The Best Of What’s Left
September 15th, 2009
Almost all of this year’s NBA free agents crop has now been signed. Of the few that remain, most have already finalised which training camp they’re going to, and training camp contracts have already begun to be signed. However, these are far from being the only players in the world. A shedload of remaining NBA-calibre players remain unsigned, as rosters across the whole of FIBA are being trimmed and cheapened due to the current economic thing that you may have heard about. At the moment, including qualifying offers that are as-yet pending, there are 421 players in the NBA, out of a potential maximum of 450. That total does not include people who have committed to sign but that haven’t done it yet (Garrett Temple, Rodney Carney, Curtis Jerrells, Russell Robinson, etc). Assuming (wrongly) that all of those 421 are here to stay, there are a maximum of 29 places left in the NBA; however, considering that many teams will run with 13- or 14-man rosters this year, and we’re already averaging 14 players per team, the real amount is even less than that. As such, there’s nothing but a scant few places available in the world’s strongest basketball league, and several jillion candidates fighting for them. But this shouldn’t stop them from fighting, and nor will it stop me from listing. There now follows a list of the best of what’s left of this year’s free agency market. Listed in no particular order. Point Guards – Raymond Felton: The only guards who shot a worse percentage on inside shots than Raymond Felton last year were Derek Fisher, Luke Ridnour and Sebastian Telfair. The fact that Felton shot only 29% from three-point range doesn’t help, either. But despite Felton’s perpetually inefficient scoring, the market for Felton shouldn’t have been […]
“That Guy We Drafted,” 1996
September 8th, 2009
For those who missed my Tweets on the subject, I wrote a guest post at the San Antonio Spurs blog 48 Minutes Of Hell, talking about the Spurs finances and Brian Cook and stuff like that. Please go and read it. Also, if you own a good team-specific blog and want me to do the same for your team, be really quite sickeningly nice towards me and you might have a chance. Might. The following is a round-up of the life, times and afterlives of the entire 1996 NBA Draft. Note: in the event that a player is still in the NBA, I’ll assume that you know that and will talk about something else. 1st pick: Allen Iverson (Philadelphia) – Everyone has made the same comment about Iverson potentially joining the Memphis Grizzlies. Everyone in the land has made some comment to the effect of “there’s only one ball,” “who’s going to pass,” “how could you pair him up with Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay,” “how is it going to work long term” etc. And the answer to that is simple; it’s not going to work long term. But it’s not supposed to, either. Randolph has only two years left on his contract, and Iverson will be signing a one-year deal. They’re only supposed to be short-term improvements, for a team trying to improve whilst unable/unwilling to take on long term commitments. It would be bloody lovely if they could have gotten Paul Millsap and Nate Robinson instead, but that was never realistic. When you’re at the bottom with no money to spend, you have to live off the draft, minimum salary steals and retreads. That’s how it has to be, and that’s what Iverson represents. As retreads go, though, may I point out that Iverson was averaging 28 points […]
Where Are They Now: 2009 NBA Summer League Teams Part 3
September 3rd, 2009
It’s been roughly two months since summer league started, and most of the players involved have been rehomed now. The following is a list of where everybody currently is, or where they might be going. This list gets a bit long, so if you want to just skip to your favoured team, you can do so. I’ll allow that. New York Knicks – Wink Adams: Adams is signed with Oyak Renault Bursa in Turkey. – Alex Acker: Almost as soon as he was back in it, Acker is out of the NBA again. He is signed with Armani Jeans Milano in Italy. – Blake Ahearn: See Nets/Sixers entry. – Morris Almond: Almond is unsigned. I haven’t heard anything about him agreeing to a training camp invite anywhere, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it was with the Knicks. – Warren Carter: Unsigned. – Joe Crawford: Crawford is, and always was, under contract through 2010. So he’s going to camp. – Toney Douglas: Douglas shot badly in summer league, but passed for an impressive seven assists per game. If he’s going to try and reinvent himself as a playmaking guard in the up-tempo system, then that’s a pretty good start. However, the entire team shot less than 39% for the tournament, which is less complimentary of Douglas’s offence-running skills. – Patrick Ewing Jr: Ewing missed summer league with injuries. He is unsigned, and sounds like a training camp candidate. – Jordan Hill: Jordan Hill may well prove to be the second-best big man in this draft. This says more about the draft than Jordan Hill. – Ron Howard: Unsigned. – Yaroslav Korolev: For the Knicks to have thought they could have gotten anything out of Yaroslav Korolev was ambitious. Although not nearly […]
Where Are They Now: 2009 Summer League Teams Part 2
September 2nd, 2009
It’s been roughly two months since summer league started, and most of the players involved have been rehomed now. The following is a list of where everybody currently is, or where they might be going. This list gets a bit long, so if you want to just skip to your favoured team, you can do so. I’ll allow that. Indiana Pacers – Will Blalock: Blalock is unsigned. But he averaged more points (6.2) and assists (2.8) in summer league than he did last season in Germany (4.2 & 2.1). So he’s got that going for him. – Derrick Byars: See Denver entry. – Tyler Hansbrough: Hansbrough is signed, and weirdly. – Roy Hibbert: I said it before, but I’ll say it again; Hibbert is better than you thought he was going to be. – Jared Homan: The Ho-Man signed in Greece with Costa Cafe Marousi to replace Andreas Glyniadakis, who signed with Olympiacos. – Aaron Jackson: Jackson may or may not have signed in Turkey. – Trey Johnson: Johnson didn’t pick the best summer league team to be on. He might have made an NBA team with a better showing and a better opportunity. As it is, he’s now signed in France with BCM Gravelines Dunkerque Grand Littoral, a team that really needs to truncate its name. – Leo Lyons: See Cleveland entry. – Josh McRoberts: Despite having a fully guaranteed $1,000,497 qualifying offer, McRoberts re-signed for a guaranteed minimum of $825,497, with $250,000 guaranteed for the following season. I guess he just wanted to get out of restricted free agency as soon as possible. – A.J. Price: Price hasn’t signed with the Pacers, but now that they’ve bought out Jamaal Tinsley, he must have a chance. The Pacers don’t especially need four point guards, but this doesn’t usually […]
Where Are They Now: 2009 NBA Summer League Teams Part 1
September 2nd, 2009
It’s been roughly two months since summer league started, and most of the players involved have been rehomed now. The following is a list of where everybody currently is, or where they might be going. This list gets a bit long, so if you want to just skip to your favoured team, you can do so. I’ll allow that. Boston Celtics – Nick Fazekas: Fazekas has signed in Europe for next year, with Dijon of France. The longer this goes on, the more it looks like Fazekas is never going to get back into the NBA. Even though he led this Celtics summer league team in points and rebounds, the NBA doesn’t seem to want to know. If that continues to happen, it’ll be…..well, it’ll be strange. – J.R. Giddens: Giddens is still with the Celtics, as Boston tried valiantly to convince Indiana that they wanted him as a part of a Marquis Daniels sign and trade. The Pacers refused. – Lester Hudson: Hudson hasn’t signed with the Celtics yet, but it’s likely that he will do. The Celtics really should try and find a veteran backup option first, even if the pickings are pretty slim now. But if they were going to do that, they probably would have done it already. – Coby Karl: Karl remains unsigned. He also played on the Nuggets’ summer league team. The Nuggets are publicly in the market for a good-shooting two guard. Coby Karl is a good-shooting two guard. The Nuggets’ head coach is George Karl. George Karl is Coby Karl’s dad. It’s going to write itself. You can just feel it. – Chris Lofton: Lofton is unsigned, but won’t be returning to Mersin, who have already replaced him with Richie Frahm and Jimmy Baron. – Bryan Mullins: Southern Illinois’s very own […]
More Creative Financing In The NBA, 2009
August 28th, 2009
Here’s a longer list of things that were not included in the original Creative Financing post, either because I forgot to include them, or (in one instance) because the sweet prince who called our hotline with the information had not yet come forward. Remember; all calls are anonymous and you could receive a cash reward for information. (Wait, no you couldn’t. That’s the slogan they use on Crimewatch. Ignore that.) – As a part of the new scheme of turning this website’s salary information from a static exhibit into a working reconstruction of life in First World War France, there now exists a page that lists all remaining salary cap exceptions for every NBA team. Of note on this list is the curious case of Channing Frye, the former Blazers and Knicks forward whose transformation from the next Dirk Nowitzki to the next Malik Allen is almost complete. The Suns signed Frye last month to a two-year, $4,139,200 contract; not coincidentally, that is the same amount as the full value of the Bi-Annual Exception. However, the Suns didn’t actually use their Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. Knowing that they wouldn’t be using the full MLE to sign somebody due to their payroll concerns, the Suns cleverly (and creatively) used an equivalent chunk of their Mid-Level Exception instead. As the name would suggest, you get to use the Bi-Annual Exception a maximum of once every two years, so if the Suns used it this year, they wouldn’t get it next year. But if they roll it over, they do. It’s pretty shrewd, when you think about it. (Teams that should have done this but didn’t include Washington – who used their BAE on Fabricio Oberto, and who won’t use their MLE – and Chicago – who used their BAE on […]
Creative Financing In The NBA, 2009
August 26th, 2009
If you Google the term “creative financing otis smith”, you’ll find quite a few hits. It’s long been a favoured phrase for Orlando Magic general manager Otis Smith, and his most famous usage of the phrase came in the run-up to the 2007 offseason. Smith used the term “creative financing” to describe how the Magic were going to handle having maximum cap room, juggling signing other team’s free agents with retaining Darko Milicic. It was a fairly generic term that said something without really saying anything. And it only gained its resonance after Smith used all his money to give Rashard Lewis a massive, massive contract You’ll also, slightly depressingly, find this website fourth in those search results. There’s a reason for that. “Creative financing” is something that I’ve harped on about for a while. The financial side of the NBA gives me a jolly; watching and learning how the NBA teams manage (or mismanage) their salary cap space, the luxury tax threshold and all their exceptions gets me going in ways that it really shouldn’t. I don’t know why it’s fun, I only know that it is. I think you agree. Therefore, there follows a list of some of the better examples of creative financing in the NBA today, some of the ways in which executives and cap experts have manipulated the system, staved off the shackles of oppression, and beaten the terrorists. – The Bulls set a precedent by signing four players to descending deals at the same time. At one point, the contracts of all four of Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni, Smiling Joe and Sulking Ben had contracts that shrunk on a year-by-year basis. The idea of this was to maintain future salary flexibility to allow them to retain Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas […]
Jay Williams attempting a comeback, sort of
August 12th, 2009
Former Bull Jay Williams plays again, for the first time in two and a half years. Former NBA point guard Jay Williams is aiming to relaunch his career through the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Williams, the second overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in the 2002 NBA draft – behind Yao Ming, almost lost his life in a motorcycle accident a year later and his promising career appeared to be over. (more at the link) Since his accident in June 2003, Jay’s basketball journey has taken many forms. Williams spent three and a half months in hospital, recovering from the multiple torn ligaments, broken pelvis and nerve damage that almost saw him lose his leg (but not his life, contrary to the article’s verbiage). His rehab had only begun in earnest; it would be three more years before he returned to the court. During the early stages of his rehab, Williams kept a blog on NBA.com, which still survives to this day (as long as you can tolerate five and a half years of dust). The optimistic tone of the blog made it sound like a comeback would be possible, if a long way off. And this proved to be kind of true, as Williams did eventually sign another NBA contract. But he never played another regular season NBA game. In October 2006, more than three years after the accident, Williams signed a training camp contract with the New Jersey Nets. The contract was not guaranteed, and both Williams and the Nets signed it knowing that his chances of making the team were about as small as a tadpole’s corset. Nevertheless, however unlikely of a gesture it may have been, the signing was symbolic; Jay had made it back from the brink. Unfortunately, he struggled mightily. And that ruined the […]
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, […]
The Assassination Of Devean George By The Coward Donnie Nelson
August 2nd, 2009
February 13th, 2008. Wednesday. Raining. The Dallas Mavericks are tootling along with a 34-17 record. They’re pretty good, and perhaps they know it, because they’re suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to do something drastic. A veteran team with only one good young player decides on a plan to get older. The Mavericks decide that Jason Kidd is a significant upgrade over Devin Harris, and work out a variety of scenarios that see them trade Devin and two future first-round draft picks for Kidd. They’re probably wrong, but they work hard at it anyway, determined to obtain a player that two years ago would have been a steal. But not so much now. Eventually, they stumble upon a scenario that both they and the Nets can agree upon. Dallas agrees to trade Harris, the picks, cash, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George to the Nets in exchange for Kidd and Malik Allen. The fillers are largely meaningless; outside of Harris, only Diop is a significant player for the Mavericks. The core of the deal is Harris for Kidd, and both teams seem pretty happy with that. The fundamental pieces are together, peripherals of the long-awaited deal are finally in place, and everyone’s a winner. Things then get a bit weird. Through a hitherto little-known technicality, one of the lesser components of the deal – backup forward George – has the power to veto the trade. George re-signed with the Mavericks in the previous offseason to a one-year contract, and Dallas will have early Bird rights on him when his contract expires. However, if George gets traded, the recipient team will lose his Bird rights if they trade for him, which reduces George’s chances of getting handily paid next season. [Let’s pretend for a minute that such chances existed.] […]
The only bits of the 2009 Summer Signings post series worth saving
August 1st, 2009
– Darius Rice has left the immortally named Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants from the Phillipines, and is about to sign with Montegranaro in Italy. I think that translates as “Bread Mountain”. I hope it does, anyway. – A previous blog post talked about how Ivan Radenovic had had his contract with Akasvayu Girona extended. That news is now bunkum, for Girona have gone bankrupt, and are not playing this upcoming season. This leaves Radenovic now unsigned, unattached and undervalued. – The “points per shot” fans amongst us were extremely happy to hear that the Philadelphia 76ers have signed shooting guard Kareem Rush to form an incisive and efficient off-guard partnership with the incumbent Willie Green. These two players have a role to play for the Sixers, in that they are the only two guards currently under contract who can actually hit a three-point shot. This is a positive. But the negative side-effect is that both of these players are otherwise lacking, and for score-first players, they are not efficient. The pair are both deemed “one-dimensional scorers”, but neither is doing it optimally. Green last season scored 921 points on 870 shots, for a bad 1.06 points per shot, a number that still somehow managed to raise his career average to a heady 1.02. Rush was worse, though, scoring 588 points on 569 shots last year for a 1.03 PPS average, against a far below par career average of 1.01. For the sake of a point of reference, free agent Sixers backup point guard Kevin Ollie has a career points per shot average of a modest 1.21. That from a man who has nine made career three-pointers. Technically, on paper alone, if you need someone to hit a shot, you are better served going to Kevin Ollie than Kareem […]
A.D. Vassallo Made Me Have An Epiphany
July 27th, 2009
As you might presently yourself fully be aware of, one of the specialist areas that this website focuses on is on the life, times, careers and skillsets of players on the fringes of the NBA. (The other specialisms are; the NBA salaries and all the technical aspects that go along with them, references to English things that you don’t really understand, overly complicated wordplay, and stealing jokes from Family Guy. So, something for everyone there.) The spectrum of the site runs broader than that, and tries to encapsulate everything NBA related, but those are the areas of particular focus. I try to bring you things that you can’t get elsewhere in the online NBA world, and ne’er more so is this true than in the scrub tracking. It’s something that I love to do in life. Some men go to sleep at night holding their loved ones; I go to bed at night holding import player’s rebounding statistics from the last Chinese Basketball Association season. (Not really. But you get the idea.) Following the fringe is pretty much all I do, so much so that I had to visit Google to remind me of what the word “loved one” means. Oh and believe me, the internet carries that information. Maybe it’s because of my nation’s jingoistic identity as a perennial lover of the underdog, but since day one of my NBA fandom, something has always drawn me to the players nearer the end of the bench more than the good ones. My “favourite NBA players of all time” list includes Rick Brunson, Fred Hoiberg, Chris Jefferies and Marcus Fizer, for God’s sake. I even have Fizer’s name on a jersey somewhere. Perhaps I should sell it back to him. One of the most grating aspects of this devotion, though, is […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Washington Wizards
July 26th, 2009
– Alade Aminu: I’ve not yet seen Aminu, to be honest with you. But his stats from last year go like this; 11.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 27 minutes per game. Solid. So is the 6’10 230lb size with a 7’3 wingspan. However, the points came somewhat inefficiently, he turned it over a lot, and he fouled quite a lot too. And he could use some muscle gain. But he’s also only 21, despite having just played his senior season, and that’s got to bode well. – Dwayne Anderson: In all the times I watched Villanova last year, I didn’t realise Dwayne Anderson was a senior. He didn’t have a bad senior year, but he’s a forward in a guard’s body, with not much of a jump shot and little dribbling ability, who rebounds well and who could be a good defender, but who kind of isn’t. This is probably his only ever NBA sniff. – Ryan Ayers: Ryan Ayers is here for three reasons. The first is because he has great size for the NBA at 6’7. The second is because he has a fine set jump shot that already has NBA three-point range. And the third is because he’s the son of recent Wizards assistant coach Randy Ayers. To be 6’7 and a fine shooter sounds like a good start, but here’s the thing with Ayers; he does little else. He only catches and shoots. He’s fairly athletic and his defence is all right, but he will only ever catch and shoot. Even at the college level with 6’2 prospective morticians matched up on him, all he did was catch and shoot. That’s not going to get it done, even if he is extremely good at shooting and with a good NBA physique. […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: San Antonio Spurs
July 25th, 2009
– Antonio Anderson: Anderson was Tyreke Evans’s ill-fitting backcourt team mate last season. Like Evans, Anderson is 6’6, athletic, and a good passer and playmaker for that height. Like Evans, he’s not ideally suited for guarding the point and has no significant jump shot. But unlike Evans, Anderson is not carving up defences off the dribble. And unlike Evans, Anderson is 24. The dribbling and shooting flaws haven’t gone away yet, and time is running out for it to happen. – Romel Beck: Beck is a 27-year-old former UNLV grad whose four-year professional career has included his native Mexico, the CBA, the D-League, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Italy and Croatia. Last year in 16 games for the Dakota Wizards, Beck scored a blindingly efficient 15.9 points in 27 minutes per game, on percentages of 50.9%/49.2%/90.2%. Beck pretty much only scores; he doesn’t much rebound, make plays for others, or play much defence. But even though he’s thin, he’s very tall for a shooting guard. And he’s definitely got the scoring talent. Here’s a video of him crossing over Kobe Bryant before making a step-back four-oint play; (Note: that really is him. His full name is Romel Roberto Beck Castro.) – DeJuan Blair: Should be a Bull. Dammit. – Eric Dawson: Dawson is a 25-year-old big man who’s only had one season of note. He attended Midwestern State, a Division II school that you’ve probably never heard of, and since leaving has spent two years with the Austin Toros of the D-League. Last year he averaged 10.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.2 fouls in 24 minutes per game. They’re not bad numbers, certainly, but in the D-League, but he’s also 25, which limits his upside. Still, he’s come far. – Nando De Colo: I’m not going to pretend […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Utah Jazz
July 25th, 2009
All right! Only three weeks late! – James Augustine: Augustine was covered in the Bulls round-up from bloody ages ago. He played well for both teams and definitely re-established himself. But neither team has room for him next year. – Jimmy Baron: Jay Bilas lookalike Baron just played four years at Rhode Island, where his coach was his dad. I’ve always wondered why players think this is a good thing, but anyhoo. Baron set the school record for made three-pointers in a season in his sophomore season, then broke it in his junior season, then broke it again in his senior season. He made 118 of those bad boys last year in only 34 games. So you get the idea of how he plays. 6’3 shooting specialists have to have something extra to make the NBA, and Baron doesn’t, but no matter; he has already signed for Mersin in Turkey next season, presumably as Chris Lofton’s replacement. – Cedric Bozeman: I’m a big fan of Cedric Bozeman and I don’t know why. As such, it buoyed me to see him play well last year, to the tune of 19.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. Even the jump shot is getting there, shooting 35% from three-point range last season. This encourages me. Here’s hoping he’s doing enough for one more go-around. – Derrick Brown: Brown is a second-round draft pick of the Bobcats who has signed with the team for two years, who played on the Jazz summer league team because his own team was too cheap to run one. Typically, he led the team in scoring, which probably makes the Jazz feel a little weird about their hospitality. Especially since their own second-round draft pick this year, Goran Suton, played pretty badly. […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Toronto Raptors
July 25th, 2009
– Paul Davis: Davis was waived by the Clippers to save some money, after being brought back for no obvious reason. Strangely, he didn’t sign anywhere after that, but he did appear on Millionaire Matchmaker, where it was determined that he showed an “immature” attitude towards sex. But he did win the heart of one spectacularly energetic pseudo-blonde: (video removed by uploader; try this instead) These. These are the things we must know. – DeMar Derozan: The Raptors wings last season had all the athleticism of a grilled perch, so at least they addressed that. But I can’t say I’m overwhelmed with the pick. No word on what DeRozan’s attitudes towards sex are, or what he deems to be an “upscale” bowling alley. – David Doblas: Doblas is a soon-to-be 28-year -old Spaniard with the usual Spanish problems with hair. (This is one thing I noticed when I holidayed there earlier this year; everyone has black hair, and they all bald at 30. Without exceptions. Good luck, David.) Last year for Bruesa-Gipuzcoa BC – the ACB team that you’ve totally heard of – Doblas averaged 9.2 points and 4.4 rebounds. – Quincy Douby: I don’t know Quincy Douby’s amount of guaranteed salary, so stop asking. (Although I’m fairly sure it’s $0, that’s only an educated guess.) There’s not much reason for him to make the team, or even for him to be in the NBA; Douby may well be a versatile scorer with the ball in his hands, but he’s undersized, does not rebound or create for others, is not efficient, and is not a good-enough shooter to be ideal as a catch-and-shoot specialist. Go to Europe and start starring, Quincy. It’ll be easy for you. – Carl English: Despite the name, English is Canadian, which […]
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 […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Sacramento Kings
July 24th, 2009
– Robert Battle: Battle’s great. Every time he takes contact, he yells. And considering that he nails himself to the basket at both ends and never leaves the paint, that happens quite a lot. Good times. Battle averaged 12.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the Spanish LEB Gold last season, good enough numbers to get his team (Valladolid) promoted. But he’s not ever going to have NBA size, no matter how much he shouts (which he does on every contested lay-up attempt). – Jon Brockman: All Brockman did in college was rebound, take charges and break his nose. He’s not a scorer, he can’t play away from the basket, and he doesn’t block any shots whatsoever. However, of all the abilities that translate from the college game to the NBA, rebounding, charge-taking and nose-breaking are arguably the three most transferrable, especially for the bad-rebounding Kings. So he should be OK, even if he was picked too high. – John Bryant: Bryant’s numbers in his senior season for Santa Clara were big: 18.1 points, 14.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in only 31 minutes per game. He also has the size for the job, being listed at 6’11 and 275. But he wasn’t drafted anyway, despite how little size there was in the last draft. Why is that? I’m not sure, having not seen him, but being stabbed in the back three times during an off-campus assault probably didn’t help. – Pat Calathes: Like his brother Nick, Calathes has a Greek passport, and like his brother Nick, Pat has already signed there for next year. He was there last year, too, where he averaged a sensational 3.7 points and 1.8 rebounds per game for Marousi. – Omri Casspi: Nice beard. – Tyreke Evans: Please play […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Phoenix Suns
July 23rd, 2009
– Kaspars Berzins: Kaspars is a tall Latvian, but he’s not Andris Biedrins. He’s a fine outside shooter for a seven-footer, but he’s not Dirk Nowitzki. And he’s a good athlete, but he’s not Chris Andersen. Mainly, he’s a tall jump shooter who avoids contact and doesn’t play much defence. In the fine tradition of teams drafting tall foreigners in the second round despite their unsuitability for the physical NBA game, being 7’3 would probably have gotten Berzins drafted. But a mere seven-foot? Pah. – Josh Carter: Carter is a decently-sized wingman out of Texas A&M, who is primarily a jump shooter. He’s a good jump shooter at that. But he’s not a really good jump shooter. And that’s why he wasn’t drafted. (Even then, being a really good jump shooter is not a guarantee you’ll be drafted. Anthony Morrow wasn’t, after all. But it worked out all right for him in the end. If Carter gets his jump shot to that standard, he’ll have a chance as well.) – Earl Clark: I saw a lot of Louisville last year, because they played in a lot of games, because they were good. And Earl Clark is a large part of why that was. He should have been taken ahead of Terrence Williams, given that he’s younger, bigger, and won’t struggle to score as much. But he will struggle a bit; the jump shot’s not good and nor is the free throw stroke, he’s not much use off the ball at the moment, and he barely posts up. Still, a lot of this was true of Boris Diaw once, and he turned out all right. I’ll push this comparison for a while yet. – Geary Claxton: Claxton is one of those rare beasts, a 6’5 man with forward […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Orlando Magic
July 23rd, 2009
– Maurice Ager: The highlight of Maurice Ager’s NBA career was when he cried on draft night after being taken at the very end of the first round. That was touching. Since then…not much. In three years with two teams, Ager has shot 33% from the field, put up more fouls than rebounds, and recorded more turnovers than assists. He’s a scoring specialist, yet he’s never shown the ability to score on an NBA court. He’s never demonstrated NBA three-point range on his jump shot, gets wild in his aggression, and chucks in the few opportunities he gets. You can say, rightly, that he’s never had an extended run in the NBA. Yet he’s also been in it for three years now, seemingly healthy, yet still never seeing rotation time. He wasn’t even good on his D-League assignment. At some point, you’re just not suitable. – Lance Allred: Allred is now 28, but he’s only been on the NBA radar for two years after averaging a double-double with the Idaho Stampede in 2007/08. That landed him a brief stint with the Cavaliers down the stretch of the season, who waived him last October. Allred then returned to the Stampede and averaged 15.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last year; more importantly, he took his new found fame and fortune, and wrote a book about his professional basketball career. Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA is the title of Allred’s book, and it’s available from all good book stores, or by clicking the link there. – Ryan Anderson: Yes, I saw how Anderson did in summer league. Yes, it was very good. Yes, he’s probably a lottery selection had he been drafted in 2009 instead of 2008. Yes, I […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Oklahoma City Thunder
July 22nd, 2009
– DeAngelo Alexander: Last year, DeAngelo Alexander averaged 6.2 points and 2.9 rebounds in the German league, shooting 16% from three. Before that, he was in Romania. If he does something significant from an NBA stand point one day, we’ll come back to it. – Marcus Dove: Dove is a former four-year player at Oklahoma State, who went undrafted in 2008 and went off to Belgium. There, he averaged 10.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, shooting 7.7% from three-point range and 56% from the foul line. Dove is an unashamed defensive specialist, but you can’t be a non-factor from the perimeter and still make it as a small forward in the NBA. Not unless you’re RyBo. – Tony Durant: The “relations of stars who got summer league spots because their star cousin/brother/uncle asked the team to bring them along” list gets a new addition. It’s a great list, that over the years has featured William Pippen (Scottie’s nephew), Joel Bosh (Chris’s brother), John Millsap (Paul’s brother), Zach Marbury (Stephon’s brother), Daniel Artest (Ron’s brother), Romeo Travis (LeBron James’s high school mate) and Rodney Billups (Chauncey’s brother). The common theme with these players is that they have no NBA calibre resumé outside of that, and Tony Durant is no different. Last year for Towson, he averaged 3.4 points and 2.0 rebounds. Towson is not a big school, in a not big conference, and those are not big numbers. At all. But the bloodline is enough. Speaking of Joel Bosh, here’s Joel Bosh being awkward. – Moses Ehambe: Ehambe was in the D-League last year, functioning as a three point specialist for the Tulsa 66ers. He averaged 10.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 18 minutes per game, shooting 41% from both the field and the three-point line. Here’s […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: New Orleans Hornets
July 15th, 2009
– Earl Barron: Barron had played three straight seasons with the Miami Heat from 2005-2008, but his luck with that ran out last offseason. He next signed with Upim Bologna in Italu, but got injured before the season started and never played for the team. Barron didn’t reappear until March, when he was acquired by the L.A. D-Fenders of the D-League. He averaged 28 minutes, 9.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.7 blocks and 3.5 fouls per game, shooting 41% from the field and scoring 128 points on 131 shots. For a seven-footer in the D-League, that’s pretty inefficient, and Barron is a finesse long-twos merchant. Still, if the Hornets decide not to re-sign Sean Marks, then Barron has a chance. – Earl Calloway: Calloway went undrafted in 2007, but instantly put up a blistering season in the D-League, averaging 19/5/6 on 49% shooting (40% 3pt, 88% FT). He still didn’t make the big league, and signed in Croatia with Cibona Zagreb, for whom he averaged 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists. Counting against Calloway’s NBA prospects is the fact that he’ll be 26 by the time next season starts, and that he has only a couple of good seasons under his belt. The numbers are good, though, and he keeps landing these gigs. Why he’s chosen the Hornets is a valid question; as thin and skint as the team is, small guards are the last thing they need. Then again, it shouldn’t really matter to Calloway, who has already signed for Khimki next season as the replacement for Milt Palacio. – Jaycee Carroll: Carroll was a spectacularly efficient scorer for Utah State, leading the WAC in his senior season with a 22.4 points per game scoring average on percentages of 53%/50%/92%. His NBA prospects suffer from […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: New York Knicks
July 15th, 2009
– Wink Adams: Adams just graduated from UNLV, where his senior season numbers were down across the board. He averaged 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists, shooting only 37% from the field. As a general rule, 6’0 guards that shoot 37% don’t make it in the NBA, but Wink clearly has something to show. – Alex Acker: Acker started last year with the Pistons, who salary-dumped him onto the Clippers. He scored 63 points on 65 shots in the NBA last year, which isn’t good efficiency. He also spent four games on assignment to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 18.0 points and 5.3 rebounds, but the Clippers declined his team option and didn’t make him a restricted free agent. That’s not a glowing endorsement. – Blake Ahearn: Ahearn was covered here. If he can show some rudimentary point guard skills suited to the Knicks’ high octane offence, then he has a chance. But the Knicks are damn short of roster spots. They have 16 under contract already, and that’s before a single free agency move. This presents a problem for Ahearn. – Morris Almond: Utah are so tax concerned right now that they had to decline Almond’s third year option, even though it was very cheap and he didn’t really do anything wrong. Almond doesn’t have a complete all-around game – he’s pretty much only a scorer. But even though he barely played in the NBA, and didn’t do much in his time in it, he was drafted to be a scorer, and score he did. He averaged 25.6 points per game in the D-League in 2007/08, and last year averaged 22.4 points in 29.8 minutes. Of course, Almond didn’t pass at all to score that many, averaging 1.1 assists per game. But he scored […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Minnesota Timberwolves
July 13th, 2009
– Corey Brewer: Brewer was poor his rookie year, which was essentially a nothing year for him. His offence was enthusiastic, but it was also several kinds of inefficient, and undeserving of a #7 pick. Brewer started to make some strides, though, with a good summer league last year and a fine opening five games to last season. Unfortunately, he then popped his knee badly, which has undone all the good work. Minnesota’s forward spots are crowded, but the shooting guard spot is wide open, and if Brewer can show something then he might win the spot as a very tall two. But if he doesn’t, he’ll be fighting Ryan Gomes for small forward time. – Bobby Brown: Bobby Brown is a testament to the point of summer league. Most players turn up to summer league to win spots in other leagues, but Brown beat the odds and played so well in summer league in 2008 that he earned himself a two-year guaranteed contract with the Kings. He was traded to the Timberwolves at mid-season, seemingly only as a money-saving venture (the three other players in the deal are all now UFAs), and now he finds himself as the second of two incumbent points guard on a team that just drafted 12 more of them. So that’s a bugger. Nevertheless, his contract is guaranteed, and if Minnesota decide they don’t want him, some other NBA team should do. – Pat Carroll: When talking about Pat Carroll, I always feel compelled to compare him to Matt Carroll. Maybe I’m just not that imaginative. Either way, Matt Carroll has four years left to run on his guaranteed deal with the Mavericks, and Pat Carroll just spent a year in the Spanish second division. So you tell me who has the […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: New Jersey Nets/Philadelphia 76ers
July 13th, 2009
To save money, and to add purpose, the Nets and Sixers agreed to share a summer league team this year. It’s not a practice I’m keen on, because I think the more spots given out to random nobodies, the better, and by having only one team that makes 12 less spots for random nobodies. So that’s a shame. But at least they bothered at all, unlike some teams. – A.J. Abrams: Abrams’s college career consisted of three things – decent defence for his size, running around endlessly trying to get open, and then shooting jump shots. And a really bloody college career it was, too. However, Abrams is only 5’11. There are plenty of 6’6 guys who spend their entire careers trying to get NBA teams to notice that they specialise in exactly the same things, and (Kyle Korver excepted) they usually fail. So how likely is Abrams to do the same with his half-a-foot height disadvantage? He isn’t, really. He’s small even for a point guard, but the fact that he’s an off-ball guard counts heavily against him. Heavily. Abrams’ only chance to become an NBA player is to develop his ball-handling ability, and rework himself into a crude Jannero Pargo imitation. But Pargo isn’t exactly a regular rotation player in the NBA himself, so A.J’s chances are very slim. – Jeff Adrien: Adrien was covered in the Grizzlies round-up. It’s pretty industrious of him to have wriggled his way into the summer league rosters of three teams, which really maximises his options. It was also a damn good idea to get onto the Grizzlies and Nets rosters, the two teams with the worst power forward rotations in the league last year. That’ll help his limited chances a bit. And, despite Adrien’s limitations and damaged prospects as […]
