Whatever you may feel about Jeremy Pargo – personally, I’m quite shocked at how poor his rookie season was and firmly believe he could do considerably better given a faster paced team with better spacing – it is only important to know that in today’s trade featuring him, he was merely a salary. So too was D.J. Kennedy. In trading Pargo, his $1 million guaranteed 2012/13 salary and a second-round pick for Kennedy (whose minimum salary of $762,195 is fully unguaranteed), Memphis does a salary dump and nothing else. Even the $1 million TPE they open up in doing so (created as Kennedy’s salary is absorbable via the minimum salary exception) is of little use, being so small. The Grizzlies are trying to dodge the tax. They did so last year, managing to dip under the threshold upon trading the redundant Sam Young to Philly, and are now threatened by it again. This, to their credit, has not stopped their spending this summer – they paid to re-sign both Darrell Arthur and Marreese Speights, giving them a strong frontcourt with good depth, and were similarly unashamed to spend what it took to upgrade their big hole at the backup point guard spot. Dodging the tax again is unlikely to happen, though. The $3,006,217 given to Arthur, $3 million to Jerryd Bayless, $4.2 million to Speights and $1,110,120 to Tony Wroten has put them back above the $70.307 million tax threshold – after today’s trade, Memphis has $73,053,277 committed to 12 players, not including the unguaranteed salary of Kennedy. It is more than likely the case that Memphis will not be able to avoid a small tax penalty this season. But if it only costs a mid-to-late second-round pick to lessen that hit by $2 million, on a player who was […]
Mo Charlo Charlo is a small forward formerly from Nevada who turns 27 next week. He is an athlete and defensive specialist, who has spent much of his professional career in the D-League. Last year, playing for the Reno Bighorns on account of his local ties, Charlo averaged 9.7ppg, 5.2rpg and 2.7apg. There were also a couple of near triple doubles in there, with statlines of 12/15/9 and 19/12/8, before a slow finish to the season dragged down his numbers. But for all his athleticism, Charlo struggles to score outside of the dunk. Sometimes he can slash to the basket, but there’s no jump shot there. Wayne Ellington Wayne Ellington is Minnesota’s only shooting guard, and yet they still won’t play him. Ellington was forced (as were we) to watch Sasha Pavlovic and Damien Wilkins play a combined 2,462 minutes last season, while both playing really really badly (particularly Pavlovic, who was arguably the worst player in the league last year that actually played). And when he did get to play, he didn’t do especially well either improving as the season went on but finishing at only 6.6 points per game on 42% shooting. Nevertheless, Ellington shot 40% from three point range, which gives him a use on next year’s Timberwolves squad. (If he’s still there.) Jonny Flynn This time last year, I claimed that Jonny Flynn was not much better than Ty Lawson. After one season, here’s how they stack up: Flynn: 28.9 mpg, 13.5 ppg, 4.4 apg, 2.4 rpg, 1.0 spg, 2.9 topg, 41% shooting, 38% 3PT, .511% TS, 13.0 PER Lawson: 20.2 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 3.1 apg, 1.9 rpg, 0.7 spg, 1.3 topg, 51% shooting, 41% 3PT, .600% TS, 16.5 PER So I had a point. There are other factors, of course. Lawson was playing for a […]
– Bo Outlaw Outlaw last played in the 2007-08 season, when he played two games at the start of the year with the Magic before being waived in November. He now works for the team as a community ambassador. – Andre Owens NBA veteran and Bulgarian national team member Andre Owens (true story about the Bulgaria thing by the way) started the year in Turkey, playing for Turk Telekom. In four EuroCup games, Owens averaged 20 minutes, but only 5 ppg, and his averages in the Turkish league were a similar 21 mpg/7.1 ppg. Owens’s minutes were hardly consistent, and in one game, Turk Telekom coach Meric Cakiroglu turned to him down the stretch of a game in which Telekom were losing a big lead and Owens had not yet played, leading to the awkward spectacle of seeing Owens stretching on the court as an offensive possession unfolded. Not good. Turk Telekom released Owens after being knocked out of the EuroCup, and he moved to Russia. In six Russian league contests for Lokomotiv Kuban, Owens is averaging 9.3 points per game. – Larry Owens Oral Roberts graduate Larry Owens was a member of the Hornets summer league roster in 2008. He must have done something right, because he earned a repeat viewing in 2009. And he must have done something right there, because he earned a training camp contract with the team this year. After not making the regular season roster, Owens went to the D-League, where he averaged 15.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in all 50 regular season games for the Tulsa 66ers. The 66ers just swept the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the first round of the D-League playoffs, and Owens averaged a further 16/7 in the process. Not bad for a former Belgian leaguer. […]
– Maurice Ager: The highlight of Maurice Ager’s NBA career was when he cried on draft night after being taken at the very end of the first round. That was touching. Since then…not much. In three years with two teams, Ager has shot 33% from the field, put up more fouls than rebounds, and recorded more turnovers than assists. He’s a scoring specialist, yet he’s never shown the ability to score on an NBA court. He’s never demonstrated NBA three-point range on his jump shot, gets wild in his aggression, and chucks in the few opportunities he gets. You can say, rightly, that he’s never had an extended run in the NBA. Yet he’s also been in it for three years now, seemingly healthy, yet still never seeing rotation time. He wasn’t even good on his D-League assignment. At some point, you’re just not suitable. – Lance Allred: Allred is now 28, but he’s only been on the NBA radar for two years after averaging a double-double with the Idaho Stampede in 2007/08. That landed him a brief stint with the Cavaliers down the stretch of the season, who waived him last October. Allred then returned to the Stampede and averaged 15.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last year; more importantly, he took his new found fame and fortune, and wrote a book about his professional basketball career. Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA is the title of Allred’s book, and it’s available from all good book stores, or by clicking the link there. – Ryan Anderson: Yes, I saw how Anderson did in summer league. Yes, it was very good. Yes, he’s probably a lottery selection had he been drafted in 2009 instead of 2008. Yes, I […]
