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 20

Keeping up with the Jones's.

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Arthur Johnson is playing for Pepsi Caserta in Italy's second divison, alongside Guillermo Diaz and perennial also-ran Randolph Childress. Johnson averages 13.9 points and 6.5 rebounds a game.

Trey Johnson is averaging 12.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists in only 27 minutes a game for the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League.

Bobby Jones has tied an NBA record this season, after playing for 5 different NBA teams - Denver, Memphis, San Antonio, Miami and Houston. Jones was also on the Sixers roster before the season, but he was traded as a part of the Reggie Evans/Steven Hunter deal that nobody was interested in. He has just today returned to the Denver Nuggets, obviously wanting to settle down now.

Dahntay Jones played well for the Kings earlier this season, before being waived to accomodate the players acquired from Atlanta as a part of the Mike Bibby trade. One of those players - Tyronn Lue - was subsequently waived, but still the Kings didn't bring Dahntay back, nor Justin Williams, the other guy waived concurrent to the trade. As a result, Jones is stuck with plying his trade down in the D-League, where he shits on the league with a 24.4 points per game average.

Mark Jones - a former Magic guard, so obscure in his formerness that only the truly hardcore will remember him - has not played professionally for two years, and I have absolutely nothing further to say about him. That's how obscure he is. It'd be quite the mysterious and evocative act if it wasn't so irrelevant to everyone and everything.

Alvin Jones, who this summer became the ultimate random "oh shit yeah, I remember him!" signing of any training camp ever when he signed with Denver for three whole days, is playing for a Turkish team that not even people in Turkey have heard of - Mutlu Aku Selcuk Universitesi Konya. It is here that Jones puts up the other-worldly numbers of 4 total BL's and no ASS. Make your own assumptions as to what those abbreviations form his team's website represent. Jones is also, I shit ye not, a Luxembourgian passport holder, and this is the kind of information that I NEED to bring the world. (Question: which former Net is now a member of the Qatarian national team? We'll find out, after these messages. And about 30 more blog posts.)

Jumaine Jones is averaging 18.2 points and 8.6 rebounds for Napoli in Italy, alongside another former Net, Jamel Thomas. Speaking of Jamel Thomas, Jamel Thomas is Stephon Marbury's cousin. And Jamel Thomas is writing a book. And Jamel Thomas isn't nice about Marbury on this book, or so he implies in a Youtube video that he made. In this video, Jamel Thomas wears sunglasses indoors, complimented by a pink tank top, ranting somewhat incoherently (the room has ropey acoustics) about how angry he is about Marbury-related things, doing so with a loosely enforced rhyme scheme in place. In the unlikely event that you haven't seen this video, given that every NBA blog in the world seems to have carried it recently, here it is:



I'm buying that, despite my almost-total lack of interest in the subject matter. You've sold me, Jamel Thomas. By the way, Jamal has two A's in it.

Jared Jordan is playing for Lietuvos in Lithuania, alongside (or rather, behind) the mighty Hollis Price. Jordan averages a mere 6.1 points and 4.0 assists for the team. Nevertheless, I remain steadfast in my opinion that this player that I have never seen play is destined for good things, because people who I trust rather well keep telling me this. And frankly, that's all that I need. It's the fundamental principle that this website was based on. Maybe I shouldn't have just said that.

Federico Kammerichs averages only 7.1 points and 5.9 rebounds for Murcia in Spain. The old unwritten rule which states that dual German/Argentinian nationality players with massive beards drafted in the second round of the NBA draft never go on to international basketball superstardom, claims another victim. Maybe one day, we'll break this unholy cycle of woe.

Sergei Karaulov - one of those tall young European second round draft choices that the Spurs make, that you've never heard of, yet you are convinced that they could one day start on a championship winning Spurs team purely because te Spurs drafted them - will never start on a Spurs championship team. Because he's crap. Karaulov, 26 tomorrow, averages only 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds for Lokomotiv Rostov in the Russian Superleague. Thus, it's official - the Spurs cocked one up. And when we get to Viktor Sanikidze, you'll learn how they cocked two up.

Mario Kasun had his restricted free agency renounced by Orlando when they renounced everybody except Fran Vazquez to open up the room to sign Rashard Lewis to as much as they physically could, for no freaking reason whatsoever. As a result, Kasun is now fully detatched from the NBA, and now we have something else to blame Rashard Lewis for. (Let's overlook for a minute the fact that Kasun doesn't want to play in the NBA.) Kasun, now 28, averages 7.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game for Barcelona, and if I could read Spanish I'd be able to tell you if he has stopped his prolific fouling or not. But I'd wager not. (Vazquez, coincidentally, is his teammate.)

Viktor Khryapa was bought out by the Bulls just before the trade deadline so that he could return to the Motherland to resurrect his career. It hasn't really worked out yet, as Khryapa averages only 10.8 points and 6.4 rebounds for CSKA Moscow, which isn't terrific. Khryapa's team mate in Moscow is Trajan Langdon, who tears things up with an 11.8ppg scoring average, which is highly terrific. I may have an agenda here, but don't tell anyone.

30 teams in 36 or so days: Memphis

Players acquired via free agency or trade:

Andre Brown (one year minimum)
Casey Jacobsen (one year minimum)
Darko Milicic (3 years, $21.06 million)
Juan Carlos Navarro (rights acquired from Washington, signed for 1 year slightly above minimum)



Players acquired via draft:

First round: Mike Conley Jr (4th overall)
Second round: None



Players retained:

Tarence Kinsey (exercised team option)



Players departed:

Dahntay Jones (signed with Boston)
Chucky Atkins (signed with Denver)
Lawrence Roberts (signed in Greece)
Junior Harrington (unsigned)
Alexander Johnson (waived, signed with Miami)



Bobbins:

Only 3 years ago, the Memphis Grizzlies surprised everybody (except me, and I can prove it in court) by winning 50 games in a season and making the playoffs, this ending the franchise's entirely fruitless history up until that point. That year saw a lineup of General Manager Jerry West, head coach Hubie Brown getting his first full season with the team, and a 10 man rotation every night featuring some of my favourite players of all time (except Posey): Jason Williams, Earl Watson, Mike the Miller, James BOOOOOOOO! Posey, Bonzi Wells, Shane Christ-Battier, POW! Gasol, BO! Outlaw, Lorenzen Wright and Stromile Swift, with Jake Tsakalidis as the 11th man.

Frickin' awesome, it was.

Now, apart from Pau Gasol and Mike Miller (and also Stromile Swift, who left but came back), it's all change. From West to Watson via Brown and Bo, all of the above starlets have left the franchise, apart from those that haven't.

The 10 man rotation was partly to blame. Despite its awesomeness, it led to alleged locker room discontent from those who felt slighted by the limited minues that it gave them (namely Williams, Posey and Wells, although it also led to Stromile Swift signing with Houston). That discontent led to Hubie Brown resigning, and some players moves to be made over the course of the offseason and following season. Williams and Posey were dealt to Miami for Eddie Jones (a man who would never complain), and Bonzi Wells went to the Kings for backup guard Bobby Jackson. Watson and Swift were allowed to sign elsewhere, and Bo Outlaw was unexpectedly waived so that the team could keep Ryan Humphrey, a complete scrub of a forward who went on to achieve absolutely nothing. Battier was traded to Houston in June 2006, and just like that, most of the 10 man team had been disbanded.

With it went the Grizzlies playoff days.

Last season saw the Grizzlies finish with the worst record in the NBA. Largely due to the broken foot sustained by superstar Pau Gasol, the Grizzlies also had some coaching drama, firing Mike Fratello shortly after Christmas. His replacement, the wonderfully named and wonderfully tailored Tony Barone, didn't so much coach the team, as he did the opposite. From the slow paced micromanaging of Fratello, Memphis transformed almost overnight into a high tempo running team, averaging 105.7 points per game for the final 52 games of the under Barone. It didn't help them win any more, though, and neither did the return of Gasol, as Memphis limped to a 22 win season (or perhaps, it's best called a 60 loss season).

The only way to make that worse would be to finish 4th in the draft, the worst position that Memphis could have. They achieved this, if that's the right way to phrase it, missing out on Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, and drafted Mike Conley instead.

So in the end, all that losing was all for nought. Well, not for nought, but that's how it must have felt after a long, slow season of futility. A bit like walking six miles home, in the rain, just to find that you're locked out anyway. You can break into next door's garage and sleep there for the night, but it's not going to suffice, and you're not going to be a happy bunny. And your neighbours will probably be pretty fucked off with you too.



Contrary to how I've outlined it above, though, it's really not that bad of a situation in Memphis right now. New GM Chris Wallace's highly unsuccessful tenure in Boston was punctuated by his massively crap trade for former All Star and alcoholic Vin Baker, a trade whose ramifications ended only this summer, when Boston could finally stop paying him. Having seemingly learnt from that mistake, Wallace decided to spend Memphis's cap space this summer on Darko Milicic, a young talented big, rather than going balls out to sign someone like Stanislav Medvedenko (and don't think he couldn't do it, either). In addition to this, the Grizzlies traded a future first round draft choice to Washington for the rights to Juan Carlos Navarro, whom they then signed to a one year contract. This move, plus the drafting of Conley and the return from injury of Kyle Lowry, gives Damon Stoudamire a new reason to gripe, but more importantly it gives Memphis a decent guard rotation, something which they did not have last year. You can tell if a team has a good guard rotation or not by looking to see whether they have Junior Harrington on their roster. If yes, then that team does not have a good guard rotation.

Why they decided to sign Casey Jacobsen and Andre Brown prior to signing Navarro, severly limiting the amount of money they could give him (and therefore the number of years - Navarro's actually losing money this season after paying his buyout, which is why he signed for only one year), I'll never know. If they hadn't done so, they probably wouldn't be looking at having to spend part of all of their MLE next year on just keeping Navarro. In fact, why they waived Alexander Johnson just to replace him with Brown in the first place is also a mystery. But, you know, whatever.




Next season:

The additions of Milicic, Conley and Navarro add to a young core which already featured the harshly named Rudy Gay, the immensely decent (until his wrist broke) Kyle Lowry, the valuable if limited Hakim Warrick, and last year's surprise Tarence Kinsey. That's not to mention superstar power forward Gasol, and the uber role player himself, Mike Miller.

Memphis has many ingredients for a successful playoff team. They have a talented roster at every position, with plenty of offensive talent, improved if still poor defense, and more than enough athleticism. But their biggest hole is experience. Recent Memphis teams had successful regular seasons and made the playoffs, but the franchise has never won a playoff game in 12 years. Indeed, all the players on the roster have only won a combined 56 playoff games, with only 7 playoff series won between them. Mike Miller has won 2 playoff games, Damon Stoudamire has won 21 games and 4 series, Jacobsen 2 games, and Darko Milicic has 31 games and 7 playoff series won. Plus a ring.

Yet, given that Jacobsen didn't play at all in his team's playoff wins, that Milicic played mere garbage time in his entire spell at Detroit, that Miller's lone two playoff wins came 5 and 6 years ago (and also come alongside 18 losses), and that Stoudamire probably won't be with Memphis by the end of the season......it's really not an impressive run down. Especially since they have a rookie head coach.

Still, the Memphis roster has plenty of talent to go along with one of the best inside players in the game, one of the best young coaches in the game (apparently), and the super effing awesomeness of Mike Miller. They also have Brian Cardinal, who I thought I should mention, if only on the basis that I managed to name everybody except him at some point so far. It won't be this season, and maybe not the one after, but barring unforeseen disaster, the Memphis Grizzlies aren't too far away from their former 50 win selves, based on the talent that they have accumulated thus far and should continue to add to. And so maybe THAT'S why they didn't trade Pau Gasol.

Who knows, maybe next time around, they'll win some playoff games as well.