Heat Notes: Mills, Jovic, Adebayo, Swider, Williams
Unrestricted free agent and Australian national team guard Patty Mills, who finished last season with the Heat, turned back the clock in an Olympic quarterfinal game against Serbia on Tuesday. He made 11 of his 21 shots to finish with 26 points in a 95-90 overtime loss to Serbia.
“I mean, he deserved better,” Australian teammate Josh Giddey said, per The Athletic’s David Aldridge.
Mills scored 12 of his points in the first quarter and knocked down a shot over Nikola Jokic that forced overtime.
“I thought we threw everything at them in the first half,” Mills said. “You’re playing against world-class individuals, world-class teams, world-class coaches. And this is why you play international basketball. It’s a different sport than any other league around the world. It brings the best out of everyone. I think for us, we just threw everything we could at them, and maybe nothing left in the tank at the end of the day. Full credit to what Serbia was able to do — get us out of our comfort zone. And in international basketball, once you lose that momentum, it’s hard to get it back.”
The 35-year-old guard signed with the Heat toward the end of the 2023/24 regular season after being waived by the Hawks and immediately stepped into a sizable role. He started in five of his 13 appearances with the team and appeared in three playoff games.
However, barring a trade, Mills is unlikely to be back with Miami, at least for the first part of the season. Due to their positioning against the second apron, the Heat don’t appear willing to add a 15th player to their roster to begin the year.
We have more on the Heat:
- Heat forward Nikola Jovic missed Serbia’s win over Australia due to an illness, Ira Winderman of South Florida’s Sun Sentinel reports. Jovic’s offseason has been marred with an ankle sprain that threatened his Olympic availability and now an illness.
- If Jovic is healthy, he and Heat teammate Bam Adebayo will face off for the third time this summer in the Olympic semifinal round, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald observes. Team USA defeated Brazil on Tuesday, with Adebayo finishing with nine points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes. Adebayo is averaging 8.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in the Olympics while Jovic has averaged 7.0 points for Serbia. The two previously matched up in an exhibition on July 17 and the group stage opener on July 28. The U.S. won each game by more than 20 points.
- Due to the fact that the Heat don’t seem to be bringing in a 15th player on a standard contract to begin the season, it was always unlikely they’d be able to funnel all the talented pieces who brought home a summer league championship to their G League affiliate. That rang true when Cole Swider signed with the Pacers after averaging 13.5 points on 49.1% shooting from deep in eight summer league games. In a recent mailbag, Winderman explores Swider’s departure, ultimately concluding that the Heat rarely play pure shooters and that Duncan Robinson‘s minutes only came around when he developed other areas of his game. While the exact details of Swider’s deal with Indy are unknown, it’s possible he competes for a standard roster spot if not a two-way pact, giving him a higher likelihood of ending up with the NBA team than if he came back to Miami.
- Unrestricted free agent Alondes Williams, who – alongside Swider – finished last season on a two-way deal with the Heat, finds himself in a similar position. Williams had an impressive summer league, averaging 11.5 points and 4.4 assists in eight games but remains unsigned. The Heat currently have Keshad Johnson, Josh Christopher and Dru Smith on two-way deals. However, Isaiah Stevens also positioned himself well to compete for and potentially replace one of the Heat’s two-way players, giving Williams an outside shot to earn back his spot on the roster. If he doesn’t end up signing a standard contract elsewhere, Winderman is optimistic Williams would get the chance to compete for a two-way deal in training camp.
Southeast Notes: Hornets, Adebayo, Jovic, Gill, Wizards
The Hornets have largely done well for themselves this offseason, retaining some players, drafting Tidjane Salaun , and adding Josh Green for cheap.
They still have one standard roster spot open and Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer predicts that spot will remain open until closer to the start of the season. It would make sense for the Hornets to wait for roster cuts if there’s no one on the market they wish to reward with a standard deal and see if they can claim a talented young player on waivers. Boone thought summer league standout Mouhamadou Gueye might compete for a two-way deal, but the Hornets are reportedly filling their final such deal with Moussa Diabate.
Boone’s mailbag also checks in on the rest of the team, including the health of center Mark Williams. Boone opines that adding a power forward/center would be a wise option if Williams isn’t ready to go for the start of the season, since Nick Richards is the only true backup there, while Taj Gibson could fill in in an emergency.
As for Green, Boone says he’s currently penciled in to play two-guard position, but coach Charles Lee doesn’t want to pigeonhole him into a specific role until he’s spent more time with the roster.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- The Heat‘s Bam Adebayo is participating in his second Olympics after winning gold in Tokyo in 2021. He played 20 minutes off the bench and recorded four points, two rebounds and two assists on Sunday vs. Serbia, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald observes. While he didn’t score much, Adebayo held the task of guarding Nikola Jokic in the team’s first Olympic outing. Adebayo’s found success off the bench alongside Anthony Davis for Team USA.
- The Heat had a second player in the Olympic opener, with Nikola Jovic suiting up for Serbia. The 21-year-old had five points and two rebounds in his first Olympic experience of his career, Chiang writes. He took a starting role for Miami and is expected to be a big part of their future moving forward. In his matchup against Team USA, his primary assignment was LeBron James on both ends.
- The Wizards signed Anthony Gill to a two-year, minimum-salary ($4.78MM) contract, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. The deal is fully guaranteed for 2024/25 and is non-guaranteed for ’25/26. Gill has appeared in 179 games with the Wizards since 2020 but only averages 9.9 minutes for the only team he’s called home in the league. The Wizards like Gill, signing Virginia product to three standard deals so far.
- Following the addition of Gill, it’s even more clear the Wizards aren’t done making moves this offseason. As Spotrac’s Keith Smith observes (Twitter link), the team has 17 players on standard contracts, with only Jared Butler and Eugene Omoruyi on non-guaranteed deals. While their decision-making could be as simple as waiving both players, they have a need at point guard, where Butler showed flashes last season and they value Omoruyi. Other players could be on the move as the offseason wears on.
And-Ones: Brooks, Too-Early Preseason Takes, Sneed, Exum
Dillon Brooks is continuing his impressive FIBA streak, helping lead Canada to an 86-79 win over Greece in his team’s Olympic opener. Brooks, who made a trio of three-pointers in the win, also had an impressive 2023 World Cup, averaging 15.1 points per game en route to a bronze medal.
As Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews writes, Brooks pushes himself to another level in international play.
“I like to play for my country; it gives me a lot of passion to do so,” Brooks said. “For the game itself, you have to be 40 minutes attentive to detail. All those things add a lot more to a player, and I like the ball as well.”
Brooks also impressed on defense alongside Thunder wing Luguentz Dort. According to Urbonas, when that duo shared the floor, Canada outscored Greece by 23 points.
“I’m really proud of Dillon,” national team coach Jordi Fernandez said. “This is how it looks when they let Dillon Brooks play. And it’s just not about the defensive end. With Lu Dort, he’s the best perimeter in the World Cup. But he’s extremely efficient offensively.”
Brooks said he didn’t care if his international play changed how NBA fans felt about him.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic share the honor of having the same odds for Most Valuable Player next season, but Anthony Edwards is a dark horse, Jason Jones of The Athletic writes. Zach Edey is currently the favorite for Rookie of the Year over top-two picks Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr, but Cody Williams is a player Jones believes may be getting overlooked. Jones talks through all the major awards, as well as some teams he does or doesn’t believe in.
- Former NBAer Xavier Sneed signed with Bnei Herzliya Basket, a team in Israel, the club relays in a release (Twitter link). Sneed played 13 games across two seasons (2021-23) on two-way or 10-day contracts with the Hornets, Grizzlies and Jazz. He’s scored 22 points in 87 total minutes at the NBA level.
- As we relayed Sunday, Australian guard Dante Exum seemed to be nearing a return from a right index finger injury. Boomers coach Brian Goorjan confirmed as much, stating that he expects Exum to return on Tuesday vs. Canada, according to Fox Sports’ Matt Logue (Twitter link).
Four Under-The-Radar Players To Watch For 2024/25
Rosters for the 2024/25 season are far from being set, but it’s never too early to try to predict some of next season’s happenings. When considering players who are primed for breakouts, draft picks who immediately became stars like Paolo Banchero and Victor Wembanyama come to mind, but several more players in a tier below that will emerge as rotation mainstays for the first time.
Think players like Sam Hauser of the Celtics. Hauser gradually crept up Boston’s rotation over the past three years, eventually becoming a part of the title core and earning himself an extension. Likewise, Miles McBride was a second-round pick who showed promise, but eventually broke out after the ’23/24 deadline for New York. Isaiah Joe of the Thunder is another example, while Vince Williams of the Grizzlies and Simone Fontecchio of the Pistons also broke onto the scene earlier this year.
With that said, here are four players I think could “break out” next season in the sense that they go from a fringe rotation piece to a reliable regular for a team.
Day’Ron Sharpe
This might be cheating a bit, since Sharpe appeared in 61 games last season and averaged 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds. However, he managed to record those numbers in just 15.1 minutes per night, improving across the board for the Nets. I expect Sharpe to play more this season even though he’s still behind Nic Claxton in the rotation.
For starters, the Nets pivoted toward a rebuild this offseason after trading away Mikal Bridges. With Bridges gone and players like Cameron Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dennis Schröder set up to be potential trade pieces, there should be more minutes to go around at some point in the season, at least in theory. That would put Sharpe, the No. 29 overall pick in 2021, in prime position to play more and continue to show off his improvement.
Sharpe is set to be a restricted free agent next offseason and, if he manages to continue to show linear growth, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him draw a bevy of suitors. If the Nets didn’t want to pay Sharpe after handing a contract to Claxton this offseason, Sharpe could draw interest at the deadline for a playoff team needing size or another young team looking for a mainstay.
Given his contract status, youth (heturns 23 this season), and team positioning, Sharpe seems like a solid candidate to “break out” for next season.
Max Christie
The Lakers have had a quiet offseason, with their only external additions being 2024 draftees Dalton Knecht and Bronny James. One move that flew under the radar was the long-term extension of Christie, a player who only played 14.1 minutes last season. While the 2022 No. 35 pick saw his responsibilities increase last season from his rookie year, he holds a career average of 3.8 points per game.
Clearly, the Lakers liked what they saw from the 21-year-old Christie, as they rewarded him with a $32MM deal. While he hasn’t played a ton at the NBA level, he holds solid upside as a three-and-D prospect. It was somewhat surprising, for my money, that a team with cap space didn’t try to price Christie out of the Lakers’ range.
The Lakers getting Christie back could be a huge win for a team that needs three-and-D players in their rotation. Given that the Lakers might still make a trade before the year and players ahead of him last year either fell out of favor or simply left in free agency, Christie seems like a lock for more minutes and production next season. He could have a key role for the Lakers in the final couple years of his contract if things play right.
Craig Porter Jr./Ricky Council IV
While Porter and Council are distinctly different players, both could improve and continue to work their way into the rotations of playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference, which is why they’re grouped together here.
Porter played more on a two-way contract last season before being promoted to a standard deal. He’s a small guard but has played well above his size both in college and in the pros. He works well as a secondary ball-handler and a solid defensive guard. While the Cavaliers still have three open roster spots and could add a player or two who may overtake Porter in the guard room, I could see him winning the ninth or 10th spot in the rotation and potentially being the club’s top backup lead guard.
Council didn’t play as much for the Sixers until the end of the season, but his high efficiency impressed the organization and they rewarded him with a standard contract.
While Philadelphia eventually re-signed Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre, Kyle Lowry and KJ Martin, I find it telling that the Council was just one of two players from last year’s roster who stayed on the roster throughout the entire offseason. His contract for next season is non-guaranteed, so they easily could have waived him if they felt someone else better fit his role. Martin and draft picks Jared McCain and Adem Bona might not play much next season, which has Council and Eric Gordon looking like the team’s only true bench wings off the bench.
While it’s not a lock Porter or Council make an impact on the rotation this year — let alone make it through their contracts being guaranteed at the league-wide date in 2025 — their organizations have shown they value each respective player. To me, Porter and Council are some of the more likely candidates to follow Hauser’s footsteps of developing for a couple seasons before breaking into a rotation.
Pacers Notes: Nembhard, Siakam, Johnson
Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard could have waited longer before agreeing to his three-year extension worth about $59MM, Dustin Dopirak of IndyStar writes in a subscriber-only piece. In two years, Nembhard could have tested the market as an unrestricted free agent and seen if teams would have paid him to be a lead guard. However, Dopirak explains that the deal make sense for both sides.
Nembhard’s $2MM salary for 2024/25 is set to be the second-lowest on the team next season, only ahead of second-round rookie Johnny Furphy. By signing an extension now, Nembhard ensured he won’t have to earn a minimum salary in 2025/26 too, since his new deal replaced his team option for that year. His stock is also the highest it’s ever been after he averaged 14.9 points and 5.5 assists en route to a Pacers conference finals appearance.
Additionally, if staying with this group was an important factor for Nembhard, it made sense to sign now before Indiana gets too expensive. Myles Turner and T.J. McConnell are both set to become free agents next season and Bennedict Mathurin is soon to be extension-eligible.
As for the Pacers, locking up Nembhard to a deal worth just under $20MM per year could be a savvy move if the team believes in his postseason production. He looked like a legitimate lead guard in the last two games of the Celtics series, averaging 28.0 points. Immanuel Quickley could be a reference point for what Nembhard may have been able to get if the Pacers had held off, since he became a feature guard recently and earned a deal worth about $175MM. In other words, it made sense to sign Nembhard to a deal that runs through 2028 to prevent other teams from outbidding them in a couple years.
We have more from the Pacers:
- Nembhard’s agent Todd Ramasar expects the guard to have a big summer for Team Canada in the Olympics after signing his extension, Mark Medina of Sportskeeda relays in an exclusive interview. Ramasar raved about the Pacers’ care for Nembhard through his career in the interview and stated that the trust they’ve shown in him is what led to the extension getting done now. “I think it’s good for both sides,” Ramasar said. “I think in a year or two that people are going to say it’s a bargain for the Pacers and maybe even after next season. … It takes pressure off him so he can focus purely on his game and help contribute to winning basketball with the Pacers.“
- Ramasar is also Pascal Siakam‘s agent, and he said the two-time All-Star feels at peace this offseason after spending the last year worrying about his contract extension, according to Medina. Siakam signed a four-year extension worth $189.5MM. “There’s just a focus [on basketball this offseason],” Ramasar said. “There are no distractions.“
- James Johnson‘s $3.3MM minimum-salary contract with the Pacers is partially guaranteed for $750K, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto (Twitter link). The full amount would become guaranteed if he remains under contract through January 7. Johnson has served as a locker-room presence for a young Indy team over the past two seasons, appearing in 27 games for the organization.
- It’s somewhat possible that Johnson doesn’t make the opening-day roster if the Pacers decide they want to keep reigning G League Rookie of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe and sign 2024 second-rounder Enrique Freeman. Indiana only has one open two-way roster spot and no standard 15-man spots available. However, Johnson, Kendall Brown, and James Wiseman don’t have fully guaranteed salaries.
Team USA Notes: Ceiling, Serbia Win Takeaways, Embiid, Holiday, White
On paper, the U.S. Olympic men’s team looks like one of the best collections of talent since 1992, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon writes while pondering the team’s upside.
“I don’t know if Magic, Michael and Larry, if they coined that [nickname] themselves and walked around calling themselves the Dream Team or if that was the nickname that fans and media gave them, [but] I feel like we’re going to have the same vibe,” Stephen Curry said of how this year’s team compares to the Dream Team.
The Americans certainly looked the part in their blowout win over Serbia on Sunday, but it wasn’t smooth sailing up to that point. The U.S. almost lost to Germany and South Sudan in consecutive exhibition games. As Vardon writes, it’s a testament to how the talent around the world has grown. When the 1992 team competed, only nine other players outside of the U.S. team were in the NBA. This year, an Olympic-record 47 athletes are in the NBA and 35 more have at least some league experience.
“It’s the strongest field ever,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “The game gets better and better globally, more and more NBA players, but also teams are more and more comfortable playing against us, and so we know that every game’s going to be difficult and we have to prepare for that and be ready because these teams are coming after us.”
While the Americans look like the favorite for the gold medal, Vardon cautions that it’s far from a guarantee. In a similar piece, The Ringer’s Michael Pina writes that Team USA’s low three-point rate is seemingly one of the team’s only weaknesses.
We have more from the U.S. Olympic team:
- Kevin Durant‘s near-perfect game against Serbia highlighted their 110-84 win. LeBron James‘ 23-point, nine-assist and seven-rebound game showed that the U.S. team should continue to rely on its older guys, Jason Jones of The Athletic writes in a takeaways piece from the first game. Jones also contemplates whether Joel Embiid should continue to start, writing that Kerr may simply just like the effective frontcourt pairing of Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis off the bench. Jones also observes Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton picking up DNPs in the first game and ponders if Kerr’s rotation choices will be consistent or fluctuate on a matchup basis.
- Embiid had a rough showing in his first official Team USA outing, Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. He finished with four points and two rebounds in just over 11 minutes and didn’t seem 100%. His decision to play for Team USA over France earned him boos from the crowd in Paris and Sielski wonders — even if he was hampered with an injury or illness — if adapting his game benefits either him or his team. Embiid is one of the best players in the world but he has always been the featured player on his teams and may be taking more of a backseat on the Olympic squad, Sielski writes.
- Jrue Holiday and Derrick White played similar roles in the team’s first game as they do for the reigning-champion Celtics, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe writes. Both players complement star-filled rosters on either team and often take the task of guarding the opposing team’s best player. “It makes it easy for me and Jrue,” White said. “We just try to go out there and do what we do and try to help us impact winning whenever we can. I know we’ve got a lot of talented guys on the team.”
International Notes: Olympics, Sneaker Deals, Wemby, Exum, Birch
Thirteen of the top 20 highest earners in the Paris Olympics are NBA players, according to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. They aren’t paid to play by the NBA or any Olympic committee, but players earn money through their shoe contracts from companies like Nike or Under Armour.
Sneaker companies have bonuses for games played in the Olympics because players using them are putting their products on a global stage. Adidas, for example, earns 76% of its revenue outside of North America.
Nike has a major presence in the Olympics since they’re a longtime sponsor of USA Basketball. Converse, a Nike-owned brand, recently extended Canadian star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and expects to launch his signature shoe in 2025. He was named creative director as part of the deal.
Countries can also shell out money for performance incentives. For example, Serbia has one of the largest gold medal bonuses for players, meaning Nikola Jokic would be eligible for $215K if Serbia were to win gold.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Victor Wembanyama has become the face of French basketball at a young age and he’s carried that into the Olympics in his home country, Andrew Lopez of ESPN writes. France lost by five points in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without Wembanyama and took home its first silver medal since 2000. Now, with him on board, the host country is aiming to take home the gold in 2024.
- Mavericks guard Dante Exum is returning from a right index finger injury and missed Australia’s Olympic game against Spain. However, according to Sportando, there is “growing optimism” about Exum’s return for his country’s game against Canada on Tuesday.
- Former NBAer Khem Birch served as an “insider” for Canada’s win against Greece since he played for Greek club Olympiacos, according to Eurohoops.net. “It’s definitely gold or nothing,” Birch said of Canada’s Olympic chances. “That’s the number one goal. I think we have a lot of parity in the Olympics right now. I think anyone can win it. so we have a big chance.”
Community Shootaround: Underrated Remaining Free Agents
For the most part, standard roster spots across the league have dried up with the bulk of the top free agents having decided their destinations earlier in July. And some of the teams that do have open roster spots seem to be maneuvering to bring back some of the bigger names remaining in free agency.
Take the Grizzlies for example, who salary dumped Ziaire Williams in a move that seems to be setting up a return for Luke Kennard, one of the top players still available. The Cavaliers have three open standard roster spots, but figure to fill one or more of them once Isaac Okoro‘s restricted free agency is resolved (whether they’re keeping flexibility for a sign-and-trade or simply plan to bring him back remains to be seen). The Knicks, likewise, are the most likely destination for Precious Achiuwa but could still execute a sign-and-trade.
[RELATED: Latest On Cavaliers RFA Isaac Okoro]
The remaining players on our top-50 list are Okoro (No. 20), Kennard (No. 29), Achiuwa (No. 37), Markelle Fultz (No. 43), Cedi Osman (No. 46) and Gordon Hayward (No. 49). While teams seem to have at least some level of plans in place for the top few remaining free agents, there are several others who have found recent success in the NBA and could help teams, but who appear to have been overlooked to this point.
A pair of Nets guards in Lonnie Walker IV and Dennis Smith Jr. are among the free agents who haven’t found new homes. Both are still relatively young and have shown promise in their careers. Smith, in particular, established himself as one of the better backcourt defenders in the league in his season with Charlotte in 2022/23, but he didn’t catch on for the long term. Walker has shown an ability to score in bunches and averaged 9.7 points in just 17.4 minutes last season (20.1 points per 36).
Likewise, Jordan Nwora is a young wing who can score in a pinch, but he hasn’t been brought back by the Raptors to this point. Though he’s shown flashes in Milwaukee, Indiana and Toronto, Nwora’s NBA future is unknown at this point. In 206 career appearances, the former No. 45 overall pick has averaged 7.6 points per game.
Talen Horton-Tucker made 11 starts for the Jazz last season and averaged 10.1 points and 3.5 assists per contest. While it’s possible the Jazz continue to develop the 23-year-old, there has been no indication so far that he remains in their plans.
Other young players like Omer Yurtseven, Dominick Barlow and Brandon Boston Jr. have had moments in the league, but none have found homes this offseason.
Davis Bertans feels likely to end up signing a deal with a contender, but his name hasn’t come up much in free agent conversations. Though he isn’t young, Bertans seemed to rehabilitate his value with Charlotte after averages 20.8 minutes last year after being acquired at the deadline, and he shot 37.5% from three on 6.3 attempts per game.
To be clear, the perceived lack of a market for the aforementioned players isn’t necessarily surprising. Tyus Jones and Gary Trent, though they reportedly passed on more lucrative offers, ended up only signing for the minimum. Teams are impacted by the CBA’s recent tax apron changes and a smaller-than-usual cap increase, resulting in a slower free agency this season.
Still, there’s always value to be found across professional basketball, and plenty of talented players are available to be signed by teams.
We want your input. Who do you think are the most underrated remaining free agents? Are there any players you feel are unfairly overlooked? Is there anyone we forgot?
Head to the comment section to let us know! We look forward to hearing your input.
Kevin Durant Discusses Olympic Return, Opener Performance
Suns and Team USA forward Kevin Durant made his return to the U.S. Olympic team after missing the exhibition slate of games with a calf injury. He impressed right away, scoring 23 points while making eight of his nine shot attempts in under 17 minutes of play on Sunday, as detailed by Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
Team USA head coach Steve Kerr planned on easing Durant in the rotation, but the star forward forced Kerr’s hand with his strong play. He scored five three-pointers in the first half and didn’t miss a shot until the fourth quarter. The Americans defeated Serbia 110-84.
Durant opened up about his return, including how he felt after his outstanding game.
“I was tired, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Durant said after the game. “My lungs were getting used to that, the intensity of the game, but it felt good to make some shots. I think everybody played their role pretty well tonight. My role was to come and provide spacing and shot making for the team and glad I was able to knock them down.”
Below are more highlights from Durant’s comments to reporters, as gathered by The Athletic’s Sam Amick and BasketNews.
On coming off the bench in the Olympic opener:
“I’ve [come off the bench] a couple of times in the NBA — three times. That’s enough for me to just kind of lean on those times. You know, that’s what I thought about as I was coming in, just staying ready mentally, staying focused on what the game plan is. And when I come in, don’t make the game about myself. Try to add to the team. And tonight I was able to [do that].
“I told Coach [Kerr], whatever he needs from me, I’m willing to do anything and adapt to anything. So it’s always been fun trying to figure out new roles and just adapt to whatever the game tells you to do.”
On having LeBron James back on the Olympic Team:
“I’m so grateful to have him back. We missed him in the last two Olympics. He puts fear in the other team. I think that goes a long way, the psyche of the game, so he’s running downhill, making the right plays on the offense and defensive end. He’s just insane, and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
On whether today’s win is the best game Team USA has played this summer:
“I just think all of those games and those practices leading up until today prepared us. Coach has been doing a great job of keeping us on our toes and letting us know how important each day is, so we try to come together pretty quickly I think the beauty of tonight is we played a lot of random basketball on the offensive side.
“Defensively, we were talking to one another throughout the whole game, so that communication and that random basketball made us tough to stop. So we continue to build on this and see where we can go.”
On playing in front of fans and how it compares to the Tokyo Olympics that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic:
“[It was] incredible. 27,000 [fans]. I looked around, and I saw so many different NBA jerseys in the stands. I just love when the game of basketball can bring people from all over the world, different walks of life together like this. [Tokyo] seems like so long ago. The era of the world seems like it was just 20 years ago, and also to see so many people in here supporting the game of basketball.”
Western Notes: Morant, Clark, Stackhouse, Suns
Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant only made nine appearances last season after missing the first 25 games of the year due to a suspension and then his final 48 with a shoulder injury. Speaking to reporters on Thursday (Twitter link via WPSD’s Logan Whaley), Morant asserted he was about 75% healthy ahead of next season and sent a warning to the rest of the league.
“I feel like that’s still scary for whoever’s in front of me,” Morant said.
Memphis suffered a litany of injuries last season, with 33 players seeing playing time for the organization after various hardship signings. Morant, Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart played just 71 combined games and only two Grizzlies players appeared in 60 or more games.
If Morant comes back healthy, the Grizzlies will almost certainly factor into the Western playoff picture. The team won 50 or more games in the two seasons prior to 2023/24 and while last season was disappointing, the openings created by the injuries allowed young players like Vince Williams and GG Jackson to emerge as rotation options.
We have more from around the Western Conference:
- Timberwolves two-way guard Jaylen Clark missed all of last season with an Achilles injury, but the UCLA product was all smiles even amid a tougher-than-expected first summer league with the team, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes. The 53rd overall pick in the 2023 draft, Clark might not see much playing time on a contending Wolves roster, but he’s happy to simply be back on the court. He earned praises from his coaching staff in Las Vegas. “What I like about him is he picks up early and he’s very strong,” Wolves assistant and summer league head coach Chris Hines said. “He stands up guys. For him, it’s just finding how to drive and kick and get back to respace, set his feet and shoot the ball.“
- Jerry Stackhouse was expecting to sit out a year from coaching after exiting from Vanderbilt, but the Warriors called him and he impressed Steve Kerr, The Athletic’s Anthony Slater details. “I don’t think the timing could’ve been more perfect for me,” Stackhouse said of joining the team as an assistant. The Warriors are reportedly excited to be bringing in a former player and plan on having Stackhouse run the team’s defensive schemes.
- The Suns‘ ’23/24 season went far from expected, as the team bowed out in the first round of the playoffs following the formation of a “big three” consisting of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. In a subscriber-only story, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic breaks down his predictions and projections for next season. The Suns improved by adding Tyus Jones and generally did well in addressing their depth but as Rankin observes, it will be difficult to climb the standings if the likes of Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Dallas continue on their current trajectories along with mainstays like Denver.