A video of Koponen's Italian team's recent blowout win (he's #6, he can already run a break better than Blake - in fact, he is the Bigger Better Blake)(warning: you will want to turn the sound down).
Yeah I thought he looked good on the break in summer league when he came over too. His defense looks pretty non-existent in those highlights though. Let's hope it was just a function of the pace of winning in a blow-out.
I was just thinking about Petteri today and wondered how he's looking. Frankly, I'm not really sure I see anything in that video to get all that excited about (do highlight videos ever warrant getting excited? I'm not sure). I'll leave it up to the Blazers braintrust to decide if he's got NBA caliber talent. My only question is this, I wonder how he'd feel about playing 3rd fiddle behind Andre Miller next year? (Cause we all know "Blankey" has got this bitch locked up for the next 5 years.)
Miller, Oden and me can all run a break better than Blake too, but none of us can beat Blanky out for the starting PG job.
A European point guard would be useful to speed up our playing style and pass more to Oden and others. Speaking of former players, let's check who's #13 in assists per minute...might be Damon Stoudamire or Lionel Hollins or someone...hmm.. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/stati...8&qual=false&pos=all&season=2010&seasontype=2 Why, look at that. That's amazing for such a bad player, according to McMillan. I hadn't thought of Sergio. He's #11 in assists per 48 if you don't include the 2 guys above him with 8 and 6 minutes total played. And his efficiency points per minute is excellent this season, 24 eff points per 48 minutes. He's been getting minutes in the last week or two. His PER is 18.3, up 50% from last season. An average NBA player has a 15 PER.
I can't believe my eyes, so I'll click on that again. Surely Sergio must have a lot more turnovers than everyone else, as his detractors say. Hmm...Sergio ranks 2nd best in assist to turnover ratio, out of the 11 players above him (not including the guy with 8 minutes for the whole season and the guy with 6). What is wrong with statisticians nowadays? Can't they make things as accurate as Nate's talent assessments?
I have long been a fan of Sergio, but he and Petteri have nothing in common. Koponen is much more like Blake (plays good defense, not super-creative, shoots the three). Sergio is much more like Miller, except Miller can score in the post and is "crafty". Koponen strikes me as much more a Nate type player. If we could bring him over and not re-sign Blake, I wouldn't cry.
Damn. Sergio is now 6th out of the 11 in assists to turnovers, which cancels out my whole Post #6. Well, he's now average among the top assisters per minute, which still shows he isn't terrible at turnovers, as his detractors say.
I know people aren't likely to care right now, but Petteri Koponen had another strong game with 24 points in a 17 point blowout. (High scorer on the losing team - Luke Jackson with 18.)
Like I said above I'll leave it up to the personnel people of the Blazers to decide if he's an NBA talent or not. If he is then that's good, because it means he's a potentially valuable trade asset or a potentially viable rotation player. God knows this team could use a few of those.
Maybe they should hire HCP to do their highlight packages, that shit is so weak -- jump shot, jump shot, jump shot, jump shot ...
It might be because (a) they value the finer things in Italy, including the lost art of the jump shot (b) zone defenses and handchecking are allowed, so there's a lot MORE jump shooting (c) nobody cares about Basketball so it's just some temp doing the "highlights". But hey, at least Koponen can hit the jump shot. As I've said before, I see him as a Better Blake. He's already bigger and younger, he's supposed to be a very good defender, he looked like a perfectly solid creator in Summer League, but if he's going to replace Blake, he has to be able to hit the three. It looks like he's got a lot better at that.
What would be the point of bringing him here. We would bring him over, and even if he was better than Blake, Nate would never play him in front of him. We have guys right now that are better than Blake, and they rarely see the light of day.
Nate's not the one who decides if Blake gets re-signed when his contract runs out at the end of this season.
I am a big Sergio fan, but I think the issue for him with Nate was more fit than anything else. I couldn't be happier for his success. I know I'll continue to cheer for him.
I was assuming that KP would be fired because he's a big fat failure and that you would be hired as GM.
