NBA Names Malik Rose Head Of G League Operations
The NBA has named Malik Rose the league’s new head of basketball operations for the G League, announcing the news today in a press release.
A former NBA player who won a pair of championships with the Spurs, Rose transitioned to broadcasting following his retirement in 2009. In 2015, he joined the Hawks’ front office and was named the G League’s Executive of the Year in 2018 for his work with the Erie BayHawks, Atlanta’s then-affiliate.
Rose joined the Pistons as an assistant GM during the summer of 2018, then left the team two years later for a role in the league office as one of the NBA’s vice presidents of basketball operations. He was reportedly viewed as a possible candidate to succeed Michele Roberts as the NBPA’s next executive director, but will instead return to the G League.
In his new position, Rose will head up the NBAGL’s efforts to expand its talent pipeline and will focus on further integrating the basketball operations of the G League and NBA, according to today’s announcement. He’ll also oversee the G League Ignite, the league’s program for top prospects who choose to forgo a one-and-done year in college.
“We are thrilled to have Malik join the NBA G League as head of basketball operations,” G League commissioner Shareef Abdur-Rahim said in a statement. “With his success as a player at the highest levels of the game and extensive background as an executive in both the NBA and G League, Malik has the experience, vision and expertise to help accelerate our progress and further deepen the connection between the two leagues.”
Southwest Notes: Morant, Porter, Pelicans, James, Chriss
While there has been some debate this season about whether Grizzlies guard Ja Morant will make his first All-Star team, teammate Desmond Bane believes the answer to that question is obvious. In Bane’s view, Morant should be the subject of another discussion, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes.
“People debate whether or not he should be an All-Star, but I think we should be debating whether he’s the best point guard in the league,” Bane said. “I don’t think it’s any question he’s an All-Star. The real conversation is, ‘Is he the best point guard in the league?'”
While it may be premature to place Morant above the likes of Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic, he matches up favorably with the Western Conference’s star point guards this season — and he looks like a good bet to join them on this year’s All-Star team. In 27 games (32.5 MPG), Morant is averaging a career-high 25.1 PPG on .489/.400/.772 shooting while also contributing 6.7 APG, 5.7 RPG, and 1.4 SPG.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. said on Tuesday that he apologized both “to the group” and “individually” following the locker-room incident that resulted in him being suspended for Monday’s game, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “I think just as a man and as a human, that’s the right thing to do,” Porter said. “Even if you feel like you’re in the right, there’s ways to approach things in situations, and I felt as a man, I didn’t approach it the right way. So I apologize. I feel like that’s just something you need to do as a principled thing.” Porter added that he still feels supported by the organization.
- The Pelicans don’t plan to re-sign Justin James, whose 10-day contract expired overnight, sources tell Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). With the team getting healthier, there wasn’t an immediate need to retain James, Lopez explains.
- Marquese Chriss, currently on his second 10-day contract with the Mavericks, would love to remain in Dallas beyond the expiration of his current deal on January 9, writes Dwain Price of Mavs.com. However, even if he isn’t retained, the big man is happy to be back in action after losing nearly an entire season due to a broken leg. “Being able to be back on the court, I’m just thankful for that,” Chriss said. “And I’m just trying to make the most out of the opportunity that I can. Hopefully it’s here (in Dallas).”
Jazz/Thunder Trade Notes: Draft Pick, Cash, Deck
The 2028 second-round pick the Thunder acquired from the Jazz in Tuesday’s Miye Oni trade was technically already owed to Oklahoma City conditionally, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter).
When the Jazz sent Derrick Favors to the Thunder in an offseason deal, Utah included a top-10 protected 2024 first-round pick. If that pick falls in its protected range, the Jazz would instead owe the Thunder their top-10 protected first-round pick pick in 2025. If it still hasn’t changed hands by that point, it would become a top-eight protected 2026 first-rounder.
The conditions of the Favors trade called for the Thunder to get Utah’s 2028 second-round pick if that first-rounder fell in its protected range all three years. Now, Oklahoma City will receive the pick unconditionally. If the Jazz’s 2024 first-rounder isn’t conveyed after 2026, the Thunder will instead receive $890K in cash, according to Marks.
Here’s more on the Jazz/Thunder swap:
- The Thunder sent $1MM in cash to Utah as part of the trade, according to Marks. So not only did the Jazz avoid having Oni’s dead money increase their year-end tax bill — they also received more than enough cash to cover the prorated salary they’d already paid him this season.
- The Thunder, who had to waive Gabriel Deck to make room on their roster for Oni, will carry a cap hit of $1,690,507 in dead money for Deck. His $3,676,852 salary wasn’t guaranteed, but Oklahoma City paid him a portion of that figure prorated across 80 days.
- Sarah Todd of The Deseret News considers how trading away Oni and creating another opening on the roster could affect the Jazz’s plans on the trade market in the coming weeks.
Braxton Key Signs 10-Day Deal With Sixers
JANUARY 5: Key’s 10-day contract with the Sixers is now official, according to the team (Twitter link). It will run through January 14, covering Philadelphia’s next five games.
JANUARY 4: The Sixers are set to call up forward Braxton Key using a 10-day hardship exception deal, per Kyle Neubeck of the Philly Voice. Key is currently playing with Philadelphia’s NBA G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats.
Neubeck adds that Key, 24, could suit up for the Sixers as early as Wednesday against the Magic, provided he clears the league’s COVID-19 protocols.
The 6’8″ forward went undrafted out of Virginia, with whom he won the 2019 NCAA title, in 2020. He first signed with the Blue Coats during the 2020/21 season. Key is averaging 13.1 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.9 SPG and 1.2 BPG across 15 games with Delaware this year.
The Sixers currently have five players still in the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols, though point guard Myles Powell could be available in time for the team’s Orlando game.
Shooting guard Charlie Brown Jr. is the only other player on the Philadelphia roster currently signed to a 10-day hardship exception contract.
Standard 10-Day Contract Window Opens; Salary Guarantee Date Looms
The 2021/22 NBA season has already been a record-setting one for 10-day signings, but all of the 10-day deals completed prior to today have required a hardship exception. In order to sign a player to a 10-day contract, a team has needed to have either a player in the health and safety protocols or at least four players affected by longer-term injuries.
As of today, January 5, NBA teams can begin signing free agents to standard 10-day contracts without requiring a hardship exception to do so. A 10-day contract allows a team to add a player to its roster for either 10 days or three games (whichever occurs later) without any commitment beyond that.
The differences between standard and hardship 10-day deals are as follows:
- A player can only sign up to two standard 10-day contracts with the same team in a single season — after those two deals, the team must decide whether to sign him to a rest-of-season contract or part ways with him. However, a player can sign more than two hardship 10-day deals with the same team, as Davon Reed has done with the Nuggets.
- A team must have a spot available on its 15-man roster in order to add a player on a standard 10-day contract. But when a team is granted a hardship exception to complete a 10-day signing, it’s also granted an extra roster spot. At one point this season, for instance, the Hawks were carrying nine players on 10-day hardship deals in addition to their 15 players on standard contracts.
- A standard 10-day contract counts against team salary for cap and tax purposes, whereas a hardship 10-day deal does not.
For some teams, the 10-day contract provides an opportunity to take a flier on a young player to see if he deserves a longer-term look. Other clubs may utilize 10-day deals for short-term injury fill-ins, or simply to meet minimum roster requirements. The Jazz, for instance, only have 13 players on standard contracts after trading Miye Oni to Oklahoma City on Tuesday and must fill their 14th spot within the next two weeks.
As always, the NBA’s 10-day signing window will open during the same week that the league-wide salary guarantee deadline arrives. A team that wants to part ways with a player before his full-season salary becomes guaranteed must do so by January 7 so that he clears waivers before the league-wide salary guarantee date of January 10.
The start of the 10-day contract period and the salary guarantee deadline go hand in hand, since teams cutting players before their salaries become fully guaranteed will often sign players to 10-day contracts to fill those newly-opened roster spots — in some cases, the same player who was waived at the salary guarantee deadline returns to his team on a 10-day contract, as clubs looks to maximize their roster flexibility ahead of the trade deadline.
Since Christmas Day, Brad Wanamaker, Wayne Selden, Denzel Valentine, and Gabriel Deck have all been waived before their 2021/22 salaries could become fully guaranteed. The Thunder will also reportedly cut Oni after acquiring him from Utah. The rest of the players without fully guaranteed contracts can be found right here — many should be safe, but there will likely be at least a few more released by Friday evening.
As for which teams might be the best candidates to sign a player to a standard 10-day contract, there are currently eight clubs with at least one open 15-man roster spot. The Knicks, who are one of those teams, could be the first to complete a standard 10-day signing — they tried to add Ryan Arcidiacono earlier this week on a 10-day hardship contract, but had that deal voided because they no longer qualified for a hardship exception. Arcidiacono is still expected to join the team on a standard 10-day pact.
Atlantic Notes: Walker, Johnson, Tatum, VanVleet
Though Knicks point guard Kemba Walker just missed his third consecutive game (a 104-94 win over the Pacers) due to left knee soreness, team doctors have determined that there is no structural damage to the ligament that would require surgery, per Steve Popper of Newsday.
“He warmed up in OKC, tweaked something,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s got some soreness so we’ll let it clear up and then we’ll go from there.”
Thibodeau removed Walker, who had begun the 2021/22 season as a starter, from New York’s lineup entirely in late November. COVID-19 and injury absences necessitated a pivot, and Walker played well in his return. During his six games back, Walker averaged 19.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG and 6.0 APG for the Knicks.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Celtics All-Star wing Jayson Tatum discussed his experience with 40-year-old veteran swingman Joe Johnson, a former seven-time All-Star signed by Boston to a 10-day hardship exception. The team opted to not sign Johnson to a second 10-day deal after his first expired. “We all enjoyed the time that he was here,” Tatum said, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link). “The ultimate professional and somebody a lot of us look up to and obviously, we would have loved to [have] kept him around.” Johnson played in just one game during his 10 days with the team, scoring on his only field goal attempt. Tatum said that Johnson continues to watch Celtics games and that he and Johnson still text each other.
- Tatum also noted that his body is in better shape returning from COVID-19 protocols this season, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald tweets. The Celtics forward was hit hard by the novel coronavirus during the 2020/21 NBA season. “I feel a lot better with everything,” Tatum said, per Murphy. “My quarantine was shorter, my body feels a lot better, comparing my first couple of days back practicing than last year when I first came back.”
- Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet is letting his play do the talking, emerging as a legitimate candidate to be named to his first All-Star team this season, writes Nekias Duncan of Basketball News. Duncan observes that VanVleet is one of just three Eastern Conference guards, along with James Harden and Trae Young, averaging at least 20 PPG and 6 APG, while boasting a True Shooting percentage of 58% or higher. VanVleet is averaging 21.3 PPG, 6.7 APG, and 4.9 RPG, with a 58.5% true shooting percentage, across 31 games. The 27-year-old, who won a title with Toronto in 2019, boasts an overall shooting line of .441/.405/.880.
Northwest Notes: Whiteside, Finch, Edwards, Bol
With Jazz reserve center Hassan Whiteside unavailable while recovering from a concussion, Utah struggled to find much success in its small-ball lineups when All-Star center Rudy Gobert went to the bench, writes Eric Walden of the Salt Lake City Tribune. Walden notes that lineups with 6’8″ reserve forward Rudy Gay playing the five were minus-19 across 19:52 of action.
“It’s different without having a traditional big in Hassan or Rudy [Gobert] back there, because we base our defense solely on forcing everybody to our big,” All-Star point guard Mike Conley said. “Everybody’s kind of activated into more of a help-the-helper situation, as opposed to trying to make it a two-on-two situation with the big and the guard like we’re accustomed to doing.” Gay signed a two-year, $12.1MM contract with the team this summer.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch has earned rave reviews for the way he handled Minnesota’s rotations as the team was impacted by several coronavirus-related absences, writes Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. Win or lose, the Wolves have always been prepared and kept contests close. “His [after-timeout plays], his mindset, how he conducts practice, very detailed man,” point guard Patrick Beverley said. “His professionalism, I preach to these guys every day that they’re fortunate to have a coach like that, for sure.”
- After Finch had a quick hook for Timberwolves wing Anthony Edwards due to what the head coach perceived as lackluster defense in the first quarter of an eventual 122-104 Minnesota victory over the Clippers, Edwards responded with renewed effort, writes Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. Finch inserted Jaylen Nowell in Edwards’s stead early in the first quarter. “I wasn’t a big fan of his approach defensively to start the game, which is why I went that direction early,” Finch said. “He responded to that and was a lot more dialed in.” Edwards conceded that Finch had a point: “I get mad, but he right. At the end of the day I can’t do nothing but take the constructive criticism and come back and show him that I can do it.”
- 7’2″ Nuggets power forward Bol Bol showed promise in scoring a career-best 11 points across 20 minutes against the Rockets in a 124-111 win this weekend. He has support in high places as a prospect with upside, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post. One big name in his corner is Denver head coach Michael Malone, who sent Bol a congratulatory text after his big night.
COVID-19 Updates: Noel, Hornets, Pacers, Ingles, Reed, Bucks, Metu
Knicks center Nerlens Noel has cleared the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, per New York’s PR team (Twitter link). Noel entered the protocols in late December.
The 6’11” big man has only appeared in 17 contests, starting 10, for New York so far this season. The 27-year-old out of Kentucky is averaging 3.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.5 BPG and 1.1 SPG across 23.1 MPG. Knee injuries kept Noel absent for much of the start of the 2021/22 season. He signed a lucrative three-year, $32MM contract with the Knicks during the offseason.
Here are a few more protocol-related updates:
- Hornets power forward P.J. Washington and shooting guard Scottie Lewis, signed to a two-way contract, have exited the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols, the club’s PR team has announced (via Twitter). Charlotte adds that both players are questionable to play on Wednesday’s game against Detroit.
- Pacers guards Jeremy Lamb and Malcolm Brogdon have cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols but will not play in tonight’s game and are uncertain to suit up for tomorrow’s contest, per James Boyd of the Indianapolis Star.
- Jazz forward Joe Ingles has become Utah’s first player to enter the league’s COVID-19 protocols this season, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
- Sixers big man Paul Reed has entered the league’s coronavirus protocols and will be unavailable to play against the Magic on Wednesday, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Pompey adds (Twitter link) that three of the Sixers’ other four players currently in COVID-19 protocols have already been ruled out for the game, with only Myles Powell seeing his status upgraded to questionable.
- Bucks guards Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton have entered the league’s COVID-19 protocols, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic (via Twitter). Nehm adds that Milwaukee forwards Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Jordan Nwora and Semi Ojeleye, all still in protocols themselves, have seen their statuses upgraded to questionable ahead of the team’s Wednesday matchup against the Raptors.
- Kings big man Chimezie Metu is now in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, reports Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
Jazz Trade Miye Oni, Second-Round Pick To Thunder
4:51pm: In a press release, the Thunder have confirmed their trade to acquire Oni and the Jazz’s 2028 second-round pick, in addition to the release of Deck. Utah acquired cash in return, according to the announcement.
3:03pm: The Jazz are finalizing an agreement with the Thunder on a trade that will send swingman Miye Oni to Oklahoma City, according to Shams Charania and Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Thunder will also receive Utah’s 2028 second-round pick in the deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Oni doesn’t have a fully guaranteed salary for the 2021/22 season, so he can be waived by Friday without his entire $1,782,621 cap hit applying to team salary. Presumably, the Jazz planned to part ways with Oni before Friday’s salary guarantee deadline and will trade him instead of cutting him so that his cap hit won’t apply to team salary at all for cap or tax purposes.
If Utah had released him, Oni would’ve counted against the cap for a prorated portion of his minimum salary — that amount (about $820K as of Monday) would’ve further increased the team’s end-of-season tax penalty. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the Jazz’s projected tax bill would’ve been about $2.4MM higher if Oni had been waived rather than traded.
Instead, the Thunder will be the ones releasing Oni, according to Wojnarowski. They’re well below the salary floor despite technically operating over the cap, so adding a little dead money to their cap is well worth it to acquire a future second-round pick.
With no players headed from Oklahoma City to Utah in the swap, the Jazz will open up a second spot on their 15-man roster, which they’ll have to fill within the next two weeks.
The Thunder will have to waive someone in order to make room on the roster for Oni, even though they don’t plan to keep him. Gabriel Deck, who has a partially guaranteed salary, will be the odd man out in OKC, according to Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Once they officially release Deck and then acquire and waive Oni, the Thunder will have an opening on their 15-man roster too.
Since Oni is in the final season of a three-year contract, he can’t be acquired using the minimum salary exception, so the Thunder will have to use a traded player exception to absorb his salary. They have two sizeable TPEs expiring next month that would work.
The Jazz will create a small traded player exception worth a prorated portion of Oni’s salary in the deal.
Chandler Hutchison Cut By Suns
The Suns have opted to release small forward Chandler Hutchison, who had been occupying one of their two-way contract slots, per JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link).
The 6’6″ swingman was selected with the No. 22 pick by the Bulls out of Boise State in 2018, but struggled to stay healthy during his Chicago tenure. He was eventually shipped to Washington during the 2020/21 season. After an uneventful time in Washington, Hutchison latched on with the Suns this season. The forward holds career averages of 5.4 PPG on .442/.309/.643 shooting and 3.7 RPG in 17.1 MPG for 103 games played between the Bulls, Wizards and Suns.
Hutchison appeared in just six contests with Phoenix, averaging 3.7 MPG. In six games with NBA G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors this season, Hutchison averaged 6.0 PPG and 2.7 RPG over 21.7 MPG.
With the loss of Hutchison, power forward Ish Wainright becomes the Suns’ only two-way player for now.