AK Watch - he's NBA bound

Right, I think Utah Minny are going to be linked all season, young, much improved "surprise" teams. And if healthy, both of them are going to be the teams that nobody wants to play, both will make it in the playoffs over Dallas, and IMO beat out Denver for higher seeds.

Man, I'm SO ready for the season to start!!

Mutangclan wrote:

Right, I think Utah Minny are going to be linked all season, young, much improved "surprise" teams. And if healthy, both of them are going to be the teams that nobody wants to play, both will make it in the playoffs over Dallas, and IMO beat out Denver for higher seeds.

Man, I'm SO ready for the season to start!!

I think the Jazz are better than the T Wolves, but Minny should still be a playoff team. They are on the rise for sure.

Romoholic wrote:

Mutangclan wrote:

Right, I think Utah Minny are going to be linked all season, young, much improved "surprise" teams. And if healthy, both of them are going to be the teams that nobody wants to play, both will make it in the playoffs over Dallas, and IMO beat out Denver for higher seeds.

Man, I'm SO ready for the season to start!!

I think the Jazz are better than the T Wolves, but Minny should still be a playoff team. They are on the rise for sure.

So I saw on hoops hype AK said it's good to have so many European players on the T Wolves, because the basketball IQ is higher.

Not sure if that's true or not. I don't really watch enough European ball to have an opinion on it. Just though it was interesting.

[/quote]

So I saw on hoops hype AK said it's good to have so many European players on the T Wolves, because the basketball IQ is higher.

Not sure if that's true or not. I don't really watch enough European ball to have an opinion on it. Just though it was interesting. [/quote]

My take is that Euroball is actually more "sophisticated" with respect to team strategy and less reliant on individual heroism and out "athleticing" the other team with one or two dominant guys who either iso their way to the hoop or volume shoot their team to wins. Case in point is the fact that international teams have done pretty damn well against Team USA in recent years with rosters not even remotely as athletic and why some feel that Spain has a decent shot at the gold this Olympics against the stacked Team USA. Team strategy and play can frequently counter other teams individualistic strengths. Having just proved he is very well adapted to Euro-style play, (like being the MVP of that league), I think AK is really saying that he has a bunch of team mates whose style of play he can relate to and he has an opportunity to thrive because of that, playing a brand of ball he is the best at. Will be fun to watch Minny this year.

MTJazz wrote:

My take is that Euroball is actually more "sophisticated" with respect to team strategy and less reliant on individual heroism and out "athleticing" the other team with one or two dominant guys who either iso their way to the hoop or volume shoot their team to wins. Case in point is the fact that international teams have done pretty damn well against Team USA in recent years with rosters not even remotely as athletic and why some feel that Spain has a decent shot at the gold this Olympics against the stacked Team USA. Team strategy and play can frequently counter other teams individualistic strengths. Having just proved he is very well adapted to Euro-style play, (like being the MVP of that league), I think AK is really saying that he has a bunch of team mates whose style of play he can relate to and he has an opportunity to thrive because of that, playing a brand of ball he is the best at. Will be fun to watch Minny this year.

I think that is some solid analyis, but I'm not sure that it has everything to do with player Basketball IQ. Or maybe a better way to say it is that I'm not sure that Basketball IQ isn't like normal IQ, in that it doesn't really do a very good job of identifying what a person is good at.

Here's the thing, while we try to talk about basketball IQ in general terms, but NBA basketball is different from International basketball the way Physics is different than Chemistry, and just because a guy went to school to be a chemist that doesn't mean he's smarter than the guy who went to school to be a physicist or vice versa.
So I don't think in general international players have a higher Basketball IQ, they just have a different education.

So I think having so many euro guys could be a good thing AND a bad thing for Minny. The good is that with so many euros they can play a style that is more comfortable for all of them and maybe use it to their advantage. The bad is that this isn't international basketball, this is the NBA. Some of the stuff that they learned to make them effective over there just doesn't apply here.

Regardless, like you said, it should be interesting to watch.

Its official. AK returns to the NBA.

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/timberwolves-sign-veteran-forward-andrei-kirilenko

By the way, I didn't know until today that AK got the Best Defensive Player award in addition to the MVP award for his Euroleague play.

Well, just finished watching AK demolish Deng and Great Britain. I miss that guy. He looks amazing out there. Still a defensive beast, makes terrific passes, moves great without the ball and looks confident shooting as well. He finished with 35 points on 14-17 shooting, along with 3 blocks. Sucks that he's not back with Utah, but I'm excited to have him back in the league. Minny just shot way up my list of favorite non-Jazz teams.

zero24gravity wrote:

Well, just finished watching AK demolish Deng and Great Britain. I miss that guy. He looks amazing out there. Still a defensive beast, makes terrific passes, moves great without the ball and looks confident shooting as well. He finished with 35 points on 14-17 shooting, along with 3 blocks. Sucks that he's not back with Utah, but I'm excited to have him back in the league. Minny just shot way up my list of favorite non-Jazz teams.

Calgary was right. We never properly used that guy after the first three years. I see that guard from CSKA that the Wolves are bringing over with AK, Shved, had 16 points and 13 assists.

Nice article on AK here:

Kirilenko: "I'm Running Like A Young Deer"
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kirilenko-im-running-young-deer-233505714--nba.html

Excerpt: "Shved is a versatile combo guard who dominated the pace of play on Sunday, finding Kirilenko time and again for lob passes and backdoor cuts."

I am not certain how many games AK played last season, but I don't think it was very many compared to the NBA. Seems it agrees with him, that and having a team and point guard that likes to involve him, along with the easier competition. AK says he is looking forward to Adelman re-creating the flavor of the old Sacramento Kings that had Vlade and Stojakovic as key players.

Of course these great performances by AK and Shved today also have to be tempered by the fact they were competing against one of the worst teams. There is lots more Olympic competition to come.

Say Zero, was Luol Deng guarding AK? He is usually pretty good.

Crunchtime1 wrote:

Nice article on AK here:

Kirilenko: "I'm Running Like A Young Deer"
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kirilenko-im-running-young-deer-233505714--nba.html

Excerpt: "Shved is a versatile combo guard who dominated the pace of play on Sunday, finding Kirilenko time and again for lob passes and backdoor cuts."

I am not certain how many games AK played last season, but I don't think it was very many compared to the NBA. Seems it agrees with him, that and having a team and point guard that likes to involve him, along with the easier competition. AK says he is looking forward to Adelman re-creating the flavor of the old Sacramento Kings that had Vlade and Stojakovic as key players.

Of course these great performances by AK and Shved today also have to be tempered by the fact they were competing against one of the worst teams. There is lots more Olympic competition to come.

Say Zero, was Luol Deng guarding AK? He is usually pretty good.

They started out on eachother, then the Brits switched a couple other guys onto AK with no better luck. AK did kill Deng on D though. Luol is Great Britain's primar player and AK shut him down. Deng has around 25 points, but it was on something like 8-27 shooting. He Russians knocked the crap out of him. In fairness to Deng though, Andrei's supporting cast is better.

During the Russia/Spain game today, Andrei was quoted sayng the reason he went to MIN isn't the money, it's bcause Peja S.and Vlade Divac told him he would thrive under R.Adelman.

Not sure how much truth there is to that, considering the size of that contract, but I do think he'll enjoy that style of ball.