Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 17
January 28th, 2010
It’s days like yesterday that remind me of why I spent a good three weeks of my life making the anagram feature. Greg Oden’s anagram is “engorged,” and by Jove did that turn out to be fitting. In amongst the two hundred and seventy jillion jokes made about Oden’s goods the other day, none seemed more apt than that.
The day Tayshaun Prince/Raunchy Panties comes out as a lingerie model is the day I start worrying if those things are actually premonitions.
– Dan Dickau
Dickau signed with the Suns for preseason, instead of signing with the Celtics as was first thought. He played in five preseason games, totalling 14 points and 7 assists in 39 minutes, but did not make the team. He was never going to, really, because even though the Suns had open roster spots to play for, they’re the Suns. Since being waived by Phoenix, Dickau has not signed elsewhere, which seems strange for a 31-year-old man whose career will be on the downslope soon. Perhaps he’s injured.
– Kaniel Dickens
Dickens is in France, averaging 9.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for Nancy. However, he has been unbelievably inconsistent with his scoring. In 12 games, he’s scored in double figures only four times, with three of those games being 22 points or more, and with with six other games of scoring 4 points or lower. His scoring totals on the season read 8, 6, 24, 4, 0, 28, 3, 1, 11, 2, 22, 2. Can’t get much more up and downy than that. That’s like a hummingbird’s heart monitor.
– Michael Dickerson
Dickerson made a surprising return to basketball in training camp 2008 when he signed with the Cavaliers after five years out of the game. He did not make the team – he was never going to – and then he sat out the rest of the year. I think I read somewhere that he went back to touring the world, which is what he’d been doing since his initial retirement.
Dickerson then tried again this summer when he tried out with the Memphis Grizzlies. Another training camp offer was not forthcoming, but this time Dickerson took his game elsewhere when he signed in the Spanish second division in early December, joining a team called Palencia. He has played four contests for the team, playing in professional games for the first time since March 2003; in those four games, Dickerson has totalled 87 minutes, 47 points, 12 rebounds and 0 assists. The Spanish second division is quite a ways below the standard he used to play at, but it’s still a gig. And as a 34-year-old man coming back from seven years out of action after retiring due to injury, it’s a pretty good start.
– Alain Digbeu
After a decade split between Italy, Greece and Spain, Digbeu returned to his native France this past summer. He signed with Strasbourg and averaged 11.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in eight contests, but Strasbourg got off to a terrible start, and Digbeu was one of many players released in a bid to shake things up. (His replacement, Anthony Roberson, is currently second in the French league in scoring. So it worked.) Digbeu remains unsigned, and was injured at the time of his release.
A while ago, I touted the idea of the New Orleans Hornets trading Hilton Armstrong to the Clippers and Ike Diogu to the Hawks (in exchange for Digbeu’s rights) to get under the tax. The Hornets didn’t quite do this; they salary-dumped Armstrong, but onto the Kings (whom I hadn’t previously considered candidates for reasons I’m not sure of), and moved Bobby Brown to the Clippers, as was their prerogative. I don’t think they gave up any cash in the Brown deal, which would explain its advantages over salary dumping Diogu, but that in itself is a rather damning slant on their finances; they’d rather trade a healthy player at a position where they need depth, rather than pay a few quid to dump an injured player whose salary is keeping them in the tax territory and who will not play for them this season.
It’s also not a glowing endorsement of Bobby Brown, really.
– Vlade Divac
This time last year, when we checked in on Vlade Divac, he was trying to become the President of the Serbian Olympic Committee. A few weeks after that post, he did just that, signing a four-year commitment to the role.
– Juan Dixon
Dixon was one of the Hawks’ eight training camp signings, and later one of their seven cuts. He later moved to Greece and signed with Aris Thessaloniki, where he formed a backcourt with Keydren Clark, the former two-time NCAA scoring leader. After a few weeks of those two not passing to each other, Aris changed things up and released Dixon, who had averaged 11.6 ppg and who then went on to sign with Unicaja Malaga a couple of weeks ago. Dixon is off to a blazing hot start with Malaga, scoring 17 points in his first EuroLeague game with the team, and averaging 23 ppg in his first two ACB games.
Did you know Juan Dixon’s parents were both heroin addicts who died of AIDS when Juan was 16? I did not know that. What a horrible thing that is. Good for Juan to have become what he’s become.
– Nigel Dixon
Florida State/Western Kentucky product Dixon is signed with South Korea, and has split the season between two teams. He started with the Anyang KT&G Kites, for whom he averaged 17.5 points and 8.1 rebounds in only 20 minutes per game, and then he moved to Sonic Boom KT, where he remains and for whom he is averaging 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24 minutes per game. The first one of those is a lot better than the other.
Between the two teams, Dixon is shooting 62% from the field and 43% from the foul line. Those are both very Nigel Dixon-like numbers.
– Michael Doleac
Doleac has retired from basketball and now studies at the University of Utah. He initially planned to study medicine, but changed his mind after becoming a father, and instead returned to do a master’s degree in physics. Doleac is now also training to be a teacher, and serves as the graduate manager there for the university’s basketball team.
– Henry Domercant
Domercant is into his second season with Montepaschi Siena, who lead Italy’s Serie A with a 15-0 record. Siena last year got to the quarter finals of the EuroLeague (losing to eventual champions Panathinaikos), went 29-1 in Serie A’s regular season, and later won the championship. So they’re pretty good. Domercant, a scoring machine and holder of a dubious Bosnian passport, averages 9.8 points in the EuroLeague and 9.1 points in Serie A.
On Sunday, the 15-0 Montepaschi Siena are due to meet the 0-15 Martos Napoli, who have lost their last four games by a combined 324 points. This can only end well.
– Quincy Douby
As mentioned in an earlier post, Douby currently leads the Turkish league in scoring. He signed with the Toronto Raptors towards the end of last season, signing through 2010 with conditional guarantees along the way, but he was waived in November to avoid one of these guarantees, and did not play a game for the team this season. Douby is instead now a member of the last-placed 1-15 Turkish team Darussafaka, where he averages 21.9 points per game and yet is unable to stave off the losing. At the weekend, for example, Douby put up 23 points in 28 minutes – along with a very un-Doubyike 3 steals and 3 blocks – yet Darussafaka still lost by 26. The team’s second-highest scorer in that game was Jermareo Davidson. And no team should look to Jermareo Davidson to be the second-leading scorer. The domestic players for Faka are not really contributing a damn thing, and that’s why they are where they are.
– Marcus Douthit
Providence graduate and former Lakers draft pick Douthit signed in Russia to start this month, but has not played much, nor has he played well. In four games for Krasnie Krilya Samara, split between the Russian Superleague and the EuroChallenge, Douthit has totalled 47 minutes, 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 fouls, shooting 38% from the field and 66% from the foul line.
Finally…..
– Zabian Dowdell
Dowdell spent last year in the Italian second division, which was perhaps an odd place for him to be given that he is capable of more than that. Dowdell got injured in the summer, which kept him out of action for a few months, and then last month he joined up with the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League. He averaged 12.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per games for the team, but only lasted for 10 games before moving on to Unicaja Malaga to pair up with Juan Dixon above. In 23 minutes of two games for Malaga, Dowdell has totalled 5 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.
