Joe Alexander

[skorff26]

It's a bit slow right now so I thought I'd create a new thread since wiretap says he's working out for us

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/ ... or_wolves/

any thoughts?

[Krapinsky]

I think his NBA niche should be as a face up, stretch 4. Problem is we already have a few of those guys too.

[The J Rocka]

Darko/Pek/Kosta
Love/Beas/Tolliver
Beas/Johnson/Brewer/Lazar
Johnson/Webster/Brewer/Ellington
Ridnour/Flynn/Bassy

We are so loaded, I just don't see any minutes for him.

[Klomp]

Would be a 12th man pickup.

[cpfsf]

Joe Alexander looks like an unemployed porn star.

[moss_is_1]

He can jump, and is a good mid-range shooter as long as he's not moving, so he sucks.

[horaceworthy]

Would be a 12th man pickup.

13th if he's lucky.

Wouldn't mind it, seems like Kahn's already testing the ability of Rambis and his staff to become Bust Whisperers. One more couldn't hurt.

[breatnach]

Does anyone remember why this kid went from being drafted so high, to being given nearly no minutes to prove himself? He obviously had some upside, or MIL wouldn't have drafted him. What where the scouting reports like? Maybe he's a candidate for the D-League? I mean he's still young enough to develop...

[icat2000]

Milwaukee made a mistake. They cut their loses by not even extending his rookie contract. He didn't really want to listen to the coach and would rather bang the cheerleaders.

[Foye]

Please don't sign him.

[shangrila]

Milwaukee made a mistake. They cut their loses by not even extending his rookie contract. He didn't really want to listen to the coach and would rather bang the cheerleaders.

Who wouldn't? Especially when you're getting paid millions to do it.

[southern wolf]

Does anyone remember why this kid went from being drafted so high, to being given nearly no minutes to prove himself? He obviously had some upside, or MIL wouldn't have drafted him. What where the scouting reports like? Maybe he's a candidate for the D-League? I mean he's still young enough to develop...

Darko's story all over again, although Darko obviously showed a lot more promise pre-draft.

I guess we could do worse for an end of the bench towel waver, I don't think many other teams are going to throw him a lifeline.

[shangrila]

His scouting report would have went something like;

Pros -
Athletic
Had 1 good workout
Athletic
Touched the rim with his chin (OMFG!!1!)
Can defend plastic chairs (struggles with the metal ones)
White?

Cons -
Has no skills
Jump shot only works in 1 very specific circumstance
Dumb as a brick
Doesn't like our coach
Doesn't like Milwaukee
Likes our cheerleaders (con for us)
Will one day get us John Salmons (just roll with it...oh wait, that's a pro)


Seriously, who in their right mind looked at him and thought "awesome!". Whoever it was must have been fired though, as Jennings and Sanders look like much better players then Yi or Alexander ever did pre-draft.

[shrink]

From an economic perspective, I think the only way we can justify this is if we get him locked into a very cheap deal, and even then we'd have to have an injury for it to pay off. NBA front offices believe that Joe Alexander as a bust, which is why he's willing to work out with a team that has no place for him to play. They will not change that opinion without a reason .. that being surprising on-court performance. Unfortunately, MIN can't provide the minutes.

Kahn is prospecting. He's buying unwanted land on the chance that there really is oil underneath. Maybe there is, but he isn't going to spend resources on building an oil well to find out, so its unlikely that his asset will rise in value.

[shrink]

I also wonder how this would affect out current players:

We'd waive Greg Steimsma and his unguaranteed contract, because that would put us back at the NBA max 15 on the roster. Any small future moves, would probably mean getting rid of Telfair (at $2.7) in a buy-out or trade (with some other value), or perhaps Koufos.

After we invested our entire draft into the swingman position, then added Beasley, I question whether we have enough minutes for Corey Brewer. I like the kid, but he's in a Foye-like final season of his deal. If we can't give him a proper opportunity and we don't know if we'll match a high bid in 2011 for him to be part of the future Wolves, it may be better to trade him for, say, a future asset (euro, pick, deep upside prospect). Joe plays some SF, where we're already crowded especially after adding Tolliver, and I'd rather have Joe riding the bench cheap then Brewer.

[Fire Mchale]

I would agree with Shrink in that Alexander can really only be paid league minumum or danged close to merit bringing him on board. Alexander is another case of a young player with supreme athleticism that ultimately has been a washout. I don't see much if any risk in signing him considering he does have upside. The key here is that I don't want to see him consume a single minute of time from Beasley, Johnson or Webster. Therein lies the rub. If he's coming on board to make practices more interesting and to serve as supreme mop-up duty guy, fine. Otherwise I dont' see enough in him to merit sacrificing time for other players.

The other plus here is that this might motivate the club to get rid of Steimsma. Can't happen soon enough. Though I did enjoy him fouling Demarcus Cousins hard multiple times in Summer League, he has zero potential outside of 6 fouls to give.

[C.lupus]

If we aren't going to bring in a legit star, and it looks like we aren't, then I would just as soon stop with what we have now. We have more bodies than we can play at the moment and most of them are young playersneeding to prove themselves. We do not need another player like this. Just roll with what we have now.

Flyyn/Ridnour/Telfair
Webster/Brewer/Ellington
Johnson/Beasley/Hayward
Love/Beasley/Tolliver
Milicic/Pekovic/Koufos

No more bench warmers!

[TyKixx]

I have been a huge critic of this kid since he came into the league.

He is athletic, but only vertically. He can jump, but he isn't very quick. Kind of a tweener. Looks more like a PF, but with more of a small forward game. He has an ok mid range shot, but his range on it is limited. He can't put the ball on the floor. He doesn't offer any sort of specialized skill like being a noticeably good passing big. Defensively he is always going to be a bit of a liability either getting bullied on the block or burned on the perimter.

Most of these kids are scouted like crazy from like the 8th and 9th grades on. Not Joe. He grew up in China and came to the states late in his HS career. Had no scholarship offers after his senior year so he went to a prep school for a 5th year. He was finally able to catch on at WV where he basically was a nobody for 2 years. His junoir year he finally became a prominent player, but was still only an average Big East player not on NBA scouts radar until that one fateful night at Madison Square Garden and the dunk heard round the world. There has never been a single play that has propelled a player into lottery status quite like Joe Alexander's dunk on UConn's Stanley Robinson during the Big East tournement. Joe rode that wave of momentum and played his ass off through March. Every year you get a previosuly unknown prospect turned lottery pick because of their stock going through the roof in March. Joe was that player and it all started with that dunk.

A common saying NBA front office personnel use to describe raw players goes something like "This kid is 3 years away from being 3 years away". That applies to Joe. His game just is, was, and probably never will be quite NBA ready. I've always likend him to a worse version of Brian Scalabrine (I am actually kind of a fan of Scal's, he is a heady player), but who can happen to dunk. Scal is really only an emergency big who should rarely dress. The extent of his value is more as an extra assistant coach/scout/cheerleader type. That doesn't say much or bode well for Joe....at least in my harshly honest opinion.

[TyKixx]

...Truthfully, if he works really hard and makes some significant improvements in his game then I think he can carve himself out a role on a euro team. I think that is just about the upside that he has. Sorry Joe, I just don't believe you are an NBA talent. I'd actually still expect Kevin Pittsnogle to make an impact on an NBA team before Joe Alexander.

[LordBaldric]

What's the deal with Kahn bringing in other team's busts? Enough is enough.