Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 47
April 11th, 2010
– Mamadou N’Diaye Mamadou N’Diaye missed last season with a serious knee injury. This year, he started the season by going for a tryout in Lebanon with Al-Riyadi Beirut, but failed the physical as his knee had not yet recovered. Then in February, the comeback began when Mamadou signed with Maccabi Haifa in Israel. In 72 minutes of six games, he has totalled 23 points, 20 rebounds and 4 blocks. – Boniface N’Dong Former Clipper big man N’Dong is with Barcelona. Splitting time at the centre position with Fran Vazquez, N’Dong is averaging 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15 minutes per game in the ACB, alongside 8.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game in the EuroLeague. You may never have heard of Boniface N’Dong, and the fact that he spent a whole season on an NBA roster as recently as four years ago may have completely passed you by. This is fair enough, because nothing much really happened. But it happened. N’Dong signed a minimum salary deal with the Clippers in time for training camp 2005, made his NBA debut aged 28, and appeared in 22 games with the team. He even started one. Boniface totalled 50 points, 37 rebounds and 23 fouls for the Clippers, and put up a PER of 11.0, before returning to Europe to continue his strong career there. Boneyface has NBA talent, particularly on the offensive end and on the roll, which isn’t usually the case with fringe NBA-calibre Senegalese big men. And he has a great name. There’s nothing here not to like. – Bostjan Nachbar Bostjan Nachbar has not had a very good season. He moved from Dynamo Moscow to Efes Pilsen in the summer, signing a big fat contract and becoming one of Efes’s key targets […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Portland Trail Blazers
July 24th, 2009
– Deji Akindele: By being in this list, Akindele shows himself to once again be on the fringes of the minds of NBA executives, somewhere where he’s been for about five years now. Last year in Italy, Akindele averaged 11.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.6 blocks. He even hit a three. The offence gets slightly better every year. However, the age keeps creeping up too. – Jerryd Bayless: Rumour has it that my Bulls are pursuing – if not insistent upon – Bayless’ inclusion in any potential three-way trade that also sees them acquire Carlos Boozer. Not entirely sure of why, to be honest. Isn’t the team with Derrick Rose the last team that needs to be looking to acquire a player whose strength is slashing to the rim, but who has a weak jump shot, can’t defend off-guards and who isn’t really a pass-first player? The two can’t easily pair up, and there aren’t going to be many minutes behind Rose. So I’m not sure I understand this insistence. (Portland fans will probably speculate that trying to trade for Bayless means the Bulls can now trade Rose, since Jerryd will be better. They’re like that.) – Dante Cunningham: Cunningham once tried out for the British national team, but hasn’t been heard from since; presumably, he didn’t get a passport in the end. I have no idea what his claim on one was anyway, since he was born in Maryland to American parents, but it’s a shame if he’s never going to join us. Pops Mensah-Bonsu needs a backup, after all. Cunningham demonstrated a fine mid-range jump shot last season out of roughly nowhere, which is what turned him from an undrafted talent into a high 30s pick. It serves as a nice compliment to the […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 37
February 24th, 2009
– Juan Carlos Navarro is back with Barcelona, and he’ll probably never leave again. He is technically still a restricted NBA free agent of the Memphis Grizzlies, but that’s kind of meaningless, because he has no rhyme, reason, or (I assume) desire to leave Spain again. Navarro averages 15.4 points and 2.8 assists in the Spanish league, alongside 14.0 points and 3.6 assists in the EuroLeague. – Boniface N’Dong still boasts one of the greatest names in human history. In his second season for Unicaja Malaga, as a starlet on the ultimate “oh yeah, I remember them, whatever happened to them” team (also featuring Omar Cook, Jiri Welsch, Robert Archibald, Marcus Haislip and, until recently, Paul Shirley), Ndong is averaging 11.3 points in less than 20 mpg in the EuroLeague. That’s pretty damn good for anyone, but especially a centre. He also has 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game to go along with that, and his Spanish league numbers (18.5 mpg, 9 ppg, 4.5 rg, 1.0 bpg) aren’t bad either. – Drew Neitzel is with the Artland Dragons of Quackenbrueck in Germany. Somebody had told me that he was going to leave the team, but apparently that somebody was wrong. Neitzel (whose name sounds like a cough syrup that you take before going to bed) averages 6.4 points and 3.2 assists in the German league, alongside 9.6 points and 4.0 assists in the EuroCup. – Matt Nelson is unsigned after playing in France last season. – Spencer Nelson is playing for Aris in Greece, a team whose recent additions included Bengal cats owner and former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Bracey Wright, as well as seminal British star Andy Betts. Spiceworld. Nelson averages 8.2 points and 7.1 rebounds in the Greek league, alongside 10.6 points, 6.4 rebounds […]
