Juan Hernangomez Undergoes Surgery For Core Muscle Injury
Nuggets power forward Juan Hernangomez has undergone successful surgery to repair a core muscle injury, the team announced today in a press release. The procedure was performed on Thursday morning in Philadelphia.
The Nuggets didn’t announce a recovery timetable for Hernangomez, but T.J. McBride of Mile High Sports points out (via Twitter) that the 23-year-old told reporters at season’s end that he expects to head back to Spain after two or three weeks in Denver. So it sounds as if he’ll complete his rehab in his home country before potentially suiting up for Spain in the World Cup in September.
Hernangomez was a regular part of Denver’s rotation in 2018/19, averaging 5.8 PPG and 3.8 RPG with a .439/.365/.767 shooting line in 70 games (19.4 MPG).
Although his overall numbers were solid, Hernangomez was far more effective in the first half of the season. He recorded 10.2 PPG and 5.8 RPG on .485/.431/.795 shooting through December 31, then was “clearly hampered” by his injury down the stretch, tweets Nick Kosmider of The Athletic.
Hernangomez will earn about $3.32MM in the final year of his rookie contract in 2019/20. He’ll be eligible for restricted free agency a year from now if he doesn’t agree to an extension with the Nuggets during the 2019 offseason.
Lakers Notes: No. 4 Pick, Cap Room, Kidd
The NBA’s new draft lottery format benefited the Lakers in a big way on Tuesday night. Under the old system, the lottery would have been complete once the first three picks were determined. This year though, one additional drawing was conducted, allowing the Lakers to defy the odds and move up all the way from No. 11 to No. 4. As Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com details, general manager Rob Pelinka was thrilled by the outcome.
“This is a powerful asset for us,” Pelinka said on a conference call. “We owe a commitment to our fans to have an outstanding season next year. What this does is it gives us the ability to either select an impact player at [No.] 4 or possibly use this as an extremely valuable asset in trade.”
While having a lottery pick just outside of the top 10 would have been useful for the Lakers, moving into the top five represents an “extraordinary shift” for the franchise, according to Pelinka.
“I mean, top-five picks in the draft, if you go back in the history and study them, those picks can alter and impact franchises,” Pelinka said. “This is a big moment for us. Last year, of course, we had to go through some hard and difficult things that this is certainly a great silver lining. Our dedication is really toward our fans right now and doing all we can to deliver a really special Lakers season for our fans.”
As we wait to see what the Lakers do with their pick, let’s round up a few more notes on the team…
- The one downside of the Lakers’ move up to No. 4 is that the increased cap hold for the higher pick will cut into their projected space, tweets cap expert Larry Coon. Based on the NBA’s current projections, it also may affect the team’s ability to land a max free agent. Our updated cap digest shows the Lakers can create $32.5MM in projected room — the maximum salary for a free agent like Kyrie Irving or Jimmy Butler (with 7-9 years of experience) would be $32.7MM.
- The Lakers don’t need to blow up their roster or their front office, but they’d benefit from adding some experience in both areas, according to Arash Markazi of The Los Angeles Times, who makes the case for why the team should hire an accomplished executive and add at least one or two veteran players this offseason.
- The Lakers are asking for trouble by hiring Jason Kidd as an assistant coach, says Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times, arguing that the Kidd decision is the most baffling one the team has made in recent months.
- Ohm Youngmisuk and Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com recently took a deep dive into the Lakers’ front office hierarchy to determine who has the most influence and who’s calling the shots. Sources tell ESPN that Jeanie Buss, Rob Pelinka, Kurt Rambis, and Linda Rambis “operate as a group on basketball decisions.”
2019 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Houston Rockets
After an early-season slump that was widely attributed to the loss of key role players during the 2018 offseason, the Rockets bounced back in a big way, adding new contributors to the rotation and roaring into the postseason with a ton of momentum. For a second straight year, however, Houston saw its momentum halted in the playoffs by the Warriors, sending Daryl Morey and the front office back to the drawing board.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Rockets financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:
Guaranteed Salary
- Chris Paul ($38,506,482)
- James Harden ($38,150,000) 1
- Clint Capela ($14,896,552)
- Eric Gordon ($14,057,730)
- P.J. Tucker ($8,349,039)
- Gary Clark ($708,426) — Partial guarantee. Non-guaranteed portion noted below.
- Isaiah Hartenstein ($708,426) — Partial guarantee. Non-guaranteed portion noted below. 2
- Troy Williams ($122,741) — Waived via stretch provision
- Total: $115,499,396
Player Options
- Nene ($3,825,360)
- Total: $3,825,360
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Chris Chiozza ($1,416,852)
- Michael Frazier ($1,416,852)
- Gary Clark ($708,426)
- Isaiah Hartenstein ($708,426) 2
- Total: $4,250,556
Restricted Free Agents
- Danuel House ($1,876,700 qualifying offer / $1,876,700 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Vince Edwards (two-way qualifying offer / $1,443,842 cap hold): Non-Bird rights 3
- Total: $3,320,542
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Iman Shumpert ($16,516,851): Bird rights
- Tarik Black ($3,948,000): Non-Bird rights 4
- Kenneth Faried ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights
- Gerald Green ($1,618,486): Early Bird rights
- Joe Johnson ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights 4
- Austin Rivers ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights
- Markel Brown ($1,443,842): Non-Bird rights 4
- Trevon Duval ($1,443,842): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $29,826,479
Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000
Offseason Cap Outlook
- Realistic cap room projection: $0
- The Rockets won’t be in position to create cap room this summer. They’re more likely to end up over the tax line rather than below the cap, unless they fill out the back half of their roster on the cheap.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Trade exception: $1,544,951 (expires 8/2/19)
- Trade exception: $2,584,136 (expires 9/2/19)
- Trade exception: $955,172 (expires 1/7/20)
- Trade exception: $1,512,601 (expires 1/22/20)
- Trade exception: $3,620,016 (expires 2/7/20)
- Trade exception: $3,206,160 (expires 2/7/20)
- Trade exception: $1,621,415 (expires 2/7/20)
- Trade exception: $1,544,951 (expires 2/7/20)
- Trade exception: $1,512,601 (expires 2/7/20)
- Taxpayer mid-level exception: $5,711,000 5
Footnotes
- This is a projected value.
- Hartenstein’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 15.
- The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap, but their cap holds do during the offseason.
- The cap holds for Black, Johnson, and Brown remain on the Rockets’ books because they haven’t been renounced after going unsigned in 2018/19. They can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
- This is a projected value. If the Rockets stay below the tax apron, they’d instead have access to the full mid-level exception ($9,246,000) and the bi-annual exception ($3,619,000).
Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Zion Williamson Not Considering Return To Duke
Since the Pelicans landed the first overall pick in Tuesday night’s draft lottery, there has been speculation that top prospect Zion Williamson may not want to play in New Orleans. That idea has prompted reporters like ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (video link) and Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link) to point out that Williamson could technically decide to return to Duke before the NCAA’s May 29 withdrawal deadline for early entrants.
However, according to Williamson’s stepfather, Lee Anderson, that’s not a scenario that Zion’s camp is seriously weighing.
As Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com relays (via Twitter), Anderson said today in a radio appearance in Baton Rouge that Williamson is “excited about the prospect of getting down there and getting settled” in New Orleans, adding that returning to Duke “is not something that we have even considered.”
The idea of Williamson withdrawing from the draft, spending another season with the Blue Devils, and entering the 2020 draft always seemed highly unlikely. The No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft projects to earn over $9.7MM in his rookie year, so the Duke forward would have had to pass up on that salary to play for free in college for another year. It also would’ve pushed his first big NBA free agent payday back by a year.
Beyond the money aspect, there’s also no guarantee that the team landing the No. 1 pick in 2020 would be any more favorable. While New Orleans is considered a small market by NBA standards, there are certainly worse places to live and worse places to play — with Jrue Holiday under contract and a trade haul for Anthony Davis possibly on the way, it’s not as if the Pelicans’ cupboards are bare.
On top of all that, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that Williamson had a positive meeting with the Pelicans this week in Chicago at the draft combine. Prior to the lottery, Zion had cited New Orleans as one of his preferred landing spots, according to Charania, who adds that the youngster also met with the Grizzlies in Chicago.
We won’t have a clear picture of which NCAA prospects are remaining in the draft until after May 29, and the full early entry list won’t be officially announced until after the NBA’s own withdrawal deadline of June 10, but it seems pretty safe at this point to say that Williamson won’t be among those prospects pulling out of the 2019 draft pool.
Central Notes: Pistons, Adams, Cavaliers, Ham
Per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com, the Pistons should disregard any positional need with the No. 15 overall selection in this year’s draft and simply pick the player whom the team feels with have the biggest impact during his rookie contract.
Langlois provides examples of teams who have had success employing the same strategy, noting the Spurs in 2011 (traded George Hill for Kawhi Leonard when they had Richard Jefferson) and the Bucks in 2013 (shocked the world by drafting Giannis Antetokounmpo while already having John Henson and Ersan Ilyasovsa on the roster) as ideas for the Pistons to emulate.
One would think that the Pistons should look to upgrade their backcourt to complement both Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond, but as Langlois notes, Drummond can opt out of his contract after next season and Griffin is versatile enough to play alongside another power forward.
So who should the Pistons take? For now, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony has Detroit taking Indiana swingman Romeo Langford, his 11th ranked prospect and the top-ranked player left on the board when the Pistons make their selection.
There’s more from the Central Division tonight:
- In addition to adding Chris Fleming to his staff, Bulls’ head coach Jim Boylen is trying to add one more assistant, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. The top candidate appears to be Texas Tech assistant coach Mark Adams.
- The Cavaliers were left without an identity for the first time in nearly two decades when homegrown superstar LeBron James left for Los Angeles, but as Ben Golliver of The Washington Post writes, new head coach John Beilein should be able to create a new identity and culture for the franchise.
- As we relayed yesterday afternoon, Bucks’ assistant coach Darvin Ham has been identified by the Timberwolves as another head coaching candidate under Gersson Rosas and the team’s new front office.
Southeast Notes: Connelly, Heat, Ressler
Now that the Nuggets’ season is over after a thrilling seven-game series loss to Portland, the Wizards are ramping up their efforts to hire Denver’s current president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to the same position in Washington, per Ben Standig of NBC Sports Washington.
While there were questions as to why the Wizards would wait until the Nuggets’ season was over to pursue Connelly, Standig notes that Connelly wasn’t expected to fully explore a move until the Nuggets’ playoff run ended, despite reportedly having interest in running the Wizards.
The Nuggets appear to have an extremely bright future, but Connelly is from Baltimore and began his front office career in Washington in 1996 when he was hired as intern before working his way up to director of player personnel under then-general manager and Wizards’ legend Wes Unseld.
The Nuggets have been in a similar situation as this before. Back in 2013, Nuggets’ GM Masai Ujiri took the same position with the Raptors after team owner Stan Kroenke acquiesced to Ujiri’s desire to return to Toronto. It will interesting to see if a similar situation will arise with Connelly and the Wizards.
There’s more from the Southeast Division this evening:
- While it remains highly unlikely that either Hassan Whiteside or Goran Dragic opt out of their contract with the Heat, Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel relays that even if they did, Miami would still need to use the stretch provision on veteran forward Ryan Anderson just to get close to having enough cap space to sign a max-salary free agent. The more likely scenario is a trade of Dragic, but not Whiteside, after both opt in, especially considering the unlikelihood of a free agent wanting to sign with Miami if Whiteside and Dragic are both gone.
- In another Q&A session for the Sun-Sentinel (link), Winderman agrees with one of his readers that the Heat probably mistimed their rebuild by beginning a little too early. Rather, they should have followed the lead of other Eastern Conference contenders and waited for LeBron James to leave the East before going into rebuild mode.
- Despite a overwhelming consensus that this year’s draft crop is lacking in overall talent, Hawks’ owner Tony Ressler is not using that as an excuse, telling Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “If we can’t make two top-10 picks work for us, it’s our fault. Our job is to make them work and I think we will.”
Lottery Promise For Darius Garland?
7:53pm: Per John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, the Suns, while interested, have not made a promise to Garland.
6:15pm: Vanderbilt’s Darius Garland, a projected top-five pick in this year’s draft, will skip this week’s NBA Draft Combine, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, who adds that Garland’s departure from Chicago may be tied to a promise from a team picking in the lottery.
The three likeliest teams to have given that promise appear to be the Lakers, Suns, or Bulls, who pick fourth, sixth, and seventh, respectively. The Cavs, who pick fifth, selected Collin Sexton in last year’s lottery, and are therefore unlikely to add another point guard to their roster with their top selection.
Phoenix and Chicago, meanwhile, are both widely known to be looking for a franchise point guard to complement their young, promising rosters, while the Lakers have the first opportunity to select a player after the presumptive top-three players (Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, and R.J. Barrett) are selected by the Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Knicks, respectively.
Despite appearing in only five games for Vanderbilt this season due to a season-ending knee injury, Garland has continued to move up draft boards after averaging 16.2 PPG on an impressive .537/.478/.750 shooting in those five games. He is widely considered the No. 2 point guard prospect behind Morant.
Grizzlies “Locked In” On Selecting Ja Morant
In more draft news coming out of Chicago this evening, Jonathan Givony of ESPN is reporting that the Grizzlies have zeroed in on Murray State point guard Ja Morant as their pick for the No. 2 overall selection in this summer’s 2019 NBA Draft.
Memphis, still looking for a new head coach after the ousting of J.B. Bickerstaff, will look to count on Morant to join last year’s lottery selection Jaren Jackson Jr. in leading a rebuild that began with the trade of franchise cornerstone Marc Gasol earlier this year and could see Gasol’s longtime running mate Mike Conley be traded soon as well.
Last night’s runner-up finish in the lottery was a serendipitous turn of events for Memphis, who only had a 12.3% chance of landing a top-2 pick. For months now, it was rumored that the Grizzlies would have preferred to lose their pick (top-8 protected) to the Celtics, but that was under the assumption that the pick didn’t land at the top of the draft.
However, because the Grizzlies kept their 2019 pick, the Celtics now own Memphis’ 2020 first-round pick if it falls out of the top six. In other words, it may pay for Grind City to be at the bottom of league standings again next season, making it all the more likely that Conley is traded sooner rather than later.
2019 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Boston Celtics
After making the Eastern Conference Finals in 2018 without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward in their lineup, the Celtics were widely viewed as the favorites to come out of the East in 2019. Instead, Boston struggled all season to live up to those preseason expectations, with fit and role concerns plaguing the team’s veterans and young players alike. Bringing back the same group seems unpalatable, so it could be a summer of change in New England.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Celtics financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:
Guaranteed Salary
- Gordon Hayward ($32,700,690)
- Marcus Smart ($12,553,571)
- Jayson Tatum ($7,830,000)
- Jaylen Brown ($6,534,829)
- Guerschon Yabusele ($3,117,240)
- Robert Williams ($1,937,520)
- Demetrius Jackson ($92,857) — Waived via stretch provision
- Total: $64,766,707
Player Options
- Al Horford ($30,123,015)
- Kyrie Irving ($21,329,752)
- Aron Baynes ($5,453,280)
- Total: $56,906,047
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Semi Ojeleye ($1,618,520) 1
- Total: $1,618,520
Restricted Free Agents
- Terry Rozier ($4,285,798 qualifying offer / $9,151,170 cap hold): Bird rights
- Jonathan Gibson ($1,876,700 qualifying offer / $1,876,700 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Daniel Theis ($1,818,486 qualifying offer / $1,818,486 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Brad Wanamaker ($1,643,842 qualifying offer / $1,643,842 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $14,490,198
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Marcus Morris ($10,212,500): Bird rights
- No. 14 overall pick ($3,454,080)
- No. 20 overall pick ($2,578,800)
- No. 22 overall pick ($2,376,840)
- Shane Larkin ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights 2
- P.J. Dozier ($1,443,842): Non-Bird rights
- R.J. Hunter ($1,443,842): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $23,128,390
Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000
Offseason Cap Outlook
- Realistic cap room projection: $0
- With less than $65MM in guaranteed money on their books, the Celtics have a path to cap room, but unless they clean house, it’s hard to imagine them getting there. If Horford exercises his player option, that would make Boston an over-the-cap team. The team also must consider Baynes’ player option, Rozier’s cap hold, cap holds for three draft picks, and a new salary for Irving. Perhaps Rozier and/or Irving depart, but it seems likely that at least one of them is retained.
- If we account for the Celtics’ six players on guaranteed contracts and their three first-round picks, the team could create up to $33.1MM in cap room. But that figure wouldn’t include any of Horford, Irving, Baynes, Rozier, Morris, or Ojeleye, making it a real long shot.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Trade exception: $450,000 (expires 7/23/19) 3
- Trade exception: $1,349,383 (expires 2/7/20) 3
- Mid-level exception: $9,246,000 4
- Bi-annual exception: $3,619,000 4
Footnotes
- Ojeleye’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 1.
- Larkin’s cap hold remains on the Celtics’ books because he hasn’t been renounced after going unsigned in 2018/19. He can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
- The Celtics will lose these exceptions if they go under the cap to use room.
- These are projected values. If the Celtics are at risk of going into tax territory, they may forfeit the bi-annual exception and have to use the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5,711,000) rather than the full mid-level exception. In the event they use cap room, they’d lose these exceptions and would instead would gain access to the $4,760,000 room exception.
Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Knicks’ Dotson Undergoes Surgery On Torn Labrum
Knicks shooting guard Damyean Dotson underwent surgery today on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, Dotson is expected to be ready for the start of training camp.
As Ian Begley of SNY.tv reports (via Twitter), there was an expectation before Dotson underwent today’s procedure that the shoulder issue would sideline him for about two months. Begley is unsure whether that timetable has changed post-surgery, but either way, the injury shouldn’t keep him out of action for any of the 2019/20 season.
Dotson, a second-round pick in the 2017 draft, enjoyed a modest breakout season for the Knicks in 2018/19, averaging 10.7 PPG and 3.6 RPG with a .415/.368/.745 shooting line in 73 games (27.5 MPG).
Dotson’s 2019/20 salary is non-guaranteed, so it’s possible he’ll be a roster casualty if the Knicks need every last dollar of cap room this summer. However, the club should be able to work around his $1,618,520 cap charge and keep him in the mix.