The Sioux Falls Skyforce have been making many changes to their roster, but will the changes be enough to help land the team in the 2020 G-League playoffs?
The Sioux Falls Skyforce are currently 22-20, with 10 regular season G-League games remaining. and are in the thick of the playoff hunt. In the G-League, the six division winners automatically get a bid to the playoffs, while the three next-best teams in each conference make the playoffs as wildcard teams. The Memphis Hustle are leading Sioux Falls’ division and it is unlikely the Skyforce catches the second-best Western team, though the team came away with a huge win against their division rivals in its last game.
This leaves Sioux Falls with an opportunity to take a wildcard spot, with the Austin Spurs and Texas Legends owning a good edge on the rest of the teams, especially after the Skyforce’s recent loss to Texas. The Skyforce, Oklahoma City Blue, Santa Cruz Warriors, and the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario are all in the race, but the Skyforce defeated the Warriors and currently sit a half-game ahead of them for playoff positioning.
If the team can get enough contributions from its new blood and continued dominance from NBA veteran Jarrett Jack, who put up 32 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists against the Legends and a strong 31 points, seven assists, and six rebounds to help upset the Hustle, then they should be able to build upon their solid run.
It’s a run that’s seen them go 7-3 over their last 10 games. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the changes to the Skyforce’s roster.
Skyforce wheeling and dealing
The Sioux Falls Skyforce have seen quite the turnover from a month ago. The Miami Heat waived guard Daryl Macon to sign 3-point specialist in guard Gabe Vincent, to his vacated two-way contract spot, while center Chris Silva was converted to a standard contract. With that spot, the Skyforce replaced his vacant two-way deal by signing center Kyle Alexander, who was mentioned as a probable replacement option for Silva’s two-way spot in our last update piece.
Alexander has been out with injury, while Vincent has spent a large chunk of the time with the Heat with guard Tyler Herro out with an injury for the Heat. Former Heat pre-season member Jeremiah Martin was signed by the Brooklyn Nets to a two-way contract, for which he now mostly reports to the Long Island Nets.
In their stead, the Skyforce added guard Tim Quarterman and center Kavell Bigby-Williams, though Bigby-Williams did not stay with the team for long. Quarterman was actually involved in the Chris Paul-to-Houston trade back in the Summer of 17’ (he was shipped to the Rockets after they purged their roster to acquire Paul), after seeing some NBA action in 16 games with the Trail Blazers in 2016-17 and three games with Houston in 2017-18. Quarterman has appeared in 12 games with the Force and is averaging 8.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
Like Quarterman, Bigby-Williams played at LSU, though not at the same time as Quarterman. Bigby-Williams spent training camp with the New Orleans Pelicans after going undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Bigby-Williams was then dealt for the returning player rights to Isaiah Hartenstein from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. This means that if the Houston Rockets waive Hartenstein and he opts to play for the G-League, he will be contractually obligated to join Sioux Falls, although this is highly unlikely.
After losing Mychal Mulder to a recent call-up (more on that later), the Force acquired the returning player rights to guard Ray McCallum. He owns career averages of six points, two rebounds, and 2.4 assists across 154 career games, though McCallum likely will not play for the Force this season.
The team then went on to acquire Jacobi Boykins, who unlike McCallum, immediately joined the team and put up eight points, five rebounds, and an assist in his first game with the club, while earning himself a start. Boykins now averages 11 points and 5.3 rebounds for the team across three games.
Lastly, the team added a major piece for this run off of waivers, a player that already has 27 points and 12 rebounds in his first two games with the team, let’s take a look at who exactly this powerhouse is on the next slide.
Force adds 2019 G-League Rookie of the Year
On Friday, March 6, the Skyforce picked up its most significant piece of the season in center Angel Delgado. He spent last season on a two-way contract for the Los Angeles Clippers, winning the G-League Rookie of the Year Award and beating out Yante Maten, who spent time last season with the Skyforce, among others.
Delgado averaged 18.5 points, 14.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 blocks on 62% shooting, committing just 2.6 fouls in 33.4 minutes per game last season in the G-League. Delgado is also responsible for breaking the G-League record for most rebounds in a game, grabbing 31 rebounds with eight being offensive boards, to go along with 22 points.
With such a high-profile addition that also fills a need for the Miami Heat, one has to wonder if the Heat would consider adding the 25-year-old center from the Dominican Republic to the big league. The only bigs on the Heat are Bam Adebayo, Kelly Olynyk, Meyers Leonard, Chris Silva, Udonis Haslem, and Alexander.
Alexander and Leonard are both currently injured, while another rebounder in recent-addition Jae Crowder was injured in last Friday night’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. Add to this the lack of playing time for Silva and Haslem, as well as their lack of size, and that leaves the Heat with exactly one healthy player that stands over 6’10”. This would be Olynyk, who is not exactly the epitome of a rim-protector.
Pat Riley himself said the Heat would scour the buyout market for bigs and while Delgado has not been on an NBA team this season, he certainly fits the bill for what the Heat are looking for. One way to add Delgado to the team would be to waive Solomon Hill, who is due over $11 million this season, with the Heat having the space to add Delgado to a minimum contract.
Even if this scenario does not play out, the addition of Delgado should still have huge positive ramifications for the Force, who played Delgado a significant amount of minutes in his first game. This was a 23-point blowout of the Warriors, giving the Force an edge on them for the playoffs.
Marcus Lee stepping up
In the wake of the injury to Alexander, Marcus Lee has stepped into a starting role for the team and is averaging a double-double as a starter. Lee spent the 2018 preseason with the Heat and looked like an efficient scorer, while displaying some versatile potential, but was ultimately cut ahead of the season.
Lee shows here his vastly improved abilities as an offensive player. Lee averages 1.5 assists per game, a 9.2% assist percentage, and is grabbing up 2.3 offensive boards per game. The 6’11” center from California also possesses a strong screening IQ, setting up many screen assists for his teammates this season.
Last season, Lee spent most of the time hounding for putback dunks. The extent of his flashiness was the ability to get after open dunks, but like Heat counterpart Adebayo, Lee has shown the potential to be much more. He will likely get a look from an NBA team in due time, hopefully even his own big league club.
It seems as though the Miami Heat have a thing for those Kentucky guys. Although Lee finished with the Cal Golden Bears, he spent his first few seasons playing college ball for John Calipari at Kentucky.
You also have to consider the fact that Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro are two key members of the current big league roster as well. The next guy we want to mention is also a Kentucky product, although and unfortunately, he is no longer in the Miami Heat system.
Mychal Mulder signed by the Golden State Warriors, tearing up the competition
Mulder, a 6’3” guard out of Kentucky, spent the preseason with the Miami Heat and lived down the hall from Adebayo in college. The uber-athletic guard has absolutely dominated this season, averaging 17 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists on 40% shooting from deep, displaying an elite ability to beat slower opposing guards off the dribble and flash his high-octane dunking ability.
Mulder was rewarded for his efforts by being given a 10-day contract by the Warriors, who are cycling through 10-day contracts until they find young players that stick. After their trade deadline purging of their roster, the Warriors signed Zach Norvell Jr. of the South Bay Lakers and Jeremy Pargo of their own G-League affiliate to 10-day contracts.
After both of those players expired, the Warriors had two weeks to add at least two more 10-day contracts and signed Dragan Bender, the former fourth overall pick in the 2016 Draft by the Phoenix Suns.
With Bender under contract, the Warriors still sat at only 13 players, and thus, added Mulder on Tuesday morning. They later added Chasson Randle.
The Heat employed a similar tactic last season as they rotated through 10-day contracts due to their inability under the cap to sign a player to a prorated minimum contract until the final day of the season. Miami began by adding Emanuel Terry and Charles Cooke on 10-day contracts, before signing a young guard from the Santa Cruz Warriors on the final day of the season by the name of Kendrick Nunn.
The success of signing Nunn to a three-year deal is the same level of success Golden State would like to see by adding Mulder and perhaps, make up for their loss of such a high-caliber young prospect for nothing. Essentially this boils down to the Warriors trading Nunn for Mulder and it will be interesting to see if the Warriors hold onto Mulder after his contract expires.
Mulder is already making a lasting impression for Golden State, averaging 12.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per game on 34% shooting from beyond the arc and on more than seven of such attempts per game. Mulder made his first start for the Warriors in just his fourth game and the Warriors are 3-3 with Mulder, while being 12-46 in all other games. The Warriors signed Mulder to a second ten-day contract after his impressive stint and he will likely be kept for the remainder of the season.
Next up, the Skyforce will take on the Lakeland Magic at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida. Beating the Magic, who lead the Southeast Division, could give the Force even more momentum heading down the stretch. The matchup between the two teams begins at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 12th and can be streamed on NBAGLeague.com.