With the July 12 limit on free agent signings lifted, expect a flood of signings with literally a ton of surprises popping up right away. The fact that players were anxious to switch teams usually for bigger and better contracts should come as no surprise to anyone, and certainly not to Damon Jones of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cleveland signed Jones a year ago to give them some much needed scoring and it should be noted that the Cavaliers were his 10th professional team spanning a ten-year period. His cage stops include Black Hills of the IBA; Idaho of the CBA; and NBA stints with New Jersey, Boston, Golden State, Dallas, Vancouver, Detroit, Sacramento, Milwaukee and Miami in addition to the Cavaliers.

And he had his best season in the NBA in 2004-2005 with the Heat when he averaged 11.6 PPG and shot a career best of .456 from the field. The fact that he only averaged 6.8 points per game for his lengthy career including all spots has not stopped teams from trying to secure his services. He can score and he can score three-point range.

Chucky Atkins, a nifty guard now with Memphis, has played for such diverse teams as La Crosse, Wisconsin of the CBA; Cibona, Zagreb (Croatia) and NBA units like Orlando, Detroit, Boston, the Los Angeles Lakers, Washington and Memphis.

Jon Barry, who played in Houston last season, has stopped in Milwaukee, Golden State, Atlanta, Los Angeles (Lakers), Sacramento, Detroit, Denver, and Atlanta again in addition to Houston in a career that started in 1992. He still can play.

Raja Bell, who had a great year with Phoenix, started in pro basketball with a two-year stint at Yakima in the CBA. Then he made stops at Philadelphia, Dallas and Utah before joining the Suns this past season, which was his best season to date.

Rick Brunson, a quality backup guard, has made 11 pro stops with eight different teams. He spent three years in the CBA, first with Quad City, then with Connecticut. That was followed by NBA stops at Portland, New York, Boston, New York again, Portland again, Chicago, Toronto, Chicago again and finally the Los Angeles Clippers. He has his best season with the Clippers in ‘04-05; played in 80 games and averaged 5.5 PPG and 5.1 assists per game – both career highs.

Jim Jackson, a former first round (No. 4 overall) pick in the 1992 draft, is another player who has been around the horn but still is a sought after player, especially for teams battling for positioning in the playoffs. Jim has played for Dallas, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Golden State, Portland, Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami, Sacramento, Houston, New Orleans, Phoenix and the Los Angeles Lakers. And he has a 14.3 points per game mark while shooting .428 from the field and .825 from the line. Remember, Jackson can play a number of positions including the two spot (and sometimes the one) and the three spot (and sometimes the four) but his best asset is his ability to score the basketball.

And then there is Tony Massenburg, who is approaching 40 by this month’s end. A 6-9 250-pound power player, who can play four and five spot, he was drafted in the second round by San Antonio (43rd pick overall) in the 1990 Draft. Waived by the Spurs in December 1991, he then played in Italy (Sidis Reggio Emilia) during the season of 1991-92 – a year that also saw him get looks from Charlotte, Boston and Golden State. He played with Unicaja-Mayoral in Spain in 1992-93 and Barcelona in 1993-94.

He returned to the NBA in 1994-95, spending the entire season with the Los Angeles Clippers and averaging 9.3 points per game in 80 games, shooting .469 from the field and .753 from the charity stripe. A year later he played for Philadelphia and Toronto then spent the 1996-97 season with New Jersey. Then came Vancouver (97-98 and 98-99); then the Houston for 99-00; and back to the Canadian team in 00-01. The team moved to Memphis a year later and his next stops included Utah (02-03), Sacramento in 03-04 and finally full circle back to San Antonio – the NBA that had originally drafted him – in 1990. Including his international teams, Tony has played for 16 teams including double-dips at San Antonio and Vancouver.

Why have I spent all this time giving you a brief resume of these NBA players? All of the players listed above have been around a bit, but there still was much interest in their ability to help a club. There is a need for players of this skill – guys who fit in with every type of offensive and defensive sets – who are ready to step in for a minute or more. Teams may spend as much seeking former U.S. players who have shifted to the international scene to gain experience as they do watching the college crop.

Note that during the past week, Toronto signed Anthony Parker, the star of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the Lakers inked Shammond Williams, who had a number of previous NBA looks, as a back-up point. The search often ends in South Korea, the latest international country to offer big bucks to foreign players.

And let’s consider Ira Newble who is a 6-7, 220-pounder. Newble can play three positions: the two, three or four. He was never drafted by a NBA team. He played two years of junior college hoops at Mississippi Gulf Coast JC, then spent his junior season at Miami of Ohio.

Unable to secure a NBA berth, he tried the minor league pro path playing 16 games with the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association and 13 with the Wisconsin Blast of the International Basketball Association, both in ‘97-98. He returned to Idaho the next two seasons (’98-99 and ’99-00). He also played 44 games (’99-00) for Keravnos Keo Nocosia in Cyprus; then got his second NBA shot with the San Antonio Spurs seeing action in 27 games and averaging 2.0 PPG. (He had spent a month with that team in the fall of 1999 but was waived before the start of the actual season.)

Then it was back to the CBA for another stint (Flint, Michigan in ’01-02) – a year in which he had his best season as a hoopster and averaged 21.4 points per game.

Atlanta signed him in October of 2001 and he was subsequently waived 24 days later. The Hawks re-signed him to a 10-day contract on January 23, 2002, then signed him for the rest of the season a month later (February 22). He played one more season with Atlanta, proved he could play in the league, then was signed as a free agent by Cleveland in July of 2002 and has been with the Cavaliers ever since.

He is a solid player and obviously has paid his dues, but there is a need for his type of player who has come from the ranks and polished his game from hither and yon.

Hence the title of this opus.

They are not lost… just wandering.