Draft Rumors: Blazers, Portsmouth, Rice
Trey Burke's decision to leave Michigan is the most significant draft news of the day, but, as will be the case more often than not between now and June 27th, there are plenty of other draft-related items to share. We'll keep you in the loop, and we'll also continue to update our list of early entrants until the final deadline. Here's the latest:
- The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament might not be a hotbed for top draft prospects, but Blazers GM Neil Olshey still thinks it's worth his time for a visit, calling it a valuable source of hard-working second-round finds, as he tells HoopsWorld's Joel Brigham.
- Illinois State combo guard Tyler Brown is outside of the 100 rankings on ESPN.com and DraftExpress.com, but he's been the most impressive prospect this week in Portsmouth, as far as Tommy Dee of SheridanHoops.com is concerned.
- Glen Rice Jr., son of the former All-Star, is on an unconventional path to the draft, having been dismissed from Georgia Tech last year. He didn't declare for the 2012 draft and spent this season in the D-League. He's eligible by default for this year's draft, and after some hot play down the stretch for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, he's making a run at becoming a second-round pick, as Ridiculous Upside's Keith Schlosser chronicles. Rice checks in at No. 75 on Jonathan Givony's DraftExpress.com list.
Nerlens Noel To Become Jay-Z’s First Client?
Rumors are circulating around the league that Kentucky center Nerlens Noel, the leading contender to become the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft, will be Jay-Z's first NBA client as a sports agent, NetsDaily reports (Twitter link). Jay-Z has a strong relationship with Kentucky coach John Calipari, NetsDaily also points out via Twitter. The rapper, entrepreneur and minority owner of the Nets is selling his stake in the team to found the Roc Nation Sports agency, which he hopes will represent players in baseball, basketball and football. New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano has already come on board.
Jay-Z must formally divest himself of his Nets share and become formally certified as an NBA agent before he can sign Noel or any other NBA player. Noel, a freshman, hasn't formally declared his intent to enter this year's draft, though it would be a shock if he didn't. The 6'11" 19-year-old with a 7'4" wingspan occupies the No. 1 spot on the draft boards of ESPN.com's Chad Ford and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com.
HoopsRumors unveiled its Agency Database this week, listing the agent for nearly every player in the NBA. We'll be updating it continuously as players change agents and prospects, like Noel, enter the league.
Lakers Confirm Achilles Tear For Kobe Bryant
Longtime Lakers trainer Gary Vitti told reporters, including Arash Markazi of ESPN.com, that Kobe Bryant has suffered a torn left Achilles tendon and will be out for six to nine months (Twitter link). Bryant suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter of last night's win over the Warriors. He stayed in the game to take a pair of free throws, making them both, before limping off. It's a third-degree rupture, meaning the tendon is completely torn, Vitti said, as Eric Pincus and Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times note (Twitter links). Bryant's surgery is set for later today, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Vitti told McMenamin and others that the plan is for Bryant to be ready for the 2013/14 season opener, though that would represent the early side of the timetable (Twitter link). A doctor who's unaffiliated with the team told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that Kobe Bryant could be back in time for the start of next season, but it's more likely recovery will take nine to 12 months. Another doctor tells Deveney that Bryant will never regain 100% of his athletic ability.
Vitti vehemently dismissed the notion that Bryant's heavy minutes of late contributed to the injury, according to Pincus (Twitter link). Tim Grover, Bryant's personal trainer, agrees, telling Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com that he'd be "shocked" if the increased playing time led to the tear (Twitter link). Coach Mike D'Antoni nonetheless absorbed blame in response to a question last night from Brian Kamenetzky of SheridanHoops.com.
"Yeah, definitely. It's my call at the very end, so if he gets hurt, then (I feel responsible)," D'Antoni said. "But I'm not going to sit here and go, 'Maybe he wouldn't have gotten hurt if (he played less).' You don't know. You've got to go forward, and we made decisions collectively and tried to make the best ones we can. Right now, that's not turning out to be great. But it might not have been good, anyway. If you're a couple games out and not making the playoffs, then he can rest all summer. We'll go back and forth, but I don't know, hypotheticals — we can talk about it, but it's not going to help any."
There's been speculation, from Grantland's Bill Simmons and others, that the Lakers could waive Bryant via the amnesty clause this summer, as he's set to make $30.454MM next season, the highest salary in the league. That's not likely, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who points out that the Lakers would lose Bryant's Bird rights if they did so (Twitter link). Thus, the move would only come in handy if the Lakers are certain they'd have enough cap space in 2014 to re-sign him, as Stein argues via Twitter. However, Steve Nash is currently the only commitment the Lakers have beyond next season, so the team probably wouldn't have trouble fitting Bryant back under the cap if need be.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said amnestying Bryant is "the furthest thing from our minds," Shelburne tweets.
Mavs Re-Sign Josh Akognon
1:52pm: The Mavericks officially announced the signing in a press release.
1:15pm: The Mavs and Josh Akognon are lining up a deal that would keep him on the team for the rest of the season and include a team option for 2013/14, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Akognon's 10-day contract with the team expired last night.
The 5'11" guard made just a single four-minute appearance for Dallas during his 10-day deal, but the Mavs have apparently seen enough to settle on the 27-year-old journeyman for their final roster spot heading into the offseason. Dallas also signed Chris Wright and Justin Dentmon to 10-day contracts in recent weeks, but didn't re-sign either player.
Akognon was in training camp with the Mavs this past fall, but spent the season in China with the Liaoning Jiebao Hunters, for whom he averaged a team-high 29.0 points per game. It was the second straight year Akognon made his mark in the Chinese league, after posting 28.2 PPG for the DongGuan New Century Leopards in 2011/12.
Trey Burke To Enter Draft
Michigan point guard Trey Burke will enter this year's draft, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Burke will make a formal announcement Sunday. The 6'1" 20-year-old led the Wolverines to the NCAA championship game this year, sweeping every major national player of the year award in the process.
Still, both Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com rate him as only the seventh-best prospect in the draft. He bounced back from a seven-point, 1-for-8 shooting performance in the national semifinals against Syracuse and fellow highly regarded point guard Michael Carter-Williams with a 24-point effort in the title game. Burke, a sophomore, averaged 18.6 points and 6.7 assists per game this season, and shot 38.4% from the three-point line.
There's no word on whether he's hired an agent, so if he hasn't, he could conceivably withdraw from the draft by Tuesday's deadline and return to school next season. That would be a long shot, though, especially since next year's draft field is expected to be much more crowded at the top.
Lakers Fear Kobe Bryant Has Torn Achilles
The Lakers survived tonight's game against the Warriors when Stephen Curry's would-be game-winning heave from 70 feet away just barely rimmed out, but they may have suffered an even bigger blow than if that shot had gone in. The Lakers believe Kobe Bryant has torn his Achilles tendon, the team told reporters, including Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). Bryant will undergo an MRI tomorrow morning to confirm the initial diagnosis.
Bryant appeared to suffer three different leg injuries during the game, though the major blow seemed to occur with 3:08 to go, when he crumpled to the ground following a foul by Harrison Barnes. Bryant remained in the game to shoot his two free throws, making both, and exited after Steve Blake committed a foul to stop the clock with 3:06 left.
If Bryant indeed suffered the Achilles tear, he'd no doubt be done for this season and probably most of next year, as well. His contract runs through next season, and he's frequently hinted that he'll retire when the deal is up. He said two weeks ago that he'd decide this summer whether next season will be his last.
In the short term, such a major injury would damage L.A.'s chances of beating the Jazz for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Lakers have a one-game lead with two games left for each team, but the Jazz hold the tiebreaker. The Cavs and Suns also have stakes in the outcome, since Cleveland gets the Lakers' first-round pick if L.A. makes the playoffs, while the selection goes to Phoenix if the Jazz nab the postseason berth.
Bryant seemed resigned to the worst of news as he spoke to the media following the game. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com tweets one of his comments:
"I made a move I've made a million times and it just popped. … (It felt) like I had no Achilles. That was the sensation," Bryant said.
Odds & Ends: Mavs, Collins, Jackson, Jordan
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban takes the blame for his team's subpar season, saying he failed to construct an adequate roster and promising he'll be more attentive this summer, observes Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com. "I'm not making any predictions," the owner said. "All I'm saying is we're not going to do a traditional rebuild. That's (why) we got all this cap room, so we wouldn't. We're going to be opportunistic."
Cuban also made headlines this evening for his desire to keep Vince Carter for years to come, but there are plenty of other newsmakers tonight:
- Contradicting a report from earlier this week, John Finger of CSNPhilly.com writes that Sixers management wants to keep Doug Collins for as long as he has a desire to coach.
- Collins will still receive his $4.5MM salary for next season if the Sixers fire him, but he won't get the money if he quits, notes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News.
- Stephen Jackson's discontent, which was apparently at the root of his release from the Spurs, didn't stem from the lack of a contract extension, but simply a desire for more playing time, according to Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News.
- Lakers assistant coach Eddie Jordan is nearing a deal to become the next head coach at Rutgers, tweets Chick Hernandez of CSNWashington.com. Jordan is willing to take the job even if it means he'd have to leave the Lakers right away, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times.
- Mike Woodson has interest in Kurt Thomas rejoining the Knicks as an assistant coach next season, as Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal notes via Twitter.
- North Carolina announced sophomore swingman P.J. Hairston is returning to school, tweets Andy Katz of ESPN.com. Hairston is No. 40 on Chad Ford's list of prospects for ESPN.com, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com has Hairston at No. 14 on his 2014 mock draft.
- Before he gets into the latest edition of his mock draft, Chris Mannix of SI.com discusses Louisville's Russ Smith, whom coach Rick Pitino now says is "50-50" to go pro after it seemed earlier that he would enter the draft. At least one scout who spoke to Mannix thinks Smith would go undrafted in June.
Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors contributed to this post.
Stein’s Latest: Josh Smith, Boylan, Collins, Holiday
Marc Stein's final ESPN.com Weekend Dime of the season doubles as his awards ballot, and he has LeBron James winning MVP, of course. More intriguing are his selections in some of the tighter races: George Karl for Coach of the Year, Kevin Martin for Sixth Man of the Year, Tim Duncan for Defensive Player of the Year and Jrue Holiday for Most Improved Player. Stein also has plenty of news from around the league, as we round up:
- Before the season, the Hawks offered Josh Smith a three-year extension for the maximum amount, which would have been about $45MM, but Smith made it clear he wanted to hit free agency. That's no surprise, since an extension would have meant a smaller annual salary than he can sign for as a free agent, per collective bargaining agreement rules. The Hawks, wary of letting Smith walk, aggressively pursued trades, according to Stein, but wound up keeping him when an offer from the Bucks wasn't to their liking.
- Bucks GM John Hammond is publicly heaping praise on coach Jim Boylan, but Stein hears Boylan has little to no shot of retaining the job, based on the team's late-season slump.
- Doug Collins may join the Sixers front office or simply become an adviser to the team if he decides to step away from coaching.
- Justin Holiday's deal with the Sixers includes a team option for next season, and it appears the deal is partially guaranteed for $50K, becoming fully guaranteed if he's not waived by August 15th.
- The Nets also have a team option on Kris Joseph's deal for 2013/14.
- A source insists to Stein that the Jazz will retain Tyrone Corbin for the final year of his contract next season, regardless of whether the team makes the playoffs.
- Jermaine O'Neal, 34, is leaning strongly toward playing again next season. He signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Suns last summer.
Cuban Wants To Keep Vince Carter Long-Term
Vince Carter, unlike most of his Mavericks teammates, isn't set to hit free agency this summer. The 36-year-old is signed through 2014, but Mavs owner Mark Cuban hopes the team can keep him beyond next season, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. Cuban has no concerns about Carter's game declining after a bounceback season this year, and would like to see Carter eventually retire as a Mav.
"He can play for more than a year, easily," Cuban said. "He’ll be cranking those motorcycle handles for a while."
Carter's scoring average is up to 13.2 points per game this year, more than three points higher than last season's mark in essentially the same amount of playing time. He's taking more shots, but his field-goal percentage is higher, and his three-point shooting, at 39.8%, is the best it's been since 2004/05.
Coach Rick Carlisle has used Carter as a sixth man this season, and it's the first time in the 15th-year veteran's career that he hasn't started at least half of his team's games. Carter is making $3.09MM this season and $3.18MM in 2013/14, so whatever he makes on his next contract couldn't be too much of a paycut.
Cuban's comments seem, at least on the surface, to indicate the Mavs won't look to trade him to free up cap space in pursuit of a marquee free agent this summer. Of course, Cuban might just be trying to talk up Carter's trade value, so nothing's certain. Carter was reportedly part of a proposed Josh Smith trade at the deadline.
Bucks GM On Redick, Boylan, Sanders
This time last year, it seemed Bucks GM John Hammond's job was on the line as the team chased the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The team fell short last year, but Hammond kept his job, and now the Bucks are in line for that eighth seed in the East. In the meantime, Hammond has been busy, having changed coaches, signed a three-year extension, and traded for J.J. Redick. There's plenty more work ahead, as the team's top three guards could all hit free agency this summer, and a decision on an extension for Larry Sanders looms. HoopsWorld's Bill Ingram caught up with Hammond, who reflected on some of what he's done.
On the Redick trade:
"We were hoping to make the playoffs. We thought adding a piece like J.J. Redick could help solidify that opportunity for us and he has. He’s been a great addition to our team. We’re also happy to have Gustavo (Ayon) and Ish Smith. It might be easy to forget about Gustavo and his abilities. We like him as a player, but it was a difficult trade to make to say the least. To move a piece like Tobias Harris and Doron Lamb; we like both those players, both good young players, but we felt at that time it was the right thing for our organization."
On Jim Boylan, who replaced Scott Skiles as head coach in January:
"Jim’s done a nice job with the team and I think we’re all seeing these situations that have occurred. It’s not a rarity in the NBA to have something like this happen. It’s not normalcy, but it’s not rarity by any stretch, so it happens. Most of the times when these sort of things happen, the situation goes south and goes south very quickly, but Jim has done a great job of working with our guys and communicating with our guys and motivating them to play hard. He deserves a lot of credit."
On the development of Sanders, a Defensive Player of the Year candidate:
"You draft Larry with the 15th pick and you’re hoping that when you used a first-round pick on a player that they turn out to be a location guy or better yet a starter, and Larry has turned out to be a significant piece of our team and a part of our team. Obviously, he’s one of the better shot blockers in the NBA. It’s been great for Larry, but he’s just taking advantage of the opportunity, and I think his game still has a chance to change and grow, and he’ll continue to develop as a player."