After summer league Jason Quick mentioned that the team views Pendergraph as a backup Center for the second unit as McMillan wants a faster tempo with the second unit. At 6'10" 250 lbs, I think he can handle it.
I would not write off Freeland as a C. He is not a huge center like Greg, but he is a strong PF, the kind who could play some C. Athletic and strong, I think he could play there. That's not to say he is good enough for the NBA, I just don't know that until I see him over here, but position-wise, I think that C is not out of the question.
Wow, the defense in that league sucks. No help defense no on ball pressure. Hard to get a feel for how good Claver can be from those highlights.
Not sure why anyone would look for a SF of the future unless they know that Batum's shoulder is messed beyond repair. We already have the SF of the future - and he fits with our team great. He is long, he is tough, he is a very good perimeter defender, he can shoot the 3. Claver looks nice here, but it's hard to really gauge one's worth based on a 4 minutes highlight reel.
I'm not sure where Rudy's head is at long term, but I really hope we can keep him. He's probably one of the top two most exciting players on our team. He puts butts in the seats. I would love for him to continue to be our sixth man. I'm just not sure whether he's going to be one of those guys who wants to start, and if he can't start here, he's going to want to go somewhere else.
He is exciting for sure, but with or without Rudy, I don't think we would have a problem selling out games. Moreover, I don't think that opposing fans buy tickets to the game to see Rudy. If Rudy wants to leave because he wants 40mpg instead of playing 25-30mpg on a championship contender, then that is fine with me. I don't want someone here that doesn't want to be here. I'd want to trade him though, and not just let him walk. Though I do hope he stays here. I really like him.
The comp is weaker in comparison to the NBA but the ACB is the second best league in the world. At nearly 6'11" with his jumper, basketball IQ, and mobility I think he has the tools to become the starting SF in the future. in fact, KP mentioned just that during the post-draft press conference.
I am so sick of this claim. As a starter, Webster has been pretty good this year. 2 bad games out of 8 so far, IMO (Houston #2 and Chicago), and those were games in which he was matched up against two of the better defensive SF's in the league (Ariza and Deng, respectively). Also, in both those games he had a rough start, and basically was given little to no chance to get back into a rhythm. Yes, prior to this year he had been maddeningly inconsistent. Yes, he was not great coming off the bench (except against the Wolves). But to say that he's "just too inconsistent" to be our starting SF is ignorant.
Considering Claver is no phenom, merely a solid prospect, there's no way I consider him a better talent than Batum, who was holding his own in the NBA in his age 19-20 season. Batum is actually a few months younger than Claver, yet has already shown himself to be a legitimate NBA player. I'd love to see Claver have success with Portland, but I'll put my money on Batum as "small forward of the future" (and present, whenever he's back).
...And this is supposedly the 2nd-best league in the world. A highlight film is like a resume. Only shows the positive, and exaggerates even that.
Claver looked pretty slow to me, and against tepid competition. He's no Nicolas Batum. He'll be in for a challenge if he ever faces the speed and quickness of the NBA game. Until then, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
Yeah that's some slow moving basketball compaired to the NBA. I seriously doubt he's near NBA ready, much less our SF of the future.
You're sick of what claim? That he is inconsistent? First of all, why do you think that he's done in his 8 games as a starter should erase the history of his whole career thus far? He has been inconsistent this year. Look at his game logs. Only 6 games where he shot above 33%. I like the energy he's been bringing, but his jump shot is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it looks worse than Ruben Patterson or Darius Miles, missing wide open shots. Someone makes the claim that a player is inconsistent, and your retort is to say they are ignorant, just focus on the games they played well?
He WAS inconsistent his first three years. He's been consistent this year. Consistently bad as a reserve, consistently good as a starter. Ignorant means unaware of the facts or reality. IMO, someone claiming Webster is inconsistent is unaware of the fact that he has been consistently good when he starts, and less-so when he comes off the bench (except against Minnesota).
