that can be moved. If there is one thing I would like people to take away from this draft it is this: You cannot grade this draft until next season's draft. The Wolves are a 24-win team and they can't upgrade everything at once. What they can do--and what they did--is gather as many BPAs as possible in the draft, amass future assets (future 1st for Lawson), and maintain roster flexibility. Remove any names from the picks and ask yourself this: If I were to tell you that the Wolves picked up 2 stashed Euro contracts, the 2 best players on their draft board, and a possible 2010 1st rounder, would you have signed on to that outcome?

OK, that about does it for now. There are some legitimate concerns about this draft and we will deal with them in the next week or so. Right now, enjoy it. The guy you watched in the Olympics and on YouTube has been drafted by your favorite club.

UPDATE: Calathes was traded as I wrote this.