Comment from Tom Mandel
Time June 21, 2009 at 8:25 PM

Oh wow, Gladyr is in the states working out for teams? Cool.

As you guys probably know, Calathes is signed to play in Greece next year. For a team that wants to stash someone for a year or so, he’d be a great pick. Not a number 5, obviously. But if he is there at 32, picking him would not surprise me.

Comment from wiz123
Time June 21, 2009 at 9:48 PM

Gabbo,

i certainly agree with Tom’s assessment of some of our players. lets put it this way, most if not all NBA players have tremendous talent. however, if it does not translate into the game, it serves no purpose whatsoever. the best example, gerald green – drafted out of high school in the same year as blatche is arguably as or more talented than blatche (green drafted 1st round 18th pick – blatche drafted 2nd round 49th pick). what is clear though is that both of them are talented. however, but this talent or skill of green hasn’t been able to translate into the real game and i do not think we’ll be seeing him in the league for much longer. i guess what i wanted to say is that talent means nothing unless you can put it to use.

however, this does not mean i don’t like blatche as a player. i think he is great – whats better? his contract. i wouldn’t trade him because his contract is just great. he is a phenomenal insurance at the 4 & 5 spot.

Comment from wtop
Time June 21, 2009 at 10:26 PM

I can not wait for the nba draft Thursday hopefully we get a good player on the team

Comment from neal
Time June 21, 2009 at 10:26 PM

Ernie, get the phone!

Comment from doclinkin
Time June 22, 2009 at 1:07 AM

From last post:

Oh I think *everyone* understands his potential. He should already be a very good player, in fact.

Yes, he’s just going to turn 23 this summer, so he’s still young. On the other hand, he’s going into his fifth year in the league, and *almost always*, no matter where they start, guys are the player they’re going to be after that many years. Think of KG, since you brought him up. Or think of Larry Hughes or for that matter Kwame Brown.

Okay now let’s run a stat comparison on all guys who have been shot through the lung and the wrist of their shooting hand their rookie year. Let’s narrow the list to, say, all guys direct from prep school…

Truth is for most young players their third year is where their experience level begins to catch up with their talent and they show their true colors. And with the exception of a very few, most prep-to-pro prospects haven’t done all that well, they simply lack the experience to ‘get it’ and a pro program will give up on a player quick if they ain’t producing.

But Dray lost his first year to injury, then spent his first couple years regaining stamina (scar tissue in the lung and a long layoff will do that to you; as will, admittedly, laziness).

Now, for a silver lining, this means in part that the organization was willing to be patient with him the way they might not have with another player. And his Columbus Circle adventure meant they could re-sign him at a bargain rate, can afford to be patient.

What we got out of the bargain was actually a decent back-up Center (where he’s been playing the past couple years). He would make a roster and play minutes on almost every team in the league in this capacity. Fact is his Win Score per 40 is decent:

http://tinyurl.com/winscoresort

Equivalent to Battier or ‘Melo. Okay it’s middling for PF, low for a C. But he’s been playing in a system that asks PFs to play more like SFs (forwards called ‘mids’ in EJ’s offense, are supposed to be interchangeable, hence Jarvis Hayes and Caron at the forward position together). The role requires face up skills to spread the floor wide and allow open lanes to drive for the perimeter players. It requires a pretty high level of skill and decision making.

Heady stuff for a prep-to-pro kid. Especially because — I love Eddie Jordan but– the team didn’t seem to have a great development program in place. The skill sets required were so specialized that it was deemed pointless to send their players down to the D-League to pick up basics , fundamentals, seasoning. (What the “D” in D-league is all about). (Contrast with the Spurs who regularly send players down for seasoning).

And EJ often sorta seemed to resent having to work with players who couldn’t quickly pick up the instinctive decision making to make the system sing. (A system that _Jason Kidd_ says it takes three years to pick up. Think he doesn’t know ball?). If a player was getting paid, Highschooler or no, prep-schooler or no, they’re a professional and should know what to do. Even if they don’t get minutes.

Since you spotlight KG, think about it– you honestly think Dray wouldn’t be better now if he’d had Kevin McHale tutoring him the way KG did?

Understood Garnett is probably the most supremely self-motivated player in the game, and ideal fit for teacher and student there. But the Twolves were very careful about bringing KG into the league, babying him along, teaching him how to manage money, etc, etc. And he had daily one-on-one sessions of instruction with one of the most skilled and fundamentally sound Power Fours ever to play the game.

(Hey KMcH is out of a job right now, maybe he wouldn’t mind a little extra cash — okay he’d have to sit the bench next to the last two guys he fired, but still…)

Point being, Dray as an understudy for Jamison, has been trying to learn the role of the outside shooting finesse forward, or even the highpost passing center, a Point Pivot. And if he couldn’t do it, he wouldn’t play. How many of those players are in the league?

How many Brad Miler types? (Pau Gasol If you call him a Center).
How many Jamison’s? (Rashard Lewis, Sheed, Dirk. That’s about it).

(Okay there are a bunch in the Euroleagues, but they play once a week and practice 8 hours a day).

Eh. Essay over. To sum up: there are compelling reasons why this player in particular isn’t as easily waved away just by speaking the word ‘statistics’. Unusual circumstances why his talent level hasn’t expressed itself. Youth. Injury. Training. Experience. And, sure, immaturity or knuckleheadedness.

Fortunate thing is that some of those are within the team’s power to fix. Dray could stand to hit the weights a little harder, work on a low-post finishing move. But what will help him most is that we have a coach who prides himself in teaching players.

Like Sam Cassell said (about Gil’s leadership) if you don’t know– you don’t know. No shame in that, but once you know that you don’t know, you just got to work on knowing.

I expect a pleasant surprise out of Dray this year. Not perfect, just better. A step forward.

Comment from doclinkin
Time June 22, 2009 at 1:08 AM

Dang that was long.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time June 22, 2009 at 7:19 AM

It’s an interesting analysis, doc — if there’s a problem with it, it’s the special pleading. *Everybody* has a story. Some guys work out and some don’t. In the end, what you’re saying — and this is not meant critically — is that Andray has an awful lot of gifts for a guy who hasn’t really done anything.

Per one of my previous posts, yes, Andray gets this year. As you say, 3d year is usually the charm — guys don’t change much after that. But, he missed a year, and he came out of high school. So… ok. But having to look at a fifth year player, as you say, “like he’s a graduating senior” isn’t exactly a *good* thing, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time June 22, 2009 at 7:21 AM

Note that in the next post, Dave quotes Flip as happy with Andray’s off-season workouts. That’s what we like to hear.