- Lindsey Harding, recently hired as an assistant coach for the Kings under head coach Luke Walton, says that fear of the unknown is more of a factor than a lack of respect for women coaches when it comes to the absence of a female head coach in the NBA today (per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN).
Zion Williamson, one of the top free agents on the shoe endorsement market, has reached a deal with Jordan Brand, he announced today on Instagram. Although terms of the multi-year arrangement were not released, Williamson received offers in excess of $10MM a year from some of Jordan’s competitors, relays Nick DePaula of ESPN.
“I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of the Jordan Brand family,” Williamson said. “Since I was a kid, I dreamed of making it to the league and having the type of impact on the game Michael Jordan had and continues to have today. He was one of those special athletes I looked up to, and I really can’t express how happy and excited I am for this journey.”
The company held an all-employees meeting this morning where the news was disclosed. Digital billboards featuring Williamson are scheduled to be unveiled soon.
There’s more NBA-related news to pass along:
- FIBA’s decision to move the World Cup to the summer before the Olympics may be responsible for so many stars deciding to skip the event, tweets Michael Lee of The Athletic. He notes that it’s difficult to find elite players who are willing to commit two straight offseasons to international competition. Many of the players who withdrew are sincere about their desire to prepare for the upcoming season, observes Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). With no obvious favorite for the 2019/20 title, many stars are seeking any advantage they can get. Damian Lillard and DeMar DeRozan are the latest players to pull their names out of consideration for Team USA.
- A summer filled with blockbuster trades and unprecedented free agent movement presents unique challenges for schedule makers, writes Jacob Feldman of Sports Illustrated. The scheduling process usually starts in mid-June, but the league came to an agreement with ESPN and TNT to push it back because of the expected flurry of transactions. The schedule release is still anticipated for its normal time of early to mid-August.
- Kings second-round pick Vanja Marinkovic will leave his Partizan Belgrade team to sign with Valencia in Spain, tweets international basketball consultant Vedran Modric. It will be a two-year deal with an option for a third season, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (Twitter link).
- Center Matt Costello, who played briefly for the Spurs during the 2017/18 season, has reached a deal with Spanish club Herbalife Gran Canaria, according to Nicola Lupo of Sportando.
- Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee ponders whether analysts are overlooking the Kings entering next season. Sacramento sports a young nucleus of De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Marvin Bagley and other talented players with eyes set on making the playoffs next spring.
A rules change in the BIG3 League has allowed Perry Jones to use that venue to pursue another shot at the NBA, writes Erik Horne of The Oklahoman. The 28th player picked in the 2012 draft, Jones spent three years with the Thunder before being traded to Boston in the summer of 2015. He never played for the Celtics before being waived that fall, then failed to make the Pelicans‘ roster after joining them for training camp in 2017.
Now 27, Jones took advantage of the new lower age limit in the BIG3, which dropped from 30 to 27 this year. He’s playing for the expansion Enemies, averaging 7.7 points per game, and hasn’t lost the confidence that he can succeed in the NBA.
“No disrespect to the Thunder, but I went to a team that didn’t have a need (for a player like me),” Jones said. “They had three superstars. They had everything set in stone that they needed. It’s just how the business goes. I think if I went somewhere else and had the opportunity to play in actual games, I think my career would have turned out differently for sure.”
There’s more NBA-related news to pass along:
- Vanja Marinkovic, selected by the Kings with the final pick in this year’s draft, has until July 30 to decide where he will play this season, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (Twitter link). That’s when the buy-out clause expires on the final year of his contract with Partizan Belgrade in Serbia. It’s unlikely that he’ll come to the NBA, but Spain’s Unicaja Malaga and Valencia Basket have both expressed interest, Carchia states.
- Coming off a strong performance with the Bucks‘ summer league team, Elijah Bryant is deciding among several NBA offers, tweets Tony Jones of The Athletic. The former BYU guard had a break-out performance July 8 with 31 points and seven rebounds against Minnesota.
- Boxer Manny Pacquiao tells TMZ Sports he wants to fight for five more years and then purchase part of an NBA team. He already owns the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, a semi-pro outfit in the Philippines, and regularly uses basketball as part of his training. Pacquiao has an estimated net worth around $200MM.
The Kings have waived swingman B.J. Johnson, according to a team press release.
Johnson had a non-guaranteed salary of $1,416,852 for 2019/20.
Johnson played on the Kings’ summer league team, averaging 7.3 PPG in 16.9 MPG. The 6’7” Johnson, who went undrafted out of La Salle, appeared in seven NBA games with Atlanta and Sacramento last season, averaging 3.3 PPG in 7.0 MPG. Johnson played with the Hawks on a pair of 10-day contracts before the Kings added him late in the season.
He spent most of his first professional season playing for the Lakeland Magic in the G League. He averaged 15.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 1.4 SPG with a shooting line of .476/.444/.841 in 39 NBAGL games.
Sacramento now has 13 players with guaranteed contracts and two with non- or partially-guaranteed deals, along with a pair of two-way players. The Kings reached an agreement with former University of San Diego forward Isaiah Pineiro earlier in the day.
3:34pm: The Kings have officially confirmed the hiring of Harding. In the same press release, the team also announces that it has hired veteran coach and former NBA player Stacey Augmon as an assistant.
Rico Hines, who had been the head coach of the Stockton Kings – Sacramento’s G League affiliate – was named a player development coach.
3:21pm: The Kings are hiring former WNBA star Lindsey Harding as an assistant coach on Luke Walton‘s staff, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPN (Twitter link).
“Lindsey is a rising star and I’m so excited to have her join our incredibly experienced team of coaches,” Walton said in a statement, per Shelburne (Twitter link). “Her basketball IQ and proven success on the court will be a valuable addition to our growing team.“
The Sixers added Harding to their scouting department last August, hiring her as a full-time scout for the 2018/19 season. At the end of the season, Philadelphia adjusted her role, announcing that she’d be a player development coach going forward.
Instead, the former Duke Blue Devil will head to Sacramento, where she’ll get an opportunity to become the latest addition to a growing group of female assistants around the NBA. As Shelburne notes (via Twitter), Kara Lawson (Celtics), Becky Hammon (Spurs), Jenny Boucek (Mavericks), and Lindsay Gottlieb (Cavaliers) are among the other women who will be on teams’ benches in 2019/20.
The 76ers and Harding are parting ways “on great terms,” says Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link).
- Dewayne Dedmon‘s ability to shoot three-pointers and run the floor could help maximize the Kings‘ run-and-gun offense in 2019/20, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. For his part, Dedmon is looking forward to fitting into Sacramento’s system. “I had my free agency meeting with my agent and he broke everything down, talked about the teams and whatever, and Sac came with the best offer,” Dedmon said. “Best fit, best offer, everything was good, and it’s somewhere I can call home for the next three years, hopefully.”
- Tyler Lydon‘s new two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Kings is only partially guaranteed for $50K in year one, tweets Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights. Given how little salary protection he has, the former first-round pick isn’t necessarily a lock to earn a regular season roster spot for Sacramento in 2019/10.
JULY 17: The Kings have officially signed Lydon, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 14: The Kings have agreed to a two-year deal with free agent forward Tyler Lydon, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojarowski (Twitter link).
The agreement is for the league minimum and also contains a partial guarantee, Sean Cunningham of ABC10 Sacramento tweets.
Lydon appeared in 25 games with the Nuggets last season, seeing an average of 3.8 minutes per contest. He was traded to Denver shortly after being selected No. 24 overall in the 2017 draft by Utah, spending part of his professional career in the NBA G League.
“I feel like I’m good enough to play in this league, and I’ll believe that ‘til the day I die,” Lydon said last week before agreeing to his deal, according to Stephen Haynes of the Poughkeepsie Journal. “It’s like, ‘Give me one chance to prove that I belong.’”
Lydon started his career with a deep Denver team that was unable to give him a clear role. His season was cut short after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus, with the 23-year-old working extensively to improve his strength and shooting skills since then.
Sacramento now has 18 players on its active roster, including two-way players Kyle Guy and Wenyen Gabriel.
JULY 17: The Nets have officially signed Nwaba, the team confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 14: David Nwaba has agreed to a two-year contract with the Nets, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The deal includes a team option for the second season, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic, who adds that the Pacers, Kings, Rockets and Suns all had interest in Nwaba (Twitter link).
It’ll be a minimum-salary deal for Nwaba, who will make approximately $1.7MM for the upcoming season and $1.8MM in 2020/21 with a July 7 deadline for the option decision, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Nets now have 15 players with guaranteed contracts.
Brooklyn will be the fourth stop in four years for the 26-year-old shooting guard, who spent his first three seasons with the Lakers, Bulls and Cavaliers. He appeared in 51 games for Cleveland this year, averaging 6.5 points in about 19 minutes per night.
The Cavs opted last month not to tender a $1.9MM qualifying offer to Nwaba, making him an unrestricted free agent. Even so, Cleveland had expressed some interest in bringing him back.
The addition of Nwaba continues an impressive summer for Brooklyn, which hit the free agent jackpot by signing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.
JULY 16: The Kings have officially signed Holmes, the club announced today in a press release.
JULY 1: The Kings and big man Richaun Holmes have reached an agreement on a two-year deal worth $10MM, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Based on the reported terms of Holmes’ new deal and the other agreements the Kings have finalized during free agency, it appears likely that he’ll receive the team’s $4.8MM room exception.
Holmes, 25, spent his first three NBA seasons in Philadelphia before being sent from the Sixers to Suns a year ago. He averaged 8.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 1.1 BPG in 70 games (16.9 MPG) as a regular part of Phoenix’s frontcourt rotation.
The Kings have now reached agreements with four outside veteran free agents in addition to bringing back their own free agent forward Harrison Barnes on a four-year deal.
As our free agent tracker shows, Cory Joseph, Trevor Ariza, and Dewayne Dedmon will also be joining the club once they can officially sign contracts this weekend.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.