Timberwolves Notes: Nuggets Rivalry, Lore, A-Rod, Lloyd, Jovic
The comments that Nuggets governor Josh Kroenke‘s made to the press last week about the Timberwolves‘ pursuit of longtime Denver executive Tim Connelly will fuel a rivalry between the two division rivals going forward, opines Michael Rand of The Star Tribune. Kroenke spoke about Minnesota coming through the “side door” to land Connelly and suggested that it was a “desperate” move.
“Ultimately when you go to a stratosphere that some clubs, you say some desperate clubs, are willing to go to, there’s a tier out there that just kind of doesn’t make sense,” Kroenke said of the Nuggets’ decision not to match Connelly’s offer from the Wolves, per Mike Singer of the Denver Post.
Rand notes that Denver has now decided to let its lead decision-maker walk twice in the last decade, first with Masai Ujiri, who left for the Raptors in 2013 and won a title with the team in 2019, and now with Connelly.
There’s more out of Minnesota:
- Incoming Timberwolves owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore seem intent on using their money to improve the Minnesota front office, a ploy that Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune applauds. In addition to luring Connelly away from Denver, Minnesota has added Matt Lloyd and retained Sachin Gupta to the team’s decision-making brain trust.
- The widely-respected Lloyd learned under a variety of scouting styles while with the Bulls and Magic, write Jon Krawczynski and Josh Robbins of The Athletic. He worked with Chicago from 1999-2012, and started with the Magic as an assistant GM in 2012 before becoming the team’s VP of basketball operations for the 2021/22 season.
- 18-year-old NBA prospect Nikola Jovic, currently playing for Mega Mozzart of the ABA League, recently worked out for the Timberwolves, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). Wolfson is skeptical that the 6’10” wing will still be on the board in time for Minnesota to draft him with the No. 19 pick in the 2022 draft. He is currently listed as the No. 24 top prospect on the latest ESPN big board.
Latest On Jazz’s Head Coaching Search
The Jazz have been given the green light to talk to several well-regarded current assistant coaches about their head coaching vacancy, per Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Several of the names Woj and MacMahon mention had been floated as possibilities in reports earlier this week, but Celtics assistant coach Joe Mazzulla joins an expanding list of assistant coaches under consideration by Jazz brass.
As Jared Weiss of The Athletic tweets, Mazzulla worked as an assistant coach under both Brad Stevens and now Ime Udoka in Boston, and has assumed a more significant role while on Udoka’s bench this season. Mazzulla interviewed for the head coaching position with Boston in 2021 after Stevens moved into a front office role with the franchise and will get an opportunity to meet with the Jazz this spring.
Woj and MacMahon indicate that Utah is also set to interview current Jazz assistant Alex Jensen, who served on the staff of departed head coach Quin Snyder, along with former Blazers coach Terry Stotts, Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant, Celtics assistant Will Hardy, and Bucks assistant coach Charles Lee. These five candidates had been included on the team’s preliminary list.
Suns assistant coach Kevin Young and Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin were previously cited as possible candidates, but they weren’t mentioned in today’s ESPN report.
The other key piece of new information from Wojnarowski and MacMahon is that the coaching search is anticipated to expand further to include both assistants and recent NBA head coaches. According to ESPN’s duo, the team will cast a wide net and move gradually in its search.
In eight seasons with Snyder at the helm, Utah never advanced beyond the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. This year, the Jazz finished with a 49-33 regular season record and lost 4-2 in the first round to the Mavericks.
Warriors Notes: Wiggins, Iguodala, GPII, Klay
Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins has been an integral player during the club’s 2022 NBA Finals run, prompting Zach Lowe of ESPN to take a deep dive revisiting Golden State’s acquisition of the 27-year-old – who made his first All-Star team this year – and exploring what retaining Wiggins could cost the club going forward.
After former Warriors All-Star Kevin Durant decided to join the Nets during the 2019 offseason, Golden State team president Bob Myers convinced Durant and Brooklyn to agree to a double sign-and-trade that would send out the two-time Finals MVP and a future Warriors draft pick in exchange for 2019 All-Star guard D’Angelo Russell. Golden State then sent Russell to the Timberwolves at the 2020 trade deadline. In the deal, the Warriors received Wiggins and a top-three protected first-round draft pick, which eventually was used to select rookie small forward Jonathan Kuminga in 2021.
Wiggins has been a solid two-way player in the postseason, and Lowe notes that his defense on Mavericks All-Star guard Luka Doncic and now Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum has been instrumental for Golden State. It took Wiggins some time to fit into the Warriors’ switch-heavy offensive scheme and get comfortable with more off-ball movement than he was used to while with Minnesota.
“In this system, you have to move a lot,” Wiggins said. “A lot of the positions are almost interchangeable.”
After this season, Wiggins has one year left and $33.6MM on the hefty rookie scale contract extension he signed with the Timberwolves. Lowe notes that breakout Warriors guard Jordan Poole is eligible for a contract extension this season. Veterans Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will become unrestricted free agents in 2024, but Green has a player option for the 2023/24 season. The team will also have to make determinations on free agent role players Gary Payton II and starting center Kevon Looney this summer. Lowe wonders if the team will ultimately decide to pick between Wiggins and Poole soon, or between Wiggins and the starrier veterans Thompson and Green later. The club payroll, including salary and luxury tax penalties, could get as high as $475MM if everyone is retained, Lowe notes.
There’s more out of San Francisco:
- Warriors veteran forward Andre Iguodala, who sat during the team’s 107-88 Game 2 victory due to right knee swelling, remains questionable for Game 3 on Wednesday with left knee soreness, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The 38-year-old, who was the 2015 Finals MVP for the Warriors, scored seven points and dished out three assists across 12 minutes of action in Game 1.
- Prior to the start of his eventful 2021/22 season with the Warriors, reserve guard Gary Payton II contemplated joining the team as a video coordinator, per Malika Andrews of ESPN (Twitter video link). “They were telling me my chances were kind of low of making the team… they had a video coordinating job open, and I was trying to… ask for an interview for that job just to stay around this team,” Payton told Andrews. “They cut me and next step was to go back to the [G League] or stay here and be close to the team… Next thing you know I get a call saying, ‘You’re the 15th man.'” Payton, currently on a one-year, $1.9MM contract with Golden State, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and will certainly not have to worry about a contingency video coordinator gig in the immediate future. The 29-year-old journeyman finally emerged as a full-time rotation player during his second season with Golden State, averaging 17.6 MPG across 71 contests. His modest counting stats of 7.1 PPG, 3.5 APG and 1.4 SPG belie his on-court impact — he has established himself as one of the team’s top wing defenders.
- Warriors wing Klay Thompson has scored just 26 points on 10-of-33 shooting from the field across his first two NBA Finals games against the Celtics, with swingman Jaylen Brown serving as his main defender. Anthony Slater of The Athletic wonders how much of Thompson’s shooting woes are the result of the Celtics’ excellent perimeter defense, and how much is merely a product of a shooting slump.
2022 NBA Offseason Preview: Denver Nuggets
After winning his first Most Valuable Player award in 2020/21, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic was even better in ’21/22. And he had to be — with guard Jamal Murray sidelined while recovering from an ACL tear and forward Michael Porter Jr. on the shelf due to back surgery, Denver was missing two of its top three scorers for nearly the entire season.
Given the absences of those two key players, it should have been a lost season for the Nuggets, but Jokic was so good that you got the sense the team still had a chance to make some noise in the playoffs if Murray and Porter could make it back.
Unfortunately, time eventually ran out on the Nuggets’ season before Murray and Porter were ready to return, and despite Jokic’s heroics – and his second consecutive MVP trophy – the club just didn’t have the pieces to keep up with the eventual Western-champion Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.
The Nuggets’ Offseason Plan:
Having a healthy Murray and Porter back in their lineup will go a long way toward turning the Nuggets back into a legitimate contender. But that doesn’t mean the team should be content to sit back and view those returning stars as its offseason “additions.”
Murray and Porter will make the Nuggets’ offense more dangerous, but neither player is an above-average defender, so Denver is in need of one or two more wings who can defend (and ideally who can shoot too).
Newly-promoted head of basketball operations Calvin Booth will be tasked with finding those players, though he’ll have limited resources to do so on the trade market. The Nuggets have given up two future first-round picks and four second-rounders without acquiring any extra picks of their own, reducing the team’s ability to sweeten its offers with draft assets.
That means the Nuggets may have to dangle players like Will Barton, Monte Morris, and possibly Zeke Nnaji as they pursue defensive upgrades. All three are solid contributors on reasonable contracts, but Bones Hyland‘s emergence and Murray’s return should help make at least one of Barton or Morris more expendable.
The Nuggets technically also have the ability to trade the No. 21 overall pick, though they’d have to wait until after the draft to officially move it, due to the rule preventing teams from leaving themselves without a first-rounder in two consecutive future drafts.
It won’t bring back an impact player on its own, but attaching the No. 21 selection to some combination of Barton, Morris, and/or Nnaji would be enough to open up some intriguing possibilities for Denver. On the other hand, the Nuggets’ roster is getting expensive and adding a low-cost rookie could help keep their tax bill in check, so perhaps they’ll hang onto this year’s first-rounder or attempt to move back into the second round rather than trading out of the draft entirely.
Booth and his basketball operations team will have several decisions to make on free agents, including DeMarcus Cousins, Austin Rivers, and Davon Reed. Cousins played well as a backup center behind Jokic and helped bring some toughness to the second unit — I’d expect Denver to try to re-sign him, as long as no other clubs offer him a sizeable raise. The Nuggets only have his Non-Bird rights.
Rivers’ and Reed’s futures could be tied to the Nuggets’ other roster moves. They’ve shown they’re capable of playing rotation minutes, but they’ll be pretty low on the depth chart if Murray, Hyland, Morris, and Barton are all still in the mix and may seek other opportunities in that scenario.
The Greens – JaMychal Green and Jeff Green – could both reach free agency if they turn down their respective player options. I’d consider Jeff far more likely to test the market than JaMychal, given that JaMychal’s option ($8.2MM) is the more expensive of the two and he’s coming off a down year.
Assuming JaMychal opts in, the Nuggets could use his expiring contract to help salary-match in a trade, potentially opening up a larger role for Nnaji. Jeff’s ability to knock down jump shots and guard multiple positions on defense makes him a valuable depth piece, but he’s entering his age-36 season, so the team won’t want to pay him too much more than his option amount ($4.5MM).
Jokic, Murray, and Morris are extension-eligible this offseason, but only Jokic is a sure thing to get a new deal — he and the team are expected to finalize a five-year, super-max agreement that will lock him up through the 2027/28 season. The timing probably isn’t right for an extension for Murray, who hasn’t played in over a year, or Morris, who would be ineligible to be traded for six months if he signs for more money or more years than extend-and-trade rules allow.
Salary Cap Situation
Note: Our salary cap figures are based on the league’s latest projection ($122MM) for 2022/23.
Guaranteed Salary
- Nikola Jokic ($33,047,803)
Jamal Murray ($31,650,600)- Michael Porter Jr. ($30,500,000) 1
- Aaron Gordon ($19,690,909)
- Will Barton ($14,375,000)
- Monte Morris ($9,125,000)
- Zeke Nnaji ($2,617,800)
- Bones Hyland ($2,201,520)
- Total: $143,208,632
Player Options
- JaMychal Green ($8,200,000): Early Bird rights
- Jeff Green ($4,500,000): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $12,700,000
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- None
Restricted Free Agents
- Facundo Campazzo ($4,000,000 qualifying offer / $4,160,000 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Vlatko Cancar ($2,228,276 qualifying offer / $2,228,276 cap hold): Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $6,388,276
Two-Way Free Agents
- Markus Howard ($1,811,516 qualifying offer / $1,811,516 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Davon Reed ($1,616,044 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $3,427,560
Draft Picks
- No. 21 overall pick ($2,770,920)
- Total: $2,770,920
Extension-Eligible Players
Note: These are players who are either already eligible for an extension or will become eligible before the 2022/23 season begins.
- Nikola Jokic (veteran)
- Monte Morris (veteran)
- Jamal Murray (veteran)
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Bryn Forbes ($5,400,000 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- DeMarcus Cousins ($1,811,516 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Troy Daniels ($1,811,516 cap hold): Non-Bird rights 2
- Richard Jefferson ($1,811,516 cap hold): Non-Bird rights 2
- Austin Rivers ($1,811,516 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Total: $12,646,064
Offseason Cap Outlook
With $143MM+ in guaranteed money committed to just eight players, the Nuggets are on track to go well beyond the projected luxury tax line of $149MM, so they’ll be limited to the $6.4MM taxpayer mid-level exception unless they shed a contract or two.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Taxpayer mid-level exception: $6,392,000 3
Footnotes
- Porter’s salary will be worth 25% of the salary cap. If the cap ends up above or below $122MM, this figure will be adjusted upward or downward.
- The cap holds for Daniels and Jefferson remain on the Nuggets’ books from prior seasons because they haven’t been renounced. They can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
- This is a projected value. The Nuggets could instead have access to the full mid-level exception ($10,349,000) and bi-annual exception ($4,050,000) if they remain below the tax apron.
Salary and cap information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Notes: Brown, Williams, Raptors, Heck
The Warriors were noticeably more physical in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, and the Celtics have to be ready to respond to that over the rest of the series, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. Golden State unleashed a more aggressive defense, forcing 19 turnovers that led to 33 points. Coach Steve Kerr also unveiled a few defensive adjustments that knocked Boston off its game.
One of those changes involved matching Draymond Green up more frequently with Jaylen Brown. After a hot start, Brown missed 10 of his last 11 shots from the field, but he said he knows what to expect moving forward.
“They switched the lineup,” Brown said. “They tried to put (Green) on me, be physical, muck the game up, pull me, grab me and overall raise the intensity. I feel like they got away with a lot of stuff tonight, but I’m looking forward to the challenge of the next game. All that stuff, the gimmicks, the tricks, we’ve just got to be the smarter team, be the more physical team. Look forward to just coming out and playing Celtic basketball.”
- Robert Williams remained on the ground for a while Sunday after Marcus Smart landed on his leg, but Celtics coach Ime Udoka told reporters today that Williams is fine, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Williams was listed as questionable heading into Game 2 because of left knee soreness and only played 14 minutes.
- Eric Koreen of The Athletic looks at four areas where the Raptors need to improve and suggests potential pick-ups to help with each one. One of the team’s primary concerns is finding more play-makers to go along with Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes, and Koreen points to Malik Monk, Tyus Jones, Victor Oladipo, Delon Wright and Kyle Anderson as possible free agent targets. Koreen also believes Toronto has to upgrade its shooting, rim protection and perimeter defense.
- Julian Champagnie of St. John’s will work out for the Raptors on Wednesday, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports.
- Chris Heck is stepping down from his role as president of business operations with the Sixers, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Heck has been with the team for nine years and has been in his current post since 2017. “It’s time,” said Heck, who adds that he reached the decision in February. “I’ve kind of done everything I set out to do except for maybe organize an [NBA championship] parade. I’m really happy with what we accomplished during the time period, but it’s on to the next chapter.”
Lakers Notes: Davis, Wallace, Ham, Draft, Westbrook
Speaking to the media on Monday for the first time since being named the Lakers‘ head coach, Darvin Ham didn’t undersell Anthony Davis‘ importance to the franchise moving forward, as Jovan Buha of The Athletic relays.
“I think he’s the key,” Ham said of Davis. “We’ve all seen what can happen when he’s healthy and playing at a high level and in rhythm. We saw it in the bubble. His skill set, his size, his versatility, his defensive acumen, his relentlessness, his ability to give multiple efforts defensively is key. It’s going to be the foundation of the type of standard we set in the ‘Darvin Ham era.’ It’s going to be built on that defense and he’s going to be the main piece, the centerpiece of it.
“LeBron (James) is always going to be great; LeBron is going to be LeBron. Russ (Westbrook) is going to be Russ. But we need consistency out of Anthony Davis. We need him to be healthy, we need him to be in a good mental space. And we need him to be as consistent as possible, like we’re playing that championship-type level of basketball. And we’re going to do everything in our power to support him.”
Davis has been limited to just 76 games across the last two seasons due to injuries, but has played at his usual All-Star level when healthy, averaging 22.5 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 3.1 APG, and 2.0 BPG in those 76 appearances.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Addressing the rumor that his former Pistons teammate Rasheed Wallace will join the Lakers’ staff as an assistant, Ham referred to is a “fluid” situation, according to Buha. “He’s definitely a candidate that we’ll take a look at, but we’re working through that,” Ham said, confirming that no formal agreement is in place yet.
- In a column for The Los Angeles Times, Dylan Hernandez argues that the Lakers’ leaders – including Ham and VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka – are lowering expectations for the offseason moves they can make and shifting the responsibility for next season’s success from the front office to the players.
- Pelinka has interest in buying a second-round pick in this month’s draft, he told Mike Bresnahan during a Spectrum SportsNet interview (Twitter link via Marc Stein). The Lakers still have about $4.44MM available to send out in trades before the 2022/23 league year begins, as our cash tracker shows.
- Although Ham said all the right things about Russell Westbrook during his introductory press conference on Monday, it remains to be seen whether he’ll have more luck than Frank Vogel did getting the former MVP to fully buy in to his message, Bill Oram writes for The Athletic.
- In case you missed it, at least three Lakers assistant coaches – including David Fizdale – won’t be retained for 2022/23, but Phil Handy will be back. Here’s our full story.
Three Lakers Assistants Won’t Be Retained; Phil Handy To Stay
12:58pm: The Lakers will keep Phil Handy, who is considered one of the league’s best assistant coaches, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. Handy accepted Ham’s offer to remain with the team.
11:56am: As Darvin Ham begins to build his coaching staff with the Lakers, assistants David Fizdale, Mike Penberthy and John Lucas III have been told that they won’t return next season, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Ham has talked to several potential candidates about joining him in L.A. and that process is expected to continue for weeks, adds ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). A report Monday indicated that Rasheed Wallace is among the names being considered.
Fizdale, a longtime assistant and a former head coach with the Grizzlies and Knicks, joined the Lakers last season. He has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Quin Snyder in Utah.
Lucas was also in his first year with the team, while Penberthy joined Frank Vogel‘s staff when he was hired in 2019 and was promoted to a front-of-the-bench role last offseason.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 6/7/2022
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today. Click here to read the transcript.
Dana Gauruder will be hosting our next chat on Thursday, June 9 at 11:00 am Central time.
Fischer’s Latest: Gobert, Jazz, Bulls, P. Williams, Snyder, Spurs
Confirming a pair of earlier reports, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report states that the Jazz haven’t entertained inquiries on Donovan Mitchell, but have been willing to engage in talks involving Rudy Gobert, with the Bulls among the potential suitors for the three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
According to Fischer, a Bulls offer for Gobert would – as expected – start with center Nikola Vucevic. The “popular package” discussed by various league executives would also include Patrick Williams, according to Fischer, who notes that the Jazz have long been seeking a wing defender like the former No. 4 overall pick.
However, as Fischer writes, the Bulls weren’t interested in discussing Williams during in-season trade talks for Jerami Grant, so it remains to be seen how open they’d be to including him in an offer for Gobert. If Williams is off the table, adding Coby White and Javonte Green would work from a salary-matching perspective, Fischer observes, but presumably the Jazz would be seeking a more substantial return for one of their two All-Stars.
Here’s more from Fischer:
- The Jazz offered Quin Snyder a variety of contract structures in an effort to keep him in Utah, but those offers were rebuffed, with Snyder deciding it was time to move on. The expectation in league circles is that Snyder – who is highly regarded by Spurs CEO R.C. Buford – would be the leading candidate for the coaching job in San Antonio when Gregg Popovich steps down, says Fischer.
- The Jazz are still working on their list of head coaching targets and will begin to formally reach out to candidates in the coming days, according to Fischer. One of the names included in the team’s preliminary list of candidates was Terry Stotts, who has the same representation as Snyder and spent several weeks around the Jazz in 2021/22, Fischer notes.
- While there’s some skepticism around the NBA about how much Jazz CEO Danny Ainge will cater to Donovan Mitchell, Ainge isn’t viewed as someone who “scours the market of the NBA’s up-and-coming head coaches,” Fischer writes. In other words, if Mitchell and team owner Ryan Smith both want to bring in former Jazz assistant Johnnie Bryant as Snyder’s replacement, Ainge likely wouldn’t stand in the way, sources tell Fischer.
New York Notes: Nets, M. James, Knicks, Workouts
After playing with the Nets down the stretch in the 2020/21 season, veteran guard Mike James is interested in returning to Brooklyn, a league insider tells NetsDaily. James remains close with star forward Kevin Durant, who traveled to Europe to watch his former teammate play in the EuroLeague this spring.
With Kyrie Irving, Patty Mills, and Goran Dragic all eligible for free agency, the Nets’ backcourt could undergo some changes this offseason, so a reunion with James isn’t out of the question. The team still controls his Non-Bird rights and could offer him either a minimum-salary deal or something slightly above it.
Still, it’s unclear whether the Nets have interest in bringing back James, who threw some cold water on NetsDaily’s report himself in a reply on Twitter.
“(I don’t know) how to even take this rumor,” James wrote. “Would I like to play alongside my friend Kevin? Yes. But I’d also like to play alongside my 10 other of my close friends. Some play in the NBA, Europe and some don’t play professional.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s two New York teams:
- The Knicks worked out a handful of possible lottery targets on Monday. In addition to TyTy Washington, G League Ignite guard Dyson Daniels and Ohio State wing Malaki Branham were also in town to audition for the team, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic and Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter links).
- Memphis forward Josh Minott, viewed as a probable second-round pick, also worked out for the Knicks on Monday, tweets Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com.
- Memphis shooting guard Lester Quinones is working out for the Knicks on Tuesday and the Nets on Thursday, a source tells Jake Weingarten of StockRisers.com (Twitter link). Quinones has previously worked out for the Warriors and Lakers, among other teams.
- Notre Dame forward Paul Atkinson, the 2020 Ivy League Player of the Year at Yale, will work out on Tuesday for the Nets, tweets Zagoria.
- Fred Katz of The Athletic explores several hypothetical scenarios in which the Knicks trade up from No. 11, weighing how many assets they’d have to give up and whether their potential trade partners would have legitimate interest.