It isn't often that I fault players for going to Europe for a big payday instead of playing a few months in the NBA Development League because I understand that with professional basketball players, just like myself and the Wu Tang Clan, cash rules everything around us.

Still, the decision for recent NBA training camp cuts Oliver Lafayette and J.R. Giddens to forego a few months in the D-League while staying relevant with NBA talent evaluators and instead chasing more lucrative European paychecks (Lafayette with Partizan Belgrade and Giddens with Asseco Prokom) has yours truly questioning their decision making process.

Both Giddens and Lafayette ended last season on NBA rosters (Giddens with the New York Knicks, Lafayette with the Boston Celtics) and both were invited to training camps this season (Giddens with the Sacramento Kings, Lafayette sticking with the Celtics) meaning that they were right on the cusp of being a full-time NBA player.  

Continue reading this post »

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced Wednesday evening that they have waived training camp invites Tasmin Mitchell and Cedric Jackson, reducing their roster to 17 players including fellow training camp invitees Manny Harris, Samardo Samuels and Loren Woods as well as 2009 second round pick Danny Green, whose contract is fully unguaranteed for the upcoming season if waived before opening day.

Mitchell, a 6-foot-7 combo forward out of Louisiana State University, went undrafted in this year's draft but almost immediately decided to sign with the Cavaliers for Summer League where he played all five games and averaged 5.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals in just over 20 minutes of action.

Jackson, a bit of a surprise for the NBA Development League's Erie BayHawks last season, earned call-ups with the Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs before finishing the season with Washington Wizards.  I've never been his strongest supporter, but his D-League averages of 16.4 points, 7.4 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 2.1 steals from the point guard spot are nothing to scoff at - though his shooting 42% from the field and 27% from beyond the arc is something at which I'd consider scoffing.

Continue reading this post »

Above is the NBA Development League's new basketball design, courtesy of Utah Flash team president Drew Sellers (via Twitter).

I don't know why it's been changed - I didn't even know they were planning a change - and therefore I'm not quite ready to know what to think about it (I hate change).

Instead, I'll open it up to the three regular readers of Ridiculous Upside ... so, what do you think?

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants announced Monday that Steve Gansey, brother of Mike Gansey, has been named assistant coach for the 2010-2011 season. This will be Gansey's second year with the team, as he served as a volunteer assistant under head coach Joey Meyer during the 2009-2010 season.

I believe I mentioned this on Twitter quite some time ago, but now it's official and I'm always happy to show some love to the Gansey family tree (What up, Mrs. Mazzella?).  The Gansey's are notorious gym rats and I've heard nothing but good things about Steve - and he's got Mad Ants president Jeff Potter gushing about him as well.

"I am extremely excited to have someone as talented as Steve Gansey join our staff. Steve is smart, passionate, and has a work ethic that is second to none," Mad Ants President Jeff Potter said in a press release. "He is one of the top young coaches in our league, and he was a huge part of our strong finish last season. He and Joey make a fantastic coaching staff, and I feel our basketball team is in great hands."

Rumor has it that Rod Wilmont has been in Fort Wayne working with Steve all summer so we should be able to see his player development abilities in action when the D-League season tips off next month.

For bonus coverage featuring Steve, here's brother Mike telling us about Steve's rap battles with former Austin Toro Luke Bonner, here are a couple of his look-a-likes and here Mike includes Steve along with new Utah Flash head coach Kevin Young and new Idaho Associate head coach Joel Abelson as the top assistant coaches in the league.  Looks like Mike knows what he was talking about.

The Houston Rockets announced today that they have added former Marquette guard Jerel McNeal to their preseason roster which probably doesn't make much sense on the surface considering the Rockets had 18 players on their roster before this move was made.

Still, knowing that Daryl Morey is probably the savviest NBA general manager this side of me on NBA 2k11,  I'm willing to make an educated guess that this move has more to do with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League than anything Rockets related.

Take a walk down memory lane with me, if you will, all the way back to when I broke the D-League's new allocation rule change over at Aol FanHouse:

In accordance with the NBA, the NBA Development League will implement a rule change with regard to how D-League rosters are assembled. Beginning this season, up to three players cut last from the roster of an NBA team before the D-League Draft will be allocated to that team's D-League affiliate provided they sign the standard D-League contract.

Remembering that, along with sources telling me early last week that McNeal was looking at entering the D-League player pool, and this seems like Morey taking advantage of this new rule to ensure that McNeal can play for the Vipers (who utilize the Rockets' system) right out of the blocks instead of having to spend one of the Vipers' early-round draft choices.

Remember Steven Hill? The 7-foot center out of Arkansas who has averaged 3.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks over the course of his NBA Development League career? The guy who, other than that, has played in just one regular season NBA game and been cut from the Portland Trail Blazers and Chicago Bulls preseason rosters since embarking on his professional basketball career?

Well, baby, he's back!

The wonderful Ben Golliver of Blazersedge titled his afternoon Hill feature The Triumphant Return Of Steven Hill and even got some good quotes out of Hill regarding his time in the D-League.

Hill says the D-League worked well for him as a way to stay in front of talent evaluators. "A couple of years ago I was a borderline guy with the Thunder," he explains. "I went down to the D-League, keeps me here in front of people. I was on a team in Tulsa where the coaches put a big emphasis on development. Hence the name, obviously. I look at it as a place to get better."

Blazers GM Rich Cho speaks highly of Hill's work ethic and personality and Hill says it's good to feel wanted. "I know Rich from Tulsa, he was over the minor league operations from Oklahoma City and also when I was in Oklahoma City. I feel real comfortable with him, how he likes to run things, what he expects and hopefully he can know a little bit about what to expect from me too."

Continue reading this post »

NBA roster cuts are currently the hot topic around the league (unless you want to count Rudy Fernandez digging himself a deeper hole or Allen Iverson maybe having to go play in Turkey) and thus, it's about the only thing to write about on Ridiculous Upside right now - especially when you factor in that probably half of these players will end up in the NBA Development League this season.

That said, just like the rest of the year, not everything that matters to me is going to matter to everyone else.  Case in point, yesterday Ira Winderman played the "everyone else" I was referencing in the previous sentence compared to my lovely impression of Faith Hill mixed with the "it's still real to me, dammit" guy when he wrote about the Miami Heat releasing Anthony Mason Jr. and Mickell Gladness.

With Monday's excising of Anthony Mason Jr. and Mickell Gladness, the Heat is essentially where it stood entering camp.

Mason and Gladness were the final two added to what became a 20-player camp roster, now the roster is back to the 18 the Heat had been working with prior to camp.

While the next debate will be which of the three remaining players will be cut, that is relatively meaningless in the big picture.

Whether Patrick Beverley, Kenny Hasbrouck, Shavlik Randolph or Da'Sean Butler remain is superfluous. All it means is the survivor will have to go shopping for sports coats, inactive on most nights.

Continue reading this post »

In perhaps the most predictable training camp cuts of the whole lot (and there were a lot), the Miami Heat today announced that they have released Anthony Mason Jr. and former D-League big man Mickell Gladness to pare their training camp roster to a robust 18 players on their way to the league maximum of just 15 players.  

Before all is said and done, one can expect just one of the remaining four players without guaranteed contracts - Patrick Beverley, Kenny Hasbrouck, Shavlik Randolph and Da'Sean Butler - to end up on the Heat's regular season roster.

Simply put, Mickell Gladness was in Miami because he's a long, wiry shot-blocker who apparently has some ties with the Heat staff that I'm currently unaware of (or a good agent) because the fact that he averaged 4.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks over the course of 41 games with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers last season showed that he simply isn't ready to contribute to an NBA roster - and judging by the Vipers rotation, he wasn't ready to fully contribute on a D-League roster either.  Still, it would please me more than anything if I'm able to watch a two-headed monster of Gladness and recent Houston Rockets' cut Jordan Eglseder this season during Vipers' games.

As for Anthony Mason Jr., his name probably rings as a bell as his dad is the Anthony Mason and he was once featured on MTV's True Life: I'm Rehabbing My Injury.  His game isn't nearly as efficient as his dads, relying instead on shooting jump shots until he gets hot - regardless of how many jumpers that might take - and keeping his dribble slightly higher than Aaron from Eastbound and Down. The Sioux Falls Skyforce would have his rights if he were to join the D-League, which is a good thing since I have a good feeling that their coaching staff would be able to reign him in a bit and let his other talents show.

As for the rest of the players, I'm currently venturing a guess that Patrick Beverley is the one that sticks though Butler would probably have had a better chance if he was going to return from injury sooner.  I'll guess Shavlik Randolph is the next player to get waived.

The Denver Nuggets announced Monday that they have waived former NBA Development League players Courtney Sims and Shane Edwards, thereby reducing their training camp roster to the regular season maximum of 15 players.  Of course, this doesn't mean they're done making cuts, but it does mean that if Eric Boateng, Gary Forbes and Melvin Ely are all really impressive that the Nuggets could keep them for the regular season without having to release anyone with a guaranteed contract.

I really had high hopes for Shane Edwards to make the roster, but in the end he duplicates everything Renaldo Balkman does (as Mark Deeks has mentioned previously) and being a poor man's version of somebody who already is on the roster with a guaranteed contract isn't the best way to make an NBA roster.  That said, Edwards has come a long way since barely making the Albuquerque Thunderbirds via an open tryout.  Hopefully, he'll return to the Thunderbirds this season, round out his game a bit under Darvin Ham and give it another shot next season.

As far as Courtney Sims, I've been down on his career for a little while, but he's still just 26 and could definitely turn his career back around with a quick stint dominating the D-League and getting a quick January call-up instead of going the whatever-he-did-last-season route.  Plus, apparently he was injured with the Nuggets because he didn't play any of their preseason games and said on Twitter after it was announced "Damn... One thing about sports... Injuries can mess up everything."  Hopefully whatever ails him (and I hope it's not still the shin splints) heals quickly.

In the end, I'm going to say that Melvin Ely will make the roster and Gary Forbes has an outside chance as well, with Eric Boatengonly making the cut if Ely gets injured or the rookie out of Arizona State is somehow able to convince the Nuggets brass that he's more ready to step in when needed than the veteran Ely.

The Memphis Grizzlies waived Luke Jackson, Kenny Thomas and Tre Kelley according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Not exactly mind-blowing stuff, but it does mean that both Josh Davis and Damien Wilkins have made the first cut, something the rest of the dudes people in my 'Josh Davis Fans Anonymous' club will surely enjoy.

It's a bit disappointing that Luke Jackson wasn't able to make it, but Xavier Henry finally being signed probably alleviates the shooting need that the Grizzlies brought him in to fill.  Still, the 10th overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft probably deserves to occupy an NBA roster spot simply because there are plenty of teams that could use high basketball I.Q. players who can shoot the lights out from beyond the arc.

Kenny Thomas, well, he's 33 and has played just 57 games over the past three seasons with the Sacramento Kings so I'm not sure he has too many options left in the NBA simply because he's become almost too injury prone to be counted on as a mid-season injury replacement.  Fun fact? He's made $54,613,164 over the course of his NBA careerso if he wants to retire now, he probably can quite comfortably.

Tre Kelley's full name is Alfrie Eugene Kelley, but he goes by Tre and I can tell you why - Alf hasn't been cool since the 90's.  Hopefully he was cleared to play for the Memphis Grizzlies and not involved in a messy situation like 2008 when he got into a situation by going to training camp with the Miami Heat when he was still under contract in Greece (I love history lessons).  I have no idea what his plans are this season, but considering he's been in training camps (and then cut) the past three seasons, it might be time to give the NBA Development League a quick shot to see if he can put up numbers and get a call-up by the time 10-day contracts come along.  If not, he can always return to Eurasia.

The Grizzlies could, potentially, keep either Davis or Wilkins on the roster without having to release any of their other players so maybe this will be something to keep any eye on - for what it's worth, Davis played 13:28 last game and had the highest +/- (+14) while grabbing six points and grabbing five boards while Wilkins got a DNP-Coaches Decision.