Celtics Sign Wenyen Gabriel
OCTOBER 3: Gabriel’s signing is official, the Celtics announced in a press release.
OCTOBER 1: Journeyman power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel is signing with the Celtics, sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
With Robert Williams III now en route to the Trail Blazers, the Celtics have acted quickly to shore up their frontcourt depth. Charania notes that Gabriel will hope to carve out rotation minutes off the bench with Boston. He will play behind expected starters Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford.
The 6’9″ big man out of Kentucky spent the past two seasons as a springy reserve with the Lakers.
In 2022/23, Gabriel was mostly employed by head coach Darvin Ham as a small-ball five. Across 68 contests with Los Angeles, the 26-year-old averaged 5.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 0.5 BPG and 0.5 APG in just 15.1 MPG. He largely fell out of the team’s rotation during its run to the Western Conference Finals this spring, as his shooting deficiencies and inability to guard true centers made him something of a liability.
Charania tweets that Boston had brought in Gabriel for workouts recently as the club looked to fill out its roster. Gabriel helped his native South Sudan nab its first Olympic berth ever during the FIBA World Cup this summer. He averaged 9.2 PPG and 6.8 RPG during the tournament, Charania notes.
Gabriel has also played for the Kings, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, and Nets during his four-year NBA career.
Bucks Sign Cameron Payne To One-Year Contract
OCTOBER 2: The signing is official, the Bucks announced in a press release.
OCTOBER 1: Damian Lillard appears to have a new backup.
Sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the Bucks have agreed to sign free agent point guard Cameron Payne to a new one-year contract.
The 6’1″ vet out of Murray State is joining a revamped Milwaukee squad after salvaging his career with a four-year stint on the Suns.
The No. 14 pick in the 2015 lottery, Payne struggled to develop through runs with the Thunder, Bulls and Cavaliers. He really found his footing after signing on with Phoenix in 2019. Across his four seasons with the Suns as Chris Paul‘s backup, Payne posted regular season averages of 9.8 PPG on .434/.384/.833 shooting splits. He also contributed 4.2 APG, 2.6 RPG and 0.7 SPG.
In July, the Suns traded Payne, a 2025 second-rounder and cash to the Spurs for a 2024 protected second-round draft pick. He was waived by San Antonio in September, becoming an unrestricted free agent. Payne had been owed a guaranteed salary of $6.5MM.
Payne now looks likely to become the primary reserve behind newly acquired All-Star point guard Lillard on a starry East contender that seems poised to once again contend for a top seed in the conference.
Though terms of the deal have yet to be divulged, the Bucks cannot offer Payne anything above the veteran’s minimum due to their proximity to the tax aprons.
Trail Blazers Sign Skylar Mays To Two-Way Deal
7:49pm: The move is official, the Blazers announced in a press release.
3:45pm: The Trail Blazers are bringing back free agent combo guard Skylar Mays on a two-way deal, his agent Mark Bartelstein informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report tweets that Mays has been working out at Portland’s practice facility throughout the offseason.
The 6’4″ vet appeared in just six contests with the Trail Blazers in 2022/23 after inking a 10-day deal. He put up big numbers in those games, averaging 15.3 PPG on excellent .500/.462/.923 shooting splits, while also chipping in 8.3 APG, 3.2 RPG and 1.0 SPG.
Mays was drafted with the No. 50 pick by the Hawks in 2020 out of LSU, but failed to carve out a major rotation role during his two seasons in Atlanta. He split most of the 2022/23 season between the Sixers’ NBAGL affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats, and the Capitanes de Ciudad de México, before latching on in Portland.
Spurs Sign Charles Bediako
The Spurs have officially signed free agent rookie center Charles Bediako, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).
Bediako’s agreement with San Antonio was initially reported soon after the draft. Terms of the agreement have not yet been disclosed, though an Exhibit 10 training camp deal seems likely.
The seven-footer enjoyed a decorated NCAA run at Alabama. He was a 2023 SEC All-Defense and All-SEC Tourney honoree as a sophomore. During his two years with the program, Bediako posted averages of 6.6 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.7 BPG, 0.7 APG and 0.6 SPG in 19.3 MPG.
Assuming Bediako has signed an Exhibit 10 deal, he could see that agreement converted to a two-way contract or, more likely, be waived by the club ahead of the regular season. He would then become eligible for a bonus worth up to $75K should he log 60 days or more with the Spurs’ NBAGL affiliate, the Austin Spurs.
Clippers Waive Jason Preston
Clippers point guard Jason Preston is being waived by L.A., reports Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). The team has officially confirmed the move.
Preston’s $1.8MM non-guaranteed salary for 2023/24 would have become fully guaranteed had he remained with the club through Sunday. Earlier this week, team president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank had indicated that the Clippers were still considering whether or not to retain Preston into training camp.
John Hollinger of The Athletic tweets that this move had been anticipated given that L.A. already has 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts. Hollinger adds that the 6’4″ guard may have intriguing upside as a two-way signing somewhere. The Clippers currently have all three of their two-way slots occupied.
Preston, 24, was selected with the No. 33 pick in the 2021 draft out of Ohio, but missed the entirety of what would have been his rookie campaign in 2021/22 after undergoing a preseason foot surgery. He appeared in a scant 14 games for the Clippers in 2022/23, averaging 2.9 PPG, 1.9 APG and 1.6 RPG across 8.9 MPG.
That said, Preston showed some promise with his club’s G League team in 2022/23. In 21 games with L.A.’s NBAGL affiliate, the Ontario Clippers, Preston averaged 16.7 PPG, 6.7 APG, 5.2 RPG and 0.7 SPG. He posted a shooting line of .486/.372/.844.
Damion Lee Out Indefinitely With Meniscus Injury
Suns shooting guard Damion Lee injured the meniscus in his right knee during a workout at Phoenix’s practice facility and will be sidelined indefinitely, the team announced in a press statement. Further details of the exact nature of the injury were not revealed.
Lee re-signed with the Suns this summer on a two-year, veteran’s minimum contract following a productive 2022/23 season with the team. The 6’5″ swingman has a player option for the 2024/25 season. He had been expected to play rotation minutes as a sharpshooting wing for a top-heavy Phoenix team.
Last year, the 30-year-old carved out a major rotation role with a fourth-seeded Phoenix squad. Across 74 regular season contests (20.4 MPG), Lee averaged 8.2 PPG on .442/.445/.904 shooting splits, along with 3.0 RPG and 1.3 APG.
While this is certainly a blow, Phoenix still has plenty of depth on the wing even with Lee out. Beyond All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker, the team also has Grayson Allen, Josh Okogie, Eric Gordon, Yuta Watanabe, Keita Bates-Diop, and Nassir Little at its disposal at the shooting guard and small forward spots.
Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic notes that the team is currently carrying 17 players on its 15-man standard roster, meaning it will need to release or trade two of them prior to the start of the regular season.
Central Notes: Bulls, Giannis, Ivey, Pistons
After making only minor roster moves for a second straight summer, the middling Bulls might be best served by fully embracing a tank, opines Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.
Cowley writes that team president Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley need to concede that their momentous roster reconstruction in 2021 ultimately did not succeed, and the club must now pivot to offloading big veterans in exchange for future draft equity. Cowley believes Chicago’s top priority should be finding a young point guard it can build around.
With star wings DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine leading the charge, the Bulls have gone a cumulative 86-78 over the past two regular seasons, with just a single playoff game win to their credit.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- Though Bucks All-NBA power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is now eligible to ink a three-year, $169MM contract extension, he has indicated he intends to wait until next summer to make a decision. At that point, he could agree to a four-year deal worth a projected $234MM (or potentially more, depending on where the NBA’s salary cap lands). He has a $51.9MM player option for the 2025/26 season. Should Antetokounmpo eventually ask for a trade, he would entice the entire league, Adrian Wojnarowski said on Friday on ESPN’s NBA Today (YouTube video link). “Listen, the possibility of a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo becoming available, it creates a frenzy around the league behind closed doors,” Woj said.
- Second-year Pistons shooting guard Jaden Ivey is hoping to take a step up defensively in 2023/24, writes Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press. The 6’4″ guard showed improvement as a shooter and passer throughout his rookie season last year, and is now looking to develop on the other side of the ball. “Being able to just play better defense, I think that’s what I tried to lock into more [over the summer],” Sankofa opines. “Using my speed to get through ball screens and not giving up on ball screen reads. Always staying on the play, always staying involved defensively. I feel like I got better in that aspect.”
- In a new reader mailbag, Sankofa addresses a variety of Pistons topics, including whether he thinks Detroit could try to trade for Pacers sharpshooter Buddy Hield, whether or not combo forward Isaiah Livers will earn rotation minutes amidst a deeper frontcourt, and more.
Southeast Notes: Cain, Toppert, Hield
With the state of the Heat‘s roster still very much in flux, two-way small forward Jamal Cain is still hoping for a promotion to a standard contract, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The 6’7″ swingman out of Oakland signed his second straight two-way deal with the club this summer. At present, 13 players are inked to the team’s standard 15-man roster, including 12 on guaranteed contracts, so at least one more addition will be needed before the regular season tips off.
For his part, Cain is confident his game has grown during the offseason and clearly seems to hope he can succeed with more run at the next level.
“I feel like I’ve improved a lot on my on-ball defense and being able to guard bigger players and holding my ground,” Cain said. “And on offense I think I’ve done a better job with my shot selection, being a better shooter and just being a better decision maker with the ball. And, again, always wanted to be stronger, because I’m not the biggest guy.”
Across 18 regular season contests with Miami last year, Cain averaged 5.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 0.6 steals per night. In 15 contests with Miami’s NBAGL club, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Cain averaged 22.1 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.3 SPG and 0.5 BPG.
There’s more out of the Southeast Division:
- In a reader mailbag, Winderman responds to a question about whether or not Pacers shooting guard Buddy Hield could be a contingency trade plan for the Heat, should the club be unable to secure the services of Trail Blazers All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. Winderman writes that, while Hield could help Miami, he is not the superstar all-level scorer Lillard is, and his $18.6MM salary may be a bit prohibitive for further team building.
- The Wizards’ NBA G League affiliate club, the Capital City Go-Go, have officially announced the hiring of Cody Toppert to be the organization’s fourth head coach, per a team press statement. Toppert’s hiring was initially reported earlier this month.
- In case you missed it, Hoops Rumors’ Luke Adams examined the full team rosters of the entire Southeast Division ahead of training camp.
Sixers’ Nick Nurse Talks Harris, Reed, Embiid, More
Newly hired Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has been dealt a fairly difficult hand this summer. Star point guard James Harden is angling to be traded away before having played a single game under Nurse.
But Nurse still has a team to coach. To that end, he recently sat down with Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire for a comprehensive conversation about the club.
Here are a few standout moments from the chat, which is well worth reading in full.
On how he’ll integrate power forward Tobias Harris into his system:
“There’s so much more he could possibly do and I kind of want him to settle in and play this role that he’s capable of playing that he’s got experience playing, but I do kind of want him to dream outside that role or expand outside that role eventually.
“I do keep a pretty loose lid on the roles if that makes any sense because I think there [are] guys — there’s some guys maybe they never shot three-pointers before and they’re not bad and we may need them to shoot more threes or, or whatever it is. [Reserve center] Paul Reed would be a good example for us for that. When we got James and Joel [Embiid] out there, there’s gonna be some open threes. So let’s start to open up their minds a little bit and let’s get working on it, and let’s see what happens. Things like that.”
On improving Reed’s shooting mechanics:
“Yeah, I mean, listen, about day two after I had the job, we went in the gym with Paul Reed and we just tried to start making a couple mechanical adjustments on his shooting form to see if he couldn’t shoot it a little better. It’s really been going good. I think he’s gonna have a good, good season.”
On how he will handle Embiid with regards to the league’s new resting policy:
“I think that we are looking at it maybe a little different than people think we might be. We’re trying to get him to play more games. Our goal is that it’s going up for him, not not the other direction, and some people would say, ‘Oh, that’s playoffs. Is he going to be?’ We’re just trying to get it going the other direction. I think that’s just what our people believe here that he can play and again, knock on wood, cross our fingers, all that stuff. There’s always things that can come up with that stuff, but I don’t know. I believe in the guys playing as much as they can and let’s see what happens.”
Pacific Notes: Vanderbilt, Lillard, Suns
Jarred Vanderbilt‘s new four-year extension with the Lakers has a relatively straightforward structure, as Keith Smith of Spotrac notes (Twitter link). The 6’9″ forward will receive standard 8% pay bumps across each season in the deal.
Vanderbilt will earn $10.7MM in 2024/25, $11.6MM in 2025/26, $12.4MM in 2026/27, and $13.3MM in 2027/28. The final season of the deal in 2027/28 is a player option.
Across 26 regular season contests with L.A., the Kentucky product averaged 7.2 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 1.6 APG and 1.2 SPG while providing his signature versatile, high-motor defense.
Vanderbilt’s impact was dulled during the postseason, where he saw his minutes slashed from 24.0 MPG to 16.5. His output suffered as well. He averaged 4.6 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 0.8 APG, 0.7 SPG, and 0.9 BPG in 15 games.
There’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- During a new conversation on the podcast It Is What It Is from Cam’ron, Ma$e & Treasure “Stat Baby” Wilson (YouTube video link), Trail Blazers All-Star point guard Damian Lillard explained why he isn’t interested in playing for his hometown Warriors. “As far as like Golden State, I respect what they’ve been doing over the last eight, nine years or whatever and I’m from there obviously,” Lillard said (hat tip to HoopsHype for the transcript). “But I can’t be a part of that. They’ve won four championships… Like what would I look like going to try to do that and say, ‘Oh I’m joining my home team.’ Like no. It’s somebody that played my position that’s behind LeBron the best player of this era. It don’t even make sense. I never do nothing like that. I’d lose every year before I’d go.”
- New Suns play-by-play commentator John Bloom spoke at length about his latest gig with Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Bloom is replacing legendary broadcaster Al McCoy, who previously held the gig for 51 seasons. “My style is an energetic combo of old school nuts-and-bolts hoops description with a unique punch of new school flavor featuring references to hip hop and pop culture,” Bloom said. He is bullish on a star-studded Phoenix team’s 2023/24 season. “As for this Suns roster, are you kidding me?” Bloom said. “Did somebody create this one on 2K and convert it to real life, because it looks like it on paper. I can’t wait to see this group come together and am so pumped to get this show started.”
- In case you missed it, the Clippers reportedly ceased James Harden trade talks with the Sixers.