Tag: Raiquan Gray

Meet new San Antonio Spurs two-way player Raiquan Gray

Here are some Raiquan Gray highlights, one of the newest two-way players for the San Antonio Spurs.

The San Antonio Spurs recently made a string of transactions to prep their roster for the latter portion of the season. They converted Dominick Barlow’s two-way contract to a standard deal, brought in Jamaree Bouyea on a two-way contract, and, on top of that, signed Raiquan Gray to a two-way deal as well.

Gray was already a part of the Spurs organization at large, as he has been playing with the Austin Spurs this year, San Antonio’s G League affiliate. The 6-foot-7 24-year-old forward has been having a great season in Austin and was rewarded with an upgraded contract with the big club.

For those who may not be familiar with Gray’s game, here are some highlights from one of his best games in Austin.

In 19 games (17 starts) in Austin this year, Gray has averaged 18.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.1 steals while shooting 63.2% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc (on just 0.9 three-point attempts per game).

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Brooklyn Nets waive forward RaiQuan Gray

Via their official Twitter account, the Brooklyn Nets announced on Tuesday that they have waived forward RaiQuan Gray.

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The Brooklyn Nets have gone through another phase of their offseason as they have finished the summer league portion of their summer. The Nets have made a good amount of moves this offseason to try to make their roster the best it possibly can for next season. Unfortunately, one of the players that participated on Brooklyn’s summer league team will not be with the team.

On Tuesday, the Nets announced on their own Twitter account that they waived forward RaiQuan Gray. Gray, 24, was on a Two-Way contract with Brooklyn since April of 2023 before he was waived by the organization on Tuesday.

Gray, the 59th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft by the Nets, did not have the best performance in the summer league and that may have been the reason for him being waived. In five games, Gray averaged 7.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 37.2% from the field and 23.1% from behind the three-point line.

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Nets’ RaiQuan Gray reacts to making NBA debut for Brooklyn

RaiQuan Gray dazzled in his NBA debut on Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers. Here’s his reaction to his performance.

NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets forward RaiQuan Gray has been with the organization for the past two seasons in some way, shape, or form. However, he has primarily been in the NBA G League honing his game for the day that he would get his opportunity to show what he can do on the big stage. Sunday was the time he was waiting for.

“Yeah, I mean, it was great,” Gray said after posting 16 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists in Sunday’s 134-105 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Brooklyn announced that they signed Gray to a two-way contract on Saturday and from there, he had to take a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida just to play for the Nets on Sunday. “I felt comfortable. I think I belong here. You know, these group of guys, I’ve been here in the summertime,” Gray continued. “So, I’m familiar with some of the faces, but it was good to get out there and experience that, you know? I think it’s like a dream come true. But, I felt comfortable, confident. So, trying to go out and play my game.”

Gray played 35 minutes in Sunday’s loss, but in the losing effort, he showed what he could do at the NBA level when given the playing time. It was already know that Gray could score at the rim and rebound the basketball, but Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn wanted to see more from Gray in terms of three-point shooting. Gray shot 2-of-5 (40%) from three-point land and as an added bonus, he dished out seven assists. Gray showed a lot against the 76ers and it may be something that the team looks forward to seeing in the Summer League and beyond.

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Nets’ Jacque Vaughn explains RaiQuan Gray’s value to the team

RaiQuan Gray is able to score and rebound, but Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn wants him to show off his three-point shooting ability from the forward spot.

NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn was in a great mood before Sunday’s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers. It was Easter Sunday and even though he wasn’t able to spend the entire holiday with his family, he was able to do something that should more than make up for that when it comes to his team. Vaughn gets to see what two-way player RaiQuan Gray has on Sunday.

“I think he had a great year this year in the G League,” Vaughn said about Gray’s performance in the G League for the team’s affiliate, the Long Island Nets. In 18 games, Gray averaged 15.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 57.8% from the field and 38.2% from three-point land. “You see him handle the basketball a little bit, able to rebound, high IQ guy who will be able to pass the basketball at his size, can handle that thing, really tried to push him to shoot threes, you know, this past summer,” Vaughn continued.

Gray was signed to a two-way deal on Saturday and now, he will have a chance to show how much he has improved on Sunday against NBA competition. The 6’7″, 269 LB forward out of Florida has always been able to score and rebound the basketball, but Vaughn has been looking for Gray to improve his long-range shooting ability in order for him to be able to help Brooklyn in the department.

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Brooklyn Nets sign forward RaiQuan Gray to two-way contract

RaiQuan Gray has signed a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets, the team announced on Saturday.

The Brooklyn Nets signed forward RaiQuan Gray to a two-way contract on Saturday, the team announced. This moves comes after the Brooklyn Nets signed guard David Duke Jr. to a standard NBA contract after being on a two-day deal. Gray, 23, was originally drafted by the Nets with the 59th pick in the 2021 Draft out of Florida State University.

Gray, standing at 6’8″ and 260 LBs, has been signed and waived by the Nets on two separate occasions over the course of his career. During his two seasons in the NBA, he has played mainly for the Nets’ G League squad, the Long Island Nets. In 2022-2023, Gray played 18 games for LIN and averaged 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per contest while shooting 57.8% from the field and 38.2% from three-point land.

With so many players for the Nets that have been ruled OUT or DOUBTFUL for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, it’s possible that Gray gets a look to see how he performs against NBA competition. Brooklyn is trying to keep their team as healthy as possible, while not showing their cards, for the matchup against the 76ers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

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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.

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 Mock Draft 4.0: Player comparisons and predicting all 60 picks

Who should the Houston Rockets select if they get the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft?

While fans are now enjoying the NBA postseason, there are several teams that didn’t make the playoffs with full attention on the draft.

Now that the regular season and play-in tournament are both complete, the order is set for picks No. 15 to No. 60. However, we will have to wait until the lottery on June 22.

For more details on odds for when each team in the lottery will be on the clock, you can read this post by our own Charles Curtis.

Meanwhile, we also have a pretty clear idea of which prospects have opted to declare for the 2021 NBA draft. But any stragglers still have until May 30 to make their decision in order to be eligible for draft consideration.

Scouts and executives around the league will have an even better feel for this class come June 21, when the combine begins in Chicago.

After that, all those who hired either NCAA-certified agents or do not already have any representation have until July 19 to decide if they wish to remain in the class and forego their collegiate eligibility or return to school.

Until then, however, this is how we predict the two rounds of the 2021 NBA draft will shake out: