With due respect, Dunk, Chris Bosh is a very good player who has done well against a number of established NBA veterans. We just gutted our team to get TMAC and we are not going to the finals anytime soon with the stop-gap fossils we have now. Loading our team with a bunch of worn out veterans won't get us very far, so why not take a chance. Making #8 and losing in the first round is very little gratification to me. It will take two years to shed all of our dead weight and start to make a team, so maybe we give those two years to MB and the greek kid to see if they are the real deal. BTW, David Robinson will still likely go to the Hall of Fame !
Oh, I absolutely understand. Chris Bosh is a good player and is becoming a very good one. But what I was saying is that Chris Bosh was a work in progress. He is 20 years old and has had very little basketball coaching on higher levels, yet he was head and shoulders above Badiane even though these were the very first games Bosh had played against anything remotely close to the NBA. If Malick Badiane is a work in progress, then you see how far behind he was/is in comparison to another work in progress in Chris Bosh. As athletic and explosive as Badiane was, Bosh made him look like his feet were in cement with his own explosiveness. This is simply giving you an indication of how much further Badiane needs to go to defend the Chris Bosh's of the world. Now where do you think he'd be trying to defend Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, or even players 1 or 2 rungs below them? He'd be in a world of hurt. Badiane would be a distant 3rd string behind Mo and Juwan on this team and wouldn't see the light of day. See, this is what I don't get. Granted Mo is apparently in JVG's doghouse right now or really has the flu, but if Badiane were on this team, there's no way in hell he'd beat either one of those guys out. And I haven't even mentioned Spoon - I honestly think he would beat Badiane out. What chance are you taking? If you think he'd get better coaching by being here, then maybe. But I don't know if they have time to devote to a pet project. Fans always want to win now. They're trying their best to do that. There's no way Malick fits into the "win now" equation. Yes, but the thought of what a healthy Hakeem would've done to Badiane in comparison is the more realistic view.
Bosh was the 4th pick in the draft and had a year of college under his belt and has been playing basketball a lot longer. I doubt the Raptors considered him a "work in progress" when they drafted him. They were looking for immediate results, which they got in his rookie season. Badiane was a second rounder who was just getting acclimated to the game. It's understandable that he would get abused by Bosh in the summer leagues.
Dunk: I honestly don't know if Badiane will ever be good much less great. I guess my point was, 'what have we got to lose'. We aren't going very far this year anyway. All I ever saw him play was on one recruiting video and a couple of summer camp games. Who knows what he could be now. I saw Hakeem come in to Houston, too long ago, and I saw him come into the Rockets. HE was very raw at first, but the talent was obvious. I won't equate them just yet, but we saw glimpses of innate ability in Badiane that we haven't seen since the likes of Glyde and Hakeem. Again, not basketball knowhow, but innate athelticism I could only wish to have. I believe that is what has some of the oldtimers excited. I know management took a long look at him last summer and I hope this summer they bring him in. He was fun to watch if nothing else.
Can anyone say they know where MB is today relating to his basketball skills, his basketball development? Let's get real. Dirk worked, and works, on his game relentlessly. How can Bad Man be compared? Remember S Kemp's athleticism? It got him into the L. His work ethic (remember, he once had one) made him into a bona fide All Star.
I have heard this said before too, but I don't really know where it came from. I live in Europe and have watched many fine European teams including French, Italian, Greek, German and Hungarian teams. I have to say that this idea is a myth. Euro coaches, like American coaches want to win, are under pressure to win from owners and sponsors and as a result will play whatever players will help them do that. Don't believe that a coach will not play a player for any other reason than there are other better players in the squad. Don't forget how successful Tony Parker was in France as a teenager. Don't forget also that many coaches in Europe are Americans who have their own ambitions in the game and to sacrifice any chance of success would be complete madness. With respect to Badiane, we have to remember that he is still the equivalent of a college sophomore, who is still relatively new to the game. To see such an optimistic thread so early in his career is perhaps slightly unrealistic however there has to come a point in his development where it makes more sense for him to come to America and learn from the best coaches and be in the best basketball environment in the world.
We don't really know where MB's skills are at. I did not see anything of him while he was here last summer. Our management evaluated him then, I suppose. But we had higher expectations for MoT and Howard at the time that have since plummeted. Our lack of length at PF is more pronounced now than it was then. Are you suggesting that MB's work habits are not good? Is this from personal observation the last two years in Germany or can you site a reliable surce for such a suggestion. Otherwise, where did your post come from? If he is half as good as Kemp or Dirk he should have been here yesterday.
As I posted in a thread several months ago, Badiane was promoted to the A Euro League last year and split time at PF. This year he was the projected starter and was touted as his team's upcoming star and expected to be an impact player. Then about the 4th game his shoulder was injured so badly he required surgery. Haven't found any updates since. So it would seem he has made some progress since we drafted him.
I don't keep up with European BB enough to know his current health status, but I was aware that he was out for the season. This discussion, at least on my part, was purely philosophical. Mostly coulda, woulda, shoulda I suppose.
