Every
Wednesday during the NBA season, interbasket takes a closer look at ten
international NBA players that has caught our eye. (This week is for
period 11/22 - 11/28/2007)
We start with some big news out of Toronto. Spanish small forward and Toronto Raptor Jorge Garbajosa is going to have another surgery on his leg.
Ok, that's not news. That happens all the time in sports, Stuart.
True, but there's an added layer to the situation; Garbajosa played
in the European Championships this past summer despite the Raptor's
strong advice to skip the qualifier and have surgery done on the same
injured leg that wasn't healing correctly according to the Toronto's
medical team.
Instead, Garbajosa chose to represent Spain, backed by Spanish
doctors that claimed further surgery was superflous. The Spanish team
wanted him so much that they took out a $1 million dollar insurance
policy that would cover his $4 mil salary had Garbajosa injured himself
during National team duty. Looks like the Raptors might be filing a
claim against that policy soon.
That's only the tip of the iceberg right now. With the Memphis
Grizzlies coming into Toronto tonight, it would have brought four
Spanish players in one NBA game -- Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Jose Calderon
with Garbajosa on the sidelines. What should be a celebratory photo-op
at mid-court, has become a huge controversy in Spain and with one Pau
Gasol.
Pau Gasol and the Spanish press feel
as if the Raptors don't have Garbajosa's best interest in mind by
sending him off to surgery, but rather they're punishing him for going
against their will. Stay tuned...
On a sidenote: Would this have been the first time that four
international players from the same country played in the same NBA
game? I know the Houston-San Antonio game last week brought three
Argentines together, but can anyone remember four players? Maybe those
Sacramento Kings with Vlade and Peja?
For all our Spanish readers, there is a lighter side - Juan Carlos
Navarro is finally finding his groove. In the last three gamee, the
Spanish superstar has played his 34, 37, and 38 minutes -- by far his
highest total minutes logged this season. During that span, Navarro has
averaged 20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, has shot 55% from the field
and 45% from three. Navarro had his first NBA double-double last night,
16 points and 11 rebounds (his previous high was 4 rebounds!). It seems
as both La Bomba and his coach are finally gaining confidence in...
well, Juan Carlos Navarro.
Is this really Desagana Diop's
seventh NBA season? Yeah, I guess it is. The 25-year old came straight
out of high-school and was drafted eighth overall in the the 2001
high-school-crazy draft (that saw Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, and Eddy
Curry go 1, 2, and 4)
The 7-foot center from Senegal has finally found his niche averaging
great numbers (also career-highs) in rebounds (7.8) and blocks (2.4)
for the Dallas Mavericks - holding down the middle for the Dallas
Mavericks...
What's even more amazing, Diop has usurped Erick Dampier as
the starting center, the same Erick Dampier that proclaimed himself the second-best center in the
league (after Shaq)! Make that the third-best, Damp.
Vladamir Radmanovic
was never the face of consistency and level-headedness. Despite his shooting touch, size and
agility, Vladimir's career has been marred by a reputation of
a bad work-ethic, whining on his national team, and sever inconsistency from game-to-game. Add
all that to his lying about how he got a leg-injury last season (he
hurt himself snowboarding). Not a great legacy thus far.
Despite all that, Radman has started out the season with perhaps the
most promise. His points per game were holding steady at double-digits,
is hitting the long ball when he open, and the Lakers are wnning games
in the West. Radmanovic is shooting at a career-high clip almost across
the board.
And then it came down in a 102-100 loss to the New Jersey Nets in
which he shot 0-7 from three and a combined 0-10 from the field. He was
1-2 from the free-throw line and had 3 turnovers, all this in just 24
minutes. Even with his performance, Radmanovic is still shooting 44%
from three.
On the other side of the shooting spectrum, Steve Nash
hasn't missed from the free-throw line this season. Nash is 40-40 on
free throws this year. The only other player that hasn't missed a
free-throw this season is another international player - Darius Songaila of Lithuania. Songaila is 21-21. Previous to Nash's season-record, Yao Ming had a streak of 30 straight free throws made.
When Luis Scola
scored a then career-high 20 points against the Spurs last week, I
dismissed it as a mere coincidence. Though he was a Spur, Scola was
traded away before any real hard-feelings could be accumulated.
Now,
when Beno Udrih
went for 27 points (8-12FG, 9-9 FT), 5 assists and 4 rebounds in a win
vs. the Spurs. I have no doubt that Beno had a little more jump to his
step before and after the game against his former team.
Nenad Krstic
returned from his leg-injury this season and has been slow-going in regaining form. The
Serbian center is averaging career lows in all categories and has
played only 3 minutes in the last four games. It doesn't look good for
Krstic since the struggling Nets have won three of those four games.
Speaking of struggling Nets players - Bostjan Nachbar
is averaging more minutes, points, assists, steals, blocks,
FG-attempts, 3pt FG attempts and FT attempts this season but hasn't
been able to carry-over his efficient shooting percentages from the
previous year.
I respect Scott Skiles coaching, I do, but with the Chicago Bulls struggling, why isn't Viktor Khryapa
playing more? Or why was he not even activated? I am not one of those
guys that blindly love-on all international players, but did anyone in
Russia send Skiles a tape of what Khryapa did this past summer?
In the one game that Khryapa has played in this season, he scored 7
points (3-5), grabbed 5 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots in 21 minutes (he
also was 1-4 from FT and had two turnovers). This guy can play, plays
hard, and hits open shots, I really believe he needs another look.
Thank god he isn't Spanish, or Skiles would have Pau Gasol on his
back...
NBA Notes: Man, that Golden State vs. Phoenix Suns game was
fun to watch. Monta Ellis was the man in that game, blowing by Steve
Nash like a statue and hitting multiple jumpers over Shawn Marion. Baron Davis has nothing to worry about just yet (he's playing like a beast), but we're seeing a star in the making with Monta Ellis.
News Around the World 11/14/2007: NBA International Report
( interbasket.net) — Yao Ming
leads us off this week as he was named NBA player of the week for
November 12th (Tracy McGrady won the honor the week previous) as Yao
averaged 27.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks. The Houston Rockets
are now 6-2 dropping their second game last night - Darko Milicic went at Yao all night to the tune of a season-high 20 points (and Rudy #### served up a highlight facial on Luis Scola).
Last week I spoke a little too soon about Yao’s early rebounding as a
sign of things to come; in the three games since, he’s averaged only 8.3 a game which is more Yao-like. At least he’s still blocking shots at a much better rate (2.5/game).
Manu Ginobili
continued his fantastic play. He’s averaging 19.5 points, 4.9 rebounds,
4.6 and 2.4 assists assists in just under 29 minutes off the bench. The
Spurs are 7-1 blah blah blah. #### Hum.
Not to be outdone, the other South American super-six man Leandro Barbosa
poured in a career-high 39 points against Orlando Saturday. Barbosa
just wasn’t just busy attacking the basket and hitting threes (he hit
eight), he also had 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals in that game.
Barbosa is a####ing 19.1 pts on a career-high (barely) 48.4% from the
field.
What ’s up with Steve Nash
and his scoring binges this season? Is he taking cues from Leandro
Barbosa? Maybe teams are taking the Mavs approach with the
“let-him-shoot-so-he-can’t-involve-his-teammates” or Nash is just being
more aggressive this season? Nash has already scored 30 or more points
this season three times. His efficiency hasn’t suffered any as he’s
shooting a blazing 57.8% from the field overall, 54.3% from three (!)
and has yet to miss a free-throw (20-20) in averaging a career-high
pace of 20.6 ppg. Only bad thing I can say is Nash’s
assists-to-turnover ratio isn’t very Nash-like at 2.1 assists for every
turnover.
Stay in Europe, Rudy! Lots of Spanish NBA players in our news this week, and none of the news is overwhelmingly great news in fact, most of it is bad.
In the last two seasons, Pau Gasol
has averaged 20.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2 blocks a
game. So far this season, Gasol’s stats are down significantly across
those categories. Generally, I don’t make much of early season stats,
particularly points, but sometimes there is something so glaring that I
believe it indicates something larger. Gasol has only blocked a total
of three shots in six games this season - this from a guy that’s
rejected an average of 1.8 per game throughout his career? In the two
losses to Utah and Portland, Gasol had just eight total rebounds in
both games, went scoreless in the second half of both games, and taking
a total of one shot. So why? Is he unhappy with Rudy ####’s more involved
role? Unmotivated by the prospect of another long NBA season without a
chance at a championship? Easier to complain in Spanish when you have
Spanish National team member Juan Carlos Navarro
(who is shooting 28.6% and finally hit his first two-point field goal
last night)? Maybe Gasol is miffed by the conspiracy he insists is
going on with Jorge Garbajosa minutes in Toronto? Not sure.
Speaking of a Spaniard’s declining minutes this season — Nate McMillan’s early season assertion
that Sergio Rodriguez had fallen behind rookie Taurean Green for the
backup PG duties haven’t come to fruition yet. I don’t know if it was
just lip service to fire up Rodriguez, but he referenced Sergio’s lack
of three-point shooting for his reasoning. Though Rodriguez’s minutes
have fallen (12mpg last season compared to about 9 this season), he has
obviously outplayed Taurean Green and impressed the coach enough to
handle at least some of the backup PG duties. This is a good time to
bring up that Rodriquez hit an important three pointer followed by a
layup to put the Blazers up 87-82 in their win over the Pistons last
night. So far, Taurean has only played 2 minutes in the Blazer’s seven
games this season.
I’m sure at least a few of these players are in the ear of Rudy Fernandez, and it can’t be helping his case to come over to the NBA any sooner.
Maybe he just needed to let it off his chest. Andrei Kirilenko
is playing like the old AK-47, his last three games Kirilenko has
averaged 13.3pts, 9.3rebs, 9.3asts, 2.6stls, and 2.6blks. AK’s
statlines for the last three (points, rebounds, assists, steals, and
blocks) look like this- 15-8-8-0-3 against Sacramento, 15-12-9-4-1
against Memphis, 10-8-11-4-3 against Seattle.
Many unfamiliar with the Warriors roster probably wondered why they
traded Jason Richardson away this off-season. J-Rich played such a huge
part in their playoff run last season. Not to diminish Richardson’s
importance, but a big reason why the Golden State management didn’t
flinch was because they had a promising second-year, English player Kelenna Azubuike
on their roster. Kelenna has a smooth jumpshot along with a 40-inch
vertical leap, and the ability to get to the free-throw line (sound
familiar?). Let’s not forget that the decision was a little easier when
they looked at their books; Golden State is paying Kelenna the minimum,
while J-Rich is set to make $11 million this year and 40 million over
the next three years. “We liked him last year. He was just awful
young,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said. “He’s worked hard this summer
and it looks like he’s a player. … A real player.”
By many accounts, it’s not difficult to cheer for a guy like
Azubuike. He’s a nice guy with no-attitude on or off the court and is a
strong aggressive player that plays hard, slashes, and can get to the
rim with regularity. After leaving Kentucky early to help his family
pay for his father’s misdeeds,
Kelenna wasn’t drafted in 2005. He tried to catch on with the the Cavs
and Rockets, but was eventually waived by both teams. On both
occasions, Kelenna landed in the NBDL. He led his team to the
championship and was named all-NBDL in 2005, then led the NBDL in
scoring his second year. The promising guard is averaging 18.8pts, 5.2
rebounds and shooting 53% from the field this year.
Jose Juan Barea
is getting a lot more run this year and he’s doing an efficient job —
shooting 57.1% from the field, leading the league in 3pt% at 70%, 100%
from the FT line (7-7) while averaging 9.7 points a game. However his
biggest strength has thus far been negated; penetration and dishing the
ball. Barea is averaging only 1.4 assists with 1.2 turnovers in his
limited playing time.
Yi Jianlian
continues to impress; playing his best game (statwise) against fellow
countryman Yao Ming. “I hate to say this,” Yao said “but he may be
better than me.” Take it easy Yao, let’s not get crazy yet. Though the
Houston Rockets walked away with the win, Yi gave the Buck’s management
a reason to smile with early career-highs of 19
points, 9 rebounds and tying his high of 3 blocks. Overall Jianlian is
averaging 11.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks and has scored in
double-figures his last four games.
Walter Herrmann
can’t seem to find his range. After skipping out on the Argentine
National Team this summer to focus on his game. With his extra
training. it’s mind-boggling how he hasn’t improved upon his strong
finish to the 06-07 season. Instead Herrmann is shooting a horrendous
23% from the field, and is 0-4 from three this season. Herrmann’s bad
start has him riding the bench, and has recorded DNPs in a couple games
before coming in for garbage time last night against the Miami Heat.
Remember, this was the same way Walter started out last season —
Herrmann displayed little to nothing in the preseason, was on the verge
of being cut, and along with the injuries he sustained added up to a
terrible start. The start continued into his season until after the
halfway mark of last season when he finished so strong that his name
was brought up for Rookie of the Year and not one giggle was heard -
that’s a serious turnaround.
It looks like it might be deja vu this year, hopefully for Herrmann,
the work he put in this summer starts to show sooner than later. Even
though things may have opened up for Herrmann when Adam Morrisson got
hurt, nothing is ever guaranteed as tough-as-nails rookie Jared Dudley
has been taking Herrmann’s minutes and been producing.
Random NBA notes: Ugh, Stephon Marbury. What a
complete fool. I know I am not privy to all the details and this
involves Isiah Thomas, which further muddies the situation, but I can’t
help but jump to conclusions with this guy. When does one become smart
enough to recognize a pattern in their career? It seems every team
Marbury leaves- gets better, and I read that he’s been with 12 coachs
in 12 years — probably none of which have ever been completely
satisfied with his performance. How about them Celtics? An interior
presence, a great outside shooter, and a versatile swingman. Only
unbeaten team at 6-0, not bad, but lets stop all the comparisons to the
mid-80s Celtics. Thanks. With all this talk of rookies Kevin Durant and
Yi Jianlian, don’t forget about Jeff Green. The rookie from Georgetown
is making the most of his time off the Seattle bench and he doesn’t
have the green light a la Durant. Green scored 12 points, all in the
second quarter against Orlando, on an impressive array of jumpers, drives and even a 10-foot hook.
( www.interbasket.net ) -- With a week or so into the NBA season behind us, interbasket is here to
report on the international players making news in the NBA.
Luis Scola
hasn’t shown much with the Houston Rockets thus far (3.4ppg, 4.6rebs,
1ast in 18 min) and all the xenophobes are out. I’ve already heard
this sentence many times “Look at Luis Scola, he is supposed to the be
the best player outside the NBA and…” It is a little shocking to me
that Scola hasn’t done more than he has, making the Spurs keeping Fabricio Oberto
over Scola look genius, but I am very confident that his name will be
in the rookie-of-the-year running by the end of the year. And teams
have better look out because when the 4-1 Houston Rockets mesh him into
their offense (and figure out their point guard situation), they’ll be
a very very tough team to beat.
Speaking of the Houston Rockets, one of the knocks against Rocket’s center is that Yao Ming
has been his lack of toughness, and one can infer that the critics are
looking at Yao’s size and then looking at his career rebounding (8.9)
and blocked shot numbers (1.8) as evidence. Now I understand that he
isn’t the fastest nor most-atheletic person on the court, but
admittedly Yao’s rebounding and blocked shot numbers should be much
better than they are. If the first four games are any indication (and
they normally aren’t) Yao Ming is finally getting it; hitting the
boards (11rpg) and blocking shots (2.6), it looks like Yao may average
a double-double this year, and for only the second time in his six-year
career,
Luis Scola isn’t the only international rookie struggling; he can
take some solace in a a couple other foreign rookies that were expected
to start off a little quicker this season. Spaniard Juan Carlos Navarro of the Memphis Grizzlies was supposed to come in and give familiarity and help to Pau Gasol,
and thus far he has only given the former. La Bomba is only averaging
4.0 on 23% shooting, all four of his field goals in his first three
games have been three-pointers, c’mon Navarro, where’s the floater?
Marco Belinelli
of the Golden State Warriors made waves, no shockwaves, during the NBA
summer league with his smooth quick-release jumper and he surprised
many with his ability to get to the basket on his way to a 37-point
outing. So far, Belinelli is struggling as much as the Warriors are
(0-4). Once the Warriors right the ship, Marco should have time to
adjust and improve on the 13.7 minutes, 4.3 points and 33% from the
field he’s shown early on.
Instead, the mystery of the 2007 draft, Chinese forward Yi Jianlian
has taken the lead as far as international rookies performing. After a
rough first couple games — Yi is showing he can hit the jumpshot, block
a few shots, and gather a lot of fouls in a short amount of time. The
latter can be worked on, but the Bucks love the potential that he has
shown, particularly his ability to hit the long-range jumper. He is
currently third in rookie scoring, behind Kevin Durant and Daequan
Cook, averaging 9.8ppg on 44% shooting as well as 4.8 rebounds, 2.0
blocks (4 fouls) in 26 minutes. Yi was #2 in Nba.com’s rookie report
for the first week of the season. Not bad!
Hey, anyone remember Peja Stojakovic?
Let me refresh your memory, Stojakovic was THE international player
several years ago. But now four years later, a couple injuries, and
two teams removed from his glory days in Sacramento, Peja’s reputation
has since suffered. Though his stats arent’t bad, Peja is no longer
mentioned in the top ten international NBA players, and maybe not even
top-15. How the three-time all-star is getting a fresh start and
running small forward for the New Orlenas Hornets. Peja has been
inconsistent in his first five games, but his game against the Lakers
deserves a mention, Peja went off for 36 points in their win. With
Chris Paul running the show and dishing, Peja hit 10-13 threes to set a
Hornets franchise record and to let the league know that Peja is still
around. Peja is only 30 years old, I hope he finds his way back up the
ladder to one of the elite international NBA players.
Manu Ginobili
is playing like a man possessed. Despite coming off the bench;
everyone in the league knows that Ginobili will be there to finish the
game. In just under 30 minutes per game, Manu is putting up 20.8
points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.6 steals. He spent the summer
resting instead of playing for his National Team and his performances
this season is showing what a rested Ginobili brings to the table “At
this point, I can really tell the difference” Ginobili said about how
rested his body has felt from taking the summer off. --Stuart Leung
