With Brian Shaw poised to join the Clippers as an assistant coach on Tyronn Lue‘s staff, the G League Ignite have a head coaching vacancy. And according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the program has identified a candidate to fill that vacancy.
USC associate head coach Jason Hart will be the new head coach of the G League Ignite, sources tell Wojnarowski.
Hart has been a member of the Trojans’ staff since 2013 and has been the club’s associate head coach for the last four seasons, having worked in recent years with players like Onyeka Okongwu and De’Anthony Melton. Hart is a former NBA player himself, appearing in 341 regular season games between 2000-10 for a total of nine teams.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- As expected, the NBA is officially implementing new rules to reduce the use of non-basketball moves to draw fouls, as Shams Charania of The Athletic details in a series of tweets.
- The NBA has announced a series of key dates for the 2021/22 league year, including a regular season that will run from October 19 through April 10. The 2022 NBA draft will be held on June 23, as the league’s annual calendar gets back to normal.
- Although players on two-way contracts will have a 50-game limit for next season, teams carrying 14 (or fewer) players on their roster will be limited to 90 total games for their pair of two-way players, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link). The rule, outlined in a memo from the NBA, sounds aimed at reducing the ability of teams to save money (and cap space) by leaning heavily on their two-way players while not carrying a 15th man.
- Former U.S. president Barack Obama has joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner and a minority stakeholder. Marc J. Spears of ESPN has the story.
- The NBA G League announced on Tuesday that the Santa Cruz Warriors have been named Franchise of the Year for 2020/21, while Erie BayHawks president Matt Bresee earned Team Executive of the Year honors.