Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 36
March 26th, 2010
– Sergei Karaulov Spurs draft pick Karaulov played in the Russian second division last year for Nizhny Novgorod. He averaged 11.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, which aren’t bad numbers I guess. But to put them in some sort of context, Karaulov averaged 17.2 ppg and 9.5 rpg for a different second division team in the 2003-04 season, the year before the Spurs drafted him. So somehow, in the six years post hence, the soon-to-be 28 year old Karaulov has gotten less productive. This year, he has upgraded from the Russian second division to the Russian Superleague. This is good. But what is not good is Sergei Karaulov’s performance this year. In 12 games for Krasnie Krilya Samara, Karaulov is averaging 3.8 points and 2.6 rebounds, totalling 45 and 31. Those aren’t very good numbers, but they’re even worse considering that 25 points and 9 rebounds of that (as well as 4 steals) came in one game, a late December loss to Dynamo Moscow. Therefore, outside of that one game, Karaulov has totalled 20 points, 22 rebounds and 27 fouls in 100 minutes. Some Spurs draft picks pan out. Some don’t. This one didn’t. – Coby Karl Coby Karl went to camp with the Cavaliers, and made the team when it was determined that they needed some guard insurance in the wake of Delonte West’s whoopsy. He stayed on the roster until the guarantee date, yet played only five minutes in that time. After being waived, Karl went to the D-League for three weeks before being signed to a ten-day contract with the Golden State Warriors; in five games there he averaged 7.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists, shooting only 2-11 from three-point range. The Warriors didn’t bring him back for a second ten-dayer – instead signing […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 35
March 25th, 2010
– Bobby Jones Former University of Washington forward Bobby Jones was a second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2006, who was traded immediately to the Sixers. He signed a two-year deal with the team and played spot minutes of 44 games in his rookie year, before being traded again in the offseason to the Denver Nuggets as a part of the Steven Hunter/Reggie Evans swap. Denver played him in 25 more games but waived him before the contract guarantee date, at which point Jones signed two ten-day contracts with the Grizzlies. After the expiration of the second one came a fresh one with the Houston Rockets, quickly followed by two more with the Miami Heat, and one with the San Antonio Spurs, before Denver picked him back up for the last week of the season. Denver signed him to a contract that ran through the 2008-09 season with various guarantee dates along the way, and precisely because of that, Jones’s unguaranteed deal became a trade chip, one capitalised upon when he was traded along with Taurean Green to New York in exchange for Renaldo Balkman. The Knicks waived him a day later, which prompted the Heat to claim him off of waivers, yet he lasted only about a week there before Miami waived him prior to his contract guarantee date kicking in. A month later, Jones joined the Sacramento Kings for training camp, but did not make the team. And that was Bobby Jones’s NBA career. Jones has not signed an NBA contract since. However, given that he played for six teams in two years, and was a member of 11 franchises in that time (including two of them twice), the NBA had probably gotten him pegged by then. Jones currently plies his trade in Italy for Bancas […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 33
March 24th, 2010
– Jan Jagla Former Clipper and German national team member Jagla has spent the season with Prokom Sopot Gdynia in Poland. Gdynia are the best team in Poland and are also a EuroLeague team, which is why they have imports such as Jagla, Lorinza Harrington, Qyntel Woods and Daniel Ewing. They also used to have Pape Sow, but he left the team in February to sign in Spain. It was reported that Jagla had left the team with him, but that report was erroneous, for Jagla has spent the whole year there. He averaged 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, alongside an almost-identical 7.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the Polish league. – Dominic James Marquette product James didn’t get drafted last summer, partly because his numbers went backwards throughout his four-year career, and partly because he broke his foot down the stretch of his senior season. He did however land a training camp contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, but it didn’t last long; aware of his unlikelihood of making the Bucks roster, James asked for his release so that he could sign a contract with a Turkish team. That Turkish team is Mersin, and James has averaged 14.7 points and 4.3 assists with them this year. James has shot 31% from three and 62% from the foul line this season, numbers improved on last year’s career-ows of 28%/46%, but numbers still unbecoming of a point guard. – Mike James James was traded to the Wizards last season as an ever-so-slightly cheaper alternative to Antonio Daniels. He played in 53 games for the Wizards after the trade, starting 50 of them, and playing 1,575 minutes. It feels weird to say that Mike James played 1,649 minutes in an NBA season as recently […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 34
March 24th, 2010
– Britton Weaver Johnsen Johnsen has spent the year with Panellinios in Greece. He averaged 6.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the Greek league, alongside 7.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in the EuroCup. However, he has not played for last six weeks due to a knee injury. One thing I didn’t know until about Britton Johnsen until just now; a decade ago, he got into a fight with Amadou Makhtar N’Diaye (not Mamadou), who accused him of using the N word. I’m guessing Johnsen used the word “bigger” at some point, which N’Diaye misinterpreted. Either way, strange times. Here is the video LeBron never got to: – Alexander Cantarell Johnson Florida State product Johnson went to camp with the Utah Jazz this year, but despite 31 decent preseason minutes, he did not make the team. He then went to China to play for the DongGuan New Century Leopards. However, he got injured after only thirteen minutes in his first game and had to be carried off the court; it was the only CBA game he played. A couple of month passed while Johnson rehabbed his injuries, and then in late January he re-emerged in the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Johnson quickly became one of the best players in the league; in 19 games he is averaging 22.6 points and 11.2 rebounds, shooting 56% from the field and 75% from the line. However, the problem that marred his earlier NBA forays remain; put simply, Johnson makes mistakes. Not a Mike Greenberg-style racial epithet mistake, nor the Gilbert Arenas sort of gun-wielding mistakes, and nor the Mark McGwire type of mistake whereby you shoot protein-based poly-peptides into your veins to gain a competitive advantage using the ridiculously terrible defence that other people were doing it […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 32
March 18th, 2010
– Lindsey Hunter Lindsey Hunter was finally crowbarred off the Bulls roster a couple of weeks ago. This was a good thing; Hunter hasn’t been an NBA calibre player for some years, yet in all that time teams have believed so much in his off-court attributes that they have caved to his demands and signed him as a player, rather than as a coach. Never mind, it’s over now; Hunter was waived a fortnight ago to make room for Chris Richard, and immediately was hired (reclassified) as a player development assistant. – Othello Hunter Hunter was one of eight signings made by the Atlanta Hawks for training camp, but he was the only one to win a spot. The Hawks decided to keep two open spots and Hunter in favour of any of Mike Wilks, Juan Dixon, Garret Siler, Mario West (who they later brought back anyway), Aaron Miles, Frank Robinson and Courtney Sims. Such is the current economic climate. (By the way, for the last week or so, Courtney Sims’s name has been awesomely misspelt on Latinbasket.com. They’ve corrected the mistake now, but for a while there, you can probably work out what it said. [Note; very NSFW.] At least they still list Antoine Walker as “Anthony Walker.”) Hunter stuck with the team until the contract guarantee date, playing all of 29 minutes in that time, recording 11 points and 12 rebounds. When waived, he went unsigned for a few weeks before joining the struggling Ilysiakos in Greece, currently last in the A1 with a 4-16 record. In two games for the team, Hunter has record 47 minutes, 17 points and 12 rebounds. One of those two losses was a 41-point defeat at the hands of Olympiacos. – Ekene Ibekwe Maryland graduate Ibekwe was having a good […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 31
March 17th, 2010
I wasn’t initially going to mention this, not until we got to Marko Tomas’s entry at least. But, prompted by Jonathan Givony, I will relent and do it now. An amusing scandal has broken out in the world of Croatian basketball. A team called Cibona Zagreb are perhaps the best team in the country; they were in the last 16 of the EuroLeague just last month, and currently lead the powerhouse Adriatic League with a 19-5 record. Players on that team include former Bulls centre Dalibor Bagaric (whose name was brutalised into Dalibor Ballagachayridge by English commentator Roy Birch last week), former Real Madrid sharpshooter Marko Tomas, Slovenian shooter Samo Udrih (Beno’s brother and one-time Maverick), and former Mississippi State guard Jamont Gordon (covered here earlier this week). It’s a deep team that also houses upcoming draft prospect Bojan Bogdanovic (a tall wing player with a fine jump shot, if not much else) and Leon Radosevic (a 19-year-old big man who, in true Croatian style, does not rebound). Cibona have long had a strong youth movement, and this continues today. Cibona Zagreb’s captain is 27-year-old Croatian national team veteran forward Marin Rozic. Rozic is currently injured and has been out of action for the last three months, but this doesn’t mean he hasn’t been keeping himself busy. News reports out of Croatia claim that, in a homage to former England captain John Terry, Rozic has been knocking off Radosevic’s woman on the side, despite the two being teammates. It was Radosevic himself who went to the press, and, via the awkward medium of Google Translate, here’s the gist of the story: – I went to training and left to record their conversation. A day later I am still shocked and listen – told 24 hours Radosevic and briefly recounted the […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 29
March 16th, 2010
– Jason Hart Hart first signed with the Timberwolves for training camp, and the depth chart alone was enough to help him beat out the other 470 competitors for the 15th man spot. However, despite the Wolves’ lack of a third point guard, Hart played only five minutes and ended up being traded away, twice. Sort of. The Timberwolves first had a deal with New Orleans that would have seen them trade Hart (or rather, his unguaranteed contract) to the Hornets in exchange for Devin Brown and cash, and the deal was so close to being done that a press release even appeared on the Timberwolves’ website. However, Phoenix snuck in at the last minute and offered Minnesota a better deal, giving them Alando Tucker and a second rounder for Hart instead. Phoenix then waived Hart, and New Orleans eventually got their man when Hart signed a ten-day contract with them as injury cover when Chris Paul first went down. Since then, however, Hart has been unsigned. He can often be seen in the crowd of Syracuse home games, although there aren’t any more of them scheduled until November time now. – Donnell Harvey Harvey was covered in the 2010 CBA Season Round-up from last week. In his last two games, Harvey put up two of his three worst scoring outings of the season; 14 points, 15 rebounds against Guangdong, and 8/9 in the regular season finale against Zhejiang Lions. Never mind, though. A fine season. – Matt Haryasz Stanford graduate and ex-Rockets signee Matt Haryasz moved from Belgium to Israel in the summer, but it didn’t last long. After only three games with Bnei Hasharon, in which he totalled 17 points and 12 rebounds, Haryasz moved to Holland to play for Groningen. Playing in the slightly crap […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 30
March 16th, 2010
– Josh Heytvelt Gonzaga graduate Josh Heytvelt is one of the best players in Turkey. His team (Oyak Renault Bursa) are third-last in the Turkish TBL with a 6-16 record, but it’s not the fault of Heytvelt, who averages 16.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. The scoring ranks tenth in the league, and the rebounds rank second only to Jamar E. O’Davidson. Bursa won a massive game at the weekend when they beat the high-flying Turk Telekom; Heytvelt played all 40 minutes and put up 26 points and 13 rebounds. (Ricky Davis had 20 for Turk Telekom in his second game for the team. He scored 8 in the first.) – Herbert Hill Providence big man Herbert Hill’s professional career has barely gotten going due to knee injuries. He was drafted by the Sixers in 2007 and stayed with the team all season, but never played in a game for them due to knee surgery, and the rehab from that overlapped into last year. Hill initially tried out for Le Mans in August 2008 but was not sufficiently recovered, and did not return to action until February, when he played the last 15 games of the D-League season with the Bakersfield Jam and Tulsa 66ers. Now healthy again, Hill has spent all of this season in South Korea with the Daegu Orions, a team whose name I keep misreading as the Daegu Onions. (Chuck Swirsky would love them.) Hill is averaging 19.1 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game. Hill’s American team mate on the Onions is a former Louisiana-Lafayette swingman called Anthony Johnson, which is quickly becoming the most popular name in basketball. Not only is there that Anthony Johnson, but there’s also THE Anthony Johnson (the one with no neck that currently […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 28
March 15th, 2010
One final Mengke Bateer note – while I called him Mongolian earlier, he’s actually from Inner Mongolia, which is considered part of China, in much the same way Vermont is considered part of the USA. I didn’t realise that there was a difference between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, but there is, and so I will bring that difference to you now. Always learning. – Penny Hardaway Hardaway last played in December 2007 with the Miami Heat. Finding anything that he’s done since then has not been easy. His website is just a shade out of date, and if he has business interests then I don’t know what they are. What we know for sure is that two years ago he gave a million dollars to the University of Memphis two years ago, because John Calipari has a way of making things like that happen. – DeVon Hardin Thunder draft pick Hardin played in Greece last year, but now he’s back where they can keep an eye on him. Hardin is with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers, but he’s not doing very well there. In 27 games with 20 starts and 20.5 minutes per game, Hardin is averaging only 5.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, with 155 points on 122 shots and a foul every eight minutes. It should be somewhat simple for an NBA-calibre big man to put up near-double-double stats in the D-League; even Chris Richard managed to do it, when his 9/8 for the 66ers was deemed sufficient to be signed three times by the Chicago Bulls. But Hardin hasn’t done it, nor has he come close to it. His minutes have affected somewhat by the Thunder’s assortment of assigned players, including big men D.J. White and B.J. Mullens at various times, as […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 26
March 13th, 2010
In the previous post I talked about Hawks draft pick Sergiy Gladyr, but did so while omitting a potentially interesting/amusing piece of information. Gladyr has not played since Valentine’s Day, when he left a game against Meridiano after only nine minutes with an injury and never returned. The injury is a broken hand, one which Gladyr suffered by punching an advertising hoarding. Maybe he was feeling a little unloved that day. I feel your pain, brother. Additionally, the recent surge of Chinese Basketball Association-related material has brought a variety of feedback, much of it useful, some of it banal, some of it sweet and sincere, some of it rude. With that feedback in mind, here are some points for clarity; 1) Tim Pickett has returned for Shaanxi, and played the last three games. In those three games he has posted 50 points and 8 rebounds, 30 points and 8 rebounds, and 39 points and 8 rebounds. He has continued to shoot really really really ridiculously well from the three-point line, going 14-20 over that three game span. But Shaanxi have lost all three games anyway. 2) A number of people pointed out that Bayi are the team affiliated with the Chinese army, which is why they have no import players. I didn’t mention this because I thought it was no longer the case. I knew it used to be, hence all that furore with Wang Zhizhi a few years ago, but I thought they’d moved on from that. At the very least, they had changed the name. But I guess not. 3) No, I didn’t actually think Ding Jinhui the snooker player and Ding Jinhui the Zhejiang Cyclones big man were the same person. And no, I didn’t actually think Li Xiaoxu the Liaoning centre and Ling Xiaoyu the fictional […]
Robert Whaley arrested for carrying drugs in his backside
March 12th, 2010
The cheerful-looking person in this picture is former Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors big man, Robert Whaley. You may remember him, or you may not. But if you do, it’s probably because either: a) you’re a Cincinnati Bearcats fan who remembers Whaley for the one underwhelming year he brought your team in 2003-04 before being forced to transfer due to off-the-court issues, b) you’re a Raptors fan who remembers Whaley’s inclusion as a throw-in in the trade that ended the Rafael Araujo Experience, or c) you’re a Jazz fan who remembers Whaley as being the one that was arrested alongside Deron Williams back in 2005, in an incident that saw them humiliate themselves by giving false names to the police. Either way, your memories of Robert Whaley probably aren’t great. A recurrent theme in that list is Whaley’s trend of getting involved in off-the-court issues. Largely unbeknownst to me until today, Whaley has been making a habit of that over the last few years. In the early hours of this morning, per the Salt Lake Tribune, Whaley was a passenger in a car when he was arrested by “gang detectives”, whatever they are, and found to have marijuana in his buttocks. Upon being processed, it also turned out that Whaley was a wanted fugitive in the state of Michigan after being convicted of running a drug house back in 2008. The obligatory mugshot follows. 2008 also marked the last time Whaley played professional basketball, and his entire career, dating back to the end of his high school years, was not exactly dignified. After almost winning Mr Basketball in the state of Michigan in 2001, Whaley spent two years at Barton County Community College, averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, before moving to Cincinnati for his junior season. Once […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 27
March 12th, 2010
– Marcus Haislip An established and productive forward in the EuroLeague these last couple of years – if kind of disliked by certain sections of the European audience who abhor athleticism when it comes at the expenses of pick-and-roll defence – Haislip left Unicaja Malaga this summer after two seasons to return to the NBA to play for the Spurs for the minimum salary. This represented about a 75% paycut for Haislip, yet he did it anyway, because American citizens like playing in America. It didn’t work out for him, though – in three months with the team, Haislip played all of 10 games and 44 minutes. Then in early January, Panathinaikos came in for him, looking for a short-term injury reinforcement. Haislip negotiated a buyout with San Antonio (which wasn’t difficult; “you can forget what you owe me if you let me leave”) and signed with Pana, for whom he is averaging 11.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in the Greek league. – Mike Hall Former Wizards forward Hall is with Armani Jeans Milano, a team based in Milano that are sponsored by Armani Jeans. He is averaging 8.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in Serie A, alongside 6.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, shooting 29% from three-point range between the two. He had a nice game-winning dunk in a EuroLeague game recently, but YouTube doesn’t seem to carry it. Or if it does, it’s in Italian. – Yotam Halperin Sonics/Thunder draft pick Halperin is a member of Olympiacos, averaging 7.4 points and 1.8 assists per game in the Greek league, alongside 7.0 points and 1.1 assists per game in the EuroLeague. His minutes have been inconsistent, as have those of all Olympiacos players, but perhaps more so than the others. Halperin didn’t […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 25
March 12th, 2010
– Sergiy Gladyr After being drafted by the Atlanta Hawks this summer, Gladyr left the Ukraine for the first time and moved to the ACB to play with Suzuki Manresa (formerly known as Ricoh Manresa). Manresa have an 11-13 record on the season, yet they’re comfortably in the middle of the table, currently placing 10th out of 18 ACB teams. Gladyr is third on the team in scoring with a 9.9 ppg average, alongside 2.1 rebounds, 3.6 fouls and no other significant statistics per game. For a purported shooter, though, he’s not shooting too well, shooting only 32% from three-point range. And given that he has attempted 135 three-pointers compared to only 35 two-pointers, that’s not ideal. It is not the best first season in Spain for Gladyr, then; that said, for a 20-year-old in the ACB, it’s pretty good. Young players don’t normally play much there. – Dion Glover Glover played briefly on the 2004-2005 Spurs team that won the NBA Championship, but found himself having to go to summer league that year in order to get more employment. After averaging 19/5/5 for the Rockets team, he got a contract from Houston and made the team, but was waived in December of that year without playing a game. He never played in the NBA again. Glover split the 2006-07 season between Lebanon and the D-League, and later played for a couple of Dominican Republic teams. He last played in March 2008 with a Venezuelan team called Gaiteros de Zulia, for whom he totalled 8 points in his only appearance. As for what he’s done since then, here’s Dion telling you himself. Also note the accuracy of his prediction there. Well, half of it. – Andreas Glyniadakis Ex-Pistons draft pick Glyniadakis is Olympiacos’ 15th and cheapest man. Olympiacos […]
Mengke Bateer Is A Coconut Wielding Homicidal Badass
March 10th, 2010
Everyone remembers their first Mengke Bateer experience. Mine came in the 2000 Olympics. In a game against the USA in which Yao Ming beasted from three point range (true story), and in which Wang Zhizhi picked up four first half fouls, Mengke came in and hit some mid range jump shots, in that way that he does. It was kind of fun, if ultimately kind of forgettable. Bateer went on to enjoy a few years in the NBA. He started out as a training camp signee of the Denver Nuggets in 2002, yet was waived before the season started. He thus went back to China and averaged 24.3 points and 14.2 rebounds per game for Beijing, before returning to the Nuggets in February 2002 to see out the season with them. Bateer played in 27 games for that God awful Nuggets team and even squeezed out 10 starts, averaging 5.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 fouls in 15 minutes per game. You’ll no doubt have noticed that that’s a lot of fouls. That offseason, Bateer – who had been signed through 2003 – was a throw-in by Denver in the trade with Detroit that saw him, Don Reid and a first-round pick swapped for Rodney White. That pick was later traded to Atlanta (who used it on Josh Smith) as the centrepiece of the Rasheed Wallace deal; in a way, therefore, Mengke Bateer was an integral part of building the 2003-04 NBA champion Detroit Pistons. An underrated bad Kiki Vanderweghe trade, that one. (It was perhaps overshadowed by the fact that it came in the same offseason as the drafting of Nikoloz Tskitishvili, a move you may have heard about.) Nevertheless, despite how much Bateer had brought to the franchise, Detroit moved him on without him playing a game for […]
Chinese Basketball Association Statistics, 2010
March 7th, 2010
The Chinese Basketball Association and its compelling protagonists have a particular level of focus on this website, for the simple reason that they’re awesome. Any league that saw Olumide Oyedeji average nearly 20/20 can peak the interest of any of us. Fringe NBA players like playing in China; the exposure isn’t huge and the standard isn’t great, but the CBA pays very well, and it is unashamed in copying the NBA model of basketball not much imitated around the globe. They’ve changed their style to match up to the NBA game; games are 48 minutes long (like the NBA, and unlike basically every other league in the world), and there’s about three of them a week (unlike most other domestic leagues, which have one). This playing of lots of games with less emphasis on practice is a lure to players; after all, as that great philosopher of our time Nate Dogg once said, “playas play on, play on, keep playing on.” Words to live by. Furthermore, aside from the imports, the standard of play is kind of weak, which leads to amusingly lopsided statistics that they could put on their CV. For example, Tim Pickett will now always be able to boast that he was a 39.4 ppg scorer at one point in his career, something which paid dividends when he received a workout with the Memphis Grizzlies back in May. It’s nice to know they’re checking out China. So do I. Each CBA team is allowed to play two import players at any one time. “Import players” are defined as anyone that isn’t Chinese, or otherwise Asian. In practice, however, these players are almost always American. Better still, these players are also almost always players that you’ve heard of. And that makes it even more fun. There follows a […]
