Summer league

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    It is hard to handicap which of the Shaw League hopefuls will make the most
impact, but it seems there will be a fair amount of competition at the small
forward/shooting guard position:

6-7 Silas Mills was MVP last year in the Philippines PBL before moving on to the
CBA Yakima Sun Kings. He did it all for the Sun Kings, averaging 3.8 assists, 1.4
steals and was a CBA top ten rebounder (7.4) and scorer (18.2). He shot .480 from
the field and .739 from the line. His team finished with a 33-23 record, two
games behind the Quad City Thunder. With those well-rounded numbers and a bit of
athleticism, maybe he will be this year's Adrian Griffin.

6-5 pointguard David Vanterpool also of the Sun Kings averaged 13.2 ppg, 6.6
rebounds and 5.8 assists (5th in the league) with 2.0 steals. He shot a crisp
.491 from the field and .685 from the line. Vanterpool (St Bonnie) and Silas
Mills (Utah State) were the two most productive players on the Yakima team
(average home attendance 2,906), although some guy named Rosell Ellis (McNeese
State) led the CBA with a .607FG% on double-figure scoring.

6-6 Damian Owens (West Virginia) starred for the CBA Connecticut Pride averaging
2.0 steals, 2.8 assists, 5.3 boards and 18.9 ppg (4th in the league). He was one
of the league leaders in scoring all season, although he fell off at the end. He
shot .480 from the field but only .623 from the line. Neither he nor Mills were
effective from three point range. Connecticut BTW featured a lot of Big East
players, including former UConn stars Donny Marshall and Ricky Moore. Last year's
FILA camp invitee Kevin Ollie scored 20ppg with 7.5 assists in two appearances
last year for the Pride.

6-5 Kris Clack of the IBL Stingrays didn't do much of anything last year.

6-5 JaRon Rush of UCLA is a rookie.

    Chances are all of the names listed above will be waived prior to the Celtics
training camp, considering the logjam of guaranteed contracts at the guard/small
forward position, with or without Sesar and Minor. This is another reminder of
how long the odds are of making it to the NBA. A high school superstar like JaRon
Rush may have a hard time standing out from this crowd.

****