Nikola Jokic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Draft Notes: Embiid, Celtics, Trades

June 21st, 2014 at 12:55pm CST by Cray Allred

Joel Embiid‘s foot injury has shaken up the draft, with split opinions around the league regarding the seven-footer’s prospects for the draft and beyond. One league source tells Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe that Embiid’s health concerns place him in legitimate danger of plummeting out of the lottery, while others are confident he will still be selected in the top 10. More draft rumblings:

Tyler Ennis will have his second audition for the Magic on Monday, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (H/T Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic).
The international teams for Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic, Nemanja Dangubic, and Vasilije Micic will not put any barriers in place to keep the players from joining the NBA if drafted, per tweets from Yugobasket and Misko Raznatovic (H/T Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
Marcus Smart, Noah Vonleh, and Aaron Gordon are the Celtics preferred group of draftees at No. 6, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.
Boston’s “most likely” scenario for the draft is to keep both of their picks, GM Danny Ainge tells Washburn (Twitter link).

Earlier updates:

The Cavs are making efforts to trade down from the top spot to the No. 3-5 range in the draft, where they think Embiid would still be available, tweets Brett Poirier of Sheridan Hoops. The Magic, sitting at No. 4, have not been contacted by Cleveland, a source tells Poirier (Twitter link). The Sixers and Jazz own the third and fifth pick, respectively.
The Lakers would consider taking Embiid at No. 7 if he fell that far, a source familiar with their thinking tells Mark Medina of Los Angeles Daily News. Unsurprisingly, LA’s choice would hinge on their confidence in the big man’s recovery.
The Lakers are more likely to hang on to that seventh pick than deal it, despite their ongoing efforts to explore what they could net for it, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The pick was linked to Klay Thompson as part of the Kevin Love discussions earlier today.
The Suns are willing to trade away the 27th pick for a future first-rounder, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
Jakarr Sampson, Niels Giffey, Glenn Robinson III, and Chane Behanan will work out for the Celtics today, tweets Holmes.
As previously reported, the Warriors, Blazers, Pelicans, and Knicks are all looking to acquire first round draft picks, but the price tag is extremely high due to the deep draft pool, reports Alex Kennedy (via Twitter). Kennedy says that teams are asking for future picks that are unprotected or barely protected in return for first-rounders this year.
The NBA has invited 21 prospects to the green room for the draft broadcast, Chad Ford of ESPN.com reveals in two tweets. The invite is a sign of consensus around these players as first round selections. The players invited were Andrew Wiggins Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid, Dante Exum, Noah Vonleh, Aaron Gordon, Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, Doug McDermott, Dario Saric, Gary Harris, Elfrid Payton, Nik Stauskas, James Young, Zach LaVine, Jusuf Nurkic, Adreian Payne, T.J. Warren, Tyler Ennis, Rodney Hood, and Shabazz Napier.

NBA Draft Withdrawal Deadline Updates

June 17th, 2014 at 2:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

Monday was the deadline for players to withdraw from the NBA draft, and the league has announced the list of those who’ve pulled out. The deadline applied mostly to prospects from overseas, since any collegian who takes his name out of consideration at this point isn’t be able to return to NCAA competition. Mychal Ammons of South Alabama is the only U.S.-based player who withdrew, but he’d already signed a deal with an overseas club.

Yesterday’s reports identified several of the prospects taking their names out of the draft, as well as some high-profile players staying in, and we’ve added the previously unreported names of those pulling out to the top of the list below. For the complete register of early entrants denoting those who’ve withdrawn, click here.

Withdrawing from the draft

Ammons, Berkay Candan, Tomas Dimsa, Marko Ramljak, Alejandro Suarez, Devon Van Oostrum are all out of the draft, the NBA announced.
Joonas Caven has pulled out of the draft, agent K.C. Callero tells Givony (Twitter link).
Matias Bortolin is withdrawing from the draft, his agent tells Sportando (Twitter link).
Ilja Gromovs will exit the draft, too, agent Arturs Kalnitis says to Givony (Twitter link).
Mateusz Ponitka has removed his name from draft consideration, Givony tweets.
Moussa Diagne and Guillem Vives will take their names out of the draft, agent Herb Ruboy says to Givony (Twitter link).
Rasmus Larsen has decided to exit the draft, as agent Doug Neustadt informs Givony (Twitter link).
OKK Spars Sarajevo teammates Nedim Buza and Adin Vrabac have decided to pull out of the draft, agent Alexander Raskovic tweets.
Lefteris Bochoridis has withdrawn from the draft, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM.

Remaining in the draft

Jokic isn’t the only prospect to flip-flop today. Damien Inglis changed his mind and has decided to keep his name in the draft, agent Pedja Materic tells Jonthan Givony of DraftExpress (via Twitter).
Raznatovic, Saric’s agent, took to Twitter to confirm that his client will remain in the draft (hat tip to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
Nikola Jokic has changed his mind and will remain in the draft after all, Raznatovic tweets (hat tip to Chad Ford of ESPN.com).
Dario Saric will stay in the draft, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link).
Vasilije Micic remains in the draft, agent Misko Raznatovic tweets.
Clint Capela will keep his name in this year’s draft, agent Bouna Ndiaye tells Givony (Twitter link).

Nikola Jokic To Enter Draft

April 24th, 2014 at 8:08am CST by Chuck Myron

Serbian center Nikola Jokic was leaning toward entering the draft before this month’s Nike Hoop Summit, and after a strong performance, he’s decided to declare, agent Misko Raznatovic tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Givony lists the 19-year-old as the 45th-best prospect for this year, though Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him unranked.

The 6’11” Jokic primarily came off the bench this year for KK Mega Vizura in his home country, averaging 11.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 24.5 minutes per game. It was a significant step forward for a player who’d been largely unknown entering the season. He showed a diverse skill set in Hoop Summit World Team practice, as Matt Kamalsky of DraftExpress observed, though he’s a limited athlete. Jokic only saw three shots in the Hoop Summit game, but he pulled down seven rebounds in less than 16 minutes of playing time.

Jokic won’t be automatically eligible for the draft until 2017, so he could easily withdraw before the June 16th deadline to do so. Still, it seems like he has a strong chance to be drafted this year.

And-Ones: Mavericks, Corbin, Moore

April 10th, 2014 at 7:18pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson guested on the SVP and Russillo Show on ESPN Radio (audio link) earlier today, praising Rick Carlisle‘s performance this season and acknowledging that the franchise will have the flexibility to be active in the free agent market this offseason. It’s definitely worth mentioning that Dallas’ first priority, according to Nelson, is to re-sign Dirk Nowitzki and allow him to finish his career with the Mavs. He also said that the team will be looking to add another superstar with the intent of having Dirk eventually become their second-best player.

Though he didn’t specifically mention any other names, Nelson stated that the team has a few of its own free agents that are priorities as well. He’s gone on record before saying that there is mutual interest with Vince Carter in negotiating a new deal and that he plans on keeping Samuel Dalembert this summer.

Here are some more miscellaneous news and notes out of the Association tonight:

A few days ago, we noted that Jazz head coach Tyrone Corbin, along with his staff, will know by the end of this month if they’ll be returning for the 2014/15 season. Corbin’s contract is set to expire this summer, although Jody Genessy of the Deseret News found it interesting that the 51-year-old coach spoke today about working with the players this summer and getting them ready for next year (Twitter link).
Magic shooting guard and soon-to-be free agent E’Twaun Moore tells Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel that his preference is to stay put: “Most definitely…Orlando has been good to me. It’s great here. We got a lot of young guys and I feel like we’ve grown up together.”
6’11 center prospect Nikola Jokic will most likely declare for the 2014 NBA Draft and is expected to make his final decision after the Nike Hoops Summit, per Misko Raznatovic of BeoBasket Sports agency (Twitter link).
Former Marquette standout Jamil Wilson has signed with Relativity Sports and is currently projected as a second-round pick, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times.