Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 8

Drew Gooden was neither waived nor traded this week. Therefore, for all that fuss about his 'novel' contract, nothing actually happened with it. Now, he's just a plain old expiring.

You had probably already noticed this, however, as Marc Stein wrote about it earlier. Marc Stein and me are forever writing the same things. Same as with that luxury tax breakdown thing. And because of that, no one reads it when I do it, because he writes for the 60th most popular website in the world and I write for the 406,478th. It's not my fault, and it's certainly not his either, but sweet sheet is it annoying. *shakes fist*

Anyway.


- Curtis Borchardt

Borchardt left Spain for the lower standard French league this summer, but he did so because the team he joined - ASVEL Villerbaune - are a Euroleague team this season. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened; after only one Euroleague game and four French league games, Borchardt got injured. He broke his hand and will miss the remainder of the regular season.

In the one Euroleague game, Borchardt totalled 20 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks. That's good. But he also gets injured every year without fail. And that's not good.



- Ruben Boumtje Boumtje

Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje is also a Euroleague centre this year, playing his second consecutive season with EWE Baskets Oldenburg. In the German league he's averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.6 fouls and 1.4 blocks in 21 minutes per game, but he's struggling a lot more in the higher standard Euroleague, averaging only 4.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 fouls in 17 minutes per game.

Since EWE Oldenburg are a Bundesliga team, let's play Count The Germans. Oldenburg employ a 9 man rotation, and, as is often the case, there's only one German in it; backup swingman Daniel Hain. The rest is made of Boom Boom, four Americans, two Serbians and a Croatian. This is pretty much the case for the whole league. I am increasingly convinced that the Germans should tighten up their import regulations somewhat.



- Giannis Bourousis

Bourousis averages 10.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.8 steals per game in 20 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.7 steals in 16 minutes per game in the Euroleague.

Some old farts are defiant in their belief that the 440 odd players in the NBA are the best players in the world, and that very very very few players from leagues outside of the NBA cannot compete. This myth is being slowly broken down over time, but some people cling to it, defiant as they are that D-League numbers are irrelevant and that European players haven't the talent to succeed in the NBA. To those people, I ask the following; Bourousis is 7'0 tall, strong, athletic, quick, versatile, mobile and skilled. He can defend the interior and the perimeter, run the court, shoot, post up, rebound and finish with authority. And he just turned 26. Which part of that couldn't translate to the NBA?

It is true that all of the world's very best play in the NBA. But there's many a player outside of it who could perform well in it. Bourousis is one of these, and it probably won't be too long until he's doing exactly that.

I have no idea how you spell his name in English, by the way. This is as close as I can get. It might he Ioannis. Who knows.



- Ryan Bowen

Bowen was signed by the Thunder this offseason in a move I've already talked about way too often. He made the roster ahead of Mike Harris, but was waived after a month to accommodate Mike Wilks. He has not signed elsewhere since, and nothing about his Twitter account suggests that he's in a rush to do so again. But this is Ryan Bowen we're talking about. In term of NBA staying power, this man is a pioneer.



- Bruce Bowen

As you probably already know. Bowen was traded from the Spurs to the Bucks, then waived, and retired this summer. He now works for ESPN as an analyst.



- Justin Bowen

After going undrafted out of Illinois-Chicago in 2006, Bowen spent two years in the D-League with the Austin Toros, where he was pretty decent. Last year he embarked on a world tour in pursuit of better money, starting in Australia (where he averaged 16.4ppg and 7.4rpg for the Gold Coast Blaze) and moving to Korea in February. There he played for two teams; Mobis Phoebus (10.6ppg, 5.4rpg) and Seoul Knights (14.0ppg, 4.5rpg), before returning to the Toros for the final two games of their season (6.0ppg, 5.0rpg). He's stayed with the Toros this season, but his numbers across the board are down from two years ago. Bowen averages 9.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game with only 135 points on 126 shots.

Bowen is in and out of the Toros starting lineup, depending on that week's opinion of former Duke forward David McClure, who is averaging 4/4 in 18 minutes. Speaking of McClure, he's grown his hair out, and here's the result.






- Brandon Bowman

Bowman has moved from Germany to Turkey, where he's playing for Tofas Bursa. On the season he is averaging 14.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks, shooting 48% from the field, 33% from three point range and 58% from the foul line. The points, rebounds and blocks are all team highs.

In between those two gigs, Bowman appeared on the Sixers' training camp roster. In the last two years, the Sixers have brought in 11 players for training camp, and kept none of them. They've improved 11 CV's without spending a single penny of salary cap. Is that magnanimous? I can't tell.



- Cedric Bozeman

Cedric Bozeman is signed in China with Beijing Ducks. Of all the animals to use as a basketball team's nickname, I think "Ducks" has to pretty far down the list. I get what they've done with the ol' food thing there, but a duck is a slow waddling animal with no discernible ball skills. It's not the iconography you want in a basketball team. You may as well have called them the Lab Rats, the Chaffinches or the Beijing Hagfish.

Not many imports in the CBA are guards, although this year there's more than usual. Bozeman is playing point guard and averaging 22.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.6 steals per game, all team highs except for the rebounds (which rank second). His offense has gotten better year, and specifically so has the three point jumpshot. This has sort of continued; Bozeman is shooting 35.3% on three pointers on the season, which sounds much more impressive than saying he's 6-17 in 8 games.



- Michael Bradley

Michael Bradley retired after the 2007-08 season, which he played in Spain. He initially wanted to develop a broadcasting career, but instead he and his wife Ellen has started a business called Moksha Yoga, which does yogaey stuff. He is also now both an NBA and FIBA certified agent, starting a company called Bradley Sports Management. Bring a fledgling operation, they don't have a whole host of clients yet, but two that they do have whom you may have heard of include Louisville graduate Andre McGee (who started his first professional season in Germany but who left last month), and Providence graduate Jonathan Kale (who is still in Germany; both he and McGee signed with Phoenix Hagen, a Bundesliga team).



- Shawn Bradley

As was recently covered in the 1993 Draft WATN roundup, Bradley is long since retired and now works in a school. Here is the same gif from that article, as it can never have too many airings;





Finally.....

- Torraye Braggs

Ex-Rockets forward Braggs has been on a hell of a world tour these last few years. He last played in the NBA down the stretch of the 2004-05 season, when the Rockets brought him back, and yet even though he signed 6 NBA contracts with 5 different teams in his time, Braggs wound up only ever playing 22 games and 178 minutes in the NBA.

Since 2005, Braggs has played in South Korea, the D-League, Russia, China, Israel, Latvia, Iran, Jordan, Mexico and Venezuela. He is currently in Uruguay, plsying for a team called Malvin. His silhouette is very much that of a white man.




As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Uruguayan ones.

Summer league round-up: Utah Jazz

All right! Only three weeks late!

View the Jazz summer league roster.

- James Augustine: Augustine was covered in the Bulls round-up from bloody ages ago. He played well for both teams and definitely re-established himself. But neither team has room for him next year.

- Jimmy Baron: Jay Bilas lookalike Baron just played four years at Rhode Island, where his coach was his dad. I've always wondered why players think this is a good thing, but anyhoo. Baron set the school record for made three pointers in a season in his sophomore season, then broke it in his junior season, then broke it again in his senior season. He made 118 of those bad boys last year in only 34 games. So you get the idea of how he plays. 6'3 shooting specialists have to have something extra to make the NBA, and Baron doesn't, but no matter; he has already signed for Mersin in Turkey next season, presumably as Chris Lofton's replacement.

- Cedric Bozeman: I'm a big fan of Cedric Bozeman and I don't know why. As such, it buoyed me to see him play well last year, to the tune of 19.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. Even the jumpshot is getting there, shooting 35% from three point range last season. This encourages me. Here's hoping he's doing enough for one more go-around.

- Derrick Brown: Brown is a second round draft pick of the Bobcats who has signed with the team for two years, who played on the Jazz summer league team because his own team was too cheap to run one. Typically, he led the team in scoring, which probably makes the Jazz feel a little weird about their hospitality. Especially since their own second round draft pick this year, Goran Suton, played pretty badly.

- Josh Duncan: Duncan barely played last year, going to France briefly to play for the very bad Pau Orthez but suffering an injury and playing in only 18 games. He had a pretty crazy summer league for the Jazz, shooting 72% from the field, 78% from three point range and 73% from the foul line, but grabbing only 2.2 rebounds per game and fouling 20 times in 83 minutes. Either way, it's irrelevant, as he has already signed with Belgacom Liege for next year. You can guess which country they play in.

- Andre Ingram: Ingram is not good enough to be here. He had three decent but not great seasons at American University - not a big program - and one shocking season. Since then, he's spent two years in the D-League, averaging 6.1 points per game in his first season, and 10.0 points/3.3 rebounds in his second year. The only reason he's here is because the D-League team that he was with was the Utah Flash.

- Kosta Koufos: It may have been a good idea for Koufos to leave Ohio State after one year, or it may not. But considering that he was a first round pick, and ended up being a useful contributor on a playoff calibre team at the tender age of 19, he can't feel too bad about it.

- Kevin Kruger: Kruger started last year with Lukoil Akademik in Bulgaria, a team sponsored by a trainee petrol pump attendant's night school. He averaged 12.0 points and 7.5 assists in two games, before being released when the team was knocked out of the Eurocup and waived all its American players. Kruger then returned to America, and joined the D-League with the Utah Flash (NOW it makes sense). He averaged 13.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, and led the D-League with a 51% three point shooting percentage. But, as is the case with all 26 year olds in summer league, I am obliged to tell you that he is 26 years old. It counts for something, whether we want it to or not.

- Kevin Lyde: This is the third straight season that Kevin Lyde has appeared on the Jazz summer league roster. I have no idea what they see in him. Last year, he even got a training camp roster and the opportunity to play in some preseason games. At least they've finally started getting his measurements vaguely closer to the truth, changing his originally listed 6'10 260lbs to a more apt 6'9 294lbs. Dude's got some podge, you may have noticed.

- Wesley Matthews: See this.

- Eric Maynor: I'm not sure how, but a VCU game just came on my telly. And I'm all love Eric Maynor. I love me some floaters, despite the statistically proven inefficiency of the shot. I'm also REALLY all over Larry Sanders, who has it all. The athleticism, the length, the name, everything.

- Goran Suton: If I was court ordered to give a comparison for Goran Suton, I'd probably choose Paul Davis. Such a court order would be frivolous and wasteful, but if it happened, that's where I'd take it. And yes, the facts that they're both white and from Michigan State factor in heavily.

- Dar Tucker: Tucker's first name is short for Darquavis, and not Darth as you may have hoped. He just left DePaul early, a decision which might not have been a great idea. DePaul sucked last year pretty damn badly, but so did Tucker. He took 6.4 three point shots per game, and shot only 28% from out there. He scored big (18.5 points per game), but they came on a piss poor true shooting percentage of 49%. And since he's a one dimension scorer, you can see the problems with this. Stay in school and wait for backup, or transfer to somewhere that might help you more, but don't declare after a bad year like that. There's really no point.

- The People's Champion Larry Turner: Turner is a 26 year old big man who sucked at Oklahoma, transferred to Tennessee State, and sucked there as well. Amazingly, he got a summer league spot in 2007 with the Lakers, which even more amazingly led to a training camp spot. But the normality kicked in and he was waived. Since then, he's played 47 games in the D-League, played in some NBA minicamps, played in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Korea and the PBL. I only have numbers for the D-League stint in 2007-8 = 7.8ppg, 6.5rpg, 1.1bpg, 49.2% FG 54.8% FT. Woop. His summer league numbers were even better - 27% shooting, 18 fouls and 10 turnovers in 63 minutes. Oh yes, you want that. You want that all over your face.

- Gary Wilkinson: Wilkinson's story is unconventional. Last year, he took Utah State to the NCAA tournament, averaging 17.1 points and 6.8 rebounds, on the efficient numbers of 58%/31%/83%. Not bad at all from a 6'10 big man. However, he's also 26. And the reason he was 26 years old and in college was because he spent a lot of time not doing much. Wilkinson didn't play high school basketball because he fell out with the coach, who kicked him off the team for his bad attitude. Wilkinson then left high school before graduating, and spent time kicking about aimless, drinking, partying, and doing drugs. Then he found Jesus, straightened himself out, and went on a two year mission to Canada. He came back, put in two years at Salt Lake Community College, and then went to Utah State for two years, where the story culminated with the NCAA Tournament birth and now Wilkinson's pity spot on the Jazz summer league team. It's a lovely story. But he's not Josh Hamilton.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 7

- Cedric Bozeman is playing for The Arse in the D-League, where he averages 17.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists, where he plays the off-guard to Tierre Brown's point. (Brown averages 14.4 points and 4.6 assists.) But the best Cedric Bozeman news of all is that he is 22-51 from behind the three point line, for a 43% average. This isn't exactly a massive sample size to be working off, and it does come from the man who shot 21% on three pointers in Poland last season, but it may be a sign that Bozeman's jumpshot might not be too big of a weakness any more. With a decent jumpshot, Bozeman has a chance to be vaguely interesting to NBA teams. His first go around with the Atlanta Hawks wasn't pretty, as he shot 28% in 23 games and had a 1:1 assist/turnover ratio. But teams love their tall point guards, and even though Bozeman isn't playing point guard right now, he could. Any evidence of his development as a scorer can only help his case.

- Michael Bradley opted not to play this season. And maybe never again. Here's why.

- Shawn Bradley retired ages ago and, at last count, now works in a school.

- Torraye Braggs has played basically everywhere, and, until last week, was playing in Mexico with Pioneros de Quintana Roo-Cancun. Apparently he only plays on teams with awesome names, because before Pioneros de Quintana Roo-Cancun, Braggs was playing for a team in Jordan called, simply, "Orthodox". Before that, he played in Iran for Petrochimi Imam Harbour. Before that, it was ASK Riga in Latvia (less awesome, but a suitably random country), and before that came Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan in Israel and the Qingdao Double Stars in China. If there's an insignifcant basketbal league featuring teams with great names, and the money isn't too bad, Torraye Braggs will find it.

- J.R. Bremer is playing for Triumph in Russia (them of the Nenad Krstic thing), where he averages 12.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists. He also is now a Bosnian passport holder, something that he seemingly managed to obtain on the basis of the 5 games that he played for Bosna Sarajevo last season. Does that seem a bit off to you? Yes, me too. But, crucially for Bremer, that passport makes it easier for him to be signed in Europe, as it allows him to be technically a European, thus facilitating his move into any league with a maximum number of Americans policy. And Bremer at least actually plays for the Bosnian national team. But, five games? Seriously? Can someone please have some shame about this?

- Last time we checked in with Jamison Rudy Van Brewer, he was out of basketball. Guess what? He still is.

- Primoz Brezec averages 9.9 points and a piddly 3.5 rebounds for Lottomatica Roma. More importantly, he has got rid of the effeminate curtains.

- I've already spoilt any suspense that you may have been looking for regarding the whereabouts Tierre Brown. Sorry about that.

- P.J. Brown says he has retired. Again. Do you believe him? This time, yes I do.

- Kedrick Brown started this season with a brief stint in China, before returning to the D-League. Like basically everyone else in this post, Brown plays for The Arse, where he averages 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds in only 5 games.

- Damone Brown is back in the D-League, still trying to make the NBA once again. Playing for a poor Reno Bighorns team (giggidy), Brown averages 16.6 points, 8.0 rebounds, and a rather high 4.3 fouls.

- Finally, Denham Brown started this season by not bothering to show up for Canada's training camp, before joining Dakota in the D-League. Brown was then waived in December due to injury. No, Toronto Raptors fans, you are not about to sign him.

Where Are They Now? Part 5

Tony Bobbitt is playing for Bremerhaven in Germany. Also, on the subject of Tony Bobbitt, this is simply staggering.

European star Dejan Bodiroga, 1995 draft pick of the Sacramento Kings, has retired. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Kings aren't still demanding a first round draft pick for his rights, but it does ensure that they won't get it.

Curtis Borchardt is playing his third season for Granada in Spain.

Ruben Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje is playing for Oldenburg in Germany.

Brandon Bowman is playing for Ignis, of the Italian Lega 2. For those numerically unaware, that's not a good league to play in.

Cedric Bozeman is playing for the Energa Czarni Slupsk of the Polish league. This is a worse league to play in, although playing for a team called Slupsk must numb the pain a bit. Bozeman is also shooting 21% on three pointers this year, so it's nice to see him willing to improve his game.

Michael Bradley is playing alongside the aforementioned and incredulous Curtis Borchardt for Granada. That must be a pretty sight to witness.

Shawn Bradley retired a while ago, as you no doubt know. But did you also know that his five children all have names that begin with "Ch"? Fun fact. No idea why this is. Maybe he and the missus have a Lorenzen Wright thing going.

Torraye Braggs is playing in the fabled basketball powerhouse of Jordan (for all Americans out there, it's a country), for an amazingly named team called "Orthodox", in an even more amazingly named league called the "Excellent League". I enjoyed looking this up. The results were good. Time was well spent.

J.R. Bremer ISN'T playing with Tony Bobbitt for Bremerhaven in Germany, which is a dumbfoundingly stupid move on Bremer's part. It was meant to be, surely? The marketing writes itself, and surely you'd have no trouble selling yourself to the team when your name was destined to fit so snugly alongside it. (The same thing once happened to Arsene Wenger.) Instead, Bremer is playing for Spartak Vladivostock in Russia, alongside Joseph Blair. Which, you know, is a decent excuse for playing for Bremerhaven. The lure of playing alongside Joseph Blair is impossible to resist.

Jamison Brewer is seemingly out of basketball, having not played this season. Then again, was he ever really in basketball? What did he do except run into shot every time Reggie Miller hit a big three? Email if you know the answer.