2010 Summer Signings, Part 1
June 10th, 2010
Summer is here, and players are a-moving. The NBA free agency period has not yet begun – and should be pretty epic once it does – but this hasn’t stopped players moving the world over. Here are some of the transactions that may interest you. – Teams in Australia’s NBL tend to sort out their rosters nice and early, and so even though we’re several months away from the 2010-11 season tipping off, many rosters are all but complete already. Despite him winning the NBL MVP trophy last season, the Townsville Crocodiles have released Corey “Homicide” Williams, and have not named a replacement import, although they have brought in former St. Mary’s big man Ben Allen (who is also currently trying out for the Australian national team.) The Melbourne Tigers have brought home from America another big Aussie centre (Luke Nevill), and have signed Eric Devendorf to score from them after his hugely successful offseason in New Zealand (at least, basketball-wise; Devendorf managed to get arrested for breach of the peace in there). And the Sydney Kings are returning to the NBL after a season out due to financial difficulties, bringing with them Taj McCullough, who had previously been in Latvia with VEF Riga. – Arvydas Macijauskas, the star Lithuania shooting guard whose NBA career was a short-lived failure, has retired aged only 30. Macijauskas was an All-EuroLeague first teamer in 2004-05 while playing for Tau Ceramica, which led to a big money three-year contract with the New Orleans Hornets; however, he was barely used, and when he was used, it was only as a third string point. Since that time, Macijauskas has spent the last two seasons on the shelf, rehabilitating an assortment of injuries including left Achilles and calf injuries, as well as a spinal hernia. Macijauskas has […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 8
January 8th, 2010
Drew Gooden was neither waived nor traded this week. Therefore, for all that fuss about his ‘novel’ contract, nothing actually happened with it. Now, he’s just a plain old expiring. – Curtis Borchardt Borchardt left Spain for the French league this summer, but he did so because the team he joined – ASVEL Villeurbanne – are a EuroLeague team this season. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened; after only one EuroLeague game and four French league games, Borchardt got injured. He broke his hand and will miss the remainder of the regular season. In the one EuroLeague game, Borchardt totalled 20 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks. That’s good. But he also gets injured every year without fail. And that’s not good. – Ruben Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje is also a EuroLeague centre this year, playing his second consecutive season with EWE Baskets Oldenburg. In the German league he’s averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.6 fouls and 1.4 blocks in 21 minutes per game, but he’s struggling in the higher standard EuroLeague, averaging only 4.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 fouls in 17 minutes per game. Since EWE Oldenburg are a Bundesliga team, let’s play Count The Germans. Oldenburg employ a nine-man rotation, and, as is often the case, there’s only one German in it; backup swingman Daniel Hain. The rest is made of Boom Boom, four Americans, two Serbians and a Croatian. This is pretty much the case for the whole league. I am increasingly convinced that the Germans should tighten up their import regulations somewhat. – Giannis Bourousis Bourousis averages 10.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.8 steals per game in 20 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.7 […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 6
January 6th, 2009
– 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. – Corie Blount is….indisposed. – 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 […]
