Tucson Citizen.com

Posts Tagged ‘Chase Budinger’

Fogg keeps clear head concerning his professional basketball future

Monday, July 16th, 2012

Former Arizona guard Kyle Fogg has yet to play in Houston’s three games of the NBA Summer League but he is maintaining a positive outlook (TucsonCitizen.com photo/Javier Morales)

LAS VEGAS — His last name is Fogg, but his head is not in a fog when it comes to his future, even under what some would consider trying circumstances.

Houston has played three games in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas since Friday, and the Rockets only have two left. Kyle Fogg’s playing time: Zero minutes. Monday afternoon, with the same fervor he showed at Arizona, Fogg went through the daily routine of a shootaround and a pregame warmup before the Rockets played Jimmer Fredette and Sacramento at the Thomas & Mack Arena.

Fogg, an undrafted guard trying to embark on a professional career either in the NBA, the NBA’s Developmental League or overseas, faces the daily grind and playing uncertainty with a positive outlook. He joked with teammates during the warmup drills. He remained in good spirits on the Houston bench throughout the Rockets’ 113-91 win over the Kings.

Not even in a rout did Fogg get time on the court. A lesser person, thinking playing time is owed to him since he is on the roster, would start to sulk or become frustrated.

“They’ve had an opportunity to see me play (in practice),” Fogg reasoned. “They like me as a player. It’s just about getting better in practice every day.

“I want to show them that I can be an even better player down the road … I just have to be ready for when my time comes and show people that I can play.”

A consolation: Five other players on the roster have yet to play and four others have played in only one of the three games.

Houston’s coach in the summer league J.B. Bickerstaff — the former Oregon State player and son of ex-NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff — is utilizing the personnel to the command of head coach Kevin McHale (who sits courtside here).

“You look at our roster, and we’ve got a lot of youth and there’s a lot of opportunity for them,” J.B. Bickerstaff said in terms of drafted players, returners and acquisitions under contract.

(more…)

Jerryd Bayless top former Wildcat in NBA according to Hollinger’s ESPN ratings

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Toronto's Jerryd Bayless was the highest rated former Arizona player in the NBA during the 2011-12 season according to one ESPN.com system

Arizona’s 2011-12 All-NBA first team, according to player-efficiency ratings (PER) conducted by ESPN.com’s John Hollinger, includes a decent lineup.

Hollinger’s top rated former Wildcat is Jerryd Bayless of Toronto, who would take the off-guard spot. The next rated player is wing player Andre Iguodala of Philadelphia.

According to Hollinger, the PER is a rating of a player’s per-minute productivity.

“To generate PER, I created formulas — outlined in tortuous detail in my book ‘Pro Basketball Forecast’ — that return a value for each of a player’s accomplishments,” Hollinger writes at ESPN.com. “That includes positive accomplishments such as field goals, free throws, 3-pointers, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals, and negative ones such as missed shots, turnovers and personal fouls.

“Two important things to remember about PER are that it’s per-minute and is pace-adjusted.”

He adjusts each player’s rating for his team’s pace, “so that players on a slow-paced team like Detroit aren’t penalized just because their team has fewer possessions than a fast-paced team such as Golden State,” he writes.

Bayless’ PER is 17.80, which ranks him 70th among NBA players who averaged at least 6.09 minutes per game. Iguodala’s rating is 17.59.

Rounding out Arizona’s 2011-12 All-NBA first team, by order of the ratings, are point guard Jason Terry (15.80, 111th among NBA players) of Dallas, post player Jordan Hill (15.80, 111th) of the Los Angeles Lakers and forward Channing Frye (14.92, 139th) of Phoenix. Houston’s Chase Budinger (14.92, 139th) had an equal player-efficiency rating as Frye, but Frye gets the nod for the first team because Budinger and Iguodala are basically at the same position.

The other former Wildcats who qualified for the ratings include Minnesota’s Derrick Williams (12.98, 215th), Golden State’s Richard Jefferson (11.15, 263rd) and New York’s Mike Bibby (7.82, 335th).

Those who did not qualify were Luke Walton of Cleveland and Gilbert Arenas of Memphis because of their lack of playing time.

Among players with at least 500 minutes in 2011-12, the highest rating was Miami’s LeBron James at 30.80. The lowest was Charlotte’s Cory Higgins at 4.41.

Reliance on Derrick Williams significant but not most in Arizona Wildcats history

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Arizona players, such as Kevin Parrom, have Derrick Williams to lean on when the going gets tough like Thursday in the Wildcats' narrow 73-71 over Cal at McKale Center (US Presswire photo/Chris Morrison)

Arizona may rely too much on sophomore forward sensation Derrick Williams, but the Wildcats are 13-3 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-10.

Of course, 16-0 and 3-0 would be much better for some Arizona fans, but the current record is something to build on, considering all the “hot button” topics involved with the Wildcats, as second-year coach Sean Miller calls them.

One of those buttons is the heavy reliance on Williams, who acknowledged Thursday night that, “I put the team on my shoulders,” in Arizona’s 73-71 victory escape against a feisty, yet average 7-7 California team, at McKale Center.

Williams scored a career-high 31 points (42.4 percent of the Wildcats’ scoring) behind a school-record 22 free-throw attempts (he made 16).

It was written in this space last week that Arizona is practically “Derrick Williams and the 12 Dwarfs” (the UA has 13 players under scholarship, including Williams). That’s taking it to the extreme, perhaps a bit unfair to the others.

After all, other prolific-scoring players in Arizona basketball history have carried more of a scoring load for their team, believe it or not. This is a fact despite Williams currently averaging 19.4 points a game, with the next highest teammate (Solomon Hill) at 8.3.

After Thursday night’s game, Williams accounts for 24.8 percent of his team’s scoring (the Wildcats average 78.2 points a game).

Just two years ago, Chase Budinger of “Three Amigos” fame with Jordan Hill and Nic Wise, accounted for 24.9 percent of the UA’s scoring. He averaged 18 of Arizona’s 72.3 points a game under interim coach Russ Pennell.

The year before that (2007-08), under interim coach Kevin O’Neill, freshman guard Jerryd Bayless averaged 19.7 points a game, which was 27.4 percent of Arizona’s 71.9 average. That ranks as the highest mark since the Lute Olson era started in 1983-84.

(more…)