Around the NBA: Chris Paul out indefinitely, Buddy Hield is older than you thought, Pitino to coach in Greece

Buddy Hield reveals his true age

Buddy Hield of the Sacramento Kings is having a very solid season. He’s averaging 19.9 ppg, 5 rpg and 2.4 apg while shooting a blistering hot 43.3% from three. And he’s doing it all at the age of 25. Right?

Eh, no. The age listed on Hield’s NBA.com page is wrong. Speaking to reporters, Hield revealed that he’s actually 26 years-old, having been born in 1992:

The first time I saw it on Wikipedia, my mom said, ‘Why do they have your age wrong?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’

[...]

I came over with a passport. My passport has 1992 on it. My driver’s license has 1992 on it. I just think people got their information from Wikipedia or wherever, and they just went with it. They just got it wrong.

I wish I had more details to this story. Vlade Divac and the rest of the Kings’ front office apparently already knew Hield’s true age... yeah, right.

I must acknowledge though that the Kings are a really fun team this year. De’Aaron Fox might be a special player. Hield, as I’ve noted, is having a breakout season. Nemanja Bjelica is shooting nearly 50% from three. Good for Sacramento.

Chris Paul out indefinitely

The Houston Rockets will be without Chris Paul for an extended period of time, thanks to a strained left hamstring suffered in a game against the Miami Heat. Paul will undergo an MRI today, according to ESPN. When reporters asked head coach Mike D’Antoni how long Paul will be out, he grimly replied, “It’ll be some time.” Yikes.

The Rockets had been underachieving all season, but they had been turning things around lately, going 7-3 in their last 10 before their loss to the Heat. Without Paul, the hill just got steeper for the Rockets. The Western Conference standings are very interesting; 14 of the 15 teams have a real chance at making the playoffs. The Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, rank 14th in the West and are just two games back of the 8th place Rockets.

Rick Pitino is heading to Europe

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, world-class slime ball Rick Pitino’s next coaching endeavor will be with Panathinaikos, a Euroleague and Greece Basket League team based out of Athens, Greece. Luckily for Pitino, Panathinaikos is a powerhouse. They’ve secured six Euroleague titles, five of those being in the 2000s.

Their roster includes former NBA players Nick Calathes, Georgios Papagiannis, Keith Landford, Stephane Lasme (don’t remember this guy) and Thanasis Antetokounmpo.

Warriors Prepared to match any offer for Patrick McCaw

Patrick McCaw is still a restricted free-agent holdout, as he refuses to join the Warriors with hopes of securing a contract to his liking or simply having the Warriors renounce their rights to him. But unfortunately for McCaw, the Warriors have made it known to the rest of the NBA that they plan to match any offer sheet given to McCaw, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes. How long this will drag on, no one knows. I’m sure plenty of teams would like to take a swing at his talents, however Haynes notes in his report that “teams have received word of the Warriors’ intentions and remain hesitant to submit an offer sheet.”

McCaw was a hot name thrown about this past summer by some Sixers fans. But just donning a Warriors uniform doesn’t make one a good player, and McCaw was of questionable on court value last season — one might even say he was of negative value.

Does Zion actually want to be a Knick?

The Duke Blue Devils took on Texas Tech in Madison Square Garden on Thursday, and apparently it gave Zion Williamson, possible #1 overall pick in next summer’s NBA Draft, all the feels. According to Jeff Borzello of ESPN, Williamson said “This is the Garden. A lot of greats have come through here. My favorite great to come through here was probably Bernard King because my stepdad talked about him a lot how he just put the ball in the basket...playing 41 games here wouldn’t be so bad.”

In reality, when you watch the actual video interview of Zion, most of what he says is just lip service for reporters, or at least comes off that way. And reporters seem to be taking this and running with it in the wrong direction. For example, I’ve seen a few headlines titled “Zion would ‘love’ to be a Knick.” Now, anyone reading that headline would assume Zion just came out and said he wants to be a Knick unprompted. What he really said was, “If they drafted me, I would love to play for the Knicks” — which was Zion simply repeating what RJ Barrett had said just seconds before.

I will say that I imagine the Knicks will possibly target Zion in the draft. He’s got the bravado for the Big Apple. That could mean that some Sixers are going to get posterized at the Garden in the not-so-distant future.