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Lakers Targeting Dan Hurley In Head Coaching Search

June 6th, 2024 at 6:20am CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers are targeting UConn’s Dan Hurley to become their next head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that the team is preparing a “massive, long-term” offer for the back-to-back national champion.

Sources tell ESPN that Hurley has been at the “forefront” of the Lakers’ search process, though the club has only had preliminary discussions with him so far and has done its due diligence on other candidates. The plan is for Los Angeles to escalate its discussions with Hurley in the coming days, Wojnarowski adds.

After playing his college ball at Seton Hall from 1991-96, Hurley immediately transitioned into coaching, spending a year as a high school assistant coach before being hired to Rutgers’ staff as an assistant.

Hurley became the head coach at St. Benedict’s Prep (a New Jersey high school) from 2001-10, then broke into the college ranks at a head coach with coached Wagner from 2010-12. Following a stint as Rhode Island’s head coach from 2012-18, he arrived at Connecticut in 2018. He has since led the Huskies to a 141-58 (.709) record, with national championships in both 2023 and 2024.

As Wojnarowski details, Hurley has talked in the past about wanting to one day coach in the NBA and has let the Lakers know he’s interested in exploring what a partnership would look like. For their part, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss and head of basketball operations Rob Pelinka are enthusiastic about the idea of bringing his “tactical acumen and elite player development” to the Lakers, Woj adds, while star forward LeBron James has expressed admiration for Hurley’s creative offensive system.

It’s a surprising development, as the Lakers were long believed to be eyeing ESPN and ABC analyst J.J. Redick for their head coaching vacancy. Several reports from many different outlets in recent weeks have identified Redick as the frontrunner for the position, with Shams Charania of The Athletic stating on Tuesday that L.A. was “zeroing in” on the former NBA sharpshooter.

Wojnarowski described Redick several weeks ago as a “name to watch” in the Lakers’ search, noting that the team was “drilling down” on him in its initial research. However, he has never described Redick as the favorite.

There was a belief that the recent silence from Wojnarowski on the Lakers’ search was perhaps due to the fact that Redick was an ESPN colleague, but it appears now that Woj just had different information — he stresses in today’s report that the “potential of landing Hurley has been the focus of the Lakers’ search,” even as they interviewed candidates like Redick, James Borrego, and Sam Cassell, among others.

According to Wojnarowski, part of Hurley’s appeal is the fact that the Lakers anticipate player development becoming a greater priority for the franchise under the current CBA, due to the roster-building limitations facing teams above the tax aprons. They believed that their younger players, including Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Max Christie, can continue to get better under a coach like Hurley.

The Lakers have been searching for a new head coach since formally dismissing Darvin Ham on May 3. Ham had a 90-74 (.549) record during his two seasons in Los Angeles, winning a pair of playoff series in his first year last spring.

Projected Lottery Pick Nikola Topic Has Partially Torn ACL

June 5th, 2024 at 11:18am CST by Luke Adams

Nikola Topic, long considered a probable lottery pick in the 2024 draft, has been diagnosed with a partially torn ACL, agent Misko Raznatovic confirmed to Jonathan Givony of ESPN.

Topic is among the prospects currently in attendance at the NBA’s international draft combine in Treviso, Italy for players who couldn’t make it to last month’s combine in Chicago. This week’s international combine features a medical examination – including imaging – for all participants, which confirmed the diagnosis for the 6’7″ guard.

As an early entrant in this year’s draft class, Topic has until June 16 to decide whether or not he wants to keep his name in the pool. The plan, Givony writes, is for the Serbian point guard to travel in the coming days to the United States, where he’ll be evaluated by NBA team doctors and work out a treatment plan, including possible surgery.

For what it’s worth, Raznatovic told Givony that he doesn’t think the injury will have a significant impact on Topic’s draft stock due to his age (19 in August) and the early feedback from U.S. doctors who have looked at his MRIs. Those doctors have said the stability of the knee is “in excellent shape,” per Raznatovic.

While it’s hard to imagine an NBA franchise being quite as enthusiastic about using a lottery pick on a player with an injury that could cause him to miss some or all of his rookie season, Topic’s recovery timeline could be accelerated if doctors determine that reconstructive surgery isn’t necessary.

Teams drafting in the top 15 will be assured of receiving Topic’s medical information, Givony notes, due to a rule change in the new CBA. It would be up to Topic’s representatives to decide whether to share his medicals with teams outside of the top 15.

As Givony writes, Topic initially sustained a left knee injury in January while playing for Crvena Zvezda in Serbia. He returned to action in late April, but played just three Adriatic League games before hurting the knee again. The No. 9 player on ESPN’s 2024 big board, Topic was excellent when healthy in 2023/24, averaging 18.6 points and 6.9 assists per game for Mega Basket and Crvena Zvezda, per Givony.

Timberwolves President Connelly Agrees To Restructured Contract, Will Stay With Club

June 4th, 2024 at 10:17pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The speculation regarding Tim Connelly‘s future has been pushed back for at least one season.

According to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania (Twitter links), Connelly has agreed to a restructured contract with the Timberwolves that will keep him in charge of Minnesota’s front office for at least one more season.

Connelly had an opt-out clause in his contract that could have made a highly desirable “free agent” among NBA executives. Connelly helped build the Nuggets into a championship club and constructed a Timberwolves roster that made them a Western Conference finalist.

He’ll now be able to opt out after next season.

There has been heavy speculation that Connelly might exercise the opt-out due to the franchise’s ongoing ownership dispute. Current majority owner Glen Taylor is at odds with prospective owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez over financial issues. A three-person arbitration panel has been selected to oversee the ownership dispute, but there are no signs of a quick resolution.

Connelly, the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations, recently indicated that the ownership dispute wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for his future with the organization.

“I’ve had a blast here. Feels like we have roots here. It’s pretty special. That’s the goal. It has been a great couple years, and hopefully, we can make it a much longer couple years,” he said.

By restructuring his contract, Connelly can now focus on trying to tweak the Timberwolves’ roster and get them into next year’s Finals. If things go sour, he’ll have the option of moving on to another organization.

Connelly was on the Pistons’ radar for their president of basketball operations job before they decided to hire Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon.

Even with the ownership issues, Connelly’s preference was to stay in Minnesota. He and his family have settled into the area. He could sign another long-term deal after the ownership situation settles, Krawczynski reports.

Lakers Zeroing In On Redick For Head Coaching Job

June 4th, 2024 at 4:42pm CST by Dana Gauruder

J.J. Redick has emerged as the clear frontrunner for the Lakers’ head coaching job, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports.

No final decision has been made yet, and the Lakers still have steps remaining in their head-coaching search process, Charania continues. But all indications are that Redick is their top choice at this stage.

The Lakers’ search has been focused on two candidates — Redick and Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego — in recent weeks. Redick was the first candidate to have a face-to-face meeting with the Lakers three weeks ago, and Borrego did an in-person interview with Lakers officials for a second time last week.

Redick is serving as a color commentator for the NBA Finals on ABC/ESPN, which is why many people around the league believe that an announcement won’t take place until after the series.

Darvin Ham was fired after the season after only two years at the helm. The Lakers are seeking a coach who will have a longer shelf life, one who will command the locker room and hold players accountable. They are also seeking an expert game planner who can provide a level of structure and organization and the Lakers believe Redick checks all those boxes. As he previously stated, Charania adds that Lakers officials are “infatuated” with Redick and his potential as a coach.

The Lakers have consulted during the process with longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Redick from 2002-06.

Pistons Hiring J.R. Holden In Front Office Role

June 4th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets are about to lose another key executive, according to Jake Fischer and Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, who report (via Twitter) that Brooklyn’s director of player personnel J.R. Holden will leave the organization to take a front office job with the Pistons.

Sean Marks already lost one top lieutenant in March when the Hornets hired Jeff Peterson (an assistant GM in Brooklyn) as their new head of basketball operations. Holden will be joining new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon in Detroit.

Although Langdon and Holden both worked under Marks in Brooklyn, they didn’t overlap at all during their stints with the franchise. Langdon left the Nets in 2019 to become the Pelicans’ general manager. Later in that same summer, Holden was hired away from the Sixers by the Nets, who made him their director of player personnel.

However, Langdon and Holden were teammates with CSKA Moscow during their playing careers. A former standout at Bucknell, Holden played professionally overseas from 1998-2011, competing in Latvia, Belgium, Greece, and Russia. He and Langdon won a pair of EuroLeague championships with CSKA in 2006 and 2008, and both men were named to the EuroLeague’s All-Decade team for the 2000s.

Following his playing career, Holden transitioned into scouting, working for Detroit and Philadelphia before being hired by the Nets in 2019. The Pistons reportedly had interest in bringing him back in an executive role in 2020, but nothing came of that interest at the time — four years later, it appears a reunion is imminent.

Fischer and Goodwill don’t specify what Holden’s title will be with the Pistons, so it’s unclear whether he’ll be Langdon’s second-in-command or if another executive will be brought in for that position. Previous reporting stated that Detroit was eyeing Pelicans VP of basketball administration Michael Blackstone as a possible No. 2 to Langdon.

Kristaps Porzingis On Track To Return For Game 1 Of Finals

June 4th, 2024 at 12:01pm CST by Luke Adams

12:01pm: While Porzingis admitted he’s not sure if he’s 100%, he confirmed today to reporters that “the plan” is for him to play in Game 1, tweets Brian Robb of MassLive.com.

“We have a couple more days,” Porzingis said. “I’ve done a lot of work up until this point. I’ve done everything needed to get back into playing shape.”

9:44am: Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis, who has been on the shelf for over a month due to a calf strain, is on track to return to action in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, assuming he doesn’t experience a setback before Thursday’s tip-off, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Porzingis was injured during Game 4 of the Celtics’ first-round series vs. Miami on April 29. He was a diagnosed with a strained right soleus, which is a muscle in the calf, and missed the entire Eastern Conference semifinals vs. Cleveland, as well as the conference finals vs. Indiana.

However, Porzingis has been ramping up his activity in recent weeks in the hopes of returning for the NBA Finals. According to Charania, the 28-year-old has participated in multiple scrimmages within the last few days.

“Monday was a very, very critical day for Kristaps Porzingis and the Celtics,” Charania said during an appearance on FanDuel’s Run it Back show (Twitter video link). “He completed a second 5-on-5 scrimmage in three days. It was a success, he came out well.”

It’s unclear whether Porzingis will immediately reclaim his spot in the starting lineup once he’s cleared to return — or what sort of minutes limit he might face. During his absence, reserve center Al Horford has started Boston’s past 10 games, with Luke Kornet, Oshae Brissett, and Xavier Tillman all seeing some minutes off the bench at the five.

A healthy Porzingis would provide rim protection on defense and would add one more dimension to the Celtics’ offensive attack. In his three full playoff games before he was injured, he averaged 14.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.0 blocks, and 1.7 steals per game on .419/.412/.900 shooting.

Mavericks Sign GM Nico Harrison To Contract Extension

June 4th, 2024 at 8:18am CST by Luke Adams

Less than a month after signing head coach Jason Kidd to a long-term extension, the Mavericks have also locked up general manager Nico Harrison, announcing today in a press release that they’ve finalized a new multiyear deal with their top front office decision-maker.

“Nico Harrison has demonstrated his leadership and capabilities in the Dallas Mavericks organization,” team governor Patrick Dumont said in a statement. “His vision, along with his efforts on behalf of our players and staff have propelled our team to two playoff appearances in three seasons and of course this year’s NBA Finals. We are proud to have him as part of our team for the long term, and we are excited to watch him continue to build on the foundation of success he has helped establish.”

Harrison, who was hired by the Mavericks as their head of basketball operations in 2021 after spending nearly two decades at Nike, is wrapping up the third year of his initial four-year contract. With Dallas set to compete in the 2024 NBA Finals, it was essentially a foregone conclusion that the franchise would work out a new deal for Harrison rather than letting him enter next season as a lame duck.

Harrison’s key moves since arriving in Dallas include hiring Kidd as head coach and signing Luka Doncic to a rookie scale extension in his first summer with the team, trading for Kyrie Irving at the 2023 deadline, drafting Dereck Lively last spring, and acquiring P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford at this year’s trade deadline.

While the Mavericks had a disappointing 38-44 season in 2022/23, that year was sandwiched by a 52-30 showing and a Western Conference finals appearance in ’21/22 and a 50-32 record and an NBA Finals appearance this season. Overall, Dallas has gone 140-106 (.569) during the regular season under Harrison, with a playoff record of 21-14 (.706).

“I am incredibly grateful to Patrick and the entire Dumont and Adelson family for their continued trust and confidence and to Mark for his willingness to hire an unconventional candidate,” Harrison said in a statement. “Patrick and his family have accepted me as their own from day one and I am honored to work alongside them, as well as Jason Kidd, as we continue to build a winning culture in Dallas.”

NBA Announces 2024 Draft Schedule

June 4th, 2024 at 7:55am CST by Luke Adams

After having reached an agreement with the players’ union to make the 2024 draft a two-day affair, the NBA has officially announced the start times for this year’s event (Twitter link).

According to the league, day one (the first round) will start at its usual time of 8:00 pm Eastern on Wednesday, June 26. However, day two (the second round) will begin earlier in the day on Thursday, June 27, airing at 4:00 pm ET.

As Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic points out (via Twitter), the NBA may have initially planned to start round two in prime-time on Thursday, rather than in the afternoon, but with a U.S. presidential debate scheduled for the evening of June 27, it makes sense to avoid competing with that broadcast.

In past years, the first round of the draft has begun at 8:00 pm ET on a Thursday and typically runs for three-plus hours, with the second round not getting underway until closer to 11:30 pm ET. That has resulted in round two wrapping up well past midnight and post-draft updates about undrafted free agents agreeing to two-way contracts and Exhibit 10 deals continuing well into the early hours of Friday morning.

Having split the draft into two days this year, the NBA should be able to finish up the first night at a more reasonable hour on Wednesday, with the second round concluding in the early evening on Thursday (teams will have four minutes instead of two to make second-round selections this year). Those post-draft reports on UDFA signings will likely stream in throughout Thursday evening and into the night following the conclusion of the second round.

The full draft order for 2024, from the Hawks at No. 1 to the Mavericks at No. 58, can be found right here.

Kyrie Irving: “Wasn’t My Best Self” With Celtics

June 3rd, 2024 at 5:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Perhaps the biggest subplot of these Finals is Kyrie Irving‘s return to Boston after his rocky two-year stay with the Celtics. Irving expressed contrition for some of his actions during those 2017/18 and ’18/19 seasons, as well as two subsequent playoff series against the Celtics when he played for the Nets, Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes.

The Mavericks guard views his time in a Celtics uniform as a learning experience.

“It was just a chapter in my life that I got to enjoy for the most part,” Irving said. “We had a great opportunity to do some special things, but it was cut short, just based off personal reasons on my end. One thing I look back on my time in Boston — I’ve said this over the past few years, but somehow it gets tossed under the rug — but the greatest thing I learned from Boston was just being able to manage not only my emotions or just what’s going on on a day-to-day basis of being a leader of a team or being one of the leaders, and having young guys around you that have their own goals, but you have to learn how to put the big picture first.”

Irving also admits he deserved some of the criticism that came his way during his two seasons in Boston. Irving was often moody and aloof during that time.

“I don’t mind, after a few years, taking the brunt of the blame (for my time in Boston not working out),” Irving said, per Tim Cato of The Athletic. “(I’m) one of the best players in the world so I know what comes with that fair criticism. You know, it’s just that a little bit more grace could have been extended my way, especially with what I was dealing with during that time as a human being. I know sometimes in sports, it’s literally about the end goal and result in what you accomplish, and that’s one thing. But we’re still human. At the end of the day, I wasn’t my best self during that time. When I look back on it, I just see it as a time where I learned how to let go of things and learned how to talk through my emotions.”

Irving had difficulty handling his emotions during the 2021 and 2022 playoffs. In the latter, he was fined $50K for flashing his middle finger at fans during the Nets’ Game 1 loss.

Irving says he’s better prepared and more mature now, as he and Luka Doncic try to lead Dallas to a second championship in 14 years. Irving knows the road games during the Finals, which begin Thursday in Boston, will test his patience. But he feels he’s better equipped to block out the noise.

“I think I’m better at consolidating kind of the emotions now or being aware of what it’s going to be like,” Irving said. “We call it animosity, we call it hate, we call it, ‘It’s going to be hell in Boston.’ I mean, there are real, live circumstances going on in the world that are bigger than the basketball, kind of the competitive side of things and answering those questions. But I will say last time in Boston, I don’t think that was the best — not this regular season, but when we played in the playoffs and everyone saw me flip off the birds and kind of lose my (bleep) a little bit — that wasn’t a great reflection of who I am and how I like to compete on a high level. It wasn’t a great reflection on my end towards the next generation on what it means to control your emotions in that type of environment, no matter what people are yelling at you.

“I’m built for these moments, to be able to handle circumstances like that, and I’ve been able to grow since then,” he added. “So of course it’s going to be a hectic environment, but I’m looking forward to it and I see it as a healthy relationship that I have with the fans. I almost think about ‘Gladiator,’ just winning the crowd over. It is good to hear the TD Garden silent when you’re playing well. They still respect great basketball.”

Irving has been stellar in this postseason, averaging 22.8 points and 5.2 assists per game. He has made 48.5% of his field goal attempts, a career best in the postseason.

Suns Expected To Retain Royce O’Neale

June 3rd, 2024 at 3:43pm CST by Rory Maher

Suns forward Royce O’Neale is expected to remain with Phoenix this offseason, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on his Hoop Collective podcast.

“They’re going to re-sign Royce O’Neale,” Windhorst said, per RealGM. “That’s going to get done.”

O’Neale, who turns 31 years old on Wednesday, was acquired from Brooklyn in a three-team trade ahead of the February deadline. He appeared in 79 regular season games with the Nets and Suns, averaging 7.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists while shooting 37.0% from three-point range in 24.7 minutes per contest.

A former Baylor Bear who started his professional career in Europe, O’Neale has been a solid 3-and-D player for several seasons now. He spent his first five NBA seasons with Utah before being traded to Brooklyn a couple years ago.

Most impending free agents technically can’t negotiate with their current teams until the NBA Finals end later this month. That doesn’t apply to O’Neale, however, because he’s also eligible for a veteran extension.

O’Neale earned $9.5MM in 2023/24 and will likely be in line for a raise. The Suns project to be well over the highly restrictive second tax apron next season and have limited flexibility in how they can build out their team, but they have O’Neale’s Bird rights, meaning they can go over the cap to re-sign him up to his maximum salary.

As long as ownership is willing to foot the bill, Phoenix is actually incentivized to increase O’Neale’s salary in order to have a larger contract for matching purposes — the Suns won’t be able to aggregate salaries in trades due to being over the second tax apron.