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Malik Reneau

Southeast Notes: McCollum, Reneau, Dybantsa, AD, LeBron

By | at July 18, 2026 8:24 pm

After they finished last season by winning 20 of their final 26 games, CJ McCollum is eager to see what the Hawks can accomplish in 2026/27, writes Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscription required). McCollum played an important role in that late-season success, averaging 18.7 points and 4.1 assists in 41 games after being acquired from Washington in January. He expects the team to be even better after having time to build chemistry.

“I’m just excited to be able to have a full training camp,” he said. “Like I was traded in the middle of the season, so I’m excited about that. Excited about the growth and the potential that a lot of the young guys have, and the experiences that we were able to have this last season competing for a playoff spot, making the playoffs, and then playing against a really good team.”

Atlanta met New York in the first round and took a 2-1 series lead before the Knicks launched a historic 13-game winning streak on their way to the NBA title. McCollum believes the Hawks will eventually benefit from facing such a powerful playoff opponent.

“It teaches you how to be better and make moments,” he said. “It teaches you how to execute. Also teaches you how to prepare. So I’m really just excited about the opportunity to have some more growth moments together as a team.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • Malik Reneau scored 19 points Saturday in 18 minutes off the bench to help the Magic defeat Boston and finish with a 4-1 record in the Las Vegas Summer League, per Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel (subscription required). The 6’9″ forward, who agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with Orlando following last month’s draft, was one of several players to see increased minutes as the Magic rested four rotation members. “I liked our aggressiveness,” Reneau said. “The way we came out on that defensive end, we got some stops and (were) able to run out and get some easy baskets in transition.”
  • Wizards owner Ted Leonsis calls AJ Dybantsa a “next-generation prototype,” and his arrival has created a level of optimism in Washington that hasn’t been felt for a long time, observes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Teaming Dybantsa with Trae Young and Anthony Davis, who were acquired in trades last season, along with a solid core of young prospects, might make the Wizards a factor in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Young said the team will be holding workouts in Los Angeles this summer, and Dybantsa is eager to learn from his veteran teammates. “When you’re playing with a guy of that stature, I’ll definitely get easy shots from him if nothing else,” Dybantsa said of Young. “[AD] was the No. 1 pick many years back, so he’s been through a lot of the stuff that I’ve got to go through.”
  • The Wizards don’t fit the profile of what LeBron James was looking for in free agency, but Davis revealed that he had “conversations” with his former Lakers teammate about coming to Washington (Twitter video link from Chase Coburn).
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Magic, Malik Reneau Agree To Exhibit 10 Deal

By | at June 25, 2026 11:03 pm

The Magic have come to terms on an Exhibit 10 deal with undrafted free agent Malik Reneau, per the University of Miami (Twitter link).

Reneau played for Indiana for three years before transferring to Miami for his senior year. He had a strong scoring season for the Hurricanes, averaging 18.9 points per game with a shooting line of .540/.347/.788. He filled up the box score by adding 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.8 blocks per contest.

The 6’9″ forward, who plays with good physicality, was 86th on Jeremy Woo’s big board for ESPN.

Reneau could earn a bonus worth up to $91K if he is waived before the start of the season and then spends at least 60 days with the Osceola Magic, Orlando’s G League affiliate.

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And-Ones: Sengun, A. Smith, G League Combine, More

By | at May 6, 2026 11:17 am

In their annual player poll, Josh Robbins, Sam Amick, Joe Vardon, and other reporters for The Athletic solicited opinions from players around the NBA about the league’s most underrated and overrated stars, which coaches have impressed them the most and the least, and the best defensive players among their peers.

No player earned more votes as “most overrated” than Rockets center Alperen Sengun, who was named by 10 out of 81 respondents. However, for what it’s worth, many players polled by The Athletic declined to answer that question.

“I was part of the group that said Tyrese Haliburton for most overrated (in 2025), and what he did in the playoffs last year was unreal,” one player said. “So I’m not saying (who I think is overrated). We have a lot of really good players in this league.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Former NBA All-Star Adrian Smith, who earned All-Star Game MVP honors in 1966 as a member of the Cincinnati Royals and won an NCAA title in 1958 with Kentucky, has passed away at the age of 89, per the league (Twitter link). Smith spent 10 years in the league, averaging 11.8 points per game across 719 total appearances for the Royals and the San Francisco Warriors.
  • Jaxon Kohler (Michigan State), Aaron Nkrumah (Tennessee State), and Malik Reneau (Miami) have been chosen as replacements for the upcoming G League combine, reports Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Twitter links). They’re stepping in for Isiah Harwell (Houston), Paulius Murauskas (St. Mary’s), and Alijah Arenas (USC), all of whom had been testing the draft waters. While it’s unclear if all three of those players are withdrawing from the draft, it sounds like Arenas, at least, has decided to remove his name.
  • Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) questions whether the time is right for the NBA to implement its “3-2-1” draft lottery reform plan, pointing out that the changes will significantly impact the value of several traded picks for 2027 and arguing that the league might be better off taking another year to figure out a more effective long-term solution to combat tanking.
  • Former Hawks finance executive Lester T. Jones Jr. was formally sentenced last week after pleading guilty to wire fraud in December, per an Associated Press report. Jones, who embezzled roughly $3.7MM from the team by submitting fraudulent expense reports and misusing corporate credit cards, received three years and five months in prison.
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Portsmouth Invitational Tournament Announces 2026 Rosters

By | at April 13, 2026 11:47 pm

The 2026 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament will take place this week from April 15-18 in Portsmouth, VA. The event features college seniors working to boost their stock ahead of the NBA draft, with invitations to the combine a possibility for some standouts.

Several P.I.T. alumni have gone on to become solid NBA players in recent years, including Toumani Camara, Craig Porter Jr., Daniss Jenkins and Kobe Sanders, among others. Camara (2023) and Sanders (2025) were both second-round picks.

This year’s tournament features eight different teams with eight players apiece, for a total of 64 participants. Here’s the full list, per the P.I.T.:

Champaign native Boswell, who helped lead the Illini to the Final Four, appears to be one of the top prospects among the group. The 6’2″ guard came in at No. 66 on ESPN’s latest big board, with Volunteers center Okpara (No. 86) and Boilermakers big man Kaufman-Renn (No. 88) among the other prospects on the top-100 list.

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