Badly in need of rebounding help, the Knicks may have found it at a bargain price with the signing of Noah Vonleh, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. While other parts of his game have been questioned, Vonleh is considered very good at getting boards. He collected a career best 5.8 in about 16 minutes per game with the Trail Blazers and Bulls last season.
Chicago acquired Vonleh from Portland at the trade deadline, but didn’t make him an offer in free agency. The Knicks were able to sign him to a partially guaranteed one-year deal that will pay $100K if he’s still on the roster September 25.
“Free agency was pretty tough this year,’’ Vonleh said. “I didn’t get anything. There were a lot of teams with interest. But I love the game of basketball. I’m happy to have another year in the league. I’m going to play this year out and see how things go and try to be in the league for many years to come.”
There’s more this morning from the Atlantic Division:
- Nets forward Caris LeVert believes a relaxed practice schedule in the NBA has helped him overcome the injuries he had in college, relays Ethan Sears of The New York Post. Foot issues forced him to miss a large part of his junior and senior seasons at Michigan and caused him to slide to 20th in the 2016 draft. “I think that a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, he only — he got hurt in the college season, where they only played 40 games. How is he gonna play 82 games in the NBA season?’” LeVert said. “They don’t really look at the fact that in college, you practice way harder than in the NBA. Cause in the NBA, you can’t necessarily practice that hard, ’cause there’s a game basically every other day.”
- After a stellar rookie season, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has spent the summer working on his strength, tweets ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. “That’s probably been the biggest focus,” Tatum said. “I’m still young so it’s hard to really just throw on a bunch of extra pounds. But I’ve definitely gotten a lot stronger. … I just wanted to get my body right and keep getting stronger.”
- Ben Simmons isn’t concerned about the Sixers missing out on LeBron James in free agency. Simmons talks about James’ decision to join the Lakers in a video tweeted by the Australian Daily Telegraph. “He did the right thing for him and his family,” Simmons said. “But it would’ve been great to learn from him, him being on the team and obviously competing for a championship. But we have pieces to get there.”
I think it’s great that Tatum has been working with Kobe.
I think it will be Philly and Houston in the Finals.
You’ll be wrong on both teams
Boston embaressed Philly last year without arguably their two best players….. 76ers aren’t even in the same conversation as the Celtics…Celtics are going to finals and possibly beating golden state who the play better than anyone else in the nba …
Well it was a must for Tatum to work on his strength, as he is quite light, that will help him keep progressing, is good to see young guys so focused in getting better.
Philly looks pretty good, no surprise at all if they make it to the finals. Now Houston that would be more surprising as they will have to pass by GSW & Lakers, so I cannot see it. I guess it would be a very fun finals to watch Philly v Houston that’s for sure.
What are you people smoking…..Philly in the finals. They are at BEST 4th in the east behind Boston Toronto and Indy. They will take a step back before they take that next leap forward. And everyone on the team is injury prone. NOT happening this year
They are certainly not AT BEST the 4th team in the East. I’m reserving judgment on the Raptors, until I see a motivated and healthy Kawhi, and I think Philly, at their best, is better than the Pacers at their best..
Obviously, the Celtics are the cream of the crop..But, it’s the NBA, anything can happen..It’ll still be a fun 4 team race in the East..Possibly a six team race with the Wizards and Bucks, but I highly doubt they’d beat out any of the 4 teams ahead of them..