Brian Skinner

[...] Alongside him in the frontcourt is well documented veteran Brian Skinner, who was signed a replacement for the injured Sandro Nicevic. This is the first time in Skinner's life that he has played outside of America; his entire career to date has taken place in either the NBA or at Baylor. After 34 years, he has finally cracked his European virginity. And it's going rather well for him, too; in 19 minutes per game in the Eurocup, Skinner is averaging 6.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, while only fouling an acceptable 2.3 times per game. Skinner was in the NBA with Milwaukee as recently as three months ago, yet looked worryingly done last season, averaging less than 2/2 for the Clippers and recording almost as many fouls (20) as rebounds (27). But he's now in the midst of quite a nice second wind. (Admittedly, the standard of competition got considerably easier.)

In some additional related bookkeeping, the reason for many of the players listed in the previous list was due to the NBA's contract guarantee date. All players on NBA rosters on or after January 10th have their contracts guaranteed for the remainder of the season (future seasons are unaffected); this also includes waivers. In-season waivers are 48 hours long and do not include weekends; therefore, with the 10th of January being a Monday, players had to be waived by close of business on Wednesday 5th in order to have cleared waivers before the deadline date.

Eleven players with not fully guaranteed contracts were waived in the hours before that deadline: Steve Novak, Damien Wilkins, Jarron Collins, John Lucas III, Ime Udoka, Lester Hudson, Ronald Dupree, Brian Skinner, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Sundiata Gaines and Rodney Carney. Twenty seven unguaranteed players survived; Delonte West, Von Wafer, Brian Scalabrine, Samardo Samuels, Manny Harris, Alonzo Gee, Brian Cardinal, Melvin Ely, Gary Forbes, Jeremy Lin, Ish Smith, A.J. Price, Ike Diogu, Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, Ben Uzoh, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Shawne Williams, Malik Allen, Garret Siler, Patty Mills, Sean Marks, Darnell Jackson, Chris Quinn, Sonny Weems, Jeremy Evans, Cartier Martin and Hamady Ndiaye. Players with contracts who had already become guaranteed due to specific guarantee stipulations in their contracts were Sherron Collins, Derrick Brown, Josh McRoberts, Willie Warren, Derrick Caracter, Luther Head and Joey Dorsey.

Brian Skinner - After waiving him in training camp, Milwaukee brought back Skinner as injury cover a month later, but have since cut him again. Skinner put up six trillion for the Bucks, but despite a couple of quiet years, he may still have something left to give. He certainly used to.

Just when I thought Skinner wasn't going to get signed, Milwaukee snuck in there and signed him a couple of days after camp broke. Last year was easily the worst of Skinner's career; he played only 123 minutes, and fouled once in every six of those. He's been productive for over a decade, but now aged 34, he's probably ran out of steam.

- Brian Skinner * - The Hawks were mentioned as a possible candidate for Skinner, as for some reason they are determined to build an old cap-strung team with no young core. They're not an old team yet by any means, but there's no real upside there.

Brian Skinner - It has never really mattered that Brian Skinner is undersized, because he collects rebounds and blocks anyway. He may have all the catching ability of a lettuce and a soft dexterous touch akin to being groped by Captain Hook, but defense is defense. Skinner produces just as much as Kwame Brown does, and without the soap opera. He just turned 34 and was dreadul last season, but the previous 10 were pretty good.