The Hamed Hadadi Thread

[persianbruin]

will we be seeing hack-a-haddadi?? Remains to be seen!!

[Babak]

Hamed Haddidi: I peered over a scrum of reporters trying to interview Haddidi through a translator and it seemed to be rough going, so I moved on. My goal of engaging him in a conversation about Iranian cinema will have to wait for another day.

Marc Gasol: Gasol was the only person in the building who has seen Hadaddi play an actual game in person, so I asked for a scouting report: “Great hands. Understands the game. Moves pretty well for a 7’2” guy. Plays great defense. A good rebounder.” Sounds good, Marc! I talked to Gasol a while about the Olympics, but none of it made my notebook or was particularly memorable.

http://www.cmimemphis.com/grizblog/

[Demis-11]

now im excited for the memphis season to start lol, reading so much about it i might watch this over the raps game

[Darvish11]

From the writer:

lol quick response

and another lol, it seems like a guy who waited on darrell arthur didnt get a tip from him and is taking out his frustration here God i love the internet

[ardi11]

VIDEO training-session

http://www.grizzliesonline.com/index...age_10_2_2008/

[Bobbyrider]

"now im excited for the memphis season to start lol, reading so much about it i might watch this over the raps game ".

lol same because the raptors are a huge piss off when they play like shit lol

[Darvish11]

VIDEO training-session

http://www.grizzliesonline.com/index...age_10_2_2008/

not bad, drew 2 fouls down low. Gasol sucked, one missed shot down low and a really bad pass that led to a turnover. Good news, good news.

[Darvish11]

Previewing the Centers
By Joshua Coleman

Year after year since they arrived in Memphis, the Grizzlies have run out a ragtag group to man the pivot. Other than Lorenzen Wright, who performed admirably the majority of his time in his hometown, the other players have either been undersized (Stromile Swift, Alexander Johnson, Lawrence Roberts, Andre Brown) or undertalented (Jake Tsakalidis, Ike Austin, Cezary Trybanski) or both (Mike Batiste). So the fact that they will be trotting out not one, not two, but three legitimate 7-footers is practically a miracle of epic proportions. The additional thought that at least two of them are worthy rotational players and the third is a worthwhile project makes me all tingly inside.

The primary job of the center in the modern NBA is that of a rebounder and defensive presence. Other than the players of Yao Ming and Al Jefferson's offensive skill or Amare Stoudemire and Dwight Howard's athletic prowess, centers just aren't looked to as scorers nowadays. The Sameuel Dalembert's, Tyson Chandler's and Andrew Bogut's are the norm for the position now. When looking at Darko Milicic, Marc Gasol and Hamed Haddadi, it seems apparent that they favor the latter grouping more than the former. All three are known for their hard-nosed defense, physicality in the paint and solid rebounding. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

The Players:

Darko Milicic - As I said previously when talking about the Power Forwards, Darko isn't likely to ever reach the expectations that certain people had for him when he was drafted #2 overall in 2003, but that doesn't mean that he cannot be a quality NBA starter. After all, he's only 23 years old and has limited mileage on him considering that he barely played while in Detroit for two and a half seasons. Darko's strengths are in his positional defense and shot-blocking, although he did exhibit a deft passing touch last year from the high and low post positions. With the thumb on his shooting hand finally healed, we might get to see more of the player that posted 6 games of double-digit scoring in his first 15 appearances as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. If he winds up splitting time between the PF and C positions, his offense will definitely need to be raised to a new level. The bigger question for The Dark One is where his confidence level is at, since that has been the biggest road block to greater success in his career. If he ever gets out of his own head, the rest of the league should be very worried.

Marc Gasol - Pau's little brother is no stranger to Memphis. After his performance in the Olympics, he's probably not a stranger to the rest of the NBA now either. If Grizzlies fans had any doubt, Marc proved that he wasn't his much maligned sibling by putting Chris Bosh squarely on his backside when Spain met Team USA. The reigning MVP of the ACB League in Spain comes across the pond with a chip on his shoulder after not garnering a scholarship offer from any big name schools after graduating high school here in Memphis. While he doesn't have the offensive skillset of Pau, he has already displayed that he is much tougher and more physical in the paint, along with growing far superior facial hair, which is important to me since I'm also bearded on occasion. If what he has shown in Spain translates well to the NBA, then Gasol could find himself with a substantial amount of playing time this year.

Hamed Haddadi - The final member of the international trio manning the pivot is the Iranian import who recently got clearance to enter the United States. Although there might be a few communication issues that have to be overcome (such as GM Chris Wallace accidentally giving Haddadi the equivalent of "the bird" by displaying a thumbs up in practice) and he should definitely be classified as a project, but as the saying goes, 7-footers don't grow on trees. He displayed plenty of raw ability in the Olympics, leading all players in rebounding and shot-blocking. His new teammates have been very complimentary of his skill level over the past week, giving hope that he might be able to contribute as soon as this season if the necessity should arise.

(And you thought that I couldn't do that without a camel joke.)
CONCLUSION: While the Grizzlies undoubtedly have more potential than ever before at the center position, it is anyone's guess how well the two newest additions will transition to the NBA and whether or not Darko will finally "get it". If the Grizzlies manage to get an average of 15-17 ppg, 13-15 rpg and 3-4 bpg each and every night from their centers, then it will take a lot of pressure off the rest of the team who will have the knowledge that they have a capable shot-blocker behind them on defense, as well as a solid rebounder and space eater. The Grizzlies will finally have some intimidators in the paint this season -- something that is long overdue.


http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...lies-notebook/

Mixed signals

Sometimes a language barrier between foreign players and American players, coaches and executives isn't limited to the spoken word. Take what happened Tuesday morning: Griz general manager Chris Wallace attempted to encourage Iranian center Hamed Haddadi during practice with a simple thumbs-up sign. But a thumbs up doesn't always mean what you think.

Turns out that gesture in Iran takes on the same meaning as someone flipping a middle finger in the States.

Oops.


....

and news of the day:

Griz TV

NBA Entertainment has been in town filming the Grizzlies' practices and capturing Haddadi's experience as the first Iranian to play in the league. NBAE will post video on NBA.com and some scenes may appear on television during "Inside Stuff."

Soon, NBAE will trail Haddadi as he experiences a slice of Memphis with teammates Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry for a lunch on Beale Street.


YEAH BOIII

[Darvish11]

Hamed Haddadi and O.J. Mayo stayed at least 45 minutes after practice was over to shoot jumper after jumper… O.J.’s range obviously didn’t catch any of us off guard, but Hamed can really stroke it from downtown…

[Babak]

Wow, nice. Where did you get that from?

[Darvish11]

Wow, nice. Where did you get that from?

http://www.grizzliesonline.com/index...mp_day_three1/

[Darvish11]

first bad report

As for the third leg of the international sever-footer contingent on the roster, Haddadi doesn’t look ready. (It will be interesting to see if the team sends him to the “D” league, where he’d have yet another new environment to adapt.) But he did have a nice moment yesterday, winning a rare scrimmage for the third-string “green” squad with a turn-around free-throw line jumper, drawing cheers from his inactive, first-string teammates.

nice tidbit about the shot, but any time someone suggests D league is NOT good.
what was good out of that full report:

Lowry also made a nice defensive play today streaking down court to cleanly strip Hakim Warrick on a breakaway attempt.

Hakim Warrick looks even thinner, if that’s possible. He’s been connecting on mid-range jumper and running the floor well, but he’s also been getting toasted on the block by Antoine Walker. If he can’t handle Walker, then things could get ugly when he routinely faces off with legit power-forward starters in the league.

the worst hakim does the better for haddadi because it means darko will start at PF and haddadi is the only backup center, which pretty much guarantees minutes every game. Unless the coach decides to **** us all over and start with walker

but guys i really am optimistic about haddadi getting playing time. The second game is vs houston, and i just dont see any sane coach lining up gay-warrick-gasol vs artest-scola-yao. Against these western conference teams the coach HAS to go big, wich will definitely give haddadi a chance. He just has to come through.

[darvish_gorgali]

does anyone know how would I be able to find out where do they stay,let's say they have to play bulls,? I wanna meet haddadi. I wanna know where do they stay at night? which hotel? anyone?

[Nokhodi]

Do they mean Hadadi is not physically ready?
Because that can be fixed in the training camp.

[EKBATAN]

NY, who wrote that bad report?? i think he's talking out of his ass with that D league shit
so what if he had a few bad shots or made few wrong moves, it happens, i dont think its a big deal...haddadi can handle himself...he can definitely score and block shots the least