Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 27

- Marcus Haislip

An established and productive forward in the Euroleague these last couple of years - if kind of disliked by certain sections of the European audience who abhor athleticism when it comes at the expenses of pick and roll defense - Haislip left Unicaja Malaga this summer after two seasons to return to the NBA to play for the Spurs for the minimum salary. This represented about a 75% paycut for Haislip, yet he did it anyway, because American citizens like playing in America. It didn't work out for him, though; - in three months with the team, Haislip played all of 10 games and 44 minutes. Then in early January, Panathinaikos came in for him, looking for a short injury reinforcement. Haislip negotiated a buyout with San Antonio (which wasn't difficult; "you can forget what you owe me if you let me leave") and signed with Pana, for whom he is averaging 11.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in the Greek league.



- Mike Hall

Former Wizards forward Hall is with Armani Jeans Milano, a team based in Milano that are sponsored by Armani Jeans. He is averaging 8.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in SerieA, alongside 6.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the Euroleague, shooting 29% from three point range between the two. He had a nice game winning dunk in a Euroleague game recently, but Youtube doesn't seem to carry it. Or if it does, it's in Italian.



- Yotam Halperin

Sonics/Thunder draft pick Halperin is a member of Olympiakos, averaging 7.4 points and 1.8 assists per game in the Greek league, alongside 7.0 points and 1.1 assists per game in the Euroleague. His minutes have been inconsistent, as have those of all Olympiakos players, but perhaps moreso than the others. Halperin didn't play in Greek league games to begin the season, as Greek league games allow for only 6 non-Greeks per team per game, and Olympiakos had 7. But Halperin soon played his way onto the team - or rather, Von Wafer played his way off it - and he's been in the Greek league game rotation ever since.

Olympiakos later released Wafer, dropping down to 6 non-Greeks again, but then they picked up Scoonie Penn, putting them back at 7 again. Since then, Heat draft pick Patrick Beverley has been the one to sit; he hasn't played a Greek league game since January 3rd. He's also only played 33 Euroleague minutes in 2010, despite him playing well in the few that he's had. Speaking of Patrick Beverley, here's Patrick Beverley making it rain.





- Adam Haluska

Former Hornets draft pick Adam Haluska barely played last year for Hapoel Jerusalem, averaging only 3.4ppg and playing 141 minutes all season. And this year, he hasn't played anywhere at all. In fact, he might have quit.



- Darvin Ham

Ham last played in the 2007/08 season in the D-League, and is now an assistant coach for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. His son is now a standout high school player.



- Brian Hamilton

Hamilton is noted - by me, at least - for having a very limited professional career. Despite having two training camp contracts with the Nets in the last two years, and winning them over greatly, Hamilton's professional basketball career has been very short and very limited. Nonetheless, he's found ready employment this year in the D-League with the Utah Flash, for whom he is averaging 7.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game.



- Venson Hamilton

Rockets draft pick Venson Hamilton's 5 year stint with Real Madrid came to an end this summer with the start of the Ettore Messina era. He barely even played last year, so it wasn't an important loss to the team. Hamilton has not played elsewhere this year and is currently unsigned, although he's reported to be training with Rincon Axarquia, a team in Spain's LEB Gold that kind of serve as Unicaja Malaga's reserves.



- Vernon Hamilton

Former Clemson guard and Cavaliers camp signee Hamilton started the year in Switzerland, where he averaged 19.0 points and 2.9 assists for SAM Basket Massagno before being released in November due to injury. He later signed in Ukraine with MBC Mykolaiv and averaged a further 6.7 points per game before being released again. Between the two, he shot 60% from the foul line. That's progress.



- Zendon Hamilton

Perennial journeyman Zendon Hamilton is still going, although his best days are behind him now since he's turning 35 next month. He signed with Al Jalaa Aleppo in December, a team in the mighty basketball powerhouse of Syria, but no statistics are available. He got injured in January and may have been released.



- Ben Handlogten

Former Jazz big man retired in 2006 after a season with Barcelona. He now owns and runs BBA Properties, a construction firm based in Charlotte. I first tweeted that back on November 28th, and then it curiously appeared in the Deseret News two days later. Sneaky dawgs.



Finally.....

- Travis Hansen

Hansen left Dynamo Moscow in the summer when the team ran out of money and released all their foreigners. It didn't hurt him, though, as he quickly moved to Real Madrid. Hansen averages 7.3 points and 2.5 points per game in the ACB, alongside 4.7 points per game in the Euroleague, shooting a combined 40% from three point range.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 22

Many of the following people are called Hamilton. If you don't want to know the result, look away now.

- Brian Hamilton signed with the New Jersey Nets for training camp after playing for their summer league team, which guaranteed him a free trip around Europe. Hamilton didn't make the team, though, and is currently unsigned. By the way, speaking of the Nets summer league team, look how stacked that bad boy was. They could have put together a depth chart of this kind of calibre:

PG - Jamar Butler, Will Conroy, Yuta Tabuse
SG - Chris Douglas-Roberts, Jaycee Carroll, Donell Taylor, Maurice Ager
SF - Julius Hodge, Marcus Slaughter, Brian Hamilton
PF - Ryan Anderson, Anthony Tolliver
C - Brook Lopez, Sean Williams

That team is friggin' stacked, even if it is (as are all summer league teams) a bit short. This wasn't quite how it worked out, as Jamar Butler didn't turn up, Sean Williams started at power forward, and a combination of Conroy and Carroll did most of the point guard work. But, still. In relative terms, that team is heaving. God I love summer league.

- Venson Hamilton is into his fourth season with Real Madrid. However, his playing time has all but disappeared. In the Spanish league, Hamilton averages 1.1 points and 1.8 rebounds in 6.7 minutes a game, slightly raising his scoring average to 1.6 ppg in Euroleague play. On the year, he has 18 points and 21 fouls. The money must be good, because the opportunity isn't.

- Vernon Hamilton was acquired yesterday by the Colorado 14ers of the D-League, where he can backup Eddie Gill at point guard, or replace him should Gill get a call-up. Fun Vernon Hamilton fact: the highest that Vernon Hamilton has ever shot in a single season from the free throw line is the 55.1% that he shot in 2005-06, while still a junior at Clemson. Nice.

- Zendon Hamilton is still going, albeit currently unsigned. The journeyman started the year in Russia with Spartak Primorie Vladivostok - the last placed Russian Superleague team that currently boasts Desmon Farmer amongst its members - but left after four games, totalling 28 points, 20 rebounds and 30% shooting in that time. Zendon Hamilton never got a fair shot in the NBA. Despite numerous try-outs and a career that spanned 6 fractured NBA seasons, Hamilton was better than a lot of the players that he kept losing out to. But because he never had a multi-year contract, he never stuck like he could have. There, I said it.

- Former Suns and Jazz centre Ben Handlotion hasn't played in three years. I seem to remember once finding a source that cited his retirement as being official, but I can't seem to find it again. But since he is 34 and has been out of the game since early 2006, you can probably go ahead and assume it.

- Tyler Hansbrough averages 22.7 points in less than 29 minutes a game for North Carolina. A senior, this is going to be the year that he finally gets drafted, whether he likes it or not. Watch as he plummets down the draft board, as teams pass over his prolific production in light of his lack of size and athleticism. (Note: I'm not saying that they're necessarily wrong for this. Just that it's going to happen. Just like it happened with J.J. Redick. And just like it should have happened with Adam Morrison.)

- Travis Hansen has been a very good swingman in Europe for a while now, and he's still with the Russian team that Jannero Pargo just left. Only just, though; there were strong rumblings of Hansen being signed by Lottomatica Roma. But it didn't happen, and Hansen stays in Russia, where he averages 15.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the Russia Superleague, alongside 14.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists in the Eurocup. Now that Pargo and Hollis Price have left Dynamo, maybe Hansen will start getting paid on time.

- Penny Hardaway is unsigned and still not dead.

- Thunder draft pick DeVon Hardin signed in Turkey to begin the year, but left without playing a game as he was still recovering from injury. Seemingly better now, he signed this month with ESTIA Egaleo in Greece, and scored 7 points with 9 rebounds in his debut last Wednesday.

- Finally, I do do requests, and here are some of them now. Former Sixers centre Efthimios Rentzias retired in August 2006 due to chronic injury problems, aged only 30. In his final season, playing for a team called Forum Filatelico Valladolid (made up of Spanish stamp collectors, presumably), Rentzias averaged 7.8ppg, 4.0rpg and 1.2bpg in 10 games, before being waived due to his injury, and retiring for good a few months later. Former Louisville standout Taquan Dean is in Spain, playing for Polaris World Murcia, who are unfortunately second to last in the ACB. This isn't Dean's fault, as he averages 16.6. points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists while starting at shooting guard, shooting more threes than twos. And another former Louisville Final Four starlet, Juan Palacios, averages an uninspiring 9.2 points and 4.3 rebounds for CB Vic, one of the worst teams in the LEB Gold.

As for the guy who really wants Zoran Planinic information, check this website EVERY DAY, and eventually you'll get lucky.

Summer signings, round 29

- The Nets figured out that they could use a point guard, given that they only have two right now, one of whom is a shooting guard. So they brought in their former player Eddie Gill, as well as GM Kiki Vanderweghe's former mistake, Julius Hodge. They also signed another old boy, Awvee Storey, as well as some fella called Brian Hamilton. Those two can now battle valiantly for two weeks for the spot of 7th small forward on the roster, before both being waived anyway. Tough life.

- Jiri Hubalek's replacement at Phoenix's training camp is a man known by the slightly superb name of Coleman Collins, who played for the Raptors in summer league. Also turning out for the Suns' camp are Robert Hite, a highly capable three point shooter, and Trey Johnson, whose name suggests that he should be.

- The Clippers added Curtis Sumpter amongst their list of camp signings, and just as I was about to write about how they still made this move after barely playing him in their summer league campaign, I then realised that it wasn't Curtis Sumpter who played for the Clippers in summer league, but Curtis Stinson! Haha! God! I bet Sumpter gets that, like, ALL the time!

- In other Clippers news, Jason Williams retired not long after signing with the team. Bugger! I was really hoping for a J-Dub Redux, so much so that I have mentioned it like 80 times. And now we won't have one. Damn shame.

- Chicago made easily the best training camp signings out of everyone, because they're the best franchise in the sport. Genius comes naturally to them, and these signings reflect that. But enough of this overused hubris - they did actually make two good signings with Elton Brown and Darius Washington, fringe NBA players who can bring something that the team otherwise lacks, were they to make the roster. Roger Powell has far less chance of doing anything, but at least they get "hometown boy makes hometown team" stories out of it.

- Orlando made three signings of their own, with forward Jeremy Richardson, center Dwayne Jones, and point guard Mike Wilks. Three of my favourite fringe NBA players, they are. But I bet only Wilks sticks. Shame.

- Francisco Garcia somehow got a 5 year, $30 million extension from the Kings, which is basically MLE money. This after one decent year. Based on last year's play, and last year's play only, is Garcia worthy of the MLE? No, not really. He learnt how to shoot, but only to the direct detriment of his defense. Yet somehow, the Kings think that this one semi-decent season from a soon to be 27 year old backup is worth giving him a 5 year novelty oversized extension. Okay. Have fun paying him $7 million when he's 32. (Note: if Garcia tunes his game to the point where he plays the average defense that he used to play, yet keeps his fancy new jumpshot as well, then this will be fine.)

- Sammy Mejia, former draft pick of the Pistons, has signed for a Greek team named AEL 1964 Larissa, whose name derives from a joyous union of some opticians, the seminal Beatles smash "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and a 6'4 black transexual hooker. Sounds like a good night in.

- Philadelphia fully committed to this training camp idea, bringing in four players, seemingly stuck on the "R" page of their available players directory. Maureece Rice is a short fat guard who can't play point guard and who just came off a pretty damn poor senior year, Antywane Robinson is a training camp veteran small forward with an affection for his unspectacular jumpshot, Jared Reiner is a legend, and Justin Reed is trying to get back into the league after being one of the better players in the D-League last year. Those last two have a chance, depending on how deep the Sixers want to go. The Sixers also signed veteran Andre Emmett, but he has far less of a chance.

- Miami signed Eddie Basden as a energetic defensive guard with no offensive talent, and Matt Walsh as a perimeter shooter. But, considering that the Heat have already signed Koobs Diawara and James Earl Jones for those two roles, both of whoom have considerably more guaranteed money coming to them, you can probably go ahead and say with some confidence that there ain't no way in hell they're making the team. The Heat also signed Omar Barlett and Tre Kelley for camp, the kind of signings that training camp is about - a 28 year old forward so obscure that I had to translate the Polish calendar to figure out when his birthdate is, and a small guard who goes by an alias unbefitting of his style of play. Good times. I love training camp, me.



This will be the last of the summer signings posts, by the way. This is partly because news has pretty much dried up, and that most news now is just training camp signings, which will be fully documented in another post. But mainly, it's because it's not summer any more.

We'll go out with a bang. Two bangs, in fact. You're getting banged from all angles. Giggidy.

- Former Atlanta Hawks forward Hanno Mottola retired from the game last week, while in theory still at his "peak". That's bang number one.

- Bang number two; the mighty Shawn Kemp comeback, mentioned before here, is over after precisely 0 games. Kemp showed up in reasonable shape, but then stopped showing up at all. After flying home briefly to the USA - ostensibly to check that his property was fine after recent hurricanes - Kemp never came back, and the team ended the experiment, on seemingly courteous terms. To replace Kemp, the team have signed former NBA brick shithouse Brandon Hunter.

That is all. Summer officially just ended. So sayeth the Lord.