AS.com: Victor Claver Extends Valencia Contract To 2014

Spanish news website AS.com reports that Victor Claver, the 23-year-old Spanish forward selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft, has reached a contract extension that will keep him with ACB club Valencia until June 2014.

A translation of the article reveals that the club's general manager is "very happy" and "proud" and that the team's coach sees Claver as "a great player and a great person" who is a role model for Spanish youth. Claver, Valencia's captain, said that he is "very happy and grateful" and called Valencia his "home."

Claver played spot minutes for the gold medal-winning Spanish national team during the recent EuroBasket tournament, averaging 2.0 points and 0.6 rebounds in 4.7 minutes per game.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

8 months ago Ben Golliver 16 comments 0 recs |

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Hardly a surprise.

Why come to the NBA to sit on the bench and probably be paid less and roughed up by Metta World Peace, when he can stay at home and eventually be the focal point for a team? Can’t blame him. Just another wasted pick by KP.

by rhaegar on Oct 14, 2011 9:12 AM PDT reply actions

though I'm not sure we'll ever see him in a Blazer uniform

this doesn’t make it impossible. He’ll just be a similar age to Ginobili, Scola and Splitter when they had their rookie years in the NBA.

i keep dancing on my own.

by atomiccafe on Oct 14, 2011 10:02 AM PDT reply actions

There goes the Championship.

Doers & Makers > Movers & Shakers

by Adam Randall on Oct 14, 2011 10:25 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Claver is the best example of the wasted 1st round picks of the Pritchard era

The “Eurostash” program hasn’t exactly worked out well for us. Taking a flyer on Koponen or Freeland with the #30 pick is one thing when we were a building team trying to stockpile potential assets. Taking Claver at #22 in 2009 when there were guys on the board who could have helped us immediately build upon our initial playoff berth is another matter entirely. It was a bad pick at the time, not just in hindsight.

"Well, you can always sell your team."

by douglast on Oct 14, 2011 10:29 AM PDT reply actions

not sure who would have helped even in hindsight

Roddy Buckets is kind of a smaller Bayless, and at the time we didn’t need another combo guard. The reason we took Claver instead of Casspi was because Casspi wanted to come over and we didn’t need another 3/4 at the time, with Batum, Webster and (at the time) Outlaw already there, along with Rudy and Roy both spending time at the 3. I suppose Taj Gibson would have been useful, but it looked for all the world that Dante was going to be just as productive after their respective rookie years, then we traded Dante for a guy who’s great at backing up the 4 in Gerald Wallace. The real miss for me was passing on Dejuan Blair with 2 second round picks.

i keep dancing on my own.

by atomiccafe on Oct 14, 2011 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions

While I didn't like the Claver pick either, it's not like KP invented that strategy or was the only guy for whom some of those picks likely won't (all) pan out

Some unsigned draft picks by teams with a lot of guys “stashed” overseas:

Dallas: Nick Calathes, Shan Foster, now Petteri Koponen, Steve Logan, Ahmad Nivins, Giorgos Printezis, Renaldas Seibutis

Houston: Lior Eliyahu, Venson Hamilton, Axel Hervelle, Kyle Hill, Maarty Leunen, Sergio Llull, Brad Newley, Frederic Weis (#15 pick way back in 1999, was traded later to Houston, they didn’t do the pick), and in 2011 Donatas Motiejunas (#20) who is pretty unlikely to immediately play for them.

Minnesota: Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Henk Norel, Nemanja Bjelica, Paulao Prestes, Malcolm Lee, Tanguy Ngombo if the NBA didn’t void that one. Just got Rubio over after waiting on him.

OKC, home of the GM who picked Durant over Oden or something: Paccelis Morlende, Yotam Halperin, DeVon Hardin, Tibor Pleiss, Latavious Williams, Ryan Reid

Orlando: Rashard Griffith (way back in 1995 so will never play in NBA), Ramon van der Hare, Fran Vazquez (#11, that one really still hurts them), Milovan Rakovic, maybe one of Justin Harper and DeAndre Liggins picked in 2011 2nd round.

And finally San Antonio, the original gangsters of finding undervalued international players: Robertas Javtokas (very unlikely to ever come over), Viktor Sanikidze (unlikely), Sergei Karaulov (unlikely), Erazem Lorbek (unlikely), Nando De Colo (about as likely as Freeland for us), Ryan Richards, and 2011 picks Davis Bertans (at least unlikely to come over immediately) and Adam Hanga.

by Norsktroll on Oct 14, 2011 11:49 AM PDT up reply actions

you are missing my point though

I never said we invented it or even use it more than other teams. What I said was it made sense in the case of Freeland, Koponen, and Rudy. But in the 2009 draft we had definite roster holes we needed filling. We weren’t a young crappy team trying to stockpile talent anymore. We had an opportunity to use the 22 pick to improve the current roster of a 54-win playoff team. Instead we punted in order to stockpile more long term potential assets at a phase in our growth where a better use of that asset would have been to improve our current roster.

Most of us said so that day. Hindsight has proven it to be even more correct.

"Well, you can always sell your team."

by douglast on Oct 14, 2011 12:47 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't think we would have gotten ANY useful player with the 22nd pick alone.

However, I do think we missed an opportunity to leverage that pick a bit better. We basically paid Sactown to take Sergio from us in that draft. We could have probably drafted Casspi out from under the Kings, and then make them draft Claver and roll that into the Sergio deal so we got rid of him and took their 2nd round pick without having to $$ for it.

Just thinking about who was on the roster at the time of the draft, I dunno who we would have added to the roster right then and there to be useful. The avalanche of injuries we experienced not long after really skews the hindsight on this one.

Not taking Blair in the 2nd round seems like the biggest error. But again with the power of hindsight, I can understand why people were afraid of drafting those knees.

"You can pretty much flip a coin to see which Portland team will show up: the dark-horse world-beaters or the mixed-up eggbeaters" - Dave

by conspirator5 on Oct 14, 2011 3:44 PM PDT up reply actions

we agree

my point wasn’t necessarily using the pick on any specific player either, but using the pick in way which improved our team immediately, whether that was through a direct pick at 22, a move like you describe, packaging it with other assets for a veteran player, etc.

"Well, you can always sell your team."

by douglast on Oct 14, 2011 6:09 PM PDT up reply actions

not drafting Blair because of his knees had no validity. none.

not using a first round pick on him is completely defensible. Passing on him TWICE in the 2nd round (slots where all you had to offer was a 1-year deal) was indefensible the minute it happened. Especially given that you essentially drafted two lower-ceiling players at his exact same position.

"Well, you can always sell your team."

by douglast on Oct 14, 2011 6:11 PM PDT up reply actions

You're comparing guys picked in the 40s and 50s to a guy picked #22.

You can for sure get guys who can contribute to playoff teams at #22. Guys in the 40s and 50s are unlikely to even be good practice dummies. Totally different thing.

Everyone killed the Magic for the Vasquez signing. Claver’s not as bad (22 instead of 11), but no one was claiming that Otis Smith was the greatest supergenius of all time the way folks did with KP.

by howlingfantods on Oct 14, 2011 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions

Euro extended layaway

"If I had a dime for every basket I made today, you'd still suck!" - from the book 'John Dies @ the End'

by sammymohawk on Oct 14, 2011 10:49 AM PDT reply actions

He was always the least likely of the 3 main stashed guys to come over

Freeland ’12

by Norsktroll on Oct 14, 2011 11:35 AM PDT reply actions

Very small blip...

….on the Blazer radar. It sounds to me like he isn’t ready to play in the N.B.A. anyway. So 2 more years in Europe? So what?…He’s only 23 so I’m not jumping to the conclusion that he will never play in the N.B.A. or for The Blazers.

People always look at N.B.A. drafts in hindsight. The gamble on Victor Claver IMO wasn’t unjustifiable. So far the Euro-Pipeline The Blazers stocked hasn’t paid off…and maybe it never will…but Freeland and Claver were not bad gambles. Sometimes you get a Batum…sometimes you get nothing….but if you look at drafts in general, a lot of picks wash out…whether Euro-picks or simply taken from the pool of college draft enteries.

Claver and Freeland still both have the possibilty of becoming a Blazer asset. In the meantime, The Blazers do not have to pay them, or offer them a roster spot, and they both get experience. Plus Blazer management can organize off-season trips to Europe on Pauls dime to scout these guys progress…that’s win-win…

"Mother Nature started this fight, I think it's about time we ended it!"

by Krang on Oct 14, 2011 12:11 PM PDT reply actions

People complain so much about Portland's drafting but we went from one of the worst teams in the NBA to a team that gave the eventual

champs the toughest time in the playoffs. So many teams that sucked in 2006 are still way worse than Portland. We are doing ok for a team that had its two best players careers derailed.

by BRoyInThe4th on Oct 14, 2011 9:07 PM PDT reply actions