Big Al and Gerald in Vegas

http://www.nba.com/features/mcmenamin.html

"10. New Blood

The Team USA talent pool is ever expanding as Colangelo revealed that a select squad of young NBA talent will be coming out to Vegas in August to scrimmage with the current 17-man roster. The only names that Colangelo mentioned that are sure to be there were Brandon Roy of the Blazers and Nick Collison of the Sonics. I wonder who else will be on that team. Here's the pool of young, upcoming American players that could be on a short list of invites:

Andre Iguodala, Jameer Nelson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tyrus Thomas, Al Jefferson, Craig Smith, Devin Harris, Jason Maxiell, David Lee, Kevin Martin, Gerald Green, Emeka Okafor, Hakim Warrick, Rudy Gay, Randy Foye, Josh Smith, Monta Ellis, Raymond Felton and Daniel Gibson. "

It's nice to have a couple of young Celtics going to Vegas for this. I would think though that they would pick better players than Craig Smith, Jason Maxiell, and Daniel Gibson, though, perhaps Al Thornton, Spencer Hawes, Jeff Green, or Mike Conley from this last draft.

Green would have been an interesting guy to have on the Celts. His nickname is the Green Monster according to wikipedia.

Im a big Craig Smith fan simply cause he went to BC, but yah you would think they could find much better young talent then that.

I'm not surprised that Jefferson will be there, Gerald Green surprises me though, he hasn't really done anything in the NBA yet to prove that he deserves there.

MikeDead wrote:Im a big Craig Smith fan simply cause he went to BC, but yah you would think they could find much better young talent then that.

I'm not surprised that Jefferson will be there, Gerald Green surprises me though, he hasn't really done anything in the NBA yet to prove that he deserves there.

I was surprised, too. His stats though really aren't too bad, though. 10.4 points per game last year, decent three point percentage, slam dunk contest winner

KyleCleric wrote:

MikeDead wrote:Im a big Craig Smith fan simply cause he went to BC, but yah you would think they could find much better young talent then that.

I'm not surprised that Jefferson will be there, Gerald Green surprises me though, he hasn't really done anything in the NBA yet to prove that he deserves there.

I was surprised, too. His stats though really aren't too bad, though. 10.4 points per game last year, decent three point percentage, slam dunk contest winner

Yea true, he has a ton of potential and could easily become a superstar, I guess looking at his stats he's really not too bad for a kid just two years out of highschool playing inconsistent minutes.

He'll have a chance this year to play major minutes with injured Tony Allen and tweener Gomes as his only competition for backup minutes. Ray Allen and Pierce though should take up a ton of minutes though. It seems to me this is a good opportunity for Green to get consistent minutes, with vet scorers as a safety net, and grow for him. Also having him at this thing in Vegas should do wonders for his confidence and may perhaps even help his game. Getting these young guys involved this summer was a terrific idea to get them ready to eventually be a part of USA basketball. I hope they do this every year, work USA basketball team and these junior players together in the offseason, July and August.