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Month: November 2024

Lorenzo Brown To Enter NBA Draft

March 28th, 2013 at 3:08pm CST by Luke Adams

THURSDAY, 3:08pm: Brown formally announced at a news conference today that he'll skip his final season with the Wolfpack and enter the NBA draft, according to an Associated Press report (link via ESPN.com).

TUESDAY, 12:16pm: Junior point guard Lorenzo Brown is expected to declare his intent to enter the NBA draft, according to Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com. An announcement could come from N.C. State at some point this week, says Goodman.

Brown's N.C. State team was a No. 8 seed in the East region of the NCAA tournament, falling to No. 9 Temple last week. However, it'd be hard to blame the loss on Brown, who put up 22 points and nine assists in the game, well above his season averages of 12.4 PPG and 7.2 APG.

Brown, 22, is projected as a borderline first-round pick by most experts. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com currently has him ranked 34th among this year's prospects, while ESPN.com's Chad Ford places him 36th.

So far, two underclassmen, Tony Mitchell and Eric Moreland, have officially declared for June's NBA draft. Brown, Anthony Bennett, and Norvel Pelle are among the others expected to file their paperwork in the near future.

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Clippers Sign Maalik Wayns For Season

March 28th, 2013 at 3:04pm CST by Luke Adams

3:04pm: The Clippers have officially signed Wayns for the remainder of the season, the team announced today in a press release.

8:25am: With one day remaining on his second 10-day contract with the Clippers, Maalik Wayns is expected to receive a rest-of-season deal from the team. Clippers play-by-play man Ralph Lawler tweets that Wayns was informed last night that the club will keep him for the remainder of the season.

After appearing in 21 games for the 76ers earlier this season, Wayns has been used more sparingly by the Clippers, playing just 28 minutes in three games for the team so far. The 21-year-old's most recent action came last Wednesday against his old team, when he recorded nine points and two assists against the Sixers.

Re-signing Wayns for the season will give the Clippers 14 players on guaranteed contracts, with DaJuan Summers' 10-day deal set to expire next Wednesday night. At that point, the team will have to decide whether to use its final guaranteed roster spot on Summers or let him go.

As for Wayns, I wouldn't be surprised if his new contract also included a non-guaranteed team option for 2013/14, allowing the Clips to get an extended look at him this summer.

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Hoops Rumors Features

March 28th, 2013 at 2:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren't the only updates you'll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you'll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here's a rundown of a few of them:

  • In addition to our list of 2012/13 free agents, we also have free agent lists for both next summer, and the summer of 2014, which will continue to be modified as needed.
  • Our Free Agent Tracker, which features data sortable by team, position, contract years, and contract amount, currently includes last summer's signings and will be used to track the upcoming summer's deals as well.
  • Speaking of those upcoming signings, we've started looking ahead to a number of free agent cases in our Free Agent Stock Watch series, which we'll continue through July.
  • Throughout the season, we've been keeping tabs on roster counts for each NBA team, the year's D-League assignments and recalls, and all the in-season trades consummated this year.
  • Our tentative 2013 draft order tracks this season's "reverse standings," allowing for an early look at what next June's draft order might look like.
  • NCAA underclassmen who have declared for June's draft are rounded up on our list of 2013 early entrants.
  • Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed since 2007, sorting by player, team, year, and other variables.
  • On Mondays at 4:00pm CT, returning on April 8th, I answer readers' questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of our past live discussions here.
  • Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is created, is used, or expires.
  • We're also tracking teams' amnesty provisions — using our complete list, you can check to see which clubs have used the amnesty clause and which will carry it into the summer.
  • The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement.
  • Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere every Sunday in his weekly Hoops Links feature.
  • If you're looking to catch up on a few days worth of content, our Week in Review posts round up the week's news and rumors, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site's original content for the week. Both round-ups are published every Sunday.
  • Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we previewed the offseason's rookie-scale extension candidates, explained playoff eligibility for late-season signings, and broke down a few maximum-contract scenarios for this summer's free agent class.
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Western Notes: Tony Allen, Clips, Lakers, Harris

March 28th, 2013 at 1:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The race for the final playoff spot(s) in the Western Conference will continue tonight, when the Lakers play the Bucks in Milwaukee and the Mavericks host the Pacers in Dallas. As we look forward to those games, let's round up a few Thursday items out of the conference….

  • Tony Allen is headed for unrestricted free agency this summer, and at least one Eastern Conference general manager thinks Allen will receive a modest raise. "Three years at $4MM per year sounds right," the GM tells Chris Mannix of SI.com. "He adds instant toughness and a defensive mentality to your team. He's a leader on the floor and he isn't going to back down from anyone. I think everyone in the league would love to have him." The Grizzlies have no interest in approaching luxury-tax territory, so it's unclear if they'll be able to bring back Allen.
  • Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com believes that both Los Angeles head coaches, Mike D'Antoni and Vinny Del Negro, could be on the outs with the Lakers and Clippers respectively if they don't finish the season strong.
  • With Metta World Peace expected to miss six weeks after undergoing surgery on his left knee, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders if the veteran forward has played his last game with the Lakers.
  • Terrel Harris' new deal with the Hornets includes an second year that will become guaranteed if Harris makes the team's 2013/14 roster, reports Sam Amick of USA Today.
  • Nuggets coach George Karl tells Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post that he thinks Gregg Popovich would be interested in the Team USA head coaching position, and that Popovich would be a great choice for the job.
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Hornets Sign Terrel Harris For Rest Of Season

March 28th, 2013 at 12:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 12:21pm: The Hornets have officially signed Harris for the remainder of the season, the team announced today in a press release.

WEDNESDAY, 8:00pm: The Hornets are expected to re-sign guard Terrel Harris for the rest of the season when his second 10-day contract with the team expires tonight, reports John Reid of The Times Picayune. Harris will take up the final roster spot for New Orleans when the move becomes official, meaning the team would have to waive someone on a guaranteed contract to sign anyone else this season.

Harris saw significantly more action on his second 10-day deal with the team than he did on his first, including more than 28 minutes of run on March 18th against the Warriors, when he had four points and five rebounds. Still, those are the only points he's scored in 79 total minutes over six games with the club. Harris began the season with the Heat, who kept him on their roster all of last season on their march to the NBA championship. The 6'5" Oklahoma State product has averaged 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds in 12.2 minutes per game in his two NBA seasons.

Harris will become the 11th player this year to sign two 10-day contracts followed by a rest-of-the-season deal with a team, as our 10-day tracker shows. That's more such deals than in any season since 2007/08.

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Players Turning 10-Days Into Rest-Of-Season Deals

March 28th, 2013 at 11:35am CST by Luke Adams

Few contracts in professional sports are as fleeting as the NBA's 10-day deals, which give players just a week and a half, usually no more than four or five games, to prove they deserve a chance to remain on a team's roster. As Jannero Pargo, who is currently playing on his fourth 10-day contract of the season, told Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer earlier this month, "Fourth quarter, down two points, is a lot less pressure than playing on a 10-day contract."

While many players don't receive a shot at a second 10-day deal or a guaranteed contract, a number of guys this season have parlayed these temporary contracts into something more permanent. When Terrel Harris and Maalik Wayns finalize their reported agreements with the Hornets and Clippers, respectively, they'll be the 13th and 14th players in 2013 to be locked up to guaranteed deals after starting on a 10-day contract.

With the help of our 10-day contract tracker, here's a round-up of the players to sign rest-of-season deals following 10-day contracts this season:

While most of these players signed a pair of 10-day contracts before their clubs locked them up for the season, the Sixers and Celtics apparently saw enough from Jeremy Pargo and Terrence Williams during their first week and a half with their respective teams to not require that second 10-day stint. Additionally, a number of these guys, including the Celtics trio, were locked up to non-guaranteed contracts for 2013/14, giving teams a chance to get an extended look at them over the summer.

One more note: Although many of these players have become a part of their teams' regular rotations, that's not always the case. For every Mike James, who has started the Mavericks' last 12 games and played 20+minutes in each contest, there's a Jarvis Varnado, who hasn't appeared in a game for the Heat in over a month as he shuffles back and forth between the NBA and the D-League.

The difference between James and Varnado highlights the difference ways in which teams can employ 10-day deals. James, a 37-year-old veteran proved during his 10-day contracts that he had enough left in the tank to help the Mavs immediately. Varnado, meanwhile, showed enough promise that the Heat wanted to keep him on their roster into the summer, even if won't contribute at all on the court during the team's playoff run.

To keep tabs on all of this year's 10-day contracts, be sure to check out our tracker, which allows you to sort 10-day deals by type, team, player, and more.

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Sacramento/Seattle Updates: Thursday

March 28th, 2013 at 9:52am CST by Luke Adams

As April approaches, updates on the sale of the Sacramento Kings, and the competing bids put together by investments groups in Sacramento and Seattle, are coming more and more frequently. Yesterday, we heard that Sacramento City Council had agreed to move forward on a $448MM arena proposal, while Chris Hansen's Seattle group reached an agreement to buy Bob Cook's 7% share of the franchise. Here's the fallout from those stories, and the latest on the sale of the Kings:

  • Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has released a list of 24 business that have committed $50MM in team coroporate sponsorships, writes Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee. Johnson also says he plans to have 10,000 season ticket purchase pledges by the time he makes his case in front of the NBA's Board of Governors next week. HereWeBuy.org currently has over 7,500 pledges.
  • Meanwhile, Johnson also said he anticipated Hansen's purchase of Cook's stake in the Kings, and will announce a countermove within the next few days. "We are going to respond," Johnson said. "We do have a plan. I'm not going to get into detail about that now. We have been positioned to make a play, and I will announce what that is in the next day or two."
  • Cook himself expects another current minority owner to match Hansen's offer for his 7% share. John Kehriotis, who has talked about wanting to put together a separate bid for a majority stake in the club, said he would "maybe" make a counter-offer, according to Bizjak.
  • After some uncertainty, Sacramento now has the money, the momentum, and a plan to keep the Kings, says Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee.
  • One source suggests to Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (Sulia link) that the Sacramento group's level of commitment won't be "certified" until it offers the same $30MM non-refundable deposit that the Seattle group did. Still, the NBA is currently showing no preference for either city, playing the process "straight down the middle," a source tells Bucher.
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Odds & Ends: Turkoglu, Harrington, Henderson

March 27th, 2013 at 11:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

It was a busy 14-game night in the NBA, but there aren't too many of these evenings left. Every team will be in action three weeks from tonight on the final day of the regular season, but after that, four playoff games is the most NBA action we'll get out of a single night until the fall. As we savor the season while it lasts, here's news from around the Association: 

  • Hedo Turkoglu, back from his 20-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, says he hopes to stay with the Magic, but as Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel notes, he has financial incentive to say so. The Magic would only have to pay half of Turkoglu's $12MM salary next season if they waive him.
  • Fellow Magic forward Al Harrington has said repeatedly this season that he wants to play five more years, but he's already making post-retirement plans, telling Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida that he wants to go into broadcasting.
  • Gerald Henderson is set to hit restricted free agency this summer, but says he "absolutely" wants to re-sign with the Bobcats, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter links). 
  • Oklahoma junior power forward Amath M'Baye is entering this year's draft field, the school announced. The 23-year-old will finish his degree requirements this spring and plans to hire an agent, so it doesn't look like he'll remove his name from consideration before the April 16th deadline. Neither ESPN's Chad Ford nor Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress have M'Baye listed among their top 100 prospects.
  • Bob Young of the Arizona Republic looks at the draft prospects playing in each game of the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 this week from the perspective of the Suns, who appear squarely focused on next season.
  • Metta World Peace will miss a minimum of six weeks with a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, the Lakers revealed via press release. USA Today's Sam Amick examines the effect his absence will have on the team, noting that L.A.'s projected starting five has appeared together for just 189 minutes this season.
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Atlantic Notes: Nets, Celtics, Sullinger

March 27th, 2013 at 10:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

It had to end sometime. The Heat finally lost a game after winning 27 in a row, falling to the Bulls tonight despite the absence of Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. That leaves the Knicks, who earned their sixth straight victory with a win over the Grizzlies this evening, as the team with the longest current winning streak in the NBA. The six W's in a row have allowed the Knicks to essentially end the Celtics' hopes of a sixth straight division title, and New York has built a three-game lead on second-place Brooklyn, pending the Nets' late game against the Blazers. Here's more on a pair of teams looking up at New York in the Atlantic standings.

  • Last year's Gerald Wallace deal allowed the Blazers to select Damian Lillard sixth overall in the draft this past June, but if that trade hadn't happened, the Nets still wouldn't have Lillard, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Brooklyn's scouts weren't high on last year's draft class, and the team likely would have traded the pick elsewhere if Portland hadn't come along, a source tells Bondy, who adds that the Nets weren't close to trading for Paul Pierce at the deadline a year ago, either.
  • SB Nation's Paul Flannery delivers a lengthy piece on Celtics assistant GM Ryan McDonough, examining his role in drafting Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley, along with plenty of insight on the team's inner workings. The article deserves a look in full, particularly for Boston fans, and details someone who appears poised to take over an NBA front office sometime soon. "He’s very good at what he does," C's coach Doc Rivers said. "He’ll be a GM. There’s no doubt about that."
  • Jared Sullinger's back had him red-flagged by NBA doctors before last year's draft, and even though the rookie is out for the season after undergoing back surgery, Rivers doesn't regret the Celtics taking him 21st overall, as Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer notes.
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Poll: Should The NBA Address Tanking?

March 27th, 2013 at 9:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns, at 23-48 and in last place in the Western Conference, have little to play for this season, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty at stake in the next few weeks for Phoenix. The Suns entered the night in a jumble of nine teams within five games of each other at the bottom of the standings, as our tentative draft order shows. A rare win could compromise the team's chance at landing the No. 1 overall pick in the draft lottery, which currently stands at 11.9%. A win against the Jazz tonight would be twice as damaging.

Thanks to the Steve Nash sign-and-trade this past summer, the Suns will receive the Lakers' first-round pick this year if L.A. fails to make the playoffs. If the Lakers manage to sneak into the postseason, that pick goes to the Cavs, and Phoenix would instead receive Miami's pick, which will almost certainly be 30th overall. The Jazz sit one game behind the Lakers for the final playoff spot in the West, and they catch a break tonight. Suns starting point guard Goran Dragic isn't playing against Utah, and the team says the move is to allow Dragic to rest while rookies Kendall Marshall and Diante Garrett see more playing time, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Dragic, the team's leading scorer, is healthy and says he would play if he were allowed. Skeptics may wonder whether the Suns' true intentions have more to do with the draft than they're letting on.

Also tonight, the Magic gave up a 19-point lead after one quarter and lost to the Bobcats, bringing Orlando to within a half game of Charlotte for the league's worst record. If the Magic eclipse the Bobcats for that mark, they'll improve their chances at the No. 1 pick by 5.1%. 

The draft lottery was instituted in 1985 in part to remove the incentive for teams to intentionally lose games to improve their draft stock, but nearly three decades later, the strategy of tanking appears to be alive and well. Proposals abound on how to fix the problem, from giving each team in the lottery an equal chance at the top pick to instituting a playoff for the No. 1 overall selection. We'll surely hear plenty such ideas in the next few weeks, but the central question is simply whether or not the NBA should take measures to encourage teams at the bottom of the standings to stay competitive toward the end of the season. Let us know your thoughts by voting, and if you have an idea for a system of awarding draft positions that would encourage teams to try to win, post it in the comments.

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