NBA Draft

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In New Zealand we are suddenly interested in this year's draft as a New Zealander, Steven Adams, is being hyped as potentially being picked up. Kiwis in the NBA are few and far between, and never amount to much anyway (Sean Marks or Kirk Penney anyone?).

Interest is higher than normal because Adams is the brother of our double Olympic gold medal winning shotputter Valerie Adams, so clearly some good genes in that family.

Any insights from you guys who are closer to the basketball scene than me?

 

Yeah, CBS Sports (last updated in March) has him going in the first round. I don't know anything about him--has he expressed interest in jumping to the NBA already? (He plays at Pitt and I don't get Pitt games out here on the West coast). He's a freshman and his stats, to me, aren't particularly impressive (7 ppg, 6 ppg, less than 45% FT shooter, but he does average 2 blocks a game).

Lots of center-types have jumped early to the NBA, languish on benches for years because they aren't physically strong enough to play that position in the NBA, their footwork is bad, they lack high-quaility low-post moves or even a medium-range jump shot, etc, and then 5 or 6 years later they don't play in the NBA anymore. (I don't know if this is the case but I've heard lots of teams don't have the time or money or interest in investing much effort into their 11th or 12th men, and if those players want to excell, they have to figure out ways to do it all on their own). I suppose if the goal is to make a couple of million bucks, then he should jump right now to the NBA.

I've long thought that centers and point-guards are well-served by doing at least a couple of years in college, because to play at a high level at those positions it requires a lot of refined skill, attention to detail, and more knowledge of the game (including nuances of refereeing, for instance) than it does arguably at the other positions on the court. That being said, there are some young PGs and a young C in the league right now (John Wall, Brandon Jennings, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis) who have proved that belief to be perhaps old-fashioned--that being said, all of them are terribly, abberationally talented and everyone recognized that starting when they were about 14.

 

Big news here. They say he might go as early as 12th in the draft pick this afternoon and become an instant millionaire and (this tells you something about NZ sport) one of our highest paid sports people ever.

 

He went 12th so that pretty much makes him one of the highest paid NZ sportsmen of all time now. Huge.

Plus his sister has won two Olympic gold medals for shot put so that family is official NZ sporting royalty.

 

Canada? Pffft! Last time NZ played Canada, NZ won 71 - 61.