I watched pretty much the whole game and Claver was really pretty good. He managed 11 rebounds in 24 minutes, and he was all over the place (in a good way). He did foul out, but some of those calls (particularly the last two) were totally bogus. And he actually got a bit pissed, which I've never seen - more of that please! He definitely should play stretch 4 for us, because that gives him a quickness advantage, and a frontline of him, Batum and Aldridge would be offensively awesome (and if he can rebound like he did today, it wouldn't even be a disaster on the boards).
Right now he looks to be third string at both the 3 and 4. But I just get the feeling that at some point he is going to get his chance to play bigger minutes, and after that the coaches are going to find somewhere to get him consistent minutes. Regardless if he is a 6th man or a 12th man, I like having him on the team.
France-Latvia is a barnburner. France had a big lead but Latvia are whittling it away. France are just watching Parker, and he's delivering, but Latvia are answering with threes. Down to 7. I don't know what the French coach is doing - Ajinca was unstoppable (no - really!) and he's sat him down as Latvia make a run. Finally Parker gets the crowd Chalupas. But they didn't need to ride him - they were doing fine with him sitting and just running everything through Ajinca. As always, when Parker comes in, Batum is just sidelined. Latvia are like Princeton or something - short, but shooters at every position and really unselfish. Oh, and a Latvian player had the dunk of the tournament off an inbounds play. I'm sure it'll be posted soon. I turned on in the third quarter when Batum already had most of his stats and he didn't do much for the rest of the game. He ended up with 19 points (what he had when I turned on), 10 rbs, 6 assists, a steal and a block. A good bounceback game. Would probably have been more if the French coach had had some sense and kept Parker on the bench.
He plays in France (so, not even for a top Euro team). I can see an NBA team signing him sometime soon. Wouldn't be surprising if it was the Spurs. He's sort of a poor man's Rik Smits: tall, good touch on offense, but does pretty much fuck all else. For a team like us hurting for rebounding he would be odd. Although he might work in combination with Robinson.
A few months ago it was reported that the Warriors had some kind of deal with him to come to summer league and then training camp on a non-guaranteed deal. He ended up not playing for their SL team and they've stocked up on random bigs for TC so I assume hes no longer doing that.
Here it is: Freimantis puts Nic on a poster [video=youtube;tA7bzQI8Xbk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7bzQI8Xbk[/video] It made the top 5 of the day, predictably: [video=youtube;R8dF2lmWxhQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8dF2lmWxhQ[/video]
This guy's talking about him on Twitter: HoopsHype @hoopshype 1h While he's freakishly long, he still doesn't look very strong - especially the legs. But I guess we see him back in the NBA at some point. HoopsHype @hoopshype 1h He's playing well at the Eurobasket averaging 10.7 ppg and 6.9 rpg in less than 20 minutes per contest. HoopsHype @hoopshype 1h Ajinca said things didn't work out in the NBA for him because he was not mentally or physically ready at the time. HoopsHype @hoopshype 1h Ajinca said he's focused in the Eurobasket and letting his agent do work. Thinks he will be back in the NBA eventually. HoopsHype @hoopshype 1h French big Alexis Ajinca said this morning his contract with Strasbourg still includes an NBA out. Agent looking at options in the States.
Ballsy: Sergio Rodriguez throws an alley-oop to Rudy Fernandez with one minute to go and Spain up by two. Two points. Strange . . . that used to be the future of the Blazers
Victor Claver scored the first seven points of the second half and Sergio Llull added a 3 as Spain dominated the Serbs, putting together a 10-0 run. http://espn.go.com/olympics/basketb...rance-reach-semifinals-european-championships
