The Layup Line

Poaching the Lakers

Despite losing in the Finals, everyone with a brain stem expects the Lakers to have a championship-caliber team next season. And honestly, it’s difficult for team’s to do much of anything to prevent it, short of cloning a certain coach on the Boston bench.

One approach opposing GMs could take is diminishing the Lakers bench by poaching their RFAs or, at the very least, kindly over inflating the market on Vujacic and Turiaf. But, alas, it doesn’t appear anyone is taking this tact. Lakers haters worldwide will veer toward the nearest cliff if they can resign their bench heavies at 2.6 and 1, respectively.

The Maggette/Posey Merry Go Road

Posey’s agent says that his client is down to San Antonio or Boston in terms of his next contract. Curiously, Corey Maggette will likely land on whichever team Posey doesn’t sign with, whether that’s because he beats Posey to the punch remains to be seen. In either case, Boston and San Antonio will come out fine; Maggette and Posey will be fine. Classic can’t lose.

Note: we already have subplots for the 2009 NBA Finals.

Nicolas Batum Receives a Promise from the Spurs?

It’s being suggested that the Spurs have promised to draft Nico Batum at 26. In exchange for that promise, Batum’s camp is not, at least by appearances, releasing recent medical tests which are said to confirm that his heart is healthy. Without those test results, most teams could not afford to draft Batum in the first round. In other words, Batum and the Spurs have cleverly manipulated the draft process to allow Nico to fall to 26. Many consider him a lottery talent.

One dot, which others have missed, that connects Batum in a continuum to the Spurs is the role of Ian Mahinmi and the Austin Toros in all this. In the weeks leading up to the draft, Batum has repeatedly said that his strong desire is to play in the NBA next season, and the timing is right because he is not struggling under the onerous burden of a hefty buyout or contractual commitments.

Keep this in mind as you consider that his countryman Ian Mahinmi just completed a banner year playing for Spurs D-League affiliate Austin Toros. Mahinmi began the season as a raw prospect, having taken up the game at a late age. By the end of the season, Mahinmi was a force and, in the past week, David Thorpe said he has developed into a solid rotational player. Trumping Thorpe, one Eastern conference executive recently said that Mahinmi is a future All-Star.

Mahinmi and Batum share the same agent.

Despite his desire to play in the NBA next season, I suspect many league executives were planning to draft and stash Batum. Not wanting this to happen, Batum is probably all too eager to let the Spurs groom him within Popovich’s system, whether in Austin or San Antonio. On talent, there is no reason Batum can not meet or exceed Mahinmi’s success as a rookie and then enter the Spurs rotation in 2009, just as Barry and Bowen prepare to exit.

Still Cheering for Nicolas Batum

Last week, I took my seat in the Batum cheering section. I’m still there.

If he’s a player with whom you are not familiar, this piece by European Prospects is a must read.

Kevin Pritchard, Fantasy GM

Some of my readers are probably suspicious that I’m a Blazers fan. Not so, I promise. But I really like Kevin Pritchard. He’s sharp and ballsy, which can be a great combination.  I wish the league had more like him.

Chad Ford is reporting that the Hornets have sold pick 27 to the Blazers. From the Hornets perspective, this move is consistent with what Hornets 24/7 reported earlier in the week. Kudos to them. But what does it mean for the Blazers?

On the surface, the move is inexplicable. The Blazers are in need of roster spots and are already plenty young. But the move makes a lot of sense if the Blazers want to move up in the draft. My guess is that Pritchard has a second deal in place, trading 13 and 27 for something between 5 and 10.

Joe Alexander, anyone?

If not, he must like an international at the end of the first. Batum? Tomic? Ibaka? Something like that.

In the unexpected event that Pritchard keeps 27 and drafts a domestic player, there is something much more significant going on. That will almost certainly indicate and 3 for 1 trade is in the works. That is, Webster, Jack and a third contract for someone worthwhile.

My prediction is this: one of the conversations that comes out of the draft is that the Blazers are thinking championship now, not in a few years.

Draft Storylines I: Nicolas Batum and Bill Walker

Each year there are a hand full of story lines that make the draft worth watching, and this year is no different. Most of the attention is focused on the first few picks of the draft, and especially on what Miami might do, whether wildly speculative or realistically measured. I think of the draft as the end of Act 1 of a player’s career, with most careers concluding in Camus-like anticlimactic fashion, dying before they lived.  But for some players, Act 1 provides the backdrop for something remarkable.  In those cases, it’s nice to have watched from the beginning, happily bouncing from one plot point to the next as the story unfolds with a satisfying mixture of fulfillment and expectation.

It is in this light, that I’m watching Nicolas Batum and Bill Walker. Both players are lottery talents that have fallen out of favor with GMs.

Bill Walker’s stock has fallen because of a rash of knee injuries, the most recent of which prompted many to assume he’d pull out of the draft. But he didn’t, which is interesting in itself. Who will draft a wing with dodgy wheels, and does his camp know something that we don’t? Bill Walker’s game is reminiscent of young Vince Carter in terms of his ability to finish at the rim. I’m eager to see which team has the guts to take a chance on him and whether he can capitalize on his talent while avoiding further injury.

Nicolas Batum is an exceedingly athletic 19 year old French swing who’s ceiling projects into the Josh Howard territory of great complimentary role players. Batum wowed everyone this time last year at the Nike Hoop Summit but has seen his stock slide because of an underwhelming pro campaign in Europe—-as prevalent as this criticism is, it strikes me as odd given that Batum is 19 and has played heavy minutes with good production on and against quality European teams, but I digress. Batum has gone from a projected lottery pick in 2007 to a late teen, mid-twenties selection this season. Well, until last week.

Reports from Toronto and New Jersey suggest that Batum may have cardiac issues. He’s in Cleveland today undergoing tests to confirm or insubstantiate those reports. For any player this is serious chatter, but with Batum it takes on scary dimensions. Henry Batum, father of Nicolas, was a French basketball star who allegedly died of an in-game heart attack. Although, it should be noted that Batum’s agent, as well as Henry’s widow, deny those reports. We should know the specifics of his heart condition, or lack thereof, later today. For Batum, anything less than a clean bill of health is problematic because it will affect  his ability to receive insurance coverage and, therefore, the willingness of teams to draft him, first or second round.

I’m cheering for both these kids. I’d like each story better if it ended in success.

San Antonio Spurs Go Green

Sometime back David Stern said he felt that the climate crisis was the biggest threat of our time. Peter Holt was listening, apparently. The Spurs have made the move to become the first wind-powered franchise in the league. One wonders what this portends for the rest of the league and if the Spurs will find success setting another standard.