Southwest Notes: Rondo, Parsons, Leonard
The Mavs‘ Chandler Parsons indicated that he might not be ready for the start of training camp next season, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com tweets. Parsons is out for the remainder of the playoffs with an injured knee that will require surgery to repair, and the estimated recovery time won’t be known until after the procedure has been performed, Sneed notes. The forward just completed the first season of the three-year, $46.08MM deal he signed last offseason.
Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- The trade for Rajon Rondo was a high risk, high reward move that failed miserably for the Mavericks, Mark Followill of The Dallas Morning News writes. Dallas needed to acquire more All-Star level talent to compete in the Western Conference, but Rondo was clearly not the same player physically that he was prior to his knee injury, Followill notes.
- Reflecting back on the Spurs‘ decision to draft Kawhi Leonard back in 2011, GM R.C. Buford knew he was a raw player, but Leonard’s potential was evident from the beginning, Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express-News writes. “I don’t know that we were trying to anticipate a best-case scenario,” Buford said. “We needed a small forward that came with a defensive mentality, that would complement the skill sets of the guys we had. But there also needed to be a lot of growth and development to fit into that.” Leonard can become a restricted free agent this summer if San Antonio tenders him a qualifying offer worth $4,433,683, which it almost assuredly will do.
- Rondo is just another in a long line of veteran players whose reputations have been destroyed after a stint with the Mavs, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM writes. Dallas has tried to shoehorn in a number of players over the years who were poor fits for the team’s roster and system, a practice that needs to cease if the team wishes to contend in the West once again, Tjarks notes. The RealGM scribe cites Lamar Odom, Darren Collison, Delonte West, O.J. Mayo and Chris Kaman as previous examples of this pattern.
Central Notes: Carter-Williams, Smith, Love
J.R. Smith has fit in much better with the Cavaliers than many predicted he would when the guard was acquired earlier this season from the Knicks, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. “For J.R., I think he’s been misunderstood,” LeBron James said. “He had a great column last week about the perception of him before he got here. I think you should read it, it’s pretty great. And he said at the end, it doesn’t matter if he’s playing in New York, or Cleveland or Denver or Timbuktu, all he cares about is winning. For a guy that’s been highly scrutinized throughout his career, saying he’s not a team guy and takes bad shots and he follows around everyone else, I think it’s unfair to him. He comes out every single day and works his tail off to try to get better, to help our team win. He defends at a high level and he’s a great teammate and he’s a great guy.” Smith has a player option worth $6,777,589 that he can opt out of this summer if he wishes to become an unrestricted free agent.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Bucks coach Jason Kidd sees a lot of himself in Michael Carter-Williams, and he believes that the change of scenery from the losing culture the Sixers have cultivated will be good for the young guard, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com writes. Kidd also believes that having a healthy offseason can help Carter-Williams improve his outside shooting, which is a glaring weakness in the young point guard’s game, Youngmisuk adds.
- Acquiring Carter-Williams also helped the Bucks‘ salary cap situation, Youngmisuk notes. By swapping Brandon Knight, who is set to become a restricted free agent this offseason, for Carter-Williams, who has two years remaining on his rookie contract, the team can now focus solely on re-signing Khris Middleton, who will also be a restricted free agent this summer, the ESPN scribe adds.
- Kevin Love has seemingly found his niche with the Cavaliers now that the playoffs have begun, and the veteran forward appears to be more at peace with being in Cleveland, Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal writes. “People have focused my whole career on what I couldn’t do rather than what I could do,” Love said. “I know my teammates and coaching staff has my back. I know the organization has my back. I’m sending the love right back to them.”
Prospect Profile: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
Arizona sophomore Rondae Hollis-Jefferson‘s decision to enter this year’s NBA draft is one that is open for second-guessing. While the forward is perhaps the best wing defender in this year’s draft, serious questions abound regarding Hollis-Jefferson’s offensive skills, or lack thereof. The player certainly has lottery pick potential, but in a draft peppered with talented wings, Hollis-Jefferson may have been better served to spend one more season with the Wildcats.
The 6’7″, 220-pounder is currently ranked as the No. 23 overall prospect by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) places him 24th overall. With 2016’s NBA draft class projected to be much weaker than this year’s, Hollis-Jefferson, barring an unforeseen regression in 2015/16, would likely have been a top-15 pick, though that is merely my speculation.
Hollis-Jefferson is an extremely athletic player who is a monster in transition, and is an elite finisher at the rim. The sophomore is also adept at absorbing contact when attacking the basket, and his 7.1 free throw attempts per 40 minutes pace adjusted ranking is the most of any small forward in this year’s draft. The rest of his numbers are quite solid, with Hollis-Jefferson averaging 11.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.2 steals in 28.7 minutes per contest as a sophomore. His career numbers are 10.2 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 0.9 SPG, and a career slash line of .496/.205/.697.
But it’s the Hollis-Jefferson’s jump shot that is his Achilles heel, and what is relegating him to the bottom half of the first round this year. With the NBA placing more and more value on “3-and-D” players, Hollis-Jefferson’s anemic 20.7% shooting from beyond the arc does him no favors in the eyes of talent evaluators. While some players can “fix” their outside shooting form, it’s not necessarily something that can be counted on. Plus, it would likely take a number of seasons for the team drafting Hollis-Jefferson to see any repair efforts bear fruit on the hardwood. With patience not a staple amongst NBA teams, talent evaluators aren’t likely to be very forgiving in their pre-draft assessments of Hollis-Jefferson’s game.
The 20-year-old will be able to match up athletically with most wing NBA players, as his combination of strength, quickness and explosiveness is difficult to find, Givony notes. Hollis-Jefferson is a solid rebounder for his position, though he will need to bulk up to continue that trend in the NBA, since his athleticism will be somewhat neutralized when he is surrounded by the abundance of talent in the league. The player also needs to improve his ball-handling, since he doesn’t handle heavy ball pressure as well as he should.
Offensive woes aside, Hollis-Jefferson’s true value is on the defensive end of the court. The forward is second all time in the Pac-12 for career defensive rating (88.6) and fifth in the conference this past season in defensive win shares (2.9). He is capable of guarding four positions, which makes Hollis-Jefferson especially valuable with the league’s increasing focus on pick and roll offense, and the switches that defenses are required to make on the fly in order to counter those attacks.
Hollis-Jefferson can certainly contribute as a role-player in an NBA rotation, perhaps as early as next season. But unless he can make himself a passable threat on offense, he is looking at a career as a role-player. The young wing reminds me quite a bit of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and not just because of the hyphenated last name. Both players are high-energy defenders who can dominate in transition, but hamper their teams in half court sets with their offensive limitations. The best case scenario for Hollis-Jefferson is that he can carve out a career similar to that of Gerald Wallace. For a team selecting toward the end of the first round that potential should be enough to make drafting Hollis-Jefferson worthwhile, but teams picking in the top 20 should pause before nabbing him that high.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Thunder Notes: Brooks, Malone, Gentry, Kanter
Thunder GM Sam Presti admits that former coach Scott Brooks had plenty of positive influence on the franchise, and The Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson believes that Brooks’ development of Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and others is a testament to his value. Carlson argues that at full health, the team was better in 2012/13 and 2013/14 than it was when it went to the Finals in 2012, and that Brooks was central to the Thunder’s continued improvement. While we wait to see if Oklahoma City’s next coach wins the title that the Thunder didn’t get under Brooks, here’s more from OKC:
- Grantland’s Zach Lowe suggests that the Thunder will take a close look at former Kings coach Michael Malone and Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry if their top choices don’t pan out. Kevin Ollie, one of those reported top targets, has pulled out of the running.
- There was little grounds for termination in this injury-plagued season for the Thunder and Brooks, Lowe argues in the same piece, contending that if the Thunder had decided he wasn’t fit to lead them to a championship, they should have reached that conclusion earlier. The Grantland scribe wonders if the cost of paying off more than one year of Brooks’ contract made Oklahoma City hesitate to make the move sooner.
- Accountability from players had become a problem in Oklahoma City under Brooks, sources tell Royce Young of ESPN.com, but the team’s move to cut ties with the coach is about the future and not the past, Young writes. The stakes are high as Kevin Durant enters a contract year, and the Thunder won’t settle for continuity, as Young details.
- It’s no surprise that the Thunder would want to hold on to soon-to-be restricted free agent Enes Kanter, who excelled after the midseason trade that brought him to Oklahoma City, and Presti envisions the big man sticking around, as The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater relays. “We wouldn’t have traded for him if we didn’t feel like we’d be in a position to have him with us going forward,” Presti said. Kanter has expressed a desire to stay, though he just underwent left knee surgery that will sideline him for four to six weeks.
Tom Thibodeau Confidants Believe He’ll Be Fired
People close to Tom Thibodeau are convinced that the Bulls will fire him after the season is over, writes Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who notes that the Bulls front office has continually batted down persistent rumors of a rift with the coach. The Bulls are in as strong a position as they’ve been in some time with a 3-0 series lead on the Bucks and a presumptive matchup with LeBron James and the Cavs looming, as Lowe examines. Still, few around the NBA expect the former Coach of the Year to be back in Chicago next season, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post, who notes that many view Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg as the likely replacement for Thibodeau.
The news jibes with several reports from the past few months. Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote earlier this month that the Bulls and Thibodeau were “widely expected” to part ways and K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune in January described the relationship between Thibodeau and the front office as “beyond repair,” which drew a denial from GM Gar Forman. In any case, it would appear the onus to cut ties would be on the team, as Johnson recently surmised that the coach probably wouldn’t walk away from the job if it were entirely up to him.
The Magic have interest in Thibodeau should he become available, as several league sources suggested to Chris Mannix of SI.com and as Stein later confirmed. People connected to Thibodeau have explored the Magic, among other teams, as a possible landing spot should he no longer be coaching the Bulls, according to Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher. It’s unclear if Thibodeau would emerge as a serious candidate for the Nuggets or Thunder openings, but given his resume, it wouldn’t be surprising. Thibodeau has compiled a record of 255-139 in five seasons with the Bulls, guiding them to the playoffs each year in spite of a multitude of injuries to Derrick Rose and others, and before that he spent two decades as an NBA assistant, winning a title with the Celtics in 2008.
Chris Walker Declares For Draft
Sophomore power forward Chris Walker is entering this year’s draft, the University of Florida announced (Twitter link; hat tip to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com). Evan Daniels of Scout.com reported earlier this week that the 20-year-old wouldn’t be back at Florida and would either transfer or enter the draft. Walker isn’t in the top 100 prospects for this year with Chad Ford of ESPN.com or Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. Ford lists the once-heralded college recruit as the No. 61 prospect for 2016, while Givony has him as the No. 20 sophomore for this year.
Walker was No. 7 in the final 2013 Recruiting Services Consensus Index, one spot ahead of Noah Vonleh, who went ninth overall to the Hornets in last year’s draft. Givony projected Walker as a 2015 lottery pick when he decided against entering the 2014 draft, and the same was true at the start of this season, when Givony slotted him 13th. Ford had Walker as the No. 12 prospect at that same time. By mid-January, he was at No. 39 on Givony’s board, and the slide continued.
The 6’9″ Walker saw only 4.8 minutes per game as a freshman, and while his role grew this past season, he still scarcely saw the sort of playing time that usually comes to a top-flight talent. He put up 4.7 points and 3.5 rebounds in 14.6 MPG, and his final appearance was a seven-minute, two-point outing against Kentucky in an SEC Tournament loss that ended a 16-17 season for coach Billy Donovan‘s Gators.
Nedim Buza Enters Draft
Small forward Nedim Buza has entered this year draft, agent Alexander Raskovic tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). The 6’8″ native of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the 38th-best prospect according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, while Givony ranks him 53rd. Buza entered last year’s draft, too, before withdrawing in advance of the deadline to do so. He made last year’s decisions in tandem with OKK Spars Sarajevo teammate Adin Vrabac, who’s since moved on to play in Germany, though Vrabac decided last week to enter the draft again this year.
The 19-year-old Buza, who turns 20 next month, had an expanded role this season with OKK Spars Sarajevo, a club in his home country, averaging 12.0 points and 5.1 rebounds in 26.5 minutes per game. He kept up his decent three-point shooting, nailing 35.3% of his attempts. Buza is coming off a six-point, 13-minute performance in the recent Nike Hoops Summit.
Buza scheduled workouts with the Bucks, Timberwolves and Nuggets last year, Raskovic said then, and he figures to draw more predraft auditions this year. He’s not automatically draft-eligible until 2017, so he can pull out again by June 15th if he wants.
Atlantic Notes: Young, Knicks, Crowder, Jerebko
Thaddeus Young has said in the past that he’d like to return to the Nets next season, and while he didn’t directly address a question about his future from Steven Simineri of NetsDaily, the forward made it clear he was pleased with the midseason trade that brought him to Brooklyn. Young has an early-termination option worth nearly $10.222MM.
“It was the perfect situation for me, especially with me being good friends with [Nets GM] Billy [King], just knowing him and him drafting me in Philly,” Young said. “So it was a good situation, plus they had the right mix of players for me and I felt like I could be a great complementary piece to a lot of guys on this team.”
It’s a virtual must-win for Young and the Nets on Saturday as they trail 2-0 against the Hawks, and as we wait to see what happens, here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks are reportedly poised to chase LaMarcus Aldridge, and Aldridge apparently has New York on his radar. Still, team president Phil Jackson doesn’t make it sound as if a superstar signing like that is in the offing for New York this summer, as Marc Berman of the New York Post observed after the Zen Master’s latest comments Tuesday.
- A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com figures the Celtics will try to re-sign Jae Crowder and Jonas Jerebko, but he doesn’t think they’re willing to splurge on either. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge on Thursday indicated his desire to re-sign Crowder.
- Blakely argues in the same piece that the best path to improvement for the Celtics is through trades. Ainge faces a key choice this summer about whether to keep Boston’s vast stockpile of trade exceptions or renounce them and open near max-level cap room, as I examined.
Buddy Hield Declines To Enter Draft
Oklahoma junior shooting guard Buddy Hield will pass up a strong chance to be drafted in the second round this year to instead return to Oklahoma for his senior year, he announced today through the school. Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks Hield as the 37th-best prospect, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him at No. 41.
The 6’4″ 21-year-old’s production plateaued somewhat this season after a significant jump between his freshman and sophomore years. Still, Hield’s 17.4 points per game this year led the Big 12, as did his 35.9% three-point percentage and 93 made three-pointers. He rebounded well for his size, grabbing 5.4 boards in 32.4 minutes per contest.
Ford points to defense as an area in need of improvement for Hield and suggests he should attack the basket more often. His rate of free-throw attempts per field goal attempt rose from .191 to .261 this season, so continued improvement in that regard figures to help his stock. He’ll have no shortage of exposure next season, with Oklahoma looking strong again for 2015/16 after a run to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 this year.
Guillermo Hernangomez To Declare For Draft
Spanish center Guillermo Hernangomez will enter this year’s draft, reports Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). The 6’11” client of agent Guillermo Bermejo has first-round potential, as Givony says in his tweet, though Hernangomez is No. 42 in Givony‘s prospect rankings. Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him 40th.
The 20-year-old Hernangomez averaged 10.0 points and 5.6 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game this season for Sevilla in his native Spain. He put up similar numbers in the Adidas Eurocamp two years ago. His athleticism isn’t ideal, but his size helps, as Ford writes in his scouting report.
Early-entry candidates must formally declare for the draft by 10:59pm Central time on Sunday to be eligible for the draft this year, so that helps explain the flurry of declarations of late. Hernangomez won’t be automatically eligible until next year, and he may withdraw from this year’s draft at any point until the NBA’s June 15th deadline.