The best of what's left after what was the best of what's left has gone and is no longer left

It's weird that Ben Wallace is the only one of these four with a contract.

This snappily titled post is, in essence, an update to the earlier similarly titled one that detailed the best remaining free agents in the world of basketball. The list was designed to be comprehensive - which is why Greg Buckner was in it - yet it wasn't perfect.

Some players should have been listed on it before, and are listed now. Some others who should have been listed before, but weren't, have now signed elsewhere and are once again not listed (as is the case with Ishmael Smith, who has signed a two year deal with the Rockets, and Artsiom Parakhouski, who signed with Latvian team VEF Riga.) And these players need removing from the list, as they have now signed contracts:

Jason Williams re-signed with Orlando.
Acie Law signed with Memphis.
Eddie House signed with Miami.
Travis Diener signed in Italy with Dinamo Sassari.
Marcus Williams signed with BC Enisey Krasnoyarsk in Russia.
Sherron Collins signed with Charlotte.
Lester Hudson agreed to go to training camp with Washington.
Jerome Randle signed with Aliaga Petkim in Turkey.
Shannon Brown re-signed with the L.A. Lakers.
Roger Mason signed with New York.
Jaycee Carroll will stay with Gran Canaria in Spain.
Blake Ahearn signed with Bancas Teramo in Italy.
Louis Bullock signed with Cajasol Sevilla in Spain.
Donell Taylor signed with Fastweb Casale Monferrato in Italy.
Ryan Thompson agreed to go to training camp with Utah.
Tracy McGrady signed with Detroit.
Linton Johnson signed with Air Avellino in Italy.
Keith Bogans signed with Chicago.
Taylor Griffin was waived by the Suns and then immediately signed in Belgium with Belgacom Liege.
Raymar Morgan signed in Israel with Maccabi Rishon.
Lee Nailon also signed in Israel with Bnei Hasharon.
Alando Tucker signed in Russia with Lokomotiv Kuban.
Pops Mensah-Bonsu signed in Spain with Caja Laboral.
Sean May signed with New Jersey.
Rob Kurz signed in Spain with CB Granada.
Anthony Tolliver signed with Minnesota.
Tim Thomas re-signed with Dallas.
Mac Koshwal signed in Spain's second division with Socas Canarias. (So did Mike Gansey.)
Shaquille O'Neal signed with Boston.
Rasho Nesterovic signed in Greece with Olympiakos. (Let's Euroleague!)
Jason Collins re-signed with Atlanta.
Robert Swift signed in Japan with Tokyo Apache, alongside Byron Eaton and Jeremy Tyler.
Adonal Foyle retired.
Stewie Pecherov signed in Italy with A.J. Milano.
Nathan Jawai signed in Serbia with Partizan Belgrade.
Mario Kasun signed in Croatia with KK Zagreb.


In place of those guys are some new ones. In place of the blurbs of the repeated players are updates on their progress since the last check-in, if any. To see the old blurbs for players on the previous list, click the asterisks next to their name.

Creative Financing in the NBA, 2010

Last year, I wrote a couple of posts under the heading of "Creative Financing in the NBA." Inspired by seeing a series of quirky salary techniques that I had not previously seen in my three long and sexless years of compiling NBA salary information, I was inspired to steal Magic GM Otis Smith's favoured phrase without permission, and use it to describe some of the financial anomalies that the offseason transactions had puked over our spreadsheets. The posts were reasonably successful, drawing in both the 25th and 26th regular viewers to the site; more than anything, however, they were a pleasure to write.

Therefore, there follows another post for salary anomalies and trivia from the 2010 NBA offseason, a breakdown of all quirky payroll-related idiosyncrasies and manipulation that took place in front of our very eyes, even if we didn't really notice it at the time. Note: this will not interest you, unless you are really really really boring.

(Mind you, that could be said about this entire site.)

The best of what's left

Shaq and LeBron in a twat-off

The international basketball market is incredibly dry right now, and there's a lot more produce than buyers. The whole nation of Greece is broke, and Spanish clubs are running into financial barriers they're not normally known for. Even Italian teams, including four time defending champion Montepaschi Siena, are facing budget cuts.

In the NBA, most of the big stuff has been done. Of the 280 or so rotation spots in the league, most have been filled, and rosters in general are starting to fill up. That said, there's still a lot of players out there looking for work, ranging from the meh to the intriguing. This excessively long list attempts to chronicle them all.

The following is written with an eye on NBA signings; however, these players are of course open to the world at large. Hardened readers will note that a lot of these blurbs are jacked from other places where I have written them before.....but, you know, whatever.

A History Of Failed Physicals

The following post will features as many Head puns as I can think of, with varying degrees of subtlety.

Earlier this month, free agent Indiana Pacers guard Luther Head came to terms with the New Orleans Hornets on a two year contract. A mere couple of days after this news was reported came the news that Head's job offer was gone; he had failed his physical examination with the team, and that the signing had been called off. Head is now available for everyone.

Controversy surrounded the decision. Head's agent, Mark Bartelstein, slammed the Hornets's decision. Bartelstein claimed there was ulterior motives behind the veto, and that the Hornets had claimed Head had failed the physical just to get out of the signing, when in actuality they'd just had a re-think. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports took that angle further, calling the decision a "slimy trick", and loudly calling out Hornets executive Hugh Weber.

That said, there's always controversy when a player fails a physical. In all the time I have been following the NBA, the team trading away the player - or, in Head's case, the free agent's agent - have cited some kind of failure of the due diligence on the part of the recipient team as being the only reason for the vetoing of the transaction. On a case-by-case basis, that may be entirely correct; for all I know, the Hornets DID do what Barts and Woj suggest, and veto the deal on flimsy grounds because they'd simply changed their minds. Or maybe the Hornets were genuine about their claims on Head's health. I don't know. It's not my place to know. And I don't really want to know.

But what it did stir within me was a desire to investigate failed physicals over the years, and what they actually represent. If someone fails a physical because a team sees a possible long-term health problem down the road, how accurate have those assessments been? Armed with the benefit of hindsight, I was intrigued to find out.

There follows a list of all failed physicals in the NBA since the advent of the 1993-94 season; as the very least, it's as accurate of a list as I could compile. If any failed physicals in that time span have been overlooked, let me know.

2010 KBL Draft Results

The South Korean basketball league (KBL) is an interesting one. Much like the Chinese Basketball Association, it is interesting for three main reasons;

1) It's full of import players that you've heard of,

2) The domestic players' talent level is pretty bad,

3) The import players' talent level is pretty good.

This leads to huge statistics from players that you've heard of. And that can never be bad.

The KBL employs a draft process for its import players that is better described here. Also at that link is the list of 165 players who registered for the KBL's draft pool; it is from that list that the drafted players were chosen. That listed was whittled down from 224 to 165, and it is reproduced below for no real reason.

Ex-NBA player Charles Shackleford arrested for selling prescription medication

Per a million places, but arbitrarily taken from ENCToday.com, former NBA big man Charles Shackleford has been arrested in an undercover drug operation that saw him trying to sell 150 pills to the rozzers.

Charles Shackleford is in trouble with the law for the second time in six months.

Shackleford, a former Kinston High School, NCSU and NBA basketball player, was arrested by the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday after he allegedly sold 150 prescription pills to an undercover officer.

The incident took place in the vicinity of Fairgrounds Road and N.C. 11/55 in Kinston. The 6-foot, 11-inch Shackleford was transported, processed and taken before a Lenoir County magistrate, who ordered the 44-year-old to be held in the Lenoir County Jail under a $30,000 secured bond.

Shackleford’s first court appearance is scheduled for Monday morning.

The article goes on to describe an arrest of Shackleford's from earlier thus year, in a bizarre care involving identity theft and ex-NBA player Jayson Williams. Before that, Shackle was arrested in 2006 for drug and weapon possession, pleading guilty to the weapons charge in exchange for the drugs charges being dropped. His retirement from basketball has not gone well.

Nonetheless, Shackleford is perhaps most known for a quote that is a mainstay in the ShamSports.com quote archive:

"Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter. I'm amphibious."

Lorenzen Wright has gone missing

Per this story from George Brown of WREG.com, former NBA big man Lorenzen Wright has gone missing.

The family of Lorenzen Wright says he's been missing since Sunday.

Wright's sister, Savia Archie, says her family is very concerned.

Archie said, Wright was last seen on sunday when he was expected to fly out of Memphis, but no one has heard from him since.

The family has filed a missing persons with the Collierville police department.

2010 Summer League Rosters: Detroit Pistons

Patrick Christopher

Christopher is a streak shooter out of Cal who doesn't do a whole lot else. If he's hot, he can score 30; if he's not, he can go 3-15. Regardless of whether he's making them, he takes them, which could be interpreted as a good or a bad thing. He's athletic and strong, but he doesn't do much with them other than take jumpshots. Had he done so, he might have gotten drafted.

2010 Summer League Rosters: New York Knicks

Eric Boateng

Boateng is an English centre who played one year at Duke, before transferring to Arizona State, where he just completed his senior season. He barely played at all in his first four seasons, but finally got a chance to play last year, and responded with averages of 8.8ppg and 7.2rpg on 66% shooting. However, even though he turns 25 in November, Boateng is still an incredibly raw player. He turned it over 2.1 times per game in only 27 minutes, despite not taking any dribbles at any point, and shot only 50% from the foul line. He's also not much of a shotblocker; essentially, he's a 6'10 slightly above average rebounder.

Boateng will play for the Great Britain national team this summer, but mainly others won't. Joel Freeland and Ben Gordon just dropped out this week due to injury, and earlier, Robert Archibald had also pulled out. Nick George and Andy Betts have also pulled out, leaving the team with almost no quality left on it, and its chances of qualifying for Eurobasket 2011 in tatters.

This is why Luol Deng is so unbelievably freaking important to us. He is now our everything. Anyway, I've tangented.

2010 Summer League Rosters: Washington Wizards

Trevor Booker

My early proclamations that Booker might be the next Paul Millsap were a bit premature, and overlooked the fact that Booker is about half the rebounder that Millsap is. Jumped the gun a bit there, I did. However, I remain confident in Booker's abilities to contribute at the NBA level, despite his lack of size for the position. Boozer is athletic enough and has improved his face-up game, both the drive and the shot. He'll have to be a small power forward, but he's strong and athletic enough to do that.