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Author: Luke Adams

Former NBA Guard Toure’ Murry Announces Retirement

By | at September 6, 2022 11:29 am

Former Wichita State standout Toure’ Murry has announced his retirement as a professional basketball player, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link). Begley passes along a statement from Murry in which he makes his decision official.

“In bitter-sweetness, today I am announcing my retirement from basketball,” Murry wrote. “You never know when the ball will stop bouncing. The ball has officially stopped for me. I appreciate the game for opening unimaginable doors.”

After winning an NIT championship with the Shockers in 2011, Murry went undrafted in 2012 and began his career in the G League before eventually earning an NBA call-up. He appeared in 51 games for the Knicks during the 2013/14 season and played in five more contests for Utah and Washington the following year. In his 56 total NBA appearances, the combo guard averaged 2.6 points, 0.9 assists, and 0.8 rebounds in 7.0 minutes per contest.

Murry spent the next several years playing in the G League and in various leagues around the world, spending time in Turkey, Germany, Greece, Bosnia, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Kuwait, and Ukraine up until 2022.

According to Begley, Murry – who is still just 32 years old – is hoping to transition into coaching at the college or pro level.

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2022/23 NBA Over/Unders: Southeast Division

By | at September 6, 2022 9:11 am

The 2022/23 NBA regular season will tip off next month, so it’s time to start getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign and to resume an annual Hoops Rumors tradition.

With the help of the lines from a handful of sports betting sites – including Bovada, BetOnline, and Betway – we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division. In a series of team-by-team polls, you’ll get the chance to weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic.

In 2021/22, our voters went 16-14 on their over/under picks. Can you top that in ’22/23?

We’ll begin our series today with the Southeast division…

Miami Heat

How many games will the Heat win in 2022/23?

  • Under 50.5 57% (323)
  • Over 50.5 43% (248)

Total votes: 571

Atlanta Hawks

How many games will the Hawks win in 2022/23?

  • Over 46.5 54% (297)
  • Under 46.5 46% (257)

Total votes: 554

Charlotte Hornets

How many games will the Hornets win in 2022/23?

  • Under 36.5 63% (334)
  • Over 36.5 37% (196)

Total votes: 530

Washington Wizards

How many games will the Wizards win in 2022/23?

  • Under 35.5 51% (256)
  • Over 35.5 49% (248)

Total votes: 504

Orlando Magic

How many games will the Magic win in 2022/23?

  • Over 26.5 55% (259)
  • Under 26.5 45% (209)

Total votes: 468

15 comments Atlanta Hawks Charlotte Hornets Hoops Rumors Originals Miami Heat Orlando Magic Over/Unders Washington Wizards

Cavaliers In No Rush To Extend Caris LeVert

By | at September 6, 2022 7:55 am

After acquiring Donovan Mitchell to start in their backcourt alongside point guard Darius Garland, the Cavaliers appear to be in no rush to sign Caris LeVert to a contract extension, Michael Scotto said on the latest episode of the HoopsHype podcast.

LeVert is entering the final year of the three-year, $52.5MM extension he signed with Brooklyn back in 2019. He’ll earn approximately $18.8MM in 2022/23.

Prior to the trade for Mitchell, LeVert had been penciled in as Cleveland’s starting shooting guard, but his new role is still to be determined, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Scotto’s guest on the podcast.

Fedor expects LeVert to be in the mix for the starting small forward spot. If the Cavs instead opt to start Isaac Okoro or someone else at the three, LeVert would be the first man off the bench, serving as the primary initiator and scorer on the second unit.

As Fedor observes, LeVert’s role – and his success in that role – could go a long way toward determining how high the Cavs are willing to go on his next contract, so the team may exercise patience and let him play out the final year of his current deal.

Cleveland would be open to locking up LeVert to an extension if it’s at a team-friendly price, but there’s a feeling within the organization that he’ll want more than the front office is comfortable paying until there’s more clarity on where he fits in following the addition of Mitchell, says Fedor.

LeVert, who turned 28 in August, averaged 13.6 PPG, 3.9 APG, and 3.4 RPG in 19 appearances (29.8 MPG) for Cleveland last season following a midseason trade from the Pacers to the Cavaliers. He missed time due to a foot injury and his shooting averages (.435 FG%, .313 3PT%) were below his career marks, but there’s a sense the former Michigan Wolverine could have more to contribute to the ’22/23 Cavs.

LeVert will be extension-eligible all the way up until June 30, 2023, a day before he officially becomes a free agent, so if the Cavs put off an extension for now, they could still try to get something done during the season.

22 comments Cleveland Cavaliers Newsstand

Following Specific Players On Hoops Rumors

By | at September 5, 2022 4:00 pm

Hoops Rumors makes it easy to keep up with your favorite NBA teams as they plot their next moves, and we also provide multiple ways to follow the latest updates on all of your favorite players, including the top free agents and trade candidates from around the league.

You can get news about players wherever you go with our Trade Rumors app, available for iOS and Android devices. The app, which is free, allows you to add a feed for any player and set up notifications that will alert you whenever we write about him. It’s the easiest way to keep tabs on specific players.

If you’re using the desktop or mobile version of our site, there are other ways to follow your favorite player(s). Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find any player by using our search box, by clicking his tag at the bottom of a story in which he’s discussed, or by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces.

For example, LeBron James‘ page is hoopsrumors.com/lebron-james. Those player pages can be added to RSS readers too.

In addition to players, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags that we use at the bottom of posts or by searching for them in the app.

For instance, you can keep tabs on our 2023 NBA draft stories right here. Items about the NBA G League can be found on this page. Stories related to international basketball are all here. And you can simply scan our top stories here.

2 comments Hoops Rumors Originals

Pre-Camp Roster Snapshot: Northwest Division

By | at September 5, 2022 2:57 pm

Hoops Rumors is taking a closer look at each NBA team’s current roster situation, evaluating which clubs still have some moves to make and which ones seem most prepared for training camp to begin.

This series is meant to provide a snapshot of each team’s roster at this time, so these articles won’t be updated in the coming weeks as more signings, trades, and cuts are made. You can follow our roster counts page to keep tabs on teams’ open spots as opening night nears.

We’re wrapping up our pre-camp Roster Snapshot series today with the Northwest Division. Let’s dive in…

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets don’t really need to make any roster moves between now and the start of training camp. Their projected 15-man regular season roster looks set, as do their two-way slots — Gillespie suffered a major leg injury, but Denver reportedly intends to hang onto him as he recovers.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Knight, Nowell, and Rivers look like pretty safe bets to join the 12 players with guaranteed salaries on the 15-man regular season roster, but that’s not set in stone yet. The partial guarantees owed to Rivers ($650K) and Knight ($350K) are modest enough that the Wolves could theoretically go in a different direction without being on the hook for much money.

Still, a player like Elleby or Garza would probably have to really impress Minnesota in training camp and the preseason in order to make the regular season squad.

Oklahoma City Thunder

With 17 players on guaranteed contracts and Krejci owed a $782K partial guarantee, the Thunder will have to trade or release at least three players on standard deals before opening night. Bazley, Favors, Jerome, Maledon, and Krejci are among those whose roster spots may not be 100% guaranteed quite yet.

Additionally, while Oklahoma City doesn’t have a two-way opening, it wouldn’t be a shock if the team makes a change to one of its two-way slots in the next month and a half. A player in the second year of a two-way contract, like Waters, often has a tenuous hold on his spot if he hasn’t yet proven himself as a rotation player.

Portland Trail Blazers

Having moved out of luxury tax territory by a hair, the Trail Blazers are unlikely to fill their 15th roster spot, which would put them back in the tax. But they do still have a two-way spot to fill — Miller, Rhoden, Cacok, and Sarr would all be eligible to have their Exhibit 10 contracts converted into two-way deals, so there could be an open competition in camp.

Utah Jazz

Having acquired more players than they sent out in the Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Patrick Beverley trades, the Jazz now have a roster logjam to clear. They’ll have to trade or waive at least two more players with guaranteed contracts before the regular season tips off.

It’s hard to say at this point whose roster spots might be in danger, since there are still several trade candidates on Utah’s roster, including Beasley, Bogdanovic, Bolmaro, Clarkson, Conley, Gay, and Johnson. If multiple players from that group are on the move in the coming weeks, the issue may ultimately sort itself out (for instance, trading three players in exchange for Russell Westbrook and draft compensation would quickly clear the excess).

Previously:

30 comments Denver Nuggets Hoops Rumors Originals Minnesota Timberwolves Oklahoma City Thunder Portland Trail Blazers Utah Jazz

Jeremy Lin Signs With Guangzhou Loong Lions

By | at September 5, 2022 1:48 pm

Veteran free agent point guard Jeremy Lin has signed with the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association, according to the team. Lin published an Instagram post confirming his new basketball home.

Lin, who turned 34 in August, hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since the 2018/19 season, when he won a championship as a Raptors reserve. However, he has continued to play in China and the G League since then, suiting up for the Beijing Ducks in 2019/20 and ’21/22, and for the Santa Cruz Warriors in 2021.

Lin has seen action in a total of 480 regular season NBA games, averaging 11.6 PPG and 4.3 APG in 25.5 minutes per contest for the Warriors, Knicks, Rockets, Lakers, Hornets, Nets, Hawks, and Raptors. He’s best remembered for his “Linsanity” run with the Knicks during the post-lockout 2011/12 season.

Last season, Lin battled a bad case of COVID-19, spending three months in isolation and losing 20 pounds, according to Matt Eaton of the South China Morning Post. Lin said that the “mental and physical impact” of that experience took its toll, but it sounds like he’s ready to return to the court. The 2022/23 season will be the first time he has played for a non-Beijing CBA team since 2011, when he was a member of the Dongguan Leopards.

5 comments International

Mavs Have Considered Adding Veteran Ball-Handler

By | at September 5, 2022 12:16 pm

The Mavericks have mulled the possibility of adding one more ball-handling veteran to their roster before the start of the season, Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack article.

Currently, the Mavs have 14 players on guaranteed standard contracts and one (Tyler Dorsey) on a two-way deal, so there would be room to add another player to the 15-man regular season roster and/or via a two-way contract.

According to Stein, Dallas believes there’s a good argument for leaving that 15th roster spot open for now, since it would allow the team to maintain some roster flexibility and wouldn’t further increase its projected luxury tax bill. It’s possible the Mavs will stand pat for now and allow players like Frank Ntilikina, Josh Green, and Dorsey to vie for a regular ball-handling role in training camp and the preseason, Stein writes.

The Mavs already have two strong options to handle the ball, with superstar Luka Doncic and veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie both expected to play major roles. But the team did lose Jalen Brunson in free agency this offseason and hasn’t acquired an obvious replacement for him.

As we outlined over the weekend, a pair of high-ranking Mavericks executives – president of basketball operations Nico Harrison and VP of basketball ops Michael Finley – were in attendance on Saturday to watch Dennis Schröder and the Germans defeat the Bosnian national team at EuroBasket. Schröder is one veteran free agent who could be on Dallas’ radar. Eric Bledsoe, Facundo Campazzo, Elfrid Payton, and Dennis Smith Jr. are among the others available, Stein notes.

One option for the Mavs if they don’t want to lock a player into that 15th roster spot for the entire season would be to carry a point guard on a non-guaranteed contract this fall, giving the club the flexibility to make a change without having to eat that 15th man’s full salary. However, it’s unclear how many of the top veteran free agents left on the market would accept non-guaranteed deals.

32 comments Dallas Mavericks Newsstand

Blazers To Sign Devontae Cacok To Exhibit 10 Deal

By | at September 5, 2022 11:02 am

The Trail Blazers are signing free agent big man Devontae Cacok to an Exhibit 10 contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Cacok, who will turn 26 next month, spent the 2021/22 season with the Spurs, first on a two-way contract and then on a rest-of-season deal. He became an unrestricted free agent this summer when the team didn’t issue him a qualifying offer.

A former Laker, Cacok appeared in 15 games last season with the Spurs, averaging 3.1 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 8.1 minutes per contest. The forward/center saw more action at the G League level for San Antonio’s affiliate, piling up 18.7 PPG and 11.8 RPG in 37 total NBAGL games (29.5 MPG) for the Austin Spurs.

Because Portland doesn’t have a G League team, Cacok’s Exhibit 10 contract won’t put him in line for a bonus, but it does make him eligible to have his deal converted into a two-way contract before the start of the season. Currently, the Blazers have one two-way slot open, with Brandon Williams filling the other.

Jared Rhoden and Isaiah Miller are already on Exhibit 10 deals with the Blazers, and Olivier Sarr is reportedly set to join them.

7 comments Portland Trail Blazers Transactions

Community Shootaround: Washington Wizards

By | at September 5, 2022 9:45 am

The Wizards got off to one of the hottest starts of any NBA team in 2021/22, winning 10 of their first 13 games and claiming the No. 1 seed in the East after the first four weeks of the season.

Washington’s impressive run to open the season looked like a vindication of the team’s offseason moves, including its decision to hire Wes Unseld Jr. as head coach and trade Russell Westbrook for a package that included Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Montrezl Harrell. Head of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard received a promotion and an extension following the club’s 10-3 start.

Things took an unfortunate turn after that, however. The Wizards went just 25-44 the rest of the way, falling not just out of a playoff spot but out of the play-in picture too — they ultimately finished 12th in the Eastern Conference, eight games behind the 10th-place Hornets.

The Wizards’ poor finish to the 2021/22 season doesn’t mean the organization was wrong to hire Unseld, trade Westbrook, or extend Sheppard. After all, the slump could be attributed in large part due to an injury that sidelined star Bradley Beal for over half the season. Still, even when Beal was healthy, there wasn’t enough talent on the court to consider the Wizards a legitimate threat in the East.

It wouldn’t have been out of the question for the Wizards to take a hard look at the roster this offseason, acknowledge its flaws, and commit to a retooling or rebuilding project, the way the Jazz have done. But with Beal eligible for free agency, getting a huge return back in a sign-and-trade deal would have been challenging, and Washington didn’t have a ton of other valuable trade chips to cash in for future first-round picks.

Instead of blowing things up, the Wizards doubled down on the current group, signing Beal to a record-setting five-year contract that will pay him more than $50MM per year and includes a full no-trade clause. The club traded for Monte Morris and Will Barton, signed Delon Wright and Taj Gibson, and used its lottery pick to select guard Johnny Davis.

With those new additions, a healthy Beal, a full season of Kristaps Porzingis, and further development from recent first-rounders like Rui Hachimura, Deni Avdija, and Corey Kispert, it’s easy to envision the 2022/23 Wizards taking a step forward.

But there’s not a whole lot of margin for error — if Beal and/or Porzingis battle injuries again, there may not be enough firepower on the roster to make up for their absences. And if at least one of Hachimura, Avdija, or Kispert doesn’t take a significant step toward becoming a reliable starter, it’s hard to see where the internal growth is coming from.

We want to know what you think. Is this Wizards team headed in the right direction, or is still a borderline play-in contender that will be treading water until the franchise commits to a more drastic overhaul?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts on the outlook in Washington!

19 comments Community Shootaround Hoops Rumors Originals Washington Wizards

Celtics Notes: Gallinari, G. Williams, Hauser, Trade Exceptions

By | at September 2, 2022 3:58 pm

NBA players who sustain ACL tears often take a full calendar year to return to action, but Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari isn’t giving up on playing in 2022/23 after learning of his diagnosis, according to Tim Bontemps and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. A source tells Wojnarowski that Gallinari is determined to try to play before before the end of the season.

“This has been a tough week for me as I have learned the extent of my injury,” Gallinari wrote today in a statement on Twitter. “This game means everything to me and not being able to be on the court with my Celtics teammates hurts. I plan to give everything I can to the Celtics organization and my teammates as we hunt for a title.”

Even if the Celtics make another deep playoff run and play into May or June, Gallinari would need to make it back onto the court approximately eight or nine months after tearing his ACL in order to contribute in the postseason. That’s a tall order for any player, let alone a 34-year-old who tore the same ACL in 2013.

Here’s more out of Boston:

  • Gallinari is expected to undergo surgery on his left knee after the swelling goes down, a league source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. According to Himmelsbach, Grant Williams will likely play an increased role with Gallinari out, while Sam Hauser will have a chance to earn a spot in the regular rotation.
  • Jared Weiss of The Athletic takes a look at what’s next for the Celtics with Gallinari sidelined, noting that Boston still has a pair of trade exceptions worth $6.9MM and $5.9MM that could be useful if the team wants to try to add some reliable veteran depth via trade.
  • In another article for The Athletic, Weiss examines how the Cavaliers’ acquisition of Donovan Mitchell affects the Celtics’ place in the Eastern Conference hierarchy and considers whether Collin Sexton‘s new four-year, $72MM deal will be a reference point when Boston discusses a potential rookie scale extension with Grant Williams.
15 comments Boston Celtics
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