The 14 players listed below received Green Room invites to Thursday’s NBA Draft, according to DraftExpress.com.
North Carolina leads the list with three players — Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller — while Kentucky (Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) and UConn (Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb) each have two.
The official list will be released today by the NBA.
Scott Machado figures to be a second-round pick during Thursday’s NBA Draft, but the former Iona guard feels he deserves to go in the first round.
“Yeah, I do deserve to be a first-round pick,” Machado, who averaged 13.6 points and a Division 1-best 9.9 assists en route to winning the Haggery Award as the New York area’s top player, told SNY.tv Tuesday.
Incoming Providence point guard Kris Dunn will undergo shoulder surgery in about two weeks and could be sidelined up to five months, according to a report in the New London (Conn.) Day.
“I have a torn labrum,” Dunn, a McDonald’s All-American, told the paper. “I’ve got a fracture in my bone. It happened during the NFA game during the ECC tournament (on March 1). I got fouled hard and I kind of dislocated it a little bit and it popped back in real quickly.
“… I went to a couple trainers and physical therapists and they said it was just bruised. So I just kept playing on it and I thought it would go away if I just iced it, and it didn’t.”
Knicks guard J.R. Smith will become a free agent because he has decided not to exercise the opt-in clause in his contract during Tuesday’s deadline, so
urces confirmed to SNY.tv.
Smith stood to make $2.4 million had he opted in, but can do a multi-year deal (up to four years) with the Knicks starting at $2.8 million or at the midlevel exception.
A native of Freehold, N.J., who played at St. Benedict’s Prep, Smith averaged 12.2 points and 2.6 rebounds last season after joining the Knicks from his Chinese team.
Smith was erratic from the field and shot just 31.6 percent in the playoffs.
Larry Bird is stepping down as president of the Indiana Pacers and Donnie Walsh could soon return to the franchise, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star.
Bird, 55, is “100 percent sure” he will not return as president of the team, a source with “direct knowledge” of the situation told The Star.
Bird earned $1 million this past season when he was named NBA Executive of the Year.
After getting in sometime around 5 a.m. from Puerto Rico, Kentucky coach John Calipari met with 2014 Montverde (Fla.) Academy guard D’Angelo Russell during an unofficial visit Monday.
The visit was first reported by SNY.tv.
“It was great,” Russell told SNY.tv by text. “I loved the campus and the program but coach Kenny Payne stood out to me the most.”
“The visit was wonderful,” added Antonio Russell, D’Angelo’s father. “It was amazing.
“Just basically we really got to know each other. He’s telling my son that he had seen him play and liked how he played. He was letting us know that his program is not for everybody.
Providence freshman point guard Kris Dunn will have an MRI on his shoulder this week to determine if he needs surgery that could keep him out for an extended period.
“He’s going to have an MRI on Thursday and will be evaluated after the MRI and we’ll see where it is from there,” Friars coach Ed Cooley told SNY.tv Monday.
“He really hurt his shoulder when he was out with the USA [U18] tryouts. He’s in good spirits. Until we see what’s up with this MRI there’s really nothing to talk about.”
