Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 15
January 25th, 2010
Am I the only person who thinks that Danilo Gallinari, when he’s spiked his hair up, looks a bit like Butthead? Probably. – T.J. Cummings Cummings was drafted by the Idaho Stampede in the fourth round of this year’s D-League Draft, but was released before the season started without so much as a line on the D-League’s transactions page. (They’ve got to tighten this up, really. It happens a lot, and makes it hard for those of us who try to keep tabs on D-League transactions.) He was later picked up by the Springfield Armor, for whom he averages a tidy 14.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. T.J. stands for Terry Junior, for Cummings is the son of former NBA player Terry Cummings. That said, T.J’s name is actually Robert, so the ‘Junior’ label is kind of speculative. But you can see why a man wouldn’t want to be called Bob Cummings. Particularly if he used to watch The Fast Show. – Michael Curry When this website started, Curry had just left the Indiana Pacers, the third team in three years to start Curry for the “defensive tone” that his offence-free ways supposedly set. In the time since then, Curry has been the NBA’s Vice-President of Player Development, named as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, named as the head coach for the Detroit Pistons, and fired as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons. All this elapsed time can make a man feel old. Curry is currently not doing anything. – Antonio Daniels Neither is Antonio Daniels. Daniels was traded by the Hornets to the Timberwolves this offseason in exchange for Darius Songaila and Bobby Brown, purely because his contract was one year shorter than Songaila’s. Consider for a minute that the cost of […]
Basketball in South Korea has some interesting rules
August 12th, 2009
The South Korean basketball league [KBL] has some quirky rules. It’s a relatively new league, only ten years in existence, that unashamedly focuses on Korean national players. Part of that means heavily restricting the amount of Big Foreign Americans™ that so heavily permeate all the other leagues around the world. A few years ago, the KBL had a rule that barred any players standing 6’8 and above. What the intended purpose of that was, I don’t know, but presumably they quickly figured out how damaging that rule was to their basketball product, because they have now done away with it. Now, tall foreign dudes are allowed. And they’re prevalent. Every summer, the KBL holds a draft of foreign players who want to play in their league that year. The players that are drafted are mostly tall guys, as apparently Korea doesn’t produce much talented size of their own. (Ha Seung-Jin excepted, of course.) The criteria for entry in the draft, though, is pretty weird. The following is looted without permission from the Korean Basketball League website: [The] Korean Basketball League (KBL) Pre-Draft Tryout Camp for Foreign Players will be held from July 22nd (Wed) to 24th (Fri), 2009 at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A. The players who are interested in playing in Korea for the 2009~2010 season, which will start from the middle of October 2009 to the end of April 2010, and meet the qualifications below are asked to fill out the application form and send via a fax or by e-mail the required documents to KBL office by May 22nd, 2009. A: Qualifications: 1. Must have at least a high school diploma 2. Must be at least 18 years of age 3. Have not had a contract with teams in Europe Division I (Spain, […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 11
January 14th, 2009
– 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 […]
Third Prize Is You’re Fired (2008 NBA Training Camp)
October 6th, 2008
“Anybody wanna see second prize?” “Second prize is a set of steak knives.” – Milwaukee signed Ron Howard, T.J. Cummings, Matt Freije and Kevin Kruger for camp. If you’re wondering who Ron Howard and T.J. Cummings are…well, you have yourself a valid question, but both are represented by Elfus-Siegel Management, an agency quite adept at landing their players places on training camp rosters. (If you were wondering, this is how Garth Joseph rolled up on the Bulls training camp back in 2003, for one beautiful week.) Be very careful when you Google-search T.J. Cummings’s name. Freije gives the Bucks a weak-defending jump-shooting power forward, as they only have two right now, which just isn’t enough. And Kruger gets to spend a couple of weeks in the NBA, even though he has little chance of making a roster that sees Luke Ridnour, Ramon Sessions and Tyronn Lue ahead of him, whether he likes it or not. Sham’s prediction: The Bucks told Damon Jones not to report, and they’ll try to trade him, but he will probably be waived if that can’t be done. That would open up a roster spot for someone, but what would be the value of any of those four filling it? – Minnesota made me a happy man this summer. Their camp signings were Kevin Ollie, Blake Ahearn and Rafael Araujo, while Chris Richard accepted his qualifying offer. Blake Ahearn is a nice player. Kevin Ollie is a moustachioed legend with something of a Brunson complex. But….Araujo? There’s so much right about that move. Part of it is the way that Rob Babcock won’t let go, part of it is the fact that it’s Rafael Araujo, but also because his signing allows for the existence of this picture. Only Rafael Araujo could use training camp media day […]
