New Bulls GM Marc Eversley shares player-first mentality

The Bulls have a new front office. It’s a new era in Chicago. Okay, the start of one. Possibly. It’s all about results. Anyway, here’s the Chicago Sun-Times reporting:

“One of my mottos is ‘players first,’ ‘’ new GM Marc Eversley said on Friday, when he was officially introduced to the media via Zoom. “I think you have to create a players-first mentality. And I agree with you – we were the second-youngest team in the NBA last year, and I really believe it starts with a foundation of player development. True player development, that’s really when we can see what kind of players we have on our roster.’’

Develop the players to their fullest potential and then actually have a real selling point to a superstar?

Sure, former GM Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson spoke about that often, but had very little idea on how to execute it.

The best player developer Forman and Paxson had was one-time coach Tom Thibodeau, who was so adept at bringing the best out of players, he covered up a lot of the mistakes his bosses made both in the draft and free agency.

And here’s NBC Sports Chicago:

It seemed telling that Karnisovas answered a question on division of labor with a collaboration-focused response. Whether it’s internally or in inter-organization dealings, Karnisovas and Eversley will work in concert. For, say, a trade negotiation, one of Karnisovas or Everlsey might have a stronger relationship with an executive to leverage. In a different scenario, one might share a strong connection with an agent for a free agent pursuit. Even externally, Karnisovas said they will share duties like meeting with reporters to detail the team’s vision and actions.

“The luxury that we have with our current hires is that we’re coming from a lot of different programs. And we can take the best scouting practices and how we look at evaluating players, how we look at player development,” Karnisovas said. “We’re going to share our responsibilities. We’re going to hear each other out and make a decision at the end of the day.

First up will be the draft, which is scheduled for late June, but with May’s draft lottery and draft combine postponed, it’s possible the actual draft date might change as well.

2020 NBA Draft Lottery and NBA Draft Combine are postoned

The NBA has postponed the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery and the 2020 NBA Draft Combine.

Both events were scheduled to take place later this month in Chicago.

The draft lottery determines the order of team selections in the draft.

The combine includes player workouts, scrimmages and measurements, of prospects hoping to be selected in the draft.

In our opinion, there are ways the NBA can replace much of what goes on at the combine. But the draft lottery literally determines the structure of the draft, in terms of which teams has wish draft selection, so it’s absolutely essential and absolutely does have to be rescheduled.

Some quick words on a few Steph Curry NBA accomplishments

Here’s NBC Sports Bay Area reminding the world of some of Stephen Curry’s style of play, and a few of his lofty accomplishments:

When Curry is on the court, he is a head-hunter. He lives for the kill shot and — like MJ and the others — is haunted by his misses. Don’t fall for the veneer, the displays of glee, the easy grin and the honey-colored skin. This genuinely joyful soul with scripture on his sneakers has spent most of his career as the league’s most prolific undercover executioner.

Over the past seven postseasons, Curry has beaten every MVP, or MVP candidate, that has beaten him. Only Kawhi Leonard, who as a member of the San Antonio Spurs played only 24 minutes over nine postseason games against the Warriors, can be argued as an exception.

Curry is 3-1 against LeBron James in The Finals and 4-0 against James Harden in the playoffs. He’s 3-0 against Damian Lillard. In the lone instance when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook represented the roadblock, Curry took them out.

There’s much more to say about Steph — namely his historic shooting from three-point range — but the above certainly speaks volumes.

With the Kevin Durant era over in Golden State, but the team presumably at full health by the time NBA play eventually resumes, it’ll be great fun seeing what Steph accomplishes in 2020-21.

Chicago Bulls hire Marc Eversley as new general manager

The Chicago Bulls have hired Marc Eversley to be the team’s General Manager. In this role, Eversley will report directly to Executive Vice President – Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas and primarily be responsible for overseeing the implementation of all elements of the basketball operations process.

“I set out to find a General Manager who complemented my vision and values, and who could help implement them at the Bulls in a fresh way. Marc’s background and skills do exactly that,” said Karnisovas. “He has a history of building strong relationships across the board, identifying talent at organizations that have had success during his time there, and the necessary insight for building a network that will be an asset to our program. He’s ready for this next step in his career, and I’m looking forward to working with him to build the Bulls back into a perennial contender.”

Eversley comes to Chicago with 14 years of NBA experience, working for the Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers. In his latest role as Senior Vice President of Player Personnel with the 76ers, he not only oversaw player personnel and talent evaluation, but was also involved in Philadelphia’s recruiting and decision-making process. He was promoted to Senior Vice President after serving the first two seasons as Vice President of Player Personnel. He also oversaw Philadelphia’s scouting department on the collegiate, NBA and international levels.

“Becoming a General Manger in the NBA and joining the Chicago Bulls family is a dream come true,” said Eversley. “I’m grateful to be working with someone like Arturas who shares my level of passion and commitment to winning basketball, and having both come from successful programs, we will put in the work and all it entails to become a sustainable and winning team. I want to thank Arturas, as well as Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf, for trusting in my leadership abilities to move this iconic franchise forward.”

Here’s the Chicago Tribune:

It’ll be hard not to notice Eversley when he walks into a room, considering he stands at 6-foot-8 and is a former NAIA college basketball player at Urbana University in Ohio, which recently closed. Eversley played 95 games in his career and averaged 11.3 points per game. Although neither Eversley nor Karnisovas ever played in the NBA, they both come to the Bulls front office with some basketball experience.

Eversley was on the 76ers staff when the team selected Ben Simmons first-overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, and he helped Philadelphia transition from a team that won 28 games his first season in 2016-17 to one that won 50-plus games the next two seasons. This year’s team was on pace for 50 wins again before the NBA went on hiatus during the 2019-20 season. He had a hand in acquiring such players as J.J. Redick, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris to fortify a roster that included Simmons and Joel Embiid.

And more from the Tribune:

The Bulls do not overhaul their front office often, so when their search for Karnisovas started and finished without successfully interviewing any black candidates — in a league where about 70 percent of the players are black — they drew criticism from African American executives around the league. Chief Operating Officer Michael Reinsdorf said they were denied permission to interview the people of color on their list. Regardless, Karnisovas said he would make it a point to change that and emphasized diversity within his candidate pool.

Prior to joining the 76ers, Eversley spent three seasons with the Washington Wizards as Vice President of Player Personnel. He began his NBA career with the Toronto Raptors where he spent seven seasons as an Assistant General Manager responsible for player development, then personnel scouting and evaluation, and he played a lead role in drafting DeMar DeRozan ninth-overall in the 2009 NBA Draft. Eversley concluded the final two seasons of his Toronto tenure as the Vice President of College Scouting.

How Steve Kerr learned to not yell at Klay Thompson

Different players react to coaching and motivational methods in different ways. A huge part of being a basketball coach is learning how to share information and instructions to players in a manner that the player will understand and, just as importantly, accept.

As for the Warriors, here’s NBC Sports Bay Area reporting on head coach Steve Kerr and what he learned about coaching shooting guard Klay Thompson:

“My very first season, I lit into Klay. I took an early timeout, lit into Klay, and he didn’t respond very well,” Kerr said on the Runnin’ Plays Podcast. “And he went out and was kind of rattled, made a couple mistakes.”

Confused, Kerr solicited advice from folks around the eccentric guard, then in his fourth NBA season, and found that Thompson is more receptive to a different style of coaching.

“I kind of checked that box,” Kerr said. “I said, ‘Klay’s not a guy who’s going to respond to yelling.’ ”

The adjustment worked.

After racking up multiple championships, then seeing the departure of Kevin Durant, all while suffering a big stack of injuries, the Warriors were at the bottom of the league in 2019-20. It’ll be interesting to see what they’re able to do in the next offseason in building up a supporting cast for 2020-21.

Knicks will keep general manager Scott Perry for next season

The Knicks will keep roster decision-maker Scott Perry next season. Here’s New York Newsday reporting:

The Leon Rose era will begin with a familiar face: The Knicks have decided to retain Scott Perry as general manager.

They confirmed that Perry will remain with a statement from Rose, the new team president.

“Scott is a well-respected basketball executive who I have known for more than 20 years, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him as we look to build a winning team in New York,” Rose said.

While the season remains in limbo right now because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Knicks needed to make a decision on Perry because of a mutual option set to trigger on May 1.

The Knicks roster will likely undergo huge changes in the next offseason. Perry’s main goal at this point is to find long-term building blocks, and to avoid giving superstar-level free agent contracts to players who are not superstars.

Checking in with Heat guard Tyler Herro

Here’s ESPN.com checking in on young Heat guard Tyler Herro:

For the season, Herro ranks eighth among rookies in scoring (12.9 points), seventh in 20-point games (9) and tied for first with 2.1 3-pointers per game.

His seven made 3-pointers on Jan. 22 against the Washington Wizards were the most in a game by a Heat rookie in franchise history and tied for the most by any rookie this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. However, Herro is still not satisfied.

“I just hope that they open as soon as possible,” Herro said of practice facilities possibly reopening soon. “Obviously, hoping everybody stays safe … but we would all love to get back into the facilities and start working out and stuff like that again on a normal routine.”

The NBA season is on hold, but there’s still hope that either it will resume — likely in condensed form — or some sort of playoffs can take place.

To Warriors coach Steve Kerr, the NBA season feels over

The NBA season has been put on hold since mid March. But it hasn’t officially been canceled. Though, it certainly won’t surprise anyone if that’s what winds up happening. And soon. Here’s ESPN.com reporting what Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said on Tuesday:

As the NBA continues to try to find ways to salvage the end of its season as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr acknowledged that his team is operating as if its season is over.

“It feels like the offseason,” Kerr said during a video conference call in conjunction with the University of San Francisco on Tuesday. “And, in fact, we had a Zoom call, Bob Myers and I got on a Zoom with our players, our whole roster last week. And it was just a chance to check in, but it was also a chance for Bob to update the players on his contact with the league and the latest news, but it also kind of felt like our annual team exit meeting. Our coaching staff and I have been undergoing staff evaluations, offseason plans, so we are absolutely in offseason mode right now.”

As other teams in playoff contention try to keep their teams focused on a possible resumption of play, Kerr said that though the Warriors remain in communication with all their players and staffers, the team isn’t concerned about a possible resumption, given that Golden State had a league-worst 15-50 record when the season was suspended on March 11.

Clarity on the matter will likely come sometime in May.

Instead of playing college hoops, HS senior Daishen Nix signs with G League

High school senior Daishen Nix has signed to play in the NBA G League next season, it was announced today by NBA G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Nix is ranked by ESPN as the top player in Nevada and No. 20 in the nation in the Class of 2020.

Nix comes to the NBA G League from Trinity International School in Las Vegas, Nev., where he was named a 2020 McDonald’s All-American. He joins fellow consensus five-star recruits Jalen Green and Isaiah Todd in signing to play in the NBA G League for the 2020-21 season.

Per ESPN.com, “Nix is the third player to join the G League from the 2020 class, following No. 1 prospect Jalen Green and five-star forward Isaiah Todd, both of whom made the decision earlier this month. Nix is the first player to renege on a signed letter of intent to join the G League.”

And per the Los Angeles Times, regarding the G League, “the league offers high school graduates the opportunity to essentially have a year-long paid apprenticeship in a professional environment, complete with access to facilities, coaches, trainers and player development experts. One of the sites being considered as home base for the select team is the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks.”

In the G League, Nix will have the opportunity to accelerate his on-court development as he learns NBA-style basketball while also focusing heavily on life skills development for his professional career.

Details of the new team Nix, Green and Todd will play for, which will be unaffiliated with any existing NBA G League franchise or NBA team, are forthcoming.

Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon now fully healed

There’s no pro basketball about to be played anytime soon, but here’s some good news on the Pacers front from the Indianapolis Star:

Malcolm Brogdon is ready to go if the NBA season resumes. Saturday, the Indiana Pacers posted a video from their starting point guard on their social media accounts that he’s fully healed from a hip/thigh injury that kept him out the last three games before the hiatus because of COVID-19.

“I’m doing great. I’ve been doing as much as I can under this quarantine but I’m 100%,” Brogdon said in the video. “I’ve been on my Peleton bike and I’ve been running hills in my backyard.”

The Pacers were 39-26 when league play was put on hold in mid March.