NBA: Cyclones' off-season: contracts, draft, summer league

[I-stateTheTruth]

With contracts up in the air for 4 of the 5 ex-Cyclones that saw NBA action this year, 2 declaring for the draft and the possibilities that Shayok will be looked at by NBA teams, I thought this would be a good place for discussion on the NBA off-season. Draft analysis for the current guys, teams' decisions on our guys' contracts etc. I'm sure we'll have several guys to follow in the summer league as well.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This is a great article to sum up Georges' situation. He had his best year in the NBA but his 2nd and 3rd years with the Jazz are not guaranteed. He doesn't want his playoff contributions to be his career highlight. Naz says he had some good overseas offers, which is interesting. A good read on Georges' situation:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article...ibutions-becoming-highlight-of-my-career.html

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

Neither Nader nor Burton have guarantees for next year. Nader would make a nice $1.6M and Burton $1.4M, if they're brought back. The Thunder are very top-heavy in their salaries and need to fill out the bottom of their roster with some of these, ahem, "lower" salaries so that works in our guys' favor. This article has Burton as "likely" coming back and Nader as a 50/50 chance (while noting his contributions for the year).

https://okcthunderwire.usatoday.com...ontract-status-offseason-rumors-nerlens-noel/

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This end-of-season analysis of Deonte Burton's outlook with OKC is a good read (why is Forbes.com doing so much of this kind of stuff? My wife reads their summaries of GOT). Some blurbs:

Burton plays loose and energetic and is not afraid to attack the glass on the offensive end. With his physical frame, Burton has the potential to be a great rebounding guard and be a versatile defender. He also has the ability to play multiple positions.

With how cheap his contract is, Burton is a low-risk, high-reward project.

With how low his expectations were this season, Deonte Burton quickly became a fan favorite with his high flying dunks and confidence shooting the ball. Burton is also very self-aware in knowing what he needs to improve on after this season. In his exit interview with the media, Burton mentioned he will look to improve on his jump shot this summer, but will really look to put an emphasis on improving defensively.

Link:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nichol...season-evaluation-deonte-burton/#6e77e6b513da

 

[Cycsk]

This is a great article to sum up Georges' situation. He had his best year in the NBA but his 2nd and 3rd years with the Jazz are not guaranteed. He doesn't want his playoff contributions to be his career highlight. Naz says he had some good overseas offers, which is interesting. A good read on Georges' situation:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article...ibutions-becoming-highlight-of-my-career.html

Love this excerpt: That passion and unselfishness didn’t go unnoticed among his teammates. “You’ve got guys like Georges Niang going crazy at the end of the bench for a whole month and then coming in in the playoffs and attacking and being the same killer since I’ve known him in high school,” said Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This is Naz's end-of-the-season interview with local press in Utah:

http://www.1280thezone.com/utah-jazz-locker-room-clean-out-naz-mitrou-long-at-the-podium/

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

I was looking around to see if Marial Shayok was mentioned in any mock drafts in the 2nd round and the answer seems to be "no". I saw an aggregate of 6 or 7 mocks and he didn't get one listing. During the season, I was thinking he might be a 2nd-round guy who ends up in the G League. Look at Nader's production his senior year compared to Shayok's (or at least that was my logic). I guess they felt Nader had a higher ceiling. I found a concise summary of Shayok's pros and cons from nbascoutinglive.com. Here's his summary:

Pros:

Good shooter, especially from deep
Fairly good scorer off the dribble
Excels at scoring on off-ball motion plays
Very good free throw shooter
Adequate playmaker
Decent defender
Better athlete than advertised

Cons:

Lacks an elite first step off the dribble
Can be prone to hoisting up questionable shots
Needs to improve his rebounding
Can struggle to guard quicker players
Late bloomer
Old for a draft prospect, may have limited upside

Summary:

After having three nondescript seasons at Virginia, Marial Shayok elected to transfer to Iowa State, and he is now having a breakout season as a senior. Shayok is a very good shooter that can make shots from all over the floor, and he is averaging nearly 19 points per game.

There are some concerns, though. He's only had one year of significant production and his advanced age may suggest that he may not have nearly as much upside as some of the other prospects in this draft, but Shayok is a skilled shooter that could excel as a floor spacer for an NBA team at the next level.

Link: https://www.nbascoutinglive.com/marial-shayok-scouting-report

 

[Cycsk]

"three nondescript seasons at Virginia"

Was that on him? Or on the program? Regardless, it did leave him with only one year of impressive numbers. Seems like he could have been "nondescript" and still been pretty significant for Virginia. He did get the fourth foul on Niang.

 

[Cyientist]

Neither Nader nor Burton have guarantees for next year. Nader would make a nice $1.6M and Burton $1.4M, if they're brought back. The Thunder are very top-heavy in their salaries and need to fill out the bottom of their roster with some of these, ahem, "lower" salaries so that works in our guys' favor. This article has Burton as "likely" coming back and Nader as a 50/50 chance (while noting his contributions for the year).

https://okcthunderwire.usatoday.com...ontract-status-offseason-rumors-nerlens-noel/

Thanks for organizing/updating these threads all year.

I think that article was mistaken on Nader's guaranteed contract date being on July 15th. According to sportstrac, his date for this year is July 5th and for 2020 it is July 15th.

Those 10 days are critical since July 5th is also the 1st day of the NBA Summer League. There won't be time to evaluate new players on the court prior to needing to make the decision on Nader.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

"three nondescript seasons at Virginia"

Was that on him? Or on the program? Regardless, it did leave him with only one year of impressive numbers. Seems like he could have been "nondescript" and still been pretty significant for Virginia. He did get the fourth foul on Niang.

That's a valid point. He did what he was asked to do at UVA but I suppose they look at pretty elite talent and production to get into one of the 2 rounds of the draft. I can see Marial following the G League route a la Nader, Niang, Burton and Morris to end up on an NBA roster. I'm going to be paying attention to his summer league games - I hope he goes off like Matty Ice did.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This is Abdel Nader's "exit interview" with the OKC press. There are a lot of cliched answers here (video is less than 5 minutes) but there were a few nuggets:

* They didn't really tell him he wasn't going to get rotation minutes in the playoffs.
* To improve on defense, he tries to play pick-up in the off-season to challenge himself (and does weight training for it as well).
* He says he already knows what he needs to work on in the off-season.

There were no questions about his contract status or whether he expected to be back with OKC.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This is Deonte's short time with the press for his "exit interview". A couple notes:

* He thinks that he'll be used most at the "4" in the future for OKC so that would mean a small ball lineup, I suppose. Or Adams at the 5 and PG at the 3.

* He says he will "most likely" play in the summer league, which I'm glad about, just from an entertainment perspective. It'd be fun to see him getting 25+ minutes in a game.




EDIT: I found a transcript of his PC. He's still a shy guy, it seems - very short answers to most questions: http://www.asapsports.com/show_conference.php?id=149327

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

Wow. WOW. Fan Sided site for the Utah Jazz thejnotes.com is suggesting that the Jazz take a long look at CAM LARD as a sleeper, probably not in the draft but as an UDFA (to the G League, I presume). The Jazz do have a reputation for player development and the writer recognizes Lard's athleticism and strength. But I didn't expect to find these kind of comments. I can't even find people writing about Shayok and he seems like he's a lot closer to being an NBA player than Cam. Nevertheless, it would be great if Cam could develop for a year or two in a good organization's G League team. Here's a quote:

The Utah Jazz have had some recent success with former Iowa State University basketball players in Georges Niang and Naz Mitrou-Long. I think they should consider adding to that list by giving forward Cameron Lard a look.

I don’t think Lard will get drafted. I’m sure many will believe that’s the way it should be, considering he averaged only 5.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game this season for Iowa State. However, potential is the key thing with Lard. He has great potential, and I think he could become a legitimate NBA player under Utah’s player development staff.

Link:
https://thejnotes.com/2019/04/30/th...from-a-familiar-school-in-the-2019-nba-draft/

I hope he makes it some day and they pay him truckloads of money.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

John Walters did a 15-minute CyCast with Georges Niang, reflecting on his season, life in the NBA etc. He had some nice - and interesting - comments about Kyle Korver. Georges is a proud Cyclone; I can't help but root for the guy.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

I pilfered this from the Wigginton / NBA thread. Good to see that these guys will be evaluated by some teams:

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

Nick Weiler-Babb doesn't seem to have a chance to be drafted but this Ames Trib article talks about his potential alternative path to a pro career. It certainly has worked so far for some of his former teammates. Nick is working out at his agent's facility in LA ahead of the draft. I'm sure he can get a spot on a G League team to keep working on his game. Good read but all the quotes are from his agent:

https://www.amestrib.com/sports/201...dIzCOsZbwhaWJ4becB0wDecPVP3px1PTuyro9zpcUOr8U

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

WRNL says that the two best landing spots for THT - assuming a draft spot in the late first round - would be Milwaukee or San Antonio. Those kind of make sense to me (not that I have enough in-depth knowledge of other NBA rosters). Link:

https://www.widerightnattylite.com/2019/5/6/18526038/talen-horton-tuckers-best-case-scenarios

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This article (April 12 so not that current) takes 7 different mock drafts and aggregates them into a sort of ranking. The 7 mocks have THT going anywhere from #21 to #46. 5 of the 7 mocks have him going in the first and 2 in the second.

Interestingly, Tyrese H hadn't (and didn't) declare(d) for the draft and he was on 2 mock drafts, just about equaling Tyler Cook. I'm still surprised that no one has Shayok late in the 2nd round. Although, I don't remember seeing Nader on mock drafts and he went in the middle of the 2nd round so who knows?

Anyway, this aggregate list is interesting:

https://hoopshype.com/2019/04/12/nba-mock-draft-big-board-grant-williams-mfiondu-kabengele/

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

This seems like pure speculation but Fansided's Hoopshabit.com thinks that with H. Diallo having his rookie season behind him and A. Roberson returning to health (not sure if that is a definite), the Thunder won't require Abdel Nader's services. Here's a quote:

Nader found himself playing more and more, seemingly out of necessity than anything proven on the floor.

Going into the 2019-20 season, Oklahoma City seems poised to re-stock its lost wing depth. Roberson should finally be healthy, Diallo will have a year of experience and Presti will be opportunistic to add shooting over the summer. That seems to make Nader the most expendable wing player on the team.

link: https://hoopshabit.com/2019/05/01/5-players-oklahoma-city-thunder-may-trade-away-2019-offseason/5/

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

I've just looked at about 6 recent mock drafts. Every one of them had THT going in the first round, as early as the 24th pick and as late as the 30th. Teams mentioned included Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia.

Mock drafts are for our consumption so, who knows if he'll stay in the 1st round. But at least amateur pickers all seem to think that he's going to be selected late in the first.