ESPN Insider story on Wesley Matthews

Oh yeah, I missed that. Thanks for pointing it out, I removed it. We already have an excerpt in the first post.

I know, I know, information wants to be free, how dare we have to click a link or pay for content, rabble rabble rabble. Nik gave a nice, concise summary. Wesley is good egg who works hard. We cool?

 

Q & A with Wesley Matthews

http://www.iamatrailblazersfan.com/ArticleDisplayPlaceholder/tabid/192/ItemID/1891/Default.aspx

 

Booooooo.

 

You forgot:
"Player X is a total pile of shit!"
"No! Player X is as good as Lebron and will lead this team to the finals. You must be an idiot not to know that!"
"PER!"
"Per 40 minutes, Player Y would average 60 points a game and 25 rebounds!"
"The roster isn't balanced"
"The roster is the deepest in the league"

etc...

 

I, for one, am pretty excited to see Wesley play. Perimeter defense has been our downfall for the last few years and I think it's always good to add another impact player on defense- we can probably do some sets with both Batum/Wesley locking down the opponents two best wing players.

 

Agreed.

 

I didn't mention those because player X is a total pile of shit and PER is the greatest thing evah.

 

Okay, so my Post #35 disappeared. Here is something much shorter, mostly in my own words, though quotations are from the article.

Before college, he was smart enough to be recruited by Stanford. In college, he was a good defender, but not a top shooter or overly athletic. After college, he nailed his predraft interviews. "We ask guys to name as many people on our team as they can," said Chad Buchanan. "They usually name one or two. Wesley named damn near our entire roster." All his life, Wesley Matthews IV, the son of NBA player Wesley Matthews III, had expected to be drafted. So he was depressed after the draft.

He sucked for the Jazz in the Orlando Summer League. Then he did much better for the Kings at the Vegas Summer League. A Turkish club offered $120,000. The Jazz invited him to preseason. Thanks to injuries to Miles and Korver before camp broke, Matthews earned a spot. "He doesn't take bad shots, he has a tremendous basketball IQ, and he's a tough SOB," says one Eastern Conference scout. "He just finds a way to make plays. Not drafting him was a grave mistake." Chad Buchanan agrees and says it's extremely rare for a rookie to be a good defender.

Here's a quote from the article.
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While the list of undrafted free agents who saw action in the NBA last season is relatively long -- 70 of 442, or 16% -- their pro tenures are typically not. (Since the NBA-ABA merger of 1976-77, the average undrafted free agent has lasted 2.9 years in the league, compared to six years for the drafted.) Even shorter is the list of undrafted guys who stick around long enough to carve out solid careers. Ben Wallace, Brad Miller and Udonis Haslem come to mind. Shorter still is the rundown of those who made a splash as a walk-on straight out of college and then signed a huge free agent deal before their second season. Wesley Matthews isn't just on that list; he is that list.