Notice TRAIL BLAZERS ASSIGN CLIFF ALEXANDER AND LUIS MONTERO TO D-LEAGUE’S SANTA CRUZ WARRIORS (8 Viewers)

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Commentator thought it was over but is surprised our team has come back to 113-108. I think they're playing more motivated than usual because 1) full crowd, 2) all the assigned players taking mid-game minutes have given these real players extra wind at the end of the game. Besides our 2 guys, Santa Cruz has one other player assigned from the NBA, just today, Kevon Looney.
 
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113-110, Gomes at the stripe! 6.5 seconds left. No free throw. New D-League rule this year, you need 6 fouls not 5 to get a FT at the end. Wait I misheard. Gomes makes a FT, score 114-110.
 
That's the final score. The good news is that our 2 players got a lot of time, were very active, made a lot of mistakes, but also did some things right and showed a lot of promise.
 
jlprk said:
That's the final score. The good news is that our 2 players got a lot of time, were very active, made a lot of mistakes, but also did some things right and showed a lot of promise.
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Excellent job! I kept jumping from the game thread to this because you were amazing.

Thank you!
 
Thx for the updates. Is there anywhere I can watch the replay
 
The last few seasons, YouTube has retained every game forever, so I expect so now, too. Game time was 7:00, I woke up at 7:28, panicked at my great responsibility to make this thread work, saw that Darkwebs hadn't given us a beautiful thread, and went to work. I don't know whether the game was in the 1st quarter or 2nd quarter. Went to the bathroom at about the second timeout, made coffee at halftime, didn't need it because I was really chugging, knowing I would let down all my dear compatriots depending upon me for this vital information. If I'd set this up right, I'd have had the Blazer game in another window and been flicking back and forth, but I didn't have time. So after the real game I checked on the Blazer game. I expected to see the thrilling finish, but the score was 100-72, so I checked to see who was in the lead. I got to see Connaughton doing well in the last 4 or 5 minutes.

You guys missed the real game! No blowouts when you get extra points for each quarter you win! Wait, they never mentioned that. That D-League rule must have been cancelled years ago or something. I liked that rule.

I'll go find the boxscore. In previous years, it was vastly superior to the NBA boxscores because there are quarterly ones and ones for each half in a PDF file.
 
Wonderful. I have been waiting at least a year for a good jail pork d league thread. I am tingling. Box score?
 
I'm not finding that PDF file with the cool boxscores, but then I feel like a novice once a year when I look for it when we assign a player, so it's probably there somewhere. I think the NBA has them online too for NBA games, but they are available only to the media. The D-League always had them available to the public for their own games.
 
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That's it! You both have saved the thread! Where did you find it, so that I can cite it at the end of tomorrow's equally-enthralling, spellbinding game?
 
Scalma said:


Montero highlights. He looks bigger in the shoulders than I remember from summer league.
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A couple of observations:
- Montero reminds me of Harkless they way they move. Except it looks like Montero has better handles.
- Alexander looks big.
 
jlprk said:
The oldest player on the team is Dan Nwaelele. I choose to pronounce it nwah-ell-ellie. I'm guessing he's either from Samoa or Somalia. Gotta be one of those two.

He is aged 32, a rookie to the D-League, and played at the Air Force Academy. You have to stay in, what, 4 years, no, I think it's 8 years since they gave you a free degree. By then you're a Captain, so you quit your $100,000 per year officer job, glamorously moving around the world, to give being a substitute in the D-League your full attention.
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HomerLovesKoolAid said:
You're way off. It's noir-eh-lay-lay. He's French-Canadian/Hawaiian.
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If true, you pronounce it Noir-ell-ell-eh? Maybe with a comma, as in Noir-ell-ell,eh?

Strenuus said:
It's actually Na-way-lay.
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PtldPlatypus said:
Nah way!
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riverman said:
Distant cousin to Ukelele..
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Duh. It's already been established that he's related to Hawaiians.
 
yuyuza1 said:
Isn't Neil ON RECORD about how useless he thinks the DLeague is?
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If true, that's surprising. Why did he have Paul Allen buy total rights to the Stampede as soon as he became GM. Maybe it's his new opinion, after not using that asset and discontinuing it.

BBert said:
I agree sending an NBA trainee down to the D-League for a season would be next to worthless, compared to coaching, developing, and training that player first hand, and having them practice against real NBA players, and all that.
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The counter-example is Sessions, who was nothing till he spent his entire rookie year in the D-League.
 
I just read my posts from during the game. 2/3 had typos which rendered them difficult to understand. the other 1/3 had wording which did the same. So I edited tiny changes in 1/2 of them. I figured the other half are within your BBIQs to decipher. Everyone go back and re-read my posts ending in the fine print that says the time of editing.

When you watch the game on YouTube for the second and third times, you can read my cogent analysis for the second and third times. You book publishers will be able to put together my book of readings for the moral preservation of our youth. You anthropologist translators in the year 3000 can write your treatises with ease.
 
Just got done watching the replay.

Montero:

- definitely added size to his frame
- good basketball instincts. Used them to get steals and cuts to the basket to get offensive boards/put backs. Reminds me of Batum defensively with those instincts and length
- dangerous in the open court with the ball in his hands. Think Harkless if he had a handle.
- shot looks improved, more arc
- still gets a little reckless at times but much more controlled than in the summer

Alexander:

- NBA body. Not ideal height but long and strong.
- Plays angry defense. Great help defender. He doesn't just block shots, he wants your soul too. Had a block he smashed against the backboard. Has a Kenyon Martin temperament.
- Natural rebounder. Knows how to box out and uses his length well
- His jumpshot looked ugly
- His finishing looked ugly. Struggled offensively
- Struggled with the fast pace. Clearly not in game shape.
- Played Center
- Decent foul shooter. Better than Plumlee and Ed at least.
- Runs the court
- Sets a good screen


I kinda had an idea what I was going to see out of Alexander, but Montero really looked improved. Seems much more confident. I think he's going to be a player. You just don't see guys his size handle the ball the way he does, and his defensive instincts/versatility intrigue me as well
 
Oh and I forgot to add, Alexander is a really good teammate. He was standing up and clapping when Montero was shooting FREE THROWS.
 
jlprk said:
I just read my posts from during the game. 2/3 had typos which rendered them difficult to understand. the other 1/3 had wording which did the same. So I edited tiny changes in 1/2 of them. I figured the other half are within your BBIQs to decipher. Everyone go back and re-read my posts ending in the fine print that says the time of editing.

When you watch the game on YouTube for the second and third times, you can read my cogent analysis for the second and third times. You book publishers will be able to put together my book of readings for the moral preservation of our youth. You anthropologist translators in the year 3000 can write your treatises with ease.
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Drink Much?
 
jlprk said:
http://dleague.nba.com/franchise-map/

I had thought that this year we are unaffiliated with a D-League team, and all unaffiliated teams use the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Yet despite Portland being closer to the Idaho and Reno teams, we sent Alexander and Montero to the Santa Cruz Warriors, affiliated with the Golden State Warriors.

This wouldn't be because the Blazers are in Golden State Friday night, would it? That makes it easy for some team rep to drive to the D-League game to evaluate the 2 Blazer players. That advantage won't last because the Blazers play in Portland the next night, Saturday.

I just checked the schedule and Santa Cruz doesn't play till Saturday. So that kills that theory. They play Saturday at 7:00 and Sunday at 6:00 Pacific Time, both in Santa Cruz.

http://santacruz.dleague.nba.com/schedule/

So we're back to, why Santa Cruz, not closer teams (Idaho or Reno)? Or the Mad Ants, as announced before this season started?
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Here's the answer. That was then, this is now. The Mad Ant affiliation was last year. This year, we get to choose the team each time we assign a player.

http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2015/09/nba-d-league-affiliations-for-2015-16.html

Last season, only the Blazers and Bulls did not assign a player to the D-League. So far this season, the only teams are Brooklyn, Denver, New Orleans, and Washington, now that the Blazers finally fell into line.

http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2015/05/201415-league-reports.html
 
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I watched the first half again.

Montero is the anti-Leonard, chock full of basketball instincts. He tries to channel his inner McCollum, but is better at channeling his inner Batum as a tall guy who dribbles and slashes. Dribbles between legs, shifts dribble from right hand to left hand to right hand, throwing off defenders so he can rush to the hoop. Excellent unconscious FT shooter, has a runner shot. As he starts a long dribble downcourt, opponents often steal it from him. Went to Westchester CC, 2 miles from the D-league's Westchester Knicks.

Alexander has wide shoulders and narrow calves. He looks like a triangle. High leaper, won opening tap way up over Pendergraph, blocked shots later. Hadn't appeared in a game in 3 months, gassed in 1st quarter, Pendergraph smirked at him being out of shape, had to come out. 2nd quarter: Arm wrestling with center Holyfield, they talked at each other later while standing in FT formation. Took too many open 16-footers off passes, missing all. Only 6-8, he struggled under the basket to create space to get his shot up over Pendie, successful only when he faded away, but not so when he used his baby hook. He's better when he has space to use his leaping ability, but can be wild then and miss by not dunking, or block it uncontrolled out of bounds.
 
I liked Montero's production against a D-League team that had a decent amount of NBA experience.

Ayers (Pendergraph), Ryan Gomes have played quite a bit in the NBA, while Jabari Brown and Vander Blue were recent Summer League players who at least got in some pre-season time. Montero's team held there own without nearly the NBA experience.
 
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