no he will not play in the NBA....there is a reason why he is never in the plans or why nobody talks about him
come on, stop this nonsense right now. what we have is the following: malick is an athletically extremely talented forward / center. he has the size (6'11") to be an nba player (burditt is just an undersized pf). he's still working on his body and he's on track with it (about 240 lbs). combined with this, he has an huge wingspan (7'4"), a very good vertical (over 32") and the lateral speed to play against some power forwards. even a hater should know that these athletic abilities are extremely hard to find. on the other side we have very little basketball in this athletically extremely gifted body. he can rebound a little (he gets out-muscled, though), block some shots and convert not much more than garbage points and put-backs. that's some abilities, which are easy to find, no doubt. what you have to consider now, is, that he's still only 22 years old and still didn't play professional basketball for a long time. he will continue to improve all facettes of his game. of course, he won't be kevin garnett oder chris bosh, but he can be a kelvin cato type of player for cheap. that's not much, but that's certainly something. and just saying he won't even achieve that because he's a 2nd round pick is pure ignorance. give this guy 2-3 more years and then judge over him. maybe you have actually seen him play then...
Can you post the lottery numbers for Wednesday's drawing? Since you are the Mel Kiper Jr. of our board or your just a psychic, maybe you can help us all out on something easy like the lottery. No words came out of my mouth sayin he will succeed or fail. You want to show your A$$ by gauranteeing something experts cannot predict, be my guest. Granted, I agree with you that anybody thinking he would be a top 10 pick is smoking the same stuff you are saying you can gaurantee success or failure.
I don't know what the winning lottery numbers are, but I'm confident that neither you or I will guess them unfornately for us. Likewise I'm confident that Badiane's NBA hopes are dim, like most second round projects.
And you were doing so well before you wrote this line. Calling Ewing "apeman" is insensitive and unwarranted. I've listened to racist statements like this about Ewing ever since he was at Georgetown. He's had to endure ugly taunts like this over his entire career. The guy was a consummate professional as a player and enjoyed a very nice NBA career - one that is worthy of respect from all of us out here in the cheapseats. When you resort to racial stereotypes like this, you demean yourself and insure that your arguments will not be taken seriously which is a shame because your point of what might have happened had Badianne started out over here is an extremely good and thoughtful argument.
I hope it is thoughtful. I actually do know a little about the subject I am typing. If you took it as racist, I apologize. I am black and part indian and I'm not offended. My great grandmother was a squaw and if he looked like an indian or we nicknamed him cheif, it wouldn't have bothered me at all. People throw race out there too quickly. Why, I don't know? Is it anybodies business what I am. Hell no. Does it matter in the scheme of what were talking about. No. If it was a white guy, green guy, yellow guy, zebra guy saying he looks like an ape, it don't matter to me. The man looks like an ape. Period. Does race enter when we edit the pictures on here of Dirk the Flopper? No. They were funny. If Pat looked like a moose, I would have said the moose, but, it was our nickname for him when we got ready to play them in 85, I thought nothing of it. The fact he has been called apeman since he was in college aint got nothing to do with race. If I see a picture of Pat tomorrow, I'd want to give him a banana. If you colored his skin white, he'd still need a banana. Let's leave race on the sidelines where it belongs and keep it off this board!!
Take it easy guys. It is insensitive to call Ewing an ape, on the other hand, this is the internet and people tend to be less sensitive. How about focusing on Badiane?
As usual this thread has gotten completely off subject. The subject, IIRC, is will Badiane ever be an NBA player and will he be able to play for the Rockets when Deke retires next year. IMO he will back-up Yao rather play the 4, but that is up for debate also. I doubt that Yao had a sudden epiphany of BBall IQ during his foot operation, so it is possible that Patrick's tutelage finally was able to be executed effectively when Yao's wheels were fixed. So maybe Pat hasn't done that poorly, but he may not be back anyway. So if it is Yao, Deke, Pat or someone else that coaches him when he gets here, the real question is whether he is coming. Go read GermanRoxFan's eloquent explanation of the situation. My specific focus is that we need Badiane more than he needs us. We need him to be an adequate back-up for Yao, because if he isn't we won't have one in a year and we won't be able to buy one. If he can back-up at the 4 that is a plus.
Wow! My great-grandmother and grandmother were both full-blooded Apache squaws as well. My great-grandfather who lived to be 100 was a "Buffalo" soldier and I still have relatives today living on the reservation in Arizona. Tis truly a small world after all... My point on Ewing was how badly the fans treated him when he played - calling him "Monkey", "Gorilla" and "Sambo" while he was on the court. Some also threw bananas at him when he played at Georgetown. The way I was brought up, to compare a black man to an ape or monkey is one of the worse slurs possible and is simply not funny. It's most definitely a racial "thing". Because of this he was forced to play with a burden that his white team mates did not have to bear and that is why I have the greatest respect for him as a man. You can argue that he's a terrible coach and is a bad mentor for Yao but to call him apeman is just wrong period.
Sorry about the detour KRocket. GermanRoxFan is probably dead on when he points out that Badiane is making progress but maybe not enough to land him in the NBA. At best he's 3 years away and to me, that means that he would figure in the Rockets plans only if they embarked on a total team rebuilding job. He should not be counted on until he actually gets over here and starts playing against NBA level talent. He has the physical attributes to be a player but lacks the necessary basketball skill and knowledge. In the past, the odds were truly against players in similar circumstances which why you see the high degree of skepticism about this guy.
Hi Hillboy: On Badiane, you may be right or wrong. Why don't we trade down a few spots for the extra pick and get Cedric Simmons in the draft. He is only 20, and he has practically the same physical dimension as Badiane. Everyone seems to think he is great so there should be no controvery since he came up through the American system and not the European system.
