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Wizards Notes: Coaching Staff, Durant, Workouts

June 16th, 2016 at 2:06pm CST by Luke Adams

New Wizards head coach Scott Brooks is in the process of putting together his first coaching staff in Washington, and ESPN’s Marc Stein (Twitter link) has an update on some of Brooks’ targets. In addition to confirming the Wizards’ interest in Tony Brown, with whom the team is reportedly finalizing a deal, Stein reports that Brooks is targeting Chad Iske and Sidney Lowe for his bench.

Iske, a former Kings assistant who wasn’t retained when Dave Joerger took over in Sacramento last month, has also drawn interest from Memphis. As for Lowe, he most recently served as an assistant in Minnesota — before that, he was an assistant in Utah and a head coach at North Carolina State.

Here’s more out of D.C.:

  • Don’t count Jared Dudley among those who expect to see Kevin Durant return home and sign with the Wizards this summer. Dudley, a free-agent-to-be who spent the 2015/16 season in Washington, told Kevin Sheehan on ESPN 980 that he doesn’t envision Durant leaving the Thunder for the Wizards. “I realistically don’t,” Dudley said, per Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post. “I hope for the fans they do, because he’s from there, and he would bring such excitement. They’d be right behind Cleveland, right there with them to be able to contend. I don’t see it though.”
  • More from Dudley on why he doesn’t expect superstar free agents like Durant to land in Washington this offseason: “It’s the system the NBA built. In general, no star player’s leaving to go to another team. … The system’s built for these guys to stay. Guys like Kevin Durant, Al Horford — the Wizards most likely will be going after these players, as they should. Are they really going to leave that money on the table?”
  • The Wizards are bringing in prospects D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Georgetown), James Webb III (Boise State), Tyler Harris (Auburn), and James Robinson (Pittsburgh) in for a pre-draft workout today, league sources tell Michael Scott of Sheridan Hoops (Twitter link).
  • The Wizards are also keeping their eye on former Seton Hall and UConn guard Sterling Gibbs, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, who tweets that Washington is looking at Gibbs for a second time on Monday.
  • We recently took a closer look at the Wizards’ salary cap situation for the coming offseason.
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Draft Notes: Maker, Zimmerman, Richardson

June 4th, 2016 at 3:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Here’s the latest news and notes regarding the upcoming 2016 NBA Draft, which will be held on June 23rd in Brooklyn, New York:

  • The Wolves held a workout on Friday for Matt Costello (Michigan State), Ryan Spangler (Oklahoma) and  Mike Tobey (Virginia), Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN relays (via Twitter).
  • The Jazz have workouts scheduled for today with Michael Gbinije (Syracuse), Damion Lee (Louisville), James Robinson (Pittsburgh), Josh Scott (Colorado), Malachi Richardson (Syracuse) and Kyle Wiltjer (Gonzaga), the team announced.
  • Working out for the Grizzlies on Sunday will be Petr Cornelie (France), Julian Jacobs (USC), Alpha Kaba (Mega Leks), Abdel Nader (Iowa State), Josh Adams (Wyoming) and Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa), the team announced via press release.
  • The Pistons held workouts on Friday for Thon Maker (Australia), Cornelie, Stephen Zimmerman (UNLV), Pascal Siakam (New Mexico State), Isaiah Taylor (Texas) and Cat Barber (NC State), Keith Langlois of NBA.com relays (Twitter links).
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Northwest Notes: Stotts, Brown, Poeltl

May 13th, 2016 at 5:47pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mason Plumlee said Thursday that he’ll be “shocked” if the Trail Blazers don’t give Terry Stotts an extension, and Damian Lillard said a renewed deal for the coach “would mean everything to me,” notes Jay Allen of WPOJ-AM (Twitter links). Portland and representatives for the coach will reportedly explore the idea of an extension, and every Blazers player at exit interviews Thursday said they think Stotts is deserving of an extension and a raise, as KFXX-AM relays via Twitter.

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

  • Gerald Henderson confirmed hints that he’d like to re-sign with the Blazers, Allen tweets. “I can’t imagine a better place,” Henderson said. Maurice Harkless, headed for restricted free agency, also wants to return to Portland, KFXX-AM notes (Twitter link).
  • The Timberwolves interviewed Utah sophomore center Jakob Poeltl and UNLV freshman big man Stephen Zimmerman, Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune relays (Twitter links).
  • The Jazz have scheduled a workout with Memphis small forward Dedric Lawson and are expected to set up one with Purdue freshman forward Caleb Swanigan, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune relays (Twitter links).
  • The Jazz interviewed Jaylen Brown (California) and Troy Williams (Indiana) today, and the team has scheduled meetings for Saturday with Malachi Richardson (Syracuse) and Isaiah Whitehead (Seton Hall), Jones relays in a series of tweets. The scribe also notes that Utah really likes freshman power forward Marquese Chriss (Washington), a potential lottery pick, and that the 18-year-old impressed the team during his interview.
  • The Wolves held a workout earlier this week that included Ben Bentil (Providence), Abdul Malik-Abu (North Carolina State), Abdel Nader (Iowa State), Trevon Bluiett (Xavier) and James Robinson (Pittsburgh), Zgoda tweets.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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