Central Notes: Bulls, Holiday, Nance, Dellavedova, Exum
The Bulls will be without six players when they travel to Oklahoma City this week for a pair of preseason games, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago. In addition to Garrett Temple (coronavirus), Denzel Valentine (hamstring strain), and Thaddeus Young (lower leg infection), the club will also be missing Devon Dotson, Adam Mokoka, and Tomas Satoransky, who are simply listed as “not with team.”
As K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago noted on Sunday when those three players – and Noah Vonleh – were given excused absences for the Bulls’ previous exhibition contest, those vague designations will likely become common over the course of the 2020/21 season as teams navigate the NBA’s coronavirus protocols.
While Vonleh eventually confirmed he had tested positive for COVID-19, that doesn’t mean the same is true of Dotson, Mokoka, and Satoransky. It’s possible they’re being kept away from the Bulls temporarily for contact tracing purposes, or even for a reason unrelated to the coronavirus. With teams not formally announcing which of their players have tested positive for the virus, we may be left to speculate in situations like this throughout the coming season.
Here’s more from around the Central:
- Now that the Bucks have secured a commitment from Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider link) wonders if an extension for Jrue Holiday might be next up on the team’s to-do list. Since he was recently traded, Holiday can only get a 5% raise and one extra year (beyond his 2021/22 player option) for now, but those restrictions will lift on February 26, allowing for more money and more years.
- Cavaliers veterans Larry Nance Jr. and Matthew Dellavedova are entering the NBA’s concussion protocol and neither player will travel to New York for the club’s final two preseason games, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
- Dante Exum, who had 23 points and five assists and was a plus-33 in Monday’s win over Indiana, has solidified his spot as the Cavaliers‘ backup point guard entering the season, Fedor writes in a separate story for Cleveland.com. Exum, the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft, is entering a contract year.
Grizzlies Waive Marko Guduric, Sign Zhaire Smith
The Grizzlies have made a series of roster moves, announcing in a press release that they’ve signed guard Zhaire Smith and forward Bennie Boatwright while waiving guards Marko Guduric and Jahlil Tripp.
The release of Guduric had been expected, as we discussed earlier today. The 25-year-old Serbian appeared in 44 games with Memphis last season, averaging 3.9 PPG on .395/.301/.923 shooting in 11.0 minutes per contest. His $2.75MM salary for 2020/21 is fully guaranteed, so the Grizzlies won’t be able to remove it from their cap.
Tripp, meanwhile, had been on an Exhibit 10 contract and seems likely to eventually join the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate.
Since the Grizzlies still have 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, neither of the newcomers will receive a guarantee or earn a spot on the team’s regular season roster. They both received Exhibit 10 contracts and will likely end up with the Hustle, tweets Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian.
Smith, 21, was the 16th overall pick in the 2018 draft, but has only appeared in 13 games since then due primarily to health issues. The Sixers traded him last month to the Pistons, who subsequently released him.
As for Boatwright, the former USC star spent the 2019/20 season with the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate, but didn’t play due to a knee injury. In his last college season in 2018/19, he averaged 18.2 PPG on .474/.429/.702 shooting in 31 games (33.5 MPG) for the Trojans.
And-Ones: Lin, G League, Jenkins, Rookie Extensions
Jeremy Lin will indeed be a late addition to the G League Ignite’s roster for the squad’s scrimmages on Tuesday and Thursday this week, says Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link). As Givony explains, Lin lives near Walnut Creek and has been practicing recently with the NBAGL’s Select Team. The veteran point guard will be able to stick with the Ignite in a practice player capacity for as long as he chooses, Givony adds.
The Ignite’s two scrimmages this week against a squad of G League veterans won’t be streamed publicly, but NBA teams will receive access to the film, according to Givony, who lists the rosters for each club (Twitter link). The Ignite are headlined by prospects like Jalen Green, Daishen Nix, and Jonathan Kuminga, while the team of G League vets includes Isaiah Briscoe, London Perrantes, and Bryce Alford, among others.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Brian Shaw, the head coach of the G League Ignite, spoke to Mark Whicker of The Orange County Register about the team, suggesting that Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga “can step into the NBA right now.”
- Former NBA first-round pick John Jenkins has officially joined Bilbao Basket in Spain for the next two months, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando relays. Jenkins, 29, has appeared in 171 total regular season games for five NBA teams, having suited up most recently in 2018/19 for the Wizards and Knicks.
- Danny Leroux of The Athletic takes a closer look at the players who remain eligible to sign rookie scale extensions before next Monday’s deadline, identifying John Collins, OG Anunoby, Lonzo Ball, Derrick White, and Jonathan Isaac as some of the most interesting cases to watch.
Grizzlies, Pistons, Thunder Carrying More Than 15 Guaranteed Salaries
While NBA teams can carry 20 players on their rosters for the time being, that limit will shrink by opening night next Tuesday. Before the regular season gets underway, clubs will be required to have no more than 17 players on their roster — 15 on guaranteed contracts and two on two-way deals.
For most teams, that won’t be a problem. Six NBA clubs are currently carrying exactly 15 players with fully guaranteed salaries, while 21 more have between 10 and 14 guaranteed contracts on their books for 2020/21. For most of those 27 clubs, setting their roster will simply be a matter of cutting a few players with non-guaranteed salaries, and won’t require eating any dead money.
However, there are three clubs that currently have more than 15 players on guaranteed contracts on their rosters and will have to either trade or release one or more of those players before opening night. Here’s a look at those three clubs:
Memphis Grizzlies
Let’s start with the simplest situation of the three. At one point, the Grizzlies were carrying 17 players with guaranteed salaries, but they quickly tipped their hand on which two would be the odd man out by not bringing Mario Hezonja and Marko Guduric to training camp.
Hezonja has since been waived. Barring a major surprise, Guduric, who is on an expiring contract, figures to be released in the coming days as well.
Detroit Pistons
The Pistons have 16 players with fully guaranteed salaries. However, despite the fact that the team is in the midst of a retooling period, not many of those players look like candidates to be cut. Many of them were either specifically targeted by new GM Troy Weaver this offseason, or – in the case of incumbents like Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose, and Sekou Doumbouya – have too much value to be simply released.
While Dzanan Musa and Wayne Ellington may be on the fringe of the roster, Rodney McGruder looks to me like the probable odd man out. There were rumors last month that he might be waived and stretched to allow the Pistons to complete their series of offseason moves, and while that wasn’t necessary at the time, the fact that it was under consideration suggests that he’s probably not part of the team’s long-term plan.
McGruder’s $5MM salary for 2021/22 is non-guaranteed, so Detroit wouldn’t be on the hook for any dead money beyond this season if he’s released.
Oklahoma City Thunder
After having arguably the most eventful offseason of any NBA team, the Thunder are also the trickiest club to figure out heading into the regular season. They have 17 players on guaranteed contracts, so at least two cuts will be required.
Many of Oklahoma City’s newcomers were acquired in trades in which another asset (a draft pick or a player) was clearly the primary motivator for the deal, meaning it’s hard to say exactly what the team thinks of those players.
Kenrich Williams, Admiral Schofield, Darius Miller, and T.J. Leaf all fit this bill, and I’d expect the two cuts to come from that group. Isaiah Roby could also be a release candidate, though he started the team’s first preseason game and played pretty well, with seven points and 11 rebounds. None of Miller, Williams, Schofield, Leaf, or Roby have fully guaranteed salaries beyond 2020/21.
L.A. Notes: Horton-Tucker, LeBron, AD, COVID-19, Mann
With his second consecutive impressive preseason performance on Sunday, second-year Lakers guard Talen Horton-Tucker is making a strong case to be part of the team’s regular season rotation, as ESPN’s Dave McMenamin writes.
“It’s going to make my job difficult for sure,” head coach Frank Vogel said when asked about finding a role for Horton-Tucker, who poured in 33 points in Sunday’s win to go along with 10 rebounds, four assists, and four steals.
“We have a very deep team. No minutes are guaranteed,” Vogel added. “He’s going to keep playing at a high level, and that should push everybody else to stay playing at a high level. It does give us that luxury of having him carry the load some for some of our guys who played deep in the championship run last year and had a short offseason.”
Even if the Lakers stay relatively healthy this season, the club should prioritize finding regular minutes for Horton-Tucker, according to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, who says the franchise will need to develop young talent if it wants to remain a title contender for years to come
Here’s more on the NBA’s two Los Angeles-based teams:
- Lakers superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn’t play at all during the team’s first two preseason contests, but they’ll both be “ready to go” when the regular season gets underway next week, according to Vogel (link via Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times).
- Both the Lakers and Clippers were missing players on Sunday due to “excused absences” believed to be related to the NBA’s coronavirus protocols, writes Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Those absences may be related to inconclusive tests or contact tracing, so they don’t necessarily mean the individual tested positive for COVID-19, according to Greif, who notes that the Lakers were without Kostas Antetokounmpo and Devontae Cacok, while the Clippers were missing Reggie Jackson and assistant coach Chauncey Billups.
- Although Terance Mann has seen some time at shooting guard and small forward, the Clippers view the 24-year-old as a point guard and expect him to be a key contributor off the bench, as Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register writes.
Notable Veterans Still Available In Free Agency
The 50 players on our list of 2020’s top free agents came off the board relatively quickly last month, but there are still a number of intriguing veteran free agents who have yet to sign a new deal or who have reached the open market since we compiled that list.
There aren’t many roster spots available around the NBA — with just a week to go until opening night, most teams have a pretty good idea of what their 14- or 15-man squads will look like to open the season. That means there are far fewer viable landing spots for veteran free agents than there were earlier in the offseason.
Still, whether it happens before or after opening night, there are plenty of unsigned players who seem like realistic candidates to eventually join an NBA team. Injuries, positive coronavirus tests, and trades could all open up roster spots for those players to fill.
With that in mind, here’s a brief recap of some of the more notable players who are still available to be signed:
Point Guards
Shabazz Napier is among the most productive point guards still on the market. He was playing some of the best basketball of his career with the Wizards during a 20-game stint to finish the 2019/20 season, averaging 11.6 PPG and 3.8 APG on .428/.358/.831 shooting in 24.4 minutes per contest.
Another former Wizards point guard, Isaiah Thomas, recorded 12.2 PPG, 3.7 APG, and a .413 3PT% in 40 games (23.1 MPG) for the team last season, but lost his job due to his play on defense. He has repeatedly insisted that he’s feeling even better now following his most recent hip procedure, but no team has been willing to take a shot on him so far.
If the Mavericks weren’t willing to keep J.J. Barea around, it’s not clear how much he has left in the tank, but he could be an option for a team looking for a third point guard who would be an asset in the locker room.
A team seeking a player with some upside may prefer to turn to Emmanuel Mudiay, a former lottery pick who is still just 24 years old, or Jordan McLaughlin, though he’s still a restricted free agent and may be hard to pry away from the Timberwolves.
Yogi Ferrell, Jeremy Lin, Brandon Knight, Gary Payton II, Ky Bowman (once he clears waivers), and reigning G League MVP Frank Mason are among the other unsigned point guards.
Wings
A team in need of shooting off the bench should have a few options in free agency, including Kyle Korver (a career 42.9% three-point shooter), Troy Daniels (39.5%), Allen Crabbe (38.7%), and – once he clears waivers – Ryan Broekhoff (40.3%).
The market also features microwave scorers young and old, including Jamal Crawford (41 in March) and Allonzo Trier (25 in January). Two members of the Lakers’ 2020 championship squad remain unsigned too, in J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters.
The health histories of certain players – including Zhaire Smith, Andre Roberson, and Luc Mbah a Moute – may scare teams away. Age, meanwhile, may be a bit of a concern for clubs eyeing veterans like Thabo Sefolosha (36) and DeMarre Carroll (34).
Jordan McRae, Iman Shumpert, and Mario Hezonja are a few of the other options that could intrigue certain teams, depending on what sort of skill set they’re seeking.
Bigs
Ersan Ilyasova and Anthony Tolliver are the headliners among the veteran stretch fours on the open market. Ilyasova saw his role decline in Milwaukee over the last two seasons, but was still his usual self from beyond the arc — last season’s .365 3PT% was exactly in line with his career average. Tolliver, meanwhile, played on three teams in 2019/20, but was effective for Memphis down the stretch, making 41.5% of his threes in 13 games.
Teams seeking a tough veteran up front could turn to Taj Gibson, Kyle O’Quinn, Ian Mahinmi, or Lance Thomas. Tyson Chandler and Pau Gasol could also be options, though each of them could just as easily retire.
I’ll be interested to see if Dewayne Dedmon can bounce back after a down year in Sacramento and Atlanta. It’s hard to believe it now, but he was referred to by ESPN’s Zach Lowe as “sneakily the most coveted under-the-radar free agent in the league” during the 2019 offseason. A year-and-a-half later, he should be able to find a minimum-salary deal.
Skal Labissiere, Noah Vonleh, Jordan Bell, and John Henson are some of the other free agents available for teams seeking interested in another frontcourt piece.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Noah Vonleh Tests Positive For COVID-19, Waived By Bulls
DECEMBER 15: Vonleh’s release from the Bulls is now official, according to RealGM’s transactions log.
DECEMBER 14: Veteran forward Noah Vonleh has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be waived by the Bulls, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Teams won’t be announcing which of their players test positive for the coronavirus this season, but Vonleh confirmed his diagnosis to Haynes.
“Unfortunately, I have tested positive for COVID, and so my time with the Bulls has come to an end,” Vonleh said in a statement to Yahoo Sports. “Thank you to the organization for everything. Though it was a short time, I appreciate the opportunity. I am thankfully feeling good, and I look forward to working my way to another NBA opportunity once I’m cleared to play again!”
The Bulls are carrying 15 players on guaranteed contracts and Vonleh isn’t one of them, so his positive test likely just accelerated his release — unless he earned a spot on the regular season roster, he would’ve been waived within the next week anyway. He’ll undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine as he awaits medical clearance, Haynes notes.
The ninth overall pick in the 2014 draft, Vonleh began his career in Charlotte before moving on to Portland, Chicago, and New York. In 2019/20, he began the season in Minnesota before being traded to Denver as part of the four-team mega-deal involving Clint Capela and Robert Covington.
In total, Vonleh averaged just 3.7 PPG and 3.4 RPG in 36 games (10.5 MPG) for the Timberwolves and Nuggets last season. He was more productive in 2018/19 for the Knicks, recording 8.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG in 68 games (25.3 MPG), and is still just 25 years old, so he should get another NBA opportunity.
Sixers Release Ryan Broekhoff, Derrick Walton
DECEMBER 15: The Sixers have officially waived Broekhoff and Walton, per RealGM’s transactions log.
DECEMBER 14: The Sixers will part ways with a pair of players on their 20-man camp roster, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who reports (via Twitter) that the club is waiving wing Ryan Broekhoff and guard Derrick Walton.
Broekhoff and Walton each signed one-year, minimum-salary contracts with the 76ers last month. Neither player had a guaranteed salary, however, so Philadelphia won’t be on the hook for dead money as a result of the cuts.
Broekhoff, 30, spent most of the last two seasons with the Mavericks after having played overseas for five years. The former Valparaiso sharpshooter averaged 4.0 PPG with a .403 3PT% in 59 games (10.7 MPG) for Dallas.
Walton, 25, made his NBA debut with Miami back in 2017/18. He spent most of the ’19/20 season with the Clippers, averaging 2.2 PPG and 1.0 APG in limited minutes (9.7 MPG) over 23 games for the club.
Philadelphia will be carry 18 players, including a pair on two-way deals, once Broekhoff and Walton are officially released. The battle for the final spot on the team’s 15-man regular season roster may come down to Vincent Poirier, who has a fully guaranteed salary, and Justin Anderson, who doesn’t.
Community Shootaround: Warriors Revival?
Despite another devastating injury to Klay Thompson, the Warriors seem intent on regaining their status as an elite team.
Last year was essentially a throwaway season. An injured Kevin Durant bolted for the East Coast, Thompson was out for the season with a knee injury and Stephen Curry busted his thumb in the early weeks of the season.
The reward for an otherwise wasted campaign was the second pick in the draft. They used it on the highest-rated big man in James Wiseman, who practiced for the first time on Monday and made a swift impression.
“I thought James was all over the place today, which was great to see,” Draymond Green said.
Green and Wiseman will form the frontcourt duo, Curry will run the show and Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre Jr. will man the wings. The Warriors also possess some good depth, particularly in the frontcourt with the likes of Eric Paschall, Marquese Chriss and Kevon Looney.
Oubre was acquired even though his salary added to an already enormous luxury tax bill. The Warriors certainly aren’t tanking this season, but in the loaded Western Conference, it’s fair to say they’re no longer going to overwhelm the opposition.
Still, Green wants the bar set high.
“When I don’t win a title, that’s unsuccessful,” Green said. “There’s no moral victories.”
That brings us to our question of the day: Will the revamped Warriors return to the playoffs this season?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Magic Number: 4,000 Fans In Stands
The Magic will allow approximately 4,000 physical-distanced fans for regular-season games, the team announced in a press release.
Initially, there will be fewer people in the stands at Amway Center. Preseason games will only be open to family members of the Magic organization during an evaluation phase, while the first five regular-season home games are expected to be under the 4,000-fan limit in order to allow them to get accustomed to the health and safety protocols. Priority will be given to season ticket holders, followed by fans who made a season ticket deposit.
The Magic are just one of five NBA franchises — along with the Jazz, Grizzlies, Pelicans and Rockets — planning to have fans in the stands when the regular season begins next week. Orlando had previously announced its intentions to open its doors to fans but the release on Monday gives concrete details.
Protocols will include mandatory face coverings; a pre-arrival symptom and exposure survey; testing for those in close proximity to the court; deep and constant cleaning in high-traffic areas; hand sanitizer stations; and a no-bag policy. Amway Center has also implemented numerous health and sanitization upgrades.