Max Christie

Lakers Notes: Davis, Centers, Reddish, Christie

November 5th, 2024 at 12:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Lakers big man Anthony Davis is averaging a league-leading 32.6 points per game on a career-high 57.1% field goal percentage through seven games, but he aggravated a left foot injury in the fourth quarter of Monday’s disappointing loss in Detroit, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

Sources tell McMenamin that Davis has not yet been ruled out for Wednesday’s game in Memphis, which is the last stop on the team’s five-game road trip. However, the Lakers figure to be cautious with the nine-time All-Star, who dealt with the foot issue from the end of last season through the Paris Olympics.

“I’ll talk to my trainer and just kind of figure out what exactly is going on,” Davis told reporters. “I’ve been managing it since this summer, honestly, and my goal for every game is to be on the floor. And I just kind of landed directly on the spot that’s been killing me. So, we’ll figure it out.”

The Lakers’ other star, LeBron James, declined to speculate on how the club might handle a situation in which Davis misses time, but he acknowledged it would be difficult to replace the league’s leading scorer in the lineup.

“I don’t play the ‘if’ game,” James said, per McMenamin. “We’ll go off what AD says and see how he feels over the next couple of days and go from there. But it don’t take a rocket scientist to know (the impact) if AD’s in or out. C’mon.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

If Davis does have to miss Wednesday’s game or any time beyond that, the Lakers will find themselves pretty shorthanded in the middle, notes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Jaxson Hayes remains available despite the NBA reopening its investigation into a 2021 domestic incident, but Christian Wood (knee surgery) and Christian Koloko (return-to-play conditioning) are out, as is small-ball center Jarred Vanderbilt (foot surgeries). When Hayes isn’t on the floor, L.A. might have to turn to rookie two-way big man Armel Traore or use a small lineup with James or Rui Hachimura at the five, according to Buha, who says neither option would be ideal.
Veteran forward Cam Reddish played a season-high 14 minutes on Monday after appearing in just one of the Lakers’ first six games. He didn’t score, but he grabbed five rebounds and was a plus-10 in the 12-point loss to the Pistons, as Khobi Price of The Orange County Register writes. Head coach J.J. Redick said that Reddish “earned some trust” as a result of his showing on Monday. LeBron also lauded the former first-round pick for stepping in and acquitting himself well. “Cam was great,” James said. “He did exactly what was asked of him. He came in and he defended at a high level. He was great.”
Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times takes a closer look at how veteran point guard D’Angelo Russell attempted to pull struggling teammate Max Christie out of his slump and increase his confidence ahead of Monday’s game in Toronto. Christie – who signed a four-year, $32MM contract over the summer – had his most effective outing of the season, with seven points and five rebounds in 13 minutes, but was unable to carry that momentum into Wednesday’s contest. He played just four first-quarter minutes against Detroit, with Reddish taking his spot in the rotation for the rest of the night.

Lakers Notes: LeBron, Davis, Bronny, Christie, Knecht

October 5th, 2024 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

LeBron James and Anthony Davis will make their preseason debuts Sunday night against Phoenix, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Both players were held out of Friday’s loss to Minnesota, with coach J.J. Redick explaining that he didn’t want to risk using them after they played in the Olympics and had a heavy workload at training camp.

“We want to carry over with what we did [Saturday] at practice,” James said. “We were very intent on what we want to accomplish going forward. [Friday] was one of those first games. It’s been a while since a lot of guys have played in a game setting. And it looked that way.”

James had a good vantage point to watch his son, Bronny James in his first game against NBA competition. Bronny scored two points and shot just 1-of-6 from the field, but he led the team with three blocked shots.

“For him, it’s obviously an adjustment,” LeBron said. “Every rank that you climb, it’s always an adjustment to get used to it. When he went to high school, from middle school from high school to USC and now to the pros, it’s always an adjustment to make. The more time he’s out on the floor with pros, the speed, the cadence, you get better and better the more time you put on the floor.

“And you’ve got to think that he lost pretty much a third of last season because of the (heart) condition. But he’s gotten better and better every day. He continues to put the work in. And it’s up to us as the veterans and the guys out here to try to help him, help Dalton (Knecht), help all the young guys to get him better and better every day to help them accomplish what we want to accomplish.”

There’s more on the Lakers:

Redick was also encouraged by what he saw from Bronny, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Redick said Bronny has looked good in camp and is “easy to coach.”“He can do some things defensively at his size that are really unique, and I think can turn into a really disruptive defender,” Redick said. “That manifested itself. On the offensive end, he’s still figuring out who he is. That’s our job as a player development program just to build him in.”
There was a lot of attention on Bronny, but Max Christie made the biggest impact on Friday night, observes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. The 21-year-old shooting guard, who signed a four-year, $32MM contract this summer, started the preseason with 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks in 34 minutes. He has also become more aggressive defensively — at Redick’s request. “He’s asked me to be kind of that dog on defense, pick up full-court,” Christie said. “I tried to do a little bit of that tonight. There’s a comfort level that I’m going to get a little bit more comfortable with. I haven’t really done that a lot in my career.”
The Lakers also got an encouraging debut from Knecht, who shot 7-of-13 from the field and tied for the team lead with 16 points, Buha adds. He displayed a quick release on his jumper and was competitive on the defensive end.

Lakers Notes: LeBron, Bronny, Christie, Redick, Pelinka

October 2nd, 2024 at 11:03pm CST by Arthur Hill

As he prepares for his 22nd NBA season, Lakers star LeBron James appears to be energized by the chance to compete alongside his son, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. After Wednesday’s practice, Anthony Davis detailed a spirited exchange between LeBron and Bronny James during a five-on-five scrimmage.

“It’s fantastic to be able to be here and witness it in practice,” Davis said. “Bronny hit a three over him today. Everybody was talking smack in Bronny’s favor. Then Bron came down and just bullied somebody. Just took it out on (the defender) — I forgot who it was — and got a layup. Bronny came down and hit another three, I think over Austin (Reaves). And Bron wanted the ball. So you could see, even though they weren’t matched up, the competition is there. And that’s what we love to see.”

At age 39, LeBron is coming off a long summer of basketball that culminated with a gold medal for Team USA in Paris. New head coach J.J. Redick has talked to team trainer Mike Mancias about slowly getting LeBron ready for the start of the season, but he declined to divulge any details.

“I think we have a pretty clear plan,” Redick said. “We’ll share that plan when it’s appropriate.”

There’s more from Los Angeles:

LeBron believes third-year wing Max Christie is ready to take on a larger role this season, McMenamin adds in another story. A second-round pick in 2022, Christie received a new four-year, $32MM contract this summer. “I think for me it’s kind of just proving myself again,” Christie said. “I haven’t proven too much as a player in this league. I’ve had spurts and sporadic moments where I’ve been really good, but I want to put a whole season together. Hopefully I get the opportunity to do that this year.”
Redick has to balance his analytical side with his basketball instincts as he adjusts to viewing the game as a coach, observes Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. Although Davis believes “numbers aren’t anything,” they’re very important to Redick, who wants as much statistical data as he can get. “More information is better,” Redick said. “That’s how I … every person we’ve hired, that’s been a key thing that I’ve told them. ‘Do you want to get in the weeds?’ ‘Yeah, I do want to get in the weeds. Yeah.’ So as much info as possible.”
General manager Rob Pelinka had a surprisingly quiet summer in terms of personnel moves, but he indicated at a recent press conference that he’s willing to part with future first-round picks to make the Lakers better this season (hat tip to Lake Show Life). “I think the philosophy that J.J. and I are aligned on is: We want to build sustainable Lakers excellence … every lens that we look through has to lead to sustainable Lakers excellence,” Pelinka said. “So the direct answer to your question is: Yes, we would do a trade with both (available first-round draft) picks if that would lead to sustainable Lakers excellence. We would also use one pick to make a marginal upgrade if we felt it was the right thing to do.”

Los Angeles Notes: Leonard, Harden, Lakers Rotation, Redick

October 1st, 2024 at 6:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers star forward Kawhi Leonard anticipates he’ll be on the court for the team’s regular season opener, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk writes. Leonard has been dealing with inflammation in his right knee during the offseason. However, Leonard acknowledges knee issues will remain an ongoing concern.

“Everything has been going great for the past month, but being very cautious for reasons in the past we haven’t been able to finish some playoff runs, so making sure we’re staying healthy for those important moments,” he said. “Trying to maintain it and figure it out. We’ll be in here for a long time if I started describing stuff [about the injury and treatment] … but just learning on how it came and how to keep it down and make sure that we don’t fall in that timeframe of [missing time in] those important [late-season] moments and just making sure I’m healthy. There’s certain stuff that we could do or try to do to make me last.”

Leonard, who signed a three-year max extension in January, is encouraged by the fact he played more often last season.

“I played my most games I’ve played in a long time last year,” Leonard said. “Last two years I came back from ACL and been injured and it’s a progression for me. It was successful for us last year. Obviously from a fan base [perspective] or just from my own competitive nature, we didn’t reach a goal [of winning a title]. But in the grand scheme of things and how my body’s been doing it, it was a good year. I went from zero games to 52 to 68. So let’s see if I could keep it going from there.”

We have more on the Los Angeles teams:

With Paul George signing with the Sixers and Russell Westbrook also out of the picture, the Clippers will lean heavily on 35-year-old James Harden this season. Harden says he’s up to the challenge, Ben Golliver of the Washington Post tweets. “It’s definitely going to involve a lot of me,” Harden said. “There was talk when I was in Houston… ‘You can’t win like that.’ You just saw a guy [Luka Doncic] last season make the Finals playing the same exact way I played.”
Lakers first-year coach J.J. Redick envisions a nine-man rotation, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. Redick mentioned Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes, Max Christie, Cam Reddish and Jalen Hood-Schifino as some of the candidates for bench rotation spots.
Redick and his staff are already receiving compliments from the players, according to Buha. “I just think the whole structure and foundation these coaches have brought in for us is a great start,” Austin Reaves said. “Because I feel like a lot of times last year we won games off talent. And when you have talent around structure, then you have the opportunity to do something really special.” Christie said Redick has gone to great lengths to explain his philosophy: “J.J. has done a really good job, I think, to start. Definitely imposing himself as a coach. … I think he’s done a really good job kind of explaining what our offensive identity, defensive identity and so on is going to be.”

Pacific Notes: Jones, Durant, Podziemski, Christie

August 2nd, 2024 at 4:15pm CST by Luke Adams

While Tyus Jones surely expected to sign for more than the veteran’s minimum when he first reached free agency on July 1, he’s thrilled about his new opportunity in Phoenix despite settling for a one-year, $3MM deal. As Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic writes, Jones raved during his introductory media session this week about what he views as an ideal fit with the Suns.

“I’m excited. I’m ready for the opportunity, ready to seize it, but for me, again, going back to the fit. I felt like the fit was perfect,” Jones said. “I’m ready for the season to be here already. I know we got some time, but I just want to hoop. I want to get out there with the guys, build our camaraderie, build our chemistry and ultimately compete for a championship. That’s our end goal.”

Jones told reporters that the Suns did a “great job” recruiting him and that the strength of the roster helped convince him to sign in Phoenix. He’s looking forward to serving as a facilitator within a high-powered offense led by Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal.

“Just trying to make their job easy,” Jones said of his role. “Last year, I know Book, Brad had to do a lot of playing the one, kind of facilitating, orchestrating the offense. The fact that they can do that, but what they really do is put the ball in the basket and so I know it’s going to be up to me to put them in the right spots. Put KD in the right spots, put Book in the right spots, put Brad in the right spot, everybody.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

It’s unclear if Durant will receive the one-year, $59.7MM extension he’s eligible for before the regular season begins, but Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein tells Rankin that the relationship between the star forward and the organization is in a great place. “The most important thing is Kevin loves being here and we love having Kevin here,” Bartelstein said. “… I talk to (Durant’s manager) Rich Kleiman, who works with Kevin, all the time. Conversations are great not just on extension stuff, but on all things that have been going on.”
Appearing on The Dinner Table podcast, Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski made it clear he’s not bothered by the fact that his name has popped up in trade rumors this summer. In fact, he thinks it’s “fun” to see the discourse on whether or not he should be included in an offer for Jazz star Lauri Markkanen, as Will Simonds of NBC Sports Bay Area relays. “No one likes to admit it, but everybody sees … the good and the bad,” Podziemski said. “For me, I think the bad can just be used as motivation. Obviously, my name has been in the Markkanen trade a lot, so if the trade doesn’t go through and I’m still here, to have a good second year and be like, ‘Good thing we didn’t trade him,’ would be cool for me.”
The Lakers are counting on third-year guard Max Christie to become a more significant part of their rotation as he begins a new four-year, $32MM contract, writes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. In particular, Christie expects to match up on defense with opponents’ top wing or backcourt scorers and has been working this offseason on building up his stamina in preparation for those assignments. “When you’re guarding the best player, all the actions are being run for him,” Christie said. “You’re running through screens, so that’s tiring. It’s hard. And then, especially if you’re chasing shooters … it’s fatiguing. … I want to keep growing my game, obviously defensively, looking ahead to next season.”

Four Under-The-Radar Players To Watch For 2024/25

July 29th, 2024 at 8:18pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Rosters for the 2024/25 season are far from being set, but it’s never too early to try to predict some of next season’s happenings. When considering players who are primed for breakouts, draft picks who immediately became stars like Paolo Banchero and Victor Wembanyama come to mind, but several more players in a tier below that will emerge as rotation mainstays for the first time.

Think players like Sam Hauser of the Celtics. Hauser gradually crept up Boston’s rotation over the past three years, eventually becoming a part of the title core and earning himself an extension. Likewise, Miles McBride was a second-round pick who showed promise, but eventually broke out after the ’23/24 deadline for New York. Isaiah Joe of the Thunder is another example, while Vince Williams of the Grizzlies and Simone Fontecchio of the Pistons also broke onto the scene earlier this year.

With that said, here are four players I think could “break out” next season in the sense that they go from a fringe rotation piece to a reliable regular for a team.

Day’Ron Sharpe

This might be cheating a bit, since Sharpe appeared in 61 games last season and averaged 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds. However, he managed to record those numbers in just 15.1 minutes per night, improving across the board for the Nets. I expect Sharpe to play more this season even though he’s still behind Nic Claxton in the rotation.

For starters, the Nets pivoted toward a rebuild this offseason after trading away Mikal Bridges. With Bridges gone and players like Cameron Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dennis Schröder set up to be potential trade pieces, there should be more minutes to go around at some point in the season, at least in theory. That would put Sharpe, the No. 29 overall pick in 2021, in prime position to play more and continue to show off his improvement.

Sharpe is set to be a restricted free agent next offseason and, if he manages to continue to show linear growth, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him draw a bevy of suitors. If the Nets didn’t want to pay Sharpe after handing a contract to Claxton this offseason, Sharpe could draw interest at the deadline for a playoff team needing size or another young team looking for a mainstay.

Given his contract status, youth (heturns 23 this season), and team positioning, Sharpe seems like a solid candidate to “break out” for next season.

Max Christie

The Lakers have had a quiet offseason, with their only external additions being 2024 draftees Dalton Knecht and Bronny James. One move that flew under the radar was the long-term extension of Christie, a player who only played 14.1 minutes last season. While the 2022 No. 35 pick saw his responsibilities increase last season from his rookie year, he holds a career average of 3.8 points per game.

Clearly, the Lakers liked what they saw from the 21-year-old Christie, as they rewarded him with a $32MM deal. While he hasn’t played a ton at the NBA level, he holds solid upside as a three-and-D prospect. It was somewhat surprising, for my money, that a team with cap space didn’t try to price Christie out of the Lakers’ range.

The Lakers getting Christie back could be a huge win for a team that needs three-and-D players in their rotation. Given that the Lakers might still make a trade before the year and players ahead of him last year either fell out of favor or simply left in free agency, Christie seems like a lock for more minutes and production next season. He could have a key role for the Lakers in the final couple years of his contract if things play right.

Craig Porter Jr./Ricky Council IV

While Porter and Council are distinctly different players, both could improve and continue to work their way into the rotations of playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference, which is why they’re grouped together here.

Porter played more on a two-way contract last season before being promoted to a standard deal. He’s a small guard but has played well above his size both in college and in the pros. He works well as a secondary ball-handler and a solid defensive guard. While the Cavaliers still have three open roster spots and could add a player or two who may overtake Porter in the guard room, I could see him winning the ninth or 10th spot in the rotation and potentially being the club’s top backup lead guard.

Council didn’t play as much for the Sixers until the end of the season, but his high efficiency impressed the organization and they rewarded him with a standard contract.

While Philadelphia eventually re-signed Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre, Kyle Lowry and KJ Martin, I find it telling that the Council was just one of two players from last year’s roster who stayed on the roster throughout the entire offseason. His contract for next season is non-guaranteed, so they easily could have waived him if they felt someone else better fit his role. Martin and draft picks Jared McCain and Adem Bona might not play much next season, which has Council and Eric Gordon looking like the team’s only true bench wings off the bench.

While it’s not a lock Porter or Council make an impact on the rotation this year — let alone make it through their contracts being guaranteed at the league-wide date in 2025 — their organizations have shown they value each respective player. To me, Porter and Council are some of the more likely candidates to follow Hauser’s footsteps of developing for a couple seasons before breaking into a rotation.

Max Christie Signs Four-Year Deal With Lakers

June 30th, 2024 at 4:16pm CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 6: Christie has officially signed his new contract with the Lakers, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link via Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group).

JUNE 30: Restricted free agent Max Christie plans to sign the Lakers’ four-year contract offer, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The deal is worth approximately $32MM and will include a player option in the final year.

It’s a strong commitment by the Lakers to Christie, an early second-round selection in 2022. Christie appeared in 41 games as a rookie, then spent much of last season in the rotation. He posted averages of 4.2 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 67 regular-season games, including seven starts. Christie has made 37.8% of his 3-pointers, a total of 180 attempts in all, during his two seasons.

Christie made the jump to the NBA after a one-and-done season at Michigan State. Still just 21 years old, Christie offers good size (6’5”) at the shooting guard spot and could see his role expand under new head coach J.J. Redick, though he’ll have plenty of competition — including first-round pick Dalton Knecht — for minutes behind Austin Reaves.

The Lakers extended a $2.3MM qualifying offer this weekend to Christie to make him an RFA. His younger brother Cam Christie was drafted in the second round by the Clippers on Thursday.

Christie’s contract will put the Lakers approximately $39MM below the $178.1MM first tax apron, but that doesn’t include LeBron James and Bronny James, cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (Twitter link).

FA Rumors: Lakers, LeBron, Harden, Klay, George, Magic, DeRozan, More

June 30th, 2024 at 7:31am CST by Luke Adams

Having confirmed on Saturday that LeBron James would be open to accepting less than the maximum salary in certain scenarios, agent Rich Paul tells Dave McMenamin of ESPN that the idea would be for the Lakers to add an “impact player” using that extra flexibility.

James Harden, Klay Thompson, and Jonas Valanciunas are a few of the “impact” players who might fit that criteria, sources tell McMenamin. While it might be difficult to convince Harden or Thompson to settle for the mid-level (worth approximately $12.9MM), a sign-and-trade could also be a possibility to land that sort of player. Acquiring a player via sign-and-trade would hard-cap the Lakers at the first tax apron for 2024/25, but so would using more than the taxpayer portion ($5.2MM) of the mid-level exception.

If the Lakers aren’t able to add a player of that caliber, the plan would be for James to seek a max deal to return to the Lakers, Paul tells McMenamin. If LeBron does accept a pay cut, the most likely scenario would see him accept a two-year deal with a 2025/26 player option so that he’d have the ability to negotiate a raise a year from now, sources tell Jovan Buha of The Athletic.

Elsewhere on the Lakers front, after tendering a qualifying offer to Max Christie to make him a restricted free agent, the team would like to retain the 21-year-old guard, envisioning him as a rotation player next season, sources tell Buha. However, if L.A. hard-caps itself by adding an impact player via sign-and-trade or the MLE, fitting a new deal for Christie under the first apron could be a challenge.

Here are a few more rumors from around the NBA ahead of the official start of free agency on Sunday evening:

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN referred to the Sixers this morning on SportsCenter as a “legitimate threat” to sign Paul George away from the Clippers (hat tip to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com), while Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack story that Philadelphia has a “significant measure of renewed hope” in its ability to land the star forward.
Although the Magic are one of three teams to secure a meeting with George, the free agents connected most frequently to Orlando by league insiders are Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein and Nuggets wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, per Stein.
There’s a belief that DeMar DeRozan may wait to see what happens with George’s free agency before making a decision, according to Stein, since he’d have a better feel for his options outside the Bulls at that point. Multiple reports this offseason have suggested the Clippers could be a suitor for DeRozan (likely via sign-and-trade) if they lose George.
While the Lakers have emerged as a legitimate option for Klay Thompson, the Mavericks have made the veteran sharpshooter their top free agent priority, even ahead of starting small forward Derrick Jones, says Stein. Dallas hasn’t ruled out the possibility of signing both players – that would require a sign-and-trade for Thompson and an MLE deal for Jones – which would be the team’s true “Plan A,” Stein writes, adding that Naji Marshall continues to be mentioned as a likely Mavs target if they lose Jones.
The Clippers and Spurs are among the teams expected to have interest in Chris Paul if the veteran point guard ends up being waived by Golden State and becoming a free agent, reports Stein.

QO Updates: Cavaliers, Pistons, Christie, Watford

June 29th, 2024 at 11:36am CST by Rory Maher

The Cavaliers have issued qualifying offers to young wings Isaac Okoro and Emoni Bates, which means they’re both heading for restricted free agency, sources tell Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link).

The fifth overall pick of the 2020 draft, Okoro’s QO — essentially just a one-year contract offer that gives the team the right of first refusal — is worth approximately $11.83MM. Bates’ QO, meanwhile, is for another two-way contract; he spent his 2023/24 rookie campaign on a two-way deal with Cleveland.

The Pistons announced in a press release (via Twitter) that they have extended a qualifying offer to forward Simone Fontecchio, making him a restricted free agent as well. Detroit is considered likely to retain the Italian sharpshooter, whose QO is worth about $5.2MM after he met the “starter criteria” in March.

However, the Pistons have decided not to tender QOs to former first-round picks James Wiseman and Malachi Flynn, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter links). Both Wiseman and Flynn will be heading for unrestricted free agency.

The second pick of the 2020 draft, Wiseman did not meet the starter criteria, so his QO would have been worth $7.7MM. Flynn’s QO was valued at $5.8MM.

The moves were expected, as clearing the cap holds for Wiseman and Flynn will allow Detroit to create a significant amount of cap room heading into the new league season. Teams can officially begin negotiating with external free agents on Sunday evening.

Here are a couple more players who are heading for restricted free agency:

Lakers guard Max Christie was given a $2.3MM qualifying offer, Scotto reports (via Twitter). The 21-year-old has averaged 3.8 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 37.8% from deep over his first two NBA seasons (108 games, 13.5 minutes per contest). Scotto hears Christie is expected to receive interest from rival suitors as a RFA.
Sources tell Brian Lewis of The New York Post that the Nets plan to give Trendon Watford a QO before Saturday’s deadline (Twitter link). A former undrafted free agent who played college ball at LSU, Watford’s one-year QO is worth just over $2.7MM. He averaged 6.9 points and 3.1 rebounds on .527/.397/.794 shooting in 63 games last season for Brooklyn (13.6 minutes).

Draft Notes: Combine, Players To Watch, Wells, Kalkbrenner, Salaun

May 11th, 2024 at 8:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

Prospects are in Chicago for an important week of pre-draft activities, write Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN. After the draft lottery takes place on Sunday, players will participate in the three-day combine from Monday through Wednesday. Also set this week are the G League Elite camp, which began today, and agency pro days, all of which will give NBA scouts and executives an up-close look at an unsettled draft pool.

Through an agreement with the players union, the NBA is requiring all invited prospects to take part in the combine. However, they will still be given the option to skip the scrimmages, with Givony and Woo noting that 37 combine participants declined to play in the scrimmages last year.

Numerous players at this year’s combine have retained the option to withdraw from the draft, the authors add, so the process could affect the balance of power in college basketball. Givony and Woo identify Kansas’ Johnny Furphy, USC’s Bronny James, Minnesota’s Cam Christie, Washington State’s Jaylen Wells, BYU’s Jaxson Robinson, Alabama’s Mark Sears, New Mexico’s JT Toppin, Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins, Florida State’s Jamir Watkins and North Florida’s Chaz Lanier as some of the top names who could opt to return to school.

There’s more on the draft:

Cam Christie is among the players in position to significantly improve their draft stock this week, Givony and Woo add. They say the brother of Lakers guard Max Christie has “plenty of fans” among NBA scouts after a strong freshman season with the Golden Gophers. Christie, who ranks 36th on ESPN’s Big Board, has a chance to move into the first round with a good showing at the combine. However, he’s also in the NCAA’s transfer portal and has options available if he stays in school. Other players to watch, according to Givony and Woo, are Wells, Watkins, Iowa’s Payton Sandfort and UConn’s Alex Karaban.
The NBA has officially confirmed (via Twitter) that Jaylen Wells has been invited to the combine and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner has withdrawn from the draft. The Wells invitation was reported earlier this week, and Kalkbrenner’s decision had been expected.
Potential lottery pick Tidjane Salaun won’t be available for the combine after his Cholet team qualified for the playoffs in France, Givony tweets. The 6’10” power forward is 15th in ESPN’s latest rankings.

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