Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 46

April 10th, 2010

The following lists mostly features people who aren’t playing right now.

– Mikki Moore

Mikki Moore isn’t playing right now. He was signed by the Golden State Warriors this offseason to a one-year minimum salary contract, in the same summer that saw them acquire Speedy Claxton and Devean George, which is some inactive list right there. Claxton and Moore have since been waived, and while Denver and Utah both expressed an interest in signing Moore, neither one did. Denver instead decided to sign Brian Butch (in a move that still hasn’t happened yet), and Utah figured they would rather have two open roster spots.

– Paccelis Morlende

Former Sonics draft pick Patch Morlende isn’t playing right now either, having been out of basketball for the best part of two years. He signed in Russia with Ural Great Perm for the 2008/09 season, but left in preseason without playing a game, and has not been signed since. Morlende has been injured, and his comeback only started to get somewhere in January when he began training with French club Dijon, the club with whom he began his career. Morlende wasn’t under contract with the team, and he never did sign there, but he asked to be allowed to train there to help with his rehab, and the team agreed. Patch is still unsigned, but Lyon were said to be considering signing him as an injury replacement for Ralph Mims, who has broken his finger. However, they signed Mamoutou Diarra this week instead, which probably ends that.

– Terence Morris

Former Rockets and Magic forward Terence Morris IS playing, and playing a sweet gig at that. Morris is signed with Barcelona, the best team in Europe, after moving there from CSKA Moscow in the summer. He is averaging 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the ACB, alongside 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds in the EuroLeague. He would play more, but Barcelona are too stacked.

– Toree Morris

One-time Raptor, Pittsburgh’s finest Toree Morris, isn’t playing right now. He spent the 2008/09 season in the D-League, spending time with both the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and Fort Wayne Mad Ants and averaging about 4/3 between the two, but he has not signed anywhere this year. He broke his wrist at one point, which probably factors. Morris is named as an author at this website [website removed], but he doesn’t appear to have written anything. Nor has anyone, really. He turns 28 on Tuesday.

– Brian Morrison

UCLA graduate Brian Morrison isn’t playing anywhere right now, either. He too spent last year in the D-League, splitting it between the Mad Ants and the Austin Toros, averaging 3.7 points and 1.3 assists for the latter. This came after an unexpected training camp contract with the Spurs that summer, one unbecoming of a player who had been left unprotected in the D-League expansion draft about two months earlier. It wasn’t quite the same as signing Curtis Jerrells for camp to guarantee that he gets assigned to the Toros. Morrison did nevertheless get assigned to the Toros, but whereas Curtis Jerrells is a fringe NBA talent, Brian Morrison is a fringe D-League talent. So it was a head-scratcher, but fair play to him.

However, despite making the NBA for two weeks last year, Morrison has not signed anywhere this year.

– Alonzo Mourning

Zo is definitely not playing right now, and nor will he again. He is now the Vice President of Player Programs and Development, and continues to do work to raise awareness of kidney disease.

– Timofey Mozgov

Mozgov is still with Khimki, which means he’s been a EuroLeague player. Because of Khimki’s tooling-up for the EuroLeague campaign, he has had to share the centre spot with Robertas Javtokas, and that means backing him up. But Mozgov still produces when he plays, as well he should, because he’s awesome. Mozzy averages 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 18 minutes per game in the Russian league, 13.1/6.0/4.1 in the EuroLeague, and 20.4/10.9/5.5 in the VTB United League. We’ll ignore the foul rates for now.

– Alex Mumbru

Spanish international Mumbru moved from Real Madrid to Bilbao this year. He is averaging 13.3 points in the ACB, and 8.6 points in the EuroCup. Here he is doing an impression of Roy Hibbert’s defensive rebounding.

(video removed by uploader)

– Gabe Muoneke

Journeyman Gabe Muoneke has not had an enjoyable year. In fact, it was so not enjoyable that he retired. Gabe’s reason for retiring seem to involve a combination of disenfranchisement with the game, as well as the fact that he could get paid more by using his degree. Fair enough. In this, ostensibly his final season, Muoneke played no games. He briefly went to Poland to play for Energi Czarni Slupsk, but did not appear in any contests. Gabe says he would have signed in France were it not for his former team, ASVEL, badmouthing him.

– Lamond Murray

You may have thought that Lamond Murray had retired. But you’d be wrong. He’s old, but he’s still going.

Murray’s career began to fade in the 2002-03 season, when he missed the entire thing due to a torn foot ligament. I remember this vividly, because I dropped Gilbert Arenas from my fantasy team to pick up Murray just before the season started, only for Murray to miss the whole thing and for Gilbert to break out. (I am noted for the quality of my talent evaluation.) Murray returned to play with the Raptors, but was never the same again, going from a career-high 16.6 points per game in the season before the injury to only 6.0 points in 33 games in the season after it, on 35% shooting. After one more year in Toronto, again averaging 6.0 ppg, Murray signed a one-year minimum salary contract with the Nets for the 2005-06 season. He averaged 3.4 points, scoring 196 on 181 shots, and never played in the NBA again.

After that season ended, Murray returned to his first team, the L.A. Clippers, for training camp. He failed to make the team and sat out most of the rest of the 2006-07 season, but joined up with an IBL team, the Los Angeles Lightning, in the summer of 2007. The IBL is an American minor league that takes place in the summer, and Lamond has played in it for the last three years. He has spent his regular seasons in China (2007 and 2008), the ABA (2007) and Bahrain (this year), and then goes back to Cali for the IBL in the summer.

Last year’s Los Angeles Lightning roster was truly stacked. Supposedly, Lamond has already committed to joining this year’s. Let’s see who else joins him.

Finally……

– Dikembe Mutombo

Dikembe Mutombo retired this offseason, after seeing his career end last year being stretchered off the court with a knee injury. It’s a bad way to go out, but ultimately, it changes nothing; no one’s going to remember it when compared to the rest of Dikembe’s legacy. He now works for the NBA as a global ambassador.