Bad News Rox fans. The (supposed) best team in the NBA just got better. ESPNWES has reported that the Mavs will sign Antoine Rigedeau, known as Le Roi, which means "the King" in French, to a 2 year deal on monday and could be in uniform as soon as Wednesday. This is where the real contrevesy begins though. I have seen him play in person for hsi club team, Vitrus Bologna, and he looks tall, but Fox sports SW, says he is 7'- 1". ESPNNEWS says he is 6'- 6" shooting gaurd, which seems a little resonable to me. Then they sd later he is a 6'- 9" point guard!!!!!!!!!! I am confused. I wonder how old he might really be? He says he is 31 be he could be 40? Maybe he is related to that little league pitcher form NY who said he was 11 but was really 14???????
This is from ESPN.com Rigaudeau could be in uniform by Wednesday -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press DALLAS -- The Dallas Mavericks expect to sign Italian League star Antoine Rigaudeau on Monday and could have him in uniform for their game Wednesday with the Sacramento Kings. Assistant coach Donnie Nelson will skip a game in Los Angeles on Sunday to remain in Dallas to finalize the deal. "From what I've heard, he's coming Monday,'' said Don Nelson, the Mavs' coach and general manager. "We'll get him signed, then he and Donnie will fly out and meet us in Sacramento. That's the plan.'' The Mavericks have the NBA's best record, but they still consider the Kings the league's best team. Sacramento ousted Dallas from the playoffs in the second round last season. One of the Kings' strengths is their bench, and that's an area the Mavericks would like to improve. Rigaudeau (pronounced Rig-uh'-dough) should help. The 6-foot-6 swingman helped Virtus Bologna win two European championships and was part of France's silver medal squad at the 2000 Olympics. He averaged 13.9 points this season for Virtus, making 43 percent of his 3-pointers. He played his farewell game Wednesday. After buying out his contract with Virtus, which lasted through June 2004, he's expected to sign a deal with Dallas that runs for at least two seasons. Nelson wants to use the 31-year-old Rigaudeau in the unique role of point forward. Although Nelson has great floor leaders in Steve Nash and Nick Van Exel, he likes a bigger player to control the ball at times to free up those guards to shoot and to try to create mismatches. Nelson has used the hybrid position many times throughout his long coaching career. Rigaudeau has never done that, but Nelson thinks he can because "he's a forward that has a good handle and gets a lot of assists.'' "I don't know how long it's going to take,'' Nelson said. "If he's ready by playoff time I'd be happy, but I think it'll happen way before then because he's a good player.'' Nelson hasn't had much luck developing or acquiring a point forward this season. Obstacles prevented him from getting the player he wanted most domestically, so the Mavs started looking overseas. "We never assumed he was available,'' Nelson said. "Just by talking to people we learned there was a chance something could happen because his team was losing, was in financial problems. "There was going to be something that had to be done anyway over there. So it was a perfect scenario.'' Because Rigaudeau has been playing, he's already in shape. What he's lacking is knowledge of the Mavs' system. And his English is rusty, at best. Grasping the role of point forward will make his learning curve even more steep. "We have a pretty complicated half-court system. It'll take some time to get used to it,'' Nelson said. "He doesn't have to just know the 3 position. There's another step to running the show, knowing all the options and that kind of stuff.'' Nelson already has a possible solution. "I have a way to simplify things, limit what he does,'' he said. "Maybe instead of going with five or six sets we'll go with one or two.
How do they do it? They're putting together some international super-squad! Well, Dallas is pretty much dealing their way to a championship within the next couple years.
I live in Dallas and have been hearing all of the hype surounding this guy. The one thing that stands out is that he is going to be a 31 year old rookie. Also, according to Del Harris he is being signed to fill a role that Walt Williams was origonally signed to fill. In Harris's own words on the Mike Fisher show the other day "Walt Williams is a crafty passer but does not always make the correct pass. That is why we are looking at Antoine Rigaudeau". With all of the hype surounding this guy you would think that he is going to come in and be the next Dirk Nowitzki but he will likely never even be considered for an all-star game. He could become a usefull peice on the Mavericks team for a couple of years but no one should expect him to revolutionize the way the game is played or anything close to that.
Hi... Mavs fan here and big fan of CC.net.... He's either 6'6" or 6'7" and can play the one, two or three. As a veteran of years of International competition, he's got the experience to hopefully hold up under the playoffs. Don Nelson loves the point forward and that's what Le Roi' should provide. Dallas has not been happy with its bench scoring this year so the Nelsons are starting to get a little anxious, I think. A good signing but nothing that will shake the NBA's foundation.
This is freakin ridiculous because we need someone like that much more that the Mavericks do. I'm jealous dammit. I wonder if we made an offer or if he was even interested in us.
I think it also has to do with the fact that the Mavs have scouts in Europe year round. Donnie also spends almost the entire offseason in Europe scouting players. I'm not positive but I don't think the Rockets put as much into scouting Euro players as the Mavs do. Other than Yao, and Nacbar (who were both pretty well known already) the Rockets would perfer to scout players in the States.
Plus Rigaudeau said he wouldn't be coming over here for any team other than the Mavs. Guess if he's going to come in late, he wants to come in on top.
He was under contract and had to buy it out to come over. When it comes to age, the Rockets don' seem to care much about it if you're too old. Without even having seen him play, I can say we'd be better off with him instead of Glen Rice.
Rigadeau is/was widely considered the best player in Europe for the last 8-10 years. Even guys like Ginobili, Parker, Peja, and Dirk have said so. His contract and the success he was having prevented him from comming to the NBA not his skill. If you are the MJ of your league and you are getting paid millions of dollars on a Championship level team why would you leave? The team he was on is in a rebuilding stage now and he had a chance to join a team that is a legit contender in the NBA so now was the best time for him to come test his skills in the NBA.
i'm sure if he was better than dirk then some nba team would have found a way to buy out his contract. they've done it with about every other player.
They don't need another shooter. They need a banger, an enforcer type. That team as it is constructed right now will never win a championship.
The team he played for was called Kinder Bologna however when they changed sponsers the team's name was changed to Virtus(sp?) Bologna.
He meant "Where?" as in, Where did Ginobilli, Parker, Peja and Dirk say he was the best player in Europe for the past 8-10 yrs? I'm willing to bet that I can match 2 to 1 each quote you got for one about Dejan Bodiroga.
Rigadeau is a good player but never considered as a superstar like Dejan bodiroga in Europe. He was the starting point-guard in the european championships two years ago over Tony Parker for France but I think this summer TP will get the starting job (or maybe they can play together with Rigadeau at 2).
