Kenneth Faried Rumors | Hoops Rumors

International Notes: Kleber, Schofield, Faried, Beverley, Motley

November 29th, 2024 at 9:46am CST by Rory Maher

Speaking to Dirk Sing of German outlet Augsburger Allgemeine, Mavericks forward/center Maxi Kleber says he has no intention of returning to Germany’s national team going forward.

Kleber, who previously represented his home country in international competitions, including the 2014 EuroBasket and the 2019 World Cup, opted not to play in the 2022 EuroBasket tournament after a deep playoff run with Dallas. Kleber was criticized for that decision by team captain Dennis Schröder, causing the big man to withdraw from consideration for the 2023 World Cup. Schröder later apologized.

Kleber also didn’t participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but he says he watched the tournament and still supports the team from afar, even if he will no longer be playing for Deutschland in an official capacity.

“The situation was what it was. That’s why I had to come to terms with it,” Kleber said (hat tip to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net). “I watched the games as a fan, of course, because it is always positive for German basketball when the national team is successful.

“It’s ultimately about basketball continuing to grow in Germany. And the Olympic Games that everyone can watch on television is a great platform. I know a lot of guys on the team very well or are my friends, it was also great to watch them. … The national team is definitely over for me. So, there will be no return.”

Here are a few more international basketball notes:

Admiral Schofield, who spent four seasons in the NBA before signing with ASVEL Basket over the offseason, has parted ways with the French club in what the team called a mutual agreement, per Askounis of Eurohoops. The 27-year-old forward, who was a second-round pick out of Tennessee in 2019, recently fell out of ASVEL’s rotation, Askounis notes.
Former NBA forward Kenneth Faried has signed with Italy’s Pallacanestro Reggiana, the team announced in a press release. An eight-year veteran who spent seven seasons in Denver, Faried last played in the NBA with Houston during the 2018/19 season. The 35-year-old made previous international stops in China and Russia before returning to North America to play in the G League, having spent the past two seasons with the Mexico City Capitanes.
Longtime NBA veteran Patrick Beverley signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv over the summer, but he says he’s “50-50” on whether he’ll stay with the Israeli club due to family pressures, as BasketNews.com relays.
Former Mavs and Clippers big man Johnathan Motley decided to leave Hapoel Tel Aviv earlier this month due to concerns over his safety. He wound up signing a G League deal while still under contract with Hapoel, but didn’t receive a letter of clearance from FIBA. In a strange twist to an unusual situation, Motley has returned to Hapoel on a two-year contract, the team announced (link via BasketNews).

And-Ones: Biggest Issue, Awards, Baldwin, Faried, Campazzo

April 23rd, 2023 at 9:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

What’s the biggest issue facing the NBA? Not surprisingly, a poll of players conducted by Josh Robbins and Sam Amick of The Athletic placed the officiating at the top of the list. Out of 70 participants, 25.8 percent called out the officials for a variety of reasons.

“Ref accountability. It’s the (big) thing right now. Because there is none,” one poll respondent said. “There’s just not a system set up for it. And it’s been real shaky, I think, this year. Just something to keep them accountable. I don’t know if I want to take their money. But something to get them to have some type of, ‘I can’t f–k this up’ mentality.”

Load management was a close second in the poll. Rules skewed in favor of offensive players also ranked high on the list.

We have more from around the basketball world:

The NBA will reveal the winner of the Most Improved Player award on Monday, the league’s communications department tweets. Lauri Markkanen, Jalen Brunson and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the three finalists. The Rookie of the Year will be revealed on Tuesday, with Paolo Banchero considered the heavy favorite.
Former NBA player Wade Baldwin IV has signed a two-year contract extension with Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, according to Eurohoops.net. He averaged 16.7 points, 5.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds this season. Baldwin played 56 career NBA games, most recently with Portland during the 2018/19 season.
Reyer Venezia is interested in signing big man Kenneth Faried for the Italian playoffs, according to Sportando. Faried spent this season playing in Mexico with Soles de Mexicali. Faried has been out of the NBA since he played a combined 37 games for Brooklyn and Houston during the 2018/19 season.
Another former NBA player, Facundo Campazzo, is joining Real Madrid next season, Sportando relays. Campazzo joined Serbia’s Crvena Zvezda after being waived by the Mavericks in late November. He appeared in eight games with Dallas this season.

And-Ones: Faried, CBA, Wembanyama, Thompson Twins

January 24th, 2023 at 3:06pm CST by Luke Adams

In a conversation with Sam Yip of HoopsHype, Kenneth Faried admits that it has been “extremely difficult” to be out of the NBA since 2019, since he believes that he’s still capable of playing at that level and helping a team. Faried is currently suiting up for the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League as he seeks an NBA comeback.

“At the same time, patience is a virtue. I’m very patient,” Faried said. “I’m working hard towards showing that I can still do it at that level. … I’m ready, I’m focused, I’m locked in, I’m a better vet, a better person, a better leader and I don’t even need to be a leader. I can be quiet and sit back and just follow whoever the leader is.”

As Yip points out, Faried is one of several NBA veterans playing for Mexico City’s G League team. Shabazz Napier, Gary Clark, and Mason Jones are among the other Capitanes players hoping for a call-up.

“For us to now be on a team, and all trying to have the same kind of goal to make it back to the NBA and try to find a way is great, because we’re not trying to be selfish to each other,” Faried said. “We’re trying to help each other. And everyone’s here trying to help each other get better, trying to showcase that we’re still good enough in great shape and ready for whatever may happen, ready for a contract for real.”

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

Don’t expect the NBA’s next Collective Bargaining Agreement to include an upper spending limit (ie. a hard cap), ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said during the latest episode of his Hoop Collective podcast. The NBA was reportedly pushing a de facto hard cap earlier in CBA discussions, but Windhorst believes negotiations between the two sides would be far more contentious if the league was still prioritizing that concept. He does think there will be changes made to the luxury tax system, however.
Although the 2017 CBA improved the guidelines for veteran contract extensions and led to a huge uptick in those deals, the rule limiting players to a 20% raise for the first year of an extension is outdated, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN, who notes that it makes it virtually impossible for clubs to extend players who are coming off team-friendly deals. Marks suggests tweaking the rule to allow teams to offer the same amount in an extension that they’d be able to in free agency.
Top prospect Victor Wembanyama is expected to play for France’s national team in two World Cup qualifying contests next month, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops writes. The February 23 and 26 games conflict with the EuroLeague schedule, but Wembyanama’s Metropolitans 92 aren’t a EuroLeague team.
Twins Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson, projected top-10 picks in the 2023 NBA draft, are looking forward to competing against other top players from their draft class and showing how the Overtime Elite program has benefited them, writes Jacob Polacheck of ZagsBlog.com.

Kenneth Faried Joins Austin Spurs

November 12th, 2022 at 12:48pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Free agent power forward Kenneth Faried has signed a G League contract and joined the Austin Spurs, the team has announced today (Twitter link). Faried will be available to suit up for San Antonio’s G League affiliate tonight in its road game against the Lakeland Magic.

The eight-year NBA vet has been playing internationally since appearing in 37 games for Brooklyn and Houston during the 2018/19 season. A move to the Spurs‘ G League affiliate suggests the 6’8″ big man is holding out hope of making an NBA comeback.

This marks a bit of a pivot for Faried. Just two months ago, he had linked up with Mexican club Soles de Mexicali.

Faried was selected with the No. 22 pick out of Morehead State by the Nuggets in 2011. His motor and hustle endeared him to the Denver faithful almost immediately, and he was named to the 2012 All-Rookie First Team for his efforts. He would go on to spend the majority of his career in Denver before suiting up for the Nets and Rockets.

The 32-year-old has since spent time with teams in China, Puerto Rico, and Russia. After playing for the Trail Blazers’ 2021 Summer League team, Faried then joined the Nuggets’ NBAGL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, for the 2021/22 season. Across 12 games for the Gold last year, including five starts, Faried averaged 10.8 PPG on 53.1% shooting, plus 7.3 RPG, 1.0 BPG, 1.0 APG and 0.6 SPG.

Through his 478 NBA contests, Faried holds averages of 11.4 PPG on 54.6% shooting, plus 8.1 RPG and 1.0 APG.

And-Ones: Pinson Rule, Deadline Sellers, M. Gasol, Sampson, Faried

September 27th, 2022 at 11:50am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has instituted a rule change this season that will penalize teams whose bench players and coaches are crowding the sidelines and standing for long periods of time, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (all Twitter links). Teams will initially be warned, then get a delay-of-game warning, then be assessed a technical foul.

Winderman clarifies that the rule won’t apply at the end of games, when everyone is often standing, and won’t affect head coaches as long as they’re not interfering with play. The goal is to reduce instances of players and coaches on the bench attempting to blatantly distract players on the court.

The new rule will likely become informally known as the Theo Pinson Rule — Pinson was viewed as the unofficial ring leader of the Mavericks’ bench mob that earned the team $175K in fines during the playoffs due to its “bench decorum” violations. However, Pinson is unfazed by the change, joking to reporters on Monday that he intends to “find a loophole,” as Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News writes.

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

In a recent episode of The Hoop Collective podcast, Brian Windhorst of ESPN wondered if the surplus of competitive teams in 2022/23 might result in a few unexpected sellers at February’s trade deadline. “What I suspect will happen this year: there are too many good teams,” Windhorst said, per RealGM. “Too many teams are invested in winning. The lottery is very good. My suspicion is that some team, one to three teams, are going to get into January and realize, ‘It ain’t happening for us and we have to retrofit.'”
A rule change in Liga ACB, Spain’s top basketball league, will allow veteran center Marc Gasol to suit up for Girona this season despite also owning the team, according to a Eurohoops report. Girona earned a promotion to the ACB after Gasol helped lead the club to a top-two finish in Liga LEB Oro, Spain’s second division, last season.
In other international basketball news, veteran forward JaKarr Sampson has signed with China’s Liaoning Flying Leopards, per his agency Prostep Sports (Twitter link), while big man Kenneth Faried has joined Mexican club Soles de Mexicali, according to HoopsHype.
The Athletic’s team of NBA writers pose the biggest question facing each NBA club entering training camp, while ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider-only link) provides an in-depth, team-by-team training camp guide.

Warriors Working Out Ben McLemore, Elfrid Payton, Others

September 6th, 2022 at 1:51pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors are bringing in a number of veteran free agents this week for workouts, league sources tell Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

According to Charania and Slater, some of the free agents taking part in the workouts are Ben McLemore, Elfrid Payton, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Kenneth Faried, Miye Oni, Ty-Shon Alexander, Wesley Saunders, and Jon Axel Gudmundsson.

Golden State also held similar free agent workouts in August, according to Charania and Slater, who say that Shabazz Muhammad, Solomon Hill, Tyler Cook, and Kelan Martin were among the players who participated in those sessions about two weeks ago.

The purpose of this week’s workouts is twofold — as Tim Kawakami of The Athletic tweets, the players currently on the Warriors’ roster are beginning their informal pre-camp work at the team’s facility this week, so the free agents who join them will help ensure there are enough bodies to play 5-on-5 scrimmages. Additionally, there’s an expectation that the Warriors could sign one or more of the auditioning veterans to their 20-man training camp roster, per Charania and Slater.

Golden State currently has 18 players under contract (13 on guaranteed standard deals), with Jerome Robinson expected to be the 19th. That leaves one spot available for now.

Andre Iguodala has yet to decide whether he’ll retire or return to the Warriors for another season, so it’s possible he could fill that 20th and final roster spot (and become the 14th man on the team’s projected regular season roster). Robinson, Mac McClung, Pat Spencer, and Trevion Williams are among the camp invitees who could compete for a place on the 15-man regular season roster, especially if Iguodala doesn’t return.

Charania and Slater also note that that, while Lester Quinones and Quinndary Weatherspoon are currently on two-way deals, those roster spots are flexible. According to The Athletic’s duo, the Warriors are high on Weatherspoon, who is a candidate to join the 15-man roster either this fall or later in the season

Northwest Notes: Faried, Jazz, Monroe, Reed

December 29th, 2021 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

Kenneth Faried is joining the Grand Rapids Gold for the coming NBA G League season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Although Grand Rapids is the Nuggets‘ affiliate, Faried will remain an NBA free agent and will have the ability to join any team. If he doesn’t receive any NBA offers in the coming days, we should expect to see the 32-year-old in action for the Gold when the G League regular season begins on January 5.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

In the latest episode of the HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto and The Athletic’s Tony Jones spoke about potential trade options for the Jazz, Danny Ainge‘s role with the franchise, and more. Jones expects Utah to be “really aggressive” in exploring the trade market for potential upgrades, reiterating that the team is definitely looking for one more perimeter player who can defend at a high level.
Veteran guard Patrick Beverley is a big fan of what Greg Monroe brings to the Timberwolves and said on Tuesday that he’d like to see the team retain Monroe for the entire season, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Monroe has averaged 9.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 5.0 APG, and 2.0 SPG in two games since joining Minnesota on a 10-day deal.
Davon Reed‘s second 10-day contract expired overnight, so he’s technically no longer on the Nuggets‘ roster, but the team is considering how to keep him in the mix, as we relayed on Tuesday. With no players currently in the health and safety protocols, Denver’s options for keeping Reed would be to waive someone on the standard 17-man roster or to apply for a non-COVID hardship exception based on the team’s four injured players.

Kenneth Faried Signs G League Contract

December 27th, 2021 at 9:38am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran big man Kenneth Faried has signed a G League contract, league sources tell Marc Stein (Twitter link). Stein first reported on Friday that a contract had been sent to Faried.

A first-round pick in the 2011 draft, Faried appeared in 478 regular season games from 2011-19. The 6’8″ power forward played for the Nuggets for most of his career, but also spent time with Brooklyn and Houston in 2018/19. He played for Portland’s Summer League team earlier this year.

Although Faried has solid career averages of 11.4 PPG and 8.1 RPG in 24.5 minutes per contest, he isn’t a great rim protector or floor spacer, which has limited his appeal to NBA teams in recent years. The 32-year-old has played in China, Puerto Rico, and Russia since 2019 — he recently finished a two-month contract with CSKA Moscow.

The G League is on a brief hiatus right now, as the start of its regular season has been pushed back to January 5 to give teams more time to adjust to the recent exodus of talent to the NBA. As Stein points out, Faried himself is a candidate to earn a 10-day hardship deal with an NBA team. If he doesn’t, he’ll be available to any G League club, first on waivers and then (if he goes unclaimed) via the player pool.

And-Ones: Team USA, Faried, Bennett, All-Star Voting

December 25th, 2021 at 6:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

New Team USA coach Steve Kerr may not hold a training camp involving players during the summer, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Kerr, who officially took over the position earlier this week, has talked to managing director Grant Hill about conducting a coaches camp instead, which would represent a new approach for the national team.

The next World Cup won’t take place until the 2023 offseason, and the next Olympics are two-and-a-half years away. Team USA will be hoping to get a two-year commitment from its players to participate in both events. The Americans have won the last four Olympic gold medals, but finished seventh at the 2019 World Cup.

“I’m in touch with Grant all the time and we’re discussing those things,” Kerr said. “Obviously there is COVID complications as well, but with the World Cup not being until the following summer, there’s not a huge sense of urgency to get a bunch of players together. It’s more about getting the coaches together and really starting to put a foundation together.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Kenneth Faried has received an offer to play in the G League, tweets Marc Stein of Substack. The 32-year-old big man played eight NBA seasons, but hasn’t been in the league since finishing the 2018/19 season with the Rockets. Faried has played overseas since then, but ended his arrangement with CSKA Moscow last week.
Anthony Bennett has parted ways with Hapoel Jerusalem, tweets Israeli basketball writer Roi Cohen. Bennett, the first selection in the 2013 draft, averaged 7.0 points per game while playing in the Winner League and the Basketball Champions League. Bennett has been out of the NBA since the 2016/17 season and has played both in the G League and overseas.
Fan voting for the NBA’s All-Star Game began today and will continue through January 22, the league announced (via Twitter). Votes can be submitted at NBA.com, through the NBA app or on Twitter. Votes will count double today, as well as January 13, 17 and 20.

And-Ones: Roster Rules, Muhammad, Faried, Prospects

December 20th, 2021 at 3:41pm CST by Luke Adams

A handful of reporters have shared some additional details on the changes to the NBA’s roster rules as agreed upon by the league and the players’ union, which we outlined this morning.

According to Eric Koreen of The Athletic, while teams are now being required to sign replacement players if they have multiple players sidelined due to positive COVID-19 tests, a club won’t have to sign any additional replacements if it’s able to have 13 healthy players in uniform.

Meanwhile, Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link) cites multiple sources who say it won’t just be new hardship signings that don’t count against team salary for cap or tax purposes — that change will be applied retroactively to all of this season’s hardship signings. Teams, of course, will still be required to pay 10-day salaries to each player they sign, but those deals won’t have an impact on a club’s cap or tax situation.

Finally, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link), even though players on two-way contracts no longer face a 50-game regular season limit, they remain ineligible to participate in play-in or postseason games unless they’re promoted to their team’s standard roster.

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

Former lottery pick Shabazz Muhammad, who last played in the NBA in 2018, joined the Grand Rapids Gold – the Nuggets‘ G League affiliate – for the NBAGL Showcase, as Marc Stein reported (via Twitter). Muhammad struggled in his debut on Sunday vs. the G League Ignite, recording four points, four turnovers, and six fouls in 16 minutes of action.
CSKA Moscow and veteran NBA big man Kenneth Faried have parted ways, the Russian club recently announced in a press release. Faried signed a two-month contract with CSKA in October, but played a limited role for the team, which opted not to extend his deal to cover the entire season. “Thank you for having me, it was amazing – the organization, coaches and people of CSKA Moscow,” Faried said in a statement. “I wish I could have stayed the whole season but it’s a business and I understand that!”
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic identifies seven college upperclassmen to keep an eye on this NCAA season as 2022 draft prospects, singling out Kansas wing Ochai Agbaji, Duke wing Wendell Moore Jr., and Northwestern forward Pete Nance (Larry Nance Jr.‘s brother), among others.