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Pistons Notes: Griffin, Wood, Doumbouya

December 1st, 2019 at 10:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Following the Pistons‘ 110-107 loss to the Hornets on Friday, star forward Blake Griffin called out the team for its lack of “fight,” as Chris McCoskey of The Detroit News relays.

“I think it’s really light in here after a win,” Griffin said. “To me, it seems like we love the victory but we don’t like the fight. You’re not going to win games like that.”

Head coach Dwane Casey had no problem with that harsh criticism from his star player, and in fact agreed with much of it, according to McCoskey, who notes that Casey said the Pistons weren’t putting enough effort into the “little things” necessary to win games.

“Paying attention to detail in offensive situations, paying attention to detail in defensive situations — Blake is exactly right,” Casey said. “These are the things we aren’t doing that can cost you a game. … Everybody remembers the last couple of plays. But you go through a game, you realize the things, the attention to detail, all the ‘I forgots,’ and ‘My bads,’ those add up.”

With those comments from their head coach and star player fresh in their minds, the Pistons had an impressive bounce-back showing at home on Sunday, blowing out the Spurs by 34 points.

Here’s more out of Detroit:

Christian Wood scored a career-high 28 points on 11-of-14 shooting in just 22 minutes vs. San Antonio, and hopes to parlay performances like that one into more consistent production, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Wood, who is on a partially guaranteed contract, is aware that he’s essentially in an ongoing job audition. “All 30 teams are watching me, so every time I play I try to be relentless,” the young forward said on Sunday. “I try to come with energy and I try to give you everything I’ve got.”
Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press takes an interesting and in-depth look into Sekou Doumbouya‘s background, the Pistons’ plan for developing the NBA’s youngest player, and when the rookie forward might be ready to consistently contribute at the NBA level.
To keep tabs on all of our Pistons updates, be sure to check out their team page right here.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 12/1/19

December 1st, 2019 at 8:48pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are Sunday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Clippers assigned Derrick Walton Jr. to the G League, then recalled both Walton and rookie center Mfiondu Kabengele later in the day, according to the team. Both players suited up for the Agua Caliente Clippers on Sunday, with Kabengele posting 15 points and 19 rebounds, though he shot just 6-of-17 in a loss to Santa Cruz.
The Pistons recalled rookie forward Sekou Doumbouya from Grand Rapids on Sunday, tweets Rod Beard of The Detroit News. Doumbouya saw a little garbage-time action in Detroit’s blowout win over San Antonio, scoring four points in less than three minutes.
The Timberwolves recalled rookie center Naz Reid from the G League on Sunday, per a team release.
After scoring 18 points in 18 minutes for the Northern Arizona Suns on Saturday, Ty Jerome was recalled to the NBA by the Suns, the team announced (via Twitter). Jerome, coming off an ankle injury, has yet to make his NBA debut.
The Kings recalled third-year forward Caleb Swanigan from the G League on Sunday, according to the club (Twitter link).
The Jazz sent forward Juwan Morgan and guard Miye Oni to the Salt Lake City Stars on Sunday, the team announced in a press release. Presumably, both players will suit up for Utah’s G League affiliate on Monday vs. Grand Rapids.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/23/19

November 23rd, 2019 at 8:46pm CST by Arthur Hill

Here are Saturday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Hornets recalled Caleb Martin and Jalen McDaniels from their Greensboro affiliate, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Martin has gotten into three NBA games this season, while McDaniels has appeared in just one.
The Timberwolves recalled Jaylen Nowell from their affiliate in Iowa, the team announced in a press release. The second-round pick is averaging 18.5 PPG in six G League games.
The Pistons recalled rookie Sekou Doumbouya from Grand Rapids, according to an email from the team. He is averaging 18.4 PPG in eight games with the Drive.
The Jazz assigned Miye Oni and Nigel Williams-Goss to their Salt Lake City affiliate, the team announced on Twitter.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/4/19

November 4th, 2019 at 8:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA G League:

Pistons first-round pick Sekou Doumbouya was assigned to the Grand Rapids Drive, Eric Woodyard of ESPN tweets. The teenage forward had been in the league’s concussion protocol since late in the preseason.
The Raptors assigned rookie big man Dewan Hernandez to Raptors 905, Blake Murphy of The Athletic tweets. Hernandez has yet to make his NBA debut.
The Wizards recalled rookie guard Justin Robinson prior to their team’s game against the Pistons, the team’s PR department tweets. The point guard has made two cameo appearances this season.
The Celtics assigned first-round pick Romeo Langford to the Maine Red Claws, the team’s PR department tweets. The rookie guard from Indiana is still looking for his first NBA basket.
The Nets recalled power forward Nicolas Claxton from their Long Island affiliate, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. The rookie out of Georgia has yet to make his NBA debut.
The Mavericks recalled rookie forward Isaiah Roby from the Texas Legends, according to a team press release. This is the second time the second-round pick has been recalled from the G League.

Pistons Notes: Griffin, Jackson, Drummond, Doumbouya

October 25th, 2019 at 10:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The absence of Blake Griffin has led to offensive struggles for the Pistons’ starting unit during their first two games, Keith Langlois of the team’s website notes.

With Griffin sidelined for at least five games by hamstring and knee injuries, Markieff Morris has taken his spot in the lineup and Detroit got off to slow starts both times. The situation has become even more complicated due to Reggie Jackson‘s lower back tightness, which forced him to depart the 117-100 home loss to Atlanta early on Thursday.

Casey would prefer to limit the minutes of backup point guard Derrick Rose, who has averaged 23 points in his first two games with Detroit. If Jackson needs to miss games, Rose might have to start instead of the other point option, Tim Frazier, because the offense would have even further limitations without Rose’s playmaking.

We have more on the Pistons:

Center Andre Drummond can opt of his contract after the season and enter unrestricted free agency. His opening-night performance showed that he’s going all out in his walk year, Rod Beard of the Detroit News tweets. After he racked up 32 points and 23 rebounds in a season-opening victory at Indiana, Drummond responded to a question regarding Twitter #ContractYearDre by saying, “You know it.”
The fact that Griffin, who has a long injury history, started the season in street clothes could eventually lead the front office to hit the reset button, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press opines. Dealing Griffin is doubtful given those injury woes and that his max deal takes him through the 2021/22 season. But trade speculation has increased recently due to the possibility of the season going sour quickly, Ellis adds.
First-round pick Sekou Doumbouya isn’t expected to have much of an impact in his rookie season, senior adviser Ed Stefanski told Beard during a Q&A session. The 18-year-old was inactive during the first two games due to a concussion. “When we drafted him, we said early publicly that he’s going to take time to come around and we didn’t put any timetable on it,” Stefanski said. “We made a point that this year, early in the season, we didn’t expect him to be in that rotation. If he keeps playing well when February and March roll around, who knows? We’re not going to throw him to the wolves.”

Pistons Notes: Snell, Wood, Doumbouya, Griffin

September 19th, 2019 at 10:11am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons want to put up plenty of three-point shots in 2019/20, but the club lost one of its top outside shooters in the offseason when Wayne Ellington headed to New York in free agency. As such, new forward Tony Snell – who is a career 38.2% three-point shooter but has never attempted more than 4.4 3PG in a season – will be asked to let it fly more than ever this season, head coach Dwane Casey tells Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.

“With Wayne Ellington with 10 attempts (per 36 minutes) going out the door and we want to be a three-point shooting team, you’ve got to bring those guys in and I think we did that in Tony,” Casey said. “He lit up like a Christmas tree when I said, ‘You’ve got a green light. We need your three-point shooting.’ We need to make up those 10 threes. Maybe not him getting them all up, but he’s going to get a big bulk of those shots coming in.”

With Andre Drummond, Blake Griffin, and Reggie Jackson locked in as starters, the Pistons will have a couple spots in their starting five to fill out, and one of those spots will likely be Snell’s to lose, according to Casey, who praised the former Buck’s size and defensive versatility.

Here’s more on the Pistons, including a handful of additional comments from Casey on his new-look roster:

Speaking to Langlois, Casey pointed to Markieff Morris and Christian Wood as two players who could play center in smaller lineups. The Pistons’ head coach added that the team is looking for consistency and discipline out of Wood, who is on a non-guaranteed contract and isn’t a lock to make the 15-man roster. “There’s never been a question about Christian’s talent,” Casey said. “With Christian, it’s temperament, being a pro, doing the right things all the time and doing what you’re supposed to do all the time.”
Pistons first-round pick Sekou Doumbouya will still be 18 years old when his rookie season begins, and the team will bring him along at the right pace, per Casey. Still, Detroit’s head coach is bullish on Doumbouya’s chances to develop into an impact player, calling him a “keeper for our program” and suggesting the young forward could have a role sooner rather than later if he proves he can handle it. “I’m not one of these guys that just because a guy is young, not going to play,” Casey said to Langlois. “If he can help us win games, he’s going to be out there.”
The Pistons expect Blake Griffin, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery at the end of last season, to be 100% and “back to full speed” when the season gets underway, Casey tells Langlois. The club also hopes to limit the wear and tear on the All-Star forward in 2019/20 by surrounding him with a few more guys who can “handle the ball and make plays.”
In a mailbag, Rod Beard of The Detroit News takes a look at the upcoming battle between Wood and Joe Johnson for the 15th roster spot and explores whether the Pistons might consider a trade that would clear the way for both players to make the team to start the season.

Pistons Officially Sign Sekou Doumbouya, Louis King

July 4th, 2019 at 2:05pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons have officially signed two rookies to their first NBA contracts, announcing today in a pair of press releases that they’ve locked up first-rounder Sekou Doumbouya and inked undrafted free agent Louis King to a two-way contract.

Neither move comes as a surprise. Doumbouya’s signing was a formality, as his rookie scale amount is essentially locked in. As the No. 15 overall pick, he’ll earn about $3.3MM in his first NBA season and a total of $15.9MM if he plays out his full four-year rookie contract.

[RELATED: 2019 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

Doumbouya, a 6’9″ forward who has drawn comparisons to Pascal Siakam, was the first international player selected in the 2019 draft. The 18-year-old played professionally overseas before declaring for the NBA draft, having averaged 7.8 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 39 games last season for Limoges CSP, a club in France’s top league.

As for King, his two-way contract agreement with the Pistons was reported shortly after the draft. A forward out of Oregon, King averaged 13.5 PPG and 5.5 RPG with a .435/.386/.785 shooting line in 31 games during his first and only season with the Ducks.

The Pistons are expected to sign No. 57 overall pick Jordan Bone to occupy their second two-way contract slot, but the trades necessary to get him to Detroit haven’t yet been officially completed.

Central Notes: Dunn, Leuer, Doumbouya, Bucks, J.R. Smith

June 21st, 2019 at 9:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Bulls executive VP John Paxson insists that Kris Dunn still has a role despite the addition of North Carolina point guard Coby White with the team’s lottery selection, K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune reports. “We still value Kris very much,” Paxson said. “But competition is a part of this business. You have to have that. The goal for us is to be deeper, more talented. You see in our game today, the successful teams have versatile rosters. … And, hey, if he comes in, as we hope, in training camp in great shape and ready to roll, he has every chance to earn any spot he wants — just like any of our guys do.”

We have more from the Central Division:

It’s uncertain whether veteran power forward Jon Leuer will play for the Bucks, Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets. Milwaukee traded Tony Snell and its first-round pick to the Pistons for Leuer in an effort to clear cap space. Leuer is in the final year of his contract. GM Jon Horst told Leuer and his agent that he could be included in a future trade, Velazquez adds. Leuer appeared in 41 games last season after injuries limited him to eight games the previous season.
The Pistons were stunned that forward Sekou Doumbouya slipped just outside the lottery, allowing them to pick him with the No. 15 selection, according to Rod Beard of the Detroit News. The Pistons watched him work out in Dallas but were convinced they had no chance to draft him. “He kept dropping and we had Plan A in place and we didn’t expect him to be there. Then Plan B came into place and it was the best plan of all — because we had him ranked very high on the board,” coach Dwane Casey said. “We were there at the workout in Dallas and we thought we were wasting our time because we saw all the teams in front of us.”
The Bucks didn’t get any players in the draft but it was for lack of trying, Velazquez reports in another tweet. The Bucks made calls on every second-round pick but didn’t want to give up future picks and discovered that it’s much tougher to simply buy picks now.
The Cavaliers were unable to unload J.R. Smith on draft night and it’s likely he’ll be waived before his contract becomes fully guaranteed at the end of the month, Joe Vardon of The Athletic reports. Cleveland doesn’t want to go over the luxury-tax line. Acquiring a player on a multi-year contract whose salary pushed them over the line was a deal breaker. Only $3.87MM of Smith’s $15.68MM salary is guaranteed.

Wolves Rumors: Draft, Wiggins, McConnell, Harris

June 21st, 2019 at 12:33pm CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves had five players in their top tier for Thursday’s draft, and knew they had no shot at Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, or R.J. Barrett, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Darius Garland and Jarrett Culver were the other players in that group, according to Krawczynski, who says that Minnesota may have preferred Garland to Culver, but didn’t hesitate to nab the Texas Tech wing at No. 6 over Coby White and others.

According to Krawczynski, the Timberwolves might have had an opportunity to move up to No. 4 before the Pelicans made a deal with the Hawks, but Minnesota was seeking the No. 11 pick and Robert Covington and would’ve wanted to dump Solomon Hill‘s unwanted contract on the Wolves.

Even after moving up to select Culver at No. 6, the Timberwolves stayed active, according to Darren Wolfson and Danny Cunningham of Skor North, who report (via Twitter) that the team had discussions about the No. 12 pick with the Hornets. Those talks didn’t seem to get far, per Wolfson, adding that Sekou Doumbouya was the presumed target at that spot for Minnesota.

Here’s more on the Wolves:

The Timberwolves have been actively exploring options to move off Andrew Wiggins‘ contract, league sources tell Jake Fischer of SI.com (Twitter link). It’s not clear if Minnesota is just gauging the market or if the club will continue to pursue a Wiggins deal as the offseason progresses.
Wolfson (Twitter link) hears that Sixers veteran T.J. McConnell is among the free agent point guards on Minnesota’s radar.
John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) has heard that free-agent-to-be Tobias Harris has interest in the Timberwolves. That looks like a very unlikely pairing though, since Minnesota has no path to cap room and the Sixers won’t be eager to accommodate a sign-and-trade.
Bryan Gates is the latest coach expected to join Ryan Saunders‘ staff as an assistant, tweets Krawczynski. Gates, who had a previous stint in Minnesota, has served as an assistant in Sacramento for the past few seasons.

Draft Rumors: Wolves, Pistons, Hornets, Knicks

June 20th, 2019 at 8:32pm CST by Luke Adams

While the Timberwolves were exploring trades involving the No. 6 pick after acquiring it from Phoenix, they plan on hanging onto Jarrett Culver, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

Still, it’s safe to assume Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas will continue to be aggressive in exploring trade options, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News, who tweets that Rosas seems to be open to discussing anyone except Karl-Anthony Towns.

Here are a few more draft-night notes and rumors:

Sekou Doumbouya was higher than No. 15 on the Pistons‘ draft board, so the team was happy to snag him, a source tells Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). Ellis hears that the Pistons were also seriously considering big man Goga Bitadze at No. 15 (Twitter link). Pistons executive Ed Stefanski said that Detroit explored trading up, but teams wanted too much, tweets Rod Beard of The Detroit News.
The Hornets were close to trading up from No. 12, but felt like the price was excessive compared to what their options at No. 12 were, Hornets president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak said tonight (Twitter link via Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer). Kupchak added that Charlotte views PJ Washington as both a small forward and power forward.
Jalen McDaniels, Miye Oni, Zylan Cheatham, and Jaylen Nowell are among the prospects receiving consideration from the Knicks at No. 55, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post, who tweets that New York likely won’t draft Tacko Fall.