D-League Decoded: Welcome to the Small Show

The Texas Legends pursuing Allen Iverson was one of the biggest D-League stories of the week. (usatoday.com)

Hello readers of Beats, Dimes and Drives. My name is Dakota Schmidt and I'm addicted to basketball. Sure, most of you are also addicted to the sport since you're reading this site, but I'm a little different. You see while most people like the Heat, Thunder or Clippers, I personally like watching the Bucks, Bobcats and the NBA D-League. If you don't know, the D-League is the NBA's minor league where players develop and teams feature creative names like the Mad Ants, Red Claws, Skyforce and — of course — the Bighorns. Yes, the D-League has been around for more than 10 years, but this is quite possibly the greatest season yet with better teams and a vastly improved pool of players. With that said, the D-League is still kind of a hidden commodity so I'm going to take you on a little tour of the best stories from the past week in the NBADL.

1. Rumors that the Texas Legends would be going after Allen Iverson
Around Monday morning, ESPN's Marc Stein reported that the Texas Legends were going after former NBA MVP point guard Allen Iverson, who hasn't played in the United States since his '09-'10 stint with the 76ers. The 37-year-old declined the invite from the Legends after stating on his Twitter account that he thinks that the D-League is a great opportunity for players, but he wanted to complete his "legacy" in the NBA.

I do understand that Iverson would want to go straight into the NBA because he was one of the most popular players in the first half of the 2000's. With that said, it's 2013 and teams aren't really looking forward to acquiring a player in his late 30's when they really don't know how he could still produce after not playing in the league for three seasons.

Iverson's refusal to join the Legends leaves the door wide open for former D-League MVP Justin Dentman, who was acquired last week from the Austin Toros. Dentman may be familiar to NBA fans because he had separate stints last season with the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs, but he has really made his mark in the D-League, where he helped lead the Toros to a title last season. Dentman is perhaps one of the top scoring guards in the league with a solid mid-range shot and a quick first step that helps him drive to the basket.

2. Toko Shengelia's Monster Night
The young Brooklyn Nets prospect straight out of the country Georgia has seen very limited minutes in his rookie year, which has allowed him to have two separate stints with the Springfield Armor. Springfield has one of the worst records in the D-League, but they were the center of the universe this past weekend simply because of the play of the 6'10" Shengelia. In Friday's game against the Maine Red Claws, Shengelia possibly had the best performance by any player in the D-League this season when he put up a 39 points and 18 rebounds.

While Maine did have a good crop of forwards (Chris Wright, Micah Downs and Fab Melo), Shengelia basically chewed them up and spit them out by being a fiend on the boards and working his mid-range shot to perfection. It's unclear how many times Shengelia will be assigned back to the Armor this season, but it is clear that it will most definitely be must-watch action if he is reassigned.

3. Royce White to the D-League?
The long-winded controversy between first-round pick Royce White and the Houston Rockets appears to be over as White is scheduled to debut with Houston's affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, on Feb. 11. The Rockets have been one of the best teams when it comes to using their D-League counterpart after sending players like Terrence Jones, Donatas Motiejunas and Patrick Beverly to the team so far this season. The main issue between White and the Rockets front office has been White's fear of anything involving flight, which is odd because the D-League flies commercial airlines rather than the private airlines of the NBA.

I've stated my personal opinions about White on my Twitter account, but I think his stint with Rio Grande Valley will prove how important his future as a basketball player really is. Royce's skills are undeniable and he should have a good career in the NBA, but there will always be questions about if he's going to be focused more on his battle with anxiety than with his play on the court.

4. Potential D-League PGs that could replace Rajon Rondo
This past Sunday it was reported that Boston Celtics All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo would miss the rest of the season because of a torn ACL, which only hurts a team that's already fighting to stay in the playoffs. Boston does have a wide variety of combo guards like Avery Bradley, Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa, but none of those guys are really a pure PG.

The D-League has a wide variety of point guards that official D-League blogger Kevin Scheitrum wrote a piece about earlier this week. The first player that stands out at me has to be Delonte West because he's an NBA veteran who has also played multiple seasons under Celtics head coach Doc Rivers. While he's had a troubled career, West is still a talented player and is definitely worth at least a 10-day contract.

While the rest of the D-League PGs don't have the experience of West, there are still a wide variety of players Boston can choose from. For example, Courtney Fortson of the Los Angeles D-Fenders — the  No. 1 D-League prospect — is the type of high energy player the Celtics could use to energize their squad. Fortson is improving both as a scorer (19.1 PPG) and as a distributer (6.5 APG) while also pulling down 5.3 RPG, which is outstanding when you look at the fact that he's 5'11".

Some other notable PG's in the D-League include Donald Sloan, Andre Barrett, Sean Singletary and Ben Uzoh. Both Sloan and Singletary have experience playing in the NBA and are similar players because they're solid distrubters and are solid shooters. Barrett has been around both the NBA and the D-League since the early days of the league and he's probably the best passer in all of the NBADL. Like Rondo, Andre is never going to be the best shooter around, but he is notching 11.3 assists per game while playing with the Celtics-affiliated Maine Red Claws. That is key, as Barrett would be able to make the smooth transition between leagues because Boston and Maine run similar systems. Last but not least, former Nets guard Ben Uzoh has been one of the top prospects in the league all season long simply because he can do anything on the court from leading an offense to being one of the best rebounders in the league for a guy his size (6'3", 205 lbs.).

5. Rise of DaJuan Summers
Former Pistons/Hornets forward DaJuan Summers has been of the more pleasant surprises in the D-League so far with the Red Claws. Now of course people know about his talent since his college days with Georgetown, but he's really exploded as the third forward on that Red Claws team. The team was going into the season expecting things out of Micah Downs and Chris Wright, and they have definitely produced in their roles but Summers has been the standout player since being signed in early December. Recently DaJuan had a career night against the Springfield Armor where he put up 34 points and 10 rebounds but only to get out-shined by Toko Shengelia who had that outstanding game I previously talked about.

DaJuan might not be the best player you've ever seen play but he's really worth taking the time out of your schedule to take a look at him like a lot of the other talent in the D-League.

Follow @BeatsDimesDrive on Twitter
Like Beats Dimes and Drives on Facebook

Friday Roundtable: Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose and Injuries

Will Rajon Rondo's knee injury hurt the Celtics more than Derrick Rose's hurt the Bulls?  (Elise Amendola/AP)

BDD's Friday Roundtable is a weekly discussion among three of our writers on a trending NBA or college basketball topic.

This week's question: Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, just as Chicago Bulls PG Derrick Rose begins taking full contact in practice after suffering a similar injury in April. Both are premier players at their position, but whose injury affects their team more?

Kyle Davis: 
Derrick Rose is clearly the better scorer and probably best of the two, but Rajon Rondo's injury will affect the Celtics more than Rose's injury will the Bulls because of two factors: age and style of play. The age factor is pretty obvious in the fact that Boston's best players, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, are in their mid-30s and past their prime (although credit them for still playing at an outstanding level for veterans their age). The less obvious but more important factor with the age is that Rondo's injury takes a huge chunk of the little time remaining for this group. Rose's supporting cast will probably have an average of four or five years left in the league or with the Bulls, which still gives him plenty of time to get healthy and make a run at a title with a group that has proven it can get close. No one can be certain Garnett and Pierce will still be around when Rondo returns, if the injury takes him out into next season. This was looking like a final run for this aging Celtics group and Rondo may return to a rebuilding process instead of an Eastern Conference contender.

Rondo also is more crucial to his offense and makes the players around him better than any other point guard (or player) in the league. The C's point guard can make highlights out of broken plays and get everyone on the court involved. Rondo is like an effective quarterback who may not have the strongest arm (or best shot) but makes creative plays and his performance on the court makes the players around him better. The Bulls had to adjust to replacing a great scorer in Rose, but there are five other guys on the court that can help with that. Rondo has more than three assists, two rebounds and one steal per game this season than Rose did last year. Those aren't as impressive as points per game, but they still are difficult stats to replace. No one else on the Celtics roster can pass and run the offense like Rondo, and that's why he will be sorely missed while recovering from this injury.
 
Alex Skov:

Derrick Rose’s ACL tear happened at one of the worst possible times for the Chicago Bulls — in the waning minutes of game one of a first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers. The game was already in hand for the Bulls and Rose was just getting over a nagging ankle injury when he landed awkwardly and crumpled to the floor. Although the Bulls won the series, they failed to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals where they were supposed to challenge the Miami Heat for a trip to the championship round. Chicago signed Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson in the offseason to make up for Rose’s extended absence and both have performed admirably as the Bulls have locked down on defense (the fourth best in the NBA), often looking like the best team in the Association and likely securing a top-four playoff seed.

The Boston Celtics are not going to be as fortunate as Rajon Rondo recovers from his torn ACL. Where the Bulls have Joakim Noah and Luol Deng, the Celtics have Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. There’s nothing inherently bad about this — quite the contrary, actually, as they’re both performing at a high level — but age was already a factor in Boston, and losing the franchise’s youngest star to injury brings even more speculation to how long this core should be kept intact. There were questions about whether or not Luol Deng should be traded before and after Rose’s injury, but he also led England’s Olympic team this summer and still hasn’t hit 30 years old, let alone Pierce’s 35 or Garnett’s 36.

Rose often looked like a one-man show before being confined to the sidelines; Rondo, for all his ball-handling mastery-bordering-on-sorcery, did not. Neither relied on a jump shot to get his points, but Rondo consciously looked for his teammates, which led him to 37 consecutive games with double-digit assists. He also racked up triple-doubles like it was nothing when playing on national television.

The Bulls had a youthful group to rely on even before Carlos Boozer decided to be a good basketball player again. The Celtics’ roster was already questionable outside of its three biggest names, and things will get even more indistinct with the undisputed leader out for the foreseeable future. Whether that means Garnett and Pierce become trade bait while Boston can still get value back for them or the Celtics have to make a panic move in an attempt to hold onto eighth place in the East, the Chicago Bulls will be in the playoffs after playing most — or all — of the season without their star. If this is the beginning of a downhill slide for the Celtics, one of the most historically successful franchises in NBA history may be headed underground.

Shawn Deegan:
As a Bulls fan, I’m itching to say the loss of Derrick Rose impacts the Bulls more than the loss of Rajon Rondo impacts the Celtics. I’d love to say Rose is more important to his team than Rondo. However, the unbiased sports writer in me won’t allow for a homer pick. The answer is unequivocally Rondo. The records are the big indicator for me. Even with Rondo, the Celtics are sitting below .500 this season. The Bulls haven’t had Rose from the beginning of the season and are first in the Central division in the Eastern Conference. The combination of Kirk Hinrich, Marco Belinelli and Nate Robinson has held down the fort in the backcourt for the Bulls. Richard Hamilton is healthy. While none of these options are spectacular, collectively, they make up a solid group that has done as good of a job as any Bulls fan could have hoped for without Rose. The Bulls have played good defense and have a well-rounded team that produces enough offense with great ball movement to win the Central division, even without a playmaker.

Now, when you look at the Celtics, the individual numbers of the backcourt surrounding Rondo are comparable to those of the Bulls. However, those numbers are largely due to Rondo’s ability as a playmaker and a passer. Without Rondo, the Celtics don’t have another creator that can break down a defender, draw the defense to him and make a perfect pass to a cutting teammate or to a spot-up shooter. The supporting cast of Jason Terry, Leandro Barbosa and Courtney Lee is a good one, if there is someone who can create opportunities for them. Lee can’t break down the elite defenders off the dribble. Barbosa is past his prime and not the scorer he once was. Terry is the best of the bunch and while he can handle the point, he’s much better coming off screens, spotting up around the three-point arc, or taking a couple of dribbles to his right before pulling up from 15 feet. He doesn’t have the ability to take a game over like Rondo. This team doesn’t play good defense anyway, and when you remove its best defender, it’s only going to get worse. This team is built around Rondo and without him this team will fall even further than it already has.

The key to all of this is the system that each of these teams play in. Chicago has a much more team-oriented style of play that accentuates the strengths of its players. Hinrich doesn’t have to score; he just has to play defense and handle the ball. Robinson doesn’t have to start; he can come off the bench and spot up around the three point line. Belinelli and Hamilton are getting more opportunities to score without Rose, but neither one is expected to take over a game. While their points per game are good, neither Paul Pierce nor Kevin Garnett is as effective as they appear on paper without Rondo on the floor. The supporting backcourt of the Bulls is based on defense and accentuating its strengths. The Celtics’ backcourt is based around Rondo’s ability to create. Defensively, the Bulls are good enough to survive without Rose. The Celtics are not without Rondo. Overall, no matter how you look at it, the loss of Rondo affects the Celtics far more than the Bulls losing Rose.

Follow @BeatsDimesDrive on Twitter
Like Beats Dimes and Drives on Facebook

Rajon Rondo's Injury Is The Boston Celtics' Future

Rajon Rondo's torn ACL puts the Celtics' future in jeopardy. (sbnation.com)

One player does not make a team, but with this year's version of the Boston Celtics, Rajon Rondo is the most valuable member of the entire franchise, from the top brass down to the ball boys. He is one of the few players in all of basketball -- let alone in the NBA -- who can change the course of the game with sheer will, so when he went down with an ACL injury against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, the Celtics' chances of a playoff berth plummeted.

Already a sub-.500 team with Rondo, the Celtics' 21-23 record is unlikely to improve much without him running the show. There was already jabber about the C's potentially missing the playoffs (they are currently in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, 2.4 games ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers) and the market of available point guards is not what one would call "impressive." Even if there were high-caliber guards lurking without a team, there is a strong chance that they still would not be capable of leading the current iteration of the Celtics as Rondo does. You see, he's special. That's why there is always talk about how he controls the "tempo" of the game rather than talk about a vicious first-step or any other attribute that is often assigned to point guards.

This season, though, is a small piece in a much larger puzzle for Boston. Even before the franchise was supposedly shopping Rondo during the last regular season, there was talk of blowing up the team's aging core in order to bring in fresh talent and build a new title contender. Ray Allen exited through free agency this summer; Rondo left in a completely different way on Sunday; and Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce -- a career-long Celtic to this point -- are left to inspire what now looks like a patchwork roster. Both are aging, and Celtics GM Danny Ainge is not shy in expressing his opinion that the famed Boston roster led by Larry Bird was kept intact too long when it could have been utilized to quicken a rebuilding process by trading away the principles when they had higher values. Garnett is playing at an All-Star level and Pierce can almost make the same claim. In this particular scenario, Garnett (age 37) and Pierce (age 35) are better trade bait than they are floor generals for the Celtics. That's no reason to go full-tank mode in Boston, but wear-and-tear will catch up to what's left of this era's original Big Three, and Ainge will have to decide if he's going to repeat history or stick with his gut feeling to move the veterans while he can still get positive returns.

Why stop at Pierce and Garnett, though? There will be calls to see if the Celtics are willing to trade Rondo, even in his current state. He leads the NBA in assists despite sitting out 11 percent of Boston's games to date. Rondo is undeniably talented and, weighing the options, wouldn't a cellar-dwelling team at least consider taking a flyer on him and parting ways with reliable role players (which the Celtics could use to bolster there current line-up) and/or future draft picks (which Ainge would covet, if he could also shop Pierce and Garnett)?

Rondo's ACL injury is bigger news than Allen leaving. The city of Boston -- already sunken from the New England Patriots' second consecutive loss late in the NFL postseason -- must now look into the face of professional basketball's future in Boston to see how long it will be until their proud and storied franchise will be capable of making a return to the NBA Finals.