can never have enough shooters
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can never have enough shooters
Pelicans say forward Luke Babbitt will be available to play Wednesday night against Hawks. He practiced on Tuesday
— John Reid (@JohnReid64) February 4, 2014
Pelicans new forward Luke Babbitt practicing from 3 point land pic.twitter.com/LzkjTHe8aI
— Steve Geller (@SteveGellerWWL) February 4, 2014
Pelicans' signing of Luke Babbitt reminiscent of Rockets' signing of Patrick Beverley. Neither player had an NBA buyout in his deal. So ...
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 4, 2014
So Pels, like Rockets with Beverley, had to haggle with Babbitt's team in Russia to come up with amount that would secure player's release
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 4, 2014
I tended to pull very hard for Xavier Henry because I saw flashes of what looked like promise in him.....and now I feel the same about Luke Babbitt....
New Orleans Pelicans sign forward Luke Babbitt after finalizing buyout agreement
http://www.nola.com/pelicans/index.s..._river_defaultQuote:
With an injury-depleted roster, the New Orleans Pelicans signed former Portland Trail Blazers forward Luke Babbitt on Tuesday morning after reaching a buyout agreement with his Russian-based team, BC Nizhny Novgorod last week.
Babbitt, a 6 foot 9, 225 pound forward, played three seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers before signing a one-year contract with Nizhny Novgorod, this past August. In 13 games with Nizhny Novgorod before leaving the team to return to the United States last month, Babbitt averaged 13.3 points and 3.7 rebounds.
Sources say the Pelicans signed Babbitt to a two-year contract and he will be available to play on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks at New Orleans Arena. He practiced with the Pelicans on Tuesday and was the last remaining player on the court going through 3-point shooting drills with assistant Bryan Gates.
This will probably disappoint you, but l thought Babbitt had a solid all-around game when he came out of college....he has a very nice stroke from deep and if his confidence has not suffered over the past couple years, I remain impressed with a pre-draft interview I saw of him when he came out.....not a saviour, mind you, but a potentially nice role-player.....
From what I remember when he was coming out of the draft he was a great shooter and very crafty scorer. I'm sure skin color was as big a similarity as any, but the names Mullin and Bird were thrown around as possible comparisons. His biggest problem was lateral quickness. He did a 1 on 1 workout with Monty and you could tell we had zero interest in Babbit afterwards.
Poor mans Ryno probably is a pretty good description of his game. But when you think Poor man's Ryno, remember he didn't get a 2nd contract and we just had to rescue him from Russia. He's probably in the right place to resurrect his career, but the expectations shouldn't be any more than you had for Stiemsma or Anjica.
wonder how Pierre feels about them being willing to spend to buyout his Russian contract haha
I thought this was interesting. Looks like we worked him out prior to the draft back in 2010. Here is an interview with Monty after the workout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfjSyFZcDdw
First Interview
Excited to be back in the NBA. Looking forward to contributing to the Pelicans organization! #NOLA #MardiGras #turnup
— Luke Babbitt (@RealBabbitt08) February 4, 2014
http://www.nba.com/pelicans/blog/luk...-pelicans-2414Quote:
Luke Babbitt gets second NBA chance with Pelicans
Now on his fifth NBA team, Anthony Morrow knows as well as anyone that sometimes a player needs to find the right fit and situation to thrive in the league. The sixth-year veteran believes that could be the case for one of his new teammates, forward Luke Babbitt. The New Orleans Pelicans signed the 24-year-old Babbitt to a free-agent contract on Tuesday.
The University of Nevada product played each of the previous three NBA seasons for the Portland Trail Blazers, but signed overseas with a team in Russia in 2013-14, prior to returning to the U.S. to play for New Orleans. He appeared in a total of 126 games for Portland, including starting four times during the 2011-12 shortened season, but has averaged just 11.1 minutes. Babbitt is a career 36.7 percent three-point shooter, connecting on an impressive 43.0 percent of his treys in ’11-12.
“I remember when he was in Portland, he was a great young player for them,” said Morrow of Babbitt, the 16th pick of the 2010 NBA Draft. “I’m glad he got this opportunity. We definitely can use him, to make a lot of shots and spread the floor. Everybody’s got to make him comfortable, and let him know that what he does well, we really needed. He has a lot of freedom to shoot the ball when he’s open.”
“It’s a great opportunity. It’s one I couldn’t turn down,” Babbitt said of signing with New Orleans. “I’m just thankful to (GM) Dell (Demps) and Coach (Monty) Williams for the opportunity. Obviously there have been a lot of injuries here. I’m just looking to fill in wherever I can.”
Monty saying he'll plAy mainly at 3
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http://www.nola.com/pelicans/index.s...still_mor.html
Did one of you negative nancies on here write this article? Good God, Jimmy Smith couldn't paint a gloomier picture if he had a palette of black and grey paint
I honestly agree with most of the article personally. I have not written it because i wouldn't make a mistake such as continuing to write w/ the italics on but well, whatever
Every FA, every foreign player, every player in the D-League, every player who is not on our roster must come under such high regards as being the guy to fix our issues on this board. For each Isaiah Thomas or Jeremy Lin who seem to come out of nowhere, there are dozens of players who are signed who are released after never making an impact above a replacement, similar level player. Why then are there countless threads and posts dedicated to each signing we make over-blowing and overestimating the effect that a player will have when they are here? In three years in the league Babbitt totaled as many minutes as AD has had so far this season. Did he play well during those minutes? Nope. Were other teams clamoring to sign him? Nope. Was he the first player on our list to fix our issues? Again, Ajinca got the call up before Babbitt. Childress and Amundson were both called up and waived before we got to Babbitt on our list. No one wanted him to he played foreign ball. What does that say about his skill level? Maybe he comes here and blows us away and ends up being Jeremy Lin 2.0, but more than likely he gets less than 10 minutes a game and is out of the league at the end of the season. If he plays better than average then maybe he finds a roster spot somewhere on a non-guaranteed contract next season. Of course I want to be excited about him and hopefully he'll do well. But why do we have to be delusional about it?
And although I was corrected in my earlier post and told he'd likely be playing the four, if he does end up playing mainly the three then I will be disappointed if Millers minutes are reduced. It will be nice to get another shooter on the floor with Reke but then again, there are already some shooters on this team that are averaging fewer minutes than they should.
Horrible signing, yes there is not much money put down but we are too far into the W column to tank.
Monty is always banging on about defense (despite his scheme not working), and about stopping penetration. Babbit couldn't guard my grandma. He is far to slow for a 3 and too small and weak for a four. He was known for "elite shooting" which he hasn't shown to be true really, he is a decent shooter, with a low release. He has an average handle, but a few crafty moves in the paint, which are 100% irrelevant cause there is no hope in hell he will make it in there.
He was really quite disappointing in Russia. I watch a heap of Euro ball, having played a bit there myself, and I like it's different style to the NBA. But he wasn't even the best player on his team. I can't see him giving us anymore than Darius already does (which is not much as Monty sits young players, but will happily roll out veteran scrubs)
I could go on, and in fact I have in previous posts. But I don't see the point in making a signing for a signings sake. There are much better players out there, even Khryapa is playing better than Babbit in Russia.
He did shoot 51% from the ole arc over there in the ole 'evil empire' Russia