How the Warriors plan to mold Alen Smailagic into a floor-spacing big man [Mercury News]
Dec. 14 It could be easy to confuse Alen Smailagic’s goofy grin, broken English and doe-eyed demeanor as marks of a bashful 20-year-old who is just happy to be here. But make no mistake, give Smailagic a goal and his competitive streak reveals itself, and his grin fades to a grimace.
This is what Warriors player development coach Seth Cooper discovered when working with Smailagic last season. So when workouts were limited this offseason to a single player and coach working one-on-one because of the coronavirus, Cooper challenged Smailagic to make as many 3-pointers as he could in five minutes.
Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
The Clippers announced their first wave of roster cuts for this preseason, letting go of Ky Bowman, Jordan Ford, and Malik Fitts. The team announced the moves earlier today.
Of the three, Fitts was the player who saw the least action during preseason, seven minutes total over two games, and all of them coming at the end of the fourth quarter. He failed to score, but did record three rebounds over his brief tenure.
Bowman and Ford saw a bit more action, though both were also relegated to exclusively second-half minutes. Bowman showed a bit of passing facility, and Ford was comfortable as a scorer against NBA (or pseudo-NBA) competition, including some pretty floaters.
Bowman spent last season with the Warriors after going undrafted out of Boston College, averaging 7.4 points, 2.9 assists and 22.6 minutes in 45 games, including 12 starts. Bowman had his two-way contract converted into a multiyear standard deal in February, but only the 2019/20 salary was guaranteed. Golden State waived him last month.
Fitts is an undrafted rookie out of St. Mary’s. In 68 total games with the Gaels, Fitts averaged 15.9 PPG and 7.3 RPG.
Ford is also an undrafted rookie out of the same college. A two-time member of the All-WCC team, he was the second-leading scorer in the West Coast Conference in 2019/20, averaging 21.9 PPG.
After being a championship contender for half of the last decade, the Golden State Warriors took a step back in the 2019-20 season. With injuries to the majority of their key pieces and the departure of Kevin Durant, they took the crown as the worst team in the Western Conference. This netted them the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft in which they selected James Wiseman.
Just as everyone had gotten healthy and the team was ready to be an instant contender again, Klay Thompson suffered yet another season-ending injury prior to training camp. Now, after acquiring Kelly Oubre in attempt to recover as much lost production as they could in Thompson’s absense, the new-look Warriors will be a wildcard in the upcoming season.
Champion Lakers win first Preseason Game of 2020-2021 Season - Los Angeles Sentinel lasentinel.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lasentinel.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.