Joakim Noah Unlikely To Remain With Knicks
The Knicks are planning to part ways with veteran center Joakim Noah before the start of training camp, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Ian Begley of ESPN. League sources say New York will use the stretch provision sometime after September 1 if it can’t find a trading partner before then.
The 33-year-old has been a disappointment ever since the Knicks gave him a four-year, $72MM contract to lure him away from the Bulls two years ago. Noah still has two seasons and $37.8MM remaining on that deal, which has tied up a significant portion of New York’s salary cap and has limited the team’s options in free agency.
By waiting until September 1, the Knicks will lock in Noah’s $18.53MM salary for the upcoming season and can stretch the remaining $19.295MM over three years. That amounts to roughly $6.4MM a year and will open an additional $12.9MM in cap space for next summer, when the Knicks hope to be major players in the free agent market.
Noah had expressed hope that this summer’s coaching change could give him a fresh start in New York, but he doesn’t appear to be in David Fizdale’s plans. Sources told ESPN that GM Scott Perry has been trying to work out a deal involving Noah since February’s trade deadline, but hasn’t been willing to give up a promising young player or future first-round picks. Perry has continued his efforts through the summer without success.
Noah was limited to seven games last summer through a combination of injuries, suspensions and coach’s decisions. He never returned to the team after a heated argument in practice with former coach Jeff Hornacek in January.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Joel Bolomboy To Play In Russia
Former Jazz and Bucks power forward Joel Bolomboy is headed to Russia for the upcoming season, having signed a three-year contract with EuroLeague powerhouse CSKA Moscow, per a press release. It will be the first time that the Ukranian-born big man has played professionally overseas.
“I’m very excited to join CSKA,” Bolomboy said in a statement. “Growing up as a kid it was always a dream to play for the NBA or also the great CSKA Moscow because of my family history. Now I will finally have a chance to do so. It means a lot to me because my mother is from Russia and we have roots here. I look forward to this experience, learning a lot and growing as a young player on and off the court and to this new journey in my career.”
A former second-round pick out of Weber State, Bolomboy spent the 2016/17 season with the Jazz, appearing in 12 games for Utah and 24 contests for the team’s G League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars. After being waived by the Jazz last October, Bolomboy signed a two-way contract with the Bucks. He was cut by Milwaukee in January.
While Bolomboy’s NBA experience has been limited, he has played very well in the G League. In 54 games for Salt Lake City and Wisconsin, the 24-year-old has averaged a double-double (16.5 PPG, 11.2 RPG) with a .553/.389/.744 shooting line.
CSKA Moscow’s interest in Bolomboy was first reported by Sportando back in April. The Russian squad, which has earned a spot in the EuroLeague Final Four for seven straight years, also signed 2017 second-round pick Alec Peters earlier this offseason.
And-Ones: NBAGL Showcase, MVP, Pick, Booker
The NBA G League’s annual showcase, which typically takes place in January, is expected to happen from December 19-22 in Las Vegas this year, sources tell Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days. As Johnson details, the event is typically hosted by a G League team, with the Raptors 905 serving as the host in Mississauga in recent years. However, the showcase will move to a neutral site this year, as the league has outgrown the facilities of most NBAGL cities.
Johnson also notes that G League president Malcolm Turner believes the NBAGL is on track to have 30 teams within the next 12 to 18 months. The league is prepared to enter the 2018/19 season with 27 franchises, as we outlined earlier today. The Pelicans, Nuggets, and Trail Blazers are the only NBA clubs without their own affiliates, but it sounds like Turner expects those teams to get involved in the G League soon.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post revisits one of the most impactful NBA decisions of the last few years, exploring the players’ rejection of salary-cap smoothing in 2015. While the lack of cap smoothing has been the subject of plenty of discussion in recent years, Bontemps provides some interesting new tidbits, including a note that the players’ union expected the NBA to counter when it first turned down the league’s cap-smoothing proposal — the league didn’t come back with a new offer of its own.
- ESPN’s early forecast for the 2018/19 NBA MVP has LeBron James as the odds-on favorite, followed by Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, and the reigning winner, James Harden.
- In an interesting conversation with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, longtime international basketball reporter David Pick explains why he’s looking to make the transition from journalist to agent.
- Alex Kennedy passes along a follow-up note on Trevor Booker‘s deal with China’s Shanxi Brave Dragons, tweeting that Booker received interest from the Cavaliers, Heat, and Timberwolves, and also turned down an offer from Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv before signing with Shanxi.
Trevor Booker To Play In China
Veteran NBA power forward Trevor Booker has announced that he’ll play in China during the 2018/19 season.
“Although I know I belong in the NBA, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be heading to China this upcoming season,” Booker wrote in a tweet. “The summer didn’t pan out as I hoped, but I assure you that I’ll be back on a NBA floor terrorizing people again soon enough.”
While Booker doesn’t name his new team in his announcement, a report over the weekend indicated that he was nearing a deal with the Shanxi Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association. Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype confirms (via Twitter) that Booker has finalized a one-year contract with Shanxi. It’ll be worth $2MM, plus incentives, per Kennedy.
Because the CBA season ends before the NBA season does, Booker should have the opportunity to return stateside and catch on with an NBA team before the playoffs begin next April. Ty Lawson did something similar this past year, signing with the Wizards at the end of the season after spending the rest of the year with the Shandong Golden Stars in China.
Booker, 30, began the 2017/18 campaign with the Nets but was traded to Philadelphia in the deal that send Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas to Brooklyn. When the Sixers signed Ersan Ilyasova later in the season, Booker became expendable and was released. After clearing waivers, he signed with Indiana and finished the season with the Pacers. For the year, he averaged 6.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 1.2 APG in 68 total games (17.0 MPG) for three teams.
NBA Announces Opening Night Schedule
While the NBA won’t announce its full schedule for the 2018/19 regular season until this Friday, the league revealed some marquee matchups today, announcing its schedule for opening night, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, along with some additional nationally-televised opening week games (link via Sam Amick of USA Today).
The opening night of the 2018/19 NBA season will feature the Sixers vs. the Celtics in the early game, followed by the Thunder vs. the Warriors. For our purposes though, the most crucial detail of opening night is the date it will happen — Tuesday, October 16. That means that Monday, October 15 represents an important deadline for a number of contract-related decisions.
Teams will have until 5:00pm central time on October 15 to finalize any rookie scale extensions for 2018. Currently, Devin Booker is the only player to sign a rookie scale extension so far this offseason, leaving 22 players still eligible. Of those players, Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves), Larry Nance (Cavaliers), Justise Winslow (Heat), Bobby Portis (Bulls), Kristaps Porzingis (Knicks), Myles Turner (Pacers), Terry Rozier (Celtics), and Trey Lyles (Nuggets) are among the extension candidates worth keeping an eye on.
October 15 will also be the last day for teams to complete a Designated Veteran Extension, though Kawhi Leonard was the only legit candidate for such a deal and he’s no longer eligible now that the Spurs have traded him. Additionally, October 15 will be the last day for teams to extend a veteran contract with more than one season left on it. Expiring veteran deals can still be extended during the season.
Other deadlines on October 15? It’s the last day for teams to complete sign-and-trade transactions during the current league year. And it’s the final day that an Exhibit 10 contract can be converted into a two-way deal for the coming season.
Finally, October 15 is the deadline for teams to cut their rosters down to 15 players (not counting players on two-way contracts) for the 2018/19 regular season.
NBA G League Affiliations For 2018/19 Season
The NBA G League will move one step closer to having 30 teams, one for each NBA franchise, in the 2018/19 season. With the expansion Capital City Go-Go club joining the mix, we can add the Wizards to the list of NBA teams with their own affiliates.
The Wizards’ NBAGL affiliate will be the league’s 27th franchise, leaving just three NBA teams that don’t have a one-to-one relationship with a G League club. Those teams are the Trail Blazers, Pelicans, and Nuggets.
The Pelicans had initially hoped to have a new G League team of their own in place for the 2018/19 season, but their timetable was delayed. It will likely just be a matter of time until New Orleans launches an NBAGL affiliate, and Portland and Denver probably won’t be far behind.
For 2018/19, here’s the full list of G League affiliates:
Atlanta Hawks: Erie BayHawks
Boston Celtics: Maine Red Claws
Brooklyn Nets: Long Island Nets
Charlotte Hornets: Greensboro Swarm
Chicago Bulls: Windy City Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers: Canton Charge
Dallas Mavericks: Texas Legends
Detroit Pistons: Grand Rapids Drive
Golden State Warriors: Santa Cruz Warriors
Houston Rockets: Rio Grande Valley Vipers
Indiana Pacers: Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Los Angeles Clippers: Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario
Los Angeles Lakers: South Bay Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies: Memphis Hustle
Miami Heat: Sioux Falls Skyforce
Milwaukee Bucks: Wisconsin Herd
Minnesota Timberwolves: Iowa Wolves
New York Knicks: Westchester Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder: Oklahoma City Blue
Orlando Magic: Lakeland Magic
Philadelphia 76ers: Delaware Blue Coats (new nickname)
Phoenix Suns: Northern Arizona Suns
Sacramento Kings: Stockton Kings (relocation)
San Antonio Spurs: Austin Spurs
Toronto Raptors: Raptors 905
Utah Jazz: Salt Lake City Stars
Washington Wizards: Capital City Go-Go (expansion)
NCAA To Allow Undrafted Prospects To Return To School
The NCAA announced today that it is implementing several changes to its rules and policies in response to the federal investigation into college basketball recruiting. The list of changes being made by the NCAA is a lengthy one, and can be read in full right here. However, two tweaks to the current rules are of particular interest from an NBA perspective.
Going forward, the NCAA will allow college players who declare for the NBA draft as early entrants to keep their names in the draft and then return to school if they’re not selected. The previous system forced early entrants to make a decision within 10 days of the conclusion of the draft combine — if they remained in the draft after that point, they lost their NCAA eligibility.
In 2018, 181 college underclassmen initially declared for the draft, but more than 100 of those players withdrew their names before the final NCAA deadline. Under the new system, many of those players could keep their names in the NBA draft and retain their NCAA eligibility if they decide after the draft that they’re not ready to go pro. They’ll have to notify their school’s athletics director of their intent to return by the Monday after the NBA draft.
It’s worth noting that this rule change shouldn’t result in hundreds of extra underclassmen remaining in the draft through June — according to today’s announcement, only early-entrant players who request an evaluation from the NBA’s undergraduate advisory committee and participate in the draft combine are eligible to return to the school following the draft. So a prospect who isn’t invited to the combine still figures to have to make a pre-draft decision.
This change figures to go into effect in 2019 as long as the NBA and NBPA tweak their own rules to ensure that undrafted prospects who return to school are ineligible to play in the NBA during the following season.
Additionally, the NCAA will also allow “elite” high school basketball recruits and college players to be represented by agents. Those agents must be certified by an NCAA program with “standards for behavior and consequences for violations.”
Per the NCAA’s announcement, USA Basketball will be responsible for determining whether or not a high school recruit is considered “elite” and qualifies for an agent. However, a USA Basketball official tells ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link) that USAB hasn’t given its approval for that, so the NCAA itself may be making those elite-prospect designations.
If and when the NBA and NCAA allow high school players to enter the draft, high-schoolers will be eligible to hire an agent beginning on July 1 before their senior year. College prospects will be eligible to hire an agent after any basketball season as long as they request an evaluation from the undergraduate advisory committee.
While there are several other rule changes coming to NCAA basketball, these two look like they’ll have the most significant impact on potential NBA players. While the new rules come with limitations and may only really benefit a small group of prospects, they should help provide those players with more reliable information on whether or not to go pro and more flexibility to return to school if they ultimately decide they’re not ready for the next level.
Trade Rumors: Rockets, Bazemore, Hawks, Heat, Bucks
The Rockets reportedly remain in the market for at least one more wing player, even after reaching a deal with Carmelo Anthony, but Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link) hears that the team isn’t actively pursuing Hawks swingman Kent Bazemore.
According to Amick, Bazemore isn’t a major part of the Rockets’ discussions at this point. Amick suggests (via Twitter) that the Houston front office would have more interest in sending Ryan Anderson to the Heat in a deal that brings back a player like James Johnson or Tyler Johnson.
Of course, any Rockets offer would need to include additional compensation, such as a draft pick and/or a young player, to entice the Heat. Even then, it’s not clear if Miami would be interested in such a trade.
One team with apparent interest in dealing with the Rockets is Atlanta, according to Kelly Iko of RocketsWire (Twitter link). While Houston’s interest in Bazemore seems limited, Iko reports that the Hawks would be open to a trade if they could get a draft pick and a young player such as De’Anthony Melton in addition to Anderson. That asking price may be one reason why the Rockets’ interest in a Bazemore trade appears to have dissipated.
According to Iko (via Twitter), the Bucks have also contacted the Hawks about the possibility of acquiring Bazemore. New Milwaukee head coach Mike Budenholzer was in Atlanta with Bazemore, and Iko indicates the young wing would be open to reuniting with his former coach on a contender. Initial trade discussions between the Bucks and Hawks didn’t get far though, Iko notes.
Timberwolves Sign James Nunnally
AUGUST 8, 10:05am: The Timberwolves have officially signed Nunnally, the team announced today in a press release.
AUGUST 7, 3:26pm: Nunnally’s two-year deal with the Timberwolves will be worth the veteran’s minimum and will include partial guarantees, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
AUGUST 7, 12:57pm: Former Sixers wing James Nunnally is set to return to the NBA, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, who reports (via Twitter) that the Timberwolves have agreed to sign Nunnally to a two-year contract.
Nunnally, who played his college ball at UC Santa Barbara, went undrafted in 2012 and has played in a handful of leagues since then. Besides appearing in 13 total games for the Hawks and 76ers back in 2013/14, the 28-year-old also played in 84 G League contests and has spent time with teams in Greece, Puerto Rico, Spain, Israel, Italy, and Turkey.
Most recently, Nunnally played for Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce, serving as a key rotation player on a club that also featured Brad Wanamaker, Jan Vesely, Luigi Datome, and Jason Thompson. In 29 EuroLeague contests last season, Nunnally averaged 9.3 PPG and made an eye-popping 55.4% of his three-point attempts.
Nunnally, who was also linked to the Trail Blazers and Rockets this offseason, will bring his shooting ability to a Timberwolves roster that was in need of another long-distance marksmen. While a minimum-salary deal seems likely, Minnesota did have the ability to offer its bi-annual exception ($3.382MM) or the rest of its mid-level exception ($2.05MM) if necessary.
Nigel Hayes To Play In Turkey
Former Wisconsin forward Nigel Hayes is headed overseas for the coming season, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, who reports (via Twitter) that Hayes has reached a contract agreement with Turkish club Galatasaray.
Hayes, 23, went undrafted last summer, but joined the Knicks for training camp. A strong showing (16.1 PPG, 6.7 RPG, .454 3PT%) for New York’s G League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks, resulted in a handful of NBA opportunities for the young forward later in the year.
Hayes signed 10-day contracts with the Lakers and Raptors before inking a rest-of-season deal with the Kings. He appeared in nine total games for the three clubs, but was waived by Sacramento last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
According to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, who reported earlier today that Hayes was closing in on a deal with Galatasaray, the Turkish team is also moving toward signing former Hornets and Mavericks guard Aaron Harrison. Harrison finished the 2017/18 season with Dallas but is now an unrestricted free agent.