Category: Magic

Aggregate NBA mock draft 5.0: Jabari Smith leaps Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero; trade possibilities

Following the 2022 NBA Draft Lottery, NBA executives who spoke with HoopsHype said they are monitoring the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers as two potential teams that could trade their picks in search of player(s) that can help …

Following the 2022 NBA Draft Lottery, NBA executives who spoke with HoopsHype said they are monitoring the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers as two potential teams that could trade their picks in search of player(s) that can help immediately. Sacramento has missed the playoffs for a record 16 consecutive seasons. Portland’s franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard turns 32 on July 15, with the clock ticking on his prime years.

Other executives are monitoring Oklahoma City, Charlotte, San Antonio, and Minnesota as potential traders. The Thunder has four picks in the top 34 and can consolidate some of those picks. The Hornets can afford to move one of their first-round picks (13 and 15). The Grizzlies have an established young core ready to take the next step with picks 22 and 29 to dangle as bait. The Spurs (picks 9, 20, 25 and 38) have a surplus of late first-rounders that should be available. The Timberwolves have the No. 19 pick and three picks in the 40-50 range to dangle.

The consensus big three of this year’s draft class remains Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero, with Shaedon Sharpe rising into the top five in the latest aggregate mock draft.

To get a better projection of where all of the projected top prospects stand currently, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer, Sports Illustrated, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, SB Nation, Yahoo, Basketball News, and USA TODAY’s For The Win.

Sharpe (Kentucky), Dyson Daniels (G League Ignite), Mark Williams (Duke), Ousmane Dieng (New Zealand NBL), Blake Wesley (Notre Dame), EJ Liddell (Ohio State), Nikola Jovic (Mega Basket Serbia), Walker Kessler (Auburn), Leonard Miller (Fort Erie International Academy), Max Christie (Michigan State), Terquavion Smith (NC State), Jalen Williams (Santa Clara), Jake LaRavia (Wake Forest), Caleb Houston (Michigan), Dalen Terry (Arizona) and Ryan Rollins (Toledo) have all risen within the top 45 picks.

Within the top 10 picks, AJ Griffin (Duke), Johnny Davis (Wisconsin) and Jalen Duran (Memphis) all fell slightly. Ochai Agbaji (Kansas) fell slightly outside the lottery. Kendall Brown (Baylor) had the biggest fall of the projected first-round prospects.

NOTE: These rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for the overall consensus, not our own opinion. For example, if a player was the first pick on a publication’s mock draft, he received 58 points. If a player was second, he received 57 points and so on. We then tabulated the total number of points for each player’s consensus ranking.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

Tracy McGrady: ‘I won, and I’m still winning’

https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/2mkJhYbWWTeQ1h3MWTpMtb NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady discussed his NBA career and his new Ones Basketball League venture with Michael Scotto on the latest edition of the HoopsHype podcast. McGrady talked …

NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady discussed his NBA career and his new Ones Basketball League venture with Michael Scotto on the latest edition of the HoopsHype podcast. McGrady talked about being in trade talks for Bulls star Scottie Pippen, what would’ve happened if he stayed with Vince Carter and the Raptors, if Tim Duncan joined the Magic, playing with Yao Ming, his NBA Top 75 snub, and more.

For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.

NBA trade rumors: Jaylen Brown, Ben Simmons and more with Jake Fischer

https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/2TurWlaJGMNdmH7sjSsFcI HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto and Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer discussed the latest rumors regarding Jaylen Brown, Ben Simmons, Russell Westbrook, Jerami Grant, Terrence Ross, De’Aaron …

HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto and Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer discussed the latest rumors regarding Jaylen Brown, Ben Simmons, Russell Westbrook, Jerami Grant, Terrence Ross, De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Joe Harris, Nicolas Claxton, and more on the NBA trade market in the latest edition of the HoopsHype podcast.

For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.

Q&A: Cole Anthony on Most Improved Player candidacy, future of the Magic, and more

Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony has made leaps in every statistical category in his second season and vaulted himself into the league’s Most Improved Player of the Year conversation. The 6-foot-3 guard is the first Magic player averaging 20 or more …

Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony has made leaps in every statistical category in his second season and vaulted himself into the league’s Most Improved Player of the Year conversation.

The 6-foot-3 guard is the first Magic player averaging 20 or more points with a .500 or better effective field goal percentage since Penny Hardaway during the 1994-95 season.

Anthony discussed why he wanted to be drafted by the Magic, where he ranks in the Most Improved Player award conversation, the future of the Magic, and much more with HoopsHype.

Q&A: Mo Bamba on his journey, the Magic’s outlook, free agency

Orlando Magic center Mo Bamba is having the best season of his career as a full-time starter during a contract season. Bamba, one of the league’s top shot blockers, is averaging career-highs in points (11.2), rebounds (9.4), blocks (2.2), and steals …

Orlando Magic center Mo Bamba is having the best season of his career as a full-time starter during a contract season.

Bamba, one of the league’s top shot blockers, is averaging career-highs in points (11.2), rebounds (9.4), blocks (2.2), and steals (1.1) per game. The 23-year-old center is eligible for restricted free agency this summer if Orlando extends a $10.1 million qualifying offer.

“I think his ceiling is beyond high,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley told HoopsHype. “If he continues to dominate the simple things and control what he can control, which he has been doing lately, I think the ceiling is really extremely high for him.”

Bamba discussed his career journey thus far, the difference playing for coach Mosley following Steve Clifford, the outlook for the Magic, and his free agency future this summer with HoopsHype.

Out-of-rotation players who could become trade candidates

Here are some NBA players getting healthy DNP-CDs who could have a potential role in a different team’s rotation.

We are more than three weeks into the NBA regular season and most teams have settled on their rotations. Some aren’t fully healthy and will have tinkering to do when key players return, but some others have some rotation players that are not playing.

Here are some players consistently getting DNP-CDs despite being healthy who could become candidates for a trade.

The top trade candidate on each NBA team this season

Ben Simmons and Marvin Bagley are the early trade rumors leaders, and there will be plenty more to come this season. The 2022 free agency market could be dry, as colleague Yossi Gozlan previously wrote on HoopsHype, meaning teams could look to …

Ben Simmons and Marvin Bagley are the early trade rumors leaders, and there will be plenty more to come this season.

The 2022 free agency market could be dry, as colleague Yossi Gozlan previously wrote on HoopsHype, meaning teams could look to improve via the trade market.

So with the regular season already underway,  HoopsHype spoke with four NBA executives to gauge potential trade candidates and listed the player(s) most likely to be traded on each team.

Podcast: Turmoil surrounding Ben Simmons, Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley and NBA award predictions

The latest updates surrounding unhappy NBA players, Ben Simmons, Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley, and NBA season awards predictions.

On the latest edition of the HoopsHype podcast, hosts Michael Scotto and Yossi Gozlan discuss the latest turmoil surrounding Ben Simmons, Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley. Plus, the duo reports on players who agreed to rookie-scale extensions, those who didn’t sign extensions and share their NBA awards predictions for this season.

For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.

Why the 2022 free agent market could be dry

Many players are signing veteran extensions and avoiding free agency, making an already dry free agency market even more of a drought.

The 2021 offseason went from being very hyped to a being very slow one relative to the past few years. Barring a trade or two involving a couple of all-stars, Kyle Lowry may have been the biggest name to change teams this offseason. Despite there being more projected cap space this offseason than in 2020, several teams like Dallas, Miami, Toronto, and New Orleans all opted to operate over the salary cap at the last minute. The lack of marquee names led teams to decrease their spending power which overall depressed the market.

Can we expect a more robust market in 2022? It seems as the opposite is happening with many veterans are rushing to lock down their money now through extensions to avoid free agency. This was an expected consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of revenue it caused. The rate that the salary cap rose prior to 2020 made potential earnings in the free agency market significantly exceed what players can get through their maximum veteran extension amounts. Now players are incentivized to stay with their teams and earn more with them, especially maximum players.

Where does this leave the amount of potential cap space teams? As of now, only four teams are projected to generate maximum cap space, and it’s possible most of these teams eliminate theirs if they extend certain key players on their roster.