Dakari Johnson (Kentucky) Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Mudiay, Lakers, Hollis-Jefferson

June 6th, 2015 at 8:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Emmanuel Mudiay, who worked out for the Lakers today, told Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times that he identifies with Kobe Bryant‘s passion for the game. “Kobe, I admire his determination,” Mudiay said. “That’s what made me a fan of his. He’s got a dog in him and that’s kind of how I approach the game. You got to be a dog.” Mudiay, widely considered to be a top four pick in this year’s draft, is also reportedly working out for the Timberwolves, Sixers and Knicks. He reneged on a commitment to play college ball at SMU and spent the past season with the Guangdong Southern Tigers in China, making him somewhat of a mystery to American fans. The Lakers got an up-close look at his talents, with coach Byron Scott and GM Mitch Kupchak monitoring the workout.

There’s more draft news from the Pacific Division:

Mudiay wasn’t the only player working out for the Lakers today, tweets Chad Ford of ESPN.com. Also present were Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein, Devin Booker and Dakari Johnson, while Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell will work out for the team soon. Of the group, only Russell is expected to be in the mix for the number two overall pick that the Lakers own.
Arizona’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was comfortable and confident after Friday’s workout with the Suns, according to Matt Peterson of NBA.com. After averaging 11.2 points and 6.8 rebounds as a sophomore with the Wildcats, Hollis-Jefferson is hoping to attract the attention of a lottery team. The Suns hold the 13th overall pick. “[It doesn’t matter] if you’re the underdog or if you’re being talked about or mentioned more,” he told reporters. “You should be ready no matter what.”
The Suns held several other workouts Friday, according to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic (Twitter links). The group included Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell, Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter, UNLV’s Rashad Vaughn and Christian Wood, Utah’s Delon Wright, California-Santa Barbara’s Alan Williams, Arizona’s T.J. McConnell, Wyoming’s Larry Nance Jr., Temple’s Will Cummings, Bosnian player Nedim Buza and D-League player Jarvis Threatt.

Southwest Notes: Pelicans, Mavs, Grizzlies

June 2nd, 2015 at 1:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pelicans and Celtics assistant coach Darren Erman have an agreement in principle for Erman to join Alvin Gentry‘s coaching staff in New Orleans, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported overnight that the Pelicans were aggressively pursuing Erman, a detail-oriented defensive whiz who complements Gentry’s offensive acumen. The Raptors also recently made a run at Erman, sources told Wojnarowski. New Orleans is poised to hire Thunder assistant coach Robert Pack for Gentry’s staff, too, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times hears (Twitter link). However, Wojnarowski, whose story appeared later, writes that the Pelicans and Pack are in talks but makes no mention of a deal. Regardless, new Thunder head coach Billy Donovan is unlikely to keep Pack on his staff, Wojnarowski adds. Here’s more from around the Southwest Division:

San Diego State small forward Dwayne Polee worked out for the Mavericks late last month, as he tells Zach Links of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link). Michigan State’s Travis Trice, Stanford’s Chasson Randle, Dayton’s Jordan Sibert and Harvard point guard Wesley Saunders showed off for Dallas today, tweets Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops.
Big men highlight the Grizzlies workout scheduled for Wednesday, with Kentucky center Dakari Johnson and French center Mouhammadou Jaiteh on the docket, writes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal in a subscription-only piece. Centers Youssou Ndoye from St. Bonaventure and Charles Jackson from Tennessee Tech, Connecticut point guard Ryan Boatright and Boise State shooting guard Derrick Marks are the others in the workout, as Tillery details.
Florida’s Michael Frazier is auditioning for the Spurs today, Scotto reports, and the team will also get a look at North Carolina’s J.P. Tokoto, according to Pincus (Twitter links).
Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders adds the Rockets to the list of teams working out N.C. State shooting guard Trevor Lacey (Twitter link).

And-Ones: Booker, Clippers, Sanders

June 1st, 2015 at 10:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kentucky shooting guard Devin Booker will work out for the Thunder on Tuesday, Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman tweets. Oklahoma City owns the No. 14 overall pick. The Suns, who have the No. 13 pick, brought in Booker for a workout on Monday. according to a tweet from Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops.com. Dez Wells, Josh Richardson, Derek Cooke, Vince Hunter and Jarvis Summers also participated in Phoenix’s workout, according to Scotto.

In other news around the league:

The Clippers, who don’t have a pick in the draft, nonetheless brought in several prospects for workouts on Monday, including Chris Walker, Dwayne Polee, Ralston Turner, Keifer Sykes, Shannon Scott and Richaun Holmes, Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reports.
Trevor Lacey, Dakari Johnson, Rayvonte Rice, Corey Hawkins, Kenneth Smith and Alpha Kaba worked out for the Lakers on Monday, according to the Lakers’ Twitter feed.
Jerian Grant and Delon Wright participated in the Wizards’ first pre-draft workout, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post reports.
Larry Sanders has no regrets walking away from the Bucks and the NBA, he tells Gus Turner of Complex.com in a lengthy feature article. Sanders left approximately $27MM but has found peace and happiness outside of basketball, Turner adds. “I couldn’t function outside of the gym and my studio,” he told Turner. “I couldn’t be around my family; I couldn’t be around anybody else. I was creating from a place of anxiety and fear, suffering. I wasn’t creating from a place of joy or happiness or freedom. Everything I did was pure avoidance.”
Alvin Gentry’s four-year deal to coach the Pelicans is worth a total of $13.75MM, and that includes a team option of $4MM for the final season, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.

Central Notes: Hoiberg, Pacers, Draft

May 15th, 2015 at 7:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The frontrunner to replace Tom Thibodeau if he is let go by the Bulls as expected, is reportedly Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg. This interest in Hoiberg isn’t a recent development, since according to league sources the team had already spoken with Hoiberg about his potential interest in coming to Chicago earlier this season, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv relays. It’s unclear if Hoiberg’s health concerns would prevent him from accepting the position if offered, but he certainly hopes to join the pro coaching ranks at some point. “He has always said from day one that his lifelong goal has been to coach in the NBA,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said of Holberg. “It’s for him to decide when that part of his life he wants to activate. Now it’s just strictly a decision for him and their family personally, not what he wants to do because he’s made that clear. [The NBA is] what he wants to do. It’s a matter of when he wants to do it.”

Here’s what else is happening around the Central Division:

The Pacers interviewed a number of former Kentucky players at the draft combine, Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star tweets. Indiana sat down with Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, Trey Lyles, and Devin Booker, Buckner notes.
Cauley-Stein said that Pacers president Larry Bird told him, “I think you’re a $100MM player,” Buckner relays (Twitter links). Booker wasn’t given a dollar value by the team, but did note that there was a “great vibe” during his interview, Buckner adds.
The Pacers will hold their first pre-draft workout this Monday, and in attendance will be Cameron Payne, Olivier Hanlan, Jerian Grant, Rakeem Christmas, Richaun Holmes, and Joseph Young, Buckner tweets.
Lastly from Buckner (via Twitter), the Pacers will be one of the teams attending a private workout in Los Angeles next Friday for forward Kevon Looney and guard Norman Powell.
Looney met with the Pistons while at the draft combine, Keith Langlois of NBA.com reports (Twitter links). Also meeting with Detroit was Booker, who believes his outside shooting would be the perfect complement to Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson, who is set to become a restricted free agent this offseason, Langlois adds.

Draft Notes: Russell, Booker, Towns, Okafor

May 12th, 2015 at 3:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

The NBA’s draft combine in Chicago is underway as of today, and an increasing volume of draft rumors will follow until the event takes place June 25th at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Here’s the latest draft news:

D’Angelo Russell and Devin Booker have chosen the Creative Artists Agency for their representation, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress passes along on Twitter. CAA’s Leon Rose, who’ll represent Booker as well as Karl-Anthony Towns, also signed with Dakari Johnson earlier this spring, Givony notes in another tweet. Russell’s agent will be Aaron Mintz, according to Givony (on Twitter). Charlie Adams of Hoops Rumors looked at Booker’s draft stock up close this week.
Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune doesn’t get the sense that the Wolves will draft Karl-Anthony Towns first overall if they win the lottery, likely implying the team has its eyes set on Jahlil Okafor instead (Twitter link). Minnesota has a 25% chance of landing the top pick, as the lottery odds show.
Arizona point guard T.J. McConnell received a last-minute invitation to the Chicago combine, Givony tweets. McConnell is Givony‘s 61st-ranked prospect while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him 91st.
Ford excoriates Nets GM Billy King for his willingness to trade so many of Brooklyn’s future draft picks, giving the team the worst chances of any to build through the draft for the next few years, Ford opines as he writes with fellow ESPN.com scribe Kevin Pelton in an Insider-only piece. Ford and Pelton also examine the needs for the Suns, Thunder and Celtics, believing that if Robert Upshaw improves his stock dramatically, he’d be the most logical rim-protector for the Celtics to grab at pick No. 16. However, Upshaw says he won’t take part in five-on-five scrimmaging at the combine, Givony reports (Twitter link).

Charlie Adams contributed to this post.

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.

Dakari Johnson To Enter NBA Draft

April 8th, 2015 at 5:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kentucky sophomore center Dakari Johnson will enter this year’s NBA draft, Josh Newman of SNY.tv reports. The University has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow that “will include UK players who are ready to announce their NBA Draft decisions, as well as head coach John Calipari,” the school has announced. The Wildcats could lose as many as seven players to the NBA next season, including Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison, who also reportedly intend to formally announce their decisions to leave Kentucky on Thursday as well.

The seven-footer is currently projected to be a second round pick, though I suspect that Johnson will creep into the first round after his individual pre-draft workouts are complete. Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) has Johnson ranked as the No. 39 overall prospect, and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com has him slotted at No. 40.

Johnson’s numbers weren’t all that eye-popping thanks to the Wildcats’ ridiculous frontcourt depth. In 39 games this season Johnson averaged 6.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks in 16.3 minutes per contest. His career numbers are 5.8 PPG and 4.3 RPG. Johnson’s career NCAA shooting numbers are .537/.000/.559.

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: Kentucky, Ballmer, Clarkson, Burke

April 4th, 2015 at 11:09pm CST by Arthur Hill

There should be a mass exodus of Kentucky players to the NBA after Saturday’s loss in the NCAA semi-finals, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. He speculated that the list of departing Wildcats should “minimally” include Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles, Dakari Johnson and Devin Booker.

There’s more from around the basketball world:

Steve Ballmer’s bold $2 billion bid to purchase the Clippers last year was an “outlier,” writes Mike Ozanian of Forbes. Ozanian notes that Mikhail Prokhorov has been unsuccessful in his attempts to sell the Nets and the Barclays Center, while the highest current bid for the Hawks is $800MM.
The “Gilbert Arenas provision” applies to the Lakers‘ Jordan Clarkson after next season, note Eric Pincus and Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times, giving the Lakers an edge in keeping the young point guard long-term. Because Clarkson was a second-round pick, the provision limits the offers other franchises can make to four years and a projected $57MM. With a non-guaranteed contract for 2015/16 at the league minimum for a second-year player ($845,059), Clarkson is almost certain to return to the Lakers next year.
Jazz point guard Trey Burke is part of the reason the future is bright in Utah, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The second-year player out of Michigan has been a key part of the team’s second half surge, and he is looking forward to improving this summer. “I know that I have a high ceiling and have more potential to grow,” he said. “Like I said, this summer and this offseason will be very big for me. I look forward to coming back even stronger and even better next season. Being a young player, I know that these offseasons are really important in how much I’ll grow.” Burke is still on his rookie contract, which runs through 2016/17, and he’s under the team’s control through 2017/18.

And-Ones: Jianlian, McCullough, Draft

April 2nd, 2015 at 10:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Chris McCullough plans to enter this year’s draft despite tearing his ACL in January, but the player is confident he can sell NBA teams on his commitment to rehabilitating the injury, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes. “This is the kind of injury that players come back strong from all the time in basketball now, and the process has gone good so far,” McCullough told Wojnarowski. “I’m working hard at the rehab, trying to eat the right foods. I’ll be back on the court later this year.” In 16 games for Syracuse this season, McCullough averaged 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in 28.1 minutes per contest.

Here’s more from around the league:

Wizards guard Will Bynum thinks that 2007 Bucks lottery pick Yi Jianlian has improved his game and could play in the NBA once again, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post tweets. Bynum played with the big man in China this season. Jianlian’s last NBA action came during the 2011/12 season when he appeared in 30 games for the Mavs. His career stats are 7.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 22.2 minutes per night.
Kentucky could lose as many as seven players to the NBA draft this season, an NBA scout tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. “I think all seven leave,” the scout said to Zagoria. “If they win it all, there’s no doubt in my mind all seven of them leave. No doubt. The only ones who would stay [if they lose] would be a Trey Lyles, maybe a Devin Booker. The rest of them are all going, I don’t care if they win or lose. I think if they lose there’s maybe a moment [of pause] by Lyles or Booker. Those are the only two that I think may pause at all.” The other five players whom the scout believes will declare for the draft are Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, Andrew Harrison, and Aaron Harrison.
Knicks GM Steve Mills says that the franchise has already received calls from two opposing teams that are interested in obtaining New York’s first round draft pick, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets. The Ted Stepien Rule prevents the Knicks from trading this year’s pick, but New York could make the selection for another franchise and trade the player’s rights after the draft.
Team president Phil Jackson says the Knicks won’t solicit offers for their first-rounder, but admitted that they would “sit back and see what comes to them,” Begley adds in another tweet.