Arron Afflalo

Arron Afflalo
No. 6   Denver Nuggets
Shooting guard
Personal information
Date of birth October 15, 1985 (1985-10-15) (age 26)
Place of birth Los Angeles, California
Nationality American
High school Centennial HS (Compton, California)
Listed height 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight 215 lb (98 kg)
Career information
College UCLA (2004–2007)
NBA Draft 2007 / Round: 1 / Pick: 27th overall
Selected by the Detroit Pistons
Pro career 2007–present
Career history
2007–2009 Detroit Pistons
2009–present Denver Nuggets
Career highlights and awards
Stats at NBA.com

Arron Agustin Afflalo (born October 15, 1985) is an American professional basketball player, currently with the Denver Nuggets of the NBA. He completed a three-year career at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Pacific-10 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as the starting shooting guard.

Contents

Biography

Afflalo was born at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, only a few minutes' walk from Pauley Pavilion, where the UCLA Bruins play their home games. His parents are Benjamin Afflalo and Gwendolyn Washington. He has a younger sister named Paris. Afflalo majored in sociology at UCLA and was on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll for Spring 2005.[1] Afflalo declared for the 2006 NBA Draft, but pulled his name out before the deadline, opting to return to UCLA for his junior season.[2] Afflalo has been one of the top players in the country as a junior earning a spot on the Associated Press All-America team. This honor makes Afflalo UCLA's first consensus All-American since Ed O'Bannon in the 1994–95 season. He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the 1st round of the 2007 NBA Draft, making him the 27th pick overall.

College career

Noted for being the first player recruited by current UCLA coach Ben Howland[3] to play for Howland at UCLA, Afflalo, who helped lead Compton Centennial High School to a California Division-III title in 2003–2004, his senior year of high school, started 29 games the next season for the UCLA Bruins as a freshman, averaging 10.8 points per game and playing the role of a defensive stopper.

With the graduation of leading scorer Dijon Thompson, Afflalo shouldered more of the offensive load in his second year on the team, averaging a team-high 15.8 points per game. He also continued to guard some of the Bruins' opponents' top scorers.

His defensive dominance throughout the 2006–2007 season (one example being holding Cal's Ayinde Ubaka to zero points in one of the two teams' matchups), and his 17.4 ppg led to him being voted the Pac-10 Player of the Year by the other coaches in the conference. Commenting on the award, Afflalo said, "It is good that contributions on both ends of the floor are recognized ... If you truly have a love and passion for the game, then you should work at every aspect of it, not just the part that gives you (attention), that being scoring."[4]

NCAA tournament

In a 2006 NCAA tournament game against Alabama, Afflalo hit the game-winning three-point shot[5] and also defended Alabama point guard Ronald Steele on his errant three-point attempt which would have given Alabama the lead.

In the Bruins' 2006 Sweet Sixteen comeback victory over Gonzaga, Afflalo and teammate Ryan Hollins, in what was later widely hailed as a classy move, helped the distraught Gonzaga star Adam Morrison off the court after the final buzzer sounded.[6][7] Against Memphis in the Elite Eight, Afflalo was noted by many to be largely responsible for stopping Rodney Carney and helping UCLA advance to the Final Four.[8]

In the 2007 NCAA Tournament he was named the West Regional's Most Outstanding Player after scoring 24 points and making several big plays in a 68–55 victory over the Kansas Jayhawks.[9] However, his quick foul trouble against the Florida Gators cost his team the ability to successfully compete and the Bruins ended up bowing out of the tournament.[10]

Professional career

On June 28, 2007, Afflalo was drafted with the 27th overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons.

On July 13, 2009, he was traded along with Walter Sharpe to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for a second round pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.[11]

On November 10, 2009, he was inserted into the Denver Nuggets starting lineup. On January 25, 2010, he made six three-point baskets against the Charlotte Bobcats, setting a new career high in three-point baskets made in one game.[12]

On February 10, 2011 Afflalo made a 20-foot jump shot at the buzzer over Shawn Marion as Denver beat Dallas 121–120. The Nuggets trailed by as many as 13 in the 4th and were down 119–110 with under 2 minutes to play before pulling off a miraculous upset victory. Afflalo had 19 points in the fourth quarter alone to almost single-handedly power Denver to the win.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2007–08 Detroit 75 9 12.9 .411 .208 .782 1.8 .7 .4 .1 3.7
2008–09 Detroit 74 8 16.7 .437 .402 .817 1.8 .6 .4 .2 4.9
2009–10 Denver 82 75 27.1 .465 .434 .735 3.1 1.7 .6 .4 8.8
2010–11 Denver 69 69 33.7 .498 .423 .847 3.6 2.4 .5 .4 12.6
Career 300 161 22.5 .464 .408 .802 2.6 1.3 .5 .3 7.4

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2007–08 Detroit 12 0 7.0 .389 .000 .000 .4 .5 .3 .0 1.2
2008–09 Detroit 4 0 16.5 .476 .200 .600 .8 .3 .0 .5 6.3
2009–10 Denver 6 6 20.0 .625 .429 .818 2.0 1.2 .2 .3 9.2
2010–11 Denver 3 3 28.3 .353 .250 .875 3.0 2.3 .0 .0 11.3
Career 25 9 14.2 .467 .289 .792 1.2 .8 .2 .2 5.1

References

  1. ^ Arron Afflalo UCLA profile
  2. ^ Afflalo pulls out of draft Accessed July 21, 2006
  3. ^ Howland notes Afflalo was his first recruit Accessed July 21, 2006
  4. ^ Afflalo is Player of the Year Los Angeles Times, Accessed March 6, 2007
  5. ^ Farmar's five 3s have UCLA heading to Oakland "Afflalo got loose and launched a 3-pointer, keeping UCLA ahead 60–56 with 34 seconds left."
  6. ^ UCLA scores final 11 points in stunning comeback over Gonzaga "Hollins and Afflalo went to help up Morrison, who was spread on the floor at midcourt."
  7. ^ Who was George Mason?
  8. ^ Afflalo, UCLA clamp down on Memphis, stamp Final Four ticket "Afflalo scored 15 points and shut down Memphis leading scorer Rodney Carney, helping No. 2 seed UCLA defeat the top-seeded Tigers"
  9. ^ Afflalo plays big, takes UCLA to NCAA-record 17th Final Four
  10. ^ Florida runs over UCLA, sets up another battle with Ohio St. "Bruins guard Arron Afflalo sat on the bench for almost the entire first half with foul trouble"
  11. ^ "Nuggets Acquire Afflalo, Sharpe from Detroit". NBA.com. July 13, 2009. http://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/afflalo_sharpe_trade_071309.html. Retrieved July 14, 2009. 
  12. ^ Arron Afflalo Career Stats Page

External links

0 Carroll  | 1 Hamilton  | 3 Lawson  | 5 Fernández  | 6 Afflalo | 7 Harrington | 8 Gallinari | 10 Stone | 11 Andersen | 13 Brewer  | 24 Miller | 25 Mozgov | 31 Nenê | 35 Faried  | 41 Koufos

Head coach: Karl | Assistant coaches: Hunt | Welch | Iske
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