Freeland in action tonight in Houston

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Oh, what a block! Valanciunas stuffs Freeland's weak shit.

And there goes Freeland. Fouled out on a shit block/charge call.
 
Keep the updates coming FAMS! The internet here at the hotel is like 26K!
 
Jasikevicius
(a) is still playing for Lithuania
(b) is playing in a "friendly" (unlike Deng for GB)
(c) just got a technical!
 
Jonas will turn out to be the 2nd best player from the 2011 draft. Been saying this since day 1.

Minny and CLE screwed up.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
Jasikevicius
(a) is still playing for Lithuania
(b) is playing in a "friendly" (unlike Deng for GB)
(c) just got a technical!
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Seriously, it's embarrassing for them to have so much talent and still have this game in doubt. Kleiza, Songaila, Valanciunas, Jasikevicius, etc etc are all playing significant minutes.

GB has...?
 
Looks like Lithuania just won it on a layup. Phooey.
Valanciunas looks tall and lumbering but pretty talented. I think he'll be good, but it won't be next season in the NBA - he'll be too foul-prone. I'd say he's comparable to Greg Monroe or Roy Hibbert.
 
GB certainly had the athletes in this game. Except for the big blond kid (Dan Clark?) and ancient Robert Archibald.

Did Devon Von Oostrum play? I thought I saw a flash white kid get spot minutes at PG. The Blazers are supposed to have their eye on him. And what about Pops Mensah-Bonsu? My stream was too grainy to tell.
 
Overall, I didn't really learn anything new about Freeland's game that I didn't already know by watching him in Eurobasket last year. I still claim that he'd be a good bench big for us. He and Hickson would make a nice front court off the bench, and could both step in as starters temporarily in case of injury.
 
Freeland flashed some skill. Nice footwork on a hook shoot after backing down JV and pump faking him, a sweet-looking turnaround j, and a decent finish on P&R. I thought he settled for too many outside Js. He also did pretty well fighting for rebounds and threw a sick outlet pass about 60' to his teammate.

JV just looks on a different league physically. Taller, more agile on both ends (I wouldn't call him lumbering at all), and his D in the fourth quarter was amazing. Shut down the rim for all GB players. His motor is unmatched.

All that said, I am wayyyyyy over-analyzing one game that ultimately is meaningless for both sides.
 
1st half 37-37, 2nd half 24-26, final score 63-61 Lithuania. 50 combined points in the last 20 minutes is like scoring 15-15 in a 12-minute quarter. Slow.
 
Freeland looks like a 10 minutes a game backup at Center/PF. Runs the floor pretty good, can hit an occasional outside shot and can jump a bit. Some time with a good big man coach could really do wonders for him. If we didn't have to commit too much to get him I would be fine bringing him over. Since we now own the Boise franchise we could let him get big minutes there until he could build up his confidence. If he gets us a higher draft pick in a week I would be fine with that as well. He already looks to have twice as much talent as Thabeet!
 
Miracle Max said:
Best part so far is a quick shot of Sabas on one of the Lithuanian international basketball commercials. Sure wish we had another Sabas waiting in the wings. Sigh.
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He was at the game, too. The number of staff and players in the folding chairs may have exceeded the number of fans sitting in the rows. Probably mostly relatives like a Boys and Girls Club game.
 
HCP said:
Keep the updates coming FAMS! The internet here at the hotel is like 26K!
Click to expand...

Just for you, a summary! The white guys won! And lost! There were 2 black guards who showed their faces but they stayed in hiding! Ever been in Paul Bunyan country? Every lumbering white giant was at least 6-9 and had a crewcut! It was like watching the Przybilla family have a fight! Each team scored the equivalent of 15 points every 12 minutes in the 2nd half!
 
Miracle Max said:
Freeland looks like a 10 minutes a game backup at Center/PF. Runs the floor pretty good, can hit an occasional outside shot and can jump a bit. Some time with a good big man coach could really do wonders for him. If we didn't have to commit too much to get him I would be fine bringing him over. Since we now own the Boise franchise we could let him get big minutes there until he could build up his confidence. If he gets us a higher draft pick in a week I would be fine with that as well. He already looks to have twice as much talent as Thabeet!
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If the Blazer group concurs with you that he is a 10 minute backup; then I don't believe he will be coming over; they won't be able to offer him enough money to entice him. And if other GM's have the same evaluation, I don't think he will have any trade value.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
If the Blazer group concurs with you that he is a 10 minute backup; then I don't believe he will be coming over; they won't be able to offer him enough money to entice him. And if other GM's have the same evaluation, I don't think he will have any trade value.
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A 10m backup is someone like Craig Smith. Freeland seems like a 20-25m guy over both the PF/C positions. Basically gets time while we rest whatever starting big we want rested. That amount of minutes should suffice for him. If he shows he can play the backup style and we give him a 3y 11m contract (what tiago got) he will most likely get the same type for his next contract and it would make more sense for him to stay in the NBA. If we offer him no minutes to showoff his skill set in the NBA and try for the big payday he isn't going to want to come over.
 
I have absolutely no faith in Freeland ever doing anything better for us than any other 2nd string big in the NBA would. If he does that's nice. The reality is he's a 25 year old who has never proven himself against NBA level big men.
 
With only three years of organized basketball under him -- just his raw talent and size alone he'd DOMINATE the Big Sky Conference.

DOMINATE.

::edit::

Like, really, REALLY dominate.
 
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Fez Hammersticks said:
With only three years of organized basketball under him -- just his raw talent and size alone he'd DOMINATE the Big Sky Conference.

DOMINATE.
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Fair enough. I agree there's a good chance he'd have done extremely well. Not trying to grasp at straws here, but there definitely is a difference in how a good big man and a good guard would do in the Big Sky. But I pretty much agree Freeland would have seemed amazing had he played at Weber State. I just don't think that discounts what Lillard did there.
 
Miracle Max said:
Freeland looks like a 10 minutes a game backup at Center/PF. Runs the floor pretty good, can hit an occasional outside shot and can jump a bit.
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First of all, what team are we talking about? With the Blazers as currently constituted, he'd be a starter. For the Lakers, perhaps you'd be right.

Some time with a good big man coach could really do wonders for him.
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Yeah, they don't have those in Spain. That's why Pau Gasol never learned how to play.

If we didn't have to commit too much to get him I would be fine bringing him over.
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Too much what? Money? Playing time? Emotional baggage?

Since we now own the Boise franchise we could let him get big minutes there until he could build up his confidence.
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You seriously think the most sought-after big man in Spain would go to the fucking D-League?

If he gets us a higher draft pick in a week I would be fine with that as well. He already looks to have twice as much talent as Thabeet!
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That's called damning with faint praise.
 
yuyuza1 said:
JV just looks on a different league physically. Taller, more agile on both ends (I wouldn't call him lumbering at all), and his D in the fourth quarter was amazing. Shut down the rim for all GB players. His motor is unmatched.
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He's certainly taller. And he has very nice skills. But I wouldn't call him "agile." If anything, Freeland is more agile, although undoubtedly less skilled. Freeland is like a poor man's David Lee, while Valanciunas is like a rich man's Ilgauskas. He has a chance to be Pau Gasol-esque, but that's asking a lot.

He is lumbering, certainly if you put him next to somebody like, say, J.J. Hickson. He moves more like a Dikembe Mutombo: his blocks are from length and timing, not athleticism.
 
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To be fair to Freeland, the guards on the GBR squad didn't look for him as much as I would have expected last night. He did seem willing, when he did get entry passes, to mix it up inside. With some NBA quality point guards, it's possible he could establish himself enough to get his minute count up at the NBA level. I do like that he can hit the occasional outside shot.
 
I noted that when his team came out of halftime, they looked for him with good results. They quickly outscored Lithuania about 6 or 8 points. He got into foul trouble so that soon stopped. As a rookie, NBA guards will ignore him on offense, especially if he fouls like he did.

He's a mite flabby. He'll have to improve fast in fouls and body.
 
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