The new deals signed by Jeff Dowtin with the Sixers and Neemias Queta with the Celtics are two-way contracts with second-year team options for 2024/25, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter links).
Both Dowtin and Queta were on two-way deals before promoted to their respective teams’ 15-man rosters, and both players received minimum-salary contracts.
Here are more notes from around the Atlantic:
- Sixers guard De’Anthony Melton, who has been sidelined since February 27 due to back issues and has only played five games since the calendar turned to 2024, has been upgraded to questionable for Tuesday’s game vs. Detroit, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. While Melton’s comeback efforts have flown somewhat under the radar, overshadowed by Joel Embiid‘s recent return, it would be a major boost for the 76ers if they can get the versatile guard back in action before the postseason tips off.
- Asked on Sunday about Jakob Poeltl‘s and Scottie Barnes‘ recoveries from hand surgeries, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic told reporters that although neither player has formally been ruled out for the season, he’s not counting on either one returning this week (Twitter links via Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca and Michael Grange of Sportsnet). Both Poeltl and Barnes continue to go through the ramp-up process — even if they’re not back in action in the coming days, the goal is to get them in the best possible shape heading into the offseason.
- In a pair of stories for The Athletic, Eric Koreen considers what we can learn from Rajakovic’s first year as the Raptors‘ head coach and hands out his end-of-season awards, including naming Poeltl the most underappreciated Raptor of 2023/24.
Which Pac12 (RIP) trio would you rather have on your team if you could have all 3 guys from rookies to retirement, Jaylen Brown/Lamond Murray/Shareef Abdur-Rahim (Cal), Andre Miller/Andrew Bogut/Jakob Poeltl (Utah), Kyle Anderson/Matt Barnes/Kevin Love (UCLA), Terrell Brandon/Dillon Brooks/Bol Bol (Oregon), Fat Lever/Byron Scott/Lu Dort (ASU), De’Anthony Melton/Gus Williams/Onyeka Okongwu (USC), Gary Payton/Gary Payton II/AC Green (Oregon St), Bennedict Mathurin/Luke Walton/DeAndre Ayton (Arizona)? Name a top3 if possible…
Easy Lebron/Jordan/Shaq trio
Pretty tough to pick anyone over Gary Payton, GPII, and AC Green. The rest of the trios aren’t necessarily balanced, and Payton Sr. was a monster. AC Green was more reliably good than elite, but that kind of consistency and durability is really valuable. GP II can cover the 2 without issues, as good as his father was a defense. And offense, for that matter.
Brown, Murray, and Abdur-Rahim is a pretty good trio too. But The Glove is just too good to ignore. Murray was genuinely good for most of his career, as long as injuries weren’t weighing him down.
Melton, Williams, Okongwu is a pretty sweet, versatile trio. Williams was good. Melton and Okongwu give you a lot of defensive versatility, able to cover pretty much anyone between the two of them plus any decent defensive wing. Think they’re a bit behind the first two, but you’d be pretty happy to have those three on your squad. Williams pulling a holdout in the middle of his peak would tick me off as a GM, though.
Anderson/Barnes/Love are alright, but Love’s peak was pretty short. Loved him with my Cavs, but he’s not the kind of guy you can necessarily build a team around because of his lacking defense. I feel like he’d become the second or third option for his career if he were on a winning squad. Decent forward trio, though I guess you could run Barnes as a 2 somewhat? Still would rather have three disparate positions.
Shoutout to overlooked Cavs favorite Terrell Brandon. Bol Bol is kind of just a throw-in. Unless he reaches his peak potential, but I don’t see it happening. Still, at least a functional backup C with upside who can defend. Brooks has been decent. I’d be hoping he’s continuing this year’s production and teamwork rather than regressing. At times in Memphis he could be a real liability to a winning squad. But he’s still a quality defender who can work in a team offense.
Miller/Bogut/Poeltl gives you a lot of defense, but basically no spacing. Depends on what players you build with around them. Bogut’s injury dropoff also comes as a concern.
Lever/Scott/Dort are all small guards. Dort’s defense is nice, Lever was a solid playmaker who could defend, but wasn’t much of a shooter, and Scott wasn’t and was just okay as a play-runner, but could shoot and score well. Could be valuable, but having to relegate one of them to the sixth-man role is a bit of a letdown. Playing all three together would be difficult except in 3-guard lineups.
Mathurin and Ayton are good, but Walton was mostly a disappointment in the NBA. Kinda iffy on Mathurin’s injuries. He seems a bit prone to them. Ayton is inconsistent. Just too many questions with Walton being a non-factor. Maybe if he was his ’06-’07 self for his entire career they’d be higher-ranked. But not if he’s his usual self.
I disagree with SOOOOO much of what you said lol. None of those Sun Devils are small guards, Dort is a tank. If anything they’re all very big guards… Bol is def more than a throw-in. He’s been productive pretty much every time he’s been given consistent pt… When was Dillon Brooks ever a liability to a winning squad? Seems extremely obv to me that he was a huge reason for the success they had the past couple yrs there. Look at their winning % with & without him over the past decade or so… If you were disappointed with Luke Walton’s pro career I’m not sure what you were expecting him to be lol he was pretty much the exact same guy he was at Zona… Kevin Love def didn’t have a short peak, he was a beast for a long time. He prob wasn’t quite great enuf to be the #1 on a title team but neither was GPayton tbh. The only guy only this list who was is Gus Williams & you downplay his greatness by merely calling him good & taking managements side in his nearly 50yr labor dispute link to m.youtube.com
And I disagree with most of what you said in response. Surprising no one.
“Small guards” as in “height and length”, not mass. Dort is a tank, but he’s a 6’3″ tank. He’s also BY FAR the biggest of the three. Scott and Lever had good wingspans, but shorter than Dort’s and also weren’t huge. Scott also wasn’t a great defender, more or less average for the 2-guard spot and that wouldn’t hold up today. I always assume modern game for these hypotheticals, because comparing across different eras is time consuming. By that standard, Lever and Scott are somewhat undersized; Scott especially as a 2-guard. Lever would be fine, and all three can obviously play. But playing three guys who aren’t taller than 6’3″ can get you absolutely torched as a starting lineup. Hell, the Cavs had that exact problem with Garland, Mitchell, Okoro last year, and Mitchell has a bigger wingspan than any of them and Okoro is 6’5″. And that was with Mobley/Allen in the frontcourt.
“When was Dillon Brooks ever a liability to a winning squad?” the last two seasons in the playoffs when he sucked absolute a** and couldn’t hit shots, but kept shooting anyway? Shot under 40% from the field? Basically every game? While not holding up well enough on defense? Fouling players unnecessarily and copping techs? He’s a great regular season player, but consistent playoff success is something he’s never exhibited. The Utah series (which they lost anyway) looks like an outlier currently. You’d want him to be more like his current Rockets self, where he’s more consistent on both ends. The talent isn’t a question.
Bol is better with proper PT, but I don’t think he compares to the rest of the list. Good player, has upside. Isn’t on par with most of these guys. Okongwu, Anderson, Love, Ayton, Poeltl, and Bogut were/are all better than him.
Walton being disappointing is just a fact. He averaged 16 PPG as a Junior and was very efficient as a senior. Didn’t come close to that in the pros, except in ’06-’07. You’d want him to be more than a mid bench guy.
Kevin Love’s best stretch of production was 4 seasons, one of which he only played 18 games. That’s pretty short. He was still valuable in Cleveland, but was clearly not the same player, especially after Olynyk tried to remove his shoulder in the playoffs. Slimmed down a lot and lost a lot of his power and post dominance. He was never a great defender, but he got worse in Cleveland due to his foot and leg injuries. Very, very obvious as a Cavs fan.
Payton was an MVP finalist, nine time All-Star, nine time All-NBA, nine time All-Defense, DPOY, efficient scorer and play-runner, and one of the only guys who ever gave Jordan actual trouble in the 90s. After Drexler started to lose steam post-1995, he was arguably the #2 guard in the NBA for a few years behind Jordan (Richmond and Smith weren’t as good on defense, Iverson and Ray Allen were only just getting started). Doesn’t get much better than that. Those Sonics squads were a monster threat in the West to every title contender that Jordan/Hakeem faced down, and to Jordan’s Bulls AND Hakeem’s Rockets. The ’93 Suns with MVP Barkley and Kevin Johnson, the ’97 Rockets with Hakeem, Barkley, and Drexler, the ’96 Bulls with Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and Harper, and ’98 Lakers with young Kobe and Shaq were what it took to beat them in their better years. How is that not good enough to be a primary option for a contender? He already was! He was better than or equal to Kemp on basically all of those teams!
As for Gus Williams, wasn’t aware of the circumstances of the holdout. But any GM would be pissed regardless, because it would put their job in jeopardy. That’s all. Gus deserved fair compensation for an MVP-candidate. And he played a LONG time ago, in a league that’s very different from today (the 3pt shot wasn’t even a thing early in his career). Don’t know how well his game would necessarily translate (as a reminder, I assume modern NBA), although the *ability* is obvious. There’s a reason his group is second on my list.
Whatever, though, honestly. I don’t think we’ve ever agreed on ANYTHING, lol.
Byron Scott was a great defender, especially earlier in his career. Fat Lever is the only one of those guys that’s 6’3. Scott & Dort are closer to 6’5. All 3 are extremely long, extremely active defensively. Dort & Lever both DPOY candidate type guys. You say the Cavs had the same “problem” & reference the best team they had without Bron in 30yrs. Fat Lever would be a big pg, Scott would be a normal 2 & Dort has obv been locking up opposing #1 options of all sizes all season.
You seem to think Dillon Brooks is a different guy in Houston bc his #s are different (or bc the media isn’t talking about him as much/negatively). He’s always been the same guy. Playing for Oregon/Canada/Memphis he’s always been the same guy. That guy has always positively affected winning basketball. Look at Memphis before he got there, look at them when he was there, look at them now. It’s a pretty stark contrast. Same goes for Oregon, same for any team he’s played for.
I take Bol over a lot of guys on this list too, definitely over GPII, Walton & Matt Barnes. Given opportunity this guy could be (& has been at times) dominant.
Who in their right mind expected Luke Walton to score 16/GM in the NBA lol? It’s becoming obvious that you place way too much importance in the #s as opposed to the actual basketball of it all. Luke, at his best was a facilitator & team defense guy that could sorta be a forward version of Vlade Divac. If anything he exceeded expectations by making numerous NBA teams & contributing to a title team
KLove made his 1st All-Star game in 2011 & his last in 2018 (5 total in that span). That’s a 8yr stretch of dominance as 1 of the very best bigs in the world.
GPayton was a legend but I mean all you have to do is go check the tape or even just to the record books to see that he wasn’t great enough to be the #1 option on a title team. Seattle has 1 NBA title. That was courtesy of Gus Williams, not Gary Payton. And Payton is a pg anyway it shouldn’t even be expected of him to be the #1 option. Which I guess would be a large reason not to pick the Oregon St trio lol, you’re getting great defenders & a HOF pg but no scorers. Obv Payton is a good scorer for a pg but not as your team’s #1 scoring option. Overall he was better than Kemp but those teams didn’t win a title either way, neither of those guys proved to be great enough to lead a team to the title.
If you’re a GM that wants job security seems like paying Gus Williams, keeping him happy & letting him lead you to championships is the key. Gus Williams would be just fine in this era tho, as would Gary Payton who also played a LONG time ago link to m.youtube.com