NBA Rumors: Latest Buzz on Potential Roster Moves Around the League
While teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers worry about positioning for the NBA playoffs early in the season, others like the Philadelphia 76ers already have their eyes on next year.
However, there are still some rumors revolving around the 76ers early in the 2014-15 campaign because they are required to actually play the games on the schedule. Playing the games on the schedule actually means fielding a roster, even if it’s not competitive.
With that in mind, here is the latest from Philadelphia, as well as a rumor regarding a former Big Ten superstar.
Philadelphia 76ers
Tom Moore of Calkins Media passed along an update on the 76ers’ big-man situation:
Philadelphia sits at 0-7 and is fresh off a blowout loss at the hands of the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night. This team is not built to compete this season and would be better off losing every game for draft purposes.
Still, as mentioned, it has to field a deep enough roster to play actual NBA games.
Considering Henry Sims and Nerlens Noel are the only healthy centers on the roster while Joel Embiid recovers from injury, adding another center would bolster the interior depth. Sure, there may not be a lot available at this point of the season, but even a replacement-level center would help take some mileage off Noel’s legs.
The good news given the current roster situation is that it won’t be particularly difficult to find a player to cut.
Eventually, the 76ers could field a roster led by Michael Carter-Williams, Embiid, Noel and Dario Saric, but this will be yet another lost season—regardless of whatever big man they pull off the free-agency pile at this point of the year.
Hopefully, the fanbase has impressive patience.
Sportando's Orazio Cauchi noted that former Ohio State point guard Aaron Craft could have a new basketball home rather soon.
“According to several sources, Aaron Craft is the main target at PG position for the Partizan Belgrade. Craft spent the training camp with the Golden State Warriors and he has the chance to play in D-League for the Santa Cruz Warriors,” he wrote.
Craft is best known for his time as a Buckeye, where he reached the Sweet 16 three times, the Elite Eight twice and the Final Four once. He was never much of an offensive threat (8.9 points a game in his four-year career), but he was an absolute defensive wizard at the college level.
Craft won the 2013-14 NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) Defensive Player of the Year and racked up 337 steals in his career, which is the most in the history of the Big Ten.
It is really no wonder that the Partizan Belgrade are interested in landing a perimeter defender who can keep up with almost any ball-handler on the outside and apply full-court pressure when needed. There could also be room for that type of play at the NBA level if Craft was put in the right situation.
He is capable of coming off the bench and speeding up the game for short spurts with pressure defense and forced turnovers.
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr seemed to think so when he said the following to NBA TV (h/t Bob Baptist of the Columbus Dispatch) during summer league: “Guy’s a baller. He just plays.”
It looks like Craft may have to turn more heads than just Kerr’s from abroad now if he ever wants to make it in the NBA.
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