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Author: Chuck Myron

Kevin Durant To Miss Rest Of Season

By | at March 31, 2015 10:31 am

TUESDAY, 10:31am: Durant had his surgery today, the Thunder announced via press release. The timetable for him to return to basketball activities remains four to six months.

FRIDAY, 2:00pm: Kevin Durant will undergo surgery on his ailing right foot and miss the rest of the season, the Thunder announced via press release. GM Sam Presti said in the team’s statement that the healing of the so-called Jones fracture in his foot is showing signs of regression. He’ll have a bone graft procedure that is standard for the 5% to 8% of Jones fracture patients who don’t demonstrate success after their first surgeries, according to the team. Durant first broke the foot before the season and had another procedure in February that was to have alleviated lingering soreness. He hasn’t played since that procedure.

The news is a devastating blow to the Thunder, though it’s not a thoroughly unexpected one after Presti last week raised the specter of Durant missing the balance of 2014/15. Oklahoma City is also without Serge Ibaka for perhaps the rest of the regular season. The playoffs are no guarantee for Oklahoma City, a Western Conference power in recent years, though the team has a three-game lead on the Suns for the final playoff spot with less than three weeks to go. The Thunder are without much recourse to offset the loss of Durant with a roster addition, as I examined last week, without the ability to apply for a disabled player exception or, at least for now, a hardship exception.

Durant played in just 27 games this season, the first time in his NBA career that he’s missed more than eight contests. Only Michael Jordan, who retired, and Bill Walton, who suffered devastating foot problems, played fewer games than Durant has the season after winning an MVP award, as ESPN points out (Twitter link).

The 26-year-old is expected to return to basketball activity in four to six months, Presti said in the statement, a timeframe that should have him ready for the start of training camp in the fall. That’s the start of a season that’s the last under the five-year extension he signed in 2010. Chatter about the top unrestricted free agent in the 2016 class has already begun and is sure to intensify with Durant staring at perhaps only one last season in a Thunder uniform. Still, Presti has insisted that trading Durant to avoid watching him walk in free agency is not an idea he’s considering.

4 comments Newsstand Oklahoma City Thunder

2015 NBA Draft Early Entrants

By | at March 31, 2015 9:58 am

The college season is over for all but a few of the top American early-entry candidates for the NBA draft, leaving most of them to face decisions about whether to turn pro or return to school. Some of them have already begun to make their intentions known, and more will surely follow, along with early entrants from overseas, as the draft approaches.

We already passed along the key dates for early entrants, with the most important deadlines falling on April 12th, when underclassmen must withdraw from the draft to retain eligibility, April 26th, the final day for all early-entry candidates to declare for the draft, and June 15th, the last day non-college prospects can withdraw.

The NBA’s official list of early entrants won’t come out until after April 26th, but until then, we’ll use this post to keep track of reports on prospects and their decisions. We’ll archive them all in a running list here, which will be accessible anytime under “Hoops Rumors Features” on the right sidebar.

The players below are in alphabetical order. For an idea of how they stack up against one another, check out the lists of the top prospects on DraftExpress and ESPN.com, as well as the Hoops Rumors Draft Prospect Power Rankings. If you have any corrections or omissions, please contact us.

The following players are top early-entry candidates who have decided to return to college. This doesn’t encompass every underclassman who’s decided to keep playing in school, but rather those whom either DraftExpress or ESPN.com listed as among the top 60 prospects when they made their respective decisions to return.

Note: Neither of these lists take into account seniors or overseas players who turn 22 in 2015, since they’re automatically draft-eligible. That also applies to Emmanuel Mudiay, who automatically entered the draft when he played professionally in China prior to January 1st this year.

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Atlantic Notes: Bradley, Thomas, Ish Smith

By | at March 31, 2015 8:59 am

Multiple executives from other teams around the league are impressed with all of the trades that the Celtics have made the last two years, but there’s no grand design behind it, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe.

“We don’t have any master plan,” Ainge says. “You just hope you have the assets when a deal comes along.”

Ainge pledges an active run in free agency this summer, though he believes some of the team’s existing players could grow into the sort of star-level performers who usually are among the top three players on a contender, as Lowe details. The Celtics love Marcus Smart, last year’s No. 6 overall pick, Lowe writes, and while multiple teams offered expiring deals and picks toward the back end of the first round for Avery Bradley, Ainge turned them away, several league sources tell Lowe. There’s more on the Celtics amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:

  • The Celtics think Isaiah Thomas is a better asset to trade than the protected 2016 first-round pick from Cleveland that they gave up to get him from the Suns at the deadline, according to Lowe. The C’s talked about waiting to do the Thomas deal to avoid winning too many games down the stretch this year, but decided against that, with Ainge informing coach Brad Stevens, whom he normally keeps in the loop, of the deal just an hour before it happened, as Lowe examines. “Ideally, he might have been someone you pick up in the summer,” Ainge said. “But someone else might trade for him. You might be in a bidding war. You have to move while the iron is hot.”
  • Nerlens Noel on Monday called Ish Smith “the first real point guard I’ve ever played with” and expressed a desire that Smith, a free agent at season’s end, return to the Sixers, notes Tom Moore of Calkins Media. Of course, Noel spent the first half of the season with reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams at the point. In any case, Noel’s development has taken off since Smith arrived shortly after the deadline trade that sent Carter-Williams out, notes Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News, who refers to the big man’s growth as the team’s most important mission this season.
  • Marc Berman of the New York Post wonders just what the Knicks‘ D-League coaching change Monday means for the future of assistant GM Allan Houston, once seemingly a GM-in-training. Houston’s duties with the NBA team had already been curtailed under Phil Jackson, Berman writes.
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Blazers Sign Tim Frazier For Rest Of Season

By | at March 30, 2015 8:34 pm

8:34pm: Portland has officially inked Frazier for the remainder of the season, the team announced.

4:14pm: The Blazers are planning to sign point guard Tim Frazier to a deal that covers the rest of the season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Portland has an open roster spot, so a corresponding move wouldn’t be necessary. The D-League just named Frazier its Player of the Week for his performance with the Celtics affiliate.

The 24-year-old was with Boston’s NBA club for the preseason on a non-guaranteed contract, but the Celtics let him go before opening night. The idea was to secure his D-League rights, but the Blazers appear poised to become the second team other than the Celtics to bring him back to the NBA this season. The Sixers gave Frazier a pair of 10-day contracts in February, but they terminated the last one before it ended to accommodate their waiver claim of former Blazer Thomas Robinson. That was in spite of Frazier’s 7.2 assists in 28.6 minutes per game over six appearances, three of them starts, for the Sixers.

Frazier went back to the D-League after Philadelphia let him go, and the first-year pro who went undrafted out of Penn State this past summer continued toward averages of 16.1 points, 9.5 assists and 3.3 turnovers in 35.6 minutes per game for the Maine Red Claws. He doesn’t appear in line for much playing time in Portland, where Damian Lillard and Steve Blake man the point, unless the team is planning on resting Lillard down the stretch of the regular season. I’d imagine there’s a non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salary for next season included as part of the arrangement, but that’s just my speculation.

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Northwest Notes: Clark, Hunt, Leonard

By | at March 30, 2015 5:41 pm

Ian Clark is on an expiring contract, but the Nuggets didn’t claim him off waivers on Saturday simply with the hopes of having him around for the last few weeks of the season, according to Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. The shooting guard says he’ll be in summer league with Denver, a hint that there’s mutual interest between the sides in a more formal new deal. Denver can match any offers that Clark receives from other NBA teams this summer if it extends a qualifying offer of about $1.147MM. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

  • Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt is a popular and well-liked figure around the league and shares a longstanding connection with Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey, who nearly hired him for Utah this past offseason, as Dempsey details in a separate piece. Hunt wasn’t widely mentioned as a candidate for Utah’s head coaching job, so presumably Lindsey was talking about an assistant’s position, but that’s not entirely clear.
  • Meyers Leonard is hiring the Creative Artists Agency for his representation ahead of the offseason, when he’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Blazers big man had been with Excel Sports Management and Jeff Schwartz.
  • It’s a critical summer ahead for the Thunder and GM Sam Presti, who have one last full offseason of roster construction before Kevin Durant‘s contract runs out, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller examines. The majority of Hoops Rumors readers who voted in Friday’s poll believe the Thunder should look to make significant changes around Durant this summer.
1 comment Denver Nuggets Oklahoma City Thunder Portland Trail Blazers Utah Jazz

And-Ones: Towns, Okafor, Vaughn, Jazz

By | at March 30, 2015 4:09 pm

Duke center Jahlil Okafor has long been considered the favorite to become the top pick in the 2015 draft, but for the first time since Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has been compiling his prospect rankings for this year, he’s slipped to No. 2, as Givony notes via Twitter. That means Kentucky forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns has overtaken Okafor in his rankings as well as the ones Chad Ford of ESPN.com puts together. Of course, there’s still nearly three months to go until draft night, and much can change between now and then. It nonetheless sets up what would surely be a dream matchup in the NCAA tournament final for NBA scouts and executives if Kentucky and Duke are to win their respective semifinals on Saturday. There’s more draft news amid the latest from around the league:

  • UNLV freshman shooting guard Rashad Vaughn has signed with agent Omar Wilkes of Octagon Sports, according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Vaughn last week denied a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that he was planning to declare for the draft, but signing with an agent wouldn’t allow him to return to school, which suggests that Vaughn is indeed draft-bound.
  • Three dozen of 59 NBA executives who spoke to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com support playoff realignment, with the vast majority of the opposition coming from Eastern Conference teams (Twitter link).
  • Elijah Millsap landed his three-year deal with Jazz thanks to an agent who is four years younger than he is, and Cameron Chung of the Sports Agent Blog chronicles the sudden emergence of 23-year-old Daniel Hazan and his Hazan Sports Management agency.
  • The glut of high-level point guards in the NBA is a severe impediment to teams that don’t have one, as Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com examines in an Insider-only piece, suggesting that clubs like the Knicks and Sixers should prioritize finding point guards in the offseason.
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Patrick Beverley Out For Season, Playoffs

By | at March 30, 2015 2:49 pm

2:49pm: The Rockets confirmed the news in an official announcement.

12:40pm: Patrick Beverley will miss the rest of the season and the playoffs after deciding to go ahead and have surgery to repair ligaments in his left wrist, a source told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The news is no surprise, particularly after Rockets coach Kevin McHale said Sunday that the point guard probably wouldn’t return to play in 2014/15. GM Daryl Morey said on ESPN Radio’s NBA Insiders show Sunday night that a final decision on Beverley’s season was expected today, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Surgery was inevitable, but it was just a matter of whether Beverley could play through it, Stein adds (Twitter link).

Beverley’s been out of action for the past week as the wrist has undergone evaluations. It’s a tough blow for the Rockets, and though Morey acknowledged that it would be more difficult without him, he said in his ESPN Radio appearance Sunday that he believes the team could still win the title, notes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. That’s in spite of Houston’s relative lack of depth at the point, where he and Pablo Prigioni are the only true one-guards on the roster. The Rockets have used combo guard Jason Terry as the starting point guard in Beverley’s stead, with Trevor Ariza, Corey Brewer and Nick Johnson also seeing some duties at the position, Feigen points out.

Houston already has 15 players on the roster and the team is limited to handing out the minimum salary, with the deadline to apply for disabled player exceptions long since passed. Beverley, Kostas Papanikolaou and Donatas Motiejunas are all expected to miss extended periods of time, and Terrence Jones is out indefinitely, so there’s a chance the NBA would grant the team a 16th roster spot via hardship. That would only be a temporary fix, however, and Houston would be hard-pressed to replace Beverley’s production.

The third-year veteran is known for his aggressive defense, but he also nailed 35.6% of his three-point shots while averaging 10.1 points per game, his second straight season as a double-figure scorer. The BDA Sports Management client is due for restricted free agency this summer, though several reports have identified the Rockets as having interest in soon-to-be unrestricted free agent point guard Goran Dragic. Still, Beverley figures to be fairly sought-after if not by his incumbent team, then by others around the Association, in spite of his injury.

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Damian Jones To Stay Out Of Draft

By | at March 30, 2015 2:47 pm

Vanderbilt big man Damian Jones has decided to return to Vanderbilt for a junior season rather than enter this year’s NBA draft, sources tell Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The 6’10” 19-year-old was in line to become a second-round pick. He’s listed as the 43rd-best prospect on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress board while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him 54th.

Jones showed improvement this year, notching 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 29.1 minutes per game for the Commodores. He was his team’s leading scorer, but Vanderbilt went .500 in SEC play and failed to make the NCAA Tournament, and he put up just eight points in the team’s season-ending loss to Stanford in the NIT quarterfinals last week.

The school and coach Kevin Stallings have produced Festus Ezeli, John Jenkins and Jeff Taylor in recent years, and each of them was drafted from the 23rd through 31st overall picks. Jones has improved his stock since he left high school in 2013, when he was just 82nd in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.

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Atlantic Notes: Lopez, Calipari, Turner, Knicks

By | at March 30, 2015 1:59 pm

Brook Lopez says he’s undecided about his player option worth more than $16.744MM for next season, but Lionel Hollins made it clear today that he wants Lopez back one way or another, as the Nets coach told reporters, including Alex Raskin of The Wall Street Journal (Twitter link). There were conflicting reports earlier this season about which way the big man was leaning, and the Nets appeared close to trading him to the Thunder in January and again at the deadline, but he’s having a resurgent March, averaging 20.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game this month. There’s more on the Nets amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:

  • There are still some advocates for John Calipari within the Nets organization, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports said last week in an appearance on WFAN-AM with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts (audio link), as Robert Windrem of NetsDaily transcribes. It still appears unlikely that either the Nets would pursue him or Calipari would want to leave Kentucky, Wojnarowski believes.
  • Evan Turner isn’t a perfect match for any particular role, but Celtics coach Brad Stevens sees him as versatile rather than a misfit, as USA Today’s Howard Megdal examines. “I’ve been a fan of Evan Turner since his high school days,” Stevens said. “He played for my first boss [Ohio State coach Thad Matta], so I’ve known him, inside and out, for a while. I felt really good about the opportunity to sign him this summer, and was an advocate of that.” The C’s signed Turner for two years and more than $6.7MM this past offseason.
  • The Knicks fired D-League coach Kevin Whitted and named assistant Craig Hodges his replacement on an interim basis, the team announced, confirming an earlier report from Marc Berman of the New York Post (on Twitter). The move was the result of tension between Whitted, whom Knicks assistant GM Allan Houston hired, and Hodges, a former player under Jackson, as Berman details in a full story. Hodges spoke to Zach Links of Hoops Rumors at the start of the season.
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How 2014 Early Draft Entrants Fared

By | at March 30, 2015 12:30 pm

It’s difficult for underclassmen interested in entering the NBA draft to get truly accurate reads on their respective draft stocks, but the majority of last year’s early entrants are in the NBA, if the players who eventually withdrew from the draft aren’t taken into account. Many of the three dozen who have NBA contracts after declaring for the 2014 draft aren’t seeing much playing time, but they still made it to basketball highest level. Four more were on NBA rosters earlier this season, while a half dozen more were drafted and have yet to sign.

These are the players who declared for early entry in 2014 and currently have NBA contracts:

  • Jordan Adams, UCLA (Sophomore) — The Grizzlies drafted him No. 22 overall.
  • Kyle Anderson, UCLA (Sophomore) — The Spurs drafted him No. 30 overall.
  • Jabari Brown, Missouri (Junior) — Undrafted. Currently on second 10-day contract with Lakers. He previously signed with the team in September, but the Lakers waived him before opening night.
  • Bruno Caboclo, Brazil — The Raptors drafted him 20th overall.
  • Clint Capela, France — The Rockets drafted him 25th overall.
  • Jordan Clarkson, Missouri (Junior) — The Wizards drafted him 46th overall and traded his rights to the Lakers.
  • Spencer Dinwiddie, Colorado (Junior) — The Pistons drafted him 38th overall.
  • Tyler Ennis, Syracuse (Freshman) — The Suns drafted him 18th overall. A deadline-day trade sent him to the Bucks.
  • Joel Embiid, Kansas (Freshman) — The Sixers drafted him third overall. He hasn’t played this season due to injury.
  • Dante Exum, Australia — The Jazz drafted him fifth overall.
  • Aaron Gordon, Arizona (Freshman) — The Magic drafted him fourth overall.
  • Jerami Grant, Syracuse (Sophomore) — The Sixers drafted him 39th overall.
  • P.J. Hairston, D-League — The Heat drafted him 26th overall and traded his rights to the Hornets.
  • Gary Harris, Michigan State (Sophomore) — The Bulls drafted him 19th overall and traded his rights to the Nuggets.
  • Rodney Hood, Duke (Sophomore) — The Jazz drafted him 23rd overall.
  • Damien Inglis, France — The Bucks drafted him 31st overall. He hasn’t played this season due to injury.
  • Nick Johnson, Arizona (Junior) — The Rockets drafted him 42nd overall.
  • Zach LaVine, UCLA (Freshman) — The Timberwolves drafted him 13th overall.
  • James Michael McAdoo, North Carolina (Junior) — Undrafted. The Warriors signed him in February to a two-year deal. McAdoo previously signed a pair of 10-day contracts and a partially guaranteed contract in September that Golden State waived before opening night.
  • K.J. McDaniels, Clemson (Junior) — The Sixers drafted him 32nd overall. A deadline-day trade took him to the Rockets.
  • Mitch McGary, Michigan (Sophomore) — The Thunder drafted him 21st overall.
  • Eric Moreland, Oregon State (Junior) — Undrafted. Signed with the Kings in July.
  • Jusuf Nurkic, Croatia — The Bulls drafted him and traded his rights to the Nuggets.
  • Johnny O’Bryant III, LSU (Junior) — The Bucks drafted him 36th overall.
  • Jabari Parker, Duke (Freshman) — The Bucks drafted him second overall.
  • Elfrid Payton, Louisiana-Lafayette (Junior) — The Sixers drafted him 10th overall and traded his rights to the Magic.
  • Julius Randle, Kentucky (Freshman) — The Lakers drafted him seventh overall.
  • Glenn Robinson III, Michigan (Sophomore) — The Timberwolves drafted him 40th overall. They waived him in March, but the Sixers claimed him off waivers.
  • JaKarr Sampson, St. John’s (Sophomore) — Undrafted. Signed with the Sixers in September.
  • Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State (Sophomore) — The Celtics drafted him sixth overall.
  • Nik Stauskas, Michigan (Sophomore) — The Kings drafted him eighth overall.
  • Jarnell Stokes, Tennessee (Junior) — The Jazz drafted him 35th overall and traded his rights to the Grizzlies.
  • Noah Vonleh, Indiana (Freshman) — The Hornets drafted him ninth overall.
  • T.J. Warren, N.C. State (Sophomore) — The Suns drafted him 14th overall.
  • Andrew Wiggins, Kansas (Freshman) — The Cavaliers drafted him first overall and traded him to the Timberwolves in August.
  • James Young, Kentucky (Freshman) — The Celtics drafted him 17th overall.

The next group signed NBA deals earlier this season but have since cleared waivers:

  • Sim Bhullar, New Mexico State (Sophomore) — Undrafted. Signed with Kings in August but waived before opening night. Plays for Sacramento’s D-League affiliate.
  • Khem Birch, UNLV (Junior) — Undrafted. Signed with Heat in September but waived before opening night. Plays for Miami’s D-League affiliate.
  • Alex Kirk, New Mexico (Junior) — Undrafted. The Cavs signed him in August. A January trade sent him to the Knicks, who waived him shortly thereafter. He’s now playing for Cleveland’s D-League affiliate.
  • Roscoe Smith, UNLV (Junior) — Undrafted. The Lakers signed him in September but waived him prior to opening night. He’s played for the Lakers D-League affiliate this season.

These 11 players went undrafted and haven’t signed with NBA teams at any point, aside from summer league:

  • William Alston, Baltimore County Community College — Remains unsigned.
  • Isaiah Austin, Baylor (Sophomore) — Retired from basketball after he was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome.
  • Chane Behanan, Louisville/Colorado State (Junior) — Played 13 games with the Rockets D-League affiliate this season.
  • Jahii Carson, Arizona State (Sophomore) — He’s played for teams in Australia and Serbia this season.
  • Michalis Kamperidis, Greece — He’s played for teams in Spain and Greece this season.
  • Artem Klimenko, Russia — He’s played for Russia’s Avtodor Saratov this season.
  • Lucas Mariano, Brazil — He’s played for Brazil’s Franca this season.
  • LaQuinton Ross, Ohio State (Junior) — He’s played for Vuelle Basket Pesaro of Italy this season.
  • Antonio Rucker, Clinton Junior College (Freshman) — Remains unsigned.
  • Ojars Silins, Italy — He’s played for Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia of Italy this season.
  • Ta’Quan Zimmerman, Canada — He’s played for the Jazz’s D-League affiliate this season.

These players are “draft-and-stash” prospects who are playing either in the D-League or overseas even though NBA teams drafted them last year:

  • Semaj Christon, Xavier (Sophomore) — The Heat drafted him 55th overall, and a pair of trades sent his rights to the Hornets and ultimately the Thunder. Oklahoma City didn’t sign him but he entered the D-League and has been playing for the Thunder’s D-League affiliate.
  • Nemanja Dangubic, Serbia — The Sixers drafted him and traded him to the Spurs. He’s played for Serbia’s Crvena Zvezda this season.
  • DeAndre Daniels, Connecticut (Junior) — The Raptors drafted him 37th overall. He played for the Perth Wildcats of Australia this season.
  • Nikola Jokic, Serbia — The Nuggets drafted him 41st overall. He’s played for Serbia’s KK Mega Vizura this season.
  • Vasilije Micic, Serbia — The Sixers drafted him 52nd overall. He’s played for Germany’s Bayern Muenchen this season.
  • Dario Saric, Croatia — The Magic drafted him 12th overall and traded his rights to the Sixers. He’s played for Turkey’s Anadolu Efes this season.

The final group consists of players who withdrew from the draft, most of whom are from overseas. There’s a decent chance that many of these names will resurface again as early-entry candidates this year:

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