NBA

NBA AM: Some More NBA Odds And Ends

The first training camps open tomorrow and the balance on Monday, so there are a few topics to get into.

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Sports Editor
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It’s Time To Play

For most NBA players, they have been back in their home markets for most of September, as NBA teams typically ask their players to start filtering in just after Labor Day, mainly to get settled and start getting into the game-day routine of being in the building and back in their environments. Training Camps for most of the league will open on Monday, September 25, however the two teams playing exhibition games in China—the Timberwolves and Warriors—will open camp tomorrow. There are a few notable pieces of news floating around NBA circles that are worth commenting on, so let’s jump into it.

Will The Knicks Pull The Trigger?

As more and more New York Knick players start to fill their practice facility in Tarrytown, there is an ever-present elephant in the room, and that’s the future of Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony. Last week, there were reports that Knicks personnel had attended some of Anthony well-publicized pick-up games and that they seemed to be weighing the fact that Anthony might need to be brought to training camp.

The venerable Frank Isola of the New York Daily News suggested yesterday that a deal between the Knicks and the Houston Rockets still might be possible before camp opens officially saying “Anthony’s camp is cautiously optimistic that a deal will be struck before Monday.”

While that may be the case on the Melo side of the fence, league sources continue to say there has been no movement on a deal with the Knicks and the Rockets. The big hurdle is the Rockets are not willing to add anything more to an offer than they have and that a deal centered on Rockets forward Ryan Anderson is not appealing to the Knicks.

As this thing hits the 11th hour, it will be interesting to see if the Knicks do indeed let the circus that’s going to follow Carmelo into their season. The Knicks’ new leadership has pledged to build a better culture.

To be fair, no one has even hinted at Anthony being a problem, even as bad as things got last year. Anthony is said to be in stellar shape; maybe a few preseason games get things moving with the Rockets.

Joel Embiid Still Not Cleared

As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare to open their training camp, the word from the Sixers is that Ben Simmons, last year’s top pick, is a full go and playing five-on-five pickup games daily. This year’s top pick, Markelle Fultz, is said to be in a great shape and also as full go after injuring his ankle badly during summer league play.

The question for the Sixers is Joel Embiid. Both Sixers President Brian Colangelo and head coach Brett Brown admitted that Embiid was still not clear for five-on-five play and that there would be “very hyper-conservative progression” according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Daily News.

Colangelo told the Daily News that “It’s been very important to us to make it criteria-based, where he checks off certain boxes [and] can move to the next step.”

No one is suggesting that Embiid has had any setbacks after having a knee surgery last season. The Sixers view is they want to be measured on how much Embiid does in order to get him completely healthy.

The Sixers and Embiid have been talking about a contract extension, even with Embiid likely facing minutes restrictions for another prolonged period.

League sources continue to say that a deal for Embiid now would likely look a lot like the four-year $100 million package Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a year ago.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we can find common ground,” Colangelo said to the Daily News. “But it will take common ground in order for something to get done.”

The Sixers and Embiid have until mid-October to reach an agreement on an extension, or he will likely head toward restricted free agency next July.

Lottery Reform Has Traction

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped last week that the NBA’s Competition Committee has asked the Board of Governors to weigh in on possible changes to the NBA Lottery system as a means to discourage deliberately losing games or fielding dreadful teams to increase the odds of landing a top-flight draft pick.

The idea that will be voted on at next week’s Board of Governors meeting would be to change the weighting formula for how picks get allocated. Currently, teams get a sliding scale of possibilities for one of the top three picks. With the team having the worst record having the best odds at the top pick. Equally, the current system only applies the lottery ball process to the top three selections.

The new plan that seems to have real support would increase the lottery process from the top three picks, to the top four picks. The odds would also be evened out giving the four worst teams fairly equally odds of landing the top pick, while also increasing the odds of every non-playoff team in landing a top-level pick. Currently, the last team to not make the playoffs has a .5 percent chance of landing the top pick. That could increase dramatically under the proposed changes.

The NBA owners explored lottery reform in 2014, and the measure was voted down 17-13. The NBA bylaws require a three-quarters majority (23 votes) to pass such a rule, and it seems there may be a few more yes votes based on where things stand today.

The Board of Governors will meet in New York on September 28. If the measure is passed, it would kick in with the 2019 NBA Season, making this year the last under the current system.

Is The NBA Combine Moving To Maryland?

There is a growing buzz in NBA circles that the NBA Draft Combine may not be held in Chicago going forward. The annual draft evaluation event has had many iterations over the years but seemed to find a home in Chicago every May.

The NBA recently sold the apparel and marketing rights to the Combine event to Under Armour and the talk in NBA circles is that the Combine would be moving to an Under Armour facility in Maryland as soon as this season.

The Combine, which took on that name after years of being simply the NBA Pre-Draft Camp, was held at Chicago’s Moody Bible College for a number of years before it moved to Orlando in 2007. After a few years in Orlando, it returned to Chicago and was re-branded the Draft Combine and was held at the Quest Multi-Sport facility in the heart of Chicago.

With Under Armour attaching itself to all things Combine (both in the NBA and the NFL), it seems they may be moving the event closer to their home base in Maryland.

The dates and location for the Combine have not been locked in yet, however a small survey of NBA executives confirmed that the talk was the Combine was moving this year.

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Alan is an expert gambling writer who works as one of the chief editors for Basketball Insiders. He has been covering online gambling and sports betting for over 8 years, having written for the likes of Sportlens, Compare.bet, The Sports Daily, 90min, and TopRatedCasinos.co.uk. His particular specialisms include US online casinos and gambling regulations, and soccer and basketball betting. Based in London, Alan holds an MA in English Literature and is a passionate supporter of Chelsea FC.

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