Poll: 2008 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 10)
Scouting players and predicting how their skills will translate to the NBA is one of the more difficult tasks front offices have on their plates. Looking back over past drafts and how many lottery picks never evolved into stars, or even made a significant impact in the league, illustrates just how often stats, combine numbers and pure gut instinct often come up short.
Of course, we get the opportunity to critique these moves with the benefit of hindsight — a luxury that GMs don’t have on draft night. Having said that, it’s still fun to go back in time and take a theoretical look at how these drafts should have/could have gone.
We’ve been revisiting 2008 draft, which had a number of players who have gone on to post big numbers in the league. This was the year of Derrick Rose (No. 1 overall), Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Kevin Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10) and Nicolas Batum (No. 25). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of polls asking readers to vote on whom teams should have selected in each spot.
We’ll continue on with the Nets, who still resided in New Jersey and who held the No. 10 overall pick that year. In the “real world” draft, the Nets selected Lopez, but will have to go in a different direction in this draft since the Grizzlies nabbed the center with pick number five.
So cast your vote for who the Nets should have selected and check back on Tuesday to see the results, as well as to vote on who the Pacers should have taken with the No. 11 pick. Also, don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. If we fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and we’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.
- Bulls — Russell Westbrook [Actual Pick — Derrick Rose]
- Heat — Kevin Love [Actual Pick — Michael Beasley]
- Wolves — Derrick Rose [Actual Pick — O.J. Mayo]
- Sonics/Thunder — DeAndre Jordan [Actual Pick — Russell Westbrook]
- Grizzlies — Brook Lopez [Actual Pick — Kevin Love]
- Knicks — Serge Ibaka [Actual Pick — Danilo Gallinari]
- Clippers — Nicolas Batum [Actual Pick — Eric Gordon]
- Bucks — Goran Dragic [Actual Pick — Joe Alexander]
- Bobcats/Hornets — Danilo Gallinari [Actual Pick — D.J. Augustin]
- Nets — ?? [Actual Pick — Brook Lopez]
If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here to vote.
Lakers To Sign Travis Wear
The Lakers have reached an agreement with unrestricted free agent Travis Wear, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (via Twitter). The scribe refers to it as a training camp deal, so it’s likely a minimum salary pact that includes little or no guaranteed money.
Wear, a small forward, was out of the NBA last season after playing 61 games for the Knicks in 2014/15. He instead played overseas for the Spanish club RETAbet.es GBC, appearing in 26 games and averaging 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.7 steals in 20.5 minutes per outing. His shooting line was .448/.353/.737.
The 25-year-old has a total of 51 NBA contests under his belt, all with New York, and has career averages of 3.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 13.2 minutes per night. His career NBA slash line is .402/.367/.769.
Bucks Re-Sign Steve Novak
The Bucks have re-signed unrestricted free agent Steve Novak, the team announced (via Twitter). The length and terms of the arrangement were not relayed, but with Milwaukee over the cap, it is likely for the veteran’s minimum. The team does still possess its Room Exception worth $2,898,000, but it would be surprising if it was used in this case. The team now has 15 players on its roster, which is the regular season maximum.
Novak had garnered some interest around the league from other teams, per his agent Mark Bartelstein, but the veteran had been holding off on making a decision because his clear preference was to remain in Milwaukee. “There have been a few teams that we’ve talked to; you always got to keep your doors open,’’ Bartelstein had said earlier this month. “But we’re still talking with the Bucks and, hopefully, we’ll make a deal with them. Steve would love to stay in Milwaukee. It’s a very special place for him.’’
The forward was the No. 32 overall pick in 2006. He has appeared in 459 career regular season games, averaging 4.7 points and 1.3 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per outing. He owns a career shooting line of .438/.431/.877. Novak will provide the team with veteran leadership and some outside shooting off the bench.
Salary Cap Snapshot: New Orleans Pelicans
With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Pelicans’ team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Pelicans currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Anthony Davis —$22,116,750
- DeMarcus Cousins —$16,957,900
- Solomon Hill —$11,709,603 [Year-end cap hit adjusted due to bonus]
- Jrue Holiday —$11,286,518
- Omer Asik —$9,904,494
- E’Twaun Moore —$8,081,363
- Alexis Ajinca —$4,638,203
- Quincy Pondexter —$3,617,978
- Dante Cunningham —$2,978,250
- Omri Casspi —$2,963,814 [Waived by team]
- Tim Frazier —$2,090,000
- Alonzo Gee —$1,400,000 [Waived by team]
- Terrence Jones —$980,431 [Waived by team; Actual Salary — $1,050,961]
- Lance Stephenson —$584,766 [Waived by team; Pelicans paid non-guaranteed salary until he recovered from groin surgery]
- Donatas Motiejunas —$576,724 [Actual Salary — $618,212]
- Cheick Diallo —$543,471
- Reggie Williams —$180,483 [Waived by team]
- Jordan Crawford — $173,099
- Anthony Brown —$108,043 [Waived by team]
- Archie Goodwin —$95,595 [Waived by team]
- Hollis Thompson — $57,672 [10-day contract (Feb 23); actual salary — $59,747]
- Jarrett Jack — $57,672 [10-day contract (Feb 24); actual salary — $91,274]
- Reggie Williams — $57,672 [10-day contract (Feb 25); actual salary — $72,193]
- Hollis Thompson — $57,672 [10-day contract (Mar 6); actual salary — $59,747]
- Jordan Crawford — $57,672 [10-day contract (Mar 6); actual salary — $61,821]
- Wayne Selden — $31,969 [10-day contract (Mar 8)]
- Quinn Cook — $31,969 [10-day contract (Mar 19)]
- Quinn Cook — $31,969 [10-day contract (Mar 29)]
- Axel Toupane —$25,725
- Quinn Cook — $15,984
Total Guaranteed Salary= $101,413,461
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Cash Received Via Trade: $400K received from Heat in Luke Babbitt trade [Amount Remaining $3.1MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- Trade Exception — $3,517,200 (Buddy Hield trade) — Expires on 2/20/18
- Room Exception — $808,000 remaining [Used $2,090,000 to sign Tim Frazier]
Total Projected Payroll: $101,413,461
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: –$7,270,461
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $11,873,539
Last Updated: 4/15/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.
Poll: 2008 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 9)
Scouting players and predicting how their skills will translate to the NBA is one of the more difficult tasks front offices have on their plates. Looking back over past drafts and how many lottery picks never evolved into stars, or even made a significant impact in the league, illustrates just how often stats, combine numbers and pure gut instinct often come up short.
Of course, we get the opportunity to critique these moves with the benefit of hindsight — a luxury that GMs don’t have on draft night. Having said that, it’s still fun to go back in time and take a theoretical look at how these drafts should have/could have gone.
We’ve been revisiting 2008 draft, which had a number of players who have gone on to post big numbers in the league. This was the year of Derrick Rose (No. 1 overall), Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Kevin Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10) and Nicolas Batum (No. 25). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of polls asking readers to vote on whom teams should have selected in each spot.Read more
Mo Williams Considering Retirement
Veteran Cavs guard Mo Williams is strongly considering hanging up his sneakers and retiring from the game, Joe Vardon of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. Williams’ balky knee, his desire to coach and the opportunity to go out as an NBA champion are weighing heavily upon him, Vardon adds.
There is also the chance, should Williams hold off on making a definitive decision regarding his future, that the Cavs could seek to trade him in a salary dump or waive him via the stretch provision, Vardon notes. The deadline to utilize the stretch provision is this Wednesday (August 31st), should the Cavs decide to go that route. Cleveland’s projected payroll for 2016/17 currently stands at $116,494,181, which is already over the luxury tax line which has been set at $113.2MM by the league. Williams is due to earn $2,194,500 this season, the final one on his current deal.
For Cleveland, purging itself of Williams’ salary would help alleviate some of its luxury tax burden this season, but it would also leave the team with rookie Kay Felder as the only true point guard on the roster behind starter Kyrie Irving. The Cavs still may re-sign unrestricted free agent shooting guard J.R. Smith, which would thrust the team deeper into tax territory. Not to mention the Cavs will still likely need to add additional backcourt depth should Williams be released or traded, which would increase their payroll and tax hit even further.
The 33-year-old appeared in 41 regular season games for the Cavs a season ago, averaging 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 18.2 minutes per outing. His shooting line on the campaign was .437/.353/.905. Williams’ career numbers, should he decide to call it quits, are 13.2 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 4.9 APG. His career slash line is .434/.378/.871.
Hoops Rumors Originals: 8/21/16-8/27/16
Here’s a look back at the original content and analysis generated by the Hoops Rumors staff this past week.
- We examined Steven Adams and Rudy Gobert as extension candidates.
- We asked readers to do over the 2008 NBA Draft. Here’s who you selected for picks No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 overall.
- You can stay up to date on any contract extensions agreed to this season with our tracker.
- Here are the NBA D-League affiliations for the upcoming season.
- In a reader poll, we asked if the Nets should trade Brook Lopez.
- We ran down the remaining free agents who logged the most minutes in 2015/16.
- Will Joseph highlighted some of the better basketball blogs around in his weekly installment of Hoops Links.
- We looked at the 2016/17 Salary Cap figures for the:
- Arthur answered reader questions in our Weekly Mailbag. Here’s how you can submit your own questions for our mailbag feature.
- In our Community Shootarounds this week we discussed:
- How good will the Knicks be in 2016/17?
- Which 12 players will represent the United States at the 2020 Games in Tokyo?
- Which player is likeliest to make a comeback this season?
- Our Free Agent Tracker continues to have up-to-date data on this summer’s contract agreements and signings from around the NBA.
- If you haven’t already, be sure to download the Trade Rumors app for your iOS or Android device.
Week In Review: 8/21/16-8/27/16
With 2016’s offseason winding down and the preseason on its way, here’s a look back at all the notable news and events from around the NBA this past week:
Trades
- The Jazz traded Tibor Pleiss, two second-round picks, and cash to the Sixers in exchange for Kendall Marshall.
Signings/Agreements
NBA
- The Celtics signed Marcus Georges-Hunt.
- The Thunder signed Semaj Christon.
- The Lakers signed Zach Auguste.
- The Jazz signed Marcus Paige.
- The Bucks signed Jason Terry.
- The Lakers signed Brandon Ingram.
- The Lakers signed Yi Jianlian.
- The Timberwolves signed Toure’ Murry and John Lucas III.
- The Raptors signed E.J. Singler.
- The Lakers re-signed Tarik Black.
- The Spurs are expected to sign Nicolas Laprovittola.
International
- J.J. Hickson signed with Fujian in China.
- Jeff Adrien signed with Israel’s Bnei Herzliya.
- Jordan Bachynski signed with the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins in Japan.
- Jared Cunningham signed with Jiangsu Tongxi in China.
Waivers
- The Jazz waived Kendall Marshall.
News/Rumors
- The Nets hired Gianluca Pascucci as the club’s director of global scouting, and BJ Johnson as coordinator of player evaluation.
- Abdel Nader will play for the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics’ D-League affiliate, this coming season.
- Alan Anderson hired Chris Luchey as his new agent.
- Kwame Brown is attempting to make an NBA comeback.
- Festus Ezeli will be sidelined for six weeks after having his left knee injected with a bone marrow aspirate concentrate and Orthovisc.
- The Long Island Nets named Ryan Gomes and Pat Rafferty as assistant coaches.
- The D-League held its expansion draft. You can view the results here.
- The Pacers named José Luis Galilea as their new overseas talent evaluator.
- Mario Chalmers has been medically cleared to get back on the court.
- The disconnect between the Wizards backcourt duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal could eventually convince the front office to deal one of them.
- The Celtics renounced their rights to center Colton Iverson, their 2013 second-round draft pick.
Bryce Cotton To Play Overseas
Unrestricted free agent point guard Bryce Cotton is headed overseas, having signed a deal with the Turkish club, Anadolu Efes, the team announced (translation via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). It will be a one-year arrangement between Cotton and the team, the announcement notes.
The 24-year-old was not without NBA possibilities heading into the preseason, with Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that Cotton was a potential training camp signee of the Hawks. Cotton played for Atlanta’s summer league team and reportedly impressed team officials by averaging 12.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in five games. The Russian club Khimiki was also reported as a potential suitor for the free agent’s services.
Cotton split time last season between Xinjiang Guanghui of China, averaging 21.2 points and 2.7 assists in 9 games, and in the NBA with the Suns and Grizzlies. In eight NBA contests, Cotton averaged 1.0 PPG on 40% shooting.
Submit Your Questions For Hoops Rumors Mailbag
We at Hoops Rumors love interacting with our readers. This is why we provide an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in our weekly mailbag feature, which is posted every Sunday.
Have a question regarding player movement, free agent rumors, the salary cap, the NBA draft, or the top storylines of the week? You can e-mail them here: hoopsrumorsmailbag@gmail.com. Feel free to send emails throughout the week, but please be mindful that we may receive a sizable number of questions and might not get to all of them.
If you missed out on any past mailbags and would like to catch up, you can view the full archives here.