NBA Brazilians 2009-10

[¹²³]

This is how the brazilians are playing so far this season:

Leandro Barbosa
14 games, 21:23 MPG, 48.5 FG%, 40.5 3PT%, 70.8 FT%, 2.0 assists, 1,9 rebounds, 1.1 TO, 11.6 PPG.

Nenê Hilario
17 games, 33:30 MPG, 60.3 FG%, 70.5 FT%, 9.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.8 TO, 1.5 STL, 1.3 BLK, 3.7 PF, 13.9 PPG.

Anderson Varejão
15 games, 29:41 MPG, 53.8 FG%, 61.8 FT%, 8.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.7 TO, 1.1 STL, 0.9 BLK, 3.4 PF, 7.1 PPG.

[Test]

All players have noticeable shooting percentages, Kevin Durant would be jealous

[¹²³]

All players have noticeable shooting percentages, Kevin Durant would be jealous

It helps that they aren't the first scoring option for their teams. Nenê has some spetacular shooting percentages in his career. Accordding to Yahoo "Nene is fourth in the league with a 60.2 shooting percentage. He was second in the NBA in that category last season, making 60.4 percent".

But it is also good to see Anderson and Leandro shooting well this season.

Another good sign is that Nenê is rebounding much better now. Let's see if he can sustain this kind of numbers until the end of the season.

[¹²³]

Nenê had a fantastic game last night.

Here is his stat line: 29:13 minutes, 7-10 FG, 4-4 FT, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks and 18 points.

Leandrinho didn't play for the Suns he sprained his left ankle Sunday in Toronto and also will miss Wednesday’s game.

[¹²³]

Leandro Barbosa talked about his expected Friday return to the court following an ankle injury after Tuesday morning's practice.

And also this.

[Czarkazem13]

All players have noticeable shooting percentages, Kevin Durant would be jealous

Leandrinho aside, the other two are interior players, so they should have higher FG%. Plus, as 123 stated, they aren't the first scoring option for their teams (less pressure).

[¹²³]

Anderson Varejao 's 1st career 3PT lead Cavs Winning ! = Lebron James ' Birthday Present



Edit: He also had a very good game to go with that shot.

[stuart]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...all-plus-minus

The Cavs outscored the Nets by 14 points today when Anderson Varejao was on the court in their 94-86 victory over New Jersey, which moved the Brazilian into first place overall in the NBA’s plus-minus category.

With the Lakers off Saturday night, that means Varejao held the overnight plus-minus lead over the plus-306 of the Lakers’ Ron Artest, who has been sidelined since sustaining a concussion in a fall at his home on Christmas night.

Since the Cavs are so much better when Varejao plays than when he sits, it begs the question: Why isn’t he a starter?

The common perception is that coach Mike Brown likes to bring the Brazilian off the bench to play the bulk of his minutes alongside Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who has a better outside shot than Varejao and thus can play away from the basket and leave the dirty work down low to Varejao, who had 12 rebounds vs. the Nets. What’s more, the Varejao-Ilgauskas pairing off the bench provides some continuity for the Cavs after they open with Shaquille O’Neal (no outside game) at center and J.J. Hickson (who has somewhat of a steady outside shot) at power forward.

But Brown says that's a misperception.

“I play Hickson with Shaq because I want to play Andy the whole game, but I can’t play him the whole game. So I decided to start J.J. because in the first eight minutes of the game, we’re not going to win or lose it,” Brown said. “So if I play him 8 minutes in the first half and 8 in the second, that’s 16 minutes I don’t have to play Andy and it’s really not going to affect the game. A lot of times now, if you watch our games lately, when Andy goes in he ain’t coming out. I don’t care if Z is in or Shaq’s coming back in.

“It’s just at the start of the game it makes more sense for me and for the team to have someone else, and not play Andy 38-39 minutes a game. But his value to us with whoever’s on the floor is off the charts.”

[mvblair]

Perkins Chimes in... -- by Julian Benbow, Boston.Com, February 24, 2010

One thing worth noting: the guy Cleveland's roster that completely annoys Perkins is Anderson Varejao. "He's a pain in the neck. Always active, offensive rebounding, doing the little things. And he plays good defense, pick and roll and on the box."

So, Kendrick Perkins says he a "pain in the neck," but doesn't say anything about the flopping. That's a pretty big compliment, if you ask me.

I watched the game on ABC last Sunday when Marc Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy said Varejao was flopping after a video showed Dwight Howard's elbow in Andy's throat. The play-by-play guy couldn't believe it.

[¹²³]

Andy cut down the flopping a lot this season. But he will always get into other players heads because of his activity and mobility.

[mvblair]

Andy cut down the flopping a lot this season.

I don't think he ever flopped a lot. Sure, there were a few plays, but he took tons of charges and drew lots of fouls.

But he will always get into other players heads because of his activity and mobility.

That's absolutely right.

[mvblair]

Varejao scored 17 points and 10 rebounds yesterday in a Cleveland victory over Boston. Varejao played 30 minutes.

The game was on national TV, so once again Jeff Van Gundy complained about Varejao's "flopping" as Varejao was getting elbowed in the chest by Glenn Davis. Still, JVG and Marc Jackson were impressed with Varejao and said some great things about his energy and his ability to change plays on offense and defense.

My Dad made an interesting observation about Varejao: what Varejao does best is get his hands onto the ball just as a player on the other team is grabbing the rebound. That way, Varejao can just pop the ball out and grab it.

Varejao is second in the NBA for +/- points, meaning that his team's net points are more than all players except for one (LeBron). I think Kobe and Dwight Howard were third and fourth.

[¹²³]

Here are some quotes from the Celtic side about AV.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers used the word "frustrating" four times while describing Varejao's impact.

"Fifty-fifty [balls], second-chance points, missed layups," said Rivers, listing the key maladies in his team's loss. "It's frustrating for me. In a lot of ways we're close to breaking out and being really good, but it's also frustrating that -- one guy completely dominated this game in Varejao.

"Second-[chance baskets], loose balls, activity [around the basket] and getting under our skin. He's doing what he should do. That was very frustrating though. Overall, our defense was good, but we kept giving the ball back, even long rebounds -- that was on our guards -- but even then it was Varejao slapping the ball up in the air."

"He came in the game and completely changed the game once again," said Kendrick Perkins. "He did the same thing in Boston. When the game was like 16-16 [Sunday] -- all of a sudden now the score was like 23-[18] in two minutes. He just comes off the bench and kept changing the game. He had a big first half -- 15 and 7 -- that's big for them."

Link

[¹²³]

Let's see what Andy, Nene and Leandro will do in the playoffs.

[rikhardur]

Varejão was third in the voting for sixth man of the year.

[¹²³]

He had a great season.

Cleveland already advanced. It looks like Denver and Phoenix will do the same.

One more round to all Brazilians.

[mvblair]

He had a great season.

Oddly, he seems to be more important now in the post season. Against Chicago, Varejao is basically the "main" center. He's playing about 30-35 minutes per game, while Shaq is playing the rest, and Z is getting a few minutes. Varejao isn't starting yet, but he's getting almost all of the minutes at the center position.

[¹²³]

Yeah, you can clearly see how much coach Brown trusts Andy.

[¹²³]

Cleveland already advanced. It looks like Denver and Phoenix will do the same.

One more round to all Brazilians.

I didn't really know why I said that Denver would do the same, since they were loosing the series 3-1. Now they won one more game but Utah is still the favorite.

And some bad news in that last game.

Nene out after spraining left knee

Denver Nuggets forward Nene sprained his left knee in the first half of Game 5 against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night and the team said he will not return to the game.

He will be re-evaluated Thursday.

Nene stayed on the court for several minutes after Jazz forward Carlos Boozer banged his left leg into Nene’s knee. He was helped off the court and into the locker room leaning on trainer Jim Gillen.

Nene had two points and one rebound in 14 minutes for Denver, which entered the game trailing 3-1 in the series.

[mvblair]

Well, a sprain isn't too bad and it certainly won't keep him out of Turkey later in the summer.

It looks like Nene and Denver won't be going to the second round, though. I'm surprised, because once AK47 started sitting and Memo got hurt, I thought Utah was "toast."

At least Barbosa looks to move on and Varejao is already going ahead to play against Boston.

I predict that KG will make some dirty move against Varejao, but KG won't go after Shaq.