Two top free agent point guards are already off the board before Thursday, with Kyrie Irvingexercising his player option, per The Athletic, and John Wall negotiating a buyout agreement to pave the way for him to join the Clippers, per ESPN.
The expected signing of Wall could impact how the Clippers handle some of their own free agents, such as Nicolas Batum and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Below is the latest intel gathered by HoopsHype on how Wall’s signing could change the Clippers’ flexibility this summer, Nerlens Noel trade talks, and the projected free agency values for Anfernee Simons, Gary Payton II, and Kevon Looney.
One of the top free agents on the market has made a decision regarding his player option.
Below is the latest intel gathered by HoopsHype on some of the top names on the free agent market, including Bradley Beal, and notable prospects in this year’s draft class like Jake LaRavia.
The NBA Draft is less than a week away, with more potential big trades on the horizon following the Christian Wood acquisition by the Dallas Mavericks, as noted throughout our new HoopsHype 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.
The most notable risers within the projected lottery selections included Dyson Daniels moving up further within the top 10 picks, Ousmane Dieng becoming a projected lottery pick, and Jalen Williams vaulting into the Top 20 range. Jake LaRavia and Dalen Terry, two of the biggest risers throughout the draft process, have moved into the late first round.
Other risers in the second round include Ryan Rollins, Andrew Nembhard, David Roddy, John Butler, Michael Foster, Gabriele Procida, and Dereon Seabron.
The notable name that fell was MarJon Beauchamp, who now is projected outside the top 20 picks despite receiving a green room invite. Josh Minott and Jean Montero were among those whose stock fell in the second round.
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
Following the withdrawals of several prospects, the aggregate NBA mock draft has shifted noticeably, and more intel on teams have surfaced with the draft nearing.
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.
The most notable risers within the projected lottery selections included Keegan Murray leaping Shaedon Sharpe into the top five range, Dyson Daniels entering the top 10, and Malaki Branham cracking the end of the lottery. Dalen Terry also vaulted 12 spots since our last aggregate mock draft and is currently positioned as an early second-round pick.
Some of the more notable names that fell slightly included TyTy Washington, Max Christie and Leonard Miller.
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
HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto and Cavaliers beat writer Chris Fedor discuss Collin Sexton’s free agency, Caris LeVert’s extension chances and Kevin Love’s future. The duo also discussed the latest on Cleveland’s NBA Draft, free agent and trade targets on 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.
Enough about the future. Let’s focus on this weekend’s playoff picture.
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 good, family! Welcome to Layup Lines. It’s your boy Sykes here to lead you into tonight’s NBA action. But first a quick thought.
I know things have been this way for a while, but can we stop looking so far ahead into the future when it comes to the NBA?
ESPN’s Jay Williams did just that today when he made waves on the internet by saying LaMelo Ball is not long for Charlotte. He’s literally putting the kid on the Lakers already.
Never mind the fact that he’s just finished his 2nd season as an NBA player or the fact that there’s this whole restricted free agency thing that makes it all the more likely he’ll be in Charlotte until, at least, 2027.
Forget all that. The dude is just a Laker already.
This is a huge problem with NBA coverage. And it’s not just a Jay Williams thing or an ESPN thing. People everywhere are more obsessed with the transactions in the NBA than basketball itself. This is what Kevin Durant meant when he said NBA fans don’t like anything about the NBA last year— there’s plenty to talk about, but we never talk about it.
We’re way too focused on the future with the NBA and what will come as opposed to what’s happening right now. We just had 4 awesome play-in games. We’ve had a historic MVP race. There are plenty of awesome playoff matchups to talk about.
And instead? LaMelo to the Lakers dominated the online conversation. We need to do better. Much, much, much better.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Don’t trick yourself when it comes to the Hawks vs. the Cavaliers tonight. We tend to get a bit too caught up in the regular season at times, my colleague Prince Grimes writes.
But the Hawks than the Cavaliers coming into the season. They certainly feel like the better team right now. Roll with that.
Atlanta has a bottom five defensive rating over the course of the season but ranks 11th in the last 15 games, better than the Cavs who are 24th in that time. Paired with a top 10 offense in that span, the Hawks have the league’s seventh-best net rating. As hard as it is to do, I’m ignoring what we’ve seen over the course of most of 82 games and taking the Hawks to ride this momentum and end up in the playoffs where they always belonged.
Clippers (-105) vs. Pelicans (-1.5, -115), O/U 215.5, 10 PM ET
Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The play-in game out west is probably going to be the most interesting one tonight with Paul George missing time in the NBA’s health and safety protocol. The Pelicans looked dominant against the Spurs and CJ McCollum can’t miss right now. I’m going Pels -1.5 tonight.
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Is LeBron James an All-NBA player? Plus, the Nets might make a little movement in the standings.
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 good, family. It’s your boy Sykes here to usher you into this weekend of NBA basketball. But first, a quick question.
Is LeBron James an All-NBA player this season? It feels like, for the first time in a long time, he’s in danger of missing that nod after hitting that mark in every year but his rookie season so far.
But James is officially done for the season with two games left to go. He’ll finish with averages of 30.3 points per game, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists on incredible efficiency. His 26.2 PER is extremely impressive for anyone — let alone a 37 year old.
But the Lakers still stink. They’re missing the playoffs completely. While his numbers are great, it’s fair to say his complete body of work didn’t contribute to winning. That has to matter in these conversations, right?
But the All-NBA rosters are filled with the 15 best players in the NBA from that season — plain and simple. It doesn’t feel like there are 15 players in the NBA better than LeBron James right now. He might not be at the front of that list anymore, but he certainly isn’t off it. At least, it doesn’t feel like that anyway.
I don’t have a vote, thankfully, so I don’t have to decide this. But if it were up to me? He’d probably still make the team. None of us can be mad if anyone leaves him off, though. And that, in itself, is quite the shocker.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
(Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 775715993 ORIG FILE ID: 1239822301
The 76ers do not want to see the Toronto Raptors in the playoffs. Not only because they may lose their best wing defender in Matisse Thybulle for a few games, but also because the Raptors might actually just be better, my colleague Prince Grimes writes.
The key here is James Harden, who just has not been himself. Like, at all. Not even himself from just a few weeks ago.
When Harden is at the top of his game, the Sixers have the two best players between these teams. But he’s been anything but that in the majority of his time with Philly. Harden was phenomenal in his first four games with the Sixers. In the 16 games since, he’s shooting under 36% from the field and under 30% from three. He’s still giving them 20 points and 10 assists – including 15 assists Thursday – but the Sixers are in big trouble if this version of Harden shows up in the playoffs.
We’ll see how this goes for Philly. But right now? 76ers fans should be uncomfortable.
Nets (-8.5, -370) vs. Cavaliers (+280), O/U 232.5, 7:30 PM ET
(AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)
Don’t look now, but the Nets have a real shot at avoiding that 8th seed and moving up to 7th with a win against the Cavs. They’d have the same record at 43-28 and would own the tiebreaker with a 3-1 season series lead.
No idea how this turns out. The Nets have shown us all season that you can’t really trust them too much. But one thing we do know about them? They do score well and while being average on defense. So pound that over.
Ay, LeBron James. ¿De verdad pensaste que tenías que hacerle eso a Kevin Love, tu amigo y antiguo compañero de equipo de los Cleveland Cavaliers? El lunes en la noche, Los Angeles Lakers estaban de camino a vencer al antiguo equipo de James, cuando …
Ay, LeBron James. ¿De verdad pensaste que tenías que hacerle eso a Kevin Love, tu amigo y antiguo compañero de equipo de los Cleveland Cavaliers?
El lunes en la noche, Los Angeles Lakers estaban de camino a vencer al antiguo equipo de James, cuando en el segundo cuarto, Austin Reaves se encontró a un James que iba corriendo hacia el aro. Love estaba parado solo… y James se le fue encima, le hizo un póster para saltar y clavar el balón por encima de su amigo, quien levantó los brazos como si lo hubieran noqueado.
La clavada por sí sola fue una ridiculez, pero lo que le siguió fue una muestra de respeto entre dos amigos… y unos tuits maravillosos. Les damos el paso a paso:
Traducción 1: “¡LEBRON, MIRA HACIA ABAJO!” Este ángulo del póster de LeBron a Kevin Love.
Traducción 2: LeBron dejó caer el martillo sobre su antiguo compañero de equipo Kevin Love.
Traducción: “Miren, cuando giré en esa esquina y miré hacia arriba estaba como ‘no, Kev, solo muévete…’ @KingJames con @RealAClifton sobre la clavada monstruosa sobre su buen amigo @kevinlove.
"I didn't mean it. K-Love, I love you… I wish I could take those two points back."
LeBron says his monster dunk on Kevin Love will get cut from his career highlight reel 😂 🧡
Traducción: “No fue mi intención. Kevin, cariño, te quiero… quisiera poder no haber anotado esos dos puntos”. LeBron dice que su monstruosa clavada sobre Kevin Love se va a borrar de la película de los puntos importantes de su vida.
Love y James tuvieron la mejor conversación en Twitter:
I’m not f*cking with my guy @KingJames for atleast the next 48hrs!!!! 😂😂😂
HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto is joined by former NBA players and current Knuckleheads podcast hosts Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles to discuss their time playing for the Clippers, including Lamar Odom, Michael Olowokandi, Donald Sterling, etc. Plus, Richardson’s time with the Suns and Knicks, whether Miles believes high school kids should be able to go pro like he did, what his career could’ve been if he was healthy, and more on 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.
HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto and Yossi Gozlan discuss the futures of LeBron James and Zion Williamson, 2022 NBA free agency, and why Goran Dragic signed with the Nets on 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.
