Cooper Flagg Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Edey, Flagg, In-Season Tournament, Bozic, Schmidt

August 11th, 2023 at 5:33pm CST by Rory Maher

Purdue star center Zach Edey tested the draft waters this past spring. However, he decided to return to school for his senior year after he was unable to convince an NBA team to give him a two-way contract with the opportunity for playing time, writes Dana O’Neil of The Athletic.

That doesn’t mean teams weren’t interested in the NCAA’s reigning National Player of the Year, but none were willing to commit to him weeks in advance of the draft — the withdrawal deadline was 11:59 pm ET on May 31, while the 2023 NBA draft didn’t take place until June 22. Edey was ranked No. 47 on ESPN’s big board at the time, so he may have been a second-round pick.

Edey tells O’Neil that with name, image and license in play, he was in no rush to make it to the NBA for financial reasons, since he’ll be compensated about the same as he would’ve been had he secured a two-way deal.

“If this was before NIL, I probably would have left,” Edey said. “That’s fair to say. But now I’m allowed to be rewarded for the season I had last year, for the season my team had last year. This is how NIL was meant to be used, I think. Not the way some schools are using it.”

Instead, the 7’4″ Canadian ultimately returned to the Boilermakers after his mother asked him what he really wanted to do.

“I kept thinking, I don’t want to look back on this and say, ‘Damn. I wish I had gone back,'” Edey said, per O’Neil. “I have the rest of my life to work. The NBA is a business. Purdue is a blessing.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Top high school prospect Cooper Flagg has reclassified from the 2025 class to 2024, which means he’ll be eligible for the 2025 NBA draft, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link). The 16-year-old phenom is a “strong candidate” to be selected first overall in 2025, says Givony.
The schedule for the NBA’s new in-season tournament will be announced next Tuesday, August 15, the league announced on Friday (via Twitter). ESPN’s NBA Today will reveal the full schedule at 3:00 pm ET.
The Spurs‘ G League affiliate in Austin is losing its head coach, Petar Bozic, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Bozic will be heading to the British Basketball League to coach the London Lions, Woj reports. Bozic was with the Austin Spurs for six seasons — four as an assistant and two as head coach. He will be replacing Ryan Schmidt, who is expected to become the head coach of the Hawks‘ NBAGL affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks, sources tell Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (via Twitter).

And-Ones: 2024 Draft, Flagg, J. Harper, What-Ifs

August 2nd, 2023 at 11:32am CST by Luke Adams

The projected NBA draft class of 2024 doesn’t have a clear-cut No. 1 prospect like Victor Wembanyama in 2023, but it features a handful of potential high-impact players who could make legitimate cases for that No. 1 spot with strong seasons, writes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.

For now, O’Connor’s “way-too-early” big board for the 2024 draft is headed by G League point forward Matas Buzelis, followed by his Ignite teammate Ron Holland at No. 2. Baylor freshman Ja’Kobe Walter, UConn freshman Stephon Castle, and another Ignite prospect, power forward Izan Almansa, round out O’Connor’s top five.

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

Although he won’t be eligible for the 2024 draft, 16-year-old phenom Cooper Flagg looks like a potential No. 1 overall pick in 2025 or 2026, says Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. Deveney spoke to multiple NBA evaluators to get a sense of what to expect from Flagg. “The kid is going to be a star, as long as he puts in the work,” one GM told Heavy.com. “The book on him is that he has a really good work ethic so you don’t expect that to be a problem, but you can’t tell with guys that young, how they will develop.”
Veteran point guard Jared Harper, who has appeared in NBA games for the Suns, Knicks, and Pelicans, has re-signed with Valencia Basket, the Spanish club announced in a press release. Harper first signed with Valencia last September after finishing the 2021/22 season on a two-way deal with New Orleans.
In a pair of entertaining articles for ESPN.com, Tim Bontemps takes a look back at the biggest “what-ifs” in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference over the past five years. Lonzo Ball‘s knee injury, Kawhi Leonard‘s free agency departure from Toronto, the Warriors’ decision to draft James Wiseman over LaMelo Ball, and the Rockets’ and Lakers’ trades for Russell Westbrook were among the sliding doors moments explored by Bontemps.

And-Ones: Onuaku, First-Round Picks, Escrow, Flagg

July 20th, 2022 at 9:04am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA big man and 2016 second-rounder Chinanu Onuaku has signed with Italian club Dinamo Sassari, team president Stefano Sardara announced (link via Aris Barkas of Eurohoops).

Onuaku worked out for several NBA teams – including Toronto, Boston, and Dallas – this offseason and also drew interest from EuroLeague clubs, according to Barkas. However, it seems that NBA and EuroLeague interest never translated into a concrete offer that appealed to the veteran center, who appeared in six regular season games for the Rockets between 2016-18.

According to Barkas, Onuaku also had an offer from Russian team Zenit St. Petersburg, but opted to head to Italy, where he and Dinamo Sassari will compete in Lega Basket Serie A and the Basketball Champions League.

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

In a story for The Athletic, Mike Vorkunov explores what recent trades for players like Rudy Gobert and Dejounte Murray say about how teams value first-round picks and wonders if clubs are more willing to take big swings on All-Stars like Gobert and Murray in trades because fewer impact players are changing teams in free agency.
Within the same story, Vorkunov notes that the NBA’s revenue increase in 2021/22 benefited the players, who typically have 10% of their pay checks placed in escrow and saw that percentage increase to 15% in 2020/21 due to COVID-19. League sources tell Vorkunov that players ended up having just 7.5% of their checks placed in escrow this past season.
Sopan Deb of The New York Times takes a closer look at a camp run by John Lucas III, which is attended by players who have some interest in coaching once their playing days are over. Veteran NBA wings Rodney Hood and Justin Anderson, as well as three-time WNBA All-Star Marie Ferdinand-Harris, were among the players in attendance at this year’s camp in Orlando.
Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Insider link) shared his takeaways from this year’s FIBA U17 World Cup, highlighting the emergence of 15-year-old Cooper Flagg. Flagg, a 6’8″ prospect from Maine, “made a strong case as the best prospect in high school basketball and a potential No. 1 pick candidate down the road,” Givony writes.