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NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 10/31/18

October 31st, 2018 at 9:41pm CST by Arthur Hill

Here are Tuesday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Wizards have assigned Chasson Randle to their Capital City affiliate, the team announced on Twitter. Washington waived Randle in training camp, but he signed with the team yesterday because the 14th roster spot needed to be filled.
The Hawks assigned swingman Daniel Hamilton to their affiliate in Erie, according to the team’s website. He returned to practice last week after recovering from a tear in his right rotator cuff and has yet to play this season.
The Sixers announced that Jonah Bolden has been sent to their Delaware affiliate. A draft-and-stash player who played in Israel last season, Bolden has appeared in four games for Philadelphia.

Ressler Cites 'Dysfunction' In Past Management Team

October 27th, 2018 at 5:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Hawks owner Tony Ressler tells Jeff Schultz of The Athletic that he takes the blame for the team’s recent collapse and describes his former management team of Mike Budenholzer and Wes Wilcox as “total dysfunction.” They frequently disagreed on personnel moves, with Budenholzer, who also served as coach, being focused on a win-now approach. “Bud was not the right coach for us,” Ressler said. “He was desperate to coach a superstar. I don’t know where Bud’s head was; you’ll have to ask him. But I do think when some people have a very short life as the decision-maker, and they no longer have it, sometimes they miss it.”

Poythress Sidelined At Least Three Games

October 26th, 2018 at 9:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Hawks forward Alex Poythress will miss at least three games due to a left knee injury, according to a team press release. He was diagnosed with a capsular sprain and bone bruise and will miss the team’s upcoming road trip. Poythress averaged 5.3 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 18.0 MPG in his first four appearances with Atlanta. Poythress is one of the team’s two-way players after seeing action in 25 games with the Pacers last season.

Deveney: Dedmon A Potential Trade Candidate

October 26th, 2018 at 11:34am CST by Luke Adams

Robin Lopez (Bulls) and Dewayne Dedmon (Hawks) are unlikely to net first-round picks on the trade market, but they could be decent rental options for teams seeking depth up front, Deveney writes.

[SOURCE LINK]

Trae Young Starts Season On Red-Hot Note

October 25th, 2018 at 10:57pm CST by JD Shaw

Despite being heavily criticized for trading the rights to Luka Doncic for Trae Young on draft night, the Hawks may have secured a long-term building block in Young, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor writes. Young is making a good early impression, averaging 21.5 points and 7.5 assists through four games.

Injury Updates

October 24th, 2018 at 7:34pm CST by clarkcrum

The Hawks have provided some detail regarding some of the injuries that have been plaguing their roster to begin the 2018/19 season.

Swingman Justin Anderson, who was traded to the Hawks from the Sixers back in July, is still rehabilitating from a pre-trade surgery to address recurring tibial stress syndrome in his left leg. There is still no timetable for his return.

Big man John Collins, who may expect to have a breakout sophomore campaign in 2018/19, is also still rehabilitating from mild inflammation and soreness in his left ankle. He is still out, but his return is clearer. His rehab will be reviewed in eleven days with an update from the Hawks to follow.

Fellow big man Dewayne Dedmon is returning after participating in his first full live practice with the team yesterday. He was re-assessed today and is playing for the Hawks in their game against Dallas this evening.

Finally, Hawks swingman Daniel Hamilton has returned to modified practice following rehab for a tear in his right rotator cuff. There is no timetable for his return to game action.

Pelicans To Get G League Affiliate For 2019/20

October 24th, 2018 at 1:25pm CST by Luke Adams

OCTOBER 24: In their press release officially announcing their new G League affiliate, the Pelicans indicate that the club isn’t expected to begin play in Birmingham until 2022/23, meaning it will spend three seasons in Erie.

OCTOBER 23: The Pelicans will launch a G League affiliate that will begin play in the 2019/20 season, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, the new G League franchise will eventually play in Birmingham, Alabama, but will start in Erie, Pennsylvania, while arena renovations are completed in Birmingham.

Rumors of a potential G League affiliate for the Pelicans have persisted for multiple years now. Back in March 2017, we heard that New Orleans was expected to have an NBAGL team of its own in place for the 2018/19 season, but the club took longer than anticipated to finalize the location and the details.

Later in 2017, the Pelicans were said to be leaning toward Shreveport, Louisiana or Pensacola, Florida as the eventual home of their G League team, having apparently ruled out various cities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. However, Alabama will be the home of the new franchise after all, once Birmingham’s arena is ready to go.

Currently, Erie is home to the BayHawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate. The Hawks, who took over the Erie squad in 2017/18, are spending one more year in Pennsylvania while work on their new G League arena in College Park, Georgia is completed. When the Hawks’ affiliate moves out of Erie at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, the Pelicans’ new expansion affiliate will be ready to move in.

The Pelicans will become the 28th of 30 NBA teams with their own NBAGL affiliate. The Nuggets and Trail Blazers are the only other NBA clubs without G League teams of their own, though ESPN’s Jonathan Givony suggests (via Twitter) that the Nuggets may also look to have an affiliate in place for the 2019/20 season, perhaps in the northwest suburbs of Denver. If that happens, Portland would be the lone holdout.

John Collins Still Weeks Away From Returning

October 23rd, 2018 at 10:02am CST by Luke Adams

Hawks big man John Collins, who has yet to make his 2018/19 debut, is still weeks away from returning to action, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Collins, currently recovering from a non-surgical procedure on his ankle, was initially ruled out for the start of the season and was scheduled for a re-evaluation this week. Now, according to Vivlamore, who cites a person familiar with the situation, the Hawks aren’t expecting to get Collins back in their lineup until sometime in the first half of November.

Vivlamore, noting that Collins has yet to resume on-court activity and will need to work his way into playing shape, estimates that the second-year power forward will miss another nine games. That would put him on track to return on Sunday, November 11 in Los Angeles against the Lakers, though that date is hardly set in stone.

With Collins unavailable to start the season, the Hawks have leaned on smaller lineups, with Taurean Prince, DeAndre’ Bembry, and Vince Carter seeing time at the four. Two-way player Alex Poythress has also averaged 22.0 minutes per game in the early going, and may see his role cut back substantially when Collins is healthy.

Southeast Notes: Lin, Young, Gordon, T. Brown

October 17th, 2018 at 8:23pm CST by Arthur Hill

While opening night is thrilling for everyone, that’s especially true for new Hawks guard Jeremy Lin, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Lin is coming off two frustrating years in Brooklyn, where injuries limited to a total of 37 games. He suffered a torn right patellar tendon in the first game of last season and hasn’t played since.

“I think I’m just going to be really excited, really grateful,” Lin said before tonight’s game. “I’m going to be like, ‘Dang, in a lot of ways I made it. I made it back.’ The rehab process — not just the knee, the hamstring and all the other stuff — those were tough, to watch all those games. For me, to just get back on the court, I’m going to be super happy.”

Lin remains disappointed that he couldn’t contribute more to the Nets after signing a three-year, $36MM contract in 2016. His focus now is on putting together a healthy season in Atlanta and rebuilding his value for another shot at free agency next summer.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Hawks‘ decision to trade down and draft Trae Young was the result of a compromise between the team’s ownership group and the front office, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN. The owners wanted to keep the No. 3 pick and take Luka Doncic, while the front office preferred Jaren Jackson Jr., who wound up in Memphis with the fourth selection. The parties elected to swap picks with Dallas and take Young, whom everyone in the organization agreed on.
The Magic showed their faith in Aaron Gordon with a new four-year, $76MM contract this summer, and president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic that Gordon’s intangibles factored into the decision. Gordon is coming off a breakthrough season in which he raised his stats to 17.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. “Organizationally, we wouldn’t have done what we did if we didn’t have the utmost confidence that he’s going to be able to not just become a good player in his own right, but a player that lifts others,” Weltman said.
Wizards rookie Troy Brown can expect to spend at least part of the season in the G League, tweets Doug McKinney of NBC Sports. The additions of Jeff Green and Austin Rivers over the summer will limit Brown’s opportunities for playing time at the NBA level.

NBA Teams With Most, Least Roster Continuity

October 16th, 2018 at 8:51am CST by Luke Adams

As usual, the 2018 NBA offseason featured plenty of player movement, with new rookies entering the league, free agents changing teams, and a total of 31 trades being completed between the end of the 2017/18 season and 2018/19’s opening night.

Some teams were more involved in that summer carousel than others. The Hawks, for instance, will enter the season carrying only seven players who finished last season with the team. The Suns will also bring back just seven players from last year’s squad, and that number figures to drop to six once the team completes its reported signing of Jamal Crawford, assuming Davon Reed is the odd man out.

Because teams are permitted to carry 15 players on standard contracts and two more on two-way deals, the maximum number of players a club could have brought back was 17. No team got that high, but the Heat and Jazz are each bringing back 14 players from last year’s rosters. Impressively, all 14 players on Miami’s standard roster are returning players — only the club’s two-way players are new.

[RELATED: 2018/19 NBA Roster Counts]

While many teams turned over their two-way contract slots entirely, several clubs are bringing back those players, either keeping them on two-way deals or promoting them to their active rosters. The Nuggets, Bulls, Pacers, and Lakers are among the teams who retained both of their two-way players from last season.

Listed below are the number of returning players for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, from most to fewest. Bringing back a significant number of players doesn’t necessarily lead to regular season success, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a few of the teams near the top of this list enjoy fast starts due to their players’ familiarity with each other, while teams near the bottom of the list may take some time to get used to their changes.

Here’s the returning-player count for each team:

Miami Heat: 14
Utah Jazz: 14
Boston Celtics: 13
Chicago Bulls: 12
Denver Nuggets: 12
New York Knicks: 12
Cleveland Cavaliers: 11
Indiana Pacers: 11
Philadelphia 76ers: 11
Portland Trail Blazers: 11
Sacramento Kings: 11
Toronto Raptors: 11
Charlotte Hornets: 10
Detroit Pistons: 10
Golden State Warriors: 10
- Note: Patrick McCaw remains a restricted free agent. The Warriors’ returning player count could increase to 11 if he re-signs.
Los Angeles Clippers: 10
Milwaukee Bucks: 10
Dallas Mavericks: 9
Memphis Grizzlies: 9
Minnesota Timberwolves: 9
New Orleans Pelicans: 9
Oklahoma City Thunder: 9
Orlando Magic: 9
Washington Wizards: 9
Brooklyn Nets: 8
Houston Rockets: 8
Los Angeles Lakers: 8
San Antonio Spurs: 8
Atlanta Hawks: 7
Phoenix Suns: 7
- Note: The Suns’ returning player count will drop to 6 if Jamal Crawford replaces Davon Reed on the roster, as is expected.