I bet you he'll have a great time. He's got way too many fans over there. Turkish teams historically have looked to NBA leftovers for size. It's rare to go after a US player that won't play PF or C. But, unless that's a snooze by the webmaster, they're in for a good 'ol surprise.
Stephen A. Smith reported on Fox Sports Radio last night that Rasheed Wallace will be coming out of retirement to rejoin the Boston Celtics by the trade deadline. That is all.
Unless they have 1-2 of there bigs get iinjured it really makes no sence to me. He's been seen at more Detroit games then Boston games since the end of last season. If he wants to chase a ring at this point or even play... he'd be better off in Miami, they need some serious help with big men.
Awesome. Smart move skipping training camp and half the regular season. KG, Perkins, Big Baby, Shaq, JO, and Sheed???? That is a crazy collection of bigs. Seems like now they are just trying to hog bodies to keep them away from Miami... which is probably the right move. The Celtics have to be the heaviest team in the league. Minnesota must be up there too. Hard to calculate since the weights aren't even close to reality on the team info pages.
Re Allen Iverson signing: From an article announcing the signing with Besiktas, Iverson quote: "I'm at the point in my career where mentally and physically I know I can play basketball and that's what I want to do. If I can't play in the NBA, but I want to play basketball, that's a decision I have to make," Iverson told reporters in New York. "My whole thing was being wanted and being accepted by a ball club. That was the most important thing to me: to be wanted." Darko Translates for us: "I just vant to play and I just vant to be vanted." I totally agree. AI doesn't need to know any Turkish to communicate his disgust about "his butt hurting from sitting on this bench". Truly, I was hoping he would have made that deal to go to China. China is just way more high profile, AI-ish venue than Turkey. Sigh. I just vant to see him, play or no play.
Darko had one heck of a game in a loss to the Lakers. 23 points, 16 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists. Also tonight, we see Amir having a plus 29 game. And why not mention Afflalo's impressive double double the night before.
It's interesting that Kevin Love had a horrible game the same game that Darko had the best game of his career. All year long, Love's number have been ridiculous and Darko's have looked very poor. But tonight, total switcharoo. Love with 0 points in 34 minutes and got blocked 3 times. If Darko played anywhere close to this level while Love was doing his thing, they'd be a decent team. Beasley is getting to be a pretty big stat machine lately too. Lots of bigs on that team. Career highs in 4 different categories on the same night after being in the league for years? Very low probability event. Pistons DNA!
That Afflallo thing kind of gets to me. Gave him away for nothing. I would rather have him over BG and Rip.
And we gave away both Afflalo, and Amir, just to make room for Wilcox, who has yet to play healthy for us for more than 16 minutes total. Two of our best defenders, gone. Some statement by Dumars about what kind of player he wants when he gives away possibly our two best defenders while taking on the likes of Gordon and CV, both D-lite. As much as I like JMAX, no way he was ever better than Amir. Amir got out to shooters on defensive rotations better than anyone in the league, and a ton better than JMAX. Amir rebounded well, a whole lot better than JMAX. Amir had no height shortage. Amir shot better. Amir did free throws better. JMAX, with his better strength, and better hands on D, is still a unique player that can do a lot of good for a team - but no way a better player overall than Amir. Now, Wilcox, if he ever gets healthy, would provide a pretty decent post up game for us. But his defense is nowhere near JMAX's, let alone Amir's. Wilcox is another bad fit for a team that prides itself on defense.
Afflalo is the only one I wish we still had on the team. Amir is a better player than Maxiell, but he can't stay on the floor. He's been in the league for 5 years and he's still committing 3.6 fouls per game in roughly 19.5 minutes of play time. Yes, he's good defensively, but he's creating all kinds of FT opportunities for the opposing team and his rebounding and scoring isn't where it needs to be for a starter in this league. BTW, Toronto is still at the bottom of the league despite the talent they have. His mpg only went up about 2 minutes after Bosh's departure. So 30+ minute big guy leaves the team, and Amir is only able to gobble up 2 of those minutes? Go ahead and jump in with various stats to prove me wrong. After all he does rank #3 in the league in magical stats like offensive rebounds per 48 minutes. The fact is, he is just a run of the mill bench player who happens to be a nice kid.
Here is the ones that popped up when I did a search for his name at 2010-11 NBA Leaders at basketball-reference.com. (Rank/Score/Leader/Leader Score) 12. Offensive Rebounds 38 (Kevin Love 66) 4. Personal Fouls 47 (Elton Brand 51) 5. True Shooting Pct .654 (1 James Jones .680) 2. Offensive Rebound Pct 17.2 (Reggie Evans 19.2) 17. Block Pct 4.5 (JaVale McGee 8.9) 4. Offensive Rating 128.7 (Serge Ibaka 136.1) 14. Win Shares per 48 Minutes .209 (Chris Paul .327) Make what you want from this, guys. Oh, and Raptors seems to enjoy offensive rebounders with Amir in second and Makes-Wallace-Look-Like-CP3-Evans at first.
Maxiell can't even get on the floor in the first place... and when he does, he sure doesn't stay there. Toronto Raptors NBA stats and data from 82games.com Again.
On the season so far, Amir is 37-41 from the FT line! 90.2%. Surely he's not a 90% FT shooter, but to do it over a prolonged stretch like this means that it's probably going to a significant strength for him going forward. As an NBA big who gets a lot of offensive rebounds, he should get to the line a lot.
I didn't say I don't want him on the team. He sure as hell would be an upgrade over bad back Wilcox. What I'm trying to say is that we won't be any better right now if he was still a Piston.
Amir would be an upgrade over Maxiell to start with. Amir gets into foul trouble, so its great to have Maxiell around too. This season, it would have completely eliminate us ever playing Daye at power forward, for a moment. Probably about 5 more wins so far right there. Yeah, we could use Amir, and be a much better team if we did have him.
I'm surprised people actually miss Afflalo. Seems like the type of player that's best surrounded by playoff talent, because it allows him to just focus on the 2 things on the court he can do really well. Hell he replaced Dahntay Jones and the Nuggets are no better or worse for it as far as I can tell. I'm convinced you can find 3-4 players in the D-League who do exactly what he can. Maybe I just overvalue the D-League. Isn't it kind of funny Darko would be our best big man right now?
