Mav's Summer League Team Beats China

UNTLifer · July 4, 2004

Date Posted: 00:20:29 07/04/04 Sun

Author: Cooley

Subject: Pavel Podkolzin

Caught the Mavs summer league game vs China tonight. This guy is the worst big man in organized sports. Unbeliveable the Mavs traded their #1 pick next year for this stiff.

I do think though, that we are in good hands with Devin Harris at the point. This kid has a nice overall game. If he could just pick up some weight he would be a monster.

Back to the center position.The summer league team has 2 other big men who are much better than Pavel. One is a 7 footer from Africa. He is a keeper. Very athletic for a big man. Unfortunately, we may see a classic case where the better player gets cut in favor of the drafted player to save face.

Josh Howard was also impressive. Y. Ming didn't play because of some phantom injury.

July 4, 2004

First round picks get guarenteed contracts, so I don't know why he would think the Mavs might cut Podkolzine to "save face". Obviously the Nelsons and Cuban liked something about this guy(maybe him being 7'5" at 19 y/o?), so I will trust their judgement. Podkolzine is obviously not a short term answer, which is fine with me. I would rather let the guy develop for a few years and have him be a good NBA player a little ways down the line than put him out on the court now before he is ready.