Southeast Notes: Highsmith, Butler, W. Carter, Wizards
It has been a good week for Heat forward Haywood Highsmith so far. He had his best game of the season on Wednesday in Boston, matching a career high with 16 points while chipping in eight rebounds, a pair of blocks, and a career-best four 3-pointers.
Additionally, by remaining on the Heat’s roster through Thursday, Highsmith saw his partial guarantee increase to $700K, tweets Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Highsmith, whose full salary for the 2022/23 season is $1,752,638, will have that entire amount guaranteed if he’s not waived on or before January 7.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- With Jimmy Butler – upgraded to questionable for Friday’s game – on the verge of making his return for the Heat following a seven-game absence, head coach Erik Spoelstra remains confident that better days are ahead for the sub-.500 club, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Even on that (Nov. 16-21) road trip, when we were 0-4, we showed incredible resiliency,” Spoelstra said. “And that’s when I started to think, ‘Alright, we’ve got something here, we do.’ Our record may be this, but we’re developing some requisite toughness, some collective grit, some collective resiliency to be able to deal with runs and deal with crowds, deal with all that kind of stuff.”
- Magic center Wendell Carter Jr., who has been out since November 18 due to a right plantar fascia strain, told Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday that he hopes to return in a week or two. Price cautions that Carter’s timeline remains fluid and will ultimately depend on how the foot responds to treatment.
- Billionaire Jeffrey Skoll is buying into Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Wizards and other D.C.-area sports franchises, per Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico (subscription required). Skoll, who was the first president of eBay and has an estimated worth of $5.6 billion, will become a minority stakeholder in Ted Leonsis‘ parent company, which also controls the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics.
Lakers Waive Matt Ryan
3:38pm: The Lakers have officially waived Ryan, the team confirmed (Twitter link).
7:05am: The Lakers are waiving sharpshooter Matt Ryan, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). The move will open up a spot on Los Angeles’ standard 15-man roster and the team has no plans to immediately fill it.
Ryan, who has talked about working as a DoorDash driver after going undrafted out of Chattanooga in 2020, eventually landed with the Grand Rapids Gold in the G League in 2021/22, then made his NBA debut with the Celtics this past spring. He joined the Lakers on a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract in September and earned a spot on the regular season roster.
Although Ryan has exhibited the ability to knock down three-pointers, having made 13-of-35 attempts (37.1%) for L.A. this season, he only converted 2-of-14 two-pointers. In total, he averaged 3.9 PPG in 12 appearances (10.8 MPG).
Both Charania and Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link) frame the decision to waive Ryan as one the Lakers made to give themselves extra roster flexibility when several of their players become trade-eligible on December 15 and they start to seriously consider potential deals.
However, as Bobby Marks of ESPN and Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report (Twitter links) note, Ryan’s full-season salary wouldn’t have become guaranteed for another six weeks, so the Lakers could’ve waived him anytime before January 7 if they needed his roster spot to accommodate a trade.
Marks points out (via Twitter) that the Lakers, given their tax position, will save $61K per day without Ryan on the roster. Pincus, meanwhile, suggests that the decision to release the 25-year-old now may be partly logistical, since the team is about to embark upon a six-game road trip and likely determined it didn’t make sense to bring Ryan on that trip if he was already on the chopping block.
Assuming Ryan is officially cut on Thursday, he’ll have earned $442,439 for the 45 days he spent on the Lakers’ roster and the two he’ll spend on waivers.
Atlantic Notes: M. Robinson, Knicks, Trent, Hauser
Responding early on Wednesday morning to a fan who asked him about the possibility of working with Amar’e Stoudemire on his post moves, Knicks center Mitchell Robinson replied, “The way we play is not set up for me to do any moves.”
As Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News writes, Robinson’s tweet could have been read as a simple statement of fact about the Knicks’ system, or it could have been interpreted as a “subliminal complaint” about his role, since the big man has occasionally griped about his lack of involvement on offense in the past.
Robinson answered that question during and after Wednesday’s game against Milwaukee. He scored 15 points and racked up 20 boards, including 11 on the offensive glass, then told reporters in his postgame media session that he has no complaints about his role, per Zach Braziller of The New York Post.
“If I was unhappy, I wouldn’t have (done) what I came out here and did today and last game,” Robinson said. “I would’ve just chilled out and just (said), ‘Oh well.'”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- There is “heightened scrutiny” on the Knicks‘ game-by-game performance internally at MSG, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. There has been some speculation that head coach Tom Thibodeau‘s seat could get hotter if the team doesn’t show signs of taking a step forward, but Begley says “the entire organization is under the microscope” in the wake of an up-and-down 10-12 start.
- With a potentially huge payday looming during the 2023 offseason, it’s a big year for Raptors wing Gary Trent Jr., who put in extra work in an effort to break out of a recent slump, as Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca details. Challenged by head coach Nick Nurse to be more disruptive on defense, Trent has 11 steals in his last four games and poured in a season-high 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting off the bench on Wednesday in New Orleans.
- Celtics sharpshooter Sam Hauser is enjoying a breakout season in Boston, notes Chris Mannix of SI.com. While Hauser’s traditional stats – including 7.5 PPG on .514/.479/.778 shooting – are solid, it’s his advanced stats that really jump off the page. The former undrafted free agent leads the Eastern Conference in offensive rating (124.1) and net rating (+19.1) through his first 22 games. Boston re-signed Hauser to a three-year, minimum-salary contract over the summer, locking him into a team-friendly deal through 2024/25.
Khris Middleton Plans To Return On Friday
DECEMBER 1: Middleton intends to make his season debut on Friday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN confirms (via Twitter).
NOVEMBER 30: Bucks wing Khris Middleton is getting close to making his season debut, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Middleton could be available as soon as Friday when Milwaukee hosts the Lakers.
A three-time All-Star, Middleton underwent wrist surgery in the offseason to repair a torn ligament and has spent the last several months recovering and working his way back to full health. He has been assigned to the G League multiple times this month in order to practice with the Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s NBAGL affiliate.
When Middleton first went under the knife, reports indicated that he might be ready to return around the start of the regular season. On the day before the season got underway, another report suggested the Bucks were hoping to have him back at some point in November.
The 31-year-old has been ruled out for Wednesday’s contest against the Knicks, so a November return won’t happen, but if he’s back on Friday, he’ll be available for Milwaukee’s first December game. Following the game vs. the Lakers, the Bucks will embark upon a brief road trip to Charlotte on Saturday and Orlando on Monday.
Middleton had another productive season in 2021/22, averaging at least 20 points per game (20.1) for a third straight season to go along with 5.4 RPG and a career-high 5.4 APG in 66 games (32.4 MPG). However, a sprained MCL sidelined him during the postseason and he was unavailable when the Bucks fell to Boston in a seven-game second round series.
Milwaukee has gotten off to a good start this season, even with Middleton and offseason signee Joe Ingles (ACL) on the shelf. The club’s 14-5 record is the NBA’s second-best mark.
NBA Waiver Order Now Based On 2022/23 Records
As of December 1, the NBA’s waiver priority order is determined by teams’ current-year records, rather than the previous season’s results.
That means, starting today, the waiver order for this season is based on teams’ 2022/23 records, with the worst teams getting the highest priority. In other words, if two teams place a claim on the same player, the team lower in this season’s NBA standings will be awarded that player.
Up until today, the waiver claim order was based on which teams had the worst records in 2021/22.
Waiver claims are somewhat rare in the NBA, but it’s still worth noting which teams will have the first crack at intriguing players who may be cut over the next few weeks or months.
[RELATED: 2022/23 NBA Waiver Claims]
Here’s what the teams currently at the top of the NBA’s waiver order look like, as of today:
- Detroit Pistons (5-18)
- Orlando Magic (5-17)
- Houston Rockets (5-16)
- San Antonio Spurs (6-16)
- Charlotte Hornets (6-15)
- Los Angeles Lakers (8-12)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (9-13)
- Chicago Bulls (9-12)
- Miami Heat (10-12) (tie)
New York Knicks (10-12) (tie)
In instances where multiple teams have identical records, head-to-head record for the current season is used to break ties, if possible. Otherwise, a coin flip determines priority for those tied teams. That would be the case for the Heat and Knicks right now, since they’ve yet to face one another this season.
If a waived player can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception, a team must use a trade exception, a disabled player exception, or cap room to absorb his salary. So a club with a top priority won’t be in position to nab just anyone who reaches waivers.
The Pistons, for example, have no cap space or exceptions available to place a waiver claim on any player earning more than the minimum, so despite their spot at the top of the waiver order, their ability to claim players is somewhat limited.
Chandler Hutchison To Retire
Former first-round pick Chandler Hutchison has decided to “step away” from basketball, he confirmed on his Instagram account.
An announcement from Hutchison’s G League team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, first indicated that the 26-year-old had decided to retire. The Skyforce – Miami’s NBAGL affiliate – buried the news in a press release about the team acquiring forward Wayne Stewart, and Hutchison subsequently shared his own announcement in his Instagram story.
“Due to personal reasons I have decided to step away from playing basketball at this time and assess what is best for my future moving forward,” Hutchison wrote. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I truly believe God has a plan and this is a step in reaching something greater than I could ever imagine. Thank you and God bless!”
Hutchison’s announcement doesn’t explicitly mention retirement, so it’s possible he intends to take a hiatus and attempt a comeback at some point down the road.
If he doesn’t return to basketball, the former Boise State standout will finish his career having appeared in 103 total NBA games for the Bulls, Wizards, and Suns. He averaged 5.4 PPG and 3.7 RPG on .442/.309/.643 shooting in 17.4 minutes per contest.
Hutchison spent his first two-and-a-half NBA seasons in Chicago before being sent to Washington as part of a three-team trade at the 2021 deadline. He was subsequently flipped to San Antonio in a five-team offseason trade and was waived by the Spurs.
His last stint on the NBA was on a two-way deal with the Suns in the first half of the 2021/22 season. He was cut by Phoenix this past January and has been playing in the G League since then.
Hutchison was off to a good start in Sioux Falls this season, averaging 16.6 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 2.4 APG on .475/.615/.625 shooting in five games (33.8 MPG).
Celtics Sign Al Horford To Two-Year Extension
3:00pm: Horford’s two-year extension is now official, the Celtics announced in a press release.
“Al is such an important part of our team,” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. “He’s a high-level player who enhances everyone around him on both ends of the court. His work ethic, commitment to his body and craft, and his unselfishness set a daily example on how to win big in the NBA. His leadership has had a big impact on the coaches and players he’s competed alongside here in Boston, and we’re excited that he and his family are choosing to remain Celtics for years to come.”
8:31am: Horford’s two-year, $20MM extension will be fully guaranteed and will include a trade kicker, a source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).
8:02am: The Celtics and center Al Horford have agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $20MM, agent Jason Glushon tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The new deal will begin in 2023/24 and will keep Horford under team control until 2025.
Horford is currently earning $26.5MM in the final season season of the four-year, $109MM contract he signed with the Sixers in 2019, the last time he reached free agency. The veteran big man left Boston for Philadelphia that offseason despite a widespread expectation that he and the Celtics would work out a new deal.
This time around, he and the C’s have finalized an agreement well ahead of his free agency to avoid a repeat of that situation. Horford had stated last month that he wanted to play for two or three more seasons and finish his career in Boston.
Horford is 36 years old and his new contract will expire when he’s 39. However, he has remained extremely effective into his mid-30s and the Celtics’ commitment to him reflects a confidence that his solid play will continue for at least a couple more years.
In 18 games (all starts) this season, Horford has averaged 10.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 31.3 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .555/.488/.625. As Wojnarowski observes within his report, the five-time All-Star is also highly respected within the locker room and in the wider Boston community.
Prior to this agreement, only $19.5MM of Horford’s $26.5MM salary for 2022/23 was guaranteed, but it was always a safe bet that he’d earn that full amount — this deal will formalize that, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
The extension signals that Boston is comfortable remaining a taxpayer beyond this season. Prior to signing Horford, the club had already committed $145MM+ in guaranteed money to eight players for 2023/24 (including Danilo Gallinari‘s player option). Barring cost-cutting moves, the Celtics’ team salary is now on track to comfortably surpass the projected $162MM luxury tax line for next season, especially if they re-sign Grant Williams.
As our tracker shows, Horford will become the 17th player to sign a veteran extension during the 2022/23 league year.
Southwest Notes: H. Jones, Kemba, Mavs, Spurs
Pelicans forward Herb Jones is a bargain on his current contract, which pays him $1.79MM this season. But he’ll be looking at an eight-figure annual salary worth “at the very least” the mid-level exception and “almost certainly above it” on his next deal if he continues on his current path, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst predicted in his most recent Hoop Collective podcast.
Windhorst’s comments stemmed from a discussion of a feature by Marc J. Spears of Andscape on the second-year Pelicans forward. As Spears details in his story, Jones prefers to live modestly and think “long-term” for his family — he still drives his car from college and wears Pelicans gear rather than spending extravagantly on a new wardrobe.
“If he wants to drive a Dodge Charger and keep wearing the team-issued gear, that’s fine, but he will have tens of millions in the bank doing so,” Windhorst said with a laugh.
Jones, who told Spears that he aspires to be named to the NBA’s All-Defensive team, is under contract for one more season after this one, with a minimum-salary team option for 2023/24. He’ll become extension-eligible during the 2023 offseason and would be a restricted free agent in 2024 if he hasn’t signed a new deal by then.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- New Mavericks point guard Kemba Walker said during Tuesday’s TNT broadcast that he aims to bring ball-handling skills and leadership to the franchise, describing himself as a “good locker room guy” (Twitter link via Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News). On Wednesday, Walker told reporters, including Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News, that he hopes to play for the Mavs “sooner rather than later,” adding that he feels “really good” physically. “I feel as good as I’ve felt in a very long time,” Walker said. “I really took my time and made sure I felt better before I really started ramping myself up as well. Yeah, I know I can just say that, but I guess we’ll just have to see for real.”
- Head coach Jason Kidd said that using the team’s 15th roster spot on players with non-guaranteed salaries will give the Mavericks the flexibility to keep auditioning free agents until they find one they want to commit to. “Some could say we didn’t give (Facundo) Campazzo a fair shot,” Kidd said, per Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. “He didn’t play a lot of minutes. But this is the way we want to use this 15th spot – look at different situations or different guys. Hopefully, Kemba is the guy if Luka (Doncic) or Spencer (Dinwiddie) are out that he can play that role as a backup.”
- Point guard Tre Jones and several of his young Spurs teammates aren’t accustomed to losing as much as they have so far this season and don’t want to get used to it, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “A lot of us come from the background of winning — that’s why we are here,” Jones said. “We talk about it in the locker room. We talk about it every single day, trying to figure out how we can turn this thing around and start stacking some wins again.”
Injury Notes: MPJ, Hyland, Oladipo, Pelicans, Clippers, Holmgren
Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. (left heel contusion) will miss his fourth consecutive game on Wednesday, but Denver will get some reinforcements vs. Houston with Bones Hyland (non-COVID illness) set to make his return following a three-game absence, per Harrison Wind or DNVR Sports (Twitter links).
Hyland last played on November 22 and was hampered by his illness on that night, logging just nine minutes. The Nuggets guard said today that he “couldn’t breathe on the floor” during that game, but is “feeling great” now, according to Mike Singer of The Denver Post.
Here are a few more health-related updates from around the NBA:
- Heat guard Victor Oladipo practiced with the team on Tuesday, but there wasn’t any contact during that session and he won’t play on the current road trip, which runs through next Monday, head coach Erik Spoelstra said today (link via Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel). While Oladipo hasn’t played yet this season due to left knee tendinosis, it sounds like he’s making progress toward a return.
- Pelicans guard CJ McCollum has exited the NBA’s health and safety protocols, but will remain sidelined on Wednesday as he attempts to get back into game shape, tweets Andrew Lopez of ESPN. New Orleans did get some good news on Larry Nance Jr. — he’ll be available after missing Monday’s game with a right shoulder injury.
- Still without Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Luke Kennard, the Clippers added Norman Powell to their injury report for Wednesday’s game in Utah due to a left groin strain. Powell is doubtful to play, says Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link).
- Thunder big man Chet Holmgren will undergo a follow-up procedure to remove the “hardware” in his right foot from his previous surgery, a team spokesperson tells Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. The procedure had been planned and is a sign that Holmgren is making progress, Mussatto adds.
Wizards Among Potential Suitors For Jae Crowder
The Wizards appear to be among the trade suitors for Suns forward Jae Crowder, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on his latest Hoop Collective podcast. Crowder has sat out the entire 2022/23 season as Phoenix has looked to move him, and Washington is in the market for a three-and-D type player.
“There’s been some chatter about them looking at a guy like Jae Crowder,” Windhorst said of the Wizards (hat tip to RealGM). “I’m pretty confident there’s been some discussions between the Wizards and Suns. We’ve been talking about Jae Crowder now for about two months. It’s obvious it’s a hard trade to pull off. The Wizards have a bunch of guys who make decent salaries on their roster that they can use in trades.”
A number of Eastern Conference playoff contenders have already been linked to Crowder, with the Heat, Hawks, and Bucks among the teams said to have interest. There was a sense a couple weeks ago that Phoenix might be on the verge of completing a deal involving the 32-year-old, but nothing has come of those rumors to date.
The Suns are one of the NBA’s best teams and will be looking for win-now pieces – rather than draft picks or prospects – in any Crowder trade, which has made it challenging for them to make a straight-up trade with another contending club. They’ve reportedly explored multi-team scenarios in an effort to get the sort of player(s) they’re targeting.
According to Windhorst, Phoenix would like to acquire a power forward in a Crowder trade. A previous report indicated the Suns have interest in Kyle Kuzma, but the Wizards are presumably looking to supplement Kuzma in their frontcourt rather than give him up, given the year he’s having. Former lottery picks Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija could be trade candidates, as Windhorst observes.
“What Phoenix has been looking for in return for Jae Crowder is a power forward,” Windhorst said. “So you can look at the (Wizards’) roster and you can identify that maybe Hachimura would be a guy. But they haven’t made the deal yet, so there hasn’t been a connection there.
“… To be honest with you, if I was Phoenix – now again, this is me speaking, this is not what I’ve heard, to be clear – I’d be interested in Avdija. I am interested in what he can do defensively. But I haven’t heard that. I’ve just heard that those two sides have talked.”
Crowder ($10.18MM) and Hachimura ($6.26MM) are on expiring contracts, while Avdija ($4.92MM) has one more year left on his rookie deal after this one.