Draft Decisions: Alston, Mizzou, Diarra, French, More
Boise State forward Derrick Alston Jr. has entered his name in the 2020 NBA draft pool, he announced on Twitter. He’ll leave the door open for a possible return to school for his senior season.
Alston, who comes in at No. 98 on ESPN’s big board of 2020 draft prospects, averaged 17.3 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 3.1 APG in 32 games (33.0 MPG) in 2019/20. His three-point shooting fell off as his volume increased, dipping from 38.4% as a sophomore to 33.5% as a junior.
Alston’s father, Derrick Alston Sr., is a former NBA player who is currently the head coach of the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate.
Here are more early entrant draft decisions from across the NCAA:
- Three Missouri players – sophomore guard Xavier Pinson and junior forwards Mitchell Smith and Jeremiah Tilmon – will test the draft waters, according to a press release from the school. All three played part-time roles for the Tigers in 2019/20, with Pinson averaging 11.1 PPG, good for second-best on the roster.
- Jeff Goodman of Stadium reports a pair of early entries, tweeting that Eastern Kentucky sophomore guard Jomaru Brown and Vermont junior guard Stef Smith are declaring. A source expects Smith to return to school, Goodman notes.
- According to Goodman (via Twitter), Kansas State junior guard Cartier Diarra is testing the draft waters. If he decides to withdraw, he’ll transfer to Virginia Tech.
- Saint Louis junior forward Hasahn French and junior guard Jordan Goodwin are testing the draft waters, according to the school. Goodwin was Saint Louis’ leading scorer with 15.5 PPG, while French chipped in 12.4 PPG. Both players averaged double-doubles, with an impressive 10.4 RPG apiece.
- Isiaha Mike (SMU), Nate Pierre-Louis (Temple), Paul Atkinson Jr. (Yale), and Aamir Simms (Clemson) each announced on their personal Twitter accounts that they’re entering the draft while maintaining their NCAA eligibility.
Isaiah Stewart Enters 2020 NBA Draft
University of Washington freshman Isaiah Stewart has declared for the 2020 NBA draft, as he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Although Stewart can test the waters while maintaining his remaining college eligibility, the big man sounds prepared to go pro, telling Givony he’ll sign with Roc Nation for representation.
“It feels weird to be declaring for the draft with all this going on,” Stewart told ESPN, referring to the coronavirus pandemic. “I understand that there are bigger issues going on in the world, but I also want to let people know what my plans are. I’m just trying to make this as much of an opportunity as possible and try to gain whatever edge I can.”
In his first college season, Stewart averaged 17.0 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and 2.1 BPG in 32 games (32.2 MPG) for the Huskies. He projects as a potential first-round pick, ranking 26th overall on ESPN’s big board of 2020 prospects. ESPN also places him third among centers, behind probable lottery selections James Wiseman and Onyeka Okongwu.
In his scouting report on Stewart, ESPN’s Mike Schmitz praises the youngster’s size, frame, and strength, along with his willingness to “do the little things” such as setting hard screens. Schmitz cautions that Stewart struggles to defend on the perimeter and doesn’t have the leaping ability that would make him a great “natural rim protector.”
Hiatus Notes: Cuban, Temple, Board Of Governors
After recently predicting that the NBA will resume its season prior to June 1, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is backing off that aggressive forecast. Appearing on Wednesday morning on ESPN’s First Take, Cuban deferred to the experts on a potential timeline for a return to the court, as Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com details.
“I don’t know the date,” Cuban said when asked for his new prediction. “And it won’t happen until we can be absolutely certain that everybody will be safe. It’s safety first, no ifs, ands or buts about it. And so, I’ve been optimistic that it might happen before the start of June, but who knows now? We’ll listen to the scientists and take our cues from them.”
While Cuban acknowledged that he doesn’t know “how, where, or when” it will happen, he expressed optimism that the NBA will still be able to resume and complete its 2019/20 season at some point. However, he cautioned that the league “won’t do it until it’s safe.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s coronavirus-related hiatus:
- In a column for USA Today, Dan Wolken argues against the practicality of eventually finishing the 2019/20 season in what would essentially be a quarantined “bubble.” The NBA has reportedly been weighing the idea of resuming the season in a single location, such as Las Vegas, but Woiken points to a number of logistical issues that would be hard to overcome to make that scenario a reality.
- Nets swingman and NBPA vice president Garrett Temple spoke to Sam Amick and Joe Vardon of The Athletic about the measures the league would need to take to resume its season, suggesting that being able to test players for the coronavirus before entering the game facility would be of paramount importance.
- The NBA is holding conference calls this week with front office committees as the league discusses the logistics of the postponed season, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). As Wojnarowski notes, the league’s original calendar called for in-person Board of Governors meetings on April 16 and 17, but those meetings are likely to be replaced by an April 17 conference call.
Nets Notes: COVID-19, Coach, Kyrie, KD, More
Speaking today on a conference call with reporters, Nets general manager Sean Marks said that all the team’s players are now symptom-free of COVID-19, including the four that tested positive for the coronavirus last month, tweets ESPN’s Malika Andrews. The club’s entire traveling party has now completed its 14-day self-isolation period, but continues to practice social distancing.
Marks addressed a handful of other topics on that call, including the team’s search for a permanent head coach. According to Brooklyn’s GM, the club isn’t currently reaching out to potential candidates, since it “would completely not be fair to our group” (Twitter link via Andrews).
When asked if he’ll consult Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant on the head coaching decision, Marks said the Nets have always collaborated with players, but the decision will ultimately be made by the front office and ownership (Twitter link via Brian Lewis of The New York Post).
Finally, speaking of Irving and Durant, Marks was also asked about the possibility of those injured stars returning to action if the 2019/20 season resumes this summer. According to Andrews (Twitter link), the GM replied that it wouldn’t be fair to set a specific timeline for either player’s return. Marks also cautioned that social-distancing practices and the closure of training facilities may slow the rehab process for injured players, further clouding the recovery timetables for Kyrie and KD.
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Brian Lewis of The New York Post takes a look at DeAndre Jordan‘s role with the Nets this season and going forward, noting that the veteran center was immediately elevated to the starting lineup following Kenny Atkinson‘s departure.
- Atkinson’s exit is among the topics Lewis explores in a New York Post mailbag — he also answers questions related to the likelihood of a Jarrett Allen trade and how Nets players are staying in shape while self-isolating.
- In yet another story for The New York Post, Lewis shares some details on how Nets and Barclays Center are still being paid during the NBA’s stoppage. One source tells Lewis that the pay checks cut for event staffers may end up totaling approximately $6MM.
- In case you missed it, Durant is one of 16 NBA players participating in a players-only NBA 2K20 tournament starting on Friday.
Ohio State’s Kaleb Wesson Entering 2020 Draft
Ohio State forward/center Kaleb Wesson will test the 2020 NBA draft process, his father Keith Wesson confirmed to Adam Jardy of The Columbus Dispatch. However, as the elder Wesson explained, the possibility of returning to the Buckeyes for another year certainly isn’t out of the question for the junior standout.
“He’ll definitely test the waters, but he’s going to maintain his eligibility based upon information because it’s just so unknown,” Keith said, referring to a pre-draft process that will be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. “There may not be any opportunities to increase your value from the standpoint of workouts and combines and really solidify your position.”
Kaleb, who lost weight and improved his conditioning prior to his junior year, averaged 14.0 PPG and 9.3 RPG in 31 games (29.5 MPG). He also showed off a significantly improved three-point shot, knocking down 42.5% of 3.4 attempts per game.
After testing the draft waters a year ago and withdrawing, Wesson is a stronger candidate to be selected this time around, coming in at No. 54 on ESPN’s big board. However, the uncertainty surrounding the process makes it more likely that he’ll decide to play for Ohio State for one more year.
“Oh, yeah, it definitely increases the chances of coming back,” his father told Jardy. “Nobody knows anything. We’ve talked to several different agents through the process of interviewing and literally none of them know anything. They say the draft is going to be moved back. They don’t know when or if combines or workouts are going to happen or even if the combine will happen.”
Southwest Notes: Mills, Fertitta, Grizzlies
Although the Spurs were having a disappointing season before the NBA’s hiatus began, Patty Mills was enjoying one of the best years of his career, averaging a career-high 11.7 PPG. Mills, who will be entering the final season of his four-year, $50MM contract in 2020/21, has been “worth every penny” of that deal due to his play on the court and his locker-room contributions, in the view of Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News.
As McDonald writes, Mills’ future beyond next season remains unknown, but no player on the current roster embodies the “Spurs Way” like Mills, so the club will be glad to keep him around at least through the end of his deal.
- Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been “absolutely devastated” financially over the last several months, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on a Hoop Collective podcast. As Windhorst explains, Fertitta is believed to have lost “tens of millions” of dollars in Chinese sponsorships as a result of the Daryl Morey controversy in the fall, and his hotel and casino businesses have been shut down as a result of the coronavirus. Windhorst notes that it’ll be interesting to see how the Rockets handle their payroll going forward, considering they’ve already been tax-averse since Fertitta’s arrival.
- In a Q&A with Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com, Grizzlies president Jason Wexler spoke about how his role and responsibilities have changed during the NBA’s hiatus, how the team’s employees have been impacted, and his thoughts on an impressive season from his young team.
- Justise Winslow‘s Memphis debut and Marc Gasol‘s return to the FedExForum are two of the notable Grizzlies-related events that may no longer happen in 2019/20, with the rest of the season up in the air, writes Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Rule Changes, Coronavirus Complicate Draft Process For Early Entrants
The NCAA adjusted its rules last year to allow early entrants to hire an agent while testing the NBA draft waters, giving those players the chance to maintain their college eligibility if they eventually withdraw from the draft. However, as Jonathan Givony of ESPN explains, the restrictions attached to that rule change and the unusual nature of this year’s pre-draft process will make things more difficult for NCAA underclassmen weighing whether or not to go pro.
In order to maintain his college eligibility, an early entrant testing the waters can’t be represented by an agent who isn’t NCAA-certified. However, as Givony writes, most established NBA agents have opposed the NCAA’s certification process, pointing to its “overly burdensome procedures and oversight.” Only 23 agents are currently NCAA-certified and many of those agents don’t currently represent an NBA player, according to Givony.
NBA agents outside of that group of 23 NCAA-approved reps can still advise early entrants, but they’re prohibited from marketing athletes to professional teams or from providing benefits of any kind, per Givony.
[RELATED: 2020 NBA Draft Early Entrants List]
In other words, dozens of early entrants will have to decide whether to navigate the pre-draft process with a potentially inexperienced agent from the small NCAA-certified group or with a more experienced advisor who can offer limited help due to a lack of NCAA certification. Additionally, given the coronavirus-related uncertainty surrounding the draft, many agents who have NBA clients aren’t actively looking to rep early entrants this spring, Givony notes.
“This is not a time to be adding players to your client list; it’s a time to consolidate,” one agent told ESPN. “I’ll take a no-brainer first-round pick if he falls into my lap, but anything beyond that I’d have to think long and hard about this year. Normally I’d be interested in taking a flier on a kid testing the waters in hopes of developing a relationship for next year, but there’s very little that I can actually do to help someone right now with the amount of uncertainty surrounding the professional basketball world.”
NCAA restrictions related to representation and benefits, combined with an NBA draft calendar that may not include usual events like the combine, will make this year’s pre-draft process more complicated than ever. According to Givony, a number of sources he spoke to were skeptical that players, agents, college coaches, teams, and the NCAA will all be able to comfortably navigate that process. That could result in eligibility issues for college players who test the waters and then want to return to school.
“Are they (the NCAA) really going to forfeit the remaining college eligibility of 90% of the players that come back, including some of the best players in the country?” one college coach asked, per Givony. “This is going to be a total mess that we’ll have to clean up this fall. My guess is some players weren’t aware of the rules, and will end up getting scared they can’t go back, forcing them to leave school and then go undrafted because of this.”
Community Shootaround: Coach Of The Year
After discussing our hypothetical ballots for the NBA’s 2019/20 MVP, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Sixth Man of the Year awards, we’re shifting our focus today to the Coach of the Year.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse has emerged as a likely favorite for this award after losing NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and starting shooting guard Danny Green in the offseason. Without a superstar, Toronto was expected to come back down to earth following its surprise championship run in 2019. Instead, the Raptors put up a 46-18 record prior to the NBA’s hiatus, good for second in the East and third in the league.
Dan Devine of The Ringer, Zach Harper of The Athletic, and Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald all placed Nurse atop their hypothetical Coach of the Year ballots, pointing out that the Raptors’ head coach didn’t just overcome the loss of Leonard — he also had to deal with an injury-plagued roster all season long. Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Norman Powell each missed double-digit games in 2019/20, and Nurse just kept finding ways to plug the holes in the lineup and continue winning.
Of course, he didn’t win as much as Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, the NBA’s reigning Coach of the Year, who made a strong case for the award again this season. No team had a better record than Milwaukee’s 53-12 mark, and while the Bucks almost certainly weren’t going to win 70 games, they likely would’ve gotten pretty close.
The Bucks’ average margin of victory in 2019/20 was one of the best in NBA history, and it’s not as if their roster is jam-packed with stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the MVP frontrunner and Khris Middleton is an All-Star, but most of the rest of the club’s contributors are role players. Budenholzer, – who was the runner-up behind Nurse for Devine, Harper, and Murphy – had the group looking like a juggernaut.
Beyond Nurse and Budenholzer, there’s no shortage of impressive Coach of the Year candidates. Devine’s third-place pick was Taylor Jenkins, a first-year head coach who took a Grizzlies team viewed as one of the league’s bottom-feeders and steered it to a playoff spot in the West.
Harper, meanwhile, gave his No. 3 spot to Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, who was considered L.A.’s Plan C when he was hired last spring. Vogel’s team had a 49-14 record when the NBA suspended play, holding a commanding 5.5-game lead for the top seed in the Western Conference. Even the most enthusiastic Lakers supporters would have had a hard time envisioning a better-case scenario last fall.
Murphy’s runners-up were Billy Donovan (Thunder) and Erik Spoelstra (Heat). Expectations for both teams – particularly Oklahoma City – were modest entering the season, but they’ve exceeded them, comfortably claiming postseason spots in their respective conferences.
While the coaches mentioned above are probably the strongest candidates for award-season recognition in 2020, you could make a case for several others, including Brad Stevens (Celtics), Michael Malone (Nuggets), Rick Carlisle (Mavericks), Nate McMillan (Pacers), Scott Brooks (Wizards), and James Borrego (Hornets).
We want to know what you think. Who is the 2019/20 NBA Coach of the Year? And who would you put on your three-man ballot?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your picks!o
And-Ones: BIG3, Pierce, Free Agency, VanVleet
With the BIG3 planning to hold a quarantined basketball tournament that will double as a ‘Big Brother’-style reality show, Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight spoke to UCLA infectious disease epidemiologist Anne Rimoin to get a sense of whether the league’s plans are realistic. Dr. Rimoin is unconvinced that the BIG3’s testing process will be thorough enough and skeptical that the format of the event would be viable.
“Even if you test them (for COVID-19), they could be incubating for up to 14 days,” she said. “They would need to be in complete isolation, put in an isolation chamber — meaning no contact with anybody — for 14 days prior. They wouldn’t be allowed to have contact with anybody during that period, or while they’re playing. That’s the science of it. But I don’t see that happening. These people have families, friends. They might need to get groceries.”
Dr. Arthur Reingold told Herring that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health may also need to give the green light to the BIG3’s plan, so there will be hurdles for the league to overcome if it wants to hold its quarantined tournament.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Appearing on ESPN’s The Jump (video link), Paul Pierce claimed he was intrigued by the idea of playing in the BIG3’s tournament, given the rumored seven-figure prize and the fact that it may take place in Los Angeles. His former Celtics teammate and fellow ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, meanwhile, argued that the tournament shouldn’t even take place.
- In an in-depth Insider piece for ESPN.com, Bobby Marks previews the offseason questions facing all 30 NBA teams, breaking down each club’s needs, draft assets, cap situation, and free-agents-to-be.
- Danny Leroux of The Athletic takes an early look at the free agent market for point guards this offseason. With no max-caliber players expected to be available, Leroux identifies Fred VanVleet and Mike Conley as the players most likely to do better than the mid-level. Of course, Conley has a $34.5MM early termination option for 2020/21, so he seems like a good bet to put off free agency for another year.
NBA Plans To Launch Players-Only 2K Tournament
12:07pm: The Boardroom has provided a full list of the 16 participants in the tournament, along with the first-round matchups (Twitter link). Devin Booker (Suns), Trae Young (Hawks), and Zach LaVine (Bulls) are among the other stars set to take part in the event.
11:19am: With no NBA games expected to happen on the court anytime soon, the league is setting up a virtual tournament in an attempt to sate fans’ appetite for basketball, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
According to Haynes, the league intends to launch an NBA 2K tournament that will feature NBA players competing against one another. The goal is to begin the 10-day event this Friday, though the league is still working out and finalizing the details, sources tell Haynes. The tournament would be broadcast on ESPN.
Nets star Kevin Durant, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers center Andre Drummond, and free agent big man DeMarcus Cousins are among the 16 players expected to participate, per Haynes.
Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel had previously tweeted that Trail Blazers center Hassan Whiteside and Heat swingman Derrick Jones were among the players set to play in an NBA 2K20 Players Tournament in April. That info appears to be based on an announcement from the NBPA, which was quickly deleted. Jeff Garcia of Spurs Zone (via Twitter) shares the full list of participants the NBPA identified in that premature release.
According to Winderman, the tournament is expected to have a $100K prize for charity.