Shaqquan Aaron

Pacific Notes: Thompson, Caroline, Fall, Kings’ Staff

Mychal Thompson, father of Warriors star Klay Thompson, said there’s “no question” Klay will re-sign with Golden State, Connor Letourneau‏ of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. The Warriors are expected to offer him a full five-year maximum deal worth nearly $190MM despite Thompson’s knee injury during Game 6 on Thursday. Thompson suffered a torn left ACL and is expected to miss most of next season.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

Southeast Notes: Wizards, Hawks, Hornets

There have been no recent updates on the Wizards‘ search for a new head of basketball operations, leading to speculation that Washington is waiting to make a run at current Nuggets president of basketball ops Tim Connelly.

While Connelly’s Nuggets are still alive in the playoffs, David Aldridge of The Athletic argues that if Connelly is the Wizards’ man, they should go after him now. As Aldridge points out, active postseason runs didn’t stop the Timberwolves from hiring Gersson Rosas, or the Suns from naming Monty Williams their new head coach.

It’s not entirely clear if the Wizards are still targeting Connelly, but Aldridge hears from several sources that Denver’s head of basketball ops would be “delighted” to run the Wizards. A previous report referred to the Wizards’ open position as Connelly’s “dream job.” Connelly is still under contract with the Nuggets, but if the Wizards make an offer that significantly exceeds his current salary – which Aldridge says is “just north” of $2MM per year – then he could go to Denver’s ownership in good faith and ask for the opportunity to run his hometown team.

So far, the Wizards have interviewed Danny Ferry, Tommy Sheppard, Troy Weaver, and Rosas for the front office vacancy, Aldridge confirms.

As we wait to see what the Wizards do to replace Ernie Grunfeld, here’s more from around the Southeast…

List Of Early Extrants Exceeds Draft Spots

The deadline for NCAA players to withdraw their names after declaring for the draft passed on Wednesday evening. The number of American early-entry candidates that opted to officially leave school and stay in the draft exceeded the 60-player draft that the NBA will conduct next month.

While no official list has been released, we count 63 NCAA early-entry prospects who will be waiting for their name to be called. Our updated list can be found here. The final draft list will be set after the early entrant withdrawal deadline for international and other non-NCAA players passes on June 12.

One of the recent surprises among players remaining in the draft was North Carolina State freshman big man Ted Kapita. He is not listed among the Top 100 draft prospects by DraftExpress.

Among the late withdrawals who were in DraftExpress’ Top 60 included Maryland small forward Justin Jackson (No. 31), Kentucky shooting guard Hamidou Diallo (No. 42) and Texas point guard Andrew Jones (No. 54). (Twitter link).

Other players who made late decisions to remove their names from the draft include USC’s Shaqquan Aaron, Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett, Florida’s John Egbunu, Arkansas’ Daryl Macon, Kansas’ Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, and Stetson’s Divine Myles and Derick Newton.

Draft Notes: UNC, Jackson, Enechionyia

Congratulations to the North Carolina Tarheels for winning the National Championship! Coach Roy Williams has now brought home three championships since arriving at Chapel Hill and he’s done so without having a single NBA All-Star come through the program. In tonight’s Community Shootaround, we asked who’s the  best NBA player Williams has ever coached at UNC?

Justin Jackson may earn his way into the conversation once he enters the league, as he’s expected to be a top-10 pick if he decides to declare for the draft. That decision should come over the next few days and as we wait for that news, check out some notes on the upcoming draft:

  • Obi Enechionyia will declare for the draft, but will not hire an agent, Marc Narducci of Philly.com relays. The Temple Owl explains his reason for declaring. “I didn’t see any negative in doing this, and I thought why not,” Enechionyia said. “I know my parents and some old coaches have talked to a few teams and scouts and I know there are some teams that are interested in me.”
  • USC guard Shaqquan Aaron has declared for the NBA Draft, E. Carchia of Sportando relays. Aaron has not hired an agent.
  • Wright State’s Mark Alstork has declared for the draft but has also not hired an agent, according to Jay Morrison of the Dayton Daily News. The guard averaged 19.0 points during his junior season, which led the team.