- Memphis shooting guard Lester Quinones is working out for the Knicks on Tuesday and the Nets on Thursday, a source tells Jake Weingarten of StockRisers.com (Twitter link). Quinones has previously worked out for the Warriors and Lakers, among other teams.
LSU junior Shareef O’Neal is eligible to be selected in the draft, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. The son of Shaquille O’Neal, Shareef O’Neal was mistakenly included in the list of withdrawals released by the league last week. He has upcoming team workouts, Charania adds.
We have more draft-related info:
- Another LSU player, wing Tari Eason, has upcoming workouts scheduled with the Cavaliers, Grizzlies and Spurs, Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets. He has already worked out for a number of teams, including the Bulls, Thunder and Knicks. Eason is ranked No. 18 overall on ESPN’s Best Available list.
- The Lakers hosted six prospects on Monday, including UCLA’s Johnny Juzang, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. That group also included Remy Martin (Kansas), Jermaine Samuels (Villanova), Michael Devoe (Georgia Tech), Haowen Guo (Shanghai Sharks) and Kenneth Lofton Jr. (Louisiana Tech).
- SMU’s Marcus Weathers worked out for the Spurs on Monday, Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com tweets. Gonzaga’s Andrew Nembhard and USC’s Isaiah Mobley were also among the six prospects San Antonio hosted, Nicola Lupo of Sportando tweets. Nembhard, a point guard, projects as a potential first-rounder. He’s ranked No. 35 on ESPN’s list.
New Lakers coach Darvin Ham believes Russell Westbrook has a “ton left in the tank” but will have to make sacrifices to help the franchise return to a championship level, Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes.
Ham made those comments on Monday during his introductory press conference, which Westbrook attended.
“Don’t get it messed up, Russell Westbrook is one of the best players our league has ever seen and there’s still a ton left in the tank,” Ham said. “I don’t know why people tend to try to write him off.”
Westbrook took the brunt of criticism, along with former coach Frank Vogel, for the Lakers’ wayward season. He has a $47.5MM option on the last year of his contract and is expected to exercise it.
The Lakers reportedly asked head coaching candidates how they could maximize Westbrook’s talents in L.A. Ham believes Westbrook will have to do more without the ball and step up his defensive effort.
“Russ and I had some really, really great one-on-one convos, man, and the biggest word I think that came out of that, those discussions, was sacrifice,” Ham said. “I’m going to expect him to be the same tenacious, high-energy player that he’s been all his entire career. A lot of now may have him without the ball in his hand. Most of it now may have it on the defensive end. But, again, we have to sacrifice. There’s no achieving anything without all parties sharing the load, sacrificing instead of one-on-one.”
Here’s more from Ham’s presser, as relayed by McMenamin and the Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike:
- Ham’s top priority is to make the Lakers a much tighter defensive unit. “Defensively is where you’re going to see our biggest leaps and bounds,” Ham said. “We have to commit to the defensive side of the ball, or we don’t have a chance.”
- Ham said he’ll be just as tough on Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony Davis as the team’s role players: “We have a saying, ‘Facts over feelings.’ And once you see the film, that’s a fact. You missed your assignment, then that has to be pointed out. Because if I can’t point it out to one of our Big Three, then the last man or someone in the rotation, they’re not going to take what we’re doing seriously.”
- VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said Ham was a “unanimous” choice among the team’s decision-makers. “It’s easy to be grateful when you find a candidate that you feel is the ideal fit for what the franchise is looking for. And that’s what coach Ham represents to us,” Pelinka said.
The Jazz could block Quin Snyder from coaching next season, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. Snyder, who resigned on Sunday, has one guaranteed year remaining on his contract, which gives Utah leverage if Snyder seeks another coaching job before the 2023/24 season.
Snyder apparently isn’t in any hurry to patrol the sidelines again. He’s looking forward to spending time with his family, Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do next year, as far as coaching,” Snyder said. “I know I’m going to be at Halloween with my daughter. That’s the silver lining of me stepping down now.”
Jazz executive Danny Ainge expects Snyder to return to coaching “very soon, probably next year,” Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets, though it’s unclear if, by “next year,” Ainge meant next season or 2023.
We have more from the Jazz:
- Despite meeting the media on Monday, Snyder’s motivation for leaving his post remain vague, Walden writes. However, it is clear he – not the team – made the decision and agonized over it for several weeks.
- Minority owner Dwyane Wade might push the front office to strongly consider Lakers assistant and former Knicks head coach David Fizdale as Snyder’s replacement, Marc Stein writes in a Substack post. Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant is a favorite of Donovan Mitchell, but Ainge may be hesitant to cater too much to his star shooting guard.
- On the draft front, the Jazz are bringing in Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn and BYU’s Alex Barcello for workouts this week, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets.
11:34am: Charania has walked back his initial report, tweeting that Wallace is a candidate for Ham’s staff, but the two sides don’t have a formal agreement in place yet.
11:22am: Former NBA forward Rasheed Wallace has reached an agreement to join Darvin Ham‘s staff as an assistant coach for the Lakers, Shams Charania of The Athletic confirms (via Twitter).
As we relayed earlier today, University of Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway had suggested to The Memphis Commercial Appeal that Wallace could be headed to Los Angeles after spending the 2021/22 season as an assistant coach for the Tigers.
Wallace, who played for six NBA teams from 1995-2013, made four All-Star teams and won a championship during that time, compiling more than 16,000 career points and over 7,400 career rebounds. He has done a little coaching since retiring, including with the Pistons in 2013/14.
Ham and Wallace were teammates in Detroit for parts of two seasons in 2004 and 2005, winning a title together in ’04.
- Asked today about the status of Rasheed Wallace, Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway said Wallace may be headed to the Lakers to join Darvin Ham‘s coaching staff, per Jason Munz of The Memphis Commercial Appeal (Twitter link). Wallace was an assistant with the Tigers in 2021/22.
At least three people involved in the NBA Finals believe Darvin Ham was the correct coaching choice for the Lakers, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times.
Warriors associate head coach Mike Brown, who will take over as head coach of the Kings once the season concludes, has known Ham since 1996, when Ham was a rookie for the Nuggets and Brown was a first-year staffer, Woike writes. Brown later gave Ham his first NBA coaching job as an assistant on his staff with the Lakers in 2011.
“Everyone is like, ‘He’s a rookie head coach, going in there to work for the Lakers with all those veterans,’ but don’t get it twisted,” Brown said. “I would like to see who would be the first to challenge Darvin or roll his eyes because he will stand his ground. And he will make sure his point gets across and gets across within an authority a situation like that may need.”
Like Ham, Draymond Green is a native of Saginaw, Michigan, and he said Ham was an inspiration to him growing up, per Woike. Green also said Ham will bring much-needed toughness to Los Angeles.
“I think he’s going to bring a toughness, a blue-collar mentality just because that’s how he’s built. That’s how he’s raised. You have to be that way from Saginaw,” Green told The Times. “I think it’ll be a different toughness that they haven’t seen. And he’s going to command and require a different respect level that they haven’t really have had. … And I think that will bode well for that team.”
Celtics big man Al Horford also praised Ham, who was on the Hawks’ coaching staff when Horford played in Atlanta, as Woike relays.
“We really got after it,” Horford said of Ham. “He really challenged me to be better on the defensive end. Really challenged me to just be a better player in general. Darvin is about as good a guy as you’re going to see, a big competitor. Extreme competitor. The Lakers are really lucky to have a guy like him. He’s the kind of guy that you want.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Ham’s greatest challenge as head coach will be figuring out the best way to utilize Russell Westbrook, writes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. With that in mind, Buha explores three ways the new coach can optimize Westbrook’s minutes, assuming he’s still on the roster in 2022/23. Buha also notes that Ham isn’t expected to address the media until early next week.
- L.A. is holding a workout with six draft prospects on Friday, tweets Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times. The six are Lucas Williamson (Loyola Chicago), Hyunjung Lee (Davidson), Paul Atkinson Jr. (Notre Dame), Scotty Pippen Jr. (Vanderbilt), Jamal Cain (Oakland), and Gaige Prim (Missouri State). According to ESPN’s big board, Pippen is the highest-rated among the group at No. 69, which makes sense, since the Lakers don’t currently hold any draft picks.
- In case you missed it, Ham was officially hired as head coach earlier today.
Bucks forward/center Bobby Portis has the ability to become an unrestricted free agent this summer by turning down his $4.56MM player option for 2022/23. However, Marc Stein reports in his latest Substack article that some teams with interest in Portis are extremely pessimistic about their chances of luring the veteran out of Milwaukee.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Portis will exercise his player option. Because he has spent the last two seasons with the Bucks, they now hold his Early Bird rights and would be able to offer him a raise if he opts out. There’s an expectation that Portis will sign a multiyear deal with Milwaukee if he declines his option, according to Stein.
Assuming the Bucks use Portis’ Early Bird rights to re-sign him, they’ll have to offer him a deal covering at least two seasons, since Early Bird contracts can’t be for just one year. They can also offer up to 105% of the league-average salary from the previous season — that should result in a maximum starting salary in the vicinity of $11MM.
Here’s more from Stein:
- Based on the rumors circulating in coaching circles, it sounds as if Juwan Howard was the Lakers‘ preferred candidate in their head coaching search, according to Stein. Los Angeles made such “strong overtures” to Howard that it appeared the team preferred him to other long-shot targets like Quin Snyder and Doc Rivers and was willing to offer him the job if he wanted it, Stein adds. Howard wasn’t interested in leaving the University of Michigan, and L.A. ultimately hired Darvin Ham.
- The Celtics also had strong interest in Howard a year ago after Brad Stevens moved from the sidelines to the front office and before the team hired Ime Udoka, says Stein. The Lakers will be hoping their new hire works out as well as Udoka has in Boston.
- Stein continues to hear that the Hornets are likely to choose between Mike D’Antoni and Kenny Atkinson as they near the end of their head coaching search. D’Antoni and Atkinson were previously identified as finalists for the job, but it wasn’t clear if they were the only candidates still in play.
JUNE 3: The Lakers have officially hired Ham as their head coach, the team announced today in a press release.
“When someone begins his NBA coaching career at the G League level and goes all the way through playing an integral role on the front bench of an NBA Championship team, it really speaks to a certain strength of character,” Lakers head of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “Our players and fans will immediately identify with Darvin’s no-nonsense and hard-working approach, which we feel will bring toughness and a competitive edge to all we do.
“When you add that to Darvin’s sophisticated grasp of in-game strategy and deep knowledge of the game of basketball, we have the ideal coach for this next chapter in Lakers history. We could not be more honored and proud to name Darvin Ham as our new head coach.”
MAY 27: The Lakers are hiring Bucks assistant Darvin Ham to be their new head coach, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
The first-time head coach will receive a four-year contract, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
According to Wojnarowski, Ham interviewed for the vacancy on Thursday and was offered the job on Friday. He impressed the Lakers’ brass with his “commanding presence, history of coaching stars and toughness.” Ham’s coaching staff is likely to include assistants with prior head coaching experience, Woj adds (Twitter links).
Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic reported a week ago that Ham was considered the leading candidate for the position. He’ll replace Frank Vogel, who was fired at the end of the team’s disappointing season.
Ham started his NBA career as a player, appearing in 417 games from 1996-2005 and winning a championship as a bit player for the Pistons in 2004.
The 48-year-old has ties to the Lakers organization, as his first role as an NBA assistant coach came with L.A. from 2011-13. Ham has spent the last nine seasons working under head coach Mike Budenholzer in Atlanta and Milwaukee, winning a title with the Bucks last season.
Ham has received consideration from multiple teams with head coaching openings in recent years and interviewed with the Kings before they hired Mike Brown earlier this month. He was also said to be a “serious candidate” for the Hornets’ vacancy.
Lakers star LeBron James sent out a tweet expressing excitement and congratulating Ham on receiving the job.
Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and former Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts were the other finalists for L.A.’s vacancy. Both have reportedly interviewed for Charlotte’s lead job as well.
Although the Lakers won a title just two seasons ago, they’ve struggled since, having been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2020/21 and finishing with a 33-49 record this past season, which was 11th in the West and outside of the play-in tournament. Injuries to James and Anthony Davis have certainly played a factor in the downturn, but Ham will have his hands full working with a top-heavy roster that includes Russell Westbrook, who struggled mightily in his first season in Los Angeles.
EuroLeague champion Anadolu Efes will be signing former NBA big man Ante Zizic on a two-year deal, with an opt-out clause after the first season, Bugra Uzar of Eurohoops.net reports. Zizic, 25, averaged 12.2 PPG and 5.0 RPG in 21 MPG over 31 games for Maccabi Tel Aviv last season.
A first-round pick in 2016, Zizic spent three seasons in the NBA with the Cavaliers from 2017-20, averaging 6.0 PPG and 3.9 RPG in 113 games (13.4 MPG).
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Lakers star LeBron James has reached a net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes’ calculations, Chase Peterson-Withorn writes. James made $121.2MM last year, pushing him over the $1 billion mark. He’s the first active NBA player to make the billionaires list. Even Michael Jordan, the only other basketball billionaire, didn’t reach that mark until 2014, well after he retired.
- The NBA’s TV ratings for the postseason have risen significantly. There are number of reasons for the upswing, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, including the Warriors’ resurgence, an influx of new stars making their mark and Nielsen’s new method for collecting viewership numbers. Since September 2020, Nielsen has included out-of-home viewers as part of its tallies, including those watching at bars and restaurants.
- While many draft prospects are busy working out for NBA teams, some have dropped out and returned to school to improve their stock for the 2023 draft. Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo takes a look at six players who could make a significant jump in the next year, including Iowa’s Kris Murray and Houston’s Marcus Sasser.