Re: Ben Pepper

[Warwick Janetzki <giants@icplus.net.au>]

NAME REDACTED wrote:
> 
> Ben Pepper will never fit under Rick Pitino's up-tempo, in your face
> system simply because he is not NBA material, and his defense is terrible.
> This year he has played in Australia, and has not been able to establish
> himself as a force in the middle. His scoring, as well as shooting
> abilities have been mediocre at best, and he is awful from the stripe. He
> has trouble blocking shots, and this is a problem because in Australia he
> has had trouble against the talented centers, because of lack of
> toughness. Pepper cannot run the floor well and has gotten out of shape.
> he is not what we need on this team. We are rebuilding, and Pepper will
> not help us at all because he has nothing to give us.. Ben Pepper should
> be waived, or his rights should be traded, but I have no trade ideas, but
> i think that would not be a bad idea, although we might end up waiving his
> rights because he has no trade value. I heard that in Australia, he might
> have to play backup center because of his work ethic, and his limited
> abilities. I have also observed that on top of the fact that Pepper has
> limited abilities, his attitude is also poor. He does not listen to his
> coach, and he is very uncooperative during strength and conditioning time.
> His attitude will not get by Pitino, because Rick disrespects players with
> a bad attitude, and guys that do not listen to their coach, and players
> that have no interest in staying in shape. Pepper, also said in an
> interview that he wants to leave Australia because he hates the coach for
> getting on his case on getting into shape, and if Rick found this out he
> would be shocked. Guys, what I say is 100 percent true because my cousin
> in Melbourne keeps me informed on their local basketball teams, and he is
> a avid basketball fan. He also is a Celtics fan and thought that drafting
> Pepper while bypassing guys like Michael (Yogi) Stewart was a big mistake.
> Luckily it is not too late to do something since the guy has not come to
> America yet. We still have options on waiving or trading his rights..

Hi,

Guys, dont believe a word of this useless crap.

Ben Pepper is one of the most hungry basketball players out here. Over
weight? I think not. Try imagining another 7 footer, that makes Travis
Knight look like Oliver Miller.

Talking about work ethic, he signed with the Giants for two reasons. One
is that Brett Brown is the best coach in the NBL and is known as one of
the hardest workers of players. 

Brett played under Rick (as I have mentioned several times:) and I can
see a lot of similarities in their coaching styles (definitely
influenced by Rick). Ben's other reason for signing with the Giants was
that he would have a coach who would push him to the limits in practice
and on the court, who wouldn't tolerate any nonsense whatsoever (part of
the similarity to Ricky P there!).

Ben is an extremely athletic player, needs to bulk up 25 to 30 pounds
because of his weight as mentioned above. Ben is a great block shotter,
as his athleticism helps him out a great deal.

To help prove it. He started for the Australian Under 23's World
Champion team at the recent World Championships held in Melbourne (where
I live, I saw him play several times) over players like Simon Dwight
(will be a future NBA player, guaranteed!) and Ben Melmeth (who he came
off the bench for quite a bit at Newcastle last season).

Ben won the sixth man of the year award in the NBL last season, and
there were quite a few standout players that were sixth men last season
(new teammate Andrew Goodwin, Frank Drmic of the South East Melbourne
Magic (Chris Anstey's (DALLAS) team. Will definitely be in the league
soon, is only 18).

Ben Pepper has only played basketball for 5 years, never got picked up
by the lone-team in his state (he's from Geraldton, Western Australia,
WA is of course the home of the Perth Wildcats) and someone from the
Falcons saw him play in the SBL (WA's state league!) and enticed him to
go over to Newcastle to play (I'm not quite sure on that, but its
close!).

So as you can see he has came quite far since he started.

Brett Brown will bring him up to NBA speed using the Rick Pitino system
(our team has bought the players to play that style). True he will come
off the bench, quite likely, for us next season, but then again he has
an awesome player infront of him.

Ben was also chosen to become a Boomer for the upcoming World
Championships, a list of around 15 was chosen (not including Anstey and
Longley) he did okay for them when they played some college teams
recently (from what I heard).


This is the North Melbourne Giants roster (I know you guys will never
have heard about many if any of them but here goes. If you want info on
the others just reply and I'll tell you about them, I want to find out
about the guys with (i) around them as they are new and both are imports
out of college. 

 C- David Stiff (Boomer)         Ben Pepper (BOOMER!)      Andrew
Goodwin
PF- Pat Reidy (Boomer)           Andrew Goodwin            Ben Pepper
SF- Paul Maley                   Steven Hoare
SG- Damon Flint (I) (cincin)     David Close               Matthew
Shanahan
PG- Darnell Hoskins (I) (dayton) Matthew Shanahan 

This team has been mentioned to be the most talented team ever to
assemble in the NBL. Our star guard Darryl McDonald is out for the
season, which is a bit of a bummer for Ben because D-Mac's the closest
thing to an NBA point guard that is in the NBL. He is also possibly the
best ever import.

Warwick