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JSM
Clublakers Site Manager
Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 70472
Location: Atlanta
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 Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:50 am Post subject: Dave McMenamin's (NBA.com) picks for the Rook v Soph game |
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NBA.com: We're in All-Star mode here at the NBA, eagerly anticipating the starters for the 57th mid-season festival to be announced Thursday night on TNT. While it's unlikely that any rookies will participate in the Sunday night portion of All-Star Weekend (unless Yi Jianlian receieved one heckuva online push as a write-in candidate from his fans in China before voting ended last Sunday), the first-year players will get into the mix on Friday and Saturday.
Friday is the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge, an event that pits nine rookies against nine sophomores. The sophomores have won the game the last five years running.
Last year's rosters for the game consisted of five guards, three forwards and one center on each team.
That makes picking the nine rookies to get the nod to go to the Big Easy a little harder than just taking the guys listed Nos. 1-9 in my rankings.
Here's who I'd take, listed at each position by who I'd take first to who I'd take last:
GUARDS: Juan Carlos Navarro, Nick Young, Mike Conley
FORWARDS: Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Jamario Moon, Yi Jianlian, Luis Scola
CENTER: Sean Williams
This year's rookie class is very talented at the forward position. Instead of taking five guards and three forwards, I took three guards and five forwards (although Durant is sort of a hybrid shooting guard, so you could call it four and four).
The toughest decision was leaving off Daequan Cook in favor of Conley and Young. The Miami gunner has been ranked above Young for pretty much the whole season and Conley missed about 20 games because of a sprained shoulder. However, Cook has been cold of late while Young is getting back into the groove for the surging Wizards, and Conley makes it because every All-Star team needs a pass-first point guard.
At forward, the two guys who were difficult to keep out were Jeff Green and Al Thornton, but the five I chose over those two are certainly deserving.
Even though this is the Rookie Rankings, let's look at what their opponents, the sophomore squad, might look like.
The nine sophomores selected to compete in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge last season (when they were rookies) were:
GUARDS: Jordan Farmar, Randy Foye, Rudy Gay, Brandon Roy, Marcus Williams
FORWARDS: Andrea Bargnani, Paul Millsap, Adam Morrison
CENTER: Jorge Garbajosa
You can eliminate Foye (knee), Morrison (knee), Garbajosa (leg) and Williams (foot) from this year's lineup as they've all missed most or all of the first half of the season because of injuries. That leaves five remaining holdovers from last year. Out of those five, two (Gay, Roy) are "stone cold lead pipe locks" as Mike and Mike would say.
If you look at the sophomore leaders in PRA (points+rebounds+assists), only two other holdovers are in the top 10 (Millsap, Farmar). Bargnani is 13th.
Here's the sophomores I'd take to Crescent City this year:
GUARDS: Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay, Rajon Rondo, Daniel Gibson, Jordan Farmar
FORWARDS: Ronnie Brewer, Craig Smith, Kelenna Azubuike
CENTER: LaMarcus Aldridge
Last year's No. 1 pick, Bargnani, is left out because his numbers have declined across the board and Millsap is the toughest omission, but I take Farmar as my ninth guy because of the marked improvement he's shown on the court this year. |
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MixtapeLive
Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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The rookie squad is so athletic.. nick young, jomario moon, sean williams AND kevin durant.. omg.. its gonna be a dunk fest
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air_bryant08
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 2558
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| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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Good to see Farmar in there.
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"This game is in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the lights are out, the eggs are coolin', the butter's gettin' hard, and the JELLO'S JIGGLIN'!" -Chick Hearn |
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Fly Like A Mosquito Bite
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 3303
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| Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| MixtapeLive wrote: |
| The rookie squad is so athletic.. nick young, jomario moon, sean williams AND kevin durant.. omg.. its gonna be a dunk fest |
It is a dunk fest every year. They don't play defense. |
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