Cuse Country

Basketball season is nigh. Nigh I say! And while the official Cuse Country SU Hoops Season Preview Special won’t be ready for a little while longer, there has been a lot going on with the SU alums in the NBA and elsewhere that you ought to know about while prepping yourself for tomorrow night’s Midnight Madness (which of course starts at 8 PM).

All Orange eyes have been on Jonny Flynn’s entry into the Association. He’s been reasonably good, but not mind-blowing, in Minnesota’s first few preseason games. He’s scored 14, 14, and 13 points respectively, with 7, 1, and 3 assists. He’s only shot 7-19 in the three games combined. New Wolves coach Kurt Rambis is installing the triangle offense and it’s been a bit of an adjustment for Jonny, but all signs point to his continued improvement. He is expected to start from Day 1. The Wolves also recently signed SU alum and NBA journeyman Jason Hart, last seen in Denver, as a “mentor” for Flynn and their other young PG Ramon Sessions, and as an insurance policy in case one of them should get injured. Hart is not guaranteed to make the team but it appears likely since Minnesota is otherwise thin at the 1. Paul Harris, meanwhile, has not been able to get into a preseason game due to his injured ankle. Eric Devendorf has not been invited to any NBA camps and, according to Mike Waters’ blog, is mulling whether to play overseas or try to land a spot in the NBDL and hopefully impress a scout or two.

Don’t forget about the other guys on the fringes of NBA training camps: Demetris Nichols and Darryl Watkins. As we mentioned a couple weeks back, Demetris is in Pacers camp but is unlikely to make the team; rather, he is hoping to impress another team and find a spot elsewhere in the league. He’s played around 6 minutes in each of Indiana’s first three preseason games, but “impress” is not the word I’d use. He’s a combined 0-5 from the field; for a guy whose best attribute as a pro is supposed to be his shooting, that’s pretty unfortunate. Watkins meanwhile got 6 minutes in Cleveland’s first preseason game, tallying three rebounds and a blocked shot, but then saw just 2 minutes in their second game and did not play in their most recent one.

Donte Greene’s fortunes have taken a major twist. First, his new coach, NBA sideline veteran Paul Westphal, sees a completely different role for him. Westphal wants Donte to remake himself as a “defensive stopper who can score a little” (via Sactown Royalty). He sees that as Donte’s future in the league, which is astonishing to those of us who watched him play at SU just two seasons ago, when he was an offensive machine (on his good days anyway) but tended to not take his defense seriously. It’ll be interesting to see whether his first pro year, during which he rode the pine quite a bit, helped him mature mentally and emotionally enough to make such a drastic shift in his approach to the game. But things get more complicated than that. Kings star small forward Francisco Garcia is going to miss four months after an exercise ball he was laying on while weightlifting exploded, causing him to fall and break his arm. This opens up more potential playing time for Donte. The Kings have only played two preseason games to this point. Donte only played in one of them, tallying 8 minutes back on October 6, going 0-2 from the field with one board and two steals. We will find out Thursday night how Garcia’s absence might affect Greene’s PT.

Etan Thomas’ contract in Oklahoma City is secure, but the amount of playing time he is going to get is up in the air. The trend is favorable, though. He’s started their last two preseason games, including playing 23 minutes last night, scoring 11 points and helping to ice the game by hitting two free throws (!) with 12 seconds remaining. Hakim Warrick is also thriving in his new location, having finally got out of Memphis signed with Milwaukee in the offseason. Hak has scored double-figures in all five of the Bucks’ games this preseason, including 25 points on 9-14 shooting and 6 rebounds in Tuesday’s loss to Chicago. He started that game at center (!) because Bucks starting C Andrew Bogut was held out with a sore back, but he is expected to be the primary frontcourt reserve this season. He’s averaged 17.2 ppg and 6.8 rpg this preseason.

Finally, let’s not forget about Carmelo Anthony. We take the man for granted, seeing as how most of the other SU alums in the pros have always seemed to have a tenuous grip on their roster spots or their playing time. Meanwhile Carmelo just keeps doing what he does. Over the weekend, though, he did more than just his usual great performance. In a win over the Pacers he scored 45 points in 24 minutes. He shot 14-19 from the floor and 16-17 from the line, and also grabbed 9 rebounds. His first two preseason games had been fairly pedestrian — just getting his legs under him, that sort of thing. But this was a veritable explosion. He looks poised for another All-Star caliber season.

(Weird fact: all of these SU alums appear on teams in either the Northwest or the Central divisions of the NBA.)

There is a bit of news from overseas to share as well. We mentioned over the summer that Matt Gorman had re-signed with the Sheffield (UK) Sharks and that Kristof Ongenaet had signed to play in Italy. There are a few more signings of note that have come down the line in the past few weeks. Preston Shumpert re-joined Efes Pilsen in Turkey, for whom he played last season. Ryan Blackwell also stayed put, signing with the Osaka Evessa, with whom he played the second half of last season in Japan’s BJ League. Also joining the BJ League is Terrence Roberts, who signed on with the Saitama Broncos. In fact, he is the new face of the franchise:

At least, that is what you see at the top of their website. No word yet on where Josh Pace, Otis Hill, or Elvir Ovcina might end up. Some of the overseas leagues have begun play, others are still in preseason. Many wait to see which NBA castoffs they might be able to bring in, and don’t stabilize their rosters until well after the NBA season begins. (I saw one report that Demetris Nichols worked out for a team in Ukraine and that he might go there if he doesn’t stick in the NBA.) For those who have begun play, we’ll begin updating you about their exploits sometime next week or weekend.