Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 13

- Lionel Chalmers

Chalmers is signed in the Russian Superleague, or what's left of it. Russian basketball, like all Eastern European teams, has had a bit of a financial crisis this year, and the Superleague has only 9 teams left in it. Nevertheless, they're nine pretty good teams, so it's not a bad gig. Playing for Enisey Krasnoyarsk, Chalmers is averaging 17.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 33 minutes per game. The scoring is 6th in the league, the assists 8th and the steals 7th, but Chalmers' numbers are also down across the board; last year, he led the Superleague in scoring with a 21.0 ppg average, and ranked second in assists with 5.6 apg. That scoring title was a particularly impressive feat considering that he did it while shooting 57% from the free throw line as a 6'0 point guard.



- Brian Chase

Chase was Jannero Pargo's replacement at Dynamo Moscow for the end of last season, after Pargo moved to Olympiakos. He averaged 18ppg in the Eurocup and 11ppg in the Russian league, but Dynamo got rid of all their imports this year to save money. [See Sergei Bykov's entry, part 11.] Chase is spending this season in Spain, where he's signed with Valladolid of the ACB. He is averaging 13.0 points and 1.7 assists, shooting 39% from both the field and the three point line.

Despite being a 5'8 score-first backup point guard who averaged only 7ppg in his final college season, Brian Chase has played in the NBA. Andre Young, pay attention.



- Calbert Cheaney

Cheaney was covered recently in the 1993 NBA Draft Round-up Thingy. Nothing has changed since then.



- Eric Chenowith

I wasn't into college basketball at the time, so I don't know why it's the case, but everyone seemed to hate Eric Chenowith because of his college days. This is the impression that I got throughout his professional career, at least. He kind of had that Laettner thing going on. If any of what I'm saying sounds plausible, please tell me why it was the case, because I don't know.

Chenowith's professional career involved a few years in the D-League, stints in France, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, as well as a year in the CBA in which he led the league in rebounds. Yet despite being drafted 43rd overall by the Knicks in the 2001 draft (who in an unusual move renounced him several months later before he ever signed with the team ), and despite signing NBA contracts with the Kings, Sonics, Clippers, Lakers, Nuggets, Bulls and Hornets at various points, Chenowith never played in the NBA.

Chenowith retired early into the 2008/09 season, aged only 29, and is now trying to establish a coaching career. He is currently coaching at his old high school team, subsidizing that income by working as a foreman for a construction firm.



- Josh Childress

As well you know, Childress is signed with Olympiakos in Greece. He wasn't very good there last year, really, unable to do much in the European half court game and not getting many fast break opportunities. But this year he's doing quite a lot better. Childress is averaging 16.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.7 blocks per game in the Greek league, alongside 15.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks per game in the Euroleague. He's even hit a few threes, going a combined 15-43 (35%) between the two competitions.

Childress is still a restricted free agent of the Atlanta Hawks, who retain full Bird rights on him. Given that the Bulls' PR Machine has already set the wheels in motion for what now looks like an inevitable drastic overpayment for Joe Johnson this summer, the Hawks are probably going to need them.



- Doug Christie

Christie now runs Christie Sports Management/Athletes Training Firm. Details of that, and of other things in Doug and Jackie's post-basketball lives, can be found here.

I can't find records of a single client of theirs, however.



- Dionte Christmas

Christmas went undrafted this summer and later signed with the Sixers for training camp. Yet despite the Sixers' obvious need for a shooter, they decided they'd rather save the money and run with a 13 man roster than they would pay the rookie minimum to Dionte Christmas. That must have stung. What will have stung more was Christmas getting arrested the very next day while driving Marreese Speights' car, which contained an unloaded gun, also registered to Speights. Not a good day's fishing.

After a few weeks on the shelf - in which time he was rumoured to be moving to Germany, although he then didn't - Christmas signed with Hapoel Holon in Israel at the start of this month. He's played in one game for the team, totalling 12 points and 5 assists, shooting 3-10 from the field and 1-7 from outside.



- Adam Chubb

Last year at this time, I wrote this about Adam Chubb:

Adam Chubb will literally never leave Germany.

Unlike all of my offseason predictions about Marcin Gortat, I might have actually been right about something here. Chubb is still in Germany, now into his fifth consecutive season there, and he also just signed an extension that keeps him there until 2012. For ALBA Berlin, Chubb is averaging 10.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the German league, 10.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the Euroleague, and previously averaged 12.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in the Euroleague. Adam Chubb as a double digit scorer in the second highest calibre of club basketball competition in the universe? Awesome.



- Ousmane Cisse

Remember Ousmane Cisse? The shotblocking starlet who averaged 12 blocks per game in high school, was drafted 47th overall in 2001 by the Denver Nuggets, but who never played in the NBA and who, in his own words, "should have went to college?" Well, he's still going. Cisse is signed in Cyprus with APOEL Nicosia, where he's one half of a two headed centre monster alongside former Jazz player Alex Radojevic. Good times.

Unfortunately, as is always the case with Cypriatic basketball, there are no domestic league statistics available. Someone out there should really rectify that, because there's a good number of interesting players that play over there and we need to know about how they're doing. But in the plus side, APOEL were in the Eurocup to begin this year, and after failing to beat Bancas Teramo in the preliminary round, they went in the EuroChallenge instead. So we at least have the statistics for those games. In the Eurocup, Cisse totalled 12 points, 16 rebounds, 6 fouls, 3 blocks and 2 steals in 49 minutes of two games, and in six EuroChallenge games he's averaging 2.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.7 fouls and 1.2 blocks per game. That's not very good, really.

For the record, in the same six EuroChallenge games, Radojevic is averaging 6.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in 19 minutes per game.



- Sam Clancy

Clancy was second in the Russian Superleague in rebounds per game last season, and has followed that up this year by being fifth in the Israeli league in rebounding. For Bnei Hasharon, Clancy is averaging 10.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, playing only 24 minutes a night. Hasharon also have the third best rebounder in the league, Shawn James, who averages a further 8.7 more in 28 minutes a night. Between the two, they're not missing many.

Another guy on the Bnei Hasharon team is Ron Steele, the former Alabama guard who was off to a flying start in his college career until his knee stopped working. Steele is having a pretty good career resurgence, averaging 11.9 points and 2.3 assists in 23 minutes per game, shooting 54% from the field and 52% from three point range. After the injury to his knee essentially cost him the last three seasons, it's good to see his bouncebackability in full effect. By the way, whoever invented that word should be shot, as should everyone who uses it.



- Keon Clark

Here's what Keon Clark's been up to recently. Or rather; here's Keon Clark's criminal record.

So, um, you might want to start scrolling down.



25th November 1991: Arrested for shoplifting. Was all of 16 at the time. Sentenced to a year's supervision, completed without incident.

28th March 1994: Arrested for a "misrepresentation of age" violation. Pleaded guilty, fined $100 three years later. Not sure what the wait was for.

28th March 1994: Arraigned for driving without insurance. Charge dropped two days later.

31st March 1997: Cited for speeding. Fined $75.

8th September 1998: Cited for not wearing a speedbelt. Fined $55.

1998: Suspended by UNLV after testing positive for marijuana.

20th May 1999: Cited for possession of cannabis. A year later, sentenced to six months supervision and fined $250 plus costs. In the same incident, was arrested for driving with a suspended license, but that charge was dropped almost two years later.

6th July 2000: Cited for driving the wrong way up a one way street. Fined $75.

11th June 2001: Arrested for driving with a suspended license. Charge later amended to driving on an expired driving license; fined $139.

11th June 2001: Arrested for domestic battery. Pleaded not guilty, but later changed to guilty in a plea agreement. Fined $200 plus costs, and placed on one year's conditional discharge.

29th June 2001: Cited again for driving without insurance. Later dropped.

31st July 2001: Cited for speeding. Fined $95.

29th July 2002: Arrested for reckless driving. Had to forfeit his driving license, but the case was dropped a few months later.

30th July 2002: From presumably the same incident, cited for whatever "failure to reduce speed" is. Sentenced to a year's court supervision in January, and fined $660. The fines are getting bigger. Also cited for driving without insurance, again, yet it was dropped, again.

September 2003: Appeared in court charged with a different case of misdemeanour domestic violence. Pleaded not guilty. Unsure of the outcome.

22nd December 2003: Cited for speeding. Fined $95. At least he made it past the year's supervision.

15th March 2004: Again cited for failure to reduce speed. Pleaded guilty, fined $235.

10th May 2004: Cited for speeding. Fined $75. You're getting the idea by now.

21st June 2004: Fined another $75 for another speeding offense. Cited again six weeks later for failure to pay it, then paid it in full.

16th February 2005; Again cited for driving without insurance. This time, Clark misses a court date, and an arrested warrant is issued in May.

4th April 2005: Cited for driving on a suspended license. By pleading guilty to the above charge of DWI, this one was dropped. Fined $500 and sentenced to a year's court supervision.

7th September 2005: Pulled over for erratic driving, and found to be in possession of cannabis, cocaine and a firearm without proper identification. Charged with two counts on the coke possession, two counts on the gun possession, one for the marijuana possession, one for driving on a suspended license, and two counts of DUI. Released after posting $2,500 bond. In accordance with local drug foreiture laws, his car was conviscated, and later sold on eBay.

28th December 2005: Clark changes lawyers.

3rd May 2006: Arrested for a myriad of things, including DUI (again), property damage, improper lane usage, driving with no insurance, driving without wearing a seatbelt and driving without a license. Pleaded not guilty to everything. DUI charge later amended to "Driving Under The Combined Influence Of Alcohol & Drugs." A charge of "driving using cocaine" was added.

21st September 2006: Scratches found in Clark's formerly conviscated Mercedes (see 7th September 2005 incident).

7th March 2007: Arraigned in Vermilion County court on a felony charge of criminal damage, as well as aggravated driving on a suspended license. Supposedly, after seeing his former car (now owned by a city worker) parked on the other side of town, Clark decided to damage the paintwork.

April 2007: Released from jail on battery and domestic violence charges after posting bond.

17th May 2007: Arrested for two outstanding warrants in Champaign County, both for failure to appear in court, one on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing and the other on a felony charge of driving with a suspended license. Simultaneously arrested for driving under the influence after being found to be three times over the legal limit, and with a bottle of gin in his pocket.

May, 2007: In a plea agreement, pleaded guilty to the firearm and coke possession charges from the 7th September 2005 incident in exchange for the DUI and suspended license charges being dropped.

20th September 2007: Sentenced in Champaign County court to 30 months for the other driving with a suspended license charge. Sentenced in abstentia; arrest warrant issued.

10th October 2007: Sentenced in Vermilion County court to 30 months in prison on the firearms charge, 24 months on the coke possession charge, and one year for the driving under the influence charge, all to be served concurrently. The possession of marijuana charge was dismissed. Sentenced in abstentia, as neither Clark nor an attorney showed up. Another arrest warrant issued.

18th October 2007: Arrested on a bus in Houston on the aforementioned outstanding warrants. Clark had been in Houston attending alcohol rehab, which is why he did not attend his previous court hearings.

15th December 2007: Appeared in court to appeal the Vermilion County court charges above. Admitted in the hearing to being an alcoholic for almost a decade.

21st December 2007: Won his appeal for a new hearing on the firearm, cocaine possession and DUI charges. New hearing scheduled for March.

29th December 2007: Began serving his 30 month sentence for driving with a suspended license.

29th February 2008: Pleaded guilty to the DUI charge from the 3rd May 2006 incident. The rest of the charges were dismissed. Sentenced to 2 months probation and 180 days in jail, to be served concurrently with the rest of his jail time. Also fined $2,900.

18th June 2008: Charges from 10th October 2007 hearing in Vermilion County court overturned, due to Clark not having an attorney present at the hearing, a right that he had not waived. Clark's guilty plea was vacated, and a new hearing scheduled.

Early July 2008: Released from prison on the suspended license charge after serving six and a half months.

28th July 2008: Arrested for violating the probation that he received in the domestic violence case. Sentenced to 180 days for the violation. Don't know what he did to violate it.

1st August 2008: Missed the new court hearing for the 7th September 2005 charges because he was in prison at the time on the probation violation. Another new hearing sentenced.

12th December 2008: Resentenced in Vermilion County court on the 7th September 2005 charges that had been sentenced on 10th October 2007 and overturned on 18th June 2008. This time, in a plea agreement, Clark was sentenced to 30 months probation, a drug treatment program, 100 community service and 12 months of weekend imprisonment (with 260 days credited time served) on the cocaine possession charge. The firearms, DUI and driving on a suspended license charges were dismissed, due to Clark's time spent in rehab, which the judge interpreted as a bloody good start for getting through all of this, if also the cause of those arrest warrants



(All of that took a couple of days to decipher using online and freely available court records. I am not formally educated in the art of reading these documents - and it IS an art, because those things are bloody confusing - so therefore I may have screwed up somewhere. However, a hell of a lot of care has been taken to try and get it right, so if it's not all right then it's at least all close. In fact, there's even more stuff that could go on here that I haven't listed, such as a conviction and sentencing for resisting arrest in early 2007 from an August 2006 incident. I just can't be bothered to do it all, in the same way that you can't be bothered to read it all.)

(In somewhat related news, Clark's father is currently serving a 65 year sentence after killing a man in a fight over a bicycle. A bicycle.)


Clark, who describes himself as "non-conformist", disappeared from basketball in the summer of 2004. He had offers of work coming in, but he just didn't want to take them. For whatever reason, he'd had enough. This seemed weird at the time, but the reason for it may have been revealed three years later in a courtroom, when Clark admitted that he was an alcoholic.

The good news is that, as far as I can tell, Clark has had no problems since we last checked in on him. Clark attends weekly drug court hearings to check on his progress, with the next one scheduled to occur about 2 hours after this story was written, and his attendance and progress in those hearings are almost universally described as "good." He has done this since the December 2008 date of his latest conviction, and, even though it got as far as it has and necessitated the enforcement of the courts, Clark is getting help for his addiction and serving the punishment for his misdeeds. That's good. He used a lot of rope over the span of two decades - a LOT of freaking rope - but he appears to be finally demonstrating some bouncebackability. If he's clean, sober, and learns how to freaking drive safely, there is hope.

But the self-explanatory bad news is that, whenever the subject of Keon Clark is brought up, we automatically think of his substance and legal problems. Not the totally badass player that he used to be.

If that looks like a character assassination, it is not meant to be. It is thorough - obsessively thorough, even - but it is not meant to defame Clark's name. Clark's name is already pretty defamed through no doing of my own, and I find that a shame. I knew him as a basketball player first, way before I ever knew of him as a criminal and an addict. And I've always preferred to think of him as a basketball player.

So, in the interests of entertainment, here is Keon Clark defaming Shawn Bradley. For old's times sake.





Finally.....

- Milone Clark

Teneessee Tech graduate and former Knicks training camp invitee Milone Clark is currently a Harlem Globetrotter, known as "The Spark." Here's his new hair:



One thing they taught me on my creative writing course is that you can never end on a crescendo. There always has to be a slight lull after the climax in order to restore and wrap up proceedings. So it's that, plus the time honoured principle of alphabetical order, which has seen Milone Clark's story end this piece.

Still, this doesn't feel like much of an ending after all the Keon stuff, does it?

Summer league round-up: New Jersey Nets/Philadelphia 76ers

This one feels a bit weird, because I'm writing about how players are expected to perform in a competition that's already finished. Hmmmm. Oh well, for the sake of uniformity, we'll do it anyway. Not to self - plan in advance next year.

To save money, and to add purpose, the Nets and Sixers agreed to share a summer league team this year. It's not a practice I'm keen on, because I think the more spots given out to random nobodies, the better, and by having only one team that makes 12 less spots for random nobodies. So that's a shame. But at least they bothered at all, unlike some teams.

View the joint Nets/Sixers summer league roster.

- A.J. Abrams: Abrams's college career consisted of three things - decent defense for his size, running around endlessly trying to get open, and then shooting jumpshots. And a really bloody college career it was, too. However, Abrams is only 5'11. There are plenty of 6'6 guys who spend their entire careers trying to get NBA teams to notice that they specialise in exactly the same things, and (Kyle Korver excepted) they usually fail. So how likely is Abrams to do the same with his half-a-foot height disadvantage? He isn't, really. He's small even for a point guard, but the fact that he's an exclusive two guard counts heavily against him. Heavily. Abrams' only chance to become an NBA player is to develop a semblance of ball handling ability, and rework himself into a crude Jannero Pargo imitation. But Pargo isn't exactly a regular rotation player in the NBA himself, so A.J's chances are very slim.

- Jeff Adrien: Adrien was covered in the Grizzlies round-up. It's pretty industrious of him to have wriggled his way into the summer league rosters of three teams, which really maximises his options. It was also a damn good idea to get onto the Grizzlies and Nets rosters, the two teams with the worst power forward rotations in the league last year. That'll help his limited chances a bit. And, despite Adrien's limitations and damaged prospects as outlined in the other round-up, can he really be much worse than Yi Jianlian? Good luck to him.

- Blake Ahearn: Ahearn has had two shots in the NBA - once with the biblically crap Miami Heat 2007-08 team, and a small stint in the early part of last season with the San Antonio Spurs. He's played a combined 15 games and shot 27%, which is probably not brilliant. But it's also not an accurate depiction of Daniel [his real first name] is like as a shooter; he's a great one, really. This is evidenced in his D-League numbers of last year, when he scored 22.7 points and 5.0 assists per game for the Dakota Wizards, shooting 45% from the field, 42% from three point range and a typically Blake Ahearn-y 96% from the foul line. (For those unaware, Ahearn shot 95% from the foul line for his NCAA career.) Ahearn's problem is not with his scoring, but with his position; like so many others before him, he's not really a point guard, yet he measures at only 6'2 and 190. He's trying to make himself into a point guard, and is getting there slowly, as shown by those assist numbers. Unfortunately, those numbers were record in a hefty 39 minutes per game in an assist-heavy league, and also came along with 3.3 turnovers a game. (As an unrelated aside to the assists thing, Ahearn also only averaged 2.4 rebounds per game in that time, which isn't getting it done.) Playing alongside former NBA point guard Maurice Baker factors into those numbers, but Baker is far from a pure point guard himself. His great shooting stroke will keep him on the fringes of the NBA for a while, but his existential quandary will keep him out of the realms of guaranteed contracts. Probably.

- Dionte Christmas: I've not seen Christmas, and admit as much. (I had a Temple game from last year saved somewhere, but I think I accidentally recorded over it. Probably with some soft core pornography.) Everyone tells me, though, that Christmas would have been a fine undrafted signing. So here's what the numbers say; Christmas averaged 19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists, shooting a mediocre 41% from the field and attempting 9 three pointers a game, which he hit at only 35%. Those numbers don't wow me. If you're going to be a specialist shooter, shoot higher than 35%. SO we'll see. (Or rather, "we have already seen;" Christmas scored 9.3 points per game on 44% shooting in 4 summer league games.)

- Chris Douglas-Roberts: Douglas-Roberts is in danger of getting overrated. Fans of pretty much all other teams seem to want to acquire him as an under-the-radar pickup for their shooting guard spot. They rave about his instant scoring punch, and his ability to create on his own. And it's all true. But lost in that is Douglas-Roberts' scoring inefficiency; he doesn't shoot three pointers, and while he gets to the foul line at a decent rate, he has to in order to be a decently efficient scorer. He shot 54% in both his college seasons, which is terrific, and he shot 46% in his rookie season which is also very good. However, his eFG is is 47%, which isn't too good, and his 53% true shooting percentage is solid, but not brilliant in a largely one dimensional scorer. Chris and Douglas are both decent defensive players, but they don't rebound and can't create for others. They enter the game looking to score, and if they don't have a good shooting night, they don't really provide much. They should form a decent shooting guard foursome with Courtney and Lee next season, yet they (Chris and Douglas, not Courtney and Lee) are not really starting calibre. Desire them accordingly.

- Jason Ellis: Ellis is a 26 year old former Boise State graduate who is a veteran of the US minor leagues. (He also spent two years in Switzerland. Hard to come back from there.) Last year in the D-League, Ellis averaged 7.1 points and 8.7 rebounds in 24 minutes per game for the Idaho Stampede, and while I'm usually wary of players who have more rebounds than points scored, Ellis surprises me bys hooting 47% from the field and 81% from the foul line. Not bad, that. However, the market on undersized power forwards is pretty saturated, and even in spite of his rebounding rate, Ellis' 6'7 200lb frame isn't getting it done in the NBA. Chuck Hayes may be an inspiration to many, but he's also an exception to the rule.

- Gary Forbes: Forbes did the rounds last year. Undrafted, he joined up with the Wizards for summer league, and was drafted in the 4th round of the D-League draft by the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He didn't make the Wizards roster, and turned down the league in favour of Italy, signing with Basket Napoli in Serie A. Unfortunately, Napoli went bankrupt before the season begun (you'd think they might have seen that coming, no?), and Forbes had to return to America where he joined up with the Skyforce. He averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 28 minutes per game, before being traded to the Tulsa 66ers, averaging 18.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 31 minutes of 30 games for them. After the D-League season finished, Forbes went to the Philippines, averaging 27.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in two games for the joyfully named Talk 'N' Text Texters of Tropang (the Philippines league has amazingly corporate team names), and then went to Venezuela to play with Trotamundos for a month. He's building himself an NBa resumé. Pay attention.

- Jrue Holiday: Finally got around to watching that UCLA game that I've been putting off. Got to say that my opinions of Darren Collison are higher than those of Holiday, who looked.....awkward. Not really a point guard, too small for a two guard, not a great shooter, average athlete....hmmm. Not sure of the tremendous upside potential, to be honest. Good defense, though (or so it appeared; it was hard to tell considering he was guarding an undersized chucker (Patrick Christopher) all night long). He didn't even play the point guard spot when Collison was out. So whatever it is that makes Holiday a #17 pick, I'm still waiting to see.

(Note: formulating opinions based on one game that you've watched is a dangerous proposition that isn't really advised. So always leave yourself a get-out.)

- Chris Johnson: Last year for LSU, Johnson averaged 7.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. He shot only 45% from the field, but the blocked shot and rebounding numbers are nice, and especially since they came in only 25 minutes per game. If he was a junior, we'd be saying how, with about 40 pounds more muscle and an improved post-up game, he'd be a future first round talent. But he's not. So now, he's an undrafted 190 lb positionless big man who turns 24 next week.

- Rob Kurz: Kurz was mentioned in the Minnesota Timberwolves summer league roster round-up thing. He hasn't gotten any better since then. But, if you like to see enthused if largely unskilled play featuring some retro one handed jumpshots, then Kurz might be your man. Or Ryan Bowen.

- Marreese Speights: If any team doesn't need Marreese Speights, it's the team with Elton Brand on it. I'd love Marreese Speights on my team; even though he never passes and puts forth scant little defensive effort, Speights is an explosive and athletic finisher, who has soothing and sensual touch inside the paint (giggidy) and from mid range. He can't be bothered to rebound, despite having all the athletic requirements for the job, and that's a pity. But off the bench, he can be a highly valuable scoring big man. And Lord knows my team could use one of them. So, Philadelphia; if you want Kirk Hinrich, then find a deal that starts with Speights, and somehow work it into a three way deal that gets us a defensive minded big two guard. Then he's yours. But Willie Green is not getting it done, and neither is Samuel Dalembert. So don't even go there.

- Terrence Williams: How is Williams going to score in the NBA? He's not much of a shooter, he's never really had to play without the ball in his hands, he tends to get wild, his 43% FG last season was the highest of his four year career, and the highest FT% he ever shot was the 61% in his freshman year. That's as a forward. His passing vision and skills are nice, but he's not going to be a primary ballhandler in the NBA, and that nullifies them slightly. No, his best chance in the NBA will be as a defensive specialist and a disruptive influence, using his athleticism and energy to piss off the opposition all night and force some turnovers. It's something he could be very good at, too. And if he ever gets the complimentary jumpshot that still evades him, then he'll be reet.

But do you really take someone like that eleventh overall?

Summer league round-up: Los Angeles Clippers

View the Clippers summer league roster. It's frigging stacked.

- Sean Banks: Sean Banks was in the NBA once, believe it or not. It's a period of time easily forgotten, but it did happen - after declaring too early and going undrafted in the 2005 draft, the Hornets signed him as an undrafted free agent, and assigned him to the Tulsa 66ers. He was the sixth player ever to be assigned to the D-League, but he didn't do much there, averaging roughly 12/3. The Hornets waived him before his contract became guaranteed, and he never appeared in an NBA game. He hasn't made it back since. However, in the 2007.08 season, he averaged 21.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game for the L.A. D-Fenders, which got him back into NBA contention, and he signed with the Raptors summer league team last year as a result. After that, he went to Turkey and played for Darussafaka, averaging 13.1 points and 5.1 rebounds. Banks would do himself a big favour if he either improved his jumpshot, or put it away; he shot 101 three pointers in 30 games last season, accounting for one in every three of his shot attempts, yet he hit only 21 of them.

More importantly, Banks is rumoured to be trying to become a British national. His father was born in England, and still lives here, which entitles Sean to a British passport. He may soon be one of us. If he is, expect me to get biased.

- Nik Caner-Medley: Caner-Medley spent last year in Spain, playing for Cajasol Sevilla in the ACB. He averaged 10.7 points and 8.0 rebounds in 25 minutes a game during domestic competition, but he still hasn't developed a great outside shot, shooting 23% from three point range on the year. More notably, Caner-Medley was kicked off of the team at the end of the year for getting into a drunken fight with a team mate at a party thrown by the team to celebrate their season. The team mate, Michel Diouf - who reports say came off worse - was also suspended but later reinstated. Considering that the Clippers other small forwards are the specialist Steve Novak, the past-it Ricky Davis and the frankly crap Al Thornton, I'd like to think that Caner-Medley had a chance. But he doesn't, really.

- Dionte Christmas: Temple graduate Christmas averaged 20 points per game on 46% shooting in his sophomore year, then 20ppg on 43% shooting in his junior year, and then 20ppg on 41% shooting in his senior year. If he'd done them the other way around, he might have been drafted. His turnovers also trended the same way, which isn't good, although his assist numbers also got better, which helps. Christmas might be able to carve himself a nice career as a catch and shoot specialist, but he'll first have to improve on his 35% three point percentage from last year.

- Eric Gordon: Way too good to be in summer league again. Way too good.

- Blake Griffin: Same. But I suppose everyone has to have at least one year.

- DeAndre Jordan: DeAndre Jordan sucks, and a lot of people don't seem to know it. A lot of the time, you hear about players who are just athleticism and no technique, but rarely is it more true at the NBA level than it is with DeAndre Jordan. Yet some people still think he's good for some bizarre reason. The evidence says otherwise; Jordan's PER of 14.1 is quite good, but his PER against is 23.5, his win share rating was 1.5, his Roland Rating -7.6, his +/- rating a mere -7.5. His FG% and eFG% are both a tidy 63%, but that's easy to do when 58% of your field goal attempts are dunks (almost all assisted) or tip ins - he shot 18% on jumpshots, and 38.5% from the free throw line. Even on the night that he put up 23 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, he let his matchup Andrew Bynum score 42 and 15. For him to ever be a backup calibre NBA centre, his effort will have to roughly double, and his skills will have to improve about tenfold. If he doesn't, then the guaranteed contract that he has for next season might be the last one that he ever sees.

- Marcelus Kemp: Kemp played on the Lakers, but totalled only 13 points in 3 games. He spent last year in Italy, playing for Basket Livorno, a team fortuitously sponsored by a wicker basket making company. (Not really.) Kemp averaged 20.7 points and 4.9 rebounds on the season, but must have had a bad Christmas or something, because he only recorded 6 assists in the whole of 2009 (assistless in 10 of his last 11 games). He had 265 field goal attempts in that time as well. He's a one on one type of player, and apparently it shows. Nevertheless, if he wanted NBA attention, he seems to have gotten it.

- Kyle McAlarney: Kyle McAlarney's great. His offensive game is solely three pointers, from between 21 to 34 feet, and the limit of his point guard play is driving baseline every one in a while. He's a little shooting guard with a dynamite shooting stroke, and no other complimentary skills. He's awesome. He's going to be a brilliant player next year. Guaranteed. It just won't be at the very highest standards of basketball.

- Kevinn Pinkney: Pinkney is a fine scoring big man, particularly from the mid range game and within. It's annoying, then, to see him take more and more threes. Pinkney averaged 14.2 points and 7.2 rebounds for NGC Cantu last year, shooting 71% from both inside the arc and at the foul line. But he shot only 335 from three point range. Why, then, did he take two and a half three pointers per game? I don't know. But stop it, Kevinn. And Google your own name if you need to know how to spell it.

- Mike Taylor: Portland drafted Mike Taylor very late in the second round last year, then traded his rights to the Clippers for L.A's second rounder this year. That was quite a high price to pay, considering that the Clippers then proceeded to suck and the pick wound up being number 33 (which the Blazers then used on Dante Cunningham, another fringe Brit). Taylor showed some ability to score last year, although his defense is quite a way short and he's not going to become a pure point guard at any point (his turnover numbers are still huge). He should make the team again, given that the Clippers don't really have any alternatives to explore, but his contract is unguaranteed until the end of the month. And therefore, so are his chances.


Additionally, it was expected that Sofoklis Schortsanitis was going to join the team. He tried to, at least. But FIBA ruled that, because he was still under contract to Olympiakos, he wasn't allowed to play in summer league. This only appears to be a rule that applies to him, and not anyone else, so I must be missing something here. But that's the gist of it, at least.

It is obligatory that any mention of Sofoklis Schortsanitis is accompanied with a progress report on his weight. So, here goes.

The latest reports out of Greece state that Sofoklis has lost a staggering 105lbs since the start of last season, which is a huge amount to lose. Their target weight for him is 340, which he's damn nearly at, supposedly. Yet those reports also state that he now weighs 349 pounds.

You can do that math yourself. That's a formerly 454 pound man we're talking about. That's documentary worthy-big. It's unfathomble.

Those reports also claim that Sofoklis is down to 12% body fat, which seems like it can't be plausible when talking about a guy that size. But be honest, I kind of believe them. It's obviously impossible for a 6'8 350lb guy to be carrying around anything less than a crapload of excess fat, but I'm also willing to believe that the guy is chiselled underneath the wobbly bits. Watching several Olympiakos games last year, I never quite got used quite how spectacularly massive Sofo is. He would go up against players like Nikola Pekovic, giants amongst men, and yet he'd dwarf them all. He'd be shorter, and obviously fatter, but it's not just weight; the guy is freaking.....huge. I can't really explain it, really. There's a better way to explain it then this half hearted attempt I've just managed, but I don't know what it is. He's just magnetically massive. He's also pretty spritely for such a giant, pretty smart and highly skilled. He's an enigma.

But Sofoklis is still not going to be a factor at that weight. He's too big. And this weight cycle has been going on for at least six years. It's fun to be optimistic about how good he could be, but maybe we just shouldn't bother trying to be any more.