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Q8i · 08-20-2005, 04:17 AM

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DIOP?!?!?!

Gambino · 08-20-2005, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mavs41

AJ is wasting no time turning this team into a more athletic, physical, and defensive minded team. It seems he is following the Spurs model to the extreme. By signing Diop he could really gain a lot of cred if he turns out be someone. I know very little about him but AJ seems to have done his homework on this guy.

Yep.He's not trying to sign stars. He's not overhauling the roster and he's giving the team time to gel.The days of Don Nelson are really over now and this is probably new for Cuban. He is reallllly following the Spurs mold. Dallas was a much better defensive team than previous years combined last season. They will be even better next season.

**xray** · 08-20-2005, 01:47 PM

Desagana Diop

pronounced sa-GAH-na JOP

I posted that not for your benefit, but mine. I usually remember something better if I write it down; I'll see if it works this time.

The Future7 · 08-20-2005, 02:05 PM

Yea next season, the Mavs will be more athletic, physical and more defensive minded under Avery. We have basically the same team so everyone knows each others games. I'm looking forward to this season.

**Pioneer10** · 08-21-2005, 03:34 PM

Well these articles about Diop pretty much sums up about what most Cavs fans think of Diop. Frankly I'm shocked u guys are giving this guy a 3 year 7 million deal:

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TALKIN' CAVS

Diop deal a stunner

• I'm still in need of smelling salts after hearing that DeSagana Diop agreed to a three-year, $6.8 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks. I was told that the third year wasn't guaranteed. Fine. I'm amazed that two months are guaranteed.

• Suppose you are Dallas. Suppose you know that Cleveland needs a backup center, which is no secret since the Cavaliers have talked to free agents such as Dale Davis and Jahidi White. You know that the Cavaliers have zero interest in the 7-foot Diop. So why give him a multi-year deal? And who else was silly enough to be bidding on a player who has done virtually nothing in his four-year career? Last season, Diop was 20-of-69 (29 percent) from the field and 0-of-5 at the foul line.

•Here's the pattern with Diop. He gets in somewhat OK shape in the summer. He works reasonably hard. He's a very nice young man. His coach thinks maybe Diop will become a viable player. By mid-season, Diop is at the end of the bench.

• While Diop had another forgettable summer-league performance, he then went to a summer-league camp run by veteran assistant Tim Grgurich, and it was there he impressed some teams. The New York Knicks and Seattle SuperSonics supposedly had an interest. Diop is more likely to look good in drills than he will in actual game conditions.

• Diop's problem is he has zero feel for the game. He barely shot above 30 percent from the field in three years of summer-league action. He's from Senegal, and played only two years of basketball at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia before the Cavaliers made him a lottery pick in 2001, No. 8 overall.

• Before the 2001 draft, I had a conversation with former Cavaliers general manager Jim Paxson about the high school players available. I mentioned that I had seen Diop score only 11 points against St. Vincent-St. Mary, and how Sian Cotton pushed him around. I said he'd be lucky to start in the Big Ten, much less play in the NBA.

• Paxson quietly said the Cavaliers were considering him because Zydrunas Ilgauskas was a real question mark as he was still out with a major foot injury. Paxson said the Cavaliers needed size. In the NBA, that kind of thinking leads to mistakes -- a panic to get a big guy, any 7-footer who is breathing.

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One man's trash...
As Terry Pluto describes today in his View from Pluto, there's a general bewilderment over the three-year, nearly $7 million contract DeSagana Diop got from the Mavericks last week.

I guess "Gana" had a good camp in Las Vegas and actually had teams bidding over his services. The whole "you can't teach size" idioms are all applicable here. Personally, I'm happy for Gana, who is continuing the long-standing tradition of redispersing Mark Cuban's wealth. Although after Cuban's heartfelt explanation of why he cut Michael Finley because his days of overspending are over on his blog, this deal still confuses me. But it's still just ridiculous.

Last season I read a book about Sebastian Telfair called "The Jump." In there was a few pages on Diop. It was about how when he was a senior at Oak Hill Academy, then UNC coach Brian Doherty was begging for him to come play with him for a year and brought him a listing of the rookie salary scale. He was trying to show him that if he played one year in college, he could double his money. Boy, did that backfire, once Diop saw that he could make $3 million even if he was the last pick in the first round, he decided there was no way he was going to school. This even though he couldn't make a left-handed layup.

When Gana was at Oak Hill I went down there for a few days to do a story because LeBron James and St. Vincent-St. Mary were playing his team at that time. I interviewed him and watched them play two games and decided he was a circus act because all he'd do was stay at the defensive end and block shots and I was no scout. I saw Shargari Alleyne play in high school and thought he was more skilled and he's now a bench warmer at UK. Still, the Cavs fell all over themselves to take him at No. 8.

I brought all this up to Diop before a game in Philadelphia last season. He smiled and admitted it was all true, he knew he was really raw but didn't care. Actually, he said he thought he should've been drafted higher. He also told me he didn't really care about the Cavs and not playing because he knew he'd be in the league somewhere next year and getting paid. He was right, after all.

http://clevelandcavs.blogspot.com/

The Future7 · 08-21-2005, 04:20 PM

Sounds like Diop has a lot of improving and Maturing to do.

Nocioni · 08-21-2005, 05:30 PM

he will be the next foyle sets hard screens and blocks a couple of shots

**Coatesvillain** · 08-21-2005, 05:38 PM

Wow, how did he get a deal over the league minimum?

This proves the old adage correct: You can't teach size, but you sure can surely pay for it.

**xray** · 08-22-2005, 07:48 AM

Perhaps Cuban overestimates Avery's ability to get the most of a player's potential.

Personally, I'm still waiting on the experiment code named Eric Dampier.

The Future7 · 08-22-2005, 11:32 AM

Dampier started to play good near the end of the season then he got injured and didnt get back to that form

stevemc · 08-22-2005, 05:14 PM

Theres only a handful of players who can foul Shaq and him actually notice it. We have two of them now

The Future7 · 08-22-2005, 07:07 PM

I never looked at it that way. Diop and Shaq probably are around the same weight so he wont get thrown around.

Chalie Boy · 08-23-2005, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Future7

I never looked at it that way. Diop and Shaq probably are around the same weight so he wont get thrown around.

around the same weight...maybe, but strength........NOWHERE CLOSE, and he WILL and HAS gotten thrown around.

by the way those articles Pioneer10 posted sure were encouraging weren't they?

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