West Notes: Spurs, Victor Wembanyama, Suns, Deandre Ayton, Mavs

Spurs

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he has no preference as to when French big man and future No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama makes his summer-league debut.

All 30 teams field teams in the Las Vegas summer league, though there are a few smaller ones before that. Sacramento, for instance, will host one such league, in which the Spurs are scheduled to participate.

“All summer leagues are NBA Summer Leagues,” Silver told The Associated Press, via Basket News. “I’m very supportive of the Sacramento summer league. I remember when (Kings owner Vivek Ranadive) first came to the league and said this was something he wanted to do. I said, ‘As long as you have enough other teams who support it and players who want to play in it, it’s a good thing.'”

Silver added that Wembanyama’s debut is totally up to the Spurs.

“What’s made the summer leagues so valuable are really the media rights more than the individuals who buy tickets there because it’s a very affordable experience,” he said. “So, the answer is, I want Victor to get playing court experience, and I think the team assuming it’s San Antonio, should make decisions completely independent of any commercial implications from where he debuts.”

The 2023 NBA Draft is scheduled for Thursday, June 22.

Mavericks

• The Mavs intend to reach out to ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy to see if he’s interested in an assistant role on the coaching staff of Jason Kidd, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line. The Mavs have also linked to Jeff Hornacek for the same role, Stein noted.
• Dallas intends to focus on athleticism and physicality, as opposed to shooting, with the No. 10 overall pick, per Tim Cato of The Athletic.
• That said, it seems the Mavs are more intent on trading the pick, per Stein.
• While there doesn’t seem a whole lot to the LeBron James-to-Mavs chatter, at least not yet, Dallas is a market James would consider if he were to leave LA, per Stein.
• We have the latest on Kyrie Irving, James and the Mavs right here.

Suns

The Suns are hiring former Grizzlies and Knicks coach David Fizdale as an assistant on Frank Vogel‘s coaching staff, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Fizdale has been associate general manager with the Jazz since last year. He was an assistant with the Lakers under Vogel during the 2021-22 season.

Fizdale was happy in Utah, but Phoenix tripled his salary to get him to return to the sideline, per John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports. The Suns will pay him anywhere from $1.3-$1.5 million, Gambadoro added.

• The hiring of Vogel seems to indicate the Suns intend to keep center Deandre Ayton, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. “It does not mean it’s going to work,” Windhorst said on The Hoop Collective podcast. “They obviously, as an organization, have a complicated relationship there. They did not want to pay (Ayton) the max. For the last year, he was in an adversarial relationship with his coach (Monty Williams).”