Friday, October 3, 2014

UCLA Bruins in the NBA - 2014-15 Edition SIXTEEN BRUINS BABY!

Complete with a cool pic of Mr. Kevin Love as a Cleveland Cavalier, the UCLA BRUINS home page has their annual article letting us know how many Bruins are on NBA Rosters at the beginning of the season.  Last season I wrote a nice article on our boys why not do it again this year!

Two Bruins who played last year are not on rosters at the beginning of this year: Malcolm Lee and Earl Watson.  Lee played 35 games for the Timberwolves over the last two years, but was traded on draft day to Phoenix, who then traded him to Washington and was released shortly thereafter.  He's had injury problems including extended outages for groin and knee issues.

Earl Watson retired after 12 seasons with six different teams.  He took a coaching position with the San Antonio Spurs after making bold statements that he'd like to be the Utah Jazz head coach.  Watson's retirement now makes Matt Barnes the last Bruin in the NBA to have played under Steve Lavin.

Jordan Adams - Memphis Grizzles
Arron Affalo - Denver Nuggets
Kyle Anderson - San Antonio Spurs
Trevor Ariza - Houston Rockets
Matt Barnes - LA Clippers
Darren Collison - Sacramento Kings
Jordan Farmar - LA Clippers
Jrue Holiday - New Orleans Pelicans
Ryan Hollins - Sacramento Kings
Zach LaVine - Minnesota Timberwolves
Kevin Love - Cleveland Cavaliers
Luc Richard Mbah-a-Moute - Philadelphia 76ers
Shabazz Muhammad - Minnesota Timberwolves
David Wear - Sacramento Kings
Travis Wear - New York Knicks
Russell Westbrook - Oklahoma City Thunder

The rookies this season are Adams, Anderson, LaVine and the Wear twins.  Only the Wear twins were undrafted.  LaVine went #13, Adams #22 and Anderson #30.

Arron Affalo started the year last season with Orlando but was traded back to the Denver Nuggets, where he played between 2009 and 2012 in June.  He can opt out of his contract at the end of this year.

Trevor Ariza begins his second decade in the NBA with a return to the Houston Rockets.  He's played for five other teams in 10 previous years.

Matt Barnes returns to the LA Clippers and is joined by former two-time Laker Jordan Farmar.

Darren Collison signed a free-agent contract with the Sacramento Kings, where he will be joined by his Clipper team-mate Ryan Hollins.

Kevin Love was probably the biggest move any Bruin made during the off-season, bring traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers where he'll play with a returning LeBron James.   The same deal saw the Prince of Cameroon Luc Richard Mbah-a-Moute from the T-Wolves to the 76ers.

Jrue Holiday returns to the Pelicans, Shabazz Muhammad returns to the T-Wolves and of course Russell Wesbrook returns to the Thunder.

The NBA Season begins October 28

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