The 2008-2009 season saw the Timberwolves continue to give heavy minutes to Telfair. That’s not saying much though, considering that the team was equally as bad as last year’s. Furthermore, Telfair had a bit of trouble holding onto his starting spot, yielding it to natural shooting guard Randy Foye and current coach Kevin Ollie at different times. You could tell that Telfair was becoming a bit more of a scorer this season, as his three point shot returned and he was able to get some more respect on the perimeter. His assists took a hit as a result though, and his percentages were still below what’s considered acceptable in the NBA.

Telfair’s biggest moments definitely came during the latter part of the season. Randy Wittman was fired on December 8th, 2008. This allowed Kevin McHale to step in, and he responded by benching Telfair for poor play. Telfair eventually battled his way back into the rotation, playing some of the most aggressive offense of his career. When it was all said and done, Telfair had registered 11 games with 18 points or more. Eight of those games were in March or April.

With such a strong late season performance, the Telfair hype wagon had somewhat set itself back into motion. Canis Hoopus had this to say about him after a game against Portland back in march of 2008:

When Bassy had the ball in his hands, the offense moved. Even when he went for his own, Bassy broke down the opposing defense and got into the lane or to an open spot on the mid-wing for a mid-range jumper. He spent the night getting pretty much what he wanted against Steve Blake and you knew that, with him in the game, the Wolves stood a chance with a higher pace and superior ball movement, i.e. things that McHale has been calling for since the injury. More so than any other player on the court, Bassy exposed one of Portland’s biggest problems: it’s point play.

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I think Bassy is proving himself to be quite a serviceable player at this point in time. I really don’t think guys like Steve Blake offer anything more than he does (Rodriguez and Bayless clearly don’t) and should Bassy have the opportunity to play with superior talent at this point in his career, I think he would do even better. Whatever he is, he’s not the worst rotation regular in the NBA. He’s not a terrible point. His shot will probably always be broke but that doesn’t mean he can’t be effective. Is he a starting point in this league? Not next to Randy Foye. But could he be an effective starter with Foye coming off the bench while playing next to a large 2 guard? Steve Blake isn’t Steve Blake without Brandon Roy. I doubt he’d be Bassy if he was next to Mr. Foye.

Of course, being a serviceable point guard means absolutely nothing if your team is winning 20some games. After two seasons of Telfair as their defacto starter, the Timberwolves traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers for Quentin Richardson. The move made sense at the time, with the T-Wolves set to bring in rookie PGs Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio.

Battling Injury and Circumstance, 2009-2010

The Los Angeles Clippers were a team in the midst of transition. After some brief success in the mid-2000s, it appeared that they were destined to be terrible team for years to come. The talent was there, but constant injuries kept the team from reaching their potential. However, there was a lot of excitement with the arrival of Blake Griffin in 2009, and many thought that Telfair was the perfect player to dish him assists. In order to do that, though, Telfair would first have to unseat the current starting point guard.

That man was the aging Baron Davis. Boom Dizzle was a far cry from his former self in those times, but he was able to complete a relatively healthy season and rack up some serious assists. Telfair did a good job of establishing himself, though. Though he was hardly the focus of the Clippers at the time, blurbs about him over at ClipsNation were mostly positive. Statistically, he was shooting better than ever, and he hardly ever impacted his team negatively.

But, just as it appeared that Telfair had found a role, disaster struck. A right groin strain sidelined him for 4-6 weeks on January 22nd, and the Clippers promptly shipped him off to Cleveland at the deadline. He was part of a larger deal to bring Antawn Jamison to the Cavaliers and cut costs for the Clippers. The Clippers stood no chance of making the playoffs at the time, so the move made some sense.

When arriving in Cleveland, Telfair found a team that had absolutely no interest in him as a player. He was buried on the bench behind established stars in Mo Williams, Delonte West, and Daniel Gibson. Bassy managed to grab some minutes in irrelevant matches at the end of the season, but didn’t see a lick of time in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Bassy’s old team, the Timberwolves, was still in desperate need of a PG. Ricky Rubio hadn’t come to the USA yet, Jonny Flynn wasn’t panning out, and Luke Ridnour wasn’t very awe-inspiring. So they decided to dish Ramon Sessions and Ryan Hollins to the Cavs for Bassy and Delonte West.

Returning to Minnesota to Lose Some More, 2010-2011

2010-2011 was the last year of Telfair’s post-Rookie contract. Thus, Telfair knew he’d have to perform well to stay in the league. The first three weeks of the season reflect that, seeing him play some of the most efficient offensive basketball of his career. During that stretch, he averaged 9.8 points on 43% shooting, along with 4.5 assists to 2.2 turnovers. Telfair was even able to take the starting PG spot away from Luke Ridnour for a week. The stretch didn’t last though, because Ridnour was simply a more efficient scorer, shooter, and distributor at the time. Furthermore, Telfair was yanked early from a few games for poor shooting or a high amount of turnovers.

Despite what you might think, the benching had little to do with on-court performance. From Key Dae’s 2010-2011 Season Grades on Canis Hoopus:

For whatever reason, Bassy played in just 37 games this year. Even stranger, most of that apparently was because Flynn was injured to start the season. Rambis and Flynn don’t like each other and Telfair was a better choice as a backup anyway….and yet when Flynn returns, Bassy disappears. If I were to guess, I’d say Kahn was making some command decisions here, but ultimately who knows? It’ll give me a headache to try and figure it out, so…

If I were to give Telfair a grade, it’d probably be a B- or C+. Like Beasley, Bassy basically hit his marks. But again….37 games. We haven’t seen him on the court since February, and that was only because Jonny was “tired”….or something….

With the 2011 season came the lockout, and Bassy found himself completely without a team. He wasn’t the type to sign overseas quite yet, but he did manage to get some burn in his old high school gym during the lockout. It was kinda cool to see him get to play next to Lance Stephenson, another Lincoln grad. Still, by all measures, he was pretty much destroyed by Brandon Jennings in the game.

Backing up Steve Nash, 2011-2012

At the end of the 2011 Lockout, Jennings signed a contract with the Phoenix Suns. There, Telfair found an ideal environment in which to flourish. The Suns were a fast team that emphasized offense and passing over defense, two traits that Telfair excels at. Bassy didn’t post stats that were as impressive as those made during his time in Minnesota, but he did manage to put in a solid 8-18 minutes behind Steve Nash on a borderline playoff team. His minutes were more limited towards the start of the season, as he competed for minutes with Ronnie Price. But eventually Telfair won the role outright. The last 12 games of the season were particularly bonkers for Bassy, as he shot 53% from the floor and averaged 11.6 PPG. Jacob Padilla of Bright Side of the Sun partially explains the run:

Like the man he backed up, Sebastian Telfair was primarily a pick-and-roll point guard with 43.2 percent of his plays coming as a pick-and-roll ball-handler. He wasn’t quite the master Nash was, as either a scorer or passer, but he still found a way to be effective despite low shooting percentages. Telfair used screens mainly to create space to pull-up for a jump shot, a shot he missed a ton early and hit a lot in April. That explains his low field goal percentage at least somewhat. Telfair only shot 39.2 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from beyond the arc, but he did hit 14 3-pointers and his shoot-first mentality meant he kept his turnovers relatively low at 11.8 percent. Telfair scored 0.80 PPP, which ranked him 67th overall.

…

Even though most of Telfair’s rankings look pretty decent, his overall performance was less than impressive at 0.85 PPP and a rank of 285. Telfair did well as a pick-an-roll ball-handler and in isolation, but both of those aren’t very efficient play types and because they made up the majority of his attempts it hurts his final ranking.

Another thing to keep in mind is the disparity between the way he played at the start of the season and at the end of it. It is difficult looking at his season and judging it as a whole, especially because we don’t know which one is the real Bassy Telfair right now.

Signed to be Traded, 2012-2013

In 2012-2013, the Phoenix Suns decided that Telfair was good enough to earn a second year on his contract, for $1.5 Million. It was midst some controversy, as there was a great deal of worry about the money the Suns were spending on role players. Others were worried about Telfair’s place above the young Kendall Marshall on the depth chart. At the end of the day, Bassy started off the season as the team’s backup point guard. He remained in that role until a few games before the trade deadline, though his minutes would fluctuate wildly throughout the run.

As for Telfair’s season? Well, the good news is that Bassy continued to develop the defensive aspects of his game. He became known as someone who could provide a lot of defensive energy against opposing PGs. However, his offense came back to reality. Low shooting percentages kept him from being truly effective, though he did have his nights. At the end of the day, no matter how well Telfair did that season, his days in Phoenix were numbered. It did the rebuilding Suns little good to keep Telfair on the roster, as they became more focused on development and less focused on winning.

When it was all said and done, Telfair was sent to the Raptors for a second round pick and Hamed Haddadi. Bassy wasn’t too happy with the decision at the time. From an interview with Craig Grialou on azsports.com:

“I think I proved myself at the end of the season last year where I could be a guy that could be trusted to be out there on the floor and then they go draft Kendall,” he said. “I guess I was the last one to know. I should’ve been packing my bags already last year instead of coming back and doing what we did.”

The disappointment in Telfair’s voice is telling.

“I’m bitter,” he said. “I’m a little bitter. I don’t have nothing personal against (my former teammates), love them guys but I’m bitter. I’m a little bitter. For one, I got to pick up and leave my family, my kids. Forget the business part of it, I’ve got to leave my kids home, by themselves now and I’m all the way in Toronto so (expletive) yeah, I’m bitter.

“It sucks for me to be bitter because I got to understand somebody going to get the short end of the stick. Wesley Johnson was sitting on the bench the entire season. He was getting the short end of the stick now he’s out there on the floor. It just happens. My guy Shannon Brown, I watched him develop as a player these last two years, do everything they asked him to do, worked extremely hard and now he can’t even get on the floor.

Telfair couldn’t get on the floor himself while playing for the Raptors. He spent a couple weeks racking up DNPs before he was finally given a chance to shine. That opportunity came against his old team, whom he absolutely picked apart. His final statline wasn’t eye popping (13 points, 7 assists, 4 steals), but he did absolutely destroy Kendall Marshall and firmly led the Raptors to victory.

That game would prove to be the peak of Telfair’s season. He spent the rest of it trying to find time on the Raptor bench. His defensive rating was apparently the highest on the team, but low shooting numbers kept him from impressing. A knee injury in early April would eventually knock him out for the season, and he was without a contract over the Summer.

Becoming a Leader in China, 2013-2014

Thus, Telfair decided to sign with the Tianjin Ronggang Golden Lions of China’s CBA. It might sound like a big leap for most NBA players, but Telfair had connections. His cousin, Stephon Marbury, is a staple of the Beijing Ducks. Marbury had won a championship with the Ducks a year prior, earning himself a statue in his honor. Telfair was seen to have communicated with Marbury while in China, so the dots are pretty easy to connect.

The CBA is a very unique animal. The league allows each team a maximum of two non-Asian players and one Asian non-Chinese player. The two non-Asian players are limited to six total quarters in each game. As if this weren’t enough, there’s another exception to that rule. Because the Bayi Rockets are attached to the Chinese Army and thus cannot have non-Chinese players, all three of the non-Chinese players on the opposing are limited to four total quarters of time.

Thus, when you look at Telfair’s stats from last year, keep in mind that he was kept to 36 minutes a game as a matter of necessity. Obviously, given that the CBA is a couple of steps below the NBA in terms of talent, Telfair was played as much as he could. This was the first time since Telfair’s Lincoln High days that he would be asked to star for his team, so it was obviously a different role for him.

Telfair took to the role like peanut butter to bread. During his 2013-2014 season in Tianjin, he managed averages of 26 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals. Telfair even managed to shoot a barely acceptable 40.6% from the floor, and 36.9% from three. The three turnovers a game are still a bit too high, but given the amount of scoring he was asked to do on a bad team, it’s easily forgiven.

You see, the Tianjin Ronggang Golden Lions are a newcomer to the CBA, having joined the league in 2008. In all of the years since, the Golden Lions have never made the CBA playoffs. Last season, they made it for the first time. The Golden Lions would lose the first round series 3-1, but not before Telfair put in a couple of historic performances. The first, a 37 point, 6 assist bonanza, would lead the Golden Lions to their first ever playoff victory. His second historic game involved him dropping 58 points. On 14 of 35 shooting. The team still lost that game, but it’s really hard to blame Bassy for the loss.