Finland beats France in meaningless game

[Rastapopoulos]

No Batum, but Koponen out-statted Tony Parker.

I wonder if Koponen wants to come over. He's wildly inconsistent on O, but his three-point shooting is decent and by all accounts he's a very solid defender. If we keep Patty Mills (and I'm sure we will), that would be seven guards, and he'd get very little burn except in case of injury. BUT: he would allow us to play either Mills or Bayless as a two, because he's pretty much Rudy height. And Bayless did pretty well last summer playing 2G next to PK.

(Reason why PK might want to come over: teams in Italy seem to be in deep financial shit.)

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Freeland beasted (in a loss) with 14 pts 16 rebs 4 blks

 

[ODENISGOD]

Koponen is better then blake right now and has been for some time. I have been saying to bring him over for 2 years now. He is everything that bayless is not ALSO.

 

[SodaPopinski]

Let's be honest. Kopponen is Lebron James like with a better J. That's all there is to it.

Future HOFer for sure. I'm not sure why the previous posters were downplaying it.

 

[Iwatas]

Freeland beasted (in a loss) with 14 pts 16 rebs 4 blks

Was he playing Center???

iWatas

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Was he playing Center???

Yes. GB has just lost all three games in a mini-tournament held at the O2 arena (the one that Michael Jackson was supposed to be playing 50 concerts in), losing to Poland (where, supposedly, Freeland outplayed Marcin Gortat, at least for a while), Turkey (surprisingly close, that one, considering they have the hated Hedo) and Israel, in that order. GB was supposed to have Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Robert Archibald (who played for a while in the NBA - I forget for whom - but now is a teammate of Freeland's at Unicaja Malaga. None of them showed, along with two other team regulars. So Freeland was about it for marginally decent GB players. That said, he supposedly looked good.

My guess is, if Joel opts out at the end of this coming season, Freeland will come over as backup 4/5.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Let's be honest. Kopponen is Lebron James like with a better J. That's all there is to it.
Future HOFer for sure. I'm not sure why the previous posters were downplaying it.

Ooh look! Somebody's discovered sarcasm! Maybe soon you'll work out the right dosage.

 

[illmatic99]

From a Spurs' blog: http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2009...e-77-73-petteri-koponen-outplays-tony-parker/

My evaluation of Parker: he seemed to move without discomfort, but was clearly nowhere near full speed. He did not push the ball full court, was not aggressive in the halfcourt offense, could not earn any free throws and missed every one of his jumpers off the front of the rim. A classic case of playing with heavy legs. Parker totaled 4 points on 2/14 shooting and just 3 assists despite playing 31 minutes. Koponen was able to stay in front of Parker, getting 2 blocks and a steal off Parker’s hands. At the other end Koponen used his size advantage to hit two pull-up 3s over Parker, as well as get inside paint and dish several perfect assists. OK, this was TP at maybe 60%, but I believe Koponen could be a solid backup PG in the NBA. Hopefully someone buys his rights from the Blazers, who may not ever find room for him.

I like that last sentence. @ the thought of KP selling away a draft pick/young player.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Completely unbiased Finnish observer reports that Koponen outplayed Parker:

Koponen was able to stay in front of Parker, getting 2 blocks and a steal off Parker’s hands. At the other end Koponen used his size advantage to hit two pull-up 3s over Parker, as well as get inside paint and dish several perfect assists. OK, this was TP at maybe 60%, but I believe Koponen could be a solid backup PG in the NBA. Hopefully someone buys his rights from the Blazers, who may not ever find room for him.

[edit: seconds too late!]

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

 

[ODENISGOD]

play the game and holla back.

 

[bbwchingy0007]

I've got a GB game recorded on my Sky+ (basically TiVo) so I'll try to watch it and report back what I think of Freeland, having seen him for x number of minutes

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I've got a GB game recorded on my Sky+ (basically TiVo) so I'll try to watch it and report back what I think of Freeland, having seen him for x number of minutes

That would be grand! Not to say gradely!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Highlights of Finland's historic victory!

(PK looks pretty pleased at the end there.)

 

[illmatic99]

Highlights of Finland's historic victory!

(PK looks pretty pleased at the end there.)

Nice site! Highlights of France-Italy with the Nic cross over + slam: http://player.canalplus.fr/#/267475

That's just sick.

 

[SodaPopinski]

Nice site! Highlights of France-Italy with the Nic cross over + slam: http://player.canalplus.fr/#/267475

That's just sick.

Best part of that video is at 1:15 after the Tony Parker three where the color analyst guy does the all-too-stereotypical "muh-hah-hah-hah" French "take that" laugh.

 

[BIG Q]

Koponen is better then blake right now and has been for some time. I have been saying to bring him over for 2 years now. He is everything that bayless is not ALSO.

Petri is nowhere close to Blake or Bayless. Have you ever been to the Vegas summer league and watched him live? I have, two years, several games. He is a player with potential but many holes in his game. It must be nice living in your make believe world where you just dream up crap, post it here as if it is true and then post "FAIL" when you are called out. Getting even closer to putting you on ignore as the majority of the other posters here have opted to do.

 

[BBert]

Nice site! Highlights of France-Italy with the Nic cross over + slam: http://player.canalplus.fr/#/267475

That's just sick.

Good find. Three nice highlights of Nico in there. I can't wait to see him this fall. His confidence looks sky-high.

 

[bbwchingy0007]

I've got a GB game recorded on my Sky+ (basically TiVo) so I'll try to watch it and report back what I think of Freeland, having seen him for x number of minutes

I didn't watch the whole game as I didn't have time (it was the GB Poland one, where he matched up with Gortat). From what I saw, I noticed the following:

- He has confidence in the low post on offense. I'm not sure quite how well those moves will hold up in the NBA, but he was certainly confident enough to try up and unders and some spin moves, so that's a plus.

- His rebounding is okay. It particularly improved in the other two games from the mini-tournament. Up against Gortat and the Poles, however, he struggled a bit more which might be an indication that he is not quite NBA ready - if he was up against two players who can rebound as well or better than Gortat he would get few rebounds. He was also benefited by the fact that Deng and Archibald were not around to help get boards.

- His scoring is efficient. He was shooting around 50% from 2pt range for the majority of the tournament. That gets him to efficient, but not great especially as it's not against NBA opposition for the most part. There were some signs of a good scorer in there.

- He sometimes got a bit lost on D. He was generally solid, but there were a couple of times where it seemed as though he either lost his man or didn't know where the ball was (i.e. had his back turned for prolonged periods). This made him miss some chances to help out on D and maybe get a couple more blocks, and also gave his opponents easy buckets. However, a couple more years should reduce this.

- Free Throw shooting needs to improve. In the Turkey and Poland games combined he hit just 2-6. Alright, it's a small sample size and all that, but a player looking to get to the NBA not called Shaq or Dwight really needs to be getting 4-6 or better.

- He showed good hustle and a desire to help the team. Everyone knew he was the best player on the team, but he didn't act it insomuch as he didn't demand the ball at every opportunity. As a youngster, however, he was not the leader on the court either. But he did work hard to get in good positions and do the dirty work for the team. This is a good sign for improvement in the future.


Overall Freeland showed good potential, and looked as though he has the work ethic to reach that potential. I would say he probably needs at least 2 more years in Europe before he's NBA ready, though.

 

[BBert]

Thanks for the analysis, chingy!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Thanks for the analysis, chingy!

Ditto!

Now, if you could just post that game on YouTube...

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Finnish-themed highlights of the France game (with a large chunk of time devoted to the halftime show!)

But more importantly: Finland wins second in a row over hapless Italy! $50M man scores 9 points, Petteri scores 26!

In other news: France will next face Belgium, best known for Beer and Tintin (curse him!)

 

[illmatic99]

Batum specific highlights from that game courtesy of a poster on B-Edge: [video=dailymotion;xa7xta]

Edit: He reminds me of a former Blazer in that video.

Darius "The Punisher" Miles.