Pacers Rumors

Central Notes: Ivey, Thompson, Middleton, Haliburton

November 26th, 2024 at 8:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jaden Ivey is eligible for a rookie scale extension after this season and the Pistons guard has bounced back from a subpar sophomore campaign. With Cade Cunningham sidelined by a hip injury, Ivey scored the game-winner against Toronto on Monday. He finished with 25 points and eight assists and is now averaging 18.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game on the season.

“(Ivey) played a complete basketball game (Monday),” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. “He’s good enough to do it again and again. He’s just got to trust it like he does and keep putting the confidence in the work that he’s put in.

“… For me, it wasn’t just that last shot. He was phenomenal to start the game and for all of his minutes, setting the tone and attacking when he needed to be aggressive. But I thought he did an unbelievable job of playing the complete floor (Monday), making sure his teammates were involved, getting us organized. Just from a point guard perspective, that was a huge step for JI.”

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Pistons second-year forward Ausar Thompson made his season debut on Monday. He was medically cleared to play this month after his rookie campaign was cut short by blood clotting issues. He had five points, four assists and three rebounds. “I was able to play free,” Thompson said. “I’ve done a lot of conditioning over the past eight months. It was just, first game in eight months. 260-something days. Just don’t know what to expect. And first time playing with a new coach. My guys had my back, they showed me what to do out there. Just played basketball.”
Khris Middleton, who has yet to make his season debut for the Bucks, participated in full 5-on-5 scrimmages on Monday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (video link). Middleton, who is recovering from an ankle injury, been cleared medically to play and the club is hopeful he’ll return to action shortly after Thanksgiving.
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton made nine 3-pointers on Monday and has now knocked down 18-of-39 attempts in his last three games, breaking out of a perimeter slump. Even with the recent surge, he’s only made 32.9% of his long-range attempts this season. “I think my individual performance and how I view that, I mean, if we’re winning, I really don’t care. I’ve been frustrated with myself because I feel like the games we’ve been losing, if I was myself, then we would be winning. I care more about us winning than what my numbers are looking like necessarily. But obviously, it feels good to see the ball go in,” he told Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star.

Central Notes: Jerome, Ivey, Brown, Bulls

November 25th, 2024 at 2:00pm CST by Rory Maher

It’s still early in the season, but to this point, perhaps no player has boosted his stock ahead of 2025 free agency more than Ty Jerome.

After signing a two-year, minimum-salary deal with the Cavaliers in 2023, Jerome was limited to just two games last season due to an ankle injury. But the 27-year-old guard has had a remarkable start to the ’24/25 campaign, averaging 12.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.3 steals in just 19.0 minutes per game through 18 outings. He’s posting a ridiculous shooting line of .597/.544/.879, for league-leading true shooting percentage of .736.

As Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com writes, as absurd as it might sound on the surface, considering the Cavs have three former All-Stars and a former Defensive Player of the Year runner-up all playing at a high level, there’s an argument to be made that Jerome has been the team’s early-season MVP, especially from an expectations standpoint. He ranks just 10th on the roster in minutes per game, but he has played exceptionally well when on the court.

Over the past four games alone, Jerome has set new career highs in points (29), field-goals made (10), three-pointers made (seven) and steals (four). He also tied his career-best mark with eight assists. The former Virginia star is averaging 22.3 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 5.0 APG and 1.3 SPG on .604/.556/1.000 shooting over that span (27.9 MPG), which is easily the best four-game stretch of his six-year NBA career.

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Pistons guard Jaden Ivey, who will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next offseason, certainly isn’t lacking for confidence. The 22-year-old believes that he and Cade Cunningham have a chance to be a world-class backcourt. “The potential is limitless. Cade is an All-Star and will be one of the best players in this league,” Ivey told Grant Afseth of Sportskeeda. “Our ability to share the floor has been special from day one. I believe we have the talent to be one of the best backcourts ever.”
Journeyman center Moses Brown, who signed a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract with Indiana last week amid season-ending Achilles injuries to James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson, gave the Pacers a major boost in Sunday’s victory over Washington, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. After Myles Turner picked up a couple of quick fouls in the first quarter, head coach Rick Carlisle put in Brown, who responded by scoring Indiana’s first eight points. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, four rebounds and a block in 12-plus minutes. “He’s gotta rebound, run, be a great screen setter, roller and execute coverages to the best of his availability,” Carlisle said. “We play a different defensive system than he’s played in the past but he’s working at adapting. He’s a great kid. He really appreciates this opportunity. This was heart-warming to see.”
Are fans losing interest in the Bulls‘ new up-tempo playing style, which has seen the team give up at least 135 points in four of their last 10 games? Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune ponders that question, noting that the coaching staff and players are preaching patience despite acknowledging a slim margin for error defensively.

Central Notes: Mitchell, Allen, Giannis, Lillard, Sheppard

November 24th, 2024 at 9:44pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Signing Donovan Mitchell to an extension was crucial to the Cavaliers’ stability, center Jarrett Allen told Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype. Mitchell inked a three-year, maximum-salary extension in July. Cleveland owns the league’s best record, having improved to 17-1 with a win over Toronto on Sunday.

“Donovan is a star. He’s a top-10 player in the league, some would say, and I would say,” Allen said. “Cleveland needs someone like that. Cleveland needs someone to hold onto like that and root for. It got the city excited again knowing that we had one of the best players in the NBA to stick with us. For the Cavs, you can see how it’s helping us now. He’s able to take over games and lead the team to victory.”

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If Greece qualifies for Eurobasket 2025, Giannis Antetokounmpo intends to play with his national team, HoopsHype relays via an interview with Antonis Kalkavouras from Gazzetta. “Not (just) to be with them. To see them and play with them again (in the summer),” the Bucks superstar said.
The Bucks have won four straight and six of their last seven. It’s an indication that Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are feeding off each other, Eric Nehm of The Athletic details. “I think (we’re) just kind of honestly are getting to the point where we’re tuning everybody else out,” Lillard said. “It’s just a lot of communication between the two of us, you know? It has nothing to do with people saying, ‘Oh, y’all need to do this or let’s try that.’ It’s like he sees what he sees. I see what I see. And we gotta use each other in that way, and I think it’s just leading to more times where when I’m having it, we’re putting people in position to where I’m throwing the ball to him.”
Don’t expect to see Ben Sheppard back in the Pacers rotation any time soon. Coach Rick Carlisle says it’ll be “weeks, not days” before he returns, indicating that the MRI results were worse than anticipated, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweets. Sheppard, who has appeared in 13 games including five starts this season, is recovering from an oblique injury.

Central Notes: Green, Cunningham, P. Williams, Okafor

November 22nd, 2024 at 11:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Always a strong outside shooter, Bucks wing A.J. Green got inconsistent playing time in his first two NBA seasons due in part to questions about his defense. However, he has taken major strides on that end of the court so far this fall, earning an increased role and praise from a superstar teammate, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic.

“His defense is incredible,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said of Green on Wednesday. “He’s staying down on pump fakes. He’s using his body very smart. I think two years ago, he would get himself in foul trouble. He’d use his hands a lot, maybe jump a little bit on the pump fake, get the guy to shoot two easy free throws. But now, he’s just solid.”

Green continues to knock down three-pointers – even after going 1-of-6 on Friday vs. Indiana, he’s at 46.7% for the season – but he was a 41.2% career three-point shooter entering the season, so that comes as no surprise. His defense, on the other hand, has been better than expected. Entering Friday’s contest, Green’s defensive rating across 260 minutes this season was an impressive 103.5, the second-best mark among Bucks who have logged at least 70 minutes.

“In my opinion, he’s a really, really good defender and he shows in practice. He shows it in games, you guys are seeing that,” Antetokounmpo said. “Like he’s not a liability on defense, he’s actually one of our better defenders on the team. So, I’m very, very happy that he’s out there with me. He makes our defense better and when we grab the rebound and go the other way, he’s a threat from everywhere.”

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Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham has been ruled out for Saturday’s contest in Orlando due to what the team is calling a left sacroiliac joint sprain, as Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press relays (via Twitter). While it’s unclear who will replace Cunningham in Detroit’s starting lineup, Hunter Patterson of The Athletic notes (via Twitter) that Wendell Moore took his place at the start of overtime in Wednesday’s game following Cunningham’s exit.
Bulls forward Patrick Williams missed a second consecutive game on Friday due to inflammation in his left foot and has been ruled out for Saturday too, but he’s downplaying concerns about his injury, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Williams told reporters the pain he’s experiencing now is “not even close” to what he felt before undergoing season-ending surgery on that foot last winter. “I’m not really concerned,” he said. “Obviously, with this type of stuff, (I’m) just leaning on the doctors, obviously our training staff, the team I worked with back home over the summer. Nobody seems to be worried. It’s kind of a thing that happens post-surgery. First year after surgery is always the toughest. (We’ll) try and work through different things.”
Jahlil Okafor was the third overall pick in the 2015 draft. Less than a decade later, as he nears his 29th birthday, the veteran center is playing for the Indiana Mad Ants in the G League as he seeks another NBA opportunity. Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star takes a closer look at Okafor’s comeback effort with the Pacers‘ NBAGL affiliate.

Central Notes: LaVine, Cavs, Haliburton, Q. Jackson, A. Thompson

November 21st, 2024 at 6:30pm CST by Luke Adams

The Zach LaVine discourse during the 2024 offseason focused less on what the Bulls guard was capable of doing on the court and more on potential red flags off of it, including his injury history, his sizable contract, and his relationship with head coach Billy Donovan. Speaking to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports earlier this week, LaVine admitted it was impossible to ignore that chatter.

“I heard everything. I read everything,” LaVine said. “Sometimes you gotta take that accountability and put a chip on your shoulder. There’s a lot of things people said I had to prove. I think my résumé speaks for itself, the type of player I am, the type of person I am, but it is what it is. You can always turn some heads.”

While there’s still some skepticism about whether LaVine is worth the $138MM he’s owed from this season through 2026/27, he has done all he can to silence his critics so far this fall, repairing his relationship with Donovan, staying relatively healthy, and playing some of the best basketball of his career. His 51.2% shooting percentage and 43.2% mark on three-pointers would be career highs if he can maintain them, and he has been a more active defender than in past seasons.

As for his contract, LaVine won’t apologize for taking the five-year, maximum-salary offer the Bulls made him in 2021, telling Goodwill that he believes he earned that deal.

“I don’t know,” LaVine said. “It’s not for me to try to make everybody like me. I’m happy for what I got, what I deserved. And some people may not feel that way and you may judge it off that. But regardless, I know who I am and what I’ve done in this league.

“… I’m in a good place and I feel sharp right now,” LaVine added. “Being able to be one of the veteran guys on the team and still being able to do what I do. Help win in any way I can. Defense one day, facilitating, whatever they call for.”

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The Cavaliers‘ loss on Tuesday to the defending champion Celtics snapped their 15-game win streak to start the season, but the three-point defeat only emboldened the team’s belief in its itself, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). Chris Mannix of SI.com conveys as similar sentiment, writing that the measuring-stick loss proved the Cavs are for real. Cleveland bounced back with a 28-point blowout of the Pelicans on Wednesday and is now a league-best 16-1.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton continued to struggle on Wednesday, scoring just four points on 1-of-7 shooting as the team was outscored by 28 points in his 30 minutes on the floor, notes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Haliburton, who is in the first season of a five-year, maximum-salary contract, is making just 37.5% of his field goal attempts through 15 games, including 28.4% of his three-pointers. Both would be career lows by a wide margin.
The Pacers dropped to 6-9 with Wednesday’s loss to Houston, but it wasn’t all bad news for Indiana. Two-way player Quenton Jackson made his first career start and made an immediate impact, scoring 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting. “Quenton Jackson is an example of where we need everybody’s spirit to be,” head coach Rick Carlisle said, per Dopirak. “The guy is flying all over the place, playing at a ridiculously high level of intensity and unselfishness and totally surrendering to the team, you know? … For us, we just have to work at adopting that on a full-time basis and really being there for each other.”
The Pistons aren’t rushing the return of Ausar Thompson, who has yet to make his season debut after dealing with a blood clot issue, but Zach LaVine‘s performance in a Bulls win over Detroit on Monday was a reminder of how the team could benefit from reintegrating a defensive stopper like Thompson, says Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press. “He’s a guy who can eliminate the other team’s best players,” J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Any time you add that to the system and the scheme and the way guys have bought into it, it just gives you an added boost. He can switch, he can guard multiple positions. We’re excited to have him back for sure.” Thompson is listed as doubtful to play in Charlotte on Thursday but is believed to be close to returning.

Pacers Sign Center Moses Brown

November 20th, 2024 at 9:43am CST by Dana Gauruder

NOVEMBER 20: The Pacers have officially signed Brown, per NBA.com’s transaction log. The expectation is that he’ll be active in Houston vs. the Rockets on Wednesday, tweets Dopirak.

NOVEMBER 18: The Pacers are filling their roster opening by signing center Moses Brown, Shams Charania of ESPN tweets.

Indiana has essentially been going with a 12-man roster, not including two-way players, after centers James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson suffered season-ending Achilles tears. Brown will provide much-needed depth in that area. Starting center Myles Turner is currently dealing with calf soreness.

Brown is expected to join Indiana on Wednesday, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweets. The big man’s contract will be non-guaranteed, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, meaning he’ll make $13,939 every day he’s on the roster.

Brown had been on the roster of the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate. Brown was signed and waived by the Knicks in October on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Brown hasn’t stuck with an NBA team for more than a single season since making his debut in 2019, but he has racked up 150 regular season appearances in stints with the Trail Blazers (twice), Thunder, Mavericks, Cavaliers, Clippers, and Nets. He holds career averages of 5.2 points and 5.0 rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game.

Brown spent the 2023/24 campaign under contract with the Trail Blazers, appearing in 22 games and posting averages of 3.4 PPG and 3.9 RPG in 9.1 MPG.

Central Notes: Beasley, Bell, Vucevic, Lillard

November 19th, 2024 at 7:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

If the Pistons decide to deal Malik Beasley this season, he’s done nothing but enhance his value with his sharp start. Playing on a one-year, $6MM contract he signed as a free agent, Beasley is averaging 15.4 points in 28.8 minutes per game while shooting 39.3% beyond the arc.

“He’s made everybody’s job easier,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff told Omari Sankofa of the Detroit Free Press. “When he provides that space and guys have to account for him, defenses have to shift. He’s been tremendous not just in his shot making, I don’t want to just limit him to that. His spirit, his energy, his leadership and then his commitment on the defensive end has been great as well. He’s one of those guys that’s been invaluable to this group because he helps them in so many different ways.”

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Jordan Bell, who was playing for the Pacers’ G League team, will miss the rest of the season due to a left knee injury that will require surgery, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweets. Bell was injured on Friday while playing for the Indiana Mad Ants. Bell, who also spent part of the last two seasons with the Mad Ants, was the 38th overall pick in the 2017 draft, playing the first two seasons of his career with the Warriors and winning a championship with the team in 2018.
Nikola Vucevic has gotten off to a strong start. The Bulls center is averaging 20.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per night, including a season-high 29 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three blocks in a win at Detroit on Monday. “He looks like an All-Star,” point guard Josh Giddey told Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s been playing unbelievable for us. He’s carrying such a heavy load offensively, and he’s being asked to do a lot. He’s doing that at a very high level, night in and night out. There aren’t many off-nights for Vooch. He’s a true professional and he’s been doing this for a long time. He understands the right way to play. Very fun guy to play with for me. He’s a threat from behind the arc, plays in the pocket, very cerebral player.” Vucevic is in the second season of a three-year, $60MM contract, which could make him a target at the trade deadline.
Damian Lillard missed three games after entering concussion protocol. The Bucks star guard struggled in his return on Monday but made the game-winning layup against the Rockets, Eric Nehm of The Athletic notes. Lillard made just 6-of-18 shots for 18 points, but he still managed to dish out 10 assists. “I think he’s one of the best to ever do it — like finishing the game — and as a leader, you gotta give (him the ball),” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “It’s easy for me to say I have the ball and go all the way, but at the end of the day, I’m a leader that wants to win. … Dame is a great closer. So you gotta find Dame and you gotta put the ball in his hand for him to make a decision.”

Central Notes: Bulls, Giddey, Turner, Ivey

November 18th, 2024 at 5:39pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Bulls face the Pistons on Monday and they’ll be looking to bounce back from two woeful defensive performances. After giving up 144 points to Cleveland on Friday, they surrendered 143 in a 36-point loss to Houston on Sunday.

“It’s just a compete thing; you got to compete at a higher level,” guard Coby White said, per Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times. “We got to be more physical. We got to take a stand; giving up 140-plus in back-to-back games is unacceptable. It’s embarrassing, it’s a disservice to the organization, a disservice to the fanbase.”

Chicago dropped to 5-9 with the loss.

“We got to be a lot tougher collectively,” wing Zach LaVine said. “We just can’t let it snowball like it did (Sunday). We’ve been playing well all year and competitive. (Sunday) was the total opposite of that.”

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One of the defensive issues for the Bulls is that opponents have been targeting offseason acquisition Josh Giddey. The team’s defensive rating has been significantly worse with Giddey on the floor, Williams notes. “We’ve got to get better at being able to do multiple things and we’ve got to help him find solutions,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Then the other part of it, too, is he’s got to execute. We got to be able to execute the things that we’re in. We’ve got to help give him where he’s got multiple things that he can do, and the ability to move in and out of dead balls or timeouts to change coverages.”
Pacers big man Myles Turner, a free agent after the season, had been disappointed with his approach in recent days, Alex Golden of Setting the Pace tweets. He erupted for 34 points and nine rebounds in a win over Miami on Sunday after two subpar outings. “Publicly, I haven’t liked my attitude the last few days,” he said. “You’ve gotta be an energy giver and take accountability, but I feel like I’ve been kind of an energy sucker, kinda been in my own feelings a little bit…that type of (stuff) is just negative. Obviously it was a great game just growing as a leader, growing as a man. You can’t put that stuff out into the universe, but I’m gonna hold myself accountable for that.” Turner sat out the second game of a back-to-back on Monday due to calf soreness.
Jaden Ivey, who is eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer, had season highs with 28 points and eight assists in a victory over Washington on Sunday. Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been impressed with Ivey’s play this season. “He can hurt you in so many different ways,” Bickerstaff said. “He can get to the basket at will. He’s doing a great job of finding his teammates when people want to commit two bodies to him. And then he picks up full-court most possessions. So he’s setting that head of the snake mentality for our defense as well.”

Central Notes: Giannis, Stewart, Ball, Pacers, Furphy

November 14th, 2024 at 2:11pm CST by Rory Maher

Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo erupted for an NBA season-high 59 points in Wednesday’s overtime victory over Detroit, writes Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Antetokounmpo was efficient from all over the court, going 21-of-34 from the field, 1-of-2 from three-point range, and 16-of-17 from the foul line. He also contributed 14 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks and two steals, becoming the first player in league history to finish with that stat line.

“His handprint was all over the game,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “When you think about having the scoring off the floor that we had – no Dame (Damian Lillard), no Khris Middleton, no Bobby Portis, no Ryan (Rollins) so we’re down to one living point guard on our team – and for him to do that and for us to score 127 points, though he got half of them almost, every basket was needed.”

Center Brook Lopez, who had also had his best game of the early portion of the season (29 points, eight rebounds, five blocks, three steals), struggled to find words to describe Antetokounmpo’s impact, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic.

“I’m not well versed enough in the English language, or unfortunately any other language, to find new ways to describe Giannis’ brilliance,” Lopez said. “Just to be able to watch it and be a part of it for as long as I’ve been here, these seven years now, to see the way he was tonight, I’m still seeing new stuff. And it’s just, it’s so special.

“So I’m just going to cherish it, night in and night out, but just let it inspire me too because his drive — you mentioned all the scoring he does — but he doesn’t care about that. Obviously, he can take us on his back and win games for us, but it’s just the way he goes about it. He’s not about the stats. He’s just about winning and that’s something the whole team gets behind.”

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Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart was ejected in the third quarter of Wednesday’s loss to Milwaukee following a Flagrant 2 foul on Antetokounmpo, notes Owczarski of The Journal Sentinel. The Bucks star initiated contact with Stewart to create space, then spun baseline for a dunk attempt when Stewart pulled him down by the jersey with both hands. “I’ve been in that position many times in my life,” Antetokounmpo said of the play. “I have two older brothers that, you know, push me on the floor, play, be tough on me, especially Thanasis. I’ve been so many times hit. So, it doesn’t really faze me anymore. It doesn’t really faze me. All I could think about was get up and try to make two free throws. At the same time, it’s a dangerous play. That’s not a basketball play. I think the ref did a great job of making the right call.”
Bulls guard Lonzo Ball, who is recuperating from a right wrist sprain, has progressed to doing dribbling and shooting drills in recent days and hopes to return on Sunday vs. Houston, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. However, head coach Billy Donovan suggested that target date might be a little too optimistic. “I don’t know if that’s realistic,” Donovan said. “That’s what he was shooting for. We’re not ruling that out, but a lot of that is going to depend on how he progresses in those areas. When he starts shooting threes, how does that respond? They’re going to make him do some things live in guarding the ball to see how it feels when all of a sudden he’s hand-checking a guy. We haven’t gotten to those places yet, but those are markers he needs to get through, hurdles he needs to get through before he can take the next step in terms of getting on the floor.”
With James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson sidelined by long-term injuries (torn Achilles tendons) and Aaron Nesmith (left ankle) and Andrew Nembhard (left knee) out multiple weeks, the Pacers have turned to their two-way players and rookies for rotation minutes, as Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes. Two-way players Quenton Jackson and Enrique Freeman (he’s also a rookie, selected No. 50 overall in June’s draft) have received some run off the bench, as has No. 35 overall pick Johnny Furphy, who scored a career-best seven points in nine minutes in Wednesday’s loss to Orlando. “He’s a very good player off movement,” head coach Rick Carlisle said of Furphy, per Dopirak. “He’s a great runner at that size. He’s deceptively tough. He gave us some really good minutes in the first half. … You can see why we’re excited about him for the future and really right now too. That’s a pretty high culture game and he went in there and played well.”

And-Ones: 2025 Draft, Flagg, All-Star Game, Coaches

November 12th, 2024 at 9:17am CST by Luke Adams

With the NCAA men’s basketball season underway, draft experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have updated their 2025 NBA mock draft at ESPN.com (Insider link), projecting next June’s top 30 picks based on their own scouting and intel from executives around the league.

There are no surprises at the top of ESPN’s latest mock draft. The projected picks at No. 1 (Cooper Flagg), No. 2 (Ace Bailey), and No. 3 (Dylan Harper) remain unchanged since Givony and Woo published a mock in June, and V.J. Edgecombe and Nolan Traore are still in the top five.

Still, there are some notable risers or fallers elsewhere in the first round. Duke freshman Kon Knueppel (No. 17 in June) is up to No. 6, while Ratiopharm Ulm guard Ben Saraf comes in at No. 13 after not showing up in June’s mock draft. Conversely, Real Madrid wing Hugo Gonzalez has slipped from seventh to 12th, while Miami freshman Jalil Bethea is down to 25th after having placed 13th in June.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

In a separate story for ESPN.com, Baxter Holmes takes a closer look at Flagg’s journey from growing up in a small town in Maine to becoming a Duke Blue Devil and basketball’s top prospect. Holmes’ feature includes several entertaining anecdotes, including one about how a 13-year-old Flagg “dominated” a Boston-area pickup game run by former NBA forward Brian Scalabrine.
While commissioner Adam Silver recently acknowledged that the NBA is weighing the idea of using a new format for this season’s All-Star Game, veteran NBA insider Marc Stein (Substack link) says he doesn’t expect the league to opt for a U.S. vs. the World matchup in February. Still, sources tell Stein that format is a possibility that has been discussed within the league office, so it may still be in play for future seasons.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype spent 24 hours this fall behind the scenes with the Pacers‘ coaching staff and shares his takeaways and insights on what a day in the life of an NBA coach looks like.

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