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Month: November 2024

Western Notes: Walton, Pelicans, Gallinari, Paul

March 29th, 2016 at 2:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

Warriors assistant Luke Walton is reportedly poised to become a top candidate for the Knicks coaching vacancy, and the Lakers, Suns, Rockets and Kings are expected to target him, too, but former colleague Alvin Gentry thinks Walton still doesn’t gets the credit he deserves, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Gentry, now head coach of the Pelicans, was on Golden State’s staff last year with Walton, who inherited Gentry’s role as lead assistant and guided the Warriors to a 39-4 record while head coach Steve Kerr recovered from back surgeries. “Luke did an unbelievable job of managing egos, of rotations he played,” Gentry said. “Everything that happened there, he pushed the right buttons, so I was disappointed when people said anybody can coach that team. That’s not true at all. He has an unbelievable understanding of the game. I think [Knicks president] Phil [Jackson] knows that. [Luke] stayed in the league for a long time because of the basketball IQ he has. He gets along great with players. He’s going to be a terrific coach in the league – I really do think that.”

See more from the Western Conference:

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Trevon Bluiett To Test Draft Waters

March 29th, 2016 at 1:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

Xavier sophomore small forward Trevon Bluiett will enter this year’s NBA draft but hold off on hiring an agent, thus retaining his college eligibility should he elect to withdraw by May 25th, sources told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Bluiett is a fairly well-regarded prospect, but the general belief has been that he’ll stay in school for another year. He’s the 19th-best sophomore in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings, but Givony lists him on his 2017 mock draft, at No. 52, rather than his 2016 mock. Chad Ford of ESPN.com doesn’t have the 6’6″ 20-year-old among this year’s draft prospects.

Bluiett took on more of the offensive burden for the Musketeers this season and handled it capably, averaging 15.1 points on 11.8 shots per game with 39.8% accuracy from behind the 3-point line. His turnovers remained steady despite his increased role, and he rebounded well for his size, pulling down 6.2 per contest.

It’s been an up-and-down March for Bluiett, who tied a career high with 24 points against Marquette in the Big East tournament and scored only seven versus Wisconsin in a season-ending NCAA Tournament loss. He averaged just 5.2 points in five NCAA Tournament games the past two years after entering school at No. 38 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.

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Wayne Selden Declares For Draft

March 29th, 2016 at 1:10pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kansas junior shooting guard Wayne Selden is entering this year’s draft and plans to sign with an agent in the coming weeks, he announced through the school. He’ll lose his college eligibility once he hires representation. The 6’6″ 21-year-old is a second-round prospect, checking in at 44th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and 55th with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.

Selden’s stock has declined since he entered school at No. 13 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, one spot above Bobby Portis, whom the Bulls drafted 22nd last year. This season was nonetheless a renaissance of sorts for Selden, who put up 13.8 points per game, his first double-digit scoring average with the Jayhawks, and shot 39.2% on 3-pointers. He delivered a landmark 33-point performance against Kentucky on January 30th and averaged 17.8 points per contest in the NCAA Tournament this month.

This season was the first during Selden’s tenure that he wasn’t overshadowed by a first-round prospect on his own team. Andrew Wiggins, the 2014 top pick, and Joel Embiid were on the Jayhawks during Selden’s freshman year, and Kelly Oubre was there last season.

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Some Players Parlay 10-Day Deals Into Longer Stays

March 29th, 2016 at 12:12pm CST by Chuck Myron

Players who sign 10-day contracts aren’t assured of sticking around for very long, but some of them do. Saturday, Tim Frazier became the 10th player this year to sign for at least the rest of the season following a 10-day contract. Six of them had to pass through two 10-day contracts with their respective teams before they scored longer-term arrangements, and some, like Jordan McRae, signed 10-day contracts with multiple teams before landing greater security.

No one had to sweat through more 10-day deals to nail down a more permanent place on a roster than Sean Kilpatrick did. He signed two 10-days with the Nuggets and another two with the Nets, who richly rewarded him for his patience. Kilpatrick is the only 10-day signee to snag more than the minimum salary on a follow-up deal this year, as the Nets are paying him about twice the prorated minimum on the multiyear contract he signed earlier this month. He’s also the only 10-day signee this year with a fully guaranteed salary for next season.

Kilpatrick and others who signed multiyear deals are marked with asterisks below on this list of players who’ve parlayed 10-day contracts this year into deals that cover at least the rest of the season.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Atlantic Notes: Hinkie, Wroten, Larranaga, Clarke

March 29th, 2016 at 10:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Sixers GM Sam Hinkie is neither wonderful nor terrible, and the team would be unwise to cut ties with him completely in the wake of the marginalization of his role, opines Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News. His autonomy is gone in the wake of the team’s hiring of Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations, but Hinkie, through his collection of draft assets and other promising young talent, is an asset himself, Hayes argues. Hinkie has said he isn’t worried about his job security, even though the Sixers are reportedly considering a move that would further reduce his role.

See more from the Atlantic Division:

  • Tony Wroten‘s minimum-salary pact with the Knicks is non-guaranteed for next season, but a $25K partial guarantee kicks in if he’s still under contract at the end of October 1st, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That partial guarantee would increase to $125K if he sticks through opening night and jump to $345K if he makes it through December 15th, Pincus also shows.
  • Georgia Tech has reached out to Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga about the school’s head coaching job, reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. The well-respected Larranaga interviewed for the Sixers job three years ago and has drawn mention as a potential candidate for other NBA openings since. Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald reported last year that Larranaga wouldn’t leave the Celtics for a college job, but it’s unclear if that’s still his stance.
  • Coty Clarke has returned to the D-League affiliate of the Celtics following the expiration of his second 10-day contract with Boston’s NBA club, reports Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link).
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Central Notes: LeBron, Love, Carter-Williams, Bulls

March 29th, 2016 at 9:46am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs are confident LeBron James won’t leave in free agency again, but they understand that at least a slight chance exists that he would if they once more come up short in the postseason, writes Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. James “lashed out” at his teammates during the players-only meeting that followed the firing of David Blatt, sources told Lowe, and many in the Cavs brass have kept a nervous eye on the signs of discontent that James has shown on the court. The four-time MVP has the power to press for changes. Lowe confirms that the Cavs and Celtics spoke about Kevin Love before last month’s trade deadline but hears the Celtics made a lowball offer. The ESPN scribe believes chances are strong that Cleveland will trade Love if the team doesn’t deliver in the playoffs, underscoring the unusual level of concern surrounding a team poised to grab the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

See more from the Central Division:

  • It’s a key summer for the development Michael Carter-Williams, Bucks coach Jason Kidd argues, but Kidd maintains his faith in the former Rookie of the Year, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel details. Carter-Williams, who’s out for the season with a torn labrum in his left hip, will be eligible to sign a rookie scale extension from July through October. “Michael is able to guard the point,” Kidd said. “Giannis [Antetokounmpo] isn’t going to guard the point. You’ve got to have a small on the floor. With Michael being able to work on his jump shot and become consistent, it only makes us better.”
  • Bulls GM Gar Forman and executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson know they need to change the roster this summer, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf seems inclined to empower them to do so, writes Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. Still, Friedell takes Forman and Paxson to task for failing to see the fissures in this group of players last year and for a coaching change that hasn’t panned out. The Bulls, who held a team meeting Sunday, have lost four in a row and are two games in the loss column behind the Pistons for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
  • Cavs GM David Griffin is at fault for failing to put someone in the locker room who can hold LeBron accountable, at least to a degree, but the superstar is ultimately worth all the angst, contends TNT’s David Aldridge in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
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West Virginia PF Devin Williams To Enter Draft

March 29th, 2016 at 8:17am CST by Chuck Myron

West Virginia junior power forward Devin Williams will enter this year’s NBA draft, the school announced. The statement doesn’t make it entirely clear whether Williams intends to hire an agent right away, but sources told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com that he plans to do so (Twitter link). That means he won’t be able to withdraw from the draft before the May 25th deadline and return to college ball. It’s a risky decision for the 6’9″ 21-year-old, since he’s just the 94th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him outside the top 100, simply listing him as the 35th-best junior.

Williams does his best work on the boards, having pulled down an impressive 9.5 in just 25.4 minutes per game this season, the top per-game rate in the Big 12. He averaged 13.3 points a night but isn’t a floor-stretcher at all, having missed the only 3-point attempt he took during his college career. He does have a solid midrange game, according to Ford, and he led the Big 12 in defensive rating this year, according to Sports Reference.

The stoutly built Williams helped the Mountaineers to a No. 6 ranking in the Associated Press poll at one point this year, but West Virginia’s season ended with a first-round upset loss to No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin in the NCAA Tournament, despite 17 rebounds from Williams, one off his season high. Williams was coming off a career-high 31 points against Kansas in the Big 12 championship game. He steadily improved throughout his college career after finishing high school at No. 55 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.

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Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 3/28/16

March 28th, 2016 at 11:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

A common lament heard around the NBA, especially at this time of the year, is that the schedule remains too grueling. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich continues to rest his veterans — particularly Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili — multiple games as they await the playoffs. Many other coaches are searching for ways to rest or reduce the minutes of their star players, even if it might cost them a higher playoff seeding.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr has the difficult challenge of dealing with several injured players, trying to keep his top players somewhat fresh for the postseason, and yet giving his team a chance to break the league’s single-season win record. Virtually every coach in the league will tell anybody willing to lend an ear that they don’t have enough practice time and/or enough healthy bodies to hold a meaningful practice.

The league has made some minor changes recently to improve the situation. It extended the All-Star break to give players a longer midseason rest. This season, it reduced the number of back-to-back sets that every team plays, though most teams feel there’s still too many. The Pistons, for example, are playing a league-high 20 back-to-backs — thus, nearly half of their schedule is being played on consecutive nights.

There are several ways the league can attack the problem. They could reduce the amount of regular-season games, though that’s the most unlikely scenario. Team revenues are based upon having 41 regular-season home dates and players in turn probably wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice any income in order to play fewer games.

The season could be stretched out a couple more weeks at the front or back end. If it came on the back end, the Finals would likely have to be played in late June and the draft and free agency periods would also have to be pushed back.

A more likely scenario would be to reduce the amount of preseason games — teams can play a maximum of eight — and start the regular season earlier in October. Once again, though, the teams and players would have to be willing to lose the revenue generated by those preseason games if they were, say, whittled to four for each club. It could also lead to more early-season injuries, with regulars playing heavier minutes with fewer preseason games to prepare.

In any case, there’s little doubt the quality of play would improve if the games were spaced out to a greater extent. This leads us to our question of the day: What would you do to make the NBA schedule less grueling and reduce the wear and tear on players?

Please take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say.

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Western Notes: Pierce, Mitchell, Howard

March 28th, 2016 at 10:26pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Paul Pierce‘s decision on whether to retire after the season may be tied to what Timberwolves power forward Kevin Garnett chooses to do, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald reports. The former Celtics teammates text each other at least once a week and have frequently considered the possibility of retiring at the same time, Murphy continues. But the Clippers’ veteran small forward admits that he has no idea what Garnett has in mind, Murphy adds. “I never know what KG is going to do, because he said he was going to retire four or five years ago,” Pierce said. “Every year he says he’s done, and every year he keeps coming back. It would be great.”

In other developments around the Western Conference:

  • Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor will decide on interim coach Sam Mitchell’s future after the season, according to Kent Youngblood of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. While GM Milt Newton will give his input on Mitchell, Taylor will have the final word, as he told Youngblood. “Certainly it starts with Milt. But I don’t want to say it’s his call,” Taylor said. “It’s probably my call.’’
  • Dwight Howard switched agents because Perry Rogers doesn’t have a large clientele, he told NBA.com’s David Aldridge in a Q&A session. The Rockets center hired Rogers after parting ways with Dan Fegan. Rogers is also Shaquille O’Neal’s agent and O’Neal brought Howard and Rogers together, Howard goes on to tell Aldridge. “I just felt like he has an opportunity to just focus on me,” Howard said. “Any other agent, they have a lot of different clients and stuff like that. I felt like he was able to just focus on me.”
  • Jazz coach Quin Snyder believes fatigue may be the cause of center Rudy Gobert‘s recent swoon, Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News writes. Gobert, who’ll be up for a rookie scale extension in the offseason, averaged just 5.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks during the team’s last recent five-game road trip. “He’s probably hit the proverbial wall and had to make adjustments in season,” Snyder told Sorensen. “Last year after All-Star break was a very finite stretch of time with a completely different mindset in how [opponents] approach him. Last year people weren’t prepared to play against him and now he’s garnering much more attention.”
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And-Ones: Lawson, Thompson, Bacon

March 28th, 2016 at 9:36pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Pacers point guard Ty Lawson feels he was used improperly by the Rockets during his stint with them this season, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports. Lawson felt Houston interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff erred by playing him off the ball instead of making him the primary ballhandler. “I just know I was a better player than what I was showing there,” Lawson told Feigen, while adding he harbors no resentment toward the organization. “I wasn’t being used the right way. I’m not a space player. I like to have the ball in my hands.” Bickerstaff acknowledged in the story that he could have utilized Lawson differently. The Pacers signed Lawson earlier this month after he reached a buyout arrangement with the Rockets and cleared waivers. “I don’t know if it was just the early transition of him learning to play without the ball, the limited opportunity he got,” Bickerstaff said. “That may be some of my responsibility because he didn’t get the opportunity he was accustomed to. For whatever reason, it didn’t work and I was sad to see him go.”

In other news around the league:

  • Ohio State 6’11” sophomore center Trevor Thompson will declare for the draft but not hire an agent, he told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. Thompson posted modest numbers as a sophomore, averaging 6.5 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game. Thompson has a long climb ahead of him to make himself a draft-worthy prospect, as he’s not currently among the Top 100 prospects listed by either Chad Ford of ESPN.com or Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
  • Florida State freshman small forward Dwayne Bacon has decided to return to school for another season, according to both Goodman and CBSSports.com’s Jon Rothstein (Twitter links). Rothstein reported last week that Bacon intended to enter the draft but not hire an agent. The 6’7” Bacon was ranked as the No. 72 overall prospect by Ford and No. 74 by Givony. Bacon had a strong freshman campaign, averaging 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Seminoles.
  • The Clippers recalled C.J. Wilcox from the D-League’s Canton Charge, the team announced. Wilcox averaged 21.7 points in three games during his latest assignment and has appeared in 14 games for the Charge. He’s also played 14 games for the Clippers, averaging 1.6 points in 4.4 minutes.
  • The Hawks assigned swingman Lamar Patterson to the D-League’s Austin Spurs, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Patterson has played in a combined 16 games for Austin and the Canton Charge under the league’s flexible assignment rule. Patterson has also appeared in 35 games with the Hawks, averaging 2.4 points in 11.3 minutes.
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