Tag: Jason Thompson

      What kind of rookie season is Michael Beasley having?

      February 24, 2009 /

      One thing that struck me about Bill Simmons’ trade value column was his unabashed hatred for Michael Beasley’s game. He made three separate references to the rookie:

      Jason Thompson: I mocked him on draft day and he shoved it in my face like a cream pie. Top-notch energy guy, good defender, lots to like. You know, if Michael Beasley wasn’t such a colossal disappointment and semi-fraud, the 2008 draft could have ranked among the best ever (and certainly superior to the more ballyhooed ’07 class).

      Colossal disappointment? Semi-fraud? Ouch.

      Jeff Green: Great teammate, tough as nails, gives a crap, does whatever you need. He’s the anti-Beasley.

      So Simmons is saying that Beasley is not a good teammate, isn’t tough, doesn’t give a crap and won’t do whatever you need? Ouch.

      You have to love a country where Love’s best rookie card (Upper Deck’s ’09 SPX set, the signed autographed jersey card) goes for one-eighth the money of Beasley’s card … and yet, Miami could offer Beasley for Love right now and Minnesota would make a face and hang up. Whatever.

      Ouch.

      All right, so how is Beasley faring this season? Here are his numbers:

      24.2 mpg, 13.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 0.9 apg, 45% FG%, 39% 3PT

      All of that combines for a PER of 15.34, which is #36 amongst power fowards. Not great, but since 15.00 is average, at least he’s above average.

      Simmons looooooooooves Durant, and for good reason. The guy is playing great in his second season. But how did he fare in his rookie season?

      34.6 mpg, 20.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.4 apg, 43% FG%, 29% 3PT

      Hmm. That adds up to a PER of 15.87.

      All right, so I think it’s fairly clear that statistically speaking, Beasley’s rookie year, on a per-minute basis, is comparable with Durant’s. It’s unfair to write him off as a “colossal disappointment” — he still projects to be a very good player. Had he been thrown to the wolves (like Durant was) and allowed to take 17.1 shots per game (instead of his current average of 11.6), I really think Beasley would be able to score 20+ a game too.

      Since he can’t be speaking in quantitative terms, Simmons hatred must be qualitative. I’ll admit that I haven’t seen enough of Beasley in the NBA to say that he isn’t tough, is a poor teammate and doesn’t care. Are there any Heat fans out there who want to chime in about how they feel about their rookie right now?

      Humor, NBA, NBA Draft

      Marc Stein’s trade talk: Amare, Tyson, Richard Jefferson and more

      February 16, 2009 /

      The trade deadline is Thursday, and trade talk is really heating up. Marc Stein gives us the latest.

      Two rival executives we spoke with Sunday night immediately wondered whether the Suns’ decision to replace Terry Porter with Alvin Gentry would convince Phoenix to “tap the brakes,” as one put it, on its Stoudemire talks. If the Suns are going to try to recapture a semblance of what they had under Mike D’Antoni, with the only holdover from D’Antoni’s staff taking over, you can understand why Gentry would prefer to have Stoudemire for the rest of the season to help the cause.

      Stoudemire is still under contract for another season, so it wouldn’t hurt the Suns if they wanted to see what Gentry could do with this group before moving their star player over the summer. I’d say that the Porter firing makes it more likely that Stoudemire stays put, though I’d still put the chances at better than 50/50 that Amare is moved before the trade deadline.

      One source close to the situation maintains that the Suns have a standing offer from the Bulls for Stoudemire that would definitely deliver blossoming forward Tyrus Thomas and Drew Gooden’s $7.2 million expiring contract. The Suns like those two pieces. A lot.

      Unclear is how much more Chicago would be willing to put into the deal.

      Joakim Noah? Thabo Sefalosha? A first-round pick?

      I mentioned to a buddy of mine that the Suns covet Thomas and his first reaction was, “Why?” Thomas has a rep for being a bit of a disappointment, especially with the way that LaMarcus Aldridge has blossomed in Portland. (The two were involved in a draft night trade back in 2006.)

      But Thomas is playing well of late, averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds over the last nine games. Production-wise, he’s always done pretty well. His PER was 14.80 his first season, 14.91 in his second season and 15.47 this season. He’s just 22 and still has a lot of upside.

      The conspiracy theorists among Joe Dumars’ front-office peers around the league will inevitably surmise that the Pistons might need the extra roster spot because they’re closing in on some sort of Stoudemire deal. The combination of Rasheed Wallace’s expiring contract and young forward Amir Johnson would appear to be Detroit’s best offer — and thus not quite in Chicago’s class — but there are a couple well-connected league insiders who believe that Dumars still has hope of winning the Amare Sweepstakes.

      So the Suns would let Wallace’s contract expire and they’d ultimately keep Amir Johnson from this deal. The same Amir Johnson that is averaging 4.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17 minutes per game this season? Can’t the Suns do better than that?

      The Kings could move to the top of the list if they were willing to part with rookie forward Jason Thompson, their two biggest expiring contracts (Bobby Jackson and Shelden Williams) and what will almost certainly be a top-five pick in June.

      But the Kings aren’t willing. Not to part with all that. Not yet, anyway.

      The 22 year-old Thompson is averaging 10.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and is having a fine rookie season for a bad team. The key to this deal is the draft pick, as it projects to be in the top five come June. However, I don’t think that the Suns would want to trade Stoudemire within the division.

      Sources say Oklahoma City is going after New Orleans center Tyson Chandler, with the Hornets known to be seriously interested in slicing payroll and with the Thunder capable of offering the Hornets two replacement big men with expiring contracts (Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox) as well as one of its five first-round picks in the next two drafts.

      You’d like to think that the Hornets would first try to get through this season, see how far they go in the postseason and then shop Chandler closer to the draft if moving him remains their best money-saving option, since trading their interior defensive anchor — in spite of Chandler’s struggles this season — would force us to reevaluate New Orleans’ status as a contender.

      The Hornets are 30-20 and currently sitting in the sixth playoff spot in the West. But keep in mind that they are only 1 1/2 games out of fourth and five games out of second. It would be a shame if they broke up the core to slash payroll, especially when the Hornets have $10.6 million coming off the books this summer in the form of Antonio Daniels and Rasual Butler’s expiring contracts. Looking at their payroll, the Hornets shouldn’t have any problem keeping this group together and still stay under the luxury tax threshold.

      The problem in New Orleans is not Chandler, it’s Peja Stojakovic, as I’ve been saying all along. The Hornets made a mistake trading for him, and now that they owe him another $29.5 million over the next two seasons, they’re paying the price. His contract is untradeable and his game is degrading. That’s not a good combination.

      …but the latest in circulation could furnish Portland with a new small forward and a new point guard: [Richard] Jefferson and University of Oregon-ex Luke Ridnour in exchange for Travis Outlaw, Sergio Rodriguez and Raef LaFrentz’s expiring contract.

      As a Bucks fan, I’d like to see Ridnour moved to clear the way for Ramon Sessions to take over at the point, though it might be better to make that switch this summer after Sessions has been signed to an affordable contract. If they move Ridnour and Sessions blows up, it’s only going to increase his asking price. I’m lukewarm on Jefferson, but if they can get out from under his contract (via LaFrentz’s expiring deal) and get a couple of nice young players in Outlaw and Rodriguez, I’d be all for it.

      Why did Miami consent to completing the long-discussed deal swapping Shawn Marion for Jermaine O’Neal nearly a week before the deadline instead of waiting a few more days to see what happens with Stoudemire?

      One source close to the process says that the Heat were informed from the start that they had no shot at completing a direct Amare deal with the Suns because Phoenix did not want to bring back Marion — even for less than half a season — after last February’s emotional parting … and because Phoenix isn’t especially high on [Michael] Beasley, either.

      Intuitively, this makes sense. Miami realized that it could not acquire Stoudemire, so they did the next best thing and acquired O’Neal. On the other hand, I don’t know why the Suns aren’t interested in Beasley. You’d think that he’d be a nice piece to build around, and he’ll be cheap for the next few years, but the Suns are more interested in Tyrus Thomas. Go figure.

      NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Early-season NBA awards

      November 13, 2008 /

      The NBA season is less than a month old, but that’s not going to stop me from handing out some early-season awards…

      The most outstanding rookie award goes to…Rudy Fernandez.
      Derrick Rose is probably the front-runner for the ROY award, but Rudy has been better thus far. His PER is an eye-popping 23.89 (Rose’s is 17.78), which is second-best amongst all shooting guards, and it seems like night after night he’s making a highlight-reel play. Fernandez is averaging 15.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists, while shooting 48% from the field and 46% from long range. To top it off, he’s nailing 93% of his free throws and is registering 1.3 steals per game. His fine play is allowing the Blazers to be patient with Jerryd Bayless by running Brandon Roy at he point and Fernandez at off guard. Michael Beasley, O.J. Mayo, Jason Thompson and Kevin Love deserve honorable mention.

      The league MVP goes to…LeBron James.
      Cleveland is 6-2 and that projects to a 62-win season. If the Cavs can accomplish that, LeBron is going to run away with the MVP award. He’s averaging 29.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists, and is shooting 49% from the field and 78% from the free throw line (which would be a career-high). A case could be made for Kobe Bryant, but he has a much better supporting cast and LeBron’s numbers are better across the board. (Besides, I don’t think voters would want to give Kobe back-to-back MVP awards.) Paul Pierce is a possibility, but he’s only shooting 41% from the field this season. Chris Paul is having an even better year than last season’s remarkable jump, but the Hornets are just 4-3 thus far. Atlanta’s Joe Johnson might be LeBron’s biggest challenger early in the season, but King James has him beat in virtually every statistical category. LeBron it is.

      The “I’m the real reason the Bucks traded away Mo Williams” award goes to…Ramon Sessions.
      Even though he’s playing fewer minutes (barely) than starter Luke Ridnour, Sessions is averaging more points (15.6 to 10.6), steals (1.1 to 0.9), has a better assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7 to 1.9), a better FG% (48% to 34%) and a better 3PT% (40% to 27%). I don’t think the Bucks are going to be too heartbroken when Ridnour’s contract is up after next season because it looks like Sessions, the former second-round pick, is Milwaukee’s point guard of the future. He’s in the final year of his rookie deal, so it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of contract he gets next summer.

      The “maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come to L.A.” award goes to…Baron Davis.
      First, he thinks he’s going to get to play with Elton Brand, but Brand bolts for Philly. Now the Clippers are 1-7 and are losing games by a league-worst 13.4 points per game. Their defense is bad, but their offense is worse. They have scored the second-fewest points per game (88.3) and have the second-worst field goal percentage (41%). For his part, Davis hasn’t done much to help the cause. He’s shooting 37% from the field and just 26% from long range. If this keeps up, the Clippers will be out of the playoff race by Christmas.

      The “boy, Devin Harris and those two first round picks are looking really good right now” award goes to…Mark Cuban.
      Last year, when the Dallas owner pulled the trigger on a trade that sent Devin Harris and two first round picks to the Nets for a 34 year-old Jason Kidd, I was very skeptical. It was a longshot that the trade would pan out, as it was debatable at the time of the trade whether or not Kidd was even better than Harris. Certainly, Harris had a lot more upside, and his stint in New Jersey has allowed him to flourish. The first of the two picks was used on Ryan Anderson, and he is playing pretty well in limited minutes this season. The second pick is an unprotected first rounder in 2010, which could be a lottery pick if the Mavs can’t get things straightened out. They are 2-5 and their top four players – Kidd (35), Dirk Nowitzki (30), Jason Terry (31) and Josh Howard (28) – are all at least 28 years-old. Barring an injury to one of these guys, the Mavs will probably be fighting for a playoff spot in April, but that’s not exactly what Cuban had in mind.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      NBA’s early season PER surprises

      November 10, 2008 /

      John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is a nifty way to compare players with vastly different minutes played. For an explanation, check out this article. A score of 15.0 is average.

      Here are a few surprise players that are filling the box score early in the season. All players are seeing at least 20 minutes of playing time per game.

      POINT GUARDS

      #8 Nate Robinson (21.33)
      15.0 ppg, 4.3 apg, 3.9 apg, 2.8 spg
      Thus far, Robinson is flourishing off the bench in Mike D’Antoni’s high-octane offense. He’s knocking down shots and is sharing the ball well.

      #11 Ramon Sessions (19.36)
      17.2 ppg, 6.2 apg, 3.6 rpg, 1.4 spg
      The 22 year-old Sessions is proving that his late-season run last year was no fluke. His fine play is making the Bucks’ decision to trade Mo Williams a lot clearer. It looks like he’s the point guard of the future in Milwaukee.

      SHOOTING GUARDS

      #4 Nick Young (23.33)
      16.6 ppg, 2.0 apg, 2.0 rpg, 55.4% FG%
      Yes, his line is thin (i.e. he doesn’t do much but score), but boy can he put the ball in the hoop. The Wizards are struggling, but Young is providing points off the bench.

      #7 Rudy Fernandez (21.31)
      13.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.8 apg, 42.4% 3PT%
      Usually, it takes rookies a little while to adjust to the NBA three-point distance, but Fernandez isn’t having a problem. He’s in the running for Rookie of the Year.

      #8 Roger Mason (20.96)
      16.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.4 apg, 52.7% FG%, 56.0% 3PT
      Mason is doing his best Manu Ginobili impersonation. It looks like the fifth-year player is starting to break out, and once Ginobili returns, he’ll give the Spurs a much-needed fourth scoring option.

      SMALL FORWARDS

      #2 Trevor Ariza (24.09)
      9.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.0 spg, 60.0% 3PT
      Ariza has been remarkably productive in limited minutes. He should be starting, but he needs to show that he has a consistent jump shot before Phil Jackson can use him to space the court for Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. For now, he’s bringing great energy off the bench.

      #9 Thaddeus Young (18.12)
      16.5 ppg, 4.3 apg, 51.9% FG%, 47.8% 3PT
      After a stellar yet underrated rookie season, Young is making the most of the extra 10 minutes of playing time. He has shown great improvement from long range and from the free throw line (74% last season, 89% this season).

      POWER FORWARDS

      #7 Luis Scola (21.87)
      13.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 56.7 FG%
      He did much of his damage last season with Yao Ming sidelined, so it’s impressive that he’s been able to increase his rebound rate.

      #13 Jason Thompson (19.71)
      11.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 59.6 FG%
      He’s not starting, but if he keeps this up, the Kings won’t bring the rookie off the bench for long.

      CENTERS

      #7 Nene (21.29)
      16.2 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 66.7% FG%
      What is it with Brazilians and their one-word names? Nene is doing his best to make up for the loss of Marcus Camby. We all know that Nene is talented, but he just hasn’t been able to stay healthy. Maybe this is his year.

      #8 Josh Boone (18.60)
      9.0 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 55.3% FG%
      It’s Boone – not lottery pick Brook Lopez – that’s starting at center for the Nets. The team needs to rebound and he’s getting it done.

      #10 Spencer Hawes (17.67)
      12.9 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 2.0 bpg
      Hawes filled in admirably for Brad Miller, and it looks like he’s going to be a solid NBA center.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      2008 NBA Preview: #22 Sacramento Kings

      October 16, 2008 /

      Offseason Movement: The team traded Ron Artest to the Rockets for forward Donte Greene and a future first round pick. Artest played well for the Kings and rehabbed his image to a certain extent. The Kings essentially traded him for two late first round picks, which isn’t a bad deal. The distraction is gone and the Kings can continue the rebuilding process.
      Keep Your Eye On: John Salmons/Francisco Garcia, GF
      With Artest in Houston, there are a lot of minutes to be had at small forward. Both players are versatile and can play a little point guard as well. Salmons plays much better in a starting role and is the better slasher, while Garcia is the better shooter and ballhandler. Given his production as a starter, Salmons figures to take over that role, but Garcia will get a lot of minutes off the bench.
      The Big Question: Are the Kings good enough to contend for a playoff spot?
      Sacramento finished 12 games out of the #8 spot in the West last season and lost Ron Artest. They’re a young team, so collectively they’ll need big progress to overcome that loss of talent and 12 games in the West. This looks like a team that will compete on a nightly basis but will ultimately finish with 30-35 wins in a tough conference.
      Outlook: I like what the Kings are doing, but I wonder if giving PG Beno Udrih a big contract (five years, $33 million) was the right thing to do. They must see him as their point guard of the future, but on a PER basis, he was the #30 PG in the league. They are building around Kevin Martin (pictured), and project to have a ton of cap space in the summer of 2010, when they’ll likely look to add a star free agent. In addition to Martin, if another one of their young players (Udrih, Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson, Donte Green, Shelden Williams) can develop into a star, the Kings will be in business in two or three years.

      Check out our NBA Preview page for a look at every team. We’ll be posting three previews per business day, which will take us up to the start of the season on Tuesday, October 28th.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

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