Report: Lakers signing D-League MVP Vander Blue to partially guaranteed contract

By Dan FeldmanJul 29, 2017, 5:00 PM EDT

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Winning D-League MVP hasn’t exactly foretold NBA success. The full list:

Vander Blue
Jarnell Stokes
Tim Frazier
Ron Howard
Othyus Jeffers
Andrew Goudelock
Justin Dentmon
Curtis Stinson
Mike Harris
Courtney Sims
Kasib Powell
Randy Livingston
Marcus Fizer
Matt Carroll
Tierre Brown
Devin Brown
Ansu Sesay

Devin Brown and Matt Carroll are probably the high points.

The Lakers hope Vander Blue will follow in their footsteps.

Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports:

Sources: The Lakers and G League MVP and summer league guard Vander Blue have agreed on a partially guaranteed deal.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 29, 2017

Chris Reichert of 2 Ways & 10 Days:

https://twitter.com/Chris_Reichert/status/891350419347087362

Blue will be the Lakers’ 15th player on a standard contract, the regular-season maximum. They could always sign additional players to battle for that final regular-season roster spot – especially with Blue having such a small guarantee. That looks like an enticement to stay with the Lakers’ minor-league affiliate rather than take a higher-paying job overseas.

The Lakers’ shooting-guard depth won’t help Blue’s chances of sticking. They already have Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jordan Clarkson and Josh Hart. The Lakers might prefer to use that final spot on a third point guard to join Lonzo Ball and Tyler Ennis, though Clarkson can swing to the position.

The 25-year-old Blue is a fringe NBA player who has spent time with the Lakers and Celtics. He’s a good ball-handler who draws plenty of fouls, and he’s a fine jump-shooter. His non-scoring skills still need work.

It would be unsurprising to see him stick into the regular season or re-join the D-Fenders.

Scoot Henderson says he has skills to be No.1 pick but not hung up on it

By Kurt HelinOct 5, 2022, 4:51 PM EDT

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Scoot Henderson came out like a man on a mission Tuesday night against the Metropolitans 92 and Victor Wembanyama — he was in attack mode. He used his explosive athleticism to get to the rim, his impressive body control to get off good shots, and his strength to finish with authority. And if the defender played back, he would drain the jumper over him.

Scoot Henderson has BIG TIME GAME!

⚡️ 28 PTS | 5 REB | 9 AST pic.twitter.com/UZ0RiMznWs

— NBA (@NBA) October 5, 2022

A year ago, Jaylen Brown called him the best 17-year-old he’d ever seen. Scoot is better than that now.

Many years, Henderson would be a clear No.1 overall pick. But, not this year, Wembanyama has that crown because he breaks the mold with his size and skill set (in the NBA, height still wins out).

Kevin O’Conner of The Ringer asked Henderson why he should be the top prospect and got a confident answer.

“I can lead my team. I’m a vocal point guard. I’m gonna get stops on D.”

Scoot Henderson explains why he should be the no. 1 prospect to @KevinOConnorNBA. pic.twitter.com/FDCe5SzjnB

— RingerNBA (@ringernba) October 5, 2022

There will be a lot of people making the Henderson case this season — and with good reason. He could be a franchise cornerstone player for the next decade.

Henderson, however, is trying not to get hung up on No.1 vs. No.2.

Scoot Henderson on why he doesn’t feed into No. 1 vs. No. 2 talk with Victor Wembanyama: “I try to take nothing personal, actually. I read the book ‘The Four Agreements.’ I took that chapter and applied it to my life. … I don’t pay attention to that. I pay attention to winning.” pic.twitter.com/JYMlgllPTY

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) October 5, 2022

There’s a long list of legendary players selected No.2: Bill Russell, Kevin Durant, Jerry West, Jason Kidd, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Henderson can be one of them.

Unless Wembanyama’s medicals come back with red flags, he is destined to be the No.1 pick next June. That, however, will not be the end of Henderson’s story. Instead, it will be just the beginning.

Doc Rivers says he wants Harden to be ‘a scoring Magic Johnson’

By Kurt HelinOct 5, 2022, 1:07 PM EDT

Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

We’re not in Houston anymore.

James Harden in Philadelphia will not be chasing scoring titles and dominating the game in quite the same way. Instead, he’s been asked to be more of a facilitator — but not too much of one. Doc Rivers told the team at ESPN’s NBA Today he wants scoring to go with the facilitating. Just like one of the all-time greats.

“I think we’ve talked so much about him being a facilitator… I need him to be James Harden too. If I had to combine, I would say a scoring Magic Johnson, I don’t know, but that’s what I want him to be. I want him to be a James Harden, but in that, I want him to also be the facilitator of this basketball team too. So in a lot of ways, his role is growing bigger for our team, and I just want him to keep thinking, ‘Do both.'”

Just play like Magic, no pressure there. For his career, Magic averaged 19.5 points a game (with four over 20 PPG) with 11.2 assists.

Harden can get close enough to Rivers’ lofty goals to make Philly a real threat, so long as defenders still fear his first step and step back. Harden can get his shot and get to the line, and he’s long been a great passer who has averaged 10.5 assists a game over the past two seasons. Now it’s just a matter of finding the balance of when to set up Joel Embiid, when to turn the offense over to Tyrese Maxey, and when to get his own shot.

Philadelphia is a deep team poised to win a lot of regular season games — the Sixers being the top seed in the East is absolutely in play. The questions Harden — and, to a degree, Embiid — have to answer come in May, when the second round of the playoffs start and Harden has faded while Embiid has had poor injury luck. In a deep East with Milwaukee, Boston, and maybe Miami and Brooklyn in the contender mix, there is no margin for error.

A Magic-like Harden would be a big boost for the Sixers in that setting.

As he chases record, LeBron says he has ‘no relationship’ with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

By Kurt HelinOct 5, 2022, 11:00 AM EDT

Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

Later this season, health permitting, LeBron James will pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

Kareem has said LeBron has earned it, but also has called out LeBron on COVID issues (something Abdul-Jabbar apologized for). Have the two legends started to build a relationship as LeBron marches toward the record? Not so much.

“No thoughts, no relationship.”

"No thoughts. And no relationship"

LeBron on chasing Kareem’s scoring record and if they have a relationship pic.twitter.com/yls2c1DJgF

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 4, 2022

This question was asked of LeBron days after Abdul-Jabbar slammed former LeBron teammate Kyrie Irving in a Substack newsletter, calling him a “comical buffoon” and saying he is a poor role model. Abdul-Jabbar has been a vocal proponent of getting the vaccine, Irving remains unvaccinated, and LeBron has posted on social media questioning the severity of the virus and the response. Plus, LeBron and Irving are friends, which could have sparked LeBron’s terse response (as could the fact he was ready to get out of the arena after a dull preseason game).

A week earlier at media day, LeBron had been kinder when discussing Abdul-Jabbar and chasing his record.

“And you know, obviously Kareem has had his differences, with some of my views and some of the things that I do. But listen, at the end of the day, to be able to be right in the same breath as a guy to wear the same [Lakers] uniform, a guy that was a staple of this franchise along with Magic and Big Game [James Worthy] over there for so many years, especially in the 80s, and a guy that does a lot off the floor as well,” LeBron said. “I think it’s just super duper dope for myself to be even in that conversation.”

Abdul-Jabbar has been more of a public persona in recent years, both around the game of basketball and discussing social justice issues through his writings. The NBA named its new social justice award after him. With that has come new relationships around the league.

One of those is not with LeBron. Will Abdul-Jabbar be in the building when LeBron does break the record?

We’ve got months for this relationship to evolve — if it does — before that big day.

Watch Zion Williamson score 13 in return to court for Pelicans

By Kurt HelinOct 5, 2022, 9:22 AM EDT

Zion Williamson is back.

He certainly looked in better shape and flashed his insane explosiveness on his way to 13 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes Tuesday night against the Bulls, his first game after missing all of last season following foot surgery.

ALLOW Z TO REINTRODUCE HIMSELF. pic.twitter.com/QWH0SnOVSo

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) October 5, 2022

There was some rust, and the Pelicans are wisely bringing him along slowly and not breaking out the entire playbook for a preseason game, but in the moments we saw Zion looked like he was all the way back.

The questions now are can he sustain it, and how to the Pelicans mesh him with other scoring options in CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram.

And maybe we shouldn’t leave rookie Dyson Daniels off that list, he looked good in his first NBA preseason game.

🇦🇺 @DysonDaniels came alive in the fourth quarter and sealed the W at the free-throw line for the @PelicansNBA #NBAPreseason #Pelicans

📊 15 PTS | 5 REB | 3 STL | 2 BLK pic.twitter.com/bKr8LyYF7J

— NBA Australia (@NBA_AU) October 5, 2022

The Pelicans are one of the most intriguing teams this season, a team that made the playoffs last season with a push after McCollum arrived, and now they add the elite interior scoring and athleticism of Zion to Ingram’s outside shot and slashing, not to mention and a solid core of role players. This team has top six potential if it can get stops. But in a deep West, nothing will be easy.

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