Don't ask about Donatas

On Sunday I mentioned Donatas Motiejunas in passing, then lo' and behold ESPN.com's draft Guru Chad Ford lists him as one of the players whose draft stock is on the rise. He said:

"Donatas Motiejunas, F, Lithuania
Every year NBA GMs fly around the world looking for the next Dirk Nowitzki. There have been lots of pretenders -- from Nikoloz Tskitishvilli to Vladimir Radmanovic to Andrea Bargnani (who actually looks pretty good this season) to Danilo Gallinari -- but the next Nowitzki has proven to be pretty elusive. This year's Dirk wannabe is Motiejunas -- a 7-foot, 215-pound forward who, you guessed it, runs the floor, has a pretty jumper and can play multiple positions.

Motiejunas has many of the same red flags as those other guys. Scouts say he is soft, needs to add a lot of strength and is playing against watered down competition in Lithuania. However, he's averaging more than 20 points and shooting around 50 percent from 3-point territory -- that's not bad for an 18-year-old in any league in Europe. While it's highly likely he stays in Europe for another season, a couple of international scouts are telling me there are rumblings he might leave.

Said one NBA executive who watched Motiejunas this year: "He's the closest kid I've seen to Dirk coming out of Europe. Honestly. I know what you're thinking. But this kid could be really good."

Somewhere, Bill Simmons is licking his chops for the third round of our annual draft debate." (Ford, ESPN.com, 2008)

I still don't want the Jazz to get interested in this guy, and thankfully, he does not appear to be in draft range of where we'll be picking. Yet . . . this was a pretty cool co-incidence that I blog about a guy, and a few days later, ESPN mentions that guy.

All Euro (Whitey) Team comment and other thoughts on recent blog articles I've enjoyed

I love readings blogs . . . that's actually the main reason why I created one as well -- because I wanted to give back. Unfortunately I don't have all the time in the world to read them anymore, but I try to keep abreast of blog posts via BallHype.com. (They are fantastic, I use BallHype.com more often than I use Google.com) Anyway, here's a selection of blog posts and my take on them --

Rebounding Differential Rankings in the NBA [Nov 6] -- Khandor's Sports Blog talks about something Jazz fans have been very lucky to have over the last few seasons, and actually positive rebounding differential. Utah is a strong rebounding club (currently #6th in the NBA in differential at +5.00 as of November 6th, 2008). Last season the Jazz were tied for 3rd over-all with the Boston Celtics at +3.1 rebound differential; Cleveland was at +4.2, and Houston at +4.0. Two of the clubs above the Jazz (Detroit and Philly) have played the Raptors though, and thus, those rebounding numbers look highly inflated. Khandor shows a nice chart and talks about it a bit. I tend to value rebounding differential more than actual average RPG because it shows how good (or bad) a team is compared to other teams -- as opposed to being an isolated number by itself. I wish the Raptors do get better rebounding, as they are one of the teams that I root for. Thanks Khandor for blogging about this, it's nice to know that I'm not the only crazy person out there who likes stats.

Zach at Gunaxin.com recently blogged about The All Whitey Basketball Team -- Zach describes and details a 12 man roster of purely American white guys. He comes up with Kirk Hinrich, Mike Miller, Mike Dunleavy Jr., David Lee and Chris Kaman as starters. The bench is comprised of Brad Miller, Kyle Korver, Steve Blake, Kevin Love, Wally Szcerbiak, Troy Murphy and Nick Collison. I don't think that team would suck. (It would be a whole lot better than an All-Asian Basketball team, for starters . . . and as a guy who's parents were born in Asia I can say that, I guess in that Russell Peters type of "i'm a minority so I can be racist" type of comedy that Sarah Silverman employs) That's a tangent though . . . I wanted to make an all European Basketball team to counter . . . this is what I came up with (In no order):

1. Tony Parker (PG) -- France/Spurs
2. Hidayet Turkoglu (SF/SG) -- Turkey/Magic
3. Andrei Kirilenko (SF/PF) -- Russia/Jazz
4. Dirk Nowitzki (PF/C) -- Germany/Mavericks
5. Pau Gasol (PF/C) -- Spain/LA Lakers
6. Jose Manuel Calderon (PG) -- Spain/Raptors
7. Sasha Vujacic (SG/PG) -- Slovenia/LA Lakers
8. Rudy Fernandez (SG/SF) -- Spain/Trailblazers
9. Predrag Stojakovic (SF/SG) -- Serbia (Croatia)/Hornets
10. Linas Kleiza (SF/PF) -- Lithuania/Nuggets
11. Mehmet Okur (PF/C) -- Turkey/Jazz
12. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C) -- Lithuania/Cavaliers

If you want only "White Euros" then take out Tony Parker and put in Beno Udrih instead and start Jose instead. I think that team would be pretty comparable to the USA Whitey's team, though probably beat them in a 7 game series handily. The Euro team would surely flop a whole lot as well . . . the toughest guy on the European team would have to be either Kleiza or Okur, which says a whole lot.

"I was saying booo-urns . . . !" - Hans Moleman from The Simpsons. "Apparently" the NYC Crowd is not booing Chris Duhon. Or are they? Read it at What would Oakley Do? The Duhon/Fog Light analogy is as hilarious as it is apt -- and reason enough to read this article.

Apparently Jerry Sloan has been coaching the Jazz since the Ronald Reagan years . . . the Salt Lake Tribune brings the funk on that while I ponder just how many years I've been a fanatic fan of the NBA . . . and how much else I could have accomplished in my life if I was not . . .

Final 2008 Olympic Standings & Updated FIBA Rankings

Photo by: Sergio Perez (Reuters)

No doubt, if you are crazy enough to be reading this blog, you stayed up last night to watch the Gold Medal Game. (And what a game it was!) Anyhoo . . . here are the final rankings for the 2008 Olympic Games and the updated FIBA Rankings. (Oh yeah, that's right, USA isn't #1 after all. Huh?)

	2008 Olympic Games			Rank (Previous rank from January, 2008)	FIBA Top 20 Rankings	Pts.
1 - Gold	USA	8 - 0		1 (3)	Argentina	876
2 - Silver	Spain	6 - 2		2 (1)	USA	832.2
3 - Bronze	Argentina	6 - 2		3 (5)	Spain	730
4	Lithuania	5 - 3		4 (11)	Greece	499
5	Greece	3 - 3		5 (2)	Serbia	469
6	Croatia	3 - 3		6 (6)	Lithuania	411
7	Australia	3 - 3		7 (14)	Germany	329
8	China	2 - 4		8 (4)	Italy	308
9	Russia	1 - 4		9 (8)	Australia	269
10	Germany	1 - 4		10 (12)	China	262.7
11	Iran	0 - 5		11 (9)	Puerto Rico	232.6
12	Angola	0 - 5		12 (17)	Angola	206
				13 (18)	Turkey	203
				14 (16)	New Zealand	187
				15 (7)	Russia	181
				16 (15)	Brazil	173.6
				17 (10)	France	169
				18 (19)	Croatia	165
				19 (13)	Canada	124.2
				20 (-)	Slovenia	124

Biggest risers / Biggest Fall since the end of EuroBasket 2007:

Greece and Germany both went up 7 spots -- partly due to their rankings in the pre-Olympic Qualifying tournament. Turkey and Angola both went up 5 spots -- Angola's ranking is inflated because their FIBA score happens to be buoyed by ranked wins against other FIBA Africa nations. (yes, their relative earned win score is less, but they still have to face easier comp than, say, the European or American teams) Furthermore, Angola is still ranked higher than Turkey, but if the two teams played I'm pretty sure Turkey would win -- Angola doesn't have anyone on their roster taller than 6'5, if I remember correctly. The Turks are huge up front (arguably bigger than Spain, Greece and Russia in the paint).

Italy, led by Andrea Bargnani (of the Toronto Raptors), Marco Belinelli (of the Golden State Warriors) and new kid on the block Danilo Gallinari fell 4 spots since the end of 2007. Canada, bereft of 'professionally' acting professionals fell 6 spots in 8 months. France, with a ton of NBA talent (Parker, Diaw, Pietrus, Diawara, Mahinmi, Turiaf, etc) went down an impressive 7 FIBA spots, Russia (who won EuroBasket 2007, and didn't make it out of the round robin part of the Olympics) fell 8 spots. France and Russia were both Top 10 teams 8 months ago. How the mighty have fallen!

Wait, The USA won the Gold Medal, isn't that worth +50 points at the very least, why are they #2?

I don't know. But for those who want to know, FIBA Asia champion Iran is ranked #23 in the world. Actually, the Top 25 rounds out to be: Venezuela (95.2), Nigeria (93.6), Iran (73.1), Lebanon (70.5) and Israel (60.0). If you want to see the full list, you know, if you wanted to confirm that India (#46, 9.9 pts.) was ranked higher than the Philippines (#63, 4.2 pts.) you could click here.

Final Olympic Qualifying Round Standings

Croatia beat Iran 91-57; Australia beat Lithuania 106-75; Greece beat China 91-77; Spain beat Angola 98-50; the United States defeated Germany 106-57; and Argentina beat Russia 91-76. So Russia, Iran, Germany and Angola are all out. Only the big boys remain, the top 4 teams from Group A and Group B.

Brackets:

		Bracket A:						Bracket B:
A2		Argentina				B2		Spain
B3		Greece				A3		Croatia
B1		USA				A1		Lithuania
A4		Australia				B4		China

Bracket A appears as it will end up being a USA vs. Argentina semi-final to see who gets to play for the Gold Medal. Bracket B will be Lithuania against, most likely, Spain.

Comments:

Team Russia really disappointed in this tournament, you would expect them to be able to rank higher than Australia -- but the Aussie team played with much more heart and did what they had to do to advance, so much respect for them, as they earned it . . . Croatia was one of the better teams in Group A early on, but fizzled down the stretch -- showing us all that in this type of tournament if you win your first two games, it's almost impossible to not advance to the next around . . . Angola and Iran were both severely at a disadvantage in terms of depth, the talent is there, but just unable to complete with powerhouses like Spain, Lithuania and the USA . . . Argentina, who may not play in the Gold Medal game has to surely be one of the favorites to medal in this group, it's funny that their last win (vs. Russia) relegated them to the same bracket as the USA, had they lost, they probably would have had to play Spain first, but had a chance at the gold medal this way . . . China impressed in much the same way as Australia, they did not care about rankings, they cared about playing the games, and their close victory over Germany ultimately was all the difference in advancing or going home . . . I fully expect the United States to take home the gold, and exorcise the demons of Lithuania in the process.

Team Russia дерьмо кровать !!!

Game 1: 102 - 61

Greece (2-2) put an Olympic sized beat down on Angola (0-4) and really, Angola is not doing well in this tournament at all. The Greeks shot 58.7 % for the game, while Angola shot 39.1 %. Greece was only up by 1 after the first quarter, but scored 69 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters -- which would have still beaten Angola by 8. Looking at the box score it was a very dominant showing by Greece -- made even more so by the fact that Angola elected to only play their bench guys significant minutes in this game. For example, Carlos Morais, one of the top scorers in the entire tournament, did not even play a single minute in this game.

Game 2: 95 - 80

According to Google.com, that means sh!t the bed in Russian. And that's exactly what Team Russia (1-3)did getting beat down by Australia (2-2) by 15. Things aren't looking good for Andrei and crew, as they have only 5 points to their names. If they advance they are going to have to face either the mighty United States team or Team Spain -- who may have some unfinished business to help motivate them.

Australia D upped Russia pretty bad, forcing them into shooting 44.4% from the field and causing 16 turn overs. Andrew Bogut and C. J. Bruton both scored 22 for Australia, and won the game in the 1st quarter (27-16), Russia didn't get it going and faced an uphill climb from there. Holden had 20 points and 6 assists for Russia, and Viktor Khryapa finally showed up making all 6 of this three point attempts, while pulling down 9 boards and swatting 2 shots -- he led team Russia with 21. Andrei shot horribly, 1-10 in the game, he made all of his FTs this time around, and still managed 6 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. If Russia can get their good players to play well in the same game, they can beat any team. So far it has not happened in this tournament. After this type of upset loss, I don't know if Russia can still get back on track.

Game 3: 86 - 73

Lithuania restored order to the universe by knocking Croatia down a bit, the Lithuanians are 4-0 in this tournament and are looking at the podium. Croatia is down to 2-2 and depending on how things turn out in the last of the round-robin stage, may not advance. Croatia was actually up by 4 going into the final quarter, but Lithuania won that handedly (28-11), and did so in a convincing fashion. Ukic, owned by the Toronto Raptors, led his team with 13 points but shot abysmally -- 38.5% (which was still better than what Andrei brought to the table the last two games). Zoran had 11 but only played 16 minutes for some reason. Croatia's torrid shooting from deep finally cooled down, as they went 5/17.

Lithuania's balanced attack continues to roll on, Mindaugas Lukauskis had 20, Kleiza had 18 and Simas Jasaitis had 12. Sarunas Jasikevicius has 6 assists. Lukauskis and Kleiza gave Croatia a taste of their own medicine, going a combined 7/10 from three.

Game 4: 97 - 82

Argentina (2-2) took care of business against Team Iran (0-4) by 15. "Who's your" Ehadadi continues to play well, having a 21 and 16 game. Team Captain MSNB shot poorly, as he was the focus of the Argentinean defense. Hamed Afagh nailed four threes on his way to 19 points. But really, it was the Manu show -- 32 points (71.4 % shooting), 4 threes, 4 assists, 3 boards and a steal and a block. Luis Scola added 20 points and 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Guys like Oberto, Delfino and Nocioni didn't even have to shoot more than 13 entire times because Manu took care of business early.

Game 5: 59 - 55

China (2-2) holds on to win against the German (1-3) team -- proving to the world that Germany is a paper tiger after all. This was a Yao Ming vs. Dirk Nowitzki battle. Dirk had 24 points and 17 rebounds. Yao had 25 and 11 -- but more importantly, the win. China was up by 10 after the end of one. Germany stormed back to hold a 4 point lead at half. China erased that lead with a 20-8 3rd quarter. In the end, Germany did not have enough to pull out the come from behind win, eventually losing by 5. Germany made all 13 of their free throws, and China went to the line 21 times. Hmmmmm. Chris Kaman had 10 and 12, but no one else really showed up for Germany. Yi Jianlian had 9 and 11 for China.

Game 6: 119 - 82

There really isn't much to say about this game . . . LeBron James had 18 / 5 / 8 / 4, and eight guys scored at least 10 points for the good guys. The United States won each quarter 31-22, 30-23, 25-18 and 33-19 and Spain managed to shoot 39.4% for the game. They also were hounded into 28 turn overs. I have a very hard time conceptualizing a way that this, so called, 'Redeem Team' loses this tournament.