– Samo Udrih Beno’s brother started the year back in his native Slovenia, having not retained his place at Estudiantes Madrid. The one-time Maverick averaged 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Hopsi, while waiting for a better offer to come in. In January, one did, and Udrih moved to Croatia to play for Cibona Zagreb. For them he averaged 7.3 points down the stretch of their EuroLeague campaign, 9.0 ppg in the Adriatic League and 9.4 ppg in the Croatian league. – Ejike Ugboaja Cavaliers draft pick Ugboaja’s professional career before this season has read; Nigeria, Poland, Cyprus, D-League, and Iran. There’s not a whole lot of pedigree there, not helped by the fact that he averaged only 3/3 for the Cavaliers’ own D-League affiliate before being released. However, this year has seen Ejike bounce back a bit. He started the year with Azovmash in Ukraine, averaging 9.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in only 15 minutes per game in the Ukrainian Superleague. He left in December and returned to Iran to play for Petrochimi, where statistics are unfortunately unavailable. Nevertheless, he produced quite a lot in a better quality of league than usual. It’s something to build from. Here are all the players drafted by the Cavaliers after the 2003 draft (the LeBron James draft): – Luke Jackson (10th, 2004) – Anderson Varejao (30th, 2004; technically drafted by Orlando, but done so for Cleveland) – Martynas Andriuscabbages (44th, 2005; technically drafted by Houston, but again done so for Cleveland) – Shannon Brown (25th, 2006) – Daniel Gibson (42nd, 2006) – Ejike Ugboaja (55th, 2006) – J.J. Hickson (19th, 2008) – Darnell Jackson (52nd, 2008; technically drafted by Miami, etc) – Christian Eyenga (30th, 2009) – Danny Green (46th, 2009) – Emir Preldzic (57th, 2009, Phoenix) It’s a largely-miss […]
February 13th, 2008. Wednesday. Raining. The Dallas Mavericks are tootling along with a 34-17 record. They’re pretty good, and perhaps they know it, because they’re suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to do something drastic. A veteran team with only one good young player decides on a plan to get older. The Mavericks decide that Jason Kidd is a significant upgrade over Devin Harris, and work out a variety of scenarios that see them trade Devin and two future first-round draft picks for Kidd. They’re probably wrong, but they work hard at it anyway, determined to obtain a player that two years ago would have been a steal. But not so much now. Eventually, they stumble upon a scenario that both they and the Nets can agree upon. Dallas agrees to trade Harris, the picks, cash, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George to the Nets in exchange for Kidd and Malik Allen. The fillers are largely meaningless; outside of Harris, only Diop is a significant player for the Mavericks. The core of the deal is Harris for Kidd, and both teams seem pretty happy with that. The fundamental pieces are together, peripherals of the long-awaited deal are finally in place, and everyone’s a winner. Things then get a bit weird. Through a hitherto little-known technicality, one of the lesser components of the deal – backup forward George – has the power to veto the trade. George re-signed with the Mavericks in the previous offseason to a one-year contract, and Dallas will have early Bird rights on him when his contract expires. However, if George gets traded, the recipient team will lose his Bird rights if they trade for him, which reduces George’s chances of getting handily paid next season. [Let’s pretend for a minute that such chances existed.] […]
– Larry Turner is signed with the powerhouse Vermont Frost Heaves in the even more powerhouse Premier Basketball League. Averages don’t appear to an option, but here’s a recent boxscore. Would you be able to look at that box score and pick out Larry Turner, of all people, as a former signing of the L.A. Lakers? No. But it happened. How bizarre. – Samo Udrih averages 9.2 points and 3.4 fouls for Estudiantes Madrid. All things considered, he’s better than Beno. – Cory Underwood started the season with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds in the D-League, averaging 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 25 minutes per game. He then negotiated a release from his contract, whereby he promptly signed in China and tore his meniscus. After a 23-point, 12-rebound debut for the DongGuan New Century Leopards, Underwood then put up 8 points and 4 rebounds in his next game, followed by a 0/0 performance, then a 0/1 performance, culminating in a 32-minute, 7-point, 4-rebound outing in his final game before the team released him. If they were unhappy with his performance, then maybe they shouldn’t have made him play on a torn meniscus. Underwood has since returned to the D-League and the Thunderbirds, and has not played a game for them since returning. – Ramon Van de Hare is about to turn 27 years old, and currently averages 8.2 points and 6.3 rebounds in the incorrigible Cypriot league for AEK Larnacas. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – that whole “draft any seven-foot Euro that averages 1 point per game” trend of a few years ago was excessive. – The only Nick Van Exel sighting that I’ve got is an appearance at a Cincinnati Bearcats practice last month. No word on what he actually does […]
