Northwest Notes: Williams, Blazers, Wolves, Hayward
As Bulls forward Patrick Williams heads into restricted free agency, look for the Thunder to make a run at him, The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry reports. A league source tells Mayberry that Oklahoma City has “great interest” in the 22-year-old.
Williams, who has failed to live up to his draft billing as the No. 4 pick in 2020, would give the Thunder more size at power forward. Oklahoma City’s stash of draft picks could entice Chicago to negotiate a sign-and-trade with the Thunder. Williams was limited to 43 games this season due to a foot injury.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- The Trail Blazers hosted six draft prospects on Tuesday — Daniss Jenkins (St. John’s), Dillon Jones (Weber State), Spencer Jones (Stanford), Jared McCain (Duke), Noah Penda (JA Vichy-Clermont) and Armel Traore (Ada Blois), Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report tweets. Out of that group, McCain is the most highly regarded by draft pundits. The point guard is currently rated No. 15 overall on ESPN’s Best Available list. Portland controls the seventh and 14th overall picks, along with No. 34 and No. 40.
- The Timberwolves were also busy evaluating draft prospects on Tuesday, according to the team’s PR department (Twitter link). Sy Chatman (Buffalo), Enrique Freeman (Akron), Pelle Larsson (Arizona), KJ Simpson (Colorado), Justin Webster (UNLV) and Moses Wood (Washington) visited Minnesota’s practice facility. Larsson (No. 44), a shooting guard, is the highest-ranked prospect among that group on ESPN’s list.
- In his latest player report card, The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto evaluates the forgettable half-season that Gordon Hayward spent with the Thunder. Hayward is headed to unrestricted free agency and Mussatto opines that the forward might be looking at veteran’s minimum offers the remainder of his career.
Draft Notes: Two-Day Format, Sandfort, Penda, Early Entrants
The NBA will hold a two-day draft for the first time this year, but the concept has been batted around for over a decade, according to Jeremy Woo of ESPN, who hears from a team source that a group executives first presented the idea to the league in 2011. Extending the second round to give teams more than two minutes per pick was one important reason for the change, as Woo details.
“Way more second-round picks would be traded every year, except (due to the lack of time between picks) no one knows who has them,” one Eastern Conference executive told Woo. “A team makes a trade, then another trade. I’m spending 10 minutes hunting down picks, and by the time you find out where it is, it’s too late to make a deal.”
“… The second round is not fun. Chaos. Insanity. Not how we should be running our business. This will solve that. We didn’t need a second day, we just needed a longer second round — but I understand we can’t start at 3 p.m. or finish at 3 a.m., so this is a good solution.”
The second round of the draft will get its own day this June and there will be four minutes per pick instead of two. The hope is that, in addition to giving front offices more time to consider their options – including potential deals – the second night of the draft will allow the league’s broadcast partners to better spotlight the 28 players being selected in round two.
“The second round has become more and more important,” NBA head of basketball operations Joe Dumars told ESPN. “Rosters have expanded, and you’re seeing a larger influx of talent into the league, a lot of times from the second round. (The one-day format) was not doing justice for the second-round picks and the teams.”
While it remains to be seen exactly how adding an extra day to the draft may change teams’ strategies, sources who spoke to Woo suggested they wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more action than usual during the final few picks of the first round – as teams look to land players before rivals get a chance to reset their boards – and the first few picks of the second round, after clubs have had 24 hours to consider their options.
Here’s more on the NBA draft:
- Following a breakout junior season, Iowa wing Payton Sandfort announced (via Instagram) that he’ll enter his name in the 2024 NBA draft while maintaining his NCAA eligibility. Sandfort, the No. 35 prospect on ESPN’s big board, averaged 16.4 PPG and 6.6 RPG with a .446/.379/.911 shooting line in 34 games in 2023/24.
- Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress has put together a running list of early entrants for the 2024 NBA draft at RookieScale.com. We’re maintaining our own early entrant list, which can be found right here.
- One of the most recent additions to the early entrant list is 6’8″ French forward Noah Penda, who has submitted his paperwork to enter the draft, according to Chepkevich (Twitter link). The 19-year-old has played a key role this season for Vichy-Clermont in France’s Pro B league, Chepkevich notes.
- The following college players were recently reported to be testing the NBA draft waters or announced themselves that they plan to test the waters. Unless otherwise indicated, these players also entered the NCAA transfer portal:
- Marchelus Avery, F, UCF (senior) (Twitter link)
- Dion Brown, G, UMBC (sophomore) (Twitter link via Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress)
- Xavier DuSell, G, Fresno State (senior) (Instagram link)
- Elijah Fisher, G, DePaul (sophomore) (Twitter link via Derek Murray)
- Vladislav Goldin, C, Florida Atlantic (senior) (Instagram link)
- Ben Humrichous, F, Evansville (senior) (Twitter link)
- Andrej Jakimovski, F, Washington State (senior) (Twitter link)
- Kobe Johnson, G/F, USC (junior) (Twitter link)
- Scotty Middleton, G/F, Ohio State (freshman) (Twitter link)
- Noah Reynolds, G, Green Bay (junior) (Twitter link)
- Jahmyl Telfort, G/F, Butler (senior) (Instagram link)
- Note: Not in transfer portal.
- Saint Thomas, F, Northern Colorado (junior) (Twitter link via Mike Sautter of Hurrdat Sports)
- Aboubacar Traore, G/F, Long Beach State (junior) (Twitter link via Sam Kayser of 24/7 High School Hoops)