[Feigen] "The 'mini Mamba' Goudelock grows up for return to NBA"

heypartner · Mar 11, 2016

Nice read. We might soon forget Thornton, if you haven't already.

Jonathan Feigen said:

<a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/The-Mini-Mamba-Andrew-Goudelock-grows-up-for-6882536.php">The 'mini Mamba' Andrew Goudelock grows up for return to NBA</a>

By Jonathan Feigen
March 10, 2016

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BOSTON - As with many of the best career decisions, Andrew Goudelock's was a happy accident.

He had plenty of reasons to take his talents to Xinjiang. The pay was good. He had shown what he could do in the NBA Development League, earning the league's MVP award in the Rio Grande Valley Vipers' 2012-13 championship season. He had played in Puerto Rico and Turkey, earning a solid international reputation when he was Eurocup MVP.

The shorter season of the China Basketball Association offered a chance to return to the NBA in time to help a team needing scoring late in the season, an opportunity that came when he signed with the Rockets on Wednesday.

Well-reasoned as that would have been, that was not why he chose to be a Flying Tiger.

With the Flying Tigers

"Me going to China wasn't about me going to the NBA," Goudelock, 27, said. "I did it to spend more time with my family. The option to coming back here played a really big part. I didn't know what would happen after the season. I didn't expect anything besides being with my family. Then I got the call. I was extremely happy, extremely surprised."

The plan was to get back to Atlanta in time to be with his wife, Ashli, before she delivered their second son, Arian. The baby arrived over the weekend, days after he reached agreement on a two-year contract with the Rockets and nearly five days before his FIBA Letter of Clearance allowed him to join them Wednesday in Philadelphia.

"I knew my wife was pregnant," Goudelock said. "I could play Euroleague, which is 10 months, or try to make an NBA team, which nobody knows would happen with that, or I could go to China for four months. It seemed like a pretty good deal to me."

Goudelock (6-3, 200) had shown so much scoring potential in his brief stint with the Lakers that Kobe Bryant tagged him "mini Mamba." But Goudelock (pronounced GOWD-lock) said he needed the nearly three years since to grow into a well-rounded player.

"My basketball IQ has grown," Goudelock said. "I've seen a lot of different things. I'm able to read offenses and defenses better. I'm able to handle the ball a lot better. I'm able to play both guard positions.

"I'm able to see things on the floor I wasn't able to see before. I was just a scorer. That's all I brought to the game. Now, I'm passing the ball and defensively I've gotten a lot better.

"I've come a long way defensively. That was one of the knocks on me. I'm a pretty decent defender now."

Primarily a scorer

Still, Goudelock will always be known first as a scorer. He fit the D-League and the Vipers' style well.

After Wednesday's shoot-around, Goudelock put on an exhibition, with interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff marveling, "He's not even hitting the rim."

"He's a cold-blooded scorer, man," said Raptors assistant coach Nick Nurse, the Vipers' coach in the title season. "That dude can shake free. He can score a hundred different ways.

"Obviously, he can shoot the ball. What he's really good at is his herky-jerky hesitation when he starts coming at you. You never really know when he's going to stop and let it go. Then, he has that really good float game, which is really his bread and butter. Once he gets inside there, he knows he can get it over bigger guys."

A second-round pick of the Lakers out of the College of Charleston, he played in 40 games as a rookie in 2011-12 and returned at the end of the following season after averaging 21.1 points for Sioux Falls and the Vipers. He averaged 12 points in three postseason games for the Lakers that season and impressed at least one future teammate.

"He's going to score the ball," said Dwight Howard, then a Lakers teammate. "He can create shots for himself and for other people. He's very aggressive on the offensive end. On the defensive side, he will get out there and scrap."

NBA wake-up call

But Goudelock was not ready for the NBA, or at least not as prepared as he is.

"As a player, I wasn't well-rounded at all," Goudelock said. "I did one thing. As a person, I was arrogant. I wasn't the person I wanted to be.

"In the NBA, or in life, you can't tell what will happen next. For me, it was probably the best thing to not stay there because I wasn't as good as a person or as a player as I am now. I think on my journey, I needed a wake-up call and to get humbled. I wish I would have stayed in the NBA, but everything happens for a reason."

Goudelock chose the short season in China for the best reason. It was a nice bonus that the career decision worked out for a reason he did not predict.
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Deuce · Mar 11, 2016

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Goudelock <a href="https://t.co/haj1JArl7F">https://t.co/haj1JArl7F</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonChron">@HoustonChron</a> put on a shooting show this morning. Hit his first 21 3s after shootaround in drills</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/708343961203687424">March 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Would not expect Goudelock to immediately be in Rockets rotation. Could change if foul trouble, deficit.</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/708344450842497024">March 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Deuce · Mar 11, 2016

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I make meme<br>welcome to team<a href="https://twitter.com/0goudelock">@0goudelock</a> <a href="https://t.co/4BShFwd9P1">pic.twitter.com/4BShFwd9P1</a></p>— Rocketgirl (@00rocketgirl) <a href="https://twitter.com/00rocketgirl/status/708353391320109057">March 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

00rocketgirl · Mar 11, 2016

SF3isBack!! · Mar 11, 2016

Seems to good to be true. Hope he does well, we need it.

Os Trigonum · Mar 11, 2016

00rocketgirl said: ↑

Click to expand...

alas, Rocketgirl scooped on her own meme!!

still a good one.

Houston288South · Mar 11, 2016

All this doesn't matter cause JB probably won't play him, OR KJ McDaniels

kevtse · Mar 11, 2016

Finally we got an elite shooter?

00rocketgirl · Mar 11, 2016

Os Trigonum said: ↑

alas, Rocketgirl scooped on her own meme!!

still a good one.
Click to expand...

boo Deuce. literally by seconds.

FTW Rockets FTW · Mar 11, 2016

How long before Harden freezes him out? :grin:

saleem · Mar 11, 2016

Throw him in and see what happens. Can't hurt us much in this situation.

bmd · Mar 11, 2016

If he is such a good scorer, then why was he out of the league?

What am I missing?

heypartner · Mar 11, 2016

Didn't realize Goudelock and Beasley are the same age -- 27 yrs old. Hopefully both 'growing up for return to NBA' at the same time!

fwiw: Thornton was 28, so they both might only get 1yr to show it!!

heypartner · Mar 11, 2016

bmd said: ↑

If he is such a good scorer, then why was he out of the league?
Click to expand...

Guards < 6'5 who can shoot really are a dime-a-dozen, without another skill (to include IQ). see: Thornton, Marcus

rocketsmetalspd · Mar 11, 2016

Could it be that this team will really become a team to be reckon with come the playoffs. IF it is this will be one heck of a roller coaster ride of a season.

dkoune · Mar 11, 2016

bmd said: ↑

If he is such a good scorer, then why was he out of the league?

What am I missing?
Click to expand...

You have to understand young one, sometimes life needs to teach you via another path. He's humbled now and a better person and player because of it. Shut up and enjoy the ride.

Madmanmetz · Mar 11, 2016

rocketsmetalspd said: ↑

Could it be that this team will really become a team to be reckon with come the playoffs. IF it is this will be one heck of a roller coaster ride of a season.
Click to expand...

Sports can be a crazy thing, we can hope!

basketballholic · Mar 11, 2016

If Goudelock has learned to play NBA caliber defense then he will stick and be a huge factor. But....playing defense in China it's nothing compared to the NBA. I'll have to see it to believe it. He's quick enough to be a very capable defender. But I have doubts whether he actually will be at this level. Hopefully he is.

Deuce · Mar 11, 2016

00rocketgirl said: ↑

boo Deuce. literally by seconds.
Click to expand...

Good news/memes travel fast!

onreego · Mar 11, 2016

As long as he makes Steph Curry work on the defensive end cause we know someone who claimed he would couldn't.

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[Feigen] "The 'mini Mamba' Goudelock grows up for return to NBA"

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Deuce Context & Nuance

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