Draft Notes: NBAGL Elite Camp, Niederhauser, Combine, Ruzic
Malique Lewis (South East Melbourne), Amari Williams (Kentucky), Caleb Love (Arizona), Caleb Grill (Missouri), and Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Penn State) are among the top prospects teams will be watching at this weekend’s G League Elite Camp in Chicago, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
The standout players at the G League event typically earn invitations to the full-fledged combine that will take place this coming week. Givony expects about five-to-eight prospects to move on, noting that players like Terance Mann, Cody Martin, and Aaron Wiggins have gotten “called up” from the Elite Camp to the combine in the past before going on to establish themselves in the NBA.
According to Jon Chepkevich of Rookie Scale (Twitter link), Niederhauser has been the “early star” of the G League Elite Camp, racking up 17 points, four rebounds, and a pair of blocks in the first scrimmage. The Penn State forward looks like a safe bet to be among the players who advance to the combine, Chepkevich adds.
Missouri’s Tamar Bates led all scorers in the first Elite Camp scrimmage with 19 points. The full stats can be viewed here (via Twitter).
Here are a few more draft-related notes:
- Jeremy Woo of ESPN.com identifies Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), Boogie Fland (Arkansas), Darrion Williams (Texas Tech), Rocco Zikarsky (Brisbane), and Miles Byrd (San Diego State) as five prospects to monitor at the combine, noting that they still have the option of withdrawing if they don’t have strong showings this week.
- Lendeborg, the No. 26 prospect on ESPN’s big board, has committed to transferring to Michigan and may only decide to turn pro if he draws serious first-round interest from a specific NBA team or teams, Woo writes, since he can make “excellent” money if he spends 2025/26 with the Wolverines.
- PJ Haggerty, Jamir Watkins, and RJ Luis Jr. are three more NCAA prospects whose performances at the combine will be of particular interest to college teams, Givony notes in the same story. In addition to testing the draft waters, all three players are in the transfer portal and haven’t yet committed to a new school, so they’ll be popular targets if they opt not to remain in the draft pool.
- Although Joventut Badalona’s season isn’t over yet, Croatian power forward Michael Ruzic, who plays for the Spanish club, has been cleared to attend the NBA’s draft combine this week and will be a full participant in 5×5 scrimmages, agent Bill Duffy tells Givony (Twitter link). Ruzic missed significant time due to a thumb injury this season and has played a limited role when healthy, so the Chicago combine will give NBA evaluators an opportunity to take an extended first-hand look at a prospect who ranks 49th overall on ESPN’s board.
Celtics’ Sam Hauser Remains Out For Game 3
Celtics forward Sam Hauser will miss a second consecutive game due to a right ankle sprain, the team announced ahead of Saturday’s Game 3 vs. the Knicks.
Hauser, who suffered the injury on Monday and exited TD Garden in a walking boot after Boston’s Game 1 loss, was initially listed as doubtful for Game 2 on Wednesday before being ruled out. He also had a doubtful designation on the injury report for this afternoon’s contest before he was downgraded.
While Hauser isn’t one of the Celtics’ most important contributors, he was the eighth man in the rotation for much of the season and played a regular role off the bench in the first round against Orlando, averaging 14.6 minutes per game across those five contests. During the regular season, he averaged 8.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 21.7 minutes per game across 71 outings (19 starts), knocking down 41.6% of his three-pointers.
With Hauser unavailable and Kristaps Porzingis limited to 14 minutes due to an illness, head coach Joe Mazzulla leaned more heavily on his starters in Game 2 of Boston’s second-round series, with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White each logging at least 40 minutes. It wasn’t enough for the Celtics, who dropped both home games and will be looking for their first win of the series in New York in Game 3.
Hauser is the only player listed on Saturday’s injury report for either team.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Cap Holds
The Rockets have just over $131MM in guaranteed money committed to player salaries for 2025/26. However, even though next season’s salary cap is expected to come in above $154MM, Houston won’t begin the 2025 offseason with $24MM+ in cap room to spend.
In fact, the Rockets technically won’t open the new league year with any cap space at all. Each of Houston’s own free agents will be assigned a free agent amount – or “cap hold” – until the player signs a new contract or the Rockets renounce his rights.
The general purpose of a cap hold is to prevent teams from using room under the cap to sign free agents before using Bird rights to re-sign their own free agents. If a team wants to take advantage of its cap space, it can renounce the rights to its own free agents, eliminating those cap holds. However, doing so means the team will no longer hold any form of Bird rights for those players — if the team wants to re-sign those free agents, it would have to use its cap room or another kind of cap exception.
The following criteria are used for determining the amount of a free agent’s cap hold:
- First-round pick coming off rookie contract: 300% of the player’s previous salary if prior salary was below league average; 250% of previous salary if prior salary was above league average.
- Bird player: 190% of previous salary (if below league average) or 150% (if above average).
- Early Bird player: 130% of previous salary.
- Non-Bird player: 120% of previous salary.
- Minimum-salary player: Two-year veteran’s minimum salary, unless the free agent only has one year of experience, in which case it’s the one-year veteran’s minimum.
- Two-way player: One-year veteran’s minimum salary.
A cap hold for a restricted free agent can vary based on his contract status. A restricted free agent’s cap hold is either his free agent amount as determined by the criteria mentioned above or the amount of his qualifying offer, whichever is greater.
No cap hold can exceed the maximum salary for which a player can sign. For example, the cap hold for an Early Bird player with a salary above the league average is generally 130% of his previous salary, as noted above. But for an Early Bird player like Rockets guard Fred VanVleet, whose cap charge is $42,846,615 this season, 130% of his previous salary would be approximately $55.7MM, well beyond his projected maximum salary.
Instead, assuming VanVleet’s team option is declined by Houston, his cap hold would be equivalent to the maximum salary for a player with between seven and nine years of NBA experience. Based on a projected cap of $154,647,000, that figure works out to $46,394,100. If the Rockets turn down VanVleet’s option and intend to re-sign him, that cap hold would remain on their books until his new deal is official and his new cap hit replaces the hold.
One unusual case involves players on rookie contracts whose third- or fourth-year options are declined. The amount of their declined option becomes their cap hold, and if the player’s team wants to re-sign him, his starting salary can’t exceed that amount.
For instance, the Grizzlies declined Jake LaRavia‘s 2025/26 fourth-year option last fall, then traded him to the Kings in February. Because LaRavia’s rookie scale option was turned down, Sacramento won’t be able to offer him a starting salary this offseason worth more than $5,163,127, the amount of that option. That figure is also his cap hold.
That rule is in place so a team can’t circumvent the rookie scale and decline its option in an effort to give the player a higher salary. It applies even if the player is traded after his option is declined, but only to the club the player is part of at season’s end. In other words, because LaRavia finished the year with the Kings, Sacramento is prohibited from offering him a starting salary greater than $5,163,127 as a free agent, but any other team – including Memphis – could exceed that figure.
If a team holds the rights to fewer than 12 players, cap holds worth the rookie minimum salary are assigned to fill out the roster. So, even if a front office chooses to renounce its rights to all of its free agents and doesn’t have any players under contract, the team wouldn’t be able to fully clear its cap.
An incomplete roster charge in 2025/26 projects to be worth $1,272,870, meaning a team without any guaranteed salary or any other cap holds would have closer to $139MM in cap room than $154MM+ due to its 12 rookie minimum holds.
A player who has been selected in the draft but has not yet officially signed his rookie contract only has a cap hold if he was a first-round selection. A cap hold for a first-round pick is equivalent to 120% of his rookie scale amount, based on his draft position. An unsigned second-round pick doesn’t have a cap hold.
Cap holds aren’t removed from a team’s books until the player signs a new contract or has his rights renounced by the club. For example, the Warriors are still carrying cap holds on their books for retired players like Matt Barnes and David West, who never signed new contracts since playing for Golden State nearly a decade ago.
Keeping those cap holds gives teams some degree of cushion to help them remain above the cap and take advantage of the mid-level exception and trade exceptions, among other advantages afforded capped-out teams. If and when the Warriors want to maximize their cap room, they’ll renounce Barnes and West, but they’ve remained over the cap – and haven’t needed to remove those holds – since those players became free agents in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.
Eastern Notes: Anunoby, Pistons, Raptors, Giannis
After the Knicks‘ swarming defense, led by wings OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, limited Boston to 90 points on 36.2% shooting in a Game 2 victory, veteran forward P.J. Tucker told reporters, including Stefan Bondy of The New York Post, that Anunoby was overlooked in a major way by Defensive Player of the Year voters this spring.
“OG’s been off the charts. I don’t know how he didn’t win Defensive Player of the Year,” Tucker said of his Knicks teammate. “I don’t think it’s even close. I think he’s the best two-way player in the league. He’s always played defense, but this year offensively he’s taken it up another notch. I don’t think we ran one play for him (in Game 1) and he had 30 points. I’m telling you, it’s incredible. He’s amazed me this year and he’s the Defensive Player of the Year, no doubt.”
This year’s voters weren’t aligned with Tucker — while 13 players showed up on at least one Defensive Player of the Year ballot, Anunoby wasn’t among those 13. Neither he nor any other Knick received a single DPOY vote.
The Knicks only finished 13th overall in defensive rating during the regular season, but they’ve taken their play up a notch in recent weeks and rank fourth in that category in the postseason.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Which of the Pistons‘ top four veteran unrestricted free agents are most and least likely to re-sign with the team this summer? Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (subscription required) considers that question, identifying Malik Beasley as the most likely to be back, followed by – in order – Dennis Schröder, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Paul Reed. Sankofa wouldn’t be surprised if there’s mutual interest in each case, but thinks it makes sense for Hardaway to test the open market and suggests Detroit might need more size in the frontcourt than Reed provides.
- Ahead of Monday’s draft lottery, Eric Koreen of The Athletic examines four hypothetical outcomes for the Raptors, including one where they remain at No. 7 and three where they move into the top four (but not to No. 1). Koreen likes Maryland’s Derik Queen as a potential target at No. 7 and notes that Baylor’s V.J. Edgecombe could be the “cleanest fit for the Raptors in the lottery” if they move up to No. 3 or 4.
- Asked during an appearance on FanDuel’s Run it Back show (Twitter video link) for his thoughts on Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s future, veteran big man Bobby Portis said his longtime Bucks teammate “bleeds green,” adding that he believes the two-time MVP would like to spend his entire career with one team. Portis also pointed out that any team trading for Antetokounmpo would have to give up so many assets to land him that his new club may not end up in a better position than the Bucks to contend.
Thunder Notes: SGA, Holmgren, Defense, Caruso
After blowing a late lead in Game 1 of their second-round series vs. Denver, the Thunder became the first team to win at home in any of the conference semifinals on Wednesday. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, Oklahoma City dominated Game 2 from start to finish, setting a franchise record for points in a playoff game en route to a 149-106 win. Their 48-point lead after three quarters was the fourth-largest margin entering the fourth quarter in NBA playoff history, MacMahon adds.
As detailed by both MacMahon and Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander set the tone for the Thunder and has found his groove after getting off to a slow start in the postseason. The MVP frontrunner made just 35.3% of his field goal attempts in his first three games against Memphis, but has knocked down 57.1% since then, averaging 35.0 points per game over his last three outings.
On Wednesday, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points in just 30 minutes, converting 11-of-13 field goals and registering a staggering +51 plus/minus mark. He told reporters after the victory that his team knew what was at stake and “came out desperate” to open Game 2, but he added that he otherwise hasn’t changed his approach in recent games.
“I feel the exact same,” the Thunder star said. “I feel like I’m getting to where I want to go. I don’t worry about makes and misses. It’s all about the process for me. I try to put myself and my teammates in the best position I can every possession down offensively and defensively. And wherever that takes me, wherever that takes our team, I’m happy with as long as I make the right decisions night in and night out, play in and play out. That’s what I’m focused on more than the makes and misses. So I feel just as confident as I did those two games where I couldn’t make anything.”
Gilgeous-Alexander also downplayed the notion that winning by 43 points on Wednesday gives the Thunder the momentum or the upper hand as the series shifts to Denver.
“Winning by a hundred or winning by two, it’s still 1-1, and I think that’s very important,” he said. “Like I said, especially in the series, every game’s going to look different. People are going to make adjustments. It’s going to be a different crowd, a different feel. You’re going to start hot; you’re going to start cold, everything’s going to look different. It’s important to turn the page.”
Here’s more on the Thunder:
- Big man Chet Holmgren missed two late free throws in Game 1 that opened the door for Aaron Gordon‘s game-winning shot. After bouncing back in Game 2 with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and a +34 mark in 26 minutes, Holmgren explained that recovering from a pair of major injuries since he entered the NBA has helped give him the right mindset and perspective to deal with that sort of on-court adversity, per Rylan Stiles of SI.com. “I had five screws and a plate put in my foot, shattered my hip in basically six places,” he said. “I was thinking about it. I was like, if I could pick one of those three, missing a couple free throws is the least of your worries. Obviously, it hurts knowing what was on the line. Playoff game, you never want to lose. But, you also can’t be afraid to fail, I guess.”
- Responding to Gordon’s gripes about how Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is being officiated so far in the series, Holmgren said on Friday that he believes both teams are getting a fair whistle (Twitter video link via Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman). “I feel like when we’ve fouled, we’ve been called for fouls. When they foul, they’ve been called for fouls,” he said. “… I feel like it’s a physical game of basketball. That’s what the playoffs is. We just have to come out and be ready for that.”
- While the Thunder racked up 149 points in their Game 2 win over Denver, it’s their smothering defense that has become their calling card, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, who spoke to several of Oklahoma City players about how the defense became the NBA’s top-ranked unit. Alex Caruso referred to OKC’s defense as its “superpower,” while Isaiah Hartenstein noted that the team “doesn’t really have a weak link” on that end of the court. Caruso also pointed out that the Thunder’s defensive success is fueled to some extent by the competitiveness of their individual defenders. “We haven’t said it out loud, but iron sharpens iron,” he told ESPN. “You see somebody competing at a certain level, playing at a certain level, you have no choice but to match that. And if you don’t, you get left behind.”
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 5/8/2025
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 1:00 pm Central time (2:00 pm Eastern).
Click here to read the transcript.
Celtics Notes: Game 2 Loss, Porzingis, Horford, Tatum, Holiday
After going 4-0 against the Knicks during the regular season with an average margin of victory of 16.3 points per contest, the Celtics built 20-point leads in each of the first two games of their second-round playoff series vs. New York before improbably losing both of them.
“Two games we’re up 20 points somehow end up not with wins is inexcusable,” Celtics wing Jaylen Brown said after Wednesday’s Game 2 loss, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. “Obviously being down two, it sucks.”
No NBA team had a better regular season record in “clutch” games than Boston’s 24-11 (.686) mark. However, the fourth quarter has been a disaster for the Celtics through two games of the conference semifinals. As Windhorst details, the team missed 14 of its final 15 field goal attempts and was outscored by a 23-6 margin in the final 8:30 on Wednesday. Boston has also made just 4-of-26 (15.4%) three-pointers in fourth quarters through two games.
The Celtics still had a chance to win both games, but didn’t do quite enough, losing in overtime by three points on Monday and by a single point on Wednesday.
“I don’t have the answer honestly, I don’t have the answer,” Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis said. “Just a little bit of execution here and there. There’s a couple missed shots here and there. A couple things go their way and it just adds up and it’s this result.”
Here’s more on the reeling Celtics as they prepare for the series to head to New York:
- Porzingis continues to be plagued by the illness that cost him eight consecutive games in February and March and five additional games during the last few weeks of the regular season. He played just 14 minutes on Wednesday and wasn’t part of the Celtics’ starting or closing lineups. “I don’t know how to call it, but I’m just not feeling my best, not feeling my best at all,” he said after the game, according to Windhorst. “It just kills me inside that it’s happening in this moment. But who cares? Nobody feels sorry for us, sorry for me and we have to keep going.”
- As Matt Ehalt of The New York Post writes, the Celtics had to overextend Al Horford in Porzingis’ absence — the veteran big man played the entire fourth quarter on Wednesday and had trouble handling Karl-Anthony Towns in the post over the course of the night, notes Brian Robb of MassLive. Horford was just 2-of-11 from the floor and the Celtics were a -11 when he was on the court.
- Celtics All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum has struggled mightily with his shot through two games, making only 12-of-41 field goals (29.3%) and 5-of-20 three-pointers (25.0%) while committing eight turnovers, including one on the final possession of Game 2. According to Windhorst, Tatum didn’t speak to the media after Wednesday’s loss because the arena had to be evacuated due to a fire alarm.
- Ahead of Game 2, Celtics guard Jrue Holiday earned another end-of-season honor, receiving the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy as the NBA’s Social Justice Champion for 2024/25. The award recognizes a player who advances Abdul-Jabbar’s mission “to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically disadvantaged.” Holiday, who also won the NBA’s Sportsmanship award last week, beat out four other finalists for the Social Justice award, as detailed in a press release from the league.
And-Ones: Vezenkov, Metu, Bad Contracts, Front Offices, More
Former NBA forward Sasha Vezenkov, who spent the 2023/24 season with the Kings, is enjoying a hugely successful return to Europe this season. Vezenkov finished as the runner-up in EuroLeague MVP voting after averaging 20.2 points per game for Olympiacos and has now been named the EuroLeague Playoffs MVP for his performance in the Greek team’s quarterfinal series vs. Real Madrid, according to a press release.
It’s the first time the EuroLeague has named a Playoffs MVP — the award doesn’t encompass the league’s Final Four, which will be played later this month. Vezenkov, who gave up a fully guaranteed $6.7MM salary with the Raptors last summer in order to head back overseas, will be looking to lead Olympiacos to a win over AS Monaco on May 23 in the semifinals and – ultimately – to a EuroLeague championship.
In other European basketball news, Barcelona is parting ways with former NBA big man Chimezie Metu, who tore his Achilles in March, per a Mundo Deportivo report (hat tip to Sportando).
After appearing in 260 regular season games for four NBA teams from 2018-24, Metu played a key role for Barça this season prior to the injury, averaging 11.0 points and 4.8 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per game across 24 EuroLeague outings.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report identifies five star players he believes have negative trade value due to their massive contracts, including a pair of Sixers (Joel Embiid and Paul George) and Nuggets guard Jamal Murray. Interestingly, Pincus gives Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen an honorable mention, noting that one Eastern Conference executive referred to Markkanen’s deal (four years, $196MM) as the worst in the league. That’s “probably hyperbolic,” Pincus writes, though he notes that several teams view the contract as a major overpay.
- In an article open to non-subscribers, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) hands out his front office awards – the “Yossis” – for the 2024/25 NBA season. Gozlan recognizes the Thunder for their overall salary cap management, the Knicks for their creative cap machinations in the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, and the Hawks for most improving their long-term outlook over the past year, while also handing out a few other awards.
- Even before home teams opened the second round by losing their first six games, the impact of home-court advantage in the NBA playoffs was on the decline, writes Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. According to Vorkunov, home teams won at least 60 percent of their games in 56 of the NBA’s first 78 postseasons, but that hasn’t happened since 2018 — and home teams have lost 10 of 15 Game Sevens since 2021. So far this spring, teams have a home record of just 26-24 in the playoffs.
Southwest Notes: Mavs, Aldama, Popovich, Pelicans
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison is making major changes to the club’s health and performance team, according to reports from Marc Stein (Twitter link), Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News and Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Those changes include parting ways head athletic trainer Dionne Calhoun and athletic performance director Keith Belton, among others.
As MacMahon details, Calhoun has spent over two decades with the Mavericks and had been the team’s head athletic trainer since 2019. He was one of the last holdovers from the staff of former health and performance director Casey Smith, who was let go in 2023.
MacMahon previously published a lengthy story about the turmoil within Dallas’ health and performance director, as we relayed last month. That story included details on a “loud, heated confrontation” between Belton and director of player health and performance Johann Bilsborough over how the team was handling Dereck Lively‘s ankle injury. That incident spurred an HR investigation, according to MacMahon, who says Bilsborough remains employed by the team.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal previews Santi Aldama‘s upcoming restricted free agency, noting that the presence of solid frontcourt options like Jaren Jackson Jr., Brandon Clarke, and Zach Edey will give the Grizzlies some leverage in their negotiations with Aldama. However, the 24-year-old Spaniard has steadily improved during his four years in Memphis and his offensive skill set is an asset, Cole notes, so the team won’t necessarily be able to bring him back at a bargain rate.
- In a feature story for ESPN.com, Baxter Holmes takes an in-depth look at the “unparalleled” legacy that Gregg Popovich will leave behind after coaching the Spurs for the better part of three decades. Holmes spoke to Steve Kerr, Jerry Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski, and Adam Silver, among others, about the impact that Popovich had during his long run as the head coach in San Antonio.
- Ahead of Monday’s draft lottery, William Guillory of The Athletic explores what the Pelicans‘ draft options will look like if they don’t have a shot at Cooper Flagg at No. 1 overall. Guillory breaks down some hypothetical scenarios in which New Orleans lands V.J. Edgecombe (at No. 4), Kon Knueppel (No. 5), and Jeremiah Fears (No. 7).
Sixers’ Elton Brand Withdraws From Hawks’ Front Office Search
Sixers general manager Elton Brand has withdrawn from the Hawks‘ search for a new head of basketball operations, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Brand was the first candidate linked to the position, having been identified by Fischer and Marc Stein as a potential target for Atlanta on the day the team fired general manager Landry Fields. Fischer and Stein subsequently reported that Brand spoke to the Hawks about the job.
Brand spent a couple seasons as a Hawk during his playing days and has “strong relationships” within the franchise, according to Fischer, who previously noted that the Sixers GM shares an alma mater (Duke) with Hawks minority shareholder Grant Hill and coach Quin Snyder.
However, Brand has opted to remain in Philadelphia under president of basketball operations Daryl Morey. He made a similar decision in February 2024 when he was considered a possible frontrunner to replace Mitch Kupchak in the Hornets’ front office, with reporting at the time indicating he opted to remove himself from consideration for that role.
Brand was named the Sixers’ general manager in 2018 and ran the front office until 2020, when Morey was hired. The former No. 1 overall pick has been the No. 2 man in Philadelphia’s front office hierarchy since then.
The Hawks promoted Onsi Saleh after firing Fields, making him their new GM, but they envision Saleh eventually holding a role similar to the one Brand has in Philadelphia and reporting to a new president of basketball operations. Calvin Booth and Monte McNair, who were recently let go by the Nuggets and Kings, respectively, have also been mentioned as possible candidates for that position.