Newcastle United accounts explained: FFP, wages and future spending

Grading The Week: Nuggets Found NBA Summer League Gem In Iowa State's Curtis Jones

Like many Denverites, the basketball guys up in the Grading The Week (GTW) offices still have a handful of family and friends who call Iowa home.

Much as we love our Buc-ee's brisket, that smiling beaver will never make a pizza as good as the ones you can grab from a Casey's General Store. (Of which there are none within 180 miles of downtown Denver. More's the pity.)

At any rate, our Midwest peeps still drop a line now and again. Especially when a local fave hits our fair shores.

"Watch out for Curtis Jones," somebody wrote us two weeks ago.

"Enjoy Curtis Jones," wrote another.

"You're going to love Curtis Jones," wrote yet another.

You know what?

They were right. On all counts.

Curtis Jones Fever — A

Jones is a 6-foot-6 guard out of Iowa State who the Nuggets added to their Summer League roster.

Long story short, he tore it up in Las Vegas.

On Friday night, Jones put the capper on an excellent week in Sin City by dropping 22 points, five rebounds and eight assists on the Lakers in a 106-84 Denver win.

From July 12-18, the ex-Cyclones star averaged 16.3 points, 5.3 boards and 4.3 assists over four Summer League games. Through five Vegas appearances, his assist-to-turnover ratio was 19 to nine and he shot 46.7% (14 for 30) from beyond the 3-point arc.

Our hoops wonks want to fall in love with the guy. Honest, they do.

It's just that they've also been fooled before. One GTW staffer still keeps a Bones Hyland shirt hanging via thumb tacks at his cubicle, and Heaven only knows when he last washed the thing.

Although unlike our man Bones, Jones can play a little defense when he has to. Add it all up, and this much is becoming crystal clear: If the Nuggets don't offer the former Cyclone a two-way contract, then some other NBA team sure as heck will.

All-Star swing-off — C

Would you want an NBA All-Star Game decided by a 3-point shooting contest?

That's what Major League Baseball gave us this past Tuesday night, as a bonkers American League rally forced a 6-6 tie after nine innings at the midsummer classic in Atlanta.

And cue the history. In the latest wrinkle to prevent a repeat of that running-out-of-pitchers debacle from 2002, a mini home-run derby, or "swing-off," was held to determine the winner. A batting-practice pitcher served up pitches to three hitters — the National League only wound up having to send up two — from each roster, as chosen by their respective managers.

On one hand, it was a complete sideshow. On the other, it was also captivating to see play out in real time.

A few days later, Team GTW is still kind of torn.

It's just not — well, baseball. Shouldn't there be a winning pitcher and a losing one? A swing-off should never, ever be used to decide a meaningful contest, let alone a playoff one. Never give commissioner Rob Manfred any leeway to blow up more traditional laws of the game than he already has. Full disclosure: Most of Team GTW still hates the extra-inning ghost runner, much as we also "get" it.

Still, it's not a meaningful game, is it? It's an exhibition. Knowing pitchers are done after nine innings means managers can try to get more of them in over the course of the game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although we'd also wager that the next AL skipper is going to be more inclined to ask Aaron Judge to stick around after he's pulled from the game. Just in case.

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Hines: How Can Iowa State Basketball's Milan Momcilovis Improve His Game? Take More 3s

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6-10 Iowa State Transfer Blake Buchanan's Relishing Expanded Role In Ames

Virginia forward Blake Buchanan (0) defends the ball from Campbell forward Terren Frank (15) and guard Jasin Sinani (13) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Mike Kropf)

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.

AMES — Blake Buchanan stood amid the myriad mountain peaks and breathed deep.

As a kid, Iowa State's 6-10 transfer forward hunted and fished all summer long, trading baby hooks for metal hooks; camping not only in the paint, but in the wild landscapes of the Bitterroot Range.

"I just love that," said Buchanan, who grew up in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and played two seasons at Virginia before deciding to become a Cyclone this offseason. "I love that type of life."

Of course, Buchanan also loves basketball — a lot. So when longtime Cavaliers head coach Tony Bennett announced within weeks of the start of last season that he'd be retiring effective immediately, Buchanan felt adrift. He nonetheless remained at Virginia, starting 22 of his 32 games and averaging 5.4 points and 5.3 rebounds. Consistency eluded him, however, and he yearned for a fresh start, which ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger and his staff eagerly offered him.

"I had talked to (Bennett) and he was just like, 'Look, I love him,'" said Otzelberger, who had previously been impressed by Buchanan while helping coach at the USA Basketball under-19 men's national team training camp in 2023. "He's an elite defensive player. He's continuing to develop offensively, but he can pass, he's smart, good finisher, lob threat, all those things. We know that was exactly what we were looking for in that position (this season), and he's been everything that we thought he would be when we recruited him."

Buchanan will serve as a critical component for a revamped Cyclones frontcourt anchored by returning star Joshua Jefferson and augmented by fellow transfer Eric Mulder along with talented freshman Dominykas Pleta and Xzavion Mitchell.

"(I told him) we don't see you as a piece of the puzzle, we see you as a prominent player in our program," Otzelberger said of Buchanan, who grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds in a narrow loss to SMU last season. "We feel like from a developmental standpoint, he has so much room for growth."

Buchanan agrees — and that's a big reason he chose to come to Ames.

"Their player development program is great and that interested me a lot when I was getting recruited, just because I knew I needed that," said Buchanan, who blocked at least one shot in 14 of his last 17 games as a sophomore for the Cavaliers. "I knew that by coming here they were gonna get me right where I need it, and when they showed me my plan, I was super-excited about that."

So what's this "plan?" Let Otzelberger explain.

"He'll be more involved with facilitating the offense, playing away from the basket at times," ISU's fifth-year head coach said. "He's a tremendous passer, a guy (who), again, when you have a guard like Tamin (Lipsey) and Joshua — guys who are great downhill playmakers, they're gonna find ways to get him easy baskets as well. So he's very integrated in everything that we're doing offensively and I fully expect him to play well on that side of the ball just like I know he will defensively."

Buchanan feels ready to live up to that lofty expectation alongside his new teammates. His ability to protect the rim is well-established. His knack for dishing out assists and stretching out opposing defenses has come in fits and starts until now — and he's committed to making that a consistent feature of his expanded game.

"Being a five that can pass, that opens up a lot of the offense," Buchanan said. "So that's kind of been where I'm at right now. Just a lot of short rolls, finding people, finishing when I can, and just making plays on defense."

So Buchanan's loving his current role as much or even more than he did when he constantly camped and fished back home in the mountains. Now he's merely living amid the so-called trees in the lane, ready to branch out and ignite the crowd at Hilton Coliseum.

"I've heard a lot, so I'm excited to play there," he said. "I've heard a lot of good things."

Comments: robgray18@icloud.Com

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