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Blair and Hawes would make up a pretty beastly front line for the future.
Westphal: Docs missed on Blair
By Jeff McDonald
Some good stuff from Kings coach Paul Westphal on Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair can be found here, courtesy of the Sacramento Bee:
The money quote:
"Every team in the league wants to disbar or whatever you do to doctors who said that guy and his knees weren't OK to draft," Westphal said. "He's making them look like they should have flunked out of medical school and gone to drive a cab."
To be fair, the concerns about Blair's knees were more long-term than short-term. Nobody is sure how many seasons Blair can last playing with no ACLs. Perhaps the doctors Westphal mentions will be vindicated long before they have to drive a cab.
Still, Westphal's enthusiasm was not unwarranted.
Blair had the second-highest scoring night of his season Wednesday against the Kings (20 points on 9-of-11 shooting). He only managed six rebounds, but as he told me afterward, "It's hard to get rebounds when nobody misses."
Both teams shot better than 52 percent in the Spurs' 115-113 victory.
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The Sacramento Bee piece.
BLAIR WITCH (DOCTOR) PROJECT
DeJuan Blair's story is simply incredible, especially considering he has no ACLs in either leg. He has had a productive rookie season and destroyed the Kings front court for 20 points on 9 of 11 shooting, including a second-quarter stretch in which he scored 13 straight points for the Spurs.
The Kings - like so many other teams - passed up on Blair in the June draft because of the huge red flags being waved by the medical community. They were obviously on the hunt for a backup big (eventually taking Jon Brockman at No. 38 via the Sergio Rodriguez trade with Portland), but Blair - who was once seen as a lottery pick - fell to No. 37 because of the red flags being waived so vehemently by the medical community.
"Every team in the league wants to disbar or whatever you do to doctors who said that guy and his knees weren't OK to draft," Westphal said. "He's making them look like they should have flunked out of medical school and gone to drive a cab. That guy is unbelievable. He was a legendary rebounder in college (at Pittsburgh) and there's no reason to think he won't lead this league in rebounding if he ever gets enough minutes."
Blair and Hawes would make up a pretty beastly front line for the future.
so players actually play better without acls.... might need to give bonner some surgery.
BLAIR WITCH (DOCTOR) PROJECT
I called it almost the same when DeJuan was first drafted by the Spurs.
Blair Switch Project since he was past up by so many other teams.
If I'm the Kings I'm happy with my two 1st round picks.
Thanks for the jinx, Westphal
I could see why the teams at 8-15 would pass on him, but once he fell to the 20s I was really surprised no one picked him up. He seems to play a lot better than he looks on paper (bad knees, undersized, etc)
s yes. Casspi is gonna be a flat out stud. Evans is a future all star.
After the game, I've never seen a more discusted look on an nba player's face then what I saw on Evan's.
Kings need to take care of that kid. He's going to be phenominal.
I had thought of that "Blair Witch Project" name awhile back when there was a thread about what to call DeJuan.
Yeah, watching the game last night, the expression " ing stud" crossed my mind. Casspi's nice, but nothing real special. He's mostly a nice shot and some clever moves. He's never going to take a team on his back, and go places. Evans could. Even though he was drafted as a PG, the first thing that crossed my mind was Paul Pierce.
I was certain that we would pick him, but we didn't. I didn't get it at the time and I still don't.
it's because your frontcourt is so tough
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