Xavier Silas &#8211; 2018-19 G-League Player Profile June 20th, 2019

Evan Smotrycz – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Evan Smotrycz

PF – 6’7, 230lbs – Born 2nd August 1991

Back in the day, there was a stretch in which Michigan decided to run the offence through Smotrycz. What a time that was. Things were different in the Michigan programme back then, and they were also different for Smotrycz, who transferred out of the Wolverines program to avoid having to play the centre spot only to go to Maryland and find he had to do it there …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Jonathan Stark – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Jonathan Stark

PG – 6’0, 180lbs – Born 23rd May 1995

Jonathan Stark was the Ja Morant before Ja Morant. The two briefly play together at Murray State for one season, and whereas the over-exuberant, dynamic yet wild Morant (at that time) would be the spectacular if inconsistent playmaker, Stark would be the half-court scorer. It is thus good to see him get back into a full-time point guard mentality, just as he had been before his unison …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Hakim Warrick – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Hakim Warrick

PF – 6’9, 219lbs – Born 8th July 1982

Warrick left the NBA six years ago, cut by the Magic at the 2013 trade deadline, and is now 36 years old. The G-League has in recent times served increasingly often as a place for multi -year NBA veterans to come and try their hand at getting back into the big dance, with some successes (Damien Wilkins and Emeka Okafor, for example), yet Warrick’s absence from the …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Prince Williams – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Prince Williams

PG/SG – 6’5, 200lbs – Born 22nd August 1992

Williams has been in and out of the G-League in his three professional seasons, grinding through a first season with the Greensboro Swarm after making the team through the local tryout route, being acquired and waived by the Texas Legends four times last season, before eventually ending the year with the Wolves, who also designated him as a returning player for this season. Waived after only five …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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William Lee – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

William Lee

PF – 6’8, 210lbs – Born 10th January 1995

This was Lee’s first professional season out of UAB, and it began with a summer league stint with the Memphis Grizzlies. After not getting a training camp contract from them, he initially signed in Serbia with Dynamic Belgrade, yet left just before their season started, signed a one-day contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves and then was allocated to Iowa, where he spent the entire season. However, Lee …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Marquise Moore – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Marquise Moore

PG/SG – 6’2, 208lbs – Born 22nd December 1994

I love four things in this world. Sausage sandwiches, the lead singer out of The Interrupters (call me, Aimee!), 6’7 point guards who can’t shoot, and extremely undersized guards who rebound like centres. Here, then, is Marquise Moore, and I won’t hear a word said against him.

As a senior at George Mason, Moore averaged 10.9 rebounds per game. He did this while playing at the point …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Jaylen Johnson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Jaylen Johnson

PF – 6’9, 230lbs – Born 7th August 1996

Declaring for the NBA Draft after his junior season at Louisville in 2017, Johnson is still young and therefore still a project. In what would have been his senior season, he received a 10-day call-up from the Chicago Bulls – albeit without playing any game time, instead being one of several players they called up without playing so as to get more money to their G-Leaguers – …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Darius Johnson-Odom – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Darius Johnson-Odom

SG – 6’1, 220lbs – Born 28th September 1989

Prior to his return this season, Johnson-Odom had been away from the G-League for four years. The vast majority of that time had been spent in Italy, where he had been amongst the country’s highest scorers, leading it outright last season with Vanoli Cremona. Johnson-Odom always has been and always will be a scorer, a prolific one by volume as well as efficiency. Of that, there has …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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L.G. Gill – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

L.G. Gill

PF – 6’8, 210lbs – Born 24th December 1994

This season was Gill’s second in the G-League, one which began as a returning player with the Greensboro Swarm (whose roster he had made last season via the local tryout route) before immediately being traded to Iowa in exchange for the returning player rights to Terry Whisnant. Gill subsequently mostly came off the bench for the Wolves, filling in as a starter where required, and provided a …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 11:44 PM

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Canyon Barry – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Canyon Barry

SG/SF – 6’6, 205lbs – Born 7th January 1994

The latest from the production line of Barrys is Canyon, the first in a generation to unashamedly shoot the underhand free throw. This was his first G-League season after spending his initial professional campaign split between Finland, the Czech Republic and China; the Timberwolves signed him for about 25 minutes so that they could allocate him to Iowa, hoping he could develop into an NBA-calibre shooter.

The …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 10:43 PM

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Tra-Deon Hollins – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Tra-Deon Hollins

PG – 6’2, 195lbs – Born 22nd August 1995

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Jared Sam – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Jared Sam

PF – 6’10, 210lbs – Born 17th May 1995

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, …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Travin Thibodeaux – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Travin Thibodeaux

PF/C – 6’8, 242lbs – Born 19th February 1996

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Jovan Mooring – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Jovan Mooring

PG/SG – 6’2, 205lbs – Born 14th December 1994

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Ike Nwamu – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Ike Nwamu

SG/SF – 6’5, 205lbs – Born 3rd January 1993

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Je’lon Hornbeak – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Je’lon Hornbeak

PG/SG – 6’3, 190lbs – Born 1st May 1994

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Omari Johnson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Omari Johnson

PF – 6’9, 220lbs – Born 26th May 1989

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Stephan Hicks – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Stephan Hicks

SG – 6’6, 200lbs – Born 2nd April 1992

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Rob Gray – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Rob Gray

PG – 6’2, 182lbs – Born 3rd April 1994

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Demetrius Denzel-Dyson

Demetrius Denzel-Dyson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

SG – 6’5, 200lbs – Born 22nd February 1995

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:44 PM

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Jordan Barnett – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Jordan Barnett

SF – 6’7, 215lbs – Born 31st December 1995

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 …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:38 PM

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Travis Trice – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Travis Trice

PG – 6’2, 177lbs – Born 22nd January 1993

Austin Spurs

The Spurs acquired Trice from the Wisconsin Herd for Nick Johnson two thirds of the way through the season, and in so doing, they got themselves a lead guard.

Because of his size, Trice cannot play or guard any position other than the one spot. He is small (the 6’2 listing, which like all listings in this Manifesto is taken from the NBA’s official numbers, seems generous), …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:31 PM

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Cameron Rundles – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019

Cameron Rundles

PG/SG – 6’2, 180lbs – Born 27th April 1988

Austin Spurs

Rundles is a somewhat unlikely candidate to have made a G-League debut at age 30. He made the team via the local tryout route back in October, and survived all the subsequent roster turnover to still be there at the end, making it through a full season at the end of the bench after a seven-year international professional career taking in too many countries to mention. (Although …

Posted by Mark Deeks at 9:30 PM

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