2022 NBA Draft Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Japan Games, Hardy, Prospect Matchups, West

March 14th, 2022 at 10:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Warriors and Wizards will play two preseason games in Japan, the NBA announced in a press release. The NBA Japan Games 2022 will be played on September 30 and October 2. “We are excited to once again bring preseason games to our fans in Japan,” commissioner Adam Silver said. The NBA last played games in Japan in 2019, when Houston and Toronto squared off in a pair of preseason contests.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Shooting guard Jaden Hardy shouldn’t be discounted as a potential lottery pick, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer opines. Hardy got off to a slow start with the G League’s Ignite but has averaged 22.5 PPG and 4.1 APG over the last eight games. Hardy made some progress as a pick-and-roll playmaker and is taking better shots, O’Connor adds. Hardy is currently ranked No. 24 on ESPN’s Best Available list after once being considered the draft’s second-best prospect.
The NCAA Tournament provides an opportunity for draft prospects to match their talents against one another. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie takes a look at nine first-round matchups among this year’s class, including the University of Michigan big man duo of Hunter Dickinson and Moussa Diabate squaring off against Colorado State’s top scorer, David Roddy.
Former NBA player Delonte West participated in a BIG3 tryout in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, according to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports. West, who has struggled with drug addiction and bipolar disorder, was one of a handful of players from the tryout to get an invite to the BIG3 pre-draft combine on May 14 in Las Vegas.

And-Ones: 2022 Big Board, Sleepers, Muhammad, Russia

March 10th, 2022 at 12:34pm CST by Rory Maher

Gonzaga center Chet Holmgren and Auburn forward Jabari Smith are in a tier of their own atop Sam Vecenie’s latest Big Board for the Athletic. Vecenie has four Duke players in the top 24, including Paolo Banchero at No. 4 and AJ Griffin at No. 6.

One new addition: Kentucky wing Shaedon Sharpe at No. 5. Sharpe hasn’t played this season after joining the Wildcats in January with the plan to play in 2022/23, but he could be draft-eligible this year if he declares. Sharpe is an outstanding athlete at 6’6″ (7’0″ wingspan) and is a legitimate pull-up shooter, according to Vecenie.

Strong performances during March Madness when more NBA eyes will be watching the 2022 draft class could lead to major movement on the board, as Vecenie states that there are minimal differences from spots 15-58. He plans to update his board again in April.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

John Hollinger of The Athletic explores 11 draft sleepers to keep an eye on during March Madness, including Colorado State forward David Roddy and Memphis forward Josh Minott. Hollinger’s favorite “deep, deep sleeper” is Toledo shooting guard Ryan Rollins, who was No. 29 on Vecenie’s board.
Shabazz Muhammad recently had an interview with Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, stating that he’s hoping to make an NBA comeback. Muhammad last played in the league in 2017/18 with the Bucks, and he admits he wasn’t in the best shape at the time. “I’ve been working on my game seriously. When I was in Milwaukee, I noticed I had gotten myself out of shape. I’m in tip-top shape right now. I’m 220 pounds. That was my original weight when I came into the NBA and had some good years in Minnesota,” Muhammad said. “I realized you can’t take the NBA for granted, and that’s one thing I thought I did when I was in the NBA. Now, I’m thinking about getting back there by working my butt off and doing everything I have to do on and off the court as a person to be the best player and teammate I can be.” The 29-year-old swingman is currently playing in the Philippines.
Sources tell Marc Stein of Substack (Twitter link) that Russian teams are attempting to lure their American players back to the country by promising bonuses. Many players currently under contract have returned stateside due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. As Stein notes (via Twitter), Russian teams were barred from European competition by FIBA, but league play is set to continue within the country. Stein is skeptical that the American players will rejoin the teams given the instability in the region and the fact that WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently detained in Russia.

And-Ones: Young Point Guards, Henson, Holmgren, Draft

March 9th, 2022 at 11:08am CST by Luke Adams

Rising Grizzlies star Ja Morant has enjoyed a breakout year in Memphis, but 11 of 15 scouts and executives polled by Tim Bontemps of ESPN would still take Mavericks star Luka Doncic over Morant if they were picking a young point guard to build around.

Bontemps asked those 15 scouts and execs to rank Doncic, Morant, Trae Young, LaMelo Ball, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Darius Garland, and got some interesting responses. Doncic was the overwhelming top pick, with Morant (who had the other four first-place votes) coming in second, followed by Young in third. Ball and Gilgeous-Alexander were neck and neck for the fourth spot, with Garland bringing up the rear.

The question engendered plenty of debate, according to Bontemps, who notes that the respondents’ evaluations of certain prospects varied significantly. For instance, one Eastern Conference executive believes that Gilgeous-Alexander could be “potentially be doing a lot of the same things” as Morant if their situations were flipped, while an East scout said SGA is “clearly last” of the six in his view, since the others are better at passing and making plays for teammates.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Former NBA lottery pick John Henson has signed with Mets de Guaynabo for the upcoming season in Puerto Rico, tweets agent Christian Santaella. Henson, who has appeared in 445 regular season NBA games, signed a 10-day contract with the Knicks last April, but hasn’t played in an NBA game since the 2019/20 season.
In an Insider-only story for ESPN, Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz explore why Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren is such a polarizing player for NBA scouts. As ESPN’s duo explains, Holmgren is a one-of-a-kind prospect who can’t be easily compared to current or former NBA players, making it more difficult to evaluate both his potential upside and his potential risk.
Givony and Schmitz have also updated their top-100 prospect list for the 2022 NBA draft and discussed some of the players who have recently risen up that big board.
Jeremy Woo of SI.com takes an in-depth look at Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson, identical twins who are candidates to be drafted in the lottery in 2023. The Thompson twins, who are currently playing for Overtime Elite, both went in the top 10 of ESPN’s most recent 2023 mock draft.

2021/22 NBA Reverse Standings Update

March 8th, 2022 at 8:47am CST by Luke Adams

Throughout the 2021/22 NBA season, Hoops Rumors is maintaining a feature that allows you to keep an eye on the tentative 2022 draft order. Our 2021/22 Reverse Standings tool, which lists the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, is updated daily to reflect the outcomes of the previous night’s games.

Our Reverse Standings are essentially a reflection of what 2022’s draft order would look like with no changes to lottery position. We’ve noted each club’s odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick, based on the league’s current lottery format.

In instances where two non-playoff teams or two playoff teams have identical records, the order in our standings isn’t necessarily definitive — for draft purposes, the NBA breaks ties via random drawings, so those drawings would happen at the end of the year.

Of course, the 14 non-playoff teams all draft before the 16 playoff teams, even if some non-playoff teams have better records than those that made the postseason. Our reverse standings account for playoff seeding, though for now they assume that the Nos. 7 and 8 teams in each conference will earn those final two postseason spots. Since the NBA’s play-in format opens the door for the Nos. 9 and 10 seeds to sneak into the postseason, we may have to account for a little movement in the draft order at season’s end.

Traded first-round picks are included via footnotes. For example, the note next to Charlotte’s pick says the Hornets will send their pick to the Hawks if it’s not in the top 18. As of today, the Hornets’ pick projects to be No. 15, meaning that selection wouldn’t change hands.

Currently, the Magic and Rockets are in a dead heat for the “top” spot in the reverse standings — they have matching 16-49 records, separating them from the 18-47 Pistons by two games. All three teams would have a 14% chance to receive the No. 1 overall pick if the lottery were based on today’s standings.

As we noted last week, the Lakers‘ spot in the reverse standings is worth monitoring closely down the stretch, since they’ll send their unprotected first-round pick to the Pelicans if it lands in the top 10 or to the Grizzlies if it ends up between 11-30. The 28-36 Lakers currently rank No. 11 in the reverse standings and are just a single game from moving into the top 10.

Our Reverse Standings tracker can be found at anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features” on our desktop site, or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu. It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2022. So be sure to check back often as the season progresses!

Note: Mobile users are advised to turn their phones sideways when viewing the Reverse Standings in order to see team records and lottery odds.

And-Ones: MVP Race, Fenway Sports Group, 2022 Draft

March 7th, 2022 at 2:16pm CST by Luke Adams

The 2021/22 MVP race is one for the ages, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who contends that we “aren’t talking about it nearly enough.” As Hollinger outlines, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Sixers center Joel Embiid are each in the midst of a historic season and would be a clear MVP frontrunner if it weren’t for the presence of the other two.

If the season ended today, Hollinger notes, Jokic (32.3) and Antetokounmpo (32.0) would have the two highest single-season PERs in NBA history, while Embiid’s (31.0) would also make the top 10. Hollinger says he’d pick Jokic for MVP if forced to decide right now, but with over a month left in the season, there’s still plenty of time for Antetokounmpo and Embiid to strengthen their cases.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Gerry Cardinale, a shareholder in Fenway Sports Group, says that adding an NBA franchise is “a real top priority” for the massive Boston-based firm, as Michael Silverman of The Boston Globe writes. The FSG conglomerate already owns MLB’s Boston Red Sox, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Premier League’s Liverpool FC.
Wake Forest guard Alondes Williams, Kansas guard Christian Braun, and Colorado State forward David Roddy are among the best bets to further improve their draft stock with strong performances to finish out the NCAA season, says Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report. Wasserman also singles out four other prospects who are candidates to rise up draft boards in the coming weeks.
Touching on several stories from around the NBA in his latest article for The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor makes a case for why the Knicks should lean more heavily on their young players, breaks down what Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans have brought to the Mavericks, and praises the work the Rockets have done developing their rookies this season. O’Connor also argues that the NBA should tweak its playoff format to allow top seeds to pick their first-round opponents.

Lakers’ Struggles Create Draft-Pick Drama For Grizzlies, Pelicans

February 28th, 2022 at 3:13pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers hit a new low on Sunday night, suffering a blowout home loss to the Pelicans in which they were booed repeatedly by the crowd at Crypto.com Arena, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. It was the ninth loss in 12 games for an L.A. team that is now 27-33 on the season and only has a 2.5-game lead on the 11th-place Trail Blazers.

As McMenamin observes, it won’t get any easier this week for the Lakers, who face the Mavericks on Tuesday, the Clippers on Thursday, and the Warriors on Saturday. The Lakers are 1-5 against those teams so far this season, narrowly squeaking out an overtime victory in mid-December over a Dallas squad that was missing Luka Doncic.

As Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes, LeBron James was among the Lakers who had no answers after Sunday’s performance. Russell Westbrook, who had one assist and seven turnovers on Sunday, hypothesized that teams are giving a little extra effort in games against the reeling Lakers.

“Teams are coming in, playing harder, and I believe that’s kind of their scouting report: Just play harder than them and see what happens,” Westbrook said, per McMenamin. “And it’s working. Until we determine and have the determination that we’re not going to allow it, especially on our home floor, it will continue to happen to us.”

The Lakers are expected to be without Anthony Davis for a few more weeks and are currently 3.5 games back of the eighth-seeded Clippers. If they can’t move into the top eight of the Western Conference by the end of the season, they’ll have to win two games in a play-in tournament to even qualify for the playoffs.

The Lakers’ increasingly disappointing season is likely being monitored closely for draft-related reasons by two Western Conference rivals, the Pelicans and Grizzlies. New Orleans acquired the Lakers’ unprotected 2022 first-round pick in the Davis blockbuster in 2019, then flipped it to Memphis in last summer’s Jonas Valanciunas deal.

When the Pelicans traded the Lakers’ 2022 first-rounder to the Grizzlies, they added top-10 protection to it, so New Orleans will get the pick if it falls between No. 1 and No. 10. If it lands between 11 and 30, Memphis will receive it. It seemed like a pretty safe bet entering the season that the pick would end up in the back half of the first round, but that’s far from a sure thing now, as John Hollinger of The Athletic (Twitter link) and others have noted.

If the season ended today and the Lakers didn’t earn a playoff spot in the play-in tournament, they’d likely enter the draft lottery in a tie for the No. 11 spot, as our reverse standings show. That would give them only an 8.5% chance of moving into the top four, so the Grizzlies would still feel relatively confident about their chances of holding onto the pick in that scenario.

However, this situation could change quickly. If the Lakers are passed in the standings by at least one more team, their pick may well end up in the top 10 even without any lottery luck, which would be great news for the Pelicans. Incidentally, New Orleans looks like the team with the best odds of passing the Lakers — there’s currently a 2.5-game gap between the two clubs, and the Pels have looked better since acquiring CJ McCollum.

It’s also worth noting that even if the Lakers hang onto the No. 9 spot in the West, a pair of play-in wins by the West’s No. 10 seed would move that team out of the draft lottery, pushing L.A. up one spot in the lottery standings.

At this point, it doesn’t matter much to the Lakers which team gets their lottery pick — they won’t keep it in any scenario. But it’s a major storyline worth following for the Pelicans and Grizzlies, two teams that could really benefit from having another lottery selection.

If the pick ends up in the top 10 and the Pelicans keep it, they’ll send Cleveland’s 2022 second-rounder and their own 2025 second-rounder to Memphis. If the pick ends up between 11-30 and the Grizzlies get it, New Orleans won’t get anything.

2022’s Most Valuable Traded Second-Round Picks

February 28th, 2022 at 9:01am CST by Luke Adams

Fans of lottery-bound NBA teams will be keeping a close on the league’s reverse standings down the stretch because of the effect they’ll have on the draft order and lottery odds for the 2022 first round.

However, it’s not just the first round of the draft that’s worth keeping an eye on. Those reverse standings will also dictate the order of the draft’s second round, and an early second-round pick can be nearly as valuable as a first-rounder.

Traded first-round selections will ultimately be more valuable than any second-rounder, but it’s still worth taking a closer look at some traded 2022 second-rounders that project to be quality picks.

Here are a few of those traded picks:

From: Detroit Pistons
To: Toronto Raptors
Current projection: No. 32

Back in 2018, the Bulls gained the right to swap 2022 second-round picks with Detroit in a trade involving Jameer Nelson. Chicago eventually transferred that right to San Antonio as part of last summer’s DeMar DeRozan‘s sign-and-trade, and the Spurs transferred it to Toronto as part of the Thaddeus Young/Goran Dragic trade at this month’s deadline.

The Pistons are currently on track to finish the season with a bottom-three record, so the Raptors are a good bet to be picking the No. 31-33 range this June.

From: Houston Rockets
To: Indiana Pacers
Current projection: No. 33

The Cavaliers first acquired Houston’s 2022 second-round pick in a 2019 deadline deal involving Alec Burks and Iman Shumpert, then sent it to Indiana this month in the Caris LeVert trade.

Like the Pistons, the Rockets comfortably hold a bottom-three spot in the NBA right now, so the Pacers will likely have a top-three pick in the second round of the 2022 draft to aid their retooling efforts.

From: Indiana Pacers
To: Orlando Magic
Current projection: No. 35

Although the Pacers control Houston’s second-rounder, they won’t have a second pick near the top of the round, having traded away their own 2022 second-rounder to Milwaukee in their 2019 sign-and-trade deal for Malcolm Brogdon. The Bucks flipped that pick to Orlando during the 2020 draft in a package for the No. 45 pick in the ’20 draft, which they used to select Jordan Nwora.

The Magic’s own 2022 second-rounder currently projects to be the No. 31 pick, so Orlando could control two of the top five picks in the second round this year.

From: San Antonio Spurs
To: Cleveland Cavaliers
Current projection: No. 37

The Spurs traded their 2022 second-round selection to Utah all the way back in 2016 as part of a Boris Diaw salary dump. The Jazz controlled that pick up until December 2019, when they flipped it to Cleveland as part of their deal for Jordan Clarkson — the Cavaliers have held it since then.

The Cavs have traded away their own 2022 first-round pick (top-14 protected), so San Antonio’s second-rounder could end up being the best pick Cleveland owns in this year’s draft.

And-Ones: Mock Draft, King, Napier, Summer League

February 26th, 2022 at 11:58am CST by Dana Gauruder

Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren remains atop ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz’s latest mock draft, with Auburn’s Jabari Smith moving up one notch to No. 2. The G League Ignite’s Dyson Daniels has moved into the lottery while Milwaukee Panthers forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. has dropped from No. 15 to No. 25.

We have more from around the basketball world:

The G League’s Westchester Knicks are acquiring forward Louis King, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. King had been on a two-way contract with Sacramento but was waived by the Kings on February 17th. In 16 career games with Sacramento, including 10 this year, King averaged 5.6 PPG, 1.9 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 11.8 MPG.
Former NBA guard Shabazz Napier has left Russia and Zenit Saint Petersburg, according to EuroHoops.net. Napier, who has been sidelined most of the season with an ankle injury, was already preparing to return to the United States prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because he did not feel he was ready to play.
The NBA will hold its annual Summer League in Las Vegas on July 7-17, Shaw adds in another tweet.

And-Ones: Mock Draft, Ownership, Offseason Outlook, Upgrades

February 17th, 2022 at 10:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pistons could wind up with the No. 1 overall pick for the second straight year. In Chad Ford’s Mock Draft 2.0, they’ll take Auburn freshman forward Jabari Smith with the first pick. According to Ford’s sources, Detroit GM Troy Weaver would love to pair up Cade Cunningham with Smith. Ford throws a curveball with the second pick, with the Magic selecting Purdue wing Jaden Ivey. That leaves Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren for the taking at No. 3, where the Rockets snap him up.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Private equity firms have increasingly become a force in NBA ownership, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic notes. Private equity firms have purchased stakes in five teams, and their influence will continue to increase as the value of franchises continues to climb.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks not only takes a look at potential buyout candidates this month, he also turns his attention to the offseason, breaking down the free agent class, teams with significant cap space and significant players eligible for extensions. Regarding cap space, he notes that the Pacers and Trail Blazers have moved onto the list due to their trades. The Pistons, Magic and Spurs were already projected to have cap space.
The Nets, Sixers and Celtics did the most to upgrade their 2021/22 rosters before the trade deadline, according to The Athletic’s Seth Partnow. The Bucks, Jazz and Suns made slight alterations that could help them in the postseason, in Partnow’s evaluation.

And-Ones: MVP Race, I. Thomas, Draft, I. Clark

February 17th, 2022 at 9:46am CST by Luke Adams

The top two finishers in last season’s MVP voting appear to be the top two candidates for this year’s award too, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Bontemps recently conducted a straw poll of 100 media members and found that Sixers center Joel Embiid narrowly – and unofficially – leads Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic in the MVP race.

As Bontemps details, Embiid received 45 first-place votes from the poll respondents, while Jokic got 43. Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (nine), Suns guard Chris Paul (two), and Warriors guard Stephen Curry (one) were the other players who got first-place votes. Interestingly, Embiid was the only player to show up on all 100 five-player ballots, while Jokic was left off five.

Curry received 94 first-place votes when Bontemps conducted a similar straw poll in December, but the veteran sharpshooter has slowed down since his hot start, while players like Embiid, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo have made stronger MVP pushes.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Free agent guard Isaiah Thomas is expected to rejoin the Grand Rapids Gold – the Nuggets‘ G League affiliate – after the All-Star break, league sources tell Marc Stein (Twitter link). Thomas had a very brief stint in Grand Rapids in December, scoring 42 points in his only NBAGL game before getting called up to the NBA. Thomas signed 10-day contracts with the Lakers and Mavericks before returning to the open market.
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has published a new 2022 mock draft, while Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has updated his top-50 big board. Both draft experts currently have Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren at No. 1 and Jabari Smith of Auburn at No. 2, with Purdue’s Jaden Ivey moving up to No. 3 ahead of Duke’s Paolo Banchero.
Veteran guard Ian Clark, who has 330 regular season appearances on his NBA résumé and won a title with Golden State in 2017, has signed with the Sydney Kings, the Australian team recently announced in a press release. Clark played in 60 games for New Orleans in 2018/19, but has been out of the NBA since then.