Braves

DENVER (AP) &mdash; The Miami Heat are searching for inspiration anywhere they can find it, including a tennis great&rsquo;s record-setting win at the French Open and even their&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/heat-mascot-conor-mcgregor-nba-finals-097557b5dd00685bb5cdc6d418f9bbe9">mascot&rsquo;s quick rebound</a>&nbsp;from a few punches to the face.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat might be down 3-1 in the NBA Finals against the Nuggets heading into Game 5 on Monday night in Denver, but they hardly consider themselves out.
&ldquo;(Our belief) is at an all-time high,&rdquo; said Butler, whose team is hoping to avoid watching the Nuggets celebrate their first NBA title. &ldquo;It always has been all year. It always will be.&rdquo;
From Day 1, the Heat have demonstrated their scrappiness. At first, it was in scrimmages against each other in training camp and later in earning the No. 8 seed into the postseason through a second chance in the play-in tournament. They knocked out Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee in the first round, then the New York Knicks, and rebounded in Game 7 in Boston after squandering 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Bottom line: They&rsquo;re used to doing things the hard way.
&ldquo;They love the ultimate challenges and the ultimate competition,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;The narratives are not going to decide it. Whatever the analytics are about 3-1, that ain&rsquo;t going to decide it. It&rsquo;s going to be decided between those four lines, whose game can get to whose game and ultimately win at the end. That&rsquo;s what our guys love.&rdquo;
A little motivation goes a long way, too. They drew encouragement from Serbian great Novak Djokovic&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/djokovic-ruud-french-open-roland-garros-final-d7bda9f570b010ea48cf8a05b397291e">earning his men&rsquo;s-record 23rd Grand Slam singles championship</a>&nbsp;Sunday with a victory over Casper Ruud.
The Heat are trying to channel the inner belief Djokovic displayed as they face another&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-french-open-jokic-djokovic-serbia-3a0349ae24e0c113869ee4d6df70fe7f">Serbian standout in</a>&nbsp;Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
&ldquo;(Djokovic) has talked about that mental side of the game,&rdquo; said Spoelstra, who had no update on the availability of Tyler Herro, the sharpshooting guard sidelined by a hand injury. &ldquo;We have a very stubborn and defiant group, and I think it&rsquo;s good to have a little bit of defiance from time-to-time.&rdquo;
For tenacity, the Heat don&rsquo;t need to look any farther than their mascot, Burnie, who took two punches from former UFC champion Conor McGregor in a skit that led to the person in the costume seeking medical attention. Burnie could be back on the court, though, should the Heat force a Game 6 in Miami on Thursday.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the Miami Heat toughness that we&rsquo;re talking about,&rdquo; Spoesltra said of the mascot&rsquo;s return. &ldquo;He should have been allowed to take the first swing. We won&rsquo;t reveal who that is, but yeah, he can take a punch and get back up.&rdquo;
The Nuggets have the Heat down on the canvas, with no desire to let them back up. Still, they realize it won&rsquo;t be easy.
Closeout games rarely are.
&ldquo;Obviously, they&rsquo;ve been doubted the whole year and they made it this far for a reason,&rdquo; said Nuggets guard/forward Bruce Brown, whose team is 9-1 at home, with the lone blemish in Game 2 against Miami. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be crazy. It&rsquo;s going to be loud. The fans are going to be here probably early. But I can&rsquo;t wait. I feed off their energy, so hopefully it&rsquo;s going to be a big night.&rdquo;
The Nuggets have history on their side. Of the 36 teams&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-finals-2023-heat-nuggets-b0f83f7baccd425dbf8aba440e3e210c">that have fallen behind 3-1</a>&nbsp;in the NBA Finals, the lone one to come back to win the title was the 2016 Cleveland team led by LeBron James against Golden State.
On that Cavaliers squad was Kevin Love, the 34-year-old Heat forward who&rsquo;s been preaching that anything can happen.
&ldquo;You really just have to take it one possession at a time,&rdquo; Love said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just one possession, one quarter, half-to-half. Just get it done by any means necessary and figure the rest out.&rdquo;
Butler couldn&rsquo;t agree more. Just don&rsquo;t mention moral victories and how much they&rsquo;ve accomplished.
It&rsquo;s ring or bust.
&ldquo;All the odds, 8-seed &mdash; nah, none of that matters,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just two really good basketball teams. One has to get one win, and one has to get three. Let&rsquo;s just hope that the other that has to get three, gets three.&rdquo;

The Miami Heat are searching for inspiration anywhere they can find it, including a tennis great’s record-setting win at the French Open.

Down 3-1 in NBA Finals, Miami Heat looking for inspiration

The NBA&rsquo;s oldest coach. The NBA&rsquo;s newest superstar.
In an instant, the fortunes of the San Antonio Spurs changed in a big way.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-draft-lottery-nba-b0692a8ee59c2235f2d4f4387266eab7">Victor Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;is on his way to the NBA, and the coaching wins leader in Gregg Popovich will be waiting for him.
The right combination of ping-pong balls &mdash; 14, 5, 8 and 2 were the winning ones &mdash; gave the Spurs victory in the draft lottery Tuesday night, meaning they&rsquo;ll have the No. 1 pick June 22. That means they&rsquo;ve won the Wembanyama sweepstakes, and that four years of losing in a way that had never before happened under Popovich has actually paid off.
Pop and Wemby. A 74-year-old wine connoisseur who is one of the best basketball coaches in the world, and a&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-basketball-las-vegas-6f4ac3d44f624ef36ddb00e314cf0401">19-year-old supertalent</a>&nbsp;who hails from the land where some of the best wines are made.
The NBA has a new dynamic duo.
&ldquo;When you talk about generational talents, it&rsquo;s often times beyond just your ability to make a shot or your ability to jump or your ability to put the ball on the floor,&rdquo; Spurs general manager Brian Wright said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all of the little details that go into being great, becoming great. And as we&rsquo;ve studied Victor, he is very in-depth with everything that he does, whether it&rsquo;s on the court, whether it&rsquo;s training, or things that he&rsquo;s into off the court.&rdquo;
If the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wemby-victor-wembanyama-nba-draft-f5be654cce544c675559bad526220a9e">7-foot-3 Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;brings his current warm-up routine to the NBA, it&rsquo;ll be like none other. He&rsquo;s barefoot on the court for probably a good 15 or 20 minutes, stretching and doing various other things to get his feet ready. There&rsquo;s also some very specific ballhandling and passing things that he likes to do. It&rsquo;s not just a few shots, few dunks, few 3-pointers and go play. There&rsquo;s a plan and a reason for everything.
Popovich will love that. He knows Wembanyama has been taught the right way; the kid spent last year playing for Spurs icon Tony Parker&rsquo;s franchise in France, and is spending this season getting coached by Vincent Collet. That&rsquo;s someone Popovich coached against with the U.S. at the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics. Popovich raves about Collet, not hiding his respect level for him at all.
They&rsquo;ll talk before long about Wembanyama. That&rsquo;s certain. Pop will immerse himself into knowing everything that makes the kid tick, just so he knows how he&rsquo;ll react to every situation he&rsquo;ll face with the Spurs next season and beyond.
&ldquo;His ability to connect and spend time and bounce between the really detailed development of basketball players and the bigger picture of developing people is just so impressive,&rdquo; Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt said. &ldquo;I think no matter what Pop does, he&rsquo;s going to find a way to do that because that&rsquo;s in his heart. And I&rsquo;m excited to see whatever the next phase is in that journey.&rdquo;
This is an embarrassment of lottery riches for the Spurs. Let&rsquo;s be clear: They&rsquo;re not giving this back. But winning the lottery in 1987 and landing David Robinson was big, then winning the lottery again in 1997 and landing Tim Duncan was bigger, and now comes Wembanyama.
It&rsquo;s big. How big, well, that story will get told in the coming years.
&ldquo;Now it becomes real,&rdquo; former NBA player Ian Mahinmi &mdash; one of more than 40 international players that Popovich has had during his tenure in San Antonio &mdash; said during the telecast of Wembanyama&rsquo;s French league game Tuesday. &ldquo;Now everything becomes real.&rdquo;
Popovich talked before the Spurs&rsquo; last game of the season about how, during his career, he has been the &ldquo;beneficiary of serendipity to a max degree.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s not wrong. And more good fortune has come to San Antonio. The Spurs haven&rsquo;t won a playoff series since 2017 and went a combined 121-186 over the last four seasons.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-nba-draft-spurs-ee1a9bd2232173666d3302bb491c7c5c">They basically lost more games</a>&nbsp;in the last four years than they did in the previous eight years combined.
The losing ends now, if Wembanyama has anything to say about it. He&rsquo;s coming to the NBA with eyes on becoming a superstar, an icon, a champion. And he&rsquo;s about to become the star of the latest &mdash; and perhaps final &mdash; phase of Popovich&rsquo;s career.
&ldquo;Today was a good day,&rdquo; Wembanyama tweeted after the lottery.
Popovich doesn&rsquo;t tweet, but he and everyone else in San Antonio surely felt the same way. After 60 losses this season, they got the win they wanted most.

The NBA’s oldest coach and newest phenom could become the league's newest dynamic duo.

Victor Wembanyama, Gregg Popovich will be NBA’s newest dynamic duo

The NBA announced that 242 players have filed as early-entry candidates for the 2023 NBA Draft. Here is the complete list.

NBA announces 242 early-entry candidates for 2023 NBA Draft

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) &mdash; When it comes to Auburn and the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers know how to make an opening statement.
Johni Broome had 19 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, and No. 9 seed Auburn beat Iowa 83-75 on Thursday for its 10th consecutive opening-round win dating to the mid-1980s.
The Tigers (21-12) made 11 of 12 free throws over the final four minutes to lock up a second-round matchup with No. 1 seed Houston, which survived a scare from 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky..
It was a decidedly Auburn-oriented crowd two hours from campus.
&ldquo;They were loud and rowdy the whole game,&rdquo; Auburn guard Allen Flanigan said. &ldquo;It felt like a home game for us.&rdquo;
Broome even made his ninth 3-pointer of the season to push the margin into double digits for the first time with 16 minutes left.
The Tigers appeared poised to pull away in front of a partisan orange-and-blue crowd, going up by 17 with a 13-2 run midway through the second half sparked by Tre Donaldson&rsquo;s three 3-pointers off the bench.
The eighth-seeded Hawkeyes climbed back into it, twice cutting it down to four but coming no closer.
&ldquo;We knew they had another run in them,&rdquo; Broome said. &ldquo;We were like, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s make a stop and win this game.&rsquo;"
Auburn had six players score in double figures. Wendell Green Jr. had 15 points, and Donaldson, Jaylin Williams and KD Johnson each finished with 11. Allen Flanigan scored 10.
Payton Sandford scored 21 points for Iowa. Kris Murray had 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting and nine rebounds. Filip Rebraca scored 14 points.
The Hawkeyes found themselves playing in essentially a road game. But they declined to use that as an excuse.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re used to playing in hostile environments,&rdquo; Connor McCaffery said. &ldquo;Obviously if we had our choice we would have preferred it to be a little more neutral, but that&rsquo;s not why we lost at all.
&ldquo;We won at Rutgers, we won at IU (Indiana) and those places are 100 times louder than it was here today.&rdquo;
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, Connor&rsquo;s father, echoed that sentiment after his team ended with a third straight loss.
&ldquo;Every game in our league is a hostile environment so it cannot be an excuse, nor do we want to make it one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were right there, and you have to give credit to your opponent.&rdquo;
Johnson had a scary moment in the final minute of the first half.
He went up attempting to block a shot by Rebraca, who pump-faked and sent Johnson somersaulting over the top of the Iowa player.
The junior guard landed with a thud on his lower back and buttocks, sending the crowd into a hushed silence. Johnson stayed down briefly, writhing in pain, before heading to the bench to get checked out. He played in the second half.
&ldquo;I was just scared,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;I wanted to make sure I didn&rsquo;t hurt myself in any other way. That was crazy.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Auburn: Made seven 3-pointers in the second half after a 1-of-9 start.
Iowa: Fell just short of a fifth consecutive 20-win season. Missed all nine first-half 3-point attempts and finished 7 of 27 (25.9%) from deep. A team averaging 80 points a game was held to 26 in the first half.
&ldquo;Our speed and quickness was obviously a factor on the defensive end,&rdquo; Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.
UP NEXT
Auburn is 1-6 all-time against Houston, among the favorites to win it all. The Tigers lost in the second round last season. The big question will be the status of Cougars All-American Marcus Sasser, who aggravated a groin injury and didn&rsquo;t play in the second half.

Johni Broome had 19 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks, and No. 9 Auburn beat Iowa 83-75 on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.

Broome, Auburn hold off Iowa 83-75 in first round of NCAA Tournament

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) &mdash; Shaina Pellington made 11 straight shots on her way to scoring a career-high 35 points, leading No. 18 Arizona over No. 4 Utah 82-72 on Friday night.
Cate Reese added 16 points for the Wildcats (20-6, 10-5). Helena Pueyo had 12 points, including four free throws in the final 90 seconds.
&ldquo;I started off on fire,&rdquo; Pellington said. &ldquo;I feel like when I saw the first one go in, the second one go in, the third one go in. ... It just kept going and going and going. I also wanted to make sure that I was making sure that I was taking shots that made sense in the flow of the game.&rdquo;
Arizona broke the Utes&rsquo; seven-game winning streak and avenged an 80-79 loss in Salt Lake City a month ago.
Allison Pili scored 26 points, Jenna Johnson had 19 and Gianna Kneepkens 13 for the Utes (22-3, 12-3), who entered with the highest ranking in program history.
&ldquo;To lose it with 1.5 seconds left there on free throws, that was tough to swallow&rdquo; Arizona coach Adia Barnes said of the game in Salt Lake City. &ldquo;We really were focused at home and we need these wins. Everybody needs these wins. We&rsquo;re all chasing the top four in the Pac-12 tournament. We&rsquo;re playing for postseason standings.&rdquo;
Pellington had 23 points in the first half when she made all 10 field goal attempts. She made her first shot in the second half before missing.
Pellington finished 13 of 18 with eight rebounds and five steals.
&ldquo;This game will help us in a lot of ways,&rdquo; Barnes said. &ldquo;Came out and battled against a very good Utah team. We&rsquo;re starting to peak at the right time.&rdquo;
Utah trimmed a 10-point deficit to 76-72 on Pili&rsquo;s three-point play with 1:08 remaining before Madi Conner made two free throws for a 78-72 lead with 48.4 seconds remaining after Utah was called for an intentional foul. The Utes missed a 3-pointer on their next possession and were 4 of 19 from distance.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what it came down to,&rdquo; Utah coach Lynne Roberts said. &ldquo;We missed shots. That&rsquo;s just how the game goes sometimes. This game was not a must-win. Our backs were not against the wall. It was an incredibly physical game. Our offense is predicated on ball movement and player movement. It was hard to do. We couldn&rsquo;t even cut.&rdquo;
Utah, sixth in Division I in scoring, was held 12.7 points below its average. Arizona beat its fourth ranked team this season after wins over Baylor, Oregon and UCLA.
AN INCH OF SEPARATION
Utah beat the Wildcats on Jan. 15 when the lead changed hands twice in the final two seconds. Paris Clark&rsquo;s steal and layup gave Arizona a 79-78 lead. After a Utah timeout, Pili was fouled after catching a long pass and made two free throws with one second left.
HOME CROWD
The Wildcats drew 8,238, the second-largest this season after drawing 9,868 against Stanford last Friday. The largest crowd the Utes had seen this season was 6,289 at Oregon.
BIG PICTURE
Utah: The Utes&rsquo; only other losses are to ranked Pac-12 teams No. 3 Stanford and No. 21 Colorado. With a strong finish, they could capture one of eight host sites in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, which would be another program first.
Arizona: The Wildcats can bank on their third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, and the victory over the Utes helps make the journey one step easier.
UP NEXT
Utah: At Arizona State on Sunday.
Arizona: Hosts No. 21 Colorado on Sunday.

Shaina Pellington made 11 straight shots on her way to scoring a career-high 35 points, leading No. 18 Arizona over No. 4 Utah 82-72

Shaina Pellington scores 35, No. 18 Arizona tops No. 4 Utah

Fresh off the 2023 Basketball Africa League Combine and heading toward the NBA Paris Game between the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons in France, retired 13-year basketball pro Joakim Noah is soaking up every second of the international scene.
With Noah on site for both, Basketball News had the chance to catch up with the longtime Bull and former national-champion Florida Gator to discuss the rise of the BAL, the Paris Game on Thursday, basketball expanding to a global stage and much more.
Being at the BAL Combine and seeing the momentum of the league going into its third season, what's the energy like there?
Joakim Noah: "Well, it's very special to be in Paris. This is a full-circle moment for me personally, and to be able to come to the Combine and to see the energy of the young men trying to get jobs and work in the BAL, I thought it was really special. Obviously, we're building a professional league and it's growing. To build something sustainable... to see the growth from year-to-year is really special, but also to see the energy of the kids who want to be a part of it. Kids who are from all around the world, and everybody, you can feel that the kids are just in really high spirits and want to be a part of it. This is obviously so much bigger than basketball, and everybody who was at the Combine felt that way."
There are many former players who are heavily invested in the BAL, including guys you've played with and against like Grant Hill, Dikembe Mutombo, Ian Mahinmi and Luol Deng to name a few. All of you coming together and contributing to this, how does that feel?
Noah: "I think the contributions of some of the players that were able to invest is great because it also changes our mindset. Because you know, we were raised as competitors and competition can be very divisive, and just to be able to be in a position to be able to grow and unite is special. Not everybody has an opportunity to have that, to be at the table with the big dogs and see how we can grow something from scratch is really special. And now that we have this platform, especially for African players, it's really powerful."
What is the ultimate goal for the league?
Noah: "I think just to have a really powerful league on the continent where African kids don't feel like they have to go anywhere to get paid off of basketball. The game is growing, it's the fastest growing sport in the world and a lot of the talent comes from the motherland. So just to be a part of this and to watch the growth and seeing it at the highest level, but also on a grassroot level, is what it's all about. And now, we're able to have those conversations at a table altogether and look at the big picture and see where the growth needs to happen.
"I mean, Africa's so big, so different culturally. I'm learning a lot, and I feel like not only am I involved in something that I know a little bit about &mdash; because basketball has been my whole life &mdash; but I feel like I found my purpose. And there's a lot to be proud of with that. I didn't grow up on the continent, I wasn't born on the continent, but this is my heritage, and I feel like a lot of people feel that way. I felt that at the Combine (Monday). It's like, people came from all around the world to be a part of this and the energy was that the people who were involved really understand that big picture, and just want to see this game grow. And it's bigger than them just playing and getting a check. A lot of the time with basketball, that's what it becomes, but with this opportunity, I think that people really feel the purpose and I'm proud to be a part of that."
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/2023_01_16_bal_combine_-151-1.png" alt="" width="732" height="366" />
You kind of mentioned it, but internationally, the game is becoming so popular and has a ton of momentum. Even in the NBA, you're seeing more of that at a rapid pace, as there were 58 European players and nine different players from France on opening night. We know that Victor Wembanyama is at the top of NBA Draft conversations. In general, the way basketball is growing across the world, why do you think it's happened so fast and is this going to continue in that trajectory?
Noah: "You know, I remember being in Paris and going to my first NBA game and seeing Michael Jordan play and the power of his influence all around the world. My father brought me to the game in Bercy. And 25 years later, the Bulls are coming to play in Paris again. The French players have had that kind of access. And now, the future of not just French basketball, but the future of basketball is this kid Wemby, who's an unbelievable talent. He grew up seeing a lot of winning, not just in basketball, but you think of France with winning the World Cup. He was raised and he saw what winning is all about and he knows that it's very possible.
"So when I was coming up, [Tariq] Abdul-Wahad was the only NBA player. And I remember seeing Tony Parker coming up at 15 years old playing at ABCD Camp and seeing the career that he had, that was my inspiration. And now, there's just a whole generation of French players and they're just taking it to the next level. But France is a country that has all the resources to be the best. They have everything. They have the coaching, they have the structures, they have the stadiums. They have everything. So you see the growth, and that's what we're trying to do in Africa. The structures aren't there yet, and we have to build it step-by-step."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
You brought up the Paris game. The Bulls are going to be taking on the Detroit Pistons, and Killian Hayes is a French player who's found his stride this year. How special is it to play in your home country in such an event?
Noah: "Well I can't even imagine how he feels, but it's a beautiful story being able to play in front of your family and friends in your country. Nothing gets better than that. So it's gonna be really special for him. And just understanding that there's gonna be younger kids there watching him, and he's gonna be inspiring as well. So not only is it an unbelievable feeling to play on that court, but understanding every layup, every dunk, every opportunity that he gets on the court is inspiring for the next generation."
Going back to finding your purpose in working with the BAL, but on a broader subject, what has your transition to retirement been like? It sounds like you have a solid feel of what you're trying to accomplish post-career.
Noah: "Oh, a hundred percent. I think that everybody who's in this position, our careers are short. It's crazy to know that I won't be playing basketball anymore. It happens so fast. You have a dream from when you're a kid and not everybody gets to live out their dreams as players, and I was able to do that. I got to do it at the highest level, and I'm really proud of that. Now, I have my family. I just got married this summer, I have my kids. So I'm really happy, trying to find that balance of working and working on my purpose work and raising my family."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Joakim Noah (<a href="https://twitter.com/JoakimNoah?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoakimNoah</a>) lending a hand to the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JrNBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JrNBA</a> ‼<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAParis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAParis</a> <a href="https://t.co/23ejEVVfqz">pic.twitter.com/23ejEVVfqz</a>
&mdash; NBA Cares (@nbacares) <a href="https://twitter.com/nbacares/status/1615701027122036736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Do you still keep in touch with your college teammates like Al Horford who's still playing and Corey Brewer who's coaching in New Orleans and your old Bulls teammates?
Noah: "Oh of course. These are people that I shared some of the most special times of my life with. I love Corey. We just sat down not long ago. Obviously, I have strong relationships with everybody and was able to do a beautiful trip with Derrick [Rose] to Africa, where he brought the Simeon (Academy) kids to Senegal this summer. These are all trips, these are all moments that I'm really proud of the relationships that I build off the court. And I just want to keep building."
If there are any players in the NBA today that you have your eye on, who would you say stands out?
Noah: "I love Bol Bol. Bol Bol is probably my favorite player to watch right now. I love to see his growth. Obviously, his back story is unbelievable. His father was so much more than just a basketball player. And just to see him become the player that he is and you just see him... you're not used to seeing somebody who's that tall &mdash; 7-foot-2 African guy &mdash; with handles, with that kind of ability. It just shows how much the game has grown. I just love watching him play. He's just a really exciting player. I wish him nothing but the best."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
More infomation regarding the BAL and the NBA Paris Game:
<ul>
<li>The third BAL season will tip off on March 11 and once again feature the top 12 club teams from 12 African cities playing games in Dakar, Senegal; Cairo, Egypt; and Kigali, Rwanda over three months in 2023</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<ol>
<li>The 12 club champions will be divided into two conferences.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<ul>
<ul>
<li>The Sahara Conference will play a 15-game group phase at the Dakar Arena in Dakar from March 11-21.</li>
<li>The Nile Conference will play a 15-game group phase at the Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo from April 26 &ndash; May 6.&nbsp;</li>
<li>The top four teams from each conference will advance to an eight-game, single elimination Playoffs and Finals at BK Arena in Kigali from May 21-27.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Each of the 12 BAL teams will have up to 13 players, at least eight of whom will be citizens in their respective team&rsquo;s home country and up to four of whom can be from other countries, with no more than two players per team from outside of Africa.&nbsp;</li>
<ul>
<li>One roster spot on each team is reserved for an NBA Academy Africa prospect as part of the BAL Elevate program, which will once again provide an opportunity for the next generation of African prospects to participate in a professional league, showcase their talent on a global stage and help their respective teams compete for the 2023 BAL Championship.</li>
</ul>
<li>The BAL, a partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the NBA, is a professional league featuring 12 club teams from across Africa that completed its second season in May 2022.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, the BAL builds on the foundation of club competitions FIBA Africa has organized in Africa and marks the NBA&rsquo;s first collaboration to operate a league outside North America.</li>
<li>On May 28, Tunisia&rsquo;s US Monastir defeated Angola&rsquo;s Petro de Luanda 83-72 to win the 2022 BAL Finals in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,000 at BK Arena.&nbsp;</li>
<li>The 2022 BAL season featured players from 23 countries across Africa, Europe, and the U.S, reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 14 languages - including all 54 African countries - and generated more than 600 million online engagements.</li>
</ul>
NBA Africa
<ul>
<li>With the support of strategic partners, in May the NBA launched NBA Africa as a new, standalone entity that conducts the league&rsquo;s business in Africa, including the BAL.</li>
</ul>
o&nbsp;&nbsp; The investors&rsquo; and strategic partners&rsquo; expertise in a wide range of industries and established relationships with African businesses, governments and NGOs will help accelerate the NBA&rsquo;s growth across the continent.&nbsp;
o&nbsp;&nbsp; The funding will contribute to the growth of the BAL, help expand the NBA&rsquo;s presence in priority African markets and Africa&rsquo;s basketball ecosystem, and deepen the league&rsquo;s engagement with players and fans through initiatives such as the launch of additional NBA Academies and social responsibility initiatives that improve the livelihoods of African youth and families.
<ul>
<li>The strategic investors include a consortium led by Babatunde &ldquo;Tunde&rdquo; Folawiyo, Chairman and CEO of Yinka Folawiyo Group; and Helios Fairfax Partners Corporation (HFP), led by Tope Lawani, Co-CEO of HFP and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners.</li>
</ul>
o&nbsp;&nbsp; NBA Legends Junior Bridgeman, Luol Deng (South Sudan), Grant Hill, Ian Mahinmi (France; ties to Benin), Dikembe Mutombo (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Joakim Noah (grandfather from Cameroon) have also invested in NBA Africa and will use their collective influence to contribute to our growth goals.
<ul>
<li>In July, the NBA announced that former President Barack Obama has joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner and will help advance the league&rsquo;s social responsibility efforts across the continent, including programs and partnerships that support greater gender equality and economic inclusion.</li>
<li>In December, global economist and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Dambisa Moyo and Academy Award-winning actor and social activist Forest Whitaker joined NBA Africa as strategic investors.</li>
</ul>
The NBA Paris Game 2023
<ul>
<li>The NBA Paris Game 2023 will feature the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls and the three-time NBA champion Detroit Pistons playing a regular-season game at the Accor Arena in Paris on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.</li>
<li>The NBA Paris Game 2023 will mark the first NBA game in Europe since 2020 and the league&rsquo;s 12th game in France since 1991.&nbsp; The NBA Paris Game 2020 &ndash; the first regular-season NBA game in Paris &ndash; took place Jan. 24, 2020, and featured the Charlotte Hornets and the Milwaukee Bucks.</li>
<li>The NBA Paris Game 2023 will mark the Bulls&rsquo; third game in Paris, having played two preseason games in the French capital in 1997.
<ul>
<li>The Bulls are among the top three most-popular NBA teams in international merchandise sales (No. 2 in Europe), among the top five most-popular teams on NBA League Pass outside the U.S. (No. 5), and among the top five most-popular NBA teams on social media in terms of following (No. 2 on Facebook, No. 4 on Instagram, No. 4 on Twitter)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Pistons will be playing their first game in France, having previously played regular-season games in London (2013) and Mexico City (2019).</li>
</ul>
NBA in France
<ul>
<li>NBA games and programming have aired in France since 1985.</li>
<li>During the 2022-23 NBA season, fan in France can watch the NBA on beIN SPORTS, the NBA&rsquo;s exclusive Broadcast &amp; Digital partner in France, and NBA League Pass. beIN SPORTS airs up to 14 live games per week during the regular season, as well as the Play-In, Playoffs, all Conference Finals, Finals, All-Star Weekend, the Draft and Classic Games.</li>
<li>The 2022-23 regular season features 45 games that will air in primetime in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of &ldquo;NBA Saturdays and NBA Sundays presented by NBA 2K23,&rdquo; marking the 10th consecutive regular season that the league has scheduled weekend games that air in primetime in EMEA.</li>
<li>France ranks fourth among European markets in League Pass subscriptions.</li>
<li>Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 games &ndash; featuring French star and top 2023 NBA Draft prospect Victor Wembanyama &ndash; are available for free on the new NBA App throughout the 2022-23 including the LNB All-Star Game and select LNB Betclic ELITE Playoffs and Finals games.</li>
<li>The NBA&rsquo;s localized social media channels in France (Facebook and Twitter) have more than 1.5M collective followers.</li>
<li>The NBA Paris Game 2023 will mark the second regular-season game in France, the 12th NBA game overall in France (dating back to 1991) and the 94th NBA game in Europe (dating back to 1984).</li>
<li>Opening-night rosters for the 2022-23 NBA season featured 58 European players, including nine players from France.
<ul>
<li>France has had more players drafted into the NBA than other country outside North America and has been the most-represented European country in the NBA for each of the last 16 seasons.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The <a href="https://pr.nba.com/nba-fanatics-paris-store-open/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pr.nba.com/nba-fanatics-paris-store-open/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1674099893476000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Pk9FJqixBAsT8n3qeg9n7">NBA Paris Store</a> &ndash; the first in France &ndash; opened&nbsp;in July 2022 and has featured player appearances by Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat and Alex Caruso of the Chicago Bulls. Top selling teams Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors.</li>
<li>The NBA works with 18 marketing partners in France: adidas, EA, FDJ/ParionsSport, Foot Locker, Hennessy, Hotels.com/Expedia, ISG, Kellogg&rsquo;s, Microsoft, Mitchell &amp; Ness, New Balance, New Era, Nike, Rakuten, SAP, Tissot, Under Armour, Yop, and 2K Sports</li>
</ul>

Spencer Davies speaks with Joakim Noah ahead of the 2023 NBA Paris Game about his BAL passion, international hoops and more.

Joakim Noah Q&A: NBA Paris Game, investing in BAL, basketball's growth

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) &mdash; Zia Cooke scored 16 points and Aliyah Boston added 12 to help No. 1 South Carolina remain unbeaten with a 58-51 win over Mississippi State on Sunday.
The Gamecocks were held to a season-low point total but were able to find a way. Boston added 15 rebounds in the win.
South Carolina (16-0, 3-0 SEC) had a massive advantage at the free throw line where the Gamecocks were 14 of 24 while MSU was 2 of 5. The Gamecocks also dominated the boards with a 53-35 edge including 22 offensive rebounds.
Jerkaila Jordan led the way for the Bulldogs (12-5, 1-3) with 13 points and five rebounds. Jessika Carter had 11 points and nine rebounds.
NO. 2 STANFORD 60, CALIFORNIA 56
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Haley Jones scored the go-ahead layup with 1:17 to play, Cameron Brink had 25 points, 17 rebounds and three blocked shots as NBA pal Stephen Curry watched courtside, outdueling Leilani McIntosh down the stretch as Stanford held off California.
Jones wound up with 12 points and 11 rebounds as the Cardinal (16-1, 4-0 Pac-12) ran their winning streak to 11 games.
McIntosh finished with 19 points for the Golden Bears (10-5, 1-3).
Stanford won its 38th straight game against Pac-12 teams including the past two conference titles and postseason.
NO. 3 OHIO STATE 87, ILLINOIS 81
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) &mdash; Taylor Mikesell scored a game-high 31 points as Ohio State erased a halftime deficit and avoided an upset.
Mikesell shot 50% from the field and Cotie McMahon added 22 points for Ohio State (17-0, 6-0 Big Ten). Taylor Thierry had 12 points and swiped four steals.
Kendall Bostic notched her sixth double-double of the season behind 27 points and 15 rebounds. Genesis Bryant finished with 20 points, Makira Cook had 12 and Brynn Shoup-Hill tallied 10 for Illinois (14-3, 4-2).
NO. 22 NORTH CAROLINA 60, NO. 4 NOTRE DAME 50
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) &mdash; First-year guard Paulina Paris scored 11 of her season-high 16 points in the fourth quarter to help North Carolina push past Notre Dame.
Deja Kelly added 14 points for the Tar Heels (10-5, 1-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who snapped a four-game skid that had drained some of their early season buzz.
Olivia Miles had 15 points and seven rebounds to lead Notre Dame (12-2, 3-1), which had entered Sunday as one of two unbeaten teams in ACC play.
NO. 6 INDIANA 72, NORTHWESTERN 50
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) &mdash; Mackenzie Holmes scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and Indiana beat Northwestern.
Grace Berger finished with 16 points and five assists for the Hoosiers (14-1, 4-1).
The Wildcats got a boost off the bench as Jasmine McWilliams added eight points on 3-for-3 shooting in the third. McWilliams and Sydney Wood led Northwestern (6-9, 0-5 Big Ten) with 10 points each in their seventh loss in nine games.
NO. 7 LSU 67, KENTUCKY 48
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) &mdash; Flau&rsquo;jae Johnson scored 26 points, including eight during a 12-0, second-quarter run to break the game open, Angel Reese also scored 26 and LSU earned its best start in school history.
Reese had 13 rebounds for her nation&rsquo;s-best 16th double-double. The Tigers (16-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) outshot Kentucky just 40%-35% but dominated nearly every other statistical category including rebounding (45-23).
Maddie Scherr had 22 points for Kentucky (8-8, 0-4), which dropped its fourth in a row and lost its second game this season in Rupp Arena, home of the men&rsquo;s basketball team.
MIAMI 77, NO. 9 VIRGINIA TECH 66
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Jasmyn Roberts scored a career-best 23 points, Haley Cavinder added 19 and Miami held off Virginia Tech.
Roberts was 8 for 12 from the field, 5 of 7 from 3-point range for the Hurricanes (10-6, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their third straight game. Cavinder was 6 for 12 from the field, and Miami shot 54%.
Elizabeth Kitley scored 20 for Virginia Tech (13-3, 3-3), which had beat Miami five consecutive times. Georgia Amoore added 13 for the Hokies.
NO. 10 NC STATE 87, VIRGINIA 62
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Jada Boyd scored 13 points and No. 10 North Carolina State snapped a two-game home losing skid.
Camille Hobby and Mimi Collins both had 12 points, and Diamond Johnson and River Baldwin added 10 points apiece for the Wolfpack (13-3, 3-2). Jakia Brown-Turner and Madison Hayes each finished with nine.
Camryn Taylor scored 16 points, Taylor Valladay had 13 and Sam Brunelle 12 for Virginia (13-3, 2-3), which dropped a game to a top-10 team for the second time in four days after losing Thursday at No. 9 Virginia Tech.
NO. 17 OKLAHOMA 82, NO. 11 IOWA STATE 79
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) &mdash; Ana Llanusa scored 23 points, Skylar Vann hit the final go-ahead basket, and Oklahoma defeated Iowa State in a matchup of the Big 12&prime;s top two offenses.
In a game with 25 lead changes, Oklahoma struck last.
Vann finished with 13 points and eight rebounds for Oklahoma (12-2, 2-1 Big 12). Nevaeh Tot also scored 13 points, and Taylor Robertson finished with 10.
Ashley Joens finished with 27 points and nine rebounds. She made 12-of-13 free throws. Lexi Donarski scored 20 and Nyamer Diew 14 for the Cyclones (10-3, 2-1).
NO. 12 UCLA 61, SOUTHERN CAL 60
LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Freshman Londynn Jones scored 13 of her career-high 22 points in the second half and UCLA used a big fourth-quarter run to beat Southern California.
Emily Bessoir hit 3 of 5 from 3-point range and finished with 11 points for UCLA (13-2, 2-1 Pac-12). Charisma Osborne scored six of her nine points in the fourth quarter.
Rayah Marshall had 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for Southern Cal (11-4, 1-3) and Kayla Williams also scored 15 points. Okako Adika added 11 points and Destiny Littlejohn 10.
NO. 15 ARIZONA 79, NO. 18 OREGON 71
TUSCON, Ariz. (AP) &mdash; Madison Conner scored 16 second-half points to lead five Arizona players in double figures and the Wildcats beat Oregon.
Shaina Pellington had 14 points, six rebounds and six assists, Jade Loville scored 13 points and Esmery Martinez 11 for Arizona (14-2, 4-1 Pac-12). Kate Reese had 10 points.
Grace VanSlooten led Oregon (12-4, 3-2) with 18 points. Te-Hina Paopao and Endyia Rogers scored 17 apiece, Chance Gray added 10 and Phillipina Kyei had six points and 10 rebounds. The 6-foot-8 Kyei has grabbed at least 10 rebounds in eight consecutive games.
NO. 24 ST. JOHN&rsquo;S 71, XAVIER 52
NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Jayla Everett scored a season-high 26 points and St. John&rsquo;s bounced back after its first loss of the season.
Jillian Archer had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Red Storm (14-1, 5-1 Big East Conference).
Mackayla Scarlett had 18 points for the Musketeers (7-9, 0-7), who have lost six straight as well as 15 straight to St. John&rsquo;s.
NO. 25 CREIGHTON 68, MARQUETTE 42
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) &mdash; Lauren Jensen scored 19 points and Creighton defeated Marquette after holding the Golden Eagles to 14 points in the first half.
Chloe Marotta scored 20 points for Marquette and Jordan King added 13. Only four players scored for the Golden Eagles (10-6, 3-4 Big East).
Jensen made 9 of 14 shots and added three rebounds and five assists. Morgan Maly had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Emma Ronsiek scored 10 for the Bluejays (10-5, 4-3) who had lost four of their last five games.

A recap of Sunday's women's college basketball slate features the top-ranked Gamecocks in a battle with the Bulldogs.

No. 1 South Carolina battles back to beat Mississippi State

Iowa&rsquo;s meeting with No. 15 Duke at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night is more than just another game to Patrick McCaffery.
The game opens the Jimmy V Classic doubleheader, which raises funds for cancer research through the V Foundation. The second game matches No. 2 Texas against No. 17 Illinois.
McCaffery, the 22-year-old son of Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery, was 13 when he was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid, the small gland at the base of the front of the neck that regulates a person&rsquo;s metabolism.
&ldquo;The fact I&rsquo;m able to play at that level and be a starter in this game is something crazy to think about,&rdquo; McCaffery said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m someone who has benefited from things like the Jimmy V and have seen first-hand how the Jimmy V can help people. Having the opportunity to play in that event is something I&rsquo;ll forever cherish and I&rsquo;m really looking forward to.&rdquo;
Patrick had two surgeries in 2014, the first to remove half his thyroid and, after tests showed it was malignant, a second to remove the rest of the gland and nearby tissue.
His follow-up treatment included taking two radioactive iodine pills to eliminate any possible remaining cancer cells from his lymph nodes. It was a grueling few days when he had to isolate to such an extreme that he rode home from the hospital in the car trunk and had to sleep in the basement.&nbsp;
Anything he touched, such as video game controllers, had to be thrown away. His mom, Margaret, cared for Patrick while his dad and siblings stayed at a hotel because of the potential danger of radioactive iodine exposure to others.
Three months after his diagnosis, he was declared cancer-free and was able to rejoin his summer basketball team. He went on to become the all-time leading scorer at Iowa City West High and a top-60 national recruit before he joined older brother Connor and his dad with the Hawkeyes.
Patrick has played in 72 games since 2019-20 and started 38 of 39 since the start of last season. He goes into Tuesday&rsquo;s game averaging a career-best 12.9 points, second on the team behind Kris Murray&rsquo;s 21.
Having no thyroid means Patrick must deal with occasional fatigue and low energy and a desire to eat at odd times. He has blood tests regularly to monitor his metabolic activity.
&ldquo;I understand I&rsquo;m not going to be able to do things the same way people who have one do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have to work through that, and I think I&rsquo;ve done a good job of it. I feel good. Obviously there&rsquo;s no more cancer, just lingering effects that I&rsquo;ll have to deal with the rest of my life and be cognizant of.&rdquo;
Patrick said some people might be surprised he&rsquo;s able to play basketball at such a high level, but he was determined to not let cancer stop him from pursuing his goals.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had this strong belief in myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew I was going to be a good high school player, I knew I was going to be a good college player and I&rsquo;m pretty confident I&rsquo;m going to be a good professional player as well whether that&rsquo;s overseas or in the NBA.&rdquo;
Fran McCaffery, whose parents died of cancer, and the entire family have been involved in raising awareness and money for cancer research.
The V Foundation was founded by Jim Valvano, the college basketball coach and broadcaster who died of cancer in 1993. The foundation has awarded over $310 million in cancer research grants.
Pediatric thyroid cancer is highly curable but has not been researched much historically, said Dr. Vivian Weiss, who was awarded a $200,000 V Foundation grant in 2019 to study differences in how the disease behaves in children and adults and develop individualized treatment plans for children.
Weiss, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University, said she and her colleagues have performed genetic analysis on 100 children and the results have been promising for improving detection and treatment.
Weiss said Patrick&rsquo;s willingness to share his story has put a spotlight on the disease.
&ldquo;His ability to perform at that level and be as amazing and as successful as he is is really incredible,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I think he serves as a wonderful role model for other children struggling with thyroid cancer. It&rsquo;s not an easy journey for any of these children. It&rsquo;s wonderful to see how resilient and how much potential there is for these children to live full, healthy and happy lives.&rdquo;

“The fact I’m able to play at that level and be a starter in this game is something crazy to think about,” McCaffery said.

Jimmy V Classic more than game for Iowa’s Patrick McCaffery

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) &mdash; Kris Murray had career highs of 31 points and 20 rebounds and Iowa defeated Georgia Tech 81-65 on Tuesday night in a ACC/Big Ten Challenge game.
Murray was 11-of-18 shooting, including 4 of 8 on 3-point attempts. Filip Rebraca added 13 points and seven rebounds. Tony Perkins scored 11 points and Connor McCaffery had 10 points and 10 rebounds, his first double-double for the Hawkeyes (6-1), who fell out of The Associated Press Top 25 rankings this week after a loss to TCU on Saturday.
While the Hawkeyes didn&rsquo;t have a large shooting percentage advantage, they held a 27-15 edge on second-chance points. The Hawkeyes went to the line 31 times, making only 18, but the Yellow Jackets had just 10 free throws, sinking eight.
Miles Kelly made 4 of 8 3-point attempts and led the Yellow Jackets (4-3) with a career-high 21 points. Dallan Coleman added 12 points, and Deivon Smith and Jalon Moore 10 points and eight rebounds each.
Georgia Tech scored the first seven points of the second half to cut a deficit to four and the Yellow Jackets stayed within single digits until the Hawkeyes used a 9-0 run to go back up by 16 midway through the half. Georgia Tech got within 10 after that but Murray and McCaffery 3-pointers in the final 3 1/2 minutes helped maintain the Hawkeyes&rsquo; cushion.
Murray already had 15 points and 14 rebounds when Iowa went into halftime leading 40-29.

Kris Murray was 11-of-18 shooting, including 4 of 8 on three-point attempts, in the victory over Georgia Tech.

Murray has career night: 31 points, 20 rebounds in Iowa win

While NBA teams are looking ahead to the upcoming draft with much anticipation, that doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean the incoming freshman class of college basketball players is any better than usual.
The fact of the matter is that the top 2023 draft prospects aren&rsquo;t playing college basketball.
That goes for Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 French phenom who almost certainly will be selected No. 1 overall. The same is true of Scoot Henderson, who plays for the G League Ignite and is generally rated just behind Wembanyama.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a chance conceivably that a college player might not even get taken in the top five,&rdquo; said Eric Bossi, the director of basketball for 247Sports.
Indeed, ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony released a mock draft last month that was headed by three guys who aren&rsquo;t playing college basketball: Wembanyama, Henderson and Amen Thompson of Overtime Elite, a new basketball league that offers training and a salary for pro prospects willing to forfeit their college eligibility. Givony did have Arkansas freshman Nick Smith Jr. going fourth.
Even though they might not get taken at the top of next year&rsquo;s draft, plenty of exciting freshmen are ready to make an impact this season. Duke coach Jon Scheyer is beginning his career with the nation&rsquo;s top-ranked recruiting class according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports.
The seventh-ranked Blue Devils signed five of the nation&rsquo;s top 27 recruits in this class: Dereck Lively (No. 1), Dariq Whitehead (No. 2) and Kyle Filipowski (No. 4), Mark Mitchell (No. 22) and Tyrese Proctor (No. 27). Mitchell scored 15 points and Filipowski and Proctor had seven each Wednesday in the seventh-ranked Blue Devils&rsquo; 82-45 exhibition victory over Fayetteville State.
Lively and Whitehead didn&rsquo;t play in that game as they recover from injuries.
&ldquo;Dariq definitely won&rsquo;t play Monday,&rdquo; Scheyer said, referring to Duke&rsquo;s regular-season opener against Jacksonville. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still a couple of weeks away. With Dereck, he&rsquo;s still day-to-day. He&rsquo;s been really ramping up. I think the big thing for both of those guys is not just being completely healthy, which they&rsquo;re right there. But you have to build up your game shape again, and we don&rsquo;t want to put them out too early at all.&rdquo;
Here&rsquo;s a look at some freshmen who could have big seasons.
AMARI BAILEY, UCLA
This 6-foot-5 guard is from Chicago but actually played high school basketball at Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, California. He&rsquo;s ranked ninth in his class according to the 247Sports Composite. He started and had six points and eight rebounds in UCLA&rsquo;s exhibition victory over Concordia on Wednesday. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got two guys that are rock solid they can count on in Tyger Campbell and Jaime Jaquez, but they really need a third guy to step up and be a threat on a nightly basis,&rdquo; Bossi said. &ldquo;Bailey&rsquo;s the right kind of guy.&rdquo;
KEYONTE GEORGE, BAYLOR
Big 12 coaches made their expectations for George clear when they named him the conference&rsquo;s preseason freshman of the year. The 6-4 guard averaged 22.8 points for Baylor this summer at the GLOBL JAM international tournament. George is from Lewisville, Texas, but played for IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He&rsquo;s ranked seventh in the 247Sports Composite.
GG JACKSON, SOUTH CAROLINA
Jackson was regarded as the nation&rsquo;s No. 1 prospect until he decided to reclassify and enter college a year early. Jackson had been committed to North Carolina until he reclassified and opted to enroll at South Carolina. The 6-9 forward from Ridge View High School in Columbia, South Carolina, is ranked sixth in this class, according to the 247Sports Composite. South Carolina says he&rsquo;s the highest-ranked prospect ever to sign with the Gamecocks. Jackson was named the MVP of the National Basketball Players Association top-100 camp in July.
DERECK LIVELY II, DUKE
Once he&rsquo;s healthy enough to play, this 7-1 center from Philadelphia should emerge as an immediate force on defense. Scheyer says Lively &ldquo;is as unique of a big as there is in the country&rdquo; because of his ability to defend in a variety of ways. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked about how to maximize what he can do on the defensive end especially, but that versatility for us is something that we can really use throughout the course of the season,&rdquo; Scheyer said. Lively played at Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also produced former Duke player and NBA lottery pick Cam Reddish.
NICK SMITH JR., ARKANSAS
Although he hasn&rsquo;t played a college game yet, Smith earned preseason first-team all-Southeastern Conference honors from the league&rsquo;s coaches and media. His prep career at North Little Rock (Arkansas) earned him the USA Today national high school player of the year award. The 6-5 guard is ranked third in the 247Sports Composite. &ldquo;He is a player that kind of moves on the floor effortlessly almost like he is on skates,&rdquo; Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. &ldquo;He is cosmetically pleasing to watch offensively with the way that he can find seams in the defense, and he is a really good shooter as well.&rdquo;
CASON WALLACE, KENTUCKY
Wallace, a 6-4 guard from Dallas, is the nation&rsquo;s No. 8 player in his class according to the 247Sports Composite. He averaged 10.5 points and had a team-high 12 steals in Kentucky&rsquo;s four-game international exhibition tour this summer. Wallace had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds Sunday in an exhibition victory over Missouri Western State. Kentucky coach John Calipari has praised Wallace&rsquo;s defense.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer is beginning his career with the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class.

No. 7 Duke’s class heads list of impact freshmen

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) &mdash; Iowa has had a first team All-American in three consecutive seasons, two for Luka Garza and one for Keegan Murray, raising the natural question about who the next star will be for the Hawkeyes and how quickly he can emerge.
Kris Murray, predictably, has everyone who follows the program staring straight at him.
The third-year forward has the sleek frame at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, the unflappable demeanor on the court and the track record of sharp improvement after increasing his scoring average by more than nine additional points per game.
But the tendency for comparison is unavoidable for the human brain, never more in the analysis of sports, and the fact that Kris Murray is Keegan Murray&rsquo;s identical twin brother will hover over him as long as he puts on a Hawkeyes uniform.
&ldquo;If he didn&rsquo;t look the same as me, we probably wouldn&rsquo;t be having this conversation,&rdquo; Kris Murray said at Big Ten media day in Minneapolis. &ldquo;Nobody expected Keegan to make the jump he did when Luka left. I think that&rsquo;s kind of the big difference. We have a really balanced team this year.&rdquo;
Keegan Murray, who averaged 23.5 points to lead the conference last season, left Iowa after his sophomore year to enter the NBA draft. He was the fourth overall pick by Sacramento.
&ldquo;It was a good thing having Keegan in every single way, so I&rsquo;m not taking away anything from him,&rdquo; sixth-year reserve Connor McCaffery said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s a lot of shots that were in that lineup that you have to make up. So now it&rsquo;s different guys coming in, every day in practice.&rdquo;
One look across the Big Ten this fall reveals a trend of departed stars, rosters still in a rather awkward state caused by the eligibility waiver for the pandemic season, the relaxed rules around transfers playing right away and, as always, the allure of an NBA career.
Only eight of the top 25 scorers in the conference in 2021-22 returned to their teams. Just nine of the top 25 most-used players in terms of minutes per game are back.
There are some established standouts on the consensus title contenders like Indiana&rsquo;s Trayce Jackson-Davis, Michigan&rsquo;s Hunter Dickinson and Purdue&rsquo;s Zach Edey who will headline every game they play in 2022-23, but there is a wide-open stage in the league for less-heralded players like Kris Murray, Wisconsin&rsquo;s Tyler Wahl or Rutgers&rsquo; Cliff Omoruyi to step up onto it.
The Big Ten had three top-10 draft picks, with Keegan Murray, Purdue&rsquo;s Jaden Ivey (No. 5) and Wisconsin&rsquo;s Johnny Davis (No. 10). Seven other players were drafted, including two each from Ohio State (Malaki Branham and E.J. Liddell) and Michigan (Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate).
The transfer portal, of course, had exits around the conference with potential instant-impact arrivals such as Michigan&rsquo;s Jaelen Llewellyn (Princeton), Minnesota&rsquo;s Dawson Garcia (North Carolina) and Illinois&rsquo; Terrence Shannon Jr. (Texas Tech).
But the Big Ten has long been shaped by a core of established head coaches who have remained as committed as they can be in this era to running developmental programs.
Michigan State&rsquo;s Tom Izzo lost his top three scorers from last season but declined to pursue any transfer replacements &mdash; even with a nonconference schedule he called &ldquo;the most brutal&rdquo; he&rsquo;s ever had. The Spartans play Gonzaga, Kentucky, Villanova and Notre Dame, plus a trip to Oregon for the Phil Knight Invitational that matches them up against Alabama and likely two other tough opponents depending on how the bracket unfolds.
&ldquo;I choose the route I choose. I stand behind it,&rdquo; Izzo said. &ldquo;Chemistry, camaraderie, culture, loyalty are all really, really important to me. It&rsquo;s worked. New era? Maybe it won&rsquo;t work. But I like where we are right now.&rdquo;
Established coaches who have produced consistent success have more of a latitude to be patient, to be sure. Purdue&rsquo;s Matt Painter, Wisconsin&rsquo;s Greg Gard and Iowa&rsquo;s Fran McCaffery have all followed a similar philosophy. Ohio State&rsquo;s Chris Holtmann will lean on freshmen as much as ever, with prized rookies Bruce Thornton, Brice Sensabaugh, Roddy Gayle Jr., Felix Okpara and Bowen Hardman putting the Buckeyes at the top of just about all the Big Ten recruiting rankings.
This season, then, ought to serve as a test case of sorts for several of the conference&rsquo;s top teams as they put the value of stability up against some of the other powerhouse programs across the country who might be relying more on game-ready transfers.
&ldquo;We all make jumps year after year,&rdquo; Kris Murray said. &ldquo;The thing about Iowa basketball is we&rsquo;re always improving.&rdquo;

One look across the Big Ten this fall reveals a trend of departed stars, but there are more players set to shine this season.

Next wave of Big Ten stars primed to shine after many exits

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) &mdash; The Purdue Boilermakers are coming off a 29-win season in which they were ranked in the AP top 10 from wire to wire, including the No. 1 spot for one week in December, and drew a No. 3 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Still, they finished one game shy of first place in the conference, lost to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament final and were upset by upstart St. Peter&rsquo;s in the Sweet 16. That didn&rsquo;t sit well with coach Matt Painter or anybody else associated with the program.
&ldquo;We thought we had a team that could do more damage than it did. As a coach, you take sole responsibility for that,&rdquo; Painter said Tuesday in Minneapolis at Target Center, where the conference took its basketball media days this year. &ldquo;I thought we should have won our league. I thought we should have won our tournament. I thought we should have gotten to the Final Four. We didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
While the Boilermakers have lost first team All-Big Ten guard Jaden Ivey and stalwarts Trevion Williams and Sasha Stefanovic, they&rsquo;ve still got a team headlined by the 7-foot-4 Zach Edey &mdash; one of three unanimous picks for the 11-player preseason all-conference team &mdash; that ought to be able to contend for the conference title again.&nbsp;
These days, with the transfer portal doing heavy business, picking the favorites is even more of an inexact science. The Boilermakers were pegged for fifth in the Big Ten preseason media poll.
&ldquo;You have some people that are being picked in the top half, and 70 to 80% of their guys didn&rsquo;t play for them last year. Normally when that&rsquo;s the case, they don&rsquo;t get picked in the top half,&rdquo; Painter said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got a good chunk of some of these guys that have had really good careers so far so it&rsquo;s easier to gauge, easier to say this guy averaged 16 points in another high major conference, he&rsquo;s going to be successful here. Having that experience of success together is still important.&rdquo;
FRESH START
Kevin Willard took over the Maryland program after 12 seasons at Seton Hall. A longtime resident of New York and New Jersey, Willard revealed some of the discoveries he&rsquo;s made since moving down the Atlantic coast. The first thing to stand out to him was the quality of recruits playing in the Terrapins&rsquo; backyard &mdash; including the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
&ldquo;High school basketball, AAU basketball in the DMV is by far second to none,&rdquo; Willard said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of cool being there because you get first dibs on a lot of kids that obviously we couldn&rsquo;t get before.&rdquo;
The first player Willard signed upon arriving in College Park was 6-foot-6 swingman Noah Batchelor, a native of Frederick, Maryland, who played last year at the IMG Academy in Florida. He also picked up a graduate transfer in guard Jahmir Young, a product of DeMatha Catholic High School in the D.C. suburbs who averaged 16.7 points per game over three seasons at Charlotte.
But Willard knows there&rsquo;s no such thing as building a fence around the state.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re never going to keep all your local kids home,&rdquo; Willard said. &ldquo;Fan bases love saying that. If you keep everyone home, then you&rsquo;re not going to be able to play everybody and everyone is going to get mad at you anyways.&rdquo;
His steepest learning curve might actually be in the dining room.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to know how to eat crab cakes. I&rsquo;m learning how to crack crabs and eat crabs. It&rsquo;s a new thing for me. Very hard,&rdquo; Willard said with a laugh. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to split the middle, take the legs off, go through the whole process.&rdquo;
THREE-PEAT IN JERSEY?
Rutgers is aiming for a third straight NCAA Tournament berth, a streak the program has never before accomplished. Coach Steve Pikiell&rsquo;s returning players accounted for 64% of the team&rsquo;s minutes played last season. Key among those players is fifth-year guard Caleb McConnell, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
There&rsquo;s also a significant homecourt advantage the Scarlet Knights have developed in recent years at the 8,000-seat building now known as Jersey Mike&rsquo;s Arena, enough to warrant attention in a conference with some of the country&rsquo;s most imposing gyms for visiting teams.
When Indiana&rsquo;s Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson were mulling over the most raucous road-game scenes, they mentioned usual suspects Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue. But also:
&ldquo;Rutgers is pretty lit,&rdquo; Thompson said.
&ldquo;Yeah, Rutgers is awesome,&rdquo; Jackson-Davis said.
Pikiell praised the fan base for the environment.
&ldquo;I think they really like our guys and respect how they play,&rdquo; Pikiell said. &ldquo;They play with a little Jersey grit and excitement and enthusiasm.&rdquo;
DAD JOKES
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery again has two of his sons on the roster, with sixth-year forward Connor McCaffery back for one more ride in a reserve role and fourth-year forward Patrick McCaffery returning to the starting lineup.
There are downsides to playing for dad, of course. Connor told on himself for feeling &ldquo;a little bit more comfortable talking back&rdquo; to the coach than anyone else in authority. Patrick cited the pressure that comes from the family name and the unfounded assumptions of nepotism around status on the team.
The good outweighs the bad, though, like being part of a true family environment. Then there&rsquo;s the credibility that Connor has built up through so much time in the program.
&ldquo;We think alike,&rdquo; Connor said. &ldquo;My suggestions and points a lot of times are on the same page. He gives me the freedom to audible plays and call plays.&rdquo;
___
AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell contributed to this report.

These days, with the transfer portal doing heavy business, picking the favorites is even more of an inexact science.

Purdue back near Big Ten top? Portal makes predictions tough

If you flicked on a random Tari Eason highlight in the past two weeks, you probably wouldn't realize we're still in the thick of the NBA preseason.
Eason has been the sultan of second efforts through three exhibition contests, swooping in for offensive rebounds and shrugging off contact to get putback points. He's averaging a league-high 5.3 offensive boards per game by snaking around boxouts, like in the below clip.
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The ball just seems to find Tari Eason. <a href="https://t.co/RqRBVVR59o">pic.twitter.com/RqRBVVR59o</a>
&mdash; Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1578614121352036352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2022</a></blockquote>

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These types of hustle plays have garnered early respect from fans and teammates, but they're just one facet of Eason's preseason showcase. The No. 17 overall pick has put up 20.7 points and 10.0 rebounds per game with a scorching 64.1% shooting clip from the floor. Eason is the early "steal-of-the-draft" badge-wearer, and he has Rockets fans daydreaming about how he could fill some of the critical holes in Houston's young core.
Eason is an eye-popping vertical athlete for a player his size (6-foot-8) and that has shown up on some of the transition hammer dunks he's dropped so far. But that bounce, coupled with a 7-foot-2-inch wingspan, also allows him to swallow up rebounds like this.
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Tari Eason suction cups for hands. Also, this is good awareness by Mathews to balance the floor once he sees Eason go to the rim. <a href="https://t.co/jVwoqTvyTc">pic.twitter.com/jVwoqTvyTc</a>
&mdash; DJ (@ACE_ZULLO) <a href="https://twitter.com/ACE_ZULLO/status/1579812450589110274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
Despite a somewhat bizarre bounce, Eason overcomes his late dash to the interior and skies over Jamal Cain for the board. Cain's no slouch; he's 6-foot-7 and has played hard for the Miami Heat this month en route to a two-way contract. But Eason timed his late jump well, and followed it with a quick second leap for the bucket.&nbsp;
This level of intensity is obviously a way for Eason to earn the respect of his coaches, and in turn, get some playing time. Houston ranked 20th in offensive-rebound rate last season.
However, Eason has also shown he's far more than a putback boss. He's knocking down catch-and-shoot threes and attacking closeouts &mdash; necessary skills alongside Houston's ball-dominant players.
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He has not been a super efficient driving finisher, but Eason covers some remarkable ground with his handle and stride size. He loves this power step-through and displays some surprising body contortion for his size. Eason has natural touch around the basket, and I wouldn't be too concerned about a touch miss in this small sample.
However, the downside to these power drives is that they often leave Eason out of juice when he goes up for a shot. Those long strides sap him of vertical pop and lead to some tough blocked shots:
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Still, they're ambitious attempts, and "ambitious" aptly describes a lot of Eason's game right now.
Though he has just three assists in three preseason games, Eason has thrown some eyebrow-raising passes, including this one:
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You won't see it in many highlight reels because of the blown finish, but this full court bounce pass by Tari Eason after securing the steal was absolutely sensational. LeBron James, Cade Cunningham-esque. <a href="https://t.co/thYTYtpZ4d">pic.twitter.com/thYTYtpZ4d</a>
&mdash; Itamar (@Itamar_17_10) <a href="https://twitter.com/Itamar_17_10/status/1578747322330406912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2022</a></blockquote>

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He's also made some impressive reads in the half-court, though they haven't equated to scores. At the same time, Eason sometimes telegraphs his plan a bit too plainly, and it leads to turnovers like these:
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I'm optimistic about Eason becoming a better decision-maker. The fact that he's seeing these passing options is a positive, and as he acclimates to NBA pacing and spacing, his experience will naturally help his intuition.
The Rockets have to put Eason in positions where he can gamble with his physical tools and developing vision. His length and strength are already coming in handy on defense, where Eason can will himself out of bad spots and create opportunities out of thin air.
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Against the Heat on Tuesday, Eason altered shots like he was shot out of a cannon. That third clip, where he glides in to effortlessly reject a Duncan Robinson three-point attempt, still amazes me given where he was mere split-seconds before. Eason also can afford to dig at driving players, like he does against Max Strus, because he's long and agile enough to recover back and provide a quality contest.&nbsp;
The 21-year-old should get on the floor because he can grab rebounds and create havoc on defense. He can exceed expectations, perhaps to All-Rookie-type levels, by developing his jumper and syncing with the fluid lanes and pockets that come together on an NBA court. Will he have stretches of poor shooting and unwise gambling on both ends? Probably &mdash; most young players do.&nbsp;
But Tari Eason is a rookie who already has strengths in a defined role and flashes of upside in versatility. That's already pretty special, and it makes him a must-track member of this 2022 class.

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Houston Rockets rookie Tari Eason has averaged 20.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals through three preseason contests.

Is Tari Eason's preseason play forecasting a breakout rookie year?

James Harden and Joel Embiid are beefing over who has been the most unbeatable Sixer during 1-on-1 competition at training camp. The smack talk escalated this week after a recent practice, each one badgering the other over who really is the alpha dog in Philly.
Who&rsquo;s the better scorer? Rebounder? Nah, the thorny topic in this instance: gaming.
Harden tells Embiid he can beat him in FIFA.
&ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; Harden said.
&ldquo;He said &lsquo;OF COURSE,&rsquo;&rdquo; Embiid said, unable to stifle his laughter.
&ldquo;How many games we play?&rdquo; Embiid said. &ldquo;Five games?&rdquo;
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember,&rdquo; Harden retorted. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t played in four years. I used to be really, really good.&rdquo;
So The Beard pokes reporters to quiz Embiid about his skills in Madden. Embiid insisted he doesn&rsquo;t play the football video game on a regular basis, but conceded of Harden, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s good.&rdquo;
&ldquo;But give me two weeks,&rdquo; Embiid said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be the best.&rdquo;
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-76ers-nba-sports-basketball-joel-embiid-84c7239b1fd373687d0e4efba7688623" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Embiid already is the 76ers' go-to guy</a> once the controllers go down and the basketball is tossed up. The question that looms over the Sixers is can they get the two to mesh in their first full season together so they can contend for a title -- especially when Harden has to defer to last season's MVP runner-up?
No longer needed to average 30-plus points a game as he did when he starred as one of the NBA&rsquo;s great isolation scorers, Harden is now the No. 2 in the Philadelphia's 1-2 punch. Embiid is the reigning NBA scoring champion and the face of the franchise.
The 33-year-old Harden, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/houston-rockets-sports-basketball-ap-top-news-north-america-9ab9bfc14fff43f4979c661edde8385d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the 2018 MVP</a>, is trying to prove he&rsquo;s recovered from lingering tightness in his left hamstring last season that decimated his explosiveness and forced him into &ldquo;tough times, lot of dark moments.&rdquo; He took less money to return to the Sixers and dropped some weight over the summer. He's in better condition and serving as a mentor of sorts to blossoming talent, like Tyrese Maxey.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to be a leader,&rdquo; 76ers coach Doc Rivers expressed to Harden after Thursday&rsquo;s practice. &ldquo;Get them to do it right.&rdquo;
Rivers told Harden he needs to act as a facilitator, and &ldquo;be the aggressive James&rdquo; like he was at the end of practice.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to come. It&rsquo;s going to take a while," Rivers told the veteran. "But when it clicks, James, we&rsquo;re going to be unbeatable. Unbeatable. But you&rsquo;ve got to keep your spirit up.&rdquo;
Spirits up, even with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-76ers-nba-sports-basketball-los-angeles-a297da25dd2fb953d20f6c8800dc6e3c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wine connoisseur&rsquo;s new role</a>.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been the President,&rdquo; Rivers said.
&ldquo;I ain&rsquo;t the President no more,&rdquo; Harden replied.
Hey, VP isn&rsquo;t so bad. And given Embiid&rsquo;s injury history, Harden just might have to rise again to the elite level he reached in eight-plus years with the Houston Rockets, where he was a three-time scoring champion and league assists leader. The seven-time All-NBA player was also named last year a member of the league&rsquo;s 75th anniversary team. But his reputation was smudged when he in large part orchestrated trades out of Houston and Brooklyn over a 14-month span that eventually parked him in Philly at last year&rsquo;s trade deadline.
The Nets had acquired Harden from the Rockets in a January 2021 trade, with the idea that he would form a Big 3 with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The expected title never materialized and the Nets gave up on a disgruntled Harden <a href="https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-76ers-brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-james-harden-2fea364a5cc35aa3515508d518cc08bc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and traded him</a> for Philly&rsquo;s own disgruntled Ben Simmons.
Harden has mostly kept quiet on his previous two trade demands.
&ldquo;For the most part, I&rsquo;m to myself,&rdquo; Harden said. &ldquo;Media, whoever, they talk and say their little jabs or shots at me and I never respond because I know who I am and what I&rsquo;m about.&rdquo;
Harden averaged 21 points in 21 games with the Sixers. It was the postseason that struck reasonable doubt that all the NBA miles on his body might taken a toll.
The fake beards fans wore when the Sixers acquired Harden and crazed excitement stirred by his arrival dimmed in the postseason. Harden had four turnovers, four baskets and did not score in the second half in a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-76ers-miami-heat-nba-sports-butler-7adab9036a51147926e92d9650810e64" target="_blank" rel="noopener">season-ending Game 6 loss</a> to Miami. He scored just 14 points in a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/miami-heat-philadelphia-76ers-nba-sports-joel-embiid-a7e7f3ef3a0cb646317e685a44975400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Game 5 blowout loss</a> at Miami. Harden said several issues that kept him from his full potential in Philadelphia were resolved this summer over meaningful conversations with Rivers and Embiid.
&ldquo;I think me learning them, and vice versa, them learning me and who I am and what I&rsquo;m about, this summer was really good for that,&rdquo; Harden said.
In Harden&rsquo;s 2017-18 MVP season, he joined Michael Jordan as the only players to average at least 20 points, eight assists, five rebounds and 1.7 steals in a season. He led the league in scoring, 3-pointers and 50-point games with four and led the Rockets to an NBA-best 65 wins.
&ldquo;If you start judging him, well he averaged 30 at Houston, but he only averaged 20 here, that&rsquo;s insane,&rdquo; Rivers said. &ldquo;We have a lot of guys that can score. At Houston, he had to score. All the time. Here, the No. 1 option is Joel. James has never been the second option.&rdquo;
At least not since his early years in Oklahoma City. If he adapts in Philly, it could go long a way toward bringing the Sixers their first championship since 1983.

James Harden is prepared to adapt in Philadelphia as a leader and Joel Embiid's right-hand man.

James Harden knows he's no longer the man in Philadelphia

EuroBasket 2022 is in the books, and this year's tournament was another reminder that a well-oiled team machine can still outlast the brightest individual stars on the planet.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic instantly made their countries favorites to win gold, and even had some of the best supporting casts in the field. But the final four squads &mdash; France, Germany, Poland and Spain &mdash; had one NBA All-Star on their rosters combined. The bracket stage was a true display of just how much basketball talent is spread around the globe.
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These six particularly stood out with some remarkable performances over three weeks. No former NBA All-Stars were considered; they obviously were among the best of the best. The following players might be less heralded in the United States, but any basketball fan should appreciate the runs they put together at EuroBasket.
Lorenzo Brown, Spain
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Spain took home the gold medal against France behind 27 points from Juancho Hernangomez. His brother Willy led the team in per-game scoring across the whole tournament. But Spain does not get to gold without Brown, an NBA castoff who has carved his niche in Europe over the past several years.&nbsp;
The 32-year-old guard averaged 15.2 points and 7.6 assists per contest. He dropped 29 points in a massive semifinal win against Germany, then had 14 points and 11 assists in the title bout. His veteran experience is apparent, and Spain creatively used Brown to keep France on its toes by running him off of ball-screens and mixing in pick-and-roll possessions. Brown in turn knew just when and where his teammates would be when France rotated. The above passes are exquisite; the third clip is my personal favorite.
Simone Fontecchio, Italy
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For one last time in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EuroBasket?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EuroBasket</a> 2022: Pasta. Pizza. Fontecchio. 🇮🇹 21 PTS 5 REB 4/7 3FG% SIMONEFONTECCHIO gave a hard fight against France 💪 <a href="https://t.co/qT6FEkdMzm">pic.twitter.com/qT6FEkdMzm</a>
&mdash; FIBA (@FIBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBA/status/1570104678653779968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Want to talk about an underrated offseason signing? The Utah Jazz added Fontecchio, a 6-foot-8-inch wing, on a multi-year contract this summer, and if Utah fans checked in on Italy, they saw Fontecchio lighting it up beyond the arc. The 26-year-old canned 45.1% of his 7.3 threes attempted per game and averaged 19.4 points across the tournament.
Fontecchio is simply an entertaining scorer. He can pull up from long range with all sorts of dribble and spin moves and still get into his sweet shooting stroke. He's a solid cutter and transition player, and while not a highlight-reel dunker, he has an underrated level of explosion. I really think Fontecchio's going to suprise fans next season if the Jazz give him extended minutes.
Lauri Markkanen, Finland
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Most U.S. fans probably picture Markkanen as your prototypical stretch forward. At EuroBasket, he was&nbsp;so&nbsp;much more. Markkanen was one of the tournament's most dominant players, putting up 27.9 points and 8.1 rebounds while shooting 61.5% from two-point range and 40.5% behind the arc.&nbsp;
Talk about emptying the bag &mdash; Markkanen was posting up, facing up, flying off cuts, initiating with drives, stepping back and finishing. He had a massive 43-point showcase against Croatia where he appeared blatantly unstoppable. Maybe a run like this encourages Utah to experiment more with Markkanen's usage stateside.
Dzanan Musa, Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Once a first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets, Musa fell out of the NBA, but has settled in overseas. He averaged 21.4 points, 4.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game with his home country and really applied pressure as a driver. Musa frequently went at bigs in conservative coverages &mdash; including guys like Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas &mdash; with his combination of quick-twitch handle and finishing touch.&nbsp;
Musa also made a noteworthy 45% of his triples. He's never had much of a three-point stroke up until last season in Liga ACB play, but it seems the swingman is really developing confidence. Musa is still just 23 and definitely has the ability to jump back into the NBA should teams pursue him.
Alperen Sengun, Turkey
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Turkey had a really fun run to the EuroBasket quarterfinals with the 20-year-old fueling the success. Sengun is on the smaller side of NBA centers, but against these opponents, he had more chances to physically dominate and go to work in the post. His speed on some of these spin moves is still incredible &mdash; just look at Hernangomez's reaction after this first bucket.
Sengun stymied teams with his post play and interior passing en route to 16.5 points per game. He's a secure cornerstone for the Houston Rockets at this point. Sure, it's fair to wonder how Sengun's skill set helps Houston once it reaches contender status. But there's no denying Sengun is amazing, regardless of his age, as a post scorer and passing big man.&nbsp;
Aleksandar Vezenkov, Bulgaria
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"Sasha" Vezenkov only played five EuroBasket contests after Bulgaria went 1-4 and missed out on the bracket stage. But he deserves a shoutout because he absolutely dominated his matchups. Vezenkov's box score line is bonkers: 27.0 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 56.6% on twos and 40.5% on nearly 8 threes per game.
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The perimeter scoring is frankly ridiculous. Vezenkov is more than a stretch forward or a movement shooter. At 6-foot-9, he's got a stable enough handle to threaten teams by putting the ball on the floor. At the same time, he's got this absurd, quick lefty shot, and can contort himself all sorts of ways without compromising his form.&nbsp;
The Sacramento Kings quietly acquired the rights to Vezenkov from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the No. 49 pick in this summer's NBA Draft (which became Isaiah Mobley). The 26-year-old reportedly won't come to the U.S. this summer, as he looks to defend a Greek League title with Olympiacos Piraeus and back up his All-EuroLeague First Team selection. But if you're thinking of tuning into some European hoops, Vezenkov should be considered a must-watch talent.

Alperen Sengun, Lauri Markkanen and Dzanan Musa were among the brightest stars at EuroBasket 2022.

EuroBasket 2022: 6 players who stood out in the tournament

Welcome to Basketball News' 10-part mini-series, Blazing the Trail, where Mat Issa breaks down the most revolutionary players of the 1990s and 2000s. Throughout this series, we'll examine how these players changed basketball and pioneered their respective skills.
In this fifth installment, Mat goes in-depth on one of the most versatile defenders of all-time: Andrei Kirilenko. He explains what made him different from other off-ball rovers who came before him, with insights from his former coaches, teammates and more.
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No player in this series has garnered more anticipation than Andrei Kirilenko. A quick survey of the internet yields countless articles and <a href="https://youtu.be/XGkSph7VDrU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube videos</a> that are all centered around the same premise:
Kirilenko would be a perfect fit in today&rsquo;s era.
Did Kirilenko serve as the prototype for the modern-day defender? During his prime, was he a revolutionary and a superstar?&nbsp;
Let's find out.
WHAT MADE KIRILENKO SPECIAL?
In baseball, a "five-tool player" is bestowed this label if they display excellence in five categories: hitting for average, hitting for power, fielding, speed and throwing.
Similarly, Kirilenko excelled in five different defensive disciplines.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/kirilenko-five-tool-defender.jpg" alt="Visual Created by Mark Cheung" width="487" height="520" />
Tool No. 1: Man Defense
&ldquo;His technique was fundamentally instinctive,&rdquo; said Gordon Chiesa, Kirilenko&rsquo;s former coach in Utah.
Kirilenko touted great length, reflexes and an active &lsquo;tap-dancing&rsquo; stance (see clips below) that enabled him to keep the ball in his line of sight at all times.&nbsp;
On top of that, he mastered the &lsquo;flick-hand technique,&rsquo; which aims to force ball-handlers to dribble East to West rather than North to South (since it's harder to get in the paint when you can&rsquo;t move forward).
"[Your] defensive hand is on the ball side, and [you're] flicking [your] hand up towards the ball &ndash; without losing [your] balance &ndash; to make their dribble lateral, so that it's more protective [rather than] more downhill," Chiesa explained to Basketball News.
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Tool No. 2: Versatility&nbsp;
While Kirilenko&rsquo;s primary assignments were forwards, he was capable of guarding shiftier speedsters and gargantuan bruisers as well.
&ldquo;You could literally put him on just about anyone,&rdquo; recalled Michael Ruffin, Kirilenko&rsquo;s former teammate who is now an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns. "[He] had the speed, quickness, length to keep up with guards&hellip; on the perimeter. That&rsquo;s who he would end up guarding a lot [of the time].&rdquo;
Kirilenko even developed antidotes to deploy when going up against the more powerful, low-post big men of the time.
&ldquo;Even on the post with a bigger, banging guy&hellip; he could make it difficult for them to get the ball deep by fronting them,&rdquo; said Charlotte Hornets assistant Tyrone Corbin, who coached Kirilenko in Utah. "What he would do is put the work in early [in the post] to make the catch a little further out, so they wouldn&rsquo;t catch it so deep in the paint.&rdquo;
And if the big man somehow managed to receive the entry pass?
&ldquo;He would go after the ball and keep them off balance that way,&rdquo; Corbin explained.
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Tool No. 3: Off-Ball Disruptor
&ldquo;The thing I remember about him most is that he [was] a defensive playmaker,&rdquo; Chiesa said.
Each season from 2001 to 2011, Kirilenko finished in the 96th percentile or higher in Cerebro Sports&rsquo; Defensive Statistical Impact metric (which measures defensive playmaking).&nbsp;
&ldquo;What made Kirilenko brilliant, I call it early eyes,&rdquo; Chiesa explained. &ldquo;He could read plays before [they] happened&hellip; and he was able to be cat-quick and jump in the passing lanes to steal the ball, block a shot or pickpocket somebody.&rdquo;
Among other things, Kirilenko was adept at doubling down from the perimeter &ndash; the concept of rotating over from the perimeter to double a player on the low block (which was particularly important during that era considering the high volume of post-ups).
&ldquo;People never understood how long he really was,&rdquo; Corbin said. &ldquo;He could be at the <a href="https://medium.com/the-basketball-dictionary/the-basketball-dictionary-5c3835e9fe58#:~:text=Nail%3A%20The%20spot%20in%20the,the%20middle%20at%20all%20costs." target="_blank" rel="noopener">nail</a>/elbow, and a guy could get the ball in the post and turn to dribble or make a move, and he&rsquo;s on top of them knocking the ball out.&rdquo;
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Tool No. 4: Motor
Legendary Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was known for stressing the importance of conditioning in all his practices.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the biggest sticklers with Coach Sloan: you had to be in great shape,&rdquo; Corbin emphasized. &ldquo;Most of the things that we did every day involved some kind of drill [with] conditioning as part of the drill.&rdquo;
Upon reflecting on his experiences, Ruffin agreed with Corbin&rsquo;s assessment.
&ldquo;The philosophy of the team&hellip; was that every time you stepped on the court, you go hard,&rdquo; Ruffin said.
Kirilenko did not deviate from this mission statement. During his iconic run in the 2003-04 NBA season (more on that in a bit), he finished in the 94th percentile in minutes played. And he spent every second of those nearly 2,900 minutes stalking the terrain at a frenetic pace.
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Tool No. 5: Shot-Blocking
Kirilenko was a human eraser of the highest order, and his acumen as a shot-blocker is what separated him from the likes of Shawn Marion &ndash; the other multi-faceted forward of that time.
During his career, Kirilenko posted a whopping seven seasons with a block percentage of 4% or higher. Marion, on the other hand, never surpassed 3%.&nbsp;
With his condor arms, impeccable timing and recovery speed, Kirilenko was terrific at swatting away attempts.
&ldquo;Super timing. Super, super timing," Corbin said. "And his ability to recover &ndash; to get from point A to point B &ndash; especially off the ball when he could be on the weakside. A guy could drive thinking he was open; [Kirilenko] would get from where he was to the ball quickly before the guy could alter his shot or see him coming.
&ldquo;As good as he was on the ball, he was better coming off the ball because guys couldn&rsquo;t see where he was coming from.&rdquo;
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ON-COURT PRODUCTION
Prior to the 2003-04 NBA season, ESPN writer Frank Hughes <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2003/10/5/19788279/little-expected-of-jazz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted</a> that the Utah Jazz would lose more games than any team in NBA history.&nbsp;
Not only did Utah outperform these not-so-lofty expectations, they came within one game of the playoffs in the loaded Western Conference.&nbsp;
So, what happened?
&ldquo;When things like that usually happen, you look back, and you&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;Oh, we missed on three or four of those players. They were way better than we thought,'&rdquo; said David Locke, who has been the radio voice of the Jazz for 13 years.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that exists on [the Jazz&rsquo;s] roster. I think the only one we missed on was a 22-year-old Andrei Kirilenko [who] was just a way better player and more important than people realized.&rdquo;
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Advanced data helps us understand Kirilenko's impact that season. Basketball Reference&rsquo;s Box Plus-Minus paints Kirilenko as a <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2004_advanced.html#advanced_stats::bpm">top-three player</a> in the league that year, with the next-best Jazz player ranking 75th. While top-three may be unlikely, he was pretty darn close.
In 2003-04, Utah's defense was 2.2 points stingier per 100 possessions with their Swiss-army-knife defender on the floor (which ranked in the 72nd percentile, per Cleaning the Glass).&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s more, AK-47's value extended beyond his defense. He also boasted a progressive offensive game &ndash; one that improved Utah&rsquo;s attack by 9.5 points per 100 possessions (ranking in the 97th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass).&nbsp;
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Along with being a revolutionary defender, Kirilenko had an incredibly modern (and underrated) offensive game. He was a decisive passer, an eager cutter, a fearless driver, and a FT drawing machine. He would have been the perfect player in today's read-and-react react game. <a href="https://t.co/dvEZTxxWDJ">pic.twitter.com/dvEZTxxWDJ</a>
&mdash; Mat Issa (@matissa15) <a href="https://twitter.com/matissa15/status/1562527132013604865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Put those two outputs together, and the Jazz had a +11.8 efficiency differential per 100 possessions when Kirilenko was on the court. That year, the only other All-Stars to achieve that mark were Kevin Garnett (the 2003-04 MVP), Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal, Jason Kidd and Brad Miller.&nbsp;
(Note: On the <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/260tNesWxrhH93RDQP06pS?si=79381e7876574e8f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blazing the Trail podcast</a>, historian Cody Houdek and I broke down where Kirilenko ranked in the league that season, and we ultimately landed on him falling somewhere in the 8-12 range).
BLAZING THE TRAIL
Chiesa&rsquo;s Jazz spent the late 1990s being vanquished by a team that rostered a player in Kirilenko&rsquo;s likeness: Scottie Pippen.
&ldquo;Defensively, [Pippen] was a defensive playmaker who could guard all five positions, and that was Kirilenko,&rdquo; Chiesa compared.&nbsp;
Despite their similarities, Pippen&rsquo;s approach was more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9vFHYVXtRk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on-ball orientated</a> (juxtaposed with Kirilenko&rsquo;s primarily off-ball style). A more perfect progenitor for this inspector-gadget model exists by way of 1970s stalwart Bobby Jones.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; Chiesa exclaimed when asked about the two forwards' similarities.&nbsp;&ldquo;Just like Kirilenko &ndash; 6-foot-9, [220] pounds, gangly, high hips, [could] run the floor, defensive playmaker...&rdquo;&nbsp;
Like Kirilenko, the Secretary of Defense touted the illustrious <a href="https://streamable.com/3ynktv" target="_blank" rel="noopener">five defensive tools</a> and, as a result, left a significant mark on that end of the floor &ndash; quarterbacking five top-5 defenses during his 10-year tenure in the NBA.
Both defensive roamers by nature, Kirilenko was able to become arguably more impactful than his predecessor thanks to the abolition of illegal defense rules in 2001. Before this rule change, zone defense was banned, and if teams/players wanted to execute these exotic coverages, they had to do so covertly, which greatly mitigated the value of off-ball roamers such as Jones.
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IMPACT ON TODAY'S GAME
In the era of pace and space, the logical defensive counter to this increased surface area is to obtain personnel who can cover this space efficiently.&nbsp;
As alluded to in the previous section, rule changes enabled Kirilenko to operate unrestricted in a manner his forefathers never could. And this confluence of events, combined with his unique physical tools and instincts, made him the prototype for the space-ball defender.
Today, the NBA landscape is littered with players who resemble Kirilenko's robust defensive palate. Nearly every prominent defender in the Association has shades of Kirilenko&rsquo;s design in their own game.&nbsp;
For instance, All-Defensive First Team forward Mikal Bridges shares Kirilenko&rsquo;s length and motor.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I think that [Kirilenko] is actually a lot like Mikal,&rdquo; said Ruffin, who coaches Bridges on the Suns. &ldquo;They are both extremely long, they move really well [when] negotiating screens, both have good motors, and they both take pride in defending.&rdquo;
As for reigning Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, Ruffin said that he inherited Kirilenko&rsquo;s versatility. Like Kirilenko, Smart regularly faces off against defenders far larger than him in stature, and he holds them off using the same <a href="https://streamable.com/5x6n4y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fronting techniques</a> Corbin alluded to earlier.&nbsp;
Draymond Green, arguably the best defender of his generation, may share the most similarities with Kirilenko &mdash; possessing all five of his fancy utensils. And similar to how Kirilenko surpassed Jones, Green one-upped AK-47 by adding a rim-deterrence component to his game.&nbsp;
The best paint protectors deter opponents from taking shots in the restricted area entirely, and Green is no exception. This past season, opponent rim frequency decreased by 5.4% when he was on the court (which ranked in the 99th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass). Unfortunately, Kirilenko's presence didn&rsquo;t have the same effect, as the opponent's rim frequency <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/2029/onoff#tab-opp_shooting_freq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">oftentimes</a> increased when he was on the floor.
Thanks to the movement initiated by Kirilenko (and capitalized on by Green), every team is looking for the next torchbearer to the space-ball-defender lineage.
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In fact, Utah may have just stumbled upon its second iteration of the archetype in recently acquired Jarred Vanderbilt. When asked about their parallels, Chiesa pulled out his notes from when the Jazz and Timberwolves faced off on December 31, 2021, and read them aloud:
&ldquo;Lengthy frame, long arms, pretzel legs&hellip; wily defensive ball-retriever, glides in from perimeter to block shots, active back-tipper into transition, early-eyes anticipator, in and out of the passing lanes, steal maker&hellip; around the ball consistently.&rdquo;
Sound familiar?
Meanwhile, in Toronto, the Raptors believe they hold the key to the next link in the five-tool chain in reigning Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I think Scottie is overall a better talent [than Kirilenko]," Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin told Basketball News. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not taking anything away from Kirilenko&hellip; but I think there is something special about Scottie.&rdquo;
Seeing the direction the league is going, it makes sense why people always ponder how Kirilenko would fare in today&rsquo;s game.&nbsp;
But don&rsquo;t let his status as a revolutionary fool you; he was a damn good player during his time too.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/img_5197.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="562" />
Check back next week for Part VI of Blazing the Trail, which focuses on Shawn Kemp, the aerial artist.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-blazing-the-trail-reggie-miller-the-moving-target-indiana-pacers-rik-smits-dan-burke-michael-jordan-joe-dumars-golden-state-warriors-chris-mullin-steph-curry-klay-thompson">Click here to read Part IV: Reggie Miller, the moving target</a>
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-blazing-the-trail-shane-battier-the-databall-defender-memphis-grizzlies-houston-rockets-miami-heat-daryl-morey-david-fizdale-detroit-pistons-draymond-green" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to read Part III: Shane Battier, the data-ball defender</a>
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-blazing-the-trail-rashard-lewis-all-star-stretch-four-orlando-magic-stan-van-gundy-dwight-howard-hedo-turkoglu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to read Part II: Rashard Lewis, the All-Star stretch 4</a>
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-blazing-the-trail-steve-nash-phoenix-suns-mike-dantoni-raja-bell-steph-curry-all-time-great-point-guard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to read Part I: Steve Nash, the magician who danced in the paint</a>

Andrei Kirilenko was a five-tool defender who was ahead of his time. Mat Issa looks back on AK-47's career and impact on today's NBA.

Blazing the Trail: Andrei Kirilenko, the five-tool defender

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not a high-flying leaper like Ja Morant, a ball-handling wizard like Stephen Curry or a court-mapping surgeon like Luka Doncic. Instead, one of the NBA's premier driving threats is somewhere in the middle of his peers.
According to NBA tracking data provided by Second Spectrum, Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA with 23.9 drives per game last season. It's the highest per-game driving rate in the NBA's player tracking history dating back to 2013-14. If Gilgeous-Alexander met the minimum games played qualifier in 2020-21, he would have led the league again with a whopping 25.2 drives per game.
The 24-year-old does it with an understated blend of sharp angles, long arms, crafty contortion and aerial acrobatics, stymying defenders by creating openings where they don't seem to exist. (Our Nekias Duncan <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/taking-a-drive-with-shai-gilgeousalexander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke down his unorthodox driving game</a> in further detail earlier this spring.)
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Gilgeous-Alexander is the lone member of the youth-movement Oklahoma City Thunder to truly arrive at stardom. He put up a career-high 24.5 points, 5.9 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game last season, and popped off after the All-Star break to the tune of 30.4 points, 7.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds (with a 63.4% True Shooting clip) across 13 games. SGA dropped those numbers while shouldering some of the heaviest creation burdens in the entire league.&nbsp;
PBP Stats lists "self-created" shots as an attempt that takes two or more seconds to generate. Gilgeous-Alexander generated a stunning 90.3% of his field goal attempts via self-creation in 2021-22, just behind Trae Young (90.6%). SGA also cleared 90% in 2020-21 (91.5%), and holds 2 of the 4 seasons in NBA tracking history with a self-creation frequency over 90%.
In short, Gilgeous-Alexander is responsible for generating a ridiculous amount of offense in Oklahoma City. The Thunder had the second-worst Offensive Rating in the league last season, though they wielded a defense that looked promising at times. OKC's 43.5% Effective Field Goal percentage on "assisted" shots (taking less than two seconds to shoot) was dead last, per PBP Stats.
There's also this stat:
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The bottom-five in teammate FG% on potential assists (passes leading to a shot attempt) among 132 NBA players with at least 300 potential assists: 1. RJ Hampton - 40.7% 2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - 45.6% 3. Caris LeVert - 46.3% 4. Cory Joseph - 46.4% 5. Anfernee Simons - 46.7%
&mdash; Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) <a href="https://twitter.com/ethman43/status/1557733094232576000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2022</a></blockquote>

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SGA has one of the lowest potential-assist conversion rates across the NBA. Theoretically, this could stem from several causes. Maybe Gilgeous-Alexander is throwing tons of bad passes, or his pass selection involves more difficult shot locations, or his teammates are poor collective shooters, or, it's simply bad luck. I lean toward the latter two given OKC's team-wide struggles.&nbsp;
At age 24, Gilgeous-Alexander is still in the growth phase of his pro career, but also notably older, more experienced and more proven than most of his teammates. The Thunder (most likely) aren't flipping the switch to "win now" quite yet, and should be content to let the young guys ride through mistakes as the draft picks continue to flow in.
But what does that mean for Gilgeous-Alexander and his development? We just saw the San Antonio Spurs trade Dejounte Murray, another talented breakout star guard leading a prospect-laden squad, to the Atlanta Hawks. Is Gilgeous-Alexander destined for a similar exit?
I don't think so. However, both the player and the team must strike a balance to foster everyone's growth.&nbsp;
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Gilgeous-Alexander is a phenomenal catch-and-shoot player, having cleared 41% on catch-and-shoot threes each year in Oklahoma City. Yet, his volume &mdash; already pretty low &mdash; dipped to under one attempt per game last season.&nbsp;
For SGA to feel some creation relief, OKC needs additional players &mdash; namely Josh Giddey and Tre Mann &mdash; to take serious steps forward.
We never got to see Giddey hit a spring stride; he missed every game after Feb. 24 due to a hip injury. Giddey landed on the All-Rookie Second Team last season, but still took the classic rookie point guard lumps.
Giddey ranked 10th among all players with 1.6 bad-pass turnovers per game (per PBP Stats), and his 17.3% overall turnover rate was third among all players who logged at least 800 minutes (per Cleaning the Glass). He also shot 44.1% on drives to the basket, the fourth-lowest among 61 players who averaged eight or more drives per game.
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The Aussie point guard relies on his court vision, size and semi-natural touch to find driving lanes and make shots. He doesn't have a quick first step, upper-body strength or contortion ability to make many off-balance shots at this stage. When Giddey doesn't get that initial blow-by, he struggles at times to create another lane for himself with a defender in front of him. That should change in due time, and, before his injury, Giddey did show some increased aggression and a willingness to play through contact.&nbsp;
Giddey also functioned well driving off the catch, where he should continue to play frequently as Gilgeous-Alexander dominates the ball. The 19-year-old's off-ball awareness lines up with his on-ball vision, and he also attacks quickly and can keep defenders from regaining their footing after a closeout.
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If SGA can use his gravity to open up these types of changes for Giddey, the latter will find easier chances for himself and, thus, pull some of the focus away from SGA. Of course, I glossed entirely over Giddey's passing as well, which will keep defenses on their toes as long as he's playing basketball.
Jackson Frank brilliantly <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/tre-mann-and-the-importance-of-looking-past-the-box-score" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dissected Tre Mann's game</a> towards the end of last season. His piece covers the necessary growth steps for Mann to become a consistent pull-up scorer and passer. I'll let Jackson's piece speak for itself, but here's an observation he made that applies in this context:
<blockquote>
For many scoring-inclined prospects or young guys, a hurdle that often exists is the inability to create open or comfortable looks when transitioning from their pre-NBA context to the league. Whether it&rsquo;s athletic shortcomings, atypical shooting mechanics or something else, the capacity to consistently find clean shots prevents them from burgeoning into high-level scorers.
With Mann, that&rsquo;s not a problem because he&rsquo;s routinely producing open, replicable shots for himself. He&rsquo;s not hitting a ton of them thus far, but the process is encouraging. Shot-making is a staple of developmental curves, even if it&rsquo;s usually just implied rather than stated analysis. He views offensive decision-making through a lens of distinguished creativity."
</blockquote>
Mann might be the only player like this currently on the Thunder roster &mdash; aside from maybe SGA himself. I'm excited to watch Tre's development next season.
Luguentz Dort and rookie lottery pick Jalen Williams should get in on some of the self-creation action next season, and maybe we'll see a bit from Aleksej Pokusevski, Chet Holmgren and Ousmane Dieng. However, Giddey and Mann are the primary drivers (literally and metaphorically) behind Gilgeous-Alexander and will lead the support.
Gilgeous-Alexander will still carry a sky-high usage rate though. To maximize his effectiveness as a playmaker, others need to step up and hit shots they simply did not make last season.&nbsp;
According to the NBA's tracking data, nearly 52% of SGA's passes last season went to four players: Giddey, Dort, Darius Bazley and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. Bazley was the only one of the four to shoot over 37% from the field on those passes. None of them cleared 30% from beyond the arc.
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As a team, Oklahoma City converted a paltry 32.6% of its catch-and-shoot threes, by far the worst mark in the NBA. The Thunder attempted the most "wide open" threes (no defender within 6 feet) of any NBA team last season and shot the second-worst clip in the league at 35.1%. And on top of that, they were also dead last in efficiency within 5 feet from the basket (58.3%). Yuck.
Giddey and Dort quite simply must improve as off-ball shooters. For Giddey, adding a viable catch-and-shoot three-ball will only make things easier for him when he attacks a closeout; right now, defenses can relax when he's spacing the floor. Dort, meanwhile, launched 7.7 triples per game last season, but converted only 33.2% of them.
Robinson-Earl is an interesting case. Barely a stretch forward at Villanova, he took 47.0% of his shots from behind the arc as a second-round rookie. Robinson-Earl made 35.2% of his threes, which is pretty solid at this stage and a very positive launch pad for his future.
Bazley has not arrived as a consistent shot-maker since going No. 23 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. He brings value on the defensive end, but has poor shooting splits no matter the context. About 44% of Bazley's shots came at the rim (83rd percentile, per Cleaning the Glass), but he made them at just a 58% rate (20th percentile).
And now, in addition to that quartet, OKC has three new lottery picks to add to the mix. Holmgren and Williams, in particular, could help space the floor right away.&nbsp;
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Holmgren balled out at his two Summer League showcases in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. We saw a bit of him in pick-and-pop-type actions, and he seemed undeterred in freeing himself from the screen defender and setting himself quickly to shoot. Holmgren has been an elite perimeter shooter and rim-finisher since high school; expect that to translate very quickly to the NBA. Imagine defenses having to constantly monitor Holmgren's space on the court when he's also in an action with Gilgeous-Alexander.
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Williams has been billed for his versatility as a playmaking option, and he also spaced the floor well at Santa Clara. The 6-foot-6 wing made 20 of 41 catch-and-shoot looks as a junior, per InStat Scouting. He knows how to subtly shift into passing lanes and confidently rise up with consistency. Even before discussing Williams' on-ball skills, he at least has a stable floor as a relocating wing who can be another outlet for SGA, Giddey, Mann and others.
Of course, Williams and Holmgren are still only rookies, and they won't be surefire successes in just one year. This circles back to the broader challenge for OKC: How do you continue the youth movement (not using the T-word yet) with a scoring guard capable of putting up an All-Star season in 2022-23?
This is where Gilgeous-Alexander must simply trust the process. He assuredly has room to improve on the defensive end, and his pull-up efficiency dropped off last season after stellar numbers in 2020-21. SGA is talented enough to take over possessions and get his own buckets, but that isn't always in the best interest of the team's development. He'll have to be patient and continue being a supportive teammate as the others catch up.
The 2022-23 Thunder season will ultimately be a trust exercise between one star and one organization. Oklahoma City is putting the pieces around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that he needs to ultimately thrive. We'll see how much time it takes for the rotation to finally coalesce.

Ethan Fuller details how both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder can get what they want next season.

How can the Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander balance their needs?

American basketball star Brittney Griner was back in court on Tuesday for her trial for cannabis possession amid U.S. diplomatic efforts to secure her release.
During the hearing, prosecutors called a state narcotics expert who analyzed cannabis found in Griner&rsquo;s luggage. Her defense fielded a specialist who challenged the analysis, charging that it was flawed and didn&rsquo;t conform to official rules.
Griner was escorted into court in handcuffs and placed inside a cage in the trial in Khimki, a town on the northern edge of Moscow. While in the cage she held up personal photos.
The trial adjourned until Thursday, when closing statements are scheduled.
If convicted, the Women&rsquo;s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star and two-time Olympic gold medalist could face 10 years in prison. As her trial has progressed, the Biden administration has faced growing public pressure to get her released.
In an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free.
The Lavrov-Blinken call marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine more than five months ago, the direct outreach at odds with U.S. efforts to isolate the Kremlin.
People familiar with the proposal say it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for the notorious arms trader Viktor Bout. It underlines the public pressure that the White House has faced to get Griner released.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that Russia has made a &ldquo;bad faith&rdquo; response to the U.S. government&rsquo;s offer, a counteroffer that American officials don&rsquo;t regard as serious. She declined to elaborate.
Griner has acknowledged there were vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage when she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February. But she insisted that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage because she was packing hastily. Griner played for a Russian women&rsquo;s basketball team in the WNBA off-season.
To bolster her case, her defense lawyers have presented testimony from doctors that she was prescribed cannabis as a treatment for pain. Medical marijuana treatment is not legal in Russia.
&ldquo;There are a lot of factors that will taken by the court into account,&rdquo; Griner&rsquo;s attorney Maria Blagovolina told reporters after Tuesday&rsquo;s hearing, adding that Griner &ldquo;admitted that she did bring something, but we need to know what she did bring.&rdquo;
While judges have leeway to consider mitigating factors under Russian law, acquittals are rare and account for less than 1% of cases in Russian criminal prosecutions.
A conviction, however, could potentially pave the way for Griner&rsquo;s exchange as Russian officials said it could only happen after the judicial process is completed.
Tom Firestone, a Washington attorney who formerly served as legal adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said Griner could be handed a tough sentence as a way for Russians &ldquo;to maximize their leverage in negotiations.&rdquo; He told The Associated Press that Russia &ldquo;may want to let this play out a little bit longer and try to extract more concessions.&rdquo;
Russian officials have scoffed at U.S. statements about the case, saying they show a disrespect for Russian law. They remained poker-faced, urging Washington to discuss the issue through &ldquo;quiet diplomacy without releases of speculative information.&rdquo;
Asked about the latest White House comment regarding the Russian counteroffer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn&rsquo;t offer any details.
&ldquo;Any exchange of information on the subject should be discreet without any &lsquo;loudspeaker diplomacy,&rsquo;&rdquo; he told reporters. &ldquo;Public exchange of positions will not yield any result.&rdquo;

Brittney Griner was back in court on Tuesday for her trial for cannabis possession amid U.S. diplomatic efforts to secure her release.

Brittney Griner back in Russian court on cannabis charge

Bookmark this page and we'll keep you up-to-date on every NBA rumor. We'll continue updating this tracker over the next 24 hours.

NBA Rumor Tracker: Compiling the latest news and intel

The 2022 NBA Draft is one day away, and rumors are surfacing left and right.
Which teams have been the most aggressive in trade talks? Will any notable players be on the move? Which draft picks could be dealt? BasketballNews has compiled all of the biggest rumors:
Malcolm Brogdon &ldquo;significantly likely&rdquo; to be traded
All signs point to the Indiana Pacers trading Malcolm Brogdon this week. Not only has Brogdon surfaced in trade rumors more than any other player, ESPN&rsquo;s Adrian Wojnarowski recently reported that teams like the Washington Wizards and New York Knicks are expected to pivot to Brogdon trade negotiations if they can&rsquo;t move up to No. 4 for Purdue&rsquo;s Jaden Ivey.
The Ringer&rsquo;s Kevin O&rsquo;Connor reported that the Pacers were throwing the veteran guard into every trade discussion they were having.
On <a href="https://www.espn.com/radio/play/_/id/34125407" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Lowe Post,</a> ESPN&rsquo;s Jonathan Givony mentioned that the Los Angeles Lakers offered the following package for Brogdon: Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker and a future first-round pick in 2027. Givony said that the Pacers immediately declined the Lakers&rsquo; offer. Lowe also threw in that he&rsquo;s heard Brogdon and Myles Turner are &ldquo;coveted&rdquo; around the league.
During ESPN&rsquo;s NBA Mock Draft Special on Tuesday night, Wojnarowski reiterated that it&rsquo;s &ldquo;significantly likely&rdquo; that Brogdon is moved before the 2022 NBA Draft begins.
Hornets shopping Gordon Hayward
The Charlotte Hornets are prioritizing salary-cap flexibility in order to re-sign Miles Bridges, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. The Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons are also worth monitoring as potential suitors for Bridges, per <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10039350-latest-nba-intel-the-divide-between-kyrie-irving-and-brooklyn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer</a>.
With the Hornets prioritizing Bridges, Gordon Hayward&rsquo;s future in Charlotte is certainly in flux. Windhorst said that the Hornets are looking to find a team that's willing to take on the final two years of Hayward&rsquo;s contract. As an incentive, Charlotte is reportedly willing to throw in one of their first-round picks (No. 13 or No. 15). We'll see if any teams pounce at the opportunity to land Hayward and a lottery pick.
Fischer notes that Charlotte is also gauging the trade market on Terry Rozier, Kelly Oubre Jr., PJ Washington and Mason Plumlee.
With the hope of shedding salary to keep Bridges alongside LaMelo Ball, the Hornets seem poised to make a big move this week.
Hawks have been aggressive
There have been a ton of Hawks-related rumors of late. On Monday night, Wojnarowski appeared on SportsCenter and said that Atlanta has been aggressive in trying to find a star to pair with Trae Young.&nbsp;
John Collins has surfaced in a number of trade rumors as well. The Hawks have had talks with the Sacramento Kings about a potential Collins deal, according to <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/kings-hawks-engaged-in-john-collins-trade-talks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Athletic's Shams Charania</a>.
Versatile wing Bogdan Bogdanovic is also drawing interest from teams, per&nbsp;Windhorst. Atlanta has offers on the table for Collins and Bogdanovic.
Bleacher Report&rsquo;s Jake Fischer also shared an interesting Hawks nugget during his <a href="https://www.callin.com/episode/2022-nba-draft-preview-with-jeremy-woo-AojmeoFMXL" target="_blank" rel="noopener">live podcast</a> on Tuesday: Atlanta is trying to move up from No. 16 overall into the lottery, with their primary target being G League Ignite playmaker Dyson Daniels. Fischer said that the Portland Trail Blazers at No. 7 could be a potential team to monitor as Atlanta continues to pursue Daniels.
It's possible we could see an explosive draft night from the Hawks. They are weighing multiple moves, and the front office views Young and De&rsquo;Andre Hunter as the only untouchable assets, per Woj.
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Tucker, Gordon reuniting with Harden on 76ers?&nbsp;
The Philadelphia 76ers could be a team to watch this offseason. Not only do they have <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/signing-james-harden-to-a-max-contract-could-cripple-the-sixers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an important long-term decision to make</a> on James Harden, they also have a number of players who could be viewed as available. Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-pj-tucker-nba-draft-free-agency-20220621.html?utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_campaign=edit_social_share_twitter_traffic&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_term=&amp;int_promo=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped multiple tidbits on the Sixers&rsquo; plans</a>.
After PJ Tucker declined his player option with the Miami Heat, Philadelphia and the veteran forward have mutual interest. In order to create cap space, the Sixers are looking to deal Matisse Thybulle and the No. 23 pick in a three-team deal.&nbsp;
Pompey <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-pj-tucker-nba-draft-free-agency-20220621.html?utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_campaign=edit_social_share_twitter_traffic&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_term=&amp;int_promo=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a> that Philadelphia is trying their best to offload Tobias Harris&rsquo; large contract, but it's been tough to find any potential suitors.
Finally, there's another Houston Rocket who could potentially reunite with Harden in Philadelphia. The Sixers and Phoenix Suns have expressed interest in Eric Gordon, per Windhorst on NBA Today.
It sounds like Daryl Morey is trying to get the band back together, with Gordon and Tucker running it back with Harden in the Eastern Conference.
Knicks have been very active
As previously mentioned, the New York Knicks are showing interest in Brogdon. In addition to Wojnarowski's report, we've seen similar intel from The Athletic&rsquo;s Shams Charania and SNY&rsquo;s Ian Begley. Outside of Brogdon, are there any other targets on the board?
Begley <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MxXPLPlNRM&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported on KnicksFanTV</a> that New York recently offered the Sacramento Kings multiple future first-round picks to move up to No. 4 for Jaden Ivey. The Knicks view Ivey in a high regard, and are willing to pay a steep price to move up seven spots in the draft.
The Knicks have also had talks with the Detroit Pistons about acquiring the No. 5 overall pick, and Cam Reddish was included in those discussions, per <a href="https://www.sny.tv/articles/knicks-pistons-touched-base-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Begley</a>.&nbsp;
It certainly seems like New York is trying to make a splash.
Hawks, Pistons are top suitors for Deandre Ayton
According to <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/33LDGb6QNc9VQor8CJVWoL?si=55021b96146147f5&amp;nd=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">O&rsquo;Connor on The Mismatch</a>, the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks are the main teams to monitor as it relates to Deandre Ayton&rsquo;s upcoming restricted free agency. Ayton could still stay with Phoenix, but Detroit and Atlanta will be among the teams pursuing the 23-year-old center.
Do the Suns actually view Ayton as a max-level player? If not, perhaps the Suns will try to get creative and explore sign-and-trade packages revolving around Ayton. Detroit and Atlanta have some intriguing assets that could make a deal worth it from the Suns&rsquo; perspective (although the Pistons could also try to sign Ayton using <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/which-nba-teams-have-the-most-cap-space-entering-free-agency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">their cap space</a>).
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Timberwolves inquired about Rudy Gobert, Clint Capela
During <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/33LDGb6QNc9VQor8CJVWoL?si=55021b96146147f5&amp;nd=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tuesday&rsquo;s episode of The Mismatch</a>, O'Connor also mentioned that the Minnesota Timberwolves have registered interest in Rudy Gobert and Clint Capela. This lines up with a previous report from Charania that Minnesota had inquired about Capela.
Where there&rsquo;s smoke, there&rsquo;s usually fire. So, are the Timberwolves really about to make Karl-Anthony Towns a full-time power forward? If the plan is to make a big move for a veteran center, moving one of the best shooting bigs of all-time further to the perimeter is an interesting thought.
According to <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/townska01.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Basketball Reference</a>, Towns played 100% of his minutes at center last season. In fact, the only time he has played power forward throughout his NBA career was during his rookie season in 2015-16, when 2% of his minutes came at the 4.
The more you think about it, the more a Towns-Gobert frontcourt is certainly intriguing though.
John Wall expected to get bought out?
The Houston Rockets and John Wall will work toward finalizing a buyout before free agency begins, according to Fischer on his <a href="https://www.callin.com/episode/2022-nba-draft-preview-with-jeremy-woo-AojmeoFMXL" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latest podcast</a>.
After Wall opted in to his $47.3 million player option, there were questions about what's next for the point guard. This is the final year of Wall's contract, which could make it easier for the two sides to reach a buyout agreement.
If Wall hits the open market, could regain his form on a contender (potentially signing for the mid-level exception or less)? Wall averaged 20.6 points and 6.9 assists for Houston during the 2020-21 season, but he hasn't set foot on an NBA court since April of 2021.
Cavaliers open to trading No. 14 pick
According to <a href="https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-rumors-bradley-beal-bobby-portis-nicolas-batum-lakers-nets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HoopsHype&rsquo;s Michael Scotto</a>, the Cleveland Cavaliers are open to trading back from the final slot in the lottery at No. 14 overall. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks are among the teams who have already called the Cavs about the pick, per Scotto.
It's interesting that the Grizzlies and Bucks &mdash; two legitimate contenders &mdash; trying to move up 10-plus spots on Thursday night. It's unclear who these teams are targeting, but our Senior NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock currently has Ousmane Dieng projected at No. 14 overall. Rumors have been flying that Dieng has a guarantee, per Babcock, and he did receive an invite to the green room.
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Heat expressing interest in Jerami Grant
According to SNY&rsquo;s Ian Begley, the Miami Heat have checked in on the availability of Jerami Grant. The Detroit Pistons have been openly shopping Grant for a while, so perhaps a deal will finally go down this week.
Does Miami make sense as a potential trade partner for the Pistons? It's unclear what the Heat would be giving up in return for Grant, who averaged 19.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.9 threes, 1.0 block and 0.9 steals this season, while shooting 42.6% from the field, 35.8% from three-point range and 83.8% from the free-throw line.
Grizzlies attempting to move up
Reaffirming the Grizzlies&rsquo; desires of trading up on Thursday, Zach Lowe mentioned on <a href="https://www.espn.com/radio/play/_/id/34125407" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Lowe Post</a> that Memphis' executives are &ldquo;calling in every direction.&rdquo;
If that&rsquo;s not a sign that the Grizzlies are expected to be very active on Thursday, I don&rsquo;t know what to tell you. Memphis has a history of being active on draft night, and it seems this year won&rsquo;t be any different.
Are the Suns willing to pay the luxury tax?
Recently, many national pundits have suggested that the Phoenix Suns are hesitant to go deep into the luxury tax. However, Suns owner Robert Sarver recently told BasketballNews that Phoenix has no qualms about paying up in order to keep this team together long-term.
&ldquo;My position for a market like us with the tax is, if you get yourself where you can compete at the highest level, then you pay it and you go for it,&rdquo; Sarver said.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying we&rsquo;re in a market that can be in it 10 years in a row," Sarver added. "But when you get to a certain level where you have a chance to compete and you&rsquo;re a top-four, top-six, top-eight team, if you&rsquo;re at the level where you have a legitimate chance to compete &mdash; get to your Conference Finals and maybe win a championship &mdash; then I think you go in the tax, you pay and you do what you gotta do."
Sarver knows that the Suns&rsquo; championship window is in the here and now. Barring a change of heart, it seems that he's willing to spend to keep this core together.
&ldquo;You just can&rsquo;t take success for grant,&rdquo; Sarver said. &ldquo;It can come and go.&rdquo;
Also, keep an eye on the Suns trying to add a pick in Thursday's draft. While they have no picks at the moment, Phoenix is making calls and trying to buy a second-round selection, according to 98.7 FM&rsquo;s John Gambadoro. Gambadoro said that the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors are teams who are open to trading their second-rounders.
Dyson Daniels rising up draft boards?
Dyson Daniels has one of the biggest risers during the NBA pre-draft process. On BasketballNews' latest mock draft, Babcock has Daniels being selected No. 8 overall by the New Orleans Pelicans.
&ldquo;After being at the NBA Global Academy in Canberra, Australia, Dyson Daniels had a terrific season for the G League Ignite," Babcock said of Daniels. "The 6-foot-7 positionless Swiss army knife, Daniels excels at getting downhill and attacking the basket, relying on his athleticism and body control for finishing while occasionally employing a floater. Daniels&rsquo; outside shooting is still a work in progress, but he is a disruptive defender with quick feet and instincts. Daniels&rsquo; progression as a playmaker was also notable during the G League season. He seems to have a bright future ahead of him.&rdquo;
According to <a href="https://theathletic.com/3372868/2022/06/20/indiana-pacers-nba-draft/?source=emp_shared_article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Athletic&rsquo;s Bob Kravitz</a>, Daniels blew away the Indiana Pacers&rsquo; front office in his recent workout in Indianapolis.
&ldquo;I was told Dyson Daniels had one of the greatest workouts a lot of people in the Indiana organization have ever seen,&rdquo; Kravitz said on ESPN 107.5 FM on Tuesday.
With the Pacers selecting at No. 6 overall, their hope is that somehow one of Jaden Ivey or Keegan Murray slips. If not, Kravitz said the Pacers will be deciding between Daniels and Arizona wing Bennedict Mathurin.
Stay tuned to BasketballNews.com for all the latest NBA news and rumors during what could be a crazy offseason. Also, check out our <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/nba-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft page</a> for all of our in-depth draft coverage.
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On the eve of the 2022 NBA Draft, rumors are surfacing left and right. Evan Sidery compiles the latest rumblings around the NBA.