2010 Summer Signings, Part 3
June 16th, 2010
– David Noel, who was mentioned in the previous post as leaving French team Roanne, has landed another gig in the same country. He has signed with Paris-Levallois. – In other French league news, Le Mans have released Marc Salyers, who had an uncharacteristically average season. Salyers averaged only 11.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the French league – good numbers, but not the star they assumed they were getting. The team also released Zack Wright, the best rebounding 6’2 guard you ever saw (26.9 mpg, 8.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.4 apg) while choosing to sign former Gonzaga big man J.P. Batista (13.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) to a two-year extension. And fellow Pro A side Vichy signed Villanova forward Curtis Sumpter, who had previously been with Belgian team Dexia Mons-Hainaut. – The man Sumpter replaces in Vichy is Brent Petway, the athletic Michigan alum who has spent time around the NBA in summer leagues, training camps, the D-League and the like. He’s taking the strange step of moving down a level, going to French second division side Clermont for next season. Not many decent players play in the Pro B, but another one who will be is Marcus Campbell, the ex-Mississippi State big man and training camp veteran who has spent almost all of his career in the American minor leagues, and who has had NBA training camp contracts from the Rockets and Bobcats. – Rather than going to France, Mouhamed Sene is leaving it. Sene led the French league in both rebounds and blocks season and was named a joint winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award, but he’s making a lateral move to Belgium to play for Charleroi. Sene was playing in Belgium before his NBA career began, and hopefully he can improve upon […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 11
January 14th, 2010
Calling it early; Miami will trade Dorell Wright along with New Orleans’ 2010 second-rounder to the Grizzlies in exchange for changing the protection on the Grizzlies 2012 second-rounder – already owed to the Heat from last year’s Shaun Livingston deal – from top 55 to top 50. (That is to say, in exchange for as little as possible.) That’s a prediction, not a story, but it makes sense; Miami gets under the tax with this deal, and Memphis gains a free decent player and a 40-something pick to replace their own, which is owed to the Lakers as a part of the Pau Gasol deal. It’s the kind of deal a lot of teams have done lately, not least of all Memphis, who spent much of last year taking on either people’s unwanted cap hits in exchange for future picks and cash. It’s a solid way to do business, and, post-Iverson buyout, they can afford to do it again. Add this to my list of predicted trades, which previously featured one other; Hilton Armstrong to the Clippers, who’s now gone to the Kings instead. Don’t know why I was so hung up on it being the Clippers. Thought too much about TPE’s and forgot about cap space. Speaking of which, the salaries are updated. Also, what I said earlier about Mikki Moore was wrong. Golden State does not pay him more now that they’ve waived him; for some reason, the rebate thing applies once a player has been paid more than the two-year minimum, regardless of whether he’s on the roster not. Thus, Golden State will still only pay $825,495 to Moore after all. The confusion/misinformation stemmed from the case of Austin Croshere, who last season signed a one-year minimum salary contract with Indiana (later claimed off waivers by Milwaukee) […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 9
January 13th, 2009
– Zarko Cabarkapa has not been signed since being let go by the Golden State Warriors about 18 months ago, at the end of the 2006/07 season. Zarko had not played that whole season, either, meaning that his last professional basketball game came nearly three years ago in April 2006. The reason for this is injury, as Cabarkapa has battled chronic back complaints for all this time, if not from before then. However, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel – Cabarkapa has recently begun workouts with his former team, Budućnost, hoping to get back into the game. He has not signed a contract with anyone, but it’s a start. – Justin Cage is playing for Belgacom Liege, a team that unsurprisingly play in Belgium. Belgacom Liege employ a very strict eight-man rotation (the roster outside of those eight players have a total of 30 minutes played in 13 games), and only one of those eight players is a Belgian. As an Arsenal fan, I kind of know how this feels. Cage averages 16.2 points and 4.2 rebounds a game, making him the team’s second-leading scorer behind the man, the legend, Christopher Hill. – Pat Calathes was not drafted, played on the summer league roster of all 30 teams (nearly), still didn’t make it to training camp, and so he went off to Greece, the country of his heritage. For Marousi in Greece, Calathes is averaging 4.9 points and 2.5 rebounds, while shooting three-pointers at a scintillating 22%. – After being one of the best players in the D-League last year, Earl Calloway went in search of some slightly better money. Finding it with Cibona Zagreb, Calloway averages 11.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 steals a game, but his court time might be […]
