Ridiculous Upside Looks Back at Gunter, Lafayette, Clinkscales

While I've been slacking recently between the offseason/end-of-summer doldrums and getting acclimated to my new life as a graduate student, the folks at Ridiculous Upside just continue to crank out good D-League articles.

With the local tryouts getting underway soon (September 19-20 for Erie), Jon L has looked at some recent local tryout success stories, including three from the Erie BayHawks:

Jarvis Gunter (6'10" F/C, Erie)

Gunter was a backup big man for the BayHawks, who didn't get a ton of playing time because Erik Daniels had the center position locked down (and there's a discussion to be had as to whether Daniels should've had that position on lock, but that's not this). Gunter didn't provide a whole lot of scoring, but he's athletic and has some decent rebounding ability, averaging about 10 per 36 minutes. He doesn't have the best hands around and his free throw shooting needs work, but he has skills, and as a lot of other frontcourt types are heading overseas he could be a guy to watch this season.

Oliver Lafayette (6'2" G/F, Erie)

Lafayette played a lot of forward for the BayHawks, though he doesn't really have the size for it, and he's not really an efficient scorer. He can put it together occasionally, but there were a lot of 12-points-on-15-shots and five-points-on-nine-shots outings. His best games were those where he got to the line, as you'd expect, but his shooting percentages weren't great overall. He got a decent amount of rebounds early in the season, but those tailed off a bit as the year went on. Lafayette's one of those players that I don't have strong feelings about either way, but kudos to him (and all the other guys I'm talking about, of course) for making it from local tryouts.

Cliff Clinkscales (6'1" G, Erie/Rio Grande Valley)

Cliff Clinkscales is a pretty good player who I should probably talk about more around here but don't for some reason. He's not a great outside shooter, but he at least realizes it and doesn't attempt a lot of threes. He spent most of the season with Erie but finished it out with the Vipers, and he averaged about seven assists per 36 minutes. He's not always the most efficient scorer, but he runs the offense pretty well.

Check out the full two-part article at RidiculousUpside.com (part 1 and part 2).