View Single Post
Old 05-28-2008, 11:42 PM   #51
Izulde
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Whatever happened to Kareem Rush, my 1st round D-League draft choice?

That's the question I'm asking myself as I suddenly realize he's not on the roster and never appeared in a game for us as far as I can tell.

He got signed by the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 3rd, 3 weeks before our first game. Nice work he's done off the bench, too, averaging 7.5 points so far with roughly 19 minutes a game.

The perils of being a D-League GM.

Oh well, we've obviously been playing fine without him.

Our first game of 2009 is a close one, but we eke out an 84-78 victory over Idaho due to Corey Brewer's 24 points and stay hot with wins on back-to-back nights over the Golden Birds and the Dakota Great Apes. It's all Corey Brewer in both games--24 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals versus Albuquerque and 30 points against Dakota. The Magic are stupid to keep him down here with us.

Of course, right after I say that, Brewer apparently gets called up by Orlando, because Kueth Flippen, a 2nd round rookie from the L.A. Clippers, is starting at PF our next game. Not that it matters, as we coast to a 96-76 victory over the Mammoths, Flippen scoring 21 and Brandon Hunter double-doubling off the bench of all places, with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Corey Brewer's not only up with Orlando, but he's starting at SF for the Magic. Hedo Turkoglu tore his knee tendon and I presume is out for a really long time, but I can't see the NBA injury list to find out how long he's gone for.

Brutal stretch coming up now that we're without Brewer, too. From the 13th to the 20th, we get two off days, the 15th and the 18th. Every other day that week, we're playing.

We handle the Rattlers 78-72 when Steven Wilkerson gets 16 points and 14 rebounds, but drop our first game in a long, long time, 90-85 to Dakota, despite another magnificient game of 20 points and 13 rebounds from Wilkerson. If the teams behind us are going to make their move, now's the time to do it.

But then we sweep the next doubleheader, beating Idaho 95-88 and punching Tulsa out 86-70. Nick Fazekas leads the charge in the Buckaroo victory with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks, while four players with 15+ points gives us the win over the Tejanos, who are noticeably absent Alando Tucker.

A check of the NBA rosters reveals a devastated Knicks team. Darius Miles has a torn knee tendon, Andres Nocioni has a torn ACL, Ronny Smith is still out with a broken hand and Raef LaFrentz is bothered by a strained hamstring.

Acie Law is finally getting some minutes as the 7th man, while Alando Tucker has polevaulted to the 10th man spot and averaged 3 minutes in 2 games. Not much PT, but at least he's on the pro level.

I also realize Rodney White and Seth Chambliss, our starting backcourt, is no longer with us. Chambliss got signed by the Bucks and is the 7th man, while White got picked up the Clippers and is their 10th man.

Unfortunately, because of the slew of scrubs the NBA teams have sent down, we only have one spot left on our roster. I take advantage of the slot to sign 29 year old PG Carlos Arroyo, who's good enough to take over the starting PG spot and kick DaShaun Wood, the Clippers scrub, to 8th man.

Our new starting lineup looks like this:
PG Carlos Arroyo
SG Daequan Cook (Orlando Magic)
SF Kueth Flippen (L.A. Clippers)
PF Nick Fazekas (Portland Trailblazers)
C Steven Wilkerson

With this dramatic a lineup shakeup, I'm a little worried for how the rest of the season is going to turn out, but we win both games of the Colorado doubleheader, 88-84 in Colorado thanks to Steven Wilkerson's 14 points and 16 rebounds, 95-82 at home as all five starters scored at least 12 points, the biggest total coming from Joe Harris with 20 points. Who's Joe Harris, you ask? A 2nd round pick of the Portland Trailblazers from this year's draft who started at SF this game because of a leg injury to Kueth Flippen.

We end the month with 3 games in 4 days and win all three in blowouts. The first two are an Albuquerque doubleheader, a 99-71 home victory highlighted by Nick Fazekas's 24 points and another home win against the Golden Birds two days later, 91-69, Steven Wilkerson picking up a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. Fazekas and Wilkerson tag-teamed Colorado the very next night, Nick with 22 points and 8 rebounds, Steven with 14 points and 10 assists to take out the Timberjacks 96-79. Daequan Cook also double-doubled in the month's final game with 11 points and 12 assists.

Want to know how dominant we are? So dominant that our 24-4 record is 7.5 games ahead in the West, the Bakersfield Otters our closest competition at 14-9, the same mark held by the East-leading Dakota Apes.

Carlos Arroyo has turned out to be a free-agent steal, as his 13.2 ppg average since coming to Anaheim ranks him 6th in the D-League. Matt Carroll of Idaho is the new scoring leader at 16.7. Arroyo also ranks tops in assists at 7.8, Bakersfield's Taurean Green #2 with 5.4 and is the only player in the D-League to average more than 2 steals a game at 2.2. Steven Wilkerson currently leads in rebounds (11.3) and is tops in double-doubles with 10. And to think he was a Tejanos reserve last season.

Up in the rarefied air of the NBA, the Knicks are staggering along with a 17-26 record and I'm starting to feel somewhat vindicated. All five of the East Conference teams with winning records play in the Central. Toronto leads the Atlantic at 22-22, while the Southeast is held by Atlanta at 18-24. Yeah, that's right, every team in the Central has a winning record and nobody else from either of the East's two divisions is above .500.

Ten teams in the West with winning records, the NBA's strongest division the Pacific, where the Sacramento Kings are division bottom-feeder with a 25-17 record. Phoenix and Houston are the lone two single-digit loss teams remaining. The defending champion Suns are 38-7, while the Houston Rockets are 35-9.

Gilbert Arenas is still the top scorer with 32.7 points per game, but Michael Redd and Allen Iverson are also over 30 at 30.5 and 30.2 respectively. Kobe Bryant is the last remaining 29er at 29.6.

Only Baron Davis and Chris Paul have double-digit assist averages and Baron trumps Paul by a considerable 12.1 to 10.8 margin. Andrew Bogut and Ben Wallace are deadlocked with 13 rebounds a piece on average on the boards board, while defending Defensive Player of the Year Andrei Kirilenko still reigns supreme as the Blockmaster at 4.2 blocks per game, the only player in the league averaging 4 or better rejections a contest.

Three players are averaging better than 2 steals a game, Allen Iverson and Ron Artest tied with 2.2 a piece, Gerald Wallace right behind at 2.1.

I can no longer track season double-doubles or triple-doubles, because it does it by career, not season. An annoying little bug has popped up, as well, because it lists Chris Bosh as the leader in double-doubles with 93, when it's actually Yao Ming with 101. Not a gamebreaker by any means, but a little disappointing.

No rookies in double-digit scoring, but Brandon Brooks, the player I most likely would've taken for the Knicks, leads in both average points and assists, with 9.8 and 6.1. His dishes margin is so huge that the next nearest contender, Matt Dickel, has 3.9. Kelvin Moody is tops in rookie rebounds at 7.8 and with 1.6 blocks per game is just behind the Lakers' Derrick Robinson, who leads with 1.7. Moody also has the most double-doubles of his class at present with 6. Robinson and Brooks are tied for second place with 4.

As for the other Utah Six, Julius Austin is Miami's starting SF and second in rookie scoring with 9.3 points per game. Rudy Braun is still the starting C for the Knicks because of Ronny Smith's injury and he's averaging an unremarkable 5.8 and 5.7 rebounds a game. He's also had just one more double-double, despite having 11 more starts than the last time we looked at him.

B.J. Whitehead appeared in 12 games with the Rockets and was ghastly, so he's back down in Austin as the starting PF for the Mammoths, averaging 13.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, good enough for 3rd in the D-League in scoring. Brian Robertson is averaging 7.4 points and 5.8 rebounds a game, still the starting SF for the Colonials of Fort Worth.
__________________
2006 Golden Scribe Nominee
2006 Golden Scribe Winner
Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

Rookie Writer of the Year
Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

Izulde is offline   Reply With Quote