semih erden anyone?

[Tr1boy]

anyone know how the kid is progressing? i remember ainge stating he was like the steal of the 2nd round with bill walker. But is he really going to be or just another ben pepper?

[Thruthelookingglass]

I had semih erden for lunch at a middle eastern restaurant.  It was kinda dry even with the olive oil.   

[Eja117]

I think the only last pick in the draft in the history of the draft that ever had a decent career was Don Reid in the 90s by the Pistons out of Georgetown. That was when the draft was a couple picks shorter. But now a days with picking guys and stashing them overseas maybe that will happen more, but once you get past 55 picks, don't hold your breath

[2short]

at this point with our lack of bigs sure why not
why not pollard to a 10 day
why not clifford ray

[cordobes]

I'm inclined to say Ben Pepper. I wrote this a few days ago as a comment to a fanpost:

Yeah, I've been seeing him more or less frequently

He had a great game (for his standards) versus CSKA a few weeks ago, but he quickly regressed to his usual mediocre self. Recently, he’s been kicked out of the starting five once again, and rightly so.

What amazes me more about Erden is that he’s basically the same player he was 4 years ago, when he appeared in pro-basketball with Partizan. Pretty much the same player: some flashes of a superb fluidity and flair for a 7footer but a tremendous inability to make things happen consistently on the floor and lots of amateurish mistakes. Not an inch of development in any aspect of the game. Search in the forums for some assessments of his game.

I think Erden lost this season his last chance of showing he’s a marquee player in Europe, especially with Asik’s injury and Vidmar not showing any notorious development either – it should have been easy for him to grab a dominant role in Fener’s front-line rotation. Unfortunately, he didn’t come close. I think a journeyman for middle-of-the-pack teams in Europe will be his future.

Asik is a much superior player, assuming he recovers fully from the injury; unlike Erden, he’s a legit NBA prospect. I’ve expressed that opinion pre-draft and I still keep it, in spite of the fact that Asik has been injured ever since.

I wouldn’t call drafting him a mistake though. It was the #60 pick, there’s a reason he fell so far. I can think of a couple of players with bigger NBA potential than him that went undrafted, but that still make them long shots to ever become good enough to be worth of a NBA contract. And none is a 7ft, so the risk made sense.

http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/3/15/797913/anyone-seen-semir

(check Norkstroll comment as well)

One never knows with players like Erden (if he could dominate the fundamental skills of concentration he'd instantaneously become a much better player and perhaps a change of scenario, coaching, country, etc, could ignite that "click),  but right now I'd keep the expectations extremely low.

[the_Bird]

I think the only last pick in the draft in the history of the draft that ever had a decent career was Don Reid in the 90s by the Pistons out of Georgetown. That was when the draft was a couple picks shorter. But now a days with picking guys and stashing them overseas maybe that will happen more, but once you get past 55 picks, don't hold your breath

Well, yeah, but there have also been a fair number of players who were never drafted who have carved out pretty good careers for themselves.

Absolutely no expectations for this guy, ever.  Didn't seem to be an elite prospect at the time, and sounds like nothing's happened to change that since. 

[celticswillwin43]

Danny said he would be this years first round pick

[moiso]

Unfortunately, I have Erden filed in my head in a group with that guy Morales from Spain that we aquired the rights to a couple years ago.  If he makes the Celtics, its a bonus.

[CelticsWhat35]

I remember rumblings that Josip Sesar was going to join the Celtics and be a solid rotation player right off the bat.    Until a drafted player stashed overseas is on the Celtics roster, I'm going to assume he's never coming.

[Jeff]

Danny said he would be this years first round pick

well, last year's first round pick hasn't played much, so maybe that's feint praise

now if he said he was this year's second round pick we would have bought from a team looking to dump salary, that would be saying something!

[guava_wrench]

Danny said he would be this years first round pick

Maybe he calibrated his first round pick analysis using POB.

[Eja117]

I'm still waiting for Andrei Fetisov

[cordobes]

Ah, Ben Pepper, Albert Miralles, Josip Sesar... we were never very lucky with those guys, none of them was really that good. Sesar was solid at some point, I guess, but not a single one was NBA material.

Ainge should forget Erden and the Euro guy he's going to draft with the #56 or whatever and start talking with a Greek guy named Yannis Bourousis, who went undrafted (very late bloomer) and is going to be a free-agent next Summer. Easily a top-3 big men in Europe these days, only Splitter and Pekovic are on this level, 25 years old, willing to take a smaller salary to play in the NBA, can defend, rebound and is an awesome scree/roll player with the ability to pop and drop jumpers after jumpers at an incredible rate for a 7fter. Very good backup for this team if we stay with KG/KP/LP. The Spurs are one of the teams already in conversations with him, so hurry up.

[ederson]

I don`t know about accepting a smaller salary but i`m 1000% with you about Bourousis. He is not as good as Splitter and Pecovic close to the basket but his range is excellent. He is a decent shot blocker too.
Imagine something like Okur.

He is also a great locker room guy.