When one of the worst teams in the league (Last year's record) puts you after Shaqre on the depth chart.......nuff said lol.
Exactly. The fact that Upshaw wasn't looked at by other teams is not surprising at all. He did not show a ton this pre-season and he's got red flags galore. I'm glad he's with the D-Fenders, but I'm not surprised no one else gave him a guaranteed deal.
GOOD THING WE CUT A LEGIT BENCH CENTER WHO CAN PLAY DEFENSE. Who needs him when we can roll RKelly out there to finish games?
Yea but if we're willing to let D'angelo come to a slow boil and learn the NBA game, why Upshaw can't get the same deal is beyond me. But maybe there are issues beyond basketball there (though they cited "learning curve"). Anyways, all I know is I'd rather see Upshaw more than Kelly out there at center, that's all.
Honestly I wouldn't. Upshaw looks like he's 2-3 years away from being okay in the NBA. His timing is terrible, his decision making doesn't come quickly enough, he didn't really look like he had a flow for the game. He showed only a flash or two of defense, but was generally not great especially on help defense where he was supposed to be really good. I'd rather see Black get time at Center though.
Yeah, to be fair, he was baaaaad on D. He got an awesome block or 2 out there and changed some shots, but then he'd give up a bunch of layups and dunks between then. Far too slow, lost on defense out there, I'm not sorry he was cut at all. If he develops with the D-Fenders, maybe he gets another shot then.
I'm not sure what the standard is, but Upshaw isn't worse than anything we've put out there at the 5 except Hibbert.
I bet he can taste playing time about now, and an imminent call up to the show. NVM, that was if we had rotations that made any sense.
That's where you are mistaken. As evident by our first 4 games, Lord Byron isn't allowing Russell to come along much at all.
Did Defenders actually play Monday as per this schedule? Can't find any score or stats in couple places I looked. http://dleague.nba.com/schedule/
I thought I'd read that they had a game. Then I saw nothing about it. Now I think Friday is their first game. Not sure what happened there.
D-Fenders Roster Zach Andrews F 6’9″ 230 3/9/85 Bradley Returning Vander Blue G 6’4″ 200 7/17/92 Marquette Returning Jamal Branch G 6’3″ 170 9/30/92 St. John’s Draft Michael Frazier G 6’4″ 200 3/8/94 Florida Affiliate Kentrell Gransberry C 6’9″ 290 8/1/85 South Florida Draft Manny Harris G 6’5″ 185 9/21/89 Michigan Returning Justin Hawkins F 6’7″ 210 5/18/85 New Mexico State Draft Andre Ingram G 6’3″ 195 11/19/85 American Returning Josh Magette G 6’1″ 160 11/28/89 Alabama-Huntsville Returning D.J. Shumpert F 6’7″ 190 6/8/90 Cal State-San Bernadino Tryout Malcolm Thomas F 6’9″ 225 11/8/88 San Diego State Returning Robert Upshaw C 7’0″ 250 1/5/94 Washington Affiliate Lakers have a few interesting dudes, including two Affiliate players. Teams can designate up to four cut/waived players who were in training camp as "affiliate players." If the player wants to be in the D-League, then they go automatically to the D-League affiliate of that NBA team. Upshaw is LIKELY on a C-level contract, paying him $13K for the D-League season, but he also made $35K for the Lakers. So, it's not amazingly awful - a $48K payout to play ball. http://dleague.nba.com/affiliate-players/
Man, Robert Upshaw would do so well for the bench defensively. I don't care how slow he is, his size alone just clogs the paint and allows him to outrebound almost anyone. Not to mention the huge screens he sets and ability to finish. Instead, we have Sacre rotting on the bench over there. There are so many instances where we could just throw Upshaw in garbage time and let him run.
He needs to use this time to work on his feel for the game. It's not like Byron would be developing him if he were with the Lakers, so this is good for him.
