Retired - Retired after 2016 season
- Birthdate: 04/18/1981
- Drafted (NBA): 44th pick, 2004
- Pre-draft team: Florida State
- Country: USA
- Hand: Right
- Agent: -
March 13, 2011
Tim Pickett - 17 games, 33.9 mpg, 27.1 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 2.5 apg, 2.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 3.2 TOpg, 51% FG, 44% 3PT, 80% FT
Jilin opened the season with Young and Watkins, a seasoned veteran of the Chinese dance. The now-33 year old Watkins's 13.3 rebounds were good for 6th in the league, and an improvement on his 16/10 numbers from last season. Former Sonics pick Young was, as ever, getting to the basket, averaging 8 free throws a game. But his impression of an undersized Corey Maggette didn't sit well with the team, and they looked to replace him for a while, eventually settling on Tim Pickett. Pickett had started the season with Israeli team Ironi Ashkelon, averaging 10.4 points in 7 games, but was released after being caught in possession of marijuana. He later returned to China where, once again, he ended up winning games single-handedly for one of the league's lesser teams.
June 7, 2010
Tim Pickett - 16 games, 23.1 mpg, 13.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.4 spg, 0.5 bpg, 43% FG, 37% 3PT, 82% FT
Pickett is a former Hornets draft pick[ett] out of Florida State, whose official draft night board name slate thing can be all yours for only $7.20. He has absolutely torn it up in China these last couple of seasons, averaging over 39 points per game in 2008-09 and an equally healthy 29.8ppg, 6.4rpg, 4.0apg and 2.6spg this season for Shaanxi Dongshen. He was brought to Arecibo to replace Sims, but he himself was replaced by Darius Rice. Rice joined Arecibo after spending a season in Hungary with a team called Szolnoki Olajbanyasz, averaging 17.4 points per game, but left after they were knocked out of the playoffs. There will be no further analysis of the Hungarian playoffs.
April 13, 2010
- Tim Pickett
Last time we heard from Tim Pickett, he had been trying to win CBA games singlehandedly for the worst team in the league. After that post was written, Pickett returned to play the team's last three games, averaging 39.7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals per game in the process. But Shaanxi lost all three games anyway, and that was the end of that.
In accordance with prophecy, Pickett has now gone to Puerto Rico for some summer money. They're the rules; mid 20's CBA imports must go to Puerto Rico in the summer, and Pickett has obliged by joining Capitanes de Arecibo, the Puerto Rican team who for some reason play in the BSN and the American minor league the PBL. (The PBL kicked Arecibo out of their league a couple of weeks ago for failure to attend a game, but they were later reinstated.) Pickett made his debut for the team yesterday, and put up 27 points and 10 rebounds. The guy's a stat fiend.
March 13, 2010
[T]he recent surge of Chinese Basketball Association related material has brought a variety of feedback, much of it useful, some of it banal, some of it sweet and sincere, some of it douchey. With that feedback in mind, here are some points for clarity;
1) Tim Pickett has returned for Shaanxi, and played the last three games. In those three games he has posted 50 points and 8 rebounds, 30 points and 8 rebounds, and 39 points and 8 rebounds. He has continued to shoot really really really ridiculously well from the three point line, going 14-20 over that three game span. But Shaanxi have lost all three games anyway because that's how much they suck right now.[...]
March 7, 2010
- Tim Pickett: 35.8mpg, 28.5ppg, 6.3rpg, 4.3apg, 2.5fpg, 2.5spg, 0.6bpg, 64% FG, 68% 3PT, 87% FT (left)
Both Edwards and Pickett are former NBA draft picks; Edwards was the last pick in 2002 by Sacramento, and Pickett was picked one place after Trevor Ariza by the Pistons (44th) in 2004. Edwards was 3rd in the league in scoring with his 29.5ppg average, but he left the team in late January after breaking his finger and returned to America.
As mentioned in the intro, Pickett scored 39.4ppg in China last year; while he's been 11 points per game below it this year, it's not through lack of efficiency. Pickett's ridiculously high percentages are no fluke; that 68% three point shooting percentage comes on 120 attempts (81 makes). He did more than score; his APG totalled tied for 10th in the league, and his SPG came 5th. But it's the scoring (also 5th) that was the obvious highlight, and the three point percentage is especially ridiculous.
However, like Edwards, Pickett is also no longer playing for Shaanxi (putting up 40 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals in his last game). And it's been open season without him. They are adrift at the bottom of the table with a 4-25 record, and they lost their last game by 56 points. With no imports remaining, Shaanxi are left with having to rely on their domestic talent, and the fact that they compiled only a 4-25 record while at one stage boasting both the third and fifth leading scorers in the league is a testament to the fact that they don't have any. They can no longer rely on Pickett to try to win games single handedly, and without him they can't compete. Precisely because of that, they serve as a case study for why the value of these imports should not be underestimated.