Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 21

In order to spice things up a bit, the next few players will be addressed by anagram only. We party hardcore over here. Get down with the funky stuff.


- Mend Arse Form

Desmond Farmer is in the D-League, trying to find one more NBA call-up from somewhere. In 29 games for the Reno Bighorns, Farmer is averaging 41 minutes, 24.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, so those numbers certainly support his candidacy. However, his reputation around the league is far less supportive; Farmer tends to dominate the ball, is not especially good at it (3.7 turnovers per game), shoots too much (42%) and pouts when he doesn't. In trying to prove that he's more than just a catch and shoot player, he has inadvertently proved that he's mainly a catch and shoot player.

On the plus side, after initially not winning a spot despite his numbers, Farmer has been named as an injury replacement to the D-League all star game. He, Romel Beck, Brian Butch, Joe Crawford, Curtis Jerrells and Diamon Simpson replace Alexis Ajinca, Anthony Tolliver, Dontell Jefferson, Antonio Anderson, Sundiata Gaines and Joey Dorsey.



- I Faze Knacks

Nick Fazekas is signed with Dijon in France, where he has averaged 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds in 25 minutes per game for Dijon. However, he has not played since the end of November due to injury. Sports24.com has more:

Coup dur pour Dijon. Touché à une cheville, Nick Fazekas est out pour trois mois. L’intérieur américain va devoir passer sur la table d’opération. Ancien de Dallas et des Clippers en NBA (26 matches, 4,1 pts), Nick Fazekas est arrivé cet été en Bourgogne. La JDA s’est mise en quête d’un pigiste médical pour pallier son absence.

Totally.



- Herpes Feet

A lot of people didn't know who Sonics draft pick Peter Fehse was a couple of months ago. However, they soon learnt after his draft rights were traded for Matt Harpring and Eric Maynor. At the time, this website's player page for Peter Fehse appeared second in a Google search for Fehse's name, and, given that it was one of the few that's actually been written, people wanting to learn about Peter Fehse used it as a means of doing so. Because of this, Peter Fehse became the most viewed profile page on this website. Good times.

(It's now second to Sarunas Jasikevicius. I've been meaning to find out why that is.)

Fehse's season last year was, inevitably, cut short by injury. Fehse has battled injuries since the day he was drafted, and they are the reason he never developed as a prospect. In fact, he's been set so far back in recent years that he's now with a club in the German thirddivision; the BSW Sixers. BSW, coached by recently retired former Mississippi State guard Chuck Evans, are 7-7 in the Regionaliga North, which ranks two rungs below the Bundesliga. Stats are unavailable, but he scored 13 points in their last game.



- I, Noel, Flex

Noel Felix, now 28, is still the same player he was when he was 24. He is currently plying his athletic trade in the D-League, where he averages 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.2 fouls and 0.9 blocks in 21 minutes per game for the Maine Red Claws. He has not taken a three all season.



- Fouls Recently

NC State's Courtney Fells went to summer league with the Orlando Magic, where he shot 14% and committed 8 turnovers in 53 minutes. He then moved to Cyprus, where he is signed with Proteas EKA AEL Limassol. If you've been following this series of posts you will know that there's no Cyprish statistics available - as well as the fact that I'm trying to avoid using the word Cypriot for no reason whatsoever - but we do have Fells' EuroChallenge numbers. In 9 games, Fells is averaging 9.9 points and 2.2 rebounds, with 89 points scored on 94 shots.



- Advertise Info

Bucks draft pick Andrei Fetisov is retired from basketball. He was last time we covered. And the time before that. He's been retired since February 2007. We probably won't cover him again.



- Leafy Chime

After leaving UCLA in 2006, Michael Fey has spent two years in China and one in Jordan. Before that, in 2006, he appeared on the Lakers summer league. He must have left some kind of lasting impression, because three years later, the Lakers brought him into training camp to (ostensibly) fight for a roster spot. He didn't make it - he was never going to make it - but Fey's return to America and subsequent trip to the D-League are quite the departure from a man previously doing the Samaki Walker Tour Of The Far East. Assigned to the Lakers' affiliate, the D-Fenders, Fey is averaging 12.1 points and 6.2 rebounds in 24 minutes per game.



- Infirm, If Naked

Nebraska product Kimani Ffriend is signed in Cyprus, and, as described earlier, there are no statistics available for Cyprianic basketball. All I can tell you is that Ffriend has scored 36 points in Apollon's last two games. And that when you translate his name into Greek and back again, it comes out as "Fred."



- Snivelled Face

Pittsburgh graduate Levance Fields was undrafted, despite his decent Khalid El-Amin impression to end last season. After pairing up with Fells at Orlando's summer league, Fields moved to Russia, where he signed with Spartak St Petersburg. There, he averages 13.7 points and 3.9 assists per game (6th in the league) in the Russian league, alongside 8.9 points and 4.5 assists (8th) in the Eurocup. Fields exploded for a 36 point outing in the Russian league on December 11th, shooting 13-16 in only 35 minutes, but he's scored only 15 points on 30 shots in the four games since.

By the way, Khalid El-Amin currently leads the Ukraine in assists.



- Fish Record

West Virginia graduate and former Bobcat D'Or Fischer is spending a second season with Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Maccabi fans are a fickle bunch sometimes, and they (or at least, those that I know) seem to be clamoring for Fischer's release. His numbers are down from last year, which isn't helping. But his numbers aren't bad; 6.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.0 blocks in 20 minutes per game in the Israeli league, alongside 6.3/4.5/1.3/1.5 in 18mpg in the Euroleague. I think the fan's problem is more to do with the fact that he's American.



- Cradle Fight

Gerald Fitch led the Turkish league in scoring last season, and by quite a long way as well. He averaged 28.2 points per game (albeit in only half the season) and has since left Turkey to go to Spain. Playing for Fuenlebrada, Fitch is averaging 20.4 points in only 28.8 minutes per game, alongside 4.8 points and 2.7 rebounds. The 20.4 ppg leads the league, which means that Fitch has now led both the Turkish and Spanish leagues in scoring in consecutive seasons. Even if he has to chuck a bit to do it, how much more can a man do?



Finally....

- Racism Furze

Marcus Fizer was a member of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2007-08 season, but popped his knee out (again) before the season ended. He was under contract to Maccabi for the 2008-09 season as well, but missed the start of the season recovering from the knee injury and was waived in January as a part of the regime change. He played in only two games. Fizer then spent last summer in Puerto Rico, where he averaged 16 points and 5 rebounds. He hasn't played anywhere since then, but last week he signed in Puerto Rico for their next upcoming season, joining a team called Guaynabo. His team mate there will be Antoine Walker.

Antoine Walker and Marcus Fizer on the same team. That's a team that just got interesting.

(A furze is a type of shrub.)

Thunder acquire Eric Maynor and Matt Harpring for PETER FEHSE

I have only 48 things to say about this deal.

1) As his profile suggests, I have long regarded Peter Fehse as a yardstick for a person's NBA knowledge. If a fan knows who Peter Fehse is, they are freaking hardcore and deserve your respect.

Short story short, Peter Fehse is a lanky German with lots of hair, who was drafted in the second round in 2002 as an absolute longshot based on his combination of height and athleticism. He never amounted to anything NBA calibre, partly because he never had NBA calibre to begin with, but also because of constant injuries.

It has been over seven years since Peter Fehse was last heard of in NBA circles; indeed, he's barely even heard in German basketball cirles either. Fehse has not played this season, played in only two games last season, and did not play in 2007/08, all of which is due to injury. As long shot projects go, he was about as fail as a 49th pick can be, and is even more of a throw-in than Andy Betts was when he was traded for Peja Stojakovic in July 2006. Gotta love that.


2) Google the term "peter fehse" and see who's got the second result. This is partly why he's awesome.


3) Oklahoma City were able to make this trade because they had roughly $9 million's worth of cap room. As documented here, Oklahoma City had about as much cap room as anyone this summer, and could have bid on a number of quality players that filled a need (including Utah's very own Paul Millsap, whose new contract is ironically the reason for the need to salary dump in the first place.) They didn't do this, though, instead choosing to sign two of the worst players to have ever had ten or more year careers; Kevin Ollie and Ryan Bowen. Reasons like this are partly why; they maintain their cap flexibility for next summer, while using their untouched space to acquire talent during the season. Just like Memphis did in 2008/09. But more on that later.

It's interesting that they moved so early, too. With so many teams destined to be tax payers this year (14, at last count), you would think it'd be inevitable that, come trade deadline time, teams would be bending over in front of the Thunder, offering up penetration or whatever Sam Presti wanted if it meant that they could use some of the Thunder's cap space to save some of their excess salary. Yet instead of waiting for the deadline, Presti has acted two months early, and used it up on a projected backup. Maybe that was the best deal they can get. Maybe they have further plans for Harpring's expiring, and needed to get it while they still could. But it seems unlikely that Maynor and Harpring would have been the best available assets had they waited it out.

I guess they just really like Maynor. Perhaps a little too much so. We'll see how this works out come deadline day.


4) Fans of NBA teams never like salary dumps. They don't like seeing good basketball assets - particularly in the form of young players - being traded purely to save money, money that has been otherwise misspent in previous bad personnel moves. And that's good. They shouldn't.

But sometimes, it's the right thing to do. And this seems to be one such moment. With a payroll of $82,180,677 against a luxury tax figure of $69,920,000, the Jazz were on the hook for about $94.5 million in salary this season, their highest amount ever by over $20 million. Naturally, they're kind of not cool with that idea, especially since they're not off to the greatest start this season. So by dumping these two guaranteed salaries for no returning salary, the Jazz save oodles of cash.

(Can't be bothered to work it out exactly, but take away Harpring's salary and Maynor's salary from Utah's cap number, then take it away again in saved tax dollars, then add back on the replacement cost of the 13th player Utah is going to have to sign, and add back on whatever portion of Harpring's contract Utah was able to save on in insurance. That's your total saving. It's in the 8 figures worth. And for 8 figures worth of money, you can buy multiple replacement Maynors.

(By the way, this move brings the Jazz down to roughly $74 million in salary for this season. One more salary dumping move - potentially one involving Kyle Korver - then the Jazz might yet get under the tax threshold. If they do, then once tax rebates are included, their payroll will be nearer $64 million than $94 million. Are you really going to pay $30 million for two backup guards when you don't have to?)

(Don't ask who's going to take on Kyle Korver for no outgoing salary. Details, details.)


5) When Sam Presti uses cap space to acquire Eric Maynor for essentially nothing, he's deemed (in the early going) to be a genius. When Ed Stefanski uses a trade exception to get Rodney Carney and Jason Smith for essentially nothing, no one says anything. When Chris Wallace uses cap space to get Sam Young for essentially nothing, he's an idiot. It's all a matter of your perspective, I guess. (Or rather; it's all about what other people told you to think. Since Sam Presti is currently regarded as Golden Bollocks, in spite of the fact that he gave away Carl Landry for Sasha Kaun, then that's going to be the popular viewpoint of this deal. Which is fine. But so were the others, and yet no one listened then.)

6) The Thunder had to waive two players to accommodate the two incomers, and inevitably the settle upon Mike Wilks and Shaun Livingston. It's another setback for Livingston, who was playing reasonably well now that he's finally healthy again, but he should be able to get more work soon, particularly when 10 day contracts become available in a couple of weeks times.

Wilks is kind of used to this, but it must suck for him too.

7) The Jazz have only 12 players after this deal, so they have to sign someone. You can only have 12 players for two weeks at a time. They also now need a point guard. How about Shaun Livingston?

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 16

- Semih Erden - recipient of the funniest NBA forum thread title that I've ever seen, "Semih Erden is finally in the NBA" - never left Turkey. In his fourth year with Fenerbache, Erden is averaging 9.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in Turkish league play, along with 6.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in Euroleague play. And yes, I'm fully aware that that thread title isn't actually very funny, if at all. It's funnier when you're really overtired and have just eaten some very strong continental cheese.

- Ebi Ere is signed in Australia. If he has any sense, he'll never leave - he's a legend there. Playing for the third place Melbourne Tigers, Ere (pronounced 'Ear', at least by Rick Kamla) averages 22.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists, which is one of the highest points per game averages that this list has seen so far. Ere's teammates include former NBA centre Chris Anstey, and a man by the name of Stephen Hoare, whose mother must have had it tough. (Note: while looking up Ere's averages, I was looking up the Australian league (the NBL) on Wikipedia, to see how it was that Ere had played only 4 games. Turns out that he had actually played 23. While I was there, though, I chose to look up the New Zealand Breakers, another NBL team, and try to figure out why there was a New Zealandolian team in the Australian league. It was then that I noticed that the Breakers's former coach was called Frank Arsego. Best. Name. Ever.)

- Evan Bruce Eschmeyer - whose nickname ought really be "Almighty", given that name of his - gave up basketball many moons ago, in late 2004, due to chronic injury. Since then, he has founded an online recruiting service, gone back to Northwestern and earned further business and law degrees, campaigned a bit for the Democratic Party, and was "heaily involved" in Stanko Barac's successful presidential campaign. What he's done since then, I'm not sure, but there's sure to be something.

- Daniel Ewing is playing for Procol Harum (Prokom) in Poland, where he forms a midget backcourt with David Logan. (Also on that team - Ronnie Burrell. Remember him?) Ewing averages 14.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals in Euroleague play, and if ever you wanted to know why so many fringe or former NBA players were signing with this Polish team (Ewing, Logan, Burrell, Koko Archibong, Pat Burke), then now you know why. It's because they're in the Euroleague. And that gets you exposure. And exposure keeps the money coming in.

- Patrick Ewing Jr is with the Reno Bighorns (giggidy) in the D-League, as the Knicks still don't have a roster spot with which to sign him. (And apparently no one else wants to.) Ewing Jr averages 13.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.3 turnovers a game. Meanwhile, Patrick Ewing Sr is an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic, as is Steve Clifford, whose ability to transform his head into a ripened purple turnip during the sideline of every game continues to baffle and amaze.

- Olu Famutimi is into his second season with Khimik in the Ukraine. The second season isn't going as well as the first - O-Fam averages 10.7 points and 4.7 in the Ukranian league, but that drops to 6.7 points and 4.7 rebounds (and 32% shooting) in the EuroChallenge. Which is the EuroChallenge, you ask? To be honest, I've forgotten as well.

- Desmon Farmer made the San Antonio Spurs roster out of training camp, but it didn't last very long, as the Spurs quickly waived him to pounce on Blake Ahearn, who the Wolves had also let go. (Ahearn didn't last long in San Antonio, either. Don't know why.) Farmer subsequently buggered off to Russia, where he averages 15.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists for Spartak Primorie Vladivostok, the team in last place in the Russian superleague. Tough break.

- Nick Fazekas didn't make the Nuggets roster, went to Belgium to play for Oostende, was released after getting injured, and since signed in France with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne. Fazekas has played one game in the French league, scoring 8 points with 12 rebounds in 20 minutes. He should be in the NBA. That is all.

- I like to Peter Fehse as a yardstick for how hardcore into the NBA you are. By this I mean that if you know who Peter Fehse is, you are some kind of seriously hardcore NBA fan. Not even fans of the team that drafted him know who he is, because that team (the Sonics) no longer exist. So, here goes: Peter Fehse is a ginger German with a jewfro, whom the Sonics drafted with the 49th pick back in 2002. They did this on the assumption that this 18 year old 7 footer would pan out. But he emphatically hasn't. A combination of a lack of skill and endless injuries has pretty much put his career on hold. Unsigned since September 2007 due to an achilles tendon injury, Fehse finally signed with Braunschweig this month, the same team that he has tried to play with for about 5 seasons now. (Them and their second team, at least.) But guess what? He hurt himself again in his second game back, once again the achilles tendon, and his season is over. His career might be, too. This amusing Google Translate tells the full story, although Peter Fehse himself says it best:

"You can look at only with gallows humor take."

That you can, Peter Fehse. That you can.

- Noel Felix was playing in the D-League for The Arse, but was waived due to injury earlier this month. Felix averaged 13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game, as well as 2.9 turnovers, a strangely huge amount for a man who barely dribbles.

- Andrei Fetisov has retired and hasn't played since February 2007. Can you see a theme here? Go to the unsigned draft picks list, and cross off all those who we have deemed to be retired in these Where Are They Now posts. The list suddenly gets a lot shorter.

- Finally tonight, do you want a 31 year old athletic but unskilled power forward? If so, you might want to check out Kimani Ffriend, as the L.A. Clippers did only last year. Ffriend, a late bloomer who didn't play organised basketball until he was about 29, averages 15.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for Mersin in Turkey. Unfortunately, he's finally getting good only after he's hurtled past 30. So Europe awaits. Still.

Where Are They Now? Part 12

Daniel Ewing is starring for Khimky in Russia.

Olu Famutimi isn't starring for Khimik in the Ukraine.

Desmon Farmer is playing for the Rio Grand Valley Vipers Minge in the D-League. He recently scored 49 points in a game, which is quite a lot of points. And Farmer also recently became the D-League's all time leading scorer. That's an accomplishment, at least.

Peter Fehse is playing for the New Yorker Phantoms of the German league. It's not impossible to make it back to the big dance from such a nowhere, as Awvee Storey recently left the very same team and has spent all season with the Bucks (if that counts as the NBA). But Fehse's problem is that he's awful. A 2002 second round draft pick of the Sonics, Fehse would be the least likely to make the NBA of all the unsigned draft picks whose rights are still owned by an NBA team, were it not for the presence of a man further down this post.

Noel Felix is playing for Hapoel Jerusalem in Israel. Or rather, he's not playing for them. Someone over there with some sway has obviously missed the memo which accurately states that Noel Felix is not shit, but THE shit. It's a shame. Someone liberate him next year.

Rudy Fernandez is playing for Barcelona, but not for much longer. He also recently axed a basset hound. As you do.

Andrei Fetisov is the ultimate "who the hell". A draft choice by the Bucks back in the dark ages of Nineteen Ninety Freakin' Four, Andrei never made it to the NBA. Given that he's now 36 years old and retired, the dream is probably dead. Still, the Bucks do still own his rights, for he hasn't been retired for long enough yet for them to lose them.

This is worth elaborating on, actually. You're probably wondering, why the hell are Milwaukee keeping onto his rights, when they have no intention of signing him at any point? Well, the answer is that they're using him for his trade value. That probably seems like a stupid statement, given that the draft rights who will never join the league have about as much use as a chocolate teapot. But it's not about the value of the rights per se: it's more of a technical issue.

In trades, both teams have to give up something. What that something is, is up to them. A player, pick, or cash are options. But sometimes, they don't want to (or can't) give those things up. So they have to give up at least something, even if only as a token gesture. That's where these scrubs draft rights become useful. They can act as the "something" given up in a trade. A team can give up the draft rights to a player as their outgoing half of a trade, and add in nothing more if they so wish (or are so able).

That may sound like it's farfetched, and would never happen. Yet it does. It's rare, but it does occasionally happen. For example, when Peja Stojakovic left Indiana to sign with New Orleans, Indiana asked New Orleans - with a cash incentive to convince New Orleans to help them - to make the transaction a sign-and-trade, rather than an outright signing. The act of doing this garnered Indiana a mahoosive trade exception, which allowed them to promptly acquire Al Harrington, something that they could not previously have done without the trade exception. However, the trade had Indiana giving New Orleans some cash and Stojakovic, but New Orleans not giving out any players or draft picks back to Indiana. (And why would they add any? They're the ones doing Indiana the favour.) This meant that they had to give up something else in the trade, and the thing that they wound up forfeiting were the draft rights to Andy Betts, a beautiful and fantastic Englishman drafted in 1998 who won't play in the NBA. It's not much, but it's 'something'. And that's all that they needed it to be.

Another recent example, from this past trade deadline, saw the Memphis Grizzlies as the third team in a two team trade between Houston and New Orleans (again). The Rockets traded Mike James and Bonzi Wells to the Hornets for Bobby Jackson, in a move to get Houston under the luxury tax threshold. However, New Orleans welcomed the new players (well, Bonzi, at least), but they needed to give more outgoing salary to make the trade work for them. So they needed to include the minimum salaries of Adam Haluska and Marcus Vinicius. Houston could afford to take back Haluska, but not Vinicius as well, for that would put them back into the tax territory and make the whole move rather pointless for them. In stepped Memphis, who took on the salary cap number of Vinicius to make the trade possible, and who then promptly waived him. However, to take on Vinicius, the rules, as always, said that Memphis had to give up at least something to make the deal work. The 'something' that they chose were the draft rights to Sergei Lishouk, a no-name drafted in 2004 who did not pan out, and who will never join the NBA. Had they not held Lishouk's rights for all of these years, they wouldn't have been able to deal them, and thus they wouldn't be a part of the trade.

(Why Memphis wanted to be in this trade in the first place is a bit baffling, given that they didn't get any cash, players, or a pick for their troubles, and just seem to have taken on someone else's committed salary without getting any incentive to do so. Strange times. But hey, Memphis has made stranger moves this season. See also: the Pau Gasol trade, and the bizarre decision to sign Casey Jacobsen and Andre Brown to completely unnecessary minimum salary deals before signing Juan Carlos Navarro, which left them with only enough caproom to sign Navarro to a near-one year deal, which left J.C. signing for only one year, which means they now run the risk of losing him or having to overpay to keep him. Still, great organisation at heart. Also, note that Memphis actually got back some draft rights, too - since Lishouk was their only player whose unsigned draft rights they held, they asked Houston for one back, and got those of Malick Badiane. Badiane won't ever join the NBA, but the 0.05% possibility of him joining is ever so slightly more attractive to Memphis than the 0% certainty of Venson Hamilton - another scrub whose rights Houston owns - will ever join the NBA, and so that's why they asked for Badiane's instead. This bracket is getting longer and even duller so I'll shut up now.)

Captivating stuff, clearly.

Very rarely, retaining these rights is worth something. For example, this past summer, Washington bagged a first round pick from Memphis for the rights to Juan Carlos Navarro, and San Antonio used the value of Luis Scola's rights to be able to weasel their way under the luxury tax. Sacramento tried to get a first round pick for Dejan Bodiroga back in the early part of this decade, and the Bulls could turn Mario Austin's rights into maybe something of value if they wanted to do so. For the most part, though, these players attatched to these draft rights are utter bobbins, and thus the value of the rights in trades is used only as a technicality.

To retain these draft rights, all the team has to do is extend them a contract offer by a certain date every season. With the exception of unsigned first round draft choices, of which there are only six, (Joel Freeland, Petteri Koponen, Rudy Fernandez, Frederic Weis, Tiago Splitter and Fran Vazquez), these offers can be - and in practice, always are - fully unguaranteed one year minimum salary contracts. (In the case of the first rounders, the minimum is 80% of the rookie scale contract for their draft slot that season, with the usual guarantees of any rookie scale contract. Don't try too hard to figure out what the hell I just said, because you'll achieve nothing but boredom.) The players can in theory sign these contracts if they want, but in practice they don't. There's no point. In the case of the truly scrubby players, the NBA franchise will just waive the player before their plane even arrives. As such, these players rights continue to be held by the NBA teams for as long as the player keeps playing in professional leagues other than the NBA. (The teams lose the rights to the players exactly one year to the day after the expiration of the player's most recent professional contract. So if they keep playing, and the team keeps extending the offers, then the player's rights continue to be held.)

It has happened before where such offers are accepted when they aren't supposed to be. It rarely ends well. After the 2006 draft, the Lakers heavily advised their second round draft pick J.R. Pinnock to to go Europe, for there was no way he was going to make the roster that year. They extended the minimum offer of the one year unguaranteed minimum salary contract, but told J.R. not to bother signing it, for it was futile. Pinnock didn't listen, signed the contract, went to camp to battle for his place, lost, got waived, and now his rights - and his ticket back to the NBA one day - are gone forever. The same situation happened this summer with Demetris Nichols, who went to the Knicks despite them asking him not to, just to get waived. (His story has a happier ending - he was subsequently claimed off waivers, twice, once by Cleveland and once by Chicago, and ended up seeing out the season.) However, sometimes, it's been productive - Chris Duhon signed with the Bulls against their wishes, went to training camp, won his roster spot fair and square, beating out the two rival point guards with guaranteed contracts in Jermaine Jackson and Mike Wilks, and Duhon wound up starting most of the year for them and earning himself a $9 million conract. Carl Landry of Houston is also staring down a very nice payday after taking the same risk and succeeding. But generally, it's a stupid idea for stupid people, and so it is not common practice to accept these offers.

ShamSports.com - where genuinely useful information and childish use of the word "minge" in the same blog post happens.

Kimani Ffriend is playing for Paris Levallois in France.

D'Or Fischer is playing for Bree in Belgium. Yes, I know brie is a cheese.

Gerald Fitch is playing for Tissetanta Cantu in Italy, alongside Denham Brown.

Marcus Fizer - the great Marcus Fizer, one of my favourite players of all time for no explicable reason whatsoever - is playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. He was the subject of a specialised workout this summer, attended by represntatives of many NBA teams, in which he apparently shone. Yet he still didn't get. What's a guy got to do? (Apart from, you know.....correct his slightly huge flaw of having no basketball IQ whatsoever. And get back to the correct side of 29.)

Luis Flores plays for Indesit Fabriano in Italia Lega Two-ah. How good a team can be when sponsored by a third rate washing machine manufacturer, we'll wait and see.