LeBron James, Cavs Favoring Collin Sexton With No. 8 Pick?
What the Cavaliers do at No. 8 will be one of the more intriguing plotlines at the NBA Draft. Cleveland likely won’t yet have a solid grasp on what LeBron James is thinking in regard to his future with the club. He has until June 29, eight days after the draft, to make a decision on opting out, though if the Cavs feel they have a good chance at retaining LBJ, perhaps they trade the selection for a veteran playmaker.
Turning the draft pick into a player who can help James sooner may appease the four-time MVP, but if the Cavs keep the selection, James appears to have a preference on which prospect to select.
According to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com (via ESPN’s Jordan Zirm), James and his camp are high on Alabama’s Collin Sexton. It’s worth noting that owner Dan Gilbert was present during the team’s workout with the point guard.
Ashish Mathur of Amico Hoops hears that Sexton is a “strong possibility” for the Cavs’ top selection. The point guard averaged 19.2 points per game during his lone season in the SEC.
Suns Notes: Trades, Bagley, Coaching
Deandre Ayton is expected to be the selection for the Suns with the No. 1 pick, but Greg Moore of The Arizona Republic believes there’s a case to be made for the team to select Marvin Bagley III either with the top selection or as a result of trading down.
Moore suggests the team could send the No. 1 pick to Atlanta for the No. 3 and Dennis Schroder if Phoenix wants to get creative. In addition to the top choice, the Suns own the 16th, 31st, and 59th overall selections.
Here’s more from the franchise:
- Suns GM Ryan McDonough recently compared Bagley to four-time All-Star Shawn Marion, Moore relays in the same piece.“We’ve seen a lot of that in our in-person scouting and on film,” McDonough said. “He’s really bouncy.”
- The Suns will add Jason Staudt as an assistant coach, John Gambadoro of Arizona’s 98.7 FM reports (Twitter link). Staudt has previously worked in various roles with the Magic, Blazers, and Rockets.
- Devin Smith will join the Suns as a player development coach, Gambadoro adds in the same tweet.
- We learned over the weekend that Phoenix won’t consider including the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft in any attempts to acquire Kawhi Leonard. The 2016/17 MVP candidate reportedly wants to the Spurs to trade him.
Southeast Notes: Heat, Draft, Bamba, Wiz
The Heat don’t have a selection in Thursday’s draft and the team isn’t expected to make major moves in an attempt to land a top pick, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel relays.
“I think this is not a deep draft,” Heat vice president of player personnel Chet Kammerer said. “I kind of compare it to the college basketball season. This past year, there weren’t that many good teams. There were just a bunch of average or maybe slightly better. There were good teams but not great teams.”
Phoenix holds Miami’s first-rounder from the Goran Dragic deal and the team’s second-round pick was dealt to the Grizzlies in a 2016 trade that sent Chris Andersen to Memphis in order to save on the luxury tax.
Here’s more from the Southwest:
- Outside of Jonathan Isaac, the Magic are not tied down to any player on the roster long-term, Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated writes. Orlando holds the No. 6 pick and Woo argues that Mohamed Bamba is an ideal selection given the team’s draft history.
- The Hornets should be taking a long-term view in the upcoming draft and high-upside prospects like Kevin Knox or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander make sense at No. 11, Woo contends in the same piece. The scribe adds that if Charlotte selects a point guard in the first round, it could signal the end of the Kemba Walker era.
- Depth has long been an issue for the Wizards, especially at the point guard position, and Candace Buckner of The Washington Post examines which prospects the team may consider at No. 15 if it looks to find a long-term backup to John Wall. Aaron Holiday, the brother of New Orleans point guard Jrue Holiday, is among the players Washington should consider, Buckner writes.
NBA Salary Guarantee Dates For Summer 2018
Most NBA teams have at least one player on their books with a non-guaranteed salary or a partially guaranteed salary for the 2018/19 season. In the majority of those cases, the team has the ability to waive the player and get off the hook for that entire salary before it becomes guaranteed. However, many of those decisions will be due well before next year’s regular season gets underway.
Below, we’ve broken down the upcoming salary guarantee dates for many players currently on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts for 2018/19. Not every player on a non-guaranteed deal is included here — if a player’s contract doesn’t include any early salary guarantee dates, and won’t become fully guaranteed until January 2019, we’ll look at his deal at a later date.
For now, we want to get a better idea of which teams will have to make decisions on salary guarantees during or before the free agent period. So if a player’s non-guaranteed contract becomes fully or partially guaranteed during the months of June, July, August, or September, that’s noted below.
When his deadline date passes, we’ll note below if a player was waived. If he remained on the roster, receiving his guarantee, that’s noted with a ✔️ symbol. However, since teams and players can agree to push back guarantee dates, we’ll wait for confirmation one way or the other on those guarantees — if a player simply remains on the roster, without any updates, we won’t necessarily assume his deal has become guaranteed.
With the help of contract information from Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders and ESPN’s Bobby Marks, here are this summer’s upcoming salary guarantee dates by team:
Atlanta Hawks
- Isaiah Taylor: $1,544,951 salary becomes partially guaranteed for $300,000 after June 30. Full salary becomes guaranteed after July 27. (Waived)
Boston Celtics
- Daniel Theis: $1,378,242 salary becomes guaranteed after July 10. (✔️)
- Semi Ojeleye: $1,378,242 salary becomes guaranteed after July 15. Already partially guaranteed for $901,965. (✔️)
Brooklyn Nets
- None
Charlotte Hornets
- None
Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Nurse, Irving, Canales
The Sixers don’t have enough room on their roster to take on all six of their 2018 draft picks, let alone sign free agents this summer or bring 2017 draft-and-stash prospect Jonah Bolden over from Israel. For that reason, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer says that moves can be expected.
Pompey lists multiple scenarios in which the Sixers could shake up their payroll, either packaging first-round picks and a player to move into the top five in hopes of landing Luka Doncic or Michael Porter Jr., or simply just trading into the top seven or eight and targeting Mikal Bridges.
Of course the Sixers could also be slightly more ambitious and put together a package of their 2018 No. 10 pick, Markelle Fultz, Robert Covington or Dario Saric and look to make a play for Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division today:
- After 27 years as a coach, Nick Nurse finally became the lead man on an NBA bench. Michael Grange of Sportsnet documented the man’s journey and the process that Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri went through before promoting him.
- The Celtics believe that point guard Kyrie Irving is happy in Boston, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe reports, despite recent speculation otherwise.
- The Knicks are adding Kaleb Canales as an assistant coach, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN writes. Canales had previously spent time with the Trail Blazers and Mavericks.
Northwest Notes: Thibodeau, Nurkic, Katsikaris
There is no chance that the Timberwolves trade Karl-Anthony Towns, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes, despite the fact that there’s room for the relationship between he and the front office to improve.
Although that bond is far from irreparable, it pales between that of Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau and All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler. Butler, of course, played for Thibodeau as a member of the Bulls and the two share similarly passionate approaches to basketball.
With the 2018/19 season on the horizon, however, Thibodeau will need to find a way to bridge the gap between himself and players on the Timberwolves’ roster that weren’t exposed to him in Chicago, a problem that Krawczynski writes traces back to a lack of communication.
There’s more out of the Northwest this afternoon:
- The Thunder are hoping to hit big with their two late draft picks, Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman writes, noting that the fact that they’ll fall so late in the draft (No. 53 and No. 57) means they’ll come with less of a financial burden and less pressure to pan out.
- The Trail Blazers need not rush out and blow up their roster, Bobby Marks of ESPN writes, suggesting that the team shouldn’t be punished for overachieving last season and ultimately getting overpowered in the postseason. Marks also adds that Portland fans can expect a long drawn-out restricted free agency process for Jusuf Nurkic, unless he decides to sign his $4.8MM qualifying offer.
- The Jazz are “in discussion” to hire Greek coach Fotis Katsikaris to serve as an assistant under Quin Snyder, Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News. If hired, Katsikaris would fill the void left by Igor Kokoskov. It had been previously reported that Katsikaris had already been hired to a contract but those reports, Woodyard tweets, were premature.
Draft Updates: Musa, Knox, Williams, Sixers
The Nets may be willing to package their picks to move up for Bosnia’s Dzanan Musa, according to Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The 19-year-old small forward has spent the past week visiting teams that might be willing to use a first-round selection on him. The Nets hold the 29th pick, but may have to give up their second-rounders at 40 and 45 to get into Musa’s range.
Musa has two years remaining on his contract with KK Cedevita in the EuroLeague, but he plans to come to the NBA next season.
“I want to compete at the highest level and to compete with the best players in the world,” Musa said in an interview with CBS Sports affiliate 1430-AM in Indianapolis. “[My strength is] scoring: shooting, midrange floaters, to the rim. … I just want to get picked by the team who sees me as a project. But I think I’m a lottery pick for sure.”
There’s more draft-related news to pass along:
- Musa is scheduled to participate in a workout with the Jazz today, tweets Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News. With him are Louisville’s Deng Adel, Cincinnati’s Jacob Evans, USC’s De’Anthony Melton, Lithuania’s Arnoldas Kulboka and Duke’s Gary Trent Jr.
- Kentucky forward Kevin Knox tells Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer that he expects to be taken between the sixth and 12th picks on Thursday (Twitter link).
- Knox participated in a session today with the Hornets, according to a story on the team website. Also on hand were Oregon’s Troy Brown, Colorado’s George King, Maryland-Baltimore County’s Jairus Lyles, UNLV’s Brandon McCoy, Mercer’s Demetre Rivers, Western Michigan’s Thomas Wilder and Bosnia’s Billy Preston.
- Texas A&M center Robert Williams will hold a solo workout for the Wizards tomorrow, according to a tweet from the team. Washington holds pick No. 15.
- The Sixers also have a workout scheduled for Monday, mainly for players projected to go in the second round, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Scheduled to attend are Seton Hall’s Angel Delgado, Bucknell’s Nana Foulland, Butler’s Kelan Martin, Purdue’s Dakota Mathias, Arizona’s Allonzo Trier and George Washington’s Yuta Watanabe.
- Trier was part of a session Saturday for the Pistons that also included Purdue’s Isaac Haas, Texas A&M’s DJ Hogg, Wake Forest’s Doral Moore and North Carolina’s Theo Pinson. Maryland’s Justin Jackson had an individual workout.
Weekly Mailbag: 6/11/18 – 6/17/18
We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.
Who do you see the Kings selecting with the second overall pick now that Iman Shumpert has opted in? — Pat Aukes
Shumpert’s decision really doesn’t factor into Sacramento’s draft strategy. His contract only runs for another year, and the Kings have to be thinking about the long-term future with this draft. Luka Doncic was considered a co-No. 1 prospect with Deandre Ayton for most of the winter, and the Kings are said to have their eyes on Michael Porter Jr., assuming team doctors approved him at Friday’s medical exam. If they really want Porter, their best move is find a team that likes Doncic and trade down a few spots. The Kings need a lot of help up front, so if they stay at No. 2, look for them to take Marvin Bagley III or Jaren Jackson Jr.
Considering the deep draft, who are the teams most willing to trade on draft night? — Fernando Bravo
The Grizzlies have let it be known that their selection at No. 4 is available to anyone willing to take on Chandler Parsons‘ contract, and as we relayed earlier today, the Sixers have more draft picks than open roster spots. We could see a lot of movement on draft night as this year’s crop of players offers intriguing prospects through the middle of the first round. Porter presents a wild card that makes this year’s draft especially unpredictable. He may have been in contention for the No. 1 spot without the back injury, and it’s hard to say who might try to engineer a trade to get their hands on him. The farther he falls on draft night, the more likely it is that someone will be willing to take the risk.
Which player will be the first shock with how early he went? — Jimmy Robinson, via Twitter
There are several contenders, especially after the way Donovan Mitchell shocked the league after falling to 13th last year. No one wants to miss the next Mitchell, so teams are taking a long look at prospects pegged to go in the middle of the first round. One potential surprise is Kentucky guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who turned into a star for the Wildcats over the second half of the season. He stands 6’6″ with a 7-foot wingspan and can handle either backcourt position. Don’t be surprised if he moves into the top 10.
Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Bolden, Knicks, Mozgov
The Sixers don’t have room on their roster to accommodate all six picks that they own, so expect a trade or two by draft night, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia heads into Thursday’s draft with the 10th and 26th selections in the first round, plus Nos. 38, 39, 56 and 60 in the second round.
One option is trying to package both picks along with a player to move into the top five, Pompey notes. Another is a smaller deal to inch up a couple of spots and increase the odds of landing Villanova’s Mikal Bridges. The Sixers could also swing for the fences on Kawhi Leonard, offering the Spurs the 10th pick, Markelle Fultz and either Dario Saric or Robert Covington.
- Philadelphia needs to make room on its roster for Jonah Bolden, a 2017 second-rounder who is expected to come to the NBA next season, Pompey adds in the same story. A 6’10” stretch four, Bolden played for Maccabi Tel Aviv this year in the Israel Premier League.
- Mikal Bridges and Kentucky’s Kevin Knox would both be good fits for the Knicks, ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenburg tells Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Even though Kristaps Porzingis is expected to be sidelined until at least December with a torn ACL, Greenburg believes the priority should be to find a player who complements him. “You’re not winning today,” Greenberg said, “so I think you’ve got to approach it like, ‘Who will play best with Porzingis?’ You’ve got to give Porzingis something to get excited about. Who’s going to fit with him? I think Knox and Bridges can both.” He adds that the Knicks should avoid drafting another point guard, even if Trae Young or Collin Sexton is available at No. 9.
- The agent for Timofey Mozgov has talked to the Nets about his client’s lack of playing time, but hasn’t demanded a trade or discussed a buyout, relays Brian Lewis of The New York Post. With two years and $33.7 million remaining on his contract, Mozgov is virtually untradeable, and Lewis points out that the Nets are unlikely to go through with another buyout while they’re still paying Deron Williams. “I don’t know any reason why I first lost my place in the starting five and then not playing even a minute,” Mozgov said. “But it’s the head coach’s decision and he is responsible for result. I tried to speak to [Kenny] Atkinson, but he was not able to give me an answer.”
Cavaliers Notes: Nance, Clarkson, Hill, Leonard
The Cavaliers aren’t likely to launch a complete rebuilding project if LeBron James leaves in free agency, writes writes Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com. Three of the players Cleveland acquired at this year’s trade deadline — Larry Nance Jr., Jordan Clarkson and George Hill — are all under contract for next year, and the Cavs want to see what they can do when they’re with the organization from the start of the season.
Cleveland is likely to discuss an extension with Nance, who will make $2.3MM next season on the final year of his rookie contract. Teams have called about trading for Nance, Pluto states, but the Cavaliers seem committed to keeping him. Clarkson struggled in the playoffs, but was a valuable bench scorer during the regular season and the Cavs recognize that this was his first postseason experience. Hill has limited trade value with a $17MM contract.
The future is more unpredictable for Rodney Hood, who seemed like a good young player in Utah but had a miserable time after the trade. Pluto expects the Cavaliers to tender a $3.4MM qualifying offer, giving them the right to match any offer Hood receives in free agency.
There’s more Cavaliers news this morning:
- Cleveland is among the teams trying to pry Kawhi Leonard away from the Spurs, but assembling a workable offer won’t be easy, Pluto adds in the same story. Kevin Love, who will make $24.1MM next season with a player option close to $25.6MM for 2019/20, would be useful for salary-matching purposes, but San Antonio seems more interested in acquiring young talent than an established player like Love.
- Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t think LeBron James should let the pursuit of more championships guide his free agency decision, relays Scott Gleeson of USA Today. “My problem toward the end of my career was I was trying to shut everybody up and I was greedy [for more championships],” O’Neal said. “After I got to three [titles], everybody was saying I couldn’t get another. So I got four. After I got the fourth, they were saying I couldn’t get another one. So I was trying to make quick stops to get it. Phoenix, Cleveland, Boston.” O’Neal adds that it will be difficult for James to overcome the Warriors no matter where he goes.
- James’ decision will dominate the summer, but the Cavs have some under-the-radar moves to make as well, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN. Cleveland has a team option on veteran center Kendrick Perkins that must be exercised by June 29. His $2.4MM salary for 2018/19 would be non-guaranteed. Okaro White, who was signed late in the season, will get a chance to show what he can do during summer league. Half of his $1.5MM salary for next year will become guaranteed if he is still on the roster Aug. 5.