Tra-Deon Hollins – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Tra-Deon Hollins
PG – 6’2, 195lbs – Born 22nd August 1995
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Hollins returned to the Mad Ants to begin this season, having played 41 games with them in 2017/18 in his first professional season out of Omaha. Last year, he was a bench player averaging 4.0 points, 4.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game, yet in an expanded role in 30 games this season, Hollins upped those numbers to 7.3 points, 7.9 assists, 2.5 steals and …
Jared Sam – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Jared Sam
PF – 6’10, 210lbs – Born 17th May 1995
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
In his first three years at Southern University – and by the way, the commitment shown by the naming committee back in the formative days of that establishment is something we could all learn from – Sam was a low-usage player, whose highest usage rate was the 18.4% mark of his junior season, on which he shot a .655% true shooting percentage. As a senior, …
Travin Thibodeaux – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Travin Thibodeaux
PF/C – 6’8, 242lbs – Born 19th February 1996
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
In Thibodeaux’s first professional season, he added size, rebounding and some interior defence to a team that otherwise lacked for them. He was not spectacular in any area, but he was solid in all facets, which accorded with the CV he was brought in with.
Thibodeaux made the Mad Ants roster via the local tryout route, and stayed on it for the full season. He …
Jovan Mooring – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Jovan Mooring
PG/SG – 6’2, 205lbs – Born 14th December 1994
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
On a UNLV team built with finishers yet few shooters – Brandon McCoy, Tervell Beck, Will’s brother Kris Clyburn, the always-fun Shakur Juiston – Mooring was charged with the task in his two seasons as a Runnin’ Rebel to create offence and stretch the floor. Picked up by the Mad Ants in the middle of February, having begun the season drafted 13th overall in the …
Ike Nwamu – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Ike Nwamu
SG/SF – 6’5, 205lbs – Born 3rd January 1993
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Nwamu’s best skill is his dunking, and I don’t think anyone will dispute that. He is a very explosive leaper and a player who loves to finish with power at any opportunity; the Mad Ants will have known when they traded for him in January (along with Jordan Barnett, sending Elijah Stewart and the returning player rights to Alex Hamilton to the Wisconsin Herd) that …
Je’lon Hornbeak – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Je’lon Hornbeak
PG/SG – 6’3, 190lbs – Born 1st May 1994
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Hornbeak spent two years with Oklahoma, two years at Monmouth and now two years with the Mad Ants, which is pleasingly symmetrical. To have spent two full seasons with a G-League team, even if near to the end of the bench, is a decent achievement that not many manage in a league with such high roster turnover. And the fact that Hornbeak has done so …
Omari Johnson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Omari Johnson
PF – 6’9, 220lbs – Born 26th May 1989
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Johnson finished last season in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies, having been called up right at season’s end from their affiliate, the Hustle. In order to obtain his G-League rights, then, the Mad Ants traded the returning player rights to both Jarrod Uthoff and Chris Fowler, as the training camp contract he subsequently signed with the Indiana Pacers was not enough to get his …
Stephan Hicks – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Stephan Hicks
SG – 6’6, 200lbs – Born 2nd April 1992
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
If you come out of a mid-major school, the G-League is often the best way to get from there to the highest levels. As one of many examples, think on how David Nwaba went from Cal Poly to guaranteed NBA contracts via D-League tryouts. And this year, after four seasons with the Mad Ants, Hicks did the same when he received a thanks-for-sticking-around midseason 10-day …
Rob Gray – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Rob Gray
PG – 6’2, 182lbs – Born 3rd April 1994
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Having averaged 18.8 points per game over three seasons with the University of Houston, it was likely if not inevitable that Gray would receive a summer league invite and possible training camp contract with the Rockets. Indeed, he received both. Yet for whatever reason, Gray did not make his way to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, instead entering the G-League via the draft route, where …
Demetrius Denzel-Dyson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Demetrius Denzel-Dyson
SG – 6’5, 200lbs – Born 22nd February 1995
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Denzel-Dyson was very briefly signed by the Pacers in training camp, with the “official” announcements of his signing and his waiving by the team’s Twitter account coming only four hours and 28 minutes apart. Just about enough time to watch Gone With The Wind and have a bath. They did so because they wanted to allocate the undrafted Samford senior to the Mad Ants, intrigued …
Jordan Barnett – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Jordan Barnett
SF – 6’7, 215lbs – Born 31st December 1995
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Barnett was on the cusp of the NBA to begin his first professional season on account of the good job he did as a senior at Missouri of showing how he can fit the NBA’s three-and-D model that non-star wings are ordered to follow. He arrived at Mizzou after two years at Texas as a good athlete and capable shooter, someone who moved his feet …
Jared Reiner, Eddie Basden, Marcus Campbell all join the D-League
December 19th, 2009
The D-League has bagged itself some more former NBA talent.
In five of the last six years, Iowa centre Jared Reiner has appeared in an NBA training camp. In 2004 it was the Bulls; in 2005 it was both the Clippers and the Suns; in 2006 it was the Spurs; in 2008 it was the Sixers; this past summer, it was the Timberwolves. In that time, Reiner has only played in 46 NBA games, 27 …
