Etan Thomas Traded

June 25, 2009 – 2:19 pm

You probably have heard this by now but SU alum Etan Thomas has been traded from the Wizards to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota gave up former Villanova pest Randy Foye as well as the ageless Mike Miller in exchange for Etan, the 5th pick in tonight’s draft, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov.

I’ve been working on a giant Pro Update summary post to let you all know what’s happened overseas this spring. But I’ve only had leave to work on it in fits and starts, and it isn’t yet finished. I didn’t think any major news involving SU alums would go down until after the draft, but the Wiz jumped the gun on me.

I’ve been saying for a while that I expected Etan could be traded this year because his contract is in his final year, making him incredibly valuable to teams looking to clear cap space before the free agent bonanza that is coming in the summer of ‘10. The Wiz, who will be bumping up against the cap for the next several years, having signed Arenas, Butler, and Jamison to long-term big-money deals, aren’t going to be players in that frenzy. And, let’s face it, Etan didn’t have a future in DC, at least not playing basketball. (I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come back once he is retired.) But I was underwhelmed by what they ultimately got for him. Not only did they give Etan up, but also a top-5 draft pick in a pretty deep draft, and two other big men, one of whom (Songaila) actually contributed something to the team this past year. In return they get two more perimeter-type players to crowd their backcourt and their front line gets waffer-thin. But the excellent Bullets Forever breaks it own much further than I ever could.

Interestingly enough, the Wolves, who now own the #5 and #6 picks, are rumored to be interested in drafting Jonny Flynn to replace Foye (though their primary target appears to be Tyreke Evans). Meanwhile, Etan becomes the third center on Minnesota behind Al Jefferson and Jason Collins. The good news is that Minnesota will be getting a new coach (not former Wiz boss Eddie Jordan, though — he went to Philly), and they were so bad last year that Etan should get a chance to earn some time during camp. Whether he succeeds or not is anyone’s guess.

See you after the draft!

By Josh | Posted in Etan Thomas, NBA, syracuse | Comments (0)

well that’s just peachy

June 15, 2009 – 7:25 pm

Luke Harangody pulled his name out of the draft and will play his final season for the Irish.  Grand.

Other than Thabeet this is the last player I would have liked to see back in the league.  Although he proved himself overrated last season, he remained incredibly annoying.  Also, I’m pissed in general to hear any time another team gets a player back that was supposed to be gone, considering what happened to SU.

By Syracusan | Posted in Notre Dame | Comments (2)

Still alive

April 23, 2009 – 2:57 pm

Our dreams of a preseason top-five ranking crushed, we here at Cuse Country haven’t had much to say recently. From the way the mock drafts have shaped up since the season ended, it appears Jonny is making the right move. While this year’s draft is fairly heavy on point guards, it’s weak overall compared to next year’s predicted roster. He’s risen, not into the lottery, but at least to a point where he’s extremely likely to get chosen in Round 1, and get the guaranteed money. So, we’ll miss you Jonny — but wish you nothing but good luck and success.

It makes sense for Unforced Eric to leave too. He’s about to get his degree, he’s got a daughter to take care of, he won’t have to worry about being suspended, and he’s got a fine career ahead of him — in Europe. It’s possible he’ll impress some team enough at the workouts to warrant a late second-round pick; it’s probable that he’ll get an invite to be on an NBA summer league team; it’s nearly certain that he will not make it anywhere near an NBA bench in the fall without buying a ticket (or maybe Donte will sneak him in the side door). But he can make a nice living playing ball somewhere for the next several years, and of course we will chronicle it. (Mea culpa: the Pro Updates have fallen off this site not due to a lack of interest but due to a lack of time on my part. I hope to put together a comprehensive wrapup in a few weeks, but right now the outside world has too many demands. I will remind you at least that Carmelo has won two playoff games for the first time ever, and it looks like he and Jason Hart might actually advance to the 2nd round.) It’s too bad, though — I was hoping he’d stick around just to annoy the rest of the college basketball world a little more. Especially with the “I can’t believe that guy is still playing college ball!” crowd.

For Paul Harris, the whole saga is just weird. He takes off after the season, goes underground for a couple of weeks in Niagara Falls, and while he’s gone the athletic dept. releases a statement that he’s declaring for the draft, which he says he hadn’t decided to do or not but now he may as well and see what happens, and people report that Boeheim told him to go because he is going to get stuck behind Wes Johnson, but Boeheim and Harris both deny it, but he’s testing the waters anyway. He’s not going to get drafted either. He might have more trouble than Devo finding gainful employment overseas — I don’t know if his style of play fits well into the European game. He’s too talented to not find a deal somewhere, but it might not be where he wants to go. But it’s hard to say that he’d be better off staying at SU another year. He’s clearly lost a lot of confidence in his game and himself; it’s unclear whether another season of getting the Boeheim gasface will do anything to change that. His best bet is probably to come back and prove that he’s matured both in his abilities and his mental approach, and that he’s ready to be a leader. If he would take an Onganaet-like approach, he could be a dominant defender and rebounder. But that means no taking plays off, no sulking. Just being very workmanlike. If he comes back to SU with that change in attitude, he can end up in the NBA as a Renaldo Balkman or Reggie Evans type. Limited offense, but tons of hustle, defense, and rebounding. Tenaciousness. That’s what he needs. Thing is, though, he’ll need it whether he plays another year in college or whether he goes pro. I don’t envy him his decision — it’s not a clear path and both choices have the potential to turn out great or disastrous. (Though this is all from a basketball standpoint; there’s also the potential college degree to think about.)

Anyway, we’re now looking at a potential starting five of:

Scoop
Rautins
Johnson
Jackson
Onuaku

which should be an amazing defensive team but will have limited outside scoring. Word is that Johnson has a good stroke for big man, and that Scoop’s jump shot has been transformed during this redshirt season (god i hope so), but I’ll believe that when I see it. It remains to be seen whether Mookie Jones can provide a jolt of preimeter shooting from the bench. He shot 32% this season in his limited minutes. And I’m not going to count on anything from the incoming freshmen — I’ve learned that lesson too many times.

By Josh | Posted in Eric Devendorf, Gas Face, Jim Boeheim, Jonny Flynn, Mookie Jones, Paul Harris, Scoop Jardine, Wesley Johnson, syracuse | Comments (4)

we stand corrected: it was too early to start the hype

April 13, 2009 – 12:18 pm

Flynn has signed with an agent.

Meanwhile rumors persist that Devo and Paul Harris are done with college basketball regardless of their limited draft potential. Their decisions appear to be more personal than anything to do with delusions of NBA grandeur.

There’s a twisted logic to all three of these moves, but that doesn’t make them any less painful. I can’t deal with this right now.

By Syracusan | Posted in Eric Devendorf, Jonny Flynn, NBA, Paul Harris | Comments (2)

Never too early to start the hype, part II

April 7, 2009 – 1:08 pm

This morning on SportsCenter, basketball Hall-of-Famer Dick Vitale (god that makes me shudder) laid out his top five contenders for the 2010 title (with the appropriate caveat that you never know what will happen with kids leaving early, academic defections, and so on). I can’t find a link to the segment online but here’s his list:

5. Michigan State
4. Purdue (honest!)
3. Syracuse
2. Duke
1. Kansas

As you may expect, he is assuming Jonny Flynn returns for his junior year. The 15 seconds or so that focused on SU were half about Flynn and half about Wesley Johnson. It seems everyone you talk to about next year is drooling over this Johnson (sorry). No mention of anyone else by name but he did say that the team is going to be “loaded”. Which is totally true, and as was pointed out in this space yesterday, it’s potentially one of the main reasons that Jonny might stick around.

My brother, who is as big a Cuse fan as they come and has forgotten more than I know about college basketball, has been predicting for weeks that if Flynn (and everyone else) stays in school, SU will be a preseason top-5 pick. He’s stoked over the prospect, in part because it’s been a long time since SU was recognized to be that good before the season began, and he misses having that kind of respect to start the year. Now it looks like the talking heads are beginning to agree with him.

Meanwhile, another story on SportsCenter was about how so many of the guys on UNC decided to return to school because they knew they’d have a good shot at a title. Are you listening to all this Jonny?!?

By Josh | Posted in In the Media, Jonny Flynn, Rankings, Wesley Johnson | Comments (1)

Lesser of two evils

April 6, 2009 – 12:53 pm

So, who you got tonight?

The hours are ticking down to the NCAA Championship game, and if you’re like me you have had a hard time finding a rooting interest in this one. If Villanova had made it I think I can say that most SU fans would be pulling for them. UConn, maybe, maybe not. There’s a different dynamic there. Some of us dislike the Huskies so much that we want them to fail spectacularly no matter what. Others like the fact that they bring strong cred to the Big East. Whatever side you fall on, it’s tougher to root for them than it would be for the scrappy private school in Philly. But that’s entirely moot at this point anyway. We’re left with a couple of unappetizing choices.
Read More »

By Josh | Posted in ACC, Big 10, Mookie Watkins, NCAA Tournament, National Championship, syracuse | Comments (0)

never too early to start the hype

April 4, 2009 – 9:30 pm

I loved this little nugget from Andy Katz’s somewhat disconcerting/somewhat heartening article about J-Flynn’s flirtation with the draft:

Flynn also wants to play with the returning Orange team as well as the newcomers. Boeheim said Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson is a “great player and he could be first-team all-league. He’s really good, really explosive.”

That quote helps mitigate the fact that we have to sweat out Flynn’s decision for the next month or two. It’s also indicative of the feel of the article, which suggested that most parties believe there are more reasons for Flynn to stay than to go — and that Flynn tends to agree with that sentiment so far.

**********

In other news, Sean at TNIAAM remains a genius. Make sure you check where Syracuse ends up in his little thought experiment, and take a moment to ponder whether Villanova should really bother to put more effort into their football program, given the kind of miserable reward they’d receive if they exchanged Jay Wright’s squad for an equally good football team.

By Syracusan | Posted in News of the Orange, Villanova, Wesley Johnson | Comments (1)

Bud Poliquin should man up

April 3, 2009 – 9:48 am

Just going to beef here for a second. This has nothing directly to do with SU basketball. Bear with me.
Read More »

By Josh | Posted in In the Media | Comments (9)

the latest in Jamesian meta-analysis

March 31, 2009 – 4:04 pm

Pat Forde is a genius. I don’t think anyone can dispute the rock-solid scientific methodology he brings to bear in his new Final Four Likability Index.

Personally I would have suspected UNC to be even more unlikable than Forde calculates, but who am I to argue with math?

Check it out here:

Our surefire method for finding the most objectively enjoyable Final Four team.

By Syracusan | Posted in Haters, NCAA Tournament, UConn, Villanova | Comments (0)

Licking our wounds

March 29, 2009 – 4:56 pm

So, it’s about 42 hours on and I’m still smarting.
Read More »

By Josh | Posted in Jonny Flynn, Losses, NCAA Tournament, Oklahoma | Comments (2)