Thon Maker Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Notes: Thibodeau, Pacers, Jackson

May 14th, 2016 at 7:40pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said it was painful to watch the team struggle to a non-playoff season, according to Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago. Now president and coach of the Timberwolves, Thibodeau discussed the Bulls as he returned to Chicago for this week’s draft combine. “I think Derrick [Rose] after the first couple months, played very well and it was great to see him healthy,” Thibodeau said. “He went through four years that were difficult. I think Jimmy [Butler] continues to improve and get better. Pau [Gasol] was terrific. Doug McDermott had a terrific season and Niko [Mirotic] was inconsistent but he finished strong. There were a lot of pluses and one or two games go a different way and if Joakim [Noah] doesn’t get hurt, this is a terrific team. They need their health. For me, just looking from afar, that’s the biggest thing for this team.” Thibodeau also supported the coach who took his place, Fred Hoiberg, and said he expects the Bulls to become contenders again next season.

There’s more out of the Central Division:

The Pacers will hold a workout on Tuesday for Indiana small forward Troy Williams, Maryland point guard Melo Trimble, Oklahoma point guard Isaiah Cousins and others, tweets Jeff Rabjohns of Basketball Times. High schooler Thon Maker will work out for the Pacers on Wednesday, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
Maryland power forward Robert Carter Jr. had an interview with the Pacers at the draft combine, tweets Scott Agness of VigilantSports.
The Bucks will likely be looking for backcourt help in next month’s draft, according to Charles F. Gardner of The Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee enters Tuesday’s draft lottery with the No. 10 pick, along with second-rounders at No. 36 and No. 38. GM John Hammond insists the team will employ the “best-player-available” strategy, but Gardner says it’s obvious the Bucks need better guard play. One possibility could be Notre Dame junior point guard Demetrius Jackson, who interviewed with Milwaukee during the draft combine. “[Bucks coach] Jason Kidd is awesome,” Jackson said. “I do my research before I go in there. I’m naming off some of his accomplishments — nine-time all-NBA defender. At the next level I really want to be an elite NBA defender. It’s cool to meet some of these people you see on TV.”

Magic Notes: Skiles, Hennigan, Draft

May 13th, 2016 at 12:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

Magic CEO Alex Martins said he tried to talk Scott Skiles into staying Thursday morning, when the coach resigned instead, tweets Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. The DeVos family, who own the Magic, and Martins are backers of Skiles, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt notes, wondering whether GM Rob Hennigan was truly in charge of the decision to hire Skiles a year ago, despite the GM’s assertion Thursday that he was.

See more from Orlando after a surprising turn of events:

No coach can turn around the Magic if they don’t have a star player, Schmitz opines, believing the pressure falls on Hennigan to upgrade the roster as the team embarks on its third coaching search in Hennigan’s four-year tenure. The Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi concurs, calling Skiles’ hasty exit one of the darkest days in franchise history, given the coach’s longstanding ties to the team.
One Magic player said Skiles seemed “miserable” in the last few months of the season, and the coach has grown increasingly weary with the attitudes of NBA players, as The Vertical’s Chris Mannix hears. Ultimately, the coach’s resignation underscores the need for a tight bond between NBA coaches and front offices, Mannix believes.
Michigan State swingman Denzel Valentine and forward/center Deyonta Davis, Marquette power forward Henry Ellenson and Canadian prep school power forward Thon Maker are among the draft prospects the Magic have interviewed at this week’s combine, The Sentinel’s Josh Robbins reports.

Atlantic Notes: Dunn, Trimble, Wiltjer, Hart

May 12th, 2016 at 10:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Coach Brett Brown has promised Providence sophomore point guard Kris Dunn a chance to play right away if the Sixers draft him, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Dunn met with Sixers officials Wednesday and both he and the team appeared to come away impressed. “They made me feel like they really wanted me there,” he said. “We all were very engaged. We talked about a lot of things. I appreciate them having me.” Philadelphia notched the NBA’s worst record this season and has a 26.9% chance at landing the top overall pick. That will probably be LSU’s Ben Simmons or Duke’s Brandon Ingram, but the Sixers will also get the Lakers’ pick if it falls outside the top three, which is where they might take Dunn.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

The Sixers are interviewing a lot of guards, including Maryland sophomore point guard Melo Trimble, Pompey tweets.
Gonzaga senior power forward Kyle Wiltjer will work out for the Sixers later this month, Pompey tweets.
Villanova junior shooting guard Josh Hart plans a workout with the Sixers, tweets Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com. Hart is undecided on whether to stay in the draft or return to school. Philadelphia will also work out freshman small forward Dedric Lawson of Memphis on Monday (Twitter link).
The Celtics have met with several top prospects, including Ingram, writes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. Other projected top-10 players that Boston has interviewed include Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, Kentucky’s Jamal Murray and California’s Jaylen Brown. The team has also scheduled an interview with Utah center Jakob Poeltl. According to Himmelsbach, the Celtics have either met with or are planning interviews with Oakland’s Kay Felder, Maryland’s Diamond Stone, Vanderbilt’s Wade Baldwin, New Mexico State’s Pascal Siakam, Michigan State’s Deyonta Davis, China’s Zhou Qi, Syracuse’s Malachi Richardson, UNLV’s Patrick McCaw, Louisville’s Chinanu Onuaku, Vanderbilt’s Damian Jones, Mississippi State’s Malik Newman, North Carolina State’s Cat Barber, Kansas’ Cheick Diallo, Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes and high school prospect Thon Maker.
Seton Hall sophomore point guard Isaiah Whitehead, who has met with the Sixers, Celtics, Knicks and Nets among others, will “100%” leave college if a team offers him a first-round guarantee, writes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. “You can’t give up opportunities like that,” Whitehead said. “I mean, when they tell you it’s time to go, you just gotta go.”
Assistant GM Allan Houston conducted the Knicks‘ meeting with Whitehead as team president Phil Jackson apparently skipped the draft combine, Zagoria writes in a separate piece.
Diallo is scheduled to meet with the Knicks, Celtics and Raptors on Friday, Zagoria tweets.

And-Ones: Salary Shortfall, Maker, Isaac, Diversity

April 16th, 2016 at 5:26pm CST by Arthur Hill

An NBA memo says teams had an estimated $93MM shortfall in player salaries this season, writes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, players must receive 49% to 51% of basketball-related income. The league will finalize a full audit of revenue and expenses in July to determine the exact amount they will receive. The memo projects a $375MM shortfall for next season, which averages about $12.5MM per team. Also for next season, the league expects a $92MM salary cap and a $111MM luxury tax threshold. The salary floor, which is the 90% of the cap that teams are obligated to pay to players, would be set at $82.8MM. For 2017/18, the salary cap is expected to be $107MM with the luxury tax threshold set at $127MM. Seven teams are expected to pay $121MM in luxury taxes this season, with half of that earmarked for the revenue-sharing plan. The other half will be split by franchises under the $84.7MM tax threshold, giving them approximately $2.6MM per team.

There’s more from the basketball world:

The loophole that allowed Thon Maker to become eligible for this year’s draft may inspire future prospects to try the same thing, writes Jeff Eisenberg of The Dagger. Maker, 19, qualified for the draft because he graduated from high school in Canada in 2015, meeting both the age requirement and the rule that a year must have passed since a player’s graduating class.
Jonathan Isaac, who will be a freshman at Florida State in the fall, is no longer looking at this year’s draft, relays Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. The 6’10” power forward worked out for NBA scouts this week, but is focused on playing for the Seminoles. There were reports in February that Isaac was thinking of trying to go straight to the NBA from IMG Academy. He is 19 and is a year beyond his graduating class, but he wouldn’t be draft-eligible because he doesn’t have a diploma. Isaac is ranked 13th in the 2017 mock draft by DraftExpress.
Front-office diversity was among the topics addressed at the NBA board of governors meeting this week, according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Oris Stuart, the league’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, made a presentation on the benefits of diversity in management. The league is putting together a Basketball Operations Associates Program for ex-players and others who want to pursue front-office careers.

NBA Declares Thon Maker Eligible For Draft

April 14th, 2016 at 1:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

The NBA has ruled international prep star Thon Maker eligible for this year’s draft, reports Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Maker will hire an agent, thus forgoing his college eligibility, and formally enter the draft, Ford adds.

The 19-year-old Maker attends Orangeville District Secondary School in Ontario, Canada, but he graduated from high school last June. The NBA rule for American players stipulates they must turn 19 the year they enter the draft and be one year removed from the graduation of their high school class to meet the minimum standards for draft eligibility. Maker could also make a case that he qualifies as an international player and is thus exempt from rules regarding his high school graduation, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress pointed out. It’s unclear what basis the NBA used to clear him from the draft, but he’ll be a part of it nonetheless.

Originally from Sudan, Maker previously played at two high schools in Louisiana and one in Virginia. He’s impressed along the way, but his stock has been falling of late, as Givony and The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski noted. Maker is No. 41 in Givony’s prospect rankings, while Ford lists him 20th, a wide split that demonstrates the difficulty NBA types are having as they try to assess his value. So, workouts with NBA teams, which begin later this month, and the combine in May figure to be key.

Latest On Thon Maker

April 4th, 2016 at 12:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

Thon Maker has no intention of withdrawing and attending college if he receives approval from the NBA to formally become a part of this year’s draft class, as he told Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. It’s a swift conclusion for the 7’0″ power forward from a Canadian prep school, since Maker’s legal guardian, Ed Smith, didn’t reveal to him he had a case to enter the draft until late last month, as Maker said to Givony. Sources told Jeff Borzello of ESPN.com that Maker, who on Sunday publicly announced that he plans to enter the draft, had to declare in order to receive a ruling from the NBA on his eligibility. Maker’s camp has been in communication with the NBA for a while and they expect an answer as soon as this week, tweets Evan Daniels of Scout.com. See more on the intriguing prospect making waves on the draft scene:

Maker’s case to be included in this year’s draft class is a strong one, Givony argues, citing a clause in the collective bargaining agreement that would deem him an international player rather than an American (Twitter links). The eligibility of American players is tied to the timing of their high school graduations, though Maker has argued that he qualifies in that regard, too.
It’s difficult to peg how the NBA will rule on his eligibility, though assuming the league comes down in his favor, it’s likely he’ll receive an invitation to next month’s draft combine, writes Chad Ford of ESPN.com in an Insider-only piece. Little semblance of consensus exists regarding Maker’s draft stock, with scouts’ opinions of him ranging from the late lottery to the second round, according to Ford, who ranks him 20th among this year’s prospects. Givony slots the 19-year-old as this year’s 44th-best draft prospect.
Maker would have a better shot to go in the first round this year than he would if he’s relegated to next year’s draft class, an NBA executive told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, pointing to the relative strength of the other prospects expected to be available in each draft.
NBA executives have chiefly seen regression as they’ve watched Maker, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, who expects him to spend most of the next two seasons on D-League assignment if he’s drafted this year (Twitter link).

Thon Maker Seeks To Be Part Of 2016 Draft

April 3rd, 2016 at 8:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

International star Thon Maker will try to enter the 2016 draft, reports Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. The seven-footer confirmed the news in a Bleacher Report video. Maker, 19, will claim to be eligible because he graduated from high school in Canada in June of last year, which technically makes him a fifth-year high school student.

Originally from the Sudan, Maker attends Orangeville District Secondary School in Ontario and plays for Canada’s Athlete Institute. He previously played at two high schools in Louisiana and one in Virginia.

The NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement requires players to be at least 19 before entering the draft and stipulates that one full NBA season must have been completed since the player’s high school graduation. If Maker graduated last year, he will have met both requirements in time for the June 23rd draft.

Maker has announced that he will skip this week’s Nike Hoop Summit in Portland to concentrate on preparing for the draft. Givony says Maker failed to make a strong impression at last year’s event and that his overall draft stock has been falling due to lackluster performances at similar events, the most recent being the NBA Basketball Without Borders Global Camp during All-Star Weekend. DraftExpress has him listed as 44th in its most recent ranking of the top 100 prospects.

Givony lists “competitiveness, physicality and intensity level” as the best parts of Maker’s game, along with increased upper-body strength and the ability to hit an occasional 3-pointer. However, he warns that Maker has little offensive polish, explosiveness or feel for the game and may take a long time to develop into a productive NBA player.

Maker made recruiting visits to Kansas and UNLV in March, and had trips scheduled to Arizona State and Notre Dame set for later this month. However, Givony notes that amateurism concerns were hanging over Maker’s college eligibility and may have pushed him to opt for the draft instead.

Draft Notes: Mudiay, Maker, Russell, Looney

March 27th, 2015 at 3:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

Emmanuel Mudiay isn’t sure he’d recommend playing overseas to other top draft prospects, particularly those who wouldn’t merit the kind of high-dollar deal he received, but he has no regrets about his decision to play in China instead of at SMU, as he tells Evan Daniels of Scout.com.

“I was playing against 30-year old men that are trying to feed their family,” he said, answering affirmatively when Daniels asked if he feels he has an edge on prospects from the NCAA. “In college, they are trying to get an education and try to get a job after that. I was put in a job position.

Mudiay told Daniels that he’s heard that elite 2016 draft prospect Thon Maker is thinking about playing overseas, though Mudiay’s not sure if that’s the case. Either way, here’s more on the draft, with just 12 teams remaining in the NCAA tournament:

Chris Mannix of SI.com looks at Ohio State freshman D’Angelo Russell, Mudiay’s primary challenger to become the first point guard drafted in June and a prospect who’s impressed at least one NBA GM with a level of court awareness beyond his years.
There’s a wide range of opinion on the draft stock of UCLA power forward Kevon Looney, whom Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks as the seventh most well-regarded prospect while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him 19th. Ford and ESPN.com colleague Kevin Pelton debate the merits of the 19-year-old who’ll probably take a while to develop regardless of his potential, as they write in an Insider-only piece.
Stanley Johnson doesn’t have flashy numbers, but he and his game have matured in his freshman season at Arizona, as Zach Hefland of the Los Angeles Times examines. The small forward is the No. 6 prospect in Givony’s rankings and No. 12 with Ford. Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors has him sixth in our Draft Prospect Power Rankings.
Nigel Williams-Goss makes a habit of outperforming expectations, and while he isn’t a highly regarded NBA prospect, there are at least a few people around the game who are confident he can make it in the pros, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group details. The University of Washington sophomore told Haynes that he isn’t sure whether he’ll stay in college another year or declare for the draft.

Draft Notes: MJ, Embiid, Hairston, Maker

June 9th, 2014 at 11:50am CST by Zachary Links

If the Rockets didn’t tank in 1984, Michael Jordan would have been a member of the Sixers, writes Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. The Sixers owned the Clippers’ pick that year and had the Rockets not tanked down the stretch, they would have landed either the No. 1 or 2 pick in a coin flip. Instead, that pick became the No. 5 choice and that’s where the Sixers selected Charles Barkley. Fast forwarding thirty years later, here’s today’s draft news..

One NBA scout tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports that if there are no serious back issues, Kansas center Joel Embiid has a chance to be a franchise superstar. Embiid holds the No. 1 spot in Spears’ mock draft, followed by Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Dante Exum, and Aaron Gordon.
New Mexico State center Sim Bhullar will work out for the Raptors on Wednesday, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. During his second season as an Aggie, Bhullar put up 10.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per night while averaging just over 26 minutes every contest.
Scott Rafferty of Ridiculous Upside wonders if P.J. Hairston has done enough to cement himself as a surefire first round pick in the draft. Hairston proved himself as one of the best scorers in the D-League last season but concerns about his attitude remain.
Elite 7-foot prospect Thon Maker is “50-50” on whether to reclassify himself to the high school graduating class of 2015, which would make him eligible for the 2016 draft, writes Adam Zagoria of SNY. The Carlisle School (VA) standout is currently slated to graduate in 2016 but he would likely be the top talent in the 2015 class as well. If you’ve yet to see Maker play, take a look at this widely circulated mixtape on YouTube (though you should dial down your volume if you’re watching at work).