Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 40

February 28th, 2009

– Let’s start this off with a bang; I have absolutely nothing to report on Wesley Person. Nothing whatsoever.

– Continuing that sizzling opener, Brent Petway is in the D-League, averaging 10.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots a game for the Idaho Stampede. Those numbers were somehow enough to make him a D-League All Star, and you can see the box score for the D-League All Star game here. (That minutes distribution is first class. I’d love to know what Richard Hendrix did to merit those extra 5 seconds.) Petway also lost his D-League Slam Dunk Champion title to James White, so it’s not been entirely a good fortnight for him.

– The last I heard about Eric Piatkowski came in the summertime, when an article talked about he was staying in shape and waiting for the phone to ring. I’m guessing it hasn’t rung.

– Tim Pickett has had a busy year, starting in the Italian Serie A with Rieti, but leaving before the season began. He then moved to Bulgaria with Lukoil Akademik, and averaged 17.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in EuroCup play for them. Unfortunately, he was a victim of their sweeping cull of international players midway through the season, one which also brought about the demise of Kehnide Adeleke and Kevin Kruger. Pickett has since signed in China with Shanxi Zhongyu, as the replacement for Bonzi Wells. By now, you should know what it means when somebody signs in China, and by God you won’t be disappointed here either – Pickett currently averages 39.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.2 assists per game. OK, so the assists numbers are a tad low, but he’s averaging 40 ppg for Shade Sheist’s sake. Who the hell should he be passing to?

– Kevinn Pinkney is with NGC Cantu in Serie A, averaging 14.4 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. Foolishly, though, he continues to insist upon his own three-point shot, and is shooting only 29.8% on the year from three-point range, while shooting 47 threes to 125 twos. This is a trend with Pinkney, who as far as I can tell has only shot above 30% from three-point range once in his entire basketball career, that being last year when he shot 33% for Angellico Biella. (That 50% success in his NBA stint doesn’t count. Two shots doth not a sample sizeth make.) Either shoot better or shoot less.

– Danilo “J.R.” Pinnock is playing for a team in the Italian second division, whose name as far as I can tell is “Pallacanestro Seven 2007 Roseto 1946”. Catchy. Here’s Google Translate with the rest of the J.R. Pinnock news:

Last external quintet is the American Danilo Pinnock Jr. Player of talent and high technology, is not exactly a guarantee in terms of choices and application. His performance was influenced heavily discontinuous season biancoazzurri. 16.7 points and 4.5 rebounds for the media to him.

All good information.

– You’ve probably heard the story about Kevin “Ca$h Money” Pittsnogle that has recently done the rounds. But if you haven’t, here it is. Also, if you haven’t seen what he wore to his wedding, here’s that too.

– Trent Plaisted, second-round draft pick whose rights are owned by the Pistons, is signed with Angellico Biella in Italy. He has not played since October, though, due to back troubles. Plaisted totalled 10 points, 4 rebounds and 8 fouls in the two games that he managed to play in.

– Zoran Planinic never fitted in the NBA, but is now a fine back-up point guard for CSKA Moscow, averaging 8.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in Russian league play, alongside 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in the EuroLeague.

– Question: is Pavel Podkolzin good yet? Answer: nope. Pavel is playing for Sibirtelekom-Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, a team in the Russian second division, and if you can make sense of this then you can see what he averages. He’s number 23, and as far as I can tell, he averages 7.2 points and 4 rebounds. In the Russian second division. Hmmm. Lots of people do that, and none of them get drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. That turn-of-the-century European influx got a bit overzealous, didn’t it?

– Finally, Scot Pollard is sitting around looking at the phone with Eric Piatkowski.

Also, if you missed it, these last ten days or so were a minefield for arrests of past and present NBA players. Firstly, Nets big man Sean Williams was arrested for trespassing, after violating a restraining order and returning to the Boston College campus, the school that he was previously kicked out of. Suns guard Jason Richardson was then arrested for doing 90mph in a 35mph zone, while also having his three-year-old son in the back of the car not in a proper child safety seat, a fairly terrible thing the media is not making enough of. Then Celtics guard Gabe Pruitt was arrested for DUI after driving around Hollywood at 3am after a loss to the Clippers. Former Bulls and Bucks forward Tommy Smith was then arrested for reportedly kidnapping and assault after punching his girlfriend and breaking her nose after leaving a party. (Not sure where the kidnapping came into it.) And then most impressively of all, NBA journeyman Damone Brown was arrested on Thursday as a part of an FBI operation to bring down an entire drug trafficking ring. Brown was charged with money laundering, after supposedly leasing out the safety deposit box that a local drug kingpin was using to stash his proceeds in. Unsurprisingly, Brown was then kicked off of his D-League team, the Reno Bighorns.