Smack / Sep 4, 2007 / 12:31 am

Euro Buckets

By Dime Magazine

We start off Smack today on a tragic note. Over the holiday weekend, the search for Jameer Nelson’s father, Floyd “Pete” Nelson, ended when the 57-year-old’s body was pulled from the Delaware River. Mr. Nelson had gone missing last week, when co-workers at the tugboat company where he worked last saw him walking on a dock. We’ve read that after Jameer was drafted in 2004, he offered his Dad the chance to quit working, but Mr. Nelson wanted to stay at his job. Last summer we went to Jameer’s hometown of Chester, Pa., while working on the Tyreke Evans cover story, and we saw first-hand the kind of celebrity status Jameer and his family held in the blue-collar community. Our thoughts go out to Floyd Nelson’s family and friends … Coming off the FIBA Americas tournament, the Chicago Tribune’s Sam Smith just kinda threw this in his Monday column: “Many around the NBA believe the Celtics, with the acquisition of Kevin Garnett, and the Nets, with a return to health, will pass the Cavs and leave them fighting for a first-round home court playoff berth — and perhaps fighting internally.” Sounds like he’s saying that if Cleveland struggles, LeBron could start doing what Kobe did a few months back … Smith also wrote that if Memphis hadn’t made the trade for Juan Carlos Navarro this summer, Pau Gasol would have pushed to be traded himself … Navarro (leg) didn’t play in Spain’s opener of the FIBA European championship that kicked off yesterday. Pau scored 19 points and little bro Marc Gasol had 11 and 7 boards in a win over Portugal; Tony Parker scored 16 in France’s win over Poland; AK-47 put up 24 points, 12 boards and 3 blocks in Russia’s win over Serbia, who got 9 points, 9 boards and 3 blocks from Darko. In Germany’s opener, Dirk dropped 35 and 11 boards on Jiri Welsch (22 pts) and the Czech Republic; Sarunas Jasikevicius hung an 18-8-7 line on Turkey in Lithuania’s blowout win, offsetting Mehment Okur’s 11 points and Hedo Turkoglu’s 18. Andris Biedrins went for 14 points and 7 boards in Latvia’s win over Croatia; and Italy was knocked off by Rasho Nesterovic and Slovenia. Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli combined for only 11 points for Team Italy … Here’s Dirk when asked if he’s watched any of the Dallas/Golden State series: “I can’t see myself doing that any time soon. Maybe I should. Once I get back [to Dallas], maybe I’ll ask our video guys to put together [clips of] some of my offensive [possessions]. But I don’t really need to watch it again. I already know what they did to me.” … Apparently Darius Miles has been busting his butt in two-a-days at the Blazers’ facility recently. If D-Miles gets back in shape and his knees aren’t completely shot, that only enhances his value for the inevitable trade out of Portland. Seriously, if the Blazers didn’t want Zach Randolph influencing Greg Oden, there’s absolutely no way they let Darius hang around … E-mail from Christian yesterday: “Just landed in D.C. Some jerk had a three-course steak dinner on a 40-minute flight and had the NERVE to get mad because there wasn’t any A-1. I swear it was something out of a commercial.” … We’re out like D-Miles …

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16 Responses to “Euro Buckets”

  1. September 4th, 2007 at 1:24 am

    James in VA says:

    Seriously, if the Blazers didn’t want Zach Randolph influencing Greg Oden (because let’s get real, that trade made no sense from a basketball standpoint….are you serious?

    First off this trade was a great one for the Trail Blazers. Why? (from a BASKETBALL STANDPOINT) this move opens up minutes for LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE. Zach beign the veteran would have gotten the minutes over aldridge if this trade was never made. Second, this move also got Portland RUDY FERNANDEZ via Phoenix. You guys being the DIME Crew “Pros” in terms of Bball, you should know who that is and what he brings. Frye was in a bad system in New York, not to mention so was Francis, Marbury, Crawford etc etc etc (im saying the past couple years, most of the Knicks players have been slumpn big time and you all know that). Im a Trail Blazers fan for MANY years, and Zach being the great scorer he was also slowed the game down as well as committed MANY turnovers. Hes not all gold. You guys being in NY will see it for yourselves…but you guys saying the trade made NO SENSE from a basketball standpoint..wow thats the dumbest thing ive read from you guys

  2. September 4th, 2007 at 2:07 am

    nick says:

    its true z-bo to nyc made no sense at all in terms of being good for the team. randolph paired with oden would have been nice, plus aldridge coming off the bench. but in terms of money it saved the blazers a ton.

  3. September 4th, 2007 at 3:38 am

    kowtz says:

    Sarunas Jasikevicius hung an 18-8-7 line ?????

    WTF??? it’s amazing how these dudes can kill in international play and suck at the NBA… damn, if I were Danny Ferry? I would be trying to trade Hughes for this guy… or another under-rated player who seems to kill in international play and suck at the NBA… Carlos Arroyo… sure he had his brief stint, but nowhere near what he shows in int. play…

    Hughes will fit with GSW… and Jasivi-watsa… will fit CLE need for a playmaker…

    speaking of sarunas, DIME made an article witht the HOTTEST NBA player’s wife or gf’s right? Did Sarunas’ wife make it????

    I mean… Linor Abargil, Israel’s Miss World should have been in it? right?

    See for yourself…
    http://www.kan-naim.co.il/ArtPic/LinorAbargil_150X210k-n_3-11-
    http://nba.sports.tom.com/uimg/2006/10/9/wangtao/Sarunas-Jasikevicius_43211.jpg

  4. September 4th, 2007 at 7:02 am

    sans says:

    Lamarcus is nice, but the Blazers could have gotten something, other than Channing Frye and a $20 Mil bill in Franchise, for Randolph. The Nets would love a power who could score, and Vince’s game destroys Jefferson’s–so there is one better option.

    Besides, Isiah only got Zach to give LA nine different player scenarios for Kobe. Zach or Curry, plus Starbury (before he goes to Italy and all), Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, QRich (whose value isn’t what it was when Nash was diming him), David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, Randolph Morris…and on and on. Kobe will be in NY in 09 count on it.

    Seriously, the Knicks would be better with their backups recieving serious minutes in place of their “stars”. They would hustle, Balkman would lock down whomever he was assigned to, David Lee would shoot 60% from the field and be an all-star, and they would be way under the salary cap. Keep whomever, get Kobe, and they already have a supporting cast far superior than anyone else in the League. The Knicks only current problem is that they have too many players who are almost “the man” in talent, although Star seems to be relenting in age.

  5. September 4th, 2007 at 9:22 am

    seth says:

    Agree with you Sans that the Knicks have to many “stars”…guys who need the ball in order to be effective. It will be very interesting to see how Curry & ZBO work together. They could be an intriguing high/low post combo, but personally I don’t see it, cuz the two of them need 40+ touches per night, and I don’t see Crawford, Nate Rob, & Starbury giving up the rock that much. Another thing I HATE about the ZBO trade is it’s going to cut into David Lee’s minutes. I’d love to see that guy go to a contender. He & Balkman are the only guys the Knicks have that don’t need to massage the ball for 40 minutes a night to be effective.

  6. September 4th, 2007 at 10:04 am

    seth says:

    correction, TOO many “stars.”

  7. September 4th, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Jules says:

    Don’t forget, Jasikevicius single-handedly killed the US in the 2004 Olympics…28 pts, three clutch 3’s with Marbury attempting to guard him and a 4-pt play on Lamar Odom to put the nail in the coffin..he was also the EuroLeague MVP twice before coming to the NBA. So it’s no stretch to say he is one of the stars of Euro basketball and should dominate in the tournament.

    Check out this mix (with accompanying bangin’ hip-hop soundtrack, of course) simply of passes from his MVP season with Tel-Aviv…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_H59LdrKg
    (peep Maceo Baston on the receiving end of most of those feeds)

    Depending on how the seedings play out in the next round, I would expect a Spain-Lithuania final, with Greece and France in the mix as well.

  8. September 4th, 2007 at 11:19 am

    Jules says:

    oh yeah, here’s a better pic of his super-hottie wife…

    http://blogimage.roodo.com/yushi/10bd3eb3.bmp

    I love how in every pic he has the look on his face that says “Yeah, I don’t believe it either, bro.”

    …and Cleveland would be a great fit for him, he and Ilgauskas are best friends…and the team could have a real PG for once, as long as Cleveland doesn’t make the mistake Indiana made and tries to play him as a SG…

  9. September 4th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

    DOC says:

    where do they say that trade makes no sense.

  10. September 4th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    Bron42 says:

    lol he killed marbury in international play, but deal lol…when wil people realize what basketball is about, “what have you done for me lately” jasi has dont JACK in the nba, even when he was gettin ton of burn on the pacers. its just like when they say college players games won’t translate to the nba, most euro players are too soft, or too unathletic to translate. Just look at jiri welsh, zoran plannic, darko, the kid from the hornets etc…even casey jacobson from stanford…a spot up shooter with no other real game can dominate in euro play just cuz of ball movement alone and not play any defense but that doesn’t always cut in the the nba. Jason kapono said it best when he got drafted. “if i changed my last name to kaponokevicus and had the same stats i had in college i’d be a #1 pick.”

  11. September 4th, 2007 at 1:51 pm

    P Diddy wears pink says:

    Rudy Fernandez is staying in Europe. Is it me, or does the NBA rule about drafting Euro’s with no intention of bringing then into the leagues right away, need to changed.

  12. September 4th, 2007 at 5:13 pm

    Kudabeen says:

    Please let me know how or why Sam Smith is deemed credible. He is a Chicago based beat writer that poses as NBA insider. No players of Staff members outside of Chicago talks to him, if they do there. He just write Op Eds and passes them of as inside info. He lost all credibility with me when I called him out when he was trying to demonize Iverson by fashioning hearsay into facts to support a lie. He and all those who try to exclude to denigrate any segment of Black America, through baseless sports analysis and prejudice is a turd!!

    It’s believed that black people support these black athletes who do wrong or are not living righteously, just be cause they are black. That’s not the case it’s just a defense mechanism (ultimately ineffective anyway) to all the prejudice and mis-representation of facts that goes on in how we are portrayed in the media and mistreated by the judicial system.

  13. September 4th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    jamesinVA says:

    Rudy wont come to the nba this year but next year yes. thats fine by me and most trail blazers fans. wow, they edited and took out the part where they said THE TRADE MAKES NO SENSE. hahaha hey dimecrew whats up with that? does it make sense from what I said? i even quoted you guys and it isnt even there anymore.

    Randolph to jersey for injury prone Jefferson? no thanks. Frye was UNTOUCHABLE and all you Knick fans all loved him his rookie year for sure. his second season was mediocre because of his situation as I stated above as well. Portland is building a young and talented group. A frontcourt of Aldridge, Frye and Oden is NICE. aldridge can play inside outside as well as Frye. Teams will have to put a body on Oden no matter what, so problems will be caused for opponents. Zach would have clogged the lane (again you will all see that in NY). Portland can now run not only with jarret jack but also with Sergio Rodriguez roy and the mentioned big men. Add Rudy fernandez to the mix and wow what a running team. I hope they can play like the suns, a fast paced, uptempo game. I dont expect portland to make the playoffs, in fact one more year in the lottery wouldnt hurt at all. Portland is too young to go all the way, build chemistry this year, add another lottery pick, thatll look great. also DIME props for Kevin Pritchard the GM is needed. He is signing players in the 2-3 year window which will make it flexible for the ‘09 free agency. and to you sans, portland got rid of Zachs monster contract. Im VERY happy ZBO is outta portland.

  14. September 4th, 2007 at 7:51 pm

    Bron42 says:

    sergio is just a poor mans nash…maybe even a more mans jayson williams which doesnt add up to much. and who even says rudy will come next year when he has a chance to be a star and make more money over seas? he can just do the fran vasquez route and just never come…I do agree that they need to change that rule ebcause whats the point of wastin draft pics on guys who dont wanna come now or for a few years.

  15. September 4th, 2007 at 9:12 pm

    kowtz says:

    Love the Jason Kapono tidbit… LOL…

  16. September 4th, 2007 at 10:53 pm

    jamesinva says:

    Rudy will be in a Trail Blazers uniform next season I Gurantee it. im not just saying this for no reason, i goto oregonlive.com/blazers frequently as well as blazers.com check out mike barret’s blog, and the things pritchard is doing with the team.

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