Five Key Offseason Questions: San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs enjoyed another banner regular season and deep playoff run, only to see their championship aspirations destroyed by a key injury. When superstar Kawhi Leonard landed on the foot of the Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia in Game 1 of the Western Conference series, all the drama was drained from the series.
Gregg Popovich railed on Pachulia’s closeout, which the coach felt was a careless and dangerous play. Whether Popovich’s criticism was justified, it certainly prevented Leonard from playing the rest of the way and turned the intriguing series into a formality.
The Spurs remain one of the league’s elite teams and they could potentially be even better next season, depending upon how free agency plays out.
Here’s a look at the major questions confronting the club this offseason:
1. Can the Spurs sign unrestricted free agent Chris Paul?
The Clippers will undoubtedly offer a max deal in an effort to retain the perennial All-Star point guard. Paul’s free agent tour could be this year’s version of the Kevin Durant sweepstakes. Paul is desperately seeking a ring and the Clippers have consistently underperformed in the postseason.
If he bolts, San Antonio is the favorite to land him. The Spurs have an obvious need at the position and the possibility of CP3 joining Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge would give the NBA a third ‘Super Team’ to rival the Warriors and Cavaliers.
The major stumbling block is that the Spurs don’t have enough cap space to give Paul a max contract without some roster maneuvers. Trading sharpshooter Danny Green and his $10MM deal for next season would help the cause. However, it’s quite possible that Paul could accept a lesser deal with an opt-out after the first or second year if he’s serious about joining the Spurs.
2. If the Spurs fail to land Paul, what should they about their point guard situation?
Tony Parker is expected to miss at least the first two months of the season and Patty Mills is an unrestricted free agent.
Josh Jackson Cancels Celtics Workout
Kansas swingman Josh Jackson cancelled his scheduled workout with the Celtics, Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com tweets.
Goodman didn’t elaborate why the workout was nixed by Jackson and his camp. On the surface, it seems like a curious decision to back out of a workout with the team holding the No. 1 pick.
There has been speculation that some members of the Lakers front office are enamored with Jackson and perhaps that’s where, like Lonzo Ball, he’d rather land. It could also signal that Jackson doesn’t believe Boston has a serious interest in using the top pick on him.
The news of Jackson’s cancelled workout comes on the heels of the revelation that Markelle Fultz, the favorite to be chosen No. 1, will meet with the Lakers this week. Los Angeles has the second pick.
Pacific Notes: Lakers, Mason, Clippers, Reed
A Lakers backcourt of D’Angelo Russell and Lonzo Ball might be potent offensively but a liability defensively, as Eric Pincus examines in a Bleacher Report piece. Russell could run pick-and-rolls, while Ball would excel in transition and ball movement, though neither tends to attack off the dribble, Pincus continues. The biggest concern would be on the defensive end because of quickness issues, which would require the Lakers to have a speedy, defensive-minded guard to rotate with both players, Pincus adds.
- Kansas point guard Frank Mason III will work out for the Kings for a second time on Wednesday, according to the team’s website. Mason is considered a second-round prospect — he’s currently ranked No. 45 on Chad Ford’s Big Board. Sacramento, which has the No. 34 overall pick in the second round, will also bring in Kentucky point guard Isaiah Briscoe, UCLA shooting guard Isaac Hamilton, Florida shooting guard Canyon Barry, Indiana center Thomas Bryant and Miami forward Kamari Murphy.
- The Clippers will bring in FIBA small forward Howard Sant-Roos for workouts later this week, international journalist David Pick tweets. The Cuban-born Sant-Roos, 26, has been playing for CEZ Nymburk in the Czech league, where he averaged 13.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.4 APG in 40 games this season.
- Kansas State shooting guard Wesley Iwundu and Vanderbilt big man Luke Kornet headed the list of six draft hopeful that the Lakers brought in on Monday, the team’s website reported. Iwundu is ranked No. 53 overall by Draft Express, while Kornet comes in at No. 67. The Lakers do not have a second-round pick.
- Miami shooting guard Davon Reed headlined a group of six players that the Clippers worked out on Monday, Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders tweets. Reed is pegged as the No. 76 prospect by Draft Express. Murphy also participated in the workout.
Bucks GM Search Down To Two Candidates?
The Bucks will likely choose between their assistant GM, Justin Zanik, and Nuggets assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas as their next GM, league sources informed Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Milwaukee could announce its choice as early as this week, Stein adds (Twitter links).
The position opened up when John Hammond was named the Magic’s GM last month. Zanik was hired as Hammond’s assistant last season after serving as an assistant GM in the Jazz organization for three years. Hammond had been the Bucks’ GM since 2008 after serving as the top assistant to former Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars.
Karnisovas was hired by Denver in 2013 and is currently working under Nuggets GM Tim Connelly. He was a candidate for the Nets’ GM job last season but Brooklyn ultimately chose Sean Marks.
Markelle Fultz To Meet With Lakers
Projected top pick Markelle Fultz is expected to meet this week with the Lakers, who hold the No. 2 pick, a source told Adam Zagoria of The 4 Quarters Podcast (Twitter link).
Fultz spent two days with the Celtics earlier this month and it’s generally assumed the University of Washington point guard will be Boston’s choice on draft day. The fact that Fultz is willing to meet with the team holding the next pick at this stage suggests that the Celtics may not be completely sold on Fultz, or at least haven’t made any promises that he’ll be their pick. It’s noteworthy that Fultz is only scheduled to meet with the Lakers and not work out for them, though that obviously could change.
The Fultz meeting the Lakers could also be a hedge by his representatives in case Boston decides to swap the pick in a blockbuster deal.
The Lakers did meet with Fultz at the scouting combine in Chicago last month. While most projections have Los Angeles taking UCLA passing wizard Lonzo Ball, the Lakers are covering all their bases. Some members of their front office are supposedly bullish on Kansas small forward Josh Jackson, and they will hold a closed workout for Kentucky point guard De’Aaron Fox on Tuesday morning, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News tweets.
Possible First-Rounder Kurucs Withdraws From Draft
Rodions Kurucs has withdrawn his name from the 2017 NBA draft, FIBA agent Alturs Kalnitis tweets.
This is a surprising development in that Kurucs was considered first-round material. The 19-year-old Latvian forward, who currently plays for Barcelona 2, was ranked No. 18 overall by DraftExpress, while ESPN.com’s Chad Ford ranked Kurucs at No. 33. Ford noted that Kurucs is a long, athletic shooter with good size for his position.
The Nets were reportedly high on Kurucs and perhaps even willing to move up in the first round to snare him.
Kurucs played 24 games for the Barcelona team this season, averaging 9.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 1.4 APG in 21.2 MPG. The 6’8” Kurucs shot 31.9% on 3-point attempts.
OG Anunoby Aims To Be At Full Strength Before End Of 2017
Former Indiana small forward OG Anunoby continues to recover from a knee injury, with some draft experts speculating that he could miss most or all of his NBA rookie season in 2017/18. However, a source tells Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports that Anunoby expects to be back at full health by late November or early December.
Anunoby’s sophomore season with the Hoosiers was cut short when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in January. However, Anunoby declared for the draft in the spring and the injury doesn’t appear to have significantly affected his draft stock. He still ranks 14th overall on DraftExpress’ big board, and 13th on ESPN’s top 100 list.
In his latest mock draft, ESPN’s Chad Ford notes that Anunoby will be impacted by doctors’ opinions on his surgically repaired knee, since some teams believe he won’t be back to full health until well into 2018. However, Ford still had Anunoby coming off the board at No. 13, suggesting that the Nuggets are among the teams that probably won’t be scared off by that diagnosis.
Even if Anunoby feels as if he’ll be ready to make his NBA debut before the end of the calendar year, his NBA team may play it safe. As we saw with the Sixers and Ben Simmons this past season, clubs will typically take a long-term outlook with their first-round picks, rather than rushing them onto the court.
Five Key Offseason Questions: Miami Heat
Through the first half of the 2016/17 season, the 11-30 Heat looked like the greatest threat to the Celtics for the No. 1 spot in the NBA’s lottery rankings.
If the Heat had performed the entire season like they did the second half, when they went 30-11, they would’ve be the greatest threat to Boston for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
That red-hot second-half run didn’t earn Miami a spot in the postseason, but it significantly changed the team’s outlook for 2017/18. While president Pat Riley may still use the dreaded R-word (“rebuild”), a 25-win season likely would’ve seen the Heat undertaking a multiyear retooling process — instead, Riley has hinted at an accelerated rebuild with an eye toward getting the club back in contention within the next couple years.
As they look to build a roster capable of getting back into the playoffs, here are five key questions facing the Heat this offseason:
1. Will the Heat pursue a “whale”?
Even when the Heat aren’t a title contender, they’re a popular destination for free agents. South Beach is a draw, as is Florida’s lack of income tax, but the culture Riley has built in Miami is perhaps the strongest selling point. That’s what gave the Heat the opportunity to sit down with Kevin Durant during his free agency last summer, despite having the weakest roster of the six teams Durant considered.
At season’s end, Riley suggested that the Heat wouldn’t be in the market for a “whale” this offseason, but the club may not be able to help itself. A recent report suggested that the Jazz view Miami as a legit threat to poach free-agent-to-be Gordon Hayward, who reportedly has interest in the Heat.
Hayward would be a terrific fit in Miami, as a scorer and shooter capable of playing at the three or four, depending on the lineup around him. A maximum salary contract, or something close to it, would eat into the Heat’s cap room in a major way, but the team could afford it, and Hayward – who just turned 27 – might be worth the investment.
2. Will Dion Waiters and James Johnson be re-signed?
After realizing last summer that Dwyane Wade wouldn’t be returning, the Heat completed a flurry of signings using their excess cap room, and many of these contracts were for one year. That allowed the team to maintain its flexibility for this summer, but it has created a tricky situation in instances where Miami wants to re-sign some of those players.
Waiters and Johnson are the two most obvious examples — both players will be in line for big raises after earning $3MM and $4MM respectively, but the Heat don’t hold either player’s Bird rights, meaning they’ll need to use cap room to re-sign them.
As it stands, the Heat have more than enough space to sign both players, but that could change if they pursue Hayward or another top-tier free agent. Even if the Heat are able to re-sign both Waiters and Johnson, locking them up on fair, market-level deals would mean dedicating most of their available cap room to retaining last year’s roster. Unless both Waiters and Johnson are willing to accept discounted offers, it might make sense for the Heat to just bring back one of them, rather than both.
Nets Notes: Birch, Workouts, Meeks, Obradovic
Khem Birch, a Quebec-born big man who went undrafted in 2014 and currently plays for Olympiacos in Greece, has been linked to the Nets. Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops cites sources who say that Brooklyn is “seriously considering” offering Birch a two-year contract for the upcoming season. However, NetsDaily (Twitter link) has been told that the Birch rumor is “completely false.”
Birch was solid last season as a part-time player for Olympiacos, and was a D-League All-Star back in 2015, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the UNLV alum get a shot at an NBA roster. But according to Eurohoops’ report, his buyout is worth upwards of $300K, so an NBA team with interest may be reluctant to pay that buyout for a camp invitee.
Here’s more on the Nets:
- The Nets conducted a group workout today, according to Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders, who tweets that Dillon Brooks, Jawun Evans, Jimmy Hall, Amile Jefferson, Erik McCree, and Derrick White were in attendance.
- UNC’s Kennedy Meeks worked out for the Nets last week, and according to Ian Begley of ESPN.com, some sources familiar with the workout said that Meeks “excelled.” The former Tar heels center isn’t one of DraftExpress’ top 100 prospects, but Begley suggests Meeks is viewed as a possible late-second-round pick, so he could be an option for Brooklyn at No. 57.
- The Nets are adding Sasa Obradovic to their Summer League coaching staff, tweets international basketball reporter David Pick. Obradovic, a former international point guard, is currently the haed coach of Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia.
Rudy Gay Opts Out Of Contract
JUNE 12: Gay’s formal player option deadline has come and gone without him picking up that option, so he’s officially on track to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
MAY 8: Kings forward Rudy Gay won’t exercise the player option on the final year of his contract, agent Roger Montgomery confirmed today to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Gay will opt out of the deal, making him an unrestricted free agent this July.
Gay initially informed the Kings back in September that he intended to opt out of his contract in the summer of 2017, and it sounded at the time like the veteran would likely be leaving Sacramento. However, after going down with an Achilles injury in January, Gay was less certain about the decision on his option, which is worth about $14.26MM.
Montgomery tells Spears that Gay is “ahead of schedule” in his recovery from that Achilles injury, having been cleared to start lifting weights. Gay is expected to be back on the court in mid-June, per Montgomery, so that’s presumably a key factor in his option decision. If Gay was expecting to still be in the earlier stages of his rehabilitation in July, when free agency begins, he’d likely be less inclined to opt out and take his chances on the open market.
According to both Spears and Sean Cunningham of ABC10 (Twitter link), Gay is willing to talk to the Kings in free agency and hasn’t ruled out staying in Sacramento. The Kings certainly have the cap flexibility to make him a competitive offer, but Gay also wants to play for a winning team, and Sacramento remains very much in rebuilding mode. It’s also worth noting that Gay’s stint with the franchise has been a bit of a bumpy ride, making a change of address more likely.
Gay, who will turn 31 in August, averaged 18.7 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 30 games for the Kings this past season before going down with his Achilles injury. Those averages were a little above his career rates, and his .372 3PT% was his best mark since 2010/11.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.