- The Kings will be bringing in Duke big man Wendell Carter Jr. for a visit on Saturday, the team announced today. As Sean Cunningham of ABC10 notes (via Twitter), Carter won’t work out during that visit, since Sacramento already saw him work out in Los Angeles last month.
1:11pm: Porter’s representatives sent out a statement this afternoon to teams planning to attend his workout, Givony tweets. “Porter will be evaluated again tonight and if the doctor feels Michael is moving well enough to go through the medical evaluation tomorrow, then we are going to proceed with the evaluation at 3pm CST tomorrow,” it read.
Also from Porter’s camp: “After being shut down to do strengthening/core stabilization work for his first 4 weeks in Chicago, and then being ramped up as hard as he was the last 3 weeks, Michael developed some inflammation that wrapped around his nerve and caused massive spasms. After being shut down to do strengthening/core stabilization work for his first 4 weeks in Chicago, and then being ramped up as hard as he was the last 3 weeks, Michael developed some inflammation that wrapped around his nerve and caused massive spasms.” (Twitter links)
12:21pm: Porter underwent an MRI that showed no physical problem and he is feeling better, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. A decision is expected later today on whether his workout will be rescheduled.
JUNE 14, 10:40am: Michael Porter Jr. called off Friday’s scheduled pro day in Chicago after suffering a strained hip, reports Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Porter was experiencing muscle spasms yesterday and was unable to get out of bed.
The planned workout could be rescheduled, depending how Porter responds to treatment, but Givony notes that time is running short with just a week left before the draft. Several lottery teams that planned to attend the event were notified of the cancellation Wednesday afternoon. They were going to bring their own medical staffs to examine Porter, which is an unusual move for a pro day.
Porter has been zooming up draft boards lately and now appears likely to be taken in the top seven, according to Givony. The Kings, Grizzlies and Mavericks appear to be the most interested teams, and the Bulls appear ready to grab him at No. 7 if he falls that far.
Medical concerns have haunted Porter since the college season began in November. He injured his back in his first game with Missouri, prompting microdiscectomy surgery that sidelined him until the SEC tournament. He refused to undergo medical examinations at the draft combine, and his first pro day was delayed a week to give him more time to heal.
Porter stopped all basketball activity once the season ended, Givony adds, and concentrated on rehab. He lost strength due to the injury, especially in his left leg, and received medical clearance to play just two weeks before the first pro day on June 8. He reportedly felt just “50%” physically for that session, but impressed scouts with his shooting and overall performance.
The Bulls conducted a medical exam on Porter, with the results released to all 30 NBA teams. Givony relays that multiple team representatives have said there are no major causes for concern in the report.
“There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with him right now,” an unidentified executive said. “But a conservative doctor could still [be concerned about] what might happen down the road.”
Teams that had planned to attend Michael Porter Jr.‘s workout tomorrow are being told it will be held at another time, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. Porter’s representatives canceled the session late Wednesday night without providing an explanation.
The move has led to speculation that Porter’s surgically repaired back may be bothering him, but it’s also possible he has received a guarantee that would make a group workout unnecessary. Porter’s camp may be rethinking his status and devoting time just to teams at the top of the draft, according to Tom Ziller of SB Nation, who adds that they now believe he will be taken in the top four.
There’s “a very real chance” that the Kings will use their No. 2 pick on Porter, Amick adds, but it’s not certain at this point whether last night’s news will impact their decision. The organization may request more medical information and take another look at Porter in action before making a commitment.
There’s more draft-related news this morning:
- The Kings, who were among the teams slated to attend Friday’s workout, have been interested in Porter for weeks, according to James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area. They have also spent a lot of time looking at Luka Doncic, visiting him twice in the past three weeks, and Marvin Bagley III, who was in town Monday for a workout. Ham, who covers the Kings on a regular basis, moved Porter up to second in his most recent mock draft.
- The Hawks, who hold the No. 3 pick, will host Bagley and Texas center Mo Bamba for separate individual workouts today, the team announced in an email.
- The Spurs are hoping to schedule a second workout for Villanova’s Omari Spellman, reports Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio views Spellman, who shot 43% from 3-point range in college, as a potential stretch four.
- The Sixers plan to bring in Kentucky’s Kevin Knox for a pre-draft workout, possibly by Friday, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
- Oklahoma State’s Jeff Carroll worked out Monday for the Knicks and has sessions scheduled with the Pistons, Wizards and Bucks, relays Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog (Twitter link).
- The Wizards will welcome six players for a workout today, tweets ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. On the schedule are Ohio State’s Keita Bates-Diop, Seton Hall’s Khadeen Carrington, Wake Forest’s Bryant Crawford, UNLV’s Brandon McCoy, Wake Forest’s Doral Moore and Murray State’s Jonathan Stark.
- The Raptors will host Rhode Island’s Jared Terrell, New Mexico State’s Zach Lofton, North Carolina’s Theo Pinson, Seton Hall’s Desi Rodriguez, Wyoming’s Hayden Dalton and Kentucky’s Wenyen Gabriel today, the team tweeted.
The Kings and Mavericks are open to the possibility of moving down in the draft, multiple NBA front-office executives tell Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. Sacramento holds the No. 2 pick, while Dallas owns the No. 5 overall selection.
As O’Connor observes, the Kings are in the “asset-stacking business,” so if they can still nab a player they like with a later pick and acquire an extra asset or two in the process, that could appeal to them. Sacramento has shown a willingness to move down in each of the last two drafts, trading the No. 8 pick in 2016 and the No. 10 pick in 2017. The Kings have also reportedly shown “significant interest” in Michael Porter Jr. over the past year, and Porter isn’t expected to go as high as No. 2.
As for the Mavericks, they’ll be trying to compete for the playoffs next season, according to O’Connor. I get the sense that Dallas would be happy to keep that No. 5 pick to pair Dennis Smith Jr. with another potential franchise cornerstone, and GM Donnie Nelson has suggested as much. However, it sounds like the Mavs wouldn’t rule out trading down if the right offer came along.
We’ve now heard rumors that all five teams picking in the top five might be open to moving down. A May report indicated that the Grizzlies would listen to offers for the No. 4 pick, and the general managers in Phoenix and Atlanta have both left the door open to potential deals for No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.
As ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz wrote today, while Deandre Ayton is the strong frontrunner to be picked first overall, there are several prospects at the top of this year’s draft class that certain teams are very high on. Givony notes that some clubs love Luka Doncic, for instance, while others only have him sixth and seventh on their boards. “You hear similar things about [Mohamed] Bamba, [Jaren] Jackson, [Marvin] Bagley, Porter and even Ayton at times,” Givony writes.
[RELATED: Teams angling to move up, grab Jaren Jackson]
In other words, the possibility that a team picking in the top five might view a top prospect much differently than a team outside the top five could create some interesting trade opportunities next week.
Numerous teams outside the top four in the lottery are trying to move up in order to draft Michigan State freshman forward Jaren Jackson Jr., Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Jackson was extremely impressive in a workout on Sunday for the Suns, who own the top pick, Wojnarowski continues. The teams in the next three slots — the Kings, Hawks and Grizzlies — could receive some increasingly attractive offers due to Jackson’s rising stock, Wojnarowski adds.
Jackson has the size, length, shot-blocking ability and shooting range to be a force at both ends of the floor. He averaged 10.9 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 3.0 BPG in his lone college season with the Spartans. The 6’11” Jackson also made 39.6% of his 3-point attempts.
Jackson is currently ranked No. 4 by ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony.
Michael Porter Jr. was impressive at Friday’s pro day in Chicago, tweets Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Although there’s no question about his talent, several teams are concerned about Porter’s physical condition in the wake of back surgery that cost him nearly his entire freshman season at Missouri. Porter’s representatives will decide over the next few days which teams they plan to hold meetings with and who will receive his medical records.
Kyler adds that most scouts view Porter as a top three to five talent in the draft (Twitter link), but the back problems may scare some teams away. Even so, Kyler speculates that he won’t fall lower than the Bulls at No. 7 (Twitter link).
There’s more news as the draft draws closer:
- The Knicks are among several lottery teams that will travel to Chicago next week to meet with Porter, a league source tells Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog (Twitter link).
- The Suns are trying to arrange a workout with Oklahoma’s Trae Young, tweets Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report. Team officials are expected to meet with Young before the draft, but scheduling conflicts may prevent the Suns from working him out. Because Phoenix holds the No. 1 pick and Young is unlikely to be taken that high, Wasserman cites the report as evidence that the team is trying to acquire a second top 10 selection.
- Anfernee Simons, who worked out today for the Magic, has been among the most active pre-draft prospects, tweets Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Simons has already been to sessions with the Bulls, Suns, Trail Blazers, Lakers and Jazz and has upcoming workouts scheduled with the Knicks, Cavaliers, Grizzlies and Bucks.
- The Cavaliers brought in Alabama’s Collin Sexton for a workout today, tweets ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
- The Nuggets have six players scheduled for a session on Monday, according to a story on the team’s website. Expected to attend are Idaho’s Brayon Blake, Georgetown’s Marcus Derrickson, UNLV’s Brandon McCoy, USC’s Jordan McLaughlin, Wake Forest’s Doral Moore and Northern Colorado’s Andre Spight.
- Seton Hall’s Desi Rodriguez will work out tomorrow for the Spurs, Zagoria writes. The Mavericks will see him Tuesday, followed by the Raptors, then then Lakers on June 20. Rodriguez has also worked out for the Knicks, Nets, Suns, Thunder, Celtics, Bucks and Kings.
- The Nets have already held sessions with about 60 players, roughly the same amount the team saw through the entire pre-draft process last year, according to a story on NetsDaily.
Kings guard Iman Shumpert has opted in for the final year of his contract, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets.
Shumpert will make just over $11MM next season. He had until June 14 to make a decision on his player option.
Shumpert’s decision to take the guaranteed money comes as no surprise after his injury-plagued 2017/18 season. He only appeared in 14 games, all with the Cavaliers, before he was dealt at the trade deadline to Sacramento. He was part of a multi-player, three-team deal that also involved the Jazz.
Shumpert was sidelined by knee and foot injuries and the Kings weren’t in any rush to have him play this past season, as they were evaluating younger players during the second half of the campaign.
Shumpert appeared in 76 regular-season games with Cleveland, including 31 starts, in 2016/17. He averaged 7.5 PPG, 2.9 RPG and 1.4 APG that season. He also appeared in 58 playoff games with the Cavaliers over a three-year span. Shumpert turns 28 later this month.
The decision won’t have a major effect on the Kings’ offseason plans as they remain well under the cap.
3:36pm: Bagley’s workout with the Kings will take place on Monday, the team announced today in a press release.
2:27pm: Top prospect Marvin Bagley III had his first pre-draft workout on Friday, visiting the Suns. Following his audition for the team holding the first overall pick, the Duke big man will work out for the clubs holding the second and third selections, he said today. As Scott Bordow of The Arizona Republic tweets, Bagley confirmed he’ll visit the Kings and Hawks.
Speaking to reporters today following his session with the Suns, Bagley said it would be a “dream come true” to be selected first overall by Phoenix (Twitter link via Bordow). Although Arizona’s Deandre Ayton is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the No. 1 pick, Bagley insists he’s deserving of that spot and considers it disrespectful that Ayton is considered a lock to be drafted first (Twitter links).
Bagley is more likely to slip to at least second or third overall, but perhaps no further than that. As such, his workouts with Sacramento (No. 2) and Atlanta (No. 3) will be worth watching closely. Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported that the Hawks would be bringing in Bagley next week for a closer look.
Long considered one of the standouts in the 2018 draft class, Bagley had an excellent freshman season at Duke in 2017/18, averaging a double-double for the Blue Devils. In 33 games, the 6’11” forward/center posted an impressive 21.1 PPG and 11.1 RPG to go along with a .614/.397/.627 shooting line.
While there’s some uncertainty about whether Bagley will be a four or a five at the NBA level, he views his positional ambiguity as a positive, telling reporters today that classifying him as one or the other “is limiting what I can do” (Twitter link via Bordow). For what it’s worth, Suns GM Ryan McDonough believes Bagley is a power forward for now, with the ability to develop into a stretch five (Twitter link).
- After auditioning for Charlotte, Purdue guard Dakota Mathias also has workouts on tap with the Lakers, Pistons, and Kings, a league source tells Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com (Twitter link). Mathias, who averaged 12.0 PPG with a .466 3PT% in his senior year, previously worked out for Toronto.
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and general manager Vlade Divac are both in Madrid, Spain, to watch Luka Doncic in the ACB Playoffs, tweets basketball journalist David Pick. Doncic, widely expected to be a top-three selection in the draft, has already secured numerous accolades, including the EuroLeague MVP, Rising Star, and Final Four MVP.
While there has been talk of Doncic going No. 1 overall to the Suns, it’s more likely he ends up with either the Kings or Hawks, who own the second and third picks, respectively. Doncic has said that it’s not certain that he will come stateside next season despite the expectation that he will be a top draftee. Just recently, a report suggested that both the Hawks and Kings may pass on Doncic and instead focus on frontcourt players.
“[The Kings] have a real hole there in the frontcourt. I don’t think that they’re in love with Willie Cauley-Stein by any means. They started Zach Randolph at the four all year long,” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony said. “What do they do there? Do they go with Marvin Bagley who is going to be a compelling prospect for them?
Check out more draft news below:
- Michigan State’s Miles Bridges is set to work out for the Knicks this Saturday, reports ESPN’s Ian Begley. The Knicks own the ninth overall pick and Bridges, along with Villanova’s Mikal Bridges have been reported as possible targets for New York.
- UCLA’s Aaron Holiday had his second workout with the Suns on Thursday, the team announced. Five other prospects were part of the workout, with Troy Brown (Oregon), Jalen Brunson (Villanova), Marcus Derrickson (Georgetown), Amine Noua (France), and Desi Rodriguez (Seton Hall) also participating.
- Seton Hall’s Desi Rodriguez also worked out for the Thunder on Wednesday, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.
- Kentucky’s Hamidou Diallo has scheduled workouts with the Lakers and Mavericks, Sean Deveney of Sporting News tweets. Diallo will have also worked out for the Bulls, Wizards, Suns, Blazers, Kings, Nets, Knicks, and Bucks.