Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 8

Drew Gooden was neither waived nor traded this week. Therefore, for all that fuss about his 'novel' contract, nothing actually happened with it. Now, he's just a plain old expiring.

You had probably already noticed this, however, as Marc Stein wrote about it earlier. Marc Stein and me are forever writing the same things. Same as with that luxury tax breakdown thing. And because of that, no one reads it when I do it, because he writes for the 60th most popular website in the world and I write for the 406,478th. It's not my fault, and it's certainly not his either, but sweet sheet is it annoying. *shakes fist*

Anyway.


- Curtis Borchardt

Borchardt left Spain for the lower standard French league this summer, but he did so because the team he joined - ASVEL Villerbaune - are a Euroleague team this season. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened; after only one Euroleague game and four French league games, Borchardt got injured. He broke his hand and will miss the remainder of the regular season.

In the one Euroleague game, Borchardt totalled 20 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks. That's good. But he also gets injured every year without fail. And that's not good.



- Ruben Boumtje Boumtje

Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje is also a Euroleague centre this year, playing his second consecutive season with EWE Baskets Oldenburg. In the German league he's averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.6 fouls and 1.4 blocks in 21 minutes per game, but he's struggling a lot more in the higher standard Euroleague, averaging only 4.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 fouls in 17 minutes per game.

Since EWE Oldenburg are a Bundesliga team, let's play Count The Germans. Oldenburg employ a 9 man rotation, and, as is often the case, there's only one German in it; backup swingman Daniel Hain. The rest is made of Boom Boom, four Americans, two Serbians and a Croatian. This is pretty much the case for the whole league. I am increasingly convinced that the Germans should tighten up their import regulations somewhat.



- Giannis Bourousis

Bourousis averages 10.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.8 steals per game in 20 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.7 steals in 16 minutes per game in the Euroleague.

Some old farts are defiant in their belief that the 440 odd players in the NBA are the best players in the world, and that very very very few players from leagues outside of the NBA cannot compete. This myth is being slowly broken down over time, but some people cling to it, defiant as they are that D-League numbers are irrelevant and that European players haven't the talent to succeed in the NBA. To those people, I ask the following; Bourousis is 7'0 tall, strong, athletic, quick, versatile, mobile and skilled. He can defend the interior and the perimeter, run the court, shoot, post up, rebound and finish with authority. And he just turned 26. Which part of that couldn't translate to the NBA?

It is true that all of the world's very best play in the NBA. But there's many a player outside of it who could perform well in it. Bourousis is one of these, and it probably won't be too long until he's doing exactly that.

I have no idea how you spell his name in English, by the way. This is as close as I can get. It might he Ioannis. Who knows.



- Ryan Bowen

Bowen was signed by the Thunder this offseason in a move I've already talked about way too often. He made the roster ahead of Mike Harris, but was waived after a month to accommodate Mike Wilks. He has not signed elsewhere since, and nothing about his Twitter account suggests that he's in a rush to do so again. But this is Ryan Bowen we're talking about. In term of NBA staying power, this man is a pioneer.



- Bruce Bowen

As you probably already know. Bowen was traded from the Spurs to the Bucks, then waived, and retired this summer. He now works for ESPN as an analyst.



- Justin Bowen

After going undrafted out of Illinois-Chicago in 2006, Bowen spent two years in the D-League with the Austin Toros, where he was pretty decent. Last year he embarked on a world tour in pursuit of better money, starting in Australia (where he averaged 16.4ppg and 7.4rpg for the Gold Coast Blaze) and moving to Korea in February. There he played for two teams; Mobis Phoebus (10.6ppg, 5.4rpg) and Seoul Knights (14.0ppg, 4.5rpg), before returning to the Toros for the final two games of their season (6.0ppg, 5.0rpg). He's stayed with the Toros this season, but his numbers across the board are down from two years ago. Bowen averages 9.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game with only 135 points on 126 shots.

Bowen is in and out of the Toros starting lineup, depending on that week's opinion of former Duke forward David McClure, who is averaging 4/4 in 18 minutes. Speaking of McClure, he's grown his hair out, and here's the result.






- Brandon Bowman

Bowman has moved from Germany to Turkey, where he's playing for Tofas Bursa. On the season he is averaging 14.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks, shooting 48% from the field, 33% from three point range and 58% from the foul line. The points, rebounds and blocks are all team highs.

In between those two gigs, Bowman appeared on the Sixers' training camp roster. In the last two years, the Sixers have brought in 11 players for training camp, and kept none of them. They've improved 11 CV's without spending a single penny of salary cap. Is that magnanimous? I can't tell.



- Cedric Bozeman

Cedric Bozeman is signed in China with Beijing Ducks. Of all the animals to use as a basketball team's nickname, I think "Ducks" has to pretty far down the list. I get what they've done with the ol' food thing there, but a duck is a slow waddling animal with no discernible ball skills. It's not the iconography you want in a basketball team. You may as well have called them the Lab Rats, the Chaffinches or the Beijing Hagfish.

Not many imports in the CBA are guards, although this year there's more than usual. Bozeman is playing point guard and averaging 22.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.6 steals per game, all team highs except for the rebounds (which rank second). His offense has gotten better year, and specifically so has the three point jumpshot. This has sort of continued; Bozeman is shooting 35.3% on three pointers on the season, which sounds much more impressive than saying he's 6-17 in 8 games.



- Michael Bradley

Michael Bradley retired after the 2007-08 season, which he played in Spain. He initially wanted to develop a broadcasting career, but instead he and his wife Ellen has started a business called Moksha Yoga, which does yogaey stuff. He is also now both an NBA and FIBA certified agent, starting a company called Bradley Sports Management. Bring a fledgling operation, they don't have a whole host of clients yet, but two that they do have whom you may have heard of include Louisville graduate Andre McGee (who started his first professional season in Germany but who left last month), and Providence graduate Jonathan Kale (who is still in Germany; both he and McGee signed with Phoenix Hagen, a Bundesliga team).



- Shawn Bradley

As was recently covered in the 1993 Draft WATN roundup, Bradley is long since retired and now works in a school. Here is the same gif from that article, as it can never have too many airings;





Finally.....

- Torraye Braggs

Ex-Rockets forward Braggs has been on a hell of a world tour these last few years. He last played in the NBA down the stretch of the 2004-05 season, when the Rockets brought him back, and yet even though he signed 6 NBA contracts with 5 different teams in his time, Braggs wound up only ever playing 22 games and 178 minutes in the NBA.

Since 2005, Braggs has played in South Korea, the D-League, Russia, China, Israel, Latvia, Iran, Jordan, Mexico and Venezuela. He is currently in Uruguay, plsying for a team called Malvin. His silhouette is very much that of a white man.




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 Uruguayan ones.

Summer signings, round 15

- Chris McCray signed with Rimini in Italy, a town whose very name made it destined for basketball greatness (and thus, by proxy, destined for Chris McCray). While we're on the subject of people named McCray, I'd like to extend an RIP to Colin McRae. And Steve Fossett. And Glenn Miller. And Matthew Harding. And Bernie Mac. And Mother Teresa. And basically anybody who has ever died. Except for maybe Fred West. And Hitler. And Judas. And Saddam Hussein. And Mutsuo Toi. I'll stop this now before you find a less preachy blog to read instead.

- Andre Emmett and JamesOn Curry are both reportedly negotiating with Hapoel Jerusalem. I know that this blog is about "signings" and not negotations, since a whole lot more negotiating goes on than signing. But, sod it. I'm a maverick. I don't play by the rules. Not even the arbitrary ones that I created in the first place. (Kevinn Pinkney was also supposed to be talking to Hapoel, despite a previous blog post relaying the news that he'd signed for an Italian team. However, now another report has come out saying that he's signed with a third team, also in Italy, called Cantu. The lesson, as ever: screw Danny Ainge.)

- Eugene Jeter signed with Vive Menorca of Spain (specifically, the island of Menorca), much to the chagrin of at least one Minnesota Timberwolves fan who thought that Jeter could be the answer to their team's "oh Jesus, someone has to pass the ball?" problem. Since the drafting of Derrick Rose, Eugene Jeter is no longer the best professional point guard in the world with the nickname "Pooh", so the question has to be asked as to why we should still care about him. (Poor old Pooh Richardson is now down to third place, despite his basketball career being far more successful than that of Pooh Jeter's to date. These rankings might not be official, or accurate. Also, if anyone wants to conduct a study as to why only point guards are nicknamed "Pooh", I'll help finance your work, to the tune of a couple of quid.)

- The L.A. Clippers signed Jason Williams, thus pretty much concluding their business for the offseason. At times in these posts, I have slated the Clippers for what I deem to be some cap mismanagement. (I stand by it, although it has been pointed out to me that the Eric Gordon signing was probably necessitated by the common practice that dictates that rookies won't play in summer camps without a contract. I sort of knew that already, but I'm willing to concede the point anyway, because I'm entirely brilliant and just a little bit self-congratulatory.) However, they deserve due credit: this summer, they have signed Baron Davis, Ricky Davis, Brian Skinner and Jason Williams as free agents, while also taking on the market value contract of Marcus Camby while giving up nothing. That right there is a succession of moves that sees decent-to-fine players obtained for good value - Baron Davis signed for far less than the maximum, Ricky Davis signed cheaply for one year, Skinner took the minimum, Williams may as well have done, and Camby is tied in for two years at an extremely good price for an elite centre. For this, the Clippers deserve their due. I still worry about their long term future, or lack thereof (although they do have something of a 2010 plan on the go), and they aren't going to win much other than a playoff spot in the immediate future. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and signing good players for good prices never is. So, kudos.

- The Josh Smith played itself out thusly: Atlanta refused to budge from their lowball of a 5 year, $45 million offer; Smith looked elsewhere; Smith signed a 5 year and $58 million offer sheet from Memphis; Atlanta quickly matched. So that's pretty sensible all around. The news that Memphis isn't entirely against the idea of spending their cap room comes as a welcome relief, though, and it gives me an idea, one which will future in the next blog post. (Hint: It's based around an anagram of Neb Gondor. And the fact that I just made that a link may give the game away slightly.)

- Josip Sesar has signed with Zrinjski Mostar in Bosnia, and not the Boston Celtics. Damn shame.

- Sun Yue, second round pick of the Lakers last year, has agreed to sign with the team. Apparently, the important Lakers people reckon that Yue may get some point guard time, and Lamar Odom will also spent some time playing at the guard spots. Verdict: I think they're lying.

- Miami signed Yakhouba Diawara because they didn't think that they had enough players under contract yet.

- The Hawks signed Thomas Gardner and Othello Hunter. The Gardner signing, while largely inconsequential, gives the Hawks six guards not named Salim Stoudamire. That, plus this rather ominous blog report thing, gives me the vague idea that maybe Salim Stoudamire isn't going to back to the Atlanta Hawks next year. So, if there's anyone out there with sway in this 'ere NBA world - do me a favour. Either sign Salim Stoudamire, or help us find somebody who will. He's like Jannero Pargo, and everyone likes Jannero Pargo (or, rather, everyone hates playing against him.) He'll probably come cheaper, too. I demand that someone sign him. I have no leverage with which to make such demands, but that didn't do Luol Deng any harm. (Devin Brown also needs a home, but I think I'm over this now.)

- The New Orleans Hornets re-signed Ryan Bowen. Yeehaw. The Hornets' bench now reads thusly: Mike James, Rasual Butler, James Posey, Bowen, Hilton Armstrong, Julian Wright, and Melvin Ely. Who out of that lot do they expect to be a sixth man, exactly? They appear to have moved on from Pargo and Bonzi Wells, two players always willing to fashion a shot, even if they're not always a good idea. So who's going to provide the bench offense here? I'm aware that Chris Paul is basically Jesus, who could get even me an easy basket, but the real Jesus had a few days off, too. (He got his carpentry NVQ at a young age. Good plan. It's always a good idea to have a fallback option.) So the Hornets could really use someone that can find, take and make a shot off the bench. Mike James isn't getting it done, and Ryan Bowen really isn't getting it done.

Hey, I know! Maybe the Hornets could use Salim Stoudamire!

30 teams in 88 or so days: New Orleans

Players acquired via free agency or trade:

Morris Peterson (4 years, $22.4 million)
Melvin Ely (two year minimum)
David Wesley (acquired from Cleveland, to be waived)
Ryan Bowen (one year minimum)
Trey Johnson (two year minimum)



Players acquired via draft:

First round: Julian Wright (13th overall)
Second round: Adam Haluska (43rd overall)



Players retained:

Jannero Pargo (re-signed, two years, $3,806,400)



Players departed:

Brandon Bass (signed with Dallas)
Devin Brown (signed with Cleveland)
Marc Jackson (signed in Greece)
Linton Johnson (signed in Spain)
Desmond Mason (signed with Milwaukee)
Cedric Simmons (traded to Cleveland)



Bobbins:

It's hard to see quite what New Orleans planned to do going into this offseason. If their intention was to surround Chris Paul with shooters, as it probably was and definitely should have been, then it's a job well done. In retaining Jannero Pargo while bringing in Morris Peterson and Adam Haluska to replace Devin Brown and Desmond Mason, the Hornets outside shooting takes another step forward. And when combined with the returning Rasual Butler and Bobby Jackson, as well as the return from injury of Peja Stojakovic, the Hornets outside shooting will be a strength this upcoming season. The backcourt depth in general is pretty strong.

The frontcourt depth, however, is another matter.

New Orleans seems content to roll with only four recognised big men, two of whom are Hilton Armstrong and Melvin Ely. Ely's pretty bad despite one season of decency (and a contract season at that. How coincidental), whereas Armstrong is coming off of an incredibly raw rookie year. This seems to me as though it should be more of a pressing concern to Hornets management, given that the two players they're backing up (Tyson Chandler and David West) haven't exactly been the poster boys for healthy living at any point in their NBA careers.

Should injuries affect their frontcourt (and it will, because they're the Hornets), New Orleans is left with the salivating prospect of having to play one of their six small forwards in a small ball lineup. This might not be too bad if Julian Wright proves himself able to defend most power forwards in this league, but if he can't, Stojakovic may wind up having to do it. Which would be.....um....carnage.

Why you would bring in Morris Peterson for such an amount of money when you already had Rasual Butler, all the while letting Devin Brown walk for £1.2 million and letting Linton Johnson fall out of the NBA, seems a bit dumbfouding. Peterson is better than all of those players, but it seems silly to spend your mid level exception on a medium upgrade from Peterson to Butler of what is basically the same player. Especially when you could clearly use a big man that doesn't suck, just drafted a small forward, and also have the hugely overpaid former All Star Peja Stojakovic for the role.

And why they then effectively sell their 5th big man who they drafted not 18 months before (Cedric Simmons), trading him for an unguaranteed contract and nothing else, was flat out weird. There must be something seriously wrong with Cedric. Or Jeff Bower.

Nonetheless, despite my compulsory criticism, the Hornets did not lose a lot in these upgrades. Players such as Marc Jackson, Johnson and Brown made for some nice depth, but they weren't rotation players in an ideal world anyway. And the Hornets rotation as it stands is quite good. It's improved upon where it was, and this team would have been a playoff team last year with some better health.

But there's still flaws here. The injuries are going to happen again, even if it's to a lesser degree. You can't assemble and injury prone roster and then complain that injuries affect your season. You should know that in advance. The Hornets had it particularly rough last year with only Jannero Pargo playing more than 75 games, and he was supposed to be a third stringer. But numerous injuries is a situation that is almost certainly going to happen again. That's what happens when you spend big money on Bobby Jackson, Stojakovic and David West.

Also, there's quite a bit of irony to be found in wanting to assemble a roster of shooters and then signing Ryan Bowen. But never mind.



Next year:

So much - perhaps too much - of the season relies on the starting frontcourt trio of Stojakovic, West and Chandler. While Chris Paul is the star player around whom the team is rightly built around, he needs plenty of help to do so. Assembling a team of shooters around Paul helps, and the starting frontcourt pairing of Chandler and West is young and somewhat dynamic. But those two are also the only plus rebounders on the team, and only Chandler and Armstrong provide much interior defense. To rely on such fragile players and minimal depth is open to question, and so that's what I'm doing.

Having spent huge amounts of money on this trio last year, the Hornets didn't get too great of a return. Chandler enjoyed a wonderful bounceback season, but West and Stojakovic played only 65 games combined, leaving the Hornets short of offense for much of the season. That won't cut it if the Hornets are to crack .500 and make the playoffs, something which they have the talent to do.

Chandler, especially, needs to have an epic (or at least comparable) season. His career to date has gone:

1st year - Poor
2nd year - Decent
3rd year - Poor (injury permitting)
4th year - Really good
5th year - Utter shite
6th year - Really good

Last year he emerged as a an elite rebounder, and rediscovered some of his lost offensive skill. His offensive skill always peaked at mediocre, based largely around the unattractive but effective flail towards the rim, and an extremely mediocre jump/free throw shot. After taking the 2005 offseason off, though, Chandler lost these skills, and his subsequent confidence in his abilities. They look to be on the way back, which bodes well for the Hornets, but he needs to end this cycle for the Hornets to succeed this year.

And they can do that. They're not in the West's elite, and they're not all that young any more (West is now 27, and their wing players are all veterans). Nonetheless, it's a playoff calibre team, which isn't finished, but one which has an identity and is fairly well rounded.

They just need to stay somewhat healthy.