Ajinca sent to the D-League.

e4Nf6 · Post #1 » by **e4Nf6** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:35 pm

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... _d_league/

good....He needs some burn.

amcoolio · Post #2 » by **amcoolio** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:50 pm

I don't get it...aside from the fouling he looked decent in preseason

I guess LB has that much confidence in DB... I do too. DB needs 25 min a night

Fred Williamson · Post #3 » by **Fred Williamson** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:54 pm

Brown >>>> Lexi.

Bassman · Post #4 » by **Bassman** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:14 pm

The french bean is a wasted pick, and a reminder of how pathetic our choices were that year versus what we could have/should have had. Thank goodness our UPS pick in this year's 2nd round turned out so good, as he may be divine compensation for our front office's stupidity.

amcoolio · Post #5 » by **amcoolio** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:17 pm

Who else would we have picked though. Talentwise, Ajinca was the best big left on the board.

ohara · Post #6 » by **ohara** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:19 pm

amcoolio wrote:Who else would we have picked though. Talentwise, Ajinca was the best big left on the board.

How about not trading away that future 1st rounder for him? That would have been preferable.

thesneakysneak · Post #7 » by **thesneakysneak** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:21 pm

Yep, i think everyone has hit the nail on the head here and it is a good move by management.

Derrick Brown has been overly impressive with the extra time he has been given lately in part due to Diaw's ankle injury and foul trouble. Why stop his development especially with the way the team has been playing of late. the more minutes lexi can get on any basketball court, the better for his development.

i for one will bemonitoring his play in the D league and hopefully we see him dominating there or at least putting up solid numbers, because by all accounts he should be.

Question which is a bit off topic. can someone explain how the d league affiliation with nba teams works, in particular with the bobcats and our affiliate team because we 'share' our affiliation with another team don't we. In particular does the Bobcats management have any say on how that team is coached and managed? just wondering because it would be great if we could essentially control how much playing time and what role lexi plays when in the d leauge, for example making him the go-to-guy on the team while he is there.

amcoolio · Post #8 » by **amcoolio** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:22 pm

We traded the 1st before the draft. Meaning, we were hoping to scoop up Hibbert, or if not get Ajinca as a consolation prize since he outplayed Hibbert in workouts.

Post #9 » by **BigSlam** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:26 pm

amcoolio wrote:We traded the 1st before the draft. Meaning, we were hoping to scoop up Hibbert, or if not get Ajinca as a consolation prize since he outplayed Hibbert in workouts.

This.

doc.end · Post #10 » by **doc.end** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:53 pm

ohara wrote:
amcoolio wrote:Who else would we have picked though. Talentwise, Ajinca was the best big left on the board.

How about not trading away that future 1st rounder for him? That would have been preferable.

That was prior to draft, there could be other options for us at No.20 but it turned out those players where already gone.

doc.end · Post #11 » by **doc.end** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:56 pm

I think it is a good move and finally a reason to follow our D-League team in Maine a bit. BTW Celtics board have a thread dedicated to Red Claws, could be a good place to get/share information I guess.

ohara · Post #12 » by **ohara** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:59 pm

If the Cats made that deal before the Draft began, and it was a late teens pick, then that was just stupid business. You have no idea who would have been there or not. Just stupid to do a trade that far in advance when your pick will be late teens. If it was a Top 10, and you know there are 10 very talented players, then fine. But the late teens? If they did it that way, it was insane.

thruthefire · Post #13 » by **thruthefire** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:02 pm

Anderson? Koufos? Arthur? Greene? White? Jordan?

doc.end · Post #14 » by **doc.end** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:25 pm

FO was probaly confident that Lexy will be there and were ok with him being the pick and beside that they took a gamble other pieces could be available. But they were not. Not the brightest move probably but our FO certainly did worse ones. And of course it is still a bit early to rate Lexy.

doc.end · Post #15 » by **doc.end** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:34 pm

What I hoped for since our affiliation to brand new Maine Red Claws was announced that they could foresee Lexy being send there and count on that when building the new team. So in best scenario Lexy could benefit from that by getting a major role there.

So far they have one 6-11 F (certain Mike Williams, fun fact - played in France shortly) and beside that they have two 6-9 (or 6-8 respectively) guys, besides that nopbody on their team is taller than 6-6. Lexy should get a lot of burn unless refs there will be whistle happy like those replacement ones this preseason.

Post #16 » by **fatlever** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:27 pm

i think the bobcats took a good gamble that year picking up that extra pick. there were a lot of good bigs that were projected to fall between 16-25 in that draft. we worked out many of them and i guess LB felt pretty good with what was there. i think i remember reading some speculation that ajinca was our 3rd choice after hibbert and someone else who was gone. we took a calculated risk. so far it hasnt worked out. but we can all see the potential ajinca has, so i still cant blame them for taking him there.

you can fault the lopez/dj pick a lot more than you can fault the ajinca pick.

Post #17 » by **BigSlam** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:32 pm

fatlever wrote:you can fault the lopez/dj pick a lot more than you can fault the ajinca pick.

And if they had taken that chance and Doc was still on the board at #20 allowing us to walk away from the draft with DJ and Hibbert it would have been our best ever draft.

Better than walking away with Lopez and Chalmers IMO.

It was a risk well worth taking.

SWedd523 · Post #18 » by **SWedd523** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:01 pm

amcoolio wrote:Who else would we have picked though. Talentwise, Ajinca was the best big left on the board.

Courtney Lee, George Hill, Nick Batum, Donte Green, Joey Dorsey, DeAndre Jordan (the guy I was allllll about), Prince Luke, and CDR were all picked lower. I'd have taken any of them.

And as far as the Lopez/DJ debate goes, I had serious doubts that Lopez's game would be as good as it has been. It's very safe to say that he's far exceeded expectations so it's pointless to say in hindsight we're dumb for passing him up.

The management looked at Mek vs. Lopez and decided to stick with Mek, can't really fault them on that thinking, especially when Hibbert was a target with the Lexy pick (who at the time, didn't seem to be that far behind Lopez).

e4Nf6 · Post #19 » by **e4Nf6** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:20 pm

This is a pet-peeve of mine.....

If you are going to say that every team that picked a player that wasn't the absolute best available made a bad pick, than NOBODY drafted well. By that standard there are only 2-3 "good" picks in the whole draft. If we get somebody who is roughly as good as we should expect from the level of pick they were, that's good enough for me.

That's why it's silly to get upset about picking DJ over Lopez, there will almost ALWAYS be some guy picked after our guy that is at least marginally better. We got a decent NBA player, which is more than some teams from that draft can say. Jinx is a nice prospect, and IMO comparable to what will be available between picks 17-22 in this years draft. Which is what the pick will be if we make the playoffs this year.

Morrison/Felton/May were MUCH worse picks, as we got next to nothing out of Morrison and May, and Felton does not produce like a #5 pick should.

As an aside....Who is a better NBA prospect right now, Joe Alexander, Brandon Rush or Alexis Ajinca? Personally I'd go with Jinx.

thruthefire · Post #20 » by **thruthefire** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:20 pm

If Augustin even returns to his rookie season form, it's good value for a 9th pick. Ajinca just flat out sucks, and has shown nothing that leads one to believe he won't suck. Add in that plenty of players behind him are looking much better right now, and that we didn't even have to make a trade for that pick, and it looks really bad.