A former All-Defensive player and a former lottery pick are among the veteran NBA free agents reportedly receiving overseas interest.
Big man Hassan Whiteside, who led the league in blocks per game twice and made an All-Defensive team in 2016, has drawn interest from Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv, per Omri Manhime of Sport5 (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando). Whiteside was out of the NBA in 2022/23 and played in Lebanon earlier in his professional career.
Meanwhile, Greek team Panathinaikos is said to be eyeing Noah Vonleh, according to Stavros Barbarousis of Eurohoops.net. The No. 9 overall pick in the 2014 draft, Vonleh has appeared in 362 career regular season NBA games, including 23 last season for Boston. He played for the Shanghai Sharks in 2021/22 but has never joined a European team.
Here are a few more notes from around the international basketball world:
- Former Oregon guard L.J. Figueroa, who has spent the last two seasons in the G League playing with the Santa Cruz Warriors and South Bay Lakers, has signed with German club Ratiopharm Ulm, per a press release from the team. Although Figueroa signed Exhibit 10 contracts with Golden State and L.A., he has yet to play in a regular season NBA game.
- Jordan Schakel, a member of the Wizards for parts of the last two seasons, is aiming to play for the German national team in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, agents Mike Naiditch and Daniel Poneman tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Schakel has only appeared in six games at the NBA level, but made 39.9% of his three-point attempts in the G League last season.
- Ryan Schmidt has left his job as the head coach of the London Lions in the British Basketball League in order to take a coaching job with an NBA team, according to a press release. While his destination isn’t yet known, Schmidt will be joining an Eastern Conference club, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. He previously had a four-year stint as an assistant coach for the Raptors 905, Toronto’s G League team (2017-21).
Whiteside can still play. Why is silvers black balling vets,?
Any NBA team can use a solid rim protector. As a starter and especially as a backup. Whiteside career numbers are better than most starters today at Center. And he only avg 24.7 mins in his career. He must have pissed people off. Or must be blackballed for some reason. Cause at 32 yrs old. He can definitely help a contender.
The Heat who helped mold him into a solid center. Can definitely use him as a backup. I don’t know what he did. But ?????
Lol…
I was fortunate to be able to sit courtside with feet on the wood for many years. Sitting there… you are actually almost part of the game. Hassan whitesode was beyond frustrating. You could literally see it in his face and body language on the large percentage of plays he took off. It was also pretty apparent that many people on the team didn’t much care for him personally. Physically gifted human with elite physical gifts but they fall short of others less physically gifted but more intelligent and motivated at this level of competition.