The Philadelphia 76ers have interest in trading for Sacramento Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica.
The Philadelphia 76ers are led by team president Daryl Morey has a history of making bold moves in order to put his team in a position to chase a title. In his short time in Philadelphia, he has already made some big moves to put better pieces around stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
Morey is always a guy who is working the phones behind the scenes looking for the next move to give his team a better chance in the future. For the moment, Philadelphia could use another big man who can stretch the floor and provide good production off their bench.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, the Sixers have their eyes on Sacramento Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica who fits that exact bill.
Amick:
Nemanja Bjelica who has been out of Walton’s rotation since Jan. 9 and appears likely to be on the move. The Sixers, who have long been tied to Hield in terms of interest, are known to be among the teams who are considering the 32-year-old forward who has shot 39 percent from three-point range in his six seasons.
Bjelica, of course, was the one who verbally agreed to a deal with the Sixers in the offseason of 2018, but he then decided to join the Kings, instead as he flipped his decision. Bjelica is having a down season in Sacramento shooting just 23.8% from deep, but he has only played 10 games as Amick mentioned that he is out of Walton’s rotation. His career shows that he is a much better shooter and he would be a nice fit in Philadelphia.
For the third time in 54 regular-season games, an opponent hit a 3-pointer in the final two seconds to overcome a two-point Houston lead.
From a Houston Rockets perspective, perhaps the most surprising element of Bojan Bogdanovic’s game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer in Sunday’s loss to the visiting Utah Jazz is in how familiar it felt.
The 2019-20 season isn’t yet to the All-Star break, and it’s already the second time for Houston to lose on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at home. The first came on Dec. 9, when Nemanja Bjelica did it for Sacramento.
In both cases, the Rockets had taken a two-point lead courtesy of a made basket with under two seconds remaining. It was a Russell Westbrook layup in December, and a P.J. Tucker 3-pointer this week.
Each time, however, the Rockets still lost courtesy of an ensuing 3-pointer. Both the Kings and Jazz advanced the ball by calling a timeout, which also allowed them to draw up a sideline out-of-bounds play.
#Rockets on Bojan Bogdanovic game-winning 3 for Utah: Mike D’Antoni:”He made a heck of a shot.We had 2 guys on him.I was afraid we were gonna foul him” James Harden:”Tough-ass shot” PJ Tucker:”That last shot didn’t lose the game.We lost the game way earlier-They scored way 2easy” pic.twitter.com/zFQ9DAzJmx
In both plays, the Rockets enlisted a tall center with long arms (Clint Capela, Tyson Chandler) to guard the inbounds passer, standing at a slight angle toward their own basket. Presumably, this was designed to help prevent either a pass into the corner or a lob toward the rim.
That effectively made it a four-on-four battle, and the Kings and Jazz were each able to momentarily free up a shooter by utilizing a screen. Had they not covered the inbounds pass, Houston could have had five defenders tracking four players through the maze of screens and cuts.
Another option if they didn’t cover the passer would be to position the center in a “free safety” role near the basket — which could allow the four defenders at the 3-point line to be less concerned about cuts.
As it was, the Rockets recovered well against Utah, with both Tucker and James Harden closing out hard on Bogdanovic. They didn’t contest as well on Bjelica, but he was over 30 feet away from the basket.
Great play design from Kings on this game winner. Elevator screen for Bogdanovic but the key is that he curls. Tucker tries to protect on a potential lob. 2nd key is Barnes backscreen for Hield. That engages Harden, no one to help on Bjelica's cut and Tucker can't recover in time pic.twitter.com/mwpfBu72wK
Both shots, on paper, were less likely than likely (perhaps much less likely) to go in — yet each did. Flip those two results, and Houston would be 35-18 and in position for home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs and only two games back of the No. 2 seed.
Instead, the Rockets are 33-20 and in the West’s No. 5 spot, only a game ahead of the No. 7 position.
It’s hard to say that Mike D’Antoni‘s strategy was faulty in either case, given the low probability of each long-range shot. However, with a two-point lead in both cases, it’s fair to wonder if perhaps the Rockets would be better served to try and overplay the perimeter and force a shot inside the arc — where the worst-case scenario is overtime, rather than a loss.
In each situation, with the Rockets at home and led by a pair of All-Star guards and former MVPs in Harden and Westbrook, Houston almost certainly would have been a slight favorite in overtime.
Strategy aside, another part of it is simply bad luck. How bad? Per Second Spectrum, Bogdanovic’s shot had just a 12.6% chance of going in, making it the lowest probability of any NBA game-winner this season.
Bojan Bogdanovic’s game-winning 3 tonight was the 3rd game-winning FG (5 seconds or less remaining) from 28+ feet this season. With just a 12.6% chance of going in, it had the lowest shot probability of any game-winner this season.
For the entire season, the NBA has had three game-winning shots in the final five seconds from 28 or more feet away, and two of them were the shots from Bogdanovic and Bjelica at the buzzer to defeat the Rockets at Toyota Center. In both cases, the Rockets led by two.
The trend isn’t just limited to this season, either. In the final game of 2018-19, the Rockets led by two in Oklahoma City — only to lose on a dagger 3-pointer from Paul George with only 1.8 seconds remaining. The George trey was slightly different from this year’s buzzer-beaters, since it came off a transition sequence, as opposed to an out-of-bounds play.
That loss to the Thunder proved to be very costly for the Rockets, dropping them from the No. 2 seed to No. 4 in the West playoffs.
Including the two game-winners this year, that’s now three times in Houston’s last 54 regular-season games that they’ve lost a two-point lead courtesy of an opponent’s 3-pointer in the final two seconds.
It remains to be seen just how costly this year’s buzzer-beaters will be in the West standings. But it’s becoming a very familiar problem.
The Los Angeles Lakers were mentioned in trade rumors a few weeks ago, but we know a little bit more about the offer.
It would be hard to blame anybody for putting such things out of their mind on a week like this but as the Los Angeles Lakers ease their way back to business as usual, the rest of the NBA is working the phones with less than a week to go before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
Earlier this season, we heard rumors about a potential deal involving Kyle Kuzma and the Sacramento Kings. But now we have a little bit more information on those trade talks from The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor. The Kings weren’t exactly keen on including Bogdanovic, which was a request from the Lakers after the Kings offered a pick and Nemanja Bjelica for Kuzma.
The Kings offered Nemanja Bjelica and a pick to the Lakers for Kyle Kuzma, and Los Angeles countered by asking for Bogdanovic, according to multiple league sources. Sacramento refused.
It makes a ton of sense why the Lakers would want Bogdanovic, a player who has been a very good 3-point shooter for his entire career and someone who handles the ball better than Kuzma. But that’s why the Kings were smart not to budge on keeping Bogdanovic.
Bjelica is a better shooter than Kuzma, but he’s not a clear-cut upgrade, either. The trade talks date back to earlier this month and with only a few days to go until the deadline, it would be unwise to say the Lakers won’t do anything. But given that team chemistry has been such a key part of their success this season, potentially eroding that strength by giving up Kuzma for a marginal upgrade may be too much of a risk for the potential return.
The Boston Celtics might do well to make a call to the Sacramento Kings ahead of the trade deadline to check on the ask for a pair of their affordable shooters.
Should Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge make a call to the Sacramento Kings to shore up Boston’s bench?
That’s a popular idea with at least a few prominent Celtics analysts this month, and one that could make a lot of sense in the right scenario.
As the February 6 trade deadline draws closer, expect the number of proposed trades to heat up even if the market does not, and the Boston Celtics are likely to be in the thick of such proposals whether they pull the trigger or not.
The notion of looking to the Kings in particular for wing Bogdan Bogdanovic or center Nemanja Bjelica are intriguing directions Boston could take, with both able to provide the sort of bench scoring and shooting the team needs to reach its highest potential this season.
Could Kings’ Nemanja Bjelica and Bogdan Bogdanovic fit with the Celtics?https://t.co/NWEg95siLc
Bjelica appeals because of his shooting, over 40 % over the prior three seasons, and 43.4 % from deep this season. He’s a solid rebounder who can pass without making too many mistakes, and makes $6,825,000 this season, making trading for him easy as far as salary matching goes.
He’s also under contract next season for just a little more, $7.15 million, meaning he wouldn’t be rental.
He’s not the sort of guy who could defend the bigger frontcourt players Boston may face in the playoffs, but he could help run them off the floor when mixed in with the starters, too.
His age — nearly 32 — is not ideal, but the Celtics will need to make room for some of their prospects to join the parent club from the two way ranks and future drafts, so that’s not necessarily a problem.
Boston could also inquire about shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who at 27 is a more natural fit for the Celtics’ as one of the youngest teams in the league. He’s set to earn $8,529,386 this season, making trading for him a bit trickier, but still within Boston’s range of moveable salaries.
After inking guard Buddy Hield to a big extension, the thinking is the Kings may want to guarantee a return for a player they may not be able to afford long-term, as Bogdanovic will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
This presents more risk for the Celtics if they were to trade for him, as there’s no guarantee the team would be willing to pony up the sort of players and assets Sacramento would be likely to accept — if he is even available.
However, the Serbian sharpshooter is logging 14.6 points per game this season and shooting 36.6 % from beyond the arc on 7.1 attempts per game, and can serve as a secondary distributor too, with The Athletic’s Jared Weiss referring to him as perhaps “best playmaker off the bench in the league.”
Either of the duo of Sacramento players present intriguing, attainable targets should the Kings be open to dealing them. But as with many such potential targets, the trick will be figuring out which such players are even available.
With the curtain on inter-team player movement drawing to a close a week from today, we’ll know soon enough if there’s a deal to be had, but this pair of shooters are among the better potential options out there that could realistically change teams.
Russell Westbrook and P.J. Tucker had huge nights, but the Kings stunned the Rockets on a Nemanja Bjelica three-pointer at the buzzer.
Russell Westbrook had a season-high 34 points and P.J. Tucker a career-best 19 rebounds, but the Houston Rockets (15-8) wasted those performances in a 119-118 home loss Monday to the Kings (10-13).
The Rockets took a 118-116 lead with just one second left to play on a Westbrook layup, but Sacramento’s Nemanja Bjelica took advantage of a blown coverage to hit a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin.
Buddy Hield led the Kings with 26 points and six made three-pointers, including one with under 10 seconds left to tie the game after Ben McLemore had briefly given the Rockets a three-point lead at 116-113.
Both teams combined for four tying or go-ahead shots in the final 20 seconds, punctuated by Bjelica’s game-winner.
Great play design from Kings on this game winner. Elevator screen for Bogdanovic but the key is that he curls. Tucker tries to protect on a potential lob. 2nd key is Barnes backscreen for Hield. That engages Harden, no one to help on Bjelica's cut and Tucker can't recover in time pic.twitter.com/mwpfBu72wK
Tucker and Clint Capela (13 points, 17 rebounds) combined for 36 rebounds between them, leading Houston to a 51-37 edge on the glass. However, the Kings made up for that with an unusual 20-17 advantage against the always three-point-happy Rockets in made three-pointers — including the last two buckets in the final 10 seconds.
D'Antoni was critical of the Rockets effort and energy, saying they lost because "we didn't play hard the whole game."
The loss marred what was undoubtedly Westbrook’s finest night yet with the Rockets, with his 34 points coming on 13-of-17 shooting (76.5%) from the field and 2-of-4 (50%) from behind the three-point arc. He also had eight assists in his 36 minutes (box score).
Backcourt mate James Harden had an uncharacteristically inefficient night with 27 points on 8-of-19 shooting (42.1%) and eight turnovers, though he did have two made three-pointers wiped off the board late in the third quarter on controversial replay decisions.
Lakers F LeBron James was called washed in some corners but he reminded everyone just how explosive he can be with a dunk against the Kings
The Washed King is here to remind challengers that he is still liable to posterize takers looking to block a ferocious dunk from LeBron James. In the Los Angeles Lakers’ Friday night matchup against the Sacramento Kings, James had an incredible dunk against the Kings.
James has led the NBA in assists over the first 11 games of the season and he has led the Lakers to the NBA’s best defense over that same time. For much of the early going on Friday, the Lakers were a little sluggish. But the they closed the half with a fury, capped off by the dunk from James over Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica.
James is one of the greatest dunkers of all time even though he has never participated in an NBA dunk contest. His ability to finish in games, and through traffic, may be the greatest we’ve ever seen. Friday night, approaching age 35, he showed another example of delivering special moments with astonishing regularity.
