Darius Bazley Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: F
Born: 06/12/00
Height: 6-8 / 2.03
Weight:200 lbs. / 90.7 kg.
Salary: $2,284,800
Born: 06/12/00
Height: 6-8 / 2.03
Weight:200 lbs. / 90.7 kg.
Salary: $2,284,800
Brandon Rahbar: Chris Paul on Darius Bazley: “Hes so talented. To see his growth has been really impressive.” CP3 says Bazley’s shooting has been the thing he’s been most impressed with.
Brandon Rahbar: Bazley on Chris Paul’s mentorship: “Chris has been a plus on and off the court. He has so much knowledge. Just watching Chris, he’s influenced me. Taking away leadership skills from him.”
Brandon Rahbar: Darius Bazley says he’s 100% healthy. He worked on his shooting mechanics during shut down.
Erik Horne: Darius Bazley (right knee) said he’s 100 percent ready to play. Bazley hasn’t played since Feb. 9: “I’ve been ready since we didn’t know if there was going to be a season or not.” Bazley said he’s been working on his shooting mechanics during the stoppage.
Marc Stein: Nine who secured these all-you-can-get deals, which pay out 90-plus percent of their 2019-20 salaries by April 1, are represented by Klutch Sports on contracts structured and negotiated by agent Rich Paul and attorney Mark Termini. The nine Klutch players are naturally led by LeBron James and include John Wall, Kentavious-Caldwell Pope, Dejounte Murray, Miles Bridges, Darius Bazley, Darius Garland, Terrance Ferguson and Trey Lyles. Next season it will be 10 when Draymond Green’s contract extension kicks in.
Darius Bazley enlisted the help of Thunder teammates Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a dance video on TikTok. Bazley and Gilgeous-Alexander started off by dancing with Paul making a brief cameo at the end.
Harrison Faigen: LeBron just told a hilarious story about having Darius Garland and Darius Bazley over in the summer, and how they ended up hanging out with his kids. When they were leaving one (LeBron wouldn’t specify who) called his wife “Auntie Savannah,” which she apparently didn’t like. “She didn’t particularly like that, because my wife, she’s been 21 for the last 20 years.” He added that they had a laugh about it because they clearly meant it out of respect, but it made him realize how much younger than him the league is getting.
Erik Horne: Danilo Gallinari is listed as out against the Bucks with left ankle soreness. Thunder will be playing plenty of small ball, which they’ve survived with in the second unit, but not to start or close games since Darius Bazley’s injury.
Erik Horne: Billy Donovan said Darius Bazley is making “significant progress,” in his rehab from a right knee bone bruise, but Thunder is staying on plan of 4-6 weeks. Bazley suffered the injury Feb. 9 against Boston: “Everything they’ve put him through, he’s responded really well to.”
Maddie Lee: Injury update: Darius Bazley (right knee bone bruise) will be re-evaluated in 4-6 weeks, per the Thunder.
Before Oklahoma faced LSU in the Peach Bowl Saturday, Thunder rookie Darius Bazley made a bold prediction. “I got Oklahoma winning it all,” read a post on his verified Twitter account Saturday morning.
On Saturday afternoon. Bazley dug in his heels. ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins, who played for the Thunder in 2010-2015, tweeted his support for LSU and Ohio State. Bazley quote-tweeted Perkins’s post with the response, “Nah nah nah. OU All the way Perk.” Perkins upped the ante, suggesting they put a “friendly $500” on it. Bazley accepted the bet via Twitter.
Erik Horne: Donovan on Darius Bazley’s opportunity with Danilo Gallinari out: “He’s gonna have to go through some of this stuff in order to learn, grow. There’s going to be some ups and downs but the biggest thing for me is he’s competing and playing with really good energy and motor.”
Days before all of this, he chartered a flight that brought 21-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Bazley with him to Los Angeles a day ahead of the rest of the team. The introductions to CEOs, the private planes, the diet tips — it’s all a part of what Paul is bringing to the Thunder. “He’s been as available as you can get,” Bazley told The Times. “He’s like a 24-hour convenience store — anything you want to know, anything you want to ask, anything you might need help with, he’s there for you to try to help you.”
Erik Horne: Final: Thunder 115, Pelicans 104. Thunder finally wins a tight game, holding the Pelicans to four points in the final 4:03. SGA 23-8-4 Schroder 17-9-2 Bazley 17 p, 5 r Gallinari 16 p, 4 r Paul 15-1-9 Diallo 12-5-1
Thunder coach Billy Donovan warned that Bazley, like all young players, will have ups and downs during the season. OKC saw that with Hamidou Diallo in his rookie year last season. Diallo was averaging 5.4 points in 12.7 minutes per game through December, but as opposing teams got to know his tendencies better, Diallo fell out of the rotation. That’s normal. “He’s experiencing a lot of different things,” Donovan said of Bazley. “My biggest thing for him is, as he learns and grows and gets better and has some success, he needs to stay really, really humble. … And he’s got to stay eager to work and eager to learn. He’s got all the challenges, the difficulties, the adversities that come with being a young player. He’s going to have to have the resiliency to work through those things. If he keeps that kind of attitude, he’s going to really improve.”
Erik Horne: Terrance Ferguson, 21, said he had to play veteran to rookie Darius Bazley, 19, last night in the Thunder’s preseason opener. “He was like ‘Bro, I’m nervous.’” pic.twitter.com/JCKdUKgFbJ
On the other side of Bazley’s internship, the Thunder selected the 19-year-old forward No. 23 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. “I feel like without me going through that internship,” Bazley told The Oklahoman, “without me having to live on my own, without me having to balance that crazy schedule, I wouldn’t be the person I am now. And I wouldn’t be ready for the position that I’m in now, that I’m about to step into.”
By the end of their first meeting, Bazley too saw that connection. He remembers telling his agent, Klutch Sports founder Rich Paul, “I want to sign, I want to sign, I want to sign.” According to Bazley, Paul responded, “Be patient.” Just a few meetings in, Bazley was prepared to officially put pen to paper. That’s when New Balance presented their vision for the internship.
The Thunder are hoping some of that greatness will rub off on Bazley as he joins a suddenly rebuilding team led — for the time being — by another member of James’ inner circle, Chris Paul. Bazley got off to a delayed start with the Thunder this summer, as he’d been officially drafted by the Utah Jazz, then had to wait to make his Las Vegas Summer League debut as a backlog of agreed-upon trades got processed in a particular order. “His ability to handle the ball at his size is really, really unique, and defensively he’s got great range for a young player at that size, as well,” Thunder GM Sam Presti said. “It’s going to be a process with him. We’ll have to be patient. We understand that. But at that range of the draft, to be able to get a player that has those ball-handling skills at 6-foot-9 is pretty unique.”
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