Category: NBA Teams

NBA teams blog

Tony Parker should return sooner than expected

Tony Parker is up there in age but he remains a key member of the Spurs, who enter the 2017-18 season in their usual place, as a contender. It was unclear when Parker would return from injury, but good news has emerged. Here’s ESPN.com reporting:

With the San Antonio Spurs set to report to the team facilities Monday for media day, point guard Tony Parker received some positive news Friday when doctors cleared him to participate in the club’s upcoming training camp, after he suffered a season-ending torn quadriceps tendon in May during the Western Conference semifinals.

“The thing is, I did an MRI on Friday, and the doctor said they were really happy with the MRI,” Parker told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “It looked very good. So they cleared me. But it’s still going to be like another, I think, two months to get back in shape and getting my leg stronger.” …

“In my mind, hopefully, I can be back by mid-November, end of November,” Parker said. “But overall, it’s great news. Because at first, the doctors thought it would be the end of January. So it’s still like great news.”

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Several key players gone from Jazz

The Jazz are a different team this upcoming season. They lost some key parts during the offseason, the biggest being young star Gordon Hayward. Here’s the Deseret News reporting:

A lot has changed in the last four and a half months since the Utah Jazz were eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the eventual champion Golden State Warriors, following a 51-win season and a fifth-place finish in the Western Conference.

The Jazz lost their premier player, Gordon Hayward, to the Boston Celtics in a free agency move that gave the Utah franchise nothing in return. They also lost starting point guard George Hill, who chose to sign with Sacramento, again with nothing in return. Also moving on were former first-round draft choice Trey Lyles, who was traded to Denver, part-time starting point guard Shelvin Mack and backup center Jeff Withey, who signed with the Mavericks and veteran Boris Diaw, who was waived.

Jazz picked up seven new players, six of whom who are expected to be on the 13-man active roster, led by former lottery pick Ricky Rubio. The Jazz also have first-round draft picks Donovan Mitchell and Tony Bradley as well as veterans Thabo Sefolosha, Jonas Jerebko and Ekpe Udoh. The Jazz also signed swingman Royce O’Neal, but he’ll most likely be fighting for a spot on the 15-man roster.

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Bulls and Dwyane Wade reportedly agree to buyout

The Bulls aren’t what they were. Jimmy Butler and Rajon Rondo are gone. The team won’t be a contender in 2017-18. So why would Dwyane Wade, as his NBA career winds down, want to stick around? And why would the Bulls, clearly now in a rebuilding period, still need him? As has been expected, the two sides will part ways. Here’s the Chicago Tribune reporting:

Three months after trading Jimmy Butler and waiving Rajon Rondo, the Bulls reached agreement on a buyout with Dwyane Wade on Sunday night, the eve of training camp. A source said Wade gave up roughly $8 million to $9 million of the $23.8 million he stood to make after picking up his player option on June 20, two days before the Butler deal.

The move clears the way for Wade to sign with a contender like the Cavaliers, Thunder or Spurs or possibly return to his beloved Heat. More importantly, it allows the Bulls to start fresh with their full rebuild and eliminate a potential distraction since Wade preferred to play for his fourth championship at this stage of his career.

“I just felt it was time for me, turning 36, that I want to be competing for a championship,” Wade told the Tribune in a phone interview. “I said when I got here, it was always a dream for me to play here. And getting that opportunity was special. And I can’t even say it wasn’t what everyone expected because we went to the playoffs. And trying to restore this franchise to respectability was our goal. The organization decided to go in a different direction, which I respect.”

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Nets sign Akil Mitchell

The Brooklyn Nets have signed forward Akil Mitchell.

Mitchell (6’9”, 250) appeared in four games for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s NBA G League affiliate, during the 2016-17 season, averaging 8.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 28.6 minutes per contest. He joined the team in late February after his rights were originally acquired by Long Island in the fourth round of the 2016 NBA G League Expansion Draft.

Prior to his time with the LI Nets, Mitchell appeared in 25 games for the New Zealand Breakers in Australia’s National Basketball League last season, averaging 9.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 22.7 minutes per game while shooting .556 from the field (105-of-189). Mitchell has also played professionally for Antibes in France’s LNB Pro A (2015-16) and for the NBA G League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers (2014-15) after four years (2010-14) at the University of Virginia. The Charlotte, N.C., native was named to the 2013-14 All-ACC Defensive Team as a senior (2013-14) and the All-ACC third team as a junior (2012-13). He finished his career at Virginia ranking third all-time in games played (133) and seventh in rebounds (798).

Bucks sign Joel Anthony and Gerald Green

The Milwaukee Bucks have signed free agent center/forward Joel (Jo-EL) Anthony and guard/forward Gerald Green to training camp contracts.

Anthony, 35, appeared in 19 games last season for the San Antonio Spurs and averaged 1.3 points and 1.6 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per contest.

Undrafted out of UNLV, Anthony played his first seven seasons with the Miami Heat and won back-to-back NBA Championships in 2012 and 2013. Over his ten-year NBA career he has averaged 2.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots over 490 games (110 starts) with Miami, Boston, Detroit and San Antonio.

Green, 31, appeared in 47 games last season for the Boston Celtics and averaged 5.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 11.4 minutes per contest.

A ten-year NBA veteran, Green was the 18th overall selection in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. He sports career averages of 9.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.0 assist over 544 games (116 starts) with Boston, Minnesota, Houston, Dallas, New Jersey, Indiana, Phoenix and Miami. Green spent two years (2009-11) playing professionally overseas in Russia and China.

Lots of preseason travel for Timberwolves

The Timberwolves are doing a ton of traveling this preseason. The good kind of traveling. Where you get on planes and go visit interesting places. Not the bad kind of travel, where the referee is forced to blow a whistle at you. Well, maybe they’ll do that as well. We’ll see! Anyway, here’s the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The Timberwolves rolled out the basketballs on a new season Saturday morning, convening in a University of California-San Diego gym more than 1,500 miles away from their downtown Minneapolis training facility.

Why, you very well might ask?

Well, it’s sort of on their way to China, where they will play two preseason games against defending NBA champion Golden State next week.

It’s also a sunny and chic version of Mankato, Minn., — former training-camp home to both the Wolves and the NFL’s Vikings — and a getaway where they’ll drill during the day with the Pacific Ocean shimmering in the distance and bond at night.

Full story 

Warriors statement on Trump not inviting team to White House

OFFICIAL TEAM STATEMENT BY THE WARRIORS

While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited. We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them. We’re disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise.

In lieu of a visit to the White House, we have decided that we’ll constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion — the values that we embrace as an organization.

Grizzlies trade Troy Daniels to Suns

The Phoenix Suns have acquired guard Troy Daniels and a 2018 second-round pick from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for a conditional Suns’ 2018 second-round pick.

Daniels, a 6-4, 205-pound guard, is a four-year NBA veteran who has played 162 games with Houston, Minnesota, Charlotte and, most recently, Memphis. In 2016-17, Daniels averaged 8.2 points while shooting 38.9 percent from three-point range in career-highs of 17.7 minutes and 67 games with the Grizzlies. The 26-year-old scored in double figures 23 times last season, including a career-high 31 points against the Lakers on December 3.

Holding a career three-point mark of 40.6 percent, Daniels has averaged 6.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 13.2 minutes over his four-year NBA career. Since he entered the league in 2013-14, his 40.6 percent mark from three-point range is 10th-best in the league among those with at least 250 makes. Undrafted in 2013, Daniels began his pro career with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League before signing with the Rockets late in the 2013-14 season and becoming a member of their rotation in the 2014 playoffs. He split time between Houston, Minnesota and Charlotte in 2014-15 and played the 2015-16 season with the Hornets before being dealt to the Grizzlies in July 2016.

A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Daniels played collegiately at Virginia Commonwealth University and was a member of the Rams’ 2011 Final Four team. As a senior in 2012-13, Daniels averaged a career-high 12.3 points and set a single-season school record with 124 three-point makes.

Suns sign Anthony Bennett and Peter Jok

The Phoenix Suns have signed forward Anthony Bennett and forward/guard Peter Jok (pronounced JOCK).

Until we hear otherwise, we will assume the deals are non-guaranteed training camp contracts.

Bennett, a 6-8, 235-pound forward, is a four-year NBA veteran who was the first overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft. Bennett has played in 151 games with Cleveland, Minnesota, Toronto and Brooklyn over his career, averaging 4.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 12.6 minutes. Bennett began the 2016-17 season with the Nets and averaged 5.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 11.5 minutes over 23 games, then completed the season with Fenerbahce of the Turkish Basketball Super League where he was a member of the first Turkish team to win the EuroLeague championship. A native of Toronto, Ontario, the 24-year-old has played for the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team, helping Canada to a silver medal finish at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto and a bronze medal finish at the 2015 FIBA Americas Tournament in Mexico City.

Jok, a 6-6, 205-pound wing, joins the Suns following a successful four-year career at the University of Iowa. As a senior in 2016-17, Jok led the Big Ten in scoring with 19.9 points per game and earned All-Big Ten First Team honors while setting a Hawkeyes single-season record by shooting 91.1 percent from the free throw line. Against Memphis in his senior season, Jok scored a career-high 42 points, the most scored by an Iowa player in 40 years as he made a career-high eight three-pointers in the contest. A native of Sudan, he left Iowa as the Hawkeyes’ career free throw percentage leader (88.1 percent), fourth in career three-point makes (216) and 15th in career scoring (1,508). The 23-year-old played with the New Orleans Pelicans at NBA Summer League 2017 in Las Vegas, averaging 9.0 points and 1.0 steals in three appearances.

Hornets promote Stephen Silas, hire Eddie Jordan

The Charlotte Hornets have promoted Stephen Silas to associate head coach and have hired Eddie Jordan as an assistant coach.

The team also made the following announcements regarding basketball operations personnel: Rick Higgins has been promoted to coaching assistant/video coordinator, Cam Twiss has been promoted to General Manager of the team’s G League affiliate the Greensboro Swarm, David Kaplan has been promoted to manager of basketball analytics, Adam Filippi has transitioned to collegiate scouting and Jakub Kudlacek has been hired as an international scout.

Silas is in his eighth season on the Charlotte bench and 17th in the NBA, coming to Charlotte 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 season.

Silas 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.

Jordan played seven seasons in the NBA from 1977-84 with four different teams, helping the Lakers to an NBA Championship during the 1981-82 season. He began his coaching career as an assistant in the college ranks with Boston College (1986-88) and Rutgers University (1988-91), before returning to the NBA as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings from 1992-97. Jordan has been a head coach with three NBA teams: the Kings (1997-98), the Washington Wizards (2003-08) and Philadelphia 76ers (2009-10). Most recently, he was the head coach at his alma mater, Rutgers University (2013-16).

The Washington, D.C. native has additional coaching experience as the lead assistant with the New Jersey Nets (1999-03) and Los Angeles Lakers (2012-13), where he coached alongside current Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford. While with the Nets, Jordan helped guide the team to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003.

Higgins’ promotion to coaching assistant/video coordinator comes after serving as the team’s video scout for the past four seasons. In his expanded role, Higgins will assist with game planning, scouting reports and player workouts in addition to his role in the video department.

Twiss has been promoted to General Manager of the Greensboro Swarm after serving as the Swarm’s Director of Basketball Operations for the G League affiliate’s inaugural season. Twiss will manage the Swarm’s roster, advise on G League and college personnel and assist with the integration between the Hornets and its G-League team.

Filippi, who previously scouted internationally, is now focused on collegiate scouting. Entering his seventh season in Charlotte, Filippi has more than 20 years of scouting experience. He previously worked for the Los Angeles Lakers before joining the Hornets.

Kudlacek, a native of the Czech Republic, played professionally in Europe for seven seasons and was a member of the Czech national team. Last season, he served as an international scout for the Los Angeles Clippers.

In his new role, Kaplan will provide basketball analytics to the coaching staff and front office. Previously, he served as a quantitative analyst for the Hornets.