NBA G League Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: 2019 Draft, Age Minimum, Team USA

August 29th, 2018 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

After attending a handful of summer events involving top prospects, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz (Insider link) have updated their 2019 NBA mock draft. While Duke freshman R.J. Barrett continues to be viewed as 2019’s top pick, he’s joined in the top three this time around by a fast-rising teammate — Givony and Schmitz have Duke forward Zion Williamson at No. 3 in their latest mock.

Other new names in ESPN’s top 10 include Kentucky freshman wing Keldon Johnson and Oregon freshman center Bol Bol. Johnson excelled in the Wildcats’ exhibition games in the Bahamas, though the ESPN duo was also impressed by Johnson’s teammate PJ Washington, who “looks to be in much better shape” than he was last season. As for Bol, he had a strong showing at the Nike Basketball Academy, as Givony detailed earlier in the month.

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

Although the NBA’s draft eligibility rule related to a player’s minimum age won’t change within the next couple years, it seems highly likely to be altered or eliminated at some point. Tom Ziller of SBNation.com explores a few possible alternatives to the current rule.
In a step toward the elimination of the one-and-done rule, the NBA, NCAA, and NBPA reached an agreement with USA Basketball, announcing today that Team USA will expand its Men’s Junior National Team program to include additional training camps and year-round player development programming. The program will include approximately 80 top high school prospects, or about 20 per high school class. Here’s the official announcement from USA Basketball, along with more details from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
Players on two-way contracts who spend the maximum allowable number of days with their NBA clubs in 2018/19 will be able to earn up to $385,612 this season, tweets cap expert Albert Nahmad. That’s still well short of the NBA rookie minimum ($838,464), but greatly exceeds the standard $35K G League salary.
Shane Rhodes of Basketball Insiders examines some potential surprise teams for the 2018/19 season, suggesting that the Bulls, Mavericks, Pistons, Clippers, and Suns are candidates to exceed expectations.

And-Ones: G League, 2019 Cap Room, Prkacin

August 27th, 2018 at 3:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League announced its schedule for the 2018/19 season today, beginning with opening night on November 2. Like the NBA, the NBAGL has reduced its back-to-backs to an all-time low and eliminated stretches of four games in five nights entirely.

The G League also slightly tweaked its divisions for the coming season, with the Delaware Blue Coats – the Sixers‘ affiliate – shifting to the Atlantic. Delaware had previously been in the Southeast Division, but with Capital City Go-Go – the Wizards‘ new affiliate – joining the Southeast, it made sense to move the Blue Coats to the Atlantic to better reflect the actual NBA divisions.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Keith Smith of RealGM.com offers an early look at the 2019 cap projections for each NBA team, with clubs like the Nets, Bulls, Mavericks, Pacers, Clippers, and Kings expected to have the most spending power.
In a piece for Basketball Insiders, Lang Greene highlights five veteran NBA players who will be adjusting to new roles on new teams this season. There’s a pattern here, with vets like Carmelo Anthony, Dennis Schroder, and DeMarcus Cousins all being asked to play more modest roles for their new clubs than they did for their old teams.
After spending several years with a Suns squad that didn’t make the playoffs, P.J. Tucker saw his career path altered over the last two seasons when he joined the Raptors and then the Rockets, a pair of teams with title aspirations. Matt John of Basketball Insiders looks into which NBA player might be the “next” P.J. Tucker, making the move from a lottery club to a key role on a contender.
Croatian forward Roko Prkacin stood out as the top prospect at this year’s under-16 European Championships, according to Mike Schmitz of ESPN.com (Insider link). In Schmitz’s view, Prkacin – who led Croatia to the tournament title – has an “extremely high floor” and was “looking like a future lottery pick” during the competition.

Darius Bazley Won’t Play In G League After All

August 27th, 2018 at 10:23am CST by Luke Adams

Top 2019 draft prospect Darius Bazley has opted not to play in the G League during the 2018/19 season after all, he tells Shams Charania of The Athletic. Instead of playing professionally, Bazley will take the year to train and prepare for the next stage of his career.

Bazley, a 6’9″ forward who had originally planned to play with Syracuse in 2018/19, decommitted from the college program in March and announced his intentions to spend a season in the G League before becoming draft-eligible in 2019. However, he no longer considers it necessary to play in the NBAGL after having talked it over with his “group.”

“It’s mainly me talking to [agent] Rich [Paul], he knows so much, and whenever he speaks my ears perk up,” Bazley told Charania. “When Miles [Bridges] was in Cleveland for his predraft workouts, whenever he got a chance to work out in front of NBA teams, I was working out in the gym, too. So that played a part in it, me playing well in those workouts for us to say there’s no upside in the G League. If you play well, it’s expected. If you don’t play well, you’re not NBA-ready. That’s what they’ll say. For me, working out and preparing is the best route.”

If he had signed a G League contract, Bazley would have been eligible for the league’s 2018 draft, and likely would’ve been the first overall pick, meaning he would have had little control over whether or not he landed with one of the NBAGL’s better developmental programs. The 18-year-old touched on that issue – and explained his concerns about the G League in general – when he spoke to Charania about his decision.

“The G League is the only league where winning might not be everything,” Bazley said. “Development is the most important aspect, but guys are playing for the team and at the same time trying to play for themselves. That’s not the type of guy I am. For me in those settings to just get mine, I’ve never been brought up that way. I feel basketball is a team sport and everybody is supposed to eat. In the G League, that’s not the way it is. Everyone is trying to get an opportunity to go to the NBA.”

Bazley projects as a first-round pick – and potentially a lottery selection – in next year’s NBA draft. However, his decision to pass on the G League comes after an appearance at the Nike Basketball Academy earlier this month that was described by some experts and scouts as underwhelming.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony suggested at the time that there was speculation among scouts at the event that Bazley could back out of his G League plans and take the Mitchell Robinson route — the Knicks big man, a second-round pick in June, sat out the 2017/18 season before becoming draft-eligible this spring.

Meanwhile, Bazley’s decision shows that the G League still has some work to do in order to be viewed as a genuinely appealing alternative for top prospects who are looking for other options outside of the NCAA.

“This shows the impact of the rules now that have taken away the flexibility for a five-star prospect to enter the league,” one NBA executive said to Charania. “Each team in the G League is not the same in terms of resources and development.”

Go-Go Stock Roster in G League Expansion Draft

August 22nd, 2018 at 4:43pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Capital City Go-Go welcomed their first 14 players today in the G League expansion draft, tweets Adam Johnson of Two Ways and 10 Days. The Wizards’ new affiliate stocked its roster with a mixture of young players and veterans, including a few names familiar to NBA fans, including Lavoy Allen, Alonzo Gee and Luke Harangody.

As we saw with last year’s expansion draft, being selected isn’t a guarantee that any of these 14 players will take the court for Capital City in its inaugural season. Many of the players chosen today are still seeking NBA opportunities and some will head overseas.

Allen, 29, played 388 games for the Sixers and Pacers, with his last NBA action coming in the 2016/17 season. Gee, 31, played for six teams in eight seasons and has also been out of the league since 2016/17. Harangody, 30, appeared in 70 total games with the Celtics and Cavaliers and hasn’t been in the NBA since 2011/12.

The other G League franchises were permitted to protect up to 12 players on their roster, and Capital City was limited to taking a maximum of two players from a single team. The Go-Go will begin play this fall, bringing the G League to 27 teams and leaving the Pelicans, Nuggets and Trail Blazers as the only NBA clubs without direct affiliates.

The other new members of the Go-Go, listed alphabetically, are:

Quinton Chievous

Michael Cobbins

Will Cummings

Alex Davis

Will Davis

Duje Dukan

Kellen Dunham

Tyler Harvey

Pe’Shon Howard

Vince Hunter

Stephen Zimmerman

Pacific Rumors: Ellis, Clippers Arena, Cousins, Lakers

August 13th, 2018 at 9:02pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Kings have officially hired Ty Ellis as head coach of their G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings, according to a team press release. Ellis was head coach of the Suns’ G League team in 2016 before being elevated to an assistant coaching position with Phoenix last season. Ellis replaces Darrick Martin, Sacramento’s G League coach the last two seasons.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

A new lawsuit targeting the proposed Clippers arena in Inglewood alleges that two city-linked boards violated state laws governing open meetings, Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times reports. The suit also claims those boards also violated the environmental impact of construction projects in June when they approved the disposal of land to clear space for the arena, Fenno continues. The Clippers signed an exclusive negotiating agreement with Inglewood last year for a new arena but the team’s lease at Staples Center runs through 2024, Fenno adds.
The Warriors were expecting to use their mid-level exception on a wing player until they got a call from DeMarcus Cousins‘ agent during the second day of free agency, Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area relays. GM Bob Myers revealed his summer plan during a 95.7 The Game interview. “We had been preserving our taxpayer mid-level exception for somebody that might fall through the cracks and not get paid in a very tight free agency market,” Myers said. “But mostly we were thinking wings. I figured if something like that were to happen it would happen July 8th, 9th, 10th.”
The Lakers won’t make the postseason, Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports predicts. Mannix made the comment during a NBC Sports Boston podcast, believing that the players around LeBron James won’t mesh well. “You have to assume it’s 48 wins to get into the playoffs in the Western Conference,” Mannix said. “I don’t see that team making up that difference.”

And-Ones: NBAGL Showcase, MVP, Pick, Booker

August 8th, 2018 at 3:09pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League’s annual showcase, which typically takes place in January, is expected to happen from December 19-22 in Las Vegas this year, sources tell Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days. As Johnson details, the event is typically hosted by a G League team, with the Raptors 905 serving as the host in Mississauga in recent years. However, the showcase will move to a neutral site this year, as the league has outgrown the facilities of most NBAGL cities.

Johnson also notes that G League president Malcolm Turner believes the NBAGL is on track to have 30 teams within the next 12 to 18 months. The league is prepared to enter the 2018/19 season with 27 franchises, as we outlined earlier today. The Pelicans, Nuggets, and Trail Blazers are the only NBA clubs without their own affiliates, but it sounds like Turner expects those teams to get involved in the G League soon.

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

Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post revisits one of the most impactful NBA decisions of the last few years, exploring the players’ rejection of salary-cap smoothing in 2015. While the lack of cap smoothing has been the subject of plenty of discussion in recent years, Bontemps provides some interesting new tidbits, including a note that the players’ union expected the NBA to counter when it first turned down the league’s cap-smoothing proposal — the league didn’t come back with a new offer of its own.
ESPN’s early forecast for the 2018/19 NBA MVP has LeBron James as the odds-on favorite, followed by Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, and the reigning winner, James Harden.
In an interesting conversation with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, longtime international basketball reporter David Pick explains why he’s looking to make the transition from journalist to agent.
Alex Kennedy passes along a follow-up note on Trevor Booker‘s deal with China’s Shanxi Brave Dragons, tweeting that Booker received interest from the Cavaliers, Heat, and Timberwolves, and also turned down an offer from Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv before signing with Shanxi.

NBA G League Affiliations For 2018/19 Season

August 8th, 2018 at 12:31pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League will move one step closer to having 30 teams, one for each NBA franchise, in the 2018/19 season. With the expansion Capital City Go-Go club joining the mix, we can add the Wizards to the list of NBA teams with their own affiliates.

The Wizards’ NBAGL affiliate will be the league’s 27th franchise, leaving just three NBA teams that don’t have a one-to-one relationship with a G League club. Those teams are the Trail Blazers, Pelicans, and Nuggets.

The Pelicans had initially hoped to have a new G League team of their own in place for the 2018/19 season, but their timetable was delayed. It will likely just be a matter of time until New Orleans launches an NBAGL affiliate, and Portland and Denver probably won’t be far behind.

For 2018/19, here’s the full list of G League affiliates:

Atlanta Hawks: Erie BayHawks
Boston Celtics: Maine Red Claws
Brooklyn Nets: Long Island Nets
Charlotte Hornets: Greensboro Swarm
Chicago Bulls: Windy City Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers: Canton Charge
Dallas Mavericks: Texas Legends
Detroit Pistons: Grand Rapids Drive
Golden State Warriors: Santa Cruz Warriors
Houston Rockets: Rio Grande Valley Vipers
Indiana Pacers: Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Los Angeles Clippers: Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario
Los Angeles Lakers: South Bay Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies: Memphis Hustle
Miami Heat: Sioux Falls Skyforce
Milwaukee Bucks: Wisconsin Herd
Minnesota Timberwolves: Iowa Wolves
New York Knicks: Westchester Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder: Oklahoma City Blue
Orlando Magic: Lakeland Magic
Philadelphia 76ers: Delaware Blue Coats (new nickname)
Phoenix Suns: Northern Arizona Suns
Sacramento Kings: Stockton Kings (relocation)
San Antonio Spurs: Austin Spurs
Toronto Raptors: Raptors 905
Utah Jazz: Salt Lake City Stars
Washington Wizards: Capital City Go-Go (expansion)

Wizards’ G League Affiliate Announces GM, Coach

August 7th, 2018 at 12:06pm CST by Luke Adams

Twenty-six NBA teams had their own G League squads in 2017/18, and a 27th will enter the league in 2018/19, with the Wizards introducing Capital City Go-Go, their new NBAGL affiliate. Today, the franchise issued a press release announcing that Pops Mensah-Bonsu will serve as the Go-Go’s first general manager, while Jarell Christian will be the team’s head coach.

Mensah-Bonsu, who played his college ball at nearby George Washington University, entered the NBA as a player in 2006 and spent time with the Mavericks, Spurs, Raptors, Rockets, and Pelicans (then the Hornets) over the course of his career. He also had an extensive professional career in international leagues as a player before retiring in 2015 and working for the Spurs and the NBPA.

“I am humbled to be entrusted with this position and would like to thank the Wizards organization for the opportunity,” Mensah-Bonsu said in a statement. “Washington is my second home and the city has embraced me ever since I stepped on the George Washington campus. I am excited to be able to give back by making sure that the Go-Go is a pillar in the community and a team that the city can get behind.”

As for Christian, he has served as an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate, for the last four seasons. He briefly held the interim head coach position for the club during the 2016/17 season when Mark Daigneault was promoted to the Thunder’s staff.

With the Wizards’ affiliate set to join the G League for the 2018/19 season, only three NBA clubs – the Nuggets, Pelicans, and Trail Blazers – are still without an NBAGL affiliate of their own.

And-Ones: ROY Predictions, Offseason Rankings, NBAGL

August 6th, 2018 at 4:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has the best chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, according to an ESPN panel. Doncic will fill up the stat sheet and might wind up with the ball more often than second-year guard Dennis Smith Jr., according to Mike Schmitz. Top overall pick Deandre Ayton ranks second on the poll, with Schmitz noting that the Suns big man likely to get more playing time than any other rookie. Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., Cavaliers point guard Collin Sexton and Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. round out the top five.

We have more from around the league:

Retaining Paul George in free agency and dumping Carmelo Anthony‘s contract while receiving projected sixth man Dennis Schroder in return earned the Thunder the top spot on NBA.com’s David Aldridge’s offseason rankings. The rankings are based upon what teams have done during the offseason. The Lakers ranked No. 2 by virtue of signing LeBron James and handing out one-year contracts to other players, thus allowing them to be a force again in next year’s free agent market. The Nuggets gained the No. 3 spot by locking up Nikola Jokic and making trades that cleared roster spots and eased their luxury-tax situation.
Forwards DJ Hogg (Texas A&M) and Malik Pope (San Diego State) and swingman BJ Johnson (LaSalle) are among the top 10 prospects at the G League Invitational, according to Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype. The invitational takes place Sunday in Chicago and over a dozen of last year’s prospects received training camp invites afterward.
The Warriors’ over-under odds for wins next season is 62.5, according to Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The Celtics ranked second overall with a 57.5 over-under win total with the Rockets third at 54.5. The Hawks have the lowest projected win total at 23.5. The odds for each NBA team were passed along by ESPN’s Ben Fawkes.

Western Rumors: Hart, Bender, Ellis, Artis

August 3rd, 2018 at 8:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Lakers made some controversial additions after LeBron James committed to them but guard Josh Hart believes they will improve, not disrupt, the chemistry of the team, RealGM’s Keith Smith reports. Hart is especially on board with the signing of point guard Rajon Rondo. “We like the guys we got. Rajon will really help us stabilize the lead guard spot,” Hart said. “Lonzo (Ball) is going to learn a ton from him. Lance (Stephenson) brings toughness and defense from the bench. JaVale (McGee) does the occasional silly thing, but he does so many good things people skip over.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

Suns power forward Dragan Bender struggled mightily in summer league action entering a make or break year, Smith writes in the same piece. Bender had a difficult time defending on the perimeter and couldn’t consistently knock down his 3-point attempts, Smith continues. Overall, Bender shot 37% from the field in Las Vegas. The Suns hold a $5,896,519 team option on his 2019/20 contract and have until the end of this year’s training camp to decide whether to exercise it.
The Kings agreed to sign Jamel Artis to a training-camp deal because small forward is a position of need, according to Noel Harris of the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento also has Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica and Justin Jackson at that spot. Artis played for the Cavs summer-league team against the Kings and posted 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a steal. He saw action in 15 games with the Magic last season.
Suns assistant Ty Ellis is expected to be named the head coach of the G League’s Stockton Kings, Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days reports. Ellis was the former head coach of the G League’s Northern Arizona Suns before joining Phoenix’s staff after Earl Watson was fired last season. Ellis will replace Darrick Martin, Sacramento’s G League coach the last two seasons.