We are a month away from this year’s trade deadline and candidates to be moved are starting to emerge. There are several players who are having down years compared to previous seasons and could potentially benefit from a change of scenery. Some of …
We are a month away from this year’s trade deadline and candidates to be moved are starting to emerge. There are several players who are having down years compared to previous seasons and could potentially benefit from a change of scenery. Some of these players are miscast in new situations while others have seen their roles reduced by big changes to their team’s roster. While some of these players haven’t been explicitly reported to be trade candidates, their respective teams are probably willing to listen to offers for them.
Here are some players who could benefit from being traded to a new team…
Zion Williamson is back, folks, and it seems like nobody is happier about this development than his teammates on the New Orleans Pelicans.
Williamson finished with a career-high 43 points against the Timberwolves, including 33 points in the second half and each of the final 14 points scored for the Pelicans. It was a dominant performance that deserved celebration as New Orleans secured a victory and now owns the best record in the Western Conference.
After the final buzzer, the former No. 1 pick was about to begin a post-game interview with sideline reporter Jennifer Hale. But Williamson’s teammates had other plans as guards CJ McCollum and Jose Alvarado snuck up behind him to surprise him with an ice water bath.
"It's always great to get a win, I love winning, this team loves winning, this organization loves winning, on any given day a win is great."
Pelicans guard Devonte’ Graham, however, was very courteous.
He knew what was about to happen to Williamson so he made sure to gently nudge Hale out of the way so that her microphone, outfit, hair, and makeup were not ruined by the celebration.
This was a very thoughtful, helpful decision by Graham. Once he finished helping Hale, meanwhile, Graham then joined Alvarado and McCollum by dousing Williamson with ice water.
The duo shifts focus beyond the deadline for Boston in a recent article.
While there is plenty of reporting about trade rumbles at this time of the season — just a few weeks ahead of the 2022 deadline for teams to exchange players with each other — there is also no shortage of speculation about which players ought to be dealt to which teams, too.
And given the Boston Celtics are widely seen to be among the NBA’s most active franchises on the 2022 NBA trade market, it should not surprise to see plenty of such speculation. Some are even extending the window of projection beyond the deadline to include potential offseason moves.
Not all such prognostication is created equal, however, and those with an intimate knowledge of how front offices run ought to be considered a little more closely.
Report: Atlanta Hawks discussed swapping Marcus Smart for Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish; will take ‘significant value’ to move Boston guard https://t.co/9zBVav2pSz
Look. I know the Pelicans and the Thunder are both pretty stinky NBA teams, generally.
Sure, they give you good games here and there. But these teams? They’re not in it for the wins. They’re in it for the tan…er,uh…improving the team as they head into the future.
So that means right now, neither team is particularly good. In fact, you could argue that they play some pretty bad basketball.
But the thing about bad basketball is that these are still professional NBA players. So even at their worst, they can give us the most ridiculously exciting and mind-numbingly silly sequences that we’ll be talking about for days, months and even years to come.
And that, folks, is how you’d perfectly describe the ending of the Pelicans-Thunder game. It was exciting. It was silly. It made absolutely no sense. But it was also perfect. So so so so perfect.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hits what probably should’ve been a game-tying shot after the Pelicans try to foul him in the waning moments of the game. He hits that and you’re like “OK, cool. Overtime. Let’s do it.”
As we begin to approach the end of the regular season, many players around the league are finalizing a case for their value in free agency.
As we begin to approach the end of the regular season, many players around the league are finalizing their case for their value in free agency.
Of course, executives around the league always have tough decisions to make about who they plan to re-sign as well as who they plan to pursue or let walk during free agency. But as the season progresses, it becomes a bit easier to evaluate who would be a good fit for their franchise and who might not be.
As part of our ongoing series at HoopsHype, we are looking at whose free agency stock has gone up – and down – over the last several games.
Kansas Jayhawks guard Devon Dotson is considered the fastest end-to-end prospect in the 2020 NBA draft class. The numbers are showing why.
Kansas Jayhawks guard Devon Dotson is considered the fastest end-to-end prospect in the 2020 NBA draft class. The numbers are showing why.
Dotson, 21, also participated in the 2019 NBA draft combine when he was testing the waters last offseason. Since then, he has added 6.6 pounds while lowering his body fat percentage from 5.9 percent to 4.6 percent.
The following information, which was also sent to NBA teams, was obtained by USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
ANTHROPOMETRY
There are some concerns about the consistency of measurements as it is unlikely that his hands have grown 0.5 inches wider or his wingspan has shrunk by 0.25 inches. But these are the official measurements that teams have received on Dotson in 2020.
Height (w/o shoes): 6’0.5″
Height (w/ shoes): 6’1.75″
Wingspan: 6’3″
Weight: 185.2 pounds
Body Fat: 4.6 percent
Hand Width: 10″
Hand Length: 8.25″
STRENGTH AND AGILITY:
Dotson improved his standing vertical (1.5″), max vertical (2.0″), lane agility (0.19s) and 3/4 sprint (0.2s) since last season. Dotson’s three-quarter sprint was the second-fastest time at the combine in the last decade, according to Draft Express.
Standing vertical: 31.5″
Max vertical: 40.5″
Lane agility: 10.44s
Shuttle (Left): 2.22s
Shuttle (Right): 2.39
3/4 sprint: 3.02s
NOTES ON SHUTTLE RUN
(via NBA.com/stats)
The shuttle time is particularly wild, though, considering the difference (0.58s) from last offseason. As noted by The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, the “lack of singularly consistent entity” doing the measurements has produced some incredibly wonky results.
It is worth mentioning that Stanford’s Tyrell Terry (2.59s) and Grant Riller (2.45s) both would have also broken the record for the best score since the shuttle run was first recorded in 2013-14.
According to someone with knowledge of the situation who spoke to USA TODAY Sports Media Group on the condition of anonymity, RJ Hampton is also believed to have broken that record as well.
It is unlikely that the four fastest shuttle times in history all would have been from the same draft class, especially considering we have numbers from last year to compare for Dotson. It is also possible the shuttle run was measured in a different way this offseason.
Regardless, it is undeniable when watching his game film that Dotson has electrifying speed. NBA teams know that he is an incredibly speedy guard and that was confirmed long before the combine.
We ran the numbers for his measurements through the incredible database at NBAthlete.com, which helps compare and contextualize these numbers.
The two players with the highest similarities scores were Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard and Charlotte Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham.
Lillard, of course, is a five-time NBA All-Star who won the league’s Rookie of the Year in 2013. Graham, who plays for Dotson’s hometown team, was a finalist for NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year in 2019-20.
Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham has had one of the most surprising starts to this season, including another stellar game on Wednesday.
Charlotte Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham has had one of the most surprising starts to this season, including another stellar game on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old put up 33 points against the Golden State Warriors behind 10 three-pointers. That was a career-high mark from downtown for Graham, who also tied the record for most three-pointers in a single game in franchise history.
Graham has been shooting the ball well all year, as he leads the Eastern Conference in total three-pointers thus far. Perhaps most impressive is the prolific rate at which he has created his own shot.
Graham has been taking more pull-up three-pointers per game (5.3) than almost anyone in the league. But he has been effective on these challenging looks, shooting 41.0 percent from three-point range.
Ricky O’Donnell wrote about this last month, comparing him to former Charlotte star Kemba Walker (via SB Nation):
“[His] ability to hit pull-up threes off the dribble makes him an especially tough cover. It should remind Hornets fans quite a bit of how Walker used to play in Charlotte… The pull-up three off the dribble is one of the toughest and most valuable shots in basketball. Graham has been remarkably good at making them so far.”
In fact, Graham (2.23) and Walker (2.37) have actually averaged nearly identical successful pull-up three-pointers per 70 possessions this season.
Graham consistently dances around the court, finding space for himself and showcasing his ability to shoot on the move without a pass from a teammate. Half of the three-pointers he has made have been unassisted, according to Cleaning the Glass, which ranks in the 94th percentile among combo guards.
Even before the highlight performance against Golden State, this was the full list of players who had scored more points on unassisted three-pointers than Graham (108): James Harden (243), Damian Lillard (144), Luka Doncic (141) and Trae Young (135).
Those are some of the best shot creators in the NBA and Graham has found himself right up there among the elite.
Overall, few in the league have scored off the dribble as often as Graham has in 2019-20.
He has been efficient, too, averaging 1.14 points per possession when shooting jump shots off the dribble. That ranks in the 88th percentile among all players so far this season, per Synergy. He has accumulated 142 points in this manner, which is third-best in the Eastern Conference.
He has been among the top-tier scorers in the NBA, solidifying himself as an early candidate for the Most Improved Player award.
