Report: Mavericks to sign JaQuori McLaughlin to two-way contract

McLaughlin averaged 10.2 points, 5.8 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals in five games in the Las Vegas Summer League.

Former UC Santa Barbara guard JaQuori McLaughlin will reportedly sign a two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.

McLaughlin, who went undrafted, was named the Big West Player of the Year after averaging 16 points, 5.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 26 games last season. He became just the third player in program history to register at least 1,000 and 300 assists in a career.

The 6-foot-4 standout most recently played in the Las Vegas Summer League with the Golden State Warriors. He averaged 10.2 points, 5.8 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals in five games on 38.3% shooting from the field. His best game came on Aug. 13 after recording 14 points.

McLaughlin will split his time between the Mavericks and Texas Legends in the NBA G League. He will have the opportunity to develop with the Legends while gaining NBA experience throughout the season with the parent club.

Players this season signed to two-way contracts are eligible to spend no more than 50 games in the NBA. They will earn a flat salary equal to 50% of the minimum salary applicable to a player with zero years of service.

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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Report: Mavericks signing guard JaQuori McLaughlin to a two-way contract

After playing with the Warriors in the summer league, JaQuori McLaughlin is reportedly signing a two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks.

Behind Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, one of the Golden State Warriors standouts at the Las Vegas Summer League was undrafted guard JaQuori McLaughlin.

Over his run with the summer league edition of the Warriors, McLaughlin averaged 10.2 points on 38.3% shooting from the field with 5.8 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals in five games.

During a comeback victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the UC Santa Barbara product notched a summer league-best 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field with four assists.

After an impressive campaign in the summer league with Golden State, McLaughlin has reportedly earned a two-way contract in the NBA. According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, the Mavericks are signing the 23-year-old guard to a two-way contract.

Via @espn_macmahon on Twitter:

Before going undrafted in the 2021 draft, McLaughlin spent two seasons at Oregon State and three seasons at UC Santa Barbara. In his final season with the Gauchos, McLaughlin tallied 16 points, 5.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game on his way to earning the Big West Player of the Year honors.

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook

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Meet Joe Abunassar, the forefather of private trainers who has helped turn hundreds of NBA prospects into pros

“That dude runs Iron Man races. He is very committed.”

Now that the NBA offseason is officially underway, it’s impossible not to think about how much the players have been through in the last year.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis secured the franchise’s 17th title on Oct. 11, then returned to practice a few months later so that the NBA’s 2020-21 season could, in fact, start in 2020. James would go onto labor through an ankle injury in April, and Davis was sidelined with a groin strain. The Lakers were ultimately eliminated in just the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The league has said that injuries are actually down from a year ago, though, and it’s not like the quality of the basketball has suffered. All in all the league’s quick turnaround is a testament to how well players are conditioned, and that’s thanks to the proliferation of private coaches.

Joe Abunassar is one of the forefathers of that profession, and the owner of IMPACT Basketball in Las Vegas is as busy as ever. He’s had to work with pro clients — accustomed to the regular rhythm of the year — to stay in shape while simultaneously preparing his college-aged clients to stand out in a year unlike any other.

“It’s been a long journey for me,” Abunassar told For The Win. “Every year we are adding; every year we are learning from our guys.”

JaQuori McLaughlin, who was named Big West Conference Player of the Year last season, was a driving force back in March, leading UC Santa Barbara to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time in a decade.

Before playing in Las Vegas Summer League for the Golden State Warriors, McLaughlin was working out with Abunassar twice a day. They focused on lifting weights and perfecting his jump shot as well as keeping a keen eye on his diet and his sleep schedule.

“It was huge for me,” McLaughlin recently told For The Win. “I was a good shooter coming in but he helped me tweak a few little things, like having a stronger base when I shoot and having a higher follow-through. I was working on my consistency, shooting the same shot every single time, so that was the main thing.”

***

The Sacramento Kings finished 31-41, a few spots out of the play-in tournament, but the season gave rise to hope for the future. Tyrese Haliburton, the No. 12 selection in 2020, far exceeded expectations and looked like a potential foundation player.

For that, in no small part, Haliburton credits some of his time with Abunassar. With such an uncertain timeline for when games would be played in 2020, the Iowa State product opted to focus more of his time on work with a trainer.

“I was really working very hard,” said Haliburton, during a recent conversation with For The Win. “Some people get to this draft process and they like to relax and they think they have made it. But for me, I really turned it up. That was important for me. I took those months of the pandemic and the months of uncertainty and used that as growth for my game instead of using it as an excuse by any means and just chilling.”

Haliburton is one of several players around the league who spent the extended offseason in 2020 with Abunassar, who has worked with some of the top names in the league for more than two decades.

He has become a favorite among agents hoping to help their clients get in the best shape of their lives before the NBA draft, and recently helped a new group, including McLaughlin, that played through a stilted college season unlike any we’ve seen before.

But Abunassar is hardly unaccustomed to adversity — or to making his own way.

Back in the late 1980s, Abunassar was a student manager under head coach Bobby Knight for the Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball team. He got his first coaching gig as an assistant at the University of Wyoming.

After a few years there, he had the opportunity for a new job at Bowling Green University. But during that offseason, he was asked if he would be willing to help out a few players who were preparing for the 1995 NBA Draft. Those prospects were Joe Smith, who went No. 1 overall, and future league MVP and champion Kevin Garnett.

Abunassar ended up falling in love with the training process and rose to prominence working alongside Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Ty Lue early in their playing careers during the late 1990s.

“He’s been around pros,” Haliburton said. “He’s seen all the way from All-Stars to guys who were out of the league in a couple of weeks. He’s seen everything, so he understands it. So he was able to teach me tricks of the trade and how I can stay in this game for a long time.”

***

It’s all about replicating a professional environment.

At his gym, the players arrive in the morning and visit with the medical staff, doing anything needed in terms of stretching or treatment just like they would in an NBA facility. They then get on the court for an hour and a half to work on skills training. Then, they spend another hour and a half in the weight room before breaking for lunch, prepared by IMPACT’s nutritionist.

After lunch, they return for a second session, which is usually shooting. This is also an opportunity for a player to work on a specific focus they need to improve. Others, like Kyle Lowry, return at night for pilates. The full day of work is a customizable program that involves recovery, treatment, strength and conditioning as well as the work on the basketball court.

During the course of the pandemic, Abunassar closely monitored the restrictions from the NBA while also following no-contact guidelines from the state. All offseason, he and his staff constantly pivoted in order to safely run the gym.

“Everyone in the world had to adjust for what is going on this year,” Abunassar said. “It’s going to take everyone a little bit longer to get into peak form but I think everyone understands that.”

For players like Haliburton, the pre-draft process was also different in that prospects weren’t flying in and out for workouts between their meetings with NBA teams. Instead, because these players were in the gym for six consecutive months, Abunassar notes that his clients had more time to improve their bodies and their games.

Before his rookie season, Denver Nuggets big man Zeke Nnaji was able to gain fifteen pounds of muscle, radically transform his body. Meanwhile, in that same group, Dallas Mavericks rookie Josh Green was able to restore his perimeter abilities and get his shooting touch. Haliburton told us that he had a pretty radical body transformation as well.

Haliburton came into the pre-draft process at 168 pounds and weighed in at 185 pounds by the time his sessions with Abunassar concluded. Altogether, he gained about 17 pounds — including a lot of muscle.

“Joe had a big input on that, especially while we were in his facility,” said Haliburton.

During his time in Abunassar’s gym, Haliburton said that he also had the chance to work with some basketball legends.

Though it was decades after first working with Abunassar, former NBA players like Billups and Gilbert Arenas would stop by the gym and pull prospects like Haliburton aside to offer him tips before he embarked on the next chapter of his basketball journey.

***

Joe Wieskamp, who was selected at No. 41 overall in the 2021 NBA draft after three seasons playing for the University of Iowa, also spent time with Abunassar during the offseason.

“He was awesome. That dude runs Iron Man races; he is very committed. He is working out in the morning and he’s in the gym all day and he’s in the gym at night,” Wieskamp told For The Win, ahead of the draft. “Training with a guy like that who has it all together motivates you when you’re on the court. He’s been through it for more than a decade. He knows what it takes and he knows what these teams do in these workouts.”

Wieskamp said he worked with Abunassar on skill development, including sprinting into the catch and reading the closeout, getting his shots off quick after shot fake sidesteps and going to the rim.

Ultimately, for Abunassar, the core tenets of IMPACT he used with Wieskamp have remained the same during his entire time in the industry: skills training, strength and conditioning, nutrition and mentality.

“If you walk in our building, whether it’s a 12-year-old from New Jersey or Kyle Lowry, it’s all the same approach,” Abunassar said. “Guys are coming back to us because they’re getting better.”

The industry as a whole, however, has changed fairly dramatically. Back when Abunassar was getting started, most teams in the NBA did not have development coaches on their staff.

The head coach would work the players out during practice but the practice of hiring strength coaches, sports psychologists and physical therapists was far from the common practice that it is today. These days, most teams have between six to 10 employees who are strictly focused on development.

Meanwhile, in recent years, some trainers have also gained large followings on social media and become a part of the basketball influencer culture in on Instagram. That has never been Abunassar’s approach.

“I’ve been at it a long time and the real key is that we focus only on player development. We haven’t gotten involved in a lot of other things,” Abunassar said. “We are focused on what we are doing in the building, not so much on Instagram and social media and all the videos.”

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Live tracker: Here is where the top undrafted free agents have signed

The 2021 NBA draft has come and gone but the draft cycle still continues for a bit longer as the undrafted free agents find their new homes.

The 2021 NBA draft has come and gone but the draft cycle still continues for a bit longer as the undrafted free agents find their new homes.

While the following prospects didn’t get to hear their name called by the commissioner or deputy commissioner on Thursday night, they can find solace in the fact that their path to the pros is far from over. It’s not unheard of for an undrafted free agent to carve out a role for themselves in the NBA.

Some notable names, including Gonzaga’s Joel Ayayi and G League Ignite’s Daishen Nix, will join the fraternity of undrafted basketball players who hope to still make a name for themselves in the NBA.

Here is where the best remaining prospects have landed so far, according to reports:

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.

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.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 4.0: Top 100 prospects pre-combine and lottery

Now that the early entry list is officially out and combine invitations have been sent out, the 2021 NBA draft class is starting to finalize.

Now that the early entry deadline has passed and combine invitations have been sent out, the 2021 NBA draft class is starting to finalize.

Last year, the NCAA tournament and the combine were both canceled due to the pandemic. That made evaluations much tougher for scouts and front offices around the league. This year, the pre-draft process feels somewhat normal again for top basketball prospects who are set to join the pros.

As a new class of players prepares to turn professional, here is how we would currently rank this class based on what we have seen from them so far, with some of my picks that are higher than other experts have them ranked.