Jennings: TrailBlazer; More Smoke than Fire? Part 2

In my last post, I discussed potential roadblocks on 18-year old Brandon Jennings' path to success in Rome.

His new team's coach, Jasmin Repesa, is one.

I saw the sideline-stomping, crew-cut sporting Repesa in action last fall and wrote after the game:

Lottomatica Roma head coach Jasmin Repesa is the single most intimidating coach I have ever witnessed. Our group sat just a couple of rows behind the visitors' bench and watched, slack-jawed, as Repesa tore into his players with a ferocity and laser-eyed intensity that simply had to be experienced to be understand. As I looked into Repesa's cold, black, beady pupils, I can only liken my impression to him as a combination of Dennis Hopper and Jaws. I do not think that his players made eye contact with him one time the entire game. I once read that there are two types of coaches - the kind that teaches through fear and intimidation (the "Bobby Knight" type) and the kind that teache primarily through patience and positive reinforcement (the "Mike Kryzewski" type). Well, in Europe, clearly the master of the "Bobby Knight" style of coaching is the Croatian Jasmin Repesa.

Chances are this won't be the best coach for a young, albeit talented, player just learning to play with grown men, learning the new FIBA rules and experiencing a trans-Atlantic cultural transition.

Then again, as easily as for a jumper, Jennings may rise to the occasion.

Jennings: TrailBlazer; More Smoke than Fire? Part 1

Nobody has ever done what Brandon Jennings is about to do.

The Oak Hill Academy superstar, a flat-top sporting wizard with the ball, will play in Rome this fall as the first recent high school graduate to attempt using European basketball as a springboard to NBA riches.

Other Americans have played in Europe before, but generally after college or a fruitful NBA career (think: Dominique Wilkins). One, Kobe Bryant, played in Italy from age 7-14, but only because his father was already playing there.

But by signing with Pallacanestro Virtus, aka Lottomatica Roma, this summer, Jennings has bucked the standard thinking about what a 18-year old star should do when NBA don't permit draft entry until age 19.

Instead of waiting around this summer to see if he could play in the desert sands of Arizona, he decided to bolt for the cultural riches of Italy. Watching his progress abroad will prove fascinating, and there are a number of threads to follow. DX Draft Express International Scouting Director Luis Fernandez examined one:

1. Is the Italian domestic league the best fit for Jennings?

Jenning's new team is in the Italian domestic league A1, which is - no surprise - better than the other domestic league - A2. It rates only behind the Spanish ACB league as Europe's top domestic league, so it's no place for daisy-pushers, nor a place where teenagers can easily make a mark.

Why?

Fernandez breaks it down:

This is a very physical league where strength and mental toughness is at a premium, two things a player like Jennings cannot be expected to bring to the table at this point in his career.
Roma enjoys a deep roster and a very structured game on both ends of the court. There are no one-man shows here, the ball needs to flow and the team works united for a purpose. A player like Jennings, who loves to jack up shots and to dribble looking for the final definitive pass, probably doesn’t enjoy the experience and maturity to adjust quickly enough. Playing in a top league, you need to be extremely mature and consistently effective in order to enjoy significant freedom within the system, certainly not the easiest task for such a young kid playing the point guard position.

I watched Lottomatica Roma play in person, and in my next post I will discuss why meshing with its stentorian coach Jasmin Repesa may prove a difficult task for our young wunderkind...

New Spanish Kids on the Block

Just how good will the silver medallist Spanish team be when it (probably) takes on the U.S.A. in 2010? That's a question my boys at ballineurope.com have asked lately and they have essentially said that it looks like the Spaniards will address their biggest weakness (and every other nations' for that matter) against the Americans: on the wing (where swingmen - tall, versatile shooting guards and small forwards - play).

Every time the United States took the floor this summer, it had an automatic advantage in both the size and athleticism departments at the swing positions. While some teams could hang with the US on the perimeter (see the medal-round Australia game for the 1st half and Argentina for the 2nd) and others could overpower them inside (e.g. Spain in the gold-medal game), it seemed nobody could matchup with Carmelo, Tayshaun, LeBron, and Kobe in sheer swingman sizzle.

In 2012, the Spanish national team will largely look the same with these changes:

Likely OUTs

• Jorge Garbajosa - the gritty, oft-injured 6-9, 245-pounder will be 34 and likely have long since stepped out of the picture.
• Carlos Jimenze - the even grittier 6-8, 225-pound gritmeister will be 36. He too will likely have given up his spot.

Potential INs

• Victor Claver - from the photo below, it should be very clear is that lack of athleticism in not a problem for this 6-10, 220-lb. Euro. What is less clear is if this 24-year-old-to-be will have improved his perimeter defense enough by 2012 to garner a spot on the team.

• Fernando San Emeterio - I could get all fancy and throw out biographical information about this 6-6, 210-pound 28-year-old-to-be. But let's get real, folks. Look at this face:

That is the dead-eye look of a go-getter.
Do you really think that this guy is not gonna make the team?

• Albert Moncasi - Another big body at 6-10, 220 pounds, it's not clear whether this 26-year-old-to-be is ready for the big-time yet. He's not as athletic as Claver and his intensity isn't yet up to par. Still, big guys do tend to develop a little later.

All in all, it looks like Spain's 2012 swingmen will be a little bigger and possibly more athletic, but the team will miss the experience and uber-grit of Garbajosa and Jimenez. Beating the US will more contingent on Rubio, R. Fernandez, and Marc Gasol's continued development than picking up any kind advantage on the wings - which. it will not.

"God saved me for a reason."

Quite a few NBA fans know that Team USA's only true center, Dwight Howard, was raised in a religious household. Fewer are aware exactly why both he - and his parents - feel so blessed.
After watching a NBA TV biography on Howard, I have learned that the man who now stands 6-11 and weighs 265 lbs. started life as a 21-inch, 2-month pre-mature infant.

More stunningly, his mother miscarried 7 times before his birth.
He was their only (man) child.

Yes, with an upward-looking career, D-Howard has a lot to be thankful for. But, for all his famed quickness and agility, he's still got a ways to go before catching a certain Big Cat on the dance floor.

Holy Guacamole! I am sure glad the Spaniards didn't shoot like this!

Warning: Your eyes are about to be assaulted by some of the most amazing shots man hath ever wrought.

Some factory worker dude from Los Angeles won a game of H-O-R-S-E with LeBron James and proceeded to take him out to pasture.

Empirical evidence here.

Nothing Rickety about this play

Ricky Rubio, Spain's precocious point guard extraordinaire, is hungry to dominate. He shows his undeniable appetite for assists in this clip, courtesy of my good friends at ballineurope.com

US Team Report Card, LeBron v. Kobe, and OMG!-Please-Don't-Let-That-Be-OKC's-New-Logoness

1. Basketball freelance writer extraordinaire David Friedman has written a couple of gems:

a) A detailed report card of each U.S. Olympic Team player's 2008 performance. Not surprisingly, Dwayne Wade (.671 from field, .471 3-pters), LeBron James (led Team USA in steals and blocked shots, ranked second in scoring and assists and shot .602 from the field, including .464 3-pters, but only made .458 FTs), and Kobe Bryant (1st in threes made but made .583 FTs) earned A's.

Chris Bosh's A-grade numbers stirred the pot a bit, though. We knew the 4th pick in the celebrated 2003 NBA draft class was good but who knew he would become the Americans' most effective post weapon in FIBA play?

Chris Bosh (17.3 mpg, 9.1 ppg, .3 apg, 6.1 rpg, two steals, six blocked shots overall)

Bosh led Team USA in rebounding and field goal percentage (.774) and he ranked second in free throw percentage (.862). He was perhaps the most pleasant surprise; Wade's performance was more a matter of him getting healthy than anything else, but Bosh supplanted Howard as Team USA's most effective big. Bosh not only played very well in the paint at both ends of the court but he also did a great job of helping to defend on the perimeter against screen/roll plays. His emergence relegated Boozer to mop up duty and further reinforced a theme that I emphasized all along, namely that Team USA did not need another big on the roster; USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo was right to bolster the team's size and defensive flexibility on the perimeter, fully realizing that Team USA would only play one traditional big at a time.

b) A comparison between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant based not primarily on statistics or vague evocations of "teamwork" and "killer instinct" but an analysis of the two towering talents' skill sets - shooting, passing, defense, footwork/fakes, ballhandling, and rebounding.
Somewhat surprisingly, the comparison is a draw or in Bryant's favor in all skills except passing. Friedman admits that LeBron's hyperathleticism/"beastliness" makes up for current skill deficiencies:

There is not a huge gulf between Bryant and James at this point. It seems that most of the people who believe that James is already better than Bryant fall into two camps: fans who are speaking from the heart more than the mind and stat heads who strictly look at (certain) numbers without considering any context. If you talk to NBA executives, coaches, players and scouts their evaluation will generally resemble the one that was offered above; it may differ in certain specific details but people who look at the game from a technical, objective standpoint realize that Bryant’s skill set is more well rounded than James’ skill set at this point. James’ size and athletic ability mitigate those skill set factors to some extent, so one could make a case that James is better than Bryant in that sense but I’d have to see an improvement in James’ shooting and/or a greater decline in Bryant’s athletic ability to agree with that take.

3. Well, it looks like my home state of Arkansas now has NBA teams in four of its surrounding states (Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and now Oklahoma). Woo-hoo! Six years ago, this number was one.
Oklahoma City's new team mascot and logo has been kept "under-wraps" until the lid was taken off recently.
Is this possibly the lamest professional mascot/logo of all time? I dare say it was dreamt up by a Stepford Wife on one of her less creative days...