Looking for help overseas - Part I: Small Forwards
by DaniBCN on May 11, 2009 11:16 AM PDT
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PrintI'm going to start a series on international players who could help this team. I'll write about some elite players playing in Europe. There are some known faces, some young talent and some players who are among the best in Europe and could make an instant impact in the NBA.
We have cap space, draft picks, the MLE, and if I'm not mistaken the Biannual too, and that is a lot of room to add new players.
I'm focusing mainly in what's widely supposed to be the Blazers interest (PG,SF,PF).
Part I: Small Forwards
- Ersan Ilyasova, 21, FC Barcelona. 6'10"
(Stats are ACB and Euroleague combined)
22min, 10.6points, .511 2pt%, .439 3pt%, .763 ft%, 2.31OffR, 5.06DefR, 7.37TotR, .74As, .8St, 0.44Blk, 1.52TO
2005-07 - He played for the Bucks and he proved he's a good defender and an excellent rebounder thanks to his huge wingspan, but he wasn't ready for the NBA.
After spending the last couple of seasons playing ACB & Euroleague with one of the top teams in Europe he's proven he's matured a lot, and this last season would have been his senior college year.
He's played everything from SG to PF in Barcelona with great success, getting to the ACB finals last season, with a 15-pt 17-board game in semis to help them get there, and he's been in this year's Euroleague final four.
Way to get him: Bucks still hold his rights, a trade is needed, but picks or rights to other players could be enough.
Euroleague's October Player of the Month
- Victor Claver, 20, Pamesa Valencia. 6'9"
(Just his ACB stats, he barely played in the Eurocup due to injury)
23min, 8.25ppg, .65 2pt%, .40 3pt%, .69 ft%, 0.9OffR, 3.6DefR, 4.5TotR, 0.6As, 1.1St, 0.5Blk, 1.2TO
He's been widely known as the best SF prospect from Europe in his generation (over Nic Batum) for the last years. He even was 1 of the 3 players invited to the spanish national team pre-Olympic camp, and he would have made the team if Garbajosa hadn't recovered on schedule.
He was really scary for the first eleven games of the season until he had a serious injury on his left leg.
Good defender, can play the 4 if needed, 40% from three and great slasher.
Right now is a long, fast SF, but he has a nice body, and he could bulk up to become a great offensive PF. Think a Kirilenko with less steals and assists, but much better offensively
Way to get him: Draft. After his injury he fell a lot on the draft boards, if he really falls to the second round he'd be a steal.
Last year's pre-draft workout with the Blazers
More ideas? Any thoughts?
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Edit: Norsktroll brought up Omri Casspi:
Omri Casspi, Israel, plays for strong team Maccabi Tel Aviv, 20. I always liked him, and have seen him play good even against Luol Deng in international competition. Had a better PER in international games than Nicolas Batum, but the Blazers have seen them play against each other so it might be that they just decided Nic is the better pick.
Stats (only Euroleague as Israel's league consists of Maccabi steamrolling every other team)
17.2min, 8.8ppg, .518 2p%, .450 3p%, .771 ft%, 1.1OffR, 2.1DefR, 3.1TotR, 0.4As, 0.2Blk, 0.8St, 1.1TO
Most of his best games were against some of the best teams in the Euroleague and with limited court time.
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Victor Claver
Draft him trade up to get him if you have to, Him and Rudy are the future Spanish Armada
We likely won't even have to trade up, we should be able to get Claver with our #32 pick (Clippers) if we want to
More international ideas for the SF spot:
- Omri Casspi, Israel, plays for strong team Maccabi Tel Aviv, 20. I always liked him, and have seen him play good even against Luol Deng in international competition. Had a better PER in international games than Nicolas Batum, but the Blazers have seen them play against each other so it might be that they just decided Nic is the better pick.
- Vladimir Dasic, Serbia, plays for Podgorica (rather a second or third tier team), 20. Some teams seem highly intrigued by him for a second round pick. Though he likely will need time to develop a la Ilyasova who he sometimes gets compared to. I would be a bit surprised if the Blazers take him, maybe if he drops to our picks in the 50s or as trade bait.
- Jonas Jerebko, Sweden, plays for Angelico Biella in Italy, 22. Might be a steal in the 50s (draws some favorable comparisons), but also not sure he will ever see the NBA.
Apart from that, maybe there is some nice forward running around in a smaller league to be stashed for later, but that should be about it. It’s probably safer to go with a US prospect than look deeper down than those guys in the draft, or trade late picks for future second rounders as KP has done in the past. Claver or Caspi would be the guys I would give a second look. I heard the Bucks would be interested to bring Ilyasova over if they can’t hold Villanueva, but not really sold on him.
"Officiating has to be a science, not an art" - Rick Carlisle
Ouch, I forgot about Casspi
I’m always too centered on ACB, my fault.
If you don’t mind I’ll add it to the post, and I’ll appreciate your take on PF’s and PG’s too :)
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
i heard casspi has...character issues. true/false?
Please, for the love of all that is holy, please stop using the following: "Book it.", "FTW", "Epic" & "Fail".
...no seriously--stop.
Well, he was one of the three Maccabi players who went to cheer Israel's army
when they where bombing United Nation’s schools in Palestine.
Supporting mass murder against international law isn’t what I want my team’s players skipping practice for, but besides that I don’t know about any other issues.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
You mean the united nations schools
that were housing hamas fighters, and ammunition depots. It is after all a good place to keep weapons, and shoot from.
I won't talk about politics here
it’s not the right place, so this will be my last comment on this issue, if you want to talk about it, my email is on my profile.
But please, don’t listen just to the guys with the power, they’ll always have some excuse, call it weapons of mass destruction and al-qaeda links or call it weapons on UN schools (which UN Officials denied).
It is plain wrong. Look at the photos of Israel soldiers using palestinian kids as human shields for their vehicles and tell me if it’s normal.
I don’t want to get into who’s right on the big picture, it’d be as bad if he had gone to cheer the rocket-launching Hamas people.
This is about a basketball player, and the fact that he skipped practice to go cheer guys who use kids as human shields, and I wouldn’t like someone like that on my team, but as I respect everyone’s opinion, he’s also on the list, just don’t turn this into politics.
I like when pro-sports players go to hospitals to make kids happy, I don’t like it when they go to controversial wars where crimes against humand kind are taking place.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
hold on now
There’s no question that Israel’s actions have at times been reprehensible, but the group that uses human shields is Hamas, not the IDF.
Kid as human shield
Here shooting unarmed farmers just for fun
Here something that may explain some perceptions
But the simple way to put it is: Some guys came into other people’s country, threw them out, and when they complain they kill and humiliate them. Imagine yourself in that situation
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
The situation is complex, and both sides are to blame
Painting it as a 1-sided matter as you have is just wrong and borders on anti-semitism.
When did I say anything supporting Hamas?
I’m just talking about one basketball player who supports people who I believe do bad things.
Quoting myself:
“it’d be as bad if he had gone to cheer the rocket-launching Hamas people”
I just don’t like people who support attacks on innocent people, I don’t mind their religion or where they are from
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
I ain't no moderator
But I think this subject is not safe for Blazers Edge and should probably stop now before it gets heated.
Don't buy this palestinian propaganda! Use your brain instead!
I don’t want to start a discussion here. It’s supposed to be about sports, not about politics.The only thing to remember:
“People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” OSS psychological profile of Adolf Hitler.
Chad Ford on Casspi
Ford said that San Antonio has been watching Casspi, that’s good enough for me. If the Spurs are interested in a foreign player (Batum, etc) that usually means Portland’s scouts like him, as well
Not sure why the Blazers need (another) 6’7" guy who is less than 210 pounds, but I’m just sayin’
If you insist on a foreign SF..
then trading for the rights to Ilyasova AND a certain Milwaukee point guard the Blazers valued this season, all while trading away Travis Outlaw and a couple of 2nd round picks would be a good move to make
Victor Claver...
seems like a good player, it could be interessting to see one of them in a blazer uniform
Cool :)
bayless leaves over my dead body
by thomasikehara on May 11, 2009 3:26 PM PDT up reply actions
Claver:
Playing with the Spanish Junior National Team in 2007 junior world championship.
The Spanish National Team doesn´t have now a good SF (Jimenez has resigned) so probably Claver will take the spot. It will help his development and increase his international exposure, so this is the best time for drafting him.
"They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it"
Let's see what Scariolo has planned before...
but it’s quite possible, and I’d love to see it.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
me too, he is the future SF of Spain
You smell it? You smell it? Playoffs son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of Playoffs in the morning.
Rodrigue Beubouis - PG- France
He has Rondo-esqe wingspan & should get drafted on physical talents alone.
Offseason:
Trade For Mike Conley Jr
Sign Antonio McDyess & Othello Hunter
Draft Kevin Seraphin/Edwin Jackson(Eurostash)
Ersan Ilyasova is a restricted free-agent if he returned to the NBA, so technically the Milwaukee Bucks ...
could match any offer sheet that he’s signed to domestically if the team tenders him a qualifying offer this off-season. The same goes with guys such as Josh Childress in Atlanta, Juan Carlos Navarro in Memphis, and Carlos Delfino in Toronto.
Navarro has signed a five year contract in Barcelona. He is gone for good
But you are right of course. I expect the other teams to do that. I didn’t mention Childress since he is not an international player and not attainable via draft, but add him to Claver and Caspi for guys the Blazers might be interested in especially if there is some SF deal planned this offseason.
"Officiating has to be a science, not an art" - Rick Carlisle
I think Navarro is unrestricted
because the Grizzlies signed him to a one-year deal as a 2nd round pick, but I’m not really sure
I was thinking about writing about him for the PG’s chapter
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Although Juan Carlos Navarro is signed to a long-term deal with Regal FC Barcelona, I'm sure ...
that the Memphis Grizzlies will tender him a one-year, $736,420 qualifying offer to retain its rights to him as a restricted free-agent. If, however, the Grizzlies front office does tender Navarro that qualfying offer by 6/30/2009 and later decides the franchise must free up further cap space between 7/8/2009 and 7/23/2009 to sign a big-name guy — or, perhaps, absorb extra salary back from a trade — then it can be rescinded and, in turn, consequently make Navarro an unrestricted free-agent domestically.
Claver is a good prospect
Mostly because due to injury hell drop in the draft, so hes a real steal if late in the 1st and could become a quality contributor
My opinion:
- Ilyasova has struggled playing SF in ACB, but at PF has had a great season in Barcelona, 3rd in ACB Rebounds Ranking. He could play PF/SF if needed in NBA. A trade involving his rights and Ramon Sessions would be a very good one.
- Claver is a very talented player, but has to improve his defense, his ball handling and mentality(sometimes he seems to not trust enough in his skills) to go to the NBA. If he’s drafted this year he should stay at least 1 year in ACB.
- Casspi, I’ve only seen him play twice but he has skills.
You smell it? You smell it? Playoffs son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of Playoffs in the morning.
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