Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 1

The Where Are They Now series of posts started out by accident, yet they've become the most enjoyable part of the website. They seem to be fun for you to read, and they're definitely fun for me to write, so now that Christmas time has passed and new seasons have begun around the world, we begin a list anew.

The list covers all the players in the site's player database that aren't currently in the NBA. This is the best part of 1,000 people, ranging from retired players you've heard of, to unsigned draft picks you've never heard of, to free agents on the cusp of the big dance, to players who one day will be in the NBA, to players who absolutely could play in the NBA but who are doing well enough elsewhere, to players who one day will be in the NBA,all the way down to random players I like who never have been in the NBA and that never will be. It'll be long and fun at times, long and dull at other times, and sometimes just plain long. I'll try to find as many different ways to say the phrase "on the season he is averaging" as can be, but if I repeat myself, chalk it up as an occupational hazard.

In theory, there's going to be one of these a day until about April. The list will be in alphabetical order, ish. So let's begin.


- Tariq Abdul-Wahad

Abdul-Wahad was covered last month in the 1993 Draft Round-up. For those too lazy to click that link and scroll down, I shall reproduce it here.

Tariq played in only 67 games this entire decade. He played 29 games in 2000-01, 24 games in 2001-02 and 14 games in 2002-03. His last NBA game was April 14th 2003, and he never played outside of the NBA. He had a tryout with Climamio Bologna in the 2006 preseason, but he did not make the team, and that was it. Nevertheless, he got paid huge amounts of money during that time in exchange for services not rendered, and he's been investing it into the entertainment industry. Abdul-Wahad owns a French TV channel called 3A Telesud, is a partner in whatever this is, and is a partner in this clothing company.

The only change since that was written has been Tariq's decision to delete me from his Facebook friends list. Fair enough. I can handle that. In this Twitter-laden age, Facebook doesn't have the tantalising same athlete-connectibilitivity that it used to have, a connectibilitivity which, it has to be said, is pretty cool. With the onset of public Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, being a player's Facebook friend doesn't really offer anything any more (even if it does lead to hilarious sentences such as "Uros Slokar is now friends with Corey Benjamin"). It's also been pretty magnanimous for those athletes to allow the fans to snoop on their personal lives in such a way; rest assured that when I'm really really really ridiculously famous, I won't be doing this. So thank you, Tariq, and God speed.



- Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Like Abdul-Wahad, Abdur-Rahim was recently covered in the 1996 draft thing. To discover whether or not he is currently working as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings, read it. CLUE: Yes.

In the pipeline is a piece called "A History Of Failed Physicals," one which I'm currently researching to see if it has the legs I think it might. Shareef will play a pivotal role in its success.



- A.J. Abrams

After going undrafted, Texas muli-record holder A.J. Abrams is playing in Greece, where, due to their funky alphabet, he is known as A.J. Eimnpamz. For Trikalla in the Greek A1 League, Eimnpamz averages 17.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 35 minutes per game. It doesn't look as though he has any aspirations to expand the distributing aspect of his game, although nor does it look like his size is holding him back from scoring too much on the continent.

Trikalla are 12th out of 14 teams in the A1, armed with only a 2-6 record, and it's not been a good season. Their three imports are Abrams, Kasib Powell and former Pittsburgh forward Tyrell Biggs, but it's not really helped the team, and Biggs in particular has been very bad. Trikalla recently brought in Mark Dickel (me neither), which might have spelled the end for Biggs, and which gives Abrams one more player not to pass to.



- Mohamed Abukar

Abukar was in the D-League last season with both the Austin Toros and the Idaho Stampede, and after the D-League season ended he went to Switzerland to sign with the Lugano Tigers. While there, he averaged 19.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in the final seven games of the year, and has stayed there this season, averaging 16.2 points (second on the team) and 6.4 rebounds per game (third).

Swiss basketball is pretty poor, which is why we don't often talk about players being there. To give you a yardstick on that, the current leading scorer in Switzerland is a small guard named Kenny Thomas (not THAT Kenny Thomas), who averages 21 points per game for Lausanne. But last year, Thomas was playing for Radford, a Big South Conference team that made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament, only to lose to North Carolina by 43 points. Thomas averaged 14ppg last year on 41% shooting for Radford; he's doing better in Switzerland than he was in the Big South.

Also, the Lugano Tigers employ a ten man rotation that features only one real Swiss player. Four players have Swiss passports, but, as their names might suggest (Derek Stockalper, Dusan Mladjan, Slavisa Pantic), three of them are naturalised. Even the real Swiss homegrown, Luka Vertel, has mixed Croatian heritage. The Tigers roster is made up of five Americans (Abukar; Stockalper, who plays for the Swiss national team on the side; former North Carolina bench player Byron Sanders; former Pacers summer leaguer Scott Vandermeer; D-League veteran Mike Efevberha), one Brazilian (Gustavo Lo Leggio), one Croatian-Slovenian (Martin Mihajlovic), Vertel (part Croatian), Pantic (naturalised Bosnian) and Mladjan (naturalised Serbian, although he's been in Switzerland for the best part of a decade). And that list does not include former Michigan State guard Travis Walton, who went home last week. Switzerland isn't turning out a great amount of homegrown international basketball talent, and the Lugano Tigers definitely aren't.

But, although it was via Italy, Switzerland DID produce Thabo Sefolosha. So i's not all bad.



- Alex Acker

Acker started last season with the Pistons, got traded to the Clippers in a trade that I totally predicted (self aggrandising!), went to summer league with the Knicks, and then left the NBA. He signed with A.J. Milano in Italy, and appeared in the league's first 8 Italian league games (averaging 10.0 points and 4.3 rebounds) and their first four Euroleague games (8.8 and 2.8). However, he hasn't played since November 12th due to injury. I don't know what the injury is exactly, but a quick Google translate reveals that it's a "torn muscle." Don't know which.



- Hassan Adams

Adams has not played anywhere this season. Not sure why. Last year, the Raptors signed him to a fully guaranteed $711,517 salary incredibly early in the offseason, watched Hassan turn up out of shame, and had to dump the contract on the Clippers (in the same way as Acker above), who then waived him. Adams then signed in Serbia for Vojvodina, but appeared in only two games before being waived in early March. He has not played anywhere since. I'm assuming he's injured.



- Kenny Adeleke

Adeleke started the season with Napoli in Italy's Serie A, but played only three games, totalling 30 points and 27 rebounds. Unlike Tariq, Kenny hasn't deleted me from his Facebook, but that hasn't really helped me any since he never uses it. So what was designed to be a useful mechanism for garnering Kenny Adeleke information has not really worked out.



- Jeff Adrien

Adrien is in Spain, averaging 12.8 points and 7.7 rebounds for Leche Rio Breogan Lugo. Those are good numbers, but they come from the second division, the LEB Gold. And even though the Spanish league is the strongest league in the world outside of the NBA, the second division isn't particularly great. (It's better than Switzerland, though.) Adrien has also managed to total only 5 assists in 15 games, which is quite hard to do.



- Maurice Ager

Ager is also in Spain, in the ACB (first division) with Cajasol Sevilla. Unfortunately, his statline there this season is unnervingly similar to his NBA statlines of the last three seasons; that is to say, he's struggling mightily. In 8 games, Ager is averaging 2.4 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.3 assists, shooting 22% from the field, 20% from three point range and 67% from the line. He has gone scoreless 4 times in those 8 outings, has fouled in 7 of the 8 games, and has played in only about half of the team's games. Cajasol are having a decent season, ranked 6th overall in the ACB with an 8-6 record, but they're doing so with a 7 man rotation. They could use Ager's help, particularly now that Domen Lorbek has left. But they're not getting it. It also won't help that Cajasol just made a big move in acquiring Ivan Radenovic, who, despite not playing Ager's position, gobbles up some of his available minutes.



- Blake Ahearn

Blake Ahearn was in Spain as well until this week, when he was released by Estudiantes Madrid. In the last two years in the D-League, Ahearn has boasted true shooting percentages of .670% (in 2007-08) and .629% (in 2008-09), which is absolutely freaking ridiculously good from a 6'2 guard. This year with Estudiantes was not really any different; Ahearn shot 41% from three point range (36-87), and a typically Blake Ahearn-like 98% from the foul line (57-58), on his way to averaging 14.2 points per game. However, he only shot 29% from two point range (10-34), and he also averaged only 0.8 assists a game to go with that. As shooting specialists go, you can't be much more effective than that, but a specialist is as much as he was.

EDIT - Estudiantes signed Chris Lofton today, another specialist shooter.



- Ayodeji Akindele

In keeping with the theme in this post, Akindele WAS in Spain, and is not any more. Akindele signed with Xacobeo BluSens Obradoiro in the ACB in the summer, but he never played for the team after failing his physical due to a meniscus injury. He has not signed elsewhere since. Xacobeo replaced him with Mike Higgins, who is 43 years old in two months time, yet who is apparently more able to play that Deji is right now. Tough break, but he'll be fine.

Speaking of Mike Higgins; he played in the NBA once, you know. That was 19 years ago now, in the 1990-91 season with the Sacramento Kings. This season he's totalled 10 points, 19 rebounds, 17 fouls, 1 assists and 0 blocks. It's been an epic career, but it's winding down now.

Summer league round-up: New York Knicks

View the Knicks summer league roster.

- Wink Adams: Adams just graduated from UNLV, where his senior season numbers were down across the board. He averaged 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists, shooting only 37% from the field. FYI, 6'0 guards that shoot 37% don't make it in the NBA.

- Alex Acker: Acker started last year with the Pistons, who salary dumped him onto the Clippers. He scored 63 points on 65 shots in the NBA last year, which isn't good. He also spent 4 games on assignment to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 18.0 points and 5.3 rebounds, but the Clippers declined his team option and didn't make him a restricted free agent. That's not a glowing endorsement.

- Blake Ahearn: Ahearn was covered here. If he can show some rudimentary point guard skills suited to the Knicks' high octane offense, then he has a chance. But the Knicks are damn short of roster spots. They have 16 under contract already, and that's before a single free agency move. This presents a problem for Ahearn.

- Morris Almond: Utah are so tax concerned right now that they had to decline Almond's third year option, even though it was very cheap and he didn't really do anything wrong. Almond doesn't have an all-around game - he's pretty much only a scorer. But even though he barely played in the NBA, and didn't do much in his time in it, he was drafted to be a scorer, and score he did. He averaged 25.6 points per game in the D-League in 2007/08, and last year averaged 22.4 points in 29.8 minutes. Of course, Almond didn't pass at all to score that many, averaging a special 1.1 assists per game. But he scored a lot, and he scored it efficiently. It's only Matt Harpring's dead weight salary keeping him out right now.

- Warren Carter: Former Illinois forward Carter played his first professional season in Turkey, then split last year between Spain and Latvia. Carter averaged 11.8 points and a slightly poor 5.0 rebounds in the Spanish ACB for Cajasol Sevilla, and then moved to the joyfully named BC Ventspils, where he led the Latvian league in rebounds (9.1 rpg) and second in blocks (1.4 bpg), to go along with 13.0 points. Carter played on the Mavericks summer league team in 2007, but didn't make the big league roster. He's not making this one, either.

- Joe Crawford: Crawford was drafted by the Lakers at the very end of the 2008 draft, and was a late season pickup by the Knicks, signed through 2010 (but for no longer, as is the Knicks way). He played in two games for the Knicks last season, and totalled 9 points and 4 rebounds. Before that, he was in the D-League, where he averaged 20.8 points and 4.6 rebounds for the L.A. D-Fenders. The retired Cuttino Mobley is probably going to be taking up Crawford's roster spot, and the drafting of Douglas also spells bad times for him. But he should be in training camp at least.

- Toney Douglas: Douglas is a very good scorer, who pretty much only scores. He averaged 21.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists in his senior season for Florida State, an out-and-out scorer despite his height. However, since he's with the Knicks, he could probably handle playing at point guard, such is the nature of their offense. Leandro Barbosa managed it for a time, after all.

- Patrick Ewing Jr: Last year, Sacramento drafted Ewing 42nd overall. He was then traded twice before his rookie season even began; once to the Rockets as a par of the Ron Artest deal, and then salary dumped to the Knicks in exchange for the completely arbitrary rights to Frederic Weis. This got everyone horny, given the good times that his father brought to the team, and the idea that Ewing would thrive in a higher paced offense made people want to touch themselves. But no one took enough note of the fact that Ewing sucked. He was a sixth man in college, and averaged only 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds as a senior (and that includes sitting out a season to transfer). Then in summer league for the Kings, Ewing played in three games - all starts - and totalled 45 minutes, 2 points, 7 rebounds and 12 fouls. That's really quite awful, and the Knicks cut him in the end, shattering the dreams of dozens. The only time Ewing has ever played well in significant minutes was last year in the D-League, when he averaged 16.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists in the D-League for the Reno Bighorns (giggidy). But even then, he was a sixth man. And he's 25 now. The rawness excuses run out eventually.

- Jordan Hill: The third best big man in the draft, apparently. Hill averaged 18.3 rebounds and 11.0 rebounds last year for Arizona, but was made to look pretty average when the NCAA tournament rolled around. Knicks fans dislike Hill already purely because he's not Stephen Curry; whether an imitation of Chris Wilcox by Hill this summer league would win them over or not remains to be seen.

- Ron Howard: Howard was a Buck once, although only for about two weeks. He transferred from Marquette after his freshman season and went on to put up three decent but unspectacular seasons at Valparaiso. He then travelled to Holland and Mexico, before spending the last two years in the D-League (with his short Bucks stint in between the two). Last year, in 48 games and 1,711 minutes for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Howard managed to boast the frankly impressive statistic of 0 made three pointers for the entire year, in 10 tries. This is pretty hard to do as a team's 6'5 high-scoring two guard with an 18.7 points per game scoring average. It should give you some idea of how he plays.

- Yaroslav Korolev: Korolev was a complete and total washout in the NBA, drafted by the Clippers way too high for a man with no history of ever playing well and with no obvious standout skills to project. The fact that Danny Granger was taken after him doesn't help anybody. The Clippers waived him for good in 2007 training camp, and Korolev buggered off back to his native Russia. Last year, for Dynamo Moscow, Korolev averaged 1.5 points and 1.0 rebounds in 10 Russian Superleague games. He is now 22, and is no further along than when he was 17. He still can't play. But, good luck with this.

- David Noel: Noel also did little in the NBA, playing only one and a half years for the Bucks before being waived. He spent last year in the D-League, putting up huge numbers; he started with the Albquerque Thunderbirds, averaging 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.3 steals in 30 games, before moving to the Reno Bighorns (etc) and averaging 19.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 6.7 assists in 18 games. When the D-League season ended, Noel moved to the Philippines for a summer job, averaging 20.5 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists for the Barangay Ginebra Kings, a team with a name not nearly as awesome as it should be for a Philippines team. His team plays in the potential title winning game tonight. And that's why he's not playing for the Knicks. Also, Noel has already agreed to sign with Roanne in the French ProA league next season. So you can cross him off your list.

- Mouhamed Sene: Like Crawford, Sene was a late season pickup that signed through 2010 for the hell of it. Like Crawford, he was waived by an NBA team earlier in the year, this time by the Thunder. Like Crawford, he's probably going to training camp. But, like Crawford, the Knicks' draft night moves (in this instance, Darko Milicic) probably just took his roster spot.

- Rashaad Singleton: In his junior season with Georgia, Singleton (whose first name is really Donald, and who looks like a picture of Nate Dogg stretched out weirdly with the contrast turned up) averaged 2.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. Apparently 136 minutes of playing time wasn't enough for him, as Singleton transferred to Florida Southern down in Division 2, a team that boast the great nickname of "The Moccasins." It didn't really change much, though, because the 7'0 Singleton (whose weight I've seen listed between 220lbs and 280lbs) played in 35 games but started only 10 times, averaging 15.1 minutes per game. His averages overall were 6.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.3 blocks and 0.5 assists. Furthermore, he shot 24-92 from the free throw line, a sizzling 26%. That's pretty brilliant. Less brilliant are Singleton's NBA chances.

- Nikoloz Tskitishvili: Skeeter also busted spectacularly in the NBA, out of it before he was ever in it. The Knicks actually had him under contract back in October 2010, but he didn't make the regular season roster. Last year he was in Spain, playing for Fuenlebrada, averaging 8.3 points and 4.1 rebounds acting as a spot-up shooting for the team. While the averages aren't good, he shot 44% from three point range, which is very good. Tskitishvili had a tryout (or two) with the Grizzlies recently, before this Knicks gig came to pass. I admire their entrepeneurial spirit.

Who Did What On June 30th

Lots tends to happen on June 30th. It's a big day. Personally, I had a bath, quite a nice pork chop for dinner, and traced the weird smell in this room down to an old packet of sandwiches that wasn't in the bin but just behind it. And here is what some NBA teams did.

(NB: Many of these decisions were made before June 30th. But ignore that for now.)


Player/Early Termination Options

These fellas opted in:

- Atlanta: Jamal Crawford (had to as a concurrent part of the trade)
- Boston: Eddie House
- Chicago: Jerome James
- Cleveland: Zydrunas Ilgauskas
- Dallas: Devean George
- Denver: Steven Hunter
- Detroit: Kwame Brown
- Houston: Brian Cook
- Indiana: Travis Diener
- L.A. Clippers: Ricky Davis
- L.A. Lakers: Kobe Bryant
- Memphis: Quentin Richardson (while still a Knick)
- Miami: Jermaine O'Neal, Mark Blount, Yakhouba Diawara and Chris Quinn
- Milwaukee: Malik Allen and Francisco Elson
- Minnesota: Bobby Brown
- New Jersey: Trenton Hassell
- New Orleans: Devin Brown
- New York: Eddy Curry and Al Harrington
- Oklahoma City: Damien Wilkins
- Orlando: Anthony Johnson
- San Antonio: Michael Finley
- Utah: Kyle Korver, Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur
- Washington: Mike James and Etan Thomas (as a concurrent part of his trade).



These fellas opted out:

- Cleveland: Anderson Varejao
- L.A. Clippers: Brian Skinner
- Orlando: Hidayet Turkoglu
- Philadelphia: Royal Ivey



Team options

Exercised:

- Detroit: Will Bynum
- New Jersey: Jarvis Hayes
- Phoenix: Louis Amundson
- Utah: Kyrylo Fesenko

Declined:

- Charlotte: Sean Singletary
- Indiana: Marquis Daniels
- L.A. Clippers: Alex Acker



The conditionally guaranteed contracts of Rafer Alston, Brent Barry and Matt Harpring all became guaranteed. Also, the contracts of Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw, Josh Powell and Didier Ilunga-Mbenga became guaranteed today. And Fabricio Oberto was waived quietly last night.



Who got qualifying offers?

Click this.


Most importantly, Michael Sweetney is not dead.

Oh and Detroit, you just overpaid. Twice. And as for Zach Randolph......I stand by this

Full summer league rosters soon.

KABLAMO

Woop!

February 10th: I predicted something.

Unless there are other Pistons moves made, Alex Acker gets moved to Memphis, Sacramento or the L.A. Clippers at the deadline. You heard it here first.

February 15th: That thing happened.

The Detroit Pistons will complete the trade of backup shooting guard Alex Acker to the Los Angeles Clippers today.

There's nothing quite like the buzz that you get from accurately predicting the bleeding obvious. Nothing like it. With that in mind, I'm going to start predicting things such as when unguaranteed players are going to get waived, when they're 72 hours short of their guarantee date. This is going to be the most accurately accurate NBA website in the world, and you're all going to be all like "wow! Everything he predicts is right!" This predictions game is EASY!

Good times. Definitely on an entirely unnecessary high from this right now. Once Amare is traded to the Bulls, I can once again claim to have predicted the bleedin' obvious. Yeehaw.

Yours ever,

An entirely unjustifiably proud ShamBulls.



Additional: I am sorry that the website is spasming during this, the one week where it's needed the most. I don't know why it's doing it. But it's nothing that I did. There's a downside to the cheapest hosting that money can buy.

The pages do, however, work eventually. Keep mashing refresh like a madman, and you will be rewarded.

Where Art Thine Presently, 31

- Anthony Lever-Pedroza is playing for a team called Soles de Mexicali, in a country that you can probably guess. About two hours ago, I watched a FIBA basketball magazine show that bizarrely and unexpectedly featured clips from a Soles de Mexicali game. I didn't spot Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo, though. Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo averages 20.3 points in three Liga Americas games; also on his team are former Timberwolves guard Dejaun Wheat (who barely plays) and former Suns centre Horacio Llamas (who averages 16.3 points and 7.0 rebounds). That unlikely duo are both 35, seeing out their professional lives at Soles de Mexicali - where fringe NBA careers go to die.

- Ron Lewis is in Israel, averaging 16.3 points per game for Ironi Nahariya. Impressively, Lewis has shot 94 free throws to 140 field goals, for a 1.51 PPS average. Less impressive is the 72% that Lewis is shooting from the line, and the 25% that he's shooting from three point range. But he's scoring at a very high efficiency anyway.

- Nick Lewis had a tryout in the Spanish LEB Gold to begin the year, but didn't sign, and went back to the Bakersfield Jam in the D-League. Building on his decent season of last year, Lewis is averaging 16.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, averaging 1.45 points per shot. I stand by that metric.

- Sergei Lishouk is still with Azovmash Mariupol in his native Ukraine. Lishouk/Lischuk averages 7.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 3.0 fouls per game in the Eurocup, alongside 10.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 fouls and 1.2 blocks per game in the Ukranian league. Since his rights were traded away by the Grizzlies last year, Lishouk can't even get to the NBA summer leagues any more, seemingly closing the door on the NBA career of this soon to be 27 year old underachiever, who did so well for about 12 months and who then didn't take it anywhere.

- Shaun Livingston has been rumoured to return to the Heat, although no one's given me a reason as to the purpose of this yet. Speaking of the Heat, most of their roster suck, and yet they're the fifth best team in the Eastern conference. It cannot overstated how good Dwyane Wade has gotten. He's managed to take an extra massive leap forward. And I didn't think he had another one in him.

- Randy Livingston retired at the end of last season and is now an assistant coach with his final team, the Idaho Stampede. Randy originally said that he was 99.5% sure that he was retired at the end of the 2005/06 season with the Chicago Bulls, but clearly changed his mind, and had a couple more good seasons in the D-League as well as one more short NBA stint with the Seattle Supersonics.

- Steve Logan has played a total of 24 games in the last 4 seasons. 19 of those were in the 2005/06 season. Since then, Logan has done the following; 1 game in Poland in November 2006 (1 point), 4 games in Israel in March 2007 (2 points, 4 assists), and one signing in Mexico in August 2008 (no games played). I do not know why his career has come to this. If you do, let me know at the usual address.

- David Logan is playing, unlike Steve, for Prokom Trefl Sopot in Poland. Other Prokom players already mentioned in this list have included Koko Archibong, Ronnie Burrell, Daniel Ewing and Pat Burke, with more to come. So they should be familiar to you by now, as should the Procol Harum jokes. Logan leads the team in scoring by miles, averaging 18.7 points, 3.2 rebounds. 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game in the Polish league, alongside 17.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.4 steals in the Euroleague. David Logan, by the way, is a former NCAA Division 2 player of the year. This reminds me of what I wrote back during my Horace Jenkins update, in which I asked how many Division 3 players have played in the NBA. As far as I can tell, the answer is 7, but I don't know who all of those seven are. Jenkins was one, as is Devean George. Andy Panko's one minute NBA career gets him on this list, and Greg Grant managed a few years with a variety of different teams. But as for who the rest are? I don't know. If you do, usual address, etc.

- Raul Lopez is playing for Real Madrid, backing up my boy Sergio Llull. Lopez averages 6.6 points and 3.1 assists per game in the Spanish league and 5.9/2.8 in the Euroleague. However, he recently hurt his leg and will be out for three weeks, which probably means more time now for Pepe Sanchez. Speaking of, a post-Pepe Sanchez update update: Pepe Sanchez hasn't scored a single point since the last time we checked in on him. Nice.

- It was really hard to find into on Felipe Lopez, so you'd better bloody respect it now that I got it. Felipe is signed with Fuerza Regia Monterrey in Mexico, but he is also rumoured to be in talks with Saitama Broncos, a team in Japan's BJ League. (Giggidy.) The Broncos are coached by another ex-Jazz player, former WWE wrestler and double murder suicide victim David Benoit, which explains this otherwise random connection.



And finally, some predictions. Buoyed by my success at suggesting that Steve Francis should be traded to Memphis, I'm going to do something never before seen on this blog. In place of my usual approach of shitting all over everybody else's predictions, I'm going to try some of my own. It's a brave, out of character, and (some would say) foolish move, which puts the pressure on me to be sensible and insightful, two things at which I struggle mightily. But I'm doing it anyway, if only as an exercise in personal development. I intend to come out of this exercise as a better, well-adjusted person. Consider this before you write insulting comments below.

Excuses now made, let's run it.

1) Amare Stoudemire is going to the Bulls, if only because John Paxson is sick of hearing about the Pau Gasol thing. (In fairness, when he had an expiring contract, Jerry West didn't want it, and wanted Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. Then later, when the Bulls didn't have an expiring contract, it was the first thing Memphis wanted. The circumstances were a tad unfair.)

2) Unless there are other Pistons moves made, Alex Acker gets moved to Memphis, Sacramento or the L.A. Clippers at the deadline.

You heard it here first. Unless you've already heard it somewhere else, in which case you didn't hear it here first. Or unless they don't actually happen. In that case, you didn't hear them here at all.



(EDIT: Here's a third one - Bobby Jackson gets bought out by the Kings and signs with the Lakers. I'm calling it early.)

Summer signings, round 2

- Former Detroit Pistons guard Alex Acker has left European powerhouse Barcelona, after a poor season last year. He's also been replaced by Juan Carlos Navarro, whom we'll probably never see in the NBA again, for an entirely different reason to that of Acker. Detroit still owns Acker's rights, but they're looking increasingly worthless. (Detroit, Acker, and his rights.)

- Atlanta Hawks draftee, Australian centre David Andersen, is also joining Barcelona on a three year deal. Andersen, whose combination of height, broken legs and athleticism was enough to rigidify Hawks fans for at least two years, will also probably never join the NBA. But that doesn't mean that he isn't any good.

- Derrick Zimmerman has signed with the ever-elusive geniuses of Budivelnik Kiev in the Ukraine, where he may soon be joined by Anthony Morrow, who has agreed to terms to join the team. However, Morrow's agreement is conditional - if he makes an NBA roster, he'll do that instead. (Morrow is on two summer league rosters this year, so he's giving it a go.) Zimmerman clearly had no such clause, so at least one of the two realises the futility of such a situation.

- Indiana Pacers draft pick Erazem Lorbek has signed with CSKA Moscow, essentially as the replacement for David Andersen above.

- James Singleton has left Tau Ceramica in Spain to try and come back to the NBA. We wait with baited breath. (EDIT: I wrote this a long time before posting it - Singleton has since signed with the Dallas Mavericks. It's a good signing. Singleton should never have left the NBA. He's good enough to be a 10th or 11th man in it. However, Dallas also signed Keith McLeod, and Keith McLeod is complete wank. So it's swings and roundabouts.)

- Milt Fellatio has signed with Khimky (not Kinky) in Russia. A report on the subject says that "Khimky wants to win ULEB Cup this year", which gives them a clear advantage over those ULEB Cup teams who don't want to win it. Good plan.

- New-found Montengran citizen Omar Cook has signed for Unicja in Spain ona two year contract. Cook played very well for Red Star Belgrade last year, and Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles likes him a lot. Yet apparently, that's not getting it done for Omar, who still doesn't get a return to the NBA. Cook also played at the Boston Celtics free agent camp this month, alongside a "who's who?" of nobodys including Randolph Morris, Eddie Basden, Alan Anderson, Bobby Brown, RYVON! Covile, David Noel, Lawrence Roberts, Mustafa Shakur and someone called Brian Butch. But seemingly this didn't result in a potential roster spot for Omar. (Cook has also started playing for the Montenegran National Team, for those who previously missed this exciting news.)

- Robert Archibald turned down a two year contract from the New Orleans Hornets to go and play alongside Cook for Unicaja Malaga, which seems rare and strange. According to this, it is because of the lure of guaranteed money, more than the lure of Omar Cook. But then again, that link describes Archibald's NBA reputation as "rock solid", so.......yeah.

- Sasha Kaun, drafted in the second round this year and sold to the Cleveland Cavaliers, has signed with CSKA Moscow, along with Erazem Lorbek mentioned above, as well as former Magic and Rockets forward Terence Morris. David Andersen is sitting somewhere in Spain, regretting leaving such a stacked team. Probably. Well, maybe.

- Will Bynum is to earn $800,000 this season playing for Virtus Bologna in Italy, assuming that he doesn't make the Detroit Pistons roster.

- Former Net Zoran Planinic, just like basically everybody else in this post, has signed for CSKA Moscow, which is in Moscow. Does David Andersen regret it now? Does he fuck.

Where Are They Now? Part 1

In a new and uninteresting series of post, we (I) shall attempt to update you on the current whereabouts of some of your favourite players who sniffed the NBA for a brief moment before retiring with their tail between their legs to basketball's minor leagues. These players are to be glorified at all times, as they provide amusement, and also they provide the oft-undervalued mechanism for sports fans to worry entirely too much about the last player on the roster. It is a trend true of all sports, but particularly in basketball - if we can't see a player play, but they're on an NBA roster, we can then convince ourselves that they are potential 20ppg players, and no one can refute our claim with evidence because there isn't any. It's a dream we regularly live, then shatter, and then live again. Good times.

Anyway. This list will be approached in order, from Tariq Abdul-Wahad right down to Aurelijius Zukauskas. Yes, THE Aurelijius Zukauskas, the Milwaukee Bucks draft pick of 1995 about whom you care deeply. These are the things that interest me.

Anyway.



Tariq Abdul-Wahad is out of basketball, and was last seen having a brief one week trial for Bologna of Italy in November 2006. He was then not signed as Bologona said they couldn't afford to wait for him to get into shape.

Mohamed Abukar is playing for Amsterdam in Holland.

Alex Acker is playing for Barcelona in Spain, alongside such luminaries as Ersan Ilyasova and Fran Vazquez. Detroit still owns his rights.

Hassan Adams is playing for Siviglia in Italy, alongside Devin Green, Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Roger Powell.

Kenny Adeleke is half of a legendary frontcourt duo with Donnell Harvey for Banvit in Turkey.

Deji Akindele is playing for Pau Orthez (not Pau Gasol) in France.

Akin Akingbala is playing for Pensack, in Latvia of all places.

Cenk Akyol, whose rights are owned by the Atlanta Hawks, is playing for Galatasaray in Turkey, alongside luminaries such as Dee Brown, Britten Johnson and Robert Hite.

Cory Alexander is out of basketball and hasn't played since leaving Charlotte.

Courtney Alexander is also out of basketball and hasn't played since being waived by Denver in October 2006.

Chris Alexander is playing for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League. He's also recently picked up Spanish citizenship. And he's also still got a really long neck.


More later.