Alex Poythress Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Raptors, Embiid, Kuzmic

June 14th, 2016 at 2:21pm CST by Luke Adams

The ESPN analytics department has used its NBA draft projection model to evaluate this year’s class, and found that the average draft grade for the top 50 college prospects this year is the highest it has been since the model began tracking in 2001. As Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com writes, that high average grade for the top 50 NCAA prospects suggests that this is a deep class, which is good news for a team like the Celtics — Boston holds eight of the 60 picks in the 2016 draft. The C’s surely won’t keep all those picks, but if there are still plenty of prospects drawing interest in the second round, it should increase the trade value of those selections.

Armed with those eight picks, the Celtics figure to strongly consider draft-and-stash prospects, a scenario that Mike Petraglia of WEEI.com examines. As Petraglia details, Austin Ainge is open to the idea of drafting a prospect who will continue to play overseas rather than coming to the NBA immediately.

“[Draft-and-stash talks] will be finalized kind of after you draft a kid, sit down and determine a plan of action, but those discussions go on all the time, year-round, contract situations, age, different levels of maturity and in the players’ game, all those come into play,” said the Celtics director of player personnel. “It’s a partnership with the player, his representatives and the team to try to make the best decisions for him.”

Here’s more from out of the Atlantic:

The Raptors, who hold a pair of first-round picks, have been busy working out prospects. According to the team (Twitter links), Julian Jacobs (USC), Rasheed Sulaimon (Maryland), Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia), Justin Edwards (Kansas State), Brice Johnson (UNC), and Jalen Reynolds (Xavier) worked out for Toronto on Monday, with David Walker (Northeastern), Michael Gbinije (Syracuse), Alex Poythress (Kentucky), Troy Williams (Indiana), Daniel Ochefu (Villanova), and A.J. Hammons (Purdue) working out for the club today.
Joel Embiid won’t be playing for the 76ers‘ summer league team this year, but Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer was impressed with how the oft-injured big man looked during a workout on Monday.
Ognjen Kuzmic, a former Warriors second-round pick who played 37 games with the club from 2013 to 2015, has agreed to play for the Knicks at the Orlando Summer League, his agent tells international basketball journalist David Pick (Twitter link).

Pacific Notes: Kings, Collison, Suns, Clippers

June 2nd, 2016 at 12:52pm CST by Luke Adams

We heard last week that new Kings head coach Dave Joerger was targeting Bryan Gates as a potential assistant. Now, James Ham of CSN California hears from a source that Gates – a former Sacramento assistant who worked for Minnesota last year and the Pelicans before that – is indeed to set to come aboard Joerger’s staff. Last week’s report indicated that Joerger and the Kings were also pursuing Elston Turner, but there are no official updates yet on that front.

Here’s more from around the Pacific, including a couple more items out of Sacramento:

Kings point guard Darren Collison was arrested on a domestic violence charge earlier this week, but his lawyer, Bill Portanova, called it a “misunderstanding” that he’s “working to straighten out,” writes Andy Furillo of The Sacramento Bee. As Furillo observes, it makes sense to wait to see how the case plays out before predicting what it might mean for Collison or the Kings.
Emmanuel Malou, who was set to transfer to Iowa State before deciding to remain in the 2016 draft, recently worked out for the Kings, per The Sacramento Bee.
The Suns worked out a six-player group of prospects today that included Ryan Anderson (Arizona), Zach Auguste (Notre Dame), Ron Curry (James Madison), Cheick Diallo (Kansas), Lester Medford (Baylor), and Codi Miller-McIntyre (Wake Forest). Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer tweets that Diamond Stone (Maryland) is also heading to Phoenix for his next workout, while Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic tweets that Gonzaga’s Domantas Sabonis has a solo workout with the team today.
The Clippers‘ pre-draft workout group on Wednesday featured Daniel Hamilton (UConn), DeAndre’ Bembry (St. Joseph’s), Guerschon Yabusele (France), Cat Barber (N.C. State), Tyrone Wallace (California), and Zach Auguste (Notre Dame), according to the team.
In other Los Angeles workout news, Alex Poythress (Kentucky) has workouts lined up with both the Lakers and Clippers (Twitter link via Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com), Rosco Allen (Stanford) is set to work out for the Lakers tomorrow (Twitter link via Camerato), and Czech power forward Adam Pechacek will also participate in that Lakers workout on Friday (Twitter link via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). Finally, veteran D-League forward Joel Wright is attending a Clippers mini-camp, a league source tells Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link).

Draft Notes: Ellenson, Yusta, Stone, Whitehead

June 1st, 2016 at 9:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Here’s the latest news and notes from around the league regarding the upcoming 2016 NBA Draft:

The Sixers are holding pre-draft workouts tomorrow for Isaia Cordinier (France), Alex Caruso (Texas A&M), Daniel Hamilton (Connecticut), Brandon Austin (Northwest Florida State), Rosco Allen (Stanford) and Alex Poythress (Kentucky), the team announced via press release.
Former BYU point guard Kyle Collinsworth worked out for the Nets today, Jarom Jordan of BYU SportsNation tweets.
The Hornets have workouts scheduled on Thursday for Montay Brandon (Florida State), Retin Obasohan (Alabama), Goodluck Okonoboh (UNLV), Tim Quarterman (LSU), Adam Smith (Georgia Tech) and Diamond Stone (Maryland), the team announced.
The Pacers will bring in Robert Carter (Maryland), Julian Jacobs (USC), Marcus Paige (North Carolina), Gary Payton II (Oregon State), Dyshawn Pierre (Dayton), and Isaiah Whitehead (Seton Hall) on Thursday for pre-draft workouts, the team announced.
Former Boise State small forward James Webb III worked out for the Wolves today, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets.
Spanish small forward Santiago Yusta has withdrawn from the 2016 NBA Draft, Encestando.com relays (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
Former Marquette big man Henry Ellenson worked out for the Wolves on Tuesday and has workouts scheduled with the Lakers, Raptors and Suns next, Wolfson tweets.

Central Notes: Bucks, Lue, Bulls, Pistons

June 1st, 2016 at 1:36pm CST by Luke Adams

It’s a busy Wednesday for the Bucks, who are hosting seven prospects for workouts in Milwaukee, according to the team’s website. Utah big man Jakob Poeltl is getting a close look from the team in an individual workout, while the other six prospects are participating in a group workout. Those players are Jameel McKay (Iowa State), Alex Poythress (Kentucky), Wayne Selden (Kansas), Angel Rodriguez (Miami), Andrew Andrews (Washington), and Ryan Arcidiacono (Villanova).

Here’s more from out of the Central division, including a couple more pre-draft workout updates:

In an interesting piece at Cleveland.com, Chris Haynes details a phone call that took place between Tyronn Lue and Cavaliers general manager David Griffin earlier this year, when Lue tried to convince Griffin that David Blatt shouldn’t be fired. However, the GM had already up his mind, and by the end of the call, Lue had agreed to become Cleveland’s new head coach. Now, Lue is preparing his team for the NBA Finals, while Blatt has signed a two-year contract to coach a team in Turkey.
Florida State guard Malik Beasley is scheduled to visit the Bulls on June 8th and 9th, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Chicago currently holds the 14th and 48th overall picks in this year’s draft.
Within his latest mailbag, David Mayo of MLive.com explains why he doesn’t think Ryan Anderson is a realistic target for the Pistons, and looks into Andre Drummond‘s long-term ceiling.

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.

And-Ones: Gasol, Kentucky, Johnson, D-League

March 19th, 2016 at 10:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Bulls‘ Pau Gasol, who has said that he will likely opt out of his contract this summer, admits he probably won’t be fully healthy for the rest of the season, relays K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. Gasol missed his fourth straight game tonight with a swollen right knee, but he’s not giving any thought to ending the season early. He believes he can return to the court this week, possibly by Monday. “I was trying to play through it, trying to manage it for a while actually,” he said. “But after that Miami game, the knee just gave out. I had that swelling and reaction and obviously the alarms went off. Hopefully, it’s not going to get worse.”

There’s more tonight from around the world of basketball:

As many as six Kentucky players could be headed to the NBA draft after the Wildcats were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament today, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Combo guard Jamal Murray and big man Skal Labissiere, both freshmen, are projected to be lottery picks in the latest mock draft compiled by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. He ranks Murray as the seventh pick and Labissiere as No. 10. Sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis projects at No. 26 and freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe is No. 39. Junior Marcus Lee and senior Alex Poythress aren’t in Givony’s mock but could become draft-eligible if they choose.
The Pelicans won’t sign Orlando Johnson to another 10-day contract, tweets Brett Dawson of The New Orleans Advocate. New Orleans signed Johnson on March 9th using a hardship exception.
The Kings have assigned power forward Eric Moreland to their D-League affiliate in Reno, the team announced today. A fractured metatarsal in his left foot has forced Moreland to miss 41 games this season. He has appeared in five games for the Kings, scoring four points in 24 minutes.
The Spurs have recalled shooting guard Jonathon Simmons from their D-League team in Austin. The rookie is averaging 5.6 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 48 games with San Antonio.

Towns Headlines 7 Kentucky Players Off To Draft

April 9th, 2015 at 1:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

Forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns and six other Kentucky underclassmen are entering this year’s draft, as they formally announced today in a joint press conference. Towns, whom both Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress project as the No. 1 pick, joins center Willie Cauley-Stein, power forward Trey Lyles, shooting guard Devin Booker, center Dakari Johnson, combo guard Andrew Harrison and shooting guard Aaron Harrison in declaring for the draft. Point guard Tyler Ulis, Ford‘s 47th-ranked prospect and Givony‘s No. 88, is staying in school, as are power forward Marcus Lee and injured combo forward Alex Poythress, neither of whom was a top-60 prospect for this year’s draft.

Towns, a freshman, passed Duke center Jahlil Okafor in Ford and Givony’s rankings during the NCAA Tournament, though it still appears it’ll be a close call among the two for whichever NBA team wins the draft lottery. The 7-foot Towns averaged only 10.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in 21.1 minutes per game, but it was chiefly the profoundly deep Wildcats roster that kept his numbers down.

Cauley-Stein could easily have been a second-year NBA player by now had he come out as a freshman instead of as a junior as he’s doing now. Givony has him sixth and Ford seventh in their respective rankings after he put up 8.9 PPG and 6.4 RPG in 25.9 MPG, another example of a Wildcat’s stats as a poor reflection of his talent.

Lyles is No. 18 with Ford and No. 19 with Givony after a freshman season spent in and out of the starting lineup. He put up 8.7 PPG and 5.2 RPG in 23.0 MPG. For more on Booker, Johnson, and the Harrison twins, click on their names in this sentence to see earlier reports indicating that they would declare for the draft.

The seven will collectively attempt to set a record for the most players drafted from one school in a single year. The current mark is six, shared by Kentucky in 2012 and UNLV in 1977, though the draft was an eight-round affair when UNLV pulled off its feat. The swing player would appear to be Aaron Harrison, who isn’t within the top 60 prospects in Ford’s and Givony’s rankings. Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com nonetheless hears from many around the league who believe he’ll be drafted in the second round.

Draft Notes: Kentucky, Johnson, Jones

April 7th, 2015 at 2:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kentucky coach John Calipari acknowledged Monday that Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles, Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison are all likely to declare for the draft, as Kyle Tucker of The Courier-Journal relays. Devin Booker and Dakari Johnson are still weighing their options, according to Calipari, Tucker notes, adding that the coach expects that Tyler Ulis, Alex Poythress and Marcus Lee will decide to stay. Calipari later addressed the idea of his own departure for the NBA, downplaying the idea in a piece on his own website, wherein he said he doesn’t have a desire to prove himself in the NBA. A recent report indicated that Calipari “desperately” wants an NBA job, and he apparently still has supporters within the Nets organization. Here’s more on those potentially making the college-to-NBA leap:

Projected lottery pick Stanley Johnson is on the fence as he decides whether to enter the draft this year or return to Arizona for a sophomore year, sources tell Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com, with one source describing him as “really torn.” The small forward is the No. 9 prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and No. 11 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
NBA personnel who spoke with Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com are in wide agreement that Final Four Most Outstanding Player Tyus Jones would go in the final third of the first round this year if he entered the draft, as Goodman writes in an Insider-only piece. Those sources also tell Goodman that the freshman point guard’s stock is peaking and that he wouldn’t benefit from staying at Duke another year, and even Jones’ father is encouraging him to declare. The Pistons, Pelicans, Sixers and Magic are among the NBA teams focusing on the Minnesota native, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.
Brice Johnson is returning to North Carolina, multiple sources tell Evan Daniels of Scout.com. The junior power forward was No. 50 in Givony‘s rankings, while Ford had the power forward 82nd.

And-Ones: Poythress, Thunder, NBA Draft

December 13th, 2014 at 4:56pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kentucky junior forward Alex Poythress suffered a torn left ACL during practice and will miss the remainder of season, the University announced via their official website. “Our team was devastated for Alex when I told them,” coach John Calipari said. “There were tears throughout the room because this hurt them to the core. How they will respond I really don’t know, but I will do my best to be there for each of these kids. I told them, this is a big blow to our team. No one will be able to replace Alex and what he did for this team. I go back to last year’s NCAA Tournament. Without Alex, we don’t win those games. No one will be able to replace him, but now everybody has to do a little bit more as we try to circle the wagons.” Poythress is currently the 47th ranked college prospect by DraftExpress.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

The Thunder have once again recalled Mitch McGary and Grant Jerrett from the Oklahoma City Blue, their D-League affiliate, the team announced.
The 2015 NBA draft is loaded with talented big men, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. Kennedy spoke with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, who believes that the lack of top point guard prospects is opening the door for a lot of bigs to potentially go in the first 30 picks. “I think that part of the reason why you’re seeing so many big men in our [DraftExpress’] top 30 is because this is a really weak class for point guards,” Givony told Kennedy. “There might be one point guard in our top 20 right now and maybe two in the first round, period. That just leaves a lot of spots open for the four other positions, including power forwards and centers. I think that’s why we’re seeing some of these bigs [in the top 30]. But it’s a nice class for big guys too. I do think this draft, as a whole, is much better than advertised so far.”
Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders ran down which players are his picks for the top 10 prospects in the NBA who are 23 years old or younger. Topping Duncan’s list are Anthony Davis (Pelicans), Kyrie Irving (Cavs), and Jabari Parker (Bucks).
The Kings have recalled Eric Moreland from the Reno Bighorns, their D-League affiliate, the team announced.

Draft Notes: Exum, Wiggins, College Returnees

April 23rd, 2014 at 6:09pm CST by Alex Lee

There has been plenty of talk about the top of June’s draft and that it sure to continue. For instance, the Magic, Jazz, Bucks, in addition to Lakers, are high on Dante Exum, Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his latest chat with readers. Ford has linked the Magic to Exum in the past, and he says this time around that the team is indeed looking for a point guard in spite of its experiment with Victor Oladipo at the position. Meanwhile, Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times tweets that the Sixers are targeting Andrew Wiggins with their selection, a report that echoes what we heard a few months ago out of Philadelphia.

However, as Sunday’s Early Entry Eligibility Deadline approaches, we are also sure to hear a lot about the players on the other end of the draft spectrum. Let’s take a look at some of the college players who have chosen not to partake in June’s NBA Draft.

LSU freshman Jordan Mickey will return to school instead of entering the draft, the Tigers announced (Twitter link). Chad Ford of ESPN.com has Mickey as the 23rd-best prospect for next year and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, who’s listed him as the 55th-best prospect for 2014, puts him 36th in his 2015 mock draft.
Sophomore Alex Poythress and freshman Dakari Johnson will both return to Kentucky next year, the Wildcats announced in separate releases. Poythress kicked the tires on entering the draft a year ago as well before ultimately deciding to return. They will join teammates Willie Cauley-Stein and Marcus Lee in Lexington next year, both of whom also chose to stay in school. Johnson could flirt with the lottery next year, according to Givony, who has Poythress squarely in the second round.
Notre Dame guard Jerian Grant will not enter the draft, reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Grant was averaging 19 points per game before withdrawing from school for academic reasons in December. His brother, Syracuse’s Jerami Grant, announced last week that he would enter the draft. Givony has the 6’4″ shooting guard pegged as the 57th pick next June.