NBA.com: Durant, Rose among players in 2009 Rookie Challenge
Guess who got hosed on an invite to the Rookie/Sophomore game? That's right, Kevin Love.
Whether he was offered a position and turned it down, I don't know.
about 3 years ago
wyn
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pretty major mistake as far as I'm concerned -
I mean, Marc Gasol? Am I missing something? Maybe they’d prefer it if McHale gave him 40 min./game.
by plinytheelder on Jan 28, 2009 1:54 PM CST up reply actions
Oden
I would argue that Oden got in due to his status as #1 pick of 2007. Why does the Rookie team need 3 centres? Oden is the worst centre statistically and I hope he doesnt start due to his draft position.
There is only one forward on the rookie roster- Beasley. Love should have got a look. The rookie team will struggle with the size of the Sophmore team which has 7 forwards Durant, Jeff Green, Luis Scola, Al Thornton, Thaddeus Young and Wilson Chandler,
uh...
Oden’ PER is #2 among rookies, only behind Speights. I agree Love was a bad omission (Love is 3rd in PER), but he should be in at the expense of Gordon, Beasley or Gasol.
Boomshakalaka
Yeah..
…Oden is killing it of late. The bigs should have been Oden, Speights, Love, and Lopez.
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PER
I know its blasphemy on this site, but I dont like PER. I’m not sure how much the selectors look at it. Oden is averaging less ppg than Lopez/Gasol and is averaging 7.2 rpg compared to 7.9rpg and 7.1rpg by Lopez and Gasol. I would argue the only reason Oden averages less mpg than the other reason is because of fouling.
so having Joel Przybilla (quite possibly the best backup C in the league)
on the team doesn’t factor into it?
Boomshakalaka
Lopez will mostly play as a power forward in that game, so Beasley can take the small forward position
Oden – Lopez is an awesome front court. Still sorry for you that Love missed out, pretty much as the only rookie among the top draftees.
Sack of S
That’s the biggest sack of Shiiiiiiiiiiet I’ve ever seen. Give me one good reason why Marc Gasol is in there. Memphis already has All Start weekend representation in Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo. Rudy Fernandez is already on the team representing Spain, and Lopez and Oden are more qualified centers. I don’t get the NBA sometimes.
Something to take away is that it could be a little extra “people doubt me” juice for Kevin Love.
PEOPLE DOUBT ME
Not only some extra juice for Love, but it seems to me like it could inspire Coach Mac to loosen the reins a bit.
Unleashed Kevin Love makes a strong second half push for ROY, starting with a 20/15 performance against the Pistons tonight.
by callmeishmael on Jan 28, 2009 2:42 PM CST up reply actions
agreed...
..this is a sack of shit. All of the other interested parties already had something to root for. This should have been the Wolves’ 1st All Star bright spot since KG left.
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Love got screwed
And if Al doesn’t get named as a reserve, I think the Wolves and their fans are entitled to go back to thinking that the NBA and David Stern in particular hates them.
The #1 offensive rebounder in the NBA is a rookie and he’s not playing in the rookie-sophomore game? That’s utter B.S.
Big Al
Maybe they know that Big Al earned an All-Star spot or something. That’s the only explanation I can come up with, but even that doesn’t make any sense. The more I think about this the more it pisses me off.
the one good thing
is the time off – frankly I’d rather go to the beach or something for a week than take part in that game – then again I’m not 20 years old and don’t have boundless energy ;)
by plinytheelder on Jan 28, 2009 2:37 PM CST up reply actions
I have a cheat code for boundless energy if you want it.
But I’ll have to go through my Nintendo Power back issues at home tonight to find it.
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up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start
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yes please to more energy!
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m still sore/tired from playing ball on Saturday. Admittedly I overdid it (for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to play for 3.5 hours…real intelligent), but 4 days? I’m officially old. I tried to go for a ski today and almost coughed up a lung.
by plinytheelder on Jan 28, 2009 6:46 PM CST up reply actions
I went to the Blaisdell Y tonight...
… and after waiting for the construction to finish (I moved to the neighborhood in June) they tell me that the basketball court is still 6 weeks away from being ready. I’m going crazy.
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I used to belong to that Y...
….I was on the swim team. I went to grade school about 2 blocks away at Lake Country. I love that neighborhood.
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oh yeah
is that Blaisdell and about 33rd? It’s great down there, I had a buddy when I first came here who was at 33rd/Grand and then 35th/Nicollet, I agree, it’s a great neighbourhood. Anyways Wyn I play most Saturdays in a church at Bloomington/27th, if you need a run you’re always welcome to join us, we suck but hey they gym’s open ;)
by plinytheelder on Jan 29, 2009 9:38 AM CST up reply actions
it's a really great neighborhood..
…i haven’t lived there in a while, but Nicollet and about 38th used to have some really great dive joints like P&G Fish Fry. There also used to be a decent Vietnamese restaurants in the area down 38th about a block away from Lake Country. They’ve since moved over to Uptown on Lyndale. Saigon is the name of the place. Amazing greasy egg rolls. The rest of the menu is ok but the egg rolls are worth a try.
The big place to play in the summer in that neighborhood is at MLK park.
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That corner
is one of the best in town, there is a phenomenal Mexican restaurant there now called Tacos Blass (strange non-Mexican sounding name but whatever), great place to eat and drink very cheap, plus you can keep up on telenovelas or Mexican league soccer ;) I think the fish fry closed for a while but is now open again? I remember telling someone about how they’d closed but then seeing them open, I think this is last August or so. (It’s about 15 blocks south of my place so I don’t get down there much in the winter.) That’s one thing about Mpls, there are some fantastic corners – weird thing to say but I’ve never lived in a place like this, one that’s so oriented around corners where there will be about 8-10 businesses and then it will become completely residential again on all sides. 35th/Bryant is pretty cool too, 42nd/Cedar, etc. Thanks for the tip on the park, I didn’t know about that one.
by plinytheelder on Jan 29, 2009 10:09 AM CST up reply actions
We should have a gameday thread about best corners in the twin cities..
….my absolute favorite is in the Nokomis area at 34th and, I believe, 52nd. It has Nokomis shoes, a nice little Mexican place, a nice Italian place, the best Swedish bakery in town, a bowling alley, post office, library, grocery store and even a Super America…all within a block or two. Our first house in Minneapolis was the one right across the alley from the post office. At the time (mid 80s) it was a neighborhood where folks worked at the VA or Ford plant. Very blue collar and you could walk everywhere. I haven’t been back there in a while so I don’t know how it’s changed but I can’t imagine it has gone with a complete overhaul.
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yeah that one gets votes just for that place!
that one in Nokomis sounds good too, I don’t know that area at all, I ride my bike down there a fair bit in the summer and ski near there in the winter, but have never explored the neighbourhood at all, sounds cool.
by plinytheelder on Jan 29, 2009 8:11 PM CST up reply actions
Thanks pliny!
I might actually take you up on that in the near future. I literally haven’t played since the summer before last. Not one pick-up game last year. Embarrassing. So, I’ll suck too.
But re: the ‘hood, yep that’s me. I’m over on 1st and walked to the Y last night. The place was packed. It sucked.
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Assistant Coaches
FYI assistant coaches select the Rook/Soph game rosters.
If Love didn’t get selected, Big Al’s sure as hell not an All-Star.
Love’s is the bigger snub, but both are ridiculous.
If Big Al gets snubbed...
…I think it’s a legit question which one was the bigger snub. Here’s hoping for a monster night against Detroit.
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an outsider's perspective...
Love would for sure be the bigger snub. He shouldn’t even have been one of the last 2 players in.
In Jefferson’s case you can make a good argument for him not being there. My reserves go like this:
Guards: Billups, Roy
Forwards: Nowitzki, Gasol
Center: Jefferson (but only by a slim margin over Shaq, and you can make a solidcase for the Big Cactus).
Wild cards: Parker, Millsap (other candidates: Deron Williams, Ginobili, Shaq, Camby, Biedrins, Terry, Nene, Aldridge).
So it wouldn’t be crazy to make Shaq the backup Center and give the wildcards to two of the guys I listed above before you give it to Big Al. Personally, I’m with Wolves fans that Al should be there over Shaq, but it wouldn’t be as big as the Love snub if he were to be left out. Also, voters seem to take team record into account more for the ASG than the Rook/Soph game and while the Wolves have been awesome in 2009, the early part of the season has to count also.
Boomshakalaka
Say, how many people get in?
Are there only 10 people on the all-star team? In this case yeah, I think you’re right – they’ll pick Shaq over Jefferson every day, for sentimental reasons or whatever – well OK also because his team is better. I think Jefferson only gets in as the 3rd option at C, or some kind of forward or something. (I might put him ahead of Gasol if he’s considered an F. Man it would be nice to see Nenê in there too – not going to happen, but it would be nice.)
I was surprised to see only 9 or 10 people on the rookie-soph rosters.
by plinytheelder on Jan 28, 2009 6:45 PM CST up reply actions
Tough Break
The 2009 Kevin Love is a ROY candidate—especially if he got 5-10 more (much deserved) minutes per game.
Unfortunately, the 2008 Kevin Love probably held him behind the goons like Lopez and Gasol, who have gotten consistent minutes.
Agree love got shorted
Kevin should be on the rookie team, no doubt. I think at Gasol’’s expense. Lopez has actually been playing better and more consistently than Gasol.
I also say big AJ should be an all star. He is a killer down low. Like Zach Randolf’s game but probably better and with less off court baggage. I think some make to big a deal of picking all stars from winnig teams. Well, hasn’t Minnesota been winning a lot lately?
This isn't the Lakers,...
"It's not Show time. It's GO time!"
"War is Hell. Go to War!"
stop comparing Z-bo and Jefferson
dey not de same at all. wun cares bout winnin de udder dunnit. wun relies heavily on mid range jumpers de udder dunnit. wun be a feind for playin basketball de udder be a fiend fo chifein on de sherm stick. nah mean?
I knew beyond reasonable doubt dat Love wud get snubbed. juss de udder night i heard sum “expert” rip de wolves trade and called memphis’ end uv de deal highway robbery mayn (role reversal s n p!)
MAYN HOL UP!
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