Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 40
February 28th, 2009
– Let’s start this off with a bang; I have absolutely nothing to report on Wesley Person. Nothing whatsoever. – Continuing that sizzling opener, Brent Petway is in the D-League, averaging 10.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots a game for the Idaho Stampede. Those numbers were somehow enough to make him a D-League All Star, and you can see the box score for the D-League All Star game here. (That minutes distribution is first class. I’d love to know what Richard Hendrix did to merit those extra 5 seconds.) Petway also lost his D-League Slam Dunk Champion title to James White, so it’s not been entirely a good fortnight for him. – The last I heard about Eric Piatkowski came in the summertime, when an article talked about he was staying in shape and waiting for the phone to ring. I’m guessing it hasn’t rung. – Tim Pickett has had a busy year, starting in the Italian Serie A with Rieti, but leaving before the season began. He then moved to Bulgaria with Lukoil Akademik, and averaged 17.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in EuroCup play for them. Unfortunately, he was a victim of their sweeping cull of international players midway through the season, one which also brought about the demise of Kehnide Adeleke and Kevin Kruger. Pickett has since signed in China with Shanxi Zhongyu, as the replacement for Bonzi Wells. By now, you should know what it means when somebody signs in China, and by God you won’t be disappointed here either – Pickett currently averages 39.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.2 assists per game. OK, so the assists numbers are a tad low, but he’s averaging 40 ppg for Shade Sheist’s sake. Who the hell should he be passing to? […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 39
February 26th, 2009
– Smush Parker started the season in the D-League, averaging 17.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and an almighty 5.1 turnovers per game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He then went off to China, where he may have become literally the only American import whose numbers went down in the CBA. Parker averages 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.2 steals for Guangdong, numbers that are pretty unimpressive in relative terms. Luckily for Smush, I don’t know his Chinese turnover numbers. – I don’t know what Cherokee Parks does now, but his sister Corey is no longer the bass player for seminal hard rock band Nashville Pussy, and hasn’t been for about eight years. Another really useful update for you here. Be grateful. – Marlon Parmer spent some time earlier this season playing backup point guard for the Colorado 14ers, averaging 8.0 points and 3.6 assists, but was waived in January and has not signed elsewhere since. – Ruben Patterson hasn’t had a great couple of years. After a career year with the Bucks in the final year of his big contract, all Ruben could manage for the 2007/08 season was an unguaranteed minimum salary contract with the Clippers. He was then waived before the contract guarantee date, and didn’t catch on with a playoff team. Patterson then joined the Nuggets for preseason this year, but never really had a legitimate shot at making the team, as the cost-cutting Nuggets didn’t really want any of their five signings (despite having two open roster spots) because it would mean spending money to keep them. Patterson was subsequently waived, and hasn’t signed elsewhere since, after a rumoured move to Spain didn’t come off. Will he catch on with a playoff team for this deadline? Who knows. The […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 38
February 25th, 2009
– Lukasz Obrzut was an insignificant player in the D-League last year, averaging 3.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg over 38 games with both the Bakersfield Jam and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Before that, he spent four insignificant years with Kentucky, never averaging more than 2.0 ppg and 1.8 rpg. Now, he’s in Poland, averaging 5.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.9 fouls per game for the powerhouse that is ISS Sportino Inowroclaw (and by “powerhouse”, I mean “team in third-last place”). How very insignificant. But he won fans at all stops. – It was only a few short years ago that Michael Olowokandi was a starting centre in the Western Conference Finals. Things have changed wildly since then – the contracts dried up, as did the few skills, and a season of playing for the Celtics on the minimum salary (Kandi didn’t need the money, and did it just to prove to himself that he could, apparently) was the last she wrote. Kandi is about to turn 34 with a lengthy history, and I assume him to be unofficially retired. – In lieu of any Greg Ostertag news, here is a video of him diplomatically losing at table tennis to a sharply dressed pre-teen. – Bo Outlaw is retired and now a “community ambassador” for the Orlando Magic. – Andre Owens is with Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda), averaging 11.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists a game in the Adriatic League, and 10.6/2.7/2.3 in the EuroCup. Owens was also recently the victim of an attack by a fan – or at least, a really bad attempt at one – and you can read about that here. – Olumide Oyedeji is in China, which is good news for us all. Playing for Shanxi Zhongyu, Oyedeji […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 37
February 24th, 2009
– Juan Carlos Navarro is back with Barcelona, and he’ll probably never leave again. He is technically still a restricted NBA free agent of the Memphis Grizzlies, but that’s kind of meaningless, because he has no rhyme, reason, or (I assume) desire to leave Spain again. Navarro averages 15.4 points and 2.8 assists in the Spanish league, alongside 14.0 points and 3.6 assists in the EuroLeague. – Boniface N’Dong still boasts one of the greatest names in human history. In his second season for Unicaja Malaga, as a starlet on the ultimate “oh yeah, I remember them, whatever happened to them” team (also featuring Omar Cook, Jiri Welsch, Robert Archibald, Marcus Haislip and, until recently, Paul Shirley), Ndong is averaging 11.3 points in less than 20 mpg in the EuroLeague. That’s pretty damn good for anyone, but especially a centre. He also has 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game to go along with that, and his Spanish league numbers (18.5 mpg, 9 ppg, 4.5 rg, 1.0 bpg) aren’t bad either. – Drew Neitzel is with the Artland Dragons of Quackenbrueck in Germany. Somebody had told me that he was going to leave the team, but apparently that somebody was wrong. Neitzel (whose name sounds like a cough syrup that you take before going to bed) averages 6.4 points and 3.2 assists in the German league, alongside 9.6 points and 4.0 assists in the EuroCup. – Matt Nelson is unsigned after playing in France last season. – Spencer Nelson is playing for Aris in Greece, a team whose recent additions included Bengal cats owner and former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Bracey Wright, as well as seminal British star Andy Betts. Spiceworld. Nelson averages 8.2 points and 7.1 rebounds in the Greek league, alongside 10.6 points, 6.4 rebounds […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 36
February 22nd, 2009
– Sergei Monia is into his third season with Dynamo Moscow, and has extended his contract so that he can stay there a bit longer. Then again, unless they start filling out that stadium a bit more, they might just run out of money. Monia (who seems to go by Sergey Monya these days, although I fear change and will keep it the same on here) averages 7.8 points and 4.0 rebounds in the EuroCup, alongside 6.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in the Russian league. – Paccelis Morlende is unsigned after not making the Ural Great Perm team this preseason. Those who don’t know who Paccelis Morlende should first congratulate themselves, and then read this: Patch was a second-round pick of the Seattle Supersonics (via the Sixers) back in 2003, after a season in the French first division that saw him average 13.4 points per game. Since then, he has stagnated and then gone backwards. Morlende averaged 14.5 ppg and 4.9 apg in the French league the following season, before leaving to sign in Italy. There, he didn’t get nearly as much time, and averaged 5.1 ppg and 1.5 apg for Bennetton in the Italian league. His career has still not gotten back on track since then – last season, back in the French league with Gravelines, Morlende averaged a mere 4.6 ppg and 2.7 apg before being released from his contract a year early. And those numbers came in the French league, remember. Morlende also turns 28 in six weeks, and currently doesn’t have a basketball career to speak of. Most depressingly of all, his website (www.paccelismorlende.com) no longer works, which seems to be a sign of the times in the world of Paccelis Morlende. But the Thunder hold his draft rights anyway on a technicality, so maybe […]
A Review Of The 2009 NBA Trade Deadline
February 19th, 2009
If it wasn’t for the NBA Draft – that hotbed of prejudice that can see the entire prognosis of the NBA change in six short hours – then the trade deadline would be my favourite time of year. There’s nothing like it; you cancel every event in your social calendar, turn off your phone, ignore real life world events, and mash the refresh key for three straight days, waiting for any trades to come in, even those with the dreaded “conditional second” tag on them. (Well, that’s what I do.) Recent trade deadlines have been disappointing. Last season saw many of the biggest trades (Shaq to Phoenix, the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris swap, Pau Gasol, Mike Bibby) take place in the weeks leading up to the deadline, with only the 11-player Ben Wallace trade of any major significance. And 2007 was a complete washout, with the Primoz Brezec for Juan Dixon swap being the highlight of the entire month. No matter how much I pleaded for Pau Gasol to come to Chicago, it didn’t happen. However, this year, things went down rather well. Six trades were made, involving ten teams, and that’s not even including the trades in the run-up to the deadline. There were some slight anti-climaxes when Phoenix decided not to be insane and kept Amar’e Stoudemire, and Portland’s big plans to land everybody available with a combination of Raef LaFrentz and Travis Outlaw came to nothing. But most teams got involved, and here’s what went down. (Note: list includes trades done in the fortnight prior as well, because I felt like it and didn’t comment on them at the time.) – Boston Trade 1: Traded Sam Cassell and cash to Sacramento for a conditional second-round pick. Trade 2: Traded Patrick O’Bryant to Toronto for another conditional second-round […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 35
February 19th, 2009
– Rich Melzer is currently unsigned, and played only three games last season for the German side Quackenbrueck, whose name also doubles as a duck’s favourite breakfast. Having just turned 29, this doesn’t seem like a particularly healthy direction for Melzer’s career to be going towards. Then again, he used to play in Australia, so this might be better. – Pops Mensah-Bonsu is a legend. There are two reasons why I think this. The first is because he’s English. The second is because he’s a legend. Pops started the year with DKV Joventut Badalona in Spain, playing five Spanish league games and totalling 14/9 in his one EuroLeague game, before injuring himself (I think it was his shoulder) in late October. DKV released him (I think it was by mutual consent), and Pops spent the next three months on the sidelines. However, in late January he returned, and was acquired by the Austin Toros of the D-League as just one more in their long line of decent big men this season. In the six games that Pops has played for Austin, he has absolutely beasted in the way that only legends can, averaging a fully-stuffed stat line of 25.3 ppg, 12.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, 4.7 fpg, 2.8 spg and 1.3 bpg, and shooting 61% from the field. This man can, will and should be in the NBA. By the way, with him, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Joel Freeland and potentially Kelenna Azubuike (whose initial application for a British passport was turned down, even though he was born in London, due to the immigration status of his parents at the time), British basketball finally has something that it has never previously had; genuine hope. That’s a starting five that could beat the Kings right now, and it’s all ours (sort […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 34
February 18th, 2009
– Chris McCray is playing in Italy for a second-tier team called Rimini Crabs, which sounds like the most painful affliction that a man can have. McCray averages 13.8 points and 4.1 rebounds for them. – Taj McCullough is in the D-League, and started the year with the Erie BayHawks. He barely played there, averaging 6.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in eight games before being waived in late December, T-Mac was later picked up by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, for whom he averages a far better 15.6 points and 4.6 rebounds, while hacking up five and a half three-pointers per game. That’s a new idea. – Cornelius “Scooter” McFadgon recently left his team in Chile to sign with Barako Bull (they’re missing a real trick if they don’t start marketing thundersticks as “Barmers”) in the Philippines. – Ivan McFarlin is exactly where you’d expect him to be; Switzerland. Playing for whoever BBC Nyon are, McFarlin averages 15.1 points and 9.0 rebounds alongside such luminaries as Baptiste Cransac and Stephen Sir. Remember those names. – It is hard to find Jeff McInnis news, considering that there is a reality TV chef of the same name who seems to be far more newsworthy. (I’ve never heard of him, but you can understand why headlines like this one get my attention.) I can assure you, though, that Jeff McInnis is not signed anywhere. And he may never be again. – Nor will Aaron McKie, whose retirement seems for certain this time, as no one can randomly sign and trade him any more. McKie was inevitably waived by the Grizzlies, and later reprised the role as an informal Sixers assistant coach that he was stolen away from at about this time last year. – Keith McLeod is with the Albuquerque Thunders in the […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 33
February 12th, 2009
– Darrick Martin was waived by the Raptors midway through last season, and chose that moment to retire. Martin then stuck with the team anyway, in a sort of informal consultancy capacity. Maybe he consults with Will Solomon on how to take more shats. Martin recently has a court dedicated to him, news which would have been funnier if they’d named it the Derrick Murray Court instead. (Inside jokes all!) – Torrell Martin started the season with Kepez BLD Antalya in Turkey, averaging 13.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, before upping sticks and moving about 20 feet to Greece. In three games for Kavala/Panorama, replacing Billy Thomas, Martin averages 11.0 points and 4.7 rebounds. – Jamal Mashburn now does studio work for NBA Fastbreak, and is quite good at it, too. – Chet Mason started the season in the powerhouse known as the ABA, playing for the Cleveland Rockers. Thankfully, he then stepped it up a notch, and was acquired by The Arsenal. Mason averages 11.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game. – Tony Massenburg is the stuff of dreams. After shocking the world by signing with the Wizards for 2007 training camp, despite having been out of the game for two years and 40 years old by that time, Massenburg didn’t stop there. Perhaps unsurprisingly waived by the Wizards, Massenburg kept up the Tony Massenburg basketball legacy, by signing in Puerto Rico. In three games with Capitanes de Arecibo, Massenburg averaged 14.7 ppg, 9.7 rpg and 1.7 apg. Unfortunately, Massenburg is currently unsigned, and the dream of a thirteenth NBA team might be over again. But give it 18 months and he should get another shot. – Bryant Matthews is out of prison and in Romania, which is probably […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 32
February 11th, 2009
– Erazem Lorbek’s weird route to the NBA continues with CSKA Moscow. Lorbek is averaging 10.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in only 17 minutes per game in the Russian league, alongside 11.5 points and 5.4 rebounds in 21 mpg in the EuroLeague. Lorbek is shooting 46/65 combined from the free throw line, for an average of 71%, which shows that he’s working on his flaws. He’s also a combined 7-14 from three point range, which is a welcome bonus. – John Lucas III began the season with the Thunder, and actually made the team out of training camp. However, he was waived after about a week so that the team could bring in Steven Hill, unhappy as they were with their other nine big men. Lucas hasn’t signed anywhere since, and didn’t get into any games with the Thunder either, thus taking his points total for the year to 0. However, the Rockets are still paying him, and he hasn’t been there for donkey’s years. So life isn’t too bad. – Kevin Lyde could only be in one place right now, and that place is Estonia. For the seminal starlets known as BC Kalev/Cramo Tallinn, Lyde averaged 10.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 38% FT in the EuroChallenge, as well as averaging 12.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 1.4 bpg in the Baltic League. Bet the parties must be wild. (I’m not kidding, either. Tallinn is THE new place for stag weekends, and all manner of holiday debauchery. Naturally, I’ve never been.) – George Lynch is currently working for Southern Methodist University in some capacity, as an advisor or something. However, right now, he could feasibly be starting for the Hornets. – Speaking of former Hornets, they could perhaps use Arvydas Macijauskas back there right now. […]
Robertas Javtokas has still got it
February 11th, 2009
For some reason, whenever we get a EuroCup game screened over here (something that happens way more than the screening of NBA games), it almost always involves Dynamo Moscow. It’s a bit annoying having to see the same old players out there time after time when there’s so many others that I’d rather watch. But it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either, because Dynamo Moscow (as is the case with all EuroCup teams) has plenty of good quality talent on it, and I get to see them all over again. The most notable players on the Dynamo Moscow team are former Hawk swingman Travis Hansen, Spurs draft pick Robertas Javtokas, former Nets and Rockets forward Bostjan Nachbar, former Blazer and King forward Sergei Monia, big Lithuanian Darjus Lavrinovic, and Russian national team point guard Sergei Bykov. (Brian Chase, who recently signed with Dynamo, hasn’t played yet.) Travis Hansen has taken an acceptable NBA career and turned it into a beast of a European career, playing as a first option player on some of Europe’s better teams, showing a fine mid-range game, the ability to run the offence, and his ever-present athleticism. Nachbar is playing well against the far less athletic European opposition, and Monia still rocks the “I’ll do anything but shoot” approach that so befits a baby-faced tweener Russian. Lavrinovic is a good all-around player, with legit NBA size, an inside/outside game, good rebounding instincts and no ability to jump off the floor, and Bykov is a good little guard whose sensible and smooth play is making the loss of Jannero Pargo entirely survivable. However, the one I’m going to focus on is Javtokas. Often, the commentators talk of Robertas Javtokas’s 40-inch vertical. You may have heard about it yourself; it was his combination of great size and athleticism […]
Where Are They Now, 2009: Part 31
February 10th, 2009
– Anthony Lever-Pedroza is playing for a team called Soles de Mexicali, in a country that you can probably guess. About two hours ago, I watched a FIBA basketball magazine show that bizarrely and unexpectedly featured clips from a Soles de Mexicali game. I didn’t spot Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo, though. Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo averages 20.3 points in three Liga Americas games; also on his team are former Timberwolves guard Dejaun Wheat (who barely plays) and former Suns centre Horacio Llamas (who averages 16.3 points and 7.0 rebounds). That unlikely duo are both 35, seeing out their professional lives at Soles de Mexicali – where fringe NBA careers wind down. – Ron Lewis is in Israel, averaging 16.3 points per game for Ironi Nahariya. Impressively, Lewis has shot 94 free throws to 140 field goals, for a 1.51 PPS average. Less impressive is the 72% that Lewis is shooting from the line, and the 25% that he’s shooting from three-point range. But he’s scoring at a very high efficiency anyway. – Nick Lewis had a try-out in the Spanish LEB Gold to begin the year, but didn’t sign, and went back to the Bakersfield Jam in the D-League. Building on his decent season of last year, Lewis is averaging 16.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, averaging 1.45 points per shot. I stand by that metric, even if I stand alone. – Sergei Lishouk is still with Azovmash Mariupol in his native Ukraine. Lishouk/Lischuk averages 7.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 3.0 fouls per game in the EuroCup, alongside 10.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 fouls and 1.2 blocks per game in the Ukrainian league. Since his rights were traded away by the Grizzlies last year, Lishouk can’t even get to the […]
Florida vs South Carolina, Feb 3rd 2009
February 9th, 2009
Random thoughts from random game. – I like it when guards constantly push the ball, but Devan Downey took this to extremes. He played like a mentalist, with one of the weirder 33-point outings that I’ve ever seen. Downey went 6-15 from two-point range, 7-9 from three, and 0-2 from the free throw line, making a series of tough threes when the game was out of reach that served only to make it overlap into the Syracuse game that was on afterwards. (Thanks for that, Devan.) He is one of the quickest players with the ball that I’ve ever seen, and clearly was a talented shot-maker. But he looked to pass about as much as Donte Greene, which is less excusable when you’re the lead guard who dominates the ball. And at 5’9 with a penchant for ball-watching, Downey didn’t have much value on the defensive end, either. He was explosive fun, much like a good curry night is, but he has some big old flaws. – Alex Tyus is going to have a nice career ahead of him, somewhere. Decently sized, athletic and with some nice touch from both hands. I didn’t see him challenge a shot all night, which was worrying, but the offensive talent is there. – Dominique Archie was impressive, too. He tended to drift towards the middle on defence, and toward the perimeter on offence, which was a bit odd. But he’s a good athlete, a slasher, a decent finisher, rebounder and help defender. – Zam Fredrick’s professional future, as a 6’0 shoot-first-second-and-third scoring guard without a terrific shot making ability, looks speculative. – I soon learnt that Nick Calathes is not much like Pat Calathes. At all. He’s far better, for a start. However, I worry about Nick’s future. It’s a lot easier to […]
Loosely-Informed Thoughts on Ohio State and Purdue Right Now
February 5th, 2009
I have watched a game and a half of Ohio State’s season in this past week, and I feel as though that makes me an expert on everything about them. – The half a game comes from the second half of the Buckeye’s game versus Indiana on Saturday. When we (and by “we”, I mean “the entire nation of England”) joined the game, Indiana was losing by one, 59-58. God knows how, because they proceeded to show nothing at all. They had no big men, no defence, no inside game, no slashing, no spacing, and their guards just took it in turns to hoist up threes. This from the worst three-point shooting team in the conference, apparently. Still, guard Matt Roth’s performance will linger with me for a while; unlike everybody else, Roth could actually hit a three, and proved this by hitting nine of them, each from further away than the last. It was an impressive shooting performance, to say the least, and it kept Indiana in a game in which they were otherwise wildly overmatched. If ever I encounter Matt Roth again in my life, this will be the first thing that I think of. (I looked up Matt Roth on ESPN after this, to see if he was any good. He wasn’t, but I did find something fun; Roth is 40/96 on the season from three-point range, 11/13 from the free throw line….and 3/10 from two-point range. Nice. Daequan Cook is jealous.) There was literally nothing else to report from Indiana’s point of view, who are as undermanned as you’d heard they are. – Ohio State’s seven-man rotation featured a starting line-up of Jeremie Simmons at point guard, William Buford at two guard, Jon Diebler as the other two guard, Evan Turner as both forwards and Dallas […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 30
February 5th, 2009
Snowman update: my dog ate the nose, someone stole the hat, and the pipe fell out. However, the weather hasn’t been above freezing yet, and so he still survives as before, slightly icier but just as large. Good times. Before the list starts, here’s a quick TRIVIA QUESTION: which one of the following players has scored the second most regular season points in the NBA? Answer at the bottom. – Herve Lamizana recently left his team in the United Arab Emirates and joined Al Ittihad (and his wife Jean) in the Egyptian league. I can’t imagine where I’ll ever say that sentence again. I don’t have any stats for Lamizana, but if you like your college basketball enough to remember the names of obscure American players from about a decade ago, then here are Lamizana’s American team mates: John Thomas III (college: St Francis), Derrick Franklin (Columbus State) and Chauncey Leslie (Iowa). Those three are nothing to be sniffed at: between them, they’ve won the Turkish second division, a Jordanian league championship, and a Hungarian Cup runners-up medal. You can’t deny experience like that. – Maciej Lampe is still going, and getting somewhere. In his third season with Khimki, Lampe is averaging 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in the Russian league, both team highs, alongside 13.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in two EuroCup games. These numbers come on a stacked team that also features Jorge Garbajosa, Kelly McCarty and Carlos Delfino, amongst others. Lampe was a joke back in the day, but not any more. – Sean Lampley is signed with Al Arabi (and his wife Jean) in the Qatarian league. As if he could be anywhere else. – James Lang averages 8.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.6 minutes for the Utah Flash. That’s extremely good […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 29
February 5th, 2009
– Coby Karl began the season with the Idaho Stampede before going to Spain and DKV Joventut Badalona to replace Bracey Wright. He averaged 18.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists for Idaho, and has appeared in all of one game for Badalona, scoring two points in two minutes on 0-2 shooting. – Former Magic centre Mario Kasun – who I like to consider the forerunner to Marcin Gortat, albeit not as good, because nobody is as good as Marcin Gortat – is signed with Efes Pilsen in Turkey, but has missed most of the season through injury. Returning about three weeks ago, Kasun has so far totalled 25 points and 15 rebounds in two Turkish league games, and a 10-minute 8-point performance in his sole EuroLeague game versus Real Madrid. – Sasha Kaun is with CSKA Moscow, craftily located in Moscow. As is the case with young players in Moscow, Kaun kaun’t much get off the bench, averaging 2.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in nine Russian league games, and totalling 2 points and 6 rebounds in four EuroLeague games. Kaun was also drafted in the fifth round of the CBA Draft, but that’s not much of a boast, because the CBA Draft is the most pointless thing in the world. “Quick, let’s draft these players so that we’ll hold their rights if they decide to join the CBA!…..Oh no, wait, they got NBA contracts instead. Damn. If only they knew of all the needlessly misspelt fun that we have here at the Pittsburgh Xplosion.” – Tre Kelley is with Eldan Ashkelon in Israel, forming a lethal tiny backcourt with Steve Burtt Jr. Kelley averages 11.3 points and 2.9 assists, as part of a three-guard rotation with Burtt and some Israeli guy called Avi Ben Chimol. […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 28
February 4th, 2009
– You did it! You did it! You waited for your Alexander Johnson news! Be proud of yourself, and then proceed to hate me, as I tell you that there isn’t any. Johnson started the year in Germany with Brose Baskets Bonn, averaged 11.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.4 fouls in 11 German league games, before leaving last month and being replaced (sort of) by Dan Dickau. Johnson is now unsigned, but, in better news, Dickau has scored 37 points combined in the two games that he’s been there. – Jumaine Jones was reportedly suspended from European basketball for a year in September by FIBA, for the weird yet wonderful crime of signing contracts with two different teams at the same time; one with Alyssa Milano, and one with Ural Great Perm in Russia. However, he’s been playing for the greatly-named Great Perm anyway, averaging 6.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in Russian league play. How that is possible, I don’t know – Russia is in kind of both Europe and Asia, depending on which you want to count it as at any given moment. However, Great Perm have played in both the EuroCup and EuroChallenge this season, and, as the names would suggest, those are European competitions. Yet Jumaine has been playing in them, averaging 9.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in the EuroChallenge. Presumably some sort of settlement was worked out; any answers as to how specifically this is possible? – Eddie Jones was bought out by the Pacers in preseason after being traded from the Mavericks, and hasn’t been heard from since. – Dwayne Jones went to training camp with the Magic, didn’t make it, went to Turkey with Efes, played two games, scored one point, grabbed one rebound, came back to America, signed with the […]
Let Me Drago Pasalic You Up And Down
February 4th, 2009
In keeping with my new policy of talking about every game that I watch that isn’t an NBA game, here’s what I observed from last night’s EuroCup game between Iurbentia Bilbao and the home Lithuanian team with a Yorkshire inflection, Lietuvos Rytas. Go. – Bilbao’s line-up features only three Spanish nationals; point guard Javier Salgado, backup guard Paco Vazquez, and a really slow inside player with a massive head and greasy mullet called Salvador Guardia. The rest of the team was made up of foreign players, and it was pretty stacked; former, future and potentially future NBA talent on show included former Bucks forward and avid partygoer Damir Markota, former Jazz and Timberwolves swingman Quincy Lewis, former Heat tryer-outer Luke Recker, former Chicago Bulls summer league participant Drago Pasalic, Mavericks second-rounder Renaldas Seibutis, former Nuggets guard Predrag Savovic, the man the legend known as Frederic Weis (who did not play), Latvian international guard Janis Blums, and Croatian international big man Marko Banic. – Lietuvos, meanwhile, had only two players that weren’t Lithuanian – former South Carolina point forward Chuck Eidson, and Serbian big man Milko Bjelica, whose name sounds more like a lovely pudding. The rest of the team was made out of old clunky Lithuanians. (Eidson was awesome, by the way, and easily the best player in the game, despite all the talent and internationals on the court. But we’ll come to this later.) – For Bucks fans who fancy a cheap laugh at the expense of Damir Markota, I’ve got good news – he was pretty awful. Markota came off the bench in the first half, and did nothing at all, but for some reason he started the second half in place of Pasalic. He then proceeded to get involved on every possession, and normally in a bad […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 27
February 3rd, 2009
– Chris Jefferies is a weird story. A first-round draft pick back in 2002, Jefferies got an opportunity to showcase himself back in his rookie season with an injury-depleted tanking Raptors team. He didn’t do much with it, though, and he was a throw-in in the trade the following season that saw Antonio Davis and Jerome Williams go to Chicago. It was there that Jefferies won my heart, demonstrating a decent set shot, interested defence, and a staggeringly bad handle in traffic. Jefferies was waived during the following offseason, out of the league after only two seasons. He then signed in the ABA with the Visalia Dawgs, a team that tried to reunite talent from the Fresno area. The team changed its head coach and renamed itself partway through its first season to the Central Dawgs, finished with a 3-20 record, and then folded. Jefferies has not played anywhere since, and this was nearly four years ago now. A Hoopsworld article from this time in 2007 talked about how Jefferies was rehabbing after multiple surgeries, but nothing came of that. C-Jeff turns 29 in less than a fortnight’s time, and his basketball career has been on hold for far too long now. Is he even trying to come back any more? If you know, let me know. Because I care about you, Chris Jefferies. We all care. – Dontell Jefferson is in the D-League, and somewhat starring, as one of only three Utah Flashers that you will have ever heard of. (The other being James Lang and Ronald Dupree.) Jefferson averages 18.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 3.5 turnovers a game on a decent Flash team. – Horace Jenkins is with Eldo Caserta in Italy, but his scoring numbers are less than usual, averaging only 10.1 points […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 26
February 2nd, 2009
I’m kind of overexcitable today, with a level of maturity that belies my 24 years of age. I feel pretty much like a small child today. And I feel like a small child today because I’ve just acted like one. Today, 2nd February 2009, marks the day that I built the first snowman of my life. And here it is: Experienced snowmen builders out there will have noticed a few faults in my technique. For example, it’s plain to see that I’ve fallen into the usual rookie trap of making a base that is way too big, overestimating what I will have the patience to achieve, and then having to hurriedly heap snow on top, crudely falling into kind of a cone shape, making my snowman’s body resemble a sumo wrestler melting. Additionally, I don’t have any coal, so the classic coal eyes have had to be replaced by a pair of police aviators. I also didn’t have a carrot, so a parsnip suffices as the nose, and insulating tape forms a rudimentary mouth shape for no particular reason. I also have no explanation as to why he is holding a retro early 90’s tennis racket, or a duck on a stick, but these additions seemed vital at the time. As did the Stetson. But I’m proud of it anyway, because it’s my first one. And everyone remembers their first time. Why haven’t I built one before? Well, because it’s never snowed like this before. And why am I telling you all this? Because I felt like it. Anyhoo. To some basketball stuff. – Serge Ibaka played in the LEB Gold last year, and has upgraded to the ACB this year. He’s not tearing things up at the moment, with sedate averages of 6.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 1.0 […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 25
February 1st, 2009
– Little Jeff Horner – who is kind of like John Stockton, only with better rebounding – averages 8.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.6 steals for Antibes. Antibes play in the French second division (Pro B), which undermines that Stockton comparison a bit. But still. Stockton didn’t play much in his rookie year, either. Give Horner time. He’s only 25. By the way, that bulge in my cheek is my tongue. – Robert Horry is unofficially, but effectively, retired. – Daniel Horton was released by Pau Orthez in December, after totalling 45 points on 49 shots, with 16 assists, in four games. – Quinton Hosley is playing for Real Madrid, where he averages 6.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 16 mpg in the Spanish league, and 9.1 ppg and 3.3 rpg in the same amount of time in the EuroLeague. Other Real Madrid guards include former Michigan starlet and booster recipient Louis Bullock (one of the team’s leading scorers), former NBA journeyman Pepe Sanchez (who is still bad at scoring; on the season he has 48 assists to 20 points, on 6-28 shooting), Marko Tomas (who isn’t playing any more than he was the last time he was at Real), Raul Lopez (we’ll come to him later), and my own personal favourite, Sergio Llull. Nothing says “YES!” more than a 21 year old 5’10 point guard with terrific athletic ability and three-point range. I like this guy. – Allan Houston is now a part of the Knicks front office, something which hopefully means no more comeback attempts. I know you don’t like how it ended, Allan, but to be honest I can’t see it ending any better even if you did make a mini-comeback. You did fine, really. Plenty of money, an NBA Finals […]
