Memphis’ Jalen Duren Entering 2022 NBA Draft
Memphis freshman center Jalen Duren will enter the 2022 NBA draft and will forgo his remaining college eligibility, signing with agent Chafie Fields of Wasserman, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Duren averaged 12.0 PPG, 8.1 RPG, and 2.1 BPG in 29 games (25.3 MPG) during his first and only college season, earning AAC Freshman of the Year honors and making the All-AAC First Team. Givony currently has Duren ranked as the No. 7 overall prospect on ESPN’s big board and says the big man is the youngest college player projected to be drafted in 2022.
In his scouting report, Givony refers to Duren as a “major force inside the paint” on both ends of the floor, lauding his ability to protect the rim on defense and to finish at the basket on offense. The youngster also showed some promising signs as a passer and shooter, Givony adds, but even without taking major strides in those areas, he could be ready to step into a regular NBA role right away.
“A guy like Evan Mobley — he had a big impact defensively on the Cavs-bringing size, length, mobility. I want to be that kind of guy early on, have that same type of impact,” Duren told ESPN. “I also study guys like Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jokic. The ball runs through them and they can really pass. My game fits that. I can guard 1-5. Hedge and switch on ball-screens and read all the pick and rolls. I’ve developed all those things very well.”
Duren joins our ever-growing list of early entrants for the 2022 draft, which can be found right here.
Raptors’ Scottie Barnes Out For Game 2
Raptors forward Scottie Barnes, who was officially diagnosed on Sunday with a left ankle sprain after leaving Game 1 on Saturday due to the injury, has been ruled out for Game 2 on Monday, head coach Nick Nurse told reporters, including Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link).
Barnes was wearing a walking boot on his left foot today, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. The Rookie of the Year finalist told reporters that he’s feeling better each day and is staying positive, but is unsure about when he might be able to return, per Lewenberg and Bontemps (Twitter link).
Losing Barnes is a major blow to a Raptors team that was defeated soundly by the Sixers in Game 1. No Raptor logged more minutes during the regular season than the No. 4 overall pick, who had an impressive playoff debut with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in 32 minutes before Joel Embiid stepped on his foot, ending his night.
While Barnes has been definitively ruled out for Game 2, the Raptors are still considering Gary Trent Jr. and Thaddeus Young doubtful, tweets Bontemps. Young and the training staff are working to see if he’ll be able to play through a thumb sprain, while Trent missed Monday’s shootaround due to a non-COVID illness.
As Lewenberg tweets, if one of Trent or Young is going to play tonight, it sounds more likely to be Young, but Toronto may be without both of them in addition to missing Barnes.
2022 NBA Draft Lottery Odds
The NBA will be using its revamped lottery format for the fourth time this year. The new format, instituted in 2019, smoothed out the odds for top picks, reducing the league’s worst team’s chance of getting the No. 1 selection from 25.0% to 14.0%.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: NBA Draft Lottery]
The changes have had an immediate impact. In 2019, the Pelicans and Grizzlies were tied for the seventh-best lottery odds, but jumped up to No. 1 and 2, respectively, allowing them to land Zion Williamson and Ja Morant.
In 2020, the Bulls and Hornets landed picks in the top four despite entering lottery night with the seventh- and eighth-best odds, respectively. That stroke of luck significantly changed the long-term outlook in Charlotte, where the Hornets were able to land LaMelo Ball with the No. 3 pick.
2021 was the most by-the-numbers of the three lotteries under the new format, but the Cavaliers and Raptors moved into the top four after entering lottery night with the fifth- and seventh-best odds and each landed a player who looks like a long-term franchise cornerstone (and a potential Rookie of the Year winner): Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes.
This year’s draft lottery will take place on Tuesday, May 17.
With the help of data from Tankathon.com – which is worth checking out for all sorts of draft-related info – the draft lottery odds for 2022 are listed in the chart below.
The numbers in the chart indicate percentages, so the Rockets‘ pick, for instance, has a 14% chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 47.9% chance of ending up at No. 5. If a team’s odds are listed as >0, that percentage is below 0.1%.
Here’s the full chart (if you’re on our mobile site or app and can’t see the whole thing, try turning your phone sideways):
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU | 14 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12 | 47.9 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| ORL | 14 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12 | 27.8 | 20 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 14 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12 | 14.8 | 26 | 7 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| OKC | 12.5 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 11.5 | 7.2 | 25.7 | 16.7 | 2.2 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| IND | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.6 | 10.5 | 2.2 | 19.6 | 26.7 | 8.7 | 0.6 | – | – | – | – | – |
| POR | 9 | 9.2 | 9.4 | 9.6 | – | 8.6 | 29.8 | 20.6 | 3.7 | 0.1 | – | – | – | – |
| SAC | 7.5 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.5 | – | – | 19.7 | 34.1 | 12.9 | 1.3 | >0 | – | – | – |
| LAL* | 6 | 6.3 | 6.7 | 7.2 | – | – | – | 34.5 | 32.1 | 6.7 | 0.4 | >0 | – | – |
| SAS | 4.5 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 5.7 | – | – | – | – | 50.7 | 25.9 | 3 | 0.1 | >0 | – |
| WAS | 3 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | 65.9 | 19 | 1.2 | >0 | >0 |
| NYK | 2 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 77.6 | 12.6 | 0.4 | >0 |
| LAC* | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 86.1 | 6.7 | 0.1 |
| CHA | 1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 92.9 | 2.3 |
| CLE | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 97.6 |
Notes:
- The Lakers‘ pick will be sent to the Pelicans if it lands in the top 10 or to the Grizzlies if it lands outside of the top 10.
- The Clippers‘ pick will be sent to the Thunder.
We’ll publish the full pre-lottery 2022 draft order later today, once the NBA conducts a series of tiebreakers for the teams that finished the season with identical records.
NBA Announces 2021/22 Award Finalists
The NBA has announced the 2021/22 season award finalists for the league’s six major awards: Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors’ 2022 NBA Award Picks]
The awards were voted on by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. The three top vote-getters for each award are the finalists. They are as follows:
Most Valuable Player:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Joel Embiid (Sixers)
- Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
Rookie of the Year:
- Scottie Barnes (Raptors)
- Cade Cunningham (Pistons)
- Evan Mobley (Cavaliers)
Sixth Man of the Year:
- Tyler Herro (Heat)
- Cameron Johnson (Suns)
- Kevin Love (Cavaliers)
Coach of the Year:
- Taylor Jenkins (Grizzlies)
- Erik Spoelstra (Heat)
- Monty Williams (Suns)
Defensive Player of the Year:
- Mikal Bridges (Suns)
- Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
- Marcus Smart (Celtics)
Most Improved Player:
- Darius Garland (Cavaliers)
- Ja Morant (Grizzlies)
- Dejounte Murray (Spurs)
Winners will be announced during TNT’s coverage of the NBA playoffs, according to the league.
Raptors’ Barnes, Young, Trent Unlikely To Play In Game 2
3:20pm: The Raptors have confirmed in a press statement that Barnes, Trent and Young are all doubtful to play in a critical Game 2 against the Sixers on Monday.
The club has indicated that Barnes officially has been diagnosed with a left ankle sprain, while the official diagnosis for Young is a left thumb hyperextension.
12:55pm: Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said today that rookie forward Scottie Barnes, veteran forward Thaddeus Young, and starting shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. are doubtful to suit up in Toronto’s second game of its first round series vs. the Sixers on Monday, reports Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
According to Bontemps, Nurse indicated that all three Raptors players will be monitored over the course of the next day.
“I mean, listen, it doesn’t look good for any of those guys,” Nurse said after a team practice Sunday. “They’re all going to be listed as probably doubtful, so it doesn’t look good for any of them. We’ll evaluate them as we go and see where we end up.”
Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports reports (via Twitter) that Trent left the club’s practice Sunday as he deals with an illness. Nurse revealed that the ailment, a non-coronavirus illness, has kept Trent’s attendance in practice erratic.
Barnes, who tweaked the ankle during the Raptors’ 131-111 Game 1 loss to the Sixers on Sunday, is undergoing an MRI on the ankle. Young, dealing with a left thumb sprain, already got an MRI of his own and is currently waiting on the results.
Losing Barnes and Trent, both of whom started for Toronto Saturday, would be a big blow for the fifth-seeded Raptors, already the underdogs in the series. Young played for six minutes yesterday as a reserve.
The 6’9″ Barnes, a first-year player out of Florida State, is a finalist for Rookie of the Year hardware this season. Across his 74 contests for the 48-34 Raptors, the 20-year-old is averaging 15.3 PPG, 7.5 RPG and 3.5 APG, while shooting 49.2% from the field and connecting on 73.5% of his free-throw looks.
Michael Porter Jr. Optimistic For Return In Postseason
Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. hasn’t given up on the possibility of resuming play for Denver during the team’s first round playoff series against the Warriors, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN.
“Right now, I’m taking it game by game. I’m not ruling anything out,” Porter said after the Nuggets’ first game against Golden State, a 123-101 loss. “This is a thing I don’t ever want to deal with again, so I’m just taking my time. … I’m playing it game by game. Every morning I wake up and I know I’m feeling good. Every day I’m getting closer.”
Porter has acknowledged that overwork caused the setback he suffered while rehabilitating from his December 1 lumbar spine surgery, his third since 2017. He had initially been expected to return to the Nuggets in March.
The 6’10” forward appeared in just nine games for Denver this season, averaging 9.9 PPG and 6.6 RPG, significant declines from the 19.0 PPG and 7.3 RPG he averaged through 61 contests a year ago. Thanks in no small part to that 2020/21 performance, the Nuggets inked Porter to a five-year, $172MM extension during the 2021 offseason.
John Collins Cleared For Playoff Opener
Hawks forward John Collins will play in today’s Game 1 against the Heat as long as he doesn’t have any issues during warmups, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Collins has been out of action since March 11 with injuries to his right foot and right ring finger.
Collins is still bothered by the pain in his finger, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. It’s difficult for him to grip the ball, sources tell Kirschner, and the injury is affecting his shot.
Collins, who also has been dealing with a sprained right foot and a plantar fascia tear, was upgraded to questionable on Saturday. Atlanta was able to win two play-in games without Collins, but will likely need him on the court to be competitive with top-seeded Miami.
Clint Capela‘s injury in Friday’s game makes Collins’ return even more important. Capela had to be helped to the locker room in the second quarter with a hyperextended right knee and will be sidelined for at least a week. Onyeka Okongwu is among the league’s best backup centers, Kirschner notes, but he’s not in Capela’s class as a rebounder and doesn’t have the same chemistry with Trae Young on the pick-and-roll.
MRI Set For Scottie Barnes’ Ankle Injury
Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes will undergo an MRI on Sunday after injuring his left ankle in Saturday’s playoff game against the Sixers, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. X-rays on the ankle were negative, according to Lewenberg.
Barnes was injured early in the fourth quarter when Joel Embiid accidentally stepped on his foot on a drive to the basket, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Barnes collapsed to the court while grabbing his foot and remained down for several minutes. He had to be helped to the locker room and was unable to put much weight on the foot. The Raptors officially declared him out of the game a few minutes later.
Barnes was outstanding in his first career playoff game, posting 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in 31 minutes. Toronto, which lost by 20 points, will likely need Barnes to make the series competitive.
The series will resume Monday in Philadelphia and will shift to Toronto on Wednesday, so Barnes won’t have much time to recover. The first two-day break comes before Game 4, which is next Saturday in Toronto.
Dyson Daniels To Enter NBA Draft
Dyson Daniels of the G League Ignite has decided to declare for the NBA draft, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN. The 6’8″ Australian guard is ranked 10th overall on ESPN’s big board.
“I’m all in for the draft,” Daniels said. “I feel more than ready for this next step in my career and I’m excited for this process to begin.”
Daniels had a strong showing in his first G League season, averaging 12.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.0 steals in 26 games while playing about 32 minutes per night. He also took part in the Rising Stars contest during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
The 19-year-old is hoping to become the second graduate of the NBA Global Academy in Canberra, Australia, to be taken in the lottery. Fellow Australian Josh Giddey was the sixth pick last year.
Daniels was the first major international player to sign with G League Ignite, and he believes the experience was beneficial. Although he struggled early in the season with the faster pace and more physical style of play, he eventually adapted to it.
“As the season went on and coach put the ball in my hand, I was able to find myself as the primary playmaker,” Daniels said. “We built our chemistry and learned our roles in the team, which helped me take my game to the next level.” One of the things I’m looking forward to showing NBA teams is my ability to create my own shot. That’s something I’ve been working hard on. I’m looking forward to showing them my versatility playing multiple positions and using my basketball IQ to be a problem solver.”
John Collins Will Try To Play In Game 1
Hawks forward John Collins will attempt to play in the series opener against the Heat, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Collins, who has been sidelined since March 11 with foot and finger injuries, has been upgraded to questionable for Sunday’s game.
Collins is still dealing with a sprained right foot and plantar fascia tear, along with a sprain to his right ring finger. He was able to participate in some 4-on-4 drills at Thursday’s practice, coach Nate McMillan told Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Injuries have limited Collins to 54 games this season. He is Atlanta’s second-leading scorer at 16.2 PPG and second-leading rebounder at 7.8 RPG.
If Collins can’t return for Game 1, the teams will have just one night off before Tuesday’s Game 2. The series will shift to Atlanta for Game 3 on Friday.