Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 15

Am I the only person who thinks that Danilo Gallinari, when he's spiked his hair up, looks a bit like Butthead? Probably.


- T.J. Cummings

Cummings was drafted by the Idaho Stampede in the fourth round of this year's D-League draft, but was released before the season started without so much as a line on the D-League's transactions page. (They've got to tighten this up, really. It happens a lot, and makes it hard for those of us who try to keep tabs on D-League transactions.) He was later picked up by the Springfield Armor, for whom he averages a tidy 14.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.

T.J. stands for Terry Junior, for Cummings is the son of former NBA player Terry Cummings. That said, T.J's name is actually Robert, so the 'Junior' label is kind of speculative. But you can see why a man wouldn't want to be called Bob Cummings. Particularly if he used to watch The Fast Show.



- Michael Curry

When this website started, Curry had just left the Indiana Pacers, the third team in three years to start Curry for the "defensive tone" that his offense-free ways supposedly set. In the time since then, Curry has been the NBA's Vice-President of Player Development, named as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, named as the head coach for the Detroit Pistons, and fired as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons. All this elapsed time can make a man feel old, and it also serves as a stark reminder to me to complete all those website features that I began/devised over 5 years ago. I should probably hire help.

Curry is currently not doing anything.



- Antonio Daniels

Neither is Antonio Daniels. Daniels was traded by the Hornets to the Timberwolves this offseason in exchange for Darius Songaila and Bobby Brown, purely because his contract was one year shorter than Songaila's. Consider for a minute that the cost of trading Randy Foye and Mike Miller for Ricky Rubio was taking on Songaila's salary, then consider how easy it was to get rid of it, and essentially it cost Randy Foye and Bobby Brown to get Ricky Rubio. Hmmm. Seems....I dunno. One-sided.

The Timberwolves then bought out Daniels for $736,420 less than what his contract initially called for; not coincidentally, that's the same amount Nathan Jawai is getting this season. Daniels clearly thought there was a chance he'd get a minimum salary deal elsewhere, but like the rest of the veteran point guards on the market (Brevin Knight, Steve Francis, etc), he's had to stand by and watch while teams call up the Sundiata Gaines and Cedric Jackson types of this world. Daniels remains unsigned.



- Erik Daniels

Daniels did a noble job of pretending to be a centre in the D-League last year, averaging 21/10 in the process. He's gone to Ukraine this season, playing with Azovmash. Daniels was initially fighting for one spot with Demetris Nichols, won the race, and has been a key player for the team all season. He averages 14.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.4 European assists per game in the VTB United League, 17/6/3 in the Ukranian league, and 21/10/3 in the Eurocup. Azovmash have had quite a lot of turmoil this season, turning over basically their entire roster over the last few weeks. Yet Daniels has been one of the few constants.



- Jermareo Davidson

Davidson was waived by the Warriors in the summer, yet still picks up $75,000 from them this season for his troubles. He has since moved to Turkey to play for Darussafaka. On the season he averages 14.7 points per game (albeit inefficiently), 9.6 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. The rebounds per game lead the Turkish league, and Darussafaka also have the leading scorer in the nation in Quincy Douby (21.6 points per game).

However, despite having the best scorer and best rebounder in the country, they are last in the league with a 1-15 record.



- Antonio Davis

Davis is long since out of the game, and now makes headlines making a loss in the real estate world. More than once. Damn that economy.



- Bennet Davis

Davis was a camp signee of the Nets this season. The Nets three training camp signings were Davis (a backup in the D-League), Will Blalock (recovering from a stroke) and Brian Hamilton (a defensive minded forward on a roster that already had Trenton Hassell, Terrence Williams, Eduardo Najera, Bobby Simmons, and about 12 other forwards). Considering the run the Nets are putting on for the title of the worst three point shooting team of all time, their offensive struggles in general, and the problems they're having with their big men not named Brook Lopez, I think they could have found some more apt pieces for camp, even if they wouldn't have made the team anyway. At least they mercifully didn't sign Isaiah Rider.

Davis returned to the Utah Flash for this season, where his numbers and minutes have improved slightly. In 26 minutes per game he is averaging 11.2 points and 6.8 rebounds, but shooting only 45% from the floor and 68% from the foul line. His shotblocking is down to 0.8 per game, and he still comes off the bench behind Carlos Wheeler. He also turns 26 next year, which doesn't do much for his NBA prospects. Nevertheless, he's a decent D-Leaguer.



- Dale Davis

Davis has not played since the 2006-07 season, and turns 40 in March. The rumours of a return in early 2008 amounted to nothing. He is now the CEO of a movie company. Davis also "carefully selects business ventures for Pro Player’s Holdings that create optimistic revenue streams and make worthwhile contribution to society by creating employment with positive social reinforcement." Or something.

Here's a music video he shares producer credits on.





- Josh Davis

It was only a few short years ago that Josh Davis was putting a run on the most-NBA-teams-played for record, currently jointly held by Jim Jackson, Tony Massenburg and Chucky Brown with 12. However, it's also been a few years since Josh Davis played in the NBA, and a season of good play in the D-League last year did not lead to any new NBA contracts. Therefore, Davis buggered off to Europe, where he's playing for Panellinios in Greece. Davis averages 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the Greek league, and I watched him last night. He shot well.



- Justin Davis

Last year, I wrote this about Justin Davis:

[F]ormer Golden State Warriors training camp invitee Justin Davis is out of basketball, and has been since a brief trial in Germany back in November 2006. Therefore, as was the case with Chris Crawford, I am hereby announcing that I can't be bothered to bring you Justin Davis news any more, since there isn't any. (Readers note: Bizarrely, when I said that about Crawford, someone e-mailed me and told me that, somewhat out of spite, they were going to single-handedly track him down and get an update from him on his life. If someone wants to do the same with Justin David [sic], then be my guest. You could form a merry band of freedom fighters, fighting for what's right in the world; peace, saving the rainforests, the downfall of terrorism and Chris Crawford updates. I could be your leader. You can be like my droogs or something. Except we won't be as annoying as the real droogs. Or as rape-inclined.)

Despite the offer oozing with generosity, no one took me up on it, so I've had to do it myself. However, I've failed once again. Justin Davis hasn't played since 2006, and any off-the-court stuff is proving to be hard to find given the common nature of his name. The best I can offer you is his Facebook account.



- Kyle Davis

Kyle Davis started last year in Cyprus, averaged about 7/7/3, came home, joined the D-League, averaged about 4/4/2, was released last February due to injury, and has not played since. This probably only means something to you if you know who Kyle Davis is. If you don't, but would like to, here's his Myspace page. He looks to be off the market, though. Sorry ladies.



Finally.....

- Paul Davis

Paul Davis went to camp with the Wizards, had incredibly little chance of making the team, and then made it anyway as injury cover for Antawn Jamison. He played in two games, totalling 4 points, 3 assists and a block, and got paid roughly $90,000 for his troubles.

Another Wizards big man signing this offseason, Fabricio Oberto, is being paid $1.99 million in a season that has seen him total 34 points, 43 rebounds and 57 fouls. Those two players represent $4.1 million in salary for the Wizards this season once luxury tax calculations are included, which is about $100,000 a point give or take. If the post-Arenas incident Wizards believe that they are now able to get under the luxury tax and save about $30 million this season once all rebates are included, they will soon find that this would have been far easier to achieve had they not unnecessarily signed Fabricio Oberto. Ah well.

Davis has remained unsigned since the Wizards waived him, with only an unsuccessful tryout in China since that time. No word on whether he remains naive about sex.

Summer league round-up: Golden State Warriors

View the Warriors summer league roster.

- Connor Atchley: In his junior season, Atchley was looking like a decent big man prospect. He averaged 9.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game for Texas, while also shooting 41% from three point range on over 100 attempts. However, his senior season was then a complete wash-out; 4.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, .397 FG%, .278 3PT FG%. What went wrong? I don't know. Some people want to blame Dexter Pittman. But either way, Atchley took himself out of the second round. Now 24, Atchley can count himself kind of fortunate to even get a summer league spot, because 24 year old 6'10 228lb sub-40% scoring jumpshooting power forwards are not generally NBA worthy.

- Stephen Curry: Curry has played 6 games in the last 7 days for Team USA, totalling 50 points and 6 assists. Some people think he'll be the next Ben Gordon. Some people think he'll be the next J.J. Redick. Vital Penis thinks that he'll be the rookie of the year. Me, I think he'll be nearer the first than the second, and definitely not the third.

- Jermareo Davidson: Davidson has a non-guaranteed contract with the Warriors for next season, and is also officially listed as the second heaviest player on their roster behind Ronny Turiaf. Pretty weird, that, considering Davidson's slightly lanky frame. Last summer, the Bobcats exercised their team option on Davidson and guaranteed his contract, before then waiving him and experimenting with a variety of big men (Andre Brown, Dwayne Jones and Linton Johnson), finally settling on Juwan Howard. There's the Larry Brown influence for you. Davidson spent 15 games in the D-League, averaging 16/11, before the Warriors called him up, where he averaged 3.4 points and 2.8 rebounds for the big league team. I expect him to make the team again.

- Lawrence Hill: Never heard of Lawrence Hill, to be honest with you, but here's what some searching reveals: Hill is a 6'8 power forward who just finished his senior year at Stanford, where he averaged 13.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists on 50% shooting. Not very good rebounding numbers there, to be honest, and the points and rebounding numbers are both down on his sophomore season, where he averaged 16/6. Lawrence Hill is also an award-winning Canadian novelist and memoirist, a small suburb near Bracknell, and a small electoral ward in the city of Bristol. And he hates it when white people buy his albums.

- Joe Ingles: Joe Ingles should have been drafted. Let's be honest. I won't call out Chinemelu Elonu or Robert Dozier by name or anything, because that would be unfair, but there were many domestic players drafted in the second round that didn't need to be. They would have gone undrafted, had they not been drafted. And they would have wound up with the first team to offer them $20,000 to come to training camp. Anyway, whatever. Ingles averaged 13.1ppg, 4.1rpg and 3.5apg for the Melbourne South Dragons in Australia last season, numbers down across the board from the year before. It might be high time for him to escape Australian basketball, given how badly it's struggling; his decision might be accelerated by the fact that the South Dragons have refused to participate in the newly reformed NBL, despite being the defending champions.

- Jared Jordan: Jared Jordan hasn't made it as far as a regular season NBA game yet, but he's shooting for his third straight training camp spot on his third different team. Jordan was second in the D-League last year with a 9.0 assists per game averaged, to go along with 10.9 points and 3.4 rebounds, although he only shot 28% from three point range and had some injuries. As ever, the Warriors could use a true point guard, which Jordan certainly is. But they also don't have many roster spots to go around, and they have enough small guards already. Including this guy.....

- Acie Law:....who sucks, but whose contract is guaranteed. Law has done quite literally nothing since being taken 11th in 2007. In 11 career games, he is shooting only 39% and averaging 7 assists per 48 minutes, with a career PER of 8.9. It's hard to show less than that in two years, but the optimist within me would like to think that a change of scenery and a higher tempo offense will help turn things around for Law. But that certainly wasn't the case for Marcus Williams, and if they don't around, this may well be Law's last year in the NBA.

- Cartier Martin: Martin broke into the NBA with the Bobcats last year, but didn't show much, shooting 36% in 33 games. Before that, he was in the D-League, averaging 20.6 ppg on 48% shooting for the Iowa Energy. He doesn't really have a shot on a forward-heavy Warriors roster, so the D-League beckons again.

- Anthony Morrow: Morrow was so surprisingly good last year that he spawned his own range of Chuck Norris facts. All he really does is shoot, but it's a hell of a jumpshot that he's got, and he has the size and athleticism to get almost any of them away. If Michael Redd is a precedent (and he'd better not be), then $90 million awaits; until then, it's an unguaranteed minimum salary for Morrow. But he's definitely coming back.

- Quan Prowell: Quan Prowell is not only the title emblazoned on the box of a crudely translated illegal DVD copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but is also a 6'8 former Auburn forward. Last year, he averaged 15.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in Turkey, playing for Casa TED Kolejliler Ankar, a team with a less than catchy name. Question: if the Rockets are looking at all these 6'8 combo/power forwards, why didn't they just keep Richard Hendrix?

- Anthony Randolph: Is Anthony Randolph going to be the next Magic Johnson, the next Scottie Pippen, the next Josh Smith, the next Lamar Odom, or the next none of these? I don't know. But I do know that I'm waiting around to find out.

- Lawrence Roberts: As mentioned in the Detroit round-up, Roberts played for Crvena Zvezda last year, acting as the sage old head to a team of young upstarts. He was injured a lot, yet led the team in rebounding. However, he shot only 43% in the Adriatic League, and 37.5% in the Eurocup, taking an ever-increasing amount of jumpshots from an ever-increasing distance away. Not necessarily good from your power forward whose main strength has always been his rebounding.

- Jamal Sampson: including summer leagues and minicamps, Jamal Sampson has now played for (or been a member of) the Utah Jazz, Orlando Magic (for a few minutes), Milwaukee Bucks, L.A. Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Bobcats, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets and now the Warriors. He's only 26, so he still has time to complete the set. Completing his skill set wouldn't be a bad idea, either - Sampson is still a pretty awful offensive player, who spent last year in China, where he averaged 10.7 points and 10.7 rebounds for Liaoning. And if he can't score there, he won't score anywhere.

EDIT - An updated version of the Warriors roster saw Lawrence Roberts replaced by Othello Hunter, another power forward. Hunter spent all of last year with the Hawks, who signed him as an undrafted free agent after he played well for them in summer league. He averaged 1.4 points and 1.5 rebounds for them in 16 games, but was not extended a qualifying offer. He, too, is not Richard Hendrix. I'm trying to make a point here.

Offseason Preview: Charlotte Bobcats

The second in a new series of posts detailing teams financial outlooks for the upcoming free agency period, what cap room they have, what exceptions, what draft slots, etc. Should be fascinatingly fascinating, if you're easily pleased.

No information is 100% guaranteed accurate, but unless you're privy to hitherto unknown information, or just better at this than I am (highly possible), then it's probably more accurate than you.

To be completed in an order best described as "Random".

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  Charlotte Bobcats


Currently Committed Salary, 2008/09:

Jason Richardson - $12,222,221
Gerald Wallace - $9,500,000
Nazr Mohammed - $6,049,400
Matt Carroll - $5,050,000
Adam Morrison - $4,159,200
Raymond Felton - $4,148,715
Sean May - $2,661,026
Jared Dudley - $1,222,320

Total: $45,012,882



Team options:
Othella Harrington - $2,552,000 (no chance)
Jermareo Davidson - $711,517 (probable)

Total including options: $48,276,399



Unrestricted Free Agents:

Derek Anderson (cap hold - $1,001,793)
Earl Boykins (cap hold - $924,732)



Restricted Free Agents:

Emeka Okafor (qualifying offer - $7,082,635, cap hold - $13,568,268)
Ryan Hollins (qualifying offer - $972,581, cap hold - $893,693)



Draft picks:

First round: 8th pick, subject to lottery results. (Cap hold - $2,002,600)
Second round: 38th pick (no cap hold)



Cap room/exceptions:

None, unless they renounce Okafor....which they won't. MLE and BAE, no trade exceptions.




Depth chart if you take all the free agents away:

PG - Felton
SG - Richardson, Carroll
SF - Dudley, Morrison
PF - Wallace, May
C - Mohammed



Sensible things to do:

Change coach. Re-sign Okafor, but don't overpay - let him find out how weak the market is the hard way. Get backup guards that don't suck, and whose presence the coach won't hold against Felton. Keep Hollins or Davidson, but not really both because there's not much point. Pray for a rainout.

30 teams in 524 or so days: Charlotte

Players acquired via free agency or trade:

Jason Richardson (acquired from Golden State)



Players acquired via draft:

First round: Jared Dudley (22nd overall)
Second round: Jermareo Davidson (36th overall)



Players retained:

Derek Anderson (re-signed, one year minimum)
Jeff McInnis (re-signed, one year minimum)
Matt Carroll (re-signed, six years, $26,900,000)
Gerald Wallace (re-signed, six years, $57,000,000)
Ryan Hollins (exercised team option)
Walter Herrmann (exercised team option)
Primoz Brezec (opted in)




Players departed:

Alan Anderson (signed in Italy)
Jake Voskuhl (opted out, signed with Milwaukee)
Brevin Knight (waived, signed with L.A. Clippers)



Bobbins:

In a recent debate with someone about who the eight playoff teams in the East are going to be this season, debate raged as to who would be the 8th team. We discussed the possibility of the eighth seed being Orlando, Washington, Milwaukee, and even Atlanta, before finally settling on one which I won't mention (because it will spoil a later post).

Neither of us debated the possibility of Charlotte being the eighth seed. This is because we had both already pencilled them as the seventh, with absolutely no contention from each other.

There's two possible conclusions that you can draw here. The first would be that the two of us basically don't know what the hell we are talking about, which is a good point well made that I am unable to counter. The second would be to assume that, yes, Charlotte is a playoff calibre team. And that point, I can defend.

The franchise got off to a slow start after expansion, as you would expect, but slowly the Bobcats picked up pieces along the way. Starting around Emeka Okafor and building outwards, nothing much has gone right for the Bobcats before this summer. Mired deep in the lottery, and bound by the salary cam limitations that the NBA seems to strangely enjoy putting onto new franchises, the Bobcats achieved little on-the-court success, struggling through the growing pains that expansion teams are somewhat mandated to go through. All the losing didn't really pay off either, given the shockingly unsuccessful selection of Adam Morrison at number 3 in last year's draft.

Along the way, though, the Bobcats have slowly been assembling pieces. Despite only Gerald Wallace and Primoz Brezec remaining on the roster from their initial expansion draft (someone's going to have to explain to me one day quite what the point was of selecting so many free agents that they then didn't sign), Charlotte have picked some players up along the way for cheap, players that have helped their on-court product. Brevin Knight (recently waived, but we'll come to that) added veteranness and that, and also played fairly well. Pickups on the cheap such as Matt Carroll and Walter Herrmann have paid dividends, and the Bobcats have added good young players through the draft such as Okafor and Raymond Felton (notice that I didn't list Morrison).

This summer, they added the scoring punch that they sorely lacked, in obtaining Jason Richardson from Golden State for next to nothing. The move has its downsides - with contract extensions for Felton and Okafor coming up in the not-too-distant future, and with Gerald Wallace and Matt Carroll re-signing this summer to 6 year contracts, adding the big salary of Richardson takes away the financial flexibility that Charlotte previously enjoyed. It commits them to this current core for at least the short term, whether it is good enough or not. And it also means that the awesome unredoubtable Matt Carroll gets less court time, which is disappointing for all concerned. But it plugs the slightly important 20 point a game scorer that Charlotte has always lacked. Draw your own Jason Richardson/Michael Jordan comparisons, they're all stupid.

In addition to this, the Bobcats spend well in retaining most of their players from last year, and obtained two possible rotation players in Jared Dudley and Jermareo Davidson via the draft. I don't really know any more about them than that, so I'll leave that there.





Next year:

As I said above, Charlotte seemed like a strange choice for automatic inclusion into my predicted playoff seedings. They haven't, to coin a phrase, done shit yet. But despite being only a 33 win team a year ago, they have three big factor working for them:

a) They had a big infusion of talent this offseason, more so than most teams.
b) They have continued interal growth from their young core players.
c) They're relatively healthy. Well, except Sean May.

To elaborate on point C, the Bobcats do have an injury prone roster. Star big man Emeka Okafor has played in only 166 of the 246 games of his career, which is a poor ratio, and star forward Gerald Wallace set a career high in games played last year with a rather uninspiring 72.

Everyone is healthy at the moment, apart from Sean May, who is to miss the season with more surgery on his cartilege-free knees, and who I'm willing to bet never plays more than 40 NBA games for the rest of his life. Despite the fact that injuries to the Bobcats are about as inevitable as a Jonny Gomes swing and a miss on a down and away curveball, they have the sort of depth right now thay they have never had before, which will help them to overcome it. Last year's starter Matt Carroll is now a key bench player, joinining a deep wing rotation including Wallace, Richardson, Dudley, Morrison, and last's year breakout player and Lord of the Sex, Walter Herrmann. Herrmann shined late last season filling in as an emergency power forward as the injuries piled up yet again, but he's now faced with lengthy stays on the bench as Charlotte stocked up the wing positions this summer. It also appears that head coach Sam Vincent thinks it's best to start Emeka Okafor at power forward alongside Richardson, Walace and either Primoz Brezec or Ryan Hollins at center, and we can only hope that it won't take long for him to realise that it would be best to play Okafor at center with Wallace and Herrmann as the forwards. Walter needs his court time, dammit, if us neutrals are to have any interest in watching Charlotte this year.

The Bobcats are weak at the center position though, in spite of their improved depth, and Jeff McInnis is the full time backup point guard. But it's not really that important: the backup point guard spot has never been important enough to be able to sabotage an entire season, even if it is Jeff McInnis. After all, the San Antonio Spurs just won a title without a backup point guard worth a damn. By the way, someone (namely me) ought to point out the irony of waiving Brevin Knight for reported chemistry issues and locker room diviseness, then re-signing Mr Chemistry 2007 McInnis to take his place. A strange one, that.

Nonetheless, the Bobcats plugged other gaps, andTo make the playoffs, the Bobcats only realistically need about 8 more wins. Is adding a 20 point scorer for no real cost good enough to do that, especially when youf actor in all the other shit that I outlined above?

Probably.