On a court in Orlando, surrounded by 19 people trying, basically, to take away his dream, Iowa’s Moses Ehambe looked ready.
It was nearly two weeks ago that Ehambe, as one of 20 players selected to the 2012 NBA Development League All-Star Game, showed how ready he was to make the leap to the NBA, scoring 24 points and hitting 6-of-11 3-pointers in 23 minutes against the NBA D-League’s top prospects. He could move. He could jump. And, as the basketball world has come to realize more and more, he could shoot.
Over the course of those 23 minutes, Ehambe showed the world (the game was broadcast on NBA TV, after all) just how far he’s come. From a pink slip in Spain last spring to a bit part on the 2011 NBA D-League champion Iowa Energy to a leading role on an Energy team in position to repeat again this year, he’s turned himself into one of the best shooters in the NBA D-League and, by association, one of its best NBA prospects.
And on Thursday, when his East-leading Iowa Energy take on the fourth-place (and prospect-loaded) Erie BayHawks, you can watch live on SportingNews.com (7 p.m. ET).
Ehambe opened 2011 in northern Spain, after two years in the NBA D-League that passed without a callup. He didn’t last long.
Waived before the winter thaw, he came back to the States and linked up with the Austin Toros, where he proceeded to freeze up.
He was traded to Iowa. Or, if you prefer, run out of town.
"It was amazing,” Ehambe told USA Basketball this summer. “I came over to Austin last year and played like eight games. The first five games were horrible. I’ve never played that bad."
Then things turned around.
He became a fixture for the Energy, starting seven of Iowa’s final nine regular-season games and averaging nearly 14 points and three rebounds a game while shooting 51 percent from 3-point range. In Iowa’s eight-game playoff march to the title, he scored 15.5 a game and pulled down 3.3 boards.
When the U.S. sent a team of NBA D-Leaguers to represent Team USA in the Pan American Games this summer, Ehambe was with them. Then, when the Energy opened camp this year with only a few familiar faces, he gave them a foundation. Not only was his shot—which some scouts have called the best-looking jumper in the NBA D-League—as good as ever, but he’d improved his defense and all-around game to the point where he wasn’t just looking to shoot anymore.
Now, with shutdown defensive abilities and a propensity for creating—and knocking down—looks on the offensive end (at 14.3 ppg, he’s Iowa’s second-leading scorer), he’s never been more ready to make the leap.
On Thursday, he’ll join with fellow top prospect Mike Efevberha—the team’s leading scorer—and Curtis Stinson—the 2011 NBA D-League—to take on an Erie team that recently got a new shipment of talent.
Point guard Keith McLeod and swingman D.J. Kennedy had already vaulted to the top tier of NBA prospects, but the additions of Donald Sloan (coming off consecutive 10-day contracts with the Hornets) and Jerome Jordan (on assignment from the Knicks) should make Erie one of the league’s must-watch teams.
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