Andrew Bogut has not played professional basketball since his brief stint with the Lakers last season. The former first overall pick made his debut for the Sydney Kings in a preseason contest ahead of Australia’s National Basketball League season, per USA TODAY.
Playing against the Japanese national team, Bogut posted four points, six rebounds and six assists in a 77-57 victory. After the game, Bogut discussed his adjustment to playing significant minutes after not playing for almost eight months.
“I was always just trying to ease into it,” Bogut said. “I haven’t played a game since January. When I played with the Lakers, I wasn’t getting a lot of minutes. It was my first organized hitout in seven months so I just wanted to go as hard as I could in the first half. There’s going to be games in the NBL season when I’m not going to be the leading scorer, I’m not going to be the leading rebound getter. But I know ‘I’m going to still have an impact on the game just because I’m out there.”
Check out more news and notes around the basketball world:
- ESPN conducted a forecast panel to examine who would be the best and worst newcomers to their respective teams after an offseason of player movement. The panel voted that LeBron James would be the best newcomer as he prepares for his first season with the Lakers; the worst newcomer was voted as Carmelo Anthony, who has verbally agreed to join the Rockets.
- In the same vein, ESPN also rounded up the same panel to vote on which players will be first-time All-Stars this upcoming season. Once again, Ben Simmons upstaged Donovan Mitchell, as Simmons was voted as the likeliest first-time All-Star for 2018/19.
- In a lengthy, in-depth piece, David Purdum of ESPN takes a look at how sports betting hit the mainstream, leading up to NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently announcing that MGM Resorts would be the league’s official gambling partner.
Simmons is more likely than Mitchell due to playing in a weaker Eastern conference
Also due to the fact that he is a million times better than Mitchell. Simmons is a beast of a player that will dominate the league for years to come, a la Magic Johnson. While Mitchell is just another volume shooter that might become a star or not, but to be one he will have to improve a lot from last year, he had a good rookie year, nothing much. I don’t see all the hype around Mitchell, cannot see it.
They’re two extremely different players though. Simmons is more of a playmaking point guard while Mitchell is more of a big time scorer. Apples and oranges honestly
Mitchell is much better than simmons, a guy with zero outside game and travels like the great lebron james to the basket where his high shooting percentage comes from. Simmons plays against perninial lottery teams such as knicks, nets, hawks, hornets, heat, magic, bulls and pistons yearly but why did he only put up 1 point against a quality team like the celtics in the playoffs? Simple sixers arent that good, besides the walking injury joel embiid they have little depth to hang with anyone in the west, hence why lebron didnt even consider them. So sitting back and saying mitchell is simply a “high volume shooter” shows you have little to no knowledge of every that mitchell brings in the tougher conference in his actual rookie season. he was expected to fill the void of gordon hayward and did so remarkably he is only going to get better, simmons is almost 23.
Also stating simmons is like magic is disrespectful to magic who won a chip in his first year. Simmons is more lamar odom than magic at this junction.
Shocking. Quite possibly the biggest Philly homer “cannot see” anything past New Jersey… err I mean Philly. Same thing, basically.
Unless Simmons develops an outside shot (which right now seems very very far from happening… he could start by trying to shoot from mid and long distance from time to time), he will never become a truly dominant player.
Want to see hype about Mitchell, see Yahoo. He’s not only a great player, he’s a great person. Since somebody likes to exaggerate so much, I will. I see Donovan being compared to Kobe soon, and Utah having 7 championships before he retires. I agree, until Simmons gets a shot outside 5 feet, I wouldn’t be comparing him to anybody. Everybody expected Simmons to be good. Mitchell was the draft’s sleeper last season.
Since cesc is high on Isaih Thomas, he can see Sports Illustrated!!! Thomas apologizes for saying on twitter, Cleveland was a s—thole. I can see why LeBron left. Again! Still think Isaih will start for Denver cesc?
sorry. It’s on Sporting News, not Sports Illustrated.
Sorry again, Isaiah talked on his instagram video about the teams he played for. Lastly he said “Cleveland was a s–thole. I can see why LeBron left. Again.” He apologized to “his fans on twitter. See Sporting News. Isaiah does this a lot. Last summer he put Danny Ainge through the ringer. This summer he asked him for his job back. Isaiah’s mouth has gotten him in trouble every where he has been.
Add Yahoo, ESPN, NBC Sports, New York Daily News, and USA Today! Any comments anybody?
Somebody said Paul Jokic should be considered for MVP. IT is Denver’s 2nd best player. He should start ahead of Jamaal Murray, and use this season to get back the way he was. This is too much!
ESPN (Eastern Sports Propaganda Network, the CNN of Sports) of course would pick an East Coast guy………
The rockets will regret signing Anthony