By Michael A. De Leon | October 3, 2007 | Print Print

This is our second in a series of training camp profiles. Today we’ll take a look at Anthony Lever-Pedroza. For yesterday’s profile on Keith Langford, click here.

Being the son of of a former NBA All-Star couldn’t hurt a guy’s chances of getting a roster spot. But Anthony Lever-Pedroza, son of former Nuggets great Fat Lever, is in Spurs camp to earn his own way and battle it out to get a chance to fill the last roster spot on a championship team.

pedroza2 Pedroza comes into camp off an impressive summer playing for the Mexican national team in the FIBA America’s Championship. Mexico may not have won or secured a spot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but Pedroza and team Mexico certainly opened some eyes, including a set of eyes that belong to the GM of the 2007 NBA Champions.

In the tournament, the 6-3 guard averaged 13.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in about 27 minutes of playing time. One of his most impressive performances came against the United States, showing a good all around game with 19 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

The American-born Pedroza is an accurate shooter with good range. He could stand to improve a bit in the areas of ball handling and athleticism, but he makes his money with his shot. At Canyon Del Oro High School in Tucson under his given name of Anthony Norwood, he was a USA Today All-America honorable mention and broke Mike Bibby’s state scoring record by averaging 29 points. He was also one of Oregon’s sharpshooter’s and helped the team to the Elite 8.

Pedroza is undersized at 6-3 and 185 lbs. to play shooting guard in this league and he’s definitely not a point guard. The Spurs are already stockpiled with shooting guards and have three point guards on the roster, so I don’t think he has much of a chance to get more than the non-guaranteed contract he has today. From watching his games with Mexico, he has a bit of a strange and high release on his shot, which makes it difficult to defend even for taller guards, but unless he bulks up and adds some athleticism and quickness to his game, I really can’t see him earning the last roster spot based on his shooting alone.

Check back tomorrow as we profile yet another guard, former Memphis standout Darius Washington.

Comments

2 Comments so far

Training Camp Profile: Darius Washington : Project Spurs on October 5, 2007 4:17 pm
[…] This is our third in a series of training camp profiles. Today we’ll take a look at Darius Washington. For Wednesday’s profile on Anthony Lever-Pedroza, click here. […]
luz lopez on October 12, 2007 9:04 am
hi, im a very fan of basketball and im definetly not agree with your comments about anthony norwood, he is such a great player, and not because of his dad, he has a carrier by his own, and he is trying so hard to get inside the nba world, so i really think you should give him a chance to show what he’s got. I saw him playing a lot of times in mexico, and he plays very different than the other players, cuase he got his own style, and theres is a lot of difference between mexican basketball and the american basketball, because the players here are faster and better, he was born in here and spent most of his life in here, so i think he can attached to the way of play of the spurs, i really hope they sign him in, cause he deserve it…

thanks for the space!

luz