CDR and the Soul Tones - Chris Douglas-Roberts Thread

[-Ian-]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/rick_bonnell/status/410691969267290112[/tweet]

[thruthefire]

Not surprising to see Southerland go. Clifford can say he was pleased with his development all he wants, but the fact that he didn't trust him to play at all with MKG and Taylor out is much more telling.

[mrknowitall215]

CDR & MKG - The Hyphen Brothers...or Cousins...or Teammates

The first time I read about Michael Gilchrist was in a Philadelphia newspaper.

It was July 2007. He was 13 and talking about his desire to one day play for John Calipari at Memphis.

Few days later, I was hanging around late on the first day of the LeBron James Skills Academy, talking to Chris Douglas-Roberts, who played for Calipari at Memphis. We were two of only about eight or nine people still in the gym. We were sitting on the bleachers watching LeBron James play on the court with his first son, LeBron James Jr., who was almost 3 years old at the time. William Wesley was there too, of course. Why wouldn't he be? I think former Alabama coach Mark Gottfried was also there, but I don't remember exactly.

Either way, that's not the point.

The point is that eventually Douglas-Roberts introduced me to a tall kid, just said, "This is my little cousin, Mike." I quickly realized that the Mike I had just met was the Michael Gilchrist I had just read about, and it doesn't matter that he and Douglas-Roberts aren't really cousins. What matters is that Gilchrist was "a part of the family" way back then, which is why it was no surprise when the Class of 2011 star formally committed to play for Calipari at a Wednesday press conference.

Growing up, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist looked up to and tried to model his game after former Memphis star Chris Douglas-Roberts. Michael fondly remembers watching Douglas-Roberts compete for the national championship in 2008. “I talk to him like every day,” Michael said. “As soon as we met, we bonded. He’s like a mentor, a big brother to me. I don’t have a brother, so that’s who I look up to as a brother. When he was in college, I was in eighth grade and I tried to model my game after him. He went to the Final Four against Kansas when I was in eighth grade. I like his swagger on the court and he has a lot of heart.”

[catch20two]

CDR & MKG - The Hyphen Brothers...or Cousins...or Teammates

The first time I read about Michael Gilchrist was in a Philadelphia newspaper.

It was July 2007. He was 13 and talking about his desire to one day play for John Calipari at Memphis.

Few days later, I was hanging around late on the first day of the LeBron James Skills Academy, talking to Chris Douglas-Roberts, who played for Calipari at Memphis. We were two of only about eight or nine people still in the gym. We were sitting on the bleachers watching LeBron James play on the court with his first son, LeBron James Jr., who was almost 3 years old at the time. William Wesley was there too, of course. Why wouldn't he be? I think former Alabama coach Mark Gottfried was also there, but I don't remember exactly.

Either way, that's not the point.

The point is that eventually Douglas-Roberts introduced me to a tall kid, just said, "This is my little cousin, Mike." I quickly realized that the Mike I had just met was the Michael Gilchrist I had just read about, and it doesn't matter that he and Douglas-Roberts aren't really cousins. What matters is that Gilchrist was "a part of the family" way back then, which is why it was no surprise when the Class of 2011 star formally committed to play for Calipari at a Wednesday press conference.

Growing up, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist looked up to and tried to model his game after former Memphis star Chris Douglas-Roberts. Michael fondly remembers watching Douglas-Roberts compete for the national championship in 2008. “I talk to him like every day,” Michael said. “As soon as we met, we bonded. He’s like a mentor, a big brother to me. I don’t have a brother, so that’s who I look up to as a brother. When he was in college, I was in eighth grade and I tried to model my game after him. He went to the Final Four against Kansas when I was in eighth grade. I like his swagger on the court and he has a lot of heart.”

Great piece. This just made me like the signing 100x more than the 100x I already did!

[Elden Payton]

It really is a genius move by Cho.

Sign a talented guy to the minimum who happens to be our best prospects friend and a guy he looks upto.

He's young enough that he can be a part of our team longterm and is better than JT who our coach seems to love.

I'm sure CDR can have a positive impact in MKG's development.

[MPM]

Like the signing for all of the warm and fuzzy reasons, but withholding judgement on this one as I don't really know enough about him as a player. CDR never interested me enough to pay attention to when he was with the Nets, etc. - my impression of him was always as an offensively limited, hustling role player - but that impression is based purely on ignorance.

Anyone here actually follow CDR? Know a bit about what he can and can't do?

[mrknowitall215]

Like the signing for all of the warm and fuzzy reasons, but withholding judgement on this one as I don't really know enough about him as a player. CDR never interested me enough to pay attention to when he was with the Nets, etc. - my impression of him was always as an offensively limited, hustling role player - but that impression is based purely on ignorance.

Anyone here actually follow CDR? Know a bit about what he can and can't do?

I've somewhat followed Chris Douglas-Roberts as a fan ever since his freshman year at Memphis, or maybe you can even say before that. I remembered a roommate of mine at Five Star Camp, Drew Neitzel, telling me about CDR being one of the better players in the state of Michigan, and I dated a girl from Flint, MI in college that had a crush on him & always made me feel like I was in competition (since I was a former basketball player myself), so I've always kept tabs on him. CDR is a very intriguing player with a lot of fluidity for his size, kind of helter-skelter, but he has quite the handle. In-game wise, he's one of those players that attack the rim at will, but he has a nice off-balance midrange jumper. Don't expect CDR to be a 3-point threat, but he'll make the occasional corner three without much hesitation. Having a player like CDR with the Bobcats could help take their transition offense to another level, alongside players like Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, and Ramon Sessions who can get out & run as soon as the ball come off the rim, or after they force a turnover. CDR will be a great fit for Charlotte

[MPM]

Like the signing for all of the warm and fuzzy reasons, but withholding judgement on this one as I don't really know enough about him as a player. CDR never interested me enough to pay attention to when he was with the Nets, etc. - my impression of him was always as an offensively limited, hustling role player - but that impression is based purely on ignorance.

Anyone here actually follow CDR? Know a bit about what he can and can't do?

I've somewhat followed Chris Douglas-Roberts as a fan ever since his freshman year at Memphis, or maybe you can even say before that. I remembered a roommate of mine at Five Star Camp, Drew Neitzel, telling me about CDR being one of the better players in the state of Michigan, and I dated a girl from Flint, MI in college that had a crush on him & always made me feel like I was in competition (since I was a former basketball player myself), so I've always kept tabs on him. CDR is a very intriguing player with a lot of fluidity for his size, kind of helter-skelter, but he has quite the handle. In-game wise, he's one of those players that attack the rim at will, but he has a nice off-balance midrange jumper. Don't expect CDR to be a 3-point threat, but he'll make the occasional corner three without much hesitation. Having a player like CDR with the Bobcats could help take their transition offense to another level, alongside players like Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, and Ramon Sessions who can get out & run as soon as the ball come off the rim, or after they force a turnover. CDR will be a great fit for Charlotte

Great insight! Looking forward to seeing how he meshes. Feels like a call up that might stick longer term.

[ohara]

Very good move by Cho! Love the signing!

[mrknowitall215]

Great insight! Looking forward to seeing how he meshes. Feels like a call up that might stick longer term.

I feel like I left a few footnotes out as well. CDR is one of the better ballers in the States that hasn't had the opportunity to stick around the league as at least a rotational player for whatever reasons, whereas it's definitely not talent. If you let CDR tell it, he would consider himself "not a victim, because that's weak, but a casualty to the business side" of how the NBA works (connections; relationships; preceded reputations). CDR is only 26 years of age, basically just entering his prime, without any major injuries to setback his career he should still have some better years ahead of him. In the grand total of 161 career games in the NBA for CDR with the New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, and a very brief stint with the Dallas Mavericks last year, he's averaged 24.7 points on 52% field goal shooting in the 10 games he's received at least 40 minutes, 14.2 points on 44% field goal shooting in the 24 games he's received between 30-39 minutes, and 8.6 points on 43% field goal shooting in the 42 games he's received between 20-29 minutes. You should expect the latter numbers from him with the Bobcats, but that's still consistent production off the bench that won't be a crashing liability whenever he's in the game

[catch20two]

As a Jersey native and a former Nets fan I feel like I should be able to give some insight since we drafted him. Very talented player that I was surprised fell to the second round because he was a 1st team All American in college on the best team and it wasn't like he was a midget. He's 6-7 but can dribble like a PG or something. He rode the bench heavy in his rookie year behind Vince Carter and Bobby Simmons but my brightest memory of him was in his second season. We was trash after trading Vince to Orlando and we loss like 18 games straight to start the season but what you expect when you're being coached by Lawrence Frank. Look at Brooklyn. Back on subject. Devin Harris was injured and almost everybody else. CDR averaged like 20 points in the first 2 months of the season on like 50% shooting. Then he got into it with management. He and Kiki Vandeweghe who was the GM and interim coach after Frank was fired midseason put CDR straight into the doghouse. That basically was the end of CDR in New Jersey and pretty much why he's sputtered out if the league ever since. He came back and had a 24 point game with a win on us with the Bucks the next season and was talking trash. He just wanted to win. That was his frustration with the Nets and as a young player entering the league it took a toll on him and he didn't know how to be professional quite yet. That's about all I can remember about CDR. I've always liked him. I'm happy that I'll get to root for him again.

[Snidely FC]

CDR & MKG - The Hyphen Brothers...or Cousins...or Teammates

Interesting. very cool, actually.

Don't expect CDR to be a 3-point threat, but he'll make the occasional corner three without much hesitation.

I had this thought during the GSW game: instead of trying to fit our players to the way everyone else in the league is trying to play (3&D) Cliffy appears to have concluded our best chance to win is play great D and take the offense to the paint. He's using his players strong suits instead of forcing them to be something they're not. I guess CDR fits the model.

[LamarMatic7]

Like the signing for all of the warm and fuzzy reasons, but withholding judgement on this one as I don't really know enough about him as a player. CDR never interested me enough to pay attention to when he was with the Nets, etc. - my impression of him was always as an offensively limited, hustling role player - but that impression is based purely on ignorance.

Anyone here actually follow CDR? Know a bit about what he can and can't do?

I've somewhat followed Chris Douglas-Roberts as a fan ever since his freshman year at Memphis, or maybe you can even say before that. I remembered a roommate of mine at Five Star Camp, Drew Neitzel, telling me about CDR being one of the better players in the state of Michigan, and I dated a girl from Flint, MI in college that had a crush on him & always made me feel like I was in competition (since I was a former basketball player myself), so I've always kept tabs on him. CDR is a very intriguing player with a lot of fluidity for his size, kind of helter-skelter, but he has quite the handle. In-game wise, he's one of those players that attack the rim at will, but he has a nice off-balance midrange jumper. Don't expect CDR to be a 3-point threat, but he'll make the occasional corner three without much hesitation. Having a player like CDR with the Bobcats could help take their transition offense to another level, alongside players like Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, and Ramon Sessions who can get out & run as soon as the ball come off the rim, or after they force a turnover. CDR will be a great fit for Charlotte

Great insight! Looking forward to seeing how he meshes. Feels like a call up that might stick longer term.

haha, great insight is right - I loved the competition for a girl he's dating angle.

[KembaWalker]

he shot 40% from 3 and 89% from the FT line in the d-league for what its worth. super small sample size though.

Obviously small sample size and he's probably not as good as those numbers suggest but he should be definitely be a threat to shoot. I doubt he's any worse than Taylor

[dmutombo321]

I noticed the same thing. His range has definitely improved since his first couple years.

[HornetJail]

He might be our 2nd best bench player right now while MKG and box are out

[mrknowitall215]

If you're interested in going a little deeper into the life of CDR, you can check out his 2-part webisode series "I'm Not A Star" where he lightly discuss the politics of NBA that has kept him out of the league, his family life, and of course the entree of it all, his basketball regime over the past year or so...

Part 1
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bqo4g2bC4o[/youtube]

Part 2
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGPtMFVSHb8[/youtube]

[mrknowitall215]

As a Jersey native

North or South Jersey?

[Radu_Hornets]

Very interesting videos, I'll look them after I'll the library.

But from the 2 min I saw from the video, he make me feel like he just want a chance in the big league and needs to get set in the good roster, that also fits him. I can't say if Charlotte will be. Some players needs big stars to manage them (ala beasley in Miami), other, needs to be with no big stars as it is in charlotte.

If he comes in Charlotte he would need to put up some shoots, however, from the footage i've seen until now, hi shoot mechanism is a bit slow, just as slow as Taylor.

Wait & See, but I wish him good luck, if he's not a "head case", i'd probably like him.

[Eoghan]

Seems like a good pick-up, he does have game for sure. I just wonder about that old saying, "never meet your heroes" with MKG and all.