From the No Surprises Here department: Demetris Nichols, Darryl Watkins, and Paul Harris were all waived by their respective NBA teams within the past couple of days. The NBA season begins Tuesday, and rosters are being trimmed accordingly. Harris never made it into a preseason game due to his injured ankle. Mookie’s actually played a full 13 minutes in his final preseason game, garnering three rebounds for his effort. Demetris got himself off the schneid, hitting a three-pointer and grabbing two rebounds in his last preseason game for the Pacers. All three guys now face the decision between playing in the D-League or going overseas; it’s a question of getting paid now with little exposure (overseas) vs. getting paid little with lots of exposure that may turn into an NBA contract (in the D-League). If I had to bet, I’d expect Paul Harris to give the D-League a try while he is still young; Demetris will also probably head back there, considering he’s actually got NBA deals out of it in the past; Mookie has already tried the D-League without much success — it’s not really a big man’s game down there — so he’ll probably head back to China (where he played last year) or somewhere similar.
The good news from the camps is that it appears Jason Hart has hung on with the T-Wolves and will be their third-string point guard and a mentor to Jonny Flynn and their other young PG, Ramon Sessions. It’s not official yet, since Minnesota has to make one more roster cut before the season begins, but the word is that Hart’s job is safe, for now.
Meanwhile, Etan Thomas — instead of partying late nights on the streets of Oklahoma City — found some time to write a new piece for the Huffington Post.