Inside Hoops – Page 507 – NBA Blog

Kings name Bobby Jackson as assistant player development coach

The Sacramento Kings today added Bobby Jackson as an assistant player development coach on the staff of head coach Dave Joerger.

Jackson in the past three seasons has worked for the Kings as a collegiate scout. Before that, he worked as a regional scout and player development coach for the Kings in 2010-2012 and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2013.

The Salisbury, North Carolina native played 12 seasons in the NBA, accruing averages of 9.7 points (.417 FG%, .354 3pt%, .793 FT%), 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.98 steals and 22.2 minutes per contest in 755 games (started 143), punctuated by an NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2003 as a member of the Kings after registering a career-best 15.2 points (.464 FG%, .379 3pt%, .846 FT%), 3.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.53 steals and 28.4 minutes per game. In addition to six seasons in a Kings uniform (2000-05 & 2008-09), Jackson also played for the Denver Nuggets (1997-98), where he was named to the All-Rookie Second Team, Timberwolves (1998-2000), Memphis Grizzlies (2005-06), New Orleans/OKC Hornets (2006-08) and Houston Rockets (2008).

Before his time as an NBA player, Jackson led the University of Minnesota to the school’s one and only Final Four appearance, posting 15.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. He was named to the 1997 Second All-American team, and was named the Big 10 Player of the Year.

Lakers sign Joel Berry II

The Lakers signed guard Joel Berry II today.

Berry II was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2017 NCAA Final Four after leading North Carolina to a National Championship. As a senior last season, Berry II earned First Team All-ACC honors with averages of 17.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.2 steals in 33.1 minutes per game. The Orlando, FL native played in 144 career games (112 starts) for the Tar Heels, notching 12.7 points (.420 FG%), 3.1 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 27.6 minutes per game.

Dallas Mavericks hire Jenny Boucek and Stephen Silas as assistant coaches

The Dallas Mavericks have hired Jenny Boucek and Stephen Silas as assistant coaches.

Boucek (pronounced Boo-SECK) became just the third woman to coach in the NBA after spending last season with the Sacramento Kings (also Becky Hammond-San Antonio and Nancy Lieberman-Sacramento). Prior to joining the Kings, she spent three seasons as the head coach of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm (2015-17) and two-plus seasons as the head coach of the Sacramento Monarchs (2007-09).

Boucek was involved in the WNBA since its inaugural season in 1997 when she played for the Cleveland Rockers. Following a career-ending injury in 1998, she began her coaching career as an assistant with the Washington Mystics in 1999. She then spent three seasons (2000-02) in the same capacity with the Miami Sol and three seasons with the Seattle Storm (2003-05). In her first stint with Seattle in 2004, Boucek was a member of the franchise’s first WNBA Championship. The Storm won their second WNBA crown in 2010 with Boucek on staff in a similar role. Boucek is distinguished as the first athlete to play in the WNBA and subsequently serve as both an assistant and head coach in the league.

The Nashville, Tenn., native played collegiate basketball at the University of Virginia from 1992-96. Boucek helped lead the Cavaliers to four regular season Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and three NCAA Elite Eight appearances. She was a two-time GTE All-American, two-time ACC selection and two-time Defensive Player of the Year. She finished her career at Virginia with over 1,000 points.

Silas joins Dallas after spending the previous nine seasons as an assistant with the Charlotte Hornets, including the last as the team’s Associate Head Coach. The 2018-19 season will mark his 18th year as an assistant coach in the NBA.

During his recent stint with Charlotte, Silas served as the head coach of the team on several occasions. In 2015-16, he helped lead the Hornets to a division-best 48-34 (.585) record and the franchise’s second playoff appearance in a span of three years.

Silas joined the Hornets’ coaching staff on Dec. 26, 2010, after spending the previous four-and-a-half seasons as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. Prior to joining the Warriors, Silas served as an advance scout for the Washington Wizards during the 2005-06 campaign. He also spent five seasons as an assistant coach under his father, Paul Silas, with the original Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets (2000-03) and Cleveland Cavaliers (2003-05). Silas, who joined the original Hornets in the summer of 1999 as an advance and college scout, was promoted to assistant coach on June 5, 2000, making him the youngest assistant in the NBA at that time at 27 years old.

The Boston native graduated from Brown University in 1996, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology and management and played four seasons for the Bears basketball team. Upon graduation, Silas spent three years as the assistant executive director of the National Basketball Retired Players Association in Providence, Rhode Island.

Spurs trade Kawhi Leonard to Raptors for DeMar DeRozan

The San Antonio Spurs have obtained guard DeMar DeRozan, center Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first round pick from the Toronto Raptors in a trade for forward Kawhi Leonard and guard Danny Green.

DeRozan was named to the 2018 All-NBA Second Team after averaging 23.0 points, 5.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 33.9 minutes in 80 games last season with Toronto. The 6-7, 220-pound guard shot .456 (645-1,413) from the field, .310 (89-287) from three-point range and .825 (461-559) from the free throw line. A four-time All-Star, DeRozan holds career averages of 19.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 675 games over nine NBA seasons. He earned All-NBA Third Team honors following the 2016-17 season when he ranked fifth in the league in scoring, averaging a career-best 27.3 points.

The ninth overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, DeRozan is one of 10 players in the league to average 20-or-more points in each of the last five seasons and has been named to three straight NBA All-Star teams. A gold medalist on the 2016 USA Olympic Team, he has earned Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors nine times and has been named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month three times (April 2015, January 2016 and January 2018).

Appearing in all 82 games, Poeltl averaged 6.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.22 blocks in 18.6 minutes for Toronto during the 2017-18 season. 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.

Poeltl is both the first Austrian to be selected in the NBA Draft and to appear in an NBA game. He played two seasons at the University of Utah, earning All-American second team honors as a sophomore during the 2015-16 season. Poeltl was also named the 2016 Pac-10 Player of the Year and won the 2016 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the top center in college basketball.

Leonard is a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year (2015, 2016) and twice was named First Team All-NBA (2016, 2017).

Leonard joins the Raptors after spending his entire seven-year NBA career with San Antonio and helped the Spurs win the 2014 NBA Championship. He holds career averages of 16.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and a .386 three-point shooting percentage (529-1370) in 407 career games. The Los Angeles native averaged a career-best 25.5 points in 74 games during the 2016-17 season and was third in NBA Most Valuable Player voting. In 87 career playoff games, Leonard averaged 16.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and is shooting .427 from beyond the arc (125-293). He was named the MVP of the 2014 NBA Finals after averaging 17.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and shot .579 (11-for-19) in five games against Miami.

Green spent the last eight seasons with San Antonio, averaging 9.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists in 25.8 minutes per game. In 520 games with the Spurs, Green posted a .396 (959-2421) average from three-point range and was a key contributor to the team’s 2014 NBA Championship title. A native of New York, Green played 70 games (60 starts) for the Spurs last season averaging 8.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 25.6 minutes. He was named to the NBA All Defensive Second Team during the 2016-17 campaign.

Pelicans sign Trevon Bluiett to two-way contract

The New Orleans Pelicans today signed guard Trevon Bluiett to a two-way contract.

Bluiett, 6-5, 215, joined the Pelicans’ Summer League team after going undrafted out of Xavier (OH) in 2018. In four Summer League games, Bluiett averaged 18.3 points on .565 shooting from the field, including .536 from three-point range. In his first two outings at the MGM Resorts NBA Summer League 2018 in Las Vegas, Bluiett scored 24 and 26 points, respectively, while connecting on six three-pointers in each contest.

In 142 collegiate games at Xavier, the Indianapolis native averaged 15.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists. During his senior season, Bluiett averaged 19.3 points while shooting .417 from three-point range on his way to being named to the All-Big East First Team for the third consecutive season, as well as a Consensus Second-Team All-American.

Per NBA rules, each team is allowed to carry two players on two-way contracts in addition to the standard 15 players on the roster. Players signed to two-way contracts will spend the majority of the year in the NBA G League, but can be called up to their NBA team for a maximum of 45 days during the season.

Kings and Grizzlies trade moves Ben McLemore, Deyonta Davis, Garrett Temple

The Sacramento Kings have acquired guard Ben McLemore, center Deyonta Davis, a 2021 second-round draft selection and cash considerations in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies for guard Garrett Temple.

Selected seventh overall pick by the Kings in 2013, McLemore has accrued averages of 9.1 points (.417 FG%, .351 3pt%, .785 FT%), 2.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 24.5 minutes per contest in five NBA seasons with Sacramento (2013-14 – 2016-17) and Memphis (2017-18).

A 7-0 center, Davis was selected 31st overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2016 NBA Draft and has registered 4.3 points (.593 FG%, .640 FT%), 3.2 rebounds and 12.1 minutes in two seasons with Memphis.

In 65 games (35 starts) with Sacramento during the 2017-18 season, Temple (6-6, 195) averaged a career-high 8.4 points to go with 2.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 24.8 minutes per game while shooting .418 from the field, a career-best .392 from three-point range and .769 from the free throw line. Temple netted a career-high 34 points on January 23 at Orlando.

Undrafted in the 2009 NBA Draft, Temple joins Memphis with career averages of 5.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 19.1 minutes over 439 games (157 starts) with Houston, Sacramento, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Charlotte and Washington. The nine-year veteran has career shooting percentages of .405 from the field, .357 from three-point range and .725 from the free throw line.

A native of Baton Rouge, La., Temple averaged 6.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 33.1 minutes in 134 games (131 starts) over five years (2004-09) at Louisiana State University, helping the Tigers to the school’s fourth NCAA Final Four in a starting role as a redshirt freshman.

Nets sign Shabazz Napier

The Brooklyn Nets signed free agent guard Shabazz Napier today.

Napier (6’1”, 175) appeared in 74 games (nine starts) for the Portland Trail Blazers during the 2017-18 season, recording averages of 8.7 points (42.0 percent from the field and 37.6 percent from 3-point range), 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.1 steals in 20.8 minutes per game. The four-year NBA veteran has seen action in 233 career games with Portland (2016-18), Orlando (2015-16) and Miami (2014-15), posting averages of 5.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 15.7 minutes per contest.

The Roxbury, Mass., native was selected with the 24th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by Charlotte and traded to Miami. Napier spent four years at the University of Connecticut, helping lead the Huskies to two national championships (2011 and 2014). As a senior, he earned consensus first-team All-America honors and was named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player, as well as the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

Nets sign rookie Rodions Kurucs

Rookie forward Rodions Kurucs has made the Nets.

The team today signed Kurucs, the 40th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, to a multi-year contract.

Players selected in the first round of the draft are guaranteed to receive a contract, but teams get to choose whether or not to sign second-rounders.

Kurucs (6’9”, 220), a forward from Cesis, Latvia, played the past three seasons for FC Barcelona II of Spanish LEB Gold. In 2017-18, the 20-year-old appeared in 16 games, averaging 10.7 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 steals in 20.8 minutes per game. Kurucs has also had stints with FC Barcelona in both ACB and Euroleague competition. He began his professional career with VEF Riga in his native Latvia.

Kurucs has represented Latvia in international competition, including being selected to the All-Tournament team after leading Latvia to the final of the FIBA U16 European Championship in 2014.

Knicks waive Troy Williams

The Knicks have waived Troy Williams.

A 6-foot-7, 220-pounds forward, Williams played in 17 Knicks games last season, and averaged 7.5 points on 49-percent shooting in 17.1 minutes per outing.

This summer, Williams participated in five games for the Knicks’ Vegas summer league team.

A native of Hampton, Virginia, Williams originally signed two consecutive 10-day contracts with the Knicks, the first back in February, and then in mid March signed on for the remainder of the season.

The Knicks now have 17 players under contract — 15 regular contracts and two Two-Way players.

Warriors sign Damion Lee to two-way contract

The Warriors on Saturday signed free agent guard Damion Lee to a two-way contract.

Lee, 25, appeared in 15 games (11 starts) with the Atlanta Hawks after earning a GATORADE Call-Up on March 13, recording averages of 10.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.36 steals in 26.9 minutes. In 38 games (13 starts) last season with the Santa Cruz Warriors. Lee averaged 15.8 points on 45.6 percent shooting to go along with 5.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.40 steals in 29.7 minutes.

The 6’6” guard was selected to the USA Basketball World Cup Qualifying Team that played two exhibition games in Santa Cruz on February 23 and 26, 2018. Lee recorded seven points, four rebounds and four assists in 33 minutes in wins over Cuba and Puerto Rico during the second window of the FIBA World Cup Qualifying first-round.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Lee played collegiately at Drexel University for four seasons before spending his redshirt senior season at the University of Louisville in 2015-16 as a graduate transfer. At Louisville, Lee started all 30 games and averaged 15.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals in 33.6 minutes per game.

Per NBA rules, teams are permitted to sign two players to two-way contracts in addition to the 15-man regular-season roster. Players signed to a two-way contract may accrue no more than 45 days of service with their respective NBA club during the regular season, spending the remainder of the season with the team’s G League affiliate. The Warriors’ two-way players will have the ability to spend time with both Golden State and the team’s G League affiliate in Santa Cruz.

Last season, two-way guard Quinn Cook appeared in 33 games (18 starts) with Golden State, averaging 9.5 points on 48.4 percent shooting from the field, 2.7 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 22.4 minutes per game. The guard signed a multiyear contract with the Warriors on April 10, 2018.