Tag: Onyeka Okongwu

Former Trojan Onyeka Okongwu inks extension with Atlanta Hawks

Onyeka Okongwu solidifies his career with a lucrative extension. This is a #USC MBB success story.

Former USC Trojan Onyeka Okongwu has signed a four-year, $62 million extension to remain with the Atlanta Hawks.

The former top-10 pick in the 2020 NBA draft was a five-star recruit coming out of Chino Hills High School, playing alongside LaMelo, LiAngelo, and Lonzo Ball.

“Double O” Okongwu averaged 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in the 2022-2023 NBA season in Atlanta.

Okongwu ranked in the top five of the league in offensive rebounding percentage and second-chance points after Quin Snyder’s hire as Hawks coach last season, per ESPN Stats & Information research.

I expect the Hawks to bounce back for a solid season in 2023-24. The NBA season kicks off this week.

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Oklahoma fans were right about Lincoln Riley, at least for this specific season.

USC assistants need to be coaching for their jobs.

Lincoln Riley did not assemble an elite 2023 roster, which surprised us and a lot of other observers.

Is USC ready to win in 2024 with Miller Moss or Malachi Nelson at quarterback? Lincoln Riley has to be honest about how he answers that question.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality.

Ranking the 23 best NBA players under 23 years old, with a FIBA World Cup star leading the pack

Where should Victor Wembanyama rank? Here’s the answer, along with the other best young NBA stars.

We are entering a new era of the NBA with Victor Wembanyama as one of several young stars vying to become the face of the league.

Now that the NBA’s 2023-24 season is less than a month away from tipping off, as we did last year, we have decided to re-rank the 23 best players who are under 23 years old.

But why 23? Well, it is not just because that was the number worn by Michael Jordan. Typically, NBA publications rank 25 players under 25 years old. You can read versions of that here, here, and here. I wanted to try out a similar thought experiment but with a new twist.

By the time NBA players are 25 years old, many have already graduated to their second contract and are in vastly different chapters of their careers than the league’s young players. It is harder to compare players like Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum, who will each earn more than $30 million next season, to players on rookie scale contracts.

The following rankings, meanwhile, are based predominantly on how we see NBA projections for next season. It is not as predictive of their future success or their potential in the league.

NOTE: For this exercise, all players included must be born after Oct. 24, 2000. 

Ranking the Top 10 big men for Team USA if Joel Embiid declines invitation to Paris Olympics in 2024

Anthony Davis is the top option but there are some interesting sleepers, too.

After shockingly failing to medal during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Team USA has lots of questions to answer before the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

One of the reasons why Team USA struggled to even earn a bronze medal was due to a lack of size in the frontcourt. They struggled on the defensive end of the floor and had a massive deficiency when it came to rebounding the ball.

This is a team that will need legitimate big men in order to compete with tough international talent in the post such as Serbia’s Nikola Jokic as well as France’s Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.

Team USA head coach Steve Kerr was asked about what changes may come before the Olympics and he mentioned that the team needed to have very specific intentions when it came to the types of big men they would target for the roster (via The Athletic):

“I think it’s a worthwhile point of discussion, but the discussion has to go to, ‘OK, then who is that?” […] “You can’t just say, we’re going to have size for size’s sake. You have to have players who are going to help you win, and you have to determine who those guys are. It’s not just the size, it’s the way the game is played. […] But I don’t think it’s as simple as saying it’s just size. I think you have to examine who you’re talking about if you go down that path.”

Of course, the first name that comes to mind is Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. He could join the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, who helped lead Team USA to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta after he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

The six-time All-Star is an international free agent who is eligible to play for Team Cameroon (after they clinched a spot to compete in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament) as well as Team France and Team USA.

Team USA managing director Grant Hill said Embiid “knows our desire” to have him on the team. According to Brian Windhorst, however, it’s too early to assume that the league’s reigning MVP will decide to actually suit up for the Americans at the 2024 Olympics in Paris (via ESPN):

“Team USA has done some recruiting of Joel Embiid, who holds both United States and French citizenship, but the Philadelphia 76ers star has thus far been noncommittal.”

So if Team USA is not able to successfully recruit Embiid, here are the other top options that they could consider:

USC basketball star Onyeka Okongwu enters play-in drama with Hawks vs Heat

Okongwu has made himself into a productive NBA player. Now we get to see him in a play-in game vs the Miami Heat.

The first game of the NBA play-in tournament is the Atlanta Hawks facing the Miami Heat in South Florida. The Hawks are the eighth-place team going aginst the seventh-place Heat. The winner of this game moves on to face the 2-seed Boston Celtics, who are the reigning NBA Eastern Conference champions.

The Hawks have former USC star Onyeka Okongwu, who is no stranger to the playoffs.

Okongwu is in his third season in the league after going sixth overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. He has produced career-high marks across the board this year. Okongwu is averaging 9.99 points per game with 7.2 boards while playing 23 minutes per game, all of which are the best averages of his career to date.

With the Hawks’ play-in spot secured on Sunday, Okongwu got the start against the Celtics in the regular-season finale and scored 10 points with 9 rebounds and a 3-pointer.

Okongwu has 23 career playoff appearances, although he played sparingly during his first year with the Hawks in their run to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

Last year, the Hawks lost to this same Heat team in the first round, so perhaps there is a little revenge on their minds.

With the Heat deploying Bam Adebayo, Okongwu could be used quite a bit in this game with a lot at stake.

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Re-ranking the 23 best NBA players under 23 years old, with a new star emerging at No. 1

None of these guys have even had their Jordan Year yet??

The next generation of NBA stars is incredibly promising, and many of them are still young enough to be undergraduate students in college.

Now that the NBA’s 2022-23 season is more than halfway done, we’ve decided to re-rank the 23 best players who are under 23 years old. But why 23? Well, it is not just because that was the number worn by Michael Jordan.

Typically, NBA publications rank 25 players under 25 years old. You can read versions of that here, here, and here. I wanted to try a similar thought experiment, but U25 was too much of a challenge because it is such a wide population.

By the time NBA players are 25 years old, many have already graduated to their second contract and are in vastly different chapters of their careers than the league’s young players. It is harder to compare players like Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum, who will each earn more than $30 million next season, to players on rookie scale contracts.

This story was originally published before the season began, and you can see each player’s previous ranking below their name.

For this exercise, all players included must be born after Feb. 1, 2000. We chose that date because the listed age on Basketball Reference is how old a player is on Jan. 31 of each season.

Additionally, the following rankings are based on performance so far this season, and it is not predictive of their future success or their potential in the league.

NOTE: That means players like Darius Garland (who was born on Jan. 26, 2000) and Cade Cunningham or Chet Holmgren (who are injured for the season) were excluded. 

Celtics swap Jaylen Brown for godfather offer from Atlanta Hawks in new B/R trade proposal

The author has an alternative proposal that is so sweet it would be hard to say no — but would the Hawks even offer it?

Given that star Boston Celtics small forward Jaylen Brown happens to hail from the greater Atlanta, Georgia area, we understand why he is so often a focal point for fake trades to the Atlanta Hawks.

But we would think that by now analysts would take the Celtics organization at their word that they have no intention of trading the Marrietta native to another team any time soon. Still, the lingering effects of Boston’s uneven play makes the team — and Brown — constant fodder for trade proposal articles like a recent piece from Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes specifically created to focus on such unlikely-to-move-players.

Even the biggest fans of Brown on and off the court have to admit that there are packages the team ought to say yes to, even if it is unlikely the Celtics ever see such an offer in the short term future.

Lonzo, LiAngelo, LaMelo Ball likely to team up in Drew League contest

For the first time since their Chino Hills days, Lonzo, LaMelo and LiAngelo may be teaming up together in the Drew League this summer.

The 2015-16 Chino Hills basketball team will likely go down as one of the best high school teams ever. On top of a perfect 35-0 season and a state title in California, the lineup featured three future top-6 NBA draft picks in Lonzo and LaMelo Ball and Onyeka Okongwu as well as Eli Scott and LiAngelo Ball, both who received Division I scholarships.

That group of players, though, only played together for one season with Lonzo graduating following the unbeaten season. A chance to reunite that group, then, is an exciting proposition that may come to fruition this summer.

During his house tour for SLAM, LiAngelo revealed the potential plan to team up with his brothers, and potentially Scott and Okongwu, in the Drew League this summer.

“I’m going to be playing in the Drew League with my brothers. That’s going to be exciting. That’s going to be a show. Damn near our whole high school team, for real. Me, Melo, Zo, Eli (Scott). (Onyeka Okongwu) might play. It’s going to be fun, just all grown up now and coming back together so I’m excited to see what’s going to happen but I know it’s going to be a show for sure.”

Big Baller Brand does have a team in the Drew League this season which is comprised at least partly of players from the now-defunct JBA. LaMelo and Lonzo were spotted in attendance during last week’s games.

Having the three brothers play together seems like a very plausible scenario, especially considering LaVar has spent time as the coach of the BBB team. Scott, who is entering his final season at Loyola Marymount, could also rather easily get clearance.

The one hangup would be Okongwu, who is currently playing in the Eastern Conference finals. The Drew League season typically runs into August, which means the NBA season would end but the turnaround would be quick for Okongwu to join a Drew League contest.

Having all three brothers team up again would be a fun proposition regardless whether Scott and Okongwu join. After a year off, the Drew League could really be heating up again.

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Hawks’ Onyeka Okongwu caps rookie year with career high in finale

Okongwu finished off the regular season with his best performance of the year to help lead the Hawks to a victory over the Rockets.

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On Sunday, rookie Onyeka Okongwu finished the regular season with his best performance of the year to help lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 124-95 victory over the Houston Rockets.

Okongwu, who earned the start in place of Clint Capela, produced a career-high 21 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks for his second double-double of the season. He finished by converting 10-of-13 shots from the field.

“I thought he was solid tonight,” Hawks interim head coach Nate McMillan said. “(Kelly) Olynyk is a tough cover; he did a good job of staying in front of him, rebounding the basketball (and) finishing in the paint. He was a really good two-way player for us. It was good to be able to get him meaningful minutes this last game before going into the playoffs.”

The performance concluded a bit of a strange season for Okongwu.

Of course, he missed the first 10 games of the season due to a foot injury and played sparingly prior to the All-Star break. He saw a larger role with the Hawks after the All-Star break, averaging 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in 34 games played.

His seven games in double figures came after the All-Star break.

“It has gone by so fast,” Okongwu said. “I can’t believe our season is over. I feel like I just played my first game against Utah. Overall, just being able to be more aggressive, confident and get used to playing with my teammates coming into this year with a new coach, new teammates. No one really knew how I played, so just getting acclimated to everything was big for me.”

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With seeding locked up for the Hawks, the team opted to give other players playing time in an effort to limit the minutes for Trae Young, John Collins and others. Okongwu responded in his expanded role and offered a glimpse of his potential.

Okongwu may not see many minutes during the playoffs, but the performance on Sunday will certainly give him a nice confidence boost should his number be called.

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

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Cam Oliver double-double leads Rockets in season-ending loss at Atlanta

Oliver had 10 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks, but it wasn’t nearly enough for the short-handed Rockets versus the playoff-bound Hawks.

The severely short-handed Rockets played hard over the final weeks of the 2020-21 regular season, including Friday’s upset win over the Los Angeles Clippers, but they finally seemed to run out of steam in Sunday’s 124-95 loss (box score) at Atlanta. The Hawks (41-31) are headed to the playoffs as the East’s No. 5 seed, while Houston (17-55) ends the year with the NBA’s worst record for the first time since 1982-83.

DJ Augustin and Armoni Brooks led Houston with 18 points apiece, including four 3-pointers by Augustin and six by Brooks. Kelly Olynyk scored 16, while big man Cam Oliver had his first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. He also blocked three shots.

Atlanta had eight players in double figures, led by Onyeka Okongwu’s 21 points (76.9% FG) and 14 rebounds. All-Star guard Trae Young had 10 points, 9 assists, and 2 steals in limited playing time of 16 minutes.

Here’s a sampling of highlights, postgame reaction, and analysis from Sunday’s loss. The NBA’s play-in tournament for the 2021 playoffs will begin Tuesday, with the playoffs officially starting Saturday.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVkgdNVQjDQ

Anthony Edwards, Onyeka Okongwu among rookies to sign with Adidas

The No. 1 overall pick headlines the group of rookies from the 2020 NBA draft class to sign endorsement deals with Adidas.

No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards headlines the group of rookies from the 2020 NBA draft class to sign endorsement contracts with Adidas, according to Nick DePaula of ESPN.

In addition to Edwards, Atlanta Hawks forward Onyeka Okongwu, Milwaukee Bucks forward Jordan Nwora, Chicago Bulls guard Devon Dotson and Brooklyn Nets forward Reggie Perry will also join Adidas this season.

Edwards was seen at one point during the preseason wearing Nike, but eventually made the switch over to Adidas while the rest of the rookies have each been seen wearing the three stripes throughout the season.

The group of rookies join a talented roster of players at Adidas, featuring the likes of James Harden, Damian Lillard, Derrick Rose and Donovan Mitchell among others.

The news of signings come amidst a slow period for endorsement deals this year, especially among the rookie class. Apparel companies are said to be scaling things back a bit this year due to a variety of factors, most notably because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Outside of Edwards and Okongwu signing with Adidas, LaMelo Ball is the only other top-five pick to have inked an endorsement deal. Ball signed with PUMA over the offseason, joining the likes of Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III and Kyle Kuzma among others.

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

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