Mo Charlo Charlo is a small forward formerly from Nevada who turns 27 next week. He is an athlete and defensive specialist, who has spent much of his professional career in the D-League. Last year, playing for the Reno Bighorns on account of his local ties, Charlo averaged 9.7ppg, 5.2rpg and 2.7apg. There were also a couple of near triple doubles in there, with statlines of 12/15/9 and 19/12/8, before a slow finish to the season dragged down his numbers. But for all his athleticism, Charlo struggles to score outside of the dunk. Sometimes he can slash to the basket, but there’s no jump shot there. Wayne Ellington Wayne Ellington is Minnesota’s only shooting guard, and yet they still won’t play him. Ellington was forced (as were we) to watch Sasha Pavlovic and Damien Wilkins play a combined 2,462 minutes last season, while both playing really really badly (particularly Pavlovic, who was arguably the worst player in the league last year that actually played). And when he did get to play, he didn’t do especially well either improving as the season went on but finishing at only 6.6 points per game on 42% shooting. Nevertheless, Ellington shot 40% from three point range, which gives him a use on next year’s Timberwolves squad. (If he’s still there.) Jonny Flynn This time last year, I claimed that Jonny Flynn was not much better than Ty Lawson. After one season, here’s how they stack up: Flynn: 28.9 mpg, 13.5 ppg, 4.4 apg, 2.4 rpg, 1.0 spg, 2.9 topg, 41% shooting, 38% 3PT, .511% TS, 13.0 PER Lawson: 20.2 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 3.1 apg, 1.9 rpg, 0.7 spg, 1.3 topg, 51% shooting, 41% 3PT, .600% TS, 16.5 PER So I had a point. There are other factors, of course. Lawson was playing for a […]
Over the course of the last nine months, I have watched somewhere in the region of 700 NCAA games. I have done this partly because of a deep-rooted affinity for Jay Bilas, but also in anticipation of the NBA Draft. Draft Night ranks somewhere near Christmas Day and Metanoia Day1 as the best day of the year, and the only thing that can rival Draft Night for excitement is Draft Day. If you’re a basketball nerd, you will know why this is the most exciting thing ever. And if you’re not a basketball nerd, you should stop reading right now, because it only gets worse from here. Included in that 700 games are about 140 different teams. For reasons that perhaps a psychotherapist is better equipped to explain, it is my life’s pursuit to know about every player in male professional basketball.2 This is of course an impossible task, but if you can pigeon hole them early while they’re still amateurs, then you can get somewhere close to it. This, therefore, is where the NCAA proves invaluable. And given that you never know where the quality is going to come from, I tried to watch everyone. (Lafayette versus Lehigh was a particularly low point, as were the two Morgan State versus South Carolina State games. I think one would have sufficed there. And while I still have Yale vs Princeton stored up and ready to watch, I’m not sure I can manage it.) The reason I was able to watch all these games is because of the way ESPN have risen to power in the world of British basketball. For several months, ESPN was nothing but a competitively-priced amateur basketball cow. Multiple games a day, I imbibed that milk. Past drafts, and therefore past draft diaries, have not seen me […]
