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Draft Updates: M. Robinson, Hutchison, Edwards, More

May 16th, 2018 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Two notable prospects have withdrawn from this week’s NBA draft combine, according to reports. Jonathan Givony of ESPN.com tweets that Mitchell Robinson won’t participate in the event, while Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com tweets that Boise State’s Chandler Hutchison has also withdrawn. In each case, it’s not clear if the player has received a promise from a team or if there’s another reason for his decision.

While NBA evaluators have four years of film on Hutchison to watch, Robinson remains one of the mystery men of this year’s draft class. Due to eligibility issues, he didn’t play a single minute of college basketball, so his draft stock remains cloudy.

Let’s round up a few more draft-related news items and notes…

  • Purdue guard Carsen Edwards was spotted at the combine, so it appears he received a last-minute invite due to the late withdrawals, tweets Givony.
  • Following the official NBA combine this week, another event called the Pro Basketball Combine will take place next week. The Pro Basketball Combine released its full list of participants today, with Deng Adel, Maverick Rowan, and LiAngelo Ball among the names on that list.
  • A handful of early entrants have withdrawn – or will withdraw – from the draft to return to school next season, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN (Twitter link). Those players include Malik Hines (UMass), Kalob Ledoux (McNeese State), Malik Martin (South Florida) and Zane Martin (Towson), with Ledoux and Malik Martin expected to transfer.
  • A ton of meetings will take place at the combine this week, so it’s likely not worth reading too much into each one, but here are a few early updates: The Pistons are meeting with Kansas guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Twitter link via Vince Ellis of The Detroit Press), the Bucks are interviewing Texas Tech’s Zhaire Smith (Twitter link via Gery Woelfel of The Racine Journal Times), the Timberwolves are interviewing Anfernee Simons (Twitter link via Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News), and the Knicks are meeting with Trae Young (link via Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News).
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Latest On Pistons’ GM/Front Office Search

May 16th, 2018 at 3:33pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons continue to conduct separate searches for a new head coach and a new head of basketball operations, and while it’s possible they’ll hire a coach sooner rather than later, they prefer to address their front office opening first. That would allow the new head of basketball operations to have a say in the head coaching hire.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski provides an update on Detroit’s front office search today, reporting (via Twitter) that NBA executive VP of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe, Grizzlies executive VP of player personnel Ed Stefanski, Rockets executive VP of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, and Nets assistant GM Trajan Langdon are among the candidates the Pistons are eyeing to run their basketball operations department. Current GM Jeff Bower also remains a candidate to be promoted, Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter).

Most of those executives have received consideration for top front office jobs in the recent past. Rosas, for instance, was cited as a contender for the Hornets’ GM opening this spring. Stefanski was said to be in the mix for the Bucks’ GM vacancy last summer, while Langdon received consideration for the Hawks job around the same time.

In addition to considering those aforementioned candidates for their top basketball operations job, the Pistons are also targeting TNT analyst Brent Barry and Heat director of basketball development and analytics Shane Battier for front office roles, according to Wojnarowski.

Although Bower is currently running the Pistons’ basketball operations department, his contract is set to expire on June 30, so Detroit could end up making several new hires this spring. Should Bower depart, the Pistons may hire a new president of basketball operations, a new GM, and a new head coach.

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Magic Eyeing Kelvin Sampson For Head Coaching Job?

May 16th, 2018 at 3:08pm CST by Luke Adams

There’s a “growing belief among league insiders” that Kelvin Sampson has emerged as the prime target in the Magic’s coaching search, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). It’s the second time we’ve heard Sampson linked to Orlando, as Mitch Lawrence recently tweeted that the University of Houston head coach was being regarded as a “top candidate” for the Orlando job.

Of the four NBA teams currently seeking a new head coach, the Magic are the only club whose search has been ongoing since the end of the regular season. The Bucks and Raptors began looking for head coaches after they were eliminated from the playoffs, while the Pistons didn’t make a decision on Stan Van Gundy until early May. However, Orlando’s search has now taken over a month, and the team has been cagey about which candidates it’s focusing on.

So far, the only confirmed interviewees for the Magic are Trail Blazers assistant David Vanterpool, Spurs assistant Ime Udoka, and David Fizdale, who has since been hired by the Knicks. Nick Nurse and Jerry Stackhouse of the Raptors were viewed as possible contenders, given their connection to Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman, but Lawrence suggests those Toronto assistants aren’t in the mix. It’s not clear if Dwane Casey is on Orlando’s list of candidates.

While Sampson may seem like an out-of-left-field target for the Magic, he has a link to Weltman as well — Sampson was an assistant coach in Milwaukee several years ago when Weltman was serving as an assistant GM for the Bucks.

Sampson, who was also a Rockets assistant for a few years, returned to the college ranks in 2014 after his five-year show-cause penalty for NCAA violations with Indiana expired. He has been the head coach of the Cougars for the last four seasons, and was named the AAC Coach of the Year this spring.

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2018 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Utah Jazz

May 16th, 2018 at 2:51pm CST by Luke Adams

The Jazz lost out on last summer’s top free agent, as Gordon Hayward left Utah for Boston. However, a Rookie of the Year candidate (Donovan Mitchell) and a Defensive Player of the Year candidate (Rudy Gobert) made sure that the team didn’t take a step back in 2017/18. Still, after being handily defeated in the Western Conference Semifinals for a second straight spring, Utah will enter the 2018 offseason looking for ways to raise the ceiling of its roster.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Jazz financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000

Projected Cap Room: None

  • The Jazz aren’t typically major players in free agency, so our cap projection assumes they won’t make an effort to create cap room this summer. With $75MM+ in guaranteed contracts and a $2MM cap hold for their first-round pick, the Jazz would almost certainly remain an over-the-cap team if they re-sign Exum and Favors and bring back some or all of their players on non-guaranteed contracts.
  • On the other hand, if the Jazz do want to clear cap space, they could do so. Their seven guaranteed salaries along with cap charges for their first-round pick and four empty roster slots would result in a total team salary of $80,527,305. That would mean more than $20MM in cap room — but it would also mean renouncing or waiving Exum, Favors, Sefolosha, Jerebko, O’Neale, and others. That’s probably not realistic.

Footnotes:

  1. Sefolosha’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 1.
  2. Jerebko’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 9.
  3. Udoh’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 9.
  4. Stockton’s exact contract details, including guarantee info, aren’t yet known.

Note: Rookie scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Latest On Bucks’ Head Coaching Search

May 16th, 2018 at 1:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Bucks stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton had breakfast today with head coaching candidate Mike Budenholzer in Milwaukee, league sources tell Zach Lowe of ESPN.com (Twitter links).

While Budenholzer’s Wednesday sitdown with Antetokounmpo and Middleton probably isn’t as important as his Tuesday meeting with Bucks management and ownership, it’s certainly notable. The opportunity to coach Antetokounmpo is viewed as a prime selling point for the Bucks’ coaching position, so the fact that Budenholzer is getting to know the star forward is a sign of how serious a candidate he is for the job.

Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel made a similar point this afternoon, tweeting that he hasn’t heard about the Bucks bringing in any new finalists for their coaching vacancy. Milwaukee met with Budenholzer and Spurs assistant Ettore Messina on Tuesday, with team ownership represented at those meetings.

While it’s still possible that the Bucks will opt to hire Messina or bring in more finalists, all signs point to Budenholzer being the club’s top choice. The former Hawks head coach has also received interest from the Raptors or the Bucks, so it remains to be seen where he’ll land, but Budenholzer looks like a prime candidate to replace Joe Prunty in Milwaukee.

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Central Notes: Cavs, Bulls, Pistons, Bogdanovic

May 16th, 2018 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

While the Cavaliers could still land an impact player with the Nets’ 2018 first-round pick (No. 8 overall), the on-court results from the Kyrie Irving trade have been extremely underwhelming to date. Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder were ineffective in Cleveland and were flipped at the deadline for players like Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, and Larry Nance, who haven’t made an impact in the postseason.

As Jason Lloyd of The Athletic writes, at least one Cavaliers player was ready to call the Irving blockbuster a net negative for Cleveland several months ago. After one bad loss during the winter, the unnamed player turned to Lloyd and said, “Danny Ainge is a f***ing thief.” Given the results of the Eastern Conference Finals so far, with the Irving-less Celtics up 2-0 on the Cavs, that player probably isn’t alone in his view.

Here’s more from around the Central:

  • While Bulls executive John Paxson acknowledged that versatile wings are more important than ever in today’s NBA, that doesn’t mean the club is zeroed in on acquiring such a player with the No. 7 pick. As Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago writes, Paxson said the Bulls intend to take the best available player. Paxson added that the club won’t rule out the possibility of trading up, though he admitted that’s “hard to do.”
  • In a separate article for NBC Sports Chicago, Strotman lays out a case for why the Bulls should use the No. 7 pick to select Missouri prospect Michael Porter Jr., who is recovering from back surgery.
  • The Pistons no longer have their 2018 first-round pick, but they’ll be on the lookout for second-round options at this week’s combine. Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press identifies five names to watch, while Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details why the club could draft a player at any position.
  • Speaking of the Pistons, they don’t yet have a new head of basketball operations in place, so GM Jeff Bower continues to run the front office — despite the fact that his contract is set to expire on June 30. Writing for The Detroit Free Press, Ellis has the story on Bower’s unusual situation.
  • Count Pacers forward Bojan Bogdanovic among the players who intends to represent his country during this summer’s 2019 World Cup qualifiers. As he tells FIBA.basketball, Bogdanovic will look to turn things around for Croatia after the squad went 1-3 in the first two sets of qualifiers.
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Knicks Notes: No. 9 Pick, Bridges, Porzingis

May 16th, 2018 at 12:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks stayed put at No. 9 after Tuesday night’s lottery, but general manager Scott Perry isn’t ruling out the possibility of landing a potential star in next month’s draft. Despite not having a top-three pick, Perry pointed to last year’s 13th overall pick Donovan Mitchell as a prime example of how impact players can slip into the second half of the lottery, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.

“You never know. You look around and Utah had good success where they were,” Perry said. “A lot of times in the draft everybody has to be careful. A lot of it is fit, too. Some guys may get drafted in a particular place where it’s not a great fit initially or it is a great fit. … I think that’s the important thing for us — finding the personality whose game is the closest fit to how we want to play and what we want to be.”

Here’s more on the Knicks:

  • Mikal Bridges and Miles Bridges have frequently been mentioned as potential Knicks targets, given the team’s need for a wing. As Berman relays, Perry offered his first comments on the pair of Bridges on Tuesday: “We’re going to dive into both of those guys as we move forward. Both are very good basketball players who put themselves in position to be in consideration by a number of teams in the lottery. I can’t wait to meet both of those young guys to really get a feel for who they are and how they may and may not fit.”
  • Perry said the Knicks were happy to get a new head coach in place before the 2018 draft combine got underway. David Fizdale will participate in the club’s interviews with prospects in Chicago this week. “I think it’s extremely important to have the coach in house because the more we spend time with David and the more he gets a chance to spend with these guys we bring in to work out and see what players may or may not fit with how he’s going to coach the team and his personality,” Perry said, according to Berman.
  • Berman reported on Tuesday night that the Knicks would only seriously consider drafting a point guard at No. 9 if they felt their target was an “unquestioned upgrade” over their current options. Perry essentially confirmed as much when asked directly about the possibility, per Berman: “It would only make sense if you feel that guard is far and away better than what you have on the roster. And we haven’t been able to make that determination yet.”
  • Perry said the Knicks will have a better idea of Kristaps Porzingis‘ return date by August, writes Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Meanwhile, Berman hears from multiple sources that Porzingis has actually been doing much of his ACL rehab work with Real Madrid in Spain, rather than in his home country of Latvia as previously believed.
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Jazz Announce Utah Summer League Details

May 16th, 2018 at 11:34am CST by Luke Adams

Two days after the Kings announced details on the new Sacramento Summer League, the Jazz have followed suit, issuing a press release with information on the 2018 Utah Summer League.

In past years, Utah and Orlando have hosted small Summer Leagues that precede the main event in Las Vegas. The Orlando Summer League is no more, and all 30 NBA teams will participate in the Vegas Summer League for the first time ever in 2018. However, Utah’s smaller event – along with the new California Classic Summer League in Sacramento – will still take place.

The Jazz and Spurs will return for this year’s Utah Summer League at the Vivint Smart Home Arena, with the Hawks and Grizzlies joining the mix as newcomers. Like the Sacramento Summer League, Utah’s event will take place from July 2-5, with no games scheduled for Independence Day.

[RELATED: Kings Announce Sacramento Summer League Schedule]

The Jazz will face the Spurs on July 2, the Grizzlies on July 3, and the Hawks on July 5, with the remaining two teams facing each other on each of those three days.

Summer League rosters typically feature newly-drafted players, so some top prospects figure to be on display during that first week of July in Utah — the Hawks have the No. 3 overall selection in this year’s draft, while the Grizzlies pick fourth overall.

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Gerald Green Considered Retirement In 2017

May 16th, 2018 at 10:47am CST by Luke Adams

After being waived by the Bucks before the 2017/18 regular season got underway, Gerald Green contemplated the possibility of retirement, as Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press writes. According to Green, he contacted his agent to set up an informal deadline to find another NBA job.

“I was like, ‘Look man, when January 1, 2018, hits, if I’m unsigned, I’m putting out a big statement on my Instagram letting everybody know, thank you for the awesome career over all these years but I’m done,'” Green said. “‘I ain’t going to play no more.'”

Green’s self-imposed deadline was just days away when the Rockets offered him a spot on their roster — he signed with the team on December 28, then had his salary guaranteed for the season a couple weeks later.

Now, Green admits that the call from the Rockets took him by surprise. As Rieken details, the veteran swingman had been “mentally checked out” from the NBA, and was spending his time working in real estate and helping victims of Hurricane Harvey.

“Basketball was the last thing on my mind until I got that call,” Green said. “Then it’s kind of like … ‘Are you serious?'”

In 41 regular season games for the Rockets, Green looked revitalized, averaging 12.1 PPG and 3.2 RPG for his hometown team. Those were his best marks since the 2013/14 campaign. While Green’s role hasn’t been as significant in the playoffs, he appears likely to head into the 2018 offseason with a better chance of finding a guaranteed contract than he had a year ago. As such, retirement probably won’t be a strong possibility for the 32-year-old this summer.

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Poll: Who Should Suns Draft With No. 1 Pick?

May 16th, 2018 at 9:50am CST by Luke Adams

Josh Jackson‘s lucky underwear paid off at Tuesday night’s draft lottery, with the Suns taking home the No. 1 pick for the 2018 NBA draft. While it was the fourth consecutive year that the team with the worst record in the league came away with the first overall selection, it was the first time in franchise history that Phoenix had nabbed that top pick.

[RELATED: Full 2018 NBA Draft Lottery Results]

“In the 50-year history of the Phoenix Suns, there have been a lot of great nights and great accomplishments, and I think this is one of them,” GM Ryan McDonough said, per Scott Bordow of The Arizona Republic. “This is something the franchise has never done before.”

While the Suns are in position to select whichever player they want from this year’s draft class, there’s no LeBron James or Anthony Davis in the 2018 pool. While there are plenty of tantalizing prospects to choose from, none of those players is a consensus top choice.

The top candidate to come off the board is probably big man Deandre Ayton, who played his college ball at Arizona, averaging a double-double (20.1 PPG, 11.6 RPG) in his first and only season with the Wildcats. After the Suns won the top pick on Tuesday night, Jackson endorsed Ayton, suggesting the youngster’s ceiling is “through the roof.”

However, Ayton isn’t the only prospect in play at No. 1. Many draft experts think just as highly of Real Madrid star Luka Doncic, who is viewed as one of the top prospects to ever come out of the EuroLeague. Doncic is also familiar with new Suns head coach Igor Kokoskov, who coached Doncic on the Slovenian national team.

While Ayton and Doncic are widely considered the top two prospects in this year’s draft class, McDonough said there’s a “small grouping” of players the club will consider with the No. 1 pick, per Bordow. As Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press writes, Marvin Bagley III – an Arizona native – could be a part of that group. The ACC Player of the Year, Bagley averaged 21.0 PPG and 11.1 RPG in his freshman year at Duke.

What do you think? Do you like Ayton, Doncic, Bagley, or someone else for the Suns at No. 1? Should the team give much consideration to how those players would fit alongside Jackson and Devin Booker, or does it simply make sense to pick the best player available?

Vote in our poll, then jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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