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 . . .

Where in the world is Tadija Dragicevic and Ante Tomic?

It's very reasonable if you forgot this, but with their last draft pick from last seasons' NBA Draft the Jazz picked Tadija Dragicevic (2nd round, Pick #53 overall). In this All-Star game video he is on the East team and wearing #5. (The white jerseys) First of all this tells us a few things: a) he's not an imaginary player, and b) he's good enough to make an All-Star team somewhere professionally. Both are good signs for certain. [btw, don't show Jerry Sloan this video, there's no defense, especially not when Tadija just watches guys shoot the ball near him without even putting an arm up]

But let's try to dig up a bit more info on this European man of mystery. According to Wikipedia (yeah I know, it's a great source) he's 6'9 and weighs 235 lb. . . . and he wears #20. (Quincy Lewis' old number for you Jazz fans out there) He is 22 years old right now and this Serbian plays power forward. Which is funny because I could have sworn that he was projected as a SF in the NBA according to some web sites like ESPN.com; though DraftExpress.com suggests that he's a PF though. What's interesting is what people say about him . . . ESPN's Chad Ford says:

"Who? Not exactly a household name, and I've never seen this guy. He doesn't look like much of an NBA player, but this late in the draft, you can't ignore the numbers he's putting up in the ULEB." (Chad Ford, ESPN.com)

I don't know what the ULEB is, it sounds like some computer thing, or some acronym used by 'the kids' today with their texting. (sorry, txting) For the record, the ULEB is the Union of European Leagues of Basketball . . . and within the union of these leagues our boy Drazillah the Killah plays in the Adriatic league -- OH CRAP!

He got injured (I'm assuming) this year . . . he's only played in 1 game, and only played 17:30 minutes in it. The only stats that he has is that he made 6 foul shots in that game. That totally sucks because he was the MVP of that league last season. Why? I'll tell you why . . . because he scored 20.5 ppg (52.0 fg%, 45.1 3pt%, 81.0 ft%), 5.9 rpg, 1.4 apg and lead his team to a good record, I guess. I don't know. This website is kinda hard to figure out. And the news (assumed) that he's injured sucks. Let's move around to our other draft pick in the 2nd round -- Ante Tomic . . .

A-Tomic is probably my favorite player ever from Dubrovnik ever. He's Croatian, and that could pose an interesting dynamic with the Serbian Dragicevic. You know, in the off chance that we ever bring either of them over to the NBA. He's one year younger than Tadija, and he's a full blooded 7'1 center. He has no weight worth noting. So far this season he's averaging 17.2 ppg (54.3 fg%, 0.0 3pt%, 77.1 ft%), 10.4 rpg, 1.5 apg, 0.8 spg, 1.7 bpg and as the top value rating of the entire league right now. (I think this is how they figure out who's the MVP, like how Tadijilla D'Razillia was last season -- kind of like the IBM Award they used to have in the NBA)

I think it's pretty clear why the Jazz actually drafted Tadija in the first place -- because they were scouting Ante, and while they were looking in that league they found this other guy who was EVEN MORE under the radar than Ante Tomic -- they just HAD to draft that other guy. Anyway . . . the Orlando / Philly game is really dull. How dull? So dull that I'm surfing around on the NLB Liga ABA website. Damn you NBA schedule makers! You win this round!

David Thorpe [ESPN] on the Rookie class of 2008-2009

ESPN's David Thorpe (you may know him from his work with IMG) evaluates a lot of talent. He ranks the Top 50 Rookies of each class and continues to update and revise this list over the course of the season. That said, two members of the Utah Jazz make it up this first, initial, list.

All the way down (or up, depending on how you view him, and his 20% fg shooting 'display' during the RMR) is our own Kosta Koufos. Our big fat Greek draft pick (who isn't actually fat, and he was born and raised in Ohio) is a 19 year old 7'0 center with a sweet stroke who has significant upside. Thorpe explains that he is

"Coordinated, but slow, with a good frame. Looks like he likes to face up and shoot, but his shot looks flat now. Does an excellent job absorbing contact on shots inside; keeps his shoulders square on finishes. His capacity for work is very high, so rapid improvement is a far expectation."

Over all, this is a very positive review for a guy who is a few seasons away (at worst) from contributing to our team.

Additionally, at #40 is our own international man of mystery, Tadija Dragicevic -- an apparently 22 year old Small Forward (6'9, 222 lbs.) who likes to shoot the ball. He's going to stay in the Adriatic League as far as I know, for a very long time, and I seriously doubt that Kevin O'Connor will treat him as anything more than just an asset in the near future. Thorpe's take suggests that Tadija is "a strong and offensive-minded forward who is likely staying in Europe." Can't argue with that, as all I know about him is that his defense is non-existent and that we're stashing him over there. That said, the Serbian has been called a 'Scoring Machine' by draftexpress.com . . . really, check it out here.

Some temp gets to use a different dry erase marker color every so often . . . this is one of those moments.	Tadijilla-Drilla throws it down

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.

Will the scandal never end?

In a previous post of mine I mentioned Fesenko's new do. In that post I hinted that he wasn't the only player in the NBA who has attempted to gussy himself up. Yeah, Darko was another guy who had the blonde dye job, but back in Detroit Memo did it too -- and he did it again when playing for Turkey one off-season.

before . . .	. . . and after!

C'Mon DNews and SLTrib! You're being outscooped by a blogger! Where are the articles?