Inside Hoops – Page 849 – NBA Blog

Spurs hire Jacque Vaughn as pro scout

The San Antonio Spurs today announced that Jacque Vaughn has been added to the front office. The former Spurs player and assistant coach will return to San Antonio as a pro scout.

Vaughn spent the last three seasons as head coach of the Orlando Magic (2012-15) and was the second-youngest head coach in the league when he was hired in 2012. Prior to leading Orlando, he spent two seasons (2010-12) as an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich for the Silver and Black.

In his 12-year NBA playing career, Vaughn appeared in a total of 776 games and averaged 4.5 points and 2.5 assists. The former Kansas Jayhawk was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 1997 NBA Draft (27th overall) and played his first four seasons in Salt Lake City. He then made stops with the Hawks, Magic and Nets before signing with the Spurs on July 12, 2006. Vaughn played his final three seasons in San Antonio and was part of the Spurs 2007 NBA Championship team before retiring after the 2008-09 season.

Blazers promote Jim Moran to assistant coach

The Portland Trail Blazers have promoted Jim Moran to assistant coach on Head Coach Terry Stotts’ staff, it was announced today by President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey.

“I am excited to add Jim to our coaching staff,” said Stotts. “He is a young coach with a bright future. He has a terrific work ethic coupled with a refreshing personality. He has already demonstrated a unique ability to work with our players and he will add a new perspective for us.”

Moran joins a staff that includes fellow assistant coaches Jay Triano, David Vanterpool, Nate Tibbetts and Dale Osbourne.

Moran begins his first year on the Trail Blazers bench in 2015-16 after spending last season in Portland as an associate video coordinator. A player development coach for the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League in 2013, Moran played his entire professional career for CB Gran Canaria in the Spanish ACB League from 2001-11.

He is the only player in team history to have his number retired by Gran Canaria, finishing his career with 2,060 points, 802 rebounds and 321 assists. Moran played collegiately at William & Mary, where he was twice named to the All-Colonial Athletic Association Team his junior and senior seasons. A native of Syosset, New York, Moran played for the Irish Men’s National Team from 2001-06.

Dan Craig to coach Sioux Falls Skyforce

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting some Heat-related coaching developments:

The Miami Heat coaching staff again will be reshuffled this season, with assistant coach Dan Craig taking over as coach of the team’s NBA Development League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, an NBA source confirmed Sunday to the Sun Sentinel.

Craig, who has guided the Heat’s summer-league teams in recent seasons, takes over for Phil Weber, who guided the Skyforce to the NBDL playoffs last season before joining the New Orleans Pelicans staff of former Heat coach Alvin Gentry.

With the move, Chris Quinn, who served as an assistant coach last season with the Skyforce will move to a permanent role on Erik Spoelstra’s Heat staff.

Raptors 905 holds open tryouts

Here’s the Toronto Star reporting on the Raptors 905 D-League team, which recently gave anybody and everybody a chance to show they’re worthy of being on the squad:

At the open tryout for the Raptors 905 NBA D-League team, class shows quickly.

There’s Tut Ruach, a Mississauga high school hoops legend, stripping the ball from an overmatched guard and making the pass that leads to a basket. On an adjacent court at the University of Toronto Mississauga, former Dalhousie standout Robert Nortmann throws down a thunderous dunk over an opponent’s outstretched arms.

Other players’ lack of pedigree is revealed in seconds. A skinny guard with a bushy moustache spends nearly an entire scrimmage lingering beneath the goal, leaving his team shorthanded on defence and waiting on a pass he can flip into the goal. When he finally gets his shot, an opponent swats it away.

Seventy-five men answered the Raptors 905’s open casting call, with nearly as many skill levels on display Saturday. Coaches will winnow that pack to a more select group for further evaluation Sunday, and up to five players can leave this weekend with an invite to the Raptors farm team’s training camp in early November.

Warriors offer Harrison Barnes extension

Harrison Barnes is good, but how good? Here’s Yahoo Sports reporting on the Warriors, who are offering a sizable contract extension to the 6-8, 225-pound small forward. Barnes has talent but is a role player on this team, so it’ll be interesting to see if the two sides can come to an eventual agreement.

The Golden State Warriors delivered forward Harrison Barnes an initial four-year, $64 million contract extension proposal, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

The $16 million annual offer wasn’t accepted, but appears to be a starting point in talks that could last until the Oct. 31 deadline for rookie extensions.

The Warriors are trying to prevent Barnes from reaching restricted free agency in July 2016, when a rising salary cap and scores of teams with financial flexibility will couple with Barnes’ burgeoning talent and potential to make him a significant target on the market.

Al Jefferson changes diet, drops weight

Here’s the Charlotte Observer reporting on Hornets star center Al Jefferson, who should be even harder to guard this season now that he’s dropping weight and presumably adding quickness in the process:

Fried chicken: Charlotte Hornets center Al Jefferson craves it and he knows it’s off his menu in the effort to lose as much as 25 pounds.

So when a certain commercial comes on the television, Big Al grabs for the remote.

“Every Popeye’s commercial I see, I have to turn the TV off,” Jefferson said Thursday.

Jefferson will again be a big factor in how the Hornets do in the upcoming season. He discussed his summer and the Hornets’ prospects with Observer NBA writer Rick Bonnell:

Q: You said at last season’s conclusion it was important you lose 20 or more pounds in the off-season. How has that gone?

Jefferson: Great. 20-plus. One thing about losing weight: It becomes a lot easier once you become disciplined about what you’re eating. Cutting out the sugar and the starch. Taking care of your body. Once I got into a routine it became pretty easy. And I knew what I was doing it for – to take some of the weight off my knees and getting my body into better shape than last year.

Many Miami Heat players are in final year of contract

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting on the Miami Heat, who have players that want to win like anyone else but also need to think about themselves and not just the team because many of them are in a contract year. It also presumably means the team could look very different in a year.

When the Miami Heat regroup for training camp in just over a week, a singular goal will be a return to the playoffs. But the question is whether other singular goals will be in play, as well.

For as much work as Pat Riley and his staff put into attempting to prevent a lottery repeat, there also was a forward-thinking approach with the roster, one that provides flexibility for what some expect to be a free-agency free-for-all next July, when the entire league will be flush with cap cash.

As a result, three-fifths of the Heat’s anticipated starting lineup will be playing in the final (or lone) year of their contracts, when counting Hassan Whiteside, Luol Deng and Dwyane Wade, with only Chris Bosh and Goran Dragic under contract beyond 2015-16.

Beyond that, prime reserves such as Amar’e Stoudemire, Gerald Green, Mario Chalmers, Chris Andersen, and even Udonis Haslem and Tyler Johnson will be in the final seasons of their contracts.

That presents a roster that both wants to win . . . and wants to get paid.

Hornets coach Steve Clifford speaks

Here’s some of what Hornets head coach Steve Clifford said recently, as per the Charlotte Observer:

He said the Hornets played what has become the NBA’s go-to offense for most of the elite teams – “four-out,” which means four players outside the three-point line to begin the play and only one working in the paint – a modest 51 percent of the time last year. He indicated that number would be much higher in 2015-16, which means Cody Zeller sure better learn how to shoot the corner three under pressure.

He wants Kemba Walker, a career 32 percent shooter from 3-point range, to improve to 38 percent this season, and he believes it can happen because defense won’t be able to focus as much on Walker this season.

Nets sign Justin Harper

The Brooklyn Nets have signed forward Justin Harper, General Manager Billy King announced today.

We assume this is a non-guaranteed contract that merely brings Harper to Nets training camp.

Harper (6’10”, 225) joins the Nets after spending the 2014-15 season with S.S. Felice Scandone in Italy’s Serie A. Originally selected with the 32nd pick (second round) of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Harper was dealt to the Orlando Magic on draft night. He appeared in 14 games with the Magic during his rookie season, averaging 1.4 points and 0.9 rebounds in 6.0 minutes per game. He also saw action in one postseason game.

Following his rookie season, Harper competed for the D-League’s Idaho Stampede (2012-13) and Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League (2013-14) before landing in Italy.

Most recently, Harper was a member of the Phoenix Suns’ entry in the 2015 Las Vegas Summer League.

A four-year player at Richmond University, Harper’s collegiate career culminated in his selection to the All-Atlantic 10 First Team as a senior.

Timberwolves sign Kleon Penn and Nick Wiggins

Timberwolves sign Kleon Penn and Nick Wiggins

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has signed center Kleon Penn and guard Nick Wiggins.

We assume these are non-guaranteed contracts that merely bring these players to training camp.

Penn, 29, most recently played in 45 games with Vaqueros de Bayamon in Puerto Rico, averaging 4.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 18.4 minutes per game. Penn, a Virgin Islands native, recently won a gold medal in June with the Virgin Islands during the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships, a team that interim head coach Sam Mitchell led. Penn finished his college career at McNeese State in 2009.

Wiggins, 24, appeared in three games for the Timberwolves 2015 NBA Las Vegas Summer League entry, averaging 4.0 points in 11.0 minutes per game. Wiggins, 6-6, spent parts of last season with the Idaho Stampede in the NBA D-League, averaging 9.8 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. Wiggins, the older brother of Andrew Wiggins, started the year in Germany playing with the Tigers Tubingen. Wiggins played two seasons at Wichita State University and went undrafted in the 2014 NBA Draft.

Penn will wear No. 50 while Wiggins will don No. 6.