Sebastian Telfair attempting NBA comeback in 2014
Former NBA point guard Sebastian Telfair is drawing interest from several teams and will look to return to the league after spending a year overseas, reports Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
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One of the most hyped teenage prospects in recent history, Telfair spent the 2013-14 season playing for Tianjin Ronggang in the Chinese league after failing to make an NBA roster. Now 29 years old, he’s simply trying to get back into the league after a year away, and it appears he will have some opportunities.
Telfair last played in the NBA during the 2012-13 season, splitting time with the Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors over 59 games. He wasn’t great, averaging 5.6 points per game on 36 percent shooting, but that’s pretty much par for the course at this point.
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A lack of shooting ability has long been Telfair’s biggest issue, as the point guard never quite became a legitimate threat to opposing defenses. Even during his peak seasons, when he started a combined 94 games for Minnesota and averaged 9.6 points and 5.2 assists per game, his field goal percentage sat below 40 percent.
That may make him a questionable fit for a league that’s increasingly embraced shooting in recent years, but teams will at least see what he can do. Before signing in China last year, Telfair worked out for a number of teams that ultimately didn’t offer jobs. We’ll see if things go differently this time around.
Telfair put up huge numbers with Tianjin — 26.1 points, 6.0 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 2.0 steals per game — but needed a ton of usage to do it. He took a team-leading 19 shots per contest, including nearly 10 per night from beyond the arc, and shot just 41 percent overall.