Jarnell Stokes Declares For Draft
FRIDAY, 12:27pm: Stokes confirmed his decision in a press conference today, as the school’s website details.
THURSDAY, 9:19pm: Tennessee power forward Jarnell Stokes is planning to announce his decision to declare for the 2014 NBA Draft during a press conference on Friday, reports Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com. According to Parrish, Stokes is expected to be taken in the late first or early second round. ESPN Insider Chad Ford has the 6’8 Stokes ranked No. 31 on his list of top 100 prospects for 2014, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has Stokes at No. 65.
The Memphis native has played a total of three seasons for the Volunteers, increasing his scoring average by roughly three points per game since his freshman season. As a junior, he posted averages of 15.1 PPG, 10.6 RPG, 53.1% shooting from the field, and a 69.6% clip from the charity stripe on 6.2 FTA per contest.
Stokes strung together a few dominating performances during the NCAA tournament this year, helping Tennessee reach the Sweet 16 with averages of 18.0 PPG and 12.7 RPG through four games. Ford shows some concern about Stokes being a bit undersized for the pro game, but lists his strength and rebounding skills as major positives to look out for.
Western Rumors: Bazemore, Camby, Rockets
The loss the Warriors suffered to the Nuggets on Thursday puts them just two games up on the ninth-place Grizzlies, and the Jazz, who own Golden State’s first-round pick, will surely be rooting for the Warriors to lose in the season’s final days. Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Kent Bazemore is set to become a restricted free agent at season’s end, and while his value appears to have surged since he joined the Lakers at the trade deadline, he’s not simply looking to cash in, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News observes. “I’m all about the basketball aspect of things. I don’t want much. I’m not a guy who’s going to chase money on a bad team. I want to win,” Bazemore said. “This is the Los Angeles Lakers. I don’t see many people turning down an opportunity to be here.”
- The Rockets gauged Marcus Camby‘s interest in rejoining the team several weeks ago, only to learn that he would be unavailable to return to the NBA this year as he tries to come back from a left foot injury, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
- Rockets GM Daryl Morey confirmed that the conclusion that Greg Smith will miss the rest of the season led the team to waive him and sign Dexter Pittman, as Feigen passes along in the same piece.
- The Rudy Gay trade muted the effect of Sacramento’s acquisition of Derrick Williams, who’s seen his playing time continue to decline of late, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Kings coach Michael Malone wants to give Williams more minutes, but his lack of consistency dissuades him from doing so, Jones writes.
Joonas Caven To Declare For Draft
Finnish power forward Joonas Caven will enter this year’s draft, agent K.C. Callero tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). The 6’11” 21-year-old shoots well, though neither Givony nor Chad Ford of ESPN.com have him among their top 100 prospects for this year’s draft. Givony ranks Caven the fifth-best prospect among those born in 1993.
Caven plays for FIATC Mutua Joventut, a team in Spain’s top-flight league. He joined the team midseason after having played for CB Prat Juventud, a Spanish minor league team. Caven has averaged just 2.0 points in 5.4 minutes per contest for his current team, nailing 36.4% of his 1.8 three-point attempts in a small six-game sample size.
International early entrants can withdraw any time before the June 16th deadline, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Caven pull out. He’ll be automatically draft-eligible next year, but declaring this year gives him a chance to go through predraft workouts an extra time, if nothing else.
Fred Hoiberg Unlikely To Coach Wolves
The Wolves reportedly plan a strong push to make top NBA coaching prospect Fred Hoiberg their next head coach, but he’s always been unlikely to join the team in that capacity, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. There are reportedly many close to the Wolves who feel as though Rick Adelman will step down after the season, and Wolfson believes it’s likely that happens early in the two-week window that both Adelman and the team have to exercise their mutual option for 2014/15 (Twitter link).
Hoiberg has won plaudits from NBA circles for his work at Iowa State, where he became coach nearly four years ago after serving as an executive for the Wolves, one of three NBA teams for which he played during his 10-year career. He and Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders have a close relationship, and owner Glen Taylor is an admirer, too. Saunders and Taylor feel the same way about Tom Izzo, but he seems a longshot to leave Michigan State.
The 41-year-old Hoiberg last year received a 10-year, $20MM deal to remain at Iowa State, though he’d only need to give the school $500K to buy his way out of the deal and take an NBA job. It sounds like it’ll take a long-term commitment from an NBA team to pry him from the Cyclones, but executives around the league are enamored with him.
Pelicans Sign James Southerland
FRIDAY, 10:10am: New Orleans has formally announced the signing on the team’s website. The Pelicans haven’t announced a corresponding move, so the team has indeed taken advantage of the league’s permission to expand its roster to 16 players.
THURSDAY, 3:10pm: The Pelicans have received clearance from the league to add Southerland without waiving a player, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. The NBA lets teams carry 16 players on a temporary basis if they have four or more players who have missed the past three games and who will continue to be unavailable to play. The Wolves received the same allowance last season. Southerland’s deal won’t carry into 2014/15, Charania adds.
2:00pm: The Pelicans will sign James Southerland, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). Southerland has been playing for the D-League affiliate of the Lakers. New Orleans has a full 15-man roster, so the team will have to waive someone to accommodate Southerland, who was with the Bobcats at the beginning of the season.
The 6’8″ small forward appeared in just one game for three minutes for the Bobcats, who waived him in December after carrying him through preseason and the first six weeks of the regular season. Charlotte let him go largely to clear room for Chris Douglas-Roberts, who could more readily step in for an injured Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and coach Steve Clifford spoke highly of Southerland, who once more drew NBA interest in early January.
Southerland went undrafted out of Syracuse this past summer, and he’s averaged 14.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per game in the D-League. The Pelicans announced today that Anthony Davis and Eric Gordon will miss the rest of the season, so perhaps New Orleans is adding Southerland to bolster its roster for the final week. I think it’s more likely that the Pelicans have the future in mind, and that his deal will cover next season with non-guaranteed salary.
Central Notes: Varejao, Bulls, Deng, Pistons
The Pacers, for all their second-half struggles, have a chance to put themselves firmly in control of the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a win on the road this evening against the Heat. The Bulls are in a tight race of their own against the Raptors for the No. 3 seed, and Chicago can help itself tonight with a home win against the Pistons. While we look forward to those games, here’s the latest from around the Central Division:
- The Cavs have a choice to make about Anderson Varejao this summer, since only $4MM of his more than $9.7MM salary for next season is guaranteed. The 31-year-old Varejao would be set up for free agency in 2015 even if Cleveland keeps him this summer, but he said he’d like to spend the rest of his career in Cleveland, observes Bob Finnan of The News-Herald.
- The Luol Deng trade turned out to be a significant offensive boost for the Bulls, as Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times points out, noting that the team has made slight improvements defensively, too.
- MLive’s David Mayo answers reader questions in a Pistons-themed mailbag column, looking back on the death of former owner Bill Davidson as a key turning point in the tenure of Joe Dumars, who plans to resign from the team soon.
Atlantic Notes: Mills, Woodson, Rondo
Earlier today, we were given an early peek at Steve Mills’ interview with Spike Lee on XM Radio via ESPN New York, where the Knicks GM said that he and team president Phil Jackson could “do something special” while working together. Frank Isola of the New York Daily News weighed-in on the interview, passing along that Mills’ original plan upon being hired was to hire someone to run day-to-day basketball operations while then focusing on the business side of things. Ironically, Mills is now operating under the direction of a basketball executive.
Here’s what else we’ve gathered out of the Atlantic Division, including more from Isola:
- During the interview, Mills claimed that he gave up his title as president and retained his title as general manager once Jackson was hired, which implies that Mills had a choice in the matter, opines Isola.
- Isola says it’s unclear if Jackson still plans to hire his own personnel guy and what that could mean for Mills. Mills has suggested that his strengths lie in his relationships with players and agents, though Isola wonders how that will mesh with Jackson plans. The Knicks president recently told the media that he doesn’t plan to work as closely with agents or any one agency as the team had done in recent years.
- One source tells Isola that Mills was prepared to make a coaching change on several occasions this season; Mike Woodson was ultimately kept on board because the team had either gone on a winning streak or owner James Dolan decided to overrule Mills.
- Celtics guard Rajon Rondo hasn’t asked management to inform him about personnel decisions, but he told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe that he’d like to know what direction the team is going in: “I want to be aware of what’s going on, especially if I’m part of the future here…And being the point guard, I would like to know what the team has in store or wants to do or the moves they want to make. I think I’ll be around in Boston this summer and I’ll look forward to what’s going to happen. I’m very excited.”
- This offseason, Boston will have plenty of available assets at their disposal to make significant moves, details Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston.
Kings Re-Sign Jared Cunningham For Season
10:00pm: Cunningham has been signed for the remainder of the season, the team announced via official press release.
8:18am: Jared Cunningham‘s 10-day contract with the Kings expired Wednesday night, but the team plans on re-signing him for the rest of the season, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. The 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft joined the Kings on the final day in March after the Hawks waived him in late February.
Cunningham, a 22-year-old shooting guard, saw action in six games on his 10-day deal with Sacramento, averaging 3.0 points in 6.3 minutes per contest. Injuries have left the Kings thin in the backcourt, opening an opportunity for the Sam Goldfeder client. The 38 total minutes he’s seen in his brief time with the Kings represent more than 44% of the total minutes he’s played over his two-year NBA career, one in which he’s been an afterthought for both the Mavs and Hawks.
The plan to keep Cunningham signals that the Kings aren’t thinking of bringing Royce White back to the team this season, since Cunningham has been occupying the team’s final open roster spot. Sacramento had debated signing the power forward for the rest of the season after his second 10-day contract expired. Coach Michael Malone spoke glowingly of White’s time with the franchise, seeming to indicate that there had been no issues regarding the mental health struggles of the former Rocket and Sixer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Kings sign White in the offseason.
And-Ones: Blake, Pacers, Bargnani
Shortly after Steve Blake was dealt to the Warriors in February, we noted that the veteran point guard wouldn’t rule out a return to the Lakers this summer. Though Blake declined to follow up on those comments earlier today, there’s no denying that he still misses Los Angeles: “It’s one of the best places to live in the country,” he said. “Of course you miss that. Mostly I miss just being with my wife and kids. I’m a family man who wants to be home with them (Mike Bresnahan and Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times).
Here are a few more noteworthy links to pass along tonight:
- The Pacers have reached an agreement worth $160MM to extend their stay at the Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indiana for another 10 years, writes Tony Cook of USA Today (first reported by the Associated Press). The city’s Capital Improvement Board is expected to vote on the deal this upcoming Monday.
- Andrea Bargnani‘s lackluster and injury-filled year has been a big reason for the Knicks’ struggles in 2013/14, says Marc Berman of the New York Post. Berman says that it’ll now be up to team president Phil Jackson to either arrange a buyout for the former number one pick or trade his $10MM expiring contract for next season.
- Dexter Pittman, who played high school and college basketball in Texas, tells Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston about how delighted he is to be part of the Rockets: “I always dreamed about playing back home. I’m in shock right now…”I played with LeBron James…I played with Kevin Durant. I (won) an an NBA Championship, but there’s nothing better than coming to Houston and playing with the best center in the game and playing with one of the best all-time great big men to ever play the game, Kevin McHale. and being in the shadow of Hakeem Olajuwon…Everybody’s dream that played basketball in Houston was to be a Rocket.”
- Kevin Pelton, Amin Elhassan, and Chad Ford of ESPN take an in-depth look at NBA prospect Nik Stauskas (Insiders only). Though ESPN initially reported that Stauskas had already decided to declare for the draft, the Michigan guard recently took to Twitter to deny the report himself.
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