While some get it that DWTDD means great things some may doubt. Douglas is not known for his ability to play above the rim. Nevertheless we have the final pre-season game from the Nets when TD made an incredible play around Lopez for the win. And there might even have been a single dunk at one point in October or Novemeber. But it was in his first game against Dallas at home the Mavericks riding a win streak and having won against the Knicks by 50 that Toney Douglas got his first start at PG. He had started two previous games with Duhon back in November. He starts against Jason Kidd who is still regarded as one of the best in the NBA.

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"Good game last night" I told him as I offered a hand. He grinned and mine was swallowed like
a guppy going in a grouper. It was startling. Not because of size but because it was like shaking
hands with the limb of an oak. Calloused, long and strong. A quick smile and he was gone.

They say you can tell much of a man by a handshake. A hand calloused this way is evidence of long
hard labor. A worker.

There is a lot of variation among projections by those who have followed Solomon Alabi's career at
Florida State. One constant among them all is he works hard to get better.

TrueCubbie is a regular contributor to tomahawknation.com and a numbers man who regularly elucidates.
He recently contributed to a Thunder blog site an article much like the "Know the Prospect" series here that
discussed Solomon Alabi. His conclusion? I'll quote his article and offer my own impression. After the jump-

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In order to increase the value of posts and arguments I do herewith include helpful links hoping others may do the same. Perhaps someone could make a nice listing of the best from the replies and make a nice statistical data link for the site? I've really enjoyed browsing the site...wonder where you guys get those graphs though.

http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/acc/florida_state/index.php

http://cfbstats.com/2008/team/234/index.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/statistics

Much has been made of turnover to assist ratio's as a measure of guard play as well as other positions. This stat doesn't come close to telling the whole story. Often offense is disrupted by a defender but he cannot control the ball. Batting it out of bounds...or to a teammate. The offensive player won't even get a turnover if it is batted out of bounds. Yet the offense loses the advantage they might have had and the shot clock continues.

Often a player is noted as having a good 'handle' Perhaps a better measure of this would be something like...'strips' instead of steals and 'lost handles' instead of turnovers. This would yield a more realistic number than turnovers to assists

Thoughts?