Summer league round-up: Minnesota Timberwolves

View the Timberwolves summer league roster.

- Corey Brewer: Brewer was awful his rookie year. Like, really awful. His offense was enthusiastic, but it was also several kinds of bad, and thoroughly undeserving of a number 7 pick. Brewer started to make some strides, though, with a good summer league last year and a fine opening 5 games to last season. Unfortunately, he then popped his knee badly, which has undone all the good work. Minnesota's forward spots are crowded, but the shooting guard spot is wide open, and if Brewer can show something then he might win the spot as a very tall two. But if he doesn't, he'll be fighting Ryan Gomes for small forward time.

- Bobby Brown: Bobby Brown is a testament to the point of summer league. Most players turn up to summer league to win spots in other leagues, but Brown beat the odds and played so well in summer league that he earned himself a two year guaranteed contract with the Kings. He was traded to the Timberwolves at mid season, seemingly only as a money saving venture (the three other players in the deal are all now UFA's), and now he finds himself as the second of two incumbent points guard on a team that just drafted 12 more of them. So that's a bugger. Nevertheless, his contract is guaranteed, and if Minnesota decide they don't want him, some other NBA team should do.

- Pat Carroll: When talking about Pat Carroll, I always feel compelled to compare him to Matt Carroll. Maybe I'm just not that imaginative. Either way, Matt Carroll has four years left to run on his guaranteed deal with the Mavericks, and Pat Carroll just spent a year in the Spanish second division. So you tell me who has the best chance of being in the NBA next year. By the way, be it an irony, a coincidence, or just an uninteresting fact, the Mavericks were also the team that gave Pat Carroll his sole NBA shot, a training camp contract in 2006. They also signed Samo Udrih in 2005, challenging the 2009 Phoenix Suns for "most inferior brothers that you can get on one team at a time that their superior brother is still in the league" award. But Phoenix wins because they've got two at the same time.

- Wayne Ellington: The next Voshon Lenard. Mark it down.

- Jonny Flynn: First of all, the Timberwolves should have picked Stephen Curry. Second of all, Flynn is way too flawed to be a number 6 pick, with questionable outside shooting, a tendency to get wild and poor perimeter defense, and it's only the upside that comes with his athleticism and the weakness of the draft that gets him drafted that high. Thirdly, Jonny Flynn kills kittens. I haven't finished with that joke yet.

- Devin Green: Green started last year with the Spurs in training camp, but didn't make the team even after playing pretty well in preseason. He then went to Belgium, and later moved on to the Ukraine, averaging 17.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists for Dnipro. If the Timberwolves can't or won't bring back Rodney Carney, then Green makes for a pretty good replacement. He has a chance of making this roster, since it's not deep on the wings right now.

- Paul Harris: Paul Harris reportedly flew up draft boards in the very final run-up to the draft after a series of impressive workouts. In fact, he flew up them so far that he went from being an undrafted talent, to being undrafted. Oh no, wait, he didn't move up at all. Sorry.

Everyone seems to like Harris for his athleticism. And he does have every athletic advantage in the book; he's quick, strong and a huge leaper, even if he tends to lose his leaping ability and front rim dunks at the 58 minute mark on the second game of a back to back. However, he's only 6'4, without much of a slashing game, and with next to no jumpshot. He could be a defensive stopper, but he tends to drift around on that end, and as such he isn't. He also has a criminal history, which doesn't work in your favour when you're on the fringes. Harris initially agreed to join the Cavaliers summer league team, but changed his mind and is now reunited with Syracuse team mate Flynn. Maybe he thinks this will help. I'm not convinced.

- Gerald Henderson: The Bobcats don't have a summer league roster this year, so they're letting Henderson play for the Wolves so that he doesn't miss out on the experience. It's a pretty cool idea, but not as cool as ponying up for your own damn team. Pussies.

- Steven Hill: Hill is about as one dimensional of a shotblocker as you can get. He doesn't rebound much, and he doesn't score; he's all just blocked shots and hair. I like him a lot. But read the Bucks round-up, specifically the bit about Chris Richard, and then tell me why Hill has chosen this team to play with. I just don't get it.

- Rob Kurz: Kurz was signed by the Warriors for training camp, then waived, then almost immediately brought back when Monta Ellis was suspended. He managed to survive the whole year, with even Richard Hendrix being waived before him. Christ knows why, though, because Kurz sucks. Last year, he totalled 157 points, 82 rebounds and 78 fouls, shooting 39% in 40 games. The Warriors then finally realised his mediocrity and didn't extend him a qualifying offer. What kept them?

- Oleksiy Pecherov: Pecherov also chugs quite a lot of balls. He's a tall jumpshooter with a solid rebounding rate, but that's pretty much it. There's scant little defense and no interior offense, and somehow he managed only 2 rebounds and 2 assists all of last season. That's got to be hard to do. Still, for as long as Pecherov looks like Stewie Griffin during his unheralded needle drug period, I think we'll all continue to like him.

- Garret Siler: If you're 6'10 and 305 pounds, yet playing in NCAA Division 2, then there's something wrong with you, really. And Garret Siler's problem is that he's only played basketball for a scant few years. Siler averaged 16.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.6 blocks for the mighty Augusta State Jaguars last year, on percentages of 66% and 79%. However, contrary to usual practice, that's 79% from the field and 66% from the line, a total of 566 points on 285 shots. If you don't believe me, read this. Pretty impressive, although given that he probably played mostly against 6'6 210lbs opposing centres, it's not entirely without context. Siler is fat and slow, which hampers any NBA prospects, but if he can find a similar level of professional competition to that of Augusta State's schedule, then he'll have himself a career. Might I recommend China?

- Ben Woodside: Similarly, if you are both one of the leading scorers and assist makers in all of Division 1, and you don't get drafted, then there's something wrong with you too. And that's what just happened to Ben Woodside, who averaged 23.2 points (8th in NCAA) and 6.2 assists (joint 5th) in his senior season for North Dakota State. He scored big, he scored efficiently, and he racked up the assists to boot. He even had a 60 point, 8 rebound and 8 assist outing, where he shot 35 free throws and his team lost anyway. Good times, sort of. However, Woodside's problem is that he's small. He's listed as 5'11 and 185 pounds, and isn't physical or strong. And rightly or wrongly, that doesn't get you in the NBA. Woodside might hang around the NBA fringes for a while, but a career in Europe is probably best suited to him anyway.

Preview Sort Of Thing: Sacramento Kings

As an aspiring GM with no qualifications or career prospects to speak of, and whose sole outreach into the world of the NBA is this distinctly amateur and unattractive site full of mild slander, I enjoy certain advantages. One of those is the ability to do what I want, to a half-arsed standard, and then to abandon it prematurely, due to a savage concoction of apathy and boredom. This explains what happened with last year's "30 teams in 30 or so days" series of predictions, where I started well, fell behind early, and then gave up roughly half way through. Get in.

This year, we're going to do it again. There will be predictions, and by the power of Greyskull, they're going to be woeful. Even better than that, it's October 19th, and the season starts in just over a week, yet there are 30 teams to cover. So don't be surprised if I only do about......oooh, five? ShamSports.com - run by an amateur.

The few posts that will be made are to be undertaken in a completely random order, with no semblance of logic or reasoning. And with that in mind, we begin with the Sacramento Kings.

Sacramento Kings

The Kings glory era ended a while ago. The days of the Adelman-era Kings, with Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Hedo Turkoglu, Peja Stojakovic, Doug Christie and friends, are over. Webber's knee stopped working, Turkoglu surprised us all by actually getting good, Christie's now the white Dame Dash, and Divac now works for the Serbian government. Other than the incumbent Brad Miller, the final player from those days - Mike Bibby - was pawned off to Atlanta earlier this year for a rather generous return. And that was that.

So, with a end of an old era should come the start of a new one. "The King Is Dead", and all that. But it didn't. For three years, the Kings have done little but tread water. A 44 win season in 2006 has been followed up with 33 and 38 wins respectively, which put the Kings in that most dissatisfying of places - too good to lose without trying, not good enough to compete.

In that time, though, the Kings have had the right approach. Despite a couple of novelty oversized contracts to short term veterans (thank you, Bonzi Wells's former agent!), the Kings have used this time to clean out the old guard, save some Robert De Niro, and to bring in some decent young pieces. This trend continued this year, as the Ron Artest trade brought back Bobby Jackson (big expiring contract), Donte Greene (decent young piece) and a draft pick (a draft pick). Furthermore, they defied ESPN's fan grade of "F" when they drafted Jason Thompson at number 12, to everyone's surprise and widespread condemnation, but a move which (very) early on looks to have been savvy. They signed Bobby Brown out of the German league, thereby shitting once again on my already tenuous theory that ever nobody goes to Germany and later gets back to the NBA. (Thanks to all those who already pointed out that Casey Jacobsen did exactly that last year. Dammit, I was being facetiousness. This is the price you pay when you feel a moral compulsion to try and be funny - you're often wrong, as well as not funny.)

What the Kings have fashioned themselves is a roster full of decent young pieces. With the exception of Kenny Thomas - whose days as a viable NBA player are behind him - the Kings roster is filled with decent pieces, most of them young. Francisco Garcia is a nice piece. John Salmons is a nice piece. Kevin Martin is a very nice piece. Beno Udrih, Bobby Brown, Quincy Douby, Spencer Hawes and Donte Greene are all nice pieces, even if Greene is the most pathetically selfish player that I've ever seen. (And I've seen Tyrone Nesby.) The much maligned Shelden Williams is also a nice piece, who'll never justify his draft position, but who can help an NBA team. And even Bobby Jackson will be a nice piece for a few months, before being bought out in February and signing with the Hornets. (You heard it here first.)

Additionally, the Kings have an identity on the court. With Brown, Udrih and Douby, the Kings have guards who excel in the open floor, and with wing players like Salmons and Garcia along with big men Thompson and Mikki Moore to run with them, the Kings should have free reign to push the ball as often as they can. Based on preseason, they will. The new Kings are a young, athletic and talented bunch, who should entertain, even when they lose.

Financially, the Kings have overspent a few times in recent years. Brad Miller is no longer worthy of his eight figure contract, as the age and weed are catching up with him. Mikki Moore is paid like a starting power forward, but a starting power forward he is not, even if he is. (Did that make sense?) The same poorly phrased sentence can be used to describe Beno Udrih's new salary as a starting point guard. Francisco Garcia's new extension necessitates future improvements in his game to justify the salary and the number of years, or else it's excessive. And Kenny Thomas's contract is nothing more than dead weight. Yet, the Kings' cap situation isn't a problem, despite these small mishaps. Miller's big salary comes off the books in 2010, as does that of Kenny Thomas. Shareef Abdur-Rahim's contract will magically disappear soon due to the injury-enduced retirement rule thing, and even if it doesn't, that expires in 2010 too. As things stand - Francisco Garcia's extension excluded - the Kings figure to have $25 to $30 million in cap space in the big name 2010 offseason, with all of their significant players signed. That figure will no doubt decrease slightly over time, but it nevertheless represents a plan. A lot of teams already have, or will soon develop, plans for cap space in the summer of 2010 offseason, but the Kings are ahead of the game and already have one. And they'll have some decent youth to add to that.

There are drawbacks, though. $25 million of cap space in 2010 should get anyone's juices flowing, but it's currently nothing more than speculative. In contrast, the facts of the current situation show that Kevin Martin is the Kings best player. Martin is a fine player, someone whom every team would want, but who also shouldn't be your best player. If he is, you either need to be in the Eastern Conference and with an almost perfect replication of the Pistons' championship winning team from 2004, or you're not going to get very far. Sadly for Kings fans, it's the latter. Additionally, for all of their strengths when pushing the ball, the Kings will often bog down in the halfcourt. With little creativity or playmaking from the point guard spot, and with not a great deal of consistent outside shooting in the rotation, a lot of the Kings halfcourt offense will depend on Martin, and the high post/low post passing of Miller and Hawes. When armed with comparatively few options, it becomes rather easy for the opposition to take the Kings out of whatever they want to do, and Sacramento has little individual creativity to overcome this.

On nights when it clicks, when the Kings make shots and run on all misses, it'll look glorious. The young and athletic roster will tempt the fans, and hint at a good looking future. But on other nights, the Kings will look like what they are.

Average.

The Kings have the right idea, and they are halfway to the right roster. But, for now, they're several yards behind.


Short term future: Too good to suck, not good enough to compete.
Long term future: It could be beautiful. Or it could be anti-climactic.

Summer signings, round 8

- The Knicks signed Anthony Roberson, which is the sort of move that I'm usually sceptical of, but which in this instance I'm rather pleased with. The Knicks guards, basically, are all terrible. Only a Knicks fan, or someone who likes contradicting my sweeping generalisations, could really disagree with that. But within that, they all share a common drawback - they don't shoot too well. Chris Duhon passes up more threes than he hits. Quentin Richardson may have once held the all time record for three pointers attempted in a season, but that doesn't mean he's a good three point shooter. Mardy Collins is worse at it than both. Stephon Marbury has never had good range, and he probably won't be there to open the season anyway. Jamal Crawford is a good shooter, but inefficient due to his own misguided idea of quite how good at it he is. (86% of Crawford's field goal attempts are jumpshots, which is a freakin' huge number.) This leaves only Nate Robinson, who shot a meagre 33% on three pointers last season. Roberson, if nothing else, provides them with a second decent shooter from the guard spots (or third if you count Nate, which you might want to, if you hate me and everything that I represent). So at the very least, Donnie Walsh appears to have spotted a flaw in his current roster, and found a small remedy for it. That's a start.

- Herbert Hill, renounced by the Sixers as a part of their devious cap room plan, signed with Le Mans in France. Earlier this month, Hill was arrested for DUI, and when you combine that with the fact that he didn't play a single minute in the NBA last season due to knee surgeries, you can see why he might have not seen a return to the NBA as being immedate.

- J.R. Reynolds also signed in France, with Asvel Basket. Fun fact - we bought our house from a man called J.R. Reynolds. He didn't go by "J.R.", sadly, but if I'd mentioned that before the fact, then it would have made it less spectacularly fascinating. And no one wants that.

- The Denver Nuggets are the kind of team that trades away their better players in salary dumps, carry only 13 players on the roster, and pay as many people the minimum as possible. So, true to form, they've filled out their bench with two more minimum salary players in Chris Andersen and Dahntay Jones. Having said that, a minimum salary bench foursome of Anderson, Dahntay Jones, Bobby Jones and Anthony Carter is actually quite good, so I'll shut up now. (By the way, they'd better not start Carter this year. Chucky Atkins is hardly a better alternative, but....Anthony Carter?? Seriously? Trade for a point guard or something. Jesus. Or, alternatively, keep your first round picks and draft one. I'm theorising wildly now.)

- Bobby Brown signed with Sacramento, and not Golden State as I mentioned in an earlier post. The lesson, as always - visit this website every day, but don't come here for news. Just for, you know, scathing views and pictures of Sam Cassell touching himself and salaries and stuff. Also, I'm never trusting anyone again.

- Speaking of the Warriors, they've been the busiest team in the NBA this offseason, but in one fell swoop, they pretty much finished up their business. After Kelenna Azubuike signed an offer sheet with the L.A. Clippers last week, the Warriors began negotiating with Orlando free agent guard, Maurice Evans, with whom they agreed a three year contract. However, Evans then changed his mind, and held out for more money. Golden State, rightly not willing to play silly buggers with an inconsequential player, countered by matching Azubuike's offer sheet, something which they weren't originally going to do. They then tidied up A.O.B. by trading for Marcus Williams to fill the back-up point guard spot (this actually happened beforehand, but play along), re-signed Monta Ellis to a big money long-term deal, and signed second round draft pick Richard Hendrix. A good couple of days for the Warriors then. Their only remaining drama on an otherwise completed roster is the re-signing of Andris Biedrins, which hasn't happened yet. True to form, rumours abound that a European team is about to offer Biedrins a highly competitive if not superior rate of pay. That comes to you from the incorrigable Fannation.com


- Speaking of the Clippers, a few hours before losing out on Azubuike, they made the sort of the trade that I absolutely love when they dealt Brevin Knight to Utah for their own former starlet, Jason Hart. I LOVE trades like this. Love them. How can you not? It's fantastic. It's a trade so wonderfully, awesomely pointless, that the right adjective simply does not exist. Great stuff. I've always wondered who initiates trades like this. Who picks up the phone first? Did they ring each other at the same time? What roster holes do the teams think they are filling? Did Utah, recognising their need for improved perimeter shooting, mistakenly identify Brevin Knight as the solution, inadvertently obtaining one of the only point guards in the league that shoots worse than Jason Hart? Or were both teams just in "anyone but him" mode? Good stuff. Plus, if you're a Bobcats fan, there's the added bonus of the two players involved once forming a two headed Bobcat point guard monster, and now they're being irrelevantly traded for each other. Good times all around. Stupid, but fun.


Also, speaking of the Clippers being stupid......well, the Clippers are stupid. If you take my salary figures as being entirely correct - a dangerous proposition at any time - then this is how the current Clippers salary situation looks:

Baron Davis: $11,200,000, ish.
Marcus Camby: $10,000,000
Chris Kaman: $9,500,000
Cuttino Mobley: $8,925,000
Tim Thomas: $6,049,400
Eric Gordon: $2,623,200
Jason Hart: $2,484,000
Al Thornton: $1,776,240
Nick Fazekas: $886,517 (qualifying offer/caphold, restricted free agent)
Josh Powell: $854,957
Mike Taylor: $442,114
DeAndre Jordan: $442,114

Total: $55,183,542


That, against a salary cap of $58,680,000, leaves the Clippers with just under $3.5 million to finish up their roster. It's not an exact figure, because Baron Davis's salary is not guaranteed accurate (it's within $100,000 of that, at least.) It is, however, near enough to make my point.

The reason I mention this is that, if it were for slightly better cap management, they could have even more cap space. I shall explain.

As you probably know, the salaries for first round draft picks are set by the rookie salary scale, a scale of pre-determined numbers that dictate the salary for each first round draft slot, for every year of the current CBA. There does remain a bit of room for negotiation, though - players can sign for up to 120% of the amount outlined by the scale, or for as little as 80%. It is standard for all teams to sign their players to the full 120% of the scale: it is very rare for anyone to take anything differently. (The only two players in recent years to do otherwise were Sergio Rodriguez, who took 100%, and Ian Mahinmi, who took 80% in the first year of his rookie deal to help the Spurs avoid the luxury tax. Whether he did this magnanimously, or because the Spurs wouldn't offer differently, is unclear.) Eric Gordon, as is the custom, signed for the full 120%.

However, in the window between drafting a first rounder and signing them, the draftees have a cap hold for 100% of the rookie scale only. Thus, by signing him to the 120% of the scale while still under the cap, the Clippers just lost $437,200 in cap room. ($437,200 is the difference between 120% and 100% of the rookie salary scale for the 2008 7th pick.)

This may seem inconsequential, but it might not be. If you take that $437,200, add it to the $484,000 difference between the salaries of Jason Hart and Brevin Knight, add that to the $854,957 cap hold of the completely unguaranteed salary of the completely inconsequential Josh Powell that could easily be done without, add that to the $884,228 that could have been saved by not signing Mike Taylor and DeAndre Jordan already (unsigned second round picks do not have a cap hold), add that to the $886,517 that would have been opened up had Nick Fazekas been renounced, add the $3,496,458 of cap room from the maths outlined above, and subtract $1,768,456 for the four roster charges that would be charged for only having 8 players under contract.....

.....and you get $5,274,904. That's the cap room that the Clippers COULD have right now.

As mentioned above, it's not an exact figure, but the point it demonstrates remains valid. Right now, the Clippers have just a fraction less than $3.5 million in cap room remaining, but if they'd thought about it a bit more, they could have nearly $5.3 million. It wouldn't have cost them a significant player, either: Gordon, Jordan and Taylor would still have been signed, but just a bit later. And the idea that Fazekas and Powell would have been snapped up in the mean time - or the idea that it would have mattered in any way if that had happened - is extremely far-fetched.

The Clippers could have one and a half times their current cap space.
The difference between $3.5 million and $5.3 million in cap space over the span of a 5 year contract is $10.44 million dollars. A contract starting at $3 million over 5 years with maximum raises totals $20.3 million, and a contract starting at $5.2 million with maximum raises totals $30.74 million.

To put it another way, it is potentially the difference between Hedo Turkoglu and Eduardo Najera.

But, alas, it's too late. They can still renounce Fazekas and waive Powell, but it won't be optimum. The Clippers could have traded for Marcus Camby, signed Baron Davis, and still have had as-near-as-is an MLE left over. But they won't now.

The lesson, as always - screw Danny Ainge. (No, wait, sorry - I'm just stuck on loop saying that. I mean, screw Elgin Baylor. Yeah, that one.)





- And finally, speaking of Sam Cassell touching himself, here is Sam Cassell touching himself.



That will never stop being disturbing.

Where Are They Now? Part 6 (The Browns)

T-Air Brown is playing for Varese of the Italian league, and avergaing about 11 points and 3 assists. I was going to include statistics for everybody before I realised that I couldn't bothered, so there's Tierre's as a compromise of sorts.

Kedrick Brown, who was waived by the Sixers in February 2005 and who hadn't taken a basketball job since, is finally back playing, in the D-League, for The Arse (Anaheim Arsenal). Where he was in the mean time is unclear, but, depending on who you believe, he wasn't an alcoholic.

Perennial training camp hopeful Damone Brown has made his way to the Dutch league, playing for the Eiffel Towers Den Bosch. Why they are thus named is not immediately clear, but with this stint in Holland, Damone Brown has now officially played "everywhere". Even Utah. So well done him.

Denham Brown is playing for Tisettanta Cantu in the Italian league.

Dee Brown is playing for Galatasaray in Turkey, as mentioned before.

"Never Gonna Keep Me Down" Elton Brown is being firmly kept down by Hapoel Holon of the Israeli league.

Bobby Brown - no music career jokes please, because they aren't funny - is playing for ALBA Berlin, who are in Berlin. Which is in Spain. Seriously.

Rick Brunson is "Director Of Men's Basketball Operations" at the University of Virginia. What he does with the women's basketball team is anybody's guess.

Rodney Buford is playing for Azovmash in the Ukraine, after recently coming off of his fifth career suspension for waccy baccy smoking, this latest suspension three months in length. Time to re-think your lifestyle choices maybe, Rodney.

Pat Burke is playing for Kihmsky Moscow in the Russian League.

Antonio Burks was playing in the basketball Mecca that is the Bulgarian league, until November. Then he got suspended by FIBA for a year. Apparently his decision to walk out on his previous team - Red Star Belgrade - was deemed unlawful. Not knowing most of the facts of the case, I'm tempted to support Burks's decision to do so since the team hadn't paid him for a month. But, hey ho, what do I know. Unjust punishments for the win!

Kevin Burleson is playing for Mersin Buyuksehir Belediyesi in Turkey.

Jackie Butler hasn't been heard from since Houston waived him this October. But the chances are that some people will still tell you that he's a future starting centre in the NBA.



In answer to someone's question of "are you really going to go through the entire alphabet, 12 at a time?", the answer is yes.