NBA PM: All-Rookie Teams Named
This year’s T-Mobile All-Rookie team is smattering of all kinds. There are top picks (two of them!), a second-rounder and one guy who went undrafted… in 2007.
NBA Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin headlines the All-Rookie first team. He’s joined by fellow top pick Wizards point guard John Wall, Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, Knicks swingman Landry Fields and Spurs guard Gary Neal; while the second team is comprised of Pistons big man Greg Monroe, Timberwolves forward Wesley Johnson, Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe, Jazz power forward Derrick Favors and Pacers swingman Paul George.
Other players receiving votes including Raptors forward Ed Davis, 76ers guard Evan Turner, Wizards guard Jordan Crawford, Jazz point forward Gordon Hayward, Bulls center Omer Asik, Rockets power forward Patrick Patterson, Clippers small forward Al-Farouq Aminu, Spurs big man Tiago Splitter, Wizards forward Trevor Booker, Cavaliers swingman Christian Eyenga and Warriors power forward Ekpe Udoh.
The league’s 30 head coaches handled the voting and they were prevented from picking players on their own team. Two points were given for a first-place vote and one was given for a second-place vote, which means every coach put Griffin (58 points) on the first team but one relegated Wall (57 points) to the second team.
But before we go hunting down the guy who slighted Wall, here are some players who have legitimate gripes of their own:
Omer Asik—The native of Bursa, Turkey won’t fill up a stat sheet (he averaged only 2.8 PPG and 3.7 RPG in 12.1 MPG during the regular season), but Asik deserves a black belt when it comes to denying shots. He was invaluable during Joakim Noah’s lengthy absence and managed to steal a few minutes from the veteran during the Bulls’ defeat of the Hawks on Tuesday night (obviously the voting is purely based on the regular season). Perhaps Asik’s best performance of the year came in mid-March when he outplayed Noah and Nets center Brook Lopez by scoring 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, grabbing 16 boards and blocking two shots in an 84-73 win. Asik lacks good hands, a shooter’s touch and any offensive intuition, but he plays as if he’s just stepped out of Tom Thibodeau’s id. Certainly a few more second-place votes were in order.
Gary Forbes—Like his fellow “Gary,” Gary Neal, Forbes wasn’t drafted by an NBA team, so he had to prove himself in about a half-dozen leagues before catching on in America. The 6-7 swingman from Panama City made up for lost time by averaging 5.2 PPG and 12.6 MPG over 63 appearances. After scoring in double figures for the final three games of the regular season, he probably expected to get at least one or two second-place votes.
Robert Traylor R.I.P.
There’s been a lot of discussion about Dirk Nowitzki’s place in history after his Mavericks swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals this past week. One footnote on Nowitzki’s journey to stardom was his draft-day trade from Milwaukee back in 1998.
Sadly, the man on the other end of that deal, Robert “Tractor” Traylor, has died of an apparent heart attack in Puerto Rico, according to an Associated Press report by Danica Coto. Traylor, 34, was said to have been missing for a few days before being discovered in his apartment in San Juan, where he had been playing professionally for the Bayamon Cowboys.
Drafted by the Mavericks with the sixth overall pick in 1998, Traylor—who routinely weighed around 300 pounds as a pro—was sent to the Bucks for Nowtizki and Pat Garrity.
Traylor spent the next two seasons in Milwaukee before bouncing around from the Cavaliers to the Hornets (both Charlotte and New Orleans) and then back to Cleveland in 2004-2005. He had signed with the Nets before the 2005-2006 season, but failed his physical and ultimately went on to play in Turkey, Italy and Puerto Rico. Traylor failed to score and registered two fouls in his final professional performance—a five-minute effort on April 26th.
“He was a leader of the team,” Cowboys manager Jose Carlos Perez told the AP. “He was very, very friendly. He got along very well with everyone. The fans loved him, idolized him.
“His game was one of a lot of strength, a lot of defense,” Perez continued.
Prior to Traylor’s disappointing professional career he averaged 13.3 PPG and 8.2 RPG over three seasons with the Wolverines, but was ultimately disgraced for his involvement in the school’s much-publicized recruiting scandal. Traylor was named as one of the Michigan players who was paid by Ed Martin—a booster who was awaiting sentencing for making illegal payments to basketball players at the time of his death in 2003.
“At Michigan State we battled against him and he might have been the most time-consuming and mind-challenging matchup we ever faced and we as coaches weren’t even playing,” former Spartans assistant coach and current Indiana Hoosiers coach Tom Crean wrote on his Twitter account. “He had great feet and hands and a very soft touch… You really had to have a plan to stop him.”
Taylor is survived by his two sons and his wife, who he was reportedly speaking with on the phone Wednesday when the line went dead. She contacted the team and asked for someone to check on him, which is how they found his body.
{AUTHOR_BOX}25 Early Entry Candidates Withdraw from NBA Draft
Kentucky’s Terrence Jones highlights today’s list of 25 underclassman that have withdrawn from the NBA Draft and will return to school. Other notable players who will remain amateurs include Xavie’s Terrell Holloway, Minnesota’s Ralph Sampson III and Yale’s Greg Mangano.
Olu Ashaolu, Louisiana Tech
Keion Bell, Pepperdine
Laurence Bowers, Missouri
TyShwan Edmondson, Austin Peay
Kim English, Missouri
Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh
Desmond Holloway, Coastal Carolina
Terrell Holloway, Xavier
Orlando Johnson, UC-Santa Barbara
Reggie Johnson, Miami
Tiondre Johnson, Coastal Bend JC (TX)
Kevin Jones, West Virginia
Terrence Jones, Kentucky
David Loubeau, Texas A&M
Greg Mangano, Yale
Cameron Moore, Alabama-Birmingham
Darrion Pellum, Hampton
J.P. Primm, North Carolina-Asheville
Ralph Sampson III, Minnesota
John Shurna, Northwestern
Tony Taylor, George Washington
Hollis Thompson, Georgetown
Thomas Tibbs Jr., Staten Island
Charlie Westbrook, South Dakota
Brandon Wood, Valparaiso
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