Former Kansas basketball player Sherron Collins has signed with Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania to replace former NCAA March Madness star -- and fellow short, stocky point guard -- Khalid El-Amin. Collins' move to Lithuania ends any shot that he may have had at getting back into the NBA this season after making the Charlotte Bobcats as an undrafted free agent.

With the move to Lithuania now final, where he'll team up with former NBA Draft picks D.J. Strawberry and Brad Newley, let's take a moment and reflect on Collins' up-and-down (mostly down) rookie season.

First, the 5-foot-11 point guard decided to add to add 12 pounds in less than three weeks while preparing for the NBA Draft. This apparently wasn't the best strategy as the former Jayhawk ended up going undrafted in last summer's NBA Draft.

Fortunately for him, the Charlotte Bobcats were intrigued by the body of work he put together at Kansas and invited him to play with them in the Orlando Summer League before deciding to invite him to training camp and then eventually giving him a contract for the season.

Collins' time in Charlotte was a bit rocky, though.

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A couple of players with NBA potential will soon be joining the D-League as rookies Matt Bouldin and Arinze Onuaku will clear waivers Wednesday afternoon and join their new teams soon after.

Bouldin, a 6-foot-5 guard, Finished sixth in career scoring (1,683 points), third in steals (170) and fifth in assists (444) during his four-year career at Gonzaga. The former Bulldog was averaging 9.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 steals for Iraklis Thessaloniki earlier this season, but was released in January after failing a drug test (he was replaced by the now heavyset Smush Parker).

I have semi-high hopes for Bouldin's D-League career after being impressed with his play for the Chicago Bulls in the Vegas Summer League where he averaged 6.2 points, 2.4 assists and 2.2 rebounds. He'll also immediately be put in a good situation as league sources have indicated that the Tulsa 66ers will claim him with the top pick on the waiver wire. Tulsa has already moved Zabian Dowdell up (to the Phoenix Suns) and Tweety Carter on (to Latvia, which almost assuredly pays better) so Bouldin should be given plenty of minutes to prove himself.

Onuaku finished his career up at Syracuse last season, but the D-League will be his first foray into playing professional basketball after sustaining what was rumored to be a minor leg injury heading into March Madness last season, but later turned out to be a torn quad that's rendered him unavailable up until now.

A rather large dude at 6-foot-9, 260+ pounds (last time we heard from him), Onuaku could become a very good player in the D-League if he's in any sort of basketball shape following the year-layoff. It also won't hurt if he's given Jeff Adrien's minutes if he's claimed by Rio Grande Valley Vipers, a "good possibility" as far as I've heard.

Without many NBA call-ups so far this season, I don't have high hopes that these guys will make the NBA this year, but a solid performance in the D-League definitely won't hurt their future earning potential, either.

Gani Lawal has been on assignment from the Phoenix Suns to the Iowa Energy since the D-League season began and, while he's never looked particularly impressive in my eyes during his Development League stint, he may have had the worst game any NBA-assigned player has ever had in Friday night's game against the Tulsa 66ers.

That sounds like hyperbole, but his box score read as follows: In 10 minutes and 17 seconds of playing time, he made his only field goal attempt, missed both of his free-throws and grabbed one rebound before fouling out with 9:33 left in the game.  Sure, it probably could have been worse, but that sort of game doesn't look good coming from a player making NBA money playing players making less than 1/10th of NBA money.

Unfortunately, I didn't watch the game however so I was going to let it pass until good ol' Seth Pollack tweeted to the world that he was waiting for my report from the game. So I watched it. Without audio. Just me, a box score and the fast-forward-ten-seconds button in the D-League's archived game footage.

What I found, unfortunately for Mr. Lawal, was essentially that the box score didn't lie as he really was never effective.  My (semi, but not really cleaned up) notes while watching the game can be found below.

UPDATE: Lawal looked much better the following night.

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The professional career of former Michigan Wolverines' forward DeShawn Sims has not started well. The 6-foot-8 rookie turned down a Boston Celtics training camp invite to sign with PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece after playing well in the Summer League for both the Celtics (7.5 points, 1.8 rebounds) and the Dallas Mavericks (3.3 points, 2.7 rebounds).

Just a few games into PAOK's season, however, Sims left the Greek club to return to the United States (reportedly due to homesickness). In his brief European stint, he averaged 13.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in two games, with a outstanding 20-point effort against the current Greek champions, Panathinaikos, in his debut game.

With NBA rosters already set, Sims now wants to find his way in the D-League - but that will be harder than he expects.

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Scottie Reynolds, the first AP All-American to go undrafted since the ABA-NBA merger after starring four years at Villanova, has told his team in Italy that he'll be returning stateside after signing with them in early August.

Reynolds, a 6-foot-2 combo guard, signed with Prima Veroli in Italy's second division shortly after a stint with the Phoenix Suns' Summer League team in which he impressed enough to have earned a training camp invite from the team.  After just four games with the team, though, he apparently became homesick and will return stateside by the end of the weekend.

"The player has expressed a desire to go home and we certainly can not force him to stay against his will," a team official said on the team's website. "With his attorneys we are trying to find a solution, but the player has already made the decision."

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Here's a guy that should be in the D-League. Instead, he's heading to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague to play for Cibona and eat white meat all the time after playing for the Phoenix Suns in Vegas.  His defense is NBA level, but the rest of his game does not match up. I spoke about him at length at SB Nation's Conquest Chronicles before the draft. Here's a bit:

Marcus Johnson, on the other hand, I hate. He's been in college for about 87 years and I haven't seen any improvement in his game. He shot sub-40% as a 6th year senior in the unconsciously weak Pac-10 and racked up almost 3 turnovers per game basically from the power forward position. I'd say D-League for [Dwight] Lewis and overseas for Johnson, but that's just a hunch. 

If he turns himself into an effective George Lynch, i.e. better rebounding and limited shots/turnovers, he can sneak on an NBA team somewhere. Going to Europe isn't the best option for the kid's future, but if he's loves Croatian culture, congrats bro.

Atlanta Hawks second-round draft pick Pape Sy appears to finally be coming to America as his French team recently posted on their website that they have reached a successfully reached a buyout with Sy and the Hawks.

The Chairman of the STB Le Havre confirms that an agreement has been reached between the club, Pape Sy and the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) to release the player to whom he was one year contract.

Typically this wouldn't be D-League worthy news, but I am holding out hope that the Hawks could possibly be bringing Sy over to play in the NBA Development League until the 22-year-old guard is ready to contribute to the big club.  Plus, judging from his stats in France last season and this odd-soundtracked highlight video, I have determined that the guard has Ridiculous Upside.

Why would I assume that the Hawks, who are notoriously bad at using the D-League, will now suddenly turn over a new leaf and pay a player's European buyout just so that he can develop in America?  Because that's what they said the plan was before the NBA Draft.

"I think we will get a piece," he said. "I don't think we will necessarily get a rotational piece. We can get a player who after some seasoning can stay in the NBA for a while, that can make a career out of it. If we can keep our roster intact I don't see a lot of playing time. It will be a situation where we take advantage of our D-League affiliate."

I know the Hawks aren't the most trustworthy team in the NBA under their current ownership, but let's hope they give Sy - and the D-League - a decent chance at developing.  And, as the 53rd overall pick in the draft, developing is probably needed.

Miami Heat big man Jarvis Varnado apparently saw the writing on the wall and has decided to take his talents away from South Beach and will instead play for Carmatic Pistoia in Italy's second division next season according to BasketNet.

The 6-foot-9, 230 pound power forward out of Mississippi State was drafted by the Heat with the 41st overall pick in this year's NBA Draft.  He's the second American draft pick to head to Europe thus far, following in the footsteps of Mr. Irrelevant Dwayne Collins.

Varnado averaged 6.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in just over 20 minutes of action for Miami's Summer League team while hitting over 55 percent of his shots.  

Either way, with the signings of Chris Bosh, Joel Anthony, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Juwan Howard and Jamaal Magloire since Varnado and fellow big man Dexter Pittman were drafted - along with the camp invite of Shavlik Randolph - no amount of Summer League dominance was going to earn him a spot on the Miami roster.

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