Pelicans’ Search For G League Home Down To Two Cities
The Pelicans have narrowed their search for a new home for their future NBA G League affiliate to just two cities, according to Shreveport Mayor Ollie Taylor. Shreveport, Louisiana is one of those two cities, along with Pensacola, Florida, as Rod Walker of The Advocate details.
Back in April, we heard that the Pelicans were considering six cities as possible homes for a new G League affiliate, including Shreveport and Pensacola. The other four locales named at that time – which are apparently no longer candidates – were Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.
According to Lex Talamo of The Shreveport Times, Tyler announced on Monday that she plans on moving forward with a $100MM “mixed-use” complex that would be built in the city of Shreveport. That facility, which would have a seating capacity of about 3,000 people, could potentially house a new Pelicans G League team.
Pensacola is a little closer to New Orleans than Shreveport is, but the difference – approximately 100 miles – likely wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for the Pelicans as they make a decision on where their G League team will play. New Orleans has yet to confirm the latest news on the search for a home for that G League affiliate, but has previously indicated that the G League club is expected to be ready to debut for the 2018/19 season.
The Wizards are also on track to have their own G League squad by the time the ’18/19 season begins, which would leave the Nuggets and Trail Blazers as the only two NBA teams without an affiliate of their own. Here’s the full list of affiliations for the 2017/18 season.
Raptors Sign K.J. McDaniels
AUGUST 22: The Raptors have officially signed McDaniels, the team announced today in a press release.
AUGUST 17: K.J. McDaniels will sign a one-year, partially guaranteed deal with Toronto, tweets Adrian Wojnarowki of ESPN.
He will join Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks and Kyle Wiltjer as training camp invitees with some guaranteed money, notes Josh Lewnberg of TSN Sports (Twitter link).
McDaniels, 24, finished last season with the Nets, who acquired him from the Rockets at the trade deadline. With expanded playing time in Brooklyn, he averaged 6.3 points and 2.6 rebounds over 20 games.
A second-round pick by the Sixers in 2014, McDaniels had a promising start to his career in Philadelphia before being traded to Houston in February of 2015. He was never able to crack the rotation with the Rockets and saw limited minutes before being dealt away.
Before adding McDaniels, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary committed to 13 players, along with $100K for McKinnie that counts against the cap, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
NBA Rookies View Dennis Smith Jr. As ROY Favorite
For the last decade, NBA.com’s John Schuhmann has been surveying several incoming rookies to get their thoughts on their fellow first-year players. Schuhmann asks the newest NBA players to identify which rookie they expect to have the best career, which was the steal of the 2017 draft, and which is the frontrunner for the 2017/18 Rookie of the Year award, among other questions.
This year, Schuhmann polled 39 rookies, and more than a quarter of those players made Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith Jr. their pick for Rookie of the Year favorite. The No. 9 overall pick received 25.7% of the vote, beating out top picks like Lonzo Ball (20%) and Markelle Fultz (17.1%). That may be good news for the Mavs, though as Schuhmann observes, the rookies he has surveyed haven’t accurately predicted the Rookie of the Year winner since 2007/08, when they made Kevin Durant the overwhelming favorite.
Here are a few more items of interest from Schuhmann’s survey:
- Smith was the landslide winner (43.6%) as the most athletic rookie. But while his fellow rookies believe the Mavericks point guard will have the best first year, Ball and Celtics forward Jayson Tatum received the most votes (18.4% apiece) for which rookie will have the best overall career.
- Donovan Mitchell (18.9%) was the top choice for biggest steal of the draft, after the Jazz nabbed him at No. 13. Some of the second-round picks that the rookies viewed as steals included Jordan Bell (Warriors; No. 38) and Dwayne Bacon (Hornets; No. 40).
- Luke Kennard (Pistons) and Malik Monk (Hornets) were widely considered the top two outside shooters in the draft. Among their fellow rookies, Kennard (48.6%) easily topped Monk (13.5%) as the pick for the No. 1 shooter of the 2017 class.
- Suns forward Josh Jackson (26.3%) was narrowly voted the best rookie defender, while Ball (71.8%) was the overwhelming pick for best rookie playmaker.
USA Basketball Announces AmeriCup Roster
After taking 17 players to training camp, USA Basketball has narrowed that group down to 12 players for its official AmeriCup roster, the program announced in a press release. The players representing Team USA in next week’s AmeriCup tournament will be as follows:
- Larry Drew II, PG
- Kendall Marshall, PG
- Xavier Munford, SG
- C.J. Williams, SG
- Billy Baron, G
- Reggie Hearn, G
- Darrun Hilliard, G/F
- Reggie Williams, SF
- Jonathan Holmes, PF
- Jameel Warney, PF
- Alec Brown, C
- Marshall Plumlee, C
The five players who missed the cut for the final roster were Rod Benson, Will Davis II, Ra’Shad James, Darius Morris, and Derek Willis.
“All 17 guys that came to camp in Houston had a strong case that they could have made that they should have been selected, but unfortunately, we could only take 12,” said U.S. coach Jeff Van Gundy. “It was very, very difficult getting down to that number, but we feel very happy with the guys that we have selected. We feel we have positional versatility, we have a good balance between size and quickness, so it will be interesting for us to go to Uruguay and see what we can do.”
As we detailed in an earlier story, FIBA has changed its format for qualifying for marquee events like the World Cup and the Olympics, and many of the qualifier tournaments will now take place during the NBA season. For those events, Team USA intends to primarily use players who have been spending time overseas and in the G League, with the bigger-name players taking over for the main events in 2019 and 2020.
Team USA doesn’t need to win the AmeriCup to qualify for the next World Cup and Olympics, but it’s a tournament the U.S. must participate in to eventually play in more crucial events. Van Gundy’s squad will participate in preliminary round games in Uruguay starting next Monday. If Team USA wins its group – which also includes Panama, the Dominican Republic, and host Uruguay – it would advance to the semifinals in Argentina in early September.
The program won’t face real pressure to win until November, when Team USA need a top-three finish in a pool that includes Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba in order to start advancing to later qualifiers. For more in-depth details on how those qualifiers work, be sure to check out FIBA’s breakdowns for the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
Southeast Notes: Mickey, Walton, Magic, Hawks
The Heat’s decision to sign forward Jordan Mickey on Sunday will not impact their ability to make another roster addition, as Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel points out. Mickey signed a $1.5MM contract for the upcoming season and Miami holds an option on a second year. The Heat were already over the salary cap, so it didn’t eat into any available space. Miami still has its $4.328MM room exception available to fill out the roster.
In other items related to the Southeast Division:
- Impressive summer-league outings by Derrick Walton convinced the Heat to sign the undrafted point guard to a two-way contract, Winderman reports in a separate story. Walton’s offensive pacing and 3-point shooting while playing for the Magic’s summer team caught Miami’s attention, Winderman notes. “We just had a mutual interest in joining each other and making something work out and when the opportunity presented itself, we both took it,” the former University of Michigan star told Winderman.
- The Magic have added Adetunji Adedipe to their basketball operations department and also named him the assistant GM of their new G-League team in Lakeland, the team announced via press release. Adedipe has been with the Magic organization for three seasons and served as basketball operations coordinator with the G-League’s Erie BayHawks last year.
- Atlanta-based Sharecare has reached a five-year deal to become the official jersey patch sponsor of the Hawks, according to Zach Klein of WSBTV.com. Founded in 2010, Sharecare is a digital health company.
Pacers Exercise 2018/19 Option On Turner
The Pacers have exercised their team option on center Myles Turner for the 2018/19 season, Keith Smith of RealGM.com tweets. Turner, who is locked into a salary of $2,569,920 for the upcoming season, will make $3,410,284 that season.
The team option was a mere formality for a player that has become the face of the franchise in the aftermath of the Paul George trade to the Thunder. Turner, 21, turned out to be a steal with the 11th overall pick of the 2015 draft. He started half of the 60 games he appeared in during his rookie campaign, averaging 10.3 PPG and 5.5 RPG.
Last season, Turner started 81 games and posted averages of 14.5 PPG, 7.3 RPG and 2.1 BPG. His shotblocking average ranked third in the league. His scoring totals should increase with the continued development of his offensive game and the departure of George.
Turner will be eligible to sign a contract extension next offseason. Indiana will likely offer a max extension, barring a major injury to Turner.
Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors has compiled a list of all rookie scale team options for the 2018/19 season. You can find it here.
Nerlens Noel Hires Rich Paul As His Agent
AUGUST 21, 7:24pm: Noel has hired Rich Paul of Klutch Sports as his agent, Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders tweets. Paul is the agent for LeBron James and John Wall, among many other NBA players.
AUGUST 21, 9:11am: According to Mike Fisher of Scout.com (Twitter link), Noel is considering an agent change from Walters, despite hiring him just a few months ago. However, Fegan is not involved in this process — if Noel makes a change, he’s expected to look elsewhere.
AUGUST 20, 8:41pm: Scruggs’ report appears to be operating off of dated information, as Noel’s agency change occurred during the 2016/17 season. Initially reported to be leaning toward Fegan, Noel went in another direction, as Fegan was fired by his agency and became embroiled in legal drama. Noel – previously with Andy Miller at ASM – is currently represented by Happy Walters, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks confirms to Hoops Rumors.
AUGUST 20, 4:57pm: Nerlens Noel, who remains a restricted free agent, is still searching for a max contract on the market. In an effort to find that deal, he has switched agents, leaving ASM Sports and hiring Dan Fegan, according to Newy Scruggs of NBC.com.
Noel hasn’t received an offer from any rival suitor, Scruggs adds, which prompted the change. Should he still not find a long-term deal to his liking, he has the option to play for Dallas under his qualifying offer, which is worth $4,187,598.
Scruggs pegs Noel’s market value in the $12-13MM range, though it’s merely speculation. The scribe cites Noel’s injury history as a major reason why the big man will likely have to settle for less than the max.
The center has played 193 games since being selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2013 draft. He’s scored 10.0 rebounds and brought in 7.5 rebounds per game over his career while making 51.1% of his shots from the field.
Community Shootaround: Tampering Probe
The Lakers and team president Magic Johnson are under scrutiny as the league announced this weekend it was investigating potential tampering between the club and Paul George.
The Pacers, who dealt George to the Thunder this summer, filed the charges. The Lakers and Johnson now face a variety of potential punishments if the league finds evidence of impermissible contact and/or tampering.
George is a unique case in that he publicly stated his desire to sign with the Lakers when he becomes a free agent next summer. That prompted Indiana to shop the four-time All-Star, with the Thunder winning the sweepstakes by dealing away Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out, the Hawks and Kings were fined four years ago for outlining their plans to pursue free agents from other teams. But it’s been 17 years since the league cracked down hard on any team for tampering.
The Timberwolves were fined $3.5MM, lost five first-round picks (though two were later reinstated) and saw their owner and GM suspended. Those penalties were handed down when the league uncovered evidence that the club and forward Joe Smith had a side agreement for a future contract to circumvent the salary cap before Smith became a free agent. Smith wound up signing with the Pistons after Minnesota was prevented from securing his services.
A fine is the Lakers’ most likely penalty if some evidence of tampering is uncovered. However, if the league believes the Lakers and George already have a verbal agreement, they could face penalties similar to the ones doled out to the Timberwolves in 2000. It could also prevent George from joining the Lakers.
The Lakers have hired legal representation and seem confident they will be cleared of the charges.
That brings us to our question of the day: If the league’s tampering investigation involving the Lakers and Paul George uncovers evidence of a verbal agreement, should the Lakers be prohibited from signing George in free agency or acquiring him in a trade? If not, what would be an appropriate punishment?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this hot topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Magic Sign Adreian Payne To Two-Way Contract
The Magic have signed power forward Adreian Payne to a two-way contract, the team announced in a press release.
Payne, 26, recently declined an offer from Guangdong in the Chinese Basketball Association worth $900K.
The former Michigan State standout has been a disappointment since he was selected by the Hawks with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2014 draft. He played just three games for Atlanta before he was shipped to the Timberwolves during his rookie year. Payne made 22 starts with Minnesota as a first-year player, then saw action in 52 games (including two starts) the following season.
He appeared in just 18 games last season, averaging 3.5 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 7.5 MPG. Payne also spent time with the G-League’s Erie BayHawks.
Payne is the first player to sign a two-way deal with Orlando. The Magic are eligible to sign one more player to such a contract.
Rockets Sign Demetrius Jackson To Two-Way Deal
AUGUST 21, 4:22PM: The signing is official, the team tweets.
JULY 28, 11:08PM: Two weeks after being waived by the Celtics, Demetrius Jackson has found a new home. According to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), Jackson has agreed to terms on a two-way contract with the Rockets.
[RELATED: 2017/18 NBA Two-Way Contract Tracker]
Jackson, who will turn 23 in September, was the 45th overall pick in the 2016 draft and signed an NBA contract with the Celtics. However, given the crowded depth chart in Boston, the Notre Dame product didn’t see much action for the C’s, briefly appearing in just five games. He did play in 32 games for the Maine Red Claws, averaging 14.8 PPG, 6.0 APG, and 5.1 RPG in the G League.
With the Celtics adding several new players to the roster this offseason, there wasn’t room for Jackson, whose salary was partially guaranteed. His new two-way contract with the Rockets will have a modest starting salary, but taking into account the money he’s still earning from the Celtics, Jackson could end up earning close to the NBA minimum if he spends a portion of the season with Houston’s NBA team.
Jackson worked out earlier this week for the Hornets, who were on the lookout for a possible third point guard.
For more details on how two-way contracts work, be sure to check out our FAQ.