Where Are They Now, 2009: Part 47

We're starting to rush through these a bit quicker now, because I'm kind of desperate to get to the letter U for reasons that will soon become anti-climactically apparent. And also because you love it.

- Chester "Tre" Simmons is signed with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, but is not in the rotation, averaging only 9.7 minutes and 4 points per game in the Israeli league with several DNP's thrown in. Simmons was also this week involved in a fight in (and outside) a nightclub that saw teammate D'Or Fischer have his face slashed by unknown assailants, resulting in micro-surgery needed to correct nerve damage. Allegedly, this group of unknowns had gone to the club to seek vengeance on Fischer's father, who was visiting Fischer at the time and with whom they had had a "run-in" earlier on. However, Fischer's father, who was at the club, had already left, and that's when it all kicked off. Simmons was unhurt, and it was him who took Fischer to the hospital, but by being out at the club in the first place the two were violating a team rule, and so will probably be punished. In Simmons's case, give how little they seem to need him (or like him), he might get released.

- Courtney Sims is back in the D-League after his second ten day contract with the Suns expired anonymously last month. He has totalled 53 points in the two games since his return to the Iowa Energy, and averages 23.0 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. The blocks per game numbers are coming way down, however, as Sims found it a tad tricky to keep up the average of 8 blocks per game that he held during the first two contests. (He had a 22 point, 17 rebound, 11 block triple double on his debut for the Energy. That's Olumide Oyedeji-esque.)

- Ha Seung-Jin's mate Nedzad Sinanovic is on loan from Real Madrid to Burgos in the LEB Gold (Spanish second division), where he frankly kind of sucks a bit. Sinanovic averages 9.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.1 fouls in 17.3 minutes per game, still seemingly extremely raw despite being about to turn 26. Nevertheless, regardless of his non-existent NBA prospect, his aborted attempt at a duel with Ha during the Blazers's 2005 offseason will forever cement his legacy as one of the game's true greats, even if his play is completely insignificant. Here is a picture of Ned, as well as a crudely translated and highly uninsightful interview with him.

- Ramunas Siskauskas, who declared for the NBA draft one year too early, is the best player on a CSKA Moscow team that is arguably the best in Europe. Siskauskas averages 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the Russian Superleague (where CSKA are undefeated), and 10.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in the Euroleague.

- Marcus Slaughter started the season with Bremerhaven in Germany, but left after 8 games. He did, though, manage to average 18.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in that time. Slaughter then moved to France, where, playing for Le Havre (I've been there!), he averages 14.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals in the French league, alongside 12.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.5 steals in the six games he played for Le Havre's Eurocup campaign.

- Tamar Slay is playing for Air Avellino, a struggling Italian team. Slay averages 14.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in the Italian league (admittedly in only 3 games), along with 9.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in the Euroleague. Slay returned from a six week layoff on Sunday and scored a game high 17 points for Avellino in their SerieA match against La Fortezza Bologna. They lost anyway.

- My Facebook friend Uros Slokar is signed with Fortitudo Bologna (not the same team as La Fortezza Bologna). Slokar averages 4.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in the Italian league, but he hasn't played since late December. A quick scan of his Facebook wall shows a post that says "hi uros how is your hand?", leading me to believe that Uros Slokar has broken his hand. And this is why adding fringe NBA players to your Facebook friends list is worth it.

- Kirk Snyder is in China, so we'll cut the sizzle and give you the steak; Zhejiang, 32.8, 10.1, 4.4.

- Jefferson Sobral averages 14.1 points and 5.5 rebounds for Joinvile of Brazil. But before the next entry, a short quiz.

Q: Who the hell is Jefferson Sobral?
A: He's a man who earned a training camp spot with the Lakers in 2002, and again with the Nuggets in 2006.

Q: How the hell did he do that?
A: Don't know.

- D-League starlet Pape Sow is with Armani Jeans Milano, where he recently underwent surgery for a broken nose. (Or at least, this is my interpretation of the Italian sentence "Pape Sow e' stato operato nella mattinata al setto nasale". For the record, I can't speak a word of Italian.) Sow averages 8.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in the Italian league, alongside 7.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the Euroleague.

- Finally, Vassilis Spanoulis is with Panathinaikos, where he has been since the whole NBA thing went wrong for him. Spanner averages 9.3 points and 3.7 assists per game in the Euroleague, alongside 9.0 points and 2.5 assists per game in the Greek league. I'm now off to watch one of his games. See ya.

Summer signings, round 13

- After signing Brian Skinner and waiving Josh Powell, as described in the previous blog post, the Clippers finally did the other obvious thing and withdrew the qualifying offer to Nick Fazekas. This moves leaves them with roughly $1.4 million in remaining cap space. However, if they hadn't made the moves to sign draftees Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan and Mike Taylor unnecessarily early, as well as the even more unnecessary Jason Hart trade, then that number would be more like $2.5 million. I'm going to keep bloody going on about this until someone patronisingly rubs me on the head and tells me that it's OK.

- Adonal Foyle re-signed with the Orlando Magic, who still don't have a good backup big man. I'm all about Marcin Gortat, though. I like him. Also, free agent Magic guard Carlos Arroyo signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, a move insignificant of itself, but which serves to make this year's already weal free agency point guard crop even weaker. Someone needs to either gamble on Shaun Livingston, or get Kevin Ollie back in this league. Anything to keep Smush Parker out. (NB: Earl Boykins was rumoured to be going to Maccabi, but that was before the Arroyo signing was announced, so I doubt that's still on. However, for all his failings, Boykins is maybe now the best free agent left on the market. That's how bad the market is.)

- While we're on the subject of crappy journeyman point guards, Anthony Goldwire is still going, signing for Egaleo in Greece. Goldwire's kicking 40's door down, in the words of the lyrically superior Eminem, but he's still getting basketball jobs. So he's either broke, or he deeply loves the game. I truly hope it's the latter.

- The Lakers signed a short D-League scoring guard, Dwayne Mitchell. Seems like a weird place to start when they have other depth concerns, but oh well. I watched qutie a bit of the Lakers summer league, and Mitchell didn't play much behind such luminaries as Joe Crawford, Coby Karl, Brian Roberts and Cedric Bozeman. I don't know what to make of that.

- Julius Hodge says he wants to make an NBA comeback. Hmmmm. For those unaware, Hodge played for the New Jersey Nets summer league team. For those also unaware, the New Jersey Nets basketball operations person thingy is Kiki Vanderweghe. For those yet further unaware, Kiki Vanderweghe is the man who drafted Hodge way too frigging high back when Vanderwghe was the basketball operations person thingy with the Denver Nuggets. Yet even while crossing the country to follow the one guy to date who thought him worthy of an NBA contract, Hodge couldn't get himself another one. That doesn't bode well.

- Kevinn Pinkney and Shan Foster have agreed to sign with Juve Caserta in Italy. Therefore, Shan Foster must continue to wait to PLAAAAY IN THE NBAAAAAAAA". (I laughed at myself. Judge me if you must.)

- Another Dallas secound round draft pick, Renaldas Seibutis, has signed with Bilbao in Spain. Do you know how hard it is to think up good Renaldas Seibutis jokes? Let me tell you. It's very hard indeed. So I won't bother.

- Ndudi Ebi has signed with Carife Ferrara in Italy, alongside Harold Jamison. There just aren't enough Harold Jamison updates in the world today. Do you know what you get if you Google News-search "Harold Jamison"? Nothing. Well, nothing in English, anyway. Fucking shame.

- Steven Smith has signed with Kolossos Rhodes in Greece, perhaps the finest non-Phillipino team name I've ever seen. Such imperialism! Such history! Such distinction! Such pressure! Good luck Steven.

- Uros Slokar has signed for Fortitudo Bologna. By the way, if you like professional basketball players with accessibility, you'll LOVE Uros Slokar's website. Feel free to email him. Tell him I sent you. Offer him the job as this site's main web developer. Don't tell him that it's unpaid.

Remaining FA's that don't suck too much

Most of the meaty bits of this year's free agency crop have already been dealt with. But some residual pap still remains, and some teams still need to plug some holes.

So, for the record, here's the best of what is left out there.

(Note: players that have signed in leagues other than the NBA are not listed, nor are people that weren't on an NBA roster to end last year - click this bugger right here for a very long free agents list. Also not listed are people that have agreed to sign somewhere but who have not done it yet - see this page for that kind of stuff.)


Point guards:

Charlie Bell (restricted), Earl Boykins, Gary Payton, Keith McLeod, Andre Barrett (restricted), Donell Taylor (restricted), Jeff McInnis, Jannero Pargo, Royal Ivey, Mike Wilks, Darrick Martin, Dee Brown (restricted), Junior Harrington, Randy Livingston, Brevin Knight


Shooting guards:

Eddie Jones, Jarvis Hayes, DerMarr Johnson, Derek Anderson, Aleksander Pavlovic (restricted), Dahntay Jones, Alan Anderson, Rawle Marshall, C.J. Miles (restricted), Devin Brown, Roger Mason, Hassan Adams


Small forwards:

Ruben Patterson, Mickael Pietrus (restricted), James Posey, Jumaine Jones, Josh Powell, Jalen Rose, James Singleton, Linton Johnson , Ime Udoka, Matt Barnes, Aaron McKie (really old), Mike Hall (restricted), James White


Power forwards:

Melvin Ely, Austin Croshere, Corliss Williamson, Chris Webber, Marc Jackson, Michael Sweetney, Malik Allen, Zarko Cabarkapa, Stanislav Medvedenko, Danny Fortson, Andray Blatche (restricted), Alan Henderson, Lawrence Roberts, Uros Slokar, Pape Sow, Alexander Johnson, Cliff Robinson


Centres (spelt correctly):

P.J. Brown, Brian Skinner, Vitaly Potapenko, Michael Olowokandi, Anderson Varejao (restricted), Calvin Booth , Michael Ruffin, Martynas Andriuskevicius, Jake Tsakalidis, Earl Barron (restricted), Rafael Araujo, Dwayne Jones, Esteban Batista, Scot Pollard, Jamal Sampson, Pat Burke , Bo Outlaw, Dikembe Mutombo, Kelvin Cato, Kevin Willis