NBA Teams – Page 1002 – NBA Blog

Bucks sign first round draft pick Jabari Parker

The Milwaukee Bucks have signed first round draft pick Jabari Parker, General Manager John Hammond announced today.

All first round draft picks are guaranteed to receive a contract, assuming they want to begin their NBA career right away. Therefore, this signing is standard operating procedure, and was expected.

The second overall selection in the 2014 NBA Draft, Parker played one collegiate season at Duke University, where he was a consensus First Team All-America selection. While with the Blue Devils, Parker also earned honors as a First Team All-ACC member, ACC Rookie of the Year and USBWA National Freshman of the Year. His 19.1 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game were both Top-50 in the nation, with the points per game average marking the fourth-highest effort ever by an ACC freshman. He is the fourth freshman in ACC history to lead the league in rebounding.

With 670 points and 306 rebounds, Parker became the 14th player in Duke history to record 600+ points and 300+ rebounds in the same season, and he is just the sixth ACC freshman to ever reach the 600-point plateau. He is also the first Duke freshman to lead the team in both scoring and rebounding. Parker posted a career-high 30 points (10-of-17, .588) to go along with 11 boards in a win vs. UNC on March 8. The 30-point effort was the most by a Duke freshman in the 238 games played in series history against the rival Tar Heels.

Additionally, Parker received First Team All-America honors from The Associated Press, NABC, USBWA, Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. Parker was a finalist for the Naismith Trophy, Oscar Robertson Trophy and John R. Wooden Award, and he was honored as the top freshman in the country through the Integris Wayman Tisdale Award by the USBWA. He was named ACC Rookie of the Week a record 10 times and was on the All-ACC Academic Team.

A native of Chicago, Parker attended Simeon Career Academy, where he led Simeon to four IHSA Class 4A state championships and averaged 18.4 points and 10.4 rebounds as a senior. He was named the 2013 Jordan Brand Classic Co-MVP, is a two-time Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year and Illinois Mr. Basketball winner, and was named National Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior. Parker has also played for USA Basketball, earning gold medals at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship and the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.

Raptors sign first round draft pick Bruno Caboclo

The Toronto Raptors announced Wednesday they have signed forward Bruno Caboclo (cuh-BO-clo) to his rookie scale contract. He is under contract through the 2015-16 season, with two team option years to follow. The Raptors selected the 18-year-old Brazilian with the 20th overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft.

All first round NBA draft picks are guaranteed to receive a contract, assuming they wish to come to the NBA right away. Therefore, this signing is standard operating procedure, and was expected.

Caboclo, 6-foot-9, 205 pounds, was the Most Valuable Player at the 2013 Basketball Without Borders Americas. He played in 16 games this past season with Pinheiros (Sao Paulo) where he contributed 4.9 points and 3.1 rebounds. In three Liga Americas contests, he averaged 8.0 points shooting .714 from the field and .667 from three-point range.

Caboclo and the Raptors open their preliminary round in the 2014 Samsung NBA Summer League in Las Vegas on Friday, July 11 versus the Los Angeles Lakers at 3 p.m. (6 p.m. ET).

Jarred Shaw added to Hornets summer league roster

Here’s the Deseret News reporting on the Jazz summer league squad:

Former Utah State men’s basketball player Jarred Shaw will be a member of the Charlotte Hornets NBA Summer League roster.

The NBA Summer League will be held July 11-21 in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Thomas and Mack Center and COX Pavilion on the UNLV campus. Each team will play no fewer than five games, including three preliminary games before beginning the seeded tournament on July 16.

Cavs will reportedly trade Jarrett Jack to Nets

Here’s ESPN.com reporting on a trade that absolutely does matter, because it helps the Cavs clear salary room in their quest to try to bring LeBron James back to Cleveland:

The Cleveland Cavaliers will trade Jarrett Jack to the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday as part of a three-team deal with Boston to create more salary-cap space for the pursuit of LeBron James, according to sources close to the process.

Sources told ESPN.com that the Nets have agreed to take on the contracts of Jack and youngster Sergey Karasev from the Cavaliers in a swap that will also see the Celtics acquire Brooklyn’s Marcus Thornton, Cleveland’s Tyler Zeller and a protected 2016 first-round pick from the Cavaliers.

“I’m very, very excited. Obviously, playing in New York is a compliment in and of itself,” Jack told ESPN’s Josina Anderson. “The opportunity to play at the Barclays every night, I couldn’t be happier.”

Cleveland will take back the draft rights to Ilkan Karaman and Edin Bavcic from the Nets to complete the transaction, a league source told ESPNNewYork.com’s Ohm Youngmisuk. The moves will give the Cavaliers significant financial flexibility by shedding the contracts of Jack, Zeller and Karasev.

Carmelo Anthony likely to re-sign with Knicks

Here’s the New York Daily News reporting that unless something changes, Carmelo Anthony is expected to stick with the Knicks:

Carmelo Anthony is prepared to spend the prime years of his career in New York, the Daily News has learned.

A person close to Anthony told The News on Wednesday that barring a last minute change of heart Anthony will re-sign with the Knicks after “agonizing over this” for the past week.

“He will have something for everybody on Thursday,” said the friend who was with Anthony before Anthony’s scheduled workout with Kevin Durant and Kevin Love in Los Angeles on Wednesday. “He is really torn because this is the biggest decision of his career. But he wants to get it done in New York. He told me he believes in Phil.”

Trainer Fred Tedeschi gone from Bulls

Here’s the Chicago Tribune with an update on the Bulls training staff:

Longtime Chicago Bulls athletic trainer Fred Tedeschi, hired by former general manager Jerry Krause in August 1998, has left the organization.

Tedeschi twice won the NBATA’s Joe O’Toole Trainer of the Year award. According to a team spokesman, he has accepted a position at Oregon State, where his daughter is enrolled in graduate school.

Young Magic need veteran leadership from Channing Frye

Here’s the Orlando Sentinel reporting on new Magic addition, Channing Frye:

The Magic just didn’t pay for Channing Frye’s basketball services. They are paying him to run their daycare, too.

As any parent knows, finding the right person to watch your kids is money well spent.

You can’t put a price on the maturity and professionalism that Frye will bring to this NBA nursery, although the Magic figured it was worth about $32 million over four years.

You’d ask for the moon, too, to baby-sit this brood.

The Magic are so young and impressionable that they need chaperons and curfews. Top pick Aaron Gordon is 18, and they’ll surely award custody of him to Frye, 31.

Without question, they have turned their lockeroom over to Frye for the next four seasons — or however long he’s in Orlando.

Wolves sign first round draft pick Zach LaVine

The Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday announced the team has signed 2014 first-round draft pick Zach LaVine. LaVine, a 6-5 guard out of UCLA, was the 13th overall selection in this year’s draft.

All first round draft picks are guaranteed to receive a contract, assuming the player wants to come to the NBA right away. This signing is standard routine, and was expected.

LaVine appeared in all 37 games, making one start, as a freshman at UCLA this past season. He averaged 9.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game, earning Pac 12 All-Freshman honors. He connected on 37.5% from three-point range, finishing the year with 48 made three-pointers, the second-highest made three-pointers by a UCLA freshman in school history. LaVine scored in double figures in 17 games, including nine of his first 10 contests.

LaVine will make his Wolves debut at the Samsung NBA Summer League 2014, which takes place in Las Vegas from July 11-21. Minnesota’s first game is against Dallas on July 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center at 5:30 p.m. CT.

Kings sign first round draft pick Nik Stauskas

The Sacramento Kings on Tuesday signed first-round draft pick Nik Stauskas (STOUS-kiss) to a contract, according to Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro. Sacramento selected Stauskas out of the University of Michigan with the eighth-overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

As a first round draft pick, Stauskas was guaranteed to receive a contract. This signing is standard and was expected.

An early entry candidate, the 6-6, 205-pound Stauskas earned numerous All-American honors and was named the 2013-14 Big 10 Player of the Year after averaging 17.5 points (.470 FG%, .442 3pt%, .824 FT%), 2.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 35.6 minutes per game in 36 appearances for the Wolverines during his sophomore campaign. In two seasons with Michigan, Stauskas helped the Wolverines to the NCAA Tournament title game in 2013 and a Big Ten Championship and an Elite Eight appearance in 2014, finishing with career averages of 14.1 points (.467 FG%, .441 3pt%, .832 FT%), 2.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 32.9 minutes per game in 75 contests. In the Michigan record books, he is ranked second all-time in career free throw percentage, fifth in three-point field goal percentage, eighth in three-point field goals made (172) and 10th in three-point field goals attempted (390).

Nets introduce new head coach Lionel Hollins

Here’s the New York Daily News reporting on the Nets, who formally introduced new head coach Lionel Hollins yesterday:

In tone, message and appearance, Lionel Hollins was the anti-Jason Kidd in his introductory press conference with the Nets on Monday, even going so far as to say that he is not after general manager Billy King’s job, a startling remark that seemed appropriate given the tumult of the past week.

In the wake of the Kidd fiasco, Hollins, 60, reached an agreement with the Nets last Wednesday to become the 19th coach in the team’s long and increasingly strange history.

Implied in his hiring is the understanding that Hollins will bring stability to a franchise that was thrown for a loop when Kidd abruptly left to become head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks last week after he tried, unsuccessfully, to undercut King.

So it was telling that Hollins made it clear on Monday that he has no intentions of currying more influence within the Nets. He’s happy being a coach.

“It’s just nice to be able to do your job,” Hollins said, wearing a dark suit with his wife, Angela, beaming in the front row and King by his side. “That’s all I want to do. I’m a basketball coach. I don’t want to do Billy’s job. I don’t want to do anybody else’s job in the organization, but the one I’m hired to do. That’s important to me. I’m very low maintenance.”