Where Are They Now: 2009 Summer League Teams Part 2

It's been roughly two months since summer league started, and most of the players involved have been rehomed now. The following is a list of where everybody currently is, or where they might be going.

This list gets a bit long, so if you want to just skip to your favoured team, you can do so. I'll allow that.



Indiana Pacers

My initial summary


- Will Blalock: Blalock is unsigned. But he averaged more points (6.2) and assists (2.8) in summer league than he did last season in Germany (4.2 & 2.1). So he's got that going for him.

- Derrick Byars: See Denver entry.

- Tyler Hansbrough: Hansbrough is signed, and weirdly.

- Roy Hibbert: I said it before, but I'll say it again; Hibbert is better than you thought he was going to be.

- Jared Homan: The Ho-Man signed in Greece with Costa Cafe Marousi to replace Andreas Glyniadakis, who signed with Olympiakos.

- Aaron Jackson: Jackson may or may not have signed in Turkey. It depends on what this really says.

- Trey Johnson: Johnson didn't pick the best summer league team to be on. He might have made an NBA team with a better showing and a better opportunity. As it is, he's now signed in France with BCM Gravelines Dunkerque Grand Littoral, a team that really needs to truncate its name.

- Leo Lyons: See Cleveland entry.

- Josh McRoberts: Despite having a fully guaranteed $1,000,497 qualifying offer, McRoberts re-signed for a guaranteed minimum of $825,497, with $250,000 guaranteed for the following season. I guess he just wanted to get out of restricted free agency as soon as possible.

- A.J. Price: Price hasn't signed with the Pacers, but now that they've bought out Jamaal Tinsley, he must have a chance. The Pacers don't especially need four point guards, but this doesn't usually stop them.

- Brandon Rush: Rush played in only one summer league game, and shot 4-19. Let's pretend it didn't happen.

- Anthony Smith: Smith is unsigned.

- Scott VanderMeer: Vandermeer is signed along with Travis Walton with the Lugano Tigers in Switzerland. That team is going to be fierce next year. Also on that team are Mohammed Abukar and Derek Stockalper. You might know about Abukar from his Florida days, his San Diego State days or his Austin Toros days, and you might know Derek Stockalper if you watched Britain vs Switzerland two years ago. He's the one who pirhouetted on every three point attempt. I liked him.




L.A. Clippers

My initial summary


- Sean Banks: Don't know what this means.

- Corie Belser: A very late addition to summer league, Belser has played the last three years in Greece with Larisa, and has now moved to Aris Thessaloniki.

- Nik Caner-Medley: Caner-Medley is back in the ACB, despite being kicked off of Cajasol Sevilla at the end of last season for drunkenly fighting a team mate. He is now with MMT Estudiantes Madrid.

- Dionte Christmas: Watched a Temple game recently. Just wanted to say that. The Sixers have offered Christmas a training camp spot, but he's still looking at European opportunities.

- Eric Gordon: With him and the next guy, the Clippers have a good young core. I only hope they know this.

- Blake Griffin: Got in trouble a while ago for saying that I'd rather have Blake Griffin than Derrick Rose. Still standing by it.

- DeAndre Jordan: Lots of players are regarded as being all athleticism and no skills, but never is this more true at the NBA level than of DeAndre Jordan. Even on that night he put up 20/10 versus the Lakers, he let Andrew Bynum score 42. I'm not a fan right now.

- Marcelus Kemp: Kemp has gone back to the Italian second division and is now with Banco di Sardegna Sassari. Never heard of them.

- Kyle McAlarney: McAlarney is unsigned. He shot well for the Clippers - he always shoots well - but the 1:1 assist/turnover ratio and the two free throw attempts in 5 games are emblematic of his flaws.

- Kevinn Pinkney: Pinkney didn't take a three in summer league, which is an improvement, but he also shot only 20% and rebounded to his usual substandard. He is currently unsigned.

- Mike Taylor: Taylor was waived by the Clippers before his contract became guaranteed. The team that needs all the scoring and guard help that it could get decided not to play Mike Taylor the minimum, even after trading what turned out to be the #33 pick (Dante Cunningham) for him. Whoops. Taylor has since worked out for the Grizzlies, but is unsigned.




L.A. Lakers

My initial summary


- Alan Anderson: Anderson signed with Maccabi Tel-Aviv before summer league even started. Which makes you wonder why he turned up at all.

- Aron Baynes: Similarly, Baynes signed with Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania before summer league started. He played terribly in summer league, so that was probably a blessing.

- Dominique Coleman: Coleman is signed with Dexia Mons-Hainaut in Belgium.

- Chinemelu Elonu: Elonu is unsigned. I'm not sure if he's planning on going to camp with the Lakers this year, but if he is, he'll probably lose.

- Tony Gaffney: Gaffney is signed with Altshuler Saham Galil Gilboa in Israel.

- Terrel Harris: Harris is signed with IG Strasbourg in France.

- Justin Hawkins: Unsigned. And it's hard to find out news about him because of the unwelcome presence of the highly annoying bucktoothed cokehead cockhead ex-Darkness frontman of the same name. He's releasing a World Cup song, apparently. Yeefreakinghaw.

- Ben McCauley: McCauley's taken his unaggressive ways to France, where he'll blend in nicely as Harris' Strasbourg teammate. He also had a pretty damn impressive summer league all told, which might buy him a repeat performance next year.

- David Monds: Monds averaged 14 points off the bench in summer league, which is a pretty special feat. He took a boatload of midrange jumpshots to do it, a wildly overrated style of field goal attempt loved by purists and denounced by SABRmetricians, but at least they went in. He is unsigned, which may or may not mean anything.

- Adam Morrison: Morrison scored heavily and often in summer league, just like he used to. This season might represent his last chance, but it can't be any worse than the last two years have been, If he's finally healthy, he'll have a role to play, even if it's not on the Lakers. (Is a salary dump onto Memphis too unfeasible?)

- Taylor Rochestie: Rotch is signed with MEG Goettingen in Germany.

- Luke Schenscher: Schenscher didn't play with the Lakers due to a back injury. He returned to Australia to work out with his former team, the Adelaide 36ers, but he's not going to be signing in Australia. He remains unsigned.

- Mustafa Shakur: Shakur, too, is unsigned.

- Reggie Williams: VMI starlet Reggie Williams is also unsigned. How can this be? Oh the humanity.




Memphis Grizzlies

My initial summary


- Jeff Adrien: Adrien has signed in the Spanish second division with Leche Rio Breogan Lugo. You'll notice that I go out of my way to point out when someone has signed in a second division, and that this doesn't happen very often. It's generally not a good thing when it does.

- Darrell Arthur: Good news! Darrell Arthur won't be starting at power forward next year. Bad news! Zach Randolph will be.

- DeMarre Carroll: Do you think that if the Grizzlies knew that Sam Young would fall to #36 that they would have picked Wayne Ellington instead? I do.

- Erik Daniels: Daniels hasn't yet been able to turn his season of magnanimity into a contract anywhere. He's unsigned and looks like a candidate to return to the D-League. That is, unless he moves to Italy.

- Daniel Ewing: Ewing re-signed with Prokom Sopot, the Polish Euroleague team.

- Trey Gilder: Gilder was signed by the Grizzlies just last week, since they're still apparently looking for athletic forward help. I think they've got enough now, though.

- Hamed Haddadi: Haddadi is under contract to the Grizzlies for two more years. He's not very happy about this. You know what pissed me off about that story? Not a single news outlet went with the headline "Grizzlies' Haddadi unhapappy." Do I have to do all the work here?

- Kenny Hasbrouck: Hasbrouck didn't play for the Grizzlies in the end, and remains unsigned. But he did get a post-SL workout from the Heat for some reason.

- Longar Longar: Longar Longar is unsigned, and if he doesn't go back to the D-League, then I'll be more confused than I was when I watched Cleaner and didn't initially realise that the character of Rose was NOT Samuel L. Jackson's wife, but his daughter. (Oh sure, it's easy in hindsight. But they snuggled, man. They snuggled. That's just weird, you know?)

- Brion Rush: Rush has signed with Triumph in Russia.

- Donta Smith: Smith remains unsigned, and he's probably still not allowed in Puerto Rico.

- Greg Stiemsma: Stiemsma was picked in the KBL Draft last month, and is over there now doing their initiation thing.

- Hasheem Thabeet: I've publicly stated in the past that I would have picked Ricky Rubio, and I still kind of stand by that, joyously ignorant as I am of the meticulous nature of his buyout. But even if they didn't want Rubio, what was wrong with Tyreke Evans? He's a better player than Thabeet with a much better upside, and even if he's not a great fit with O.J. Mayo, that's no reason not to pick him. It's the number 2 pick. Pick the second best player in the draft. Work the rest out later. This is what I'd do. I'm just saying.

- Marcus Williams: Williams played very well for the Grizzlies in summer league and has since earned a funky contract. I'm happy to announce that I sort of predicted this. Sort of. (Meaning that I didn't really.)

- Sam Young: Young signed a three year contract, which is a tad odd, but beneficial to both parties. It pays $824,200 in the first year, $886,000 in the second, and there's a third team option year at $947,800. That is the equal of the 100% scale amount that the 30th pick in the draft would receive, except without the fourth season. Not sure why they did this. But it's good news for Sam Young, decent news for Memphis, and not such good news for Christian Eyenga. And it's definitely creative financing.




Milwaukee Bucks

My initial summary


- Joe Alexander: Richard Jefferson is gone, but Scott Skiles is still there, and the unheralded Ersan Ilyasova is back. I still don't predict good things for Alexander and would love to be wrong about that.

- Paul Delaney: Delaney is signed with Hapoel Holon in Israel. What does Hapoel mean?

- Dominic James: James didn't play on the Bucks summer league team due to another injury. He is unsigned, and the D-League makes a hell of a lot of sense for him right now.

- Brandon Jennings: Jennings played very well in summer league, and I've been saying that I don't rate him for quite a while now. It's a topic that nees fleshing out, I think. And it's a topic that'll get fleshed out once Ramon Sessions' future is finally decided.

- Amir Johnson: It was a really pointless trade for the Bucks to acquire Johnson in the first place. It was an even more pointless one to then move him on to Toronto. This, too, will be fleshed out soon, in a post about the Bucks that might not be entirely favourable.

- Luc Richard Mbah A Moute: This guy's great, though. They struck a winner with this one. If him, Skiles and Chris Duhon release a threesome sextape at some point in the near future, don't be shocked.

- Will McDonald: McDonald asked Tau Ceramica nicely if they'd led him play in summer league. They permitted it. McDonald averaged 5.3/4.7 in three games. He then signed a three year contract with C.B. Gran Canaria. Is this a summer league success story? I'm not sure. In fact, I'm not sure of why any of this took place. But well done to him anyway.

- Jodie Meeks: Signed for three years in one of the few good bits of business than the Bucks have done this year.

- Juan Palacios: Palacios played 46 of the most incosequential minutes you'll ever see in summer league. 3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 fouls, 10% shooting. Thanks for playing. He is on loan for next year to U.B. La Palma in Spain's LEB Gold (second division) from Gran Canaria (in the ACB, or first division.

- Chris Richard: With not a huge amount of centre size on the Bucks SL roster, Richard had a chance to impress here. He didn't, totalling 17 fouls in 51 minutes. He looks like a candidate fur the D-League once again.

- Salim Stoudamire: No offense to Salim, since everyone knows I'm a big fan, but there was no reason for the Bucks to bring in Salim in the first place. This was made doubly true by the drafting of Meeks. They've now finally cut Salim, who remains unsigned.

- Szymon Szewczyk: Szewczyk is an established European presence whose body type, skillset, harline and and athleticism are more suited to the European game. He has no reason to give that up. So he hasn't; he's signed with Air Avellino in Italy for next year.

- Mohammed Tangara: If you want to know what Mohammed Tangara is up to, why not email him?

- Lorrenzo Wade: Wade has signed with Kavala/Panorama in Greece. The forward slash is their work, not my typo.




Minnesota Timberwolves

My initial summary


- Corey Brewer: Brewer is finally healthy, and competition at the Timberwolves' wing positions is far from strong. Before he got hurt, Brewer had started to get somewhere. If he picks up where he left off, we'll pretend his rookie year never happened.

- Bobby Brown: If anyone stood to benefit from the Rubio saga (other than Barcelona) it was Bobby Brown. Brown was a summer league success last year, which is how he came to earn a two year guaranteed contract from the Kings. But when draft night came around, and the Wolves picked four point guards, it didn't look good for Bobby. Nevertheless, after trading away Nick Calathes, Ty Lawson and Sebastian Telfair, and with Rubio not signing, Brown is now the primary backup. It's all coming up Milhouse. Giggidy.

- Pat Carroll: Don't know if I mentioned this before, but for Tenerife last year, Pat Carroll averaged 3.4 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal per 48 minutes, shooting 7 three pointers for every free throw attempted, and with 75% of his FG attempts being from three point range. It doesn't get much more one dimensional than that. Pat is unsigned, and having spent the last three years in playing various calibre of Spanish basketball, he's a good bet to go back there again.

- Wayne Ellington: Signed, and without incentives.

- Jonny Flynn: Likewise.

- Devin Green: Wikipedia says he's signed with the Spurs, which is pretty much why you should never trust Wikipedia for anything basketball related. Green is unsigned, but he usually gets a training camp spot somewhere, so one more wouldn't be a great surprise.

- Paul Harris: Unsigned, with whispers of a standing training camp offer from the Wolves.

- Gerald Henderson: Signed, but with the Bobcats. Obviously. While letting Henderson play with another team was pretty cool, it would be even better if Charlotte would just pony up and enter a team of their own. If you're short of money, don't trade for Nazr Freaking Mohammed and DeSagana Freaking Diop. For Freak's sake.

- Steven Hill: Hill didn't go to the Wolves summer league, for reasons I'm not sure of. He's now unsigned, for reasons I'm fully aware of.

- Rob Kurz: Kurz will sign with the Cavaliers for training camp.

- Adam Parada: Parada was a very late addition to the summer league roster, after Hill didn't turn up. He is unsigned, but he's a savvy minor league veteran, so he'll find something. Fun Adam Parada fact: about three years ago, one of Adam Parada's friends asked me to post a video of Adam Parada being punched by Robert Whaley, so that he could use it to laugh at Adam Parada. Not a fun fact: Robert Whaley's son was knocked down and killed by a car last month. Very bad times.

- Oleksiy Pecherov: Every time there's a glimmer of hope for some Pecherov PT - such as when the Wolves traded away Craig Smith and Mark Madsen - they go and ruin it by acquiring another big (Ryan Hollins). It's Pecherov's own fault, really, for not being a very good player. Still, if my genius trade idea goes through (Chucky Atkins and Darius Songaila for Antonio Daniels and Devin Brown), then that gives Petch one last hope.

- Garret Siler: The ever-efficient Siler shot a Garrett Siler-like 78% in summer league. He has since earned an invite to Hawks training camp. However, the Hawks are stuck with paying Randolph Morris a guaranteed contract. Siler will have to shoot 88% to make them overlook that.

- Ben Woodside: Woodside is signed with Gravelines in France.




New Jersey Nets/Philadelphia 76ers

My initial summary


- A.J. Abrams: Abrams' European adventure has begun with Trikalla in Greece.

- Jeff Adrien: See Grizzlies entry.

- Blake Ahearn: With literally nothing left to prove in the D-League, Ahearn has decided it's time to start getting paid, and has gone to the ACB to sign with MMT Estudiantes Madrid.

- Dionte Christmas: See Clippers entry.

- Chris Douglas-Roberts: Chris Douglas-Roberts recently followed Bracey Wright's lead and took delibery of a Bengal cat. And here they are.

- Jason Ellis: Ellis is signed with GasTerra Flames Groningen in Holland, one of 7 Americans on the team. One of the others is Darian Townes.

- Gary Forbes: Forbes is still building an NBA resumé and is now in Italy's SerieA with Vanoli Cremona, who last year were in LegaDue and were known as Vanoli Soresina. Confusing, isn't it? OK OK OK, I'll make the freaking name changes list......

- Jrue Holiday: Don't understand this pick. Not with Darren Collison and Ty Lawson still on board. Even Jeff Teague and Eric Maynor may be better, although I don't know a lot about those two. (Also, if you've just picked Jrue Holiday, don't then re-sign Royal Ivey. Ivey is barely an NBA player to begin with, but when you really need shooting and actual point guard play on offense, don't bring in a second defensive specialist. Come on now.)

- Chris Johnson: Johnson has signed with a Turkish team that I'd never previously heard of, Aliaga Petkim.

- Rob Kurz: See Timberwolves entry.

- Marreese Speights: Sixers fans asking if a Speights for Kirk Hinrich deal is in some way plausible; nope. You don't have the suitable salaries, and even if you did, the Bulls freaking love Hinrich and are prioritising defense. Trading Hinrich for Speights makes our defense even worse. And it's not good to begin with.

- Terrence Williams: Williams' future offensive problems in the NBA showed themselves early. He turned it over 4 times a game, and shot percentages of 33%/28%/46%. That's really, really bad, and it's a shame that his good passing skills are going to go to waste in the NBA.




New Orleans Hornets

My initial summary


- Earl Barron: Barron is unsigned.

- Earl Calloway: Calloway had already signed with Khimki in Russia before summer league started, and has since moved to Cajasol Sevilla, so he's not unsigned.

- Jaycee Carroll: Carroll is signed with C.B. Gran Canaria. Did you know he was 26 already? Me neither.

- Darren Collison: Big fan.

- Brian Cusworth: Cusworth was one of the better players in Spain's LegaDue last year, and now he's made the step up to the ACB, signing with Basquet Manresa.

- Terry Martin: Martin averaged 5/2 last year for LSU, which was somehow enough to get a summer league spot. Normality has now been restored, however, as Martin has joined the perfectly named Oberwart Gunners in the seminal Austrian league. (No offense meant by any of that, Terry Martin. It's just that this is an NBA website and so we judge players by NBA standards. You know what I mean?)

- Luke Nevill: Nevill is unsigned. Australia have some pretty good big men, though, don't they? Shame that Patty Mills and Brad Newley are all the guard help they can offer. Unless you think highly of C.J. Bruton.

- Larry Owens: Owens is unsigned.

- Marc Salyers: Salyers is signed with Le Mans Sarthe Basket in France. I'm still not sure why this 30 year old forward came over to summer league, four years after he last stuck his nose into the NBA (which, not coincidentally, was with the 2005 Hornets summer league team). I guess he just wanted to know what could have been. Salyers is a big time scorer on the continent, and should probably stay there.

- Courtney Sims: Sims didn't play for the Hornets and is unsigned. He looks like a logical candidate for a training camp spot somewhere.

- Marcus Thornton: Thornton is signed to a two year guaranteed minimum salary contract.

- Anthony Tolliver: Same as Sims, except the bit about him not playing for the Hornets.

- Quinton Watkins: Watkins didn't play for San Diego State. He didn't play for the Hornets in summer league. So what are the chances that a European team will have signed him? Here's a clue; they haven't.

- Julian Wright: A lot of people have suggested that the Hornets trade of Rasual Butler will open up an opportunity for Wright to start doing something. But I'm more of the school of thought that says the player to benefit most from the deal is Mo Peterson. Peterson fell off fast, and I whole heartedly believe that there's a second wind in there somewhere. I'm not sure why I believe this, but I do. Also, it's about time they got something from the heavy investment they made in him, don't you think?

The Assassination Of Devean George By The Coward Donnie Nelson

February 13th, 2008. Wednesday. Raining.

The Dallas Mavericks are tootling along with a 34-17 record. They're pretty good, and perhaps they know it, because they're suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to do something stupid.

A veteran team with only one good young player decides on a plan to get older and worse. The Mavericks decide that Jason Kidd is a significant upgrade over Devin Harris, and work out a variety of scenarios that see them trade Devin and two future first round draft picks for Kidd. They're wrong, but they work hard at it anyway, determined to obtain a player that puts them further away from the hump that they're already sliding away from. Two years ago, it would have been a steal. But not now.

Eventually, they stumble upon a scenario that both they and the Nets can agree upon. Dallas agrees to trade Harris, the picks, cash, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George to the Nets in exchange for Kidd and Malik Allen. The fillers are largely meaningless; outside of Harris, only Diop is a significant player for the Mavericks, and even then he sucks more ass than most people care to acknowledge. The core of the deal is Harris for Kidd, and both teams seem pretty happy with that. The fundamental pieces are together, peripherals of the long-awaited deal are finally in place, and everyone's a winner. (Except Dallas.)

Things then get a bit weird. Through a hitherto little-known technicality, one of the least important components of the deal - backup forward George - has the power to veto the trade. George re-signed with the Mavericks in the previous offseason to a one year contract, and Dallas will have early Bird rights on him when his contract expires. However, if George gets traded, the recipient team will lose his Bird rights if they trade for him, which reduces George's chances of getting handily paid next season. [Let's pretend for a minute that such chances existed.] I don't really understand the purpose of the rule, but it exists, and it applies to Devean. As a result, players on one year contracts who will have early or full Bird rights at the season's end are given the right to veto any trades that they may be in, so that they aren't powerless to prevent having their Bird rights taken away from them. And that's the power George wields.

The rule wasn't really written for situations like this. I'm not really sure who it does apply to, really, but it definitely wasn't for this reason. Yet it applies anyway, and therefore, to a chorus of anger and giggles, George exercises his right to veto the trade and emphatically pisses on Mark Cuban's strawberries for at least 72 hours.

Vetoing the trade doesn't endear George to the Mavericks fans. They boo him lustily, already aggrieved by his crapness and his club's weird affection for him. It also doesn't help that he plays 33 minutes later that same night, and scores 0 points on 11 shots. But technically and morally, he did no wrong. He did what he had to do, and looked for himself. He merely made some people look bad while doing it.

(It also doesn't really hold up the Mavericks, who rework the trade later in the week anyway, substituting Stackhouse and George for Keith Van Horn and Trenton Hassell. With Antoine Wright also coming back in the reworked version, it's a better deal anyway. But I digress.)

---

Fast forward to this month.

George saw out the season with the Mavericks, sucked horribly, yet re-signed with the team for two more guaranteed years anyway. The inexplicable love that Donnie Nelson and Devean George feel for each other can never be topped, or properly understood. But it's about to change when Nelson tries to trade George again. And this time, he succeeds.

Two weeks ago, George was traded to the Raptors as a peripheral part of the Shawn Marion deal. Along with Antoine Wright, he went to Toronto as the afterthought backups to the also-acquired Hidayet Turkoglu, a move which showed the Raptors putting on a fine demonstration of creative financing, if not a good idea of how to build a team. (And if you don't think there's not an I-TOLD-YOU-SO post coming on that subject, then you're very much mistaken.) However, as far as Devean George was concerned, there was another caveat.

Now, it's possible that they are not vengeance-driven horrible bastards. It's possible that they just did this without considering the possible side effects down the road. But here's the thing; when re-signing George this past summer to a two year $3.2 million contract that paid $1.6 million in both seasons, Nelson and Cuban added a somewhat rare clause to the contract that called for George to get a $200,000 bonus if the Mavericks win a certain number of games this season. I don't know what the threshold was, but I'm guessing it was 50 wins, since that's what they won last season (such predictions are calculated during the moratorium using the team's record from the previous season as the basis). Since the Mavericks can be realistically expected to achieve that next year, George had himself a $200,000 bonus.

But then he was traded to the Raptors. They didn't win 50 games last year, and thus the CBA cannot consider them likely to do it this year either. As a result, George loses $200,000. And though he's subsequently been traded to the Golden State Warriors in a shameful deal for Marco Belinelli, the same applies; George has lost his bonus.

Revenge.

Of course, the fact that the Mavericks had given George a combined $5,943,370 to play with them over the last three seasons means the last laugh is still firmly on them. Their inability to realise that they were paying to retain a man with scoring the scoring efficiency of Willie Green, the rebounding of Jason Collins and the oft-misrepresented defense of Andres Nocioni means that they're the real victims here, the victims of their own silliness. But, still. Vengeance is sweet.



(EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that they above is too confusing. Fair enough. Here's the gist of it, reworded; based on last year's win total, the Mavericks were expected to win 50 games. As a result, George's cap number was raised to $1.8 million. Now that he's a Warriors, it's been knocked down to $1.6 million again. But George was only going to be paid $1.6 million UNTIL the 50 wins happened, at which point he'd get the bonus. The basic point remains, though; by not now being a Mav, George loses $200,000. That is all.)

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

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

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

View the joint Nets/Sixers summer league roster.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But do you really take someone like that eleventh overall?

Why John Freakin' Stockton Was So Freakin' Fantastic

A conversation with a friend about the awesomeness/awfulness of DeSagana Diop - and you can probably guess which side of the fence I am on regarding that - led to me to write about how great John Stockton is.

Come re-live that fun journey with me.



I try and keep an open mind on certain basketball philosophies. There are some players out there whose worth on the court is so mysterious that you really have to question their very presence on it, and yet, for whatever reason, they remain out there. A lot of them get regular rotation minutes. Some of them get regular rotation minutes on decent or good teams. And I always endeavour to understand why.

As an example, for many years, Jason Collins started on the New Jersey Nets. Not only did he start, but he would also play over twenty minutes a game (up to the tune of 31.8 in 2004/05). A quick glance at his statistics, though, makes you wonder why the hell this was. Collins has never shot over 43% in a season, which must be pretty dumbfoundingly difficult to do as a 7 footer, especially an athletic 7 footer with Jason Kidd as your point guard. (Even Michael Ruffin managed this once, and he did it armed with Bryce Drew leading the breaks. Bryce effing Drew.) Collins also has a rebounding average worse than Eddy Curry's, with a career average of a tumultuous 8.8 boards per 48 minutes. And worst of all was his PER, which last year was a can't-even-think-of-an-adjective-shit-enough-for-it 3.3. (Only this year, when it hit 3.1, did the Nets think "hmmm, maybe we could find a player with a more positive impact on the game if we try". Impressively, they did.)

I listened to arguments as to why Collins merited the court time that he got. On a good team, he would play more than half the game, despite seemingly not doing a single thing well. I watched closely and tried to figure out what it was that he was good at, and I listened to people paid to be flattering about him (i.e. Iain Eagle) try and polish this turd as shiny as it could get. I could see that Collins was a versatile defensive player, big and strong enough to defend the tough post players, but also fleet footed and agile enough to stay in front of the quicker tall forwards as they made their way to the basket. I also understood that he was Jesus Collins, Lord Of The Handoff (giggidy), and that while he couldn't grab any rebounds of his own, he cleared out the lane well enough while boxing out for guards to come in and sweep rebounds off of the floor. (See?!? Kidd owes all those rebounds to Collins! And his rebounding during tenures on previous teams were just lucky.) I also accepted the argument that maybe Nets head coach Lawrence Frank had a raging man-boner for him and just couldn't let it subside, for this argument is often applicable to NBA coaches. (See also: Chris Duhon with Jim Boylan, Lindsey Hunter with Flip Saunders, and Orien Greene with anybody to have ever coached him.)

I considered it all. And then I disregarded it all. This was because - and let's be honest here - Jason Collins was (is) a massive huge great big fat negative of a basketball player. There's no point in being a little things player if you can't do any of the big things well. And anyway, shouldn't "little things" players be able to shoot above 50% from the free throw line?

(Oh and by the way, how in the hell did Collins go from a near-80% shooter to below the Wallace Line in 4 short years? What changed? How do certain players - usually big men - manage to get so bad from the line so easily as they approach their prime years? See also: Magloire, Jamaal)

A similar situation occurs with DeSagana Diop. For whatever reason - and this has become much more prevalent since he was traded away - columnists and idiots alike would eulogise The Diop as if he were some kind of integral piece to the Mavericks championship puzzle, ignoring for a moment the fact that the Mavericks didn't actually have a championship puzzle (but that's a rant for another day). Indeed, Karate Diop is better than Jason Collins, which makes the situation slightly less deplorable. And Lasagna did give the Mavericks a skill with his rudimentary shot blocking that they otherwised lacked outside of the misshapen marvel that is Rick Dampier.

[Please feel free to look elsewhere while I burn through my own supply of extremely bad self devised DeSagana Diop nicknames. I'll get over it soon.]

But overall, DeSagana Diop was not, is not, and will probably never be a good basketball player. He used to be abhorrent, so his status as a reasonable to crappy backup centre is an improvement, yet this alone does not make him good.

This was the hard line stance that I took in our conversation, and prepared to back up my claim by using a piece of trivia that I last used in March 2006, about how Diop was on course to spend the most full seasons in the NBA of any player to average less than 2 points per game for his career (and "full seasons" is a key distinction there). However, to use this piece of trivia, I had to check that it was still true.

Sadly, it wasn't. A recent offensive explosion and the subsequent giddying heights of three points per game with the Mavericks this season have boosted Garnerchop to a career average of 2.1 points per game (or that's it was at the time of writing - if he's been on a scoring rampage since then, adjust accordingly), which undermined my premise and made me feel rather empty inside. How could I talk about Daisy Gardener being one of the worst offensive players of all time when he averages quite such a tremendous amount of points? I felt like such a twat.

Still, not one to be outdone, I rebounded (unlike Jason Collins), and offered up something new in my constant quest to win petty arguments with uninteresting trivia. While looking up Jop's career points average, I also happened to notice that his career high in points in a single game is a fantastic 10 points, achieved 4 times, 2 of which came this season. (Michael Ruffin has a career high of 14, for those keeping score at home, and you've probably noticed by now that I like to use The Muffin as my barometer when it comes to mentioning historically bad offensive players. His profile explains this in more depth.)

Those 4 explosive outings came in 409 career games. How can a man not score more than 10 points in 409 games? How is that possible? Wouldn't you do it by accident one day? At one point, wouldn't your teammates decide that enough is enough and conspire to give you enough touches to crack that elusive 11 point barrier? (And these things do happen, if your team is bad enough. See Mark Madsen's seven three point attempts in a single game in the most disgustingly shameless piece of tanking in NBA history.)

Seemingly, his teammates haven't ever thought of this. So if the Nets fall out of the playoff race this season, on purpose or otherwise, then we need to push this agenda forward. Let's get Diop to 20. In fact, 15 will do. Someone start a t-shirt campaign.



Anyway, this piece of fascinating Senegalese trivia led me on to another related one.

In 1504 career games, John Stockton never once grabbed at least 10 rebounds in a regular season game. Stockton also never had ten steals in a game either, meaning that ne never achieved a triple double, which is pretty astonishing for a man who averaged a double double over 19 seasons and 1504 games. (Note - he did once have a triple double in a playoff game, but it pisses on my chips a little to mention that, so pretend that it didn't happen.)

This discovery, which is surely a harder feat to not-achieve than Diop's points total, led me into an exploration of the man and the legend that was John Freakin' Stockton, and led me to compile this concise but considerable list of reasons quite why he was brilliant.


REASON NUMBER 1: John Freakin' Stockton played 1504 games in 19 NBA seasons, and for those doing the maths at home, this means that he only missed 22 games in his entire career. He had perfect attendance records in 17 of his 19 seasons, playing all 82 games in 16, all 50 games in the strike shortened 1998-99 season, a mere 78 in 1989-1990, and a pathetically dismal 64 games in 1997-1998. For the sake of reference, Marcus Camby has cracked the 64 game barrier only three times in 12 years, and has never played more than 72.

REASON NUMBER 2: John Freakin' Stockton played 1504 games and never grabbed 10 rebounds in a game. (The lesson here, as should be obvious - if you aggressively pursue rebounds, you'll shorten your career. So things are looking up for Jason Collins already.)

REASON NUMBER 3: John Freakin' Stockton just let it go.



Stockton played until he was 41 years old, and inevitably towards the end of his career he had a few years in which his performance slowly trailed off. But right up to and including his final season, Stockton continued to perform at a high level, starting for a Utah Jazz team that he led to a 47-35 record and the playoffs, all while averaging as-near-as-is 11 points, 8 assists and 2 steals a game. He also shot .483 that season, which is absolutely remarkable when you consider that this was 2003 that we are talking about, a season that did not favour shooting percentages.

But when faced with the decline of both his own skills and the Jazz's short term future, Stockton chose to walk away while he was still near the top of his game. This may seem like a normal or sensible thing to do, but recent precedent shows it to not be so normal after all.



So far in this 2007 season (including preseason and offseason), assorted stars of varying pedigree have either expressed an interest in returning to play one more season, or have actually done so. Allan Houston re-signed briefly with the New York Knicks before being waived in preseason in favour of Fred Jones. Chris Webber couldn't keep away and signed with the Golden State Warriors. Reggie Miller and the Boston Celtics had a brief two way flirtation before Reggie decided against un-retiring to play for only the second team of his NBA career. And Gary Payton's agent also contacted the Celtics, asking if they would return his love and affection and signing him for one more half season. (They didn't.)


Now forgive me for being a bit cynical here, as it's all I know. But why oh why might Payton want to do this?

Possible reasons:

a) He thinks he's still got it.
b) He's run out of money.
c) He wants to win an NBA title, and thinks he can get one with only the token gesture of suiting up every now and then.


If it's point A, then he's very, very wrong.

If it's point B, then he's going to have to make lifestyle changes to make the prorated veteran's minimum into an amount he can live comfortably off until his NBA pension is due.

And if it's point C, then he's pathetic.


Unfortunately, it's probably point C. And, in Gary Payton's case, it's an even more pathetic gesture than usual. For you see, Gary Payton has now achieved the almost-unachievable: he's now done this coattail riding act with three different teams. I can't think of any other instance in which that has happened, and frankly nor would I want to.

To make matters worse, Payton already has a ring from doing this, when he won with Miami back in 2005/06. So why's he hanging out desperately trying to win a ring, when he's already got one? Where's the pride in coattailing two of them, or does he feel ashamed by his first one and needs a second to restore pride? I can't see either scenario being all that profitable to his soul. And you know Gary Payton's got soul.


I don't have a problem with players that latch on with contending teams for less money than they could have gotten elsewhere, just to try and win a championship. That's not a problem with me. As any NBA "pundit" or "expert" will tell you - and I use that term very loosely - it's "all about" the rings. That is certainly the argument used to demean most players without them (or even those with them, if you're Kobe Bryant), and the alternative is to do what Reggie Miller did and stick around with a team that has no chance of winning the title just because you'll get more money that way. This is hardly a more dignified way to see out the end your career, even if it does lead to people praising you for your "loyalty", even if they misinterpret your loyalty to the chequebook as being your loyalty to a franchise.

Karl Malone, for example, played it just about right - he turned down the huge amounts of money and pleas of loyalty offered by Utah to go and spend two years for far less money trying to win a title with the L.A. Lakers. But once this bid failed, he took off. He did not go to another team elsewhere. Not again. Malone took his shot, missed, realised that his skills and health were on the way out, and threw in the towel once and for all. This was an impressive feat, especially given that he was within touching distance of one of the NBA's untouchable records - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all time points scored record.

But this isn't really about the rings. Instead, it is about the good or great players just going away and not bothering us any more, in general.



When he retired as a player, Reggie Miller went on to become a TV personality. An annoying one. So did Jon Barry. So did Magic Johnson. So did Kendall Gill, Steve Smith, Greg Anthony, Mark Jackson, Scott Williams, and a good many other players. And almost universally, they are bad at it. There must be a reason why this is. Maybe it's stubbornness and the interference of their long-term memory on their cognitive capacity. But they just are bad at it, for whatever reason. Only a few shine in this broadcasters role, and most of those shine more for their entertainment value more than their actual ability to analyse.

Some former players go into coaching, irrespective of their abilities in this area. They can't live their lives as young up-and-coming basketball players any more, so they make sure that they are around to watch those of others develop. (It's either coaching, or a cameo in a Spike Lee movie.) Almost universally they are bad at this, too. For the most part, the better the player, the worse the coach or general manager they make. (There are some exceptions, such as Joe Dumars. But for every Joe Dumars, there's three or four Kevin McHale's.)

Worse still, some of the game's true all time greats hang around awkwardly at events such as All Star weekend, demonstrating their complete lack of touch with the modern NBA game, and occasionally making matters even worse by taking the court and proving that they aren't in any way the player that they used to be. It's deflating to watch, and should be made illegal. (There's potential for a second t-shirt campaign here.)



But John Stockton doesn't do any of this.

John Stockton just played until he shouldn't, and then took off. He didn't swan out, interfere with things that weren't his business to interfere with, or humiliate himself at All-Star weekends. He followed his career's path until he reached the end, and then he left.

And that's why he'll always be John Freakin' Stockton.

Transactions explained

For those wondering how or why two of today's transactions took place, I'll explain a bit:


Number 1:

   New Orleans trades David Wesley to New Jersey for Bernard Robinson, Mile Ilic and cash considerations. New Orleans then promptly waives
them both.

Wesley's contract is for one year at $1,750,000, but only $250,000 of it is guaranteed, which is why it's been passed around twice in the coming months. New Jersey traded two meaningless players on guaranteed contracts for Wesley's unguaranteed one in a bid to cut payroll, which will happen when they cut Wesley. They haven't done it immediately because there's no reason to - with the $250,000 guarantee, Wesley is essentially costing them for a short time, so they can keep him to explore trade possibilities. As for why New Orleans did it, we can only assume that New Jersey gave them enough money to make it worth their while, but it really does cement once and for all the fact that they flat old sold Cedric Simmons. And that deal still remains odd.


Number 2:

   San Antonio trades Beno Udrih to Minnesota for a protected 2008 second round pick and cash. Minnesota waives Udrih immediately.

Same sort of thing - San Antonio needed to shave some off their cap figure, so they dealt Udrih to Minnesota (Minnesota used part of a trade exception to absorb his salary), and gave the Timberwolves enough money to cut him for no cost, plus a little bit more on top for their troubles. The pick Minnesota gave up is havily protected, and so they probably won't lose it.


Updated salaries to be upped shortly.