He's on the Serbia-Montegero team, who played the US today. He didn't look great. In the first half he just launched a few three-pointers, but in the second half he looked pretty good, even serving up a facial at one point. He looked a little bored with his teammates at times, like he was too used to the NBA level of play to care much. I think his ball-handling is getting smoother, but he still needs to get a consistent shot if he insists on being a three-point shooter.
I missed it. I did read a recap of it on espn and they said he played pretty poorly. Even said said that he got mad and slammed a water bottle on the court. Do you have any Idea what kind of numbers he put up?
When he gave Lamar Odom that facial I almost broke my ass. I thought Vlad would put on a show, he is one of my favorite players and it will be nice to see him with Peja, Cabarkapa, and Vlade in the Olympics. Vlad is very underatted
He was very disappointing.. Missed some ugly looking free throws in there too.. He was obviously overmatched and couldnt handle anyone defensively.. In fact it didn't look like he was putting much effort into it. That said though, the game was a blowout so it's probably not fair to judge based on it.. especially since it's also an exhibition game.
According to ESPN, Vlad "shot 2-8 and played poorly throughout". This could be costly, as this is not only a chance to prove to management that he deserves minutes, it also could determine his trade value. GMs always have an idea about who is and isn't available, so have a big tournament, and teams will be lining up to inquire about him.
Or maybe he didn't care because....... it was an exhibition game, and the result didn't really matter.
Vlad played terrible. He didn't make open shots, he didn't rebound, and he didn't defend. I don't understand why everyone is enamored w/ this kid. All that he brings to the table is outside shooting, and when he is off he isn't a good player. As athletic as he is he rarely puts the ball on the floor and attacks the rim. His dunk yesterday was off of an excellent pass, but when he is asked to make his own offense you can forget it. The only time I see him penetrate is when someone else is closing in on his jump shot. How can a player who is 6'10'' not even think about posting up? Anyone who thinks that he is better than Rashard Lewis is dillusional.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">As athletic as he is he rarely puts the ball on the floor and attacks the rim. His dunk yesterday was off of an excellent pass, but when he is asked to make his own offense you can forget it. The only time I see him penetrate is when someone else is closing in on his jump shot. How can a player who is 6'10'' not even think about posting up? Anyone who thinks that he is better than Rashard Lewis is dillusional.</div> Uhh...just about everything you said there applies to Rashard, too. Everything except the posting up, which he did only in the beginning of last season. He penetrates a lot more than Lewis does. The Serbia-Montegero team wasn't really playing a style of basketball that Vlad thrives in. He needs to move around more, but he didn't touch the ball that much when he did move. You say he didn't rebound, but he was always near the hoop, behind the three USA guys who have first shot at the rebound because they're playing zone defense. I wasn't paying much attention to his defense, but he was guarding Lamar Odom a lot. That's not an easy thing for anybody. There's no reason he couldn't put up similar numbers to Lewis if he waits for open shots instead of just shooting all the time because he's desperate to prove he deserves to start.
I never said that Lewis doesn't have faults. But you can't tell me that there is an aspect of Vlad's game that he does far better than Lewis. The only problem w/ Lewis is that he needs to be more assertive. Rashard can put the ball in the hole and he is an adequate rebounder. If he were meaner I would think that he is capable of averaging 20 points a game. He isn't though, so that is why I see him as a career 17 point per game player. That being said I don't think that Radman is capable of averaging 17 points a game. His game is too one dimensional and he has to rely on the penetration and court vision of others to get a high percentage shot. We need to get rid of him before his trade value plummets.
Radmanovic is a better ball-handler, penetrator, and defender. He may not be light years ahead of Rashard in any area, but Rashard isn't that much better than Vlad at anything, either. They both have the same problems. The only difference is that Vlad has never gotten a chance to start at small forward consistently. I'm not saying he's better than Lewis, but there's no clear advantage for either one of them.
I'm with Casual on this one. Vlad's biggest problem IMO is his attitude, in the sense that when things don't go his way, he is more prone to dropping his head and pouting, rather than working harder. In short, the gap between Vlad's best and his worse is far too big, and it's not going to be bridged getting inconsistant minutes and being played out of position. His best I think is very good; he can penetrate, he can rebound and he can defend. The problem is his attitude, and he gets disenchanted when things don't go his way. I believe that given the opportunity to start would see him break out, but without any proof of that it's hard to dump Lewis for the starting line-up. As I have said a million times, management needs to make a decision and explore the trade options for whoever they decide not to keep.
Heh, a bit of an old topic and I think I've weighed in on this before too. I agree with Iron Shiek.. I'm just not seeing the potential in Vlad. He just seems to be a poor man's Peja. He is able to shoot the lights out on occasion, but faced with a good defender, he can be shut down fairly easily. That said though, I'm hoping he does well in the Olympics and hopefully picks up a trick or two from Bodiroga
