Latest news with #scouts
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
NBA rumors: Why scout claims Ace Bailey is ‘not a butthead' before critical 76ers meeting
The post NBA rumors: Why scout claims Ace Bailey is 'not a butthead' before critical 76ers meeting appeared first on ClutchPoints. The NBA Draft is right around the corner, and the rumor mill is buzzing with speculation around former Rutgers star Ace Bailey. He's set to visit with the Philadelphia 76ers soon, and one scout makes the case why some teams might want to ignore the rumored red flags. Advertisement Initial buzz around the 18-year-old forward is that he was not going to visit with the 76ers before the NBA Draft, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer and HoopsHype. Rumors are that Bailey's camp told him not to do private workouts. Teams around the league were befuddled by this, and some thought that Bailey's camp believed he was guaranteed to be drafted to a certain franchise. 'Sources said he seemed unprepared to answer certain questions during team interviews at the combine. His camp also instructed him not to participate in private workouts, which left franchises wondering if the refusal is the result of a guarantee from another squad. But after initially refusing to visit the Sixers, Bailey is scheduled to work out for them this week.' Another red flag that popped up for Ace Bailey was that scouts claimed that he 'makes the game more complicated than it needs to be.' One scout claims the former Rutgers forward has the potential of being a bust, as Bailey is seemingly inconsistent, and that he interviewed poorly with several NBA executives. 'The Rutgers star makes the game more complicated than it needs to be, the type of player who will wow you one play and frustrate you the next. Sources even say he interviewed poorly with NBA executives at last month's draft combine. He has the potential to become a bust. That fact has led some scouts to consider VJ Edgecombe and Tre Johnson better prospects. And it's why Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach are regarded as solid trade-down options.' Advertisement However, one NBA scout believes that Ace Bailey's red flags can be attributed to his age. The scout goes as far as to claim that Bailey isn't immature, in a butthead sort of way, but rather, he's simply being an 18 year old. 'But a team's culture could make or break a young player's career. Sources say Bailey's immaturity isn't associated with being a bad person or unruly. They referred to his maturity as 'age-appropriate.' 'He's not immature like a [butthead]. … He's goofy,' a scout said. 'Dancing in line. You are doing drills, he's dancing. 'Oh, that's my song.' … He's playful, which is age-appropriate.'' Related: 76ers rumors: ESPN labels 'leader in the clubhouse' for No. 3 pick in new mock draft
New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
What I'm hearing about the Wizards' strategy for the NBA Draft and their rebuild
WASHINGTON — In the immediate aftermath of the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, several executives and scouts from front offices across the league expressed to me a profound empathy, rather than schadenfreude, for the Washington Wizards. The Wizards finished the regular season with the league's second-worst record, and the lottery netted them the worst possible outcome: the sixth pick in the draft. Never mind that being assigned the No. 6 pick was the second-most likely potential result for Washington, at 20 percent; if ever a franchise needed luck, it was the Wizards. In the words of one executive from a rival team, the Wizards' falling to sixth instead of getting the first or second pick 'set them back years.' Advertisement Now is an ideal time to re-evaluate where Washington's rebuild stands. The post-lottery emotions have mostly subsided, allowing a more clear-eyed, less melodramatic perspective. The draft looms next week, on June 25 and 26. Will Wizards officials change their roster-construction plan? How much longer will the team remain at, or near, the bottom of the NBA standings? And, perhaps most pressing of all, did the lottery result — so soul-crushing to many of the team's fans, so empathy-inducing to rival teams' employees — really set the Wizards back years? I think the most accurate conclusion to draw is that drafting sixth will prevent Washington from expediting what already had been a lengthy, deliberate timeline. If the evaluation of this draft class by The Athletic's NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie is accurate — that Cooper Flagg is a future All-NBA player, that Dylan Harper sits alone in second tier as a future All-Star or high-level starter and that the third tier of four or five players are merely high-leverage starters — then it will be difficult in this draft for Washington to add the star it covets. Not impossible, but difficult. To put it another way: drafting Flagg or Harper would have given the Wizards their clearest, cleanest opportunity so far in their rebuild to draft someone who will be a future star. Over the last two years, Washington has added, either through the draft or via trade, a large number of young prospects, led by Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and AJ Johnson. Wizards officials value bites at the apple. The team has attempted to obtain as many promising young players and future draft picks as possible and will continue to do so. The goal is to develop those youngsters to their potential and give them opportunities to play early in their careers. Advertisement It would be a mistake to label the Wizards' plan as solely hoping for lottery luck. Optimizing the team's lottery odds is an important component, and will remain so at least through the 2025-26 season. But the team's brass has prioritized adding prospects it likes wherever those prospects land in the draft. The Wizards traded Deni Avdija last June primarily to add two first-round picks, one of whom was Carrington at No. 14. George went 24th. Johnson was drafted 23rd months before Washington acquired him from the Milwaukee Bucks and Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma. A danger always has been that, despite taking lots of bites at the apple, Washington could wind up with a group of merely good players, with none of them transcendent enough to truly drive winning. This is why it's so important for a rebuilding team to land an early pick in a draft that has difference-makers at the top. If evaluated properly, those most-prized prospects are the most likely players to become future stars. The Wizards' most encouraging news about Coulibaly, Sarr, Carrington and George is that none of them figure to be busts, and that's a sign that the team has improved its scouting since Michael Winger was hired as Monumental Basketball president, Will Dawkins was hired as the Wizards' general manager and Travis Schlenk joined the organization as its senior vice president for player personnel. For instance, even if Coulibaly does not pan out on offense as a shooter and playmaker, he at least has shown more than enough signs that he will become a high-level defender. (I've omitted Johnson as a non-bust only because he amassed 595 minutes of playing time since his trade from the Bucks to the Wizards, which I regard as too little time to make a definitive judgment.) So far, none of the Wizards' current young players have shown that they will become stars. But a lack of clarity is to be expected from this group of youngsters. They're still super early in their careers, and none of them entered their drafts as elite prospects in the way that Flagg or even Harper are regarded. Keep in mind that Coulibaly is only 20 and that he had compiled a minimal amount of experience before his 2023 draft. Sarr and Carrington are even younger than Coulibaly. Carrington and George each played only one year in college. It will take them time to develop. The Wizards' front office would counter that, after a few more years, even without a future star, it should be able to amass enough good young players to take a route similar to the Houston Rockets' recent roster-construction strategy. The Rockets, it can be argued, did not draft a superstar in their current iteration (although center Alperen Şengün, drafted in the middle of 2021's first round, finished 16th in the 2024-25 season's All-NBA voting, just barely missing out on the third team), but have a young core headlined by Şengün, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and Amen Thompson. The Rockets took a step forward by hiring a top coach, Ime Udoka, and adding capable veterans such as Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Stephen Adams and Jeff Green to supplement the young core. Advertisement The Rockets made their own luck in part by maintaining enough cap flexibility to have the wherewithal to add those veterans. The Wizards' decision-makers intend to have enough flexibility and future draft picks a few years down the line to supplement their young nucleus, either through signings or trades. A challenge for the Wizards' front office and coaching staff in the years ahead will be to accurately evaluate their players — and do so before rival teams make accurate determinations and, if necessary, augment the core through trades. While fans may say that a team correctly evaluating its players should be easy, there are cautionary examples from recent years to suggest otherwise. Tyrese Haliburton and Dyson Daniels are examples of mid- to late-lottery picks who were traded early in their careers by the teams that drafted them and subsequently ascended to much higher levels. A team source told The Athletic that the front office plans to continue to evaluate its players through at least the end of the 2027-28 season, which would be the second season for Washington's 2026 first-round pick. Although team officials could alter their young nucleus before the 2028-29 season, the lengthy timeline is a sign that team officials intend to give young players time to develop and that team officials intend to evaluate those young players thoroughly. If the evaluation period continues through the 2028-29 season, that would give Wizards officials four full seasons from now to make progress on another aspect of their plan: enhancing the franchise's appeal to players in the league. As shown in The Athletic's 2025 NBA player poll, in which the Wizards ranked second among players' choices for the league's worst organization, the franchise still has a lot of work to do. But within four years, all renovations to Capital One Arena will be completed, and the team likely will have moved into a brand-new practice facility within Washington's city limits. Still, even though team officials are taking a long-term approach, there's no question that the upcoming draft is a key one. It would not be a surprise if Winger and Dawkins attempt to move up in the draft to select a prospect they like. Two years ago, the Wizards moved up one spot for Coulibaly. Last year, they traded Avdija to give them a chance to draft Carrington at 14. Also, last year, the Wizards traded up two spots to grab George at 24. In addition to this year's sixth pick, Washington holds the 18th and 40th picks. Advertisement A team source said the Wizards' draft board is similar to Vecenie's. In Vecenie's third tier of 'high-leverage starters,' he has identified four players: Duke wing Kon Knueppel, Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe, Texas wing Tre Johnson and Rutgers wing Ace Bailey. In their third tier, the source said, the Wizards likely have six players, listed here in alphabetical order: Bailey, Edgecombe, Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears, Johnson, Knueppel and Duke big man Khaman Maluach. Another key, of course, will be the 2026 draft, which is said to be deeper at the top than this year's draft. The 2026 draft is the final year that the Wizards could convey a first-round pick as part of the 2020 trade that brought Russell Westbrook to Washington. The Wizards will keep that first-round pick next year if it lands in the top eight. To guarantee that Washington retains that pick, Washington would have to finish the 2025-26 regular season with one of the league's four worst records, because the fourth-worst team in any given season can fall in the lottery to no worse than the eighth pick. The fifth-worst team would have a 0.6 percent chance of falling to ninth. The sixth-worst team would have a 3.7 percent chance of dropping to ninth and a 0.15 percent chance of dropping to 10th. Given the importance to the Wizards of retaining their 2026 first-round pick, it's very difficult to imagine any scenario in which the team risks losing that pick. All indications will be that Washington's rebuild will remain a patient one. The team's plan has not changed. (Top photo of Bilal Coulibaly and Jerami Grant: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)
CBC
13-06-2025
- CBC
81-year-old former scout leader charged with sex offences dating to 1970s
An 81-year-old former scout leader in central Nova Scotia has been charged with sex offences dating back five decades and involving two alleged victims who were youths that attended weekly scouts nights in the 1970s. RCMP said Friday they have charged William Langille of Valley, N.S., with five counts of indecent assault and five counts of gross indecency related to alleged offences between 1970 and 1976. Police say in a news release that the investigation started in October when historical sexual assaults involving an alleged victim were reported to the RCMP. A second alleged victim was subsequently identified, according to police. Both alleged victims were scouts when they were young and attended scout nights at Valley Baptist Church, according to police. Langille, who police say was a scoutmaster at the time of the alleged offences, was arrested in late May and released on conditions. He is due to appear in Nova Scotia provincial court in Truro, N.S., on Monday.
Daily Mail
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
The Spanish winger thrilling Chelsea, an Ajax teen on Liverpool's radar and the heir to Viktor Gyokores: The 10 must-watch stars at the Under-21 Euros
The Under-21 European Championship gets underway in Bratislava today and the stage is set for the next generation of superstar talents to put Europe's elite on notice. Scouts from across the Premier League, as well as La Liga, and the , have travelled to Slovakia en masse to trail a handful of in-demand youngsters.
The Guardian
08-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Cuba or camping trip? New Scouts badge helps teenagers learn to budget
From pocket money through to student loans, the teenage years are when finance transforms from a side issue into one of your biggest concerns. Now those who are members of the Scout Association can learn about personal finance and put their knowledge to use – then get a badge for it. Guardian Money was invited to the Argo group of explorer scouts in Hampstead, London, where 27 members aged 14 to 18 had a go at some of the tasks involved in the money skills badge. The new badge for scouts and explorer scouts is designed to teach useful life skills, including budgeting for holidays, understanding the pitfalls of payday loans and avoiding scams. Under the watchful eye of the badge's programme designer, Georgie Howarth, they first played a game designed to show them how financial decisions are made. One set of cards had details of different jobs, how much someone might earn and a set of monthly outgoings for their housing and bills. The second set each described an event ('your washing machine breaks – pay £100 to fix it', for example) or a choice ('your friends have invited you on holiday – it costs £500'). Choices came with a financial cost or benefit and an emotional one, in the form of happiness points, and the explorer scouts debated which was more important to them before making a decision. A budgeting task gave them the choice of whether to plan a dream holiday for two or a group camp, and it got them all talking about how they would spend the money they had to play with. Some set their sights high before realising that the budget would not stretch – one group quickly went from considering a trip to Cuba to landing on Butlin's in Skegness. Some optimistic food budgets (clearly they have never tried to feed a teenager) meant the money probably went further than it would in real life, but they learned something of the balancing act that goes into stretching limited finances. Younger members of the Scout Association in the beaver and cub sections have already been able to earn the badges (the cub pack I run recently gained theirs). For the older members, the skills will come in handy more quickly. Some explorer scouts already earn money through part-time jobs or receive allowances, and university will be a next step for many. While financial literacy is on the school curriculum, some of the e explorer scouts said their lessons had not always involved practical activities. 'When we learn about financial skills at school, it tends to be listening to an hour-long presentation about how we're supposed to allocate money in percentages,' said James. 'Tonight we've been able to learn about budgeting in ways that are practical and seem realistic.' Howarth said she and her colleagues had looked at what was being taught in schools and tried to design a badge that fitted in with 'the scout way of doing things'. 'We are acutely aware that schools can often cover key skills such as budgeting and use of credit and debit cards at a surface level,' she said. The badge, sponsored by HSBC and launched at the start of My Money Week (9-13 June), 'gives young people the ability to access financial literacy in a completely different way to traditional academic learning', she added. Another explorer scout, Anais, said the school sessions had 'talked about mortgages, and I don't feel I'll ever have a mortgage', whereas the game they had just played had used rent on some of the cards. 'It's made me feel more prepared for the real world,' she added. And what could be more in the scout way than being prepared?
