SB Nation User Blog: Stop-n-Pop

Part 2 of the Overseas Experience

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:26:45 -0000

Right before the Bucks game we had a post with a passing reference to Brandon Jennings and his decision to head to Europe and make money for himself rather than CBS and the NCAA. Jennings had some ups and downs but on the whole the EL experience seems to have been a good one for him and his NBA prospects. It's looking a bit different for Jeremy Tyler:

His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team. In extensive interviews with Tyler, his teammates, coaches, his father and advisers, the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is. So enamored with his vast potential, Tyler has not developed the work ethic necessary to tap it.

"The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career," Haifa Coach Avi Ashkenazi said. "If he thinks he’s going to be in the N.B.A. because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be."

There's a lot more in the NY Times article. There are a few ways this could work out for Mr. Tyler. He could have an epiphany (in the Holy Land no less) and realize his potential through hard work in a man's league or he could admit defeat and go back to beating up on overmanned high schoolers (he's skipping his senior year in HS) and college freshman.

The take away point, for me, is that the options for elite high school talents who want to get paid for their basketball skills right out of HS are still remarkably limited. The NBA is one of the rare professional leagues where a few high school grads can step right in and play. Its players deserve a good development league or feeder system that pays.

Should the D-League be able to draft high schoolers? Should more kids give overseas professional leagues a shot? What say you?

Not in the face!

Stop-n-Pop — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:20:00 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

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OK, this is something of a game-wrap record for me. I'm writing this with the score 106-73 in favor of the 1-6 Warriors with roughly 1:50 left to go in the 3rd quarter. Hanny has just said something about the season not being about wins and losses and he's even moved on to the hustle award for the night.

When I fired up the post editor Golden State had an astounding 48% oReb rate: 11 offensive rebounds on 23 misses. Awesome? I know. Flash forwarding to Stephen Curry's buzzer-beating 3 pointer to end the 3rd quarter and this is what the Four Factors look like:

	Pace (Poss)	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	105.4 (79)	97.5	47.8%	19.4	33.3	22.8
Golden State		140.5	61.1%	31.9	33.3	10.1

I suppose you could take something of a moral victory away from the fact that the Wolves have pulled even in the oReb% category but keep in mind that the Warriors have a significantly smaller number of misses to fool around with.

Let's try something different for tonight's post. Let's talk about the positives. First and foremost is Corey Brewer. Here's what True Hoop's Henry Abbott had to say about Brew after the Portland game:

In the last few weeks, I have heard Corey Brewer mentioned three or four times as the butt of jokes. It's getting to be time for that to stop. He and Andre Miller both dared each other to shoot all night, but Brewer did it with purpose -- and was an effective help defender helping to keep Roy (who had one of his worst games as a professional) at bay. He's no All-Star at this point, but there's no doubt he's vastly improved. He's among the team's leaders in steals, assists, blocks and free throws attempted -- and his defensive talents and efforts are constant and not to be overlooked. When he hits a couple of 3s, like last night, he's hard to miss.

In tonight's game, Brewer got out in transition, was disruptive in the open court, and for the first time I can remember he d'd up an opposing wing with superior size (Stephen Jackson) without getting physically abused. I know what I am about to write doesn't seem like a big deal, but for those of us who have watched the Wolves over the past 2+ years, it is: Corey Brewer is an NBA rotation player. For a while there his game was pretty dicey and I wasn't sure I would ever write that. Yet, there it is. Hooray!

Hey, look at that: Oleksiy Pecherov finally got into the game! Can he trigger a 28 point comeback? That would be a gigantic positive.

Another positive is that we got our first extended look at Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions in the same backcourt. We'll have to wait for the PopcornMachine GameFlow to really break it down, but I believe the tally from the first stint was a +2 against the similarly undersized Warrior backcourt.

Did the Warriors really have a 66-33 run? Sorry, I have to get back to the positives. AC Law is making his 3rd appearance of the year. Good for him. See, another positive.

OK...more positives. (crickets)

Let's have some random thoughts to bring this thing on home:

This game will hurt the ol' defensive efficency ranking. It will also hurt the less-mentioned Pride Index.
It seems that the preseason optimism concerning free throws was both short-lived and ill-conceived. Getting Kevin Love back will help a bit but this team is generating zero offense going at the rim. This is problematic when you are not a jump shooting squad. With just over 5 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter the Warriors have taken 4 more threes than the Wolves have FTAs.
The Wolves aren't a very good team but their offense has faaaarrrr outpaced their defense in terms of ineptitude. Here are their Four Factor stats heading into the GSW game:

Team Four Factors
	PACE	OFFENSE					DEFENSE
TYPE	POSS	EFF	eFG	TO	OREB%	FT/FG	EFF	eFG	TO	OREB%	FT/FG
STAT	94.3	96.8	45.1	16.2	27.2	17.0	106.8	49.6	17.6	29.2	24.6
RANK	9	27	27	18	9	29	16	18	8	27	15

This team simply can't put the little orange ball in the bucket. Again, when you can't get to the line when you are not a jump shooting team, this is a tad problematic.

OK, AC Law just got a breakaway dunk. Really?
Nathan Jawai followed up his career performance in garbage time against the Blazers by getting worked on the offensive glass by Anthony Randolph.

OK, that about does it. The score is now 129-89 with Anthony Randolph at the line. Corey Brewer is still the only player out there who looks like this bothers him enough to do something about it. The problem here is that there is far too much to do and Mr. Brewer lacks the tools to do a lot of it. There is no other way to put this one other than it is the most embarrassing and frustrating loss since Dwane Casey's Revenge last year against Dallas. Who doesn't remember that classic tilt in which Minnesota built a 29 point lead shortly after the half only to watch the Casey-led Mavs claw their way back to not just a win, but a win where Minnesota conceded a 5 point game with 45 seconds to go. I think Kevin McHale's post game comments were something along the lines of "our guys had had enough by that point."

It's now 144-99 and I'm going to bed.

Until later.

UPDATE: The FSN studio crew has just told me that the Wolves have equalled the worst loss in franchise history as well as the most points given up. Now that's a positive!! A record setting performance!! Who wants to talk about cap space!!??

It's Like That, Game Thread #8; Run TMC Time

Stop-n-Pop — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:54:11 -0000

Some lucky team gets their second win tonight. Who will it be? While you're watching, head on down to shrink's Money Talks mailbag where he writes about cap holds.

Enjoy the game. For the other side of the coin, head on over to our sister site, Golden State Of Mind.

Cap space and draft picks oh my!

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:50:25 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

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The caption on this picture says that Jonny Flynn is battling Steve Blake and LaMarcus Aldridge during the first half of their game. In reality, Flynn had lost control of his dribble and simply fallen over in the lane, dropping the ball into the hands of a Portland defense who was willing and able to relieve him of possession. Such was the night for the Wolves. These are the sorts of contests where you really hope that the Wolves' coaching staff knows what they are doing because to the fan's naked eye, there really wasn't anything that went right. Nothing.

BTW: before you head below the jump, you should click here to read our newest feature: Money Talks with shrink.

We all knew this was going to be a long season. We all knew the Wolves weren't going to be world beaters. Most fans know that the Wolves have put themselves into a situation with a solid organizational future filled with cap space and draft picks. We know that the new coaching staff is installing a system with a high learning curve. We all know that being a Wolves fan in 2009/10 requires a load of patience.

All of that being written, there are some quarters, some halves, and some nights--even this early in the season--where even the most patient amongst us has to be wondering "what the hell?"

David Kahn started his tenure by priming the pump for an expectation of a two point guard system. He drafted a bunch of points, signed one more, and then hired a coach who won't put two points on the floor together. Al Jefferson, the team's highest scorer and best paid player, is looking completely hampered by injury and by a system that seems 100% not geared to utilize his talents. The team's best all-around player is out for 6-8 weeks with a broken hand and will probably take a few weeks to get back in the swing of things once he finally finds his way back onto the court.

I give this team about a 2% chance of finishing the season with its current roster. Something is going to give. Someone is going to get moved. This is a good thing. This team has a lot of assets and, by all accounts, they have a hard working VPBO who is willing to make the big deal. The problem for us fans is that the current product is...well, what are we supposed to feel about it on nights like the ones against Milwaukee and Portland? This team was blown up in the off season and it looks even more mismatched than last year's group. Yes, Jonny Flynn is intriguing. Yes, it looks like Kurt Rambis and his staff knows what they are doing, but can this franchise weather the storm of unwatchable ball with players who are likely not part of the long term plan? Who on this club can you be sure will be around in 2 months? Really, even Al Jefferson has to be put into question at this point. He looks like a square peg out there...a square peg who can't play defense and is 30 pounds more mismatched at the 5.

It's not that they're not playing hard. It's not that there aren't some things to be excited about, but...well, I don't think I really appreciated just how much Kahn's early dealing put this entire franchise into a state of flux and how that would affect my interest in what is going on out there on the court. I will watch the games because I love pro ball and the Wolves are my favorite team, but watching the squad against the Blazers I couldn't help but think that we're going to see about 10 more changes to this team in the next year and that I have more allegiance to what might happen than to whatever Pecherov, Wilkins, Cardinal based rotation we see run out on the floor. Jonny Flynn can put up 20 points a night but the most exciting thing about this club is still its cap space and draft picks. That's crazy. A lot of people have emailed me to ask me when I think the Wolves will "turn the corner". My answer to this is the moment we stop talking about draft picks and cap space for about 10 games in a row. For now, it's more entertaining to talk about things like whether or not Big Al is a fit or whether Ryan Gomes and Ramon Sessions will get traded before the end of the year. That's a bit more problematic than I thought it would be at the start of the season.

Getting around to the actual game, here's the Four Factors:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	94.0	98.9	48.8%	14.5	21.3	16.0
Portland		123.4	54.3%	32.9	29.3	13.8

(UPDATE) The PopcornMachine GameFlow is available here. (UPDATE)

The most disappointing aspect of this particular game was a complete unwillingness of anyone in blue to attack the paint. Greg Oden is a nice young center and the Blazers have a lot of young athletic wings who can make that sort of thing a bit of a pain, but if you are going to win in the NBA you need to attack the rim and get to the line.

Another disappointing thing of note was the Wolves getting out-assisted 35 to 19 and out-rebounded by 10. Al Jefferson was in full Black Hole mode, drawing the entire offense to a grinding halt whenever he touched the ball while taking a good 5-6 seconds to set up a one-handed push shot that rarely was on mark. Nathan Jawai repaced him and proceeded to find Ramon Sessions twice in the middle of the lane where he could do nothing with the ball because he was surrounded by nothing but trees. On too many possessions, 3 or 4 Wolves just stood around and watched.

As for the rebounding...the less said about that the better.

I don't have any bullet points for this game. It was completely non-descript on the part of the Wolves. Jawai had some nice moves, Gomes played OK, and Corey Brewer found some time to make a few good hustle plays as well as keeping the Wolves from getting ally-ooped on a couple of times.

The last thing I have to say about this game is that I hope whoever gets to stick around for 2-3 years remembers this one. I hope they remember the Blazers taking 3s and going for the Sports Center dunks while being up by 25 (quick side note: how in the world did Ramon Sessions get called for a foul when Martell Webster jumped on his back?). This is one of those tilts that you have to file away in the revenge file. The Blazers came out and kicked the you-know-what out of the Wolves and they kept on kicking when they were down. I'll never hope an injury on anyone but this was one of those games where you were kind of hoping Jawai or Brian Cardinal would have put someone trying a 3 while up by nearly 30 on their back. Perhaps the Wolves aren't even at that level of play. Maybe there's nothing long term for the majority of these guys to protect. Whatever the case, here's hoping someone remembers what kind of crap was put out there last night and does something to change it when they get the chance with a better surrounding cast somewhere way, way, way down the line...well past 70+ more games of wondering who will get to stay or go, and what, if anything, will be done with all that cap space.

Until later.

Avoiding the Goat Hunters; Game Thread #7, Portland Style

Stop-n-Pop — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:10:06 -0000

It's that time of year again. Time to share a game thread with the somewhat emotionally draining (but always engaging) Pritch Slappers and watch as their young team of exciting players takes on our odds-and-ends collection of Beloved Puppies, future draft picks, and cap space. Hooray cap space! (BTW: Don't forget to scroll down the page and check out our newest feature: Money Talks with shrink. It's good stuff.)

It has been brought to my attention that the good folks at the excellent Blazers Edge are out hunting for our goat with a post having something to do with jello, potholes, Jesse Ventura, and Sid Hartman bestiality. Now we know how BE gets those good hit numbers: They are a specialty porn search magnet. Somewhere, some unsuspecting creep who is just looking for a good time with some jello and a pack animal has stumbled across SB Nation. Well done guys, well done. The next time someone asks us why BE is so successful, we now know what to say: llama porn.

(I kid. BE is a fantastic site and we hope that Hoopus can follow in its footsteps.)

Reading through the post it appears that Dave has been to Minnesota at least as long ago as the late 90s (maybe earlier) and in the interest of neighborly blog relations (and clinical concern for a fan base with so much projection) I would like to let him know that for every Jesse Ventura there is a Bob Packwood and for every Love Boat a county jail (or two) has been blazed. We feel your pain like I am sure you have felt ours, and may we now all just enjoy the trip to our final destination along different points of the way. We'll see you in two years when the Wolves are in the first stages of yet another rebuilding effort and when global warming has turned Minnesota into a year-round paradise.

BTW (and for future reference when your guys lose the WCF in a fantastically crushing manner to the Lakers and people want to talk about it): It will always be too soon. Also, Denny Green should have never told Cunningham to take a knee and Andersen missed because of a bad snap.

Timberwolves vs Trail Blazers preview

Blazersedge

Love Hurts

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:21:32 -0000

OK, it's starting to add up. Losing Kevin Love and his .208 WP48, 4.1 FTA/game, league-leading 15.1 oreb%, top-10 dreb%, and #2 overall reb% hurts. The team is already in the performance hole with the loss of Mike Miller's minutes at the off-guard, but losing Love's 30+ mpg to Oleksiy Pecherov and Ryan Hollins is costing this team the production it should have when the White Hole and Antigravity replace the minutes formerly used up by Craig Smith and Shelden Williams/Jason Collins. Yes, the two 7-footers are putting decent numbers, but they would even better if they were moved down a notch on the depth chart.

Last night the Wolves were a -9 on the offensive glass. It was even uglier when you calculated the percentage of available misses grabbed by the X-mas tree color clad visitors. The Bucks grabbed an astounding 36.2% of available misses on the offensive end of the court compared to the Wolves' 19%. If you can grab 1/3 of your misses, and you have a big beastie like Andrew Bogut in the paint, chances are a decent number of those misses are headed right into the bucket.

In just 6 short games the Wolves are getting destroyed at the 4/5 in the rebounding department, averaging -7.4 reb/game between the two positions. Last year, the team was a net 1.6 positive at the power forward and center. Granted, you can't view these numbers in a vacuum and the loss of Mike Miller is going to cause opposing bigs to get their grubby mitts on a few extra balls per game, but the overall point I'm making here is that losing one of the NBA's top 2-3 rebounders hurts in a bad way and the Wolves are starting to see the effect of this much production lost over even a short period of 6 games. We're already approaching the time where we can start talking about how Love's departure has cost the team 1 win. Of course, what they are losing in rebounding they could be making up in defense and we'll have to wait and see how the balance plays out. There are a lot of factors that play into something like this and I don't want to make a blanket statement, but I'll say it again: losing a top-flight rebounder when trying to rehab a center on the fly next to two new frontcourt players is going to have an impact, possibly a big one...relatively speaking.

Speaking of stats, Knickerblogger and 82Games are now updated for the current season. The early returns are that the White Hole is playing pretty well and that Jefferson is a pretty average (at best) player right now. Corey Brewer isn't rebounding his position nearly as well as Mike Miller did, Ryan Gomes has picked up some of the rebounding slack, and Jonny Flynn is a good scorer but a, thus far, lousy facilitator.

Speaking of Mr. Flynn and the anticipated PGBR (Point Guard Battle Royale), he scored 12 of his 20 points in the final 9:40 of the game, well after the game was decided. This isn't a complaint. Rather, it's a hope that the Wolves quickly figure out that Mr. Flynn can get pretty much wherever he wants to go with the ball in the 1/2 court and that he might be the team's best scoring option when the offense isn't clicking. In other words, when they start a quarter on a -8 run and nothing seems to be working, Flynn might be a more attractive offensive option than what Big Al is currently bringing to the mix. Flynn's PPR is a terrible -4.5 at the moment. Hopefully he'll begin to figure out the facilitation thing but for the time being he's a scorer, and a fairly decent one for having just 6 games under his belt. What I'm getting at here is that if Flynn is going to be a scorer, part of his development will be to figure out when to take it to the rim on 4 or 5 straight possessions when the game is still on the line, not when it's already decided. BTW: Here's hoping and praying that 4th Quarter Flynn never makes its way of the Wolves' PR Department's lexicon.

A few bullet points to wrap things up:

Al Jefferson was absolutely manhandled by Andrew Bogut.
Luke Ridnour won the PGBR.
Andrew Bogut went to the bench with 2 fouls with just under 5 minutes to go in the 1st quarter. The Wolves were up by 7 at the time and they couldn't take advantage of having the big guy on the bench. This is where the game was really lost. The Wolves could have put the Bucks away in the later part of the 1st and the opening part of the 2nd. Instead, we were treated to some of the ugliest ball of the year: bad shooting, turnovers, terrible decisions, and so on and so forth.
Speaking of awfulness, this game probably had worse reffing than the Celtics tilt. My favorite stretch was when Big Al swiped at a ball in Bogut's hands, missed, and hit him in the face. This happened right in front of the Bucks' bench and Scott Skiles went nuts and got a technical. A minute later Big Al made a nice drive to the hoop, was hacked by Bogut (which would have been his 3rd foul in the 1st half), and was not given a whistle...in other words, it was the 3rd or 4th makeup call of the night in a managed game that 100% absolutely did not need to be managed. The refs didn't cost the Wolves the game but they did make a hefty contribution to the unentertaining nature of the contest. I'm putting my vote in for the makeup call being the worst thing in the NBA.
After a 4-16 effort from the floor, Brandon Jennings saw his FG% dip from .429 to .395. As was mentioned in yesterday's preview post, Jennings takes around a quarter of his shots from beyond the arc. Yesterday 4 of his 16 shots were from beyond the arc and he is down to .409 from .440. He is going to be an exciting player but the shot just isn't there and I think it's pretty obvious that he simply had a hot 3 game streak to start his career. That being said, his facilitation game is clearly ahead of Flynn right now. This may have a lot to do with the different systems being run by the Wolves and the Bucks (Jennings looked great running plays that Flynn would run were he on the Bucks).
Comment of the night:

This game is kind of spooky...

Like watching us play ourselves.

by mutleyil on Nov 6, 2009 8:01 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Indeed.

Yesterday I put up a post about Rick Kamla's questionable comment about Yi Jianlian and my disbelief that he could continue to do interviews on outlets like KFAN and not be questioned about his remarks. In the interest of a greater context, I would like to point out that there is a much, much, much bigger black eye in the NBA right now and his name is Donald Sterling.

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Donald Sterling, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers, agreed to pay $2.73 million to settle a U.S. government lawsuit in which he was accused of housing discrimination.

The payment is the largest ever obtained by the government in a discrimination case involving apartment rentals, the Justice Department said today in a statement.

"Housing is a basic human need, and yet decades after passage of the Fair Housing Act far too many still encounter barriers like discrimination," Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in the statement. "The magnitude of this settlement should send a message to all landlords that we will vigorously pursue violations of the Fair Housing Act."

The government sued Sterling in August 2006, saying he discriminates against black and Hispanic prospective tenants in buildings he owns in Los Angeles’s Koreatown area. Sterling owns about 119 apartment buildings in Los Angeles County, according to the Justice Department’s statement.

Sterling is a slumlord who likes to pay for sex:

Donald Sterling, the miserly tycoon who owns the Los Angeles Clippers, testified last year that he regularly paid a Beverly Hills woman for sex, describing her as a $500-a-trick "freak" with whom he coupled "all over my building, in my bathroom, upstairs, in the corner, in the elevator." Sterling's graphic testimony--which came during a two-day pretrial deposition in connection with a lawsuit he filed against the woman, Alexandra Castro--will surely nettle basketball commissioner David Stern, who normally has to explain away the behavior of 20-something athletes, not married 70-year-old club owners worth nearly a billion.

It kind of puts the dress code in an entirely new context, doesn't it?

There's more. The ultimate must-read article in the Sterling collection is this ESPN ditty, which contains the following gems:

"For years he has run semianonymous ads (crude design jobs he reportedly locks up himself) seeking 'hostesses' for Clippers events and his private parties. ... According to testimony Jaksy gave under oath, Sterling touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable and asked her to visit friends of his for sex. Sterling also repeatedly ordered her to find massage therapists to service him sexually, telling her, 'I want someone who will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it.'"

And:

"When Sterling first bought the Ardmore, he remarked on its odor to Davenport. 'That's because of all the blacks in this building, they smell, they're not clean,' he said, according to Davenport's testimony. 'And it's because of all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day.' He added: 'So we have to get them out of here.' ...[Kandynce] Jones had repeatedly walked to the apartment manager's office to plead for assistance, according to sworn testimony given by her daughter Ebony Jones in the Housing Rights Center case. Kandynce Jones' refrigerator dripped, her dishwasher was broken, and her apartment was always cold. Now it had flooded. Davenport reported what she saw to Sterling, and according to her testimony, he asked: 'Is she one of those black people that stink?' When Davenport told Sterling that Jones wanted to be reimbursed for the water damage and compensated for her ruined property, he replied: 'I am not going to do that. Just evict the bitch.'"

Deadspin has more. As long as this man owns an NBA team, anything that comes out of David Stern's mouth about player conduct should be taken with an appropriately large grain of salt. BTW: It's kind of amazing that such a big stink was made about Rush Limbaugh owning an NFL team when guys like Sterling are around.

BTW: Here are the Four Factors of last night's game:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Milwaukee	91.0	95.6	45.7%	14.6	36.2	20.9
Minnesota		79.1	41.9%	13.5	19.0	23.1

Open Thread #6, Bucky

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:11:45 -0000

Have at it. Opposing blogging going on here: Brew Hoop

Why is Rick Kamla on my radio right now?

Stop-n-Pop — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:21:47 -0000

Why is Rick Kamla on my radio right now?

I know it's an off week for the Vikes and KFAN has run out of things to talk about on a Friday during the NFL season but I'm a tad disappointed that Rick Kamla is being given airtime right now after his racist Yi episode. I am not calling for the guy's head but if you are going to interview him or give him air space right now, there should be a single subject he is asked to speak about...and it isn't the possibility of another Lakers/Celtics final.

Point Guard Battle Royale Continued, pt. i

Stop-n-Pop — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:32:56 -0000

Remember all of those point guard Battle Royales that happened across the country right before the draft? The first regular season version happens tonight when Brandon Jennings and the Milwaukee Bucks come to the Target Center to take on Jonny Flynn and Our Beloved Puppies.

Mr. Jennings is off to something of a hot start and he heads up quite a few rookie rankings on the major sports sites. Jennings is shooting .481 from 2 and .500 from beyond the arc. He weighs 165 lbs and has 10 FTAs in 3 games. I hope he has a fantastic season but a hot start is a hot start is a hot start and it is highly unlikely that it will continue going this way for much longer.

That being said, I had him pegged ahead of Jonny Flynn before the draft and I even wrote this:

If the Wolves want to swing for the fences with a young EL point guard, they should just sit at 6 and take Brandon Jennings. This one came up in the comments and I thought it would be a nice above-the-fold topic. Both Jennings and Rubio have big-time boom/bust potential but for different reasons. Jennings is blessed with what would probably be the best athleticism and quickness at his position the moment he steps on an NBA court. He has tremendous court vision and he can also score. On the other hand, he doesn't shoot well, he isn't all that strong, and there have been questions about his maturity. Rubio was on the Spanish Olympic team and he has the best assist numbers in the EL. He is also an oft-injured 18 year old point with a poor jumper, no strength, average (at best) athleticism and no experience playing an NBA-style game. Both players will likely take 2-3 years to become acclimated to the league. Both players have significant flaws. Both players have amazing ceilings. Both are YouTube heroes. One will likely go at the #2 spot in the draft while the other will be available at 6. My personal opinion is that Jennings has the physical tools to become a better NBA player and that he will cost significantly less than Rubio. His bust-level is Bassy but he would bust without selling the farm to get him while Rubio's bust level is Jason Williams or Rafer Alston and...well, he's going to come at a cost.

We all know the cost of Rubio: Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Will he be worth it? I have no idea. Will Brandon Jennings be to Rubio/Flynn what Brook Lopez was to Kevin Love and Brandon Roy was to Randy Foye? We'll just have to wait and see. What we do know is that Jennings is off to a start that will make that question an uncomfortable one if he continues to perform at this high of a level. Lucky for us fans, chances are that we're looking at a 3-5 game hot streak rather than the player we'll see after 30 games, but it certainly is a good talker at the moment.

I will always have a special place in my NBA heart for Jennings because of what he did to the NCAA . I hope he succeeds because I would like to see more gifted players earn money for their skills instead of lining the bank accounts of university presidents and CBS. That being said, something has to give with the shooting. Take a look at what we wrote about Jennings' EL stats using a John Hollinger conversion formula:

Plugging Jennings' EL numbers into this formula, we get a line of 11.6 points/40 minutes, an assist rate of 27.5, a shooting percentage of 34.1, and a 9.1 PER. Again, keep in mind that we're talking about a 19 year old player in the 2nd toughest professional league on the planet.

This site has never made an attempt to rate EL prospects because we have neither the time nor resources to do so, but there are a few things we can determine about Jennings' game. First, he doesn't shoot the three well at all. He has a 26.8% fg% from beyond the arc in the EL while taking 5.2 attempts per 40 minutes. 37% of his shots are from beyond the arc. Scoring wise, he posts 0.99 points/possession while turning the ball over 0.16/possession. He has a 1.37 a/to rate with a -0.59 PPR. The problem here is that while I have a pretty good idea of what these numbers would mean in the NCAA, I have zero clue what they mean in the EL. My gut tells me the shooting numbers are worrisome. He does shoot 45.7% from 2, but the outside shooting is problematic. The Wolves already have an undersized guard with amazing quickness who can't shoot from outside.

Where Jennings may have a hand up on Bassy is that he appears to have something of a mid-range game and/or an ability to score close to the hoop. My guess is that his assist/play making numbers are pretty solid considering where he plays and the amount of time he receives on the court. That being said, I don't know and I wish I had a better way of letting you know more about his game via the stat sheet.

The interesting stat here is Jennings' large reliance on the three ball, even in limited action. In 3 NBA games 26% of his shots have come from beyond the arc. That's fine and dandy when you're Steve Nash and can shoot well above 40% from 3. It's a really good thing when you are making .500 of your attempts and not getting a ton of trips to the line.

Jennings is not going to maintain his current shooting levels. The big test for Jennings will be how he adjusts when the shot isn't going down. Will he have a decent A/TO ratio? Will he continue to be disruptive on defense? Will he be able to get open looks for his teammates? Can he take the beating that comes with getting to the line in the NBA as a small PG?

It will be interesting to watch how this season plays out for the guy. It will also be interesting to see how well Flynn and Jennnigs can stay in front of one another during tonight's game.

For a Milwaukee perspective on tonight's tilt, head on over to Brew Hoop.

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2009 – The Minnesota Lynx won the ninth annual WNBA Draft Lottery and earned the t...

Stop-n-Pop — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:51:08 -0000

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2009 – The Minnesota Lynx won the ninth annual WNBA Draft Lottery and earned the top pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft, the league announced today.

Minnesota had 428 chances out of 1,000 to receive the first overall selection by virtue of owning New York’s combinations (261) in addition to its own (167). The Sacramento Monarchs, who had 420 chances, will have the second pick followed by the Connecticut Sun, Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky.

Minnesota had the combinations for the New York Liberty’s pick due to the trade involving Sidney Spencer, Noelle Quinn and Raffaella Masciadri on May 5, 2009.

Who says Minnesota's professional basketball teams don't have luck in the lotto?! Via WNBA.com.