Still can't figure out which team he ended up on, but Russia shouldn't be that bad. Both Nolan (Croatia) and Luke ended up in better destinations than I expected.
If only we had gotten Paul George... We should have tried to trade Martell for him instead. http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_final_draft/2010
Maybe. He's a good guy but a very marginal NBA player. He'd be a good person at the #13-15 spot on a bench.
He has a good agent. Duffy wants him to get some playing time this year. He used Danny Green and Patrick Beverly as examples of clients who used Europe to develop their game. Luke will be back in the league at some capacity.
....except in the modern NBA you really want guys in that position who have some upside but currently suck, or grizzled vets who can give a strong locker room presence. Luke ain't either.
Udoh is good! Maybe not #6 good, but Milwaukee insisted on having him included in the Bogut trade and GState almost balked. But now Milwaukee have Sanders and Henson he's in a bit of a logjam. I wish we could get him: he's a great team defender and we could really use one.
Apparently "BC Nizhny Novgorod". It says here that Nizhny Novgorod is the fifth largest city in Russia. Live and learn. (And hey: he'll be teammates with Primoz Brezec and Dijon Thompson - I've heard of them!)
So how many players from last years bench are still in the league (that aren't on the team currently): Pavlovic: Gone Jeffries: Gone Smith: Gone Babbitt: Gone Maynor: Signed contract with Wizards. Price: (waived halfway through season) Signed with Magic. Not sure of the status of his contract (guaranteed or not) got damn that's a bad bench. Even just adding Mo Williams and trading for Thomas Robinson makes this years bench miles better than last years.
See, its posts like this that should confirm to everyone why its not hard to see that we will much much MUCH better based this year based on our improved bench alone. There was no chance to stay in a game with that bench if the starters didnt 1) have a great game AND 2) play basically the whole game.
I think the difference is, and I am probably wrong, is that some people are looking at our benches potential and seeing a lot more wins. Other are looking at what they have done so far and seeing not a lot more wins Our bench last year was Leonard Price/Maynor Babbitt Pavlovic Barton Freeland Claver Jeffries Smith Now it is Leonard Might be better than himself Williams Might be better than Maynor Wright Will drfinitely be better than Babbitt Barton Might be better than himself McCollum Might be better than last years Pavlovic Crabbe Probably won't be better than last years Pavlovic Freeland Might be better than himself Claver Might be better than himself Watson won't matter just like Smith Robinson Might be better than Jeffries They could absolutely be better, but to say it as fact is dumb because of progression and experience. Pavlovic, Jeffries and even Babbitt had experience that a lot of our guys don't have this year
It feels like you are trying to hard to not see what 99% of the rest of us do. The bench will be better. We had one of the worst benches in the HISTORY of the league. There is really no where to go but up. And for the all "experience" it didnt do us a damn bit of good.
Forget our bench last year. Of course we're miles better this year. How do we compare against one of the better benches in the league last year, like GSW? Mo vs Jack -- tie CJ vs Bazemore -- CJ Wright vs RJ -- Wright TRob vs Landry -- Landry Leonard vs Ezeli/Biedrins -- tie Remaining scrubs -- tie And GS got significantly worse this year after losing both Jack and Landry. Our bench will be one of the stronger ones this year. Silly to think otherwise.
