2:42pm: The Nets have officially announced the addition of Vonleh in a team press release. He will be available for tomorrow night’s game against the Pistons, per Malika Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link).
9:29am: Free agent power forward-center Noah Vonleh will sign with the Nets, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Vonleh will add frontcourt depth to a team that has been lacking in big men since parting with Jarrett Allen last month in the James Harden trade. Brooklyn, which recently added Norvel Pelle and Iman Shumpert, will have a full 15-man roster for the first time since the deal once the Vonleh signing becomes official.
Vonleh had several opportunities to join the G League bubble in Orlando, but he decided to wait for a call from an NBA team, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 25-year-old signed with the Bulls in the offseason, but never played for the team. He contracted COVID-19 during training camp and was waived in December before the season began.
A lottery pick in 2014, Vonleh has been with six teams during his six-year NBA career. He started last year with the Timberwolves before being traded to the Nuggets at the deadline. He averaged 3.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in 36 total games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
lead them to safety 2 by 2
Said a long time ago they should sign him and RHJ. Thought a few teams should have been looking at him. Off the top of my head, Spurs, Raptors, Houston, Portland, GS all made sense.
Great pickup! Great pickup! Him and Jeff green will do great together
Didn’t see this one coming. I thought they were going to wait for buyouts.
Brooklyn Retreads. The GM clearly has little to no idea who to put together a cohesive team. This usually works well for a first-time head coach with no coaching experience at all.
Signing Norvel Pelle, Shumpert, and Vonleh isn’t putting them over the top.
This could be a really good fit. He played well with the Knicks two years ago. Better than that before hitting a wall in the last month or so of the season. Good rebounder, at a minimum, and, when he doesn’t foul, a good defender.
Hard to believe he is still only 25. If he had stayed in college through his senior year, he would still be have been a lotto pick easily in the 17 Markelle Fultz draft, perhaps even been the #1 pick, because he would likely have improved as a player as well with all the playing time he would have received at Indiana.
Hindsight is easy, but it’s also possible that he suffered an injury at Indiana in his upper class years and went undrafted altogether. Or teams could have paid more attention to the flaws in his game that might not have been corrected. It could have gone both ways.
However, I think with the knowledge of how his career has panned out thus far, I think the former argument would be worth the gamble in this case. At the very least, team would probably consider him something of a prospect rather than a journeyman right now.
Just an interesting food for thought. Well interesting to me anyway. It’s not like it could ever change even if anyone wanted it to.
There was a case for him to stay 1 additional season. It wasn’t likely to raise his draft stock (although it might have, it was as likely that he would have gone lower in a better 2015 draft). But the extra year might have benefitted him as a player early in his NBA career. Beyond that, there would be diminishing returns in terms of his development, and his draft stock would almost certainly be hurt even if he put up better numbers.
The situation is about to change, in the opposite direction, as the league prepares to (again) draft HS players. The NBA, as a league, needs to get over its fairy tale understanding of player development, and build out the infrastructure for it like its future depends on it. As a basketball league, and not just entertainment, it does.
That argument could be made, but there are also exceptions to it. Buddy Hield is a good example. He could have easily left school after his sophomore year. He had decent stats and an pretty good, but not great prospect status. It would have been the 2014 draft with Vonleh. He could have been drafted in the first or early second, played a couple of years and never improved enough to get his big extension. Or worse he could have been drafted in a similar spot like Nik Stauskas and instead of becoming a star in those two years, he would have likely become a journeyman like Sauce Castillo. Instead, he used his junior and senior seasons to become a noteworthy star. A guy with a big enough name to get a little more leash in the NBA.
As far as development goes, if the NBA put together a minor league system somewhat like baseball or hockey, where guys could take their time and actually develop physically and mentally to the pro game, I would be all for HS players getting drafted. But they don’t. 3 franchises don’t even have a single minor league affiliate right now. Expecting 18 year olds to compete with grown men physically is just asking for failure.
Some guys, yeah. I was just speaking of Vonleh, who was a high end recruit based on physical measurables, and his translatable numbers (RPG and FT%) were good after his FR year. Curry, Lillard, McCollum as well as Hield and I’m sure others spent 4 years in college, and were better commodities because of it.
Yes, the league with the NBAPA has to put a system together that incentivizes the teams to invest in young player development. G-league, right now, doesn’t provide anywhere near the level of contractual control needed for this. They have 2 years.
Wonder if he’ll be available against the Pistons
They still can add one more player. And they could just cut a player. Vonleh is a good reb and can play D on 3, 4 wings. I guess that’s why they got him. Their team D definitely needs help. But wasn’t Jordan signed to be a rim protector, D center. Only playing 20.5 mins a game. He’s only 32, he should be at 30 mins minimum lols. TD is a month away.
Jordan sucks. Have you watched any Nets games this year?
I don’t know what ur watching or if ur living In the past but it’s clearly not nba Jordan is garbage
Noah Vonleh is about as good of a pickup off the street that you can expect for Brooklyn. He is a better addition than Shumpert because Brooklyn is fine for perimeter guys. They still got to hope for some form of a miracle on the buyout market.
An interesting potential buyout name for Brooklyn is Jabari Parker. Parker is a total non-factor in Sacramento, but could once again thrive in the same role he had in Atlanta and Washington, which is being a stats guy in garbage minutes. Parker wouldn’t help Brooklyn much in the playoffs, but could thrive in a minutes eating role down the stretch to preserve some other guys.
So Vonleh is on a roster, but Dedmon is not???
yea im confused as well. he was pickuped by da bulls a while ago but then got covid and then cut.
He was obtained strictly to be placed on the injury list.
I thought Portland would sign Vonleh. They might be even worse off than the Nets on the frontline.
lmao, they’re just signing guys who may be good on one end but have certain limitations. pelle is a good rebounder and defender but almost has no offensive game while shumpert provides needed D but no longer can shoot and has lost his athleticism. vonleh is a solid rebounder and inside scorer but idk bout his defense
Vonleh lacks in the defense IQ department. You got him pegged pretty well with scoring rebounder.