The former Spurs assistant is regarded as one of the best shooting coaches in the NBA.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault added to his staff with the addition of long-time San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Chip Engelland, per ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski.
ESPN Sources: The Oklahoma City Thunder are hiring Chip Engelland as an assistant coach. Engelland, considered the NBA's preeminent shooting coach, spent 17 years with the Spurs where he's considered to have had an immense impact on Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker, among others.
Engelland is regarded as one of the best shooting coaches in the league and is credited with Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker developing their jump shots.
Engelland arrives to a Thunder team where their backcourt of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey are not the best shooting backcourt to say the least — Gilgeous-Alexander is a league average shooter while Giddey is a non-existent shooter.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti was able to lure Engelland in due to their previous relationship in San Antonio. The move was met with applause as the Thunder nab one of the best shooting coaches in the league for a team that needs help with shooting the ball.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have extended forward Kenrich Williams to a four-year, $27.2 million deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
ESPN Sources: Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kenrich Williams has agreed on a four-year, $27.2 million contract extension. The deal, negotiated by @PensackSports, comes for an undrafted player who had no Division I offers out of high school.
The deal is set to begin in the 2023-23 season. Williams is currently set to make $2 million for the 2022-23 season.
Williams was set to enter unrestricted free agency next summer if a new deal was no agreed upon, now the 27-year-old is locked up with the Thunder for the foreseeable future.
The Thunder acquired Williams in the Steven Adams trade as a throw-in piece and has emerged as a solid veteran role player who is a respectable outside shooter.
The team continuously talked highly on Williams throughout his first two seasons with the Thunder and said he is a locker room leader. Williams stated multiple times last season that he’d like to retire with the Thunder and this extension makes that dream that much closer to achieve.
In two seasons with the Thunder, Williams has averaged 7.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 39.1 percent on over two three-point attempts per game in 115 contests.
Vasilije Micic might make the jump this time around.
ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that former EuroLeague MVP Vasilije Micic continues to receive significant trade interest within the NBA by contenders.
ESPN Sources: EuroLeague MVP Vasilije Micic continues to attract significant interest among several NBA teams who’d like to acquire and sign him. OKC has rights to 6-foot-5 PG, but doesn’t fit their rebuild timeline at 28. Micic would like to join NBA next season if deal’s found
Micic’s draft rights are currently owned by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who acquired him in the Al Horford trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. Micic was drafted 52nd overall in the second round of the 2014 NBA draft by the Sixers.
This isn’t the first time Micic being interested in the NBA has been reported but it’s the first time someone like Wojnarowski has said something as definitive as this.
While Micic has previously pump-faked the NBA when it comes to joining in the league, this time it sounds legit.
Micic does not sound interested in playing for the rebuilding Thunder and the feeling appears to be mutual as the team does not have minutes to hand out to a 28-year-old.
The likely conclusion is that Micic gets traded to a playoff contender who guarantee him rotation minutes and the Thunder get draft pick(s) in return.
Roby was waived by the Thunder this past Saturday before his $1.9 million salary that the team picked up on an option became fully guaranteed.
Roby spent the first three seasons of his career with the Thunder after going 45th overall the second round of the 2019 NBA draft. In 109 career games, Roby averaged 9.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists on 49.5 percent shooting.
The Thunder are currently experience a roster crunch, especially in the front court, so the chances of Roby playing any meaningful minutes this upcoming season was close to zero.
Smith saw his odds shift from -600 down to -10000 and back up to +125 in the last 12 hours alone.
Most of that was due to the reporting of Woj, who first tweeted Smith was the favorite at No. 1 this morning before updating his report to say Banchero was the new favorite just 15 minutes before the Magic made the Duke star the top pick.
As team boards finalize today, the 1-2-3 of the NBA Draft is increasingly firm, per sources: Jabari Smith to Orlando, Chet Holmgren to Oklahoma City and Paolo Banchero to Houston.
As the Orlando Magic move closer to getting on the clock, Duke's Paolo Banchero is now looming as a frontrunner to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, sources tell ESPN.
Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.
What’s up y’all. It’s Prince here for Layup Lines, and I want to admit something here as we get ready for tonight’s NBA Draft: I’m not a fan of drafts.
That’s right, I formally declare myself a member of Team No Drafts. I’m just not a fan of the concept. But that’s an argument for another day. The reality is that drafts exist. And as they are, they can sometimes make for decent television – which is why they’ll probably always be here.
But you know what ruins that television product? When you already know what’s going to happen. And that’s my most immediate issue with the NBA Draft. When the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets make picks 1, 2 and 3 tonight, there will be little to no suspense. We already know what’s going to happen thanks to Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA insider for the network that broadcasts the draft.
Now, you may be thinking, “But there’s still 55 more picks to be made – 11 more in the lottery.” And you’re right. But many of those will also be reported on Twitter before they happen – likely by Woj and his fellow insider Shams Charania.
Now, I don’t necessarily blame those guys for breaking the news they’re privy to. The game is the game, and it isn’t limited to the NBA. But that doesn’t mean I have to like the game. It robs the draft of a lot of intrigue. But hey, maybe while they’re at it, they’ll drop a few trades on the timeline to spice things up.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
We’ll get a little more familiar with the prospects in tonight’s draft as they’re featured on the broadcast and as we see them take the floor in the months and years to come. But my colleague Bryan Kalbrosky’s interview series is great place to start your introduction.
His conversation with France’s Ousmane Dieng went live today, and while the 19-year-old has a lot of room to grow, he more than earned his projected lottery status as a pro in Australia.
“It was difficult at first. Australia is really far from France. But it made me grow as a man. I’m more mature and more mentally strong. It helped me a lot. I was the youngest player in the league. I had to earn my minutes. I had to earn my position with the team. I was a hard worker. With grown men and pros, everything is faster and quicker. It was more physical. The players are so good. I had to make decisions quickly. I progressed a lot.”
Dieng, who named Kobe Bryant as one of the first players he watched, said he hopes to be an MVP one day. It’ll be fun to see how these players with such high hopes and dreams pan out in the future and which ones develop into the stars people believe they can be.
Chicago Sky (-190) vs. Los Angeles Sparks (+4.5, +155), O/U 173.5, 10:30 PM ET
In their first game since dropping 104 points in the largest comeback win in WNBA history, the Sky face a Sparks squad that simply bleeds points. Only one team allows more points than LA’s 87.3 opponent average, and the Sparks play at a pace that allows them to score too. So I’m looking for this game to hit the over. These teams scored 176 points in regulation of their first meeting, which went to overtime.
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA).
But there are other ways to get your betting fix in during the NBA Draft that has very little to do with who is actually getting drafted.
We gathered the BetFTW crew to set some fictional lines on props that have more to do with the broadcast and draft night overall than the picks themselves. Here’s a sure way to make an already wild draft night even more entertaining.
It appears ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed the top three order ahead of the 2022 NBA draft.
After betting odds shifted Wednesday night, Wojnarowski went to Twitter to confirm the top three order of Jabari Smith Jr. going to the Orlando Magic, Chet Holmgren going to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Paolo Banchero going to the Houston Rockets.
As team boards finalize today, the 1-2-3 of the NBA Draft is increasingly firm, per sources: Jabari Smith to Orlando, Chet Holmgren to Oklahoma City and Paolo Banchero to Houston.
This was the most popular order for the entirety of the draft process, and it appears all but assured.
The Thunder will add Holmgren to their trio of young players along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey. The Thunder have been fixated on Holmgren throughout the draft process.
Don’t expect to make money betting on the top 3 anymore.
It’s NBA Draft day, so you know what that means: Woj bombs, of the spoiler variety. And ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski got started early this year, reporting the likely order of the first three picks of the draft before many of us even logged in for work.
More than seven hours before the draft is set to start, Woj let us know the long anticipated order of Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero is increasingly firm. And with that, sportsbooks reacted swiftly, either adjusting their lines to reflect the new information or removing bets on the first three picks altogether.
As team boards finalize today, the 1-2-3 of the NBA Draft is increasingly firm, per sources: Jabari Smith to Orlando, Chet Holmgren to Oklahoma City and Paolo Banchero to Houston.
No longer will you find odds on the first three picks on Tipico Sportsbook, DraftKings or PointsBet. BetMGM and Caesars don’t have odds on the draft altogether. With the way these type of leaks happen in the weeks leading up to the draft, the odds that were previously available weren’t great to begin with. Some books even pulled their odds before the Woj tweet, knowing the public has a little more of an edge than usual and house losses are expected across the industry.
FanDuel is still offering odds on the top pick, but had to go so far as to change the player who was favored. They had Banchero with the shortest odds at -210 just an hour before Woj’s tweet. Those odds jumped to +550 afterwards, with Smith’s dropping from +155 to a staggering -6000.
And then Woj tweeted out that 1-2-3 is shaping up as Smith-Holmgren-Banchero … let's say the odds moved slightly after that.
If you were able to get in on that rare opportunity to get plus money on Smith, congratulations. He’s been the favorite almost everywhere for weeks, but Banchero’s odds to go first recently jumped Holmgren and likely convinced a few people it was sharp action that caused the movement.
In the end though, it appears the draft will go how it’s been long rumored to go. So sportsbooks are making it a little harder to make money on the first three picks.
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO).
Well, it’s hours before the draft. We’re talking morning of, not even close to Thursday night when we’ll learn who goes where.
And Woj has already appeared to spoil some picks. The first three, in fact.
Who knows? Maybe this tweet means it COULD happen and that maybe there’s a last-minute change? Also, it’s worth noting the odds on Paolo Banchero dropped significantly in recent days. Hmm. Can’t imagine any odds on the top picks are on the board anymore.
But when you see him saying it’s “increasingly firm” that the first three picks are in … it could mean we’ve gotten a spoiler already.
