2016 March | Hoops Rumors

Jahlil Okafor To Miss Rest Of Season

March 22nd, 2016 at 1:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

MARCH 22ND, 1:25pm: Okafor underwent surgery today, the Sixers announced via press release.

MARCH 11TH, 3:29pm: Jahlil Okafor will miss the rest of the season because of a torn meniscus in his right knee, according to a timetable the team announced via press release. The Sixers anticipate the center will return to basketball activities in about six weeks, but the regular season has less than five weeks remaining. The news is no shock, as Sixers coach Brett Brown wouldn’t rule out the possibility earlier this week that Okafor was done for the season.

“Jahlil recently started to experience discomfort in his right knee, which we immediately investigated,” GM Sam Hinkie said in the team’s statement. “After a comprehensive series of tests and additional evaluation by our medical team, it was revealed that he has a small tear of the meniscus. Jahlil will undergo a minor arthroscopic procedure to address the injury. Timing and details of the procedure will be finalized in the coming days.”

Thus ends a season of strong production but lingering questions for last year’s No. 3 overall pick. The 20-year-old averaged a team-leading 17.5 points per game, but the several off–court incidents in which Okafor was involved became a major story early this season, and the NBA’s reported displeasure with how the Sixers handled the situation contributed to the team’s hiring of Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations. The teaming of Okafor and fellow former lottery pick Nerlens Noel, both natural centers, also presents a long-term challenge for the team.

Okafor hasn’t played since February 28th, when he suffered a right shin contusion in a game against the Magic, though that injury isn’t necessarily related to his knee, as Jessica Camerato of CSN Philly and Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted. He’d been dealing with soreness in his knee since at least December, when he missed two games because of it, and it became a greater concern this week while he was trying to make his way back from the shin injury, according to Camerato.

The surgery won’t do much to affect his contract status, since he’s in year one of a four-year rookie scale contract. A decision on his third-year team option is due in the fall, but it’s almost certain the Sixers will pick it up.

How would you rate Okafor’s rookie season? Did he perform up to your expectations? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Que Johnson To Enter Draft

March 22nd, 2016 at 12:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

Washington State junior shooting guard Que Johnson will declare for this year’s draft, a source told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). He won’t hire an agent, Rothstein hears, so he can withdraw anytime until May 25th. That seems a likely outcome, since he’s a long shot for the NBA. Neither Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress nor Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks him among their voluminous prospect lists.

Johnson had a bounceback season after regressing as a sophomore, averaging 11.3 points per game as he became a double-digit scorer for the first time at the college level. The Michigan native twice scored 20 or more points this season, including a 25-point outing against eventual NCAA Tournament team Colorado on February 11th. He shot only 2 for 11 in a rematch against Colorado in the conference tournament, however.

Washington State went 9-22 and finished the season on a 17-game losing streak. Johnson was one of only three Cougars to average more than 7.9 points per game.

Malik Newman To Enter Draft

March 22nd, 2016 at 12:27pm CST by Chuck Myron

Mississippi State combo guard Malik Newman will enter this year’s NBA draft, as a source told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com and Newman’s father confirmed to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The freshman is the 46th-best prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and No. 55 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com, making him a second-round prospect. Newman won’t hire an agent, Rothstein hears, so he has until May 25th, 10 days after the end of the NBA draft combine, to withdraw and retain his college eligibility.

Newman was a top-flight prospect coming out of high school, ranking eighth in the final RSCI listing for 2015. His stock slipped this year, as he wasn’t a major scoring force for the Bulldogs, putting up only 11.3 points per game, even though he nailed 37.9% of his 3-point attempts. He isn’t an elite defender either, Ford writes in his profile, though the ESPN scribe is fond of his passing.

The 19-year-old’s best game this season was probably his 25-point outburst against in-state rival Mississippi on January 23rd. He didn’t have an outstanding team around him, as Mississippi State finished 14-17 and failed to qualify for postseason play.

Grizzlies Sign Ray McCallum To Second 10-Day

March 22nd, 2016 at 10:43am CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies have signed Ray McCallum to a second 10-day contract, the team announced. His first expired overnight. The move restores Memphis to a 17-man roster, meaning the club has received additional clearance from the league through the hardship provision to carry two more than the regular season 15-man maximum. However, Memphis has no immediate plans to re-sign Alex Stepheson, whose first 10-day contract also expired at the end of Monday, tweets Grizzlies sideline reporter Rob Fischer. The hardship exception they’d used to carry Stepheson as one of 18 players on Monday’s roster wasn’t renewed, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, who suggests it likely means Chris Andersen will return tonight from the left shoulder injury that’s kept him out for the last nine games (Twitter link)

The latest deal for McCallum, which costs $55,722, will cover four games, against the Lakers, Spurs (twice) and Nuggets. The third-year pro has seen plenty of action in Memphis, starting the last two games and averaging 8.5 points, 2.8 assists and 1.8 turnovers in 24.3 minutes per contest across six appearances overall. He’s canned nine of his 18 3-point attempts as he’s seen far more opportunity than he did with the Spurs, who had him for most of the season before waiving him to make room for Andre Miller. The Knicks reportedly considered signing him, but the Grizzlies instead scooped him up to deal with their many injury problems.

Nine Grizzlies were ailing at one point earlier this month, and six have some sort of injury at this point, including Andersen. Marc Gasol is out for the season with a broken foot, while Brandan Wright, P.J. Hairston, Jordan Adams and Mike Conley are also sidelined, according to the CBSSports.com injury log.

Teams can’t sign any player to more than two 10-day contracts per year, but only 13 days will be left in the season when McCallum’s latest pact expires. The Grizzlies only have 14 players signed through season’s end, so they have flexibility to retain McCallum if they choose.

Southwest Notes: Dwight, Holiday, Gentry, Spurs

March 22nd, 2016 at 10:32am CST by Chuck Myron

The Rockets have one of the most analytically minded front offices, which has guided them to a perimeter-oriented approach, but Dwight Howard insists the inside-out game isn’t dead, as he tells Sam Amick of USA Today. “I feel like that’s a very successful way of playing. I know [the Rockets] have their opinions or whatever,” Howard said. “[But] for the rest of the season, I’m going to make it an effort just to do what they need me to do offensively and defensively, and not focus on what happened back in Orlando [and] what happened in L.A. [with the Lakers] and just put my mind to finishing this season on a real high note.”

Howard, who plans to opt out and become a free agent this summer, is unlikely to remain with the Rockets unless he doesn’t find a max offer or a promise of an increased role in the offense from another team, Amick believes, though Howard is cognizant of his reputation as someone who walks out on franchises and insisted to Amick that he’s worked to become a part of every NBA community he’s been in.

See more:

Zach Lowe of ESPN.com suggests the Pelicans and Jazz held at least cursory trade talks involving Jrue Holiday, though the conversation went nowhere, Lowe writes, with New Orleans setting too high a price for the discussion to advance. Lowe suggests the same about Jeff Teague talks between the Jazz and Hawks, though previous reports indicated that Atlanta and Utah didn’t have contact on the Teague front. The ESPN scribe speculated about Holiday and the Jazz before last month’s trade deadline.
It’s been a rough season for Alvin Gentry, but players around the league like him, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, who counts it as a plus for the Pelicans‘ recruitment of free agents. The key will be matching free agents with Gentry’s system and vice-versa, contends Deveney, who wonders about the job security of GM Dell Demps.
NBA executives flocked to the wisdom of Kirk Goldsberry, who turned an expertise in mapping into a career as a journalist covering NBA advanced metrics, but now the Spurs have his information to themselves, as Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News details. The team hired him earlier this month as its new vice president of strategic research.

Eastern Notes: Jackson, LeBron, Bazemore

March 22nd, 2016 at 9:14am CST by Chuck Myron

Team president Phil Jackson won’t be coaching the Knicks in any fashion next season, as he told confidant Charley Rosen, who in turn told Marc Berman of the New York Post. There was talk that Jackson might coach at home and let Kurt Rambis coach on the road next season, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com reported last week. Even though the 70-year-old has lost weight and has more energy than usual, as Shelburne also wrote, coaching would be too physically demanding for Jackson, a league source told Berman. Carmelo Anthony didn’t seem too keen on the idea of the Zen Master coaching, leading Frank Isola of the New York Daily News to wonder if ‘Melo spiked the idea (Twitter link).

See more from the Eastern Conference:

The Cavaliers weren’t exactly comfortable with LeBron James‘ unexplained decision to unfollow their official Twitter account Monday, but a source who spoke with Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com said James told him he unfollowed the Cavs, among others, so that he could start to narrow his focus in advance of the playoffs. That still leaves several questions unanswered, as Vardon explores, pointing out that James skipped a media session Monday for the first time since he returned to Cleveland, barring occasions when he was sick or wasn’t playing. A healthy James posted a triple-double against the Nuggets on Monday night.
Kent Bazemore is a lock to get overpaid this summer when he hits free agency, contends Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. The question is whether it’ll be Atlanta footing the bloated bill, as Lowe examines amid a larger piece on the Hawks. The team could open nearly $20MM in cap room if it lets Bazemore walk, but the Hawks speak highly of the value of continuity, Lowe writes.
The Bulls essentially spent five draft picks on Doug McDermott, considering the two first-rounders and a second-rounder they used to trade up for him and the two second-rounders they used to clear cap room in a related move, observes Mark Schanowski of CSN Chicago. The moves finally appear to be paying off, and it’s conceivable the team will use McDermott as a starter as soon as next season, Schanowski writes.

Chandler Parsons Likely Out For Season

March 22nd, 2016 at 7:44am CST by Chuck Myron

Chandler Parsons will likely have season-ending surgery this week on a torn meniscus in his right knee, sources told Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. He’ll receive a second opinion before undergoing the procedure, but even if he does go under the knife, he’s expected to be healthy enough to engage in his normal offseason workout regimen, according to MacMahon. Parsons is still expected to opt out and hit free agency this summer, with the Mavericks the favorites to re-sign him, MacMahon writes.

This would be the second year in a row that Parsons’ season ends prematurely because of his right knee, though the injury this time isn’t as severe as the one that required microfracture surgery last spring, MacMahon hears. Parsons, 27, left Friday’s game early with what the Mavs called a sore right hamstring. He sat out Sunday’s game, and an MRI revealed Monday that the torn meniscus was causing the hamstring pain, sources told MacMahon.

The loss of Parsons for the stretch run is a crushing blow to the Mavericks, who are just one game up on the Jazz for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The versatile forward was averaging 17.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game with 44.7% 3-point shooting in 14 games since the All-Star break, in the midst of what MacMahon calls the best stretch of his career. It’s much too late for Dallas to reap a disabled player exception, and even with Jeremy Evans also done for the season, the Mavs don’t have enough injuries to qualify for a hardship provision.

The Magic have been primed for an aggressive run at Parsons in free agency this summer, and they loom as his top non-Dallas choice, as MacMahon previously reported. Sources who spoke with the ESPN scribe expected the Heat, Lakers, Nets, Knicks, Trail Blazers, Rockets, Nuggets and perhaps Thunder to also give chase, though it’s unclear how the injury affects their interest or the way Orlando views him. However, the Mavs are expected to be just as determined to re-sign him despite the renewed knee trouble, MacMahon tweets, reiterating in his story that Parsons is expected to receive max offers.

Do you think Parsons has done enough to warrant a max deal? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

And-Ones: Jordan, Simmons, Draft, Johnson

March 21st, 2016 at 10:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Hornets owner Michael Jordan has become a powerful player in the NBA’s ongoing labor talks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. Jordan is a member of the owners’ labor-relations committee and has been leading the fight for small-market teams. His place on that powerful committee has been kept secret until now, and it’s a sign of his rising status among NBA owners. Other signs are the Hornets’ newfound success on the court and the upcoming All-Star Game in Charlotte next season. Wojnarowski says some players and agents complain that the Hornets cut expenses unnecessarily, but the organization’s reputation is improving in that area. The NBA and the union have divided into groups to discuss aspects of the collective bargaining agreement after weeks of covert negotiations between the sides, Wojnarowski reports. Either side can opt out of the current 10-year deal in 2017 and create a potential work stoppage.

There’s more from around the world of basketball:

LSU’s Ben Simmons, who officially declared for the NBA draft earlier today, has withdrawn from school and will move to Phoenix to prepare, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. The 6’10” freshman has been projected as either the first or second pick in June’s draft.
Duke’s Brandon Ingram and Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield are the only top 13 prospects left in the NCAA Tournament, writes Chad Ford of ESPN.com (insider account). Ford notes that Ingram’s continued presence in the tourney will help his case for being the first player selected.
High school senior Jayson Tatum is the top pick in the 2017 mock draft posted by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. The 6’8″ Tatum, who projects as a small forward in the NBA, has committed to Duke for next season.
Restricted free agents could be the biggest beneficiaries of the shortening of the free agent moratorium, writes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. This year’s moratorium was scheduled to run through July 11th, and with three days to match an offer, that would have left even the best restricted free agents in limbo for nearly two weeks.
Orlando Johnson, whose 10-day contract with the Pelicans expired over the weekend, is back with the Austin Spurs in the D-League, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor.

Heat Rumors: Whiteside, Wade, Weber

March 21st, 2016 at 10:11pm CST by Arthur Hill

Hassan Whiteside has earned a maximum contract with his play over the past two seasons, contends Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The Heat center leads the NBA in blocks and is fourth in rebounding, and Kennedy believes he has a strong case to be named Defensive Player of the Year. Because Whiteside was out of the league for two seasons, Miami was able to get him at a bargain rate. He’s making just $981,348 this year, but a major raise will be coming when he hits unrestricted free agency in July. Seventeen teams are projected to have enough cap space to offer at least one max deal, and the Heat won’t have Bird rights on him. “I can’t control anything that’s going to happen in free agency,” Whiteside said recently to Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. “I just try to be the best teammate and the best guy I can be and I think everything else is going to take its place. [My inner circle and I] really don’t talk about it. It’s really like, ‘Whenever the time comes, it comes.’ We focus on making a deep playoff run and everything else is in due time.”

There’s more tonight out of Miami:

Dwyane Wade, 34, gives hardly any thought to retirement, according to Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. The shooting guard, who scored his 20,000th NBA point Saturday, has a chance to play 75 games for the first time since the 2010/11 season. Team president Pat Riley said recently that the 13-year veteran could play until he’s 40, and Wade may be intent on doing that. “I go out there each year and try to do what I can within that season and I’m gonna try to do that until I don’t want to do that no more,” Wade said. “If God continues to bless me where I’m able to have the health to play, then I will do it. When I feel like I don’t want to do it no more, hopefully I can walk away from it when that time comes. But I’m enjoying it, man. I really like this team. I really like the vibe that we’re building in the city of Miami. No complaints here.”
Briante Weber, whom the Grizzlies chose not to re-sign when his 10-day contract ended Friday, has rejoined the Heat’s D-League affiliate in Sioux Falls, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor.

Thunder Rumors: Durant, Donovan, Foye, Kanter

March 21st, 2016 at 9:29pm CST by Arthur Hill

Heading into free agency, Kevin Durant is asked about a lot of NBA destinations, but he offered a simple answer of “It’s home” when he got that question about Oklahoma City, relays Royce Young of ESPN.com. Whether or not that offers a clue of Durant’s free agency intentions, it’s clear he has developed an affection for the city where he has spent the last eight years of his NBA career. “I’ve always felt that this place meant so much to me,” Durant said. “It has a special place in my heart and my family’s heart as well.”

There’s more out of Oklahoma City:

Billy Donovan has adjusted to the challenge of handling two superstars in his first NBA coaching job, writes Bob Cooney of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Donovan had spent 21 years at the college level, and 19 at the University of Florida, before replacing Scott Brooks in Oklahoma City last summer. Donovan has the Thunder, who missed the playoffs in an injury-filled season a year ago, firmly in third place in the West with a 48-22 record. “I just think that there is sort of a down-to-earth part of him that allows him to come in and be excellent at inheriting a hell of a team,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said of Donovan. “That’s a hard job in different ways you look at it. Because it is so veteran and they have been used to success. I thought Scotty did a hell of a job with them, too. It’s not an easy job.”
Randy Foye, who was acquired from the Nuggets at the trade deadline, has helped rejuvenate the bench in Oklahoma City, according to Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. Foye is a streaky shooter, but he has helped by limiting turnovers and playing strong defense on the perimeter. Strong bench play has also come from center Enes Kanter, whom the Thunder kept last summer by matching a five-year, $70MM offer from Portland.
Still recovering from hip surgery, assistant coach Maurice Cheeks is expected to return to the Thunder bench for home games beginning this week, Slater tweets. Donovan hopes Cheeks can take on full-time duty by the start of next month.
The Thunder have assigned forward Mitch McGary to Oklahoma City Blue in the D-League. He has played 22 games with the Blue this season, averaging 15 points and 9.1 rebounds.

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