Knicks Re-Sign P.J. Tucker On Two-Year Deal
April 1, 10:59 am: Tucker has officially re-signed with the Knicks, the team confirmed today in a press release (Twitter link).
March 31, 5:28 pm: The Knicks plan to sign Tucker to a two-year deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link). The contract will include a team option for next season.
March 31, 8:58 am: Even though he barely played during his two 10-day contracts, P.J. Tucker remains a “strong candidate” to re-sign with the Knicks by the end of the season, a source tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.
Tucker’s second 10-day deal expired over the weekend, making him a free agent again and opening a spot on New York’s 15-man roster. With eight games remaining, Bondy suggests the Knicks might consider signing another player to a 10-day contract, but Tucker is expected to get a standard deal at some point to make him eligible for the playoffs.
The 39-year-old forward made just one game appearance during his time with New York, playing two minutes without collecting any points or rebounds. It was his only NBA action of the season, as he reached an agreement in October to be away from the Clippers while they tried to trade him. He was eventually sent to Utah and then Toronto before last month’s deadline, but he didn’t suit up for either team before being waived February 28.
Bondy’s source added that Tucker understood he wouldn’t be guaranteed any playing time when he joined the Knicks, but they view him as valuable because of his locker room leadership and playoff experience.
“A lot of times when you become a vet and be in the league, like young guys and stuff on the bench, they’re not going to (encourage and motivate teammates). They’re not going to have your back like that,” Tucker said after joining the team. “So it’s always good to have vets and like-minded guys that just have each other’s back. And that’s what really makes a team strong — just knowing that they have people there and I support you whether you’re playing good or bad. We’re in it together.”
Bondy adds that Tucker’s signing prompted veteran forward T.J. Warren to leave New York’s Westchester affiliate. Warren, who had been hoping for an NBA call-up, was the G League team’s leading scorer.
And-Ones: P. Gasol, Head Coaches, Tanking, Incentives
Former NBA star Pau Gasol is gaining momentum to become the CEO of the NBA’s proposed European league, according to a report from Eurohoops. Citing Gasol’s “strong links” to both the NBA and European basketball, a league source tells Eurohoops that the idea of the Spaniard taking on the CEO role for the new league has “universal approval” among the NBA’s governors.
A six-time All-Star and two-time champion in the NBA, Gasol played for FC Barcelona at the start and the end of his professional career, winning Spanish League championships in 1999, 2001, and 2021. He also compiled a lengthy list of accomplishments in international tournaments, winning three Olympic medals (two silvers, one bronze), a World Cup title, and three EuroBasket championships with Spain’s national team.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The Grizzlies and Kings currently employ interim head coaches and will be looking to name a permanent coach after the season. Tim Bontemps of ESPN breaks down the pros and cons of the jobs in Memphis and Sacramento, while Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report considers which other head coaches might be on the hot seat this spring, including Willie Green of the Pelicans and Chauncey Billups of the Trail Blazers.
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic is the latest NBA writer to propose suggestions for how the league could address its tanking problem. Vorkunov’s ideas include having the lottery determine the top eight picks (instead of four), further flattening the lottery odds, and automatically assigning the two worst teams the fourth and fifth overall picks.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks highlights some incentive clauses in player contracts to keep an eye on during the season’s final two weeks, including Rockets forward Dillon Brooks ($1MM) and Timberwolves forward Julius Randle ($1.4MM) getting bonuses for their teams making the playoffs. Magic forward Jonathan Isaac must appear in at least four of Orlando’s final six games to reach the 70-game threshold, which would assure him of a $2.6MM bonus, Marks notes.
How Giddey/Caruso Trade Has Become Win-Win Deal
Josh Giddey faced his former team for the first time back in October, when the Bulls hosted the Thunder during the first week of the regular season. But Monday’s contest represented the first time that Giddey had returned to Oklahoma City since the two teams completed the trade sending him to Chicago in exchange for Alex Caruso last June.
Giddey was a former lottery pick who had started all 210 of the regular season games he played for the Thunder through his first three NBA seasons, but his unreliable three-point shot and inconsistent defense resulted in him being pulled from the starting five during the second round of the playoffs last spring. He was traded about a month later.
“No player wants to be in the position where you’re the one that’s getting adjusted to in the playoffs,” Giddey said ahead of his return to Oklahoma City, per Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune. “That was a tough pill for me to swallow, but it was probably what I needed at that point of my career. It’s better to learn that lesson as you get deeper into your career.
“Looking back in hindsight, it was probably the best thing for me. Most of the time you feel like, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go through that.’ But … they made the right decision in what they did, in terms of the playoffs, that whole series, and matchup-wise they did it for the right reasons. I don’t ever look back in anger or whatever towards OKC. I had nothing but great things to say about OKC.”
Given that Giddey was coming off a playoff demotion and Caruso had just earned his second consecutive All-Defensive nod, the trade was widely viewed as a steal for Thunder general manager Sam Presti, with fans and analysts alike calling out the Bulls for not getting more in return for one of their top trade chips.
However, as Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman writes, Presti didn’t necessarily view it that way. His comments at the time of the deal suggested that he hadn’t really wanted to move Giddey and only did so because the former No. 6 overall pick asked about the possibility of a trade after he was informed that he’d likely be coming off the bench in 2024/25. According to Mussatto, Giddey’s play in Chicago during the second half of this season has shown that Presti was right to be hesitant.
Since the All-Star break, Giddey has averaged 21.3 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 8.9 assists per game with a .507/.470/.805 shooting line, leading the Bulls to a winning record during that stretch and bumping his full-season averages to 14.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 7.0 APG on .464/.376/.776 shooting. Giddey’s usage rate, which was 19.9% prior to Chicago’s deadline-week trade of Zach LaVine, has jumped to 24.4% since then and the fourth-year guard has thrived in his increased offensive role.
The Thunder believed Giddey was capable of playing like this — in the press release announcing the trade, Presti referred to him as having “All-Star potential.” But Presti’s front office knew it was unlikely to happen in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder were at their best with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander serving as the team’s lead ball-handler.
Caruso’s offensive numbers this season (6.9 points and 2.6 assists per game on .447/.354/.814 shooting) pale in comparison to the ones Giddey are putting up, and the veteran combo guard is playing a relatively modest rotation role, averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game. But his defensive impact has been exactly what the Thunder were hoping for.
Oklahoma City’s 106.0 defensive rating leads the NBA by a wide margin and Caruso has played a key role in that unit’s success. Among players who have appeared in at least 40 games and logged at least 500 total minutes, only Dyson Daniels has averaged more steals per 36 minutes (3.3) than Caruso (2.9). And Caruso is actually slightly ahead of Daniels in deflections per 36 minutes (6.4 to 6.3).
Nearly a year after the trade was finalized, it looks like a clear win-win, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman and Rylan Stiles of SI.com. The Thunder got the type of role player they needed, while the Bulls landed their potential long-term point guard.
It seems like the deal should be a win-win for the two players involved as well — Caruso signed a four-year, $81MM extension in December, while Giddey has taken on the sort of primary play-making role that best suits him and appears poised to cash in as a restricted free agent this summer.
As Lorenzi points out, there can sometimes be hard feelings or bitterness when a player returns to his former home city for the first time, but there was none of that on display on Monday when Giddey played his first game as a visitor in OKC, a testament to the fact that everyone involved was happy with last June’s one-for-one trade.
It’s still fair to wonder if the Bulls could’ve extracted an extra asset or two from the Thunder in their negotiations last June or what the return might have been if they’d sought a return heavier on draft picks. But there’s certainly no guarantee that any of the other deals Chicago could have made would have netted the team a more valuable potential cornerstone than Giddey.
Atlantic Notes: Tillman, Grimes, Sixers, Raptors
Xavier Tillman has had the worst year of his NBA career in 2024/25 and has been out of the Celtics’ regular rotation since October. Entering Monday’s game in Memphis, he hadn’t seen any action at all since March 6. However, facing his former team, Tillman was given the opportunity to start by head coach Joe Mazzulla, who explained his decision after the game, as Jonah Dylan of The Memphis Commercial Appeal relays.
“He can still impact winning,” Mazzulla said of Tillman. “I just appreciate who he is as a person and I think you’ve got to validate the roster at times. I know that he can still help us, and there may be an opportunity where he does. I was grateful that we were able to give him that opportunity to be able to do that.”
Tillman spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career in Memphis before being traded to Boston at the 2024 deadline. He played a limited role down the stretch last season and has struggled mightily in his limited minutes this season, making just 12-of-51 (23.5%) of his total shots, including 5-of-32 (15.6%) of his three-point tries.
Tillman wasn’t especially effective on Monday either — he missed all five of his shot attempts and the Celtics were outscored by six points during his eight minutes on the floor. But Mazzulla praised the big man for getting a pair of quick fouls on Grizzlies center Zach Edey and Tillman spoke positively after the game about his experience in his first game back in Memphis since last year’s trade
“It’s crazy because I was more so focused on seeing my old teammates and checking on them,” Tillman said. “The fans, when I got here and even the staff members and security people, when I walked by, they showed me so much love. It’s pretty amazing.”
The Celtics defeated the Grizzlies to complete the first 6-0 road trip in franchise history and are now 32-7 on the road this season, putting them two wins away from tying the 2015/16 Warriors for the best single-season road record of all-time (34-7), as ESPN details.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Quentin Grimes has been a revelation since joining the Sixers, averaging 26.6 points per game on 50.4% shooting in 14 March outings as he proved he’s capable of scoring and playing strong perimeter defense, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the season’s final games, head coach Nick Nurse hopes to see how the restricted-free-agent-to-be handles more point guard responsibilities. “I’d like to start him at the point here, coming up in a little bit. I’d like to have him play it during the games, even if he doesn’t start it,” Nurse said. “I’m just curious — I mean, he’s not a point guard. But can he play a serviceable backup possibility in the NBA as a backup point guard? Can he get us into offense? Can you say, ‘See the pass, see the plays, get the offense started, handle the ball versus the pressure in the backcourt,’ all those kinds of things?”
- The Sixers are putting on a “tanking masterclass” in the season’s final weeks as they attempt to do all they can to retain control of their top-six protected 2025 first-round pick, Pompey writes in another story for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Following Brooklyn’s win over Dallas on Monday, there’s now a 1.5-game gap between the Sixers and Nets, putting Philadelphia in a strong position to finish the season with the NBA’s fifth-worst record. That would give the team a 64% chance of hanging onto its protected first-rounder.
- Given the fact that a significant portion of their revenue is in Canadian – rather than U.S. – dollars, how might the Raptors be impacted by the fact that the Canadian dollar has dipped in value in recent months? Eric Koreen of The Athletic explores that topic, speaking to several experts about how the Raptors may navigate the issue.