Beno’s brother started the year back in his native Slovenia, having not retained his place at Estudiantes Madrid. The one-time Maverick averaged 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Hopsi, while waiting for a better offer to come in. In January, one did, and Udrih moved to Croatia to play for Cibona Zagreb. For them he averaged 7.3 points down the stretch of their EuroLeague campaign, 9.0 ppg in the Adriatic League and 9.4 ppg in the Croatian league.
Cavaliers draft pick Ugboaja’s professional career before this season has read; Nigeria, Poland, Cyprus, D-League, and Iran. There’s not a whole lot of pedigree there, not helped by the fact that he averaged only 3/3 for the Cavaliers’ own D-League affiliate before being released. However, this year has seen Ejike bounce back a bit. He started the year with Azovmash in Ukraine, averaging 9.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in only 15 minutes per game in the Ukrainian Superleague. He left in December and returned to Iran to play for Petrochimi, where statistics are unfortunately unavailable. Nevertheless, he produced quite a lot in a better quality of league than usual. It’s something to build from.
Here are all the players drafted by the Cavaliers after the 2003 draft (the LeBron James draft):
It’s a largely-miss record with a couple of salvaging hits (Hickson and Varejao). Gibson wasn’t a bad pick either, even if he’s somewhat redundant right now, and Kaun will be regarded in NBA circles as a good pick-up two years from now. However, it’s not much of a list, not helped by the fact that Shannon Brown only became decent three teams later, and not until after being one of the only five players in history to have the third year of his rookie scale contract turned down.
These things aren’t the fault of the current Cavaliers management, of course, except for the ones that are. Nor should it reflect on Ejike Ugboaja, whose drafting should stand on its own merits. But to non-Cavs fans, it’s an interesting eye-opener. And probably quite a poignant one.
D-League veteran Underwood has been all over the show this year. He has spent time with five different D-League teams – Albuquerque, Maine, Idaho, Dakota and Austin – and has also spent two different stints in the PBL with the Halifax Rainmen. He averaged 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds for the Rainmen, and averaged 7.9 points and 3.7 per game over his various D-League stints. Included somewhere in there was a trade for Joe Dabbert; Dabbert, Dan Issel’s second cousin, averaged 14.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 4.3 fouls in only 24 minutes per game for the Idaho Stampede this year. Some bonus info there.
After being drafted by the Bobcats and traded to the Thunder, Vaden’s professional career began in the Italian second division with Aget Imola. He averaged 16.9 points in 35.7 minutes per game there, shooting more threes than twos and hitting them at 40%. Vaden formed an explosive backcourt with former BYU guard Trent Whiting, who averaged 22.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. Whiting his spent eight of the nine seasons of his professional career in Lega Due, and has averaged no less than 16.6 ppg in any of them. Is there not an opportunity for promotion here?
Former San Diego State forward Ryan Amoroso was also with Imola for much of the season, but he left in February. The man who Jimmy Dykes once described as being “in there to foul” did a lot of it, averaging 4.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 fouls in 16 games.
2003 Raptors draft pick Van De Hare played with the mighty Barcelona until 2005. (Note: the word “played” is generous there.) Upon leaving, he joined Slovenian giant Olimpija Ljubljana for a year, and even appeared in seven EuroLeague games with them. But since 2006, RVDH has no longer been able to land sweet gigs based on his supposed potential. He spent the 2006-07 season in Cyprus with AEL Limassol, which is quite the downgrade, and returned to Cyprus for the 2008-09 season after an unsuccessful trip to Ukraine with Azovmash in 2007-08 (who seem to still owe him some money, over a year later).
For this season, Van De Hare returned to Spain. But no longer is he on the deep benches of ACB teams. Far from it. Instead, Van De Hare plays for a team called Platges de Mataro. And not only have Mataro completely jacked the L.A. Lakers’ logo for themselves; they also play so far down the Spanish basketball system that I had to Google it.
The pinnacle of Spanish basketball is the ACB, a top-three league worldwide featuring all the good teams you’ve heard of such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Caja Laboral, etc. There are 18 ACB teams. Then comes the LEB, which is split into two divisions; the LEB Oro (Gold) and the LEB Plata (Silver). There are 18 LEB Gold teams, and 21 Plata teams split into two divisions. After that comes the Liga Española de Baloncesto Amateur (EBA), which is divided into five groups; Group A, Group A-B, Group B, Group C and Group D.
Mataro play in Group C of the EBA.
Stats are unavailable for hopefully obvious reasons, other than to tell you that Van De Hare totalled 15 points and 13 rebounds in their last game. Nice numbers, I suppose. But this misses the point. This is a former NBA draft pick, EuroLeague and ACB champion we’re talking about here. Ramon almost never played for Barcelona, but they invested a heck of a lot of time and money in him over the years, trying to make something of him. He even got drafted in the NBA by a team that had never seen him (allegedly), based on the reputation of this potential. And yet this is where we are now. The word “Amateur” in the EBA’s name is a clue as to how far backwards down the Spanish basketball ladder we’ve gone here. That’s how far you have to go to find former NBA draft pick, Ramon Van De Hare.
Orlando still owns his rights, after having traded for them in 2005. But, truth be told, they might not ever sign him to an NBA contract.
This one shouldn’t take as long. Nickey Maxwell Van Exel retired after the 2005-06 season and is now an assistant at Texas Southern University, as is another ex-NBA player, Vin Baker.
Van Horn has not appeared in an NBA game since Game Five 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.)
Varda didn’t get started this year until January, but landed a decent gig when he replaced Pape Sow for Polish EuroLeague team Gydnia. He averaged 9.8 points and 4.9 rebounds for the remainder of the EuroLeague season, but has averaged only 6.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in the Polish league. He has also turned it over 1.9 times per game in only 10 minutes.
Former Washington State forward Varem has spent at least part of the year in Iran, playing for Saba Mehr. However, any more information than that is extremely hard to come by. As far as I can tell, he is no longer there, and may not have been for a few months.
Vassallo graduated from Virginia Tech last summer, and signed back in his native Puerto Rico before attending the Bulls summer league camp. He did not make the team and went to France to play for Paris-Levallois, where he averaged 17.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game (the PPG ranked fourth in the league). Upon the conclusion of Levallois’s season, Vassallo will return to Puerto Rico to play another BSN season; however, Levallois finished 7th in the ProA regular season, and thus begin their first round playoff series against Le Mans tonight.
After spending the last two years with the Spurs, Vaughn was jettisoned this summer in favour of an extra wingman, as the Spurs decided to run with only two point guards. And when the team needed some mid-season ball-handling reinforcements, they looked to youth instead, giving contracts at various points to Garrett Temple, Cedric Jackson and Curtis Jerrells. Vaughn is about to turn 35 and hasn’t been good for about eight years; his NBA career looks to be over. With his 3.72 GPA in Business Management, however, he should be nicely set up for long term income.
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 percentage of .547%. He hit 24 three-pointers that season. He’s hit 22 in the seven seasons since.
Vazquez just won the EuroLeague with Barcelona. He is often the subject of derision amongst circles of NBA fans after the slight miscalculation that was his selection so high in the 2005 draft, yet such ridicule misses the key point; Vazquez was drafted that high because he can play. Big, strong and athletic, Vazquez sprints the court, blocks shots and runs a hugely effective two-man game with Ricky Rubio, and his production is what makes him the starting centre for the best non-NBA team in the world. Vazquez averaged 7.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in the EuroLeague (PER of 25.2) and 7.4/4.1/1.3 in the ACB (PER of 23.0). He might not suit the current Magic setup, what with them already having Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat, but don’t go thinking that he’s not playing in the NBA because he can’t. As he most certainly can.
Additionally, in a rule that I don’t believe has ever yet come into play but which will do very soon with Tiago Splitter, Vazquez is no longer bound by the terms of his rookie scale contract. So if Orlando wants to use some or all of their MLE on him one day, then they can.
Ramon Van de Hare might be easier to sign, though.
As you have probably already heard about, Robert Traylor owes a lot of money to the IRS. And he has a repayment plan to adhere to to give it back. But this has proven difficult. Traylor was the Turkish league All-Star Game MVP in 2008/09, averaging 14.3 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 2.1 apg and 1.6 bpg per game for Kepez BLD Antalya. Yet this summer’s move to the better standard (and better paid) Serie A did not work out. This is because Traylor joined Napoli, and, as regular readers will know by now, Napoli had the worst season in the history of sports. The bankrupt team weren’t exactly the ideal match for the indebted Traylor.
Traylor left Napoli after seven games without being paid, and tried to get a playing gig in China. But this was vetoed by the league due to his tax problems. Those problems culminated in February; behind on his pre-determined repayment schedule due to his inability to find elite paying gigs, Traylor was sentenced to a 60-day jail term last season, which was suspended for this season so that he could go and play for Napoli. That sentence is suspended until June 1st; in the mean time, Traylor is playing in Puerto Rico. He has averaged 9.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for Vaqueros de Bayamon, and was named to the All-Star team last month. He is allowed to keep playing for Bayamon until their season ends, whenever that may be. But once it does end, Traylor must report to jail.
Tripkovic left Partizan Belgrade for the first time in his life this summer, joining DKV Joventut Badalona as he set his sights on the better pay offered up by the ACB. It turns out that he actually downgraded; Partizan finished fourth in the EuroLeague, while Badalona got only as far as the EuroCup top 16. Tripkovic has done well, though, averaging 10.8 points per game in the ACB on 50% three point shooting. He’s been the best shooter on a team full of shooting.
Trybanski was the only 30-year-old Polish centre in the D-League this season. Playing for the Reno Bighorns, Trybanski averaged 15.6 minutes, 7.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, shooting 66% from the field and 69% from the line. He totalled 10 points, 6 rebounds and 9 blocks in the second game of the season, and 17 points, 10 rebounds and 6 blocks in the penultimate one; for two games, at least, the potential Jerry West saw in him was realised.
Tsakalidis is only three months older than Trybanski, yet he appears to be done. He has not played since the 2007-08 season. The only thing he’s done that’s been newsworthy since then was buy a big house in Phoenix. So whether he actually came from Greece, Georgia or Russia, we at least know he lived in Phoenix for a bit this time last year. Good to know.
Skita has developed, kind of. But only as a role player. He started this year with Panionios in Greece, but quickly moved to Fuenlebrada in Spain, where he backs up Esteban Batista. Despite the seven-foot height and ballerina-like dexterity that got him drafted at #5 overall – or whatever it was that did – Skita has developed as a three-point shooting specialist. He is averaging 7.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 18.5 minutes per game, shooting 44% from three-point range, and taking as many of them as he does two-pointers.
Tucker started the year with the great news that the Suns were declining his contract option for next season. They then cemented their love for him by salary-dumping him onto Minnesota for the unguaranteed salary of Jason Hart, who they immediately waived. And to further compound his difficult season, Tucker played in only four games for the Timberwolves before being waived after the playoff deadline date. He immediately (and not coincidentally) signed in Puerto Rico with Gailitos de Isabela, and averaged 18.8 points and 8 rebounds in his first four games. However, Tucker recorded only 15 points and 2 rebounds over the next two games combined, and he was released late last month. He will attend summer league this season with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Tucker is Tripkovic’s backcourt team mate at DKV Joventut. The two are similar, so it’s a weird mix, but its not held either of them back too much. Tucker has averaged 16.1 points and 3.4 assists per game in ACB play, and averaged 12.5 points and 4.1 assists per game in the EuroCup. He shot only 35% in the EuroCup, though, and is shooting a better but underwhelming 41% in the ACB as well.
Tucker was also recently involved a tribunal hearing with his former team BC Kyiv, who owe him a boatload of money. The tribunal ruled mostly in favour of Tucker and his agents, and found Kyiv liable for most of the outstanding salary. This doesn’t mean that they’ll get it, but at least the debt is recognised now. The above PDF makes for an interesting read if you love to know about contracts, for it contains all the ins and outs of a standard European one.
Like Clay Tucker, P.J. Tucker has had problems with Ukrainian teams recently. Tucker’s problems are rather easy to define; his team folded. Tucker began the season with BC Donetsk, starting his second year with the team after being named a Ukrainian League All-Star (and Slam Dunk champion) in his first. But after 20 games with the team this year across all competitions, Donetsk were folded due to bankruptcy. They were leading the Superleague at the time.
After the bankruptcy, Tucker returned to Israeli, the league in which he won a title in 2007-08. He signed with Bnei Hasharon and has averaged 18.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 10 contests. Tucker has shot only 4-17 from three point range for Hasharon, and three of those makes came in the same game. But in his twenty games for Donetsk, Tucker shot 17/37 from down there. For a man whose outside jump shot is regarded as his undermining weakness, this is good progress.
Larry Turner averaged 3 points, 2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in his redshirt freshman season for Oklahoma back in 2003-04. This appears to have been the thing that kept him in the NBA’s sights. Turner transferred to Tennessee State part way through his sophomore season, and then proceeded to average 5.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game in his senior season there. He wasn’t even an everyday starter. Yet somehow, after graduating, Turner got a training camp contract with the Lakers. And since that time, he’s also had tryouts with the Bobcats and Jazz. He’s an athlete, certainly.
In between these NBA sojourns, Turner has been playing in leagues of not nearly as good of a level of basketball. He started this season with Fundacion Adepal Alcazar in Spain’s LEB Silver, and averaged only 4.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.0 fouls per game. The LEB Silver is Spain’s third tier basketball division, and, aside from one game by JaJuan Smith, I can’t think of anyone else we have covered that has played there this year. Turner shot only 43% from the field and 14% from the foul line and was released in December. He then moved to Puerto Rico, but was released in preseason, and then went on to the PBL to play for the Halifax Rainmen. In nine games for the Rainmen, Turner averaged 9.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 4.3 fouls per game. These are not good calibre leagues that we’re talking about here, unfortunately, and Turner is not playing well in them. I’m not saying he’s useless or evil, but I am saying that he’s not NBA-calibre. And now aged 27, he’s never going to be either. Still, he’s putting in work.
Tyler’s well-documented Israeli excursion did not go well. In five months with Maccabi Haifa, he managed only 10 games, 76 minutes, 21 points, 19 rebounds, 18 fouls and 8 turnovers, before leaving somewhat acrimoniously in early March. It was said that his agency team would look for another good European gig for him, but if they have been looking for that, then they haven’t found it yet, because Tyler remains unsigned.
Jeremy Tyler fact: Jeremy Tyler’s agent – one of them, at least – is former NBA player Makhtar N’Diaye.
Tyndale made his NBA debut this offseason when he joined the Milwaukee Bucks for training camp, but he did not last long. He then spent the year with the Iowa Energy of the D-League, appearing in all 56 of the team’s outings. Including playoff games, and he averaged 12.8 points and 3.7 rebounds in 23 minutes per game for the Energy, shooting 52% from the field. Tyndale also shot 339 free throws compared to 441 field goals, which is quite amazing from a roughly 6’4 guard. Now to hit more than 72% of them.
Dan McClintock leaves Ukrainian team to adopt Ethiopian twins
May 12th, 2010
How’s your Ukrainian? Mine’s terrible. In fact, if it wasn’t for knowing that “Oleh Luzhny” translated into English as “we need an upgrade at full back”, then I wouldn’t be able to speak a word of the language.
Thankfully, Google Translate can. And unless Google Translate has hit the bottle or something, it brings us news of a former NBA centre leaving a Ukrainian team with time still left on his contract, in order to go to Africa and do a Madonna. So to speak.
Центровой МБК «Николаев» Дэниел МакКлинток на днях обратился к президенту клуба Андрею Черепанову с просьбой разрешить ему покинуть команду по семейным обстоятельствам до истечения срока контракта.
Учитывая вклад Д. МакКлинтока в выступление николаевской команды в чемпионате, а также серьезность причин, по которым Дэниелу надо выехать в другую страну, Андрей Владимирович согласился предоставить ему такую возможность.
Стоит отметить, что это никак не связано с экономией средств. Николаевский клуб и американский баскетболист готовы были выполнять все условия контракта до конца сезона. Но дело в том, что супруги МакКлинтоки усыновляют двух детей-сирот из Эфиопии, а оформление документов потребовало их присутствия в этой африканской стране.
Crudely translated, this come out as:
Center-MBC “Nikolaev” Daniel McClintock recently turned to the club’s president Andrei Cherepanov to allow him to leave the team for family reasons before the expiry of the contract.
Given the contribution of D. McClintock in the statement of Nicholas’s Team Championships, as well as the seriousness of the reasons why Daniel should go to another country, Andrey agreed to give him that opportunity.
It is worth noting that this has nothing to do with savings. Nicholas Club and the American basketball player were ready to comply with all conditions of the contract before the end of the season. But the fact that the spouses McClintock adopting two orphans from Ethiopia, and the paperwork required their presence in this African country.
McClintock’s team – MBC Mykolaiv, known in the translation as “Nicholas” – finished the Ukrainian Superleague regular season with a 13-13 record, losing out on the eighth and final playoff spot to Hoverla. The Ukrainian Superleague has a relatively unique twist in that it has a “relegation tournament”, whereby the eight non-playoff teams play a little Round Robin format, with two teams relegated to the second division. Mykolaiv won their first two games of this tournament, and even though they lost their next two, they should be fine. Bear in mind that the Superleague boasts a team (Gryfony) that went 0-26 this season.
McClintock was drafted by the Nuggets out of Northern Arizona back in 2000, and played six games with the team in the following season. (He was also drafted by the ABA, CBA, IBL and USBL that same summer. Big year for Dan.) Since then, his career has taken him to many of the usual haunts; France, Germany, China, Italy, etc, with a few summer league stops thrown in. This past season might have been the best of his career, as he averaged 18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.9 for Nicholas, shooting 60% from the field, 81% from the foul line, and a bonus 40% from three-point range.
The article sees fit to point out that Nicky doesn’t owe Daniel any money. McClintock was Mykolaiv’s best player by quite a way, so of all the players to pay, he was the one, but it was notable anyway as Ukrainian basketball is pretty notorious for bad payments. BC Kyiv just lost a tribunal hearing and thus owe six figures to Clay Tucker. Defending Superleague champion and EuroCup team BC Donetsk were wound up during the middle of the season for unpaid debts, leaving players such as ex-NBA forwards Chris Owens, P.J. Tucker and Bruno Sundov looking for work. And in December, Azovmash were threatened with expulsion from the EuroCup if they didn’t pay debts to Marc Salyers and Ramon Van Der Hare outstanding from the 2008-09 season. (They didn’t pay up, and FIBA promptly banned them from signing any more players. Azovmash then signed Demetrius Alexander and Ramel Curry anyway. Not sure how that happened, but Ramel Curry teamed with Fred House to form the elusive Curry-House backcourt, so we were all winners here.)
If anyone can explain why the Ukrainian word for “centre” translates as “Washington Bullets”, let me know.
Tepic went undrafted this past summer, yet made the step up to the big time anyway when he moved from Partizan Belgrade to Panathinaikos. As luck would have it, Partizan have made it further than Panathinaikos in the EuroLeague this year, but they couldn’t pay him what Panathinaikos have. They might have overpaid, though, because Tepic has not had a good year. He averaged only 3.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 6.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game in the Greek A1 League. It probably didn’t help that Panathinaikos already has Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamtantidis, Nick Calathes and Sarunas Jasikevicius as ball-handling options ahead of him. But Tepic is one for the future, so it doesn’t matter yet.
Incidentally, for the first time in the award’s history, Diamantidis didn’t win the EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year award. The award instead went to ex-Bulls and Blazers forward Viktor Khryapa, and that more than anything highlights the difference between European and NBA ball; the athleticism. Khryapa couldn’t defend particularly well in the NBA because everyone was quicker than him. (This was particularly evident the one time Scott Skiles put Khryapa on LeBron James one on one after DNP-CDing Viktor for the previous month.) But in Europe, where the athleticism is not as prevalent (or as important), Khryapa does just fine. An elite all-around player, in fact.
Former Mavericks draft pick Terry has spent the year in Spain, playing for Xacobeo Blusens. He has averaged 12.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.5 fouls in 25.5 minutes per game, shooting 34% from three-point range. The points are god, but Terry shot only 32% from three last season and 31% in 2007-08; for a guy who made his name in college as a three-point shooter, he’s not shot too well in his professional career thus far. Additionally, Xacobeo have been relegated after only one season back in the top flight ACB. So all in all, a mixed year for Terry.
Off The Street Billy Thomas spent the year in the D-League, doing that thing that he does; shoot threes. For the expansion Maine Red Claws, Thomas averaged 7.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, shooting 41% from the field and 37% from three-point range, taking more threes than twos. The D-League was an eclectic choice for the 34-year-old; I guess he was tired of playing in Greece for free.
Iowa graduate Thomas was also in the D-League this year after spending last season in Sweden of all places, where he led Sundsvall to the title and was named to the All-Defensive team. He was drafted by the Dakota Wizards, but was released before playing a game, and returned in December to play for the Iowa Energy. Thomas averaged 9.3 points and 7.2 rebounds in 48 games for the Energy, numbers pretty much identical to his Swedish league ones. We don’t get to talk about Sweden a lot here. And that’s a shame, because with Jonas Jerebko and Vanderbilt’s Jeff Taylor, it’s a good time for Swedish basketball right now.
James Thomas once played for the Bulls. And when I say “once,” I mean he appeared seven times, totalling 26 minutes and 8 rebounds for the 2005-06 placeholders. Thomas also played for the Sixers, Blazers and Hawks, and was once a training camp signee of the Hawks; however, his time in the NBA finished about four years ago.
Thomas signed a two-year deal with Bancas Teramo of Serie A in the summer, but was released by mutual consent after only five games due to injury. He averaged 8.2 points and 7.3 rebounds in only 23 minutes.
Ex-NBA centre John Thomas is 34 years old, and still going strong. It has been difficult for him to find regular work since his unexpected NBA redux in the 2004-05 season, but this year he’s spent the whole campaign in Israel with Hapoel Holon. Thomas has averaged 12.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Those assists numbers are fine from a centre; for comparison’s sake, Holon’s starting point guard Lior Lipshits averages only 2.4 per game. And yes, his name really is Lior Lipshits.
Thomas started the year with the Kings, the final hangover from the Chris Webber deal. He survived much of the year on the roster, and even played in 26 games, but was waived when the Kings trade deadline activity necessitated a roster spot. (More importantly, Thomas’s expiring deal was not included in any of the trades. Because that’s why he was still there.) Thomas has not signed anywhere or done anything newsworthy since.
Remember the days when Kenny Thomas was an athletic combo forward with three-point range? Nah, but it did happen. Thomas hit 57 three-pointers in his first two NBA seasons; over the next nine seasons and 486 games, he hit only two more.
Former UTEP and Sonics forward Omar Thomas is in the Italian second division with Enel Brindisi. He is averaging 18.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Earlier this week, Thomas was named as the unanimous Lega Due MVP. His return to Serie A looks inevitable, and it’ll probably be with Brindisi, who he led to the Lega Due championship.
Thompson has been starting at small forward for Hapoel Jerusalem all season. He is averaging 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game in the Israeli league, and averaged an almost-identical 12.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.4 steals per game in the EuroCup. He has shot a combined 53% from the field and 38% from three-point range. Very very solid all-around numbers.
Brazilian forward Tischer once signed with the Suns, and even made the roster for the first few days of the 2005-06 season, mainly because he’s Leandro Barbosa’s mate. He has been back in Brazil ever since, except for one largely unsuccessful year in Israel. This year for Assis Basket, Tischer averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Tomas left Real Madrid in the summer as a part of their regime change. He returned to his native Croatia to play for KK Cibona Zagreb, not to be confused with KK Zagreb, Tomas’s first team. He has cast up the threes this year to decent effect, averaging 16.4 points per game in the EuroLeague, 15.3 in the Adriatic League and 11.7 in the Croatian league.
Tomic was signed at Tomas’s former team KK Zagreb to begin the year, averaging 17.5 ppg and 8.2 rpg in the EuroChallenge. Those numbers were sufficient enough for a big-time midseason move to Real Madrid, where he averaged 11.0 ppg and 3.6 rpg in the EuroLeague, and 7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 2.0 apg in the ACB. But if he is destined to follow Tomas’s path and move to Cibona one day, it’s not going to be for a while yet, because Tomic is headed towards big things.
2007 draft candidate Traore has not yet left his native(ish) France. He is back with ASVEL Basket, the team he grew up with, and averaged 14.5 points and 5.4 rebounds in the EuroLeague. Traore also averages 15.6 points and 5.0 rebounds in the French league, ranking ninth in scoring.
Of all the possible free agents this upcoming offseason, Golden State’sAnthony Morrow is one of the restricted free agents that is garnering the most attention amongst fans. Well, amongst Bulls fans he is, at least.1
Morrow only really does one thing; he shoots jump shots. He is not much of a ball-handler, nor much of a defender, nor much of an athlete, nor much of a slasher, nor much of a finisher around the basket. But he does own a jump shot. A really, really good jump shot. A really, really, really, really good jump shot. A jump shot so good that it spawned its own cult. And in this current NBA era, you can never have too many shooters.
If you need a shooter, you could always sign Casey Jacobsen. He’ll need work this summer. You could also sign Desmon Farmer, Billy Thomas, Marcus Vinicius, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, or some old fringe NBA veteran who would happily sign for the minimum and relish the chance to sit on an inactive list. Worst case scenario, you could sign Ryan Ayers. But a lot of people want Morrow, for the simple fact that he has 47% and 46% from three-point range in his two NBA seasons. Can’t say I blame them. I want that too.
However, if you wish to sign Anthony Morrow, there’s some things you should know.
Morrow went undrafted out of Georgia Tech, and, after hitting some jump shots for the Miami Heat in summer league 2008, the Warriors signed him to a two-year minimum salary contract with conditional guarantees. At the time, they probably didn’t think he’d be a significant player; as it’s turned out, however, he’s been one of the brightest spots in a two-year cycle of struggle. Morrow has performed admirably and shown himself to be a decent NBA-calibre player. Golden State now wishes they’d given him a third year.
Morrow is to be a free agent this summer. There’s no getting around that, because he is not eligible for an extension. He has played only two years in the league, and teams can make players with three years or less experience into restricted free agents, whether they like it or not, by extending a qualifying offer.2
Because Morrow’s previous (i.e. current) salary is only for the minimum salary of $736,420, the qualifying offer that Golden State must offer to make him restricted will be for $1,029,389, which is the value of next year’s third-year player minimum ($884,293) plus $175,000.3 If they offer it to him, he becomes a restricted free agent. If they don’t, he can walk free to pastures anew. Since letting him walk free is not a good idea, they will offer it to him. This much is certain.
Once restricted, Morrow will have six options. He can either:
a) re-sign with Golden State for the value of that qualifying offer,
b) re-sign with Golden State for between one to five years, and to an amount that begins at somewhere between the minimum salary and the value of the Mid-Level Exception,
c) sign an offer sheet with another team within the same parameters (let’s forget the Arenas rule for a minute, as it is revisited below)
d) get signed and traded somewhere,
e) sign a contract with a non-NBA team, or
f) retire from the game and run a country pub.
Because Morrow has spent two years with the same team without changing teams as a free agent, he is an Early Bird free agent. This means that Golden State can re-sign him using the Early Bird Exception.
As you might presently yourself fully be aware of, teams with full Bird rights can go over the cap to re-sign their own free agents.4 This is because of the Larry Bird Exception, a salary cap exception that allows a team to re-sign any of its free agents that qualify for the exception for anything up to and including the max, and as the name might suggest, the “Early Bird Exception” is kind of an entry-level version of the Larry Bird Exception. To qualify for the Larry Bird Exception, a player must have gone three seasons without changing teams as a free agent.5 And to qualify for the Early Bird Exception, a player must have gone two seasons without changing teams as a free agent. The latter applies to Morrow.
The Early Bird Exception allows a team to re-sign a player to a contract of between two to five years in length, that can start as low as the minimum or as high as the value of the mid-level exception, with raises of up to 10.5%.6 The key point of note there is that a team can re-sign its own free agent for the value of the full MLE, and they don’t have to use the MLE to do it.7 The Early Bird exception IS a salary cap exception in itself, just as the MLE is; they don’t need to use another one.
Back to Morrow. Points (A), (E) and (F) are not going to happen. The qualifying offer is insufficiently small, non-NBA teams can’t compete financially with what Morrow can make in the NBA, and the country pub market is not the one to get into in this tough economic climate. So let’s ignore them for now, and deal with the other three.
Once he is made restricted, Morrow can do one of three things;
1) sign an offer sheet with another team and see if Golden State matches it,8
2) work out a sign-and-trade with another team and take out the risk factor of restricted free agency, or
3) re-sign with Golden State for however much he can squeeze out of their fluctuating ownership.
However, there’s another catch. Whichever of the three he does, Morrow cannot sign for a contract that starts at higher than the value of the MLE. This is due to what is known informally as the “Gilbert Arenas Rule”.
The Gilbert Arenas Rule is so named because of the case of Gilbert Arenas back in the summer of 2003.9 Arenas was in the same situation as Morrow; his first contract was a two-year minimum, and when it ended, he became a restricted free agent. However, Arenas was already a star by the time of his free agency, so when Washington signed Arenas to an offer sheet that summer, they signed him to a contract that started at a price much bigger than the MLE.
From what we learnt above, with the Morrow case, we learned that played with only two years of experience are only Early Bird free agents. We also learned that the Early Bird exception allows you to re-sign players for up to the value of the full MLE in the first year, but not for more than that. Furthermore, it is of course self-evident that the MLE is equal to the value of the MLE; therefore, when Washington signed Arenas to an offer sheet for $19 billion in the first year or whatever it was,10 then Golden State had no means with which to match it. Gilbert was a restricted free agent, which meant Golden State had the right to match any offer if they could…but they couldn’t. They did not have the necessary salary cap mechanisms with which to do so. The Early Bird exception wasn’t big enough, the MLE wasn’t big enough, and they didn’t have any cap room. So they lost out, and Gilbert went to Washington.11
This was a trifle harsh, so in came the Arenas rule. It means that players with only one or two years experience cannot be signed for contracts starting at more than the value of the MLE; the reason for that is that the player’s current team will then always have a mechanism with which to match it, as they will always have at least that. It is possible to sign a player with only one or two years of experience to a contract that pays more than the value of the full MLE over the life of the contract;12 however, because the contract can only start at the maximum value of a full mid-level exception, the team with the matching rights then always has a mechanism with which to match. They can use their MLE if he’s a non-Bird free agent,13 and the Early Bird Exception if he’s an Early Bird free agent. Both of these, as we’ve seen above, can pay up to the MLE.
The Gilbert Arenas Rule has not been used since it was devised. No one has been good enough to be in a situation that applied. And Anthony Morrow won’t be the first, either, unless some GM out there goes for it. However, it nonetheless all pertains to Morrow’s situation.
If Morrow signs a deal with another team, that team must use their MLE to do it (or an equivalent amount of cap space). As we’ve seen, they can’t go over this amount. But if he signs a deal with Golden State, then they don’t need to use their MLE to do it. They can use the Early Bird Exception, which, as noted above, can go up to the value of the MLE.
And so this is how Golden State can re-sign Anthony Morrow and still have their full Mid-Level Exception.14
That whole lecture ignores the fact that Anthony Morrow and his 14.6 PER is not realistically a player deserving of an above-MLE contract. But since many of our peers continue to suggest it as a viable option anyway, it benefits us all if we at least assess the relative feasibilities of such a scenario.
1 – It’s partly a Ben Gordon thing, and partly a Jannero Pargo thing. I was on board with the Pargo signing, but if you sign a guy to be a specialist shooter, and he shoots three times as many three-pointers as free throws, then he should at least have the common decency to crack the 28% mark on them. Anything less than that is just churlish.
2a – The exception to this rule, the only exception, is players who were on a first-round rookie scale contract, who had an option year declined. This means that players like Acie Law, Joe Alexander and Ian Mahinmi will not and cannot be restricted free agents this summer. They can also never be restricted free agents ever again, so even if Alexander (a two-year veteran) were to sign a one-year deal somewhere this summer, meaning that he would be only a three-year veteran during his second free agency stint in the summer of 2011, he cannot be made into a restricted free agent then either. This is what happened to Shannon Brown last year.
2b – Also note that people sometimes mistakenly believe that this rule applies only to second-round draft picks. It doesn’t. It applies to anyone except those mentioned in point 2a, regardless of their draft slot. Or lack of it.
3 – Qualifying offers are for 125% of the player’s previous salary, or for the relevant minimum salary plus $175,000, whichever is more. The exception is with first-round rookie scale contracts, for which each pick has its own defined QO, calculated as a percentage of the fourth year’s salary.
4 – This is a bastardized version of a far more complex procedure, but it will suffice here.
5 – The “without changing teams a free agent” caveat is important here; when a player is traded while under contract, their Bird rights are traded with them. This means that the Warriors can re-sign Devean George to the maximum salary this summer. Don’t mock that possibility until you can be sure it won’t happen.
6 – The Blazers once used the full Early Bird Exception on Joel Przybilla. Thought this was worth mentioning, but only as a footnote.
7 – This is the single most important point in the entire post.
8 – If a team signs Morrow to a contract when Morrow is a restricted free agent, that contract is termed an “offer sheet.” Before Morrow joins the new team, Golden State has seven days to exercise a right of first refusal. If they don’t do anything, then Morrow joins the new team after the seven days have passed. But if they decide to match the contract offer, Morrow then rejoins Golden State under the terms of the contract in the offer sheet, whether he wants to or not. This is the core of what restricted free agency is about. It’s a bit dictatorial really.
9 – An identical situation happened with the Cavaliers and Carlos Boozer the following summer. But no one has much sympathy for them, because they were trying to diddle the books and got caught out. So, the Arenas rule it is.
10 – $8.5 million, give or take.
11 – So as you can see, the case of Morrow is not the first time Golden State has rued not giving a player a third-year on their minimum salary contract. On the plus side, though, they did have the foresight to give three years to Monta Ellis. And Chris Taft. And Richard Hendrix. Although the latter two ended up costing the team over $1.5 million for only 17 games played. But you win some, you lose some.
12 – For details of how this works, view this. Although I warn you that this may be a waste of time, given that it has never happened to date.
13 – A “Non-Bird Free Agent” is the one year equivalent of the three-year “Larry Bird Free Agent” highlighted in footnote number 5. However, unlike the Larry Bird and Early Bird exceptions, the non-Bird exception entitles you to very little, and is rarely used.
14 – In hindsight, that sentence alone might have gotten it done. Never mind.
After going undrafted out of Clemson, Sykes signed a training camp contract with the Phoenix Suns. He had little to no chance of making the team, however, and was waived within a week. Sykes then took his energetic style of play to the D-League and spent the year with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, averaging 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 3.0 fouls in 23.9 minutes per game. His PER was 16.7; over 48 minutes, that equates to a PER of 33.5, which is almost Lebron-like (38.3 PER per 48.)
Wally Szczerbiak looks to be done. His contract with the Cavaliers expired last summer without incident, and he has not signed elsewhere since. Szczerbiak was a target of the Denver Nuggets back in November, but he declined their minimum salary contract as he was still recovering from left knee surgery. He also was supposed to work out with the Knicks, but it did not happen for the same reasons. No official announcement about his retirement has been forthcoming, but then again, they rarely do.
Bucks draft pick Shevcheck is signed with Air Avellino in Italy. Air Avellino have made the news for other reasons this week, but Shev has helped to keep the boat steady. He is averaging 11.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 27 minutes per game; in Avellino’s absolutely must-win game last night versus Angellico Biella, Shevcheck played 41 out of 45 minutes, and totalled 16 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks to ensure victory.
Szymon Szewczyk was born in Szczecin. This prompts the question; how much is the Z worth in the Polish version of Scrabble?
Former Suns guard Yuta Tabuse returned to Japan a while ago, still with NBA aspirations. Playing in his second season for Tochigi Brex in the JBL league, Tabuse averaged 12.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists (third in the league) and 2.1 steals per game (second). Tabuse shot 41% from three-point range, which is unusually high for him, although it came on a Lou Walding-like number of attempts. Brex won the JBL Superleague title this year, and Tabuse was named to the All-JBL second team; however, since the league has only eight teams in it, and few imports, and little premier homegrown talent, it wasn’t quite the same calibre of achievement as would be an All-NBA second team berth.
Chris Taft has been out of basketball basically since 2005. Formerly touted as a future #1 overall pick, Taft eventually slumped all the way down to being only a 42nd pick for the Warriors in the 2005 Draft. He played 18 games to begin the season, and averaged 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in 8.5 minutes per game, shooting 61% from the field and 17% from the foul line; however, his rookie season was cut short by back spasms. Taft had surgery for a herniated disc in early 2006, and the Warriors waived him in 2006 preseason with a full guaranteed season remaining on his contract. It was discovered that Taft’s recurrent back problems were due to polymyositis, a progressive disease which weakens core muscle strength.
After two years on the shelf, Taft returned in January 2008 when he was acquired by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League. Taft played eight games with the team, totalling 100 minutes, 32 points and 20 rebounds. However, in that eighth game, Taft landed awkwardly on an opponent and dislocated his right foot, so that it pointed at an angle that feet shouldn’t point at. Taft then got a bone infection in the wound, and was again looking at a lengthy period on the shelf. He has not played anywhere since.
Taft attended a try-out with the quirky Philippines national team in early 2009, but it fell through when it became apparent that Taft had not suitably recovered from his injuries. He continues to try to rehab with the help of polymyositis specialists, and in the interim has returned to the University of Pittsburgh to complete his degree. He is looking to land a summer league berth as the next stage in his comeback.
Ex-Southern Illinois and Blazers point guard Jamaal Tatum started the year with Cholet, a French EuroCup team. He totalled 38 points on 43 shots in eight games before being released. He moved to Latvia the next month to play for Ventspils, another EuroCup team, for whom he has totalled 108 points on 71 shots in six games. However, he was released in March due to injury.
Oregon’s Bryce Taylor has spent the year in Germany, playing for Telekom Baskets Bonn. In 32 Bundesliga games, Taylor has averaged 12.4 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, but has shot only 32% from three point range.
Speaking of Bonn, ex-Nuggets forward Vincent Yarbrough has finally returned to play for them after six months out due to injury. He has not scored a point since returning, however.
Taylor got a training camp contract with the Blazers to start the year, but did not make the team. He subsequently entered his name into the D-League draft pool, and was drafted second overall by the Erie BayHawks. Taylor played 13 games for Erie, averaging a team-high 18.7 points, 6.2 rebounds 2.8 assists and 3.5 turnovers per game, before the team traded him to the Idaho Stampede for Mike Gansey. In the remaining 35 games of the regular season for the playoff-less Stampede, Taylor averaged 21.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists, shooting 49% from the field and 37% from three-point range, and posting a triple-double in the team’s penultimate game.
After the conclusion of the D-League season, Taylor went to Venezuela for some summer money. He averaged 9.7 points in four games for Trotamundos before being replaced by Julius Hodge.
Maurice Taylor was out of basketball for over two years. He signed with the Sacramento Kings in October 2006, who waived Justin Williams to open up a spot for him, but was waived a couple of months later, replaced by Justin Williams. Between January 2007 and January 2009, Taylor was unsigned, and presumed retired. But then out of nowhere came the news that Taylor had acquired an Italian passport and signed with Armani Jeans Milano, to a deal that was potentially three years long.
It didn’t last three years, of course. Taylor averaged 8.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in 16.3 minutes of 17 Serie A games for Milano, but they did not invoke his option for this season, so Taylor moved to China. He played 29 games this year for Shanxi Zhongyu as Stephon Marbury’s teammate, and averaged 18.8 points and 7.0 rebounds in 30.3 minutes per game. Unusually, the man who had shot only 5-33 from three-point range in 537 NBA games and 13,324 NBA minutes had now become a three-point shooter, shooting 43-100 from there in CBA play, including going 10-16 in one game.
When the CBA season ended, with Shanxi missing the playoffs, Taylor returned to Italy to play for Benetton Treviso. As a half of Benetton’s bench big men tandem alongside Donatas Bumpyjunas, Taylor has totalled 27 points and 8 rebounds in 83 minutes. With one game to play, Benetton are one game back of Air Avellino for the eighth and final Serie A playoff spot. Unfortunately, Benetton’s last game is against Taylor’s former team, AJ Milano, who are second in the league, and Air Avellino are matched up against Vanoli Cremona, who are in a three-way tie for last. The saving grace for Benetton is that Vanoli have more to play for. If they win, they might play Serie A ball again next season.
Taylor was waived by the Clippers early last offseason before his contract became guaranteed. He caught on with the Grizzlies for training camp, but lost out on a roster spot to Allen Iverson; we didn’t know at the time that Taylor would have been of more use than the future Hall of Famer.
From there, Taylor went to Serbia to sign with my favourite European team, Crvena Zvezda (often known in English as Red Star Belgrade). He averaged 9.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in the EuroCup, alongside 11.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game in the EuroCup However, Taylor left the team when Red Star failed to advance to the EuroCup Final Four, as did almost every senior player. Red Star ran out of money, and it is unclear whether they will even be allowed to play in the Adriatic League next season because of that.
Teletovic is with Caja Laboral, just as he has been since 2006. His role has increased year on year, and this year he’s one of the team’s best players, keeping Walter Herrmann firmly nailed to the bench. Teletovic was a big part of Caja Laboral’s EuroLeague quarter finals run, averaging 14.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the competition, eighth-highest of anyone. He also averages 14.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the ACB. 60% of Teletovic’s field goal attempts are three
-pointers, and he’s shooting 40% from there in the ACB alongside 44% in the EuroLeague.
The Kirk Snyder saga has been covered at length on this website, including only recently in the Where Are They Now series. In that post, I wrote this:
On March 30th last year, Snyder was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary and felonious assault. Snyder reportedly broke into a house on the same street as his, and beat up the male occupant as he slept, in front of his wife. And then he went back to his house as if nothing had happened. The wife who witnessed the beating called the police, who brought a canine unit along and tracked a scent back to Snyder’s house. Snyder was arrested, charged, and taken to jail, where he promptly got into a fight with another inmate. Due to the savage and seemingly unprovoked nature of the initial beating, Snyder was sent for psychiatric evaluation, and later placed on suicide watch.
While in the psychiatric hospital, Snyder refused all medication and all food. A court order came down allowing him to be force-fed, and several months later, Snyder was found competent to stand trial (being diagnosed with bipolar disorder). Snyder was released under the proviso that he wore an electronic ankle bracelet, and even tried to play basketball again in China. But the CBA vetoed any move, and Snyder was later re-arrested and returned to jail after he cut off the ankle bracelet.
Last month, the case finally went to trial, with Snyder found mentally competent. His defence of temporary insanity did not work, and it didn’t take long before he was found guilty on all charges. Snyder currently awaits his sentencing hearing which takes place next month, and his charges include a felony count that carries a mandatory prison sentence, with a maximum term of 18 years.
An Ohio judge has sentenced a former NBA player to three years in prison for breaking into his neighbors’ home and attacking them.
Judge Neal Bronson of Warren County Common Pleas Court sentenced 26-year-old Kirk Snyder on Wednesday and ordered him to pay $5,550 in restitution.
Snyder made no comment. His attorney argued for probation.
Another ex-CBA player with a focus on this website is Lee Benson. Benson was a tearaway as a young man, recording numerous arrests and convictions that inevitably culminated in convictions for abduction with a firearm, possession of crack cocaine and aggravated drug trafficking. Benson received between 7 and 22 years in prison, eventually serving eight and a half, and was 27 years old when he got out of prison, with no college or professional basketball experience.
He was good, though. And if you’re good, that often wins out. Benson had to start from scratch at an age that should have been his prime, but he did; he went to spend a year at junior college, where he led the whole JC circuit with a 35.4 points per game average (also averaging 11 rebounds, good for second). He was an athletic and strong 28-year-old 6’11 grown man, so he should have been dominating the junior college circuit, but nevertheless, it’s hard to dominate any level of basketball by that much.
The NBA took note of those numbers, and Benson’s first taste of professional basketball was a workout with the Toronto Raptors. (He was, after all, still draft eligible.) Benson left the Raptors early to go and play in China, and he’s since split several years between the CBA and Puerto Rico, putting up big numbers and earning some decent pay checks. In the 2008/09 season, he averaged 34/19/6. And that was as a 35-year-old.
I say all this about Benson because it might pertain to Snyder. Assuming Kirk serves the full three years of his term – history suggests he’s not a candidate for a good behaviour early release – he’ll be 30 when he comes out. 30 is old, but it’s not too old to continue a professional basketball career. It appears impossible that Snyder will ever return to the NBA – he was only ever a decent NBA player, and he’d have to be a lot better than decent to overlook this history – but that doesn’t mean the end of his career. Snyder has the calibre to star in lower leagues, as evidenced by the 34ppg/10rpg he averaged in China in 2008/09. He will have witnessed first hand what Benson was doing in the same place, after Benson had come from the same place.
It’s over for now, but it’s not over yet. But the path back from that conviction, that act and that diagnosis is a seriously long one.
Gallitos de Isabella waive Shaun Pruitt and Lee Benson for disciplinary reasons
May 8th, 2010
Puerto Rican BSN team Gallitos de Isabella yesterday released big men Shaun Pruitt and Lee Benson for “problemas de conducta.” The pair were released after Isabela’s 86-76 to the Arecibo Captains on Wednesday night, a game in which Benson had 9 points and 18 rebounds, and Pruitt posted 16/16. The team moved swiftly in replacing them, signing ex-NBA centre Jared Reiner and former La Salle player Reggie Okosa (mentioned at length here).
Pruitt and Benson were first and second in the league in rebounding, at 13.5 and 13.4 rebounds per game respectively. Only two other players grab double-figure rebounds per game; Michael Sweetney of Santurce (12.3 rpg) and Manuel Narvaez of Ponce (10.4 rpg), so to release the duo is no small move. Teams around the world tend to be trigger-happy with their imports; Benson himself was a replacement for Alando Tucker, who was previously a replacement for Devin Green. Puerto Rican teams are no different in their treatment of their American players. Nevertheless, to release arguably your two best players due to their indiscretions, regardless of the calibre of their replacements, is a strong statement.
This is one part of the worldwide basketball scene that the NBA will sadly never adopt.
(“Gallitos de Isabela” translates as “the Cocks of Isabella”. Poor girl.)
The only way you would not know that I am British is if you:
a) have never been to this website before today,
b) have been here before but understandably don’t read any of the words I write, or
c) know so little about vexillology that you didn’t even realise that the site’s logo had a flag in it.
Because of my nationality – English rather than British, but we’ll worry about that later – it is inevitable and sensible that the state of British basketball will get some coverage here. And with the news of Ben Gordon’s commitment to the national team still moist astride our lips, today is no different.
There follows a lengthy breakdown.
Basketball in Britain is still so fledgling that even the term ‘fledgling’ sells it short. The standard of the British Basketball League is so far below its European peers that almost any Division I NCAA starter could get a starting spot there. Worse still, the league damn nearly went bankrupt at the turn of the century, which isn’t something top tier leagues should be doing (although it has happened elsewhere on the lower rungs).
Beyond the professional game, basketball itself is not fairing much better. While the sport is played in many schools these days, it’s not played in all of them; we didn’t play it in mine, for example, and as a result I’ve never played a game of basketball. To say that basketball trails behind many other sports in this country is an understatement on a par with calling the Vietnam conflict ‘feisty;’ it just doesn’t do it justice.
(The local council did eventually install a hoop in my childhood village after much petitioning, but when I say they “installed a hoop,” I actually mean that they put a pole in a muddy field, nailed a hoop to the top, left, and didn’t bother measuring its height off the ground or removing the big empty shed right next to it, meaning you could shoot from straight on only. Try as we might, shooting free throws with a muddy ball at a 13-foot rim, unable to take a dribble for fear of the spectacular carom that awaited or of running into the shed, was never all that much fun. I think I shot 16 for 5,145 lifetime. Bad times.)
Things are changing, though. Slowly but surely, we’re starting to get there. The domestic league is still behind, but Britain (and England in particular) are starting to place (or pick up) some good big men prospects abroad.
Joel Freeland was a first-round draft pick of the Blazers back in 2006, who is slowly making a name for himself in the powerhouse Spanish ACB. Another Blazers draft pick, Dante Cunningham, has also worked out for the British team, and although he doesn’t have the pre-requisite passport yet, we remain hopeful. Former Hornets forward Sean Banks is also eligible for a British passport, and supposedly in the process of getting one. And other British big man prospects that you may have heard of include Dan Clark (Estudiantes Madrid, ACB), Justin Robinson (Rider), Eric Boateng (just graduated from Arizona State University) and Matthew Bryan-Amaning (University of Washington).
There’s some established talent out there, too. Luol Deng, you know about. One-time NBA big man Robert Archibald is also playing in the ACB to a high level, even if he is Scottish. Former NBA draft pick Andy Betts – a man able to make the CV-boosting claim that he was once traded for Peja Stojakovic – is still plying his trade in the Greek first division with Aris, a EuroLeague team this year. Ex-Raptors forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu is a stalwart of the national team, and finally found the NBA employment last season that he should have had for the last few years. Michael Olowokandi has a British passport, as has Steve Nash (whom we sadly can’t have). And worse case scenario, there’s always Providence’s Randall Hanke.
It took a while, but we have moved on from John Amaechi.
When Great Britain won the right to host the 2012 Olympics, the constituent national teams (England, Scotland etc) were so far off the pace that we wouldn’t even have been allowed to a team in our home games, because they would have been too uncompetitive. European national teams are graded by Division, and only Division A teams are eligible for Olympic play; at the time, the newly-formed Britain team was in Division B, alongside such illustrious competition as Luxembourg and Romania. To qualify for Division A, Britain had to finish either first or second in the 2007 EuroBasket Division B tournament, something that they’ve never done before.
However, led by Luol Deng, they did. Comfortably.
That wasn’t enough, though. Now in Division A, Britain still had to come through their qualifying group to win a place at the 2009 EuroBasket Division A tournament, where they would compete alongside powerhouses such as Spain, Russia and Greece. Only by qualifying for EuroBasket would Britain be deemed good enough to field a team at their own Olympics. And qualifying would not be easy; they had to come through a group that also featured Israel, the Czech Republic and Bosnia.
However, led by Luol Deng, they did. Comfortably.
Once in EuroBasket Division A, things got tricky. Deng was unavailable due to the stress fracture in his leg, and this left the team using Robert Archibald and Pops Mensah-Bonsu as offensive focal points. If you’ve ever seen Pops Mensah-Bonsu play offensively, you’d know that it’s best to let him just run around enthusiastically without the ball, but if you saw GB play in EuroBasket, you’d have seen multiple wing isolations run for him. This wasn’t due to bad coaching; Britain are coached by Chris Finch, the current head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, who got great results out of an overmatched team. The team had about 56 different ways to feed the post, devised by Finch, all executed excellently. But without Deng, the team just didn’t have enough ability, and it cost them. Despite leading the eventual champions Spain for much of their game, including by double figures at one point, Britain lost that game and their every game in the tournament. They competed in all of them, but they ran out of talent.
Every player mentioned so far, except Justin Robinson and Steve Nash, has been a frontcourt player. Therein lies the problem. While a frontcourt of Luol Deng and Andrew Sullivan at small forward, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Joel Freeland at power forward, and Robert Archibald and Andy Betts at centre was good enough to compete, the lack of backcourt is what ended matters. Deng was a primary ball-handler for GB not because he is one, but because he had to be because of the painful dearth of guards. Britain’s backcourt at EuroBasket 2009 was as follows:
– Nate Reinking: 36-year-old naturalised American guard, formerly of Kent State, playing for Finch’s former team Dexia Mons-Hainaut. Played in the British league until he was 32, making him eligible for nationalisation, yet has played only in England, Belgium and the MAC. That’s not top-tier pedigree. Good lefty jump shooter, but offers little else against premium defences; can’t get in the paint, can’t finish there, not much of a ball-handler even at 6’0, slow, unathletic, and attackable defensively accordingly. He started at point because he was the team’s only shooter.
– Jarrett Hart: 29-year-old 6’4 naturalised American guard, formerly of Kansas State. Has spent the last three years playing for Keravnos in Cyprus. Good mid-range shooter, but not a great three-point shooter, which wouldn’t have been too bad were he not in for his shooting.
– Michael Lenzly: 29-year-old 6’3 off-guard with the most pedigree of the bunch. Graduated from Wofford, and spent this season with Czech Republic team Nymburk; while the Czech league is not of note, Nymburk were a EuroCup team, so Lenzly played against decent competition this year. Was formerly Reinking and Finch’s teammate at Dexia Mons-Hainuat; solid at most facets of the game, but not especially good at anything when measured through the lens of the top tier. At least he had the decency to be born here.
– Flinder Boyd: 29-year-old 5’11 naturalised American guard, currently playing with Aquas De Sousas Club Ourense Balonceto in Spain. Ourense play in the LEB Gold. Boyd averaged 5.4 points and 1.9 assists in 22.5 minutes per game this season, with more shot attempts than points. You get the idea.
That’s it. Those were the four. Those were our horses. There were no significant absences due to injury; indeed, the only notable backcourt absence was former California Golden Bears guard Richard Midgley, a former national team mainstay and quality shooter who retired after the 2008/09 season aged only 26 due to injury. It is not meant to be disrespectful to the respective individuals when I say that they are not of the calibre to which Britain now play. But they just weren’t. Flinder Boyd was matched up against Ricky Rubio. Nate Reinking had to try to do something about Milos Teodosic. Boyd in particular was overmatched, and it wasn’t his fault. It’s just how it was. It just wasn’t fair.
However, now we have a world-class guard. The game just got switched.
The difference in talent between Ben Gordon and those incumbents is roughly equal to the difference between the eruption of Krakatoa and a termite farting. By putting together a line-up of Gordon/anyone/Deng/Pops/Archibald, with Freeland and Bryan-Amaning off the bench, Britain are now going to be much more able to compete with any team; it matters not who the ‘anyone’ at two guard is. (It would be nice if it was Kelenna Azubuike, who was born in London; however, it is reported that he is not eligible for a British passport. His parents were not in the country legally at the time of his birth, and Azubuike’s passport application was turned down in 2007. It’s a shame, because he’s the missing piece.)
That line-up is still flawed; after five years of watching Ben Gordon occasionally masquerade as a point guard for my Chicago Bulls, I am left in no doubt that he isn’t one. He dribbles too high, shows no obvious natural affinity for the pick-and-roll, has little passing vision, and just isn’t that good at getting the ball over halfcourt every time. The team ideally needs someone that can do that. (Kirk Hinrich is the obvious candidate, but he’s cup-tied after having played for Team USA back in 2006. And it might also factor that he has no British heritage.)
Gordon is, however, a bloody fantastic shot-maker. And this can’t be underestimated on a team that used Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Jarrett Hart as go-to guys down the stretch of their game versus Spain. With Gordon, Britain would probably have won that game. With Gordon and Deng, they definitely would. The transition of British basketball from humiliating to competitive has been very short and very sweet. It is largely because of Deng, to whom we owe a fantastic debt that we can never repay.
And by helping to recruit Gordon to the team, Deng might have done us his biggest favour yet.
We’ll start by confirming the obvious; Sprewell has not played since his Timberwolves days. If he had done, that would be one of the transactions you’d have heard about without needing my input.
Since that time, Sprewell has made the news for four reasons; a foreclosure on his yacht, a foreclosure on his home, an alleged assault on his girlfriend, and a foreclosure on his other home. The yacht’s gone, Spree paid the debt on the first home, and the assault charge was dropped 14 months later. But as for the second home foreclosure, on a $2.3 million home in the wonderfully named town of Purchase, Sprewell lost that in November. This was also the last time he made the news.
It’s quite the depressing story of yet another athlete who burned it all away. Then again, as I sit here on my bed at 8.32am staring down the barrel of a long morning of essay writing, I find it slightly unfounded for me to be criticising a man for spending millions of dollars on twenty years of (presumably) wall-to-wall high living that I can only dream of. He may have lost all his money, but he probably had a load of fun doing it, so that’s something.
Czech Republic big man Ondrej Starosta crept onto the NBA scene in 2004-05, when he averaged as-near-as-was a double-double for Chalons-en-Champagne in the French league. He was 26 years old at the time and had been a member of Real Madrid before that, so he wasn’t unheard of, but he also hadn’t done high-level stuff in his career before then except be 7’1 tall.
After that season, Starosta went to summer league with the San Antonio Spurs, averaging 5.5 rebounds per game. The Spurs didn’t offer him a contract, so Starosta returned to France to play a year for Strasbourg, where he averaged all of 6/5. But somewhere in there, the Cavaliers had been suitably impressed to offer the 27-year-old Starosta a spot on their 2006 training camp sta-roster (thank you). And it’s because of that that we’re here discussing him now.
Once the Cavs waived him, Starosta signed in Spain for CAI Zaragoza, at the time a LEB Gold team. He was their starting centre for the next two seasons, and helped them win promotion to the ACB for the 2008-09 season. But he averaged only 4 ppg and 4.5 rpg in 15 games of ACB play before the team released him last February (replaced by Loren Woods), and Starosta returned to LEB Gold play when he signed for Plus Pujol Merida later that month. In the summer he moved to another LEB Gold team, Melilla Baloncesto, for whom he averages 9.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Melilla are second in the LEB Gold, fittingly to Zaragoza.
Stepania last played in 2003-04, when he managed only 42 games with the Portland Trail Blazers due to chronic knee pain. He spent the next two and a half years trying to come back from multiple knee surgeries, but it was not to be.
Gonzaga legend Stepp last played in March 2006 for Valencia. After some injuries, that was it; his professional basketball career last all of two years. Stepp now plays poker full time, and The Hendon Mob’s poker database says he had two cashes at last year’s WSOP. But it also lists only four cashes all time, so presumably he does better in the ring games.
Yogi Stewart signed a one-year minimum salary as an undrafted free agent with the Kings in 1997/98, and averaged 4.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in only 21.7 minutes per game. When the lockout came the following summer, Stewart was able to get a one-year, $1 million contract with the Raptors (which at the time was quite a lot more than the minimum salary); more importantly, that’s all the Raptors were able to give him. Then-GM Glen Grunwald promised Stewart that he would sign him to a big long-term contract as soon as he was able to, and he kept his word when he signed Stewart to a six-year, $24 million deal the following summer. Seemingly, Grunwald didn’t think the 1.5 points and 2.2 rebounds that Stewart had averaged in the strike-shortened 98-99 season was a sufficient reason to break his promise. But he soon wished he had, because Stewart played only 163 games over the life of that six-year deal, totalling 1,148 minutes, 187 points, 272 rebounds and 55 blocks.
That ambitious six-year contract kept Yogi in the league until the 2004-05 season, which he spent with the ramshackle Atlanta Hawks. That season also saw him post his highest averages since his rookie season; 2.1 points and 3.3 rebounds in all of 12 games for the team of expiring contracts that saw Bob Sura go for three straight triple-doubles. But after that season, the deal expired, and the NBA never called again. Stewart’s only other basketball gig came in February 2006, when he played seven games for LEB Gold team Huelva and averaged 7.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg and 1.9 bpg. But he was released due to injury and never played again. He is now a businessman in south Florida, and a keen proponent of the P90X diet thing.
Frans Steyn was in China this year, and, since I need not write about it again, read about how that went for him here. Upon leaving China, Steyn signed with Vaqueros de Bayamon in Puerto Rico, but totalled only 19 minutes, 2 points, 10 rebounds, 3 fouls, 1-6 shooting and 0-4 FT shooting before being replaced by Robert Traylor.
Stinson spent another year with the Iowa Energy in the D-League, still looking for his NBA call-up. He did sign with the Bulls for training camp this year, but didn’t even last a week, being released before their preseason trip to Europe. So when the Bulls subsequently suffered some guard injuries, John Salmons and Lindsey Hunter had to split time at the point guard position. It was a weird time, a simpler time, a worse time.
This was Stinson’s second full season with the Energy, and he again played all 50 regular season games. He played 44.6 mpg in 2008/09, and 42.4 mpg in 2009/10; hardiness is definitely not one of his flaws. He also maintained his averages even with the slightly reduced minutes, going from 16.1 ppg, 8.4 apg, 7.0 rpg, and 2.2 spg in 08/09 to 15.2 ppg, 10.9 apg, 5.4 rpg and 2.2 spg in 09/10, raising his scoring from 44% to 46%, and his free throw shooting from 74% to 81%. Stinson still can’t shoot from outside, making only nine three-pointers all season on only 18% shooting, and his PER of 15.7 was also pretty sedate. But the rest of the numbers were all there, again.
In the D-League playoffs, Stinson averaged 44.6 minutes, 23.7 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game, going all LeBron-like when the season was on the line. However, it ended on a sour note. The Energy were tied 1-1 with the Tulsa 66ers in the three-game conference finals series, but were facing elimination when down five with two minutes left. The game had (apparently) been badly officiated, and Stinson blew his top at a call that went against him. Stinson was ejected from the game by the ref, but rather than go, Stinson started after the ref and had to be restrained by Pat Carroll. The crowd (the Energy were at home) then also got into it, and some of them had to be ejected too. The game was postponed for several minutes while order was restored. And when play resumed without Stinson, the Energy lost.
Somewhere in that exchange, Stinson vomited on the court. After three straight seasons of D-League pay checks, it’s entirely possible that he leaves the D-League for better money elsewhere next season. If he does, then that may have been his final D-League game. There’s no better way to say goodbye than with a puke and a fight. A legacy is born.
Storey started the year with the New Zealand Breakers in Australia, and averaged 7.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.4 fouls per game in 9 games. He was released by the team in November after underperforming, and while I can’t find any direct mention of something he did, this report directly implies that Storey was…..a little bit scary. This is the man who once fractured Martynas Andriuskevicius’s skull, so he’s been known to have a wee temper in his time.
Last month, Storey signed with Ginebra in the Philippines for the Fiesta Cup. Complete stats aren’t available, but in the team’s last four games, Storey has put up stat lines of 13/22, 20/18, 40/25 and 13/7, for averages of 22 points and 18 rebounds per game. Nevertheless, Ginebra have been rumoured to be about to release him due to underwhelming performances, and was placed on the injured list earlier today. I guess averaging 22/18 isn’t good enough somehow.
Stoudamire last played down the stretch of the 2007-08 season with the San Antonio Spurs, whom he joined after being bought out by the Grizzlies. He looked to have little left with the Spurs, and never played again. Stoudamire briefly worked as the director of player development at Rice University, but rejoined the Grizzlies as an assistant coach in February of last year, where he remains to this day.
Damon’s cousin has not played outside of the NBA in his professional career. He also hasn’t played in an NBA game since April 16th 2008. After the Hawks passed on re-signing him that summer, Stoudamire signed with the Spurs for training camp, and had $200,000 of his minimum salary contract. This would have given him the inside track on a roster spot, had he been healthy. But he wasn’t, and the vegan was waived in favour of Desmon Farmer. Stoudamire stayed on the shelf for most of the rest of the year, but was picked up by the Bucks with about two weeks left in the season, and signed through this year as well. However, the Bucks waived him this summer, and Salim has not signed or played anywhere since.
Former Suns guard Strawberry didn’t sign anywhere this season until late January, when he caught on with the Reno Bighorns of the D-League. Coming off the bench behind Will Blalock, Strawberry averaged 13.7 points and 5.5 assists per game, which are highly impressive numbers for any man without a single start.
Incidentally, Blalock was acquired by Reno for Russell Robinson in a midseason trade from Maine. As mentioned in an earlier post, Blalock is recovering from a stroke and has battled subsequent weight problems. His recovery has been lengthy, and his numbers have been slow to recover. But once he got to Reno, Blalock’s numbers improved, and he ended up averaging 11.8 points and 7.4 rebounds for the Bighorns. It’s taken a while, as is an unfortunate necessity, but he’s getting back there. And that’s good to see.
Stricker played his first two college years with Texas A&M back in 1995-97. He averaged 4.4 points and 2.5 rebounds before transferring to Arizona State, but had sat only one semester of his required three at ASU before transferring again, this time to Georgia State. There, in the 1998-99 season, Stricker averaged 3.9 points and 3.9 rebounds, before leaving with a year of eligibility left to go and join the real world.
Stricker started a construction company, Stricker Construction, and made a couple of returns to basketball. Although one of them is hard to verify. His CV says that he played briefly in the SWBL in 2001, winning the championship that year with the San Antonio Bombers; however, a Google search for “SWBL basketball” reveals the only such league in existence to be the Strathcona Women’s Basketball League, and a search for “San Antonio Bombers” reveals only this. After that, Stricker played the 2001-02 season in Mexico, where he averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 assists per game for Correcaminos Matamoros in the LNBP. But Stricker did not play for the next three years in order to run the construction company.
In 2005, having sold the business, Stricker attended offseason workouts with the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs. Teams frequently let players work out with them during the summer, and Stricker worked out with Denver again in 2006. He signed with the Great Falls Explorers of the CBA in November 2006, but did not seem to appear in any games. (I tried to find out, but the Explorer’s website is now pornography.) And then in 2007, after a third summer of working out with the Nuggets, Stricker signed a training camp deal with the team.
The chances of Stricker making the team were 0%, and both he and the Nuggets knew it. But players can only play in training camp if they are under contract (as opposed to offseason workouts, where anything goes), and Denver wanted an extra practice body. Since Stricker had been essentially stalking the team for three years, they chose him to be that body, and even let him appear in a couple of preseason games. So after all that non-existent professional career and basically-non-existent college career, the 30-year-old Brad Stricker had made his way into legitimate NBA games. It’s not what you are in this business, it’s who you know.
Stricker was waived by the Nuggets before he got hurt and they had to pay him. He didn’t play anywhere in the 2007-08 season, even though he now had the words “NBA” legitimately on his basketball resumé; rumours of a signing in Lebanon came to nothing. But in 2008-09, the 31-year-old Stricker joined the D-League to develop his game (or something). He was taken in the fifth round of the draft by the Dakota Wizards, and played 24 games with the team, averaging 2.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.1 fouls with a PER of 7.5. Dakota released Stricker in late December for “personal reasons,” but picked up him again a week later.
Six weeks after that, in the middle of February, Stricker asked for his release from the Wizards so that he could play for a team closer to home. True to his word, Stricker then went for a tryout in Kosovo – which is about as close to Texas as the Moon is to Pontefract – before returning to the D-League to play for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. In 20 further games for them, Stricker averaged 2.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 fouls with a PER of 7.0. He was not retained for this year, and has not played anywhere this season. Then again, he’s quite used to gap years.
That’s the lengthiest breakdown of Brad Stricker you will find on the internet. It is also perhaps the only one you’ll find.
Strickland last played in the 2004-05 season with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he averaged 4.9 points and 1.9 assists per game. He signed with the Dallas Mavericks for training camp in 2005, but did not make the team, and that was the end of his playing career.
Later, Strickland co-founded a company called “Luxury Boys Toys,” which was designed to essentially be eBay for rich people. Luxury Boys Toys no longer exists – presumably, rich people determined that eBay would suffice – and in retirement, Strickland has returned to his former team, the Mavericks. Mark Cuban loved Strickland as a player and has found him work beyond his playing career; Strickland briefly did some announcing for the Mavericks, works as an analyst for Fox Sports SW, and works with the team as a community ambassador and business manager. He has also trained as a minster, and is looking to get into the oil trading industry.
Strickland last played in 2005, when he spent a fortnight with the Houston Rockets. He later became the director of basketball operations at the University of Memphis, and when John Calipari moved to Kentucky, so did Rod, also getting a change of job title and becoming an assistant coach instead. However, Strickland’s most headline-making move was when he was arrested earlier this month for driving under the influence, his fourth such arrest in his career. It appears that Strickland either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the dangers of drinking and driving. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you make the same “mistake” four times, you’re not trying to learn from it. Come on, my man, let’s sort this out now before someone gets hurt.
After leaving Wake Forest, Strickland spent three years in the D-League. Last year he averaged 17.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, earning a summer league spot with the Dallas Mavericks; this year, he finally left the D-League and went to Cyprus to play for AEK Larnacas. Statistics for Cypriot league are unavailable, and not just in the English language – I can’t find a Cypriot version of them either. Once the Cypriot regular season ended (AEK missed the playoffs), Strickland went to Belgium, and has averaged 7.7 points and 3.0 rebounds for Antwerp.
Sumpter started the year with Roanne in France, where he averaged 5.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in six games. He left in early November to sign with Dexia Mons-Hainaut as an injury replacement for Brandon Costner, who had a small fracture in his tibia; Sumpter’s contract was for two months with an option to extend it if Costner was still injured. But Costner returned, and Sumpter left the team in mid-January after averaging 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds in five Belgian league games. He has been unsigned since.
Sundov was a summer signing of BC Donetsk in the Ukraine, but apparently his star power was expensive, as the team went bankrupt and were wound up in late December. They were leading the Ukrainian Superleague at the time. Sundov then moved to Greece to play for Kavala/Panorama, for whom he averages 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds, shooting 96% from the foul line. He also has 0 assists and 3 blocks in 14 games.
The last time we heard from Bob Sura, he owned a Saturn car dealership, one that had seen its sales figures fall by 725 in the last year. Since that time, we’ve seen the implosion of the American motor industry, and the death of the Saturn brand. So that’s probably not the industry to be in right now.
Suton, one of only about two big men taken in the last draft, signed with the Jazz for training camp. But due to their finances, he did not make the team, so he took his Bosnian and Croatian passports and went to Russia to play for Spartak St. Petersburg. He’s had a nothing season, though, appearing in only five games and 31 minutes of Russian Superleague play, totalling 5 points, 9 rebounds and 6 fouls. Suton has had meniscus surgery, which has of course factored heavily, but he didn’t play even when healthy.
This time last year, there was nothing to report on Mike Sweetney. Since his rookie contract expired as a member of the Bulls in the summer of 2007, Sweetney had not been heard from at all. He literally disappeared off the map. Wasn’t even on Facebook or anything. It looked bleak.
But finally, a sighting came; the Boston Globe reported that he was in the crowd for the Bulls versus Celtics first round series’ game seven last May, and that was the precursor to a summer league contract with Boston. Sweetney was back on the court in a sanctioned game for the first time in two years, which was nice to see. But whatever he’d been doing in his time away, it hadn’t led to weight loss. Sweetney played only one game for the Celtics summer league team, totalling 3 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, before not playing again due to a pulled hamstring.
Sweetney claimed to have lost 40lbs in his two years away from the game, but if he did, it’s only because he put 60 more on in his time off, because he was as big as ever. And he seemed to have gotten even bigger between the end of summer league and the starting training camp, which he also spent with the Celtics, and which resulted in this media day picture. After being waived by the Celtics – who wanted to open up a roster spot for him, but who couldn’t justify his presence enough to waive J.R. Giddens for him – Sweetney turned down a workout from the Memphis Grizzlies to sign in China. But he never played a game there, and returned to America, where he took the unexpected step of joining the D-League.
In the last nine games of the D-League season for the Erie BayHawks, Sweetney averaged 13.2 points and 6.9 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per game, shooting 64% from the field and 49% from the line with a PER of 16.7. When the season concluded, Sweetney went to Puerto Rico to play for Santurce. He put up 20 points and 13 rebounds on debut, but was also responsible for this picture. In eight D-League games overall, Sweetney has averaged 29.4 minutes, 17.6 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, shooting 60% from the field and 68% from the foul line, ranking second in the league in rebounds with only Shaun Pruitt ahead of him.
Sweetney looks destined for another training camp spot in 2010. He is plenty skilled enough to be in the NBA, and always has been. But as long as he’s over 320lbs, he’s not going to be in it. I hope he identifies whatever ails him.
Swift’s story is somewhat similar to that of Sweetney, but not as far along, and with more injuries along the way. He too was drafted high – the tenth pick in 2004 – and didn’t do a lot with it. He spent much of his rookie season on the inactive list, totalling only 15 points, 5 rebounds, 7 blocks and 16 fouls; 10, 3, 4 and 3 of this came in the Sonics’ season finale. He showed some signs of life in his second year, demonstrating some offensive talent, activity (that old chestnut) and defensive mobility, and averaged roughly 6/5/1 as a 20-year-old centre. And that’s not bad going.
Then, it started to go wrong. Swift grew his hair out, got tatted up, and severely injured his knee. There followed only eight games in two years as the knee recovery was repeatedly set back, not helped by other injuries. Swift played with the Thunder in 2008-09 on his qualifying offer, but was still only healthy/good enough to play in 26 games, averaging 3.3 points and 3.4 rebounds, making a total of only 34 games in three years, and 97 games in five years (47 of which came in his sophomore year).
Swift joined up with the Celtics for summer league 2009; Danny Ainge finally got his man. But by this point, he couldn’t see the very things in Swift that used to drive him wild with desire. In the summer, I wrote the following about him:
A year in the D-League to recuperate his injuries and revive his CV wouldn’t be a bad idea for Swift, if he can tolerate going from a $3 million+ salary to the mere pittance that D-Leaguers get.
Swift did just that, joining the D-League and being assigned to the Bakersfield Jam. Swift was born and raised in Bakersfield, so it was a logical unison; however, after only two games with the Jam, Swift asked to be released for personal reasons. The Jam obliged him, and their head coach Will Voigt said that it appears Swift is done with basketball aged only 24.
Swift was bought out by the Nets at the 2009 playoff deadline, and signed with the Phoenix Suns to complete the 2008-09 season. But the only contract he could get for this season was an unguaranteed minimum with the Sixers, and even that was insufficient, as the team waived him before the regular season started. Stromile then went to China, where he averaged 22.1 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game for the playoffless Shandong Flaming Bulls. He hit four three-pointers on the season; curiously, all four of them came in the same game.
If Tyrus Thomas signs the qualifying offer this summer, the comparison with Stromile will be complete.
French forward Sy drew interest from the Dallas Mavericks over the summer, and was then due to sign with the Charlotte Bobcats for training camp. He never signed in the NBA in the end due to the inability to get his visa in time, but when his visa came through, Sy was made the fourth overall pick in the D-League Draft by the Bakersfield Jam. Sy was released by the team due to injury before the season started, but returned in early December to averaged 15.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
The veteran of the French league took the huge discount to come to America in order to see if he could make the NBA, but he changed his mind on that fairly quickly. After only 16 games and six weeks with the Jam, Sy was bought out of his D-League contract to go play in Spain with CB Murcia. In the ACB for the first time, Sy has averaged only 6.1 points and 4.6 rebounds, and has not been able to do enough to prevent Murcia from being relegated to LEB Gold. A return to France next year looks somewhat inevitable.
The last newsworthy thing that former Bulls forward Tommy Smith did was get arrested for kidnapping.
Smith signed with Liaoning in China in November 2008, but played in only two games (totalling 2 points and 12 rebounds) before being released. A couple of months after he came back to America, Smith was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly punching his girlfriend when leaving a party, breaking her nose, driving her away, taking her phone off her and abandoning her at the roadside by a lake. He later came back for her and took her to hospital, but she pressed charges anyway.
Smith’s basketball career has not existed since that time. In December, he pleaded guilty to the charge of aggravated assault and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, credited with 173 days of time already served.
Former Penn State forward Tyler Smith spent his second season with the Hitachi Sunrockers of Japan’s JBL. He averaged 10.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, shooting 37% from three-point range. It is still not immediately obvious as to how he signed with the Jazz in 2006, although this is meant with endearment.
Tennessee’s Tyler Smith – the other Tyler Smith – was kicked off the team in January. His professional career thus begun earlier than was intended. It’s off to a good start, though; playing for Bornova in Turkey, Smith averages 18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, shooting 54% from the field and 45% from three-point range. Had he played enough games to qualify, those numbers would rank him third in the country in scoring, sixth in rebounding and fifth in assists. He remains a viable draft candidate, despite his acrimonious departure from the Vols.
(Question: how far does Tennessee get in the tournament had Smith stayed?)
Eric Snow is currently an analyst on NBA TV, awaiting his first NBA head coaching gig, which the whole basketball world seems to think is inevitable. Philadelphia have a vacancy.
Snyder’s criminal and mental health histories have been covered quite a lot on this website before. For those not previously aware of them, here’s a York Notes version of Snyder’s last 18 months.
Snyder signed in China for the 2008-09 season, and averaged a ridiculous 33.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. When the season was over he returned to his Ohio home…..and then it got weird.
On March 30th last year, Snyder was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary and felonious assault. Snyder broke into a house on the same street as his, and beat the living daylights out of the male occupant as he slept, in front of his wife. And then he went back to his house as if nothing had happened. The wife who witnessed the beating called the police, who brought a canine unit along and tracked a scent back to Snyder’s house. Snyder was arrested, charged, and taken to jail, where he promptly got into a fight with another inmate. Due to the savage and seemingly unprovoked nature of the initial beating, Snyder was sent for psychiatric evaluation, and later placed on suicide watch.
While in the psychiatric hospital, Snyder refused all medication and all food. A court order came down allowing him to be force-fed, and several months later, Snyder was found competent to stand trial (being diagnosed with bipolar disorder). Snyder was released under the proviso that he wore an electronic ankle bracelet, and even tried to play basketball again in China. But the CBA vetoed any move, and Snyder was later re-arrested and returned to jail after he cut off the ankle bracelet.
Last month, the case finally went to trial, with Snyder found mentally competent. His defence of “temporary insanity” did not work, and it didn’t take long before he was found guilty on all charges. Snyder currently awaits his sentencing hearing which takes place next month, and his charges include a felony count that carries a mandatory prison sentence, with a maximum term of 18 years.
Nene’s mate and one-time Nugget signee Sobral is back in his native Brazil, spending his second season with Joinville. He was a Brazilian NBB All-Star this year, and while Brazilian league stats are hard to come by, it appears he averaged 11.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Not sure how those numbers make a man an All-Star, but then again, I don’t know much about Brazilian basketball.
The Kings released Solomon towards the end of last season at his request so that he could join up with Fenerbahce for the remainder of their season. Solomon averaged 11.5 points in Fenerbahce’s last 14 games last year, and was signed through 2010, but he left the team back in November after only four games and 30 points. (Ironically, he was replaced by Roko Ukic about a month later.) Solomon has not signed elsewhere since.
Sow started the year in Poland with Asseco Prokom Gdynia, but was released at the end of last year even with the team still in the EuroLeague, due to an argument with the coach. He later signed with Meridiano Alicante in Spain, and has averaged 6.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 fouls per game as a two-headed centre monster with Martynas Andriuscabbages.
San Diego State forward Kyle Spain is not in Spain, but in Belgium. He went to summer league with the Washington Wizards but was unable to secure a contract offer and thus signed with the Passe-Partout Leuven Bears. In 21 games for the team Spain averaged 13.1 points and 4.6 rebounds, shooting 37% from three point range, but injured his foot last month and is out for the season. Leuven replaced him with former Arizona swingman Micah Downs, who was previously with Croatian club KK Zadar but who left when they fell behind on his payments. That’s happened a lot all over Europe this year.
After the Spurs traded for his contract and bought him out for $0 in the summer of 2007 – using Luis Scola as a means to dump Jackie Butler’s contract, in a rare misstep on their part – Spanoulis signed with Panathinaikos. He is still there to this day, the lead guard on last year’s EuroLeague champions. This year, Spanoulis is averaging 11.0 points and 3.5 assists per game in the Greek league, and also put up 10.5 points and 3.8 assists per game in the team’s now-finished EuroLeague campaign.
Spencer is in France, signed with Le Mans. He is second in the French league in scoring with an 18.4 ppg scoring average, while also averaging 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. He also averaged 17.6 points per game in Le Mans’ EuroCup campaign, and is one of the best players in France. Not many can make the kind of jump shots he does.
Spurs draft pick Splitter is, as always, with Caja Laboral (the artists formerly known as Tau Ceramica). He is averaging 27.7 minutes, 16.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.6 blocks per game, shooting 60% from the field and 79% from the free throw line. His PER in the ACB is a whopping 26.9, best in the competition. Considering the ACB is the second-best league in the world, second only to the NBA, then you can see what that means. Splitter is arguably the best player not in the NBA.
(By the way, second in the ACB in PER is former Warriors draft pick Richard Hendrix, and third is former Utah State guard Jaycee Carroll. Hendrix should also be in the NBA. Carroll should stay where he is.)
The rule regarding rookie scale contracts is that if a player does not sign his within three seasons of being drafted, he is no longer bound by it. This will mean that in the summer, the Spurs can use their mid-level exception to sign him, which they will need to do to outbid Vitoria. (The same rule also applies to Frederic Weis, who therefore is a candidate for the Rockets’ MLE this summer. Sort of.) San Antonio knew this would be the case when they drafted him, which is why they took him anyway, knowing that a low 20’s pick’s salary would not be sufficient to sign him. It looks like it’s going to pay off.
Slaughter is in France, playing for Nancy. France is a good place to go if you’re an athletic 6’8 power forward, and Slaughter is producing, averaging 13.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals in only 23 minutes per game. He is shooting 64% from the field and 71% from the line, putting up a massive PER of 25.9.
Nancy also have forward Louisville forward Ricardo Greer, who is one of the best players in the country. Greer is ninth in the league in points (15.9 ppg), fourth in rebounds (8.9 rpg), fourth in assists (6.1 apg) and fifth in steals (1.9 spg). Of all the people we’ve covered in this 61-instalment list – which is about 650 players in total so far – I can’t think of another that has ranked in any four of the big five categories. Ricardo’s brother Jeff also plays there, but he averages a comparatively paltry 12/4/2.
Former NBA finalist Slay spent the two previous seasons in Italy, playing first for Pierrel Capo d’Orlando (who went bankrupt during Slay’s only season there) and then for Air Avellino. He got injured early last season and managed only a few games; to get new work in Italy this year, Slay had to drop down to Lega Due. But despite the lesser standard and the lesser money, it’s been a successful move. Slay has been healthy for most of the year and has averaged 19.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals in 26 games for Carmatic Pistoia. He has shot 50% from the field, 38% from three and 80% from the line, doing whatever it takes to help his team win. Gamer.
Slokar started the season with Union Olimpia Ljubljana, a EuroLeague team. He averaged 6.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.9 fouls and 10% three-point shooting for them in the EuroLeague, alongside 8.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.7 fouls and 43% 3PT FG in the Adriatic League. However, Ljubljana failed to make it out of the first group stage of the EuroLeague, and even though they currently lead the Slovenian league (which is no huge achievement really; there’s a team with an 0-31 record in there) and made it to the Adriatic League semi-finals (where Cibona Zagreb knocked them out yesterday), they’ve run out of money. This has meant the loss of almost all of their senior players. Matt Walsh left for Greece (acrimoniously, but more on that later). Sani Becirovic went to Italy. Gaspar Vidmar went to Turkey. Dante and Galante’s favourite Vladimir Golubovic went to Spain. And Slokar joined the exodus, leaving in February to join the best team in Italy, Montepaschi Siena.
Why Siena thought they needed Slokar is not immediately obvious, as Shawn Stonerook, Ben Eze, Ksistof Lavrinovic, Denis Marconato and Tomas Ress were more than getting it done without him. This might explain why Slokar has played only 33 minutes in two months with the team, totalling 18 points and 9 rebounds.
Spider 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 Serie A in scoring on two occasions, and was also a 20 ppg 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 the multi-year contract always eluded him, but it wasn’t a failure. Playing bit parts of five NBA seasons is not easy to do.
Smith spent two seasons between 2006 and 2008 with Real Madrid, and then joined Turkish powerhouse Efes Pilsen. In his second season there, Smith averaged 12.1 points and 2.9 rebounds in Turkish league play, alongside 12.6 points and 2.0 rebounds. Here is a video clip of Spider trying to shatter Graham Thorpe’s fifteen-year-old record for the most uses of the throwaway phrase “y’know” in a 25 second interview. I counted eleven. That’s not bad, y’know.
Former Virginia forward Devin Smith is a personal favourite, which is why we’re going to talk about him. Smith has never sniffed the NBA, save for a summer league spot with the Sixers in 2006, but he’s made a good career for himself. Playing for Panellinios in Greece – who got all the way to the EuroCup semi-finals this year – Smith has averaged 15.1 points and 4.2 rebounds in 27 minutes per game in the EuroCup, alongside 13.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the Greek league. He’s also playing good if unathletic defence (which suits Greece rather well), can be a mismatch in the post, and shot 41% from three in the EuroCup. Quentin Richardson plays in much the same way and he starts for the Heat. Although that’s more of an indictment of the rest of their small forwards.
In 2008-09, Smith started out with Shanxi in China, and was beasting. He averaged roughly 23/6/5/3 in 15 games, but left to go to Australia, where he was the sixth man for the NBL Champion Adelaide 36ers. He then moved to Puerto Rico, but was kicked out of the league after testing positive for marijuana. This season, Smith initially returned to Shanxi to average this amount, but left after only seven games. And rather than return to Puerto Rico, Smith decided to spend this summer in Venezuela instead, playing for Marinos de Anzoategui. He is averaging 29 minutes, 15.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.9 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, shooting 50% from the field and 35% from three-point range.
J-Smoove spent the 2004-05 season with the Nets, taking quite a lot of fall-away 18-footers for a top-heavy New Jersey team that gave 2,900 minutes to the elusive Travis Best/Jacque Vaughn two-headed monster. But then it gets tricky. In January 2006, Jabari Smith played in Turkey for two weeks; in 2006/07, he didn’t play at all. Smith spent part of the 2007-08 season in Iran (which must have been a tough gig for an American citizen at the time), and played in Puerto Rico last summer, but the post-NBA work has been neither easy to get nor easy for me to find.
This season, Smith started with a try-out in Syria with Al Jeleppo, but soon left. (As an aside, Al Jeleppo tried out a lot of ex-NBA players this season, and last week settled upon Andre Brown.) He then signed in Mexico in February to play the last few games of the LNBP season, and averaged 7.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game for Pioneros de Quintana Roo. As was somewhat predictable considering his earlier predilection for 18-footers, Smith is now a three-point shooter, taking 48 of them for Roo as opposed to only 29 two-pointers. He shot 46% from downtown.
Last year, Tennessee graduate JaJuan Smith took a hot shooting performance in summer league and turned it into a training camp contract with the Dallas Mavericks. Unfortunately, since that time, he hasn’t been able to do much with it. Smith started the 2008-09 season with Union Olimpija (see above), but left before playing a game, saw out the year in France, and then started this year in Brazil with Pitagoras/Minas Tenis Clube as the replacement for Joe Shipp. He then played one random game for a LEB Silver team called Beirasar Rosalia. Smith left there after his 9-minute 3-point performance and returned to America, where he caught on with the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League for the last four regular season games of the season and the playoffs. Unfortunately, his shot was off, and Smith totalled 48 points, 48 shots, 21 assists and 21 fouls in his eight total outings.
This Jamar Smith – the former Maryland forward, Austin Toros starter and San Antonio Spurs training camp signee in 2006 – is signed in Italy with Trenkwalder Reggio Emilia. He is averaging 13.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, but in only Lega Due play.
The otherJamar Smith – the former Illinois guard who was suspended for a year and a half after driving into a tree while drunk and fleeing the scene leaving his teammate for dead, and who was then kicked out of the program after being caught underage drinking again and violating his probation – got a second chance at Division II Southern Illinois. He averaged 21.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg and 4.6 apg there last year – all while playing with an electronic ankle bracelet – and earned an invite to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament last month. However, he averaged only 5.6 points in three games there.
Idaho Stampede guard Lanny Smith got a camp invite with the Sacramento Kings this summer, but had no chance to make the team. Upon being waived, he returned to the Stampede, and averaged 8.3 points and 5.9 assists in the team’s first 16 games. However, as has been the case for most of his career, Smith got injured, tearing the cartilage in his left knee and missing the rest of the season.
Smith last played in the 2004-05 season, where he started with the Bobcats before being traded to Miami in exchange for Malik Allen. I had forgotten that trade ever happened. Smith retired after that season aged 36, and became the Hawks’ colour announcer. He has since moved to become an NBA TV analyst.
Steve’s namesake Steven was averaging 18.3 points per game in Greece last year before going down with an injury. The injury shelved him for almost a year, but he reappeared on the scene this January when he signed with Israeli team Ironi Nahariya. He is averaging 17.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game for the team, ranking seventh in the league in scoring and sixth in rebounding, as well as shooting 44% from three-point range.
Charlize averaged 24/10/5 for Tianjin in China last year, but didn’t play there this season. He started this year in Australia when he signed with the Perth Wildcats (or at least, he may have done; reports conflict), but never played a game for the team. In January he moved to Italy to play for a team called Associazione Basket Latina, and while my Italian is not very good, I’m pretty sure that translates as “Latin Basketball Association.” It’s not quite Fash Liquid Detergent, but it’s still a great team name. Smith is averaging 10.4 points and 9.5 rebounds in 10 games for the team.
A previous post showed a tizzy featuring Charles Gaines and Du Feng in game two of this year’s CBA Finals. What looked initially to be Gaines dropping Feng cold with a swift and well-placed right hand later emerged to be a flop of the highest order; after a lame headbutt on Gaines, Feng then went down to the ground like he’d been knocked clean out, whereas pictures of the incident showed that Gaines actually open-handed Feng in the mandible. It was a shove more than a punch, and a valid retaliation to a headbutt. So far from being an inevitable suspension, Gaines was absconded from blame. And Feng looked like a big wuss.
Both played in game three. Gaines was not suspended, and Feng (amazingly!) was not dead. Guangdong won the game and took a 3-0 lead in the first to four.
Even though he spent quite a lot of his UCLA career deferring offensively to NBA-calibre scorers, Josh Shipp has plenty of offence of his own. He is currently second in the Turkish TBL in scoring, averaging 19.3 ppg for Bornova (along with 5.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals). The Turkish league is not the best in the world, and it’s not got a lot of parity in it, but it’s not a bad one, and scoring 19.3 ppg in it is no small achievement. Shipp is second only to Quincy Douby (23.6 ppg), and ranks just ahead of Mire Chatman (Besiktas, 18.4 ppg), Kedrick Brown (also Bornova, 18.1 ppg), Quinton Hosley (Aliaga, 17.9 ppg) and Lonny Baxter (Besiktas, 17.4 ppg). That list is made up of all Americans, which alludes to the self-fulfilling prophecy that the best Turkish players don’t play in Turkey. But Josh Shipp does, and he plays well.
Shirley has been out of basketball since November 2008, and says he has no desire to get back into it. He now writes a lot, mainly for his own venture, FlipCollective.com. The most viewed entry on the website is the one that describes Paul’s view on Haiti and Haitians. You may have heard about that. It caused a slight ripple, and lost him his part-time freelance music writing gig at ESPN.com.
Siler turned down a training camp invite from the Minnesota Timberwolves, with whom he had played in summer league, to instead sign with the Atlanta Hawks. In hindsight, this may not have been the best decision, since the Hawks had the deeper frontcourt (and had Randolph Morris’s contract guaranteed whether they wanted it to be or not), and after losing out on a roster spot to Jason Collins and Othello Hunter, Siler went to China.
If you didn’t already know, Garret Siler is a ridiculously efficient scorer. In his four seasons at Division II Augusta State, Siler shot no lower than 69% from the field in any season, with his highest being the 79% he shot in his senior season. It’s probably no real surprise then that Siler shot 76% in the CBA this year, averaging 14.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in only 23 minutes per game. I know of no one else that does that.
Siler struggled with fouls all year, averaging 4.2 per game and fouling out in four of Shanghai’s eight playoff games. But the efficiency and offensive rebounding (4.2 per game in such little time) are still there. Just as long as you overlook the 59% free throw shooting.
Wayne Simien played in Spain’s LEB Gold last year. Playing for Caceres, he averaged 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds on 62% shooting. Then he retired, aged only 26, to become a minister. He also does a lot of keynote speaking now, mainly to impressionable kids.
Simmons fell out of the NBA this past summer without so much as a training camp contract. He first went to Greece to play for Peristeri, but was released before the season started. Simmons then returned to America to join the Idaho Stampede of the D-League, and averaged 14.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.9 blocks in 13 games. He then was bought out of his contract to go to China, where he played 20 games for the Dongguan New Century Leopards and averaged 18.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 35 minutes per game. After completing the season with the playoffless Leopards, Simmons returned to Greece to try to help Kavala avoid relegation. In two games with the team he has totalled 26 minutes, 8 points and 7 rebounds. Kavala lost both.
Simmons has spent the whole season with Hapoel Jerusalem. He has averaged 13.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the Israeli league, alongside a basically-identical 13.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in the EuroCup. Hapoel were knocked out of the EuroCup at the quarter final stages, and are currently only fifth in the Israeli league. By all accounts, their Israeli head coach (with the least Israeli name ever) Guy Goodes is going to be fired this offseason, blamed for the losses because of his refusal to use his depth adequately. It probably didn’t help anyone that Simmons’ main backup at shooting guard has been the 5’8 Pooh Jeter.
Saint Mary’s graduate Simpson started the year in training camp with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors seemed to understand how terrible of a rebounding team they are; despite the pace they play at, Golden State grabbed the fewest rebounds per game of any team this season (38.4 rpg, 11th-worst of any team in the last 40 years), with a huge -9.7 rebounding differential. To put that into context, only four other teams had a rebounding differential of worse than -1.8 this season; New Jersey (-4.3), New York (-4.5) and Indiana (-5.1). Golden State grabbed only .444% of all available rebounds, far below Indiana’s second-worst mark of .474%, and even worse than their 2008-09 mark of .472%. And so that’s partly why they brought in Simpson and Shaun Pruitt, two very good rebounders, for training camp.
However, they didn’t make a roster spot available for either player. Nor did they really attempt to. Both were cut. Simpson therefore joined the D-League and was assigned to the L.A. D-Fenders, for whom he averaged 15.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in 30 contests. He was later bought out of his contract to play for the Alaska Aces in the Philippines.
The Philippines basketball season is a bit odd, in that it doesn’t have a regular season like all other leagues do. Instead, teams play a couple of competitions throughout the year, which, while technically of an equal footing, do not have equal prestige within Philippines basketball. The most prestigious one of the two, the Philippines Cup, runs from October to early March. In this year’s Finals, a Simpson-less Aces team (no imports are allowed in the Philippines Cup) lost 4-0 in the finals to the wonderfully-named Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants (who, unfortunately, will be known as the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados from next season onwards).
The Aces are now playing in the second tournament, the PBA Fiesta Cup, which runs from late March until July. Each team is allowed one import in the Fiesta Cup (or Fiesta Conference), but that import can’t be taller than 6’6. I guess Simpson wore no socks on measuring day. Simpson had a whopping 36 points and 25 rebounds on his debut in the competition, but no statistics can be found for other games.
(As is perhaps obvious, Philippines teams are often if not always named after their corporate sponsors. While looking some of the above stuff up, I found a team called the “Licealiz Shampoo Hair Doctors”. Before that, they were known as “Fash Liquid Detergent”. And before that, they were known as “Hapee Toothpaste”. It simply does not get better than that. God bless the Philippines. Could you imagine if NBA teams started taking the same approach? We could have had the Charlotte Dishcloths, the Toronto Whole Wheat Biscuits and the Oklahoma City Fabric Softener. Tell me that’s not better a million times better than naming teams after television channel owners, mid-90’s film motifs and aggressive weather patterns. You just can’t do it.)
Sims joined Siler at the Hawks’ training camp in October, and, like Siler, he lost out on a roster spot to Hunter and Morris. Like Siler, Sims then went to China, but unlike Siler, Sims dildn’t win a roster spot in tryouts.
Since then, he’s been around the houses. Sims first went to Russia and signed with the fabled CSKA Moscow, but was released after only one game and was replaced with Pops Mensah-Bonsu. He then returned to his former stomping ground when he joined the Iowa Energy of the D-League, but wasn’t as good there as he has been in the past, averaging only 12.4 points, 6.6 tebounds and 3.1 fouls in 19 minutes of 14 games. Sims left the D-League in March to play for the Capitanes of Arecibo – the Puerto Rican team who for some reason have juggled both Puerto Rican BSN play and American minor league PBL play – averaging 9.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in five BSN games. While there, Courtney’s name was erroneously listed on latinbasket.com as something extremely NSFW, which was amusing. However, he again moved team earlier this month when he left Puerto Rico to sign with Charleroi in Belgium. He has averaged 7/7 in his two Belgian league games so far.
Blazers draft pick Sinanovic is being kept far away from Ha Seung-Jin, signed as he is in Spain. Sinanovic has bounced between Unicaja Malaga and their LEB Gold feeder team, Clinicas Rincon Axarquia. He has played all of two games and eight minutes for Malaga, and 31 games for Axarquia. In those 31 games, he has averaged 26 minutes, 13.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, shooting 62% from the field and 75% from the foul line, making him one of the best players in the LEB Gold. But Sinanovic turns 27 in less than two months. If he was ever going to be NBA ready, he would be doing this with the big league club by now.
Singletary signed with the Philadelphia 76ers for training camp, but had little chance of making the team. He then signed with Spanish EuroLeague team Caja Laboral, on what was initially supposed to be a short-term contract; however, Singletary has ended up sticking with the team for the entire season. This was due in no small part to his January 13th performance; after shooting only 6-27 in his previous six EuroLeague games with the team, Singletary shot 6-8 for 16 points in the final EuroLeague regular season game against CSKA Moscow, also putting up 5 steals in only 15 minutes. Caja Laboral lost anyway, but it was enough to get him the extension.
That was his only double-digit game of the season, however, in all competitions. Singletary has averaged only 3.4 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 12.6 minutes per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 10.7 mpg/2.4 ppg/1.9 rpg/1.5 apg in the ACB. He is shooting a combined 36% from the field, 33% from three and 52% from the free throw line.
Lithuanian wingman Siskauskas is into his third season with CSKA Moscow, making him Sims’s teammate for about four days. He is averaging 10.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists in the Russian league (while not playing every game), alongside 13.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game in the EuroLeague. Also, Siskauskas has shot 44% from three-point range in the Superleague, alongside a whopping 56% from there in the EuroLeague. Now aged 31, it’s increasingly less likely that he will ever join the NBA. But just know that he could have done.
Big Sofo has supposedly lost almost 150 pounds. This is good. The number is presumably exaggerated a bit, but whatever the amount he’s lost really is, it’s still good that he’s lost it. He needed to.
Last year, he was simply too fat play; allegedly nearer to 500lbs than 400, and seemingly trying his best to undermine the team that continues to persist with him perhaps long after they shouldn’t, Sofo appeared in only 95 minutes all season, and fouled once in every four of them. How a man can get as big as he did is hard to fathom, and how a professional athlete (at least ostensibly) can get that big is simply mind-blowing. But it happened. Sofo has always had a huge frame, yet with all that fat on him, he was heeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEYYOOOOOOOOGE. You could feel your head being drawn closer to the screen, such was his gravitational pull. He was the biggest basketball player I have ever seen. And it was reflected in his play.
This year, however, Sofoklis has turned up to play. Perhaps motivated by the impending expiration of his contract, Sofoklis has lost much weight and is an unstoppable force in the Greek league. He plays only 13.3 minutes in Greek league play, partly because Olympiacos keep winning in blowouts, partly because his stamina still isn’t great, partly because he offers so little defensively other than the foul, and partly of Olympiacos’s surfeit of big men. (When you have all of Sofo, Ioannis Bourousis, Nikola Vujcic, Linas Kleiza, Andreas Glyniadakis and Loukas Mavrokefalidis, you might as well use them). Yet in that short space of time, Sofo averages a whopping 9.4 points per game, shooting 69% from the field. He is unstoppably strong in the paint; there’s no else that big or that physical, and Sofo has the skill to go with that. His free throw shooting is also much improved; his tally is only 58.4% on the season, but he’s gone 35 for his last 47 after starting 17-42. (He also went 5-17 from the line in a EuroLeague game.) It’s all a part of his rehab.
That said, he’s still fat. He moves quite well for a fat guy, but it’s still only relative; Schortsanitis remains 6’9 and bereft of athleticism. His only defence is to foul, and he does that a lot still, roughly once in every five and a half minutes in Greek league play. This will come even more to play in the NBA, if ever he gets there, because everyone is faster than him there. A lot faster.
Nonetheless, the Rockets are said to be interested in his draft rights.
Mavericks draft pick Ronny Seibutis is playing for Spanish team Bizkaia Bilbao, who recently won the third place playoff in the EuroCup. Or rather, he’s not playing for Bilbao.
We’ve covered most of the rest of Bilbao’s roster in this list; Marko Banic, Axel Hervelle, Jerome Moiso, Damir Markota and Alex Mumbru, with Chris Warren still to come – but those are all big men. Bilbao are stacked up front, less so at guard. They have Latvian guard Janis Blums – who is basically the Baltic Eddie House with less swag – and Spanish veteran Javi Rodriguez – who is basically the Mediterranean Dogus Balbay with less swag – but not a whole lot after that. Warren plays quite a lot at guard, while 36-year-old Spanish guard Fran “Paco” Vazquez comes into and chucks a few threes every now and then (51 3PT FGA to 7 2PT FGA and 2 FTA on the season), and third string point guard Javier Salgado plays most nights (as decreed by unofficial European basketball rules). But that’s about it; even though there aren’t many shooting guard options, Seibutis still averages only 14 minutes per game. And a remarkably inconsistent 14 mpg it is at that, with a roughly equal number of starts as he does DNP-CD’s, and almost as many twenty-plus minute outings (11) as single-minute outings (14). It’s been a strange year.
Through it all, Seibutis has averaged 6.2 points per game in the EuroCup, and 5.0 points per game in the ACB. He has shot a combined 36% from three-point range.
Another former Mavericks draft pick – although his rights are now owned by the Warriors – Sekularac was projected to be a sweet-shooting 6’8 swingman, much like Bojan Bogdanovic projects to be (or is) in the upcoming draft. But M-Sek never panned out due to injuries. Injuries kept him out for all but one game of last season as well – the first game of the year – yet finally, after 18 months on the shelf, Sekularac returned to action when he signed with Bosnian team Igokea Aleksandrovac in March. (Not to be confused with the bigger Serbian team, Partizan Igokea.) Igokea Aleksandrovac are not an Adriatic League team, playing only in the Bosnian league, yet March saw them pull off a triple whammy of big signings when they landed Sekularac, LaVell Blanchard and Jamar Butler. Not sure how they did this, but they did this.
Statistics are not available for Rack, other than to say he totalled 8 points in 24 minutes in their last game.
After being waived by New York over the summer, despite their need for a centre, Sene moved to France. The French league is somewhat infamous, if you will, for its lack of defensive play – therefore, a naturally defensive player such as Sene stood a good chance of making his presence felt there. And that’s exactly what he’s done; in 32 minutes of 26 games, Sene has averaged 12.9 points, 12.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, with the rebounds and blocks both leading the league. The only man within three rebounds per game of Sene is Vichy’s Dounia Issa (11.6 rpg), and the only man within 1.0 blocks per game of Sene’s is again Issa (2.3 bpg; incidentally, Issa is a 28-year-old 6’6 forward averaging less than 10 ppg). He still can’t make a shot from outside of the paint, and still shoots higher from the field than from the foul line, so he’s the same old Sene. But those are big numbers by any metric, and he’s also averaging only 2.4 fouls per game.
Speaking of the Knicks need for a centre, the following headline is from February:
“Walsh Traded Picks After Receiving Inside Information On Free-Agency?
A look at potential free agent centres forlornly reveals an ever-decreasing list. The sign-and-trade with Portland involving David Lee and Joel Przybilla looks ever more desirable for the Knicks now. They could run some offence/defence with Prizz and Eddy Curry. Don’t mock it until you can be sure it won’t happen.
Former Celtics draft pick Sesar spent the best part of 13 consecutive seasons in Croatia, save for a few months. His final season was last season, unusually spent in Bosnia, when he played for Zrinjski. He has not played this year.
His website is a bit of a throwback. I remember when all websites were like that. They were better times, more innocent times.
Sesay played for ALBA Berlin last season, when they were a EuroLeague team, but he was not retained for this year (replaced by Derrick Byars). He stayed on shelf until February – unsuccessful tryouts in China notwithstanding – and then was picked up by French team Le Havre. In 10 French league games, Sesay has averaged 8.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game.
Ansu Sesay was the MVP of the NBDL (as was) back in the 2001-02 season, when he averaged 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds for the Greenville Groove (now defunct), numbers which earned him a call-up to the Seattle Supersonics later that year. The NBDL’s leading scorer that year was Isaac Fontaine with 17.4ppg; the leading rebounder was the immortal Thomas Hamilton with 9.4 per game. 35 players scored more than Sesay in the D-League this season (when minimum games qualifying requirements are ignored), and 16 players grabbed more rebounds than that. The D-League has come a long way.
Cult hero Ha is in his native South Korea, where he just finished up another KBL season. Playing his second season for KGG Egis, he has averaged 13.4 points and 9.1 rebounds in 29 minutes per game, shooting 65% from the field and 53% from the line. Ha missed the last two months of the regular season, but returned Willis Reed-style to play the last three games of the KBL Finals. It wasn’t enough, though, to prevent KGG losing the series 3-2. They lost the last game of the finals by a blowout 38 points. Bit of a lame note to go out on.
How about a video of Ha Seung-Jin, Lamond Murray and Sam Perkins extolling the virtues of yoga? And of Ha?
The Pistons traded Sharpe to the Denver Nuggets to start the past offseason, along with Arron Afflalo, in order to open up cap space to unnecessarily overpay Ben Gordon. (I love Ben Gordon, but $11.6 million a year isn’t getting it done. Especially off the bench. And with no other bidders.) Denver then forwarded Sharpe on to the Milwaukee Bucks, along with Sonny Weems, in exchange for some big man depth in Malik Allen. (I love Malik Allen, too, but he only does one thing regularly at the NBA level. And that one thing is to take the most inefficient shot in the sport. A lot.) The team trading away Sharpe lost both of those trades; perhaps keen to avoid falling into the same trap, the Bucks waived Sharpe in preseason in spite of his guaranteed money. Sharpe has not played anywhere this year. Despite signing a guaranteed two-year minimum salary contract, one which the Bucks paid all year, his NBA career has totalled only 20 minutes.
Former Clippers draft pick Doron Sheffer never left Israel during his professional career. Despite three years at UConn, Sheff returned to Israel after being drafted, and spent the next twelve years playing for teams called either Maccabi or Hapoel. His career finished in 2008 when he retired for the fourth time; Sheffer first retired in 2000 when he was diagnosed with cancer, returned a couple of years later, played three more years, retired in 2005 preseason, returned a couple of months later to play the rest of the 2005-06 season, retired at the end of the season, missed a year, unretired to play the 2007-08 season, then retired for good at the end of it. Or so it seems. Now 37, Sheffer coaches youth basketball in his home country.
Rutgers graduate Shields started the year with Kavala/Panorama in Greece, where he averaged 10.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. He left the struggling team in January, and in February signed with Slovenian team Helios to replace Domen Lorbek. Shields has averaged 12.1 points in Slovenian league play, rising up to 20.3 points per game in the Adriatic League, a mark which would be leading the competition had he played enough games to qualify. The Adriatic League is arguably the third-strongest league in the world (behind the NBA and the ACB; not including the EuroLeague), and even though his numbers come in only three games for the last-placed Helios team (6-20), averaging 20 ppg in the Adriatic League is no mean feat, whatever the context.
Former Cal guard Shipp closed out the 2008-09 season with Pitagoras/Minas Tenis Clube in Brazil, a team that seems to be named after a legendary philosopher and a tennis club. He left the team in October (replaced by JaJuan Smith), and moved to Mexico to provide some depth down the stretch of the LNBP season for Halcones Xalapa. Shipp averaged 4.7 points and 2.2 rebounds in six games to help Xalapa win the title, then moved to Venezuela to play for Trotamundos. However, he was released after only totalling 23 points in three games.
Venezuela is a basketball destination much like Puerto Rico in that it plays during the summer and attracts some players that you may have heard of. This year, it’s got more than usual. A full breakdown will come later in the week. Anything to avoid more studying.
After years of being a huge scorer, Marc Salyers has come back to Earth this year. Playing for Le Mans, Salyers is averaging 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the French league, He’s still pretty good, but in relative terms he’s having a down year – his PER is down five points from last year to an average of 15.2, and his EuroCup statistics were an almost identical 12.7/4.5/2.3. Le Mans are tied for the lead in the French league with Cholet, but lost to Cholet in overtime yesterday. Salyers had only eight points in 34 minutes.
Samb’s only contract this year was a one-month deal with Real Madrid back in October. He played in only one game and played only two minutes. He went for a tryout in Latvia with VEF Riga in early February, but they couldn’t get him a work visa. Samb remains unsigned.
Sampson played in China last year, and was said to join up with the stacked L.A. Lightning IBL team last summer, but never played a game for the team. This season, he joined up with Philippines team Smart Gilas to act as C.J. Giles’s replacement (and not his predecessor as I mistakenly wrote earlier). Statistics are unavailable, but it’s not gone well.
Also, in a summer league round-up for the Golden State Warriors back in July, I called him “a pretty terrible offensive player,” citing it as a reason for his offensive struggles in China. Sampson wants it known that the reason he averaged only 10.7 points per game in China was because he was playing injured all year. Correction noted.
Former Nuggets draft pick Sanchez, whose rights are now owned by the Sixers, started the year in Mexico. He averaged 9.3 ppg and 3.7 rpg for Halcones Rojos de Veracruz, who lost to the other Halcones team (Xalapa) in the LNPB Finals. After the Mexican season ended last month, Sanchez moved to his native Puerto Rico to join up with the Cangrejeros de Santurce. In 11 games he has averaged 14.5 points and 6.7 rebounds, shooting 36% from two-point range and 44% from three, while taking seven threes a game. He hasn’t expanded his game much after being drafted, but he’s sticking to what he does well.
Former Spurs and Oklahoma State wingman Sanders is signed with Gran Canaria this year, soaking up the sun and playing in the ACB and EuroCup. He has come off the bench to shoot threes, and has done little else but fill that role. Sanders has averaged 7.0 points in 17 minutes per game in ACB play, alongside 6.9 ppg in 16 mpg in the EuroCup. He has shot 190 three-pointers combined between the two competitions, compared to only 12 free throws. Not even Damon Jones has a ratio like that.
Valencia won the EuroCup tonight, beating ALBA Berlin 67-44 in the final. ALBA choked, as the score suggests, but pretty much every Valencia player played impeccable defence. Those players include Nando De Colo, Rafa Martinez, Marko Marinovic, Thomas Kelati, Florent Pietrus (obviously), Victor Claver, Matt Nielsen, Serhiy Lishuk and even Kosta Perovic all played defence to win championships. Whereas ALBA, who had ridden the Adam Chubb train to make the final, just couldn’t find a good shot all night.
UC Irvine’s Sanders was in the D-League in the 2008/09 season with the Iowa Energy, but was released in March due to injury. That injury kept him out until January, at which point he returned to action with MyGuide Amsterdam in Holland. Sanders has since averaged 30.9 minutes, 14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks per game, shooting 41% from two-point range and 42% from three.
Eric Sandrin is an athletic Korean-American-Brazilian forward who was once a Sacramento King for about a week. How he got far when he came from a background featuring decent but not stand-out performances at Division II Seattle Pacific, Brazil, the ABA and the Austrian second division, is not immediately obvious. But it happened, and so here we are now. Sandrin spent last year in his native Korea – one of his homelands, at least – and averaged 15.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for the Seoul Samsung Thunders.
Sandrin’s brother Daniel is of the same triple heritage, plays in much the same way, and also went to Seattle Pacific. The difference is that when Daniel Sandrin received his Korean passport, he changed his name to Dong-Jun Lee. And Daniel never played for the Kings.
Sanikidze, whose rights are owned by the Spurs, played in Estonia in 2008-09. His team TU/Rock played in both the Baltic League and the EuroChallenge, so it wasn’t as farfetched as it may otherwise have seemed, but he needed better work this year. And he got it when he joined La Fortezza Bologna (now known as Canadian Solar Bologna), for whom he is averaging 6.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in Serie A play. Sanikidze also averages 1.0 steals and 0.8 blocks in only 18 minutes per game off the bench, while shooting 45% from three-point range, doing a little bit of everything. Real Madrid are said to be pursuing him for next year, even though Sanny is under contract to Bologna for at least one more year. Maybe they regret letting go of Axel Hervelle.
Puerto Rican big man Santiago spent much of the year with Efes Pilsen, but was on the fringes most of the time. He played only in EuroLeague games for the team, and averaged only 10.1 minutes, 5.5 points and 2.1 rebounds in that time; with Efes’s elimination from the EL last month, Santiago has not played since. He was rumoured to be close to a deal with Lottomatica Roma as an injury replacement for Andre Hutson, but now it appears Roma will sign Vladimir Stimac from Crvena Zvezda instead. Yet another one leaving Red Star. Bad times.
Another former Spurs draft pick, Romain Sato has been with Italian powerhouse Montepaschi Siena for four years now. He’s one of the best players on the best team in arguably the third-best league in the world, averaging 13.2 points and 4.6 rebounds in 26 minutes per game in Serie A, alongside 13.6 points and 5.4 rebounds in 27 minutes per game in the EuroLeague, while playing his usual awesome defence. Sato is also shooting 44% from three-point range in Serie A play, and shot 40% from there in the EuroLeague; he’s the player the Miami Heat thought Yakhouba Diawara would be. In fact, since Sato’s contract with Siena expires this summer (conveniently concurrent with an ownership mandate to cut the team’s budget), the Heat might even look to Sato as an option in the summer. Sato will return to the NBA if he gets promises of playing time, because as a star player in Europe, he could stay here and get paid without any problems.
Another former Spurs guard, Scales didn’t sign anywhere until February, when he signed with Turkish side Oyak Renault Bursa to replace Wankmaids (Wink Adams; now winning D-League playoff games for Rio Grande Valley). In nine contests with the team, Scales has averaged 15.3 points and 3.3 assists per game.
Alex Scales lost his “shortest amount of playing time ever received in an NBA career” career record this year, when his previous record-setting nine seconds of playing time was smashed by JamesOn Curry’s one and only four-second blitz in a January 25th game between the Clippers and the Celtics. As if to rub it in Scales’s face, the Clippers waived JamesOn the following day.
After going undrafted out of Georgia Tech in 2005, Schenscher spent two years either in the NBA or in the D-League trying to get back there. He then went to Germany for the 2007-08 season to play for Bamberg, but got injured on debut, and has since spent the last two years back in his native Australia. However, after averaging 16.9 ppg, 10.8 rpg and 1.4 bpg for Adelaine last year, his numbers this year with Perth dropped to only 10.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg and 0.4 bpg. He was still a key part of the Wildcats championship-winning season, but the numbers took a hit.
Schenscher recently played in the Foot Locker High Stakes Hoops tournament, which rank from April 6th to the 11th. Eight teams are playing in a summer time tournament with $250,000 (Australian) in prize money; it runs independently of the NBL league season, features some funky rules (such as bonus points for winning individual quarters), and one particularly funky rule involving four-point shots. This was the tournament’s inaugural season; others who took part in it included Lance Allred, Sean Lampley, Corey Williams, Julius Hodge, and the eventual champions were the simply named “Rays,” who had on their roster former St Mary’s big man Ben Allen.
In game one of the 2010 NBA Playoff series between Chicago and Cleveland on Saturday night, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose shot 13-28 from the field, 0-2 from three-point range, and 2-2 from the foul line, for a total of 28 points on 28 shots. He added 10 rebounds and 7 assists, and generally played well; it was his scoring bursts in the second half that kept what could (and perhaps should) have been a blowout down to a single-figure game for much of the fourth quarter. He also didn’t run away from Mo Williams on defence as much as I thought he might, although this didn’t prevent the rest of the team from doing so.
However, had Rose been the beneficiary of some foul calls, his stats would have looked even nicer, and the game would have been even closer. Shooting 28 field goals to only two free throw attempts is not easy to do, even if Rose has doneitbefore, and for a man who takes only pull-up two-point jump shots, floaters and lay-ups, it’s very hard to do.
But it happened. And the reasons as to why it may have happened are evident in the following video.
(video removed by uploader)
Derrick Rose honestly doesn’t get fouled a lot. He tries to avoid contact so as to maximize the percentage of making his shots, and, because of his great athleticism and body control, he is able to do this to great effect. This is the main reason why he doesn’t get to the line much, and also why he shoots such a high percentage. Only one play in this clip is shown from the first half of the game, and in that first half, Derrick Rose took 16 field goals and zero foul shots. This is not an injustice, because Derrick Rose clearly wasn’t fouled on 15 of his 16 field goals. (And the one on which he may have been fouled, the first clip in the film, Anderson Varejao may have gone straight up, thus making the no-call the correct call.) The shots he took were floaters, open layups and jump shots that he got himself open for, either in isolation or pulling up off the dribble.
This is an issue with Rose independent of his standing with the referees; sometimes, he just needs to go for the contact and hope the shot goes in anyway. He is learning to do this, but doesn’t do it a huge amount. And he did not do it in the first half of this game, save for that one drive.
However, that’s not what this video intends to prove. The intent of this video is to highlight a problem that has plagued the Bulls for two straight seasons. Put simply, even when Derrick Rose is fouled, he isn’t. And he doesn’t get as many foul shots as he should.
It is not a statement that implies any Cavaliers bias, because the theme behind this video applies to pretty much every game Rose plays in, not just Cavaliers ones. I have only used clips from this one game, not because I couldn’t use clips from other games, but because I could not be bothered to use clips from other games. (A key difference that needs highlighting.) Additionally, it is both duly noted that there are not a huge amount of disputed calls in this video, and that some of those that are included are not clear-cut fouls as defined by the rulebook (and most subjective interpretations of it).
Yet it is also of note that Rose drew only one foul the entire game, the one featured at the end of the clip. Between that and a kicked ball violation in the third quarter, Rose didn’t draw a single whistle in the remainder of the game, all while taking 26 field goals inside the three-point arc, pushing the ball in transition and doing his damnedest to get into the paint at all times. All fouls should be evaluated on their individual merit, but in the context of the game, the lack of calls for Rose in this or any game does not behove his style of play and aggressiveness around the basket. For every foul Rose avoids, there’s a foul he draws without a whistle.
My NCAA tournament bracket had more than a dollop of fail about it, so hopefully this one will be better that. I have incredibly few upsets scheduled, as you can see. And sorry to Portland fans for being the only sweep victims pencilled in; it’s purely because of the Brandon Roy thing. With him, you might even take them. But without him, it’s problems.
Colorado graduate Roby has spent the first two years of his career in Israel. He spent his first year with Bnei Hasharon, averaging 9.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, and this year he moved to Maccabi Haifa. Roby is averaging a similar 8.7 points and 2.5 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game there, but is shooting only 27% from three-point range and is turning it over 1.7 times per game (compared to only 1.3 assists).
Here’s a little video about Richard Roby made by Bnei Hasharon, notable for its brief Cookie Belcher cameo. (He’s the other American in the clip.) Belcher is now into his fifth season with the team, and is averaging 12.1 points and 3.0 assists.
Rodgers has toured the world in recent years, scoring big wherever he’s gone. He averaged 21.3 ppg in his final college season for Northern Illinois in 2002. He averaged 19.4 ppg for Brandt Hagen in Germany in 2003. He averaged 20.8 ppg for Orleans in France in 2004. He averaged 19.9 ppg for Eiffel Towers Nijmegen in Holland in 2005, and 21.8 ppg for Eiffel Towers Den Bosch in 2006. (Not the same team. It’s a long story.) He averaged 22.6 ppg in 2007, again with Den Bosch. He averaged 13.1 ppg for Quakenbrueck in Germany in 2008, and then 2009 was his crowning glory, averaging 35.0 ppg, 8.5 rpg and 3.3 apg for Jilin in China. His point totals from his last three games: 38, 66, 63. In the 66-point outing, he went 15-26 from three-point range. (Chinese basketball – it’s faaaaaantastic!)
All that scoring did not go ignored by the NBA, and Rodgers got his first-ever NBA contract when he signed with the Grizzlies for training camp this year. He did not make the team, though, and returned to play for Jilin again this season. To find out how that went for him, read this. After Jilin’s playoff-less season finished, Rodgers went to Puerto Rico, where he currently averages 12.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for Leones de Ponce.
Baylor forward Kevin Rogers started the year in Greece when he signed for Panionios. However, he played in only three games for the team before being released, averaging 6.0 points and 6.3 rebounds, shooting 9-21 from the field and 0-0 from the foul line. (Panionios replaced him with Travon Bryant.) Rogers then kicked around until late February, when he signed in the D-League and was acquired by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He averaged 7.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.2 fouls in his first nine games with the team, but suffered a season-ending knee injury in his eighth game.
Rodney Rogers was paralysed from the neck in an ATV accident 16 months ago. His only public appearance since that time was in September, when he was honoured at a Wake Forest football game. There are pictures of that day on the internet, but find them yourselves. I don’t like to look at them.
Rose is now a TV analyst for ESPN. You probably already knew this. He also owns Three Tier Entertainment, a film and television production company. Speaking of ESPN TV analysts, this amused me.
Malik Rose is also now working in television. He is not officially retired and has not ruled out playing again, but after his contract expired this summer, Rose was unable to get another NBA contract. Knowing that this was probably it, he went into other ventures, opening a gourmet Italian restaurant in San Antonio and doing pre-game analysis on Knicks games for the MSG network. Rose was also the colour commentator for the Austin Toros, the first year that Toros games have been televised.
You know where Ricky Rubio is. He’s with Barcelona.
But here’s the thing; because of what happened this summer, Ricky Rubio is now much maligned. Because he didn’t sign straight away, the pick is now viewed – in the eyes of some, at least – as a bad one. And that’s silly. Not only was the pick acquired for nothing more than one-year rentals of Randy Foye and Mike Miller, it was also used on the right person, because Rubio is damn good. It doesn’t matter if a player doesn’t sign straight away, particularly on a team who have no short term purpose other than to lose, just as long as you sign. Rubio will. And when he does, he will be a fine player.
In the ACB this season, Rubio is averaging 6.4 points, 4.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals in only 19.0 minutes per game. He is shooting 45% from two-point range, 42% from three-point range and 77% from the line. If those numbers don’t overwhelm you, consider that ACB assists are far harder than NBA assists are. Indeed, 4.4 apg ties for fourth in the league alongside Stephane Dumas and Kristaps Valters; the three players ahead of him (Omar Cook, 6.1 apg), Marcelinho Huertas (5.2 apg) and Maximiliano Stanic (5.0 apg) average 24.7, 24.5 and 30.2 minutes per game respectively. Per 40 minutes, Roobs averages 9.3 assists, second only to Cook’s 9.7 and far ahead of the rest of the league. The Roobster’s steals per game rank second in the league only to Tariq Kirksay’s 2.3 spg; his steals per 40 minutes averaged of 4.6 ranks waaaaaaaay ahead of Pablo Prigioni’s second placed 3.2 ap40. Rubio also has a PER of 23.3, tied for 6th in the league alongside teammate Juan Carlos Navarro and Greek shooter Kostas Vasiliadis of Xacobeo Blusens. And even though he’s been around for five years now, he’s still only 19. 19-year-olds in the ACB just shouldn’t do this.
Rubio’s numbers in the EuroLeague drop down a bit, as indeed they’d have to. This is particularly true for his shooting percentages, which drop to 36%/35%/90%. But Rubio still averages 20.5 minutes, 6.7 points, 4.2 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game, posting a PER of 17.1 and ranking ninth in the competition in assists. And he’s still only 19 there, too. If you hated on the Timberwolves for the pick, consider for a minute whether it’s because you think Rubio isn’t good enough for a #5 pick, or because you think it’s in some way game-changing that he didn’t sign in the NBA immediately. If it’s the latter, re-examine why you think that, and do so again once the Timberwolves draft Evan Turner in 12 weeks time.
And if you hated on the Rubio pick without hating on the Jonny Flynn pick, you’ve REALLY missed the point.
Ruffin signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder for training camp, which meant that for a brief time, him, Kevin Ollie and Ryan Bowen were on the same team. Ruffin didn’t make the cut, though, and then returned to Spain for the first time in seven years when he signed a six-week contract with Manresa. In eight games, Ruffin averaged 21.6 minutes, 2.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 0.1 assists, 2.4 fouls, 1.6 blocks and 1.9 steals per game. He shot 33% from the field and 28% from the foul line, which means he shots 61% overall (or something). After that contract expired, it was not renewed, and Ruffin has remained unsigned. He was linked last month to struggling Xacobeo Blusens, but they signed Paul Davis instead.
Incidentally, had he played enough minutes to qualify, Muffin would be second to only Rubio in steals per 40 minutes in ACB play.
West Virginia guard Ruoff’s first professional season has been spent in Belgium. Playing for Liege, Ruoff has averaged 7.7 points and 1.9 assists per game in the Belgian league, alongside 10.2 points and 3.3 assists per game in the EuroCup. As per usual, Ruoff shoots a lot more twos than threes, yet hits them at only 33% in the Belgium league, which is why his numbers are down in that league. He shot a healthier 42% from there in the EuroChallenge.
Rush signed with the Clippers for training camp, and was one of the few camp invitees league wide to win a roster spot. He appeared in the Clippers first seven games of the season, going scoreless in six of them and scoring nine points in the other, but then blew out his knee and was ruled out for the season. He survived on the roster until mid-January, at which point the Clippers waived him to accommodate JamesOn Curry, whom they then waived a few days later to accommodate Bobby Brown. Bobby Brown made it until the end of the season.
This time last year, rumours abounded that Bryon Russell wanted to make a comeback. And he did, kind of. Russell was a member of the Los Angeles Lightning IBL team in the summer, a stacked team of former NBA talents that I have talked about a few times before. He averaged 11.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists, and was an IBL All-Star; however, the 11.8 points per game was only the tenth-best scoring average on the team. This should give you an idea about the standard of the IBL, its scoring-friendly nature, and also the depth of the Lightning’s roster. Lamond Murray, Fred Vinson, Toby Bailey, Adam Parada, Derrick Murray and Juaquin Hawkins all scored higher than Russell, as did three other guys I’ve never heard of.
If Russell wanted this gig to kick-start his way back into the higher echelons of the professional game, it didn’t, because he signed no further contracts after it. But he did make the news again. After being singled out for humiliation in Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame entry speech – can you be singled out if you’re merely one of many? – Russell took advantage of the people who asked him for his reaction to the comments by publicly challenging Jordan to a game of one-on-one, for old times sake. The owner of the D-League’s Utah Flash, Brandt Andersen, then took advantage of that new publicity by offering to host the event, while simultaneously offering to put up $100,000 for the winner’s charity of choice. Of course, the 46-year-old Jordan didn’t want to take part, and made no intimation that he was going to play Russell, particularly not at the event that the Flash then planned for it anyway. But that massive detail went unforgivably overlooked, and then this inevitable failure happened. Not a good showing for all parties involved.
It is not clear whether Russell, or indeed any of the other compelling protagonists, have signed up to play another year of IBL ball with the Lightning. But when I know, you’ll know.
After spending at least part of the last three seasons with the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants – including averaging 16.1 points and 10.8 assists per game there last season – Russell left the D-League this year to go and get some pay checks. He started this year with Lukoil Akademik, the only Bulgarian team you’ve ever heard of, partly because they normally play in the EuroChallenge and partly because they can land some good imports. Russell left the team in January after ten games, in which he averaged 13.7 points and 5.5 assists, and moved to Puerto Rico the next month to sign with the Piratas de Quebradillas. However, he lasted only six games with the team, averaging 8.1 points and 5.4 assists, before being released for Australian guard Shawn Redhage. Russell nevertheless manages to rank second in both leagues in assists per game, despite the short durations of both of his stays.
Another Quebradillas player was former NBA forward Lee Nailon, who scored a lot of points on a barrage of two-point jump shots. Quebradillas released him late last month so that they could bring in former NBA guard Damon Jones, but Jones himself was released this week after averaging 10.8 points and 3.3 assists on 36% shooting. As promised a couple of times already, a lengthy CBA-style Puerto Rican breakdown is coming up shortly.
Davidson guard Richards’ first professional season was a washout. He joined the Miami Heat for training camp, but blew his knee out in practice and missed the entire year. In doing so, his contract became guaranteed.
While there are no rules against a team releasing an injured player, players with unguaranteed contracts are paid by the team until they are healthy. Therefore, because Richards missed the whole year, the Heat had to pay his whole year’s salary. This is the risk teams take when they sign players for training camp, and Richards’ unwanted presence of $442,114 on their cap figure actually put the Heat into tax territory, which is why they had to salary-dump Shaun Livingston. Tough break.
This year, Richards started in Poland on a tryout with Turow, but failed to make the team. He was then acquired by the Utah Flash in November, but did not play a great deal. Richards averaged only 2.9 points and 2.3 assists in 17 minutes of 18 games in two months with the team, scoring in double figures only once. He was then released by the team due to injury in late January and has not played since. It’s not uncommon for torn ACLs to take the best part of two years to heal, and Richards looks to still be suffering from his 18 months on.
Former Florida State forward and one time Hornet Anthony Richardson is playing in Holland. In his second season with the Eiffel Towers Den Bosch, Richardson is averaging 12.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in Dutch league play, with basically identical 12.9/4.8/1.8 numbers in the EuroChallenge. For an explanation of why a Dutch team is named after the most famous of all French landmarks, read this comment on a very old post.
One of the Eiffel Towers assistant coaches is former NBA player Sharone Wright. Some bonus trivia there.
Former NBA journeyman Richardson has spent the year with Aris Thessaloniki, where Roy Birch keeps calling him Jerry. He is averaging 14.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in the EuroCup, alongside 11.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the Greek league. He has 17 assists in 928 total minutes played, has 186 three-point attempts to 42 foul shot attempts, and shoots a three-pointer every five minutes. He hits these three-pointers at a combined 39.7%. I guess what I’m trying to say is he’s the same player he ever was. He’s a shooter.
Personal favourite former Bulls guard N-Rich retired from the game seven years ago, but later returned to play seven more years. (True story. Long story. Never mind the details.) He has only played 45 minutes all season, though. N went unsigned until early March, at which point he was able to catch on with German team Bremerhaven. However, he has played less than an hour in only five games, totalling only 9 points, 8 rebounds and 6 fouls along the way. Maybe we should petition them.
Former Timberwolves forward Rickert spent his third consecutive season with the New Zealand Breakers, a team which play in Australia’s NBL despite the name. He averaged 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds (which led the league) for the Breakers, who went 15-13 on the season. However, the Breakers have already signed New Zealand international Mika Vukona to replace Rickert for next season, so Rick’s only chance of staying with the team is if he can get a New Zealand passport. He’s trying to do so, and he’s also playing in the New Zealand league for a team called the Harbour Heat. The New Zealand league takes place in the summer, starting after the conclusion of the NBL season, and that’s how it’s able to lure some NBL talent. It’s not of the same calibre, though, as evidenced by the hike in Rickert’s numbers to a gaudy 20.0 points and 12.4 rebounds, including a 22/22 game.
There’s a site up at www.rickrickert.com. But it’s far from a Rick Rickert fan site.
Former Cavaliers guard Filiberto Rivera is Puerto Rican, so it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s playing in Puerto Rico. Playing for Gallitos de Isabela, Rivera is averaging 15.1 points and 4.2 assists per game, albeit while shooting only 31% from three-point range. His two American team mates there are Shaun Pruitt and Alando Tucker; Pruitt we’ve already covered, and Tucker we’re about to. A longer breakdown of the 2010 Puerto Rican basketball season is coming shortly.
Rivers started the year in Italy’s LegaDue, but did not last long. He averaged 24.5 points and 5.7 rebounds for Associazione Basket Latina, and Benetton Treviso quickly took note and signed him up. In 15 subsequent Serie A games for Benetton, Rivers has averaged 11.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, shooting 44% from three-point range.
By being called up to Serie A mid-season, Rivers became the only American rookie in the whole of Serie A. The only other one is Rivers’s Benetton teammate, former USC guard Daniel Hackett, and yet Hackett does not count as an American player because he holds an Italian passport. The division is flooded with American players, but they’re all veterans; the unwritten rule of the league says that players must earn their bones in other leagues before Italy will give them a chance. The same is true in Spain, where only one player in the ACB was an American rookie this year (Ahmad Nivins). So if any undrafted rookies sign in Serie A or the ACB this year, they’ve done all right for themselves. As has Rivers.
The Bulls waived Roberson after the completion of their summer league campaign last year, thoroughly unimpressed with his shot selection in the tournament. Roberson then made it to the Clippers for training camp to battle for their open guard spot, but lost out to Kareem Rush. Some time later, Roberson signed with Strasbourg in France to replace Oklahoma State’s Terrel Harris, and he’s scored big there, with the third-highest scoring average in the league of a healthy 17.9 ppg. He also averages only 2.2 rpg and 1.0 apg, but this is Anthony Roberson we’re talking about – he’s going to shoot. Roberson takes over nine three-pointers a game, a justifiable decision when viewed alongside his 42% conversion rate, but he still does little other than shoot. If you were expecting some kind of reformation into a post defender or something, you’re very ambitious.
Dayton’s Brian Roberts impressed a lot of people in summer league with the Sacramento Kings this year, but went to Germany anyway. For Brose Baskets Bamberg, Brian brings 13.0 points per game in the German league, and brought 10.5 ppg in the EuroCup. He is shooting 49.5% from three-point range in the Bundesliga and 52.3% overall. Pretty good from a 6’2 guard.
Ex-Grizzlies forward Roberts is signed with Partizan Belgrade. It was supposed to be a good not great gig, but Partizan have gone on to have a Cinderella season, making it all the way to the EuroLeague semi-finals where they will take on Olympiacos. Roberts has been a sizeable part of this, averaging 8.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 10.3/6.5/1.4 in the Adriatic league.
However, the 6’9 Roberts has also made a distinct change to his game this year. This year, Roberts is casting up the three-pointers. He has shot 19-62 from there in 19 EuroLeague games (31%), and 17-55 in the Adriatic League (also 31%). Roberts has always been around about a 30% three-point shooter, but year he’s taking a lot more, shooting almost three per game in the EuroLeague. And it’s had a big effect on his overall field goal percentage; Roberts is shooting only 44% in the Adriatic League, and a spluttering 32% in the EuroLeague. He’s working on the Hunter for the whole season, and that’s as a 32 mpg player.
This doesn’t change the fact that he’s best when defending and rebounding, though. And that’s why he’s playing so much.
Former Temple forward Antywane Robinson was in the NBA as recently as eighteen-ish months ago when he signed with the Sixers for training camp. He did not make the team – obviously, or else you would have heard about it – and moved to France to play for Cholet. He’s been there ever since, and this year A-Rob is averaging 13.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in the French league.
A few short years ago, Bernard Robinson was receiving clutch minutes in Bobcats games over Adam Morrison. At the very least, it happened once. Yet in 2010, Morrison is almost out of the league, and Robinson very much is. B-Rob has not played since the 2006-07 season, when he appeared in only 21 games for the Bobcats. Charlotte traded him to New Jersey in exchange for Jeff McInnis, where he played ten more regular season games (and one playoff game) down the stretch of the season. That marks the current end of his career; Robinson tore his ACL that summer, and was salary dumped onto the Hornets along with Mile Ilic in exchange for the unguaranteed contract of David Wesley. The Hornets immediately waived him and he has not signed anywhere since.
Uncle Cliffy last played in the NBA in the 2006-07 season with the Nets, on the same team as Bernard. He put up a PER of 5.9 in 57 games, worse than any other season in his career, and realised it was time to stop. What he does professionally now is not clear, but he wants to become a coach, and lingered around the recent Portsmouth Invitational tournament for that very reason.
C-Rob turns 44 years old later this year. Bet you feel old now.
Rhode Island guard Dawan Robinson has spent two years in Italy with incredibly little to show for it. He signed with Prima Veroli in Lega Due to begin the 2008-09 season, but managed only three games before breaking his hand. He returned four months later and played seven more games, but broke his foot in the days before their season finale. Robinson stuck with Prima Veroli to begin this season, obviously hoping for a better run of things. However, in an eerie coincidence, he once again got injured after only three games, breaking his foot for the second time. Robinson never played again for Veroli; when he was ready to return to action this February, he joined Serie A team Umana Reyer as a replacement for the injured Kiwame Garris. And inevitably, he then broke his foot for the third time only two days after signing. That’s three foot breaks in a year, and 13 total games in two seasons. Poor guy.
Robinson last played in the NBA in 2003-04, at which point the Bulls bought him out. The only time he has played since then was in 2006-07, when he spent most of the year with the Idaho Stampede of the D-League, averaging 15.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. E-Rob was also drafted in the 2008 D-League Draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, but never played for the team, and hasn’t suited up in three years. He’s only played 27 games in six seasons.
Eddie Robinson was reviled in the eyes of Bulls fans and management alike, because he constantly complained of pain in his toe. He refused to drive the lane because of it, missed many games (playing only 144 games in three years with the team, a poor return on their $31 million investment in him), and seemed to find any excuse possible to sit on the sidelines wearing one of his many fantastic paisley sweaters. However, once Robinson acrimoniously departed the Bulls, he tried to sign with the New York Knicks…where he promptly failed the physical because of the condition of his toe. A toe on which he then had season-ending surgery. Whoops.
It would be nice if this was an isolated incident. But in recent times, the Bulls medical staff has claimed that Eddy Curry has a heart condition that, supposedly (allegedly), was actually just the resulting symptoms of the weight loss pills he was taking. And last year, the Bulls medical staff claimed Luol Deng was exaggerating an injury and cleared him to play (while throwing him under the bus in the process), just for it later to emerge that Deng actually had a broken leg that they’d just sent him out to play on.
Cal State Fullerton product Frank Robinson was initially a training camp signing of the Atlanta Hawks, the second consecutive season he has achieved this. He then went to China to try and get a contract there, but his tryouts were unsuccessful, so he returned to the D-League and joined the L.A. D-Fenders. In 38 games for the team, F-Rob averaged 12.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists, but shooting only 25% from three-point range.
Robinson signed two contracts in his life; the ten-year, $80 million one he signed after being drafted (one that saw the inception of the rookie scale contract the following season), and a prorated minimum salary contract with the Spurs the season after the first contract ended. With the Spurs, he coat-tailed his way to a championship ring. And then he disappeared. G-Rob has since returned to his home town of Gary, where he funds basketball camps and spends lots of time with his family.
Kansas guard Russell Robinson finally cracked the NBA this year when he signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers for training camp. He did not make the team and returned to the D-League, at first with the Reno Bighorns and then with the Maine Red Claws after being traded for Will Blalock. R-Rob averaged 16.4 points with Reno and 16.3 with Maine, and he shot 38% from three with Reno and 37% from three with Maine. He shot four-and-a-half three-pointers per game on the season; the days of Russell Robinson the passer are fading away. In fact, he may have gone too far the other way now, for he averaged only 3.7 apg with the Bighorns (with a 1:1 assist/turnover ratio). But the defence is still there, and now that he has the complimentary three-point shot to go with that, Robinson is on the cusp of the NBA. It’s now a question of how long he can tolerate D-League pay checks.
Shavlik Randolph was initially going to be in this post, but he got signed by the Heat, and players currently in the NBA don’t go on the list. So we’ll replace him with a Spaniard.
6’3 Spanish scoring guard Martinez is averaging 11.7 points per game for Valencia in the EuroCup, alongside 13.8 points per game in the ACB. He has already agreed to sign for Barcelona next season, presumably to back up Juan Carlos Navarro. It is not immediately obvious who he will replace, but it looks like that it will be Gianluca Basile, the Italian three-point specialist who’s on the wrong side of 34. Let me tell you that Navarro, Martinez, Ricky Rubio and Jaka Lakovic is one hell of a backcourt, even if Rubio is the tallest person in it.
You had probably assumed that, when the Clippers quietly waived Zeljko Rebraca in April 2007, that that was it for him. Struggling with chronic back injuries, Rebraca hadn’t played the entire 2006/07 season, and had managed only 29 unspectacular games the season before. But if you did think that, like I did, then you’d’ve been wrong. Rebraca gave it one more go. He signed with Pamesa Valencia in Spain in the 2007 offseason, to give himself a chance to go out on his terms. And not long afterwards, in December 2007, he did. Six not-especially-effective-but-reasonable games later, Rebraca announced his retirement, this time at his discretion rather than it being forced upon him. It’s a better story this way.
Zeljko Rebraca fact: after leaving the US for Spain, Rebraca stopped making payments on his $2.7 million house in Manhattan Beach and it was foreclosed. The buyer then had to sue a couple who were occupying the house, and who were believed to be doing so illegally. (They weren’t.) The male occupier of the house was called Greg Everhard. That’s the best surname a man could possibly have.
Iowa graduate Luke Recker was playing ACB basketball up until and including last year, when he came off the bench for Bizkaia Bilbao. It was his third season with the team, and he averaged 8.4 points per game as a shooting specialist in the ACB, alongside 6.5 ppg in the EuroCup. However, he retired from the game this summer to get a real job, and now works as an associate sales representative at Medtronic Spine & Biologics in Minnesota.
Recker came off the bench for Bilbao last year usually in conjunction with former Gopher and Timberwolves forward Quincy Lewis. Lewis also retired this summer, as mentioned before. Strange coincidence.
Justin Reed’s last professional game was one year ago today. He did not sign or play anywhere this year. The internet does not appear to carry any information as to why.
Reid managed the rare and special achievement of never playing outside of the NBA once he was drafted. He spent his first four years with the Pistons, was traded to Washington partway through his fifth season, then spent two years with Orlando, before one final season with the Pistons in 2002/03. Reid didn’t play again after that, although the Pistons almost re-signed him in February 2005 when their pursuit of Dale Davis came to nothing. The last we heard of Don Reid the player was a report in September 2008 that said he was working out again in the hopes of getting a training camp contract, but, inevitably, he didn’t. Reid now works for the Pistons as a community ambassador.
In five of the last six years, Iowa centre Jared Reiner has appeared in an NBA training camp. In 2004 it was the Bulls; in 2005 it was both the Clippers and the Suns; in 2006 it was the Spurs; in 2008 it was the Sixers; in 2009, it was the Timberwolves. In that time, Reiner has only played in 46 NBA games, 27 of which came with the Bucks down the stretch of the 2006/07 season (whom, you’ll notice, he never went to camp with). But that’s no reason to stop trying, and, seemingly unable to get a tasty European deal, Reiner opted for the NBA exposure offered up by the D-League. In 17 games for the Fort Wayne Made Ants, Reiner averaged 29.7 minutes, 13.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game; however, he asked the team to release him at the beginning of March for “personal reasons” and did not play again.
Real Madrid captain Reyes was one of the few to survive the broad sweeping roster changes that the team has been through in the last year. Of course he did; he’s Felipe Reyes. Reyes’s numbers are down across the board, averaging only 7.3 points and 5.0 rebounds in the EuroLeague and 7.9/4.3 in the ACB. But that’s perhaps to be expected, because he’s 30 years old now.
Former Virginia guard Reynolds first signed with this season with Martos Napoli, the team of failure that we’ve covered many times already. He (sensibly) left the team before the season started, and moved to Varese, a different Serie A team. But he has not played a huge amount there, averaging only 17.1 minutes, 5.3 points and 1.8 assists in 13 games.
By the way, the Napoli saga is finally over. Serie A authorities warned Napoli several weeks ago that they would wind the team up unless they paid their tax bill, but with literally no interests to protect any more, Napoli made no attempt to pay it, and the team has now been banned. So that’s it; after 25 games, all losses, fourteen of which were by 59 more points or more and one of which was by 140, NSB Martos Napoli are no more. Ladies and gentlemen, please charge your glasses. A toast. To Naples.
Despite me giving him way too much love in the summer of 2008, Rhodes has not had much of a professional career. He started his first professional season in Latvia, but left after only a handful of games and didn’t play again. This was back in January 2009, and, after going unsigned this year, that also marks the last time Rhodes played a professional game. You could almost say that his career has ‘fallen away.’ (Zing.)
For some reason, despite regularly getting workouts from NBA teams over five years after going undrafted, Darius Rice chooses weird leagues to play in. He spent last year in Uruguay, and has spent this year in Hungary with a team called Szolnoki Olajbanyasz. Rice ranks ninth in Hungary with a 18.1 points per game average, and ranks 11th in rebounds at 6.6 rpg, so maybe there’s method to the madness. He led Uruguay last year with a 25.3 ppg average, too. Maybe he prefers starring in non-premium leagues to being an also-ran in better ones. I can buy that, I guess.
Rice started the year in Ukraine, playing for Azovmash. But he lasted only one game (scoring 18 points) before being moved on. He has not played anywhere since. Azovmash have turned over their imports quite a lot this year, and have been through about ten in all, including Ejike Ugboaja, Demetris Nichols and Erik Daniels. After all the changes, they’ve wound up with an American backcourt of Ramel Curry and Fred House. Curry-House. This is funny.
After going undrafted out of Boston College, Rice went to summer league with the Washington Wizards, but failed to make the team. He then moved to Greece, which is where many American rookies start out while they try to work their way into the bigger leagues. (Seriously, how many American rookies played in the ACB this year? Ahmad Nivins did, but he was drafted, which helped no end. And Texas Tech shooter Alan Voskuil signed early with Fuenlabrada, but he has a Danish passport which grants him EU status. He also didn’t play a game for the team before moving to a LEB Silver team called Matchmind. So it’s a poor list.) On the year Rice has averaged 12.8 points and 2.2 assists per game for Panionios.
Prigoni left Tau Vitoria this summer after six years there, and moved to Real Madrid as a part of Ettore Messina’s complete makeover of the place. He averages 6.9 points and 3.4 assists per game in the ACB, alongside 7.0 points and 4.5 assists in their now-ended EuroLeague campaign. However, his defence, which was always a calling card of his, has started to slip. This is to be expected from a man who turns 33 next month.
The next great Raptors European hope, Gorgeous Georgios left Olympiacos in the summer for a big money deal with Unicaja Malaga. He averaged 11.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in their EuroLeague campaign, alongside 9.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in the ACB. Despite this being a website with a focus on player salaries, I tend not to comment upon the salaries of European players, for they are highly speculative and basically impossible to verify. However, Printezis signed with Malaga to a deal that pays seven-figures and then some; therefore, even with Toronto’s favourable tax rates (that I don’t particularly understand but am aware they exist) for the Raptors to compete with that means using at least a BAE. So a move to the NBA is perhaps not imminent.
Cult hero Profit was a member of the Grizzlies training camp roster in 2007, but did not make the team. Since that time, he has spent three consecutive seasons with an Argentinian team called Libertad Sunchales. There, playing alongside the mighty Ruben Wolkowyski, Profit averages 16.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Libertad finished fourth in the Argentinian Liga A regular season standings, received a bye for the first round of the playoffs, and begin their quarter final matchup versus Boca Juniors next week.
The Celtics waived Pruitt in the summer before his contract became guaranteed. He caught on with the Knicks for training camp, but did not make the team and went to the D-League. Pruitt started with the L.A. D-Fenders and averaged 11.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists, but when he moved to the guard-heavy Utah Flash in January, his numbers dropped to only 11.1/2.5/2.5 per game. Pruitt also shot a combined 22-88 from three-point range, which is a percentage that you can probably calculate for yourself.
Illinois graduate was briefly in the NBA when he signed with the Warriors for training camp. He didn’t make the team and therefore went to Greece to play for Peristeri. However, Pruitt appeared in only two games and 24 minutes with the team before they released him in favour of Gary Wilkinson, unsatisfied with Pruitt’s performance. Can’t see how 24 minutes was enough to really assess his performance, but that’s the Greek way sometimes. Pruitt then signed early for the Puerto Rican season, and currently averages 17.9 points and a league-leading 14.4 rebounds per game, six of which are offensive. He has only 10 assists all year and is shooting 40% from the foul line, so he’s still prone to Shaun Pruitt-like moments, but those rebounding numbers don’t lie and are not to be sniffed at. He is 3.7 rebounds per game ahead of the guy in second place in the BSN, Alphonse Dyer.
(Dyer is a former Northwestern State player – not Northwestern, but Northwestern State – who never averaged more than 5/4 in a four-year Southland Conference career. Yet he has played for Puerto Rican team San German for four consecutive years, and his numbers have improved every year, now up to 9.3 ppg and 10.7 rpg. It’s quite a cool story, albeit one irrelevant to the NBA landscape, which is the landscape we try to deal in here.)
Former Arizona forward Radenovic went undrafted back in 2007, but has had no problem finding good quality work. He first tested with PAOK in Greece this summer, then signed with CSKA Moscow. However, he barely played with the team in the two months he was there (totalling only 28 Russian league minutes and 58 EuroLeague minutes), and was released in late December. He then returned to Spain to play for Cajasol Sevilla, and has averaged 3.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in 15 ACB games.
Vuk Radivojevic is a personal favourite. He looks like a cross between Mike Bibby and a tennis racket, but that’s not the only reason. Vuk – whose first name means “Wolf”, which is pretty awesome – is a tall slow point guard and a pick-and-roll guru, in the classic former Yugoslavian mould of tall unathletic P&R guru point guards. And I love them. The NBA doesn’t so much, which is why awesome players like Milos Teodosic go undrafted every now and then, but that’s OK, because there’s enough quality club basketball in the world for them all. Radivojevic started the year with Crvena Zvezda, my favourite European team, and averaged 7.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the EuroCup. It was reported that he left the team last month; however, he came back and played in their first Serbian league game at the weekend, playing 36 minutes and scoring 17 points. Vuk’s name continues to be linked to teams across the continent, including Aris of Greece and Besiktas of Turkey, but he hasn’t left yet.
He’s a tall point guard, which I like. He looks like Mike Bibby, which surely everyone likes. His name means “Wolf”, which is bankable likability. And he’s played most of his professional life for one of my favourite teams. Yes, Wolfie is definitely a personal favourite.
Things haven’t gone so well for Crvena Zvezda, though. They ran out of money early, and while they tried to blag it throughout the season, their elimination from the EuroCup spelled the end. Jazz draft pick and team captain Tadija Dragicevic was the first to go, and the floodgates were opened. Mike Taylor has since left, as did Radivojevic, who is back to captain the team but only briefly. Bulgarian international and former Western Kentucky wing man Filip Videnov left soon afterwards, and starting centre Vladimir Stimac is finalising a move to Roma. Apart from the 26 year old Radivojevic, Red Star retain only two players older than 23; 26-year-old backup big man Oliver Stevic and 24-year-old forward Strahinja Dragicevic (Tadija’s brother). All their senior players have left the team, and since three of their -youngsters are prospects in the upcoming draft (Nemanja Bjelica, Marko Keselj and Elmedir Kikanovic), they might not be staying for much longer.
Nevertheless, despite the exodus, Red Star have made three recent signings, buying three 20-year-olds from Serbian club Mega Vizura. It’s the way to build; they couldn’t afford to retain their senior players, so they’ll rebuild with cheap young domestic talent and try to build a core while resolving their finances. It’s the right strategy. And that just makes me like them more.
Rakocevic’s struggles this season has been alluded to in earlier posts. He turned down the NBA this summer for a big-money move to Efes Pilsen, but it failed badly. Reportedly, Rakocevic doesn’t like his coach, his coach doesn’t like him, the team has underperformed, and yet they’ve committed so much money to him that all sides are having to pretend to tolerate the situation. Rakocevic averaged only 10.0 points per game in the EuroLeague, and while his 15.4 points and 3.3 assist per game numbers in the Turkish league are nicer, that’s not what they paid him for, nor what he turned down the NBA to do.
Magic draft pick Rakovic is having a career year and is one of the best players in Russia. He was injured at the start of the season, but returned to action in late November, and averaged 14.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in Spartak St Petersburg’s short EuroCup campaign. He is also averaging 27.3 minutes, 16.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the Russian league, shooting 57% from the field and 73% from the line. Rakovic only takes three free throws per game, which needs to go up, but he’s scoring a lot of points, efficiently.
Former Wizards big man Ramos has pulled off the China/Puerto Rico combination this year with aplomb. It’s a beautiful combination that many players engage in, although it helps Ramos no end that he is actually Puerto Rican. This season for the Zheijiang Lions, Ramos averaged 17.5 points and 13.0 rebounds in only 30.7 per game, grabbing less than 10 rebounds only once in 38 tries (and that was a nine-rebound performance). Zheijiang were knocked out of the CBA playoffs at the semi final stage last week, and Ramos returned to Puerto Rico to play for the Quebradillas Pirates. He is making his debut at the very moment that I’m typing this.
Talented offensive player Rancik is playing for Galatasaray in Turkey, and averaged 18.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in the EuroCup. The Slovakian international also averages 16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in the Turkish league. He is the finest player in the history of St. Cloud State University. No offence to Brett Putz.
Person’s last NBA gig came with the Nuggets in 2005. He later became an assistant women’s coach at Enterprise-Ozark Community College, before being moved to the role of men’s head coach back in July.
Lithuanian big man Marijonas Petravicius left his homeland this summer after winning the EuroCup last year with Lietuvos Rytas. He moved to Italy to play for A.J. Milano, and is averaging 11.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 fouls in 19 minutes per game in Serie A play, alongside 9.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 fouls in 18 minutes per game in Milano’s short EuroLeague campaign. Elbows and post play forever.
D-League veteran Brent Petway went to Greece this year, and hated it. In six games with Ilysiakos, he averaged 29 mpg, 10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg, 1.7 bpg and about half a pay check per month, and left the team in December after getting injured. He reappeared in late February when he signed in France with Vichy (or, to give them their full name, JA Vichy Val d’Allier Auvergne Basket), whereupon he has averaged 24 mpg, 9.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 1.7 bpg in 6 French league games. The blocks per game would be tied for third in the league had he played enough games to qualify.
Pike spent his last two years playing for the Suns on a minimum salary contract, but that ran out in summer 2008, and another one was not forthcoming. He is now retired and a stay-at-home dad.
Pike was recently interviewed during the second quarter of a dull Knicks vs Clippers game, as he was in town taking his children to Disneyland and decided to watch the Clippers lose for old time’s sake. (They ruined the day by winning.) The reporter whose name I forgot asked Pike a variety of lead-in questions such as “what do you think about Rasual Butler’s jump shot?”. Pike tried to play along, but had to be candid about the fact that he hasn’t watched NBA basketball since he fell out of the league. So it’s been a clean break from basketball for him.
Last time we heard from Tim Pickett, he had been trying to win CBA games single-handedly for the worst team in the league. After that post was written, Pickett returned to play the team’s last three games, averaging 39.7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals per game in the process. But Shaanxi lost all three games anyway, and that was the end of that.
In accordance with prophecy, Pickett has now gone to Puerto Rico for some summer money. They’re the rules; mid-20’s CBA imports must go to Puerto Rico in the summer, and Pickett has obliged by joining Capitanes de Arecibo, the Puerto Rican team who for some reason play in the BSN and the American minor league the PBL. (The PBL kicked Arecibo out of their league a couple of weeks ago for failure to attend a game, but they were later reinstated.) Pickett made his debut for the team yesterday, and put up 27 points and 10 rebounds. The guy’s a stat fiend.
Mickael’s brother is spending his second season with Valencia as the defensive role player on a team of scorers. He averages 2.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in 18 minutes per game in the EuroCup, alongside 3.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 17 minutes per game in the ACB. The Bobcats were said to be interested in him last summer, which makes sense, because Larry Brown would love this guy. He’s like George Lynch was. And Larry Brown loved George Lynch.
Imagine if Mickael Pietrus didn’t have a jump shot. That’s Florent Pietrus.
Former Celtic Pinkney has been a starting big man for Hapoel Jerusalem all season. You can call either him or Brandon Hunter the starting centre, but it matters not, for neither really is. Hapoel just don’t “do” conventional centres for some reason. Pinkney has been averaging 9.0 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in the Israeli league, alongside 9.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the EuroCup; however, he was released by the team this week for reasons I am not aware of.
Former Lakers draft pick J.R. Pinnock – who prefers to be known as Danilo now – is also in Israel, where he has been one of the league’s scoring leaders. Pinnock has averaged 19.0 points in 35.2 minutes per game for Netanya, alongside 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. The points per game rank him third in the league, behind only fellow imports Gary Forbes (21.0 ppg for last-placed Ramat Gan) and former Washington midget Justin Dentmon (19.7 ppg for joint-second-to-last-placed Hapoel Afula); in fact, apart from Forbes, who is Panamanian-American, the top ten scoring leaders in Israel are all Yanks. Pinnock has scored his while shooting only 26% from three-point range on nearly five attempts per game. Perhaps he should put that shot away.
As was widely reported, Kevin Pittsnogle quit basketball after the 2007/08 season, and began working in a school. As was less widely reported, Pittsnogle returned this year to give it one more try, rejoining the D-League and playing in 27 games with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. As didn’t need to be reported, Pittsnogle averaged 11.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in his comeback. And as was not reported much at all, Pittsnogle asked to be released by the Thunderbirds in February for “personal reasons.”
Pistons draft pick Trent Plaisted’s first professional season was basically a washout, playing in only two games and 31 minutes for Angellico Biella before suffering a season-ending back injury. Now back in action – zing! – Plaisted is signed with KK Zadar in Croatia. His minutes (and his play) started small this year, but has ramped up throughout the year to the point that Plaisted is now one of Zadar’s most important players. On the season, he is averaging 8.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in 20 minutes per game in the EuroCup, 8.6 points and 6.0 rebounds in 19 minutes per game in the Croatian league, and 6.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in 13 minutes per game in the Adriatic League.
After leaving the Nets, Planinic spent two seasons with Tau Ceramica in Spain, but has since been with CSKA Moscow. He gets to play point guard there, and Zoran Planinic with the ball in his hands is of much more use than Zoran Planinic without it. On the season, Planinic has averaged 21 minutes, 7.9 points, 2.2 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, 24.1/8.8/3.5/2.6 in the Russian Superleague, and 23.6/11.8/3.1/3.8 in the VTB United League. He recently had his own segment on Eurosport news, which means he’s now officially made it.
It was six years and five months ago that Cherokee Parks was last on the roster of a professional basketball team. The Warriors waived him in December 2003, and yet Parks, aged only 31, never played again. He now owns a music club in his hometown of Huntingdon Beach called “The Brigg.”
Since 2005, Marlon Parmer has played in the NBA, the CBA, Saudi Arabia, Poland, the ABA, Qatar, Venezuela, Estonia, Qatar again, the D-League, and Saudi Arabia again. It’s been a well travelled few years, and were it not for the American and European stints in there, we’d have to change the name of the Dan Langhi tour. This year he has been in Lebanon, playing for Sagesse, but unfortunately no statistics are available.
Parmer quit New Mexico in January 2002 after an argument with then-head coach, Fran Frascilla. He then transferred to Division II Kentucky Wesleyan for his senior season, and averaged 20/6/8, but it wasn’t enough to get drafted. Parmer was a training camp signing of the Timberwolves in 2005 after averaging 22/9 in China the previous season, showing once again that China can do wonders for a guy’s NBA prospects.
Two-time Bulls summer leaguer and Croatian national team member Drago Pasalic is in Spain playing for Obradoiro, an ACB team looking pretty doomed. He is averaging only 14.8 minutes, 5.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.8 fouls per game. The jump shot is still there; the rest of the game is not. Obradoiro are second-last in the ACB with an 8-21 record, and lost by a hefty 26 points to fellow relegation strugglers Meridiano only today. Ex-NBA forward Paul Davis, making his debut, led the team with 19 points, but it wasn’t enough. Pasalic played only four minutes.
In what marks one of the incredibly few instances in which the L.A. Lakers used their D-League affiliate, former UCLA and Tennessee forward Andre Patterson (not to be confused with former Timberwolves forward Andrae Patterson) was signed for 2007 training camp by the Lakers after spending the previous season with the L.A. D-Fenders. After being waived, Patterson spent part of the next season with the D-Fenders as well, and then split last year between the Reno Bighorns and the Springfield Armor. He barely played, however, averaging only 4/3 for Reno, and has not played anywhere this season.
It does beg the question, though; why own your own affiliate if you’re not going to use it?
Patterson’s best NBA season was his penultimate one. As a member of the 2006/07 Bucks, Patterson set career-highs in points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game and field goal percentage, scoring 14.7 points a night on 55% shooting and putting up a PER of 18.5. Since then, though, his NBA career saw only one more contract, an unguaranteed minimum salary contract at that. That was all he could get the following summer from the Clippers, despite the strength of those statistics from the previous year. Worse still, Patterson couldn’t even make it the whole season with the team, being waived before the contract guarantee date. That was the end of his NBA career. Perhaps it had something to do with what Steve Patterson (no relation) describes here.
Patterson signed with the Nuggets for training camp in 2008, but did not make the team. He later played three games in Lebanon, but he has nothing to his name this year. Except this arrest.
Missouri alum and former Pistons draft pick Rickey Paulding is in the midst of his third consecutive season with German team EWE Baskets Oldenburg. Oldenburg were a EuroLeague team this season, for the first time in the club’s history, which is no mean feat. They were a bit overmatched when they got there, beating Asseco Prokom in their opening game before losing their other nine, with losses of 28, 33 and 43 along the way. Nevertheless, it’s a good thing for Paulding, who got to average 11.0 points on the world’s second-biggest club basketball stage. Paulding also averages 12.9 points per game in the German league, although he takes three three-pointers for every two two-pointers and hits only 34% of them (dropping to 21% in the EuroLeague).
Payton was replaced on NBA on TNT and NBA TV broadcasts this summer by Kevin McHale, because, well, he was a bit unintelligible. So unintelligible that he spawned a range of YouTube videos in his honour.
Payton now does some work for Betflix, providing opinions and insight and stuff.
Hat collector Peeler last played in December 2005 for Akasvayu Girona in Spain. It was the only non-NBA gig of his career, and it didn’t last for long. He is now an assistant coach for Division II Virginia Union University.
Timberwolves draft pick Pekovic is still with Panathinaikos, and he is still a beast. He averages 14.3 points and 3.8 rebounds in the EuroLeague, alongside 12.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in the Greek league. Those look more like numbers from a 6’7 small forward than a 6’11 270-pound centre, and for sure, Pekovic is a bad defensive rebounder, partly through the size prohibiting him from much rebounding outside of his area but also through some apathy to the glass at times. But the scoring numbers need only some per-minute context to make sense. Per 36 minutes in the EuroLeague, Pekovic is averaging 24 points; per 36 in the Greek league, that goes up to 28.3. Pekovic is shooting a ridiculous 73% from the field in the A1 league, alongside 75% from the line, and while those numbers dip to 59% and 71% in the higher standard EuroLeague, they are still pretty beastly. Pekovic’s rebounding is a valid concern (grabbing a defensive rebound once every 11 minutes in EuroLeague play isn’t good enough), as is his below-average speed for the centre spot at the NBA level, but the offence is beastly. And that’s an interesting quality to have in any centre.
Celtics draft pick Ben Pepper never signed in the NBA, and, apart from a very unexpected trip to the ABA (the American one) in 2002, Pepper played only in Australia’s 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, and all the evidence points to the contrary. So I’m going to go ahead and assume that Geordie is insane.
Speaking of the colonies, Syracuse guard Eric Devendorf is playing in New Zealand this summer, but was released by his New Zealand team Waikato Pistons after being arrested for his role in a bar fight. However, Devendorf was averaging 24.3 points per game, good for second in the league, and as such he was immediately picked up by Waikato’s rival, Wellington. Stats often talk like that.
Former Warriors centre Kosta Perovic was bought out of his NBA contract early so that he could return to the continent that suits his slow style the best. He has spent the last two years with Valencia, where he (usually) starts and provides a good early scoring punch. Because, for all of Perovic’s athleticism and strength problems, he can still definitely score the ball. On the season, Perovic is averaging 9.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 19 minutes per game in the EuroCup, alongside 21.1 mpg, 8.7 ppg and 5.0 rpg in the ACB. He averages 0.9 blocks per game in both competitions through size alone.
After his NBA career set new records in failure, Podkolzin returned to his native Russia to play for Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, the team he began his career with. Podkolzin is into his fourth season with the team, and has stuck with them even after they were relegated out of the Russian Superleague down to the second division. Statistics are hard to come across, because they’re all in Russian, and Russians use the wrong alphabet. However, as far as I can tell, Pavel averages 12.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.9 fouls per game.
On the Novosybirsk website, three players are listed as playing the position of “центровой.” Pavel is one of them, and a quick internet search reveals the obvious; that word translates as “center”. But curiously, if you run that word through Google Translate, it comes out with the result “Washington Bullets.” I’m not making that up, either.
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.
Polynice was last in the NBA in February 2004, when the Clippers waived the then-39-year-old before the playoff deadline so that he could catch on with another NBA team. He didn’t. But Polynice did squeeze out bit parts of two more years in the world of professional basketball, playing 18 games in 2004/05 with the Michigan Mayhem of the CBA, and briefly being the player/coach for the Los Angeles Aftershock of the ABA in 2005/06. That was finally the end….or at least, it probably should be, because Polynice is now 45 years old.
Polynice was the head coach of the Long Beach Breakers in the ABA for the 2007-08 season. Like all ABA teams, though, they were short-lived. Polynice then volunteered as a coach at Jeremy Tyler’s high school team for the 2008-09 season, where he compared Tyler to a more athletic Hakeem Olajuwon. He now lives in Los Angeles and runs his Olden Polynice Hoops foundation. Polynice’s most newsworthy moment in retirement was his appearance on Dr. Phil, where he was emotionally re-united with his father, whom had been stuck in the Haitian earthquake.
Russian guard Ponkrashov was on loan to Khimky from CSKA Moscow for the last two seasons, but CSKA recalled him this summer. Backing up both J.R. Holden and Zoran Planinic, Ponkrashov is not playing much, averaging only 8.2 minutes in the EuroLeague and 10.6 in the Russian league. He has averaged 3.0 points and 0.7 assists in the former, and 4.3/1.4 in the latter.
Mark Pope always said he would enroll in medical school once his playing career. And in 2006, he did, when he enrolled at the University of Columbia. But then this summer, after three years of Ivy League-standard medical school training, Pope bailed on his studies and was hired as an athletics co-ordinator at the University of Georgia, seemingly the beginning of a college coaching career. Perhaps medical school just wasn’t as fun for him as basketball is.
Serbian international guard Popovic started the year with Lietuvos Rytas, and averaged 11.2 points and 5.4 assists per game in the EuroLeague. However, after Rytas were eliminated from the EuroLeague, Popovic left the team and joined another EuroLeague team, Efes Pilsen of Turkey. In three months, Popovic has played no Turkish league games for the club, appearing in only EuroLeague games. He has barely played there, too, totalling 81 minutes, 20 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists in six games for the team.
Potapenko’s NBA career ended in the 2006/07 season, when he started the season with the Sonics and was traded to the Kings partway through the year. His lone basketball stint after that came the following December, when he played a few games for Estudiantes Madrid in the ACB, averaging 5.3 points and 2.7 rebounds. He is now an assistant coach for the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
South Carolina graduate Powell was the first pick of the 2010 D-League draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, and spent most of the year with the team. He averaged 22.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists, and was bought out of his contract in March by Liaoning of the CBA. Liaoning signed Powell for their playoff push, but they were eliminated in the first round 3-1 by John Lucas’s Shanghai Sharks. Powell averaged 20.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists in his seven games with the team.
Powell played well for the Orlando Magic’s summer league team this year, and went to Greece to play for Trikalla this season. He averaged 11.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in ten games for the team, but left in late January. It was said that Powell was to sign in Russia, but it didn’t happen, and he remains unsigned.
Roger Powell started the season with CB Murcia in Spain, but got out of there just in time. He averaged 8.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15 games with the team currently adrift at the bottom of the ACB, was released by mutual consent in early February (Murcia replaced him with Josh Asselin), and moved to France to play for Dijon. Unfortunately, Dijon also suck, tied for last in France’s ProA with a 7-19 record. Powell was helping, putting up 22 points and 6 rebounds on debut, but he broke his cheekbone in his second game and has not played since. Through no real fault of his own, this has been a bit of a wasted year.
Cavaliers draft pick Preldzic is into his third season with Fenerbahce. He is averaging 11.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists in the Turkish, and averaged 6.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists in the EuroLeague. The 3.7 assists per game, in a league where only two players average more than 5.0 apg, are particularly impressive when you consider that Preldzic is a 6’9 forward. Preldzic’s jump shot is a bit more sporadic; the three-pointer amounts to about half of his offence, but while he’s shooting 45% from there in the Turkish league, he shot only 18% from there in the EuroLeague.
Hollis Price spent last year with A.J. Milano, but was not retained for this season. It took him a while to latch on to a new team, but in February he signed with the Artland Dragons of Quakenbrueck. In six German league games with the team, Price has averaged 8.8 points and 3.8 assists per game.
Quakenbrueck play a ten-man rotation. Nine of them are American. You have probably noticed that trend by now. It can’t be healthy for the future of German basketball.
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