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Kawhi Leonard Completes Team USA’s Star-Studded Roster For Olympics

April 16th, 2024 at 6:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Team USA has completed its selection of an All-Star laden 12-player roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic report (Twitter link). Kawhi Leonard was chosen for the final roster spot, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday the 11 other selections for the roster. Team USA received a firm commitment from Leonard on Tuesday, Wojnarowski tweets.

Unlike USA Basketball’s FIBA World Cup roster last summer, which lacked size and interior strength, the Olympic roster is filled with quality bigs. Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis will be joined at the power positions by LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

The wings will be manned by Jayson Tatum, Leonard, Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards. Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton and Stephen Curry round out the backcourt.

Haliburton and Edwards are the only players from the FIBA World Cup roster to make Team USA’s Olympic roster.

Team USA has won the gold medal in each of the last four Summer Olympics.

Potential Lottery Pick Ron Holland To Enter Draft

April 16th, 2024 at 5:06pm CST by Dana Gauruder

G League Ignite wing Ron Holland, a potential lottery selection, will enter the draft, he told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

The 6’7” Holland averaged 19.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.3 steals per game for the Ignite this season after decommitting from Texas last spring. Holland is currently rated No. 13 overall on ESPN’s Best Available list.

“This season was an opportunity to learn and grow,” Holland said. “Emotionally, all the losing was draining, but it helped me grow mentally learning my role, how to play and letting the game come to me.”

In past years, players who joined the Ignite became automatically draft-eligible after their first season or during the calendar year in which they turned 19, but the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement tweaked that rule so that those prospects now won’t become draft-eligible until they enter of their own accord or until the calendar year when they turn 22. That’s why Holland has to declare for the draft.

Holland’s stock has slipped a bit, since he rated No. 2 in the ESPN 100 back in 2023. He said he plans on reminding NBA scouts during the pre-draft process why he was so highly touted prior to joining the Ignite, which won only six of 50 games. The Ignite program, which was created to develop prospects, will be disbanded.

“Nothing has changed with me,” Holland said. “I’m still the same competitor who won two gold medals with USA Basketball, won AAU tournaments and state championships, and was on the No. 1 team in high school basketball. I’m going to keep doing what it takes to win games, diving on the floor for loose balls and making 50/50 plays. I can defend every position and [I’ve] improved as a facilitator quite a bit playing with other great players.”

Holland’s season was cut short by a ruptured tendon in his right thumb, forcing him to miss the Ignite’s final 19 games. He said he was cleared for full basketball activities several weeks ago.

Suns Sign Grayson Allen To Four-Year, $70MM Extension

April 16th, 2024 at 1:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

APRIL 16: Allen’s contract extension is official, the Suns announced today in a press release.

“Grayson embodies our values and we are committed to him being a key member of our core as we continue to build together into the future,” Suns president of basketball operations James Jones said in a statement. “He has been outstanding for us this season, leading the league in three-point shooting while providing a versatile skillset and competitive spirit on both ends of the floor. Phoenix has become a home for Grayson and his family, and we are thrilled that they want to be part of this community and our winning culture for years to come.”

“I love being in Phoenix and believe in what we can achieve here,” Allen added in a statement of his own. “Thank you to Mat Ishbia and the organization for embracing me. I’m excited to make a long-term commitment to remain in this community and continue building with this team.”

APRIL 15: Grayson Allen has agreed to a four-year, $70MM extension with the Suns, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The deal, which includes a player option for the final season, was confirmed to Wojnarowski by Allen’s agents, Mitch Nathan, Aaron Mintz and Steven Heumann of CAA Basketball.

Allen has thrived in his first year in Phoenix, becoming the NBA’s leader in three-point shooting percentage this season at 46.1%. He also reached career highs by averaging 13.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 33.5 minutes per game while making 73 starts.

Wojnarowski notes that the new contract will continue to escalate the Suns’ tax bill, which has exploded since Mat Ishbia bought the team midway through last season. Allen will make $15.6MM next season, pushing the team’s projected payroll to $206MM. That will result in an estimated $104MM in luxury tax payments, which would be the highest figure in the league.

Phoenix is currently projected to exceed the second apron by $16MM in 2024/25, Woj adds, triggering the most severe restrictions under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Suns won’t be permitted to send out cash in trades, aggregate contracts or make use of a preexisting trade exception. They also won’t be able to trade their 2032 first-round pick if they finish next season above the second apron.

Allen had been headed for unrestricted free agency this summer, so the agreement locks up an important part of the Suns’ offense for at least three more seasons. With Phoenix already well above the salary cap, the team would have faced few options for replacing Allen if he had signed elsewhere.

The 28-year-old guard had bounced around the league since being selected by Utah with the 21st pick in the 2018 draft. The Suns were his fourth team in six years when they acquired him last summer as part of the three-team deal that sent Damian Lillard to Milwaukee. Allen had been a starter for the Bucks the past two seasons, but he was able to fully unlock his game on a Phoenix team where he’s surrounded by elite scorers in Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.

Rockets’ Rafael Stone, Eli Witus Received Contract Extensions

April 16th, 2024 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

Rockets general manager Rafael Stone and assistant GM Eli Witus signed multiyear contract extensions with the franchise earlier this season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The deals were agreed to in January, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required).

Stone and Witus were promoted to their current basketball operations roles back in 2020 when longtime head of basketball operations Daryl Morey left the Rockets. The revamped front office immediately faced trade requests from veteran stars Russell Westbrook and James Harden and launched a full-fledged rebuild after having made eight consecutive playoff appearances.

That rebuild began to pay dividends this season, as third-year center Alperen Sengun enjoyed a breakout year while third-year guard Jalen Green had a big second half. Other young players, including rookies Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore, as well as second-year big man Jabari Smith, showed promise in regular roles for Houston.

Additionally, free agent additions like Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks fit in well with the Rockets, and new head coach Ime Udoka led the team to a 41-41 record following three straight seasons between 17 and 22 wins.

All of those positive developments were factors in ownership’s decision to extend both Stone and Witus, according to Wojnarowski.

“It became clear that the Rockets had executed our plan to draft and develop young potential cornerstones for the franchise, stabilized the team with veterans that translated to winning games and found our coach for the present and future,” Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta said, per Feigen. “We wanted to show them as well as the public we’re excited with the direction the Rockets were going.”

The Rockets are projected to control at least one lottery pick this June, and Sengun and Green will become extension-eligible in July, so Stone, Witus, and the rest of the front office will have plenty of big decisions to make in the coming months.

Jazz Hire Avery Bradley As VP Of Player Development

April 16th, 2024 at 12:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The Jazz have hired Avery Bradley, announcing in a press release that he will assume the role of vice president of player development.

According to the team, Bradley’s role will involve evaluating personnel and “guiding the collaboration” between the locker room, front office, and coaching staff.

“When you get the opportunity to bring in someone with the wealth of experience and insight that Avery has, it’s always an exciting addition,” Jazz general manager Justin Zanik said in a statement. “He’ll bring an important perspective working with our team as well as our coaches and players as we move forward in our ultimate goal of winning an NBA Championship.”

A former NBA guard, Bradley was the 19th overall pick in the 2010 draft. He spent his first seven NBA season with the Celtics, then bounced around the league for several years, spending time with the Pistons, Clippers, Grizzlies, Lakers, Heat, Rockets, and Lakers (again) from 2017-22.

The 33-year-old never officially announced his retirement as a player, but hasn’t been on an NBA roster since becoming a free agent in July 2022 and hasn’t competed in any other leagues during that time.

Bradley earned a pair of All-Defensive nods over the course of his 12-year NBA career, including a spot on the First Team in 2016. He was also technically a member of the Lakers team that won a championship in 2020, though he opted out of participate in the Disney World bubble that year and wasn’t with the club during its postseason run.

Blake Griffin Announces Retirement

April 16th, 2024 at 11:09am CST by Luke Adams

Former No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin, who spent 14 seasons in the NBA, has announced his retirement as a player. Griffin published a post on Instagram revealing his decision.

“I never really envisioned myself as the guy who would have a ‘letter to basketball’ retirement announcement,” Griffin wrote. “And I’m still not going to be that guy. But as I reflected on my career, the one feeling I kept coming back to and the one thing I wanted to express was thankfulness.

“I’m thankful for every single moment — not just the good ones: the wins, the awards, the dunks, and the memorable times spent with family, friends, fans, teammates, and coaches.. I could continue on about the people in my life who have contributed immensely to my career, but in this short non-letter, I have to acknowledge my parents, Tommy and Gail, and my brother, Taylor, for their unconditional support and guidance. Lastly, my agent Sam Goldfeder, who has been a steadfast voice of reason and my wartime consigliere — thank you.

“I am equally thankful for the not-so-good-moments: the losses, the injuries, the wayyyy too many surgeries, the lessons, the heartbreaks, and it wouldn’t be (a) sports retirement letter without acknowledging the ‘haters.’ All of these experiences made my 14 years in the league truly unforgettable, and I can’t help but to just feel thankful.

“The game of basketball has given me so much in this life, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Last but certainly not least, here comes the obligatory ‘I’m excited for my next chapter’ part: just kidding, I’m done.”

Selected by the Clippers with the first overall pick in the 2009 draft after being named the national college player of the year at Oklahoma, Griffin missed his first NBA season due to a knee injury. However, he exploded onto the scene in 2010/11, averaging 22.5 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game en route to an All-Star berth, a Slam Dunk Contest title, and a Rookie of the Year award.

Griffin earned four more All-Star nods as a member of the “Lob City” Clippers teams that enjoyed several playoff appearances but could never break through to advance further than the Western Conference Semifinals.

After signing a five-year contract with the Clippers in 2017, Griffin was traded just six months later to Detroit, where he spent the next three years. He made his sixth and final All-Star team for the Pistons in 2019, but injuries sapped him off his explosiveness during the home stretch of his career. He was bought out by the Pistons in 2021 and joined the Nets for the next season-and-a-half before spending the 2022/23 season in Boston.

Celtics players tried to recruit Griffin to join this season’s version of the team, but the 35-year-old forward/center opted to sit out to spend more time with his family. Now he has decided to hang up his sneakers for good.

For his career, Griffin averaged 19.0 PPG, 8.0 RPG, and 4.0 APG in 765 total regular season contests (31.9 MPG). In addition to his Rookie of the Year award and six All-Star appearances, he made the All-NBA Second Team three teams and the Third Team twice.

Bucks Preparing To Be Without Giannis For Start Of Playoffs

April 16th, 2024 at 9:39am CST by Luke Adams

The Bucks are preparing to be without star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo when they tip off their first-round series vs. the Pacers on Sunday, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Antetokounmpo missed the final three games of the regular season due to an injury that the Bucks diagnosed as a left soleus (calf) strain. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Monday that there was some “real doubt” about Giannis’ ability to return for Game 1 this weekend, so Wojnarowski’s update today doesn’t come as a major surprise.

According to Woj, the Bucks are hopeful that treatment on Antetokounmpo’s calf strain will allow the two-time MVP to return sometime later in the series. He has been undergoing treatment “around the clock,” sources tell ESPN.

It’s a bit of déjà vu for the Bucks, who saw their superstar go down with a back injury in Game 1 of their first-round series vs. Miami a year ago. That injury cost Antetokounmpo two-and-a-half games of a series that the Heat ultimately won in five.

Milwaukee, which went 4-5 without Giannis this season, won’t want to put its franchise player at risk of a more serious injury by rushing him back too soon, but will want to do everything in its power to avoid a repeat of that 2023 scenario in this year’s playoffs.

Antetokounmpo is expected to show up on most MVP ballots this spring after averaging 30.4 points, 11.5 rebounds, and a career-high 6.5 assists in 35.2 minutes per game across 73 games for the Bucks. His 61.1% mark on field goal attempts this season also represented a career high.

Nets Intend To Hire Jordi Fernandez As Head Coach

April 15th, 2024 at 10:15pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernandez is set to become the Nets‘ new head coach for the 2024/25 NBA season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who hears that Fernandez is Brooklyn’s top choice and that the team is prepared to hire him.

Woj notes that Fernandez became Brooklyn’s preferred candidate following an exhaustively thorough search over the last month that reportedly included dozens of potential fits.

Fernandez, 41, was one of three finalists for the gig, along with 2021 championship-winning former Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer and Suns assistant coach Kevin Young.

The Nets had begun looking for their long-term head coaching solution even prior to the end of the 2023/24 regular season, while the team was still under the tutelage of interim head coach Kevin Ollie, who stepped in after Brooklyn fired former head coach Jacque Vaughn in February. Ollie reportedly received consideration for the permanent job but wasn’t among Brooklyn’s finalists.

Fernandez, an assistant coach under Michael Malone on the Nuggets from 2016-22, has served on Mike Brown‘s Kings staff in the past two years. In 2023, during Brown and Fernandez’s first season with the franchise, Sacramento made the playoffs for the first time in 16 seasons. Brown won Coach of the Year honors for the achievement.

Last summer, Fernandez served as the head coach of a starry Canadian national team to a bronze medal in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. He’s expected to coach the Canadians again at this summer’s Olympics.

Fernandez has long been considered a future NBA head coach and interviewed with multiple teams last spring, including the Suns and Raptors.

Since he has been the Nets’ majority owner in 2019, Joe Tsai has already gone through three permanent head coaches. In that five-season span, Vaughn served as an interim head coach twice.

For what it’s worth, while it looks like Fernandez is on track to be hired by the Nets, the move isn’t official yet — that’s an important distinction, given how Brooklyn’s last head coaching search played out. In that case, it looked like the club was poised to hire Ime Udoka before it pivoted and retained Vaughn.

Pistons Seeking President Of Basketball Operations

April 15th, 2024 at 8:57pm CST by Luke Adams

8:57pm: The Pistons officially announced (via Twitter) that they’re planning to make front office changes and will hire a new head of basketball operations, who would work directly under team owner Tom Gores. Weaver and the current basketball operations executives will remain in their current positions while the search takes place, per the team.

3:05pm: The Pistons have decided they will hire a president of basketball operations, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the search process will begin this week.

Local reporters, including James L. Edwards III of The Athletic and Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press, had been suggesting this would happen. Prior to Charania’s report, Sankofa tweeted that the Pistons were expected to “formalize” their search for a president of basketball operations within the next day or so.

As Sankofa and Edwards have written, it doesn’t sound as if general manager Troy Weaver would be dismissed as a result of this change to the front office. However, it would certainly be a demotion for Weaver, who has functioned as the team’s head of basketball operations since being hired in 2020. Under the new structure, he would report to Detroit’s new president of basketball operations.

According to Sankofa (subscription required), the Pistons would likely want to fortify the front office with other executives who are either below Weaver in the hierarchy or on the same level. If Weaver and the Pistons aren’t on the same page with ownership’s plan to revamp its front office, it’s possible the two sides could go their separate ways, but it doesn’t appear that’s the plan for now.

It has been a dismal four years in Detroit since Weaver was hired away from the Thunder to replace Ed Stefanski atop the Pistons’ basketball operations department. The club hasn’t won more than 23 games in a season during that time, compiling an overall record of 74-244 (.233).

There was some hope entering the 2023/24 season that the team’s young core – including Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, Ausar Thompson, and Jaden Ivey – might be ready to take a step forward and get the Pistons into the play-in mix. Instead, the team finished dead last in the NBA with a 14-68 mark, setting a new league record for most consecutive losses in a single season (28).

While there have been no concrete reports yet on which candidates might receive consideration for the president of basketball operations position in Detroit, Edwards listed some ideas in his latest article for The Athletic, identifying Jon Horst (Bucks), John Hammond (Magic), Neil Olshey (formerly of the Trail Blazers), Bryson Graham (Pelicans), and Dwane Casey as possible fits.

Marc Stein (Twitter link) confirms that there’s a belief the Pistons will have interest in exploring the viability of hiring Horst away from Milwaukee.

Team USA Locks In 11 Of 12 Olympic Roster Spots

April 15th, 2024 at 6:18pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Team USA men’s basketball program has determined 11 of its 12 roster spots for this year’s Paris Olympics, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Woj suggests that the final roster opening could remain open for a while. Sources inform Wojnarowski that Hall of Famer Grant Hill, Team USA’s managing director, is waiting for a July training camp and some Las Vegas exhibition games before finalizing that 12th spot.

10 of the 11 players were honored as All-Stars this season, while the 11th was a key two-way force on the 2021 gold medal-winning team, which is officially considered the 2020 Olympic team.

Here are Team USA’s 11 players:

Bam Adebayo, C, Heat
Devin Booker, G, Suns
Stephen Curry, G, Warriors
Anthony Davis, F/C, Lakers
Kevin Durant, F, Suns
Anthony Edwards, G, Timberwolves
Joel Embiid, C, Sixers
Tyrese Haliburton, G, Pacers
Jrue Holiday, G, Celtics
LeBron James, F, Lakers
Jayson Tatum, F, Celtics

So far, three NBA teams – the Lakers, Celtics, and Suns – will feature multiple U.S. Olympians.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, serving again as the leader of Team USA this summer, will have just one current familiar face in All-Star point guard Curry, who will be making his Olympic debut. Among the other players listed, four others will be making their debuts with the program on this stage: reigning league MVP Embiid and young All-Star guards Edwards and Haliburton.

As Woj notes, 35-year-old Durant is one of just two players to have won three gold medals in Olympic history, along with future Hall of Fame forward Carmelo Anthony. James is playing in his first Olympics since 2012. James and Anthony were also members of Team USA the last time it didn’t win gold at the tournament, in 2004.