Even all the way over in Spain, the Portland Trail Blazers injury woes will hit close to home.
Joel Freeland - who plays for Unicaja Malaga in the ACB Spanish league and remains the draft property of the Blazers - will miss the next 15 to 20 days of action with a sprained right ankle the team announced today.
Freeland is averaging 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game as Unicaja's leading scorer and his right ankle just might throw up a red flag when Portland decides to revisit conversations during the offseason about having what some scouts overseas consider "the best big in Europe" playing for the Blazers.
(Another post from Ryan Ripley. Enjoy! -- Scott)
As kids we learn that ants do not enjoy being under a magnifying glass, but with only one win in the past eight games including a three-game losing streak, that’s exactly where the Fort Wayne Mad Ants found themselves on January 7 -- with a home game against a talented Canton Charge team coming up to boot.
Frequent roster changes and the replacement of head coach Joey Meyer with 26-year-old assistant coach Steve Gansey only intensified the scrutiny. Another thing learned as kids, though, is that while ants might scatter under a magnifying glass, they come back stronger and more determined than ever to get the job done.
Jon Diebler had no idea this is how his first year out of college would turn out.
After growing up in Upper Sandusky and spending his entire life living in Ohio, the state's all-time leading scorer now finds himself halfway around the world. In a matter of three months, Diebler went from graduating as the Big Ten's all-time leader in 3-point field goals at Ohio State, to a newlywed, to being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers (51st overall in the 2011 NBA Draft) and suddenly playing for Panionios in the Greek League and living in the Nea Smymi district in Athens, Greece.
Not bad for a 23-year old who thought he'd have to battle for a roster spot with a non-guaranteed contract in Portland.
Funny how life turns out. While the NBA lockout was a curse to some players around the league, it's truly turned into a blessing for Diebler.
"I have no regrets waiting (to play overseas). I looked at this as an opportunity to get better as a basketball player, but most importantly grow as a man," Diebler told Ridiculous Upside.
"This has taught me patience and made me realize how truly blessed I am to play the game that I love in another part of the world."
Five games.
That's how many games Scottie Reynolds officially played in Italy during his three-month stretch for Prima Veroli back in 2010 after failing to make the Phoenix Suns roster, and now after being cut by the Utah Jazz out of training camp in late December, the 6-foot-2 guard is giving another go at playing basketball in Europe.
Reynolds signed with Antalya Metropolitan Municipality in Turkey the team announced today.
He spend a week in camp with the Jazz and prior to the start of the D-League season, declined offers from teams around the developmental league in hopes he'd land a guaranteed job on an NBA roster.
It didn't happen.
The 2012 NBA D-League Showcase is underway in Reno, Nev., with the Idaho Stampede and Erie BayHawks playing in the first game of the day. Your's truly is here and, since it's going to be tough to stay focused as I watch 16 games over the next four days, I figured it might be a good idea to leave some thoughts here.
Most of my stuff will be hosted over at NBC Sports' Pro Basketball Talk over the next few days, but this'll serve as the B Side of sorts -- or at least that's the plan. For my official writings, be sure to check out my D-League Showcase primeras well as my preview of Day 1's action over at PBT (and thank them for letting me write over there this week while you're at it).
Anyway, stay tuned to NBA TV for the first couple of games and D-League Futurecast so you can watch for me and everything else happening at the beautiful Reno Events Center. Any thoughts I have on today's action will be posted below.
Hello everyone,
It's been a few days since I've been able to write at Ridiculous Upside as I attempted to get over a vicious sickness -- apparently Mother Nature didn't want me running outside in shorts during January even if we did set a record up here in balmy North Dakota). Before this starts sounding like a Christmas letter, though, let's get into the meat and potatoes of why I'm reaching out to you on this lovely Sunday morning.
Some D-League coaching news happened while I was out as the Fort Wayne Mad Ants decided to replace Joey Meyer with up-and-comer Steve Gansey. Coach Meyer was liked by everyone I've ever heard talk about him, but it seemed the Mad Ants needed a bit of a shakeup as of late as the talent simply wasn't performing up to expectations.
Gansey, a 26-year-old with Ridiculous Upside, should be able to change things around as he was able to pick up his first victory as a head coach on Saturday night with a 107-98 victory over the Canton Charge. Congratulations to Coach Gansey as well as his de facto top assistant -- the all-knowing Sebastian Pruiti.
The first game of TNT's Thursday night doubleheader featured a thrilling triple overtime tilt between the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks that saw the Heat survive when the Hawks ran out of gas in the third overtime. But what the devoted followers of this blog might find most interesting is that the game featured big performances by two former D-Leaguers.
Miami was without its top two players as shooting guard Dwayne Wade and small forward LeBron James each sat out while recovering from injuries. With two wings unavailable, Miami had to look to the bottom of the depth chart and call upon Terrel Harris, an Oklahoma State alum who began the 2011-2012 season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA D-League.
