Petteri Koponen Watch: H.T. playing hardball

You may have been wondering why the Petteri Koponen updates have been slowing down. I'm sad to report that our long-time embedded Finnish operative H.T. has been holding out due to tense contract negotiations with DeceptivelyQuick. I knew it was a bad sign when he signed with Finnish power-agent Jukka Rosenhaus. (Ba-dum Ch!)

To keep the vast DeceptivelyQuick readership (Ba-dum Ch!) abreast of the situation I figured I would share a recent message sent to me by the beloved H.T. :

Yeah, I've been pretty slow with the Italy updates but you know, I think we should re-negotiate my salary because of economic crisis. I mean, the trouts you've been sending me over last three months aren't enough to feed me and all the 28 kids I have in my igloo with me.

This from a man recently seen hanging out with the likes of Ron Jeremy and soaking up other perks of the Finnish-Celebrity scene. Luckily we have agreed to a deal in principal with the help of mutual friend Stig Dogg and H.T., as a good faith gesture, has provided us with another Petteri Koponen Update. Make sure to check out the latest picture of Koponen, that big frame is looking more and more NBA ready by the day.

Petteri Koponen update: Virtus wins their 6th and 7th in a row

Just a month ago, Petteri Koponen's Virtus Bologna suffered their absolutely worst loss of the season in a road game against Solsonica Rieti, a team currently 14th in the 16-team Italian Serie A standings. Right now it seems that the terrible, 25-point loss was a wake-up call for Virtus, which has been supposed to be one of the top three teams in the league with Montepaschi Siena and Lottomatica Roma.

Ever since that hard-to-forget March 7th game, Virtus has been dominating its opponents in both Serie A and FIBA EuroChallenge Cup. Both leagues included, Virtus has extended its win streak to seven games these last two weeks.

March 29th, Virtus Bologna met their cross-city rival, GMAC Bologna, in much-anticipated derby between two top teams of basketball-crazy Bologna. GMAC Bologna's season hasn't been that much of a success this year, but they managed to make things extraordinarily tough for Virtus. Virtus Bologna forward Dusan Vukcevic became the hero of this hard-fought battle by sinking the deciding jump shot at the buzzer and giving Virtus a 75-74 (34-30) victory. Petteri Koponen started the game and played 19 minutes, collecting 7 points (fg 2-2 ft 3-3), 3 rebounds and 2 steals, making most of his damage in the opening five minutes.

Here you can see a picture of Petteri schooling some opponents in the Bologna derby.

A week later, Virtus hosted once again one of the weaker teams in Serie A when Eldo Caserta came to town. Caserta has been slowly making progress these last weeks trying to make a late playoff run, and Virtus trailed for 36 minutes before their starting punch finally pulled things together and were able to snatch a 86-81 (46-47) victory. Petteri started the game, but played only five minutes, ending up with one rebound and two turnovers (g 0-1).

Here's a brief statistical recap of these two games:

GMAC Bologna - Virtus Bologna 74-75 (7-13, 30-34, 49-55)
GMAC: Marcelo Huertas 24/3/5as, Lazaros Papadopoulos 17/14, DJ Strawberry 13/5/3as.
Virtus: Dusan Vukcevic 14/1/4as, Earl Boykins 12/1, Sharrod Ford 9/7.

Virtus Bologna - Eldo Caserta 86-81 (20-20, 46-47, 65-68)
Virtus: Earl Boykins 19/3, Sharrod Ford 16/15/3bl, Keith Langford 12/5/4as.
Caserta: Guillermo Diaz 17/6/6as, David Brkic 14/6, Fabio di Bella 11/6/3as.

Italian basketball homepage www.legabasket.it is showing that Serie A game between Solsonica Rieti and Virtus Bologna has been postponed. I'm not sure whether it has something to do between these easter week Italy earthquakes.




-H.T.

Nate McMillan should be Coach of the Year, but isn't even being mentioned

Oh the joys of toiling away for a small market team in the Pacific Northwest. I have yet to hear Nate McMillan be mentioned as even a potential candidate for Coach of the Year honors from a member of the national media. If you think this is nothing more than homerism, think about how simple the case for McMillan really is: No young NBA team has played this well. Ever.

Portland is considered the second-youngest team in the league based on their entire roster. But if you exclude Raef LaFrentz, who has been "rehabbing" in Iowa all season and is by no means a part of this team beyond his paycheck, the Blazers are the youngest of all.

So the youngest rotation in the League is currently battling for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Also consider this nugget from Mike Barrett: this is the first team in League history to win fifty games with four rookies in the rotation. Not convincing enough? This graph shows that Portland is the best young team to play in the years 1951-Present. (1951 being the first available year for the needed statistics.)

More simply, what the Blazers have done this season has never been done before. In my mind that is more impressive than winning a ton of games with a little help from various veteran stars and super-stars. Am I mistaken, or does that sort of thing happen every single freaking year?

Being that Nate's historic performance this season is not even getting him into the conversation, I would like to submit this as exhibit #870324580345;;ewru9 of how ridiculously overlooked the Blazers remain at a national level. Boo.

Early Weakened Pondering: Blazers Growth

Throughout this season we have periodically checked in on the Blazers Win-Loss profile and noticed that the team had the troublesome habit of losing to opponents ranked in the top ten in scoring. After 54 games, the team’s record against the top 10 scoring teams in the League was an unimpressive 8-13.

Just 23 games later, it appears that Portland may have figured this issue out. After 78 games played Portland is at an even 14-14 against the top 10 scoring teams. Yes, since their 8-13 start they have gone 6-1.

But the news isn’t all good. After 54 games the team was 12-1 against opponents that ranged in the 11 through 20 spots in scoring. Since then the team is just 2-5. Random statistical noise from a small sample? Has this team had trouble “getting up” for some of their less glamorous but still capable opponents? My hunch is that it’s probably nothing, and if it is, it doesn’t concern me much. This team has showed an impressive ability to solve weaknesses quickly and grow ahead of schedule. (Check out their recently much improved play on the road if you want another example.)

I'm off to an early weekened at DeceptivelyQuick. I'll be in attendance at the Nike Hoop Summit this Saturday, if you see me come say hi. I look like that one guy.

LaMarcus Aldridge, he is pretty good

LaMarcus Aldridge has been hotter than a pea-sized sun for the Blazers lately, which has some people wondering where Paul Allen is hiding his 193 giant lasers. Over the last ten games (prior to April 8th) Aldridge has averaged 21 points, 9 rebounds, 2.5 assists (have you heard he can pass?), and 1.5 blocks per contest.

While the broadcasting team ESPN had covering the game against San Antonio seemed shocked at Aldridge's ability to decimate the Spurs, nobody should have been surprised. Consider this interesting statistical habit of Aldridge: he tends to do more scoring damage against higher quality opponents. Take a look at his scoring output versus the good, the average, and the poor teams in the League:

Vs. The Good: 19.2 ppg
Vs. The Average: 18.4 ppg
Vs. The Poor: 17.7 ppg

I would have sooner expected this positive relationship for the likes of Brandon Roy, who seems content to let his teammates fill it up against lesser opponents and takes over when the situation demands it. The thing about stats is that they can poke holes in our unscrutinized beliefs. Check out the same numbers for RoyBot:

Vs. The Good: 21.4
Vs. The Average: 22.3
Vs. The Poor: 24.7

It will be interesting to see how Aldridge's pattern changes as he continues to progress. As his performance continues to improve, defenses will be increasingly motivated to slow him down. Will we see his pattern reverse directions and resemble that of Brandon Roy?

We interrupt your Rip City playoff joy to bring you a Zach Randolph update

I imagine you are still enjoying various pleasureable sensations over the Blazers securing a place in the playoffs. Zach Randolph would like to add to your contentment by reminding you how awesome it is that he is no longer on Portland's roster. All you really need to read is this sentence:

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Clippers forward Zach Randolph was arrested for investigation of drunken driving early Monday, hours after his team's 88-85 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

That is all, you may now go enjoy the rest of this beautiful day.

Getting Waferd never hurt so little

That's not a mohawk it's a Shark Fin! Never did I think it would so painful to remember the old Waferd Watch.

Portland did themselves no homecourt-advantage-getting favors dropping that game in Houston. Don't let that get you down though, because April 5th 2009 was the day that your Trailblazers secured their first trip to the postseason since way back in the 2003 season. (Thanks for being such a mess Phoenix!) It was a different era I tell ya; a year that featured a crappy sequel to The Fast & Furious and annoying but catchy hits from Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas. How did people live like that?

Cliff Robinson now playing air bass because he doesn't have actual bass

Blaze of Love picked up on a news report that Clifford Robinson's home was recently burglarized. Nobody was hurt and Cliffy will be OK since he still has all that sweet sweet DairyQueen money. 

These facts  make me happy because they mean that it is socially acceptable to take this opportunity to poke some fun at the Blazers' great. I invite you to now walk down memory lane with this story from the Inconsequential Tales of Blazer-Fan Interaction Archives...Air Bass!

And you might as well enjoy this: