ORLANDO -- In a surprising, some might say shocking, move the
ORLANDO MAGICS announced that undrafted D-Leaguer
Elton Brown had made the 2008-09 ORLANDO MAGICS roster over their 15th round pick
Chris Richard, who they waived following the conclusion of their training camp just outside of Minsk, Belarus.
"This was a really tough decision," said Magics GM Gainesville Celtic. "Both of these kids battled throughout training camp and we worked the phones all day trying to open up a roster spot so that we could keep one of them. But other teams just weren't budging. So it's with great regret that we're announcing our decision to waive PF Chris Richard."
"As you know Richard was a 2-time NCAA champion with the Florida Gators just up the road in Gainesville. So he obviously fit the mold of the type of players we were drafting over the last 3 weeks: Winners, hard workers, team-firsters. Chris is all those things. But so is Elton Brown. He hasn't won as much as Chris, but he's just as hard a worker. And at the end of the day, he's just a bit bigger, a bit nastier at 6-9, 250 than the 6-8, 245 Richard. Some of their battles in practice ended folks in the trainers room."
"Elton has paid his dues. He's coming off a 2-year D-League run that included a 1st team All-DLeague spot in 2006-07 and 2-year averages of: 19 pts, 10.5 reb, 2.1 asst, .5 blk, .5 stl. He also averaged 13/10 in 24 mins/gm this summer for DEN's summer league team."
The press statement handed out by the Magics included the following quotes about Elton Brown from renowned NBA scout, Ridiculous Upside:
http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2008/7/20/574442/breaking-the-ceiling-summeA physical bruiser known for his ability to bang down low and battle with bigs for offensive rebounds, Brown is a physical warrior on the court.
Brown is one of the select players who do everything they're supposed to do in the D-League. Rebounding. Defense. He's known as being extremely coachable. He was a D-League All-Star two years in a row, averaging a double-double. NBA scouts look to the D-League for defense and rebounding, and Brown filled both of those. But quesitons abounded, and he missed out, often by a matter of fate. For instance, Ronnie Turiaf's return to health, and well, Coby Karl.
Like with the recently released Kasib Powell, the Magics GM indicated that if Richard manages to clear waivers, the Magcis would try to sign him to their new D-League affiliate*,
the Gainesville Celtics, named after their beloved GM of the same name.
With the move, the ORLANDO MAGICS trimmed their roster to the league-mandated 15 players:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Sebastian Telfair, Jason Williams
SG - Rodney Stuckey, Matt Barnes, Devin Brown
SF - Danny Granger, Matt Harpring
PF - Tim Duncan, Sheldon Williams, Elton Brown
C - Brad Miller, Adonal Foyle, David Harrison, Marcin Gortat
The Magics also hold the rights to SG Juan Carlos Navarro who will play the 2008-09 season in Barcelona.
(* Yes we realize there are currently no provisions for teams to have D-League franchises, but the MAGICS intend to be trailblazers in this aspect of the fake NBA. They firmly believe that next year's draft should be contracted to 28 or 26 teams and expanded to include a D-League franchise for each team --- to further demonstrate why the REAL NBA should have a 1-for-1 true minor league system and should trim the number of teams to 26 or 28).
Topic: 2008 CelticsBlog draft board. (Read 914807 times)