Luka Doncic isn’t sure he’ll come stateside to play in the NBA next season, as he tells ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. “I will tell about all at the right time. Right now I just want to celebrate with my team. Soon I will tell,” the prospect said following Real Madrid’s win in the Euroleague Championship.
Doncic is in the conversation for the No. 1 pick, held by Phoenix, though he is not the favorite to go at that spot. The Kings and Hawks follow the Suns in the draft and Givony hears that both teams are likely to pass on the young wing. The scribe spent the weekend in Belgrade along with several NBA executives to watch Doncic in a game in which he scored just 15 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Sacramento and Atlanta may each look to add a long-term piece in the frontcourt with their top pick. It was previously reported that the Kings aren’t overly-impressed with their current bigs.
“They have a real hole there in the frontcourt. I don’t think that they’re in love with Willie Cauley-Stein by any means. They started Zach Randolph at the four all year long,” Givony previously reported. “What do they do there? Do they go with Marvin Bagley who is going to be a compelling prospect for them?
Givony wonders whether a team will trade up into the top three to select Doncic and suggests without a trade occurring, the 19-year-old could drop to No.4 or No.5, picks held by Memphis and Dallas, respectively.
The Kings really need to draft best player available, which will probably be Doncic. Hawks should only take a bit if they can play center, since they have John Collins at the four, who is one of their only long term players. Not saying Bagley would be a bad pick though. Grizzlies could get a steal if Doncic falls.
Kings have to figure out if they’re married to Harry Giles and Skal Labissiere moving forward at 5 and 4. If so, they’ll probably take Doncic. If not, it’s gotta be Bagley/Jackson. Randolph, Koufos, and WCS clearly aren’t the future in Sacramento.
The Hawks, they need to get their heads out of their butts. They have an above average PG in Schroder at 15M, Loul Deng makes 18M nest year. Bazemore is what he is – an overpaid Jordan Clarkson. But Prince and Collins look like players. If they can dump Bazemore, they’d probably take Doncic. If they are in re-build maybe they can wait out a Ricky Rubio type of draft & stash with a high pick? Bazemore’s contract is up in 2 years. If the league is trending away from traditional 5’s then they could pair Collins with a Bagley or Jackson.
???
Bazemore and Jordan Crawford make for a horrible comparison! Baze is a good defender, shooter, secondary playmaker, and over paid. Jordan is just a Vinny Johnson type player. When he’s right he can put the ball in the basket! But the defense is suspect, as well as creating for others. So outside of both being overpaid, not a lot to compare about the two.
Lou Deng???
Collins? I like him as a player! But he is in know way good enough to pass on Ayton or Bagley!!! He can also play the 4 or the 5, so Collins should be of no concern.
My Hawks should take whoever of the top 3 that fall to them! Doncic, Ayton, or Bagley! DS wil be traded at some point with his recent comments.
Okay Steve let’s start from the beginning. Where did I say Jordan Crawford? Get your players right before you play the game. Jordan Clarkson. I will grant you Bazemore is a better defender 11.6 DWS vs 2.7 DWS, although Bazemore is a -1.3 OWS vs 6.0 OWS to Clarkson. Identical True Shooting %. Not a huge difference though between them at the end of the day, besides Clarkson being the better scorer and Bazemore the better defender. You can compare their careers on basketball reference – they’ve played 8337 vs 8313 minutes too. And again both overpaid fringe starters.
Used Loul Deng’s contract at 18M, as a waste of space compared to a starting, above average PG only making 15M. So when you’ve got guys out there like Deng, Mozgov, Noah, bums making more than him, you’ve got this young, athletic, PG locked in for 3 years at 15M.
Obviously they are taking whomever falls to them at 3. There are only 4 players being discussed ATM. So they will have to make a choice – 2 of Bagley/Doncic/Jackson will be there. Ayton is not going to be there.
They possibly will trade Schroder, which is a dumb move that’s propped up by fan base chatter more so than anything else, but whatever.
So you took arguably the worst contracts in the league and used them to justify Schroder’s salary? Why wouldn’t you use actual similar PGs salaries? When you see a Kemba Walker making $12MM or Eric Bledsoe making $14MM, both of whom I consider superior players, Schroder is not the bargain you make him out to be. I don’t think he is vastly overpaid by any means. He’s just not a bargain.
Rubio Bledsoe and Schroder make basically the same next season. Walkers deal is probably the most team friendly in the league. How much better is Jrue Holiday or Kyle Lowry? paid 1.75 to 2x more.
At least that is a better argument than bringing up Deng or Noah when talking about Schroder. However, I will refute it anyway.
He might eventually be overpaid if he comes back to Earth, but Jrue Holiday had an outstanding year. In fact according to win shares, which I am not a fan of but it’ll play here, Holiday was worth nearly 3 times the value of Schroder this season at 7.1 vs. 2.6. Kyle Lowry was the starting PG for the #1 seed in the East and had win shares of 10.2. Now, like I said I am not a fan of win shares, so I will mention another reason they are worth more.
They led their teams to the playoffs including 1 series win each and Schroder led his team to the top of the lottery. Regardless of whether it is fair or not, players that win usually get recognized financially more than players that do not.
Holiday’s past performance didn’t dictate that kind of Pay-Day, this is the 1st year he played more than 70 games since 2012-13. When people were calling into the radio stations like ‘bring Jrue back to Philly’ I wanted to drive off the road.
Technically, Win Shares bias towards players on good teams. So it’s a stat that works if you’re comparing players on playoff teams not so much for 1st place and last place teams. Like Devin Booker’s Win Share is 2.4 and Schroders is 2.6. I’d take Devin Booker over Schroder 10/10.
Who is Schroder playing with? Bazemore is a back-up. You may like his defense, but he’s a back-up, 6th man type of player.
Jrue Holiday is playing with Anthony Davis. MVP candidate.
Lowry, who I think is good, albeit way overpaid at 30M at age 32, is playing with DeRozan Top-15 or 20 player in the league, Ibaka, and Valanciunas.
The other thing, after next year you’ve got Kyrie & Dragic opting out, Kemba, Bledsoe, Rubio, and Deangelo Russell all having to get re-upped. Schroder’s locked in still at 15M for 2 years after that – in his prime versus 20, 25, 30M contracts these other guys will get.
Lol…. play the game?
I think everyone reading this, including you know I meant Jordan Clarkston. But I’ll take the blame since I didn’t go back a re-read my post. That still has so little to do with you comparing two players that have two vastly different playing styles and agendas, making them incomparable for this debate. Have you ever watched these two play?
It’s not obvious and we as fans don’t know that there are only 4 names being discussed! Every year one team tries to reinvent the wheel when drafting, this year will be no different. One team will reach for a guy they fell in love with, I just don’t want it to be the Hawks!
As far as DS…. As of now he is my favorite Hawk! But we’d be out of our minds not to consider it. He did once again make bone headed comments to the media and even suggested his own trade. Our current GM did not draft him and we face the very real possibility of his contract being up by the time we are through rebuilding. So if you can get that Orl pick, you have to give it serious consideration.
Okay I’ll concede yes, people get names wrong. It drives me up the wall though, I hear it all the time on the radio – I am a basketball junkie. I was even watching process games of the Sixers with zero talent on the floor.
There’s only one player that could crack the Top-3 not being discussed, and that’s Michael Porter Jr, who would go #1 or #2 overall if he didn’t jack up his back and sit out almost the entire season. Currently he’s projected to go to the Bulls at 7.
So if in your scenario you get that #6 Orlando pick, you taking Trae Young? That’s pretty much the consensus.
tf? Schlenk has made all good moves in one year. Matching Milsap 3/$30mil: no. (Actually 2/$60, but still no.) And HardawayJr 4/$71mil: no.
Team goals were appropriately changed.
Howard (3/$71), Humphries, older role players out (none but Howard had a good year); Muscala & Ilyasova stays; Dedmon in; Collins drafted #19.
They did acquire then waive Quin Cook without testing him, ??
In Feb Bellinelli and Ilyasova were waived, not surprisingly. Recently they released Tyler Cavanaugh, surprising. But these are all good moves.
I’m not critical of Bazemore, but like BRK with Dinwiddie, they probably could have gotten something good from Cleveland at least in a trade. Maybe.
Still, definitely head is clear of butt.
I’m sure they would love to take Bagley and one of those 3&D wings at 19. But if Sac takes Bagley, IDK. Porter looked stiff, but that’s my #3, barely.
Jaren J might be a better pick for Atl, he is willing to be C. I suspect Bagley will want to move to PF like Collins likely does.
Bagley is superior to Collins and Jackson, I’m not passing on him. When did Collins say he wanted to be a PF? I missed it if he did. I think Jackson can be a very good player, however I think Bagley can be a Star! That’s exactly what the Hawks need! I also think Bagley floor is higher and caries less of a chance of being a bust.
Bagley’s better but it looks like Sacto will probably take him.
I actually meant Jackson would be a better fit than Porter. That’s what their best choices will be. Pierce says he wants D.
I think Dallas trades up to get Donic. Don’t know who moves down. But it will b someone in the top 3. But it all will depend heavily on if the Suns pass on him. Which I don’t want to c happen but I think they go with Ayton.
I don’t think this is the draft that anyone moves up that’s already in the Top-9. This is a very deep draft. LAC at 12 & 13 would be the most likely to move up. Maybe Orlando trades out if they don’t value Trae Young at 6 enough to gamble on Sexton/Walker being there at 12 and grabbing Robert Williams to replace Vucevic/Byiombo.
If Bamba is there at 5, Dallas probably takes him. And focuses on Randle in the offseason.
Exactly. Take BPA and go after Randle or Aaron Gordon
Yea of those two, I think Orlando matches Gordon instantly. They’ve got a real shot at landing Randle though. But they could play out a similar scenario – draft Jackson Jr. if he falls to them and offer sheet to Capela.
I’m surprised he’s not linked to Phoenix more after the hire of their HC
Phoenix is kind of in a tough situation. If they pass on Ayton and he does ANYTHING in the pros, they will be roasted by the local media since he is the “local” guy. If they take Ayton and Doncic proves to be a better player, they can always play the local guy card. If they take Doncic, he will probably be booed by fans that wanted Ayton…at least until he becomes great should that happen, but it will be tough going.
If they take Doncic and he pulls a Rubio and doesn’t come over for 2 years they’ll get destroyed media wise.
After striking out on Bender and with his job soon to be on the line, McDonough likely goes with Ayton. This leaves SAC with the choice of either Bagley or Doncic. Ultimately, I think Bagley will be their guy cause of his upside and the major hole he fills at the 4. Atlanta then takes Doncic. No way they pass him up for Bamba or Jackson Jr.
Look this media guy doesn’t have inside info period there teams aren’t telling the media they are gonna draft the guy it’s all speculation.. no one knows what will happen cause things are fluid at that spot .. if someone made the Kings a offer they couldn’t resist like a current star that’s locked up for 5-6 years and a pick next year they would trade out of the spot I’m sure but to say they aren’t gonna take Doncic is just speculation period.
You ain’t gonna get a star for a number 2 pick, I don’t believe anyone is locked up for 5-6 years in the NBA… I don’t know what sport do that, though. At the end of the day is what we doing here, right, speculate, this is called hoops rumors…
All first round rookies are locked up for at least that long, sometimes longer. Teams have them locked up through options for their first four years and then they can become RESTRICTED free agents, which continues to give the original team virtual control over them, should they give a qualifying offer. If a player accepts that qualifying offer, a la Nerlens Noel last year, then they can become unrestricted the next year, 5 years after being drafted. If they do not accept the qualifying offer and the original team matches an offer, a la Otto Porter last year, then the original team continues to maintain control for the first 8 years of his career.
Yea you basically can own them for 8/9 years.
This is now the second post by Hoops Rumors where they are using the quote “I don’t think the Kings are in love with Willie Cauley-Stein” as PROOF that they won’t take Doncic.
Please.
First of all, who in the Kings front office told Givony that the brass looks down upon WCS? Secondly, Zach Randolph did not “play the 4 all season long” as Givony reports. When Z-Bo did play, of course that’s where he was on the court (he’s not exactly the most versatile athlete in the NBA). But
DeMar DeRozan for Bogdan Bogdanovic, Temple, Shumpert, and Kings’ 2018 2nd round pick…Sacramento drafts Doncic or Porter, or trades down to get either one of the Bridges, still Porter, or maybe a Kevin Knox…Thoughts?
Not enough for DeRozan. You’re not picking him up for Bogdanovic and scraps. A DeRozan/Kings trade will not happen without the #2 pick being involved.
I’m not a fan of either team, but I feel like that’s a great trade for Toronto and makes them a lot better. Maybe you value DeRozan a lot higher than I do, and he should be, though. Shumpert is an expiring contract, as is Temple, and would be for salary matching purposes. Temple gives them depth on the wing, which they need, and both he and Bogdanovic give them the shooting help they need, while also allowing for more player movement off the ball, and ball movement in the offense, that isn’t there with Lowry and DeRozan taking so many ISO possessions
Hassan Whiteside for Randolph, Temple, and their 2018 2nd rounder, which I think is #37…
another possibility, if Kawhi were to get moved and the Heat somehow got him, which I do not think they would b/c a couple of other teams can offer a better deal, is a 3 team deal…Heat get Kawhi, Randolph, Koufos, and Kings 2018 2nd round pick (#37), Spurs get Waiters, James Johnson, McGruder, Temple, Heat 2019 1st round pick, and Kings get Whiteside and Patty Mills. That one is probably the dream scenario for the Heat though lol