Keep an eye on the up-and-coming SF/PF of the Seattle SuperSonics, Mickaël Gelabale. He’s probably not a pickup just yet, but have him on your watch list. Especially if you are in a deeper league/keeper league.

Gel-who?
Gelabale has been up at Triple-A (the D-league) Idaho working on his game, but watch out for him the second half of this season if you’re in need of points and rebounds. As he showed tonight against the Lakers, this guy can flat out shoot. In 32 minutes (against what has become probably the best team in the league*), Gelabale scored 21 points (10-16) and grabbed 8 boards. With veteran Kurt Thomas gone from the front court and Kevin Durant’s freshmen year shooting woes continuing (4-13 tonight), the Sonics will be doing a lot of experimenting. Gelabale has always had trouble putting “two halves together” (P.J. Carlesimo), but if he plays like he did tonight and like he did against Portland last Friday (12 points on on 4-6 shooting), he’ll definitely be in the lineup for the Sonics.

UPDATE 3-1-08: After the return of Earl Watson to the starting lineup on 2-29, Gelabale only logged 12 minutes, shooting an atrocious 1-8. Expect Ridnour and company to log more minutes and for Gelabale to see less production. Although, I will keep monitoring the Sonics, as they are a very volatile team right now.

Gelabale’s Bio
I had to do some digging to find out that Gelabale was selected by the SuperSonics in the second round (48th overall) in the 2005 NBA Draft but opted to play in the Spanish League that next year before joining the NBA. In July of ’06 he officially signed with Sonics. An interesting fact about Gelabale: he’s got some crazy hair, apparently it measures an astounding 47″ around.

Also, Kobe was ejected for the first time ever in the Sonics-Lakers game tonight.

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To hoops,
Farid