Duke SG Grayson Allen Declines To Enter Draft
Duke sophomore shooting guard Grayson Allen has decided against entering this year’s draft, the school announced. The leading scorer for the Blue Devils was a fringe first-round prospect, ranking 30th in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider listings and 34th with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
The 20-year-old broke out in a major way this season, averaging 21.6 points in 36.6 minutes per game after seeing single digits in both categories last year on a richly talented Duke squad that won the national championship. Still, Allen made his presence felt with 16 points in the 2015 title game. This year’s Blue Devils fell in the third round of this year’s NCAA Tournament despite the presence of Allen and Brandon Ingram, a strong candidate for the No. 1 overall selection. Allen’s size is an issue for NBA scouts, according to Ford, who lists him at 6’5″. Givony pegs him as only 6’4″. Allen led the Blue Devils with 3.5 assists per game this season and can play the point, according to Ford, so that could ultimately ease size concerns.
It’s somewhat surprising to see Allen decide against the draft, particularly given the ability prospects have this year to take part in workouts for NBA teams, as well as the combine, while still retaining their college eligibility if they refrain from hiring an agent and withdraw by May 25th. Allen could have shown NBA teams what he can do at the point, though he figures to have an opportunity to do the same with next season’s Blue Devils, who are positioned as the favorites for the 2017 title with another strong recruiting class coming in.
Knicks See Ujiri As Potential Jackson Successor?
Knicks owner James Dolan is exploring potential successors for team president Phil Jackson, with Raptors GM Masai Ujiri believed to be among them, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News indicates and as fellow Daily News scribe Stefan Bondy confirms via Twitter. Jackson can opt out of his contract after next season. The Zen Master is currently pushing for a new multiyear deal for Kurt Rambis that would remove the interim tag from his head coaching title, sources tell Marc Stein and Ian Begley of ESPN.com.
Dolan confidant Irving Azoff supports Jackson and is close with Rambis, according to Isola, who points out that Azoff also has ties to Ujiri. Former Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke, who brought Ujiri to the Raptors, is a business partner of Azoff, Isola notes.
It would be no shock for Ujiri to become heavily sought after given his success with Toronto, which has already set a franchise record with 52 wins this season and is poised to enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, and in Denver, where Ujiri’s final team also set a franchise record with 57 wins. Still, it remains to be seen whether he would have interest in leaving the Raptors for New York, particularly given the strong pull he felt toward the Toronto organization when he left the Nuggets. Plus, his Raptors contract runs for two more years, Isola points out.
Jackson, 70, has been vague about whether he intends to finish the five-year contract he signed to run the Knicks in 2014, though comments he made last month seemed to indicate he doesn’t intend to go anywhere soon. People close to him even reportedly raised the idea he would coach on a part-time basis next season, though Jackson shot that idea down.
Instead, Jackson appears ready to formally give the coaching job to Rambis, an outcome Jackson has reportedly hoped for ever since naming Rambis interim coach in February. New York is just 8-16 since firing former coach Derek Fisher, and sources indicated to Marc Berman of the New York Post that Fisher drew more respect from Knicks players than Rambis does. Carmelo Anthony has said he’d like Jackson to at least listen to other candidates for the head coaching job.
Nets Sign Henry Sims For Rest Of Season
The Nets have signed center Henry Sims for the rest of the season, the team announced via press release. His second 10-day contract expired overnight. The move restores Brooklyn to a 15-man roster, with every player signed through at least the end of the season. It’s not entirely clear whether the new deal for Sims extends into next season, but unlike the press release Brooklyn sent about its multiyear contract with former 10-day signee Sean Kilpatrick, the Sims press release refers only to the rest of the 2015/16 campaign. Thus, it appears Sims will once more become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Sims has seen plenty of opportunities in his brief time with the Nets, averaging 17.1 minutes per contest across nine games, two of which he started. The 26-year-old turned in arguably his finest Brooklyn performance Sunday, when he started and delivered 12 points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes of action. Those numbers closely match the 11.8 points and seven rebounds he averaged in 26 games down the stretch for the Sixers in 2013/14.
Philadelphia gave him 32 starts last season, but he went unsigned for most of this past offseason until he hooked up with the Suns on a non-guaranteed deal in late August. Phoenix waived him before opening night and he spent the majority of this season with the D-League affiliate of the Pistons before the Nets gave him another shot at the NBA last month.
Gonzaga F/C Domantas Sabonis To Enter Draft
Gonzaga sophomore forward/center Domantas Sabonis will enter this year’s draft, sources told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The son of Hall-of-Famer Arvydas Sabonis is likely to sign with an agent, Goodman adds. If he does so, he’ll be unable to withdraw from the draft and retain his college eligibility. The 6’10” 20-year-old is the 15th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings and No. 19 on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress list.
This was a breakout season for Sabonis, who averaged 17.6 points on 61.1% shooting. His 11.8 rebounds per contest were the sixth-most in NCAA Division I. He raised his game even further in the NCAA Tournament last month, averaging 19.7 points and 14.3 boards in three outings. Ford compliments his passing, a trait passed down from his father, though his 1.8 assists per game for the Bulldogs this season weren’t eye-popping. He lacks an outside game, attempting only 14 3-pointers all season, though he made five of them.
The Portland, Oregon, native was 26th in the 247Sports recruiting rankings in 2014, one of the ratings used in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, but he went to high school in Spain instead of the United States, keeping him out of the other ratings. In any case, he spent his freshman year at Gonzaga as a bench player, but his career took off following his insertion into the starting lineup in an early December game against Washington State this season. He scored a career-high 36 points against Tennessee a few weeks later.
Oakland PG Kay Felder To Enter Draft
WEDNESDAY, 7:46am: Felder is actively seeking an agent and doesn’t plan to return to school, as he tells Tony Paul of The Detroit News, adding that the only way he would go back to Oakland is if he can’t find an agent he’s comfortable with.
TUESDAY, 10:26am: Oakland University point guard Kay Felder will enter this year’s draft without an agent, sources told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). The 21-year-old junior can return to school for another year if he withdraws by May 25th and doesn’t sign with an agent. Felder has a legitimate chance to be drafted in spite of his diminutive 5’9″ height, as he ranks 69th in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress pegs him 72nd.
That’s in part because of his impressive numbers. He led NCAA Division I with 9.3 assists per game and was third in scoring average at 24.4, though he did so against mediocre competition. Oakland, part of the Horizon League, played only the 182nd-strongest schedule among Division I teams, according to Sports Reference. Still, Felder delivered against top competition when he had the chance, scoring 37, one off his season-high, against Michigan State, which earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and 30 points against eventual NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed Virginia.
He’s also a strong rebounder for his height, having grabbed 4.3 per game this season, and he kept his turnovers relatively low at 3.4 per contest. The most significant questions surrounding Felder involve his defense, though his sometimes listless performance on that end of the floor is in part because of the energy he had to expend on offense for Oakland, Givony writes. The Golden Grizzlies needed all they could get from Felder, as they finished second in the Horizon during the regular season but lost their first conference tournament game and were relegated to the Las Vegas 16, a first-year postseason tournament.
Felder entered college outside the top 100 in the 2013 Recruiting Services Consensus Index, and while he won Horizon Freshman of the Year honors, he didn’t become a scoring force until he was a sophomore, lifting his points per game from 9.5 to 18.1.
Lack of NBA Draft Prospects Sets ‘Nova Apart
Villanova’s buzzer-beating victory in Monday’s NCAA championship game was remarkable by itself, but perhaps most amazing is that the team accomplished what it did with so little in the way of NBA-level talent. That’s not to say that some of this year’s Wildcats won’t play in the NBA, as it seems likely that at least one or two of them will find their way into the league at some point. Still, it’s no safe bet that any of them will be drafted into the NBA, which is highly unusual.
Every NCAA champ since 1950 has had a player drafted in at least the top 40 picks, as SB Nation’s Kevin Trahan points out. The last NCAA champion without an eventual first-round pick on its roster was the 1986/87 Indiana team, which also won in dramatic fashion on a shot by Keith Smart, who became a second-round pick the next year.
Junior shooting guard Josh Hart appears to be the Villanova player with the best chance of getting drafted, ranking 69th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect listings for this year. Senior center Daniel Ochefu isn’t far behind at No. 76. Still, neither is in the top 60, and there are only 60 NBA draft picks each year. Hart could return to school and improve his stock, as could a few others on the Wildcats who are at least on NBA radars.
So, it’ll be a while before we know whether Villanova won a title without an NBA draftee, though we’ll know in June if they’re the first team to win the NCAA championship without a player who would be drafted that same year since Duke in 2010. Those Blue Devils weren’t exactly devoid of talent, however. They had five eventual draftees, and Lance Thomas has carved out a steady NBA career as an undrafted player.
Here’s a look at the draftees from NCAA champions this decade. Each player was drafted the year his school won the championship unless otherwise noted:
Duke, 2015
- Jahlil Okafor, 3rd
- Justise Winslow, 10th
- Tyus Jones, 24th
UConn, 2014
- Shabazz Napier, 24th
- DeAndre Daniels, 37th
Louisville, 2013
- Gorgui Dieng, 21st
- Montrezl Harrell, 32nd (2015)
- Russ Smith, 47th (2014)
- Peyton Siva, 56th
Kentucky, 2012
- Anthony Davis, 1st
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, 2nd
- Terrence Jones, 18th
- Marquis Teague, 29th
- Doron Lamb, 42nd
- Darius Miller, 46th
Connecticut, 2011
- Shabazz Napier, 24th (2014)
- Kemba Walker, 9th
- Jeremy Lamb, 12th (2012)
- Alex Oriakhi, 57th (2013)
Duke, 2010
- Nolan Smith, 21st (2011)
- Mason Plumlee, 22nd (2013)
- Miles Plumlee, 26th (2012)
- Kyle Singler, 33rd (2011)
- Ryan Kelly, 48th (2013)
And-Ones: Hawks, Labissiere, Bender, Beasley
The Hawks hope they’ve scored some brownie points with free agents through today’s announcement that P3 Sports Science, a California training facility that counts many NBA players among its clients, will open a location within the new practice facility that the team revealed plans for today, tweets Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com. Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the Hawks would announce today that they’re building the $50MM practice facility, to be paid for through private funding (Twitter links), and Hawks owner Tony Ressler was adamant that building the new facility is his top priority for the team, Vivlamore notes (Twitter link). Soon-to-be free agent Al Horford is among the dozens of NBA players that P3 lists as clients. The facility is scheduled to open in time for the 2017/18 season, Vivlamore writes.
While we wait to see if today’s news has a tangible effect on Horford or anyone else Atlanta targets, see more from around the NBA:
- Kentucky freshman center/forward Skal Labissiere plans to hire an agent as he heads into the NBA draft, the school announced, so he’ll be ineligible to withdraw and return to college ball. The 7’0″ 20-year-old is one of 14 Kentucky underclassmen who are entering the draft, as coach John Calipari said last month, though whether any of the others intend to hire agents remains unclear. Labissiere, who once sat atop Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect rankings, is now No. 10 on that list, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him 16th.
- Officials from one NBA team told Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders they believe the buyout clause in elite draft prospect Dragan Bender‘s contract with Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv is $650K, precisely the amount NBA teams will be able to pay without it affecting his rookie scale contract (Twitter link). Bender, an 18-year-old power forward, is No. 3 in both Ford’s and Givony’s rankings.
- Michael Beasley has left agent Jared Karnes of the Allegiant Athletic Agency, as the SportsBusiness Journal reports. The former No. 2 overall pick has averaged 14.1 points in 19.8 minutes per game since signing with the Rockets last month. The minimum-salary deal includes a non-guaranteed salary for next season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Florida SF Devin Robinson To Test Draft Waters
Florida sophomore small forward Devin Robinson will enter this year’s draft without an agent, sources told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). He can withdraw and retain his college eligibility before the May 25th deadline as long as he doesn’t hire an agent. The 6’8″ 21-year-old is 71st in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and 97th on Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider list, so strong performances in team workouts and the combine are liable to lift him into second-round territory.
Robinson was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school, coming in 20th in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, three spots ahead of Devin Booker, the 13th pick in last year’s draft. Two underwhelming seasons at Florida appear to have hurt Robinson’s stock. He averaged 9.0 points per game this season after notching just 6.4 a year ago in a particularly disappointing freshman season. Robinson lifted his 3-point percentage to a respectable 34% this year after last season’s 25.6%, and he grabbed more than twice as many rebounds in relatively similar minutes.
His final game this season left a poor impression, as he fouled out against George Washington in the NIT with just two points and three rebounds in 18 minutes. Still, he had his moments, including his 17-point, eight-rebound, three-block outing in an overtime game against NCAA Tournament bubble team South Carolina.
Southeast Notes: Grunfeld, Johnson, Howard
It’s been a down year for the Wizards, but team president Ernie Grunfeld doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, since he’s under contract for next season, league sources revealed to Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. The terms of Grunfeld’s pact hadn’t been clear, and it remains unknown when Grunfeld and owner Ted Leonsis included this season in the arrangement. The pressure remains on coach Randy Wittman, who’s also under contract for next season but with only a partial guarantee on his salary, and Wittman’s relationship with the team’s players has reportedly deteriorated.
See more from Washington amid items from the Southeast Division:
- Two soon-to-be free agents on the Wizards have dropped their agents to instead hire Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, as SportsBusiness Journal reports in a subscription-only piece. Ramon Sessions left Allegiant Athletic Agency’s Jared Karnes to team up with Bartelstein while Garrett Temple parted with John Hamilton of Performance Sports Management.
- Heat buyout market signee Joe Johnson isn’t giving the team quite as much return on its investment of late after a hot start, though coach Erik Spoelstra, among others, isn’t overly concerned, as Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald chronicles. Johnson will hit free agency again this summer after his short-term deal with Miami is over. “Joe’s a vet, an experienced guy,” said fellow soon-to-be free agent Luol Deng. “We’re not worried about the vet guys. He’ll be fine.”
- Dwight Howard reportedly has interest in returning to the Magic, but the team would be unwise to give him the maximum salary of around $30MM that he and new agent Perry Rogers will no doubt request, opines Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. Schmitz believes the Magic should stop at around $20MM and thinks the team would prefer to sign a free agent with less baggage.
10-Day Contract Trends In 2015/16
The NBA regular season has fewer than 10 days remaining, so the 10-day contract signing period is over, as The Vertical’s Bobby Marks points out (Twitter link). The book on 10-day signings isn’t completely closed, since it remains to be seen if some of those who signed the short-term deals will end up latching on for the rest of the season. That’s expected to be the case for at least one player who’s still on a 10-day contract, as James Ennis is reportedly poised to re-sign with the Pelicans.
Regardless, we now can look at a few trends, facts and other noteworthy developments that emerged from this year’s batch of 10-day pacts, with the help of our 10-Day Contract Tracker:
- Teams signed 33 players to 10-day contracts this year, down from 48 last year and the fewest since 2012, when 32 players received 10-day deals.
- The Grizzlies signed more players to 10-day contracts than any other team, with eight. The Suns were next with six, and the Pelicans signed five. Orlando Johnson signed 10-day contracts with both Phoenix and New Orleans.
- Johnson, Lorenzo Brown (Pistons and Suns), Sean Kilpatrick (Nets and Nuggets), Jordan McRae (Cavs and Suns) and Alex Stepheson (Clippers and Grizzlies) all signed 10-day contracts with multiple teams.
- One of McRae’s two 10-day pacts with Phoenix was actually a 12-day contract. That’s because all 10-day deals have to cover at least three games. If a team signs a player to a 10-day contract and it doesn’t play at least three games over the next 10 days, the contract runs as long as necessary to get three games in. The NBA’s lengthy All-Star break was the reason for the extra two days on McRae’s deal, which was worth $37,065 instead of the $30,888 he would have seen on a regular 10-day.
- Teams ended 10-day contracts early on five occasions last season, but that only happened once this year, when the Sixers released Christian Wood on just the fourth day of his contract to claim Sonny Weems. Philly later reversed course on that decision, cutting Weems to sign Wood to a second 10-day contract.
- Impact Sports and Octagon were the leading agencies involved with 10-day contracts this year, landing 10-day deals for four clients apiece. Impact client Jeff Ayres went on to sign for the rest of the season with the Clippers, while Octagon’s Alan Williams did the same with the Suns.