Tag: Jaden Ivey

Son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach hits buzzer beater

Big shot for anyone.

Things for going great for the Ivey family. First, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] just coached the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to a huge win over USC. That bumped the Irish up to third in the latest Top 25 AP poll and even netted them three first-place votes.

Now, the good fortune is being passed down to the next generation. Jaden Ivey, Niele’s son, has hit a baseline buzzer beater to help the Detroit Pistons defeat the Toronto Raptors, 102-100. It capped a night in which he led the Pistons with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and led all players with eight assists.

Ivey is in his third season with the Pistons out of Purdue, and it’s his best one yet so far. Through 18 games, he is averaging 18.4 points and 4.4 assists a game. Whatever he does the rest of the season though or even the rest of his career, he’ll remember this:

Here’s hoping Ivey will have many more some clutch moments throughout his NBA career.

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Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

2024-25 Detroit Pistons: A quick preview

Last season, the Pistons finished with the worst record in the league (14-68) and ranked near the bottom in offensive efficiency and three-point shooting. To address these weaknesses, new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon prioritized …

Last season, the Pistons finished with the worst record in the league (14-68) and ranked near the bottom in offensive efficiency and three-point shooting. To address these weaknesses, new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon prioritized shooting in the offseason, re-signing 6-foot-9 sharpshooter Simone Fontecchio and acquiring players like Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. through free agency and trades.

Cade Cunningham, now locked into a five-year, $224 million max extension, will lead the team alongside Jaden Ivey with an upgraded supporting cast. Furthermore, many of the veterans brought in are on short-term deals, allowing Langdon the flexibility to evaluate which players fit the team’s future plans without long-term commitments.

While the Pistons will be more competitive in the first half of the season, the expectation is that they’ll shift focus to securing a better draft position after the All-Star break. This move will likely make their overall winning percentage look worse than their performance through the first 60 games, masking the progress made on the court.

Detroit Pistons fire Notre Dame alumnus Monty Williams as coach

New team leadership has declared Williams an expensive sunk cost.

A year ago, Notre Dame alumnus [autotag]Monty Williams[/autotag] received the biggest coaching contract in NBA history. It turned out to be a very bad investment for the Detroit Pistons, who lost a single-season record 28 straight games en route to finishing a franchise-worst 14-68. That will be the only season Williams sees from the bench.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Pistons have fired Williams. This comes less than a month after the hiring of Trajan Langdon as president of basketball operations. The Pistons still owe Williams over $65 million.

One thing Williams and Pistons ownership didn’t agree on as highlighted in the USA TODAY report was how to use second-year guard Jaden Ivey, son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]. Obviously, that only was the tip of the iceberg.

The Pistons hired Williams after he was fired by the Phoenix Suns, whom he took to the 2021 NBA Finals. His wife also had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Here’s hoping he can take some time off now to focus on the truly important things in life.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

NBA Rising Stars 2024: Bennedict Mathurin unanimously named MVP to lead Team Jalen to title

Pacers sophomore Bennedict Mathurin was unanimously named MVP of the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game to lead Team Jalen to the championship.

Indiana Pacers sophomore Bennedict Mathurin on Friday was unanimously named MVP of the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game to lead Team Jalen to the championship in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mathurin produced 18 points in the opening game as Team Jalen defeated Team Tamika. He had four points, two assists and one steal in a 26-13 win in the final over Team Detlef, which consisted of seven of the top players in the G League.

While Mathurin did the bulk of the scoring in the semifinal round, Dereck Lively II had six points and Jordan Hawkins and Jalen Williams each chipped in five points in the final. Williams drained the game-winning 3-pointer to end it for Team Jalen.

The event featured four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games were played to a target score of 40, and the championship game was played to a target score of 25.

The pool of players for the game consisted of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches and the players from the G League were selected by the league office.

The four teams were coached by Hall of Famer Pau Gasol, Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who led the G League team.

Here is how the teams performed in the event.

NBA Rising Stars 2024: Full rosters revealed in draft announcement

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the four seven-player teams for the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game.

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the four seven-player teams for the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game on Feb. 16 as part of All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event will feature four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games will be played to a target score of 40. The championship game will be played to a target score of 25.

The pool of players for the game consists of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The 21 players in the NBA will be drafted onto three teams. The seven players in the G League will comprise the fourth team.

The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches. The players from the G League were selected by the league office. Each team submitted a rookie ballot and a sophomore ballot featuring four frontcourt players, four guards and two additional players of any position.

Hall of Famer Pau Gasol will return as one of the four honorary head coaches for the event. Joining Gasol are Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Indiana Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who will lead the G League team.

Here are the rosters drafted by Gasol, Catchings and Rose.

NBA Rising Stars 2024: Player pool revealed for annual showcase at All-Star Weekend

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the list of 28 players set to participate in the annual Rising Stars game on Feb. 16 at All-Star Weekend.

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the list of 28 players set to participate in the annual Rising Stars game on Feb. 16 as part of All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event will feature four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games will be played to a target score of 40. The championship game will be played to a target score of 25.

The pool of players for the game consists of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The 21 players in the NBA will be drafted onto three teams and the seven players in the G League will comprise the fourth team.

The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches. The players from the G League were selected by the league office. Each team submitted a rookie ballot and a sophomore ballot featuring four frontcourt players, four guards and two additional players of any position.

Hall of Famer Pau Gasol will return as one of the four honorary head coaches for the event. Joining Gasol are Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Indiana Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who will lead the G League team.

Assistant coaches from the NBA All-Star Game coaching staffs will join the honorary head coaches in coaching the Rising Stars teams. The NBA All-Star Game coaching staffs for both the Eastern and Western Conferences have yet to be determined.

TNT will televise the competition beginning at 9 p.m. EST.

Takeaways: Fred VanVleet rescues Rockets with late heroics in Detroit

The Rockets stayed above .500 thanks largely to Fred VanVleet, who had 12 fourth-quarter points and made crucial plays late to thwart Detroit’s upset bid.

Two nights after overtime heartbreak in Chicago, there seemed to be something of a hangover for the Rockets in Detroit. But thanks to veteran guard Fred VanVleet, Houston (19-18) rallied late in Friday’s 112-110 victory (box score) over the lowly Pistons (3-36).

VanVleet had 20 points (46.7% FG), 12 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. That total included 12 fourth-quarter points and a crucial dime to Alperen Sengun as Houston overcame multiple double-digit deficits. Sengun finished with a game-high 29 points, shooting 12-of-19 (63.2%) from the field and an improved 5-of-7 on free throws (71.4%).

Jalen Green scored 28 points, though he shot just 9-of-25 overall (36.0%) and 2-of-9 on 3-pointers (22.2%). Jabari Smith Jr. finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds on 7-of-15 shooting (46.7%), and he also had 2 blocks and several critical defensive plays to secure the win.

Second-year guard Jaden Ivey led the Pistons with 18 points and 8 assists, but he shot just 1-of-6 on 3-pointers (16.7%) — including a last-second heave that spun out. Houston finished the game on a 10-3 run.

The Rockets were again short-handed on Friday night, with Dillon Brooks (right oblique strain) and Tari Eason (left lower leg soreness) still sidelined. Cade Cunningham (left knee strain) and Bojan Bogdanovic (left calf soreness) were out for Detroit.

Here’s our look at highlights and postgame interviews, along with reaction by media members and fans. Houston continues its road trip Saturday in Boston (29-9), where tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m. Central.

Watch: Notre Dame coach’s son misses open dunk on fast break off steal

Oops.

Maybe Jaden Ivey, son of Notre Dame coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag], should sit out whenever he faces the Chicago Bulls from now on. That’s because seemingly every time he does, an embarrassing moment happens.

Last season as a rookie, Ivey called a timeout when his Detroit Pistons didn’t have any left, and the Bulls pulled out a close win. When the teams met in Detroit again Saturday, he knocked away a pass and had nothing but the basket in front of him. The only problem was he didn’t finish his dunk, and the result was pure humiliation:

The night wasn’t all bad for Ivey though. He beat the third-quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer:

That 3 accounted for nearly half of the seven points he scored in a 118-102 Pistons win. So although the missed dunk didn’t impact the game, it still should make the next edition of Shaqtin’ a Fool.

Now in his second season, Ivey is coming off making the NBA All-Rookie Second Team after averaging 16.3 points and 5.2 assists a game. This year, he has come off the bench during his first three contests. In that time, he has a scoring average of 9.7 and an assists average of 3.3.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

10 bold preseason predictions revisited from the 2022 NBA draft

Rookie Wire offered 10 bold predictions for the 2022-23 season in October and vowed to come back to see how we did.

Back in October, Rookie Wire offered 10 bold predictions for the 2022-23 season based on the available information and vowed to come back and see how we did.

Well, the time has come to look back and review the results.

We started this exercise prior to the 2019-20 season, which was our inaugural class on Rookie Wire, and we have kept up with it each year since then. Our annual revisit of these bold predictions can serve as a fun way to provide some sort of accountability around here.

This year proved no different.

We once again hit on some of our predictions but fell well short of the mark on others. In our defense, to be fair, we were very close on several of these. We just ask that you go easy on us and don’t alert the authorities at Freezing Cold Takes about the ones we missed badly on.

Here is how we fared last season.

Takeaways: Jabari Smith Jr. brilliant again as summer Rockets blast Pistons

With an efficient 38 points and 6 assists, Jabari Smith Jr. was brilliant again as the summer #Rockets (2-0) blasted Detroit. Tari Eason and Cam Whitmore also had strong showings.

With top Houston Rockets rookie Amen Thompson sidelined by a left ankle sprain, second-year prospect Jabari Smith Jr. picked up the slack and then some in Sunday’s 113-101 rout (box score) of the Detroit Pistons in the NBA’s 2023 summer league.

After scoring a game-high 33 points in Friday’s win, punctuated by an epic buzzer-beater, the No. 3 draft pick from the 2022 first round was even better against the Pistons with 38 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists on 13-of-25 shooting (52%). Smith hit 3-of-10 from 3-point range (30%) and 9-of-10 on free throws (90%).

Smith had plenty of help, most notably from two prospects Houston (2-0) also envisions having major NBA roles in the coming years. Fellow second-year forward Tari Eason had another strong game with 26 points and 9 rebounds on 12-of-25 shooting (48%), while rookie Cam Whitmore scored an efficient 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting (56.3%) and 3-of-7 on 3-pointers (42.9%).

The Pistons (1-1) were led in defeat by second-year guard Jaden Ivey, who had 22 points and 10 assists on 9-of-15 shooting (60%). Detroit’s frontcourt featured two players with significant NBA experience: James Wiseman and Jalen Duren, which made the performances opposite them by Smith and Eason all the more impressive.

Similarly, Whitmore (No. 20 pick in 2023) held his own against Amen Thompson’s twin brother, Ausar Thompson, who was drafted by the Pistons at No. 5 last month. Thompson finished with 12 points (46.2% FG), 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

Read on for highlights, postgame interviews with players and coaches, and reaction by fans and media members to Sunday’s game. Houston returns to action Tuesday versus Oklahoma City, with tipoff at 5:30 p.m. Central and television coverage on NBA TV. All five summer-league games are being played in Las Vegas.