President Barack Obama isn’t the only one in Washington who can’t pronounce Giannis Antetokounmpo.
After the Wizards’ 107-101 win over the Bucks yesterday, Washington forward Kelly Oubre Jr. took his shot.
Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic:
After stammering a couple times, Oubre settled for the Greek Freak’s first name – but pronounced it Jee-an-iss.
It’s actually Yahn-iss.
Dallas is excited about the potential of Jalen Brunson.
The point guard who led Villanova to a national championship last April fell to the 33rd pick in the draft last June, high in the second round, and Dallas traded up a spot to get him from Atlanta. The Mavericks were ecstatic, and to the surprise of nobody they have reached terms on a contract with him.
What is a bit of a surprise is the Mavericks gave him a first-rounder style contract — four years with some guaranteed money for the first three of them — reports Shams Charania of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports.
At Summer League in Las Vegas Brunson showed the qualities that Dallas liked in him — he’s a high IQ player with polish, and he’s a pass-first floor general — but his weaknesses were also exposed. He has to shoot better (23 percent in Summer League) and his defense needs to improve.
Both of those can happen, Summer League is more of a chance for teams to benchmark players than make decisions about them. Brunson reportedly has a great work ethic, he can figure the NBA game out.
Dallas is betting that he will.
Kemba Walker is an All-Star level point guard who is heading into a contract season — he is a free agent in 2019. Walker is also a New York native, born in the Bronx he attended Rice High School in Harlem.
Combine all that with the fact both the Knicks and Nets will have enough cap space for a max (or more than one max) contract next summer, and you’ve got yourself a rumor.
One Walker shot down talking to Michael Scotto of The Athletic.
“As far as seeing me in New York, I doubt it,” Walker replied. “I’m a Hornet, and I’m planning on being a Hornet for a long time, so, yeah, I’m not sure about that (New York).”
Walker has said many times he wants to stay in Charlotte (providing they pay the market rate and are trying to compete).
That said, this is the NBA, so never say never.
A lot of NBA teams have been poised, waiting to see if new Hornets’ GM Mitch Kupchak — with the approval of Michael Jordan — decided to go full rebuild and trade Walker this summer. He has not, talking only about keeping this squad together. The Hornets are a solid team with Walker and Nicolas Batum leading the way, one that could make the playoffs in the East if things break right for new coach James Borrego. However, they will not be anywhere near contenders and if things don’t fall their way they may well miss the playoffs next season. Again. The Hornets also are not a bad team, meaning they are not going to get a high pick (without some lottery luck). They are stuck in the NBA’s middle ground, a place most GMs want to avoid.
Trading Walker could jump-start the rebuild in Charlotte, but the Hornets don’t seem to be going that direction. Yet. This summer they signed Tony Parker, Malik Monk looked good in Summer League, and they got Dwight Howard out of the locker room. They say they are a team poised to make a playoff push.
If that push falls apart early in Charlotte, watch and see if their plans change. And what that could mean for Walker. And the Knicks.
However, as of now, Walker wants to remain a Hornet, and they want to keep him. Which crowds New York out of the picture.
The analytics movement is not dead in Philadelphia.
The Sixers are still searching for a new general manager to replace Bryan Colangelo (who had to resign in the wake of a Twitter scandal), and the rumors have always been about the big guns. David Griffin, the former Cleveland GM inexplicably let go by that franchise, is a name that kept coming up.
But the home of “The Process” wanted to jump back into the analytics waters and try to land the Rockets’ Dayrl Morey, the face of the NBA’s analytics movement. That was shot down, reports Marc Stein of the New York Times.
The Sixers are swinging for the fences right now — they met with LeBron James in free agency, they have tried to get in on the Kawhi Leonard trade sweepstakes, they wanted to meet with Paul George — and landing Morey fits in that mold. Philadelphia already has Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid in house, and feels they are on the verge of contention for years, but that they need one more piece. Morey is not that piece, but the guy who traded for James Harden and Chris Paul in Houston could get someone to come to Philly.
Morey is happy in Houston, however, and he’s staying put.
Instead, the Sixers search will continue. In the interim, coach Brett Brown is filling in a dual role (and doing a solid job, but with the recent run of struggles for teams that had a coach filling both positions it’s unlikely they keep this arrangement long term).
Antoine Griezmann was one of the stars for France’s World Cup victory — he scored on a penalty kick against Croatia in the Final, helping France to the 4-2 win. He had four goals over the course of the tournament, all scored with his left foot. The Atlético Madrid star is one of the world’s great strikers.
And he is a MASSIVE Derrick Rose fan.
How big? Not long after winning the World Cup, he interrupted an English interview with Paul Pogba to express his Derrick Rose love.
Griezmann may be a bigger Rose fan than Tom Thibodeau… nah, not possible. But Griezmann is second on the list.
This is not some out-of-the-blue joke. Griezmann has said before he would only leave Madrid to play with Rose, and back in 2013 called Rose his No. 1 idol.
The Timberwolves need to get that man a Rose jersey fast.
