D-League Decoded: Welcome to the Small Show

The Texas Legends pursuing Allen Iverson was one of the biggest D-League stories of the week. (usatoday.com)

Hello readers of Beats, Dimes and Drives. My name is Dakota Schmidt and I'm addicted to basketball. Sure, most of you are also addicted to the sport since you're reading this site, but I'm a little different. You see while most people like the Heat, Thunder or Clippers, I personally like watching the Bucks, Bobcats and the NBA D-League. If you don't know, the D-League is the NBA's minor league where players develop and teams feature creative names like the Mad Ants, Red Claws, Skyforce and — of course — the Bighorns. Yes, the D-League has been around for more than 10 years, but this is quite possibly the greatest season yet with better teams and a vastly improved pool of players. With that said, the D-League is still kind of a hidden commodity so I'm going to take you on a little tour of the best stories from the past week in the NBADL.

1. Rumors that the Texas Legends would be going after Allen Iverson
Around Monday morning, ESPN's Marc Stein reported that the Texas Legends were going after former NBA MVP point guard Allen Iverson, who hasn't played in the United States since his '09-'10 stint with the 76ers. The 37-year-old declined the invite from the Legends after stating on his Twitter account that he thinks that the D-League is a great opportunity for players, but he wanted to complete his "legacy" in the NBA.

I do understand that Iverson would want to go straight into the NBA because he was one of the most popular players in the first half of the 2000's. With that said, it's 2013 and teams aren't really looking forward to acquiring a player in his late 30's when they really don't know how he could still produce after not playing in the league for three seasons.

Iverson's refusal to join the Legends leaves the door wide open for former D-League MVP Justin Dentman, who was acquired last week from the Austin Toros. Dentman may be familiar to NBA fans because he had separate stints last season with the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs, but he has really made his mark in the D-League, where he helped lead the Toros to a title last season. Dentman is perhaps one of the top scoring guards in the league with a solid mid-range shot and a quick first step that helps him drive to the basket.

2. Toko Shengelia's Monster Night
The young Brooklyn Nets prospect straight out of the country Georgia has seen very limited minutes in his rookie year, which has allowed him to have two separate stints with the Springfield Armor. Springfield has one of the worst records in the D-League, but they were the center of the universe this past weekend simply because of the play of the 6'10" Shengelia. In Friday's game against the Maine Red Claws, Shengelia possibly had the best performance by any player in the D-League this season when he put up a 39 points and 18 rebounds.

While Maine did have a good crop of forwards (Chris Wright, Micah Downs and Fab Melo), Shengelia basically chewed them up and spit them out by being a fiend on the boards and working his mid-range shot to perfection. It's unclear how many times Shengelia will be assigned back to the Armor this season, but it is clear that it will most definitely be must-watch action if he is reassigned.

3. Royce White to the D-League?
The long-winded controversy between first-round pick Royce White and the Houston Rockets appears to be over as White is scheduled to debut with Houston's affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, on Feb. 11. The Rockets have been one of the best teams when it comes to using their D-League counterpart after sending players like Terrence Jones, Donatas Motiejunas and Patrick Beverly to the team so far this season. The main issue between White and the Rockets front office has been White's fear of anything involving flight, which is odd because the D-League flies commercial airlines rather than the private airlines of the NBA.

I've stated my personal opinions about White on my Twitter account, but I think his stint with Rio Grande Valley will prove how important his future as a basketball player really is. Royce's skills are undeniable and he should have a good career in the NBA, but there will always be questions about if he's going to be focused more on his battle with anxiety than with his play on the court.

4. Potential D-League PGs that could replace Rajon Rondo
This past Sunday it was reported that Boston Celtics All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo would miss the rest of the season because of a torn ACL, which only hurts a team that's already fighting to stay in the playoffs. Boston does have a wide variety of combo guards like Avery Bradley, Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa, but none of those guys are really a pure PG.

The D-League has a wide variety of point guards that official D-League blogger Kevin Scheitrum wrote a piece about earlier this week. The first player that stands out at me has to be Delonte West because he's an NBA veteran who has also played multiple seasons under Celtics head coach Doc Rivers. While he's had a troubled career, West is still a talented player and is definitely worth at least a 10-day contract.

While the rest of the D-League PGs don't have the experience of West, there are still a wide variety of players Boston can choose from. For example, Courtney Fortson of the Los Angeles D-Fenders — the  No. 1 D-League prospect — is the type of high energy player the Celtics could use to energize their squad. Fortson is improving both as a scorer (19.1 PPG) and as a distributer (6.5 APG) while also pulling down 5.3 RPG, which is outstanding when you look at the fact that he's 5'11".

Some other notable PG's in the D-League include Donald Sloan, Andre Barrett, Sean Singletary and Ben Uzoh. Both Sloan and Singletary have experience playing in the NBA and are similar players because they're solid distrubters and are solid shooters. Barrett has been around both the NBA and the D-League since the early days of the league and he's probably the best passer in all of the NBADL. Like Rondo, Andre is never going to be the best shooter around, but he is notching 11.3 assists per game while playing with the Celtics-affiliated Maine Red Claws. That is key, as Barrett would be able to make the smooth transition between leagues because Boston and Maine run similar systems. Last but not least, former Nets guard Ben Uzoh has been one of the top prospects in the league all season long simply because he can do anything on the court from leading an offense to being one of the best rebounders in the league for a guy his size (6'3", 205 lbs.).

5. Rise of DaJuan Summers
Former Pistons/Hornets forward DaJuan Summers has been of the more pleasant surprises in the D-League so far with the Red Claws. Now of course people know about his talent since his college days with Georgetown, but he's really exploded as the third forward on that Red Claws team. The team was going into the season expecting things out of Micah Downs and Chris Wright, and they have definitely produced in their roles but Summers has been the standout player since being signed in early December. Recently DaJuan had a career night against the Springfield Armor where he put up 34 points and 10 rebounds but only to get out-shined by Toko Shengelia who had that outstanding game I previously talked about.

DaJuan might not be the best player you've ever seen play but he's really worth taking the time out of your schedule to take a look at him like a lot of the other talent in the D-League.

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A Tale of Two: DeMarcus Cousins and Royce White

DeMarcus Cousins has decisions to make. (msn.com)

Sacramento is in flames. It used to be easy to key in on the reasons behind the fire, but a new barrel of gasoline seems to be added with every game that the Kings play. Not literally, of course, but its also not tough to imagine a pile of Kings gear going up in smoke at the hands of a fanbase in the throws of near perpetual discord.

In 2006-07, the franchise finished just outside the top half of the NBA in regular attendance, ending the season at 16th out of 30. No one wanted to see a team that, with more and more regularity, became ineffective in their lone goal of winning basketball games. Attendance dropped and the Kings lost a net of nearly 130,000 live viewers at their home court the next year, finishing 11 slots lower in season attendance than in the year prior.

Another season, another drop, this time to 29th due to a loss of around 60,000 spectators, some of whom returned during Tyreke Evans' stellar debut season just in time to see the young guard earn Rookie of the Year honors. On the scale, though, the Kings remained at 29th in attendance until last season, when they managed to finish one spot higher.

The Kings ownership — maligned by now from wishy-washy commitment to retain the Kings and to keep the franchise in northern California — noticed the numbers and, without saying as much, seemed to go into complete "Sell! Sell! Sell!" stock market mode. Evans was nagged by injuries and his front court partner, 2010 draft pick DeMarcus Cousins, was a near constant headache away from the court and a temperamental talent on the hardwood.

The Kings are sitting at 21st in attendance for this season, but, unfortunately for the fan base, the struggles faced by this squad — and the trouble created by its members — have not undergone such positive changes.

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By comparison, the Houston Rockets have been an almost pristine franchise. With Yao Ming altering both the way his opponents played and the basketball world at large, the Rockets made multiple playoff appearances in the mid-2000s. Even with Ming often sidelined by injuries, players like Shane Battier, Tracy McGrady and Luis Scola made the team respectable. Other times, production came from surprising sources like Aaron Brooks or Goran Dragic.

Those names can no longer be found on the Rockets' roster, though. Management either let walk or traded (amnestied, in Scola's case) players with the hope of making a push for a major free agent that never came along. Houston never made that particular addition, but they did come away with Jeremy Lin (thanks to a back-loaded contract offer) and James Harden.

Those two, primarily the Bearded One, have a previously unheralded Rockets team in the top half of a very competitive Western Conference, and could make a playoff push if the remainder of the season plays out the right way.

Make no mistake: the right way is not the ideal way. The right way is winning games with the current roster, continuing to gel and utilizing these pieces to create a larger sum. The ideal way would have Lin and Harden creating while also being able to space the floor for the first-round draft pick that was supposed to terrorize big men with an offensive acumen far more polished than what most rookies bring into the Association.

More than one-quarter of the way into the season, the Rockets have had to rely on doing things the right way.

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There were questions about Cousins in the lead-up to the 2010 draft. He had been hugely important to Kentucky's success in his only season of collegiate hoops — if John Wall was reason No. 1 for the Wildcats' accomplishments, Cousins was No. 1b — but his commitment to finishing every play, keeping his attention on the game when he was not directly involved in a play, and his focus on staying in proper shape to play on the highest level of professional basketball all contributed to Cousins sliding down draft boards. Though he only had to wait until the Kings-held fifth overall pick, Cousins was snubbed by the New Jersey Nets, who opted to go with the known quantity of Derrick Favors with the No. 2 pick rather than take what they perceived as a gamble.

Favors is now developing as a member of the Utah Jazz's monstrous front court after being acquired in the Nets' trade for point guard Deron Williams. It could have been Cousins jumping from the East Coast to the mountainous West, but the entirety of the his career has been spent in Sacramento, and it has not been the easiest two-plus years, to say the least. Here's the laundry list of Cousins' infractions from this season alone: getting suspended for confronting an announcer "in a hostile manner"; claiming to have lost any semblance of confidence; getting suspended for punching O.J. Mayo in *ahem* a sensitive area; getting suspended indefinitely for having a verbal argument with Kings head coach Keith Smart; being reinstated after one game and having Smart decide to leave him home rather than include Cousins in a road game in Portland; storming out of an interview; and recording his first career triple-double in a 118-96 fileting of the Boston Celtics.

Of the items on that list, only one is positive. The 12-10-10 line against the Celtics is a holdover from last season, when Cousins put up star-like numbers with averages of 18.1 points, 11 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. The difference between his outstanding performance from 2011-12 and his big night against Boston is that, while passing through the Celtics' defense, Cousins looked disaffected; disinterested in actually moving the ball, as if his interest was wholly invested in an individual stat line rather than teamwork.

This outburst was preceded, naturally, by unnamed sources (likely Cousins' own camp) saying that Cousins is interested in being traded to the Washington Wizards. Trade rumors are nothing new when it comes to the Sacramento big man, with common thinking working along the get-rid-of-a-problem-while-you-can-get-a-high-return lines. Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Orlando, and — of all teams — Houston are other cities that sources (again, probably Cousins' agent) have cited as having interest in the problematic (for his own team and others) player capable of filling productive minutes at the power forward and center positions.

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White (Garrett W. Ellwood/Getty Images)

Royce White hasn't played a single meaningful minute in the NBA. His time in the summer league begat averages of 8.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. White's numbers dipped in four preseason games on a combined 27.3 percent shooting, and it is likely his numbers would have been inconsistent in any regular season action.

Who knows, though? The Rockets recently assigned White to the D-League, a motion the forward rebuffed by refusing to report to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Accepting a role in the D-League would have allowed White to play at Vipers home games and possibly even travel to road games on bus, given the smaller circumference he would have to navigate due to the farm system's less hectic schedule. This is similar to what White wanted when, before the season began, he asked the Rockets to work with him and make concessions to accommodate his obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders.

A flat-out "no" was probably not the best answer for either party involved in this situation, even as White wages an ongoing not-quite-war on Twitter in the name of those who suffer from the same disorders as himself. As SBNation's Tom Ziller wrote, 

"This is where I think White is missing the point on purpose. The Rockets want Royce White to play basketball. Royce White wants to play basketball. But he wants to play only on his terms. As it turns out, playing on his terms appears to be an increasingly difficult target. It doesn't appear that the Rockets can meet that target. C'est la vie. The dream's over. White is not going to stick in the NBA."

Anyone who tracked White's college career — or even did a bit of research before the Rockets selected him with the 16th overall pick of the 2012 draft — knows that he had a bit of trouble as an undergraduate. Incidents of alleged theft, assault and trespassing led White to announce his departure from Minnesota and an eventual transfer to Iowa State, after a panic attack caused White to miss a flight that would have landed him in Kentucky, signing with John Calipari — the man responsible for signing some of the best high school recruits year in and year out; the man who reigned in Cousins for one season before making him one of five teammates taken in the first round of the NBA's 2010 draft.

The Midwestern surroundings did wonders for White, who was one of several transfers on the Cyclones' 2011-12 iteration. So high were expectations that White was selected as the Big 12's Preseason Newcomer of the Year, one of a bevy of accolades he would win before declaring for the NBA draft while his name was hot.

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Lol, So I guess I can only play basketball OR work fast food restaurants? Good thing for me this is also very illogical. #BeWell Friends...
— Royce White (@Highway_30) December 31, 2012

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It may be ironic that the last game of White's college career came against the team he could have been a part of, the team with a head coach so enamored in White's talent that he was willing to forgo the constraints of a system so reliant on freshman that he regularly has to reload it with the next crop of one-and-dones just to have a starting five that he deems fit.

Kentucky won the NCAA National Championship while held a-high by the lanky arms of Anthony Davis, now with the New Orleans Hornets. That group lost just two games last season, steeped in the noises of Assembly Hall as the Indiana Hoosiers exclaimed their return to national relevance by stealing away a one-point victory against and falling to the Vanderbilt Commodores, one of college basketball's most consistently inconsistent programs, in the SEC championship game.

White would have added an extra dimension to that already dangerous group. His versatile scoring could have placed an undefeated record in the annuls along with a national championship celebration strewn with nylon nets fraying from so much nervous handling while waiting to be announced as the best in the land.

That's the kind of machine that White was in college, and that was the powerhouse that the Rockets thought they drafted in June. That is who they drafted, undeniably, but since White held himself out of training camp because of a disagreement with the team over means of travel. The issues have snowballed since that seemingly innocent act of self-preservation, and White's reintegration into the Rockets organization — and the NBA at large — seem less likely with each passing day.

Instead, the Rockets are relying on SEC products and former rivals Chandler Parsons and Patrick Patterson to handle starting forward duties. While Parsons is a long-range shooter and is making much more progress as a professional this year than he did last year, Patterson has traded rebounding for scoring this season, averaging four more points per 36 minutes than he did last season but grabbing 5.8 rebounds per 36 as compared to 6.9 during his sophomore year, and 8.3 as a rookie.

Whether White would improve on any of Patterson's numbers is unknown, just as it is unknown what kind of package Houston could assemble if they were to make a move for Cousins. To lay the truth bare, though, neither White nor Cousins will play for the Rockets this season, and Cousins could very well see himself out of Sacramento by the All-Star break, especially with the Kings beginning to see small amounts of success (winning seven of their last eight at home; being 5-0 at home with crowds over 15,000 this season; Jimmer Fredette entering the beginning stages of becoming JIMMER FREDETTE by being No. 16 in the league in True Shooting percentage and owning a Win Share per 48 Minutes of .154, well above the league average .100).

White and Cousins are two players on similar career trajectories, but their hang-ups have occurred at different times. Whereas Cousins has produced tangible results and shown his worth — making him appealing for suitors ready to exercise their patience in order to perform alchemy and turn the 22-year-old into solid gold — White has done nothing of the sort, not on a stage that matters to NBA executives weighing the merits of a player who has already been drafted.

It is possible that these two could have shared a piece of the Kentucky pedigree. The possibility also remains that the they could be traded for one another, although that is a long shot, especially if the Kings decide to rid their organization of Cousins' drama and the Rockets' easiest option is to buyout White's relatively small contract to effectively end any chance White has of a career in the NBA.

The only certainty is that neither Cousins nor White will be able to fully capitalize on their respective abilities until they are willing to meet their teammates, coaches and, yes, their bosses at a middle point at which both parties can happily accept a compromise. Theirs are two separate stories with one overarching theme: that of the talented but troubled; that of those who can either enrich or deprive those around them. Make no mistake that the time is coming that White and Cousins will have to make just that decision, and that both the Kings and Rockets will be willing to go on with or without them.


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Royce White's Career Shouldn't Be Grounded Because He Can't Fly

Royce White is holding himself out of Rockets training camp until the team agrees to let him take a bus to away games. (abcnews.com)

Questions have surrounded Houston Rockets rookie Royce White since his final season at Iowa State a year ago.

"Can he compete in the NBA?" was never in doubt. White has the skills to play at an elite professional level. He's got the body and power of a forward, and the ball-handling skills and shooting ability of a guard. Yet he is currently holding himself out of Rockets training camp for an answer to a question bigger than talent.

His playing ability won't shatter his dreams, but something more powerful can. Something he can't control. White has an anxiety disorder that includes being terrified of flying. He has been open and honest about his illness, which he should be applauded for, but now is when we find out how crippling this illness will be to his career.

White won't report to camp until the team agrees to let him travel to some games by bus for away games that are a manageable driving distance away.

Reports say the two sides are not butting heads over the issue, but just working through the roadblocks. White said he does not blame the Rockets and Houston general manager Daryl Morey said the team is "committed to Royce's long-term success and we will continue to support him now and going forward."

Not everyone is so forgiving of the situation. Many say White should tough it out, man up, or insert whatever phrase you want to use to imply White needs to be stronger. But mental disorders are different than physical injuries in that not everyone has the misfortune of experiencing them, and others understand that.

If a player sprains an ankle, there are enough people who have gone through a similar injury - not to mention doctors to examine it - to be able to judge if he is too hurt to play. But mental illnesses vary from person to person, and if you are not someone who experiences it on a daily basis, it's impossible to understand how serious the illness is.

It is understandable why Houston did not immediately grant this request. Giving White a private bus would be asking more of the Rockets organization to make special accommodations for one player and would set a precedence for the future. What if the bus breaks down or White is not able to make it to the arena on time? Plus, he loses the ability to bond with his teammates by not being with them on the road. It would make for a strange working environment.

That is a risk. But so is missing out on a talented player that can be valuable to the team because Houston is not willing to find an alternative method of travel and White's anxiety disorder overcomes him.

It is disappointing to see players' careers jeopardized because they are irresponsible or make poor decisions. It is sad to see a player's career end due to physical injury and it would be horrible to see a physically healthy White have his career end because the NBA lifestyle is too demanding on his mental illness.


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