- Fresh off of a Mark Cuban appearance at this year’s MIT Sloan Conference, Chris Crouse wrote about how the Mavericks built around Dirk Nowitzki in a must-read feature.
- Luke Adams broke down the early decisions dates for individuals like Rudy Gay with player options for the 2017/18 season.
- Did you know that you can follow specific players on Hoops Rumors? Here’s how you can tap into a dedicated stream of content specifically for your favorite player.
- Several young players due for rookie-scale extensions have been hit hard by injuries. Luke Adams takes a closer look at the cases of Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker and Zach LaVine.
- Amid one of the most hotly debated MVP races in recent memory, we decided to ask our readers who they thought should win the year-end award. If we learned anything from the results, it’s that this is a good year to be an NBA fan.
- The NBA blogosphere is a powerful thing. This week Milo Taibi scoured the internet for some of the best blog features online.
- Looking for help from the waiver wire in your fantasy basketball league? Chris Crouse examined some of the most valuable free agents that could still be available
- Missed Luke Adams’ live chat with fans on Monday? Check out a transcript of the conversation and don’t forget to participate for yourself next time he goes live.
- Every year the D-League gains ground as a valuable development system for NBA teams and this year has been no different. As Luke Adams explains, an impressive 16 of this year’s 30 first-round picks have already been on assignment this year.
- Have a question for Hoops Rumors? Looking for somebody to validate (or quash) your outlandish fan theory? Don’t hesitate to send your inquiries for a chance to be featured in our weekly mailbag series.
- Five pending free agents have seen their values impacted by recent trades. Luke Adams wrote about what recently moved players like Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson will be able to expect this offseason.
- Every week we like to turn the floor over to our readers so that they can weigh in on pressing issues relevant to the league. This week was no different, below are our Community Shootaround posts.
- Does the NBA need a better system in place for handling “buyout season“?
- The Knicks caused a stir when they decided to forgo in-game music in a game at Madison Square Garden this week. What do you think about the a capella approach?
- Don’t forget to check out last week’s Hoops Rumors Originals if you didn’t catch them the first time around.
Every Sunday at Hoops Rumors, we publish a pair of features that rely on input and submissions from our readers. One is our Weekly Mailbag, in which Arthur Hill answers a few questions related to the latest news and rumors from around the NBA. The second is our Hoops Links feature, which showcases a selection of notable NBA blog entries from all over the internet. In each instance, the content for those features comes from you.
Have a question regarding player movement, free agent rumors, the salary cap, the NBA draft, or the top storylines of the week? You can e-mail them here for consideration for our Weekly Mailbag: hoopsrumorsmailbag@gmail.com. If your question doesn’t get selected for our mailbag, be sure to join us on Monday afternoons for our weekly live chat.
Got a new NBA blog post that you’d like to see featured on Hoops Rumors? You can send the URL and a brief description of the piece to hoopslinks@gmail.com for consideration.
Be sure to send us your new mailbag questions and NBA blog posts each week, and check back every Sunday to see if you’ve been featured in that week’s installment!
By default, NBA players who hold player options for the following season generally don’t have to make an official decision on those options until June 29, just two days before the new league year gets underway. However, that date can be altered on a contract-by-contract basis, which is why many of the 25 players who have player options or early termination options for 2017/18 will be making their decisions prior to June 29 this year.
Several of those player option decisions are due either on a specific date or a certain number of days following a team’s final regular season game. For instance, Rudy Gay‘s player option calls for him to make a decision either on June 10, or five days after the Kings’ last game — whichever comes later. Kyle Lowry, meanwhile, has to make a decision on his player option by June 19, or within seven days of the Raptors’ last game — whichever comes earlier.
Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has done an excellent job keeping tabs on these early player option decision dates, so we’ll use his data to break down the schedule of upcoming decision dates. If a player who holds a 2017/18 player option isn’t listed here, that means his decision is due on June 29, or his decision date hasn’t been reported.
Here’s the list of early decision dates for 2017/18 player options:
Potentially dependent on when team’s season ends:
- June 10 (or five days after team’s last game): Rudy Gay (Kings)
- June 19 (or seven days after team’s last game): Kyle Lowry (Raptors)
- June 20 (or two days after team’s last game): Aron Baynes (Pistons), C.J. Miles (Pacers)
The rest:
- June 21: Dante Cunningham (Pelicans), Nick Young (Lakers)
- June 22: Greg Monroe (Bucks)
- June 23: Paul Millsap (Hawks)
- June 24: Langston Galloway (Kings)
- June 26: Spencer Hawes (Bucks)
- June 28: Blake Griffin (Clippers) (early termination option)
For details on how much these player options are worth, check out our list of 2017 free agents by position or by team.
Hoops Rumors lets you keep up with your favorite teams as they plot their moves, and we also provide ways to easily follow the latest on all of your favorite players and trade candidates. You can get news about players wherever you go with our Trade Rumors app, available for iOS and Android devices. The app is free and allows you to add a feed for any player and set up notifications that will alert you whenever we write about him.
Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find any player by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post in which he’s discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Kevin Durant’s page is hoopsrumors.com/kevin-durant.
You can also set up an RSS feed for any of our player pages by adding /feed to the end of the page URL, like this: hoopsrumors.com/jimmy-butler/feed. Entering that URL into the reader of your choice will enable you to get updates whenever we write about Jimmy Butler. It works for teams, too. If you’re a Bulls fan, you can enter hoopsrumors.com/chicago-bulls/feed into your reader and stay on top of all the latest from Chicago.
In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags that we use at the bottom of posts. For example, you can keep tabs on our 2017 draft stories right here. Items about the NBA D-League can be found on this page. You can simply scan our top stories here. Again, you can set up a feed with any of these pages by adding /feed to the end of the URL.
Players who are currently in the third year of their rookie-scale contracts will become eligible for contract extensions beginning on July 1, and will have until the start of the regular season to work out new deals with their respective clubs. For the most part, that group is made up of first-round picks from the 2014 draft, which means that plenty of promising young players will be up for extensions this offseason.
Former No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins will be a top extension candidate for the Timberwolves, and other top-10 picks from 2014 – like Aaron Gordon (Magic), Marcus Smart (Celtics), and Julius Randle (Lakers) – figure to discuss new deals with their teams. Several players selected later in the first round, such as Gary Harris (Nuggets), Rodney Hood (Jazz), Clint Capela (Rockets), Jusuf Nurkic (Trail Blazers), and T.J. Warren (Suns) will also be viable candidates for extensions.
However, it would be hard to make a list of 2017’s top rookie-scale extension candidates that doesn’t include three players currently on the shelf due to injuries: Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, and Zach LaVine.
Joel Embiid (Sixers)
Embiid may be involved in the Rookie of the Year conversation for 2016/17, but he’s technically a third-year player, meaning the Sixers will be faced with a major decision on his future sooner than they’d like. Embiid, who won’t play again this season due to a knee injury, has only played in 31 games in his first three NBA seasons, a disconcertingly small sample size for the Sixers as they weigh a possible extension.
As impressive as Embiid looked during those 31 games this season, it’s hard to imagine Philadelphia making a long-term commitment to him in 2017 unless the team can get something done at a significant discount. Like the rest of his fellow rookie-scale extension candidates, Embiid would be eligible for restricted free agency in 2018 if he’s not locked up this year, at which point the Sixers would be able to match any offer sheet he gets.
If Embiid stays healthy – or at least healthier – in 2017/18, it would be an easier decision for the Sixers to go up to the max for him in the summer of ’18. If not, then perhaps other suitors will shy away from making aggressive offers in restricted free agency as well, reducing the cost for Philadelphia. Either way, it probably makes sense for the Sixers to take another year to gather more information on Embiid — if he proves worthy of a maximum-salary investment by that point, they’d certainly be happy to do it.
Jabari Parker (Bucks)
Unlike Embiid, who is expected to be ready to go to start the 2017/18 campaign, Parker is expected to miss a full year after tearing his ACL, meaning he may not get back on the court for the Bucks until about halfway through next season. Clearly, that’s problematic for Milwaukee — the club will likely have to make a decision on an extension for Parker when he’s still a few months away from playing.
Before going down last month, Parker was enjoying a breakout season, averaging career highs in nearly every key category, including PPG (20.1), RPG (6.1), APG (2.8), and 3PT% (.365). He likely would have been on track for an extension worth at least as much as Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s (four years, $100MM) if he had stayed healthy. But it remains to be seen if the Bucks will be willing to make a long-term commitment to Parker while he continues to rehab a second ACL tear.
If Parker is seeking financial security, and the Bucks are confident in his ability to make a full recovery, it could be a good opportunity for the team to roll the dice — something in the four-year, $70-75MM range might make sense for both sides. For Parker, it’s a huge payday that ensures he’ll be set for life no matter how his knees hold up going forward. For the Bucks, it would be Luol Deng money for a player who has the potential to develop into an All-Star. It would be a leap of faith, but with the salary cap set to exceed $100MM, such a contract wouldn’t necessarily be a huge albatross if Parker’s health prevents him from taking the next step.
Zach LaVine (Timberwolves)
LaVine tore his ACL just a few days before Parker did, though the Timberwolves didn’t announce a timeline for his recovery, so it’s not clear if he’ll remain off the court until 2018 as well. Unlike Parker, LaVine had been relatively healthy during his first two years in the NBA, missing just five total games, so perhaps there’s more optimism about his ability to get back to 100%.
With Wiggins also up for an extension, and a big payday for Karl-Anthony Towns potentially coming in 2018, LaVine likely won’t be Minnesota’s top priority this offseason. Still, he shouldn’t be overlooked. Having increased his scoring average from 10.1 PPG to 14.0 PPG to 18.9 PPG in his first three NBA seasons, LaVine adds a dangerous scoring punch to the Wolves’ backcourt. The team may view him as a piece of a long-term Big Three, alongside Wiggins and Towns, so exploring an extension this fall makes sense.
As is the case in the other two scenarios, the Wolves would likely only re-up LaVine in 2017 if they can do so at a discounted rate. The club won’t sign LaVine to a max extension, but if he’s open to doing something in the Dennis Schroder range (four years, $62MM), I think the team would jump on it. If LaVine’s asking price is closer to the $84MM that a healthy Victor Oladipo got on his four-year extension with the Thunder, that would make it more difficult for Minnesota to pull the trigger.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Twenty-two of the NBA’s 30 teams have D-League affiliates this season, and that number appears set to increase to 25 for the 2017/18 season. As a result, NBA clubs are assigning players to D-League affiliates and recalling them from those assignments at a greater rate than ever.
Since most NBA teams own and operate their own D-League affiliate, those NBADL clubs are being used more and more for developmental purposes. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that so many of 2016’s draft picks have been sent on D-League assignments this season. Still, the number of first-rounders who have seen D-League action is a little higher than anticipated.
Three of 2016’s first-round picks remained overseas, and one – Ben Simmons – has been injured all season. Of the other 26 first-rounders, 16 have been assigned to the D-League at least once, and many of those players have spent extended time with NBADL squads.
Here’s the full list of 2016 first-rounders who have been on D-League assignments this season:
- Toronto Raptors: Jakob Poeltl
- Atlanta Hawks: Taurean Prince
- Sacramento Kings: Georgios Papagiannis
- Chicago Bulls: Denzel Valentine
- Denver Nuggets: Juan Hernangomez
- Memphis Grizzlies: Wade Baldwin
- Detroit Pistons: Henry Ellenson
- Denver Nuggets: Malik Beasley
- Atlanta Hawks: DeAndre’ Bembry
- Sacramento Kings: Malachi Richardson
- Philadelphia 76ers: Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
- Los Angeles Clippers: Brice Johnson
- Toronto Raptors: Pascal Siakam
- Sacramento Kings: Skal Labissiere
- San Antonio Spurs: Dejounte Murray
- Golden State Warriors: Damian Jones
Some of these players have held rotation roles for a good chunk of the season with their respective NBA clubs, and have only appeared sparingly in the D-League. Poeltl, Hernangomez, and Siakam are among the players whose NBADL stints have been extremely brief.
However, many 2016 first-rounders have spent much of the season improving aspects of their game in the D-League. Papagiannis, Baldwin, Ellenson, Labissiere, Murray, and Jones have all appeared in at least 15 NBADL games, and some of those players have made a real impact for affiliates.
Murray, for instance, has filled up the score sheet for the Austin Spurs, averaging 17.2 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 6.2 APG, and 2.0 SPG in 15 games for San Antonio’s D-League affiliate. Ellenson has recorded 17.3 PPG and 9.1 RPG for the Grand Rapids Drive, and they’ve played better when he’s in the lineup — the Drive are below .500 for the season, but 11-5 with Ellenson active.
It’s also worth noting that those teams playing their first-rounders most often in the D-League are all clubs with their own affiliates. The Kings, Pistons, Spurs, and Warriors are geographically adjacent to their NBADL teams, while the Grizzlies have a relationship with the Iowa Energy.
The NBA will never be a league like Major League Baseball, where even the highest draft picks generally spend a few years in the minor leagues before making any impact at the highest level of the sport. But NBA teams are increasingly using their D-League affiliates like minor league squads, sending their top picks to the NBADL to learn their systems and to play major minutes before throwing them into the fire in the NBA. It will be interesting to see how D-League expansion and the league’s new two-way contracts continue to shape that trend going forward.
Hoops Rumors is examining the fantasy basketball landscape in order to help you dominate the competition. Check back weekly for more analysis.
Players To Target
Injuries and trade deadline deals have impacted the fantasy world. Finding undervalued players is key in daily fantasy and in season-long leagues, it could help you find a contributor on the waiver wire before your league-mates do. Here are some players to keep an eye on:
- Richaun Holmes has a dozen blocks since the All-Star break, which is behind only Rudy Gobert and Giannis Antetokounmpo for most in the league. Holmes has seen an uptick in minutes since the Sixers traded away Nerlens Noel. He makes a nice daily fantasy play when Jahlil Okafor sits and with Philadelphia’s propensity to be “cautious” with injuries, Holmes could become valuable down the stretch in season-long leagues.
- Jordan Clarkson is averaging nearly three more shot attempts per game since the Lakers traded away Lou Williams. Before the trade, Clarkson played approximately 75% of his minutes next to Williams, as I mentioned in a recent edition of Fantasy Hoops. In addition getting up more shots, Clarkson is averaging more points, steals, assists and minutes per contest than he was prior to the deal.
- Tyler Ulis is making a case for March’s Western Conference Rookie of the Month award, but I’m not adding him yet in season-long leagues. There are likely stronger options available on your league’s waiver wire with Cory Joseph being a player to target. Toronto’s point guard is averaging 11.8 points and 4.7 assists per game since Lowry hit the sideline and he’s available in nearly 80% of ESPN leagues.
- Willie Cauley-Stein is still available in 70% of ESPN leagues, though that figure should be much lower. The big man has taken on a significant role in Sacramento since DeMarcus Cousins‘ departure. He has 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds while adding at least a steal and block per game over his last six contests.
- Tyreke Evans is scoring 13.2 points per game in Sacramento after only scoring 9.5 per game in New Orleans. He’s not playing back-to-back, so his value is limited in season-long leagues, but he could be a nice option in daily formats on nights where he hits the floor.
Fantasy questions? Take to the comment section below or tweet me at @CW_Crouse.
Statistics are current through Tuesday afternoon.
Mark Cuban and the Mavericks have always been different. When everyone zigs, Cuban wants to zag—a practice that has contributed to his success in the business would. Dallas has employed that strategy with mixed results since he’s taken team control. However, the Shark Tank star is quick to tell people that the Mavs had a streak of 11 straight campaigns with at least 50 wins during his tenure as the owner of the franchise.
Simply winning often is not the goal; Cuban wants championships. During this year’s MIT Sloan Conference, which Hoops Rumors attended, Cuban was asked whether he would take a dominant three-year window where his team wins championships or a stretch of 10-15 years where his team has a slight chance of winning the championship every year. He quickly took the championships option with one caveat.
“If I knew I was going to get three rings and just be horrible the rest of the way, I’d probably take the three rings and then try to change the agreement,” Cuban said. “Rings are the thing. I want a really big ring.”
Dallas is extremely unlikely to win a championship this season and without a true Superstar in his prime, the Mavs have to be even more meticulous with their roster moves. They have to find contributors like Yogi Ferrell and Dorian Finney-Smith from the free agent scraps. This year, that task was slightly easier for those teams that are better at evaluating talent
The Celtics entered the 2016 draft with eight selections. The Suns had five, while the Nuggets had four. Those three teams plus Philadelphia (three selections) held one-third of the draft picks. The Mavs went into the draft knowing that those team couldn’t possibly roster that many rookies, so it would lead to teams reaching on international and draft-and-stash prospects or trading away picks. Some of those teams would end up taking the best available player willing to be a draft-and-stash prospect rather than selecting the the top remaining talent.
“To us, it was more of a 70-player draft than a 60-player draft,” Cuban said. “What happened after 60 was just as valuable as having [an early second-round draft pick]”
If the league redistributed the picks to mirror what teams would have in an average year, players like Ferrell and Finney-Smith are likely drafted. Ben Bentil is likely still on the team that drafted him. Yet, because of the unique distribution of picks, those players are available on the market.
Quinn Cook is another player who would merit consideration if the teams were drafting players for 60 immediate NBA roster spots. Cook’s 10-day deal with Dallas expires tonight, though Cuban recently told Hoops Rumors that the organization likes the guard’s game and he could have a future with the team beyond the current deal.
Earlier this season, it appeared that the Mavericks would be better served to scrap the winning objectives this season, tank, and try their luck next year with a top draft pick aboard. Such life is not an option when you have future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki on the team. The organization wants to build the team of the future around its aging superstar. The signing of Harrison Barnes along with the team’s influx of youth should allow Nowitzki to take on a lighter load as he creeps toward 40 years old. Cuban insinuated that the German big man will continue playing past that point.
“Dirk will be the Satchel Paige of the NBA,” Cuban told Nate Silver during the conference’s Shark Vs. Fox panel.
Paige famously played more seasons than any baseball player in history. He retired at the age of 47, though he made a special, three inning appearance at the age of 59 in which he only gave up one hit.
Could Nowitzki play more seasons than any player in NBA history? Kevin Willis currently owns that accomplishment with 21 seasons in the league, which means Nowitzki would need to play for three seasons beyond the 2016/17 campaign to have sole possession of the record. The man who became just the sixth player ever to score 30,000 points is going to end his career with multiple records and since he plays for such an innovative organization, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him add the longevity feat to his impressive resume.
In addition to being one of 2017’s most entertaining games – and a potential playoff preview – the matchup between the Rockets and Spurs on Monday night may have represented a turning point in the 2017 NBA MVP race.
For most of the season, James Harden and Russell Westbrook have been viewed as the frontrunners for the award, for good reason. Harden ranks third in the league in scoring and first in assists, while Westbrook is vying to becoming the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double over the course of a full season.
On Monday night though, Harden squared off with Kawhi Leonard, who has flown under the radar for much of the 2016/17 campaign. Leonard proved in the Spurs’ dramatic win over Houston that he deserves to be in the discussion with Harden, Westbrook, and the rest of this year’s contenders for MVP. Leonard’s incredible 39-point night – his fourth straight game of 30+ points – was capped by a last-minute sequence that saw him hit a go-ahead three at one end of the court, then block Harden’s layup attempt at the other end.
While the MVP buzz for Leonard is growing, and Harden and Westbrook remain excellent candidates, it’s not just a three-man race. Over in the Eastern Conference, LeBron James is having one of his best seasons for the Cavaliers (No. 1 seed), Isaiah Thomas is averaging nearly 30 points per game for the Celtics (No. 2), and John Wall has established new career highs in PPG (22.6) and APG (10.8) for the Wizards (No. 3).
Even Kevin Durant, who is currently out with a knee injury, deserves a look — he has been more efficient than ever in Golden State, making 53.7% of his shots this season for the Warriors, though his injury will likely take him out of the running.
What do you think? We’ve still got more than a month left in the 2016/17 season, so things could certainly change in the coming weeks. But if the season ended today, who would be your choice for 2017’s NBA MVP? Vote in our poll, and weigh in below in the comments section with your thoughts.
Who is your current pick for 2017's NBA MVP?
Russell Westbrook (Thunder)
27.63%
(1,082 votes)
Isaiah Thomas (Celtics)
21.60%
(846 votes)
Kawhi Leonard (Spurs)
18.79%
(736 votes)
James Harden (Rockets)
16.09%
(630 votes)
LeBron James (Cavaliers)
11.85%
(464 votes)
Someone else
2.15%
(84 votes)
John Wall (Wizards)
1.89%
(74 votes)
Total Votes: 3,916
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Expiring contracts are a popular form of currency at the NBA trade deadline when teams are looking to get deals done and create future cap flexibility. In some cases, that means including a player like Andrew Bogut, who has an $11MM expiring contract, can be advantageous for both teams involved in a trade — by moving Bogut, the Mavericks avoided pushing up against the luxury tax, while the Sixers reached the salary floor.
Bogut was waived shortly after being traded to Philadelphia though, so his 2017 free agency wasn’t impacted in a real way by the deadline deal. However, there were several players moved in the hours, days, and weeks leading up to last month’s trade deadline who will be free agents in 2017 and whose change of scenery will significantly impact their situation this summer.
Here’s a closer look at five players eligible for free agency in 2017 who were affected by being traded in February, including one player who was involved in that Sixers/Mavs swap along with Bogut…
Nerlens Noel, Mavericks (RFA)
For much of the 2016/17 season, Noel’s long-term outlook was cloudy. The Sixers certainly had no shortage of future cap room, which would have made it easy for them to match any offers Noel received in restricted free agency and retain him for several more years. It’s possible that – if they hadn’t found an acceptable trade offer at the deadline for Noel – they would have done just that this summer, rather than losing him for nothing.
But the Sixers never seemed like a logical long-term fit for Noel, with Joel Embiid in place as the team’s franchise center and Jahlil Okafor and Richaun Holmes also in the mix. While the club may have found a way to make an Embiid/Noel pairing work if the former sixth overall pick had remained on the roster, Noel reportedly preferred to be dealt to a team where he’d have the starting center job to himself.
In Dallas, he’ll have exactly that, and the Mavericks like Noel enough that they’re expected to match any offer sheet he signs this summer. Pursuing Noel in restricted free agency might have saved Dallas a couple second-round picks and the rights to Justin Anderson, but there was no guarantee the club could have pried him away from the Sixers or another team. Now, the Mavs will be the overwhelming favorites to retain Noel for the next few seasons.
Serge Ibaka, Raptors (UFA)
Ibaka is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, so where he finishes the season isn’t as significant as it would be for a restricted free agent like Noel. Still, for rival suitors hoping to land Ibaka, his move from Orlando to Toronto is a big deal.
When reports first began swirling about the Magic’s efforts to move Ibaka, several sources suggested that the odds of the big man re-signing in Orlando were slim. The Magic held Ibaka’s Bird rights at the time, giving them the opportunity to offer five years instead of four, with slightly larger raises, but with Orlando headed for the lottery, Ibaka seemed likely to seek out a team closer to contention.
Having been sent to the Raptors, Ibaka has found a team that fits that bill. GM Masai Ujiri has long coveted the former Thunder power forward, and all signs point to Toronto making a strong effort this summer to lock up Ibaka. Before (and after) the trade, the Raptors were in no position to open up a real chunk of cap room this summer, barring a major roster overhaul. So the fact that they now hold Ibaka’s Bird rights, giving them the ability to go over the cap to re-sign him, means they’ve gone from being a non-contender for his services to the new frontrunner.
Taj Gibson, Thunder (UFA)
Like Ibaka, Gibson is an unrestricted free agent this summer. He’s also not a candidate for a maximum salary offer or a five-year contract, so the fact that the Thunder hold his Bird rights isn’t as important as it would be for some other free agents.
Still, when an NBA veteran has spent the better part of eight seasons with a single franchise and that team trades him a few months before he hits free agency, the odds of him returning to that team probably aren’t great. During the last couple weeks, we’ve seen Gibson wear a different NBA uniform for the first time in his NBA career, and it’s possible that he’ll put on a third uniform later this year.
That’s not to say the Thunder should be ruled out as a candidate to sign Gibson though. Oklahoma City projects to remain over the cap this summer, so holding Gibson’s Bird rights could be important — if he proves to be a solid fit in OKC, the team would be able to go over the cap to re-sign him.
Bojan Bogdanovic, Wizards (RFA)
Despite playing in New York City, Bogdanovic was toiling in relative obscurity on the NBA-worst Nets this season. Now he’s a key contributor on the No. 3 seed in the East, and he has gotten off to a scorching start in Washington, making 3.3 three-pointers per game at a rate of 58.8% so far. He won’t stay that hot all season, but if he continues to make big shots and remains productive in the playoffs, he’ll improve his free agent stock much more than he could have in Brooklyn.
Bogdanovic’s move from Brooklyn to Washington also could create some interesting new scenarios when it comes to offer sheets. The Nets have plenty of long-term cap flexibility and could have matched any offer for Bogdanovic if they’d wanted to. The Wizards, on the other hand, have already committed major money to John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Ian Mahinmi, among others, and they’ll likely have to go up to the max – or close to it – to re-sign Otto Porter this summer. Will the team be willing to spend on Bogdanovic as well? That remains to be seen.
Mason Plumlee, Nuggets (RFA)
After re-signing three restricted free agents last offseason, the Trail Blazers apparently had no interest in going through the process again this year, and sent Plumlee to a team that has more flexibility to retain him this summer — Denver only has about $55MM in guaranteed salary on its 2017/18 books, as opposed to an incredible $132MM+ for Portland.
After starting every game he played in for the Blazers this season, Plumlee is coming off the bench in Denver, but that shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign that the Nuggets don’t like him. Having sent a first-round pick to Portland in the deal, the Nuggets presumably intend to match any offer sheet Plumlee gets as a restricted free agent, even though he’ll be a second-stringer behind Nikola Jokic. That’s discouraging news for any rival teams that had been hoping to swoop in and steal Plumlee away from the cap-strapped Blazers later this year.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.