Woo-hoo! Draft lottery day has arrived, and there will be a whole new level of hope for some playoff outlier by the time the second half of the Spurs-Grizzlies game begins. Do we know who is going to go No. 1? No we don’t. As mentioned here, Orlando and New Orleans are likely to trade the No. 1 pick if they win. But the way the ping-pong balls fly will change the landscape across the NBA, and could lead to a significant amount
NEW YORK — You know why the dateline for the Draft Lottery says “New York” instead of “Secaucus, N.J.?” Because they dynamited the old NBA Entertainment Studios where the lottery was held for more than a decade, so if they wanted to do the ping-pong ball thingee amid a pile of rubble. So the Millennium Hotel in Times Square is the place where the fate of the 14-non-playoff teams will be decided, and the team that has the most to lose by
CHICAGO — It was not a make or break situation, but when you walked into the gym for the NBA pre-draft camp on Chicago’s west side – filled with scouts, general managers, coaches, media and everyone in between – you could feel the intensity in the air. [Read more…]
Imagine if Andrew Wiggins had chosen Kentucky instead of Kansas? The Wildcats would be bigger favorites to win the 2014 NCAA title than the Miami Heat are to win the 2013 NBA title. But the player expected to be the first overall selection of the 2014 NBA draft went with the Jayhawks, who are losing all five starters from last year’s team. [Read more…]
Between the NBA Combine and the upcoming lottery, this is the time of year where there is a lot of movement in projections for the NBA draft. And no one is moving more than Jamaal Franklin. Franklin entered the NBA draft after an impressive junior season at San Diego State in which he averaged 17.0 points and 9.5 rebounds. He is a long, explosive athlete who is at his best slashing and attacking the rim and locking up opponents on the perimeter. Franklin
In case you missed it, the NBA released the list of early-entry candidates for the 2013 Draft last week. We have a post up from our U.S.-based draft guru, Joe Kotoch, highlighting the names that were conspicuously absent (Marcus Smart chief among them), and we also have a brand new Mock Draft update that takes into account the recent rise of San Diego State’s Jamaal Franklin. As you can see from the big list, there are 31 international prospects — quite a
The Phoenix Suns have a huge rebuilding project on their hands. However, they have the tools to do it. And now they believe they have the right man to use those tools. Two weeks after firing Lance Blanks, Suns president Lon Babby on Tuesday hired Ryan McDonough as the team’s new general manager. The hiring puts interim coach Lindsey Hunter’s status in immediate jeopardy. Hunter was working in player development when he was installed by Blanks after Alvin Gentry was fired. Assistants
The deadline to enter the draft for college players has passed, and while there were some surprise returnees – namely Marcus Smart and Isaiah Austin – there were plenty of early entrants as well. To be exact: 77. Which thereby allows us to present Mock Draft 2.0, which includes the pre-lottery positions of all 30 teams based upon their records, and tiebreakers that were drawn at the Board of Governors meeting in late April. The big news here is this: Sources around