The D-League announced today that they will be expanding the playoffs to three rounds, best of three games in each round. This decision is probably controversial on a lot of ends, and I’m sure the playoffs will continue to be tweaked as this league grows. There are definitely pros and cons to this change:

PROS: More legitimacy to the league (a real playoff system)

Greater development of rivalries (I’ve heard people ask about how much would be lost if last year’s Celtics/Bulls series was only one game.)

Greater chance that the best team wins.

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The D-League Draft is now in the books. Here is a look at what you can expect from the EIGHT Energy draftees.

1.  Rashad Anderson – former NCAA National Champion at UCONN.  Last year was second in scoring in the top Italian League.  A scorer who can stretch defenses.  Confident shooter.

2.  Pat Carroll – one of the stars on the great St. Joseph’s team a couple years back where he averaged 18 ppg.  Borderline NBA player with great range and has always been a high percentage 3 point shooter.  Smart, tough, and good athlete.

3.  Sean Barnette – 20 points 10 rebounds at Division 2 Wingate.  Very good player who does a lot of things.  Nose for the ball, shoots it, knows how to play.  Tough and should surprise.

4. Carl Mitchell – Veteran of many leagues where he has one many championships, including one in Korea last year.  Legit 6-9, and plays the four spot.  Smart and tough.

5.  Joah Tucker – Star of the Wisconsin-Milwaukee sweet 16 team under Bruce Pearl in 2005.  Versatile scorer who plays very hard.  Gets to the rim and has perimeter game as well.

6.  Casey Love – teammate of Othyus Jeffers in college.  Knows how to play, is undersized but very skilled, smart and tough.

7.  Russell Hicks- big 7-0 Canadian center who has some skills and played pretty well at Portsmouth Invite.  Interesting.

8.  Russell Walker – scoring guard who will need to play point, scored 17 ppg at Colorado State.  Will be in a battle with Emmencker for back up point guard spot.

It has already been an active day around the Energy offices. Coach Nurse and his staff are busy in the “war room” breaking down players and figuring out which direction the Energy will go tonight. To help pass the time before now and the start of the Draft at 6pm, here are some links to educate and entertain.

DraftExpress.com always does a great job of breaking down NBA prospects. This is no exception. A detailed break-down of some of the most intriguing guys in this year’s Draft.

The Des Moines Register’s article on tonight’s Draft held at 3Bag.

Here is the audio of  Coach Nurse’s Interview with Jon Miller this morning on KXNO. The Interview is toward the end of the hour.

ESPN’s Basketball guru Chris Sheridan breaks down the Draft.

One of the best D-League Blogs, Ridiculous Upside, Previews the Draft.

Chris Albert, the VP of Basketball Operations for the D-League with a Q&A about tonight’s Draft. From NBA.com.

Along with updates on our Twitter account, follow the Draft Board HERE.

Of course the best way to follow along is to come out to 3Bag and enjoy some food and drink specials, meet returning players, our coaches and much more fun! Happy Draft Day!

It’s Draft Day!

Yep fans, we are getting VERY close to the season!  Tonight the Energy will hold our 3^rd annual D-League Draft Party starting at 6pm at 3 Bag Sports Bar in West Des Moines.  It is open to the public, so come on out and have some fun.

Everyone wants to know who we will pick.  Well….so do we!!  The process of scouting several hundred draft picks in a matter of weeks is not easy.  Some of these guys last played in Kazakhstan (kidding!)…..but you get my point.

Looking at our roster, one can assume we feel good about our PG spot with Curtis coming back.  Beyond that, our goal is to get players who will help us bring a championship to Des Moines.  Plain and simple.

It should be an interesting night (it always is).  I’m sure someone will get picked early that we didn’t think would, and I’m sure someone will slip that we never would have expected (see Othyus Jeffers last year).

Well that’s it for now.  Work to do.  Come on out to the party tonight!

-Chris Makris, Iowa Energy GM

The first part of our Energy team is assembled. We received NINE players through the league’s allocation process. Here are some notes on what you can expect from these guys.

Curtis Stinson (Iowa State) – veteran returning point guard.  Second Team All D-League, 15 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds last year. Smart, Tough, Winner.

Mark Tyndale (Temple)–really competes, played some point guard this summer, great hustle guy, outside shooting is improving, looking for excellent second season.

Darryl Watkins (Syracuse)–returns to Iowa after big year in China.  6-11’ athlete and shot blocker, offense is coming.

Jeff Trepagnier (USC)–veteran shooter, can really heat up from behind the arc, liked what we saw of him in final week of the season last year.

Adam Emmenecker (Drake)–Star of the Bulldogs dream season. Smart, leader, assist man, knows how to play the game, teammates will love playing with him.

Marvin Phillips (Claflin)–100% after injury last year. Worker, plays all out, all the time. Plays 4 and 5 position.

Anthony Tolliver (Creighton)-Former Blue Jay star, who can really shoot the 3, rebounding and athleticism really improved last year.

Shyron Ely (Evansville)–18 points a game last year in the MVC, runner up player of the year. Quick athlete, who can score, shooting is better than advertised, great person, sister Shrya plays in the WNBA for Chicago Sky.

Matt Trannon (Michigan State)–Two sport star for the Spartans. Played both basketball and football. Has been in several NFL training camps, and played in Australia last year. Very athletic and tough. Plays hard.

This has been and will continue to be an exciting week in the Energy office as we put the pieces of the puzzle together on our 2009-2010 roster. This year’s squad will have some local college flavor as Iowa State’s Curtis Stinson returns to the Energy and Drake’s Adam Emmenecker gets a chance to make the team at training camp, which begins next week. ABC 5 Sports Director John Walters reports on the news.

Also HERE is an article from Mark Emmert and the Des Moines Register about the local flavor.

Well we are a couple of days away from our third draft in as many years and we are busy trying to put all the pieces together.

First let me give you a quick run down of how the draft works and of how we put our roster together.

Let’s start with our returning players:

We currently hold the rights to 15 players that played for us last year.  Of those 12 remained unsigned right now.  Othyus Jeffers and Cartier Martin are playing in Italy, and John Edwards is playing in Greece.

The rest of our guys are un-signed, but a lot of them are trying to go for a little higher paying jobs in Europe.

Courtney Sims, Anthony Tolliver, Marvin Phillips, Denham Brown, Demetris Nichols, Jeff Trepagnier, Patrick Sanders, Brian Evans, Curtis Stinson, Mark Tyndale, Artistide Sawadogo, and Shawn Hawkins are part of this list.

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Welcome back Energy fans.  Can you believe that the season almost upon us?  It seems like just yesterday that Courtney Sims was making his whirlwind tour of call ups, and Othyus Jeffers was raising the D-League Rookie of the Year trophy above his head at Wells Fargo Arena.

This season is extremely exciting from a number of standpoints.  As you probably heard, the Energy are playing 75% of our home games on the weekend this year!!  We also have a number of promotional nights already planned that are sure to catch your attention (including a night where we are wearing really odd uniforms….but all for a great cause). Read the rest of this entry »

The Iowa Energy will select 9^th in the 2009 NBA D-League draft to be held November 5^th.  The draft will play a large factor in the roster for the upcoming season as several stars are typically acquired through the draft.

Last season, the Energy selected forward Cartier Martin with the 15^th overall pick in the draft.  Martin was called-up to the NBA by the Charlotte BobcatsOthyus Jeffers was selected in the 3^rd round of last year’s draft. early in the season and signed with the Bobcats for the remainder of the 2008-09 season.  D-League Rookie of the Year

The Albuquerque Thunderbirds won the 2009 NBA Development League’s Draft lottery and will have the first overall selection in the 2009 NBA D-League draft next month.

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