I disagree. Kobe hit him hard enough he didn't have to flop. I think if he was flopping he'd have hit the floor. I know Sergio isn't much of a defender, but I still don't think that was a good example.
Despite his getting absolutely killed in his last game (against the best team in Italy), supposedly the Mavs are interested in Koponen: There'll be room when we don't re-sign Blake...
Apparently, the Blazers are on the lookout for a PG. Well, apparently they've got a star waiting in the wings: (I don't really think he's a star. But I do think he's a better defender and PG than Bayless, and that he's the obvious Blake replacement. I'm hoping he's the Finnish Alvin Williams.)
Thanks for the update, Mate. I hope we bring him over next year, in time to learn a few tricks from Andre.
And in a couple of years, he'll have a chance to prove it! (And Brandon Jennings has had 55 against an NBA team - think what he could do in the Italian League!)
I don't think he would, once the European opponents knew that he always drives. Petteri is an oversized PG who thinks pass, with ordinary scoring ability. Bayless is an undersized SG who can't pass, with ordinary scoring ability, once the defense knows he will always drive.
It took a year or two, but he has now successfully made the transition from Iceland to Europe. Is he in the highest European league, or how high is his league? Can he move up in Europe, or is he already in the top league?
The latest on our Point Guard of the Future (or maybe not, if KayP is fired): There's much more - check out the link.
Having not seen him in a live game since Summer league two years ago, I find it hard to get too excited about Petteri's exploits in the Italian League, but if his calling card really is defense (NBA caliber defense that is) and being able to run an offense and actually hit an outside shot then I'm all for it.
"THE," you look Italian with that long curly hair, so you must know that you translate "it" as "he." ---------------------- Clauses, Nba and cups: here as the Virtus risks losing Petteri The escape expires on June 15. But it is not the single knot CORRELATED NEWS Koponen: "If we are in Euroleague, rest» There are no doubts that in this moment Petteri Koponen is the best player of the Virtus. In field, pound for pound as the Americans say, it is the element that moves the balances because it is the most physical, more exact outside to the pulling, able to do basket with the practicing with a ball and to attach the iron determined in defence. And above all he is a boy who always pushes over his limit. It is like that that, packed the trust of Lino Lardo in September, it has opened guiding his ascent. Now the Virtus has for the hands at the same time the perfect player and a problem what eight months ago not even in the best dreams he was thinking to have: Petteri is so strong that road might go. The situation has not still been faced in society, but it is obvious that it is scalando positions in the diary of Claudio Sabatini and Massimo Faraoni. Koponen this year has done a huge jump in the yield and in the continuity, but it needs to complete an other of them to have this impact also at superior levels: it is clear that if it continues so or the Virtus gives those "levels" to him, or it is licit to be waited which wish to find to them elsewhere. An immediate jump in the Nba would be harmful, even though Mihailo Pavicevic sponsors "his" boy to Trail Blazers and the agent Marc Cornstein is more cautious, waiting being arranged of the market Nba of the big shots. But the risk that Koponen leaves the Virtus is concrete, if here there will no be technical guarantees. Here then that soon will guide the works to themselves to understand how to solve this knot: Koponen on his pluriennial contract has an escape for the Nba with the buyout fixed to 500 thousand dollars, the maximum roof of expense assented to the American franchises, to exercise that is within June 15. If Portland wants it it pours the number, Petteri does not lose a coin and moves in the Oregon leaving the bianconeri much time to substitute it. He wanted to hold it, the Virtus might try to "buy" the clause, if it moved it in 2011 and if the engagement of the player increased. And if the Blazers choose to make it ripen another year? Here the question changes. The Virtus has not fixed a buyout for the Europe, then he is Sabatini to do the price. And the precedents say: to the Virtus nobody is incedibile. In front of so many currency — more of how much must it pour Portland it — Koponen would be given. But the question is understood also by Petteri, which wants to play the cups (not discounted thing, according to the club) to test higher game levels. The ideal, he says it himself, it would be the Euroleague. The thankfulness and the affection that they tie to the Virtus would make telling of no other European clubs, provided that V Black ones should be in Europe. And to judge by the yield, it seems own that Petteri wants to bring it to us. --------------------------- Translated by PROMT™ http://www.promt.com
Petteri Season Wrap: One last nugget: did you know that former Blazer and current Joel Freeland teammate Omar Cook is a player on a national team? Betcha can't guess which nation...
