Though Greek club Panathinaikos attempted to sign free agent reserve forward Eric Paschall this summer, the team was ultimately unable to successfully recruit him overseas, per BasketNews.
Utah opted not to tender a qualifying offer to Paschall in June, allowing the 25-year-old to become an unrestricted free agent. After spending his first two seasons with the Warriors, Paschall was traded to the Jazz in the 2021 offseason.
During his first season in Utah, the 6’6″ vet out of Villanova averaged 5.8 PPG and 1.8 RPG across 12.7 MPG for the playoff-bound Jazz as a bench option, playing 12.8 MPG in 58 contests.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA champion center Aron Baynes, who has been working his way back from a spinal cord injury suffered while playing for Team Australia in the 2021 Summer Olympics, has received interest from the Brisbane Bullets of Australia’s NBL, per Ennio Terrasi Borghesan of Sportando. The 35-year-old big man last played for the Raptors during the 2020/21 NBA season. In 53 games with Toronto, including 31 starts, he averaged 6.1 PPG and 5.2 RPG. Earlier this month, Baynes put on a workout to showcase himself for interested teams in Las Vegas.
- After a Summer League that saw No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero play just two games before being shut down by the Magic and Hawks swingman AJ Griffin, considered one of the best shooters in the 2022 draft, not play at all due to a mild foot injury, Nekias Duncan of Basketball News wonders just how much NBA teams value Summer League as an opportunity to assess young prospects. Duncan notes that the teams’ limited practice time and rosters comprising young prospects plus fringe-NBA-caliber hopefuls make for inconsistent on-court products. “I think we consult with our coaching staff, our front office and our training staff and try to figure out what the best decision is for each guy,” Cavaliers Summer League head coach Mike Gerrity told Duncan about how Cleveland doles out playing time to its various prospects.
- As has previously been reported, former All-NBA center Marc Gasol plans to return to Spanish ACB club Basquet Girona as a player for the 2022/23 season. Thanks to its performance last season with Gasol, the team was promoted from its prior league, LEB Oro, to the upper-tier Liga ACB. As a result of this promotion, however, Gasol is now confronted with some bureaucratic red tape. Per ACB league rules, players are not allowed to both play for and work in the front office of their teams, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net. Askounis speculates that the team may decide to temporarily relieve the 37-year-old of his front office duties so that he may suit up for the season. Last year, Gasol averaged 14.5 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 2.6 APG, 1.1 SPG, and 0.7 BPG for Basquet Girona. The 6’11” big man, a former three-time All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year while with the Grizzlies, last played in the NBA during a disappointing 2020/21 season with the Lakers.
It’s more than a little strange to see someone describe Aron Baynes as a “former NBA champion”. While technically true, it sort of suggests that he was remotely relevant to the Spurs in 2014. He averaged 9 minutes a game and had 4 starts that season. There are a lot of “former NBA champions” that meet that criteria.
What’s the big deal man? If you ask any other player on that team that year, Duncan, Parker, Leonard, they would all call Baynes an NBA champion. We cannot discount his presence on the team, no matter how big or small.
It’s not that it’s a big deal. It’s just strange. It’s not like every time a player is mentioned on this site we also include their number of championships. It just seems weird to emphasize that Aron Baynes is a champion. And, mentioning it specifically for him is definitely emphasizing it…
Scott Williams led the bulls to 2 championships!
Forgot abt that gasol lakers stint lmao
Led the league in defensive box plus minus before they benched him in favor of stupidly signing Andre Drummond, and then replaced him as a floor spacer and defender with DeAndre Jordan, even though they already had Dwight Howard, and needed his shooting at the 5, as well as obviously his defense…
Robert Horry has 7 championships? Is he better than Jordan and Kobe? He’s definitely a winner by trade. Some guys help your team win through morale, advice, or just playing that extra presence that inspires everyone to do their best. Hard to quantify what each player did to win a title.
There’s also practices. Some guys don’t get much playing time, but really pushed the starters in practice. They helped them to figure certain defenders better than they would have otherwise.
I’d say Baynes likely had a calming, confidence boosting effect on his teams. They also would play harder or they know he would if they didn’t.
I would expect if he still had interest then he’ll likely be signed closer to training camp to fill out a team’s final roster. Probably better to play overseas if he wants more playing time. Hard to say without seeing him in that workout. Wish him all the best! Seems like a cool guy.
Summer league isn’t for top prospects. It’s for guys that have something to prove