Mississippi State Forward Reggie Perry Declares For Draft
Mississippi State forward Reggie Perry has declared for the NBA draft on his personal Twitter account (link). The 6’10”, 250-pound sophomore is currently ranked at No. 59 on ESPN’s NBA 2020 Draft board.
Perry averaged 17.4 PPG, 10.1 RPG, and 2.3 APG in 31 games for the Bulldogs this season. The co-Player of the Year for the SEC, Perry was also a 2019/20 All-SEC honoree. He was named to the SEC All-Freshman team during his inaugural 2018/19 season.
“Thank you Mississippi State fans for embracing me as soon as I decided to be a Bulldog,” Perry said in his Twitter farewell.
Northwest Notes: Wolves, Ingles, Simons, Thunder
The Timberwolves were struggling through a difficult 2019/20 season even before the coronavirus pandemic caused the entire league to postpone play indefinitely, writes The Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman.
The Wolves’ average home attendance count of 15,066 placed them last in the NBA. Their 19-47 record put them at No. 14 in the Western Conference. After the team made a series of deadline trades, including the transaction that moved swing man Andrew Wiggins‘ contract to the Warriors in exchange for point guard D’Angelo Russell, president of basketball operations Gerson Rosas stressed the importance of game play for building chemistry for the new-look Wolves.
“Those [remaining] games are critically important to us,” Rosas said. “I’ve said it from the beginning, this year is about building identity. It’s building chemistry, building habits, and it is painful. These first 50 games, it was painful to go through the growing pains.” The truncation of the team’s final 18 games impeded that.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Jazz wing Joe Ingles, who tested negative for COVID-19, notes that he’d be willing to walk away from the NBA if he needed to do so to protect his three-year-old son Jacob, who is more at risk due to his autism, per The Athletic’s Sam Amick. “If you had to tell me that you could never play again to protect Jacob from this,” Ingles said, “I would walk away, fly to Australia and never play another game in my life and be very content with it.”
- Second-year Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons has shown flashes of promise, but had been frustrated by his own lack of progress during the 2019/20 season, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic. The Blazers are still excited about the athletic swingman’s potential.
- The Thunder face an uncertain future in light of the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on next season’s salary cap, the Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto reports. Though Oklahoma City only has $105.5MM committed in salaries next year, the team’s notable free agents are key contributors Danilo Gallinari and Nerlens Noel. Defensive stalwart Andre Roberson, who has been absent since midway through the 2017/18 season with a serious injury, is also on an expiring deal this summer. Roberson last suited up for an NBA game on January 27, 2018.
Hoops Rumors Originals: 3/22/20 – 3/28/20
Every week, the Hoops Rumors writing team publishes original content to complement our news feed. Listed below are our original segments and features from the past seven days:
- Luke Adams supplied a helpful list of the NBA draft’s early entrants.
- For our Hoops Rumors Glossary entries this week, Adams defined Bird Rights and Early Bird Rights.
- In our Community Shootaround conversations this week, we asked:
Italian League To Cancel Season
After chatter just a few days ago of possibly resuming practice in May, the top basketball league in Italy, LBA Serie A, now intends to cancel the rest of its 2019/20 season and concentrate on a resumption of league play in 2020/21, per Sportando’s Ennio Terrasi Borghesan.
A champion will not be selected. Italian Basketball Federation honorary president Dino Meneghin made a statement confirming as much, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando reported.
“We must follow the rules dictated by the Government to preserve out health,” Meneghin said. “We will cancel the season, it is needed. Life is more important than sports. Now it is essential to give everyone the opportunity to save his own life.”
And-Ones: Bogut, 2020 FAs, WNBA Draft, Curly Neal
Andrew Bogut, former Warriors center and current Sydney Kings center in Australia’s NBL, spoke with The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss about the NBL Grand Final series that was canceled mid-series due to the coronavrius, as well as the NBA’s prospects for a resumption of the 2019/20 season.
“We were one of the last leagues left in the world playing,” Bogut said of the NBL. “You know, we had players from other countries in our league, American players, as they were closing the borders? We had guys on the team who had sick relatives. Grandparents they might not see again because of the coronavirus.”
There’s more from around the basketball world:
- Though the 2020 free agent class may not be as starry as 2019’s (or as 2021’s promises to be), there are plenty of big men who could abet a contender, as Danny Leroux of The Athletic details in an appraisal of the available power forwards and centers. Lakers All-Star center Anthony Davis may be the only maximum-salaried free agent option, but solid players like Davis Bertans, Montrezl Harrell, Derrick Favors, Jerami Grant, Paul Millsap, and Christian Wood all could earn more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($9.8MM) this summer.
- The WNBA will hold a virtual draft on its originally scheduled date, April 17 (it will air live on ESPN), according to an official league press release. The novel coronavirus outbreak precludes the draft being held with in-person attendance.
- Longtime Harlem Globetrotter Fred “Curly” Neal has passed away at the age of 77, according to the Globetrotters’ official Twitter account (link). Neal is just one of five Globetrotters to have their jersey numbers retired and aloft in the rafters of Madison Square Garden, as NBC Sports’ Kurt Helin noted.
Central Notes: Pacers, White, Cavs, Bone
Thanks in part to the Pacers collecting a $10MM insurance policy on Victor Oladipo, who missed all but 13 games of the postponed NBA season, Indiana’s payroll is scheduled to come in at $104.6MM, the league’s lowest mark. If COVID-19 affects league revenue significantly, the Pacers will be in one of the most comfortable financial situations in the NBA, as J. Michael of the Indianapolis Star reports.
Michael notes that a significant drop in league revenue, such as a 5% drop from the projected $115MM cap ($109.25MM) or a 10% decline ($103.5MM), could impede several teams, but the Pacers are stacked with several players on movable contracts.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- Bulls rookie point guard Coby White‘s late-season scoring streak (he averaged 23.7 PPG while connecting on 39.8%t of his 8.5 three-point looks) was one of the few positives in a generally dismal 22-43 season for Chicago. Morten Jensen of Forbes wonders what White’s performance means for his club going forward.
- Despite the COVID-19 pandemic putting the NBA on pause this month, Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his assistants have been maintaining their (remote) connection to the young Cleveland squad, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.
- Pistons rookie point guard Jordan Bone logged time with Detroit’s Grand Rapids G League club and the NBA squad this season, and remains an intriguing player for the team’s future, according to Pistons.com writer Keith Langlois.
Coronavirus Notes: LeBron, Young, Curry, Temple
Lakers All-Star LeBron James spoke about his feelings on returning to the NBA amidst the coronavirus pandemic with his former Cavaliers teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye – plus Lakers studio host Allie Clifton – for their Road Trippin’ Podcast (h/t to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin).
James feels uncomfortable about potentially playing games without fans. “So to get back on the floor, I would love it,” he said. “Let’s just go to each other’s practice facility, put out a camera, just scrimmage and livestream it. … I just don’t know how we can imagine a sporting event without fans. It’s just, it’s a weird dynamic.”
On the podcast, James also advocates for the NBA playing a handful of regular season games before the playoffs, assuming the 2019/20 season can resume at all. “One thing you can’t just do is go straight to the playoffs… Because it discredits the 60-plus games that guys had fighting for that position.”
Here are a few more items related to the coronavirus pandemic and the NBA’s hiatus:
- After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NBA to postpone its season, All-Star Hawks point guard Trae Young returned from Atlanta to his offseason home near his family in Norman, Oklahoma, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.
- Warriors All-Star point guard Stephen Curry has been a solid voice of reason amidst the coronavirus chaos, as Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Curry hosted an informative 30-minute Q&A on his Instagram with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
- Nets wing Garrett Temple has opted to use the NBA’s indefinite postponement to study for the LSATs, as he told the YES Network’s Michael Grady (h/t to New York Post’s Brian Lewis). “I’m going to be honest, I’ve been sleeping a good amount, but also trying to take on a new task,” Temple said. “I’ve actually started practicing for the LSAT prep.”
International Notes: German, Italian, VTB Leagues; Nigerian Team
New Nigerian national basketball team head coach Mike Brown, currently an associate head coach for the Warriors, notes that there is a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic delaying the Tokyo Olympics for a year, according to The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears: more time to develop the talent on his club.
“To have another year to grasp, not only the talent level of the team, but the direction the team needs to go and making sure we are able to put the best Nigerian team out there, it’s a welcomed advantage to have a little bit more time for a new guy like myself,” Brown told Spears.
Current NBA players Al-Farouq Aminu, Chimezie Metu and Josh Okogie all suited up for the 2019 Nigerian World Cup roster.
There’s more from the international basketball world:
- Germany’s EasyCredit BBL basketball league has been suspended until at least April 30 as a result of the rampant coronavirus spread throughout that country, per Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
- The top basketball league in Italy, LBA Serie A, hopes to resume team practices by May 16 if its 2019/20 season is to be completed, according to Sportando’s Dario Skerletic. The coronavirus pandemic has hit Italy particularly hard.
- Following a league-wide conference call, the VTB League (comprising teams from Kazakhstan, Estonia, Belarus, Poland, and Russia) has canceled its season, according to Jonathan Givony of Draft Express (Twitter link).
Italian Leagues To Complete Season Once Play Resumes
Italian Basketball Federation president Gianni Petrucci has stated that Italian leagues will finish the 2019/20 season after the coronavirus pandemic has been controlled, Nicola Lupo of Sportando reports.
“We’ll listen to what the government says, but our plan is to complete the current season and we’re studying different formats,” Petrucci said.
Across the rest of the world, including throughout other parts of Europe, several leagues have also been postponing or entirely shuttering their seasons, as Hoops Rumors has detailed over multiple posts. Much to the chagrin of its players, the Turkish BSL basketball league is also continuing play amidst the growing health crisis.
The timeline for the resumption of Italian Basketball Federation league play remains unclear.
Atlantic Notes: Butler-Brown, Theis, Knicks, Celtics
Current Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler, formerly a clutch swingman on the star-studded, title-contending 2018/19 Sixers, acknowledged that his relationship with coach Brett Brown was not particularly great, as he told his former Philadelphia teammate J.J. Redick on The J.J. Redick Podcast With Tommy Alter.
On the podcast, Butler described an uncomfortably tense and silent film-watching session with Redick, Butler, and Sixers All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. “And I told you this as we walked out, ‘J.J., why would we ever go in there again?,'” Butler said on the podcast. “‘Nothing’s getting accomplished. Nobody’s saying nothing to anybody.'”
Butler also discussed having spoken up about the offense in a subsequent film-watching session in Portland that became a hot topic in the national media. Butler suggested the conversation was blown out of proportion by outside observers, a point his former Sixers teammate agreed with. “I don’t know why it got reported the way it did,” Redick said.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Daniel Theis, the Celtics‘ starting center replacement for the departed Al Horford, was having a comparable season to his predecessor before play was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to The Stats Corner of NBC Sports Boston. Theis’ production per 36 minutes has actually been better than Horford’s during 2018/19. Their scoring numbers are similar, while Theis is pulling down more rebounds and blocks and shooting at a higher field goal percentage. The 27-year-old German signed a two-year, $10MM contract with Boston during the summer of 2019. The 33-year-old Horford, meanwhile, inked a four-year, $97MM contract ($109MM if he hits all incentives) with the Sixers this summer.
- As the Knicks continue to overhaul their front office, Cavaliers salary cap expert Brock Aller has emerged as a potential addition to new team president Leon Rose‘s staff, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. After spending a decade as the personal assistant to team owner Dan Gilbert, Aller graduated to a position as senior director of basketball operations in 2017.
- The Celtics team, staff, and attendant beat reporters experienced a tense journey on the road as the coronavirus spread beyond tenable levels, according to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe in his first-person account of what transpired.