LeBron, Giannis Draft 2019 All-Star Teams
LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo drafted their teams for the 2019 All-Star Game on Thursday, officially finalizing the rosters for this year’s contest. James and Antetokounmpo were chosen as captains because they were the All-Star starter from each conference with the most fan votes.
Both James and Antetokounmpo first had to select from a pool of starters, then from a list of reserve players. The starters, which consisted of eight other players, were voted on by the fans, players and media this season. The reserve players were voted on by the NBA’s 30 head coaches.
James drafted Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden as starters, choosing Durant as his first selection. His reserves were Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Karl-Anthony Towns, Bradley Beal and Dwyane Wade.
Antetokounmpo drafted Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Paul George and Kemba Walker as his starters, selecting Curry with his first pick. He drafted Khris Middleton, Nikola Jokic, Ben Simmons, Blake Griffin, D’Angelo Russell, Nikola Vucevic, Kyle Lowry and Dirk Nowitzki as his reserves.
James later traded Westbrook to Team Giannis in exchange for Simmons, making an effort to repair the relationship of Westbrook and Embiid.
The 68th NBA All-Star Game is set to commence on February 17 at Spectrum Center, featuring 26 of the best basketball players in the world.
Eastern Notes: Kaminsky, Maker, Giannis, Cavs
Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak said Thursday that no decisions have been made about pursuing a contract buyout with young forward Frank Kaminsky, with the 25-year-old still on the Hornets’ roster after the trade deadline.
“He wants to play,” Kupchak said of Kaminsky, as relayed by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. “He’s under contract. Short of that, no decisions have been made addressing that situation.”
Bonnell also relayed that Kupchak, hired by the Hornets last April, is sympathetic to a remedy if Kaminsky is looking to play elsewhere.
The Hornets explored moving Kaminsky in the hours leading up to the trade deadline Thursday, but failed to find a suitable deal for the fourth-year player. Sean Deveney of Sporting News reported (via Twitter) that Kaminsky would likely become a buyout candidate in the near future, but it’s unclear where the possibility stands right now.
Charlotte also held strong trade discussions with the Grizzlies on a deal centered around Marc Gasol, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), but talks eventually broke off. The Hornets ended up not making a single trade on deadline day.
There’s more from the Eastern Conference today:
- The Bucks traded Thon Maker to the Pistons for Stanley Johnson this week, sending away one of Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s closest teammates in an effort to upgrade the roster. “Thon is like my little brother, this one hurts more than any trade that happened that I’ve been a part of but this is the business we work in,” Antetokounmpo said, according to Cassidy Hubbarth of ESPN (Twitter link). The Bucks eventually flipped Johnson, Jason Smith and two second-round picks to acquire sharpshooting forward Nikola Mirotic.
- For Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo could be the next star involved in rumors as the 2019/20 season draws closer, Dan Feldman of NBC Sports notes. Antetokounmpo is eligible to receive a super-max extension in the summer of 2020, but could become a free agent in 2021 if he chooses not to sign the extension. Antetokounmpo has cemented himself as one of the league’s top stars, leading the Bucks to a 40-13 record through 53 games this season. “He has been incredibly loyal,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think that’s something that’s important to him. So, he’s a gift, for sure.”
- The Cavaliers renounced the free agent rights to Deron Williams and Dahntay Jones today, Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports tweets. Cleveland made multiple trades in the past week, acquiring Brandon Knight, Marquese Chriss and a 2019 first-round pick in a multi-team deal on Wednesday.
Hawks To Waive Daniel Hamilton
The Hawks will waive guard Daniel Hamilton after agreeing to a trade with Boston, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta acquired Jabari Bird and cash from the Celtics today, with NBA rules requiring that they clear a roster spot to make the deal official.
The Hawks will also waive Shelvin Mack, who was acquired in a separate deal with Memphis for Tyler Dorsey, according to Vivlamore.
It appeared as if Atlanta would have been able to hang onto Hamilton if it had completed the trade for Mack first, then waived him to clear a roster spot. However, Vivlamore suggests that the team had to release Hamilton due to a “technical error.”
Hamilton, 23, was the No. 56 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft out of Connecticut. He appeared in 19 games with the Hawks this season, holding per-game averages of three points, 2.5 rebounds and 10.7 minutes on 38% shooting.
The Hawks held onto the likes of Jeremy Lin, Taurean Prince and Dewayne Dedmon past today’s trade deadline despite each player seeing their names surface in rumors. According to Vivlamore, there are currently no plans to buy out veterans like Lin and Dedmon.
Bulls, Robin Lopez Expected To Engage In Buyout Talks
The Bulls and center Robin Lopez are expected to soon engage in discussions on a potential contract buyout, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews (Twitter link).
Chicago made deals to acquire Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Otto Porter this past week, trading away the likes of Jabari Parker, Bobby Portis and two second-round draft picks. The team explored trading Lopez as the deadline approached, but failed to find a suitable deal for the big man.
“I’m going to be asleep at 2 o’clock,” Lopez said Wednesday, fully knowing he could be traded by the deadline. “What time’s the plane? I pass out right away when I get on the plane, so I might be asleep. Hopefully they don’t have to carry me off the plane.”
Lopez, 30, has made stops with Phoenix, New Orleans, Portland, New York and Chicago so far in his 11-year NBA career, establishing himself as a physical force on both ends of the floor. The Bulls originally acquired him in a 2016 trade with the Knicks.
The Warriors were expected to be Lopez’s next destination if the team reached a buyout agreement with him last month, according to Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes. It’s unclear if this has changed, with veteran centers Marcin Gortat and Enes Kanter now also available on the free agent market.
Cavs Trade Rodney Hood To Blazers For Stauskas, Baldwin, Picks
FEBRUARY 4: The trade is now official, according to press releases issued by the Blazers and Cavs. According to Cleveland’s announcement, the two picks included in the deal are Portland’s own 2021 and 2023 second-rounders. The Cavs also confirmed they waived Simmons from his 10-day contract to clear the necessary roster spot.
“Rodney is an accomplished NBA player that brings versatility, shot making and depth to our perimeter and will fit seamlessly into our culture and style of play,” Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement.
FEBRUARY 3: The Cavaliers are trading guard Rodney Hood to the Trail Blazers for Nik Stauskas, Wade Baldwin and two future second-round picks, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports.
The Cavs must release one player to make the trade work, with 10-day contract guard Kobi Simmons being a potential candidate. Cleveland will continue to explore the market for Alec Burks, who could be on deck for a trade, Wojnarowski adds. J.R. Smith also remains on the roster several weeks after he and the team mutually agreed to part ways.
Hood, 26, had to approve of the trade because he signed a one-year qualifying offer last offseason, as noted by Wojnarowski. He was enthusiastic enough about joining the Blazers to waive his Bird Rights, now focused on helping Portland advance as the postseason nears.
For Portland, Hood is expected to provide bench scoring behind the likes of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, currently holding per-game averages of 12.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and two assists. He’ll be a free agent on July 1. The Blazers (fourth in the West at 32-20) also freed up a roster spot with the agreement.
Stauskas and Baldwin join the Cavaliers as two younger guards who will enter unrestricted free agency this July. Baldwin struggled shooting the ball (30% from the floor and 22% from 3-point range) in limited minutes with the Blazers this year, while Stauskas has shot a career-best 42% from the floor and pedestrian 34% from deep on the season.
With the trade, Cleveland has essentially turned Hood, Kyle Korver, George Hill and Sam Dekker into one first-round pick and six second-round picks for the future, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets. The first round pick is protected in 2021.
The NBA’s annual trading deadline falls on Thursday, February 7 this year. Today’s deal between the Cavaliers and Blazers is the 10th different trade of the 2018/19 season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Steve Mills Discusses Kristaps Porzingis Trade
The Knicks made the decision to trade Kristaps Porzingis last week, ending a three-and-a-half year run that featured a number of highs and lows. Porzingis, the team’s 2015 lottery pick, began to express his displeasure with the team and its losing ways, culminating in a meeting involving him, his agent, and Knicks management last Thursday.
“We started to get a feel that everything wasn’t going as well as we would’ve liked with Kristaps,” Knicks president Steve Mills said in an interview on MSG. “So Scott [Perry] and I spent a lot of time saying, ‘Okay. We need to be prepared if things aren’t going well or if he doesn’t want to be here, or that we need to be ready.'”
Mills then revealed he held exploratory trade conversations with several different teams to test Porzingis’ value, sifting through the best offers before zeroing in on a package from the Mavericks.
“We at the end of the day had about eight potential scenarios we thought would be great for us if we made the decision that we were going to trade Kristaps,” Mills said.
It was then in the meeting, which was held just hours before the trade, that Porzingis officially made his trade request alongside his brother and agent Janis Porzingis.
For the Knicks, reaching a trade agreement before the February 7 trade deadline was paramount. Porzingis was set to become a restricted free agent at season’s end, and made his intentions known that he would sign elsewhere if the team didn’t honor his request.
“We felt the 7th was really important because if we let this go beyond the 7th, the leverage completely shifted. We would not have control of the situation,” Mills said, as relayed by Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. “We weren’t sure what Kristaps was going to come in and tell us. We didn’t know if he’d come in and tell us he wanted to be traded or he may have come in and said he wanted to do a one-year contract with the player option, which would then have made him untradeable and he would have had all the leverage. We just felt we needed to have some certainty by the 7th.
“When they came in to meet with us, they made it clear to us — it was a meeting that they requested — they made it clear to us that he did not want to play for the Knicks, that he was not going to re-sign with us as a free agent. And we in one way thanked him for the clarity because it gave us the information we needed to know.”
The Knicks would acquire Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and two future first-round picks for offloading Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Courtney Lee and Trey Burke, ending the run for Porzingis in New York and placing a focus on free agency by creating two maximum-salary roster spots.
And-Ones: Munford, Stokes, Davis, Perkins, Brown
Former NBA guard Xavier Munford has left the Chinese Basketball Association to join the Wisconsin Herd, G League affiliate of the Bucks, the team announced this week.
Munford appeared in 34 games with the Herd last season, holding per-game averages of 24.4 points, five rebounds and 5.2 assists. He shot 50.9% from the floor and 44.4% from 3-point range during that stint, earning a two-way contract with the Bucks in January of 2018.
Munford went unsigned in free agency and agreed to a deal with the Fuijan Sturgeons this past December. He holds NBA experience with the Grizzlies and multiple summer league stints over the past few seasons, going undrafted in 2014 out of Rhode Island. NBA teams could look to Munford for a potential 10-day contract in the coming weeks.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Free agent Jarnell Stokes has registered interest from teams in China, a source told Hoops Rumors. The Sioux Falls Skyforce announced that Stokes, 25, left the team this week to pursue other opportunities. Stokes was waived from his two-way contract with the Grizzlies in early January after the team was faced with injuries to Dillon Brooks, Kyle Anderson and other wing players.
- The Maine Red Claws have re-acquired Trey Davis, the team announced in a press release. Davis is expected to be in uniform on Friday when Maine takes on the Greensboro Swarm. Davis, a 6-foot point guard, originally made the team out of open tryouts as an undrafted guard in 2017.
- Kendrick Perkins and Shannon Brown have become the latest ex-NBA players to sign with Ice Cube’s BIG3 league this summer, the association announced (Twitter links). Perkins, a bruising center who spent 15 seasons in the NBA, played a key role in helping the Celtics win a championship in 2008. Brown, a high-flying guard who held stints with several different teams, won two NBA championships as a member of the Lakers in 2009 and 2010.
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 1/31/19
Here are Thursday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA G League:
- The Hornets have assigned guard Dwayne Bacon to the Greensboro Swarm, general manager Mitch Kupchak announced. Bacon is averaging 4.6 points and 1.6 rebounds per game in 24 appearances with the Hornets this season.
- The Cavaliers have recalled Kobi Simmons from the Canton Charge, the team announced in a press release. Simmons has seen action in 31 games with the Charge this season, holding per-game averages of 16.7 points and four rebounds.
- The Rockets recalled center Isaiah Hartenstein today, according to the team’s public relations department. Hartenstein was drafted by the Rockets with the No. 43 pick back in 2017.
- The Blazers have recalled Anfernee Simons from the Agua Caliente Clippers, president of basketball operations Neil Olshey announced. Simons was originally assigned to Agua Caliente on January 20.
Pacific Notes: Kuzma, Beverley, Terry, Lakers
As the Lakers and Pelicans continue to discuss trade packages centered around Anthony Davis, one young Laker is approaching the matter with a positive outlook: Second-year forward Kyle Kuzma.
“It’s always a good thing when you hear trade rumors,” Kuzma said, according to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. “That’s what everybody always says. It means you have value, and it means potentially you gonna be in this league a long time, people want you. For us, it’s all about controlling what you can control, because at the end of the day, it’s a business. You can’t control your destiny in this league, but you can control your work ethic and how great you wanna be. You can be great anywhere.”
Entering Thursday, Pelicans GM Dell Demps refused to pick up his phone to discuss a trade with the Lakers, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe. This rapidly changed as the day progressed, with Wojnarowski later reporting that the sides connected on a call early in the afternoon.
Davis requested a trade from the Pelicans last Friday after several years of failed seasons with the organization. Davis, 25, is the most talented two-way player available on the trade market as of today, meaning the Lakers would have to offer an assortment of young assets that likely includes Kuzma to pry him out of New Orleans.
“Could really care less, honestly,” Kuzma said of Davis’ trade request. “Just control what you can control. Play basketball anywhere.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The NBA has issued a warning to Clippers guard Patrick Beverley for violating the league’s anti-flopping rule, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times writes. Beverley was caught flopping on a play against the Kings on Sunday, later tweeting in response, “Ok ok ok ok you got me I flopped!!!! Can’t touch anybody this year gotta do something!!!”
- Suns guard Emanuel Terry said he had to overcome several doubters to reach his 10-day contract with the team, writes Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. “A lot of people, there’s haters in the world,” Terry said. “You can’t hate on somebody’s blessing cause then that’s your downfall as well. So I just remained humble, say a prayer and give my trust to God.”
- Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com ranks the trade value of several players on the Lakers, including Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and others. It’s unclear which players the Pelicans would target in potential trade discussions involving Anthony Davis.
NBA Announces All-Star Reserves
The NBA announced today the reserves for the 2019 All-Star Game, releasing the pool of players eligible to be drafted by captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo for the contest.
For the Eastern Conference, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Detroit’s Blake Griffin, Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton and Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic were all selected.
Indiana guard Victor Oladipo was also chosen, but he’ll miss the game due to injury. The NBA could name a replacement for Oladipo, with Eric Bledsoe or D’Angelo Russell among the most likely candidates.
New Orleans’ Anthony Davis, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Golden State’s Klay Thompson, Portland’s Damian Lillard, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns were chosen to represent the Western Conference.
James and Antetokounmpo will draft their respective teams next Thursday, Feb. 7 at 7:00pm ET. The draft will air on TNT and commence just hours after the NBA’s trade deadline. Each captain must first finish selecting from the pool of starters — announced last week — before choosing from this list of reserves.
The All-Star Game is set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 17 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte. The starters for the game were chosen by votes from fans, players and media, while the reserves were selected by the 30 NBA head coaches.