Month: July 2021

The New York Knicks, to some extent, kicked the can down the 2021 NBA Draft.

New York came in with two first round picks — Nos. 19 and 21 — and didn’t use either. No. 19 was sent to the Charlotte Hornets so the Hornets could nab Texas big man Kai Jones. For their trouble, the Knicks picked up a heavily protected future first-round pick. They then traded down to No. 25 with the Houston Rockets, picking up a 2024 second round pick via the Detroit Pistons. And with the pick, they nabbed guard Quentin Grimes from the University of Houston.

There’s a lot to unpack here. The Knicks’ roster isn’t complete by any means, so it might be fair to question them not taking whomever was the highest-ranked prospect on their board with either pick (unless of course, that prospect *was* Grimes). They need more creation on the perimeter, so why not take a stab at someone earlier in the first round right now to maybe solve that need? But at the same time, they’ve added a future pick from the Hornets to add to their own picks and the 2023 first-round pick they still have coming from the Dallas Mavericks via the Kristaps Porzingis trade.

It may not be right now or even this offseason, but adding all of these picks could give the Knicks some assets to play with when seeking out a trade. It’s not really clear who a target for them might be yet, or even how valuable these picks are. But with these trades, New York seems to be picking the possibility of something bigger via trade vs. taking multiple players now.

The Brooklyn Nets came within a few inches of a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals. For most teams, that would be seen as an overwhelming success but, for a club with three legitimate superstars and off-the-charts expectations, it was a step short for Brooklyn. Granted, the Nets did finish their series against the Milwaukee Bucks with one healthy star (Kevin Durant), one limited star (James Harden) and one injured star (Kyrie Irving), but projections certainly won’t be any less demanding for Brooklyn in 2021-22.

Simply put, Brooklyn’s ceiling is higher than any team in the NBA as the offseason approaches. Health can be fickle, but the Nets deployed one of the best offenses of all-time in 2020-21, and they are devastating when operating at full strength with three stars and one of the NBA’s best shooters in Joe Harris. Brooklyn must add/maintain depth in the offseason, but they do have their own first-round pick and, after dealing Landry Shamet for Jevon Carter and No. 29, own the Sun spick as well to add to the overwhelming appeal veterans will see in looking to make a run at a championship.

Roster Needs: Health, Depth

Cam Thomas (No. 27 Overall), Grade: C+

This is a fascinating choice. Thomas is a perfectly fine value at No. 27 overall. He may even be under-drafted, depending on who you ask. The landing spot makes it interesting, though, in that the primary value of Thomas is in his scoring. In fact, that’s really his only established trait right now when you factor in his tough shot-making and easy range. The Nets don’t really “need” that aspect given their firepower, so it’s essentially a best player available bet on talent.

Day’Ron Sharpe (No. 29 Overall), Grade: B-

The Nets were rumored to be interested in Sharpe throughout the process, and this isn’t a surprise. He plays very, very hard and is an exceptional rebounder that doesn’t need the ball. That will fit in well with Brooklyn, but there are questions about his touch and lack of overall length and burst. Value-wise, this is totally fine, and it could perhaps signal (even further than already assumed) that the Nets could move on from De’Andre Jordan in favor of Nic Claxton, small-ball options and Sharpe as a developmental piece.

2021-22 Roster
James Harden
Kevin Durant
Kyrie Irving
Joe Harris
DeAndre Jordan
Nic Claxton
Cam Thomas
Day’Ron Sharpe
Jevon Carter
Alize Johnson (non-guaranteed)

2021 Free Agents
Bruce Brown (RFA)
Chris Chiozza (RFA)
Spencer Dinwiddie (UFA)
Jeff Green (UFA)
Blake Griffin (UFA)
Mike James (RFA)
Tyler Johnson (UFA)
Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (UFA)
Reggie Perry (RFA)

Before Jamal Murray went down with an unfortunate injury, many believed the Denver Nuggets were a legitimate contender to win the 2021 NBA title. Murray’s absence, along with other injury issues, left a crater on the perimeter for Denver and that, combined with uneven defense, pushed the Nuggets out of the playoffs in disappointing fashion against the Phoenix Suns. Still, the Nuggets flashed considerable upside, with Nikola Jokic breaking out as the NBA MVP, Michael Porter Jr. taking the next step and a mid-season deal for Aaron Gordon as a two-way role player.

The Nuggets will have to deal with the absence of Murray again in 2021-22, and that shrouds the team’s offseason in a bit of mystery. Will Barton added to that by declining a player option, and Denver must address its perimeter rotation in the coming days and weeks. The Nuggets have done a quality job in the draft, though, and they have another pick to add to the coffers.

Roster Needs: Perimeter help, overall depth

Bones Hyland (No. 26 Overall), Grade: B-

Hyland should be a lot of fun with Nikola Jokic. For starters, he’s a heck of a shooter, with the ability to score at every level and fire with deep range. That is his calling card, but he’s really creative and should be an entertaining scorer overall. Hyland absolutely needs to get bigger, and that will be his challenge defensively and when attacking the rim. If he can do that, he’ll have a long career and this pick will be strong.

2021-22 Roster
Nikola Jokic
Jamal Murray
Aaron Gordon
Monte Morris
Michael Porter Jr.
Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland
Facu Campazzo
Zeke Nnaji
Bol Bol
PJ Dozier (non-guaranteed)
Vlatko Cancar (non-guaranteed)

2021 Free Agents
Will Barton (UFA)
JaMychal Green (Player Option)
Shaquille Harrison (RFA)
Markus Howard (RFA)
JaVale McGee (UFA)
Paul Millsap (UFA)
Austin Rivers (UFA)

The Washington Wizards’ busy Thursday night continued into the back half of the NBA Draft’s first round.

Per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Washington is trading the No. 22 overall pick, Isaiah Jackson, to the Pacers for Aaron Holiday and the No. 31 overall pick (which Indiana traded up to earlier in the night, sending Milwaukee the 54th and 60th picks on Thursday as well as two future second-round picks. The No. 22 was already acquired by the Wizards early in the evening in the reported Russell Westbrook trade.

This feels like a win for the Wizards. Holiday is a capable backup guard and probably will be used to fill some of the minutes made available in Westbrook’s wake. And in getting No. 31, they can still add another player to their rookie class that already includes Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert. After moving off of Westbrook, this is good initial work and retooling around Bradley Beal.

For the Pacers, however, this is a bit confusing in the moment. This team already has Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis starting in the frontcourt and former first round pick Goga Bitadze coming off the bench. Jackson is a 6’10” power forward who just adds another frontcourt body to feed. For a team that already had a lot of size, it feels odd to give up a draft pick and a serviceable point guard to add another big. While there’s yet to be significant buzz about them trading one of their current bigs — with Turner seeming like the most likely to be moved — one has to think that’s on the horizon after this selection.

By any description, the 2020-21 season was a rousing success for the New York Knicks. Virtually no one picked the Knicks to even approach the Play-in, much less the playoffs, and New York zoomed to home-court advantage in the first round. Things ended disappointingly against the Atlanta Hawks but, even with that (relative) playoff dud, the Knicks emerged with plenty to praise.

With that said, New York enters a wildly intriguing offseason, with only a handful of high-end contributors under contract for the 2021-22 season. As such, things could vary wildly, particularly when accounting for the fact that Julius Randle had a career season in 2020-21 that may not fully repeat itself. The Knicks have a bundle of cap space to address needs, but they also started this draft with two first round picks. After dealing No. 19 to Charlotte for a protected future first, they moved back from 21 to 25 for a second rounder with the Clippers.

Roster Needs: Point guard, another starting wing, shot creation, shooting, depth

Quentin Grimes (No. 25 Overall), Grade: C

Grimes is a perfectly solid prospect. He doesn’t take much off the table and should be credited for remaking his game at Houston after a weird stint at Kansas. He is a very solid role player in the making but, if New York wanted that archetype, I would’ve preferred Jared Butler. It’s clear, though, that the Knicks weren’t aiming for ceiling here, and that’s okay.

2021-22 Roster
Julius Randle (non-guaranteed)
RJ Barrett
Kevin Knox
Obi Toppin
Quentin Grimes
Luca Vildoza (non-guaranteed)
Immanuel Quickley
Norvel Pelle (non-guaranteed)

2021 Free Agents
Reggie Bullock (UFA)
Alec Burks (UFA)
Taj Gibson (UFA)
Jared Harper (RFA)
Nerlens Noel (UFA)
Frank Ntilikina (RFA)
Elfrid Payton (UFA)
Theo Pinson (RFA)
Mitchell Robinson (Team Option)
Derrick Rose (UFA)

According to NBC Miami and Rolling Stone, a 23-year-old woman who was last seen at this year’s recent Rolling Loud festival in Miami has been reported missing. Ashley Espinosa Sanchez was last spotted with her friend Nicholas Prevost on July 24 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. She stands at 5’2″ and 130 points with brown hair and brown eyes and when she was last seen, she was wearing a floral black and red romper and white Vans

Sanchez and Prevost made their way to the festival from Tallahassee and upon entering the festival, Prevost told NBC, Sanchez gave him her phone and walked away. Shortly after, she got lost in the festival’s large crowd, which caused Sanchez to wait until the end of the night to find her. Unfortunately, the two never reconnected and Prevost filed a missing persons report the following day. He also checked several hospitals, but he was unable to find her. Miami Police told NBC that they are working on a missing person case in order to locate Sanchez.

On Thursday, a Miami news outlet reported that Sanchez was seen Monday on surveillance camera at the Lost and Found at Hard Rock Stadium. “Video shows she was in the company of an unknown black male, 5′10″-6′0″, thin build, wearing long dark pants, black T-shirt, red shirt tied around waist, dark sneakers, and a light-colored hat,” Miami Gardens police said in a press release. They added, “Video shows Ms. Espinoza-Sanchez and the black male appear to part ways on foot in opposite directions. She was last seen walking towards parking lot #18. It is possible Ms. Espinoza-Sanchez is still in the area.”

Donald J. Trump, before he lost re-election and was all but scrubbed from social media and news networks, used to joke that one of his biggest fans, Mike Lindell, was on TV even more than he was. That might be actually be true: the ads for MyPillow, the sleepwear company owned by Lindell, and which star Lindell himself, are on Fox News almost constantly. But not for much longer: According to The Wall Street Journal, Lindell is pissed at the news network, so much that he’s asked for his ads to be pulled.

What on earth did Fox News do to upset Mike Lindell? According to him, they refused to run a commercial for a virtual symposium, likely to invovle his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. And now Lindell is taking his toys and going home, which is to say the millions and millions of dollars he gets by selling pillows, much of which he’s already using to keep what has been dubbed “the Big Lie” alive. (In a statement mourning his decision, Fox News declined to reveal if they really did shoot down the ad and referred to his decision as simply a “pause.”)

As anyone who happens upon (or actually watches) Fox News knows, there aren’t many typical ads on Fox News. Most major advertisers have pulled their commercials, particularly due to the wild claims made by its biggest star, Tucker Carlson. As per WSJ, MyPIllow spent $50 million on Fox News advertisements in 2020 alone, and $19 million on this year so far.

But Lindell is no clear winner in this case. He’s revealed that, since he ramped up his pro-Trump passion since he lost last November, he’s had a number of retailers cut ties with his company, refusing to carry his product. Some retailers, though, have claimed this was simply due to poor sales. And then there are those lawsuits.

(Via WSJ)

Kendrick Perkins has been the butt of jokes in the past for getting tripped up saying a basketball player’s name. The most notable example came while he ran into some trouble saying Nikola Vucevic’s last name, which led to Kevin Durant getting a joke off at his expense during the NBA’s All-Star Draft earlier this year.

Perkins, to his credit, took the joke in stride, something that happened again on Thursday night during the 2021 NBA Draft. Perkins is on ESPN’s main Draft panel, and midway through the first round, the Golden State Warriors selected Arkansas forward Moses Moody with the 14th pick. They received plenty of praise for the move, while Perkins ran into some issues with the alliterative name.

A little while later, Richard Jefferson trolled Perkins over this, but not before Moody’s old school got in on the fun first. The official Arkansas basketball program’s Twitter account took that video and spelled it all out for him.

While his focus has been on the Draft, Perkins did tip his cap on Twitter.

Live TV will give us the occasional very fun moment, and if Perkins didn’t laugh at himself, this probably would not have been nearly as fun. But he did, and as a result, Moses Moody started his NBA career off in a pretty entertaining way.

The 2020-21 season didn’t end the way the Los Angeles Clippers wanted it to end, with the team losing to the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Finals. Beyond the loss itself, the Clippers also suffered a significant blow with a long-term injury to Kawhi Leonard, even with relative optimism that the former NBA Finals MVP could return during the 2021-22 season. In some ways, the Clippers’ run was encouraging in that they were malleable through injury, but the future is at least slightly clouded.

Leonard is actually a potential free agent as he wields a player option but, assuming he returns, the Clippers have two stars in Leonard and Paul George. That provides a strong foundation, and Los Angeles built a quality supporting cast for the 2020-21 season. The Clippers have the chance to add on to that foundation, and the offseason kicks off in earnest on draft night.

Roster Needs: Shot creation without Kawhi Leonard, overall depth, resolutions on Reggie Jackson and Nic Batum

Keon Johnson (No. 21 Overall), Grade: B

The Clippers are in a win-now mindset and Keon Johnson might not be ready to help them this season. However, Johnson is a very nice value at this stage of the draft. He is a nuclear athlete and should be a high-end defender as he uses that athleticism and burst to his advantage. The questions come offensively, particularly with his shooting, but Los Angeles can take it slow with him. He is the kind of talent that isn’t always available at this stage of the draft, and that makes this a positive selection, particularly only costing a second rounder to move up four spots to nab him.

2021-22 Roster
Paul George
Marcus Morris Sr.
Patrick Beverley
Luke Kennard
Rajon Rondo
Ivica Zubac
Keon Johnson
Yogi Ferrell (non-guaranteed)
Terance Mann (non-guaranteed)
Daniel Oturu

2021 Free Agents
Nic Batum (UFA)
Amir Coffey (RFA)
DeMarcus Cousins (UFA)
Serge Ibaka (Player Option)
Reggie Jackson (UFA)
Kawhi Leonard (Player Option)
Patrick Patterson (UFA)

The Atlanta Hawks started the 2020-21 season with a 14-20 record, leading Tony Ressler and Travis Schlenk to part ways with incumbent head coach Lloyd Pierce. From there, interim head coach Nate McMillan captured lightning in a bottle, leading the Hawks to a 180-degree turn that ended in a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Atlanta fell just short against the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks, but Trae Young continued his superstar turn, and the Hawks showcased their emerging talent and depth.

As such, the future is undoubtedly encouraging for the Hawks, but this is an interesting summer. The team’s biggest decision comes in restricted free agency, with John Collins hitting the market and expected to command a lofty deal. That negotiation could have a trickle-down effect but, elsewhere, the Hawks have quality depth up and down the roster, with the No. 20 overall pick also in the mix to provide another future-facing prospect.

Roster Need: Backup point guard, health, clarity on John Collins

Jalen Johnson (No. 20 Overall), Grade: B+

This is simply a bet on talent. Johnson was a consensus top-10 high school prospect and, despite a weird (and short) journey at Duke, he still brings considerable ability to the table. He has a 7’0 wingspan with defensive potential, sees the floor as a high-level passer and doesn’t need to be thrust into duty quickly in Atlanta. No player selected at No. 20 was going to be a huge part of the Hawks’ rotation as a rookie, and this is a quality value through that lens.

2021-22 Roster
Danilo Gallinari
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Clint Capela
Trae Young
De’Andre Hunter
Onyeka Okongwu
Cam Reddish
Jalen Johnson
Kevin Huerter
Bruno Fernando

2021 Free Agents
John Collins (RFA)
Kris Dunn (Player Option)
Brandon Goodwin (RFA)
Solomon Hill (UFA)
Nathan Knight (RFA)
Skylar Mays (RFA)
Tony Snell (UFA)
Lou Williams (UFA)