A Nation in Mourning: Akeem Scott a Playboy no longer

Fresh from H.T., undeniable star of the blog Akeem Scott has left the Honka Playboys. (No crying!) Akeem is one of the most entertaining athletes on the planet and we will continue to follow his exploits in the future.

The Akeem Scott Era in Espoo is now officially over.

Honka Playboys entered the Finnish Korisliiga playoffs as no. 1 championship contenders after mid-season trades which brought in experienced role player Elias Kajander, Finnish national team power forward Tuukka Kotti and Denmark national team's starting point guard Chanan Colman. Honka had indeed the best individual players in the league, but after only three semifinal games, they found themselves swept against hustle-and-grind team Namika Lahti (lead by former German Bundesleague slam dunk champion Ray Nixon and NCAA 2001/2002 scoring champion Jason Conley).

After losing the semi-final series 0-3, Honka had an opportunity to grab the bronze medals at home, but long and tall Tampereen Pyrintö, which featured an impressive starting five of 7-0", 6-10", 6-8", 6-5" and 6-5" tall players, defeated Honka 74-83. It's sure going to be a rebuilding year for those Honka Playboys.

You can't blame Akeem Scott, though. Scott never became that true point guard he wanted to be, but he had the fighting spirit, the intangibles and the will to make his team better. In regular season, Scott averaged 17 points, 4,1 rebounds, 2,2 assists, 2,5 steals and 2,3 turnovers a game with percentages of 58,3% (2pt), 30,0% (3pt) and 72,0% (Ft).

In playoffs, Akeem the Dream registered 16 points, 4,3 rebounds, 1,9 assists, 1,9 steals and 2,4 turnovers a game, with percentages of 48,5% (2pt), 46,5% (3pt) and 74,1% (Ft). Despite finishing only fourth in Finnish Korisliiga play, Scott will be remembered as a willing player whose pure hustle brought Honka Playboys their second consecutive championship while Petteri Koponen was sidelined with an injury.

Thank you for all the memories, Akeem!


-H.T.

Tom Penn is staying

It looks like KP's succession planning skills will not be put to the test today- Tom Penn is staying with Portland. Was he ever really considering leaving? Were the T'Wolves simply used to help Penn get a promotion in Portland? None of us outsiders can be certain. But we can be happy that Penn will remain in the Blazers' fold for at least a little while longer.

Petteri Koponen Watch: He is a point guard, right? Edition

H.T. checks in with an update on the most recent goings on of Blazers' draftee and noted salmon aficionado Petteri Koponen. Our man still is having trouble finding minutes at pointguard. Are we to start a free Koponen movement?

Virtus Bologna prepares for the playoffs. + LOSING! + DRAMA!

Things aren't looking too chipper for Petteri Koponen's Virtus Bologna right now. Despite winning the FIBA EuroChallenge championship just three weeks ago, Bologna hasn't been able to get a win in Italian Serie A competition after the first week of April. In the last week of Serie A regular season, Bologna lost an away game against Premiata Montegranaro (72-75) and then an overtime game at home against Benetton Treviso (85-90).

Virtus ended their regular season losing four Serie A games in a row and sliding from 2nd spot in standings to 5th spot, which means that they won't be having home court advantage for the 2009 Serie A Playoffs. Even more concerning is that Bologna will meet Benetton Treviso in the playoffs, a team that they haven't been able to beat during the 2008/2009 regular season. Treviso has been improving throughout the season and they are looking really strong now, and having home court advantage will definitely help them.

Petteri Koponen finished his first ever regular season as a professional averaging 3,0 points, 1,2 rebounds, 0,9 assists, 0,7 steals and 1,0 turnover in 15 minutes per game. Petteri played total of 29 games and was in Virtus Bologna's starting lineup 17 times. His field goal percentages (2pt 36,2% 3pt 24,4%) were notably lower than the ones he recorded in EuroChallenge play (2pt 56,7% 3pt 39,4%).

It has been much of a learning season for 21-year old Koponen. Because of strong presence of scoring-minded point guard Earl Boykins, Koponen has been mostly playing off his natural point guard position. Petteri has never been very good without the ball, and that clearly shows in his field goal percentages; he hasn't been able to create his own shot and his catch and shoot technique needs improvement. But there have been moments of brilliance; Virtus Bologna's coaching staff has noticed that having Koponen on the court stabilizes the game while Boykins, despite being probably the best pure scorer in whole Serie A, can't really create opportunities for others. Koponen has also improved from good on-ball defender to an excellent one, regularly defending opponent's best scorer.

All the people around Finnish basketball haven't been too happy with Koponen's current situation. His biggest critic right now is his former coach, Mr. Mihailo Pavicevic, who stated in Finnish MTV3 (All Finnish music videos, all the time? -Ed) interview, that he is "indeed very sad for Petteri". Pavicevic stated in the interview that he "knew immediately, that signing with Virtus Bologna wasn't a good solution. Virtus coach Matteo Bonicinolli can't see Petteri as a point guard and he doesn't trust young players." Anyway, Pavicevic also said that there are difficult seasons for every player and that "now Petteri has to work hard, be positive and see what to do after the season is over."
(Courtesy of http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/muutlajit/uutiset.shtml/arkistot/muutlajit/2009/05/870334?koripallo)

Despite all the controversy, Virtus Bologna will now prepare for the first round playoff series against Benetton Treviso. The best-of-five series tip off this Thursday. Benetton's most notable players include Americans Gary Neal, Charles Judson Wallace and DaShaun Wood, Croatian pivot man Sandro Nicevic, Slovakian Radoslav Rancik, Italian national team players Matteo Soragna andMassimo Bulleri, not to forget Iceland-born shooting guard Jon Stefansson, who had a brief stint with Dallas Mavericks a few years ago. That's a lot of firepower and a sure challenge for Boykins, Koponen, Keith Langford, Sharrod Ford and company.

Here's a statistical recap of Bologna's last two Serie A games:

Premiata Montegranaro - Virtus Bologna 75-72 (17-16, 37-37, 60-50)
Montegranaro: Dejan Ivanov 15/9, Brandon Hunter 13/11, Kiwane Garris 12/3/6ast.
Virtus: Keith Langford 17/5/3stl, Earl Boykins 17/1, Dusan Vukcevic 10/1.
Petteri Koponen: Min 10 2pt 1/2 Ft 1/1 Pts 3 Ast 1 Stl 1

Virtus Bologna - Benetton Treviso 85-90 (16-11, 41-27, 58-47, 72-72)
Virtus: Earl Boykins 23/2/4ast, Keith Langford 22/3/4stl, Guilherme Giovannoni 10/9.
Treviso: Ioannis Kalampokis 22/7, Charles Judson Wallace 20/8/4ast/5stl, Massimo Bulleri 16/1/3ast.
Petteri Koponen: Min 12 2pt 0/2 Reb 2 Ast 3 Stl 3 Pf 2, Start

Pritchard's new challenge: succession planning

Kevin Pritchard can assemble one hell of a basketball team. He can roll in D.Miles' car. He can hang out with Obama. But can he hold on to his talented front office subordinates? As the Blazers achieve more success it will probably be an impossible task. The challenge then becomes finding the qualified talent to fill these roles and keep the good times rolling.

The first significant example of this is in the continuing rumor that Blazers Assistant GM Tom Penn will be hired as the general manager for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Don't think for a second that this is some inconsequential development. Every Pritch-slap has required excellent Pennmanship. (Sorry.) Penn is known as the salary-cap/CBA guru that can take a trade exception and turn it into a rocket ship carrying your franchise's biggest problem to the Moon. (Or to New York for that matter.) Nobody is irreplaceable, but some people are much harder to replace than others. Tom Penn is one of those people.

People talk about the mark of a good GM being a franchise that is competitive year after year. I agree, but its a tad more complicated. A good GM takes the franchise in a positive direction. Sometimes this means winnning in the present, sometimes it means taking losses with an eye towards the future.

A General Manager steers the franchise, and a major part of that is hiring decisions. RC Buford of the Spurs could be the highest esteemed GM in the League. The basis of his respect will always rightly be focused on the sustained excellence of his team on the court. But don't overlook his ability to reload his front office personnel. Danny Ferry worked for the Spurs before he put the right pieces around LeBron. Kevin Pritchard was a scout for Buford before becoming the mayor of Rip City.

Tom Penn getting his own team to run lifts Pritchard into another category of success. He will be a GM that produces not only wins but other general managers as well. We know Pritchard can do a great many things at an exceptional level. Now we will see if he has a knack for succession planning as well.

Weakened Non-Pondering: Phone it in edition

I'm off to an early weekend of black-light miniature golf, mountain dew throwback, and watching movies that I'm way too old to get so excited about.

Reading that sentence really made me reflect on what my life has become. (Totally awesome!)

H.T. sent me a particularly significant addition to the Petteri Koponen Watch, which will show up around these parts on Monday. (Oh! Cliffhanger!) Until then I recommend you occupy yourself by going to see the new Star Trek Movie.

Darius Miles...is still Darius Miles

To the surprise of absolutely no one, everyone's favorite still-technically-a-Blazer Darius Miles (Big Pun!) is in trouble again. This time it was a misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge and a driving without a suspended license citation.

And so the circle remains unbroken. If you are from Rigel XII (the new Star Trek movie is awesome), here is the pattern: Miles will continue to get in trouble, then say the right things, then someone will write an article about how Miles has finally matured, then Miles will perform at a mediocre level, then he will get in trouble again, and so on.

I did not see this coming: Roy gets second team, Aldridge gets votes

Results from the All-NBA voting have been announced. Brandon Roy was actually voted to the second team, the first Blazer to earn such distinction since Clyde Drexler. Roybot is well on his way to becoming the best Blazer ever. More surprising to me was that LaMarcus Aldridge received votes, four of them!