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Western Rumors: DeRozan, Workouts, Nuggets

May 30th, 2016 at 9:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Lakers are not that interested in Raptors free agent shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding told SiriusXM’s Noah Coslov in a radio interview. That comes as a surprise, as the Lakers were expected to make a strong push for DeRozan when he hit the open market. DeRozan indicated during his postseason press conference that he had every intention of staying with the Raptors.

In other news around the Western Conference:

The Jazz will work out six draft prospects on Tuesday, according to the team’s Twitter feed. That group includes forwards Zach Auguste (Notre Dame), Shavon Shields (Nebraska), Abdel Nader (Iowa State) and Anthony Gill (Virginia) and guards Andrew Andrews and Alex Caruso. Auguste is the only player considered a Top 100 prospects by both ESPN Insider Chad Ford (No. 86) and DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony (No. 80).
The Suns had two sets of workouts on Monday, with some big names coming in for evaluations, according to their official Twitter feed (Twitter links). The first set of workouts included guards Tyler Ulis (Kentucky), Gabe York (Arizona), Anthony Barber (North Carolina State) and Isaia Cordinier and forwards Robert Carter (Maryland) and Alex Poythress (Kentucky). The second group included forwards Perry Ellis (Kansas), Troy Williams (Indiana) and Thon Maker, center Damian Jones (Vanderbilt) and guards Michael Gbinije (Syracuse) and Tyrone Wallace (California). Ulis (No. 18 on Ford’s list, No. 19 on Givony’s list) and Jones (No. 23, No. 22) are the highest-ranked players among those groups.
The Nuggets will have difficulty freeing up enough salary-cap space to sign a star player this summer and will thus likely have to pursue a trade to make a significant upgrade, as Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post details in an examination of the team’s financial situation. It’s unrealistic for the team to max out a player in free agency, address other needs and sign draft picks, Dempsey adds.

Draft Notes: Jackson, Sabonis, Zimmerman

April 19th, 2016 at 10:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Notre Dame junior point guard Demetrius Jackson, who declared for the draft last month, has signed with Priority Sports for his representation, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Projections are divided for the 21-year-old who ranks as the 11th-best prospect according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress but comes in just 25th in the listings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles.

Plenty of other news about the draft has emerged with the June 23rd event barely more than two months away. Here’s the latest.

Gonzaga sophomore forward/center Domantas Sabonis has hired the Wasserman agency, reports Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link), with Greg Lawrence and Jason Ranne to represent him, according to Liz Mullen of The Sports Business Journal (Twitter link). That closes off the possibility that he’d withdraw from the draft and return to school. The 6’10” 20-year-old is the 15th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings and No. 19 on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress list.
Texas A&M senior combo guard Alex Caruso has signed with agent Greg Lawrence of the Wasserman agency, Mullen relays (on Twitter).
UNLV freshman center Stephen Zimmerman has also signed with the Wasserman Media Group, D’Bria Bradshaw of The Sports Agent Blog relays. Agent Darren ‘Mats’ Matsubara will represent Zimmerman, Bradshaw notes.
West Virginia junior power forward Devin Williams has signed with agent Aaron Turner of Verus Management, Goodman reports (Twitter link). The 6’9″ 21-year-old is the 94th-best prospect in Ford’s rankings, while Givony has him outside the top 100, simply listing him as the 35th-best junior.
Florida Gulf Coast University junior Marc-Eddy Norelia will enter the draft without hiring an agent, the school announced. He’s a long-shot prospect, falling outside Ford’s and Givony’s rankings. The 6’8″ forward can retain his college eligibility if he withdraws from the draft by May 25th and doesn’t sign with an agent.
Czech power forward Adam Pechacek is entering the draft, his representatives at SigmaSports announced (via Twitter). The 21-year-old averaged 13.1 points and 5.2 rebounds playing in Poland last season.
Greek center Georgios Papagiannis, Turkish power forward/center Ege Arar and Slovenian point guard Aleksej Nikolic will all enter the draft, Jonathan Givony of Draft Express relays in a series of tweets. Of the trio, Papagiannis is the most likely to be drafted, with the 7’2″ 18-year-old coming in at No. 48 overall according to Givony. Neither Arar or Nikolic are locks to be selected, with Arar ranked as the No. 36 overall international prospect in his class by Givony, who slots Nikolic at No. 50.