- Joseph Blair is averaging 8.2 points and 8.0 rebounds for Spartak St Petersburg, while also shooting 43% from the free throw line. So maybe Blair's scouting report on himself (see his profie) wasn't too off-message. Joseph also wrote a New Year's message, for us, his fans. You can read it here. (Note: even though Joseph himself says that he's not in St Petersburg, he is. Someone should tell him.)
- Will Blalock averages a piddly 5.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists for Artland Dragons Quakenbrueck. The Artland Dragons of Quakenbrueck play in Germany. Their leading scorer is called Adam Hess. Make your own jokes here.
- The last time we checked in on Tony Bobbitt, the man who killed his mother had just been convicted. That's not something I've ever said before. (Note: The link given in the previous post no longer works, so try this one.) Unfortunately, there's no new Tony Bobbitt news to report, since he has not signed anywhere this season. So I guess we'll have to leave it at that.
- Dejan Bodiroga, formerly the best player in Europe, retired a while ago and is now the General Manager of his final team. Lottomattica Roma.
- In keeping with tradition, Curtis Borchardt has had many injuries in recent years, limiting his court time drastically. He's also been injured again this season, and missed 4 weeks of action. But upon returning in mid-November, he's played very well for Granada, the team he's been with since leaving the NBA over three years. So well has he played, in fact, that he was named the MVP for the month of December. Or at least, I think he was. My ability to read Spanish isn't up to much. Borchardt averages 13.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game on the season.
- Ruben Boumtje Boumtje didn't pan out as an NBA player. Nevertheless, now 30 years old, Boom Boom averages 7.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.3 fouls for EWE Baskets Oldenburg, a team battling for the German title.
- Justin Bowen left the D-League and went to Australia. For the Gold Coast Blaze, Bowen is averaging 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds. No jokes here.
- Brandon Bowman is but one more player now playing in Germany, leading his team with averages of 15.1 points and 5.3 rebounds while playing alongside Vincent Yarborough. However, as far as I can tell, his team has no players with the surnames of famous Nazi war criminals, so I'm not seeing why I should care. (Note to all German readers out there - please don't be offended. And if you are, feel free to rip the shit out of my country's former leaders, and to point out our nation's atrocities in conflicts such as the Boer War. We were right old bastards, we were.)
- Lastly, Earl Boykins has caused himself a bit of a scandal. After becoming the highest paid player in Italy this summer, Boykins requested that his team, Virtus Bologna, let him go home over Christmas for a four day break, but Bologna refused. Boykins then exacted his revenge by "striking" for a game (whereby he Gilbert Arenas'd it up by refusing to take a shot in 21 minutes, despite being the team's leading scorer), and then went home anyway. The team announed that they would cut Boykins, but his agent Mark Termini grovelled Boykins's way back into favour, and he has remained with the club, even though they probably all hate him now. The lesson, as always - this threat of a mass European migration really doesn't appear to be too serious right now.
- Good news: Bobby Jones was claimed off of waivers. Bad news: Miami did it. Why is this bad news? Because Bobby Jones has already spent time with Miami, and going back to a team that he has already been with doesn't help Jones's quest to have briefly been on the roster of every NBA franchise before the start of the 2010 season. So far, in 2 seasons in the NBA - and if we rather generously include the 2006 draft, as Jones's rights were traded that night - Bobby has spent times with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Denver Nuggets, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Houston Rockets, the Miami Heat, the San Antonio Spurs, Denver again, the New York Knicks, and now Miami again. That's 8 franchises in 24 months, a rate that not even an in-his-heyday Josh Davis could match. So, Miami - do us a favour and trade him to Atlanta for his namesake Solomon Jones or something. Don't be selfish.
- Allan Houston wants to make another comeback attempt. Great. Good luck with that.
- The two remaining Oklahoma City unsigned draftees - DeVon Hardin and Serge Ibaka - have both signed contracts in Europe. Ibaka signed a three year contract with Ricoh Manresa of Spain, a deal which allows him to leave and return to the NBA after each year should he so wish. Hardin meanwhile signed with Belediyespor in Turkey on a one year deal. Neither signing is interesting.
- Earl Boykins has signed a one year, $3.5 million contract with Virtus Bologna in Italy, thereby making the remaining available point guard crop even worse. Not that the presence of Earl Boykins really did it much good.
- Filiberto Rivera has signed with Bamberg in Germany, thereby making the remaining available point guard crop even worse. Not that the presence of Filiberto Rivera really did it much good.
- For those keenly following the progress of Ivan Radenovic (if such people exist, I keep them well fed), Radenovic has upped sticks and moved to Greece, to play for Panellionios. If you couldn't be bothered to read previous posts on the subject of Ivan Radenovic, the Spanish team that he played for - Akasvayu Girona - extended his contract, and then went bankrupt, which was hopefully nothing to do with the size of Radenovic's contract. I'll miss Girona, you know. We got a few games of theirs on TV over here last year, and every time they were on, a staggeringly hot Spanish woman was the sideline reporter for the night. She spoke broken English in a hot accent, which just made the total package that much more enticing. You know how it is when women are so unbelievably good looking that it becomes impossible to rank their beauty when compared to other unbelievably good looking women? Well, she was one of them. So it's a shame that I won't be able to look at her talk four times a year for twenty seconds at a time A damn shame. And that's why I'll miss Akasvayu Girona.
- Jannero Pargo was reportedly on the verge of signing with the San Antonio Spurs, but now reports say that Miami has made a late bid for him. Since the Heat have spent most of their MLE on the unflinching duo of Mario Chalmers and James Earl Jones, the most that they can offer Pargo is the Bi-Annual Exception, which starts at $1.91 million, you have to wonder why Pargo opted out of the contract that would have paid him $1.976 million next year. Pargo has now opted out of his contract for two straight seasons, yet he remains unable to get the one massive paycheck that he's looking for. The chances of him signing a third straight two year contract with a player option, and then opting out after the first year, look impressively high. And that's got to be a world first. These are the things that I think about, by the way.
- Louis Williams re-signed with the 76ers, ensuring that they will have at least one shooting guard who will score more points than he will have attempted field goals. No, I haven't gotten over the Kareem Rush move yet.
- The Bobcats signed Shannon Brown, a move which doesn't seem to solve anything. By the way, if you are Shannon Brown, and you've just had your rookie scale contract cut down to only two years by Cleveland, and you're allowed to walk away unchallenged by your hometown Chicago Bulls, what reason would you possibly have for not joining on with a summer league team? Wouldn't it be a good idea to get in as much shwocasing as you can? This is what I would do, I'm pretty sure. (Note: if Brown was injured or otherwise incapacitated, therefore making my rant unjustified and ill-founded, please do not hesitate to keep that information to yourself.)
- The Rockets traded Steve Novak to the L.A. Clippers in order to save some money, so that they can try to re-sign Carl Landry and pay as little tax as possible. Or, ideally, none at all. It makes sense for Houston to dump the guaranteed money of an inconsequential player, but if someone could explain to me why the Clippers held onto Nick Fazekas for an unnecessarily long time, just to then trade for his older brother in Steve Novak, then please do that. Where's the vast gaping chasm of seperation between Fazekas and Novak, exactly? Is it a bigger or smaller gaping chasm of difference than the one that the Clippers saw between Jason Hart and Brevin Knight? An answer on those would be good, because I'm clearly not smart enough to get it. By the way, God bless Steve Novak. Class.
- Tarence Kinsey signed with the Cavaliers. Have I mentioned that Memphis waived Kinsey in preference to waiving Casey Jacobsen? I have. Will I mention it again? Probably. i just think it bears repeating, you know? The Memphis Grizzlies, everyone.
- And finally, what you've been waiting for - recently cut Nugget (so to speak) Taurean Green is about to sign with some team in some country in Europe. And I forgot to write down who and where.
What you've just witnessed, ladies and gentleman, is the work of an amateur. Be proud. Give generously.
- After signing Brian Skinner and waiving Josh Powell, as described in the previous blog post, the Clippers finally did the other obvious thing and withdrew the qualifying offer to Nick Fazekas. This moves leaves them with roughly $1.4 million in remaining cap space. However, if they hadn't made the moves to sign draftees Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan and Mike Taylor unnecessarily early, as well as the even more unnecessary Jason Hart trade, then that number would be more like $2.5 million. I'm going to keep bloody going on about this until someone patronisingly rubs me on the head and tells me that it's OK.
- Adonal Foyle re-signed with the Orlando Magic, who still don't have a good backup big man. I'm all about Marcin Gortat, though. I like him. Also, free agent Magic guard Carlos Arroyo signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, a move insignificant of itself, but which serves to make this year's already weal free agency point guard crop even weaker. Someone needs to either gamble on Shaun Livingston, or get Kevin Ollie back in this league. Anything to keep Smush Parker out. (NB: Earl Boykins was rumoured to be going to Maccabi, but that was before the Arroyo signing was announced, so I doubt that's still on. However, for all his failings, Boykins is maybe now the best free agent left on the market. That's how bad the market is.)
- While we're on the subject of crappy journeyman point guards, Anthony Goldwire is still going, signing for Egaleo in Greece. Goldwire's kicking 40's door down, in the words of the lyrically superior Eminem, but he's still getting basketball jobs. So he's either broke, or he deeply loves the game. I truly hope it's the latter.
- The Lakers signed a short D-League scoring guard, Dwayne Mitchell. Seems like a weird place to start when they have other depth concerns, but oh well. I watched qutie a bit of the Lakers summer league, and Mitchell didn't play much behind such luminaries as Joe Crawford, Coby Karl, Brian Roberts and Cedric Bozeman. I don't know what to make of that.
- Julius Hodge says he wants to make an NBA comeback. Hmmmm. For those unaware, Hodge played for the New Jersey Netssummer league team. For those also unaware, the New Jersey Nets basketball operations person thingy is Kiki Vanderweghe. For those yet further unaware, Kiki Vanderweghe is the man who drafted Hodge way too frigging high back when Vanderwghe was the basketball operations person thingy with the Denver Nuggets. Yet even while crossing the country to follow the one guy to date who thought him worthy of an NBA contract, Hodge couldn't get himself another one. That doesn't bode well.
- Another Dallas secound round draft pick, Renaldas Seibutis, has signed with Bilbao in Spain. Do you know how hard it is to think up good Renaldas Seibutis jokes? Let me tell you. It's very hard indeed. So I won't bother.
- Ndudi Ebi has signed with Carife Ferrara in Italy, alongside Harold Jamison. There just aren't enough Harold Jamison updates in the world today. Do you know what you get if you Google News-search "Harold Jamison"? Nothing. Well, nothing in English, anyway. Fucking shame.
- Steven Smith has signed with Kolossos Rhodes in Greece, perhaps the finest non-Phillipino team name I've ever seen. Such imperialism! Such history! Such distinction! Such pressure! Good luck Steven.
- Uros Slokar has signed for Fortitudo Bologna. By the way, if you like professional basketball players with accessibility, you'll LOVE Uros Slokar's website. Feel free to email him. Tell him I sent you. Offer him the job as this site's main web developer. Don't tell him that it's unpaid.
- Brian "Chevy" Chase has signed for Le Mans in the French league, and anyone who reads all this overseas basketball shit that I write would no doubt get the impression that signing in the French league has bad news for your career written all over it. Whether I'm right or not is another matter, but would it be a bad thing for the NBA if it saw the back of a 5'9 guard who can't pass? Doubt it. (Speaking of, Earl Boykins is still unsigned.)
- Ivan Radenovic's contract with Akasvayu Girona of Spain has been extended. On a different note, Akasvayu looks a little bit like Matisyahu. And Matisyahu is a rabbi rapper. Go and search for him on Youtube, then go and buy his album, and then come back here. Do this, and do this now. (Note: I'm going to start using this blog as a guerilla marketing tool, for the relentless promotion of people and things that I like. While we're at it, buy this. You're likely not going to be English, so some of the references in the album's lyrics will be wasted on you, but bear in mind that this is how we Brits feel about Family Guy, and that shit's great. So that's no excuse for you not buying it.)
- Jared Newson, who played in summer league and training camp with the Mavericks last season, has signed with Brose Baskets, marking his second season in the German league. Last season over there, he won the dunk contest. And he also did this.
So he's good at dunking. That much we know. Send in any further Jared Newson trivia to the usual address.
- Joseph Blair signed with Spartak St Petersburg, which is in Russia and not Florida. Neither of Joseph's websites carried this news. But one of them did carry this amusing blog post type thing, from Jaybl-Air himself:
I think that in life a certain amount of respect has to be given to everything you do. Especially when it comes to something that gives you your livelihood! I have always been able to take pride in the fact that I have always given my best and my all to this sport that I love so much. Not always have things turned out the way that I wanted and I wish that I would have made more free throws and there are a ton of easy shots that I have missed and wished that I could go back and try again but I have always tried my best. Nobody is perfect and I realize that but 100 percent must be given constantly!!
That being said I want to talk about tonights game! I have played basketball since I was 5 years old. Organized basketball, not just playing in the yard!! I have played professional for 11 years now!! And never in my career have I ever tried to blame a referee for a loss!!
But tonight was the most disgraceful and disrespectful attempt at what they want to call refereeing a game that I have ever seen or been a part of. It was truly scandalous!!
Tonight I witnessed a huge disrespect to this game that I love!! It is a sad time!! I am truly heartbroken that anyone could do this to this game that I love so much!! And now we even see this type of problem in the NBA!!
When will it stop? Where will it stop? When did it start? God bless basketball
God bless basketball indeed, and God also bless Joseph Blair. Watch out, Gilbert Arenas.
- If you are wondering whatever happened to Jumaine Jones - and who doesn't think about this at some point every day? - then fear not, impoverished serfs, for Jumaine is doing fine. Unable to crack an NBA rotation any more through no real fault of his own, Jonesy still has a decent bsketball career, recently signing for Armani Jeans Alyssa Milano in Italy, for one year plus an optional second year. I still don't get why he's not in the NBA, given that this is a league in which players like Uros Slokar and Damir Markota keep getting drafted. But whatever. What would I know. I'm a middle aged blogger who has never played the sport and who loves Star Trek and who lives in his mum's basement, wanking about stats and the like. (More on the glaring accuracies of this stereotype - apart from the middle-aged, basement, Star Trek and wanking bits - in a future blog post.)
- Kennedy Winston has been released by Greek champions Panathinaikos, who won the Greek League AND the Greek Cup last season, but who obviously fancy their chances of being able to repeat this feat without K-Win in their team. (By the way, isn't that the perfect starting pitchers nickname? Apart from maybe B.A.A. Whipsave. Which I just invented. And which is shit.)
- Former Spurs wingman Melvin Sanders has signed with Gran Canaria in Spain, after leaving Unicaja Malaga, where he played rather badly last season. You will, of course, remember Malaga from the previous Summer Signings post as being the team that Robert Archibald and Omar Cook are to play for next season, a proposition that excites me greatly. It would excite you too if you'd ever seen Robert Archibald bank home a 21 foot runner while drawing a three point play. I have seen this, and I am not ashamed to admit that I was slightly aroused by it. He looked like Dirk, only he wasn't Dirk, which made it better. Great times. Great times.
- Quinton Hosley has managed to land a rather plush gig with Spanish legends Real Madrid, as the replacement for recently departed (not dead, just departed) Charles Spider Smith. Lucky Quinton.
- Sam O'Udrih - best known for being Beno's brother, partly because he is, and partly because Samo's not really done anything of his own - has signed with Estudiantes. Estudiantes is in Slovenia, not Uruguay as I first thought. Other players that you may have heard of in the Slovenian league include.....no one.
- Sani Becirovic, Denver Nuggets draft choice from 2003, has signed with Roma in Italy for three years. He will be 30 by the time the deal is up, and still with bad knees. This changes his chances of ever joining the NBA from 0.01% percent into precisely zip. But, still, you want to see a 7 minute Sani Becirovic tribute mix anyway, right? Of course you do.
(He's number 7.)
- Willie Deane has signed with Zalgiris in Lithuania, to the amusement of no one.
It's difficult to convey how I feel about the Bucks offseason and recent past without stealing too much directly from my own recent blog entry.
So that's exactly what I'll do.
After a poor 2004-05 season in which they finished with a disappointing 30-52 record, the Bucks beat long odds to win the lottery, and also had maximum cap room available to them. This offseason, they once again had potentially maximum cap room, and a high pick (number 6) in a supposedly powerhouse draft.
Once again, they have not taken advantage.
2005's offseason yielded Andrew Bogut with the number 1 overall pick, one of the better players of a weak draft but far from the best. The cap space was spent on re-signing Michael Redd to a maximum contract (decide amongst yourselves whether it was worth it, but the correct answer is "not really"), signing the Most Improved player of the previous season (Bobby Simmons) to a $46.4 million contract only to then see him miss one season and disappoint in the other, and re-signing Dan Gadzuric to a considerably overpriced deal, all while letting the considerably younger, considerably cheaper and considerably better Zaza Pachulia sign with Atlanta, unchallenged.
This offseason brought much of the same: they signed another starting small forward in Desmond Mason, who figures to not only make the Simmons signing look that much worse, but who should also be roughly the equal of the man he is replacing - Ruben Patterson - and signed Jake Voskuhl to compete with/replace Gadzuric at the backup center spot. Voskuhl, too, figures to be the mere equal of the guy he has replaced, the unheralded Brian Skinner. (OK, so "unheralded" is a blatant embellishment. But you know what I mean.)
In addition to the disappointments in free agency, the Bucks also had an ongoing saga with their draft choice at number 6, Yi Jianlian, whose agents and 'people' warned Milwaukee that their client did not want to play there, going as far as refusing to let Bucks personel watch a private workout conducted by Yi. The Bucks took the risk and drafted him anyway, and much dalliance ensued. It ended reasonably amicably, as Yi has signed his rookie contract and will join the team as normal. But it is reported that he does so only after obtaining a minimum playing time guarantee. And that's.....bizarre.
Charlie Bell, one of the few bright spots over the last two years (an under-the-radar find by General Manager Larry Harris, a man who is quite good at doing that), has been subjected to his own soap opera with the Bucks this offseason. A restricted free agent combo guard, Bell had to take a back seat as the Bucks prioritised the re-signing of unrestricted guard Maurice Williams (who, for what it's worth, has the same agent as Bell), and also had no choice but to look on as Milwaukee spent the rest of their cap space on Desmond Mason and Jake Voskuhl (who, for what it's worth, also has the same agent as Bell). This probably unsettled Charlie a bit - if a team spends the salary slot that they should be using on you to instead sign a 10mpg back up center, you're entitled to interpret that as a bit of a kick in the balls.
Nevertheless, the Bucks kept Bell as a restricted free agent, not renouncing him as they did with everybody else (except Ersan Ilyasova), and continued to negotiate with him. Bell turned down all offers made to him by Milwaukee, but never signed an offer sheet with another club, despite playing the field a bit to try and force Milwaukee to increase their offer. Milwaukee didn't - at least, not by enough for Bell, who turned down Milwaukee's reported final offer of 3 years and $9 million. And now Bell's all but gone, leaving Milwaukee with Lynn Greer, Ramon Sessions and David Noel as backup guards for next year. They can, they will and they should do something about that before the season starts, but with only the minimum salary to work with, that's not a good result from what started out as near-maximum cap room.
All in all, something of a cock-up this offseason. Even the bits that went well only did so via a roundabout method.
The Bucks's championship aspirations last season were marred by two rather important drawbacks:
a) Everybody seemed to get injured b) They were a terrible defensive team.
The only Bucks players to play more than 68 games last year were Patterson and Bell. The only Bucks players to play much defense last year were Patterson, Bell and Brian Skinner.
Those three have all left the team.
Replacing them are Desmond Mason, a player that Milwaukee need not have ever lost in the first place were it not for the extremely poor Jamaal Magloire trade of October 2005, and a man scheduled to play Ruben Patterson's former role to a lesser standard than Ruben Patterson did (but hey, at least Mase isn't a registered sex offender!). Jake Voskuhl replaces Brian Skinner and, while he's not a particularly good one, Jake has an outside chance at being the Bucks best defensive player this season. If he sees the court, that is. And as mentioned above, Charlie Bell and Earl Boykins have not been replaced, leaving the Bucks very thin in the backcourt behind the starters.
This rather unsuccessful shuffling of personel leaves a lot of pressure and expectation on the Bucks' young big man trio of Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva and Yi Jianlian. In the coming season or two, one - or preferably more than one - of these players has to step up, break out, and assume the franchise mantle. Villanueva and Bogut have the talent to do so, but both suffered disappointing sophomore seasons in which they did not make particularly significant improvements to their games, albeit with both missing a lot of games due to injury. However, all the opportunity they can handle is once again available to them (unless you think Jake Voskuhl was signed to be a regular starter. In which case, you're an idiot), and the Milwaukee franchise goes as far as they do. Milwaukee needs them to succeed for this current era to be going anywhere.
If they don't, the Bucks will once again be an offense-only team, led by the perimeter games of Michael Redd and Maurice Williams, a team that can make the 6-8 seeds if all goes well, or a team which could once again end up in the lottery if their luck with injuries does not change.
Oh yeah, and Andrew Bogut cut his hair into a pony tail. I thought you should know.
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.
Copyright ShamSports.com, 2005-2010. Every published word on this website
is copyrighted to the website's owner, including (but not limited to)
the really stupid ones that I wish I'd never written.
