2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Golden State Warriors
July 8th, 2009
– Connor Atchley: In his junior season, Atchley was looking like a decent big man prospect. He averaged 9.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game for Texas, while also shooting 41% from three-point range on over 100 attempts. However, his senior season was then a wash-out; 4.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, .397 FG%, .278 3PT FG%. What went wrong? I don’t know. Some people want to blame Dexter Pittman. But either way, Atchley took himself out of the second round. Now 24, Atchley can count himself fortunate to even get a summer league spot, because 24-year-old 6’10 228lb sub-40% scoring jump shooting power forwards are not generally NBA worthy. Considerable improvements are needed. But they were there once. – Stephen Curry: Curry has played six games in the last seven days for Team USA, totalling 50 points and 6 assists. Some people think he’ll be the next Ben Gordon. Some people think he’ll be the next J.J. Redick. Some think that he’ll be the rookie of the year; I think he’ll be nearer the first than the second, and definitely not the third. – Jermareo Davidson: Davidson has a non-guaranteed contract with the Warriors for next season, and is also officially listed as the second-heaviest player on their roster behind Ronny Turiaf. Pretty weird, that, considering Davidson’s slightly lanky frame. Last summer, the Bobcats exercised their team option on Davidson and guaranteed his contract, before then waiving him and experimenting with a variety of big men (Andre Brown, Dwayne Jones and Linton Johnson), finally settling on Juwan Howard. There’s the Larry Brown influence for you. Davidson spent 15 games in the D-League, averaging 16/11, before the Warriors called him up, where he averaged 3.4 points and 2.8 rebounds for the big league team. I expect […]
30 teams in 36 or so days: Atlanta Hawks
September 12th, 2007
Atlanta Hawks Players acquired via free agency or trade: None Players acquired via draft: First round: Al Horford (3rd overall), Acie Law IV (11th overall) Players retained: None Players departed: Royal Ivey (unsigned), Slava Medvedenko (unsigned), Esteban Batista (unsigned) Bobbins: The Hawks got lucky, I think they would admit that. The Joe Johnson trade of 2005 left the Hawks owing two first-round picks to Phoenix. One of these had already been conveyed, and was used to select Rajon Rondo last year, whom Phoenix then stupidly sold to Boston. The other pick was still outstanding headed into this summer, and was only top three protected, meaning that Atlanta had to win a top three spot in the lottery. They did this, despite only having the fourth-worst record and thus only the fourth-most chances of moving up (I say “only”, but that’s enough to make it a statistical improbability). For that, they should be thankful – had they not done so, they would have had a mediocre roster, with only an MLE and the #11 pick to work with to improve it. And that would not have been fun. Ironically, the three teams with worse records than Atlanta – Milwaukee, Boston, Memphis – all failed to move up, thus proving the worthlessness of statistical probability in the face of blind luck. (Incidentally, the #11 pick itself was also subject to changes in the lottery – the pick was Indiana’s as a part of the Al Harrington deal last summer, and had top ten protection on it. Had Indiana moved up in the lottery, Atlanta would not have gotten it, and had Indiana moved up into Atlanta’s place moving Atlanta out of the top three, Atlanta would have had no first-rounder at all this year. Which would have […]
