September 2018 – Page 2 – NBA Blog

Marcus Smart out for Celtics tonight

Preseason is a warmup period. Many stars play sparingly. Plenty of players suffer very minor bumps and bruises and wind up sitting out more than probably necessary, just to be on the safe side. But personal tragedy, which Marcus Smart recently suffered, as his mother recently passed away, can of course happen at any time. Here’s the Boston Globe:

The Celtics will begin their preseason without guard Marcus Smart, who did not make the trip with his teammates to North Carolina and will miss Friday’s opener because of what the team called personal reasons.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Smart is expected back with the team Saturday or for Sunday’s game against Charlotte and that Smart is physically healthy. Smart, 24, is still grieving following the death of his mother, Camellia, on Sept. 16 and admitted moving on from her passing has been difficult.

Preseason begins tonight, with the Celtics facing the Hornets.

Will Rockets defense hold up in 2018-19?

The Rockets were an excellent defensive team last season. It was a total team effort, but a couple of key individual reasons why the squad defended well are no longer wearing Rockets jerseys. Presumably, they’ll drop off a bit in that department then, yes? Maybe. Here’s the Houston Chronicle reporting the words of head coach Mike D’Antoni, who of course isn’t about to agree that the team will drop off in any way.

For the second time this week, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni on Friday expressed great confidence about his team’s defense despite the departures in free agency of Luc Mbah a Moute and Trevor Ariza. He specifically cited the defensive abilities of Eric Gordon and James Ennis III who have both worked extensively with the starters in training camp.

The above will certainly be worth watching. Especially the role Carmelo Anthony winds up playing.

No matter what, the Rockets should be one of the West’s best squads again, but whether they can match last season’s success of course remains to be seen.

Kyrie Irving focusing on staying healthy

Yes, every pro athlete tries to stay healthy. That’s probably your first reaction to the headline. But it’s not that simple, obviously. NBA players are paid to give their all. And in the playoffs, more than that. Sure, players take it slightly “easier” in the regular season than the postseason, but nothing about playing pro basketball is easy. And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s the Boston Herald reporting on Kyrie Irving:

There’s a lot of miles in those 26-year-old legs, and as such the Celtics guard is tweaking his pre-game routine – most mundane, but all geared to readiness.

“It’s figuring out what works best for you,” said Irving. “My routine has been pretty much the same for eight straight years, but now it’s time to do things to better suit my body.”

Health has always been a major consideration for Irving. He’s never played a full NBA season, with only three times when Irving played 70 or more regular season games. His high-usage mark was a 75-game season in 2014-15.

Last season’s travails limited him to 60 games, so now’s the time to make adjustments.

The Celtics are the clear East favorite entering the 2018-19 season, and Irving remains a big key to their success.

The Utah Jazz backcourt is crowded

The Utah Jazz are a talent-filled serious Western conference team that won 48 games last season and should only keep getting better. Their backcourt is on the crowded side, however. Which can make it tough on a coach to fully maximize the talent. Here’s the Salt Lake Tribune reporting:

While coach Quin Snyder called it “a good problem to have,” the depth the Jazz have at the guard positions still is a problem.

Just look at the Jazz’s roster and you’ll see seven players with a “G” next to their name: Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell, Dante Exum, Royce O’Neale, Alec Burks, Grayson Allen, and Raul Neto all will make the roster, and all have pretty good cases to earn playing time at their preferred position.

Rubio and Mitchell will take up the lions’ share of the minutes, though. Mitchell, after his meteoric rise, is the Jazz’s best scorer and face of the franchise, it seems reasonable to pencil him in for 35 minutes a night. Rubio has become part of the Jazz’s identity too, and it’d be a shock to see him play significantly less than 30 minutes a night.

Full article

Lonzo Ball takes big step forward in practice

The Lakers underwent big-time changes this summer, adding LeBron James and an interesting cast of supporting players, but the core of the team aside from James remains the youth: Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball. While LeBron tends to play the role of a point-forward, or rather a do-everything forward, Ball’s best attribute is still his passing. It’ll be fascinating to see how the two co-exist on the floor. But before all of that, Ball must regain full health, and yesterday he took a solid step in that direction, per the Daily Breeze:

By the end of Thursday’s training camp session, Lonzo Ball felt fatigued. But he was more focused on what he didn’t feel.

Pain.

For the first time this season, Ball, the 20-year-old second-year point guard felt healthy enough to go through an entire practice. Since a knee injury that ended his rookie year prematurely and led to offseason surgery for a torn meniscus, Ball has been sidelined and limited from full competition.

While he’s not likely to take the floor in Sunday’s preseason opener against the Denver Nuggets, getting back into a full practice felt like a significant step in the right direction after months of restrictions.

“Did the whole practice. Did everything today,” he said. “Obviously I was a little tired but had to get back.”

Full article

Celtics notes as NBA preseason opens tonight

NBA preseason action begins tonight with Celtics vs Hornets as the lone matchup. The Celtics remain built around Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford, with support from Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart, Aron Baynes and Terry Rozier. The Hornets are built around Kemba Walker, aging new addition Tony Parker, Jeremy Lamb, Nicolas Batum, and a big supporting cast, some of which will have to emerge as leaders for the Hornets to go anywhere. Here’s the Boston Herald with some notes on key Celtics items to watch:

Having gotten to see Gordon Hayward for all of five minutes and 15 seconds last season before he suffered an horrific lower leg injury, it will be interesting to see how he’s moving in the first game with brighter lights and referees and a crowd…

Kyrie Irving’s season-ending surgery wasn’t as traumatic in nature as Hayward’s injury. And, by all accounts, he’s been just fine physically in camp and in the pickup games that preceded it. What we’re interested in more is how he runs the show…

In that it won’t be a regular game rotation, it will be hard to get a handle on how Stevens will use his bigs. But if Al Horford is going to play mainly at center, we’ll be curious to see how Aron Baynes and Daniel Theis are able to find their respective grooves…

Even with being such a high draft pick (third overall), Jayson Tatum still had a better than expected rookie season. Now he’s had time to catch his breath and put in offseason work that included time with Kobe Bryant. His mates all say he’s demonstrably better, and even with the limited looks that come in the preseason, we’re looking forward to seeing it.

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Magic sign Devin Davis, waive Gabe York

The Orlando Magic have signed free agent forward Devin Davis. The team has also waived guard Gabe York.

Davis (6’6”, 225, 3/29/95) played in 55 career games (48 starts) during two seasons (2016-18) at the University of Houston, averaging 9.9 ppg., 5.9 rpg. and 1.2 apg. in 24.1 minpg. As a senior (2017-18), he played and started in all 35 contests, averaging 10.9 ppg., a team-high 6.3 rpg. and 1.3 apg. in 26.0 minpg. Davis was the only Cougar to start all 35 outings and ranked seventh in the American Athletic Conference in rebounding.

Spurs exercise options on Dejounte Murray, Jakob Poeltl and Derrick White

The San Antonio Spurs have exercised their fourth-year team option on guard Dejounte Murray and center Jakob Poeltl for the 2019-20 season.

In addition, the Spurs have exercised their third-year option on guard Derrick White for the 2019-20 season.

Murray is entering his third season with the Spurs after being selected by San Antonio in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft (29th overall). Last year, Murray was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to be named to an All-Defensive Team. He ended the season with 459 rebounds, setting the record for most total rebounds in a single season by a point guard in Spurs history passing the previous mark of 378 by Johnny Moore in 1984-85. The former Washington Husky has appeared in 119 career NBA games, averaging 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 17.4 minutes.

Poeltl is in his first season with the Silver and Black after being acquired from the Toronto Raptors on July 18. Last season, Poeltl averaged 6.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.22 blocks in 18.6 minutes. Selected by the Raptors with the ninth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the 7-0, 230-pound center has appeared in 136 games in his two-year NBA career, averaging 5.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in 15.8 minutes. Poeltl holds a career field goal percentage of .641 (320-499), which ranks fifth in the NBA among all players with at least 300 field goals made in the last two seasons.

White appeared in 17 games during his rookie season with the Spurs, averaging 3.2 points and 1.5 rebounds in 8.2 minutes. The former Colorado Buffalo helped lead the Austin Spurs to the 2018 G League Championship, averaging 24.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.80 steals in 32.8 minutes in the G League Playoffs. He appeared in 24 regular season games for Austin, averaging 20.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.29 steals and 1.17 blocks in 28.2 minutes. White was drafted by the Spurs with the 29th overall pick in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft.

Cavs hire Liron Fanan as Director of G League Player Development

The Cleveland Cavaliers have hired Liron Fanan as Director of G League Player Development. In her role, Liron will work to enrich Canton Charge players off the court through both League and team initiatives.

In addition to her Charge responsibilities, Fanan will also utilize her extensive international basketball background to assist the Cavs scouting department and General Manager Koby Altman.

“We are thrilled to welcome Liron to the Cavaliers organization and for her to become involved in all of our basketball operations initiatives,“ said Altman. “She’s a basketball lifer with incredible experience internationally and has a great basketball acumen we are very fortunate to have.”

Fanan comes to Northeast Ohio after having spent the last nine years co-founding and managing her own agency, 2Talent Sports Management, where she built a roster of athletes to serve their needs through player contracts, individual business interests and community engagement. Prior to venturing on her own, Liron served as Assistant General Manager for Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2005 to 2009, where she oversaw the club’s marketing and ticket sales efforts in addition to her basketball responsibilities. Fanan, a native of Israel, also has spent time on the side involved with NBA Summer League, NBA Basketball Without Borders and the NBA’s Global Camp in Italy.

Magic exercise contract option on Jonathan Isaac

The Orlando Magic have exercised their third-year team option on forward Jonathan Isaac.

Isaac is now signed through the 2019-20 season.

Isaac (6’10”, 210, 10/3/97) played in 27 games (ten starts) during his rookie campaign last season with the Magic, averaging 5.4 ppg., 3.7 rpg., 1.22 stlpg. and 1.11 blkpg. in 19.8 minpg. Isaac was originally selected by Orlando in the first round (sixth overall) of the 2017 NBA Draft.