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The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired the 35th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft from the Orlando Magic in exchange for a future second round pick and cash considerations.
Orlando will receive the better of either the Lakers or Washington’s second round pick (which is owed to Los Angeles) in 2028.
The 2022 NBA Draft will take place tonight at 5 p.m. PT from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired the 49th pick in tonight’s NBA Draft from the Sacramento Kings (from Chicago via Memphis) in exchange for cash considerations and the draft rights to Aleksandar Vezenkov, Cavaliers President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts. The Cavaliers now have picks 14, 39, 49 and 56 in the draft.
Vezenkov (6-9, 225) was acquired on January 14, 2021 from the Brooklyn Nets as part of a three-team trade that brought Jarrett Allen to Cleveland. He was drafted 57th overall by Brooklyn in the 2017 NBA Draft.
The Detroit Pistons are fully rebuilding, while the Portland Trail Blazers look to remain competitive. Via the Detroit News:
The Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night made a big move to position themselves for the offseason, trading leading scorer Jerami Grant to the Portland Trail Blazers for a 2025 first-round draft pick and additional second-round picks, a league source confirmed to The Detroit News.
Enjoy Thursday’s NBA draft.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have exercised their fourth-year team option on forward Dean Wade, Cavaliers President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.
Wade (6-9, 228) appeared in 51 games (28 starts) for the Cavaliers last season, averaging 5.3 points and 2.9 rebounds in 19.2 minutes. He scored in double figures in 11 of his 28 starts and shot .429 (21-49) from beyond the arc over his final 12 outings as a starter (Jan. 24-March 12). Wade missed the final 15 games of the season due to injury. Over his three NBA seasons with the Cavaliers, Wade has appeared in 126 career games (47 starts). Wade went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft after playing four years collegiately at Kansas State, where he was a two-time All-Big 12 First Team selection and finished his career ranking among the Top 10 in school history in career starts (123, second), double-digit scoring games (81, seventh), rebounds (685, eighth), field goals made (548, eighth) and points (1,510, 10th).
Via the Miami Herald:
The Heat extended a $2.1 million qualifying offer to forward Caleb Martin on Tuesday, as expected, to retain the right to match outside offers up to the $10.3 million midlevel exception to re-sign him this offseason. In other words, the qualifying offer means that Martin will be a restricted free agent this summer…
But the Heat’s resources to re-sign Martin are limited, as it does not hold his Bird rights and isn’t on track to have cap space. Miami does not have the ability to match an outside offer to Martin above the $10.3 million mid-level exception for next season.
The Phoenix Suns have named Morgan Cato as Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations.
“We’re excited to welcome Morgan to the Valley and to the Suns organization” said General Manager James Jones. “With the league office Morgan played a pivotal role on countless initiatives to grow the game and strategically develop for it to be played at its best. The addition of her background and knowledge will allow us to elevate our basketball operations in several areas.”
In her position, Cato will report to Jones and work with Head Coach Monty Williams to lead the team’s strategy and business processes for basketball growth and performance with a focus on coaching development, player engagement and front office personnel operations. Cato becomes the first woman of color to hold the Assistant General Manager title for an NBA team.
Cato joins the Suns after spending the last decade with the NBA league office, most recently as Associate Vice President of Business Operations for NBA League Operations.
The New Orleans Pelicans will host a preseason game against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, October 14, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama – home of the Pelicans’ NBA G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m. CST.
“The decision to launch the Squadron was a commitment by the Pelicans organization to invest in the Birmingham community,” said Pelicans Governor Gayle Benson. “This Pelicans preseason game in Birmingham is a tangible example of that commitment, and this is just the beginning. We want to thank the City of Birmingham, the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, and everyone involved in making this event happen.”
“This is a big deal,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin. “As a basketball fan, I am thrilled to see these amazing teams battle it out. As the mayor, I am proud that this event can be enjoyed by our residents and visitors. This just further confirms that Birmingham is a destination for top sports event in our region.”
“Birmingham and Legacy Arena playing host to a NBA preseason game with the New Orleans Pelicans was exactly the kind of enhanced partnership opportunity we had in mind when first discussing bringing the Birmingham Squadron NBA G League team to Birmingham,” said BJCC Executive Director and CEO Tad Snider. “From the earliest discussions it was apparent the Pelicans organization and Gayle Benson had a genuine interest to partner with our city in a deeper way than just the team. With the inaugural season behind us just as we were completing the renovations to Legacy Arena, this announcement is a wonderful momentum builder leading into season two. NBA games in Legacy Arena in the past have been exciting for our community, and we expect this game featuring the Pelicans and Atlanta Hawks to be the best one yet.”
Via ESPN.com:
A day removed from the Golden State Warriors’ championship parade in San Francisco, Mike Brown appeared 90 miles up Interstate 80 on Tuesday, reporting for duty as the new head coach of the Sacramento Kings.
“I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this,” Brown said as he sat next to Kings general manager and president of basketball operations Monte McNair during his introductory news conference. “I really couldn’t turn up like I wanted to because of this doggone press conference today.”
Although his celebration was subdued after his third title in his six years as a Golden State assistant, Brown said he was ecstatic to discuss his fourth head-coaching opportunity after two stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a spell with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“The potential here, I truly believe the potential is off the charts,” he said. “It gets me excited thinking about it. … The players here, I’m excited about.
“There’s just a lot of opportunity here for this place to explode, and I want to be a part of it.”
Via the Sacramento Bee:
Eleven different head coaches have walked through the doors in Sacramento since the team’s last playoff appearance. On Tuesday afternoon at Golden 1 Center, the Kings formally introduced their next coach in Mike Brown.
The Kings hope Brown will break the spell of bad coaching hires and help return the team to the playoffs.
Brown, 52, was hired in May but wasn’t introduced until nearly a month and a half later. The reason is Brown was finishing his role as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant on a Golden State Warriors team that beat the Boston Celtics in six games to win the NBA Finals.
Prior to Brown spending six seasons in Golden State, he had stops as a head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers. In eight seasons as a head coach, Brown compiled a 347-216 (.616) record with six playoff appearances.
Kenny Atkinson was reportedly close to becoming the next head coach of the Charlotte Hornets. Per ESPN.com, it’s not happening:
Kenny Atkinson has informed the Charlotte Hornets that he won’t become the franchise’s new coach and will remain with the Golden State Warriors as the top assistant, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
After accepting Charlotte’s job offer during the NBA Finals last week, further conversations with the Hornets’ organization led Atkinson to believe that both professionally and personally it would be best to remain with the Warriors, sources said.
Atkinson and the Hornets had agreed in principle to a four-year deal, but a contract was never signed, sources said.
Steph Curry has a good memory. Via the San Francisco Chronicle:
Earlier in the NBA Finals, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry called himself “the petty king” in reference to him wearing a T-shirt mocking a Boston bar that insulted his wife Ayesha’s cooking prowess.
“I know all about everything and I use it as entertainment and have fun with it,” Curry said.
After clinching the NBA Finals Thursday night — and winning his first-ever Finals MVP in the process — Curry made sure to use his knowledge of “everything” to settle several scores.
The Boston bar that put up signage and sold T-shirts with the phrase “Ayesha Curry can’t cook” was predictably on Curry’s list of targets: the Dubs star posed for a picture with one of the shirts along with his Finals MVP trophy. “Bye Boston,” he wrote in a caption on Instagram.
The article goes on to review Steph’s reaction to what various sports commentators predicted for him.
Safe to say, for Steph, yesterday was a pretty great day.