It wasn't quite the sharp-shooting effort we saw on Thursday, but don't call Giannis Antetokounmpo's latest outing for Greece a letdown. Twenty four hours after blitzing the Netherlands for 22 points, Giannis delivered 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists in Greece's 62-58 win over a rather capable Turkish team featuring Ersan Ilyasova. See above for a couple of nice highlights.
Greece next face Jonas Valanciunas and Lithuania at 1:15 Central today.
Jabari Goes to Peru
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Jabari Parker and Bucks strength and conditioning guru Suki Hobson took their rehab efforts to new heights...QUITE LITERALLY YOU GUYS (sorry, had to do it).
Well that was the hardest 3 days of my life..by far! #amazing #Peru #LaresTrail #15200ft #glacier #alpachaexpeditions pic.twitter.com/ZIdmbGwAez
— Suki Hobson (@sukihobson) August 28, 2015
NBA: 2015 Summer Forecast, most likely first-time All-Stars | ESPN
Who might make the All-Star squad for the first time in 2015-16? Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and Michael Carter-Williams all received votes from ESPN's forecasting panel, with Giannis checking in at #8.
NBA AM: Is it Time For An Extension? | Basketball Insiders
It's been over a month since talk of a John Henson started and since then...nothing. Steve Kyler suggests one explanation:
Henson and the Bucks have had on-going talks about an extension. Sources close to the process say there is a deal there if Henson wants it, but there is a sense from his side of wanting to see how the extension market plays out. There is a domino effect when it comes to early rookie scale deals that sort of sets the bar and while the Bucks seem open to a deal, it won’t be at any price at this point, mainly because they can match larger offers next year if it comes to that.
Despite a mixed track record over his first three seasons, Henson by all accounts is in the Bucks' long-term plans -- at least for the right price. The tricky part for both sides is figuring out how next summer's projected cap bonanza will inflate the value of young bigs like Henson. All indications are that Henson could earn $10+ million per season on a new deal, a scary number for anyone still benchmarking to the world of $63 million salary caps (ie last year). But remember: $10 million with next year's projected $89 million cap will be the same as about $7 million last year, while $10 million under 2017's projected $108 million cap would be "only" about $5.8 million in last year's terms.
The more difficult part is guessing how wonky next summer's supply and demand might prove to be, and that's probably why Henson and his agent haven't already jumped at the kind of numbers we're talking about. With 90% of teams projected to have cap space, many of them well below the projected cap minimum, and a relative shortage of free agent big men, teams will have an incentive to throw silly-looking deals at the guys who do make it to the open market. Whether Henson could actually make even more money next summer is thus a matter of debate, depending not only on his performance this season, but also the silly numbers that may get thrown around next July. The Bucks and Henson have until the end of October to come to an agreement, so look for discussions to get more serious as teams come back from vacation and the clock begins to tick down.