2010 Summer Signings, Part 3
June 16th, 2010
– David Noel, who was mentioned in the previous post as leaving French team Roanne, has landed another gig in the same country. He has signed with Paris-Levallois.
– In other French league news, Le Mans have released Marc Salyers, who had an uncharacteristically average season. Salyers averaged only 11.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the French league – good numbers, but not the star they assumed they were getting. The team also released Zack Wright, the best rebounding 6’2 guard you ever saw (26.9 mpg, 8.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.4 apg) while choosing to sign former Gonzaga big man J.P. Batista (13.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) to a two-year extension. And fellow Pro A side Vichy signed Villanova forward Curtis Sumpter, who had previously been with Belgian team Dexia Mons-Hainaut.
– The man Sumpter replaces in Vichy is Brent Petway, the athletic Michigan alum who has spent time around the NBA in summer leagues, training camps, the D-League and the like. He’s taking the strange step of moving down a level, going to French second division side Clermont for next season. Not many decent players play in the Pro B, but another one who will be is Marcus Campbell, the ex-Mississippi State big man and training camp veteran who has spent almost all of his career in the American minor leagues, and who has had NBA training camp contracts from the Rockets and Bobcats.
– Rather than going to France, Mouhamed Sene is leaving it. Sene led the French league in both rebounds and blocks season and was named a joint winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award, but he’s making a lateral move to Belgium to play for Charleroi. Sene was playing in Belgium before his NBA career began, and hopefully he can improve upon the 4/5 averages that were deemed enough to get him picked tenth overall in 2006. Also in Belgium, Xavier guard Stanley Burrell has switched teams, moving from Sene’s former team Verviers-Pepinster to Generali Okapi Aalstar. He averaged 10.8 points and 4.6 assists last season.
– In Cyprus, North Carolina State streak shooter Courtney Fells has switched teams, going from AEL Limassol to Keravnos. Hopefully next season, statistics from Cyprus will be available. Israeli team Bnei Hasharon have signed Dan Grunfeld – one-time Knick and Ernie’s Romanian son – to pair up alongside former Alabama guard Ron Steele and former Duquesne forward Shawn James, the latter of whom led Israel in blocked shots by quite a long way. And Polish EuroLeague team Prokom Gydnia elected to keep former NBA guard Daniel Ewing, helping to offset the loss of David Logan, whom they could not retain. Logan is reportedly about to sign with Caja Laboral; if he does, it’ll be a pretty lucrative gig, as Caja Laboral just won the ACB.
