Belinelli, Belinelli, Belinelli!!!

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First off, I just wanted to thank Fantasy Junkie and Atma Brother ONE for allowing me contribute to Golden State of Mind the best that I can bring about my 48-hour experience at NBA Summer League in Vegas to fans of the Warriors -- and, as it were, of the Kings, Wizards, Mavericks, Nuggets, Spurs, Knicks, 76ers, Team China, and the NBA itself! If you've never met Fantasy Junkie and Atma Brother ONE, hope that you will someday soon. They are two of the nicest guys around.

Intro

I'll be focusing this write-up on the Warriors-Spurs summer league game, then the other 4-and-a-quarter games I caught last night. I'll tell you right off the bat, I really don't like to write, although you'll see that I'm quite verbose because I'd rather give you more than less. If you can't wait (because of you-know-who, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to skip to the Warriors section first), here are the sections of this post -- you're lucky I'm pretty good at HTML...

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And the best thing about Draft Day was...Burn Notice!

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[From Stephen B. Snyde...]

So if you're old school like me, yesterday's draft was the most highly anticipated one in a long, long time. Sure, 2003 was nice, but that was after a mucho-boring March Madness due to no draft age minimum.

This year, we got to see where Yi Jianlian was going to wind up. We had all these Florida Gators with the team concept. We had Joakim Noah. We had a little tiny bit of drama before Portland made Greg Oden the official #1 and then Seattle made the easiest #2 pick ever with Kevin Durant. Then it was the Warriors with the Italian guard and then trading Jason Richardson.

I mean, this was the most exciting NBA Draft for Bay Area fans, especially those who are now veteran Asian ballaz, since the day Chris Webber was drafted and swapped with Anfernee Hardaway to land with the Golden State Warriors! Folks, that was 1993.

So the draft's over (good job, ESPN and Mike Tirico) and I'm flipping around channels and stumble upon USA Network. Lo and behold, it is a new TV show. Seemingly tailor-made for the veteran Asian hoopster, the one who reminisces the 90's.

I bring you Burn Notice...

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Poor Man's been-there-done-that veto: Kevin Durant

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I don't blame Stephen B. Snyde. We had just seen the Utah Jazz, led by an unstoppable Carlos Boozer inside, beat our Warriors. Then we saw the same Jazz get beat up inside by Tim Duncan, who ended up eliminating one of the few teams that could hang, the Phoenix Suns, who had Amare Stoudemire in there to try and neutralize Duncan. So of course, we figured that you had to take Greg Oden with the first pick.

Come to think of it, I'm not so sure. Two big discoveries for me have made me jump ship. Big time...

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Durant = playoffs, Oden = conference finals

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[From Stephen B. Snyde...]

Poor Man's Commish doesn't usually let me argue about NBA teams and what they should do, because normally we like to leave the rantin' and ravin' to the myriad of blogs out there, but when I brought this up, he didn't think anybody had touched on it, at least not the way I'm about to.

Now that Portland and Seattle are #1 and #2 in this year's deep NBA Draft, which will lead to this year's best Vegas Summer League ever, you have to be asking yourself: Greg Oden or Kevin Durant?

Ballaz everywhere will, of course, lean towards Durant because we can all "be like Kevin". You have to be much taller than everybody else around you to be like Greg. And it's hard to pass on a guy who scored 30 ppg in the college format. What if Oden is to Sam Bowie as Durant is to Michael Jordan?

But haven't we seen enough in the NBA Playoffs this year? You look at the Warriors and you go, "Plenty of swingmen. They need a Carlos Boozer, Kevin Garnett, or Elton Brand. They need a tall guy in the middle who can score, rebound and draw defenders to kick out." You look at the Suns and you go, "Something's wrong with the system. The Spurs closed down everything and let Amare Stoudemire get his. The Suns need another Amare." You look at the Spurs and you go, "Who the heck can guard Tim Duncan and not be forced into a double-team?"

Now, there are plenty of teams that merely need a Durant to get to the playoffs. Or a Yi Jianlian, who is simply a freak-of-nature inside-out pick a la Dirk Nowitzki. In fact, we've already seen the better playoff teams neutralize opposing fives made up of mini-Durants (think Leandro Barbosa and Stephen Jackson in their team systems) and, of course, MVP Dirk.

Remember, it's a team game. Granted, Durant maybe can disrupt a Jazz, Spurs, or Pistons defense enough to significantly alter their pack-it-in styles. But that seems like more of a risky prediction as we sit on the verge of the NBA Finals these next couple weeks.

If you want any chance of getting to the conference finals, you must pick Oden.

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Dish on Yi Jianlian makes it good to have Insider today

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[Believe it or not, I actually compare Yi Jianlian to a dreamleaguer...read on!]

If you're a fan of Yi as we are, today's ESPN Insider article by Chad Ford makes the Insider subscription worth it (even though we got ours at a major discount, ha!).

Ford witnessed workouts by Yi over two days in LA and had rave reviews. Here are some samples, for those of you blocked out of the Insider wall...

• Don MacLean (former UCLA star and current trainer for Nick Young, draft prospect out of USC): "Have you seen the Yi kid yet? That kid was amazing."
  
  
• Joakim Noah, who was also training in LA, about Yi's workouts: "Something to behold. Where did that guy come from?"...

Read the rest of the story

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Team China in 2007 Vegas Summer League

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Guess who's playing in the 2007 Vegas NBA Summer League? Yeah, yeah, we knew about soon-to-be new NBA players Kevin Durant and Greg Oden already, but how about a new team?

Perhaps as part of the recent NBA-China partnership, according to the NBA Summer League website, the Chinese National Team will be playing in the league this summer! It's probably a good deal for Team China too, getting valuable experience against top-notch talent one year before the Olympics.

Based on the modified look-and-feel of the site, the NBA appears to be taking over management of the league, as there are no more references to the league's founder, NBA coaches' super-agent Warren LeGarie, who had hinted recently (I can't remember where I read it) that the NBA could be aiming to do just that.

Don't forget how deep a draft this year is going to be! And can you picture Yi Jianlian going up against his former comrades?

Well, this just reinforces the probability that dreamleague will be hosting a tournament there to coincide with what's going to be the best Vegas Summer League on record -- probably the tail end, July 14-15.

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Afflalo doesn't watch American Idol

[From Stephen B. Snyde for Friday tidbits...]

While Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, and Mike Conley, Jr. (and Joakim Noah last year) are/were all weighing regrets about leaving their cherished college lives, Arron Afflalo's on the first train outta UCLA. Ah, to be The Man on campus. But not just any campus, we're talking UCLA, the mecca of college hoops -- almost guaranteed Final Four, these days (!). Not to mention the weather and surroundings in Westwood ain't all that bad either.

To leave that for, what, maybe getting picked in the 2nd round (via Chad Ford, ESPN Insider subscription required). And if he doesn't get picked, that's it, because as Ford points out, it's his 2nd and last try at the NBA Draft; he can't return to UCLA.

The more you make it appear you want something, the less those who have it want to give it to you. Hasn't Afflalo learned anything from watching Sanjaya Malakar and his "victims" on American Idol?

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