Luke Kornet Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eastern Notes: Kornet, Morris, Pasecniks, Wall

January 13th, 2020 at 10:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Bulls are trying to get by in the middle with rookie Daniel Gafford and Luke Kornet until Wendell Carter Jr. returns, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times relays. Carter is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury.

The Bulls used their room exception to sign Kornet to a two-year, $4.5MM contract during the offseason but he’s only appeared in 20 games this season, averaging 3.2 PPG in 9.7 MPG. He had 15 points against Detroit on Saturday but went scoreless against Boston on Monday.

‘‘[Kornet] was just waiting for his time to come back and show what he can do, and that’s what he did [Saturday],’’ Gafford said of his Bulls teammate.

We have more from around the Eastern Conference:

The Knicks are leaning toward retaining forward Marcus Morris, who will be a free agent again after the season, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports. Morris, who will miss his fifth straight game Tuesday against the Bucks with a neck injury, may not be dealt unless they get back a star-quality player in a large package, Berman continues. Several playoff teams are interested in Morris, Berman adds, but the Knicks would prefer to preserve their 2020 or 2021 cap space in any deal.
The Wizards used part of their mid-level exception to convert center Anzejs Pasecniks‘ contract from a two-way deal to a standard one, Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets. Pasecniks was signed to a multi-year pact on Sunday. The Wizards will take a $482K cap hit this year. Pasecniks has a $250K guarantee on his $1.52MM salary for the 2020/21 season. The contract for next season becomes fully guaranteed if he remains on the roster through July 8, Katz continues. His $1.78MM salary for 2021/22 is non-guaranteed, Katz adds.
Wizards GM Tommy Shephard reiterated that point guard John Wall will not return this season unless he’s completely healthy, Mike DePrisco of NBC Sports Washington writes. Wall has been participated in 3-on-3 drills with members of the player development staff. “We’re not going to skip steps, we’re not going to get excited about 3-on-3,” Sheppard said. “Down the road, I think we’ll start to add more players to the court and make it feel more like home, but we’re not in a rush to see John come back unless he’s 100 percent healthy.”

Bulls Notes: Doyle, Carter, Gafford, Rotation

January 5th, 2020 at 2:23pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

G League standout Milton Doyle dreams of securing a long-term NBA role, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com.

Doyle, an alum of Chicago’s Marshall High School and Loyola University, is averaging 18.9 PPG, 6.5 APG and 4.4 RPG for the Windy City Bulls, the G League affiliate of the Bulls. Doyle is shooting 86% from the charity stripe and 34% from three-point land.

The 6’4″ combo guard cameoed for the Nets in 2017/18, appearing in 10 games and averaging 12.5 MPG, 3.4 PPG, and 1.8 APG. Last year, he played for UCAM Murcia of the Liga ACB in Spain.

He has returned to Chicago for a crack at the big time once again with the Bulls’ G League squad.

“It’s about finding a niche that will get a team to say they want me,” Doyle told Smith of his time with the Windy City Bulls.“I feel like I have the ability to come off the bench for a team and make plays whether it’s scoring or playing defense, getting others involved.”

There’s more out of Chicago:

Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. has impressed this season, according to NBC Sports Chicago’s KC Johnson. Most recently, Carter had an 18-point, 13-rebound, four-assist night against Rudy Gobert, the Jazz’s two-time Defensive Player of the Year, on Friday. “Games like that can turn him into an All-Star type big,” teammate Thaddeus Young observed. Carter has been a key fulcrum for the Bulls eking out a top five NBA defense.
Bulls stretch-four Luke Kornet was signed to a two-year, $4.5MM contract this summer to create some spacing off the bench. Athletic rookie power forward Daniel Gafford, the No. 38 pick in 2019, has thus far severely outperformed him. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times examines the two players’ 2019/20 seasons thus far.
Coach Jim Boylen shrank the injury-hampered Bulls’ rotation to eight players in a 111-104 loss to the Celtics yesterday. KC Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago wonders if this trend will continue, despite it pushing all the starters’ minutes over 35, with the exception of power forward Lauri Markkanen.

Bulls Notes: Markkanen, LaVine, Carter, Kornet

November 25th, 2019 at 2:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

Of all the issues holding down the Bulls, none is more baffling than the slow start by Lauri Markkanen, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. A tense two-game stretch ended on a positive note Saturday as Zach LaVine resolved trust issues with coach Jim Boylen and put up 49 points in a dramatic win at Charlotte. However, Cowley notes that Markkanen was on the bench as the Bulls finished off their comeback.

“Well, I didn’t think Lauri played poorly,’’ Boylen said afterward. “He did not shoot the ball how we know he can shoot it. I did not think he played poorly. Just like Zach, just like Coby [White], just like [Kris Dunn], just like [Ryan Arcidiacono], just like everybody, Wendell [Carter], I’m going to keep coaching and my staff is going to keep coaching. Just try to keep leading these guys in the right direction. We’re going to keep looking at it.’’

Markkanen’s scoring average is down about five points from last season and his shooting percentage has dropped from 43.0% to 35.4%. Cowley cites increasing concern in the organization that he and LaVine might not be effective together. Rumors of a possible Markkanen trade have emerged recently, although a source in the organization strongly denied it.

There’s more Bulls news to pass along:

Chicago is giving fewer minutes to its best players than anyone else in the league, which may contribute to any chemistry issues between LaVine and Markkanen, notes Sam Smith of Bulls.com. The Bulls have 10 players averaging at least 20 minutes per game, while most teams have six or seven. Both LaVine and Markkanen have seen their court time fall about 10% from last season.
Coaches are working with Carter to try to get his foul trouble under control, relays K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. The second-year center is averaging 12.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, but he’s also committing 4.2 fouls, which limits his time on the court. “I don’t know if it’s that I’m being too aggressive,” Carter said. “I talk to the refs. Every time I pick up my early fouls, I always try to ask them what exactly am I doing wrong. It seems my body is out of position or my hands are down. It’s just a concentration thing with me. I just have to go into the game knowing that I can’t be picking up early fouls.”
Backup center Luke Kornet has been cleared for basketball work a week after having nasal surgery, Johnson tweets.

Luke Kornet Undergoes Nasal Surgery

November 18th, 2019 at 3:02pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Bulls big man Luke Kornet underwent a surgical procedure to correct a sinus obstruction and will be out an undetermined amount of time, according to a team press release.

The 7’2” Kornet broke his nose last December while playing for the Knicks. After a prolonged period of treatment, the Bulls determined that surgery was necessary.

Coach Jim Boylen told reporters, including NBC Sports Chicago’s Kelly Twardziak, that his initial understanding was that Kornet would be out a week or two. That projected timetable could change.

“He had blockage and some issues from a previous fracture from when he was in New York. We just felt it was time to go in there and clean that thing out,” Boylen said. “That happened this morning at 6 AM. He’s out. Surgery went well. We’ll have more to report as we go. Originally, it was a seven-ten-day thing where he’d be back. I think it’s one of those things they don’t know until they get in there how extreme it is. But he had blockage and it needed to be done.”

In 10 games this season, Kornet is averaging 4.0 PPG and 1.9 RPG in 11.6 MPG. He signed a two-year, $4.5MM deal in July.

Bulls Notes: Satoransky, Valentine, Kornet, LaVine

October 11th, 2019 at 9:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Bulls coach Jim Boylen hasn’t announced who will start at point guard but Tomas Satoransky seems to be leading the pack, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago reports. Satoransky, who is battling rookie Coby White and incumbent Kris Dunn for the job, was acquired from the Wizards in a sign-and-trade deal. Satoransky had 11 points and eight assists in 20 minutes against the Pelicans in a preseason outing earlier this week.

“Every day, there is more clarity on what you like, what you don’t like, who fits, who doesn’t fit. Not only in that (lead guard) position but other situations,” Boylen said. “We can’t play everybody. From Day One, I said we’re going to have to share and become a team where sacrifice is involved. That day is coming not just for that lead guard position but other ones, too.”

We have more on the Bulls:

When swingman Denzel Valentine drove to the United Center on Monday, he got choked up en route to making his preseason debut, as he told Johnson in a separate story. Valentine missed last season after undergoing left ankle surgery. “I shed a tear on the way over to the arena,” Valentine said. “It’s just very emotional for me. This is my passion. This is what I love. It’s huge being healthy and being out there again.”
Big man Luke Kornet received a fully guaranteed two-year, $4.5MM deal from the Bulls in free agency but the possibility of being a rotation player was also a crucial factor in his decision, Johnson reports in another story. “A couple teams contacted me but I was able to talk to Coach Boylen for awhile and I got the feel they value what I do and understand the value of it,” Kornet said. “That got me excited.”
If the Bulls can make inroads in the win-loss column, Zach LaVine believes can receive All-Star recognition, as he told Eric Woodyard of ESPN. “I had an All-Star-caliber year last year, but we had 22 wins so it got a little bit swept under the rug,” he said. “But that’s how it’s supposed to be when you have 20 wins. But if I continue to play the way I’m supposed to, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be an All-Star or All-NBA type guy.”

Bulls Notes: Young, Point Guards, Hutchison, WCJ

September 30th, 2019 at 4:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran forward Thaddeus Young played in the postseason in each of his last three seasons in Indiana, and has appeared in the playoffs in eight of his 12 NBA seasons in total. However, as an unrestricted free agent this offseason, he opted to sign with the Bulls, who were coming off a 22-win season.

Speaking today to reporters, including Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link), Young said he received interest from potential championships contenders in free agency, but liked the idea of becoming a veteran leader in Chicago. According to Young, he intends to bring energy and veteran leadership to the club and to be the sort of player who can speak up in the locker room and hold everyone accountable (Twitter link via Strotman).

While joining the Bulls may have appealed to Young for the reasons he mentioned, it’s probably also safe to assume that most of those title contenders who expressed interest in him this summer weren’t able to match the $13MM+ annual salary he received from Chicago.

Here’s more from the Bulls on Media Day:

Head coach Jim Boylen said the point guard situation in Chicago will “work its way out” in terms of minutes and that the Bulls’ players have embraced the competition, tweets Strotman. Tomas Satoransky, Coby White, Kris Dunn, Ryan Arcidiacono, and Shaquille Harrison are all expected to be in the point guard mix.
The Bulls’ goal in 2019/20 is to make the playoffs, Boylen declared today (Twitter link via Strotman). The club finished 19 games back of the No. 8 seed last season.
Chandler Hutchison, who suffered a hamstring strain earlier this month, is “going to be out for a little bit,” per head of basketball operations John Paxson (Twitter link via K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune). Paxson also noted that Luke Kornet has turf toe and will miss a few days.
Wendell Carter Jr., on the other hand, said today that he feels 100% – and better than he has for the last five or six years – after undergoing core muscle surgery during the offseason, tweets Strotman.

Central Notes: Horst, Pistons, Kornet, Holidays

July 21st, 2019 at 3:58pm CST by clarkcrum

Eric Nehm of The Athletic recently sat down with the Bucks’ award-winning GM Jon Horst to discuss the team’s free agency this summer. Here are a few noteworthy passages from Horst’s interview.

Regarding the team’s ability to bring back Khris Middleton on a five-year deal:

“Khris was always a focus… He’s our second superstar, our second star. He’s an All-Star. He’s been one of our best players for a long period of time here… Khris was a target obviously and he got a contract that represents that and we think it’s a great contract because we got our second All-Star locked up for the next five years.”

Regarding the team’s trade of Tony Snell and a first-round pick for Jon Leuer in order to create the requisite cap space needed to re-sign Brook Lopez:

“When we got Brook last offseason, we understood, at some level, how important he was going to be to us… (and) we also understood if he’s as good as we think he’s going to be, it’s going to present a lot of challenges.”

“So, we spent the entire year trying to prepare for that… Just different things we did throughout the year were in preparation to position ourselves to either be prepared to keep Brook, be in a position to keep Brook or be prepared to react if we couldn’t… I don’t know if a lot of people saw it coming, maybe after the Tony Snell deal. Then, maybe they were like, ‘Okay, this is how they’re going to try to do it.’ But before that, I don’t think people saw the moves we lined up to position ourselves to hopefully keep Brook and I’m very thankful we were able to.”

Regarding the decision to trade RFA Malcolm Brogdon to Indiana and whether the luxury tax was a factor in that decision:

“I think there’s a lot that goes into restricted free agency. It’s a monster. Malcolm is very, very important and we knew how important he was to our team. It will be hard to replace him. I think we’ve done the best that we can and we’ll continue to work in ways to be creative and fill that gap.”

“I would say the luxury tax was only part of the consideration for not matching or not being willing to pay Malcolm the market that he was able to get from Indiana. Whether or not he had that market from anywhere else besides Indiana, I don’t know. The decision on Malcolm was much more about our internal evaluations, the roster fit, the ability to be flexible and have options going forward and just building a team that, as I always say, can sustain success over a long period.”

There’s more from the Central Division this afternoon:

Horst confirmed in the above interview that the Bucks were not able to create a traded player exception when they traded Brogdon to Indiana, as the signing of George Hill with cap space occurred after the trade, and teams lose their exceptions (other than the Room MLE) when they go under the cap.
Taking a look at what each player’s role may be for the Pistons’ during the 2019/20 season, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com opines that there are five guys locked in to being sure-fire rotation pieces – Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard, and Derrick Rose, and three who will almost certainly join that group – Markieff Morris, Tony Snell, and Bruce Brown.
The Bulls are hoping that the three-point shooting ability of free-agent addition, big man Luke Kornet, will be a nice complement next to starter Wendell Carter Jr. and fellow reserve, rookie Daniel Gafford, writes Sam Smith of Bulls.com.
Pacers’ new addition Justin Holiday is excited about the prospect of playing with his baby brother, reserve point guard Aaron Holiday, reports Scott Agness of The Athletic. “It was the best situation I had at this time,” Justin said. “(T)he Pacers obviously being a contender every year and going to the playoffs, and then also them having my brother was something that was very, very enticing for me. To be able to be a part of that culture and play with my brother, I think it made it pretty simple where I needed to go.”

Bulls Sign Luke Kornet

July 17th, 2019 at 7:30pm CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 17: The deal is official, Charania tweets. It is fully guaranteed for both seasons with a total value of $4.5MM.

JULY 2: The Bulls will bring in Luke Kornet, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. The pact will be for two seasons.

Chicago will get a chance to further develop the 23-year-old big man. Kornet saw action in 46 games for the Knicks last season, starting 18. He also spent time on their G League squad, averaging 18.8 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and 3.6 APG with a blistering .514/.485/.730 shooting line in 11 games for the Westchester Knicks.

The Bulls have had an eventful offseason, adding Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky over the past 48 hours. It’s unclear how much opportunity Kornet will see in Chicago, as the team has a full roster of bigs, led by Wendell Carter Jr.. and Lauri Markkanen

Knicks Won’t Tender QO To Emmanuel Mudiay Or Luke Kornet

June 26th, 2019 at 10:46pm CST by clarkcrum

The Knicks, setting themselves up to have the maximum amount of cap space available once free agency begins, will not extend qualifying offers to former first-round pick Emmanuel Mudiay or big man Luke Kornet, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Both Mudiay and Kornet will be unrestricted free agents.

Haynes adds that the decision on Mudiay was solely to clear cap space for this summer, and that both Mudiay and the Knicks are interested in a reunion next season. However, because the Knicks will need to renounce the 23-year-old point guard’s Bird rights to clear his free agent cap hold of $12,883,440 off their books, they’ll need to use cap space or an exception to re-sign him.

As for Kornet, it’s unclear whether the Knicks have any interest in re-signing him. He played a significant role towards the end of the 2018/19 season, but the Knicks are clearly not looking at last year’s team as a building block for the future, and they already have a young big in Mitchell Robinson around whom to build.

Knicks Notes: Roster, Robinson, Durant, Ewing

April 14th, 2019 at 2:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Damyean Dotson are the only current Knicks who should definitely be on the roster next season, writes Steve Popper of Newsday. Knox showed enough promise at age 19 to hold onto, Robinson was a second-round surprise who became the league’s second-best shot blocker and Dotson is a part-time starter with an affordable contract.

Popper lists Dennis Smith Jr., who was acquired in the Kristaps Porzingis trade, as a question mark, noting that his fate could depend on whether the Knicks are in position to draft Ja Morant or sign Kyrie Irving or Kemba Walker in free agency. Also questionable to return, according to Popper, are Frank Ntilikina, Allonzo Trier, Lance Thomas and Luke Kornet. Popper expects the rest of the roster to be overturned, including DeAndre Jordan, whom he speculates will be too pricey to re-sign as a back-up center.

There’s more today from New York:

Coach David Fizdale believes Robinson would be a lottery pick if last year’s draft were redone, relays Chris Iseman of NorthJersey.com. Fizdale admits he didn’t know much about Robinson when the Knicks grabbed him with the 36th pick, but he quickly blossomed into a force in the middle, swatting 2.44 shots per game. “I think we can all agree if we had to restructure the draft right now, I don’t think he’ll go 36,” Fizdale said. “I think he’d be in that top 10 pretty easily.”
LeBron James‘ disappointing first year with the Lakers should make Kevin Durant think twice about whether he wants join the Knicks, states Frank Isola of The Athletic. For all of Durant’s talent, he has a reputation as a highly sensitive player who might not adjust well to the atmosphere in New York. Isola suggests that he will only consider the Knicks if he can find another top-level free agent to join him.
Fizdale played a pivotal role in easing tensions between Patrick Ewing and the Knicks after years of a strained relationship, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. Ewing will represent the team at next month’s draft lottery.