Obviously: Udrih Deserves a Shot, by Bill Ingram

[ploto]

He'll end up in Cleveland or Sacramento.

Any chance he ends up on Sacramento by tomorrow?

[ploto]

I love how people rewrite history. The truth is the Spurs really wanted Beno. Pop made the trip to Chicago to the pre-draft camp to see him play and he was very impressive. He was by far the talk of that camp. I can give you reports if you want. The Spurs also knew that Bird wanted Beno and they had the pick immediatley after the Spurs. The Spurs did a great job of keeping their interest in Beno out of the public eye. He was in San Antonio the week before the draft and it never hit the media and everyone who knew kept it quiet. The Spurs were very excited about getting Beno. Players- even Duncan- immediately talked about how Beno would get them the ball right where they liked it. He was called the best passer on the team and even led the team in 3-point shooting his rookie year. Then it all went down hill. After the Finals, the whole Nick Van Exel bit, and what happened to some of his teammates, Beno's at ude soured. It was apparent that he was not going to put in the work with the Spurs. It is better for everyone that he is no longer on the team, but he will end up in the NBA. Point guards are tough to find-- look at all the years the Spurs have attempted to find a back-up.

[timvp]

I doubt the Spurs passed on anyone because they were too good. But they could have tried for someone with more upside than Beno that they would have had to wait on. Instead, they drafted a guy whom they believed was closer to reaching his potential and could step in immediately. They drafted due to need. They needed a back-up point guard -- when you draft to fill a need you often pass on a player who might be better in the long run (but not beause you're goal is to draft less talented players).

Beno was an all upside pick. He wasn't playing well in Europe and struggled with injury. He wasn't averaging that many points and wasn't even that well known in Europe.

It wasn't liked they picked a player who was in Europe quarterbacking a solid team and brought him in to be a backup. The Spurs actually took a flier on a kid with talent who hadn't lived up to his promise. Bottomline is Beno was far from a sure thing when he was drafted. As Mike D'Antoni said, Beno was known as "that fat point guard who was good when he was younger". That's not exactly going with the known quan y.

The point wasn't that Beno had "the right level of suck" but that he would have the right at ude to accept a backup role on a winning team. As I recall (and please correct) Beno was not the star of his Euro team. He was a distributer, a quarterback, a game manager on a team full of stars -- the best team in Europe. That might give the impression that he wanted to win, and would accept a backup role, rather than be the star. That's probably where the Spurs thought he was different than Speedy Claxton, who ended up wanting to be the man.

Huh? Sorry but this paragraph is full of holes. First of all, Beno's at ude was one of the things that was working against him when he was drafted. European teams questioned his dedication to the game, his at ude toward his teammates and his toughness. Plus, it wasn't like Beno came in ready to take a backseat. In his opening press conference, they asked him if he'll try to learn from Tony Parker and he said no basically because he saw himself as an equal.

And really, that was a basis of a lot of the trouble with Beno. He never saw himself as less of a player than Parker. Beno always thought he was better than Parker but that Parker just got the minutes. Beno's at ude was not at all what you'd want in a backup and that was one of the many things that led to his downfall.

And I'm not sure what you are talking about in terms of Beno being a distributor of a team full of stars. Beno was on some scrub (Russian, IIRC) team when he was drafted. He didn't have star teammates and he surely wasn't some distributor who knew how to take the backseat to players around him.

His last couple years in Europe he was either injured or the team he was on was trying to find a way to get rid of him.

Me too.

Bottom line, I just never saw all this talent (either athletic or innate court sense) from a guy who looked more like the prototype backup point guard from day one.

Beno was seen as a talent needing structure when he was drafted. It wasn't like he was some guy like John Crotty or Scott Brooks who the Spurs drafted just to be a backup point guard. I know the type of player you are talking about ... but Beno wasn't that.

Beno was a star in Europe when he was younger. He was a shoot first point guard with good passing abilities who was rated as one of the best players in his age group. He fell on hard times in his late teens and early twenties but the Spurs thought they could salvage the talent. Beno was the European equivalent of taking a flier on a NCAA talent who came into school highly recruited but got kicked off the team.

What's ironic is that if the Spurs would have taken the route you suggested and took the player who was ready to play a career as a backup point guard, they would have taken Chris Duhon and ended up much better off.

[mardigan]

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pla...e=85871&spln=1
Its looks like he might be Sacramento's problem now

[T Park]

instead of a drunk partier, they would've just had a drunk...

[timvp]

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pla...e=85871&spln=1
Its looks like he might be Sacramento's problem now

Good luck to Beno

That sounds like it'd be the perfect opportunity for him. Perhaps this wakeup call of being waived will be good for him.

[Kori Ellis]

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pla...e=85871&spln=1
Its looks like he might be Sacramento's problem now

Good luck to Beno. Hopefully he can change his at ude, get in shape and learn more about the game.

[T Park]

I love how these writers are writing all this crap.

"Couldn't win the favor of coach popovich"

Its like its all Pop's fault he got traded.

Good lord.

[CubanMustGo]

Good luck to Beno. Hopefully he can change his at ude, get in shape and learn more about the game.

Yeah, but you can get decent tacos in Sac-town so it's not a sure thing.

[Lebowski Brickowski]

I hope this can be The Offical Last Beno Thread Ever


I can't think of a better way to end it than with Tacos.

[ploto]

Any chance he ends up on Sacramento by tomorrow?