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Southwest Notes: Eason, Doncic, Hardaway, K. Johnson

July 31st, 2023 at 11:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Rockets‘ free agent addition Dillon Brooks recently said he’s looking forward to teaming up with Tari Eason, and Eason tells Kelly Iko of The Athletic that the feeling is mutual. Eason gained a reputation as a tough, aggressive defender during his rookie season, and he wants to build on that with help from Brooks.

“He’s one of the best defenders around and I can learn so many things from him,” Eason said. “There are so many other things to defense besides just guarding your man. There are so many things I can get better at in defense. Just being able to be paired with him and his skill, his approach and how he sees things from a defensive standpoint. I’ll be able to pick his brain, learn and become a better defender.”

Eason quickly earned a rotation spot last season as a rookie on one of the worst teams in the league. Houston is expecting to be much better after signing Brooks and three other veteran free agents, and new coach Ime Udoka has emphasized to Eason that defense will be important for him to keep getting regular minutes.

“Just be vocal. Be in the right spots, things like that,” Eason said of Udoka’s message. “As far as my defensive approach, they want me to be locked in. We have an older team now so for me to be on the floor, I have to be one of the best defenders on the floor at all times. So just really being homed in on defense, that’s the biggest thing. Being able to knock down a consistent shot and play defense.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

The Mavericks likely have two more seasons to show Luka Doncic that they can build a contender around him before they have to worry about him leaving, Tim Cato of The Athletic writes in a mailbag column. Doncic can opt out of his current deal in 2026, and although Cato is skeptical that the Slovenian star would ask for a trade before then, he acknowledges that the organization is operating under a “Doomsday Clock.” Cato also points out that Dallas has amassed a wealth of young talent, draft assets and tradable contracts to bid for the next big star that becomes available.
Cato believes it’s probably a coin flip on whether the Mavericks will trade Tim Hardaway Jr. before training camp, but he says it should become more likely as the season wears on. He points out that the acquisition of Seth Curry makes Hardaway more expendable, and the team needs to find minutes for second-year guard Jaden Hardy.
Keldon Johnson has established himself as a starter with the Spurs, but the addition of No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama may push him into a sixth-man role, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “I just want to win,” Johnson said. “Whatever I got to do to win, I am looking forward to that, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Players Who Signed July 1 Are Now Eligible To Be Traded

July 31st, 2023 at 9:22am CST by Arthur Hill

The peak of the NBA’s transactions season has calmed down after an active start to July, but a few more players have become eligible to be traded on the final day of the month, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).

The 30-day trade restriction window has expired for draft picks who signed their contracts on July 1, along with six players who inked two-way contracts on that date.

The designation won’t matter for those at the very top of the draft, as the Spurs and Trail Blazers obviously won’t consider trading Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson, respectively. However, it could come into play for a few others, especially if more big-name players are on the move as the summer winds down.

In addition to those top-three picks, first-rounders who signed on July 1 are the Magic’s Anthony Black and Jett Howard, the Pacers‘ Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, the Trail Blazers‘ Kris Murray and the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez. The No. 18 pick out of UCLA, Jaquez has been mentioned as a potential asset in a trade to bring Damian Lillard to Miami.

Two-way players who signed on July 1, according to NBA.com’s transactions log, are the Sixers‘ Terquavion Smith and Ricky Council, the Heat‘s Dru Smith and Jamaree Bouyea, the Trail Blazers‘ Ibou Badji and the Rockets‘ Trevor Hudgins.

Most veteran free agents who signed this summer won’t become eligible to be traded by their teams until December 15 or January 15, depending on their circumstances. Those signings didn’t become official until July 6 or later because of the NBA’s summer moratorium.

Warriors Hiring Chuck Hayes Away From Rockets

July 29th, 2023 at 4:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Warriors will hire longtime Rockets player and front office member Chuck Hayes as their new director of basketball operations, according to Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle.

Hayes, 40, joined Houston’s management team six years ago as a pro player personnel scout and worked his way up to assistant director of player personnel. He told Lerner that his position with Golden State will involve some college and professional scouting but will also “enhance my responsibilities with free agency and some trade strategy.”

Hayes is originally from San Leandro, California, so the new job will bring him close to home.

The 6’6″ forward signed with the Rockets after going undrafted out of Kentucky in 2005 and spent his first six NBA seasons with the team. He also played for the Kings and Raptors before rejoining Houston for two games in his final season. Hayes averaged 3.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in 644 career games.

How New CBA Has Impacted Summer Roster Moves

July 29th, 2023 at 9:23am CST by Luke Adams

The restrictions placed on teams above the second tax apron in the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement didn’t dissuade the Suns from further increasing their payroll in both the short and long term by acquiring Bradley Beal and his four-year, maximum-salary contract. However, the effects of the new CBA were felt by several of the league’s other top spenders, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Kevin Pelton, and Tim Bontemps outline in an Insider-only story.

Bontemps points out that the Clippers‘ decision to waive Eric Gordon before his 2023/24 cap hit became guaranteed saved the club $100MM+ in salary and tax penalties. Gordon ended up signing with the rival Suns, which wasn’t an ideal outcome for L.A.

The Celtics, meanwhile, were in position to keep Grant Williams at a fairly reasonable rate, but opted to sign-and-trade him to Dallas rather than bring him back on a four-year deal worth around $14MM per year.

The Warriors reduced their future financial commitments by trading Jordan Poole and his lucrative new four-year extension in a deal for Chris Paul, who is on a pseudo-expiring contract (his 2024/25 salary is non-guaranteed).

As Bontemps writes, forcing high-payroll teams to make difficult decisions on role players was exactly what the NBA intended when it introduced a more punitive second tax apron in the new CBA. Even the Suns, Bontemps notes, were impacted a little by those new rules, given that they opted to fill out their roster with minimum-salary players rather than using their Early Bird rights to re-sign some of their own free agents, like Torrey Craig and Jock Landale.

Here are a few more ways the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has influenced roster moves around the league this summer, per ESPN’s trio:

The new CBA requires teams to spend at least to the minimum salary floor (90% of the cap) before the regular season begins — if they don’t, they’ll forfeit a portion of their share of the end-of-season luxury tax payments (50% in 2023/24; the entire amount in future seasons). As a result, all eight teams that operated under the cap in July have already reached the minimum floor, as Bontemps and Marks observe. Free agents across the board didn’t necessarily reap the benefits of that change, since several teams used their cap room in other ways (trades, renegotiations, etc.), but Bruce Brown was one beneficiary, Pelton writes. The Pacers were able to get Brown on a short-term contract (two years with a second-year team option) by making him their highest-paid player ($22MM) for 2023/24.
The new second-round pick exception looks like a win for both teams and players. According to Marks, this year’s second-round picks have received a total of $47.1MM in guaranteed money so far, up from $36.4MM in 2022. And because the second-round exception requires a team option in either the third or fourth year, there’s no longer a risk for teams of losing a second-rounder to unrestricted free agency (the way the Mavericks lost Jalen Brunson).
The Kings and Thunder took advantage of the fact that the room exception for under-the-cap teams was upgraded to allow for a third year (instead of just two) and a much higher starting salary (it got a 30% bump, separate from its year-to-year increase). In past seasons, Sacramento and Oklahoma City wouldn’t have been able to sign Sasha Vezenkov and Vasilije Micic to three-year contracts worth between $6-8MM per year without using cap room (or the mid-level exception for over-the-cap teams) to do so. This year, they were able to use that cap space in other ways.
The Cavaliers and Rockets took advantage of more lenient salary-matching rules for non-taxpaying teams to give Max Strus and Dillon Brooks bigger starting salaries than they previously would have been eligible for based on the outgoing salaries involved in those sign-and-trade deals.
Hawks guard Dejounte Murray and Kings center Domantas Sabonis were the first two players who took advantage of the fact that veterans signing extensions can now receive a first-year raise up to 40% instead of 20%. It’s possible neither player would have agreed to an extension this offseason without that rule tweak. Knicks forward Josh Hart could be the next player to benefit from that change, according to Marks.

Spurs Considered Lucrative Offer Sheet For Austin Reaves

July 26th, 2023 at 10:23am CST by Luke Adams

Lakers guard Austin Reaves revealed in a recent interview that the Spurs and Rockets were among his potential options in free agency before he reached a deal to remain in Los Angeles.

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype has since provided more details on those what-if scenarios, citing league sources who say San Antonio considered an offer sheet for Reaves that would have been worth $21MM per season.

However, according to Scotto, the Spurs were concerned that the Lakers would simply match their offer sheet and that they might miss out on other opportunities to use their cap room while they awaited L.A.’s decision. The Lakers wouldn’t have had to officially match an offer sheet for Reaves until the end of the day on July 7 and could have tied up San Antonio’s space in the meantime.

As for the Rockets, they were “closely monitoring” Reaves and were prepared to put together a lucrative offer sheet if they had failed to land top target Fred VanVleet, sources tell Scotto. When VanVleet agreed to a three-year, maximum-salary deal with Houston, the team didn’t see the need to spend big on another backcourt player.

Reaves’ restricted free agency was an uncommon case, since he had accumulated just two years of NBA experience and was therefore subject to the Gilbert Arenas provision.

Although the Lakers could only offer Reaves about $53.8MM over four years using his Early Bird rights, the Arenas provision allowed a rival team with cap room to give him a bigger, back-loaded offer sheet worth up to nearly $102MM over four years — the Lakers would have had the right to match any offer sheet despite not being able to offer Reaves that much money directly.

Ultimately, no rival suitors decided to aggressively pursue Reaves, allowing the Lakers to bring him back on his maximum Early Bird deal, worth $53.8MM across four seasons. Following a breakout season in which he averaged 13.0 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game with an excellent .529/.398/.864 shooting line, the 25-year-old may turn out to be a bargain at that price.

Whitmore 'Displayed A Lot Of Different Stuff'

July 25th, 2023 at 8:28pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Cam Whitmore was named the Las Vegas Summer League MVP and the Rockets’ summer coach, Ben Sullivan, said the raw talent of the No. 20 pick in the draft “jumps off the page.” Sullivan spoke to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko about the Rockets’ Summer League experience. “He’s finishing around the rim, able to cut and score, shooting 3s and pull-ups and getting to the basket,” Sullivan said. “He displayed a lot of different stuff. And I really, I really like it, and he’s just so young, like he’s 19 years old. He’s going to have to grow in all areas of his game — his defense, his offense, understanding of concepts, what we’re trying to execute as a team, spacing.”

Sixers Notes: Longabardi, Karl, Reed, Harden, Whitmore

July 25th, 2023 at 6:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Sixers are hiring Mike Longabardi as head coach of their G League affiliate in Delaware, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.

Longabardi has been an NBA assistant since 2003. He spent last season with the Hawks.

Longabardi will replace Coby Karl, who is expected to join Nick Nurse‘s staff in Philadelphia, Kyle Neubeck of The Philly Voice tweets.

We have more on the Sixers:

Center Paul Reed weighed in on James Harden‘ trade request, saying he hopes the disgruntled guard remains with the Sixers, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “James Harden, that’s like my big brother, one of the coolest vets I know,” he said. “I hope he comes back. But I understand business is business. And sometimes you got to do what you got to do. But like I said, that’s like my big brother. I hope he comes back.” Reed stayed with Philadelphia this summer when the Sixers matched Utah’s three-year offer sheet.
President of basketball operations Daryl Morey hinted on a radio appearance that he tried to swing a trade on draft night for Cam Whitmore, Sean Barnard of Philly Sports Network relays (Twitter link). “There was another prominent player who fell in this year’s draft that we were trying to move up for,” Morey said in a wide-ranging interview on The Anthony Gargano Show. “I couldn’t understand why they were falling because I’ve seen him play live multiple times here in town.” Whitmore, a Villanova product who was selected by the Rockets at No. 20, was named MVP of the Las Vegas Summer League.
In case you missed it, Harden weighed in on Damian Lillard‘s trade request. Get the details here.

Community Shootaround: Rockets Or Spurs?

July 23rd, 2023 at 9:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Rockets and Spurs finished on even terms last season. They tied for the worst record in the Western Conference at 22-60 apiece.

San Antonio’s plunge in the standings proved worthwhile in the long run as they landed the top pick in the draft. Generational talent Victor Wembanyama has instantly energized and revived the franchise and he’ll be the most closely watched rookie in many years.

The Spurs had one of the worst defenses in league history last season, as they gave up an average of 123.1 points and allowed opponents to shoot 50.7 percent. The 7’5”’ Wembanyama still needs to fill out physically but he’ll provide a fearsome shot-blocking and shot-altering presence. He’ll be developed by Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich.

San Antonio returns its starters at every other position, led by leading scorer Keldon Johnson (22 points per game). Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell and Tre Jones fill out the rest of the lineup. The Spurs used their cap space to acquire a number of quality reserves in trades, including Cameron Payne, Reggie Bullock and Cedi Osman.

The Rockets slipped to the No. 4 in the draft and selected guard Amen Thompson. That didn’t stop them from making arguably the biggest splash on the free agent market, handing Fred VanVleet a three-year, $128.5MM contract. The former Raptors point man will become the floor leader, while controversial veteran Dillon Brooks also got a chunk of money in free agency to fortify the team’s small forward spot.

They join an otherwise young but intriguing roster, including Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and Alperen Sengun. Smith and rookie Cam Whitmore were two of the biggest standouts in the Summer League.

Houston also hired Ime Udoka as head coach and he’ll look to make the team more accountable on the defensive end. The Rockets had the second-to-worst defense in the West.

That leads us to our questions of the day: Which of the Texas teams that finished at the bottom of the Western Conference standings last season — the Spurs or Rockets — will win more games next season?

Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section. We look forward to your input.

Lakers Notes: Reaves, Westbrook, Castleton, Gay

July 22nd, 2023 at 10:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

Austin Reaves went into free agency hoping to re-sign with the Lakers, but he considered both the Rockets and Spurs before the process began. Reaves explained his approach in an appearance on Showtime’s “All the Smoke” with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson (video link).

“I really wanted to be in L.A. the whole time,” Reaves said. “There were a couple of situations that were close, but like I said, I really wanted to be in L.A. L.A. feels like home to me so that’s really where I wanted to be.”

Reaves was a restricted free agent, and the Lakers were limited to an offer of about $54MM over four years with his Early Bird rights. Because of the Arenas provision, L.A. would have been able to match a larger offer sheet from another team, and both Houston and San Antonio had enough cap room to give Reaves a contract that could have made it a tough decision. Both teams decided to spend their money in other areas, so L.A. was able to keep the 25-year-old shooting guard at a relative bargain price.

There’s more on the Lakers:

In the same interview (video link), Reaves discusses Russell Westbrook, who had a stormy tenure with the team before being traded in February. Westbrook became a controversial figure during his time with the Lakers, but Reaves only had good things to say about him. “He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” Reaves said. “As a person, you can’t get much better. … He was always empowering everybody to be better and do better and want more.”
Colin Castleton would love to eventually be promoted from his two-way contract to the 15-man roster, but he told Lakers Nation that he’s more concerned with improving his game and learning as much as possible from his veteran teammates. “I was focused on killing Summer League, and I feel like I did a good job there,” Castleton said. “Now I can focus on getting ready for training camp and put myself in the right mindset so I can have an opportunity later in the year. That’s my mindset.”
In case you missed it, the Lakers are among several teams with interest in veteran forward Rudy Gay, who was waived by the Thunder on Thursday.

Ime Udoka Challenged Jalen Green To Develop "Winning Habits"

July 22nd, 2023 at 6:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

New Rockets head coach Ime Udoka wants to see Jalen Green start to build “winning habits,” per Michael Shapiro of The Houston Chronicle. Green has put up impressive scoring numbers in his first two seasons, but Udoka has instructed him to improve other aspects of his game. “The one thing we have stressed to him is being an all-around player,” Udoka said. “He is a natural scorer. But he has to do it on each side of the ball. He is a guy who can get anywhere on the court.”