– Not everyone changes teams in the summer. It seems like they do, but some stay on where they are. Those who have signed extensions with their current clubs include Slovakian scoring machine Radoslav Rancik, who has signed a two-year deal with Galatasaray, and ex-San Diego State forward Mohamed Abukar, who signed a two-year deal of his own with the Swiss champion Lugano Tigers. Dimitris Diamantidis snuffed out the <1% possibility of him ever joining the NBA as he signed a three-year extension with Panathinaikos, and Mengke Bateer has re-signed with Xinjiang, staving off his retirement (and inevitable subsequent move into full-time acting) for at least one more year. Ex-Raptors draft pick Roko Ukic took a buyout from Milwaukee part way through last season to join Turkish team Fenerbahce, and he’s just signed for two extra years there. And another Raptors draft pick, Giorgis Printezis, has taken a pay cut in signing a two-year extension with Unicaja Malaga. – Speaking of Malaga; in contrast to previously reported news, it transpires that they did not actually retain the services of Omar Cook after all. Cook is a quality point guard in Europe, and he shouldn’t have problems finding new work. Additionally, as initially reported, David Logan has joined Caja Laboral on a three year deal. He replaces Carl English, who has left the team. And Le Mans quickly found a replacement for Marc Salyers, bringing in former Detroit Mercy forward Ryvon Covile. Ryvon averaged 9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds for Entente Orleans last season. – But the big news here is that of ex-Rider big man, Steve Castleberry, who has moved from Czech Republican team Podebrady to Czech Republican team Basketball Brno. Last year for Podebrady, Castleberry was seventh in the league in scoring, second in rebounds and sixth […]
They’re coming thick and fast; yet another American in Europe has picked up a passport of a minor European team in order to further their career ambitions. But unlike some of those that have gone before him, this one has multiple years of NBA experience. And that’s because he was a first-rounder. The country is Montengro, and here’s a clue as to who the player is. Answer after the jump. Per Eurobasket.com, Montenegro have announced their latest national team squad. In it is the new guy. It would appear that unlike some of his predecessors, the new guy is going to actually play for the nation that sold him the passport. It’s the noble thing to do. The list is not a bad list. Montenegro aren’t factors in the world of sport generally, but they can play basketball. They can particularly produce big men. NBA draft picks Nikola Pekovic and Slavko Vranes are listed there, as are Peja Drobnjak (who churned in a few memorable seasons of NBA time) and Vladimir Dasic (who might be drafted this year). Former NBA draft picks no longer involved in the national team setup, but who once were, include Zarko Cabarkapa and Mladen Sekularac. There’s also Dante and Galante favourite Vladimir Golubovic, as well as Milko Bjelica, a quality player with a name like a pudding. And there’s always Sasha Pavlovic, which is cool. However, they’ve struggled to find as much guard quality. Montenegro have a couple of decent guards placed in strong European leagues – Vlado Scepanovic with Murcia in Spain, Goran Jeretin with Aliaga in Turkey – but their guard production does not have the pedigree of their big man production. To counter that, two years ago, the team recruited ex-St John’s point guard Omar Cook, who has played the position for […]
– Maccabi Tel-Aviv declined their contract option on former Warriors draft pick Stephane Lasme. The Raptors are said to have been scouting him, alongside his Maccabi frontcourt teammate D’Or Fischer. Granted, the Israeli press are notorious for making things up, and the now-27-year- old Lasme is coming off a bad year and has hardly added the missing dimensions to his somewhat one-dimensional game. But then again, Amir Johnson becomes an unrestricted free agent in three weeks time. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. – Other guys not being invited back include Steve Burtt Jr, who will not stay with Ukrainian team Ferro-ZNTU. French club Roanne are not retaining ex-Bucks draft pick David Noel, and another ex-Bucks player Jiri Welsch is leaving Unicaja Malaga after four seasons. Malaga simultaneously exercised a contract option on Omar Cook, which was always going to happen. – Two players who left their clubs midway through last season, only to return, have now left them again. Australian international Brad Newley left Besiktas towards the end of last year as the team had fallen more than the allowable amount behind on his payment schedule – it is customary for teams to be allowed to fall a certain amount behind on payments before a player is allowed to break the contract with all obligations, both future and outstanding, still owed to them. Newley did this once the team had fallen several thousand dollars behind on his pay, and agreed to sign with AJ Milano for the remainder of the Serie A season. However, due to paperwork errors, FIBA blocked the transfer and Newley had to return to Besiktas for the remainder of the season. With it now over for good, Newley has left the team again and signed in Lithuania for Lietuvos Rytas (who, incidentally, elected to keep Milko Bjelica […]
This one might be shorter than the last one. One final note on Keon Clark: despite what I said earlier about Clark’s mandatory weekly court appearances being “almost universally described as good”, Clark failed a drug test as recently as late November. So maybe it’s not all coming up Milhouse after all. – Victor Claver Windpipe is still with Valencia, his hometown team and the team he’s been with since he was 15. He’s averaging 11.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in the EuroCup, alongside 9.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists in the ACB. Good numbers all, and good defense, with only one drawback; Claver is shooting a combined 26 of 87 from three-point range between the two competitions, which is 29.8%. – Mateen Cleaves After spending last year in the D-League, Mateen Cleaves is currently unsigned. This would appear to be by choice, as his Twitter reveals a new career direction. Cleaves has teamed up with some guy named Jon Connor (not the one of Terminator fame) to launch Varsity Records, a record label that appears to have one client (Connor) and one manager (Cleaves). This would appear to be a full-time venture for Cleaves now, so he is perhaps done with basketball at the age of 32. I’m speculating about that, of course, but only because of Cleaves’s apparent dedication to this new endeavour. Is Jon Connor any good? You be the judge. Hard to tell, really. That’s just noise on that video. But the crowd seem to be enjoying it. Here’s an article about them both. – Keith Closs For the 2007-08 season, a 31-year-old Closs joined the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League, and spent the entire year there. It represented the best job security that Closs had had since […]
– I have no idea where Keon Clark is, specifically. – Milone Clark averages 4.8 points and 3.4 rebounds for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. I openly admit to knowing basically nothing about Milone Clark, but, as a player who has never put up good numbers at any stage of his career (he even only scored 15 ppg in the Ecuadorian league) yet who somehow landed a training camp spot with the Knicks in 2006……well, perhaps Milone Clark is a very good defensive guard. – Mateen Cleaves is also in the D-League, where he averages 13.2 points and 8.2 assists for the Bakersfield Jam. (Also note – the jump shot is still broken.) The 8.2 assists is good for second in the league, behind only Walker Russell, who is way out in front with 11.1 apg. But only six players in the entire D-League average over 7 apg, which is somewhat remarkable in a league with an unsubtle emphasis on pushing the ball and stat-padding. Then again, maybe they’re all too busy shooting. – Keith Closs spent last year in the D-League with the Tulsa 66ers, where he admitted to his alcoholism and posted a season featuring nearly as many blocks per game (2.8) as rebounds (4.7), yet this season he left the D-League to go to China. Signing with the Yunnan Honghe Running Bulls, Closs averaged 14.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.5 blocks in the Chinese league, which frequently boasts amusingly lopsided statistics (speaking of, if and when we get to the letter W, have a look at Bonzi Wells’s scoring average), but left the team for reasons unbeknownst to me. Closs then had a trial with another Chinese team, the Liaoning Panpan Hunters, but left earlier this month and is currently unsigned. Somewhere in amongst all […]
