Kyle Anderson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Odds & Ends: Pistons, LeBron, Anderson

September 12th, 2013 at 10:32pm CST by Ryan Raroque

A panel of HoopsWorld columnists discussed their thoughts on the Pistons' offseason additions, current strengths and weaknesses, and where the team projects to finish in the Central Division standings this year. Count Brandon Jennings among those who seem most eager to get the season started, as he believes that with Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, and Josh Smith, Detroit should be a dominant rebounding force on both sides of the court (Detroit Free Press staff report). Here's the rest of tonight's noteworthy links:

Ken Berger of CBS Sports believes that with so many variables to consider, there's no way that even LeBron James knows what he's going to do on July 1st next year, when he'll have the ability to exercise his early-termination option and hit unrestricted free agency.
Jeff Goodman of ESPN (via Twitter) doesn't think it's a guarantee that UCLA's Kyle Anderson will declare for the draft after this year, especially since he's not considered a lock to get selected in the first round at this point.
Jeff Caplan of NBA.com gives the Trail Blazers a "B" for their offseason report card, highlighting their coaching staff and frontcourt as the team's strongest suits and identifying defense as their weakest one. In another a piece, Ben Golliver of BlazersEdge.com relays Damian Lillard's interview with True Hoop TV's Henry Abbott about his workload and expectations defensively.
Dan McCarney of Spurs Nation wades through the changes and holdovers of the Northwest Division and touches upon what to expect from each team in 2013/14.
Moke Hamilton of HoopsWorld held his weekly chat with fans, answering questions about Seattle, the Knicks, how Danny Granger's return from injury could affect Paul George, and the Pelicans' playoff chances among other topics.

Draft Notes: Anderson, Muhammad, Hoosiers, Suns

March 29th, 2013 at 8:10pm CST by Alex Lee

With the second night of Sweet 16 games kicking off shortly, let’s consolidate all news on soon-to-be NBA prospects here:

It appears that Kyle Anderson plans to return to UCLA for his sophomore year next season, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY. Anderson’s father sent out a text message to several media outlets to confirm that his soon will stay in school, quelling the fears of Bruins fans that were worried Anderson would bolt in the wake of Ben Howland’s firing. Before news broke today, Jonathan Givony of Draft Express tweeted that he heard Anderson was “100% planning on declaring for the draft.”
In an Insider-only story, Kevin Pelton of ESPN gauges the draft stock of Anderson’s teammate and fellow freshman at UCLA, Shabazz Muhammad. Pelton maintains a draft-related database that indicates a prospect’s age is nearly as important a predictor of NBA success as anything else, which doesn’t bode well for Muhammad. While he was only a freshman this year, the Los Angeles Times discovered last week that Muhammad is actually 20 years old, not 19 as was previously thought. Muhammad currently ranks seventh on the Draft Express Top 100 list. Pelton suggests that the news on Muhammad’s age should bump him down from that spot, though it remains to be seen if that actually happens.
Neither Cody Zeller nor Victor Oladipo said much last night regarding their future after their Hoosiers fell to Syracuse in the Sweet 16. Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star writes that most scouts think Oladipo’s stock can’t get much higher, and it is likely that the uber-athletic junior will declare for the draft because of it. Zeller is a different story, however. After entering the season projected as a top-3 pick, Zeller’s lack of toughness and inability to dominate have scouts questioning his potential, Wells says. It seems like another year at Indiana might be the best bet for the 7-foot sophomore. Our Chuck Myron profiled Oladipo yesterday in our Prospect Profile series.
After they held out Goran Dragic on Wednesday against the Jazz, it was only natural for questions about tanking to come up inside the Suns locker room. Paul Coro, reporting for USA Today, writes that Suns players have continued to play hard in part because many of them believe that this year’s draft is lacking on impact players.
According to an Eastern Conference talent evaluator, this year’s draft class should not be classified as “weak”, writes Michael Lee of the Washington Post. While there may be no sure-fire studs, this draft will likely turn out as many NBA starters or even NBA All-Stars as most. Lee says that many recent drafts have also received the “weak” label, only to produce a respectable crop of players. “And I think this draft is going to be no different,” the talent evaluator said.