Poll: 2008 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 9)
Scouting players and predicting how their skills will translate to the NBA is one of the more difficult tasks front offices have on their plates. Looking back over past drafts and how many lottery picks never evolved into stars, or even made a significant impact in the league, illustrates just how often stats, combine numbers and pure gut instinct often come up short.
Of course, we get the opportunity to critique these moves with the benefit of hindsight — a luxury that GMs don’t have on draft night. Having said that, it’s still fun to go back in time and take a theoretical look at how these drafts should have/could have gone.
We’ve been revisiting 2008 draft, which had a number of players who have gone on to post big numbers in the league. This was the year of Derrick Rose (No. 1 overall), Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Kevin Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10) and Nicolas Batum (No. 25). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of polls asking readers to vote on whom teams should have selected in each spot.Read more
Mo Williams Considering Retirement
Veteran Cavs guard Mo Williams is strongly considering hanging up his sneakers and retiring from the game, Joe Vardon of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. Williams’ balky knee, his desire to coach and the opportunity to go out as an NBA champion are weighing heavily upon him, Vardon adds.
There is also the chance, should Williams hold off on making a definitive decision regarding his future, that the Cavs could seek to trade him in a salary dump or waive him via the stretch provision, Vardon notes. The deadline to utilize the stretch provision is this Wednesday (August 31st), should the Cavs decide to go that route. Cleveland’s projected payroll for 2016/17 currently stands at $116,494,181, which is already over the luxury tax line which has been set at $113.2MM by the league. Williams is due to earn $2,194,500 this season, the final one on his current deal.
For Cleveland, purging itself of Williams’ salary would help alleviate some of its luxury tax burden this season, but it would also leave the team with rookie Kay Felder as the only true point guard on the roster behind starter Kyrie Irving. The Cavs still may re-sign unrestricted free agent shooting guard J.R. Smith, which would thrust the team deeper into tax territory. Not to mention the Cavs will still likely need to add additional backcourt depth should Williams be released or traded, which would increase their payroll and tax hit even further.
The 33-year-old appeared in 41 regular season games for the Cavs a season ago, averaging 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 18.2 minutes per outing. His shooting line on the campaign was .437/.353/.905. Williams’ career numbers, should he decide to call it quits, are 13.2 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 4.9 APG. His career slash line is .434/.378/.871.
Hoops Rumors Originals: 8/21/16-8/27/16
Here’s a look back at the original content and analysis generated by the Hoops Rumors staff this past week.
- We examined Steven Adams and Rudy Gobert as extension candidates.
- We asked readers to do over the 2008 NBA Draft. Here’s who you selected for picks No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 overall.
- You can stay up to date on any contract extensions agreed to this season with our tracker.
- Here are the NBA D-League affiliations for the upcoming season.
- In a reader poll, we asked if the Nets should trade Brook Lopez.
- We ran down the remaining free agents who logged the most minutes in 2015/16.
- Will Joseph highlighted some of the better basketball blogs around in his weekly installment of Hoops Links.
- We looked at the 2016/17 Salary Cap figures for the:
- Arthur answered reader questions in our Weekly Mailbag. Here’s how you can submit your own questions for our mailbag feature.
- In our Community Shootarounds this week we discussed:
- How good will the Knicks be in 2016/17?
- Which 12 players will represent the United States at the 2020 Games in Tokyo?
- Which player is likeliest to make a comeback this season?
- Our Free Agent Tracker continues to have up-to-date data on this summer’s contract agreements and signings from around the NBA.
- If you haven’t already, be sure to download the Trade Rumors app for your iOS or Android device.
Week In Review: 8/21/16-8/27/16
With 2016’s offseason winding down and the preseason on its way, here’s a look back at all the notable news and events from around the NBA this past week:
Trades
- The Jazz traded Tibor Pleiss, two second-round picks, and cash to the Sixers in exchange for Kendall Marshall.
Signings/Agreements
NBA
- The Celtics signed Marcus Georges-Hunt.
- The Thunder signed Semaj Christon.
- The Lakers signed Zach Auguste.
- The Jazz signed Marcus Paige.
- The Bucks signed Jason Terry.
- The Lakers signed Brandon Ingram.
- The Lakers signed Yi Jianlian.
- The Timberwolves signed Toure’ Murry and John Lucas III.
- The Raptors signed E.J. Singler.
- The Lakers re-signed Tarik Black.
- The Spurs are expected to sign Nicolas Laprovittola.
International
- J.J. Hickson signed with Fujian in China.
- Jeff Adrien signed with Israel’s Bnei Herzliya.
- Jordan Bachynski signed with the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins in Japan.
- Jared Cunningham signed with Jiangsu Tongxi in China.
Waivers
- The Jazz waived Kendall Marshall.
News/Rumors
- The Nets hired Gianluca Pascucci as the club’s director of global scouting, and BJ Johnson as coordinator of player evaluation.
- Abdel Nader will play for the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics’ D-League affiliate, this coming season.
- Alan Anderson hired Chris Luchey as his new agent.
- Kwame Brown is attempting to make an NBA comeback.
- Festus Ezeli will be sidelined for six weeks after having his left knee injected with a bone marrow aspirate concentrate and Orthovisc.
- The Long Island Nets named Ryan Gomes and Pat Rafferty as assistant coaches.
- The D-League held its expansion draft. You can view the results here.
- The Pacers named José Luis Galilea as their new overseas talent evaluator.
- Mario Chalmers has been medically cleared to get back on the court.
- The disconnect between the Wizards backcourt duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal could eventually convince the front office to deal one of them.
- The Celtics renounced their rights to center Colton Iverson, their 2013 second-round draft pick.
Bryce Cotton To Play Overseas
Unrestricted free agent point guard Bryce Cotton is headed overseas, having signed a deal with the Turkish club, Anadolu Efes, the team announced (translation via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). It will be a one-year arrangement between Cotton and the team, the announcement notes.
The 24-year-old was not without NBA possibilities heading into the preseason, with Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that Cotton was a potential training camp signee of the Hawks. Cotton played for Atlanta’s summer league team and reportedly impressed team officials by averaging 12.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in five games. The Russian club Khimiki was also reported as a potential suitor for the free agent’s services.
Cotton split time last season between Xinjiang Guanghui of China, averaging 21.2 points and 2.7 assists in 9 games, and in the NBA with the Suns and Grizzlies. In eight NBA contests, Cotton averaged 1.0 PPG on 40% shooting.
Submit Your Questions For Hoops Rumors Mailbag
We at Hoops Rumors love interacting with our readers. This is why we provide an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in our weekly mailbag feature, which is posted every Sunday.
Have a question regarding player movement, free agent rumors, the salary cap, the NBA draft, or the top storylines of the week? You can e-mail them here: hoopsrumorsmailbag@gmail.com. Feel free to send emails throughout the week, but please be mindful that we may receive a sizable number of questions and might not get to all of them.
If you missed out on any past mailbags and would like to catch up, you can view the full archives here.
Salary Cap Snapshot: Minnesota Timberwolves
With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Wolves’ team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Wolves currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Ricky Rubio —$13,575,000 [Year-end cap hit adjusted due to bonuses]
- Nikola Pekovic —$12,100,000
- Kevin Garnett —$8,000,000 [Waived by team]
- Cole Aldrich —$7,643,979
- Andrew Wiggins —$6,006,600
- Karl-Anthony Towns —$5,960,160
- Jordan Hill —$4,000,000
- Kris Dunn —$3,872,520
- Nemanja Bjelica —$3,800,000
- Brandon Rush —$3,500,000
- Shabazz Muhammad —$3,046,299
- Gorgui Dieng —$2,348,783
- Zach LaVine —$2,240,880
- Adreian Payne —$2,022,240
- Kevin Martin —$1,360,305 [Waived via Stretch Provision]
- Tyus Jones —$1,339,680
- John Lucas III —$635,753 [Waived by team]
- Omri Casspi —$138,414
- Lance Stephenson —$57,672 [10-day contract (Feb 8); actual salary — $72,193]
- Lance Stephenson —$57,672 [10-day contract (Mar 8); actual salary — $72,193]
Total Guaranteed Salary= $81,705,957
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- Room Exception — $2,898,000
Total Projected Payroll: $81,705,957
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: $12,437,043
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $31,581,043
Salary Cap Floor: $84,729,000
Amount Below Salary Cap Floor: $3,023,043
Last Updated: 4/15/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.
Donovan Praises Durant’s Handling Of Free Agency
While it may take some time for Oklahoma City’s fans and his former teammates to forgive Kevin Durant for leaving the Thunder in free agency this summer, Billy Donovan, his now former coach, praised how the forward handled the process, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical relays.
“I don’t know if I ever felt like he was going to necessarily come back, but I thought our meeting went very, very well,” Donovan told Wojnarowski. “I think Kevin on the front end was very, very, honest that when the season ended, he was going to go through this process and he was going to take a meeting with us, obviously, first. And then he was going to have some other teams he was going to meet with. And I think a little bit later on, after the season ended, they decided to do it out in The Hamptons.
But I thought the meeting that we had went very well. I think we talked about basketball, we talked about our team, we talked about direction, we talked about obviously his leadership, his role, all those kind of things. I think leaving the meeting it was very, very positive. I thought it was very, very clear. I think there was direction on both sides.
But one thing I think with Kevin was going through nine years in the organization, he was at a point of time when he was allowed obviously to be a free agent and go through this process and start to gather some information. We were the first meeting. So obviously, I think being in college for so long and you go through recruiting, you know that during that process, things can change through some of these different meetings. And obviously after meeting with Golden State, things probably in his mind changed in terms of what he was evaluating.”
Despite the media bringing up Durant’s pending free agency at every opportunity during the 2015/16 season, Donovan said he appreciated how the forward didn’t allow it to become a distraction on the court or in the locker room, the Vertical scribe relays. “The thing I thought Kevin did a great job of this year was the fact that everywhere we went to a lot of different marketplaces, there was always the question of ‘Are you going to consider this team? Are you going to consider that team? Have you given this any thought?’ I really appreciated for our team we were able to stay focused on our team, the season, the playoffs, without having the distraction. I thought Kevin handled it really, really well and was consistent all the way through.“
Poll: 2008 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 8)
Scouting players and predicting how their skills will translate to the NBA is one of the more difficult tasks front offices have on their plates. Looking back over past drafts and how many lottery picks never evolved into stars, or even made a significant impact in the league, illustrates just how often stats, combine numbers and pure gut instinct often come up short.
Of course, we get the opportunity to critique these moves with the benefit of hindsight — a luxury that GMs don’t have on draft night. Having said that, it’s still fun to go back in time and take a theoretical look at how these drafts should have/could have gone.
We recently finished revisiting the lottery portion of the 2005 NBA Draft, which was one of the weakest in recent memory. In drafts light on impact talent, the GM who can find a diamond in the rough is king. But drafts that have a number of star-potential players can also be difficult and many an executive has made what turned out to be the wrong call. Greg Oden over Kevin Durant immediately springs to mind (sorry Blazers fans), likewise taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan…ouch!
The 2008 draft, which is the one we’re tackling now, had a number of players who have gone on to post big numbers in the league. This was the year of Derrick Rose (No. 1 overall), Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Kevin Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10) and Nicolas Batum (No. 25). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of polls asking readers to vote on whom teams should have selected in each spot.
We’ll continue with the Bucks, who held the No. 8 overall pick that year. In the “real world” draft, Milwaukee selected Joe Alexander, who has career averages of 4.2 points and 1.8 rebounds in just 67 NBA games. This is one pick I’m sure Bucks fans are still lamenting, especially given the talented players who were still available at that slot.
So cast your vote for who the Bucks should have selected and check back on Saturday to see the results, as well as to vote on who the Bobcats/Hornets should have taken with the No.9 pick. Also, don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. If we fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and we’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.
- Bulls — Russell Westbrook [Actual Pick — Derrick Rose]
- Heat — Kevin Love [Actual Pick — Michael Beasley]
- Wolves — Derrick Rose [Actual Pick — O.J. Mayo]
- Sonics/Thunder — DeAndre Jordan [Actual Pick — Russell Westbrook]
- Grizzlies — Brook Lopez [Actual Pick — Kevin Love]
- Knicks — Serge Ibaka [Actual Pick — Danilo Gallinari]
- Clippers — Nicolas Batum [Actual Pick — Eric Gordon]
- Bucks — ?? [Actual Pick — Joe Alexander]
If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here to vote.
Kevin Seraphin Hoping For NBA Offer
Unrestricted free agent Kevin Seraphin has rebuffed contract offers from overseas clubs as he awaits a call from an NBA team, international journalist David Pick relays (via Twitter). The center has garnered interest from teams in the Chinese Basketball Association as well as the Euroleague, Pick notes. Pick did not relay which specific clubs have contacted Seraphin, but FC Barcelona of Spain has expressed interest in the big man, according to the Sport.es (h/t HoopsHype).
Seraphin, who recently hired agent Bouna Ndiaye, according to Pick, is in a tough spot if he wants a shot at landing an NBA roster spot to start the campaign. The majority of teams around the league are already at, or close to having, the maximum number of players allowable for the preseason. His best bet in the long run may be to to head over to China to play, which would then allow him the chance to catch on with an NBA team once the CBA season ended in late February.
The Clippers had reportedly viewed Seraphin as an alternative if an affordable deal could not be worked out with Marreese Speights, who agreed to a contract with Los Angeles back in July. There has been virtually no mention of the center since that post from Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops.
The 26-year-old appeared in 48 games for the Knicks last season, averaging 3.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 0.8 blocks in 11.0 minutes per outing. His shooting line for 2015/16 was .410/.000/.826.