<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Neitzel to play in NBA summer league for Wolves by Howie Beardsley | The Grand Rapids Press Friday June 27, 2008, 4:45 PM Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Neitzel had signed a free-agent contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Drew Neitzel Former Wyoming Park and Michigan State standout Drew Neitzel agreed early Friday to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves' NBA summer league team. Negotiations between the Timberwolves and Neitzel's camp began immediately following Thursday night's NBA draft. He'll train with Minnesota and participate in next month's summer league in Las Vegas, which will allow him to be seen by other NBA coaches, general managers and scouts. "It's a great situation," Neitzel said Friday afternoon. "The Timberwolves called me right after the draft to get me to play in their summer league. They definitely want me.</div>
*Sigh* I say *sigh* because I hate commenting as an 'authority' on another thread in the Timberwolves forum. It just feels out of my territorty, yano? Haha. Still, the Grizzlies are my NBA team, but I'm a college guy, following the NCAA and more importantly, Michigan State, as a diehard, a complete diehard. So here's my opinion on Neitzel. When I posted on the Miller-Mayo trade a minute ago, I mentioned how Miller was being unfairly stereotyped in a negative way, just because he was a white guy. Neitzel, on the otherhand, is unfaily getting positively stereotyped because he's white. What I mean by that is, he's not the leader that he's made out to be. He's not the point guard people make him out to be either. Realistically, he's a 6'0" shooting guard who has leadership issues. His first three years at Michigan State, I loved this kid, but that was mostly because he playing fourth or fifth fiddle to the likes of NBA players Shannon Brown, Maurice Ager, and Paul Davis, and his weaknesses were hidden. All of those future NBA players left after Neitzel's sophomore season, and he was left as not only the main offensive threat but as the ball handler for one of the most storied programs in NCAA history as well. Surprisingly, he did an amazing job as a the Spartans' point guard that season. Well, he wasn't technically a point guard, but he played the point guard role enough - Neitzel running the point guard spot offensively with a guard named Travis Walton handeling the defensive point guard duties. Still, Neitzel was amazing that season. The Spartans had lost three All-American caliber, NBA players from the season before, as well as a reliable defensive specialist senior named Matt Trannon, who wound up with the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL oddly enough. So naturally, heading into the next season, not much was expected from the MSU squad Neitzel was set to lead. None the less, Neitzel led them to a top-25 finish, putting the team completely on his shoulders. If he had declared for the draft that season, I would have advocated him as a mid-first round pick. So Neitzel's senior season came around, and the Spartans were suddenly projected a top-5 team preseason just because he came back for his senior year. However, I feel like he became just like Maurice Ager (the Nets' 2006 #1 pick). He became too full of himself his senior year at Michigan State, and head coach Tom Izzo ran too many offensive plays through him. He would often pass up opportunities to set up Morgan and Summers/Allen to take an ill-advised jumper. All-in-all, he didn't frustrate me as much his senior year as Ager did, but he could have been much more of a team player. I almost feel he only played as selfishly as he did just to make a name for himself, and he wouldn't be that way once he got a secure spot in the pro's (although I wouldn't put it past him to play selfishly in the summer league to try to impress scouts... misunderstanding what scouts want to see). So here's a bit of a scouting report on him - Neitzel's a sharp-shooter who will not miss when he's open, but the problem on the next level will be actually getting open, as Neitzel measured in at just over 6'0" in the combines. Neitzel was a leader in his first three years at Michigan State but lost his poise during his senior year, becoming a bit of a ball-hog and a shot-hack. You've got to be concerned that he'll become that way in the NBA, trying to claw his way from an unknown to a roster player in every minute of limited playing time he gets this summer, but all-in-all, he's got heart, passion, and a great floater. His floater is second to none really, and that's an underrated skill Neitzel has. He's the type of player that feels more comfortable hitting a floater down the lane than a wide-open middle range jumper. In the end, do I think Neitzel will make the squad? No. Do I want him to? No. But if he did, I'd try to put a positive spin on it from a Minnesota fan's perspetive, because if you just delete his senior year from the equation, he'd be a first round prospect this season. He just collapsed, became too selfish, and started getting too frustrated with himself at the wrong time in his career.
I really wasn't a fan of him when I watched him myself. I saw the lack of leadership, and it really seemed to me that he hogged the ball more than any other 1 in the big ten, and didn't even seem to produce that much by doing that.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tim @ Jun 28 2008, 12:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I really wasn't a fan of him when I watched him myself. I saw the lack of leadership, and it really seemed to me that he hogged the ball more than any other 1 in the big ten, and didn't even seem to produce that much by doing that.</div> That's dead on. On the other hand, you know how Mike Taylor is making history as the first NBDL player to get drafted? What if Drew Neitzel could be the first neo-natzi to make an NBA roster. Haha. "Heil Hitler!"
