Kings Agree To Two-Way Contract With Keon Ellis
The Kings have agreed to a two-way contract with Keon Ellis, Shams Charania of Stadium tweets.
The 6’6” senior guard averaged 12.1 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 1.8 APG and 1.9 SPG in his senior year at Alabama. He made 43.7% of his field goal attempts and 36.6% of his 3-point tries. Ellis began his college career at Florida Southwestern State before playing his final two seasons for the Crimson Tide.
Sacramento finished the season with an empty two-way slot, so it can seamlessly add Ellis.
Warriors Move Up In Second Round, Select Ryan Rollins
11:59pm: The trade is official, the Warriors announced in a press release.
10:56pm: The Warriors acquired the No. 44 pick from the Hawks for the No. 51 pick and $2MM in cash, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Golden State used the No. 44 pick to select Toledo guard Ryan Rollins.
Rollins averaged 18.9 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.6 APG for the Rockets of the Mid-American Conference. He’ll give Golden State a little more depth at the guard position and will likely spend a good chunk of his rookie season in the G League.
The Hawks used the No. 51 pick on UConn’s Tyrese Martin, a 6’6” wing who averaged 13.6 PPG and 7.5 RPG last season.
Mavs Acquire No. 37 Pick Jaden Hardy From Kings
11:45pm: The trade is now official, according to the Mavericks (Twitter link).
10:33pm: The Kings are trading the 37th overall pick to the Mavericks for two future second-round picks, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
The Mavericks traded their own second-rounders in 2024 and 2028 to Sacramento, Marc Stein tweets.
Dallas selected G League Ignite guard Jaden Hardy with the 37th pick. Prior to move, Dallas didn’t have a selection in this year’s draft after giving up the 26th pick to Houston in the still-unofficial Christian Wood deal.
Hardy averaged 17.7 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 3.2 APG for the Ignite. He slipped out of the first round and could wind up as a value pick for Dallas. He’ll add backcourt depth and scoring prowess, which could come in handy if unrestricted free agent Jalen Brunson doesn’t re-sign with the Mavs.
Bucks Acquire No. 58 Pick From Pacers, Choose Besson
A pair of Central Division teams made a late second-round swap, as the Pacers agreed to trade the No. 58 pick to the Bucks, Shams Charania of Stadium tweets. Indiana is receiving cash in the deal, reports James Boyd of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).
The Bucks used the last pick of the draft, which was originally owned by Phoenix, to select French guard Hugo Besson, who played for the New Zealand Breakers last season and averaged 13.9 PPG.
Besson will presumably be a draft-and-stash pick for Milwaukee.
Thunder Acquire No. 11 From Knicks, Select Ousmane Dieng
9:33pm: Commissioner Adam Silver officially announced the trade between the Thunder and Knicks on the NBA’s draft broadcast.
According to Silver, New York is receiving three conditional future first-round picks in the deal. Shams Charania of The Athletic provides more details, tweeting that New York is acquiring the Nuggets’ 2023 first-rounder (top-14 protected), the Pistons’ 2023 first-rounder (top-18 protected), and the Wizards’ 2023 first-rounder (top-14 protected).
It appears the Denver pick will be re-routed to Charlotte in a salary-dump deal involving Kemba Walker.
8:13pm: The Knicks selected French forward Ousmane Dieng with the No. 11 pick in tonight’s draft, but he won’t play for them.
New York is trading Dieng to the Thunder, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Oklahoma City is sending the Knicks multiple first-round picks in the deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
That gave the Thunder back-to-back picks, since they also owned the No. 12 selection via the Clippers. That pick isn’t part of the trade with the Knicks, Wojnarowski tweets. OKC used that pick on wing Jalen Williams from Santa Clara.
Dieng, who played last season with the New Zealand Breakers, is considered the top international prospect in the draft and will give OKC another lengthy big man to pair up with No. 2 pick Chet Holmgren.
New York tried in vain to move up and acquire guard Jaden Ivey and ultimately decided to move down in the draft. By trading out of the first round, the Knicks reduce their salary cap obligations for this year, giving them more elbow room to dump salary if needed for another trade, perhaps as soon as a few days from now, cap expert Nate Duncan tweets.
Knicks Looking To Trade For Ivey, Pistons Balking
The Pistons selected Jaden Ivey with the No. 5 pick, forming a potentially dynamic backcourt with last year’s top pick, Cade Cunningham.
However, the Knicks didn’t give up on their pursuit of Ivey easily. They are trying to make a deal with Detroit to acquire the jet-quick point guard out of Purdue, according to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer (Twitter link) and SNY TV’s Ian Begley (Twitter link).
Steve Popper of Newsday tweets that the Pistons may have some interest if Memphis center Jalen Duren is still available at New York’s pick at No. 11. However, New York instead chose French center Ousmane Dieng, the top international prospect, and are moving him to the Thunder in a trade, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
The Knicks are acquiring multiple picks in that deal and are making one last serious push to trade for Ivey with those additional assets, The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III tweets.
New York is desperately seeking a lead guard to get back into the postseason after coming up empty this past season.
Kings Keep No. 4 Pick, Draft Keegan Murray
After weighing trade offers for weeks, the Kings have decided to keep the No. 4 overall pick and have drafted Iowa’s Keegan Murray, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).
Murray and Purdue guard Jaden Ivey were widely considered the top two prospects after the top three were off the board. While Ivey was ahead of Murray on many experts’ boards, he may have been an awkward fit in Sacramento alongside a similar lead guard in De’Aaron Fox. Murray should comfortably slot into the Kings’ frontcourt alongside Domantas Sabonis.
Murray, who was not a blue chip prospect entering college, was one of Division I’s most prolific scorers this past season. He averaged 23.5 PPG along with 8.7 RPG while knocking down 39.8% of his 3-point tries. He was also a defensive force (1.9 BPG, 1.3 SPG). He’s considered by many experts to be the most NBA ready prospect in the draft after playing two seasons of college ball.
Kings forward Harrison Barnes has been mentioned frequently in trade rumors this offseason, and the selection of Murray could make a Barnes deal more likely as the team seeks to end the league’s longest current playoff drought.
We won’t be publishing full stories on the rest of the individual picks in this year’s draft – unless there are trades involved – but we’re tracking all the picks right here.
Draft Rumors: Pistons, Duren, Dieng, Mavericks, Raptors, Anunoby
The Pistons, who already made news this week with their impending trade of Jerami Grant to Portland, could make another significant move this evening. They are holding ongoing conversations to acquire another lottery pick, with Memphis center Jalen Duren believed to be the target, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report tweets.
Detroit already holds the No. 5 selection in the draft. A report earlier today indicated Pistons GM Troy Weaver is a big fan of Duren.
- Ousmane Dieng seems destined to be chosen higher than any other international prospect. The French big man, who played for the New Zealand Breakers, has been surging up draft boards and could go as high as No. 8, where the Pelicans are picking, Marc Stein tweets.
- The Mavericks are covering all their bases, even though their first-round pick is headed to Houston and their second-rounder is headed to Washington, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News tweets. GM Nico Harrison says they’re are not actively calling teams to trade into the draft, but have done the prep work needed in case they end up with a draft pick in either round.
- The Raptors are unlikely to move into the lottery and trade forward OG Anunoby, Michael Grange of Sportsnet tweets. Most of the chatter surrounding Anunoby has come from the Trail Blazers, who are trying to add veterans around Damian Lillard, Grange adds, while Toronto remains in a ‘be patient and grow’ mode.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 6/23/2022
The transcript of our weekly Thursday live chat can be found here.
Please join Alex Kirschenbaum for our special draft-night live chat, which will begin shortly before the first round.
Los Angeles Notes: Ott, Westbrook, Brogdon, Swider, Clippers’ Targets
Darvin Ham‘s Lakers staff is starting to take shape. Nets assistant Jordan Ott will join him on the West Coast and move into a more prominent role in front of the Lakers’ bench, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Ott has been with Brooklyn since 2016. He served as Steve Nash’s offensive coordinator this past season.
We have more from the Los Angeles teams:
- The Lakers discussed trading Russell Westbrook and Talen Horton-Tucker to the Pacers, with Malcolm Brogdon among the players mentioned as potential acquisitions, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony said on “The Lowe Post” podcast (hat tip to Paul Kasabian of Bleacher Report). Those talks didn’t gain any traction.
- Syracuse’s Cole Swider worked out for the Lakers for a second time on Tuesday, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register tweets. Jordan Hall (St. Joseph’s), Orlando Robinson (Fresno State), Kyler Edwards (Houston) and Isaiah Whaley (UConn) were among the other participants. Shareef O’Neal (LSU), the son of former Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal was also in attendance, as previously reported.
- Who are some of the under-the-radar free agents the Clippers could target? The Athletic’s Law Murray tackles that topic, naming Otto Porter Jr., Delon Wright and Andre Drummond as some of the players they could pursue.