Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 68
May 18th, 2010
– Samo Udrih Beno’s brother started the year back in his native Slovenia, having not retained his place at Estudiantes Madrid. The one-time Maverick averaged 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Hopsi, while waiting for a better offer to come in. In January, one did, and Udrih moved to Croatia to play for Cibona Zagreb. For them he averaged 7.3 points down the stretch of their EuroLeague campaign, 9.0 ppg in the Adriatic League and 9.4 ppg in the Croatian league. – Ejike Ugboaja Cavaliers draft pick Ugboaja’s professional career before this season has read; Nigeria, Poland, Cyprus, D-League, and Iran. There’s not a whole lot of pedigree there, not helped by the fact that he averaged only 3/3 for the Cavaliers’ own D-League affiliate before being released. However, this year has seen Ejike bounce back a bit. He started the year with Azovmash in Ukraine, averaging 9.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in only 15 minutes per game in the Ukrainian Superleague. He left in December and returned to Iran to play for Petrochimi, where statistics are unfortunately unavailable. Nevertheless, he produced quite a lot in a better quality of league than usual. It’s something to build from. Here are all the players drafted by the Cavaliers after the 2003 draft (the LeBron James draft): – Luke Jackson (10th, 2004) – Anderson Varejao (30th, 2004; technically drafted by Orlando, but done so for Cleveland) – Martynas Andriuscabbages (44th, 2005; technically drafted by Houston, but again done so for Cleveland) – Shannon Brown (25th, 2006) – Daniel Gibson (42nd, 2006) – Ejike Ugboaja (55th, 2006) – J.J. Hickson (19th, 2008) – Darnell Jackson (52nd, 2008; technically drafted by Miami, etc) – Christian Eyenga (30th, 2009) – Danny Green (46th, 2009) – Emir Preldzic (57th, 2009, Phoenix) It’s a largely-miss […]
A.D. Vassallo Made Me Have An Epiphany
July 27th, 2009
As you might presently yourself fully be aware of, one of the specialist areas that this website focuses on is on the life, times, careers and skillsets of players on the fringes of the NBA. (The other specialisms are; the NBA salaries and all the technical aspects that go along with them, references to English things that you don’t really understand, overly complicated wordplay, and stealing jokes from Family Guy. So, something for everyone there.) The spectrum of the site runs broader than that, and tries to encapsulate everything NBA related, but those are the areas of particular focus. I try to bring you things that you can’t get elsewhere in the online NBA world, and ne’er more so is this true than in the scrub tracking. It’s something that I love to do in life. Some men go to sleep at night holding their loved ones; I go to bed at night holding import player’s rebounding statistics from the last Chinese Basketball Association season. (Not really. But you get the idea.) Following the fringe is pretty much all I do, so much so that I had to visit Google to remind me of what the word “loved one” means. Oh and believe me, the internet carries that information. Maybe it’s because of my nation’s jingoistic identity as a perennial lover of the underdog, but since day one of my NBA fandom, something has always drawn me to the players nearer the end of the bench more than the good ones. My “favourite NBA players of all time” list includes Rick Brunson, Fred Hoiberg, Chris Jefferies and Marcus Fizer, for God’s sake. I even have Fizer’s name on a jersey somewhere. Perhaps I should sell it back to him. One of the most grating aspects of this devotion, though, is […]
Puerto Rico – the new China?
May 25th, 2009
Those of you who like fringe NBA players may have enjoyed the series of updates recently about the Chinese Basketball Association. Any league that saw Olumide Oyedeji average nearly 20/20 can peak the interest of any of us. Players like playing in China; the exposure isn’t huge and the money isn’t great, but the CBA has the lure of the teams playing lots of games, with less emphasis on practice, copying the NBA model of basketball not imitated much around the globe. Furthermore, the standard of play was bad, which led to amusingly lopsided statistics that they could put on their CV; for example, Tim Pickett will now always be able to boast that he was a 39.4 ppg scorer at one point in his career. (It appears to be already paying dividends, since he just got a workout with the Memphis Grizzlies. It’s nice to know they’re checking out China. So would I.) The Chinese league season has ended, as have most leagues, but the Puerto Rican one is just starting. It’s not a coincidence that the BSN (Puerto Rican) league begins in mid-April, which allows them to experience an influx of fringe NBA talent much like the Chinese league did. The standard of domestic players in the BSN is better, so the numbers aren’t as wonky, but it still makes for a great proving ground for players who need a small career boost, or some extra money from a summer job. And, for us keen observers, it’s a great chance to watch bit-part players play big. Here are the numbers of people you may have heard of. – – Marcus Williams (Quebradillas): Williams (the Nets one) is possibly the best player in Puerto Rico. His scoring is inefficient, due largely to taking as many threes as he does […]
