Tag: Matthew Hurt

Rockets reportedly open roster spot by waiving Matthew Hurt

The Rockets are waiving rookie forward Matthew Hurt, per Alykhan Bijani of The Athletic. The move will open up a two-way contract.

The Houston Rockets are opening up a roster spot by waiving rookie forward Matthew Hurt, as first reported by Alykhan Bijani of The Athletic. Hurt had been on a two-way contract with the team.

A 6-foot-9 forward, Hurt averaged 2.2 points (33.3% on 3-pointers) and 1.8 rebounds in limited playing time of 10.3 minutes per game during 2021 summer league play for the Rockets. With Friday’s move, Hurt will not report to Houston’s training camp when it opens next week.

The move opens up a roster spot for the Rockets, who had been at the NBA’s offseason limit of 20 players. However, it does not guarantee that the spot will be used on an outsider. By mid-October, general manager Rafael Stone must trim his roster to a maximum of 15 players under standard contracts and two on two-way deals for the regular season.

By freeing up a two-way spot, that could be the avenue to allow a player who is currently on an Exhibit 10 deal for camp — such as Armoni Brooks, who played major NBA minutes with the Rockets last season — to be converted to a two-way deal before the regular season. Houston’s other two-way contract currently belongs to Anthony Lamb.

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Player salaries for the Houston Rockets in 2021-22, future seasons

Who do the Rockets have on their salary books for 2021-22 and beyond? Here’s a look at Houston’s financial status entering the new season.

Although the Houston Rockets are clearly rebuilding and in the early stages of a youth movement, they aren’t yet flush with cash.

For example, when the Rockets traded former MVP Russell Westbrook to Washington in December 2020, they took back another high-priced guard in John Wall. The Wizards needed to send out a comparable annual salary figure to make the trade work under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and the Rockets received a future first-round pick for taking on a contract that was viewed at the time as less desirable.

Thus, even though the Rockets began their rebuild by trading stars such as Westbrook and James Harden, they don’t yet have a clean financial slate. They also have veterans like Eric Gordon and Danuel House Jr. who are still under contracts that were signed in 2019 — when Harden was still in Houston and a rebuild wasn’t yet being planned.

It’s not as if Houston desperately wanted cap space in 2021, anyway. Even if the Rockets had the financial ability to sign top free agents during this past offseason, it seems doubtful that any elite veteran player would have wanted to sign with a team that just finished the 2020-21 season with the NBA’s worst record. In a year or two, though, the Rockets could be viewed as a team on the rise with a young core led by the likes of Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Christian Wood. In that context, Houston could quickly become a desirable destination for free agents.

That’s assuming they have the money, of course. Courtesy of the HoopsHype salary database, here’s a look at who second-year general manager Rafael Stone has on the books entering 2022 and beyond.

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(Editor’s note: This list is sorted from most to least by annual salaries for the 2021-22 season. It does not yet include Armoni Brooks, who is on an Exhibit 10 contract heading into training camp.)

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 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.

Lakers to workout Isaiah Todd, Matthew Hurt, four more players Friday

The Los Angeles Lakers are working out Isaiah Todd, Matthew Hurt and four more prospects, the team announced.

The Los Angeles Lakers will work out a new batch of prospects ahead of the NBA draft, the team announced.

The latest group of prospects include Isaiah Todd of the G League Ignite, Matthew Hurt of Duke, Javonte Smart of LSU, Jordan Schakel of San Diego State, JaQuori McLaughlin of UC Santa Barbara and D’Mitrik Trice of Wisconsin.

Los Angeles currently holds the No. 22 overall pick in the draft, and among the players in this group, Todd is the most likely to go the highest as a possible late first-round or second-round pick.

Todd, 6’10”, played one season with Ignite and averaged 12.3 points and 4.9 rebounds in 24.4 minutes over the course of 15 games; he started in two of them. He shot 43.7 percent overall on 11.1 attempts and 36.2 percent from deep on 3.1 attempts.

Hurt, 6’9″, has a chance to get selected later in the second round. He played two seasons with Duke and improved with more minutes and a larger role.

He averaged 18.3 points and 6.2 rebounds in 32.7 minutes a game, and his shooting ability stands out the most. He shot 55.6 percent overall on 12.3 attempts and 44.4 percent from 3-point range on 5.3 attempts.

Smart, a 6’4″ guard, projects as a late second-round pick or undrafted. He played three seasons at LSU, most recently averaging 16.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 35.6 minutes. He shot 46 percent overall on 12.6 attempts and 40.2 percent from deep on 6.2 attempts.

Smart has steadily increased his 3-point percentage every season with the volume also soaring, which is a good sign for him if he can translate it to the NBA level.

Schakel is a 6’6″ guard who played all four seasons at SDSU. As a senior, he averaged 14.4 points and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 47.3 percent overall on 9.8 attempts and 46.1 percent from deep on 6.4 attempts.

McLaughlin, 6’4″ guard, played five seasons of collegiate basketball, but his second season with Oregon State lasted only six games. He moved to UCSB and most recently put up 16.0 points, 5.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 48.8 percent overall on 10.9 attempts and 40.8 percent from the perimeter on 4.0 attempts.

Trice, 6’0″ guard, is one of the oldest prospects in the draft; he turned 25 in May. His sophomore season with Wisconsin was cut short, so he had the chance to play another full season. Trice recently averaged 13.9 points, 4.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds while converting on 41 percent of his shots on 11.1 attempts and 37.3 percent from deep on 5.4 attempts.

The common skill shared by all players in this pool is their 3-point shooting. Todd’s potential is intriguing as a floor-spacer of his size, but he has plenty of skills to refine at the NBA level. Hurt’s size and knock-down shooting prowess make him a coveted pick in the second round, but since the Lakers don’t have any more picks after No. 22, it would be difficult to land him.

Smart, Schakel, McLaughlin and Trice could all be options for L.A. for the South Bay Lakers G League team or the Summer League squad.

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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.

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 3.0: Top 100 prospects pre-early entry deadline

As the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season nears its close, the league’s next wave of talent is preparing to take the great leap to become pros.

As the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season nears its close, the league’s next wave of talent is preparing to take the great leap to become pros.

Players have until the end of this month, May 30, to apply for entry into the 2021 NBA draft. They will then have until July 19 to determine whether or not they plan to stay in this class or (unless they hired an agent who does not have NCAA certification) return to school.

This is obviously an incredibly difficult decision and as the majority of early entry candidates have made their intentions public, those who are testing the waters are already weighing their options.

Fortunately, the NBA’s Undergraduate Advisory Committee (UAC) exists to help answer some of those questions.

The advisory committee, which began in 1997, offers feedback to prospects on their potential draft stock. As many prospects are facing pivotal decisions about their future, this kind of intel is incredibly important.

Players like Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert and Baylor’s Jared Butler both went through this process last season, likely were not satisfied with the results and opted to return. Now, after tremendous efforts last season, both are projected first-rounders.

These decisions have tremendous financial implications for these individuals as well. For example, even if Kispert or Butler went with the last pick in the first round in 2020, they would have likely earned a contract worth around $5 million over three years. This year, even if they went outside of the lottery at at No. 15 overall, that would be around $8.5 million.

With that in mind, for the latest version of For The Win’s 2021 NBA draft big board, I’ve provided my evaluation for the top prospects expected to be in the pre-draft process. Players excluded from this exercise were likely because the reporting suggests that they are going back to school.

Note that these decisions were fully based on where I would have each player ranked, not a projection, although various conversations with scouts as well as other talent evaluators around the league have factored into my evaluation.

2021 aggregate NBA mock draft 4.0: Checking in after March Madness

Which future NBA players played the best during March Madness? Who has made the most significant improvements to their draft stock since our last update?

Which future NBA players played the best during March Madness? Which prospects made the most significant improvements to their draft stock?

In order to get a better sense of where all of the prospects stand right now, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, The Athletic, SB Nation and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win to see where the prospects rank at the moment.

Since our previous update last month, these are the players who have improved their stock and are trending up on mock drafts: Davion Mitchell (Baylor), Josh Giddey (Adelaide), Chris Duarte (Oregon), Miles McBride (West Virginia), Aaron Henry (Michigan State), Bennedict Mathurin (Arizona), Kessler Edwards (Pepperdine), Trey Murphy (Virginia) and Neemias Queta (Utah State).

Some of the names that did not make the list last time but now appear among the Top 60 include Isaiah Todd (G League Ignite), Johnny Juzang (UCLA), Max Abmas (Oral Roberts), RaiQuan Gray (Florida State), Santi Aldama (Loyola Maryland and Austin Reaves (Oklahoma).

Below are the full rankings based on the latest mock drafts from top analysts and experts.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report