Southwest Notes: Eason, Brooks, Biyombo, Wemby
Rockets forward Tari Eason is nearing a return from the leg injury that has sidelined him for the first two weeks of the 2022/23 season, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). According to Feigen, head coach Ime Udoka said on Monday that Eason will practice on Tuesday and could be cleared to play in Wednesday’s game vs. the Lakers.
The second-year forward missed the Rockets’ final three preseason games and has been out for the club’s first six regular season contests due to a stress reaction in his left leg. Eason is one of Houston’s stronger defenders, so the team – which is riding a three-game winning streak – could use benefit from his presence on the wing.
“He’s a guy that kind of comes up with everything all the time,” Udoka said of Eason last week. “A great offensive rebounder. Just some grit and toughness that he brings. I think that physicality, obviously, is beneficial for our group. He does some things that are very instinctual and natural for him that we stressed.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- While he’s known for his defense, offseason addition Dillon Brooks is providing the Rockets with solid offensive play in the early going this season, Feigen writes in another subscriber-only story for The Houston Chronicle. Brooks has posted a scorching hot .593/.565/.938 shooting line through his first six games in Houston.
- In his second game with the Grizzlies on Sunday, Bismack Biyombo was the team’s starting center, replacing Xavier Tillman (knee) and logging 26 minutes. The big man helped Memphis secure its first win of the season by putting up eight points, 11 rebounds four assists, and three blocked shots. Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal has the story on Biyombo’s instant impact in the middle.
- The Grizzlies signed Biyombo to his one-year, $5MM contract using a portion of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. The Grizzlies also could have signed Biyombo using a disabled player exception if they were granted one for Steven Adams‘ season-ending knee injury, but there has been no confirmation yet that the team has been approved for a DPE for Adams.
- The Spurs have a 110.9 defensive rating when Victor Wembanyama is on the court compared to a disastrous 129.4 mark when he sits, a remarkable split for a rookie, albeit in a small sample. Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (subscriber link) and Kelly Iko of The Athletic take a closer look at the impact that the No. 1 pick is having on defense for San Antonio.
And-Ones: All-Star Game, Bronny, Caboclo, BAL
Having made the decision to revert back to the East vs. West format and a standard 12-minute fourth quarter for the 2024 All-Star Game, commissioner Adam Silver tells Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s Andscape that the NBA is also planning additional changes in the hopes of improving the game’s level of play.
As Silver explains, a conversation with Chris Paul made him realize that the All-Star Game’s alterations to pregame and halftime protocols – including longer pregame introductions and an extended musical performance at the half – disrupt players’ typical routines and making them more inclined to treat it like a meaningless exhibition.
“I’ll take responsibility for that,” Silver told Spears. “We’re sending mixed signals. And if we want guys to treat this like a real game, and again, this is not about Finals intensity, it’s just a fun game. But if we want players to treat it that way, we have to treat it that way. And so, it means that the introduction is going to have to be a little bit shorter and halftime’s going to have to be a little bit more typical, starting in Indianapolis.
“… I anticipate we’ll still have halftime entertainment. But it won’t be as long,” Silver continued. “I recognize this is not the Super Bowl. It’s an All-Star Game. It’s a different vibe, and we can still have an entertaining halftime but get the guys back on the floor in a more reasonable time. When it comes to the [All-Star] Game, we just got to make it clear to everybody involved, coaches included, that we’re looking for a basketball game.”
The NBA’s All-Star Game will be played in Indianapolis in 2024 and in San Francisco in 2025.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- LeBron James offered an update on his son Bronny James on Monday, telling reporters – including ESPN’s Dave McMenamin – that Bronny will undergo a medical examination later this month following his July cardiac arrest. If he passes that exam, the plan is for Bronny to return to practice for USC with the intention of playing this season, according to LeBron.
- Former NBA first-round pick Bruno Caboclo has signed a contract with KK Partizan, the Serbian team announced today in a press release. While Caboclo’s new deal with Partizan runs through the 2024/25 season, Italian club Reyer Venezia has maintained that it holds the rights to the forward for the ’23/24 campaign after signing him earlier this year, so it’s unclear whether or not Caboclo has officially negotiated his release from that contract.
- The NBA announced on Tuesday that the Basketball Africa League’s fourth season will tip off in March 2024 and will expand to South Africa for the first time in league history.
- While it’s not necessarily surprising that the Nuggets and Celtics have looked like the NBA’s best teams through the season’s first two weeks, it’s impressive that the two clubs have played so well early on after overhauling their rotations during the offseason, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic.
2023/24 NBA Waiver Claims
Waiver claims are something of a rarity in the NBA. In order to claim a player off waivers, a team generally must be able to fit the player’s entire salary into cap room, a traded player exception, or a disabled player exception.
Given those limitations, the players most frequently claimed on waivers are those on minimum-salary deals, since any club is eligible to place a claim on those players using the minimum salary exception.
Even then though, there are some caveats — the minimum salary exception can only be used to sign players for up to two years, so the same rules apply to waiver claims. If a player signed a three-year, minimum salary contract, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception, even if he’s in the final year of his deal.
Taking into account all the rules that reduce the odds of a waiver claim – not to mention the limited roster spots available for NBA teams – it makes sense that nearly all of the players who get released ultimately clear waivers. The 2021/22 and ’22/23 league years each featured just six waiver claims, for instance.
Despite how infrequent they are, we still want to track all the waiver claims that take place during the 2023/24 league year, since you never know which claim may end up being crucial. Last season, for instance, the Spurs claimed Julian Champagnie and Sandro Mamukelashvili off waivers — both players eventually re-signed with the team as free agents in the summer and remain on San Antonio’s roster this fall.
We’ll track this year’s waiver claims in the space below, updating the list throughout the season to include the latest moves. Here’s the list:
- Trail Blazers claim Ish Wainright from Suns (October 21) (story)
- The victim of a roster crunch in Phoenix, Wainright was waived by the Suns before the regular season as the team trimmed its roster from 17 players on standard contracts to 15. Portland was willing to take a flier on Wainright, whose minimum-salary deal won’t become guaranteed until January. That timeline gives the Blazers the flexibility to evaluate the forward for a couple months before deciding whether to lock in his full-season cap hit.
- Pelicans claim Matt Ryan from Timberwolves (October 22) (story)
- A restricted free agent this summer, Ryan re-signed with Minnesota on a new two-way contract, but the Timberwolves decided to convert Daishen Nix to a two-way deal before the season began, cutting Ryan to make room. The Pelicans, whose roster was hit hard by preseason injuries, had an open two-way contract slot and viewed the third-year sharpshooter as the sort of NBA-ready player who could step into a rotation role immediately, so they decided to claim his two-way contract off waivers.
- Suns claim Theo Maledon from Hornets (December 17) (story)
- The Suns were the only NBA team to carry just a pair of two-way players – instead of three – for the first seven-plus weeks of the regular season. That gave them the flexibility to pounce when someone they liked hit the waiver wire — they placed a claim on Maledon after was cut by a Charlotte team seeking more frontcourt help. The timing worked out well for the Suns, who had just lost Bradley Beal to an ankle sprain and added Maledon to fortify their backcourt depth chart.
Pacific Notes: Harden, Plumlee, Davis, Santos
James Harden‘s debut with the Clippers was spoiled by the Knicks, who pulled out a 111-97 win on Monday in New York. But Harden said after the game that he sees “unlimited possibilities” for what he, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook can do together, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Harden, who admitted that he felt “kind of weird out there” playing in his first game since the spring after not having a training camp with his new team, scored 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting and handed out six assists in 31 minutes of action.
As Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports writes, it looks like Harden will defer primary play-making duties to Westbrook to open games, then sub out early before returning to spearhead the team’s second unit. Despite Monday’s loss, head coach Tyronn Lue was pleased with what he saw from his club’s newest guard.
“He did a good job his first game in a while,” Leonard said, per Youngmisuk. “And it takes time to get his legs under him as far as conditioning. But he did a great job to me, got everybody involved running pick-and-roll very well.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Clippers reserve center Mason Plumlee had to be carried off the court by a pair of team staffers following a collision with Julius Randle on Monday, Youngmisuk notes. The original diagnosis for Plumlee is a left knee sprain, but he’ll undergo further evaluation on Tuesday before the team officially announces a recovery timeline.
- Lakers big man Anthony Davis dealt with spasms in his left hip on Monday and had to leave the team’s loss to Miami late in the first half. However, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, Davis said he’s “very optimistic” that the hip issue won’t force him to miss additional time. “Everything’s going to be fine,” Davis said. “I’ll be ready to go for Wednesday, for sure.”
- Although he’s getting a three-year deal and a spot on the Warriors‘ standard roster, forward Gui Santos is expected to continue spending much of his time in the G League with Santa Cruz, according to Kendra Andrews of ESPN, who says Santos will split his team between the NBA and NBAGL squads.
James Harden To Make Clippers Debut On Monday
Star guard James Harden will make his first appearance of the 2023/24 season on Monday, according to Shams Charania and Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), who reports that Harden will make his Clippers debut in New York vs. the Knicks.
The expectation, per The Athletic’s duo, is that Harden will start alongside Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Ivica Zubac.
There had been some speculation that Westbrook might be moved to the bench to play the sort of sixth man role he did with the Lakers during the first half of last season. That would allow the Clippers to stagger their ball-dominant players a little more. However, it sounds like the team will look to make it work with a starting five that features a pair of former MVPs in the backcourt alongside star forwards George and Leonard.
Harden had yet to play this season for Philadelphia prior to Wednesday’s blockbuster trade that sent him to Los Angeles, but 76ers head coach Nick Nurse and Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue both told reporters that the 34-year-old looked great in practices, so he wasn’t expected to require an extended ramp-up period.
The Clippers last played on Wednesday and are in the midst of four consecutive days off, giving them ample time to get Harden up to speed. The club’s other newcomer, P.J. Tucker, played nearly 21 minutes on Wednesday, about 12 hours after the trade was officially finalized.
Trade Rumors App For iOS/Android
If you enjoy Hoops Rumors on your smartphone or tablet, be sure to check out our free Trade Rumors app!
Trade Rumors, available for iOS and Android, is the best way to consume our content on a mobile device. Here’s what it delivers, all for free:
- All the articles from Hoops Rumors, MLB Trade Rumors, Pro Football Rumors, and Pro Hockey Rumors in an easy-to-navigate, eye-catching format. Swipe through stories to quickly consume all the news and rumors from our four sites. Not into all four sports? No problem – any sport can be easily removed.
- Customize what you see. You can create feeds for any team or player across any of our sites.
- Notifications. For any team or player, you can set up push notifications to ensure you always get breaking news instantly. Notifications can also be set up at the sport level.
- Commenting. You can read and contribute comments on the app seamlessly.
- Customer service. If you find a bug, we’ll fix it. If you have a feature request, we’ll consider it. The app is continually evolving and improving.
- Did we mention Trade Rumors is a free app? What do you have to lose? Download it now!
Injury Updates: Lakers, Vassell, Booker, J. Murray
The Lakers were missing a few rotation players for Saturday’s 19-point road loss to Orlando. Prior to the game, head coach Darvin Ham offered updates on those injured players, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN relays (via Twitter).
According to Ham, the Lakers anticipate having Rui Hachimura (concussion) and Taurean Prince (left patellar tendonitis) back “sooner rather than later,” whereas the return of Jarred Vanderbilt (left heel bursitis) figures to come “later rather than sooner.” Ham added that rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino, who is dealing with a right patella contusion, is “still a few weeks out.”
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Spurs got good news on Devin Vassell, who underwent an MRI this week on a groin injury. According to Andrew Lopez of ESPN, the fourth-year swingman was diagnosed with a mild left adductor strain and will be considered day-to-day. While Vassell has been ruled out for Sunday’s game vs. Toronto, it sounds like he may not miss as much time as initially feared.
- Suns guard Devin Booker has been downgraded to out for Sunday’s game in Detroit, tweets Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. As Bourguet notes (via Twitter), Booker is now dealing with a right calf strain after already battling a toe injury and a left ankle sprain this fall. He has been limited to just two regular season appearances so far.
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray left Saturday’s win over Chicago in the second quarter due to right hamstring tightness. While the team has yet to issue a formal update on Murray’s status going forward, head coach Michael Malone expressed some concern about the nature of the ailment, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscriber link) writes. “You always worry about those types of injuries, because they can stick around for a while,” Malone said. “So we have to be smart about it.”
Special Trade Eligibility Dates For 2023/24
In a pair of previous articles, we took a closer look at the trade restrictions placed on two groups of players who signed free agent contracts this past offseason. The smaller of the two groups featured players who can’t be traded by their current teams until January 15, having re-signed on contracts that met a set of specific criteria. The other offseason signees we examined aren’t eligible to be traded until December 15.
In addition to those two groups, there are a few other subsets of players who face certain trade restrictions this season. They either can’t be traded until a certain date, can’t be traded in certain packages, or can’t be traded at all prior to February’s deadline.
Listed below are the players affected by these trade restrictions. This list, which we’ll continue to update throughout the season as needed, can be found on our desktop sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” or in our mobile menu under “Features.”
Players who recently signed as free agents or had their two-way contracts converted:
A player who signs a free agent contract typically becomes trade-eligible either three months after he signs or on December 15, whichever comes later. That means a player who signs on September 1 would become trade-eligible on Dec. 15, but one who signs on Sept. 22 wouldn’t be eligible to be dealt until Dec. 22.
Similarly, players who have two-way pacts converted to standard contracts can’t be dealt for three months after that happens.
Here are the affected players, who signed free agent contracts or were converted from two-way deals after Sept. 15, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift. Players marked with an asterisk (*) have the ability to veto trades:
December 16:
- Markieff Morris (Mavericks) *
December 19:
- Boban Marjanovic (Rockets)
December 25:
- Lamar Stevens (Celtics)
December 26:
- Kelly Oubre (Sixers)
January 1:
- Cameron Payne (Bucks)
January 4:
- Reggie Bullock (Rockets)
January 21:
- Dru Smith (Heat)
January 24:
- Ish Smith (Hornets)
February 8:
- Kevin Knox (Pistons)
Players who sign free agent contracts or have their two-way deals converted to standard contracts after November 8 this season won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2024 trade deadline, which falls on February 8. That restriction applies to the following players, listed in alphabetical order:
- Joshua Primo (Clippers)
- Daniel Theis (Clippers)
- Vince Williams (Grizzlies)
Players who recently signed veteran contract extensions:
A player who signs a veteran contract extension can’t be dealt for six months if his new deal includes a raise greater than 5% and/or puts him under contract for more than three total years (including his current contract). An extension that meets either of those criteria would exceed the NBA’s extend-and-trade limits.
A player can sign a veteran extension and remain trade-eligible as long as his new deal doesn’t include a raise of more than 5% and doesn’t lock him up for more than three total seasons. Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis, for instance, remained eligible to be traded after signing a two-year extension that featured a pay cut in the first year and a 5% raise in the second.
Here are the players whose recent veteran extensions exceed the extend-and-trade limits, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:
December 27:
- Naz Reid (Timberwolves)
December 28:
- Nikola Vucevic (Bulls)
December 29:
- Harrison Barnes (Kings)
January 6:
- Domantas Sabonis (Kings)
January 7:
- Jordan Clarkson (Jazz)
January 9:
- Dejounte Murray (Hawks)
February 6:
- Anthony Davis (Lakers)
Ineligible to be traded before this season’s February 8 deadline:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Zach Collins (Spurs)
- Kawhi Leonard (Clippers)
- Josh Hart (Knicks)
- Miles McBride (Knicks)
- Jarred Vanderbilt (Lakers)
Additionally, when a player signs a super-max contract extension, he becomes ineligible to be traded for one full year.
That means Celtics wing Jaylen Brown won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2024 deadline despite signing his extension in July. Brown is the only player who signed a super-max (designated veteran) contract this summer.
Players who were recently traded:
Players who were recently traded can be flipped again immediately. However, unless they were acquired via cap room, they can’t be traded again immediately in a deal that aggregates their salary with another player’s for matching purposes.
For instance, after acquiring Marcus Morris from the Clippers on November 1, the Sixers could turn around and trade Morris and his $17.1MM salary right away for another player earning about the same amount. But if Philadelphia wants to package Morris and, say, Robert Covington ($11.7MM) for salary-matching purposes in a deal for a big-money player, the team would have to wait two months to do so.
There are a total of five trades that currently fall within the aggregation restriction window. Here are the dates when the players involved in those deals can once again have their salaries aggregated in a second trade:
November 27:
Damian Lillard (Bucks)- Deandre Ayton (Trail Blazers)
- Toumani Camara (Trail Blazers)
- Grayson Allen (Suns)
- Nassir Little (Suns)
- Jusuf Nurkic (Suns)
December 1:
- Jrue Holiday (Celtics)
- Malcolm Brogdon (Trail Blazers)
- Robert Williams (Trail Blazers)
December 17:
- Victor Oladipo (Rockets)
January 1:
- James Harden (Clippers)
- P.J. Tucker (Clippers)
- Nicolas Batum (Sixers)
- Robert Covington (Sixers)
- Kenyon Martin Jr. (Sixers)
- Marcus Morris (Sixers)
- Filip Petrusev (Kings)
Any player who is traded after December 8 (without being acquired via cap room) won’t be eligible to be flipped before the trade deadline in a second deal that aggregates his salary with another player’s.
Note: Only players on standard, full-season contracts are listed on this page. Players who sign 10-day contracts can’t be traded. Players who sign two-way deals can’t be traded for up to 30 days after signing.
Magic’s Wendell Carter Jr. Breaks Bone In Hand
NOVEMBER 4: Carter will undergo surgery on his left hand and will be reevaluated in about three weeks, the Magic announced (via Twitter).
NOVEMBER 3: An injury to center Wendell Carter Jr. marred an otherwise encouraging road win in Utah for the Magic on Thursday night. According to the team (Twitter link), Carter broke the third metacarpal in his left hand during a fall in the final seconds of the victory while he was fighting for a rebound.
The Magic have yet to provide a recovery timeline for Carter, but it seems safe to assume the injury will cause him to miss time. As Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel notes, the Cleveland Clinic states that most people who sustain a metacarpal fracture require the hand to be immobilized for at least three weeks. Surgery is sometimes necessary to repair the fracture.
Carter had been the Magic’s starting center for the first five games this season, averaging 9.4 points and 8.6 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per night. He was off to a cold start as a shooter (.378/.313/.571), but is a key piece in Orlando’s frontcourt and will be missed during his absence.
Moritz Wagner and Goga Bitadze are behind Carter on the depth chart at center and could play increased roles until Carter is ready to return.
The Magic issued two more injury updates on Thursday night, announcing (via Twitter) that Markelle Fultz missed Thursday’s game due to swelling in his left knee, while Gary Harris suffered a strained right groin in Utah. Both players will be reevaluated upon returning to Orlando, per the club.
As with Carter, there’s no clarity yet on when Fultz or Harris will be healthy enough to play, but it appears the Magic’s depth will be tested early on this season. The team is off to a 3-2 start.
Eric Bledsoe Re-Signs With Shanghai Sharks
Longtime NBA guard Eric Bledsoe is heading back overseas, having re-signed with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association, according to the team (link via Dario Skerletic of Sportando).
Bledsoe played for the Sharks last season after spending 12 years in the NBA and appearing in more than 800 career regular season and playoff games for the Clippers, Suns, Bucks, and Pelicans.
Known for his athleticism and perimeter defense, Bledsoe averaged 13.7 points, 4.7 assists, and 3.9 rebounds in 756 regular season games (27.8 MPG) as an NBA player, with a shooting line of .452/.336/.784. He last played in the NBA in 2021/22, starting 29 of 54 games for the Clippers and recording 9.9 PPG, 4.2 APG, and 3.4 RPG in 25.2 MPG.
In Shanghai last season, Bledsoe put up 17.6 PPG, 6.1 APG, and 5.8 RPG on .435/.332/.714 shooting in 29 games (22.6 MPG).
The 33-year-old’s season came to an unusual end when the Sharks were disqualified from the CBA postseason amid match-fixing allegations. Bledsoe, who was serving a suspension during the games in question, distanced himself from the allegations and apparently feels comfortable rejoining the team for the 2023/24 season.