Mery Andrade Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Raptors Notes: Coaching Staff, Poeltl, Trent, Dick

October 8th, 2023 at 8:40am CST by Luke Adams

New Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic clarified the roles that several of his assistants will have this season, explaining that Pat Delany is his lead assistant and defensive coordinator, Jama Mahlalela will oversee the offense, and James Wade will be focused on analytics, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link).

In the second row of the bench, Mike Batiste will work with the Raptors’ big men, Jim Sann will work primarily with the team’s younger players, Ivo Simovic and Vin Bhavnani will focus on scouting, and Mery Andrade and Drew Jones will be player development coaches, Lewenberg adds (via Twitter).

Here’s more on the Raptors:

After signing a new four-year, $78MM contract with the Raptors this offseason, Jakob Poeltl won’t just be asked to set screens and be a rim-runner on offense. Rajakovic would like to run more of the offense through Poeltl this season, as Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes. “Jakob is a great pick-and-roll player, but we’re going to use Jakob with the ball in his hands, we want to cut around him,” Rajakovic said. “He’s a really good passer, very unselfish player, so we’re going to be trying to play through him even more.”
Based on the Raptors’ lineups in scrimmages, it looks like the starting five will be Dennis Schröder, Scottie Barnes, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Poeltl, tweets Lewenberg. That would make Gary Trent Jr., who has started 128 of 153 games since arriving in Toronto, part of a second unit that also figures to feature Jalen McDaniels, Chris Boucher, and Malachi Flynn.
It remains to be seen whether veterans like Garrett Temple and Otto Porter Jr. will crack Toronto’s regular rotation, but they’re already providing value as veteran leaders for youngsters like No. 13 overall pick Gradey Dick, Lewenberg details in a TSN.ca story. “That’s the real OG,” Dick said of Temple. “Him, Otto, those guys are huge mentors to me right now. I can’t tell you the age gap between us; I can probably be their son. … I think it’s huge, [having] a guy that’s been in the league that long, learning the ropes from him and just trying to take everything that he says and put it into my game.”

Atlantic Notes: Harden, Jokubaitis, Udofia, Andrade, Scrubb

July 17th, 2023 at 10:35pm CST by Dana Gauruder

A rift between James Harden and Sixers management stems from a disagreement over how his free agency was handled this summer, according to Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com. While Harden and his reps don’t appear to have any ill will toward his teammates, the rift with management could get even uglier.

The relationship between Harden and top executive Daryl Morey is “essentially fractured,” Shams Charania said on The Rally (Twitter link). Harden believes Philadelphia never had any intention to give him a long-term offer. Harden turned down a $47MM+ player option and took a $14MM+ pay cut last summer to help the Sixers make roster moves.

In terms of moving Harden, the front office is holding out for a package that will allow the Sixers to remain a serious contender in the East, according to Neubeck. If they can’t get a top player in return, they at least want to pick up enough assets to execute a separate trade for another high-level player.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Rokas Jokubaitis, a Lithuanian guard whose rights are held by the Knicks, had the option on his contract picked up by FC Barcelona, according to BasketNews.com. He played all 39 games in the EuroLeague last season and averaged 5.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. The Knicks made Jokubaitis a draft-and-stash second-round pick in 2021.
The G League’s Long Island Nets are hiring Mfon Udofia as the team’s head coach, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. Udofia previously coached with the Nigerian National Team and was on the staff of the G League’s Agua Caliente Clippers last season.
Former WNBA player Mery Andrade is spending the summer as a Celtics coaching intern and hopes to work her way up the NBA coaching ranks, she told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. She has been an assistant coach with Birmingham, the Pelicans’ G League affiliate, for the last four seasons. “I want after my career as a coach that people, when they talk about me, is how many lives I touched, how good of a coach I was without putting the label ‘woman,’” she said. “Yes I am a woman but I don’t say, ‘You are a really good male coach.’ You are just a really good coach. That’s my goal, to touch as many lives as I can.”
Jay Scrubb, who signed a two-way contract with the Celtics on Saturday, received the top grade in The Athletic’s Jared Weiss’ Summer League report card.