I think that if you think a D-league defense will hold Barton to 20 points, you're high as a kite. Babbitt averaged 21, 9 and 3. And he has 3x the conscience that Barton has. Will's got all the makings of an up-and-coming Irrational Confidence Guy.
Barton's not a shooter like Babbitt and would not average 20 ppg in his first stay with the Stampede. Babbitt was awful in his first time (10 days). He was better his second rookie year callup (25 days). Yes, he averaged 20.1 ppg in 14 games in those two stays (good enough to start only the last 9 games), but it took being sent there twice. (He went a third time, in his second year, 3 games in 6 days, 21.0 ppg). Barton would have a learning curve just like Babbitt did. Also, the coach has a learning curve too, to instantly change his system to make the NBA callup the star of the team, even if the player isn't really skilled enough yet to deserve it.
My god Lamb took 33 shots. Scored 33 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. Jones had 27 points on only 17 shots and grabbed 16 rebounds.
Seems like the D-League is making small steps toward being an actual minor league system. Here's an interesting, detailed blog post about the Warriors innovative but completely sensical use of their D-League team. In summary, they liked Rick Jackson a lot in college, he went undrafted and played in europe for a year, blew out his knee in April and was up for grabs. The Warriors brought him into training camp knowing he couldn't play, but basically paid him to rehab with their medical staff and then signed him to their D-League team. The plan was that having watched training camp and playing for the D-League team that the W's own, he could be a call up option should injury require it and be able to step in knowing the system fairly well. However with the Santa Cruz Warriors well stocked with big men and the GS Warriors getting very good play from rookies Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green, in addition to their vet bigs, there was no room for him, and Kirk Lacob (Joe Lacob's son, GM of the SC Warriors) traded him to a team that had more playing time available. It can be viewed as a fluff piece, but its pretty cool that the Warriors paid for a guy they liked to come to training camp only to rehab. No way would he have gotten that high quality of medical and rehab treatment anywhere else. Ownership in Gs has shown a willingness to spend, and the costs for a training camp invite and D-League commitment are relatively little in the scheme of things. This player wasn't the only training camp invite they committed to long term, and it seems like a good idea in theory. These guys learned a lot of the system in TC. They might be UDFAs or Euro players who the Warriors like. They go play for the SC Warriors, owned by the GS Warriors and presumably the coaching staff there runs a similar system on both sides of the ball. Now when you call these guys up they have some kind of baseline level of knowledge of what the Warriors are running instead of being completely new to everything.
That's kind of a sad comment on the cost of medical care, because you could earn about as much working in Target as you can playing in the D-League.
Stampede getting KILLED, despite playing Barton, Claver and Karl. Looking very sloppy. The Toros have Spurs shirts and are playing like them. And they have Luther Head!
Why aren't the Rockets giving Donatas Motiejunas a chance? He looked great overseas, looked great in the Las Vegas Summer League, and in his two NBDL games, he put up 31/8/3 and 17/11/3. I was very impressed with what I saw from him in Vegas. He looked better than pretty much any other rookie outside of Damian Lillard. Does McHale have one of those weird Larry Brown-esque hangups against playing rookies or something?
I hate to say it but Claver looks lost in the D-League. In fact, only Karl looks like anything. The entire team can't throw a rock in the ocean. Meanwhile the Toros are getting layups and threes.
Typical contributions: Claver plays solid defense - gets rebound. Gives to Karl. Karl throws good quick long outlet part to Barton. Barton throws wild off-balance shot in traffic, bad miss.
Claver looks so hangdog. Mind you, if I'd gone from winning games in front of pack adoring crowds in Valencia, Spain to getting blown out in Boise Idaho in front of three old people and a dog, I'd look hangdog too.
Definitely. He plays with almost no discipline. I think he's equally wild on both ends. On offense he kills any kind of flow when he randomly drives into the teeth of the defense and throws up a wild shot or surprises his teammates with a bad pass a their ankles in traffic. I appreciate that he plays hard, I just wish he'd play a little smarter. Claver just kind of blends in. He looks like a guy who just wants to be a role player. Maybe that's all he's capable of. It's not like he was tearing it up in Europe.
What do you expect from a University of Memphis player? I'd caution any team to draft a fellow Memfrican, because Calipari created the only basketball environment that could be sustained in our city. Every time the Tigers hit the court, it's like playing a pick-up game at the park. It's a fast, spread style of offense with little emphasis being put on half-court decision making or defense. It's not good for their players' development, but that's the only way they can keep getting our local recruits.
Being a good team player apparently gets recognized, then. I have the feeling that both Claver and Babbitt would really excel if put in a D'Antoni system. Hey, maybe we can bundle everybody but our "big four" and trade for Pau Gasol. This wouldn't hurt the rebuilding, because Gasol's a FA at the end of the year.
I was pondering if the Blazers owning the Stampede outright is going to make any difference. They already assigned their players there, so what changes will it mean? Presumably it should mean that the team can have Blazers coaches who teach "the Stotts system" to the team. Is that happening? If so, then I suggest that Claver be put in the Aldridge role, if not for his own good, then at least to mimic the system. Claver has a lot of the same skills Aldridge has, and isn't that much smaller. Maybe that would also force him not to blend into the background so much. And somebody like Will Barton should be forced to PLAY WITHIN THE GAME PLAN even while in the D-League. (Barton can be "Batum" in this picture. I guess Karl is Lillard, although he's arguably more of PG than Damian. Certainly he looks up the court and passes the ball ahead on the break much more than Lillard does.)
Good idea actually, throw in Hickson. Be tough to get the salaries to match up though. Pau would work nice alongside LMA.
