Ekpe Udoh’s deal with an Israeli club is a good sign for the Golden State Warriors – NBA Feature
If the lockout hadn’t intervened, the 2011-12 NBA regular season would have been very much in progress by now.
At the same time last year no one would have imagined that next year, instead of watching their favourite stars in action, the fans will only have college basketball games to fill their round ball need.
This is a reality that without NBA, the life of both fans and players is not easy as the media person tends to portray, especially for the athletes as this is their bread and butter. A player can only evolve if he keeps on playing
competitive basketball otherwise he would not only just end up losing all his savings, but his skills will also drop down.
Similar is the case with several NBA players, who had either joined the league recently (June 23, 2011 Draft) or didn’t get to play much in the previous season, due to injuries or other reasons.
A long drawn lockout is more dangerous for the second kind of players, who didn’t play much in their first season. Golden State Warriors young power forward Ekpe Udoh is one fine example of this case.
The Warriors picked up Udoh as 6th overall pick from the 2010 NBA Draft, which was not less than a shock for Golden State fans, who were hoping for Greg Monroe at the slot.
However, the Warriors preferred Udoh over Monroe, who was neither as offensively aggressive nor as young as Greg was at the time. The Warriors however defended their move because they believed that he had a good defensive acumen,
a thing which Warriors have been missing for quite some time. Udoh was the top shot blocker in the Big ten Conference with an average of 2.88 blocks per game.
However, Udoh not only failed to deliver the goods in his rookie season, but also due to wrist injury he had to spend less than half of the season outside the court. After playing 58 games in the previous season he scored at an
average of 4.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. These stats didn’t leave a good impression and also highlighted his poor offensive game.
In this scenario, Udoh decision to join Israeli club Bnei Hasharon during this NBA lockout becomes all the more important for both the Warriors and Udoh himself. The overseas stint will not just provide the young forward some competitive
basketball environment, but it’ll also help him in developing his game further, especially in the areas where he is weak.
The Israeli club has hired Udoh to add more steel to their backcourt and with some good minutes, the Warriors player can get his game going before he returns to NBA. This will go a long way in helping the Golden State in future.
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