Oh, what a block! Valanciunas stuffs Freeland's weak shit. And there goes Freeland. Fouled out on a shit block/charge call.
Jasikevicius (a) is still playing for Lithuania (b) is playing in a "friendly" (unlike Deng for GB) (c) just got a technical!
Jonas will turn out to be the 2nd best player from the 2011 draft. Been saying this since day 1. Minny and CLE screwed up.
Seriously, it's embarrassing for them to have so much talent and still have this game in doubt. Kleiza, Songaila, Valanciunas, Jasikevicius, etc etc are all playing significant minutes. GB has...?
Looks like Lithuania just won it on a layup. Phooey. Valanciunas looks tall and lumbering but pretty talented. I think he'll be good, but it won't be next season in the NBA - he'll be too foul-prone. I'd say he's comparable to Greg Monroe or Roy Hibbert.
GB certainly had the athletes in this game. Except for the big blond kid (Dan Clark?) and ancient Robert Archibald. Did Devon Von Oostrum play? I thought I saw a flash white kid get spot minutes at PG. The Blazers are supposed to have their eye on him. And what about Pops Mensah-Bonsu? My stream was too grainy to tell.
Overall, I didn't really learn anything new about Freeland's game that I didn't already know by watching him in Eurobasket last year. I still claim that he'd be a good bench big for us. He and Hickson would make a nice front court off the bench, and could both step in as starters temporarily in case of injury.
Freeland flashed some skill. Nice footwork on a hook shoot after backing down JV and pump faking him, a sweet-looking turnaround j, and a decent finish on P&R. I thought he settled for too many outside Js. He also did pretty well fighting for rebounds and threw a sick outlet pass about 60' to his teammate. JV just looks on a different league physically. Taller, more agile on both ends (I wouldn't call him lumbering at all), and his D in the fourth quarter was amazing. Shut down the rim for all GB players. His motor is unmatched. All that said, I am wayyyyyy over-analyzing one game that ultimately is meaningless for both sides.
1st half 37-37, 2nd half 24-26, final score 63-61 Lithuania. 50 combined points in the last 20 minutes is like scoring 15-15 in a 12-minute quarter. Slow.
Freeland looks like a 10 minutes a game backup at Center/PF. Runs the floor pretty good, can hit an occasional outside shot and can jump a bit. Some time with a good big man coach could really do wonders for him. If we didn't have to commit too much to get him I would be fine bringing him over. Since we now own the Boise franchise we could let him get big minutes there until he could build up his confidence. If he gets us a higher draft pick in a week I would be fine with that as well. He already looks to have twice as much talent as Thabeet!
He was at the game, too. The number of staff and players in the folding chairs may have exceeded the number of fans sitting in the rows. Probably mostly relatives like a Boys and Girls Club game.
Just for you, a summary! The white guys won! And lost! There were 2 black guards who showed their faces but they stayed in hiding! Ever been in Paul Bunyan country? Every lumbering white giant was at least 6-9 and had a crewcut! It was like watching the Przybilla family have a fight! Each team scored the equivalent of 15 points every 12 minutes in the 2nd half!
If the Blazer group concurs with you that he is a 10 minute backup; then I don't believe he will be coming over; they won't be able to offer him enough money to entice him. And if other GM's have the same evaluation, I don't think he will have any trade value.
A 10m backup is someone like Craig Smith. Freeland seems like a 20-25m guy over both the PF/C positions. Basically gets time while we rest whatever starting big we want rested. That amount of minutes should suffice for him. If he shows he can play the backup style and we give him a 3y 11m contract (what tiago got) he will most likely get the same type for his next contract and it would make more sense for him to stay in the NBA. If we offer him no minutes to showoff his skill set in the NBA and try for the big payday he isn't going to want to come over.
I have absolutely no faith in Freeland ever doing anything better for us than any other 2nd string big in the NBA would. If he does that's nice. The reality is he's a 25 year old who has never proven himself against NBA level big men.
