Community Shootaround: Wall Criticizes Refs
John Wall made waves after Friday’s loss to the Jazz, going on a four-minute rant about (what he perceived to be) poor officiating. Wall received a technical foul for making contact with Rudy Gobert on a screen; a video of the play can be seen here. The play was deemed a “hostile act,” setting Wall and his teammates off after the game.
“The way they’ve been officiating today doesn’t make no sense,” Wall told reporters, including Candace Buckner of the Washington Post. “It’s getting out of hand. If you want us to compete at a high level like we’ve been doing – we didn’t lose this game. The refs made us lose this game. We fought hard, we gave ourselves a chance but you don’t shoot no 31 free throws to 16 the way we attack the basket as a team. I tried to get some (technical fouls) rescinded before, it never works for my favor. Other players have and they got it. So, all I can do is just keep my mouth shut like I’ve been doing. I could see if I would’ve got a flagrant-1 but a technical off of that? That’s outrageous.”
Likely adding fuel to Wall’s flagrant-1 argument was Draymond Green‘s wrist punch to James Harden; an act Green admitted to performing in retaliation, and only received an offensive foul for. As Wall alluded to, the chances of his technical foul being overturned are slim-to-none.
“They said it was a ‘hostile act,’” Scott Brooks said after the game. “I’ve been around a lot of fights back when I played. Come on. ‘Hostile act?’ Really? It’s ridiculous.”
What do you think: was Wall’s strike to Gobert a “hostile act”? Should the decisions of referees be held to a higher standard, and if so: how? If Wall receives a penalty from the league, should Draymond as well?
Let us know what you think in the comments section!
Dion Waiters “Making Progress,” Still Without Timetable
According to a report from the Sun Sentinel today, Dion Waiters is making progress in his recovery from an ankle injury. Coach Erik Spoelstra indicated to reporters that Waiters no longer requires a walking boot.
“Nothing new, but he is making progress,” Spoelstra said. “He’s starting to do some conditioning. He’s out of his boot, so that’s good.”
Following Sunday’s match-up with the Nuggets, Waiters will have missed eight consecutive games due to injury. Waiters’ career renaissance has been a driving factor of Miami’s success, as the former Syracuse star averaged 21.5 points over a 10-game stretch in January.
The Heat are currently tied for the eighth seed with Indiana, as the Pacers have dropped seven of their last 10. In a recent report from Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post, Spoelstra noted “The swelling has come down considerably. He’s still going through the process of more mobility and movement.”
Hoops Links: Lowry, Antetokounmpo, NCAA Tournament
On Sundays, we link to some of the very best work from around the basketball blogosphere. Do you have a link to a great basketball blog post – either your own or someone else’s – that you want to see featured on Hoops Rumors? Send it to us at HoopsLinks@gmail.com. Here’s this week’s rundown:
- Adam Corsair of South of the 6ixth breaks down the idea that Toronto should sign and trade Kyle Lowry over the offseason.
- Jason Ranne of Wasserman– a sports agency with clients including Anthony Davis, Draymond Green and Derrick Rose– discussed the “magnitude” of social media in today’s game.
- Craig Popp of Completely Biased Sports ran through a list of potential future NBA coaches.
- Brett Koremenos of RealGM found reasons for optimism with the 2016/17 Nets.
- Taj Gibson has found the transition to OKC “surprisingly easy,” David Ramil of The Step Back writes.
- D. West of SLC Dunk went beyond traditional boxscore stats to analyze Utah’s point guards.
- The “Giannis Antetokounmpo Dream” has become a reality, Paul Flannery of SB Nation writes.
- Big men- not guards- will determine the NCAA Tournament winner, Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer writes.
- This year’s Final Four match-up lacked one-and-done college players. This was no coincidence, Sam Vecenie of VICE Sports explains.
Sixers Granted Injury Exception, Sign Alex Poythress
APRIL 2, 9:23am: The signing is official, the team announced in a press release.
APRIL 1, 11:37am: The Sixers have been granted an injury hardship exception, and will use their newfound roster spot to sign Alex Poythress of the D-League, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (twitter link).
Poythress, 23, received summer league experience with the Magic, and started 45 games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants this season. A former Kentucky Wildcat, Poythress went undrafted after his senior year.
Having recently lost Jahlil Okafor and Robert Covington for the season due to injuries, the Sixers‘ hardship exception permitted them to expand their roster size to 16. Poythress will presumably be available for Philadelphia’s match-up with Toronto on Sunday.
NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 4/1/17
Here are Saturday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
10:39pm:
- The Trail Blazers recalled Tim Quarterman from the Long Island Nets, the team announced on its website. Portland is among the NBA teams without a direct D-League affiliate. Quarterman has appeared in 13 Trail Blazers games this season, averaging 1.5 points and 3.4 minutes per night.
3:26pm:
- The Rockets assigned Chinanu Onuaku to the D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports (Twitter link). Onuaku has started 39 games with Rio Grande this season, averaging 13.7 points with 10.7 rebounds.
Austin Rivers Likely Sidelined For Regular Season
The Clippers anticipate losing Austin Rivers for the rest of the regular season due to a left hamstring strain, Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN reports.
“I think it’s a little more serious [than initially believed],” coach Doc Rivers told reporters before Saturday’s game. When asked of Austin’s prospects for the postseason, Doc replied “We don’t know. I would say it’s 50-50.”
Per Arnovitz, Rivers’ injury occurred during the second quarter of Wednesday’s game against the Wizards. Having already locked up a playoff spot, the decision to potentially shut down Rivers for the season appears to be a cautious one. Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford will likely split minutes at point guard in Rivers’ absence.
Austin addressed his injury with Bill Oram of the O.C. Register yesterday, voicing frustration at the prospect of being sidelined until the playoffs.
“This is the time of year, if anytime, I want to be healthy. … At least it’s not during the playoffs,” Rivers said. “People are always looking for something wrong with our team instead of looking for what’s right. Why don’t you look at how many injuries we’ve had and still been able to hold down the ship in the West, and still be a top-five seed in the West without Blake and Chris for a big chunk of games?”
Bucks Request Waivers On Terrence Jones
The Bucks have requested waivers on Terrence Jones, the team announced on their official website (link). Jones was inked to a contract on March 3, appearing in just three games as a Buck.
Jones, 25, had been waived by the Pelicans in late February to (presumably) sign with a playoff-bound team looking for depth. While Milwaukee is poised to enter the postseason, Jones was never able to crack Jason Kidd‘s rotation, accumulating 12 DNPs in the month of March.
While his bid to join a contender has gone awry, Jones will surely generate interest as a free agent over the summer. Jones was efficient over 51 games with the Pelicans in 2016/17, averaging 11.5 points with 5.9 rebounds. As a non-playoff eligible free agent, Jones currently holds little value on the open market.
And-Ones: NBA Owners Ranked, Tomjanovich, NCAA Tournament
ESPN concluded their management series with ownership rankings, citing the Spurs (Julianna Hawn Holt), Warriors (Joe Lacob, Peter Guber), and Celtics (Wyc Grousbeck) as teams with the best ownership in the league (article link). ESPN’s panel ranked owners in terms of “performance in guiding the franchise to overall on-court success, both in the short and long term.” To that end, it perhaps isn’t surprising to see the Kings (Vivek Ranadive) and Knicks (James Dolan) round out the list; two owners who have made unfortunate headlines for on-and-off the court stories this season.
More from around the game…
- Rudy Tomjanovich, a five-time NBA All-Star and decorated head coach, wasn’t inducted into the 2017 Basketball Hall of Fame class. Several figures around the league were critical of Tomjanovich receiving the shaft, including former Rocket Calvin Murphy and Jeff Van Gundy. (Twitter links) In an op-ed piece for the Houston Chronicle, Jonathan Feigen chastised Hall of Fame voters who “inexplicably” snubbed Tomjanovich. “Tomjanovich, especially, deflected attention, not just in the way he downplayed his coaching contributions, but even in his coaching style that stripped away excess to get the ball simply and quickly to his best player, turning the Rockets from winners to champions,” Feigen writes. “The exclusion of Tomjanovich and others said nothing about their achievements, and everything about the secret panel’s failure.”
- Tim Duncan‘s ex-adviser, Charles Banks, plans to admit financial misconduct from his business relationship with Duncan (Associated Press link). According to court paperwork, Banks will confess to misleading Duncan into obtaining $6MM in loans.
- Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress provided an NBA prospect guide to the Final Four, naming South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell as the NCAA Tournament’s MVP thus far.
- Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett will put his name in the NBA Draft but won’t hire an agent, Jeff Goodman of ESPN reports (link). Per Patrick Brennan of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Bluiett is “certain to again seek out evaluations from industry experts on his likely draft stock.”
2017 Basketball Hall Of Fame Class Announced
The 2017 Basketball Hall of Fame class was announced this afternoon on ESPN2 (link). Tracy McGrady, Rebecca Lobo, Bill Self, Muffet McGraw, Robert Hughes, Jerry Krause, George McGinnis, Tom Jernstedt, Nikos Galis, Zack Clayton and Mannie Jackson all made the cut as inductees.
A seven-time All-Star whose career spanned 17 seasons, McGrady received the HoF nod in his first year on the ballot. T-Mac, who battled injuries throughout his career, announced his retirement following the 2012/13 season, in which he made six postseason appearances with the Spurs.
Dikembe Mutombo, a Hall-of-Famer and former teammate of McGrady’s, was overjoyed to see Tracy’s selection.
“To have two of my friends, Tracy and Yao [Ming], who competed with me for the Houston Rockets, one of the great organizations, to see them in the Hall of Fame, that means a lot,” Mutombo told Mark Berman of Fox 26. “It’s something I can sit down with my kids and tell them I was not the only Hall of Famer out there with the Houston Rockets. I was lucky and fortunate to play with the other two.”
A pioneer of the WNBA, Lobo had been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Following a successful career with the UConn Huskies, Lobo played for the New York Liberty in the WNBA’s inaugural season. Lobo would play in parts of six WNBA seasons, playing for the Houston Comets and Connecticut Sun following her time in New York.
Krause, the former Bulls’ GM, was inducted posthumously, as the former executive passed away on March 21. Serving as the Bulls’ GM for over 18 seasons, Krause is credited as the architect of Chicago’s roster during Michael Jordan’s tenure.
Pacific Notes: Kings’ Rookies, Booker, Nwaba, Ulis
While the Kings have dropped out of playoff contention, Dave Joerger will still seek to build the talent and IQ of his younger players. As Joerger acknowledged in a recent post-game press conference, ensuring proper player development is a large part of his job.
“Having been there with those guys (in Memphis) I felt a great deal of responsibility to maximize every win that we could get,” Joerger told reporters, including Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. “That’s where are these gray hairs popped out. Now the gray hairs are (from) are you playing the right guys with the right group, developing guys, giving them the right experiences?”
Joerger has given valuable playing opportunities to rookies down the stretch; providing Skal Labissiere, Buddy Hield, and Georgios Papagiannis with multiple 20+ minute games over the past week.
More from the Pacific…
- The Suns are tanking “with spirit,” Dan Bickley of AZCentral.com writes. What’s more, Bickley points out Devin Booker‘s 70-point game as proof that he’s Phoenix’s next franchise player. “The Suns should feel blessed,” Bickley wrote. “They’ve lost 60 or more games only once in their storied history, and that was their expansion season in 1968-69. The organization’s commitment to losing is so sturdy and hardcore that they could conceivably end the current season with 60 losses and a 16-game losing streak, and somehow, the season will be perceived as a smashing success.”
- Lakers rookie David Nwaba will be assigned to the L.A. D-Fenders to boost their D-League playoff run (source: Mark Medina, L.A. Daily News). Nwaba has been a pleasant surprise in Luke Walton‘s rotation, averaging 7.8 points with 5.5 rebounds over his last four games. Nwaba, who appeared in 40 games for the D-Fenders this season, figures to receive a considerable workload during the D-League postseason.
- The Suns want Tyler Ulis to shoot more, Doug Haller of AZCentral.com writes. Haller relays an amusing anecdote, in which coach Earl Watson shouted “Shoot it!” at Ulis during Tuesday’s match-up with the Hawks. “He’s very talented,” veteran guard Ronnie Price said of Ulis. “He has a chance to have a long career in the league. He has a lot to his game that people are starting to see, so for him, it’s just getting comfortable and keeping him confident. As a team we all trust him. We all know what he’s capable of doing, but we can’t have him second-guessing himself with shots.”