Actually, when Shavlik played, both regular season and preseason, he was extremely productive. The problem was it was a very limited sample size against the other teams' end-of-the-bench guys. Sort of an our 12th man is better than your 12th man situation. Given how poorly both Frye and Diogu both played at the back-up 4, I would have liked to have seen Shavlik get a chance to play more minutes. Not that I think he's anything great, but he couldn't have been much worse than those other two. BNM
I have my own travel agency. It actually would only take 2 and a half hours to fly. It would not take 8 hours.You would want to get there a couple of hours prior. The high speed train network does not connect between Italy and Spain. You could take a 5 hour and 27 minute train from Rome to Torino. Change. Take a 12 hour and 25 minute over night train to Barcelona. Change. Wait 12 hours. Take an overnight train from Barcelona to Madrid (duration 9 hours). Pritchard might find a quicker route by booking some of the local train within country, but it's not going to save much time. Just take the flippin nonstop with alitalia!
did alitalia go back into business? When I was flying back from Africa through Naples last year, they were bankrupt and not flying.
Yeah. Are you sure they stopped service? I know they've had strikes which stopped service for a few days and have gone through bankruptcy. They've always had money problems. Their government bailed them out though I thought. In any case, today three flights took off for Madrid from Rome. They're still flying.
8 hours was the complete end to end based on my recent flights out of Italy - including, and not limited to - arriving before time and waiting on the runway which happens in Italy more than just about anywhere in Europe I experienced and waiting for rental cars at the other hand (granted I suspect a taxi would be quicker). Anyway - this thread really went in a bizarre direction which is not that important... Personally, for myself - I would just rent a car and drive it - but I like driving in Europe when I have the opportunity. Probably not relevant for someone that needs to move around quickly with a time-limit as KP I suppose does at this point. Now back to our usual Blazers bickering, if possible...
Am I the only one who doesn't really care about this guy or Koponen? I saw this thread and didn't care, but was curious what you guys thought. The only time I've seen him play was in Vegas and was NOT impressed. (I could say the same about Batum too though) I could care less if this guy never plays for us. If he was good enough, KP would have already had him over here.
I'm really excited about both players still. Koponen, a little less, but I still think he's promising. Freeland I haven't been able to actually see much of, but from the sounds of it, he's, right now, a Shavlick Randolph without the injuries. They're both still so young. It's impossible to see their ceilings yet. What I do know is that they're in a much better place than sitting on our bench or playing in the NBDL. The experience and teaching they're getting is awesome I would imagine. I do think Pritchard has to bring Freeland over this off-season if he wants him or thinks he'll fit in with us. I personally think giving him the role that Randolph had would be excellent for us. I remember hearing that Freeland's current team blocked him from playing in our Summer League last year. I believe there were sore feelings from his perspective, so I wouldn't think he'd be wanting to go over and above to help them out.
well he has played really really well and been extremely productive over there. If he came over we'd have foul issues this year and inexperience, but he is very athletic and a tough energy guy (which I think we could use). I think a vet stop-gap for a year (Mcdyess/KThomas) to help our guys (Aldridge/Oden) and give Freeland a year to work on his body would be great.
I don't give a rats ass about Kopponen right now, but Freeland I do. He has made vast strides since that summer league 2 years ago.
Well, he showed a big improvement between his first Summer League and his second, despite the fact that his Spanish team gave him ZERO minutes. Since then, however, he has emerged as a very solid rotation player who has one of the highest PERs in the ACB (second best Pro League in the world, probably). They like him over there.
Koponen - No Freeland - Yes Freeland has made huge strides in getting better and is apparently all the rage in Europe and KP has said that he is really impressed with Freeland. I hope he at least brings him over to fill the spot of Randolph or Ruffin, and if he proves himself I would love for him to get some PT.
Looking at his numbers and how efficient Joel was this year, combined with all the hype he's generated, I wonder if Freeland would have been a top-10 pick in this years draft.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I am extremely interested in both of these guys... not because I think that they are going to be franchise saviors, but because they are both very young guys who have potential. Your last sentence does NOT make sense, though. KP can keep these guys in Europe to develop and also to keep them further removed from NBA free agency. Why give a 19 year-old who might never be good enough a guaranteed first round contract? It makes a TON of sense to let the kid cut his chops in Europe--with someone else paying his salary--and then bring him over when he's more ready to contribute. Ed O.
