Hello!  I hope you're enjoying your weekend.  Today we debut a new (hopefully-) recurring series of posts detailing transactions for the previous week.  What kind of transactions?  I plan to mainly focus on, well, the type of players this site focuses on.  That means a lot of D-League players and teams, but also players who previously played in the D-League but are now in Europe, players who saw some action at this year's Summer League, and maybe the occasional recent draft pick or player.  This isn't meant to be comprehensive with the European signings (I'm not looking to compete with Ball in Europe), nor will the bulk of NBA trades and free agent signings be covered.  Sorry, Andre Miller.  I will, however, be providing some brief commentary below all (or most) of the transactions listed.  This is a new feature, so any suggestions on what you'd like to see format- or content-wise is welcome.  So here we go, with a look at "Ridiculous Transactions" for July 17-June 24.

July 17: Cartier Martin - signed with Treviso (Italy)

Martin played decently in Summer League for Golden State, doing a good job of getting to the free-throw line and not turning the ball over much, but he made only a quarter of his three-pointers, and needed one good game to get up to even that mark.  Martin played for Iowa in the D-League last season, and since he can score, he should do well over in Italy.

July 18: Marc Salyers - signed with LeMans (France)

Salyers has been in Europe for a few years where he's a terrific scorer, and while he played for the Hornets' Summer League team, he never really got his shot to fall consistently in Vegas.  He has a variety of offensive moves but little defense or rebounding, so Europe is probably where he belongs.

July 20: Nick Lewis - signed with Roanne (France); Sergiy Gladyr - signed with Manresa (Spain)

Lewis effectively replaces Salyers, who played with Roanne last year.  Lewis is late of the Bakersfield Jam, where he showed some decent if inconsistent rebounding ability.  He fancies himself somewhat of a three-point shooter, and he made almost 38 percent of them last year, decent for a 6'10" guy I suppose, but that number was quite a bit higher than his career mark, and I have doubts as to whether he'll sustain it.  Gladyr was a second-round pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the most recent draft, and he's a shooting guard with emphasis on the "shooting."  Some have questions as to whether he's athletic enough for the NBA, though pre-draft reports were decent on that front.

July 21: Jimmy Baron - signed with Mersin (Turkey); Dakota Wizards - hired Rory White as head coach

We've already discussed White's hiring, so let's turn to Baron.  Baron was a very good three-point shooting in college, though he's a bit like Blake Ahearn in that he's "point guard-sized" without having a lot of point guard skills (though Ahearn is obviously a bit ahead on that since he's had longer to work on them).  Baron got invites to both the Orlando and Vegas Summer Leagues, though he didn't play much for the Jazz and Washington cut him before they actually got to Vegas.  This is probably a case where he could go to the D-League and have a chance to work on the non-shooting parts of his game, but I'm sure he'll get a chance to get his shooting on in Turkey.

July 22: Christian Eyenga - had his contract with DKV Joventut (Spain) extended for three more years; Maine Red Claws - hired Austin Ainge as head coach

Again, we've covered Ainge's hire.  Eyenga was the Cavaliers' first-round draft pick this year, and I find it interesting to think about his situation in the context of the Cavs' roster.  Clearly Cleveland is trying to win as soon as possible - they made the conference finals this year, and LeBron James is under contract for just one more season.  But what happens should James re-sign with Cleveland?  I wonder if he'll allow Cleveland to keep drafting players like Eyenga in an attempt to adopt at least part of what could short-handedly be called the "Spurs model," or whether he'll keep saying "I've never heard of these guys, I want you to sign Joe Smith again."  The Cavs aren't on the hook for Eyenga's salary or anything, but it will be interesting to see how they use the draft if James is under a long-term contract again.

July 23: Bobby Jones - signed with Banco Tercas Teramo (Italy); Gerry McNamara - named as Grad Assistant for Syracuse University

Remember when Jones was going to get called up by the 76ers?  Whatever happened with that?  Jones may feel that if he had gotten that close without making it in the D-League he has nothing left to play for here, but I do wonder how a primarily-defensive player such as Jones will fare over in Italy.  Then again, I also wonder why I didn't see him on any Summer League roster.  Jones is a decent scorer, so he'll probably be fine, but I do think he still could have made his mark in the D-League and gotten a call-up.  Gerry McNamara was last seen being released from his D-League contract for "personal reasons," and whether it's related or not he seems to be headed for the coaching route.

July 24: Ryan Forehan-Kelly - signed with Scafati (Italy); Dominique Coleman - signed with Dexia Mons-Hainaut (Belgium)

Forehan-Kelly has been all over the place, playing in China, Venezuela, Mexico, Croatia and with the Los Angeles D-Fenders.  Europe is probably the best place for him, as he's decent at several things (including three-point shooting) but wasn't really among the top few tiers of D-League players who could've seen a call-up.  Coleman, well, this is slightly disappointing.  Regular readers (which I think is TorosGirl and the people currently writing for the site) know that I was a big fan of Coleman's last year, and he does a lot of things very well, including defend and rebound.  Hopefully he makes his way back to the States at some point, as I think he could develop into a solid NBA bench player.