Eaton went undrafted out of Oklahoma State because he didn't have NBA talent. He joined the D-League and was assigned to the Tulsa 66ers, but he plaayed in only 2 games, totalling 1 point, 1 assists and 5 turnovers. Tulsa then released him in December. The fact that he's 5'10 and 260lbs might be why:
Former Timberwolves draft pick Ebi spent last year in Italy's SerieA, but this year downgraded to LegaDue, the division below. (Why LegaDue is not called SerieB, I do not know.) The obvious benefit there is to Ebi's numbers, and he's responded with averages of 16.1 points, 13.4 rebounds, 3.1 steals, 1.4 blocks and 1.3 assists per game. He leads Rimini in rebounds (with no one else having more than 4.5), steals and blocks, and is second in points only to Carlton Myers.
Carlton Myers used to be one of the best scorers in Italy, averaging over 20ppg in SerieA for about 26 years. Myers has played all but 7 games of his 19 year career in Italy and turns 39 in late March, so he's a long way out of his prime, but even at this ripe old age he is scoring a very efficient 17 ppg at a decent standard of basketball. This is not comparable to his best, though, for Carlton Myers once scored 87 points in a SerieA game. This occurred as recently as 1995, and here's a, uh, really awkward video of some of it.
Carlton Myers is pretty much an Italian, despite the name, being born to an Italian mother and spending basically his whole life there. However, he was born in London, as was Ndudi Ebi. Rimini also boast another Englishman, Mike Bernard, a former South Florida bench player and English international. Because of this trio, Basket Crabs Rimini are my favourite Italian second division. Also factoring into that decision is the fact that their name is Crabs Rimini.
Former Sacramento Kings draft pick Corsley Edwards is in China....or he was, until he broke his finger this week and returned home. On the season, Edwards is averaging 29.3 points, 8.3 points and 2.7 assists in 39 minutes per game, shooting 55% from the field, 69% from three point range (somehow) and 78% from the line. Included in there was a 50 point outing and a 47 point outing, and in 15 games he never scored less than 20. Pretty good, Corsley. Pretty good.
John Edwards spent two years in the NBA. He signed as an undrafted free agent out of Kent State with the Pacers in 2004, played spot minutes in 25 games, and then the Hawks signed him to an inexplicable two year, $2.08 million contract in the summer of 2005. After one year with Atlanta - in which he totalled 70 points, 48 rebounds and 76 fouls - the Hawks traded him back to the Pacers as filler in the Al Harrington deal. The Pacers then waived him, and after a training camp contract with the Timberwolves in 2007, that was it for John Edwards in the NBA.
Edwards has spent two of the last three years in the D-League, seemingly aware that the knock on him is his "rawness." Last year for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Edwards averaged 9.3 and 6.9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game, fairly sedate numbers for a centre-starved league. Those numbers are particularly sedate when you consider that Edwards is now 28 years old. You can't be raw forever.
He did not initially return to the D-League this year, instead signing with Kolossos Rhodes in Greek's AI League. In theory, he was going to provide an NBA calibre frontcourt along with recent Heat draft pick, Robert Ntoziep. In practice, though, he was not very good. Edwards played only 36 minutes on the entire season, totalling 12 points, 5 rebounds and 8 fouls. Kolossos then waived him and signed David Monds as his replacement.
This was only the second time in his career that John Edwards has signed outside of America, and after his release he returned to what he knows best, joining the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League. In 5 games Edwards is averaging 7.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.0 fouls and 1.8 turnovers per game. He's the same player that he ever was. And therein lies the problem.
After being sufficiently badass enough to win the Eurocup single handedly (kind of) for Lietuvos Rytas last season, Eidson went where the money was and signed for Maccabi Tel-Aviv. In the Israeli league he is averaging 10.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists, alongside 13.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the Euroleague. Maccabi fans kind of hate him at times, but then again, Maccabi fans kind of hate everything at times.
This time last year, Eisley was working for the Nets for free as a "coaching associate", which is basically a player development coach. Having no evidence to the contrary, I am going to assume that he's still there.
Former Maryland and Atlanta Hawks big man Ekezie last played in April 2007. In February 2008 he established a new online venture called ZeepTravel, with the aims of being Nigeria's primary travel portal. Here is Ekezie talking about it.
Drexel offshoot Elegar, who made his name with a strong showing at the Portsmouth Invitational in 2008, is signed in Turkey. Playing for Bornova, The Elegarnce averages 12.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.
Elegar has a teammate called Ihsan Yalcin Azizmahmutogullari. An anagram of that is oh shut up.
Before Omri Casspi came Lior Eliyahu. Yahoo, an athletic Israeli forward whose rights are owned by the Houston Rockets, left his native Israel this summer and joined Caja Laboral in Spain. The side effect of that has been a dramatic decline in playing time; Eliyahu averages 17.9 minutes per game in the Euroleague, but only 12.8 minutes per game in the ACB. He averages 7.1/3.6 in the Euroleague and 4.4/1.8 in the ACB.
George Washington product Elliott spent the first two years of his previous career with the Sioux Falls Skyforce and Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League. This summer, however, he gave it all up and moved abroad, to the basketball hotbed that is Finland. Hmmmm. I'm not up to date on the salary structure of Finnish basketball, nor am I even out of date with it, but I can't imagine it pays a whole lot better than the D-League. And the standard isn't better.
Elliott is playing for the deliciously named Honka Playboys, the team better known for producing the mighty Petteri Koponen. He is averaging 17.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game, shooting 50% from the field and 26% from three point range.
Another Skyforce ex, Ellis started the year in Uruguay playing for a team called Union Atletica, where he paired up with former NBA player Art Long. Ellis averaged 11.7 points and 8.6 rebounds in 7 games; Long is averaging 15.4/9.9 through 14. Ellis has since moved to the Ukraine, which is about as far away from Uruguay as you can get geographically, if not alphabetically. He has played one game for his new team, Dnipro, totalling 2 points, 6 rebounds and 3 turnovers.
Tyrone Ellis, Southern Nazarene's finest, is spending his third season with Cajasol Sevilla in Spain's ACB. He is averaging 11.3 points and not much else on the season, shooting 42% from the field and 40% from three point range. Ellis takes 6 three pointers a game, which gives you some idea of his role on the team.
Ellis holds a Georgian passport, one obtained through those hitherto unexplained means that sometimes seem to befall decent American players in Europe. [Georgia is a country, by the way. Zaza Pachulia plays for them.] Another American Georgian passport holder is Shammond Williams; both Ellis and Williams have had the common decency to at play for the national team of the country whose generous gift of a passport greatly enhanced their basketball careers. That's the way it should be, Dan Dickau.
Dowell is signed in Israel, putting up numbers quite impressively similar to those of his senior season in college. He's playing for Altshuler Saham Galil Gilboa - a team that really needs to settle upon one name only - and is averaging 9.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.5 steals per game.
There are two types of players in Israel; Israelis and Americans. That's it. Despite Israel being kind of in Europe, there are only a handful of non-Israeli European players in the league. And by "a handful," I mean "two." The breakdown of the nationalities of players on Israeli league rosters, according to Eurobasket.com, goes like this;
- 60 thoroughbred Israelis
- 50 thoroughbred Americans
- 7 Americans with dual Israeli citizenship due to residency (Chris Watson, Jason Thomas, Jeron Roberts, Shawn Weinstein, David Bluthenthal, Derrick Sharp, and ex-NBA player Cory Carr)
- 1 Australian (Julian Khazzouh)
- 1 player born in Belarus, but who has lived in Israel since childhood, goes by an Israeli name, and who holds a dual Israeli passport (Vladimir Yiermish/Vladi Ermichin)
- 1 Welshman who has played in Israeli since he was a teenager and who holds an Israeli passport (Tal Michael Dunne)
- 1 hybrid who was born in Sarajevo to Serbian and Bosnian parents, whose family fled to Israel during the war, and who then moved to America, but who considers himself Israeli (Robert Rothbart; read his quite amazing story here)
- ......and 1 thoroughbred Serbian (Sasa Bratic)
I don't know if it's all just a big coincidence, politically motivated, or because of some instilled belief that American players bring a level of flair that other countries can't match (a belief which does exist in portions of the continent). But whatever it is, it's a pretty jarring conclusion. 123 of the 126 players in the Israeli league hold either an American or an Israeli passport. If it's diversity they want, it's diversity they did not get.
Heat draft pick Robert Dozier is American, but he's not in Israel. Instead, he's signed in Greece, which means he has to spell his name weirdly due to the Greek alphabet that I don't understand. (This is primarily because I have made no attempt to.) Known in Greece by what reads on the back of his jersey as being a bit like "Robert Ntoziep", Dozier is playing for Kolossos Rhodes, and averaging 9.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. That's "R" as in "Robert Ntoziep," "O" as in "Oh my God, it's Robert Ntoziep"........et cetera.
Until recently, Jazz draft pick Tadija Dragicevic was a member of Crvena Zvezda in Zagreb, and the team he's been with for his whole life. A team captain, Dragicevic left the team during the summer, but return just before the season's start, and was once again the team's best player. He averaged 13.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in the Eurocup, alongside 12.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the Adriatic League.
However, Dragicevic left Red Star last week. And this time, he actually did it. Like the rest of the team, Dragicevic wasn't being paid, so he left the team and signed with Lottomatica Roma in Italy. In doing so, Dragicevic agreed to forego the 120,000 Euros that Red Star still owed him. That was pretty magnanimous of him.
It was my very great pleasure to watch Dragicevic a few times at Crvena Zvezda this year. He is a very polished offensive player. He can drive, shoot and post, to great effect and with poise, grace, charm, penache and refinement. However, he can't defend anybody. And he never could.
Despite signing with the Denver Nuggets for training camp - which would boost any man's CV - Draper finds himself in only the Italian second division this season. Playing for Prima Veroli, Draper averages 15.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.8 steals per game, shooting 50% from the field, 43% from three point range and 79% from the line. Draper signed as a replacement for Dawan Robinson, who got hurt in October and who still hasn't returned. Yet despite those statistics, Robinson doesn't lead the team in a single category. Not even steals. We'll find out more when we get to H.
Former Nets draft pick Drejer signed a 3 year deal with Lottomatica Roma in August 2007, but played only 6 games with the team before retiring due to chronic ankle problems. He was aged only 25 and has been out of the game since. Earlier this month, Drejer started a comeback when he rejoined SISU, the team he played for before he went to Florida. However, Drejer announced this comeback in the same week that SISU announced that they were perilously close to bankrupcy and stated letting players leave. So it's too early to say if it's been a success.
Drejer's wife is called Nadia. Here they are going at it.
Drobnjak was in Turkey last year, where he played 4 Euroleague games for Efes Pilsen but didn't appear in a single Turkish league game. Since playing about 20 minutes all season didn't really do much for him, Drobnjak moved to Greece and signed with PAOK Thessaloniki. On the season he is averaging 8.8 points and 4.1 rebounds in 21 minutes per game, albeit shooting only 21% from three point range.
I am currently compiling a list of 100 Chessy And/Or Terrible Commericals Featuring NBA Players. Submit any you may have. The following advert doesn't really fit the criteria, given that it's not a real advert. But here it is anyway.
When Peja Drobnjak agreed to do an advert that featured him saying the phrase "spray me with the water," he knew the Sonics wanted him to do it just so that we could laugh at him, right? Hopefully. If he did, I'm happy to laugh along with him. If he didn't, I'll just feel bad.
Alabama product Dudley is spending his fifth season with Turk Telekom. He's been there so long that he now goes by the name Ersin Dagli. True story. On the season, Dagli is averaging 11.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in the Turkish league, alongside 13.2 points and 8.0 rebounds in the Eurocup. Impressively, Dudley has shot 150 field goals in the Turkish league compared to only 19 foul shots, which is Malik Allen like in its one sidedness. He shoots more jumpshots now, as you can probably tell.
Duenas retired in 2007, aged 32. He now works for Barcelona in some capacity, but my Spanish isn't very good so I can't tell you what it is. I could tell you what the Spanish for "milk wench" is, but Roberto Duenas is not a milk wench. Not yet.
In researching that underwhelming stanza, I was alerted to the presence of the Spanish word "desquitarse." Easily my favourite Spanish word of all time.
After a summer that I've already talked about way too much, Duncan moved to Belgium and joined Liege. He is averaging 11.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.3 fouls per game in the Belgian league, as well 6.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 fouls in the EuroChallenge.
Dunston is spending his second season in Korea, where he's so much stronger than most other players that his comparative lack fo height and athleticism for a post man doesn't really matter. He is averaging 14.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 25 minutes per game for Mobis Phoebus.
Korean league rules allow each team to have only two imports, and the two can't play together at the same time. This means that Dunston has to share the court time with Phoebus's other import, Aaron Haynes, another 6'7 forward who averages 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 21 minutes per game. This makes Dunston's minutes rather inconsistent, and are the reason why he plays only half the game despite his excellent per minute numbers. Import players go to Korea anyway though because of the great pay and the many many games.
Dupree went to an NBA training camp this year, marking the seventh straight year he has been in a training camp. He lost out on a spot on the Jazz team to Wesley Matthews, and after that he moved to Germany. In the German league, Doop averages 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, while in the Eurocup he averages 9.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 fouls. He's shooting 41% from three point range in the German league, and 17% in the Eurocup.
An Israeli league-style breakdown of the German league's diversity will follow another day, regardless of whether you want it or not.
It's days like yesterday that remind me of why I spent a good three weeks of my life making the anagram feature. Greg Oden's anagram is "engorged," and by Jove did that turn out to be fitting(ish). In amongst the two hundred and seventy jillion jokes made about Oden's goods the other day, none seemed more apt than that.
The day Tayshaun Prince comes out as a lingerie model is the day I start worrying if those things are actually premonitions.
Dickau signed with the Suns for preseason, instead of signing with the Celtics as was first thought. He played in 5 preseason games, totalling 14 points and 7 assists in 39 minutes, but did not make the team. He was never going to, really, because even though the Suns had open roster spots to play for, they're the Suns. Since being waived by Phoenix, Dickau has not signed elsewhere, which seems strange for a 31 year old man whose career will be on the downslope soon. Perhaps he's injured.
Dickens is in France, averaging 9.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for Nancy. However, he has been unbelievably inconsistent with his scoring. In 12 games, he's scored in double figures only four times, with three of those games being 22 points or more, and with with six other games of scoring 4 points or lower. His scoring totals on the season read 8, 6, 24,4, 0, 28, 3, 1, 11, 2, 22, 2. Can't get much more up and downy than that. That's like a hummingbird's heart monitor.
Dickerson made a surprising return to basketball in training camp 2008 when he signed with the Cavaliers after five years out of the game. He did not make the team - he was never going to - and then he sat out the rest of the year. I think I read somewhere that he went back to touring the world, which is what he'd been doing since his initial retirement.
Dickerson then tried again this summer when he tried out with the Memphis Grizzlies. Another training camp offer was not forthcoming, but this time Dickerson took his game elsewhere when he signed in the Spanish second division in early December, joining a team called Palencia. He has played four contests for the team, playing in professional games for the first time since March 2003; in those 4 games, Dickerson has totalled 87 minutes, 47 points, 12 rebounds and 0 assists. The Spanish second division is quite a ways below the standard he used to play at, but it's still a gig. And as a 34 year old man coming back from 7 years out of action after retiring due to injury, it's a pretty good start.
After a decade split between Italy, Greece and Spain, Digbeu returned to his native France this past summer. He signed with Strasbourg and averaged 11.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in 8 contests, but Strasbourg got off to a terrible start, and Digbeu was one of many players released in a bid to shake things up. (His replacement, Anthony Roberson, is currently second in the French league in scoring. So it worked.) Digbeu remains unsigned, and was injured at the time of his release. Giggidy.
A while ago, I touted the idea of the New Orleans Hornets trading Hilton Armstrong to the Clippers and Ike Diogu to the Hawks (in exchange for Digbeu's rights) to get under the tax. The Hornets didn't quite do this; they salary dumped Armstrong, but onto the Kings (whom I hadn't previously considered candidates for reasons I'm not sure of), and moved Bobby Brown to the Clippers, as was their perogative. I don't think they gave up any cash in the Brown deal, which would explain its advantages over salary dumping Diogu, but that in itself is a rather damning slant on their finances; they'd rather trade a healthy player at a position where they need depth, rather than pay a few quid to dump an injured player whose salary is keeping them in the tax territory and who will not play for them this season.
It's also not a glowing endorsement of Bobby Brown, really.
This time last year, when we checked in on Vlade Divac, he was trying to become the President of the Serbian Olympic Committee. A few weeks after that post, he did just that, signing a four year commitment to the role.
Dixon was one of the Hawks eight training camp signings, and later one of their seven cuts. He later moved to Greece and signed with Aris Thessaloniki, where he formed a backcourt with Keydren Clark, the former two time NCAA scoring leader. After a few weeks of those two not passing to each other, Aris changed things up and released Dixon, who had averaged 11.6 ppg and who then went on to sign with Unicaja Malaga a couple of weeks ago. Dixon is off to a blazing hot start with Malaga, scoring 17 points in his first Euroleague game with the team, and averaging 23ppg in his first two ACB games.
Did you know Juan Dixon's parents were both heroin addicts who died of AIDS when Juan was 16? I did not know that. What a horrible thing that is. Good for Juan to have become what he's become.
Florida State/Western Kentucky product Dixon is signed with South Korea, and has split the season between two teams. He started with the Anyang KT&G Kites, for whom he averaged 17.5 points and 8.1 rebounds in only 20 minutes per game, and then he moved to Sonic Boom KT, where he remains and for whom he is averaging 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24 minutes per game. The first one of those is a lot lot lot better than the other.
Between the two teams, Dixon is shooting 62% from the field and 43% from the foul line. Those are both very Nigel Dixon-like numbers.
Doleac has retired from basketball and now studies at the University of Utah. He initially planned to study medicine, but changed his mind after becoming a father, and instead returned to do a master's degree in physics. Doleac is now also training to be a teacher, and serves as the graduate manager there for the university's basketball team.
Domercant is into his second season with Montepaschi Siena, who lead Italy's SerieA with a 15-0 record. Siena last year got to the quarter finals of the Euroleague (losing to eventual champions Panathinaikos), went 29-1 in SerieA's regular season, and later won the championship. So they're pretty good. Domercant, a scoring machine and holder of a dubious Bosnian passport, averages 9.8 points in the Euroleague and 9.1 points in SerieA.
On Sunday, the 15-0 Montepaschi Siena are due to meet the 0-15 Martos Napoli, who have lost their last 4 games by a combined 324 points. This can only end well.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Douby currently leads the Turkish league in scoring. He signed with the Toronto Raptors towards the end of last season, signing through 2010 with conditional guarantees along the way. He was waived in November to avoid one of these guarantees, and did not play a game for the team this season. Douby is now a member of the last placed 1-15 Turkish team Darussafaka, where he averages 21.9 points per game and yet is unable to stave off the losing. At the weekend, for example, Douby put up 23 points in 28 minutes - along with a very un-Doubyike 3 steals and 3 blocks - yet Darussafaka still lost by 26. The team's second highest scorer in that game was Jermareo Davidson. And no team should look to Jermareo Davidson to be the second leading scorer. The domestic players for Faka are not really contributing a damn thing, and that's why they are where they are.
Providence graduate and former Lakers draft pick Douthit signed in Russia to start this month, but has not played much, nor has he played well. In four games for Krasnie Krilya Samara, split between the Russian Superleague and the EuroChallenge, Douthit has totalled 47 minutes, 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 fouls, shooting 38% from the field and 66% from the foul line.
Dowdell spent last year in the Italian second division, which was perhaps an odd place for him to be given that he is capable of more than that. Dowdell got injured in the summer, which kept him out of action for a few months, and then last month he joined up with the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League. He averaged 12.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per games for the team, but only lasted for 10 games before moving on to Unicaja Malaga to pair up with Juan Dixona bove. In 23 minutes of 2 games for Malaga, Dowdell has totalled 5 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.
As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Taiwanese ones.
When I came in from bowling last night, about 156 jillion messages awaited me asking me for my views on the news that Devin Brown had joined the Bulls. You know how sometimes you get an irrational like for a fringe NBA player, a staunch loyalty that reaches far in excess of that player's talent level, and you yearn for them to join your team if only for them to play badly so that you can break that bond? That guy is Devin Brown for me, and such a kinship made my name synonymous with that of Devin Brown to at least 1 person. This can only end well. Or rather; well, this can only end. Good times.
Of course, acquiring Brown means nothing more than acquiring a minimum salary backup. I don't think anyone is deluded into thinking otherwise, even those of us with inexplicable love for Downtown Devin Brown. His three point shooting this season is an anomaly until further notice, and he's still the same player he's always been; a mediocre one. But Brown doesn't have to be a good shooter or a good player to be a worthwhile player for the Bulls. He just has to be competent. Competent will do. Competent is fine. Competent is better than Lindsey Hunter.
Also, Jerome James is about ready to make his return from injury and apathy, and trading away Aaron Gray now makes James the only garbage time centre option. Isn't it better for the world that we let that happen?
A great trade all around. Genuinely very happy about this.
Spurs draft pick Nando De Colo left France in the summer and moved to Valencia in the ACB in order to play against better competition. In the ACB he is averaging 12.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, alongside 14.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in the Eurocup. The points per game leads the team in the ACB, but it's only second in the team's Eurocup campaign behind Spanish guard Rafa Martinez's 13.8 points per game. Rafa Martinez is a 27 year old slightly undersized off-guard with an automatic jumpshot, strong hairline and not much else. You're better off worrying about Nando.
A few weeks ago, I lost my wallet at Finsbury Park train station when trying to catch the train. I rushed for the train, just made it on before the door shut, then checked my pockets as the train pulled away and realised I had lost my wallet sprinting up the stairs. I sulked about this for a good 3 days, but on the 4th day, an anonymous package arrived at my door. Someone - using deliberately anonymous handwriting so as to avoid being traced, and cheekily using the stamps I had in my wallet to cover the cost - had returned my driving license and Nando's (the chicken restaurant) loyalty card. They kept the wallet itself, but they returned the Nando's loyalty card. I don't know what this says about society. Or about Nando's.
Dean started the year with Unicaja Malaga, averaging 11.7 points in the Euroleague and 9.3 points in the ACB. He took a lot of three pointers to get those numbers, hit only about 35% of them, did little else on the court, and did not really endear himself to the fans. (Ask a Malaga fan about Dean and gauge their reaction. They're generally a trifle brusque about it.) Malaga released Dean earlier this month, as mentioned in an earlier post, and yesterday he signed a one month contract with rival Spanish team Caja Laboral (the artists formally known as Tau Ceramica).
Deane started last season with Zalgiris in Lithuania, and then moved to Lukoil Akademik in Bulgaria. (That's the only Bulgarian team any relevant players sign for, and it's because they're Bulgaria's best and thus always in the EuroChallenge. Well, except this year.) He averaged 21/5 to finish the season there, and moved to Poland this summer to play for PGE Turow Zgorzelec. Turow released him after 11 Polish league games in which Dean averaged 9.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He returned to Lukoil Akademik this month to replace Walker Russell, and totalled 12 points and 10 rebounds in his only game for them so far.
DeClercq's last NBA season was in 2004/05, and the Magic showed no interest in him after the season. He wasn't very good anyway, and he also had a bad knee. Nonetheless, DeClercq rehabbed the knee for 18 months, and tried a comeback in 2006 preseason, working out for the Bulls, in the summer that saw them try out every big man alive. But no contract came his way, and he gave up trying after that. DeClercq doesn't really do much with his time these days, other than working with kids basketball camps and being a stay at home dad. He also contributed $2,300 to Todd Long's election campaign, whoever that is.
We can add to that now: DeClercq is now an assistant coach at Montverde Academy in Florida, which is Luc Richard Mbah A Moute's former high school. He is also the owner of two real estate ventures; New Creation Properties and ATD Properties. And he's also on the board of Vision360. Vision360's website doesn't work at the moment, but a quick search reveals that:
Vision360 is an evangelical, multi-denominational ministry that seeks to serve church planters and church planting agencies.
UAB product Delaney is in Israel. He started the year with Hapoel Holon, but was replaced before the season started, and moved to Ironi Nahariya. I don't think Ironi means the same thing in Israel that it does in England. Delaney averages 14.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game for the team, although he's shooting 33% from three point range and only 68% from the foul line.
Mario Delas is an upcoming draft prospect who was pretty badass at the World U-19 Championships this summer. His post footwork was mercurial for such a young age, and even though being a weak and unathletic 6'10 doesn't bode well for any potential NBA career, he was great fun to watch. Until recently, Delas had played his whole life with KK Split in his native Croatia, and even though he turned 20 only last week, that was still at least 5 years he'd spent there. This year he was averaging 9.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.6 fouls for Split in 24 minutes per game, but earlier this month he set off for pastures new when he joined Zalgiris Kaunas, a team looking to reload on future talent to rebuild a once prestigious program. In his one Lithuanian league game for Zalgiris so far, Delas totalled 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Delk was also covered only recently, this time in the 11996 NBA Draft Roundup Thing. If you have a good hour to spare, I implore you to read those things. Here's the Delk bit:
The last time we checked in on Delk, he was a technical advisor in Puerto Rico. Well, he's not any more. Nowadays, along with Scott Padgett, he is working with John Calipari at Kentucky as a "coach in training."
Eric Devendorf declared for the draft after his junior season as he received some advice that it might have been a good idea. It wasn't. Devendorf went undrafted, not coming close to being drafted, and has barely played since then. He spoke of offers from various countries, and it was reported in early November that he was going to go play in Israel. But he didn't, instead returning to America and joining the D-League. He was picked up by the Reno Bighorns in late December, played three games for the team, totalled 38 minutes and 14 points....and then was released again. He now sits in the D-League's available players pool, getting paid a small amount of money for his troubles, but not playing any professional basketball.
For all of Devendorf's excessive overconfidence in himself, lack of NBA talent, and established mouthiness (or call it what you may), he's better than a good many players in the D-League. It shouldn't have gone THIS badly for him. Someone in the D-League should pick him up because they'll get a good infusion of talent if they do.
Dial spent all of last season in the D-League. I'm not sure why exactly, because the D-League is not really designed for 33 year old journeyman point guards. Yet he played in 47 out of 50 games anyway, and averaged 13.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game for the Tulsa 66ers. Dial is unsigned this year and.......well.
Diamantidis is still with Panathinaikos because he has no reason to ever leave. He averages 10.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 25 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 8.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in the Euroleague. I don't see any reason to think that he won't win the Euroleague's DPOY award this year. He's won every single one there's ever been to date, and he hasn't lost any ability yet.
Diaz was 4th in the Italian league in scoring last season, and spent the summer playing for the Puerto Rican national team. However, despite all of that pedigree, he is not currently signed anywhere.
Cummings was drafted by the Idaho Stampede in the fourth round of this year's D-League draft, but was released before the season started without so much as a line on the D-League's transactions page. (They've got to tighten this up, really. It happens a lot, and makes it hard for those of us who try to keep tabs on D-League transactions.) He was later picked up by the Springfield Armor, for whom he averages a tidy 14.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
T.J. stands for Terry Junior, for Cummings is the son of former NBA player Terry Cummings. That said, T.J's name is actually Robert, so the 'Junior' label is kind of speculative. But you can see why a man wouldn't want to be called Bob Cummings. Particularly if he used to watch The Fast Show.
When this website started, Curry had just left the Indiana Pacers, the third team in three years to start Curry for the "defensive tone" that his offense-free ways supposedly set. In the time since then, Curry has been the NBA's Vice-President of Player Development, named as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, named as the head coach for the Detroit Pistons, and fired as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons. All this elapsed time can make a man feel old, and it also serves as a stark reminder to me to complete all those website features that I began/devised over 5 years ago. I should probably hire help.
Neither is Antonio Daniels. Daniels was traded by the Hornets to the Timberwolves this offseason in exchange for Darius Songaila and Bobby Brown, purely because his contract was one year shorter than Songaila's. Consider for a minute that the cost of trading Randy Foye and Mike Miller for Ricky Rubio was taking on Songaila's salary, then consider how easy it was to get rid of it, and essentially it cost Randy Foye and Bobby Brown to get Ricky Rubio. Hmmm. Seems....I dunno. One-sided.
The Timberwolves then bought out Daniels for $736,420 less than what his contract initially called for; not coincidentally, that's the same amount Nathan Jawai is getting this season. Daniels clearly thought there was a chance he'd get a minimum salary deal elsewhere, but like the rest of the veteran point guards on the market (Brevin Knight, Steve Francis, etc), he's had to stand by and watch while teams call up the Sundiata Gaines and Cedric Jackson types of this world. Daniels remains unsigned.
Daniels did a noble job of pretending to be a centre in the D-League last year, averaging 21/10 in the process. He's gone to Ukraine this season, playing with Azovmash. Daniels was initially fighting for one spot with Demetris Nichols, won the race, and has been a key player for the team all season. He averages 14.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.4 European assists per game in the VTB United League, 17/6/3 in the Ukranian league, and 21/10/3 in the Eurocup. Azovmash have had quite a lot of turmoil this season, turning over basically their entire roster over the last few weeks. Yet Daniels has been one of the few constants.
Davidson was waived by the Warriors in the summer, yet still picks up $75,000 from them this season for his troubles. He has since moved to Turkey to play for Darussafaka. On the season he averages 14.7 points per game (albeit inefficiently), 9.6 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. The rebounds per game lead the Turkish league, and Darussafaka also have the leading scorer in the nation in Quincy Douby (21.6 points per game).
However, despite having the best scorer and best rebounder in the country, they are last in the league with a 1-15 record.
Davis was a camp signee of the Nets this season. The Nets three training camp signings were Davis (a backup in the D-League), Will Blalock (recovering from a stroke) and Brian Hamilton (a defensive minded forward on a roster that already had Trenton Hassell, Terrence Williams, Eduardo Najera, Bobby Simmons, and about 12 other forwards). Considering the run the Nets are putting on for the title of the worst three point shooting team of all time, their offensive struggles in general, and the problems they're having with their big men not named Brook Lopez, I think they could have found some more apt pieces for camp, even if they wouldn't have made the team anyway. At least they mercifully didn't sign Isaiah Rider.
Davis returned to the Utah Flash for this season, where his numbers and minutes have improved slightly. In 26 minutes per game he is averaging 11.2 points and 6.8 rebounds, but shooting only 45% from the floor and 68% from the foul line. His shotblocking is down to 0.8 per game, and he still comes off the bench behind Carlos Wheeler. He also turns 26 next year, which doesn't do much for his NBA prospects. Nevertheless, he's a decent D-Leaguer.
It was only a few short years ago that Josh Davis was putting a run on the most-NBA-teams-played for record, currently jointly held by Jim Jackson, Tony Massenburg and Chucky Brown with 12. However, it's also been a few years since Josh Davis played in the NBA, and a season of good play in the D-League last year did not lead to any new NBA contracts. Therefore, Davis buggered off to Europe, where he's playing for Panellinios in Greece. Davis averages 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the Greek league, and I watched him last night. He shot well.
[F]ormer Golden State Warriors training camp invitee Justin Davis is out of basketball, and has been since a brief trial in Germany back in November 2006. Therefore, as was the case with Chris Crawford, I am hereby announcing that I can't be bothered to bring you Justin Davis news any more, since there isn't any. (Readers note: Bizarrely, when I said that about Crawford, someone e-mailed me and told me that, somewhat out of spite, they were going to single-handedly track him down and get an update from him on his life. If someone wants to do the same with Justin David [sic], then be my guest. You could form a merry band of freedom fighters, fighting for what's right in the world; peace, saving the rainforests, the downfall of terrorism and Chris Crawford updates. I could be your leader. You can be like my droogs or something. Except we won't be as annoying as the real droogs. Or as rape-inclined.)
Despite the offer oozing with generosity, no one took me up on it, so I've had to do it myself. However, I've failed once again. Justin Davis hasn't played since 2006, and any off-the-court stuff is proving to be hard to find given the common nature of his name. The best I can offer you is his Facebook account.
Kyle Davis started last year in Cyprus, averaged about 7/7/3, came home, joined the D-League, averaged about 4/4/2, was released last February due to injury, and has not played since. This probably only means something to you if you know who Kyle Davis is. If you don't, but would like to, here's his Myspace page. He looks to be off the market, though. Sorry ladies.
Paul Davis went to camp with the Wizards, had incredibly little chance of making the team, and then made it anyway as injury cover for Antawn Jamison. He played in two games, totalling 4 points, 3 assists and a block, and got paid roughly $90,000 for his troubles.
Another Wizards big man signing this offseason, Fabricio Oberto, is being paid $1.99 million in a season that has seen him total 34 points, 43 rebounds and 57 fouls. Those two players represent $4.1 million in salary for the Wizards this season once luxury tax calculations are included, which is about $100,000 a point give or take. If the post-Arenas incident Wizards believe that they are now able to get under the luxury tax and save about $30 million this season once all rebates are included, they will soon find that this would have been far easier to achieve had they not unnecessarily signed Fabricio Oberto. Ah well.
Davis has remained unsigned since the Wizards waived him, with only an unsuccessful tryout in China since that time. No word on whether he remains naive about sex.
One final note on Keon Clark: despite what I said earlier about Clark's mandatory weekly court appearances being "almost universally described as good", Clark failed a drug test as recently as late November. So maybe it's not all coming up Milhouse after all.
Windpipe is still with Valencia, his hometown team and the team he's been with since he was 15. He's averaging 11.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in the Eurocup, alongside 9.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists in the ACB. Good numbers all, with only one drawback; Claver is shooting a combined 26 of 87 from three point range between the two competitions, which is .298%.
After spending last year in the D-League, Mateen Cleaves is currently unsigned. This would appear to be by choice, as his Twitter reveals a new career direction. Cleaves has teamed up with some guy named Jon Connor (not the one of Terminator fame) to launch Varsity Records, a record label that appears to have one client (Connor) and one manager (Cleaves). This would appear to be a full time venture for Cleaves now, so he is perhaps done with basketball at the age of 32. I'm speculating about that, of course, but only because of Cleaves's apparent dedication to this new endeavour.
Is Jon Connor any good? You be the judge.
Hard to tell, really. That's just noise on that video. The behind-the-club's-stage angle is never the best one acoustically. But the crowd seem to be enjoying it.
For the 2007-08 season, a 31 year old Closs joined the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League, and spent the entire year there. It represented the best job security that Closs had had since his NBA career floundered almost a decade ago, and an article (which I now can't find) spoke of his comeback from the apathy and alcoholism that had plagued him until that point. It was a nice story.
Since that season ended, though, Closs' career has been back to its previous stop-start ways. Closs started last year in China, averaging 14.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and a league best 4.5 blocks in 18 games for the now-defunct Yunnan Running Bulls. After putting up a triple double (13/13/11) in his final game with the team in late December, he moved to rival team Liaoning for a tryout, but did not make the team, and then this summer he was a part of the stacked IBL team, the Los Angeles Lightning.
What's he doing now? Well, this very week, Closs was the first pick in the second round of the Universal Basketball Association draft by the seminally named GIE Morrow Disciples, a team that clearly read the Anthony Morrow Facts before choosing that name. The Universal Basketball Association is a minor league that you've probably never heard of; nor had I until I looked up Keith Closs' recent career. The UBA is based in Texas and used to be known as the United Regions Basketball League. The MVP of the league last year was Atlanta Christian's very own Jermaine Barnes, who averaged 41 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals per game.
For Keith Closs to have been only the 9th pick, there must be 8 players in the UBA deemed to be better than him.
(By the way, Jermaine Barnes has never played to a standard above the ABA, which isn't much of a standard at all. But the advantage to that is huge statistics, and Barnes fully took advantage of that by averaging 48.2 points per game for an entire season in 2007-08. It was in the Japanese third division, but still.)
Coleman made his name in the D-League last year, playing for the now-defunct Colorado 14ers. He averaged 15.1ppg, 7.6rpg, 4.8apg and a league best 2.8spg, numbers he hadn't previously approached, not even in the Big 12. Coleman took this new CV to Belgium, where he joined Dexia Mons-Hainaut and awaited some hot Eurocup action. However, despite his 22 points and 9 steals in two games, Dexia were knocked out of the Eurocup (see also: Justin Cage's entry), and Coleman moved to another Eurocup team in Angellico Biella. There, he averaged 4.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in the Eurocup, alongside 5.2 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the Italian league, before being released. Coleman was only ever signed as injury cover for Fred Jones, and once Jones returned to health, Biella didn't have room to keep Coleman. He is now unsigned.
Collins is in Germany, playing for ratiopharm Ulm. The lack of capitalisation there is theirs, not mine. Collins is averaging 11.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 24 minutes per game, shooting 57% from the floor and 54% from the foul line.
It's been a while, so let's play Count The Germans: on a 15 man roster, Ulm have 10 Americans (including two called Kevin Martin and John Bryant), 1 Dane (going by the very un-Danish name of Darko Jukic), 1 Bosnian and 5 Germans. Three of those Germans are in the regular playing rotation, including national team forward Robin Benzing.
I think that's the most successful game of Count The Germans we've had so far.
Apart from very short stints in the NBA and Italy, Conroy has been in the D-League since leaving the University of Washington in 2005. This means he probably still has a mortgage, because the D-League does not pay well. Conroy has done this for the simple reason that he knows he's on the cusp of the NBA, and the best way to get in it when you're that close is to be in the D-League and wait for opportune 10 day deals. However, despite averaging 27/8/5/2 down there last year, Conroy still couldn't get any guaranteed money in training camp this year, and went to the Rockets camp in October on a completely unguaranteed deal. Then, in spite of the Rockets having only two point guards, Conroy lost out on a roster spot to Brian Cook, because Cook's expiring salary can't be traded if he's not on the roster. And trading that remains a possibility, however small. So it was no joy for Will.
The guards to have been called up from the D-League to the NBA so far this season are Sundiata Gaines, Mario West, Cedric Jackson and JamesOn Curry. While Gaines' story has been quite cool, what else does Conroy have to do? No one in the NBA really needs Conroy right now, not even the Rockets, but he's being passed over for lesser players and has been for a while. If teams need a point guard to call up as injury cover, Conroy is ready and waiting, but they're not doing so. Worse still for Conroy; he just turned 27, and the window is closing.
Conroy went to China to start this season, but lost out in the crush that saw basically every former NBA player vying for spots there. He has since rejoined the D-League and is averaging 14.3 points, 8.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
Montenegrin national team starter Omar Cook is one of the best point guards in Europe. His team Unicaja Malaga have turned over their backcourt recently, replacing Taquan Dean and Shammond Williams with Juan Dixon and Zabian Dowdell, but Cook remains a mainstay and one of the best passers on the continent. He averages 9.3 points and 5.7 assists per game in 25 minutes per game in the ACB, alongside 8.9 points and 6.0 assists per game in the Euroleague. If those assists numbers don't look like much, consider:
a) the minutes played.
b) the fact that assists are far harder to get in Europe; double the number and subtract a bit for their NBA equivalents.
c) the fact that the Euroleague and the ACB represent the second and third best standards of basketball in the world, and Cook is second in them both in assists per game.
Maybe now you'll understand why he is totally badass.
Also note; in 19 ACB games this year, Cook has only scored in double figures 6 times. One of the, however, was a 35 point explosion. That was fun.
NC State product Costner was Coleman's teammate at Dexia before getting hurt in late October. He was replaced by Curtis Sumpter, but rejoined the team in early December, and is averaging 10.6 points and 4.0 rebounds on the Belgian league season. He was doing a lot better before the injury.
From what I've seen of him there this year, Costner has foresaken any remaining impulses to pretend he's a power forward any more.
Detroit Mercy product Covile is playing his second season with Orleans in France, with this year having an added bonus; Orleans are (or rather, were) a Euroleague team. In that competition, The Detergent averaged 9.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 fouls, alongside 10.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.1 fouls per game in the French league. Covile's rebounding was his staple in college, yet he's not proving to be much of a rebounder now that he's undersized in the pros. However, his offensive output has increased over the years, which makes up for it.
As regular readers will know, Crawford has been a particular point of interest over the years due to his complete disappearance a few years ago. That issue was addressed at length here, and an impassioned two person internet campaign to find Chris Crawford produced the following results:
1) He lives in Galesburg, Michigan.
2) He owns a company called "Slam Dunk Stables," a thoroughbred racing stable that either is or was part-owned by Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Crawford was in camp with the Knicks, yet despite having the guaranteed money advantage over Marcus Landry, Landry beat him to the 14th roster spot. And the Knicks didn't keep fifteen out of training camp, for as we later learned, they were keeping number 15 for Jonathan Bender. Crawford rejoined the D-League - where he will earn about half of the $50,000 the Knicks are paying him not to play - where he was assigned to the L.A. D-Fenders. He is averaging 17.7 points and 3.8 assists per game.
Despite playing for three NBA teams last year - the Pacers, the Bucks and the Spurs - Croshere has not played for any this year. It doesn't look like he's going to, either, as he now does television and occasional radio work for the Pacers.
Remember to use the site's Twitter account, which is rife with news of players not worthy enough for their own posts. For example, would you like to know which former Oklahoma State player was just suspended for signing in both Portugal and Montenegro at the same? If so, go there.
Chalmers is signed in the Russian Superleague, or what's left of it. Russian basketball, like all Eastern European teams, has had a bit of a financial crisis this year, and the Superleague has only 9 teams left in it. Nevertheless, they're nine pretty good teams, so it's not a bad gig. Playing for Enisey Krasnoyarsk, Chalmers is averaging 17.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 33 minutes per game. The scoring is 6th in the league, the assists 8th and the steals 7th, but Chalmers' numbers are also down across the board; last year, he led the Superleague in scoring with a 21.0 ppg average, and ranked second in assists with 5.6 apg. That scoring title was a particularly impressive feat considering that he did it while shooting 57% from the free throw line as a 6'0 point guard.
Chase was Jannero Pargo's replacement at Dynamo Moscow for the end of last season, after Pargo moved to Olympiakos. He averaged 18ppg in the Eurocup and 11ppg in the Russian league, but Dynamo got rid of all their imports this year to save money. [See Sergei Bykov's entry, part 11.] Chase is spending this season in Spain, where he's signed with Valladolid of the ACB. He is averaging 13.0 points and 1.7 assists, shooting 39% from both the field and the three point line.
Despite being a 5'8 score-first backup point guard who averaged only 7ppg in his final college season, Brian Chase has played in the NBA. Andre Young, pay attention.
I wasn't into college basketball at the time, so I don't know why it's the case, but everyone seemed to hate Eric Chenowith because of his college days. This is the impression that I got throughout his professional career, at least. He kind of had that Laettner thing going on. If any of what I'm saying sounds plausible, please tell me why it was the case, because I don't know.
Chenowith's professional career involved a few years in the D-League, stints in France, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, as well as a year in the CBA in which he led the league in rebounds. Yet despite being drafted 43rd overall by the Knicks in the 2001 draft (who in an unusual move renounced him several months later before he ever signed with the team ), and despite signing NBA contracts with the Kings, Sonics, Clippers, Lakers, Nuggets, Bulls and Hornets at various points, Chenowith never played in the NBA.
Chenowith retired early into the 2008/09 season, aged only 29, and is now trying to establish a coaching career. He is currently coaching at his old high school team, subsidizing that income by working as a foreman for a construction firm.
As well you know, Childress is signed with Olympiakos in Greece. He wasn't very good there last year, really, unable to do much in the European half court game and not getting many fast break opportunities. But this year he's doing quite a lot better. Childress is averaging 16.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.7 blocks per game in the Greek league, alongside 15.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks per game in the Euroleague. He's even hit a few threes, going a combined 15-43 (35%) between the two competitions.
Childress is still a restricted free agent of the Atlanta Hawks, who retain full Bird rights on him. Given that the Bulls' PR Machine has already set the wheels in motion for what now looks like an inevitable drastic overpayment for Joe Johnson this summer, the Hawks are probably going to need them.
Christie now runs Christie Sports Management/Athletes Training Firm. Details of that, and of other things in Doug and Jackie's post-basketball lives, can be found here.
I can't find records of a single client of theirs, however.
Christmas went undrafted this summer and later signed with the Sixers for training camp. Yet despite the Sixers' obvious need for a shooter, they decided they'd rather save the money and run with a 13 man roster than they would pay the rookie minimum to Dionte Christmas. That must have stung. What will have stung more was Christmas getting arrested the very next day while driving Marreese Speights' car, which contained an unloaded gun, also registered to Speights. Not a good day's fishing.
After a few weeks on the shelf - in which time he was rumoured to be moving to Germany, although he then didn't - Christmas signed with Hapoel Holon in Israel at the start of this month. He's played in one game for the team, totalling 12 points and 5 assists, shooting 3-10 from the field and 1-7 from outside.
Last year at this time, I wrote this about Adam Chubb:
Adam Chubb will literally never leave Germany.
Unlike all of my offseason predictions about Marcin Gortat, I might have actually been right about something here. Chubb is still in Germany, now into his fifth consecutive season there, and he also just signed an extension that keeps him there until 2012. For ALBA Berlin, Chubb is averaging 10.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the German league, 10.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the Euroleague, and previously averaged 12.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in the Euroleague. Adam Chubb as a double digit scorer in the second highest calibre of club basketball competition in the universe? Awesome.
Remember Ousmane Cisse? The shotblocking starlet who averaged 12 blocks per game in high school, was drafted 47th overall in 2001 by the Denver Nuggets, but who never played in the NBA and who, in his own words, "should have went to college?" Well, he's still going. Cisse is signed in Cyprus with APOEL Nicosia, where he's one half of a two headed centre monster alongside former Jazz player Alex Radojevic. Good times.
Unfortunately, as is always the case with Cypriatic basketball, there are no domestic league statistics available. Someone out there should really rectify that, because there's a good number of interesting players that play over there and we need to know about how they're doing. But in the plus side, APOEL were in the Eurocup to begin this year, and after failing to beat Bancas Teramo in the preliminary round, they went in the EuroChallenge instead. So we at least have the statistics for those games. In the Eurocup, Cisse totalled 12 points, 16 rebounds, 6 fouls, 3 blocks and 2 steals in 49 minutes of two games, and in six EuroChallenge games he's averaging 2.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.7 fouls and 1.2 blocks per game. That's not very good, really.
For the record, in the same six EuroChallenge games, Radojevic is averaging 6.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in 19 minutes per game.
Clancy was second in the Russian Superleague in rebounds per game last season, and has followed that up this year by being fifth in the Israeli league in rebounding. For Bnei Hasharon, Clancy is averaging 10.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, playing only 24 minutes a night. Hasharon also have the third best rebounder in the league, Shawn James, who averages a further 8.7 more in 28 minutes a night. Between the two, they're not missing many.
Another guy on the Bnei Hasharon team is Ron Steele, the former Alabama guard who was off to a flying start in his college career until his knee stopped working. Steele is having a pretty good career resurgence, averaging 11.9 points and 2.3 assists in 23 minutes per game, shooting 54% from the field and 52% from three point range. After the injury to his knee essentially cost him the last three seasons, it's good to see his bouncebackability in full effect. By the way, whoever invented that word should be shot, as should everyone who uses it.
Here's what Keon Clark's been up to recently. Or rather; here's Keon Clark's criminal record.
So, um, you might want to start scrolling down.
25th November 1991: Arrested for shoplifting. Was all of 16 at the time. Sentenced to a year's supervision, completed without incident.
28th March 1994: Arrested for a "misrepresentation of age" violation. Pleaded guilty, fined $100 three years later. Not sure what the wait was for.
28th March 1994: Arraigned for driving without insurance. Charge dropped two days later.
31st March 1997: Cited for speeding. Fined $75.
8th September 1998: Cited for not wearing a speedbelt. Fined $55.
1998: Suspended by UNLV after testing positive for marijuana.
20th May 1999: Cited for possession of cannabis. A year later, sentenced to six months supervision and fined $250 plus costs. In the same incident, was arrested for driving with a suspended license, but that charge was dropped almost two years later.
6th July 2000: Cited for driving the wrong way up a one way street. Fined $75.
11th June 2001: Arrested for driving with a suspended license. Charge later amended to driving on an expired driving license; fined $139.
11th June 2001: Arrested for domestic battery. Pleaded not guilty, but later changed to guilty in a plea agreement. Fined $200 plus costs, and placed on one year's conditional discharge.
29th June 2001: Cited again for driving without insurance. Later dropped.
31st July 2001: Cited for speeding. Fined $95.
29th July 2002: Arrested for reckless driving. Had to forfeit his driving license, but the case was dropped a few months later.
30th July 2002: From presumably the same incident, cited for whatever "failure to reduce speed" is. Sentenced to a year's court supervision in January, and fined $660. The fines are getting bigger. Also cited for driving without insurance, again, yet it was dropped, again.
September 2003: Appeared in court charged with a different case of misdemeanour domestic violence. Pleaded not guilty. Unsure of the outcome.
22nd December 2003: Cited for speeding. Fined $95. At least he made it past the year's supervision.
15th March 2004: Again cited for failure to reduce speed. Pleaded guilty, fined $235.
10th May 2004: Cited for speeding. Fined $75. You're getting the idea by now.
21st June 2004: Fined another $75 for another speeding offense. Cited again six weeks later for failure to pay it, then paid it in full.
16th February 2005; Again cited for driving without insurance. This time, Clark misses a court date, and an arrested warrant is issued in May.
4th April 2005: Cited for driving on a suspended license. By pleading guilty to the above charge of DWI, this one was dropped. Fined $500 and sentenced to a year's court supervision.
7th September 2005: Pulled over for erratic driving, and found to be in possession of cannabis, cocaine and a firearm without proper identification. Charged with two counts on the coke possession, two counts on the gun possession, one for the marijuana possession, one for driving on a suspended license, and two counts of DUI. Released after posting $2,500 bond. In accordance with local drug foreiture laws, his car was conviscated, and later sold on eBay.
28th December 2005: Clark changes lawyers.
3rd May 2006: Arrested for a myriad of things, including DUI (again), property damage, improper lane usage, driving with no insurance, driving without wearing a seatbelt and driving without a license. Pleaded not guilty to everything. DUI charge later amended to "Driving Under The Combined Influence Of Alcohol & Drugs." A charge of "driving using cocaine" was added.
21st September 2006: Scratches found in Clark's formerly conviscated Mercedes (see 7th September 2005 incident).
7th March 2007: Arraigned in Vermilion County court on a felony charge of criminal damage, as well as aggravated driving on a suspended license. Supposedly, after seeing his former car (now owned by a city worker) parked on the other side of town, Clark decided to damage the paintwork.
April 2007: Released from jail on battery and domestic violence charges after posting bond.
17th May 2007: Arrested for two outstanding warrants in Champaign County, both for failure to appear in court, one on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing and the other on a felony charge of driving with a suspended license. Simultaneously arrested for driving under the influence after being found to be three times over the legal limit, and with a bottle of gin in his pocket.
May, 2007: In a plea agreement, pleaded guilty to the firearm and coke possession charges from the 7th September 2005 incident in exchange for the DUI and suspended license charges being dropped.
20th September 2007: Sentenced in Champaign County court to 30 months for the other driving with a suspended license charge. Sentenced in abstentia; arrest warrant issued.
10th October 2007: Sentenced in Vermilion County court to 30 months in prison on the firearms charge, 24 months on the coke possession charge, and one year for the driving under the influence charge, all to be served concurrently. The possession of marijuana charge was dismissed. Sentenced in abstentia, as neither Clark nor an attorney showed up. Another arrest warrant issued.
18th October 2007: Arrested on a bus in Houston on the aforementioned outstanding warrants. Clark had been in Houston attending alcohol rehab, which is why he did not attend his previous court hearings.
15th December 2007: Appeared in court to appeal the Vermilion County court charges above. Admitted in the hearing to being an alcoholic for almost a decade.
21st December 2007: Won his appeal for a new hearing on the firearm, cocaine possession and DUI charges. New hearing scheduled for March.
29th December 2007: Began serving his 30 month sentence for driving with a suspended license.
29th February 2008: Pleaded guilty to the DUI charge from the 3rd May 2006 incident. The rest of the charges were dismissed. Sentenced to 2 months probation and 180 days in jail, to be served concurrently with the rest of his jail time. Also fined $2,900.
18th June 2008: Charges from 10th October 2007 hearing in Vermilion County court overturned, due to Clark not having an attorney present at the hearing, a right that he had not waived. Clark's guilty plea was vacated, and a new hearing scheduled.
Early July 2008: Released from prison on the suspended license charge after serving six and a half months.
28th July 2008: Arrested for violating the probation that he received in the domestic violence case. Sentenced to 180 days for the violation. Don't know what he did to violate it.
1st August 2008: Missed the new court hearing for the 7th September 2005 charges because he was in prison at the time on the probation violation. Another new hearing sentenced.
12th December 2008: Resentenced in Vermilion County court on the 7th September 2005 charges that had been sentenced on 10th October 2007 and overturned on 18th June 2008. This time, in a plea agreement, Clark was sentenced to 30 months probation, a drug treatment program, 100 community service and 12 months of weekend imprisonment (with 260 days credited time served) on the cocaine possession charge. The firearms, DUI and driving on a suspended license charges were dismissed, due to Clark's time spent in rehab, which the judge interpreted as a bloody good start for getting through all of this, if also the cause of those arrest warrants
(All of that took a couple of days to decipher using online and freely available court records. I am not formally educated in the art of reading these documents - and it IS an art, because those things are bloody confusing - so therefore I may have screwed up somewhere. However, a hell of a lot of care has been taken to try and get it right, so if it's not all right then it's at least all close. In fact, there's even more stuff that could go on here that I haven't listed, such as a conviction and sentencing for resisting arrest in early 2007 from an August 2006 incident. I just can't be bothered to do it all, in the same way that you can't be bothered to read it all.)
(In somewhat related news, Clark's father is currently serving a 65 year sentence after killing a man in a fight over a bicycle. A bicycle.)
Clark, who describes himself as "non-conformist", disappeared from basketball in the summer of 2004. He had offers of work coming in, but he just didn't want to take them. For whatever reason, he'd had enough. This seemed weird at the time, but the reason for it may have been revealed three years later in a courtroom, when Clark admitted that he was an alcoholic.
The good news is that, as far as I can tell, Clark has had no problems since we last checked in on him. Clark attends weekly drug court hearings to check on his progress, with the next one scheduled to occur about 2 hours after this story was written, and his attendance and progress in those hearings are almost universally described as "good." He has done this since the December 2008 date of his latest conviction, and, even though it got as far as it has and necessitated the enforcement of the courts, Clark is getting help for his addiction and serving the punishment for his misdeeds. That's good. He used a lot of rope over the span of two decades - a LOT of freaking rope - but he appears to be finally demonstrating some bouncebackability. If he's clean, sober, and learns how to freaking drive safely, there is hope.
But the self-explanatory bad news is that, whenever the subject of Keon Clark is brought up, we automatically think of his substance and legal problems. Not the totally badass player that he used to be.
If that looks like a character assassination, it is not meant to be. It is thorough - obsessively thorough, even - but it is not meant to defame Clark's name. Clark's name is already pretty defamed through no doing of my own, and I find that a shame. I knew him as a basketball player first, way before I ever knew of him as a criminal and an addict. And I've always preferred to think of him as a basketball player.
So, in the interests of entertainment, here is Keon Clark defaming Shawn Bradley. For old's times sake.
Teneessee Tech graduate and former Knicks training camp invitee Milone Clark is currently a Harlem Globetrotter, known as "The Spark." Here's his new hair:
One thing they taught me on my creative writing course is that you can never end on a crescendo. There always has to be a slight lull after the climax in order to restore and wrap up proceedings. So it's that, plus the time honoured principle of alphabetical order, which has seen Milone Clark's story end this piece.
Still, this doesn't feel like much of an ending after all the Keon stuff, does it?
After going undrafted despite working out for basically every NBA team at some point (and going to summer league with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he barely played), Butch split his first professional season between Spain, China and Germany. He spent most of it in Germany, averaging 10.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for Noerdlingen, and this summer he signed in Greece for Ilysiakos. In three games, Butch put up 42 points and 16 rebounds in only 49 minutes, with 10 three pointers, and led the team in points and rebounds despite not playing half the game. But Ilysiakos released him anyway for reasons I'm too lazy to Google, and Butch has returned to America and joined the D-League. For the Bakersfield Jam - a team who announced they were folding after last season yet who seem to have found a stay of execution from somewhere - Butch averages 17.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks in 31 minutes per game. He'd play more if it wasn't for the 4 fouls per game.
Here is Brian Butch scantily clad in the scanty cladding of a woman.
Despite being far older than the age of player that the league was really designed for, ex-NBA player Carlisle spent last year in the D-League playing for the Anaheim Arsenal. He played only a month for the team, averaging 8.9 ppg in 18 games, before being waived last January due to injury. He has been unsigned ever since. It's not entirely unprecedented for Carlisle to be out of the game for a year, as he did the same between early 2007 and early 2008 as well. But since he turns 34 this year and was last heard of being waived due to injury, it doesn't bode well.
Carmona appears to have established a rhythm method, playing in his native Puerto Rico during the summer months and in Mexico during the winter. Since it's currently the winter - for me, at least; God knows what it's like over there - Carmona is in Mexico playing for Fuerza Regia Monterrey. He is averaging 17.2 points and 0.7 assists per game in the LNBP, but hasn't been entirely consistent in doing so; his scoring outputs in his last 7 games before Christmas read 11, 8, 2, 43, 40, 12 and 14.
Carmona was a member of the Pistons training camp roster in 2005 after strong showings with the Puerto Rican national team. This is why you aare to be interested in him.
Carroll is in Spain, moving from Italy, where he spent last year with Bancas Teramo. He is playing for Gran Canaria and averaging 17.9 points per game, good enough for third in the ACB. Considering that the ACB is the second strongest basketball league in the world, and that those points per game rank even higher than luminaries such as Juan Carlos Navarro, that is no mean feat.
He totalled 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in a Eurocup game from last month that I'm about to watch. This could well bias me for life.
Much like Carlisle did last year, Carroll has decided to spend this year in the D-League, despite kicking 30's door down. Carroll has played and started in all 22 games for the Iowa Energy this season, and is averaging 9.7 points and 3.0 rebounds on the season, shooting 44% from the field and 36% from three point range.
Pat Carroll does not appear on the first page of Google results for his own name. People who do appear in a search for Pat Carroll include an actress from The Little Mermaid, an online running coach, a fitness specialist, a respiratory therapist and the original Cinderella sountrack. But no Pat Carroll the basketball player. Tough break, man.
Ex-Texas A&M wingman went undrafted this summer, and couldn't get an NBA contract even after a summer league gig with the Suns. Subsequently, he moved to Germany to play with EWE Baskets Oldenburg, a team that was in the Euroleague this season. Oldenburg were one of the worst teams in the Euroleague this season (no offence), and were knocked out in the group stage with a 1-9 record (joint worst with Orleans), but the Euroleague is still the Euroleague and so Carter's gig has some pedigree. Carter didn't play especially well in the Euroleague, averaging 7.8 points and 2.5 rebounds on 35% shooting, but he's doing a little better in the German league where he averages 9.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 21 minutes per game, shooting 44% from the field and 41% from three point range.
Reports that Maurice Carter came out of a three and a half year basketball hiatus last year to play for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League last January were greatly exaggerated. They were actually more than exaggerated; they were wrong. That was a different Maurice Carter. The Maurice Carter we're referring to here - the former LSU graduate, minor league veteran, and fleeting member of both the L.A. Lakers and Nawlins Hornets - has not played since 2005. I have no other information on that.
Notre Dame Carter hasn't been a hugely successful pro career so far. His first year was spent mostly in the Italian second division, and last year he averaged only 8.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in the French league. Interspersed in there have been a few stops in the D-League, and it is there where Carter finds himself right now as a member of the Austin Toros. However, that too isn't going very well; in 15 games with the team Carter is averaging only 5.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, shooting 38% from the field, 19% from three point range and 55% from the foul line, with a 1:3 assist/turnover ratio (not 3:1). He started the year as a starter for the team, but now is out of the rotation, and has not played since January 8th.
Carter spent most of his summer months with the Knicks, joining up with them for summer league and doing well enough to earn a training camp spot. After being waived, Carter went to Greece, where he signed with Ilysiakos as Brian Butch's replacement. It all ties in nicely. Carter is averaging 12.3 points and 6.9 rebounds on the season, highlighted by a 17 point 14 rebound performance in which he also shot 5 threes. Only hit one, though.
Warren Carter is Josh Carter's older brother. I didn't know this until just now. It all ties in even more nicely now.
Rider product Castleberry is spending his second season with Podebrady in the Czech Republic. SPOILER ALERT: Of the 1,400 or so players covered by this website, only 2 are currently playing in the Czech Republic, the other being former Ohio State swingman Ron Lewis. Castleberry's numbers are up across the board from last year, and on the season he is averaging 13.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 1.1 blocks, shooting 62% from both the field and the foul line.
Steve Castleberry used to be a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. The above photo proves it. I wonder if they let him keep his jersey.
He has a Twitter, but it's set to private. What don't you want us to know about you, Steve Castleberry?
Kelvin Cato is absent with leave, last playing with the New York Knicks in the 2006/07 season and avoiding being heard from since. Although the one piece of post-2007 Kelvin Cato that the internet DOES provide is that apparently he sweats heavily at bad moments.
As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Taiwanese ones.
Calling it early; Miami will trade Dorell Wright along with New Orleans' 2010 second rounder to the Grizzlies in exchange for changing the protection on the Grizzlies 2012 secound rounder - already owed to the Heat from last year's Shaun Livingston deal - from top 55 to top 50. (That is to say, in exchange for as little as possible.)
That's a prediction, not a story, but it makes sense; Miami gets under the tax with this deal, and Memphis gains a free decent player and a 40's pick to replace their own, which is owed to the Lakers as a part of the Pau Gasol deal. It's the kind of deal a lot of teams have done lately, not least of all Memphis, who spent much of last year taking on either people's unwanted cap hits in exchange for future picks and cash. It's a solid way to do business, and, post-Iverson buyout, they can afford to do it again. Add this to my list of predicted trades, which previously featured one other; Hilton Armstrong to the Clippers, who's now gone to the Kings instead. Don't know why I was so hung up on it being the Clippers. Thought too much about TPE's and forgot about cap space.
Also, what I said earlier about Mikki Moore was wrong. Golden State does not pay him more now that they've waived him; for some reason, the rebate thing applies once a player has been paid more than the two year minimum, regardless of whether he's on the roster not. Thus, Golden State will still only pay $825,495 to Moore after all. Sorry. The confusion/misinformation stemmed from the case of Austin Croshere, who last season signed a one year minimum salary contract with Indiana (later claimed off waivers by Milwaukee) but who didn't make it beyond the guarantee date; Croshere got paid $543,026 by the Bucks for his two months of work, which was 73 days worth of the team or more year veteran's salary for that season ($1,262,275), but apparently that wouldn't have applied if his contract was guaranteed. This makes it even weirder than the Bucks waived him, since it cost them $543,026 for 73 days work and would have only cost $254,555 for another 97 more. But anyway.
Byars is American, so he's obviously in the German league. He's with ALBA Berlin, yet he's averaging only 6.4 points and 2.0 rebounds in the German league, along with 5.7 points and 2.0 rebounds in the Eurocup, shooting only 26% from three point range in the Budnesliga and 33% in the Eurocup.
Nevertheless, Bulls fans still haven't stopped talking about him.
Dynamo Moscow lost all their good import players over the last year because they ran out of money. This means that Bykov - who last year was buried as the third point guard behind Hollis Price, Brian Chase and Jannero Pargo, and behind Travis Hansen at shooting guard - now gets to star. His numbers are up across the board, averaging 18.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game in the Eurocup, in conjunction with 22.9/2.9/4.4 in the Russian Superleague. He leads the Superleague in points per game, and is third in assists per game as well. Yet Dynamo have only a 3-5 record anyway because they have no imports to support him with.
Rashid Byrd appears to be unsigned. I say "appears to be," because someone purporting to be his cousin said on this site's Facebook page that Rashid had been reacquired by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the D-League team with which he finished up last season. However, no source of D-League news seems to agree with her. So either it's a premonition, something that's going to happen soon, a misunderstanding, or a lie. The last one seems unlikely.
Zarko Cabarkapa was out of the game for three years, from early 2006 to early 2009, due to the chronic injuries that hampered his NBA career. He reappeared last January with his former team, Buducnost in Montenegro, for whom he played four games. He totalled 25 minutes, 11 points, 5 rebounds and 7 fouls, before not playing again after February after having yet another surgery. Cabarkapa is now 28 years old, still unsigned and still recuperating, but he hasn't given up yet.
Cage is with Dexia Mons-Hainaut, a Belgian team not keen to admit that they're actually Belgian. The team has a 10 man rotation, and yet employs only one German; youth player Alexandre Libert. (Former Idaho State forward Jim Potter is into his fifteenth season in Belgium, so I guess he counts too.) Dexia recently lost their American head coach - Chris Finch - to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League, and replaced him with an Israeli head coach and a Dutch assistant. It's a very international affair, just as long as that nation is not Belgium.
On the year, Cage is averaging 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game in the Belgian league, alongside 7.3 points and 2.5 rebounds in the Eurochallenge. He also totalled 10 points in his only Eurocup game of the year, but I watched that game, and he kind of sucked a bit. (Although his accidentally-banked-in three was kind of cool.) Indeed, the whole Dexia Mons-Hainaut team sucked in that game; after beating Valencia in the first leg by 15 points, all Dexia had to do was either win again, or lose by no more than 14 points. This should have been easy, even on the road, and Dexia actually led by double digits at one point. But then they pissed it all away in the second half, lost by 18, and were knocked out of the competition. Whoops.
Calathes is playing for Panathinaikos, where his Greek passport helps the team bypass rules in non-Greek players. He played quite a lot to begin the year backing up Vassilis Spanoulis, but has seen less time since Sarunas Jasikevicius returned from injury. On the season, Calathes (or Kalathis to the Greeks) averages 6.2 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in the Greek league, along with 4.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in the Euroleague. Those numbers might not look too good, but as the third string point guard on one of the world's best and deepest teams, they're pretty solid.
Nick's brother Pat is three years older and 8 times balder. Pat retains a strong hairline at the front, but the crown is starting to go and he's only in his mid 20's. I feel your pain, brother. Pat is also in Greece and playing for Maroussi, another Euroleague team. He is averaging 5.7 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in the Greek league, along with 2.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per game in the Euroleague.
Calloway was announced as a signee of Khimki to start the summer, but apparently that was a lie. Instead, after doing fairly well for the New Orleans Hornets in summer league, he went to Spain and joined Cajasol Sevilla. Calloway is putting up his usual all-around numbers, averaging 10.2 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.4 steals in 28 minutes per game, shooting 41% from the field and 40% from three point range.
Also on that team is Maurice Ager, who we've already covered in part 1. I thought you might like to know that he has raised his shooting percentage since part 1 was written, from 22% to 26%.
I can't find Elden Campbell. And believe me, I've looked. It wouldn't be a surprise if the man named the "Big Easy" is taking it Big Easy in his 40's, but it'd also be useful to find something. So if you know something, phone in.
D-League veteran Campbell has gone back there, rejoining his last team, the Anaheim Arsenal, who are now known as the Springfield Armor. (Arse to Arm. Giggidy.) The Armor aren't good this year, sporting only a 3-14 record, and part of the reason for that is their lack of size. It's not Campbell's fault, as he averages 9.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in only 20 minutes of 10 games. But their other main centre option is former Tennessee big man Major Wingate, who manages to turn it over three times a game in only 28 minutes. Not easy to do when you're not a big man scorer.
Caner-Medley was with Calloway's team Cajasol Sevilla last season, but it didn't end well. Caner-Medley drunkenly punched a team mate in the face at the club's end of season party, and was kicked out, ne'er to return. He's gone back to Spain anyway, joining up with Estudiantes Madrid and averaging 11.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
Also on that team is British prospect Dan Clark. Clark won his fame as a prospecy in NBA circles back in 2005, but he's never done much with is since, toiling on loan in the Spanish minor leagues while Estudiantes held onto his rights. However, this season marks the first time he's gotten regular ACB time, and he's doing rather well with it. In 10 games this year Clark is averaging 4.9 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game, shooting 50% from the field and 50% from three point range. As a 21 year old in the ACB, that's not bad.
Capel was briefly a member of the Bobcats back in 2005, thanks in no small part to the fact that his dad Jeff was an assistant there at the time. Capel was only there for training camp, though, and did not make the team. Indeed, his career only lasted two more years total before Capel had to retired with chronic back problems aged only 26. He then rejoined the Bobcats as a radio announcer, later switching to becoming an announcer for ACC games, and then followed family tradition by becoming a coach. He is currently an assistant coach at Appalachian State.
As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Taiwanese ones.
The last time we checked in on Eric Daniel Brunson, he was the director of men's basketball operations at the University of Virginia. He's moved now, however. After Virginia head coach Dave Leitao resigned last April, Brunson took over the head coaching role until his replacement announced, a role that didn't involve a huge amount of coaching as their season had already finished. Once the handover was completed, Brunson left the program and became an assistant coach at Hartford, where he remains.
Bryant went undrafted out of Santa Clara on the basis that he was really really slow. He went to the Kings for summer league, but played only 8 minutes, even after Spencer Hawes decided not to turn up. Bryant then went to the D-League, where he averages 13.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for the Erie BayHawks. The rebounds rank 4th in the league, and two of the three ahead of him are NBA assignees (Joey Dorsey and D.J. White). However, he also averages 4 fouls in only 34 minutes.
Buckner was waived by the Mavericks in training camp and has not signed elsewhere since. His unguaranteed salary would have been a pretty awesome trade chip at the deadline, but the Mavericks - already with Erick Dampier's unguaranteed contract for next year, Josh Howard's team option, Drew Gooden's expiring/unguaranteed and Shawne Williams' expiring - figured they had enough trade chips already. To be honest, I think they should have kept Buckner's unguaranteed over Williams' expiring, as the value of that unguaranteed would have been magnified in this economy. But I guess even the Mavericks have a budget limit, which is fair enough.
Remember the LoveMayo trade on draft night 2008? Eight players were involved; Love and Mayo (obviously), Brian Cardinal, Mike Miller, Jason Collins, Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric and Buckner. Minnesota took the opportunity to get a good contributor in Miller (which, it later turned out, was also a big part of getting Ricky Rubio), while Memphis traded up for the player they wanted more, taking the opportunity to open up $6 million in 2008/09 cap room in the process. All things considered, a win win situation. But the four players Minnesota received (Love, Cardinal, Collins and Miller) are still in the league, while three of Memphis' four acquisitions are out of it already (Jaric, Walker, Buckner).
I just thought that was interesting. It probably isn't.
Rodney Buford has been around the houses lately, touring the Far East last year, and spending at least parts of the last three seasons in the Ukraine. This year he's gone to Germany, playing for Eisbaeren Bremerhaven. Buford averages 31 minutes, 17.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, shooting 48% from three point range.
Bullock is into his sixth season with Real Madrid. He's averaging 10.4 points per game in the Euroleague and 11.1 points per game in the Spanish league. He's shooting only 86% from the line, however. I say "only" because this man never seems to dip under 92%. On the flip side, he has 83 points on 47 Euroleague shots and 187 ACB points on 113 shots, with a combined true shooting percentage between the two of .682%. As shooting/scoring specialists go, that's kind of handy.
Pat Burke is unsigned. Last year in the Euroleague, he averaged 10.7 points, 6.9 rebounds for Prokom Sopot of Poland, but they did not bring him back this summer.
Pat Burke is also 36, so he may be unsigned from here on out. I'm assuming he's retired, but the only thing online I can find that suggests that is this. And I don't think the seminal sentence "Pat Burke announced his retirement from pro baskeball dis summer!!" is quite the authentication that I'm looking for. But it's a hint, at least.
Burks is still recuperating after being the victim of a near-fatal shooting last summer. Burks was a spectator at an illicit backyard dice game that he probably shouldn't have been at, when two teenagers tried to rob the game. One of them, 18 year old Darquan Swift, shot Burks in the abdomen and fled the scene. Burks almost died from his injuries, spent several months in hospital (much of which was spent on a ventilator), and had to survive multiple life saving operations; he has only recently gotten out of a wheelchair and into the crutches phase. Swift was arrested after an anonymous tip-off and was charged with first degree murder; the case is ongoing.
The news doesn't really get any better for Burks; not only does he have to face extensive rehab from his injuries, but he also has some criminal proceedings to go through. He turned himself into the authorities only a couple of days after appearing in court to identify Swift, the warrants against him being for unpaid child support, driving without a seatbelt and driving with a suspended license. Burks claims he was unable to pay the child support (which happened before the shooting) because he was suspended from playing basketball, which is also true; he was suspended by FIBA for a year in November 2007 after walking out on his previous team, Crvena Zvezda, in April. Crvena Zvezda hadn't paid him for a month, yet apparently that wasn't deemed valid enough of a reason to leave, and Burks was forced to miss the whole 2007-08 season. And while he was able to play in 2008-09, splitting the season between Bulgaria and Poland, he didn't play especially well and probably didn't earn a huge amount in the process. And then the shooting incident happens.
Former Bobcats guard Burleson is in Romania, playing for Ploiesti. The Romanian league is.....well, it's God awful in the grand scheme of things. But Ploiesti are a EuroChallenge team, which gives the gig a small degree of pedigree. Burleson averages 11.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in the Romanian league, alongside 12.3/3.4/1.8 in the EuroChallenge.
Burrell is in Belgium and putting up by far the best assists numbers of his young life. In 27.7 minutes per game for Verviers-Pepinster, Burrell is averaging 9.7 points, 5.2 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 1.0 steals, shooting 48% from the field (albeit with only a 60% free throw percentage). After never averaging more than 3.8 assists per game in his college career, and only 2.0 last year in the D-League, Burrell this year has only three games in which he had less than 5. And those are continental assists, which are harder to get. The 5.2 assists also leads the whole Belgian league; it officially is Hammer Time there right now.
Steve Burtt went to Cyprus this summer. I don't know why such a large amount of semi-decent players went to China this year compared to usual. We've already had a couple, and there's more to come. But what I do know is that there's no Cyprolian statistics available, and that Steve Burtt was released soon after arriving. He has not signed elsewhere since. And he also shut down his Twitter account.
Jackie Butler has disappeared off the map. It was two and a half years ago that the Rockets released him in preseason despite his guaranteed contract, and he has not signed anywhere else since. His only scheduled appearance was at the Vegas Summer League in 2008 with the Charlotte Bobcats, but he did not turn up. Butler was rumoured as a candidate for a spot in the Chinese Basketball Association this season, but I don't think it ever got beyond the whispers stage, and he is not there now.
Ohio State guard Jamar Butler is in Greece, playing for Gymnastikos Olympia Larissas. (Larrisa is the place, not a thing. It's not "the Olympia Larrias" as in "the Charlotte Bobcats". If you must put it in that way, it's more liek the Larrisa Gymnasts.) For the Gymnasts, Butler averages 13.3 points and 3.1 assists per game, shooting 45% from the field and 41% from three point range.
Why do all Greek surnames end in -s?
Ten posts in and we still haven't reached the letter C. This might take a while.
After going undrafted out of Miami Ohio, Bramos played for the Pistons in summer league, and played pretty well. He then used his Greek heritage and Greek passport to go to Greece, where he is signed with Peristeri. Unfortunately, his first professional season is not going well. Bramos averages only 5.1 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.7 fouls in 21 minutes per game, shooting 34% from the field. As was documented here, Peristeri have had some turnover with their imports this year, and it doesn't help that those documented two haven't played well either. But more on that later.
Earl is in Russia this year, played for Samara. He's averaging 11.8 points, 5.8 and 3.1 rebounds per game in the Russian league, alongside 4.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 rebounds per game in the EuroChallenge. However, he hasn't brought his jumpshot with him to Russia; Bremer is shooting only 30% from three in the Russian league, and only 12% in the EuroChallenge, which explains his very low scoring output there. Did you realise it was 7 years ago that he was a starter for the Celtics? Me neither. Makes a man feel old.
J.R. Bremer fact: J.R. Bremer has a Bosnian passport. Is he actually Bosnian? No. Does he have any Bosnian heritage? No. Has he ever been there before? Actually, yes; Bremer played in Sarajevo for three months in early 2007, and won the Bosnian regular season title. Apparently that was enough.
For a longer list of player's nationalities, including the weird ones, visit this page.
After two years out of the game, Brewer has returned to play professionally in Brazil. As far as I can tell, Brewer has played 1 game for his team Pinheiros, totalling 30 minutes, 17 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 0 tocos, 0 enterradas and 2 errors. I'm guessing those latter three mean steals, blocks and turnovers. God bless Google translate.
If Jamison Brewer, Jamison Brewer's agent, Jamison Brewer's representatives or Jamison Brewer's family members are reading this, please contact me by email, because someone wants me to help them return some personal artefacts to him.
Tierre Brown is unsigned, and last played in January when he was playing for the Anaheim Arsenal. Brown was averaging 15.8 points, 5.2 assists and 3.7 turnovers per game for Anaheim, shooting 53% from the field and 20% from three point range, before The Arse waived him due to injury. He hasn't been heard from since.
P.J. Brown fact: P.J. Brown finished ahead of Kobe Bryant in the MVP voting in the 2004-05 season. That was the season that Kobe Bryant shared a backcourt with Tierre Brown. Kobe averaged 28/6/6 that year and didn't receive a single MVP vote; no one felt he was one of the most five valuable players in the league that year. Yet someone felt that P.J. Brown and Shawn Marion were. All right.
Brown was out of the game for the best part of three years between 2004 and 2007, but spent the last two years before this one in the D-League with the Anaheim Arsenal. Last year he averaged 17.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists, and this year he's moved to Turkey to play for Bornova. He is averaging 16.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks per game, shooting 62% from two point range, 63% from the free throw line, and 29% from three point range. For some reason he's known as Albert Brown over there.
Like Tierre Brown, Damone Brown was in the D-League last year, but is not anywhere now. He started the season with the Reno Bighorns, the first player ever acquired by the expansion franchise, and averaged 15.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in 29 games for the team. However, he was released by the team in February after being arrested and charged with money laundering, after a safety deposit box that he was leasing was found to be being used to stash the proceeds of a local drug lord. Here's some kind of official document about his arrest. As I can find no evidence either way that he was acquitted, convicted, or anything of that nature, then I will assume that the case is still ongoing until proven otherwise.
Brown has not signed anywhere after being released, and while he did attend the Korean Basketball League's pre-draft camp in Vegas in the summer, he was not drafted by any Korean team.
Like T-Air and Damone above, Denham played in the D-League last season. He started the year with the Dakota Wizards but didn't do brilliantly, averaging 12.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 31 minutes per game, but scoring only 103 points on 98 shots. He was then waived due to injury and reappeared three months later with the Iowa Energy, where he did a bit better, averaging 14.6 points and 4.9 rebounds in 30 minutes per game. He has not signed anywhere this season until this point, but this week he travelled to Venezuela to sign with a team called Marinos. The Venezuelan league does not start for another two months, however.
Brown is in Italy and he's having a strong year. On the season he is averaging 18.0 points, 4.9 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 30.4 minutes per game, for an Air Avellino team with a 7-5 record. Avellino tried out someone called Jimmy Bartolotta this October, a graduate of MIT who play in NCAA's Divison 3. This isn't related to Dee Brown, really, but it would have made an interesting story had it worked out. I can't think of anyone else who went from Division 3 straight to SerieA. Very very very few go from Divison 3 to the NBA, either.
Brown didn't have a good year last year. After tearing up the D-League in 2007-08, Brown signed with the Chicago Bulls for 2008 training camp, but then performed something awful in preseason and was released. (Not that it would have mattered; Darius Washington had an awesome preseason, yet he was waived too in favour of Michael Ruffin, who had missed all preseason with an ankle injury and who never played for the team.) Brown then went to Maccabi Tel-Aviv, yet he fell victim to the same regime change as Esteban Batista did, and barely played for the team. Things perked up at the end of the season when Brown joined up with Brose Baskets Bamberg in Germany, and he's still there, averaging 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds this season.
Count The Germans; Two. In an eleven man rotation.
Andre Brown is in China, playing for the Zhejiang Wanma Cyclones. This season he is averaging the gaudy numbers of 28.5 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.1 blocks in 33 minutes per game, shooting 49% from the field, 46% from three point range and 89% from the foul line.
Those numbers are about as un-Andre Brown as you can get. Those are the numbers of an elite small forward, and Andre Brown is a power forward. He's athletic, no doubt, but he's never been a shooter. Brown is athletic, no doubt, but he's never made a three pointer before this season. Not in the D-League, not in the NBA, not in Italy, not in Turkey, not in the Adriatic league, nor in college. And now suddenly he's 13-28 from there in 8 games.
Even more impressive is the foul shooting; historically, Brown has been a pretty freaking terrible free throw shooter. He never shot more than 55% in college, shoots 50% from there for his NBA career, is shooting 51% from there in his D-League career, shot 55% from there in Turkey last season, shot 40% from there in the Philippines in 2005....etc. Yet this season in China, he's sudden;y shooting 61-68. His free throw stats game by game read like this;
9-9
3-4
7-8
9-10
8-8
5-8
9-9
11-12
That couldn't be much more jarringly different to the rest of his professional career. Nor could the steals count (Brown has 21 in his 30 game D-League career, 14 in his 75 game D-League career, and grabbed all of 12 in Turkey last year, yet we're now expected to believe that he can grab 20 in 8 Chinese games) or the assists (36 all time in the D-League, 11 in the NBA, 7 in his senior season at DePaul, 14 his junior year, 16 in Turkey, etc). Somehow, we're supposed to buy that Brown has gone from an offensively inclined yet terribly bad shooting rebounding power forward, into a do-it-all small forward superstar, in less than the length of a domestic pig's gestation period.
There's only one conclusion to draw here; it's not actually Andre Brown, and someone's pulled the old bait and switch on an unknowing Zhejiang. Has to be. Either that, or Andre Brown just corrected all his flaws in one offseason aged 28 years old. This is pretty dumbfounding stuff.
Brumbaugh is spending a second season in the D-League. For the Sioux Falls Skyforce, he is averaging 14.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.6 steals in 31 minutes per game, shooting 45% from the field and 32% from three point range. However, he's also turning it over 3.1 times a game in that time, and is still far from the finished article. The D-League is designed for players with potential that aren't the finished article, but Brumbaugh's window will shut soon if he's not careful, as he's already 24 years old. You can't have potential forever.
And now for the fail.
In searching for all that information, I found something I wish I had never found. One of the above mentioned players has a video of themselves online, walking around a room bragging about their genitalia, and then presenting said genitalia (in a excited state) to the camera lens. What makes it worse is that the player in question is wearing nothing but longjohns and a fishing hat.
I'm not going to republish the video, because this isn't TMZ. I'm telling you about it purely because a problem shared is a problem halved, and watching that video was truly problematic. But it's not material fit for this website. I would quite like to be thought of as a serious news source and intelligent analyst with a mild sense of humour, and not as a basketball version of perezhilton.com. This whole website is designed to be my CV, intending to prove the following facts to onlooking NBA people;
a) I am really, really, really, really really really reallyreallyreally ridiculously passionate about basketball.
b) This obsession has manifested itself into a finite understanding of the CBA and an expansive knowledge of several thousand basketball players around the club, particularly everyone relevant to the NBA landscape.
Because that's the dream job, really. To do what I do here, now, for a living; to be the guy in the back of the front office who knows a bit about everybody and will happily work 75 hour weeks doing the dirty work. That's what I want; that's why I do all this. It's all interspersed with pictures of funny moustaches and bad wordplay gags and things like that, but that's just to make it easier on the eye. The knowledge is what really matters, as is my desire to be taken seriously. [This would be a bad moment for you to stifle a giggle.] And the only way to do that is to commit fully to this website.
It is for that reason why Mr X's alarming moment of self-indulgence will not be reproduced here. I don't want the notoriety. Not THAT kind of notoriety, anyway.
However, the discovery of the video is still important, because it's pretty reckless of the player. Seriously. Think it through. I'm sitting here in my bedroom in rural middle class England, and without intending to, I've seen your penis. If I can do it by mistake, then anyone can. And if anyone can, that's could possibly have some serious repercussions on your basketball career. The video was clearly filmed with comic intent for the select viewing of your friends, but the internet is one big community whether we want it to be or not, and your control over who sees what is pretty minimal. This was proven by the fact that I found it, and all I was looking for was some interesting trivia. The video of you manipulating yourself in a fishing hat could possibly have absolutely no effect on your potential career, but it also may be hugely detrimental. Why take the chance? I'm not taking a chance on my future career by putting it here, and you shouldn't take a chance on your future career by putting your business online. We both stand to gain nothing but a cheap laugh. And cheap laughs are never worth it.
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*
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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).
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;
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.
Gilbert Arenas was suspended indefinitely today, where "indefinitely" is implied to mean "for the rest of the season at least." I don't really have an opinion on that, apart from to state the obvious. Which I won't do.
But here's one thing to note; the financial repercussions of the suspension.
Disregarding the possible voiding of the contract for a moment - I'm not a lawyer and won't profess to understand all the technicalities behind this - the suspension impacts the Wizards' current salary situation too. As things stand, the Wizards are about $8 million over the luxury tax threshold, and with no obvious means of getting under it. The players they want to dump (Mike James, DeShawn Stevenson) are undumpable, and they have nine players earning $3 million or more, tied with Portland for second in the league (the Knicks have ten). But this suspension gives them a means with which they can get nearer to getting under it.
50% of money not received by players suspended by the league is deducted from the team's cap. If a player loses an even $1 million in salary through suspension, then a team can deduct $500,000 from their salary cap number (and thus their luxury tax calculations). So by being suspended, Arenas has inadvertently aided the Wizards in their previously futile quest to dodge the luxury tax.
One thing I don't actually know is whether salary lost due to suspension is calculated based on games or days missed. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference to the general point though. So far in the season, 71 days have passed (not including today), and the Wizards have played 32 games. Therefore, regardless of whether you use 32/82nds of Gilbert's $16,192,079 salary ($6,318,860) or 71/170ths ($6,762,574), the fact remains that the suspension will cost Gilbert over $9 million if it is season long.
So if Arenas is indeed suspended for the remainder of the season, the Wizards will get about $4.5 million nearer to dodging the luxury tax. At that point, it becomes attainable.
How do the Wizards feel about this? Happy, surely. Must be. They needed to blow the team up because they built a bad one. They were losing, woefully underachieving, ill-fitting and WAY over budget. They mismanaged it badly, spending money badly and wasting basketball assets, compiling an inefficient roster of shooters and sulkers, and they were the most fail franchise in the NBA. Even moreso than the 3-31 Nets, who at least and a plan and some youth. Now, they've gotten an out clause. The Lord had mercy. Not sure why.
Sucks for the fans, though. The fans always are the victims. Sorry, people. Maybe next year.
Betts is in Greece playing for Aris Thessaloniki. He is averaging 8.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in the Eurocup, alongside 10.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the Greek league. At age 32, Betts is not the player he once was, but he's still got a lot of love to give.
Aris played a Eurocup game last night that was on TV over here, but I forgot to record all but the last twenty minutes of it because I was too busy playing Farmville. It's this level of dedication to the cause that's going to see all my NBA ambitions fulfilled.
Heat draft pick Beverley is with Olympiakos. He started the year on the bench, played a bit, then moved to the inactive list as the team is only allowed to suit up 6 non-Greeks for every Greek league game. Beverley became the inactive list guy in late November, yet fought back to win the spot from Von Wafer, and ended up playing decent minutes for a couple of weeks. But then he was returned to the bench, as Olympiakos continue to have a rotation as consistent as Spencer Hawes. On the season, Beverley is averaging 4.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 0.9 steals in 17 minutes per game in the Greek league, along with 3.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 1.0 steals in 13 minutes per game in the Euroleague.
Pittsburgh graduate Biggs is also in Greece, as a team mate of A.J. Abrams, Kasib Powell and the insatiable Mark Dickel at Trikalla. His season to date has been pretty awful, however, averaging only 6.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 20 minutes per game and shooting 36% from the field. If you need a 36% shooting power forward who grabs 4.6 rebounds per 40 minutes, then Biggs is your man, but you probably don't need that. Biggs was great in high school, so much so that he was a member of the Under-18 USA National team. But since then, not a whole lot has gone right.
I've tried not to mention too many upcoming draft prospects in this list; if I was going to do them all, I would have spent a good 14,000 words or so declaring my undying love for Dogus Balbay already. But Nemanja Bjelica is one that I will cover, mainly because I don't quite get it.
On the season, Bjelica is averaging 5.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.1 fouls and 1.6 assists per game in the Adriatic League for Crvena Zvezda, alongside 6.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.4 fouls and 1.2 assists in the Eurocup. I have seen two Eurocup games of his this season, as well as multiple times in international competition for Serbia. And either I'm only catching him on bad dayys, or this guy is not the next Toni Kukoc after all. For all his supposed ball handling skills in a 6'10 frame, Bjelica never actually does any ball handling; more than anything, there's lots of standing in the corner, and very few touches. He defers the ballhandling to the better ballhandlers, which is kind of noble, yet also worrisome, because there always are some. He's not a very good shooter, is slender, and is offensively awkward. Can't say I see the intrigue here, really. Not until he refines his skill to the point that he can actually be a mismatch.
Blair has not played since March 2009 when he left Spartak St Petersburg. In the season up until that point, he had averaged 8.2ppg, 8.0rpg and 1.5apg in only 24mpg, with the season's major highlight being his initiating of a brawl that to 16 players being ejected. Somehow, Joseph was not one of the 16. Good times.
I don't know whether he's retired, injured, or just out of work. What I do know is that neither of his websites work any more; both blairplayers.com and josephblair.com now both redirect to a picture of this doable blonde:
Former Michigan standout and Raptors signee Blanchard is in the Ukraine playing for Khimik. He averages 17.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game in the EuroChallenge, alongside 13.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in the Ukranian Superleague. I like the way some leagues like to prefix the word "league." Gives it a slight dictatorial whimsy to it.
It's hard to know for sure, but Corie Blount seems to have a Twitter account. On it are no Tweets, but there IS a picture of a man that looks decidedly like Corie Blount wearing a sombrero. Happy about that. But is it the best potentially-real NBA player Twitter account out there? No; that honour belongs to James Posey, whose only two tweets are pretty divine.
After two years out of the game, Bobbitt reappeared in the D-League this season. For the expansion Maine Red Claws, Bobbitt is averaging 8.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.5 steals in 20 minutes per game, shooting 44% from the field, 46% from three point range and 93% from the foul line.
Despite a jury's recommendation that the man who killed Bobbitt's mother in a premeditated murder should be given the death sentence, the judge overruled the decision and instead sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole. I've never written that before.
Bodiroga, who retired in 2007, was the general manager of Lottomatica Roma until recently. He left the team in June 2009 and is currently a candidate for the vacant role of President of the Basketball Federation of Serbia.
Booth spent last between Sacramento and Minnesota, for whom he put up a PER of 39.8. God bless one minute sample sizes. He is now retired, if not officially, and is trying to get a post-playing basketball career going. Booth is in the NBA Players Association Coaching Program, and attended the Reebok Eurocamp on his own dollar, to enhance his knowledge base and hsi credentials as a scout. What all this crescendos to, we'll wait and see.
Blalock is in the D-League, a teammate of Bobbitt's at the Maine Red Claws. He got back into the NBA this October as a training camp invite of the Nets, but he never stood a chance of making the team due to the Nets contract situation, a contract situation which is also currently preventing from trading Eduardo Najera's 2010 unfriendly contract to the Mavericks. For the Red Calws, Blalock is averaging 6.3 points, 5.5 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 2.2 turnovers in 24 minutes per game, while struggling a bit with his weight.
But there is a reason for all of that.
In last year's Where Are They Now series, I wrote the following:
Will Blalock averages a piddly 5.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists for Artland Dragons Quakenbrueck.
In the summer, I wrote this:
......while Will Blalock is very much a point guard, I don't think the answer to the Pacers' point guard problem lies in a man who averaged 4.5 points and 2.1 assists in the German league last season.
And at the start of training camp, I wrote this:
He spent the 2007/08 season mainly in the D-League (with a brief Israeli flirtation in there somewhere), and then he spent last year in Germany, where he averaged 4/2 for Quakenbrueck. That means he's gone from 4/2 in the German league to a spot on an NBA roster. Strange times. Someone buy the movie rights.
What I was too busy being flippant to notice was that Will Blalock had a stroke in March 2008. I keep my ear pretty to the ground and have almost no life outside of basketball, yet somehow I did not know about this. It seems to have gotten MSM coverage at all, and while this article carries the story, it wasn't written until over a year after the fact. Therefore, the news completely bypassed me until Jonathan Givony told me about it yesterday. And so that's why those slightly acerbic comments were written by a man who wants to be remembered as being funny and interesting, but who is actually neither.
Sorry, Will Blalock. And congratulations on your comeback thus far.
Also, there's some good news in there somewhere. Blalock is not what he was - yet - but he has returned from a stroke to play professional basketball to a pretty good standard. Another former NBA player to have had a stroke was Juaquin Hawkins, who suffered one in January 2008 while playing for the Gold Coast Blaze in Australia. He returned to play in Australia the following season, and also played in the IBL this summer. He was not as good as he was before the stroke, but that might well be explained by the way he just turned 36. The downward progression in his statistics is pretty normal for a man of that age.
This, therefore, should be good news to former Wizards and Hornets big man James Lang, who suffered a stroke only six weeks ago. Those two have returned to play the game coming back from the same ailment as he. And so for Lang, it's not over either.
Yesterday, Golden State waived Mikki Moore to ensure that they could keep on Chris Hunter. In doing so, they've cost themselves money. Moore was set to cost the Warriors $825,497, the minimum salary for a two year veteran. Moore was actually being paid $1,306,455, the minimum salary for a ten or more year veteran (he has played 11 seasons), but as his minimum salary contract is only for one year and he has more than three years of experience, the team is only billed an amount equal to the minimum salary of a two year vet. The league pays the rest. It's a system that helps older players get work, so that teams aren't deterred from signing them just because they cost more. However, the rebate is only applicable if the team keeps the player on for the full season. So by waiving him, Golden State upped their own financial commitment from $825,497 to $1,306,455, on a player who can't now play for them.
They probably could have waived Devean George instead.
Also, as I mentioned four days ago, the Bucks waived Roko Ukic so that he could sign with Fenerbahce. I'm not claiming to have had insider information here, nor am I claiming that can I read Turkish. But someone who can read Turkish read something Turkish and happened to mention it. And I'm online a lot.
The Jazz signed Sundiata Gaines today. They needed an extra guard, and Sundiata was one of the best the D-League has to offer. For the Idaho Stampede this year, he was averaging 23.9 points, 6.9 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals, and no matter how much those numbers are inflated by the Stampede's pace - and no matter how unflattering his measurements are to his score-first style - them's is good numbers. Also note; 10 day contracts became available today, and today marks the 14th day after the Matt Harpring/Eric Maynor trade, meaning today was the day that the Jazz had to sign someone. The timing of that trade was not a coincidence. By waiting as long as possible, they saved as much money as possible. Because of that, it wouldn't be a surprise if Sundiata played out his ten days and then went back to the D-League. Good luck to him, though. If Wes Matthews can do a Wes Matthews, then so can Sundiata Gaines.
Far from being the minimum salary steal that Celtics fans wanted him to be in the summer of 2007, Batista is out of the NBA and playing in Spain, after signing a three year contract with Fuenlebrada this summer. On the season, he is being highly productive, averaging 16.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, shooting 54% from the floor and 76% from the line. It's quite a good comeback year for Batista, who last year had a bit of a shocker. He started out with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, for whom he played in the 2007-08 season, but Maccabi had a regime change, and the new regime didn't want Batista. They let him go midseason and Batista signed with Triumph in Russia, but he then left there as well, claiming it was too cold. He saw out the season in Argentina, about whose temperature he didn't seem to complain. Now in a decent situation, where the minutes, money and humidity are all adequate, Batista is producing once again.
Remember Mike Batiste's stint in the NBA with the Grizzlies? Nor do I, really. After going undrafted out of Arizona State in 1999, he spent a year injured, a year in Belgium and a year in Italy, signed with the Clippers for 2002 training camp, and was claimed off waivers by the Grizzlies in October. Batiste spent a year with the team, playing 1,248 minutes in 75 games, averaging 6.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 0.9 turnovers a game. It was the only season of his NBA career.
At the time, Batiste was a 6'8 225 combo forward who played mostly small forward, but who hadn't quite figured out the position. The turnover numbers were high, as Batiste was not a ball handler, and he shot only 22% on three pointers on the season. After leaving the NBA, Batiste signed with Panathinaikos in Greece; unbelievably, he's still there seven years later. In that time, he's re-designed his game again, going from an athletic combo forward to a hugely strong post player. Batiste has beefed the hell up, now known as "The Beast" not only for the rhyme but for his strength, and he's a post-up option that most of Greece fails to stop. This season, Batiste is averaging 15.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in only 19 minutes per game in the Euroleague, and 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19 minutes per game in the Greek league. (As for why he plays only half the game; Panathinaikos are 12 deep. Everyone only plays half the game.)
He is aided in his European career by his Bulgarian passport, which allows him to quality as a European player. Given that he has never played or lived in Bulgaria and seems to have no Bulgarian heritage, this passport seems a trifle illicit. I guess someone who can pull strings wanted him to stick around.
Another forgotten Grizzlies player in the early part of the decade was Antonis Fotsis. Fotsis was picked by the Grizzlies in the 2001 second round, played one year, and left. He is now Batiste's teammate at Pana. Billy Knight and Jerry West dug out some under-the-radar talent in those years, but it didn't really do them any favours.
Edin Bavcic was drafted by the Raptors in 2006 and traded to the Sixers. He signed a two year contract with Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia this summer, a Euroleague team. On the season he is averaging 5.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.1 fouls per game in the Euroleague, alongside 4.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.7 fouls per game in the Adriatic league.
Baxter's having a better season than usual, averaging 18.4 points and 6.0 rebounds in 27 minutes per game in the Turkish league while playing for Besiktas. He also averages 12.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in the Eurocup, although that involved scoring 58 points in his first 3 games and 26 in the last 4. Besiktas are third in the Turkish league, partly because of Baxter, but largely because of 6'2 guard Mire Chatman. In 36 minutes per game (out of 40), Chatman is averaging 17.8 points, 6.3 assists, 6.0 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game. And those are Turkish assists, which are a rarer species than American ones. The 60% foul shooting for a 6'2 guard is poor, but everything else is Kidd-like. (Albeit in Turkey.)
Washington State graduate Baynes had a God awful summer league with the L.A. Lakers. In 57 minutes of 5 games, Baynes totalled 10 points, 14 rebounds, 22 fouls and 7 turnovers, while shooting 5-22 from the field and 0-2 from the field. Something went well, though, as he went on to join Lithuanian team Lietuvos Rytas. There's absolutely no money in Lithuanian basketball right now, and Lietuvos are no exception even after winning the Eurocup last season, but they're a Euroleague team this year so the exposure is self-evident.
However, the exposure is not helping; Baynes continues to struggle in his first professional season. In the Baltic league, he's averaging 11.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 17 mpg; in the Lithuanian league, he's averaging 10.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 15 mpg; in the Euroleague, he's averaging 5.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 13mpg. In that respect, he's doing quite well. But his foul problem from summer league has carried over; he's averaging 3.1 fouls in 15 Lithuania league minutes per game, 3.3 fouls in 17 Baltic league minutes per game, and a whopping 4.1 fouls in 13 Euroleague minutes per game. All three of those competitions have 40 minute games and only 5 fouls before a foulout, and it's not a coincidence that the league with by far the highest standard of play is the one in which he does by far the worst. Baynes has fouled out 7 times this year in a total of 28 games; his minutes played in those games were 19, 10, 20, 15, 12, 13 and 6. And he's not Bubba Wellsing it up out there; he starts many games at centre, and Lietuvos rely on him as a big part of their rotation. But because of all the fouls, he can't deliver.
That's a lot of fouls. That's too many fouls. He needs to foul less. This is my analysis.
The other Beasley drafted by the Heat, Jerome is spending his second season in Holland with the Eiffel Towers Den Bosch. (Yes, I know the Eiffel Tower is in France. Someone explained the logic of this team name to me once, but I forgot what it was. All I remember is that it wasn't very logical.) On the season, Beasley is averaging 12.9 and 8.8 rebounds in the Dutch league, and 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds in the EuroChallenge. The EuroChallenge is like an entry level Eurocup, which itself is like an entry level Euroleague. Full explanation later.
Jerome Beasley fact: Jerome Beasley was drafted with the 33rd pick in the 2003 draft whilst coming out of NCAA Division 2. That's extremely rare. In fact, only one person in the world was ever taken 33rd overall in the 2003 NBA Draft. Fact.
Another Jerome Beasley fact: Jerome Beasley was suspended by FIBA for three months last January after testing positive for marijuana. It's a Beasley thing.
Becirovic is Bavcic's teammate at Ljubljana. Like Bavcic, Becirovic is also a former NBA draftee, being picked 46th overall by the Nuggets back in 2003. And like Bavcic, Becirovic won't play in the NBA. But unlike Bavcic, it's not because he can't. Despite a slightly worrisome injury history, Becirovic has been a good player for over a decade, and still is. He is averaging 12.9 points and 3.9 assists per game in the Adriatic league, and almost exactly the same (12.9/3.3) in the Euroleague. As it happens, though, there's a player from Ljubljana whose play is blowing both of those two out of the water. We'll come to him (or her) later.
Beck is in the D-League, down there trying to prove to the NBA that he deserves at least 10 days in it. The one dimensional Beck is with the Dakota Wizards, averaging 16.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.7 turnovers and 1.8 assists. The rebounding numbers are unusually high for a man who normally gets about 2 a game, so we'll see if that continues.
Mirza Begic went undrafted in 2007. That's kind of amazing, because he's 7'3, and pretty much all 6'11 Eastern European guys who get a few minutes on the benches of Adriatic league teams get picked in the second round somewhere. (It's true. Ask Edin Bavcic.) Maybe Begic should have been drafted, however, as he's now a decent Euroleague centre. Begic's averages are listed below in a different form to usual.
1) 20.9 minutes, 7.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 fouls, 1.1 blocks per game = Euroleague (the club competition that sees the best teams from across the whole of Europe competing)
2) 16.3 minutes, 5.3 poiints, 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 fouls, 0.8 blocks per game = VTB United League (the club competition that sees the best teams from only Eastern Europe competing)
3) 17.3 minutes, 8.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.9 fouls, 1.4 blocks per game = Baltic League (the club competition that sees the best teams from only Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania competing)
4) 14.0 minutes, 5.4 points, 3.7 reboundsm 2.4 fouls, 1.4 blocks per game = Lithuanian League (the Lithuanian league).
A bit confusing, really. A post explaining stuff like that to non-Europeans was requested a while ago, and is nearly finished.
Troy Bell is spending his second season with Vanoli in Italy. Last year he helped them get promoted from LegaDue to SerieA, averaging 21 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists on the way. This year he's not found it as easy, with his numbers dropping to 14.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.8 steals per game. That's still pretty good, though. Bell plays the shooting guard position in Italy alongside point guard E.J. Rowland, another man with a debatable Bulgarian passport. It's easier to start a 6'2/6'1 backcourt in Italy than it is in the NBA.
As ever, Rod Benson is in the D-League, waiting for a call-up. I wonder how much money he's earned from his non-basketball endeavours over the last three years, because he sure as hell won't have made much by playing in the D-League three times. This season, Benson is averaging 14.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, whilst ranking in the 100th percentile in post defense according to Synergy Sports. It would help his NBA chances if his free throw percentage (.542%) wasn't so damn close to his field goal percentage (.528%), but the other numbers in only 32 minutes per game are hard to fault.
Benson was in China last year, and of all the people to put up outrageous statistics there, his might have been the best; 34.1 ppg, 18.8 rpg, 5.6 apg, 2.0 bpg. As 36 year old athletic shot chucking former prisoners go, Benson is pretty bloody good. He looked like he was going to re-sign in China this year too, but, as far as my crude Google translations can tell, Shanxi passed up on re-signing him due to his astronomical wage demands. Any man with those statistics can ask for a big payday, but Shanxi didn't appear to be happy with the way that he got them. You have to dominate the ball pretty freaking muchly to put up numbers like those, and to shoot 7 three pointers a game at only 30% isn't the best idea either. Still, it's great fun for us spectators.
I was very happy about that "Too Much" gag, by the way.
Best signed this season with Martos Napoli, a SerieA team that came into being this summer when former team Solsonica Rieti changed both their city and their sponsor. He joined fellow Americans Kevin Kruger, Damon Jones and Robert Traylor there, increasing the ex-NBA lilt that was designed to make the interesting. It kind of worked. Even Lance Allred was there for a while. But none of it seemed to help on the court, as Napoli trickled out to an 0-10 start. Despite the big name midseason acquisitions of Best and Jones, they kept on losing. And the players weren't getting paid either.
At 0-10, things managed to get worse. The club officially ran out of money, and players started to leave, Kruger amongst them. Another loss followed before Christmas, at which point all the first team players went home to their families. They never came back. In their first game after Christmas, on Sunday evening, Napoli could only fielded their youth team players, inexperienced and undertalented 17 year olds going against one of the better teams in one of the world's best leagues. They played Angellico Biella in that game, and lost 124-54. That's not a typo; they lost by 70 points in a SerieA game. A 40 minute SerieA game. Nothing has been resolved in the mean time; no new sponsors have come in, no new money has been found, and no players have come back. If they're able to do business next SUnday, they're up against Lottomattica Roma, and things should go much the same way as the 70 point annihilation. Even if they somehow do the impossible, stave off a winding-up order and play out the season, they're screwed.
I was going to write a separate post to describe ways that the Hornets can avoid the luxury tax without trading away David West or anyone important, but I've decided that I can't be bothered. Here's a shorthand version:
1) On trade deadline day, trade Hilton Armstrong and $1.1 million in cash ($922,748 to cover his remaining salary, the rest as an incentive) to the Clippers in exchange for changing the protection on their 2016 second rounder - already owed to the Hornets from the Rasual Butler deal - from top 55 to top 50. The Clippers gain a free player who may or may not see the court, whilst more importantly earning some cash for their troubles and giving up quite literally the least significant thing imaginable. Meanwhile, the Hornets dump the $2.8 million salary of a player that managed to lose an unloseable backup centre spot to Darius Songaila. That can't ever be a bad loss.
2) Also on trade deadline day, trade Ike Diogu and $400,000 to the Hawks for the rights to Alain Digbeu. $271,928 of that covers Diogu's remaining salary; the rest is the Hawks incentive to use an inactive list spot on a player that's out for the season. And all they lose is a 34 year old Frenchman. If not the Hawks, Diogu could also be sent to the Grizzlies, Kings, Pistons or Sixers. Whichever.
Trading two surplus players and $1.5 million will save them about $9 million, once tax payments are substituted and rebates added. And you can do so without moving one of your only good players or taking on future salary. If those two deals happen, or ones very similar to them, then expect misplaced bravado.
Failing that, someone competitive will think too much of James Posey, just like the Hornets once did themselves. Ask Dallas. Even if they won't give you Drew Gooden's unguaranteed deal, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot coming between a Shawne Williams and Kris Humphries package. The Lakers might want to know, too, at which point your foundation for a deal is Adam Morrison. Maybe San Antonio bites, using some of their expirings. Either way, you get the idea; the tax is highly dodgeable without giving away one of the only three good veterans to do it. Devin Brown's unnecessary trade kicker need not be a sticking point.
Banic is a Croatian big man playing in Spain. He scores really really ridiculously efficiently, has great touch around the basket, and can hit a jumpshot, yet is often out of shape, is a bad rebounder, is not physical and is a poor defensive player. But even though I just made him sound like it, Banic is not really like Eddy Curry. Curry is big, athletic and more awkward than your grandparent's sex life. Whereas Banic is short, grounded and smoother than a baby's arse.
Playing for Bilbao, Baby Arse is averaging 27.5 minutes, 17.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 72% shooting in the Eurocup, and 26.0 minutes, 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 67% shooting in the ACB. He doesn't just do it on layups, either.
Banks spent last season in Turkey, signed with Darussafaka. He averaged 13.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists, which are good all-around numbers, but he also shot 21% from three point range. This wouldn't have been too bad had three pointers not accounted for a third of all his shot attempts.
This season, Banks has not played anywhere. He signed in Jordan a couple of weeks ago to play with a team called Zain, who seem to be pursuing lots of former NBA talents this year (more on that later). However, Banks was released soon afterwards as he needed another month to recover from an injury. I don't know what injury.
Nothing seems to have materialised about Banks' chances of playing for the British national team. Banks' father was born in England and still lives there, which entitles him to apply for a British passport, something which he expressed an interest in doing 18 months ago. However, as far as I can tell, he either still hasn't done it, or it didn't work out. It would be great if it did.
Barac, whose rights are owned by the Pacers, is playing for Caja Laboral in Spain's ACB. They're the team that used to be known as Tau Ceramica. Barac tends to get a wriggle on in the ACB; in only 11.8 minutes a game, he averages 7.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.5 fouls per game, slowing to a more sedate 5.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 fousl in 14.8 minutes per game in the Euroleague. The number of minutes played isn't ideal, but when you've got Tiago Splitter in front of you, it makes sense.
Stanko Barac's nickaname should be Spanky. Stanko "Spanky" Barac. I like that. Admittedly I like Spanky as a nickname for pretty much everyone - Pau "Spanky" Gasol and Rajon "Spanky" Rondo in particular seem to work will - yet it works particularly well with Barac. In unrelated news, I feel this website is more desirable when it's a worldwide basketball news aggregator and a not a crap comedy vehicle.
Barber, who turns 30 in 10 days time (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), is playing in Mexico. For the Libertadores de Queretaro (which translates as "the Liberators of Queretaro," I think), Barber averages 14.8 points and 2.7 assists. He takes nine three pointers a game and hits only 29% of them. Sounds like a bad idea.
The general rule is that we don't cover 30 year old 5'10 shoot-first journeyman point guards from the Southland Conference. But Steven Barber somehow appeared on the Knicks training camp roster of 2005. This has obligated me to follow him ever since. But it's a one-off thing.
Barlett is signed in Cyprus with a team called Achilleas Kaimakliou. This means there are no statistics for him, because there aren't any from Cyprus that I can find. I also don't really know anything about Omar Barlett, which kind of craps on any possible trivia ideas. So here's his back story instead.
Barlett went to college at Jacksonville State, making him the only Jacksonville State player that you've ever heard of. He transferred there from junior college, and averaged 15/7 in his senior season. After graduating, he spent two years in Portugal, and three years in Poland, before inexplicably winding up on the Heat's 2008 training camp roster. Inevitably, Barlett did not make the team, and he went back to Poland, where last year he averaged only 5 points and 4 rebounds. So an NBA redux does not look likely.
Rhode Island product Baron took his one major skill - jumpshooting - and brought it to a Turkish audience. Baron is Mersin's designated American shooter this season, taking over from Chris Lofton. That's not an easy thing to do, because Lofton was awesome in that role last year, averaging 20.2 points per game and including both 47 and 61 point outings (shooting a combined 30-42 from three point range in those two games). However, Baron has been pretty damn good at it himself, averaging 18.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in the Turkish league. Baron is shooting 48% from three point range while taking ten and a half of them a game, and while he's had no massive Lofton-like explosions (with a season high of only 29), he has shot consistently well. He always does. He probably always will.
Barrett was back in the NBA this autumn when he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers for training camp. He then lost the role of inactive list ballhandler to Coby Karl, and would have lost it to Russell Robinson as well, God willing. After being released from there, Barrett has not signed elsewhere. It was rumoured that he might go to Napoli in Italy, but.......well, that's not happening any more. More on that Napoli story later.
Does Americans call Autumn "the fall" because of the way "the" leaves "fall" from the trees? If so, oh.
Barron is in the D-League, waiting for an NBA call-up. He almost got one from the Blazers the other day, and will probably be heard from again at some point. For the Iowa Energy, Barron is averaging 15.1 points and 10.3 rebounds in only 32 minutes per game, with particularly good rebounding numbers for a man who's always been a bit average at that.
His rebounding numbers may be helped a bit by the Energy's lack of size, as, despite their team being pretty stacked, their second biggest player is perimeter orientated Cartier Martin. The starting point guard, Curtis Stinson, is second on the team in rebounds with 6.1 a game. Nevertheless, the Energy also have a rebounding differential of +3, so it's not a Biedrins-like situation. Barron is shooting only .434% from the field, and was suspended this week for hitting Jared Reiner in the face, but the NBA can probably overlook that second indiscretion.
Jon Barry retired after the 2006 season. He now works as a commentator for ESPN.
The last time I heard Jon Barry commentate was during the Hawks' blowout of the Bulls about a month ago. Barry tried to convince the audience that Lou Wolding had not realised his superstar potential, while simultaneously highlighting his inability to take anybody off the dribble. Apparently the dislogic between the two things did not hit home. He was also convinced that the reason for the Bulls struggles is a lack of post up offense, seemingly because someone told him this three years ago. "You'll never get anywhere as a jumpshooting team," says former jumpshooting specialist Jon Barry, as Joe Johnson stretches the lead to 32 with a three point jumpshot. Ho hum.
(For the record, you can get absolutely everywhere as a jumpshooting team. You just need to a) be good at jumpshooting, and b) play good defense. The Bulls are only point B intermittently, and they're woefully short on point A. So there's your real problems, Jon Barry.)
Brent, like Jon, is retired. Brent, like Jon, is now a media personality. Brent, unlike Jon, works for NBA TV. Brent, unlike Jon, is someone I can tolerate.
Basden played last year in Turkey for Mersin. He didn't play especially well, however, averaging 8.1 points, 4.7 points, 2.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game. The all around numbers are pretty good, but Basden shot only 24% from three point range, taking three threes a game. He took 174 two pointers, 84 three pointers and 56 foul shots, and ended up totalling 244 points on 258 shots. That's not good.
This year, he waited until December before joining the D-League, acquired by the Austin Toros. The result have been much the sane, however; through three games, Basden has averaged 8.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals, but is shooting only 35% from the field, with 24 points on 26 shots. That's pretty much how he rolls. He has his uses defensively, but offensively, he doesn't have very many at all.
There's also an Eddie Basden playing for the Washington Madness in the Eastern Basketball Alliance. It's not the same one.
Baston's NBA redux over the last three years saw him not play a whole lot, but he did do quite well in the time that he did get. Last season was his worst season, yet even Baston's worst season was pretty good; he averaged 2.5 points and 2 rebounds in 8 minutes per game, and his PER was 12.3. His career PER is 14.4, too, which makes you wonder why he's only played 831 NBA minutes in three and a bit seasons.
Baston went to camp with the Pistons, but did not make the team. The Pistons decided they wanted both Chucky Atkins and an empty roster spot more than both him and Deron Washington, regardless of how many early season injuries they had. The Pistons are about $11 million short of the luxury tax, have a roster spot open, have had many injuries and need more depth, yet they won't actually sign anyone to help. They even waived Washington when keeping him cost them nothing until tomorrow. I just.......don't see the logic.
After being waived by the Pistons, Baston has not signed elsewhere, although there's rumours of a possible move to Aris in Greece.
Finally, our first of many Chinese Basketball Association updates.
For the most part, the astronomical statistics put up in the CBA are by the import players, almost always American (and almost always black; of the 33 CBA imports this year, only one, Frans Steyn, is white.) The Chinese players don't really do much; most of them can't compete in the athletic and physical brand of NBA-style ball that the CBA is trying to recreate. Chinese players largely dominate the point guard spot, but when it comes to scoring and rebounding, they're almost all overmatched physically.
Bateer is one of the few exceptions; he ranks as one of the few native players that can compete with the import's statistical domination. Last year for Xinjiang, Bateer averaged 15.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists; this year, he's averaging 41.2 minutes, 9.8 points, 11.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Three pointers make up half the shots he takes, and he's not shooting them well so far this year (24%), but those passing numbers are pretty awesome. Just this very night, Bateer did a Kidd and totalled 7 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. And that's while weighing 300lbs. Bateer was never an NBA talent because he was so damn slow, but he was pretty cool.
Mengke Bateer fact: despite me calling him a native right there, Bateer kind of isn't. He's actually an ethnic Mongol, which is why his name doesn't play by the Chinese rules of naming. This is also why you'll sometimes see Sun Yue referred to as the first Chinese player to win a championship, even though Mengke was a member of the 2003 Spurs.
(Mongolia is a country. It rests atop China like a contented Spaniel. Although "contented" might be the wrong word there, considering. Maybe use "contentious.")
Another Mengke Bateer fact; Mengke Bateer has used his immense size to launch a second career in the film industry. The following Youtube clip is a trailer for a film called "Bodyguards and Assassins," a huge budget film starring many big time Chinese and Hong Kongish stars. In it, Bateer plays a bloody enormous monk.
And here he is in character.
Now that's a big frigging monk.
As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Taiwanese ones.
For what it's worth, the Marko Jaric buyout was completed very quietly on Christmas Eve, and he's now a fully fledged member of Real Madrid. He put up 12/8/5 on debut, playing 41 minutes. In a 40 minute game. Not bad.
Remember Brandon Armstrong? So do I, just about. He was a great pickup in NBA Live 2004. Armstrong is from Pepperdine, and left school as its 21st all time leading scorer after playing only two years there. In his final season, he averaged 22.1 points and 1.6 assists per game, which kind of hints at his style of play. He was drafted by the Rockets with the 23rd pick in the 2001 draft, and then was the "other guy" traded along with Jason Collins and Richard Jefferson to the Nets in exchange for Eddie Griffin. (The more hindsight you use, the more terrible of a trade that looks. RIP Eddie.)
Armstrong played three years with the Nets.......or rather, he didn't play three years with the Nets. Armstrong was on the roster for three years, but spent most of that time on the injured list with pseudo injuries (unless of course he really did have four lower back strains in five months). He played in only 108 games and 699 minutes in those three seasons, totalling 239 points on 280 shots with 24 total assists, a true shooting percentage of .404%, and a PER of 4.9. He signed with the Warriors for training camp in 2004, but did not make the team, and has never come back to the NBA.
He's not very well known any more, as evidenced by a quick Google of his name, which reveals the second hit of "Brandon Armstrong - murder victim." This is another Brandon Armstrong; the Brandon Armstrong of New Jersey Nets and Pepperdine University fame is, as far as I know, not dead. He also doesn't appear to playing anywhere at the moment; he split last year between the Ukraine and Venezuela, but has been out of the game since then.
Brandon Armstrong fact: the power forward on his high school team was C.C. Sabathia.
Another Brandon Armstrong fact: Brandon Armstrong's middle name is "Simone." Point and laugh at him for this.
Here's Brandon Armstrong posing, in a picture from his Facebook account.
Bulls draft pick Asik is still with Fenerbahce, and this year he's not got a torn knee ligament. On the season he's averaging 8.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in the Euroleague, alongside 10.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in the Turkish league. His free throw stroke is still pretty biblically terrible, however; Asik is shooting 36% from there in the Euroleague and 43% in the Turkish league (and even that's only salvaged by the 6-6 performance in his last game; he started 8 for 31). But apart from that tiny flaw, he's producing.
The general rule is that if you can perform in the Euroleague, you can perform in the NBA. But to do that, Asik will have to stop getting injured. He's out for at least another six weeks now after fracturing his collarbone during a game on December 14th. Considering that he's missed much of the last two seasons with knee injuries, this does not bode well.
Augmon last played in the NBA in the 2005-06 season, when he played 36 games rather badly for the Orlando Magic. It was his second year with the team, and, given that his middle name is Orlando, it seemed quite apt. He then spent a year out of the game before randomly signing with the Nuggets in training camp 2007. About that signing, Nuggets coach George Karl said:
"I wouldn't waste Stacey's time if I didn't think there was a chance of him making our team."
Yet about Brad Stricker, whom also signed for the Nuggets in 2007 training camp, Karl said:
"He's got as much of a chance as Bret Bearup."
Point taken.
A month after not making the Nuggets team, Augmon became a player development coach for them. He's still there.
James Augustine was in summer league this year with both the Jazz and the Bulls. He played well for both, yet he stayed on in Spain to play a second season with Gran Canaria. Augustine is averaging 9.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in 23 minutes per game in the Eurocup, alongside 7.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in the ACB. The slight downside is that he's shooting less than 1 free throw a game.
Gran Canaria have only one Spanish player in their rotation. Going from most to least minutes in the ACB their roster reads Jaycee Carroll (American), Sitapha Savane (has a Spanish passport due to residency but is Senegalese), Augustine (American), Marcus Norris (American and Croatian), Jim Moran (American and Irish), Melvin Sanders (American and Georgian), Will McDonald (American), Josh Fisher (has a Spanish passport due to residency but is American), Tomas Bellas (actually Spanish!) and Daniel Kickert (Australian and Dutch). Even their deep bench has foreigners; Ryan Richards is English, born and raised in the eternally average place of Sittingbourne in Kent, and Ewoud Kloos is Dutch. Gran Canaria have played 15 games so far, which means there have been 3,000 minutes of playing time up for grabs, yet true Spaniards have filled only 242 of them. And 229 of those were for Bellas.
All those dual passports and nationalisations allow Gran Canaria to play within the rules. But they're hardly keeping to the spirit of them.
Austin, the Bulls' other unsigned draft pick, is also in Spain. He signed with Lucentum Alicante in the ACB this summer after splitting last year between Turkey and China. His transformation from post-up threat to perennial jumpshooter is almost complete; on the season he averages 11.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.1 blocks and 21.8 minutes, all while shooting more three pointers than free throws.
At various times during the six years since he was drafted, Bulls fans have wondered if Austin could be an option to help them out with some post-up offense. The answer would appear to be no, not any more. He never could defend, he never would box out, and now he doesn't even score much inside either. He still produces pretty well, but not in a style that suits any NBA aspirations. If you want Mario Austin, you might as well have Anthony Tolliver.
Ayers played last year for Notre Dame, where he was awesomely average. At 6'7, Ayers had good size for a wing player, and he was also athletic. He also had a pretty sweet jumpshot out to three point range, and could defend. Yet all he did was take jumpshots; there was no desire to put the ball on the floor, nor any success when he did. You have to love role players like that.
After going undrafted, Ayers went to the Wizards for summer league, but didn't make it through the tryout phase. He reappeared in the D-League, allocated to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, for whom he has started 10 of 13 games. Not much has changed in his style of play; Ayers averages 7.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.5 blocks in 26 minutes per game, shooting 44% from the field, 44% from three point range and 100% from the line. He has taken 41 three pointers in 13 games compared to 6 foul shots. He does what he does, and that's why I like him.
The Puerto Rican league runs in the summer time, during almost every other league's offseasons. It's for that reason that they're able to get so much talent there. Ayuso, a Puerto Rican native, played in the Puerto Rican league last summer with Cangrejeros de Santurce, averaging a very Brandon Armstrong-like 21.4 points and 1.6 assists. And even though the Puerto Rican league doesn't start for ages, Ayuso has already signed there once more, moving to the Capitanes de Arecibo. This is because Arecibo are (or were) in the Liga Americas, the 16 team cross-continental club tournament for all countries South American and Latinish. Arecibo went 1-2 in their three group games last month, failing to qualify. Ayuso averaged 11.7 points along the way.
Malick Badiane was in the D-League last year with the Anaheim Arsenal. He averaged 4.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.0 fouls and 0.4 blocks per game. However, the Anaheim Arse no longer exist, and nor does Malick Badiane's D-League career. He has moved from there to the relative lowlights of the French second division, signing with Nanterre on December 15th. Badiane has not yet played a game for the team, as their December 19th game was postponed until January 12th.
Drafted by the Rockets way back in 2003, and thrown in in a trade to the Grizzlies in 2008, Badiane was drafted while incredibly young based on his combination of size, athleticism and defensive instincts. But it hasn't worked out.
Having Bulls draft picks featured so prominently in this post is a coincidence, but when it involves Dalibor Bagaric, it's a happy one. The now-29 year old Bagaric was said to have signed a guaranteed contract with the Hawks last summer, but he didn't. Instead, he returned to Bologna and barely played all year. This summer, Dali returned to his native Croatia when he signed with Cibona Zagreb, but this hasn't resulted in much of an increase in PT. In four Euroleague games, Bagaric is averaging 2.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 fouls; in eight Adriatic League games, that rises only to 3.6 pointsm 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 fouls.
I don't know how many flagrants he's committed, but I'd like to.
Drove past one of these lorries the other day. I laughed.
Santa Clara's Bailey is entering his fourth season in Germany, and his first with Ludwigsburg. In 30 mpg of 17 games, Bailey is averaging 9.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, but is shooting only 9-49 (18%) from three point range.
Here's a video of some of those points. He's #11 in yellow.
In accordance with prophecy, Ludwigsburg have a rotation featuring eight Americans and only one German. That one German is called David McCray, It's not THE most German name in the world, is it?
Baker was mentioned in the 1993 draft roundup from only last month. I didn't have much to say, though. Here it is again.
Vin Baker was still playing up to and including last season. The NBA fell by the wayside back in 2006 when he was released by the Timberwolves after the first six games of the season, but he's signed elsewhere twice since then, both last season. Baker signed with Liaoning in China last November, and then signed with Marinos in Venezuela this June.
Both times, he was released without playing a game due to being out of shape.
Maker's non-basketball life hasn't been going too well, either. In June 2007, the recovering alcoholic was arrested for drink driving after leaving a casino. (He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving.) In February 2008, his seafood restaurant was foreclosed after racking up roughly $900,000 in unpaid loans. And in June 2008, his home was also foreclosed.
He hasn't been in the headlines for a while, and as they say, no news is good news. So it would be great if he's rectified his problems and straightened out his affairs. But given that the last time we heard from him was when he was deemed to be an unfit replacement for Horacio Llamas......well. That's worrisome.
Veteran Baker joined the Dakota Wizards in 2006, and played three full years there. It's unusual for someone to stay in the D-League that long, because it doesn't pay very well. And it's also very unusual for a man of that age to be there that long. But Baker did it anyway, and only this summer did he leave, signing in Cyprus for AEK Limassol alongside fellow D-Leaguer Trent Strickland. However, Baker spent barely any time at all in Cyprus, returning to the D-League as as one of the Wizards' returning players. Now into his fourth season there, Baker is averaging 12.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game, shooting 49% from the field and 43% from three point range.
Cypresian statistics are basically impossible to find. But if Google translate is right, Baker scored 9 points in 2 games. Don't know about the rest.
Anderson has not played since the 2005-06 season. His NBA career ended the year before, when he split the 2004/05 season between the Hawks and the Clippers, and after being waived by L.A. in March 2005, a 10 month wait ensued. Anderson then joined legendary Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas for the rest of the season. It was the first and only non-NBA gig of his professional career. Chibbs averaged 2.4 points and 1.6 assists in the Euroleague alongside 5.9 points and 2.8 assists in the Lithuanian league, and then that was the end of his playing career.
In between those last two playing gigs, he was declared bankrupt.
The last time we checked in on Anderson, he had been named the head coach of the CBA's Atlanta Krunk. It was all supposed to be brilliant; for the 2007-08 season, the team hired Anderson as head coach, hired Kenny Smith's brother Vincent as the general manager, signed Grayson Boucher (And-1's "The Professor") and minor league superhero Zach Marbury (Stephon's brother) as a backcourt, announced Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory fame as the majority owner, brought on Stephon's clothing company to be the team's uniform designers, and started shooting a reality TV show about the team. It was all supposed to be awesome. And then it wasn't. In their only CBA season, the Krunk went 9-41, a loss total which included 9 forfeits. Players were not being paid - at one point, the team was down to as few as five players as everyone kept bailing on them due to the lack of salaries. Their home arena was deemed unsuitable, so they had to play all their games down the stretch of the season on the road, and they also had no uniforms. To say it went a bit tits up sells it a bit short. I'm surprised they saw through the season.
The team was resold to new owners, moved to the PBL for the 2008-09 season, and changed its name and location to the Augusta Groove. They played one more average season, finishing 10-10, but had more financial troubles and folded. Anderson was there only for year one.
After it all went south, Anderson joined a clinic run by the NBA for retired players looking to begin coaching careers. At some point, he was also the coach of a SlamBall team. He is currently studying (not coaching) at St. Thomas's University in Miami, and is hireable for both speaking engagements and running workouts.
Anderson is also a very active Twat (Twitterer). Follow him here.
Shandon Anderson was covered in the 1996 draft round-up thing that was written back in September. Or rather, he wasn't covered at all, because there was nothing to say. In amongst all the talk about Travis Knight's hair and penis, I wrote this:
The Knicks finally got rid of Shanderson in 2004, over three years after the pointless Ewing trade that brought him in in the first place. Shandon then spent two years with the Heat for no real reason, and managed to win a ring in that time through almost no work of his own. I can't find anything that Shandon has done in the three years hence, but considering all the money he earned in the NBA, he has no real reason to get out of bed these days, so I wouldn't be surprised or disheartened if he just didn't bother.
We can do a little better than that now; in 2007, 11 years after leaving it unfinished, Anderson returned to the University of Georgia to complete his degree. He is now something of an entrepeneur; his foundation, the aptly named Shandon Anderson Foundation, is designed to serve as a mentoring thing for kids, as well as giving out multiple scholarships to impoverished kids in the Georgia area. He also owns a salon and spa facility in Atlanta, as well as a vegetable restaurant and wine bar.
Most importantly, Shanderson is a proud wearer of skirts. And that's a true story. If you don't believe me, here's a picture of Shandon Anderson in a skirt and a flat cap:
This. This is why you come here. God bless you Shandon for your complete lack of fear. I can respect that. And you're right, skirts ARE comfy. They're just a bit weird looking, is all.
Connecticut guard Rashad Anderson was the second leading scorer in Italy's SerieA last year, averaging 18.2 points per game for Udine. SerieA is the third strongest league in the world, behind only the NBA and the ACB. Yet despite being one of the best scorers in one of the best leagues in the world, Anderson this season finds himself on the bench for a D-League team. Seems like a backwards step, really.
For the Iowa Energy, Anderson is averaging 10.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.6 American assists in 20.3 minutes per game off the bench. The Energy are pretty stacked and have a 10-1 record, but if Anderson came back to the D-League for lesser money thinking it would be the next step to cracking the NBA, then he probably wasn't expecting to be coming off the bench behind Cartier Martin and Pat Carroll.
Antonio Anderson is also in the D-League. After going undrafted out of Memphis this summer, Anderson went to camp with the Bobcats, but he never really had a chance of making the team. He was then taken 12th in the D-League draft by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, three places after Rashad was. For the Vipers, Anderson is averaging 41.9 minutes, 17.5 points, 6.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game, shooting 46% from the floor and 30% from three point range, all while starting at was is essentially the small forward position. (Decide for yourself whether it's him or Garrett Temple that's technically the shooting guard. Can't say it matters much.)
The Vipers are the D-League affiliate of the Houston Rockets, and Rockets big man Joey Dorsey is on assignment there. He's putting up numbers, too. In 29.4 minutes of 10 games, Dorsey is averaging 14.4 points, 13.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.3 steal and 1.4 blocks per game, shooting 64% from the field. It looks good, doesn't it? But somehow, in only those 29 minutes per game, Dorsey is also averaging 4.0 fouls and a ridiculous 4.0 turnovers. How do you turn it over 4 times a game in 30 minutes when you don't touch the ball on offense very often? How many moving screens can one man set? Baffling times.
As I've said about 23 times in the past, Andriuskevicius is somewhat symptomatic of part of the flaw in NBA thinking. Andrew's Cabbages is 7'3 tall and fairly agile for that size; it's that combination that got him drafted and two years of guaranteed money. (It certainly wasn't because of an accomplished skillset or a history of solid production.) But the flaw there is with the 7'3 measurement. It may well be accurate, but Marty is only as tall as he is due to an abnormally long neck. Were it not for that, he'd be only a normal 7 footer, if such a height can ever be considered normal. What advantage is he to gain from having a longer neck than his peers? Not a lot. Maybe he can see the play unfolding slightly better than his matchup can. But if he hasn't the skills to do anything about it, where's the advantage? Measurements can lie, and while they do matter, they can also be blinkered. They're important, but not THAT important. Ask the western conference playoff team currently starting a 6'6 centre how much it's holding them back.
Anyway, that's just a rant, not a circumstances update. As for how he's doing these days, Andriuskevicius is into his third season with Alicante Lucentum in Spain. On the ACB season, he is averaging 8.6 points and 4.1 rebounds, numbers both down from last season. He also averages 2.6 fouls in only 17 minutes per game, in a league where you foul out when you reach 5. But he does have 120 points on only 71 shots, which is pretty fantastic.
Araujo, whose nickname should really be "Epic Fail", is back in his native Brazil, signed with a team called Paulistano. Put a space in the right place, and that becomes a believable name for a hitman. Brazilian statistics are a bit difficult to find, and it doesn't help that he seems to now exclusively be known as "Baby." But as far as I can tell, he was averaging 13.5 rebounds and 8.7 rebounds per game. (If anyone can read Portuguese, feel free to construct a better translation.) At the very least, here's a recent shot chart of his. He's red number 55.
Araujo was never THAT bad. Below average, yes, and a monumentally bad draft pick at #8. But he has NBA talent, if only as a 12th man. This is about as much balance redressing as I can muster.
Robert Archibald and his hybrid accent are to be found in the same place that they're always found - Spain. Playing for Unicaja Malaga, Arch is having a pretty bad year, averaging only 5.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.2 fouls per game in the ACB, improving to 8.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.8 fouls per game in the Euroleague. Nevertheless, his team mate there this year is fellow Brit and Aldershot's finest, Joel Freeland; others you will have heard of include Omar Cook, Shammond Williams, Nedzad Sinanovic, Taquan Dean and Gorgeous Giorgos Printezis. And this is why the ACB is the best league outside of the NBA. Even the middle-of-the-road teams are stacked.
Archibong played in the Euroleague last year when he was a member of Polish team, Prokom Sopot. He was pretty shockingly bad in it, though, averaging only 2.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.1 fouls. This year he's moved to Germany and joined the Dusseldorf Giants. (I don't have an umlaut thing on my keyboard, and I'll be damned if I'm bothering to find one in charmap.) On the season, Archibong is averaging 14.1 points and 6.7 rebounds, leading the team in both categories.
In keeping with the unofficial German league rules, Dusseldorf have almost no German players in their rotation. In fact, they have only 1; the backup point guard, Gordon Geib. But they do have a German coach, a man named Achim Kuzcmann. And he has one of the finest moustaches that you will ever see in the basketball world.
That is imperious, messianic, divine, and truly, truly uber. Well played Mr Kuzcmann.
Armstrong last played in the 2007-08 season with the Nets, playing in 50 games as a backup. He tried out for the Suns partway through last season, but did not make the team. He is now retired, if not officially, and is an assistant coach with the Mavericks.
Akingbala came out of nowhere to be a decent rebounder and defender for Clemson in his senior season, and was a training camp invite of the Celtics in 2006 as a result. After that he went to the D-League for a bit, and has spent the last three years touring Europe. He is currently with Nancy in France (pronounced Noncy, which is even funnier), averaging 11.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the French league. Akingbala exclusively does "big man things", as evidenced by his 47% FT shooting and 2 assists all year. But as athletic interior players go, you could do worse. The King Baller also put up a 9 points, 7 rebounds, 8 blocks statline earlier this month, which is not bad going.
After at least 7 years there, Akyol finally left Efes Pilsen in his native Turkey this summer, and moved to Italy to join Air Avellino. He missed six weeks due to injury, and has appeared in only 6 of 11 Serie A games for the team, but he's averaging 7.0 points and 2.2 steals in 21 minutes per game. The 17% three point shooting is not a great start, and nor is the 5 total assists, but Akyol is still young. He's only 22. Feels like he shouldn't be by now.
D-League veteran and occasional NBA flirt Alexander has ditched both of those on-off girlfriends in favour of going to South Korea. Playing for the LG Sakers, Alexander averages 14.4 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 28 minutes per game, shooting 65% from the field and 61% from the foul line.The South Korean league plays a heeyooooge, NBA-like amount of games; opening night was on October 17th, and LG have already played 30 games in those two mere months. All that court time and all those statistics are part of the reason why fringe and former NBA players like to go there; a longer breakdown of the South Korean Experience can be found by clicking the words South Korean Experience.
Alexander fell out of the NBA in 2001 after bouncing between Denver, San Antonio and Orlando for a few years, but he didn't hitch on straight away with the first six figure European contract that he could get. Instead, he sat out the 2001/02 season, and then went to the D-League for a year, where he starred as a veteran amongst whippersnappers and built himself a new CV. Alexander DID sign in Italy with Lottomatica Roma for the 2003/04 season, and performed pretty well for a Euroleague-calibre team, but the D-League came first for Alexander (and also afterwards; he went back there or the 2004/05 season too). Seemingly it worked, because Alexander DID get back into the league, playing a few games for the expansion Bobcats as Brevin Knight's mentor (maybe). This Bobcats gig was also Alexander's last, and he now works as a radio announcer for University of Virginia games.
Of all the people I've tried to find out about, Courtney Alexander has been the hardest. He hasn't played in the NBA since the 2nd of May 2003, and he never played outside of it. He spent the whole 2003/04 season on the injured list, and although he signed with the Kings in October 2004 and made the team for three weeks, he spent all that time on the injured list and never played for them. Alexander's only other NBA contract was a training camp invite to the Nuggets in 2006, where he did not make the team. He has not played since, nor has he been found since. And I've done a lot of looking.
Finally found him, though; he and his wife has set up a foundation called "CA Press", a foundation seemingly set on both academic and spiritual excellence. The foundation is advertised as being "non-profit", but given that his wife seems to have given up a career in order to help run it (according to the About page), then clearly they're turning some kind of trade from it.
A quick Facebook search for "Courtney Alexander" reveals a lot of fairly good looking women, interspersed with the occasional stunner. It's worth a gander if you're a misogynist.
Shagari Alleyne started this season in Norway. I told you about this at the time, but no one would fault you for not noticing. He left the team (Tromso) before playing a game, and came back to America, where he signed with the D-League and was taken in the fifth round of the draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds released him without so much as a whimper before the season started, and a couple of weeks ago, Alleyne signed with the Halifax Rainmen in Canada, who play in the Premier Basketball League. You'll notice we don't cover Norway and the Premier Basketball League on here as a rule.
In his first game with the Rainmen, Alleyne put up 5 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 16 minutes. In his second game the following night, Alleyne put up 3 points and 0 rebounds in 8 minutes. In the third game, he perked up a bit, totalling 8 points, 14 rebounds and 6 blocks in 19 minutes off the bench, in a PBL game against the Vermont Frost Heaves that the Rainmen won by 45 points. What's a Frost Heave?
Teammates of his that you may have heard of include former Blazer Desmond Ferguson, former NBA draft pick and middle aged man Gordon Malone, as well as D-League veterans John Strickland and Gary Ervin. But that's about it. Lest it needs to be said, PBL basketball is not strong. (Nor is Norwegian league basketball.) The intent of the PBL is to surpass the ABA, and they're doing fairly well at that, mainly because they have infinitely more sensible expansion credentials. But it's still not significant to the NBA landscape, which is what this website is supposed to focus on. I realise that that's a silly thing to say when talking about Shagari Alleyne, however. Never mind. Let's move on.
Allred, a D-League veteran, turned down the D-League this year to try and get some money. He initially signed with Napoli in Italy, but got out of there just in time. (More on their downfall later.) Allred then signed with Scavolini Pesaro for two months, another SerieA team, but in 4 games he totalled only 42 minutes, 21 points (on 22 shots), 16 rebounds, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 0 assists and 9 fouls, shooting 46% from the field and 20% from the foul line. He last played on November 1st, and left in late November when his 60 day contract expired.
I still haven't bought his book, but you still should. He's writing another one, although this time it's a work of historical fiction. There's also apparently a book of poems on the way.
Almond went to camp with the Magic, a team who at least understand that you can never have too much jumpshooting. Us bandwagon Bulls fans have made quite a song and dance this year about how bad our three point shooting has been; so would you if you replace Ben Gordon's soothingly sensual buttery touch with the claw-like scratchings of rabid feline John Salmons. But they are only actually tied for 26th in the league in three point percentage with Memphis, and three teams (New Jersey, Detroit and Minnesota) are somehow even worse. There are also 9 teams in the league shooting .318% or worse from three point range this season. Why is this the case? It needn't be. The world of basketball did not run out of shooters. The NBA just stopped getting them. What a stupid stat that is.
Anyway, the Magic didn't keep Almond, because a taxpaying team already with J.J. Redick doesn't need him. So Almond went back to the D-League with the Springfield Armor, for whom he is averaging 28.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.8 turnovers. Sounds about right.
After going undrafted, Aminu was picked up by the Miami Heat for training camp, but he never really had a chance of making the team and was an early cut. He then went to the D-League and was picked 10th overall by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, who then immediately traded him to the Erie BayHawks in exchange for Rob Kurz. At Erie, Aminu is averaging only 10.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 24 minutes a game. For a supposed Chris Andersen type, that's a mediocre start to a professional career.
Anderson signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv fantastically early on this summer, and he's still there. In the Euroleague, Anderson is averaging 13.1 points, 3.3 fouls, 3.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals in 25 minutes per game, and in the Israeli league he's averaging 10.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 18 minutes a game. There have been rumours a-flying about Maccabi potentially getting rid of him, but rumours like that have accompanied many Maccabi players this year, especially Maciej Lampe. And neither has left yet.
Speaking of Maccabi, if anyone was wondering if Derrick Sharp went back there for a 14th consecutive season, the answer is yes.
Anderson's last basketball employment was with the Bobcats back in 2007. He has not signed anywhere since, and nor has he been linked to anyone. Anderson recently signed up to join a program at the University of Kentucky that helps former players complete their degrees, as has Ron Mercer.
The Where Are They Now series of posts started out by accident, yet they've become the most enjoyable part of the website. They seem to be fun for you to read, and they're definitely fun for me to write, so now that Christmas time has passed and new seasons have begun around the world, we begin a list anew.
Abdul-Wahad was covered last month in the 1993 Draft Round-up. For those too lazy to click that link and scroll down, I shall reproduce it here.
Tariq played in only 67 games this entire decade. He played 29 games in 2000-01, 24 games in 2001-02 and 14 games in 2002-03. His last NBA game was April 14th 2003, and he never played outside of the NBA. He had a tryout with Climamio Bologna in the 2006 preseason, but he did not make the team, and that was it. Nevertheless, he got paid huge amounts of money during that time in exchange for services not rendered, and he's been investing it into the entertainment industry. Abdul-Wahad owns a French TV channel called 3A Telesud, is a partner in whatever this is, and is a partner in this clothing company.
The only change since that was written has been Tariq's decision to delete me from his Facebook friends list. Fair enough. I can handle that. In this Twitter-laden age, Facebook doesn't have the tantalising same athlete-connectibilitivity that it used to have, a connectibilitivity which, it has to be said, is pretty cool. With the onset of public Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, being a player's Facebook friend doesn't really offer anything any more (even if it does lead to hilarious sentences such as "Uros Slokar is now friends with Corey Benjamin"). It's also been pretty magnanimous for those athletes to allow the fans to snoop on their personal lives in such a way; rest assured that when I'm really really really ridiculously famous, I won't be doing this. So thank you, Tariq, and God speed.
Like Abdul-Wahad, Abdur-Rahim was recently covered in the 1996 draft thing. To discover whether or not he is currently working as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings, read it. CLUE: Yes.
In the pipeline is a piece called "A History Of Failed Physicals," one which I'm currently researching to see if it has the legs I think it might. Shareef will play a pivotal role in its success.
After going undrafted, Texas muli-record holder A.J. Abrams is playing in Greece, where, due to their funky alphabet, he is known as A.J. Eimnpamz. For Trikalla in the Greek A1 League, Eimnpamz averages 17.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 35 minutes per game. It doesn't look as though he has any aspirations to expand the distributing aspect of his game, although nor does it look like his size is holding him back from scoring too much on the continent.
Trikalla are 12th out of 14 teams in the A1, armed with only a 2-6 record, and it's not been a good season. Their three imports are Abrams, Kasib Powell and former Pittsburgh forward Tyrell Biggs, but it's not really helped the team, and Biggs in particular has been very bad. Trikalla recently brought in Mark Dickel (me neither), which might have spelled the end for Biggs, and which gives Abrams one more player not to pass to.
Abukar was in the D-League last season with both the Austin Toros and the Idaho Stampede, and after the D-League season ended he went to Switzerland to sign with the Lugano Tigers. While there, he averaged 19.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in the final seven games of the year, and has stayed there this season, averaging 16.2 points (second on the team) and 6.4 rebounds per game (third).
Swiss basketball is pretty poor, which is why we don't often talk about players being there. To give you a yardstick on that, the current leading scorer in Switzerland is a small guard named Kenny Thomas (not THAT Kenny Thomas), who averages 21 points per game for Lausanne. But last year, Thomas was playing for Radford, a Big South Conference team that made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament, only to lose to North Carolina by 43 points. Thomas averaged 14ppg last year on 41% shooting for Radford; he's doing better in Switzerland than he was in the Big South.
Also, the Lugano Tigers employ a ten man rotation that features only one real Swiss player. Four players have Swiss passports, but, as their names might suggest (Derek Stockalper, Dusan Mladjan, Slavisa Pantic), three of them are naturalised. Even the real Swiss homegrown, Luka Vertel, has mixed Croatian heritage. The Tigers roster is made up of five Americans (Abukar; Stockalper, who plays for the Swiss national team on the side; former North Carolina bench player Byron Sanders; former Pacers summer leaguer Scott Vandermeer; D-League veteran Mike Efevberha), one Brazilian (Gustavo Lo Leggio), one Croatian-Slovenian (Martin Mihajlovic), Vertel (part Croatian), Pantic (naturalised Bosnian) and Mladjan (naturalised Serbian, although he's been in Switzerland for the best part of a decade). And that list does not include former Michigan State guard Travis Walton, who went home last week. Switzerland isn't turning out a great amount of homegrown international basketball talent, and the Lugano Tigers definitely aren't.
But, although it was via Italy, Switzerland DID produce Thabo Sefolosha. So i's not all bad.
Acker started last season with the Pistons, got traded to the Clippers in a trade that I totally predicted (self aggrandising!), went to summer league with the Knicks, and then left the NBA. He signed with A.J. Milano in Italy, and appeared in the league's first 8 Italian league games (averaging 10.0 points and 4.3 rebounds) and their first four Euroleague games (8.8 and 2.8). However, he hasn't played since November 12th due to injury. I don't know what the injury is exactly, but a quick Google translate reveals that it's a "torn muscle." Don't know which.
Adams has not played anywhere this season. Not sure why. Last year, the Raptors signed him to a fully guaranteed $711,517 salary incredibly early in the offseason, watched Hassan turn up out of shame, and had to dump the contract on the Clippers (in the same way as Acker above), who then waived him. Adams then signed in Serbia for Vojvodina, but appeared in only two games before being waived in early March. He has not played anywhere since. I'm assuming he's injured.
Adeleke started the season with Napoli in Italy's Serie A, but played only three games, totalling 30 points and 27 rebounds. Unlike Tariq, Kenny hasn't deleted me from his Facebook, but that hasn't really helped me any since he never uses it. So what was designed to be a useful mechanism for garnering Kenny Adeleke information has not really worked out.
Adrien is in Spain, averaging 12.8 points and 7.7 rebounds for Leche Rio Breogan Lugo. Those are good numbers, but they come from the second division, the LEB Gold. And even though the Spanish league is the strongest league in the world outside of the NBA, the second division isn't particularly great. (It's better than Switzerland, though.) Adrien has also managed to total only 5 assists in 15 games, which is quite hard to do.
Ager is also in Spain, in the ACB (first division) with Cajasol Sevilla. Unfortunately, his statline there this season is unnervingly similar to his NBA statlines of the last three seasons; that is to say, he's struggling mightily. In 8 games, Ager is averaging 2.4 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.3 assists, shooting 22% from the field, 20% from three point range and 67% from the line. He has gone scoreless 4 times in those 8 outings, has fouled in 7 of the 8 games, and has played in only about half of the team's games. Cajasol are having a decent season, ranked 6th overall in the ACB with an 8-6 record, but they're doing so with a 7 man rotation. They could use Ager's help, particularly now that Domen Lorbek has left. But they're not getting it. It also won't help that Cajasol just made a big move in acquiring Ivan Radenovic, who, despite not playing Ager's position, gobbles up some of his available minutes.
Blake Ahearn was in Spain as well until this week, when he was released by Estudiantes Madrid. In the last two years in the D-League, Ahearn has boasted true shooting percentages of .670% (in 2007-08) and .629% (in 2008-09), which is absolutely freaking ridiculously good from a 6'2 guard. This year with Estudiantes was not really any different; Ahearn shot 41% from three point range (36-87), and a typically Blake Ahearn-like 98% from the foul line (57-58), on his way to averaging 14.2 points per game. However, he only shot 29% from two point range (10-34), and he also averaged only 0.8 assists a game to go with that. As shooting specialists go, you can't be much more effective than that, but a specialist is as much as he was.
EDIT - Estudiantes signed Chris Lofton today, another specialist shooter.
In keeping with the theme in this post, Akindele WAS in Spain, and is not any more. Akindele signed with Xacobeo BluSens Obradoiro in the ACB in the summer, but he never played for the team after failing his physical due to a meniscus injury. He has not signed elsewhere since. Xacobeo replaced him with Mike Higgins, who is 43 years old in two months time, yet who is apparently more able to play that Deji is right now. Tough break, but he'll be fine.
Speaking of Mike Higgins; he played in the NBA once, you know. That was 19 years ago now, in the 1990-91 season with the Sacramento Kings. This season he's totalled 10 points, 19 rebounds, 17 fouls, 1 assists and 0 blocks. It's been an epic career, but it's winding down now.
As always, if the player in question is still in the NBA, I'll probably write some hate-filled rant that in some way relates to them in some way. Don't think too much of that. They're not what this post is about. This post is about Chris Crawford's stables business and the like. Let's get to it.
First round
- 1st pick: Tim Duncan(San Antonio) - Tim Duncan is still with the same team that drafted him. Only two players have been with their current teams longer than Duncan has been with the Spurs; Kobe Bryant and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. If e'er there was such a thing as a lifer in the NBA these days, then Tim Duncan is that man. He's slowing down greatly these days, and the question of how many years he has left is a valid one. But the question of whether he was a power forward or a centre? That was not a valid question. It wasn't interesting or productive. Let's pretend it never happened.
- 2nd pick: Keith Van Horn(Philadelphia) - Van Horn has not appeared in an NBA game since game 5 of the 2006 finals. He's been in the league since then, what with that whole Jason Kidd sign-and-trade thing, but he didn't play a game amid that semi-comeback and he never really intended to. (It was briefly reported that he would work out with the Nets, but that was probably a lie. Remember, this is a man who retired because he wanted to be with his family, not because no one wanted him.)
- 3rd pick: Chauncey Billups(Boston) - As it's turned out, Chauncey Billups is entirely befitting of being drafted third overall. It took six years, but the point guard with the uncanny knack for getting to the free throw line eventually rounded himself into a strong all-around player, and didn't bust after all. However, Billups still had to suffer the indignity of being traded during his rookie season, the first time in 19 years that that had happened. Good trivia. (Note: it has since happened to Drew Gooden as well, and maybe some others.)
- 4th pick: Antonio Daniels(Vancouver) - After 11 years, Daniels is now out of the league and looking for work after the Timberwolves bought him out of his contract during training camp. They did so for a saving of $736,420, which, not coincidentally, is the same amount as Nathan Jawai is getting paid this year. Daniels was rumoured to be a target for the Cavaliers, but Cleveland decided against that. And it's not a glowing endorsement of Daniels that when his former team the Washington Wizards needed an emrgency point guard, they went for Earl Boykins instead.
- 5th pick: Tony Battie(Denver) - Battie is currently a member of the 0-16 Nets, having been included as an important expiring contract in the Vince Carter deal. Battie has not played this year due to a knee injury, and missed all of the 2007-08 season with rotator cuff surgery, but he is supposed to return next week.
Did you know that Tony Battie is the one who saved Paul Pierce's life after Pierce's near-fatal stabbing back in 2000? You probably did. I didn't, though. Battie was the one who drove Pierce to the hospital as he lay in the back bleeding copiously. That's pretty intense stuff. Not sure how I didn't know this.
At this point, you might well be thinking "how the hell were Antonio Daniels and Tony Battie the fourth and fifth picks in the same draft?" Well, they were. And here's a little fact; in a combined 1,624 regular season NBA games, the highest that either of the duo has ever scored in a game is 30, totalled by Daniels back in 2004. It's not all about offense, of course, but it's still a cool fact. Particularly since one of the guys that's about to be mentioned used to average more than that in a season.
- 6th pick: Ron Mercer(Boston) - Ron Mercer, a touchy subject to us Bulls fans, did not play after being the Nets' amnesty clausian in August 2005. He was only 29 at the time, yet that was the end of his career. His main contribution to the news after that was being involved in an assault at a strip club in August 2007; after an argument with one of the girls, Mercer's friend stabbed a bouncer that told them to leave, and Mercer then punched him. (Mercer pleaded guilty and received probation.) At the behest of new Kentucky head coach John Calipari, Mercer has signed up to join a program at the university that helps former players complete their degrees. More on this in a minute.
- 7th pick: Tim Thomas(New Jersey) - Bought out by the Bulls earlier this summer for a $1.6 million saving - incidentally, we'll overlook for the moment quite how badly they need a floor spacing big man - Thomas later signed with the Mavericks for the minimum. He lost about $300,000 in salary from making that swap, but he joined a team that wants him and plays him, so it's not all bad. Also, in taking that buyout, Thomas also became the first player to ever be bought out twice by the same team after having been acquired twice from the same team. This will quite possibly never happen again.
- 8th pick: Adonal Foyle(Golden State) - Foyle is back with the Magic, re-signing this summer to a one year minimum salary deal. If I were to guess, I'd guess that this is probably his last season. This isn't too outlandish of a prediction, though, since
a) Last year was rumoured to be his last season as well, and
b) Foyle has not played this year due to arthiscopic knee surgery.
This season almost marks the last year that the Warriors will have to pay him any salary.
- 9th pick: Tracy McGrady(Toronto) - Rumour has it that the Rockets intend to leave McGrady inactive and claim he's still injured so that they can pick up the insurance payments on his mahoosive contract. But since McGrady claims to be healthy - and since the Rockets haven't done a great job of disguising the news that they just flat don't want him any more - that looks like a plan destined to end up with one hell of a grievance. As for his list of potential suitors, how about the Bulls? Find a way to construct a deal that sees the Bulls give out Brad Miller and Jerome James, while also taking on no more than $500,000 in salary for this season and no salary for next season, and you might have the workings of a solid idea.
- 10th pick: Danny Fortson(Milwaukee) - Fortson has not played since his final 14 game stint for the Sonics back in 2006-07, where he totalled 40 points, 43 rebounds and 38 fouls in 158 minutes. Fortson played in only 440 games in 10 full NBA seasons, a testament to how injured (or suspended) he always seemed to be, and he averaged only 20mpg for his career due to all the fouls. Since his contract ended, Fortson has been about as quiet as you can be, although he did commit to attending a "fantasy camp" held by Bob Huggins this past summer.
Danny Fortson fact: in the 2004-05 season, Danny Fortson averaged 7.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 0.1 assists, 1.5 turnovers and 4.3 fouls in only 16.9 minutes per game. For per-36 minutes fans, that's 15.9 points, 12.0 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 3.1 turnovers and 9.1 fouls. Even more impressively, Fortson shot more foul shots (258) than field goals (225), which almost never happens. And most impressively of all, Fortson shot 88% from the foul line for that season, totalling a ridiculous true shooting percentage of .682 in 62 games.
Only Danny Fortson could do that.
- 11th pick: Tariq Abdul-Wahad(Sacramento) - Tariq Abdul-Wahad is still my Facebook friend, and, with that in mind, I recently decided I'd try and create a list of Facebook accounts of all the players covered by this website, in the same way that I have a list of all the Twitter accounts. However, I've had to bail. It's easy to do for the non-NBA or fringe NBA players, but for the actual NBA players, it's impossible to tell which are real because they're all set to private. So that got abandoned about 400 profiles in.
Anyway, Tariq played in only 67 games this entire decade. He played 29 games in 2000-01, 24 games in 2001-02 and 14 games in 2002-03. His last NBA game was April 14th 2003, and he never played outside of the NBA. He had a tryout with Climamio Bologna in the 2006 preseason, but he did not make the team, and that was it. Nevertheless, he got paid huge amounts of money during that time in exchange for services not rendered, and he's been investing it into the entertainment industry. Abdul-Wahad owns a French TV channel called 3A Telesud, is a partner in whatever this is, and is a partner in this clothing company.
I did not gather that information from his Facebook page, because that's all in French.
- 12th pick: Austin Croshere(Indiana) - Justin Frazier was in the NBA last year with three different teams; first re-signing with the Pacers for training camp, then being claimed off of waivers by the Bucks (for no real reason), and finally signing a ten day contract with the Spurs. He didn't play especially well at any of the three, though, and did not sign anywhere anew this offseason. He now does TV work for the Pacers, and is presumably retired.
- 13th pick: Derek Anderson(Cleveland) - Anderson's last basketball employment was with the Bobcats back in 2007. He has not signed anywhere since, and nor has he been linked to anyone. Anderson recently signed up to the same University of Kentucky program as Ron Mercer did above, and will return to school to finish his degree.
- 14th pick: Maurice Taylor(L.A. Clippers) - Taylor flumped out of the NBA in January 2007, after the Kings waived him in order to bring back Justin Williams, whom they had originally waived to open up room for Taylor. (Taylor played very badly in between those two transactions.) Maurice then spent two years out of basketball, and it appeared that he had retired, but then he resurfaced last January. Freshly armed with an Italian passport - courtesy of his grandmother's "Italian roots" - Taylor signed with Armani Jeans Milano, a strong Italian team, and played 21 games with the team. He had originally been signed only to play in Euroleague games, but he played in only 4 (totalling 15 points, 13 rebounds and 9 fouls in 54 minutes) before Milano were knocked out of the competition. After that, Taylor played in 17 Serie A games with the team, averaging 8.5 points and 3.6 rebounds and shooting 42% from three point range, but his option for this season was declined during the summer. This very morning, however, it was announced that Taylor has signed with Shanxi in the Chinese league for the upcoming season, roughly the 12th ex-NBA player to have done so thus far. [Chinese league transactions are seriously difficult to verify.] This can only mean one thing - numbers, numbers, numbers. We'll bring them to you in a couple of months.
- 15th pick: Kelvin Cato(Dallas) - Cato has not played professionally since his 22 points, 31 rebound, 0 assist 2006-07 season with the New York Knicks. He fell off outrageously quickly between the ages of 31 and 33 and hasn't been seen since. I have scoured t'internet for any post-2007 Kelvin Cato news, but, apart from a 24 year old Tulsa resident of the same name, I've found nothing. So, in lieu of any Kelvin Cato news, here's a clip of Kelvin Cato shopping for hats.
Did you know that Kelvin Cato has written at least two children's books in his time? Me neither. You can buy one of them here, for only $39.99. And this also seems like another perfect moment to link to one of my favourite sites on the web. Kelvin, you sly old dog.
- 16th pick: Brevin Knight(Cleveland) - Knight was a part of one of the most joyfully pointless trades of all time last summer, when the Clippers traded him to the Jazz for Jason Hart straight up. Gotta love it. Knight spent the year in Utah, but wasn't especially good, and he didn't get signed anywhere for this season. He is out there still, waiting for the phone to ring. It may yet still do.
- 17th pick: Johnny Taylor(Orlando) - Taylor played in only 59 games in the NBA over three years, totalling a PER of 8.6. He signed in training camps with the Bulls in 2000 and the Blazers in 2001, but made neither team. His post-NBA career has been lengthy, incorporating stops in Japan, Spain, Korea, Israel, Belgium, Russia, Philippines, Lebanon and Italy, and he's still going. Newman is signed for a second season with Al Ahli Manama in the Bahrain league, where last year he averaged the slightly astronomical numbers of 22.3ppg and 19.7rpg. That's Bahrain for you.
- 18th pick: Chris Anstey(Dallas) - Anstey played three years in the NBA; two for the Mavericks and one for the Bulls. He was pretty good in his one year for the Bulls, performing decently amongst a destitute team of fail, yet he never again came back to the NBA. Of the ten years hence, Anstey spent three in Russia with Unics Kazan (as documented in Paul Shirley's book), and has spent the other seven back in his native Australia, where he has superstarred. Anstey averaged 18.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.7 blocks for the Melbourne Tigers last year, with the blocks and rebounds averages ranking second in the league. He is signed there for this year as well, but has not played through the first 11 games of the season due to hip surgery.
- 19th pick: Scot Pollard(Detroit) - Pollard last played in the NBA with the championship winning 2007-08 Celtics. He didn't play in the postseason and barely played during the regular season, but he got a ring and a million for sitting around and putting up with a year of ankle pain, so it's not all bad. He now works for NBA TV, where he's already created one of the more awkward moments in television history.
- 20th pick: Paul Grant(Minnesota) - Despite being a first round draft pick, Grant played only 16 games in the NBA. He spent the whole of his first season on the injured list with a fake injury, and played in only 13 minutes of 6 games in his second season. Grant was then traded to the Bucks and waived, and began a training camp cycle that included the Grizzlies (2000), the Nets (2001) and the Jazz (2002 and 2003). He didn't make the team on any of those occasions, but the Jazz brought him back for two ten day contracts in January 2004, during which time Grant played spot minutes of ten games. (He did however suffer the indignity of being waived early from his ten day contract. That almost never happens. Can't feel good.) Grant had played in the CBA, ABA, NBDL and Yugoslavia amongst his continued efforts to get back into the NBA, but those two ten dayers with the Jazz represented his last basketball employment. He is now an assistant coach for the MIT men's basketball team. Not sure how well an assistant coaching job at a Division 3 school pays. Maybe he's doing a concurrent degree there. That's just a guess, though.
- 21st pick: Anthony Parker(New Jersey) - As you no doubt already know, Parker did very little during his first NBA gig, and went to Europe for a few years. Any repeat viewer to these lists will know that that's not unusual. But it's kind of unusual for an NBA dropout to go to Europe and star, and of the few that do, it's very rare that they then come back to the NBA. Yet Parker is one of the few that did, and he's now in year 4 of his NBA redux, starting for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's fallen off quite a bit over these four years, but given that he's now 34, that was to be expected.
- 22nd pick: Ed Gray(Atlanta) - Gray played two seasons for the Hawks, 30 games in each. He put up a PER of 13.0 in his rookie year, and a PER of 4.8 in his sophomore season. In that time he was arrested for DUI and drug possession, and twice suspended for missing medical appointments. He was also late for team functions six times in one year, which is not bad going. After flopping out of the NBA, Gray played in the CBA for two years, then became a Globetrotter. Then he joined the London Towers, but left before playing a game. That was back in 2003. He hasn't been heard of since.
- 23rd pick: Bobby Jackson(Seattle) - Jackson announced his retirement last month after 12 years. He has since become an ambassador for the Kings, his last and foremost NBA team.
- 24th pick: Rodrick Rhodes(Houston) - Rhodes played 58 games in his rookie season, yet only 14 more after that. He was traded halfway through his second season and then again in the offseason before being waived by the Magic. The Sixers immediately picked him up for 1999 training camp, but he didn't make the team, and he was later picked up for the last game of the season by the Mavericks. That was the last game of his NBA career, as training camp gigs with the Blazers in 2000 and the Cavaliers in 2001 proved unsuccessful. Rhodes also played in Cyprus, Greece, Philippines, France and Puerto Rico in his career, and finished up with the USBL's Brooklyn Kings in 2003. Upon retiring he went back to school at USC, and then went into coaching. He started as an assistant at St. Edward's University in Texas, then moved on Idaho State for a year. Then he spent a year as assistant to the head coach and director of player personnel coach at the University of Massachusetts. Then he spent a year as an administrative assistant Coach at Seton Hall. And now he's spending at least one year as an assistant coach at the University of Texas-Pan American.
(That was the most boringly normal story there can be. It's like a template for basically every other story on these lists. How formulaic. Not that there's anything wrong with that, though. It's good to have structure.)
- 25th pick: John Thomas(New York) - Thomas played 148 games in his first three years, for both the Celtics and the Raptors. He was traded by the Knicks to the Celtics midway during his first ever training camp, and then traded again to Toronto at his first ever trade deadline, neither of which seems consistent with the Billups trivia above. Thomas spent two and a half years with the Raptors before his contract expired, and then he disappeared from the NBA. Between the years 2000 and 2004, Thomas played in the Dominican Republic, the CBA (China), the other CBA (America) and Spain, with at least one gap year in amongst that somewhere.
Thomas then strangely reappeared in the NBA for the 2004-05 season, signing with the size-starved Timberwolves and averaging 2.5 points and 2.2 rebounds in 44 games. He spent the 2005-06 season with three NBA teams - the Nets, the Grizzlies and the Hawks - appearing in 16 total games and rocking a PER of 3.4. After that, he didn't play in the 2006-07 season, spent the 2007-08 season in the D-League (which is very strange for a 32 year old) and spent last season in Syria.
He's still playing, too, signing for Hapoel Holon in Israel this summer. On the season so far, Thomas is averaging the highly laudable numbers of 12.0 points and 10.6 rebounds in 29 minutes. Those rebounding numbers particularly stand out on a man who averaged 6.9 rebounds per 36 minutes for his NBA career.
- 26th pick: Charles Smith(Miami) - Charles Smith's career is basically the mirror image of John Thomas's above, except a bit more stop-starty. Smith was in the NBA for two years, then out of it for two years, then back in it for two years, then out of it for two years, then back in it for one, then out of it for four. He last played in the NBA in the 2005-06 season, playing 22 games with the Blazers and playing one game with the Nuggets after a midseason trade.
In between all the stops in the NBA, Smith has played most of his time in Italy, and has been a huge scorer over there. He led SerieA in scoring on two occasions, and was also a 20ppg scorer in the Euroleague at one time. Nonetheless, Smith kept turning down European stardom for NBA minimum salary contracts, trying to stick in America in preference to the money and fame of being one of Europe's better scorers. It never really worked out, as th emulti year contract always eluded him, but playing bit parts of 5 NBA seasons is no mean feat.
Smith spent two seasons between 2006 and 2008 with Real Madrid, and then joined Turkish powerhouse Efes Pilsen. He's still there, currently averaging 13.0 points per game in the Turkish league (and 10.8 points per game in the Euroleague) for a rather strangely constructed team. Efes have plenty of talent, but a starting lineup that features all three of Smith, Igor Rakocevic and Bostjan Nachbar has potential ball sharing problems. Efes have 7 players that average more than 8 points per game, which is somewhat of a good thing, but even with all that talent they're only 2-3 in the Euroleague.
- 27th pick: Jacque Vaughn(Utah) - Vaughn is unsigned and looking. After spending the last two years with the Spurs, he was jettisoned in favour of......well, no one really. The Spurs decided to keep only two point guards, filling the rest of the roster with wingmen and bigs. Vaughn is about to turn 35 and hasn't been good for about 8 years, but he oozes heady veteranness, and teams like heady veteranness.
Jacque Vaughn fact; Jacque Vaughn started the 2001-02 season in an 0-26 shooting slump, which is almost Duhon-like. Strangely, that ended up being the best shooting season of his career; Vaughn finished the season shooting 47%/44%/83%, with a true shooting perentage of .547%. He hit 24 three pointers that season. He's hit 22 in the seven seasons since.
- 28th pick: Keith Booth(Chicago) - Keith Booth's playing career mimicked the teams he played on. For the title winning 1997/98 Chicago Bulls, Booth played only 6 games and 17 minutes; for the God awful 1998/99 Bulls, Booth played 39 games (out of 50) and 432 minutes. Those were the only two seasons of his NBA career, and any more news of his playing career is hard to come by (although he did attend an NBDL tryout camp in 2001). His playing career did not last long, and Booth returned to Maryland in 2003 to finish up his almost-completed criminal justice degree. Booth briefly worked as a baseball coach at a Baltimore middle school, and then became an assistant coach at Maryland in July 2004. He's still there. Here's his Twitter.
- 29th pick: There was no 29th pick. And here's why.
The team that were originally scheduled to pick 17th - the Washington Bullets, as were - were made to forfeit their first round pick as a part of the move to re-sign Juwan Howard to a ludicrous $100 million deal in the sumer of 1996. Howard had opted out of the six year contract that he signed upon entering the league after only year two, and signed a 7 year, $98 million contract with the Miami Heat. However, that contract was vetoed by the league, for they deemed that it had violated the rules of the salary cap; the Heat ruled that Miami already had an agreement with Alonzo Mourning, and, since verbal agreements are binding, this left Miami without enough room under the salary cap to sign Howard as well. (According to the NBA, at least.) Also, the league ruled that performance bonuses for both Tim Hardaway and P.J. Brown should have been counted against the salary cap, yet weren't.
The Heat protested both charges, and Pat Riley was not a happy bunny. After the Heat's contract was voided, Howard re-signed with the Bullets for a few million more than the Heat had tried to give him, and that made Riley an even less contented leporine. The league had the right to impose severe penalties if they deemed Miami to have deliberately flouted the salary cap rules - namely, a $5 million fine and a year's suspension for Pat Riley - and they maintained that they had proof of Mourning's verbal commitment. Similarly, Riley and the Heat maintained that there was no agreement with Mourning and that they had not done their sums wrong, and so they sought a reinstatement of the contract Juwan had signed with them. They'd spent a long time clearing out cap room to be able to sign him in the first place, after all, and so they really wanted this to go down.
(By the way, while all this was going on, Washington had renounced Howard and used the opened-up cap space to sign Tracy Murray and Lorenzo Williams, and trade for Rod Strickland and Gary Grant. More on this later.)
The case was set to go to arbitration for a ruling as to whether the Heat's initial contract was valid. The Heat wanted the deal reinstated and Washington punished, the league wanted the Heat's contract voided, and Washington just really wanted to overpay Howard. However, it never got that far, as a settlement was reached before the hearing. Juwan's contract with the Heat was indeed voided, yet no further sanctions were levied against the Heat. (This did not pacify Riley, who as extremely upset at having traded all of Kevin Willis, Billy Owens, Bimbo Coles, Glen Rice and Matt Geiger in the previous year, just to try to get a shot at Howard.) Howard's new contract with the Wizards was allowed to stand, and amazingly they were also allowed to keep the four aforementioned players that they had acquired to replace him with the money his departure had opened up. However, they could only do so if they forfeited their first round draft pick the following year.
And so that's why there were only 28 first round draft picks in the 1997 NBA draft.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can now safely conclude the following:
1) Miami dodged a massive bullet (totally intended that pun).
2) Having Scot Pollard for three years and $2.8 million is WAY more preferable to having Juwan Howard for $100 million and no first round pick.
(One further extremely nerdy note: when the 17th pick was vetoed, all players picked in the second round stayed where they were, thus officially listed as being drafted in the positions listed above. For instance, the 30th pick below was only the 29th player chosen, yet was still listed as being the 30th pick, with the vetoed pick counted as #29. The same happened in 2001 and 2002, when the Minnesota Timberwolves were forced to forfeit their first rounders in the Joe Smith fiasco. But in the year of the Wolves other forfeited first rounder - 2004 - the second rounders were all bumped up one spot. With 30 teams in the league at that point, the first pick of the second round (Anderson Varejao) became the 30th pick, and the last pick in the second round (Rashad Wright) became the 59th. This fascinatingly important detail came in direct contravention to the trend set by the previous three vetoes. And why? To make your BRAIN EXPLODE, that's why.)
Second round
- 30th pick: Serge Zwikker(Houston) - Zwikker's professional career essentially did not exist. After his reasonably successful four year career at UNC, Zwikker signed with the Rockets and stayed with the team for a whole year, but didn't play a single game. The following year he played 7 games for Tau Vitoria, but was released quickly due to being out of shape. He saw out that season in Italy, was loaned back to Spain the following year (averaging a pedestrian 4.1ppg and 3rpg), and then signed back in his native Holland for the 2000/01 season. Playing for a club named Conesco Den Helder, Zwikker went scoreless in three games, and then announced his retirement that October, citing a lack of motivation. He has since worked in IT, and is currently the senior manager of IT infrastructure at Salix Pharmaceuticals in Raleigh, North Carolina. Party on, Serge! Party on, Wayne!
- 31st pick: Mark Sanford(Miami) - Sanford never played in the NBA. He signed with the Heat for training camp 1997, but didn't make the team. He spent the next two years playing in Belgium, the CBA and for the Globetrotters (going by the name "Airplane"), before signing with the Kings for training camp 2009. Bizarrely, he was known as Tywan Sanford at that time; Tywan is his middle name, and Mark is short for "Eumarkjah." No, I'm not making that up.
Between 1999 and 2002, Sanford - now known as Mark again - played in France, Denmark, the ABA and Japan, before signing once last time in training camp with the New Jersey Nets in 2002. After failing to make that team as well, Sanford hit the road again, and has since played in Israel, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Spain, Philippines, Australia, Philippines, Lebanon, CBA, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Korea, and finally Chile, where his one month contract expired two weeks ago. Sanford has scored big as basically all of these last places; he averaged 15.0ppg in the CBA, 20.6ppg in Chile, 16.7ppg in Australia, 24.6ppg and 28.8ppg in the Philippines, 30.2ppg in the Dominican Repubic.....etc. Now aged 33, Sanford is still playing and still scoring big, and has probably racked up some air miles in his time.
Mark's a cool name. Don't be ashamed.
- 32nd pick: Charles O'Bannon(Detroit) - O'Bannon is still playing as well, but mercifully his career is far easier to describe. He played two years with the Pistons, playing in 48 games and putting up a PER of 11.7, before being waived halfway through his second season. Outside of a training camp contract with the Blazers in 1999, he never troubled the NBA again. O'Bannon spent the 1999-00 season in Poland, and then went to Japan in 2000 to play for a team called Toyota Alvark. He has been there ever since, with his only departure being a 12 game stint with Benetton Treviso in early 2003. To have stuck with the same foreign team for a decade is extremely rare for an American (EXTREMELY rare), and it's been made possible by O'Bannon's star-like numbers. This season, he's averaging 15.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in only 17.1 minutes per game. The standard in Japan is not very good, but for a man who turns 35 in two months, that's still some fine production.
- 33rd pick: James Cotton(Denver) - Cotton is more Zwikker than Sanford. He spent his first two professional seasons in the NBA with the Sonics (see below), but appeared in only 19 games and 92 minutes. The Sonics then traded him to the Bulls in the 1999 offseason along with the Hersey Hawkins for Brent Barry, and the Bulls waived him. Cotton never again appeared in the NBA, and his whole basketball career lasted only two more seasons. He spent the 1999-00 season in the CBA, then split the 2000-01 season between Poland, the IBA and Australia, and then retired. Cotton returned to Long Beach State the following year to complete his communications degree, and is now a real estate agent for Pro Max Real Estate in Long Beach.
James Cotton fact; Cotton's rights were traded by the Nuggets to the Sonics on draft night, along with a 1998 second round pick, for the rights to Bobby Jackson (#23 above). That 1998 second round turned out to be Rashard Lewis. Therefore, Seattle can accurately claim that James Cotton was an essential vehicle in them acquiring both Lewis and Barry.
- 34th pick: Marko Milic(Philadelphia) - Milic was traded by the Sixers one month into his rookie season to the Suns in exchange for Tom Chambers. At this point, you should probably go ahead and ignore that earlier Billups trivia. Milic played 44 games over two years with the Suns, putting up a PER of 14.9 and a career field goal percentage of 56%, numbers both warped by the 216 minute sample size. After leaving the NBA in 1999, ne'er to return, Milic has spent the last decade in Europe. Apart for brief sojourns in Spain and Turkey, Milic has spent of his time either in his native Slovenia with Olimpija Ljubljana, or in Italy with Scavolini Pesaro and the Bologna teams. Most recently, Milic was in France playing for Entente Orleans, a team that's in the Euroleague this year. However, he left the team earlier this month by "mutual consent," after Orleans decided he wasn't the type of player that they were looking for. How they managed to not know the type of player that Milic was after 10+ years in the European limelight, I don't know.
- 35th pick: Bubba Wells(Dallas) - Wells spent one year in the NBA, appearing in 39 games for the Mavericks, the most notable of which was the game in which he fouled out in 3 minutes while deliberately fouling Dennis Rodman. In the 1998 close season, Wells was a throw-in in the trade that took Steve Nash to Dallas, and then later on was a throw-in in the trade that took Luc Longley to the Suns. The Bulls then waived him, and Wells spent one year in the CBA, one in the ABA, two in the Philippines and two with the Globetrotters before quitting. He is now an assistant coach at his alma mater, Austin Peay.
- 36th pick: Kebu Stewart(Philadelphia) - Stewart played one year for the Sixers, appearing in 15 games and posting a PER of 14.0. If only PER existed in the public's conscience in the late 1990's. He went to training camp in 1998 with the Hawks (a training camp with actually took place in January 1999), and then went to training camp in 1999 with the Mavericks, but he played in no more NBA games. The rest of the stops in his career has been as follows: CBA, Puerto Rico, CBA, Puerto Rico, Israel, Russia, Poland, Spain, Serbia, Italy, South Korea, and finally Latvia, where he last played in November 2007.
I don't know what he's done since then, but if you'd like to know, ask him yourself at his Facebook account. And from said Facebook account, here is Kebu Stewart working a fine looking barbecue:
- 37th pick: James Collins(Philadelphia) - The Sixers traded Collins' draft rights to the Clippers in exchange for a 1998 second rounder (Jelani McCoy), and Collins played one year with the Clips. He put up a PER of 15.1 in 23 games. That's pretty good, you know. Nonetheless, the Clippers didn't re-sign him, and a few more training camp stints with the Suns (1998), the Wizards (1999) and the Grizzlies (2001) didn't amount to anything. Collins spent a few years in the CBA, and made brief trips to France, Spain and Venezuela, before spending the last five years of his career in Italy. His last stint came in the 2006-07 season with a team called Indesit Fabriano in Italy's LegaDue (the second division). From personal experience, let me assure you that Indesit washing machines are amazingly unreliable. Or at least they were in the late 90's. Or at least, the one in our old house was.
James Collins fact: James Collins was once arrested for stalking.
- 38th pick: Marc Jackson(Golden State) - Marc Jackson enjoyed a seven year NBA career and many millions of dollars, but unusually that career did not start until the 2000/01 season. (His rookie season was his best season by miles. That doesn't happen often.) Of the three years between drafting and signing in NBA, Jackson spent two in Turkey and one in Spain, and in the three seeasons since falling out of the NBA, Jackson has played in Greece, Russia and Spain again. This season, for Xacobeo Blusens in the ACB, Jackson is averaging 15.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game, scoring 122 points on 82 shots, but Blusens are still second last in the ACB with a 3-7 record.
- 39th pick: Jerald Honeycutt(Milwaukee) - Honeycutt signed with the Bucks for two seasons, playing 38 games in his rookie season and 3 in his second, before being traded to the Sixers at the 1999 trade deadline. He played 13 games for the Sixers, shot 26%, and never played in the NBA again. (Honeycutt did get a camp invite to the Blazers in 2003, but it didn't amount to anything.) When not in the NBA, Honeycutt has played in the CBA, Puerto Rico, the ABA, Russia, Greece, the Philippines, Venezuela, Korea, the Lebanon and Japan, where he has spent the last five seasons. This year for the Panasonic Trians (what's a Trian?), Honeycutt is averaging 15.3 points and 6.5 rebounds in 19.7 minutes per game.
- 40th pick: Anthony Johnson(Sacramento) - Johnson is currently the third string point guard for Orlando Magic, and is having a pretty ordinary season, save for one awesome night against the Hawks. Here's the thing; how unlikely is it for the Magic to play J.J. Redick and Vince Carter together when Jason Williams is out of the game, with Carter doing the lion's share of the ball handling and the playmaking with Redick guarding the point guard? Is that not possible? I reckon it would work.
- 41st pick: Edner Elisma(Seattle) - Elisma didn't sign an NBA contract until training camp 2000, when he failed to make the team. The Sonics brought him back for training camp 2001, but he didn't make the team then either. His last NBA attempt was with the Celtics back in training camp 2003, yet he missed out there too, and never played in an NBA game. He has played professionally the whole time, though, and is still going to this day. Since leaving Georgia Tech, his career has involved the following stops: Israel, Italy, Belgium, Sonics, ABA, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Sonics, Israel, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, NBDL, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Celtics, China, Puerto Rico, Philippines, China, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Iran, Kuwait, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Iran, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and finally Mexico, where he signed last month and currently averages 10.0 points and 7.5 rebounds. I feel I should point out at this moment that Ednar Elisma is a Dominican Republic passport holder.
- 42nd pick: Jason Lawson(Denver) - The Nuggets traded Lawsons' rights to the Magic in exchange for a pick that we're yet to get to and a 1999 second rounder (Kris Clack). Lawson played only 80 minutes for the Magic, though, in his only season in the NBA. He had training camp stints with the Hawks in '98, the Wizards in '99 and the Clippers in 2000, but he failed to make any of the teams. Lawson's worldwide basketball showcase incorporated all manner of places, ranging from France and Greece to the NBDL and the CBA. He last played in Mexico in the 2006 season. (A tryout in Jordan in January 2008 did not result in a contract.)
- 43rd pick: Stephen Jackson(Phoenix) - Well, now. I think you know where Stephen Jackson is.
It took a while for his NBA career to get started; Jackson never made the Suns roster, and while the Grizzlies signed him for 1999 training camp, he didn't make their roster either. In the years between his being drafted and finally getting into the NBA in 2000 with the Nets, Jackson played in the CBA, Israel, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. He then ground out a season in the Nets rotation, getting 40 starts and averaging 8.2ppg, and was picked up by the Spurs for the 2001-02 season. He barely played for them in his first season, appearing in only 227 minutes of action, but then on November 20th 2002 he hit 8 three pointers in a game against the Lakers. And the rest is not quite history.
- 44th pick: Gordon Malone(Minnesota) - Malone never played in the NBA. The Timberwolves brought him to 1997's training camp, waived him, and that was that. He's not stopped playing, however, and in the last 12 years has played in the following places; CBA, Poland, Puerto Rico, Argentina, USBL, Greece, CBA, IBL, IBA, Dominican Republic, Argentina, ABA, USBL, China, XBA (whatever that is), EBA, USBL, Globetrotters, USBL, ABA, CBA, Chile, and the ABA. He's currently signed in Canada with the Halifax Rainmen. No one other than Ivan Chiriaev ever plays in Canada, but, with the demise of the CBA and the purposelessness of the ABA, I guess Canada now counts as one of America's premier minor leagues. (No offense.)
- 45th pick: Cedric Henderson(Cleveland) - Henderson played five seasons in the NBA from 1998 to 2002; four with the Cavaliers and one with the Warriors. His output got steadily worse throughout those five season, dropping from 10.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in his rookie year down to 3.0 points and 0.3 rebounds in his last year. Training camp stints with the Bucks in 2002 and the Jazz in 2004 followed, but Henderson not got back into the NBA. Once out of it, he played in the Lebanon, Ukraine, the NBDL and South Korea, before finally winding up in Cyprus. He played 7 games in the Cypriot league in October 2007 before being released. Aside from some charity and guest-speaking appearances, I cannot find him since.
Fun fact - the Cavaliers had four players on the 1997 All-Rookie first and second teams. Brevin Knight (#16) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (#20, 1996) made the first team (Z had missed the whole 1996/97 season with his broken foot), while Derek Anderson (#13) and Henderson (#45) made the second team. This has not happened before or since.
- 46th pick: God Shammgod(Washington Bullets) - The man who opened so many joke opprtunities for my internet nickname, Shammgod played one year in the NBA before embarking on a minor league career that still occasionally splutters into life. Shammgod played in 20 games for the Wizards in his rookie season, and was brought back for 1998 training camp, but did not make the team again. He has since played in a variety of places ranging from Croatia to the CBA, most notably spending five years in China. He is currently unsigned, but this summer he spent time with two IBL teams - the Portland Chinooks and the Oregon Wave. Nope, me neither.
- 47th pick: Eric Washington(Orlando) - Washington was the player that was traded for Jason Lawson (#42 above). He played 104 games in two seasons for the Nuggets, averaging 6.9 points per game, and then fell out of the NBA. After that came a year in Greece, two years in Italy, a gap year, another training camp spot with the Nuggets, a year in Israel, two years in the CBA, and then the last four years in Finland. The Finnish basketball league is insignificant on the world stage and does not pay well, yet Washington must be having some kind of fun there if he keeps going back. So far this year he's averaging 22.4 points and 8.3 rebounds.
- 48th pick: Alvin Williams(Portland) - Williams was assumed to be retired in early 2004, when his troublesome ankle finally gave up the ghost and prevented him from playing any more. But that wasn't quite it; Williams missed the whole 2004-05 season, but managed to get 10 minutes of 1 game in November 2005 with the Raptors (who then bought him out, unable to get an injury exemption), and Williams played two games on a 10 day contract with the Clippers the following season. That really was it, though, and Williams never played again. He is now an assistant coach with the Raptors.
Alvin Williams will always have a special place in my heart because of the 2003 offseason. I drafted Alvin Williams with one of the last picks of my fantasy league's draft, and traded him before the season started straight up for Antawn Jamison. Then at the deadline, I was able to trade Jamison straight up for Shaq using a highly convincing argument about free throw percentage. Alvin Williams averaged 9/4 that season in only 56 games, while Shaq averaged 22/12. I prefer to brag about this good bit of business rather than acknowledge the epic fail of my current fantasy league team. A few too many Nets on it, really.
- 49th pick: Predrag Drobnjak(Washington Bullets) - The allegedly smelly Drobnjak last played in the NBA in the 2004-05 season with the Atlanta Hawks. He left the NBA to sign a lucrative three year deal with Tau Ceramica, but played badly in season one and left the team. He then played in Serbia in the 2006/07 season, Spain in 2007/08, and was a member of Efes Pilsen in Turkey last season, though he played only 31 minutes all year. This season, Drobs is with PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece, where he's enjoying a slight second wind, averaging 12.4 points on the season. But he's still not rebounding.
- 50th pick: Alain Digbeu(Atlanta) - Digbeu never signed in the NBA, and therefore Atlanta still technically owns his draft rights. Apart from the first half of last season, which is spent in Greece, Digbeu has spent all of the last 18 years in Italy, Spain or his native France. (Mostly France.) He's currently with IG Strasbourg alongside Terrel Harris and Ben McCauley, averaging 11.1 points per game on a team with a 2-7 record.
a) He worked out for the Nets in 2006.
b) He lives in Galesburg, Michigan.
c) He owns a company called "Slam Dunk Stables," a thoroughbred racing stable that either is or was part-owned by Donald Sterling.
d) An overhead shot of his house (which, obviously, I'm not reproducing.)
The internet - it's faaaaaaantastic. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to join James Collins and get arrested for stalking.
- 52nd pick: Dejuan Wheat(L.A. Lakers) - Wheat - middle name "Shontez" - is still playing. He managed only two years in the NBA, playing 34 games in his rookie season with the Timberwolves (after the Lakers waived him), and then being in the Vancouver Grizzlies rotation for the whole following season, but he didn't play in the NBA after 1999. (He signed training camp contracts with the Suns in 2000 and the Blazers in 2001, but made neither team.) Wheat's career since then has mainly been in middle America, and he's been with Soles de Mexicali in Mexico since 2005. Now 36, Wheat's averages had dropped to 10.4 points per game this season, but let's cut to what's important; here's a video of Dejuan Wheat taping his ankle.
As the slogan says; NBA news that doesn't really matter.
- 53rd pick: C.J. Bruton(Vancouver) - With the exception of a brief trip to Venezuela in 2001 for some summer money, a brief CBA stint in late 2000, a training camp stint with the Blazers in 2002 (who bought his draft rights from the Grizzlies), and two years at Indian Hill Community College between 1995 and 1997, C.J. Bruton has spent his entire basketball life in Australia. He was there even before he was drafted, and he's still there to this day. This season for the New Zealand Breakers - who play in the Australian NBL, despite the name - Bruton averages 16.3 points (8th in the league) and 4.1 assists (4th). He has also been a member of the Australian national team for pretty much the entire stretch, and you may have seen him in the Olympics as a result. If any Australian readers have any extremely interesting C.J. Bruton trivia, then chip in.
- 54th pick: Paul Rogers(L.A. Lakers) - Paul Rogers' story is basically the same as Bruton's. He too never played in the NBA - although he did spend the strike shortened 1998/99 on the Raptors injured list - and he has spent pretty much his whole working life in Australia. Rogers played in Spain between 2003 and 2005, but apart from that it's been Australia all the way, mainly with his current team, the Perth Wildcats. Rogers has played only 19 minutes this year, and has lost his captaincy role, but it's entirely ordinary for a 36 year old to get a bit worse over time. It hasn't detracted from Rogers's strong Australian career, which featured two trips to the Olympics and an NBL MVP award. And, as with Bruton; if there's any good trivia out there, then bring the noise.
- 55th pick: Mark Blount(Seattle) - Blount continues to flouder on the Timberwolves inactive list. The team gave him permission to seek a trade, but Blount couldn't find one, and while Minnesota would like to agree a buyout with him, Blount won't take one because no team will sign him as a free agent. So this situation will probably drag on until at least the deadline, at which point Minnesota will either find a taker for his huge expiring salary, or release him. Blount has almost certainly played his last NBA game.
- 56th pick: Ben Pepper(Boston) - Making it three Australians in four picks, Ben Pepper is another NBL lifer. He never signed in the NBA, and apart from a very strange trip to the ABA in 2002, Pepper played in the NBL between 1996 and 2008. My Aussie mate Geordie insists that The Sultan played for the New Zealand Breakers last season, but I can't find anything that corroborates that, so I'm going to go ahead and assume that he's insane.
- 57th pick: Nate Erdmann(Utah) - Erdmann never played in the NBA, not making it out of his first ever training camp. After spending the 1997-98 season in the CBA, Erdmann spent 5 straight years in Italy, and then spent the 2003-04 season in France. Following that was a year in Spain, then two years in Poland, and then retirement.
- 58th pick: Roberto Duenas(Chicago) - Duenas never played in the NBA, and is now retired. His career was very simple = Barcelona from 1994 to 2005, then Akasvayu Girona from 2005 to 2007, and then retirement. However, his draft rights were traded twice, first from the Bulls to the Hornets in exchange for a 2001 second rounder (Sean Lampley), and then as a completely arbitrary inclusion in the biggest trade in league history that sent Rasual Butler and Kirk Snyder to the Hornets in 2005. The Hornets' role in the deal was to take on those two salaries, and they didn't want to give up a player, so they gave up the most useless thing they had. For that reason alone, Duenas has had more impact on the NBA landscape than almost all of the second round combined.
Of the 58 players in the 1997 NBA draft, 10 are still in the NBA. Foyle, Battie, McGrady and Blount may not have played a game between them this year, but dammit, they're here. Of the 58 players in the 1996 draft, there are 9. And of the 1995 draft, there are 7. We're slowly trending upwards.
Summer league rosters whereabouts updated, again, needlessly
For no reason other than an itching craving to scratch my own Where Are They Now itch - I can't really started the 2009 series of posts until all leagues are underway, which will be about another six weeks - I have decided to revisit the whereabouts of all players on summer league rosters this past summer.
Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed that I've already done this once before, in a series of three posts (een, twee, drie) back in September. This list is designed to update that list.
Everyone whose circumstances have changed since the last update is listed, as are those few who are still unsigned. Part of me hopes that this list might in some way help those players get some gainful basketball employment. Then the other part of me remembers that the only people who read this website are Chilean teenagers and my uncle Peter. Can't win them all.
- Coby Karl: Strangely, Karl made the Cavaliers roster this summer. He has racked up 3 whole minutes on the season, and will probably rack up about 7 more before the contract guarantee date gets here. I don't know why a luxury tax team like Cleveland is so keen on carrying 15 men all the time. But they are, and this is good news for Karl. Speaking of Karl, here are some llamas with hats.
- Chris Lofton: Lofton was signed with with Caja Laboral in Spain - formerly known as Tau Ceramica - but he left he team last week when his contract expired. The team brought in Sean Singletary instead, seemingly wanting a wildly different kind of player.
- Gabe Pruitt: Pruitt went to camp with the Knicks, but was an early cut. He then signed with the D-League and was allocated to the Los Angeles D-Fenders, but he was waived today due to injury.
- Mike Sweetney: Sweetney went to camp with the Celtics, and didn't make the team. He was bigger than ever, and if it weren't for Sofoklis Schortsanitis' showings at the start of last season and the fella from the And-1 tour, Sweetney would have been the fattest professional basketball player that I've ever seen. Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Sweetney turned down a workout from the Grizzlies, and is going to sign in China. This is a good move. The money's solid, he needs the work, and the stats will be almost as massive as he is. If he can shed 50 pounds in the process, we're back in business.
- Robert Swift: Swift signed in the D-League and was allocated to the Bakersfield Jam. Reportedly, he has bulked up. For a man with a debilitating knee problem, I'm not sure that that's a good thing. But here's to a better run of health.
- Chris Davis: Davis was in the D-League draft pool, but he did not get drafted.
- Julius Hodge: Hodge went back to Australia, despite the acrimonious circumstances surrounding his departure last season. He's only played one game so far, but already he's the best player in the country once again, putting up 22 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals on debut.
- Linton Johnson: Johnson signed with the Magic for training camp, and made the team, for all of about three days. Considering that Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson both then got injured, and with Rashard Lewis starting with his 10 game suspension, maybe they could have kept him a bit longer. He could surely have helped against Cleveland.
- Lorenzo Mata-Real: As far as I can tell, Mata-Real is still unsigned, but it can sometimes take about 6 years for Mexican league signings to filter through. And as a Mexican native, Mata-Real seems like a logical candidate to be back there soon, if not already.
- Anthony Roberson: Roberson went to camp with the Clippers for absolutely no guaranteed money, lost out to Kareem Rush, and is currently unsigned.
- David Harrison: Chinese Basketball Association transactions are extremely hard to verify, but as far as I know, Harrison has re-signed in China for another year. The Chinese season is still six weeks away.
- Maureece Rice: Rice is unsigned, and did not return to the Erie BayHawks after all. I have no further information on him.
- Alfred Aboya: At the time of the original list, Aboya was unsigned, but it's all been happening for him since. Aboya originally signed with Gravelines, a French first division team, signing a one year contract with a three week "test period" (not sure what that means); however, he lasted only one week before being cut. He then joined up with French second division team Antibes, but the signing was voided as it put Antibes over the salary cap. After Antibes did whatever it was that they needed to do to accommodate him, Aboya rejoined the team, and has since played three games with them, totalling 35 points, 17 rebounds and 11 fouls.
- Andre Brown: Brown joined the Heat for training camp, but lost out to Shavlik Randolph. He remains unsigned, but is one of many players rumoured to be heading to China. Covering the Chinese league is great fun, so if he does sign there, you'll know when I do.
- Henry Dugat: Dugat signed with the D-League and made the Rio Grande Valley Vipers roster as a local tryout player. The Vipers made their first round of cuts today, and Dugat survived, but they still have two cuts to go so he's not guaranteed a spot yet.
- Shan Foster: Foster was unsigned the last time we covered him, but he has since signed with Kepez Bld Antalya in Turkey. By the way Shan, if you're reading this, change your Twitter password. Your account is sending out spam messages.
- Mickael Gelabale: Gelabale is still unsigned, and still refuses to rejoin the D-League.
- Herbert Hill: Hill is signed with the Daegu Orions in Korea. Korean basketball is about as much fun to cover as the Chinese league.
- Quinton Hosley: Hosley has been one of the better players in Turkey over the last two years, and last month he went back there, signing with Aliaga Petkim.
- Nathan Jawai: Jawai was traded to Minnesota, which made more sense for everybody. He's been something of a bright spot early for the otherwise terrible Timberwolves.
- Curtis Jerrells: Jerrells agreed to sign with the Pistons, but then didn't, joining the San Antonio Spurs instead. The Spurs gave him $75,000 of guaranteed money to do this, even though Jerrells didn't have much chance of making the team. They did that so that they'd get him instead of Detroit, thus ensuring that, when Jerrells went to the D-League, he'd be allocated to the Spurs owned affiliate, the Austin Toros. And that's exactly what happened.
- Bryson McKenzie: Bryson McKenzie is also in the D-League, drafted in the 7th round by the Iowa Energy. Iowa haven't announced their first round of cuts yet, but 7th rounders very rarely make it to the opening day roster.
- Aaron Miles: Miles returned to Greece, joining Aris.
- Moussa Seck: Can't find Moussa Seck, but I'd suspect he's back with Montegranaro's feeder team. Unfortunately, that team is so far down the Italian league structure that it's not possible for me to find.
- Trent Strickland: Strickland will be playing basquetball next season for AEK Larnacas in Cyprus. Presumably, Cyprus pays well.
- Derrick Byars: Byars went to camp with the Bulls, played well, won loads of fanboys, got paid a few quid, then got waived, and is now signed in Germany with ALBA Berlin.
- Dontaye Draper: Draper went to camp with the Nuggets, didn't make the team, and then signed in Italy for Prima Veroli.
- Ronald Dupree: Dupree is signed in Germany for Telekom Baskets Bonn, but is only on a short term contract as injury cover for Vincent Yarbrough.
- C.J. Giles: Giles was released this week by Smart Gilas, the quirky old Philippines team that's trying to supplant the entire Philippines league in ways that I don't really understand. Reportedly, Giles would turn up practice hungover, tested positive for marijuana, and punched his brother in the face. The team are looking at Jamal Sampson, Earl Barron and Shaun Pruitt as Giles' possible replacements.
- Kareem Rush: Rush went to camp with the Clippers, and made the team. He currently has 9 points on 11 shots this season, which sounds about right.
- Cedric Simmons: Simmons was released by his Greek team, Peristeri, before the season started. He is unsigned.
- Marquise Gray: Gray has signed with Gelisim Koleji in Turkey's second division. Turkey's second division isn't like those in Spain or Italy. It's far weaker.
- Dwayne Jones: Jones signed with Crvena Zvezda in Serbia last month, but he was released after only three days. The reasons as to why are shrouded in mystery; the official story is "personal problems," whereas the unofficial one is that they just didn't like him. The team then tried to sign Mile Ilic as his replacement, but Ilic failed his physical. Jones went back to the D-League and has rejoined the Austin Toros.
- Walter Sharpe: As expected, Sharpe was waived by the Bucks, and is unsigned.
- Sean Singletary: Singletary went to camp with the Sixers, didn't make it, and has now joined Caja Laboral in Spain's ACB.
- Deron Washington: Washington was waived, weirdly. He joined the D-League draft pool and was picked 3rd overall by the Los Angeles D-Fenders.
- Connor Atchley: Atchley is signed with Darussafaka in Turkey. They're currently last in the Turkish TBL, but they picked up a former NBA player this week, which should help mightily. If you want to know who that player was, read on. If you can't want until then, here's a clue; it rhymes with "Quincy Douby."
- Jermareo Davidson: Davidson is Atchley's teammate at Darussafaka. More accurately, Atchley is Davidson's backup at Darussafaka.
- Lawrence Hill: Hill signed with Mexico with a team called Halcones Rojos de Veracruz. A quick Google image search for "Vera Cruz" reveals as the first result a very ugly woman with the world's most misshapen tit, breastfeeding a child with the finest head of hair in the world today. Bad times. That's not what I was hoping to see.
- Acie Law: Law was traded to the Bobcats in the Stephen Jackson deal, and there's not a lot of minutes in Charlotte's guard rotation for him.
- Lawrence Roberts: Despite having absolutely no chance of making the roster, Roberts went to camp with the Pacers, where he inevitably failed to make the roster. Roberts then signed in Serbia with Partizan Belgrade.
- Jamal Sampson: See above, re; C.J. Giles. Sampson is currently unsigned.
- Hassan Adams: Adams is still unsigned. I do not know why.
- Rod Benson: Like Lawrence Roberts, Benson went to camp with the Pacers and failed. After that, he signed in D-League was more and will return to the Reno Bighorns.
- Will Conroy: Conroy went to camp with the Rockets, did not make the team, and has since signed in China with the DongGuan New Century Leopards. Pretty great name.
- Joey Dorsey: Dorsey was the first D-League assignee of the season when the Rockets sent him to Rio Grande Valley last week. He's a year older than Andrew Bogut, and almost two years older than Darko Milicic. That just doesn't feel right.
- Charles Gaines: Gaines went to camp with the Bucks, did not make the team, and is unsigned.
- Mike Green: Green won David Thorpe's heart in summer league, but not a training camp spot. He's now in Belgium with Belgacom Liege.
- Garrett Temple: Temple also went to camp with the Rockets, but didn't make it either, and is now a member of the RGV Vipers. The Rockets own that affiliate. This is not a coincidence.
- Darryl Watkins: Watkins went to camp with the Cavaliers. He didn't make it, and is another one of the whispered names vying for a spot in China next year. Nothing official yet though.
- James White: White was traded to the Nuggets, didn't make their team, and was waived. He has since signed in Russia with Spartak St Petersburg.
- Will Blalock: Blalock went to camp with the Nets, did not make the team, signed with the D-League, and was allocated to the expansion Maine Red Claws.
- Corie Belser: Belser had originally signed with Aris Thessaloniki in Greece, but then for whatever reason, he left. He is now signed in the basketball powerhouse of Finland, playing for the immortally titled Honka Espoo Playboys.
- Dionte Christmas: Christmas went to camp with the Sixers, but lost out because of the finances of the situation. The day after he was released, Christmas was pulled over for driving erratically, then arrested and charged for driving without a license and for carrying a loaded weapon. Both the car and the gun were registered to Marreese Speights.
- Kyle McAlarney: McAlarney initially signed in Israel with Ironi Nahariya, but he opted to come home before the season started because he "wasn't having any fun." He is now in the D-League with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
- Kevinn Pinkney: Pinkney has signed with Hapoel Jerusalem in Israrl.
- Mike Taylor: Taylor went to camp with the Grizzlies, was waived, and is unsigned.
- Chinemelu Elonu: Elonu has signed with Zaragoza in Spain. I went there a few months ago. Tiny, tiny, tiny airport, one strangely populated by fighter jets. Felt like being in your nan's house at wartime.
- Tony Gaffney: At the time of the last update, Gaffney was signed with Altshuler Saham Galil Gilboa in Israel. He then left to come back to the Lakers to play in training camp. Gaffney didn't make the team - although he bloody nearly did - and subsequently returned to Gilboa. It was nice of them to let him try to live his dream like that, though.
- Justin Hawkins: Remains unsigned.
- David Monds: Monds went to camp with the Lakers too, yet he also didn't make the team. He is unsigned, and doesn't appear to be returning to the D-League this year.
- Luke Schenscher: Even though I wrote last time that Schensch is "not going to be signing in Australia," he did, signing with the Perth Wildcats. In my defense, though, I was only recycling his own words.
- Mustafa Shakur: Shakur went to camp with the Timberwolves, lost out to Jason Hart, and is now in the D-League with the Tulsa 66ers.
- Reggie Williams: Williams is also in the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
- Erik Daniels: Daniels signed in the Ukraine with Azovmash.
- Trey Gilder: Gilder had a $25,000 guaranteed contract, and because of that, he was free to keep for a week. But once that week was up, Gilder was waived. He is currently unsigned. If he goes back to the D-League, he'll earn about the same for the entire D-League season as he did to be Memphis's 12th man for 5 games. Just some perspective there.
- Kenny Hasbrouck: Hasbrouck is unsigned and is currently rehabbing from a foot injury
- Longar Longar: Longar went back to the D-League with the Los Angeles D-Fenders.
- Greg Stiemsma: Stiemsma was picked in the KBL Draft, but he never played there, so apparently their rules must have changed since 2007 (when you had only a matter of minutes after being drafted to sign a contract). He's gone back to the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
- Paul Delaney: Delaney was originally signed with Hapoel Holon in Israel, but was released in favourof Titus Ivory. However, he stayed in Israel and is now signed with Ironi Nahariya.
- Dominic James: Even though he missed summer league due to injury, James cashed in on his hometown ties and signed with the Bucks for training camp. He was quickly released, partly because he had no chance to make the team, but also because he got a good offer in Turkey. He now plays for Mersin.
- Chris Richard: Richard went to camp with the Bulls, and was absolutely awful, except for one game, in which he was absolutely brilliant. He is currently unsigned, but the Grizzlies were mentioned as a possible destination recently.
- 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: Not a clue. Neither where he is or who he is.
- Bobby Brown: Brown was traded to the New Orleans Hornets late in the offseason, and started the year in the Hornets rotation. He's pretty much the reason why Byron Scott got fired.
- Pat Carroll: Carroll is back in the D-League, drafted in the second round by the Iowa Energy.
- Devin Green: Green went to camp with the Wolves, which I didn't expect, but he failed to make the roster, which I did. He's since gone to Greece with Olympia Larissa.
- Paul Harris: Harris went to camp with the Jazz, but missed preseason with an injury, and got inevitably waived. He's now in the D-League with the expansion Maine Red Claws.
- Steven Hill: Hill went to camp with the Bulls, and lasted for all of about 8 minutes. He is back with the Tulsa 66ers.
- Rob Kurz: Kurz signed with the Cavaliers for training camp, but lost out on a spot to Darnell Jackson. He too is in the D-League, with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, acquired from the Erie BayHawks.
- Adam Parada: Parada is in his native Mexico playing for Halcones UV Xalapa.
- Garret Siler: Siler went to camp with the Hawks, but the Hawks then decided to carry only 13 players, which makes you wonder why they brought in 20. Like so many other camp signees, he is now in the D-League, playing for the Utah Flash.
- Earl Barron: Barron went to camp with the Hornets and is now in the D-League with the Iowa Energy, but if Smart Gilas come a-calling then that might not last for much longer.
- Terry Martin: Martin was originally with wonderfully named Oberwart Gunners in Austria, but he was only there on a tryout. He was later drafted in the 5th round of the D-League draft by the Reno Bighorns. He has not been cut yet.
- Luke Nevill: Nevill went to camp with the Cavaliers, one of many to do so, yet he didn't make it. He's now also in the D-League with the Utah Flash.
- Larry Owens: Owens is another D-Leaguer, having been allocated to the Tulsa 66ers. He came to camp with the Hornets like Barron did, but he also failed to make it like Barron did.
- Courtney Sims: Sims went to camp with the Hawks, but didn't make the team. Nor any team, for that matter. He is currently in China on a tryout.
- Anthony Tolliver: Tolliver, another camp cut (this time the Heat), is in the D-League with the Idaho Stampede. He was traded by the Iowa Energy in exchange for Earl Barron. If Barron now leaves for the Philippines, that will suck.
- Alex Acker: Almost as soon as he was back in it, Acker is out of the NBA again. He is signed with Armani Jeans Milano in Italy.
- Morris Almond: Almond went to camp with the Magic, but did not make the team, and is unsigned.
- Warren Carter: Carter did enough to get to camp with the Knicks, but did not make the cut either. He has since signed with Ilysiakos in Greece.
- Joe Crawford: Crawford was waived out of training camp, despite the Knicks having an open roster spot and Crawford having $50,000 in guaranteed money. He has returned to the L.A. D-Fenders.
- Patrick Ewing Jr: Ewing missed summer league with injuries, and is still unsigned, so maybe he's still injured. Ajani Williams is trying to get him to play for Jamaica. Fun fact.
- Ron Howard: Howard was another Knick campette, and he has returned to the D-League with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
- Yaroslav Korolev: Awesomely, Korolev was in the D-League draft, which was entirely unexpected. Somewhat more depressingly, he wasn't picked until the last pick of the fourth round, by which time luminaries such as Booker Woodfox and Derrick Mercer had been picked ahead of him. But no matter; Korolev is now a member of the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and is back in American basketball. Sweet.
- Mouhamed Sene: Sene signed in France with Hyeres-Toulon. He's doing pretty brilliantly there, too. But we'll talk about that more in three months times.
- Rashaad Singleton: Singleton in in Japan, signing in the BJ League for the Oita Heat Devils. Since he won't be in the WATN series, I'll add some numbers; Singleton is currently averaging 9.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 4.7 blocks in 33 minutes per game. He's shooting 47% from the foul line, a dramatic improvement on last year's 26%.
- DeAngelo Alexander: Alexander was drafted by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the 8th round of the D-League draft, but was waived today due to injury.
- Marcus Dove: Dove was picked in the third round by the Dakota Wizards, and has not been waived.
- Tony Durant: Durant is unsigned and yet has more followers than me on Twitter. I think I need to improve my people skills. All he Tweets about are women and sex, though, so I can see why that would be more fun for some people.
- Moses Ehambe: Ehambe has gone back to the Tulsa 66ers.
- DeVon Hardin: Hardin spent some time in a secondary Chinese league this summer, which I did not know about until recently. He is currently unsigned; maybe the premier Chinese league awaits.
- Keith McLeod: McLeod is back in the D-League with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds.
- Richard Roby: Roby has signed with Maccabi Haifa in Israel.
- Doug Thomas: Thomas is in the D-League, drafted in the second round by the Dakota Wizards.
- Lance Allred: Allred has changed Italian teams, going from Napoli to Scavolini Pesaro.
- Courtney Fells: Fells has signed with with AEL Limassol in Cyprus, oh mighty mighty Cyprus. Others that signed in Cyprus this summer included former NBA players Maurice Baker and JamesOn Curry. But they came straight back.
- Stevan Milosevic: Milsoevic had a tryout with Panionios in Greece, but I don't think he made the team.
- Russell Robinson: Robinson signed with the Cavs for training camp but did not make the team. He has since returned to the D-League with the Reno Bighorns.
- Darian Townes: Townes was signed with GasTerra Groningen until about 4 days ago, when he was replaced by Matt Haryasz.
- Lee Cummard: Cummard started the season with ALBA Berlin in Germany, but quickly came home and was allocated to the Utah Flash of the D-League.
- Zabian Dowdell: Dowdell is unsigned, which, considering that he was supposedly close to a training camp contract at one point, means he's probably injured. The fact that he missed summer league with injuries may also factor. But I can't find anything to confirm this.
- Carlos Powell: Powell went to camp with the Suns, did not make the team, and was then the #1 overall pick in the D-League draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds.
- Chris Rodgers: Rodgers has signed with EclipseJet-MyGuide Amsterdam, a team that really needs to stop selling sponsorship of its name.
- Deji Akindele: Akindele was signed with Xacobeo BluSens Obradoiro in Spain's ACB, but has been released and is now unsigned.
- Uche Echefu: Still unsigned.
- Thomas Gardner: Gardner went to camp with the Grizzlies, but was cut and is now unsigned. I hope these aren't getting a bit samey.
- Pooh Jeter: Jeter is signed with Unicaja Malaga, but his contract expires next week.
- Joe Krabbenhoft: Krabbenhoft was allocated to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, where he joins up once again with Greg Stiemsma. We should let Brian Butch know.
- Patrick Mills: In a highly unusual move, Mills signed with the Blazers towards the end of training camp. I still suspect that he accepted their tender offer without them wanting him to, yet I still have no evidence of that.
- Jeff Pendergraph: Since the original post was written, Pendergraph has signed with the Blazers.
- Jon Brockman: Same as Pendergraph; Brockman has now signed with the Kings.
- John Bryant: Bryant is in the D-League, a good place for a reasonably talented 7 footer to go, since they'll get the opportunity to put up huge stats and get noticed. He is with the Erie BayHawks.
- Marcus Landry: Landry signed with the Kings for training camp, and, in direct contravention of the precedent set out by the rest of this post, he made the roster. Hallelujah.
- Wesley Matthews: Matthews made a team, too; the Utah Jazz. He even starts for them right now. Good times.
- Jerel McNeal: Things return to normality with McNeal, who made the Clippers training camp roster, but who then got waived. He is currently unsigned.
- Victor Stowes: As last check, Stowes had just signed in Venezuela, but he's since been released.
- Antonio Anderson: Anderson signed with the Bobcats for training camp, got waived, and has since joined the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
- Romel Beck: Beck made the Rockets camp roster, but was also waived, and has returned to the Dakota Wizards. Romel, you too need to change your Twitter password. I've gotten four spam messages from you.
- Alonzo Gee: Gee was signed and waived by the Timberwolves in camp, and was later picked 6th overall in the D-League draft by the Austin Toros. In case I haven't made this clear; int he D-League, players don't sign with individual teams. They sign with the league itself and are then distributed via various means - allocation, local tryouts, the draft, etc. So if a player was drafted, they are already signed in the D-League. This is also why players get waived due to injury; the player loses nothing from it, and the team gains a roster spot.
- James Gist: Still unsigned, strangely. Maybe he's injured. Or maybe he's dead.
- Carldell 'Squeaky' Johnson: As assumed, Johnson has returned to the Austin Toros.
- Jack McClinton: Things went a bit strange for McClinton; he silently signed with the Spurs on September 14th for training camp, but requested his release 9 days later on the assumption that he wouldn't make the team and therefore would like to try for another one. He caught on with the Timberwolves, but didn't make it there either, and is now signed in Turkey with Aliaga.
- Donell Taylor: Taylor went to camp with the Blazers, did not make it, and was later made the second pick of the D-League draft by the Erie BayHawks.
- Paul Davis: Davis went to camp with the Wizards and made the team briefly while they waited for Antawn Jamison to recover from injury. However, the Wizards then had a load of injuries to their guards, so Davis was dumped for Earl Boykins. Davis is now unsigned.
- Quincy Douby: Douby was cut by the Raptors last week to avoid a guarantee date in his contract. He then immediately signed with Darussafaka in Turkey.
- Demetris Nichols: Nichols went to camp with the Pacers, did not make the team, and is unsigned once again.
- Smush Parker: Parker has re-signed for another year with Guandong in China.
- Shawn Taggart: Taggart is signed in Israel with Ironi Nahariya.
- Cedric Bozeman: Bozeman has signed in China with Beijing.
- Andre Ingram: Ingram has returned to the Utah Flash.
- Goran Suton: Suton signed with the Jazz for camp, did not make the roster, and has since signed a long term contract with Spartak St Petersburg in Russia. Then again, Russian long term contracts have not always meant a whole lot.
- Dar Tucker: Darquavis was picked in the second round of the D-League draft by the Idaho Stampede, and was traded to the L.A. D-Fenders.
- Alade Aminu: Aminu was drafted 10th overall in the D-League draft by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, then was traded to the Erie BayHawks for Rob Kurz.
- Dwayne Anderson: Anderson is signed with MEG Goettingen in Germany.
- Ryan Ayers: Ayers signed with the D-League and was allocated to the Mad Ants.
- James Lang: Lang returned to the D-League with the Utah Flash, but was waived yesterday due to injury.
- Diamon Simpson: Simpson went to camp with the Warriors, but did not make the roster. He was later allocated to the L.A. D-Fenders.
- Brandon Wallace: Wallace has signed with Hapoel Holon in Israel.
Of the 352 players that made it onto NBA summer league rosters - including those that didn't turn up - all bar about 43 are now under contract somewhere. Those locations can all now be found in this list, or in the three that proceeded it. Why have I done all this? For the same reason that a 78-installment Where Are They Now series commences next month; because I like it. No, I don't know why either. Legalise euthenasia.
Also, for those who missed my Tweets on the subject, I wrote a guest post at the San Antonio Spurs blog 48 Minutes Of Hell, talking about the Spurs finances and Brian Cook and stuff like that. Please go and read it. Also, if you own a good team-specific blog and want me to do the same for your team, be really quite sickeningly nice towards me and you might have a chance. Might.
The following is a round-up of the life, times and afterlives of the entire 1996 NBA Draft. Note: in the event that a player is still in the NBA, I'll assume that you know that and will talk about something else.
- 1st pick: Allen Iverson(Philadelphia) - Everyone has made the same comment about Iverson potentially joining the Memphis Grizzlies. Everyone in the land has made some comment to the effect of "there's only one ball," "who's going to pass," "how could you pair him up with Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay," "how is it going to work long term" etc. And the answer to that is simple; it's not going to work long term. But it's not supposed to, either. Randolph has only two years left on his contract, and Iverson will be signing a one year deal. They're only supposed to be short term improvements, for a team trying to improve whilst unable/unwilling to take on long term commitments. It would be bloody lovely if they could have gotten Paul Millsap and Nate Robinson instead, but that was never realistic. When you're at the bottom with no money to spend, you have to live off the draft, minimum salary steals and retreads. That's how it has to be, and that's what Iverson represents. As retreads go, though, may I point out that Iverson wa averaging 28 points and 8 assists per game just 18 short months ago. Yes, it's worth the risk. Jason Hart might be more willing to pass the ball, but he also has about an 85th of the talent.
- 2nd pick: Marcus Camby(Toronto) - If pushed, how often would you guess Marcus Camby has made the All Star team? I'd say two, maybe one. But the answer's actually none. Does this mean that he's a bust as a number 2 pick, despite having a Defensive Player of the Year award to his name? Considering the strength of the draft behind him, I say yes. Tough but fair.
- 3rd pick: Shareef Abdur-Rahim(Vancouver) - Abdur-Rahim is retired and now working as an assistant coach for the Kings. Here's something to consider, though: when the New Jersey Nets tried to make a sign and trade deal for Abdur-Rahim in August 2005, Shareef failed his physical because of his knee, despite having never missed a game in his NBA career because of knee trouble. The Nets were roundly mocked for this. But I guess they were right, because Shareef had only one year left in him. Shareef signed with Sacramento to a five year deal after the Nets trade fell through, but the Kings only got one decent year, one mediocre year, and one non-existent year out of Shareef, and now he's had to retire with two seasons left on his contract. The trained professionals saw coming what we the public couldn't, and we held that against them. Whoops. The world owes you an apology, medical examiners.
Also note: Steven Hunter's trade to New Orleans in February 2006 was cancelled due to concerns about his knee, which wasn't keeping him out of action at the time, but which the Hornet doctors didn't like the prognosis of. They vetoed the trade, much to the annoyance of the 76ers, and traded for Aaron Williams instead. Hunter is now a Grizzly, and probably won't play this year due to his knee injury. He didn't play at all last year, nearly retired because of the injury, and managed only 120 minutes on it in 2007/2008. More vindication that you won't ever hear enough about. Tyson Chandler had better be contemplating Buddhism right now.
- 4th pick: Stephon Marbury(Milwaukee) - I haven't written about the Marbury uStream yet, because I've not wanted to. It's depressing. But here goes; I watched about 15 seconds of it, total. I had avoided it for a long time, since I've never been a fan of Marbury and because I hate seeing people fall apart, but I was encouraged to watch it by someone who swears that Khalid El-Amin was bodypopping to the camera at that very moment. There was no way I was missing an opportunity to see Khalid El-Amin bobypop, so I fired up the stream to check it out. What I saw instead was Stephon Marbury crying for absolutely no reason whatsoever. So I turned it off again. Bad times. Seriously. I have no idea if Marbury is legitimately crazy, on some kind of brain altering chemical, or just naturally one of the biggest attention seekers you'll ever see. It's not our place to speculate on that. But whichever it is, it's unhealthy behaviour. And so we're bastards if we encourage it.
- 5th pick: Ray Allen(Minnesota) - Allen is 261 three point makes behind Reggie Miller for the all time lead. He's shooting .398 from downtown for his career, whereas Miller shot .395. It's up to you as to which of them is the best three point shooter of all time, but if/when Allen overtakes Miller, and if he cracks the 40% mark for his career, then it'll be hard to argue against him. Especially since he's also reclaimed the single season record from Q
- Byron Eaton
- Ndudi Ebi
- Corsley Edwards
- John Edwards
- Chuck Eidson
- Howard Eisley
- Obinna Ekezie
- Frank Elegar
- Lior Eliyahu
- Carl Elliott
- Chris Ellis
- Tyrone Ellis
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 1st pick: 
- 2nd pick: 
- 3rd pick: 
- 5th pick: 
- 6th pick: 
- 7th pick: 
- 8th pick: 
- 9th pick: 
- 10th pick: 
- 14th pick: 
- 16th pick: 
- 17th pick: Johnny Taylor (
- 18th pick: Chris Anstey (
- 19th pick: 
- 20th pick: Paul Grant (
- 21st pick: 
- 22nd pick: Ed Gray (
- 23rd pick: 
- 24th pick: Rodrick Rhodes (
- 25th pick: 
- 26th pick: 
- 27th pick: 
- 28th pick: Keith Booth (
- 30th pick: Serge Zwikker (
- 31st pick: Mark Sanford (
- 32nd pick: Charles O'Bannon (
- 33rd pick: James Cotton (
- 34th pick: Marko Milic (
- 35th pick: Bubba Wells (
- 36th pick: Kebu Stewart (
- 37th pick: James Collins (
- 38th pick: 
- 39th pick: Jerald Honeycutt (
- 40th pick: 
- 41st pick: Edner Elisma (
- 42nd pick: Jason Lawson (
- 43rd pick: 
- 44th pick: Gordon Malone (
- 45th pick: Cedric Henderson (
- 46th pick: God Shammgod (
- 47th pick: Eric Washington (
- 48th pick: 
- 50th pick: 
- 52nd pick: Dejuan Wheat (
- 53rd pick: C.J. Bruton (
- 54th pick: Paul Rogers (
- 55th pick: 
- 56th pick: 
- 57th pick: Nate Erdmann (
- 58th pick: