NBA G League Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pelicans Narrow NBADL Affiliate Search To Six Cities

April 25th, 2017 at 2:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pelicans intend to own and operate an NBA D-League franchise starting in 2018/19, and have received preliminary proposals from six cities in or near Louisiana, the team announced today in a press release. Representatives from those six locations will have until June 7 to submit a “complete and comprehensive proposal” for a D-League team to the Pelicans.

The six cities to express interest in housing the Pelicans’ new D-League affiliate are Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Pensacola, Florida; St. Tammany Parish, LA; and Shreveport, LA.

“We are excited to the see the excitement which this process has generated among the six locations,” Pelicans owner Tom Benson said in a statement. “All of them have stepped forward with legitimate and sincere interest and are going to make a case via their proposals for why they would like to be the home of our NBA G League team in 2018-2019. The process is underway and we know that this will be a very significant addition for a city/parish near us as it will add global exposure and bring professional basketball to their town.”

The Pelicans initially announced in late March that they intend to launch a D-League affiliate to begin play for the 2018/19 season. By that time, of course, the league will have re-branded itself — it’s set to become the “G-League” later this year in honor of its partnership with Gatorade.

At the time of New Orleans’ initial announcement, the organization indicated that it would send a Request for Proposal to 11 cities, including seven in Lousiana and four in nearby states. It appears that about half of those cities responded to the Pelicans’ request, showing interest in landing a team. We should hear more in the coming months about which locations are the frontrunners to host the Pelicans’ NBADL affiliate.

With the Pelicans poised to acquire a D-League club of their own, the only NBA teams without an affiliate – or a plan in place to add one – are the Nuggets, Clippers, Trail Blazers, and Wizards.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/25/17

April 25th, 2017 at 12:36pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are Tuesday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

In what could be the last D-League assignments of the season, Bruno Caboclo, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet have been sent to the Raptors 905 by the Raptors, the team announced today (Twitter link). Toronto’s D-League affiliate will look to extend the NBADL Finals to a third and deciding game with a win tonight, and VanVleet – who appeared briefly at the end of the Raptors’ win over Milwaukee on Monday – will Caboclo and Siakam as added reinforcements.
The Raptors 905’s opponent in the D-League Finals, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, likely won’t make any moves today — Kyle Wiltjer, Chinanu Onuaku, and Isaiah Taylor have been assigned to the Vipers for the last 10 days and will presumably remain with the Rockets‘ D-League affiliate as the club looks to clinch the NBADL title.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/24/17

April 24th, 2017 at 12:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are today’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

After a Raptors 905 loss in the first game of the NBA D-League Finals on Sunday, Bruno Caboclo and Pascal Siakam have been recalled to Toronto by the Raptors, the team announced today (Twitter link). Caboclo and Siakam figure to remain with the NBA club for tonight’s playoff game before being re-assigned to the Raptors 905 for Game 2 of the championship round on Tuesday. Since the NBADL’s series are best-of-three, Tuesday’s game could be the last of the D-League season.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/20/17

April 20th, 2017 at 9:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Here are the D-League transactions for the day:

The Raptors recalled forwards Bruno Caboclo and Pascal Siakam from Raptors 905, the team’s media relations department tweets. Neither player was active for Game 3 of Toronto’s playoff game against the Bucks on Thursday. Siakam had 15 points and 10 rebounds against the Maine Red Claws on Wednesday as Raptors 905 advanced to the D-League Finals. Caboclo scored 16 points in the 103-88 victory.
The Celtics recalled big man Jordan Mickey and point guard Demetrius Jackson from the Maine Red Claws, according to the team’s Twitter feed. Mickey had 13 points and nine rebounds against Raptors 905, while Jackson contributed 21 points and five assists in the season-ending loss.
The Thunder recalled forward Josh Huestis from the Oklahoma City Blue, the team announced in a press release. Huestis had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds during Wednesday’s 102-114 season- ending loss to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He averaged 17.7 PPG and 6.7 RPG in six postseason games with the Blue.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls 4/19/17

April 19th, 2017 at 9:32pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Toronto’s D-League affiliate, the Raptors 905, beat the Maine Red Claws tonight to win the D-League’s Eastern Conference and advance to the finals. Pascal Siakam, who was assigned to the D-League earlier today (via the team’s Twitter feed), contributed to the win, scoring 15 points. The victory caps off a great day for the franchise, as its coach, Jerry Stackhouse, was named the D-League Coach of the Year this afternoon.

Jerry Stackhouse Named NBADL Coach Of The Year

April 19th, 2017 at 3:48pm CST by Luke Adams

Four years after playing his last NBA game, Jerry Stackhouse is receiving formal recognition for his coaching work. The NBA D-League announced today in a press release that Stackhouse, the coach of the Raptors 905, Toronto’s NBADL affiliate, has been named the D-League’s Coach of the Year for the 2016/17 season.

Stackhouse, who took over as head coach of the Raptors 905 last offseason, led the club to a 39-11 regular season record, the best mark in the D-League. Toronto’s affiliate made it through the first round of the NBADL playoffs and is now facing the Maine Red Claws, Boston’s D-League affiliate, for the right to advance to the championship round. A Raptors 905 win tonight would send the club to the D-League Finals.

While we typically wouldn’t dedicate a full story to a D-League award, Stackhouse’s achievement is worth noting because his name has increasingly been mentioned this year among the NBA’s ascendant head coaching candidates.

Sam Fortier of The Ringer profiled Stackhouse last month, writing that the longtime NBA star hopes to join the ranks of the league’s head coaches in the near future. Stackhouse told Fortier that he looked at the quick jumps from playing to coaching made by Derek Fisher and Jason Kidd, and believed he could follow suit.

“Seeing [Fisher and Kidd] get those head-coaching jobs, I was like, I know I’m — you hate to say better — but I know I’m damn as good as those guys when it comes to coaching,” Stackhouse said. “I’ve had more experience. …

“I wouldn’t have been ready [to be a head coach] in 2012–13, but Jason Kidd came in and my mind was like, ‘I have more of a pulse of this team than he could ever have. They respect me.’ I look at all of the other relationships you have to have to make it work, and the people you need to know in organizations. … It’s hard to get that.”

It doesn’t appear that many teams will make head coaching changes this spring, after more than one third of the league’s clubs hired new coaches in 2016. But when NBA jobs start to open up again, there’s a chance that Stackhouse will draw some interest.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/18/17

April 18th, 2017 at 5:51pm CST by Austin Kent

Here are the D-League transactions for the day:

The Raptors assigned forward Bruno Caboclo to their D-League affiliate, the club’s media department tweets. The Raps and Bucks play Game 2 of their first-round series tonight at 6 PM CST, so it appears Caboclo won’t be with Toronto for that game.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/17/17

April 17th, 2017 at 11:02pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Here are Monday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Raptors have recalled Bruno Caboclo and Pascal Siakam from the Raptors 905, according to the team’s Twitter feed. Siakam is one of the many 2016 first-round picks who saw action in the D-League this season, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors previously detailed.

NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/16/17

April 16th, 2017 at 6:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are Sunday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Celtics are in action in the first round of the NBA playoffs tonight, but Demetrius Jackson and Jordan Mickey aren’t with them, having been assigned to the Maine Red Claws, per the team (Twitter link). Jackson and Mickey are playing in Maine’s game against the Raptors 905 today in the D-League postseason.
The Rockets have assigned Chinanu Onuaku, Isaiah Taylor, and Kyle Wiltjer to the D-League, the team announced today (Twitter link). Like Boston, Houston has both its NBA team and its D-League affiliate playing postseason games today, so Onuaku, Taylor, and Wiltjer will suit up for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers rather than the Rockets.

Clippers Notes: Austin Rivers, D-League, Ingles

April 16th, 2017 at 12:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

Austin Rivers will miss at least one more game of the playoff series with the Jazz because of a left hamstring strain that he suffered late in the season, tweets Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times. His father and coach, Doc Rivers, said Austin went through a shooting session Saturday for the first time since the injury. He also did some light sprints and dribbling drills as the workout went better than a previous attempt. “I was on the court three or four days ago,” Austin Rivers told Bill Oram of The Orange County Register, “and it didn’t really go as I planned. Didn’t feel good and they took me off and waited a couple more days, with a little treatment and stuff like that. Today we tried it again and it worked.” He is aiming to be ready for Game 3 Friday night in Utah.

There’s more today out of Los Angeles:

The Clippers are hoping to add a D-League franchise next season, reports Adam Johnson of D-League Digest. The original plan was to have a team in place for 2018/19, but the organization decided it doesn’t want to wait that long. Ontario, California, is the preferred location, and the Clippers are awaiting league approval for that site. If that doesn’t work out, Johnson suggests Bakersfield as an alternative. The city hosted the Bakersfield Jam before that franchise was purchased by the Suns and moved to Northern Arizona. The new team would be the 26th in the D-League and the fourth to join next season.
The Clippers are facing Utah’s Joe Ingles in the playoffs three years after waiving him. Doc Rivers says the move was necessary because of another contract that the Clippers were obligated to keep, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. That contract belonged to Jared Cunningham, who only spent 19 games in L.A., according to Dan Woike of DanWoikeSports (Twitter link). Ingles was waived by the Clippers on October 25th, 2014, and claimed by the Jazz two days later.
The Clippers should have been more inspired in Game 1 considering that their long-term future is at stake, writes Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin can both opt out this summer, and the core of the team could be broken up with another early playoff exit.