Malik Monk Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southeast Notes: Wizards’ Bench, Hawks’ FO, Winslow

May 21st, 2017 at 10:28pm CST by Austin Kent

The Wizards fell just shy of the Celtics in their Eastern Conference Semifinal showdown and now must look at ways to improve if they hope to take the next step as a potential contender. One place they can start, point guard John Wall tells Chris Miller of CSN Mid-Atlantic, is with their bench.

“I think we have to add pieces to help our bench,” the Wizards All-Star said. “Just to be honest I think that’s been our downfall.”

While Wall and shooting guard Bradley Beal led the Wizards with 27.2 and 24.8 respective points per game this postseason, mid-season trade acquisition Bojan Bogdanovic was their most potent reserve averaging a modest 8.8 points per game.

Brandon Jennings, another mid-season Wizards target charged with the task of jump-starting the second unit, posted averages of just 2.8 points and 1.8 assists per game in the playoffs.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Hawks have interviewed Wizards VP of basketball operations, Tommy Sheppard and Warriors assistant general manager Travis Schlenk in their ongoing search for a new executive, Marc Stein of ESPN writes.
A recent profile from the Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman features Heat assistant general manager Adam Simon‘s and his background scouting internationally.
The Celtics may have offered a first-round pick to the Heat in exchange for Justise Winslow back on draft night in 2015 but it wasn’t the Nets pick, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel clarifies.
A column by George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel draws comparisons between Lonzo Ball and Shaquille O’Neal, citing the overbearing presence of their respective father figures.
The Magic have several options that could realistically be available to them at the No. 6 pick, including De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk. Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel breaks them down.

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Fultz, Prigioni

May 19th, 2017 at 8:28pm CST by Austin Kent

According to Nets guard Jeremy Lin, a total of five of his former teammates across stints with the Knicks, Rockets and Hornets asked him if Brooklyn would be willing to make a trade for them, Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype writes.

Kalbrosky breaks down a Nets Daily report based on a translation of an interview that Lin gave to Chinese website JD.com.

The combined appeal of the Nets’ willingness to play together, the culture unfolding in Brooklyn and the presence of head coach Kenny Atkinson makes the franchise an intriguing one as the free agency period approaches.

The Nets are projected to have approximately $26MM of cap space this summer to fortify their roster and, yes, several of Lin’s former teammates will be available, including Patrick Patterson, Donatas Motiejunas, Thomas Robinson, Aaron Brooks and Omri Casspi.

There’s more out out of the Atlantic Division:

It didn’t take long for Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas to reach out to Markelle Fultz, the expected No. 1 draft pick that could suit up in green next season, Chris Forsberg of ESPN writes. The two players currently play the same position but Thomas thinks the pair could thrive together.
Managing owner of the Sixers, Josh Harris, is confident in the direction of the franchise, even after this week’s lottery results that didn’t exactly work out in their favor, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “We now are stacked for the future,” Harris said. “We have a young team already. So that leaves some slots for some vets to put around our young guys and teach them about what it’s like to be in the NBA.”
The Knicks are said to be interested in hiring former point guard Pablo Prigioni as an assistant coach, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando relays.
The Knicks will hope that Malik Monk is available to the at the No. 8 spot in next summer’s NBA Draft, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. College basketball analyst Wally Szczerbiak sees him as a good fit as a playmaker in Phil Jackson‘s triangle offense.

Knicks Rumors: No. 8 Pick, Bradley, J. Jackson

May 17th, 2017 at 1:17pm CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks haven’t had a whole lot of lottery luck in recent years, and that trend continued in 2017. After finishing this season tied for the NBA’s sixth-worst record, New York lost a tiebreaker to the Timberwolves, then slipped one more spot in the lottery, having been leap-frogged by the Kings. As a result, the Knicks will have the No. 8 overall pick in next June’s draft, and team president Phil Jackson isn’t discouraged by that outcome, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.

“Our opportunity (at) seven could have been 10, so eight we’ll live with,” Jackson said. “I think that we’re good at what we do. We look forward to a young player we’ll be able to draft in that spot.”

As Berman and Ian Begley of ESPN.com detail, Jackson added that the Knicks have needs at the guard and wing positions, so those figure to be areas of focus for the franchise as the draft approaches. Here are more Knicks-related rumors and notes, via Begley:

Begley identifies De’Aaron Fox, Frank Ntilikina, Dennis Smith Jr., and Malik Monk as prospects the Knicks like in the top 10. Fox will likely be off the board by No. 8, however, and a couple of the others could be as well.
The Knicks will begin conducting workouts on Wednesday, and a source tells Begley that UNC center Tony Bradley will be among the players getting a look from the team today.
The Knicks have discussed the possibility of acquiring a second first-round pick in a trade, sources tell Begley. The ESPN scribe notes that some members of the organization like UNC’s Justin Jackson, who will probably be selected somewhere in the middle of the first round.
Walt Frazier, representing the Knicks at the lottery, offered a couple interesting opinions on the franchise, suggesting that he’d like to see Carmelo Anthony remain in New York. That seems to be at odds with Jackson’s vision. As Begley writes, Frazier also said that he doesn’t expect free agent point guard Derrick Rose to return to New York.

Draft Notes: Swanigan, Combine, Knicks, Allen

May 10th, 2017 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

There are 14 players attending the NBA draft combine this week despite not having signed with an agent, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com details. Getting feedback from NBA teams over the next few days will give those players a good idea of whether they should go pro or return to school for at least one more year — they’ll have until May 24, 10 days after the end of the combine, to make that decision.

Goodman spoke to several NBA executives about those 14 players to get an early idea of whether or not it makes sense for them to keep their names in the draft pool. For the most part, those execs felt that the early entrants could use another year of college seasoning, but they believe Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan is ready to go pro, and were split on SMU’s Semi Ojeleye.

Here are a few more draft-related notes:

The Knicks will have several members of their front office, including GM Steve Mills, in attendance at the combine in Chicago this week, though many of the top prospects on their board won’t be there, says Ian Begley of ESPN.com. According to Begley, outside of consensus top prospects like Markelle Fultz, Lonzo Ball, and Josh Jackson, the Knicks’ front office has also become fond of guards Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox, and Frank Ntilikina.
As Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders explains, the NBA draft combine generally provides a pretty good picture of which players will come off the board on draft day, despite the fact that some top prospects skip the event. A year ago, 70 prospects participated in the combine and 42 of them were selected in June. Within his piece, Kyler also examines a number of potential misconceptions about the draft.
Chris Haynes of ESPN.com spoke to Texas center Jarrett Allen, who entered the draft after his freshman year, about his decision to leave school, what separates from from other bigs in this year’s draft class, and whether he’s NBA-ready. Allen is expected to be a first-round pick.

Draft Notes: Lottery, Fox, Tatum, J. Jackson

May 5th, 2017 at 9:07am CST by Luke Adams

While this year’s draft class features a clear-cut top two in Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball, the consensus rankings breaks down after that, says ESPN’s Chad Ford (Insider link). As Ford explains, some teams would likely target Kansas forward Josh Jackson with the No. 3 pick, but others – like the Sixers, Magic, Timberwolves, and Knicks – may be more inclined to nab Kentucky sharpshooter Malik Monk once Fultz and Ball are off the board.

Jackson or Monk come in at No. 3 for most of the lottery teams, Ford writes that Dennis Smith Jr. might be the best fit for the Nuggets after the two top point guards. Meanwhile, Ford also suggests that Ball could be a better fit than Fultz for some teams near the top of the lottery, including the Lakers, who “appear to be enamored” with the UCLA product.

Here are a few more draft-related notes worth rounding up:

Most of this year’s top 10 prospects won’t be in Chicago next week for the NBA’s draft combine, but De’Aaron Fox is expected to attend, a source tells Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Outside of Fox, Markelle Fultz is the only other top prospect whose combine intentions haven’t been reported, though it would be a surprise if Fultz participated.
Duke prospect Jayson Tatum isn’t getting any real buzz as a candidate to be picked first overall, but in an appearance on The Sidelines podcast with Evan Daniels, Tatum made the case for why he should be.
North Carolina’s Justin Jackson has officially gone pro, forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility by hiring agent Jim Tanner, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Jackson is viewed as a potential lottery pick.

Tatum, Monk, Other Top Prospects To Skip Combine

May 2nd, 2017 at 10:09pm CST by Luke Adams

10:09pm: V.J. Beachem, Nigel Hayes, Peter Jok, Derrick Walton and Chris Boucher, originally alternative invitees, have now made the official NBA combine list, sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter).

9:19pm: Lonzo Ball won’t be the only top prospect skipping this year’s NBA draft combine. According to Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter), a handful of other standout prospects expected to be top-10 picks won’t participate in the event next week in Chicago.

[RELATED: Lonzo Ball to skip combine]

Jayson Tatum, Malik Monk, Josh Jackson, Lauri Markkanen, Jonathan Isaac, and Dennis Smith Jr. will skip this year’s combine, Charania reports. While none of those players are quite as highly regarded as Ball, most are in the tier right below him — DraftExpress, which has Ball at No. 2 on its big board, ranks those six players between Nos. 3 and 9.

The mass exodus from this year’s combine leaves Markelle Fultz and De’Aaron Fox as the only elite prospects whose status for the event hasn’t been reported. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see either player – particularly Fultz – skip the combine, as more and more players in recent years have passed on attending and haven’t seen their draft stocks suffer as a result.

For a player like Ball, there’s little upside to attending the combine, since he’s already viewed as a near-lock to be a top-two pick. The event has more appeal to prospects whose stocks aren’t as high, since they could potentially move up a few spots on teams’ draft boards if they have a strong week in Chicago.

As Bobby Marks of The Vertical tweets, the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement indicates that the NBA and NBPA have agreed to work on a solution to address this issue.

Malik Monk Declares For 2017 NBA Draft

April 4th, 2017 at 8:26am CST by Luke Adams

A day after his Kentucky teammate De’Aaron Fox declared for the 2017 NBA draft, Malik Monk has entered his name as well, the school announced in a press release. Monk, who wrote a piece for The Players’ Tribune saying goodbye to Kentucky, will sign with an agent, forgoing his remaining years of NCAA eligibility.

“Malik is a special talent,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said of his departing guard. “With Malik you’re talking about a superior athlete with skills and an ability to score that make him truly unique. What I love about Malik is that, as the season went on, he learned how to help our team win by doing more than just score. He became an efficient player who I believe will make an immediate impact at the next level.”

A virtual lock to be a lottery pick in June, Monk currently ranks sixth on Jonathan Givony’s big board at DraftExpress.com, and seventh on Chad Ford’s ESPN list. In his newest mock draft, published earlier this morning, Ford has Monk coming off the board at No. 4 to the Magic, noting that the 19-year-old’s three-point shooting would be especially attractive to Orlando.

In his first and only college season, Monk averaged an impressive 19.8 PPG, with a shooting line of .450/.397/.822.

And-Ones: Embiid, Noel, Monk, Hayward

March 25th, 2017 at 10:58pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Sixers expect Joel Embiid, who underwent surgery on his left knee on Friday, to resume basketball activities this summer, Jessica Camerato of Comcast Sportsnet relays.

“Joel, his representatives and our medical staff conducted extensive research based on prioritizing the best possible treatment and recovery outcome for Joel’s knee injury resulting in today’s procedure by Dr. ElAttrache,” president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo said. “We are very pleased with his post-surgical assessment and forecast for a healthy return to basketball activity.”

This was Embiid’s third surgery of his young career. He underwent two separate procedures on his foot, which forced him to miss his first two seasons in the league. He was only able to play 31 games this season before the Sixers shut him down for the year with the knee ailment.

Here’s more from around the league.

Coach Rick Carlisle believes Nerlens Noel deserves to be a starter in the league, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News passes along. “That’s why we traded for him,” Carlisle said. He added that the Mavericks will eventually work with Noel on expanding his range, though “it’s not a big priority for now.”
Steve Serby of the New York Post examines Kentucky’s backcourt and believes both Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox would be good fits for the Knicks. Both players are expected to be top-10 picks and New York currently owns the No. 5 spot in our Reverse Standings.
Gordon Hayward left tonight’s game against the Clippers with a knee injury, but the X-rays came back negative, Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News reports. Coach Quin Snyder said that the team’s All-Star will be “fine.” The Jazz currently own the fourth seed in the Western Conference, though Los Angeles sits just 0.5 games back of that spot.

Knicks Rumors: Carmelo, Rose, Draft Targets

March 21st, 2017 at 3:54pm CST by Luke Adams

The triangle offense continues to be a source of tension in New York, with sources suggesting to Ian Begley of ESPN.com that the Knicks’ return to the triangle is one reason some veteran players have started to lose faith in head coach Jeff Hornacek recently. Despite Hornacek’s recent insistence that the triangle could hold some appeal to free agents, there’s concern in some corners of the organization that it could do the opposite, driving free agents away from the Knicks, Begley reports.

As Begley outlines, some Knicks players feel that the triangle is too easy for opposing teams to defend, with opposing players suggesting that they can predict where players will be on the court. Pacers point guard Jeff Teague alluded to this recently, telling Marc Berman of The New York Post that a player like Derrick Rose is easier to contain when he’s playing in the triangle.

According to Begley, there’s also some concern that if Knicks president Phil Jackson leaves the team in two or three years, there would be no guarantee that the team’s new president would insist on the same system. That could complicate the development of young players like Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez, who would then have to learn a new offense after getting accustomed to the triangle.

Begley has several more Knicks-related items of interest to pass along, so let’s round up some of the highlights…

After shopping Carmelo Anthony a little earlier this year, the Knicks “remain committed” to moving him this summer, per Begley. Anthony will still control his future, so he’d have to waive his no-trade clause to accommodate a deal. However, sources tell Begley that some members of the Clippers organization expressed confidence last month that they could acquire Carmelo in the offseason.
Although the Knicks appeared at the trade deadline to be souring on the idea of keeping Derrick Rose long-term, the club hasn’t ruled out the possibility of re-signing him, says Begley. Some members of the organization view Jrue Holiday and Jeff Teague as potential free agent targets as well, as New York searches for an answer at point guard.
The Knicks will almost certainly have a top-10 pick in this year’s draft, and according to Begley, they’ve been eyeing players such as French guard Frank Ntilikina and Kentucky sharpshooter Malik Monk.
Team owner James Dolan publicly stated earlier in the year that he intends to exercise the Knicks’ half of the mutual option on Phil Jackson‘s contract this summer. Still, sources tell Begley that some people around Dolan have been urging him to consider making a change.

And-Ones: Christmas, Calderon, Fultz, Parker, Dolan

February 10th, 2017 at 8:35pm CST by Milo Taibi

A right Achilles tendon rupture has brought an end to Dionte Christmas‘ season, Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com reports. It’s an unfortunate development for the 30-year-old, as Christmas had averaged 14.9 points with 3.2 assists in 31 games with the Delaware 87ers. Delaware’s GM, Brandon Williams, lauded Christmas’ efforts in a team statement:

“[Christmas] has been a consummate professional, positive influence on the development of our young roster, and vital to our energy and drive. We will certainly miss his leadership on the court, but are inspired by his confidence as he attacks the next steps on the road to recovery.”