Chicago's Meticulously Crafted 2011 Offseason Plan That Relies An Awful Lot Upon Guesswork
June 9th, 2011
Nothing cheers me up more than heavily contrived and extremely implausible hypothetical transactions for the Chicago Bulls.1 Taking a team’s cap situation, and attempting to maximize the basketball assets that they can get from using it, is what I wish to spend my life doing. It is this love of salary cap manipulation and amateurish talent evaluation that has in the past produced seminal works such as the four team 16 player trade that intended to bring Carmelo Anthony to Chicago whilst getting Denver under the luxury tax in the process2, as well as last offseason’s equally well-intended multi-faceted shake-up that sought only to avoid signing Joe Johnson, and which bizarrely predicted that the Bulls would end up with half of the previous season’s Utah Jazz rotation, but not the half that they actually wound up with. These are my hobbies. Ironically, Joe Johnson would be a somewhat perfect fit for Chicago right now. But unfortunately, Joe Johnson still has five years and $107,333,589 remaining on his maximum salary contract given to him by the Hawks, whom he just led to 44 wins and an ultimately rather purposeless second round exit. When the 29 year old fourth best player at his position gets the fifth biggest contract in the history of the sport, consider yourselves outbid.3 It’s a shame, in a way, for a player of Joe Johnson’s type and talent level would now be an exact fit to the major problem Chicago faces. Chicago isn’t exactly a team awash with strife. They just made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, had the best regular season record in the league, won 62 games, won the Most Valuable Player award, won the Coach Of The Year award, and somehow managed to come both first and third in the Executive Of The […]
A Guide To NBA Player's Music
May 20th, 2011
For a variety of reasons, basketball and music seem to have always had crossover appeal. [Pun acknowledged, but not condoned.] Be it due to the intrinsically linked cultures of the music of the streets and the game on the playgrounds – a partnership which, if I was 10 years older, I would probably find it funny to call “hip hoops” – basketball players moving into musical side projects has become so prevalent that it’s now a cliché. Just as Common thinks he can pull off a decent replication of an extremely ball-dominant undersized scoring guard during each NBA All-Star Weekend, many ballers out there think they have rhythm. There have been dozens of these instances throughout history. The following list attempts to exhaustively cover them all, ranging from those who are actually quite good, to those that would have trouble rhyming “Mercedes” with “ladies”, even if they were run down by a Mercedes full of ladies, all of whom were waving rhyming dictionaries only containing the words “Mercedes” and “ladies.” The most recent addition to this list is also its first. Fresh from an underwhelming three month turf-toe laden stretch of play featuring lashings of the first half of his surname, Carlos Boozer made the news yesterday on account of his foray into the rap game, pairing up with Twista, Mario Winans and a truly terrible beat on the following song, “Winning Streak.” Why Boozer has chosen to rap about things such as “going hard,” “crossing over” and “going baseline,” things he doesn’t actually do on the basketball court, is not clear. Maybe he should have rapped about things he actually does, such as pushing players in the back as they drive unhindered to the basket, rotating the wrong way defensively, asking the ref for a touch of the ball […]
LeBron Using The Word "Retarded" Was A Subnormally Birdbrained Thing To Do
May 9th, 2011
At a training seminar that I once attended, a portion of the afternoon was devoted to a discussion of bad words. In one of the hottest days on record, a dozen of us gathered in a cramped five foot tall training room, sat around an overhead projector and a laptop whose audio output was speculative at best, and then, via the medium of Powerpoint, ran through a list of words that were unacceptable to use in our workplace. None of which was patronising in any way. Of course, the reason for such a discussion was because of the line of work in question. We were attending said seminar as a mandatory part of our training to become support workers for the learning disabled. Inevitably, in that line of work, training for sensitivity towards the learning disabled is essential. We had to go. (You know, just so that we knew not to call them names. Just in case one of us was going to take the hitherto untested insult-comic approach to the job. Seemingly, companies must plan for that ridiculous eventuality.) It doesn’t take much guesswork to know that on that day, we learnt – or rather, were reminded – that use of the word “retarded” was not permitted. It wasn’t just not permitted in its more popular, irrelevant use as a generic word for “dumb” – it was also not permitted as a means to term, address or endear those that we would encounter in our work who were actually mentally retarded. The same was true of “demented,” which was not to be used to describe those with dementia, despite its obvious origins from doing so. Even when done with the best of intentions, these words was not to be used under any circumstances. And the reasons they were not […]
Where Are They Now, 2011: Bookkeeping The Retired Guys
April 19th, 2011
A lot of “where are they now” posts on other websites tend to deal mainly in answering a different question altogether; namely, “what did these players used to do?” Since it is assumed that that is known by anyone seeking to ask the original question – else it wouldn’t have been asked – such matters are not dealt with on this website. Instead, we deal with the question that was actually asked; where are these players now? Tariq Abdul-Wahad – Abdul Wahad part-owns France’s first black TV channel, Telesud. Shareef Abdur-Rahim – Reef was an assistant coach with the Kings for two seasons, before being moved up to assistant general manager this season. By proxy, if not by choice, he has a role in the Kings’s uncertain future. Cory Alexander – Last time we checked in on Alexander, he was working as an announcer for Virginia games. He still is, but not entirely by design. That link is to a very lengthy breakdown of Alexander’s post-retirement life; long story short, he’s lost all his money, and he’s suing Bank of America for it back. Courtney Alexander – Alexander and his wife run a not for profit youth development program. This article alludes to a possible comeback attempt. Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer – Last time we checked in on Ron Mercer and Derek Anderson, the pair were returning to Kentucky to complete their degrees. Anderson has also commissioned a documentary about the 1996 National Championship winning Wilcatds, dubbed The Untouchables. Kenny Anderson – Since the last update, Kenny Anderson has graduated with a degree in organisational leadership, and works as a personal trainer. Shandon Anderson – Shanderson owns a salon, a spa and a vegetarian restaurant, runs fashion shows, and wears skirts. Brandon Armstrong – Cannot be traced. Darrell Armstrong […]
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The EuroCup Final Four
April 15th, 2011
The NBA playoffs are basically upon us, and if you don’t pick a Bulls/Spurs finals, you’re a brave man. However, the onset of these playoffs is far from the only thing happening in basketball right now. After all, this is the crescendo of many league’s seasons, not just the NBA’s. This is particularly true in the cases of the intercontinental European leagues; the EuroLeague, which has already been covered, and the EuroCup, which is about to be. Continuing a series of posts that take fleeting glances at every worthwhile current player in the world today – the loose theme of which is ‘Why spend all that time watching it all just to never write about any of it?’ – there follows a look at the compelling protagonists of the final four teams in this EuroCup season. Teams list in no order other than alphabetical. Benetton Treviso After a thoroughly disappointing season last year, including being knocked out of the EuroLeague in only the qualifying round and being unable to make it out of the EuroCup top 16, Treviso jettisoned most of their roster. The biggest addition came in the form of Devin Smith, who joined from Greek side Panellinios. Smith is both the team’s leading scorer and its best defender, averaging 16.1 points in 28 minutes per game in EuroCup play, alongside 5.0 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 0.6 blocks. Smith started out life at a post player, has slowly worked his way outwards, and is now a pretty reliable ball handler and three point shooter as well. He probably takes too many threes now, and he’s certainly not explosive, but his offensive and defensive versatility make him the best player on the Benetton team. Alongside him in the frontcourt is well documented veteran Brian Skinner, who was signed a replacement […]
Rockets sign Marqus Blakely to a multi-year contract
April 12th, 2011
The Houston Rockets exited the trade deadline with a full roster, but the subsequent buyout of Jared Jeffries opened up the 15th spot. Houston initially used this flexibility to sign multi-time Rocket Mike Harris to a 10 day contract, and later opted to offer him a second one when the first one expired last week. However, they will not sign him for the remainder of the season. Instead, with the spot opening up upon the expiration of Harris’s contract yesterday, the Rockets have used it to call up Marqus Blakely from the Iowa Energy of the D-League. Blakely, a combo forward from Vermont, began the season with the L.A. Clippers, with whom he had also played in summer league. He appeared in two preseason games with the team, and upon being waived, he went to the D-league, assigned to the Bakersfield Jam. Once there, Blakely averaged 13.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 0.6 blocks, before being traded by the Jam in late January to the Iowa Energy in exchange for a 2011 first-round pick. With the Energy, Blakely has averaged 17.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks per game, shooting 70% from the floor. His 15 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks in 28 minutes led the Energy to victory in their first playoff game last week, a 103-96 win over the Utah Flash. Blakely’s contract with the Rockets will run for the remainder of the season and through 2013, as does the contract of Marcus Cousin, signed by the Rockets yesterday. Additionally, as was not the case with Cousin, Blakely has not been assigned to Houston’s self-owned D-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Yet.
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The NBA Prospects Of The Unsigned NBA Draft Picks
April 2nd, 2011
If your team drafts a player, and yet never signs him, the chances are that they’ll still own his draft rights. The presence of those draft rights means that that player can sign only with the right-holding NBA team, and not with any others. Such draft rights can also be traded, either to a recipient team who values the player and thus gives something of value for them, or as arbitrary filler obliging the NBA’s rule that all partners in a trade must trade something outbound, however menial. In theory, there exists multiple uses for these draft rights. In practice, however, they are often of no use whatsoever. They exist as technicalities, relevant only on a whimsical level, interesting only to the insanely boring. Luckily, I am such a person. Atlanta Alain Digbeu (50th pick, 1997) – Digbeu was drafted late in the second round in 1997 after spending his career to date in his home land of France, specifically with ASVEL Villeurbanne. The 6’4 shooting guard played there for two more years, then embarked on a tour of Spain and Italy (including stops with big teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid), before returning to France a decade later to play for IG Strasbourg. Digbeu was once very athletic, but that has gone now, and he is now largely just a three point shooter and/or heady veteran. Digbeu is still playing for Strasbourg, averaging 6.5 points in 22.2 minutes per game, yet he just turned 35; his NBA candle obviously burned out a long time ago. Chances of making the NBA expressed as an arbitrary percentage: 0% Cenk Akyol (59th pick, 2005) – Akyol was drafted by the Hawks aged only 18, on the off-chance that he would flourish into an elite European big point guard in the mould […]
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The EuroLeague Final Eight
March 24th, 2011
In terms of the calibre of non-international competitive basketball, the EuroLeague is second in the world only to the NBA. That is to say, of all the leagues in the world not to excessively overuse snippets of Busta Rhymes songs, or turn nightly to the tortured genius of Kiss Cam, the EuroLeague is the best. If you love basketball, you’ll love watching the EuroLeague. If you love basketball and yet have never watched the EuroLeague, you haven’t tried hard enough. The first two group stages have been complete, and now the eight strongest teams enter a playoff-style format or head-to-head series. Ergo, continuing a series of posts that take fleeting glances at every worthwhile current player in the world today – the loose theme of which is ‘Why spend all that time watching it all just to never write about any of it?’ – there follows a look at the compelling protagonists of the final eight teams in this EuroLeague season. Teams list in no order other than alphabetical. Juan Carlos’s time in Memphis wasn’t all this happy. Barcelona As ever, Barcelona are absolutely stacked. They have three options at every position, populated almost exclusively with players who will be, who were, who could be, or who could have been, NBA players. To put that into some context, they have seven former NBA draft picks on the team, and two more players who played in it as undrafted free agents. That list doesn’t even include Jaka Lakovic, a high quality European guard, or Joe Ingles, a man who almost got drafted as recently as 18 months ago. There’s just reams of talent at every position, and the talent assault is relentless. The starting backcourt consistently consists of Ricky Rubio and Juan Carlos Navarro. Navarro has lost nothing; his assault of […]
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The 2010/11 NCAA Tournament, Part 3: Southeastern Region
March 17th, 2011
There is no better event in the American sports calendar than the NCAA Tournament. None. Zilch. Zero. And it’s not even especially close. All the games running concurrently, and the one game knockout format, make for captivating evenings of hours and hours of entertainment. This is particularly true of the first round, where action jumps from game to game, and Greg Gumbel struggles to keep up with all the information he’s getting in his ear. It’s like the FA Cup, except it’s better. Much, much better. And I like the FA Cup. Since this post is long enough already, the intro ends here, and there follows a preview (often in the form of a recap) of all 68 of the teams taking part in this, the 2011 NCAA Tournament. In this post: the 17 teams in the Southeast region. Use the following links to skip to relevant parts. Arkansas-Little Rock – Belmont – Butler – BYU – Florida – Gonzaga – Kansas State – Michigan State – Old Dominion – Pittsburgh – St. John’s – UCLA – UC Santa Barbara – UNC Asheville – Utah State – Wisconsin – Wofford Twinned with Little Rock. Arkansas Little-Rock The Trojans rely on an 11 man rotation and 4 guards at a time, to harass the opposition and ugly up the game. They pretty much play with five out, moving the ball, looking for threes, or long twos off screens, with little inside game to go to. And since they rank 9th in the nation in three point percentage, it certainly has its merits. They are led by conference player of the year Solomon Bozeman, the Sun Belt Conference’s own entry level version of Kemba Walker. But there is no real threat here. Photobomb. Belmont Belmont have been subtly touted as a possible […]
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The 2010/11 NCAA Tournament, Part 2: Eastern Region
March 16th, 2011
There is no better event in the American sports calendar than the NCAA Tournament. None. Zilch. Zero. And it’s not even especially close. All the games running concurrently, and the one game knockout format, make for captivating evenings of hours and hours of entertainment. This is particularly true of the first round, where action jumps from game to game, and Greg Gumbel struggles to keep up with all the information he’s getting in his ear. It’s like the FA Cup, except it’s better. Much, much better. And I like the FA Cup. Since this post is long enough already, the intro ends here, and there follows a preview (often in the form of a recap) of all 68 of the teams taking part in this, the 2011 NCAA Tournament. In this post: the 18 teams in the Eastern region. Use the following links to skip to relevant parts. Alabama State – Clemson – George Mason – Georgia – Indiana State – Kentucky – Long Island – Marquette – North Carolina – Ohio State – Princeton – Syracuse – Texas-San Antonio – UAB – Villanova – Washington – West Virginia – Xavier No name in the tournament this season competes with this one. Alabama State Alabama State won the SWAC with the conference’s best defence, using a very long rotation (that shortened towards the end of the season) built around aggressive, undersized forwards, such as preseason DPOY pick Chris Duncan. They led the conference in field goal percentage defence (40.3%) and blocks, while also dominating the glass on most nights. Unfortunately, they can struggle greatly on offence, ranking 317th in the nation in points per game (61.3) and with their leading three point shooter, 6’4 junior Ivory White, hitting a team high 36 threes but on 117 attempts (31%). The team […]
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The 2010/11 NCAA Tournament, Part 1: Southwestern Region
March 15th, 2011
There is no better event in the American sports calendar than the NCAA Tournament. None. Zilch. Zero. And it’s not even especially close. All the games running concurrently, and the one game knockout format, make for captivating evenings of hours and hours of entertainment. This is particularly true of the first round, where action jumps from game to game, and Greg Gumbel struggles to keep up with all the information he’s getting in his ear. It’s like the FA Cup, except it’s better. Much, much better. And I like the FA Cup. Since this post is long enough already, the intro ends here, and there follows a preview (often in the form of a recap) of all 68 of the teams taking part in this, the 2011 NCAA Tournament. In this post: the 17 teams in the Southwest region. Use the following links to skip to relevant parts. Akron – Boston University – Florida State – Georgetown – Illinois – Louisville – Kansas – Morehead State – Notre Dame – Purdue – Richmond – St Peter’s – Texas A&M – UNLV – USC – Vanderbilt – VCU Brett McKnight pulling a silly face. Akron They might be relative minnows, but Akron boast some size. 7’0 centre Zeke Marshall is rail thin and fouls on pretty much every possession, but he’s sufficiently mobile to block 2.5 shots per game, and can finish around the basket. The Zips’ best player, Nikola Cvetinovic, is a 6’8 forward leading them in scoring and rebounding, but also an aggressive and fundamental defender on the interior. Reserve forward Brett McKnight is build like a tank, and backup centre Mike Bardo is, if nothing else, big. To go with that, Akron offer a good amount of shooting, particularly from specialists Brian McLanahan and Steve McNees, and the […]
Chinese Basketball Association Imports, 2010/11, Again
March 13th, 2011
Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi. Not in picture: Sun Yue. Also not in picture: Benjamin Disraeli. The Chinese Basketball Association and its compelling protagonists have a particular level of focus on this website, for reasons which, if you don’t already know them, are about to become extremely obvious. Fringe NBA players like playing in China; the exposure isn’t huge and the standard isn’t great, but the CBA pays very well, and it is unashamed in copying the NBA model of basketball not much imitated around the globe. They’ve changed their style to match up to the NBA game; games are 48 minutes long (like the NBA, and unlike basically every other league in the world), and there’s about three of them a week (unlike most other domestic leagues, which have 1). This teams playing lots of games with less emphasis on practice is a lure to players; after all, as that great philosopher of our time Nate Dogg once said, “playas play on, play on, keep playing on.” Words to live by. (As an aside, did you know Nate Dogg has been hospitalised for the best part of three years after a series of strokes? Me neither.) Each CBA team is allowed to have two import players at any one time, and these players are almost always American. Better still, these players are also almost always players that you’ve heard of, with a great deal of ex-NBA pedigree on there. Perhaps it is now obvious why the league is attractive. There follows a selection of Chinese Basketball Association statistics. All statistics and standings taken from March 12th, 2011. Doing shots with Quincy Douby. 1st place: Xinjiang Flying Tigers (31-1) James Singleton – 31 games, 34.2mpg, 21.6 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.5 spg, 1.4 bpg, 2.3 TOpg, 73% FG, […]
New Jersey……Toronto…….London.
March 10th, 2011
Antiphon With apologies to their combined 34-87 record, the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets had not played an interesting game all season heading into last weekend. It was known in advance that the two teams would struggle this season, and any optimism to the contrary has been roundly denounced. Both teams are building for the future, and rightly so. But it comes at the expense of the present. Right now, they suck. At this point in any season, there are many meaningless doldrums games. With the trade deadline passed, almost all player movement cemented, and the title contenders obvious, most teams now know who they are. Many of the games in March and April are frankly rather boring – if the teams concerned are not putting forth their best effort to win, you’re invariably going to reciprocate with a half arsed level of interest. In light of everything that has transpired this season, the Raptors and Nets can both equate to this. However, these particular doldrums games had a resonance and magnitude not afforded to their counterparts. These games were played in London, England, at the O2 Arena. And that single caveat brought a hitherto unprecedented level of excitement to what would otherwise be two of the most arbitrary games of the season. (The ambitious accompanying television ad campaign pitched this games as “crucial games leading up to the NBA playoffs,” bringing “all the fun and excitement of the NBA.” It was a slightly generous pitch, but as we’ll see later, not entirely fictional. Apart from the bit about “crucial”.) If nothing else, half of it was faintly true. Entertaining if not especially high standard of game could have happened; after all, the half-game difference between their respective records showed the two teams to be evenly matched. Furthermore, […]
Rookie Retrospective
February 28th, 2011
Jordan Crawford had to deal with being traded in his rookie year, part of Washington’s bountiful haul for an aging Kirk Hinrich, who then got injured anyway. Once he got to Washington, Crawford found the freedom amongst the rubble to play a lot of minutes and, essentially, to freelance on offence. And Crawford is good at freelancing on offence, so this suited him, as demonstrated in his 16.3 points per game. This would have second only to team mate John Wall (16.4) in true rookie (i.e. not Blake Griffin) points per game had his 4.2 ppg average in 16 games with Atlanta not dragged him down; as it is, his aggregate average of 11.4 ppg sees him settling for third. (Additionally, per Hoopdata.com, Crawford tied for fifth with Andrea Bargnani for the most shots taken per game from 10-15 feet away at 2.7. No one ever really shoots from 10 to 15 feet; a step further in and you’re at the basket, while a step further back gets you a jumper without a help defender. But there are a few exceptions, and the top three of Elton Brand (4.0), Dirk Nowitzki (3.6) and Kobe Bryant (3.2) are ahead of the pack by quite a long way.) The first season of Pape Sy’s career is over, and it was not a good one. Sy was signed by the Hawks to a multi-year minimum salary contract with only the first year guaranteed, yet he played only three games for the team, scoring 7 points in 21 minutes. He actually appeared in more playoff games than regular season ones, getting garbage time minutes in all four of Atlanta’s losses to Chicago. He spent 23 games on assignment with the Utah Flash, yet he averaged a seriously disappointing 8.0 points and 3.4 rebounds on […]
Tax Payers, Trade Kickers, And Other Deadline Day Bookkeeping
February 26th, 2011
He looks happy. And why shouldn’t he. That was one of the most interesting trade deadline weeks you’ll ever see. Fourteen trades, one kind of funny near trade, 50 players traded, 3 players signed, 4 players waived, 16 draft picks traded, 1 rights to swap traded, and two absolute Stone Cold Stunners of trades that no one expected. And these weren’t trades like Sam Cassell and cash for a 2016 top 55 protected second rounder, either. These were trades that changed teams significantly, and altered the landscape of the entire NBA. (Well, except for the Marquis Daniels one.) Superstars Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams were dispatched from teams they didn’t want to stay with. Shane Battier and Mo Williams were dispatched from teams they didn’t want to leave. Draft busts Brandan Wright and Hasheem Thabeet were shipped for minimal returns; recently drafted rookies Derrick Favors and Jordan Crawford were shipped before even completing a season. And while my T.J. Ford for Dan Gadzuric idea never got done, Gadzuric did move to the New Jersey Nets, where he can grab as many rebounds as Brook Lopez in a third of the minutes. New York and New Jersey made the two biggest moves by acquiring the two All-Stars, Williams and Anthony. The Knicks finally closed the deal on the Anthony saga, their additional acquisition of Chauncey Billups and their retention of Landry Fields keeping the price tag just about on the right of ‘acceptable.’ Meanwhile, the Nets’s genuinely staggering trade for Williams, whilst ultimately a backup plan, turned out to be better then their original plan. If their intention was to chase Melo for half a year, then give up and trade less in a deal for a better, cheaper player with less mileage on the clock, then they pulled it off […]
Mike Hall Wants You To Know That Things Are Different In Europe
February 3rd, 2011
Do a Google image search for “mike hall.” The third and fourteenth results are hilarious. Former George Washington forward Mike Hall has played the majority of his professional career in Italy. After going undrafted in 2006, Hall caught on with the Washington Wizards for training camp, and joined the D-League upon being released, angling for a midseason call-up. The strategy worked; the Wizards called up Hall to a ten day contract in late February 2007, retained him for a second one, and then signed him for the remainder of the season. This eventually became an 8 month stay; the team extended Hall a qualifying offer the following summer, which he accepted, and was eventually the team’s last cut in 2007 preseason. Hall played only 2 games and 13 minutes with the Wizards, and has not returned to the NBA since that time, yet his lengthy try-out showed him one side of the coin. In the four years hence, Hall has been witnessing the other. After spending the whole 2007-08 season in the D-League, angling for another call-up that never came, Hall left for Italy in the summer of 2008, and spent two full seasons with perennial Serie A contender and EuroLeague team AJ Milano. Hall left Milano this summer, but stayed in Italy and moved a few hundred miles south to Teramo, where he joined a rebuilding Banca Tercas team. He was released in December, however, and returned to American shores to play for the D-League’s Dakota Wizards. This week, Hall left the D-League to return to Europe, joining struggling Turkish team Erdemir as a replacement for former UNLV forward Dalron Johnson, who moved to Israeli side Maccabi Ashdod. His brief American recrudescence gave way to the need and/or desire for better paid work; the relative comforts and security of […]
Rajon Rondo's biggest assist of the year
January 18th, 2011
Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo is the current league leader in assists, with a whopping 13.4 per game. He is likely to remain the league’s assist leader for the indefinite future. Two time MVP Steve Nash is second on this season’s list, yet he is a considerable distance behind Rondo, averaging 10.8 assists per game. This gap will not be overcome. To put it into some context, assume for a moment that Nash and Rondo both play every game remaining in their respective regular seasons, and that Nash assumes his 10.8apg pace throughout. If Nash passes for exactly 10.8 apg over Phoenix’s remaining 43 games, Rondo need average only 9.3 assists per game for the remainder of the season to stay ahead of him. That’s still a lot, but not for Rondo. (As an aside, when was the last time had 10 times more assists than fouls? Because that’s where Steve Nash is at right now.) Rondo’s 13.4 apg average, should it sustain, would be the 8th highest total of all time. Only 7 times has it been bettered – 5 of those times by all time assist leader John Stockton – and never by more than 1.1apg. It is perhaps therefore understandable that Rondo, notorious over-passer than he is, is unashamedly going for the record. On a team filled with scorers other than him, and in such proximity to the record, he might as well. He has both the talent and the mindset. However, he still needs huge assists from others. While it is not the intent of this author to debate Rondo’s playmaking nor shot selection skills, it is worth noting quite how much goes into obtaining even one assist. This is particularly the case when you are playing at home. In last night’s game against Orlando, Rondo […]
15 More Ten Day Contract Candidates (Because Apparently 101 Wasn't Enough After All)
January 10th, 2011
Newest Phoenix Sun, Zabian Dowdell. A mere 48 hours after the Top 101 Ten Day Contract Candidates list was completed, the Phoenix Suns went and signed somebody that wasn’t on it. Clearly, 20 would not have been enough. With the second signed ten day contract of the season – the Clippers used the first to re-sign Jarron Collins – Phoenix called up guard Zabian Dowdell from the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League, re-signing a player they had only recently cut in training camp. Dowdell did not make the initial list, perhaps in part due to an oversight, but because his numbers thus far this season had not been overwhelming. Playing on the incredibly deep 66ers roster, Dowds averaged 14.5 points, 4.6 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.8 turnovers in 29 minutes per game, shooting 41% from the field and 31% from three, with 261 points on 230 shots. The assist to turnover ratio was nice, and the defence as present as ever, yet Dowdell’s individual scoring ability has not been there. Nevertheless, Phoenix now gives a regular season look to this long-coveted player for them, who should fit in nicely with an up-tempo game, and defend better than the Nash/Dragic point guard combo (which, while awesome, only impacts one end). In a bit to avoid another such occurence, here are some more names for the call-up list. Players who can be removed from the original list, however briefly, include Collins, Damien Wilkins (re-signed with Atlanta), Patrick Beverley (signed in Russia with Spartak St Petersburg) and J.R. Giddens (signed in Spain with Valencia). New players again listed in no order but alphabetical. Marqus Blakely – Blakely went to camp with the Clippers, despite interest from Atlanta, and picked up $35,000 for doing so. That’s more than he’s currently getting in the D-League, […]
Top 101 NBA Ten-Day Contract Candidates (When 20 Would Probably Have Been Enough)
January 5th, 2011
As of today, January 5th, NBA teams are able to start signing players to 10 day contracts. Up until now, players signed mid-season had to be signed to contracts lasting at least until the end of the season; as of Wednesday, however, you need sign them for no longer than 10 days, either as emergency cover or an extended tryout. This system is widely used every year, and sometimes leads to beautiful stories, such as the successes enjoyed by players such as Reggie Williams, C.J. Watson and Anthony Tolliver (all 10 day contract signees at one part), or the record breaking NBA career of JamesOn Curry (whose NBA career, despite technically being two years long, has resulted in 4 total seconds of playing time earned while on a 10 day contract with the Clippers last year). Players signed to ten day contracts tend to be young prospects, and tend to be signed by teams destined for the lottery, either by accident, destiny or design. That said, the occasional veteran will sign one or two ten day contracts with a team, thereby enjoying something of a comeback. This has been the case for players such as Alvin Williams, Doug Christie and Darius Miles in the past, and is particularly good news for Antonio Daniels. There follows a subjective yet comprehensive list of possible if highly unlikely ten day contract candidates, crafted from a combination of the current free agents list, as well as current D-League players (who, more often than not, are the recipients). Listed in no order other than alphabetical. “POPPYCOCK!” Point guards Blake Ahearn – Ahearn started the year in Italy, playing for struggling Serie A team Bancas Teramo. He averaged 9.3 points and 1.3 assists in 24 minutes per game, but shot only 35% from three point range […]
Finances of the Terrence Williams/Sergei Lishouk trade
December 16th, 2010
The only picture of Joe Smith ever taken in which he is not smiling broadly. Yesterday, a three way trade went down between the L.A. Lakers, Houston Rockets and New Jersey Nets that saw four picks, three players and one set of redundant draft rights get rehomed just in time for Christmas. – Houston dealt: Lottery protected first-round draft pick to New Jersey; draft rights to Sergei Lishouk to L.A.– Houston received: Terrence Williams from New Jersey. – L.A. Lakers dealt: Sasha Vujacic and their 2011 first-round draft pick to New Jersey. – L.A. Lakers received: Joe Smith, New Jersey’s 2011 second-round pick and Chicago’s 2012 second-round pick from New Jersey; the rights to Sergei Lishouk from Houston. – New Jersey dealt: Terrence Williams to Houston; Joe Smith and the two second rounders to L.A.– New Jersey received: Sasha Vujacic and the two first rounders. All teams arguably profit from the move, which is how trades should be. The Lakers saved money, and somehow snagged two second-round picks in the bargain when they probably would still have been quite happy to do the deal without them. Houston gained a player probably better than the one they would have drafted with that pick, and New Jersey freed themselves of a problematic backup while piling on two first-round picks, which they can now either use as trade bait or use to acquire yet more backups. Everyone was a winner, except for Vujacic. Many people have questioned, however, how the move was legal under the terms of the soon-to-be-obliterated Collective Bargaining Agreement. Trade calculations are a confusing process at the best of time, and even more so when talking about three team deals involving mismatched salaries. But because of the inclusion of Smith, the finances just about work. And I do mean just […]
Chinese Basketball Association Imports, 2010/11
December 15th, 2010
The first two rounds of games in the 2010/11 Chinese Basketball Association were played this week, giving us an opportunity to confirm once and for all who is actually playing there. With no major English language version of a Chinese Basketball Association website available – other than perhaps here – accurate information as to signings is hard to find. We are reliant upon snippets, leaks, the occasional accurate translation, and often the players themselves. This is a pity because of the calibre and volume of import players to be found within that league. Every year China lands quality former and fringe NBA talent, normally fairly athletic ex-NBA big men, who put up double doubles and dominate amongst domestic players without the athleticism and strength to stop them. And it’s fun to watch their statlines as they do it. This year, it appears, will be the year of the guard. There follows a lot of all the imports in the CBA to begin this season. As will perhaps become apparent fairly quickly, each team is allowed two imports, and all meet that quota, save for the Bayi Rockets (whose players also serve in the People’s Liberation Army, which would explain a lot). – Bayi: None (they never do)– Beijing: Randolph Morris, Steve Francis– Dongguan: Jackson Vroman, Josh Akognon– Foshan (formerly Shaanxi): Olumide Oyedeji, Stephon Marbury– Fujian: Dwayne Jones, Chris Porter– Guandong: David Harrison, Fred Jones– Jiangsu: Jerome Moiso, Ricky Davis– Jilin: Jameel Watkins, David Young– Liaoning: Chris Richard, Donta Smith– Qingdao: Charles Gaines, Dee Brown– Shandong: Rodney White, Myron Allen– Shanghai: Devin Green, Mike Harris– Shanxi: Leon Rodgers, Jamal Sampson– Tianjin: Herve Lamizana, Lee Benson– Xinjiang: Quincy Douby, James Singleton– Zhejiang Cyclones: Mike James, Josh Boone– Zhejiang Lions: Javaris Crittenton, Peter John Ramos Of those 32 players, 24 have played in […]
Really Overdue 2010 D-League Draft Review
November 15th, 2010
Unequivocally, the NBA Draft is my favourite night of the year. In a few short hours, the entire landscape of the best league of the world’s best sport can be changed beyond all recognition. Infusions of talent, mind-boggling trades, wonderful quotables and brave shirt-and-tie combinations are guaranteed; one short evening of drama gives us repercussions and discussion points that can last for years. Whereas sport must always ultimately be able the guys in the uniforms, the men in the jackets have their time to shine on that night. And as an aspiring man-in-a-jacket, its lure is magnetic to me. The D-League draft does not have the same lustre, for a few reasons. For one, it’s not got the same talent level; for two, the repercussions are far less substantial for teams with lower fanbases and far greater roster turnover than the big league compatriots. Lesser calibre players on a far smaller stage must inevitably have lesser impact, less coverage, and thus less lure. However, whereas the NBA draft has only 2, the D-League draft has 8 rounds. With 16 teams in the league, that means there are 128 draft picks on offer. 128 players means 128 draft capsules, 128 attempts at analysis, 128 opportunities to hunt for trivia, and a good many opportunities to learn. That was something I wasn’t going to pass up. There follows, therefore, an extended look at the compelling protagonists of the 2010 NBA Developmental League Draft. Little consideration is taken for team need, for draft night is about the players. ROUND ONE 1st: – Reno Bighorns – Nick Fazekas, Nevada Even though he was drafted by the Mavericks with the 34th pick in 2007, and even though he signed to a two year guaranteed deal with the team, Fazekas only ever played 9 minutes with […]
…..Third Prize Is You're Fired
October 6th, 2010
Continuing the lengthy look at training camp invitees league wide, here’s part three. Part one can be found here, and part two is here. Oklahoma City – View Thunder roster– View Thunder salary information With a full roster, Oklahoma City saw fit to bring in four more. They signed undrafted point/combo guards Jerome Dyson of UConn and Tweety (Demond) Carter of Baylor, as well as fellow undrafted swingman Elijah Millsap of UAB. They later brought in former University of Oklahoma centre Longar Longar to round up the numbers and complete a roster of 19. Curiously, but probably rightly, they did not bring in any of their currently unsigned second rounders. 2009 pick Robert Vaden was rumoured to be a candidate, but eventually did not come over, and 2010 picks Latavious Williams and Ryan Reid also did not sign, despite currently not being under contract elsewhere. Dyson played for the Cavaliers in summer league, at which time I wrote this about him: There was a time when averaging 20/5/5 at UConn meant a guarantee to be drafted. Not so for Dyson. For all the scoring numbers, Dyson is far from a complete scorer; for all the assist numbers, Dyson is far from a point guard. And at 6’3, he’ll struggle to be a shooting guard as well. Much of his production comes from the fast break, where he is unbelievably good. He can snake his way to the basket with blistering speed, and finish with athleticism despite his small size. In the half court, however, he can’t get to the basket as readily. This is due in no small part to his jump shot, which doesn’t really exist. And while Dyson has the athletic tools for perimeter defence, he lapses. If he goes to the D-League – and he should, because […]
How much centres get paid
October 4th, 2010
Apropos of nothing, here are the total contract values of all centres in the NBA, not including those on minimum salaries (or with really close to minimum salaries, such as Samardo Samuels). In cases where a player’s position is debatable or flexible, discretion is used, and the player’s primary position is used (i.e. Pau Gasol wouldn’t be listed at centre, even though he essentially backs up there, because he starts at power forward). In the case of someone like Al Jefferson – who was paid to be a power forward but who will now be a centre – the latter option is used. Figures are as accurate as I can get them to be, which is very. – Atlanta: Al Horford (rookie scale), Zaza Pachulia (4 years, $19 million) – Boston: Kendrick Perkins (4 years, $18.2 million), Jermaine O’Neal (2 years, $11,991,200) – Charlotte: Nazr Mohammed (5 years, $30.247 million), DeSagana Diop (5 years, $32.393 million) – Chicago: Joakim Noah (rookie scale, for now), Kurt Thomas (1 year, $1,800,000), Omer Asik (2 years, $3,578,500) – Cleveland: Anderson Varejao (6 years, $48,204,545), Ryan Hollins (3 years, $7 million) – Dallas: Tyson Chandler (6 years, $63 million), Brendan Haywood (6 years, $52,267,500), Alexis Ajinca (rookie scale) – Denver: Nene (6 years, $60 million), Chris Andersen (5 years, $21.17 million) – Detroit: Ben Wallace (2 years, $4,326,400), Jason Maxiell (4 years, $20 million), Chris Wilcox (2 years, $6 million) – Golden State: Andris Biedrins (6 years, $54 million), Ekpe Udoh (rookie scale), Dan Gadzuric (6 years, $36,003,975) – Houston: Yao Ming (5 year maximum), Brad Miller (3 years, $14.256 million), Chuck Hayes (4 years, $8,218,500) – Indiana: Roy Hibbert (rookie scale), Jeff Foster (2 years, $12,734,500) – L.A. Clippers: Chris Kaman (5 years, $52 million) – L.A. Lakers: Andrew Bynum (4 years, $57.2 […]
Anybody Wanna See Second Prize? Second Prize Is A Set Of Steak Knives…..
September 30th, 2010
Continuing the lengthy look at training camp invitees league wide, here’s part two. Part one can be found here. Indiana – View Pacers roster– View Pacers salary information Indiana already has 15 guaranteed contracts, so they didn’t bring in many for camp. The only two players they signed were D-League veteran centre Lance Allred, and their second second-round draft pick from this summer, Magnum Rolle. Additionally, the contracts of both A.J. Price ($175,000 of $762,195 guaranteed) and Josh McRoberts ($500,000 of $885,120) are not fully unguaranteed, although you can pretty much guarantee McBizzles is making the team since Pacers coach Jim O’Brien has already said he’s considering him at starting power forward.Weber State graduate Allred played briefly with the Cavaliers down the stretch of the 2007/08 season, his only NBA experience thus far. Cleveland called him up on account of the 16.2 points and 10.0 rebounds he had averaged during the season for the Idaho Stampede; in the ten minutes of NBA playing time he received, Allred put up a negative PER (admittedly a far from reprehensible act in only 10 minutes). Allred has spent most of the last four seasons with the Stampede, and has not had much luck on the occasions that he’s chosen to leave. Last year, for example, Allred signed with Italian team Napoli, only for this to happen. He stayed in Italy to play four games with Scavolini Pesaro, averaging 5.3 points and 4.0 rebounds, before returning to the Stampede again and averaging 13/9. Allred, perhaps most famous for being legally deaf (although not fully deaf), signed this summer for Ukrainian team Khimik, but left there to try to make this team instead. Now aged 29, this might be his last NBA chance. Rolle’s draft rights were acquired by the Pacers for those of Ryan […]
