BOKI gets career night, 1 game after National TNT game

holy ****

 

Boki needs to be in the dunk contest next year.

 

If I had to bet my life on who's right between DD and SamFisher on a given opinion about a player, I'd take Sam everyday of the week. But in Boki's case, at least so far, Sam got owned. And all he can do now is to point out how DD was also wrong. But how does proving DD changed his mind on Boki make you right, Sam? You are fighting for the sake of fighting now.

 

He was right to an extent that he became an effective NBA player - at least for the last month or so.

However it took 5 years, 4 coaches, 3 teams, and who knows how long it will last. Obviously if he keeps hitting 3 pointers he can stay around for awhile.

But if I had to make the same judgments over again - I would make the same assessment that I made years ago base on the evidence at the time - and I am not yet convinced he is a "second option" (whatever that means) 82 games a year. I find that laughable in fact.

 

To DD/Sam: "I bet you won't hit him!"

 

It is still early to tell how good Boki will be. He might further develop into an even better player. Or he might regress back to bench-warming status. (Hey, maybe you and DD can make another bet about how he will do in 2 years. )

But you have to admit that according to your assessment years ago, you never expected him to amount to anything like what he is now. Yes, it took him 5 years. A lot of people would point to Jermaine O'Neal and say Portland gave up on him too fast--4 years.

Is O'Neal worth waiting for 4 years? Absolutely. Guys like DD would say in fact he could have blossomed faster had his coach given him a chance earlier. Is Boki worth waiting for 5 years? Should his coaches have given him a chance earlier? Probably not (not unless he further develops into something like O'Neal's caliber). Can we use a guy like Boki now? You bet.

Hey, I'm biased. I liked Boki when he was here. I was furious when we threw him away in the Jackson-Wesley trade. Wesley turned out to be a lot more effective than Jackson, and Boki turned out to be nothing special. So I was fine with the trade after a while. Now I have second thought about that trade again.

 

The problem is that if you're trying to win a championship, you don't play rookies who suck most of the time, like Boki did and like V-Span and Novak do now. It always gets us fired up to see glimpses of potential in our young guys, but if we gave V-Span and Novak each 20-25 minutes a night, we'd be doing some serious sucking and falling further and further back in the standings.

The time to play "maybe" rookies (as opposed to sure bets like LeBron) is when you have a team that's not going to make the playoffs anyway. Unfortunately, the minute we added T-Mac to a team that already had Yao, we moved into that realm where playing those non-sure-bet rookies becomes a dicey proposition.

Looking at it another way: If JVG had been giving those 20-25 minutes a night to V-Span and Novak, I guarantee you there'd be MORE people on ClutchFans saying that he's a terrible coach and he's losing us games by insisting on developing talent when he should be concentrating on building a team that can go deep into the playoffs.

 

Tell that to Popovich...and Manu and Parker.....

DD

 

Parker averaged TWO turnovers in almost 30 minutes a game. He also shot .323 from long range, 46% from the field and was one of the quickest PG's in the game. His PER was 16.51

Manu shot 44% from the field, 35% from long range and had a PER of 14.75

VSpan is shooting 20% from long range, a whopping 32% from the field and is a turnover machine with a PER of 5.04

In their rookie season, let's compare PTS/REB/ASTS PER 40 MINUTES:

VSPAN: 11.6 PTS/ 3.8 REBS/ 4.2 ASTS
% of posessions that end in a turnover 19.7%

PARKER: 18.3 PTS/ 3.1 REBS/ 6.2 ASTS
% of posessions that end in a turnover 11%

MANU: 14.7 PTS/ 4.5 REBS/ 3.9 ASTS
% of posessions that end in a turnover 14%

Looks to me like Parker/Manu shot the ball much better, had less turnovers and scored more points. Maybe THAT'S WHY THEY PLAYED AND HE SITS

Think about it

 

You are taking the stats from their WHOLE year, and IMHO, that is the kind of production you would be getting from someone who gets to play, and KNOWS they will continue to play...if they have talent that is.

DD

 

well that is kinda true...

But still, I really don't think he is as good as either of those players are (or were).

I think he CAN be as good (as Manu), but he has to learn how to make shots. I can forgive some of the turnovers, chalking them up to nervousness/trying to do too much to prove himself, but the shooting % is pathetic. If he wants to be a successful backcourt guard in the NBA, he needs to be able to shoot...(this obviously doesn't apply if your name is Rafer Alston)

EDIT: And since he cannot shoot, he should not play (well he can have JL3's minutes...I have no problem with that). he should learn to shoot over the summer and come back ready to compete. Parker/Manu could already shoot the ball, and when you make open shots on a talented team, you get to play

 

boki had a pretty nice looking and 1 last night (NBA TV) against dallas.

one play, boki was driving baseline, and thought he got pushed, but they called him for out of bounds.. he looked pissed at the ref when they zoomed in, and i think he was dropping f-bombs.. anyone else see this? yao and boki have both grown up

 

Bullcrap. Even in their first few games they were far more productive than Spanoulis has ever been. Compare the numbers. Through 250 minutes they blow Spanoulis out of the water.

They didn't require a whole year to get good - they simply were good, from the beginning.

I've reminded you of this 100 times but you refuse to believe it. It doesn't make it not true.

 

WTF are you smoking? Put V-Span in with the starters like Manu and Parker were put in there....put him in some meaningful minutes....then see how the numbers compare.

You can not compare the first 250 minutes when one player has more than half of those minutes in garbage time.

DD

 

Actually, your numbers in garbage time should be better. You're playing against much worse competition, after all. Spanoulis played against starter-quality players recently in the San Antonio game, and we saw the results.

 

Not true at all, if V-Span makes a pass to a wide open player who can shoot, versus someone at the end of the bench, which one do you think he has a better chance of getting the assist with?

Specifically PGs production is a more direct corrolation of who they are playing with.

DD

 

Please STOP comparing Manu's situation to V-Span. Simply put, if V-Span could shoot, he'd probably be seeing some minutes. He can't.

 

Even accepting that as explanation for his poor assist/turnover numbers, his inability to score efficiently (and that's putting it mildly) against inferior competition is a problem. If he was primarily a spot up shooter, I could understand the garbage time struggles since he doesn't have Yao and McGrady to get him open looks. But he's a slasher/creater, and he hasn't done either well in garbage minues. That should be a red flag that he isn't ready.

 

Certainly his 3pt shot is not ready, but would it surprise you to know that he shoots a higher percentage from 2pt range than Rafer?

40% to 38%

And this is a Boki thread.....BOKI !!!!

I am tired of the V-Span arguments, none of us are going to change our minds....

DD

 

Actually VSpan is shooting 32% from the field, which is worse than rafer. 19-59

EDIT: I think my stat may include 3PTers as well, so DD may be correct

ON TOPIC:

A couple of years ago I got to hang out with Boki at a Maxim party. He was actually hilarious and a very nice guy. Padgett was there as well and was a total a**hole...probably b/c no one was talking to him