Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 30

- Josh Heytvelt

Gonzaga graduate Josh Heytvelt is one of the best players in Turkey. His team (Oyak Renault Bursa) are third last in the Turkish TBL with a 6-16 record, but it's not the fault of Heytvelt, who averages 16.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. The scoring ranks 10th in the league, and the rebounds rank second only to Jamar E. O'Davidson. Bursa won a massive game at the weekend when they beat the high flying Turk Telekom; Heytvelt played all 40 minutes and put up 26 points and 13 rebounds. (Ricky Davis had 20 for Turk Telekom in his second game for the team. He scored 8 in the first.)



- Herbert Hill

Providence big man Herbert Hill's professional career has barely gotten going due to knee injuries. He was drafted by the Sixers and stayed with the team all season, but never played in a game for them due to knee surgery, and the rehab from that overlapped into last year. Hill initially tried out for Le Mans in August 2008 but was not sufficiently recovered, and did not return to action until February, when he played the last 15 games of the D-League season with the Bakersfield Jam and Tulsa 66ers. Now healthy again, Hill has spent all of this season in South Korea with the Daegu Orions, a team whose name I keep misreading as the Daegu Onions. (Chuck Swirsky would love them.) Hill is averaging 19.1 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game.

Hill's American team mate on the Onions is a former Louisiana-Lafayette swingman called Anthony Johnson, which is quickly becoming the most popular name in basketball. Not only is there that Anthony Johnson, but there's also THE Anthony Johnson (the one with no neck that currently doesn't play for the Magic), as well as Montana guard Anthony Johnson who scored 42 points in the Big Sky Conference Championship Game. That last Anthony Johnson scored 42 of his team's 66 total points, 34 in the second half, and his team's last 14. He was able to create off the dribble at will, using all kinds of craft and penache, and his jumpshot looked sweeter than a flambéed cantaloupe. I don't know what the future holds for unathletic 6'3 scoring guards, no matter how good their jumpshot. But I do know that that performance will be remembered for a while.



- Kyle Hill

Hill started the season with Meridian Alicante, playing his second season for the ACB team that he had helped win promotion from the LEB Gold last year. However, he averaged only 5.9 points in 17.0 minutes per game, and left the team when Serkan Erdogan was brought in last month, moving to Serbia to play for Hemofarm. In his 2 games for Hemofarm so far, Hill has totalled 48 minutes, 2 points and 3 fouls.

Hill was drafted out of Eastern Illinois by the Mavericks in 2001 with a pick that they had received in 2000 from the Rockets. Houston traded the rights to Eduardo Najera and a 2001 second (Hill) to Dallas in exchange for the rights to Dan Langhi. Dallas then traded those rights back to Houston in 2001 as a small part of the multi player Glen Rice/Shandon Anderson deal that saw Dallas trading Hill's rights to Houston and Howard Eisley to New York in exchange for Muggsy Bogues, who never played for the team. It was a salary dump of Eisley'a $41 million salary, but why Dallas had taken on that salary only one year before is a mystery.



- Steven Hill

Arkansas centre Steven Hill started the year in training camp with the Chicago Bulls, but was waived after a week and appeared in no preseason games. He has spent the season in the D-League, bouncing on and off he roster of the Tulsa 66ers. In the 11 games he has managed, Hill has averaged 8.1 minutes, 1.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 0.7 blocks, 0.6 turnovers and 1.0 fouls. He's still a seven foot athletic shotblocker, so he's still intriguing. But he also still can't play.



- Tyrone Hill

Hill last played in December 2003 for the Miami Heat, and is now an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks. He turns 42 years old on Friday. You're now feeling old too.



- Kyle Hines

NC-Greensboro graduate Hines is doing that thing that he does where he puts up a crapload of stats. Playing for Prima Veroli in Italy's LegaDue, Hines is averaging 18.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.6 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 65% from the field and 56% from the line.

Only six players in the history of NCAA basketball have ever recorded more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocks. Those six are David Robinson (1st overall pick, 1987), Pervis Ellison (1st overall pick, 1989), Derrick Coleman (1st overall pick, 1990), Tim Duncan (1st overall pick, 1997), Alonzo Mourning (2nd overall pick, 1992, behind only Shaquille O'Neal) and Kyle Hines (undrafted, 2008).

One of those things is not like the others.



- Robert Hite

Hite was playing with JuveCaserta in Italy's Serie A as recently as last week, but was released this week for reasons not immediately known. He had averaged 12.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 3 games for the team, and in 10 games for Sigma Montegranaro earlier in the year he had averaged 9.3 points and 2.6 rebounds.



- Julius Hodge

Hodge burnt a lot of bridges in Australia last year. He was playing to a LeBron-like standard, outrageously good for a guard without a jumpshot, but then he walked out on the Adelaide 36ers amid a wave of controversy. Various reasons were cited ranging from racial taunting in the crowd to a payment dispute; whatever the reasons, things got acrimonious and then some. Yet apparently Hodge didn't burn every bridge there, because against all odds, he returned to the country (if not the 36ers) to play again this season. In the now-completed NBL regular season, Hodge averaged 17.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists for the Melbourne Tigers. And in typical Julius Hodge fashion, he shot 49% from the field, 59% from the foul line, and 0% from three point range.



- Fred Hoiberg

Hoiberg's role in the Timberwolves front office is now officially the Vice President Of Basketball Operations. Job titles tend to carry different meanings for different teams; for example, John Paxson is the Vice President Of Basketball Operations while Gar Forman is the General Manager, but while Gar does all the leg work, Paxson ultimately has final say. In contrast, other Vice Presidents Of Basketball Operations include Tom Penn (Portland), Sam Hinkle (Houston) and Mark Warkentein (Denver); the last one is fully in charge, while the other two aren't. It's not exactly a uniform title, but in Hoiberg's case, it means he is second to President of Basketball Operations, David Kahn. As for the difference between Hoiberg's role and that of General Manager Jim Stack, I couldn't say. And as for what Rob Babcock does as assistant GM, I don't know. Either way, there's no Kevin McHale any more.



- Randy Holcomb

Ex-Bulls forward Holcomb was playing in Spain's LEB Gold with Caceres, but left in January. He averaged 10.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17 games, and is currently unsigned.

Holcomb is now a Libyan citizen, turning up randomly on their national team in the summer under the name Raed Farid Elhamali. For a whole load of player nationalities, ranging from the obvious to the random, view this list.



- J.R. Holden

As always, J.R. Holden is with CSKA Moscow. This is his 8th season there now, and he has one more left on his contract after this. On the season he is averaging 11.6 points per game in the Russian league, 10.3 points per game in the Euroleague and 8.5 points per game in the VTB United League. In 8 VTB games Holden has not yet taken a single foul shot; he has only 32 in 37 combined games overall. But never mind.

No J.R. Holden commentary is complete without this clip of his steal and championship winning basket in the dying seconds of Eurobasket 2007. Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals? Bollocks. J.R. Holden all the way. This is how you do it without a push-off. (Try and overlook how bored the commentator sounds.)

- Jared Homan

The Ho-Man is the starting power forward for Marousi, Greece's third best team who have put on a damn fine showing in their first Euroleague campaign. As mentioned in the Jamon Gordon entry, Marousi have now been eliminated, but it was a good campaign nonetheless. On the season, Homan is averaging 8.8 points and 6.3 rebounds in less than 20 minutes per game in the Greek league, and averaged 9.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in the Euroleague.



Finally....

- Antoine Hood

After two years out of the game, Air Force graduate and former Nuggets camp invite Antoine Hood returned to basketball when he signed with the D-League and drafted by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the 6th round of the draft. Hood was released by the Vipers without playing a game for them, but he moved to the Czech Republic at the start of this month to play for BK Nova Hut Ostrava. In the first four games outside of America in his incredibly short career, and in his first professional games for nearly three years, Hood has averaged 21.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals, good numbers all for a 6'4 guard. He's had to go to a bad standard of basketball to do it, but it's a start.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 24

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- Richard Hendrix is in the D-League, after being waived by the Warriors earlier this season, despite signing a guaranteed contract in the summer. I don't really understand why, considering that they waived him while preferring to keep Rob Kurz and DeMarcus Nelson, whom they then waived three weeks later to avoid guaranteeing his contract, but whatever. Hendrix is still there if the Warriors want him, and apparently they don't. Hendrix averages 13.6 points, 10.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.9 blocks in 32 minutes a game for the Dakota Wizz, in, their pants.

- Axel Hervelle is still with Real Madrid in Spain, and will be for at least two more years after this one. I got in trouble last time we talked about him, when I said that he hadn't really gotten very far, so I'll instead cop out this time and just give you his numbers: 6.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 0.8 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.7 bpg in the Spanish league, and 5.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.4 bpg in the Euroleague.

- Tyrone Hill is now an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks.

- Kyle Hill is playing for Lucentum Alicante Costablanca in Spanish second division, alongside Taylor Coppenrath. Hill averages 12.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg and 1.6 apg, yet is also about to turn 30; I don't think the NBA beckons any more.

- Herbert Hill is unsigned, after a tryout with Le Mans in August showed only that he hasn't recovered from his knee surgery yet.

- Steven Hill is back with Tulsa in the D-League after being waived by the Thunder. Hill averages 7.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game in total, but here's the thing; as intriguing as Hill is as a prospect (and he is - athletic 7 footers with shot blocking instincts like that are always worth tracking) there are some far better big men in the D-League. Rod Benson, for example, can't seem to get a shot in the NBA outside of one training camp spot. Courtney Sims got a ten day contract with the Suns, but it was one and done. Pops Mensah-Bonsu can't seem to get another shot in the NBA. Et cetera. These fellas are outproducing Hill in the D-League, so why is Hill the one who got the lengthy run on the Thunder's roster, even if he did spend most of it on assignment? I dunno. Basically this is just a long way of saying that I just want Pops back in the NBA. Let's make it happen.

- Kyle Hines is signed with Prima Veroli in the Italian second division.
In keeping with tradition, Hines is putting up beastly numbers, averaging 16.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.1 blocks in 31 minutes a game. Here's the thing - outside of a mere dollop of summer league action, I've never seen Kyle Hines play. I admit that. NCAA is not my thing, and although I'd like to know a bit, I don't. But what I do know is this - he absolutely beasted in college, and while UNC Greensboro isn't the biggest name school in the world, the list of names that feature on the 2000/1000 list is predominantly good NBA talent. Now in Italy (admittedly the second division) Hines again continues to beast, with simply awesome defensive statistics. My question, then, is this - a training camp spot somewhere? Yay? Nay? Pops Mensah-Bonsu? Who cares how short you are, when you can flat out produce. (Giggidy.) Height factors, sure, but when you're good, you're good. And Kyle Hines looks to be good.

- Robert Hite started the year with Tau Vitoria in Spain, totalling 2 points in 2 games. He then left (Tau didn't need him; they lead the Spanish league comfortably anyway), and later joined BC Oostende in Belgium, for whom he has totalled 40 points, 11 rebounds and 0 assists in two further games.

- Julius Hodge, the Jules of Harlem, was on his way to stardom in Australia earlier this season, averaging 26.3 points, 8.0 points and 6.0 assists (albeit 1-6 from three point range) in 8 games for the Adelaide 36ers. However, he then walked out on the team before a game, and there's not been a real reason given as to why. Either way, it ended ugly, and the team only agreed to let Hodge out of his contract once he agreed to refund a sum of roughly $30,000 AUS that the team had forwarded him. Why they did this, I am not sure, but since Hodge had previously claimed that the team was behind on its payments, I guess he was wrong. Hodge was replaced by former Wizard, Rod Grizzard (it rhymes!), and Julius has since signed with Besancon Basket Comte Doubs, but hasn't played a game for them yet.

- Fred Hoiberg is still an assistant general manager in Minnesota's ever-confusing hierarchy of executives.

- Randy Holcomb hasn't played since leaving his team in the Phillipines in July.

- Jared The Ho-man is signed with Cibona Zagreb, averaging 4.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in the Euroleague, along with 6.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in the Adriatic league.

- And finaly, Antoine Hood is just as out of basketball as the last time you asked. It's been roughly two years since he was last in the D-League with the Colorado 14ers, and he hasn't signed anywhere since. I don't know why.

Summer signings, round 23

- Previously, I had theorised immaturely that Mario Kasun had left Barcelona after a fight with Andre Barrett. This is because I'm not funny. The actual reason, though, was because Kasun had agreed a deal with Efes Pilsen in Turkey, and therefore he and Barcelona terminated the remainder of his contract by mutual consent. ShamSports.com - the home of childish banter that you could definitely do without.

- Horace Jenkins or Alex Scales might sign with Crvena Zvezda in the Adriatic League. It's a tempter, isn't it? Do you want the 30 year old NBA rookie or the man with the 9 second career? Tough choice. Either way, both are able to write "NBA" on their resumé, which guarantees them work for life. Hopefully, one day, I can do the same.

- Daniel Ewing is going to Poland, for a team named Asseco Prokom. You might not have heard of Prokom, despite their chart topping single "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" from a few decades ago, but you might have heard of some of Ewing's new team mates. Ronnie Burrell, Koko Archibong and David Logan? Anybody? Ch'yeah, you've heard. You don't forget names like Koko Archibong and David Logan in a hurry, let me tell you.

- Yuta Tabuse has decided to enhance his NBA dream by leaving America. After three years of barely playing in the D-League, Tabuse has gone home to Japan, to play for a team by the wonderful name of Tochigi Brex. Tabuse will be the highest paid player in Japan, and his contract contains an NBA escape clause, for he believes this move to be an important step in his long-awaited return to the NBA.

This decision might surprise some people, but there is one thing I can say for certain: I have not changed my mind on taking on the challenge of playing in the NBA,"

Yeah. Good luck with that.


- Universitet Surgut signed both Lionel Chalmers and Akin Akingbala, thereby earning themselves some coverage on this, the NBA's most scrub focused website whose URL begins with an S. So here's some Universitet Surgut information, because they earned it:

1 - They're a Russian team.
2 - Kyle Davis used to play for them.
3 - They sucked last year.

That's all I've got.


- Miami signed Jamaal Magloire, apparently blissfully unaware of how staggeringly crap Jamaal was last season.

- Cleveland signed Lorenzen Wright, also apparently blissfully unaware of how staggeringly crap Lorenzen was last season. Speaking of, I've been known to defend former Hawks General Manager Billy Knight in the past, but let's remind ourselves of something - in the summer of 2006, Knight was armed with maximum cap room. He needed a centre and a point guard. He signed Lorenzen Wright and Speedy Claxton. He signed them for a combined six years and $31.14 million. Since then, the two players have combined to play 142 out of a possible 328 games, with combined totals of 394 points on 461 shots, along with 361 fouls. Wright has long since left the team, after one and a half shocking seasons of play led to him being mere salary filler in the Mike Bibby trade. Claxton's been even less helpful, playing a dire first half of his first season, then missing the next year and a half due to injury. In the unlikely event that he returns this year, he'll be fourth on the Hawks depth chart, all while earning over $11 million guaranteed over the next two seasons.

Defend that if you can. Hint - you can't.

- Cleveland also lost a player, sort of, after reserve guard Billy Thomas agreed to sign with a Greek team named Kavala/Panorama. However, the Cavaliers haven't actually waived Thomas at any point, and he remains under contract to them for next year, albeit an unguaranteed minimum salary. This remains true even though the Panoramic news broke a few days before I write you this post. It's unlikely that Cleveland would stiff Kavala over this and refuse to cut him, given that it's only Billy bloody Thomas and that they clearly gave him permission to get other offers, but it would be funny if they did. Let's make it happen.

- Herbert Hill signed with Le Mans a hundred million years ago, but his contract has since been terminated, because Hill still hasn't recovered from the knee surgery that caused him to miss all of last year. A knee injury that prevents him from playing basketball, clearly. But not one that prevents him from driving. Hill was replaced in Le Mans by J.P. Batista, the forward Gonzaga forward once told by Dwayne Bruce that he wasn't cut out for professional wrestling.

- James Thomas has been loaned from Upim Bologna to Erdemir in Turkey. For those American fans unaware of the concept of loaning a player, it's exactly what it sounds like.

- And finally, some amateurism. Somehow, somewhere, I had some news on Trey Johnson. He was going to sign somewhere, and I forgot to write down where it was. So that was clever of me. However, it may work out for the best anyway, because since this booboo occurred, it's been reported that Johnson will go to training camp with the Phoenix Suns, alongside former Heat guard Robert Hite and some tall white guy.

I think I got away with that one.

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.

30 teams in 36 or so days: Philadelphia

Philadelphia 76ers


Players acquired via free agency or trade:

Jack diddly crap



Players acquired via draft:

First round: Thaddeus Young (12th overall), Jason Smith (20th overall, acquired in draft night trade)
Second round: Derrick Byars (42nd overall, acquired in draft night trade, unsigned), Herbert Hill (55th overall, acquired in draft night trade, unsigned)


Players retained:

Louis Williams (exercised team option), Shavlik Randolph (exercised player option)


Players departed:

Joe Smith (signed with Chicago), Alan Henderson (unsigned, might yet return)


Bobbins:

Trivia question: Which player did Billy King either sign or re-sign this offseason for way too many guaranteed years and guaranteed money, as is his yearly custom to do at least once?

Answer: No one.

This is extremely unusual behaviour from the man who in recent years has given out or taken on the contracts of Aaron McKie, Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, Samuel Dalembert, Dikembe Mutombo, Todd MacCulloch, Greg Buckner, Kevin Ollie, Derrick Coleman, Marc Jackson, Keith Van Horn, Eric Snow, Steven Hunter, Jamal Mashburn, Glenn Robinson, Brian Skinner, Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson, George Lynch and Willie Green, amongst others. Years of piling on payroll and trying to manoeuvre his way out of previous bad personel decisions have left his team with a big tab to pick up, and not much to show for it. This, it would appear, has stymied King's spending habits, if only for a bit (next year, the Sixers payroll predicts to be about half of where it is now).

The offshoot from this, though, is that King has not improved his team in any capacity via trades or free agency. And this leaves him with all his eggs in one basket, having to address his team needs via the draft.

Historically, this is where King does his best work. Having not had much in the way of high draft picks during his tenure, on draft night King has acquired players such as Larry Hughes, Speedy Claxton Nazr Mohammed, Kyle Korver and John Salmons, as well as Green, MacCulloch, Dalembert and Iguodala, the majority of whom turned in great value for their draft spot. This season, armed with three first rounders as a result of the Iverson trade and also a second rounder, King figured to improve his roster notably in one hit.

Did it work? Did it bollocks.

In the 2006 draft, King made a draft day trade that wound up with him selecting Rodney Carney in the first round. It was a strange pick - a backup at best with playes in front of him, and with no standout skills to really speak of outside of his athleticism, Carney didn't add much to a roster which, at that time (and even now), needed a big infusion of talent. The pick was made just that little bit more pointless when King then selected another small forward - Bobby Jones - in the second round. He also signed free agent small forwards Steven Smith and Louis Amundson at various points in the season.

You could say he has a thing for small forwards with decent to debatable talent. And you'd be right - in this year's first round, he saw fit to draft another one, selecting the phantasmogoric Thaddeus Young with his first pick.

His second first round pick saw more of the strange duplication tactic going on. Already stuck with paying multiple years and a whole arseload of money to Dalembert and Hunter, King decided that he needed a third tall athletic shotblocker with mediocre offense, drafting Jason Smith out of Colorado State. Whether Young and Smith go on to become good picks isn't really the point - with a number of issues to address on his roster, King chooses to select another player who is predominantly a mere duplication of what he's already got in place.

How illogical.

King's other draft night moves involved swapping his third and final first rounder (subsequently used on Petteri Koponen) for a mid second rounder (subsequently used on Derrick Byars), with players such as Josh McRoberts, Glen Davis and Jermareo Davidson selected in between the two. And Philadelphia's own second rounder - number 38, used on Kyrylo Fesenko - was traded to Utah for their number 55 selection - Herbert Hill - and "future considerations".

Due to a roster spots crunch, it looks as though Byars and Hill will be coming to training camp to battle for only one spot, which isn't exactly an efficient return when you consider that we're talking about what began as the #30 and #38 picks in a deep draft. Oh and what's more, Byars is a small forward, and Hill is a centre. So more duplication there.

After trading Allen Iverson to Denver fairly early during last season, and following that up by buying out Chris Webber, Philadelphia went from being a 5-18 team at the time of the trade to ending with a 35-47 record. For you maths fans out there, that's a 30-29 record after the trade - above .500.

How they did this continues to baffle me. And why they did this is also dumbfounding. Perhaps it would have more fiscal - if somewhat irresponsible - to tank the blue blazes out of the remainder of the year, as was done by other teams, and try to win a top 3 lottery spot. They had the sufficiently shit team with which to achieve it, after all.

Still, in a sense, you have to admire them for trying to do the right thing, and play the right way. Yet, as one Philadelphia fan said to me towards the end of last season after I mentioned that I admired Philadelphia attempting to try and win games, "I want them to try as well! I just want them to fail."

It's a good point well made, and speaks to the questionable direction taken by management in recent times. When built to win, they lose. And when built to lose, they win. How bizarre.

In return for superstar Allen Iverson, Philadelphia received a half-year of Joe Smith, signed by Chicago in a particularly unspectacular bidding war (Joe didn't even get the full MLE for the two years that he signed. Gotta love GM's that lose out on important players because they overspent less deserving players and ran out of budget). They received Andre Miller, a nice player, and the later two first rounders, parlayed as described above into Jason Smith and Derrick Byars. And a bit of cap relief.

That's all. That's all they received back. For Allen Iverson. How......bizarre. And given the way that they didn't tank out the season, they wound up with Thaddeus Young over the Al Horford and Mike Conley types of this world. Or better, if they were lucky.

What a strange, strange year they had last season. And by "strange", I mean "bad". Here's to more of Kevin Ollie as a backup point guard.




Next season:

As mentioned above, Philadelphia played basically .500 ball for the final two thirds of last season. And I don't get it. The argument which states that it is the sum of the parts that equates to success rather than the value of the actual parts itself holds very true, and always has done. It certainly seems to have applied to the Sixers of last season, and to the neutral it was great fun to see an offense based largely around Kyle Korver succeed quite as it did.

But can it succeed again? If you're a Sixers fan, you have to hope so, because little help has come from outside.

The starting backcourt is talented, but the backups are weak. Kevin Ollie is awesome, but terrible. Louis Williams still hasn't shown an NBA calibre game. And while Willie Green can score, he's more inefficient than an American muscle car. This didn't get addressed this offseason, other than to add the swingman Byars alongside Carney as crossover artists at the 2/3 spots. Outside shooting comes in the form of Kyle Korver and Green, yet not much from everyone else (Iguodala has his days, but it's not a strength yet).

Front court scoring isn't particularly noteworthy, either. Shavlik Randolph will return, but Joe Smith departs, and no offense really replaces him. Jason Smith and Dalembert offer occasional yet inefficient offense at best, and Steven Hunter is bloody terrible.

They have the league's worst power forward rotation, worsened since Smith left for Chicago, and they also don't feature a particularly consistent or hardy centre spot.

There's a lot of flaws on the roster, is what I'm trying to say,

But then again, there was a lot of flaws on the roster last year, and they played mostly .500 ball. I don't know how they did it, but they did it, and circumstances have not changed much. They can do it again.

And besides, they're still in the Eastern Conference. So they still have a playoff chance.



EDIT - Ok, so after I wrote this, the Sixers decided to have a quick flurry of action. Having done toss all for over two whole months, they waited until the short window that it took me to write and post this to do the damn thang. Thanks for that, Billy. Show me up, why don't you.

The Sixers made three moves in this time. They signed Herbert Hill and Derrick Byars (albeit to unguaranteed deals), agreed to sign Calvin Booth, and traded Steven Hunter and Bobby Jones to Denver (apparently their favourite trading partner now) for Reggie Evans and the draft rights to Ricky Sanchez.

The trade opened up a roster spot, as Sanchez is unsigned (although only a fraction of Jones's salary was guaranteed anyway, but whatever), and helps alleviate some of the duplicaiton outlined above. Meanwhile, Reggie Evans may be perhaps the most one-trickish of all the one trick ponies out there in the league today, as well as being quite poor and overpaid. But he is, for what it's worth, the superior player to Steven Hunter. It's one extra year of salary, but hey, this is Philadelphia, who cares about that sort of thing?

But as for the Calvin Booth thing.....

.....they traded the number 30 pick for the number 42 pick under the guise of saving money, and then go and spend that money on Calvin Booth?

And Reggie Evans for that matter?

You're still the master, Billy King. You're still the fucking master.