Nets Eyeing Markieff Morris, Tristan Thompson
With the Kevin Durant saga resolved at least for the time being, the Nets can shift their focus to filling out their projected regular season roster, which currently has a couple openings. According to reports from Chris Milholen of NetsDaily (Twitter link) and Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Nets may use one of those spots to bolster their frontcourt with a free agent addition.
Milholen reports that there’s mutual interest between Markieff Morris and the Nets, with Scotto confirming that the team has expressed “exploratory” interest in the veteran forward.
Morris was limited to just 17 appearances last season in Miami due to a neck injury that sidelined him for much of the year, but he has a solid NBA résumé, having appeared in over 700 regular season games for six teams since entering the league in 2011. In his last full season, Morris averaged 6.7 PPG and 4.4 RPG in 61 games (19.7 MPG) for the Lakers in 2020/21. He’s known for his toughness and defensive versatility, and can also stretch the floor a little on offense (.341 career 3PT%).
Veteran center Tristan Thompson is another potential Nets target to watch, according to Scotto, who says the club would like to add a backup center after losing Andre Drummond in free agency.
Thompson, 31, played for three teams in 2021/22, starting the season with the Kings before being traded to the Pacers, who bought him out, clearing a path for him to sign with the Bulls. In total, Thompson averaged 6.0 PPG and 5.1 RPG in 57 games (15.7 MPG).
While there are a number of other intriguing frontcourt players on the free agent market, Scotto threw cold water on the idea that Brooklyn could sign Dwight Howard or Carmelo Anthony, reporting that the club doesn’t currently have interest in either player.
The Nets are carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed standard contracts. Edmond Sumner, who has a partial guarantee of $250K on his minimum-salary deal, has the inside track to be the 13th man. Even if we assume Sumner will make the regular season roster, that still leaves one or two open slots.
Brooklyn has its full taxpayer mid-level exception ($6.48MM) available, though it’s unclear if any of the players on the team’s radar will command more than the minimum.
Teams Have One More Week To Stretch 2022/23 Salaries
Wednesday, August 31 is the last day that an NBA team will be able to waive a player who has a guaranteed salary for 2022/23 and stretch that player’s ’22/23 salary across three seasons.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Stretch Provision]
A player who is waived between September 1 and the end of the 2022/23 season can still have his cap hit(s) for 2023/24 and future years stretched across multiple years, assuming he’s owed guaranteed money beyond this season. But his ’22/23 cap charge would remain unchanged in that scenario, unless he reaches a buyout agreement with his team.
The stretch provision allows teams to gain some short-term relief at the cost of reduced long-term flexibility. It’s used most frequently by teams in the luxury tax that want to either lower their tax bill (or duck out of tax territory entirely) or by teams that want to create a little extra cap room to accommodate a specific roster move.
Teams haven’t employed the stretch provision very frequently over the last couple years, but we saw it utilized in a couple instances last month. The Pacers waived three players with modest 2022/23 salary guarantees and stretched their cap hits across three seasons in order to help make room for their offer sheet to Deandre Ayton.
In that case, Nik Stauskas had his $2,106,932 partial guarantee turned into annual cap hits of $702,311 through 2024/25; Juwan Morgan‘s $1,728,689 partial guarantee was stretched to become three annual cap hits of $576,230; and Malik Fitts‘ $1,665,650 partial guarantee turned into three annual cap hits of $555,217.
The Trail Blazers, meanwhile, stretched Eric Bledsoe‘s $3.9MM partial guarantee across three seasons for equal cap hits of $1.3MM through 2024/25, which allowed Portland to narrowly sneak below this season’s luxury tax line.
Conversely, when the Spurs waived Danilo Gallinari, they simply applied his $13MM partial guarantee to their 2022/23 cap rather than stretching it across three seasons. Stretching that $13MM would’ve created an extra $8.67MM in cap room for San Antonio, but the team had no immediate use for that extra room this season, and opted to keep Gallinari’s dead money off its books for 2023/24 and ’24/25.
There aren’t many remaining candidates to have their 2022/23 salaries stretched, but the deadline is still worth keeping in mind for the possibilities it will take off the table.
For example, while multiple reports have indicated that the Lakers have no plans to waive-and-stretch Russell Westbrook and his $47MM+ cap hit, it’s still technically an option for the club up until next Wednesday. Once the calendar flips to September 1, stretching Westbrook’s salary is no longer a possibility for L.A., and the only way for the club to reduce his ’22/23 cap hit would be to agree to a buyout.
Eastern Notes: Cavs, Mitchell, Sirvydis, Tatum, Raptors
Within his latest roundup of Donovan Mitchell rumors, Ian Begley of SNY.tv confirms that the Cavaliers have “touched base” with the Jazz about Mitchell in recent days. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 named Cleveland as one of the teams with interest in Mitchell in a Tuesday report.
Begley observes that the Cavaliers have the young players and draft picks necessary to make a competitive offer for Mitchell, but stresses that their level of interest in the Jazz star is unknown.
As I noted on Tuesday, it would be a little surprising to see the Cavaliers make a serious bid for someone like Mitchell after just locking up Darius Garland to a maximum-salary extension. Garland and Mitchell could theoretically play together, but going all-in to acquire another ball-dominant guard may not be the best use of assets for a Cavs team that has a greater need for a two-way forward.
Here’s more from around the East:
- Deividas Sirvydis‘ new one-year contract with the Pacers includes Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has learned. That means it could be converted into a two-way deal before opening night or could put Sirvydis in line to earn a $50K bonus if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with Indiana’s G League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
- Reacting to the revelation that Jayson Tatum played through a non-displaced fracture in his wrist during the second half of the 2021/22 season, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston observes that Tatum’s ability to stay on the court enhances his value to the Celtics. Since entering the NBA in 2017, Tatum has missed just 25 of 390 regular season games and has appeared in all 74 of Boston’s playoff contests.
- In the second installment of a two-part mailbag, Eric Koreen of The Athletic considers whether the Raptors would have real interest in Myles Turner as a trade target, evaluates what two-way player Jeff Dowtin brings to Toronto, and weighs whether another Canadian city could get an NBA expansion team.
Kevin Durant Notes: Reactions, Next Steps, More
While the Nets confirmed on Tuesday that Kevin Durant is officially off the trade market, some rival executives remain skeptical about just how hard the team tried to move him this summer, as Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com writes.
“What Brooklyn was asking for was ridiculous,” one executive involved in the process told Bulpett. “They knew it. We knew it.”
If the Nets’ intention all along was to hang onto Durant by setting an asking price that no team would be willing to meet, the situation played out exactly as they hoped. But even if they genuinely attempted to move him following his June 30 trade request, another league executive was impressed by how they handled the saga, Bulpett writes.
“Brooklyn just said, ‘Enough of this s–t.’ And good for them,” the exec told Heavy.com. “This should be a blueprint for every team that goes through something like this. … It’s important to maintain good relationships and loyalty and all that with your players, but if the player is doing something that’s hurting the team — hurting the business — then you have to stand your ground and remember how you got the money to buy the team in the first place.”
One league source who spoke to Bulpett suggested that Nets owner Joe Tsai was determined to reclaim control of the franchise after having all but ceded that control to Durant and Kyrie Irving for a few years when they signed with the team in 2019.
“He gave them the keys to the Ferrari and they took it out and they wrecked it — and he decided he wasn’t going to give them another set of keys,” that source said. “The statement he made on Twitter? That was Joe Tsai saying that he was going to be the one who decides who drives, and it isn’t going to be them.”
Here are several more items on Durant and the Nets:
- The Nets and Durant can talk about moving forward with their partnership all they want, but the foundation in Brooklyn has been fractured, according to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, who says the team is under pressure to win in 2022/23 or risk finding itself in a similar situation next offseason.
- The Durant drama helped mask other major questions facing the Nets, including what they can realistically expect from Irving and Ben Simmons in ’22/23 after the two stars essentially had lost seasons in ’21/22, writes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
- A handful of ESPN’s analysts, including Tim Bontemps and Bobby Marks, explore where Durant and the Nets go from here and make predictions about how long Durant and Irving will remain in Brooklyn and where the team currently stands in the East’s pecking order.
- In a YouTube video, ESPN’s Bobby Marks says one of his main takeaways from the Durant saga is that it’s OK for players to request trades and for teams ultimately not to grant those requests, suggesting that major changes to the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement shouldn’t be necessary.
- What exactly does Durant want? That question seems harder than ever to answer in the wake of this offseason’s drama, according to Chris Herring of SI.com, who says it’s unclear whether KD’s top priority is to win championships or to have things completely on his terms.
- In a column for The New York Post, Mike Vaccaro paints the Nets’ leadership group in an unflattering light and refers to the last couple months in Brooklyn as “the most laughable basketball saga we’ve ever seen.”
Tim Frazier Signs With AEK Athens
Veteran NBA guard Tim Frazier will play in Europe for the first time in his professional career, having signed a one-year contract with AEK Athens, the Greek team announced today in a press release.
Frazier, 31, went undrafted out of Penn State in 2014, but has since suited up for nine different NBA teams, appearing in a total of 289 regular season games, including 128 for New Orleans and 59 for Washington. In 2021/22, he played 10 games for the Magic and two for the Cavaliers on a series of 10-day deals.
Frazier has primarily served as a backup point guard at the NBA level, averaging 4.9 points and 4.0 assists per game with a .400/.323/.723 shooting line in 17.6 minutes per contest over the course of his eight-year career.
AEK Athens, Frazier’s new team, competes in the Greek Basketball League (GBL) and the Greek Cup in addition to FIBA’s Basketball Champions League. Earlier this offseason, AEK added free agent forward Cameron McGriff, who also saw some NBA action in 2021/22, appearing in three games for Portland.
Knicks Notes: Barrett, Fournier, Mitchell, Pitino
While it’s clear they’re seeking several first-round picks in exchange for Donovan Mitchell, there have been conflicting reports over which Knicks players the Jazz would prefer in such a deal.
According to SNY TV’s Ian Begley, Utah continues to have strong interest in Knicks wing RJ Barrett. Evan Fournier’s name has also come up in discussions — his contract would certainly facilitate a deal from salary-matching purposes.
The Jazz would also want at least one of the trio of Obi Toppin, Quentin Grimes and Immanuel Quickley, Begley adds.
The Knicks have softened their stance on potentially dealing Barrett, with some of their decision makers willing to part with Barrett in a Mitchell deal, according to Begley’s sources. However, there are several voices of influence in the organization, Begley notes, so it’s no certainty they’d actually give up Barrett.
We have more on the Knicks:
- Rick Pitino, who coached them in the late ’80s and currently coaches at Iona, said that Mitchell would “love” to wear a Knicks uniform, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post. “Donovan loves the Knicks,’’ Pitino said. “Donovan loves being around his mom, sister and dad. Donovan would treasure being a Knick. That being said, things have to work out. I’m hoping, keeping my fingers crossed that he becomes a Knick. It would be very special for me as a coach seeing him in a Knick uniform as an ex-Knick coach.”
- Barrett is a member of Team Canada, but he won’t play in the World Cup qualifying game against Argentina this week, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News tweets. He’s reluctant to risk taking the court with a potential financial windfall looming. Barrett is eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason.
- For more info on Mitchell trade talks, click here.
Brad Stevens Met With Jaylen Brown, Likes Roster
While the news of Kevin Durant withdrawing his demand to be traded broke on Tuesday, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens already had a candid discussion with Jaylen Brown regarding trade chatter, as Christopher Price of the Boston Globe relays.
Speaking on radio station WEEI, Stevens said that he met with Brown — the most prominent player that any Durant suitor was reportedly willing to part with — in Los Angeles last week.
“Jaylen’s been through this from the standpoint of listening and the noise has been around him for a long time,” Stevens said. “I think one of the things you have to be able to do is ignore the noise and know what’s important. Also, [to] be able to reach out and have candid and transparent communications with the people involved. We’ve had those, and been very open from the get-go as all of this has been going on for any of our guys.”
Stevens indicated that the Celtics front office hasn’t been engaged in trade discussions for awhile, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston tweets.
Stevens believes that the acquisition of point guard Malcolm Brogdon from Indiana has already upgraded the team’s chances for another deep playoff run.
“Since the Brogdon trade, we’ve felt really good about our team,” he said. “We felt really good about building around these guys that we’ve been building around, trying to accentuate our best players. We’re excited to move forward with our team, and that’s really been our focus for a while.”
Extension talks with Brown are also on the agenda. Stevens says he’d like to lock up Brown beyond his current contract, which runs through the 2023/24 season, Forsberg adds in another tweet.
“He is a huge core piece of what we’re doing and has been for six years now,” Stevens said. “We’re excited to hopefully put our best foot forward to have him here for a long time.”
The Celtics wing is eligible for a three-year extension this offseason. However, it’s probably in his best interests to wait until next offseason or until free agency to maximize his earnings and to try to qualify for a designated veteran extension.
And-Ones: Kurucs, Smith, Iguodala, Brooks, Trent Jr.
Former NBA forward Rodions Kurucs has officially signed a one-year contract with Real Betis Baloncesto in Seville, Spain, according to a team press release. The Spanish team’s interest in Kurucs was reported earlier this month.
Kurucs has appeared in 131 NBA games, including a total of 21 with Brooklyn, Milwaukee and Houston during the 2020/21 campaign. He played with KK Partizan in Serbia last season. Kurucs also saw action in four Summer League contests with the Raptors in July.
We have more from the basketball world:
- French big man Victor Wembanyama and G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson are the early favorites to go 1-2 in next year’s draft. Who’s No. 3? Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo chooses Arkansas freshman guard Nick Smith. Woo unveils his early first-round mock for 2023, which is filled with wings and guards.
- Andre Iguodala believes the NBA should continue to play 82 regular season games, Lee Tran of FadeAwayWorld.net relays. On his Point Forward podcast, Iguodala says the grind of an NBA season “separates the men from the boys,” adding “We can’t change 82 games. 82 games … there’s a mental side of it. That’s why we talk about rookie wall. Records are made to be broken, and as we get better over time we’ll break more records. But I do think that there’s a foundation in all sports, you have to carry on that tradition.”
- Dillon Brooks, Gary Trent Jr. and Victor Oladipo are among the potential free agents in next year’s class who could pump up their value during the upcoming season, Dan Devine of The Ringer writes. Devine takes a closer look at eight “compelling” players to watch as they head into possible contract years.
Community Shootaround: Minnesota Timberwolves
A big reason why Kevin Durant wasn’t traded and Donovan Mitchell remains on Utah’s roster is that the Timberwolves gave up multiple rotation pieces and first-round picks for a player who’s averaged 12.4 points in his career.
The haul that the Jazz received for Rudy Gobert included Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, 2022 first-round pick Walker Kessler, and four future first-rounders. All but one of those picks are unprotected.
Of course, Minnesota didn’t acquire Gobert for his offensive skills. Minnesota led the NBA last season with a 115.9 point average but ranked 24th in points allowed (113.3) and 16th in defensive field goal percentage (46.0%).
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year will provide an imposing presence it has lacked at that end of the floor. Gobert is also a prolific rebounder — he led the league in that category last season — and one of the NBA’s top shot-blockers.
By surrendering so many assets, Minnesota essentially took an “all-in” approach, viewing Gobert as the missing piece to a title contender. The Timberwolves now have their own Big Three in Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and Gobert.
Towns is one of the league’s most prolific scorers, as he displayed in his 60-point game in March. He has finished as a top-20 scorer in five of his seven NBA seasons.
There were doubts about Edwards when he was chosen with the first overall pick in 2020 but he has been an offensive force since the second half of his rookie campaign. Edwards averaged 21.3 PPG in his second season and was even more dangerous in six playoff games (25.2 PPG).
The starting lineup is rounded out by point guard D’Angelo Russell and Jaden McDaniels. Russell has been a trade candidate after some poor playoff performances (33.3% shooting, 12 PPG) but he’s averaged nearly 18 points in his career. Last season, he also averaged a career high in assists (7.1 APG) with low turnover numbers (2.5 per game).
Minnesota insisted on keeping McDaniels in trade talks with Utah. A late 2020 pick, McDaniels is viewed by the franchise as one of the top young defensive wings in the league.
The trade sapped the Timberwolves’ depth and they tried to fortify it by using a chunk of their mid-level exception on forward Kyle Anderson. They also added sharpshooter Bryn Forbes and veteran guard Austin Rivers on one-year deals. They still have Jordan McLaughlin to back up Russell and Naz Reid as the primary reserve big man.
The Timberwolves led the league in 3-pointers made (14.8 per game) last season, though percentage-wise they’re just average in that category. Towns is the only member of the lineup who’s an above-average shooter from deep.
Another concern, especially in the postseason, is whether they can keep Towns and Gobert on the floor at the same time when opponents go with small-ball units.
That brings us to our question of the day: Did the acquisition of Gobert make the Timberwolves a serious contender for the NBA championship? If not, what else do they need to reach that level?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Lakers Notes: Durant, Westbrook, James, Closing Unit
With the Nets’ statement that they and Kevin Durant intend to “move forward” with their partnership, the Lakers’ approach regarding Russell Westbrook actually becomes clearer, according to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times.
Now that a potential Kyrie Irving trade involving Westbrook is presumably off the table, the Lakers are free to explore alternatives, Woike explains. It could facilitate their decision regarding whether they’ll ride with Westbrook in the upcoming season or deal him to another potential suitor.
We have more on the Lakers:
- LeBron James‘ decision to sign a two-year extension this summer shows that winning another title is no longer his primary goal, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on SportsCenter (video link). Instead, it shows he’s content to stay put, even though the Lakers haven’t made a major move this summer, and he’s also intent on eventually playing with his son Bronny. “With this decision by LeBron, you really see his two biggest priorities — priority one is being a Los Angeles Laker, priority two is leaving the door open to play with his son in two years,” Windhorst said. “Winning championships is still high on that list but it seems like it’s a little bit more in third position.”
- Assuming the Lakers don’t bring in another major piece, what kind of lineups could they construct to produce the best results? Jovan Buha of The Athletic explores this topic, including his suggestion of the best “closing unit” on the roster — a group that includes James, Anthony Davis, Troy Brown Jr., Juan Toscano-Anderson and Austin Reaves.
- The Lakers reportedly have some interest in bringing back Dennis Schröder. Get the details here.