Antetokounmpo Wins Most Improved Player Award
Giannis Antetokounmpo was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player, as was announced on the TNT awards show Monday night.
The Bucks point forward posted averages of 22.9 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 5.4 APG and 1.9 BPG last season. The previous season, he averaged a slash line of 16.9/7.7/4.3/1.4.
Antetokounmpo topped the two other finalists, Jazz center Rudy Gobert and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the voting. In the Hoops Rumors staff picks, Antetokounmpo received two of the five votes.
Porter, Bogdanovic Receive Qualifying Offers
Otto Porter and Bojan Bogdanovic have received qualifying offers from the Wizards, making the duo restricted free agents, Candace Buckner of the Washington Post tweets.
The qualifying offer for Porter, worth $7,732,904, was a mere formality. He will be one of the most sought-after restricted free agents on the market this summer. The small forward averaged 13.4 PPG and 6.4 RPG last season.
Bogdanovic averaged 12.7 PPG and shot 39.1% from long range in 26 games off the bench after being acquired from the Nets in mid-season. The shooting guard’s qualifying offer is worth $4,663,317.
Tim Hardaway Jr. Receives Qualifying Offer
The Hawks have extended a qualifying offer to shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr., making him a restricted free agent, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The qualifying offer is for $3,335,707 but Hardaway Jr. is likely to receive a lucrative offer sheet during free agency. He averaged 14.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 2.3 APG in 79 games last season. His playing time increased after Kyle Korver was dealt to the Cavaliers.
He declared after the season that he would prefer to stay in Atlanta.
Eric Gordon Wins Sixth Man Award
Rockets guard Eric Gordon was named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year, which was announced on TNT’s awards show Monday night.
Gordon averaged 16.2 PPG and 2.5 APG in 75 games for one of the league’s most potent attacks. The oft-injured Gordon never appeared in more than 64 games in his five seasons with the Pelicans franchise before signing with Houston last summer as a free agent.
Teammate Lou Williams and the Warriors’ Andre Iguodala were the other finalists. Only one member of the Hoops Rumors staff chose Gordon as his top pick.
Brogdon Wins Rookie Of Year Award
Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon was named the league’s Rookie of the Year, which was announced on the TNT awards show Monday night.
Brogdon, a second-round pick, edged out a pair of Sixers — Joel Embiid and Dario Saric — in the voting. The 36th overall pick last summer appeared in 75 regular-season games and started 28. He averaged 10.2 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 4.2 APG in 26.4 MPG. He also shot 40.4% from long range.
Embiid posted much bigger stats — 20.2 PPG and 7.8 RPG — but only appeared in 31 games.
A majority of the Hoops Rumors staff selected Brogdon as their choice for the award. He is the first non-lottery pick to win the award since Mark Jackson in 1988.
Spencer Hawes Opts In, Stays With Bucks
Bucks power forward/center Spencer Hawes has decided to opt in and retain his $6MM salary for next season, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical tweets.
Hawes’ decision gives Milwaukee, which is already over the cap, an even higher payroll. Greg Monroe, the team’s second highest-paid player, had already chosen to opt in for next season and retain the remaining $17.88MM on his deal. Giannis Antetokounmpo will be paid $22.47MM in the first year of his extension, while four other players will make between $14.1MM (Khris Middleton) and $9.6MM (Matthew Dellavedova).
Milwaukee is now sitting approximately $11MM below the luxury tax line and still has to decide by Thursday whether to extend a qualifying offer to swingman Tony Snell, as Bobby Marks of The Vertical notes.
Hawes, 29, appeared in only 19 games for the Bucks after he was acquired from the Hornets in early February in a trade that sent Miles Plumlee to Charlotte. He averaged 4.4 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 9.0 MPG. He played in 35 games with the Hornets, averaging 7.3 PPG and 4.2 RPG in 17.9 MPG.
Community Shootaround: Awards Show
In past seasons, the winners of all the major NBA awards would have been unveiled weeks ago. The league traditionally announced the biggest awards one-by-one while the playoffs were going on.
The regular season has been over for nearly 2 1/2 months but the league has kept the voting under wraps, except for announcing the finalists for each prize. We’ll finally learn tonight who captured the most votes for Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player along with the biggest individual honor, the Most Valuable Player.
The NBA decided to hold back those announcements this year until after the draft by putting together a two-hour extravaganza on TNT.
All of the awards were based on regular-season performance. The two that hold the most intrigue are the Rookie of the Year and MVP selections. Joel Embiid posted by far the best stats among first-year players but appeared in just 31 games. We’ll find out if that was enough games in the voters’ minds or if his Sixers teammate Dario Saric or the Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon brings home the hardware. Saric and Brogdon were the only unanimous selections for the All-Rookie Team, which was unveiled earlier today.
Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are the three finalists for MVP but most people expect a tight race between Westbrook and Harden. Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson‘s triple-double record, while Harden put up monster numbers of his own after becoming the primary ballhandler in Mike D’Antoni‘s attack.
This leads us to our question of the day: Do you like the idea of having a postseason awards show following the playoffs or would you prefer that the NBA go back to announcing the major awards during the postseason?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Timberwolves Waive Jordan Hill
The Timberwolves have waived power forward/center Jordan Hill, the team announced in a press release.
Hill was signed as a free agent last summer but appeared in just seven games, averaging 1.7 PPG and 2.0 RPG in 6.7 MPG. He inked a two-year, $8.18MM contract but the second year was not guaranteed. He was due to make $4.18MM next season and the club had until June 30th to decide whether to retain him.
The cost-saving move gives Minnesota more money to play with in free agency, as well as to absorb salaries in trades. Given Hill’s lack of playing time, the move comes as no surprise, as Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press tweets.
Hill, 29, has played a total of 409 career games for the Rockets, Knicks, Lakers and Pacers as well as the Timberwolves. He posted averages of 7.9 PPG and 5.8 RPG during those games.
Celtics Renounce Rights To Marcus Thornton
The Celtics have renounced their rights to 2015 second-round pick Marcus Thornton, per RealGM’s transactions log. According to Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald (via Twitter), Boston made the move at Thornton’s request, since he’d like the opportunity to play for another team in Summer League.
Thornton, 24, was the 45th overall pick out of William & Mary in the 2015 draft. He shares a name with a veteran shooting guard, but this isn’t the LSU alum who spent the 2016/17 season with the Wizards — this Thornton has yet to make his NBA debut.
Since being drafted by the Celtics two years ago, Thornton has primarily played international ball, with a brief 2016 stint for the Maine Red Claws sandwich in between overseas stops. In 2016/17, Thornton spent the season with Italian team Consultinvest Pesaro, averaging 13.5 PPG on .436/.342/.747 shooting.
Renouncing Thornton won’t free up any cap room for the Celtics, since draft-and-stash prospects who were second-round picks don’t count against the cap. The move simply looks like an act of good will by the C’s, who didn’t anticipate having a spot on their NBA roster for Thornton anytime soon.
Southwest Notes: Pelicans, Rockets, CP3, Mavs
The Pelicans sent $1.8MM to the Hornets in order to move up from No. 40 to No. 31 on draft night to select Frank Jackson, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). While that’s a significant price to pay to move up nine spots in the second round, New Orleans recouped some of that money later in the night, according to Pincus, who tweets that the Pelicans got $1MM from the Pacers for the No. 52 overall pick.
That 52nd pick in Thursday’s draft initially belonged to Washington, but was acquired by the Pelicans last week in exchange for Tim Frazier. So, in order to acquire the draft rights to Jackson, New Orleans ultimately gave up Frazier, the No. 40 overall pick, and $800K.
Here’s more from around the Southwest division:
- Discussing the Rockets‘ interest in Chris Paul during a spot on ESPN (video link via Ben DuBose), Chris Haynes suggests that he has heard Houston has a “serious chance” to land the veteran point guard.
- Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News takes a closer look at some of the potential free agent targets who figure to be in the Mavericks‘ price range this offseason.
- Mavericks guard Seth Curry still hopes to spend some time at the point, even after the team drafted Dennis Smith Jr., but also believes he and Smith are capable of playing alongside one another. “We’re very different type players,” Curry said, per The Dallas Morning News. “I definitely don’t have his athleticism but hopefully we can do some dynamic things on the court together.”