Eastern Notes: Knicks, Batum, Raptors, Brooks
Despite the fact that the Knicks‘ playoff chances appeared to be slipping away before the All-Star break, head coach Jeff Hornacek has continued to insist in recent weeks that the team is continuing to push for the postseason. However, heading into Tuesday’s game against Indiana, Hornacek finally relented on that stance, as Marc Berman of The New York Post details.
“Whether we’re in the playoffs or not in the playoffs, we’re going to play hard the whole time. The playoffs may not be in reach, but this especially could be for other young guys to get some time to show what they really can do,” Hornacek said, acknowledging that the Knicks’ playoff chances are all but dead. “Until you’re mathematically done, you’re always going for it, but sometimes it’s realistic. Are you going to be able to make up seven games in [15]? Many, many things would have to happen for that.”
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Hornets forward Nicolas Batum, who has been battling painful migraines, will undergo a CT scan on his brain, league sources tell Chris Haynes of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Hopefully that scan doesn’t reveal any serious health concerns for Batum.
- Since acquiring Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker, the Raptors have been without star point guard Kyle Lowry, making them the great unknown in the Eastern Conference, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. As Lewenberg outlines, Toronto may have the highest ceiling and the lowest floor of any of the East’s challengers to Cleveland.
- Meanwhile, Doug Smith of The Toronto Star suggests that Raptors backup point guards Fred VanVleet and especially Delon Wright have been opening some eyes in Lowry’s absence.
- In a piece for The Oklahoman, Berry Tramel makes a case for why Wizards head coach Scott Brooks deserves to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award for his performance in his first season in Washington.
Nets Sign Archie Goodwin To 10-Day Deal
10:53am: The Nets have officially signed Goodwin to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release.
9:32am: The Nets are filling the open spot on their roster by signing Archie Goodwin to a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). When Brooklyn’s deal with Goodwin is officially finalized, the team will have a full 15-man squad once again.
A first-round pick in 2013, Goodwin is still just 22 years old, but has struggled to find a long-term NBA home. After three up and down seasons in Phoenix, Goodwin was waived by the Suns prior to the start of the 2016/17 season. The 6’5″ guard briefly caught on with the Pelicans in November when Lance Stephenson suffered a groin injury, but only appeared in three games for New Orleans before being cut.
Goodwin ultimately landed with the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s D-League affiliate. In 34 games this season with the Swarm, he has averaged 17.0 PPG and 5.2 RPG with a .438/.235/.724 shooting line. While Goodwin’s NBADL production has been solid, Chris Reichert of The Step Back is somewhat surprised to see the former Sun getting a call-up, tweeting that there are 10 or 15 D-League players more deserving of an NBA shot.
The Nets made a handful of transactions around the time of the trade deadline, including trading for K.J. McDaniels, acquiring and waiving Marcus Thornton, and cutting Luis Scola. The series of roster moves left the team with 14 players on its roster for the last few weeks.
Brooklyn’s 10-day deal with Goodwin will move the club slightly closer to the salary floor for 2016/17, as our Salary Cap Snapshot shows.
LaMarcus Aldridge Medically Cleared To Return
The Spurs announced some good news today, confirming in a press release that LaMarcus Aldridge has been medically cleared to resume all basketball-related activities. Aldridge will be available to play for the team tonight against Portland.
Less than a week ago, San Antonio announced that Aldridge would be sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with a minor heart arrhythmia. However, the Spurs have given him the go-ahead to return to the court after conducting multiple tests and consulting with several medical experts, according to the club.
“We are thankful that LaMarcus will be able to rejoin the team,” Spurs GM R.C. Buford said in a statement. “All of us have been impressed with the professionalism and grace he has shown in dealing with this difficult situation.”
Things were looking a little grim for the Spurs several days ago after Kawhi Leonard had been diagnosed with a concussion and Aldridge was said to be out indefinitely. With Leonard making a quick return and Aldridge set to follow suit, San Antonio now appears poised to make a run for the No. 1 seed in the West. Currently, the Spurs are a half-game behind the Warriors in the standings.
Hollis Thompson Back On Free Agent Market
Hollis Thompson‘s second 10-day contract with the Pelicans expired overnight, giving the team the option of either locking him up for the season or letting him go. According to Scott Kushner of The Advocate (via Twitter), New Orleans has decided against signing Thompson for the remainder of the season, meaning he’ll return to the free agent market.
Thompson, who turns 26 next month, appeared in nine games during his 20 days with the Pelicans, starting eight of those games. However, he struggled mightily with his shot, making just 11 of 41 attempts from the field. Thompson’s shooting percentages in New Orleans (.268 overall, .250 on threes) represented a significant step down from his career averages in Philadelphia (.417/.389).
Assuming Thompson doesn’t catch on with another NBA team right away, there’s a good chance he’ll rejoin the Austin Spurs, his team prior to his stint with the Pelicans. The 6’8″ swingman would remain an NBA free agent even if he headed back to San Antonio’s D-League affiliate.
Having paired DeMarcus Cousins with Anthony Davis in their frontcourt in a trade that cost them three guards, the Pelicans have been looking for ball-handlers and shooters to fill out their rotation, experimenting with a number of players on 10-day contracts. The club initially signed Jarrett Jack and Reggie Williams along with Thompson, but none of those players are on the roster anymore.
Currently, New Orleans is carrying Jordan Crawford and Wayne Selden on 10-day deals, with one newly-opened spot on the team’s 15-man roster.
Lakers Shutting Down Luol Deng For Season
The youth movement continues in Los Angeles. After a Tuesday report indicated that the Lakers have shut down Timofey Mozgov for the remainder of the season, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com writes that the team has taken the same approach with veteran forward Luol Deng. Over the final 15 games, the Lakers will give the majority of the playing time to their younger players, per Shelburne.
Neither Deng nor Mozgov had seen the court much lately for the Lakers, and both players were comfortable with the idea of being shut down for the season, rather than waiting for sporadic opportunities to play for a few minutes at a time, says Shelburne. According to the ESPN scribe, the Lakers’ could revisit Deng’s and Mozgov’s roles at some point down the stretch, but the plan is for both players to be inactive the rest of the way.
The move to shut down Deng doesn’t come as a real surprise, particularly after word broke that Mozgov would be shut down. The postseason is well out of reach for the Lakers, and with less than a month left in the season, it makes sense for the new management group – including president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka – to take a longer look at the team’s young talent.
The Lakers, who currently rank second in our 2016/17 Reverse Standings, also badly need to keep their 2017 first-round pick, which will be sent to Philadelphia if it doesn’t land within the top three. If the club loses its 2017 pick, it will also owe its 2019 first-rounder to Orlando — the Lakers will keep both picks if they land in the top three this year.
Deng, who hasn’t appeared in a single game for the Lakers this month, will finish the season with 7.6 PPG and a .386 FG% (both career lows) in 56 games if he doesn’t play again. Deng is unlikely to be traded or waived in the offseason, since he has three years and $54MM left on his contract, so Los Angeles will be hoping he can bounce back next season at age 32.
The Evolution Of Analytics: Taking The NBA’s Pulse
Analytics in the NBA has come a long way. There was a time when basketball-lifers and number-guys were gridlocked in a duel for the future. Now, both sides have softened their stance and acknowledge that the process needs to be a combination of stats, scouting, and common sense.
In most organizations, analytics departments don’t usually communicate directly with players. “We meet with coaches more so than players and let them relay the information,” Bucks Director of Basketball Research Seth Partnow told Hoops Rumors.“There may be reasons why a player is not performing [certain] tasks that are more effective in theory.”
Partnow wouldn’t provide a specific example from Milwaukee’s front office, but during the MIT Sloan Conference’s Ball Don’t Lie panel, former Nuggets executive Dean Oliver spoke about a scenario where the team shot down the empirical evidence. In the late 2000’s, Oliver’s research found that if J.R. Smith took a few steps back when shooting from behind the arc—akin to what Stephen Curry has done over the last few seasons—the value of the increase in floor spacing would outweigh the slight dip in 3-point percentage. However, coach George Karl wasn’t comfortable giving Smith the green light from that distance (the running joke among panel members and media attendees was that Oliver should have communicated directly with Smith, which would have easily persuaded the shooting guard to test out the theory as well as given Oliver the chance–likely with success– to validate his research).
There are other instances where teams may not use all the available information. Overloading players with data can be counter-productive at times. “Some players you give data to slows their mind down, slows their feet down,” former NBA coach Vinny Del Negro said during the same panel. “There might be a younger guy that you can only tell one or two things to…you have to remember the human element.”
Free agent power forward Luis Scola believes that in 10 years, every player will be comfortable with analytics, though he admits many of them rely on coaching staffs to get acclimated with the terminology and application of the mathematics. “In terms of data, players are way behind coaches,” Scola said.
As the analytics movement continues to evolve, the focus will shift to sports science. “Where else can it go? We tackled the front office already,” former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks told Hoops Rumors. Organizations are already able to use mathematical models to gauge player values and learn how their roster can improve on and off the court. The next step is improving ways to monitor the health of players and perfecting the distribution of minutes in teams’ rotations. Marks, who now writes for The Vertical, envisions nearly every club hiring a Director of Sports Science to head a branch of their analytic departments in the future.
Player tracking devices will allow teams to gain the information needed to make crucial decisions. The new CBA could give players the ability to wear trackables and teams the access to the data, but the technology won’t be blanketly allowed throughout the league once the new agreement is signed. Per the new CBA, the NBA will set up committees, which will be comprised of league office members and representatives from the players’ union, to regulate the use of biometrics. Marks cautions that it’s not inevitable that players will use the technology next season, calling the integration of wearables “a slow process.”
Some players are luke-warm on the idea of wearables, while a fraction of them are against wearing the devices for fear that the data will hurt them in free agency. That viewpoint is far from the majority; many players see the value of the data. Once the new information exists, it will be used to assist the players with their health and help teams find the optimal minute distributions which will allow the players to have longer careers. “[The league] is going to get better using this [technology],” Celtics Assistant GM Michael Zarren said during the Ball Don’t Lie panel. “98% of the time, the players and team objectives align.”
NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 3/14/17
Here are Tuesday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
10:12 pm:
- The Cavaliers have assigned Larry Sanders to the Canton Charge, according to the D-League Digest (Twitter link). Cleveland signed Sanders on Monday.
- The Hawks have assigned DeAndre’ Bembry to the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the team’s website. Atlanta doesn’t have its own D-League affiliate, so the rookie will play for Utah’s affiliate, per the league’s flex assignment rule.
5:32pm:
- The Cavaliers have assigned rookie guard Kay Felder to the Canton Charge, the D-League affiliate wrote in a press release on its official website. Felder has appeared in 9 games for Canton already this season.
3:58pm:
- The Clippers announced they have recalled Brice Johnson from the Salt Lake City Stars (press release). Johnson, the 25th overall pick in the 2016 draft, has largely been inactive this season due to a herniated disk in his back.
- The Pistons have recalled Henry Ellenson from the D-League, according to the team.
Fantasy Hoops: Clippers, Zubac, Nurkic
Happy π day everyone! In honor of the day and of the fantasy playoffs, Hoops Rumors wants to make this a stat-driven edition of Fantasy Hoops. Here’s some fantasy notes and analysis from around the league.
- The Clippers may appear as a tough matchup for centers, but over the last 10 contests, only the Knicks have allowed more points per game to opposing fives. Over that span, no team has allowed a better shooting percentage to opposing fives and only three teams (Nets, Nuggets, and Kings) have allowed more assists to the position. L.A. will take on the Bucks, Nuggets, Cavs, Knicks and Lakers over their next five games.
- The Lakers shut down Timofey Mozgov and the move should give Ivica Zubac an opportunity to become a fantasy contributor. On Monday night, the rookie saw 30 minutes of action and made 12 of his 15 shot attempts on his way to 25 points and 11 rebounds.
- Jusuf Nurkic is available in nearly 30% of ESPN leagues. That number should be closer to zero, as he’s averaging 15.3 points per games since the All-Star game and he’s one of 15 players in the league averaging at least one block and one steal per contest over that span.
- Alan Williams is also one of those 15 players. In addition to contributing in the blocks and steals categories, he’s averaging 13.8 points and 9.7 rebounds in 25.4 minutes per game since the break. Williams is available in nearly 50% of ESPN leagues.
- Jeremy Lin is starting to significant minutes again. Over his last five games, he’s seeing 24.8 minutes per game and averaging 16.6 points, 3.8 assists, and 1.0 steals per contest.
- Over the last 10 games, no team has allowed a better shooting percentage to opposing point guards than the Grizzlies. Only three teams ( Suns, Blazers, and Bulls) have allowed more points per game to the position over that stretch. Memphis plays Chicago on Wednesday and Rajon Rondo could be a nice streaming option. Patty Mills could be a sneaky good fantasy option as well over the next two weeks. The Spurs play the Grizzlies twice over their next five games.
- Keep an eye on Michael Beasley‘s status. The former No. 2 overall pick remains out with a knee injury and he isn’t traveling with the Bucks on their current 5-game road trip. In the five games prior to his injury, Beasley played a major role in the offense, averaging 17.4 points per game and ranking second on the team is usage rate. Beasley could be a fantasy contributor. The 28-year-old could be an excellent fantasy asset once he returns to the court.
Fantasy questions? Take to the comment section below or tweet me at @CW_Crouse.
Statistics are current through Tuesday afternoon.
Bulls Notes: Wade, Butler, Hoiberg
Dwyane Wade‘s homecoming with the Bulls hasn’t gone as planned and rival executives expect him to hit free agency this summer, Ken Berger of Bleacher Report writes. Wade holds a player option worth $23.8MM for next season.
Wade recently suggested that “upper management” should be the people answering questions on coach Fred Hoiberg‘s lineup decisions. “I don’t want to say too much,” Wade said after a recent game. “I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”
Hoiberg has been experimenting with the rotation, something that’s atypical this late in the season for a team trying to stay afloat in a playoff race. The Bulls entered the day with the ninth-best record in the Eastern Conference.
This wasn’t this first time that Wade showed frustration this season. In late January, Wade and Jimmy Butler criticized their teammates via social media for how they how handled a tough loss. Point guard Rajon Rondo then took to Instagram to criticize them, exclaiming that his “vets” in Boston wouldn’t take to social media to address their concerns. Sources tell Berger that as a result of the bickering, all three were fined by the team.
Here’s more from Berger’s piece:
- Some rival teams always felt that the additions of Wade and Rondo were never going to work out. “It’s a three-point shooting league, and they have a backcourt where that’s not their forte,” a rival head coach told Berger.
- Chicago’s lack of shooting is problematic, but Hoiberg contributes to the organizations’ issues. There’s a belief around the league that Butler is not a fan of the coach and a rival scout told Berger that he’s seen instances of Butler, Wade, and Rondo ignoring the coach’s play calls. “When Fred would call plays on the sideline, Rondo would just flat-out blow him off,” said the scout. “Wade does it, too. Butler does it, too. … That becomes infectious.”
- Another rival coach told Berger that the Bulls‘ front office wants Hoiberg to work out, adding that the franchise was entertaining trade offers for Butler because dealing the 3-time All-Star would “protect” Hoiberg. “Getting rid of Butler saves Fred’s job,” the source said. “Otherwise, malaise continues.”
- According to Berger, league sources “insist” that the Bulls haven’t ruled out bringing Rondo back for the second season of his contract. His salary for 2017/18 is mostly non-guaranteed.
Kings Notes: Hield, Evans, Richardson
When the Kings traded DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans, the majority of discussion surrounding the deal focused on the superstar heading to New Orleans.
As the dust continues to settle, it’s become increasingly clear that Tyreke Evans and Buddy Hield can have substantial impacts of their own. Benedict Tagle of Kings.com recently wrote about what the pair have been accomplishing since arriving in Northern California.
Though just seven games into his second stint with the team that drafted him, Evans has improved upon the numbers he posted with the Pelicans at the start of the year. Evans began the 2016/17 campaign on the shelf and had to slowly play himself back into game shape. Since rejoining Sacramento, however, he’s posted career highs in points, rebounds and blocks per 100 possessions.
Hield, too, has seen his production rise since the trade. Hield’s 14.2 points per game since the trade are 5.6 higher than what he posted in New Orleans and his effective field-goal percentage has ballooned to .636.
There’s more from the Kings today:
- If the postseason was ever truly an option for the post-Rudy Gay injury Kings, it certainly isn’t now. As Noel Harris of the Sacramento Bee outlines, a recent eight-game skid has dropped Sacramento six games behind the eight-seed Nuggets.
- Although injured rookie Malachi Richardson has been putting up shots prior to games, the Kings won’t rush him back unless he’s able to play in a significant number of games, head coach Dave Joeger told the media, including Hector Amezcua of the Sacramento Bee.
- Among the five or six things that Kings coach Dave Joeger would like to see before the end of the season is Willie Cauley-Stein and Skal Labissiere playing together. Joeger told the Sacramento Bee’s Hector Amezcua and the rest of media that he’ll continue to look to give them the opportunity.