SB Nation User Blog: ZenBaller

All-Rookie Teams (one more snub)

ZenBaller — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:46:03 -0000

All-Rookie Teams (one more snub)

All Rookie 1st Team: Rose, Mayo, Westbrook, Beasley, Lopez

All Rookie 2nd Team: Gordon, Love, Chalmers, Gasol, Augustin, Fernandez

"Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first place votes in parentheses): Courtney Lee, Orlando, 12; Jason Thompson, Sacramento, 7; Marreese Speights, Philadelphia, 3; Greg Oden, Portland, 3 (1); Robin Lopez, Phoenix, 2 (1).

At least JT got 7 votes but seriously... How did Robin Lopez get 2 votes, one actually for the 1st team?? He even had 1 vote for the 2nd place of the Rookie of the Year Award. Who's voting??? This is not sane.

Keeping the summer FAs in mind

ZenBaller — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:23:01 -0000

Keeping the summer FAs in mind

- 9 players possibly leaving the Jazz
- One of them is Boozer
- Lee Open To 'All Offers' As A Free Agent

DKV remain hopeful of keeping Rubio

ZenBaller — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:55:45 -0000

DKV remain hopeful of keeping Rubio

The Badalona club's president Jordi Villacampa spoke about DKV’s intention to keep Rubio in an exclusive interview with FIBA.com earlier this season and he hasn’t changed his stance.

Drafting Internationals and Rubio... (w/part 2)

ZenBaller — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:42:56 -0000

(PART 2 added)

First of all let me say that I am European (Greek) and I confess that I never liked international basketball. I've been collecting NBA cards and stickers since I was 9 years old and I used to "watch" NBA games in text in the late 90s with a dialup connection in greater agony than any euroleague final. It's true that I'm somewhat biased -as pookie told me earlier- towards international basketball. However I still can't get rid of that feeling inside me that says "90% of the international players are busts unless they are 7feet tall so let's give them a try".

I've been critisizing Rubio a lot and I am confident that he is going to be an underachiever at best if he's picked very high. But this FanPost is not going to be an assessment of Rubio's basketball talents. I leave that to experts... although I have to say that watching John Wall's incredible mixtapes and then going back to Rubio's slow pick n rolls, in-bound steals and slow-motion drives where he can barely leave the ground... is a huge draft-buzz-killer.

So, I made a list of all the international players drafted from 2003 to 2007 just to check if my anti-international obsession has a statitistcal ground. By no means this proves anything but I don't think it will mislead either. I left the 2008 draft out since it's too early to make a valid estimation even though I believe that players like Ajinca (20th pick) and some 2nd rounders won't have a job in the NBA soon and could make my stats look better tonight. Of course there are players included in the 03-07 drafts that might decide to play in the NBA later but I really doubt if it's more than 2-3 (maybe the Brazilian Tiago Splitter?)

In order to make the stats a little more valid I left out Asian players (Yi, Sun Yue, Xue Yuyang and Ha Seung-Jin) because of the very low quality of the Chinese/Korean basketball leagues.

PART 1 - INTERNATIONALS

The players in bold are 1st rounders

2007

Belinelli, Fernandez, Splitter, Koponen, Gasol, Seibutis, Fesenko, Barac, Haluska, Printezis, Rakovic (11)

2006

Bargnani, Sene, Pecherov, Rodriguez, Perovic, Vinicius, Eliyahu, Veremeenko, Halperin, Ugboaja, Bavcic, Mavrokefalidis, Markota (13)

2005

Bogut, Vazquez, Korolev, Petro, Kleiza, Mahinmi, Ilyasova, Turiaf, Ukic, Ilic, Andriuskevicius, Lorbek, Gelabale ,Gortat, Slokar, Akyol (16)

2004

Araujo, Biedrins, Podkolzine , Khryapa , Monia , Vujacic , Beno, Varejão , Ramos, Miralles, Sanikidze, Spanoulis, Karaulov (13)

2003

Milicic, Pietrus, Cabarkapa, Pavlovic, Planinic, Delfino, Barbosa, Lampe, Schortsanitis, Szewczyk, Vranes, Pachulia, Becirovic, Morlende, Sinanovic, Glyniadakis. (16)

69 international players.
45 of them are out of the NBA (65%).
27 of them were 1st rounders (40%) - 11 of the 1st rounders are out of the NBA (41% of the 1st rounders).
17 of them are part of the rotation (25%) (including players with 10mpg).
11 of them play more than 20 mins (16%).
7 of them play more than 24 mins. (10%).
5 of them are normal starters (Bogut, Beno, Biedrins, Gasol, Bargnani - all of them for teams out of the playoffs) (7%).
4 of those starters are 7-footers or close (making a point).
None of them is a star.

You could say of course that once or twice every 10 years a Dirk or a Pau comes along so why not Rubio? I'd say only 7% of the internationals of those 5 drafts are starters and probably only Bogut and Biedrins would have a chance to start for a good team.

What I'm pointing out is that this decade an international trend broke out because of a very small number of good players like Dirk, Pau, Peja etc. The number of internationals drafted is not a reflection of the international basketball development which took place. The eyes of the american scouters got blinded by those few stars and they don't seem to learn from the mistakes.

So statistically speaking Rubio has a lot more chances to be a bust than a star. But what makes my belief even stronger is that this very sympathetic kid, no matter his virtues, is far from quick and athletic. And If he doesn't have these skills at 19, he never will. Remember this is the NBA we're talking about, the need for athleticism is much bigger than the slow 5on5 possessions in Europe. He's not a killer from the perimeter either. So that just leaves him court vision and -uncertain because of his lack of strength/small frame- defense.

Is he better than the other PGs of the draft? If we miss Griffin, is he worth being drafted ahead of other forwards/centers? Will he be much better than Beno??

My answer to all of the questions is "I doubt". I am biased and there are times when I can't see Rubio being better than Eric Snow.. but before I get too far, I'll get off my train of thought now and thank you for reading this.

PART 2 - AMERICANS

The season is over so why not play a bit more with this. I decided to expand the pool and include all Americans in the 03-07 drafts.

2007

Oden, Durant, Horford, Conley, Green, Brewer, Brandan Wright, Noah, Hawes, Law, Young, Antoine Wright, Thornton, Stuckey, Young, Sean Williams, Crittenton, Smith, Cook, Dudley, Chandler, Almond, Brooks, Affalo, Tucker, Landry, Pruitt, Williams, Fazekas, Glen Davis, Davidson, McRoberts, Richard, Byars, Terry, Jordan, Lasme, McGuire, Aaron Gray, JamesOn Curry, Taurean Green, Nichols, Newley, Hill, Sessions, Mejia, Strawberry. (25+22=47)

2006

Aldridge, Morrison, Tyrus, Shelden Williams, Roy, Foye, Gay, O'Bryant, JJ Redick, Armstrong, Sefolosha, Ronnie Brewer, Cedric Simmons, Carney, Shawne Williams, Douby, Balkman, Rondo, Marcus Williams, Boone, Lowry, Shannon Brown, Farmar, Ager, Mardy Collins, Freeland, James White, Novak, Solomon Jones, Paul Davis, PJ Tucker, Craig Smith, Bobby Jones, Noel, Denham Brown, James Augustine, Gibson, Alexander Johnson, Dee Brown, Millsap, Powe, Hollins, Diaz, Adams, Pinnock, Blalock (26+22=48)

2005

Marvin Williams, Deron, Paul, Felton, Webster, Villanueva, Frye, Diogu, Bynum, May, McCants, Wright, Graham, Granger, Gerald Green, Warrick, Hodge, Nate, Jack, Cisco, Head, Maxiell, Simien, David Lee, Salim Stoudemire, Ewing, Bass, CJ Miles, Sanchez, Diener, Wafer, Monta, Taft, Louis Williams, Bracey Wright, Blatche, Gomes, Whaley, Harvelle, Orien Greene, Dijon Thompson, Roberts, Amir Johnson, Acker (24+21=45)

2004

Howard, Okafor, Gordon, Livingston, Harris, Childress, Deng, Iguodala, Luke Jackson, Swift, Telfair, Humphries, Al Jefferson, Snyder, Josh Smith, JR Smith, Dorell Wright, Jameer Nelson, Delonte West, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin, David Harrison, Vroman, Chalmers, Donta Smith, Emmett, Burks, Ivey, Duhon, Reed, Young, Ariza, Pickett, Bernard Robinson, Sow, Minard, Sato, Freije, Paulding, Flores, Douhit, Stepp, Rashad Wright (22+21=43)

2003

LeBron, Carmelo, Bosh, Wade, Kaman, Hinrich, Ford, Sweetney, Hayes, Collison, Banks, Ridnour, Gaines, Troy Bell, David West, Dahntay Jones, Outlaw, Cook, Ebi, Perkins, Josh Howard, Kapono, Walton, J.Beasley, Austin, Hansen, Steve Blake, Zimmerman, Willie Green, Bogans, Bonner, Mo Williams, Lang, James Jones, Korver, T.Smith, Rickert, B.Hunter (21+17=38)

221 players
68 of them out of the NBA (31%)
118 of them were 1st rounders (53%) - 9 of the 1st rounders are out of the NBA (8% of the 1st rounders)
19 (9%) of them have more DNPs than games played (either waived or in the NBDL)
102 (46%) of them are part of the rotation (10+ mins)
67 (30%) of them play 25+ mins (most of them starters)
16 of them are leading stars (7%) (excluding players like David West Josh Howard, Mo Williams, Okafor, Aldridge, Lee etc)

It's very clear to me that American players have a lot more chances to become good players. The reason for that? Well they don't have to migrate to a different continent, live in a different culture, leave their family behind, adapt to a very different basketball style but basically.. they are just better players.

30% of all the Americans in these 5 drafts are very important units (25+ mins) for their team. Only 10% of the internationals have a similar role.

About 15% of the Americans are really good players ranging from "sidekick" monsters (like Josh Howard, David West, David Lee etc) to superstars like LeBron, Paul etc.

The best international players don't even come close to that 15% quality.

For every Biedrins there is an Okafor, a Howard, a Bosh, an Al Jefferson and a Bynum.

For every Rubio, there is a Paul, a Deron, a Roy, a Mo Williams, a Felton.

Comparing the cast and evaluating the future

ZenBaller — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:10:05 -0000

After reading 214's very realistic and artistic post [edited for proper credit -- TZ], I was tempted to make a quick comparison of our core and future with the rest of the lowly NBA teams and just let my thoughts flow on the keyboard.

Martin, Hawes, Thompson, Cisco and a bit of Beno and Nocioni. This is all we have right now.

Let's see how the rest are doing.. I'll try to avoid mentioning players who are not part of a team's future or they're just not good enough to be in the radar. It's just a quick overview.

WEST:
- Oklahoma has Durant, Green, Westbrook, Krstic, Sefolosha (maybe?).
- The Grizzlies have Gay, Mayo, Conley, Gasol, Arthur, Warrick, Adriana Lima.
- The Wolves have Jefferson, Love, Foye, Telfair, Gomes, Smith + Mike Miller for 2 years..
- The Warriors have Monta, Biedrins, Randolph, Wright and veterans Maggette, Jackson (Crawford is opting out).
- The Clippers might have a collection (not a team.. a collection) of some of the best players in the league plus some very talented youngsters. Baron, Randolph, Camby, Kaman + Al Thornton, Eric Gordon, (Taylor, Jordan?).

EAST:
- The Wizards have Butler, Jamison, Arenas, Blatche, McGee, Crittenton, Haywood (reborn).
- The Raptors still have superstar Chris Bosh, Calderon, broken out Bargnani, Graham, Ukic and the $18 million-Marion off the books this summer.
- New York has Nate, Chandler, Duhon, Lee (for now) hype, madness, D'Antoni's 130ppg, dreams for LeBron and a bunch of expiring contracts. They're in a demolishing (pre-building) period and they're still close to the playoffs.
- The Bucks have Redd, Villanueva breaking out, Jefferson, Bogut and many question marks (Sessions?).
- New Jersey has two bright all stars Harris and Lopez (soon to be). CDR is going to be great (write it down) and Carter is on the block.
- The Pacers have the close to superstar Granger and a core of above average players: Dunleavy, Jack, Ford, Murphy, Daniels + Hibbert, Rush.
- The Bobcats managed to fight for the playoffs with Wallace :( , Okafor, Diaw, Felton, DJ Augustin despite some really bad drafts (Morrison, May, Ajinca).

Most of the teams already have an all-star and a good young core. In my eyes... the only ones that seem to be in a worse situation (long term) than the Kings are Dunleavy's mess (Clippers), Nellie's mess (Warriors) and maybe the Raptors if Bosh leaves in 2010. Still.. all of them might be better than us next year.

Judging by our core, the present looks very inadequate. The next two drafts seem to lack superstar material unless we pick Griffin, Rubio or John Wall in 2010? Still... the chance that they'll become leading stars is not as great as it was with LeBron, Durant or Rose. So realistically speaking, things are a bit ugly in the present and future of the talent section.

However the huge X-factor in this very general analysis is not the talent but the potential signings via free agency or trading. All of this gloom can be cleared in a summer afternoon if Petrie suddenly signs Marion and Sessions with 5-7 million per year contracts (or Andre Miller and Odom) and trades Beno, Nocioni and expirings for Bosh or Boozer (yeah right.. but you get my point).

On the one hand, I trust that Petrie will find us some good rookies in the next couple of years even if they don't become superstars. On the other hand, there's going to be a war in the FA/trading market and imo that's where the 70% of our success will be determined.Given our recent signing/trading history, I don't feel very confident. The bad contracts (K9, Moore, Beno) were enough to make our salary cap-life much more difficult and maybe prolong the rebuilding process 2-3 years.

In a few words if we take under consideration: 1) the ugly situation of our salary cap which only started to clear this season, 2) the recent bad contract history, 3) our still unproven core of talented youngsters and 4) the possibly shallow 2009-2010 drafts... I would say that the most down to earth scenario for our beloved team is that we'll be in the nowhere land for around 2-5 years. The bad thing about it is obvious, the good thing is that we'll be excited by every single point of our young guns as we'll watch them grow.

Stephen Curry about going Pro: "I'm 50 percent in the middle"

ZenBaller — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:27:59 -0000

Stephen Curry about going Pro: "I'm 50 percent in the middle"

We'll have a lot of this indecisiveness in the coming weeks, so let's start...

"I'm 50 percent in the middle," he said, standing in an empty Belk Arena on Wednesday afternoon. "Every five minutes I'm thinking one way and then I'm thinking the next way. So I'm just playing mind games with myself right now.

"Once I get out of the meetings with my parents and my coaches, then I can give you a better judgment of where I am right now."

SI.com: "Rubio wants to enter 2009 draft"

ZenBaller — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:27:35 -0000

SI.com: "Rubio wants to enter 2009 draft"

"It could be this June. Rubio has made it clear that he would like to enter the 2009 draft, according to sources close to the situation. The 18-year-old Rubio is draft-eligible because he will turn 19 before the end of 2009.

But it's not that easy. Rubio has a complicated, multimillion-dollar contract buyout with his Spanish team, DKV Joventut Barcelona. NBA teams are allowed to contribute a maximum of $500,000 to buy out the contract of a foreign player. That means if Rubio seeks to leave Joventut, he could be forced to use most of the money from his first NBA contract to pay for the buyout."

Kevin Martin: "It’s time for our young fellas to grow up a little bit"

ZenBaller — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:14:43 -0000

Kevin Martin: "It’s time for our young fellas to grow up a little bit"

Hoopsworld TV interviewing Kevin Martin.

ESPN: Amare to the Kings on Draft Day?

ZenBaller — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:03:19 -0000

ESPN: Amare to the Kings on Draft Day?

"Keep your eye on Sacramento closer to the draft, especially if the Suns decide to put Amare Stoudemire back on the market.

Outside of Memphis' Rudy Gay, Sacramento had the pieces Phoenix wanted most when the Suns still were open to dealing Stoudemire.

The Kings ultimately were unwilling to part with a combination of expiring contracts, rookie forward Jason Thompson and their No. 1 pick in the June draft -- which could well end up being the No. 1 overall pick in the draft -- for Stoudemire."

Source: Kings-Wolves Discussing Trade?

ZenBaller — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:52:48 -0000

Source: Kings-Wolves Discussing Trade?

The Kings have been negotiating with the Timberwolves on a deal that could land them guard Rashard McCants, according to league sources.

Sacramento is reportedly interested in sending guard Quincy Douby forward Mikki Moore to Minnesota for McCants.