Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Brunson, Randle, Tsai, Marks
After going 64-18 in the regular season and 16-3 in the playoffs en route to their 18th title this June, the Celtics already look like the team to beat next season. In a reader mailbag, Brian Robb of MassLive.com speculates as to which players could improve even more in 2024/25.
Robb believes that reserve big man Xavier Tillman, who has dealt with knee troubles in the last two seasons, still has room to grow at age 25. Robb also believes that Finals MVP swingman Jaylen Brown could improve his scoring efficiency.
Additionally, Robb touches on Tatum’s inconsistent postseason scoring, the team’s contracts, and what in-game elements the club can improve.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks All-NBA point guard Jalen Brunson inked a four-year, $156.5MM contract extension with New York this summer — far less than the five-year, $269MM contract he could have signed as an unrestricted free agent last year. In an Insider-only story, Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps of ESPN reflect on how the superstar guard’s below-market deal could impact the future of All-Star power forward Julius Randle – who has just become extension-eligible himself – and the rest of the roster.
- Nets owner Joe Tsai has “absolute confidence” that general manager Sean Marks can rebuild the club’s roster, a source informs Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscription required). Marks’ history of finding talent outside of the draft lottery is a major factor in ownership’s belief in the team’s longtime GM. “[Tsai has] absolute confidence in the ability of the front office to draft well,” that source said. “Sean’s track record there is very good: Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert, Nic Claxton. [They took] Nic Claxton 31st in the draft. [Tsai] has every confidence in Sean.”
- In case you missed it, new Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez believes his experience coaching the Canadian national team helped him book the Brooklyn gig.
Olympic Notes: Maluach, Deng, Tatum, Embiid, Team USA
Seventeen-year-old South Sudan center and projected 2025 NBA lottery pick Khaman Maluach recently expressed his gratitude to be enjoying an Olympic experience so early in his career, writes Marc J. Spears of Andscape. The 7’2″ big man will play for Duke in the fall.
“To me, this whole experience is sometimes feels like I’m living in a dream at 17 years old. Big dreams. And I’m just a small-town kid chasing big dreams in the big city,” Maluach told Spears.
As Spears notes, South Sudan only gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. The country does not yet have a single indoor basketball court, but that didn’t stop it from qualifying for the Olympics this year.
“Right now, we’re going to celebrate our win, be grateful for our first Olympic game and our first win,” Maluach said after Team South Sudan bested Team Puerto Rico on Sunday, 90-79. “So, I’m going to celebrate until 12 midnight. We put this game aside and get ready for the next game.”
Following South Sudan’s loss to Team USA on Wednesday, the team can qualify for the quarterfinals either with a win over Serbia on Sunday or with some tiebreaker luck in the event of a Sunday loss.
There’s more out of the Olympics:
- Former two-time All-Star Luol Deng, who has been self-funding South Sudan’s basketball program since 2021, is watching his vision for the team get fully realized in these Olympics, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “Every time we play, the whole nation stops to watch us play,” head coach Royal Ivey said. “We’re bringing them together. We’re uniting the fans and the people of South Sudan. And that’s way bigger than wins and losses.” According to Thompson, Deng was offered front office work by his old team, the Bulls, as well as the Bucks after he retired in 2019. But he felt the pull to return to South Sudan and build up the basketball club. “It was never about being famous or making money and leaving home,” Deng said of his NBA career. “It was all about being successful and returning home. So it’s kind of cool that I can come back and get things done now — which is just, in a way, it’s a dream come true.”
- Eastern Conference All-Stars Jayson Tatum, and Joel Embiid are undergoing a rare-for-them humbling experience through Team USA’s group play games, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Both have been healthy scratches for one of the club’s two group play blowout victories at the Paris Olympics. Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton has too. “Definitely a humbling experience, right?” Tatum said. “Win a championship, new contract, cover of (NBA) 2K (video game) and then you sit a whole game. Cover of Sports Illustrated. So it was definitely a humbling experience.”
- After playing a few unexpectedly close tune-up games prior to the official start of the Olympics, a loaded Team USA looked vulnerable against a field with more NBA talent than ever. Two games into the pool play phase, the U.S. has left little doubt that it’s by far the best club out there, writes Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Head coach Steve Kerr‘s multifaceted team has looked virtually unbeatable since Kevin Durant returned to the lineup. The Suns All-NBA forward had missed all five of Team USA’s exhibition matchups with a calf strain.
Spurs To Fully Guarantee Julian Champagnie’s 2024/25 Salary
The Spurs will fully guarantee the 2024/25 salary for small forward/shooting guard Julian Champagnie, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
The 6’8″ swingman will earn $3MM in 2024/25 for a rebuilding San Antonio club. The team would have had to waive him on or before Thursday to avoid guaranteeing that $3MM.
As Scott observes, Champagnie started in 59 of his 74 contests with the club last year during a 22-60 season.
Across those 74 healthy games, he averaged 6.8 points per contest with a .408/.365/.815 shooting line. Champagnie also recorded 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 blocks and 0.6 steals in just 19.8 minutes per night.
The 23-year-old wing went undrafted out of St. John’s in 2022, where he had earned a pair of First-Team All-Big East accolades.
The Sixers signed him to a two-way deal in 2022/23, though Philadelphia eventually cut him that February. San Antonio quickly snagged him off waivers.
Nothing is guaranteed beyond 2024/25 for Champagnie on the final two seasons of his four-year deal. He’s owed $3MM in 2025/26, which is non-guaranteed until August 1, 2025. The Spurs hold a $3MM team option for the 2026/27 season.
San Antonio now has 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts for ’24/25.
Bucks Waive Jaylin Galloway
The Bucks have waived two-way player Jaylin Galloway to create a roster spot for reported new two-way addition Anzejs Pasecniks, per Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).
An Australian-born swingman, Galloway opted to forgo college in favor of playing for the Sydney Kings in Australia’s National Basketball League as a developmental prospect beginning in 2020. He eventually won a championship with Sydney in 2022 and has also played for a pair of NBL1 North semi-pro teams, the Mackay Meteors and Ipswich Force.
Galloway, 21, inked a two-way deal with the Bucks in March this past season. However, he didn’t appear in a game for Milwaukee during his tenure with the team.
Across seven contests with the Bucks’ NBAGL affiliate squad, the Wisconsin Herd, Galloway averaged 4.7 points on a .406/.143/.667 shooting line, along with 3.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.3 blocks per game.
In Galloway’s stead, Pasecniks now joins the Bucks’ two remaining two-way players, point guard Ryan Rollins and shooting guard Stanley Umude.
Hornets Cut Leaky Black
The Hornets have waived two-way player Leaky Black, the team announced via Twitter.
Just a few weeks ago, the young forward was expressing a desire to earn a spot on the club’s standard 15-man roster. Now, it looks like he may have to seek out his next NBA opportunity elsewhere.
Across 26 contests with Charlotte (three starts), the 6’9″ UNC alum averaged 2.7 points on a .481/.450/.667 shooting line, along with 1.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game. In seven appearances for Charlotte’s G League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm, Black averaged 10.8 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 2.4 APG, and 1.7 SPG.
Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer notes that Black seemed to have shored up his offense during his Summer League games with the team this offseason, specifically showing off an updated jump shot.
The Hornets now have one open two-way slot. Third-year center Moussa Diabate and rookie point guard KJ Simpson are occupying the other two-way spots on the roster. The Hornets also still have one of their 15 standard roster spots available.
International Notes: Burke, Gates, Korkmaz, Kagame
Veteran guard Trey Burke, who has spent nine seasons in the NBA, signed on with Puerto Rican club Mets de Guaynabo, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando.
The former All-Rookie First Teamer out of Michigan played for the Jazz, Wizards, Knicks, Mavericks and Sixers from 2013-22, posting averages of 9.6 points, 3.1 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 0.6 steals per game across 498 total regular season contests .
Burke has been tooling around the G League for the past two years, first with the Stockton Kings and then with the Mexico City Capitanes. In 10 Showcase Cup contests with the Capitanes last season, the 6’1″ vet posted averages of 21.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.0 steals per night, with a shooting line of .465/.429/.864.
There’s more from around the basketball world:
- Former Pelicans small forward Kaiser Gates has inked a contract with Spanish club Joventut Badalona, according to a press release from the team. After going undrafted out of Xavier in 2018, the 6’7″ wing mostly played in the G League for the affiliates of the Bulls, Celtics, and Nets. He also suited up for Israeli club Hapoel Jerusalem in 2021/22. Gates was briefly on a two-way deal with New Orleans during the ’23/24 season, though he appeared in just one game before being waived.
- Former Sixers swingman Furkan Korkmaz could be nearing a deal with French club AS Monaco Basket, reports Kevin Martorano of Sportando. After suiting up for multiple pro teams in his native Turkey, the 6’7″ swingman was selected with the No. 26 pick by Philadelphia in 2016. He was finally dealt to the Pacers at the February trade deadline, as part of a three-team deal to acquire Buddy Hield. Indiana cut him a day after the trade.
- As the NBA has looked to broaden its brand recently, it appears to have gotten into business with a man seen by many as a dictator, per Mark Fainaru-Wada of ESPN. Rwandan president Paul Kagame, considered guilty of major human rights violations by the U.S. State Department, negotiated a new $104MM basketball facility for the country as part of the league’s growing NBA Africa business. “The conversations that we’ve had with Paul Kagame have all been about improving the lives of Rwandan people,” league deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said of the relationship. “How can we create, how can we inspire and connect people through the game of basketball to make Rwandan peoples’ lives better.”
Olympic Notes: Embiid, Ivey, Jones, Tatum
Seven-time All-Star Sixers center Joel Embiid had a major decision to make ahead of his 2024 Olympics debut. The big man was born in Cameroon, holds French citizenship, and of course had the option to make a stacked Team USA even more loaded, writes Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Having a family here and living here half of my life… it made sense,” Embiid explained to reporters while Team USA prepared for the Olympics in Las Vegas.
Former Sixers head coach Brett Brown told Sielski that he sometimes talked to Embiid about the Olympics during his time in Philadelphia and thought the star center might want a chance to display his greatness by going up against the U.S. on an international stage.
“Then all of a sudden, you could feel like the U.S. having a chance to be an option,” Brown said. “Previously, I did not think that. I think what’s happened over time is that he well and truly sees himself as the United States being his home.”
There’s more from the Olympics:
- After beating Puerto Rico 90-79 for the first Olympic victory in his country’s history, South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey has been reveling in the moment, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops. “This is a movie, my life is a movie right now,” Ivey said. “Being in the Olympics, and getting our first win, I’m proud of my players, one through 12, everybody contributed. This is so, so real, I couldn’t experience anything better than this. And I’m so thankful for the opportunity, I thank you all, and I thank my coaching staff, [South Sudan Basketball Federation president] Luol Deng, everyone.” Ivey is currently a Rockets assistant coach.
- South Sudan point guard Carlik Jones powered the club to its victory over Puerto Rico, notching 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, Barkas writes in another piece. During the team’s Olympics opening-night presentation, Sudan’s national anthem was played instead of South Sudan’s. South Sudan separated from Sudan as its own country in 2011. “I’ll say it added more fuel to the fire,” Jones said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t think we belong. A lot of people think that we don’t deserve to be here. But if you ask me, I think we have every right to be here. And, you know, we’re confident. We’re confident in the team. We’re confident in what we’ve done so far. And we just know we’ve got to keep going.”
- During Team USA’s 110-84 victory over Team Serbia in its first game of the Paris Olympics, head coach Steve Kerr did not play All-NBA Celtics power forward Jayson Tatum for a single second. Tatum confirmed to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe that he was not injured or sick (Twitter link). Speaking post-game, Kerr explained his decision to make Tatum a healthy scratch, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “It’s really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys,” Kerr said. All-NBA Suns power forward Kevin Durant, who had missed all five of Team USA’s exhibition games with a calf injury, returned to the lineup and seemingly absorbed Tatum’s minutes off the bench. He scored 23 points while shooting 8-of-9 from the floor across a scant 17 minutes. “With Kevin coming back, I just went to the combinations that I felt made the most sense,” Kerr added. “It seems crazy. I thought I was crazy when I looked at everything and determined these are the lineups I wanted to get to.”
Knicks Notes: Odds, Jokubaitis, Backup Center
Oddsmakers have given the Knicks their highest projected win total since the 1993/94 preseason, according to Dylan Svoboda of The New York Post. According to FanDuel Sportsbook, New York’s projected over/under line is set at 53.5 victories. In ’93/94, they were projected to win 56 games. They racked up 57 victories and advanced all the way to the Finals.
Only once in the 21st century have the Knicks previously been projected to win 50 or more games in a season, in 2012/13. They won 54 contests that year and fell in the second round of the postseason.
Last year’s Knicks surpassed preseason expectations, thanks in large part to an All-NBA Second Team turn from point guard Jalen Brunson and a third All-Star season from power forward Julius Randle, plus a utilitarian, switchable rotation around that dynamic duo.
Among preseason over/unders, New York trails only the reigning champion Celtics, whose line is listed at 58.5, wins and the Thunder, who are at 56.5 wins. Boston and Oklahoma City were the top seeds in their respective conferences last season.
There’s more out of New York:
- Draft-and-stash prospect Rokas Jokubaitis played in the Las Vegas Summer League for New York this month for the second time since being drafted by the team in 2021. When it became apparent that there was no roster space available for him, the 6’4″ guard inked a three-season deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv, a deal which includes an NBA out every year until August 1, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscriber link).
- With former Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein departing for the Thunder this summer, Mitchell Robinson projects to return to the starting lineup for New York, which doesn’t have an obvious No. 2 option at the five. According to Fred Katz of The Athletic, the team doesn’t necessarily need to address that issue by finding a permanent solution this offseason. Re-signing free agent big man Precious Achiuwa, who can play small-ball center, could be a short-term fix and the Knicks could revisit the trade market during the season, Katz writes.
- In case you missed it, former Pistons assistant coach Mark Bryant is joining head coach Tom Thibodeau‘s staff.
Nets Sign Keon Johnson To Two-Year Deal
JULY 21: The signing is official, according to the NBA transactions log.
JULY 20: The Nets are re-signing free agent shooting guard Keon Johnson to a standard contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), Johnson is inking a two-season agreement with the Nets. The contract is partially guaranteed for 2024/25 and will have a team option for ’25/26.
Johnson has enjoyed an outstanding run throughout this year’s Las Vegas Summer League thus far. He’s averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game for Brooklyn this offseason.
The 6’5″ swingman was selected with the No. 21 overall pick in the 2021 draft out of Tennessee. Johnson, then just 19, split his rookie season between the Clippers and Trail Blazers. He stayed with Portland for the 2022/23 season, but broke a finger midway through the year, cutting him off at just 40 games.
Johnson was shipped out to the Suns as part of the three-team deal that landed All-Star point guard Damian Lillard with the Bucks and was cut prior to the start of the 2023/24 season.
He ultimately landed with the Nets on a two-way deal last season, appearing in just five games for Brooklyn. Across those contests, Johnson averaged 6.2 points per contest on .381/.400/.917 shooting splits. He also chipped in 1.4 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 0.6 steals per night.
Olympics Notes: Kerr, LeBron, Hayes-Davis, K. Antetokounmpo
As Team USA gears up to try to earn its fifth consecutive gold medal at the Olympics, head coach Steve Kerr has been impressed by the efforts of 39-year-old Lakers All-Star forward LeBron James, both during practices and exhibition games, writes Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops.
“I’m blown away by his effort, concentration, and focus every single drill,” Kerr said. “He talks, and even in a shootaround, he walks through his voice behind the play, yelling out the scheme. His leadership by example. The guy is incredible. I’ve known that forever, but to see it out close, it’s pretty special.”
James is participating in his fourth Olympic games with Team USA, but his first since 2012. After settling for bronze in 2004, Team USA re-tooled, and James won gold in 2008 and ’12 with more team-oriented rosters.
There’s more from the Olympics:
- Former NBA forward Nigel Hayes-Davis has been suiting up for the USA Select Team, playing alongside Team USA ahead of the Paris Olympics this week. The 6’8″ Fenerbahce swingman discussed his tenure with the Select Team, per Cesare Milantiigel of Eurohoops. “My agent Kevin Bradbury told me something about the USA thing. It was during the season, so I really didn’t pay attention to it. I had other things I was focusing on,” Hayes-Davis said. “I didn’t know what my duties and roles would be. But it’s a tremendous opportunity and it surpasses even what I imagined it would be. I apologize for being long with it, but this is something you couldn’t pay money to be a part of as a basketball player.”
- Former Mavericks and Lakers forward Kostas Antetokounmpo is waiting on a medical green light with regard to whether or not he can suit up for Olympic competition for the Greek national team, according to Eurohoops. The program will make a final determination on Monday.
- After almost falling to South Sudan in a Saturday pre-Olympics warm-up game, Team USA can now better appreciate just how formidable some of its foes may be this summer.