The Thunder made a business decision when trading James Harden nine months ago. Now, they need to be just as cold-blooded with Scott Brooks. Brooks has consistently left points on the board in each of the last three seasons and has shown no ability to learn from his mistakes. Read More. Written by Jonathan Tjarks on May 17, 2013
Tyus Jones, the No. 2 overall recruit for 2014 and an excellent point guard, was selected by Paul Biancardi, Adam Finkelstein and John Stovall. Read More.
The event gives front offices the opportunity to evaluate D-League players with the possibility of offering Summer League or training camp invites. Read More.
Tyus Jones, the No. 2 overall recruit for 2014 and an excellent point guard, was selected by Paul Biancardi, Adam Finkelstein and John Stovall. Read More.
Tommy Udo 6 wrote:The Oberto story was first posted on the General NBA discussion Board based on a Spanish paper's article. JOHN started a thread on this Forum a few hours later about it.
The Deng for Pietrus & Gortat was a JOHN rumor. The Orlando Forum knew nothing of it & then they started a thread discussing JOHN's rumor. The Toronto Forum picked it up. Both Forums concluded that there is no other evidence of such a rumor except for JOHN's posting on Real RM.
But I wasn't accusing him of making up stuff. I have no doubt that the scout attended the game that he stated.
He broke the news that the Bulls were trading JR Smith to Denver
I understand the need to ask about sources but I can tell you without any insider knowledge that the Bulls are scouting Shved. If they weren't scouting him, they would be neglecting their jobs. Shved isn't some backwater prospect who is just breaking on people's radars. He's been around for a long time -- but is now just having a breakout season. And he plays for CSKA Moskow, which is by far the deepest team outside of the NBA, and is better than more than a couple NBA teams.
Shved is the best two guard prospect that I've seen in Europe. Because he has isolation skills, and can shoot and pass and handle, and is long, he should be able to make a relatively easy transition to the NBA. I'm not sure how you would compare his ceiling to the recent NBA draftees like Klay Thopson, MarShon Brooks, Iman Shumpert and Alec Burks, but he looks to me, from the outside, that he is more of a sure thing than these players were coming into the league. I haven't watched enough tape to get a good fell about Shved's defense, but his offense looks just fine.
(The Hardaway comparison is ridiculous though. I mean c'mon? Penny would have been a Hall of Famer if not for injuries.)
The Bulls still could use a long term solution at shooting guard. Of course they're looking at Shved.
Salo23 wrote:Off the top of my head he broke Dukan scouting Thabo before anybody had even heard of the guy. When Thabo entered the draft we traded up 3 spots to secure his rights.
I don't think that's correct.
Before the draft started JOHN stated Thabo was on Paxson's radar and had been scouted by Dukan heavily. I don't remember off hand if there were any other stories of the Bulls looking at Thabo before they actually selected him.
Unfortunately, the search function doesn't work for me (mod feature only?) and googlesearch didn't bring up any of JOHN's rumor posts, so it's hard to accurately look back to verify if any of his rumor posts came to fruition.
I went back and watched the Olympiacos-CSKA game trying to envision how Shved would fit in on the Bulls and I'm really starting to buy into the idea of the Bulls targeting him in free agency. If you look at the Bulls in terms of roster formation, they're really only missing one type of player. (You can always use a talent upgrade, but the Bulls are probably the best balanced team in the league in terms of having players that fill specific roles.)
The Bulls could use a shooting guard who can distribute well enough to pick up spot minutes at point guard and start at point guard in a pinch, and someone off the bench who could manufacture points when nothing else is working. That defines Shved to a T.
I'm a big fan of Brewer's game and his contributions. He's been pretty damn good since he got healthy last season. His skills are undeniable. But in terms of formulating a roster that makes sense, I'd rather have Shved, even if he isn't as refined. Luol Deng covers the same skills as Brewer and there's no one on the Bulls like Shved.
The Bulls are going to have a tough decision to make on Brewer's nonguaranteed $4,370,000 contract for next season. If I had the option of either keeping Brewer at that amount or bringing over Shved for a similar price, I'd probably go with Shved. The big issue is that Shved has one year left on his contract, so an NBA team would need to negotiate a buyout, and CSKA has more money than God.
The Bulls can't "stash" the guy. They can either sign him or not sign him. You can only stash a guy if you draft him, and he's already passed his draft eligibility. The Bulls very well may be scouting the guy. I mean that's what Dukan does right? He travels around and scouts guys? So it's interesting that he may be taking a look at Shved [whom I know nothing about, so I'm not commenting on him], but looking at the Bulls salary structure and needs, it doesn't seem likely that they're going to bring in European FAs here.
The only sense I can see a "stash" happening is that Shved's contract is up after next year (I think), so they may be able to come to a verbal, non-enforcable understanding that when his contract is up, they will bring him over for the mmle or whatever they have available after next season.
This helps the Bulls, obviously, by knowing they have a guard to bring over after next season, and it could help Shved by going to a winning team, in a big city, that wants him and is going to commit to him as a player. So it's possibly a win-win, but only (obviously) if Shved really wants to join the Bulls.
It's all speculation, but the Bulls have brought over European free agents before (Nocioni), which is not something every management team has done. And given the Euro guys they've gotten in the draft like Asik and Mirotic, and you'd think they have more interest in what's going on over there than a lot of other teams.
I dont think anyone is disputing that Ivica scouted the player & that there is some interest from the Bulls
But since this player went through the draft he MUST come over if we sign him. He cant be stashed on a roster.
Nocioni went through the draft undrafted & the Bulls immediately brought him over after signing him. (In that case, his Spanish team allowed him to do a payment plan. That is NOT common.)
The Bulls COULD be planning to stash players. I have no way of knowing. But only one player is named - and that player cant be stashed.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. - -- Chinese proverb
HomoSapien wrote: This. Has JOHN posted anything that has even materialized into a legit rumor?
Tech9 said something once when people were questioning his sources and info, and why he didn't post as much. Tech said that it'd be easy for him to sit at a computer and post the 95% of rumors that have 0 shot at happening or are just pure speculation/****. But he likes posting the 5% that actually has a chance of happening. Quality over quantity.
JOHN has always taken the different route and just posted whatever he hears. I don't see what the problem with that is either. I don't understand how anyone can just sit here and dog a guy for just sharing information. It's not like he's ever proclaimed his sources as gospel.
This is why Tech and others have probably stopped posting what they hear.
I can vouch for John posting the Bulls scouting Thabo hard, and that was when Thabo was a second rounder and no one really thought of him as a first rounder. Probably months before the draft. That's about it for anything actually happening though (though that Gortat rumor was verified by one of the beat writers....McGraw I think). I'm just not sure McGraw doesn't use this forum as a source sometimes though, lol.
Still, can't hurt to hear the stuff. If you don't want to hear it, ignore it. I'd rather see stuff like that as opposed to talking about boring crap.
BuffaloBull wrote:The only sense I can see a "stash" happening is that Shved's contract is up after next year (I think), so they may be able to come to a verbal, non-enforcable understanding that when his contract is up, they will bring him over for the mmle or whatever they have available after next season.
This helps the Bulls, obviously, by knowing they have a guard to bring over after next season, and it could help Shved by going to a winning team, in a big city, that wants him and is going to commit to him as a player. So it's possibly a win-win, but only (obviously) if Shved really wants to join the Bulls.
It's all speculation, but the Bulls have brought over European free agents before (Nocioni), which is not something every management team has done. And given the Euro guys they've gotten in the draft like Asik and Mirotic, and you'd think they have more interest in what's going on over there than a lot of other teams.
Let's ignore, for a moment, that the Bulls are going to completely breech the FIBA contract rules and risk sanctions to do something like this. Let's just see if it makes any sense anyway.
Do you really believe there's anything meaningful at all in this type of relationship that you would term it as "stash". If Shved has a breakout season after a year and becomes a superduper star and someone else offers him more is he going to even think twice about the Bulls interest if they don't match? If he sucks balls next year, do you think the Bulls are still going to bring him over?
This kind of thing just makes no sense whatsoever. They can scout him, they can like him, but they're not going to agree to some under the table contract with a Euro FA a year in advance that puts them in legal jeopardy, NBA jeopardy, and isn't worth the paper it's printed on. At best, they'll make their interest known and try to build up a positive relationship so that if they want to work out a deal he has a good opinion of the team.
So, I'm kind of intent on changing this from a John thread into an Aleksey Shved thread, because he looks like he may be a good addition to the Bulls. I went back and uploaded the first half of the CSKA-Olympiacos game. Shved, jersey number 23, comes in at around 9:40 in the clip.
This is good Shved, as a forewarning. Though there hasn't been a ton of bad Shved this season, for what it's worth.
-- I don't completely trust Shved's shot selection because he drifts a lot on his jumpers. Shved could just be on a very extended hot streak, because it's rare to find a guard who can hit consistently with that type of movement. Shved has performed better in Euroleague play than he has against lesser competition, but his combined Euroleague and non-Euroleague numbers are still solid: 11.18 pts (48.12% fgs, 45.05% 3pts, 82.72% fts), 2.47 reb, 2.82 assists, .079 steals, 1.74 turnovers, .32 blocks, 22:01 minutes per game. (http://www.cskabasket.com/team/?a=player&p=7908&season=60&view=stat&lang=en.)
-- You can see much of the handling ability and athleticism in the clip that would be an asset on the Bulls. Shved is consistently able to create room using his quick first step. Besides Derrick Rose and CJ Watson, the Bulls don't really have a player that can consistently create space off the dribble.
-- Shved has committed a lot of turnovers this season, but that is somewhat endemic to European basketball. I don't really understand why, but European guards (including American guards playing in Europe) often force contested passes into traffic.
-- Shved, in the clip, looks like he's consistently getting stuck when trying to go over screens on defense. I can't tell if this is a skills issue or if Shved's just going up against, what in the NBA, would be illegal picks. Refs in European basketball allow more off the ball contact. And it's common for European teams to dish out contact to opposing stars at every opportunity -- we've seen some of this with Mirotic the past two or three months. I'm not convinced that Shved isn't just getting grabbed when he tries to go around screens, and that it's not getting whistled, but I'm going to have to watch a lot more tape to be certain.
-- Shved signed a three year contract in 2010 so he is essentially locked up through next season. (http://www.cskabasket.com/news/?a=news&id=8540&lang=en.) Shved was a good-not-great player before this season, so you have to imagine that he didn't receive a huge offer from CSKA. That may make a buyout impossible, if he doesn't have a clause in the contract that explicitly addresses buyouts. The Bulls, if they are indeed interested, may be looking toward the end of next season, when Rip may come off the books.
dougthonus wrote:Let's ignore, for a moment, that the Bulls are going to completely breech the FIBA contract rules and risk sanctions to do something like this. Let's just see if it makes any sense anyway.
Cmon now, let's not be naive. That kind of back door-contact the agent-verbal agreements and conversations happens all the time.
It's not like agents negotiate only when a player's contract expire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
