And-Ones: Beauchamp, Hayward, Turner, Hands, Silver, Vaccinations
The G League Ignite team has signed MarJon Beauchamp, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Beauchamp, ranked No. 47 on ESPN’s prospect list for the Class of 2020, elected not to sign with a college due to questions about his amateur status. He attended four high schools and most recently a junior college.
“I thought this was the best route I could go,” Beauchamp said. “I’ve been off the radar for a while, but I’m glad to get an opportunity from [G League executives] Rod Strickland and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. … I’m confident that I can be a top pick next year with this platform. “
Beauchamp joins five-star high school recruits Jaden Hardy, Scoot Henderson and Michael Foster on Ignite’s roster, as well as Australian Dyson Daniels, a projected top-20 pick.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Gordon Hayward, Myles Turner and Joel Embiid are expected to fully participate in their training camps, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic, who offers a number of updates on prominent players that headed into the offseason with injuries. Some others, including Victor Oladipo, have not yet been cleared for camp activities, while Nets stars Kyrie Irving and James Harden are expected to be ready for action when the regular season begins.
- Jaylen Hands has signed to play in Germany with MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. Hands most recently played in the Las Vegas summer league with the Cavaliers. The former UCLA standout was a second-round pick in 2019.
- NBA Commissioner Adam Silver offers congratulations to Tamika Tremaglio, who has been named the incoming NBPA executive director, NBA Communications tweets. “We look forward to working with her, NBPA President CJ McCollum and all the players as we continue to build on our strong partnership and grow our game globally,” Silver added. “I also want to thank Michele Roberts for her leadership in navigating one of the most challenging stretches in the NBA’s history and wish her well as she begins a new chapter.”
- Vaccination rates among players have reached 90 percent, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. The numbers have been climbing with the opening of training camps approaching.
Grizzlies To Give Yves Pons Two-Way Contract
The Grizzlies are converting Yves Pons’ Exhibit 10 contract into a two-way contract, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets.
With Killian Tillie also on a two-way deal, both of Memphis’ two-way slots will now be filled.
Pons is an undrafted 6’6″ wing out of Tennessee who earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2019/20. Last season, Pons averaged 8.7 PPG and 5.3 RPG in 26 games (28.5 MPG).
Pons could emerge as a defensive specialist, though he’ll have to improve his 3-point shooting (31.8%) and free throw shooting (65.3%) to have a regular role in the league.
Lakers Notes: Pelinka, Roster Openings, Caruso, Vaccination, James
The Lakers have 13 players on guaranteed contracts and head of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said the front office is looking to finalize its decision on the 14th spot prior to the start of training camp on Tuesday, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. Pelinka plans to initially keep the 15th spot open, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype tweets, due to tax implications and the flexibility it will give the club in the buyout market.
We have more on the Lakers:
- Pelinka said he make a spirited effort to retain free agent guard Alex Caruso, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register tweets. “We pursued him and wanted to keep him,” Pelinka said. The Bulls signed Caruso to a four-year, $37MM contract.
- Pelinka expects the team to be fully vaccinated by opening night, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin writes. “On opening night when we play the Golden State Warriors, all of the players that are currently signed on our roster, on that night, will be deemed fully vaccinated,” he said.
- LeBron James will hold a three-day team mini-camp in Las Vegas beginning on Friday, Shams Charania of The Athletic reveals on a Twitter video post. James did something similar prior to the championship 2019/20 season. With Russell Westbrook joining the lineup, James hopes to use this mini-camp prior to training camp as a “catapult” entering this season, Charania adds.
Ryan Arcidiacono Signs Camp Deal With Celtics
SEPTEMBER 27: Arcidiacono’s deal with the Celtics is now official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
SEPTEMBER 23: Ryan Arcidiacono has agreed to a training camp deal with the Celtics, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Arcidiacono, 27, has spent the last four seasons with the Bulls, averaging 4.8 PPG, 2.2 APG, and 2.0 RPG with a .431/.373/.807 shooting line across 207 total games (17.6 MPG). He signed a two-way deal with the team in 2017, a one-year contract in 2018, and a three-year pact in 2019.
Chicago turned down Arcidiacono’s third-year team option in July, making him an unrestricted free agent. The free agent guard recently worked out for the Warriors.
The addition of Arcidiacono will give Boston a full 20-man camp roster. With 14 players on fully guaranteed deals, Arcidiacono has a shot to make the final roster with an impressive camp showing. The club traded guards Kris Dunn and Carsen Edwards to Memphis this month.
Atlantic Notes: Irving, Duke, Cacok, Brown, Raptors
Kyrie Irving has not yet been vaccinated for COVID-19, Yaron Weitzman of FOX Sports reports. Under current New York City restrictions, players are prohibited from practicing or playing in their home arena “without providing proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption.” Thus, the Nets star point guard could technically miss all 41 of his team’s home games unless he receives one of these approved exemptions. GM Sean Marks said this week that he doesn’t expect vaccine-related issues to prevent any of his players from suiting up during the regular season.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Undrafted rookie David Duke Jr. and third-year forward Devontae Cacok are among the players who will be competing for the Nets’ remaining two-way contract, according to Tom Dowd of the team’s website. “Regarding the two-way, I think it’s nice to go in and have healthy competition,” GM Sean Marks said. “That’s the way we’re going to look at that. There’s going to be nothing set in stone. There’s nobody with a leg up, per se.”
- Celtics forward Jaylen Brown admits he’s still dealing with soreness in his wrist, he told Marc Spears of The Undefeated. Brown is recovering from a torn ligament in his left wrist, which required surgery in May and sidelined him for the postseason. “My wrist has been healing. Some days it’s better than others,” he said. “I got to continue to push and work, but I’m excited to be there for camp.”
- The Raptors must find ways to maximize a “formless” style of basketball due to the configuration of the roster, Eric Koreen of The Athletic writes. Lacking an efficient, high-usage star, they must rely on versatility, flexibility and unpredictability to keep defenses off-balance about where the ball is designed to go.
Changes To NBA’s Extension Rules Have Reduced Star Movement In Free Agency
In their latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, which went into effect in 2017, the NBA and NBPA relaxed the rules for veteran contract extensions and introduced the “super-max” extension. The changes made it easier for players to qualify for extensions and ensured that many of those players wouldn’t necessarily earn more money if they waited for free agency.
As a result, the number of veteran stars agreeing to extensions prior to free agency has increased in recent years. Already this offseason, for instance, 10 players have finalized veteran extensions, and many of those players – including Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Joel Embiid – are among the NBA’s biggest stars.
Under the previous CBA, there was little incentive for most veteran stars to get a deal done early. For instance, as Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link) writes, after Durant won his MVP award in 2014, the Thunder could’ve only offered him a two-year, $44.9MM extension. If the current rules had been in place, a four-year, $139MM offer would’ve been possible. Or Durant could’ve signed a five-year, $178MM extension with Oklahoma City a year later.
While we don’t know if Durant would’ve accepted such an offer, we do know that opting for free agency was, at the time, the only viable path for him if he wanted to maximize his earnings. That opened the door for him to leave Oklahoma City for Golden State as a free agent.
“The extension rules have been a game changer to teams,” an Eastern Conference GM told Marks. “At least we are not caught off guard now if a player does not want to stay.”
As Marks details, players have become more inclined to lock in their lucrative long-term contracts early, knowing that if they do eventually want a change of scenery, there are ways to put pressure on the team to try to make that happen. Ben Simmons is currently pushing the Sixers to trade him with four years left on his contract, while it looked briefly this summer like Damian Lillard – who has four years left on his deal with the Trail Blazers – might take the same path.
“I always tell my client to take the money now in an extension and worry about the future later,” one agent said to ESPN. “We can always force a trade later and it would be reckless giving up guaranteed money now.”
With stars increasingly more likely to agree to extensions, we’ve seen fewer big names change teams as free agents as of late. In 2020, Gordon Hayward – coming off an injury-plagued stint in Boston – was the biggest star to join a new team as a free agent. This offseason, that honor may belong to 35-year-old point guard Kyle Lowry. And the list of free agents for 2022 isn’t exactly loaded with star power — James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Bradley Beal, and Zach LaVine are the most noteworthy names, but Harden and Irving seem likely to agree to extensions this fall, and it’s possible Beal will too.
It wasn’t long ago that teams deliberately hoarded cap space in the hopes of making a run at star free agents, but that approach hasn’t really paid dividends during the last couple summers and is perhaps falling out of fashion.
“You are naive to think that the best way to build your roster is through free agency and not the draft and trades,” a Western Conference GM told Marks. “Preserving cap space and waiting for that next great player to become available will get you fired.”
As Marks notes, it remains to be seen whether this is a short-term trend or a sign of things to come, especially since we don’t know how certain rules could be tweaked in the next CBA. Still, given how many of 2022’s potential star free agents have already come off the board and how few teams project to have significant cap space next offseason, it doesn’t look like this trend will reverse in the immediate future.
Heat Notes: Morris, Foran, Fodor, Bradley
New Heat forward Markieff Morris, who is set to play for his fifth different team since the start of the 2018/19 season, tells Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel that he hadn’t really been expecting to have to find a new home this offseason.
“For sure, I thought I was going back to the Lakers,” Morris said. “But, sometimes I’m not in teams’ plans and that’s how it works sometimes.
“… It’s been difficult, because my first two teams I was with nine years. And then the last two I’ve been with four teams. Sometime it can be the money. Sometime it can be the fits. I enjoyed all those places, but sometimes that’s how it goes in the NBA. You’ve just got to keep pushing forward.”
Morris added that he’s looking forward to playing whatever role is asked of him with his new club.
“You ask me to score, I’ll score. You ask me to defend, I’ll defend. You ask me to rebound and set the tone, that’s what I’ll do also,” he said.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- A pair of veteran Heat staffers won’t be around the team this year, reports Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. According to Jackson, longtime strength and conditioning coach Bill Foran is retiring after spending more than three decades with the franchise, while shooting coach Rob Fodor will still be part of the organization, but will assist players remotely – via Zoom sessions and phone calls – since he wants to live in a different part of the country.
- Avery Bradley was “very much” open to returning to the Heat this summer after signing with the team last offseason, but Miami wasn’t interested in a reunion at this time, according to Jackson (Twitter link). Bradley, who is still a free agent, was scheduled to work out this week for Golden State.
- In case you missed it, we relayed some minor details on some of the Heat’s newest contracts earlier today.
Pistons Plan To Sign Cassius Stanley
The Pistons are planning to sign second-year free agent Cassius Stanley, according to James Edwards III of The Athletic (twitter link).
Stanley was drafted 54th overall in the 2020 draft by the Pacers and signed a two-way contract with the team, but only saw game action in a total of 93 minutes across 24 games – an average of 3.9 MPG. The Pacers withdrew their two-way qualifying offer to Stanley last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
An extremely athletic but raw player, Stanley is perhaps best well known for participating in the 2021 Slam Dunk Contest. He also played 12 games for the Pacers’ G League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 12.7 PPG/3.3 RPG/1.7 APG in 27.8 MPG over 12 games, with a .413/.267/.533 shooting line.
Edwards doesn’t specify what type of contract Stanley will receive, but the team doesn’t currently have a two-way slot open, so a standard contract, perhaps with Exhibit 10 language, seems likely. As has been previously noted, it’s possible the team could convert Luka Garza‘s two-way contract into a standard contract before the regular season, which would free up a two-way slot, and Stanley is two-way eligible. That may be his best path to sticking with Detroit.
If Stanley does sign an Exhibit 10 contract, he would be eligible for a bonus worth up to $50K if he’s waived before the regular season and then spends at least 60 days with the Pistons’ G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise.
Central Notes: Cavs, Simmons, Bucks, Pistons
Given how frequently the Cavaliers have been linked to Ben Simmons during the past few months, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com contemplates what it might take for the Cavs to acquire Simmons — and whether they should.
Fedor notes that the Cavaliers, as currently constructed, aren’t an ideal fit for a player with Simmons’ skill set, because they lack the shooters necessary to open the floor for his open-court driving and passing. So even if they did acquire him, they would almost certainly have to make more moves in order to build the team around him.
Fedor speculates that a package of Kevin Love, Collin Sexton, and a pair of protected first-round picks might not entice the 76ers more than other offers they’ve received, or ones they could receive in the weeks ahead. He also adds that while the Cavs have no “untouchables” on the roster, rookie Evan Mobley and improving point guard Darius Garland are the closest bets, and are considered very unlikely to be moved.
Fedor says that there are ultimately more questions than answers to the issue of whether the Cavs should go all-in for Simmons, adding that the team should be patient in its approach to see if the 76ers’ asking price might lessen over time. The article is worth checking out in full.
There’s more from the Central division:
- The Bucks recently held a free-agent minicamp for their last remaining training camp spot, per our JD Shaw (Twitter link). Former NBA players Allonzo Trier, Antonio Blakeney, Chris McCullough and Josh Gray were among the participants. The Bucks currently only have 13 players with fully guaranteed contracts, so winning a training camp battle could very well be a viable pathway to making the team.
- The Bucks‘ G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, recently named Chaisson Allen as their new head coach. Allen was a highly regarded college player for Northeastern and spent five seasons playing internationally. He spent last season as an assistant for the Long Island Nets. In the same press release, the Herd also announced that Tony Bollier will serve as the team’s general manager and Arte Culver will be the new assistant general manager.
- Keith Langlois of Pistons.com explores what the Pistons should do with their open roster spot. The team currently has 14 players under guaranteed contracts after acquiring and buying out DeAndre Jordan. Langlois posits the team could convert Luka Garza from a two-way contract to the main 15-man roster, though the plan is for him to spend significant time in the G league. Langlois notes that converting Garza would free up a two-way spot for summer league standout Jamorko Pickett, who’s currently on an Exhibit 10 deal. Langlois also says the team could keep the spot open for maximum roster flexibility, perhaps adding a 15th man later in the season.
Haralabos Voulgaris No Longer With Mavericks
The Mavericks have parted ways with Haralabos Voulgaris, a well-known sports gambler who was hired by the team in 2018 as the director of quantitative research and development, reports Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
As Townsend explains, Voulgaris wasn’t fired by the Mavs. His contract expired at the end of the 2020/21 season and the club simply opted not to re-sign him to a new one.
Although Voulgaris was never Dallas’ head of basketball operations, his departure from the organization is worth highlighting, since he had reportedly gained an outsized influence in the front office in recent years.
A report in June stated that Voulgaris had either initiated or approved nearly all of the Mavs’ roster moves for the last two seasons and suggested that his influence was virtually on par with that of president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. While Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disputed The Athletic’s portrayal of how much power Voulgaris had, the executive’s abrasive personality was reportedly a source of some tension in the front office and he was said to have a “strained” relationship with star guard Luka Doncic.
Now, three months after that report was published, neither Nelson nor Voulgaris are part of Dallas’ front office, which was overhauled this offseason. Nico Harrison is the team’s new general manager and president of basketball operations.