Carlos Arroyo

Carlos Alberto Arroyo Bermudez (born July 30, 1979 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico) is Puerto Rican professional basketball player. Arroyo is the fifth player from Puerto Rico to play in the NBA and has become arguably the most successful of them in NBA history. Arroyo has played in the NBA, NCAA, and the National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico (BSN) with the Cangrejeros de Santurce and Fajardo. Arroyo has played internationally in Spain. Arroyo was a member of the Puerto Rican National Basketball Team that most notably defeated the United States in the 2004 Olympic Games. He also represented his country in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan.
Contents
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* 1 Early career
* 2 Career with the Utah Jazz
* 3 Career with the Detroit Pistons
* 4 Career with the Orlando Magic
* 5 Arroyo with the Puerto Rican National Team
* 6 Career statistics
* 7 Personal life
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 External links

[edit] Early career

Arroyo began his career in the National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico, where he debuted with the Fajardo Cariduros and subsecuently played for the Santurce Crabbers, where he was a teammate of then starting center of the Puerto Rico national basketball team, José Ortíz. During his participation with the team the Crabbers won four consecutive national titles in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003, winning five league championships in six years. Arroyo studied in Florida International University from 1998 to 2001, where he played for the campus' team, the Golden Panthers.[1] He was a four-year letterman in the university having completed his baccalaureate and played with the team four years, establishing several records in the team's history. Among this records is the all-time lead in assists scored, having made 459 successful passes.[2] Arroyo is also the only player in Florida International University to have scored more than six hundred points in a single season.[2] He is in the second global possition in lifetime scoring, having scored 1,600 points troughout his universitary career, with an average of 16.0 points per game and 4.6 assists per game over his 100 games.[3] Arroyo was also selected as a member of the Sun Belt Conference's All-Star team on two separate occassions.[4] On January 5, 2007, Florida International University presented a ceremony where Arroyo's universitary number (30) was simbolically retired to recognize his performance with the institution's team.[5]

After graduating from college, Arroyo was signed by the National Basketball Association's Toronto Raptors for the 2001-02 NBA season, but was released in January 2002. He then played briefly in Spain before being signed by the Denver Nuggets in March of the same year. He saw limited action with those two teams, playing seventeen games with the Raptors and twenty with the Nuggets before his initial NBA season was over. He only played an average of 9.7 minutes per game during those thirty seven games where he saw action.

[edit] Career with the Utah Jazz

With the impending retirement of John Stockton, the Jazz needed a reliable replacement point guard. They envisioned Arroyo as being the player who could fill Stockton's shoes, acquiring him to start the 2002-03 NBA season. Arroyo was then relegated once again to watching from the bench, though head coach Jerry Sloan instructed Arroyo to observe Stockton and back-up guard Mark Jackson, who was also nearing retirement.

Arroyo was given the starting job after Stockton retired and Jackson joined the Houston Rockets before the start of the 2003-04 NBA season. He surprised many Jazz fans, and by November 2003 he was ranked 11th in the league in assists per game. On November 14, he broke the record for most points scored by a Puerto Rican in an NBA game, scoring 30 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

[edit] Career with the Detroit Pistons

During the 2004-05 NBA season with the Jazz, Arroyo had several disputes with Sloan. He eventually found himself back on the bench. In January 2005, Arroyo was traded to the Detroit Pistons for veteran center Elden Campbell (who would quickly be waived and later be reclaimed by the Pistons).

With the Pistons, Arroyo came within one game of becoming the second Puerto Rican to win an NBA championship. What was dubbed by some Hispanic newspapers as The Hispanic NBA Finals (because Arroyo played for the Pistons and Argentine Manu Ginobili starred for the San Antonio Spurs) was won by the Spurs, in seven games, with a final game score of 81-74. Arroyo's playing time was reduced significantly due to Larry Brown's tight defensive style.

Initially, with Pistons coach Flip Saunders' style of coaching, Arroyo received more minutes of playing time, and demonstrated value off the bench. He led the team in assists several times despite playing fewer minutes than other players. However, again, his minutes declined as the season progressed.

On January 11, 2006, Arroyo was suspended for one game after he allegedly ran into an official during the Pistons' 96-86 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on January 10.

[edit] Career with the Orlando Magic

On February 15 2006, Arroyo was dealt (along with Darko Miličić) from Detroit to the Orlando Magic, in exchange for Kelvin Cato and a future first-round draft choice.

The addition of Arroyo and Miličić, plus the return of point guard Jameer Nelson from the injured list, sparked a resurgence of the Magic in the last quarter of the 2005-2006 season, as they finished with a 12-3 run, nearly reaching the playoffs. During this run, the team had an 8-game winning streak, beating top teams such as the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat and the Detroit Pistons. During the stretch run, Arroyo averaged 22.1 MPG, 10.8 PPG, 2.9 APG, and 2.2 RPG off the bench, which earned Arroyo the back-up point guard position behind Nelson. These averages are significant improvements from the statistics he accumulated with the Pistons, when he averaged only 12 minutes per game. He scored a season-high 21 points against the Phoenix Suns on March 3 ,2006.

On April 9, 2006, Arroyo injured his left hamstring and was sidelined for 4 games, returning on April 17 and scoring 17 points in the last game of the season.

Arroyo started the 2006-07 season as the team's backup point guard but was demoted by the team's coach Brian Hill following an offensive slump, eventually returning to this position during mid season.

On December 29, 2007, Arroyo was promoted to the starting position after Nelson experienced a extended offensive slump.[6] With Nelson in the starting position during this period the team was having an average of seventeen turnovers per game, and he was unable to score in double digits on 10 out of 17 games.[6] This led to Stan Van Gundy issuing several public notices concerning the team's performance eventually leading to changes in the starting formation.[6] During Arroyo's first three games in the starting position the ammount of turnovers produced by the team was lowered to eleven per game.[6] Carlos' points average was within double digits in all of these games and he scored seventeen assists.[6][7]

[edit] Arroyo with the Puerto Rican National Team

While Arroyo has only seen moderate success in the NBA, he has become one of the best international point guards. During the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Arroyo led the Puerto Rican National Basketball Team throughout the competition with 18 points per game overall, and led them to a 92-73 victory over the United States with 25 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals. Arroyo was selected as All-Olympic honors.[8]

During the 2006 FIBA World Championship, Arroyo averaged 21.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 5.2 APG in five games for the Puerto Rican team. Arroyo finished tied for fourth in PPG during the 2006 FIBA World Championship with fellow Puerto Rican teammate Larry Ayuso.

[edit] Career statistics

Arroyo's NBA stats in 371 games with 93 games started are 2,591 points with a 7.0 PPG, 1,192 assists with a 3.2 APG, 619 rebounds with a 1.7 RPG, 207 steals with a 0.6 SPG, 17 blocks, .429 field goal percentage, .794 free-throw percentage, and .308 3-point percentage.

[edit] Personal life

Carlos Arroyo was born and raised on Fajardo, Puerto Rico. He graduated from Colegio Santiago Apostol in Fajardo. Arroyo is married and has a daughter, Gabriella Arroyo. On November 2, 2007 Carlos was forced to miss two games with the Orlando Magic when he had to make a emergency travel to Puerto Rico because his daughter was suffering from Pneumonia