Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 72

- Robert Whaley

After about two years off the scene, Whaley re-appeared on it again in March.....but in a bad way. For a longer breakdown of the life and times of the Fail Whale, click here.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 71

- Darius Washington

Macedonian sensation Darius Washington stayed close to his homeland this season when he signed with Turkish team Galatasaray. He averaged 21.6 points (3rd best) and 4.5 assists (8th best) per game in the Eurocup, alongside 15.4 points and 3.0 assists per game in the Turkish league. Last month, with Galatasaray out of the running in the Turkish league, Washington moved to Italy to join Lottomatica Roma for the last few games of the Serie A regular season, but didn't play much and averaged only 5.0 ppg as Roma were swept 3-0 by Caserta.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 70

- Nikola Vujcic

Nikola Vujcic is into his second season with Olympiakos. His minutes were way down this year, averaging only 13.9 minutes per game in the Euroleague and 12.0 in the Greek league. But this didn't stop him producing; Vujcic averaged 7.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in the Euroleague, and 6.8/2.3/1.3 in the Greek A1. Those are more like a small forward's numbers than those of a 6'11 post player, but that's Nikola Vujcic for you.

Vujcic's minutes took such a hit partly because he's into his 30's now, but also because of how deep Olympiakos are up front. With Giannis Bourousis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis getting the bulk of the starts up front, Linas Kleiza getting a dollop of power forward minutes, and with Greek internationals Andreas Glyniadakis and Loukas Mavrokefalidis also in the big man mix, Vujcic had to share time with the rest of the talent (not helped by the fact he's Croatian; Greek teams can only have a maximum amount of six non-Greeks per game, hence the roles for Glyniadakis, Mavrokefalidis and the baffling Pangiotis Vasilopoulos). Olympiakos's front court depth is in fact so deep that even Bourousis is moaning about his minutes. And he's the best of the bunch.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 69

- Novica Velickovic

Novica Velickovic did what all good Partian youngsters do eventually; he left. Partizan are forever churning out quality youth, but they haven't the budget to keep them long term, and so Velickovic, Milenko Tepic and Uros Tripkovic all left last summer. (It didn't hold back Partizan, who found enough good quality pickups to make the Euroleague Final Four this season.)

Velickovic moved to Real Madrid, and had a decent year. He averaged 7.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in the Euroleague, shooting 42% from three point range, and is averaging 9.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in the ACB. Real Madrid beat Cajasol Sevilla 2-1 in the first round of the ACB playoffs, and now face Caja Laboral in the semi-finals.

Wesley Matthews's impending free agency

A while ago, I wrote about Anthony Morrow's impending free agency, breaking down how much he could sign for and why. If you have not read it, please do so, and I won't stab this puppy.

Morrow's situation is not unique, for his is a situation that arises every offseason. Lots of players's first contracts are two year minimum salary deals, and those who manage to make it to the end of them are usually worthy of new contracts at that time. Others in Morrow's situation this season include Jawad Williams, Will Bynum, Bobby Brown and Nathan Jawai; I mentioned Morrow specifically only because he is the one deemed most likely to get the largest contract offer this summer, and therefore his is the one that gets asked about most.

A similar situation to those of Morrow et al is to be found in the situations of those who signed one year minimum salary deals, and who will be restricted free agents to a team with only non-Bird rights on them. It's a situation that will apply this offseason to Mario West, Anthony Tolliver, Chris Hunter, Mustafa Shakur, Patrick Mills, Jon Brockman, Cedric Jackson and Cartier Martin; however, the most intriguing player to whom it applies is free agent Jazz swingman, Wes Matthews, for the simple reason that he's the most likely of the bunch to command more than the minimum salary.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 68

- Samo Udrih

Beno's brother started the year back in his native Slovenia, having not retained his place at Estudiantes Madrid. The one time Maverick averaged 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Hopsi, while waiting for a better offer to come in. In January, one did, and Udrih moved to Croatia to play for Cibona Zagreb. For them he averaged 7.3 points down the stretch of their Euroleague campaign, 9.0 ppg in the Adriatic League and 9.4 ppg in the Croatian league.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 67

- Robert Traylor

As you have probably already heard about, Robert Traylor owes a lot of money to the IRS. And he has a repayment plan to adhere to to give it back. But this has proven difficult. Traylor was the Turkish league All-Star Game MVP in 2008/09, averaging 14.3ppg, 8.4rpg, 2.1apg and 1.6bpg per game for Kepez BLD Antalya. Yet this summer's move to the better standard (and better paid) Serie A did not work out. This is because Traylor joined Napoli, and, as regular readers will know by now, Napoli had the worst season in the history of sports. The bankrupt team weren't exactly the ideal match for the indebted Traylor.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 66

- Milenko Tepic

Tepic went undrafted this past summer, yet made the step up to the big time anyway when he moved from Partizan Belgrade to Panathinaikos. As luck would have it, Partizan have made it further than Panathinaikos in the Euroleague this year, but they couldn't pay him what Panathinaikos have. They might have overpaid, though, because Tepic has not had a good year. He averaged only 3.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in the Euroleague, alongside 6.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game in the Greek A1 League. It probably didn't help that Panathinaikos already has Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamtantidis, Nick Calathes and Sarunas Jasikevicius as ball handling options ahead of him. But Tepic is one for the future, so it doesn't matter yet.

Dan McClintock leaves Ukrainian team to adopt Ethiopian twins

How's your Russian? Mine's terrible. In fact, if it wasn't for knowing that "Oleh Luzhny" translated into English as "really really really really really really really really really really really really ridiculously terrible full back", then I wouldn't be able to speak a word of the language.

Thankfully, Google Translate can. And unless Google Translate has hit the bottle or something, it brings us news of a former NBA centre leaving a Ukrainian team with time still left on his contract, in order to go to Africa and do a Madonna. So to speak.

Dee Brown responds, denies it all, and claims that the police hit him

This website carried the news of Dee Brown being arrested in Italy a few days ago, charged with assaulting a police officer.

View Dee's response to the allegation on his blog.

Also note that it was Chevon Troutman who was charged with DUI, not Brown. This was not clear at the time of the initial post.

Anthony Morrow's impending free agency

Of all the possible free agents this upcoming offseason, Golden State's Anthony Morrow is one of the restricted free agents that is garnering the most attention amongst fans. Well, amongst Bulls fans he is, at least.1

Morrow only really does one thing; he shoots jumpshots. He is not much of a ball handler, nor much of a defender, nor much of an athlete, nor much of a slasher, nor much of a finisher around the basket. But he does own a jumpshot. A really, really good jumpshot. A really, really, really, really good jumpshot. A jumpshot so good that it spawned its own cult. And in this current NBA era, you can never have too many shooters.

If you need a shooter, you could always sign Casey Jacobsen. He'll need work this summer. You could also sign Desmon Farmer, Billy Thomas, Marcus Vinicius, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, or some old fringe NBA veteran who would happily sign for the minimum and relish the chance to sit on an inactive list. Worst case scenario, you could sign Ryan Ayers. But a lot of people want Morrow, for the simple fact that he has 47% and 46% from three point range in his two NBA seasons. Can't say I blame them. I want that too.

However, if you wish to sign Anthony Morrow, there's some things you should know.

Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 65

- Raymond Sykes

After going undrafted out of Clemson, Sykes signed a training camp contract with the Phoenix Suns. He had little to no chance of making the team, however, and was waived within a week. Sykes then took his energetic style of play to the D-League and spent the year with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, averaging 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 3.0 fouls in 23.9 minutes per game. His PER was 16.7; over 48 minutes, that equates to a PER of 33.5, which is almost Lebron-like (38.3 PER per 48.)

Dee Brown and Chevon Troutman arrested in Italy after car wreck

You rarely hear about arrests of import players in Europe; they either don't happen as much, or don't get reported as much. But here's one. Two, even.

Former Illinois, Jazz and Suns guard Dee Brown was arrested in Italy, along with former Pittsburgh forward Chevon Troutman, after one of the two caused a head-on collision while driving under the influence.

http://www.gazzetta.it/Sport_Vari/Basket/Italia/07-05-2010/arrestati-brown-troutman-avellino-603897178776.shtml

Ben Gordon finally commits to Great Britain national team

Sweet.

The only way you would not know that I am British is if you:

a) have never been to this website before today,
b) have been here before but don't read any of the words I write, or
c) know so little about vexillology that you didn't even realise that the site's logo had a flag in it.

Because of my nationality - English rather than British, but we'll worry about that later - it is inevitable and sensible that the state of British basketball will get some dap here. And with the news of Ben Gordon's commitment to the national team still moist astride our lips, today is no different.

There follows a lengthy breakdown.

Kirk Snyder sentenced to three years in prison

The Kirk Snyder saga has been covered at length on this website, including only recently in the Where Are They Now series. In that post, I wrote this:

On March 30th last year, Snyder was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary and felonious assault. Snyder broke into a house on the same street as his, and beat the living daylights out of the male occupant as he slept, in front of his wife. And then he went back to his house as if nothing had happened. The wife who witnessed the beating called the police, who brought a canine unit along and tracked a scent back to Snyder's house. Snyder was arrested, charged, and taken to jail, where he promptly got into a fight with another inmate. Due to the savage and seemingly unprovoked nature of the initial beating, Snyder was sent for psychiatric evaluation, and later placed on suicide watch.

Gallitos de Isabella waive Shaun Pruitt and Lee Benson for disciplinary reasons

Puerto Rican BSN team Gallitos de Isabella yesterday released big men Shaun Pruitt and Lee Benson for "problemas de conducta." The pair were released after Isabela's 86-76 to the Arecibo Captains on Wednesday night, a game in which Benson had 9 points and 18 rebounds, and Pruitt posted 16/16. The team moved swiftly in replacing them, signing ex-NBA centre Jared Reiner and former La Salle player Reggie Okosa (mentioned at length here).