Summer Signings, Round 1
July 4th, 2011
In lieu of having any NBA transactions to talk about, we’ll look at the world at large instead. Of all the players to have finished last season on an NBA roster, six have already signed abroad. One of the first to go was Mustaka Shakur, who started the year with the New Orleans Hornets and ended it with the Washington Wizards. For whatever reason, the Wizards did not offer him a qualifying offer, seemingly moving on from Shakur’s prolonged tryout. He thus moved to France to sign with Pau Orthez, the fallen giant who continue to rebuild. Also signing in France was Hilton Armstrong, a somewhat forgettable inclusion in the Kirk Hinrich trade whose NBA days might now be numbered. In five years of trying, Armstrong has never demonstrated much NBA talent outside of having a long neck; given that he spent much of those five years in the New Orleans Hornets rotation, he can’t lament not being given an opportunity. When he signed with the Wizards, Armstrong said he wanted to be a starter. He may now be one, but it’ll be in France. (ASVEL have a strong youth regime that often churns out good prospects. Bangaly Fofana, whose starting spot Armstrong looks likely to take, was a draft-and-stash prospect in the most recent draft, albeit a faint one, and Edwin Jackson is a solid candidate for next year’s one. But if Jackson is a legitimate draft candidate, or if Fofana had been picked 59th this year instead of Adam Hanga, isn’t it a conflict of interest for them to be taken by the Spurs? After all, Tony Parker is the Spurs’s starting point guard, and also ASVEL’s Vice President of Basketball Operations with a 20% shareholding. Even if it is done with the very best of intentions, isn’t […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 8
January 8th, 2010
Drew Gooden was neither waived nor traded this week. Therefore, for all that fuss about his ‘novel’ contract, nothing actually happened with it. Now, he’s just a plain old expiring. – Curtis Borchardt Borchardt left Spain for the French league this summer, but he did so because the team he joined – ASVEL Villeurbanne – are a EuroLeague team this season. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened; after only one EuroLeague game and four French league games, Borchardt got injured. He broke his hand and will miss the remainder of the regular season. In the one EuroLeague game, Borchardt totalled 20 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks. That’s good. But he also gets injured every year without fail. And that’s not good. – Ruben Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje Boumtje is also a EuroLeague centre this year, playing his second consecutive season with EWE Baskets Oldenburg. In the German league he’s averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.6 fouls and 1.4 blocks in 21 minutes per game, but he’s struggling in the higher standard EuroLeague, averaging only 4.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 fouls in 17 minutes per game. Since EWE Oldenburg are a Bundesliga team, let’s play Count The Germans. Oldenburg employ a nine-man rotation, and, as is often the case, there’s only one German in it; backup swingman Daniel Hain. The rest is made of Boom Boom, four Americans, two Serbians and a Croatian. This is pretty much the case for the whole league. I am increasingly convinced that the Germans should tighten up their import regulations somewhat. – Giannis Bourousis Bourousis averages 10.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.8 steals per game in 20 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.7 […]
