Desmond Farmer is in the D-League, trying to find one more NBA call-up from somewhere. In 29 games for the Reno Bighorns, Farmer is averaging 41 minutes, 24.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, so those numbers certainly support his candidacy. However, his reputation around the league is far less supportive; Farmer tends to dominate the ball, is not especially good at it (3.7 turnovers per game), shoots too much (42%) and pouts when he doesn't. In trying to prove that he's more than just a catch and shoot player, he has inadvertently proved that he's mainly a catch and shoot player.
Nick Fazekas is signed with Dijon in France, where he has averaged 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds in 25 minutes per game for Dijon. However, he has not played since the end of November due to injury. Sports24.com has more:
A lot of people didn't know who Sonics draft pick Peter Fehse was a couple of months ago. However, they soon learnt after his draft rights were traded for Matt Harpring and Eric Maynor. At the time, this website's player page for Peter Fehse appeared second in a Google search for Fehse's name, and, given that it was one of the few that's actually been written, people wanting to learn about Peter Fehse used it as a means of doing so. Because of this, Peter Fehse became the most viewed profile page on this website. Good times.
(It's now second to Sarunas Jasikevicius. I've been meaning to find out why that is.)
Fehse's season last year was, inevitably, cut short by injury. Fehse has battled injuries since the day he was drafted, and they are the reason he never developed as a prospect. In fact, he's been set so far back in recent years that he's now with a club in the German thirddivision; the BSW Sixers. BSW, coached by recently retired former Mississippi State guard Chuck Evans, are 7-7 in the Regionaliga North, which ranks two rungs below the Bundesliga. Stats are unavailable, but he scored 13 points in their last game.
Noel Felix, now 28, is still the same player he was when he was 24. He is currently plying his athletic trade in the D-League, where he averages 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.2 fouls and 0.9 blocks in 21 minutes per game for the Maine Red Claws. He has not taken a three all season.
NC State's Courtney Fells went to summer league with the Orlando Magic, where he shot 14% and committed 8 turnovers in 53 minutes. He then moved to Cyprus, where he is signed with Proteas EKA AEL Limassol. If you've been following this series of posts you will know that there's no Cyprish statistics available - as well as the fact that I'm trying to avoid using the word Cypriot for no reason whatsoever - but we do have Fells' EuroChallenge numbers. In 9 games, Fells is averaging 9.9 points and 2.2 rebounds, with 89 points scored on 94 shots.
Bucks draft pick Andrei Fetisov is retired from basketball. He was last time we covered. And the time before that. He's been retired since February 2007. We probably won't cover him again.
After leaving UCLA in 2006, Michael Fey has spent two years in China and one in Jordan. Before that, in 2006, he appeared on the Lakers summer league. He must have left some kind of lasting impression, because three years later, the Lakers brought him into training camp to (ostensibly) fight for a roster spot. He didn't make it - he was never going to make it - but Fey's return to America and subsequent trip to the D-League are quite the departure from a man previously doing the Samaki Walker Tour Of The Far East. Assigned to the Lakers' affiliate, the D-Fenders, Fey is averaging 12.1 points and 6.2 rebounds in 24 minutes per game.
Nebraska product Kimani Ffriend is signed in Cyprus, and, as described earlier, there are no statistics available for Cyprianic basketball. All I can tell you is that Ffriend has scored 36 points in Apollon's last two games. And that when you translate his name into Greek and back again, it comes out as "Fred."
Pittsburgh graduate Levance Fields was undrafted, despite his decent Khalid El-Amin impression to end last season. After pairing up with Fells at Orlando's summer league, Fields moved to Russia, where he signed with Spartak St Petersburg. There, he averages 13.7 points and 3.9 assists per game (6th in the league) in the Russian league, alongside 8.9 points and 4.5 assists (8th) in the Eurocup. Fields exploded for a 36 point outing in the Russian league on December 11th, shooting 13-16 in only 35 minutes, but he's scored only 15 points on 30 shots in the four games since.
By the way, Khalid El-Amin currently leads the Ukraine in assists.
West Virginia graduate and former Bobcat D'Or Fischer is spending a second season with Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Maccabi fans are a fickle bunch sometimes, and they (or at least, those that I know) seem to be clamoring for Fischer's release. His numbers are down from last year, which isn't helping. But his numbers aren't bad; 6.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.0 blocks in 20 minutes per game in the Israeli league, alongside 6.3/4.5/1.3/1.5 in 18mpg in the Euroleague. I think the fan's problem is more to do with the fact that he's American.
Gerald Fitch led the Turkish league in scoring last season, and by quite a long way as well. He averaged 28.2 points per game (albeit in only half the season) and has since left Turkey to go to Spain. Playing for Fuenlebrada, Fitch is averaging 20.4 points in only 28.8 minutes per game, alongside 4.8 points and 2.7 rebounds. The 20.4 ppg leads the league, which means that Fitch has now led both the Turkish and Spanish leagues in scoring in consecutive seasons. Even if he has to chuck a bit to do it, how much more can a man do?
Marcus Fizer was a member of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2007-08 season, but popped his knee out (again) before the season ended. He was under contract to Maccabi for the 2008-09 season as well, but missed the start of the season recovering from the knee injury and was waived in January as a part of the regime change. He played in only two games. Fizer then spent last summer in Puerto Rico, where he averaged 16 points and 5 rebounds. He hasn't played anywhere since then, but last week he signed in Puerto Rico for their next upcoming season, joining a team called Guaynabo. His team mate there will be Antoine Walker.
Antoine Walker and Marcus Fizer on the same team. That's a team that just got interesting.
- Gerald Fitch was unsigned until very recently, as he joined the Turkish team Kepez BLD Antalya only last week. Antalya are currently second to last in the Turkish league, and Fitch arrives as the replacement for leading scorer and former Magic training camp invitee, Torell Martin, who retired to run a country pub in the southernmost corner of Wales. (OK, no he didn't. But he did leave.) Fitch has not yet played a game for his new team, and I'll be sure not to tell you when he does.
- D'Or Fischer is with Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel, a rare and special boast for any big man to be making, given the extremely high turnover of big men that Maccabi have had this year. Also currently with Maccabi is one of my favourite players of all time, Marcus Fizer, who has just recently returned from a year long absence due to a knee injury. I don not really know why I like Marcus Fizer so much, so please do not ask. It denies all rational reasoning, but it is what it is, and there it is. Fischer averages 9.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.0 blocks in Israeli league play, along with 12.6 points, 7.8 1.5 assists and 1.6 blocks in Euroleague play. Fizer has totalled 13 points and 5 rebounds in the three games of his comeback.
- Gary Forbes was acquired by the Tulsa 66ers from the Sioux Falls Skyforce just a matter of hours ago. Tulsa traded Chris Ellis to get him, he of the recent update. For Sioux Falls, Forbes was the sixth man, and he averaged 16.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in his time there.
- Alton Ford has also just left his D-League team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and has signed with a team in Zhejiang, China. Which Zhejiang team it is, I'm not sure. Ford averaged 9.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.4 turnovers and 4.0 fouls in 28 minutes per game for the Vipers, who now have only two players left over 6'5 - Marcus Hubbard and Kurt Looby, former backup at Iowa. Remember things like this the next time you see Courtney Sims's D-League stats.
- Sharrod Ford plays for Virtus Bologna, and averages 10.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in Italian league play. In the EuroChallenge, Ford averaged 12.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
- Joe Forte is still dislikeable. Starting the year with Fortitudo Bologna (not the same team as Sharrod Ford's Virtus Bologna), Forte totalled 49 points and 7 rebounds in his first two games for Fortitudo, before being released due to general unpopularness. (At least, I think that was it. There was definitely some kind of bust-up. Either way, Qyntel Woods is also on that team, so it wasn't the most functional unit.) Forte later signed with Snaidero Udine, who are currently last in the Italian league first division, despite the presence of both Forte and Rashad Anderson. Forte averages 12.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 3.2 assists through 6 games.
- Danny Fortson is out of the game and out of the headlines. Probably best.
- Shan Foster has forgotten how to shoot, averaging only 9.7 points per game on 31% shooting from the three point line while playing for Eldo Caserta in Italy. Shan Foster wihout his jumpshot isn't much of a player, so I'm assuming and hoping that he'll find it again.
- Former GrizzlyAntonis Fotsis is playing for Panathinaikos back in his native Greece. Fotsis averages 7.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in Greek league play as the backup to the other former Grizzly Mike Batiste, former Maryland star Andrew Nicholas, and Dimitris Diamantidis, and there's no shame in coming off of the bench behind those three.
- Tremaine Fowlkes signed in the ABA, but left during preseason. I hope it's not because he wasn't good enough. That would be bad.
- Finally, and most spectacularly, former Warriors guard Luis Flores is another one playing in Israeli, averaging 19.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists while starting at shooting guard for Hapoel Holon. The other starting guard for Holon is called, and I quote, Lior Lipshits. I am not making this up. No, really. I'm not. I'm really not.
- Semih Erden - recipient of the funniest NBA forum thread title that I've ever seen, "Semih Erden is finally in the NBA" - never left Turkey. In his fourth year with Fenerbache, Erden is averaging 9.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in Turkish league play, along with 6.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in Euroleague play. And yes, I'm fully aware that that thread title isn't actually very funny, if at all. It's funnier when you're really overtired and have just eaten some very strong continental cheese.
- Ebi Ere is signed in Australia. If he has any sense, he'll never leave - he's a legend there. Playing for the third place Melbourne Tigers, Ere (pronounced 'Ear', at least by Rick Kamla) averages 22.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists, which is one of the highest points per game averages that this list has seen so far. Ere's teammates include former NBA centre Chris Anstey, and a man by the name of Stephen Hoare, whose mother must have had it tough. (Note: while looking up Ere's averages, I was looking up the Australian league (the NBL) on Wikipedia, to see how it was that Ere had played only 4 games. Turns out that he had actually played 23. While I was there, though, I chose to look up the New Zealand Breakers, another NBL team, and try to figure out why there was a New Zealandolian team in the Australian league. It was then that I noticed that the Breakers's former coach was called Frank Arsego. Best. Name. Ever.)
- Evan Bruce Eschmeyer - whose nickname ought really be "Almighty", given that name of his - gave up basketball many moons ago, in late 2004, due to chronic injury. Since then, he has founded an online recruiting service, gone back to Northwestern and earned further business and law degrees, campaigned a bit for the Democratic Party, and was "heaily involved" in Stanko Barac's successful presidential campaign. What he's done since then, I'm not sure, but there's sure to be something.
- Daniel Ewing is playing for Procol Harum (Prokom) in Poland, where he forms a midget backcourt with David Logan. (Also on that team - Ronnie Burrell. Remember him?) Ewing averages 14.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals in Euroleague play, and if ever you wanted to know why so many fringe or former NBA players were signing with this Polish team (Ewing, Logan, Burrell, Koko Archibong, Pat Burke), then now you know why. It's because they're in the Euroleague. And that gets you exposure. And exposure keeps the money coming in.
- Patrick Ewing Jr is with the Reno Bighorns (giggidy) in the D-League, as the Knicks still don't have a roster spot with which to sign him. (And apparently no one else wants to.) Ewing Jr averages 13.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.3 turnovers a game. Meanwhile, Patrick Ewing Sr is an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic, as is Steve Clifford, whose ability to transform his head into a ripened purple turnip during the sideline of every game continues to baffle and amaze.
- Olu Famutimi is into his second season with Khimik in the Ukraine. The second season isn't going as well as the first - O-Fam averages 10.7 points and 4.7 in the Ukranian league, but that drops to 6.7 points and 4.7 rebounds (and 32% shooting) in the EuroChallenge. Which is the EuroChallenge, you ask? To be honest, I've forgotten as well.
- Desmon Farmer made the San Antonio Spurs roster out of training camp, but it didn't last very long, as the Spurs quickly waived him to pounce on Blake Ahearn, who the Wolves had also let go. (Ahearn didn't last long in San Antonio, either. Don't know why.) Farmer subsequently buggered off to Russia, where he averages 15.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists for Spartak Primorie Vladivostok, the team in last place in the Russian superleague. Tough break.
- Nick Fazekas didn't make the Nuggets roster, went to Belgium to play for Oostende, was released after getting injured, and since signed in France with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne. Fazekas has played one game in the French league, scoring 8 points with 12 rebounds in 20 minutes. He should be in the NBA. That is all.
- I like to Peter Fehse as a yardstick for how hardcore into the NBA you are. By this I mean that if you know who Peter Fehse is, you are some kind of seriously hardcore NBA fan. Not even fans of the team that drafted him know who he is, because that team (the Sonics) no longer exist. So, here goes: Peter Fehse is a ginger German with a jewfro, whom the Sonics drafted with the 49th pick back in 2002. They did this on the assumption that this 18 year old 7 footer would pan out. But he emphatically hasn't. A combination of a lack of skill and endless injuries has pretty much put his career on hold. Unsigned since September 2007 due to an achilles tendon injury, Fehse finally signed with Braunschweig this month, the same team that he has tried to play with for about 5 seasons now. (Them and their second team, at least.) But guess what? He hurt himself again in his second game back, once again the achilles tendon, and his season is over. His career might be, too. This amusing Google Translate tells the full story, although Peter Fehse himself says it best:
"You can look at only with gallows humor take."
That you can, Peter Fehse. That you can.
- Noel Felix was playing in the D-League for The Arse, but was waived due to injury earlier this month. Felix averaged 13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game, as well as 2.9 turnovers, a strangely huge amount for a man who barely dribbles.
- Andrei Fetisov has retired and hasn't played since February 2007. Can you see a theme here? Go to the unsigned draft picks list, and cross off all those who we have deemed to be retired in these Where Are They Now posts. The list suddenly gets a lot shorter.
- Finally tonight, do you want a 31 year old athletic but unskilled power forward? If so, you might want to check out Kimani Ffriend, as the L.A. Clippers did only last year. Ffriend, a late bloomer who didn't play organised basketball until he was about 29, averages 15.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for Mersin in Turkey. Unfortunately, he's finally getting good only after he's hurtled past 30. So Europe awaits. Still.
I am going to make these have a stronger pertinence to actual NBA players, and not just really shit players with vague NBA associations. This is partly because of people's perceived lack of interest in these posts, but also because I'm running out of jokes about people that I barely know. If I'm honest, it's mainly this second one.
- Mario Austin has signed with Besiktas in Turkey, where he will probably be the finest player in the land bar none, while playing no defense whatsoever. Such is how he rolls.
(Wait, hang on, he's never played in the NBA. Oh well, never mind. He could do, he might still do, I like him, he's on this site, and that's what matters.)
- Houston Rockets draft pick Brad Newley has swapped difficult-to-spell Greek teams, going from Panionios to Panellinios. His brief reign as "The Most Exciting Second Round Pick To Come Out Of Australia" lasted one year before being topped by Nathan Jawai, who, unlike Newley, might actually be quite good. Well, so I'm told.
- C.J. Miles of the Utah Jazz has been signed to an offer sheet by the Oklahoma City Showertraps. The news itself is uninteresting, but it sets some first: the signing is the first in the history of the new Oklahoma City franchise (hooray!), and also the first non-minimum free agency signing that GM Sam Presti has made. The only previous ones were non-guaranteed minimum deals to Mike Wilks (there for 20 days), Eddie Gill (there for 10 days), Jermaine Jackson (there for training camp only), and Ronald Dupree (the last few games of the season). That right there represents no pedigree - no list of basketball players with Mike Wilks as the best player can ever be considered a good list. As for Miles, his offer sheet is for 4 years and $15 millionish, which is clearly way too much for a man who showed little in three years. If Presti's reasoning was to bid enough that Utah would not match, he's certainly gotten that right.
- Carlos Delfino has signed a lucractive contract with Khimky in Russia, whom you will have heard of from reading about the signing of Milt Palacio in Part 2. This article talks about the financial benefits of this move for Delfino, but importantly fails to mention the fact that Delfino would never get paid that much in the NBA because he's not a very good NBA player. And that factors. (Khimky seems to only sign ex-Raptors, with Delfino, Palacio, Jerome Moiso and potentially Jorge Garbajosa on their roster for next season. So maybe there's hope for Juan Dixon.)
- Craig Smith has agreed to re-sign with Minnesota for two years, in what appears to cynical eyes to be an unsubtle bid for unrestricted free agency at the earliest possible opportunity. It's a damn shame that Craig Smith is stuck in Minnesota. I say that not because of some blind hatred for the Timberwolves, but because it means Smith is stuck playing behind Al Jefferson, the one man you wouldn't want to play him alongside. (By the way, are Kevin Love and Al Jefferson really going to work together? Can we get an answer from that from someone named McHale? I'm not saying that they can't, but it's kind of vital, you know? And how the hell did Brian Cardinal, Jason Collins, Calvin Booth and Mark Madsen wind up on the same team? That's a spectacular conflagration of shitness.)
- D'Or Fischer has signed for Maccabi Electra in Israel. I'm not sure that even I care about that one.
- Loren Woods - waived by the Rockets last week - has signed with Zalgiris in Lithuania. I enjoyed his fleeting comeback, though. And Jelani McCoy's.
- Patrick O'Bryant has signed with the Boston Celtics, who appear to have tightened up the pursestrings. With James Posey signed elsewhere and with all their other free agents not expected back, the Celtics now have no bench. This, therefore, seems like a weird signing - with no veteran point guard, no veteran big man and no backup swingman worth a damn, they go out and get Patrick O'Bryant? (Well, OK. Everyone needs a project 7 footer, I suppose. Just as long as they actually remember the other bits too.)
- Toronto signed Roko Ukic to be their new backup point guard, but I can't help but wonder at his NBA.com profile picture.
- The Lakers did not match Golden State's offer sheet to Ronny Turiaf, and for those keeping score at home, the Warriors offseason currently reads like this.
Given that they've bid on pretty much everybody so far, it isn't going too well. When you have eight players heading for free agency, should your second signing really be a backup big man, when you only have one real guard under contract? And that price (4 years, $17 million)? Strange.
Also, the Warriors are reported as considering making a bid for Philadelphia restricted free agent Louie Williams. (Note: people with the name "Louis" but who don't pronounce the "S" should not be allowed to spell it like that. I'm indignant on this.) This, too, seems odd: aside from Nate Robinson, I can't think of a worse person to pair with Ellis. So the Warriors offseason still has ways to go.
- Finally tonight, in the only real news that matters, the Milwaukee Bucks signed Malik Allen and Tyronn Lue, reuniting Malik with former head coach and profound Malik Allen fan, Scott Skiles. Cute. But, as for the Tyronn Lue signing.....not so sure. What was the point for either party? Lue had other suits, some of whom were offering more money, more minutes, and more wins than the Bucks. So why does he choose Milwaukee? (Readers note: The correct answer is "the lure of Malik Allen.") Also, why does Milwaukee sign Tyronn Lue, when they have Maurice Williams as the incumbent starter, and Ramon Sessions as a promising backup? If they're going to use Lue solely as a third string, then they've got themselves a high quality third string point guard, so well done them. But why not sign a point guard with some good defense? (And no, I'm not advocating the re-signing of Royal Ivey. I said good defense.) Lue replicates a lot of the skill set from those in front of him, except without the passing. In that respect, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Then again, not a lot has made sense so far this offseason. And at least they didn't overpay.
Olu Famutimi isn't starring for Khimik in the Ukraine.
Desmon Farmer is playing for the Rio Grand Valley Vipers Minge in the D-League. He recently scored 49 points in a game, which is quite a lot of points. And Farmer also recently became the D-League's all time leading scorer. That's an accomplishment, at least.
Peter Fehse is playing for the New Yorker Phantoms of the German league. It's not impossible to make it back to the big dance from such a nowhere, as Awvee Storey recently left the very same team and has spent all season with the Bucks (if that counts as the NBA). But Fehse's problem is that he's awful. A 2002 second round draft pick of the Sonics, Fehse would be the least likely to make the NBA of all the unsigned draft picks whose rights are still owned by an NBA team, were it not for the presence of a man further down this post.
Noel Felix is playing for Hapoel Jerusalem in Israel. Or rather, he's not playing for them. Someone over there with some sway has obviously missed the memo which accurately states that Noel Felix is not shit, but THE shit. It's a shame. Someone liberate him next year.
Andrei Fetisov is the ultimate "who the hell". A draft choice by the Bucks back in the dark ages of Nineteen Ninety Freakin' Four, Andrei never made it to the NBA. Given that he's now 36 years old and retired, the dream is probably dead. Still, the Bucks do still own his rights, for he hasn't been retired for long enough yet for them to lose them.
This is worth elaborating on, actually. You're probably wondering, why the hell are Milwaukee keeping onto his rights, when they have no intention of signing him at any point? Well, the answer is that they're using him for his trade value. That probably seems like a stupid statement, given that the draft rights who will never join the league have about as much use as a chocolate teapot. But it's not about the value of the rights per se: it's more of a technical issue.
In trades, both teams have to give up something. What that something is, is up to them. A player, pick, or cash are options. But sometimes, they don't want to (or can't) give those things up. So they have to give up at least something, even if only as a token gesture. That's where these scrubs draft rights become useful. They can act as the "something" given up in a trade. A team can give up the draft rights to a player as their outgoing half of a trade, and add in nothing more if they so wish (or are so able).
That may sound like it's farfetched, and would never happen. Yet it does. It's rare, but it does occasionally happen. For example, when Peja Stojakovic left Indiana to sign with New Orleans, Indiana asked New Orleans - with a cash incentive to convince New Orleans to help them - to make the transaction a sign-and-trade, rather than an outright signing. The act of doing this garnered Indiana a mahoosive trade exception, which allowed them to promptly acquire Al Harrington, something that they could not previously have done without the trade exception. However, the trade had Indiana giving New Orleans some cash and Stojakovic, but New Orleans not giving out any players or draft picks back to Indiana. (And why would they add any? They're the ones doing Indiana the favour.) This meant that they had to give up something else in the trade, and the thing that they wound up forfeiting were the draft rights to Andy Betts, a beautiful and fantastic Englishman drafted in 1998 who won't play in the NBA. It's not much, but it's 'something'. And that's all that they needed it to be.
Another recent example, from this past trade deadline, saw the Memphis Grizzlies as the third team in a two team trade between Houston and New Orleans (again). The Rockets traded Mike James and Bonzi Wells to the Hornets for Bobby Jackson, in a move to get Houston under the luxury tax threshold. However, New Orleans welcomed the new players (well, Bonzi, at least), but they needed to give more outgoing salary to make the trade work for them. So they needed to include the minimum salaries of Adam Haluska and Marcus Vinicius. Houston could afford to take back Haluska, but not Vinicius as well, for that would put them back into the tax territory and make the whole move rather pointless for them. In stepped Memphis, who took on the salary cap number of Vinicius to make the trade possible, and who then promptly waived him. However, to take on Vinicius, the rules, as always, said that Memphis had to give up at least something to make the deal work. The 'something' that they chose were the draft rights to Sergei Lishouk, a no-name drafted in 2004 who did not pan out, and who will never join the NBA. Had they not held Lishouk's rights for all of these years, they wouldn't have been able to deal them, and thus they wouldn't be a part of the trade.
(Why Memphis wanted to be in this trade in the first place is a bit baffling, given that they didn't get any cash, players, or a pick for their troubles, and just seem to have taken on someone else's committed salary without getting any incentive to do so. Strange times. But hey, Memphis has made stranger moves this season. See also: the Pau Gasol trade, and the bizarre decision to sign Casey Jacobsen and Andre Brown to completely unnecessary minimum salary deals before signing Juan Carlos Navarro, which left them with only enough caproom to sign Navarro to a near-one year deal, which left J.C. signing for only one year, which means they now run the risk of losing him or having to overpay to keep him. Still, great organisation at heart. Also, note that Memphis actually got back some draft rights, too - since Lishouk was their only player whose unsigned draft rights they held, they asked Houston for one back, and got those of Malick Badiane. Badiane won't ever join the NBA, but the 0.05% possibility of him joining is ever so slightly more attractive to Memphis than the 0% certainty of Venson Hamilton - another scrub whose rights Houston owns - will ever join the NBA, and so that's why they asked for Badiane's instead. This bracket is getting longer and even duller so I'll shut up now.)
Captivating stuff, clearly.
Very rarely, retaining these rights is worth something. For example, this past summer, Washington bagged a first round pick from Memphis for the rights to Juan Carlos Navarro, and San Antonio used the value of Luis Scola's rights to be able to weasel their way under the luxury tax. Sacramento tried to get a first round pick for Dejan Bodiroga back in the early part of this decade, and the Bulls could turn Mario Austin's rights into maybe something of value if they wanted to do so. For the most part, though, these players attatched to these draft rights are utter bobbins, and thus the value of the rights in trades is used only as a technicality.
To retain these draft rights, all the team has to do is extend them a contract offer by a certain date every season. With the exception of unsigned first round draft choices, of which there are only six, (Joel Freeland, Petteri Koponen, Rudy Fernandez, Frederic Weis, Tiago Splitter and Fran Vazquez), these offers can be - and in practice, always are - fully unguaranteed one year minimum salary contracts. (In the case of the first rounders, the minimum is 80% of the rookie scale contract for their draft slot that season, with the usual guarantees of any rookie scale contract. Don't try too hard to figure out what the hell I just said, because you'll achieve nothing but boredom.) The players can in theory sign these contracts if they want, but in practice they don't. There's no point. In the case of the truly scrubby players, the NBA franchise will just waive the player before their plane even arrives. As such, these players rights continue to be held by the NBA teams for as long as the player keeps playing in professional leagues other than the NBA. (The teams lose the rights to the players exactly one year to the day after the expiration of the player's most recent professional contract. So if they keep playing, and the team keeps extending the offers, then the player's rights continue to be held.)
It has happened before where such offers are accepted when they aren't supposed to be. It rarely ends well. After the 2006 draft, the Lakers heavily advised their second round draft pick J.R. Pinnock to to go Europe, for there was no way he was going to make the roster that year. They extended the minimum offer of the one year unguaranteed minimum salary contract, but told J.R. not to bother signing it, for it was futile. Pinnock didn't listen, signed the contract, went to camp to battle for his place, lost, got waived, and now his rights - and his ticket back to the NBA one day - are gone forever. The same situation happened this summer with Demetris Nichols, who went to the Knicks despite them asking him not to, just to get waived. (His story has a happier ending - he was subsequently claimed off waivers, twice, once by Cleveland and once by Chicago, and ended up seeing out the season.) However, sometimes, it's been productive - Chris Duhon signed with the Bulls against their wishes, went to training camp, won his roster spot fair and square, beating out the two rival point guards with guaranteed contracts in Jermaine Jackson and Mike Wilks, and Duhon wound up starting most of the year for them and earning himself a $9 million conract. Carl Landry of Houston is also staring down a very nice payday after taking the same risk and succeeding. But generally, it's a stupid idea for stupid people, and so it is not common practice to accept these offers.
ShamSports.com - where genuinely useful information and childish use of the word "minge" in the same blog post happens.
Kimani Ffriend is playing for Paris Levallois in France.
D'Or Fischer is playing for Bree in Belgium. Yes, I know brie is a cheese.
Marcus Fizer - the great Marcus Fizer, one of my favourite players of all time for no explicable reason whatsoever - is playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. He was the subject of a specialised workout this summer, attended by represntatives of many NBA teams, in which he apparently shone. Yet he still didn't get. What's a guy got to do? (Apart from, you know.....correct his slightly huge flaw of having no basketball IQ whatsoever. And get back to the correct side of 29.)
Luis Flores plays for Indesit Fabriano in Italia Lega Two-ah. How good a team can be when sponsored by a third rate washing machine manufacturer, we'll wait and see.
Sham is a miserable and self-effacing little bastard, whose basketball opinions are often riddled with bias, insecurity, and rank immaturity. He has also never played the sport, and the only game he has ever been to see was a Ware Rebels game back in 2001. The night bus didn't show up and he had to walk the 9 miles home. It was after this that his passion for basketball really took off.
He considers himself to be Britain's foremost NBA expert, an arbitrary title that carries with it no basis in fact, or any worldly significance. He also wrote this section of the website in third person narrative, purely for reasons of arrogance.
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