Guerschon Yabusele signs in China
Zhang Duo: Guerschon Yabusele has officially signed with Nanjing Monkey Kings in China. pic.twitter.com/hiNj1bYGys
Storyline: Guerschon Yabusele Free Agency
10 rumors in this storyline
More Rumors in this Storyline
Guerschon Yabusele to China
French forward Guerschon Yabusele has agreed to terms with Chinese side Nanjing Tongxi Basketball, a source told Sportando. Yabusele has been waived early last month by the Boston Celtics and will return to China, where he played in 2016-17 for the Shanghai Sharks.
Mark Murphy: Celtics keeping options open re: Tacko Fall and his training camp contract. With Yabu gone, extra roster spot gives flexibility that can be used in variety of ways.
The Celtics have until Wednesday to make decisions on three players’ futures. Two are dead-lock certainties. One is not. While the club will clearly be exercising their 2019-20 options on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the call on Guerschon Yabusele is more complicated. Tatum will get his third-year slot of $7,830,000 next season and Brown will get his fourth-year number, $6,534,829. The Celtics aren’t letting either get out of their sight.
And even though Yabusele’s third-year guarantee would be for a relatively modest $3,117,240, the real dollars are much greater. The club would be committing more than double that because of the luxury tax implications. And at present, Yabusele isn’t part of the main rotation and doesn’t figure to get there without injuries or roster moves that open playing time. It’s possible the Celts could decline the option and sign Yabusele to a more team-friendly deal next summer. But if the C’s pass now, the Dancing Bear will be an unrestricted free agent — and if he shows something this season, he could be wanted elsewhere. What’s more, if there is demand, Boston would be able to start a new deal at an amount no higher than what it declined. If the option is picked up, the process will play out again at this time next season, when a call will have to be made on $4,781,846 for 2020-21.
But he’s not concerning himself with that just now. “I would love to be back here with the team,” Yabusele said. “The Celtics are a great organization, so if I have a chance to be back here, I would love to do that.”
February 16, 2020 | 9:02 pm EST Update
Anthony Chiang: Jimmy Butler with a loud ovation from the United Center crowd when introduced. Butler spent first six NBA seasons with Bulls.
Jamal Crawford: Common is killing this. I got tears all over again with this Kobe part.
February 16, 2020 | 8:25 pm EST Update
Nick Kosmider: Nikola Jokic goofing around with James Harden pregame and then showed The Beard the Sombor Shuffle, adding a turnaround fadeaway twist. It splashed, of course.
February 16, 2020 | 7:58 pm EST Update
Bulls looking for a new GM?
According to several NBA executives, the Bulls have started the early stages of adding a new face to the front office, with the position defined as a general manager “with a louder voice.’’ One executive did say that the talks the Bulls have had with candidates have been through back channels, with no formal interviews taking place, but the search is believed to be wide-spread.
This would be in-line with a Sun-Times report back in November, in which the newspaper wrote that general manager Gar Forman’s job security was taking on water, with the organization’s senior advisor Doug Collins the loudest voice in a needed change. Collins has never been a big fan of Foreman’s, starting with questioning Forman for the hiring of Fred Hoiberg.
The hope for Paxson is this new hire will take over the media duties, allowing him to slip into the background. As for Forman, he is not expected to be fired, but reassigned into a scouting position, as the team is also looking to build up that department. The Bulls have long been known for having a small scouting department, and they plan on an expansion this spring.
Jared Dudley: Will be done next December! Best teams will play each other.. will help the ratings! Big money prize for the top 2 teams in the finals
Darius Garland has already made a substantial splash during his rookie season in Cleveland. The Cavaliers’ point guard of the future is also making a statement in the sports memorabilia industry after signing a deal with Upper Deck for exclusive autographed memorabilia and collectibles.
February 16, 2020 | 6:53 pm EST Update
Amid the controversial yet inconsequential finish of the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, the league veered from the rules to determine Saturday’s winner. Instead of letting the judges vote for either Orlando’s Aaron Gordon or Miami’s Derrick Jones Jr. after the first dunk of the dunk-off in the final round, the NBA allowed Gordon and Jones to attempt a second dunk-off dunk, which isn’t in the rules.
But because Gordon and Jones were putting on a show, the league decided to add another dunk to the dunk-off. And that’s where Jones edged Gordon 48-47 for the title. “With Derrick and Aaron displaying such extraordinary creativity and execution, giving the fans another round of dunks from these two incredible athletes was the appropriate way to break the tie,” NBA senior vice president of league operations communications Tim Frank told USA TODAY Sports.
What should have happened, according to the original rules: After Gordon and Jones were tied after the one-dunk dunk-off, the five judges (Scottie Pippen, Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker, Common and Chadwick Boseman) should have selected their winner and the player with the most votes named the dunk champion.
Christian Yelich wasted no time getting from the NBA dunk contest to the Milwaukee Brewers spring training complex. On Saturday night, the 2018 National League most valuable player was a willing accomplice to the Bucks’ Pat Connaughton as he competed with three others in the annual mid-season dunk competition in Chicago. After taking a private plane overnight, there he was, bright and early Sunday morning, in the Brewers’ clubhouse at American Family Fields of Phoenix.
“It was fun; it was a great night,” Yelich said of his first NBA all-star experience. “I really enjoyed it. Pat did a great job and I’m thankful that he invited me and let me be a part of it. I thought he deserved a little higher score there on that first dunk but he still put on a heck of a show and did a great job.”
Asked if he were nervous about Connaughton jumping over him, Yelich said, “No, I didn’t have anything to be nervous about on that one. I was just standing there trying to keep still and hold the ball the right way, so I didn’t mess it up for him. It was cool. There was great energy in the stadium. For him to do it right on the first try, it was fun to watch. If he made it farther, I would have had a little bit more responsibility on another one.”
February 16, 2020 | 3:51 pm EST Update
The Spurs explored trading Carroll, but the Feb. 6 league deadline for teams to broker deals passed without any movement. Asked if he was surprised a trade didn’t happen, Carroll said, “Yeah, but no. Me being 33 and being in the league 11, 12 years, I know the NBA. If you really want to trade somebody, the biggest thing you have to do is maybe show their value, play them a little bit. Not playing really hurt my value a lot. It got a lot of teams probably second-guessing and saying, ‘Is he hurt? Is something wrong with him?’ ”
Asked if a buyout is a possibility, a tricky situation given how much money remains on his contract, Carroll said he visited with his agent, Mark Bartelstein, in Chicago during All-Star Weekend. “He is handling that,” Carroll said. “Him and (Spurs general manager) Brian (Wright) and all of them. I don’t know what direction we are going to go. But at the end of the day, at 33, I don’t want to waste my talents just sitting at the end of the bench, knowing I could help a team produce.”
Make no mistake: The 11th-year pro isn’t ready to retire. “Another opportunity will come for me,” said Carroll, 33. “San Antonio, I don’t know where (it went wrong), what happened, what the hiccup was. But, at the end of the day, I am totally healthy. I work out every day, twice a day. When that opportunity comes, I will be ready to take advantage of it.”
Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who is the Quicken Loans founder and chairman, is slowly returning to work eight months after he had a stroke. Gilbert, 58, returned to his Detroit office early this year. He’s there one or two days a week, using a wheelchair and accompanied by a service dog named Cowboy. He also spends three or four hours a day working with physical and occupational therapists at his home.
“When you have a stroke, here’s the problem with it: Everything is hard. Everything,” Gilbert told Crain’s Detroit Business in his first interview since the stroke. “Like, you wake up, getting out of bed is hard, going to the bathroom is hard, sitting down eating at a table is hard. You name it. You don’t get a break. You’re, like, trapped in your own body.”
Gilbert said he had a blood clot in his carotid artery that was cutting off the blood supply to his brain. Doctors implanted seven stents inside his carotid artery to open the blood vessel. “If that artery was blocked more minutes than it was, it would have been much worse,” Gilbert said. Gilbert spent eight weeks at a rehabilitation center in Chicago last summer. He is able to walk with a cane but still struggles to move his left arm.
February 16, 2020 | 2:52 pm EST Update
Marc Stein: More on @usabasketball heading into the Tokyo Olympics: China’s coronavirus crisis obviously creates a new potential obstacle to the two games it hoped to play there in July. USAB will name its 12-man roster in June and hold a domestic training camp in early July — all else TBD
Joe Ingles: Excited to be flying to Chicago to watch my guys @Rudy Gobert & @Donovan Mitchell play tonight. 6 years with Rudy & 3 with Don, great teammates & they both deserve this! Glad I can be there to watch their dreams come true! *Only nice tweet going to them for a long time, save it.
Australian basketball player Patrick ‘Patty’ Mills has used his week-long holiday to fly home to help bushfire victims. The San Antonio Spurs champion travelled to bushfire-ravaged country towns in New South Wales over the weekend. Mills, who is originally from Canberra, donated supplies with money from his own pocket and spoke with locals who lost everything.
‘Today was heavy,’ the 31-year-old wrote on Saturday as he documented his experience on Twitter. ‘We visited three country towns in New South Wales, massively affected by the wildfires. In Mogo, a small heritage town on the South Coast of NSW, we gave back to locals who have lost their homes, businesses and schools. Generators, torches, portable stoves, batteries, water, non-perishables: In addition to funds, these are some of the items that the impacted communities need. Now, more than ever, these people need our business. Support local.’
How Kenny Smith became more interested in a front office position was through one of the most shrewd and respected executives in the modern NBA, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri. “He called me one day,” Smith said Thursday in Chicago at the House Of Blues, “and I didn’t know him,”
It was last season during Toronto’s championship run, Smith said, that Ujiri hit him up with a fascinating proposal. “He was like ‘hey man, do you mind if I mentor you’” Smith said, “because I think you’d be good at this.’”
Whether or not the 54-year-old Smith ever ends up leaving Inside The NBA for a managerial role, he clearly has the desire for it. And though he didn’t take up the offer to be mentored, at least this time, that’s what made last season’s unprompted phone call from Ujiri so shocking to him. “I always had the aspiration,” Smith said, “but to have a guy like that call you out of the blue, not even knowing what my aspirations were? That was intriguing.”
February 16, 2020 | 12:23 pm EST Update
“Shoutout to P.J., though he just got — I think they guaranteed his last year. He needs an extension. That’s all the man want. The man play every night and can’t get an extension.” Tucker is not eligible for a contract extension until July.
That was the thinking that convinced Mugar to adopt the Elam Ending for his league. “I’m so convinced that it’s the future of basketball,” he said. Mugar said he attributes a 17 percent bump in the tournament’s TV ratings at least in part to the introduction of the Elam Ending. He said he thinks fans are texting other fans to tell them to tune into fun games that are winding down.
One person that’s become a fan of the Elam Ending is Chris Paul, the veteran NBA point guard now with the Oklahoma City Thunder and current players union president. He said he’s a huge TBT fan and in 2019 coached a squad in the tournament for the first time. “For me, a guy who thinks about strategy, as I started watching the games more and more, every game had to have a game-winning shot. You couldn’t just foul. It got exciting,” he said. “In this format (for the All-Star Game), I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and an unbelievable tribute to Kobe.”
Elam said he got the call from the NBA on Jan. 23, informing him that the league would be using a variation of his concept. “When they called me, my mind started to think about some possible ways that the All-Star Game might end – a LeBron James dunk or James Harden three,” he said. Elam also said he’s heard from sportsbooks about prop bets planned for the game – they’re going to take wagers on who will hit the final shot that gets the winning team to the target score. “That will become one of the most popular prop bets in all of sports,” Elam said.
And yet as Indiana Pacers leaders converged on the windy city to wrap up their final leg of homework this weekend before Indy hosts the All-Star Game next year, they couldn’t help but remember all those 35 years ago. “We had some great parties, got through six inches of snow,” said Rick Fuson, who was the Indiana Pacers’ operational lead for the 1985 NBA All-Star Game in the Hoosier Dome. “But we want this time around to be an All-Star game like none the NBA has ever seen.”
Larry Bird was one of the the city’s biggest advocates for an NBA All-Star Game return. The last time Indy hosted, Bird played in the game representing the Boston Celtics. “Back in 1985, there wasn’t nearly as much to it,” said Bird, now a consultant with the Pacers front office, after the city landed the event. “Now, the All-Star game is a spectacle. Every venue we have Downtown will be full. People will be excited, I think it will be fantastic. We’re going to put on a great show.”
Plans to re-create a fan experience like the city saw when it hosted the 2012 Super Bowl are already in the works, said Fuson. “If it’s weather that is 20 degrees and sunny, people will shoot baskets,” he said. “And they’ll drink a beer and have a cocktail. We’ve proven that before and it will happen again.” Downtown, well, it will look so different from what it did in 1985. “I remember in the late ’70s when I used to come Downtown at 9 o’clock when there was no place to eat, not many people walking around downtown,” said Bird. “This city has come a long way in the last 30 years. I’m very proud of it. I know a lot of residents are, too.” Fuson said all 6,700 hotel rooms Downtown will be used for the event next year.
Pau Gasol talked about the tragic death of Kobe Bryant and looked back on being friends and teammates with the Lakers and NBA legend. “Once you slowly get over the void and the sadness and the pain you start looking at what he has left us. He was a guy who gave his best to whatever he did. He didn’t accept failure. He worked the hardest to be the best at what he did.
Pau Gasol: “You can see how now – after basketball, after his career – he was sharing all those values, all that knowledge to inspire the younger generations. To share the messages of ‘be the best that you can be’. ‘Dedicate yourself to your craft’.” If you are going to do something, do it to the best of your ability,” Gasol said about Bryant’s legacy in a video by the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association).
February 16, 2020 | 12:06 pm EST Update
Marcin Gortat announces his retirement
“I’m retiring, I’m finishing my basketball career”, Marcin Gortat said in an interview with TVP Info. “I thank all my supporters that were watching me, supporting me because it was very important to me”, emphatized Gortat, the only Polish in NBA history.
Marcin Gortat: “It’s time to end my career. I think this is the moment. I gave myself a year to see what life would bring me and it brought me the decision of retiring”.
The problem for Young is, his numbers on defense are also eye-popping. According to ESPN’s defensive real plus/minus scale, which is a player’s estimated on-court impact on defensive performance based on 100 possessions, Young ranks last of 490 players (-4.66). According to Basketball Index’s defensive box/plus minus scale, his -2.7 mark ranks among the league’s worst. “Defense is obviously an area I want to continue to get better at,” Young said. “But that’s all about an effort thing. Getting in better conditioning, better shape. That’s definitely an area I need to improve (individually). … One of our biggest struggles (as a team) this year has been on the defensive end and rebounding.”
