Northwest Notes: Porter Jr., Daigneault, Gobert, Wolves
With Jamal Murray sidelined, Michael Porter Jr. will be the No. 2 option for the Nuggets in the playoffs alongside likely Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic. Porter is looking forward to showcasing the growth of his game on the big stage, according to Mike Singer of the Denver Post.
“I’m welcoming it, I’m embracing it,” Porter said. “It’s where I wanted to be. Progressing, taking a jump. I want to take a jump every year, I’m never going to be content. … I’m excited to see what teams throw at me, and how I’m going to overcome those situations.”
Porter is eligible for a rookie scale extension prior to next season.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- Thunder GM Sam Presti was impressed by the performance of first-year coach Mark Daigneault during a rebuilding season, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman tweets. “I think he did an excellent job … There was a significant amount of adjustments he had to make,” Presti said.
- Rudy Gobert only missed one game this season and his impact on the Jazz is undeniable, according to Sarah Todd of the Deseret News. Gobert led the league in total plus-minus at plus-728 and ranked first in the NBA in defensive rating (100.6), defensive win shares (5.2) and total blocks (190). “When you look at other players in the league, his impact is at the highest level,” coach Quin Snyder said.
- The Timberwolves have a solid starting five, regardless of how the draft lottery shakes out, Jim Souhan of the Minnesota Star Tribune writes. They also have some good young pieces on the bench and therefore they don’t need saviors, just more experience and growth, Souhan adds.
Mavericks Notes: Richardson, Redick, Kleber, Fans
Mavericks wing Josh Richardson admits he’s not thrilled with a reserve role but he’s not going to make any waves, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News tweets. Richardson is expected to come off the bench during the postseason after starting 56 of the 59 games in which he played this season.
“I was kind of upset at first, but you know, bigger picture, it’s the playoffs, and we don’t have time for anybody to be worried about personal issues or anything like that,” he said.
Richardson holds an $11.6MM option on his contract for next season.
We have more Mavericks news:
- J.J. Redick is “unlikely” to play in the first round series against the Clippers, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News tweets. After being acquired from New Orleans to fortify the backcourt, Redick has appeared in only 13 games due to a nagging heel injury.
- The injury news is more promising for power forward Maxi Kleber. He’s got a good chance to play in Game 1, Rick Carlisle told Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com and other media members. Kleber missed the last two regular season games with right Achilles soreness.
- The team will bring in crowds in excess of 15,000 when the series shifts to Dallas, Caplan tweets. The franchise will also host vaccination centers outside of American Airlines Arena.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Southwest Division
Throughout the season, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents this off-season. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the Southwest Division:
DeMar DeRozan, Spurs, 31, SG/SF (Down) – Signed to a five-year, $139MM deal in 2016
DeRozan threw in a clunker in San Antonio’s play-in game against Memphis, shooting 5-for-21 from the field. The master of the mid-range game now enters unrestricted free agency in a league that craves 3-point shooters at the wing.
DeRozan does more than just knock down 18-footers. He’s got a knack for drawing fouls and this season he averaged a career-high 6.9 assists. What will that package of skills draw on the open market? We’ll find out if DeRozan doesn’t reach an extension agreement with San Antonio. The Spurs have an exclusive window to reach a new deal with DeRozan before free agency begins at the start of August.
Lonzo Ball, Pelicans, 23, PG (Up) – Signed to a four-year, $33.5MM deal in 2017
Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram said glowing things about Ball in their post-season press conferences. Ball said he would “love” to remain in New Orleans. Now, the proverbial ball is in the front office’s court.
Will the Pelicans extend a $14.36MM qualifying offer to Ball to make him a restricted free agent? If so, will they match any offer sheet? Should the Pelicans do so, they’re basically telling everyone they believe the trio of Williamson, Ingram and Ball is a championship-caliber core. That’s a pretty big leap of faith, considering the Pelicans went 31-41 this season with each of them playing at least 55 games. But Ball’s going to get paid this summer, one way or another.
Josh Richardson, Mavericks, 27, SF/SG (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $42MM deal in 2018
Richardson was acquired from the Sixers in a draft-night deal to upgrade their perimeter defense. According to the numbers, Richardson hasn’t made much of an impact in that area. He ranked 22nd among shooting guards on ESPN’s defensive real plus-minus ratings. Richardson’s offensive rating was even lower after averaging 12.1 PPG on 42.7% shooting (33% on threes) despite playing with a premier play-maker.
Richardson holds an $11.6MM option on his contract for next season. Perhaps he’ll seek for a multi-year deal on the open market but it may be prudent for him to take the guaranteed money and test the waters next summer.
Kelly Olynyk, Rockets, 30, PF/C (Up) – Signed to a four-year, $50MM deal in 2017
Anyone want a stretch four who averages 19 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 4.1 APG and 1.4 SPG? Those are the stats Olynyk posted in a 27-game stint with the tanking Rockets. Those numbers can be taken with a grain of salt – Olynyk didn’t suddenly turn into an All-Star level talent at 30 years old. He did show that he can still be a highly productive rotation player. For obvious reasons, Olynyk enjoyed his stint in Houston and that will factor into his decision as he heads into unrestricted free agency. If nothing else, he gained more leverage over the past two months.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Atlantic Notes: Williams, Knicks, Harris, Rose
Celtics big man Robert Williams sat out Friday’s practice due to a turf toe injury, Tim Bontemps of ESPN tweets. However, he’s expected to play in Game 1 against Brooklyn, sources told Shams Charania of Stadium (video link). Williams saw 14 minutes of action in the play-in victory over Washington.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks will host a league-high 15,000 fans per game for their playoff contests against Atlanta, Marc Berman of the New York Post tweets. “This overwhelming response by Knicks fans — almost 90% of whom are vaccinated — should silence any doubters,” owner James Dolan said in a statement. “It’s time to start booking events and filling up our schedules.”
- Sixers owner Josh Harris is stepping down from his day-to-day role as managing director of Apollo Global Management, Derek Bodner of The Athletic tweets. He will remain on the company’s board and its executive committee.
- Derrick Rose is grateful that he’s been named a finalist for the Sixth Man award but the playoffs mean a lot more to him, Peter Botte of the New York Post writes. “It means something, but at the same time I’m just happy, I’m more happy with being in the playoffs, to be honest,” said Rose, an unrestricted free agent after the season. “Being in that category, being a finalist, that shows that when I came here, I guess I did my job.”
Nets Notes: Free Agency, James, Fans, Tsai
Nets GM Sean Marks said the team’s success or failure in the playoffs will impact how he handles free agent decisions, Joe Makar of Nets Republic tweets.
“We need to be focused on the task at hand,” Marks said. “If the team lives up to expectations, we might have some easy decisions. If not, we might have to refocus elsewhere.”
Bruce Brown can be a restricted free agent this offseason, while Blake Griffin, Jeff Green, Tyler Johnson and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot are among the group of players who will be unrestricted free agents.
We have more on the Nets:
- Mike James can also become a restricted free agent, though he’d have to work out an agreement with CSKA Moscow to remain in the NBA. Brooklyn would like to hold onto the point guard, who averaged 7.7 PPG and 4.2 APG in 13 games after he was added on two 10-day contracts, then a rest-of-the-season deal, NetsDaily.com relays. “I will tell you that I really like Mike and I would like to have him with us in the years to come,” director of player personnel J.R. Holden said to Greece’s Gazzetta.
- More fans will be allowed into Barclays Center for the postseason and there will be vaccinated and unvaccinated sections, Malika Andrews of ESPN tweets. Fans will have to pay more for tickets in the unvaccinated sections, according to team CEO John Abbamondi. “We are not neutral, we want people to get vaccinated,” he said.
- Owner Joe Tsai was pleasantly surprised how the team transformed from an also-ran to an up-and-coming team to the Eastern Conference favorites in a short period of time, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes. “In hindsight this ‘process’ was brilliant, but I certainly didn’t see it coming at the time,” he said.
Heat Notes: Adebayo, Ariza, Nunn, Robinson
Unsurprisingly, Heat forward/center Bam Adebayo learned on Thursday that he isn’t a finalist for either the MVP or Defensive Player of the Year award in 2021, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes.
That’s notable not because Adebayo had a realistic shot at either award, but because the value of his five-year, maximum-salary extension would have risen to $195.6MM if he had won the MVP award or $179.3MM if he had been named Defensive Player of the Year (based on a 3% salary cap increase)
The value of that five-year extension could still technically increase to $185.8MM if Adebayo is named to the All-NBA First Team. However, that’s not going to happen, so the Heat can safely pencil in $163MM as the projected five-year amount of the big man’s new contract, which begins in 2021/22.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Given how important Jae Crowder‘s contributions were in last year’s playoff run to the NBA Finals, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald wonders if Trevor Ariza, acquired during the season, can play a similar role this time around. “We might be similar players but we have different roles and different attributes about ourselves,” Ariza said. “To say I can come in and do what he did would probably be disrespectful to what he brings to teams. I’m my own individual player. I would like to think what I do is good.”
- The book is now closed on the Heat’s 2015 acquisition of Goran Dragic, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel observes. While surrendering two future first-round picks for Dragic was a bit of a risk, the 2018 first-rounder (Zhaire Smith) had little impact and this year’s pick will fall outside of the lottery, at No. 18. It’ll go to Houston or Oklahoma City depending on the lottery results.
- Of the Heat’s two key RFAs-to-be, Kendrick Nunn would probably benefit more than Duncan Robinson from a strong performance in the postseason, Winderman says in a separate story for The Sun Sentinel. As Winderman explains, Robinson has already established his value over the last two seasons, while Nunn’s contributions have been less consistent, and the aftereffects of COVID-19 limited his role in last year’s postseason.
Adam Silver Talks Play-In, ’21/22 Start Date, Arena Capacities
During an appearance on Friday’s episode of Keyshawn, J-Will and Zubin on ESPN Radio (video link), NBA commissioner Adam Silver made it clear that his preference would be for the play-in tournament to be a mainstay for years to come, as long as the teams and players are on board.
“I haven’t made any secret that I want it to be (around long-term),” Silver said, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
The Lakers/Warriors play-in game on Wednesday was a major ratings success, becoming ESPN’s most-watched NBA telecast since the 2019 Western Conference Finals, per a press release. Silver acknowledged that not all of this year’s play-in games have been on the same level as that one, but suggested that the positive effects of the play-in format go beyond this week’s TV ratings.
According to Silver, the format resulted in a higher quality of play – and stronger ratings – during the final few weeks of the regular season as teams battled for positioning in the standings.
“(It) was causing teams, who frankly otherwise may have thrown in the towel some number of weeks back, to fight for those last playoff spots,” Silver said.
Here’s more from the NBA commissioner:
- Silver confirmed today that the NBA’s plan is for the 2021/22 season to begin at its usual time in October. That would mean two consecutive shorter-than-usual offseasons in 2020 and 2021, but Silver pointed out that the break this summer wouldn’t be as brief as it was a year ago.
- Silver believes we could see sellout crowds – or close to it – for the NBA Finals in July, as Bontemps details. “I think it’s very possible that come July, when our Finals will be, you’ll see essentially full buildings,” Silver said. The commissioner, who added that “close to 80%” of the NBA’s players have received COVID-19 vaccinations, cautioned that the league will still be “fairly conservative” about filling seats on or near the court.
- Silver took exception to the idea that the NBA needs its big-market teams to play well to be successful, suggesting that superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo can turn even small-market clubs like the Bucks into marquee franchises (video link). He also explained why the NBA fined Hawks coach Nate McMillan for suggesting the league wants to see the Knicks do well: “Nate’s a veteran coach and he knows better. He’s trying to inspire his team to try and suggest the league would somehow prefer some teams over others, and it’s just not the case. He knows it and he’s just got a young team and wants to get them going.”
Key 2021 NBA Offseason Dates, Deadlines
With the 2020/21 NBA regular season in the books, half of the league’s teams have shifted their focus to the offseason, and others will soon follow suit. With that in mind, it’s time to retire our list of the NBA’s key in-season dates and deadlines for the ’20/21 campaign in favor of an updated offseason calendar of the most important dates facing teams and players in the coming months.
With the help of information from ESPN’s Bobby Marks, here’s a breakdown of many of the NBA’s important dates and deadlines for the next few months:
May 25
- NBA conducts random tiebreakers for lottery and draft positioning (link).
May 30
- Deadline for early entrants to declare for the NBA draft (10:59pm CT).
- Note: For more information on draft-related dates and deadlines, check out our full breakdown.
June 19-21
- NBA G League Elite Camp (link).
June 21-27
- NBA draft combine.
June 22
- NBA draft lottery.
July 7
- Last day for early entrants to withdraw from the NBA draft and retain their NCAA eligibility (10:59pm CT).
July 19
- Deadline for all early entrants (including international players) to withdraw from the NBA draft (4:00pm CT).
July 22
- Latest possible end date for the NBA Finals.
July 23 – August 8
- Tokyo Olympics.
July 29
- NBA draft day.
August 1
- Last day for decisions on player, team, and early termination options (some individual contracts may require earlier decisions).
- Last day for teams to make qualifying offers to players eligible for restricted free agency.
August 2
- Last official day of the 2020/21 NBA league year.
- Last day for players eligible for veteran extensions in 2020/21 to sign them.
- Teams can begin negotiating with free agents (5:00pm CT).
August 3:
- Official start of the 2021/22 NBA league year.
- Moratorium period begins.
- Restricted free agents can sign an offer sheet.
- Teams can begin signing players to rookie scale contracts, minimum salary contracts, and two-way contracts.
- Teams can begin exercising the third- or fourth-year team options for 2022/23 on rookie scale contracts.
August 6
- Moratorium period ends (11:01am CT)
- Teams can begin officially signing players, extending players, and completing trades (11:01am CT).
- The two-day period for matching an RFA offer sheet signed during the moratorium begins.
August 8-17
- Las Vegas Summer League (link).
August 13
- Last day for teams to unilaterally withdraw qualifying offers to restricted free agents.
There are a number of minor NBA offseason deadlines that typically land in July or August, which we’re still waiting to hear about.
For instance, in a normal league year, August 31 would be the last day for a team to waive a player and apply the stretch provision to his current-year salary. Our working assumption is that deadlines like that one will be moved back by a few weeks along with the rest of this year’s offseason dates, but we don’t know the specific details yet.
There were also several traded player exceptions created during last year’s free agent period whose expiry dates may be moved forward so that they better line up with the 2021 free agent period. We’ll wait for further clarity on those TPE expiry dates as well.
Scoot Henderson To Play For G League Ignite
Another top high school prospect has committed to the G League Ignite, as five-star recruit Scoot Henderson announced today that he’ll reclassify from the class of 2022 to the class of 2021 and will join the NBAGL’s developmental team, writes Adam Zagoria of Forbes. The G League has confirmed Henderson’s commitment.
Henderson is a 6’3″ point guard who attended Kell High School in Marietta, Georgia. He had been ranked by ESPN as the No. 7 overall prospect in the 2022 recruiting class.
According to Zagoria, Henderson decided to go the G League route rather than attending a college such as Auburn or Georgia. He also received an offer from the Overtime Elite league.
“You know how every kid has their own path?” Henderson told Jonathan Abrams of The New York Times. “My main goal was just to get to the NBA and be there for a very long time. The fact that I have an opportunity to go there and I’m one step away from it, it’s just huge. And I took that opportunity.”
Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links), who says the 17-year-old is believed to be the youngest professional player in American basketball history, hears from sources that Henderson’s G League deal will be worth $1MM — the contract will cover two years, since Henderson still won’t be draft-eligible until 2023.
Henderson will join an Ignite squad that has also received commitments from guard Jalen Hardy, forward Michael Foster Jr., and China’s top prospect, center Fanbo Zeng.
And-Ones: Overtime Elite, Two-Way Rules, Barbosa, Lottery
The Overtime Elite league for top high school prospects has secured its first two commitments, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that Matt Bewley and Ryan Bewley, a pair of 6’9″ twin brothers from Florida, are signing with Overtime Elite.
Matt and Ryan, high school juniors who are ranked third and 12th overall by ESPN among recruits in the class of 2023, are expected to earn in the seven figures over the course of their respective two-year contracts, sources tell Wojnarowski.
Jonathan Givony of ESPN, who tweets that Overtime Elite has been “extremely active” in attempting to recruit top high school prospects this spring, notes (via Twitter) that the league is aiming to end up with about 30 players by the time it starts up in September. The league has been approaching 2021 high school grads with offers of two-year contracts and reclassification to 2022, according to Givony.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- In an Insider-only article for ESPN.com, Brian Windhorst and Kevin Arnovitz explore which new rules and other innovations implemented for the NBA’s 2020/21 season may stick around beyond this season. According to the ESPN duo, the baseball-style two-game series that became common this season are unlikely to be as frequent going forward now that fans are being allowed back into arenas, but the league has been gauging teams’ interest in keeping the rules related to expanded eligibility for two-way players.
- Former NBA guard Leandro Barbosa, who currently works as a player mentor coach on the Warriors‘ staff, will play in the BIG3 this summer, a source tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link).
- Zach Harper of The Athletic takes a look at what’s next for this year’s lottery-bound NBA teams, while Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report identifies the Cavaliers, Kings, and Warriors as some teams that should consider either trading their lottery picks or trading down if they don’t land a top-four pick.