What's new
By:

2011 draft.....

Darkwing Duck said:
Sene fever?
Click to expand...

Already been addressed. Sene was the African Fes; couldn't get minutes on atrocious teams overseas but with a physical profile everyone drools over and a brain made of rocks. Biyombo immediately was playing a significant role and producing on one of the best non-NBA teams in the world.
 
Yep, thanks, found it. Warriors pick, protected at 1 - 7. This will be a nice pick up next year (depending on the CBA, of course).
 
Perry Jones article

It's an opinion piece on the NCAA and how Jones got a raw deal - so some of you might think it's a little off-topic, but it's a prospect that could fall the the Jazz so here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/...l=1&adxnnlx=1302534032-sUUeoF11WMcvAbFz5YxcQw

N.C.A.A.’s Double Standard
By JOE NOCERA
Published: April 8, 2011


I don’t know about you, but I had a hard time stomaching the sight of Jim Calhoun holding the championship trophy after Monday’s final game of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament.

Not because it was a lousy game (though it was), but because Calhoun, the pugnacious coach of the University of Connecticut “program” — as the big-money Division I teams are called — shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the gym. Just weeks earlier, the N.C.A.A. had sanctioned him for “failing to create an atmosphere of compliance” with its recruiting rules. To put it more bluntly: UConn cheated. Among the punishments meted out was a three-game suspension for Calhoun.

But this is the N.C.A.A. we’re talking about, an organization that bends over backward to accommodate big-time basketball schools like Connecticut that drive TV ratings, and marquee coaches like Calhoun, who, with his $2.3 million salary, is the highest-paid state employee in Connecticut. March Madness was right around the corner, so Calhoun’s suspension was (of course!) deferred until next season, allowing him to coach the team during the tournament. One of his own players described the school’s penalties as “a slap on the wrist.”

Shortly after Calhoun was handed his punishment, another member of an N.C.A.A. Division I program was also suspended — in his case, for six games. But he wasn’t a multimillionaire coach. Rather, he was 19-year-old Perry Jones III, a talented, 6-foot-11, African-American freshman at Baylor University, who, coincidentally, was the subject of a terrific profile by Michael Sokolove in The New York Times Magazine a month ago.

Was Jones allowed to delay his suspension? Surely you jest. The N.C.A.A. suspended him literally hours before the team’s conference tournament. Without Jones, Baylor lost big.

That Baylor’s season ended on such a sour note is hardly the tragedy here, of course. What is infuriating are the different ways Jones and Calhoun were treated, especially when you look at what they did. In trying to land a prized recruit, Calhoun and UConn broke the rules egregiously and repeatedly. Jones’s main crime was that he is poor.

Jones was in 10th grade when he supposedly broke the N.C.A.A.’s rules. (That’s right. You can break N.C.A.A. rules years before you become part of the N.C.A.A.) His mother, a cafeteria worker, has a heart condition so serious that she will likely need a transplant. Sometimes she’s confined to a wheelchair, causing her to miss work. During one such period, she got behind on her rent.

Three times, she asked Jones’s A.A.U. coach, whom she’d known for years, to lend her $1,200 to pay the rent. Each time, she repaid the loan as soon as she got her paycheck. That, believe it or not, is Jones’s transgression.

Jones says he had no idea his mother was borrowing money to pay the rent, which is completely believable. If you needed a short-term loan to keep from getting evicted, would you tell your teenage son? Yet the N.C.A.A. says that because she got the money from the coach, Jones was getting a benefit not available to nonathletes.

(Jones’s second transgression was going to a preseason Dallas Cowboys game with that same coach. The N.C.A.A. declared this a $500 benefit and has demanded that he donate $500 to charity to make amends. It does not say where he is supposed to find the money.)

I asked Stacey Osburn, an N.C.A.A. spokeswoman, how a player could be held responsible for something done without his knowledge. I asked her why Jones had to sit while Cam Newton, the star quarterback at highly ranked Auburn, was allowed to continue playing after it was discovered that his father had tried to auction off his son’s talents to the highest bidder. I asked her why five players from Ohio State were allowed to play in the lucrative Sugar Bowl this year after they had been caught selling O.S.U. paraphernalia and pocketing the money — and why their coach got only a two-game suspension, even though he knew what they had done and said nothing.

She wouldn’t give me a straight answer. “Every situation is different” is the best she could do.

Jones is what is called a “one and done” freshman, a player who comes to college with the expectation that he’ll jump to the N.B.A. after one season. As portrayed by The Times Magazine, though, he is such a gentle soul that he needs toughening up before he’s ready for the pros. Another year of college ball would clearly help him. He seems to understand this.

Rumor has it that he enjoys Baylor and would like to stay another year. But he’s still poor, and his mother’s still ill — and thanks to the N.C.A.A., he has been needlessly humiliated. If you’re Perry Jones, college can’t seem very appealing these days.

As for Calhoun, The Times reported earlier this week that he will pocket an $87,500 bonus for winning the N.C.A.A. Championship. The rich white guy wins again.
Click to expand...
 
Biyombo article from DX

https://www.draftexpress.com/article/Bismack-Biyombos-Long-Journey--3672/

Bismack Biyombo's Long Journey

by: Jonathan Givony - President
April 11, 2011

Bismack Biyombo's story is one of the most improbable you'll find in this year's draft class.

Biyombo is the son of government officials in the Congo and the first of seven children. He was introduced to basketball by his father and his uncle, both of whom played basketball in the Congo's semi-professional first division league.

At age 14, Bismack's friends urged him to start playing basketball competitively.

“In high school, I was playing with friends,” he said. “And one of my friends, we were playing one day, and he was just like, ‘Why don't you really want to play basketball more seriously? Why don't you want to compete?'”

Reluctantly he agreed.

His progress from there was rapid. Within a year, Biyombo was already competing in Congo's first division. Soon scouts from teams in the Middle East began to recruit him.

The only obstacle, at that point, was his father.

“He said no,” Biyombo told me. “I was trying to talk to him every day to convince him. He said, ‘Wait for the right time. You're a young kid. You don't want to push yourself the wrong way.'”

“So I went to my mother to ask her to let me go play professional. Her answer was, ‘NO!'”

Eventually, after a year of persusaion, Biyombo's parents agreed to let him fly to Qatar to try out for a professional team.

Word of the springy Congolese with arms down to his knees and a relentless motor spread quickly from there. .

From Qatar he went to Jordan, then to Lebanon and finally to Yemen. In total, he spent six months jet-setting around the Middle East.

His breakthrough came in a tournament against the Jordanian national team, coached at the time by a Spanish coach named Mario Palma.

Biyombo impressed Palma on the court with his tremendous physical tools and talent to the point that Palma decided to approach him after the game. He was blown away when he learned that Biyombo was only 16 years old and immediately contacted his friend in Spain, agent Igor Crespo, and urged him to take a look at the young prospect.

“You have to see this kid,” Palma wrote Crespo. “He is from another planet. He is gifted for basketball and for life. I have no doubt that he will be an NBA player at some point if he works with the right people. You have to come to Yemen and meet him.”

Crespo soon arrived in Sana'a, Yemen, and quickly arranged for Biyombo to move to Spain with him (the move came on June 11, 2009). Biyombo slept on a couch in Crespo's apartment in Vitoria and began to work out with Pepe Laso, who later became his personal coach and mentor, and Crespo's associate Richi Gonzales.

Crespo arranged for teams to watch his new client in an attempt to get one of them to sign and develop him. Caja Laboral, Unicaja Malaga, Real Madrid, CAI Zaragoza and Fuenlabrada all came to evaluate him, but in Biyombo's words, “they said that it was really difficult for them to sign me.”

“It was very difficult for them to believe in me,” he said. “No one knew me. It was my first time in Spain.”

Eventually Fuenlabrada decided to bite, signing Biyombo to a five-year contract. They juggled him between their first, second and third teams during his first 18 months in Spain.

Biyombo's big opportunity came in January, when Fuenlabrada received a huge offer from Euroleague squad Caja Laboral to sell their starting center, Esteban Batista -- reportedly for 1.25 million dollars.

Caja Laboral had already gone through two American big men by then (first Pops Mensah-Bonsu, then Marcus Haislip) and was desperate for a center after getting off to a terrible start. Fuenalabrada cashed in in a major way and immediately began looking for a big man to replace Batista.

In the mean time, they decided to bring up the very green Biyombo to practice with them, temporarily, to plug the hole that was created by Batista's departure.

Fuenlabrada was desperately trying to sign Richard Hendrix from Maccabi Tel Aviv, but the Israelis were reluctant to let the former NBA player go.

In the meantime, Biyombo saw playing time against Ricky Rubio's old club, DKV Joventut, and did surprisingly well, earning more time to prove himself.

With each day Biyombo continued to improve.

“Getting more time practicing I would make myself better,” Biyombo explained. “Coach decided to give me more minutes every game, every game, every game.”

Before anyone realized what was happening, the anonymous Biyombo was leading the ACB in blocked shots and field goal percentage while ranking #1 in per-minute rebounds and near the top in per-minute free throw attempts. He moved straight into the top 20 of DraftExpress' top 100 rankings, making one of the biggest jumps in the site's history.

Fuenlabrada's hunt for an American center came to a halt. They realized they had one of the best prospects in Europe on their hands; an incredible force inside the paint who has unlimited potential.

It didn't take very long for Rich Sheubrooks, Nike's Consultant of Global Basketball, who lives in Barcelona, to notice Biyombo's talent.

Sheubrooks quickly extended an invite Biyombo to play at the Nike Hoop Summit, which was to be played in Portland. Crespo had wisely included a clause in Biyombo's contract allowing him to attend the event if he was invited, something no one dreamed possible when Biyombo was signed 18 months prior.

The rest is history.

Biyombo registered the very first triple-double (12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 blocks) in the history of the Hoop Summit, shattering Kevin Garnett's record for blocked shots in the process. Now he's projected as a potential lottery pick by many teams.

Just three months after being added to our own database, Biyombo elected to enter his name in the 2011 draft, as we reported exclusively on April 5.

Biyombo is under contract with Fuenlabrada for another three years, but he has a relatively simple NBA buyout clause (€1 million Euros). What's even more attractive is the fact that the NBA team that drafts him can rest assured knowing that he can continue to play in Europe in the event of a lockout, which won't slow his development.

“The lockout is not worrying me,” Biyombo told us. “If there is a lockout, I can continue to play in Spain. I want to make a mark before I leave Spain. When I decided to enter the draft I spoke to my agent Igor [Crespo], and I said, ‘Igor, before I leave Spain, I want to put my name on the basketball court. So when I leave Spain my name will be remembered the right way.' About the NBA, I still have time to be on the floor, still have time to work, still have time to make myself better.”

Stay tuned later this week for a detailed breakdown on Bismack Biyombo's strengths and weaknesses.
Click to expand...
 
BOX said:
This is by far the worst proposal of what to do with our picks EVER. I mean...are you serious???????
Click to expand...

Yeah, we could probably trade down and get Smith at the end of the 1st. Do we really want another nonshooting two guard as well?
 
Revolution 9 said:
for every Sene there is also a Sergeballu LaMu Sayonga Loom Walahas Jonas Hugo Ibaka...
Click to expand...

As others have said if we want him we may have to take him with the 5 or 6th pick. Still would like a big man who can shoot the 3 though. perhaps with the other pick. Then trade Jefferson or Millsap for a wing.
 
Assuming the draft goes in order, Minnesota has the #2 pick, and the Cavs take Derrick Williams #1, Minnesota does not need Kyrie Irving or they will finally trade the rights to Rubio. Given that Utah and Minneosta did business last summer for Al Jefferson and Ty Corbin has a good history with the Wolves, I could see Utah doing a trade with Minnie to get either of those stellar young point guards. Both of Utah's lottery picks might be enough. Maybe taking on Martel Webster's contract would do it as well.
 
Catchall said:
So.... Draft Express just put Biyombo at #8 in their mock, a slot ahead of Kanter....
https://www.draftexpress.com/

As an aside, is it obvious this guy's nick name is gong to be 'Smack' ?
Click to expand...

Smack.. Like that!

There is an article written by DraftExpress on him: https://www.draftexpress.com/article/Bismack-Biyombos-Long-Journey--3672/

The good thing about drafting him is that even if there is a lockout, he can still play in the ACB in Spain. Once the lockout is over, the contract can be bought out for $1M euro.
 
Biyombo might turn out to be a player, as might Jonas, Enes, and Donutholeus, but drafting any of them with the New Jersey pick would be one of the worst PR moves they could possibly make. A foreign player and Jimmer as the two lottery picks would possibly make me ask for a refund on my tickets.
 
YB85 said:
Biyombo might turn out to be a player, as might Jonas, Enes, and Donutholeus, but drafting any of them with the New Jersey pick would be one of the worst PR moves they could possibly make. A foreign player and Jimmer as the two lottery picks would possibly make me ask for a refund on my tickets.
Click to expand...

Agree - the Jazz needs to go for more of a sure thing with the 5th or 6th pick. I say Knight if no Barnes.
 
cjs55 said:
Why do people like Knight over Walker?
Click to expand...

Size is the main reason... potential too since Knight is a couple of years younger. Personally I think Knight's upside is Westbrook and Walker's is Jameer Nelson. I can be dead wrong though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top