Mavs Sign First Round Pick Pavel Podkolzin DALLAS (July 29, 2904) --The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have signed rookie Pavel Podkolzin. As per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed. Podkolzin (7-5, 260) was acquired from the Utah Jazz after being selected 21st in the 2004 NBA Draft. A native of Russia, he was originally an early entry candidate for the 2003 NBA Draft before withdrawing his name. Last season, Podkolzin appeared in 22 games for Varese in Italy¡¯s top league. He averaged 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds during league play and 4.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 14 ULEB Cup games. As a member of the Mavericks Summer League Team, Podkolzin saw action in six games at the Rocky Mountain Revue in Salt Lake City. He averaged 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds in 15.2 minutes per contest.
I don't think you need someone 7'5" who's had injury problems, and probably won't last long enough to get good enough to battle Yao. I think last year proved that the way to battle Yao was to Dampier-it - get someone decently athletic - and just tell them to bear hug and grab and pull and yank and do everything this side of tackling the guy to stop him.
If they haven't cut Bradley yet, I don't think they're gonna cut this guy...because Bradley is just god-awful.
Bradley's almost uncutable because of his ridiculous contract. Rockets fans get constantly pissed off at Mo Taylor's contract. But compared to this guy, we got Taylor for a bargain.
They used the Rockets' pick to get Pod. Proves we didn't give up that much after all in the Rice trade.
come on guys, a lot of people were saying Yao was gonna be a stiff and a bust. we won't know till we see him play. He would have been a top 5 pick if he had stayed in the draft last year.
Yao had years of international experience and was the MVP of a (weak) professional league. He averaged 30+points and 20 boards. Podkolzin averaged 2 points and 2 boards. It's a good thing Pavel waited a year, if only because now the expectations will be lower.
I think that Pavel can turn out to be a serviceable center. I saw some footages of him. His skills are very raw, but he's got decent mobility for his size and runs the floor well. He's not quite as big as Yao, but he's bigger than most of the Cs out there.
