Inside Hoops – Page 706 – NBA Blog

Lots of pressure on Goran Dragic this season

With Dwyane Wade gone and Chris Bosh still out indefinitely due to health concerns, there’s every chance in the world for point guard Goran Dragic to rise up and do big things. Considering how young the rest of the squad’s key players are, Miami needs Dragic to exceed all expectations. Here’s the Miami Herald with more:

Goran Dragic made it clear from the start that when the Miami Heat traded for him 19 months ago he was only around to support Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, not step on their toes.

Dragic, 30, obviously doesn’t have to worry about playing backup singer to anyone on the Heat anymore. With Wade, a 12-time All-Star, gone to Chicago in free agency, and Bosh, an 11-time All-Star, out for the foreseeable future after failing a physical this week in his continuing battle with blood clots, the Heat is as much Dragic’s team now as it is Hassan Whiteside’s.

“I’m ready,” Dragic said Saturday afternoon between signing autographs and taking photos with fans who lined up by the dozens at the Heat store inside Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater to meet the 2014 All-NBA third team point guard.

Victor Oladipo has big Thunder goals

The Thunder are a very different team coming into this season. Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka are gone, and Victor Oladipo and a lot of question marks are in their place. Russell Westbrook is a star, and the team has some capable big guys. As for Oladipo, there’s an opportunity for him to do big things, even as he shares the backcourt with Westbrook. Here’s the Oklahoman reporting:

“I don’t just want to be a three-point shooter. I don’t just want to be a defensive stopper,” Oladipo said at Thunder media day. “I want to be one of the best players in this league, and in order to do that, you have to affect the game on both ends and do multiple things.”

For two seasons, Andre Roberson started 135 regular season games for the Thunder as the heir to Thabo Sefolosha at shooting guard. While Roberson provides length and athleticism on defense at 6-foot-7, he’s a below-average perimeter shooter and shot creator, scoring just 22.8 percent of his baskets unassisted last season. In contrast, Oladipo scored 51.5 percent of his baskets unassisted last season, which would have ranked fourth on the Thunder behind Westbrook, Cameron Payne and Dion Waiters.

Defensively, Oladipo could improve simply by playing with better teammates. Roberson and Adams proved to be elite defenders in the postseason. Westbrook, when focused, can be a terror. Westbrook thinks he and Oladipo can be the best defensive backcourt in the league. Oladipo agrees…

Last season, Oladipo’s shooting struggles came mostly as a bench player, a role that saw him shoot 27.1 percent from 3 over 20 games. But in 52 games as a starter, Oladipo shot 36.8 percent from 3-point range.

Jeremy Lin in spotlight for Nets

Entering the upcoming season, center Brook Lopez is considered the best player on the Nets. But on a global level, new point guard Jeremy Lin will get the most attention. Here’s the New York Post with more:

Jeremy Lin isn’t just the Nets’ new point guard, but their biggest (only?) drawing card and most fascinating figure, one whose reach and interests go beyond basketball.

Harvard-educated and socially conscious, he has more than 3 million Facebook fans, 2 million Twitter followers and 500,000 subscribers on YouTube. A superstar in Asia, he is in the top five among NBA players in an index score by MVPindex, which calculates follower counts, engagement and online sentiment.

Oh, and the Nets aren’t just expecting marketing, but leadership.

“He came off the bench in Charlotte and did a heckuva job, but this is a different deal. Now, you’re the quarterback, the Eli Manning,’’ [new head coach Kenny] Atkinson said. “There’s a different level of responsibility. It’s new to him.”

Phil Jackson has opt-out option after the season

This was the biggest Knicks summer in years. Roster moves were made with the clear intention of winning now. And while Phil Jackson is expected to run things for years more, he actually can elect to opt-out after this upcoming season should he choose to move on. Here’s ESPN NY with more:

“The proof is in the pudding” was a phrase Jackson used on Friday when asked to assess his presidency thus far. “Fiscally, I’ve been very responsible as a president,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve really had an opportunity to do a lot with the personnel, but we’ve been successful in getting it to a position where we can operate as a basketball team. That’s been our first goal and to eat some dung in the process, we had to do that and live with it.”

If the Knicks struggle this season — or even if they don’t — there will likely be plenty of speculation about Jackson’s future in New York. He has an opt-out in his clause after the season. Jackson said on Friday he hasn’t thought about the option.

“I’ve just been going straight ahead. That really hasn’t been an item for me to think about,” Jackson said. “The fact that I had a clause put in the contract, that in case there was a lockout, that it might be a way to step away from the team or a job that doesn’t have any work action going on for a period of time. So that was one clause. That hasn’t affected what I’m doing now.”

New Kings arena is high-tech

These are just some of the details (see article for more), but the new Kings arena in Sacramento sounds like all sorts of fun. Here’s the Sacramento Bee reporting:

Golden 1 Center, built for an eye-popping $557 million, will be one of the most high-tech sports facilities anywhere. Fans will speed through “smart turnstiles” to enter and tap their cellphones to find their seat. Tweeting and posting photos to Instagram should be a breeze; the arena comes with enough bandwidth to support a stadium four times as big. And don’t worry about getting a headache from staring at the world’s largest indoor video scoreboard; it was designed by a Walt Disney Co. engineer to minimize eye movement.

Opening with a pair of Paul McCartney concerts Oct. 4 and 5, the downtown arena is an extension of Ranadive’s worldview. An electrical engineer by trade, he is fascinated with the newest, greatest and most advanced. Golden 1 is state of the art, and then some…

Even the stuff that seems low-tech at first blush fits into Ranadive’s obsession with bigger and better. Take the 40-foot-high aircraft hangar doors that loom over the arena’s main entrance, which can be left open during games and concerts. Though the Kings haven’t decided when to deploy them – plenty of details have to be worked out first – Ranadive loves the idea of several thousand spectators watching an event from the exterior of what Ranadive calls the world’s first “indoor-outdoor arena.”

Pelicans sign guard Quinn Cook

The Pelicans yesterday (Saturday) signed free agent guard Quinn Cook. The team’s training camp roster now stands at 20.

Cook, 6-2, 179, spent his first professional season with the Canton Charge of the NBA Development League. Appearing in 43 games (37 starts), Cook averaged 19.6 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 33.7 minutes per game, en route to earning All-NBA D-League Third Team and NBA D-League All-Rookie Team Honors, and being named a D-League All-Star and the 2016 NBA D-League Rookie of the year.

A four-year letterwinner at Duke, Cook held career averages of 10.9 points, 3.7 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 143 games for the Blue Devils, helping the school capture the 2015 NCAA National Championship as a senior in 2015.

Warriors sign Scott Wood

The Warriors have signed free agent forward Scott Wood, the team announced today. We assume the deal merely brings Wood to training camp.

Wood, 26, spent the last three seasons playing overseas with UCAM Murcia in Spain’s top league, Liga ACB, posting averages of 9.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in 21.1 minutes over 103 games. Prior to joining UCAM Murcia, Wood enjoyed a four-year collegiate career at North Carolina State, where he posted averages of 10.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 31.7 minutes over 138 career games from 2009-13. The 6’6” forward led the ACC in three-point field goals and three-point percentage as both a junior and senior, finishing his career as the Wolf Pack’s all-time leader in three-point field goals made (334) while hitting 41.3 percent from long distance.

Wood will wear uniform #10.

Golden State’s training camp roster currently stands at 20 players.

Warriors Run TMC jerseys making partial comeback

Our favorite Warriors jerseys are coming back. Not full-time. But for occasional games next season.

The Warriors will wear Crossover alternate uniforms for select Sunday games during the 2016-17 season as a nod to the Warriors “Run TMC” era of the early 90’s.

They’ll first wear the Crossover alternate uniforms on the road on Sunday, October 30 when the team plays the Suns in Phoenix.

The new Crossover alternate uniform harkens back to the “Run TMC” era Warriors of the early 90’s and features the very same diagonal lettering worn by the team then, mixed with the color scheme and design of the jerseys the team wears on the road now. The diagonal lettering used on the Crossover alternate uniforms was used during the 1988-89 to 1996-97 seasons. This Crossover jersey not only symbolizes a crossover of eras, but also a nod to Run TMC’s Tim Hardaway, who was known for his “Killer Crossover.”

The Warriors will wear the Crossover alternate uniform for the following games:

· Sunday, October 30th at Phoenix
· Sunday, November 13th vs. Phoenix
· Sunday, January 22nd at Orlando
· Sunday, March 5th at New York
· Sunday, March 26th vs. Memphis
· Sunday, April 2nd vs. Washington

Hornets sign Perry Ellis

Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today the team’s 2016 training camp roster and signing of Perry Ellis.

Ellis, a 2016 Consensus All-America Second Team member and two-time All-Big 12 First Team (2016, 2015) standout, appeared in 38 games for Kansas during his senior campaign, averaging 16.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 30.3 minutes per game. For his four-year career, the Wichita, Kan., native appeared in 144 total games, averaging 12.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game, leaving Kansas as the eighth all-time leading scorer (1,798).

The training camp roster now stands at 19.

Raptors hire Patrick Mutombo and Jim Sann as assistant coaches

The Toronto Raptors announced Friday they have hired Patrick Mutombo and Jim Sann as assistant coaches on Head Coach Dwane Casey’s staff. In addition, assistant coach Jama Mahlalela (JAM-ah MAH-la-LAY-la) has been promoted and will move to the front of the bench for the upcoming season.

Kalamian enters his second season with the Raptors, while Nurse returns for his fourth campaign with the club.

“I am pleased to add Patrick and Jim to our coaching staff,” said Casey. “Both possess a tremendous work ethic and a wealth of basketball experience that with help our players improve.

“Jama has done a great job for us in the area of player development and game preparation the last several seasons and is deserving of this recognition.”

Mutombo joins the Raptors after one season as an assistant coach with the Austin Spurs of the NBA D-League. Prior to joining the Spurs, Mutombo spent four seasons with the Denver Nuggets (2011-15), including the last three as an assistant coach.

A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mutombo played professionally in Europe for six seasons (2003-09), before signing with the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League. He appeared in 29 games for the Jam, averaging 5.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 22.0 minutes.
Mutombo played collegiately at Metropolitan State University (1999-2003), helping the Roadrunners win the NCAA Division II championship in 2000 and 2002.

Sann rejoins the Raptors where he served as an assistant coach on Kevin O’Neill’s staff during the 2003-04 season. He spent the last three seasons as assistant coach/advance scout with the Brooklyn Nets. Sann was also with the Nets organization for five seasons (2005-10) as an assistant coach/coaching associate.
From 2010-12, Sann was a member of the Chicago Bulls staff, serving as an assistant coach/video coordinator. He was also an assistant coach/advance scout for the Houston Rockets during the 2004-05 season. Sann began his professional basketball career with the New York Knicks, holding various positions over 11 seasons, eventually rising to director of basketball administration.

Sann graduated from the University of Colorado in 1991.

Mahlalela enters his fourth season as an assistant coach. He moved to the bench following two seasons working in the Raptors’ front office as director of player development.

Mahlalela started with the Raptors in 2006 as a member of the community development staff, leading the Raptors Basketball Academy and various clinics throughout Canada. He was named director of basketball operations for NBA Asia in 2009 and oversaw the League’s clinics, youth programs and elite-level development from his base in Hong Kong.

Mahlalela played collegiately at the University of British Columbia and served as assistant coach at the University of Toronto for four seasons.