Southeast Notes: Rivers, Heat, Bamba
When the Wizards exiled big man Marcin Gortat, they did more than simply shed the 34-year-old’s contract, they filled a void that they’ve had for some time, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington writes. The addition of backup combo guard Austin Rivers should alleviate some of the workload on Bradley Beal.
Beal logged the fourth most minutes in the NBA last season but ran out of gas for the Wizards late in the season. Rivers will also slot in behind John Wall at the point, providing capable support at both backcourt positions.
For the addition to work, Rivers will have to change his game slightly. For instance, he’ll have to tone down the volume shooting as part of a larger, competitive Wizards team.
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Heat will bring back their “captain”, 38-year-old Udonis Haslem, for the 2018/19 season. Now, an Associated Press report states, he’ll get to work convincing Dwyane Wade to join him in fending off retirement. “My mindset has always been for us to finish it together,” Haslem said. “I want us to do a whole season together. Experience the road, dinner on the road, go through that whole process. I want us to experience that together.” Wade, of course, played half of last season with the Cavaliers after initially leaving Miami for the Bulls in the summer of 2016.
- The Magic are expected to open the season with Nikola Vucevic as their starting center, team scribe John Denton writes, but the club will make sure that Mohamed Bamba has plenty of time to demonstrate his potential. According to Denton, the rookie has already “greatly impressed” the squad with the improvement he’s made since the end of the NCAA season.
- The Heat have a number of options that Erik Spoelstra will need to mix and match in order to fill his frontcourt. Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes in a mailbag with readers that he views Kelly Olynyk as a change-of-pace backup center behind Hassan Whiteside and James Johnson as the club’s power forward.
Eastern Notes: Knicks, Ntilikina, Pistons
Kristaps Porzingis‘ injury forced the Knicks to change their organizational vision and take a long-term approach to roster building, Nick Zappulla of RealGM writes.
New York enters the season with few short-term expectations, something that will make developing the team’s prospects the priority. Instead of signing veterans this offseason with an eye on wins, the team was able to take low-risk chances on players with high-potential to be long-term fits, such as Noah Vonleh and Mario Hezonja.
With Porzingis, Kevin Knox, and a team of young prospects, the Knicks are finally in a position to build toward the future.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Frank Ntilikina has the chance to steal the show in for the Knicks this season, Zappulla adds in the same piece. Zappulla compares the point guard to Dante Exum minus the injury concerns.
- The Pistons were limited in what they could do this offseason due to cap constraints and they’ll need to find success with continuity on the court and change in leadership off of it, Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders writes. Dowsett has Detroit finishing third in the Central Division.
- Matt John of Basketball Insiders (same piece) expects the Pistons to be on the lookout for a deal should a starter-level player become available on the trade market. John believes any player outside of the expensive Blake Griffin–Andre Drummond–Reggie Jackson trio is movable in the right deal.
Rockets Notes: Morey, Knight, Chriss, Ceiling
GM Daryl Morey believes both Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss will fit nicely into the Rockets‘ system, as Mark Berman of Fox26 passes along via Twitter.
“Typical kind of transaction we try to do. They can be optimized in our system with Coach [Mike] D’Antoni,” Morey said of the two incoming players. We wrote about how Chriss could give the franchise a major piece to use on the trade market earlier today.
Here’s more from Houston:
- Morey was in the Bahamas to see the many of the Rockets‘ players work out together, Berman adds in a separate tweet. “I was super-impressed…I think it’s really critical. The players put it all together themselves,” Morey said.
- Some on the Rockets believe the team is better this season than the 65-win juggernaut that made it to the Western Conference Finals, Morey tells Berman (separate tweet). “Mike’s the most confident of all, which I love. Usually coaches are sandbagging, but Mike feels like we’ve got a better team this year that last year. So we’re very excited,” Morey said.
- The Rockets sit at No. 3 in ESPN’s Future Power Rankings, an index led by Bobby Marks and Kevin Pelton projecting how NBA teams will fare over the next three years. Houston has the second-best roster on the scribe’s rankings, though the team’s age and looming tax concerns may put a ceiling on what it can accomplish over the next three seasons.
Celtics Notes: Irving, Horford, Baynes
The Celtics hold the second spot in ESPN’s Future Power Rankings, with a roster full of players with All-Star potential and as many as three extra first-round picks coming their way next June, as Kevin Pelton details. One of those picks will be Sacramento’s unless it lands at No. 1.
However, the franchise could take a long-term hit this offseason should Kyrie Irving depart in free agency. The Celtics will be capped out and won’t have the ability to sign a major replacement should Irving leave the New England area. If the point guard does stick around, the team will face luxury-tax concerns, though Pelton is confident in GM Danny Ainge’s ability to properly navigate through the potential woes.
Here’s more from Boston:
- We have yet another indicator that Irving should be healthy heading into the Celtics‘ training camp with the point guard playing fullcourt basketball over the weekend, as Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe passes along. Irving was on the court in Miami playing alongside Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kelly Olynyk among others.
- The Celtics will continue to give Al Horford some run at the four, pairing him with Aron Baynes on the court, and A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports believes the duo will provide elite defense in the paint. Baynes and Horford played 13.3 minutes per game together last season and they had the best defensive rating (95.0) among all of Boston’s pairings with at least 10 minutes per game together.
- The Horford-Baynes pairing also provides the team with top 3-point range, as Blakely notes in the same piece. The Celtics shot 44.4% from downtown when the two bigs were on the floor, the best among all the team’s two-man combinations.
Rockets In Position To Make Another Move
The Rockets set a franchise record for most wins in a season with 65 victories last year. The team didn’t take home a coveted NBA championship but GM Daryl Morey believes no matter what pinnacles a franchise reaches, there’s always room to improve.
“When you’re trying to win a title, there’s always fine-tuning, you can always get better,” Morey said (via Mark Berman of Fox 26 on Twitter).
Morey hinted that he wouldn’t hesitate to make a major move should a worthwhile opportunity present itself. “We have all of our draft picks going forward. If something presents itself that allows us to make a trade to improve the team we’re not going to hesitate to do that,” Morey explained.
Houston lost Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute in free agency, though they were able to add Carmelo Anthony and Michael Carter-Williams.
The team also traded away Ryan Anderson, bringing in a former top-10 pick in Marquese Chriss. Chriss, who plateaued during his sophomore campaign with the Suns, is far from a finished product. However, the Rockets should be able to provide him with a better situation to develop, as he’ll be playing alongside established All-Stars and veterans as opposed to a team full of young talent and past-their-prime players.
Should Chriss improve, Morey will have another top trade asset in his arsenal and Houston could be in a position to add a real piece on the trade market.
Chriss, who is owed $3.2MM this season and has a team option on his deal for the 2019/20 season, can be dealt by the team right away, just not in a deal that aggregates his salary with another player. Those restrictions are removed two months after a trade, meaning when the calendar turns to November, Morey can attach Chriss to other players in a trade that brings back a larger salary.
There haven’t been any reports of Chriss being a trade candidate this season, though as we’ve seen with Morey, the wheels are always turning. It’s hard not to see the path that improves Chriss’ trade value early in the season and puts the Rockets in a place where they can yet again be major players on the trade market.
Maverick Notes: Summer 2019, Nowitzki, Roster Spots
Heading into the summer, the Mavericks appeared to have one of the worst long-term situations in the league, with ESPN ranking them 22nd in their future rankings. The list is compiled by Bobby Marks and Kevin Pelton as they project how each team will perform over the next three season.
Dallas made one of the biggest leaps in their latest edition of the power rankings, rising to 17th, fueled by the arrival of Luka Doncic and the signing of DeAndre Jordan, a pair of moves that should make them competitive this season. Marks notes that the team is projected to have $55MM in cap space next summer, so the team could ostensibly move even further up the rankings with a big signing in free agency.
Here’s more from Dallas:
- Dirk Nowitzki plays well with Devin Harris and J.J. Barea, so a move to the second-unit makes sense for the Mavericks, Eddie Sefko of Sports Day opines. Sefko notes that Nowitzki is all but certain to start Game 2 and 81 of the season. Those are the Mavericks’ first and last home games of the season.
- In the same piece, Sefko notes that the Mavs could elect to keep a roster spot open heading into the season. Dallas could be a candidate for a player that gets unexpectedly waived by a rival team.
- The Mavericks‘ reserves are excited to get more playing time with Nowitzki this season, Sefko passes along in a separate piece. “I told him, ‘You’re coming buddy. You’re with us.’ I’ll take him,” Barea said of the future Hall-of-Famer. “He’s all about pick and pop and shoot it. He’s working his butt off, too. Hopefully he stays healthy and can come in and help a little bit. The guys know how to play with him.”
Jonathan Gibson Signs With Chinese Team
Gibson, 30, also appeared in 17 games for the Mavericks during the 2016/17 season but has otherwise spent his professional career playing for a variety of international teams since going undrafted in 2010. His resume includes stops in Turkey, Israel, Italy and Iran as well as China.
News of Johnson’s decision to play in China broke on Monday and the latest Sportando report confirms he’s officially heading overseas.
The 7-foot center was traded twice this summer before the Grizzlies waived him at the end of August. Oklahoma City shipped him to Orlando in exchange for Rodney Purvis on July 20. Three days later, the Magic sent Johnson and the rights to 2015 second-rounder Tyler Harvey to Memphis for Jarell Martin and cash.
The 48th pick in the 2015 draft, Johnson spent the first two years of his career in the G League with Oklahoma City Blue. He saw his first action for the Thunder last season, appearing in 31 games.
Celtics Work Out Marcus Georges-Hunt
The Celtics are working out free agent shooting guard Marcus Georges-Hunt today, Jay King of The Athletic reports.
The 6’5” Georgia Tech alum appeared in 42 games for the Timberwolves last season, averaging 1.4 PPG in 5.3 MPG, after making his NBA debut with the Magic in 2016/17. Georges-Hunt is well-known in the Celtics organization, King notes. He was on their 2016 training camp roster and then playing that season with their G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, averaging 15.8 PPG, 6.4 RPG and 4.4 APG.
The 6’5” Georges-Hunt worked out for the Timberwolves last week, even though they made him a free agent by declining to extend him a qualifying offer earlier in the summer. The Cavaliers also brought him in during a free agent tryout last week, while the Nuggets worked him out last month.
The Celtics currently have 15 players on guaranteed contracts but shooting guard Jabari Bird‘s future with the organization is in doubt. Bird was arrested on Friday night in a domestic incident and has been under a guarded watch at a Boston-area hospital.
Sasha Vujacic Works Out For Two NBA Teams
Longtime NBA shooting guard Sasha Vujacic worked out for the Pelicans on Monday, Andrew Lopez of the New Orleans Times Picayune tweets. The Thunder are hosting Vujacic today as he attempts to return to the league, according to RealGM.
Vujacic revealed last month that he was seeking another NBA contract. He spent the 2017/18 season with Fiat Torino of the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy, helping the team win its first even Italian Cup by scoring the deciding layup in the final seconds.
The workouts for Vujacic can be chalked up as teams exercising due diligence with training camp around the corner. The Pelicans have eight wing players on their roster already, though they continue to look for another option at shooting guard. Their offer sheet to restricted free agent Tyrone Wallace was matched by the Clippers a week ago.
The Thunder have a number of options at shooting guard, including Andre Roberson, Alex Abrines, Terrance Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo, though Roberson is still recovering from a knee injury and could remain sidelined until December.
A 10-year NBA veteran, the 34-year-old Vujacic last played in the NBA during the 2016/17 season, appearing in 42 games for the Knicks and averaging 3.0 PPG and 1.2 APG in 9.7 MPG. The highlight of Vujacic’s NBA career was winning two championships with the Lakers.
Vujacic, 34, also had brief stints with the Clippers and Nets.
Wizards Sign Jordan McRae To Two-Way Deal
SEPTEMBER 11: Washington has officially signed McRae, according to the RealGM transactions log.
AUGUST 9: The Wizards plan to sign Jordan McRae to a two-way contract, Marc Stein of The New York Times reports. The 2014 second-round pick last saw NBA action with the Cavaliers during the 2016/17 season.
McRae, now 27 years old, didn’t make much of an impact during his first two NBA stints with the Cavs and Suns after getting drafted by the Spurs, though he did win a title with Cleveland. He’ll return to the Association after an abbreviated stint playing professionally in Spain.
The shooting guard will occupy Washington’s second two-way slot, with the other currently held by small forward Devin Robinson.