Great post Crimson. Dante wouldn't even sniff the court right now if it weren't for injuries and he's already contributed in a glue guy type way in some pretty impressive wins. He busts his tail on defense and is efficient enough on offense while also offering some mid-range ability. I have a lot of respect for the intellect of the posters on here, but I have to shake my head sometimes when I read their talent observations and/or expectations. Pendergraph had 14 rebounds in 25 minutes the other night, is 6'9" with a 35" vert, has a pretty soft J, and has shown the ability to get his hand on opponents' shots. He is strong and knows how to use his body in the post for rebounds. Yet I'm reading criticism in this thread about Pritchard not drafting Blair. I'll tell you right now that I'd rather have Pendergraph because I think he has more upside and the best part is that he has cartilage in his knees. KP is one of the very best talent evaluators in this league and the idea that he's not a good GM for not consolidating towards complimentary players is quite myopic with consideration to his stated plan. Letting it "bake" has to do with in-house development of complimentary players as much as it has to do with the development of the star players. That he chooses to develop complimentary players that are young and that can grow within the team structure is a matter of purpose. DING DING DING And only in the long-run is when it can be properly judged. To assume a position of replacing the developing young players on Portland's roster with proven NBA commodities is to doubt Pritchard's ability to spot talent and with that assumed position I find humor.
Go Patty! I would love for him to end up a stud in the NBA. Maybe with all of our injuries we can bring him up and give him some time once he gets into shape. Go Blazers!
Awesome, we finally have a guy who shows up to the D league and does what he is supposed to. Show he doesn't belong there.
Exciting to see. Wish he were a forward or center, but oh well. I'll take whatever talent we can get from a second round pick. I'll have to go see him play next week here in Boise. Assuming he isn't called up by then.
Aight, cool, then. I figured as much, but we kept arguing so I was thinking maybe this cat really doesn't like KP. We're on the same page. Gotta give him his props, but the jury is still out on whether or not he has the guts to pull the trigger on a big deal. You can only say, "Bake it," and leave things pretty much status quo for so long, where you have to make some changes if you're not advancing and moving on to bigger things.
If Dante can stretch his range a little bit, he could be a Marvin Williams type guy. 10 pts/5 rbs. A guy who can hit jumpers, get some garbage points with his athleticism, and fill the lanes (if we ever decide to run a little bit) I think he can be a quality/versatile defensive player - that's probably what will decide if he stays in the league or not.
^^This. (Right now) Dante strikes me as the kind of guy you wouldn't mind having at the end of your bench as an 11th or 12th man, but probably not somebody you want to rely on as a rotation player. He's going to have to add the three ball to his repetoire if he he's ever going to move up from that 11th man 12th man type of guy to an 8th man role in the rotation. Even then I'm not sure if he's going to stick with this particular team, especially since it already has a jump shooting 4 in LaMarcus.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Victor-Claver-336/ Doesn't really sound like much of an NBA 3 ... especially the lack of ball-handling skills.
Claver is a flex-forward. In the NBA, I think he'll be a KVH/Rashard (worst case/best case) type of Power Forward. 6'11" 236 lbs, basically the size LMA was as a rookie (6'11" 234 lbs). Our team docs (via radio interview that summer) Claver was measured at 6'10 and a quarter w/o shoes. [video=youtube;kcAj-RTgGvQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcAj-RTgGvQ[/video]
He's always been a NBA player, at least in my eyes. It's just how good of a NBA player he will be that's the question.
Mills 38 points 7-10 from 3 and 12 assists I didn't see this posted anywhere. If it has been delete or merge. link
Nate McMillan will be sure to let Mills know everything he does wrong and yank him after one bad play. Can't wait!
