Know Your NBA D-League: The Canton Charge(!)

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By Mike Hanus:

Averaging 41 points, nine rebounds, six assists and 3.5 steals in his last two games, Manny Harris of the Canton Charge was named NBA D-League Performer of the Week. Having starred for the Michigan Wolverines, Harris went undrafted before being signed by the Cleveland Cavaliers last year. He spent most of his time on the bench before being waived this year, where he was signed by the D-League Canton Charge, to recover from his freezer burn (!?!?) injury. He promptly helped the Charge, who went 7-3 in their last ten games…and then Harris was called up by the Cavs on a 10-day contract, and the Charge are back to start.

Such is the life of a team in the NBA D-League, which sits in the back seat and works with the injured stars, developing talent and seasonal journeymen the NBA hopes to develop or doesn’t want in the first place. This is the first of a regular series of articles that helps you get to know your local NBA D-League team. We’ll cover some of their notable stories, give a breakdown of the roster and the upcoming calendar, and what you ought to expect when it comes to the D-League.

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The Canton Charge are officially owned by the Cleveland Cavaliers as of the year 2011 and are based in Canton, Ohio. Canton, with a population of ~74,000, is notable for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as well as the First Ladies National Historic Site, where you can see the preserved home of William McKinley’s wife, Ida. Canton is also notable to me for being the hometown of Big Mike, a freshman I met last year who looked 30, knew lots of famous people and played basketball like a fullback.

Before the Charge were the Charge, they were the Albuquerque/New Mexico Thunderbirds, and before that the Huntsville Flight. They are coached by Alex Jensen in his first head coaching job; before the Charge he was an assistant coach for the St. Louis Bilikens. He’s noted for his post-play coaching and when he was a (really good) college player, he started for the University of Utah and took them to the NCAA Championship game in 1998. In his first year as a coach, for the team’s first year as a team, Jensen has coached the Charge to a 17-16 record, and they are currently in 8th place in the D-League and eligible to make the playoffs (the top eight teams make it).

The most notable players for the Charge are the earlier mentioned Harris and Luke Harangody, who only played for the Charge for three games before jumping back up NBA to play garbage time minutes for the Cavs. However, both of these players are NBA quality (ehh…) and will probably only be drifters to the Charge temporarily. If you really want to know the Charge, you need to know Tyrell Biggs.

Biggs made his name playing at Pittsburgh, and then spent some time overseas playing in Cyprus and Israel. He drove 8 hours down to work out with the Charge and was selected first. Press reports indicate that “Biggs wore thick, black-rimmed glasses Thursday, looking like an imposing Steve Urkel. But there is nothing Urkel about his game.”

Nothing Urkel, indeed. Biggs is posting numbers in a Bigg way (sorry), averaging 16.2 points per game with six rebounds a game. He also serves as the team barber, plays the piano, majored in economics and goes by TBiggs, which is what I would go by too.

Next keep an eye out for guards Keith McLeod and T.J. Campbell. Each is dropping nearly five dimes per game, and they are averaging 14 and 11 points per game, respectively.  McLeod majored in computer science, and Campbell is notable for being the team barber, playing the piano, going by TBiggs, and oh wait, the Charge Media Guide definitely wrote the same thing twice.

Want some hot behind-the-line shooting? Look no further than Antoine Agudio, who is both shooting the most and dropping a disgusting 57% of his threes into the net. Need some board-crashing action? Dante Milligan is getting nine a game, and Franklin Hassell is grabbing four offensive rebounds a game coming off the bench.

The Charge aren’t too far from our home base in Columbus, so I may take a trip out there to give you a real feel of the D-League. Also be on the lookout for more investigative reporting into Manny Harris’s freezer burn injury.


*From http://www.cantonciviccenter.com/detail.php?id=1873