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Thanasis Antetokounmpo Draws Team USA’s Ire

September 7th, 2019 at 3:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The FIBA World Cup was bound to create some awkward moments among NBA players. One of those occurred at the end of Team USA’s 69-53 victory over Greece on Saturday, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst details.

Bucks forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo, the older brother of reigning Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, drew Team USA’s ire when he fouled Harrison Barnes from behind late in the game as Barnes went up for a dunk. Celtics forward Jaylen Brown and Giannis had to be separated afterward after exchanging words as Brown pointed toward Thanasis, according to Windhorst.

Bucks teammates Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez are on Team USA’s roster.

The teams didn’t hold a postgame handshake in order to avoid another confrontation. Team USA was upset that Thanasis, who signed a two-year contract with Milwaukee in July, didn’t immediately apologize to Barnes, who was uninjured.

“The [lack of apology] escalated it,” Marcus Smart said to Windhorst and other media members. “At that moment, you’ve got to take it for what it is. Regardless of whether you feel like it was wrong or right, it was wrong.”

Giannis scored 15 points but sat out the fourth quarter. Greek officials said he was rested as the team tries to qualify for the quarterfinals on Monday. He was too upset to talk to the media afterward, according to an Associated Press report.

Team USA advanced to the quarterfinals with the victory.

Celtics To Sign Kaiser Gates To Camp Deal

September 5th, 2019 at 1:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics have reached an agreement to sign former Xavier forward Kaiser Gates to a training camp contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

According to Charania, Gates will get the opportunity to compete with Tacko Fall and Javonte Green for the 15th spot on Boston’s regular season roster. The Celtics will still have one more opening on their 20-man offseason after signing Gates, so another camp invitee could become involved in that competition too.

Gates, who will turn 23 in November, joined the Bulls for training camp last fall after going undrafted. He was waived by Chicago before the season began and reported to the team’s G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls. In 50 NBAGL games, he recorded 12.7 PPG and 6.4 RPG with a .408/.375/.786 shooting line.

If Gates doesn’t make the Celtics’ regular season roster and instead heads back to the G League, the Bulls would still hold his NBAGL rights. The Celtics’ affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, would have to trade for those rights if they want to get him on their roster for 2019/20.

World Cup Notes: Round Two, Smart, Canada, Australia

September 5th, 2019 at 11:16am CST by Luke Adams

The second round is set in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, as Greece and the Czech Republic advanced to the round of 16 today, eliminating New Zealand and Turkey, respectively.

Eight teams remain undefeated after three games: Argentina and Poland (Group I), Serbia and Spain (Group J), USA and Brazil (Group K), and France and Australia (Group H).

Team USA’s second-round schedule is now set too, as Gregg Popovich‘s group will face Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Greeks on Saturday morning. Monday will bring a matchup against Brazil, whose roster features current NBA players like Cristiano Felicio and Bruno Caboclo along with familiar faces such as Leandro Barbosa and Anderson Varejao.

Here’s more on the World Cup:

A second Celtics player is dealing with a minor injury, as Marcus Smart missed Thursday’s game against Japan due to a left quad strain, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. USA Basketball had already secured its spot in the second round and Smart is listed as day-to-day, so it sounds like the club was probably just playing it safe with the veteran guard. Smart’s teammate Jayson Tatum is currently dealing with a sprained ankle.
Although Team Canada picked up a win today over Senegal, the program had a disappointing run in the World Cup after expectations had grown, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. As Lori Ewing of The Canadian Press writes, head coach Nick Nurse thought more Canadian NBA players would be on the World Cup roster, and intends to play a bigger recruiting role going forward.
As a result of being the last team from the Oceania region still standing in the World Cup, Australia has clinched its spot in the 2020 Olympics, as Sportando observes (via Twitter). The Boomers become the second country to claim a spot in the 12-team Olympic field, joining host nation Japan. Six more programs will secure Olympic berths in the World Cup.

Isaiah Taylor Worked Out For Celtics

September 4th, 2019 at 3:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Free agent point guard Isaiah Taylor is working out for the Nuggets in Denver this week, league sources tell Harrison Wind of BSN Denver (Twitter link). After spending the 2017/18 season with Atlanta, Taylor was pushing for a spot on Cleveland’s roster last fall when he suffered a stress fracture in his leg and was subsequently waived. Now healthy, Taylor has also worked out for the Suns and Celtics, according to Wind.

Jayson Tatum To Be Re-Evaluated On September 9

September 4th, 2019 at 8:02am CST by Luke Adams

Team USA officially issued an update on injured Celtics forward Jayson Tatum this morning, confirming in a press release that Tatum suffered a left ankle sprain during the club’s tense win over Turkey on Tuesday, as Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press tweets.

Tatum has been ruled out for Team USA’s next two games. He’ll miss Thursday’s matchup against Japan and Saturday’s contest against a to-be-determined opponent before being re-evaluated on Monday. If the 21-year-old is deemed ready to return at that point, he could play in Monday’s game, but it’s possible he’ll be sidelined a little longer.

Tatum’s injury occurred when he rolled his left ankle during the final seconds of overtime in USA’s 93-92 victory on Tuesday, but it looked worse than it was — after the game, he was walking under his own power and telling reporters that he already felt better, which is good news for the Celtics.

Team USA’s game against Japan on Thursday will have no impact on their standing in the tournament, since the squad has already qualified for second-round play. However, the club would certainly like to have Tatum back in its lineup for the last two games in the round-of-16, if possible.

USA will be part of a second-round group that also includes Brazil. The winners of tomorrow’s Czech Republic/Turkey and Greece/New Zealand showdowns will fill out the group. The game that Tatum misses on Saturday will be against one of those five teams.

Tatum's Ankle Injury Not Considered Serious

September 3rd, 2019 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

Jayson Tatum rolled his left ankle in the final seconds of Team USA’s nail-biter of a win over Turkey today, but the injury – diagnosed as an ankle sprain – doesn’t appear to be serious. The Celtics forward texted head coach Brad Stevens and told him as much about 20 minutes after suffering the injury, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.

Tatum later addressed reporters in China, including Joe Vardon of The Athletic and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (Twitter links), and said he was already feeling better. The 21-year-old was walking under his own power and didn’t have much of a limp, according to reports, which is great news for the Celtics.

It remains to be seen whether Tatum’s World Cup run is over. We should know more by Wednesday, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if USA Basketball plays it safe with the young forward, sending him back stateside to focus on getting healthy for his upcoming season with the Celtics.

Team USA Advances In World Cup; Tatum Sprains Ankle

September 3rd, 2019 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

Team USA survived a scare on Tuesday in Shanghai, narrowly pulling out a 93-92 win vs. Turkey in overtime and securing a spot in the second round of the 2019 World Cup. The Turkish team missed four free throws in the final minute of the game, opening the door for the USA Basketball squad to seal the victory.

Having defeated the Czech Republic and Turkey, Team USA will take a 2-0 record into its final first-round matchup against 0-2 Japan. The top two teams in each group move on to the round of 16, so even if Japan pulls off an extremely unlikely upset in Thursday’s game, Team USA would advance. The winner of Thursday’s Czech Republic/Turkey contest will also secure a spot in the second round.

Although they held off a strong push from Turkey, it wasn’t all good news for Team USA today. Jayson Tatum was forced out of action in the game’s final minute after rolling his left ankle, as a video from Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston shows.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst tweets that the official word on Tatum is a left ankle sprain. The Celtics forward will be re-evaluated on Wednesday, at which point we should have a better idea of whether or not we’ll see him suit up again in China.

Meanwhile, Team Canada was eliminated from medal contention on Tuesday after falling to Lithuania by a 92-69 margin. Canada, which lost to Australia on Sunday, is one of the only countries that theoretically features enough NBA players to fill out an entire 12-man squad. However, only two NBA players – Cory Joseph and Khem Birch – participated in the World Cup and Nick Nurse‘s squad couldn’t keep up with Australia and Lithuania in Group H.

Canada will enter the classification round along with the other 15 teams eliminated from the World Cup in round one. Those games will still be important, since Canada will have to finish between 17th and 23rd to clinch a spot in next summer’s Olympics qualifying tournament. A finish below 23rd would ensure the program doesn’t participate in the 2020 Olympics.

Gordon Hayward Feels Andrew Luck's Pain

August 30th, 2019 at 6:31pm CST by Austin Kent

Although he’s a member of the Celtics now, forward Gordon Hayward is a product of Indiana and is on the short list of humans most capable of understanding the thought process behind Andrew Luck’s decision to retire from the NFL. “It sucks; you feel isolated,” Hayward, no stranger to extensive rehabilitation, told A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports. “It feels like a job because you’re not getting to do the fun parts of it. And you always have those [thoughts], ‘What if I’m not the same player?’ You have to bottle that and just focus on the present … I understand exactly where [Luck is] coming from.“

Germany, Italy, Others Finalize World Cup Rosters

August 29th, 2019 at 4:59pm CST by Luke Adams

We’re just two days away from FIBA’s 2019 World Cup officially tipping off, and more national teams have officially set their 12-man rosters for the event, including a pair of countries whose squads will feature multiple NBA players.

Team Germany made its final cut this week, dropping Wizards youngster Isaac Bonga from its roster. Even without Bonga on the team, there are plenty of familiar faces for NBA fans — Dennis Schroder (Thunder), Daniel Theis (Celtics), and Maxi Kleber (Mavericks) will represent Germany in this year’s tournament.

The Italian national team, meanwhile, will be led by Thunder forward Danilo Gallinari and Spurs sharpshooter Marco Belinelli. Former NBA forward Gigi Datome and 2014 second-round pick Alessandro Gentile are also part of Italy’s squad.

Here are more details on teams that have established their 12-man World Cup rosters:

Former Knicks and Nuggets forward Renaldo Balkman, ex-Mavericks shooting guard Gian Clavell, and current Kings camp invitee Isaiah Pineiro are among the players on Puerto Rico’s team for the World Cup, per FIBA.
No current NBA players are on the Chinese or Russian World Cup rosters, but Yi Jianlian and Zhou Qi are among the former NBAers representing China, while former Cavaliers and Nets wing Sergey Karasev is leading Russia’s squad.
Cote d’Ivoire also announced its 2019 World Cup roster, as FIBA relays. It doesn’t feature any NBA players.

Atlantic Notes: Burke, Kanter, Carmelo, M. Richardson

August 29th, 2019 at 1:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

Trey Burke may have just a partially guaranteed training camp contract with the Sixers, but he’s overflowing with confidence that he can win a roster spot, relays Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The 26-year-old guard is expected to battle fellow free agent addition Raul Neto for playing time behind Ben Simmons and possibly a place on the team. However, Burke envisions a much larger role for himself.

“I think throughout stretches of the game we (Burke and Simmons) can play together and I can be out there with the starting lineup at times,” he told reporters. “That is the competitor in Trey Burke. That is who I am and what I bring to Philadelphia.”

Burke – whose minimum-salary contract reportedly has a $405K partial guarantee – hasn’t enjoyed a consistent role like that since his second season in the league. He was been with four teams in the past four years, splitting last season between the Knicks and Mavericks.

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The Celtics signed Enes Kanter with the expectation that he will shoot more from the perimeter, writes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Kanter’s first step was to get together with Gordon Hayward, whom he played with in Utah, and a few more of his new teammates. “When I was in Boston, I played with (Hayward) in two-on-two action and I feel like he’s gained more confidence,” Kanter said. “When he played, he wasn’t scared of anything. It was me, Gordon, Jaylen Brown and Tacko (Fall). I was guarding Tacko. He’s good, man, and I love him. His personality is amazing, real good character. He’s a hard worker. I’m definitely really excited to play with him.”
Kanter made an appeal for someone to sign Carmelo Anthony during an appearance Wednesday morning on FOX Sports 1’s “First Things First” (Twitter link). “So you’re telling me a guy like ‘Melo can’t make a 15-man roster on 30 teams? It’s definitely crazy,” Kanter said. “Melo belongs in the NBA and he can still get 15-20 points.”
Malachi Richardson will play in Israel this season, but he tells Ben Stinar of Amico Hoops that he hasn’t given up on his NBA dream. “I think I just have to show teams who I am,” he said. “Just being able to go and play and just showing, ‘OK, this is why he was a first-round pick.’” Richardson played 22 games for the Raptors last season before being traded at the deadline to the Sixers, who waived him the next day.