Per Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston, the Celtics front office, long a staunch supporter of flipping the order of the NBA draft and free agency, once again spoke about the idea of having free agency occur before the draft after a pre-draft workout earlier this week.
“I have been a big proponent of switching the draft and free agency,” said director of player personnel Austin Ainge. “I think that most teams build from veteran players first… you more likely are fitting in draft picks in and around a veteran core group. So I think the calendar should follow our decision-making tree. So I think it should be switched.”
The NBA has been open-minded to changes, having recently modified the beginning of free agency to 6pm on June 30 as opposed to midnight on July 1. It remains to be seen whether the league will be as open to changing the order of the draft and free agency.
There are more odds and ends to report from around the basketball world this evening:
- Kenyon Martin Jr., the son of former NBA player Kenyon Martin, is bypassing college basketball at Vanderbilt to pursue a professional career, reports Evan Daniels of 247Sports. He joins RJ Hampton as the second high-profile high school prospect to turn down a college career, although Hampton was a much more ballyhooed recruit than Martin.
- According to a tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Kings forward Harrison Barnes will participate in USA Basketball’s August training camp ahead of the FIBA World Cup in China this fall.
- Spurs big man Donatas Motiejunas was not named to Lithuania’s preliminary roster for the FIBA Basketball World Cup, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Carchia passes along the full squad, which features Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas.
lebron will veto that – no way he would support equal opportunity
Lebron will veto what?
I wish the dubs woulda just kept Barnes. Then we wouldn’t have some coward named Kevin holding em hostage to prove a point
Barnes was gone regardless, they wouldn’t have paid him 25mill a year. But I agree with you, they should have got someone like Horford that summer instead of KD (they reportedly wanted him). Getting Durant, while obviously a much better player, was a redundant move. He’s another scorer in a team already full of splashers. They also brought themselves a lot of hate, from everywhere in the league, and people will forever undermine their success because of that move, which is unfair really. The Warriors were a perfect machine before KD, only hampered by injuries in 2016, the only thing lacking was maybe a quality big, not another scorer. They changed the game, and Durant just jumped on the bandwagon. KD should have gone to Boston with the IT crew, that would have been a tremendous battle in the Finals. As SAS put it, going to Golden State was “the weakest move by an NBA superstar ever”.
HAHAHA….a team with Curry, Klay, Dray, Iggy that won 73 games lost to the Cavs because of an injured Bogut and Dray missing 1 game? How about they lost because the FIRST TIME in the finals they were facing a complete and healthy Cavs with LBJ, Irving and Love? Excuses, excuses, excuses. How about this? The GSW were LUCKY to win the first matchup when LBJ didn’t have Love and Irving. For an amazing team with amazing accomplishments, I hear a whole lot of excuse making when they fall short. And let’s be real. Down 2-1 is not exactly time to panic.
And all those that say “they didn’t need KD” please remember. The Rockets have shown that the regular season is the regular season but when you get into a best of 7 series when teams have 2 days off in between and can make game to game adjustments, the better team can be nullified.
I don’t care what you say. KD was like Mr. Eraser erasing mistakes made by others when they came up short. He was their safety net and made matchups laughable at times. He was the one player on the GSW that teams didn’t have an answer for.
In 2016 the Warriors went for the 73 wins the whole season and they paid for it in the Playoffs. Apart from the injuries you mentioned, most of the team was banged up, Curry began injured the Playoffs, never fully recovered and they almost lost to OKC. That and the bogus suspension of Draymond, which changed dramatically the dynamic of the Finals, cost them the title…In the last second of the last game. Nobody knows how they would have done without KD, but they would have added another piece for sure (while losing Barnes, Barbosa, Ezeli, etc), and the core of that historic team was intact, so it’s very probable they would have won another title again, maybe not 2 straight but 1 for sure.
I doubt GSW gets by Houston on their last title run without the best player on the court, Durant, according to Bas. Ref.’s “GmSc” overall metric.
As for 2017, the Cavs had no solutions for Durant. A Durant-defender was their main offseason priority if I recall, despite the normal needs, until the Irving shortlist saga. Otherwise, they had GSW figured out.
Horford instead of Durant is intrigueing but they don’t do what they did without Durant. Well next year they can show everyone. (He doesn’t seem like a guy returning right now)
You mean two time Finals MVP Kevin?
Amazing how not only does everyone else hate KD for joining Dubs, but even Dubs fans believe they’re better without him.
So, they took a couple of games from a flawed Rockets team and won four against an overrated Blazers team without him. Take away a six minute Raptors capitulation in game 2, and the Warriors are 0-2 without him in these Finals and in the brink of elimination tonight.
Instead of bad mouthing KD about this playoff run, why not be happy for the two titles he brought you?
He’s made 2 of the weakest moves by a superstar. First joining a 73-win team who already has a ring. The 2nd is letting a mild calf strain keep you out for over a month during the most important time of year… no one is calling him out on it in the media
Well the GSW also pulled one of the weakest move by sending the “Hampton 5” to BEG KD to join a team that just broke the record for most wins but couldn’t finish the job of beating a healty Cavs team. They are BOTH weak because a) they pursued KD, not the other way around. b) KD figured if ya can’t beat em join em.
Also, that’s wack to question his health. Do you REALLY think KD wouldn’t play if he felt he could even be at 75%?
I think dray hurt his feelings and he’s trying to prove a point cause that’s who kd is. He’s trying to show we can’t win without him but any team missing one of their 2 best players is gonna struggle especially when he’s costing us 30 million we coulda spent on someone else that would play with a “mild calf strain”
This take has not aged well.
Why so pissy on Friday? NBA should flip per the article. However the commissioner works for the owners. The GM crowd should have their owners tell the commissioner “do it”. Easy fix.