Month: September 2015

Lakers sign Marcelo Huertas

Lakers sign Marcelo Huertas

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed guard Marcelo Huertas, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Until we hear otherwise, we will assume this is a non-guaranteed deal that merely brings Huertas to Lakers training camp.

The Brazilian native began his professional playing career in his home country for three seasons (2001-2004) before signing with Joventut of the Spanish ACB League, where he played three seasons (2004-2007), winning the 2006 FIBA Euro Cup. He remained in the ACB League for the 2007-08 season, which saw him garner an All-ACB Team selection with Bilbao Basket, before joining Fortitudo Bologna in Italy’s top domestic league for the 2008-09 campaign. “Marcelinho” returned to the ACB League with Saski Baskonia from 2009-11, where he won the 2009-10 Spanish National Championship, and in 2010-11 won the Euroleague’s weekly MVP award two times and led the ACB with 5.9 assists per game en route to a second All-ACB Team selection.

Before joining the Lakers, Huertas spent the previous four seasons (2011-15) with Spanish power FC Barcelona, where he was a key piece on their 2011-12 and 2013-14 Spanish National Championship and 2013 Spanish National Cup-winning teams.

The 6’3’’ point guard has played in Euroleague competition seven times, including the last six straight years, amassing 165 games played, and averages of 8.0 points, 3.8 assists, and 2.1 rebounds per contest. He led the Euroleague in free throw shooting at 97.2% during the 2012-13 season, and was the 2013-14 Euroleague Top 16 Round 2 MVP.

Additionally, the 32-year-old has extensive international experience, notably as a member of the Brazilian national team for the 2012 Olympics in London, where he led the squad with 6.0 assists per game in addition to 11.3 points, good for second-best on the roster. He has also appeared on three consecutive FIBA World Championship (renamed FIBA Basketball World Cup) teams in 2006, 2010, and 2014. His decorated international resume includes gold medals from the 2006 South American Championship (where he was named MVP of the tournament after averaging a team-leading 16.8 points to go with 4.0 assists) and 2007 Pan American Games, in addition to three medals from the FIBA Americas Championship: 2005 and 2009 (gold), and 2011 (silver).

Pacers buy Fort Wayne Mad Ants

Pacers Sports & Entertainment, the parent organization of the Indiana Pacers, has acquired the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the National Basketball Association’s Development League, it was announced today.

With the acquisition, the Mad Ants become the 10th D-League team to be wholly owned by an NBA franchise and now all 19 D-League teams are singly-affiliated with NBA franchises.

“We are proud to extend the Pacers brand into Northeast Indiana and excited about continuing the tradition of professional basketball in Fort Wayne,” said Pacers Sports & Entertainment owner Herb Simon. “We will work closely with the Mad Ants staff to provide support and expertise on both the business and basketball sides and we hope to build on their enthusiastic fan base.”

The Mad Ants were previously owned by the Fort Wayne Basketball Group, LLC, which was led by majority investors John Zeglis, Julie Potter, and Jeff Potter. Jeff Potter, former president of the Mad Ants, will continue with the team as its president of business operations.

“The last eight years with the Mad Ants have brought our investors tremendous joy and a whole lot of fun,” said Jeff Potter. “Our goal in starting the Ants was to bring Fort Wayne something fun and exciting for families and basketball fans to enjoy, and we are so thankful to the city and our fans for how they received us and supported us. Although our run with the team is ending, we are so pleased to see our team placed in such great hands, and we wish the Pacers nothing but the best as they move forward with the Mad Ants.

The Pacers also announced that Brian Levy will become the Mad Ants General Manager. Levy had previously been the assistant general manager of the Phoenix Suns’ D-League team in Bakersfield, Calif.

The coaching staff of the Mad Ants has yet to be named.

The Mad Ants, champions of the D-League in 2014 and runners-up this past spring, will continue to play their 24 home games in Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. This will be their ninth season in the D-League.

“Indiana’s purchase of the Mad Ants signals an important milestone for the NBA D-League, as all 19 of the league’s teams are now owned by, or in hybrid partnerships with, their NBA parent clubs,” said Malcolm Turner, NBA D-League President. “I’m excited to welcome Herb Simon and the Pacers front office into the NBA D-League family, and extend my thanks to outgoing Mad Ants owners John Zeglis and Jeff Potter, whose commitment to excellence on and off the court helped shape the NBA D-League.”

The Pacers have assigned players to the Mad Ants since their inaugural season. This past year, center-forward Shayne Whittington had two separate stints with the Mad Ants.

“Owning the Mad Ants will be an integral part to the development of our young talent and we’ll have the ability to institute the same offensive and defensive systems and create a winning basketball culture across the state of Indiana,” said Pacers Basketball President Larry Bird. “We are excited to build on the team’s success in Fort Wayne while using it as a training ground for players, coaches and front office personnel.”

“We continue to see momentum and investments in Fort Wayne as we work together to move our community forward in a positive direction,” said Mayor Tom Henry. “We’re honored to have a new partnership with the Indiana Pacers, and we welcome them to our City. We’re a leader in providing tremendous minor league sports opportunities for residents and visitors to enjoy. Thank you to the Mad Ants for being an important part of the success we’re experiencing in Fort Wayne. I’m encouraged by what this new relationship will mean to our community, state, and region as we build on being a nationally recognized city for job and business growth and quality of life amenities.”

New Phoenix Suns black alternate jersey

The Phoenix Suns last night announced a new marketing campaign, WeArePHX, as well as a black alternate uniform. Suns president, Jason Rowley, head coach Jeff Hornacek and Suns players Eric Bledsoe, Devin Booker, Archie Goodwin, Brandon Knight, Jon Leuer and P.J. Tucker, were joined by City of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton for the reveal event at Canyon Suites at The Phoenician, at the base of Camelback Mountain.

The Suns also revealed their new black “PHX” alternate uniform, deemed Civic Pride, which the team says represents their pride in their home City, while harkening back to popular Suns teams of the past, including the Kevin Johnson and Charles Barkley-led Suns of the mid 90’s, the first team to wear a black Suns uniform. The sleek new design offers the team an alternate look while incorporating the Suns primary colors, purple and orange.

The Suns will wear the black alternate for the first time at the team’s home opener on October 28 at Talking Stick Resort Arena, and a total of 13 times during the 2015-16 season, a nod to Suns great Steve Nash, who will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor on October 30 and whose teams were among the first to wear a “PHX” jersey in the mid-2000’s.

NBA Players Union moving to new Manhattan home in spring 2016

NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts announced today that union operations will be moving to a new home in mid-town Manhattan in spring 2016.

The new office space and players campus is located at 1133 Avenue of the Americas and covers 47,000 square feet over two floors. The campus will include a business center, practice court and training facility. The union will conduct player meetings in the new space and host several player programs on campus during the off-season.

“We are delighted to have a more accessible and welcoming space for our members to conduct business and train, when they are in New York,” said Roberts. “This is their home away from home.”

The union has accepted an offer to sell its current office space, located at 310 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The settlement will happen in early 2016.

Cavaliers sign Sasha Kaun

The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed center Sasha Kaun to a contract, General Manager David Griffin announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.

Kaun (6-11, 250) spent the last six seasons with CSKA Moscow where he was a five-time Russian League champion (2009-2013), five-time VTB United League champion (2010, 2012-2015) and 2010 Russian Cup winner. Over his career with the team, he appeared in 142 games (94 starts) with averages of 7.6 points on .702 shooting from the field and 3.6 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game. Last year with the club, he played in 30 games (all starts) and averaged a career-high 9.9 points on .691 shooting from the field and 4.5 rebounds in 20.1 minutes per game.

The Russian native played collegiately at Kansas, where he was a member of the Jayhawks 2007-08 National Championship team. He was also a member of the Russian National Team coached by Cavs head coach David Blatt, winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Kaun was originally the 56th overall pick of the 2008 NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder (then Seattle SuperSonics) and had his rights traded to the Cavs on draft night.

NBA playoff seedings rule change

The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved changes to playoff seeding and qualification procedures effective with the 2015-16 season, the league announced today.

As part of the modifications, the eight playoff teams in each conference will be seeded in order of their regular-season record. Most recently, every division winner was guaranteed a top four seed in its respective conference regardless of its record but did not receive home-court advantage if its playoff opponent had a better record.

InsideHoops.com spoke with a league official just to clarify that this rule change applies to both (1) Seeding and (2) Qualifying for a playoff spot (before seeding even takes place.) And what we were told is that yes, this rule change applies to both. So, the teams in a conference with the eight best records are the teams that will make the playoffs, and they will be seeded in that order.

An NBA division-winner will now miss the playoffs if that team does not have a top eight record in the conference.

Therefore, winning a division means nothing in regard to making the playoffs except in tiebreaker situations as described below:

The Board also approved changes to tiebreak criteria for playoff seeding and home-court advantage. Head-to-head results have become the first criterion to break ties for playoff seeding and home-court advantage between two teams with identical regular-season records; the second criterion is whether a team won its division. Under the old tiebreak system, a division winner was awarded the higher seed and received home-court advantage in a series if the two teams met in the playoffs.

The NBA’s Competition Committee unanimously recommended each of these changes prior to the Board of Governors vote.

No FIBA Asia play for Jordan Clarkson

Here’s the Los Angeles Daily News blog reporting on Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson, who will be more rested coming into the upcoming NBA season, as explained below:

No FIBA Asia play for Jordan Clarkson

Jordan Clarkson had wanted to play for the Philippine national team. The team wanted Clarkson to play, too.

But amid concerns that his participation would conflict with his responsibilities to the Lakers, Clarkson will not play during for the Gilas Pilipinas during this month’s FIBA Asia championships, the Philippine Basketball Assn. announced on Tuesday on their website.

The statement added that Philippine national team executives Ricky Vergas and Patrick Gregorio met recently with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and president Jeanie Buss about Clarkson’s participation.

Nets are adding Dahntay Jones

With NBA training camps opening in a few weeks, we’ve reached the part of the offseason where the vast majority of players who are going to receive guaranteed contracts for the upcoming season have already been signed. At this point, most signings will be non-guaranteed deals merely bringing players into training camp. Here’s the New York Daily News with the Brooklyn Nets latest:

Nets are adding Dahntay Jones

The Nets added some veteran savvy and feistiness to their training camp roster by coming to terms with free agent guard and Jersey-product Dahntay Jones, the Daily News confirmed.

The 34-year-old Jones agreed to a non-guaranteed deal and will try to make the team out of training camp at Duke University, a school he attended for two years after transferring from Rutgers.