Lakers Notes: Coaching Search, Redick, LeBron, Bronny, Russell
After conducting an initial round of meetings with several head coaching candidates, the Lakers are expected to move onto the next stage of their search process before the end of the month, Shams Charania of The Athletic said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday (Twitter video link). According to Charania, the team is expected to dig deeper into basketball discussions during those second meetings after getting to know the candidates in the initial interviews.
“They’re finishing up their first round of interviews this week,” Charania said. “Next week, I believe, they’re going to start their second phase in this process, getting more conversations with candidates — more, maybe, basketball-centric conversations. I think a lot of it (up until) now was surface level.”
Having previously described J.J. Redick as the presumptive favorite for the job, Charania reiterates that “everyone around the league” believes the ESPN analyst and former NBA sharpshooter is the frontrunner. According to Charania, Redick was the first candidate to get a face-to-face meeting with the Lakers, who talked to him for “an extended period of time” at last week’s draft combine in Chicago.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Agent Rich Paul previously told Charania that LeBron James isn’t pushing for his podcasting partner Redick to become the Lakers’ head coach. Speaking to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, LeBron’s agent went into more detail on that subject. “This is a Lakers decision. I always advise LeBron or anybody for that matter not to really position yourself in a manner of which you have a hand so strong in a decision that could come back to bite you down the road,” Paul said. “… I think for him being so good for so long, people just think he controls the team. There’s no controlling of the team. And J.J. is a friend. We respect J.J. I know LeBron and J.J. have the podcast. I did J.J.’s podcast. Me and J.J. talk hoops all the time. He does know hoops. But just because they have a podcast—the Lakers have to make a decision for now and later. And whatever that decision is, that’ll be an organizational decision. It’s as simple as that.”
- Paul also reiterated a point he made earlier in the spring, telling Haynes that steering Bronny James to the Lakers so that he can play with his father isn’t a goal. “LeBron said he wanted to play with his son. Bronny can’t do anything about that,” said Paul, who represents both players. “And that’s nothing we should push back on. If he wants to play with his son, that’s that. But again, I have a job to do representing Bronny and LeBron. … If it aligns where he can play with his dad, great. Am I necessarily focused on that? No, not at all. I’m focused on a team-plan investment and a seriousness as it pertains to fit and opportunity.”
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report breaks down the potential paths for D’Angelo Russell and the Lakers this offseason, examining five different ways the offseason could play out for the veteran guard. Russell could pick up his player option to either stay in Los Angeles or to accommodate a trade, or he could decline that option, which would set him up to re-sign with L.A., leave in a sign-and-trade deal, or leave outright. According to Pincus, many people in the industry believe the Lakers want to upgrade their roster around LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Austin Reaves, which could mean Russell ends up elsewhere, whether that happens via free agency or trade.
Lonzo Ball: I Expect To Play First Game Of 2024/25 Season
Asked during the latest episode of his What An Experience podcast whether he expects to be on the court for the Bulls on opening night next season, Lonzo Ball expressed confidence that he’ll be ready to go (YouTube link).
“Yes, I firmly believe that,” said Ball, who hasn’t played in an NBA game since January 14, 2022. “That’s the plan that I’m on and I haven’t had any setbacks, so I expect to play the first game.”
Ball has undergone a series of surgeries on his left knee in recent years and was unavailable for the second half of the 2021/22 campaign, as well as each of the two subsequent seasons. His most recent procedure, in 2023, was described as a cartilage transplant. The former No. 2 overall pick went into more detail on his podcast about what exactly that surgery entailed and how he got to that point.
“To make a long story short, ultimately, it started with the meniscus tear,” Ball said. “It started on the Lakers when I tore it the first time (in 2018). Tore it a couple more times to a point to where there was, basically, not much meniscus left and bone on bone was rubbing. The cartilage was gone and the bone was messed up, so I had to get a new meniscus from a donor. I had to get a bone allograft and I had to get some new cartilage put in as well. All that finally healed up and now I’m back on the court.”
Ball initially went under the knife to address a meniscus tear in early 2022 before undergoing an arthroscopic debridement in September of that year. He suffered setbacks during those recovery processes, but he’s confident that the third surgery better addressed the root of the issue in his knee.
“I would say we’re, what, 14, 15 months in now?” Ball said, referring to his recovery from the March 2023 procedure. “The stuff before that, we were trying to figure out what the problem was, so that was a wasted year.”
Ball exercised his $21.4MM player option for the 2024/25 season last month, so he’ll be on Chicago’s roster in the fall as long as he’s not traded or waived during the offseason. Young guards like Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu have enjoyed breakout seasons and have taken on larger roles since Ball last suited up for the Bulls, but the team would presumably be eager to find minutes for the 26-year-old if he can perform at anywhere near the level he did during his first half-season with the franchise.
Ball averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals in 34.6 minutes per game across 35 appearances in 2021/22 before being sidelined. The Bulls went 22-13 in those games.
Kings, Mike Brown Table Extension Talks
The Kings and Mike Brown have had discussions about a possible contract extension for the head coach, but there’s a “gulf” between the two sides, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that Brown and the Kings have decided to table those extension discussions.
Brown received a four-year contract when he was hired by Sacramento during the 2022 offseason, but only three years of that deal are guaranteed — the fourth is a mutual option, meaning both sides would have to opt in. That option wasn’t exercised, according to James Ham of The Kings Beat, so Brown will be on an expiring contract if he and the Kings don’t reach an extension agreement by the start of the 2024/25 season.
Brown has led the Kings to a 94-70 (.573) overall regular season record since taking the reins from Alvin Gentry. He guided the franchise to its first playoff berth since 2006 and won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in 2022/23.
Sacramento was eliminated in the first round of the 2023 postseason, however, and didn’t make the playoffs in Brown’s second year. Despite winning 46 regular season games in ’23/24, the Kings finished outside the top eight in the conference and were eliminated in the second game of the play-in tournament.
Since Brown’s hiring, a number of head coaches around the league – including Monty Williams, Erik Spoelstra, Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, and Mike Budenholzer – have signed lucrative multiyear deals worth eight figures annually. According to Ham, Brown is set to make less than $5MM this season.
Recent reports from The Athletic and Yahoo Sports have suggested that Brown’s next deal seems likely to be worth at least $10MM per year, but it sounds as if he and the Kings have a gap to bridge in their negotiations. There’s nothing stopping the team and its coach from reopening their contract talks at any time, but Wojnarowski’s report suggests that’s unlikely to happen in the short term.
Celtics Notes: Brown, Tatum, Kornet, Brissett
After earning All-NBA honors for the first time a year ago as a member of the Second Team, Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown wasn’t included on the 2023/24 All-NBA teams that were announced on Wednesday. Brown responded on Thursday by performing like the best player on the court in Boston’s Game 2 win over Indiana, racking up 40 points on 14-of-27 shooting in 38 minutes of action.
Asked after the game if the All-NBA snub served as extra motivation entering Thursday’s contest, Brown initially responded, “No I wouldn’t say that. I mean, we’re two games from the (NBA Finals). So honestly, I don’t got the time to give a f–k.”
However, as Brian Robb of MassLive.com writes, when reporters pressed Brown on his thoughts on the All-NBA voting results, the Celtics star admitted to feeling as if not everyone fully appreciates his game.
“I watch guys get praised and anointed who I feel are half as talented as me on either side of the ball,” Brown said. “But at this point in my life, I just embrace it. It comes with being who I am and what I stand for, and I ain’t changing that. I just come out and I’m grateful to step out onto the floor each and every night, put my best foot forward and get better each and every year. Whether people appreciate it or not, it is what it is.”
While Brown didn’t get enough votes from media members to make an All-NBA team this season, his teammates certainly believe he deserved a spot, as Jay King of The Athletic relays.
“I don’t know what they missed, but Jaylen Brown is one of the 15 best players in this game,” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “The whole season, both sides of the ball, he just did so much for us to help us win games, which is the meaning of the game. It’s a shame.”
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- Jayson Tatum, who made the All-NBA First Team for a third consecutive year, referred to the honor as “special” and said he doesn’t take it for granted, per Karen Guregian of MassLive.com. “I’m thankful to everybody that’s helped me along the way,” Tatum added. “Success is not something you can achieve by yourself. There’s a lot of people that deserve credit in helping me get to where I’m at.”
- In addition to officially ruling out Kristaps Porzingis (calf strain) for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics announced today (via Twitter) that Luke Kornet is considered doubtful to play on Saturday. Kornet sprained his left wrist in Thursday’s victory. Assuming Kornet is unavailable, the Celtics could rely on smaller lineups when Al Horford rests or could turn to backup center Xavier Tillman, who returned on Thursday and played three minutes after missing Game 1 for personal reasons.
- With Kornet unavailable for most of Game 3, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla gave playing time to forward Oshae Brissett, who provided a surprise spark after not playing for nearly two weeks, Robb writes for MassLive.com. Brissett scored just two points in his 12 minutes off the bench, but he recorded three steals and matched Brown’s team-high +18 plus/minus mark. “Just trying to do everything I can to get the win,” Brissett said. “Try to do everything I can to give us some energy. We were playing really well. But going into that time, we could definitely turn things around, positive or negative. So I feel like I did a good job of turning us in the positive way and keeping that energy up.”
Draft Notes: Bronny, Hawks, Sheppard, Thomas, Felton
The Suns will hold a workout with Bronny James at some point before next month’s draft, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, James has received workout invitations from over 10 teams but is expected to visit only a handful of clubs, including Phoenix and the Lakers.
The Suns hold just one pick in the 2024 draft and it’s a first-rounder, at No. 22. Charania suggests that James is among the players in consideration with that pick, but Doug Haller of The Athletic is skeptical that Phoenix will use its first-rounder on Bronny, given that the team probably needs to turn that pick into a player who has a better chance of contributing immediately, whether that’s in the draft or on the trade market. The former USC guard is ranked 54th on ESPN’s big board of 2024 prospects.
Speaking to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, James’ agent Rich Paul stressed that his client won’t sign a two-way contract and expressed a belief that Bronny going as high as No. 22 isn’t out of the question.
“Bronny’s range has been all over. Some teams think he goes 20 to 40, some say 30-50, and some teams think he’ll go undrafted,” Paul said. “It just takes one team. This is something I do every year during the draft process. This is not Bronny-centric. He’s a part of our draft class. I have to try to help find the right fit for all my guys as well as the right deal. So that’s how I’m looking at it.”
Here are a few more draft-related notes:
- ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have updated their list of the top 100 prospects for the 2024 draft and shared new intel (Insider link) on their top 25 players. Among the notable tidbits from their latest update: Givony and Woo say that Zaccharie Risacher, Alexandre Sarr, and Donovan Clingan are among the players on the Hawks‘ short list at the top of the draft, with Clingan believed to have some fans within Atlanta’s front office. Givony adds that it’s hard to see Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard falling further than No. 5 in the draft.
- After testing the draft waters this spring, former Northern Colorado forward Saint Thomas will transfer to USC and continue playing college ball, a source tells Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). Thomas had a breakout junior year that saw him average 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game for the Bears across 32 starts.
- East Carolina guard RJ Felton has withdrawn from the NBA draft pool as well, tweets Rothstein. Felton, who has spent the last three seasons with the Pirates, will remain at East Carolina for his senior year.
Pacers Notes: Haliburton, Carlisle, Bench, More
After Tyrese Haliburton left Game 2 early due to left hamstring soreness on Thursday, the Pacers have listed the star guard as questionable to play in Saturday’s Game 3 (Twitter link). While Haliburton was also said to be dealing with a chest issue in Game 2, the hamstring soreness is his only ailment mentioned on the official injury report.
Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) explores how the Pacers might try to make up for Haliburton’s absence in the event that he’s unable to play in Game 3. As Dopirak notes, the team has solid alternatives at point guard in Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell but might have to dig deeper into its rotation at other positions to cover Haliburton’s minutes. Nembhard and McConnell also wouldn’t be able to replicate the play-making and outside shooting that the All-NBA guard provides.
“He does so many things for our team where everyone just has to move the ball more and get in the paint more,” McConnell said. “The ball movement, like I said, just has to be at another level. He gets 10 assists in his sleep. It’s hard for another person on our team to replicate that. It’s a group effort when he goes down to kinda get people the ball and get moving.”
Here’s more on the Pacers:
- Whether or not Haliburton is healthy, the Pacers won’t have any hope of beating pulling off a comeback and beating Boston in the Eastern Conference finals if they play like they did on Thursday, Gregg Doyel writes in a column for The Indianapolis Star (subscription required).
- Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle raised some eyebrows in Game 2 by leaning on little-used bench players like Doug McDermott, Jarace Walker, Kendall Brown, and Jalen Smith in the fourth quarter while sitting Myles Turner, Aaron Nesmith, and Pascal Siakam for most or all of the final period. Carlisle explained why he went to his bench so early despite facing a deficit that didn’t seem insurmountable. “To look at some guys that I thought needed a look,” Carlisle said, per Dopirak. “McDermott went in there and played well. Isaiah Jackson brought a lot of fight to the game. Jalen Smith hasn’t had much of an opportunity to play in the playoffs, so I wanted to see where he was at. We weren’t giving up, but it was an opportunity to get some energetic fresh guys in there to fight. They did some good things. … The guys who had played to that point, Pascal was very tired. Aaron had four fouls and he was tired. That was it.”
- Prior to Game 2, Haliburton told reporters that Indiana has the “best bench in the NBA,” Dopirak writes in another Indy Star story (subscription required). McConnell, Obi Toppin, and Ben Sheppard are the Pacers reserves who have seen the most action this postseason, leading a second unit that ranks No. 1 in the playoffs with 33.4 points per game.
- While many NBA fans didn’t assign much meaning to the league’s first in-season tournament earlier this season, making the championship game in that tournament benefited a Pacers team that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2020, says Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “There were some real playoff simulations — our quarterfinal game at home, on a Monday night, against (the Celtics), had the feel of a conference finals-matchup atmosphere,” Carlisle said. “The part about going to Vegas and playing there, that was different, but there was certainly the exposure, the stage, all that. So, all those experiences help a young team.”
2024 NBA Offseason Preview: Utah Jazz
The Jazz‘s past two seasons have played out in similar fashion, with the team hovering around .500 and holding onto a play-in spot through the first half. However, in both 2022/23 and ’23/24, the front office clearly had little interest in pushing for a postseason berth, instead opting to sell off key rotation players at back-to-back trade deadlines. In 2023, it was Mike Conley, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley. In 2024, it was Simone Fontecchio, Kelly Olynyk, and Ochai Agbaji.
None of those players are stars, but they were important enough contributors that losing them played a major part in ultimately knocking the team out of the play-in hunt. The Jazz went 10-19 down the stretch in 2023 and just 5-25 to close out their most recent season.
In each case, Utah’s solid first-half play resulted in a few too many wins at the end of the season to earn a pick in the top half of the lottery. The team claimed the No. 9 overall selection a year ago and will pick at No. 10 this summer.
That’s not an ideal outcome for an organization that could badly use another young cornerstone player with star upside to add to its core. As constructed, the Jazz aren’t bad enough to be in the mix for a top-five pick and aren’t good enough to be a legitimate playoff contender.
The front office will have to move forward on one of three paths. Continuing to build incrementally through the draft and stockpile assets by trading non-star veterans is one option. Accelerating the rebuild by trading some of their excess future draft picks for an impact player to complement Lauri Markkanen is another. The third would involve taking a more significant step back by trading Markkanen and truly bottoming out, lining the team up to potentially pick much higher than No. 9 or 10 in next year’s draft.
The Jazz’s Offseason Plan
Of those three potential paths for Utah, I consider the safe, middle-of-the-road route (building through the draft, developing their young players, and hanging onto Markkanen) to be the likeliest, even if it won’t necessarily line the team up to draft a future star in 2025. I don’t think a Markkanen trade should be ruled out, whereas I view a blockbuster trade that accelerates the rebuild as an extreme long shot.
The Jazz aren’t just one move away from being a contender, so cashing in several of their future draft assets now doesn’t really make sense, even if they have the assets to make such a move. Utah has talked about focusing on player development and needs to get a better sense of what it has in its youngsters, including 2022/23 All-Rookie first-teamer Walker Kessler and 2023 first-rounders Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, and Brice Sensabaugh.
It’s also important to note that the Jazz still owe a first-round pick to Oklahoma City. Presumably, one reason why management hasn’t been eager to push for a play-in spot in recent years is its desire to ensure that pick falls into its protected range and stays with Utah — that just narrowly happened this year, as it was top-10 protected. The pick will be top-10 protected again in 2025 and top-eight protected in 2026. If it’s not conveyed by then, the Jazz’s obligation to the Thunder will be extinguished.
Those protection terms loom large over the Jazz’s plans going forward. To clarify, that first-rounder will never become unprotected; it won’t even turn into two second-rounders if Utah hangs onto long enough. It will simply stay with the Jazz, leaving OKC empty-handed, if it lands in its protected range for two more years.
A desire to hang onto that first-round pick may be the best argument in favor of trading Markkanen, who has emerged as a star since arriving in Utah, averaging 24.5 points and 8.4 rebounds per game with a .490/.395/.885 shooting line across two seasons.
His expiring contract limits his trade value somewhat, especially since he can’t realistically be extended prior to free agency by a team without cap room, as that team would be limited to offering a 40% raise on his $18MM salary for 2024/25. But the Jazz could still command a significant haul for Markkanen. And taking into account the draft assets they already control from the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert deals, along with a bump in value for their own 2025 and 2026 first-rounders without Markkanen on the roster, no NBA team would be better positioned to draft top-level talent in the coming years.
But there are plenty of arguments for keeping Markkanen too. For one, even with him leading the way, the Jazz have been a bottom-10 team in each of the past two years — they could potentially hang onto the first-rounder they owe the Thunder even if he sticks around.
Utah is also far better situated than most teams to extend Markkanen before he becomes a free agent in 2025. Because the Jazz will have cap room this offseason, they could renegotiate Markkanen’s contract before extending him, giving him a substantial bump on his $18MM salary and then extending him off the new figure, which would no longer make the limit of a 40% raise unpalatable. It’s not as if the Jazz will be going big-name shopping in free agency, so that’s a logical use of their cap room — they took the same route a year ago with Jordan Clarkson, renegotiating a raise for 2023/24 while tacking two new years onto his contract.
Markkanen won’t be eligible for a renegotiation until early August, but we should know by early July whether or not the Jazz plan to take that route — if they leave a significant chunk of cap room open through the first week of free agency, it’ll be a pretty strong signal that they’re preserving it for a Markkanen renegotiation.
For what it’s worth, this is the approach I expect the Jazz to take. It would allow the team to preserve a key asset without necessarily taking a future trade off the table — if Markkanen renegotiates as soon as he’s permitted to, he’d become trade-eligible again just in time for February’s deadline.
So if renegotiating and extending Markkanen is the plan, what would the rest of Utah’s offseason look like? It starts with their draft picks at No. 10, No. 29, and No. 32. Controlling those three selections gives the Jazz a ton of options in the trade market — they could move up or down from any of those spots, or could trade one or more of their picks for future assets if they’re not inclined to add three more rookies to their roster.
No. 10 is the pick most likely to be kept, and I’d expect to see the Jazz use that selection to zero in on a prospect who could help out on both ends of the floor. A guard like Stephon Castle is one possibility — ESPN has Castle going to Utah in its most recent mock draft, observing that his potential as a play-maker and versatile perimeter defender would make him a good fit next to smaller, offensive-minded guards like some on the Jazz’s roster. I also view three-and-D wings like Cody Williams and Ja’Kobe Walter as players who would make sense for Utah.
Depending on whether the Jazz want to retain Omer Yurtseven, Darius Bazley, and/or Kenneth Lofton – all of whom have non-guaranteed salaries – or any of their own free agents, they could potentially renegotiate Markkanen’s deal and still have a some cap room left over. However, that room would be limited, especially if they go up to the max for Markkanen (they might not have to, but that could allow them to construct an extension with a descending structure that gives them more cap flexibility in future seasons).
As noted above, the Jazz are very unlikely to be players in free agency except on minimum or near-minimum deals, so if they do have cap room available, I’d expect them to explore the trade market. There could be an opportunity to add a role player like they did a year ago when they used cap space to absorb John Collins‘ contract. Or they could take on another team’s unwanted contract with a draft pick attached.
Talen Horton-Tucker, Kris Dunn, Luka Samanic, and Kira Lewis are the Jazz players headed to free agency. Of those four, Dunn may be the best bet to return — he earned praise during the season from head coach Will Hardy for his locker room presence. Horton-Tucker has played a regular role in Utah for the past two seasons, but he isn’t a true point guard and isn’t a good enough shooter to attract much defensive attention off the ball. I’d be a little surprised if he’s back. Samanic and Lewis didn’t see regular rotation minutes last season.
As for the Jazz’s potential trade candidates, Clarkson is an obvious name to watch. His new extension dips down to just over $14MM per year for the next two seasons, making him an easier fit for contenders than he would’ve been on this year’s $23.5MM cap hit. And as he enters his age-32 season, he likely wouldn’t be opposed to ending up on a roster a little closer to contending.
Collins and Collin Sexton boosted their value as trade chips by turning in solid performances in 2023/24, but while their contracts are hardly albatrosses, they’re not bargains either. Collins is owed $26.58MM next season, with a $26.58MM player option for 2025/26, while Sexton will earn a total of $37MM+ over the next two seasons. That will make it hard to net a significant return for either player on the trade market, so I’d expect them stay put for now.
Salary Cap Situation
Guaranteed Salary
John Collins ($26,580,000)- Collin Sexton ($18,150,000)
- Jordan Clarkson ($14,092,577)
- Lauri Markkanen ($6,000,000)
- Partial guarantee. Rest of salary noted below.
- Taylor Hendricks ($5,848,680)
- Keyonte George ($4,084,200)
- Walker Kessler ($2,965,920)
- Brice Sensabaugh ($2,571,480)
- Total: $80,292,857
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Lauri Markkanen ($12,044,544)
- Partial guarantee. Rest of salary noted above. Markkanen’s salary will become guaranteed if he remains under contract through June 28.
- Partial guarantee. Rest of salary noted above. Markkanen’s salary will become guaranteed if he remains under contract through June 28.
- Omer Yurtseven ($2,660,000)
- Darius Bazley ($2,463,946)
- Bazley’s salary will become partially guaranteed for $400,000 if he remains under contract through July 25.
- Kenneth Lofton ($2,120,693)
- Lofton’s salary will become partially guaranteed for $400,000 if he remains under contract through July 25.
- Jason Preston (two-way)
- Total: $19,289,183
Dead/Retained Salary
- None
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Restricted Free Agents
- Kira Lewis ($7,744,600 qualifying offer / $17,166,348 cap hold): Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $17,166,348
Two-Way Free Agents
Note: Because they have finished each of the past two seasons on two-way contracts with the Jazz, Juzang’s and Potter’s qualifying offers would be worth their respective minimum salaries (projected to be $2,093,637 for Juzang and $2,168,944 for Potter). Those offers would include a small partial guarantee.
Draft Picks
- No. 10 overall pick ($5,485,080 cap hold)
- No. 29 overall pick ($2,520,120 cap hold)
- No. 32 overall pick (no cap hold)
- Total (cap holds): $8,005,200
Extension-Eligible Players
- John Collins (veteran)
- Talen Horton-Tucker (veteran)
- Extension-eligible until June 30.
- Lauri Markkanen (veteran)
- Collin Sexton (veteran)
- Extension-eligible as of September 3.
Note: Unless otherwise indicated, these players are eligible for extensions beginning in July.
Unrestricted Free Agents
- Talen Horton-Tucker ($20,938,000 cap hold): Bird rights
- Kris Dunn ($2,093,637 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Luka Samanic ($2,093,637 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $25,125,274
Cap Exceptions Available
Note: The Jazz project to operate under the cap. They would have to renounce two trade exceptions – worth $6,473,006 and $3,044,872 – in order to use cap room.
- Room exception: $8,006,000
Nuggets Notes: Offseason, KCP, Braun, Cancar, MPJ
Addressing reporters at his end-of-season press conference on Thursday, Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth didn’t say anything that would suggest major roster changes are in the cards for the franchise this offseason, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. While Booth suggested some tweaks will be necessary, he stressed that continuing to develop the team’s young players will be crucial to improving the roster as a whole.
“I think (the 2023 draft picks) need more seasoning,” Booth said. “They need to get in the gym. They need to play Summer League. They need to get stronger. Obviously, maybe in our top seven, we can use a little bit more talent. Maybe there’s a way to upgrade one or two positions. … Get a guy that’s a more accomplished NBA player for whatever (roster) slot they’re taking. But I don’t see anything that’s, like, crazy out of sorts for our roster.”
After losing key rotation pieces like Bruce Brown and Jeff Green last offseason, the Nuggets relied primarily on recent draftees to replace them, adding three rookies (Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, and Hunter Tyson) to the roster and assigning 2022 first-rounders Christian Braun and Peyton Watson larger roles.
Of those players, Braun was the only one head coach Michael Malone trusted in the postseason, resulting in some questions about whether Booth and Malone are in the same page when it comes to filling out the roster and distributing minutes. That’s a subject that has been discussed within the organization, as Durando relays.
“We’ve talked about this a lot upstairs,” Booth said. “The general manager, front office job oftentimes is to make sure the long-term view is something that we’re satisfied with. And Coach Malone’s down there in the trenches trying to win every night. And a lot of times, those things are aligned, but sometimes they ebb and flow away from each other.”
Here’s more on the Nuggets, via Durando:
- Asked about the possibility of surpassing the punitive second tax apron in order to sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, both team president Josh Kroenke and Booth expressed a level of comfort with operating above the aprons if it means maximizing the potential of a championship-caliber roster. “We spend a lot of time looking at the second apron and all this other stuff,” Booth said. “I think for me personally, it’s win a championship, one. Two, we have to look at the overall financial picture. And three, second apron. And I know the second apron is daunting, and there’s all kinds of restrictions, but I don’t think that’s first on our priority list. KCP’s been a great addition the last couple years. We obviously would love to have him back. We’re gonna take a hard look at what that looks like.”
- If the Nuggets do lose Caldwell-Pope, it would likely thrust Braun into a starting job. Booth and Malone said they’re confident the young wing could succeed in that role if he continues to improve as a shooter. “I think Christian Braun, it’s all gonna come down to one thing. To be a shooting guard in the NBA, you’ve gotta be able to make shots,” Malone said. “That’s the bottom line. So if you want to simplify CB’s future as a starting two guard in the NBA, it’ll be determined upon his ability to be a 38% or above 3-point shooter.” Braun made 38.4% of his three-pointers in 2023/24, but didn’t shoot them at a high volume, converting just 63 in 82 games.
- Booth said he expects Vlatko Cancar, who missed the entire season due to a torn ACL, to be able to suit up for Slovenia in the Olympic qualifiers, noting that the tournament will be a “great chance” to evaluate the big man. The qualifying tournament won’t begin until July 2, however, and the Nuggets will have to decide by June 29 whether or not to exercise Cancar’s $2.35MM team option.
- The Nuggets signaled multiple times during Thursday’s presser that they likely won’t explore trading Michael Porter Jr. this summer, writes Durando. Kroenke expressed faith in the team’s current starting lineup (which includes Porter) and Malone refuted the idea (expressed by Porter himself) that MPJ was to blame for the second-round loss to Minnesota.
Tyrese Haliburton Exits Game 2 With Hamstring Soreness
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton was removed from Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals vs. Boston with 3:44 left in the third quarter and didn’t return. The team announced (via Twitter) that Haliburton was dealing with left leg soreness, while ESPN Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link) specifies that it was hamstring pain that forced the 24-year-old out of action.
It’s a concerning development for the Pacers, given that Haliburton strained his left hamstring in January and missed 10 games as a result of that injury — he attempted to return after just five games, but ended up missing five more following that lone appearance.
There’s no reason yet to think that his new hamstring issue is as significant as the previous one, but with the Pacers facing a 2-0 deficit in the series following Boston’s victory on Thursday, they’ll be in real trouble if the All-NBA guard has to miss any additional time.
After battling low back spasms, a right ankle sprain, and a sacral contusion during the Eastern semifinals, Haliburton once again had to deal with multiple health issues on Thursday. As Joe Vardon of The Athletic tweets, the Pacers star underwent imaging on a sore chest at halftime of Game 2. According to Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link), when Haliburton was warming up at halftime, he was shaking his head and slamming the ball on the floor in frustration.
If Haliburton is forced to miss any games going forward, the Pacers would have to lean more heavily on guards Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell as ball-handlers and play-makers. Game 3 is scheduled for Saturday in Indiana.
And-Ones: TNT Sports, Trades, Santa Cruz, Award Votes
With TNT Sports seemingly on the verge of losing its NBA broadcast rights to NBC during the current round of media rights negotiations, it’s possible the 2024/25 season will be the last one that features TNT’s iconic Inside the NBA studio show, featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal. Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show (Twitter video link), Barkley admitted it has been discouraging to watch the process play out.
“Morale sucks, plain and simple,” Barkley said (hat tip to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic). “I just feel so bad for the people I work with. These people have families and I just really feel bad for them right now. You know these people I work with (management), they screwed this thing up, clearly. We have zero idea what’s going to happen. I don’t feel good. I’m not going to lie. Especially when they came out and said we bought college football. I was like, well, damn, they could have used that money to buy the NBA.
“… We’ve never had college football, never been involved with college football. I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, shouldn’t we be spending every dime we got to keep the NBA?’ So morale sucks, to be honest with you.”
Asked how TNT Sports got to this point, Barkley suggested that the comments made in 2022 by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav – who said his company “didn’t have to have the NBA” – didn’t help matters.
“They came out and said we didn’t need the NBA. I think that probably pissed (NBA commissioner) Adam (Silver) off,” Barkley said. “I don’t know that, but when (Warner Bros. and Discovery) merged, that’s the first thing our boss said. ‘We don’t need the NBA.’ Well, he don’t need it, but the rest of the people — me, Kenny, Shaq and Ernie and the people who work there, we need it. So, it just sucks right now.”
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- They were overshadowed by bigger deals at their respective trade deadlines, but the Celtics‘ 2022 acquisition of Derrick White and the Knicks‘ 2023 addition of Josh Hart are examples of non-blockbuster trades that helped turn good teams into contenders, writes Zach Lowe of ESPN (Insider link). Lowe provides some interesting tidbits on those deals, citing sources who say the Jazz were also interested in White when Boston was pursuing him and that the Trail Blazers didn’t open Hart talks to the rest of the league because New York was his preferred destination.
- The Santa Cruz Warriors – Golden State’s affiliate – have been named the G League Franchise of the Year for the third time in the past four years (Twitter link). The team went 31-19 during the NBAGL’s Showcase Cup and regular season and ranked first in the league in both ticket sales and partnership revenue, according to the press release.
- The NBA has officially released the full ballots from all the media members who voted on the major awards for 2023/24, including the All-NBA, All-Defensive, and All-Rookie teams. You can view those ballots – and find out which voters made this year’s most surprising selections – right here.
- The Ringer’s staff ranked the NBA’s top 25 players who are 25 years old or under, with Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Edwards, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander topping the list.