ChrisCrouse | Hoops Rumors

Magic Notes: Bamba, Offseason, Restart

June 16th, 2020 at 2:30pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Rim protection may be something the Magic search for in the offseason, Josh Robbins and Seth Partnow write in a piece for The Athletic. Partnow, who previously served as the director of basketball research for the Bucks, believes Mohamed Bamba has the potential to be the defensive centerpiece for Orlando, but the former top-10 pick simply hasn’t put it all together through the first two years in the league. Having said that, Partnow would ultimately give Bamba more time in the hope that he can reach his potential.

Partnow also breaks down the definition of “rim protection,” lamenting that we all have the same broad definition: a player near the rim protects it. Yet, when diving into the stats, there are many assumptions and decisions evaluators have to make. Partnow explained that when he was in Milwaukee, he couldn’t find a metric that truly encapsulated rim protection even though there are stats that can help to narrow down the field of who’s good and who’s bad at it.

The whole article is really a fascinating look into how some front offices evaluate and it’s worth a read. Here’s more from that piece as well as notes from Orlando:

Khem Birch‘s natural position may be center, but the Magic have utilized him differently during the 2019/20 campaign, Robbins explains in that same piece for The Athletic. Birch split time between power forward and center, as injuries to Nikola Vucevic and Jonathan Isaac forced the team to play him at both spots. Coach Steve Clifford realized that Birch is not well equipped to play the four and that’s something to consider when looking ahead to Orlando’s offseason and the potential logjam at the center position between Vucevic, Birch and Bamba.
The Magic are focusing on conditioning as they await the restart of the season, Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel writes. Orlando is one of 22 teams invited to the resumption of the 2019/20 season at Disney World.
Clifford believes his team could have an advantage when play resumes. “Hopefully we can get ready quicker, be one of the teams that has a great readiness to start after whatever period of time they give us to practice and play well and make some noise, and again, play meaningful games, which is what we all want to do,” Clifford said (via Parry’s piece).

Latest On Jonathan Isaac, Al-Farouq Aminu

June 10th, 2020 at 8:16pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Jonathan Isaac‘s rehab from his sprained left knee is going well, sources tell Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. However, it’s widely expected that Isaac will not play once the season resumes. The Magic have been cautious with bringing their young talent back from injury, as they were with Isaac previously, Mohamed Bamba, and Markelle Fultz.

The status of Al-Farouq Aminu, who underwent knee surgery back in January, is also up in the air, though it doesn’t sound like he’ll rejoin the team. Getting healthy and getting in basketball shape are two different objectives.

“They have not played basketball in a long, long time,” president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said. “So it’s more than just saying, ‘Your knee is strengthened.’ It’s a matter of reconditioning and making sure that we’re not putting any of our players at risk for further injuries. So we’ll see as we go along how we get there. But I’m not prepared to apply any timeline or anything like that at this point. They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them.”

If the two forwards are not playing, it’s hard to see them joining the team in Disney World. The Magic are the current owners of the eighth seed in the East, sitting 5.5 games ahead of the Wizards for that spot.

Dwane Casey Talks Pistons’ Plans, Blake Griffin’s Health

June 10th, 2020 at 7:11pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Pistons are one of eight teams not headed to Orlando, but their practice facility has been open for about a week and players are utilizing the space, Keith Langlois of NBA.com shares.

“We’ve had great participation,” Dwane Casey said. “But it’s one player, one coach, one basket. Each player has their own ball. Coach wears gloves. So it’s a very sterile situation. The weight training and the conditioning part is also very big and that’s what they’re doing, also. From a basketball standpoint, you can only do that so long before it gets stale.”

There have been rumblings that the NBA could afford the eight teams some form of competition before the start of the 2020/21 campaign and the Pistons love the opportunity to get back on the court with other clubs.

“I know there’s been conversations with the league as far as different options to get the group together to have some type of competition later in the summer – late July, August – so the league is very aware of it. I just think it puts us as a competitive disadvantage if we go from March 11 to Dec. 1 or whenever the season reconvenes,” Casey said.

“If it’s a mini-camp or a round-robin Summer League with four of the eight teams, (that) would be sufficient,” Casey added. “Different ideas have been put out there. Especially with a young team – and all of the eight teams are young teams – you can only drill one on one and try to get guys better from an individual standpoint (so much). The teams in Orlando have a competitive advantage by going against each other in a very competitive atmosphere and it really puts us behind the eight ball from a competitive standpoint.”

Prior to the Pistons’ opening their practice facility, the league granted the team several exceptions that allowed rehabbing players to use the facility. Derrick Rose and Luke Kennard were among those.

Blake Griffin underwent left knee surgery back in January and wasn’t expected to return for the remainder of the season even if the Pistons were invited to Orlando. Casey said the former No. 1 overall pick is on track with his recovery.

“I talked to Blake yesterday. Blake is doing well,” Casey said. “He’s got his workout. Blake is one of the hardest workers I’ve been around. He’s coming along. He’s right on schedule as far as his rehab is concerned.”

Jacque Vaughn Has Legit Chance To Be Nets’ Long-Term Coach

June 9th, 2020 at 8:49pm CST by ChrisCrouse

After taking over as the interim coach of the Nets earlier this season, Jacque Vaughn has a “legitimate” chance to keep the gig beyond this season, as Shams Charania of The Athletic explained on the Load Management podcast (hat tip to NetsDaily).

“This is a guy that comes from the Spurs background, has the same pedigree as (Nets general manager) Sean Marks,” Charania said on the podcast. “As far as I know, he does a good job at working with players, building that relationship.”

Marks and Vaughn won championships playing for the Spurs in 2005 and 2007, respectively, though they didn’t overlap in San Antonio as players. Vaughn was later in the organization as a scout while Marks was an assistant GM.

Kenny Atkinson was ousted in March and his offense was among the reasons why.

“There were a few things,” Charania added. “Let’s start early in training camp. The offense he still wanted to go with was something that didn’t vibe with his best players, from Kyrie Irving to Kevin Durant to Spencer Dinwiddie on … and so forth … which was a free for all offense. It wasn’t like a set regime, a set style. He still wanted to play the way they were kind of playing with D’Angelo Russell. And I don’t think guys went with that.”

It’s not exactly clear what kind of plans Vaughn has for the offense, as the 45-year-old coach only had two games to showcase his leadership skills. Following Atkinson’s dismissal, Brooklyn went 2-0 before the league suspended its season. Vaughn will get at least eight more games to showcase his ability when the Nets head to Orlando at the end of July.

Western Notes: D’Antoni, Jazz, Doncic, Thunder

June 9th, 2020 at 7:07pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, who has traditionally played a short rotation in meaningful games, sounds like he’s going to experiment with playing more guys once the NBA returns from hiatus.

“With (GM) Daryl (Morey) and data, with how we think gives us the best chance to win, it probably comes down to nine guys. Now, who those nine are they could change, and maybe early we experiment, practice and watch,” D’Antoni tells Kelly Iko of The Athletic.

D’Antoni acknowledged that many of the players won’t be in peak regular-season form, adding that “it’s something that you have to play through.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert have had numerous conversations since the pair tested positive for COVID-19 and team sources are “adamant” that the two will be able to coexist without issue, Tim MacMahon writes in a collaborate piece with other writers on ESPN.com. Jazz GM Dennis Lindsay previously said that the two players were ready to put it behind them.
The time off has allowed Luka Doncic‘s thumb, wrist and ankles to heal and while there were rumors that he gained some weight during the hiatus, sources tell MacMahon (same piece) that the Mavericks star has been working out diligently in Slovenia.
The Thunder‘s biggest concern coming back from the hiatus could be their chemistry, ESPN’s Royce Young contends in the same piece. OKC compiled a 34-13 record since Thanksgiving, which was second in the league over that span. However, the club needed the first month of the season to get its three-guard lineup in sync.

Latest On The NBA’s Lottery Plans

June 3rd, 2020 at 9:13pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The NBA is expected to finalize a proposal on Thursday that will send 22 teams to Orlando in order to finish out the season. It will be a unique experience for a number of reasons — one interesting wrinkle will be how the league determines the lottery odds for 2020 without all of the clubs playing the same number of games.

The Warriors, Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Hawks, Pistons, Knicks, Bulls, and Hornets will likely be locked into the top eight lottery slots, a source tells Hoops Rumors. The order within the top eight has yet to be determined, but the structure means the Wizards couldn’t go 0-8 this summer when the season resumes and land a better position in the lottery than those teams that won’t be playing.

It’s “part of the tradeoff” for the franchises that won’t be given a chance to resume their campaigns, per the source. Another scenario discussed was freezing the lottery as it stands, allowing no movement up or down by any team, even those in the 9-14 positions. Either way, the top eight are expected to be assured of their standing.

Both the lottery and the combine had been postponed indefinitely, though they are now expected to take place in August. Nothing is finalized as of this writing, including the proposal to return.

Here’s a look at the odds of each lottery position as well as the order of teams, should the league go with the current standings:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
GSW	14	13.4	12.7	12	47.9	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
CLE	14	13.4	12.7	12	27.8	20	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
MIN	14	13.4	12.7	12	14.8	26	7.1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
ATL	12.5	12.2	11.9	11.5	7.2	25.7	16.8	2.2	–	–	–	–	–	–
DET	10.5	10.5	10.6	10.5	2.2	19.6	26.7	8.8	0.6	–	–	–	–	–
NYK	9	9.2	9.4	9.6	–	8.6	29.6	20.6	3.8	0.2	–	–	–	–
CHI	7.5	7.8	8.1	8.5	–	–	19.7	34.1	12.9	1.3	>0	–	–	–
CHA	6	6.3	6.7	7.2	–	–	–	34.5	32.1	6.7	0.4	>0	–	–
WSH*	4.5	4.8	5.2	5.7	–	–	–	–	50.7	25.9	3	0.1	>0	–
PHX*	3	3.3	3.6	4	–	–	–	–	–	65.9	18.9	1.2	>0	>0
SAS*	2	2.2	2.4	2.8	–	–	–	–	–	–	77.6	12.6	0.4	>0
SAC**	1.3	1.4	1.6	1.8	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	86.1	7.6	0.1
NO**	1.2	1.3	1.5	1.7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	92.0	2.3
POR*	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	97.6

*Will play eight more regular season games

** The Kings and Pelicans have matching 28-36 records and would be subject to a random tiebreaker to determine which team gets the No. 12 slot and which gets No. 13. Their spots in this list (and their odds) could be flipped if the NBA ends up freezing the standings to determine the lottery’s order.

John Wall Remains Unlikely To Return This Season

June 3rd, 2020 at 8:02pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Wizards‘ season will continue as they are one of 22 teams to head to Orlando to finish out the 2019/20 campaign. The club will play eight more games with the hope of sneaking into the postseason for more.

If they achieve that goal, they’ll almost certainly do so without the services of John Wall. Though, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link), some Eastern Conference teams heading to Orlando are preparing as if Wall will return to the court. Perhaps rival clubs are simply leaving no stone unturned in their pre-return scouting.

Last week, during a Zoom call with the local media, including Hoops Rumors, Wall claimed he was “110 percent” but wouldn’t commit to making the potential trip to Orlando with his team let alone suiting up and joining them on the court.

The message out of the Wizards’ organization has been pretty consistent all season: they are taking the most patient approach with regard to getting Wall back up to speed. That means the 2020/21 season will be the next time we see the former No. 1 overall pick.

Jeremy Pargo Signs With Israeli Team

June 3rd, 2020 at 1:46pm CST by ChrisCrouse

JUNE 3: Hapoel Jerusalem has published a tweet officially welcoming Pargo to the team, a signal that they’ve reached a deal with him.

JUNE 2: Jeremy Pargo is receiving interest from Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Premier League, Ennio Terrasi Borghesan of Sportando reports.

Pargo, who went undrafted back in 2009, spent this past season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s G League team. He earned a 10-day deal back in February and saw NBA action in three games.

Prior to his 44 minutes of court time, the combo guard had not played in the NBA since the 2012/13 season, when he suited up for the last Sixers’ team before Sam Hinkie took over the reins of the franchise. In addition to Philadelphia, Pargo has had stints in Memphis and Cleveland, and has six years of international experience, playing in Russia, Israel, Italy, and China at various points in his career.

Former Hawk Malcolm Delaney To Play In Italy

June 2nd, 2020 at 8:56pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Former Hawks point guard Malcolm Delaney has agreed to a two-year deal with Olimpia Milano in Milan, the team announced on its website.

“I just want to say how happy and excited I am to start a new journey and challenge for myself, as well as being a part of a powerful project being put together by a historic club,” Delaney said. “I can’t wait to get to my new home, in the great city of Milan.”

Delaney spent two seasons in Atlanta, appearing in 127 games for the franchise from 2016-18. He averaged 5.7 points in 17.8 minutes per game.

The Baltimore native, who went undrafted out of Virginia Tech back in 2011, is well traveled. Delaney has played in France, Ukraine, Germany, Russia, China, and Spain in addition to the NBA since leaving the college ranks.

Bulls To Reopen Practice Facility On June 3

May 29th, 2020 at 10:02am CST by ChrisCrouse

MAY 29: The Bulls won’t reopen their facility today, but have received the go-ahead to open their doors for individual workouts beginning next Wednesday, June 3, tweets K.C. Johnson. That’s the date that the city’s “phase three” plan begins for reopening following coronavirus closures.

According to Johnson (Twitter link), new Bulls execs Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley, who have been working remotely since being hired, are scheduled to be in Chicago soon.

MAY 27: The Mavericks will reopen their practice facility on Thursday, becoming the 23rd team to do so, and the Bulls appears likely to follow suit on Friday, becoming the 24th, as K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago reports (Twitter link).

The franchise received clearance from the Governor’s office and is in discussions with the city on how to safely open the facility. Under league rules, the workouts are voluntary. Only four players at a time are permitted in the facility and no group activities such as practices or scrimmages are allowed.

Johnson adds that not many of the Bulls’ players are currently in Chicago. There’s also no guarantee that the Bulls will be included in the NBA’s return. The league is contemplating many scenarios and there’s some skepticism from teams that all franchises won’t be included.

The Celtics, Knicks, Pistons, Warriors, Spurs, and Wizards are the only remaining franchises with closed facilities.

Author: ChrisCrouse