Heat Notes: Whiteside, Haslem, Jack, Anderson
Heat center Hassan Whiteside is accepting his new reserve role without complaining, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Whiteside came off the bench Monday for the first time since he signed a four-year, $98MM contract in July of 2016. Whiteside, who missed the prior three games because of a hip injury, hasn’t been told how long the change will last.
“I came off a 29, 11 game, got hurt. This is what [coach Erik Spoelstra] wants to go with,” Whiteside said. “Can’t do nothing [but] just accept [it] and come out and dominate.”
That represents a change from last season, when Whiteside was vocal about his reduced playing time. Jackson notes that Spoelstra likes the inside combination of Bam Adebayo and Kelly Olynyk and may give them more time to see how they perform as starters. Whiteside, who has a $27MM player option for next season, is trying to make the best of the situation.
“I’m going to keep coming in and try to play the best I can out there,” he said. “It’s going to be a different unit out there. I get to play with (Dwyane Wade) more. I get to look at the bright side. You’re going to play against the backup guys. It’s a little different. You can read the game a little more, kind of see what’s going on, who’s hot, what kind of schemes they’re going with. It gives you some advantages.”
There’s more today from Miami:
- After barely playing all season, 38-year-old Udonis Haslem has gotten first-half minutes in three of Miami’s last four games, Jackson adds in the same story. Haslem, who has indicated he would like to play another year, has appeared in just seven games and logged 28 minutes. “In short bursts, he has given our team a great emotional boost,” Spoelstra said. “Not only do I trust him, but the players trust him.”
- Spoelstra said the Heat have always been “intrigued” by veteran guard Jarrett Jack, Jackson tweets. However, the organization has no plans to add Jack, even though it has two open roster spots. The 35-year-old signed a G League contract last week and was claimed yesterday by Miami’s affiliate in Sioux Falls.
- Ryan Anderson has only played four games and 16 minutes since being acquired from the Suns last month and he probably won’t see much more action, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel. The Heat plan to waive Anderson before his $21.26MM salary for next season becomes fully guaranteed on July 10, and they don’t want to risk an injury that might complicate that strategy.
Playoff Teams With Open Roster Spots
The Warriors became the latest NBA team to fill their final open roster spot today, signing Andrew Bogut to a rest-of-season deal. The move made Golden State the ninth club currently holding a postseason spot to fill its 15-man roster.
Between now and April 10, more teams figure to join that list. During the regular season, there are benefits to carrying 14 – or even 13 – players for long stretches, particularly for healthy teams with luxury-tax concerns. But when the postseason rolls around, there’s little downside to filling the entire roster, even if it just means adding a 15th man during the final week (or day) of the season.
With that in mind, here are the teams in the top eight in each conference that still have at least one open spot on their 15-man rosters and could make a move or two in the coming weeks:
Playoff teams with multiple open roster spots:
- Toronto Raptors (2)
- Houston Rockets (2)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (2)
The Raptors, Rockets, and Thunder will all be required to sign at least one more player in the coming weeks to ensure that they get back up to the NBA-mandated minimum of 14 players. Houston may actually need to make multiple moves, since a third open spot would open on the Rockets’ roster once Terrence Jones‘ latest 10-day contract expires.
Playoff teams with one open roster spot:
- Boston Celtics
- Los Angeles Clippers
- San Antonio Spurs
- Brooklyn Nets *
While the Celtics, Clippers, and Spurs each have one open roster spot, the Nets actually have a full 15-man squad for now. That could change as soon as Friday though, as Tahjere McCall‘s 10-day deal with Brooklyn is set to expire overnight on Thursday.
Playoff contenders with at least one open roster spot:
- Miami Heat (2)
- Sacramento Kings (1)
- Washington Wizards (1)
Of the teams within three games of a playoff spot, these are the ones with roster openings. While the Kings and Wizards may opt not to add reinforcements as they push for a postseason berth, the Heat – like the other teams with two openings – will be required to add a 14th man soon.
For a full breakdown of the current NBA roster counts, be sure to check out our tracker.
Six RFAs Well Positioned For Multiyear Contracts
Restricted free agency can be a minefield for NBA players, who have to work with their agents to determine whether it makes sense to negotiate directly with their own teams or to seek an offer sheet from another suitor.
For certain players, restricted free agency can be a route to a big payday, since teams looking to pry away an RFA from another team might have to overpay to do it —last summer, for instance, Kyle Anderson probably did better as a restricted free agent than he would have if he had been unrestricted. Clint Capela, Aaron Gordon, Dante Exum, and Davis Bertans were among the other RFAs that secured multiyear deals.
However, for some restricted free agents, seeking out that mega-deal can backfire. In past years, RFAs like Nerlens Noel and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope have reportedly turned down lucrative long-term offers and then had to settle for one-year contracts instead. In 2018, Rodney Hood ultimately had to sign his one-year, $3.47MM qualifying offer after failing to land a longer-term pact.
While it’s not necessarily the end of the world if an RFA has to accept a one-year deal that sets him up for unrestricted free agency 12 months later, a long-term deal is generally preferred if the money is right, since that sort of payday can increase a young player’s career earnings exponentially.
Heading into the 2019 free agent period, there are a number of restricted free agents who appear well positioned to secure big multiyear contracts. Here are six of them:
D’Angelo Russell, G (Nets): Russell vowed this week that he’ll win the Most Improved Player award. There are enough worthy candidates for the award that he may not deliver on that promise, but he’s one of the few MIP contenders who took his big leap forward in a contract year. Carrying the Nets in Caris LeVert‘s absence, Russell has significantly increased many of his key counting stats (20.4 PPG, 6.8 APG) while also putting up the best shooting percentages of his career (.436 FG%, .366 3PT%).- Kristaps Porzingis, F/C (Mavericks): Unlike Russell, Porzingis isn’t a candidate for a maximum-salary contract by virtue of the strides he has made this year. In fact, the only strides Porzingis has made are the literal ones required during his ACL rehab. Still, the Mavericks didn’t acquire KP with the intent of taking things year-by-year with him — it would be a major surprise if the two sides don’t reach an agreement on a long-term deal this summer.
- Malcolm Brogdon, G (Bucks): Brogdon has been somewhat overlooked in Milwaukee, where Giannis Antetokounmpo is an MVP frontrunner, Eric Bledsoe just signed a $70MM extension, and Khris Middleton is set to become one of the offseason’s most coveted free agents. But the 26-year-old has been a crucial part of the Bucks’ success, and is on the verge of becoming one of the few players to join the 50/40/90 club, having shot .511/.438/.932 this season. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a rival team try to pry him away from the Bucks in July.
- Terry Rozier, G (Celtics): Rozier hasn’t looked this season like the player who helped lead the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago. But that can be attributed in large part due to a somewhat inconsistent role off the bench. A team with a hole at the point may believe in Rozier’s ability to regain his 2018 postseason form in a starting role. Plus, as is the case with Brogdon, there will likely be teams around the league hoping to poach an asset from a contender.
- Tomas Satoransky, G (Wizards): Satoransky’s importance to the 2019/20 Wizards increased exponentially when John Wall tore his Achilles and was ruled out through the ’19 calendar year. Satoransky doesn’t demand the ball a ton, which makes him a solid fit alongside Bradley Beal, and given Washington’s dearth of point guard options if he walks, he’s well positioned to negotiate a favorable deal with the club.
- Kelly Oubre, F (Suns): With Trevor Ariza drawing interest around the NBA earlier in the season, the Suns opted to trade him for Oubre rather than future draft picks, a signal that they view the former Wizard as a potential long-term piece. The 23-year-old has been a good fit so far, averaging 16.0 PPG and a .442 FG% in 34 games with the Suns. Both would be career highs.
For a full breakdown of the players who could reach restricted free agency this summer, check out our list of 2019 free agents.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Lakers Notes: A. Davis, Deadline Deals, LeBron
Despite Jeanie Buss‘ insistence that the Lakers‘ reported offers for Anthony Davis last month were “fake news,” Shams Charania of The Athletic reiterates that L.A. made “several aggressive offers” for the Pelicans’ star, with Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Josh Hart all included in at least one proposal. However, sources told Charania that the Pelicans had no intent of moving Davis before the offseason, and especially not to the Lakers.
As we previously relayed this week, Buss and the Lakers reportedly believe that rival teams were leaking stories in order to hurt L.A.’s chemistry. However, Charania suggests that Buss may not have been aware of “every aspect of the play-by-play” of those trade discussions, and writes that the Pelicans were also frustrated by the public nature of the talks.
“We get off the phone with (the Lakers), and a minute later, offers are out there,” a Pelicans source said to Charania.
The idea that the Pelicans were leaking the trade offers to hurt the Lakers has become a popular – and somewhat logical – theory, but it hasn’t been confirmed, so the comments by Charania’s source shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. It’s worth noting that most of the reports on those specific offers came from a Los Angeles-based source, the L.A. Times.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Sources tell Charania that the Lakers’ coaching staff and front office both wanted to add more shooting to the roster at the trade deadline, which was what led to the deals for Reggie Bullock and Mike Muscala. Bullock has been solid, but the trade for Muscala, which cost the team Ivica Zubac, hasn’t been a success so far.
- Speaking to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), LeBron James expanded on what he means when he says that “inexperience” has been a problem for the Lakers this season: “You have four guys in our top-eight rotation that you have to really rely on and it’s unfair to them to ask for so much when they’re in their second or third year.”
- In a discussion on the Lakers’ season and future, a panel of ESPN.com writers primarily assigned the blame for a disappointing 2018/19 showing to the front office.
Warriors Sign Andrew Bogut
1:33pm: The Warriors have officially signed Bogut, the team announced today in a press release.
11:18am: Andrew Bogut, who spent the 2018/19 season in Australia’s National Basketball League, has obtained the letter of clearance required to make the move from the NBL to the NBA, agent David Bauman tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). We had heard on Monday that Bogut intended to sign with the Warriors once he received clearance.
With the primary roadblock out of the way, Bogut will now work to officially finalize a one-year, minimum-salary contract with Golden State, Charania adds (via Twitter). The former No. 1 overall pick is expected to join the Warriors sometime during their four-game road trip next week, sources tell Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News. That trip begins in Houston next Wednesday (March 13) and concludes on March 19 in Minnesota.
According to Medina, Bogut also still has to work out logistical details related to his U.S. work visa. He’s mulling whether to have the visa shipped to the U.S. consulate in Sydney or to fly to America on a tourist visa before acquiring his work visa in Vancouver, Medina notes.
Once Bogut sorts out those details, he’ll fill the final open spot on the Warriors’ 15-man roster. As we detailed on Monday, it’s not clear whether that will be Golden State’s final roster move this season. The team had reportedly been considering the idea of adding a wing – perhaps Damion Lee – with that open roster spot, and will have until the last day of the regular season to make any further changes.
Bogut, 34, hasn’t appeared in an NBA game in more than a year, having played his last game for the Lakers on January 1, 2018. However, he was named the MVP and the Defensive Player of the Year in Australia’s NBL this season, making a case for an NBA roster spot by leading the league with 11.7 RPG and 2.7 BPG.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Irving, Knicks, Sixers
It was just yesterday that we were relaying the latest stories on the dysfunction in Boston, including Jaylen Brown‘s comments from earlier this week on the “toxic” environment created by the Celtics‘ losing. Just 24 hours later, the team appears to be in a better place – at least for now – after hammering the defending champions in Golden State.
Asked about the difference between Tuesday’s showing and some of the Celtics’ other recent performances, Kyrie Irving suggested that a long cross-country flight to the Bay Area provided a good bonding opportunity for the club.
“That long plane ride helped us out,” the Celtics’ star point guard said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com. “I’ll just say that. That long plane ride helped us out. We needed it. It was just we were going to get to a point where we were just going to get tired of fighting each other, fighting the outside world. And it doesn’t even really matter. So, we just wanted to come out here and just play basketball. This is our sanctuary. And we have to do everything to protect it. We can’t let anybody infiltrate it.”
While we wait to see whether the C’s can build on Tuesday’s win going forward, let’s round up a few more items from around the Atlantic…
- If the Knicks‘ offseason plan involves aggressively pursuing Kyrie Irving, the drama in Boston this season has to be viewed as a potential red flag, Mike Vaccaro argues in a column for The New York Post.
- Count Clippers head coach Doc Rivers among those who believes the trade sending Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas was the right move for the Knicks, as Marc Berman of The New York Post details. “I think they know what they’re doing,” Rivers said of the Knicks. “Who knows why, but I have a feeling they know what they’re doing. Porzingis said he didn’t want to be there. I get that. If you want to be with the team, great. If you don’t … I thought [president of basketball operations] Steve [Mills] and [GM] Scott [Perry] handled it very well.”
- Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com examines the challenge facing Sixers head coach Brett Brown, who has been tasked with incorporating a pair of newly-acquired stars and developing strong team chemistry within a short window.
Mavericks Notes: Porzingis, Nowitzki, Doncic
Kristaps Porzingis‘ camp contends that a story suggesting that Porzingis didn’t like the idea of playing in New York alongside Kevin Durant is “utter nonsense,” according to Frank Isola of The Athletic. In fact, Isola writes that Porzingis would welcome Durant with “open arms” if the Mavericks were to pursue and land 2019’s top free agent.
While Dallas created additional cap flexibility by trading Harrison Barnes to Sacramento at last month’s trade deadline, the idea of the Mavs signing Durant remains extremely unlikely. It’s possible that Dallas could make a splash in free agency this summer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the top available players remain a little wary of joining the Mavs until they see Porzingis back on the court — and until Luka Doncic gets a little more NBA experience under his belt.
Here’s more on the Mavs:
- Although it’s not clear yet whether this will be Dirk Nowitzki‘s final NBA season, David Aldridge of The Athletic takes a look back at the German’s career and assesses his place in team – and league – history.
- Within Aldridge’s story, Nowitzki says he believes the Mavs are set up well for the future: “Luka has obviously exceeded all expectations — we didn’t think he would be this good. We were hoping he would be this good. But he’s been tremendous, and it’s obviously something to build around. And we had a chance to go for a franchise-like talent like KP; you gotta go for it. Most of the league didn’t even know he was available. That was a steal for us. It obviously hurt, trading some of our guys, basically trading four of our five good starters, but with those two around for a long time, hopefully, it will be good for our franchise.”
- Doncic has been considered a lock for the 2019 Rookie of the Year award for most of the season, but with Trae Young putting up huge numbers in Atlanta, Zach Harper of The Athletic revisits the race to determine whether Doncic still has it sewn up.
- A 30-point home loss to Memphis on Saturday was embarrassing, but the matchup provided a reminder that things could be worse for the Mavericks. As Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News observes, well-paid Grizzlies veterans Mike Conley and Chandler Parsons were two of the free agents that the Mavs either missed out on (Conley) or opted not to sign (Parsons) in 2016. If that summer had gone differently in Dallas, there’s a good chance that Doncic and/or Porzingis wouldn’t be on the roster now, Townsend writes.
Following Specific Players On Hoops Rumors
Hoops Rumors makes it easy to keep up with your favorite NBA teams as they plot their next moves, and we also provide multiple ways to follow the latest updates on all of your favorite players, along with the free agents and trade candidates from around the league.
You can get news about players wherever you go with our Trade Rumors app, available for iOS and Android devices. The app is free and allows you to add a feed for any player and set up notifications that will alert you whenever we write about him. It’s the easiest way to keep tabs on specific players.
If you’re using the desktop or mobile version of our site, there are other ways to follow your favorite player(s). Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find any player by using our search box, by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post in which he’s discussed, or by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, LeBron James‘ page is hoopsrumors.com/lebron-james.
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In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags that we use at the bottom of posts. For example, you can keep tabs on our 2019 NBA draft stories right here. Items about the NBA G League can be found on this page. You can simply scan our top stories here. Again, you can set up an RSS feed with any of these pages by adding /feed to the end of the URL.
Injury Updates: Zion, Anderson, Embiid, Kuzma
Duke star Zion Williamson appears unlikely to play in Saturday’s showdown vs. North Carolina, but fans hoping to watch Williamson during March Madness shouldn’t be worried. In fact, head coach Mike Krzyzewski believes Williamson could return before the NCAA Tournament, dismissing speculation that the forward might shut it down for the season after his recent knee injury.
“He’s getting more confidence, and we just have to get him in shape,” Krzyzewski said, per David M. Hale of ESPN.com. “I don’t think he’ll be ready for [UNC] … but I would be surprised if he wasn’t ready by the ACC tournament.”
As we wait to get another look at the player who will be selected first overall in 2019’s draft, here are a few more injury updates on guys who are already in the NBA:
- Grizzlies forward Kyle Anderson will receive an anesthetic injection in the hopes of alleviating soreness in his right shoulder, the team announced in a press release. Anderson, who hasn’t played since January 30, will be re-evaluated in about two weeks.
- Joel Embiid still isn’t quite ready to return to action for the Sixers. As Martin Frank of The Delaware News Journal relays, head coach Brett Brown is still hoping that Embiid will play this week, but the star center didn’t travel to Chicago for Wednesday’s game. “I believe there’s a chance that he may meet us in Houston (where the Sixers play on Friday),” Brown said of Embiid.
- A precautionary MRI for Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma confirmed that he’s dealing with a minor ankle sprain, according to Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, who tweets that Kuzma could be sidelined for up to a week.
Kelly Oubre Wants To Remain With Suns Long-Term
Kelly Oubre Jr. will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season and while he’s only been in Phoenix for a few months, he’s sure that he wants to stick around long-term.
“Why would I go anywhere else?” Oubre said (via Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports) “I’m here, I’m getting established and I’m not a guy that really wants to be on a million teams in my tenure in the league and I just want to create a dynasty and a legacy here in Phoenix with [Deandre Ayton], [Devin Booker], [Mikal Bridges], all the guys in the locker room. It’s beautiful.”
The Suns have a ways to go in creating a dynasty. They own the second-worst record in the league, as our Reverse Standings show. Despite the lack of success, Oubre believes the team is improving and better days are coming.
“We’re learning from our mistakes that we’ve made in previous games and throughout the season and we’re starting to realize that we are definitely capable of competing with the best so we have to continue to go out there and prove that,” Oubre added. “We’re just trying to get some momentum going into next year.”
The Wizards sent Oubre to the Suns earlier this season in the Trevor Ariza deal, but hours before that, the former first-rounder was nearly dealt to the Grizzlies in a three-team trade that fell apart at the last minute.
“I’m just so happy that Phoenix, (GM James Jones) made the call and traded for me to come to Phoenix man because that was the biggest blessing of my career so far,” Oubre said. “…One-hundred percent I would love to remain Phoenix.”