Jared Reiner, Eddie Basden, Marcus Campbell all join the D-League
December 19th, 2009
The D-League has bagged itself some more former NBA talent.
In five of the last six years, Iowa centre Jared Reiner has appeared in an NBA training camp. In 2004 it was the Bulls; in 2005 it was both the Clippers and the Suns; in 2006 it was the Spurs; in 2008 it was the Sixers; this past summer, it was the Timberwolves. In that time, Reiner has only played in 46 NBA games, 27 of which came with the unlisted Bucks down the stretch of the 2006/07 season. But that’s no reason to stop trying, and, seemingly unable to get a tasty European deal, Reiner has opted for the NBA exposure offered up by the D-League. If things go well, he could make it six of seven.
Eddie Basden is another ex-Bull, who was quickly snapped up by the team after going undrafted in 2005, and about whom much excitement was generated by the Bulls’ PR Machine. We didn’t have a draft pick that year, so we pretended Basden was it, and took some great solace from predicting his greatness. However, Basden appeared in only shreds of 19 games, and all he showed was a desire to gamble on defence and an inability to consistently shoot. We felt let down somehow.
Apart from the Bulls, Basden has had training camp stints with the Cavaliers in 2006 (being traded for Martynas Andriuskevicius in one of the best pointless trades of all time) and the Miami Heat in 2008, but he didn’t make the team either time. He spent last season in Turkey, averaging 7.9 ppg and 4.6 rpg for Mersin, but on the unhealthy percentages of 37% FG, 23% 3PT FG% and 61% FT. This is a defensive specialist we’re talking about, by the way.
Marcus Campbell has never played an NBA game, but he’s had training camp stints with the Rockets, Bobcats and Thunder. He is a D-League veteran, with 145 D-League games played in four previous seasons, and career averages of 10.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
Basden joins the Austin Toros, Reiner joins the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, and Campbell goes to the Springfield Armor. On their respective debuts, Basden put up 6 points and 6 rebounds on 2-9 shooting, while Campbell put up 8 points and 6 rebounds on 0-6 shooting to give the Armor their first win of the year. It came against Reiner’s Mad Ants, and Reiner’s 8 points, 3 rebounds and 5 fouls in 15 minutes didn’t seem to help.
Additionally, the L.A. D-Fenders traded Deron Washington to Tulsa in exchange for Keith Clark. Washington had lost his minutes with the D-Fenders to Dar Tucker, Gabe Pruitt and Diamon Simpson, and he had become expendable. Tulsa also waived Thunder draft pick DeVon Hardin due to injury, but they cancelled that out by acquiring Zabian Dowdell, a man who was staring down the barrel of an NBA training camp invite or two this summer before getting injured.
To make room for Campbell, the Armor waived former NBA guard Adam Harrington. And that’s a shame.
