khandor’s sports blog

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Kahn: Rubio not ready to jump to NBA 
“This morning I met with Ricky and his parents and told them that I understood Ricky’s decision,” Kahn said in a statement issued by the Wolves. “It was clear to me yesterday and in this morning’s meeting that the pressure surrounding Ricky and his family to remain in Spain for at least two more years had only intensified as the summer wore on and was weighing heavily on them.

“The NBA is the best basketball league in the world, by far. As an 18-year-old man, Ricky would have been challenged on a nightly basis to a degree he has never experienced. In order for Ricky to meet this challenge fully, I believe it is important that his family and other people important to him were comfortable with the move to the NBA and fully supportive.

“I also agreed with Ricky’s position that two more years of competition in Spain and the Euroleague will only aid his development and that he will be much more ready for the NBA when he joins us” at age 20.

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is the best possible outcome for the T-wolves, in a sticky situation.

At-present, Minnesota is entrenched at the bottom of the NBA.

Ricky Rubio … given his age [18], the state of his physique [skinny], and his present skill-set [can't really shoot it consistently] … simply isn’t ready to make a significant contribution to an NBA team, over the course of an 82 game season.

Minnesota:

- Just hired an entirely new coaching staff
- Has its star Big Man in the process of recovery from ACL surgery
- Has its best SF in the process of recovery from ACL surgery
- Has a current roster which looks like this … and,
- As of right now, has a fairly high probability of landing the No. 1 [overall] Selection in the 2010 NBA Draft, and at least one other high 1st Round Draftee from the 2011 NBA Lottery, given their prospects for success in the Western Conference these next 2 seasons.

If Rubio arrives in the NBA, from Europe, in time for the 2011-2012 season, the T-wolves franchise will be in a much better position to take full advantage of his unique package of skills, at the PG spot, when:

Kevin Love [PG] will be 22 years of age,
Jonny Flynn [PG] will be 22 years of age,
Wayne Ellington [OG] will be 23 years of age,
Corey Brewer [SF] will be 25 years of age,
Aleksiy Pecherov [C] will be 25 years of age,
Ryan Hollins [C] will be 26 years of age,
Al Jeferson [PF] will be 26 years of age,
Ryan Gomes [SF] will be 29 years of age, and,

Kurt Rambis [and Co.] will be in his 3rd season as their head coach.

If David Kahn is truly serious about building a championship basketball operation in Minnesota that’s the type of roster – with an eye towards the future - which can get the job done in the long run … provided the plan includes adding a high calibre 1st Round draft pick next summer, a 2nd high calibre 1st Round draft pick the summer after that, and a dominant, pass-first PG, with good size, and skill, and charisma, like Rubio, for the 2011-2012 season.

After rolling “craps” for quite some time, the T-Wolves may have finally been able to “make their point”.

Prior to the recent transaction between the Raptors [Bryan Colangelo], Mavericks [Donnie Nelson], Magic [Otis Smith & Dave Twardzik] and Grizzlies [Chris Wallace], this is what each of those team’s rosters looked like:

Coming out the other side, today, this is what they look like now, respectively:

Legend:
UFA – Unrestricted Free Agent; RFA – Restricted Free Agent; R – Rookie Player; TPE – Traded Player Exception; DP – Draft Pick; CC - Cash Considerations

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The Perspective From This Corner

The fact is, however, that the Cleveland Cavaliers [Danny Ferry] MAY have benefitted most of all from this specific transaction, as they subsequently gained unfettered access to Anthony Parker, the exact sort of complementary wing player they were searching for … to augment LeBron James & Co., in an effort to win their 1st NBA Championship. 

Your feedback is welcome in the “Comments” section.

There’s a tonne of information on-line right now but this one, courtesy of John Schuhmman, is as sound and concise as any:

Position-by-position: Top 5 free agents
As we’ve seen in the NBA Draft over the years, the best strategy is usually to take the best player available. You never know how draft picks will turn out, so selecting the guy closest to a sure thing, even if you’ve already got a similar player on your roster, is often the prudent way to go.

In free agency, though, teams pretty much know what kind of player they’re getting. Teams have seen what these guys can do and are able to better evaluate what they’re capable of and what they can bring to their team.

So the next few weeks will be about finding the right fit, both on the court and on the payroll.

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By position, the following players are under-rated [#, indicates where they should be ranked] in this year’s Free Agent class, according to yours truly:

POINT GUARDS
* Ramon Sessions [#1]
* Jarret jack [#2]
* CJ Watson [#6]

OFF GUARDS
* Anthony Parker [#1]

SMALL FORWARDS
* None

POWER FORWARDS
* Antonio McDyess [#3]
* Brandon Bass [#7]
* James Singleton [#9]

CENTERS
* Johan Petro [#4]

FINAL SCORE: Raptors 99, MAVERICKS 108
Complete Game Info

Down by 7 points at the half, the Raptors quickly closed the gap on the Mavericks to open up the 3rd quarter scoring on 3 of their first 4 possessions:

Full Play-By-Play

At the 10:36 mark, however, when Joey Graham [SF] was called for his 4th PF and was then replaced by Marcus Banks [OG/PG], the Mavericks responded by inserting James Singleton [F] into their line-up, replacing Eric Dampier [C]. After pulling down 5 Rebounds in the first half, Singleton collected 9 more in the 3rd quarter, which allowed the Mavericks to match-up successfully with the Raptors’ “small” line-up and still retain their Rebounding superiority.

When the Mavericks then replaced Antoine Wright [OG/SF] with Jason Terry [OG/PG], to further spread the floor, it was Toronto that could not match-up successfully with Dallas, as the home team opened up a 9-point margin … on the strength of [i] 2 Fts by Jason Kidd, [ii] a putback dunk by Singleton, and [iii] consecutive jumpshots by Dirk Nowitzki [one 2FG & one 3FG] … that it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

When the Raptors then chose to end the quarter with the following line-up:

1/Ukic + 2/Banks + 3/Kapono + 4/Bosh + 5/Bargnani

[i.e. Chris Bosh plus 4 non-Solid Rebounders]

any hope of a 2nd half comeback was eliminated, as the lead then ballooned to 15-points [75-90].

If/when you compare [B] where the Raptors could/SHOULD have been with their player roster for the 2008-2009 season and [A] where they stand today, in relation to a team like the Mavericks:

it’s quite stunning just how much the talent level of this team’s overall roster has declined this season.

It’s half-time of tonight’s Raptors [6-7] vs Bobcats [4-9] game, and this is what the Box Score looks like:

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			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
E. Okafor	F	11:13	1-2	0-0	2-2	+1	1	5	6	1	2	2	0	1	0	4
G. Wallace	F	16:57	5-8	0-0	7-11	-2	0	3	3	1	2	1	1	0	1	17
A. Ajinca	C	04:00	1-4	0-0	0-0	-3	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
D. Augustin	G	21:18	1-2	1-2	3-3	-5	0	0	0	2	0	1	5	0	0	6
R. Felton	G	20:01	2-5	0-1	0-0	-2	0	1	1	4	0	1	1	0	0	4
J. Dudley		12:00	3-3	0-0	0-1	-6	1	1	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	6
A. Morrison		08:50	0-4	0-3	0-0	-6	1	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
M. Carroll		06:41	1-4	0-2	1-1	-3	0	1	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	3
N. Mohammed		07:29	0-1	0-0	0-0	-2	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	0
S. May		06:25	2-2	0-0	0-0	+5	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	4
R. Hollins		05:06	0-1	0-0	0-0	-2	1	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	0
S. Brown		00:00	-	-	-	-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total		120	16-36	1-8	13-18		5	14	19	12	10	7	9	1		46
			44.4%	12.5%	72.2%		Team Rebs: 4				Total TO: 9

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
C. Bosh	F	23:07	9-10	0-0	6-6	+1	1	3	4	0	2	1	1	2	0	24
J. Moon	F	12:06	1-3	1-1	0-0	+3	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	3
A. Bargnani	C	20:49	2-9	0-1	1-2	+2	2	4	6	2	2	0	2	2	1	5
J. Calderon	G	16:52	1-5	0-2	0-0	+4	0	2	2	4	1	0	2	0	0	2
A. Parker	G	18:02	2-3	1-2	0-0	0	1	1	2	2	0	2	2	0	0	5
K. Humphries		08:49	0-3	0-0	0-0	+6	0	2	2	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
J. Kapono		07:28	1-1	0-0	0-0	+3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
R. Ukic		07:08	1-2	0-0	0-0	+1	0	1	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	2
J. Graham		05:39	2-2	0-0	4-4	+5	1	2	3	0	2	0	0	0	0	8
H. Adams		00:00	-	-	-	-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
W. Solomon		00:00	-	-	-	-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
J. O’Neal		00:00	-	-	-	-	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total		120	19-38	2-6	11-12		5	15	20	11	10	4	8	4		51
			50.0%	33.3%	91.7%		Team Rebs: 2				Total TO: 8

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Tonight marks the first game this season, the Raptors will be without Jermain O’Neal in their 12-man line-up.

Since their blockbuster trade with the Pacers was consummated this past summer, this corner has repeatedly said that the Raptors did not NEED to make this acquisition at this point during their attempted climb up the Eastern Conference standings.

Well, with O’Neal in their line-up, this team has performed at a .461 pace so far this season.

It says here & now that as long as O’Neal is not healthy enough to play for the Raptors this season … and, instead, their other younger and/or more athletic players [i.e. Andrea Bargnani, Kris Humphries, Jamario Moon, Joey Graham & Roko Ukic] get those available minutes of floor time … this team will perform in a similar or slightly better way as they’ve done to this point with JO as their Starting Center.

THAT’S how little this Raptors’ team actually NEEDS Jermaine O’Neal on the floor.

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UPDATE:

• The Raptors are up by 5 points with 4:58 remaining in the 4th Q.
• They are being hurt right now by keeping Kapono on the floor with Calderon, Parker, Bargnani & Bosh. J-Killa is simply not athletic enough to play beside Calderon and Parker and Bargnani, none of whom are High End NBA Athletes in their own right.
• Returning Graham to the game, for Kapono, or going with Moon, instead, will address this problem.
• Graham returns for Kapono.
• Raptors now ahead by 3 pts.
• Okafor with a hoop, Raptors now ahead by 1pt.
• Bosh hits a jumper from the TOTK. Raptors ahead by 3 pts.
• Calderon to Graham at the front of the rim for a dunk. Raptors ahead by 5 pts. Time-out [Full] Charlotte.
• Felton, offensive foul. Drawn charge by Bargnani.
• Augustin misses with a runner. Shot altered by Bargnani & Bosh in the lane. 
• Calderon makes a dribble left pull-up jumper over Felton. Raptors ahead by 7 pts.
• Steal by Graham.
• Raptors win, 93-86.

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Here’s the final Box Score and the in-game Play-By-Play for you to examine for yourself.