Kyle Weaver article

[Paydro70]

Awesome.

Weaver is a cool player, I'm pleased by his selection. We finally have something that approaches a lockdown perimeter defender, and if he really can play some point guard, it frees us up to trade Ray and we've got an exciting backcourt.

[Walt Cronkite]

I've been checking out the links. Seems like a good kid. If nothing else he'll be a great practice player, but it looks like he can play in limited minutes and he's got a skill set we've never had.

Edit: Also, Hollinger's draft rater liked him, here are blurbs.

First, for context:

he interesting part for wings is that players rated between 11 and 12.5 have been much more successful than those at other positions -- 15 of the 38 such players in the past six drafts eventually cracked a pro rotation, and a couple (Kevin Martin and Mo Williams) became really good.

Now, the list of current guys in that range:

Jamont Gordon, Mississippi State (12.35); Reggie Williams, VMI (12.22); Pat Calathes, State Joe's (11.95); Eric Gordon, Indiana (11.93); Russell Westbrook, UCLA (11.91); Malik Hairston, Oregon (11.85); Anthony Randolph, LSU (11.78) Bill Walker, Kansas State (11.74); Kyle Weaver, Washington State (11.61); Brandon Rush, Kansas (11.34); Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, UCLA (11.27); Josh Duncan, Xavier (11.25); Courtney Lee, Western Kentucky (11.17) Davon Jefferson, USC (10.99)

Finally, guys over the past 6 years that have fallen into this range:
*Tony Akins (11.95)
Fred Jones (11.84)
John Salmons (11.75)
*Juan Dixon (11.56)
Jarvis Hayes (12.35)
Kyle Korver (12.16)
*Marquis Daniels (11.79)
Tony Allen: (12.43)
*Blake Stepp (12.25)
Linas Kleiza (12.37)
Jawad Williams (12.35)
*Jarrious Jackson (12.08)
Jared Dudley (11.94)
Al Thornton (11.76)

*I omitted the guys that were on the list as pgs, to get a more accurate representation. Therefore, the *s are the guys who I'm uncertain about if they were sorted as pgs or wings.

The link(Insider Free Preview): http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft200 ... ter-080622

[daddyfivestar]

This is a great pickup. I've seen Weaver at least 2 dozen times. He's best suited on the floor with a scoring PG - he would've been ideal next to Iverson - as he can really handle, pass, and is very unselfish.
Most importantly - Defense. Anyone know why WashSt was winning games 51 - 47.... stifling perimeter D from their three guard lineup.

Brian Shaw is the best comparison (although mini-Nate Mc is pretty good). Long agile pass first defensive minded guard.

[chabber]

From watching and reading his interviews I just like Weaver's excitement. He seems like he'd be a great teammate and has some real personality which this team sorely lacks.

In contrast DJ sounds like he'll never give interviewers anything but the standard athlete mumbo jumbo and I've yet to see him smile except in pictures. I don't know if that's just the way he is or if he's just not thrilled to be here.

[fatlever]

From watching and reading his interviews I just like Weaver's excitement. He seems like he'd be a great teammate and has some real personality which this team sorely lacks.

In contrast DJ sounds like he'll never give interviewers anything but the standard athlete mumbo jumbo and I've yet to see him smile except in pictures. I don't know if that's just the way he is or if he's just not thrilled to be here.

agreed... so far, weaver and ajinca get a +50 on the personality scale, dj gets a -25.

having dj around may be fun. it'll give me someone besides okafor to yell at.

[ClipperDomination]

You guys got a great pickup in Weaver. He's an LB type of player who played some of the best defense in all of college, and has a very high basketball IQ. He'll contribute instantly for the Bobcats.

[chrbal]

Such great trade offers. Felton and Weaver for Chris Wilcox....yeesh.

A trade offer with Joey Graham involved. So what, he gets to go to a new team to not play for?

I'll give you Othella Harrington for Joey Graham.

[aznjustice14]

I love this guy's personality, he's great with the media as opposed to dj who always says "its a great team, great organization, great staff, i'm happy to play in the nba" to just about every question. ajinca is just funny cuz he's just always sayin "thats good"

[doc.end]

Alexis was so uncomfortable with the langueage and the whole no situation, he really looke confused sometimes. I just hope there won't be any problem with adaptation, Bocats maybe should pay him some english lesson just to be sure about that (not that he can't speak, but speaking in English is obviously out of his comfort zone sometimes).

[Walt Cronkite]

Doc, I've always been curious about this, maybe you can add some insight. How many basketball terms are global?

[doc.end]

I'm sure he understand basketball terms. I was pointing to offcourt stuff.

I can only guess because I never played basketball seriously but you have a coach and players of different nationalities on one team very often, so English is an esperanto in these cases. Sometimes coach speaks English, sometimes he speaks native language and some players translate to others - I think it is individual and can differ in different countries but I bet an average european pro basketball player know english basketball terms. At least pasive English and basketball terms.

On the other side many people in France dislike speaking English and I won't comment this further because i don't want to start any flame thread

Maybe in major basketball european countries native language is more used, I don't know.

[Walt Cronkite]

Ok, thanks for the input! I would imagine that the terms are more or less global cognates, while principle strategies are probably in the native language.

As far as Ajinca goes, I didn't notice a translator anywhere during his interviews. While his accent was thick, he seemed to understand what was being asked, just not necessarily know the words to say to answer the question the way he wanted to.

[doc.end]

Yes, I agree. I hope the club will provide him a teacher and he will get more confidence in English. (I think these off court things are very important - hey you can find disputation about Fabio's language bareer from last year). As long as he will say "that's good" and "I'm fine" to everything, he will do ok in the locker room
I just hope he won't say something odd during official press conferences just because he wouldn't know the right words.
To his accent - written versions of interview will be helpful for some time.)