Bismack Biyombo‘s free agency stock is rising after a 26-rebound, four-block performance Saturday night, relates Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com. Biyombo, who added seven points as Toronto topped Cleveland in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, is taking advantage of increased playing time since starting center Jonas Valanciunas was sidelined with a badly sprained ankle. After Saturday’s game, Raptors coach Dwane Casey compared Biyombo to a rebounding legend. “He reminds me of a guy like [Dennis] Rodman going for the rebounds,” Casey said. “He knows where the ball is coming off, he has a sense of where it’s coming off, and he does a good job doing that.” Biyombo has a $3MM player option for next season, but much larger offers will almost certainly be waiting if he decides to opt out.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Another key to Saturday’s win was backup point guard Cory Joseph, writes Chris O’Leary of The Toronto Star. Joseph contributed 14 points, five rebounds and three assists as starter Kyle Lowry got into early foul trouble. It’s what the Raptors were hoping for when they signed the former Spur to a four-year, $30MM deal last summer in an effort to improve their bench.
- All the focus is on the Celtics’ third overall pick, but the team has two more selections in the first round, notes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE. Boston owns the rights to Dallas’ pick at No. 16, along with its own choice at No. 23, giving team officials a wide range of players to scout for draft night. “The higher the draft pick, you just have a better chance,” said Austin Ainge, Boston’s director of player personnel. “There’s going to be really good players available at 16. There’s going to be really good players available at 23. It’s just harder to identify in that range.”
- Getting the top pick in the draft validated former GM Sam Hinkie’s approach, but the Sixers will benefit from replacing him, contends Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Berger admits that Hinkie, who resigned last month, left behind a bright future in Philadelphia. But he also points out that Hinkie damaged the team’s reputation with free agents through three years of losing, the second-round picks he accumulated have produced very little talent and the roughly $50MM in cap room the Sixers possess is undervalued because the escalating salary cap means virtually every team will have money to spend this summer.
The Celtics could conceivably draft an entire starting five in this years draft as they have 5 draft choices! 3 first round picks and at least 2 second round picks
They may not get either of the top two guys,but they going to get quality and quantity in the 3 first founders or they use them as trade chips too acquire established NBA veterans.
I thought they had 8 picks
Your right. 3 firsts and 5 seconds.
The 2 later first rounders are in a similar range to the 2 last year. Those 2 turned into Rozier and Hunter, I wouldn’t bet on getting more than end of the bench players if the picks are used. Best chance to improve is to package those with #3 and pick up a vet but teams know that and will make the Celtics overpay so I wouldn’t bet on that either. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Celtics trade 3, 16 and 23 for a pick in the 5-10 range plus future firsts just because this team has no room for the amount they could select.
I’m curious what free agents people think the Sixers will get with the Colangelos that they wouldn’t have gotten with Hinkie? Batum? Derozan? Conley?
Not likely. Brandon Jennings and Dion Waiters? Whoopdeedoo. Hinkie couldn’t or wouldn’t give those guys $10-20M/yr this summer?
Hinkie was good at acquiring picks but that was it. Now the right people are in place
Hinkie meant well but he completely neglected to understand that there are 3 ways to pick up talent: the draft, free agency, and trading. His plan gave this team no chance at free agents and he gave no thought to improving with trades thus playing the lottery both figuratively and literally by hoping for picks to pan out. My opinion from the beginning is this guy has no idea what he’s doing.
I find it funny to think that free agents really care about whether a team tanked to get top picks. As long as they get paid they’ll play anywhere. Either way the Sixers weren’t gonna get the Superstars of the world. Hence why they went on the ambitious tanking plan.
Some guys, especially the ones who can affect a game, care about winning so I wouldn’t say free agents will just play anywhere. Their plan was just not a smart one. It was almost like they didn’t feel like doing the work of building a team and instead decided to wait for a star to fall in their lap, and whether that guy comes around is not even close to guaranteed.