Pick and Scroll
Nathan Begley | Friday, February 19, 2010 at 10:50AM Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.
• Portland takes on Boston tonight. I’m sure you’ve read our preview, check TrueHoop Network sister blog CelticsHub for the wicked sweet Boston perspective.
• It’s in Spanish, but here is a must read interview with Blazers overseas scout Jason Filippi from Marca.com. (Apparently there is a video with an interview in English but when I try to play it I get a message that says my IP address is not authorized. I did, however manage to find this video from TuBasket where Filippi talks about largely the same things.)
Now, for you non-Spanish speakers, the gist of this article, via my rough translation, is Rudy Fernandez’s agent said that Rudy was a bit frustrated before the Blake/Outlaw trade, but Filippi says that Rudy Fernandez is a favorite of Paul Allen and is untouchable “like Brandon Roy.”
There is also word that Portland was targeting Spanish guard Sergio Llull, but he got drafted by the Rockets. Filippi says that Victor Claver is an NBA prospect and if he comes to the NBA he will play for Portland, however, there may be difficulties bringing Claver over under the rules of the new CBA. Also, Filippi looks at Claver as a 3-4 in the Travis Outlaw mold.
Filippi is the reason we said to keep an eye on Jan Vesely and Alexey Shved, if these guys are worth taking, Filippi will know and he’ll make a recommendation accordingly. Stashing guys overseas is a great strategy because it enables a team to create depth for the future without impacting the roster today. Let’s say that Portland is hitting its championship window in a couple years and there have been some consolidation trades and they’ve got a pretty solid eight man rotation, but they could use some depth. Now, without the Euros, Portland would be like Boston, wiggling under the weight of the cap and having to use the MLE to attract new talent. With their European players, Portland has a PG/SG in Peterri Koponen, a SF/PF in Victor Claver, and a C/PF in Joel Freeland that can be brought over to give the rotation a real shot in the arm. Now, isn’t that better than overpaying the ghost of Rasheed Wallace?
• Related to the previous item, Hoopshype reports that Claver has signed with his team for another year. They quote Claver as saying “Me playing in Portland next year? I don’t think so.” However, after reading the article that Hoopshype linked to myself, I can find no such quote. Admittedly, my Spanish isn’t perfect. Either Hoopshype is being a little sloppy and not linking to the proper story, or they paraphrased a quote and attributed it to Claver. In either case, an explanation would be nice.
UPDATE: I received this message from Hoopshype:
Victor has said lately in interviews made in Spain that he’s thinking about the ACB right now and not the NBA. When he talks again about his future in the NBA he says “Mucho tienen que cambiar las cosas para que me vaya este año” is almost as saying “I don’t think so”. Anyway, I admit that the translation is not accurate and I apologize for that.
• Ben Golliver made some great shake charts illustrating scoring consistency. I’d like to see these for rebounding, assists, and PER as well.
• Wendell Maxey says Portland may be looking for another point guard, and floats Mike James as a name to watch.
• The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman covers the addition of Marcus Camby and has this quote from Andre Miller:
“When you’re playing against him, you know not to go (into the lane) because he’s either going to block your shot, take a charge or make something happen. So he definitely brings a presence that will hopefully get us over the hump.”
• At the bottom of Sean Meagher’s article in The Oregonian there is this video; towards the end of that clip, Aldridge is recorded talking about Marcus Camby as a “natural big.” When I interviewed Aldridge in Houston, he emphasized that he was not a center, saying
“I know I’m not a center but I just try to do things we need, that a center would do. It’s going to be a little bit harder because it not in my nature but I’m going to what it takes to win”
I don’t know why, but something bothers me about those statements, it is as if Aldridge is giving himself an excuse to not bang down low as much. Obviously Aldridge’s role as a power forward in Nate MacMillan’s offense is as a stretch four that can stick the midrange jumper and run the court, and Aldridge does those things very well. However, I don’t know if Aldridge will ever take that next step to All-Star status unless he goes against that self-proclaimed “nature” a bit. Hold on, I’m receiving a phone call from David West who is calling me a liar… You get the idea though.
• From the TrueHoop motherblog, Kevin Arnovitz gives us the low down on the James/Wade/Bosh sweepstakes.
• This year’s trade deadline was fast paced and frenzied. How many of this week’s myriad of moving players had Blazer ties? Eight total, plus a trade that happened as a consequence of Portland’s actions.
1. Tyrus Thomas, a Blazer for like five minutes, was traded from Chicago for a future first-round draft pick, Flip Murray and Acie Law.
2. The original expiring contract, Theo Ratliff, was traded from San Antonio for a future second-round draft pick.
3. Houston received Kevin Martin and Hilton Armstrong from Sacramento for Carl Landry and former Blazer draftee Joey Dorsey.
4. Sergio Rodriguez was traded to the Knicks for Larry Hughes.
5. Utah traded Ronnie Brewer to Memphis for a future first-round draft pick. I left this one in there because it’s a direct result of Portland signing Millsap to that “toxic” offer.
6. The Clippers traded Sebastian Telfair and his winning attitude to Cleveland.
7. + 8. The Clippers also traded Marcus Camby to Portland in exchange for Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake.
Reader Comments (6)
i don't think there's much to rebounding or assist shake within a team because the variance will be much smaller. rebound shake will not really apply to guards and assists shake will not really apply to bigs. but looking at rebounding consistency between players that play the same position or assist consistency among point guards could be meaningful.
where can i find game logs with PER?
also not fair to label aldridge a stretch four his #1 shooting/scoring play type is "post up" by a wide margin over spot up and pick and roll.
and you are right vesely is being looked at closely.
Ah, I meant stretch 4 because he's able to hit that long jumper and because the pick and pop 18 footer features so heavily in his arsenal. HoopData might have the PER stats in the game log.
i couldnt find game by game pers on hoop data. they do have +/- and usage tho. those might be interesting.
dante or travis are your stretch 4s, aldridge is a pretty pure 4 at least by today's definition. you can throw it to him on the block on offense and he's not going to match up with 3s on d.
Ah, OK. I though if Troy Murphy and Matt Bonner got the moniker then LMA qualified. I agree that he works in the post a lot more than he seems to get credit for.
I will see if I can find game-by-game PER for you somewhere.
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