McMillan would have turned Ginobli into Rudy-lite. Nate never made any player into anything better than expected, except for Roy. If you say Outlaw, no, he wasn't really a good player. In contrast, Popovich and Sloan made something out of nothing every year.
well statistically he was a pretty good player before the hit and showed a lot of promise before that. He was never the same after the hit and the stats bare that out. I'm not always right, but the hate that clouds some peoples judgement is pretty humorous.
Yeah his stats were pretty good for one season, and then they were shitty the rest of his NBA career. He doesn't get a pass cause he fell on his ass wrong and got injured. Roy sucked after his injury problems too. It's just the truth.
so then injuries do or do not play a part in a players career arc? are we just going to toss out his performances in spain before coming over here or in china at the olympics? pretty safe to see his career take a downward turn after the hit. should he have been a little more durable yea, and he grossly under performed here, but to say the guy sucked and all he was good at was shooting the 3ball is overlooking everything else he did.
Whether European or American, every experienced player got worse after he learned McMillan's system, and began conforming to it.
He wasn't even that good at shooting the three ball, and no he wasn't that good at anything else either. Injuries do play a part, but I don't think, especially for a guy that never proved himself for more than a year, that you can act like he was above average. I think he was below average as a talent. I just don;t see "everything else he did" as very much.
40% from three and the most made of any rookie ever, 37% his second year is still pretty good. other then that he was a very active player, that was good at playing passing lanes, while generally poor at one on one defense. on offense he was one of, if not the, best passer on the team and took advantage of defense's falling asleep on him. other then that he wasn't that good. I think he was an average to slightly above average player his rookie year and regressed from there. A lot of you on here seem to think he was garbage from the beginning and that simply is not true and the numbers back it up.
I see people saying he peaked as a rookie and that they though he had to potential to be "Ginobili-lite." I also see what I consider over glorifying a guy who had one good year in the NBA. I did say "Rudy sucked," but I think in my subsequent posts I explained I meant his career overall, and I said a few times he had a good rookie season. I also realize he had a back injury, which are never good, but one thing that shows me people aren't viewing Rudy and his career logically is when they say the Ariza foul was atrocious. It literally was not a dirty play at all.
getting this thread back on topic though ... I agree that one minute highlight video didn't really blow me away. I would love for Claver and Freeland to be a contributors here next season but I'd be happy if one of them can make the rotation at this point.
I wouldn't say it was atrocious but I wouldn't say it was clean play either. As with everything the truth lies somewhere in between those two options. I would add though it was one year in the nba, he was pretty good in the 08 olympics and acb league as well. But I agree he never lived up to his hype.
Blame the hype on Pritchard--the draft trade would be completed with "a great player," and after Rudy was disclosed, saying that Rudy was the best player in Europe. But it was inevitable. We could have drafted Sabonis or Divac or the Gasols or Nowitzki, and McMillan would have had no clue how to change his system to optimize them. After about 2 years, Rudy lost his will to stay in the NBA and just wanted out. So his playing went downhill.
Then you never watched him in Europe. He could never dribble like Ginobili. Their games weren't remotely similar, except for maybe being fun to watch. They didn't even have similar personalities. So, basically you had ridiculously high expectations because you were uninformed, and it's his fault.
Ditto with Jermaine O'neal, who went on to an allstar NBA career somewhere else. Rudy was a 2G who was a weak 1 on 1 defender, and couldn't create his own shot. He did have other things he could do. Some questions are "what system/environment could he thrive in?", "how much PT does he need to improve?", "will he be given that much PT?". It's relevant in this thread because I think VC will face some of these very same issues.
Cool? It will be nice to see what the kid can do. It's too bad we couldn't see him before the injuries. I still think he will be a nice stretch 4 though
Hey, I'm a Spaniard Timberwolves fan and I'm around because of the 'invasion' of the Timberwolves in this Forum. Anyway, I can tell that Claver is with the National Team right now. They played a game yesterday and they're playing also tonight. I highly doubt he will be traveling overseas before the Olympics. They are playing every 2-3 days until the Championship. He'll sign later, I think. BTW, we played vs. Freeland's UK yesterday.
This is what I thought as well, but here is his tweet Victor Claver @VictorClaver9 Today I will not play. I am in the airport to go to Portland. I am grateful that the FEB has allowed me to go to arrange it... I will tell you how it went upon my return! That is how I translated it anyway. I am almost fluent in Spanish, but I am sure you can correct any errors. Victor Claver @VictorClaver9 Hoy no jugare. Estoy en el aeropuerto para volar a Portland. Agradezco que la FEB me haya dejado ir para arreglarlo...A la vuelta os cuento!
