Pick and Scroll: FIBA u-18 edition.
Nathan Begley | Monday, June 28, 2010 at 11:32AM Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.
• Mike Barrett will have Blazers President Larry Miller on Courtside tonight, along with all three of Portland’s draft picks. Hopefully they can all solve out the issue that is plaguing this franchise: Where the hell is Elliot Williams supposed to eat dinner?
• Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio has theories as to why Kevin Pritchard was fired. They key word to take from the previous sentence is “theories.” In truth, just a handful of people know why Pritchard was fired and I have my doubts that someone who worked in the Blazer PR department twelve years ago is as privy to the inner workings of Vulcan or One Center Court as he claims. In politics, the saying goes “follow the money,” in this case; let us examine each party’s motivation. For Steve Patterson, any shine he can take off of Pritchard is an implicit boost to himself. If Patterson can paint Pritchard as a credit-stealing incompetent, then he is implying that the rightful credit should go to him. Patterson can both vie for redemption and attempt to rehabilitate his image in one fell swoop, even if it means gently, politely, apologetically throwing Pritchard under the bus.
For Berger, the obvious motivation is ratings. This story is getting a lot of play in the Portland media and a lot of people that might not even know Sports Business Radio existed are giving it a listen. Additionally, Berger gets to paint a narrative where he chooses the palate for each character. Accordingly, Bert Kolde is shaded as an almost cartoonishly power hungry villain who rides on Paul Allen’s coattails and gets off on firing underlings. Could this portrait be an accurate representation? Perhaps, however, Berger seems especially ready to illustrate Kolde in this light and one cannot help but sense that perhaps there is some personal animosity there. The other motivation for Berger is time. Let’s say Berger has ten minutes worth of solid information on why Pritchard was fired, well he’s got to make that story stretch to fit a few hours of programming and sometimes when that happens the truth gets stretched as well.
Now, I am in no way saying that Patterson or Berger is being untruthful. For all I know, they could be perfectly honest and vigilant in not letting an ounce of personal spin get in the way of the facts. However, my responsibility when I provide a link (especially to something controversial) to my readers in this medium is to try and give some context along with it. I think that rational people can disagree as to how true Patterson and Berger’s accounts are, but in order to make an intelligent decision about sports media, politics, or life in general, it is always important to measure the perceived incentives to the speaker.
• Dave Deckard from BlazersEdge wants to know if you are “desperate” for Tony Parker. Sorry for the Desperate Housewives joke. Is that show even still on the air?
• Martell Webster, the Timberwolf. It just looks so wrong.
• So I’ve been at the FIBA Americas Under 18 World Championships and I think I can say a thing or two about some of the players on team USA. It’s a bit difficult to get a true measure of a player’s abilities in this particular setting because to be quite honest, the level of competition is somewhat lacking. Last night Team USA did more damage to US-Mexico relations than an Arizona immigration bill in a 114-38 slaughter that really wasn’t even as close as the 76 point margin might suggest. I stand about 5’9” in socks, a bit over 5’10” in basketball shoes. On Team USA, a player my height would be the shortest by a few inches, on Team Mexico, they’d play power forward.
Nevertheless, there is some valuable information to be gleaned even in this setting. As a whole, Team USA competes hard every possession, even when ahead by 70 points. Coach Jeff Capel has done a fantastic job leading these guys and getting them to play the game and not the scoreboard. When your team is up by well over 50 points and they are still making hustle plays, drawing charges, and diving for 50-50 balls, it speaks both to their coaching and their character. Team USA has represented their country very well, never complaining much about bad calls, never taunting or showboating (though there was an alley oop or two) and playing hard for 40 minutes.
On to the players: I’ll cover the three players that I found the most impressive and I’ll save the rest for future posts. Let me be the first to jump on the “Draft Austin Rivers” bandwagon. Again, this setting has its limitations. However, I am consistently impressed by Rivers basketball IQ and court awareness. This kid knows where to be and when to be there. Obviously, being the son of former NBA player and current coach of the Celtics, Doc Rivers means that Austin was exposed to the highest levels of the game and quality coaching at an early age. On off-ball defense, Rivers is able to chase his man around screens while keeping his hands in position to deny the pass. During on-ball defense, Rivers moves his feet well and stays in front of his man. On offense, Rivers has an excellent shot from behind the arc but hasn’t had an opportunity to show much else. Rivers said that he expects to run the point a bit more tonight against the more physical Argentina team and I’ll let you know how that goes.
Pat Young is a physical specimen at 6’9” 240lbs. Young has been in a bit of foul trouble, but he’s been productive in the minutes he played. Against Mexico, he showed the ability to switch onto a much smaller player and stay in front of them. Young runs the floor very well, rebounds, and blocks shots. His offense so far has been limited to put-backs and dunks, though he did show a hook shot from the low block that had decent form, though it missed.
Quincy Miller has been just everywhere, filling up the stat sheet with efficient scoring, rebounding the ball (17 against the U.S. Virgin Islands) and blocking shots. He still has some filling out to do, but he has been very impressive so far and looks to be a real contributor at the college level, however, he’s still got a year of high school left.
Reader Comments (6)
"Brian" Berger and "Pat" Young
@ BlazersEdge Ben. Wow, I'm having troubles today. I'm on meds for a cold and I just can't get my head right.
5'9" Begley? I'm taking you straight to the painted area. Get off me! Gaaaaaa! (I drank my coffee extra fast today.)
@Seth, if you think you can move me, go ahead, lol.
I'm the Chuck Hayes of blazer bloggers (shoot FT's like him too...)
It has just as much humour Abercrombie and Fitch to keep the grown ups happy as it does the kids
Engineers are a special breed who think with a differnent line of logic than most "normal" people. Since I am one,hollister online I kind of have strong opinions that engineers shouldn't manage much unless they ahve actual extroverted personalities. think people must first research before writing.