Alba Torrens | The Boneyard

Alba Torrens

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psconn

psconn

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Will Alba EVER come to the Sun? 5 years out from the draft and still hoping. It was supposed to be a done deal the year she injured her knee. Positive noises are still emanating from the Sun management. I'll believe it when I see it. Then there's keeping her... not a great track record at Uncasville keeping foreign players happy.
 
How long does CT own the rights to her? Is she considered a free agent after a certain length of time?
 
Alba at this time is not interested in playing in the WNBA. The Spain Club team that she plays for would be more be interested in her playing with the Atlanta Dream with Sancho Little. IMHO if she ever plays for the CT Sun it will be after the Olympics. Info obtained from Paul Nilsen FIBA reporter. A week or so ago there were a series of tweets with Beat writers of Eurobasketball concerning Alba.

Its because of Alba, that Spain has a chance to win today's game.
 
Wbbfan1 said:
Alba at this time is not interested in playing in the WNBA. The Spain Club team that she plays for would be more be interested in her playing with the Atlanta Dream with Sancho Little. IMHO if she ever plays for the CT Sun it will be after the Olympics. Info obtained from Paul Nilsen FIBA reporter. A week or so ago there were a series of tweets with Beat writers of Eurobasketball concerning Alba.

Its because of Alba, that Spain has a chance to win today's game.
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The announcers reported she has signed with a Russian club for the coming season (supposedly a big contract) during the Turkey game - can't remember which one.
 
Considering how badly she played in the championship maybe the Sun should trade her rights to the Dream :p
 
UcMiami said:
The announcers reported she has signed with a Russian club for the coming season (supposedly a big contract) during the Turkey game - can't remember which one.
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She will play for UMMC Ekaterinburg with Diana
 
psconn said:
Will Alba EVER come to the Sun? 5 years out from the draft and still hoping. It was supposed to be a done deal the year she injured her knee. Positive noises are still emanating from the Sun management. I'll believe it when I see it. Then there's keeping her... not a great track record at Uncasville keeping foreign players happy.
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Alba Torrens is like many European players, she realizes she doesn't have what it takes to play at the highest level on a nightly basis. You saw yesterday, the speed and athleticism of Team USA was too much for her. She can shoot, but her ball-handling is suspect, she isn't very strong or fast, she has trouble getting her shot and she is completely incapable of defending anyone on the wing or in the post. She's better off right where she is and she understands that.
 
iamcbs said:
Alba Torrens is like many European players, she realizes she doesn't have what it takes to play at the highest level on a nightly basis. You saw yesterday, the speed and athleticism of Team USA was too much for her. She can shoot, but her ball-handling is suspect, she isn't very strong or fast, she has trouble getting her shot and she is completely incapable of defending anyone on the wing or in the post. She's better off right where she is and she understands that.
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WOW. Sort of like bench warmer in LA Sandra Gruda who torched the US? Or that bum BG (don't know how she could possibly have been chosen for the USA team - must be a Geno binky) who couldn't stay on the floor against another of those inferior foreign teams AUS - what did she have 6 points in that game, one more than the number of fouls she committed!?
Torrens played 39 minutes 24 hours earlier in a very hard fought game against the home team Turkey, including dragging her team back from a 7 point 3rd Q deficit. Maybe after playing three games in three days averaging 3o+ minutes in each she was a little more fatigued than any of the USA players.
 
UcMiami said:
WOW. Sort of like bench warmer in LA Sandra Gruda who torched the US? Or that bum BG (don't know how she could possibly have been chosen for the USA team - must be a Geno binky) who couldn't stay on the floor against another of those inferior foreign teams AUS - what did she have 6 points in that game, one more than the number of fouls she committed!?
Torrens played 39 minutes 24 hours earlier in a very hard fought game against the home team Turkey, including dragging her team back from a 7 point 3rd Q deficit. Maybe after playing three games in three days averaging 3o+ minutes in each she was a little more fatigued than any of the USA players.
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UC~
All I know is what I saw with my own eyes, that's my evaluation. All of the teams played the same amount of games in the same amount of days. The fact is on the big stage, Torrens didn't show, it wasn't s much fatigue as the defense of Maya Moore and Candace Dupree that caused her issues. As I recall BG is the reigning DPOY in the WNBA, not Sandrine Gruda and when they played head-to-head in both the WNBA and FIBA Tournament BG came out on top. If Torrens thought she was able to successfully compete at the WNBA level, she would be here playing. Its been 5 years. Anna Cruz plays for the NY Liberty and started a good portion of the season.
 
iamcbs -
I happened to watch the Turkey Spain semi final which was 'the big stage' in front of a rabid and loud fan base for the opponent, and she came through with 39 minutes of pretty great basketball - scoring 28 on 55% shooting, adding 6 rebounds and 3 assists. 24 hours later she maybe did not have as much left in the tank as the USA players guarding her who had played 12 minutes less, and perhaps was not getting the quality of passes because her teammates were not quite as good as her opponents. USA defense was focused on two players primarily - Torrens and Lyttle, Spain's defense was more focused at guarding the paint which left Moore wide open early.
If you watched one game only, you really do get a skewed appreciation for players skills and ability - I watched that friendly against France and couldn't understand why Moore and Taurasi had been included in the travel team - they should have been part of the early cuts. They took way too many shots and combined for something like 10% shooting!
If you watched LA during the WNBA season you would think Gruda was a scrub - she didn't start and scored only 5.5 ppg on 33% shooting in 20 minutes off the bench with 4.5 rebounds. Put on a different team (France) she started and scored 14.7 ppg, grabbed 8.8 rebounds in 30 minutes per game shooting 55% - and against the USA with Griner, Charles, Dupree and Nneka trying to guard her upped the numbers to 18 and 9 in only 27 minutes.
Torrens was the third highest scorer in the games - second behind her teammate Lyttle of those that played 6 games shooting 43% overall and 44% from three. And that on a team that really only had two 'stars' so defenses could try and key on them.
The WNBA has a number of very good international players. I just think you are making a pretty broad indictment of European players based on a single game - a lot of European players make the choice not to play in the WNBA because the pay is crap compared to their European contracts and unlike the USA players they do not need to play 12 months a year to make their money and more like the NBA players prefer a few months off between seasons. And while NY or LA might be fun places to play a season or two, Uncasville and Tulsa are not quite as alluring! I am not sure that Cambage's choice of not playing for Tulsa is because she is afraid of the competition - she seemed to do OK against Charles in the friendly before she tore her achilles.
 
iamcbs said:
UC~
All I know is what I saw with my own eyes, that's my evaluation. All of the teams played the same amount of games in the same amount of days. The fact is on the big stage, Torrens didn't show, it wasn't s much fatigue as the defense of Maya Moore and Candace Dupree that caused her issues. As I recall BG is the reigning DPOY in the WNBA, not Sandrine Gruda and when they played head-to-head in both the WNBA and FIBA Tournament BG came out on top. If Torrens thought she was able to successfully compete at the WNBA level, she would be here playing. Its been 5 years. Anna Cruz plays for the NY Liberty and started a good portion of the season.
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wow, is this totally offbase.

Torrens is one of the highest paid players in the world, who plays national team and tournaments throughout the summer. She doesn't come here because she doesn't have to, and doesn't want to. For the little money she'd make here, not worth it to her when considered against what she'd have to leave behind.

Regarding the teams playing the same amount of games, Torrens played 5 minutes per game than the closest USA player, Charles.

Try this instead of just guessing she can't hack it:

Many WNBA fans are also waiting for her team-mate Alba Torrens to belatedly head Stateside, but her colleague is content with what she currently has on her agenda.

"Maybe one day, because it is a great league," explained Torrens.

"But I enjoy playing in EuroLeague Women and I just can’t fit everything in.

"I love playing for my country so much every year and I think everyone who knows me, understand just how much I really do love to wear the vest of my national team."

http://www.fiba.com/news/cruz-completes-a-classy-comeback
 
I don't understand basing an opinion on one game. Even the best players have bad games. DT, one of the top players in the world, had a horrible game against Minnesota last season. If someone only watched that one game and formed an opinion after that game, what would it have been? It would have been the same opinion that IAMCBS formed of Torrens after watching one game.
 
psconn said:
Will Alba EVER come to the Sun? 5 years out from the draft and still hoping. It was supposed to be a done deal the year she injured her knee. Positive noises are still emanating from the Sun management. I'll believe it when I see it. Then there's keeping her... not a great track record at Uncasville keeping foreign players happy.
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The Sun don't have a good track record keeping any payers. You could make a pretty good team from the players that did not want to stay in Uncasville.
 
DICKG said:
The Sun don't have a good track record keeping any payers. You could make a pretty good team from the players that did not want to stay in Uncasville.
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Is it Uncasville or Donovan?
 
iamcbs said:
Alba Torrens is like many European players, she realizes she doesn't have what it takes to play at the highest level on a nightly basis. You saw yesterday, the speed and athleticism of Team USA was too much for her. She can shoot, but her ball-handling is suspect, she isn't very strong or fast, she has trouble getting her shot and she is completely incapable of defending anyone on the wing or in the post. She's better off right where she is and she understands that.
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I, too, think Torrens was a bit over-hyped, but her less than scintillating performance in the FIBA final was in large part due to two UConn legends (Maya and DT) taking turns completely locking her down with some tenacious, nasty D. What they did to her in the decisive first half was the beautiful but less appreciated part of the game that Geno demands of all his guys, even the superstars. Love it.
 
Its amazing the amount of expertise that is available on one message board, we all have opinions and are free to express them or so I thought? For the edification of those who commented, my evaluation of Alba Torrens isn't based on one game. I've watched her for 3 years now and my opinion of her hasn't changed. We can all agree that she makes a boatload more money playing in Europe and that is onefactor in her decision not to play in the WNBA, she may just not want to play that far from home is another, but as to her skill level, I maintain my original opinion, she's not a difference maker for any WNBA Team.
 
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