Pelicans combo guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker found ways to improve during his second NBA season, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. Clark highlights Alexander-Walker’s growth as a ball-handler. The 22-year-old, who may play for Team Canada this summer, averaged an encouraging 19.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 3.0 APG across the 13 games he started.
Alexander-Walker indicated that extended reps at the NBA level have yielded his growth with the Pelicans. “You start to catch onto things,” he said. “You start to read things and understand what buttons control different things.”
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis told reporters that the behavior that violated COVID-19 protocols and yielded a $50K league fine was a result of his not understanding the NBA’s stringent new rules as more businesses open across the country during the pandemic, tweets Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News. “I was honestly a little bit confused (about the protocols), but I made a mistake and I paid for it,” Porzingis said. The Dallas big man, who is vaccinated, visited an indoor L.A.-area club.
- In trading for and subsequently extending center Steven Adams, the Pelicans were hoping to establish an intense interior presence with their new frontcourt tandem of Adams and All-Star power forward Zion Williamson, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. That approach did not even yield a top-10 finish in the West this season, prompting Clark to wonder if New Orleans head of basketball operations David Griffin will attempt to move on from Adams.
- Though the Mavericks won both the first two games of their first-round matchup against the Clippers on the road, the team is looking to improve from a lackluster free-throw shooting performance, writes Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News. “It’s an area where we can gain ground,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. The Mavericks connected on just 66% of their foul shots during the first two games of the series, down from 77.8% during the regular season. Swingman Tim Hardaway Jr., an unrestricted free agent this summer whom Dallas hopes to retain, has shot just 4-of-8 from the charity stripe.
The NBA’s stringent new rules, except of course when LeBron James is involved.
LeBron didn’t go to a strip club like KP or Harden did lol. Fake putrage going to be even worse when the Lakers go b2b.
Steven Adams and NAW could be packaged for Buddy Hield to the benefit of both sides. Hield shoots better than NAW is more ready than young NAW. Adams is not working for the Pels, but the Kings will need someone to replace Ri.Holmes. Also they do not need to start Hield, indeed that is an issue there.
There should be a solid amount of player movement this offseason, since there are a lot of bad fits.
Why the heII would you extend adams before the season started and not waiting to see how he got with Zion
Fit
Good Q … I think they bit the Zion needs a bodyguard apple too hard …. even so they should have read the tea leaves around the lerague and known there wouldn’t have been a robust market for a center of his ilk today if they had waited
Ham Van Gundy’s his name, clogging up the lane’s his game…