Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 23
February 24th, 2010
– Joel Freeland Despite coming from the unpleasant town of Aldershot, Joel Freeland has turned into a fine player. Still in Spain, Freeland has moved from Gran Canaria to Unicaja Malaga, lured by the promise of EuroLeague ball. Freeland is averaging 9.9 points and 5.0 rebounds in 19 minutes per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 11.5/4.5 in 20mpg in the ACB. It’s not just my national bias talking – although that inevitably factors – but Joel Freeland is awesome. He has size, athleticism and skill; decent offence, decent rebounding and decent defence. He’s not a star player, but he’s a rotation-calibre NBA player and all around superhero. Taking him 30th in 2006 was an Eyenga-level gamble by the Blazers, but it’s worked, and while his selection is not enough to justify trading down from third to sixth in 2005 (thus going from Chris Paul to Martell Webster), it certainly helps. – Matt Freije Freije is playing in his family’s homeland, Lebanon. Despite being born in Bismarck, North Dakota, Freije has ties to Lebanon in his heritage and now represents them at international level. I have absolutely no numbers for Freije’s play with the Lebanese club Sporting Al Riyadi, but at the Asian Championships this summer, Freije averaged 15.7 points and 4.6 rebounds. He also likes to spend his summers in Puerto Rico, where he averaged 20.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30 games last year. Freije has a Canadian/Lebanese teammate called Omar El Turk, who sounds more like an Anchorman character. – Vitaly Fridzon Russian international swingman Vitaly Fridzon is into his fifth season with Khimky, averaging 9.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game in the Russian league, 9.4/3.0/2.8 in the VTB United League, and 6.5/2.4/2.0 in the EuroLeague. So, that’s where he is now. If […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Portland Trail Blazers
July 24th, 2009
– Deji Akindele: By being in this list, Akindele shows himself to once again be on the fringes of the minds of NBA executives, somewhere where he’s been for about five years now. Last year in Italy, Akindele averaged 11.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.6 blocks. He even hit a three. The offence gets slightly better every year. However, the age keeps creeping up too. – Jerryd Bayless: Rumour has it that my Bulls are pursuing – if not insistent upon – Bayless’ inclusion in any potential three-way trade that also sees them acquire Carlos Boozer. Not entirely sure of why, to be honest. Isn’t the team with Derrick Rose the last team that needs to be looking to acquire a player whose strength is slashing to the rim, but who has a weak jump shot, can’t defend off-guards and who isn’t really a pass-first player? The two can’t easily pair up, and there aren’t going to be many minutes behind Rose. So I’m not sure I understand this insistence. (Portland fans will probably speculate that trying to trade for Bayless means the Bulls can now trade Rose, since Jerryd will be better. They’re like that.) – Dante Cunningham: Cunningham once tried out for the British national team, but hasn’t been heard from since; presumably, he didn’t get a passport in the end. I have no idea what his claim on one was anyway, since he was born in Maryland to American parents, but it’s a shame if he’s never going to join us. Pops Mensah-Bonsu needs a backup, after all. Cunningham demonstrated a fine mid-range jump shot last season out of roughly nowhere, which is what turned him from an undrafted talent into a high 30s pick. It serves as a nice compliment to the […]
Puerto Rico – the new China?
May 25th, 2009
Those of you who like fringe NBA players may have enjoyed the series of updates recently about the Chinese Basketball Association. Any league that saw Olumide Oyedeji average nearly 20/20 can peak the interest of any of us. Players like playing in China; the exposure isn’t huge and the money isn’t great, but the CBA has the lure of the teams playing lots of games, with less emphasis on practice, copying the NBA model of basketball not imitated much around the globe. Furthermore, the standard of play was bad, which led to amusingly lopsided statistics that they could put on their CV; for example, Tim Pickett will now always be able to boast that he was a 39.4 ppg scorer at one point in his career. (It appears to be already paying dividends, since he just got a workout with the Memphis Grizzlies. It’s nice to know they’re checking out China. So would I.) The Chinese league season has ended, as have most leagues, but the Puerto Rican one is just starting. It’s not a coincidence that the BSN (Puerto Rican) league begins in mid-April, which allows them to experience an influx of fringe NBA talent much like the Chinese league did. The standard of domestic players in the BSN is better, so the numbers aren’t as wonky, but it still makes for a great proving ground for players who need a small career boost, or some extra money from a summer job. And, for us keen observers, it’s a great chance to watch bit-part players play big. Here are the numbers of people you may have heard of. – – Marcus Williams (Quebradillas): Williams (the Nets one) is possibly the best player in Puerto Rico. His scoring is inefficient, due largely to taking as many threes as he does […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 18
January 21st, 2009
– Richie Frahm has not been signed since his performance with the Dallas Mavericks summer league team. I watched all of those Mavericks VSL games, and Frahm – a shooter – often chose not to shoot, which seemed wrong on a team clearly auditioning shooters. Other things that I learnt from these games: Reyshawn Terry’s a decent shooter, Shan Foster’s a very good one (the last update excluded), Keith McLeod remains deficient at all manner of shot-making, and Renaldas Seibutis is still having an identity crisis. And Rick Kamla’s side parting is one of the seven wonders of the modern world. – British legend Joel Freeland (a legend if only for the fact that he’s English) is in his third year with Gran Canaria, Spain. And he’s finally getting somewhere. Freeland averages 10.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in the Spanish league, numbers that rise to 15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in EuroCup play. If Greg Oden continues to disappoint, then…well, Joel Freeland is already better than him. FACT. (Note: not a fact.) – Matt Freije started the season in Lebanon of all places (is it Lebanon, or The Lebanon?), before moving to China. For Fujian SBS XunXin, Freije averages 19.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, shooting 37% from three-point range. His high-scoring teammate is the seminal Chris Porter, who is into his fourth season with the team, with a short Philippines break in between. Porter averages 23.7 points, 13.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per contest, shooting 41% from three-point range. But I think he’s had it cut. – Hiram Fuller was recently part of the Pau Orthez turnover, and left the team earlier this month. In his six games with the team, Fuller averaged 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.2 fouls. […]
