NBA Chat With Yannis 9/30/11

Join senior NCAA and NBA analyst Yannis Koutroupis for his weekly chat on 9/30/11 at 11 am EST. As always basketball questions from all levels are welcomed.

  1. Dong of Dayton

    Hey Yannis,

    What do you think of DeJuan Blair this season? McDyess is gone, Duncans mins will prob go down again, is he ready to break out this season?

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      Welcome everyone to this week’s chat! Thanks for stopping by. Let’s get right to the questions.

      I’m still not sure he’s good enough defensively to play big minutes under Pop. That’s what got him in the dog house last year and had him watching from the sidelines as they got eliminated by the post-oriented Grizzlies. If he wants to play a starters minutes, he’s going to have to improve defensively significantly. I’d bank on Splitter seieng more time early on until Blare does that.

  2. Charlie from Philadelphia

    Bismack Biyombo reportedly has a 3 million dollar contract buyout with Fuenlabrada of the Spanish ACB, who own his rights till 2014. Predraft, Bismack and his agent were saying the contract buyout was only $1.4 million. NBA teams are allowed to pay up to $500,000 in buyout fees. If this information was leaked earlier, do you think it would have impacted his drafting position?

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      Maybe a little bit, but Biyombo seems adamant that he wants to come over now and that’s what is most important. He’ll find a way to get it paid, and possibly lowered. His situation is quite complicated, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see him get away without have to pay the full $3 million.

  3. JC

    This idea is going to sound completely awful at first but let it sink in. The Knicks aren’t going to get a third star. NY sends Billups and Turiaf to Cleveland for Davis and Varejao. Davis is much better in Dantoni’s system and the Knicks get a quality center. Cleveland gets expiring contracts. Who’s with me?

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      Not the New York Knicks. Davis is exactly what that team does not need, someone who is unreliable, expensive and ball dominant. Just not a good fit, as nice as Varejao would be for them. They’re better off just trying to get him as a free agent.

  4. Lee

    Is renaldo balk man the worst player in the NBA?

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      I hate calling out players in a manner like that, so off of the top of my head I’m not going to be able to say anyone in particular who is worse, but Balkman isn’t in a class of his own at the bottom. There are a few who are just as bad, if not worse.

  5. Lee

    Isiah isn’t returning now that Walsh is gone right…

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      I believe that it is safe to say that we won’t be seeing Thomas in any kind of major role in New York ever again. Maybe he catches on in a small capacity, but I just don’t see any way Dolan can get away with doing more. I heard that his involvement with their draft violations burned some of the last bridges he had there.

  6. erik

    westbrook, ibaka, and k perkins to the magic for d howard and jameer nelson. both teams win in this situation. your thoughts

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      My first thought is that KD and Howard would be lethal together. I don’t think that’s too bad of a deal for the Magic at all. I always preface Howard trades with the fact that they’re not open to trading him just yet, though.

  7. drew

    would you be more inclined to consider JC’s trade proposal if the amnesty clause makes it into the new CBA?

    • Yannis Koutroupis

      Absolutely, and it appears that there may be one in the new CBA. We’ll know more by the end of the day today it seems like. It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out. I’m really hoping a deal gets done but there’s a lot of ground that needs to be made up in a short amount of time. Fingers crossed!

      That’ll do it for me this week folks. I’ll talk to you next week!