The NBA G League’s annual showcase, which typically takes place in January, is expected to happen from December 19-22 in Las Vegas this year, sources tell Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days. As Johnson details, the event is typically hosted by a G League team, with the Raptors 905 serving as the host in Mississauga in recent years. However, the showcase will move to a neutral site this year, as the league has outgrown the facilities of most NBAGL cities.
Johnson also notes that G League president Malcolm Turner believes the NBAGL is on track to have 30 teams within the next 12 to 18 months. The league is prepared to enter the 2018/19 season with 27 franchises, as we outlined earlier today. The Pelicans, Nuggets, and Trail Blazers are the only NBA clubs without their own affiliates, but it sounds like Turner expects those teams to get involved in the G League soon.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post revisits one of the most impactful NBA decisions of the last few years, exploring the players’ rejection of salary-cap smoothing in 2015. While the lack of cap smoothing has been the subject of plenty of discussion in recent years, Bontemps provides some interesting new tidbits, including a note that the players’ union expected the NBA to counter when it first turned down the league’s cap-smoothing proposal — the league didn’t come back with a new offer of its own.
- ESPN’s early forecast for the 2018/19 NBA MVP has LeBron James as the odds-on favorite, followed by Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, and the reigning winner, James Harden.
- In an interesting conversation with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, longtime international basketball reporter David Pick explains why he’s looking to make the transition from journalist to agent.
- Alex Kennedy passes along a follow-up note on Trevor Booker‘s deal with China’s Shanxi Brave Dragons, tweeting that Booker received interest from the Cavaliers, Heat, and Timberwolves, and also turned down an offer from Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv before signing with Shanxi.
As long as their big 4 stays together, the Warriors would be strong contender for the title, and nobody on the team would be regular season MVP. Replacing KD with the Greek Freak makes more sense.
That’s the thing about the Warriors. They are unselfish, they aren’t looking for individual stats. When Steph has a bad night, KD steps up. When KD has a bad night, Thompson steps up. Now they have 5 All Stars, and even Iggy is capable of a big night. Since they base the MVP on stats, the Warriors won’t be. I agree Gionnis needs to be considered, and a long shot to be determined would be Kawhi. It’s his contract year in a weak conference.
This year the best were AD, LBJ & Giannis, so they should be there again, also Westbrook & Harden, but also newcomers like KAT, Embiid & Jokic could well be there. Cannot see any one else having a realistic shot at it.