Ridiculous Upside: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
New Blog: Along The Olentangy for Ohio State Fans!

More great SB Nation Blogs

SB Nation Local

Baseball

Football

Basketball

College

Hockey

Soccer

Combat Sports

Golf

General


07referee_ca1-popup

D-League Referee Kevin Cutler Called Up To The NBA
At 6-foot-8 and 270 pounds, former Long Beach State player Kevin Cutler (1989-91) became the tallest and heaviest referee ever to work an NBA game last season.

He was called up during the middle of it from the NBA Developmental League and wound up appearing in seven games.

Well, Cutler must have made an admirable impression, since he recently was hired full-time by the NBA.

Cutler began refereeing as a hobby eight years ago, was discovered at a Los Angeles camp by former NBA officiating director Ed Rush, and soon went to work in the D-League.

I know Nicholas Buchert also got the call-up to full-time NBA officiating. Have to say I hope the powers that be can find suitable replacements because the D-League definitely benefited from having solid officials like these guys - hence, that's probably why they made the jump.

1 day ago Ru_tiny Scott Schroeder 0 comments

Texas Legends Complete D-League Expansion Draft; Now Have Mookie Wright's Rights

This is going to be my default Texas Legends picture.

More photos » Joe Murphy - NBAE/Getty Images

This is going to be my default Texas Legends picture.

The Texas Legends, the NBA Development League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, completed their expansion "draft"  Monday with the results being announced this afternoon.

The only surprise from my projection of what head coach Nancy Lieberman and company would do was the selection of James "Mookie" Wright instead of Rodney "I used to look like this but now I look like this" Webb.  The other players picked up in the draft were Joe Crawford, Diamon Simpson, Dar Tucker, Michael Fey, Ryan Forehan-Kelly, Gabriel Hughes, Frank Robinson, James Peters, and Keith Clark.

This doesn't mean that these players will play for the Legends this season, just that if they decide to play in the D-League this season, they'll play for the Legends.  Essentially, the Legends are now caught up with every other team in that they have a list of returning players that have yet to decide (in most cases) if they'll actually return.

I would expect a maximum of five of these players to actually end up going to camp with the Legends because Simpson, Fey, Robinson and Forehan-Kelly are already signed overseas and I would assume Crawford will either end up in the NBA or Europe before all is said and done.  This doesn't mean that they won't eventually play for the Legends, however, as numerous players have been able to pick up a couple of paychecks in Europe before returning to the comfy confines of the D-League in search of the elusive call-up.

As the team's press release noted, "Now that the Legends have made their draft picks, the players must sign with the D-League in order to truly be Legends."

I wonder what this means for Draino.

7 comments |

Bakaus_100227_650_3

Dwayne Jones Is Taking His Talents Back To Phoenix

I hope Jones sticks in the NBA this year, even if it isn't with the Suns. That said, he's only 151 rebounds and 311 free-throw attempts from becoming the D-League's career leader in both.

From Paul Coro:
The Suns took little risk in bringing back Jones. The structure of the one-year deal pays him a small amount to come to training camp and another small portion if he makes the opening night roster. The Suns would have the ability to waive him at no extended cost all the way up until the January date that contracts become guaranteed.

3 days ago Ru_tiny Scott Schroeder 0 comments

The Texas Legends Will Draft The Los Angeles D-Fenders Next Week. Excited?!

I wonder why J.R. Slagendorff wasn't included in this picture?

I wonder why J.R. Slagendorff wasn't included in this picture?

The NBA Development League's new team, the Texas Legends, will take the first step towards formulating their roster for the upcoming 2010-11 season with the 2010 NBA D-League Expansion Draft.

The Expansion Draft pool will be comprised of 14 players from the 2009-10 "Returning Player List" from the Los Angeles D-Fenders, which will be on hiatus during the 2010-11 NBA D-League season. Of the 14, the Legends will select 10.

The above is from a press release I received in my inbox Thursday morning, but just decided to bring it to you now because I wasn't sure how to present it to my loyal subjects readers.  

I mean, do we really need to call it an expansion draft if it's just one team taking over another team's roster?  And if the D-Fenders are indeed coming back, do they get to do an expansion draft of the Legends' roster next offseason?  And if JWoww and Snooki wanted to be such good friends, why did they write that note to Sammi when they knew it would just cause drama in the Jersey Shore house?

Even though I don't have any definitive answers to my previous questions (I'm guessing "no", "no" and "I hope we find out next week"), I do have the 14 players that the Legends will be able to pick their 10 from:

Player Pos. Ht. Wt. College

Keith Clark F 6-8 245 Oklahoma
Joe Crawford G 6-5 210 Kentucky
Michael Fey C 7-0 270 UCLA
Ryan Forehan-Kelly G/F 6-6 195 California
Gabriel Hughes C 7-0 240 California
Lawrence McKenzie G 6-2 190 Minnesota
James Peters F 6-8 215 UNLV
Ray Reese F 6-5 210 Tulsa
Frank Robinson G 6-4 220 Cal-State Fullerton
Diamon Simpson F 6-7 230 St. Mary's (CA)
Dar Tucker G 6-4 205 DePaul
Rodney Webb F 6-7 240 Florida Atlantic
Horace Wormely G 5-7 160 Vanguard
James Wright G 6-1 185 Colorado

If you want to know how I'd "draft" them, keep reading.

Continue reading this post »

10 comments |

Jeremy Pargo Signs With Maccabi Tel-Aviv; Possibly To Replace Mikhail Torrance

Jeremy Pargo, little brother of current NBA free agent Jannero Pargo, has signed with basketball powerhouse Maccabi Tel-Aviv according to the team's official site (and the above nicely produced highlight package, I guess).

There have been rumors in the media that Pargo has been signed to take the roster spot of Mikhail Torrance who is currently recovering after collapsing while preparing to join his new teammates in Israel.

The creatively-inefficient scorer played this summer for both the Charlotte Bobcats and Minnesota Timberwolves in the Orlando and Vegas Summer Leagues, respectively, but wasn't able to quiet his doubters as he shot just 33% from the field and averaged a horrendous 4.6 turnovers for the Wolves in Vegas.

On the plus side, though, Pargo averaged 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals - the former number pretty impressive considering the amount of time (none) that he was able to build a rapport with his teammates.

Continue reading this post »

2 comments |

Dear NBA Executive,

Do you remember when you decided to not give Rod Benson an opportunity on your team even though he clearly deserved it?

Well, now he's off to Korea and we'll be without his music videos here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Your pal,
Scott

P.S. Apparently this will be the first single on Benson's to-be-released-soon mixtape. Hopefully we get a release date eventually so Benson doesn't become the next 50 Tyson.

7 days ago Ru_tiny Scott Schroeder 2 comments 2 recs

Former Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry Will Soon Be In Charge Of The Austin Toros

This is a picture of Danny Ferry molding his imaginary D-League team. Or giving his version of the mandible claw to an imaginary little person. Or perhaps he just claps really weird.

More photos » Tony Dejak - AP

This is a picture of Danny Ferry molding his imaginary D-League team. Or giving his version of the mandible claw to an imaginary little person. Or perhaps he just claps really weird.

Dell Demps spent three season as general manager of the Austin Toros before being hired last month to the same position with the New Orleans Hornets, becoming the first person to use the D-League as a stepping stone to the top of an NBA front office. 

Danny Ferry may be hoping he's the next.

Ferry, who resigned as Cleveland Cavaliers GM in June after five years on the job, is expected to be officially announced as a member of the San Antonio Spurs' front office by week's end, reports Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News. Though "formal delineation" of front office duties and titles has yet to be determined, according to the report, Ferry will oversee the Toros, the Spurs' D-League team.

That's how brilliant D-League reporter Scott Schroeder started my his most recent post over at Aol FanHouse.

What does this mean for the Toros?  Well, I think we'll have to wait and see due to this:

Ferry didn't have complete control of call-ups and assignments in Erie, however, according to an interview with an owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers' affiliated Erie BayHawks.

"[Player movement between the Cavaliers and BayHawks] was more of Mike Brown's decision than it was Danny Ferry's decision," Demetriou said. "Danny used to tell me that."

In the meantime, I think it's great that a rather high-profile NBA executive will now be running the basketball operations of a D-League team.  Between Ferry and Eric Musselman, the talent being brought into the D-League this year is pretty impressive.

6 comments |

Myself and Jon L, along with D-League Digest's Matt Hubert, everywhere's Matt Moore and Truehoop Network bloggers from around the world graded NBA team's usage of the D-League.
Check it out.

8 days ago Ru_tiny Scott Schroeder 1 comment

More Posts from Ridiculous Upside

Explore Full Archive Next Page


User Tools

Welcome to Ridiculous Upside, your first stop for NBA prospect info! RU - Where Potential Is Way Cooler Than Reality!
Start posting on Ridiculous Upside »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

Connect_with_facebook

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Barry-bonds-record-home-run_small
Question for RU about Warriors
John6_small
A summer league question:

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

FanShots

Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.

Recommended FanShots

Dear NBA Executive, 

Do you remember when you decided to not give Rod Benson an opportunity on your team even though he clearly deserved it?  

Well, now he's off to Korea and we'll be without his music videos here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Your pal,
Scott

P.S. Apparently this will be the first single on Benson's to-be-released-soon mixtape.  Hopefully we get a release date eventually so Benson doesn't become the next 50 Tyson.

Recent FanShots

Golden State Warriors Invite Jeff Adrien To Training Camp
Will Barton declared eligible for Memphis
The New Mexico Thunderbirds announced their new dance team, the lovely Storm Chasers.
Not to be outdone, the Sioux Falls Skyleaders - the league leading dance team for two straight season - have been in the gym and working out intensely nearly every day according to their Twitter account.
The promotional poster is available for this month's Asia Challenge.  For more on this game, check out my preview from awhile back.
For a bigger view of the poster, go here.
With the man, the myth, Mr. Mike Gansey recently taking his talents to the Canary Islands, D-League Digest wrote up an excellent article remembering his career in the D-League.
Toros moving to new arena
Eric Musselman To Be Named Reno Bighorns Head Coach
The 2010-2011 NBA D-League Schedule Has Been Announced
Coach Mokeski Blog
Former D-League Coach Scott Roth To Join Raptors Coaching Staff
Scott Roth, who was hired by the Warriors at the start of last season, confirmed to CSNBayArea.com that he has taken a job as an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors.

I can't help but think Roth deserved at least partial credit for the insurgence of D-League players in Golden State last season.

For everything else you need to know about Coach Roth, I suggest you refer to Jon L's in-depth post.

+ New FanShot All FanShots >

SBNation.com Recent Stories

John Calipari wears a broad smile after being introduced as the new Kentucky basketball coach during a news conference in Lexington, Ky., Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Before the press conference Kentucky's athletics board approved an eight-year, $31.65 million contract that will make Calipari the highest paid coach in the nation. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke) +1 updates

Anthony Davis Jr. Commits To Play For The Kentucky Wildcats

Louisville coach Rick Pitino speaks to an official during the second half of Louisville's 78-76 win over Connecticut in an NCAA college basketball game in Storrs, Conn., on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Thomas Cain)

Verdict In: Karen Sypher Found Guilty On All Six Counts, Including Extortion, In Rick Pitino Trial

damonevans +5 updates

Greg McGarity To Replace Disgraced Damon Evans As Georgia AD

More from SBNation.com >


Co-Grand Poobahs

Ru_small Scott Schroeder

B-king_front_small Jon L

To Be Determined Draft Bros

Sharone_wright_sixers_small Michael Levin

Phineas-phineas-and-ferb-3677056-500-588_small fetch9

Best Ever D-League Blogger

Cimg0200_small Mike Gansey