Trey Lyles Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Salary Tiers, Deng, Jackson

April 13th, 2015 at 10:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The maximum salary tiers will rise dramatically over the next two years when the league’s new TV contract takes effect, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports. Currently, players with up to six years of experience can receive a maximum of $14.7MM in the first year of a contract, $17.7MM if they have seven to nine years of experience and $20.6MM if they have at least 10 years of experience. By the 2016/17 season, those maximum salary tiers will rise to approximately $21.0MM, $25.3MM and $29.5MM, Pincus calculates. That will encourage free agents this summer to sign contracts with an opt-out clause for the second year, allowing them to take advantage of the bump in salaries, Pincus continues. LaMarcus Aldridge, Rajon Rondo and Paul Millsap are some of the free agents this summer who could elevate into the top tier in salary in 2016/17 by signing one-year contracts or contracts with an opt-out clause, Pincus adds.

In other news around the league:

Draft prospects Montrezl Harrell of Louisville and Trey Lyles of Kentucky have signed with LeBron James‘ agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets. Sam Dekker of Wisconsin has chosen Mark Bartelstein and Priority Sports to represent him, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. (Twitter link). Chad Ford of ESPN.com has all three rated as first-round prospects, with Dekker ranked No. 15 overall, Lyles at No. 17 and Harrell at No. 24. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress also has all three among his first-round prospects, with Dekker 15th overall, Lyles 19th and Harrell 23rd.
Luol Deng has not yet decided whether he will exercise his player option of approximately $10.15MM for next season, Jason Lieser of Palm Beach Post tweets. The Heat forward is optimistic about the team’s future and has enjoyed playing for the organization this season, Lieser adds.
Pierre Jackson, who ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon playing for the Sixers’ summer-league team last year, has been cleared to resume all basketball activities, according to Spears (Twitter link). Jackson was part of the Nerlens Noel trade between Philadelphia and the Pelicans after the Sixers selected him in the second round in 2013. New Orleans traded Jackson back to the Sixers last year in exchange for Russ Smith‘s draft rights. Jackson is a free agent after the Sixers waived him in September.

Draft Notes: Kentucky, Poeltl, Jones

April 9th, 2015 at 10:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kentucky University will attempt to set a new record this year by having seven players drafted by NBA teams this June. Kevin Pelton, Fran Fraschilla, and Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) released their scouting reports on Devin Booker, Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Trey Lyles, all of whom announced that they will be leaving Kentucky. Also declaring for the draft today for the Wildcats were Dakari Johnson, Aaron Harrison, and Andrew Harrison.

Here’s more from the college ranks:

Utah freshman center Jakob Poeltl is still undecided about entering the 2015 NBA draft, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets. Poeltl is the No. 11 overall prospect according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and Ford (Insider subscription required) places the big man at No. 14.
Auburn senior guard Antoine Mason, son of former NBA player Anthony Mason, has signed a deal with agent Keith Glass, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv tweets. Mason is a longshot to be selected in June and doesn’t appear amongst the top 100 prospects in either Givony’s or Ford’s rankings.
Tyus Jones, Duke’s freshman point guard, hasn’t made up his mind regarding entering this year’s NBA draft, Chip Scoggins of The Star Tribune writes. “I don’t have a timeline,” Jones told Scoggins. “I’m just going to take it slowly and weigh both options. Ultimately just make the right and smart decision. I don’t have a timeline. I’ll sit down with my family, sit down with my coaches and talk about everything and get as much information as possible.” Jones is ranked No. 21 by Givony and No. 24 by Ford.
The Rockets are one of the teams that are looking at selecting Jones if he were to enter the draft, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities tweets. Houston owns the Pelicans‘ first-rounder this year, which is likely to fall in the No. 14-18 range, Wolfson adds, which is where the team could target Jones.

Towns Headlines 7 Kentucky Players Off To Draft

April 9th, 2015 at 1:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

Forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns and six other Kentucky underclassmen are entering this year’s draft, as they formally announced today in a joint press conference. Towns, whom both Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress project as the No. 1 pick, joins center Willie Cauley-Stein, power forward Trey Lyles, shooting guard Devin Booker, center Dakari Johnson, combo guard Andrew Harrison and shooting guard Aaron Harrison in declaring for the draft. Point guard Tyler Ulis, Ford‘s 47th-ranked prospect and Givony‘s No. 88, is staying in school, as are power forward Marcus Lee and injured combo forward Alex Poythress, neither of whom was a top-60 prospect for this year’s draft.

Towns, a freshman, passed Duke center Jahlil Okafor in Ford and Givony’s rankings during the NCAA Tournament, though it still appears it’ll be a close call among the two for whichever NBA team wins the draft lottery. The 7-foot Towns averaged only 10.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in 21.1 minutes per game, but it was chiefly the profoundly deep Wildcats roster that kept his numbers down.

Cauley-Stein could easily have been a second-year NBA player by now had he come out as a freshman instead of as a junior as he’s doing now. Givony has him sixth and Ford seventh in their respective rankings after he put up 8.9 PPG and 6.4 RPG in 25.9 MPG, another example of a Wildcat’s stats as a poor reflection of his talent.

Lyles is No. 18 with Ford and No. 19 with Givony after a freshman season spent in and out of the starting lineup. He put up 8.7 PPG and 5.2 RPG in 23.0 MPG. For more on Booker, Johnson, and the Harrison twins, click on their names in this sentence to see earlier reports indicating that they would declare for the draft.

The seven will collectively attempt to set a record for the most players drafted from one school in a single year. The current mark is six, shared by Kentucky in 2012 and UNLV in 1977, though the draft was an eight-round affair when UNLV pulled off its feat. The swing player would appear to be Aaron Harrison, who isn’t within the top 60 prospects in Ford’s and Givony’s rankings. Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com nonetheless hears from many around the league who believe he’ll be drafted in the second round.

Draft Notes: Kentucky, Johnson, Jones

April 7th, 2015 at 2:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kentucky coach John Calipari acknowledged Monday that Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles, Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison are all likely to declare for the draft, as Kyle Tucker of The Courier-Journal relays. Devin Booker and Dakari Johnson are still weighing their options, according to Calipari, Tucker notes, adding that the coach expects that Tyler Ulis, Alex Poythress and Marcus Lee will decide to stay. Calipari later addressed the idea of his own departure for the NBA, downplaying the idea in a piece on his own website, wherein he said he doesn’t have a desire to prove himself in the NBA. A recent report indicated that Calipari “desperately” wants an NBA job, and he apparently still has supporters within the Nets organization. Here’s more on those potentially making the college-to-NBA leap:

Projected lottery pick Stanley Johnson is on the fence as he decides whether to enter the draft this year or return to Arizona for a sophomore year, sources tell Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com, with one source describing him as “really torn.” The small forward is the No. 9 prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and No. 11 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
NBA personnel who spoke with Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com are in wide agreement that Final Four Most Outstanding Player Tyus Jones would go in the final third of the first round this year if he entered the draft, as Goodman writes in an Insider-only piece. Those sources also tell Goodman that the freshman point guard’s stock is peaking and that he wouldn’t benefit from staying at Duke another year, and even Jones’ father is encouraging him to declare. The Pistons, Pelicans, Sixers and Magic are among the NBA teams focusing on the Minnesota native, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.
Brice Johnson is returning to North Carolina, multiple sources tell Evan Daniels of Scout.com. The junior power forward was No. 50 in Givony‘s rankings, while Ford had the power forward 82nd.

And-Ones: Kentucky, Ballmer, Clarkson, Burke

April 4th, 2015 at 11:09pm CST by Arthur Hill

There should be a mass exodus of Kentucky players to the NBA after Saturday’s loss in the NCAA semi-finals, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. He speculated that the list of departing Wildcats should “minimally” include Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles, Dakari Johnson and Devin Booker.

There’s more from around the basketball world:

Steve Ballmer’s bold $2 billion bid to purchase the Clippers last year was an “outlier,” writes Mike Ozanian of Forbes. Ozanian notes that Mikhail Prokhorov has been unsuccessful in his attempts to sell the Nets and the Barclays Center, while the highest current bid for the Hawks is $800MM.
The “Gilbert Arenas provision” applies to the Lakers‘ Jordan Clarkson after next season, note Eric Pincus and Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times, giving the Lakers an edge in keeping the young point guard long-term. Because Clarkson was a second-round pick, the provision limits the offers other franchises can make to four years and a projected $57MM. With a non-guaranteed contract for 2015/16 at the league minimum for a second-year player ($845,059), Clarkson is almost certain to return to the Lakers next year.
Jazz point guard Trey Burke is part of the reason the future is bright in Utah, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The second-year player out of Michigan has been a key part of the team’s second half surge, and he is looking forward to improving this summer. “I know that I have a high ceiling and have more potential to grow,” he said. “Like I said, this summer and this offseason will be very big for me. I look forward to coming back even stronger and even better next season. Being a young player, I know that these offseasons are really important in how much I’ll grow.” Burke is still on his rookie contract, which runs through 2016/17, and he’s under the team’s control through 2017/18.

And-Ones: Jianlian, McCullough, Draft

April 2nd, 2015 at 10:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Chris McCullough plans to enter this year’s draft despite tearing his ACL in January, but the player is confident he can sell NBA teams on his commitment to rehabilitating the injury, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes. “This is the kind of injury that players come back strong from all the time in basketball now, and the process has gone good so far,” McCullough told Wojnarowski. “I’m working hard at the rehab, trying to eat the right foods. I’ll be back on the court later this year.” In 16 games for Syracuse this season, McCullough averaged 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in 28.1 minutes per contest.

Here’s more from around the league:

Wizards guard Will Bynum thinks that 2007 Bucks lottery pick Yi Jianlian has improved his game and could play in the NBA once again, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post tweets. Bynum played with the big man in China this season. Jianlian’s last NBA action came during the 2011/12 season when he appeared in 30 games for the Mavs. His career stats are 7.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 22.2 minutes per night.
Kentucky could lose as many as seven players to the NBA draft this season, an NBA scout tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. “I think all seven leave,” the scout said to Zagoria. “If they win it all, there’s no doubt in my mind all seven of them leave. No doubt. The only ones who would stay [if they lose] would be a Trey Lyles, maybe a Devin Booker. The rest of them are all going, I don’t care if they win or lose. I think if they lose there’s maybe a moment [of pause] by Lyles or Booker. Those are the only two that I think may pause at all.” The other five players whom the scout believes will declare for the draft are Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, Andrew Harrison, and Aaron Harrison.
Knicks GM Steve Mills says that the franchise has already received calls from two opposing teams that are interested in obtaining New York’s first round draft pick, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets. The Ted Stepien Rule prevents the Knicks from trading this year’s pick, but New York could make the selection for another franchise and trade the player’s rights after the draft.
Team president Phil Jackson says the Knicks won’t solicit offers for their first-rounder, but admitted that they would “sit back and see what comes to them,” Begley adds in another tweet.

Mannix On Porzingis, Johnson, Wildcats

March 18th, 2015 at 8:04pm CST by Charlie Adams

Kristaps Porzingis is reportedly climbing up draft boards, but some scouts still aren’t convinced he’s the real deal, as Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated denotes in his March Madness Big Board. “Is he Dirk Nowitzki or Andrea Bargnani?” one scout asked rhetorically. Mannix passes along NBA scouts’ views on several first-round prospects, and we’ll round up the most notable takes below:

Arizona freshman Stanley Johnson’s frame and defensive instincts have led scouts to compare the 18-year-old forward to Metta World Peace, according to Mannix, who relays that teams will be watching Johnson very closely during the tournament. Johnson’s offensive abilities remain secondary to his defensive prowess, but he’s quietly averaged 14.1 points per night while shooting 36.6% from beyond the arc this year.
Several scouts told Mannix that while Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein lacks superstar potential, there isn’t a safer pick in this June’s draft. The 21-year-old seven-footer has averaged 3.7 blocks per 40 minutes throughout his college career.
Kentucky freshman Trey Lyles’ numbers haven’t been eye-popping this season, but that’s a result of a relative lack of playing time in the Wildcats’ time sharing system. Multiple executives tell Mannix that the 6’10” 19 year old could end up being seen as a steal one day if he falls to late in the first round.