Category: Basketball

The NBA Draft lottery took place on May 16; the Draft itself was held June 22; training camp opened on October 3; and the regular season commenced on October 24.

In the G League, however, things come together far more quickly.

The draft was today, training camp starts on Monday, and the 2023-24 season tips-off on November 10. In other words, there’s much work to be done and a short time to do it.

The Birmingham Squadron – affiliates of the New Orleans Pelicans – opens against the Austin Spurs at Legacy Arena on November 10, hoping to vastly improve on last year’s 11-21 regular season record (and 6-16 mark in the in-season Showcase Cup tournament).

“We’ll have three days of two practices a day to start camp,” T.J. Saint, entering his second season as Birmingham’s head coach, said on Friday. “We will also do a controlled practice day with College Park (the Atlanta Hawks’ G League team) and then play them in an exhibition game the next day. After that first week, and being able to compare yourself with another G League team, will give us a great barometer of where we are as a team because they have the same constraints.

“It’s really just the nature of pro basketball and this is year nine for me, so I really don’t know any different.”

The NBA voted to add an additional two-way player to each team’s roster in 2023-24, giving them three. Due to injuries, Birmingham had access to only one a year ago – Dereon Seabron.

The guard was a force for the Squadron in 2022-23, averaging 34.5 minutes on the court over 27 outings and scoring 18.4-points per night. He also made five appearances with the Pelicans last season.

“I’m really looking forward to working with Dereon … he’s not a rookie anymore,” Saint said during the summer. “Having him there in his second year means knowing what to expect and knowing he’s gotten a lot better and gotten a lot stronger. I think he’s going to have a banner year.”

This year, Seabron will have some help from two more double-dippers – Kaiser Gates and Matt Ryan.

Gates spent time with three G League teams before signing with New Orleans last month. The 6-7, 225-pound small forward appeared in 24 games with the Long Island Nets last season, averaging 14 points and six rebounds per game. His overall G League average is 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds over 122 games, including 66 starts.

Ryan has been with the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves organizations, and last fall and winter appeared in 22 games for Minnesota.

He pumped in 19 points per outing in seven starts with the G League Iowa Wolves in 2022-23.

“We have a lot of versatility with our two-ways this year,” Saint explained. “Each of them plays a different position and have different skill sets. Kaiser brings a tremendous G League pedigree. A top defender in the G as well as his 3-point shooting, which at 55 percent and five attempts a game is incredibly impressive from last season.

“Matt has a solid amount of NBA experience and is also a lights-out shooter. Having coached against him in the G as well, he plays very hard and stretches the floor. Both players are extremely high character.”

The Squadron also signed 2021 NBA G League Finals MVP Devin Cannady earlier this month.

Playing with the Lakeland Magic, Cannady got the MVP nod after scoring 22 points in the championship game. He played for the South Bay Lakers last year, averaging 12.6 points per game.

The newest addition to the club is Pavel Savkov, who was taken in the first round of today’s draft, No. 6 overall.

Savkov is a 6-7, 200-pound guard from Moscow. Last year, the 21-year-old played in three different Spanish leagues and recently extended his international contract with Saski Baskonia of Liga ACB and the EuroLeague.

The training camp roster was released Sunday morning, with 14 players competing for 13 roster spots: Seabron, G; Landers Nolley II, G; Liam Robbins, C; Tevian Jones, G; Savkov, G; Jalen Crutcher, G; Galen Robinson Jr., G; Izaiah Brockington, G; Nate Bradley Jr., G; Kevion Nolan, G; Cannady, G; Malcolm Hill, G; Daniel Giddens, C; and UAB product Trey Jemison, C.

The Squadron moves from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference this year and will face six new opponents for the first time in franchise history – the Cleveland Charge, Indiana Mad Ants, Motor City Cruise, Long Island Nets, Westchester Knicks and Windy City Bulls.

“Fans can look forward to seeing a team that has a high level of readiness, attention to detail, and a highly connected group,” Saint said.

For ticket info, go to BirminghamSquadron.com.

In the author’s note to Life In The G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA (University of Nebraska Press), Alex Squadron says that writing a book about the Birmingham Squadron – a club that shares the New Yorker’s name – “felt like destiny.”

“I had an idea to write a book about the NBA G League,” he writes. “And there happened to be a team (a brand new one too!) called the Squadron. I mean, come on! It would have been far more ridiculous to ignore something like that, right?”

Whether destiny or just a happy accident, the result is one of the best basketball books I’ve ever read.

Life In The G chronicles the ups and downs of players trying to parlay their time in the NBA’s developmental league into a shot (and sometimes second or third shot) at the big-time, showing both the importance of the feeder league (Birmingham is the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate) and the hard work its athletes put into it.

I met Alex during the infancy of the team, when it held workouts for the 2021-22 season at Bill Burch Gymnasium on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College. While I was there to do some quick-hit interviews, he was imbedded with the club and putting in the real work.

And man, it shows in this book.

The players he highlights most are former Auburn standout Jared Harper, Zylan Cheatham, Joe Young and Malcolm Hill, all who were integral to the G League Squadron’s first year in the Magic City.

Their paths to the feeder circuit were wildly different, but their stories all compelling. Alex makes you feel like you were tagging along for the entire journey – from training camp and games to ultimately saying goodbye to Birmingham at season’s end.

There is also plenty of ink devoted to Ryan Pannone, Birmingham’s coach for the 2021-22 campaign and now an assistant for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Pannone is not only a nice guy (he’s favorably compared to Ted Lasso in Life In The G) but he is also one of the most knowledgeable basketball people to ever pick up a whistle. I was fascinated with how Alex explained how he put together the team, coached it, and did everything in his power to give them the best opportunity to succeed.

Early in the book, Pannone describes the G League this way:

“Be prepared for the unpreparable. The reality is that for most of these guys, everything is worse. If you’re coming from a Division 1 school, how we travel is worse; what we eat is worse; our facilities are worse; our gear is worse. But being in the G League is about guys who love to hoop. You have to be easygoing. You have to be able to go with the flow.”

Certainly, for someone like me who is interested in Birmingham’s professional sports past, present and future, this is a must-read – a book I wish I’d written. But you don’t have to be from Birmingham to appreciate it.

Shoot, even if you just have a casual interest in basketball, you’ll find plenty to like, because it’s as much about pride and perseverance as it is the sport.

But if you love the G League – and I do – this quick and fun read gives you an even greater appreciation of it.

And once Birmingham reaches the end of its first season – a playoff loss to the Texas Legends – you realize how important that inaugural season was to all the men who made it happen.

Cheatham summed it up this way:

“Just that quick, it’s over,” Cheatham  described. “It’s very abrupt. There are guys you get close with, you connect with, you bond with. To know that – damn, you’re about to go on with your life, I’m about to go on with mine, and we probably will never play on the same team again. It’s just over that quickly.”

With a forward by longtime G League player Andre Ingram, Life In the G is a heartfelt tribute to a circuit that continues to get better and better.

It’s a great book by a great young author, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here’s a link to purchase the book: https://www.amazon.com/Life-League-Basketball-Relentless-Pursuit/dp/1496235851

With the NBA preseason now under way, New Orleans Pelicans fans are wondering how the “Big Three” of Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum can help the club go from a play-in team to one capable of making a deep postseason run.

Birmingham Squadron fans, however, are more concerned with the players who’ll be spending much of their court time in the Magic City.

So is the coach of the Pelicans’ G League affiliate.

T.J. Saint, who is heading into his second season at the helm of the Squadron, was a highly interested observer of Thursday night’s clash between the Pelicans and Rockets at Legacy Arena.

The final score (Houston won big, 120-87) was secondary to what Saint hoped to learn about some of the players who’ll be on the Birmingham roster in 2023-24. The Squadron open against the Austin Spurs here on Friday, November 10, as part of the Showcase Cup portion of the schedule.

“I thought it was good tonight for fans to see our team the last five minutes,” Saint said. “Although the game was decided, getting a chance to play in an NBA game for the first time on our home floor will make our opener feel more familiar.”

Starting this season, teams are allowed three two-way players, but so far only Dereon Seabron and Kaiser Gates have inked those contracts with New Orleans.

Seabron entered the game at the start of the fourth quarter and logged 7:12 minutes. He failed to score, but snagged a rebound.

With just under five minutes to go, Gates found his way to the court. He played 4:48 and nailed a 3-pointer.

UAB product Trey Jemison put in 9:52 and contributed a field goal, three rebounds and an assist. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract (one-year deal for league minimum with a two-way contract option) in September.

“It’s just a blessing to be back home,” Jemison said. “I’ve played state championships here, I’ve played college here and to play professionally here is just amazing. I prayed for nights like this.”

All three players should call Birmingham home during a good portion of the fall and winter.

As for the exhibition game itself, the Rockets took control early and rolled to a 33-point victory in front of 11,589 fans.

Jabari Smith Jr. led the winners and all scorers with 22 points despite playing just 23:50. The former Auburn star (third overall pick in the 2022 draft) is in his second year with the Rockets and averaged 12.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the team last season.

Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green and Amen Thompson each scored 12 points to aid the cause.

“Yeah, I think we played some different lineups and units – small-ball units that really got after it,” Houston boss Ime Udoka said. “But even when we had our bigs in, guys were extremely active. Great physicality across the board, but, when things broke down, we talked about playing through that possession, and guys were scrambling great, obviously got a lot of steals, and when that happens obviously you transfer that into fast-break points and we had 28 for the night.”

Williamson, Ingram and McCollum combined for 31 New Orleans points, with McCollum netting 17 of them.

Dyson Daniels and Jordan Hawkins scored 13 points apiece.

“It’s demoralizing when you turn the ball over as many times as we did tonight … 27 (turnovers) for 30 points,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “When we were out there, we were sloppy, and we’ve got to get better and clean it up.”

HOME COOKING

Kira Lewis Jr. (No. 13 pick in 2020 NBA Draft) and Herbert Jones (No. 35 pick in 2021) are products of the Alabama Crimson Tide, so Thursday night was something of a homecoming for the New Orleans players.

“There’s a lot of friends and family here tonight, and just to be back in Alabama playing professionally means a lot to me,” Jones said.

Jones scored four points in 23:09, while Lewis chipped in eight points over 16:27.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Center Liam Robbins figured to be a part of the Pelicans’ future (and Squadron’s immediate) plans in 2023-24, but the big center out of Vanderbilt was waived earlier on Thursday.

Robbins suffered a stress reaction to his right fibula earlier in the month.

In another move, New Orleans signed guard Jalen Crutcher, who played 57 games over the last two seasons with the Greensboro Storm, the Charlotte Hornets’ G League affiliate.

Crutcher averaged 15.8 points per game for the Swarm.

PRESEASON VISITS

There have been 12 NBA exhibition games contested in Birmingham over the years, all in October.

The first came on October 16, 1976, when the Cleveland Cavaliers  defeated the Detroit Pistons, 120-109, in front of 8,551 fans at the new Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum.

It was the first basketball game played at the facility.

The Pelicans’ stop in Birmingham on Thursday was their second overall (and second in a row), but they have some work to do to catch up with the Atlanta Hawks. The NBA team nearest to the Ham has played here six times, while the Rockets and Pistons have three appearances each at what is now known as Legacy Arena.

FLIRTING WITH THE ASSOCIATION

Birmingham attorney Ed Meyerson started a push to help Birmingham get an NBA franchise back in 1977, hoping to convince an existing club to relocate and call the Civic Center home.

By 1978 the focus has shifted to Buffalo, where the Braves were planning on moving to Dallas. However, news that the Texas city would get an expansion team when its new sports complex was completed in 1980 or 1981 put that deal on hold – and put Birmingham back in the conversation.

Alas, the Braves relocated to San Diego and the quest to lure an NBA team to Alabama was abandoned in early 1979.