Mavericks Sign Mike Miles To Two-Way Deal
JULY 14: Miles’ two-way deal with the Mavs is official, the team announced (via Twitter).
JUNE 23: The Mavericks have agreed to ink undrafted TCU point guard Mike Miles Jr. to a two-way deal, sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 6’1″ Miles averaged 17.9 PPG, 2.7 APG, 2.7 RPG and 1.2 SPG during his third and final year with the Horned Frogs in 2022/23. He also posted an encouraging slash line of .497/.362/.749.
A two-time All-Big 12 Second Team selection, as well as a two-time All-Big 12 Tourney pick, Miles will be an interesting project on a guard-heavy Dallas club.
While still at TCU, Miles also played for gold-medal Team USA in the 2021 FIBA Under-19 World Cup in Latvia.
The Mavericks submitted an active draft night, trading the No. 10 pick and the contract of power forward Davis Bertans to the No. 12 pick to select Duke center Dereck Lively II, as well as acquiring big man Richaun Holmes and the rights to No. 24 pick Olivier-Maxence Prosper, out of Marquette, from the Kings.
Seth Curry Signs Two-Year Deal With Mavericks
JULY 14: Curry’s contract with the Mavericks is now official, per the team (Twitter link).
JUNE 30: Former Nets combo guard Seth Curry is inking a new two-year contract to return to the Mavericks, CAA agent Austin Brown informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Per Tim MacMahon of ESPN, Curry will join Dallas’ roster via the team’s $4.5MM biannual exception.
It represents a reunion with the Duke alum’s former 2022/23 Brooklyn teammate All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving.
Across his 61 contests for Brooklyn last season, Curry – a 6’2″ combo guard – averaged 9.2 PPG on excellent .463/.405/.927 shooting splits, along with 1.6 RPG and 1.6 APG.
The 32-year-old, a career 43.5% three-point shooter, will help stretch the floor around Dallas’ All-Star backcourt of Irving and Luka Doncic.
This agreement with Curry will now hard-cap the Mavericks at the $172.3MM first tax apron, per Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (via Twitter). The club is currently about $9MM below the luxury tax line and $16MM below that hard cap.
If Dallas, which finished as the No. 11 seed in the West last season, wants to use the full $12.4MM mid-level exception to sign another rotation player this summer, the team will need to shed a little salary, Gozlan adds.
This actually marks Curry’s third separate run with the Mavs. He previously played for the club in 2016/17, prior to Doncic’s arrival, and in 2019/20, alongside Doncic. In a journeyman decade-long NBA career thus far, Curry has also played for the Grizzlies, Cavaliers, Suns, Kings, Trail Blazers, and Sixers.
Central Notes: Bucks, Siakam, Pacers, Carter, LaVine
After opting to retain their core free agents this summer and also make some cheap veteran signings, the Bucks are deftly navigating their present while trying to maintain some longer-term flexibility, writes Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“There is, without a doubt, an intentionality to try make sure that we maximize where we’re at right now with this team and always having an eye toward the future to try to figure out what the next version of this team looks like,” Milwaukee GM Jon Horst told Owczarski.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s major changes to the roster [upcoming] or there is or there isn’t, it just means that we gotta have an eye toward that and continue to look at how we’re going to build this two, three, four, five years down the road because the whole goal has always been to sustain our success over a long period of time,” Horst continued.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- The rebuilding Pacers theoretically have the attributes to trade for Raptors All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam, but Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star wonders if the negatives of such a move would outweigh the positives, specifically with regard to how much the team would possibly need to surrender to Toronto.
- Chicago native Jevon Carter is hoping to help elevate his new team, his hometown Bulls, both on the hardwood and beyond it this season, writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. To wit, Carter is already prepping to host a local youth camp this weekend. “Anytime I dreamed about going to the NBA as a kid, it was always in a Chicago Bulls uniform,” Carter told Johnson. “So getting that call and hearing, ‘Congratulations, you’re going to be a Chicago Bull,’ like, I don’t even know what to say. My feelings are all over the place.”
- Maximum-salaried Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine does not believe he will be traded by Chicago in the near future, per Ryan Taylor of NBC Sports Chicago. “I always rep my city whichever team I’m playing for to the best,” LaVine said. “And Chicago’s loved me and called me one of their own since I’ve been there. I don’t see anything happening anytime soon. But if it does, Chicago always has my love.”
Northwest Notes: George, Nuggets, Lillard, Holmgren
Rookie Jazz shooting guard Keyonte George, the No. 16 pick in this summer’s draft out of Baylor, injured his ankle midway through a Wednesday Summer League contest against the Nuggets, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News.
There is no official diagnosis of the ailment as of this writing, but there’s also no indication to suggest it will adversely impact his status for training camp in the fall.
“It’s a gut punch for us, but the absolute biggest gut punch for him, especially with how well he was playing,” Utah’s Summer League team head coach Evan Bradds said. “It’s terrible, it sucks. Whenever you see somebody go down it sucks no matter where you’re at, what you’re doing.”
Sources have informed Todd that George won’t be available for the rest of Summer League.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- The reigning champion Nuggets‘ Summer League run has been a bit of mixed bag. The team has gone 0-3 thus far in Las Vegas, but the performance of Peyton Watson in particular has given president Calvin Booth hope that he can help replace the output of Bruce Brown, who left Denver in free agency, per Parker Gabriel of The Denver Post. “Really excited about Peyton Watson,” Booth said. “I think we have some guys that can come in and try to replace some of what Bruce did.”
- As Damian Lillard trade chatter continues, Pelicans executive David Griffin weighed in on how the Trail Blazers can take advantage of their All-Star’s demand to be moved, as Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald relays. The Heat are known to be Lillard’s preferred destination. “I want people to invent as many different scenarios as they can and put them out into the universe because it gives you leverage,” Griffin told Amin Elhassan and Justin Termine of SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter video link). “If there’s actually a chance that you would trade him somewhere other than Miami, you get a much better deal.”
- A right foot surgery postponed Thunder lottery pick Chet Holmgren‘s NBA debut for an entire season. Ahead of 2023/24, the 7’1″ big man seems to be gearing up for an impactful rookie run, says Mark Medina of Sportsnaut.
Suns Re-Sign Saben Lee To Two-Way Deal
The Suns are bringing back point guard Saben Lee on another two-way deal, having officially signed him to a new contract, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports).
Lee inked his first two-way contract with Phoenix in January of this past season.
“Saben plays with toughness and aggression on both ends of the court,” team president James Jones is quoted as saying in the press statement. “His point guard instincts and ability to attack the rim are critical traits for us as we seek to build a better team.”
This move was not entirely unexpected, as the 6’2″ vet received a two-way qualifying offer from the Suns earlier this summer, effectively giving the club extra optionality to retain him as a restricted free agent.
Across 23 regular season contests with the Suns last year, the 24-year-old out of Vanderbilt averaged 6.3 PPG on .393/.379/.737 shooting splits, along with 2.8 APG, 2.0 RPG and 0.8 SPG. This will be the last season that he’s eligible to play on a two-way contract.
The Suns still have a pair of two-way slots available after re-signing Lee.
NBA OKs Disabled Player Exception For Bulls
The NBA has approved the Bulls‘ request for a disabled player exception as a result of point guard Lonzo Ball‘s knee injury, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The ailment has kept Ball shelved since January of 2022 and has required three surgeries to date. Earlier this summer, team president Arturas Karnisovas indicated that Chicago expects the point guard to miss all of the 2023/24 NBA season.
A disabled player exception is granted when an NBA-appointed physician rules that a player is more likely than not to be sidelined through June 15 of that league year.
Ball will earn $20.46MM this season, meaning the Bulls’ DPE will be worth $10.23MM. It could be used to add a new free agent, bring in a player off waivers, or acquire someone as part of a trade. A free agent could only be signed to a one-year deal, while a player acquired via waivers or trade would have to be in the final year of his contract.
As K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago notes, the Bulls are currently only about $8MM below the luxury tax line. Should Chicago be inclined to make bigger moves beyond adding a veteran’s minimum signing or two and retaining restricted free agent Ayo Dosunmu, the disabled player exception could be a powerful mechanism, though using most or all of it would likely push team salary into the tax.
Ball underwent a cartilage transplant surgery in March to correct his knee issues, in what Johnson suggests was generally thought to be a final bid to salvage his pro career.
Since joining the Bulls on a four-year, $80MM contract in a sign-and-trade with the Pelicans, the former No. 2 overall pick has appeared in just 35 contests. He was a highly effective perimeter defender, passer and three-point shooter (42.3% on 7.4 attempts) for Chicago when healthy, and a big part of the club’s surprise success through the first half of the 2021/22 season.
The Bulls have underwhelmed while trying to replace Ball’s production at the position in a piecemeal fashion.
Atlantic Notes: Siakam, Wieskamp, Anunoby, Harden, Walsh
Raptors forward Pascal Siakam is still a potential trade candidate for Toronto, but the club is taking its time and showing no urgency to make a move, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star.
There’s “more smoke than fire” around Siakam, according to Star, who says the Raptors do not feel a particular obligation to move their veteran star, who at present appears happy to remain with the only NBA team he’s ever known.
The 6’9″ forward submitted his most prolific scoring season yet on a middling 41-41 club in 2022/23, averaging 24.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 5.8 APG, 0.9 SPG and 0.5 BPG.
Smith adds that the $1.9MM non-guaranteed contract of sharpshooter Joe Wieskamp is due to be fully guaranteed Monday, but predicts that Wieskamp is more likely be released than retained.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks, who boast one of the best collections of assets in the league, may have the inclination and the pieces to make a trade for Raptors 3-and-D swingman OG Anunoby, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Anunoby was one of the most coveted players to not be moved during this past season’s trade deadline. The 2022/23 All-Defensive Second Teamer averaged 16.8 PPG on .476/.387/.838 shooting splits, 5.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.9 SPG across his 67 available contests last year.
- Although rival front offices believe the Sixers are hoping to hold on to star point guard James Harden, a source close to the 2018 MVP says he still wants to be traded for the third time in three seasons, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.
- Celtics rookie forward Jordan Walsh has been solid enough during his Summer League run with Boston that it’s conceivable he could eventually slot into the team’s rotation as a possible Grant Williams replacement this year, opines Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Williams, of course, was sent to Dallas in a three-team sign-and-trade earlier this week.
Bulls Sign Adama Sanogo To Two-Way Deal
JULY 10: The signing is official, the team’s PR department tweets.
JUNE 23: The Bulls are set to sign undrafted Connecticut center Adama Sanogo to a two-way contract, sources inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Sanogo, whose Huskies won the NCAA title this year, had been projected to be the last pick in the draft, No. 58, in ESPN’s final mock draft prior to tonight. In 39 games for Connecticut during 2022/23, the 6’9″ junior logged 17.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.8 BPG and 0.7 SPG. That block tally is actually his lowest ever in college. He boasts a career average of 1.2 BPG over the course of his three NCAA seasons. He also boasted solid shooting splits of .606/.365/.766.
Chicago was compelled to forfeit its own 2023 second round selection by the league as a penalty for tampering to sign point guard Lonzo Ball in free agency. Ball has played a total of 35 games in two years for the club.
The 21-year-old Sanogo was named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player for his efforts in the tourney this spring, in addition to qualifying for the NCAA All-Tourney Team. He was also a two-time All-Big East First Teamer during his collegiate stint.
Sanogo has a 7’3″ wingspan and is a hyper-efficient scorer near the basket, but questions linger about his height and defensive ability at the next level.
Warriors Notes: Curry, Draymond, Saric, Paul, Myers
A galvanizing Stephen Curry speech made to rally his Warriors ahead of an eventual Game 7 victory against the Kings in this year’s first round informed the team’s eventual summer ethos, writes Tim Kawakami of The Athletic.
Kawakami argues that all of the team’s front office moves since that moment, as conducted by new GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., stem from its impact. Golden State’s offseason thus far has been highlighted by its decisions to re-sign All-Defensive big man Draymond Green, move on from pricey sixth man Jordan Poole in favor of a potential one-year Chris Paul rental, and generally lean on veteran depth a bit more than the club did last year.
There’s more out of Golden State:
- Head coach Steve Kerr is relishing the chance to coach Green again on the Warriors this season, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. “We’re really excited to have Draymond back,” Kerr said. “Given that he plays so well with Steph and Klay [Thompson], it was really a no-brainer to try to bring him back.”
- The Warriors also made a move to shore up their front line, agreeing to sign veteran floor-spacing big man Dario Saric to a one-year, minimum deal. Anthony Slater of The Athletic and Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area consider the 6’10” vet to be a decent bench defender in addition to his three-point shooting abilities.
- In a conversation on the flagship ESPN program SportsCenter (YouTube video link), Curry reflected on the addition of longtime rival Paul onto the team’s roster, as well as the subtraction of longtime GM Bob Myers, who left the Warriors this summer.
Southwest Notes: Wembanyama, Kareem, Bane, Pelicans
The Spurs’ prized 2023 draft pick, power forward Victor Wembanyama, may not be a superstar immediately when his rookie year begins, but San Antonio will need to give him a long leash, notes Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
The 7’4″ big man submitted a middling first Summer League game against the Hornets, scoring nine points on 2-of-13 shooting from the floor and pulling down eight boards. Fischer notes that Wembanyama will be playing against veteran pros who could weigh as much as 60 pounds more than him. Adding muscle and improving his jump shooting could be the keys to his long-term growth.
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Wembanyama recently received some advice from one of the other most highly-touted NBA prospects ever, Hall of Fame Bucks and Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at the first ever NBA Con in Las Vegas, writes Jeff Maillet of The Athletic. “We were overcoached,” Abdul-Jabbar opined about his own era of players. “I wanted to bring the ball up (like Wembanyama did in his summer-league opener) but wasn’t allowed to. If I did, I would’ve had splinters in my ass (from sitting on the bench).” The first-year Spurs big man will certainly have the option of running more plays himself than Abdul-Jabbar did in his era.
- Signing Grizzlies shooting guard Desmond Bane to a five-year, $200MM+ contract extension was a fairly straightforward choice for the Memphis front office brain trust, writes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. “He is what we’re about and what we’re pushing for together,” team president Zach Kleiman said. “We want people who are wired like Des driving us to get there, so [not] the most complicated decision on our end.”
- The Pelicans are kicking off a crucial 2023/24 run without huge personnel adjustments, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. Clark notes that, though the Pelicans potentially had the assets to trade up for the draft rights to now-Trail Blazers point guard Scoot Henderson, the team reportedly never made an offer. Clark observes that, under team president David Griffin‘s guidance for the past four years, the team has never had better than the ninth-best record in the West. The team did make the playoffs in 2022 thanks to a strong play-in contest showing, but the health issues of stars Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram seem to have impeded the club’s growth.
- Within that same story, Clark reports that the Pelicans extended Griffin’s contract in the spring.