Austin Toros draft party notes

[ChumpDumper]

Not a whole lot to report. Champions was packed with the party, Spurs game viewers and college football fans, so it was kind of a mess. I got to ask a few questions about the team in passing and it looks like the four players they initially kept from last season are Jamar Smith, Scott Merritt, Jeff Hagen and Anthony Fuqua -- all PF/Cs.

The players they drafted in the first two rounds were point guards. Darius Washington Jr., who played in the Mavs summer league, and BJ Elder, who played in Germany last season.

I was told that there should be some big news concerning allocated players soon. I got a non-confirmation confirmation that UT's Brad Buckman would be one of those players.

Corsley Edwards was the overall 1st draft pick.

The Laker's D-League chose Devin Green with their first pick. The Lakers had just waived him a few days ago. It will be really nice for them to have a 13-man IR from now on.

The full draft board can be found here. (http://www.nba.com/dleague/news/draft_board.html) You'll find a few familiar names.

I made a cursory search of some foreign league rosters to find out where some Toros and other D-Leaguers ended up:

Marcus Fizer - Polaris Murcia (Spain, ACB)
Omar Thomas - Crabs Rimini (Italy, Lega2)
Andre Emmett - Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania, LKL)
Ramel Curry -Air Allevino (Italy, SerieA)
Erik Daniels - Angelico Biella (Italy, SerieA) [Taquan Dean is here too]
Leroy Hurd -Siviglia Wear (Italy, SerieA)
Theron Smith - Vertical Vision Cantu (Italy, SerieA)
James Thomas - Climamino Bologna (Italy, SerieA)
Alex Scales - Aris (Greece, A1) [with Mahmoud Abdul-Raouf]
Sharrod Ford - Alba (Germany, 1.Bundesliga)
Rich Melzer - Adecco ASVEL (France, ProA)
Aaron Miles - Pau-Orthez (France, ProA)

I haven't been able to track down the whereabouts of former Toros Ezra Williams, Derrick Zimmerman or Quannas White which is kind of weird. Williams has always been a reliable scorer, Zimmerman was D-League defensive player of the year and finshed out the season as a New Jersey Net. White was the USBL Player of the Year over the summer, so I thought they'd be playing somewhere by now -- but they might be waiting to join a CBA or D-League team.

[ChumpDumper]

Oh, and I met Scott Merritt and Jamar Smith. Nice guys. Dennis Johnson was too busy working the phones.

[T Park]

Rich Melzer - Adecco ASVEL (France, ProA)
Aaron Miles - Pau-Orthez (France, ProA
Asvel was the team the Spurs played correct?

And Pau Orthez is the team Mabhinmi is on correct?

[ChumpDumper]

Asvel was the team the Spurs played correct?

And Pau Orthez is the team Mabhinmi is on correct?Yep.

Oh, yeah -- I won an NBAtv T-shirt and a Coach Johnson bobblehead by knowing Albuquerque won the D-League championship last season.

[T Park]

pretty easy standards for winning bobble heads.

[ChumpDumper]

Yeah, some doofus guessed Fort Worth before me. I wasn't going to answer but I had to save the crowd (and the Toros, I guess) some embarrassment.

[Kori Ellis]

Thanks for all the great info.

[ChumpDumper]

No problem.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I might as well repeat it here: The Toros don't seem to have any quality swingmen at present. Ramel Curry, Ezra Williams, Andre Emmett and Omar Thomas were 2/3 rotation at the close of last season. If they fail to adequately replace them in free agency/allocation, a guy like James White could get huge minutes.

[timvp]

I don't think it'd happen, but sending Jackie Butler down there for a couple weeks to work on his post moves would be cool. But if the Spurs didn't send Beno down there last year when he was rotting on the bench, I don't know what it'd take for them to send someone to Austin.

[adidas11]

Marcus Fizer - Polaris Murcia (Spain, ACB)


Damn...I always wondered what happened to that guy. He had a great senior year in college. Just fell off the map at Chicago when he got into the NBA though.

[ChumpDumper]

Jackie has already been in the league two seasons so he can't be sent down. As for Beno, I was all for it, but I guess he was always on the cusp of actually being used. White is going to be so buried in the swing rotation, I can't see his displacing anyone but maybe Eric Williams this season, and that would just be trading chairs on the IR. If the Spurs are ever going to send a player up here, this is the best situation.

[shelshor]

So why don't the Spurs send anyone to the Toros?
At the risk of being naive, it seems that, given Dennis Johnson's reputation as one of the great defenders in NBA history, he'd be someone to coach/mentor a potential replacement for Bowen when Bruce retires in the not too distant future

[ChumpDumper]

They've only really had two guys eligible to be sent down - Beno and Oberto (Sanders too, if you want to get technical, but they called him up from there). As I said before Beno was always close to breaking the rotation and it would have been kind of stupid sending a vet like Oberto down. White is the ONLY guy the Spurs can send down now. He looks like he fills a big need for the Toros, and I think DJ would use him the way Pop would want him to be used in games. The Toros have a four game home stand in late December that would be a great time to evaluate White after he's had a good six weeks of practice and conditioning with the Spurs.

[shelshor]

OK, thanks for the explanation

[Notorious H.O.P.]

How about it Kori? Can you use a uniquely worded question during an media session that may cause Pop to consider the idea?

[ChumpDumper]

The only way you'll hear him say something about sending White down is if he's already decided whether to do it, and even then probably not.

[ChumpDumper]

Confirmation of the earlier report:

CLACK, BUCKMAN ALLOCATED TO TOROS

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2006 - The Austin Toros announced today that former University of Texas basketball players Kris Clack and Brad Buckman have been assigned to the NBA Development League team.

Clack, a 6’5 guard, played for the University of Texas Longhorns (1995-1999) and for Anderson High School in Austin, TX. While at Texas, Clack averaged 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and appeared in 120 games at Texas. He completed his collegiate career ranked second in school history in steals (239), fourth in rebounds (771), tied for fourth in blocks (101) and seventh in scoring (1,592 points).

Buckman, a 6’8 forward, played for the Longhorns (2002-2006) and averaged 8.6 points and 6.3 rebounds. Appearing in 129 games over the course of his collegiate career at Texas, Buckman helped lead the Longhorns to a 101-37 record over the four years, reaching the NCAA tournament every year.

“We are very excited to have two former Longhorns joining the Toros for the upcoming season,” team president Mike Berry said. “I think having homegrown stars from Austin will definitely add an exciting new dimension to our roster for our fan base, as well as for the Anderson and Westlake High communities.”

A native of Austin, Texas, Buckman returns to where he played college and high school basketball. Prior to playing for the Longhorns, Buckman played three seasons at Westlake High School and started all 93 games and compiled 1,793 points, 1,003 rebounds and 389 blocked shots. As a senior, he was selected the 2002 Texas 5A Player of the Year, CenTex Player of the Year, District MVP and All-State first team.

“In addition, I think that both players have a great opportunity to make the jump to the NBA while being role models within our community,” Berry said.

According to D-League rules, each team is assigned two players based upon a player’s previous ties to the community. Both allocated players are invited to the team’s training camp and at least one allocated player is guaranteed a spot on the team’s final 10-man roster.

The Austin Toros’ regular season home opener is Saturday, November 25 against the Fort Worth Flyers at 7:00 p.m. at the Austin Convention Center. The regular season tips off Friday, November 24 against the defending D-League champion Albuquerque Thunderbirds in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For ticket information, long on to austintoros.com or call the Toros ticket office at (512) 236-8333.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/austin/clack_buckman.html

There's also a nice summary of all the NBA players eligible to be sent down to the D-League here:

http://www.nba.com/dleague/news/dleague_downlow_061106.html

I doubt Houston sends anyone down with their constant injury problems. Boston likely will with all the young guys on their full roster.

[Bruno]

Boston likely will with all the young guys on their full roster.

Allan Ray ?

[ChumpDumper]

Yeah, he seems a likely candidate along with Powe.

[Tigole Bitties]

Did Buckman officially get booted from his Euro-team for his ADD drug issues?

[ChumpDumper]

Yes.