Pistons Notes: Draft, Brown, Casey, TV Workers
If the Pistons win the lottery, Georgia guard Anthony Edwards would be their best hope of landing a potential superstar in this draft, according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. Edwards’ “power athleticism” gives him a slight edge over LaMelo Ball, another point guard who played in Australia this season. Edwards, who is already 225 pounds at 18 years old, can be elite offensively if he’s willing to put in the work, Vecenie adds. The Pistons currently have a 10.5% chance of landing the top pick, so Vecenie and The Athletic’s James Edwards III run through a variety of draft scenarios and prospects from 1-7.
We have more on the Pistons:
- Second-year guard Bruce Brown will be focused on continuing to develop his jumper and improving his other ball skills during this offseason, Keith Langlois of the team’s website writes. Brown has already established himself as a solid and versatile perimeter defender and coach Dwane Casey views him in a secondary ballhandler role going forward. The franchise values Brown as a vital part of the future while reshaping many other parts of its roster, Langlois adds.
- Casey has been spending extra time viewing film of not only NBA games but also draft prospects, according to Rod Beard of the Detroit News. The Pistons were one of the teams that went into self-isolation after the suspension of play. “Watching game film, trying to see what we can do differently defensively,” Casey said. “New ideas to experiment with for next year. Also watching a lot of draft film. Very unusual for this time of year.”
- While the Pistons and other teams are giving assistance to arena workers and staff members during the hiatus, the team’s broadcasting crew is seeking financial help, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports. Freelancers for Fox Sports Detroit — which also broadcast Red Wings and Tigers games — are not getting paid during the hiatus. FSD was one of the regional sports networks purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group last year and haven’t been offered any assistance from Sinclair. Most FSD workers at Pistons home games, including stage managers, camera operators, audio technicians and editors, are freelancers.
Atlantic Notes: Van Gundy, Sixers, Smart, Barrett
Stan Van Gundy calls the Knicks organization “extremely dysfunctional” and has no interest in becoming their head coach, The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov tweets. However, he hinted that former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy might have some interest in a second stint. Speaking on ESPN radio, the former Miami, Orlando and Detroit head coach said, “I’m not really interested in the New York Knicks, no. If anyone would be interested in that — and I’m not sure he is either — it would be my brother.”
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The extended layoff will definitely help the Sixers, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer opines. Ben Simmons will have ample time to heal the lower back injury that sidelined him shortly after the All-Star break. Coach Brett Brown will have more time to solve the spacing issues created by playing Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Al Horford together. It also allows Josh Richardson time to rest his hamstring injuries and be further removed from the concussion he suffered, Pompey adds.
- All of the other Celtics players and staff have tested negative for COVID-19, Tim Bontemps of ESPN tweets. Guard Marcus Smart is one of 14 NBA players/personnel who have tested positive. Smart revealed his test result on Thursday.
- Despite mediocre efficiency ratings, Knicks guard RJ Barrett flashed All-Star potential in his rookie season, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Barrett, who has posted averages of 14.3 PPG and 5.2 RPG, has a knack for getting to the basket, a consistently high motor and a strong work ethic. NBA talent evaluators are confident Barrett can significantly improve his perimeter and free throw shooting.
Daniel Oturu Headed To NBA Draft
Minnesota sophomore big man Daniel Oturu plans to enter the draft, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Oturu is currently ranked No. 37 overall and No. 6 among centers by ESPN’s draft experts after a breakout season.
The 6’9” Oturu averaged 20.1 PPG, 11.3 RPG and 2.6 BPG for the Golden Gophers. He posted 18 double-doubles and reached the 20-point mark in five of his last six games. He scored a career-high 30 points in a win over Michigan.
Oturu, who received second-team All-Big 10 honors, averaged 10.8 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 1.3 BPG as a freshman.
NBA Season Could Stretch Into September
The NBA season could be extended into September in order to determine a winner, rather than cancelling it, several ESPN analysts suggest.
While there’s been talk the league could play into August, this is the first time we’ve heard of potentially playing to the end of summer or even the start of fall.
Appearing on Outside the Lines, Ramona Shelburne declares the league will do all it can to have a team hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy (Video link).
“This is a general sense among owners and players that no matter what they want to salvage the season, if that’s in July, if that’s in August, if that’s in September, so be it,” she said. “I don’t think anyone wants to start a new season without crowning a champion from this season.”
Former NBA player Jalen Rose said players could get ready physically to resume the season fairly quickly and doesn’t see competition with other sports as an issue (video link).
“The NBA could start in mid-June, mid-July, the NBA could start in August,” he said on ESPN’s morning show Get Up. “This idea that you can’t play basketball in September because you don’t want to compete with the NFL is absurd.”
Brian Windhorst echoed Rose’s comments on the same program.
“I think they’ll do whatever it takes, whatever it is on the calendar,” he said. “I don’t think I would rule out September basketball at all.”
Community Shootaround: Hypothetical MVP Ballot
Before the 2019/20 NBA season was postponed, LeBron James seemed to be building some momentum in an MVP race that Giannis Antetokounmpo had dominated for much of the year.
James had just led the Lakers to signature wins over the Bucks and Clippers, the two top threats to the Lakers’ title hopes. At the same time, a knee injury sustained in that Bucks/Lakers showdown had sidelined Antetokounmpo for the two games leading up to the stoppage.
With the NBA now in an indefinite hiatus, the MVP race has been put on hold. In fact, it’s possible it might be over altogether. While team owners and players alike want to resume the season, it’s not clear if or when that will happen. And if it does resume, the rest of regular season figures to be significantly reduced or perhaps even excised entirely in order to quickly advance to the playoffs.
With that in mind, we want to get your hypothetical MVP ballot for the 2019/20 NBA season. Do you have Giannis or LeBron in the top spot? How would you fill out the rest of your top five?
Dan Devine of The Ringer tried his hand at putting together a ballot, picking Antetokounmpo as his MVP, followed by James, Rockets star James Harden, LeBron’s teammate Anthony Davis, and reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard. Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald had the same top three (Giannis, LeBron, and Harden) on his unofficial MVP ballot, as did ESPN’s panel of voters.
ESPN’s straw poll respondents had Leonard and Davis in their top six as well, but were more bullish than Devine on Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who finished fourth. Thunder guard Chris Paul, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, and Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard rounded out ESPN’s top 10, with Jayson Tatum (Celtics) and Bradley Beal (Wizards) each receiving a lone down-ballot vote as well.
What do you think? How would you fill out your five-man MVP ballot based on what we’ve seen so far?
Head to the comment section below to share your list and your reasoning!
Nets Notes: Head Coach, Allen, Kyrie, Durant
Asked today during an ESPN Radio appearance about the two NBA head coaching jobs in New York, former coach and current analyst Stan Van Gundy said there’s “no question” that the Nets‘ position is more favorable than the Knicks‘ opening, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes.
“Of the two, the Nets are the better job. There’s no question about that right now,” Van Gundy said. “The organization has been more stable. They’ve won more games. They have more talent.”
While the Knicks project to have a good deal of cap flexibility going forward and have some promising young players like RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson, the Nets should have stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving healthy for the start of next season, with a talented supporting cast that includes Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Joe Harris.
Both teams will be in the market for new head coaches after the season, with Mike Miller and Jacque Vaughn holding the jobs in the interim after having replaced David Fizdale and Kenny Atkinson, respectively.
Here’s more on the Nets:
- In the wake of Atkinson’s departure and DeAndre Jordan‘s ascension to the starting lineup, Jarrett Allen‘s long-term outlook in Brooklyn has never been cloudier, according to Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The Nets’ handling of Allen raises the question of whether the young center could become an offseason trade piece, Lewis writes.
- Kyrie Irving announced today on Instagram that he’s donating $323K to Feeding America amidst the COVID-19 crisis and is working to distribute 250,000 meals across the New York area. As Howard Beck of Bleacher Report tweets, Irving chose that specific donation amount of $323K to reflect his birthday (March 23) and as a nod to Kobe Bryant (the sum of the digits is 8).
- Appearing on Friday on NBC Sports Washington’s Wizards Talk podcast, Kevin Durant‘s good friend Quinn Cook provided a positive update on Durant, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week. “He’s just encouraging social distancing, staying inside and don’t expose others,” Cook said. “For him to step up to the plate and use his platform to spread awareness, it’s brave. That’s the kind of guy he is. He’s fine. He’s doing great.”
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Bird Rights
The Bird exception, named after Larry Bird, is a rule included in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows teams to go over the salary cap to re-sign their own players. A player who qualifies for the Bird exception, formally referred to as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, is said to have “Bird rights.”
The most basic way for a player to earn Bird rights is to play for the same team for at least three seasons, either on a multiyear deal or separate one-year contracts. Still, there are other criteria. A player retains his Bird rights in the following scenarios:
He changes teams via trade. For instance, the Cavaliers would hold Andre Drummond‘s Bird rights if he opts for free agency this offseason, despite just acquiring him in February. His Bird clock didn’t reset when he was traded from the Pistons to Cleveland.- He finishes a third season with a team after having only signed for a partial season with the club in the first year. Patrick McCaw finished the 2018/19 season on a contract with the Raptors, then re-signed with Toronto on a two-year deal in the summer of 2019. When that contract expires, McCaw will have full Bird rights because of the partial season he spent with the Raptors last year, which started his Bird clock.
- He signed for a full season in year one or two but the team waived him, he cleared waivers, and didn’t sign with another team before re-signing with the club and remaining under contract through a third season. This one’s a little confusing, but let’s use DeMarcus Cousins as an example. Partway through his one-year contract with the Lakers, Cousins was waived last month and has yet to join a new team. If the Lakers were to re-sign Cousins to a two-year contract in the offseason, without him joining a new team in the interim, they’d have his full Bird rights at the end of that deal.
A player sees the clock on his Bird rights reset to zero in the following scenarios:
- He changes teams via free agency.
- He is waived and is not claimed on waivers (except as in scenario No. 3 above).
- His rights are renounced by his team. However, his Bird clock resumes where it left off if he re-signs with that team without having signed with another NBA team. For example, Mike Scott had his rights renounced by the Sixers last July, as Philadelphia attempted to gain cap flexibility. Scott eventually signed a new two-year deal with the 76ers and will have full Bird rights at the end of it.
- He is selected in an expansion draft.
If a player who would have been in line for Bird rights at the end of the season is waived and claimed off waivers, he would retain only Early Bird rights. Meanwhile, a player with Bird rights who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract (or a one-year deal with a second-year option) would lose his Bird rights if he’s traded. As such, he receives the ability to veto trades so he can avoid that scenario.
[RELATED: Players with the ability to veto trades in 2019/20]
When a player earns Bird rights, he’s eligible to re-sign with his team on a maximum-salary contract for up to five years with 8% annual raises when he becomes a free agent, regardless of how much cap room the team has. The maximum salary will vary for each player depending on how long he has been in the league, but regardless of the amount, a team can exceed the salary cap to complete the deal.
A team with a Bird free agent is assigned a “free agent amount” or cap hold worth either 190% of his previous salary (for a player with a below-average salary) or 150% of his previous salary (for an above-average salary), up to the maximum salary amount. For players coming off rookie scale contracts, the amounts of those cap holds are 300% and 250%, respectively.
The Pelicans, for instance, will have a cap hold worth $21,796,456 for Brandon Ingram on their 2020/21 books — 300% of his $7,265,485 salary for 2019/20. New Orleans could renounce Ingram and clear an extra $21MM+ in cap space, but the Pelicans would lose the ability to re-sign him using Bird rights in that scenario, which would force them to use either cap room or a different cap exception to re-sign him. As such, the club figures to keep that cap hold on its books until Ingram is officially re-signed.
Ultimately, the Bird exception was designed to allow teams to keep their best players. The CBA ensures that teams are always able to re-sign them to contracts up to the maximum salary, assuming the player is interested in returning and his team is willing to go over the cap.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pound: IOC To Postpone 2020 Olympics
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics won’t be held as scheduled, International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound tells Christine Brennan of USA Today. According to Pound, the coronavirus pandemic will cause the Games to be postponed, likely until 2021, with many of the details expected to be worked out in the coming weeks.
“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound told USA Today. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”
The IOC has yet to make any official announcements regarding the 2020 Olympics, having suggested over the weekend for the first time that a postponement was being considered. Pound tells Brennan that he believes formal announcements are coming soon.
“It will come in stages,” he said. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
The Canadian and Australian Olympic Committees have issued statements suggesting they won’t participate in the 2020 Olympics unless they’re postponed, and Brennan notes that Germany, Brazil, Norway, and other countries have publicly urged the IOC to delay the Games.
Assuming the IOC does officially push back the 2020 Olympics, it’s unclear exactly how the basketball portion of the event might be affected. Eight of 12 teams in the men’s basketball tournament have been decided, with four spots still up for grabs. Qualifying tournaments for those last four spots were scheduled to be held in June, but they’ll presumably be postponed as well.
Depending on when the rescheduled qualifiers and Olympics take place and how the NBA ultimately handles its own postponed season, it’s possible the two calendars will overlap, limiting NBA players’ ability to participate in the Games.
Western Notes: Blazers, Dubljevic, Oubre, Thunder, Mavs
Montenegrin big man Bojan Dubljevic has signed a long-term extension with Spain’s Valencia Basket, reaching a deal that will add three years and a fourth-year team option to his current contract (hat tip to Sportando).
Dubljevic’s NBA rights belong to the Trail Blazers, who acquired them from Minnesota in the Jake Layman sign-and-trade last summer. Although he’s still just 28 years old, Dubljevic’s new extension with Valencia further reduces the odds that he’ll ever suit up for an NBA team. Portland seems more likely to eventually flip the veteran’s rights in another trade than to actually sign him.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Veteran agent Torrel Harris of Unique Sports Management has signed Suns forward Kelly Oubre to a management contract, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Harris’ son is Sixers forward Tobias Harris, who is his father’s most recognizable client.
- The Thunder became one of the last NBA teams to announce a plan to assist their arena workers financially, indicating in a press release that they’ll provide aid to part-time employees for games that would have worked the team’s final seven home games.
- The Mavericks, whose training facility has been closed since March 12, have shifted their focus from basketball to community outreach amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News has the story and the details.
FSU’s Devin Vassell Entering 2020 NBA Draft
Florida State shooting guard Devin Vassell has announced he’s entering the 2020 NBA draft, publishing an Instagram post that confirms his decision.
“It is with a heart full of gratitude that I am entering my name in the 2020 NBA draft,” Vassell wrote. “I’ll never forget the amazing ride of these last two years, and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
While Vassell could technically test the draft waters and retain his college eligibility before making a final decision later in the pre-draft process, the wording of his message makes it sound as if he’ll be going pro, forgoing his remaining two years of eligibility.
Vassell had a breakout season as a sophomore, averaging 12.7 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.4 SPG, and 1.0 BPG with a .490/.415/.738 shooting line in 30 games (28.8 MPG). He has established himself as a potential mid-first-round pick — Sam Vecenie of The Athletic had the guard at No. 14 in his latest mock draft, while ESPN’s draft experts list him at No. 19 on their big board.
Our full list of early entrants for the 2020 draft can be found right here.