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Prospect Profile: Kris Dunn (Part One)

March 28th, 2016 at 7:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Geoff Burke / USA Today Sports Images

OVERVIEW: Kris Dunn put Providence back on the national map over the past two seasons by emerging as one of the nation’s top point guards. His college career got off to a slow start, as he endured two shoulder surgeries in a span of 18 months. Once he was finally healthy during his redshirt sophomore season, he quickly established himself as a premier floor leader. He averaged 15.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and a 7.5 assists in his breakout year and followed that up with a 16.4/5.3/6.2 slash line in his junior year. The 6’4” Dunn finished his college career with a 29-point outburst against North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

STRENGTHS: In a league that increasingly values quickness and ability to get to the rim, Dunn seems like a prototypical point guard. He should be an outstanding pick-and-roll initiator with his ability to blow past defenders as well as hit outside shots and create opportunities for himself and others. He should have a size and strength advantage over many of his peers that will make him difficult to guard in one-on-one matchups. As Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress points out, he has the ability to operate at different speeds, making him dangerous in half-court sets as well as in transition. He doesn’t shoot a lot of 3-pointers, but he makes an acceptable percentage, hitting at a 37.2% clip. Dunn can also be a major factor defensively. He has excellent length with a 6’8” wingspan and uses it to his advantage. The two-time Big East Player of the Year led the conference in steals each of the past two seasons. His quickness allows him to stay in front of his man, while his size gives him the ability to seamlessly switch defensive assignments between point and shooting guards.

WEAKNESSES: The two biggest knocks on Dunn, according to ESPN Insider Chad Ford, are his tendency to take questionable shots and his turnover rate. Dunn’s field-goal percentage fell from 47.4% as a sophomore to 44.8% this season, despite his improvement from long range. Givony notes that Dunn shows average touch around the rim when forced to finish over length and tends to avoid contact at all costs, perhaps because of his prior shoulder problems. That could become an even bigger issue at the NBA level, where he’ll encounter better closeouts and shot blockers. Dunn can also get careless with the ball. He improved somewhat over the past year, bringing his turnovers down from a whopping 4.2 per game to 3.5. That’s still a high number, as only three NBA point guards are currently averaging more than 3.5 per game and that same trio — Rajon Rondo, John Wall and Russell Westbrook — are also the only players averaging double-digit assists. As Givony describes it, Dunn can make some eye-catching moves with the ball, but he can also get very sloppy with his handle.

(For Part Two of Kris Dunn’s prospect profile, click here.)

Timeline: Injuries Force Grizzlies Roster Turmoil

March 28th, 2016 at 12:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

March Madness usually applies to college basketball, but it’s also fitting for the Grizzlies this year. Injuries have prompted a whirlwind of changes, and the number of players on the team has fluctuated from 14 to a whopping 18, three above the normal regular season limit. Perhaps most eye-catching among the team’s many moves was the March 10th decision to cut ties with Mario Chalmers, who had torn his Achilles tendon the night before. Chalmers was on an expiring contract and obviously isn’t going to play again this season, so the only net effect is that Memphis forfeited its Bird rights with the point guard. Still, the Chalmers release speaks to the depth of the problems the Grizzlies have faced as they’ve scrambled to tread water without Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and many others.

The Grizzlies are still strong bets for the playoffs because of the work they did before the injuries hit. Memphis has a six-game lead for a playoff spot with nine games to play, and the team is up four games in the loss column on the Trail Blazers for fifth place in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies have seen 27 different players appear in a game for them this season, tying the record set by the 1996/97 Mavericks, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com points out (Twitter links). Memphis is also poised to become the first playoff team in the history of NBA to have fielded more than two dozen players.

Gasol, Conley, Matt Barnes, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen, Vince Carter, Lance Stephenson, P.J. Hairston, Brandan Wright, Chris Andersen and Jordan Adams have all missed games for the Grizzlies in March, forcing GM Chris Wallace and Dave Joerger to work overtime. Here’s a timeline of the team’s roster moves:

March 2nd — Waived James Ennis. Signed Ryan Hollins to a minimum-salary contract for the rest of the season. Roster at 15.
March 10th — Waived Mario Chalmers. Roster at 14.
March 11th — Signed Briante Weber to a 10-day contract. Roster at 15. (Conflicting information raised debate about whether the team signed Weber on March 9th or March 11th, but he played in the team’s game on March 19th, which would have been impossible if he had signed March 9th, since he didn’t sign a second 10-day contract. RealGM, which initially showed the transaction happening on March 9th, now shows it as having taken place on March 11th.
March 12th — Signed Ray McCallum to a 10-day contract. Signed Alex Stepheson to a 10-day contract. Both moves came via the hardship provision, which allows the team to exceed the 15-man roster limit. Roster at 17.
March 16th — Signed Xavier Munford to a 10-day contract via hardship. Roster at 18.
March 20th — Last day for Weber’s 10-day contract. Roster at 17 at day’s end.
March 21st — Signed Jordan Farmar to a 10-day contract via hardship. Last day on the 10-day contracts for McCallum and Stepheson. Roster at 16 at day’s end.
March 22nd — Signed McCallum to a second 10-day contract via hardship. Roster at 17.
March 25th — Last day for Munford’s 10-day contract. Roster at 16 at day’s end.
March 27th — Signed Munford to a second 10-day contract via hardship. Roster at 17.

Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 3/27/16

March 27th, 2016 at 9:18pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Chicago entered the season with hopes of challenging LeBron James and Cleveland for the Eastern Conference crown. How did it go for the Bulls? Injuries derailed any hope of an NBA Finals appearance and just making the playoffs seems unlikely after three straight losses, all against teams with losing records. At 36-36, the Bulls sit two games behind the Pistons and Pacers for one of the last two playoff spots in the conference. If Chicago misses the playoffs for the first time since the 2007/08 campaign, the roster could see a serious overhaul this summer.

Joakim Noah may have played his last game in a Bulls uniform, as he will be a free agent come July. Pau Gasol will likely opt out of his deal and become a free agent as well. Taj Gibson was the subject of trade rumors leading up to the trade deadline, so he is no lock to remain in town, and if the front office doesn’t believe Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler can find the ideal on-court chemistry, it may be time to look at trade options for Rose while the point guard still has one year remaining on his deal.

The Bulls have talent, and they own all of their future first-rounders in addition to a top-10 protected 2016 first-rounder from Sacramento. This team could easily retool and get itself back into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. How should the team go about improving? That’s tonight’s shootaround topic: What moves should the Bulls make this summer? We’re asking you to sit in GM Gar Forman‘s chair and make the tough calls. Take to the comments section to share your thoughts and opinions on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say!

Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 3/26/16

March 26th, 2016 at 11:00pm CST by ChrisCrouse

With tonight’s 80-68 win over Oregon, Oklahoma will advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2002. Buddy Hield had another excellent game, knocking down eight of 13 shots from behind the arc on his way to 37 points. Hield is one of the best shooters in the nation, making nearly 46% of his 3-pointers this season. NBA teams are taking more shots from behind the arc than ever before and the shooting guard seems to have the skill set to play immediately in the league.

Chad Ford of ESPN.com has Hield ranked as the eighth-best prospect, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranks Hield ninth-best. Both of these projections came before tonight’s game and the shooting guard may see his stock rise if he continues to dominate on the way to a National Title.

So that leads us to tonight’s topic: How far up the draft board can Hield climb with a sensational performance in the Final Four? With the league’s emphasis on the 3-ball, should the team that wins the lottery take Hield with the No. 1 pick?

Let us know which lottery team should consider taking Hield and if you don’t believe he’s worthy of that No. 1 spot, where does he rank for you? Take to the comments section to share your thoughts and opinions on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say.

2015/16 Salary Cap Update: Phoenix Suns

March 26th, 2016 at 5:12pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 is set at $70MM, which is good for an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. With the February 18th cutoff date for trades and the de facto deadline of March 1st for buyouts now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of updating the salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Phoenix Suns, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $70,546,241*
Remaining Cap Room= –$546,241
Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $14,193,759

*Note: This figure includes the $777,778 due Michael Beasley, who was waived via the stretch provision. It also includes the $3,440,000 due Kris Humphries, the $2,000,000 owed DeJuan Blair, the $372,820 due Cory Jefferson, and the $228,663 owed Bryce Cotton, all of whom were waived by the team.

Cap Exceptions Available:

Room= $1,539,424
Trade Exception= $578,651 (Markieff Morris. Expires February 18th, 2017)

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000

Note: Despite the trade deadline having passed, the NBA season technically doesn’t end until June 30th. Teams are able to again make trades upon the completion of the regular season or when/if they are eliminated from the playoffs, whichever comes later. So these cash limits still apply.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Hoops Rumors Originals 3/20/16-3/26/16

March 26th, 2016 at 1:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Here’s a look back at the original analysis generated by the Hoops Rumors staff this past week…

We updated our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings.
Chuck Myron examined the likelihood of each player in the Western Conference who has a player option for 2016/17 opting out.
As part of our Top Bloggers series, Chuck spoke with Jake Pavorsky, the managing editor of SB Nation’s Liberty Ballers.
If you missed the week’s live chat, you can view the transcript here.
Zach Links highlighted some of the better basketball blogs around in his weekly installment of Hoops Links.
I ran down the updated 2015/16 salary cap numbers for the Pelicans, Knicks, Thunder and Magic.
If you missed any of our daily reader-driven discussions, be sure to check out the Community Shootaround archives.
Here’s how you can follow Hoops Rumors on social media and RSS feeds.
You can keep track of where your favorite team stands in relation to the 2016 NBA draft lottery with our reverse standings tracker.
We reviewed our commenting policy. Play nice everyone.
Here’s how you can follow specific players on Hoops Rumors.

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Hoops Rumors Originals

2015/16 Salary Cap Update: Philadelphia 76ers

March 26th, 2016 at 10:19am CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 is set at $70MM, which is good for an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. With the February 18th cutoff date for trades and the de facto deadline of March 1st for buyouts now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of updating the salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Philadelphia 76ers, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $63,214,237*
Remaining Cap Room= $6,785,763
Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $21,197,863

*Note: This figure includes the $12,000,000 due JaVale McGee, the $10,105,855 owed to Gerald Wallace, the $2,836,768 due Furkan Aldemir, the $750,000 owed to Pierre Jackson, the $200,000 due Scottie Wilbekin, the $845,059 owed to JaKarr Sampson, the $6,178 in salary paid to Jordan McRae, the $222,392 due Christian Wood, the $183,883 owed to Phil Pressey, the $2,179,353 due Tony Wroten, the $6,178 paid to Jordan Railey and finally, the $3,089 paid to J.P. Tokoto, all of whom were waived by the team.

Cap Exceptions Available:

Room= $1,539,424

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $2,400,000

Note: Despite the trade deadline having passed, the NBA season technically doesn’t end until June 30th. Teams are able to again make trades upon the completion of the regular season or when/if they are eliminated from the playoffs, whichever comes later. So these cash limits still apply.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Top Bloggers: Jake Pavorsky On The Sixers

March 25th, 2016 at 11:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Anyone can have a blog about an NBA team, but some set themselves apart from the rest with the dedication and valuable insight they bring to their craft. We’ll be sharing some knowledge from these dialed-in writers on Hoops Rumors with a feature called Top Bloggers. As with The Beat, our ongoing series of interviews with NBA beat writers, it’s part of an effort to bring Hoops Rumors readers ever closer to the pulse of the teams they follow. Last time, we spoke about the Warriors with Nate Parham, who is the managing editor of SB Nation’s Golden State of Mind. Click here to see the entire Top Bloggers series.

Next up is Jake Pavorsky, the managing editor of SB Nation’s Liberty Ballers, a Sixers blog. You can follow Jake on Twitter at @JakePavorsky. Click here to check out his stories.

Hoops Rumors: I see that Liberty Ballers is planning a lottery watch party. That sounds like a fun idea that speaks to the unusual position the Sixers have put themselves in. What’s it like writing about a team that’s so much about the future and so little about the present?

Jake Pavorsky: It can be as weird and challenging as it is entertaining. Obviously, the current results don’t really matter at all, so it allows us to have a little more fun with our content then we usually would if the team was good. You can’t be serious all the time about a team that might win two games in a month. The Sixers’ terribleness also allows us to shift some of our focus on the draft and draft prospects, and people have responded well to that type of content because the team’s future is riding on some of these yet-to-be-drafted guys. With all that said, it would be nice for the team to actually be good or show improvement so we don’t have to take just about every game with a grain of salt.

Hoops Rumors: Jerry Colangelo seems to have made only a few tweaks so far. Are you surprised by this? What do you think the moves, or lack there of, say about Colangelo’s vision for the team?

Jake Pavorsky: I think Colangelo’s vision was always going to be shaped in the summer leading up to next season. He’s not going to handle another season of mindless losing, and Philadelphia has the cap space and other assets to swing some deals via free agency or trade. I don’t really have an idea for what Colangelo wants this roster to look like next year, but my hope is that he signs some quality veteran role players that can help in the short term while focusing on building the core of the team around their draft picks. The last thing I want to see from the Sixers is throwing max contract money to guys like DeMar DeRozan or Harrison Barnes.

Hoops Rumors: The Sixers could have as many as four first-round picks from this year’s draft plus Dario Saric and Joel Embiid take the floor for the first time next season. How pivotal do you think the next 12 months are for this rebuilding effort?

Jake Pavorsky: I think these next 12 months really determine whether or not these three years of misery were really worth it. Joel Embiid is the one guy who I think can really turn things around for the team, because the superstar talent is absolutely there. I know that’s hard to say that about a guy who hasn’t played in two years, but people outside of Philadelphia are going to be stunned at how good he is if he ever gets on the floor (which I think he will in October). But once you get Saric here, Embiid playing and your three first-round draft picks from 2016 on the team, that’s the core of the team. There’s no more waiting games. Now they’re gonna have to make it work.

Hoops Rumors: Can Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor successfully coexist on the floor?

Jake Pavorsky: I just can’t see it. Noel is completely useless as a floor spacer and as a defender out on the perimeter, and if he can do anything, it’s block shots and throw down lobs. He’s not going to be able to do either if he’s on the court with Okafor. Jahlil is a very complicated fit. His iso-heavy tendencies make it hard for Philly to effectively pair him with anybody, and Noel has struggled with him on the floor. You can’t put Okafor at the five because he’s a horrendous rim protector and can’t play the pick-and-roll, so they’ve tried moving him to the four. He’s shown some decent range, but he’s struggled with smaller and faster power forwards. I think the best thing for this team to do is find a floor-spacing power forward (possibly Dario Saric) to start with Noel, and then bring Okafor off the bench to feast on bad second-unit bigs.

Hoops Rumors: We recently posed this question to our readers, so we’ll ask it of you: Can Ish Smith be the point guard of the future in Philadelphia?

Jake Pavorsky: Definitely not. He was good last year and a lot of fun when they first brought him back, but he doesn’t have the tools to be a good starting point guard. He’s a very mediocre shooter and has been forcing up his own shots a little too much these days. Smith is also a pretty atrocious on-ball defender, getting beat on a consistent basis. What I do like about him is that he gets the Sixers playing at the high tempo Brett Brown is looking for, and he’s a pretty good passer. I might be willing to give him a one- or two-year deal despite T.J. McConnell‘s strong play, but I don’t expect Smith to have a big, long-term role with the Sixers.

Hoops Rumors: How do you think the NBA should resolve situations like the one that cost the Sixers the rights to JaKarr Sampson when the three-team trade with the Pistons and Rockets fell apart?

Jake Pavorsky: It’s unfortunate, but I’m not sure what there is for the NBA to do there. Technically, cutting Sampson was a separate move that had no real connection to the Donatas Motiejunas trade, although it did. If the league were to develop some sort of contingency rule for a situation of a failed physical, that would be nice, but I don’t see it happening. Situations like that don’t arise all that often. Guess it’s just the Sixers’ luck.

2015/16 Salary Cap Update: Orlando Magic

March 25th, 2016 at 7:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 is set at $70MM, which is good for an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. With the February 18th cutoff date for trades and the de facto deadline of March 1st for buyouts now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of updating the salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Orlando Magic, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $63,515,581*
Remaining Cap Room= $6,484,419
Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $21,224,419

*Note: This amount includes the $100,00 due both Jordan Sibert and Keith Appling, the $150,000 owed to Melvin Ejim, the $845,059 due Joe Harris, the $947,276 owed to Jared Cunningham and the $1,150,000 due Chris Copeland, all of whom were waived by the team.

Cap Exceptions Available:

Room= $1,555,976
Trade Exception= $7,043,029 (Channing Frye. Expires February 18th, 2017)

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $1,286,686

Note: Despite the trade deadline having passed, the NBA season technically doesn’t end until June 30th. Teams are able to again make trades upon the completion of the regular season or when/if they are eliminated from the playoffs, whichever comes later. So these cash limits still apply.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 3/25/16

March 25th, 2016 at 6:01pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Dirk Nowitzki declined to say anything definitive when asked recently whether he would leave the Mavericks if they went into rebuilding mode. The 37-year-old who has a player option worth only about $8.7MM for next season fielded the query on the “Ben and Skin Show” on KRLD-FM. “You know, that’s something I’ll focus on from summer to summer,” Nowitzki said. “I’m in the midst of chasing the playoffs here and trying to play well and compete every night. That’s something we’ll revisit this summer. Obviously I still have a year on the contract. I could choose to opt out. I think that’s in my contract. Honestly, I haven’t really spent a lot of thought on that at all. Like I said, I want to really make the playoffs bad. I think our fan base deserves that. It’s always a fun part of the year. The competition is high. We’d love to be a part of that. Everything else we can, you know, come together and talk about after. There’s just not enough thought put into it right now. Hopefully we can squeeze in the playoffs and then we can talk about all that stuff later.”

The veteran big man later clarified his comments, saying that he intends to opt in with Dallas for the 2016/17 campaign and adding that he’s envisioned playing the rest of his career with the Mavs ever since they won the 2011 title. But Nowitzki also reiterated that he doesn’t want to be part of a rebuilding effort. “If I’m not mistaken, the question was, if we’re going through a rebuilding phase, is what they asked me yesterday, and obviously I want to compete,” Nowitzki said. “I want to compete at the highest level. I always want to make the playoffs, and even more. So, if that’s what the Mavs are going to do is rebuild, then, you know, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The idea that Nowitzki sees rebuilding as distasteful ostensibly leaves the door open for him to leave Dallas at some point, but his willingness to make financial sacrifices means the Mavs have an easier financial path to surrounding him with top-flight talent, making it less likely they rebuild, as Hoops Rumors’ Chuck Myron noted earlier today. The power forward has been the textbook definition of a loyal player, accepting a salary well below his market value to remain with the Mavs and to allow the team to sign other players. It would be almost impossible to fault him if he decided he wanted one last shot at an NBA title with another franchise. While it’s certainly difficult to picture Nowitzki in a different uniform, there have been numerous other players throughout the years who have signed on with other clubs in order to chase a ring in the twilight of their careers.

This brings me to the topic for today: Should Dirk Nowitzki opt out of his deal this summer and sign on with a team that has a better shot at winning a title than the Mavericks do?

If you believe that Nowitzki should indeed leave Dallas, where would be the best landing spot for him in 2016/17? Would you support him in such a move, or would he be vilified in your eyes for abandoning the Mavericks? Take to the comments section to share your thoughts and opinions on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say.