Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 13
January 18th, 2010
– Lionel Chalmers Chalmers is signed in the Russian Superleague, or what’s left of it. Russian basketball, like all Eastern European teams, has had a bit of a financial crisis this year, and the Superleague has only 9 teams left in it. Nevertheless, they’re nine pretty good teams, so it’s not a bad gig. Playing for Enisey Krasnoyarsk, Chalmers is averaging 17.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 33 minutes per game. The scoring is sixth in the league, the assists eighth and the steals seventh, but Chalmers’ numbers are also down across the board; last year, he led the Superleague in scoring with a 21.0 ppg average, and ranked second in assists with 5.6 apg. That scoring title was a particularly impressive feat considering that he did it while shooting 57% from the free throw line as a 6’0 point guard. – Brian Chase Chase was Jannero Pargo’s replacement at Dynamo Moscow for the end of last season, after Pargo moved to Olympiacos. He averaged 18 ppg in the EuroCup and 11 ppg in the Russian league, but Dynamo got rid of all their imports this year to save money. [See Sergei Bykov’s entry, part 11.] Chase is instead spending this season in Spain, where he’s signed with Valladolid of the ACB. He is averaging 13.0 points and 1.7 assists, shooting 39% from both the field and the three-point line. Despite being a 5’8 score-first backup point guard who averaged only 7 ppg in his final college season, Brian Chase has played in the NBA. Andre Young, pay attention. – Calbert Cheaney Cheaney was covered recently in the 1993 NBA Draft Round-up Thingy. Nothing has changed since then. – Eric Chenowith I wasn’t into college basketball at the time, so I don’t know […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: New Jersey Nets/Philadelphia 76ers
July 13th, 2009
To save money, and to add purpose, the Nets and Sixers agreed to share a summer league team this year. It’s not a practice I’m keen on, because I think the more spots given out to random nobodies, the better, and by having only one team that makes 12 less spots for random nobodies. So that’s a shame. But at least they bothered at all, unlike some teams. – A.J. Abrams: Abrams’s college career consisted of three things – decent defence for his size, running around endlessly trying to get open, and then shooting jump shots. And a really bloody college career it was, too. However, Abrams is only 5’11. There are plenty of 6’6 guys who spend their entire careers trying to get NBA teams to notice that they specialise in exactly the same things, and (Kyle Korver excepted) they usually fail. So how likely is Abrams to do the same with his half-a-foot height disadvantage? He isn’t, really. He’s small even for a point guard, but the fact that he’s an off-ball guard counts heavily against him. Heavily. Abrams’ only chance to become an NBA player is to develop his ball-handling ability, and rework himself into a crude Jannero Pargo imitation. But Pargo isn’t exactly a regular rotation player in the NBA himself, so A.J’s chances are very slim. – Jeff Adrien: Adrien was covered in the Grizzlies round-up. It’s pretty industrious of him to have wriggled his way into the summer league rosters of three teams, which really maximises his options. It was also a damn good idea to get onto the Grizzlies and Nets rosters, the two teams with the worst power forward rotations in the league last year. That’ll help his limited chances a bit. And, despite Adrien’s limitations and damaged prospects as […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Los Angeles Clippers
July 10th, 2009
– Sean Banks: Sean Banks was in the NBA once, believe it or not. It’s a period of time easily forgotten, but it did happen – after declaring early and going undrafted in the 2005 Draft, the Hornets signed him as an undrafted free agent, and assigned him to the Tulsa 66ers. He was the sixth player ever to be assigned to the D-League, but he didn’t do much there, averaging roughly 12/3. The Hornets waived him before his contract became guaranteed, and he never appeared in an NBA game. He hasn’t made it back since. However, in the 2007/08 season, Banks averaged 21.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game for the L.A. D-Fenders, which got him back into NBA contention, and he signed with the Raptors summer league team last year as a result. After that, he went to Turkey and played for Darussafaka, averaging 13.1 points and 5.1 rebounds. Banks would do himself a big favour if he either improved his jump shot, or put it away; he shot 101 three-pointers in 30 games last season, accounting for one in every three of his shot attempts, yet he hit only 21 of them. More importantly, Banks is rumoured to be trying to become a British national. His father was born in England, and still lives here, which entitles Sean to a British passport. He may soon be one of us. If he is, expect me to get biased. – Nik Caner-Medley: Caner-Medley spent last year in Spain, playing for Cajasol Sevilla in the ACB. He averaged 10.7 points and 8.0 rebounds in 25 minutes a game during domestic competition, but he still hasn’t developed a great outside shot, shooting 23% from three-point range on the year. More notably, Caner-Medley was kicked off of the team […]
