Jerome Dyson There was a time when averaging 20/5/5 at UConn meant a guarantee to be drafted. Not so for Dyson. For all the scoring numbers, Dyson is far from a complete scorer; for all the assist numbers, Dyson is far from a point guard. And at 6’3, he’ll struggle to be a shooting guard as well. Much of his production comes from the fast break, where he is unbelievably good. He can snake his way to the basket with blistering speed, and finish with athleticism despite his small size. In the half court, however, he can’t get to the basket as readily. This is due in no small part to his jump shot, which doesn’t really exist. And while Dyson has the athletic tools for perimeter defence, he lapses. If he goes to the D-League – and he should, because he’s going to be on the cusp of a call-up – then he could put up similar numbers to that. But without a jump shot, his ridiculously tremendous upside potential is limited. Christian Eyenga When he was drafted at #30 in 2009, Eyenga was playing in the Spanish third division for DKV Joventut’s feeder team, CB Prat Juventud. This season, aged 20, Eyenga made it up to the big club. In 29 AC games for the team, Eyenga averaged 3.9 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 12.6 minutes per game, shooting 50% from the floor and 35% from three. Now that LeBron James has left, it’s probably quite comforting to know that a first rounder was used on such an impact player. (Sarcasm aside, Eyenga is starting to get somewhere. For a 20 year old in the ACB, where 20 year olds don’t usually play, that’s not bad.) Marquis Gilstrap Gilstrap was covered in the Bobcats summer league […]
– Chet Mason Former Miami Ohio guard and Cavs signee Chester “Chet” Mason is spending his second season with Siroki Eronet in Bosnia. Most teams from the former Yugoslavia that we cover – Crveza Zvezda, Hemofarm, Cibona Zagreb, etc – are usually in either the EuroCup or the EuroLeague, and also play in the Adriatic League. The Adriatic League is one of the strongest in the world for this reason. Yet Siroki are in none of them, nor are they in the EuroChallenge. It’s pure Bosnian league for them. Mason is averaging 13.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game, and three weeks ago he posted the David Lee-like stat line of 27 points, 18 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals. Not bad for 6’5. – Desmond Mason Mason started the year with the Kings. Despite already having Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia (neither of whom were injured at the time), Tyreke Evans, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni and Omri Casspi all available to play at the two and/or three spots, the Kings felt they needed another wing option and brought in Mason for training camp. Even though he didn’t really show much in preseason, Mason made the team, and he then bizarrely started five games to begin the year. The experiment quickly ended after Mason put up a 6.2 PER, and Mason was waived. He has remained unsigned since; proposed links to a couple of different ACB teams never came off. – Tony Massenburg Tony Massenburg is 42 years old and has not played since summer 2008, but this does not necessarily mean he is retired. He is Tony Massenburg, after all, the man who signed with the Washington Wizards aged 40 in an unashamed pursuit of the “most NBA teams ever played for” record that […]
If it wasn’t for the NBA Draft – that hotbed of prejudice that can see the entire prognosis of the NBA change in six short hours – then the trade deadline would be my favourite time of year. There’s nothing like it; you cancel every event in your social calendar, turn off your phone, ignore real life world events, and mash the refresh key for three straight days, waiting for any trades to come in, even those with the dreaded “conditional second” tag on them. (Well, that’s what I do.) Recent trade deadlines have been disappointing. Last season saw many of the biggest trades (Shaq to Phoenix, the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris swap, Pau Gasol, Mike Bibby) take place in the weeks leading up to the deadline, with only the 11-player Ben Wallace trade of any major significance. And 2007 was a complete washout, with the Primoz Brezec for Juan Dixon swap being the highlight of the entire month. No matter how much I pleaded for Pau Gasol to come to Chicago, it didn’t happen. However, this year, things went down rather well. Six trades were made, involving ten teams, and that’s not even including the trades in the run-up to the deadline. There were some slight anti-climaxes when Phoenix decided not to be insane and kept Amar’e Stoudemire, and Portland’s big plans to land everybody available with a combination of Raef LaFrentz and Travis Outlaw came to nothing. But most teams got involved, and here’s what went down. (Note: list includes trades done in the fortnight prior as well, because I felt like it and didn’t comment on them at the time.) – Boston Trade 1: Traded Sam Cassell and cash to Sacramento for a conditional second-round pick. Trade 2: Traded Patrick O’Bryant to Toronto for another conditional second-round […]
