Southeast Notes: Beal, Maledon, Washington, Strus, Heat
Responding to reports that Wizards guard Bradley Beal is under police investigation for a postgame altercation with fans in Orlando, agent Mark Bartelstein told Marc J. Spears of ESPN (Twitter link) that his client is “one of the NBA’s classiest and outstanding citizens” and blamed the fans for their “abusive” language.
“The comments and words that were spewed at Brad in Orlando have no place anywhere in our society,” Bartelstein wrote in a statement. “For him to be subject to that type of verbal abuse is absolutely unacceptable. I believe the league is going to have to take a much closer look as to what is happening in NBA arenas to protect the players and I know that where we have advanced with gambling is certainly having a huge impact on this behavior!”
As we previously relayed, a man in the stands who had made a bet on the game allegedly told Beal, “You made me lose $1,300, you f–k,” while the guard was heading toward the locker room. The police report stated that Beal turned around and walked toward the stands, then swatted at a friend of the man who made the comment, making contact with his head and knocking his hat off.
According to TMZ Sports, the fans involved in the confrontation, who were sitting courtside, were heckling Beal for much of the night and made multiple “disparaging” comments aimed at the Wizards star. There has been no clarity yet on whether or not Beal will face any charges for the incident.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- The Hornets‘ signing of Xavier Sneed to a 10-day contract helped clear the way for Theo Maledon to have a career night on Tuesday, as Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer explains. Teams are limited to having their two-way players active for just 90 combined games (instead of 100) if they don’t have full 15-man rosters, so adding Sneed as a 15th man allowed the team to start Maledon. He responded with 19 points and nine assists in a road win over Oklahoma City.
- Hornets forward P.J. Washington may have played his last game before he becomes a restricted free agent. Washington left Friday’s loss to Chicago due to a sprained right ankle, and Boone isn’t sure whether he’ll return for any of the four games left on Charlotte’s schedule.
- Heat guard Max Strus, who will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, admitted that he can’t help but think about what his next contract might look like and whether he’ll remain in Miami going forward, but he doesn’t feel like it’s affecting his play at all, per Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “It wouldn’t be human to not think about it,” Strus said. “I wouldn’t say it’s added pressure or anything like that.”
- Following the bankruptcy of crypto exchange company FTX, the Heat‘s arena will be getting a new name. As Douglas Hanks of The Miami Herald details, the arena will be called the Kaseya Center, assuming a $117MM agreement with a local software company is approved next week by Miami-Dade County commissioners.
Kentucky’s Cason Wallace Entering 2023 NBA Draft
Kentucky freshman guard Cason Wallace is entering the 2023 NBA draft and will forgo his remaining NCAA eligibility, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Wallace is the latest projected lottery pick to announce that he’s declaring for the draft and going pro, joining Brandon Miller, Jarace Walker, and Keyonte George, among others. Wallace is currently the No. 10 overall prospect in the 2023 draft class on Givony’s big board at ESPN.com.
Wallace’s numbers in 32 games as a freshman don’t necessarily jump off the page. He averaged 11.7 points, 4.3 assists, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.0 steals in 32.2 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .446/.346/.757.
However, he finished the year strong, enjoying perhaps his best game of the season in the Wildcats’ second-round loss in the NCAA Tournament (21 points and nine rebounds on 9-of-11 shooting). He is also one of the best defenders in the draft, per Givony, and showed NBA evaluators a different aspect of his game when he assumed primary ball-handling duties following an injury to Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler.
“Learning how to play the point guard position the whole game helped,” Wallace told ESPN. “It forced me to step up to another challenge in a new role.”
Wallace added that he’s intent on developing “each part” of his game further and intends to get “stronger, faster and quicker in the pre-draft process.”
Raptors’ Nurse Says He’ll Evaluate Future After Season
Nick Nurse‘s future in Toronto has been a subject of speculation as of late, with multiple reports this week suggesting there has been some league-wide chatter about Nurse’s status. Asked on Friday about those rumors, the Raptors head coach could have poured cold water on them, but his response only added more fuel, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.
“I think when this season gets done, we’ll evaluate everything,” Nurse told reporters. “Even personally, I’m going to take a few weeks to see where I’m at, where my head’s at, and just see how the relationship with the organization is and everything. It’s been 10 years for me now, which is a pretty good run.”
Nurse has been the head coach in Toronto since 2018 and was an assistant with the franchise under Dwane Casey for five years before that. It has been the Raptors’ most successful decade since entering the NBA in 1995, and Nurse has had a major hand in that success, leading the team to its first ever championship in 2019 and a 224-161 (.582) record across his five seasons.
However, the last three years have been more up and down than the first two. Toronto was just 27-45 in 2020/21 — that appeared at the time to be an aberration due to the fact that the team was forced to play its home games in Tampa due to COVID-19. Following a 48-win showing in 2021/22 though, this season has also been an underwhelming one. The Raptors currently sit under .500 (38-39) with just five games left to play, resulting in speculation about Nurse’s future.
Nurse’s contract expires after the 2023/24 season, and sources with knowledge of the situation tell Lewenberg that the 55-year-old doesn’t want to go into next season as a “lame-duck” coach. So, assuming he wants to continue coaching in Toronto, he’ll be seeking an extension this spring.
That means the Raptors will essentially have to make a decision this year, one way or the other, on Nurse’s future. Both directions – retaining Nurse or making a change – seem plausible at this time, Lewenberg writes, while Eric Koreen of The Athletic says a coaching change feels more likely than not.
Determining Nurse’s future will be just one part of a big offseason for the Raptors, who also have Fred VanVleet, Jakob Poeltl, and Gary Trent Jr. facing potential free agency.
Ime Udoka has been linked to the Raptors as a possible target if they do move on from Nurse. As Koreen points out, Udoka interviewed for the team’s head coaching job in 2018 and has been associated with Basketball Without Borders, which works closely with Masai Ujiri‘s Giants of Africa initiative. Of course, the off-court incident that ended Udoka’s tenure in Boston would be a complicating factor for the Raptors or any other team interested in pursuing the former Celtics head coach.
Nurse, meanwhile, has been linked to Houston, where head coach Stephen Silas isn’t a lock to return next season. Nurse coached the Rockets‘ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, from 2011-13 before joining the Raptors.
NBA, NBPA Reach Tentative Deal On New CBA
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association reached a deal on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement early on Saturday morning, according to statements from the league and the players’ union.
The official announcements are light on specific details, simply stating that the new agreement is tentative and still needs to be ratified by the players and team owners. The NBA and NBPA said that they’ll announce more details once the new CBA is official.
However, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic, who initially broke word of the agreement, have already shared several of the most interesting changes in the new CBA.
According to Wojnarowski, the NBA and NBPA agreed at the last minute to push back the Friday, March 31 deadline for either side to opt out of the current CBA, since they felt they were closing in on an agreement. A few hours later, a tentative deal was in place.
The new CBA will begin in 2023/24 and will cover the next seven years, with a mutual opt-out after year six, Wojnarowski adds.
Here are some of the most notable ways the NBA will change in the new CBA, as reported by Wojnarowski and Charania:
In-season tournament
An in-season tournament could show up on the NBA schedule as soon as the 2023/24 season, if all the details are hammered out in time, according to ESPN. The first round of the tournament will be part of the regular season schedule, with the top eight teams advancing to a single-elimination event in December. The “Final Four” will be played at a neutral site — Las Vegas is among the cities receiving consideration.
It sounds like the plan is for NBA teams to have 80 regular season games scheduled as normal, with some of those games serving as the first round of the in-season tournament, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). The leftover games for the teams that don’t make the single-elimination portion of the tournament would be scheduled at a later date, while the two teams that make the final of the tournament would ultimately end up playing 83 games.
Prize money for the in-season tournament would be $500K per player, reports Charania (Twitter link).
Second tax apron
The NBA’s current “tax apron” is set a few million dollars above the luxury tax line. For instance, in 2022/23, the tax line is $150,267,000 and the tax apron is $156,983,000. Teams above the tax apron aren’t permitted to acquire players via sign-and-trade, use more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, or use the bi-annual exception.
In the new CBA, the league will implement a second tax apron that’s $17.5MM over the tax line, per ESPN. Clubs whose team salary is above that second apron will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level exception in free agency.
As Wojnarowski points out, that means taxpayer MLE signings like Donte DiVincenzo (Warriors), Joe Ingles (Bucks), Danilo Gallinari (Celtics), and John Wall (Clippers) wouldn’t have been permitted last summer, given how far those teams were over the tax line.
This changes will be “eased into” the salary cap over the next few years, according to ESPN’s report. Wojnarowski adds that there are expected to be new spending opportunities in free agency and on the trade market for non-taxpaying teams, though there are no details yet on how those new opportunties will work.
Minimum games-played requirement for postseason awards
As expected, the NBA will set a minimum number of games played for players to qualify for postseason awards, including MVP, Rookie of the Year, and All-NBA. That minimum will be 65 games, though it will come with some “conditions,” says Wojnarowski.
The ostensible goal of this change is to reduce teams’ generous deployment of “load management.” It will have the added effect of helping to simplify the criteria for award voters.
Bigger first year-raises on veteran contract extensions
Under the current CBA, a veteran who signs a contract extension can receive up to 120% of his previous salary in the first year of a new deal — or 120% of the NBA’s average salary, if he’s earning less than the league average.
The new CBA will increase that limit to 140% of the player’s previous salary, per Wojnarowski and Charania. It’s unclear at this point whether players earning less than the league average will also be able to make up to 140% of the average NBA salary in the first year of a veteran extension.
This rule change could benefit players like Jaylen Brown, OG Anunoby, and Domantas Sabonis, who will be eligible for extensions but who are earning well below their market value and likely wouldn’t have agreed to an extension that features a 20% first-year raise (40% may still not be enough in some cases, but it at least should increase the odds of a deal).
Extra two-way contract slot
Teams will be permitted to carry three players on two-way contracts in the new CBA rather than two, according to Wojnarowski and Charania. That will result in 90 league-wide two-way slots instead of just 60.
Drug testing
Players will no longer be tested for marijuana under the new CBA, tweets Charania. The process of phasing out marijuana testing has been ongoing for a few years. Random marijuana testing was a part of the current CBA, but the NBA and NBPA agreed not to resume those tests during the 2020 bubble in Orlando and has stuck with that policy ever since.
More details on the new CBA will likely be reported in the coming days and weeks as the league and the union work on formally ratifying the new agreement and getting it in place in time for the coming offseason.
Gradey Dick, Colby Jones, Others Declare For NBA Draft
Kansas freshman guard Gradey Dick announced on ESPN’s NBA Today on Friday that he has decided to enter the 2023 NBA draft and go pro, forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility, writes Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Dick had a solid year in his first and only college season, averaging 14.1 PPG and 5.1 RPG with a shooting line of .442/.403/.854 in 36 games (32.7 MPG) for the Jayhawks. He projects as a potential lottery pick, according to Givony, who has Dick ranked at No. 11 on his latest big board. Givony describes the 6’8″ wing as a player with “a high floor and plenty of upside left to tap into.”
Meanwhile, Xavier guard Colby Jones announced on Instagram that he’ll declare for the draft following a junior year in which he put up 15.0 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 4.4 APG with solid shooting percentages of 50.9% from the floor and 37.8% on three-pointers. He’ll forgo his remaining eligibility and go pro too, he confirms to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link).
Givony, who has Jones ranked 29th overall at ESPN, writes that his “passing ability and all-around feel for the game” are two of his most appealing traits as a prospect, adding that he has also shown defensive toughness.
Finally, Houston guard Marcus Sasser also intends to enter the draft and it sounds like he’ll forgo his final year of eligibility. The announcement he made on Instagram includes no indication that he’s leaving the door open to return to school.
Sasser averaged 17.0 PPG, 3.0 APG, and 2.8 RPG on .438/.399/.826 shooting across 48 games (31.1 MPG) during his final two years with the Cougars. He currently comes in as the No. 36 prospect on ESPN’s top-100 list.
Here are more of the prospects who recently declared for the 2023 draft:
Expected to remain in draft:
- Yuri Collins, G, Saint Louis (senior) (Instagram link)
- Jacob Toppin, F, Kentucky (senior) (press release)
Testing the draft waters:
- Charles Bediako, C, Alabama (sophomore) (Twitter link via Jon Chepkevich of RookieScale.com)
- Reece Beekman, G, Virginia (junior) (Twitter link via Rothstein)
- Note: Beekman is the No. 58 prospect on ESPN’s board.
- Tyrese Hunter, G, Texas (sophomore) (Twitter link)
- Paul Mulcahy, G, Rutgers (senior) (Instagram link)
- Jahvon Quinerly, G, Alabama (senior) (Twitter link via Rothstein)
- Jamarion Sharp, C, Western Kentucky (senior) (Instagram link)
- Note: Sharp is also entering the transfer portal.
- Steele Venters, G, Eastern Washington (junior) (Twitter link via Chepkevich)
- Note: Venters is also entering the transfer portal.
Rudy Gobert, Chris Finch Fined For Criticizing Officiating
Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and head coach Chris Finch were fined on Friday for the comments they made criticizing the officiating after Wednesday’s loss to Phoenix, the NBA announced in a press release (Twitter link).
Gobert’s fine was $25K, while Finch was docked $15K.
As we previously relayed, Gobert was upset in particular about the moving screens he was called for on Wednesday and throughout the season, and suggested that Minnesota doesn’t get a fair whistle because the Timberwolves aren’t a big-market team.
“I’ve been in this league for 10 years and I try to always give the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard for me to think they’re not trying to help (the Suns) win tonight,” Gobert said on Wednesday. “It’s hard for me to think they didn’t try to help the Warriors win the other night or Sacramento Kings the other night. It’s just so obvious. As a basketball player that’s been in this league for so long, it’s disrespectful.”
Finch wasn’t as direct in his criticism of the officiating, but he did take a page out of Monty Williams‘ book by griping about the free throw disparity between the Wolves and Suns on Wednesday. Finch suggested that Williams’ recent remarks along the same lines must have had a positive effect.
“It works because tonight they went to the line 27 times and we went to the line 12 times. Sitting up here and talking about it or whatever, must have worked for them,” Finch said, per Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. “Because this is a team that doesn’t historically draw fouls at the rate they did.”
Williams ($20K) and Fred VanVleet ($30K) are among those who have also been fined recently for their criticisms of the referees.
Northwest Notes: Thunder, Dort, Russell, Horton-Tucker
Following Wednesday’s win over Detroit, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was asked by Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman how important it is to the team to make the play-in. Daigneault’s response didn’t exactly make it sound as if Oklahoma City is going all-out to secure a top-10 spot in the Western Conference.
“I think if it is an outcome that’s downstream of our process and the way that we’re trying to do things, it would be great, because it would be a marker along the way,” Daigneault said, per Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (Twitter links). “Not so important that it’s gonna distract us from our way of doing things. We need to bet on that day over day over day. We’ve done that for two or three years. That’s what’s put us in a position to compete for the play-in, so for us to abandon that at this point would be hasty.”
The Thunder were projected to finish at or near the bottom of the NBA standings coming into training camp, especially given that No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren had been sidelined with a season-ending injury. As a result, player development rather than short-term success has been the primary goal in OKC this year
Daigneault’s comments suggest player development is still the top priority, but some of the Thunder’s young players – including breakout rookie Jalen Williams – have been so good that the club may still find itself in a play-in game. With five contests left in their season, the Thunder hold the No. 10 seed in the West and hold a one-game lead over the 11th-place Mavericks.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Within a profile on Luguentz Dort, who is in the first season of a five-year contract with Oklahoma City, Jason Quick of The Athletic notes that the Thunder forward drew high praise from Damian Lillard. The Trail Blazers star referred to Dort as the NBA’s best defender. “I think he has the perfect balance of strength, quickness, speed and desire to do it,” Lillard said. “And he’s young. So I just think he is the best at it.” Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also raved about his teammate, telling Quick that “every team needs a Lu Dort.”
- As his Lakers prepare for a big game in Minnesota on Friday night, point guard D’Angelo Russell had nothing but praise for his former team and his former city, as Chris Hine of The Star Tribune details. Russell was traded from the Timberwolves to L.A. at last month’s deadline. “Fans here were amazing. I have nothing bad to say about Minnesota,” Russell said. “If you’re not here or you haven’t lived here or anything like that, then you’re not aware of how good of a city (Minneapolis) is and a sports town, how committed fans are to their sports, things like that. So the city has a lot to offer. They treated me with great respect.”
- Talen Horton-Tucker is still learning the ropes at point guard for the Jazz, but he has shown some “undeniable talent” in the process, including on Wednesday when he scored 41 points in 30 minutes in San Antonio, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic. “There aren’t that many pure point guards left in the league,” head coach Will Hardy said of Horton-Tucker, who holds an $11MM player option for 2023/24. “Talen is dynamic. He knows how to run pick and roll. He has to know how to react when teams play him differently. He has to know to get off the ball when teams give him a lot of attention. But he’s very talented.”
One-And-Done Rule Not Expected To Change In New CBA
Facing an opt-out deadline of midnight Eastern time on Friday night, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association continue to discuss a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
If the two sides do reach an agreement today, the next CBA won’t change the “one-and-done” rule for draft prospects, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links). Discussions about that rule are no longer taking part of the CBA negotiations, Woj says.
The one-and-done rule, established in 2005, prohibits NBA hopefuls from entering the draft directly out of high school. Those players must wait a year before declaring for the NBA draft. As a result, many of the top prospects have become known as “one-and-done” players, since they spend just one year at college (or elsewhere) before making themselves draft-eligible.
Players used to be able to enter the draft directly out of high school – LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett were among the stars who did so – and there was some speculation in recent years that the NBA and NBPA would once again allow that to happen as part of the new CBA.
However, ESPN has been reporting for quite some time that no changes to the one-and-done rule are imminent, despite rumors the contrary, and it appears that’s still the case.
As Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter links) observes, there’s not a lot of motivation among teams, team owners, or players to change the rule. Giving NBA teams the ability to draft even younger players would make scouting more challenging and would eliminate jobs for veteran players.
According to Givony, while some people in the industry have had moral concerns about “forcing” 18-year-olds to attend college instead of beginning their professional careers, the emergence of alternate professional pathways to the NBA (ie. the G League Ignite and Overtime Elite) and NIL deals for college players have helped allay many of those concerns.
The NBA and NBPA both hope that a tentative agreement on a new CBA can be reached before tonight’s deadline, Wojnarowski notes. If there’s no deal in place by the end of the day, the league is expected to exercise its opt-out clause, which would move the expiry date of the current CBA up by one year to June 30, 2023. The two sides would still have three months to agree to a new CBA to avoid a lockout on July 1.
LaMarcus Aldridge Announces Retirement
Longtime NBA big man LaMarcus Aldridge has retired as a player, announcing the news today on Twitter.
“In the words of TB12, you only get one big, emotional retirement,” Aldridge wrote, referencing NFL star Tom Brady. “… So, on that note…I’m thankful for all the memories, family and friends I made throughout my career. It was one hell of a ride and I enjoyed every min!”
The second overall pick in the 2006 draft out of Texas, Aldridge averaged 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds in 1,076 career NBA regular season games for the Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Nets. He contributed 20.8 PPG and 8.5 RPG in another 72 postseason contests.
Aldridge, who is now 37 years old, was named to the NBA All-Star team seven times over the course of his 16-year career — four times with Portland and three with San Antonio. He also earned All-NBA Second Team honors twice and made the All-NBA Third Team three times.
This is technically the second retirement announcement Aldridge has made in the last two years. He initially said he was retiring in April 2021 after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during a game with the Nets. However, Aldridge became confident enough in his health to make a comeback in 2021/22, appearing in 47 games last season for Brooklyn.
Aldridge played his last NBA game on April 6, 2022. He reportedly worked out for Dallas last month, but didn’t catch on with the Mavericks or any other team this season.
Grizzlies’ Lofton Named G League Rookie Of The Year
First-year forward Kenneth Lofton Jr., who is on a two-way contract with the Grizzlies, has been named the G League Rookie of the Year for the 2022/23 season, according to the NBA (Twitter link).
Lofton has appeared in just 19 games and averaged only 5.5 MPG at the NBA level in his first professional season after signing with the Grizzlies as an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana Tech. However, he played a major role for the Memphis Hustle, the team’s G League affiliate.
In 17 regular season games for the Hustle, Lofton averaged a double-double (20.2 PPG, 10.5 RPG) despite logging a modest 28.6 minutes per night. He shot 53.9% from the floor and also chipped in 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals per contest. Lofton’s performance helped the Hustle secure the No. 2 seed in the NBAGL’s Western Conference with a 23-9 record.
Lofton will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer, since his two-way contract only covers the 2022/23 season.
According to the NBA (Twitter link), Warriors two-way guard Lester Quinones and Rockets two-way forward Darius Days finished second and third, respectively, in Rookie of the Year voting.
Quinones averaged 21.8 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 4.8 APG in 31 G League regular season games (32.0 MPG) for the Santa Cruz Warriors, while Days put up 24.4 PPG and 9.7 RPG on .486/.371/.857 shooting in 29 contests (35.6 MPG) for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.