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Finestrg
Posts: 27296 Alba Posts: 1 Joined: 1/1/2006 Member: #1069 |
Anyone know a site that shows you exactly what D-League players are affiliated with what NBA teams and what players are operating on their own? It's a little annoying how this information is not readily available on the official D-League web site. Who wants to keep flipping back and forth from the D-League site to Hoopshype or individual team web sites to see if a particular player's rights are owned by an NBA team. There's got to be a better way...In terms of the D-League, I don't care for the wide open, helter-skelter style of play that goes on down there where everyone seems to be out for themselves and looking to get theirs but there's no denying there are some damn good players down there right now, quite a few that I think could help the Knicks moving forward:
Alexander Johnson - last I saw he was with Miami last season, suffered a concussion or something and was out of the league but it looks like he's back now playing some good ball in the D-League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Scoring, rebounding and blocking some shots and doing it all at a high level. From what I remember this guy was a very athletic 6'9" 240 lb. that played very physical and very hard. He was just named D-League player of the week earlier this March, averaging 30 ppg, 13.3 rpg and connecting on over 67% from the field during that stretch. On March 7th, Johnson went for 32 & 19 with 3 blocks and converted 14-18 at the FT line. Going to the line a ton and making his FTs is a good sign - it shows he's still got that aggressiveness. Not a bad face-up game from what I remember...Johnson's Sioux Falls teammate Reggie Williams just got called up by Golden State and has been making the most of it (I don't think there's a team out there that makes better use of the D-League than the Warriors. CJ Watson, Anthony Morrow, Anthony Tolliver & now Reggie Williams? There's been some turmoil in that Golden State front office, but their scouting department, particularly the personnel that monitor the D-League, really need to be commended)... I think it might be time for Alexander Johnson to re-enter the league. Unlike a Courtney Sims, the soft big we tried out last year that's totally reliant on his jumpshot and offers little else, this guy Johnson has the physicality to stick in the NBA. And not only does he have prior NBA experience which is a plus, he's even played well at times for a few NBA teams. I'm impressed with what Amir Johnson's done with Detroit and now Toronto - Alex might be a better overall player. Nice to see that he's healthy once again. This is the guy I wanted in the draft with that Mardy Collins pick a few years ago. Mike Gansey - 6'4" West Virginia shooting guard has been around for a little while now. He's always reminded me of a poor man's Jeff Hornacek (nbadraft.net actually mentions the same comparison and I agree). Can really shoot the 3 ball, handle it some and rebound a little too. On March 6th, he went for 30 on 6-7 from 3 with 11 rebounds. Gansey and C Kevin Pittsnogle was a real lethal perimeter combination for WVU. I wonder what Pittsnogle's up to now -- he was out of basketball for awhile (I think he became a school teacher), then resurfaced in the NBDL a couple of months ago and is now gone again. As far as I know he didn't get called up (he's not listed on the NBA's web site). Maybe he packed it in for good. Dude could play though - he was one hell of an outside shooter for a 6'11" guy and he was a decent rebounder. I'm surprised neither one of these guys have made it in the NBA thusfar. Dwayne Jones - 6'11" 250 lb. center is averaging almost 16 rebounds per, leading the D-League by a wide margin. Over 17 ppg and almost 2 blocks per as well. Rob Kurz - 6'9" 230 lb. perimeter offensive big that can shoot the 3 & rebound. Averaging 17.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg. Tied for 7th in the D-League with 15 double-doubles..Reminds me of Troy Murphy a little bit. Mike Harris - 6'6" 235 lb. SG/SF is leading the D-League in scoring now that Reggie Williams got the call up. 26.1 ppg, 10 rpg. Curtis Jerrells - 6'1" quick little lefty PG from Baylor. He's clearly a scoring point, but he'll go to the glass and he's a decent passer. Can really get deep in the lane and convert. And I think he's always been a better outside shooter than he's even been given credit for. I've talked about Tyrese Rice as an option for us recently - Jerrells is similar but might be even better. Mustafa Shakur - 6'3" 215 lb. PG is putting up 20 & 7 on over 50% from the field after never really accomplishing too much in 4 years at Arizona. Looks like a more efficient offensive player than Curtis Stinson, another PG I was looking at (Stinson's averaging over 10 assists a game and has had quite a few double-doubles but his offensive efficiency looks underwhelming). Shakur could be a late bloomer. Moses Ehambe - 6'6" SG is leading the NBDL in 3-pt % at over 48%. Under 42% from 2-pt range however which is alarming but he's young, has nice size and appears to possess a deadly 3-pt stroke. Just thinking in terms of the type of players Mike likes...Really know nothing about this guy - never saw him play & I can't even find any video on him. Nothing on the two major draft sites either. Those are some eye-popping 3-pt numbers though... Mickell Gladness - 6'11" 200-230 lb. (depending what site you believe - looks closer to 200 to me) center project that's raw in every sense of the word (remember how raw guys like DeAndre Jordan/Andraw Blatche/Sean Williams/Justin Williams looked when they first hit the NBA? This kid's 10X more raw..) but going back to his days at Alabama A&M he was a prolific shot-blocker. As in all-world, led the nation type shot-blocker. Not getting any substantial PT for his current NBDL team yet, he's still averaging over a block a game in just over 12 mins per. Maybe we take a chance on that size and the defensive ability and see if he develops. We won't have a chance at a guy like Hassan Whiteside or even a Larry Sanders and no doubt we could use a defensive shot-blocking presence like that. Gladness is probably light years away from contributing in the NBA (first and foremost, he's got to find a way to get stronger and add some more weight) but the fact remains that bigs with defensive potential like this, if they reach that potential, are hard to come by, which is why I find this guy Gladness intriguing. Just listening to an interview with Gladness and Jonathan Givony over at Draftexpress.com -- this kid sounds very grounded and mature for a young dude. He appears to know that he's not ready and that he's got a lot of work to do. Seems like he's willing to listen to coaches and other veteran players (sounds like Joey Dorsey had a big influence on him, playing against him in practice everyday) and then apply what he's learned in order to keep getting better. Also talked about how he's only getting paid $13,000 right now and how he's learned to make the best of it. $13,000?? That's it? Wow...Very good interview - I'll be routing for this kid to make it. http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Mickell-Gladness-1308/. --------------------------------------------------- There are others but these guys stood out to me. Not a star out of the lot but I think these guys are talented enough to be rotation players here esp. given our situation of eventually having to fill an entire roster next year...With at least one roster spot open and hopefully a 2nd coming soon if the league ever gets around to resolving the Cuttino Mobley situation, I say we do what Golden State continually does and call up one or two of these guys for the rest of the year -- guys they like that they think fit the system -- provided they're not already the property of other teams. Couldn't possibly hurt. There's nothing left to play for this season -- right now it should be all about evaluating what cost-effective guys we want to move forward with. |
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