Tag: Aaron Wiggins

Josh Giddey impresses in his Thunder preseason debut

Josh Giddey showed out with his off-hand passing and finishing in his preseason debut, a Thunder loss to the Hornets.

In failing to move up to the No. 1 spot in the draft lottery, the Oklahoma City Thunder were unable to draft the fun, exciting, 6-foot-8 player that every lottery team dreamed of selecting in 2021.

Instead, with the No. 6 pick, the Thunder drafted the fun, exciting, 6-foot-8 playmaker that … well, was not projected to go this high by most scouts and analysts.

But in Josh Giddey’s first preseason game, a 113-97 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, the Australian guard showed out. He had team-highs of 18 points and seven rebounds to go with three assists. Starting alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley and Isaiah Roby, Giddey’s 29 minutes were the most on the team.

His professional experience shined on some plays. This cross-court, left-handed pass isn’t one a normal rookie makes in his preseason debut:

The pass alone would be impressive, but look at him quick to sneak in as center Mason Plumlee failed to box him out. Plumlee is a 6-foot-11 veteran, but Giddey snagged the offensive board and finished the and-one through him.

In another play, Giddey did a good job slowing down over the screen, surveying the court, and making his move right as center Nick Richards started to slide away from the center of the court.

Richards got in the way of Miles Bridges, which gave Giddey the time to gain the advantage on Bridges.

He looked good and was efficient in the opener, going 8-for-12 from the field and making two of the four 3-pointers he attempted. He had two turnovers in the game.

Other rookie performances

Mann did not shine the way Giddey did on Monday night. The No. 18 pick in the draft had eight points on 1-for-7 shooting and three turnovers over 20 minutes of play, but there were two areas in which Mann stood out.

His six free throws were the most on the team. The only others who attempted more than two were Gilgeous-Alexander and Ty Jerome, both of whom attempted three.

Mann had three steals as well, a nice positive for the 6-foot-3 Florida product.

His one made field goal was this nifty finish:

No. 32 overall pick Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was the first player to be subbed in for the Thunder, replacing Roby at center. In 15 minutes of play, the former Villanova big had two steals, two rebounds and four fouls without scoring.

No. 55 overall pick Aaron Wiggins entered the game in the fourth quarter and burst out for 12 points in just seven minutes of play. He went 4-for-5 from the field and made all three 3-pointers he attempted.

Thunder sign second-round pick Aaron Wiggins to two-way contract

Wiggins finished the Las Vegas Summer League by averaging 11.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.2 blocks in five games.

Oklahoma City Thunder second-round pick and former Maryland Terrapins guard Aaron Wiggins has signed a two-way contract, the team announced this week.

Wiggins earned All-Big Ten honorable mention honors after averaging 14.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 31 games last season. He finished the season on a high note, posting 17.9 points and 6.6 rebounds over his last 12 games.

The 55th overall pick finished the Las Vegas Summer League by averaging 11.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.2 blocked shots in five games. He produced his best game on Aug. 11 after recording 16 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

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Wiggins will split his time next season between the Thunder and Oklahoma City Blue in the NBA G League. He will have the opportunity to develop with the Blue while gaining some NBA experience throughout the season with the Thunder.

Players this season signed to two-way contracts are eligible to spend no more than 50 games in the NBA. They will earn a flat salary equal to 50% of the minimum salary applicable to a player with zero years of service.

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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Thunder draft pick Aaron Wiggins signs 2-way contract

Aaron Wiggins, a second-round Thunder draft pick out of Maryland, has signed a two-way deal with Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have officially signed all four selections made in the 2021 NBA draft.

The organization announced on Sunday that Aaron Wiggins, picked No. 55 overall, has been signed to a two-way contract. Terms of the deal were not released.

Wiggins has played well in summer league, averaging 11.5 points over the four games that have been played and reaching double-digits in all but one of them.

This comes after three years of basketball at the University of Maryland. Wiggins broke out as a sophomore when he was named Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, and then as a starter in his junior season, he averaged 14.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. He was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention selection and was named the 2019-20 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year.

Wiggins can play on the Thunder and their G League affiliate, the OKC Blue, this upcoming season.

Oklahoma City has announced that all four 2021 draft picks have been signed to contracts. No. 6 pick Josh Giddey, No. 18 selection Tre Mann, and No. 32 pick Jeremiah Robinson-Earl are also officially part of the Thunder.

Wiggins and OKC wrap up summer league play on Monday when they take on the San Antonio Spurs.

Aaron Wiggins scores 16 in Thunder summer league loss to Pelicans

The Thunder struggled shooting the ball in the summer league loss to the Pelicans.

Aaron Wiggins posted his second strong performance in as many Oklahoma City Thunder summer league games on Wednesday night.

The No. 55 pick in the 2021 NBA draft led the Thunder with 16 points to go with five rebounds, two assists, two assists, two steals and a block against the New Orleans Pelicans.

With that performance off the bench, Wiggins was one of the bright spots in the Thunder’s 80-65 loss. He is averaging 14.5 points over the two summer league games.

It wasn’t perfect, though. The former Maryland standout was inefficient from the field though, going 7-for-16 from the field and making one of the seven 3-pointers he attempted.

Wiggins wasn’t alone in that poor shooting. Tre Mann’s 12 points was the second-most on the team, but he shot poorly for the second game in a row. Mann shot 4-for-15 and missed both 3-pointers he attempted.

The former Florida player is 7-for-29 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3 in his two summer league games.

Theo Maledon was 2-for-11 from the field and 0-for-7 from 3, finishing with five points, and Charlie Brown Jr. matched those five points on 2-for-8 shooting.

While those players with higher expectations struggled, Oscar da Silva scored 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting and grabbed five rebounds in 14 minutes of play off the bench.

Da Silva had eight points on 4-for-8 shooting in the summer league opener.

Josh Giddey missed the game due to a left ankle sprain that he suffered in the first summer league game. He played five minutes of that first contest before being forced out with the injury.

A roundup of NBA sleepers draft analysts are higher on than others

Who owns the most real estate on Davion Mitchell Island? Who is buying stock in Sharife Cooper?

Everyone loves Cade Cunningham. It’s not a hot take for an analyst to say that Cunningham is their favorite player in the class. That’s not particularly interesting to read, either.

But what is fascinating, however, is when an analyst deviates from the norm and ranks someone significantly higher than where the prospect falls in other rankings. What does that tell us about their individual scouting process and what they value? Further, what does that tell us about the potential draftee?

Some folks call it “buying stock” in a player. Others, like ESPN’s Zach Lowe or The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, call it owning real estate on a player’s island. I like to refer to it as a “draft crush” when I wind up higher than consensus in my evaluation of a player.

My process is ridiculously tedious but the results can be fairly useful. I’ve tracked the evolution of more than sixty unique mock drafts, big boards and draft models from trusted analysts and popular accounts on Twitter.

Each placement is assigned a value based on Kevin Pelton’s draft pick trade value chart. I do this because, as Pelton notes, the difference in relative value between the No. 5 overall pick and the No. 7 overall is much more stark than, say, that of the No. 45 pick and the No. 47 pick.

After composing an aggregate score based on each ranking, I can see where each analyst strays from the pack.

I’ll leave the conclusions drawn from these results up to the reader. But if nothing else, this can eventually be used as a bragging point if one writer was higher than consensus on a draftee who eventually ends up outperforming his draft position.

2021 aggregate NBA mock draft 7.0: Ranking the full class of prospects

The 2021 NBA draft is less than a week away and we finally have an idea of who is in — and who has withdrawn — from the class.

The 2021 NBA draft is less than a week away and we finally have an idea of who is in – and who has withdrawn – from the class.

In order to get a better sense of where all of the prospects stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo, The Athletic, The Ringer, Yahoo, NBA Big Board and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win to see where the prospects rank at the moment.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Since our previous update last month, some of the players with the most positive momentum include Quentin Grimes, Joe Wieskamp, Vrenz Bleijenbergh, Aaron Wiggins, Justin Champagnie, Jericho Sims, Jason Preston, Josh Primo, Neemias Queta, Trey Murphy and Bones Hyland.

Among players who ranked on our previous update who have since withdrawn from the draft include Roko Prkacin (32), Marcus Bagley (39), Terrence Shannon (48), Ariel Hukporti (50), Max Abmas (53), Johnny Juzang (54), Jordan Hall (66), Carlos Alocen (69) and Ochai Agbaji (75).

The most notable omissions who remain in this class but not these rankings are Yves Pons, Scottie Lewis, Jay Huff, Marcus Zegarowski, Aamir Simms, Dalano Banton, Matt Mitchell, Jose Alvarado, Carlik Jones, Derrick Alston Jr., Romeo Weems, Balsa Koprivica, Chaundee Brown, Isaiah Miller, Jordan Schakel and D.J. Carton.

Note that for the offensive roles, we borrowed a fun idea from Todd Whitehead (formerly of Nylon Calculus) with help from our friends at Bball-Index.com to create a slightly tweaked formula from the version they use.

The goal of that is not to explain how well a player scores but rather offer context for the way that he was used on his most recent team. This should help you predict how he might be used at the next level.

Meanwhile, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 5.0: Final rankings of the Top 100 prospects

With just over a week left until the 2021 NBA draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, it’s officially the most wonderful time of the year! 

With just over a week left until the 2021 NBA draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, it’s officially the most wonderful time of the year!

That means that after a slew of surprising early entry withdrawals impacted the worlds of both college and international basketball, the next generation of NBA talent is getting closer to entering the league. As players finalize their place on big boards in front offices, I wanted to offer my opinion on how I think those rankings should look.

Note that our list is certainly going to look different from the lists at ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report and other publications. Player evaluation is an inexact science. Part of the process is being willing to admit when you were wrong about a player.

But avoiding group-think and ending higher than consensus on a player is how an NBA team ends up selecting them in the draft. With that in mind, here is who I would target if I were running a front office.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.