Tyrone Wallace

Western Notes: Nowitzki, Ingram, Jazz

Dirk Nowitzki still hasn’t made up his mind on whether he is going to opt out of his deal with the Mavericks, but he is leaning toward it and he addressed the topic on KRLD-FM 105.3 The Fan (h/t to the Dallas Morning News for the transcript). “Is [opting out] best for the franchise? Just trying to find out from Donnie [Nelson] and Mark [Cuban] what’s out there, what the plan is,” Nowitzki said. “So, 100 percent, my mind’s not made up, but I’m leaning toward opting out and trying to help, and see what’s out there.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Pacific Notes: Kings, Collison, Suns, Clippers

We heard last week that new Kings head coach Dave Joerger was targeting Bryan Gates as a potential assistant. Now, James Ham of CSN California hears from a source that Gates – a former Sacramento assistant who worked for Minnesota last year and the Pelicans before that – is indeed to set to come aboard Joerger’s staff. Last week’s report indicated that Joerger and the Kings were also pursuing Elston Turner, but there are no official updates yet on that front.

Here’s more from around the Pacific, including a couple more items out of Sacramento:

  • Kings point guard Darren Collison was arrested on a domestic violence charge earlier this week, but his lawyer, Bill Portanova, called it a “misunderstanding” that he’s “working to straighten out,” writes Andy Furillo of The Sacramento Bee. As Furillo observes, it makes sense to wait to see how the case plays out before predicting what it might mean for Collison or the Kings.
  • Emmanuel Malou, who was set to transfer to Iowa State before deciding to remain in the 2016 draft, recently worked out for the Kings, per The Sacramento Bee.
  • The Suns worked out a six-player group of prospects today that included Ryan Anderson (Arizona), Zach Auguste (Notre Dame), Ron Curry (James Madison), Cheick Diallo (Kansas), Lester Medford (Baylor), and Codi Miller-McIntyre (Wake Forest). Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer tweets that Diamond Stone (Maryland) is also heading to Phoenix for his next workout, while Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic tweets that Gonzaga’s Domantas Sabonis has a solo workout with the team today.
  • The Clippers‘ pre-draft workout group on Wednesday featured Daniel Hamilton (UConn), DeAndre’ Bembry (St. Joseph’s), Guerschon Yabusele (France), Cat Barber (N.C. State), Tyrone Wallace (California), and Zach Auguste (Notre Dame), according to the team.
  • In other Los Angeles workout news, Alex Poythress (Kentucky) has workouts lined up with both the Lakers and Clippers (Twitter link via Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com), Rosco Allen (Stanford) is set to work out for the Lakers tomorrow (Twitter link via Camerato), and Czech power forward Adam Pechacek will also participate in that Lakers workout on Friday (Twitter link via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). Finally, veteran D-League forward Joel Wright is attending a Clippers mini-camp, a league source tells Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link).

Western Rumors: DeRozan, Workouts, Nuggets

The Lakers are not that interested in Raptors free agent shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding told SiriusXM’s Noah Coslov in a radio interview. That comes as a surprise, as the Lakers were expected to make a strong push for DeRozan when he hit the open market. DeRozan indicated during his postseason press conference that he had every intention of staying with the Raptors.
In other news around the Western Conference:
  • The Jazz will work out six draft prospects on Tuesday, according to the team’s Twitter feed. That group includes forwards Zach Auguste (Notre Dame), Shavon Shields (Nebraska), Abdel Nader (Iowa State) and Anthony Gill (Virginia) and guards Andrew Andrews and Alex Caruso. Auguste is the only player considered a Top 100 prospects by both ESPN Insider Chad Ford (No. 86) and DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony (No. 80).
  • The Suns had two sets of workouts on Monday, with some big names coming in for evaluations, according to their official Twitter feed (Twitter links). The first set of workouts included guards Tyler Ulis (Kentucky), Gabe York (Arizona), Anthony Barber (North Carolina State) and Isaia Cordinier and forwards Robert Carter (Maryland) and Alex Poythress (Kentucky). The second group included forwards Perry Ellis (Kansas), Troy Williams (Indiana) and Thon Maker, center Damian Jones (Vanderbilt) and guards Michael Gbinije (Syracuse) and Tyrone Wallace (California). Ulis (No. 18 on Ford’s list, No. 19 on Givony’s list) and Jones (No. 23, No. 22) are the highest-ranked players among those groups.
  • The Nuggets will have difficulty freeing up enough salary-cap space to sign a star player this summer and will thus likely have to pursue a trade to make a significant upgrade, as Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post details in an examination of the team’s financial situation. It’s unrealistic for the team to max out a player in free agency, address other needs and sign draft picks, Dempsey adds.

Draft Workouts: Nuggets, Suns, Clippers, Jazz

The Nuggets are well-armed heading into this year’s draft, holding three picks in the top 20 and another two in the second round. With so many selections under team control, Denver figures to take a closer look at a wide variety of prospects in the next few weeks. The team announced today in a press release that they’re bringing in the following six players for a Wednesday workout: Vanderbilt guard Wade Baldwin, Providence forward Ben Bentil, Virginia forward Anthony Gill, UNLV forward Derrick Jones, Colorado-Mesa center Ryan Stephan, and California guard Tyrone Wallace.

Denver is hardly the only NBA team with a full workout schedule, so let’s round up several more updates…

  • The Suns are conducting workouts with six forward prospects on Tuesday, and announced the full list of participants, via Twitter. Jaron Blossomgame (Clemson), Shaq Goodwin (Memphis), Jake Layman (Maryland), Taurean Prince (Baylor), Pascal Siakam (New Mexico State), and Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa) are working out for Phoenix.
  • In addition to A.J. English, whose scheduled workout was previously reported, the Clippers will take a closer look at Gary Payton II, Malcolm Brogdon, Danuel House, Marshall Plumlee, and Josh Scott on Wednesday, tweets Dan Woike of The Orange County Register.
  • The Jazz will also hold a six-player workout on Wednesday, with four guards and two big men taking part. According to the team (via Twitter), Georgia Tech’s Marcus Georges-Hunt, Gonzaga’s Eric McClellan, Notre Dame’s Demetrius Jackson, UNC’s Marcus Paige, Virginia’s Mike Tobey, and Australian Thon Maker will be in attendance for that workout.
  • Former St. Joe’s wing DeAndre’ Bembry was among the players to work out for the Hawks on Tuesday, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
  • Alex Kirshner of Testudo Times adds the Nets and Mavericks to the list of teams that have recently worked out Maryland junior power forward Robert Carter.
  • The Celtics will work out Weber State’s Joel Bolomboy a week from Wednesday, sources tell A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (via Twitter).

Central Notes: Pacers, Cavs, Workouts, Pistons

The Pacers, who typically employ three assistant coaches, will have at least one hole to fill in that group after Nate McMillan‘s promotion to head coach. However, as Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star writes (via Twitter), the team would like to retain its other two assistants, Dan Burke and Popeye Jones. That would leave one opening, and McMillan would have the opportunity to pick his replacement, per Buckner.

Here’s more on Indiana and a few more Central teams:

  • The Pacers held their first pre-draft workout on Tuesday, and will hold another session on Wednesday, according to a pair of announcements from the team. Participants today that had not been previously reported included Dorian Finney-Smith, Michael Gbinije, Sheldon McClellan, and Tyrone Wallace. Tomorrow, Ryan Arcidiacono, Wade Baldwin, Matt Costello, Max Landis, Patrick McCaw, and Kaleb Tarczewski will work out for Indiana.
  • Before he works out for Indiana on Wednesday, Tarczewski participated in a workout for the Cavaliers today, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops. Cleveland also took a look at Maryland’s Rasheed Sulaimon in that workout, says Scotto.
  • Thon Maker had been scheduled to take part in Indiana’s workout on Wednesday, but he won’t participate due to a scheduling issue, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Zagoria suggests that Maker will still work out for the Pacers and Bulls at some point.
  • Given how defined their roster already is, the Pistons could have the opportunity to gamble on upside with the 18th overall pick in the draft, rather than seeking instant help, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.

Tyrone Wallace Decides Against Draft

3:09pm: Wallace has formally announced his decision to pass up the draft, as the school tweets (hat tip to Rothstein).

2:53pm: Second-round prospect Tyrone Wallace will return to Cal rather than enter this year’s draft, sources told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). There’s a wide disparity on just what sort of NBA player Wallace projects to become, as the junior combo guard is 34th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect rankings and No. 63 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.

The 6’5″ Wallace was fourth in the Pac-12 in points per game this season at 17.1, but he led the conference in total turnovers with 94, a figure that worked out to 3.3 a game. Wallace endured a heavy workload that saw him take 14.8 shots and dish out 4.0 assists in 34.9 minutes per contest. He excels on defense, as Ford writes in his scouting report, pointing to inconsistency as his primary flaw. Wallace isn’t a strong outside shooter, making only 31.8% of his three-point attempts this season and 29.1% for his college career.

The 20-year-old, who turns 21 in June, showed steady improvement during his time at Cal, and he improved his stock after he was only 94th in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index coming out of high school. Givony’s ranking suggests the first round isn’t out of reach in 2016, and he’ll be relatively young for a senior, turning 22 only weeks before next year’s draft.