Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 17

It's days like yesterday that remind me of why I spent a good three weeks of my life making the anagram feature. Greg Oden's anagram is "engorged," and by Jove did that turn out to be fitting(ish). In amongst the two hundred and seventy jillion jokes made about Oden's goods the other day, none seemed more apt than that.

The day Tayshaun Prince comes out as a lingerie model is the day I start worrying if those things are actually premonitions.


- Dan Dickau

Dickau signed with the Suns for preseason, instead of signing with the Celtics as was first thought. He played in 5 preseason games, totalling 14 points and 7 assists in 39 minutes, but did not make the team. He was never going to, really, because even though the Suns had open roster spots to play for, they're the Suns. Since being waived by Phoenix, Dickau has not signed elsewhere, which seems strange for a 31 year old man whose career will be on the downslope soon. Perhaps he's injured.



- Kaniel Dickens

Dickens is in France, averaging 9.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for Nancy. However, he has been unbelievably inconsistent with his scoring. In 12 games, he's scored in double figures only four times, with three of those games being 22 points or more, and with with six other games of scoring 4 points or lower. His scoring totals on the season read 8, 6, 24,4, 0, 28, 3, 1, 11, 2, 22, 2. Can't get much more up and downy than that. That's like a hummingbird's heart monitor.



- Michael Dickerson

Dickerson made a surprising return to basketball in training camp 2008 when he signed with the Cavaliers after five years out of the game. He did not make the team - he was never going to - and then he sat out the rest of the year. I think I read somewhere that he went back to touring the world, which is what he'd been doing since his initial retirement.

Dickerson then tried again this summer when he tried out with the Memphis Grizzlies. Another training camp offer was not forthcoming, but this time Dickerson took his game elsewhere when he signed in the Spanish second division in early December, joining a team called Palencia. He has played four contests for the team, playing in professional games for the first time since March 2003; in those 4 games, Dickerson has totalled 87 minutes, 47 points, 12 rebounds and 0 assists. The Spanish second division is quite a ways below the standard he used to play at, but it's still a gig. And as a 34 year old man coming back from 7 years out of action after retiring due to injury, it's a pretty good start.



- Alain Digbeu

After a decade split between Italy, Greece and Spain, Digbeu returned to his native France this past summer. He signed with Strasbourg and averaged 11.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in 8 contests, but Strasbourg got off to a terrible start, and Digbeu was one of many players released in a bid to shake things up. (His replacement, Anthony Roberson, is currently second in the French league in scoring. So it worked.) Digbeu remains unsigned, and was injured at the time of his release. Giggidy.

A while ago, I touted the idea of the New Orleans Hornets trading Hilton Armstrong to the Clippers and Ike Diogu to the Hawks (in exchange for Digbeu's rights) to get under the tax. The Hornets didn't quite do this; they salary dumped Armstrong, but onto the Kings (whom I hadn't previously considered candidates for reasons I'm not sure of), and moved Bobby Brown to the Clippers, as was their perogative. I don't think they gave up any cash in the Brown deal, which would explain its advantages over salary dumping Diogu, but that in itself is a rather damning slant on their finances; they'd rather trade a healthy player at a position where they need depth, rather than pay a few quid to dump an injured player whose salary is keeping them in the tax territory and who will not play for them this season.

It's also not a glowing endorsement of Bobby Brown, really.



- Vlade Divac

This time last year, when we checked in on Vlade Divac, he was trying to become the President of the Serbian Olympic Committee. A few weeks after that post, he did just that, signing a four year commitment to the role.



- Juan Dixon

Dixon was one of the Hawks eight training camp signings, and later one of their seven cuts. He later moved to Greece and signed with Aris Thessaloniki, where he formed a backcourt with Keydren Clark, the former two time NCAA scoring leader. After a few weeks of those two not passing to each other, Aris changed things up and released Dixon, who had averaged 11.6 ppg and who then went on to sign with Unicaja Malaga a couple of weeks ago. Dixon is off to a blazing hot start with Malaga, scoring 17 points in his first Euroleague game with the team, and averaging 23ppg in his first two ACB games.

Did you know Juan Dixon's parents were both heroin addicts who died of AIDS when Juan was 16? I did not know that. What a horrible thing that is. Good for Juan to have become what he's become.



- Nigel Dixon

Florida State/Western Kentucky product Dixon is signed with South Korea, and has split the season between two teams. He started with the Anyang KT&G Kites, for whom he averaged 17.5 points and 8.1 rebounds in only 20 minutes per game, and then he moved to Sonic Boom KT, where he remains and for whom he is averaging 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24 minutes per game. The first one of those is a lot lot lot better than the other.

Between the two teams, Dixon is shooting 62% from the field and 43% from the foul line. Those are both very Nigel Dixon-like numbers.



- Michael Doleac

Doleac has retired from basketball and now studies at the University of Utah. He initially planned to study medicine, but changed his mind after becoming a father, and instead returned to do a master's degree in physics. Doleac is now also training to be a teacher, and serves as the graduate manager there for the university's basketball team.



- Henry Domercant

Domercant is into his second season with Montepaschi Siena, who lead Italy's SerieA with a 15-0 record. Siena last year got to the quarter finals of the Euroleague (losing to eventual champions Panathinaikos), went 29-1 in SerieA's regular season, and later won the championship. So they're pretty good. Domercant, a scoring machine and holder of a dubious Bosnian passport, averages 9.8 points in the Euroleague and 9.1 points in SerieA.

On Sunday, the 15-0 Montepaschi Siena are due to meet the 0-15 Martos Napoli, who have lost their last 4 games by a combined 324 points. This can only end well.



- Quincy Douby

As mentioned in an earlier post, Douby currently leads the Turkish league in scoring. He signed with the Toronto Raptors towards the end of last season, signing through 2010 with conditional guarantees along the way. He was waived in November to avoid one of these guarantees, and did not play a game for the team this season. Douby is now a member of the last placed 1-15 Turkish team Darussafaka, where he averages 21.9 points per game and yet is unable to stave off the losing. At the weekend, for example, Douby put up 23 points in 28 minutes - along with a very un-Doubyike 3 steals and 3 blocks - yet Darussafaka still lost by 26. The team's second highest scorer in that game was Jermareo Davidson. And no team should look to Jermareo Davidson to be the second leading scorer. The domestic players for Faka are not really contributing a damn thing, and that's why they are where they are.



- Marcus Douthit

Providence graduate and former Lakers draft pick Douthit signed in Russia to start this month, but has not played much, nor has he played well. In four games for Krasnie Krilya Samara, split between the Russian Superleague and the EuroChallenge, Douthit has totalled 47 minutes, 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 fouls, shooting 38% from the field and 66% from the foul line.



Finally.....

- Zabian Dowdell

Dowdell spent last year in the Italian second division, which was perhaps an odd place for him to be given that he is capable of more than that. Dowdell got injured in the summer, which kept him out of action for a few months, and then last month he joined up with the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League. He averaged 12.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per games for the team, but only lasted for 10 games before moving on to Unicaja Malaga to pair up with Juan Dixona bove. In 23 minutes of 2 games for Malaga, Dowdell has totalled 5 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.



As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Taiwanese ones.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 14

- Vlade Divac is currently trying to become President of the Serbian Olympic Committee. Never thought I'd say that about anybody, but there it is.

- Nigel Dixon was in China to start the season, but left in the new year. Dixon averaged 26.3 points and 9.8 rebounds for the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, with 69% FG and 44% FT percentages, before being replaced by Jelani McCoy. By the way, speaking of Nigel, the eagle eyed and really regular viewers of this site may have noticed a few weeks ago that every player's name had been changed to "Nigel" when viewing either the rosters or player index pages. This wasn't a childish joke, but merely an error that I forgot to fix. I'll explain; hile trying to make some changes to the dull technical bits (specifically, we were creating the ability for players to appear on two rosters at once), we noticed that the changes that we had made didn't take. Unsure of why this was, we reasoned that maybe the host company had a setup, whereby any user's changes to certain Javascript files were not parsed until the following day. So, to test this, we changed the setup again, making it so that all player's first names would be changed to Nigel if it worked instantly. If it didn't work instantly , then we'd know that our original theory (about changes not taking until the next daily server rest) was correct. It didn't work instantly, and so our theory was correct. But then my stupid arse forgot to delete the Nigel version, and so everyone was Nigel for a day. So there you go. ShamSports.com - run by an amateur, and assisted by a friend of a similar mental age.

- Michael Doleac was not re-signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves this summer, clearly satisfied that they had enough crap big men. Doleac has not signed elsewhere, or created news of any kind that I can find.

- The other MD, Marcus Douthit, is into his second season with Altalya Belediye in Turkey. (There's a third word in their name, but I can't spell it.) Averaging 13.2ppg, 6.5rpg and 1.2apg last season, Douthit has regressed slightly as a scorer this season, averaging 11.6 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in Turkish league play, on percentages of 44% and 62%. You can guess which way around those percentages go, but here's a clue - they're not the same way around as Nigel Dixon's are above.

- Former Virginia Tech guard Zabian Dowdell is in the Italian second division, playing for Fastweb Casale Monferrato, and averaging 20.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists. Good numbers, but remember they're from the second division.

- Dion Dowell started the season in Belgium, averaging 9.2 points and 3.0 rebounds for current league leaders Dexia Mons-Heinault. However, Dowell left earlier this month, probably due to his limited playing time, and Dexia's Midnight Runners replaced him with former San Antonio Spur draftee Bryan Bracey. Dowell then signed in Israel for Altshuler Saham Galil Gilboa, for whom he has totalled 17 points and 11 rebounds in two games. I don't know if Dowell is a German passport holder (he was born there, and lived there for 7 years), but, if he isn't, he should be. It would greatly enhance his fledgling European career.

- Tadija Dragicevic is playing for Crvena Zvezda in Serbia, averaging 9.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in Adriatic League play. As expected, he didn't sign with the Jazz this summer, because he's not ready. But apparently no one told Rotowire.

- Christian Drejer signed a three year contract with Lottomatica Roma last year, which lasted only 6 games. His recurring left foot problem recurred, and, after an extended absence and more operations, Drejer decided he had to retire. This quote comes to your courtesy of Google Translate, from this page:

I've really tried to get my feet in order, but it has never really succeeded, so even though it is sad to have to stop, it has not been a difficult decision. I simply can not play," explains the 25-year-old Christian Drejer.

So, Nets fans, your dreams of the enigmatic point forward are now officially over. Or they should be.

- Roberto Duenas has also retired (really), and is now pursuing his dream of being a professional underwear model. (Not really.)

- Predrag Drobnjak is playing for Efes Pilsen, where he has averaged all of 2.3 points and 1 rebound in Euroleague play. Speaking of Drobnjak, here's a thing. Once upon a time, about 10 to 15 years ago, my dad's car was broken, and so we had to hire a taxi to get me to football practice. As I was practicing, my dad and the cab driver hung around for the duration, chatting away, because there wasn't really enough time for my dad to go home and come back. My dad said that the taxi driver man seemed nice. However, 9 days later, his face (the driver's, not my dad's) appeared on the front page of the local newspaper after he was arrested for kiddie fiddling. And that man looked a bit like Peja Drobnjak. Therefore, in a way, I was nearly bumraped by Peja Drobnjak. That's all I have to say about that.

- Finally, Josh Duncan is signed with Pau Orthez. Pau may be one of the few French teams that you've ever heard of, but this year, they're in last place with a 2-12 record, including an 0-7 start. Duncan isn't really helping - he played in only 5 games, averaging 7.0 points and 3.2 rebounds, before getting injured in early November. (I seem to remember that he blew his knee out, but can't find proof. Apply within.) They also lost every game that he played in. So it's not gone well.

Summer signings, round 18

- Adam Haluska signed with Hapoel Jerusalem. I'm putting this one first, because originally I had it last, and the jarringly obvious lack of a bad joke was not a good way to end the post. I have failed you.

- Miami waived Bobby Jones before his contract became guaranteed, thus leaving Jones free to roam the land and add another scalp to his "I can totally play for every NBA team before 2010" campaign. (A campaign which may only exist in my head.) I'd recommend him to Memphis, but unfortunately, he's already been there once. So....Oklahoma City, anyone?

- Some things happen really quietly in the NBA. So quietly, in fact, tha they aren't actually announced at all. In the last six weeks or so, the Bulls have signed two players without telling anyone: restricted free agent Demetris Nichols accepted his unguaranteed qualifying offer, obviously aware that it's for more than he will get elsewhere, and number 1 overall pick Derrick Rose signed his rookie contract back in early July. For some reason, there was no press conference on this - one can only assume that they held off deliberately in order to do the damn thing so that they can announce his signing at a later date in conjunction with the signings of, say, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. That way, they can do one of those "Meet The Next Generation" type of press conferences, and maybe even get Jonathan Frakes as a guest speaker. However, as Ben Gordon has decided to be a right wazzock about his contract situation (more on this later), that plan hasn't really worked out. Nevertheless, Rose has signed, so all you conspiracy theorists....disperse.

- Similarly, the Warriors have signed undrafted forward Dion Dowell for training camp, doing so very early, with no announcement made. It's not unprecedented for this to happen - Utah did it with Roger Powell once, for example - but it is kind of rare. So when an announcement about Golden State signing Dion Dowell hits the streets in the first week of October, don't be surprised to hear an I told you so. (In the unlikely event that it doesn't happen, this post will self-destruct, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.)

- Milwaukee signed Francisco Elson. Why? Don't know, really. Is Elson better than incumbent backup centre Dan Gadzuric? Yes, yes he is. Pretty much everyone is. But is it by a lot? Not exactly. So is it worth signing a slight upgrade when you're already stuck with paying Gadzuric $20 million over the next three years? (By the way, you may have noticed that sometimes I befoul the signing of good players to decent value contracts, and sometimes I applaud it. This is because I'm temperamental, partial to prejudice, and often wrong.)

- In the same day, Gordan Giricek was reported to have signed with two different teams, in a situation even more bizarre than that of serial bigamist, Jumaine Jones. Triumph Lyubertsy of Russia - the team who just spent lots of money on glamour model Nenad Krstic as a replacement for Uros Slokar - were reported to have signed Giricek for one of those elusive 1+1 deals, but agent Marc Fleischer says that Giricek signed with Fenerbache of Turkey. And you'd think that he'd know, really. So we'll pencil him in for Turkey. (You know the best part about all of this? I'm Uros Slokar's Facebook friend. True story. The guy writes on his own wall a lot, but his English is as sound as Ealing North MP Stephen Pound. I like him.)

- Boston either just have signed or soon will sign their first round draft pick, J.R. Giddens. For all first round draft pick fans at home, this now leaves only two from this year's draft unsigned - George Hill of the San Antonio Spurs (who apparently will signed and will feature heavily), and Serge Ibaka of Oklahoma City (who, as intrepidly reported back in the boom boom selection days, has signed elsewhere already). You know who has been signed? Derrick Rose. Just thought I'd remind you.

- Jamar Smith has signed for Fastweb Casale Monferrato in Italy. Note: this is not Illinois's disreputable Jamar Smith, the one who recently got kicked off of the team for some naughtiness. Instead, this is Maryland's Jamar Smith, the one hurtling towards thirty, and the former San Antonio Spurs training camp fodder. In many ways, this is the more famous of the Jamar Smithii. (Plural.)

- Jannero Pargo signed with Dynamo Moscow, a team which isn't actually in Moscow, but which can be found in a small farmer's market outside Pontefract, Wales. (Readers note: I am talking out of my arse.) The signing of Pargo isn't exactly a heartbreaker, but it does weaken the already piss poor market even further. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. For every reasonably decent point guard signed, Kevin Ollie gets one step closer to a stay of execution, which can't be bad. Additionally, if any teams out there are upset at losing out of signing Pargo and are looking for a Pargo-like replacement, may I suggest Salim Stoudamire?

- Louis Amundson signed with the Phoenix Suns, naturally for the minimum. So clearly the Warriors looked elsewhere (namely, Dion Dowell). The Suns are now a Goran Dragic away from completing their roster, and we'll have more on that sneaky little bastard later.

- Marcus Douthit has signed with Antalya Buyuksehir Belediye. The last time I wrote something about Marcus Douthit, I asked the world if any of you knew what happened to Douthit's unique charges of embezzlement. Reader and one-time blog commenter Chris, whoever that is (God bless you sir) provided a quasi-update, but not an absolute resolution to this important question. And so, I'll ask again: does anyone know of what became of Marcus Douthit's embezzlement charges?

- Paul Davis returned to the L.A. Clippers to battle Steve Novak for the important role of gimpy looking 15th man whose very presence keeps the fans interested. Unhelpfully and unoriginally, I'm going to make the same observation that everyone else has made: boy, do they have a lot of Davii! (Plural.) Journeyman forward Dangerous Josh Davis can claim the one the Clippers as one of the few teams that he hasn't played for yet, not even in summer league (I think), and he's also currently unsigned. This union makes too much sense not to happen.

- Maintenant, et finalément, I can't speak French. Shawn Kemp did actually sign for Bread Mountain in Italy, as mentioned once before. It really happened. It really did. Expect this to be tracked closely.

Where Are They Now? Part 10

Willie Deane - who is not my lover, just some bitch who says that I am the one, in a non-Matrixy way - is playing in the seminal Bulgarian league, for the even more seminal Lukoil Akademik Sophia. Impressively, he is not the only person from this series of posts to play for that team, so all fascinated viewers can wait until we get to the letter S before we find out who Willie's backcourt teammate is.

F.W. Andrew DeClercq slipped out of the league with knee problems, and hasn't been heard from since trying to make a comeback with the Bulls in late September 2006, a weird month for Chicago that saw them give tryouts to almost every free agent big man on the planet - including Shawn Kemp, who didn't turn up - before all of them managed to lose to Martynas Andriuskevicius. Weird times.

Tony Delk is either playing for Carolina in Puerto Rico, or he isn't. Sorry about the uselessness of that - I just have conflicting information.

Derrick Dial disappeared for ages, but has this month reappeared in the D-League, playing for the Tulsa Cockerels. (See previous comments, re: the reformation of D-League teams nicknames into easily truncated juvenile sex talk.)

Guillermo Diaz didn't take his NBA kick in the balls too badly, and is playing for Pepsi Caserta (sponsored by Coca Cola) in Italy.

Kaniel Dickens has starred in the D-League all season, enough so to get two ten day cotnracts recently from the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is now once again in the D-League, playing for the Colorado Balls.

Do you know who Alain Digbeu is? No, no you don't. And nor do you care. Digbeu was a draft choice by the Atlanta Hawks from several million years ago. You've never heard of him because you've never needed to hear from him - his insignificance is so all-empowering that he doesn't even gain afterthought status. Still, if I've now turned you onto the idea of following Alain Digbeu's career - and the Hawks do still own his rights, so you never know! - then you'll be orgasmic to learn that Digbeu is playing for Alicante in Spain. Fun times.

Vlade Divac is long since retired, and now works for Real Madrid in a role which he freely admits leaves him having to "literally do nothing". Lucky bastard.

Nigel Dixon recently played for San German in Puerto Rico, and is still fat.

Marcus Douthit is playing for Antalya in Turkey. By the way, if anyone knows what happened to Marcus Douthit in that extortion trial of his from a few years ago, I'd like to hear it. I can find absolutely nothing that says what became of it, just that he was charged.

Zabian Dowdell is playing for Nancy in France.

Christian Drejer, former Nets draft choice and apparently arrogant as all hell (allegedly), is playing for Lottomatica Roma in Italy, alongside Gregor Fucka, whose name I just wanted to type.