Summer league point guard Mike James impressed the Suns, but the team doesn’t seem to have a need for another point guard, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Multiple teams are in pursuit, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link), but he’s under contract with Laboral Kuxta Vitoria in Spain, Coro points out, suggesting that it would likely require a guaranteed deal with an NBA team to make it worthwhile for him to exercise his buyout clause. James, who’s not to be confused with the 12-year veteran by the same name, is inclined to play one more season in Spain, Charania adds.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Austin Rivers‘ brief tenure with Relativity Sports has met an end, tweets Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal. Rivers joined the agency after splitting with David Falk this past season. Relativity represented him as he came to a two-year deal for nearly $6.455MM to stay with father Doc Rivers and the Clippers.
- The deals that Caron Butler, Quincy Acy, and Seth Curry agreed to with the Kings are all two-year, minimum salary arrangements that are fully guaranteed the first year and include player options for the second season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
- The performance of the Lakers‘ Summer League squad was underwhelming, leaving some around the league skeptical of the long-term future of a number of the team’s younger prospects, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. “You don’t want to draw any conclusions from a few summer games obviously,” one league executive told Deveney. “But I think in general, the way to put it is that they probably value their assets more than the rest of the league values them. Everyone gambles on young guys. You just don’t know. For [the Lakers], they could all turn out to be fine, but they’re a long way from that now.”
- The new Kings arena cleared another legal hurdle Friday, as a judge issued a ruling in favor of the city of Sacramento and against plaintiffs who asserted that the team and the city struck a side deal, writes Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee. The arena is already under construction.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
maybe it not the talent because i thought the lakers summer league team had talent. maybe it the fact mark madson might not be the type of guy to be a head coach. with the talent they had they should of been alot better
After watching D’Angelo Russell in summer league, do you think it will take him a while to adjust to the NBA?
Considering he will now be a PG, it should, but I still think he’ll be more than fine as he adjusts
I agree these are 19 year old rookies and played like it, Lakers had no choice but to get younger, which means less experienced players. Patience.
Mitch has always drafted well but this is really his first time drafting to rebuild a team as opposed to drafting role players to compliment his stars. It’s going to be interesting. I believe Russell is a stud and Randle will be a solid if unspectacular front court presence for the next 3-4 Years. I’m mostly excited about the kid from Washington. If he behaves himself and stays out of trouble that guy could win multiple defensive player of the year awards.
I have waiting for the day that Mike James will get on a NBA roster for a long time. The kid is constantly getting better and always works his way up in any league he has played in. He is the point guard of the year.