By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
The ET Land Elephants and the KT&G Kites, the Korean Basketball League's two bottom dogs, completed a trade Thursday, as both teams are looking to shake things up before it's too late.
The second-to-last Kites sent import forward Rashad Bell and domestic forwards Lee Sang-jun and Lee Hyun-ho to the last place Elephants for Chris Daniels and Kim Sung-chul.
The Kites get another solid center in Daniels and a good shooter with Kim. The move will help them both inside and outside but the key piece is Daniels, who will share the load at center with fellow import Nigel Dixon.
Daniels didn't have chemistry with the Elephants. The 2.05-meter center had averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds over the last two seasons with the Dongbu Promy and the Daegu Orions but he was not able to get used to the Elephants system and saw his totals drop to 13.1 points and 5.5 rebounds.
At the other end of the trade, the Incheon-based Elephants will get faster with their newly acquired trio. The Elephants had identified speed as a weakness, especially with two lumbering import centers and local center Seo Jang-hoon. Bell will add speed on the outside and strength inside as well. Bell is averaging 19.6 points and 6.8 boards per game, and the Elephants believe his rebounding ability is good enough to make up for the loss of Daniels.
Lee Hyun-ho is a defensive specialist that will reinforce the Elephants poor team defense, while Lee Sang-jun will provide solid shooting.
Because the Elephants have played two more games than the Kites, Daniels and Kim will not be able to play with KT&G until their 13th game against the LG Sakers this Wednesday.
yc@koreatimes.co.kr
|
