Linkage - June 11
So much for the training camp competition for the final spots on the Olympic team. The United States will pick its squad without a tryout.
The Americans have changed their plans and will select the 12 players headed to Beijing before they report to Las Vegas later this month. Originally, the team was to have potentially 16 players in camp and cut down to 12 on June 30.
The Raptors’ Chris Bosh, who played in the 2006 world championships but was injured last summer, and Utah’s Carlos Boozer are the leading candidates to claim a forward spot.
Take a look at the list of draft prospects coming into Toronto to work this week and the immediate reaction is, yawn!
The only one who could legitimately be considered a 17th pick is Darrell Arthur of Kansas, who joins five others for Friday’s session.
The rest of them – Tyrone Brazelton of Western Kentucy, James Gist of Maryland, J.J. Hickson of North Carolina State, DeMarcus Nelson of Duke and David Padgett of Louisville — are marginal first-rounders and more likely second-round choices or summer league invitees.
You might have forgotten, but it was Curry and Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell who essentially saved the league.
Curry wasn’t even an officer of the players’ association then, and he certainly didn’t have a lot of clout as a player. But he and Mitchell organized a sort of grassroots coup against the power brokers like David Falk and then-union president Pat Ewing. They somehow got them to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement just as the league was about to terminate the 1998-99 season.
Curry got the players to understand that the new CBA would spread the wealth more evenly among players, as opposed to the old system where only a small percentage got $100 million deals and the vast majority got what was left over.
Jim LaBumbard and his Toronto Raptors staff has been named NBA media relations staff of the year, for the 2007-2008 season.
LaBumbard’s staff won over nominees from the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Washington Wizards.
“With the abundance of media outlets in Toronto, Jim has his hands full every day of the season. Yet he’s as proactive a problem-solver as there is in his field,” Bonnell said. “He knows everyone, he greets everyone, he makes it easy covering a Raptors game.”
The Raptors were scheduled to hold draft workouts in Buffalo on Thursday and they have been cancelled. Does this mean Raptors have found their man? Does it mean they may be looking to move out or up in the draft and are quietly scouting up the draft board. The Raptors staff is spread out all over the globe at this point. It also has seemed odd that they have looked at a lot of guys that many have pegged for the second round at best. The Raptors currently have no second round pick.
Memphis guard Chris Douglas-Roberts speaks with reporters after his June 10th workout with the Washington Wizards on a number of topics including; the importance of a competitive workout, his thoughts about playing against Mario Chalmers, his residual feelings about the NCAA championship loss to Kansas, his options for the upcoming draft and how cautious he is about listening to promises made by teams.
17. Toronto - Robin Lopez (Stanford) - 7′0″, 255 lbs.
Much of the talk in Canada so far this offseason has been on how the Raptors will settle their point guard position. Most reports indicate that Toronto intends to do whatever it can to re-sign Jose Calderon, a restricted free agent who was the backup this season, even if it means trading current starter T.J. Ford. Raptors officials say they have received quite a bit of interest in Ford. As far as I can tell, the Raptors have had three days of draft workouts so far.
Toronto does not currently have a second-round pick, but if a player they like drops into the second round, they might move to acquire a pick in that round either as part of a trade or for cash.
Anyone else starting to think that the Raptors are leaning towards taking a big with their 17th pick? And anyone else think Toronto might be making a serious play for a second rounder?
Besides DeAndre Jordan, who probably will go before 17, after Friday, the Raptors will have auditioned every notable big man outside of Roy Hibbert, Mareese Speights, Joey Dorsey and JaVale McGee! And considering how sporadic the workouts have been so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see all four of these “bigs,” perhaps even all at once, in an ACC audition before June 26.
Bryan Colangelo promoted Danny Ainge to the Suns’ head coaching job after only eight games in Ainge’s first season as an assistant when the Suns began 1996-97 at 0-8. Ainge went 40-34 the rest of the way and Phoenix made the playoffs.
In a phone interview, Colangelo said previous experience isn’t mandatory and former players can soak up experience from different coaches during their careers.
Colangelo, currently the Raptors’ general manager, hired Del Negro as a scout when he was in Phoenix.
“Vinny’s definitely a student of the game,” he said.
So while I agree that this is a good fit for both teams, which of course we’ve known for awhile, I don’t think we have anything new here. The author puts the trade in the category of one of the three most likely to happen, but in fact he has nothing from either camp verifying interest. Yes, the Clippers need a point guard. Yes, the Raptors need a scoring forward who can get to the free throw line. It doesn’t mean that the deal is going to happen. It would not surprise me if it does, nor would it surprise me if it does not. For one thing, each team is going to be looking for the best deal possible, so it’s entirely possible that Ford and Maggette each get traded, but not for each other. For my part, if the Clippers are going to hand the offense to a 5′10″ Longhorn who goes by initials instead of a name, they might as well draft DJ Augustin and keep Maggette.
Jun 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
From a Clippers standpoint, Clips Nation has it right.
khandors last blog post..NBA Finals: Game 3 … post mortem
Jun 11th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Interesting. When it comes to summer games, there’s always been this allegation that more organized ball in the summer = more injuries and exhaustion on the court. It seems like data would be pretty easy to compile (decline in games played and minutes for players on the rosters of international teams vs. players who weren’t) — we’ve been doing this with American NBA players since 1992, after all. And the first year I remember reading about the fallout of summertime games and international play was the fate of the 1988 Olympic team, many of whom (Danny Manning, Jeff Grayer) were injured early in their rookie year. And of course the exhaustion — “playing basketball for 20 straight months” or some such — was alleged when Jordan retired the first time around.
“We have switched our thinking,” Colangelo says in the article, but I wonder if it isn’t more like “Teams and agents told us to knock it off.” It wouldn’t be the first time sports teams made sweeping decisions based on anecdotal evidence that might just be a myth.
Granville Waiters Ghosts last blog post..Linkage - June 11
Jun 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I also wonder how many agents are grumbling. Lets face it, the players that are making good money in the NBA don’t need the exposure of playing for their country. Factor in that they are doing it for “free” and the risk of injury, and I think some whispers are out there.