Cut Day

Since this is Ridiculous Upside, today I'm looking at the players that got cut today in favor of guys with (the opposite of Ridiculous Upside?).

Today, the Chicago Bulls cut Darius Washington and Elton Brown, the Milwaukee Bucks cut Ron Howard and Kevin Kruger, and the Philadelphia 76ers cut Antywane Robinson. Though all of these cuts were expected, it's disappointing for it to have happened, as it would have been nice had these guys had their chances to prove themselves to be more worthy of a spot than some of the veterans that were in camp without as much upside.

Elton Brown and Darius Washington both have more upside, and possibly talent, than one of the other Bulls non-guaranteed contracts, Michael Ruffin, and the same amount of upside, minus the local ties, of Roger Powell. Brown plays the same position as Ruffin, and while Ruffin is a defensive stopper with no offensive skills to mention, so is every other big on the Bulls. Why not keep Brown around, at least let him show something in the last preseason games, rather than keep Ruffin sitting on the bench and playing Brown minimally to the point that he's not able to show what he is able to do. Besides, Ruffin is probably most famous for:



Darius Washington, meanwhile, did play well in the preseason. He averaged 8 points in the 2 games he made it into. Though the Bulls are filled with guards, I don't understand why they would have brought him into camp without giving him an opportunity. When given the opportunity he played well, but apparently that wasn't enough. The Bulls should have kept him around, at least until his contract became guaranteed, in case an attractive trade offer comes up where they're unable to unload one of their guards. With this many guards, it would have been smarter to keep a guy like Washington around, who won't complain about minutes. Get a serviceable big man in a trade for one of the guards, as the rest of the guards on the team probably aren't going to take to the bench as well as Washington would have.

Kevin Kruger and Ron Howard were both cut from the Bucks. Although Howard doesn't yet have the skills to compete at an NBA level and would be wise to play with the Mad Ants again this season, Kruger does have the NBA knowledge. While he's not very athletic, he is heady enough to play at the point and facilitate the offense, which goes along with his dad being Lon Kruger, the longtime coach. He's certainly got more upside than both Tyronn Lue and Damon Jones, two of the other point guards being paid by the Bucks. He played 22 minutes in 2 games, making one of his two shot attempts, a 3-point attempt, and dished 3 assists, shooting 5-for-5 from the line. Certainly not amazing, but I'm not sure why the Bucks wouldn't have given him more of a chance, considering they took a chance on other D-Leaguers that's paid off. Ramon Sessions, the projected starting point guard, and recently hired Joe Wolf are both D-League success stories.