Chris Paul Out At Least One Week
Veteran point guard Chris Paul will miss multiple games in the Suns‘ second-round series against the Nuggets, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). He is expected to be reevaluated in one week after undergoing an MRI on Tuesday.
Paul suffered a groin injury during the second half of Phoenix’s Game 2 loss to Denver on Monday, which left the Suns with a 0-2 deficit in the series. The Suns are preparing to play without their floor leader in Games 3 through 5, Charania adds.
The injury appeared to occur with just under five minutes left in the third quarter when Paul attempted to box out Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and grabbed at his left groin afterward (NBA.com video link).
Backup point guard Cameron Payne, who was dealing with a lower back injury when the postseason began, played nearly 17 minutes on Tuesday after logging just eight minutes in the Suns’ first six playoff games. As long as he remains healthy, Payne figures to take on a larger role, while Devin Booker will likely have more ball-handling responsibilities.
Paul has a history of injuries in the postseason. The future Hall of Famer has previously missed eight career playoff games due to health issues.
Butler Out For Game 2; Randle Returns To Action
Jimmy Butler won’t play in Game 2 of the Heat‘s second-round series against the Knicks on Tuesday, the team tweets. Knicks forward Julius Randle and guard Jalen Brunson will be available, their PR department tweets.
That trio was listed as questionable to play on Monday. Caleb Martin is starting in Butler’s place, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald tweets.
Miami’s Game 1 win gave the Heat more leeway to sit out Butler. He scored 25 points in 43 minutes but only attempted one shot after rolling his right ankle with just over five minutes remaining.
Game 3 won’t be played until Saturday afternoon in Miami, so Butler will have three off-days to heal.
Randle, who is nursing a sprained left ankle, missed Game 1. He only played 16 minutes in the closeout game against Cleveland on April 26 when the ankle flared up.
Brunson, who logged 40 minutes on Sunday, will try to play through a sore right ankle.
Sixers Center Joel Embiid Wins First MVP Award
Joel Embiid has been named the league’s Most Valuable Player, according to the NBA (Twitter link).
The Sixers center surged during the second half of the season and topped Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who won the award the past two seasons, and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who captured the league’s most prestigious individual award in 2019 and 2020.
Embiid, the third overall pick of the 2014 draft, led Philadelphia to the Eastern Conference’s third-best record while topping the league in scoring at 33.1 points per game. He also averaged 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 66 regular-season games.
Jokic, who was considered the frontrunner a majority of the season, averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and a career-best 9.8 assists in 69 games while leading Denver to the Western Conference’s top seed. Jokic’s assist average ranked fourth in the league, an unusual feat for a center.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to the league’s best record by averaging 31.1 points (fifth in the league), 11.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 63 games. Milwaukee’s superstar tied for third in the league in rebounding with Jokic.
The votes were based only on the regular season, so Milwaukee’s first-round playoff exit had no bearing on the voting.
Considering the MVP debate raged throughout the season, it was a little surprising that Embiid won by such a wide margin. He picked up 73 of the 100 first-place votes, while Jokic received 15 and Antetokounmpo got the other 12.
Overall, Embiid had 915 points with Jokic in second place (674 points) and the Bucks star in third (606). The Celtics‘ Jayson Tatum received most of the fourth-place votes and the Thunder‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished fifth.
Donovan Mitchell, Domantas Sabonis, Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, De’Aaron Fox, Jalen Brunson, and Ja Morant also received at least one vote apiece.
Embiid is the first Sixers player to win the award since Allen Iverson (2000-01).
Atlantic Notes: Harden, Embiid, Celtics, D. Rose
Since arriving in Philadelphia at the 2022 trade deadline, James Harden has accepted a reduced offensive role, playing second fiddle to Joel Embiid. Harden’s 25.0% usage rate in 79 regular season games since joining the Sixers is his lowest mark since his last year in Oklahoma City in 2011/12.
With Embiid sidelined for Game 1 of the Sixers’ second-round series vs. Boston, however, Harden turned in a vintage performance, matching his career playoff high with 45 points on 17-of-30 shooting in a narrow upset victory. While the scoring outburst may have surprised many observers, Harden suggested in his postgame comments that it was simply a matter of adjusting his mindset on offense.
“My coaches, my teammates, what they expect me to do all throughout the course of the year was be a facilitator and get Joel the basketball and score when necessary. Joel wasn’t here tonight, you know what I mean?” Harden said, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “…Now it’s like, ‘All right, open the floor. James, you be aggressive.’ And tonight, I was aggressive. So, it’s not that I’m not capable of doing it, it just … this is my role for this team. Now, if you want me to do (what I did) tonight, then I can do that as well.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Joel Embiid worked out on Tuesday afternoon, but Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said there’s “no change in his status” yet, Bontemps writes for ESPN.com. Previous reporting suggested there was optimism about Embiid’s ability to return from his knee injury for Game 2. While Rivers didn’t confirm that, he did say that Philadelphia’s Game 1 win won’t make the team any less willing to bring back the star center for Game 2. “It’s just health-based,” Rivers said. “If he can play, he plays. If he can’t, he can’t. And if it’s 50-50, we would probably err on (the side of sitting him), because we’ve done that all year.”
- Following the Celtics‘ disappointing Game 1 loss, Al Horford told reporters that the team lacked defensive urgency and that he believes Embiid’s absence contributed to that, according to Jamal Collier of ESPN. Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon hypothesized that other Sixers players felt “empowered” with Embiid unavailable. “Everybody else has the green light and guys are gonna step up, and I thought that’s what happened tonight,” Brogdon said, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “I think we expected that, guys to step up, but we still struggled with it. We just gotta be prepared.”
- Even though he believes he still has “a lot left in the tank,” Knicks guard Derrick Rose has embraced his role as a veteran mentor who’s not part of the rotation, writes Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “I’m fully invested in everything to be here. And if I (wasn’t), I wouldn’t be on the team,” Rose said. “… I’m thankful that they didn’t trade me or buy me out or waive me. I’m happy I have some type of value.”
2023 NBA Offseason Preview: Detroit Pistons
It’s hard to say 2022/23 was anything but a disappointment for the Pistons, who finished with the worst record in the NBA at 17-65 after entering the season hoping to make a push for the play-in tournament.
Injuries certainly played a role in that – 2021 No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham was limited to just 12 games due to a shin injury, which required surgery. Still, it’s not as though they were lighting the world on fire to start the season with Cunningham healthy – they went 3-9 in the games he played, including six lopsided losses.
The Pistons had two separate losing streaks of 11 games and nine other losing streaks ranging between three and seven games. They managed consecutive victories only one time in ’22/23. It marked the fourth consecutive season in which Detroit has won fewer than 24 games.
Part of the problem with being bad every year, drafting early in the lottery, and trying to develop young players is that most rookies are not good NBA players. Some develop into winning players in the following years; some never do. The Pistons need more players on their roster to take significant steps forward in ‘23/24.
That’s not to say this past season was a total lost cause. Both of Detroit’s lottery picks – Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren – showed encouraging signs of progress, and the team can land no lower than No. 5 overall in June’s draft.
The Pistons’ Offseason Plan:
Hiring a new head coach is the first order of business after Dwane Casey moved to a front office role. Charles Lee, Kevin Ollie and Jarron Collins are considered frontrunners for the job, though the Pistons reportedly plan to take their time in evaluating their options.
Getting lucky in the draft again would obviously be beneficial – Victor Wembanyama is considered the best prospect since LeBron James was selected in 20 years ago. However, even if the Pistons do land Wembanyama, there are still question marks up and down the roster.
Ivey and Cunningham appear secure as the two starting guards, but they’re inexperienced and neither has proven to be a great shooter yet. They’ve also been turnover prone, which is normal for young guards.
Former No. 7 overall pick Killian Hayes had a 14-game stretch from mid-November to mid-December when people ignored his previous shooting woes and thought he was turning the corner, as he shot 41.0% from three. He wound up shooting 24.7% from deep over his remaining 46 games, struggling mightily to score from inside the arc as well.
I like Hayes’ defense and he improved as a play-maker and decision-maker in year three, but unless he drastically improves as a scorer, it’s hard to see him ever having positive value – his 45.5% true shooting percentage was the worst mark in the NBA. I definitely don’t see him getting a rookie scale extension in the offseason.
Duren seems like the center of the future, but the frontcourt is already chock full of young players like Isaiah Stewart, James Wiseman and Marvin Bagley III.
On one hand, you could argue that having a couple of former No. 2 overall picks in Wiseman and Bagley was a worthwhile gamble on their talent, despite disappointing tenures with their former teams. On the other, neither has shown the ability to consistently set solid screens, stretch the floor, or play defense, and there are only so many minutes to go around.
Stewart may not be a household name to non-Pistons fans, but he made progress with his outside shot and is a solid defensive player. As with Wiseman, he’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer – I suspect Stewart is more likely to receive a new deal, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they wait on both players.
After trading Saddiq Bey for Wiseman, Detroit has Bojan Bogdanovic and Isaiah Livers at forward, with Alec Burks splitting minutes between the two and three. Bogdanovic and Burks were involved in a lot of trade rumors heading into the February deadline, but the Pistons wound up keeping them both. I didn’t mind that decision, because having productive veterans on an otherwise extremely young team is important.
In terms of the club’s own free agents (or potential free agents), Burks and Livers are essentially locks to have their club options exercised, but as James L. Edwards III of The Athletic recently predicted, it wouldn’t be surprising if none of the remaining players (Hamidou Diallo, Cory Joseph, Rodney McGruder, R.J. Hampton, Eugene Omoruyi) return.
Diallo can’t shoot, but he’s an elite athlete and finisher who really improved on defense. I think he’ll get a multiyear contract from someone. The other players are probably looking at minimum-salary, partially guaranteed, or non-guaranteed contracts for various reasons.
The Pistons need more shooting and defense at basically every position, and they’ll have options to improve. Assuming they pick up their options on Burks and Livers and renounce all their other cap holds, they’ll have $107.4MM committed to 11 players, including Dewayne Dedmon’s dead money hit (he was previously waived and stretched) and the cap hold for the incoming top-five pick.
Where that pick lands will determine exactly how much cap room they’ll have available – if it’s No. 1 overall, they’d have about $26.6MM to spend on free agents, based on the latest projections for next season’s salary cap. If it falls to No. 5 – and there’s a 47.9% chance that it will – then they’d have another $4MM+ in cap room.
Wherever the pick lands, that’s enough money to add at least one impact veteran. Former Pistons forward Jerami Grant, whom the team traded to Portland last offseason, has been floated as one possibility for the cap room – he’ll be an unrestricted free agent if he doesn’t sign an extension with the Blazers. Detroit will also have the room mid-level exception available, which increased in value in the new CBA – it can now run up to three years and is projected to start at about $7.6MM.
Salary Cap Situation
Guaranteed Salary
Bojan Bogdanovic ($20,000,000)- Marvin Bagley III ($12,500,000)
- James Wiseman ($12,119,440)
- Cade Cunningham ($11,055,360)
- Jaden Ivey ($7,614,480)
- Killian Hayes ($7,413,955)
- Isaiah Stewart ($5,266,713)
- Jalen Duren ($4,330,680)
- Total: $80,300,628
Dead/Retained Salary
- Dewayne Dedmon ($2,748,674)
- Total: $2,748,674
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- Alec Burks ($10,489,600): Bird rights
- Eugene Omoruyi ($1,927,896): Non-Bird rights
- Isaiah Livers ($1,836,096): Early Bird rights
- Total: $14,253,592
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- R.J. Hampton ($1,997,238)
- Total: $1,997,238
Restricted Free Agents
- None
Two-Way Free Agents
Draft Picks
- No. 1 overall ($11,979,960)
- Note: This is only a placeholder until the draft order is determined via the lottery.
- Note: This is only a placeholder until the draft order is determined via the lottery.
- No. 31 overall (no cap hold)
- Total: $11,979,960
Extension-Eligible Players
- Alec Burks (veteran)
- Isaiah Livers (veteran)
- James Wiseman (rookie scale)
- Killian Hayes (rookie scale)
- Isaiah Stewart (rookie scale)
Note: These are players who are either already eligible for an extension or will become eligible before the 2023/24 season begins. Burks and Livers would only become eligible if their team options are exercised.
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Hamidou Diallo ($9,880,000): Bird rights
- Cory Joseph ($9,795,450): Bird rights
- Rodney McGruder ($1,989,698): Bird rights
- Total: $21,665,148
Cap Exceptions Available
- Room exception: $7,609,000
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 5/2/2023
The transcript of our weekly Tuesday chat can be accessed here.
Join Luke Adams for our next live chat on Thursday.
Heat Notes: Love, Lowry, Roster, Oladipo
While Kevin Love admits that he thought he was a “collision course” with his old team in the second round of the playoffs, he didn’t derive any extra pleasure from seeing the Cavaliers sent home while his Heat advanced, writes Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. As Love explains, he holds no ill will toward the Cavs — he sought a buyout simply because he wanted to have the sort of role that he no longer had in Cleveland.
“I think more than anything I just wanted to I want to be a part of it,” he said. “I wanted to be out there. I felt like I could be productive and help win more than just being a great vet and then helping those guys along. Because I still love those guys. I’m still on the group chat with them. But definitely know I have a lot more to give and just wanted to play.”
Love gave up a little money to secure his release from the fourth-seeded Cavs and confirms he considered joining the third-seeded Sixers before signing with the Heat, who ultimately claimed the No. 8 spot in the East. The move down the standings was somewhat unusual for a veteran on the buyout market, but Miami’s postseason success so far has vindicated Love’s decision.
“You always talk about culture, but until you get here, it’s pretty eye-opening that its level of professionalism is not really rivaled anywhere else,” Love said of the Heat. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Both Love (nine points, five rebounds, four assists) and veteran point guard Kyle Lowry (18 points, six assists, four blocks) turned back the clock with their performances in Miami’s Game 1 win over New York, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Lowry’s two years in Miami have been up and down – he has missed significant time due to injuries and personal matters – but his teammates believe in his ability to come up big in the postseason. “(Lowry) is a winner. He’s our leader, whether he’s starting or coming off the bench,” Jimmy Butler said on Sunday. “He’s a champion, and he’s been doing a great job for us all year long and since he’s been here. He’s one of the engines that helps us go, and we’re going to ride that wave.”
- As the Heat look to become the second ever No. 8 seed to make it to the conference finals, Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald explores whether the team’s roster was built specifically for playoff success.
- With Victor Oladipo‘s availability for next season up in the air as a result of his left knee injury, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald wonders whether waiving and stretching Oladipo’s 2023/24 salary ($9.45MM, assuming he exercises his player option) will be something the Heat seriously consider this summer.
Northwest Notes: Jokic, KCP, Jazz, Messina, Towns
While most NBA fans look forward to Tuesday evening’s announcement of the 2022/23 Most Valuable Player, Nuggets star and MVP finalist Nikola Jokic claims he’s not exactly waiting on that news with bated breath. As Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes, Following a huge Game 2 on Monday (39 points, 16 rebounds), Jokic said that, weather permitting, he’d like to be “in the swimming pool” when the NBA reveals this season’s MVP.
“I don’t really think about it,” Jokic said. “Like zero interest.”
Jokic has certainly had the most impressive postseason of the three finalists, given that Joel Embiid has missed two of five Sixers games due to a knee injury and Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s Bucks were upset by the eighth-seeded Heat in round one.
Of course, MVP voting was completed before the playoffs began, but teammate Jamal Murray and head coach Michael Malone pointed to Jokic’s Game 2 performance as a perfect example of why he has won two MVP awards and deserves a third. According to Youngmisuk, Malone said on Monday that if Jokic doesn’t win this year’s award, he intends to tell the star center that he’s “he’s the MVP in my eyes.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope‘s big night on Monday (41 minutes played, 4-of-4 on three-pointers) served as reminders of why the Nuggets wanted him so badly last summer and how instrumental he has been to the team’s success this season, writes Mike Singer of The Denver Post (subscription required). “KCP does everything for us,” Denver guard Bruce Brown said. “Me and him kind of in the same role. … He’s the only champion in here, so I learn as much as I can from him.”
- The Jazz‘s coaching staff is said to be undergoing offseason changes, and former Spurs assistant Ettore Messina – who worked alongside Will Hardy in San Antonio from 2015-19 and is now a head coach in Italy – was recently identified by Sportando as a possible target. Asked by Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune about the rumor, Messina neither confirmed nor outright denied it. “Eric, I do not have much for you,” he told Walden in a text message. “I am enjoying what I’m doing with (Olimpia) Milano.”
- Should the Timberwolves seriously consider the idea of trading Karl-Anthony Towns this offseason? Chris Hine of The Star Tribune explores that question in detail, discussing why it might make sense while also presenting the arguments against such a deal.
Grizzlies Won’t Re-Sign Dillon Brooks
The Grizzlies told veteran forward Dillon Brooks this week that he won’t be brought back for next season “under any circumstances,” league sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Brooks is in the final year of his current contract, so he’ll become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Although Memphis holds his Bird rights, which give the club the ability to re-sign him without requiring cap room, team officials informed Brooks of their decision during exit meetings. The two sides agreed that it would be best for both to have a fresh start, Charania writes.
Brooks, 27, is considered a strong perimeter defender, but has become an increasingly erratic shooter, making a career-worst 39.6% of his field goal attempts in 2022/23. His three-point percentage dipped to 32.1% on 5.6 attempts per game during the last two seasons after he converted 35.3% of 4.5 threes per game in his first four seasons, all with the Grizzlies.
On top of his offensive struggles, Brooks’ outsized personality and aggressive playing style have gotten him into trouble both on and off the court. He received three one-game suspensions this season, once for an on-court altercation with Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell and twice for accumulating so many technical fouls.
Brooks’ performance during the Grizzlies’ first-round loss to the Lakers was considered to be a breaking point, according to Charania. Brooks referred to Lakers star LeBron James as “old” following Memphis’ Game 2 win, suggesting the NBA’s all-time leading scorer was well past his prime.
He was then ejected from Game 3 for hitting James in the groin, surrendered a pair of key baskets to LeBron in a Game 4 loss, and was eventually fined $25K for declining to speak to reporters after three games of the series (all losses). Offensively, Brooks shot just 31.2% from the field and 23.8% on three-pointers across six playoff games.
Memphis made contract extension offers to Brooks earlier in the 2022/23 league year, but they were turned down, which resulted in those discussions being shelved, Charania writes. The 27-year-old will now enter the open market after making $11.4MM this past season.
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, will have to find a way to replace Brooks’ presence on defense, which won’t necessarily be easy. They’ll presumably be seeking a player who can approximate Brooks’ defensive impact and make three-pointers at least at a league-average rate while creating fewer headlines and providing less bulletin-board material when speaking to reporters.
Pacific Notes: Suns, Barnes, Kings, Pelinka
With Portland poised to establish a G League team in time for the 2023/24 season, just one NBA club will enter this fall without an NBAGL affiliate of its own. The Suns previously controlled the Northern Arizona Suns, but sold that G League franchise in 2020 to the Pistons, who relocated and rebranded it as the Motor City Cruise.
While the sale of that G League team was viewed as a cost-cutting move under former Suns owner Robert Sarver, new owner Mat Ishbia has shown more of a willingness to spend since taking control of the franchise earlier this year. And in a conversation with Shlomo Sprung of Boardroom.TV, Ishbia made it clear that it’s just a matter of time until the Suns reestablish a G League presence.
“One hundred percent I will have a G League team,” Ishbia said. “We were trying to get it done for this upcoming season, but it looks like the timing of it will be for the following season. We’re doing that as soon as we can. I’m trying to get it ready for next season, I just don’t think it’s going to work with getting the location and everything set up. But we are 100% going to have a G League team here in Phoenix, and it’s going to be in the local community, not seven states away.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Whether or not Chris Paul is available to return for Game 3, the Suns will need more from several other players – starting with Kevin Durant – if they hope to come back from a 2-0 deficit against Denver in the Western Conference Semifinals, says Doug Haller of The Athletic.
- Given that he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer, there’s no guarantee Harrison Barnes will remain with the Kings in 2023/24 and beyond. However, the veteran forward expressed interest in sticking with the team, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee relays (via Twitter). “We’ve all been around and we know it’s a business … but to continue with this group, I think that would be a special thing,” Barnes said.
- Even though the Kings‘ first playoff appearance since 2006 ended with a first-round exit, the season should still be considered a success, writes Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee. As Lillis outlines, the Kings had to deal with the threat of relocation in 2013, but a decade later, the organization’s future looks bright both on and off the court.
- Mirjam Swanson of The Southern California News Group praises the job Rob Pelinka did this season to turn the Lakers‘ ill-fitting roster into a group capable of legitimate contention, without giving up any unprotected first-round picks to do so.