I've made a few oblique references this offseason to all of the D-League three-point shooters who will be playing overseas this year, and it's true that there will be some unfamiliar faces jacking up perimeter shots next month.  But it's actually even more remarkable than I thought.  Heres is the list of last year's D-League award winners:

MVP - Courtney Sims
Defensive POY - Brent Petway
Impact POY - Eddie Gill
Rookie of the Year - Othyus Jeffers
Coach of the Year - Quin Snyder
Sportsmanship Award - Will Conroy

Notice anything?  With the exception of perhaps Sims, all of the players listed above are playing overseas (and RU's Coach of the Year pick, Bryan Gates, is in the NBA now).  True, one of them could come back midseason (and be in the running for the Impact award), but those are still some relatively big names missing.  It gets even more drastic than that.  Here are the All D-League teams:

First: Blake Ahearn, Will Conroy, Erik Daniels, Courtney Sims, Marcus Williams

I expect Williams to join back up with the Toros, and we're still waiting to see what Sims will do, but Ahearn, Conroy and Daniels are all overseas now.

Second: Derrick Byars, Josh Davis, Chris Hunter, Trey Johnson, James White

Hunter's back in Fort Wayne, but Byars - gone; Davis - gone; Johnson - gone; White - gone.

Third: Lance Allred, Ronald Dupree, Eddie Gill, Dontell Jefferson, Cartier Martin

Jefferson is back with Utah but I would expect a call-up for him at some point this season (the defense is too good).  Otherwise, they're all in Europe and elsewhere.  And while I won't bother listing all of the honorable mentions, by my count less than half of them are with the D-League again this year.

So what's the point of this?  Change, and lots of it.  Sure it will be disappointing not to see these talented players, but I prefer to see it as a crisi-tunity.  With training camps underway and the regular season starting in just two weeks, a lot of players will have a chance to make their mark on the D-League.  Some of them we can probably guess - expect Marcus Williams to tear it up again until he gets called up, Garrett Siler should be one of the best big men in the league and Carlos Powell and Anthony Tolliver should both fill up the box scores.  But just as likely is that we can't predict right now who's going to make those 2009-2010 All-D-League teams.  It could be someone like Amara Sy, who started his career off promisingly in Europe; or Reggie Williams, who was a smart, crafty scorer in college; heck, it could even be Yaroslav Korolev (it probably won't be Yaroslav Korolev).

All this turnover at the top of the league, talent-wise, is both likely a little daunting for the league and a pretty exciting development for D-League watchers.  Teams are busy right now sorting out who can play and who can't, then it will be our turn.

Last year, right around this time, the Minnesota Timberwolves opted for Kevin Ollie over Blake Ahearn.  I think we all know how that worked out (it didn't).

Well, thanks to the wonderful people over at Black Heart, Gold Pants, there's reason to hate the Wolves again/still.  And I quote:

The particularly prickish aspect of this all is that Reiner was just two days away from playing an exhibition with the T-Wolves in Sioux Falls, home of his successful [D-League] career and a hour's drive away from his hometown of Mitchell. Really, Minnesota? You couldn't work in a couple more days for the Bighorn Chief? You're all bastard people, Timberwolves! That's what you are! You're just bastard people! And I'm going home and I'm gonna... I'm gonna bite my pillow, is what I'm gonna do! Wait, I am home. Whoops.

Yes, Jared Reiner was cut so they could continue to let the rottong corpse/contract of Brian Cardinal chill on the bench/do whatever he does.

I know, I know, a bunch of guys got cut yesterday and you want me to talk about it.  Well we have a weekly feature for that, remember?  I'll get to it on Monday, and hopefully with some more thought into what I write than if I tried to do it piecemeal.  But you haven't even complained, so why am I defending myself.  Besides, they played some games last night!

New York Knicks 94, New Jersey Nets 92

Chris Hunter didn't play much early on in the preseason but he's getting a little more time now, I'm just not sure he's making the most of it.  Almost nine minutes last night and he shot 1-3, for four points (he made both of his free throws).  He had a block, but he also had one of his own rejected and had zero rebounds.  Hunter's very talented who I think could do well in D'Antoni's system, but time's running out.

Miami Heat 99, Memphis Grizzlies 93

Hamed Haddadi played four and a half rebounds and grabbed three rebounds, because that's what he does.  And not reall - alright, I think I've done that bit enough.  The Heat elected to give Carlos Arroyo all of the backup PG minutes again while both John Lucas and Chris Quinn sat.  I have no idea what that means for Quinn, but it can't be good for Lucas, which is unfortunate.

Boston Celtics 96, Cleveland Cavaliers 82

Alright, so J.R. Giddens isn't a rebounding monster that will devour us all, as he grabbed just two in 19 and a half minutes.  He didn't even score any points to make up for it, and really I have no idea what his next move is.  I doubt the Celtics keep him on, and while he did pretty well in the D-League, that doesn't seem to be the option of choice these days.  But then again he doesn't really have the outside game to hang in Europe or Asia.  Midge, help me out here.  Also, I'm choosing to believe that Jawad Williams didn't play the last few games because the team knows it's keeping him and they want to see what other guys can do.  Yep, that's what I think.  La la la la, I can't hear you, la la la la la.

The preseason is beginning to wind down, as there were just three games last night.  And pretty uninteresting ones too for our purposes.  A lot of guys playing two or three minutes.  Let's get to it, I guess.

Atlanta Hawks 113, Washington Wizards 95

Paul Davis has played better in the preseason than I expected, and last night he shot 3-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line, and finished with eight points, three rebounds and a steal in a little under seven minutes.  Courtney Sims played about eight and a half minutes and a finished with six points (on 2-2 shooting both from the field and the line), but had no rebounds and a pair of fouls.  He's been scoring pretty well and pretty efficiently for Atlanta, but hasn't offered much else.

Houston Rockets 105, Oklahoma City 85

D.J. White had a pretty good game, shooting 4-6 and finishing with eight points, four rebounds and a block in 16 minutes.  Efficient Pops was back in this one, as Mensah-Bonsu made five of his six field goals (though only three of his six free throws).  He also grabbed four rebounds in a little over 16 minutes, though he also had a pair of turnovers.

I know this isn't every game from last night, but not every team has former D-Leaguers on their roster (at least not anymore - thanks a lot, Knicks), and there were some teams that have just one guy who didn't play well.  While I'm perfectly willing to call guys out who struggle (as you'll see below), I just don't see the point of making that the only thing I talk about with a particular game.

Indiana Pacers 119, Houston Rockets 104

Will Conroy and Romel Beck finally got in the game for Houston after spending the last few games on the bench.  Conroy didn't have the best shooting night, 2-8 overall and 2-3 on three-pointers (which is good, but 0-5 on two-pointers is not), but he made eight of his 10 free throws, picked up nine assists and five rebounds in 26 and a half minutes, and best of all he had only one assist.  Fantastic all-around game (aside from the missed two-pointers).  Beck didn't shoot the ball particularly well either, with nine points on seven shots, but with Beck you don't get much in the non-scoring categories.  Two offensive rebounds and, well, that's it, in 16 and a half minutes.  Pops Mensah-Bonsu followed up his fantastic game on Thursday with nine rebounds (six offensive) and four blocks in 20 and a half minutes.  But remember when I said he had a problem with scoring efficiency?  Yeah, he needed eight shots to get four points.  I'm guessing a lot of those offensive rebounds were off his own misses.

San Antonio Spurs 105, Cleveland Cavaliers 98

Rob Kurz hasn't played much this preseason and hasn't shown much when he has, but he played well last night, scoring 10 points on 4-6 shooting and three rebounds.  Oh, he also fouled out in a little over 15 minutes.  Well there goes that.  Ian Mahinmi ran into some foul trouble of his own, picking up five in 11 and a half minutes.  Coby Karl shot the ball pretty terribly, 1-7 overall and missing all six of his three-pointers.  He's versatile enough to contribute in other areas when his shot isn't falling, but he didn't really do that either, collecting a pair of assists and one rebound.  Russell Robinson shot the ball well, 3-5 from the field and 4-4 from the line, but he also paired his three assists with two turnovers.  Malik Hairston did a good job of getting to the free throw line, where he made all five of his shots and was able to finish with 11 points on six shots

Chicago Bulls 94, Minnesota Timberwolves 90

Derrick Byars got a fair amount of playing time in this one, 19 and a half minutes, but he needed five shots to get five points, and while he had three rebounds and a steal, he also had three fouls and a turnover.  I'd really like to see Byars make this team, but his performance hasn't been as eye-popping as it probably needs to be.

Houston Rockets 124, Toronto Raptors 112

Pops Mensah-Bonsu had a huge game off the bench for the Rockets, with 17 points on 8-9 shooting, seven rebounds and five blocks in 23 and a half minutes.  It's probably not just optimism that makes me say that Mensah-Bonsu has a solid shot at becoming Houston's backup center this year, as the only other two guys who can play the position are Luis Scola, who's really more of a power forward, and David Andersen, who's talented but also new to the system and to the NBA (he fouled out in 22 and a half minutes).  M-B's a bit undersized to play in the middle, true, but that matters less in Houston than with any other team.  The lack of a consistent offensive game is what's held Mensah-Bonsu in the past, and one game certainly isn't evidence that it's suddenly shown up, but I do like his chances.  Sonny Weems wasn't great for Toronto, scoring 11 points on nine shots, but he was bothered by his foot a little bit and also picked up three rebounds and a steal.

Utah Jazz 99, Portland Trail Blazers 96

Ime Udoka hasn't played much this preseason, but he had a pretty good game last night with five points on three shots, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in 19 and a half minutes.  Utah's former D-Leaguers were more of a mixed bag (which makes sense, since there were, well, more of them).  On one side there was Kosta Koufos who made his only shot, grabbed two rebounds and had a block, and while his per-minute numbers aren't great (he played just nine, and eight rebounds-per-36 is okay but not fantastic), both rebounds were on the offensive end, so that's nice.  On the other side is Kyrylo Fesenko, who picked up four fouls and turned the ball over three times in his 11 minutes of action, though he did also have a pair of blocks.

Miami Heat 97, New Orleans Hornets

The Heat were in control for almost the entire game, and surprise surprise New Orleans' lack of any real bench scoring was one reason why.  Rookie Marcus Thornton should help, but I remain puzzled as to why a team with such a smart, capable GM hasn't brought in any cheap help in over the last year.  The team reported has liked Courtney Sims in the past, for instance, and he could've helped them out in both the scoring and big man departments.  Maybe there are some stories I'm not privy to, or maybe they just don't consider the D-League, and bring in guys like Luke Nevill and Earl Barron and Larry Owens instead.  If all of this seems off-topic it's because no one this website cares about played much.  The aforementioned Barron played a little over four minutes and had two points and zero rebounds.  John Lucas played two and a half minutes and scored four points on 1-1 shooting and going 2-2 from the free throw line, but once again Carlos Arroyo got the big backup PG minutes.  Wheeeeeee.

Dallas Mavericks 113, Detroit Pistons 88

Nate Jawai played a little under eight minutes in this one, and the result was, well, Jawai-y.  Two points, two assists, zero rebounds, two turnovers, two fouls.  Maybe Dallas wasn't crazy for bringing Jake Voskuhl in after all (four minutes, two points, three rebounds, a steal and a block).

LA Lakers 98, Sacramento Kings 92

Shannon Brown seems to have firmed up his place in the NBA the last few years, but I'll include him here to "cover" this game.  He didn't play particularly well, shooting 2-7 and finishing with six points and three fouls in 17 minutes, though he also grabbed four rebounds.  It also sounds like he'll get some significant minutes this year, as he'll have spent more time in the Triangle, and the team has forwards who can run it (like Luke Walton) while hecontinues to get up to speed.

Our last Eastern Conference team is the Philadelphia 76ers, who I was a bit rough on recently over their attitude towards the D-League.  I'll try to talk about Stromile Swift without yelling.

Stromile Swift - In fact, let's just get this out of the way.  Forget Mike Sweetney, it's guys like Swift who I rant about when I rant about D-League players getting passed over for retreads.  And in fact, Swift may have a good shot at making the team, since new coach Eddie Jordan loves veterans, especially in the frontcourt, and playing Swift over Marreese Speights would totally be an EJ move (I'm speaking as a Wizards fan, here).  That's assuming Swift hustles in practice and gives the impression that he can still contribute, anyway.  Which you look at and say "yeah, but it's Stromile Swift," but NBA teams will eventually stop calling, and after the season he had last year Swift may be motivated in case they stop calling in 2010.

Dionte Christmas - I'd say Christmas has a good chance to make the team as well, since he's from Philadelphia, went to Temple, etc., but the team has had a lot of chances to sign him by this point, and since it hasn't happened I wonder if they're just helping a local guy get noticed by other teams.  He didn't really impress in Summer League, though, as he had one good game but otherwise couldn't score consistently, and didn't do much other than shoot.  Eddie Jordan likes toughness (he brought in the Univ. of Illinois Dee Brown a few years ago to add "Chicago toughness"), so I'm sure he'll love that about Christmas, but the shot just isn't there.

Sean Singletary - Singletary is another Philadelphia guy who actually can make threes, 40 percent last year in fact (not counting the D-League, though he made three of his five outside shots there).  He averaged about four and a half rebounds per 36 minutes, which is decent for a 6'0" point guard, though the assists weren't really there and he occasionally forces shots.  If Eddie Jordan decides Jrue Holiday isn't ready to step into the backup point guard spot, Singletary could get a look there.

Brandon Bowman - Bowman spent a few years playing in the D-League and overseas after coming out of Georgetown, and he's a small forward who defends very well and made 40 percent of his threes with Bakersfield in 2006 and 36.4 percent in 2007.  The 76ers signed Rodney Carney a few weeks before bringing Bowman in, not to mention having guys like Kapono, Young, and occasionally Iguodala and Ivey who they can throw out there at small forward, but Bowman would be a solid bench option for them nonetheless.

Rashad Jones-Jennings - Jones-Jennings was the NCAA's leading rebounder a few years ago, but he went undrafted and ended up playing in Germany after appearing on Philadelphia's 2007 Summer League team.  DraftExpress has him down as a very good rebounder (makes sense) and post defender with hands made out of stone and almost no offensive game to speak of.  That description is starting to give me Etan Thomas flashbacks, so maybe EJ will find a spot for Jones-Jennings as well.  Heck, put all of these guys on the roster, why not.