Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 10
January 10th, 2010
– Rick Brunson The last time we checked in on Eric Daniel Brunson, he was the director of men’s basketball operations at the University of Virginia. He’s moved now, however. After Virginia head coach Dave Leitao resigned last April, Brunson took over the head coaching role until his replacement was announced, a role that didn’t involve a huge amount of coaching as their season had already finished. Once the handover was completed, Brunson left the program and became an assistant coach at Hartford, where he remains. – John Bryant Bryant went undrafted out of Santa Clara on the basis that he was too slow for the NBA. He went to the Kings for summer league, but played only eight minutes, even after Spencer Hawes decided not to turn up; Bryant then went to the D-League, where he averages 13.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for the Erie BayHawks. The rebounds rank fourth in the league, and two of the three ahead of him are NBA assignees (Joey Dorsey and D.J. White). However, he also averages four fouls in only 34 minutes. – Greg Buckner Buckner was waived by the Mavericks in training camp and has not signed elsewhere since. His unguaranteed salary would have been a pretty awesome trade chip at the deadline, but the Mavericks – already with Erick Dampier’s unguaranteed contract for next year, Josh Howard’s team option, Drew Gooden’s expiring/unguaranteed and Shawne Williams’s expiring – figured they had enough trade chips already. To be honest, I think they should have kept Buckner’s unguaranteed over Williams’s expiring, as the value of that unguaranteed would have been magnified in this economy. But I guess even the Mavericks have a budget limit, which is fair enough. Remember the Love Mayo trade on draft night 2008? […]
The Best Of What’s Left
September 15th, 2009
Almost all of this year’s NBA free agents crop has now been signed. Of the few that remain, most have already finalised which training camp they’re going to, and training camp contracts have already begun to be signed. However, these are far from being the only players in the world. A shedload of remaining NBA-calibre players remain unsigned, as rosters across the whole of FIBA are being trimmed and cheapened due to the current economic thing that you may have heard about. At the moment, including qualifying offers that are as-yet pending, there are 421 players in the NBA, out of a potential maximum of 450. That total does not include people who have committed to sign but that haven’t done it yet (Garrett Temple, Rodney Carney, Curtis Jerrells, Russell Robinson, etc). Assuming (wrongly) that all of those 421 are here to stay, there are a maximum of 29 places left in the NBA; however, considering that many teams will run with 13- or 14-man rosters this year, and we’re already averaging 14 players per team, the real amount is even less than that. As such, there’s nothing but a scant few places available in the world’s strongest basketball league, and several jillion candidates fighting for them. But this shouldn’t stop them from fighting, and nor will it stop me from listing. There now follows a list of the best of what’s left of this year’s free agency market. Listed in no particular order. Point Guards – Raymond Felton: The only guards who shot a worse percentage on inside shots than Raymond Felton last year were Derek Fisher, Luke Ridnour and Sebastian Telfair. The fact that Felton shot only 29% from three-point range doesn’t help, either. But despite Felton’s perpetually inefficient scoring, the market for Felton shouldn’t have been […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 8
January 8th, 2009
A lot of people are called Brown, I’ve noticed. How fascinating. – Dee Brown started the year with the Wizards, but was then waived when it emerged that he wasn’t the answer to Washington’s pretty severe outside shooting problems. He then went to a Suns mini-camp, where he beat out Eddie Gill, Damon Stoudamire, Darrell Armstrong, Walker Russell and Troy Hudson to win Phoenix’s mandatory 13th roster spot. He’s since been waived again this week, due to the mandatory contract guarantee date of January 10th. The Suns, seemingly, are going to do what they so love doing – keeping the bare minimum of players at all times, going to twelve as and when they can, to avoid paying out as little money as possible. This from the team that traded away Rudy Fernandez and Rajon Rondo just to save money, and who then gave Goran Dragic more than either of them. Even the Jason Richardson trade saved them money, It kind of makes you squirm, doesn’t it? – I’ve been literally inundated with one request for news on Elton Brown. Oddly, that request comes from someone who already knows the answer. But let’s play along anyway. After spending the preseason with the Chicago Bulls, and having trouble getting a shot away without it being blocked by a defender and/or the rim, Elton went to Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel-Aviv, hoping to be good again. However, Elton appeared in only one game, scoring two points with two rebounds, before it was announced in late December that Maccabi were releasing him, supposedly because they were disappointed with his conditioning. Whether he has actually left yet, I’m not sure, but he’s not playing with the team, and any remaining chance of some dramatic turnaround with the team is going to be made […]
