FanHouse Luc Richard Mbah A Moute

FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is not going to set the world on fire. But he's the type of player that can provide the gasoline.

To say Mbah a Moute was under the radar last season is to vastly overestimate the strength of radar systems. Coming out of UCLA, Mbah a Moute was considered a project like so many rookies. He didn't possess the wowzer tangibles (standing only 6-8 and being listed as a power forward will do that to you), didn't stir the senses with playmaking, and was considered a good college player that he might make it with some time.

And then Mbah A Moute actually hit the floor.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Bucks were awful last year, but at least they had an excuse: Michael Redd, the team's leading scorer six years and counting, and Andrew Bogut, the franchise center who signed a $72 million extension before last season, each missed more than half of the season with injury.

The good news? Both players are healthy entering camp and should be primed to make up for lost time. The bad news? GM John Hammond has rebooted the supporting cast in their absence, trading Richard Jefferson to the Spurs in a cost-cutting maneuver while losing Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions to free agency.

When a fifth-place team loses three of its top four scorers and doesn't even receive a legitimate starter to show for it, you know it's going to be a long year.

When Luc Richard Mbah a Moute meets Africa's top youth players in Johannesburg Wednesday, he'll understand their anxiety and their hopes. Just six years ago, Mbah a Moute was in their shoes.

The Bucks forward is with an NBA contingent in South Africa this week as part of the Basketball Without Borders program. Cameroon native Mbah a Moute has joined Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki and others on the sojourn to lead a group of 60 top African youth players in five days of basketball clinics and life-skills seminars.

In the summer of 2003, a 17-year-old Mbah a Moute was one of those campers. He credits the program with helping him get to the NBA.

San Antonio needed a major infusion of offensive talent this season, and it appears the team has found it. Multiple league reports indicate the Spurs have traded for Milwaukee's Richard Jefferson, sending away only bit players Bruce Bowen (age 38), Kurt Thomas (age 36) and Fabricio Oberto (age 34), according to Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Jefferson has been in Wisconsin for one year, following last June's draft day trade which sent Yi Jianlian and others to New Jersey. Jefferson has always been a moderately efficient scorer, and he should provide some relief for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan in the Spurs starting line-up. He's not quite an ace defender, but he played hard for Scott Skiles last season and hasn't missed a game in two seasons.

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As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

Through the first half of the season, the Bucks rode as one of the great surprises of the NBA. A team sunk in the dead space between truly atrocious and just plain bad in 2007-08, Scott Skiles (and Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut) had Milwaukee back on the map, threatening to crash the postseason and even peeking into one analyst's Top 5 around the New Year.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Joe Johnson has leveled off after a stunning start to the season. Of course, "leveled off" simply puts J.J. back in the tangible stratosphere instead of another galaxy. As such, his terrific 35 points, seven rebounds and six assists against Portland still stands out as one of Sunday's best lines, Earthbound or not.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

At some point, Dwyane Wade's wings will melt, for he flies too close to the sun. Another 40-point night for Flash -- 42, to be exact, on 17-of-23 shooting. He added eight assists, six rebounds and (an unfortunate) eight turnovers.

Wade has broken the 35-point threshold in four straight games, and topped 40 in three of those. Since the All-Star Break, he has averaged better than 36 points per game on 58 percent shooting with 10 assists to boot. Wade is, for lack of a better word, insane. He has a great shot to not only win the scoring title, but to get over 30 ppg. You think someone wants that fourth seed?

Elie Seckbach, the AP-recognized Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

At a time when some of the biggest names in sports are letting their fans down and not acting as true role models, there's one NBA star who is doing what he can to make a difference in the lives of others. Bucks sharp-shooter Charlie Villanueva is a true inspiration. Villanueva has alopecia areata, a skin disorder that effects millions of Americans. Before each game, Charlie talks to young kids who suffer from the same disorder and goes out of his way to inspire them. "Make sure you have alopecia areata -- don't let alopecia areata have you," says Villanueva.

Check out the video after the jump.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

The Thunder don't win very often, so when they do, it's cause for discussion. All it took was a home game against a Warriors team that plays zero defense for Kevin Durant and Jeff Green to lead the team to just its fourth win of the season.

Durant ended up with 25 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and two blocked shots, basically doing everything possible to ensure victory over a very beatable Golden State club. Green chipped in 26 and eight, and Chris Wilcox had 23 and nine off the bench. Again, should we really be impressed since this took place against the Warriors? Probably not, but for OKC, any win deserves some celebration.

Nene continues to impress: Can you be the most improved player in the league if you only appeared in 16 games the preceding season? That's a question those who vote on the award will have to answer, because Nene has been amazing this season for the Nuggets. Lots of big lines from the high-scoring affair in Toronto, but Nene's 21 points (on 12 shots), seven rebounds, three assists, and just three fouls in 39 minutes stood out in Denver's win.

They're not booing, they're saying Mbah a MOUte: The negative lines are as much fun to point out as the positives sometimes, and when a starter has a lot of zeroes in the box score, well, that's one that we're going to mention. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute started for the Bucks against the Rockets, played 19 minutes, and somehow managed not to do anything but foul people. He finished with zero points, zero rebounds, zero assists, and four personals.

The talent gap between No. 1 seed UCLA and No. 16 seed Mississippi Valley State, who play tonight in Anaheim, is so great that UCLA could probably keep all five of its starters on the bench and still win.

So with center Kevin Love nursing a back injury and forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute nursing a sprained ankle, it's surprising that coach Ben Howland says Love will definitely play today and Mbah a Moute probably will.

Maybe the team doctors are telling Howland that Love and Mbah a Moute aren't going to get any better with a couple of extra days' rest, although everything I know about back and ankle injuries tells me that that doesn't make much sense. It seems more that Howland just figures if guys say they're feeling well enough to play, they should play.

But players always say they're feeling well enough to play come Tournament time. It would make a lot more sense to start the game with Love and Mbah a Moute on the bench and -- barring the extremely unlikely event that Mississippi Valley State keeps it close -- keep them there.