Derrick Caracter Caracter stayed out of trouble in his time at UTEP, and began developing into the player that he could always have been. He’s lost weight, shaved his stupid hair cut, and doesn’t have to worry about academic problems any more. Now, barring any petulance relapse, Caracter gets to just be a player. He’s becoming a decent one, too. Devin Ebanks Given time, Ebanks will be able to do a decent if slightly lesser impression of Trevor Ariza during his Lakers days. Ebanks can’t dribble or shoot, but he will run the court and defend whomever you want him to. I have been saying this since about February 2009, so the fact that Ebanks is now a Laker is pretty cool. It gives me the opportunity to say it for another seven years. Gerald Green Last year, Gerald Green played in Russia. Playing for Lokomotiv Kuban, Green averaged 16.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, shooting 44% from the field and 35% from three point range. Unfortunately, there’s no stat for whether he “gets it” yet. Rob Kurz Kurz was a Chicago Bull as of 9 days ago. He never played for them, but got a few grand and great playoff seats for the privilege of spending two months with the greatest team in the world. Kurz is an NBA calibre player with very good rebounding numbers, decent defence and an old-school one handed jump shot, a face-up combo forward with occasional post offence who should be in the NBA somewhere next year. However, I’m not sure it will be with the Lakers. He would be a luxury for them, i.e. a non-rotation player. And they can’t really afford those. Ibrahim Jaaber Jaaber was announced as a member of the Pistons summer league roster last year, but […]
This post is a bit late, considering the Magic have played their games. However, the site’s outages just before free agency started set us back a bit, and then obviously free agency itself kind of blew the cock off the whole thing. Sorry about that. Since I’d already started it, we’ll do it anyway. Jeff Adrien It’s hard for a 6’7 power forward to make it in the NBA. You have to be pretty exceptional at something to do it. Adrien, though, is exceptional at nothing. He’s solid at most things except foul shooting; decently athletic, willing and able to rebound, capable of defending the post, prepared to run, and able to shoot right handed hook shots. But despite his height, he’s in absolutely no way a small forward. He’s a very undersized power forward who is neither really athletic nor Chuck Hayes. Adrien played in the LEB Gold last year, averaging 12.3ppg and 7.7rpg for Breocgan Lugo. It’s a league ideally suited for him. Joe Crawford Crawford is slightly undersized for a shooting guard at 6’4, could use a slightly better three point stroke (and definitely from the foul line), and is not exactly consistent; he is, however, a talented and versatile scorer, mainly through penetration. Crawford is a former draft pick of the L.A. Lakers, 58th overall back in 2008. Had he been drafted somewhere else, he might have stuck in the NBA by now. He’s good. As it is, he’s appeared in only 2 games, for the Knicks in the last week of the 2008/09 season. He scored 9 points in 23 minutes. Not bad. Joe Crawford fact: Joe Crawford is Hawks draft pick Jordan Crawford’s brother. That is all. Paul Davis Davis has spent at least part of three years in the NBA, including starting last […]
– Amal McCaskill A-Mac has been doing the D-Lang tour for a while now, and this year’s installment of it saw him wind up in South Korea to play for Inchon Black Slamer. (If that’s not a sex toy, I’ll be shocked.) In 27 minutes of 48 games, the 36-year-old McCaskill has averaged 11.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, shooting 57% from the field and 73% from the line. – Ben McCauley NC State graduate B-Mac went to summer league with the L.A. Lakers, where he duly impressed all watchers who didn’t know he could make shots. He averaged 11.8 points and 7.6 rebounds, yet did not sufficiently impress with his defence (there’s something about being an under-athletic 6’9 that doesn’t wash in the NBA). So he went to France, where no one plays any defence anyway. For Strasbourg, McCauley has averaged 10.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 22 minutes per game in the French league. – Jack McClinton Spurs draft pick J-Mac signed with the team for all of nine days, and managed the rare achievement of being waived before training camp even started. This happened because McClinton asked for it to; knowing he wasn’t going to make the Spurs roster, and sensing that a Malik Hairston or Marcus Williams-like ferrying between the Spurs roster and the Austin Toros roster was probably not going to benefit him much, McClinton asked out of his deal to pursue other opportunities. The Spurs granted him that wish and McClinton instead went to camp with the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, he didn’t make that roster either, losing out on a roster spot to Jason Hart. McClinton then went to Turkey to play for Aliaga Petkim. In 25 games there, he has averaged 16.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and […]
– Alan Anderson: Anderson has been on the fringes of the NBA for quite a while. He spent parts of two seasons with the Bobcats, playing in 53 games, and spent last summer on the Grizzlies’ VSL team. After failing to make the team, he signed in Russia with Triumph (the team perhaps better known last summer for the big contract they gave Nenad Krstic…..briefly), but left during the season and joined Cibona Zagreb. There, he averaged 16.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 2.8 apg in the Croatian league, alongside 18.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg and 2.1 apg in the Adriatic league. However, he left Cibona last month, because they weren’t able to afford his contract demands for next season, and Anderson has already signed for next season with Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel-Aviv. I’m not sure why he’s even bothering with summer league, to be honest; his Maccabi contract does have an NBA escape clause, meaning that he can get out of it if an NBA team comes a-calling later this summer, but that might not be preferable. His Maccabi contract also calls for him to be paid $800,000 next year – which, remember, is a net sum – and sees him in a guest guitarist role for one of the biggest bands in showbiz today. I’m not sure why he’d jeopardise that for the chance to sit on the bench behind Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujacic and Shannon Brown. But, good luck to him. – Aron Baynes: Baynes is a centre with dual Australian and New Zealian citizenship [Zealandish? Zealish? Zealandolian? On a postcard, if you would] who recently graduated from Washingon State University. In his senior season, Baynes averaged 12.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, on handsome percentage of 58% and 77%. He also has legit NBA […]
