Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 60
April 24th, 2010
A previous post showed a tizzy featuring Charles Gaines and Du Feng in game two of this year’s CBA Finals. What looked initially to be Gaines dropping Feng cold with a swift and well-placed right hand later emerged to be a flop of the highest order; after a lame headbutt on Gaines, Feng then went down to the ground like he’d been knocked clean out, whereas pictures of the incident showed that Gaines actually open-handed Feng in the mandible. It was a shove more than a punch, and a valid retaliation to a headbutt. So far from being an inevitable suspension, Gaines was absconded from blame. And Feng looked like a big wuss. Both played in game three. Gaines was not suspended, and Feng (amazingly!) was not dead. Guangdong won the game and took a 3-0 lead in the first to four. – Josh Shipp Even though he spent quite a lot of his UCLA career deferring offensively to NBA-calibre scorers, Josh Shipp has plenty of offence of his own. He is currently second in the Turkish TBL in scoring, averaging 19.3 ppg for Bornova (along with 5.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals). The Turkish league is not the best in the world, and it’s not got a lot of parity in it, but it’s not a bad one, and scoring 19.3 ppg in it is no small achievement. Shipp is second only to Quincy Douby (23.6 ppg), and ranks just ahead of Mire Chatman (Besiktas, 18.4 ppg), Kedrick Brown (also Bornova, 18.1 ppg), Quinton Hosley (Aliaga, 17.9 ppg) and Lonny Baxter (Besiktas, 17.4 ppg). That list is made up of all Americans, which alludes to the self-fulfilling prophecy that the best Turkish players don’t play in Turkey. But Josh Shipp does, and he plays well. – […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Washington Wizards
July 26th, 2009
– Alade Aminu: I’ve not yet seen Aminu, to be honest with you. But his stats from last year go like this; 11.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 27 minutes per game. Solid. So is the 6’10 230lb size with a 7’3 wingspan. However, the points came somewhat inefficiently, he turned it over a lot, and he fouled quite a lot too. And he could use some muscle gain. But he’s also only 21, despite having just played his senior season, and that’s got to bode well. – Dwayne Anderson: In all the times I watched Villanova last year, I didn’t realise Dwayne Anderson was a senior. He didn’t have a bad senior year, but he’s a forward in a guard’s body, with not much of a jump shot and little dribbling ability, who rebounds well and who could be a good defender, but who kind of isn’t. This is probably his only ever NBA sniff. – Ryan Ayers: Ryan Ayers is here for three reasons. The first is because he has great size for the NBA at 6’7. The second is because he has a fine set jump shot that already has NBA three-point range. And the third is because he’s the son of recent Wizards assistant coach Randy Ayers. To be 6’7 and a fine shooter sounds like a good start, but here’s the thing with Ayers; he does little else. He only catches and shoots. He’s fairly athletic and his defence is all right, but he will only ever catch and shoot. Even at the college level with 6’2 prospective morticians matched up on him, all he did was catch and shoot. That’s not going to get it done, even if he is extremely good at shooting and with a good NBA physique. […]