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A little bit of Southeast division in Europe

Once a month, BallinEurope will spend a week telling a couple of stories about former NBA players now playing in Europe division by division and team by team. Now is Southeast Division’s turn. If you wanna know what’s going on with players such as Fran Vasquez, Predrag Drobnjak and DerMarr Johnson then this post is for you.

Southeast Division

Atlanta Hawks

• If I had to picture DerMarr Johnson’s decline, it would look like the Kitzbühel downhill. Once a Hawk 6th overall pick, he went from being an NBA roster to a back-up and the being waved like his name is Tony Massenburg. He may have thought he would regenerate his career by signing for Benetton Treviso in Italy. But well, he was cut by the Italian team after 2 months. Now I don’t know what’s next for DJ… The ABA ?
• Elmer Bennett was an Hawk second round pick 15 years ago. At that time, Dominique scored 28 a game, Kevin Willis was an All-NBA 3rd team and Stacey Augmon was a rookie. Well, anyway, Elmer never played for the Hawks. He played a couple of games for 4 different NBA teams and then played around the globe. At close to 38 years old, Elmer finally put an end to his career this summer after teaching a last couple of tricks to European rising star Ricky Rubio in Badalona.
• The Hawks actually have a lot of former second round picks in action in Europe and especially in the Euroleague. One that all expected to make some noise this year still has to come to life. Turkish guard Cenk Akyol has a blog on Hoopshype and was the 59th pick of the 2005 draft. But so far playing for David Blatt in Efes Pilsen Cenk hasn’t shown any signs of improvement. He averages 3 points a game in the Turkish league and he was benched full time for the first 3 Euroleague games…

Charlotte Bobcats

• Since the Bobcats are such a new team, there isn’t much we can talk about. Very few Cats alumni ended up in Europe.
• Well there is this Jumaine Jones experiment in Napoli, Italy. He played 2 games so far : 2 losses for his team but he did play pretty well (20 ppg and 6 rpg).
• So Charlotte has a winning record so far ? It won’t last so Michael Jordan should start scouting outhere in Europe. Players like Nikola Pekovic and Serge Ibaka to bring a little bit of help to Emeka Okafor.

Miami Heat

• Guard Charles Smith was a Heat draft pick back in 97 but he was part of the Brent Barry for Ike Austin and a 1st round pick (who ended up being Brian Skinner…) trade during the season. He later played for the Spurs later on before heading towards Europe where he’s had a very successful career. He was the top scorer of the Euroleague 3 years ago with Pesaro and now plays for undefeated Real Madrid (3-0).
• Croatian center Stanko Barac was Miami’s second round pick this year but stayed in Europe for a couple of seasons. I wrote about Stanko’s travels before but well though he belongs to Tau Vitoria, he was loaned to another D1 Spanish team named Valencia. And so far he played great. Yesterday, he played on the European stage (ULEB Cup) and brought (if the ULEB Cup website worked I could tell you how many) points to the table. EDIT : 11 pts
• Marcus Slaughter was one of the last player waived by the team before the start of the season (despite a good showing at the Pepsi Pro Summer League). He found a way to bounce back in Israel where other things happened to he and his team like a firecracker blowing 3 fingers out of a security officer.

Orlando Magic

• Plenty of former first round picks here in Europe ! Let’s start with Reece Gaines. Once a promising combo guard at Louisville, he was benched during his rookie season at Orlando and then a small part of the T-Mac for Steve Francis trade (yeah you read it well, once upon a time those 2 guys seemed like equal value). He went through ups and downs but played great last season for Biella in Italy. Over the summer he signed for a bigger contract club which plays the Euroleague, Armani Jeans Milano. And last weekend Milano won but with Gaines on the bench. Let’s say he is better ranked in the turnover statistics than the points scored. But this guy definitely has skills and I’m pretty sure that with Danilo Gallinari back in the lineup, Milano will start getting better and their fans won’t ever have to boo him again.
• I’m sure you remember Spanish big man Fran Vasquez. The 11th pick of the NBA draft who declined the invitation to play in the NBA and carried on playing in Europe. After a couple of seasons with Girona, he joined Barcelona. And at times he looks like a bust, even on the European scale (4.7 pts - 1 rbd in Euroleague action).
• Milan Rakovic’s rights belong to the Magic after a draft day-trade with Dallas. The Serbian power forward plays in Russia, in St Petersburg alongside 2 NBA flavour big men in Damir Markota (ex-Milwaukee) and Rafael Araujo (ex-Toronto). So far the team’s not doing exceptionally well (2-5) and Rakovic is still learning (7.7 pts - 3.7 boards).

Washington Wizards

• Now that the Juanca Navarro movie is over and Pecherov finally came in, there isn’t much to talk about these days.
• I might mention Puerto Rican center PJ Ramos is playing in Spain nowadays, in Fuenlabrada. The 2.22m giant gives you 6.3 pts and 3.4 rebounds which is not a great inch for inch ratio.
• Last year the Wizards gambled a second round pick on Belarus big man Vladimir Veremeenko. Well after 10 games (8 in the Russian League, 2 in the ULEB Cup), his team remains undefeated. And Veremeenko showed consistency off the bench, averaging nearly 7 pts and 4 rebounds in a team starring Daniel Ewing Junior and several players who won the European Championships in Spain this summer.

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