Nets Sign Scottie Lindsey
The Nets have signed free agent shooting guard Scottie Lindsey to a training camp contract, according to announcements from the team and marketing agency RBA Showcase (Twitter link).
Lindsey, 27, has played primarily in the G League since going undrafted out of Northwestern in 2018, spending time with the Grand Rapids Drive, Erie BayHawks (now the Birmingham Squadron), Windy City Bulls, and Maine Celtics. He has also played in professional leagues in Portugal and Canada.
Last season, Lindsey appeared in a total of 44 regular season and Showcase Cup games for Maine, averaging 11.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 24.3 minutes per contest with a shooting line of .435/.332/.860.
The Long Island Nets – Brooklyn’s G League affiliate – announced on Monday that they acquired the returning rights for Lindsey and A.J. Reeves from the Maine Celtics in exchange for the returning rights to Jordan Bowden and Noah Kirkwood, so it’s safe to assume the Nets view Lindsey as a player who will eventually suit up for their NBAGL squad.
Assuming Lindsey’s new deal with the team includes Exhibit 10 language, which is very likely, he’ll earn a bonus worth up to $75K if he spends at least 60 days with Long Island after being waived by Brooklyn.
The Nets, who have been busy making roster moves this week with an eye toward the G League season, now have 20 players under contract.
Nets Sign, Waive Noah Kirkwood
OCTOBER 12: The Nets have waived Kirkwood, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
OCTOBER 8: The Nets signed rookie swingman Noah Kirkwood, Alex Schiffer of The Athletic tweets.
While terms weren’t disclosed, Kirkwood’s contract is almost assuredly an Exhibit 10 deal and he’ll wind up with the Long Island Nets after getting waived. He’ll be eligible for a $50K bonus if he stays 60 days with the G League club.
The 22-year-old out of Harvard appeared in four summer league games with Brooklyn. He went undrafted this year after giving up his last year of eligibility.
He averaged 17.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 32.8 minutes per game during his final season with Harvard in 26 starts.
Jazz Notes: Quinn, Griffin, Young, Gobert, Can, More
The Jazz have requested permission to interview three more assistant coaches from around the NBA as they seek a replacement for Quin Snyder, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links). According to Wojnarowski, the team is also planning to meet with Heat assistant Chris Quinn, Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, and Suns assistant Kevin Young.
Griffin and Young were previously identified by The Athletic as head coaching candidates on Utah’s preliminary list, but this is the first time we’ve heard Quinn linked to the club. Quinn, Griffin, and Young will join eight other candidates who are reportedly expected to interview with the Jazz, bringing the total count to 11 — and that number could continue to grow.
The full list of Utah’s reported candidates can be found at our head coaching search tracker.
Here’s more on the Jazz:
- Based on his conversations with people around the NBA, Ian Begley of SNY.tv (video link) gets the sense that Snyder’s exit from Utah will impact Rudy Gobert‘s future with the Jazz more than Donovan Mitchell‘s, making it more likely that Gobert is moved. Multiple recent reports have suggested that the Jazz are open to discussing Gobert, but have shut down trade inquiries on Mitchell.
- In a story for SNY.tv, Begley stresses that the support for Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant within the Jazz organization goes beyond Mitchell. Bryant, a candidate for Utah’s head coaching job, is known to be close with Mitchell, but built plenty of other strong relationships during his time as a Jazz assistant from 2014-20.
- Jazz assistant Erdem Can has reached an agreement to join Turkish club Türk Telekom, according to a report from Ugur Ozan Sulak of Socrates (Twitter link). Can was an assistant with Fenerbahçe from 2012-21 before joining Snyder’s staff for the ’21/22 season. He reportedly received a two-year deal from Türk Telekom, with an NBA out after year one.
- Koby McEwen (Weber State), Noah Kirkwood (Harvard), Au’Diese Toney (Arkansas), and Amadou Sow (UC-Santa Barbara) are among the prospects who participated in a pre-draft workout with the Jazz on Tuesday, tweets Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. As previously reported, Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn and BYU’s Alex Barcello also took part in that session.
And-Ones: Coaching Candidates, Kirkwood, Garuba, Embiid
Suns assistant Kevin Young, Bucks assistants Darvin Ham and Charles Lee, Celtics assistant Will Hardy, Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic, Heat assistants Chris Quinn and Malik Allen, and Warriors assistants Mike Brown and Kenny Atkinson are among the assistants around the NBA who are viewed as potential head coaching candidates by league insiders, according to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz (Insider-only link).
A number of the names on Arnovitz’s list have been linked to one or more of the NBA’s three current head coaching openings. Ham and Brown, for instance, all believed to be under consideration by all three of the Hornets, Lakers, and Kings.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Harvard senior guard Noah Kirkwood, who declared for the 2022 NBA draft as an early entrant, has decided to remain in the draft and go pro rather than using his final year of college eligibility, according to agent Ronnie Zeidel (Twitter link via Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports).
- Rockets forward/center Usman Garuba said in an interview with Spanish outlet AS.com that he’s committed to representing Spain at this year’s EuroBasket competition, as Eurohoops relays.
- In an intriguing bit of international basketball news, an RMC Sport report indicates that Sixers center Joel Embiid is exploring the possibility of obtaining French citizenship and representing France in future international events. Embiid was born in Cameroon, but has family from France and has never suited up for the Cameroonian national team.
NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2022 Draft
The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2022 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 283 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 247 are from colleges, while 36 are international early entrants.
Those are big numbers, but they fall well short of the 353 early entrants who initially declared for the draft a year ago. Beginning in 2021, the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in seniors having to decide between staying at college for one more season or declaring for the draft as an “early” entrant.
That tweak to the NCAA’s eligibility rules has increased the number of total early entrants due to the influx of seniors into the pool. However, as Jonathan Givony of ESPN observes (via Twitter), the number of college non-seniors (123) on the initial early entry list this year is actually the lowest since 2016, while the number of international prospects (36) is the lowest since 2014.
This year’s total of 283 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by June 1 and again by June 13, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like the pool will remain extremely crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants certain to exceed 58, the number of picks in the draft.
Our tracker of early entrants for the 2022 draft is fully up to date and can be found right here.
Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:
Newly-added players:
College players:
These players either didn’t publicly announce that they were entering the draft or we simply missed it when they did.
- Max Abmas, G, Oral Roberts (junior)
- Tez Allen, G/F, Southern Oregon (senior)
- Avery Anderson III, G, Oklahoma State (junior)
- Eric Ayala, G, Maryland (senior)
- Marcus Azor, G, UMass Dartmouth (senior)
- Emmanuel Bandoumel, G, SMU (senior)
- Evan Battey, F, Colorado (senior)
- James Bishop, G, George Washington (junior)
- Henry Blair Jr., G, Bob Jones (SC) (junior)
- Buddy Boeheim, G, Syracuse (senior)
- Rasir Bolton, G, Gonzaga (senior)
- Mike Bothwell, G, Furman (senior)
- Jordan Brown, F, Louisiana (junior)
- John Butler Jr., F/C, Florida State (freshman)
- Jared Bynum, G, Providence (junior)
- Toumani Camara, F, Dayton (junior)
- Dylan Cardwell, C, Auburn (sophomore)
- Xavier Castaneda, G, Akron (senior)
- Dhieu Deing, G, UTSA (junior)
- Dylan Disu, F, Texas (junior)
- Boogie Ellis, G, USC (junior)
- BJ Fitzgerald, G, Virginia State (junior)
- Allen Flanigan, G/F, Auburn (junior)
- Joe French, G, Bethune-Cookman (sophomore)
- Jacob Grandison, G/F, Illinois (senior)
- Tykei Greene, G, Stony Brook (senior)
- Quincy Guerrier, F, Oregon (junior)
- Mouhamed Gueye, F/C, Washington State (freshman)
- D.J. Harvey, G/F, Detroit (senior)
- Jericole Hellems, F, North Carolina State (senior)
- Cedric Henderson Jr., G/F, Campbell (senior)
- D’Moi Hodge, G, Cleveland State (senior)
- Trevor Hudgins, G, Northwest Missouri State (senior)
- Bodie Hume, G/F, Northern Colorado (senior)
- Austin Hutcherson, G, Illinois (junior)
- Josiah-Jordan James, G/F, Tennessee (junior)
- Deante Johnson, F, Cleveland State (senior)
- Andrew Jones, G, Texas (senior)
- Noah Kirkwood, G, Harvard (senior)
- Hyunjung Lee, G/F, Davidson (junior)
- Kyle Lofton, G, St. Bonaventure (senior)
- Josh Mballa, F, Buffalo (senior)
- Trey McGowens, G, Nebraska (senior)
- Nathan Mensah, F/C, San Diego State (senior)
- Isaih Moore, F, Southern Mississippi (senior)
- Bryson Mozone, G/F, USC Upstate (senior)
- Grayson Murphy, G, Belmont (senior)
- Dwight Murray Jr., G, Rider (senior)
- Nick Muszynski, C, Belmont (senior)
- Ike Obiagu, C, Seton Hall (senior)
- Edward Oliver-Hampton, F, South Carolina State (senior)
- Shareef O’Neal, F, LSU (junior)
- Nick Ongenda, C, DePaul (junior)
- Malik Osborne, F, Florida State (senior)
- Osayi Osifo, F, Jacksonville (senior)
- Zyon Pullin, G, UC-Riverside (junior)
- Eric Reed Jr., G, Southeast Missouri State (senior)
- Will Richardson, G, Oregon (senior)
- Orlando Robinson, F/C, Fresno State (junior)
- KJ Simon, G, UT-Martin (junior)
- Jalen Slawson, F, Furman (senior)
- Jamari Smith, F, Queens University (NC) (junior)
- Amadou Sow, F, Santa Barbara (senior)
- Seth Stanley, F, Hendrix College (AR) (senior)
- Gabe Stefanini, G, San Francisco (senior)
- Sasha Stefanovic, G, Purdue (senior)
- AJ Taylor, F, Grambling (junior)
- Kerwin Walton, G, North Carolina (sophomore)
- Collin Welp, F, UC Irvine (senior)
- Aaron Wheeler, F, St. John’s (senior)
- Khristien White, G, Southwest Christian (senior)
International players:
These players weren’t previously mentioned on our list of international early entrants. The country listed here indicates where they last played, not necessarily where they were born.
- Ibou Badji, C, Spain (born 2002)
- Kay Bruhnke, G/F, Germany (born 2001)
- Tom Digbeu, G/F, Australia (born 2001)
- Fallou Gueye, G, Senegal (born 2003)
- Millan Jimenez, G/F, Spain (born 2002)
- Yannick Kraag, G/F, Spain (born 2002)
- Zsombor Maronka, F, Spain (born 2002)
- Mario Nakic, F, Spain (born 2001)
- Jaime Pradilla, F/C, Spain (born 2001)
- Pavel Savkov, G, Spain (born 2002)
- Luka Scuka, F, Slovenia (born 2002)
- Emil Stoilov, C, Spain (born 2002)
- Giorgos Tanoulis, F/C, Greece (born 2002)
- Luke Travers, G/F, Australia (born 2001)
- Nicolas Vanel, G, France (born 2003)
Other notable draft-eligible early entrants:
The NBA sent its teams a list of 33 “also-eligible” names. That list isn’t public, but Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link) shared some of the most notable players on it, and we’ve added them to our early entrant tracker. They are as follows:
- Dominick Barlow, F, Overtime Elite
- MarJon Beauchamp, G/F, G League Ignite
- Dyson Daniels, G, G League Ignite
- Henri Drell, G/F, Windy City Bulls
- Michael Foster, F, G League Ignite
- Jaden Hardy, G, G League Ignite
- Makur Maker, C, Sydney Kings (formerly Howard Bison)
- Jean Montero, G, Overtime Elite
- Samson Ruzhentsev, G/F, Mega Basket (formerly Florida Gators)
- Kai Sotto, C, Adelaide 36ers (formerly G League Ignite)
- Zaire Wade, G, Salt Lake City Stars
- Kok Yat, F, Overtime Elite
- Fanbo Zeng, F, G League Ignite
Players removed:
Despite reports or announcements that the players below would declare for the draft, they didn’t show up on the NBA’s official list.
That could mean a number of things — they may have decided against entering the draft; they may have entered the draft, then withdrawn; they may have had no NCAA eligibility remaining, making them automatically draft-eligible; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.
In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list, at least for the time being.
- Joe Bryant, G, Norfolk State (senior)
- Keyshawn Bryant, F, South Carolina (senior)
- Ricky Council IV, G, Wichita State (sophomore)
- Devonaire Doutrive, G, Boise State (senior)
- Kevin Easley Jr., F, Duquesne (junior)
- Umoja Gibson, G, Oklahoma (senior)
- Jalen Hawkins, G, Norfolk State (senior)
- Makhel Mitchell, F/C, Rhode Island (sophomore)
- Makhi Mitchell, F/C, Rhode Island (sophomore)
- Lamar Norman, G, Western Michigan (junior)
- Chuba Ohams, F, Fordham (senior)
- Nana Opoku, F, Mount St. Mary’s (senior)
- Anthony Roberts, G, Stony Brook (junior)
- Nate Roberts, F/C, Washington (junior)
- Luis Rodriguez, G/F, Ole Miss (junior)
- Tariq Silver, G, Austin Peay (senior)
- Derek St. Hilaire, G, New Orleans (senior)
- John Walker III, F, Texas Southern (senior)
- Eric Williams Jr., G/F, Oregon (senior)
Finally, Givony reports (via Twitter) that Canadian forward Leonard Miller, from the Fort Erie International Academy has been asked to fill out additional paperwork to finalize his entrance into the draft pool. According to Givony, there’s an expectation that Miller will be added to the list, so we’ve left him listed in our early entrant tracker among the international players.
