Ryan Wittman

Anyone know anything about Ryan Wittman, who signed a summer league contract with the Celtics?

http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2010/6/26/MBB_0626103528.aspx

Sam

DraftExpress Profile:

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ryan-Wittman-5842/

Ryan Wittman didn’t have the most impressive showing here, looking a bit uncomfortable outside of Cornell’s incredibly well organized offense, not entirely surprising given his skill set. While he managed to hit some shots on the week, he wasn’t able to get in much of a rhythm and wasn’t hitting shots with the efficiency he normally does, despite getting some nice looks. We already knew going in that he’s a super perimeter shooter with NBA range, but would have liked to see how capable he is of getting his shot off on his own merits, something he might have to do from time to time at the professional level. He’s surely the type of player that will need plays run for him to really thrive in the NBA, but it’s questionable if someone will actually him that opportunity.

Regardless, he did help himself by affirming that he is a very smart player on both ends of the floor, doing a good job keeping offensive flow going with simple passes and off the ball movement, while showing good positional defense and being vocal on that end of the court as well. His athletic limitations certainly will hurt him on the defensive end in the NBA, but he appears to be a player coaches will love.

While there aren’t many players in his mold in the NBA (Jason Kapono being the obvious and perhaps only example), he should have opportunities to catch on in summer league and training camp, and also as a D-League call-up candidate later in the season should he decide to go that route. If not, he should have a successful career in Europe, where his outstanding shooting and team-oriented approach will definitely be valued in a disciplined, half-court system.

I know he's Randy Wittman's son...

Randy certainly could shoot.

He spent 4 years at Cornell so he should be well educated!

Which also should give him the background to make some money and have some fun playing in Europe before coming back here and using his degree and experience overseas to land a productive career doing something interesting.

Probably no NBA future, but a kid with a bright future nonetheless.

Bob,

Here is what DraftExpress has to say about Jaycee Carroll:

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jaycee-Carroll-463/

European Roundup: High Expectations for Vesely
November 20, 2009
Matt Kamalsky

Around this time last year we identified Brad Oleson as a rising star in the ACB, and while Oleson has since left the shooter friendly atmosphere of Fuenlabrada to move to a bigger club (and paycheck) in Real Madrid and subsequently Tau Vitoria (now known as Caja Laboral), Jaycee Carroll appears to have succeeded him as the ACB’s most dangerous perimeter shooting threat, as evidenced by his recent 23 point outburtst against Real.

The former Utah State standout currently sits fourth in the extremely competitive ACB in points per game at 16.6 per-contest, while leading Gran Canaria to a 3-4 record. A threat to explode for a big game on any given night, Carroll is building a strong resume in one of the Europe’s strongest leagues, something NBA decision makers might need to take notice of.

Considering what Carroll accomplished last season as one of the top scorers in Serie A, this should come as no surprise. Finishing the season as the leading scorer for Banca Tercas Teramo, who ended last season in third place ahead of perennial powerhouses Benetton Treviso and Armani Jeans Milano before falling in the first round of the playoffs, Carroll emerged as a major offensive asset already in his rookie season. He spent last summer with the Hornets and their NBA Summer League entry, where he had a meager showing, shooting uncharacteristically poorly from the field in substantial playing time.

A gifted shooter who is lights out in catch and shoot situations who can make an impact running off of screens in half court sets and is not afraid to pull the trigger when he has space in transition, Carroll's jumper features a quick release and textbook form. Undersized for a shooting guard at 6’2 and lacking much in the way of point guard skills (he’s averaging nearly three times as many turnovers as assists), Carroll can score from essentially anywhere on the floor. Displaying a very quick first step and showing a knack for hitting shots off the bounce, Carroll’s jump shot is a constant threat. In addition to his shooting ability, Carroll displays some finishing ability, and does a good job picking and choosing his spots, but often struggles around the rim against NBA-level competition. Lacking the leaping and size to be a good finisher on the interior, Carroll’s athleticism is more conducive to playing a Rip Hamilton-esqe role, where he can use his quickness to create openings for his jump shot.

From an NBA perspective, Carroll’s lack of playmaking ability, below average size, skinny frame, and clear-cut defensive limitations certainly restrict the potential impact he could have against bigger and more athletic competition. However, his perimeter stroke, capacity for providing instant offense off the bench and impressive European resume could be attractive to any team looking for a Jannero Pargo or Daniel Gibson style shooting specialist. It’s extremely rare to see an American player producing in such impressive fashion right off the bat immediately upon arrival at this level of European competition, so there is certainly something to be said for that. Carroll’s physical profile may not project perfectly to the NBA, and at age 26 he isn’t as young as most second year pros, but at the rate he’s going, he’s destined to, at the very least, emerge as one of the more coveted American shooting guards in European basketball.

The list of Celtics summer league players is short at present. But there are some interesting guys there:

Boston Celtics Summer League Roster
PG - JayCee Carroll
SG - Rodney Green, Ryan Thompson
SF - DeShawn Sims, Ryan Wittman
PF - Luke Harangody
C -Artsiom Parakhouski
Coach -
Boston Celtics Summer League Schedule - 7/5 vs Oklahoma City, 7/6 vs Philadelphia, 7/7 vs Charlotte, 7/8 vs Indiana, 7/9 vs New Jersey

I'm sort of curious about Parakhouski. And this 6' 5" guy, Bodney Green, is sort of interesting. Green is listed on the roster as a SG but who was moved to the point in his senior. college year and apparently would prefer PG over SG. The idea of developing a 6' 5" combo guy with explosiveness is rather intriguing.

Sam

RODNEY GREEN

ON ANY BASKETBALL team it's easy to pick out the numbers guy, a statistics-obsessed player with the talent and the ego to shoot his team into or out of any game. Numbers guys are not necessarily dissuaded from putting the ball up again and again, even when their stroke has temporarily lost its sweetness. They're certain their hot hand will present itself again, maybe starting with the next jumper or whirling-dervish layup that swishes through.

The counterpart to the numbers guy, of course, is the selfless worker bee, always willing to do the heavy lifting for little or no glory if it advances his team's chances for victory.

La Salle's Rodney Green is among the school's all-time top all-around players.

Perhaps the rarest sort of player is the amalgamation of both types. Someone with the sort of personality that allows him to recognize those occasions when he's required to assert himself as the star performer, and those when his most telling contribution is to subjugate elements of his game for the betterment of the collective.

A player like La Salle senior point guard Rodney Green, in other words.
Ask Green what accomplishments during his four seasons with the Explorers he's most proud of and he'll grudgingly admit that his membership in the school's highly exclusive 1,500-500-300 club is on the list. The "L-Train," 1990 national Player of the Year Lionel Simmons, is the only other La Salle player to have accumulated 1,500 career points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists.

With the career-high 32 points, five rebounds and five assists he contributed in Saturday's 84-82 loss to Charlotte in Tom Gola Arena, Green - last week's Atlantic 10 Conference and Big 5 player of the week - now has 1,715 career points, 559 rebounds and 343 assists. The Explorers visit Fordham tonight in a conference game.

But the humble and reserved Green is treasured by his coach, Dr. John Giannini, and teammates for reasons that extend beyond obvious statistical excellence. He makes the players around him better, as was the case when he led Prep Charter to the 2006 Class AAAA state championship. At La Salle, he was to be the chosen one who would not only steer the Explorers back to respectability on the court, but off it as well.

Forget the numbers for a second. How do you quantify leadership? How much value do you attach to a player who takes the lingering stains of a previous regime and scrubs them clean?

"As great a player as he is, he's an even better person," Giannini says of Green. "The people here at La Salle love him. He's very coachable and wants to become the best basketball player he possibly can be.

"Really, he doesn't have any negative issues whatsoever. He treats everyone great. He couldn't be a better kid if he tried."

To understand the importance of Green's role in La Salle's long-delayed resurgence, you have to return to the summer of 2004. The Explorers had gone 10-20 in what would prove to be coach Billy Hahn's third and final year at 20th and Olney, extending to 11 the longest streak of losing seasons in school history.

What's worse, two of Hahn's players - Gary Neal and Michael Cleaves - were charged in July with sexual assault of a 19-year-old visiting camp counselor. After those charges were made public, a La Salle women's player claimed that another member of the men's team, Dzaflo Larkai, had raped her in April 2003.

Hahn and women's basketball coach John Miller were forced to resign for not reporting the alleged sexual assault. Neal and Cleaves eventually were acquitted, and the Larkai case was dismissed when the alleged victim refused to proceed.

Into this controversy came Giannini, who looked good to La Salle not only because of his winning record (168-38 in seven seasons at Rowan, including a Division III national championship, and 125-111 in eight seasons at Maine ), but because of his handling of an incident in which two of his players at Maine were dismissed from the squad after being charged with assaults against women.

How large was the construction project Giannini faced?
"Twelve straight losing seasons [Giannini's first La Salle team finished 10-19]. The off-the-court stuff. Players leaving," Giannini recalls with a shake of the head. "We only had seven [scholarship] players remaining.

"I didn't come in until August of 2004, so we obviously weren't going to bring in a recruiting class 1 week before school started. Recruiting is done so early nowadays, and, given the circumstances, it was impossible to get kids to commit in September and October for the early signing period [for the 2005-06 season].

"Our first normal recruiting class thus was '06. Rodney was the first player to commit to us. I can't stress how big that was because Rodney is a completely unique player. I've never seen a 6-5 kid as explosive as he is in the open court. He's a nightmare matchup for other teams."

After Green signed, other freshman building blocks soon followed: Kimmani Barrett, Yves Mekongo, Ruben Guillandeaux. But Green was viewed as the glue who would hold it all together until the youthful nucleus matured.
"Because we had no big guys, we decided to build around Rodney," Giannini says. "We wanted interchangeable guys, able to post up every position. We tried to be a little creative because we essentially were building a program from scratch."

La Salle went 10-20 and 15-17 in Green's first two seasons, but improved to 18-13 in 2008-09. This was the year it was all going to come together, with four senior starters augmented by 6-10 blue-chip freshman Aaric Murray . But Guillandeaux has played in only four games and is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his right foot; Barrett has sat out the past four games and is set to have surgery for a fractured right foot, which is expected to keep him out for 6 to 8 weeks; and junior Terrell Williams is on suspension for an unspecified violation of team rules.

Goodbye, Plan A. Say hello to Plan B.

"We're not where we want to be, but we still have a lot of games left to make it to where we want to go," Green said of the Explorers (10-9, 2-3 Atlantic 10). "If we finish strong, we'll be OK."

From rookie to seasoned veteran, Green has been the constant for La Salle from the time he first tugged on a blue-and-gold uniform. Before the Explorers' 67-63 loss at Richmond on Jan. 16, Spiders coach Chris Mooney said "the beginning, middle and end of the scouting report [on La Salle] was on stopping Rodney Green."

Green made a leap of faith when he decided to cast his lot with the Explorers. He's big on loyalty, and he modestly said he has given only in relation to what he has received. Asked why he signed with a team in turmoil, he said, "La Salle recruited me the hardest. Every time I turned around, someone from La Salle was at every game, every practice. I had to go to the school that loved me the most."