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Sixers general manager Elton Brand has withdrawn from the Hawks‘ search for a new head of basketball operations, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).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.
Kings Hire B.J. Armstrong As Assistant GM
MAY 7: The Kings have officially announced the hiring of Armstrong as an assistant general manager (Twitter link).
MAY 6: The Kings are in the process of finalizing an agreement with B.J. Armstrong that will make him an assistant general manager under new head of basketball operations Scott Perry, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
An NBA player from 1989-2000, Armstrong was a member of the Bulls during their run of three consecutive championships from 1991-93 and later spent time with the Warriors, Hornets, and Magic as well.
After wrapping up his playing career in 2000, Armstrong spent a few years in the Bulls’ front office as an executive and a scout and had a brief stint as an analyst for ESPN. He has spent the last two decades as a player agent, most notably representing former MVP and Bulls star Derrick Rose.
Armstrong was mentioned as a possible candidate for front office openings in Detroit in 2018 and New York in 2020, but has continued to work as a player representative until now.
Although Perry and Armstrong didn’t overlap in Chicago at all, the new Kings general manager was a frequent guest on The Hoop Genius Podcast that was co-hosted by Armstrong. They likely dealt with one another often on opposite sides of the aisle during Armstrong’s agent days — notably, Perry was in the Knicks’ front office during Rose’s second stint in New York.
Northwest Notes: Gordon, Nuggets, Holmgren, Hardy
Nikola Jokic is the Nuggets‘ most valuable player and Jamal Murray is the guy the team is most likely to turn to when it needs a big late-game basket. But Aaron Gordon has earned the nickname “Mr. Nugget” and become one of the most popular players in Denver, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic.
After Gordon made his second game-winning shot of the postseason on Monday against Oklahoma City, interim head coach David Adelman referred to the veteran forward as the “soul” of the team, as did Jokic, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required).
“He probably doesn’t get as much respect as he deserves,” Jokic said after Denver’s upset victory in Game 1. “But I think he doesn’t need it.”
“He is a Denver Nugget, man,” Adelman said. “He’s a hero again. But I’m looking at the 14 rebounds. I’m looking at the 22 points. I’m looking at the two free throws he made before the (game-winning) three-pointer. I’m looking at the defense he played and the leadership he showed. It’s just really cool to see him have two (playoff) moments that nobody will ever forget.”
As Durando writes in a separate Denver Post story, Gordon’s postseason contributions are all the more impressive due to the fact that he’s risking re-injury after right calf strains cost him 31 regular season games. He has played through soreness in that calf for much of the season, including in the playoffs, per Durando. According to Adelman, the Nuggets likely would’ve been resting Gordon down the stretch if the club hadn’t been fighting for playoff position all the way up to game 82.
“He’s taking a chance every time he explodes and jumps,” Adelman said ahead of Denver’s second-round series. “We know what he’s doing for our team. We know that there’s a risk there.”
We have more from around the Northwest:
- According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, there’s a sense in Denver that the club’s unexpected late-season organizational changes – firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth – have been a motivating factor for the Nuggets, who are determined to prove they’re not a team in disarray. “I think with (Adelman) at the helm now, people think we’re a wounded animal,” backup center DeAndre Jordan told Amick. “We let go of our coach and our general manager with three games left in the season. I mean, if I were on another team, I would think the same thing, too. But I think this has been a great thing for us to bond together. We’ve become stronger and more resilient.”
- It was a tough Game 1 for Chet Holmgren on Monday vs. Denver. The Thunder big man got into foul trouble, missed two late free throws that would’ve put the team up by three points, and was a -14 in his 28 minutes. However, his teammates have full confidence in the 23-year-old’s ability to quickly put that performance behind him, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “He’s in there for a reason,” guard Alex Caruso said. “He was in there in Game 3 (of the first round) when he had 25 (points) in the second half when we had the comeback against Memphis. And he was in there late in the game in Game 4 against Memphis to close out that series. We trust him. We believe in him. There’s a reason that (head coach) Mark (Daigneault) puts him out there, and I felt confident when he caught the ball to go shoot the free throws.”
- The contract extension that Will Hardy signed with the Jazz earlier this week was in the works for almost a year, according to Tony Jones of The Athletic, who says the organization is very pleased with the way that Hardy has been able to develop young players like Walker Kessler, help Lauri Markkanen become an All-Star caliber player, and handle veterans who have had to spend multiple years on a losing team.
Suns GM Gregory Discusses Ishbia, Coaching Search, More
Speaking to the media at his introductory press conference as the Suns‘ new head of basketball operations on Tuesday, general manager Brian Gregory acknowledged that his long-standing relationship with team owner Mat Ishbia was a major factor in his promotion from vice president of player programming to the top of the front office, writes David Brandt of The Associated Press.
Gregory was an assistant coach at Michigan State when Ishbia played for the Spartans as a walk-on in the early 2000s. The two men have known each other for the last 25 years and Gregory suggested on Tuesday that their “alignment,” a word he used repeatedly, will be an asset for the Suns going forward.
“I’m never going to shy away from the fact that one of the reasons I’m sitting up here is because of my relationship with Mat Ishbia,” Gregory said. “But that relationship is founded on our alignment. Shared values. Shared work ethic. We’ve been through a lot together. He trusts me and I trust him.”
Gregory, who was a coach at the college basketball level from 1990-2023 before joining the Suns’ basketball operations department, had very limited NBA front office experience. However, he noted that he has been able to “work with really every facet of the organization” over the past two years, which helped prepare him for the job. He also stated that his three-plus decades as a coach shouldn’t be discounted when discussing his qualifications.
“Thirty-plus years of basketball experience, the last two being here in Phoenix,” Gregory said, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. “The knowledge and experience I think puts me in a good position to be successful in this role, but I think the thing that’s going to separate me and give me an opportunity to be successful and make a positive impact is my focus on building that identity and creating that alignment that Mat talked about a couple of weeks ago.”
Here are a few more of Gregory’s notable comments from Tuesday’s presser, via Brandt and Rankin:
On the Suns’ head coaching search:
“We’re doing an extensive process in that right now. I’m not going to give a timetable because I want to make sure we get this right. This is very, very critical for us moving forward.”
On rumored trade candidates Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal:
“I have a very good relationship with both those guys. Kevin gave me a nice hug in the weight room the other night when the news came across Twitter. Had a great dinner with Brad Beal last Thursday and we talked a little about summer plans and different things like that. My main focus, to be honest with you, is finding the right head coach for those guys.”
On the role CEO Josh Bartelstein will play in the revamped front office:
“He’s involved in every aspect of basketball operations, every single aspect of basketball operations. Josh and I have an unbelievable partnership. When you talk guys working together and getting things done, we’re right there.”
On Ishbia’s potential role in basketball decisions:
“Mat and I are a team. We are completely aligned. As the general manager, my job and my responsibility is to oversee the day-to-day operations … basketball-wise. I report to Mat Ishbia. Mat Ishbia is an owner that is involved and I like that, but he has also empowered me to build this team and to build the identity and to build the alignment that is so important.”
Central Notes: Haliburton, Nembhard, Cavs, Pistons, Bulls
One week after ending the Bucks’ season with a series-winning shot in the final seconds of Game 5, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton played the hero again on Tuesday vs. Cleveland. Haliburton’s three-pointer with 1.1 seconds left on the clock completed an improbable comeback for the Pacers, who were down by seven points with 50 seconds to play and now have a 2-0 series lead as they head back home.
“He enjoys the moments,” teammate Myles Turner said, per Jamal Collier of ESPN. “He wants the ball in his hands. There’s a lot of guys I’ve seen, even guys I’ve played with, that doesn’t necessarily want to take that shot or doesn’t necessarily want to be in the mix right there, but he relishes in those moments. It’s just a testament as to his work ethic, his mental toughness, his mentality. Quite frankly — that boy cold, man.”
As Jared Weiss of The Athletic writes, Haliburton has always taken pride in his mental toughness and has made a habit of reading his mentions on social media when he’s not playing well, using criticism from online trolls as fuel to start playing better. However, the Pacers star recently admitted that he hit a low point last fall when he was dwelling on a slow start to the 2024/25 season that included a scoreless outing vs. New York.
“I (was) struggling to look at myself in the mirror. I’m struggling to show up to work and get to the gym. I’m trying to avoid coming to work,” said Haliburton, adding that he stopped seeking out the online criticism that typically motivated him. “… I didn’t want to tackle things head-on. I didn’t want to look at myself in the mirror. I was just trying to almost run from the spotlight. I’ve always been a guy who pushed into that, and I love being in that, so it was a weird feeling. I’ve never felt that insecurity before, and that was a reality check for me.”
According to Haliburton, who told Weiss he has gone to therapy for the last couple years, a candid conversation with trainer Drew Hanlen helped get him back on the right track and he started feeling more like himself after putting up 35 points and 14 assists in a revenge game vs. the Knicks a few weeks into the season.
Haliburton added that good conversations and strong relationships with fellow NBA stars like Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum have helped keep him in the right headspace and ensured he was unfazed when he was voted the NBA’s most overrated player last month in a player poll conducted by The Athletic.
“At some point, worrying about what my peers think only holds so much weight. I think my peers (whom) I really respect, that changes things,” Haliburton said. “For that poll, there’s no names to faces, it’s all anonymous. Having relationships with guys like Jayson and Joel, who are guys that I know at the top of the game, them being honest with me, that’s important. I respect their opinions more than anybody.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- While Haliburton has been the engine driving the Pacers‘ playoff success so far, his backcourt partner Andrew Nembhard has been showing why he shouldn’t be overlooked, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. A strong perimeter defender, Nembhard has been giving Indiana a major offensive boost as well, scoring 23 points in Game 1 vs. Cleveland and handing out 13 assists in Game 2. The team is a +31 in his 73 minutes for the series so far.
- Already missing three key players (Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter) due to injuries on Tuesday, the Cavaliers were also getting a “banged-up” version of star guard Donovan Mitchell, who is playing through a calf strain, as Vardon writes for The Athletic. Mitchell nearly led Cleveland to a victory anyway, with 48 points and nine assists in 36 minutes, but he and the Cavs’ other regulars ran out of gas and blew a late lead in the game’s final moments. “I loved how we competed,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said after the loss, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). “We played our basketball, our identity. I thought we outplayed them. That’s the shame of this game. With fatigue comes decision-making. We had some poor decision-making plays at the rim, turnovers, a couple bad decisions. That was part of the collapse.”
- Discussing the draft, Pistons general manager Trajan Langdon suggested the pool of available talent isn’t as deep as it might otherwise be due to the NIL benefits that have made college prospects more inclined to stay in school. Armed with only the No. 37 overall pick this year, Langdon suggested the team will consider trading up if there’s “a player we really like” and the cost isn’t prohibitive (Twitter links via Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press).
- Arguing that it’s time for the Bulls to begin “hunting for big trades,” Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required) evaluates whether or not the team could realistically make a play for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo if he becomes available. Poe concludes that Chicago is a long shot for Antetokounmpo, but says the team could and should be ready to explore pursuing other stars who reach the trade block.
Stephen Curry Out At Least One Week With Grade 1 Hamstring Strain
12:46 pm: The Warriors have confirmed Charania’s report, announcing in a press release that Curry has a Grade 1 hamstring strain and will be reevaluated in one week (Twitter link). That timeline suggests he’ll miss at least the next three games (Thursday, Saturday, and Monday).
11:59 am: Stephen Curry has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that the Warriors star will be ruled out for Game 2 of the team’s second-round playoff series vs. Minnesota.
Curry injured his hamstring in the second quarter of Game 1 on Tuesday and was forced to miss the rest of the contest.
As Charania observes, although Curry has a long history of knee and ankle issues, he has never strained a hamstring before. That means this will be the first time he goes through the rehab process for this specific injury, creating some uncertainty about how long his recovery will take.
The good news is that a Grade 1 strain is considered mild. The bad news is that it still typically sidelines a player for at least one week, and Charania confirms (via Twitter) that Golden State is preparing for Curry to miss at least the next seven days.
Based on data compiled by Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes (Twitter link), the average time lost for a confirmed Grade 1 strain is approximately 10 days. While Curry will certainly attempt to beat that recovery timeline and miss as few games as possible, the Warriors will have to be wary about the risk of re-injury if he comes back too soon.
Game 5 of the series will be played on Wednesday, May 14, which is one week from tonight and eight days after Curry sustained his injury. The two teams would then have three full days off before Game 6 (if necessary) on May 18.
As we detailed earlier today, guards Gary Payton II (16:40) and Pat Spencer (10:33) played big second-half minutes in Game 1 with Curry unavailable. The Warriors also leaned more heavily on sharpshooter Buddy Hield, whose 21:48 of playing time in the second half was a team-high.
Rockets GM Stone Talks Green, Continuity, Adams, More
Despite a 38-point outing in Game 2, fourth-year guard Jalen Green struggled mightily in the Rockets‘ first-round playoff series vs. Golden State, averaging 13.3 points per game with a .372/.295/.667 shooting line in the first seven postseason games of his career. Those numbers were well below his regular season marks of 21.0 PPG on .423/.354/.813 shooting.
Speaking to reporters, including Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required), at an end-of-season press conference on Tuesday, general manager Rafael Stone defended Green, noting that “one playoff series doesn’t define a player.”
“Jalen didn’t have the series that he wanted to have, or we didn’t,” Stone said. “But I think it’s a little bit of a double-edged sword in terms of trying to evaluate it, because their goal going into the series was to take him out, and that was obvious.
“… We are not a team built around any one player offensively, whether Jalen or Alperen (Sengun) or Amen (Thompson) or Fred (VanVleet). And so if your goal is to take out one of our players, in theory, what should happen is that our other players should just punish it. And (head coach) Ime (Udoka) frequently talks to the guys about inviting double teams: hit the guy, and you’re the sacrificial lamb. And so, you know, in some games we punished it. In some games we didn’t, and one of the games we ended up with great spacing, and we were able to punish it with him.”
Udoka acknowledged that Green went through some “growing pains” in the postseason as the Warriors focused more defensive attention on him and said he has talked to the 23-year-old about areas to focus on this summer.
“I think physically getting stronger to absorb contact on some of his drives when he has the advantage, or finishing at the rim when he does get the driving lane, all those things are things we talked about with him going into the offseason,” Udoka said, per Lerner. “And (being) able to use him off ball a little bit more, and you got to get a little bit stronger as far as that because they took him out of some of those actions where they couldn’t trap him.”
While Green was more effective during the regular season than in the playoffs, there were still some troubling trends evident over the larger 82-game sample. Most notably, Houston had a +9.4 net rating when he was off the court, the highest off-court mark for any player on the roster. The team was a modest +2.8 during Green’s minutes.
“That’s a really flawed question,” Stone said when asked specifically about that on/off-court data. “I can make data say whatever I want it to say. And so, you know, I think we heavily use it but we’re very careful to try and really parse it out. And I would say that some of our very best lineups include him and so that piece by itself, I just think that’s just, yeah, that’s just not correct.”
The three-year, $105MM+ rookie scale extension that Green signed last fall will go into effect this July, so his cap hit will increase from $12.5MM this past season to $33.3MM in 2025/26.
Here are a few more highlights from Tuesday’s presser featuring Stone and Udoka:
- The most pressing question in Houston this offseason is whether the front office will be looking to pursue a star on the trade market. Addressing that subject on Tuesday, Stone didn’t rule out the possibility, but suggested it’s not Plan A for the front office. “I will give you an inside betting tip that I think continuity is very, very likely,” the Rockets’ GM said, according to Lerner (subscription required). “Last summer, we didn’t make changes because we were really comfortable with where we were, and we’d seen really good things from our team in terms of kind of a good progression. And I think we saw more of the same this year. So I think the bar to make changes is very high.”
- Stone did offer an important caveat to his comments about continuity: “I think continuity for continuity’s sake isn’t what we’re trying to achieve. Continuity is great, but the goal ultimately is to build a championship team. And if we think that there’s a move or a series of moves that make it more likely we will be that then, then we would ignore continuity, and we do those moves.”
- Stone also observed that trading for an impact player doesn’t guarantee he “will be the same player in our environment that (he was) in the last one,” meaning the Rockets would proceed with caution and would be seeking the right fit if they go that route. As for whether or not Houston would target a player who fits the timeline of its young core in that hypothetical scenario, Stone confirmed that would be a consideration but not necessarily a deciding factor. “It’s more important how good you are and what you can bring,” he said. “But we do want to be very competitive for as long as we possibly can.”
- Referring to this year’s Rockets as governor Tilman Fertitta‘s “favorite team he’s ever had,” Stone expressed confidence in the young core’s ability to continue improving after taking a significant step forward in 2024/25. “I think we’re on a very solid trajectory,” Stone said, per ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. “But just because you’ve done it in the past doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to do it in the future. So, we have to continue to put in the work, which kind of starts on an individual basis, and not just with our players, (but) myself, my staff. We have to figure out around the edges, are there things we can do, including doing nothing. We have to do our jobs. Ime and his staff, they have to do theirs. We all have to come back a little better next year. But today, I’m very comfortable with our progression.”
- Veteran center Steven Adams will be an unrestricted free agent this summer after playing a key role off the bench — his +9.4 net rating during the regular season and +14.1 mark in the postseason were both team highs. According to Stone, bringing back Adams will be an offseason priority for the front office. “He’s a really important part of the group, and kind of the continuity I talked about and the value earlier, he’s an important part of that,” Stone said, per Jonathan M. Alexander of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). “It’s a two-way street. He has to want to be here. Every indication we have is that he does.”
- In case you missed it, Stone also expressed optimism on Tuesday that VanVleet will “be with us for the foreseeable future.” The Rockets and VanVleet are reportedly exploring pushing back the decision deadline for his $44.9MM team option.
Knicks Notes: Bridges, Anunoby, Hart, McBride, Robinson
The Knicks raised eyebrows last offseason when they surrendered five first-round picks in a trade for Mikal Bridges, then committed over $212MM in guaranteed money to OG Anunoby. Neither player was expected to be a top-two offensive option for New York in 2024/25, but the team recognized the value of having two of the NBA’s best two-way wings.
Monday’s win over Boston in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals showed exactly why the Knicks were willing to give up such a significant trade package for Bridges, per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com, and why they were comfortable investing so heavily in Anunoby, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post writes.
Bridges scored only eight points on 3-of-13 shooting, but made several crucial defensive plays in his 51 minutes of action, including a late-game steal that prevented Jaylen Brown from attempting a game-tying three-pointer and secured the victory for the Knicks.
“That’s who Mikal is. He’s (gotten) a lot of criticism and he never lets that affect him,” teammate Josh Hart said after the win, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “I don’t know how many games down the stretch that he’s won for us on the defensive side alone — the Brooklyn game, the block, the Chicago game he got a block at the end. A couple in the Detroit series. He’s been a huge part for this team. Sometimes those things get overlooked and people just look at stats and they lose sight of how valuable a player that he is.”
Anunoby, who served as the primary defender on Jayson Tatum, helped limit the Celtics star to a 7-of-23 shooting night while also matching Jalen Brunson‘s team-high 29 points.
“Definitely sparked us,” Brunson said of Anunoby. “And the way he’s been playing all season, I have the utmost confidence in him every time he steps on the floor, on both sides of the ball. So it’s what we expect.”
We have more on the Knicks:
- New York loaded up on wings – adding Bridges to complement Anunoby and Hart – in large part to combat Eastern Conference stars like Tatum and Brown. While that vision was questioned during the regular season as the Knicks lost all four of their matchups with the Celtics, the blueprint is as clear as it’s been all year following Monday’s Game 1 upset, says Fred Katz of The Athletic.
- Reserve guard Miles McBride struggled during the first round of the playoffs vs. Detroit, averaging 3.8 points per game on 26.7% shooting. In Game 1 vs. Boston, he had 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, finally giving the Knicks the kind of boost they’d been hoping for off the bench, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post.
- Knicks center Mitchell Robinson made just 3-of-10 free throws on Monday and is now 7-of-25 (28.0%) in the playoffs. Although the Celtics effectively employed a hack-a-Robinson strategy for a little while in Game 1, the big man downplayed his struggles from the foul line, as Schwartz relays for The Post. “Basketball is not just about free throws,” Robinson said. “You got defense, you got rebounds, offensive rebounds — there’s more to it than just free throws. That’s like the only part I need to work on, my free throws. Everything else, I’m straight.” To Robinson’s point, New York outscored Boston by 13 points during his 21 minutes on the court.
Rockets Notes: Offseason, Durant, VanVleet, Whitmore, Sheppard
Even after winning 52 games and claiming the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, the Rockets didn’t see themselves as a legitimate championship contender this spring, says Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
The Rockets, making their first playoff appearance since 2020, knew the top-seeded Thunder were much further along in their title chase, according to Fischer, who writes that Houston’s goal this season was similar to Oklahoma City’s in the last year or two — evaluating a roster heavy on recent lottery picks to collect data and get a better sense of which players are long-term keepers and which ones might not be.
With their postseason run over, the Rockets will now have to weigh whether or not to pursue a major move on the trade market this summer, Fischer writes, noting that the team is expected to bring back most of its core and “proceed judiciously” going forward. General manager Rafael Stone didn’t contradict Fischer’s reporting when he spoke to the media on Tuesday.
“The business we’re in, nobody’s untouchable,” Stone said (Twitter link via Kelly Iko of The Athletic). “But we deeply value everyone on our roster. We have those (extra draft) picks, we accumulated them so we could draft guys or upgrade our current roster. We’ll see what makes the most sense.”
As Fischer details, pundits figure to repeatedly link Suns forward Kevin Durant to Houston this summer for a number of reasons — the Rockets control several Phoenix draft assets; Durant played college ball at Texas and played in Oklahoma City alongside close friend and Rockets assistant Royal Ivey; and Rockets head coach Ime Udoka was an assistant during KD’s time in Brooklyn. However, Fischer insists that “more indications than not” suggests Houston’s interest in Durant has been overstated.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- After Fred VanVleet and Udoka expressed a desire to keep the point guard in Houston going forward, Stone declined to comment on any contract specifics on Tuesday, but confirmed that the Rockets want to retain VanVleet. “He’s been the person and player that we hoped we were getting and we’re very optimistic he’ll be with us for the foreseeable future,” Stone said, per Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).
- In a story for The Houston Chronicle (subscription required), Lerner poses five burning questions facing the Rockets this offseason, starting with whether or not they keep VanVleet and whether they’ll pursue a star. Lerner also considers whether Houston will extend Tari Eason and Jabari Smith, which of their own free agents they’ll try to re-sign, and how much this year’s draft matters to the team.
- The Magic and Rockets share many of the same strengths and weaknesses, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who suggests that both teams will be in the market for offensive upgrades this offseason. However, there appears to be one key difference between the two clubs, as Hollinger observes — Orlando needs to strengthen its supporting cast around star forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, while Houston still needs to find an alpha dog, either inside or outside of the organization.
- Within his analysis of the Rockets’ future, Hollinger points out that the team may soon need to make decisions on whether a pair of little-used rotation players are keepers. Former first-round pick Cam Whitmore has shown flashes of real promise, but hasn’t played consistently, while last year’s No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard spent most of his rookie season on the bench even though the organization reportedly thinks very highly of him. “We have had in-depth conversations with Cam probably more than anybody,” Udoka said on Tuesday (Twitter link via Lerner). “… Ton of potential there, but consistency is the main thing and he knows that.”
Scotto’s Latest: Jerome, Caporn, Suns, NBAGL Elite Camp, Pelicans
Good health and the opportunity to play for newly minted Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson were the key factors that fueled Ty Jerome‘s breakout 2024/25 season, the Cavaliers guard recently told Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
“Kenny empowers me to be aggressive every time I step on the court and to play my game,” Jerome said. “I’ve got the ultimate green light. He trusts his guards to be yourself with unlimited confidence. When good players are playing with confidence, good stuff usually happens.”
After finishing third in Sixth Man of the Year voting, Jerome appears poised for a nice raise in free agency, but it remains to be seen whether the Cavaliers will be in position to give him that raise. Cleveland’s team salary is on the rise, with the club projected to operate well into second-apron territory even before accounting for a new deal for Jerome.
According to Scotto, that has rival executives wondering whether Jerome will leave Cleveland in free agency or whether the team might make a cost-cutting move elsewhere in order to bring back the standout reserve. For his part, the 27-year-old guard would prefer to stay where he is.
“I think I have an amazing situation here with a coaching staff that empowers me and a team that empowers me,” Jerome told Scotto. “… Everyone wants to see each other succeed and empower everyone. That’s really rare. When you have that in the NBA, you don’t want to take it for granted. Yes, people want to get paid for sure, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but when you have that, you don’t want to take it for granted.”
Here are a few more highlights from Scotto’s latest NBA rumor round-up:
- Scotto adds Wizards assistant Adam Caporn to the list of head coaching candidates expected to receive consideration from the Suns as they seek a replacement for Mike Budenholzer. Caporn, who previously worked in Brooklyn as a G League head coach and NBA assistant, is also the new coach of Australia’s national team.
- Real Madrid big man Eli Ndiaye has declined an opportunity to take part in the NBA’s G League Elite Camp this weekend, according to Scotto, who says Iowa wing Payton Sandfort and Kentucky guard Lamont Butler are among the prospects not included on the initial list of invitees who have since received and accepted invitations. Real Madrid’s season in the Spanish League isn’t yet over, which is likely why Ndiaye is passing on his invite.
- According to Scotto, the Pelicans are hiring Jason Hervey, who previously worked under Joe Dumars in Detroit as a video coordinator and director of player development. Scotto doesn’t provide specifics on Hervey’s new position in New Orleans, but notes that he has worked as an advance scout, a personnel scout, and a quality control coach for various NBA organizations since leaving the Pistons.