I can't remember where I just read it, but most likely it was from an article linked from this site: the guys last writeup included problems with D. Which is why he has not been playing for us previously. To recap what I saw from the guy before: Good instincts on rotating on D. Excellent ability with his long arms and good ups to stop a guy from shooting on the perimeter. But, he can't stay in front of anyone. Defensively, he is a step up from many other options, such as Flip Murray who can't stay in front of anyone either, but also lacks any instincts at all about defensive rotations / help out defense. And while Flip Murray did have good size at least as far as bothering perimeter shots, Alex Acker has far more height and reach for that. Another guy you could compare Acker to is Damon Jones when we had him on our team. Damon had very good ability to helpout on D, knew his defensive rotations very well. Damon could not stay in front of anyone either. But he was not clueless, as he could at least steer his guy the right way most of the time, and he was anything but lazy, picking up the opposing point very early a high percentage of the time. Acker can be as effective as Damon Jones in these respects, plus he again has more height and reach for stopping perimeter shooting.
Yes! If Lee says we have another Damon Jones on our hands we need to do what it takes to get him on the roster.
My concern is that they're rejecting him cause he can't get along with the coach. Not due to talent issues. Do we need another player with an "on" switch...............
Acker was a decent, nothing more, player at Pepperdine, which has a mediocre basketball program at best. That is not to say that he couldn't improve, but it was and remains a definite long shot of him ever making it in the NBA.
Hopefully, we won't hire the Greek coach and he'll be fine. We obviously don't know what the heck happened over there. They seem to be dropping him because of personal relation issues. Just our luck! Otherwise, we would have had to buy him out of the contract... or wait another year. Now, we sign him for a rock bottom price and see what he's got. I don't know if he'll be any good. He just seems like he has more potential than Blalock. I didn't hear anyone complaining that he was on our roster before last season began.
Great points TaS. Pini Gershon is not known as an easy to get along with coach. He's also under a ton of pressure because he got a lot of money to take Olympiacos to the top of the mountain, and a Greek Championship.
Samb is up to 240 pounds now. The game seems to come very naturally for him. Here is the most recent Langlois blog about him, it seems like he has a real shot to make the roster next season, and I really hope he does. PISTONS: ’I Like Basketball’
Some very fine news indeed. Could he possibly be our starting center by the end of the season? Maybe I'm just too opportunistic.
Very fine news is right, but even if he is an all star six years from now next year is really a stretch.
I hope he sticks, even if it means some time with the Mad Ants. With Joe's new plan in place, this would be the year for somebody (especially a C) to get on the job training.
Good find, thanks. Cowen's list of things you need to play in the NBA is pretty interesting... - body and athletic ability - tolerance for pain and ability to absorb punishment - ability to fine tune athleticism into skill - willingness to compete - a little bit of nasty
That's an excellent list. It explains why you shouldn't put too much stock in private workouts to evaluate draft picks, because all they will tell you is the first thing on the list. Here's a recipe for getting burned on your high draft pick: focus on body and athletic ability and forget about the other stuff.
