2019 November | Hoops Rumors

Zach LaVine, Jim Boylen Address Trust Issue

November 23rd, 2019 at 6:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

Head coach Jim Boylen met with Zach LaVine today after the Bulls’ star complained about a lack of trust in last night’s game, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.

In comments relayed by Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, LaVine believed he was being singled out when Boylen removed him from Friday’s game after Miami built a 13-0 lead in the first 3:27. It was the latest in a series of slow starts that have contributed to Chicago’s disappointing 5-11 record.

“I thought, ‘He needs a break,’” Boylen said to reporters. “I thought he needed to come in and think about it. I felt there were some defensive mistakes that didn’t need to be made. I thought he needed to come over and think about it for a minute.”

But that’s not how it was interpreted by LaVine, who has experienced an uneven relationship with Boylen since he took over as head coach last December. LaVine saw the move as a personal slight and an indication that he doesn’t have the trust of the coaching staff.

“I feel I earned that trust, but I guess he feels differently,” LaVine said. “Other players around the league — and everybody’s situation isn’t the same — I feel other players around the league have that trust. I guess we haven’t got there.”

Along with the team’s poor record, it has been a difficult season on a personal level for LaVine, who doesn’t look comfortable in a new system that emphasizes three-point shooting. After putting up career-high numbers last year with 23.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per night, LaVine’s scoring average has fallen to 19.8 PPG this season and his shooting percentage from the field has dropped to 40.9%.

LaVine said he’s “trying my best” to maintain a good relationship with Boylen, but incidents like Friday’s make it challenging.

“I’m playing my minutes and trying to do the best I can do,” LaVine said. “It’s tough, especially when you’re in a rut. If he doesn’t trust me, it’s hard to trust someone who doesn’t trust you.”

Boylen told Johnson that he and LaVine had a “great talk” about the situation today and they share the “same goals” for the team. He added that “everything was explained” about what happened last night and LaVine was shown clips of the defensive mistakes that led to his brief benching. Boylen added that trust isn’t an issue (Twitter link).

LaVine said he was candid with Boylen in their meeting, stating, “I let him know how I felt. We had a misunderstanding. We still have a lot to work on as a team — personal, coaching. We all have to be accountable for our actions.” (Twitter link).

After being told that Boylen is holding him to a higher standard because he cares for him, LaVine responded, “That’s what he told me. To each his own. If that’s how he feels he has to coach me, that’s his prerogative. I can be coached any way. I don’t backlash a lot (Twitter link). But when I feel disrespected, sometimes I have to stand up for myself. We talked about the offense, the defense, personal stuff. I think it was good. We both want to win. If I’m not doing as good as I can do, it’s not gonna be good for team (Twitter link).

“If he feels he has to get on me to help that, I’m all for that. I want to be a winning guy. I haven’t won anything in the NBA. That’s why it gets frustrating (Twitter link).”

Hoops Rumors Originals: 11/16/19 – 11/23/19

November 23rd, 2019 at 5:17pm CST by Arthur Hill

Every week, the Hoops Rumors writing team creates original content to complement our news feed. Here are our original segments and features from the past seven days:

Luke Adams looked at which protected 2020 first-round picks are likely to change hands.
We released our first Free Agent Power Rankings for 2020.
In a poll, we asked if James Harden will average 40 PPG.
Our Free Agent Stock Watch focused on the Northwest Division.
Our Trade Candidate Watch series examined the Atlantic and Northwest divisions.
In this week’s Community Shootarounds, we asked:

Categories:
Hoops Rumors Originals

Taj Gibson Talks Growing Up In Brooklyn, NBA Memories, Young Knicks

November 23rd, 2019 at 4:27pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Big man Taj Gibson signed a two-year, $20MM contract with his hometown Knicks this summer. Though there has been plenty of drama for the Knicks already in the 2019/20 season, the 6’9″, 34 year-old Gibson has been a stabilizing old-school post presence, averaging 6.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in just 15.9 minutes a night.

In a far-reaching conversation with Steve Serby of the New York Post, the Fort Greene, Brooklyn native reflected on his tough childhood, his proudest basketball moment, the upside of his young Knicks teammates, his time at USC, his favorite movie, and much more.

The whole article is well worth a gander, but here are some highlights from Serby’s chat with the 11-year vet.

On his childhood in Brooklyn:

“Fort Greene Ingersoll Houses has always been tough. It was a lot of murders, a lot of killings. To this day, I thank my dad personally for some days making me stay in the house, ’cause there was a lot of stuff going on outside. I lost a lot of friends that were just … young, and never got a chance to grow. I think my parents deserve most of the credit for just knowing when to keep me inside and keep me locked in.”

On his proudest basketball achievement:

“Going to the [2011] Eastern Conference finals [with the Bulls]. Just knowing how hard it is to win basketball games in the NBA, but when you’re locked in with a group [of] guys, to have a bond and you’re in the heat of the battle each and every night, especially going against everybody’s opinion on you, telling you you can’t do something, you can’t do this and you overachieve in it, that’s the best feeling in the world.”

On the Knicks’ young pieces:

“Frank [Ntilikina] is eager to learn, he’s eager to get better. I think he’s taking the next step, which is understanding what he has to do to become a good professional basketball player in this league. He’s only scratched the surface… [Mitchell Robinson] can be All-World if he wants. He works extremely hard every morning with me, and he’s extremely competitive. And he listens. And you can’t teach those things… [RJ Barrett is] super-competitive, eager to learn, always willing to listen. He has a grown man frame already.”

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Simmons, Kyrie, Knox

November 23rd, 2019 at 3:46pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After Al Horford left for bigger free agent riches in Philadelphia this summer, the Celtics signed scoring-oriented Enes Kanter as a cheap replacement, hoping that Daniel Theis, Kanter, Robert Williams and rookie Grant Williams could compensate for Horford’s absence piecemeal.

So far, that has proven to be the case during Boston’s 11-4 start. A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston preaches caution against disrupting team chemistry by trying to trade for a major center upgrade like Clint Capela or Karl-Anthony Towns.

Instead, Blakely notes that 7’5” rookie Tacko Fall, on a two-way contract, has impressed in the G League thus far. Blakely suggests that Fall might be an option who could shore up the Celtics’ interior defense in spot minutes. Boston should also monitor the buyout market and top Chinese Basketball Association centers, Blakely opines.

There’s more from around the Atlantic:

After making his first NBA triple in a 109-104 win over the Knicks, Sixers All-Star point guard Ben Simmons mentioned his desire to play for the Australian national team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Tim Bontemps of ESPN reports. Sixers coach Brett Brown was recently announced as the Australian national team’s coach for the event.“We have a great relationship,” Simmons said of Brown in his postgame comments. “I’ve known him my whole life. I’m excited to put together a great team.”
Prized offseason Nets acquisition Kyrie Irving has missed the past four games with a shoulder impingement. Though coach Kenny Atkinson insists that the ailment will not be a long-term issue, he concedes that Irving is not healthy enough to play, as the New York Post’s Brian Lewis relays. “We have a protocol before a guy comes back to play. Usually we’re not just going to throw you out there without seeing you. We have these kind of set standards in the past,” Atkinson notes. “We’re not at that point yet. Hopefully, he will get there soon.”
Knicks coach David Fizdale has challenged second-year forward Kevin Knox to improve his defense, according to Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “I am definitely riding Kevin, to challenge him to go to another level, especially defensively,” Fizdale confirmed, before praising his improved offense. “His shooting percentage is up, finishing around the rim is much better, he’s seeing the floor better. But I want him to take a big jump forward defensively… He’s got the physical tools to do it.” Braziller points out that Fizdale has been quicker with the hook for Knox lately. The 6’7″ forward from Kentucky has averaged 14.7 minutes across the team’s last four contests, a far cry from the more generous 23.6 minutes he was allotted over New York’s first 11 games.

Community Shootaround: Potential NBA Schedule Changes

November 23rd, 2019 at 2:06pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

This morning, ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski reported that serious discussions were transpiring between the NBA, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and their television partners about making dramatic changes to the NBA season.

Those modifications apparently include: a reduced regular season schedule (which seems savvy), a postseason play-in tournament for lower seeds (which sounds fun), a conference finalist reseeding (all 16 playoff teams should be reseeded, in this writer’s opinion), and a midseason playoff tournament (which feels pointless and desperate).

One of the big elements on the table is shortening the regular season game count from 82 to 78. Since the 1968/69 NBA season, the 82-game regular season has been the norm.

The league played as few as 60 or 61 games (it varied amongst the 11 teams) in its inaugural 1946/47 season. The game count gradually grew, reaching 72 by the 1953/54 season, the end of the George Mikan‘s Minnesota Lakers dynasty. In the 1959/60 season (year three of the Bill Russell-era Celtics reign), the tally expanded to 75 games. The next season, that number hit 79, before stabilizing at 80 from 1961/62-1966/67. For one lone season (1967/68), the NBA had an 81-game regular season before making the pivot to its current 82-game schedule when it expanded to 12 teams.

Under the leadership of commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA has already taken steps to reduce the grind of the 82-game schedule. It shrank teams’ preseason commitments. It has taken pains to decrease back-to-back games. The NBA experimented with shortening game lengths from 48 minutes to 44 minutes.

Knowing what we know now about the “load management” era, where certain superstars opt to avoid playing in at least one game of a back-to-back tilt and teams liberally rest healthy players in advance of the playoffs, is reducing the full game tally the right move?

Business Insider’s Cork Gaines has noted that Bill Simmons of The Ringer has long advocated for a schedule reduction, arguing that modern NBA players actively try harder during the regular season than their predecessors in the 1980s and 1990s. Simmons also has been a proponent of a play-in tournament in the past.

How many games should the NBA season last? The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman proposed a radical shortening, to 58 games (so that every team players every other team exactly twice), after watching injuries befall several core Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals.

This writer votes for reverting back to the 72-game model, completely excising the preseason, and eliminating back-to-back games. The latter two items were not discussed in the Lowe-Wojnarowski report this morning, but I’m hoping they are given fair shrift during these upcoming negotiations.

If the season is condensed much beyond 72 games, the opportunity exists for this era’s players to make unfair statistical gains on prior player generations. A midseason tournament seems like a method to placate middling franchises with meaningless award hardware. Essentially, it would only yield the equivalent of a “Conference Finalist” banner for its “winning” team.

What do you think? How many games should the NBA season last? Would you eliminate back-to-backs and/or the preseason? Would you be interested in watching a midseason tournament?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

David Griffin On Zion Williamson: “Getting Better Every Day”

November 23rd, 2019 at 11:59am CST by marksuleymanov

The Pelicans have been without 2019 first overall draft pick Zion Williamson for the entire regular season thus far as he recovers from meniscus surgery. As New Orleans awaits Williamson’s debut, president of basketball operations David Griffin told ESPN New Orleans 100.3 that the 19-year-old is progressing as expected.

“We’re really optimistic, and most importantly, Zion is really excited and that’s where we want him to be,” Griffin said.

Before undergoing surgery on October 20, Williamson showed the talent that made him this year’s top pick during preseason play. He averaged 23.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG and 2.3 APG while shooting 71.4% from the field. Thus far, without Williamson, the Pelicans have gone 6-9 but have won their last three games.

With a healthy Williamson, the Pelicans would likely expect a strong push for a postseason spot. According to Griffin, the Duke product is physically recovering well and the next step will be mentally preparing the phenom for his regular-season debut.

“The physical part is easy for him,” Griffin said. “He has an incredibly high basketball IQ. He loves being a teammate and getting better. He’s really rare among truly elite young players in that he enjoys the process of getting better. He loves the process of learning the game.”

The original six-to-eight week timeline had Williamson returning anywhere from the end of November to mid-December. Griffin noted that New Orleans would “err on the side of caution” with their potential superstar. A recent report from TNT’s Reggie Miller noted that Williamson is on track for a mid-December return.

“Right now, I think we’re on target for eight weeks,” Griffin said. “Probably not to the day, but in and around that.”

NBA In Talks To Alter Seeding, Schedule And Playoff Play-In

November 23rd, 2019 at 10:55am CST by marksuleymanov

Serious discussions between the NBA, National Basketball Players Association and broadcast partners could see an altered league with changes to the league’s schedule, reseeding of four conference finalists, a postseason play-in and a 30-team in-season tournament, ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski report.

As the discussions progress, the hope is to bring a vote to the annual April meeting of the NBA’s Board of Governors which could include most, if not all, of the proposals, per ESPN’s report. The goal would be for these changes to take effect for the 2021/22 season, the NBA’s 75th anniversary.

For starters, the proposal would include a reduction in the schedule from 82 games to a minimum of 78 games, Lowe and Wojnarowski report. There would exist a remote possibility of teams possibly playing a maximum of 83 games given various tournament and play-in scenarios, sources told ESPN.

In regards to the in-season tournament, the league is looking at 30-team participation that begins with a divisional group stage of already scheduled regular-season contests. Coming out of the tournament would be six divisional winners based on the best home and away records in the group stage, according the report. Teams with the next best two records advance to a single-elimination knockout round under the current proposal.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been a major proponent of the in-season tournament, modeling it after European soccer. Silver explained to the New York Times’ Marc Stein in late May that he was examining various scenarios to alter the league.

“It’s incumbent on me to constantly be looking at other organizations and seeing what it is we can do better and learn from them,” Silver told Stein. “In the case of European soccer, I think there is something we can learn from them.

“I also recognize I’m up against some of the traditionalists who say no one will care about that other competition, that other trophy, you create. And my response to that is, ‘Organizations have the ability to create new traditions.’ It won’t happen overnight.”

As far as the postseason play-in, Wojnarowski and Lowe write that two four-team tournaments would transpire with the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th seeds in each respective conference. The seventh would host the eighth seed with the victor taking seventh seed honors. The same would apply for the ninth and 10th seed, with the winner in each respective conference earning the final playoff spots.

While the baseline ideas are being discussed, other things that will need to be ironed out. How players and coaches are compensated for the changed schedule, how television partners would be impacted with changed schedules and more. However, there’s some traction to potentially change the landscape of the NBA for the 2021/22 campaign.

Kyrie Irving To Miss Nets’ Upcoming Road Trip

November 23rd, 2019 at 9:03am CST by marksuleymanov

Nets point guard Kyrie Irving will miss Brooklyn’s upcoming three-game road trip that will include matchups against the Knicks, Cavaliers and Celtics, the team announced on Friday (via ESPN). Brooklyn noted that Irving will be reassessed once the trip concludes.

Irving, 27, has already missed the Nets’ past four contests due to a shoulder impingement. Before the injury, the six-time All-Star had been a force, averaging career-highs with 28.5 PPG and 7.2 APG across 11 games. The upcoming absence will force Irving to miss his first matchup against his former team, the Celtics, after departing from Boston in free agency over the summer.

“I don’t think it’s something he can play through right now,” Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson said after practice Thursday. “The shoulder is a sensitive spot, especially for a point guard — you’re like a quarterback.”

The recent absence of Irving, Caris LeVert being sidelined due to thumb surgery, and Kevin Durant likely out for 2019/20 due to a torn Achilles has contributed to Brooklyn’s 7-8 record. The Nets occupy the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.

Free Agent Stock Watch 2019: Northwest Division

November 22nd, 2019 at 8:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Every week, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents next offseason. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the Northwest Division:

Danilo Gallinari, Thunder, 31, SF (Up) – Signed to a three-year, $64.7MM deal in 2017
Gallinari’s biggest issue has been staying out of the trainer’s room. His 68 regular-season appearances with the Clippers last season was his most since the 2012/13 season. But when he’s healthy, he can fill it up. He’s averaging 19.1 PPG and 5.1 RPG while shooting 41.3 percent from deep. When he gets to the free throw line, he’s money (at least 90 percent since 2016/17). At 31, Gallinari still has a few more good years left and will get a hefty long-term offer next summer.

Mason Plumlee, Nuggets, 29, C (Up) – Signed to a three-year, $41MM deal in 2017
Plumlee doesn’t stretch defenses like a majority of big men these days but he does enough to stay on the court. He’s the team’s fourth-leading rebounder despite averaging 16.6 MPG. He’s also adept at finding teammates (2.3 APG). Plumlee’s role figures to diminish if 2018 first-round Michael Porter Jr. starts to make a bigger impact but for now, Plumlee has a steady second-unit role on a contender. However, his annual salary will take a big dip next summer.

Jordan Bell, Timberwolves, 24, PF (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $1.62MM deal in 2019
The Timberwolves can make Bell a restricted free agent by extending a $2.0MM qualifying offer in June. Thus far, Bell hasn’t done anything to make them want to keep the former Warriors big man around for another season. He’s been glued to the bench through the first month of this season, playing a total of eight minutes since November 4th. Noah Vonleh and Gorgui Dieng are ahead of him in the rotation off the bench, so Bell’s role won’t expand unless injuries strike.

Kent Bazemore, Trail Blazers, 30, SG (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $70MM deal in 2016
Bazemore was acquired from the Hawks in exchange for another veteran swingman, Evan Turner. The trade has been a lose-lose situation for both teams. Neither has made an impact on their current teams. Bazemore is averaging single digits for the first time since the 2014/15 season despite steady playing time (23.6 MPG). He’s shooting 34.6 percent from the field and his PER is 8.7. That’s not exactly the way Bazemore wanted his walk year to unfold. He’ll be settling for a sizable pay cut next summer.

Jeff Green, Jazz, 33, PF (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $2.56MM deal in 2019
Green is the quintessential journeyman, seemingly popping up on a different team every season. Normally, he puts up solid numbers wherever he lands. That hasn’t the case through the first 14 games this season. Green has been in a shooting slump, making just 33 percent of his attempts. He shot over 47 percent for Cleveland and Washington the past two seasons, so a breakout might be imminent. If not, Green’s rotation spot could be in jeopardy when Ed Davis‘ fractured leg heals.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/22/19

November 22nd, 2019 at 7:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Here are Friday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Thunder assigned center Justin Patton to the Oklahoma City Blue, according to a team press release. Patton has averaged 7.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG and 3.0 BPG in 25.2 MPG over four appearances with the Blue. He played six minutes in one game with the Thunder this season.
The Mavericks recalled rookie forward Isaiah Roby from the Texas Legend, according to a team press release. He has averaged 11.8 PPG and 8.4 RPG in 25.0 MPG while starting five games for the Legends. The second-round pick has yet to make his NBA debut.

Month: November 2024