Interview: Aron Baynes on the NBA

Not a bad interview with Australian/New Zealander Aron Baynes about his time so far with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA.

Interview: Aron Baynes on the NBA

30.10.13

By Nick Metallinos in New York

Image: Getty Images

It would, naturally, be tough for any professional player to go from playing regular rotation minutes, to sporadic minutes. For Aron Baynes, the 6’10 Australian, the transition to the NBA was made smoother with the situation he found himself in.

 

Some may say it was serendipitous, but if you follow the Spurs’ organisation, you’ll know that nothing is left to chance when it comes to their player selection. Nothing is left to chance.

 

Yes, Baynes found himself at the end of a deep San Antonio bench, but his Boomers teammate Patty Mills, and then-national team coach, Brett Brown, were there to help guide him through the rigors of the NBA schedule. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt when you have one of the game’s greatest big men, Tim Duncan, to learn from while playing on a championship-calibre team.

 

Basketball Australia caught up with Baynes just before the 2013-14 season was set to begin to get his thoughts on last season, and what lies ahead.

 

Basketball Australia: Firstly, how was your summer? What did you spend it doing?

 

Aron Baynes: It was good. I spent a lot of time in San Antonio, played in the Summer League, and worked out here the rest of the time. I had a lot of time to get better, worked with big guys like, Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter. It’s been good to be here and be able to develop my game.

Click here for the full interview: Basketball Australia : Interview: Aron Baynes on the NBA

NBA game down under and some gold from Chris Anstey

Two good reads from yesterday, first there is talk on the NBA blog about a possible pre-season game being played down under which I think is well overdue:

Why not down under?

By the end of 2013-14, the NBA since 1978 will have staged 148 preseason or regular season games in 20 countries and territories across Europe, North and South America and Asia. Still waiting their turn – to answer the many emails we get here at HTB – are Australia and New Zealand.

Scott Levy, senior vice president and managing director, NBA Asia, acknowledged the heavy interest in the NBA in those countries. Past and present players have hailed from there, including Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Luc Longley, Sean Marks, Shane Heal, Chris Anstey and Nathan Jawai. Oklahoma City’s first-round pick Steven Adams is from New Zealand and Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving was born in Melbourne.

Participation is high, Australia ranks No. 1 in subscribers to NBA League Pass International and in NBAstore.com’s international revenue, and the country certainly has the sports facilities and culture befitting a possible preseason destination.

“Australia is an important market for the NBA in the region and we enjoy a great following from our fans,” Levy said. “We have conducted several NBA events in the country, including the 2011 Asia Pacific Team Camp featuring the top youth basketball players from Australia, New Zealand, China, and South Korea. There have been discussions around many different programs from grass-roots clinics, development programs, mass participation events, and a preseason game, but nothing is definite at this point.”

For the full article, click here.

Then, in his weekly blog for the NBL website, Chris Anstey talks about what he learnt from Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki while he was playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Click here to read the whole story but what surprised me most was his final paragraph:

I played tennis until I was 17. My doubles partner, Dustin Fletcher, played to the same age and will become the second highest AFL games player in history.

Being a Bombers fan I didn't know this about one of my all-time favourite players. That must've been the tallest, skinniest doubles pair ever!

ANZAC day in the NBA

In a landmark day for Australian and New Zealand basketball, today saw the first NBA game with THREE ANZAC's in it. With Milwaukee playing in Portland, Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills and (Kiwi) Sean Marks all played in the same game.

It wasn't a great night for Bogut who's team was on the wrong end of a beating (80 - 106). Without his starting point guard Brandon Jennings (fractured left foot), Andrew had just 5 points 5 boards. Sean Marks had 6 points, 5 boards, 2 blocks in 24 minutes of court-time which are all good numbers for him. Patty was also solid with 8 points, 3 assists, 2 boards and 2 triples in 18 minutes.

I watched a little bit of the game tonight and it was funny to see Patty actually look tall for the first time on an NBA court ... when he was matched-up on Earl Boykins (5 foot 5). I checked Mills stats on ESPN and he's officially listed as 6 foot ... hmm, I think that's an exaggeration.

If you look very closely in the photo below you can see all three on-court at the same time. Bogut attempting the block, Marks on the left and behind him on the left is Mills.

Patty Mills sees serious court-time

There was talk leading in to the Portland vs Phoenix game today that Patrick Mills could be the starting point guard thanks to an injury to Andre Miller. While this didn't eventuate, Patty did see some serious court-time entering the game after just 4.5 minutes.

Here's his line from today:

BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Andre Miller, PG	Did not play
Patrick Mills, PG	27	4-9	0-4	1-1	2	3	7	0	0	2	4	+3	9

For his first decent run, that's a good productive line from the young man.

He had 6 assists in the first half alone, but with the game on the line the ball would no doubt have been in Brandon Roy's hands. A 7 assist to 2 turnover ratio is pretty solid and if he could've knocked down a couple of those threes that he missed, it would have been a very impressive performance!

Yes, I couldn't find a decent NBA game shot of Patty yet!

Patty Mills

Thanks to the team at the Townsville Crocodiles for putting this interview on YouTube. Here's Patty Mills on Sports Tonight discussing his chances of staying with the Portland Trailblazers and also the progress of the Australian Boomers.

NBA Draft 2010

After the NBA Championships were over, the next major event on the calendar is the NBA Draft. While there were no big-name Aussies in the draft to wait for (like the travesty that was last year with Patty Mills), its still a fun event to watch. Having not had the chance to watch a lot of college ball this year, I didn't know many of the players but since it was quiet at work, I watched coverage of the first round.

If you missed the draft, here are the highlights:

NBA Playoffs

Slightly belated highlights from game 2 of the Boston Celtics series against the Miami Heat. No KG, no worries as Ray Allen takes over and gives the Heat far more than they can handle. Here's his line:

Boston
Starters		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
R. Rondo	G	34:57	2-6	1-1	3-4	+29	0	7	12	3	2	1	1	2	8
R. Allen	G	33:25	9-13	7-9	0-0	+31	1	5	3	2	0	0	0	3	25

And here are the highlights from the game:



Not to be missed from the early rounds was Patty Mills' first playoff game:

Playoffs							FG					3PT					FT					Rebounds					Misc
Date	Opponent	Score	GS	Min			M	A	Pct			M	A	Pct			M	A	Pct			Off	Def	Tot			Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	Pts
Apr 20	@ PHO	L 90-119	0	07:25			2	4	50.0			1	1	100.0			1	1	100.0			0	0	0			0	1	0	0	0	6
Apr 18	@ PHO	W 105-100	0	0			0	0	N/A			0	0	N/A			0	0	N/A			0	0	0			0	0	0	0	0	0
Total			0	07:24			2	4	50.0			1	1	100.0			1	1	100.0			0	0	0			0	1	0	0	0	6

Regular Season

FG

3PT

FT

Rebounds

Misc

Date

Opponent

Score

GS

Min

M

A

Pct

M

A

Pct

M

A

Pct

Off

Def

Tot

Ast

TO

Stl

Blk

PF

Pts

Apr 14

GSW

L 116-122

0

13:05

4

8

50.0

2

3

66.7

1

3

33.3

0

1

1

2

2

0

0

4

11

And as you can see, he had a very productive last game of the regular season. As the Suns dominate the Blazers, hopefully Mills will be given some more minutes.

Utah Jazz vs LeBron and the Cavaliers

The double-header on One today was Boston vs Chicago and then Utah vs Cleveland. Its a quiet time at work so I got to watch a fair bit of the second game and I'm glad I did.

My first question was what's up with those Utah Jazz uniforms? Green and yellow, just looked strange for the Jazz.

On to the actual game and Cleveland led most of the way but thanks to the Jazz reserves they made a charge in the 4th and took the lead. Then King James took over and put Cleveland back in front and it looked like they would get the win. Thanks to a few missed free-throws down the stretch, Utah found themselves with possession and down by 2 with just seconds remaining. The play that was drawn up broke down and the ball got kicked out to Sundiata Gaines on the wing who knocked down a triple over Anthony Parker to give his side the win on the buzzer.

The great story here is that Gaines has just been brought up from the D League and was on the second 10 day contract. Like Aussie Patty Mills, he had been playing for the Idaho Stampede and normally wouldn't have seen court-time but injuries to stars Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko meant that Jerry Sloan had to go deep in to his bench.

Gaines helped spark the Utah rally in the 4th quarter and found himself the unlikely hero when the final play broke down. It was great to see how happy and excited his new team-mates were for him. Sure, they were happy to win the game but you could see the joy they had for the young kid.

This was just his 5th game for the Jazz and he had his first team practice the day before. It just goes to show you that you need to be ready to step up when called upon.

The game winning shot

Patrick Mills gets the call up

Its been a big week for Patrick Mills since my update about him last week. He played just two games in the D League but did enough to get the call-up to join the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA.

Game 1 for Mills playing with the Idaho Stampede so the young Aussie come off the bench. He exploded for 38 points including 7 triples, 12 assists, 3 boards and 3 steals.

Game 2 saw Mills again come off the bench for 22 points (8 of 12 from the field) including 4 triples, 3 assist and 2 boards. The real highlight of the game was the Stampedes come from behind win including a winning put-back from Patty himself.

For more in depth analysis of his time in the D League, check out A Stern Warning and NBA Mate.

Patrick should be ready/available to play for the Blazers tomorrow against the Clippers. Not sure if he will see any court-time in this game but it will be great to see him "suited up" rather than just sitting behind the bench like he was to start the season.

Patrick Mills off to the D League

Thanks to the guys at NBA Mate for bringing this one to my attention. It seems it will be a little while before we see Patty Mills in the NBA (I'm not giving up yet). He's off to the D League as per the story below. I did laugh at the last paragraph ... I don't think it will be Trail Blazers fans following his progress, it will basically just be his Aussie fans.

NBA Development League: Patrick Mills Assigned To Idaho Stampede

NEW YORK, Dec. 29, 2009 – PPortland Trail Blazers guard Patrick Mills was assigned to the Idaho Stampede, Portland’s NBA D-League affiliate, it was announced today. Mills is the 10th NBA player and the 12th assignment to an NBA D-League affiliate this season.

Originally selected by the Trail Blazers with the 55th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, Mills has yet to see action this season having suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot during an NBA Summer League practice session July 9. He underwent surgery on July 13 and recently completed a successful rehabilitation.

A two-year contributor at St. Mary’s (CA), Mills twice earned First Team All-West Coast Conference. Named West Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year as a freshman, Mills was also selected to the Naismith Trophy Award Mid-Season Top-30 list during his sophomore season.

Mills averaged a team-high 14.2 points to go with 2.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals in 23 minutes for his native Australia at the Beijing Olympics becoming the youngest player in Australian history to compete in the Olympic Games in basketball.

Trail Blazers fans can stay in step with Mills, who will join the Stampede Wednesday and be available when the team travels to face the Reno Bighorns on Jan. 1, by logging onto nba.com/dleague to watch all of the Stampede's games live, online, for free.

David Andersen delivers

Its been a fairly unexciting last few weeks in the NBA if you're following the hopes and dreams of David Andersen and Nathan Jawai. If you've checked out a Portland Trailblazers game lately you've no doubt seen Patty Mills in plain clothes sitting behind the bench watching the action.

Thankfully tho there is some good news ... Andrew Bogut has returned from his most recent injury and is putting up good numbers for the Milwaukee Bucks. The team itself is doing well considering they've been without star Michael Redd and they've surprised all but DJ Rod (who said they would have a good season) and are sitting just under 500, good enough for 6th spot in the Eastern Conference.

A week or two back when Kevin Love returned from injury for the Minnesota Timberwolves it looked like it might be the end for Nathan Jawai's minutes. He's had a number of DNP-CD's since then but the good news for Nathan is that his team is the worst in the league which means they get beaten regularly and by quite a margin. This means there is plenty of garbage minutes and today Nathan got to enjoy a few of them. In just 18 minutes of court-time, Jawai notched up 9 points, 7 boards, 1 block and a steal. Don't expect these numbers out of him regularly, but every now and again he'll get time when the result of the games have been decided. At this stage of his development, the more time the youngster can spend on the court during the game can only be beneficial.

Its been a similar story for David Andersen in Houston who had only seen 15 minutes of game time once this month before tonight. David finds himself backing up an under-rated Rockets front-court including Luis Scola and Carl Landry who are both having career years. Andersen saw just over 20 minutes today and scored 17 points, 9 boards on a very tidy 6 of 8 from the field. The 17 points was just 2 short of his NBA career high that he had mid-November against the Lakers.

David Andersen isn't usually the focus of the photographers, unfortunately for him they didn't miss this awkward incident.

NBL'ers in the NBA

Still no good news regarding Patty Mills and his attempt to play in the NBA but there are Aussies or NBL-related players seeing some action in the NBA pre-season.

Firstly, David Andersen has been putting in work with the Houston Rockets. He knows he can't replace Yao Ming but in his last 3 games has average 25 minutes per game and has started 2 of them. He had 8 points 4 boards, 17 points 4 boards and 12 points 7 boards. Respective production, let's hope it continues in the regular season.

Secondly, former New Zealand Breakers import Carlos Powell is getting a run for the Phoenix Suns. Carlos was a scoring machine for the Breakers and had high hopes of stepping from the NBL to the NBA. He's spent some time in the D League but with Shaq in Cleveland and Robin Lopez injured, the Suns could using another scoring bigman. He came off the bench in his first game for 6 points 3 boards but started yesterday and had 12 points 3 boards.

Finally, Nathan Jawai has FINALLY stepped on court for the Dallas Mavericks. This article would tend to suggest he's unlikely to make their roster but it was nice all the same to see him get 2 points and 2 assists in 7 minutes of court-time (not surprisingly, a blowout Dallas win).

Thanks to the guys at NBA Mate for pointing out an article from NBA.com about our two main Aussies in the NBA.

Mate vs mate, Anderson shooting over Bogut in a pre-season game

Twitter ... I didn't want to, but

I've previously said I would avoid the Twitter fad but today I relented ...

Prompted by a post from John Rillie about his trip to Darwin to follow the Top End Challenge I decided to take the step and sign up. It seems that if you want to stay up to date with what's really happening, especially in the sporting world, Twitter is now a must have. The crew at Dime virtually fill half of their off-season smack with Twitter updates from players.

After "following" JR, I tagged a number of others in the basketball world (both NBL & NBA) to keep up to date with. So far I have:

• Patty Mills
• Kevin Garnett
• Shaq
• Stephen Curry
• Steve Nash
• Mark Cuban
• Andrew Bogut
• Big Joe
• Joe Ingles
• Shawn Marion
• Troy Murphy
• Luke Schenscher
• Chris Webber
• Kevin Durant
  

Speaking of Luke Schenscher, its great to see that he's just signed with the Perth Wildcats instead of heading to Europe. He had a great season and I'm looking forward to seeing him build on that this year.

I'm getting a new mobile within the next week so I'll now make sure I can get one that I can tweet from.

Nathan Jawai - A Dallas perspective

Its funny ... the US and Australia seem to get along so well in many different forms but its funny and sad how quickly we can fall out of favour and become yesterday's news. The same applies in basketball and its really growing tired. First Patty Mills goes from stud to the forgotten man and now young bigman Nathan Jawai seems to be getting the same treatment.

News earlier in the week reported that Jawai hadn't even spoken to the Dallas Mavericks, the team he was traded to a few months ago. Now people are contemplating whether he'll be signed to a contract or not.

I always thought he tried to jump to the big show (the NBA) a little too early in his career but surely he deserves more of a shot than he's had so far. Click on the title below to read a Dallas perspective on Jawai.

Dallas Basketball - 10 Interesting Things About Nathan Jawai

Nathan Jawai has registered nothing more than a bite-of-Vegemite-sandwich worth of playing time in the NBA. He’s 22, with 19 career minutes in six career games. So anybody who right now is insisting that the Mavs newcomer can play sounds almost as ridiculous as anybody who is insisting the Australian native can’t play.

What we do know: His fans think he’s the second coming of Shaq, his detractors wonder about his enlarged heart and … well, he’s Australian. All in all, Nathan Jawai is somebody I kind of give a didgeridoo about.

So he gets the “10 Interesting Things About Nathan Jawai’’ treatment:

10. In recent work for the Australian National Team, Jawai is often arguably the best player on the floor. When the Aussies beat Argentina, Nathan pitched in with 22 points and seven rebounds while limiting NBA stalwart Luis Scola to 2-of-8 shooting. In a loss to China, Jawai scored 28 points (on 11-of-12 shooting) and he grabbed 11 boards.

David Andersen in the NBA?

As one of my friends put it in an e-mail: "This is actually a small blip on the sportswire, but pretty good news for Aussies".

After the bad news last week regarding Patty Mills and his broken foot, any news about Aussies getting a chance in the NBA brings excitement. David Andersen has earned a lot of respect for the numbers he puts up and his performances in Europe so with Yao Ming likely out for the season, he could get a chance to play some decent minutes for the Houston Rockets.

The Rockets likely won't be good this year, but from Andersen's point of view that's not such a bad thing as it should give him a chance to get some playing time. Fingers crossed!

Hawks trade rights of F-C Andersen to Rockets - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

ATLANTA (AP)—The Atlanta Hawks traded the rights to forward-center David Andersen to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday for an undisclosed second-round draft choice, cash and future considerations.

The 6-foot-11 Andersen was a second-round draft choice of the Hawks in 2002. He has spent his professional career in his native Australia and in Europe, most recently in the Spanish League with FC Barcelona.

The Rockets have been scrambling to find a center since the team announced last month that Yao Ming(notes) was out indefinitely with a hairline fracture in his left foot.

Andersen averaged 11.1 points and 4.1 rebounds to help FC Barcelona win the 2008-09 Spanish National Championship and a berth in the Euroleague Final Four. Andersen was a member of Euroleague championship teams with Virtus Bologna (2001) and CSKA Moscow (2006 and 2008).

“David has been a winner with every team he has played for in Europe,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. “He is a very well-rounded player who possesses good offensive skills and a very good shooting touch for a big man.”

Andersen played for Australia in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

Nathan Jawai and Patty Mills news

News about the Aussies in the NBA ... do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Ok, we'll star with the good news, firstly Nathan Jawai has been part of a trade that's just gone down that will send him to the Dallas Mavericks. The main part of the deal for the Mavs was Shawn Marion but this should be a good opportunity for Jawai. Yes, the incumbent centre is Erick Dampier and it looks like Marcin Gortat will also be in Dallas, but Dampier is getting old and if Nathan works hard there should be minutes there for him.

Click on the title below to read all about the 4 team deal that went down to make it happen.

Marion to Mavs, Stackhouse to Griz in complex deal - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

The Mavericks, Raptors, Grizzlies and Magic combined in a massive swap Thursday that included eight players, a draft pick and stacks of cash. The deal sent Shawn Marion to Dallas, Stackhouse to Memphis and helped seal the transaction that moved Hedo Turkoglu from Orlando to Toronto.

Among the other pieces: Forward Kris Humphries, center Nathan Jawai and cash went from Toronto to Dallas; guard Greg Buckner moves from Memphis to Dallas; and swingmen Antoine Wright and Devean George go from Dallas to Toronto.

Memphis also received a second-round pick and cash from Toronto and cash from Dallas. The Mavericks and Raptors both also sent cash to Orlando.


Now to the bad news ... and its unfortunately about future superstar Patty Mills. Its been an awful 2009 for the kid, first breaking his hand, then free-falling in the draft and now he fractured his foot in the first day of practice. Its going to be a long, hard slog for Mills to now make it in to the NBA this season. Once he recovers, expect to see him either in the NBDL or even maybe the NBL.

Blazers draft pick Mills breaks foot - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—Portland Trail Blazers draft pick Patty Mills broke his right foot during practice and won’t play in the NBA’s summer league.

The Blazers said Friday that Mills fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot during practice Thursday night. He will have surgery on his foot on Monday, the team announced.

A timetable for the point guard’s return has not been determined.

“You never want to see a player get injured, but it is especially heart wrenching to see a young man go down on his first day of camp,” Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard said. “We’ll do everything we can to help Patty get back on track to realize his NBA future.”

Back on this day, Patty Mills looked like he would be a lottery pick and a lock for starting point guard in the NBA ... oh how things have changed ...