Victor Oladipo Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southeast Notes: Oladipo, Lin, Oubre

December 20th, 2015 at 3:00pm CST by Will Joseph

Victor Oladipo, a former No. 2 overall pick who’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer, is playing like a first-team All-Defensive player, according to Magic coach Scott Skiles, Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel relays. Oladipo is adept at guarding one-on-one, pressuring ball-handlers and contesting entry passes, Robbins explains. All of that has contributed to making the Magic a better defensive team this season, Robbins adds. Skiles moved Oladipo to the bench earlier this season, but the third-year shooting guard responded well.

Here’s more on the Southeast Division:

Wizards coach Randy Wittman believes Drew Gooden and Nene should be able to return at some point this week, Ben Standig of CSNMidAtlantic.com relays. Nene has missed 12 straight games with a left calf strain while Gooden has missed 21 games because of a right calf strain, as Standig notes. Nene is set for free agency at season’s end.
Wizards rookie Kelly Oubre is gaining confidence lately after scoring 18 points Wednesday and earning his first start on Saturday, J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com writes. Oubre must be cognizant of not allowing himself to get into foul trouble early in games going forward, Michael adds, because there is a decent chance the Wizards will look to use more of him soon. “I told him he had to play a little bit differently now than when I have put (him) in games and it’s been a cause-havoc situation,” Wittman said. “I told him he had to learn situations. We’re short-handed. You get the first one and you’ve got to be smart. It was trying to get him to understand the difference between starting and being in the position where he had been.”
While Jeremy Lin‘s numbers aren’t as eye-opening as they were during his “Linsanity” run, the point guard has added lineup flexibility for the Hornets and his turnover percentage is at a career low, Jesus Gomez of SB Nation’s Pounding the Rock details.

Southeast Notes: Oladipo, Horford, Hansbrough

November 30th, 2015 at 5:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

Victor Oladipo can’t be pleased with the Magic‘s decision to move him to the bench, despite the team-first comments he’s made to the media, posits Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. The former No. 2 overall pick who’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer is averaging 20.0 points per game in his three appearances as a reserve, and the team has gone 3-0 in those games, leading Schmitz to wonder if the move will be for the long term.

“We got to stick with what works,” coach Scott Skiles said. “[Oladipo] has been so good in that role. We’ll keep him out there until it doesn’t work.”

Skiles has proven to have the right touch so far for the 9-8 Magic, Schmitz observes, nonetheless noting that the future for the team’s personnel isn’t in quite as sharp a focus as it was before the move. See more on the Magic amid the latest from the Southeast Division:

Al Horford, set for free agency at season’s end, finds it odd to be going up against former college coach Billy Donovan, whose Thunder visit the Hawks for a game tonight, notes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He always encourages guys to work hard,” Horford said of Donovan. “He really pushes you beyond what you think you can accomplish. A lot of the time with his players, we get that we are on one level but he gets you to another level. That’s what he did with me at least. He gave me that confidence, that ability, for me to take that next step.”
Tyler Hansbrough is averaging a career-low 5.0 minutes per game and doesn’t figure to be much more than a bit player for the Hornets after signing a one-year, minimum-salary deal in the offseason, but the team will surely need him sooner or later, opines Tom Sorensen of the Charlotte Observer. He and Al Jefferson are the only healthy Hornets players who play a physical style, Sorensen observes.
The Magic have assigned Devyn Marble to the D-League, the team announced. Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel first reported the move would take place (Twitter link). It’s the first time the 56th pick in the 2014 draft has gone down to the Erie Bayhawks this season, though he went on three D-League assignments last year.

Southeast Notes: Wade, Clifford, Porzingis, Oladipo

November 25th, 2015 at 2:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Dwyane Wade has been trying to preserve his body for the long run the past few years, at 33 years old he was still able to corral a one-year, $20MM deal from the Heat this past summer. Still, the 13th-year veteran has no aspirations of matching Kobe Bryant‘s 20 seasons in the NBA, as he tells Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports.

“That ain’t a goal for me. That’s a long time. I’m sure Kobe didn’t think he’d play 20 years. It’s amazing. And he’s been through a lot. He’s been through a lot of injuries but he’s still out there. And he’s still, you know, Kobe Bryant,” Wade said. “It’s amazing to see a guy who has played 20 years in the league. Makes me feel old, for sure, just watching him. I don’t know how many people come in with the goal, ‘I’m going to play 20 years.’ I think you take it step by step. For years I said, ‘I want to make it to 10.’ I made it to 10 and I was like, ‘I’m solid.’ Then, you keep going from there. But 20? No way.”

Bryant isn’t nearly as effective as he once was, and Lee’s piece examines what Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony are doing to ward off similar declines in their own games. See more from the Southeast Division:

Hornets coach Steve Clifford, fresh off agreeing to a three-year extension, thanked owner Michael Jordan and vice chairman Curtis Polk, as well as GM Rich Cho, whose relationship with the coach has reportedly been less than ideal. “I like who I’m working for and wanted this to happen,” Clifford said today, according to the Hornets Twitter account.
Kristaps Porzingis said he sensed the Magic would have drafted him with the No. 5 overall pick if the Knicks had passed on him at No. 4, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Porzingis worked out for the Magic shortly before the draft, Berman adds.
New Magic head coach Scott Skiles has decided to bench former No. 2 overall pick Victor Oladipo in favor of Channing Frye, who was reportedly available on the trade market for little in return before the season, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel relays. Skiles stressed that the move isn’t punishment or necessarily permanent and said Oladipo handled the news well, Robbins notes. Oladipo is eligible for a rookie scale extension after the season.

Magic Pick Up Options On Napier, Three Others

October 25th, 2015 at 1:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

SUNDAY, 1:58pm: The team announced it has exercised the options on each of the players, Robbins tweets.

TUESDAY, 11:24am: Shabazz Napier‘s strong preseason performance has won over the Magic, who plan to pick up their $1,350,120 team option for 2016/17 on his rookie scale contract, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. The team is also planning to exercise its rookie scale options on Aaron Gordon, Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton, according to Robbins, but unlike those three, the team wasn’t quite convinced about the option for Napier heading into camp, Robbins indicates.

The deadline for all four options is Monday, November 2nd, and Orlando is expected to make the moves official soon after its last preseason game on Friday, Robbins writes. The options add up to precisely $14.868MM, lifting the Magic’s payroll for 2016/17 to more than $60.5MM against a projected $89MM cap.

Napier, 24, is fifth on the team in preseason points per game, with 10.2, and is putting up that number in just 17.0 minutes per contest. The point guard whom the Magic acquired for virtually nothing in a trade with the Heat this summer has posted 2.2 assists and 1.2 turnovers per game in his five preseason appearances. That’s slightly better than the 2.2-to-1.6 assists-to-turnover ratio he put up in his rookie season with Miami last year, and he’s scoring at about double the rate he did with the Heat.

The 2014 Final Four Most Outstanding Player went 24th overall in the 2014 draft on the same night the Magic came away with Gordon and Payton, who were top-10 picks. Payton finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting while injury limited Gordon’s impact. Oladipo was the second pick in the 2013 draft and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2014.

I regarded the option pickup for Napier as generally likely, while the same move for Gordon, Payton and Oladipo seemed highly likely. The options for Napier, Gordon and Payton are for the third seasons of their respective rookie scale contracts, which cover four years. The option for Oladipo is for his fourth season, and he’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer.

Do you agree with the Magic’s plan to pick up Napier’s option? Leave a comment to let us know.

Eastern Notes: Pierce, Magic, Wizards

May 22nd, 2015 at 9:22pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Wizards are still unsure if Paul Pierce, who has a player option for 2015/16 worth $5,543,725, will play next season, but coach Randy Wittman doesn’t believe that he’ll need to try and sell the veteran forward on returning to Washington for another campaign, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. “I don’t need to recruit Paul,” Wittman said. “What Paul saw here and what he did here, not only with the team but with the city, all of that plays into it. His family was comfortable here. Will I sit down and talk with him? Yeah. But I don’t think I need to recruit him.”

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

John Wall is one of the many people in D.C. who wants Pierce to return to the Wizards next season, Castillo adds. “Who wouldn’t want to have a Hall of Fame guy back on this team? He meant so much to us,” Wall said. “Just his leadership, his work ethic, being a mentor, talking to us, and giving us those words of encouragement and that extra grit and fight. He has to do what’s best for him and his family, and that’s taking time off and deciding whether he wants to come back and play. Like he said, it gets tougher and tougher each year, roll out of bed and being 37 years old, it’s tough for him. Everything he gave us this season was another big key why I wanted to come back and try to win and get to the next round.”
Magic guard Victor Oladipo showed marked improvement in his second season in the NBA, and he is looking forward to who the team can add to its roster this offseason, Ken Hornack of FOX Sports Florida writes. But in the event the team stands pat in the free agent market, Oladipo still believes Orlando can improve upon its 25 wins this season, Hornack relays. “We might make some additions, and hopefully they’ll come in and help us,” Oladipo said. “But at the end of the day, I feel like the core group of guys we have here has just got to get better. If they do, if we do, I think we’ll be where we need to be. We’re going to push each other. It’s all about winning. Everybody has to get that mentality of doing whatever it takes to win. And if we lose, they’ve got to hate losing.“

Magic Pick Up 2015/16 Options On Four

October 26th, 2014 at 2:11pm CST by Chuck Myron

OCTOBER 26TH: The Magic confirmed that they have exercised the options via press release.

OCTOBER 20TH: The Magic will exercise their team options to keep Victor Oladipo, Evan Fournier, Maurice Harkless and Andrew Nicholson on their rookie scale contracts through 2015/16, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. The moves have been widely expected, as Robbins suggests. Oladipo’s nearly $5.2MM salary for that season is the most expensive of the bunch. Harkless will make nearly $2.9MM, Nicholson almost $2.4MM, and Fournier close to $2.3MM, as our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker shows.

Oladipo, the No. 2 overall pick in 2013, earned an All-Rookie First Team selection last season even as the Magic experimented with having the shooting guard play point guard. Fournier spent the past two seasons with the Nuggets and saw his minutes jump to 19.8 per game last season before Denver shipped him to Orlando in the Arron Afflalo trade. Harkless also came to Orlando via trade as part of the package the team sent out for Dwight Howard, though the production of the small forward took a step back last year. Nicholson also saw a dip in his scoring output as an NBA sophomore in 2013/14, though he, like Harkless, was a rotation mainstay.

Picking up the options on all four will give Orlando nearly $12.755MM on top of the meager $14.87MM in commitments the team already had on the books for 2015/16. That leaves plenty of room for extensions with Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris, deals that the team is working toward, though the preponderance of rookie scale contracts on the Magic’s ledger will force GM Rob Hennigan to be cautious as he commits long-term money.

And-Ones: Oladipo, Jordan, Bryant

October 25th, 2014 at 10:30pm CST by Cray Allred

There are a number of young up-and-coming small forwards in the league. John Zitzler of Basketball Insiders profiles the ones he thinks will have breakout seasons in 2014/15. Here’s more from around the league:

Victor Oladipo underwent surgery to repair a facial fracture and is expected to be out for a month, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Magic guard said that the surgery went well and vowed to come back strong in a pair of tweets.
$100K of Jerome Jordan‘s minimum salary was locked in today, as he remained on the roster beyond the partial guarantee date, as noted on the updated Nets salary sheet maintained by Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
The Nets used their trade exception of $788,872 to receive Casper Ware‘s $816,482 contract in the trade that sent Marquis Teague to the Sixers, tweets Pincus. The incoming salary is allowed to exceed the exception within $100K. The Nets created a new exception equivalent to Teague’s salary, as we noted last night.
If Kobe Bryant has indeed scared away potential free agents, then Lakers management is to blame for the state of the franchise, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com writes. One league executive tells Berger, “They’re [the Lakers] the ones that gave him a $48MM extension knowing that nobody wanted to play with him. And they were also the ones that gave away multiple first-round picks for an over-the-hill Steve Nash. Not to mention firing every coach that Magic [Johnson] decided he didn’t like.”
The Warriors‘ Klay Thompson has two outspoken allies in his quest for a contract extension, writes Diamond Leung of Bay Area News Group. Thompson’s father Mychal, a former NBA player, has insisted that his son is worth a maximum-salary extension. The senior Thompson’s opinion was echoed earlier this week by former Warriors coach and current ESPN broadcaster Mark Jackson. “It’s good to hear from guys like that because they both played in the NBA, and both were successful in the NBA and [have] been around the game for so many decades,” Klay Thompson said. “So if they think I’m that quality type of player, it makes me think highly of myself as well.”

Arthur Hill contributed to this post.

Latest On Cavs, No. 1 Pick

June 26th, 2014 at 6:21pm CST by Zachary Links

6:21pm: The Cavs turned down Philly’s offer of picks Nos. 3, 10 and 32, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

5:43pm: All signs point to the Cavs taking Wiggins with the top pick, a source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link).

4:54pm: The Cavs are set to keep the pick and choose between Parker and Wiggins, unless a last-minute offer comes around, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

3:58pm: Nothing is expected to happen with the Kings outside of a multiple team deal, Amico tweets. Meanwhile, the Celtics want the top pick, but they lack the parts to get a deal done.

3:53pm: The Cavs are talking with the Kings, Celtics, and Sixers about the No. 1 pick but not the Wolves or Magic at this stage, tweets Amico.

2:56pm: Nothing is close in terms of a deal for the No. 1 pick, but the Cavs expect it all to come down to the wire, tweets Amico.

2:06pm: The asking price for the No. 1 pick is as high as picks Nos. 3, 10, and 32 from the Sixers, Tom Moore of the Courier Times tweets. If Philly stays at No. 3, meanwhile, Dante Exum will likely be their choice.

Technically speaking, we are past the 1pm CT deadline where teams can officially trade picks, but the Cavs can draft someone for the Sixers or another club to complete a trade.

1:15pm: The Cavs know who they’re selecting with the first pick in the draft and there’s no great internal debate going on today, tweets Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio. The club still has multiple trade opportunities in front of them, however.

12:44pm: A league source tells Bob Cooney of the Daily News (on Twitter) that the Sixers are in full court press mode with Cleveland to get the No. 1 pick. “They really, really, really want Wiggins,” the source said.

10:47am: There’s a lot of skepticism that the Cavs are at all serious about trading the No. 1 pick, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today.

9:44am: The two sides have exchanged proposals on the No. 1 pick, but there’s nothing that has gained traction, sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

9:35am: The Cavs and Magic aren’t anywhere close to a deal for the No. 1 pick, team sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).

8:15am: Buckle up, this is going to be one crazy day leading up to the draft. As we learned yesterday, the Cavs are still split on whether to take Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins with the No. 1 overall pick. General Manager David Griffin and other execs are pushing for Parker while outspoken owner Dan Gilbert wants to take Wiggins. Of course, they might not keep the pick at all.

Sources tell Chad Ford of ESPN.com (on Twitter) that the Cavs have been calling teams and offering up the Magic’s picks at No. 4 and No. 12 for different players. The Magic would take Parker with the No. 1 overall pick but the Cavs were just gauging the value of those picks and a deal is not yet completed, Ford tweets. The Sixers are also upping their offer for the top pick.

Meanwhile, sources out of Orlando tell Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio (via Twitter) that the Cavs have inquired about Magic guard Victor Oladipo during their exploratory trade talks.

Michael Carter-Williams Leads All-Rookie Team

May 22nd, 2014 at 1:07pm CST by Chuck Myron

Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams headlines the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team, which also features Victor Oladipo, Trey Burke, Mason Plumlee and Tim Hardaway Jr. The Second Team is composed of Kelly Olynyk, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Gorgui Dieng, Cody Zeller and Steven Adams. Carter-Williams was a unanimous first-team selection among the media members who voted for the award. Had Kevin Calabro of ESPN Radio not left Oladipo off his ballot entirely, the Magic guard would have been a unanimous first-teamer, too.

Still, the first team is made up of the only five players who received first-place votes for Rookie of the Year. Ben McLemore was the player with the most All-Rookie votes not to make either the first or the second team, and 29 players received at least one vote for one of the teams. That includes 2013 No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett, who drew a single second-team vote.

Only three of the top 10 picks from the 2013 draft appear on either All-Rookie Team. Still, all 10 players selected to the team were first-round picks, with Hardaway, the 24th overall selection, the last to come off the board on draft night a year ago.

Kennedy Notes: Draft, Gasol, Sixers

April 4th, 2014 at 8:34pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders held his weekly chat. He touched on a number of topics, and some of the highlights are listed below:

Kennedy believes the biggest sleeper pick in the upcoming NBA Draft is Wichita State’s Cleanthony Early. He also believes the player most likely to be taken too high is Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein.
Pau Gasol is most likely done with the Lakers after this season, opines Kennedy. He cites the Lakers’ desire to have cap flexibility heading into the summer of 2015, as well as Gasol’s reluctance to be part of a rebuild.
On who the Sixers will take in the draft, Kennedy believes the team will simply select the best two players available. His draft scenario has the team selecting Andrew Wiggins and Dario Saric.
He doesn’t believe that Victor Oladipo is the long term answer for the Magic at point guard. Kennedy believes the team should look at drafting Dante Exum and keeping Oladipo at shooting guard.
Kennedy also believes the rumors that Kyrie Irving wants out of Cleveland. He opines that Irving might sign an extension and then demand a trade from the Cavs.