Players Waived After Tuesday Won’t Be Playoff-Eligible
In order to retain his postseason eligibility for a new NBA team, a player must be waived on or before March 1. That means that any player who remains on an NBA roster after today won’t be eligible to suit up in the playoffs for a new team, though there’s at least one key exception to that general rule.
A player who is currently on a 10-day contract – or who signs one in March – will retain his playoff eligibility going forward. For instance, once Willie Cauley-Stein‘s 10-day deal with the Sixers expires this weekend, he’d still be able to re-sign with Philadelphia or join a new team and be eligible to play in the postseason, since he’s not being placed on waivers after March 1.
Here’s the list of players currently on 10-day contracts who will retain their playoff eligibility when their current deals expire:
- Drew Eubanks, Trail Blazers (runs through 3/3)
- Malik Fitts, Celtics (3/4)
- Kelan Martin, Celtics (3/4)
- Willie Cauley-Stein, Sixers (3/5)
- Tim Frazier, Cavaliers (3/7)
- Haywood Highsmith, Heat (3/7)
- D.J. Wilson, Raptors (3/9)
- Note: Alize Johnson is reportedly signing a 10-day contract with the Pelicans, but it’s not yet official. Like the players above, he’ll still be playoff-eligible.
It’s also worth clarifying that a player doesn’t have to sign with a new team by March 1 to be playoff-eligible — he simply has to be placed on waivers by 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday. As long as a player who fits that bill signs with a new team by the final day of the regular season (April 10), he can play in the postseason.
The buyout market in 2022 hasn’t featured as many notable names as it has in some recent years, but we’ve still seen a handful of potential rotation players become available since the trade deadline. Goran Dragic, Tristan Thompson, Tomas Satoransky, Jevon Carter, DeAndre’ Bembry, and D.J. Augustin are among the veterans who have been waived since February 10 and who have since found new teams.
All of those players will be playoff-eligible for their new clubs, but anyone on a standard contract who is waived after Tuesday won’t be. We know that the Lakers will officially release DeAndre Jordan today — we’ll keep an eye out for any other veterans who might hit waivers in the next 15 hours or so.
Nuggets Notes: Porter, Murray, Jokic, Bench
Following up on ESPN’s report that Michael Porter Jr. (back) is hoping to play at some point in March, Sam Amick of The Athletic provides some additional details, citing a source with knowledge of the situation who says the Nuggets forward is on track to return in mid-to-late March.
Sources tell The Athletic that there’s a “strong sense” within Denver’s locker room that both Porter and Jamal Murray (ACL tear) will be back in time for the playoffs, if not sooner. However, Murray’s timeline is trickier to pin down than Porter’s, according to Amick. Given the severity of Murray’s injury and the sensitivity with which the Nuggets have handled his recovery, the team figures to “handle the final stages of his process with the utmost care,” Amick writes.
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- While Nuggets star Nikola Jokic would love to have his injured teammates back in the lineup, he’s not exactly seeking constant updates on their respective situations, as Amick relays. “To be honest, I don’t think about it,” Jokic said. “I’d rather them be healthy than to come back early, so I don’t even think about it. So I just wish them to get healthy, 100 percent.”
- Mike Singer and Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post discuss the potential impact of Porter’s return, disagreeing about whether he’ll re-enter the Nuggets’ starting lineup. Kiszla doesn’t think that will happen until next season, while Singer believes it makes sense to start MPJ once he’s ready in order to move Jeff Green to the bench and decrease Jokic’s offensive workload.
- The Nuggets’ second unit was a liability earlier in the season, but it has morphed into a legitimate weapon since the team traded for Bryn Forbes and signed DeMarcus Cousins, Singer writes in a separate article for The Denver Post. The club got a season-high 76 points from its bench in Sunday’s win over Portland, including a combined 39 points and 18 rebounds from Cousins and JaMychal Green.
Lakers’ Struggles Create Draft-Pick Drama For Grizzlies, Pelicans
The Lakers hit a new low on Sunday night, suffering a blowout home loss to the Pelicans in which they were booed repeatedly by the crowd at Crypto.com Arena, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. It was the ninth loss in 12 games for an L.A. team that is now 27-33 on the season and only has a 2.5-game lead on the 11th-place Trail Blazers.
As McMenamin observes, it won’t get any easier this week for the Lakers, who face the Mavericks on Tuesday, the Clippers on Thursday, and the Warriors on Saturday. The Lakers are 1-5 against those teams so far this season, narrowly squeaking out an overtime victory in mid-December over a Dallas squad that was missing Luka Doncic.
As Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes, LeBron James was among the Lakers who had no answers after Sunday’s performance. Russell Westbrook, who had one assist and seven turnovers on Sunday, hypothesized that teams are giving a little extra effort in games against the reeling Lakers.
“Teams are coming in, playing harder, and I believe that’s kind of their scouting report: Just play harder than them and see what happens,” Westbrook said, per McMenamin. “And it’s working. Until we determine and have the determination that we’re not going to allow it, especially on our home floor, it will continue to happen to us.”
The Lakers are expected to be without Anthony Davis for a few more weeks and are currently 3.5 games back of the eighth-seeded Clippers. If they can’t move into the top eight of the Western Conference by the end of the season, they’ll have to win two games in a play-in tournament to even qualify for the playoffs.
The Lakers’ increasingly disappointing season is likely being monitored closely for draft-related reasons by two Western Conference rivals, the Pelicans and Grizzlies. New Orleans acquired the Lakers’ unprotected 2022 first-round pick in the Davis blockbuster in 2019, then flipped it to Memphis in last summer’s Jonas Valanciunas deal.
When the Pelicans traded the Lakers’ 2022 first-rounder to the Grizzlies, they added top-10 protection to it, so New Orleans will get the pick if it falls between No. 1 and No. 10. If it lands between 11 and 30, Memphis will receive it. It seemed like a pretty safe bet entering the season that the pick would end up in the back half of the first round, but that’s far from a sure thing now, as John Hollinger of The Athletic (Twitter link) and others have noted.
If the season ended today and the Lakers didn’t earn a playoff spot in the play-in tournament, they’d likely enter the draft lottery in a tie for the No. 11 spot, as our reverse standings show. That would give them only an 8.5% chance of moving into the top four, so the Grizzlies would still feel relatively confident about their chances of holding onto the pick in that scenario.
However, this situation could change quickly. If the Lakers are passed in the standings by at least one more team, their pick may well end up in the top 10 even without any lottery luck, which would be great news for the Pelicans. Incidentally, New Orleans looks like the team with the best odds of passing the Lakers — there’s currently a 2.5-game gap between the two clubs, and the Pels have looked better since acquiring CJ McCollum.
It’s also worth noting that even if the Lakers hang onto the No. 9 spot in the West, a pair of play-in wins by the West’s No. 10 seed would move that team out of the draft lottery, pushing L.A. up one spot in the lottery standings.
At this point, it doesn’t matter much to the Lakers which team gets their lottery pick — they won’t keep it in any scenario. But it’s a major storyline worth following for the Pelicans and Grizzlies, two teams that could really benefit from having another lottery selection.
If the pick ends up in the top 10 and the Pelicans keep it, they’ll send Cleveland’s 2022 second-rounder and their own 2025 second-rounder to Memphis. If the pick ends up between 11-30 and the Grizzlies get it, New Orleans won’t get anything.
Dante Exum To Remain With Barcelona For Rest Of Season
Former NBA lottery pick Dante Exum will be staying in Spain and completing the 2021/22 season with Barcelona, the team announced today in a press release.
After being waived by the Rockets in October, Exum signed a three-month contract with Barcelona in December. That deal ran through February 28 and there was some talk last month about the 26-year-old planning to return to the NBA once it expired. However, Exum and Barcelona reached an agreement to extend the contract through June 30, according to the club.
The fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft, Exum appeared in a total of 245 regular season NBA games for Utah and Cleveland, dealing with a handful of injuries after he played all 82 games as a rookie.
This season in Europe, Exum has been a productive rotation player for Barcelona, averaging 6.0 PPG and 2.7 RPG on .500/.538/.905 shooting in 11 EuroLeague contests (16.5 MPG). Barcelona currently sits atop the EuroLeague standings with a 20-5 record.
Exum’s next opportunity to return to the NBA will come during the 2022 offseason.
Raptors Sign D.J. Wilson To Third 10-Day Contract
The Raptors have signed forward D.J. Wilson to a third 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. Toronto had an open spot on its 15-man roster, so no one needed to be waived to complete the signing.
Wilson, 26, initially joined the Raptors on a 10-day deal on December 23, then signed a second one on January 7. During his time with the club, the former first-round pick appeared in three games and played well in a limited role, averaging 8.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in 16.0 minutes per contest. He also made 8-of-11 shots from the floor (72.7%).
Because Wilson’s first two 10-day contracts were both completed via the COVID-related hardship exception, he wasn’t ineligible to sign another 10-day deal with the Raptors.
A player is limited to two standard (ie. non-hardship) 10-day contracts per season with the same team, so Wilson could technically sign one more 10-day pact with Toronto after this one before a rest-of-season commitment would have to be made.
Wilson will earn $102,831 during his 10 days with the Raptors, who take on a $95,930 cap hit. The deal will run through March 9, making the forward eligible for the team’s next six games.
Although two-way player Justin Champagnie is still a candidate to eventually be promoted to fill the 15th spot on Toronto’s standard roster, Wilson could make a case for a rest-of-season deal if he plays well in the next 10 days.
Southwest Notes: McCollum, Ingram, Zion, Schröder, Doncic
The Pelicans may be missing former No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson, but CJ McCollum and star forward Brandon Ingram have been developing an impressive rapport in the weeks since McCollum arrived from Portland, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
“Those two guys set the tone for us,” Pelicans head coach Willie Green said after Sunday’s blowout win over the Lakers. “When they are playing like that and playing off of each other and making the simple plays, it’s beautiful basketball to watch.”
McCollum, who went out to dinner with Ingram and Green last week, tells Mark Medina of NBA.com that he advised Ingram “to be the most aggressive version of himself and not worry about me.”
“He’s been great. We can all see what he’s doing on the floor and his ability to score and to free up other guys,” Green said of the newly-acquired guard. “Now teams can’t load up as much on Brandon and can’t double Jonas [Valanciunas] as much when he’s on the floor.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- After defending Williamson last week to reporters, McCollum stressed in his conversation with Medina that he just wants to support his new Pelicans teammate while he recovers from his foot surgery and wasn’t bothered by the fact that it took them a couple weeks to touch base. “I just want to be there for him and be someone to lean on who has gone through injuries and doubt and anxiety and all of the things that are associated with being removed from the team due to injury,” McCollum said. “He’s a really young, talented player that has got a lot on his plate right now. I think it’s important for him to focus on the process and on the rehab. The rest of the things will handle itself. But when he gets back, we’ll hit the ground running. That’s a guy that changes any franchise and their trajectory.”
- Rockets guard Dennis Schröder, who had to settle for a one-year, $5.9MM contract in free agency last summer, has hired new representation, signing with Priority Sports, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link). Schröder is averaging a career-high 7.8 assists per game in his first five appearances with Houston, but has shot the ball erratically, making just 34.5% of his attempts from the floor, including 21.7% of his three-pointers.
- After picking up his 13th technical foul of the season on Sunday, Mavericks star Luka Doncic is now tied for the league lead and is just three technicals shy of earning a one-game suspension, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. As MacMahon notes, with Dallas in the midst of a playoff race, Doncic has vowed that won’t happen.
Blazers GM Joe Cronin: Josh Hart “A Keeper”
When Portland sent CJ McCollum and Larry Nance Jr. to New Orleans earlier this month in a package headlined by Josh Hart and draft assets, it wasn’t clear if the Trail Blazers actually coveted Hart or if he was a candidate to be flipped to another team by the retooling Blazers.
Speaking to Jason Quick of The Athletic, Blazers interim general manager Joe Cronin made it clear he’s a big fan of Hart and views the veteran wing as a long-term fit with the franchise.
“He’s a keeper,” Cronin said. “Josh embodies what we are trying to build here. The talent level, the skill set, the competitiveness, the IQ, the defensive-minded, guard-anyone approach. His ability to make others better, to make shots, push the ball. … We targeted him, and it’s that type of player who we want. We want to find more Josh Harts at different positions.”
Hart, who will turn 27 on Sunday, has averaged 19.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG, and 4.2 APG on 54.0% shooting in five games (33.6 MPG) since being traded to Portland. He’s under contract for two more years beyond this one, though the structure of his deal is somewhat unusual.
Hart’s $12.96MM salary for 2022/23 is non-guaranteed, so if the Blazers want to maximize their cap room this summer, they could theoretically waive him to create an additional $12MM+ in space, but that appears extremely unlikely. Hart’s $12.96MM salary for 2023/24 is also non-guaranteed. However, he holds a player option for that season, so he could opt out in 2023 to seek a new deal if he has outperformed his current contract.
Here are a few more noteworthy comments from Cronin, via The Athletic:
- Cronin tells Quick that he has also been extremely impressed with Justise Winslow, whom the Blazers acquired from the Clippers in their Robert Covington/Norman Powell trade. According to Cronin, Winslow – like Hart – fits “the style and the mentality” the team wants to play with. “Those type of players are not easy to find,” Cronin said. “The Josh Harts of the world, the Justise Winslows of the world, they are not easily attainable. That’s where we are trying to create as many tools and ammunition to be able to go and find those types of players.”
- Cronin identified Joe Ingles as a player who “has the unique mix of talent, skillset and mentality we are looking for” and suggested that acquiring him from Utah was “about the player” rather than the expiring contract. I’m a little skeptical of that statement, since I’d be surprised if the Blazers push very hard to re-sign a 34-year-old who will spend a chunk of next season recovering from an ACL tear and who has previously expressed a desire to return to a division rival.
- While the Blazers’ deadline deals cleared out a backcourt logjam to a certain extent, Cronin said the team still has to “balance the roster.” However, he’s more concerned about continuing to stockpile talent. “If there is a two guard (in the draft) that is head-and-shoulders above the other positions, we are taking the two guard, then figure it out,” Cronin said. “We can’t dismiss the talent part to be able to compete at the level we want to compete at.”
2022’s Most Valuable Traded Second-Round Picks
Fans of lottery-bound NBA teams will be keeping a close on the league’s reverse standings down the stretch because of the effect they’ll have on the draft order and lottery odds for the 2022 first round.
However, it’s not just the first round of the draft that’s worth keeping an eye on. Those reverse standings will also dictate the order of the draft’s second round, and an early second-round pick can be nearly as valuable as a first-rounder.
Traded first-round selections will ultimately be more valuable than any second-rounder, but it’s still worth taking a closer look at some traded 2022 second-rounders that project to be quality picks.
[RELATED: Traded Second-Round Picks For 2022 NBA Draft]
Here are a few of those traded picks:
From: Detroit Pistons
To: Toronto Raptors
Current projection: No. 32
Back in 2018, the Bulls gained the right to swap 2022 second-round picks with Detroit in a trade involving Jameer Nelson. Chicago eventually transferred that right to San Antonio as part of last summer’s DeMar DeRozan‘s sign-and-trade, and the Spurs transferred it to Toronto as part of the Thaddeus Young/Goran Dragic trade at this month’s deadline.
The Pistons are currently on track to finish the season with a bottom-three record, so the Raptors are a good bet to be picking the No. 31-33 range this June.
From: Houston Rockets
To: Indiana Pacers
Current projection: No. 33
The Cavaliers first acquired Houston’s 2022 second-round pick in a 2019 deadline deal involving Alec Burks and Iman Shumpert, then sent it to Indiana this month in the Caris LeVert trade.
Like the Pistons, the Rockets comfortably hold a bottom-three spot in the NBA right now, so the Pacers will likely have a top-three pick in the second round of the 2022 draft to aid their retooling efforts.
From: Indiana Pacers
To: Orlando Magic
Current projection: No. 35
Although the Pacers control Houston’s second-rounder, they won’t have a second pick near the top of the round, having traded away their own 2022 second-rounder to Milwaukee in their 2019 sign-and-trade deal for Malcolm Brogdon. The Bucks flipped that pick to Orlando during the 2020 draft in a package for the No. 45 pick in the ’20 draft, which they used to select Jordan Nwora.
The Magic’s own 2022 second-rounder currently projects to be the No. 31 pick, so Orlando could control two of the top five picks in the second round this year.
From: San Antonio Spurs
To: Cleveland Cavaliers
Current projection: No. 37
The Spurs traded their 2022 second-round selection to Utah all the way back in 2016 as part of a Boris Diaw salary dump. The Jazz controlled that pick up until December 2019, when they flipped it to Cleveland as part of their deal for Jordan Clarkson — the Cavaliers have held it since then.
The Cavs have traded away their own 2022 first-round pick (top-14 protected), so San Antonio’s second-rounder could end up being the best pick Cleveland owns in this year’s draft.
And-Ones: NBPA, Tremaglio, Sessions, Russia, EuroLeague
More than 120 candidates were considered and 40 were interviewed to become Michele Roberts‘ successor as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, who takes an in-depth look at what the new union leader, Tamika Tremaglio, brings to the role.
As Vorkunov details, the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire after the 2023/24 season, and the league and the union both have the ability to opt out in December of 2022. However, Tremaglio doesn’t anticipate a contentious negotiation with the NBA when the time comes to put a new CBA in place.
“There is no benefit for any of us to opt out,” she said, per Vorkunov. “There is always the opportunity for us to work together. I do think Michele has been able to build a really great relationship with the league and I cannot see that not continuing. I think [NBA commissioner] Adam [Silver] has been incredibly welcoming. Michele helped to set up a really great transition for me.
“I think I’m coming in at a time that is needed, for certain, but I also feel I am coming in at a time that we can continue the path that we have already been on. Which is the path certainly of least resistance and much more partnership in terms of what we can accomplish. We’re not back in the ’60s where we’re looking for ways to be adversarial to each other. We recognize that we can get more done together.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA point guard Ramon Sessions has become a certified player agent, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who tweets that Sessions is launching On Time Agency, an independent firm. Sessions is currently advising Jordan Walsh, a five-star recruit who has committed to Arkansas, Charania notes.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown the EuroLeague into disarray. As EuroHoops relays in a pair of stories, a decision was made last week to move all games scheduled to be played in Russia to neutral venues, but the leaders of Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas didn’t think stance went far enough. “We don’t want to play with clubs from a country that is using military aggression and we this is a position that we suggested to the EuroLeague and its clubs,” Zalgiris director Paulius Motiejunas said.
- Meanwhile, a flurry of players are departing from the EuroLeague clubs based in Russia. Former NBAers Joel Bolomboy and Tornike Shengelia are among those leaving CSKA Moscow, per the team, while UNICS Kazan forward Jarrell Brantley is also expected to leave the country, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. An SDNA report relayed by Sportando suggests that Zenit St. Petersburg is allowing all its non-Russian players, coaches, and staffers to return to their respective home countries, while another SDNA report (via Sportando) says CSKA, UNICS Kazan, and Zenit have jointly asked the EuroLeague to postpone their games for a month.
Northwest Notes: Giddey, SGA, Cousins, House, Wright
Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are both more comfortable with the ball in their hands, but comments made by head coach Mark Daigneault after the two guards played together on Thursday strongly suggest the Thunder ultimately view Giddey as their primary initiator, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman.
As Mussatto details, Gilgeous-Alexander will be still be the Thunder’s primary scorer, but it sounds like the team wants to get him more comfortable playing off-ball, as he did earlier in his career when Chris Paul and Dennis Schröder were on the roster.
“(Giddey’s) a really good initiator, he’s a really good creator and we’ve gotta use that part of his game to unlock the potential of the team,” Daigneault said. “It’s gonna require Shai to make some plays off the ball a little bit, where he’s driving close-outs, where he’s shooting open shots — but it’s also gonna take some load off of Shai. He’s not gonna have to work as hard.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, who advocated for the signing of DeMarcus Cousins earlier this season, is thrilled to have the veteran big man under contract for the rest of the season, says Mike Singer of The Denver Post. “His personality is really important,” Malone said of Cousins. “He is a voice. He’s a personality, and he’s not afraid to speak his mind. That can be refreshing at times because we have a locker room of great guys, but who are not always willing to police each other.”
- Having been signed for the rest of the season following a series of 10-day deals, Danuel House is looking to repay the Jazz‘s investment in him with his play on the court, writes Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. “This is a good organization. And they believe so much in me, they’re pouring into me,” House said. “So my job is, if they’re pouring into me, to make sure that when the water hits the glass, make sure it’s purified enough for us to drink.”
- Timberwolves two-way player McKinley Wright IV, who is dealing with a left UCL injury, is moving closer toward returning to action after getting his splint taken off, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. Wolfson estimates that Wright will be playing for the Iowa Wolves – Minnesota’s G League affiliate – in another week or two. The rookie guard has appeared in just three NBA games this season.