Tag: Greg Brown III

Former Longhorn throws down the dunk of the NBA summer league

Greg Brown III with the dunk of the summer!

The Portland Trail Blazers summer league team was playing in the second most important game of the night on Tuesday, as they faced off with the Houston Rockets in the summer league consolation matchup.

The Blazers were unable to overcome the great offensive performances of Armani Brooks, who has spent majority of his professional career in the G League, having only played in 20 NBA games, and rookie out of Arizona State Josh Christopher. Brooks and Christopher combined for 50 of the teams 95 points, with Brooks scoring 30 and Christopher scoring 20.

However, those two have not been the talk of the town, as former Longhorn Greg Brown stole everyone’s attention on social media with what many are deeming the dunk of the summer league. On a fast break opportunity, Brown decided to add some extra flare to his dunk, going with the ever so elegant between the legs slam.

Brown and his team did lose the game, but he had a very solid performance off the bench. The Texas ex provided as personal summer league high with 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and also grabbed 8 rebounds. He finished summer league by averaging 9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots in five games.

LeBron was stunned after the Blazers’ Greg Brown III threw down an in-game, between-the-legs dunk

“Sheesh!!”

The Portland Trail Blazers only had one pick in this year’s NBA Draft, so their front office will probably be thrilled to see the impression that Greg Brown III has made in Summer League.

Even LeBron James took notice.

Brown III — who was selected with the 43rd overall pick out of Texas — attracted plenty of attention in college because of his athletic traits. He’s 6-foot-9 with a nearly 7-foot wingspan and 44-inch vertical. That’s the perfect combination for some jaw-dropping dunks, but few would have expected to see Brown III attempt an eastbay (between-the-legs dunk) in a game.

Well, that happened on Tuesday.

During Portland’s Summer League finale against the Rockets, Brown III went through the legs for the dunk in transition. And he made it look easy. So easy that LeBron had to jump on Twitter to offer his praise.

That’s quite a way for a rookie to make an impression on the league.

And sure, Brown III is still raw and will have to develop offensively and defensively — particularly with cutting down on turnovers — but nobody is going to doubt his athleticism. He showed us why on Tuesday.

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Former Longhorn Greg Brown III signs with the Portland Trail Blazers

Greg Brown III agreed to deal with the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.

After being selected by the New Orleans Pelicans in second round of the 2021 NBA draft, former Longhorn Greg Brown III was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for cash considerations.

It was not a certainty that he would make Portland’s NBA roster, but Brown had to take advantage of the opportunity that the Trail Blazers were giving him.

On Thursday, after a few solid days in Las Vegas for the NBA summer league, the Trail Blazers announced that they had signed the 19-year-old rookie to an NBA contract.

The athletic youngster came to Texas ranked as a five-star and showed a lot of promise, but did not have the college career he was projected to. That didn’t stop Brown from seizing his summer league opportunity, and making the most out of his bench role.

In about 18 minutes per game, Brown has averaged 10 points on 54% shooting, 4 rebounds, and 1 steal per game. He has been all over the floor making plays on both sides of the ball, and the Blazers took notice. Here is one of his best plays of the summer that saw him block former teammate Kai Jones’ three point attempt, and then take the ball in transition and throw down a monster dunk.

Brown will be a very nice depth piece on a Portland team that is looking to contend in the west, unless they trade Damian Lillard.

NBA summer league Day 2 reviews for Texas Longhorns draftees

How are the Longhorns doing in the NBA summer league?

With the Las Vegas Summer League heating up, there are four Texas Longhorns rookies spread across the league.

Former Texas star Kai Jones, who was taken by the Charlotte Hornets with No. 19 pick, has to take advantage of this opportunity to get his feet wet at the professional level. After being selected just outside the lottery, he is practically guaranteed a spot on the Hornets NBA roster, unless something unforeseen goes horrendously wrong.

Jones is the only player in a situation like his, as the other three Longhorns are truly battling for a spot in the NBA, especially undrafted Matt Coleman, who is playing on the Sacramento Kings summer league team. Coleman is simply competing for a spot in in general, whether it be a G League contract or an NBA deal.

Former Longhorn Greg Brown III was the No. 43 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft and has a lot to prove in the summer league with the Portland Trailblazers, as they’re making moves as of right now to be a contender, so every remaining roster spot must be able to provide something.

Perhaps the most successful of the four thus far is big man Jericho Sims, who was already signed to a multiyear two-way contract with the New York Knicks after being taken with No. 58 overall pick. He shined in his first game, scoring 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting and grabbing 8 rebounds.

Let’s break down how each of the four did in their second game in the Las Vegas Summer League.

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.

Final 2021 NBA Mock Draft: Latest intel, trade rumors and predicting all 60 picks

Wasn’t it just the 2020 NBA draft? How is the 2021 NBA draft already here? Crazy, maybe, but the league is about to have a ton of new faces.

Wasn’t it just the 2020 NBA draft? How is the 2021 NBA draft already here? Crazy, maybe, but the league is about to have a ton of new faces.

The names that you’re most likely to hear at the top are Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley. But the draft will start heating up once guys like Jalen Suggs, Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Kuminga start to find their new homes.

This draft will also be unique in that there will be fewer players in attendance than usual. According to one prospect who recently spoke to For The Win, due to COVID-19 restrictions, those not invited to the green room are not allowed to come to the stage and shake the hand of the commissioner as they have been in years past.

Regardless of who is actually in the building, however, it is certain to be an exciting and life-changing night for the next generation of NBA talent.

Based on conversations I’ve had with scouts around the league, and from reports and tea leaves left in other mock drafts from trusted draftniks, below is how I project the events will unfold at Barclays Center and on ESPN and ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET on July 29.

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.

2021 NBA Mock Draft 6.0: Predicting all 60 picks after the combine

While most of the basketball world is focused on the NBA Finals, scouts and draftniks are in the midst of a very busy time of year as well.

While most of the basketball world is focused on the NBA Finals, scouts and draftniks are in the midst of a very busy time of year as well.

The most crucial dates leading up to the draft are the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the early entry application deadline, the lottery, the combine and the early entry withdrawal deadline. All have since come and gone, which means that we’re somehow already in the home stretch before the big night in Brooklyn on July 29.

Prospects are still frantically traveling around the country, visiting with teams for both individual and group workouts in front of key decision-makers. Still, others are currently playing for their national team on the FIBA circuit.

But as far as the public is concerned, the only new information that will be released between now and the draft will be filtered through whatever is reported by journalists. As such, until intel starts rolling in, this mock draft offers the most informed projections yet.

While these predictions are based on my conversations with NBA scouts and executives around the league, as well as my own scouting and information-gathering, they’re subject to change dramatically over the course of the next few weeks.

Where Texas’ four NBA draft prospects are projected to land after the combine

Where are Texas’ NBA draft prospects projected to land in the upcoming NBA Draft?

With the NBA Combine concluded, some players helped their stock while others are going to need to excel in individual workouts and team interviews to make up for a subpar combine.

Of the five Longhorns that entered the NBA Draft, four have officially foregone their college careers with Jericho Sims signing with Klutch Sports Group this past week. Whether or not all four of them will be in the NBA is yet to be seen. Courtney Ramey was the lone player to withdraw his name on Saturday and will head back to college.

Of the four prospects that entered their names into the draft — Greg Brown III, Matt Coleman III, Kai Jones and Jericho Sims — it seems as if two of them getting drafted is very likely while the other two will have to work a tad harder to carve out an opportunity to find themselves on an NBA roster.

Let’s take a look at where the four prospects are currently projected to go come draft night.