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Kristaps Porzingis

Eastern Notes: Irving, Porzingis, Zeller

December 13th, 2015 at 7:11pm CST by Will Joseph

Kyrie Irving is ready to play, according to a source who spoke with ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin, but Cavs coach David Blatt told reporters the star point guard won’t see the court Tuesday. Despite Irving practicing well and looking good, according to Blatt, the Cavs prefer to use extreme caution with Irving, McMenamin details. While it was reported that Irving would play before January, a Cavs source told McMenamin that the he wouldn’t mind if Irving sat out until February if it meant Irving’s chances of being healthy for an extended playoff run would increase.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • Cody Zeller, whom the Hornets exercised their 2016/17 rookie scale team option in November, is thriving in the role of center after playing his first two years in the league as a power forward, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes.
  • Kristaps Porzingis has likely hit a rookie wall, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News opines. The Knicks‘ European sensation went scoreless for the first time in his NBA career on Saturday and finished a three-game road trip with averages of 5.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game on 24% shooting, Bondy writes. Porzingis played in only 50 games last season in Spain over nearly seven months, and he is already more than halfway toward reaching his minutes total from last season, according to Bondy.
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Southwest Notes: Williams, Motiejunas, Jones

December 8th, 2015 at 11:01am CST by Chuck Myron

Playing in Brooklyn gave Deron Williams the sense that “everybody felt I was the problem,” and he cited his own injuries as well as what he saw as the negative effect frequent coaching turnover had on chemistry for reasons why it didn’t work out with the Nets, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com chronicles. The Nets weren’t pleased with Williams’ attitude, nor his declining production, sources told Mazzeo, but Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has showered praise on the point guard, who feels much more at home on his new team.

“[Dallas] has been great for me,” Williams said, according to Mazzeo. “It’s been great for my family. [There’s] a lot more positivity in Dallas, and I think I needed that in my life.”

Williams has a player option worth more than $5.621MM for next season. See more on the Mavs amid the latest from the Southwest Division:

  • Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Monday that he wanted every player the Knicks wound up with from the 2015 draft: Kristaps Porzingis, Jerian Grant and Guillermo Hernangomez, a second-round draft-and-stash pick, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. The main attraction was naturally Porzingis, the No. 4 overall selection, as Marc Berman of the New York Post details. “We would have traded up in a heartbeat to get that kid,’’ Cuban said. “We loved him. Obviously, people are going to compare him to Dirk [Nowitzki] because that’s what people like to do. When you’re 7’3″, those three inches make a difference.”
  • The Rockets are reportedly thinking about trading Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones, but Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM points to their presence in Houston as reason for hope amid the team’s slow start.
  • Kendrick Perkins was expected to miss three months when he went down with a right pectoral injury in early November, but a decent chance exists that he returns to play sometime this month, according to John Reid of The Times Picayune. Coach Alvin Gentry lauded the big man’s work ethic during rehab, Reid notes, and this weekend Gentry praised Perkins’ locker room influence, as Brett Dawson of the New Orleans Advocate relays (Twitter link). Perkins is with the Pelicans on a one-year deal. “I think he’s the best teammate I’ve ever seen,” Gentry said. “I mean, without a doubt. I really do believe that.”
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Atlantic Notes: Johnson, Porzingis, D-League

December 4th, 2015 at 8:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

A five person ESPN.com panel was asked to speculate on where Nets small forward Joe Johnson would play in 2016/17, and some members posited that the Warriors, Kings or Grizzlies could be possibilities in 2016/17, while others noted that Johnson is a prime candidate to reach a buyout arrangement with Brooklyn this season if the team were unable to trade him before the February deadline. While the panel members may not have agreed upon the specific franchise Johnson would end up with, the consensus opinion was that he most certainly would not return to Brooklyn next season.

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

  • With the Nets franchise in disarray, the Knicks, thanks to the growing popularity of rookie Kristaps Porzingis, have a secure foothold as the No. 1 team in New York, Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News writes. Porzingis has adapted remarkably well to living and playing in the U.S., and the big man credits his brother Janis for helping prepare him, Bondy adds. “[Janis] was always thinking 10 steps ahead. When I was younger I took extra English classes just to make sure I have good English if I had the chance to play professionally. Things like that,” Porzingis said. “When I was young I was doing a lot of extra stuff for my body. Now that makes sense, all the stuff I did. At that time, I was like, ‘Why do you make me do all this stuff?’ But that just showed me how much they were preparing me for what’s coming.”
  • The Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo and Delon Wright to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This is Caboclo’s second trip of the season to the Raptors 905 and Wright’s third.
  • Celtics swingman James Young was assigned to and recalled from the Maine Red Claws, Boston’s D-League affiliate, the team announced (Twitter links). This was the sixth trek to Maine of the 2015/16 season for Young.
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Eastern Notes: Okafor, Porzingis, Clifford

December 3rd, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers weren’t aware of the second altercation that allegedly involved Jahlil Okafor on the night of November 25th, coach Brett Brown told reporters, but the team maintains its faith in the No. 3 overall pick even as it suspended him for two games beginning with Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks, as Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv details. Brown said Okafor is “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” but Mike Krzyzewski, the former Duke center’s college coach, maintains that Okafor is of high character even amid a tide of disturbing reports.

“Let’s make our point. There is hard luck,” Brown said. “There are mistakes that have been made, he does own it, and nobody’s proud of this right now. And so we will support him, he’s ours and we will move on.”

Okafor reportedly plans to give strong consideration to signing his qualifying offer at the end of his rookie scale contract, so time will tell how he’ll regard the way the Sixers organization is treating him now. Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Knicks team president Phil Jackson sees a “magical element” to Kristaps Porzingis, but in Jackson’s first public comments of the regular season Wednesday on SiriusXM NBA Radio with Rick Fox (audio link), he deflected credit for having taken the 7’3″ Latvian sensation with the No. 4 pick in June. Marc Berman of the New York Post provides a partial transcription. “It’s not me, it’s all on him,’’ Jackson said. “This is the young man that’s done it. You sit in those spots [in the draft] and analyze what you can do and have control of. … We made a choice, a logical choice, and not having seen him but once in person, just in a shooting exhibition, I felt comfortable making the choice. I’m just happy the personality, drive and work ethic goes along with that talent level.’’
  • Hornets GM Rich Cho cited a desire for continuity and Steve Clifford‘s organization, work ethic and rapport with his players in a statement from the team that confirmed Clifford has put pen to paper on the extension they agreed to last week.
  • Hassan Whiteside appears to be a lock to sign a maximum-salary contract when he hits free agency in July, opines Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, who takes a look at the rapid ascent of the Heat big man who’s in the final season of a two-year, minimum-salary deal.
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Atlantic Notes: Afflalo, ‘Melo, Okafor, Porzingis

December 1st, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks knew Kristaps Porzingis would perform well, but they had no idea he would burst out of the gates so spectacularly, GM Steve Mills told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. The pick is a potential game-changer for New York, as Lowe examines. Mills said to Lowe that agents have remarked of how players “feel really good” about the Knicks but want to see the team start to win, a sentiment that Arron Afflalo understands. The shooting guard with an $8MM player option for next season contends “the city isn’t enough for people,” but is convinced for himself that the Knicks are for real, as he explained to Lowe.

“I want to finish my career here,” Afflalo said. “Having a good young player and a winning team should help us get other guys.”

Afflalo has been sold on the Knicks for a while, as he and Mills said to Lowe that the Knicks and Nuggets had trade talks last season that would have fulfilled Afflalo’s desire to go to New York even amid last season’s 17-win debacle. See more from around the Atlantic Division:

  • The Celtics went after the Hornets’ pick at No. 9 with the idea of flipping it to the Knicks, along with another first-rounder, for the No. 4 overall pick, which Boston would have used to take Justise Winslow, sources told Lowe for the same piece. Boston offered Charlotte four first-rounders for the ninth pick, as Lowe reported earlier, but the Hornets refused, putting the kibosh on the scenario in which Boston would have vaulted to No. 4. The Knicks listened to the idea, Mills admits, but a deal was never close, he told Lowe.
  • The Knicks have “never” thought about trading Carmelo Anthony, Mills insists to Lowe, who nonetheless hears skepticism from other teams that the subject hasn’t at least been the topic of internal discussion.
  • Knicks president Phil Jackson would have drafted Jahlil Okafor over Porzingis if he had the chance, a source said to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
  • Okafor’s off-court troubles are likely a shock to the Sixers, given the meticulous background checking they did before the draft on the center from Duke, a league executive told Berman for the same piece.
  • Porzingis decided against working out for the Sixers but wouldn’t have been opposed to playing for them, seeing it as an opportunity to perform in a low-pressure environment and viewing Nerlens Noel as a strong frontcourt complement to his game, a source close to Porzingis said to Berman.
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Atlantic Notes: Okafor, Porzingis, Brown, Ross

November 30th, 2015 at 11:05am CST by Chuck Myron

Jahlil Okafor addressed his recent off-court trouble with a statement on Twitter that pointed the finger at himself (All four Twitter links). The Sixers rookie has overshadowed his strong early-season play with transgressions that made tabloid headlines.

“I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else ever could and I’m not proud of some of my decisions over the last few months,” Okafor wrote. “I own my choices both personally and now publicly. At this point I am cooperating and respecting the process I have to go through. Going forward I don’t want to be a distraction for my team and am grateful for the support and guidance those close to me are giving. I am 100% focused on my responsibility to the League, my teammates and fans.”

See more on this year’s No. 3 overall pick amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:

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Eastern Notes: Batum, Clifford, James

November 26th, 2015 at 12:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Hornets coach Steve Clifford‘s new contract extension could enhance the team’s chance of re-signing swingman Nicolas Batum, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer notes (Twitter links). “He trusts me. He believes in me. So that could be a big factor,” Batum said when discussing his upcoming free agent decision. Batum was acquired from Portland this past summer in exchange for Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson.

Here’s more from the East:

  • The first three years of Clifford’s extension are fully guaranteed, with the final season in 2019/20 a team option, Bonnell tweets.
  • The Cavaliers held a players-only meeting after their Wednesday night loss to the Raptors, and LeBron James and James Jones both chastised the squad for its inconsistent play and effort, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. “It’s all mindset,” James said after the game. “It comes from within. I’ve always had it; my upbringing had me like that. It’s either you got it or you don’t.” LeBron also noted that the Eastern Conference, which has been much-maligned for being mediocre the past few seasons, is greatly improved this year, McMenamin relays. “There’s always been a lot of shade thrown at our conference the last few years, so it’s great to see that our side is definitely picking it up and playing at a high level,” James said.
  • Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis is winning over the team’s fans, but he still hasn’t forgotten that his draft selection was met with boos when first announced, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. “It still sits inside of you a bit,’’ Porzingis said of the boos. “It’s not a good feeling when you get booed. But I don’t want to be good because somebody booed me. I want to be great player because that’s the way I am. It definitely gave me extra motivation.’’
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Atlantic Notes: Porzingis, Scola, Brown

November 25th, 2015 at 5:26pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony is surprised by how quickly he and rookie Kristaps Porzingis have meshed together, with the No. 4 overall pick’s ability to stretch defenses blending perfectly with Melo’s preferred style of play, Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News writes. “This early we didn’t think that this kind of the jelling and the chemistry we have so far would be there. We all thought this would take some time to kind of figure out,” Anthony told Bondy. “But anytime you can play with a stretch-four, it makes the game a little bit easier. And it’s easier to figure that out. When you have a stretch-four guy who can play the wing, and he’s 7’3″, you know where he’s at, you know what he can do. So that makes the game easier. It makes the chemistry process that much easier.”

Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

  • Porzingis has turned draft night boos from Knicks fans into game night raves with his solid play thus far, and he credits some advice that he received from Wolves veteran Kevin Garnett for helping him cope with the now-forgotten negativity he was garnering, Bondy relays in a separate piece. “He [Garnett] was like, ‘You use that as motivation, you let that drive you every day when you step onto the floor,’” Porzingis said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t really focus on it, that’s not the only thing that drives me, but it still sits inside me on the floor. That was huge. That was a really cool moment.”
  • The Sixers are off to a winless start to the season, but coach Brett Brown still needs to weigh the value of player development over chasing wins, a task that the team’s near-constant roster shuffling doesn’t make easier, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I have to coach basketball,” Brown said. “I have to do it where you walk the most incredible concoction. There’s a recipe you are always trying to figure out. I never coached more moving parts in my life.“
  • The Raptors signed Luis Scola to a one-year, $2.9MM deal this offseason to provide depth, but the veteran is proving to be one of the team’s most important additions, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes. “When you play well, you play more and when you play bad, you play less and that’s the way it should be,” Scola said of his new starting role. “It’s been pretty much what I expected. I knew if I showed up in good shape and did good things I’d have more opportunities and if I didn’t, I’d have less, and that’s what happened. The situation changes, I adapt, I prepare mentally for it and I just play.”
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Southeast Notes: Wade, Clifford, Porzingis, Oladipo

November 25th, 2015 at 2:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Dwyane Wade has been trying to preserve his body for the long run the past few years, at 33 years old he was still able to corral a one-year, $20MM deal from the Heat this past summer. Still, the 13th-year veteran has no aspirations of matching Kobe Bryant‘s 20 seasons in the NBA, as he tells Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports.

“That ain’t a goal for me. That’s a long time. I’m sure Kobe didn’t think he’d play 20 years. It’s amazing. And he’s been through a lot. He’s been through a lot of injuries but he’s still out there. And he’s still, you know, Kobe Bryant,” Wade said. “It’s amazing to see a guy who has played 20 years in the league. Makes me feel old, for sure, just watching him. I don’t know how many people come in with the goal, ‘I’m going to play 20 years.’ I think you take it step by step. For years I said, ‘I want to make it to 10.’ I made it to 10 and I was like, ‘I’m solid.’ Then, you keep going from there. But 20? No way.”

Bryant isn’t nearly as effective as he once was, and Lee’s piece examines what Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony are doing to ward off similar declines in their own games. See more from the Southeast Division:

  • Hornets coach Steve Clifford, fresh off agreeing to a three-year extension, thanked owner Michael Jordan and vice chairman Curtis Polk, as well as GM Rich Cho, whose relationship with the coach has reportedly been less than ideal. “I like who I’m working for and wanted this to happen,” Clifford said today, according to the Hornets Twitter account.
  • Kristaps Porzingis said he sensed the Magic would have drafted him with the No. 5 overall pick if the Knicks had passed on him at No. 4, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Porzingis worked out for the Magic shortly before the draft, Berman adds.
  • New Magic head coach Scott Skiles has decided to bench former No. 2 overall pick Victor Oladipo in favor of Channing Frye, who was reportedly available on the trade market for little in return before the season, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel relays. Skiles stressed that the move isn’t punishment or necessarily permanent and said Oladipo handled the news well, Robbins notes. Oladipo is eligible for a rookie scale extension after the season.
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Eastern Notes: Porzingis, Hornets, Raptors

November 23rd, 2015 at 7:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kristaps Porzingis has already allayed Phil Jackson’s fears that he might be too slight of build to develop into a star player, Johnette Howard of ESPN.com reports. The Knicks’ president of basketball operations was worried during the offseason that Porzingis’ body shape might make him nothing more than an updated version of Shawn Bradley, who never developed into an All-Star caliber player. Porzingis’ swift development has been the talk of New York and he already leads the Knicks in rebounding and blocks, Howard continues. “I’m not scared — I’m not scared of anybody,” Porzingis told Howard. “I’m skinny and I’m light. Strong guys can still push me around. But I will fight back, and be aggressive and never back down from anybody. If I want to succeed at this level, I can’t be scared of anybody.” Porzingis moves far better than the league’s most accomplished European player, Dirk Nowitzki, and is a much better rebounder and shot-blocker than the longtime Mavericks All-Star, Howard adds.

In other news around the Eastern Conference:

  • The Hornets’ improved 3-point shooting has given its main low-post threat, center Al Jefferson, more room to operate, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Charlotte is doing a better job of spreading the floor with the additions of Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Lamb, Jeremy Lin, Spencer Hawes and Frank Kaminsky, as it is shooting nearly 37% on 3-point attempts compared to its league-worst 31.8% shooting from long range last season. That has been a boost to Jefferson, who is averaging nearly 21 points over the last four games, Bonnell adds. “There’s so much shooting on the floor that they’re a lot less likely to say, ‘Not tonight. He’s just not scoring. These other guys are going to have to shoot,'” Hornets coach Steve Clifford told Bonnell. “Now they can’t do that.”
  • It’s a misguided notion that the Raptors’ 9-6 start should be viewed as a mild disappointment, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca opines. Toronto has already endured the toughest portion of its schedule, including a five-game, eight-day West Coast swing, Lewenberg points out, and it’s only played four home games. Given those obstacles, the Raptors’ record to this point is commendable, Lewenberg adds.
  • Heat point guard Goran Dragic has been hampered by his lack of chemistry with backcourt partner Dwyane Wade and the team’s methodical pace, Ethan J. Skolnick of Miami Herald uncovered while taking a hard look at the team’s statistical trends. Wade has assisted on only one Dragic basket this season, a sign of their disconnect and of Dragic’s struggles to make his 3-point attempts. The Heat also rank 25th in pace and that hurts a player like Dragic, who prefers a more uptempo style, Skolnick adds.
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