http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insi...lumnist=sheridan_chris&page=Unemployed-091117 Originally Published: November 17, 2009 The All-Stackhouse Team Need a known quantity? Here are the top players on the outside looking to get in By Chris Sheridan ESPN.com Archive With 14 years of service and 15,749 career points already in the books, Jerry Stackhouse is seeking the one thing that has eluded him since he left North Carolina way back in 1995 -- an NBA championship. So he's sitting in Atlanta, waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
No longer with the Mavs, Jerry Stackhouse, who averaged 29.8 ppg in 2000-01, is looking to play. With 14 years of service and 15,749 career points already in the books, Jerry Stackhouse is seeking the one thing that has eluded him since he left North Carolina way back in 1995 -- an NBA championship. So he's sitting in Atlanta, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And wondering whether it'll be the Lakers, Celtics, Cavs, Nuggets or Spurs -- maybe even someone else, a team that leaps from the pack, perhaps Atlanta -- who will be the first to reach out to him. He is already collecting a $2 million salary from the Memphis Grizzlies, who acquired him and waived him over the summer as part of the four-team sign-and-trade deal that sent Shawn Marion to Dallas and Hedo Turkoglu to Toronto, and he has one caveat for any team interested in his services: He seeks only the veteran's minimum, but he wants a guaranteed contract. That lack of a guarantee was what led Stackhouse to turn down a camp invite from the Rockets, a decision he now looks back on with mixed emotions after watching the effort with which Houston has competed through the early stages of this NBA season. "At the time, it didn't make sense for me. The situation with Yao [Ming], not knowing when Tracy [McGrady] is coming back. My goal is to try to get with a team that's capable of winning a championship, not just to get back and play," Stackhouse told ESPN.com. "Looking back and seeing how hard those guys are playing, I could have been a help to them. They play hard, I'm really impressed." For now, Stackhouse is biding his time by working out, hosting a weekly satellite radio show on Sirius, making the occasional studio appearance on NBA TV, and wondering how long he'll keep waiting before lacing 'em up again. "I know about every situation across the board more so than I ever have before, when I was only focused on my own team," Stackhouse said. "There are a couple other situations that are intriguing to me: Denver, with their situation with having their bench gone, and kind of a big question with the mentality and makeup of that group, I think I'd fit in well there. "Cleveland, obviously, Boston, but those are situations where there's a little more perimeter depth. But for me, those are the teams that have got an eye on what I've got an eye on: winning the championship. And then there are the Lakers. "I would LOVE to be out there," Stackhouse said. "I couldn't fathom sitting out there with Kobe on one side and Ron Artest on one side. Who's going to mess with that?" Stackhouse would not even be on our annual list of the Top Unemployed NBA Players if he was willing to sign with a middle-of-the-pack team (see Jamaal Tinsley, Memphis, and Earl Boykins, Washington). But he is content to wait for a call from one of those heavy hitters, which should leave him atop this list until one of those teams decides he is the extra piece that could put them over the top. So without further ado, here is our annual Top 10 Unemployed NBA Players list, beginning with a bit more on Stackhouse, and conspicuously omitting Allen Iverson since he won't clear waivers until Thursday. (If AI clears waivers and doesn't sign this weekend -- I think the Bobcats will make a run at him because they wanted to this past summer -- let there be no doubt he'll warrant high placement on an updated version of this list.) Stackhouse 1. Jerry Stackhouse Judging from the tone of his voice, if we were to pick a favorite to land Stackhouse's services, it'd be the Lakers -- in no small part due to his long history with Kobe Bryant. "We've always competed, and we go way back. When he was a rookie, before he even started his rookie season, John Lucas had he and I out on the track running. He knows how I compete and work, so we've always had that mutual respect. "Kobe's got a gamesmanship about him, he knows how guys look at him in awe. I've seen several times when he came over to the bench where I was and would not say anything to anybody on the whole bench, but then he'd look at me and say, 'What up Stack?' So there's a respect there both ways, I believe." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Szczerbiak 2. Wally Szczerbiak He underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee recently, and his doctors warned him that although a return to the NBA was possible, he risked serious long-term damage if he reinjures the knee (he has had surgery on it three times). So that'll be something for Wally to consider during his recovery -- and it behooves him to make it a slow recovery, rather than to sign for the veteran's minimum and recuperate on some team's inactive list. That is because the Cavs still holds his Larry Bird rights, meaning he can be signed and traded (Cleveland also has sign-and-trade rights to Lorenzen Wright) at a high enough number to help make the salaries match if the Cavs were to find a creative way to bring in another offensive player (Stephen Jackson was at the front of their wish list until Monday). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniels 3. Antonio Daniels A little more than a week ago, it looked close to a done deal for the 12-year veteran to join the Cavs. But with Cleveland already in luxury tax territory, and while the Jackson trade talks were still alive, the decision was made that in a buyer's market, it was best to keep the team's options open. Daniels, who also drew interest from Memphis before Tinsley signed with the Grizzlies on Saturday, is now hoping to rejoin San Antonio -- the franchise he won a title with in 1999. "There is interest, but there is no urgency," said Daniels' agent, Tony Dutt. "This is, by far, the strangest year I've ever seen for guys getting opportunities." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Green 4. Gerald Green In 2008, he was the slam dunk champion. Today, he is weighing the following options: Accepting a lucrative offer to spend a season in China or with a Euroleague team, or throwing his name into the D-League supplemental pool after he declined to enter the minor league's regular draft. The big question is when Green, the 18th overall pick of the 2005 draft, will make up his mind. Six NBA teams are currently carrying the league minimum of 13 players, and another eight teams are at 14. That means there are 20 unfilled roster spots out there should teams choose to fill them. But with the current economic climate -- and with the additional luxury tax costs that would come with any elite team's signing a player now, rather than in late February -- most teams are choosing to wait now and spend later. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- McCants 5. Rashad McCants McCants was all set to join the Rockets on a non-guaranteed contract on the eve of training camp, then injured his groin and couldn't make it through the first practice. The 25-year-old, who scored 1,721 points in three seasons at North Carolina before becoming the 14th overall pick of the 2005 draft, is said to be 100 percent healthy now. He is waiting to see which team -- whether through an injury or a general lack of depth -- is looking to add another offensive-minded player. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweetney 6. Michael Sweetney Doc Rivers was particularly enamored of him in training camp, but a case of the flu kept Sweetney quarantined for Boston's final two preseason games, and he was cut after the Celtics couldn't move any of their 15 guaranteed contracts. His weight ballooned while spending nearly two seasons away from the NBA, then he dropped plenty of poundage, but was still overweight in October. He is now considering offers from Euroleague teams in Turkey and Poland, but China might be his best option because the season there ends March 31, and he would then be eligible to sign with an NBA playoff team. (Ex-NBAers Stromile Swift and DerMarr Johnson have already gone the China route for the 2009-10 season.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marbury 7. Stephon Marbury Relax. Don't hit the send button on that angry e-mail for having Starbury listed this high, because he was going to be a lot lower down this list until Boykins and Tinsley -- probably the two best unemployed point guards out there -- took themselves off the market last weekend. Heck, we would even throw Tyronn Lue ahead of Marbury if not for the fact that he has joined the Boston Celtics as an assistant coach. And if Iverson clears waivers and remains unsigned, we'll gladly give him this spot. Marbury's burned bridges and bizarre behavior should keep him out of the league for the foreseeable future, but you never know. He did play a big part in the Celtics' final victory last season, scoring 12 fourth-quarter points in a second-round Game 5 win over Orlando before Boston was eliminated in Game 6. Injuries can make teams reconsider the palatability of their options, which keeps Marbury on the fringe of being in the mix in mid-April, when someone may need an insurance policy heading into the playoffs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harris 8. Mike Harris The last player cut in training camp by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Harris is confident enough that he'll make it back to the bigs that he turned down an offer from a team in China, where he played last season. Playing there again would have netted him $70,000 a month. He played 14 games for Houston in 2007-08 after he graduated from Rice University with a double-major and decided to play professionally in Kuwait, then Ukraine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Voskuhl 9. Jake Voskuhl The epitome of the so-called "serviceable big man," he, too, is getting caught in the economic squeeze. As a player with eight years of experience, his minimum salary would be $1.18 million ($355,000 of which -- or, actually, a pro-rated portion thereof -- would be paid from a special league fund, rather than by the team). By comparison, the minimum salary for a player with no NBA experience is $457,588. At a time when teams are watching every dollar they spend, his price tag -- about twice in actual dollars what it would cost to sign a youngster -- makes him the equivalent of a Cadillac in a Prius market. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Swift 10. Other D-Leaguers Want a 7-footer with a Cherokee Parks-like tattoo count? Robert Swift (12th pick of the 2004 draft) is your man. He is currently in training camp with the Bakersfield Jam, playing with fellow NBA washout Reece Gaines. Fellow lottery bust Yaroslav Korolev (12th pick in 2005, by the Clippers) is a D-Leaguer now, too, with Albuquerque, as are two guys with NBA championship rings: former Miami Heat center Earl Barron (Iowa) and former Celtics guard Gabe Pruitt (Los Angeles). It also should be noted that there is one D-Leaguer who is off-limits to NBA teams: 18-year-old Latavious Williams, who was academically ineligible to play in the NCAA and will become NBA draft-eligible in June 2010. Honorable mention: Brevin Knight, Malik Rose, Darius Miles, Greg Buckner, Linton Johnson, Dan Dickau, Maceo Baston, Mickael Gelabale, Mark Blount (on the Timberwolves' payroll but persona non grata in Minnesota, a similar situation to that of Shawne Williams in Dallas.)
