Benetton Treviso is a name plenty of American basketball fans have heard over the years. The team that sent Toni Kukoc, Bostjan Nachbar, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Andrea Bargnani and Donatas Motiejunas to the NBA will now be taking some of the NBA's cult figures as the Italian team's roster currently includes Brian Scalabrine, Jeff Adrien and E`Twaun Moore.

Scalabrine is actually just with the team for a tryout right now, as Sportando Basket brought to my attention, but there really shouldn't be any doubt that his ability to do everything he's been doing in the NBA will translate to Europe, therefore allowing him to make the team.

Interestingly enough, if Google Translate isn't totally wonky, it almost seems as if signing Scalabrine was a bit of a publicity stunt while reading the team's official press release.

In all the clubs where he played was the idol of the fans, with choirs and custom fan club that made him a true player "cult" in the NBA, so that there are no videos dedicated to him on You Tube and facebook pages: the more he clicked the tune of over 78,000 fans, while another page with more than 8,000 contacts, says that "Brian Scalabrine has more rings (the" badges "of the NBA) LeBron James."

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If my lovely readers answered the headline's question with "cool names," they would be right. However, Oleksiy Pecherov, Latavious Williams and Alonzo Gee are also three notable on-the-fringe NBA players that decided to sign in Europe on Tuesday with the NBA lockout still looming.

The fact that all three signed in Europe on Tuesday doesn't exactly mean much, but considering a decent amount of near-NBA players also decided to go abroad on Monday, it probably means that the European teams are working to put the finishing touches on their rosters. With this, we're probably also getting closer to having the overseas market dry up, a perilous outcome for the other NBA players still looking for work in light of the lockout.

The biggest name of the three is probably Pecherov, a Stewie Griffin doppelganger and first round pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Pecherov didn't play in the NBA last season -- which I didn't realize before sitting down to write this post -- and won't play in the NBA next season, either, as he's signed on to play with Azovmash in Eurocup competition.

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It's Tuesday and nothing happened in the D-League on Monday. Nothing. I sent text messages to all of my sources and they either said they didn't know of anything happening, they knew nothing was happening or they ignored me because they're too big time (this in reference, mostly, to J.R. Slagendorff and his team's recruitment of one Bruce Pearl).

The blog must go on though, as they say, so today's topic of discussion will be about NBA players -- and not quite NBA players -- still steadily taking their talents to Europe.

The move that made the most waves on Monday was Nikola Vucevic, the Philadelphia 76ers first round pick, taking his talents back to Montenegro to play in the Euroleague. Vucevic wasn't the only play to sign away the first few months of the upcoming basketball season, however.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are hosting a free agent mini-camp this week, but we already knew that. Unlike most of the other teams bringing in a crop of young players for workouts this week, however, the Lakers have decided to go with a healthy dose of veterans.

The Lakers will likely have 10 players under contract heading into next season, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin -- and that's not counting the three second round picks they added in last week's Draft.  

Considering the team is rumored to go after a few well-known free agents, that leaves just a couple of available roster spots to fight for betweeen the 21 players in attendance at the El Segundo practice facility this week.

Along with second round picks Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock and Ater Majok -- the latter of which will be encouraged to continue to develop overseas for the time being, according to McMenamin's story -- a solid array of NBA and D-League veterans peppered the list of invitees handed out to the Lakers media in attendance.

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Not much in the way of NBA rumors, at least as they pertain to the Ridiculous Upside community, but there were a couple of things of interest that I've tracked down for the 12 loyal readers of my humble abode. Let me tell you about them!

There are two more mini-camps taking place this week, in addition to the three already happening, as both the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns will take looks at potential minimum salary additions to next season's roster.

The Lakers will bring in Bobby Brown, Bobby Simmons, Kevin Palmer, Jamelle Horne, Steven Smith, Leo Lyons, Eric Boateng and J.R. Giddens for a look at a good cross-section of NBA veterans with a couple of hard-playing rookies thrown in for good measure. More players are expected, including a few longtime NBA veterans if my sources are correct, and should be confirmed tomorrow.

The Suns, on the other hand, will host a handful of the top undrafted rookies including Diante Garrett, Justin Hurtt and Cory Higgins along with second-year pros Dionte Christmas and Edgar Sosa among others. Update: Paul Coro says Sean Williams, Matt Howard and Matthew Bryan-Amaning will also be in attendance.

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The Miami Heat are holding a free agent camp this week, as briefly mentioned on Monday, featuring a fair amount of under-the-radar prospects. The names in Miami aren't the household names that have been frequenting this summer's free agent workouts, but there's a decent number of players that just might be able to crack an NBA roster next season.

The biggest name on the list, and that's meant in the least offensive way possible, is Eddy Curry. The former fourth overall pick has played in just 10 regular season games over the past three seasons, but is still just 28 years of age and could potentially contribute to an NBA team again if he's able to get in even decent shape.

There is a decent chance Curry finds himself in better shape, too, as the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Ira Winderman reports that he's working out with fellow big man Dexter Pittman. Pittman was a rather large individual during his time as a Texas Longhorn, but after spending this last season split between Miami's training staff and the D-League's Sioux Falls Skyforce, one might consider Pittman downright svelte these days.

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There has been plenty of talk at Ridiculous Upside about free agent workouts over the past few weeks, but a less star-studded free agent workout happened over the weekend when the D-League held its National Tryout in Louisville, Ky.

263 Players paid $650 to tryout for the possibility to be put into the annual D-League Draft, which doesn't come with a guarantee to be selected in said draft, but there were plenty of dreamers there as the Courier-Journal's Rick Bozich pointed out in his column. 

Since most of the top D-League players are put in on name recognition alone, it was surprising to see former Texas Longhorns guard A.J. Abrams on the list of attendees. Considering the other names I recognized were Jarred Axon and Adam Liberty, Abrams should have stood out like a man among boys and is a near-lock to at least earn his way into November's draft.

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The 2011 NBA Draft has come and gone, leaving everyone waiting now for good news regarding the looming NBA lockout.  Until then, however, we'll keep the rumor roundup going as long as there are interesting things coming out on the undrafted prospects -- as well as the other free agents outside of the NBA.

One thing that hasn't made its rounds to the mainstream media is the fact that Joe Alexander recently worked out for four days with the Milwaukee Bucks, according to the St. Cloud Times.

Alexander was drafted by the Bucks with the eighth over all pick in the 2008 NBA Draft before the team couldn't figure out how to use him and eventually declined his rookie option. Since, Alexander's become much-improved while rounding out his game in the D-League -- even if it seems he may have lost some of the athleticism that made him a lottery pick in the first place.

Alexander has been quite busy this summer as he's already attended free agent workouts with the Thunder, Knicks, Nuggets and Grizzlies and an upcoming workout planned with the Hawks this week. That said, it'd be pretty crazy if Alexander ended up back in Milwaukee, but I'm fairly certain he'd be okay with it if that's his best opportunity.

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