- It’s harder to deny the appeal of tanking when your draft picks are tied up in previously negotiated trades. Such was the case when the Lakers and Kings met Friday, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reports. The Lakers had incentive to lose in order to keep their top-3 protected pick. The Kings had incentive to lose to keep their top-10 protected pick. (The Lakers won).
- Count Kentucky head coach John Calipari among Julius Randle‘s biggest supporters, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News writes. Calipari recently spoke with Lakers coach Luke Walton about the forward. “If you can just get a bunch of guys that will fight every possession, you’re winning,” Calipari told Walton. “The dude is going to fight.“
Tyler Ennis believes he has found a home with the Lakers and wants to remain there past this season, writes Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News. Ennis was shipped from Houston to L.A. at the trade deadline and quickly got an opportunity to play that he never received with the Rockets. His minutes more than doubled after the deal, going from 6.3 per game to 15.9, and he is putting up career-high numbers in scoring and shooting percentage.
The Lakers are the fourth NBA stop for Ennis, who was taken by the Suns with the 18th pick in 2014. After eight games in Phoenix, he was traded to the Bucks in 2015, then to the Rockets in September. “Anytime you go through the journey I’ve been through so far in the league and then have an opportunity to play and have people welcome me with open arms, that’s something you want to stay with,” Ennis said of his plans in free agency. “Obviously there’s a lot going on, but if the opportunity to stay is there, they’ll definitely be at the top of the list.”
Here are Friday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the league, as the NBADL postseason continues:
- In the wake of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers’ Game 1 win in the D-League playoffs on Thursday, the Rockets recalled Chinanu Onuaku, Isaiah Taylor, and Kyle Wiltjer to the NBA, the team announced today (Twitter link). The trio played a major role in Thursday’s victory, with Taylor scoring 24 points and dishing out nine assists, Wiltjer adding 17 points, and Onuaku snatching 18 rebounds.
- The Lakers have recalled rookie guard David Nwaba from the NBADL, the team announced today (Twitter link). The Lakers’ affiliate, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, was on the losing side in Thursday’s D-League playoff game, despite Nwaba’s team-high 22 points. The Vipers and D-Fenders will play Game 2 on Saturday, so Nwaba and the Rockets’ youngsters may be headed back to the NBADL within the next 24 hours.
With the NBADL playoffs now underway, here are Thursday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- The Lakers assigned guard David Nwaba to their affiliate, the D-Fenders, according to the D-League team’s Twitter feed. Nwaba, who has become a rotation player for the Lakers, contributed 10 points, five rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes against the Spurs on Wednesday. The D-Fenders have a playoff game against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Thursday.
- The Rockets assigned point guard Isaiah Taylor and forward Kyle Wiltjer to Rio Grande, its D-League affiliate, according to the Rockets’ Twitter feed. Taylor and Wiltjer were sent down for the Valley Vipers’ playoff game against the Los Angeles D-Fenders. Taylor, a rookie out of Texas, made his NBA debut on Sunday, playing 15 minutes against the Suns. Wiltjer, who attended Gonzaga, has appeared in 13 games with Houston but none of his outings lasted more than six minutes.
- Lakers assistant GM Glenn Carraro has resigned, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Carraro has been with Los Angeles since 2000.
Rob Pelinka’s deal with the Lakers is for five years and it’s worth over $20MM, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (h/t RealGM). Los Angeles hired Pelinka to be the team’s GM last month. Windhorst adds that lucrative deals are becoming typical for high-ranking members of teams’ front offices.
- A judge ruled that Jeanie Buss will retain controlling ownership of the Lakers, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com (ESPN Now Link). It was previously reported that Jim and Johnny Buss would try to take over control of the team.
Nick Young has become the latest Lakers veteran to be shut down for the season, according to Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News.
Young has been held out of 11 of the past 12 games even though he’s healthy, so the move isn’t a surprise. But the Lakers have decided to make it official, saying the 31-year-old shooting guard won’t play again outside of an emergency. A source said Young might be used in case of an unexpected injury, but the team doesn’t expect that to happen.
Young was one of the pleasant surprises of L.A’s preseason, winning a starting job after a summer filled with rumors that he might be traded or released. Young played 60 games, all starts, and averaged 13.2 points per night.
The 10-year veteran has a $5.67MM player option for next season and recently said he hasn’t decided what to do about it.
The Lakers previously shut downLuol Deng and Timofey Mozgov in an effort to devote more time to younger players.
- Of all the things that D’Angelo Russell has improved upon in his second season, one of note is his ability to make in-game adjustments. “He’s done a good job, whether he’s making bad plays with that or missing shots, with still helping our team,” Lakers head coach Luke Walton told Mark Medina of the Orange County Register. “That is a huge step forward. It’s important you can bounce back within the game.”
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.”
The Lakers recently shut down multiple veteran players in order to get a longer look at their young contributors as the season nears an end. Now, one of those young players will miss the rest of the year too. According to a press release issued today by the Lakers, rookie big man Ivica Zubac sustained a high ankle sprain in his right ankle and won’t return to the court this season. He’ll be re-evaluated in two weeks, per the team.
Zubac, who suffered the injury early in Thursday night’s loss to Minnesota, appeared in 38 games for the Lakers in his rookie season, and flashed some promise. For the year, the 2016 second-rounder averaged 7.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 0.9 BPG in 16.0 minutes per contest.
The Lakers, having shut down veterans Nick Young, Luol Deng, and Timofey Mozgov, have some options as they look to make up Zubac’s minutes. Tarik Black, Thomas Robinson, and Larry Nance Jr. are among the players who could see their roles increase over the final two weeks of the season.