Unsung Player Day - Kelenna Azubuike

hoopsaddict · Post #1 » by **hoopsaddict** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 3:17 am

Hey Warriors fans! HoopsAddict.com recently picked Kelenna Azubuike for Unsung Player Day: http://hoopsaddict.com/2008/04/05/unsun ... -azubuike/

Do you think he's a good pick? What other Warriors do you think should have been considered? What other players around the NBA should warrant consideration?

Post #2 » by **Hopper15** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 3:28 am

First ballot.

hoopsaddict · Post #3 » by **hoopsaddict** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 3:39 am

what do you mean by first ballot?

Thugleavy34 · Post #4 » by **Thugleavy34** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 6:13 am

Hall of fame. People around the league just don't recognize how good he really is. When they do, it'll make for a nice story.

RasKass89 · Post #5 » by **RasKass89** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 6:25 am

rofl lf is finna have a stroke

GMstatus · Post #6 » by **GMstatus** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 6:29 am

hoopsaddict wrote:what do you mean by first ballot?

They're not fond of Buike around here. In my eyes he's pretty good for the contract he's on.

TB · Post #7 » by TB » Mon Apr 7, 2008 6:42 am

GMstatus wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

In my eyes he's pretty good for the contract he's on.

i agree completely. :nod:

Post #8 » by **FNQ** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 7:52 am

Buke's not so much terrible as he is terrible for our style... killing ball movement as a 1-3 is a huge deal (and likely the reason Nellie used him at the 4)..

In theory he'd be a decent backup on a more traditional team...

hoopsaddict · Post #9 » by **hoopsaddict** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 11:35 am

Oh, sorry now I get it. So, if you were to pick an Unsung Player for Golden State, who would fans of the team pick? Biedrins? Pietrus?

St.Nick · Post #10 » by **St.Nick** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 11:39 am

Definitely Mickael Pietrus. A close second would be Baron Davis.

Left*My*Heart · Post #11 » by **Left*My*Heart** » Mon Apr 7, 2008 2:07 pm

Buike sucked against the Hornets, I guess this honor is like being on the cover of SI...

hoopsaddict · Post #12 » by **hoopsaddict** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 4:35 am

Boom Dizzle under-rated? C'mon now...

Post #13 » by **FNQ** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 4:37 am

Al Harrington maybe, he catches so much crap here... he's a pretty average player, but when his tank is empty, our team loses a lot of its resilience.

Souvlaki · Post #14 » by **Souvlaki** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 7:57 am

Buke is the only guy on the team who plays tough defense and hustles every minute he's on the floor, solid rebounder and is always running hard down court. So what if he doesn't score a ton? With the ball hogs on this team it's a wonder he ever touches the ball. And actually he doesn't much. Anyway, he's still an efficient 45% FG, and 37% 3PT.

The haters just screwed up and let the D League label cloud their judgement on Buke. But they're still sticking to their laughable opinions despite all the evidence that he can play.

St.Nick · Post #15 » by **St.Nick** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 8:10 am

Buike is going to be a steal for some lucky team next season. Im predicting 12 ppg and 5 rpg while still shooting 45%fg 35% 3ptfg.

old rem · Post #16 » by **old rem** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 12:39 pm

GMstatus wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

They're not fond of Buike around here. In my eyes he's pretty good for the contract he's on.

Which is daffy...

Azubuike is like us getting a mid rd 1 pick for free and some bitch n whine that he ain't an instant superstar after a whole year in the league. He cost us ZERO in trade chips and draft picks and damn little in salary and several times,when put in a substantial role he's delivered more than his matchup-a veteran who makes far more $.

We just spent a mid rd 1 on Belinneli.....and so far thee's hardly anything Belli does as well as Azu. If,at some point,Baron departs and Monta is the PG,Azu could be a very strong candidate for SG. If the Warriors are wise (debate that point later) they treat Azu as a future talent who may build on a pretty good foundation and become either a starter or a real good 6th man. He's not that far from being that already.

Azu never got the silver spoon treatment. He was not a 4 yr college "veteran",was not a high pick automatically given starter minutes. Rather-he's survived after landing on a team that has ONE starter from a run of 13 lotto draft picks. :clap:

Nice story. Nice player.

Azu showed he could score when in the early season he had to replace Jax and had 20-30 pt performances. Since...he's become a swingman who's had some 7-10 rbd games...and we desperately need rebounds. Lately his D has evolved. He was playing D like a rookie. He's apparantly upgraded that and had some pretty effective games on D which shows he has a learning curve.

Athletic tools? Azu may not quite match Pietrus in pure athletic tools but he's got a better foundation in terms of skills and instincts. If circumstances put Azu into the starting lineup at SG for a mere month-I suspect he'd surprise even the more optimistic amongst us.

old rem · Post #17 » by **old rem** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 12:59 pm

Left*My*Heart wrote:Buike sucked against the Hornets, I guess this honor is like being on the cover of SI...

Well....yeah....but the Suck of the game trophy obviously went to Jackson with Harrington a distant second.

We did stay close in rebounding but bet the farm on low % perimeter chucking.

Nellie is like a general who has a lot of artillery but won't even load a cannon because his "style" is the horse cavalry attack on the flank. When the OTHER general can rely on the wasted assets as well as the predictable "surprise" attack it's a huge edge.

I'd HOPED to get the "good Nellie" plus the vital "reality check" elements so we are more pragmatic and less dogmatic. I really wanna smack some sense into Nellie,explain that getting to 9th seed while IGNORING even the possibility of SOMETIMES matching up in the power game,is no noble cause.

Just pisses me off

Nellie COULD be a GREAT coach.....

old rem · Post #18 » by **old rem** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 1:21 pm

Souvlaki wrote:Buke is the only guy on the team who plays tough defense and hustles every minute he's on the floor, solid rebounder and is always running hard down court. So what if he doesn't score a ton? With the ball hogs on this team it's a wonder he ever touches the ball. And actually he doesn't much. Anyway, he's still an efficient 45% FG, and 37% 3PT.

The haters just screwed up and let the D League label cloud their judgement on Buke. But they're still sticking to their laughable opinions despite all the evidence that he can play.

Yikes....I tend to see Souvlaki as one of the more cynical/pessimistic among us-but I'm in agreement. Azu and to perhaps a lesser extent-Watson,paid their d league dues,showed game,and do have upside. Concepts like THud,Webber were about us thinking that guys who recently were cut from losing teams-paid off to clear a spot for-whatever,did not pay.

The D-League has almost as much potential NBA talent as all of Euroball.
An under appeciated fact is that a player might be a full time starter in D league or an underused 3rd stringer in the NBA. Playing-he gets to perhaps evolve his game. were he a bench jockey in the NBA...maybe he gets the thery in practice-but he does not get the minutes to apply that and a lot of his Real Game skillset just rusts away.

Post #19 » by **Sleepy51** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 2:02 pm

I don't have a ton of hate for either D-league guys game. I don't hate Barnes, and I didn't "hate" Pete until he threw up the white flag with this owie.

The problem is constructing a team with 4 such guys, and then to thow in Mbenga's and Croshere's and Webber's and Thud's.

It's the bottom barrel, path of cheapest resistance approach to filling out the bottom 2/3's of supposedly an NBA playoff roster that bothers me. You just can't have all these kinds of guys playing major minutes, and starting games and call yourself a serious organization.

I'm not saying a guy has to be overpaid and cocky to be worth signing, but when 29 out of 30 NBA GM's aren't willing to commit 2 years to a guy, there's a reason. Now you might be smarter than everybody else once or even twice, but 7-8 roster spots filled with leftovers?

That ain't cool.

Bukie is the keeper of the group. I'd like to give Barnes a post-mourning try to get back the magic he had last year, but that's it. I don't want more than two rotation spots filled with "another mans trash." There are no other winning teams in the league put together this way.

GswStorm3 · Post #20 » by **GswStorm3** » Tue Apr 8, 2008 6:52 pm

Souvlaki wrote:Buke is the only guy on the team who plays tough defense and hustles every minute he's on the floor, solid rebounder and is always running hard down court. So what if he doesn't score a ton? With the ball hogs on this team it's a wonder he ever touches the ball. And actually he doesn't much. Anyway, he's still an efficient 45% FG, and 37% 3PT.

The haters just screwed up and let the D League label cloud their judgement on Buke. But they're still sticking to their laughable opinions despite all the evidence that he can play.

I couldn't agree more, excellent post. Buike's definitely a goner in the offseason and which ever team is going to get a solid young two guard.