2015 NBA Summer League Rosters – L.A. Clippers
July 4th, 2015

Branden Dawson From this year’s NCAA small forwards list: Dawson is a power forward in a shooting guard’s body, which of course makes him a small forward by default. He is undersized but explosive, and capable of defending inside and outside. Capable in various matchups, Dawson can match up at the two, three and four positions, and is a physical specimen, combining athleticism with strength and a wide, wide frame. Normally defending the post, Dawson gets by on defence despite the height disadvantage with this strength and with great discipline. He might be smaller than most opponents, but he is almost always stronger and more athletic than they are, and his long arms help make up for some of the difference. Dawson grabs tough rebounds and is measured in his aggression, and has good anticipatory skills and positional awareness. This does not negate the size disadvantage, but it surely helps a lot. Offensively, Dawson has developed a little bit of a mid-range shot, but it’s not pleasant looking, and he has absolutely no three point range at the moment. With little handle to speak of either, Dawson is entirely a finisher and not a creator, not even down low in the post. Rarely getting to the line (and shooting dreadfully when he does), Dawson is an opportunistic offensive player who gets by through transition, cuts, offensive rebounds and hustle. Yet when he does get such a look, he tears the rim off. This is pretty much all he does on offence, but it’s both fun and useful. Dawson, then, is limited to only a couple of areas of the game, but is extremely effective within them. If he can spot up a bit and keep the energy up, he could stick in the league for a while. Diante Garrett Garrett […]

Posted by at 7:29 PM

2010 Summer League Rosters: Milwaukee Bucks
July 13th, 2010

Antoine Agudio Of all the undersized jump shooters in the D-League, Agudio might be the best. The cheerful looking one is the all-time scoring leader in the history of Hofstra, beating out former Bulls guard Norman Richardson when he averaged 22.7ppg in his senior season. Agudio is a 6’3 pure shooter, who last year for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds averaged 15.1ppg, 2.5rpg and 2.8apg with 44% three point shooting. He’s strong, able to also create off the dribble, and tries hard defensively to overcome his height disadvantage. Yet the height disadvantage is pretty large. Jaycee Carroll has much the same profile and is a very awesome player, but it’s also significant that Jaycee Carroll is not in the NBA. It would benefit Agudio to leave the D-League and go do something similar to what Jaycee is doing in Europe. He is capable. John Bryant Santa Clara centre Bryant was also a D-Leaguer last year, spending the year with the Erie BayHawks. He was remarkably inconsistent on his way to averaging 13.2 points and 9.5 rebounds in only 29 minutes per game. Bryant is a huge fella, which enables him to gobble up rebounds and be a defensive presence by default in the lane; the downside to that is that he is really quite slow. This doesn’t stop him from being a tremendous defensive rebounder, though, and I can’t imagine he’d do any worse in the NBA than Aaron Gray does. Paul Delaney Delaney was also on the Bucks summer league roster last year, and spent his time between in Israel, where he did more of the same of what he did at UAB. Delaney averaged 15.2ppg, 3.3rpg, 3.1apg and 1.6spg, while shooting 50% from the field. Such efficiency is not unusual from the 6’3 guard, and he’s also a good defensive […]

Posted by at 12:10 PM

Sham’s 2010 NBA Draft Night Recap, Part 2
June 27th, 2010

Part One (that’s a link) Due to the length of this post, I have included links so that you can skip to specific picks, if you want. Of course, you may want to read all of it. Or….none of it. 31 – 32 – 33 – 34 – 35 – 36 – 37 – 38 – 39 – 40 – 41 – 42 – 43 – 44 – 45 – 46 – 47 – 48 – 49 – 50 – 51 – 52 – 53 – 54 – 55 – 56 – 57 – 58 – 59 – 60 The following players will be second-round steals: Artisom Parakhouski, Terrico White, Devin Ebanks, Solomon Alabi, Latavious Williams, Jerome Randle, Hamady N’Diaye, Samardo Samuels and Stanley Robinson. The following people will not be second round steals: Sherron Collins. Pick 31: Atlanta get at least five minutes to make the 31st pick, although it’s nearer fifteen minutes by the time deputy commissioner Adam Silver makes it out. When he does, Silver is greeted to the biggest cheer of the night, and takes it well with a wave and a big grin. The man who looks like a freshly-goosed Henry Abbott then announces that Atlanta, who obtained the 31st pick from New Jersey in the Damion James/Jordan Crawford swap, use it to draft German big man Tibor Pleiss. Pleiss takes almost the full two minutes just to make it to the podium. He waits twenty seconds before even standing to acknowledge his selection, and then is forcefully dragged to the stage by an angry-looking official that kind of looks like Dale Davis. Before he’s even got to the stage, Pleiss has been sold; the Hawks have decided to sell his draft rights to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Fittingly, the Thunder (in their Sonics guise) […]

Posted by at 8:09 PM