As expected, Kevin Durant was named to the NBA All-Rookie team, the league announced today. In a bit of a surprise (not a huge one, but still), Jeff Green made the team as well.
Durant received 57 out of a possible 58 points, the second-most behind Al Horford of Atlanta (Druant had one second-team vote, while Horford's votes were all for the first team). Green received 43 points, including 15 votes for first place and 13 for second. Also of note, Carl Landry and Glen Davis each received votes, with Landry making the second team. You'll recall that both players were drafted with Sonic 2nd-round picks, with Davis being included in the Ray Allen trade, and Landry being dealt for a 2nd-rounder this season. It will be interesting to see if Sam Presti is able to get the same value from the pick next year as he did this year. If memory serves, the Sonics also received cash in the transaction, which is always good when team ownership is embattled in spending money on lawyers.
In an ironic twist, this year's team joins the 1967-68 team as the only ones in history to place two players on the league's all-rookie first-team. 41 years ago, it was Bob Rule and Al Tucker on the first team as the Sonics began their inaugural campaign in the NBA. To an outsider who only visited Seattle once every 40 years, it sure wouldn't seem like this franchise has made to much progress in four decades.
17 comments:
Just think, if we go by the previous plan, in 12 years we'll be playing for the NBA Championship!
Why did Jeff Green make the 2007-2008 NBA All-Rookie First Team?
He certainly didn't deserve the accolade.
10.2 ppg - that's pretty much it, if you ask me. In all honesty, he probably didn't even deserve to make the second team, either. If Landry got the minutes Green did, he would have averaged 13.5 points and 8 boards, as compared to 10.5 ppg and 3.5 rpg for Green.
Hey, you can't blame the coaches for this, they just don't have the time to sit and study all this crap. They just ask some guy in the PR department to write some names down and leave it at that.
In the end, the best player(s) will come through.
The coaches should know better and vote smarter. They undermine their mystic with some of the voting decisions.
oops, i meant mystique
but some of them might be mystics but it doesn't appear that they are going on many facts and careful reasoning with those facts.
I agree with Nuss Green should have been in a close match for last spot on 2nd team and I would not have voted for him for that over Landry, Moon and probably Sean Williams.
The award does not matter but I'd rather he went into next season hungry to prove himself a lot better than perhaps feeling content.
Earlier he talked about needing to work hard and get better. Yep. Take the award Jeff then get back to that.
Just among the peer group of all forwards in the league 6'-7" or bigger he was 80th on assists per minute. 67th on rebounding per minute. 165th out of 183 on turnover rate. 136th on True Shooting%.
Long ways from "all-rookie" team to "average" or "good" in the league among the crowd of forwards or among fellow starters.
His better ratings in this group:
16th best at making free throws per 48 minutes. 52nd (top 1/3) on steals.
More bad news:
25th worst (out of 183) tall forward on overall "offensive rating" (according to basketball-reference.com).
27th worst on "defensive rating"
Also in top third on fouling.
But season 1 is done.
Season 2 should be better, hopefully a lot better. Fewer weak ratings compared to peers, more average and good ratings.
On PER Green ranked 144th out of 183 among tall forwards.
Just among rookie forwards he was 15th of 22.
He did show flashes of quality and the potential certainly exists to see it more.
Time will tell.
If the NBA All-Rookie Teams consisted of three squads and were voted for based on position, then here's my rankings.
NBA All-Rookie First Team
Al Horford
Luis Scola
Thaddeus Young
Kevin Durant
Mike Conley, Jr.
NBA All-Rookie Second Team
Joakim Noah
Carl Landry
Jamario Moon
Juan Carlos Navarro
Rodney Stuckey
NBA All-Rookie Third Team
Aaron Gray
Sean Williams
Al Thornton
Nick Young
Aaron Brooks
Jeff Green almost made this list, however.
NBA All-Rookie Bust Team
Spencer Hawes
Yi Jianlian
Corey Brewer
Marco Belinelli
Acie Law
Hell, he's lucky that Brewer is total garbage.
Yeah I agree with almost all of that. I'd probably put Landry over Young. The guard crop was really weak.
It kills me the Sonics traded away Landry for a pick this year that won't be as good, just so Bennett could get some extra $$ to pay his legal bills. Landry is a perfect "culture" type player that Presti should be trying to build his team around, just like Collison. Granted, his offensive skills aren't there yet, but you can't tell me he wouldn't have been nice to have on the roster after the Sonics trade Wilcox away this summer.
Carl Landry makes a living based on his offense rather than his defense, which is why Rick Adelman should almost always pair him alongside Chuck Hayes off of the bench.
Regarding the Landry trade, Clay Bennett probably enjoyed his $1,000,000 in cash considerations, while Sam Presti is creamin' himself just dreamin' about using the 56th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=5420&print=yes
Yeah, that trade backfired on the SuperSonics.
First off, here's my most recent 2008 NBA Mock Draft.
http://realgm.com/src_checkdraft.php?draftid=195069
#2: Derrick Rose
#24: Robin Lopez
#32: Courtney Lee
#43: Kyle Weaver
#50: Shan Foster
#56: David Padgett
Next, here's four trade proposals that'd slash payroll.
TRADE PROPOSAL #1
FROM HOUSTON & TO SEATTLE
SG Bobby Jackson
FROM SEATTLE & TO HOUSTON
PG Earl Watson
http://tinyurl.com/2l3n6g
TRADE PROPOSAL #2
FROM NEW JERSEY & TO SEATTLE
SF Christian Drejer
FROM SEATTLE & TO NEW JERSEY
SG Damien Wilkins
http://tinyurl.com/5xq5em
TRADE PROPOSAL #3
FROM NEW JERSEY & TO SEATTLE
PF Keith Van Horn
SG Maurice Ager
FROM SEATTLE & TO NEW JERSEY
PF Chris Wilcox
http://tinyurl.com/5yecy7
TRADE PROPOSAL #4
FROM CLEVELAND
PG Eric Snow
FROM MINNESOTA
SF Marko Jaric
PF Mark Madsen
FROM SEATTLE
PG Luke Ridnour
C Mouhamed Sene
TO CLEVELAND
SF Marko Jaric
PF Mark Madsen
TO MINNESOTA
PG Luke Ridnour
C Mouhamed Sene
TO SEATTLE
PG Eric Snow
http://tinyurl.com/4bzc8j
TRANSACTIONS
1. Waive Keith Van Horn and Adrian Griffin, who've got non-guaranteed contracts.
2. Renounce the draft rights to foreigners Peter Fehse, Christian Drejer, Yotam Halperin, and Paccelis Morlende.
3. Don't tender qualifying offers to Robert Swift and Mickael Gelabale, which thereby makes them unrestricted free-agents.
2008-2009 ROSTER
C: Nick Collison
C: Robin Lopez
C: David Padgett
PF: Jeff Green
PF: Johan Petro
PF: Donyell Marshall
SF: Kevin Durant
SF: Courtney Lee
SG: Bobby Jackson
SG: Shan Foster
SG: Maurice Ager
PG: Derrick Rose
PG: Kyle Weaver
PG: Eric Snow
That, folks, is a form of stingy roster construction.
The underlying themes of your next stage roster seem to be driving PGs, 3 pt shooting wings, tough /smart bigs. Ok by me.
Quality is still an issue.
I can't see how Presti gets anywhere soon unless he hits on a good vet or two via trade or free agency.
The Wilcox trade (sometime between now and next summer sign n trade) will be a key event and he should get more than a young shooter. I'd try above all else to get a proven 7 foot defender.
Weaver seems like a good target though I wonder if he might be more Brandon Roy type SG than PG. But I'd go for having a combo guard on the roster.
It's also important to consider who will be available in next summer's free agent crop. Elton Brand's deal will be up at that point, and he would make a very nice fit alongside Durant and Rose. The Sonics have the enviable position of having multiple draft picks also, plus they're going to suck next year, so their own pick will be solid. It's conceivable that by combining their two picks next year they would be able to grab a top two pick in three consecutive seasons (assuming, of course, that they get #1 or #2 this year). Because of that, I think the word that should be plastered in 200-point letters all over the front office is FLEXIBILITY. Luckily, it seems like Sam Presti agrees with that idea.
Flexibility feels good to a GM the real evaluation begins after he commits his chips further.
Bennett / Presti have valued the future completely over the present so far but when do they turn the corner?
Brand would be nice - if they committed hard to winning in next 3 years - but it would surprise me for the team to commit that much salary & years to him and to that shorter team improvement timeline or for him to commit to them.
I assume Presti won't go for a big free agent this summer and maybe not even next summer. And probably not over 26.
The trade proposal involving Chris Wilcox wasn't about acquiring talent -- as I think very, very little of Maurice Ager -- but rather cutting costs for next season.
I'd also be down with offering Wilcox to the Indiana Pacers for Jeff Foster, though, since in the interim he'd help with rebouding and man-to-man interior defense. Foster could potentially be a great mentor for someone such as Robin Lopez, too.
Yet, regardless of whether or not the Seattle SuperSonics stay in the Emerald City beyond the 2009-2010 season, this upcoming campaign will be another tank job—there's no goddamn way around it.
The 2009 NBA Draft could have an interesting set of prospects. It might include a traditional pivotman (i.e., B.J. Mullens), a prtotypical power forward (i.e., Blake Griffin), and a Spanish hybrid of Steve Nash and "Pistol" Pete Maravich (i.e., Ricky Rubio).
Although it's nothing more than a pie in the sky fantasy, I salivate at the thought of pairing Derrick Rose and Rubio together in the backcourt. Rose and Rubio are both point guards, but they're stylistically different as playmakers. Rose is a drive-'n'-dish distributor, while Rubio is more of a freewheeling floor general.
In any case, the short-term goal for Sam Presti should be to futher dismantle the Sonics -- with Wilcox, Damien Wilkins, Earl Watson, and Luke Ridnour each having one foot out of the door -- no matter how unappealing that may seem to the average fan.
Despite my disdain toward Presti -- since his remarks about "not skipping steps" and "culture isn't paint on the walls" were banal platitudes, while trading Ray Allen and Glen "Big Baby" Davis for essentially Jeff Green was an altogether idiotic move -- he's at least moving stuff in the right direction—even though it's at a snail's pace.
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