Toros have traded Gadson for Yemi Nicholson

[Bruno]

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3607644

Toros Start Playoff Run With Albuquerque Trade

AUSTIN, TX - The Austin Toros announced today that they traded guard Cheyne Gadson to the Albuquerque Thunderbirds for recently acquired center Yemi Nicholson.

Gadson, a 6-3 guard out of Oklahoma State, averaged 10.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in 34 games with the Toros this season.

Yemi Nicholson (Denver University), a 6-11, 260 pound center was a 2006 Sacramento Kings draft pick and averaged 5.5 points and five rebounds during his time there. Nicholson participated in the 2007 NBA Summer League with the New Orleans Hornets. He was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year as a junior and received First Team All-Conference honors in his junior and senior seasons. Nicholson will wear jersey #41 when the Toros take on the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at the Austin Convention Center this Thursday and Friday.

The NBA Development League is the NBA's official minor league, and the first-ever basketball league with direct affiliations to NBA teams. Now in its seventh season the D-League's goals are to provide affordable, NBA-caliber entertainment to fans of its 14 teams, as well as continue to develop players, coaches, referees and front-office personnel for the NBA. As the single source for in-season player "call-ups" to the NBA, fans of the D-League enjoy the highest caliber of basketball played outside the NBA. In fact, former D-League players represented 10 percent of NBA players on 2007-08 opening day rosters, numbering 44 in total.

In addition, the D-League has produced 25 percent of current NBA referees and 16 current NBA coaches, including head coach Sam Vincent with the Charlotte Bobcats. The D-League is an innovative and rapidly growing sports property that also serves as an experimental testing ground for new initiatives like the live web-streaming of all games available free to fans at d-league.com. The League also provides continuing education and professional development resources for its players, and is committed to serving its local communities through D-LEAGUE CARES and grassroots efforts.

[ThomasGranger]

Is Ian still hurt? Any chance this move can be read as an indication that the Spurs may plan on using him this season?

[timvp]

Not a bad trade. Nicholson is pretty damn big. Looking at the Toros' latest box scores, it appears that the team has become so desperate for size that Marcus Williams has even played some center. With that in mind, getting Nicholson is a good move.

It also gives the Toros more flexibility in case the Spurs call up Mahinmi at some point. I liked Gadson somewhat but with Andre Barrett, the Toros don't really need him anymore.

[T Park]

Any potential there with Yemi?

[ChumpDumper]

How the hell did Albuquerque get the rights to Nicholson?

I'm glad we finally got a fat bastard, but wtf? I don't get how this should cost us Gadson.

[ChumpDumper]

Any potential there with Yemi?He laid 30 points on Crvena Zvezda last season :greedy

[T Park]

Crvena Zvezda is a bitch, so thats impressive



:lol

[ChumpDumper]

From what I can tell, he played in the Belgian league and ULEB Cup last year and just a few games in the Spanish B league this season. Ok size -- probably 6'10" at the most with a good wingspan and put up good numbers in a shitty college conference.

http://www.nba.com/draft2006/profiles/YemiNicholson.html

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Yemi-Nicholson-342/

It's good to have another shotblocker, that's for sure.

[T Park]

Good guy to beat up on Ian in practice is what I think.

[ChumpDumper]

He's sort of listed on a BSN team roster as well. Austin might be a good month's distraction from a Puerto Rican payday. I occasionally have contact with a BSN front office type; I'll see if he knows anything.

[Bruno]

This trade made Austin roster more balanced. From what I've seen, Angounou and Fuqua have been less than stellar. Mahinmi was the only quality big.
Toros still have Barrett and Sqeaky at PG and Curtis Stinson, Marcus Williams and even Kenton Paulino ay SG.

I'm kinda surprised to see Toros giving up a solid player like Gadson for a player who looked lost in space for almost two years. We will see what Yemi Nicholson will do.

[ChumpDumper]

I don't know why we ever let Marcus Campbell go. He's averaging a double-double for two months and is a 20-point/10-rebound guy so far in March.

[ChumpDumper]

Nicholson was out with the flu, but the Toros annihilated the Vipers with the best defense they played all year. With the exceptions of Ivan Johnson (unstoppable before foul trouble) and Stanley Asumnu (mostly putbacks), the team held RGV to .234 shooting. Holding the previously red-hot Desmon Farmer to 17 points on 16 shots was achievement enough. I'll post more details and pictures (provided there are any good ones) later if anyone is interested.

Box score. (http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20080320/RGVAUS/boxscore.html)

[ChumpDumper]

PS: There were at least three scouts at the game tonight. I imagine they were there to see Farmer, Marcus Williams and/or Andre Barrett.

[Bruno]

110-75 :spin
It is a nice wake up after their losing streak.


PS: There were at least three scouts at the game tonight. I imagine they were there to see Farmer, Marcus Williams and/or Andre Barrett.

I still hope Spurs will call up Marcus Williams.

[JPB]

Some honors for Marcus on nba.com

http://www.nba.com/aroundtheassociation/

D-LEAGUE STAR OF THE NIGHT

Less than two weeks ago, the Austin Toros were sitting pretty at 25-11 following a win in the first of four straight games at Albuquerque.
However, the Toros lost the next three meetings with the Thunderbirds, and the slide continued Sunday with a loss at Rio Grande Valley.

On Thursday, Marcus Williams decided to do something about it. Williams scored 13 of his 25 points in the third quarter, when the Toros (26-15) broke open a close game and romped to a 110-75 win, setting a season high for victory margin. Williams is 11th in the D-League in scoring at 19.2 points per game and 10th in shooting percentage at .535.

[ChumpDumper]

I think Marcus has really found his offensive niche as a midrange scorer. Pretty much all his halfcourt baskets were from 12-18 feet. The Toros aren't running any iso plays for him anymore unless he's posting up a smaller player -- he doesn't have the first step or the ball control to attack the basket that way in the NBA. They seem to be running him much more off of picks and curls to create space for him to get off his shot which has a much quicker release and better mechanics than when I first saw him last summer. Defensively he did very well in the team D against the usually very small lineups the Bob Hoffman runs with the Vipers. The Toros were basically switching on everything, and since they seldom ended up with a mismatch they were able to hold the Vipers' high-scoring guards like Desmon Farmer and Trent Strickland to very low shooting percentages.

[timvp]

With how the Spurs handled their roster when Bowen and Udoka were both out, I'm assuming Barry is getting the full amount the Spurs are under the luxury tax threshold. That's the only reason why the Spurs wouldn't sign a player to a 10-day contract.

I wonder if the Spurs and Williams have some sort of non-written agreement where the Spurs are allowed to match any offer he gets. It'd make sense for a team to call up Williams before the end of the season. When teams scour D-League box scores for 10-day contract candidates, he has to be nearing the top of the list.

I wouldn't be against calling up Williams just to secure his rights for summer league next season. There's no way he'd help the team this year but if he's any kind of prospect, it could be worth the money to keep him in the system.