Not the whole season. He played 26 games last year and averaged 18 points, four assists, and three turnovers per game while shooting 40% from the field (34% on threes).

The year before that, he averaged 15, three and a half assists, and three turnovers shooting 43% (32%).

Hardly bad numbers for a freshman and then a sophomore but hardly earth moving considering the conference he was playing in and after reading all of his Olympic press, you'd think he would be much better. The Olympics tend to do this with guys a lot. The Lakers took a guy off the Chinese Olympic team that can't get off their developmental squad. Some years back, I remember Andrew Gaze would kill people in the Olympics but was just an average college player. Does anyone believe Oscar Schmidt could have come to the NBA scoring 35 a game?

While I agree with you on that the fact is David Lee was the 30th pick and never looked like more than an 8 and 6 guy in the NBA off his time at Florida. He's the perfect example of a late round pick that you'd never expect to become a really good NBA player that does.

And remember when everyone was expecting Carlos Arroyo to become the next top point guard after he led Puerto Rico to the blowout win over the US in the '04 Olympics?

I actually like mills. At the same time, no one is talking about drafting him with the number 2 or 3 pick. If you based his worth on what he did in the olympics, you woul have him going much higher.

Rubio is being judged on international play. Thats a slippery slope especially for a guy that looks like he may not have the athletic ability to play in the league.

One big difference though. Lee was always amazingly athletic.

Mills will be overseas in a couple years. He turns the ball over way too much. Isn't good enough to run the point in the NBA and isn't big enough to play shooting guard in the NBA. He's like the poor man's Steph Curry and Curry will be a career backup in the NBA.

Pop stuck with him because he was young.
And because he was the fastest guy in the NBA.
Is that Talent...? Parker made himself talented. He had no perimeter
game and was very weak going to the basket. Both
of those things have changed through very hard work.
And because of proper strength training he is actually strong now.


I dont know what the scouts say. Seriously I read nothing
about the guy except they say he is good. I watched the kid
on u-tube against inferior competition, and of course the Olympics.

He has very good, BIG, quick hands. He stops and starts, changes
direction dramatically WITH the ball with purpose (not playground,
I now wish to do a dance in front of you and go nowhere).
He sees the entire floor.
He can go to the hole.
He can intiate or direct an offense.

Can he fail? Of course. With the wrong team and wrong
coach asked to do the wrong things, sure he can fail.
Sap the confidence of a player like this, and sure you can
kill him. He is not a great athlete that will beat you physically.
He will have to beef up also imo, the first year will probably
be tough on him physically. More so than the older players
that are physically strong.

[quote=pgardn]Pop stuck with him because he was young.
And because he was the fastest guy in the NBA.
Is that Talent...? Parker made himself talented. He had no perimeter
game and was very weak going to the basket. Both
of those things have changed through very hard work.
And because of proper strength training he is actually strong now.


QUOTE]

tony parker is "strong"? P, you have to stop. Tony parker was a first round draft pick before it was fashionable to find the next great euro. He wasnt just fast. You can't start 72 games for a playoff team and just be "fast". Just stop. Please.

Tony Parker, or anyone else for that matter, can't "make himself talented". You either have it or you don't. You can develop talent and thus make talent manifest but it has to be there from the start. If you start 72 games your rookie year as a 1st round draft choice, you obviously have talent and you obviously have developed it to some degree.

Lets just talk about something else. :)

I'm not sure I am understanding using Patty Mills as an example of Euros (or Aussies in his case) not being good players? Mills was the best player in his league. He is a 6 foot 175 pound point guard. What exactly was he supposed to do? You do realize that they play 40 minute games in the NCAA? Do I have to start using Euro/foreigners that have been lights out? Pau, Dirk, Drazen Petrovic, Peja, Tony Parker, Hedo, Detleff, Manu, etc?

Rubio is a 6'5' point guard who excelled playing in professional leagues and the Olympics at age 17 and 18. Who else does that? Think he'd be heavily recruited if he decided to go to a US college this year? To say that the Olympics are exhibitions is ridiculous unless you didnt bother watching them. Hell Kobe played harder there than he did most of the regular season.

Who was expecting that? He wasn't even drafted.

Execelled? He didnt even start most of the time. The only reason he got big time in the olympics is because Fernandez got injured.

If Mills was 18 and 6'5" he would be a lottery pick. Rubio certainly has enough athletic ability to play in the NBA. It isn't a matter of if he can play, it is how good will he be? A good player, a minor star, or a major star. Shooting is something that usually improves as a player matures and can be worked on. He will become a better shooter. He will also grow and fill out. The guy has star quality.

We will see and i will acknowledge being wrong if that is the case. I am just leery of not particularly fast bordering on slow point guards that dont shoot well. Somehow that doesnt seem to work in the nibba. Maybe Rubio will be the exception.

What makes you think he isnt fast or quick?

[quote=dalakhani]oh good lord...
ok you are right, talented, I used it improperly.

Tony Parker made himself the best player the
currently have Spurs.
Hows that...

pgardn: And yes he is strong.

Dala: but he did not win the Iron man competition.
Glen Davis is strong, not Parker.

Pgardn: He is basketball strong in that he can now physically
bully to the basket, get fouled while making the basket, and
then step up to the foul line for and one...

I use the English language very poorly over the internet.
I rush, and I dont care much how I present arguments.
I will try to go slowly and show selectivity with my
sports vocabulary. I also spell very poorly, chop up sentences,
and generally run on. Too much math in my head.
A sickness that comes with Physics. I actually use to be
able to see words in my head spelled out. No more.

He'd already been in the league for 3 years at that point. That was when everyone was lamenting the death of the American point guard and saying that guys like Arroyo were the future of the position in the NBA. Oops.

Maybe there were just lamenting the death of AI's version of the american point guard? I dont know anyone who took anything out of that loss other than the US had to do a better job of putting a team together and that Larry Brown was poor selection to coach that team.

[quote=pgardn]Fair enough. Touche. Any way you cut it, Parker has been a wonderful player.

We will see about your boy Rubio. The crow will be on the plate for someone to eat come fall.

[quote=dalakhani]We will know if Rubio is a player by fall? Oberto is expected to re-up with SA, not Bowen.

[quote=Cannon Shell]I actually did not post this.
About Rubio.

I dont know if they have Oberto's heart condition
figured out for sure. He had said he would only play
for the Spurs with Ginobili. Those medical rules prohibit
info being given out, I personally think Oberto's condition
is still not perfectly stable.

Spurs must have another big man.
Maybe the Spanish team that has Splitter under contract
will go bankrupt during this recession.