And-Ones: Knicks, Blatt, Vonleh, Wiggins

The latest from around the league as the Spurs hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy..

  • Heat guard Ray Allen told reporters he will see where his “true heart lies” in a couple of days in terms of playing or retiring, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo.
  • Phil Jackson will look to re-tool the Knicks‘ roster this summer, but new coach Derek Fisher told ESPN 98.7 that he believes the team can improve by 8-10 wins as currently constructed, writes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.  “In my opinion, I believe that success and failure are not as far apart as people think. It’s pretty close. And when you think about [the Knicks] winning 37 games a year ago, there are a number of things that you can isolate with the same exact roster that can provide 8-10 more wins without a change of any kind,” Fisher said last week.
  • Last week we learned that David Blatt will interview with the Cavs and today, we learned the date. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports hears that the former Maccabi Tel Aviv coach will meet with Cleveland on Wednesday.
  • Indiana big man Noah Vonleh will work out for the Jazz tomorrow, tweets Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune.  Utah owns the No. 5 pick and DraftExpress has them pegged to draft the soon-to-be 19-year-old.
  • Executives see the Magic as the team most likely to shake up the draft, tweets Chris Mannix of NBC Sports.  The question now is whether they like Marcus SmartDante Exum, Vonleh, or someone else in the draft.
  • The Sixers are slated to work out Andrew Wiggins on Tuesday in Philadelphia, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).  Philly, of course, owns the No. 3 pick.
  • No surprise here, but Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkic will keep his name in the draft, tweets Chad Ford of ESPN.com.  Nurkic is projected to go somewhere between 12 and 21 in Ford’s view.
  • The Celtics are eyeing guard prospects such as Xavier Thames, Semaj Christon, and Russ Smith, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.  Last week, Austin Ainge told Washburn that the C’s are looking into trading back into the second round and Boston might do that with one of those three in mind.
  • Aaron Gordon is a lock for the lottery thanks to his athleticism and defense, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.  The 6’9″ forward out of Arizona is more athletic than Julius Randle and Noah Vonleh and is also a better defender.
View Comments (1)