– Lukasz Obrzut was an insignificant player in the D-League last year, averaging 3.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg over 38 games with both the Bakersfield Jam and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Before that, he spent four insignificant years with Kentucky, never averaging more than 2.0 ppg and 1.8 rpg. Now, he’s in Poland, averaging 5.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.9 fouls per game for the powerhouse that is ISS Sportino Inowroclaw (and by “powerhouse”, I mean “team in third-last place”). How very insignificant. But he won fans at all stops.
– It was only a few short years ago that Michael Olowokandi was a starting centre in the Western Conference Finals. Things have changed wildly since then – the contracts dried up, as did the few skills, and a season of playing for the Celtics on the minimum salary (Kandi didn’t need the money, and did it just to prove to himself that he could, apparently) was the last she wrote. Kandi is about to turn 34 with a lengthy history, and I assume him to be unofficially retired.
– In lieu of any Greg Ostertag news, here is a video of him diplomatically losing at table tennis to a sharply dressed pre-teen.
– Andre Owens is with Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda), averaging 11.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists a game in the Adriatic League, and 10.6/2.7/2.3 in the EuroCup. Owens was also recently the victim of an attack by a fan – or at least, a really bad attempt at one – and you can read about that here.
– Olumide Oyedeji is in China, which is good news for us all. Playing for Shanxi Zhongyu, Oyedeji averages 20.4 points and a slightly staggering 19.4 rebounds per game. The assists, steals and blocks numbers aren’t bad either; 2.8, 2.2, 1.6. Oyedeji has had 37 double-doubles in his 39 games, and has not had less than 10 rebounds in any game; in the two games where he missed a double-double, his stat lines read:
That’s prime Ben Wallace territory, that. They should have known that it was going to go well when Oyedeji put up 23 points, 24 rebounds and 9 assists on his debut. Do you love reading these numbers? Me too. They constantly crap on all these “faceless player averages 7 points and 3 rebounds in some obscure European league” entries that I have to write. They pale in comparison to this. 19.4 rebounds a game! 7 offensive! Averaging 45 minutes a game! Good times. Very good times.
– Robert Pack hasn’t been heard from since his unexpected stint with the Toronto Raptors in 2005 preseason. That was three and a half years ago now. He is now a travel agent (apparently), and was an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs’s entry at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Revue.
– David Padgett went to training camp with the Miami Heat, signed a contract immediately after it (essentially this meant just signing for training camp really early), didn’t make the team, and was waived. He has not signed elsewhere since, presumably living it up on his $35,000 guarantee.
– After Scott Padgett’s NBA career ended abruptly after a trade to the Memphis Grizzlies and a subsequent waiving, he signed in Spain for about two weeks with CB Granada. This was back in April 2007. He has not been heard from since. He’s not a missing person or dead or anything. I just can’t find any news on him. He probably does real estate now, though. Most do.
– Milt Palacio is the starting point guard for Khimki in Russia, averaging 6.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in the Russian league, alongside 5.2 points, 1.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in the EuroCup. I watched Milton play the other day, and if any Jazz fans out there are wondering if Palacio still hits the underside of the backboard with his lay-ups….yep! More good times.
– Adam Parada’s last five basketball destinations are as follows – Mexico, Philippines, Sacramento Kings, Jordan, the ABA. One of those is not like the others. Parada currently finds himself in Japan, playing for the Mitsubishi Melco Dolphins. The Japanese league is not like the Chinese league, for not only are the team names intelligible, but there’s also not the wealth of fringe NBA talent in it. However, this doesn’t mean that Adam Parada can’t still be brilliant, and he doesn’t let us down, delivering a scintillating 13.9 points and 7.8 rebounds a game.
– Finally, Jannero Pargo left the NBA for Dynamo Moscow to great fanfare, and then left Dynamo Moscow to slightly less fanfare after the team fell behind on their payments to him. (This hasn’t stopped them from signing Brian Chase as a replacement, though.) Pargo has since signed with Olympiacos, where his sole aim is to have a slightly more successful stint than Olympiacos’s other former Hornet guard, Arvydas Macijauskas. Pargo has delivered on that (albeit only slightly), averaging 4.7 points and 2.7 assists in his three EuroLeague games so far, after averaging roughly 13/4/5 for Dynamo.
– Juan Carlos Navarro is back with Barcelona, and he’ll probably never leave again. He is technically still a restricted NBA free agent of the Memphis Grizzlies, but that’s kind of meaningless, because he has no rhyme, reason, or (I assume) desire to leave Spain again. Navarro averages 15.4 points and 2.8 assists in the Spanish league, alongside 14.0 points and 3.6 assists in the EuroLeague.
– Boniface N’Dong still boasts one of the greatest names in human history. In his second season for Unicaja Malaga, as a starlet on the ultimate “oh yeah, I remember them, whatever happened to them” team (also featuring Omar Cook, Jiri Welsch, Robert Archibald, Marcus Haislip and, until recently, Paul Shirley), Ndong is averaging 11.3 points in less than 20 mpg in the EuroLeague. That’s pretty damn good for anyone, but especially a centre. He also has 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game to go along with that, and his Spanish league numbers (18.5 mpg, 9 ppg, 4.5 rg, 1.0 bpg) aren’t bad either.
– Drew Neitzel is with the Artland Dragons of Quackenbrueck in Germany. Somebody had told me that he was going to leave the team, but apparently that somebody was wrong. Neitzel (whose name sounds like a cough syrup that you take before going to bed) averages 6.4 points and 3.2 assists in the German league, alongside 9.6 points and 4.0 assists in the EuroCup.
– Matt Nelson is unsigned after playing in France last season.
– Spencer Nelson is playing for Aris in Greece, a team whose recent additions included Bengal cats owner and former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Bracey Wright, as well as seminal British star Andy Betts. Spiceworld. Nelson averages 8.2 points and 7.1 rebounds in the Greek league, alongside 10.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the EuroCup.
– When it came to waiving someone to accommodate the return of Monta Ellis, the Warriors kept undrafted rookie DeMarcus Nelson and his unguaranteed contract over the guaranteed salary of their second-round draft pick, Richard Hendrix. They then waived Nelson as well before the league-wide contract guarantee date came into effect. Not sure that I understand this, particularly since Hendrix has since become one of the best rebounders in D-League, and since the Warriors are the league’s worst rebounding team. Oh well. Nelson signed later that month with KK Zagreb and scored 2 points in his debut, but was then waived a mere few days later, totalling roughly a four-day total stay in Croatia. Tough break. Maybe they thought they were getting a scorer.
– Ira Newble is unsigned, and I have no idea what (if any) desire he has to change that at any point.
– Brad Newley is in Greece, averaging 10.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in the Greek league for Panellinios, alongside 9.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in the EuroCup.
– Jared Newson is playing for Brose Baskets Bamberg in Germany, averaging 8.7 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. The Mavericks need a shooting guard, and have done for a while, but I don’t think they’ll be looking at Jared Newson again.
– Demetris Nichols spent a good chunk of the year on the Bulls inactive list, getting $350,000 for his trouble (lucky git), before being waived and going to the D-League. Now with the Iowa Energy (via Idaho, strangely), Nichols is averaging 20.0 points and 4.7 rebounds a game.
– David Noel is also in the D-League, averaging 17.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists for the Albuqerque Thunderbirds. Note: David Noel is not to be confused with Dave Noel, another player also in the D-League averaging 10.2 points for the Reno Bighorns. The David Noel referred to in the opening line of this paragraph (and on this website in general) is the former North Carolina Tar Heel, David Noel. The one who used to be a Milwaukee Buck. The one that you might have heard of. Also, for anyone out there who is a fan of basketball players called David Noel, there are two other ways you can go – one David Noel is a Canadian guard formerly from Northern Michigan last spotted in the ABA with the Montreal Royals, and the fourth one (Dave Noel) is a guard formerly of Wheaton College in NCAA Division III. Gotta catch ’em all.
– Finally, I think Moochie Norris has finally quit. He hadn’t last year, when he was in the CBA and averaged 11.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg and a league-leading 8.9 apg, but that was last year, and this year he’s unsigned. Given that the CBA is about to fold, and that Moochie is about to turn 36…..I’d reckon that that was all she wrote.
– Sergei Monia is into his third season with Dynamo Moscow, and has extended his contract so that he can stay there a bit longer. Then again, unless they start filling out that stadium a bit more, they might just run out of money. Monia (who seems to go by Sergey Monya these days, although I fear change and will keep it the same on here) averages 7.8 points and 4.0 rebounds in the EuroCup, alongside 6.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in the Russian league.
– Paccelis Morlende is unsigned after not making the Ural Great Perm team this preseason. Those who don’t know who Paccelis Morlende should first congratulate themselves, and then read this: Patch was a second-round pick of the Seattle Supersonics (via the Sixers) back in 2003, after a season in the French first division that saw him average 13.4 points per game. Since then, he has stagnated and then gone backwards. Morlende averaged 14.5 ppg and 4.9 apg in the French league the following season, before leaving to sign in Italy. There, he didn’t get nearly as much time, and averaged 5.1 ppg and 1.5 apg for Bennetton in the Italian league. His career has still not gotten back on track since then – last season, back in the French league with Gravelines, Morlende averaged a mere 4.6 ppg and 2.7 apg before being released from his contract a year early. And those numbers came in the French league, remember. Morlende also turns 28 in six weeks, and currently doesn’t have a basketball career to speak of. Most depressingly of all, his website (www.paccelismorlende.com) no longer works, which seems to be a sign of the times in the world of Paccelis Morlende. But the Thunder hold his draft rights anyway on a technicality, so maybe there’s some hope that he will still join the NBA, once the injuries are fixed. (NB: There is no hope that he will join the NBA.)
– Terence Morris is still a member of CSKA Moscow, but for reasons that I’m not aware of, he never plays in the Russian league. (I believe it has something to do with a limitation of the number of foreigners each team can play in the Superleague, but I’m not sure.) Morris hasn’t played in the Russian league since November, and averaged 8.4 points and 5.2 rebounds in the only five games he played there. (CSKA haven’t lost in the Russian league all year, so it’s not hurting them much.) He continues to be a regular in the EuroLeague, though, even if he is the recipient of wildly fluctuating playing time. Morris averages 8.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the EuroLeague, making him one of the leading contributors on the best team in Europe.
– Toree Morris is a bit-part player in the D-League, a league that yearns for quality size. Morris started with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 5.0 points and 3.7 rebounds in 14 games, and then moved onto the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, where he averages 3.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in eight games. Unfortunately, that equates to 26 total points and 24 total rebounds with the Birds, which is worrisome alongside his 27 total fouls.
– Brian Morrison was also in the D-League, averaging 3.7 points and 1.3 assists for the Austin Toros, but he was waived last week.
– Gabe Muoneke is with the Yunnan Honghe Running Bulls in China. By now, you should know that that can only mean one thing – the most impressive statistics in this entire post are about to appear. And you’d be right; Muoneke averages 34.6 points, 9.3 points and 3.2 assists per game. If you take the domestic averages of everybody other than Muoneke mentioned in this post so far and add them together, you total 22.1 points per game. That’s how much they pale to Muoneke’s. Chinese league basketball – it’s faaaaaantastic!
– Unlikely as it may seem, Lamond Murray is still playing professional basketball. Well, he was until last month, when he was waived by the Chinese league team Guandong Southern Tigers in preference to Smush Parker. Did Lamond Murray average truly mental statistics over there? I don’t think so; as far as I can tell, he didn’t even play a game. But he did play in the IBL over the summer (it’s like the USBL, except with a lower standard), and he averaged 26.6 ppg, 11.9 rpg and 1.2 apg there. Is an NBA comeback on the cards? No.
– Mamadou N’Diaye left Zalgiris Kaunas after they went bankrupt and cut all foreign players, and he is currently unattached. CAI Zaragoza are after him, supposedly.
– Bostjan Nachbar is one of the best players in Europe now, averaging 15.9 points and 5.5 rebounds in the Russian League with Dynamo Moscow, as well as 15.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in the EuroCup. It would make sense for the Nets to have him back, but they can’t really, because they’re tied to Eduardo Najera for the next three years. (Still don’t understand the length of that deal.) But, screw it; sign Boki anyway, decline Jarvis Hayes’s option, and try to rehome Bobby Simmons. Or just bench him, whichever.
– Finally – and this was really difficult to find out, so please value it – Lee Nailon was recently playing in Iran, but left in December due to “family reasons”. He is now signed in Lebanon, with Lebanese league leaders Al Riyadi.
If it wasn’t for the NBA Draft – that hotbed of prejudice that can see the entire prognosis of the NBA change in six short hours – then the trade deadline would be my favourite time of year. There’s nothing like it; you cancel every event in your social calendar, turn off your phone, ignore real life world events, and mash the refresh key for three straight days, waiting for any trades to come in, even those with the dreaded “conditional second” tag on them. (Well, that’s what I do.)
Recent trade deadlines have been disappointing. Last season saw many of the biggest trades (Shaq to Phoenix, the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris swap, Pau Gasol, Mike Bibby) take place in the weeks leading up to the deadline, with only the 11-player Ben Wallace trade of any major significance. And 2007 was a complete washout, with the Primoz Brezec for Juan Dixon swap being the highlight of the entire month. No matter how much I pleaded for Pau Gasol to come to Chicago, it didn’t happen.
However, this year, things went down rather well. Six trades were made, involving ten teams, and that’s not even including the trades in the run-up to the deadline. There were some slight anti-climaxes when Phoenix decided not to be insane and kept Amar’e Stoudemire, and Portland’s big plans to land everybody available with a combination of Raef LaFrentz and Travis Outlaw came to nothing. But most teams got involved, and here’s what went down. (Note: list includes trades done in the fortnight prior as well, because I felt like it and didn’t comment on them at the time.)
Unable to get Raja Bell, Andres Nocioni, or any charge-taking defensive-minded player that might replace James Posey, the Celtics cut their losses and tax liabilities with these two simple, somewhat inconsequential moves, designed to free up spots and money for the waiver wire. It’s probably going to work, too; Mikki Moore has already been waived by Sacramento, and the Thunder are sure to follow with Joe Smith. Other candidates to be waived include Stephon Marbury, Bobby Jackson, Adonal Foyle and Chucky Atkins amongst others, and the Celtics now have the two roster spots that will allow them to sign these very welcome reinforcements.
I have no idea why they did this. None whatsoever. Morrison has been poor, and Brown is nothing more than a deep bench player, but Radmanovic is nothing more than a bench player either, and they now have to pay him $15 million over the next two years to do that. This while also paying Nazr Mohammed an identical amount to play even less, and another backup in DeSagana Diop for four more increasingly expensive years. If Charlotte has a distinct plan, then I don’t see it.
If you look at it one way, it’s kind of a kick in the junk to go from reportedly potentially acquiring one of the finest big men in the game in Amar’e Stoudemire, to ending up with only a bevvy of bench players. If you want to look at it that way, John Paxson has failed you. But you’d be wrong to look at it that way. The main part of being a good GM is capitalising on another GM’s faulty logic, and John Paxson tried to do that as best a man could. He shouldn’t be penalised for Steve Kerr finally realising what a mistake he was about to make.
Instead, look at it another way. The Bulls didn’t trade away a single starter in any of these deals, and yet they returned a near-20 ppg scorer and MIP candidate (Salmons), a former All-Star centre who isn’t done yet (Miller), a potentially useful backup forward (Thomas), a good deep bench shooter (Roberson), a player that they won’t even have to play (James), a first-round pick, long-term salary relief, the outlines of a 2010 plan, a new Traded Player Exception and the possibilities of a $3.2 million Disabled Player Exception, whilst also getting rid of two of their worst contracts (Nocioni, Hughes), a sort-of bust (Sefolosha) and two players that couldn’t take the court (Gooden, Ruffin). How bad can that be?
Drifting purposelessly even after winning the lottery, the Bulls were losing games, playing with apathy, not meshing well, and tiptoeing around the luxury tax. Their best scorer, Ben Gordon, seemed destined to leave as a free agent, and about $45 million was invested into the bench of a team with bad depth. Despite his past performance, Nocioni has been playing about as badly as anyone in the NBA this season, Luol Deng has disappointed after signing his new contract, and the pairing of Gooden and Hughes were snuggly tucked up on the inactive list.
For a man supposedly incapable of getting a deal done, John Paxson just shook up his roster without losing a single important piece. They now have a potential replacement for Gordon, a centre with legitimate size and skill that isn’t Aaron Gray, the amusing sideshow that is James, and the entirely unexpected but equally humorous return of Tim Thomas, a man who previously survived in Chicago fan’s memories as only a verb. (Example usage: “Hey, have you heard about Stephon Marbury? He’s been Tim Thomas’d.” It’s become a staple.) The Bulls still haven’t made The Big Deal for the #2 guy, but they can only do one if such a deal is available, and it wasn’t. Besides, come the offseason, a package of Miller’s expiring contract, Salmons, Tyrus Thomas and the two first-round draft picks the Bulls now own is enough to bid for Amar’e again, no?
It might have cost them any shot at re-signing Ben Gordon, but that shot was no higher than 5% anyway. And besides, if you can convince Minnesota that Kirk Hinrich is the correct fit next to Randy Foye (or convince Oklahoma City that Hinrich/Westbrook/Durant was meant to be), then the Gordon era might not even be over yet. I’m glad you’re not quitting, John Paxson.
This insignificant trade saw an inactive list player get dumped, so that his team could then avoid the luxury tax. It’s only real significance came from the fact that I predicted it. You will never hear the end of this. Quite literally.
I love Kyle Lowry. He’s one of my favourite players. I’ve always thought he was like young Jason Kidd, if Jason Kidd did not pass like Jason Kidd. Admittedly, that’s not the most flattering comparison, and is a bit like saying that Michael Sweetney is like Pavarotti if Pavarotti couldn’t sing. But, still. Lowry is fantastic, and as such I can’t begrudge any team that acquires him.
However, when the team that acquires him also has Aaron Brooks, it’s a little odd. The two are pretty similar players – they both push the ball, excel at driving, look to score first, are relentless bordering on reckless, defend similarly aggressively if not entirely successfully, and are both undersized. Therefore, if you’ve got Brooks, do you really need Lowry?
Well, sort of.
The Rockets offence suffers from a lack of aggressiveness from the perimeter, both before and after the loss of Tracy McGrady. And while Rafer Alston would sometimes try and be aggressive, he wasn’t very good at it. Shooting 37% on the year, Alston’s well-intentioned play led to little more than some streaky outside shooting, mediocre defence, and dozens of missed floaters. By contrast, Kyle Lowry is undeniably aggressive, with a penchant for throwing himself wildly into gaps in the defence that don’t really exist. He’s not one to camp out on the perimeter.
But is this what the Rockets really need? Alston was never great at running a halfcourt offence, but neither at this stage is Lowry, and he is unequivocally best in a running game. And the Rockets don’t have the personnel for a running game.
Perhaps more importantly, Lowry isn’t a good outside shooter, and is a downgrade from Alston in this area that the Rockets were only slightly above average in. Houston gets an outside shooter in this trade in Cook, who will give them the occasional Novak throwback; however, Cook isn’t likely to play much, considering the other options at his position. As such, the spacing of the floor around Yao Ming is no better than before. The Rockets can put a trio of Brent Barry, Von Wafer and Shane Battier on the floor at any one time alongside Yao and a point guard, which helps, but without a great deal other options out there, the Rockets offence is still set up to occasionally bog down. Rick Adelman’s already experimented with playing Yao Ming in the high post to open up the floor for the penetrating guards, but all it did was take the team’s best offensive option out of his best spots. Now, he has Kyle Lowry to kick out to, a man who might not play to his strengths. It doesn’t really work.
The Rockets needed to upgrade at point guard. Instead, they may have downgraded. They got younger, but no nearer. I’m not sure of the point of that.
If your team had luxury tax issues, they probably called the Clippers for help. In taking on these three guaranteed contracts, the Clippers acquired no more than a small bit of cash and a 2011 second-round pick, as well as free looks at Acker and Samb (who has already been waived). When you are rumoured to have made everyone on your roster except for Eric Gordon available, you’re pressing hard to trade away Baron Davis, Chris Kaman’s name comes up in various scenarios, you nearly deal Marcus Camby, and yet your sole deal sees you acquiring Alex Acker…..that’s underwhelming. The Clippers’ future direction is no clearer than it was a week ago, and the remnants of Elgin Baylor’s final stand will be here for a while yet.
If there was any incentive for Memphis to take Chris Mihm off the Lakers’ hands, I missed it. (I’ll assume that there was some cash also sent over, which seems to have gone unannounced.) The Lakers just got a significant $2.8 million luxury tax saving for a man fourth on their depth chart, constantly injured, and the recipient of 105 minutes all season. And it cost them nothing to do it. Can’t ever argue with that.
Can’t argue with the Charlotte trade, either. Morrison is largely irrelevant, as comparisons to Larry Bird now look silly in the wake of his more apt likeness to Luke Jackson. But somehow, the Lakers shifted a year off the back end of Radmanovic’s oversized contract, while picking up a decent and needed athletic fifth guard in Shannon Brown for their troubles. What’s got into Mitch Kupchak in these last 18 months? He hasn’t overpaid anyone since Luke Walton, and even wins trades these days. I’m impressed.
Memphis has been using their cap space this season to do other people favours, having acquired Shaun Livingston and Steve Francis before this, getting both Miami and Houston out from under the tax threshold. However, in those two deals, the Grizzlies received an incentive to trade, namely cash from Miami and their own second-rounder back from Houston. They don’t seem to have gotten a similar incentive for taking on Mihm, so I don’t know why they did this one. Mihm used to be good despite his delicate nougat centre, but those days passed a while ago. As for trading Lowry, in spite of how much I like him, it’s always hard to turn down the offer of a first-round draft pick for your backup point guard, even if said draft pick will be extremely late in the first round. Foyle and Wilks are irrelevant.
I like the idea of trading a massive expiring contract for some value, being able to shift Banks’s needless contract, whilst picking up a decent role player and a pick for your troubles. The Heat’s staunch negotiating tactics got the maximum out of this deal’s peripheries. But why is Miami trading for O’Neal in the first place? Is it to obtain a defensive anchor that’s sorely needed on an otherwise good defensive unit?
Maybe. A line-up of Mario Chalmers, Dwayne Wade, Moon and Udonis Haslem sure can defend. But I don’t think you can really call O’Neal that anchor any more. Apart from the occasional night, he wasn’t one in Toronto, and his offence has regressed to the point that it’s a bit painful watching him try to do what he no longer can. Nothing about his decline seems reversible – O’Neal may level out, or decline a bit slower, but he won’t ever be back to where he was before the injuries. And that leaves you paying over $23 million to someone who still wants it badly, but who doesn’t have it any more.
Regardless of his money and knee injury, though, O’Neal still represents an upgrade on the medley of centres that Miami has turned out so far; Joel Anthony, the remains of Jamaal Magloire, Mark Blount, and an out-of-position Haslem. While no longer great at anything, O’Neal can still protect the paint and score a few points, even if he is to offensive flow what John Goodman is to mountain biking. The league has figured out Jamario Moon’s deep flaws, and thus his inclusion into the trade doesn’t really mean a lot, but the duo have their uses as players, more so than the outgoing two.
The real payoff from this deal will come in 2010. With Banks’s contract now gone, the Heat are even more relevant than they were before. Therein lies the real prize, with the pick as a nice bonus. The intervening 18 months, though, will see the money get a bit tight.
I’m still not sure why they signed Lue, you know, considering that they had the capable Luke Ridnour and the highly-promising Ramon Sessions already at point guard. Never mind that now, though; after abortive attempts to use Lue as a two guard, the Bucks finally gave up and got a proper one. The trade is somewhat of a wash – neither player is in the other team’s long-term plans, and are only short-term fill-ins for injured stars. But Bogans will hit some corner threes and try hard on defence, so Scott Skiles should like him.
While Kevin McHale’s decision to staple-gun McCants to the bench made his team better on the court, it also destroyed any value he may had. McCants has gone from being rumoured as the centrepiece in a Gerald Wallace deal, to being the centrepiece of a deal for one of the bigger draft busts of a generation. Nevertheless, Shelden Williams can play more than his minimal usage suggests that he can, and even though he seems destined to do little more than briefly audition and leave as a free agent, he gives the Wolves a decent defensive centre to compliment the less-than-decent defensive play of Kevin Love and Craig Smith. Bobby Brown isn’t a bad back-up point guard, either, and the combined cost of the two for next season is Brown’s minimum salary. (Note: Brown has a player option, but it’s his prerogative whether he exercises it or not. I truly believe that they gave him an option purely so that this gag could be made.)
For all of Larry Hughes’s faults – petulance, over-confidence, injuries, gambling on defence, dogged insistence on the brilliance of his own jump shot – he’s not Jerome James. For Isiah’s most humiliating mistake, the Knicks filled a pretty urgent need for a shooting guard, and even though it cost them some money to do it, this is the Knicks. They can afford it.
More importantly, it cost them no 2010 cap space, which is pretty much all that they live for at the moment. Hughes may have a nice little career resurgence in the numbers-inflating system of Mike D’Antoni, even if he doesn’t help the Knicks in any significant way on the court. But the Knicks other trade is better – somehow, they were able to get the out-of-favour Chris Wilcox for no more than Malik Rose and a few quid. Wilcox has barely played all season, and is going to be with the Knicks only very briefly before becoming a free agent, but he’s also less than a year removed from averaging 13 points and 7 rebounds, and giving the Knicks a sorely-needed capable big man for their playoff push. And somehow they got him for Malik Rose. Gotta like that.
(By the way, this trade led to one of the five most interesting moments of my life to date. In a Messenger window on Thursday morning, a source told me that Hughes was going to be traded for Thomas and James. I had assumed that they meant Tim and Jerome, and started firing out a series of top quality jokes as a result. (“I wonder if Tim Thomas will get Tim Thomas’d again?”, et cetera. It was golden.) But they didn’t – they meant the Washington duo of Etan Thomas and Mike James. However, I didn’t realise that until a while afterwards, and had already told everyone in the world that Hughes was going to be dealt to New York for those two. And then, in a strange quirk of fate, he was. This was a weird moment, but the lesson here, as ever: I’m a genius. An accidental genius, but a genius all the same.)
The aborted Tyson Chandler trade was bad luck, but the follow-ups seem like bad judgement. Why did the Thunder give Chris Wilcox to the Knicks for little more than a buyout candidate? Contractually it’s a wash, but if this is the most that you can get for your starting power forward of the last two years, then maybe you haven’t managed your asset very well. Wilcox is better than Rose is, and is better than Rose ever was. So if Malik Rose is all you can get for him, you probably should have worked on his value more. This means not needlessly spot-starting Robert Swift, who, despite being my boy, is unproductive and good for only a few H.O.R.S.E shots in the shootaround.
Also, if there’s one player that I know anything about (and there may very well not be), then that player is Thabo Sefolosha. I have spent the best part of three years trying to convince my fellow Bulls fans of several things – that he’s not a guard, that he’s not a primary ball-handler, that he’s not a slasher, and that he’s not good offensively at all. Thabo Sefolosha is a backup small forward with a great knack for rebounding in traffic, sporadic but decent defence, versatility on defensive match-ups, a very broken jump shot, and nothing to really go to on offence. He’s an eighth man if he improves, an 11th man if he doesn’t. His best case scenario might be Doug Christie, if you can mend the shot and give him some swagger. But until then, he’s a bit-part player. Why, therefore, have the Thunder traded for him? They already have their back-up small forward Jeff Green starting at power forward due to the lack of available small forward minutes, and they’ll be in for a tough time if they want Sefolosha at two guard, trying to guard far quicker players and clanking his kick-outs. So why would they trade for him? Regardless of how low the pick is (and it will be low), they could still use it to draft a player equal to the calibre of Sefolosha, and doing so wouldn’t be eating $2.8 million out of their cap space next season like Thabo will. I’m really not sure I get this one. But good luck to them.
The Magic managed to trade the four least relevant players on their roster for a makeshift point guard tandem. Not bad. Alston isn’t nearly the shooter that Jameer Nelson is, or was even before he broke out. But he’s capable, and should if nothing else keep the tempo up and alleviate some of the playmaking duties from Hedo Turkoglu. His arrival does make the Lue acquisition a bit pointless, but Lue himself is a solid backup point guard, and the duo share one thing in common; neither of them is Anthony Johnson, who is normally decent yet who has spent the season clanking away. These moves won’t put the Magic over the top, and nothing will without Nelson on the scene, but they’re as decent of a patchwork job as could be done with their few available assets. They also solve the problem of back-up point guard for next season, so if Anthony Johnson decides to not get better, they can cope accordingly.
No one was busier than the Kings, but busiest doesn’t necessarily mean best. The Kings used the money freed up by Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s medical retirement to take on other people’s dead weight, doing the Celtics a favour with Sam Cassell and Toronto one with Will Solomon, getting a few quid on top for their troubles; all good harmless fun. But then it goes a bit wrong.
The trade for Andres Nocioni makes little sense – best case scenario, the Kings use their immediate cap saving for next season wisely, and Nocioni bounces back to become the player that he used to be, somewhat justifying his salary. But if that doesn’t happen, the Kings just traded the two best players in the deal for the worst contract. And that’s never fun. The McCants trade was better, as for all of McCants’s lifelong devotion to isolation plays, he can make for a useful backup shooting guard, something that Sacramento otherwise lacked having traded Salmons. It cost them nothing to get it, either, and even saved a little money on Brown’s second year if they decide not to bring McCants back. However, the Kings didn’t improve their on-court product any, and added long term salary in doing so.
To be honest, I can’t see what they were trying to achieve. Gooden’s most valuable asset is that you can stop paying him in three months. Nocioni’s most valuable assets are peripheral, and non-conducive to his skills. What were the Kings looking for?
(Note: the Kings also waived Mikki Moore, opening up a further $4.22 million next year. Unfortunately, this leaves their bench big men as follows: Diogu, Booth, Simmons, Gooden and Kenny Thomas. This is an area they might need to spend in. So is point guard.)
90% of Raptors fans hate this deal, but I disagree with them. Jermaine O’Neal is the best player in the deal, and by far the most skilled. He also represents the sole return on T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and Roy Hibbert (Nathan Jawai doesn’t count until he does something), all assets that Colangelo gave away for the O’Neal gamble. I might not like this blatant admittance of failure, either, if I had the emotional investment into it that they do. But I still like it for the Raptors.
If you’re going nowhere (and they are), you need to improve numerous parts of your rotation (and they do), and yet you have absolutely no money to do it with (which they didn’t), then you can’t be paying the highest salary in the world of professional basketball to a player who earns a mere third of it. They might want to make short-term improvements to pacify Bosh, or they might want to trade him and start again. Either way, they’ll need assets. And while losing the first-rounder is one less asset, gaining $20 million in wiggle room from under the luxury tax threshold makes up for it. The Raptors won’t have cap space due to the contracts of Banks, Jason Kapono and Kris Humphries getting in the way, but they’ll have a high first-rounder, the MLE and BAE to throw at people, and the wiggle room to get creative.
All the things that weren’t possible before (sign and trades, taking back more salary in exchange for assets, buying up in the draft, even bringing back Carlos Delfino) are now options again. And they weren’t before. All it cost you was a bench forward, the most overpaid man in showbusiness, and a non-lottery first. This Jermaine O’Neal trade is not that bad. It’s the other one that was. And while it kind of sucks a bit that Colangelo was forced to yield the first rounder to Riley’s hard-line negotiating stance….well, needs must.
If they re-sign Marion, though, that will invalidate everything that I’ve just said. The money will be largely spent, and much of the flexibility gone. So please, don’t re-sign Shawn Marion. You have money to work with now. You can be creative, and an aggressive buyer in a buyer’s market. The Raptors are moving backwards, but at least they’re soon going to be able to move forwards. Don’t waste it all on a declining Marion.
(All other teams DNT-GMD. Except for Phoenix, who DNT-OD. Pity.)
In closing, a summary.
The winners: Chicago, L.A. Lakers, Miami, New York, Orlando, Toronto. The losers: Charlotte, Sacramento, Oklahoma City. Everyone else: Meh. Particularly you, Portland. Very meh.
– Rich Melzer is currently unsigned, and played only three games last season for the German side Quackenbrueck, whose name also doubles as a duck’s favourite breakfast. Having just turned 29, this doesn’t seem like a particularly healthy direction for Melzer’s career to be going towards. Then again, he used to play in Australia, so this might be better.
– Pops Mensah-Bonsu is a legend. There are two reasons why I think this. The first is because he’s English. The second is because he’s a legend. Pops started the year with DKV Joventut Badalona in Spain, playing five Spanish league games and totalling 14/9 in his one EuroLeague game, before injuring himself (I think it was his shoulder) in late October. DKV released him (I think it was by mutual consent), and Pops spent the next three months on the sidelines. However, in late January he returned, and was acquired by the Austin Toros of the D-League as just one more in their long line of decent big men this season. In the six games that Pops has played for Austin, he has absolutely beasted in the way that only legends can, averaging a fully-stuffed stat line of 25.3 ppg, 12.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, 4.7 fpg, 2.8 spg and 1.3 bpg, and shooting 61% from the field. This man can, will and should be in the NBA.
By the way, with him, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Joel Freeland and potentially Kelenna Azubuike (whose initial application for a British passport was turned down, even though he was born in London, due to the immigration status of his parents at the time), British basketball finally has something that it has never previously had; genuine hope. That’s a starting five that could beat the Kings right now, and it’s all ours (sort of). In a period of world basketball that sees old mainstays like China and Lithuania getting up there in age with no great influx of youth coming through, Britain has a chance to make an impact on the world basketball scene for the first time since…..well, ever. We’ve been so far behind for so long that you might not even notice it happening, but in the not too distant future, this could be a team that plays in the important competitions for a change. And believe me, this would be an achievement. Even losing at a high level would be solace of sorts. Maybe one day, we’ll develop a product worth televising.
– Ron Mercer is also a legend, albeit in a different way and to a far lesser degree. Since his retirement back in late 2006, Mercer’s sole foray into the headlines was back in 2007, when he was cited for misdemeanour assault after punching a bouncer in the face at a strip club. It is not known what else he does with his time.
– Scott Merritt is playing for InterCollege Etha Engomis in Cyprus. He averages 16.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.0 fouls. Haven’t a gag for this.
– Aaron Miles is signed with Panionios in Greece. I had a Panionios game to watch the other day, but my bastard Sky+ (it’s like Tivo) recorded over it. Oh well. Miles is averaging 11.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists in the Greek league, with 13% three-point shooting, alongside 10.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 25% 3FG in the EuroLeague.
– Oliver Miller’s last basketball gig was as the player/coach of the Arkansas RiverCatz (the Z makes it appeal to children!) in the ABA back in 2006/07. I don’t know how it went, nor what he does now. But he does (or did) have a clothing label called “Da O Zone”.
– Paul Miller now comes off the bench in Poland. For Anwil Wloclawek, Miller averages 10.7 points and 5.4 rebounds a game. One of my favourite memories from this past summer league was a clip of Quentin Richardson walking up to Miller with a camera on him, and repeatedly (and playfully) punching him, while Miller stood still and looked a bit bemused by it all. If you saw this too, you’d understand.
– Ricky Minard is in his second season with Premiata Montegranaro in Italy, where he seems to constantly go by the name Minardi for some reason. (I guess it’s deliberate and not just constant typos. By the way, best Formula 1 team of all time other than Forti.) Minard averages 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists, making him one of the leading scorers in Serie A. And that’s a pretty impressive boast.
– Albert “Miracles” Miralles is into his fourth season with Pamesa Valencia, and might be a lifer. Miralles averages 5.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 fouls in the EuroCup, and 5.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.5 fouls on the season in the Spanish league. To read a recent crudely translated interview of his, click this. Notice how it doesn’t mention the NBA anywhere.
– Dwayne Mitchell is in the D-League with the D-Fenders, who got allocated him after he was cut from the Lakers training camp. This is the benefit of signing lots of long shots to your training camp roster. The downside is when you get a Jason Richards or Mike Wilks-like situation, where the player gets injured in camp and you have to pay them for the full season. Mitchell averages 17.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists, but is shooting worse than ever from outside, with only a 19% three-point success rate.
– Finally, Jerome Moiso was Pops Mensah-Bonsu’s replacement at Joventut. How coincidental! Moiso averages 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in the Spanish league, while shooting 71% from the field.
– Chris McCray is playing in Italy for a second-tier team called Rimini Crabs, which sounds like the most painful affliction that a man can have. McCray averages 13.8 points and 4.1 rebounds for them.
– Taj McCullough is in the D-League, and started the year with the Erie BayHawks. He barely played there, averaging 6.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in eight games before being waived in late December, T-Mac was later picked up by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, for whom he averages a far better 15.6 points and 4.6 rebounds, while hacking up five and a half three-pointers per game. That’s a new idea.
– Cornelius “Scooter” McFadgon recently left his team in Chile to sign with Barako Bull (they’re missing a real trick if they don’t start marketing thundersticks as “Barmers”) in the Philippines.
– Ivan McFarlin is exactly where you’d expect him to be; Switzerland. Playing for whoever BBC Nyon are, McFarlin averages 15.1 points and 9.0 rebounds alongside such luminaries as Baptiste Cransac and Stephen Sir. Remember those names.
– It is hard to find Jeff McInnis news, considering that there is a reality TV chef of the same name who seems to be far more newsworthy. (I’ve never heard of him, but you can understand why headlines like this one get my attention.) I can assure you, though, that Jeff McInnis is not signed anywhere. And he may never be again.
– Nor will Aaron McKie, whose retirement seems for certain this time, as no one can randomly sign and trade him any more. McKie was inevitably waived by the Grizzlies, and later reprised the role as an informal Sixers assistant coach that he was stolen away from at about this time last year.
– Keith McLeod is with the Albuquerque Thunders in the D-League, and averages 14.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, shooting 27% from three-point range.
– Gerry McNamara went unsigned for a while after failing to make the Jazz roster, and then popped up in the D-League with the Reno Bighorns. McNamara averages 6.8 points and 3.3 assists on slightly disconcerting 38% shooting, backing up starting point guard Majic Dorsey.
– Antonio Meeking is also on that same team, and he leads the team with an 18.3 points per game average. He’s also second in boards with an 8.2 rpg average, yet he’s started taking more three-pointers. It’s not entirely working out, as he is 22-72 on the year, for a sub-par 31% average.
– Stanislav Medvedenko hasn’t played in a non-NBA professional game since the year 2000. Considering that he’s not in the NBA any more, hasn’t technically been in it for two years, and hasn’t really been for about four years, you can conclude that his career has reached a slight incline.
– Finally, Sammy Mejia is still with his Greek team AEK 1964. He averages 14.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, with the points per game being enough for eighth-best in the Greek league. It’s only good for second on his team, though, as former Notre Dame big man Torin Francis leads the team (and is second in the league) with a 17.4 ppg average, far in advance of anything that he has ever done before. But AEK are currently in last place in the Greek league anyway.
– Darrick Martin was waived by the Raptors midway through last season, and chose that moment to retire. Martin then stuck with the team anyway, in a sort of informal consultancy capacity. Maybe he consults with Will Solomon on how to take more shats. Martin recently has a court dedicated to him, news which would have been funnier if they’d named it the Derrick Murray Court instead. (Inside jokes all!)
– Torrell Martin started the season with Kepez BLD Antalya in Turkey, averaging 13.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, before upping sticks and moving about 20 feet to Greece. In three games for Kavala/Panorama, replacing Billy Thomas, Martin averages 11.0 points and 4.7 rebounds.
– Jamal Mashburn now does studio work for NBA Fastbreak, and is quite good at it, too.
– Chet Mason started the season in the powerhouse known as the ABA, playing for the Cleveland Rockers. Thankfully, he then stepped it up a notch, and was acquired by The Arsenal. Mason averages 11.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
– Tony Massenburg is the stuff of dreams. After shocking the world by signing with the Wizards for 2007 training camp, despite having been out of the game for two years and 40 years old by that time, Massenburg didn’t stop there. Perhaps unsurprisingly waived by the Wizards, Massenburg kept up the Tony Massenburg basketball legacy, by signing in Puerto Rico. In three games with Capitanes de Arecibo, Massenburg averaged 14.7 ppg, 9.7 rpg and 1.7 apg. Unfortunately, Massenburg is currently unsigned, and the dream of a thirteenth NBA team might be over again. But give it 18 months and he should get another shot.
– Bryant Matthews is out of prison and in Romania, which is probably much the same. (Joke!) For CSU Atlassib Sibiu, Matthews averages 21.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.7 steals.
– James Mays started the season with the Colorado 14ers, averaging 18.7 points and 8.7 rebounds in 12 games after being drafted second overall in the D-League draft. Unfortunately, he popped his knee out on the 30th December, and is out for the season.
– Amal McCaskill is a busy boy, always doing the rounds. McCaskill-free split last season between the CBA and the United Arab Emirates (which, I assume, pays rather nicely for former NBA talent), before resuming his world tour this season. Amal opened the season with Magnolia Beverage Masters in the Philippines (as always, remember that if the team has an awesome name, it’s probably in the Philippines), before moving on to Qingdao Double Star in China. In keeping with the tradition of former NBA players in China, McCaskill beasted, to the tune of 20.2 ppg, 12.1 rpg, 2.9 apg and 1.9 bpg averages. McCaskill now resides in Bosnia, playing for Bosnian league leaders BC Igokea, but I have no idea what he averages. Here’s a great picture of him, though.
– Finally, Jelani McCoy is another ex-NBA near-seven-footer doing the Chinese thing. For the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, serving as the replacement for Nigel Dixon, McCoy averages 27.9 points, 11.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 3.4 fouls, 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 74% from the floor. If you think that’s good, then check out Zhejiang’s other American import (you’re only allowed 2), Rodney White, who averages 35.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists. The Chinese league is fantastic. I wish I could watch this stuff.
– Erazem Lorbek’s weird route to the NBA continues with CSKA Moscow. Lorbek is averaging 10.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in only 17 minutes per game in the Russian league, alongside 11.5 points and 5.4 rebounds in 21 mpg in the EuroLeague. Lorbek is shooting 46/65 combined from the free throw line, for an average of 71%, which shows that he’s working on his flaws. He’s also a combined 7-14 from three point range, which is a welcome bonus.
– John Lucas III began the season with the Thunder, and actually made the team out of training camp. However, he was waived after about a week so that the team could bring in Steven Hill, unhappy as they were with their other nine big men. Lucas hasn’t signed anywhere since, and didn’t get into any games with the Thunder either, thus taking his points total for the year to 0. However, the Rockets are still paying him, and he hasn’t been there for donkey’s years. So life isn’t too bad.
– Kevin Lyde could only be in one place right now, and that place is Estonia. For the seminal starlets known as BC Kalev/Cramo Tallinn, Lyde averaged 10.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 38% FT in the EuroChallenge, as well as averaging 12.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 1.4 bpg in the Baltic League. Bet the parties must be wild. (I’m not kidding, either. Tallinn is THE new place for stag weekends, and all manner of holiday debauchery. Naturally, I’ve never been.)
– George Lynch is currently working for Southern Methodist University in some capacity, as an advisor or something. However, right now, he could feasibly be starting for the Hornets.
– Speaking of former Hornets, they could perhaps use Arvydas Macijauskas back there right now. And they could probably have him, too. Macijauskas is technically a member of the Olympiacos roster, but he hasn’t played all season, and he’s not about to either. It’s hard for me to fully understand what is going on, since I have to rely on crudely translated web pages, but as far as I can tell Macijauskas has been out for three months with a broken foot, sustained while training in Lithuania. However, Olympiacos is trying to have his contract terminated (and all the money he is signed for next season invalidated), claiming that Macijauskas’s injury was caused while he was playing around with his friends. Macijauskas is now healthy enough to play, and has been practicing with Prokom in Poland while waiting for the Greek courts to rule on his outcome, one which hasn’t been decided yet, as far as I know. Tau Ceramica and Lottomatica Roma are both interested in signing him once he becomes available.
– Jonas Maciulis is with Zalgiris Kaunas, as ever, staying with the team he’s spent most of his life with in spite of their financial problems. Maciulis averages 13.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in the Lithuanian league, as well as 13.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the Baltic League and 14/5/2 in the EuroLeague. This willingness to stay is being tested, however; Maciulis vowed to stay until the end of the season, despite not being paid for two months, but now powerhouse Spanish team Valencia has come in for his services. Zalgiris are demanding 500,000 Euros in a buyout, but Valencia are offering only half of it. If Zalgiris are as broke as it appears they are, then they’ll have to take it anyway.
– Tito Maddox still hasn’t played for five and a half years. The last time we had heard from him was in May 2008, in a story about the O.J. Mayo booster scandal; Maddox revealed that he had had surgery for a brain tumour, was living extremely modestly with his wife and children, and gave no direct statement as to whether basketball would be on the cards for him ever again. Nearly one year on, and still no comeback is underway.
– Renaldo Major is another Fresno State player who has had a tough go of it of late, as seems to be the unintentional theme of this list. Major missed all of last season recovering from open heart surgery. However, he’s now back to full fitness, and back in the D-League with his old team, the Dakota Wizards, for whom he averages 17.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game.
– Jackie Manuel is also in the D-League, and he still can’t much score. Defends like hell, though. In 36 mpg with the expansion Erie BayHawks, Manuel averages 8.5 points and 7.1 rebounds a game, along with 3.9 fouls, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks.
– Aleks Maric went undrafted out of Nebraska, played for 45 teams in summer league, didn’t get a training camp spot, and so went off to Europe. Maric averages 5.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in 12 minutes a game while backing up Curtis Borchardt for CB Granada in Spain.
– For Damir Markota news, click this. For his stats, read this: 4.5 ppg, 10.5 rpg in two EuroCup games, 5.8 ppg and 4.0 rpg in 5 Spanish league games.
– Finally, if you missed the previous Rawle Marshall update, then check this. Since that time, Marshall has been released by Cibona and signed with Lokomotiv Rostov in Russia, where he averages 21.5 points per game in the Russian league. Not a bad alternative, really.
For some reason, whenever we get a EuroCup game screened over here (something that happens way more than the screening of NBA games), it almost always involves Dynamo Moscow. It’s a bit annoying having to see the same old players out there time after time when there’s so many others that I’d rather watch. But it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either, because Dynamo Moscow (as is the case with all EuroCup teams) has plenty of good quality talent on it, and I get to see them all over again.
The most notable players on the Dynamo Moscow team are former Hawk swingman Travis Hansen, Spurs draft pick Robertas Javtokas, former Nets and Rockets forward Bostjan Nachbar, former Blazer and King forward Sergei Monia, big Lithuanian Darjus Lavrinovic, and Russian national team point guard Sergei Bykov. (Brian Chase, who recently signed with Dynamo, hasn’t played yet.) Travis Hansen has taken an acceptable NBA career and turned it into a beast of a European career, playing as a first option player on some of Europe’s better teams, showing a fine mid-range game, the ability to run the offence, and his ever-present athleticism. Nachbar is playing well against the far less athletic European opposition, and Monia still rocks the “I’ll do anything but shoot” approach that so befits a baby-faced tweener Russian. Lavrinovic is a good all-around player, with legit NBA size, an inside/outside game, good rebounding instincts and no ability to jump off the floor, and Bykov is a good little guard whose sensible and smooth play is making the loss of Jannero Pargo entirely survivable.
However, the one I’m going to focus on is Javtokas.
Often, the commentators talk of Robertas Javtokas’s 40-inch vertical. You may have heard about it yourself; it was his combination of great size and athleticism that made him interesting in the first place. However, it now seems misguided. Despite having a very nice dunk in their most recent game off of a pick-and-roll situation, Javtokas’s vertical appears to be little more than half of what it used to be. Whether this is due to just age (Javtokas turns 29 next month) or the fallout from his near-fatal motorbike accident for a few years ago, I couldn’t say. But this man doesn’t play like a leaper. He’s not Keon Clark, Tyrus Thomas or Chris Andersen. Instead, he’s more of a Kendrick Perkins.
But regardless of whatever stereotype you wish to force him into, Javtokas can play. Playing exclusively in the paint on both ends, Javtokas is tall and strong, and still with a decent (if oversold) vertical leap. This combination often gives him the size and athleticism advantage in European play, and would make him the equal of many NBA players. To go with that, Javtokas boasts good shot-blocking instincts and timing, a good rebounding rate, and some acceptable offence. Javtokas does not create much offence for himself, has no offence away from the hoop, and is not a post-up player (although when he drops a baseline spin on you, it’s usually mustard), but he is a decent finisher on the move. And that’s all that he really needs to be. His prognosis as a backup NBA centre is quite good; while he has his flaws (lateral quickness, needs a bib on offence, nothing away from the paint, etc), Javtokas can also impact the game in a positive way. This is something often underappreciated in a league that has players like Oleksiy Pecherov and Aaron Gray getting backup centre minutes.
It’s tough to say whether Javtokas’s window of opportunity with the Spurs has finally passed him by. For years now, the Spurs and Javtokas have had occasional flirtations that always seemed to end in Javtokas pricing himself out of the market. The Spurs would only stretch to a budget that pays him like the backup centre that he would be (such as what they gave Jackie Butler, Fabricio Oberto or Francisco Elson – about $2 to $3 million a year), whereas Javtokas wanted more of a three-year, $15 million deal. Every time, negotiations broke down, Javtokas went back to Europe, and continued to produce at a high level, while the Spurs went in another direction. But every time, they kept his rights.
Maybe that will pay off. Dynamo Moscow recently lost one of their big signings (Pargo) and another important guard (Hollis Price) after missing out on some of their payments. Times are tight the world over right now, and particularly so in the world of European basketball, which isn’t exactly a professional field renouned for its prompt, accurate salary payments. Last night’s Dynamo game was also only played in front of a half-filled stadium, despite its importance – with huge salaries committed to Nachbar, Hansen and others, and without huge amounts of money coming in, Dynamo might not be able to afford Javtokas next year.
Is there one more short left for him? He could certainly play in the NBA, and another Spurs draft pick – Luis Scola, who is one month younger than Javtokas – joined the league only last year, proving that it’s never really too late. The Spurs traded Scola’s rights, and perhaps could do the same to Javtokas, for whom there will surely be a market. However, the Spurs ought to consider bringing him over themselves – with Oberto only partially guaranteed, Kurt Thomas’s continued decline, Ian Mahinmi’s lack of progress, and Matt Bonner’s inevitable fall from brilliance, San Antonio could use an extra centre.
With Javtokas, they may have one in-house.
(As for the Marousi end of things, Sonics and Pistons fans may have been interested in the play of Andreas Glyniadakis. Well, he still continually runs around calling for the ball, and often gets it considering his improvement as an offensive player. Glyniadakis has a reasonably deft touch from six feet and in, and rarely drifts outside of the paint, And he developed a nice stroke from the free throw line, going 8-10, even though his technique seems to involve looking at the floor and standing up so quickly that he risks getting the bends. However, he is also one of the softest players you’ve ever seen, particularly at 7’1 and about 270 pounds. Glyniadakis is so against contact – and I’m not exaggerating here – that he won’t even take any contact when sitting screens, seemingly content with standing in the right place and rolling without causing any obstruction whatsoever, which is kind of what screens are for. On defence he is similarly soft, allowing Lavrinovic and Javtokas to repeatedly go up unchallenged, and not using his bulk to ever hit anyone. Lavrinovic had four and-ones in the game, and this is not a coincidence – Glyniadakis challenged few shots, and when he did, he merely put his little paws on them. Additionally, Minnesota Timberwolves fans who want to know how Loukas Mavrokefalidis is doing are going to be similarly disappointed – Mavman was extremely bad in this game. In fact, the only two things he did well were freeze Javtokas on a backpick for a layup in the first quarter, and then hit a three with Marousi down 19 late. That’s it. The rest of the time, he missed his shots (including a lefty hook shot that hit the side of the backboard), played weak defence, showed no agility, and was a non-factor on the boards. Mavrokefalidis is Marousi’s leading scorer in both EuroCup and Greek league play, averaging 12.4 and 11.7 ppg respectively, but he was awful in this one. And when the thing that will ever get him into the NBA is his scoring, it’s not good when it disappears so dramatically against quality opposition. Marousi’s bright spots included veteran American journeymen Billy Keys – who demonstrated good passing skills, as well as the ability to get his own from both long- and mid-range – and Jarod Stevenson, who proved he could shoot. That was about it. Pat Calathes worked hard, but achieved little. And he’s balding fast.)
– Anthony Lever-Pedroza is playing for a team called Soles de Mexicali, in a country that you can probably guess. About two hours ago, I watched a FIBA basketball magazine show that bizarrely and unexpectedly featured clips from a Soles de Mexicali game. I didn’t spot Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo, though. Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo averages 20.3 points in three Liga Americas games; also on his team are former Timberwolves guard Dejaun Wheat (who barely plays) and former Suns centre Horacio Llamas (who averages 16.3 points and 7.0 rebounds). That unlikely duo are both 35, seeing out their professional lives at Soles de Mexicali – where fringe NBA careers wind down.
– Ron Lewis is in Israel, averaging 16.3 points per game for Ironi Nahariya. Impressively, Lewis has shot 94 free throws to 140 field goals, for a 1.51 PPS average. Less impressive is the 72% that Lewis is shooting from the line, and the 25% that he’s shooting from three-point range. But he’s scoring at a very high efficiency anyway.
– Nick Lewis had a try-out in the Spanish LEB Gold to begin the year, but didn’t sign, and went back to the Bakersfield Jam in the D-League. Building on his decent season of last year, Lewis is averaging 16.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, averaging 1.45 points per shot. I stand by that metric, even if I stand alone.
– Sergei Lishouk is still with Azovmash Mariupol in his native Ukraine. Lishouk/Lischuk averages 7.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 3.0 fouls per game in the EuroCup, alongside 10.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 fouls and 1.2 blocks per game in the Ukrainian league. Since his rights were traded away by the Grizzlies last year, Lishouk can’t even get to the NBA summer leagues any more, seemingly closing the door on the NBA career of this soon-to-be 27-year-old veteran, who did so well for about twelve months and who then didn’t take it anywhere.
– Shaun Livingston has been rumoured to return to the Heat, although no one’s given me a reason as to the purpose of this yet. Speaking of the Heat, they’re the fifth best team in the Eastern conference without any kind of bench. It cannot overstated how good Dwyane Wade has gotten. He’s managed to take an extra massive leap forward. And I didn’t think he had another one in him.
– Randy Livingston retired at the end of last season and is now an assistant coach with his final team, the Idaho Stampede. Randy originally said that he was 99.5% sure that he was retired at the end of the 2005/06 season with the Chicago Bulls, but clearly changed his mind, and had a couple more good seasons in the D-League as well as one more short NBA stint with the Seattle Supersonics.
– Steve Logan has played a total of 24 games in the last four seasons. 19 of those were in the 2005/06 season. Since then, Logan has done the following; one game in Poland in November 2006 (1 point), four games in Israel in March 2007 (2 points, 4 assists), and one signing in Mexico in August 2008 (no games played). I do not know why his career has come to this. If you do, let me know at the usual address.
– David Logan is playing, unlike Steve, for Prokom Trefl Sopot in Poland. Other Prokom players already mentioned in this list have included Koko Archibong, Ronnie Burrell, Daniel Ewing and Pat Burke, with more to come. So they should be familiar to you by now, as should the Procol Harum jokes. Logan leads the team in scoring by miles, averaging 18.7 points, 3.2 rebounds. 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game in the Polish league, alongside 17.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.4 steals in the EuroLeague. David Logan, by the way, is a former NCAA Division II player of the year. This reminds me of what I wrote back during my Horace Jenkins update, in which I asked how many Division III players have played in the NBA. As far as I can tell, the answer is 7, but I don’t know who all of those seven are. Jenkins was one, as is Devean George. Andy Panko’s one-minute NBA career gets him on this list, and Greg Grant managed a few years with a variety of different teams. But as for who the rest are? I don’t know. If you do, usual address, etc.
– Raul Lopez is playing for Real Madrid, backing up Sergio Llull. Lopez averages 6.6 points and 3.1 assists per game in the Spanish league and 5.9/2.8 in the EuroLeague. However, he recently hurt his leg and will be out for three weeks, which probably means more time now for Pepe Sanchez. Speaking of, a post-Pepe Sanchez update update: Pepe Sanchez hasn’t scored a single point since the last time we checked in on him. Nice.
– It was really hard to find into on Felipe Lopez, so you’d better respect it now that I got it. Felipe is signed with Fuerza Regia Monterrey in Mexico, but he is also rumoured to be in talks with Saitama Broncos, a team in Japan’s BJ League. The Broncos are coached by another ex-Jazz player, David Benoit, which may explain this otherwise random connection.
And finally, some predictions. Buoyed by my success at suggesting that Steve Francis should be traded to Memphis, I’m going to do something never before seen on this blog. In place of my usual approach of dunking all over everybody else’s predictions, I’m going to try some of my own. It’s a brave, out of character, and (some would say) foolish move, which puts the pressure on me to be sensible and insightful, two things at which I struggle mightily. But I’m doing it anyway, if only as an exercise in personal development. I intend to come out of this exercise as a better, well-adjusted person. Consider this before you write insulting comments below.
Excuses now made, let’s run it.
1) Amar’e Stoudemire is going to the Bulls, if only because John Paxson is sick of hearing about the Pau Gasol thing. (In fairness, when he had an expiring contract, Jerry West didn’t want it, and wanted Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. Then later, when the Bulls didn’t have an expiring contract, it was the first thing Memphis wanted. The circumstances were a tad unfair.)
You heard it here first. Unless you’ve already heard it somewhere else, in which case you didn’t hear it here first. Or unless they don’t actually happen. In that case, you didn’t hear them here at all.
(EDIT: Here’s a third one – Bobby Jackson gets bought out by the Kings and signs with the Lakers. I’m calling it early.)
– I like it when guards constantly push the ball, but Devan Downey took this to extremes. He played like a mentalist, with one of the weirder 33-point outings that I’ve ever seen. Downey went 6-15 from two-point range, 7-9 from three, and 0-2 from the free throw line, making a series of tough threes when the game was out of reach that served only to make it overlap into the Syracuse game that was on afterwards. (Thanks for that, Devan.) He is one of the quickest players with the ball that I’ve ever seen, and clearly was a talented shot-maker. But he looked to pass about as much as Donte Greene, which is less excusable when you’re the lead guard who dominates the ball. And at 5’9 with a penchant for ball-watching, Downey didn’t have much value on the defensive end, either. He was explosive fun, much like a good curry night is, but he has some big old flaws.
– Alex Tyus is going to have a nice career ahead of him, somewhere. Decently sized, athletic and with some nice touch from both hands. I didn’t see him challenge a shot all night, which was worrying, but the offensive talent is there.
– Dominique Archie was impressive, too. He tended to drift towards the middle on defence, and toward the perimeter on offence, which was a bit odd. But he’s a good athlete, a slasher, a decent finisher, rebounder and help defender.
– Zam Fredrick’s professional future, as a 6’0 shoot-first-second-and-third scoring guard without a terrific shot making ability, looks speculative.
– I soon learnt that Nick Calathes is not much like Pat Calathes. At all. He’s far better, for a start. However, I worry about Nick’s future. It’s a lot easier to be a 6’6 lead guard with decent speed at the NCAA level, but it’s far harder to be in the NBA, where the athleticism, man-to-man defence and ball-handling of others all take a sharp upturn. Calathes looked comfortable on the ball, wasn’t flustered whenever the far shorter but infinitely quicker Downey was matched up against him, and passed the ball well. But Florida were only able to cope with the Calathes/Downey matchup by using the 5’8 and almost equally quick Erving Walker on Downey, on whom Calathes didn’t stand a chance. Walker played well, kept Downey out of the lane as much as could be expected, and was able to expose him back on the defensive end, but this highlights a problem Calathes is always going to have. As a point guard, he’s always going to have to play alongside someone who can help pick up the defensive matchups that he can’t handle, because any real speed seems to do for him. That’s going to mean playing primarily alongside point guard-sized players. And point guard sized players like to (and normally should) have the ball in their hands. If Calathes is going to be playing more off the ball – and I didn’t see anything that suggested that he could, but then again, they had no reason to take it out of his hands – he’s going to have to rely on his flat-footed jump shot and ability to be average when defending bigger guards. And if he’s going to stay as a tall primary ball-handler, he’ll have to up his mid-range game, Joe Johnson stylee.
– Sam Muldrow looked undersized, clumsy, strong and ruthless. So he’ll probably make a decent career in Europe.
– Mike Holmes was quiet for most of the game, so it’s hard to know what to make of his lefty mid-range jumperness. Similarly, Chandler Parsons didn’t do much that was significant, but he looked solid in all aspects, apart from his carnal desire to avoid shooting free throws.
Loosely-Informed Thoughts on Ohio State and Purdue Right Now
February 5th, 2009
I have watched a game and a half of Ohio State’s season in this past week, and I feel as though that makes me an expert on everything about them.
– The half a game comes from the second half of the Buckeye’s game versus Indiana on Saturday. When we (and by “we”, I mean “the entire nation of England”) joined the game, Indiana was losing by one, 59-58. God knows how, because they proceeded to show nothing at all. They had no big men, no defence, no inside game, no slashing, no spacing, and their guards just took it in turns to hoist up threes. This from the worst three-point shooting team in the conference, apparently. Still, guard Matt Roth’s performance will linger with me for a while; unlike everybody else, Roth could actually hit a three, and proved this by hitting nine of them, each from further away than the last. It was an impressive shooting performance, to say the least, and it kept Indiana in a game in which they were otherwise wildly overmatched. If ever I encounter Matt Roth again in my life, this will be the first thing that I think of. (I looked up Matt Roth on ESPN after this, to see if he was any good. He wasn’t, but I did find something fun; Roth is 40/96 on the season from three-point range, 11/13 from the free throw line….and 3/10 from two-point range. Nice. Daequan Cook is jealous.) There was literally nothing else to report from Indiana’s point of view, who are as undermanned as you’d heard they are.
– Ohio State’s seven-man rotation featured a starting line-up of Jeremie Simmons at point guard,William Buford at two guard, Jon Diebler as the other two guard, Evan Turner as both forwards and Dallas Lauderdale starting at centre. Off the bench were big man B.J. Mullens, small man P.J. Hill, and the occasional helping of Kyle Madsen. In the Indiana game, Buford and Turner did almost all of the scoring; versus Purdue, B.J. Mullens (who shot an opher versus Indy) was the third scorer. All Mullens really did, though, was catch good feeds – of his eight made field goals, four were dunks. One came from running the floor on an alley’oop, and three came from good setups by Turner and Buford. Mullens’s other field goals were a tip-in, a short put back, and a short left-handed banker that seemed slightly fortuitous. (I missed the other one. I’m assuming it was during OT, because ESPN cut away then. Either that or I was eating or something.) Buford and Turner were the standouts in both games; Buford demonstrated a fine jump shot, and that he knew how to get open for it, running to the open space and curling around screens, moving without the ball like a young Reggie Miller. (Note: Any comparison here is obviously complete and blatant embellishment, but I’m allowed to do it because commentator Steve Lavin did too. Lavin was good, by the way. Any man who can get endless food and baseball references into a college basketball game is all right by me, and would be much loved by FireJoeMorgan.com.) Turner, meanwhile, demonstrated an absolutely mint mid-range game, showing a good jump shot with a high and smooth release, a crossover, good passing skills, a willingness to mix it up on the boards, the opportunity to work himself open for shots (crossover, spin moves, moving without the ball, etc), and the ability to finish in the paint. He didn’t look particularly athletic, but he was supremely skilled. On the flipside, all Dallas Lauderdale would do was block, goaltend and foul, and his free throw technique is all kinds of broken. And although Jeremie Simmons gave the Buckeyes a ball -handler, he didn’t do much with it except throw it away occasionally. When his back-up P.J. Hill came into the game, primarily for defence, Turner did a lot of the primary ball-handling and playmaking, and was better at it than Simmons. Nevertheless, Hill worked hard on defence, disrupting a few Purdue offensive sets, and could at least get the ball over halfcourt, if not make an entry pass. Lastly, Jon Diebler took several catch-and-shoot threes throughout the two games, but missed them all. it looked, though, like he was perfectly able to make them, and that he just didn’t. If that makes sense, good luck to you.
– Purdue, meanwhile, were supposed to be a great defensive team. If they are – and the caption that says that they give up only 36% FG shooting on the season would support this – then I didn’t see it. Turner took it in turns to take Chris Kramer and E’Twaun Moore off the dribble, and Buford curled around screens all day largely unchallenged. JaJuan Johnson, Purdue’s only big man, didn’t put forth enough effort on the glass, ending up with four rebounds in 35 minutes, two of which came from missed free throws. As advertised, Kramer tried hard, and routinely harassed the Ohio State ball-handlers even as far as the halfcourt line, but he was about the only one that played any effective defence. The mid-range game was exploited by Buford and Turner all night, and the Boilermakers were caught more than once not getting back on defence, leading to easy scores. (By the way, why the hell are they called the Boilermakers? That’s just awful.)
– On offence, Purdue had two main options – give it to JaJuan Johnson on the inside, or let Keaton Grant hoist up a three. Grant had a weird night – he hit some tough shots, but also had four airballs on open looks, and ended up going 4-12 from three-point range. The only two he took was also the only time he tried to put the ball on the floor, and he hit a tough jumper from the elbow. Outside of that, all he did was hoist up threes, with the aforementioned varying results; a one-dimensional shooter with an extremely streaky jump shot. Curious. Meanwhile, Johnson looked great, showing a fall-away jump shot, a right-handed hook, the ability to go up strong, to get fouled, and to hit the free throws. He always went right, which made things predictable, but he was the team’s primary option on offence, and at times their only option. Moore didn’t do a thing offensively all game, Lewis Jacksonshowed good passing instincts and techniques but no real ability to get his own points, and Kramer displayed decent form on the two open threes that he took (making one) and threw himself powerfully at the rim when presented with an open driving lane, to good effect. He was particularly brave in doing so considering that he was playing with a mask for a broken nose. Bonus points for effort, tenacity, and a blatant disregard for the aesthetics of his nose.
Ohio State won the game in overtime, 80-72. You can see the box score here. Or you can see a picture of a duck crossed with an alligator here.
Snowman update: my dog ate the nose, someone stole the hat, and the pipe fell out. However, the weather hasn’t been above freezing yet, and so he still survives as before, slightly icier but just as large. Good times.
Before the list starts, here’s a quick TRIVIA QUESTION: which one of the following players has scored the second most regular season points in the NBA? Answer at the bottom.
– Herve Lamizana recently left his team in the United Arab Emirates and joined Al Ittihad (and his wife Jean) in the Egyptian league. I can’t imagine where I’ll ever say that sentence again. I don’t have any stats for Lamizana, but if you like your college basketball enough to remember the names of obscure American players from about a decade ago, then here are Lamizana’s American team mates: John Thomas III (college: St Francis), Derrick Franklin (Columbus State) and Chauncey Leslie (Iowa). Those three are nothing to be sniffed at: between them, they’ve won the Turkish second division, a Jordanian league championship, and a Hungarian Cup runners-up medal. You can’t deny experience like that.
– Maciej Lampe is still going, and getting somewhere. In his third season with Khimki, Lampe is averaging 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in the Russian league, both team highs, alongside 13.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in two EuroCup games. These numbers come on a stacked team that also features Jorge Garbajosa, Kelly McCarty and Carlos Delfino, amongst others. Lampe was a joke back in the day, but not any more.
– Sean Lampley is signed with Al Arabi (and his wife Jean) in the Qatarian league. As if he could be anywhere else.
– James Lang averages 8.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.6 minutes for the Utah Flash. That’s extremely good production in such a short amount of time. That’s what Tyrus Thomas does on average every night, and he plays more minutes than that. So why does Lang only play 19 minutes a game? Because he also averages 4 fouls a game in that short time. And that’s….a lot of fouls.
– Kris Lang is in Turkey, averaging 5.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game in Turkish league play for Turk Telekom Ankara. Lang also averages 5.3 points and the same number of rebounds in the EuroCup. His full first name is Kristoffer, which is indefensibly bad spelling, although it does explain his abridged version.
– Trajan Langdon is with CSKA Moscow, and has been since 2005. Langdon averages 11.4 points in the Russian league and 11.8 in the EuroLeague, numbers slightly down on last year.
– Keith Langford is playing for Virtus (La Fortezza) Bologna, the team that won’t play Petteri Koponen, and that Earl Boykins briefly walked away from. Langford averages 11.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.6 steals and 0.8 blocks in the Italian league, and 15.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.6 blocks in the EuroChallenge. Combined, Langford has totalled 293 points on 193 shots, which for points per shot fans is 1.52 PPS. And that’s a lot when you score that much.
– Dan Langhi is unsigned after a short stint in Puerto Rico over the summer. He didn’t play for the whole of the previous season, and was in Japan before that. Before that he apparently had a try-out with the Kings, which I totally don’t remember.
– Stephane Lasme plays for Partizan Belgrade, averaging 11.2 points, 6.8 points and 1.8 blocks in the Adriatic League, and 10.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in the EuroLeague. Partizan recently knocked off Lottomatica Roma in the EuroLeague’s Final 16 and continue to surpass everyone’s expectations, in no small part due to Lasme’s play.
– Charles Lee plays for Goettingen in Germany, alongside Santa Clara guard and porn star Kyle Bailey. Lee averages 13.2 points and 4.1 rebounds, doing quite a lot of scoring for a non-scoring role player. Such is the German league.
– Maarty Leunen is playing for the wonderfully named team of Darussafaka in Turkey. Leunen leads the team in both points and rebounds, averaging 12.2 points and 6.1 rebounds, making him exactly 61% of a 20/10 player.
TRIVIA QUESTION ANSWER: Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Trajan Langdon. The list is as follows:
Lamizana – 0
Lampe – 215
Lampley – 203
J. Lang – 11
K. Lang – 0
K.D. Lang – 0
Clubber Lang – 0
Lang Whitaker – 0
Langdon – 647
Langford – 2
Langhi – 393
Lasme – 83
Lee – 0
Lenard – 6,745
Leunen – 0
CONCLUSION: This list really scrapes the bottom of the barrel.
– Coby Karl began the season with the Idaho Stampede before going to Spain and DKV Joventut Badalona to replace Bracey Wright. He averaged 18.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists for Idaho, and has appeared in all of one game for Badalona, scoring two points in two minutes on 0-2 shooting.
– Former Magic centre Mario Kasun – who I like to consider the forerunner to Marcin Gortat, albeit not as good, because nobody is as good as Marcin Gortat – is signed with Efes Pilsen in Turkey, but has missed most of the season through injury. Returning about three weeks ago, Kasun has so far totalled 25 points and 15 rebounds in two Turkish league games, and a 10-minute 8-point performance in his sole EuroLeague game versus Real Madrid.
– Sasha Kaun is with CSKA Moscow, craftily located in Moscow. As is the case with young players in Moscow, Kaun kaun’t much get off the bench, averaging 2.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in nine Russian league games, and totalling 2 points and 6 rebounds in four EuroLeague games. Kaun was also drafted in the fifth round of the CBA Draft, but that’s not much of a boast, because the CBA Draft is the most pointless thing in the world. “Quick, let’s draft these players so that we’ll hold their rights if they decide to join the CBA!…..Oh no, wait, they got NBA contracts instead. Damn. If only they knew of all the needlessly misspelt fun that we have here at the Pittsburgh Xplosion.”
– Tre Kelley is with Eldan Ashkelon in Israel, forming a lethal tiny backcourt with Steve Burtt Jr. Kelley averages 11.3 points and 2.9 assists, as part of a three-guard rotation with Burtt and some Israeli guy called Avi Ben Chimol.
– Viktor Khryapa also plays for CSKA Moscow, who lead the Russian Superleague comfortably with a 14-0 record. Informal rule for you here: if they’re Russian, and their name starts with K, they probably play for CSKA Moscow. On a stacked team, Khryapa averages 9.0 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.9 spg and 0.8 bpg in the Russian league, numbers which drop to 6.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.4 apg, 1.3 spg and 0.9 bpg in the EuroLeague.
– Kerry Kittles’s Wikipedia page says that he is working for the Nets as a part-time scout. I can’t find anything that validates this, but it seems like an unlikely lie, so I’ll go with it. Speaking of Kerry Kittles, here’s a fun fact about giraffes: male giraffes swill the urine of female giraffes around their mouths to detect whether she’s ready for some giraffe loving or not. Oh, and apparently, between 40-95% of giraffes have had a homosexual experience. That’s a rather vague estimate, but in any case, it’s a rather high number.
– Petteri Koponen is strangely not playing a lot. For Fortezza Bologna, Koponen averages only 2.3 points, 0.9 assists and 1.3 steals in Italian league play, rising to 7.1 points, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals in EuroChallenge play.
– Guess where Yaroslav Korolev plays. Go on, guess. Remember the informal rule above. Did you guess CSKA Moscow? If so, you were duped; Korolev actually plays for CSKA’s cross-town rivals, Dynamo Moscow. Or rather, he doesn’t play. Korolev has totalled 4 points and 10 rebounds in seven Russian league games, and 5 points and 1 rebound in two EuroCup games, unimpressive numbers all around. He has also spent some time with the Dynamo under-23 team this season, in a bid to make him better. Korolev is still only 21, so there is time yet for him, but as time goes on, the fact that the Clippers drafted him at #12 when he was only 18 years of age continues to look worse and worse. It’s particularly bad when you consider that Danny Granger (who plays the same position as Korolev, yet who is now fifth in the NBA in scoring) was picked #17 in the same draft. Whoops.
– Kevin Kruger started the year with Lukoil Akademik in Bulgaria, but left the team in December, as did Kenny Adeleke. Kruger averaged 12.0 points and 7.5 assists in two Bulgarian league games, and 13.0 points and 2.0 assists in two EuroCup games. He was later replaced by Willie Deane.
– Ibrahim Kutluay – who ranks pretty highly on Rick Sund’s all-time mistakes list – just turned 35, and is now playing in the Turkish second division with ITU Istanbul. I don’t really know why Ibrahim Kutluay ever joined the NBA in the first place, but I do know that he’s never joining it again. This is a bold statement, I know.
– Finally tonight, Christian Laettner now part-owns the operating rights to Major League Soccer team, D.C. United, but the website for his real estate company Blue Devil Ventures no longer works. This is a shame, because you could email Christian directly from it back in the day. Oh well.
– You did it! You did it! You waited for your Alexander Johnson news! Be proud of yourself, and then proceed to hate me, as I tell you that there isn’t any. Johnson started the year in Germany with Brose Baskets Bonn, averaged 11.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.4 fouls in 11 German league games, before leaving last month and being replaced (sort of) by Dan Dickau. Johnson is now unsigned, but, in better news, Dickau has scored 37 points combined in the two games that he’s been there.
– Jumaine Jones was reportedly suspended from European basketball for a year in September by FIBA, for the weird yet wonderful crime of signing contracts with two different teams at the same time; one with Alyssa Milano, and one with Ural Great Perm in Russia. However, he’s been playing for the greatly-named Great Perm anyway, averaging 6.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in Russian league play. How that is possible, I don’t know – Russia is in kind of both Europe and Asia, depending on which you want to count it as at any given moment. However, Great Perm have played in both the EuroCup and EuroChallenge this season, and, as the names would suggest, those are European competitions. Yet Jumaine has been playing in them, averaging 9.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in the EuroChallenge. Presumably some sort of settlement was worked out; any answers as to how specifically this is possible?
– Eddie Jones was bought out by the Pacers in preseason after being traded from the Mavericks, and hasn’t been heard from since.
– Dwayne Jones went to training camp with the Magic, didn’t make it, went to Turkey with Efes, played two games, scored one point, grabbed one rebound, came back to America, signed with the Bobcats, averaged 2 and 2 in 6 games, got waived, went to the D-League, was acquired by the Iowa Energy, played one game, scored one point, grabbed one rebound, got traded to the Idaho Stampede, and has since averaged 12.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks through eight games. That sentence is more fun if you take all 16 commas out.
– Amazingly, there isn’t an update on former Orlando Magic guard Mark Jones, a player so obscure in the grand scheme of things that not even some Orlando Magic fans have heard of him. Jones still hasn’t played since a stint in the Ukraine in 2006, and now that he’s about to turn 34, there probably won’t be another one.
– In a fourteen month period from September 2007 to November 2008, Bobby Jones played on twelve different teams. Having spent the whole previous season with the Philadelphia 76ers, Jones was traded to the Denver Nuggets in the offseason Reggie Evans/Steven Hunter swap. He made it through until the January contract guarantee date before being waived by Denver, at which point he started travelling again. Jones soon signed a ten-day contract with the Grizzlies, but didn’t get a second one, and went to the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. After nearly a month and five games there, Jones earned another ten-day contract with the Houston Rockets, but again a second wasn’t forthcoming. Jones then instantly signed a ten-day contract with the Heat, and this time re-signed to a second one, but unfortunately didn’t get signed for the remainder of the season. By this time, however, he was probably used to that. Another ten-day contract followed, with yet another team (the Spurs), and after that one expired, Jones wound up back where it all started, signing a contract through the end of the season with an unguaranteed 2008/09 season attached with the Nuggets again. Unfortunately, that still wasn’t it for Bobby; he was traded to the Knicks along with Taurean Green in exchange for Renaldo Balkman, and then waived almost instantly by the Knicks. BJ subsequently re-signed with the Heat after summer league, but didn’t even make it as far as training camp, being waived in August. Never fear, though, for Jones did make it to an NBA training camp, this time with another new team, Sacramento. But Jones didn’t make the cut there either, and has since gone back to the Skyforce, where he has managed to enjoy the relative job security of 25 games in a row with the same team. (Phewph. That was harder to write than to read, I promise.) For the Skyforce, Jones averages 15.1 points and 7.8 rebounds; decent numbers, but not good enough for another ten-day contract. Yet.
– Alvin Jones’s tale is far easier to tell – he’s unsigned.
– Jared Jordan went to training camp with the Hornets, failed to make the cut on a team with an open roster spot and a desperate need for a point guard, and then disappeared off the map for a bit. In December, Jordan reappeared, and was acquired by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, yet earlier this month he was waived due to a high ankle sprain that was due to keep him out for two weeks. But he’ll be back. Jordan averaged 8.6 points and 6.2 assists in what little time he managed.
– Antoine Jordan started the season nailed to the bench for the Tulsa 66ers, then left the team in December and went to the seminal Dutch league. In two games for the mighty Matrixx Magix of Nijmegen, Jordan averages 12.0 points and 5.5 rebounds, due solely to the highly competitive and truly classy nature of the Dutch league.
– Zhang Kai, as expected, went back to China after not making the Kings roster out of training camp (surprisingly!). For the DongGuan New Century – the team that he’s been with since roughly conception age – Zhang averages 19.9 points and 9.6 rebounds, making him arguably the best Chinese player under the age of 30 other than Yao Ming.
– Finally, two players you don’t know much about. The Spurs and Blazers are often lauded for their draft choices, which often yield talent unbefitting of the draft spot from which they were picking. They get a few “steals” in this way. Unfortunately, these two weren’t two of them. Portland’s Federico Kammerichs is a soon-to-be 29-year-old extremely bearded forward, who is playing in the powerhouse known as the Argentinian league. For the irrepressible Regatas Corrientes, Otacon averages 13.4 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, numbers that sting your eyes with their briliance. Meanwhile, the Spurs’s Sergei Karaulov is comparably brilliant, as the soon-to-be 27-year-old extremely unbearded centre is playing for Nizhny Novgorod, a team in the Russian second division. If you’re really that interested, you can work out his averages for yourself from this confusing thing. Here’s a starting point; he’s number 15. Hope this helps.
In keeping with my new policy of talking about every game that I watch that isn’t an NBA game, here’s what I observed from last night’s EuroCup game between Iurbentia Bilbao and the home Lithuanian team with a Yorkshire inflection, Lietuvos Rytas. Go.
– Bilbao’s line-up features only three Spanish nationals; point guard Javier Salgado, backup guard Paco Vazquez, and a really slow inside player with a massive head and greasy mullet called Salvador Guardia. The rest of the team was made up of foreign players, and it was pretty stacked; former, future and potentially future NBA talent on show included former Bucks forward and avid partygoer Damir Markota, former Jazz and Timberwolves swingman Quincy Lewis, former Heat tryer-outer Luke Recker, former Chicago Bulls summer league participant Drago Pasalic, Mavericks second-rounder Renaldas Seibutis, former Nuggets guard Predrag Savovic, the man the legend known as Frederic Weis (who did not play), Latvian international guard Janis Blums, and Croatian international big man Marko Banic.
– Lietuvos, meanwhile, had only two players that weren’t Lithuanian – former South Carolina point forward Chuck Eidson, and Serbian big man Milko Bjelica, whose name sounds more like a lovely pudding. The rest of the team was made out of old clunky Lithuanians. (Eidson was awesome, by the way, and easily the best player in the game, despite all the talent and internationals on the court. But we’ll come to this later.)
– For Bucks fans who fancy a cheap laugh at the expense of Damir Markota, I’ve got good news – he was pretty awful. Markota came off the bench in the first half, and did nothing at all, but for some reason he started the second half in place of Pasalic. He then proceeded to get involved on every possession, and normally in a bad way. On his team’s first trip down the court, Markota took a contested NBA range three-pointer with about seven seconds gone in the half. It missed. On the next possession, Markota was stripped by Donatas Zavackas while standing at the top of the arc, leading to a Zavackas one-on-none breakaway lay-up. And it was a one-on-none breakaway lay-up because Markota decided not to bother chasing him. Over the next few possessions, Markota grabbed a good offensive rebound before missing the four-inch put-back, took another 27-foot three (which also missed), shouted at the refs, threw a terrible pass into the corner which Javier Salgado somehow caught and turned into a circus three, and was then subbed out for Pasalic. He later returned, and played most of the second half, grabbing several rebounds, but remained very out of the game on offence. He also spent the entire game with a huge wedge of cotton in his left ear, one that was at least in keeping with the Bilbao team’s desire to wear quirky apparel; Luke Recker wore black knee high socks and a full beard, which made him look a bit like a lumberjack battling with repressed homosexuality, and Quincy Lewis wore a bizarre sky blue full-length lycra elbow support thing that could conceivably have come from a fetish website.
– Speaking of Recker and Lewis, they struggled a bit. Recker was never in the game in the first half, turning down good shots and taking bad ones, while supposedly in there as a speciality shooter. He improved in the second half, working his way around screens (mainly from Guardia) for open looks, and playing decent help defence. But Lewis was extremely quiet, barely taking any shots or touching the ball on offence. Bilbao got very little offence from the wing positions in general, as no one other than Spanish national point guard Salgado was able to get into the lane. The other primary ball-handlers that Bilbao used – Janis Blums and Paco Vazquez – were completely taken out of the game by an unrelenting Rytas defence that denied almost all penetration and took away the passing lanes. Seibutis was the only other guy to get to the rim, and he did this precisely twice. Bilbao’s offence was predominantly featured around Banic, who demonstrated good moves and good touch around the rim, using head fakes and spin moves to get himself open shots. However, at 6’9 and 230, with little athleticism to speak of, and no apparent interest in defence or rebounding, Banic looked like what he was (a decent player in high level European competition, going up against similarly clunky continentals with receding hairlines) and not what I’m really looking for (possible NBA players). And for those Bulls fans wondering….yes, Drago Pasalic’s jump shot is still absolutely mint. He showed a nice hook shot, too, and he’s also grown his hair out. But he still sets the softest screens in showbiz.
– Lietuvos were basically all about Chuck Eidson. Technically playing the small forward, Eidson took most of the lead guard duties, and made about 12 great passes to only one bad one. He was easily the best passer on the court, and he was probably the best shooter too, albeit with a bizarre and anomalous 2-7 night from the free throw line. Eidson’s weaknesses were quickly self-evident – he has almost no right-handed dribble, carrying the ball on one of his two attempts to go right and getting blocked on the other, and he wasn’t fast or athletic for a 6’7 player. But he was very skilled, with ball-handling that belies his height, a jump shot that looked smooth both off the dribble and off a curl, plus them’s there quality passing skills. He reminded me of Lamar Odom, if Lamar Odom couldn’t rebound or play defence, and if he wasn’t athletic. And if he was four inches shorter. And if he could shoot. And if he wasn’t actually Lamar Odom. (Basically, the likeness started and ended with them being left-handed. Maybe Kasib Powell would be a better comparison. Or Luke Jackson. Or maybe no comparison at all would be a good comparison.)
– A non-name dropping name drop coming up – I once had a conversation with an NBA general manager about the future of the Lithuanian national team. We agreed that there wasn’t one. With that in mind, I paid particular attention to the Lithuanian players that Rytas has on show (as well as Bilbao’s Litho, Seibutis). Most of them were over or dangerously close to 30 years of age, and the only three who weren’t that played (Arturas Jomantas, Steponas Babrauskas, Justas Sinica) were three of the four players used off of the bench, along with Milko Bjelica. Bjelica, a 24-year-old centre, showed little. Sinica, a skinny 6’8 23-year-old forward, was largely docile, and took only three shots, all three-pointers with a very slow release, making one. Babrauskas didn’t look to be the 6’5 that the packaging suggested, but he displayed a decent jump shot, albeit while playing exclusively off the ball. The one who showed promise, though, was Jomantas; a 6’7 swingman, Jomantas looked pretty fluid with the ball, and made two open three-pointers (albeit while missing two others really badly). His ball pressure was good, and his help defence on inbounds plays or when trapping Paco Vazquez on the pick-and-roll was consistently effective. His work rate was good (as it was for all players, even Markota; they truly cared), and he fought for rebounds that weren’t rightly his. Jomantas was, however, a bit slow. Seibutis, meanwhile, played almost exclusively off the ball as the two guard, which seems far more sensible of a position for him than the point guard he is occasionally confused into being. What few shots he took were good looks that he made smoothly, and he looked quicker than I remember. A massive red flag, however, was his defence – often charged with the match-up on Chuck Eidson, Sighbooties barely obscured Eidson’s path to the rim, and could never seem to make Chuck drive right, as he so badly needed to do.
That is all I’ve got. There was another EuroCup game on, featuring Khimki versus Dynamo Moscow. But while I did watch it, I was busy priming a rifle, with which to then shoot myself in the head. That’s how bad the commentary was. I’d explain further, but I daren’t.
Rytas won, by the way, by a score of 73 to 71. You can find the box score here.
– Chris Jefferies is a weird story. A first-round draft pick back in 2002, Jefferies got an opportunity to showcase himself back in his rookie season with an injury-depleted tanking Raptors team. He didn’t do much with it, though, and he was a throw-in in the trade the following season that saw Antonio Davis and Jerome Williams go to Chicago. It was there that Jefferies won my heart, demonstrating a decent set shot, interested defence, and a staggeringly bad handle in traffic. Jefferies was waived during the following offseason, out of the league after only two seasons. He then signed in the ABA with the Visalia Dawgs, a team that tried to reunite talent from the Fresno area. The team changed its head coach and renamed itself partway through its first season to the Central Dawgs, finished with a 3-20 record, and then folded. Jefferies has not played anywhere since, and this was nearly four years ago now. A Hoopsworld article from this time in 2007 talked about how Jefferies was rehabbing after multiple surgeries, but nothing came of that. C-Jeff turns 29 in less than a fortnight’s time, and his basketball career has been on hold for far too long now. Is he even trying to come back any more? If you know, let me know. Because I care about you, Chris Jefferies. We all care.
– Dontell Jefferson is in the D-League, and somewhat starring, as one of only three Utah Flashers that you will have ever heard of. (The other being James Lang and Ronald Dupree.) Jefferson averages 18.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 3.5 turnovers a game on a decent Flash team.
– Horace Jenkins is with Eldo Caserta in Italy, but his scoring numbers are less than usual, averaging only 10.1 points per game. Then again, Jenkins is 34 now, so a slowdown will happen. Fun game: name as many Division III players that you can think of who made the regular season roster of an NBA team. I’ll give you a clue; Horace Jenkins is one. DeeAndre Hulett is not.
– Brandon Jennings is in Italy with Lottomattica Roma, as well you know. He might not be having as much fun as he’d like, but the numbers are OK from a 19-year-old American at Europe’s highest level: Jennings averages 6.1 points and 2.1 assists in Italian league play, and 7.5 points and 1.1 assists in EuroLeague play. However, Jennings is a combined 23% from three-point range (15/65) and 37% overall (63/170), these numbers coming from the shorter European three-point range to boot. I’m not smart enough to know where his draft stock is at the moment, but fully ready he is not.
– Pooh Jeter averages 16.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists for Vive Menorca of the Spanish ACB. A decent European career awaits; an NBA career does not.
– Britton Johnsen left the Jazz before training camp began to join up with a team in Ukraine. It didn’t happen, however, and Johnsen went unsigned for a while before joining up with PAOK Marfin Thessaloniki in Greece to start this year. In four games with the team, Johnsen has averaged 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds.
– DerMarr Johnson is unsigned, as the NBA finally realises that he is not fulfilling the potential that they’ve been banking on for seven years.
– I don’t know what Ervin Johnson does now. At age 41, I don’t think a comeback is on the cards.
– Linton Johnson made the Bobcats very briefly at the start of this season, as a part of their constant big man turnover. This came after being waived from the Wizards’ training camp, bringing the number of teams that Linton has signed a contract with at some point (summer league excluded) to nine. Not bad. Johnson is currently unsigned, not even in the D-League, clearly waiting for the tenth to come a-calling. Might I suggest him to you, Cleveland?
– Remember Ken Johnson? So does Ken Johnson. The other KJ averages 7.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.9 blocks in German league play for Telekom Baskets Bonn, alongside 7.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in EuroChallenge play. Who was it who said the German league wasn’t worth anything? You, sir, were wrong. Your league houses Ken Johnson. Therefore, the level of quality of that league speaks for itself.
– Finally, Arthur Johnson is unsigned, after spending last season with Eldo Caserta (look up to the Horace Jenkins bit). Johnson averaged 13.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg and 2.7 spg for Caserta, but this was when they were a Lega Due team.
If you can’t get enough Johnson, then despair not, for the next update brings more news of Johnson goodness – Alexander Johnson news will be coming your way shortly. If you can’t want until then, here’s some bonus Johnson: Trey Johnson just signed a ten-day contract with the Cavaliers, meaning the league now has four Johnson’s in it. And that’s enough for anyone.
I’m kind of overexcitable today, with a level of maturity that belies my 24 years of age. I feel pretty much like a small child today. And I feel like a small child today because I’ve just acted like one. Today, 2nd February 2009, marks the day that I built the first snowman of my life. And here it is:
Experienced snowmen builders out there will have noticed a few faults in my technique. For example, it’s plain to see that I’ve fallen into the usual rookie trap of making a base that is way too big, overestimating what I will have the patience to achieve, and then having to hurriedly heap snow on top, crudely falling into kind of a cone shape, making my snowman’s body resemble a sumo wrestler melting. Additionally, I don’t have any coal, so the classic coal eyes have had to be replaced by a pair of police aviators. I also didn’t have a carrot, so a parsnip suffices as the nose, and insulating tape forms a rudimentary mouth shape for no particular reason. I also have no explanation as to why he is holding a retro early 90’s tennis racket, or a duck on a stick, but these additions seemed vital at the time. As did the Stetson. But I’m proud of it anyway, because it’s my first one. And everyone remembers their first time.
Why haven’t I built one before? Well, because it’s never snowed like this before. And why am I telling you all this? Because I felt like it. Anyhoo. To some basketball stuff.
– Serge Ibaka played in the LEB Gold last year, and has upgraded to the ACB this year. He’s not tearing things up at the moment, with sedate averages of 6.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 1.0 bpg, but those numbers are pretty good from a 19-year-old in the ACB. So much so, in fact, that according to ESPN’s Chris Sheridan, his rights are hot property.
– Mile Ilic is also in Spain and the ACB, playing for Cajasol Sevilla, the team currently in last place. Ilic isn’t really helping, as he averages 2.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.6 blocks and 1.6 fouls per game through 12 games. Those numbers improved to 6.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in EuroChallenge play, but, now aged 24, excuses of rawness are running thin.
– Ersan Ilyasova is one of the highest paid players in Europe, and is still a restricted free agent of the Milwaukee Bucks. However, rumours instead of being the 21-year-old Turk that we believe him to be, he might actually be a 24 year old Uzbekistani, if unconfirmed reports are telling the truth. Ilyasova averages 10.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in the Spanish League for Barcelona, along with 9.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in the EuroLeague.
– Jermaine Jackson is with Snaidero Udine, who currently place last in Italy’s Serie A. Jackson averages 8.1 points, 5.8 assists and 3.3 steals, as the passer to Rashad Anderson’s scorer, but hasn’t played since December due to a groin injury, and has returned to the US to get it looked at.
– I’ve no idea what Jim Jackson does now, but the answer is not ‘playing professional basketball’.
– Luke Jackson is back in the D-League, averaging 16.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.4 turnovers for the Idaho Stampede. Will he ever make it back to the NBA for more than three weeks at a time?
– Marc Jackson is back to doing what he does best – bouncing around Europe, finding work in whichever country he can get. As far as I can tell, though, he doesn’t have any right now. Jackson signed with UNICS Kazan for preseason, but he doesn’t appear to be on their roster, or their season statistics, and I watched a UNICS Kazan game last week in which Jackson wasn’t even mentioned. So I’m guessing he’s not there any more. (By the way, here’s something that I learnt from that game: Vladimir Veremeenko = skilled, versatile, a bit clumsy.)
– Casey Jacobsen is back in Germany, the country that was so good to him back in 2007. For ALBA Berlin, Jacobsen averages 10.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the German league, along with 6.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the EuroLeague. Unfortunately, on the latter stage, Jacobsen’s shot has left him (just like it did last season) – he’s shooting only 33% in EuroLeague play, while shooting almost exclusively three-pointers. But in the German league, Jacobsen averages 1.62 points per shot, and anyone who knows me knows how much I love that metric. It’s like true shooting percentage for lazy people. Good times.
– Jan Jagla is with DKV Joventut Badalona in Spain, a team that features heavily throughout this list. (Or at least, it will do.) Jagla averages 7.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 0.9 blocks in 17 minutes per game in the Spanish league, rising to 9.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and the same defensive stats in an extra minute per game in the EuroLeague.
– Sarunas Yassercabbages is with Panathinaikos, as he has been since falling out of the NBA. For Panathinaikos, Jasikevicius is doing the thing he couldn’t do in the NBA – producing. His averages (10.9 ppg, 2.9 apg in the Greek league, 8.0 ppg and 2.3 apg in the EuroLeague) might not seem like much, but that team is stacked. You’ve got Jasikevicius, Dimitris Diamantidis, Vassils Spanoulis, Antonis Fotsis…..and they’re just the players whose names end in S.
– Finally, for my views on Robertas Javtokas‘s NBA prospects, click this. For his numbers, keep it right here: Javtokas averages 13.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in the EuroCup, along with 8.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the Russian league.
– Little Jeff Horner – who is kind of like John Stockton, only with better rebounding – averages 8.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.6 steals for Antibes. Antibes play in the French second division (Pro B), which undermines that Stockton comparison a bit. But still. Stockton didn’t play much in his rookie year, either. Give Horner time. He’s only 25. By the way, that bulge in my cheek is my tongue.
– Robert Horry is unofficially, but effectively, retired.
– Daniel Horton was released by Pau Orthez in December, after totalling 45 points on 49 shots, with 16 assists, in four games.
– Quinton Hosley is playing for Real Madrid, where he averages 6.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 16 mpg in the Spanish league, and 9.1 ppg and 3.3 rpg in the same amount of time in the EuroLeague. Other Real Madrid guards include former Michigan starlet and booster recipient Louis Bullock (one of the team’s leading scorers), former NBA journeyman Pepe Sanchez (who is still bad at scoring; on the season he has 48 assists to 20 points, on 6-28 shooting), Marko Tomas (who isn’t playing any more than he was the last time he was at Real), Raul Lopez (we’ll come to him later), and my own personal favourite, Sergio Llull. Nothing says “YES!” more than a 21 year old 5’10 point guard with terrific athletic ability and three-point range. I like this guy.
– Allan Houston is now a part of the Knicks front office, something which hopefully means no more comeback attempts. I know you don’t like how it ended, Allan, but to be honest I can’t see it ending any better even if you did make a mini-comeback. You did fine, really. Plenty of money, an NBA Finals appearance, two All-Star games…..you should totally be contented with that.
– Ron Howard is carrying basically the entire offence of his D-League team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Howard averages 16.6 points and 4.8 rebounds a game, but hasn’t hit a three all year, which is a valid concern when you’re trying to consider the NBA prospects of a 26-year-old 6’5 swingman.
– Marcus Hubbard is also in the D-League, averaging 9.0 points and 4.8 rebounds in 27 minutes a game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Hubbard (often) starts at centre for the Vipers, and is a fairly strong and athletic centre, in a league with an emphasis on pace and devoid of much size. And yet, he grabs less than five rebounds in 27 minutes a game.
– Troy Hudson is unsigned, and recently asked Olympiacos if they would sign him. Olympiacos said no.
– DeeAndre Hulett is also unsigned, as he was recently released by his Mexican team, Potros ITSON, who currently rank last in the Mexican league with a 8-34 record. Here’s a quick explanation of who DeeAndre Hulett is: DeeAndre Hulett was a second-round draft pick of the Raptors back in 2000. He played one year of college ball, for the Division III school “College Of The Sequoias”. (A powerhouse.) Hulett left after one season and went to the IBL in a bid to raise his draft stock. (A powerhouse.) After a season of averaging roughly 8/2, he declared for the draft, and was picked 46th, basically on account of his 48-inch vertical leap. Since then, Hulett has done the rounds, playing for at least four Dominican Republic teams, as well as stops in the CBA, USBL, NBDL [as it was], Italy, France, Germany, Finland and Iceland (a powerhouse), performing reasonably well against secondary standards of opposition.
But here’s what I’m thinking: Hulett never signed a contract with the Raptors at any point. He went to their summer league a few times, but that doesn’t count. As a result, the Raptors still own his draft rights. And right now, they need a swingman. And DeeAndre Hulett just left his Mexican team. Can you see where I’m going with this? It’s basically inevitable. Basically.
– Big Comfy Ryan Humphrey is also in the D-League, averaging 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 28 minutes per game for the Tulsa 66ers. He also averages 4.1 turnovers, a simply staggering amount, particularly in so few minutes a game and when playing in the paint. By the way, out of all the stupid nicknames I had to invent for players for this site, Big Comfy Ryan Humphrey is the one I’m most proud of. It has it all – rhyming, a Bryant Reeves reference, an accurate description of the player in question….yes, I’m proud of myself here. Less proud of the fact that this is what I do with my life, but justifiably proud at the sweet stench of unimportant success.
– Brandon Hunter is with Bread Mountain in Italy, averaging 14.9 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. Montegranaro are right in the middle of the table in Serie A, with an 8-8 record, despite Hunter’s big numbers. It probably doesn’t help that their team leader in assists is former Illinois, Magic and Kings point guard Kiwame Garris, who averages all of 2.4 assists per game.
– Jimmie “Snap” Hunter is the leading scorer (13.4 ppg) on a CB Granada team that hangs a lot nearer to the bottom of the ACB than they would like.
– Finally, since it’s becoming a habit now, here’s some more Kenny Adeleke news – he failed his medical with ALBA Berlin, thus nullifying the contract he had recently signed with them.
– Richard Hendrix is in the D-League, after being waived by the Warriors earlier this season, despite signing a guaranteed contract in the summer. I don’t really understand why, considering that they waived him while preferring to keep Rob Kurz and DeMarcus Nelson, whom they then waived three weeks later to avoid guaranteeing his contract, but whatever. Hendrix is still there if the Warriors want him, and apparently they don’t. Hendrix averages 13.6 points, 10.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.9 blocks in 32 minutes a game for the Dakota Wizz.
– Axel Hervelle is still with Real Madrid in Spain, and will be for at least two more years after this one. I got in trouble last time we talked about him, when I said that he hadn’t really gotten very far, so I’ll instead cop out this time and just give you his numbers: 6.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 0.8 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.7 bpg in the Spanish league, and 5.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.4 bpg in the EuroLeague. He’s a defensive role player.
– Kyle Hill is playing for Lucentum Alicante Costablanca in Spanish second division, alongside Taylor Coppenrath. Hill averages 12.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg and 1.6 apg, and is also about to turn 30; I don’t think the NBA beckons any more.
– Herbert Hill is unsigned, after a tryout with Le Mans in August showed only that he hasn’t recovered from his knee surgery yet.
– Steven Hill is back with Tulsa in the D-League after being waived by the Thunder. Hill averages 7.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game in total, but here’s the thing; as intriguing as Hill is as a prospect (and he is – athletic seven-footers with shot-blocking instincts like that are always worth tracking) there are some better-skilled big men in the D-League. Rod Benson, for example, can’t seem to get a shot in the NBA outside of one training camp spot. Courtney Sims got a ten-day contract with the Suns, but it was one and done. Pops Mensah-Bonsu can’t seem to get another shot in the NBA. Et cetera. These fellas are outproducing Hill in the D-League, so why is Hill the one who got the lengthy run on the Thunder’s roster, even if he did spend most of it on assignment? Basically this is just a long way of saying that I just want Pops back in the NBA. Let’s make it happen.
– Kyle Hines is signed with Prima Veroli in the Italian second division. In keeping with tradition, Hines is putting up beastly numbers, averaging 16.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.1 blocks in 31 minutes a game. Here’s the thing – he absolutely beasted in college, and while UNC Greensboro isn’t the biggest name school in the world, the list of names that feature on the 2000/1000 list is predominantly good NBA talent. Now in Italy (admittedly the second division), Hines again continues to beast, with simply awesome defensive statistics. My question, then, is this – a training camp spot somewhere? Yay? Nay? Pops Mensah-Bonsu? Who cares how short you are, when you can flat-out produce. Height factors, sure, but when you’re good, you’re good. And Kyle Hines looks to be good.
– Robert Hite started the year with Tau Vitoria in Spain, totalling 2 points in two games. He then left (Tau didn’t need him; they lead the Spanish league comfortably anyway), and later joined BC Oostende in Belgium, for whom he has totalled 40 points, 11 rebounds and 0 assists in two further games.
– Julius Hodge, the Jules of Harlem, was on his way to stardom in Australia earlier this season, averaging 26.3 points, 8.0 points and 6.0 assists (albeit 1-6 from three-point range) in eight games for the Adelaide 36ers. However, he then reportedly walked out on the team before a game, and there’s not been a real reason given as to why. Either way, it ended ugly, and the team only agreed to let Hodge out of his contract once he agreed to refund a sum of roughly $30,000 AUS that the team had forwarded him. Why they did this, I am not sure, but since Hodge had previously claimed that the team was behind on its payments, I guess he was wrong. Hodge was replaced by former Wizard, Rod Grizzard (it rhymes!), and Julius has since signed with Besancon Basket Comte Doubs, but hasn’t played a game for them yet.
– Fred Hoiberg is still an assistant general manager in Minnesota’s ever-confusing hierarchy of executives.
– Randy Holcomb hasn’t played since leaving his team in the Phillipines in July.
– Jared Homan is signed with Cibona Zagreb, averaging 4.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in the EuroLeague, along with 6.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in the Adriatic league.
– And finaly, Antoine Hood is just as out of basketball as the last time you asked. It’s been roughly two years since he was last in the D-League with the Colorado 14ers, and he hasn’t signed anywhere since. I don’t know why.
– Othella Harrington‘s option was not picked up by the Bobcats this year, which was about as surprising as finding vegetables in a bowl of vegetable soup. He remains unsigned, and maybe always will.
– Junior Harrington, meanwhile is not unsigned, and is playing for Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia. Junior has only played four games with the team, three of which were in the Adriatic League, but in that time he has totalled 53 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists. More important, he has shot a combined 9-13 on three-pointers, which is fantastic news if you’re the kind of person that likes to use 13-game sample sizes as the sole indicator of whether a man has fixed his once-broken jump shot or not.
– Adam Harrington is signed with Limoges in France, averaging 16.3 points and 2.6 rebounds. There’s nothing quite like the French second division for really bringing a man’s true talent out.
– Padraig Harrington recently became the first man to par the par-three Extreme 19th Legend Golf & Safari Resort in Limpopo, South Africa.
– Mike Harris is in China, and, as is customary with the Chinese league, his statistics are amusingly warped. For the DongGuan New Century, Harris averages 41.5 minutes a game, 32.2 points, 15.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.6 blocks a game, Wilt Chamberlain-like numbers. The talent pool in the Chinese league is lacking, as they continue to adapt their league and their game to the new, correct rules, and to a more athletic style of play. All teams are allowed two import players, and almost all of these teams use them on former NBA players (for example, Harris’s teammate is centre Jamal Sampson), and all these former NBA players get to put up absolutely dominant statistics while playing pretty much every minute of every game. It’s kind of weird. Fun, though.
– David Harrison is another American in China. Playing for the Shougang Beijing Ducks, Harrison averages 20.8 points, 11.4 rebounds, 4.4 fouls and 2.3 blocks a game. See? The Chinese league makes everyone’s numbers look good. (Harrison’s numbers, however, pale in comparison those of his teammate, Dontae – not Dahntay – Jones. Dontae averages 33.2 points and 14.2 rebounds in 44 minutes a game, proof enough that any 33-year-old former NBA player can go to China, shoot 43% from the field, and still look brilliant. Bear this in mind.)
– Donnell Harvey is signed – you guessed it! – in China. He, too, has truly awesome statistics that need to be taken with a pinch of Anthrax. For the Jiangsu Nangang Dragons of Nanjing, Harvey averages 29.2 points, 15.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.4 blocks a game, which is in keeping with the rules outlined above. David Harrison is starting to look pretty poor by comparison now, isn’t he?
– Matt Haryasz is NOT signed in China, which is a shame, because he could probably use the stat warpage on offer. For BC Oostende in Belgium, Haryasz averaged 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in the EuroCup, good numbers that look damn near insignificant after all those Chinese ones above. Haryasz also shot 3-14 from the free throw line (21.4%), which is pretty special. In the Belgian league, Haryasz averages 11,6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game, with a much healthier 70.6% success rate from the foul line.
– Juaquin Hawkins might still be with his Australian team, the Gold Coast Blaze. I can’t seem to find out for certain whether he was officially released or not. Either way, he got injured in October and hasn’t played since. The Blaze brought in Justin Bowen as Hawkins’s replacement, and Bowen has done all right, but apparently not well enough, for the Blaze are currently last in the NBL with a 5-22 record.
– Brandon Heath is in the D-League, being allocated to the Los Angeles D-Fenders as a result of his short stint with the Lakers in training camp. Note to all teams – buy your own affiliate. Heath averages 16.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists for a struggling D-Fenders team.
– Alan Henderson is unsigned, presumably still waiting for the promised phone call from the Sixers that never came.
—–
Finally, some updates about people that we’ve previously covered, but whose circumstances have since changed.
– T.J. Cummings, who left the Anaheim Arsenal earlier this year, has signed with Liege in Belgium.
– Kyle Davis has rejoined the D-League, being acquired by Reno.
– Andre Brown has left the Austin Toros and signed in Turkey for Kepez Bld Antalya. His Toros team mate, Charles Gaines, has also left the team, and has landed a pretty plush gig with Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Maccabi waived Marcus Fizer, unhappy with his performances in return from long term injury. Seems harsh.
– Jamon Gordon signed with KK Split in Croatia after being released by the Koeln 99ers.
– And some bonus info – Desmond Penigar (THE Desmond Penigar! Orlando Magic Ten Day Contract Recipient About Five Years Ago, Desmond Penigar!) has rejoined basketball after two years out, and signed in Austria with Furstenfeld, the team that won’t play Tony Gipson.
Many of the following people are called Hamilton. If you don’t want to know the result, look away now.
– Brian Hamilton signed with the New Jersey Nets for training camp after playing for their summer league team, which guaranteed him a free trip around Europe. Hamilton didn’t make the team, though, and is currently unsigned. By the way, speaking of the Nets summer league team, look how stacked that bad boy was. They could have put together a depth chart of this kind of calibre:
That team is friggin’ stacked, even if it is (as are all summer league teams) a bit short. This wasn’t quite how it worked out, as Jamar Butler didn’t turn up, Sean Williams started at power forward, and a combination of Conroy and Carroll did most of the point guard work. But, still. In relative terms, that team is heaving. God I love summer league.
– Venson Hamilton is into his fourth season with Real Madrid. However, his playing time has all but disappeared. In the Spanish league, Hamilton averages 1.1 points and 1.8 rebounds in 6.7 minutes a game, slightly raising his scoring average to 1.6 ppg in EuroLeague play. On the year, he has 18 points and 21 fouls. The money must be good, because the opportunity isn’t.
– Vernon Hamilton was acquired yesterday by the Colorado 14ers of the D-League, where he can back up Eddie Gill at point guard, or replace him should Gill get a call-up. Fun Vernon Hamilton fact: the highest that Vernon Hamilton has ever shot in a single season from the free throw line is the 55.1% that he shot in 2005-06, while still a junior at Clemson. Nice.
– Zendon Hamilton is still going, albeit currently unsigned. The journeyman started the year in Russia with Spartak Primorie Vladivostok – the last-placed Russian Superleague team that currently boasts Desmon Farmer amongst its members – but left after four games, totalling 28 points, 20 rebounds and 30% shooting in that time.
Zendon Hamilton never got a fair shot in the NBA. Despite numerous try-outs and a career that spanned six fractured NBA seasons, Hamilton was better than a lot of the players that he kept losing out to. But because he never had a multi-year contract, he never stuck like he could have. There, I said it.
– Former Suns and Jazz centre Ben Handlogten hasn’t played in three years. I seem to remember once finding a source that cited his retirement as being official, but I can’t seem to find it again. But since he is 34 and has been out of the game since early 2006, you can probably go ahead and assume it.
– Tyler Hansbrough averages 22.7 points in less than 29 minutes a game for North Carolina. A senior, this is going to be the year that he finally gets drafted, whether he likes it or not. Watch as he plummets down the draft board, as teams pass over his prolific production in light of his lack of size and athleticism. (I’m not saying that they’re necessarily wrong for this. Just that it’s going to happen. Just like it happened with J.J. Redick. And just like it should have happened with Adam Morrison.)
– Travis Hansen has been a very good swingman in Europe for a while now, and he’s still with the Russian team that Jannero Pargo just left. Only just, though; there were strong rumblings of Hansen being signed by Lottomatica Roma. But it didn’t happen, and Hansen remains in Russia, where he averages 15.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the Russia Superleague, alongside 14.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists in the EuroCup. Now that Pargo and Hollis Price have left Dynamo, maybe Hansen will start getting paid on time.
– Thunder draft pick DeVon Hardin signed in Turkey to begin the year, but left without playing a game as he was still recovering from injury. Seemingly better now, he signed this month with ESTIA Egaleo in Greece, and scored 7 points with 9 rebounds in his debut last Wednesday.
– Finally, I do requests, and here are some of them now. Former Sixers centre Efthimios Rentzias retired in August 2006 due to chronic injury problems, aged only 30. In his final season, playing for a team called Forum Filatelico Valladolid (made up of Spanish stamp collectors, presumably), Rentzias averaged 7.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 1.2 bpg in 10 games, before being waived due to his injury, and retiring for good a few months later. Former Louisville standout Taquan Dean is in Spain, playing for Polaris World Murcia, who are unfortunately second to last in the ACB. This isn’t Dean’s fault, as he averages 16.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists while starting at shooting guard, shooting more threes than twos. And another former Louisville Final Four starlet, Juan Palacios, averages an uninspiring 9.2 points and 4.3 rebounds for CB Vic, one of the worst teams in the LEB Gold.
As for the guy who really wants Zoran Planinic information, check this website EVERY DAY, and eventually you’ll get lucky.
I hated the Marcus Camby trade. I hated it. I think everyone did, even Clippers fans. But I really hated it.
I think about trades a lot. I should really have better things to do, but I don’t. So I spend a lot of time thinking about trades that have happened, moves that have been made, who would fit on which team, players that certain teams needed, who’ll sign where and for what, etc. But at not point did I think, “a current DPOY candidate and former winner, on an extremely fair value contract, is going to be moved for nothing more than a trade exception.” You just don’t consider these as possibilities, do you?
But it happened. And it annoyed me.
It annoyed me for one simple reason – the move was financially motivated, and I hate all purely financially-motivated moves. I wrote about as much here, and, in the interests of saving time, I’ll quote myself:
When teams make bad personal [sic] moves to save money, purely as collateral damage from their own previous stupid move, then the fans become the victims to the folly that is the NBA and its old boy’s network.
I hate any move that involves a team giving away an asset just to save money, with them deeming the financial saving as “necessary” due to their own cap mismanagement. That’s exactly what happened here – the Nuggets, perennial tax payers, were forced to start saving money by their ownership, and the best way for them to do this was to dump Camby’s salary for no return. The moved saved them $20 million this season, plus about the same next season, yet it saw an NBA team literally gifting away one of their best players at a position persistently devoid of much quality. Anyone’s outrage at that was justifiable.
However, there was an underlying justification to the move that I, like most people, didn’t acknowledge.
Marcus Camby is a very good player. Always was, still is. But the Nuggets had someone who would have been one of the best back-up centres in the game last season, were it not for an unfortunate bout of cancer – Nene. In Nene’s only three seasons of full health (or, in the case of the 2006/07 season, near to full health), he has proven to be a starting-calibre centre in this league, combining power and athleticism with good defensive skill, and some developing offence. He had averaged double figures whenever healthy, an acceptable if mediocre rebounding rate, and some good defence. You don’t get many back-up centres like that.
The Nuggets gave Nene a very big contract back in the summer of 2006, despite Nene playing only three minutes the previous season. They were denounced for this move; we knew that a healthy Nene was a good player, but a healthy Nene hadn’t produced enough to justify a contract that size. The Nuggets had therefore paid Nene based on their expectations of what he would go on to become, but they did so after a three-minute season and a severe knee injury. It was an unnecessary risk, but they took it anyway. Yet, like the Camby trade, it’s worked out.
Nene averages 15.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks on the season, averaging career-highs in field goal percentage (61%) and free throw percentage (73%). Points per shot fans (such as me, and perhaps only me) will be delighted to know that Nene is averaging 1.64 points per shot this year, which is the high echelon territory of a prime Shaquille O’Neal, or Yotam Halperin. He leads his team in plus/minus by a long way, and this is a team that features both Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony. (In fact, you can add Billups and Anthony’s plus/minus statistics together, and Nene’s is still higher.) Nene’s PER is a very healthy 21.6, good for second on the team, and his opponent PER is a decent 15.5. While Nene might not be exactly the most creative or skilled offensive player, relying largely on opportunity and rhythm to score his points, he is also one hell of a powerful finisher, with some touch and grace to go with it. He can also get out and run better than almost all of his peers at the centre position, creating easy offence just through trying hard. And you can never have too much of that.
Put simply, on both ends of the court, the artist formerly known as Maybyner Hilario can play.
This wasn’t sufficiently considered, though, by critics of the Marcus Camby trade. We knew Camby could play, but we forgot that Nene could, too. Kenyon Martin’s long-overdue return to full health has further helped to cope with Camby’s absence, and Chris Andersen’s hugely effective play off of the bench has Camby almost completely redundant. The financial aspects of the trade still stink, and the trade was still financially motivated (if it wasn’t, the Nuggets could have found a better value trade for Camby that involved at least one decent player coming back, or even a first rounder, but this didn’t happen because they wanted the absolute and complete salary dump), yet even the books are now balanced. The TPE created by the Camby trade facilitated the Allen Iverson trade with Detroit, allowing them to take back Antonio McDyess; his subsequent buyout, along with the Chucky Atkins/Johan Petro swap, sees the Nuggets finally under the luxury tax threshold. And because of those same moves, they’re an even better team now than when they were above it.
(Note: OK, yes, they could have done the McDyess trade without the TPE. But they didn’t. As a result, they were able to create a new TPE for $9.7 million – the difference between Iverson and Billups’s salaries – which expires next November. Financial flexibility such as that is extremely powerful. And they wouldn’t have had it otherwise.)
The last point before the small font bracketed bit is key. Denver were shamed and villified for the Camby deal, as it was seen as a triumph of ownership over fandom, of the big man over the little people, of corporations over the proletariat. But subsequent high-quality moves, both in free agency and via trade, have seen the Nuggets build a more conventional team than they had before, and a higher-calibre team than they had before, while also saving the money that they so needed to do. The Camby trade was a big part of this, as is Nene’s continued breakout. I did not see this coming.
– I was first alerted to the presence of Blake Griffin about 18 months ago, when an Oklahoman resident told me he was brilliant. Apparently this has become a widely-held opinion, as Griffin is the unanimous #1 pick on both of the draft websites that I look at. (I really ought to start following the draft more, you know. But it’s hard. I can’t watch the games. And that, to me, is an important part of knowing about someone. Oh well.) Griffin averages huge numbers of 22.2 points and 13.8 rebounds for Oklahoma, despite being only 19 years old, and his PER is a staggering 38.1. And that’s….a lot.
– Rashard Griffith is in Romania. Where else? In his second season with Asesoft Ploiesti, a team that currently lead the Romanian league with a 14-2 record, Griffith averages 10.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists, but those numbers dropped to only 5.0 points and 4.3 rebounds in EuroChallenge play. So, just to confirm, Rashard Griffith’s NBA window is shut, and has been for about seven years. Other players on the Ploiesti team that you may have heard of include Carl Krauser (former Pittsburgh standout who I seem to recall had a try-out with the Pacers once, although I can’t be sure of this) and Tyson Wheeler (who tried out for every team at some point, and who signed very briefly with the Nuggets back in the last millennium).
– Anthony Grundy is playing for Panellinios in Greece, where he is actually doing some passing. Grundy averages 10.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists in EuroCup play, along with 16.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the Greek league, playing the point guard to Brad Newley’s shooting guard. Grundy is about to turn 30, however, which lowers the curtain on any more NBA opportunities.
– Dan Grunfeld has had a weird yet productive month. Earlier this month he received Romanian citizenship, because his father Ernie was born there. This new found passport wealth has allowed him to travel with much greater ease around the European leagues, and instantly he signed with C.B. Valladolid in the Spanish second division (the LEB Gold), shooting 1-4 in six minutes on his debut.
– Tom Gugliotta is out of the limelight, presumably dining out off of the successful internet start-up company search engine that shares his name. (This is a Google joke, by the way. Give it the laughter it deserves. That is to say, none.)
– Marcus Haislip is getting better. Stumbling out of the NBA due to his rawness a few years ago, Haislip is now into his second season with Unicaja Malaga, a good Spanish team. Haislip averages a team-high 15.8 points as an inside/outside scoring forward, along with 5.0 rebounds.
– Mike Hall plays for the middle of the road Italian team, Armani Jeans Milano, a team that are sponsored by a jeans company. See if you can guess which. Hall averages 10.9 points and 7.1 rebounds in the Italian league, while playing mostly at small forward, but those numbers drop to only 7.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in the EuroLeague. Hall has shot a combined 97 three-pointers and only 40 free throws, so this would suggest that he’s still working on those much-needed perimeter skills.
– Yotam Halperin is signed with Olympiacos in Greece. On a very deep team, Halperin averages 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the Greek league, alongside 8.6 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the EuroLeague. Halperin is a combined 44-63 from two-point range (70%), 23-54 from three-point range (43%), and 39-45 from the free throw line (87%). For the points per shot fans amongst us, that’s 196 points on 117 shots, a startling 1.68 points per shot average. I like this guy already.
– Adam Haluska is signed with Hapoel Jerusalem, the Israeli league leaders, but has played all of one game, scoring 5 points.
– Darvin Ham gave it one last shot last season, signing a training camp contract with the Mavericks. He failed to win a spot, so he upped sticks, went to the D-League, did OK, then retired and became an assistant coach for his final team, the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, alongside former Timberwolves centre Dean Garrett. By the way, there were a lot of commas in that, the previous sentence. For that, and also for that previous sentence, and for this one, and for every time I’ve ever done this, I am, truly, sorry. You didn’t come here to read a Virginia Woolf novel.
– Finally, an update on two players that we’ve already had, but whose circumstances have changed. Esteban Batista, recently waived by Maccabi Tel-Aviv, has gone back to South America, signing with Libertad Sunchales in Argentina after deciding that Russia was too cold for him. And journeyman point guard Dee Brown has signed in Maccabi to replace him, sort of, indirectly, maybe, not really.
– Joao Gomes averages 8.3 points and 4.4 rebounds for Leche Rio Breogan Lugo in the Spanish second division. You’re probably wondering who Joao Gomes is. So am I, honestly. In other, more important Gomes news, the Cincinnati Reds signed Jonny Gomes to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Good luck Jonny. Savage everything you see.
– Jamon Gordon was suspended by his German team, the Koeln 99ers, for going to America without permission. I think. (A user’s blog comment also said something about Gordon trashing his flat, which seems like a weird thing to be suspended for, so I’ll assume he did this afterwards.) His replacement is a man called Michael Jordan, and no I’m not making that up. Gordon averaged 13.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.7 steals in his nine games with the team.
– Jamont Gordon (not to be confused with Jamon Gordon, despite how blatantly easy that is to do) is signed with Fortitudo Bologna, the team also known as Upim Bologna and GMAC Real Estate Bologna, and formerly known as Skipper Bologna and Climamio Bologna, yet NOT to be confused with La Fortezza Bologna, which is another Italian first division team. All European names are stupid, I tell you. Gordon averages 11.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 2.0 assists in EuroCup play, while playing alongside Gregor Fucka, whose name is still fun to type, even if it has been usurped by Lior Lipshits.
– Brian Grant (not to be confused with Briant Grant, who is someone that I just made up) retired over two years ago and hasn’t been heard from since.
– Devin Green is signed in Ukraine of all places, with Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk. He averages 20.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists, while being probably the best player in the country.
– Caleb Green averages 13.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in EuroChallenge play per game for Dexia’s Midnight Runners in Belgium, along with 13.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1 assist in Belgian league play. You may remember Dexia Mons-Hainault (the team’s real name) as being the team that was too good for Dion Dowell. Or you may not.
– Taurean Green is signed with CAI Zaragoza in Spain, averaging 11.4 points and 2.4 assists.
– Orien Greene (not to be confused with Taurean Green, Torien Greene, Orient Greene, or anyone other than himself) is in Holland, playing for the immortally-named MyGuide Amsterdam. Greene averaged 9.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists in EuroChallenge play, and averages 12.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals in the Dutch league.
– Lynn Greer is a starting guard on the Olympiacos team that leads the Greek league, and that continues to advance in the EuroLeague. Greer averages only 9.6 points in the Greek league, but averages a team-high 12.4 points in the EuroLeague. Yet, supposedly, they want to bring in another guard (Jannero Pargo, Stephon Marbury) anyway. Seems odd.
– Vincent Grier is doing a bit of everything in the French league, averaging 9.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks a game for Cholet Basket. Grier also averaged 8.3 points and 3.2 rebounds in the EuroChallenge. Unfortunately, he hasn’t hit a three all year in either competition, going 0-5 in total, and Grier is also a combined 35-63 from the free throw line in all competition this season. That’s not getting it done as a 6’5 guy, even as one who is basically a playmaking power forward.
– Did they ever rule on whether Eddie Griffin’s death was officially a suicide?
– Rob Griffin was recently cut from his CBA team, which can’t make a man feel good.
– Finally, Adrian Griffin played all preseason with the Bucks, but then was waived just before opening night for Austin Croshere. Unwilling (or unable) to be parted from Scott Skiles, Griffin then immediately became his assistant coach, something that he’s pretty much unofficially been for about four years now. Those two are so CUTE together! *hugs*
