Bruno Caboclo Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Nunn, Hield, Harris, Westbrook, Wagner, Brazil Roster

May 19th, 2024 at 8:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Former NBA guard Kendrick Nunn signed a two-year contract extension with Panathinaikos in Greece earlier this month, but he’s not ruling out an NBA return, he told Vangelis Papadimitriou of Eurohoops.net. The contract includes NBA out clauses, under specific conditions.

“I’ll be honored to go back. You never know,” he said.

In the meantime, he hopes to bring multiple EuroLeague titles to his current team. Nunn was named to the All-EuroLeague First Team in his first season with the club.

“To play here with one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Playing at a high level. With great guys in the locker room that I enjoy playing with and bonding. It wasn’t hard. I love Panathinaikos and Greece,” he said.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Which impending free agents hurt their stock during the postseason? HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina identifies four players — Buddy Hield, Tobias Harris, Russell Westbrook and Moritz Wagner — who fall in that category. Westbrook has the ability to exercise a player option for next season, while Wagner’s deal includes a team option.
Brazil has announced a roster of 17 players for its Olympic qualifier tournament in Riga, Latvia. The roster will eventually be pared to 12 players. Gui Santos, who played 23 games with the Warriors as a rookie this season, made the list. Raul Neto, Cristiano Felicio, Didi Louzada and Bruno Caboclo are among former NBA players who are also on the preliminary roster, Sportando relays.
In case you missed it, Taylor Jenkins, Willie Green and Chauncey Billups top the list of coaches on the hot seat next season.

Olympic Notes: France, Australia, Germany, Brazil

May 17th, 2024 at 1:08pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the host nation has announced its preliminary 19-man roster (Twitter link). As Eurohoops relays, the headliners on France’s squad are big men Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert, the top two finishers in this year’s Defensive Player of the Year vote.

However, there are several more notable NBA names on the list, including Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier, Bilal Coulibaly, and Ousmane Dieng. Other recent NBAers who didn’t finish the 2023/24 season on a roster include Killian Hayes, Frank Ntilikina, and Theo Maledon.

One player not on France’s roster is veteran guard Mike James. The 2023/24 EuroLeague MVP is an American, but according to a report from L’Equipe (hat tip to BasketNews.com), the French Basketball Federation explored the possibility of getting a French passport for James, who has played for AS Monaco in France’s LNB Pro A since 2021. That effort didn’t make any real headway, however.

“We do not have the culture of other nations which use naturalized players in a systematic way,” an unnamed executive told L’Equipe. “But we have a duty to explore all possibilities. In this case, we were asked, we looked at it and quickly established that it was not a question.”

The French national team will have to make seven cuts and set a 12-man roster for this July’s event.

Here are a few more updates related to the 2024 Olympics:

The Australian national team has trimmed its preliminary Olympic roster from 22 players to 17, the Boomers announced in a press release. None of the NBA players on the roster – including Josh Giddey, Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Dante Exum, Matisse Thybulle, and Dyson Daniels, among others – were among the cuts, but potential 2024 first-round pick Johnny Furphy was. The plan is for those 17 Australian players to attend training camp this summer before setting the final 12-man roster.
The German national team announced this week that head coach Gordon Herbert won’t continue on in that role after the conclusion of the Paris Olympics (hat tip to Sportando). The two sides are going their separate ways after a fruitful partnership that included a gold medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
The Brazilian national team has announced its preliminary roster for this summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Latvia. The notable names include veteran point guard Raul Neto, former first-round pick Bruno Caboclo, Warriors rookie Gui Santos, and former NBA guard Didi Louzada. The Brazilians will need to win the six-team qualifier to earn a spot in the Olympic men’s basketball tournament.

International Notes: Tubelis, Harrison, Caboclo, Whitehead

November 8th, 2023 at 8:01am CST by Luke Adams

After going undrafted out of Arizona earlier this year, Lithuanian power forward Azuolas Tubelis signed a two-way contract with the Sixers and spent training camp and the preseason with the NBA club. However, Philadelphia waived Tubelis during the first week of the regular season and he’s now headed back to his home country.

The Lithuanian team Rytas Vilnius announced in a press release that it has signed Tubelis to a three-year contract and will loan him to Neptunas Klaipeda for the 2023/24 season (hat tip to Eurohoops). Tubelis was in Rytas Vilnius’ system from 2018-20 prior to coming stateside and becoming a Wildcat, so the new deal represents a reunion between the two sides.

Here are a few more notes from around the international basketball world:

Shaquille Harrison appears to be headed to Italy for the 2023/24 season, with Fabrizio Lorenzi of La Repubblica reporting that the veteran NBA guard has reached an agreement to join Olimpia Milano (hat tip to Sportando). As we previously relayed, the Italian club had been eyeing guards with NBA experience as of late. Harrison, who has 180 NBA games under his belt, was in camp with the Grizzlies this fall but was cut before the season began.
After Bruno Caboclo signed with KK Partizan on Tuesday, his agency – Hazan Sports Management – explained to Sportando that the forward had only signed a “preliminary” contract and not an official contract with Reyer Venezia, so FIBA allowed his release from that agreement. Reyer Venezia isn’t happy with that explanation, however — the Italian team released a blistering statement referring to FIBA’s ruling as “unfair” and accusing Caboclo’s representatives and KK Partizan of engaging in “illicit conduct.” Reyer intends to contest the decision through the FIBA Appeals Panel.
Former NBA guard Isaiah Whitehead, who played 89 games for Brooklyn from 2016-18, spoke to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com about his harrowing exit from Israel last month, which began when he woke up one morning to the sound of “missiles (and) bombs.” Whitehead had been playing for Ironi Ness Ziona but hopes to get his release from that contract in order to join a new team in Europe. “I’m still under contract in Israel so I gotta figure everything out and see what the exit clause would be,” he told Zagoria.

And-Ones: All-Star Game, Bronny, Caboclo, BAL

November 7th, 2023 at 10:24am CST by Luke Adams

Having made the decision to revert back to the East vs. West format and a standard 12-minute fourth quarter for the 2024 All-Star Game, commissioner Adam Silver tells Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s Andscape that the NBA is also planning additional changes in the hopes of improving the game’s level of play.

As Silver explains, a conversation with Chris Paul made him realize that the All-Star Game’s alterations to pregame and halftime protocols – including longer pregame introductions and an extended musical performance at the half – disrupt players’ typical routines and making them more inclined to treat it like a meaningless exhibition.

“I’ll take responsibility for that,” Silver told Spears. “We’re sending mixed signals. And if we want guys to treat this like a real game, and again, this is not about Finals intensity, it’s just a fun game. But if we want players to treat it that way, we have to treat it that way. And so, it means that the introduction is going to have to be a little bit shorter and halftime’s going to have to be a little bit more typical, starting in Indianapolis.

“… I anticipate we’ll still have halftime entertainment. But it won’t be as long,” Silver continued. “I recognize this is not the Super Bowl. It’s an All-Star Game. It’s a different vibe, and we can still have an entertaining halftime but get the guys back on the floor in a more reasonable time. When it comes to the [All-Star] Game, we just got to make it clear to everybody involved, coaches included, that we’re looking for a basketball game.”

The NBA’s All-Star Game will be played in Indianapolis in 2024 and in San Francisco in 2025.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

LeBron James offered an update on his son Bronny James on Monday, telling reporters – including ESPN’s Dave McMenamin – that Bronny will undergo a medical examination later this month following his July cardiac arrest. If he passes that exam, the plan is for Bronny to return to practice for USC with the intention of playing this season, according to LeBron.
Former NBA first-round pick Bruno Caboclo has signed a contract with KK Partizan, the Serbian team announced today in a press release. While Caboclo’s new deal with Partizan runs through the 2024/25 season, Italian club Reyer Venezia has maintained that it holds the rights to the forward for the ’23/24 campaign after signing him earlier this year, so it’s unclear whether or not Caboclo has officially negotiated his release from that contract.
The NBA announced on Tuesday that the Basketball Africa League’s fourth season will tip off in March 2024 and will expand to South Africa for the first time in league history.
While it’s not necessarily surprising that the Nuggets and Celtics have looked like the NBA’s best teams through the season’s first two weeks, it’s impressive that the two clubs have played so well early on after overhauling their rotations during the offseason, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic.

And-Ones: Maccabi Ra’anana, Real Madrid, Embiid, Trade Candidates

October 12th, 2023 at 9:30pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Israeli club Maccabi Ra’anana is taking part in three NBA preseason games this year and is getting reinforcements in former NBA players Quinndary Weatherspoon and Dwayne Bacon, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and NBA on TNT (Twitter link). Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets that 18-year-old big man Nathan Missia-Dio is playing for the club as well.

Haynes writes that Bacon and Weatherspoon are joining Maccabi Ra’anana right away, playing on Thursday night against the Nets. Both players are hoping to sign with NBA teams at the conclusion of the preseason. Mamadi Diakite and Bruno Caboclo are among other former NBA players who are suiting up for Maccabi Ra’anana in the preseason.

Weatherspoon, 27, appeared in 42 NBA games from 2019-22 after being drafted with the No. 49 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. He played in two seasons with the Spurs, who drafted him, before playing with the Warriors in the 2021/22 season. The 6’3″ guard averaged 2.1 points in the NBA but was more productive in the G League, where he saw more playing time, averaging 25.3 points in 20 regular season appearances in his most recent season there.

Bacon, 28, made 207 NBA appearances (80 starts) in a productive span from 2017-21. He was selected with the 40th overall pick in the 2017 draft by the Hornets and holds career averages of 7.3 points and 2.6 rebounds in four seasons with Charlotte and Orlando.

As for Missia-Dio, the Belgian big is only taking part in the club’s games against the Cavaliers on October 16 and the Timberwolves on October 17. He’s a 6’9″ Overtime Elite product who is eligible for the 2024 NBA Draft and will return to OTE to finish out the rest of the season, according to Givony (Twitter link).

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said the league is open to playing games at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid’s soccer team, according to a report from ESPN. The stadium can hold up to 85,000 fans, which could be appealing to a league that has never played overseas in an outdoor soccer stadium. “I’ve had the opportunity to see the new Bernabéu, and it’s incredible what they’ve done there,” Tatum said. “I’ve seen the system with which they raise and lower the grass. It will be a world-class stadium. If the circumstances are right, we would love to play there.“
Sixers center Joel Embiid was given an ultimatum by the French Federation to commit to France in the 2024 Olympics by October 10, but he ultimately ended up committing to play for Team USA. French Federation president Jean-Pierre Siutat said that he was disappointed by the process, according to Eurohoops.net. “I met [Embiid] with Boris Diaw during a dinner in March 2022. We never went looking for him, we never asked,” Siutat said. “It was at his request that we took the steps and I am disappointed that we spent so much time and energy on a case that, ultimately, should never have been opened and it wasn’t created by any request of ours. This is a subject that is behind us now.“
Even after the blockbuster Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday deals, there could be several more trades that would have a profound impact on the direction of the 2023/24 season, The Ringer’s Seerat Sohi opines. Sohi writes about five potential trade candidates, including James Harden, Pascal Siakam, Karl-Anthony Towns, Buddy Hield and Malcolm Brogdon. I recommend checking the piece, because Sohi describes each situation in full, outlines potential routes forward, and considers what sort of trade package makes sense for each player.

International Notes: McKinnie, Caboclo, Stanley, Sarr

September 22nd, 2023 at 4:30pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran NBA forward Alfonzo McKinnie, who appeared in 182 games for five teams from 2017-22, has officially signed a one-year deal with Dinamo Sassari, the Italian team announced in a press release.

McKinnie, who turned 31 on Sunday, last appeared in the NBA during the 2021/22 season, when he saw the court in 17 games for the Bulls. He previously spent time with the Raptors, Warriors, Cavaliers, and Lakers, then played for the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League last season. This will be his first professional stint in Europe.

Here are a few more notes from around the international basketball world:

Despite being under contract with Reyer Venezia, former NBA forward Bruno Caboclo has recently been linked to European teams like KK Partizan and Maccabi Ra’anana, with rumors suggesting the forward may be seeking a return to the NBA, per Eurohoops. Those reports prompted Reyer Venezia to put out a statement confirming that the Italian team was told by Caboclo’s agents that the forward doesn’t intend to play the club for personal reasons (hat tip to Sportando for the translation). The team referred to it as “a severe violation of the agreements between the parties” and said it still expects Caboclo to play in Venice in 2023/24.
Former NBA second-round pick Cassius Stanley, who last played in the NBA with Detroit in 2021/22, is joining Israeli team Hapoel Afula for the upcoming season, sources tell Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com (Twitter link). The deal, first reported by the Moses Barda (Twitter link), will include a buyout clause, says Urbonas.
Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer takes a closer look at French prospect Alexandre Sarr, noting that one NBA general manager told him after the Perth Wildcats played the G League Ignite in a pair of exhibition games earlier this month that Sarr “might go first” in the 2024 draft.

World Cup Notes: Green, Brazil, Naturalized Players, U.S. Coaches

August 22nd, 2023 at 7:55am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks guard Josh Green, who sat out Australia’s final World Cup tune-up game on Tuesday due to a minor ankle injury, is considered healthy and available for the Boomers’ World Cup opener on Friday, per Basketball Australia (Twitter link via Olgun Uluc of ESPN).

Green, who is eligible for a rookie scale extension with Dallas this offseason, is expected to play a key role for an Australian squad looking to improve upon its fourth-place finish at the 2019 World Cup.

Here are a few more notes on the 2023 FIBA World Cup, which tips off this Friday:

The Brazilian national team has officially announced its 12-man roster for the World Cup (Twitter link). While no current NBA players are on the roster, former NBAers like Raul Neto, Bruno Caboclo, and Cristiano Felicio will be representing the Brazilians.
FIBA is permitting each national team to have one “naturalized” player on its roster for the 2023 World Cup, prompting Meliksah Bayrav of Eurohoops to highlight some of the notable players who fall into this group, including Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson (Philippines) and Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson (China).
As Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes, it’s not just the players who are asked to accept lesser roles than they’re accustomed to when they join Team USA. Vardon takes an in-depth look at a talented U.S. coaching staff under Steve Kerr, noting that accomplished title-winning head coaches like Erik Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue have happily performed the “grunt work” expected of assistants during the lead-up to the World Cup.

Bruno Caboclo Signs With Ratiopharm Ulm

January 5th, 2023 at 9:04am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA first-round pick Bruno Caboclo has signed with Ratiopharm Ulm, the German team announced today in a press release. According to the club, Caboclo’s deal runs through 2023/24, so he’ll be under contract with Ratiopharm Ulm for another season beyond the current one.

The 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Caboclo appeared in a total of 105 NBA regular season games across seven seasons with the Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, and Rockets. Although the Brazilian forward had tantalizing physical tools, he never put them together at the NBA level, averaging 4.2 PPG and 2.6 RPG on .403/.308/.836 shooting in 12.3 minutes per contest.

Caboclo finished the 2020/21 season in France, then returned to his home country for the ’21/22 campaign, signing with Sao Paolo FC. The 27-year-old led the club to a BCL Americas title and earned MVP honors in the Novo Basquete Brasil, which is Brazil’s top basketball league.

The Celtics signed Caboclo to a training camp contract this past offseason, but waived him in September before camps got underway. He has spent the first part of the 2022/23 campaign playing for the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League, averaging 15.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and 2.3 BPG on 55.6% shooting in 16 games (26.8 MPG) in the NBAGL’s Showcase Cup this fall.

In addition to playing in the Basketball Bundesliga, Germany’s top basketball league, Ratiopharm Ulm also competes in the EuroCup. The team has gone 5-4 in EuroCup action but is just 5-8 in BBL play, so it will be looking for a boost from Caboclo.

International Notes: Caboclo, Silas, Hezonja, Embiid

October 6th, 2022 at 7:24pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Free agent power forward Bruno Caboclo, most recently with the Celtics, has signed with the NBA G League’s Mexico City Capitanes, a source informs Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Caboclo, 27, was initially drafted with the No. 20 pick in the 2014 draft by the Raptors. From 2014-21, the 6’9″ big man split his time between the Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, and Rockets, plus their respective G League teams. He joined Brazilian team São Paulo FC for the 2021/22 season. Following a 2022 Summer League stint with the Jazz, he joined the Celtics on a training camp deal, before being released late last month.

Caboclo was always a tantalizing athlete, thanks in part to his raw athleticism and 7’7″ wingspan. He failed to make an impact at the NBA level. Across 105 games, Caboclo holds averages of 4.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 0.7 APG and 0.6 BPG in 12.3 MPG.

There’s more basketball news from beyond the NBA:

Former NBA pro and, more recently, G League assistant coach Xavier Silas will make his debut as a head coach for Puerto Rican club the Guaynabo Mets, writes Spencer Davies of Basketball News. “It’s a team that has had a really good history,” Silas told Davies. “They went to the championship not last year, but the year before, so they have a really nice base and foundation of what they’re trying to do. The owners [Marc Grossman and Mark Linder], everybody has been super nice and helpful with everything, so I think it’s gonna be a good situation.” In the NBAGL, Silas has enjoyed stints with the Delaware Blue Coats and the Motor City Cruise.
2015 lottery pick Mario Hezonja hasn’t closed the door on an NBA comeback, though for now he is enjoying his time with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, per Alex Madrid of Eurohoops. “I have a lot of things to do in Europe and well, in the future, if something happens we’ll see,” Hezonja said. “But really, I want to be here as long as I can, I want to earn a lot and I am happy.” After being selected with the fifth pick in 2015 by the Magic, Hezonja spent five seasons in the NBA, splitting his time between Orlando, the Knicks and the Trail Blazers, before returning overseas, where he has since suited up for clubs in Greece, Russia, and now Spain, where he also got his professional start prior to his NBA journey. Prior to being drafted stateside, the 6’8″ forward played in Barcelona from 2012-2015.
Cameroon-born Sixers All-NBA center Joel Embiid can suit up for either France or the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympics, as he possesses citizenship in both countries. French national team coach Vincent Collet told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press that he hopes the seven-foot big man will choose his club. All-NBA Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert currently mans the middle for the French national team. “Now he has both nationalities, and he has to choose one basketball nationality, which is not the same,” Collet said. “So, that is a choice. Nobody can do anything to change it.”

Celtics Waive Bruno Caboclo

September 20th, 2022 at 4:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Celtics have waived forward Bruno Caboclo, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Boston signed Caboclo to a training camp deal late last month with the expectation he’d compete for a roster spot, so the timing is somewhat surprising. It’s possible the Celtics found a more desirable option, or that Caboclo had a better offer overseas.

His contract included Exhibit 10 language, so it’s also possible he could resurface with the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League team.

The 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Caboclo appeared in a total of 105 NBA regular season games across seven seasons with the Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, and Rockets. He averaged 4.2 PPG and 2.6 RPG on .403/.308/.836 shooting in 12.3 MPG.

Caboclo, who turns 27 on Wednesday, finished the 2020/21 season in France, then returned to his home country for the ’21/22 campaign, signing with Sao Paolo FC. Caboclo led the club to a BCL Americas title and earned MVP honors in the Novo Basquete Brasil, which is Brazil’s top basketball league.