1: The following YouTube video has done the rounds recently, showing an impressive double alley’oop in a highly one-sided high school game.
That clip reminded me of this one, featuring the Los Angeles Clippers’ “overloaded with potential” era, specifically Darius Miles and Lamar Odom. (Also, is it Sean Rooks throwing that frontcourt pass? I think so.)
Since Kevin Calabro left us, Ralph Lawler has assumed the title of Best Announcer Of Any NBA Team. If ever you forget that, watch this clip. Great call, Ralph. Great call.
2: While looking for that clip, I also found this one.
I loved that so-called “Jail Blazers” team. Loved it. There was just so much talent on it, so much depth, and so much athleticism (which, not matter how much you appreciate skill, is something that makes the game more fun, as evidenced by this clip). That particular Blazers team also had Steve Kerr and Chris Dudley, two all-time favourites of mine. It was great times all around. But it’s a bit odd, when you think about it. All but one Blazer in this clip is now out of the league. Derek Anderson is unsigned. Bonzi Wells is in China. Ruben Patterson is unsigned. Scottie Pippen is kicking 50’s door down. (Not 50 Cent, but the age.) Kerr is the Suns’ General Manager now, and Chris Dudley is Kevin Love’s mentor. (Well, he was, briefly.) Rasheed Wallace is still with us, but not the same Rasheed Wallace as we see today, and the rest of the roster not seen in this clip (Damon Stoudamire, Dale Davis, Shawn Kemp, Erick Barkley, Mitchell Butler, Ruben Boumtje Boumtje, Rick Brunson) are all out of the league. The only ones that aren’t are Sheed and Zach Randolph, then a deep bench player on a deep bench. Admittedly, this clip is seven years old, and so 13 of the 15 players being out of the league seven years on should not be a surprise…..but it just doesn’t feel right, does it?
3: Speaking of Darius Miles, congratulations on him playing his tenth game, and playing it bloody well.
a) Is this evidence of Dallas realising that this core isn’t working, and isn’t going to work, so saving some money and thinking 2010 might not be a bad idea right now? I hope so. There’s little potential for internal improvement right now. Gerald Green, J.J. Barea and Shawne Williams don’t constitute a young core. And you’ll have to keep Brandon Bass first before he counts.
b) Are there any more overpaid backup centres on long-term contracts that the Bobcats can bring in to fight for the ten minutes behind Emeka Okafor? Is two – Diop and Nazr Mohammed – going to enough? Can we goad them into a move for Dan Gadzuric? Spend their full MLE on Fabricio Oberto? No? Pity.
5: It’s a shame that the Nets realised that they stood to gain nothing from the Larry Hughes/Bobby Simmons & Maurice Ager swap, because otherwise the Bulls were in danger of pulling off a good move. It’s also a shame, though, that talks seemed to break down over the Nets’ insistence on including either Tyrus Thomas or Yannick Noah in the deal. Now come on, Thorneweghe. Give them some credit. You don’t dump your semblance of a future frontcourt just to move Larry Hughes. And more importantly, you don’t need Tyrus Thomas. You’ve already got Stromile Swift. They’re basically the same, right? That’s what everyone keeps saying, anyway.
6: Speaking of, why does everyone seem so interested in Sean Williams? Williams is simply not that skilled, and he compounds that with an apparent attitude problem (as evidenced at the D-League showcase, where he turned up only technically). Athleticism does not equal talent, and Sean Williams has lots of one and not enough of the other.
7: Hopefully, the Grizzlies firing Marc Iavaroni will lead to a change in philosophy. What’s the point of creating a team with two point guards (Mike Conley and Kyle Lowry) who thrives when pushing the ball, then starting two great athletes like O.J. Mayo and Rudy Gay on the wings, having a similarly athletic power forward in Darrell Arthur and a high-flying sixth man like Hakim Warrick, just to then be 22nd in the league in pace? Memphis should be pushing the ball. They’re young, athletic, have enough of a halfcourt option in Marc Gasol to get by, and have just enough rebounding to run a reasonably successful running game. (More than the Warriors do, anyway.) To make them grind out meticulous and rather ineffective halfcourt sets doesn’t seem to be working, so play to the team’s strengths. At the very least, their trade values will go up. And you might even win more.
8: Heartfelt condolences to Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller, who had half of both his legs amputated, and to long time Bulls staple Johnny ‘Red’ Kerr, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
– Pat Garrity retired this summer, and according to reports behind a paywalled article, he has since gone back to school. But I’m not paying for it to find out. This is my limit.
– Mickael Gelabale is unsigned, and – presumably – still rehabbing his severe knee injury from last March.
– Otis George is averaging 10.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in the Italian second vision with Umana Reyer Venezia, although he hasn’t played for a month due to injury. George has also turned himself in a 41% three-point shooter, which isn’t ever bad from a supposedly undersized centre. Although I don’t think this guarantees an Anthony Tolliver-like career projection.
– C.J. Giles is playing for the L.A. D-Fenders in the D-League, where he averages 12.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks a game. Rashid Byrd, the other centre who I told you was playing there earlier in this list, was recently waived, which is hard to achieve when you’re a seven-footer in the D-League. So congratulations to him.
– Eddie Gill is possibly the best point guard in the D-League, averaging 15.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 8.2 assists for the Colorado 14ers. He’s shooting only 39%, though.
– Kendall Gill is still working for Comcast Sportsnet and doing studio stuff for Bulls games, but I don’t know if he still boxes.
– Tony Gipson (also known as Nicholas Gipson, confusingly) averages 7.3 points per game for the Raiffeisen Furstenfeld Panthers in the Austrian league. The Austrian league. He doesn’t even start in the Austrian league. Might have jumped the gun a bit when I decided to add him to his website, you know.
– Gordan Giricek is signed with Fenerbache in Turkey, but suffered a season-ending injury after only two games.
– James Gist didn’t make the Spurs roster, as they decided to try several hundred other forwards instead of him so as to not lose his rights. Gist instead signed with Angellica Biella, where he averages 11.9 points and 5.4 rebounds.
– Dion Glover continues to do the rounds in the minor leagues, with his latest stop being a one-game stint with Gaiteros de Zulia in Venezuela last March.
– Andreas Glyniadakis is back in Greece, in his second season for Marousi. In EuroCup play this year, A-Glyn has averaged 4.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.2 fouls. However, in the Greek league, he is leaps and bounds better, managing to average more rebounds (3.5) than fouls (3.2). Progress.
– Finally, “Never Say Die” Anthony Goldwire has not said “DIE!”, and continues to play in Europe. Now 37 years old, Goldwire recently signed with Sant Josep Girona in Spain, where he is trying to be the last-minute Hollywood-esque saviour of a floundering Girona team, ranked as they are fourth last in the LEB Bronze (which, misleadingly, is the actually the Spanish fourth division). Unfortunately, it’s not really worked out – despite playing for a team that is only one game from being last in all of Spain, Goldwire has totalled only 14 points and 1 assist in two games, on 3-13 shooting. Perhaps it’s time to rethink that nickname i just gave him.
This is a plea for Allen Iverson to do the right thing
January 23rd, 2009
The 2003 NBA All-Star Game was an embarrassment. If you watched it, you cucked Michael Jordan. You are guilty by association. By watching it, I too cucked Michael Jordan. And I didn’t enjoy it one bit.
The whole event was a prolonged Michael Jordan love-in. As it was to be Jordan’s last ever All-Star game, in his final season before his third and only retirement, we were treated to the sight of his balls being polished mercilessly by everyone in the game, around the game, and Mariah Carey. Everything Michael did throughout history – excluding the previous 18 months of course – was to be glorified and indulged one more time to such a lavish and excessive degree that, if any of us had forgotten how scarily good and frighteningly popular he was, we would never do so again. They had documentaries, they had interviews, they had montages, they had songs, they had a dress represented two of his uniforms on….they had everything.
And, you know, fine. He’s the legend and it’s his final year, for real this time.
Unfortunately, there was a slight problem. Jordan wasn’t voted in as a starter by the fans. And it’s hard to be the most important player on the floor when five other people get there first.
Never mind, though. Into the confusion stepped Allen Iverson. Voted in as one of the starting guards ahead of Jordan, Iverson magnanimously volunteered to give up his starting spot for Jordan, so that he may start the game and take the first 40 shots or so. Tracy McGrady, one of the starting forwards, made an identical gesture a few days later, once again showing sympathy-inducing deference to an older man’s inferior play. However, the other starting guard, Vince Carter, did not make the same offer, even when pressed to do so.
People turned on Vince Carter. Because he didn’t feel the need to give up what was rightfully is, like the others had done before him, he was vitriolically defamed, cursed and besmirched, suddenly deemed “disrespectful” for not giving Jordan something that he didn’t earn. (And no, he didn’t earn it. Michael Jordan’s career up until that point saw him justifiably earn immeasurable fame, fortune and respect aplenty – giving him this starting spot, that he hadn’t justifiably earned, would not have changed this.) Not working in Vince’s favour was the fact that he had missed most of the year up until that point with injury – in this respect, he too hadn’t earn the starting spot. However, Carter had gotten it anyway, because the fans wanted him to have it. But now, they wanted him to give it back. It made no sense, and Vince became a victim, stuck in a position where he could do no right without doing wrong.
Eventually, he relented. A mere matter of minutes before the game, Vince yielded his starting spot to Jordan, whose initial public claims to have not wanted the spot anyway seemed to disappear as he took Vince up on the offer, the same one that he claimed to have previously turned down from Iverson and McGrady. I distinctly remember an interview with Carter just before the game started, in which a pissed-off Vince spoke some clichéd poppycock about how it was the right thing to do to respect the history of the game, and of the “greatest player, probably, to put a pair of basketball shoes on”. (Note: quote comes from a time when Vince was still insistent on not giving up his spot.) Had Vince had black eyes, cuts, and a distinct hobble that befitted a kneecapping victim, I wouldn’t have been surprised – he didn’t look like a man who had made a heartfelt gesture. Yet, regardless of what duress he was under, he made it anyway.
Cut to the present day. This year’s votes on the All-Star Starters are in, and Allen Iverson is one of the starting Eastern Conference guards alongside Dwyane Wade. Vince Carter was third in the fan vote, narrowly missing out on the second guard spot. (Luke Ridnour was fifth, proving once again that this system is still stupid.) However, despite his popularity barely waning, Iverson’s skill level has started to drop, and he is no longer truly deserving of any award that claims him to be (implied or otherwise) the second-best guard in his conference. On the season, Iverson averages only 17.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.8 turnovers, finally declining like the 33-year-old that he is. He’s good still, but he’s not great any longer. Several players behind him in the voting, Carter included, are better players than he is now. (Note: Luke Ridnour isn’t one of them.) And while the concept of the fan vote is to see the most popular players, not necessarily the best (which incidentally is another damning slant on the whole idea of giving up the spot for Jordan in the first place; the fans clearly didn’t want him to start), it shouldn’t be.
Therefore, let’s put it right. I want Allen Iverson to give up his starting spot for the better player this year, and the more deserving player over Jordan six years ago, Vince Carter. I realise that it is hypocritical to condemn the idea that Carter was forced to give up his spot in the first place, and then later in the same blog post to infer that Iverson should give up his spot this year to make up for it. And for this, I am sorry. But sometimes, two wrongs do make a right.
(The fan vote system doesn’t work, by the way. Yao Ming was an All-Star starter way before he deserved to be, and Yi Jianlian and Bruce Bowen came dangerously close to being voted onto the team this year despite never coming close to All-Star calibre talent. The NBA All-Star Game should be to showcase the NBA’s best, something which this system does not necessarily do, and therefore it needs abolishing. But that rant is for another day.)
This isn’t a knock on Allen Iverson, whose initial 2003 gesture seemed sincere and genuine, and who isn’t to blame for the fans voting him in over other, better players. But the NBA owes Vince Carter something, and this would be a fine time to give him it. Iverson doesn’t personally owe Carter anything, and as such he will have done nothing wrong if he starts the game as chosen. Like Vince before him, Iverson has no obligation to give up what is rightfully his, and it is rightfully his, even if it shouldn’t be. But the entire NBA World owes Vince Carter an apology, as well as an All-Star start, and Allen Iverson can make this happen. As hypocritical as it may be for me to want to see someone else give up their spot, Vince Carter deserves some justice, no matter how much you dislike him.
Please do this, AI. We’ll be brothers for life if you do. I’ll never let anyone defile you again. No one. No one will disrespect this thing of ours. La Cosa Nostra. Me and you. Ride or die. Let’s do this.
– Richie Frahm has not been signed since his performance with the Dallas Mavericks summer league team. I watched all of those Mavericks VSL games, and Frahm – a shooter – often chose not to shoot, which seemed wrong on a team clearly auditioning shooters. Other things that I learnt from these games: Reyshawn Terry’s a decent shooter, Shan Foster’s a very good one (the last update excluded), Keith McLeod remains deficient at all manner of shot-making, and Renaldas Seibutis is still having an identity crisis. And Rick Kamla’s side parting is one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
– British legend Joel Freeland (a legend if only for the fact that he’s English) is in his third year with Gran Canaria, Spain. And he’s finally getting somewhere. Freeland averages 10.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in the Spanish league, numbers that rise to 15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in EuroCup play. If Greg Oden continues to disappoint, then…well, Joel Freeland is already better than him. FACT. (Note: not a fact.)
– Matt Freije started the season in Lebanon of all places (is it Lebanon, or The Lebanon?), before moving to China. For Fujian SBS XunXin, Freije averages 19.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, shooting 37% from three-point range. His high-scoring teammate is the seminal Chris Porter, who is into his fourth season with the team, with a short Philippines break in between. Porter averages 23.7 points, 13.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per contest, shooting 41% from three-point range. But I think he’s had it cut.
– Hiram Fuller was recently part of the Pau Orthez turnover, and left the team earlier this month. In his six games with the team, Fuller averaged 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.2 fouls.
– Lawrence Funderburke is out of the news, seemingly dining out on the success of his two books.Additionally, his youth foundation have made a new range of videos, which is exciting.
– Cheyne Gadson started the season with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, averaging 16 points and 5.4 turnovers in five games, before he was traded to the L.A. D-Fenders. In 11 games, Gadson averaged 8 points, before reportedly leaving the team without permission earlier this month. Not a great idea.
– Deng Gai has not played since a brief stay in Poland last year. As you may already know, Deng Gai is a part of the big Deng family of basketball players, highlighted by Luol. Luol’s cousin is called Kur Deng, and he plays (or used to play) for North Iowa CC. One of Luol’s seven brothers is Ajou Deng, a professional player in England who went to college at Fairfield, as did the aforementioned Deng Gai (Luol and Ajou’s cousin), who briefly played for the Sixers. (There’s another brother who plays professionally called Deng Deng.) Bonus Dengs fact – Luol used to go by the name Michael. Is this section getting confusing? I hope so.
– Reece Gaines averages 14,4 points, 2.9 assists and 2.5 steals per game for Angelico Biella in the Italian league. Ineffective he may have been in the NBA, but he’s put together a decent European career. That sentence wasn’t particularly grammatically sound, but the message was.
– Charles Gaines is but another of the San Antonio Spurs’s training camp signings currently stashed away on their D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros. Gaines averages 14.3 points and 10.3 rebounds, although the D-League’s official website lists his birthdate as January 1st, 1900, which makes him the second-oldest player in the D-League behind Geno Carlisle.
– Mike Gansey is averaging 5.8 points and 3.4 rebounds for the struggling German team, J.R. Bremerhaven.
– Jorge Garbajosa is playing for Khimki in Russia, averaging 8.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists a game in Russian league play, along with 9.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in EuroCup play. And I’ve finally got his buyout amount.
– Alex Garcia is back in his native Brazil, where he averages 17 points and 9 rebounds for Pinheiros. This post died away a bit at the end, didn’t it?
– Gerald Fitch was unsigned until very recently, as he joined the Turkish team Kepez BLD Antalya only last week. Antalya are currently second to last in the Turkish league, and Fitch arrives as the replacement for leading scorer and former Magic training camp invitee, Torell Martin, who retired to run a country pub in the southernmost corner of Wales. (OK, no he didn’t. But he did leave.) Fitch has not yet played a game for his new team, and I’ll be sure not to tell you when he does.
– D’Or Fischer is with Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel, not exactly a rare and special boast for any big man to be making, given the extremely high turnover of big men that Maccabi have had this year. Also currently with Maccabi is one of my favourite players of all time, Marcus Fizer, who has just recently returned from a year-long absence due to a knee injury. (I do not really know why I like Marcus Fizer so much, so please do not ask.) Fischer averages 9.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.0 blocks in Israeli league play, along with 12.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.6 blocks in EuroLeague play. Fizer has totalled 13 points and 5 rebounds in the three games of his comeback.
– Gary Forbes was acquired by the Tulsa 66ers from the Sioux Falls Skyforce just a matter of hours ago. Tulsa traded Chris Ellis to get him, he of the recent update. For Sioux Falls, Forbes was the sixth man, and he averaged 16.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in his time there.
– Alton Ford has also just left his D-League team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and has signed with a team in Zhejiang, China. Which Zhejiang team it is, I’m not sure yet. Ford averaged 9.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.4 turnovers and 4.0 fouls in 28 minutes per game for the Vipers, who now have only two players left over 6’5 – Marcus Hubbard and Kurt Looby, former backup at Iowa. Remember things like this the next time you see Courtney Sims’s D-League stats.
– Sharrod Ford plays for Virtus Bologna, and averages 10.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in Italian league play. In the EuroChallenge, Ford averaged 12.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
– Joe Forte is still bouncing around more than perhaps one should. Starting the year with Fortitudo Bologna (not the same team as Sharrod Ford’s Virtus Bologna), Forte totalled 49 points and 7 rebounds in his first two games for Fortitudo, before being released due to discord. (At least, I think that was it. There was definitely some kind of bust-up. Either way, Qyntel Woods is also on that team, so it might not have been the most functional unit.) Forte later signed with Snaidero Udine, who are currently last in the Italian league first division, despite the presence of both Forte and Rashad Anderson. Forte averages 12.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 3.2 assists through six games. Time to settle down.
– Danny Fortson is out of the game and out of the headlines.
– Shan Foster has forgotten how to shoot this year, it seems, averaging only 9.7 points per game on 31% shooting from the three-point line while playing for Eldo Caserta in Italy. Shan Foster without his jump shot isn’t a top-tier player, so I’m assuming and hoping that he’ll find it again.
– Former GrizzlyAntonis Fotsis is playing for Panathinaikos back in his native Greece. Fotsis averages 7.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in Greek league play as the backup to the other former Grizzly Mike Batiste, former Maryland star Drew Nicholas, and Dimitris Diamantidis, and there’s no shame in coming off of the bench behind those three.
– Tremaine Fowlkes signed in the ABA, but left during preseason. I hope it’s not because he wasn’t good enough. That would be bad.
– Finally, and most spectacularly, former Warriors guard Luis Flores is another one playing in Israeli, averaging 19.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists while starting at shooting guard for Hapoel Holon. The other starting guard for Holon is called, and I quote, Lior Lipshits. I am not making this up. I’m really not. Steeve Ho You Fat, time to raise your game.
Phoenix Suns: Good enough to be good, but not good enough to be good enough
January 20th, 2009
I hated the appointment of Steve Kerr as the Phoenix Suns General Manager. Hated it. I loved Steve Kerr as a player even if I did miss his best years, but I didn’t like his writing much, and he ruined my entire NBA Live 2006 experience with his insistence that Kirk Hinrich was in some way like Steve Nash. (They’re both white and keep their dribble alive when circling the baseline. Identical!) Why would a man whose take on the NBA was limited to the games he was commentating on suddenly be qualified to run an NBA franchise, short as he seemed on experience, the CBA know-how, and the depth of knowledge base that was surely required for such a position? How much can you learn about the prognosis of thousands of potential NBA basketball players worldwide when sitting alongside Marv Albert? I hated the entire idea.
Similarly, I hated the Shaquille O’Neal trade when it happened. The Phoenix Suns’ style of play under Mike D’Antoni wasn’t really getting anywhere, but was the answer really to trade for a player who commits your team to a life of halfcourt play, yet who isn’t effective enough any more to build an offence around? And why would a team that had recently gifted away Rajon Rondo and Rudy Fernandez for immediate financial savings now be so willing to take on the huge contract of a declining player, committing them for the foreseeable future to the luxury tax that they had been so desperately trying to avoid? It was all the eggs in one basket, and the basket wasn’t worth it.
However, as I am wont to do, I have since backtracked on both opinions.
Acquiring Shaq has not affected the Suns’ ability to acquire talent, as I feared it might. No longer are they selling first-round picks, and they have made good free agency pickups, such as Matt Barnes and Grant Hill, even though they seem to be getting highly favourable discounts to do so. Despite the Jason Richardson trade seeing the Suns take on slightly less money than they gave out, and their dogged insistence on running with the NBA’s bare minimum number of players at all times, the Suns haven’t made drastic roster changes just to get under the luxury tax, like other teams have. They have found their payroll limit (just above the tax threshold) and kept it there. Phoenix may have about $4 million of their MLE unspent, but at least they aren’t foolishly dumping Leandro Barbosa just to save a few million. In purely relative terms, this is progress.
To this end, Kerr has made some decent roster moves. Signing Hill for the Bi Annual Exception and Barnes for the minimum salary are absolute steals at their price, and Kerr did well to pick up the strangely-overlooked Louis Amundson (who’s always been able to do exactly what he’s doing now, yet who Sacramento and Philadelphia let slip through their fingers). Kerr was also smart enough to insist upon Jared Dudley, a decent young role player who doesn’t understand beards, in the Richardson trade with Charlotte. It bears repeating that the trade worked financially even with Sean Singletary in and Jared Dudley out of it, a variant which would have seen the Suns save a significant chunk of money in the process, an added bonus for a franchise always looking to save money. Yet Dudley was included anyway, presumably at Kerr’s insistence, and the trade as a whole saw one of the league’s weakest starting shooting guards upgraded dramatically for little more of a cost than an expensive, replaceable backup (Boris Diaw). Kerr also made what I still believe a solid draft pick with Robin Lopez at #15, who has been poor thus far, but whom I still blindly feel will turn out all right. (Stick with Lopez, Suns fans. He can play. He just sort of…..hasn’t.) Admittedly, I have no idea quite what the Suns see in Goran Dragic, whose only redeemable skill so far seems to be his rebounding, something that isn’t exactly vital from your point guard. But even that might pay off in time. You never know. Dragic won’t shoot 29% and foul this much forever. You just have to stay ignorantly confident in the face of his kind-of-bad performances so far.
This doesn’t mean, though, that the moves have worked. They haven’t. After being roundly dumped on by Boston last night, Phoenix sit with a 23-16 record, and in that same place that they had so wanted to avoid – good enough to be good, but not good enough to be good enough.
Further still, the Suns’ future prospects are not good. The younger players of Lopez, Amundson, Dudley and Alando Tucker are all decent, but there’s not a starter amongst them, and there may never be. Phoenix’s financial situation still shows no hope of providing flexibility any time soon, yet the team’s competitive nature means they’ll never get a high first-round pick. Most disturbingly of all, their supposed young superstar, 26-year-old Amar’e Stoudemire, seems to be regressing, unwilling or unable to overcome his problems with defence, rebounding, fouls or petulance. We’re seven years in now, and despite all the physical tools, Amar’e has never learnt – or never tried – to be the defender that he could be. Without this, the Suns are treading water.
Perhaps trading Amar’e is the answer. Getting a highly talented defensive player for the power forward position (someone in the role of Emeka Okafor) completely redefines the Suns’ interior defence, their biggest weakness, and even though it leaves the team with a starting frontcourt featuring two players with absolutely no offence to respect outside of the lane (thereby making it even harder than it’s already become for Steve Nash to get to the rim), the Suns have the makings of a potentially good defensive system. But maybe the scapegoat shouldn’t be placed on the shoulders of one of the league’s best offensive big men, or onto the General Manager who put together one of the stronger eight-man rotations in the league today.
The current Suns are a slower and less efficient version of their former selves, on both ends. The 2008 Phoenix Suns were second in the league in offensive efficiency and 16th in defensive efficiency, transformed now into a team with the fourth-best offence and the 26th-best defence. And it’s not all due to the loss of Raja Bell.
As Brent Barry once said, you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Two of the best defensive teams in the league – Cleveland and Boston – boast former Defensive Player Of The Years in Ben Wallace and Kevin Garnett, respectively. The two also host between them a variety of other decent defensive players, such as Anderson Varejao, Kendrick Perkins, LeBron James and Rondo, all of whom combine to create a system that can both mask and enhance the defensive (li-)abilities of some of their team mates.
Phoenix don’t have this. They don’t have any of it, really. Steve Nash takes a ton of charges, but can’t keep anyone in front of him. Jason Richardson often has a distinct strength advantage, but he struggles with the quicker guards. Hill can’t run backwards as well as he used to. Amar’e doesn’t try as hard on that end of the floor, and watches the ball almost as much as he does on offence. O’Neal is still a reasonably feared interior defensive player, but only if he doesn’t have to move. You can’t make much out of these ingredients. These aren’t the makings of a decent defensive unit. There’s no lockdown perimeter defender, no anchor in the middle, or enough disruption of the passing lanes. There’s not even enough rebounding, as the Suns have only the league’s 12th-best rebounding differential. Distinctly average. As was their defence.
Maybe Barry is right. The Suns are in no way chicken shit, but they haven’t the personnel with either the players or the coaches to put together the defensive unit needed to get the team over the hump, one that they still can’t see the top of. Trading for Shaquille O’Neal helped, as have many of the recent pickups, but it hasn’t been enough. And what certainly hasn’t helped the defence is changing coaches.
Perhaps they should change up the personnel again. Perhaps the Nash era is reaching a logical conclusion. Perhaps trading Amar’e really is the answer. Perhaps they could put together a package for Andrei Kirilenko, or someone of that nature, giving them someone who can vastly improve their defence, while also not preventing a return to their running game. Perhaps they could create a defensive scheme that will compliment and support the roster’s natural offensive talent. Perhaps they’ll just stop playing Goran Dragic.
In the mean time, they could start pushing the ball again and play to their strengths.
– Semih Erden – recipient of the funniest NBA forum thread title that I’ve ever seen, “Semih Erden is finally in the NBA” – never left Turkey. In his fourth year with Fenerbache, Erden is averaging 9.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in Turkish league play, along with 6.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in EuroLeague play. And yes, I’m fully aware that that thread title isn’t actually very funny, if at all. It’s funnier when you’re overtired and have just eaten some very strong continental cheese.
– Ebi Ere is signed in Australia. And perhaps he’ll never leave – he’s a legend there. Playing for the third place Melbourne Tigers, Ere (pronounced ‘Ear’, at least by Rick Kamla) averages 22.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists, which is one of the highest points per game averages that this list has seen so far. Ere’s teammates include former NBA centre Chris Anstey, and a man by the name of Stephen Hoare, whose mother must have had it tough. (Note: while looking up Ere’s averages, I was looking up the Australian league (the NBL) on Wikipedia, to see how it was that Ere had played only four games. Turns out that he had actually played 23. While I was there, though, I chose to look up the New Zealand Breakers, another NBL team, and try to figure out why there was a New Zealandolian team in the Australian league. It was then that I noticed that the Breakers’s former coach was called Frank Arsego. Best name ever.)
– Evan Bruce Eschmeyer – whose nickname ought really be “Almighty”, given that name of his – gave up basketball many moons ago, in late 2004, due to chronic injury. Since then, he has founded an online recruiting service, gone back to Northwestern and earned further business and law degrees, campaigned a bit for the Democratic Party, and was “heavily involved” in Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign. What he’s done since then, I’m not sure, but there’s sure to be something.
– Daniel Ewing is playing for Procol Harum (Prokom) in Poland, where he forms a very small backcourt with David Logan. (Also on that team – Ronnie Burrell. Remember him?) Ewing averages 14.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals in EuroLeague play, and if ever you wanted to know why so many fringe or former NBA players were signing with this Polish team (Ewing, Logan, Burrell, Koko Archibong, Pat Burke), then now you know why. It’s because they’re in the EuroLeague. And that gets you exposure. And exposure keeps the money coming in.
– Patrick Ewing Jr is with the Reno Bighorns in the D-League, as the Knicks still don’t have a roster spot with which to sign him. Ewing Jr averages 13.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.3 turnovers a game. Meanwhile, Patrick Ewing Sr is an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic, as is Steve Clifford, whose ability to transform his head into a ripened purple turnip during the sideline of every game continues to baffle and amaze.
– Olu Famutimi is into his second season with Khimik in the Ukraine. The second season isn’t going as well as the first – O-Fam averages 10.7 points and 4.7 in the Ukrainian league, but that drops to 6.7 points and 4.7 rebounds (and 32% shooting) in the EuroChallenge.
– Desmon Farmer made the San Antonio Spurs roster out of training camp, but it didn’t last very long, as the Spurs quickly waived him to pounce on Blake Ahearn, who the Wolves had also let go. (Ahearn didn’t last long in San Antonio, either. Don’t know why.) Farmer subsequently went off to Russia, where he averages 15.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists for Spartak Primorie Vladivostok, the team in last place in the Russian Superleague.
– Nick Fazekas didn’t make the Nuggets roster, went to Belgium to play for Oostende, was released after getting injured, and has since signed in France with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne. Fazekas has played one game in the French league, scoring 8 points with 12 rebounds in 20 minutes. He should be in the NBA. That is all.
– I like to think of Peter Fehse as being a yardstick for how hardcore into the NBA you are. By this I mean that if you know who Peter Fehse is, you are some kind of seriously hardcore NBA fan. Not even fans of the team that drafted him know who he is, because that team (the Sonics) no longer exist. So, here goes: Peter Fehse is a ginger German with a semi-fro, whom the Sonics drafted with the 49th pick back in 2002. They did this on the assumption that this 18-year-old seven-footer would pan out. But he emphatically hasn’t. A combination of a lack of refined skill and endless injuries has pretty much put his career on hold. Unsigned since September 2007 due to an Achilles tendon injury, Fehse finally signed with Braunschweig this month, the same team that he has tried to play with for about five seasons now. (Them and their second team, at least.) But guess what? He hurt himself again in his second game back, once again the Achilles tendon, and his season is over. His career might be, too. This amusing Google Translate tells the full story, although Peter Fehse himself says it best:
“You can look at only with gallows humor take.”
That you can, Peter Fehse. That you can.
– Noel Felix was playing in the D-League for the Anaheim Arsenal, but was waived due to injury earlier this month. Felix averaged 13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game, as well as 2.9 turnovers, a strangely huge amount for a man who rarely dribbles in traffic.
– Andrei Fetisov has retired and hasn’t played since February 2007. Can you see a theme here? Go to the unsigned draft picks list, and cross off all those who we have deemed to be retired in these Where Are They Now posts. The list suddenly gets a lot shorter.
– Finally tonight, do you want a 31-year-old athletic but untested-at-the-top-levels power forward? If so, you might want to check out Kimani Ffriend, as the L.A. Clippers did only last year. Ffriend, a late bloomer who didn’t play organised basketball until late, averages 15.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for Mersin in Turkey. Unfortunately, he’s finally getting good only after he’s hurtled past 30. So Europe awaits. Still.
– Bryant Dunston is in South Korea, averaging 17.6 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.9 blocks for a team called Mobis Phoebus. Dunston doesn’t have any great chance of making the NBA, but after watching the entire Lakers summer league – in which an extremely backcourt-heavy roster started Dunston at centre, with Sharrod Ford at power forward – I grew to like him. I seemed to like his unathletic yet reasonably smooth game featuring plenty of lefty baby hooks and defensive positioning. It reminded me of Michael Sweetney. And I like Michael Sweetney. (In fairness to Dunston, at age 22 with reasonable skill, he still has a faint chance of sniffing the NBA at some point, even if it’s only a camp invite. But I don’t think signing in Korea is getting it done. And he should probably put those three-pointers to bed.)
– Ronald “Doop” Dupree didn’t make the Cavaliers out of training camp, and went back to the D-League with the Tulsa 66ers. As is often the case when he’s in the D-League, Doop has beasted, averaging 19.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists, but he still can’t shoot consistently, shooting only 31% from three-point range and 69% from the free throw line. He’ll also be 28 on January 26th, so a happy birthday to him.
– Ndudi Ebi is signed in Italy, and still hasn’t panned out. Ndudi is the third-leading scorer on an Italian team called Carife Ferrara, behind Harold Jamison (THE Harold Jamison! Throw-in to the Miles for McInnis swap Harold Jamison!) and Andre Collins (yes, THE Andre Collins! From Loyola! The very same!). Ebi is really the fourth leading scorer, if you also include Rick Apodaca (THE Rick Apodaca! Former Magic training camp invitee Rick Apodaca! Et cetera!), but Apodaca only played in five games before being kicked off the team after testing positive for pot. Ebi averages 11.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, and rather impressively has only two assists in 15 games. Especially impressive given the sheer unrelenting calibre of scoring options that I just outlined.
– Former Hawks and Pacers centre John Edwards was recently acquired by the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the D-League, averaging 6.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, and is still pushing his campaign towards ending poverty in America. (That was a John Edwards switcharoony. You can’t write comedy gold like that. Well, unless you’re me.)
– I’ve got nothing on Howard Eisley, but I’m also not up for a Chris Crawford-style campaign, either. By the way, an update on that – it appears that Crawford tried a comeback in mid-2006, which ended without any contract being offered. He has moved back to Galesburg, Michigan, owns a company called Slam Dunk Stables, and somebody sent me a Google Earth overhead shot of his house. The internet – it’s faaaaaantastic.
– Obinna Ekezie has not played since a stint in Russia ended in April 2007. After almost two years out of the game, and about to turn 34, I’m going to assume that Ekezie is probably out of the game for good. Feel free to correct me, Obinna Ekezie’s agent.
– Frank Elegar is signed with Bremerhaven in Germany, where he averages 9.2 points and 5.6 rebounds. Despite boasting both Jared Reiner and Mike Gansey, along with a brief stay by Marcus Slaughter, Bremerhaven are stone dead last in the German first division, with a 1-16 record. As for Fun Time Franky, like with Bryant Dunston above, Elegar’s shot at this NBA thing is pretty slim, but, like Bryant Dunston above, Frank Elegar impressed in summer league, as he showed a decent mid-range game with the Wizards, even if his free throw release was kind of amusing. Note to very fringe NBA players out there – this is how you get famous. Sign in summer league and show something, and I’ll write nice things about you to a worldwide audience. And you can’t get much more famous than by appearing on this website, let me tell you – Alexa.com says that this is the 79,062nd most popular website in Hungary. You can’t buy publicity gold like that.
– Lior Eliyahu is in his third season with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and improving his numbers of last year. Eliyahu leads his team in EuroLeague play, averaging 14.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists, and he doesn’t do badly in Israeli league play either, where he averages a further 13.0 points, 5.6 points and 3.3 assists. Is that NBA calibre talent? Yep, probably, though he will have to get far more physical.
– Georgian superstar Tyrone Ellis averages 11.4 points in Spanish League play, and 9.8 points in EuroChallenge play. His backcourt team mates include former Pacer, Tyus Edney, who barely plays, and who is about to turn 36. Oh wait, sorry, I forgot to tell you who Ellis plays for, didn’t I? It’s Cajasol Sevilla. In Spain. Specifically, in Sevilla.
– Chris Ellis is on the same Tulsa 66ers team as Doop is. Ellis averages 6.7 points and 5.2 rebounds in 20 games, shooting 38% from the floor.
– Andre Emmett went to Pau Orthez after being waived by the Sixers in training camp, and in the early going Emmett was a big boost to the struggling French side, averaging 23 points and 5.4 rebounds in five games despite missing nearly a month due to injury. However, in December, Emmett left the team. My French is a bit ropey, but as far as I call tell, he went home for Christmas, and didn’t come back. That’s European basketball for you, everybody. Wouldn’t it be funny if that happened in the NBA?
– Carl English is styling in Spain, where he averages 15.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists in Spanish league play for Kalise Gran Canaria. He also just won player of the week honours, in a week that saw him play so well that he won player of the week honours. What an honour. By the way, why do Americans call the spin you put on a pool/snooker ball “English”? Is it funny or clever? The word is “side”, “spin”, or “sidespin”. Don’t mess with perfection.
– Finally, Zoran Erceg is playing for Olympiacos in Greece, where he averages 7.2 points in Greek league play, and 5.8 points in the EuroLeague. You can’t buy informative gold like that. Or rather, you can, but you don’t have to, because I did it for you. ShamSports.com – the website that cares. About Zoran Erceg.
[I]t’s time for a new rule – no more Chris Crawford updates on this website. Not unless there’s ever anything to actually report, like if he commits a murder or becomes King of Poland or something.
(from “Where Are They Now, 2009: part 11”)
My reason for writing this flippant disregard was simple and self-explanatory – there really is no new Chris Crawford news to report. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Not a sausage. Bugger all.
However, a man named Steve took offence to my off-handed dismissal of what he believes to be “the last basketball Jesus”. (Note: this is not an exact quote, despite the quotation marks.) Steve vowed to track down Chris Crawford, and to find out what he is doing now.
Steve hasn’t yet succeeded in this quest, despite sending at least two emails (two! Count ’em!), but he’s suckered me in to help. And now I’m going to sucker you in too. Let us find Chris Crawford.
Since his final season in professional basketball – the 2003/04 NBA season with the Atlanta Hawks, in which Crawford played the best games of his career – Crawford has disappeared off of the map. He wasn’t even really on it much before then, either, as he had only appeared in 12 games combined in the previous two seasons due to injury. Indeed, injuries are what most people think of when reminded about Chris Crawford; the man played only 256 games in seven years due to a constant list of injuries, surely much to the chagrin of Hawks fans, who felt cheated out of a roster spot by Crawford’s long-term contract that he wasn’t able to deliver on.
Yet to think only of Chris Crawford’s injuries does the man a disservice. Chris Crawford could play.
Drafted 51st in 1997, and not given much of a chance to even make the roster, Crawford nevertheless made the team, and proved to be of much value in the following 1998/99 season, performing markedly well while filling in for the injured LaPhonso Ellis down the stretch of the Hawks’ playoff push. These performances earned Chris a six-year, near-$16 million contract, and guaranteed him lifelong financial security, unless he trusted Mike Tyson’s business advisors or something. As has already been mentioned, a persistent left knee injury swamped the remainder of Crawford’s career, but one thing that he never lost was his ability to flat out score. In a low-scoring era of NBA basketball, Crawford averaged roughly 20 points per 48 minutes, an impressive-enough number even before you consider who it was that did it.
Crawford’s basketball career was simple, yet effective – four seasons at Marquette followed by seven seasons with the Atlanta Hawks (eight if you count the 2004-05 season, in which Crawford was under contract but didn’t play a single minute). His best season was his last – in 2003/04, Crawford set career highs in games played (56) and points per game (10.2) while teaming with Bob Sura to lead the Hawks to a stellar 28 wins. (There weren’t many, but some of them were fun.)
However, since that crescendo, Crawford has disappeared, never to be heard from again. Never signing in Europe, or even (as far as I can tell) trying out for another team after the expiration of his Hawks contract, Crawford went AWL (which is like AWOL, except far more justifiable). Crawford doesn’t seem to have attempted any coaching or announcing gigs or anything of that nature, the career choices that about 95% of former players seem to attempt upon retirement. Nor does he seem to like being arrested, as some former players seem to like doing.
The question, then, must be asked – where in the world is Chris Crawford?
We don’t have much to go on. Wikipedia tells us that he plays golf in the summer with his brother Tim in Kalamazoo in Michigan, but that’s about it. Eurobasket.com says that Crawford “[w]ould like to own a sports bar after his playing career has ended” – however, that sentence was clearly written before his career was over, thus making that statement at least five years old. Correspondence with Crawford’s former agent didn’t work either, as he says that he hasn’t spoken to Chris in years and has no contact information for him. A plea to the University of Marquette went unheeded, although admittedly it’s only been about 36 hours since it was sent. Numerous internet searches offer up nothing, except for that golf snippet. Not even Facebook could help us out. Put simply, when undertaken with only minimal effort, Chris Crawford information is hard to find.
Even pictures are hard to find – a Google search for “Chris Crawford” brings up the Wikipedia page of a video game designer called Chris Crawford, but not that of the seminal basketball star. And a Google image search for “Chris Crawford Hawks” results in a picture of a man’s naked and flaccid little buddy. (Just trust me on this, it does.)
So this plea goes out to you. If you know what Chris Crawford is doing now, or if you know where we can get in contact with him, or if you know someone who might, let us know. If you’re a member of the Chris Crawford family, and are willing to help us on our admittedly rather annoying quest, let us know. If you’re a Kalamazoo resident, an employee of Milham Park Golf Course, or the person who put that snippet of information on Wikipedia, let us know. If you’re an interested Hawks fan willing to help the search, let us know. If you’re anyone at all, let us know. Like when Justin Lee Collins reunited the A-Team, we can make this happen, even without the lure of a TV show on our side. But only if we work together.
Together, we can find Chris Crawford.
Why are we doing this? I don’t know, really. I am genuinely interested in the life, times, health and career moves of former Atlanta Hawk forward Chris Crawford, as I’m sure some of you are, too. Random Guy Steve also wants to thank him for the fantasy league championship that Crawford won him single-handedly in the 2004 season, when Crawford put up career numbers on an unsubtlely-tanking Hawks team. But, primarily, here’s the main reason…
– Carlos Delfino is still with Khimki in Russia, despite the rumours of a return to the Raptors ramping up a bit after Toronto dumped Hassan Adams off to the Clippers a fortnight ago. However, while these rumours may not be unfounded, they sure are illogical. Let me tell you why the Raptors dumped Hassan Adams – they dumped Hassan Adams because Brian Colangelo gave Adams a guaranteed contract in July, before Adams showed up out of shape and unable to consistently do the one thing that he’s best at – running around off the ball. Additionally, Hassan Adams is not an NBA rotation player even when in shape, which in hindsight was another reason not to give him that guaranteed contract. However, because Colangelo did, he brought the team so close to the tax threshold ($1,107 beneath it, to be exact) that the team could only carry 13 players in order to stay under it. When their big man injury situation got so bad that they had to sign somebody (Jake Voskuhl), the Raptors had to shift a contract in order to get underneath the threshold again. Adams was the logical choice – he was the final man on the bench, filled no team needs, had an appropriately sized yet easily moveable contract, and should never have been on the team in the first place. So the Raptors gave the Clippers some money as an incentive for taking on Hassan’s dead weight cap number. THAT’S why the Raptors moved Hassan Adams. It wasn’t a precursor to some move for Carlos Delfino.
Let me ask you something – when you’re so staunchly obliged to stay under the luxury tax that you can’t even sign Jake Voskuhl without having to make corresponding roster moves to free up the money, while carrying the league minimum number of players all season in a bid to save further money, are you really going to throw a few million at a backup wing player, who just played his supposed career season with you and who still wasn’t great, chucking like Berry and somehow managing to shoot slightly less than his career average of 40% shooting? No, no you aren’t. No matter how desperate an NBA team is for a short-term fix, Carlos Delfino isn’t it. He’s especially not it when obtaining him means triggering your extremely delicate salary situation. And so that’s why the Raptors won’t be signing Carlos Delfino this season.
(By the way, Delfino averages 11.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in Russian league play. It’s all good information.)
– Tony Delk retired from professional basketball in November 2007. This retirement lasted a mere manner of months, as he quickly unretired to join a team in Puerto Rico. Three games later, Delk retired again, and is now a “technical advisor” to that same Puerto Rican team, the Gigantes of Carolina. I assume that this means he mends the Jumbotron every now and then, and plays lots of Minesweeper.
– Derrick Dial is currently in the D-League with the Tulsa 66ers, which isn’t really the place for 33-year-old journeyman. Nevertheless, Dial is there, and he averages 11.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 38% shooting, as the sixth man on a Tulsa team that averages 21.3 turnovers a game. And that’s a lot of turnovers.
– Dimitris Diamantidis is in his fifth season with Panathinaikos, averaging 10.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists in EuroLeague play.
[Did I really just say “chucking like Berry”? Jesus. You’d better go. I wouldn’t read me either.]
– Guillermo Diaz averages 17.6 points and 2.0 assists for Eldo Caserta, the Italian team that Jamar Butler also just joined. The 2.0 assists is a team high (tied with Butler, although Butler has played only three games), so there’s clearly not a lot of passing from the Eldo backcourt there. Although that’s probably not that surprising, coming from a backcourt featuring Guillermo Diaz, Horace Jenkins and Shan Foster.
– Dan Dickau is unsigned, and still trying to add to his healthy list of NBA Teams That Dan Dickau Has Belonged To For At Least Eight Minutes – the Lakers are supposedly interested in him.
– Kaniel Dickens is in the Italian second division. He was in the first division, but his team – Napoli – went bankrupt, and so Kaniel had to look elsewhere. For Cimberio Varese, playing alongside Randolph Childress, Dickens averages 14.3 points and 7.1 rebounds, both team highs. While writing Kaniel’s name just now, I noticed that an anagram of it happened to be “Dick Linesnake”, which might just be the best name for a male porn star that I’ve ever heard. That, or he’s an Anchorman character. Good times.
– Michael Dickerson’s random comeback didn’t last very long. Signing with the Cavaliers for training camp, after five and a half years out of the game, Dickerson faced impossible odds to make the team, and didn’t overcome them. After being waived, Dickerson went back where he came from – to India, on a voyage of “spiritual discovery”. Alrighty.
– Alain Digbeu – some French veteran whose rights the Hawks still own – started the season with Kavala/Panorama in Greece (a team that seemingly couldn’t decide which name to use), but left earlier this month. Whether he jumped or whether he was pushed, I couldn’t say, but the 7.1 points per game on 36% shooting probably made him livewithoutable.
– And finally, an update on a player that has already been mentioned, but whose circumstances have since changed. Austin Croshere has signed with the San Antonio Spurs on a ten-day contract, although what the Spurs think they’ll see in those ten days that Austin hasn’t shown over the last twelve years is a bit baffling.
– Michael Curry is now the Detroit Pistons head coach. You knew this already, but an obsessive-compulsive love of consistency made me say this anyway.
– JamesOn Curry signed with Pau Orthez in France, but left before the season started. I don’t know why, but he hasn’t signed anywhere since, so it’s probably injury related. That is entirely speculative, though.
– Stephen Curry is a draft prospect, who is single-handedly taking Davidson from being a decent to good school, and who has draft experts arguing as to whether he’s the next J.J. Redick or the next Ben Gordon. Curry currently averages 28.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 3.1 steals, yet I will say no more about him, so as to not guess.
– Erik Daniels is in the D-League, averaging 20.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the expansion Erie BayHawks. Daniels does this as a 6’8 small forward that has played the vast majority of his time this season at centre. That’s the D-League for you.
There now follows a lot of people called Davis.
– Paul Davis was in the NBA, but now he’s gone. He left his number to turn you on.
– Josh Davis was also in the NBA, but now he’s also gone. But unlike Paul Davis – who was waived by the Clippers earlier this month and who hasn’t signed anywhere else yet – Josh Davis went to the D-League to continue showcasing himself. As the second-best player on a decent team – now the best since James Mays blew out his knee – J-Dave averages 17.9 points and 6.9 rebounds for the Colorado 14ers, trying desperately to get back to the NBA and chase down Tony Massenburg’s record for the number of different teams played with. (Speaking of, what is Bobby Jones’s excuse for not signing with another six teams this year? Stick around and find it. In like four weeks.)
– Antonio Davis and Dale Davis are both out of basketball, have been for a while, and probably always will be, after Dale’s supposed fling with the Pistons last season didn’t get anywhere. Similarly, the other J-Dave – former Golden State Warriors training camp invitee Justin Davis – is out of basketball, and has been since a brief trial in Germany back in November 2006. Therefore, as was the case with Chris Crawford, I am hereby announcing that I won’t bring you Justin Davis news any more, since there isn’t any. (Readers note: Bizarrely, when I said that about Crawford, someone e-mailed me and told me that, somewhat out of spite, they were going to single-handedly track him down and get an update from him on his life. If someone wants to do the same with Justin Davis, then be my guest. You could form a merry band of freedom fighters, fighting for what’s right in the world; peace, saving the rainforests, the downfall of terrorism and Chris Crawford updates. I could be your leader. You can be like my droogs or something. Except we won’t be as annoying as the real droogs. Or as darkly violent.)
– Kyle Davis was never in the NBA, and I don’t want his number to turn me on. He signed in Cyprus after being waived from the D-League, but left after three games and is currently unsigned.
– Willie Deane was playing for Lithuanian legends Zalgiris, and was shooting 22% from the field in EuroLeague competition, but unfortunately, Zalgiris just went bankrupt. Deane therefore left the team, and is also currently unsigned.
– And finally, because we haven’t had a very good entry in this post up until now, here’s an update on someone that we’ve already covered.
Back in my original update on Kenny Adeleke, I mentioned how I didn’t really know anything about him. All I knew is that he was a slightly undersized centre and a fine rebounder, and that he once went to training camp with the Seattle Supersonics. That was all I knew. I had never seen him play, and didn’t even know that he was left-handed.
So I set out to right those wrongs. I set out to learn about Kenny Adeleke, to educate myself (and, by proxy, you) about the life and times of Kenny Adeleke. I did this the only way I know how – by adding him as a Facebook friend. Here’s what I got:
Kenny Adeleke (full name Andrew Kehinde Adeleke) is a left-handed power forward, who is currently unsigned after leaving Lukoil Akademik of Bulgaria in late December. Last season, he played in Turkey with Banvit Basketbol, where he was second in the Turkish league in rebounds per game (11.4 rpg), and first in the EuroCup (11.0), while also averaging over 14 points per game in both competitions. (Note – the Eurocup in 2007/08 was not the same thing as the EuroCup today. It’s confusing, but I’ll try to explain. European teams have their leagues in their own countries, and the good teams also play in Europe-wide competitions. The top tier league of this kind is called the EuroLeague. The second is now called the EuroCup, but used to be called the ULEB Cup. And the third tier competition is now called the EuroChallenge, but used to be called the Eurocup. Those tiers are not officially defined as such, since they are run by different competing entities, but functionally, that’s what they are. Adeleke played and starred in the third of these during his time in Turkey. Hope that clarifies it a bit.)
Adeleke would appear to be something of a legend in Turkey, as more than about 98% of his Facebook friends are Turkish. (The first page of his friends list, with 50 people on it, are all Turkish, which kind of proves my point. By the way, characterising a player’s popularity based on the demographics of their Facebook friends list is the future.) Adeleke played his college ball at Hofstra, where he averaged 20.7 ppg, 13.1 rpg, 1.0 spg and 1.7 bpg in his senior season, but went undrafted anyway, since apparently that wasn’t enough. In between his college career and his season in Turkey came a stop in Israel at Hapoel Galil Elyon, where Kenny averaged 15.8 ppg and an Israeli league-leading 9.3 rebounds a night, along with 10.8 ppg and 9.0 rpg in the Eurocup. (Note: Again, this Eurocup is the since-renamed third-tier competition, not the second-tier ULEB Cup that is now called the EuroCup. Do please keep up.) It would seem that everywhere he goes, he performs – even for Lukoil this season, Adeleke averaged 16.3 points and 12.7 rebounds in the Bulgarian league, and 13.2 points and 13.0 rebounds in the EuroCup. (And this time, by “the EuroCup”, I mean the second-tier one, the one that used to be called the ULEB Cup. Not the third-tier one that used to be the Eurocup and is now the EuroChallenge, the one that I meant in the previous two instances of the words “EuroCup”. The difference is discerned by whether the C is capitalised or not. Wow, I really hope these brackets are helping.)
Away from the game, Adeleke majored in psychology, and is a big fan of Eric Cartman, leather jackets and Baron Davis’s beard. As are we all.
If I ran an NBA team, Kenny Adeleke would get at least a tryout. That kind of rebounding rate got Reggie Evans a five-year contract, so it could at least get Kenny Adeleke another training camp signing. Who knows, he might stick.
– I have no idea where Keon Clark is, specifically.
– Milone Clark averages 4.8 points and 3.4 rebounds for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. I openly admit to knowing basically nothing about Milone Clark, but, as a player who has never put up good numbers at any stage of his career (he even only scored 15 ppg in the Ecuadorian league) yet who somehow landed a training camp spot with the Knicks in 2006……well, perhaps Milone Clark is a very good defensive guard.
– Mateen Cleaves is also in the D-League, where he averages 13.2 points and 8.2 assists for the Bakersfield Jam. (Also note – the jump shot is still broken.) The 8.2 assists is good for second in the league, behind only Walker Russell, who is way out in front with 11.1 apg. But only six players in the entire D-League average over 7 apg, which is somewhat remarkable in a league with an unsubtle emphasis on pushing the ball and stat-padding. Then again, maybe they’re all too busy shooting.
– Keith Closs spent last year in the D-League with the Tulsa 66ers, where he admitted to his alcoholism and posted a season featuring nearly as many blocks per game (2.8) as rebounds (4.7), yet this season he left the D-League to go to China. Signing with the Yunnan Honghe Running Bulls, Closs averaged 14.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.5 blocks in the Chinese league, which frequently boasts amusingly lopsided statistics (speaking of, if and when we get to the letter W, have a look at Bonzi Wells’s scoring average), but left the team for reasons unbeknownst to me. Closs then had a trial with another Chinese team, the Liaoning Panpan Hunters, but left earlier this month and is currently unsigned. Somewhere in amongst all that, Closs managed to apply for Filipino citizenship, for reasons that are also unbeknownst to me. And Slam Magazine also carried this story about him, which, like most Keith Closs stories, is kind of fun. While we’re on the subject of fun Keith Closs moments, here is Keith Closs blocking two shots in what looks dangerously like a high school game, and flexing afterwards:
– Coleman Collins is also in the D-League, averaging 12.4 points and 6.4 rebounds on a disappointing 43% shooting for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
– Will Conroy leads the D-League in scoring, with a 25.0 points per game average for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, and he is also tied for third in assists at 7.6 apg. He also averages a handy 4.4 rebounds, and fills up the stat sheet further with 2.6 steals per game. However, rather than being instantly deemed the next Chris Paul, Conroy’s averages need some kind of context – he puts up these numbers in a numbers-heavy league, while averaging a whopping 44.9 minutes a game. Conroy also leads the league in turnovers with 4.5 a game, leading to an assist/turnover ratio of a mediocre 1.7:1, and while he shoots a huge number of free throws (169 FTA to 283 FGA), he hits them at only 70%. Nevertheless, Conroy is behind only Eddie Gill in the Order In Which D-League Point Guards Are To Be Called Up To The NBA (note: such a list does not really exist), and if the Lakers sign Gill – as they are threatening to do – then things are looking good for Conroy when Phoenix need another mandatory thirteenth man.
– Montenegrin legend Omar Cook averages 5.2 points, 1.8 steals and 4.9 assists for Unicaja Malaga in Spain. That might not seem like much – and the points certainly aren’t – but it comes in only 22 minutes per game, in a country where assists are far harder to come by. That 4.9 assists is good for third in the Spanish league, and Cook’s averages in the EuroLeague – 5.0 ppg, 5.1 apg – had him tied for the tournament lead in assists there, too. So there’s some more context for you.
– Ryvon Covile is in France, playing for Orleans (not New Orleans, but the old one). Covile averages 10.8 points and 6.8 rebounds while still boasting the greatest name in the Western world.
– Chris Crawford has now been out of basketball for about five years, and yet I still feel morally obligated to tell you that he’s not playing every year. Since the last time I told you this, only one new shred of information has come to light, that being this quote from his Wikipedia page:
During the summers they [Crawford and his brother] often golf at Milham Park Golf Course in their hometown of Kalamazoo, MI.
That’s fun, clearly. But it’s time for a new rule – no more Chris Crawford updates on this website. Not unless there’s ever anything to actually report, like if he commits a murder or becomes King of Poland or something.
– Joe Crawford didn’t make the Lakers’ regular season roster out of training camp, but the Lakers own their own D-League affiliate, the Los Angeles D-Fenders. As a result, Crawford was immediately allocated there upon signing with the D-League, where he currently averages 20.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists. Note to all NBA teams out there – if you want to keep lots of your training camp signings and former players, buy your own D-League affiliate and wait for the allocations to come pouring in. It seems to work wonders. Crawford can technically sign a contract with any NBA team (and even turn down the Lakers if he so chose), but if the San Antonio Spurs and the Austin Toros partnership is anything to go on…..he won’t.
– Austin Croshere signed with the Indiana Pacers, lost out to the guaranteed contract of Stephen Graham (who looks to have finally found a steady spot in the NBA), was claimed off of waivers by the Milwaukee Bucks, hit a few three-pointers, and was waived last week to avoid the contract guarantee date. However, if my understanding of prorating the salaries of league-reimbursed veterans is correct – and it probably isn’t – then waiving Croshere saves the Bucks only about $300,000, and his part-season of insignificance cost them almost double that. So was it really worth waiving him? Don’t know. It depends on if I’m right, I guess. The lesson, as always: I’m probably not right.
– T.J. Cummings came to the Anaheim Arsenal early in the year, but then pulled out. I really enjoyed writing that sentence.
– Zarko Cabarkapa has not been signed since being let go by the Golden State Warriors about 18 months ago, at the end of the 2006/07 season. Zarko had not played that whole season, either, meaning that his last professional basketball game came nearly three years ago in April 2006. The reason for this is injury, as Cabarkapa has battled chronic back complaints for all this time, if not from before then. However, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel – Cabarkapa has recently begun workouts with his former team, Budućnost, hoping to get back into the game. He has not signed a contract with anyone, but it’s a start.
– Justin Cage is playing for Belgacom Liege, a team that unsurprisingly play in Belgium. Belgacom Liege employ a very strict eight-man rotation (the roster outside of those eight players have a total of 30 minutes played in 13 games), and only one of those eight players is a Belgian. As an Arsenal fan, I kind of know how this feels. Cage averages 16.2 points and 4.2 rebounds a game, making him the team’s second-leading scorer behind the man, the legend, Christopher Hill.
– Pat Calathes was not drafted, played on the summer league roster of all 30 teams (nearly), still didn’t make it to training camp, and so he went off to Greece, the country of his heritage. For Marousi in Greece, Calathes is averaging 4.9 points and 2.5 rebounds, while shooting three-pointers at a scintillating 22%.
– After being one of the best players in the D-League last year, Earl Calloway went in search of some slightly better money. Finding it with Cibona Zagreb, Calloway averages 11.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 steals a game, but his court time might be about to be superseded by recent arrival Alan Anderson. (Calloway’s backcourt partner, Davor Kus, is a Croatian international and the team’s leading scorer. So he’s not getting benched any time soon.)
– Marcus Campbell was one of the better big men in the D-League last year, but he left late in the season to play in Italy. Obviously a fan of tideless seas full of piss, Campbell stayed near the Mediterranean and signed in the Spanish second division with Los Barrios, yet he was quickly released. Returning to the D-League once more, Campbell is currently averaging 10.7 points and 9.9 rebounds for his former and present team, the Anaheim Arsenal.
– Nik Caner-Medley started the season with Upea Orlando in Italy, but the team went bankrupt before the season started. Whether this was due to Nik Caner-Medley, I couldn’t say, but I doubt it. C-Med then moved to Cajasol Sevilla in Spain, where he averages 10.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists, yet shooting only 11% from three-point range. So his weakness is still there, then. (I quite like Nik Caner-Medley. If he adds that jump shot range, it’s plausible that his career follows a path similar to that of James Singleton, someone else whose game I like. Maybe I have a thing for undrafted hustle players with sporadic mid-range jump shots. I’d like Louis Amundson more too if he could just control his own urges.)
– Jason Capel is still retired, although his Wikipedia page doesn’t seem to carry this information. In fact, it says the complete opposite. Nevertheless, as far as I can tell, though, he no longer broadcasts Charlotte Bobcats games on radio, like he did last year, having being usurped by Muggsy Bogues. He still announces college games, though, and is an assistant coach for a high school team.
– Geno Carlisle seems to be having one more crack at the NBA, despite now being the wrong side of 30. Playing for the Arsenal (as does seemingly every player that this series has covered so far – even Malick Badiane just joined them), Carlisle averages 8.0 points and 1.8 rebounds.
– Alejandro Carmona is unsigned, after leaving his Mexican team in November.
– Pat Carroll recently changed teams, going from the unsuccessful Spanish team Beirasar Rosalia to the more successful Spanish team of Tenerife Rural. Carroll averaged 13.7 points for Rosalia, and 15.5 points for Tenerife in his two games there so far.
– Finally, high-scoring Jaycee “Cash Money” Carroll isn’t letting a perceived lack of speed get him down, as he averages 17.8 points and 5.1 rebounds for the third-placed Banca Tercas Teramo in Italy. That 17.8 points is good for fourth in the league. By the way, there is no particular reason why I just called him “Cash Money”. It merely stems from a childish game that me and my friend played this weekend, in which we spent a good couple of hours watching football and thinking up really bad nicknames for all the players on show, before deciding that the nickname “Cash Money” works on pretty much everybody. The same applies to “Mad Dog” and “The Cat”. This is how I live my life.
– Maurice Carter’s last sighting was back in 2005, when he averaged 14.5 points and 5.5 rebounds for the Indiana Pacers’ summer league team. He was only 28 at that time, having played in the NBA only the season before, and yet it seems he hasn’t played anywhere since. I don’t know why this is. If you do, let me know. Carter also apparently owns a piece of the Mississippi Hardhats WBA franchise, a team whose website sorely needs updating, and who might not even exist any more. But, if they do, VIP tickets to a Mississippi Hardhats game are only ten dollars! Nice! Buy early to avoid disappointment.
– Russell Carter is playing for Gravelines in France, a team whose name loses its magic when pronounced in a French accent. Playing alongside former seminal NBA starlet Dan McClintock, Carter has appeared in all of two games for Gravelines, totalling 17 minutes, 0 points and 5 rebounds, which isn’t much in a month.
– Steve Castleberry is in the mighty Czech Republic league, where he averages 11.1 points and 6.3 rebounds for the even mightier Karma Basket Podebrady. Steve Castleberry has only played in weak leagues such as the USBL and the Dominican Republic since turning pro, and hasn’t exactly shined in any of them. Why, therefore, does he garner all this attention on this website, one that is designed with a specific focus for current and fringe NBA players? Well, it’s because the Philadelphia 76ers signed him for training camp in 2005. And because of that, I’m now obligated (and highly willing) to follow the life and times of Officer Steve Castleberry.
– Kelvin Cato is still unsigned, and probably always will be. If any team out there is rueing not signing Dikembe Mutombo, and thinks they might want to sign Kelvin Cato instead…..well, based on last year’s play, don’t. He may well be done.
– Lion-O Chalmers is playing for Surgut in Russia, where he is averaging a highly applaudable 22.1 points (comfortably first in the league) and 4.9 assists (fourth). Fun Lionel Chalmers fact – Lionel Chalmers is the cousin of current Minnesota Timberwolves forward Craig Smith. I’d make a list of players that are cousins of other players, but it would take one hundred million years to complete.
– “Ca$h Money” Brian Chase averages 13.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Le Mans, another French team whose name is less fun when pronounced properly. Chase’s teammates include former World Wrestling Entertainment Champion and Gonzaga forward J.P. Batista, as well as former Sacramento King forward David Bluthenthal, who average 9.0 and 10.1 points respectively.
– Calbert Cheaney has been out of the game for ages, and is now something of a Mr Miyagi type.
– Eric Chenowith is unsigned. After joining the Hornets for training camp last season, Chenowith then went to the D-League, where he did little. He then signed with a Korean team this year, but left during preseason, and he has not been signed since. For a few years, his NBA window has been open, albeit only slightly. But now, I think it’s firmly shut.
– Josh Childress is playing for Olympiacos, as well you know. It’s also going rather well for him, as he averages a team-leading 15.6 points, good for fourth in the league, as well as 3.7 rebounds per game. Childress is also shooting 76% on his two-point shots, which is almost Josh Childress-like.
– Doug Christie could be doing roughly anything right now.
– Adam Chubb will literally never leave Germany, unless he does. Thus season, on the first year of a two-year contract with the ALBA Berlin team, Chubb is averaging 8.1 points and 3.6 rebounds.
– Finally, Sam Clancy finally signed a contract for this season, joining CSK VSS Samara in Russia earlier this month. In his first game for the team, Clancy went 0-4. Good times.
“The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers’ contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.
“Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.”
Now, I’m no lawyer, nor even a taxpaying member of the state. But if I understand anything, I understand this:
The whole concept of doctors declaring when a player’s career is over due to injury is entirely speculative. It has to be, unless Nostradamus knows how to use a stethoscope. The doctors predicted Darius’s career would be over, but it wasn’t, and you can see that it wasn’t by the fact that he’s STILL PLAYING. Therefore, Portland’s whole claim of “his career is over, can we have our money back please?” is somewhat invalidated. And all this silly posturing helps nobody.
As far I can tell, Portland has little, if any, legal footing. If Darius was out there in a wheelchair, or as a quadriplegic with a terminal case of lumbago, then they’d have a point. But he’s not. Darius is not the player that he once was, but he can take an NBA court on merit.
Caught up in all this, though, is the most important point.
Darius Miles never got much of a fair shake in Portland. The blow-ups didn’t help, but he could play, and yet he was reviled due to his perceived character and his novelty oversized contract. But while Darius may has always been hard work, we must feel for him in this situation. His comeback attempt seems genuine, and yet this entire process for him is now nothing but a mockery. All the man wants is a fair chance at regaining the lifestyle and profession that he lost through no fault of his own. And we can’t seem to allow him that without making it into a legal battle.
– Cedric Bozeman is playing for the Anaheim Arsenal in the D-League, where he averages 17.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists, where he plays the off-guard to Tierre Brown’s point. (Brown averages 14.4 points and 4.6 assists.) But the best Cedric Bozeman news of all is that he is 22-51 from behind the three-point line, for a 43% average. This isn’t exactly a massive sample size to be working off, and it does come from the man who shot 21% on three-pointers in Poland last season, but it may be a sign that Bozeman’s jump shot might not be too big of a weakness any more. With a decent jump shot, Bozeman has a chance to be vaguely interesting to NBA teams. His first go-around with the Atlanta Hawks wasn’t pretty, as he shot 28% in 23 games and had a 1:1 assist/turnover ratio. But teams love their tall point guards, and even though Bozeman isn’t playing full-time point guard right now, he could. Any evidence of his development as a scorer can only help his case.
– Torraye Braggs has played basically everywhere, and, until last week, was playing in Mexico with Pioneros de Quintana Roo-Cancun. Apparently he only plays on teams with awesome names, because before Pioneros de Quintana Roo-Cancun, Braggs was playing for a team in Jordan called, simply, “Orthodox”. Before that, he played in Iran for Petrochimi Imam Harbour. Before that, it was ASK Riga in Latvia (less awesome, but a suitably random country), and before that came Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan in Israel and the Qingdao Double Stars in China. If there’s a basketball league featuring teams with great names, and where the money isn’t too bad, Torraye Braggs will find it.
– J.R. Bremer is playing for Triumph in Russia (them of the Nenad Krstic thing), where he averages 12.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists. He also is now a Bosnian passport holder, something that he seemingly managed to obtain on the basis of the five games that he played for Bosna Sarajevo last season. Does that seem a bit odd to you? Yes, me too. But, crucially for Bremer, that passport makes it easier for him to be signed in Europe, as it allows him to be technically a European, thus facilitating his move into any league with a maximum number of Americans policy. And Bremer at least actually plays for the Bosnian national team.
– Last time we checked in with Jamison Rudy Van Brewer, he was out of basketball. Guess what? He still is.
– Primoz Brezec averages 9.9 points and 3.5 rebounds for Lottomatica Roma. More importantly, he has got rid of the curtains.
– I’ve already spoilt any suspense that you may have been looking for regarding the whereabouts of Tierre Brown. Sorry about that.
– P.J. Brown says he has retired. Again. Do you believe him? This time, yes I do.
– Kedrick Brown started this season with a brief stint in China, before returning to the D-League. Like basically everyone else in this post, Brown plays for the Arsenal, where he averages 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds in only five games.
– Damone Brown is back in the D-League, still trying to make the NBA once again. Playing for a poor Reno Bighorns team, Brown averages 16.6 points, 8.0 rebounds, and a rather high 4.3 fouls per game.
– Finally, Denham Brown started this season by not showing up for Canada’s training camp, before joining Dakota in the D-League. Brown was then waived in December due to injury. No, Toronto Raptors fans, you are not about to sign him.
A lot of people are called Brown, I’ve noticed. How fascinating.
– Dee Brown started the year with the Wizards, but was then waived when it emerged that he wasn’t the answer to Washington’s pretty severe outside shooting problems. He then went to a Suns mini-camp, where he beat out Eddie Gill, Damon Stoudamire, Darrell Armstrong, Walker Russell and Troy Hudson to win Phoenix’s mandatory 13th roster spot. He’s since been waived again this week, due to the mandatory contract guarantee date of January 10th. The Suns, seemingly, are going to do what they so love doing – keeping the bare minimum of players at all times, going to twelve as and when they can, to avoid paying out as little money as possible. This from the team that traded away Rudy Fernandez and Rajon Rondo just to save money, and who then gave Goran Dragic more than either of them. Even the Jason Richardson trade saved them money, It kind of makes you squirm, doesn’t it?
– I’ve been literally inundated with one request for news on Elton Brown. Oddly, that request comes from someone who already knows the answer. But let’s play along anyway. After spending the preseason with the Chicago Bulls, and having trouble getting a shot away without it being blocked by a defender and/or the rim, Elton went to Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel-Aviv, hoping to be good again. However, Elton appeared in only one game, scoring two points with two rebounds, before it was announced in late December that Maccabi were releasing him, supposedly because they were disappointed with his conditioning. Whether he has actually left yet, I’m not sure, but he’s not playing with the team, and any remaining chance of some dramatic turnaround with the team is going to be made even less likely once Marcus Fizer makes his return from long term injury lay-off, which will happen in the near future. So, the D-League it is then.
– Andre Brown started the season with the Charlotte Bobcats, after surprisingly making the team out of training camp. (Their quest for a big man started with Brown, then included Linton Johnson, saw a brief sojourn with Dwayne Jones, and eventually they settled on Juwan Howard. Somewhere in that cycle, they waived Jermareo Davidson. In case you didn’t know, Larry Brown now coaches the Charlotte Bobcats.) Waived soon afterwards, Andre Brown now plays in the D-League with the Austin Toros, thereby guaranteeing himself a contract from the San Antonio Spurs at some point. Brown averages 16.1 points and 10.0 rebounds whilst remaining the worst free throw shooter alive today.
– Eric Daniel Brunson is still the Director of Men’s Basketball Operations at the University of Virginia, where he presumably extolls the virtues of being all heart.
– Rodney Buford is currently unsigned, which, in a sense, isn’t a bad thing. I think he’s found the solution to his endless suspensions. If he’s not under contract, he can’t be suspended, can he?
– Pat Burke is playing with Prokom in Poland, where he averages 11.2 points and 6.1 rebounds a game. He also just had a 20-rebound performance in the EuroLeague, which is nigh-on impossible to do, but which will guarantee him work for a while.
– Antonio Burks is no longer suspended, after being forced to sit out all of last season after reportedly walking out on a team that wasn’t paying him. Seemed like an unfair suspension when so simplified, but, whatever. Burks signed a few days ago with Slupsk in Poland, if only for the name alone, and he has not played a game for them yet.
– Kevin Burleson is unsigned, and not even the Bobcats want him right now.
– Steve Burtt Jr is playing in Israel, where he averages 21.0 points and 3.4 rebounds for a team called Ashkelon. Fun Steve Burtt Fact, If Fun Is The Right Word For It: Steve Burtt Jr returned from his Christmas trip back to America a day late, after his mother reportedly forbade him from returning to the country until living arrangements were made for him in the middle of the country, out of the way of all that current Gaza business. Nasty business, that.
– I have no idea where Jackie Butler is. None whatsoever. The Rockets waived him last preseason, after only accepting him as the price for getting Luis Scola for free. He then sat out the whole of last season. Butler was then supposed to join the Charlotte Bobcats for summer league, but didn’t, and he hasn’t been signed anywhere this season either. Keith Glass, if you’re reading this, then let me know. (Also note, re: the Bobcats summer league team – how stacked was that line-up? How the hell did it go 2-3?)
– Jamar Butler signed with Eldo Caserta in Italy, but left after only two games after reported disagreements with the coach, and has not played since. It’s been said that he’ll sign in Turkey, and it’s been said that he’ll sign in Germany, but at the time of writing he hasn’t signed with either.
– Derrick Byars is with the Jam in the D-League, where he averages 16.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
– Finally, fabled basketball vagabond Rashid Byrd is also in the D-League, where he averages 4.3 points and 3.4 rebounds. His free throw shooting percentage (44.4%) is higher than his field goal percentage (39.3%). It’s also enough to make him a better free throw shooter than Andre Brown.
– Joseph Blair is averaging 8.2 points and 8.0 rebounds for Spartak St Petersburg, while also shooting 43% from the free throw line. So maybe Blair’s scouting report on himself on his website wasn’t too off-message. Joseph also wrote a New Year’s message, for us, his fans. You can read it here. (Note: even though Joseph himself says that he’s not in St Petersburg, he is. Someone should tell him.)
– Will Blalock averages 5.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists for Artland Dragons Quakenbrueck.
– The last time we checked in on Tony Bobbitt, the man who killed his mother had just been convicted. That’s not something I’ve ever said before. (Note: The link given in the previous post no longer works, so try this one.) Unfortunately, there’s no new Tony Bobbitt news to report, since he has not signed anywhere this season. So I guess we’ll have to leave it at that.
– Dejan Bodiroga, formerly the best player in Europe, retired a while ago and is now the General Manager of his final team, Lottomatica Roma.
– In keeping with tradition, Curtis Borchardt has had many injuries in recent years, limiting his court time drastically. He’s also been injured again this season, and missed four weeks of action. But upon returning in mid-November, he’s played very well for Granada, the team he’s been with since leaving the NBA over three years ago. So well has he played, in fact, that he was named the MVP for the month of December. (Or at least, I think he was. My ability to read Spanish isn’t up to much.) Borchardt averages 13.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game on the season.
– Ruben Boumtje Boumtje didn’t pan out as an NBA player. Nevertheless, now 30 years old, Boom Boom averages 7.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.3 fouls for EWE Baskets Oldenburg, a team battling for the German title.
– Justin Bowen left the D-League and went to Australia. For the Gold Coast Blaze, Bowen is averaging 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds. No jokes here.
– Brandon Bowman is but one more player now playing in Germany, leading his team with averages of 15.1 points and 5.3 rebounds while playing alongside Vincent Yarborough.
– Lastly, Earl Boykins has caused himself a bit of a scandal. After becoming the highest-paid player in Italy this summer, Boykins requested that his team, Virtus Bologna, let him go home over Christmas for a four-day break, but Bologna refused. Boykins then exacted his revenge by “striking” for a game (whereby he Gilbert Arenas’d it up by refusing to take a shot in 21 minutes, despite being the team’s leading scorer), and then went home anyway. The team announced that they would cut Boykins, but his agent Mark Termini talked Boykins’s way back into favour, and he has remained with the club, even though they may all hate him now. The lesson, as always – this threat of a mass European migration really doesn’t appear to be too serious right now.
– Esteban Batista was recently released by Maccabi Tel-Aviv by mutual consent, after barely playing for their new coach, Pini Gershon. His playing time was so sparse that he wasn’t even travelling with the team towards the end of his stay. Batista quickly became Nenad Krstic’s targeted replacement for Triumph in Russia, but never signed with the team (despite reports that he did) due to his dislike of the cold Russian weather. (Actually.) For Maccabi, Batista averaged 3.6 points and 2.6 rebounds in EuroLeague play.
– Former GrizzlyMike Batiste has fashioned a career as one of the better players in Europe. He is now into his sixth season with Panathinaikos, averaging team highs in points (12.6) and rebounds (4.), while shooting an amazing 74% from the field. Somewhere along the line, Batiste also managed to become a Bulgarian citizen. I have no idea how he did this.
– Sixers draft pick Edin Bavcic signed this very week with the Koeln 99ers in Germany, thus halfway to proving that my tenuous no-return-to-the-NBA-from-the-German-league allegation is, once again, ill-founded and stupid. Unfortunately for E-Bav, the other half of that claim – getting to the NBA – is going to be a lot harder to achieve.
– Lonny Baxter is out of jail and playing for Panionios in Greece. (Note: if a team name starts with P and has no E’s in it, it’s probably Greek.) He averages team highs in points (13.1) and rebounds (6.7).
– Jerome Beasley has played basically everywhere since falling out of the NBA. Since being waived by the Miami Heat in late 2004, Beasley has played in the CBA, Turkey, Spain, Poland, the D-League, Australia, the D-League again, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Spain again, and Israel. Now, he finds himself in that most fabled of basketball powerhouses, Holland, where he averages 16.6 points and 8.3 rebounds for the Eiffel Towers Den Bosch. Someone once told me why they were called the Eiffel Towers. All I remember is that it was better not knowing.
– Sani Becirovic averages 10.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.0 steals for Lottomatica Roma in Italy. However, unless you’re a Denver Nuggets fan, you might be more interested in who his backup is – Brandon Jennings. But I won’t spoil the suspense and tell you how well Jennings is doing – give it six weeks, and this series of posts will have reached the letter J. At that point, we can do the damn thing.
– Mirza Begic is a big old Bosnian who went undrafted back in 2007. But that doesn’t mean he’s no good. Playing for Union Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia (also a EuroLeague team), Begic has averaged 10.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in EuroLeague play, as well as 9.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in Adriatic League player. What you have there is a 23-year-old late-blooming 7’2 shot-blocker, with some offensive talent, playing well against one of the higher standards of professional basketball around. If this man is not at least on your radar, then your radar’s broke.
– Troy Bell is playing in the Italian second division with Vanoli Soresina (which to me sounds both a dermatological problem, and the brand name of the cream to cure it). Playing alongside rather unimpressive competition, Bell averages 19.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 steals per game, while shooting 34% from three-point range, which may or may not be evidence of an upward trend with regards to his jump shot. Bell also averages 1.1 assists per game, which is exactly the number that your 6’1 point guard would have. Any less, and he’d just be being greedy.
– Jonathan Bender is still retired, and probably always will be. But he’s not inactive – he has a charitable organisation (the Jonathan Bender foundation) and an entrepreneurshippy thing (Jonathan Bender Enterprises, a real estate development and property management company). Both of those organisations are based in New Orleans, helping to restore the city’s infrastructure. Bender also owns an Italian wine company, a record label, an island in the Caribbean, multiple real estate holdings, and is trying to patent a fitness device called “Bender Bands”. (Buy one, just for the name alone.) This comes from a man who was drafted straight out of high school.
– Rod Benson went to France, barely played, and has subsequently returned to the D-League with the Dakota Wizards. And now, I will make the joke that I made last week one more time: I guess Nancy had had too much Rod Benson. (You had better give that the laughter that it deserves.)
– Travis Best said that it would be his last season. He also said that three seasons ago while leaving the NBA for Europe. He clearly lied, or couldn’t shift the Euro bug, because he’s still playing, now on his fourth European team. For Air Avellino, playing alongside Tamar Slay and Eric Williams (the Wake Forest centre, not the old ex-Celtic forward), Best averages 10.0 points, 3.7 assists and 2.5 steals, useful numbers from an old man.
– Finally, and most importantly, English ledge Andy Betts is alarmingly unsigned. This needs to change, as does my habit of starting every last entry with the word “finally”.
– Malick Badiane was an exciting thing for Houston Rockets fans for a few years. They could pretend that his underwhelming numbers in less-than-stellar European leagues were not as important as the idea of having a seven-foot young, athletic, defensive minded centre, who could grow into some weird yet perfect merger of Kevin Garnett and Dikembe Mutombo. But it slowly emerged that Badiane wasn’t getting anywhere fast, and was not getting to the top echelons of Europe, let alone the NBA. Badiane’s rights were then meekly thrown into the Mike James/Bobby Jackson swap of last season, and from then on it was Memphis fans who had someone to keep the loosest tabs on. Badiane then accepted Memphis’ tender offer to come to training camp this summer – whether they wanted this or not is another matter – but unsurprisingly, he didn’t make the team. He subsequently signed in China, but left before playing a game, and is now unemployed, probably living it up with Rafael Araujo or something. (I have this idea in my head that all currently unsigned basketball players constantly hang out together. It’s not true, but it’s a fun image anyway.)
– Dalibor Bagaric had reportedly signed a guaranteed contract with the Atlanta Hawks this summer, as Hawks GM Rick Sund once again pursued a player he nearly signed when Sund was with Seattle. But this didn’t happen, as evidenced by the fact that it didn’t happen. Instead, Bagaric went back to Fortitudo Bologna, where he averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds in two games in October. Now, I can’t speak Italian or Spanish, so I can’t tell if he’s still there and/or injured/out of favour, or if he left ages ago, but at the very least I can tell you that he is being pursued by CAI Zaragoza. As is Bruno Sundov. As is Ratko Varda. As is everybody, really.
– Kyle Bailey is back in Germany, where he’s been since not making the San Antonio Spurs roster back in 2006. He averages 15.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists for Goettingen.
– It’s all gone south for Vin Baker. After spending part of November 2006 on the roster of the Minnesota Timberwolves – before being waived without playing a game – Baker has only been in the news for the wrong reasons. In June 2007, Baker was arrested for drink driving, a particularly bad situation to be in when you’re a recovering alcoholic, as Vin is. (Baker pled guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving.) Then it emerged that his seafood restaurant had closed down, with apparent debts of $900,000, compounded by the embarrassing news that Baker’s parents had invested $400,000 into the unsuccessful venture. Worse still, in June 2008, Baker’s home was also foreclosed. And then last month, Baker tried a basketball comeback in China, but his trial with the Liaoning Panpan Hunters ended after two days due to Baker’s poor conditioning. They say that no news is good news, and no news about Vin Baker would be good right now.
– Sean Banks was one of the better players in the D-League last season, and he currently averages 11.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists for Darussafaka Istanbul in Turkey. Aged only 23 still, Banks had the time and the talent to make the NBA again one day.
– Stanko Barac is in the second year of a five-year contract with Tau Ceramica in Spain. Barac averages 3.4 points and 3.5 rebounds on a stacked team, but we’ll grant him extenuating circumstances seeing as he was also recently elected as the first black President of the United States of America. It’s nice to have a trade to fall back on, though.
– Steven Barber was out of basketball all of last year, before last month making a dynamic return to the CBA with the Albany Patroons. I have no idea what his averages are.
– Omar Barlett signed two days ago with Anwil Wloclawek in Poland. I bring only the best, most important news.
– Andre Barrett landed a gig with Barcelona this season, which is no mean feat. Backing up Juan Carlos Navarro, Barrett averages 3.4 points and 1.1 assists, which is slightly less of a no mean feat.
– Earl Barron signed with Fortitudo Bologna (Dalibor’s team) to start the season, but was quickly injured and released. He’s currently unsigned, and no doubt attending weekly salsa dancing classes with Araujo and Badiane.
– Jon Barry is now an ESPN analyst. You knew that already, though, so instead I shall take this opportunity to list all the players that appeared (however briefly) on the 2005/06 Houston Rockets roster.
Of that list, only McGrady, Yao, Head, Graham, Bogans, Alston, Mutombo, Swift and Bowen remain in the NBA, and only five of them ever get off the bench. The previous season saw similar retreads such as Clarence Weatherspoon, Tyronn Lue, Scott Padgett, Vin Baker, Charlie Ward, Maurice Taylor, Mike James, Bob Sura, Jim Jackson and Rod Strickland take the stand, of whom only James and Lue still remain. Two prime years of young super-duperstars were wasted with a roster of little but retrodden veterans. Back when they needed it, when they had the two stars necessary to make title pushes, they had nothing but a backcourt of OAP’s and a frontcourt of missed layups to do it with. Now they have a balanced team, with youth and experience, offence and defence, athleticism and skill, but they only have a hobbled version of Tracy McGrady left to support, creating problems of a different sort. Did the Rockets waste the best chance of title window? Yes, I think they did.
(Note – that ’06 roster was mainly undermined by the lengthy injuries to both McGrady and Yao. But let’s be honest – it wasn’t going anywhere anyway. I mean, just look at it.)
– Eddie Basden is playing for Mersin in Turkey, where he averages 8.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.2 steals a game. He is also a surprisingly potent source of hate mail for me, so I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight, and announce that anyone who perceives there to be any flaw in the delectably flawless basketball player that is Eddie Basden is, frankly, an idiot, and that any weaknesses or vague derogatory statements towards his basketball skillset are in the eye of the beholder only. Such statements are not to be valued as credible or reliable by anyone, and the makers of such damning slants are to be ridiculued mercilessly and to have their email accounts bombarded with anonymous insults. This includes anything that I may ever have written about him, and I have learnt my lesson – Eddie Basden is perfect, and you are to TOTALLY remind me of this at all times.
– Finally, Mengke Bateer has long since gone back to China, where he averages 15.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game for the Xinjiang Gyang Hui Flying Tigers. A further rambling on the subject of the Chinese Basketball Association’s comically lopsided statistical averages will follow shortly.
– Rafael Araujo is sadly out of basketball right now. He’s unsigned. He’s unwanted. He’s unloved. Commitment-free. Homeless. A nomadic vagabond living off the land, maybe. But this is just one tale to tell. There are thousands of children like this all over BYU. Please. End poverty now. Give generously.
– Robert Archibald is currently playing for Unicaja Malaga in Spain, after turning down a contract from the Hornets this summer. (I went on holiday to Malaga only recently, and didn’t see Robert Archibald there. Shame. I looked hard and everything.) Archibald averages 7.1 points and 4.0 rebounds on a pretty stacked Malaga team.
By the way, while looking this up, I found out about Neil Fingleton, a former UNC and Holy Cross player and one-time McDonald’s All-American. After a brief playing career career in Europe, the ABA and the D-League, Fingleton has since given up playing basketball due to injuries, and is now an aspiring actor. He was also recently awarded the seminal title of UK’s Tallest Man, which is good news I suppose. But it begs the question; the previous holder of that record – a man named Christopher Greener – had been dining out on that fame for 40 years. What the hell is he going to do now? Who the hell remembers who comes second? Where’s the TV work going to come from? He’ll be jobless, he’ll be penniless, he’ll be a waste of height. He’ll be unsigned. He’ll be unwanted. He’ll be unloved. Commitment-free. Homeless. A nomadic vagabond living off the land, et cetera.
– Koko Archibong is not a nomadic vagabond living off the land, as he has procured a plum position with the pre-eminent Polish powerhouse, Prokom. Archibong averages 6.6 points per game, good enough (if that’s the right phrasing) for eighth on the team. To find out about some of his team mates, keep reading these posts until we get to the Bu-‘s.
– Darrell Armstrong is unsigned, but recently attended the Suns’ point guard mini-camp, where he and many other hopefuls vied for Phoenix’s compulsory 13th man role. He lost.
– Brandon Armstrong is playing for Budivelnyk in Ukraine, or at least is signed there. He hasn’t played since November – which may or may not be injury related, I don’t know – and averaged only 14.2 minutes and 6.5 points per game when he did.
– Carlos Arroyo signed with Maccabi Tel-Aviv this summer, as a part of the mass European migration that wasn’t. Arroyo averages 13.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists, and rumours (perhaps unsubstantiated) abound about a return to the Magic.
– The Bulls gave up two second-round picks to move up a mere three spots in this year’s second round, which is an extremely committed and kind of bizarre thing to do. They did this to get their hands on the rights to Omer Asik, whom clearly they rate extremely highly. Asik then instantly repaid the Bulls’ faith in him by tearing his knee ligament, and he hasn’t played all season as a result. Nonetheless, Asik has spent some time in the Bulls’ practices this season, clearly eager to get an early taste of their poisonous chemistry and inability to utilise young big men.
– James Augustine averages 8.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks per game for Gran Canaria in Spain. By the way, way back in the day, I asked for information and/or your theories as to how Augustine managed to be re-signed and waived by the Magic in the same July, in an act so weird that I can’t think of a single other time that it’s happened. I’ve since gotten that info, and it’s no less weird – Orlando tendered Augustine a qualifying offer of $972,581 in an act of fairly standard practice, and Augustine unusually accepted it almost immediately. Of note, though, is the rule with qualifying offers which states that they have to have a level of guarantee that is, at a minimum, identical to the previous season’s salary. Augustine’s 2007/08 salary called for a minimum salary of $687,456, but with only 25% guaranteed if he was waived on or before the 30th of July 2007. Therefore, the qualifying offer had to have a similar level of guarantee, and so the qualifying offer that Augustine accepted was 25% guaranteed until July 30th 2008. So those three weeks that Augustine spent with the Magic this season, in which he didn’t play a single game, cost the tax-tight Magic a significant $243,145, and would have been more if they haven’t waived him when they did. A congratulations, therefore, go to Augustine’s vigilant agent, who got his client a decent pay check without him having to actually do anything and still having the opportunity to land a pretty plush European gig as well. Similarly, condolences go to Orlando, who in hindsight should never have offered the qualifying offer in the first place. Creative financing at its finest once again.
– The Bulls other unsigned draft pick, Mario Austin, started the season with Besiktas in Turkey, but left without playing a game for reasons that I’m not aware of.
– Finally, and somewhat boringly, Larry Ayuso is still chasing the NBA dream, this time in the D-League with the Iowa Energy. He’s doing this by averaging 13.0 points on 40% shooting, shooting more three-pointers than two-pointers, and with more turnovers than assists. He would appear to be trying to showcase himself as a scoring machine, which, yeah, he has always been that, but that eficiency isn’t working at the next level. But he did get this ESPN article about himself last month, so the D-League might have been the right place for him to go.
– Chris Alexander re-emerged as an interesting prospect last season, despite being 28 years old, after a campaign that saw him average 11.6 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game in the D-League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He turned that into first a contract in the Philippines, and then a training camp contract with Oklahoma City. As Alexander is a centre, he must have fancied his chances on the length-crazy Thunder, but he didn’t make the cut. After the Philippines thing ended (where he won the title of “Best Import” in the championship series), Alexander went back to the Skyforce this season, and averaged 6.9 points and 8.5 rebounds before leaving the team on Christmas Eve, for reasons which either weren’t announced or which I can’t find. More importantly, here’s an update on the length of his neck.
– Shagari Alleyne is now a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. He goes by the name “Skyscraper”. I think this means his NBA dream is over.
– Lance Allred was waived by the Cavaliers, and has gone back to the D-League with the Idaho Stampede. He averages 14.7 points and 9.2 rebounds, and would be the most NBA-desired big man on his team were it not for the presence of Jermareo Davidson, who averages slightly better (17/11) and who is nearly four years younger. Tough break for Lance.
– Hawks draftee David Andersen has left Russia and forgotten how to rebound. For Barcelona, Andersen is averaging 10.5 points and 3.7 rebounds in nearly 22 minutes a game. The second-tallest guy on the team (behind Daniel Santiago, who plays less than him), Andersen is a mere third in rebounds, comfortably behind Ersan Ilyasova (7.9 rebounds a game) and Fran Vazquez (6.5). That’s not the best effort, really, and yes I know that he’s playing increasingly further away from the hoop these days. Perhaps he shouldn’t.
– Just this very day, it was announced that former Bobcat guard Alan Anderson has followed Nenad Krstic out of Triumph Lyubertsy of Russia, and instead signed with Cibona Zagreb. Anderson averaged 10.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 steals for Triumph, and presumably left because they stopped paying him. I can retract this presumption if needs be.
– Derek Anderson and Shandon Anderson remain unsigned. It’s basically impossible to know when players are officially retired, but I’m willing to bet that Shandon is, and that Derek is still loosely working out and waiting for the phone to ring. Meanwhile, Kenny Anderson gave it up, and is now the head coach of a Slamball team. True story.
– Rashad Anderson has broken away from his above namesakes and is playing professional basketball for Udine in Italy. Anderson leads all of Serie A with a 20.3 points per game average, but he only averages 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists to go along with that, which is something that we should use to make sweeping unfounded judgements about his selfishness. Or not, it’s up to you.
– Én finalement, Martynas Andriuskevicius is signed with Alicante in Spain, where he averages 9.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.2 fouls a game. I can type Martynas Andriuskevicius without having to stop and look it up. And Wally Szczerbiak as well. I might be wasting my life.
1) As you may know, Houston traded Steve Francis, a 2009 second-round draft pick and cash to Memphis for a conditional 2011 second-round pick. Memphis’s end of this is simple – they got their pick back for free. Houston gave them Francis, enough money to pay him for the rest of the year (or most of it, at least), and Memphis’s own second-rounder next year, which they’d previously given to Houston while moving up in the draft this summer. In return, Memphis only gave them a conditional second in 2011, which will be like top 55 protected or something, so they won’t even lose it anyway. They can now either waive Francis without fear of reprisal, get a free look at him as a player (unlikely), or keep him as an expiring. But more importantly, they’re getting their high second-rounder back. for no cost. It’s a good move. As for Houston, they give up a second that they don’t need in order to get under the luxury tax. It’s a good move for them, too.
But here’s the real important thing: I TOTALLY called it. In a previous post, I wrote this:
(After Antonio McDyess’s buyout, Denver is now no more than a small dollop over their eternal enemy, the luxury tax threshold. If they waft a pick Memphis’s way, they should be able to dump Chucky Atkins, whose salary for next year is only $760,000 guaranteed, thus not affecting Memphis’s 2009 cap space plan much. This move gets Denver under the tax, finally, and it need only cost them the pick that they got from Charlotte for Alexis Ajinca to do it. Also note that I’m just an ideas man, not a soothsayer. Houston would be sensible to do much the same with Steve Francis, who is entirely surplus to requirements in both Memphis and Houston, and whose salary is keeping the Rockets in the tax territory. But his expiring is tolerable for the Grizzlies with apt sweeteners. With those two deals, Memphis could gain two picks without changing their long or short term plans, while Houston and Denver save lots of money on players and picks that they don’t need. To me, this makes sense. Does that mean it will happen? No. But, between now and February, I’d place a call. Boy, this bracket got a bit long.)
Get some. I wonder if the Grizzlies general manager reads what I write.
2) Oklahoma City signed Nenad Krstic – technically still a Nets free agent – to an offer sheet, one which the Nets will apparently not match. This offers up a variety of questions (such as, quite how scary is this supposed European exodus going to be, when even the European deserters come back within six months?), but most of all, look at their prospective depth chart with Krstic on it.
Now obviously, things will work out to be slightly different to this. For example, it makes sense for Green to now take on a sixth man role, and for some combination of Krstic, Collison and Wilcox to fill the starting power forward and centre spots. Steven Hill is also the logical man to be cut once Krstic arrives. But even so, the signing of Krstic makes the Thunder’s depth chart even wonkier. Why do you want six centres? Why would you draft D.J. White with so many players in front of him? Why would you then sign Hill and Krstic as well? Why would you also draft Serge Ibaka and DeVon Hardin with your other picks? Why can you only play for the Thunder if you can scratch your ankles while standing up? Why would a team with every hole to fill concentrate solely on the same? I realise the value of good big men, but the roster is ramshackle at the moment. And also, don’t sign Ben Gordon this summer, whatever you do. As far as you need to know, he’s a no-defence chucker with a humility problem. Let’s ignore the truth for a minute and run with that narrative. You don’t want him. Sign more centres. Spend your money elsewhere. There’s a good lad.
3) Devin Harris should be in the All Star game. And Allen Iverson should not. You know when Allen Iverson made that quotation fingers “magnanimous” gesture, when he first suggested standing aside to let Michael Jordan start in the All-Star game, even when Iverson was the better player? (Which, by the way, was possibly the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my time following the NBA. Someone owes Vince Carter a big apology.) Well, now is the time for another such gesture. It’s not meant as disrespect, Allen, but these other players are better than you now. You won’t lose fans if you did so, and even if you did, you clearly have many anyway. Let’s make this happen.
Similarly, if Yi Jianlian gets in, let’s boycott the damn thing.
4) Really don’t see the point in New York overpaying for Carlos Delfino, but, whatever. It can’t hurt.
5) Short baseball tangent: people out there are trying way too hard to put a negative slant on the fact that the Yankees just signed both the best hitter and the best pitcher on the market. You don’t have to like it any, but at least acknowledge that this is what they did. Like every team in the world, they needed an ace and a excellent slugger. Unlike every team in the world, though, they were able to get them.
6) If Sacramento trades John Salmons to Toronto for Andrea Bargnani and a first-round pick, as is rumoured, that is all kinds of good news for the Kings. John Salmons’ value physically cannot get any higher right now, unless he were to start averaging 30 points. He’s playing extremely well, tied in on a remarkably cheap contract, and in the prime of his career. This also isn’t a fluke – he put on much the same performance to start last year, when injuries again cleared the way for him. If John Salmons is not traded by Sacramento before the deadline, that’s a big old misstep they’ve made there. Particularly after committing so much money to the wing pairing of Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia.
If things had worked out slightly different, Bonzi Wells would be earning about $8 million this year from the Sacramento Kings.
As it is, he’ll be earning about $40,000 in China.
Bonzi, pictured here playing an invisible trumpet, famously was reported to have turned down a five-year, $38.5 million extension from the Kings on the advice of his agent, Williams Phillips. Phillips seemingly thought that Bonzi could get more money from elsewhere. He was wrong, though. He was very wrong, in fact, as Bonzi ended up getting only a 2 year, $5 millionish contract from the Houston Rockets, which expired this summer.
Unable to get a contract from an NBA team this summer – which makes little sense, given that Bonzi’s a talented player, and only a year and a bit removed from being a key bench player on a 50-win team), Wells has now resorted to signing in China, for the Scrabbletastic Shanxi Zhongyu. Wells is expected to replace former Hawks swingman Donta Smith, as Chinese Basketball Association rules allow only two non-Asians per team. This seems a bit unfair on Smith, who is averaging 19.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.5 steals on the season, but the other non-Asian spot on the Shanxi roster is taken up by Olumide Oyedeji. And Olumide Oyedeji is one of the best players in China, bizarrely, averaging 23.2 points, 17.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.9 steals and 1.7 blocks.
Free agent forward Darius Miles arrived in Memphis early Saturday morning and signed a nonguaranteed contract with the Grizzlies following a physical examination.
I’m hungry. Anybody in the position I’m in, and has been through what I’ve been through the past two years, if he’s not hungry he shouldn’t waste anybody’s time,” Miles said. “I’m hungry. I ain’t quitting. I feel like I can still do this. I wouldn’t even waste the Grizzlies’ time if I felt like my career was over.”
“We got very good reports from Boston that he was really getting close to what he used to be,” Griz coach Marc Iavaroni said.
“We’re taking a shot to see if he’s a guy who can resurrect his career and help us,” Griz general manager Chris Wallace said. “We need to find more veterans not just so much for leadership but for production on the court. We need guys who have been there a little bit.”
Everyone’s saying the right things, at least. And the Grizzlies do indeed need veterans, as well as just more talent. But the cynical side of me thinks they might have an ulterior motive.
The point of that whole draft day deal with Minnesota was not just to trade up to get O.J. Mayo, but also to create some cap space. With the contracts of Antoine Walker and G-Buck not guaranteed past this season, Memphis took on the extra year of Marko Jaric’s salary in order to open up $6 million in cap space next summer, a saving afforded by moving the salaries of Mike Miller and Brian Cardinal for the two aforementioned unguaranteed deals. Mike Miller isn’t the kind of player you gift away, but when doing so gets you a valuable trade-up and $6 million more in your already-decent cap room, it can be worth it. Memphis, along with Oklahoma City, will now have oodles of cap room to work with next summer, and even if free agents aren’t big on the idea of signing there, Memphis will at least be able to pursue whoever they want.
The thing is, though, that Portland also figures to have cap room. Quite a bit of it, in fact. Even after Martell Webster’s extension, it only takes the renouncements of insignificant players such as Ike Diogu, Channing Frye and Raef LaFrentz, plus the waivings of decent backups Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw (note: they’re decent backups in an ideal world, if not currently), and Portland suddenly has 8 figures of cap room. General Manager Kevin Pritchard has spoken about how he’s trying to trade LaFrentz’s salary, which would scupper any cap room chances, but Outlaw and Blake signed deals with unguaranteed final seasons for this very reason: Portland has 2009 cap room aspirations, and always has.
Those cap room aspirations will be roundly screwed, though, if Darius Miles plays ten games with somebody else. If this happens, Miles’s significant salary ($9 million each of the next two seasons) is put back on Portland’s books, after it had initially been taken off due to Miles’s medical retirement. However, playing ten games invalidates that medical retirement, and the salary would be on Portland’s cap figure once again, making cap space an almost impossible (and unworthwhile) aim.
Since they traded Javaris Crittenton to Washington, the Grizzlies have only 13 players under contract, and Hamed Haddadi is in the D-League. This leaves Antoine Walker on the active list, despite him having not played a minute all year, being out of shape (for a change) and being out of the team’s plans. Therefore, the Grizzlies can easily leave Miles on the active list even for the ten games of his drug-related suspension. After that, he just needs ten games as a tenth man, and suddenly Memphis loses one of its few competitors in next year’s free agency market. All for the $500,000-or-so cost of having Darius Miles around for six months.
And that’s just a bargain.
Of course, maybe I’m being overly cynical. It’s happened before, many a time. Maybe they have only the best of intentions, and really think that Miles will provide a lot both on and off the court for them. But somehow I doubt it. Perhaps they should just admit it.
