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Doncic On Signing Supermax Extension: “I Think You Know The Answer”

June 7th, 2021 at 1:36pm CST by Eli Cohen

Making his first comments since Sunday’s Game 7 loss to the Clippers, Mavericks star Luka Doncic discussed some of the pressing questions facing himself and the organization this summer.

The 22-year-old guard, who averaged 35 PPG, 10.3 APG and 7.9 RPG in his first round matchup with Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers, offered a strong, if playfully coy, hint about whether or not he plans on signing a supermax extension this summer. “I think you know the answer,” he said with a large smile, as tweeted by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

As relayed by ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Doncic is set to become the first rookie in league history to sign a rookie max extension worth over $200MM. The deal, should he sign it, would begin in 2022/23 and would be worth approximately $201.5MM over five years, based on current cap projections. Marc Stein of The New York Times confirms (via Twitter) that the Mavs plan to put that offer on the table once free agency begins in August.

Doncic will officially qualify for the supermax (30% of the cap instead of 25%) once he’s formally named to this year’s All-NBA team, since he made last year’s All-NBA squad as well. Players need to make the All-NBA team in the season before the extension takes effect or in two of the previous three seasons in order to be supermax-eligible.

Doncic also reaffirmed his commitment to his partnership with Kristaps Porzingis, despite whispers that the two aren’t exactly the closest of friends. “He’s a great player. I think we’ve got to use him more, and that’s it,” Doncic said of Porzingis (Twitter link via Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News).

The Latvian big man was brought in via trade in 2019 and subsequently signed to a max contract, but the last two seasons have been riddled with injuries and up-and-down play. He averaged 20 points and nearly nine rebounds per game, but his once-vaunted defense seemed to slip, resulting in a career-low blocks per game. In the playoffs this year, he averaged just 13 PPG and 5.4 RPG in 33 minutes a night.

Finally, Doncic confirmed that he will be joining the Slovenian national team soon to help lead them through the Olympic qualifying rounds. Though the team has never qualified for the Olympics before, Doncic was part of the group, along with Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic and former NBA forward Anthony Randolph, that won the 2017 EuroBasket championship. Doncic is hoping to carry that success to this year’s qualifiers, and to lead his team to the Tokyo Olympics.

“No vacation,” he said, as tweeted by Stein.

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Jean Montero Becomes First International Prospect To Join Overtime Elite

June 4th, 2021 at 2:53pm CST by Luke Adams

Jean Montero, a 17-year-old point guard from the Dominican Republic, is signing with Overtime Elite, becoming the first international player to join the new basketball league for top high school prospects, reports Jonathan Givony of ESPN.

As Givony explains, Montero – the No. 17 prospect on ESPN’s big board for the 2022 NBA draft – remains under contract with Gran Canaria, so he’ll be on loan from the Spanish team.

Montero, who debuted with the Dominican Republic’s senior national team last fall, played a little for Gran Canaria’s parent club in the EuroCup and ACB during the 2020/21 season. However, he saw more action for Gran Canaria II in Spain’s third division, averaging 18.0 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 4.4 APG, and 2.5 SPG in 24 games (29 MPG) for the team, per Givony.

In addition to being the first international prospect to commit to Overtime Elite, Montero is also the first non-twin to sign with the league. Previously, OTE secured commitments from two sets of twins — Matt and Ryan Bewley and Amen and Ausar Thompson.

We shared more details on the new Overtime Elite league in a pair of stories earlier this year.

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And-Ones: Coach K, Fan Conduct, Williams-Goss, Coaching Candidates

June 2nd, 2021 at 3:45pm CST by Eli Cohen

Longtime Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski has decided to retire following the upcoming 2021/2022 college basketball season, reports Jeff Goodman of Stadium (via Twitter). Coach K has helmed the Duke program since 1980, and has been key in ushering in the era of one-and-done college players and collegiate recruiting battles.

During his tenure as head coach, Krzyzewski led the team to five national titles and 12 Final Fours, and with two potential top freshman on next year’s roster in Paolo Banchero and AJ Griffin, he will look to end his storied career with one final title run.

Goodman also reports that assistant coach Jon Scheyer is the leading candidate to replace Krzyzewski. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter) that Scheyer is considered Duke’s coach-in-waiting.

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • As fan-related incidents continue to occur around the league, the NBA has instituted new measures in an attempt to prevent fan misconduct, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. These policies include: encouraging teams/arenas to pursue legal recourse against such actions, enhanced security, and a “code of conduct” message to be broadcast multiple times throughout the game.
  • Former Jazz point guard Nigel Williams-Goss has agreed to a two-year deal with Real Madrid, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The 6’2″ point guard played 15 games for PBC Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia this season, averaging 17 points and 5.9 assists while shooting 46% from three.
  • Although the Celtics are the only team with a head coach vacancy so far this summer, there are plenty of enticing first-time head coach options available, writes Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN. Among them: Patrick Ewing, Chauncey Billups, Will Weaver, and Darko Rajakovic. Arnovitz uses present success stories to detail what front offices are looking for in a first time head coach and what attributes can make them successful.
  • Now that the first season of the Basketball Africa League has ended and Egypt’s Zamalek has been crowned champions, the league is looking ahead and planning its 2022 season, writes Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.  “The biggest triumph? Maybe it was just making it to reality,” BAL President Amadou Fall said, regarding the first season of the new league. “Just a long time coming and just being the culmination of many decades of work and engagement by the NBA across the continent, committed to growing the game. And now, it has established a complete pathway for basketball development from grassroots to elites and just league.” Those in and around the league are hoping that as the BAL grows, it will attract more and more viewers and participants from around the country. Though none of the players this season are expected to draw attention from NBA teams, Fall expects that to change soon. “This is the first time that this league is here,” Zamalek’s Walter Hodge said upon receiving the Hakeem Olajuwon MVP award. “And it’s going to be here for a long time.”
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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2021 Draft

June 2nd, 2021 at 10:38am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2021 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 353 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 296 are from colleges, while 57 are international early entrants.

That number obliterates the previous record of 236 early entrants, established in 2018. That had been expected, however, since the NCAA gave players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in seniors having to decide between staying at college for one more season or declaring for the draft as an “early” entrant.

Since well over half of the college early entrants are seniors, there are actually fewer college underclassmen than usual in this initial group of early entrants.

This year’s total of 353 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by July 7 and again by July 19, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like the pool will remain extremely crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants certain to exceed 60, the number of picks in the draft.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2021 draft now includes seniors and is fully up to date. It can be found right here. It doesn’t include players who are automatically draft-eligible this year. As Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets, that list of auto-eligible players includes the prospects who played for the G League Ignite, such as Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga.

Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:

Newly-added players:

College players:

These players hadn’t previously been included on our unofficial list of underclassmen early entrants and weren’t on the list of senior early entrants that the NBA sent to teams last week.

International players:

These players weren’t previously mentioned on our list of international early entrants. The country listed here indicates where they last played, not necessarily where they were born.

Players removed:

Despite reports or announcements that the players below would declare for the draft, they didn’t show up on the NBA’s official list.

That could mean a number of things — they may have decided against entering the draft; they may have entered the draft, then withdrawn; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.

In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list for the time being.

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Top 2022 French Prospect To Take NBL Route

June 1st, 2021 at 7:09pm CST by Dana Gauruder

French swingman Ousmane Dieng, who is considered one of the top prospects for the 2022 draft, will play for the New Zealand Breakers next season as part of the NBL’s Next Stars program, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.

It’s the same route that Hornets guard LaMelo Ball took before being drafted in the lottery last season. Magic rookie R.J. Hampton, the 24th pick in last year’s draft, also used the Next Stars program as a springboard as well as Australian guard Josh Giddey, a potential 2021 lottery pick. Dieng is the first European prospect to make the jump to the Breakers.

The 6’9” Dieng is ranked No. 14 by ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony for the 2022 draft. Givony views the 18-year-old as a superior passer who has shown versatility as a shot-maker and defender, Wojnarowski adds.

Dieng, who played for Parisian Academy INSEP in France’s third division, was heavily recruited by American college programs as well the NBA’s G League Ignite team. French, Australian, Lithuanian and Spanish teams — including Barcelona — were also bidding for Dieng’s services, Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas tweets.

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Jared Butler, Others Enter 2021 NBA Draft

May 31st, 2021 at 11:24am CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of Sunday’s early entry deadline, Baylor junior guard Jared Butler announced (via Twitter) that he was declaring for the 2021 NBA draft. While his announcement doesn’t explicitly state that he’s forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility, it strongly suggests he intends to go pro.

While it took a while for him to make it official, Butler was always considered a good bet to enter this year’s draft following an impressive 2020/21 campaign in which he averaged 16.7 PPG, 4.8 APG, and 2.0 SPG on .471/.416/.780 shooting in 30 games (30.3 MPG) for the eventual national champs.

A consensus first-team All-American, Butler was named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player after the Bears defeated Gonzaga in the championship game. He’s the No. 23 prospect on ESPN’s big board, making him a strong candidate to be a first-round pick in July.

Here are a few more draft-related updates:

  • Fresno State sophomore guard Deon Stroud is testing the draft waters while maintaining his NCAA eligibility, according to an announcement from the school (Twitter link). Stroud, who began his college career at UTEP, averaged 12.2 PPG on .482/.357/.613 shooting in 23 games (23.1 MPG) in 2020/21.
  • Italian wing Gabriele Procida has declared for the draft, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, who tweets that the 18-year-old is a projected second-round pick.
  • Givony also published a series of tweets listing several more international players who have entered the 2021 NBA draft pool. Those players are as follows (the countries listed represent where they last played, not where they were born):
  • Since the NBA’s early entry deadline has now passed, we should get a full, official list of early entrants from the league on Tuesday. In the meantime, our unofficial tracker is here.
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And-Ones: Team USA, Eaton, Small Markets, Africa League, Mathiang

May 29th, 2021 at 3:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Players on teams that go deep into the postseason will still be under consideration for Team USA even though the Finals could end a day before the Olympics began, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today reports. Team USA will conduct a mini-camp as early as July 1 and a Game 7 of the Finals would be held on July 22. The Olympics begin the next day. National team director Jerry Colangelo said the roster will be reevaluated after each playoff round.

“It’s conceivable, there will be a few players who are competing in the Finals and want to participate and we want them to participate,” Colangelo said. “But we don’t know who that’s going to be. We have to wait and see. That’s why we’ll take inventory after each round. It’s possible that we don’t end up with 12 in Las Vegas and we bring a couple of guys at the last minute.”

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • Mark Eaton, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, has died at the age of 64, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. The 7’4” Eaton played 12 seasons with the Jazz from 1982-93.
  • While it’s possible for small market franchises to reach the NBA Finals, there are obvious disadvantages for those clubs, especially in an era where superstars often choose where they want to play, Zillgitt writes in a separate story. Zillgitt outlines the difficulties facing those franchises.
  • Raptors executive Masai Ujiri writes about the impact of the Basketball Africa League in a guest viewpoint article for The Athletic. He hopes the dreams of African players won’t just center around the opportunity to play in the NBA. “Maybe one of those young men will make the NBA. But let’s dream bigger: Maybe, a few years from now, that young man won’t have to leave Africa to play basketball at an elite level,” Ujiri writes.
  • Former Hornets big man Mangok Mathiang has agreed to extend his contract with Cedevita Olimpija (Slovenia) until at least the end of the 2021/22 season, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. Mathiang underwent surgery back in November to repair a fracture of his leg and tibia. Mathiang appeared in four Hornets games during the 2017/18 season.
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Anthony Bennett, Thomas Robinson Sign With Puerto Rican Team

May 28th, 2021 at 3:17pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Former NBA lottery selections Anthony Bennett and Thomas Robinson have both reached deals with Puerto Rican team Cangrejeros de Santurce, according to agent Christian Santaella (link via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).

Bennett, the top pick in the 2013 draft out of UNLV, is a 6’8″ power forward who spent parts of his four NBA seasons with the Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Raptors (as well as their NBAGL club, Raptors 905) and Nets (as well as their G League club, the Long Island Nets). The 28-year-old holds career NBA averages of 4.4 PPG and 3.1 RPG across 151 games.

Bennett joined Turkish Basketball Super League club Fenerbahçe in 2017, winning the EuroLeague title with the team in a limited role. He next played with several G League clubs, including the Northern Arizona Suns in 2017 (now the Motor City Cruise), the Maine Red Claws, and the Agua Caliente Clippers. He’s part of Team Canada’s preliminary roster for the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers.

Robinson, 30, was picked fifth in the 2012 draft by Sacramento out of Kansas. The 6’10” big man spent parts of five seasons with the Kings, Rockets, Trail Blazers, Sixers, Nets and Lakers. Across 313 NBA games, Robinson averaged 4.9 PPG (on 47% shooting from the field) and 4.8 RPG. Following his NBA career, Robinson played for teams in Russia, China and Turkey.

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And-Ones: Wiggins, Canada, Overtime Elite, Yabusele, More

May 26th, 2021 at 11:02am CST by Luke Adams

It has been several years since Warriors wing Andrew Wiggins represented Team Canada in an international competition, but it appears that’s about to change. As Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets, Wiggins posted a message on Instagram strongly suggesting that he’ll suit up for Canada when the team competes in the Olympic qualifiers this summer.

Eight of the 12 teams that will compete in the men’s basketball event at the Tokyo Olympics have clinched their spots, including Team USA. Twenty-four countries will compete in four separate tournaments from June 29 to July 4 for the final four Olympic berths. In order to qualify for the Tokyo games, Canada will have to top Greece, China, Uruguay, Turkey, and the Czech Republic.

While it certainly won’t be a cakewalk, Canada will benefit from home-court advantage – the tournament will take place in Victoria, British Columbia – and could deploy a roster featuring far more NBA players than their opponents. Wiggins, who averaged 18.6 points per game in 71 contests for Golden State this season, would be a key addition.

“I don’t think there’s any question about what he can bring,” Canada Basketball general manager Rowan Barrett said, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. “The versatility he has at 6’8″ with a tremendous wingspan and with the focus he has on defense now will help us. And as an offensive player, it’s clear. He’s got a career average of 20 points a game in the NBA. Clearly he can score the ball.”

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

  • The Overtime Elite league has secured two more commitments from top high school prospects, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Florida twins Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson are signing two-year contracts with OTE. The Thompson twins rank 22nd and 23rd in ESPN’s list of top class-of-2022 recruits. Overtime’s first two commits were twin brothers Matt Bewley and Ryan Bewley.
  • Speaking of high school basketball, Jeff Borzello and Paul Biancardi of ESPN report that several of the nation’s biggest high school powerhouses are forming an elite national league called the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference in advance of the 2021/22 season. Six programs – including Oak Hill, Montverde, and IMG Academy – have committed so far to the eight-team league that will feature a 10-game regular season and a postseason tournament, per ESPN’s duo.
  • Former Celtics first-round pick Guerschon Yabusele is in advanced talks with Real Madrid, reports Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas (via Twitter). If Yabusele doesn’t feel he has an NBA opportunity lined up, he’ll likely sign with Real Madrid, Urbonas adds.
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Draft Notes: Prkacin, Mock Draft, Combine

May 25th, 2021 at 8:35am CST by Luke Adams

Croatian power forward Roko Prkacin has officially declared for the 2021 NBA draft, according to a report from Uroš Vezonik of Sportando.

Prkacin, who will turn 19 in November, is ranked No. 39 on ESPN’s big board of 2021 prospects. The 6’9″ forward spent the 2020/21 season with KK Cibona in the Adriatic League and played well, averaging 13.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in 24 contests (27.7 MPG), with a shooting line of .492/.394/.654.

Prkacin will have until July 19 to decide whether to keep his name in the draft pool or withdraw, but given that he has a strong chance of being selected this summer, I’d be a little surprised if he pulls out.

Here are a few more draft-related items:

  • ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Insider link) has updated his mock draft to reflect the newest tentative draft order and specific team needs. The Pacers and Warriors, who were eliminated in the final games of the play-in tournament, now project to draft 13th and 14th overall, and Givony has them selecting the top two international prospects in this year’s draft — Josh Giddey to Indiana and Alperen Sengun to Golden State.
  • The NBA has let teams know that team and league personnel must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to attend the June combine in Chicago, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The league will consider exceptions for those who have medical or religious reasons for not being vaccinated, Charania adds. Previous reports stated that negative coronavirus tests would be required for those attending the combine.
  • The tiebreakers to determine the lottery standings and the draft order outside of the top 14 will reportedly be conducted early on Tuesday afternoon, so we should have more information for you later today on those results, along with the full pre-lottery draft order. Key tiebreakers include the Thunder vs. the Cavaliers for the No. 4 spot, and the Kings vs. the Pelicans vs. the Bulls for the No. 8 spot, as we outlined last week.
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