Chandler Hutchison To Retire
Former first-round pick Chandler Hutchison has decided to “step away” from basketball, he confirmed on his Instagram account.
An announcement from Hutchison’s G League team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, first indicated that the 26-year-old had decided to retire. The Skyforce – Miami’s NBAGL affiliate – buried the news in a press release about the team acquiring forward Wayne Stewart, and Hutchison subsequently shared his own announcement in his Instagram story.
“Due to personal reasons I have decided to step away from playing basketball at this time and assess what is best for my future moving forward,” Hutchison wrote. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I truly believe God has a plan and this is a step in reaching something greater than I could ever imagine. Thank you and God bless!”
Hutchison’s announcement doesn’t explicitly mention retirement, so it’s possible he intends to take a hiatus and attempt a comeback at some point down the road.
If he doesn’t return to basketball, the former Boise State standout will finish his career having appeared in 103 total NBA games for the Bulls, Wizards, and Suns. He averaged 5.4 PPG and 3.7 RPG on .442/.309/.643 shooting in 17.4 minutes per contest.
Hutchison spent his first two-and-a-half NBA seasons in Chicago before being sent to Washington as part of a three-team trade at the 2021 deadline. He was subsequently flipped to San Antonio in a five-team offseason trade and was waived by the Spurs.
His last stint on the NBA was on a two-way deal with the Suns in the first half of the 2021/22 season. He was cut by Phoenix this past January and has been playing in the G League since then.
Hutchison was off to a good start in Sioux Falls this season, averaging 16.6 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 2.4 APG on .475/.615/.625 shooting in five games (33.8 MPG).
Celtics Sign Al Horford To Two-Year Extension
3:00pm: Horford’s two-year extension is now official, the Celtics announced in a press release.
“Al is such an important part of our team,” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. “He’s a high-level player who enhances everyone around him on both ends of the court. His work ethic, commitment to his body and craft, and his unselfishness set a daily example on how to win big in the NBA. His leadership has had a big impact on the coaches and players he’s competed alongside here in Boston, and we’re excited that he and his family are choosing to remain Celtics for years to come.”
8:31am: Horford’s two-year, $20MM extension will be fully guaranteed and will include a trade kicker, a source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).
8:02am: The Celtics and center Al Horford have agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $20MM, agent Jason Glushon tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The new deal will begin in 2023/24 and will keep Horford under team control until 2025.
Horford is currently earning $26.5MM in the final season season of the four-year, $109MM contract he signed with the Sixers in 2019, the last time he reached free agency. The veteran big man left Boston for Philadelphia that offseason despite a widespread expectation that he and the Celtics would work out a new deal.
This time around, he and the C’s have finalized an agreement well ahead of his free agency to avoid a repeat of that situation. Horford had stated last month that he wanted to play for two or three more seasons and finish his career in Boston.
Horford is 36 years old and his new contract will expire when he’s 39. However, he has remained extremely effective into his mid-30s and the Celtics’ commitment to him reflects a confidence that his solid play will continue for at least a couple more years.
In 18 games (all starts) this season, Horford has averaged 10.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 31.3 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .555/.488/.625. As Wojnarowski observes within his report, the five-time All-Star is also highly respected within the locker room and in the wider Boston community.
Prior to this agreement, only $19.5MM of Horford’s $26.5MM salary for 2022/23 was guaranteed, but it was always a safe bet that he’d earn that full amount — this deal will formalize that, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
The extension signals that Boston is comfortable remaining a taxpayer beyond this season. Prior to signing Horford, the club had already committed $145MM+ in guaranteed money to eight players for 2023/24 (including Danilo Gallinari‘s player option). Barring cost-cutting moves, the Celtics’ team salary is now on track to comfortably surpass the projected $162MM luxury tax line for next season, especially if they re-sign Grant Williams.
As our tracker shows, Horford will become the 17th player to sign a veteran extension during the 2022/23 league year.
Billy Donovan: Lonzo Ball’s Knee Rehab Going “Really Slow”
After sounding optimistic about Lonzo Ball‘s rehabilitation process at the beginning of November, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan struck a different tone on Wednesday evening, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago.
“It’s been really slow,” Donovan said. “I’m just being honest.”
Ball underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure on his left knee at the end of September and was set to be reevaluated in four-to-six weeks. Today marks nine weeks since the surgery was performed, but there’s still no clarity on when he might make his 2022/23 season debut.
Donovan said that Ball “has not necessarily suffered a setback,” according to Schaefer, but he’s “not even close” to resuming contact or on-court work.
“He’s working through more and more. But it’s not like I can give you any report, ‘Hey, he’s running, he’s cutting, he’s jumping, he’s doing individual skill work, the next step is we’ve got to get him some contact.’ To be honest with you we’re not even close to that,” Donovan said.
“Him working through the pain he was experiencing before, there has been improvement in that area, but they’re also trying to continue to build up strength because of the lack of time he’s had, so to speak, training. They’re constantly, like, all hands on deck, everyone is evaluating. There’s a lot of people that are involved in trying to help him.”
As Schaefer notes, “everyone” includes Chicago’s medical staff as well as specialists in Los Angeles, where both of Ball’s recent surgeries were performed. He missed the team’s final 42 games of the ’21/22 regular season after undergoing left meniscus surgery in January.
Ball last played on January 14 and obviously has yet to play this season.
One noteworthy point from Donovan’s aforementioned answer is that Ball is still experiencing pain, though he’s shown “improvement.” The coach later expanded on that, per Schaefer.
“He is better after the surgery, I will say that, but is he completely pain-free? No, and that’s what they’re working towards,” Donovan said. “Or, at least, if he does have some pain, he’s able to play through some of it, work through some of it. All these guys are dealing with pain as the season goes on in some form of it. But for him it’s the pain that has [prevented him from] getting back to playing.”
The Bulls were the No. 1 seed in the East at the time Ball was injured last season, holding a 27-13 record. They went just 19-23 the rest of the way and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Bucks.
Chicago has certainly missed Ball’s defense, long-range shooting, and ability to push the pace in transition. The Bulls have had a rocky start to the ’22/23 season, currently holding a 9-11 record.
NBA Announces Start, End Dates For 2023/24 Regular Season
The NBA informed teams on Wednesday that the 2023/24 regular season will begin on October 24, 2023, and end April 14, 2024, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).
The ongoing ’22/23 regular season opened on October 18 and will conclude April 9, so next season’s start and end dates will be pushed back nearly a week.
According to Charania, the league also told teams that if and when a proposed in-season tournament is approved, the initial regular season schedule would have 80 games per team instead of the standard 82. In that scenario, the remaining games would be scheduled once eight teams advance to a single-elimination format.
As Charania reported in September, the in-season tournament would have cup games running through November, with eight teams advancing to knockout stages in December. All of the games would be part of the regular season schedule, and the finalists would each have one extra game.
In short, the remaining two games for the 22 teams that don’t advance to the single-elimination rounds would be finalized once the cup games conclude, possibly at the end of November.
The in-season tournament has yet to be finalized and still needs to be approved by the NBA and the NBPA before it can be implemented, but obviously the league is targeting next season for its initial run.
Ben Simmons Out At Least Three Games With Calf Strain
Ben Simmons has been diagnosed with a left lateral upper calf strain and will miss at least three games for the Nets, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
Simmons will be reassessed after the third game, which is Sunday against the Celtics. Brooklyn has two days off following the matchup with Boston, so the earliest Simmons could return will be next Wednesday against the Hornets.
The 26-year-old left Monday’s win over Orlando in the second quarter with what was called left knee soreness. Evidently further testing revealed that the injury was actually located in his calf. With Simmons out, the Nets relied more on Joe Harris and Seth Curry, and that will likely continue for the next few games.
The Nets also announced that forward Yuta Watanabe, the NBA’s leader in 3PT% (.571), underwent a second MRI on his right hamstring strain and the results were unchanged — he’s still dealing with the injury. He’ll continue to receive treatment and will be reevaluated in one week. Watanabe has already missed five consecutive games with the hamstring strain and will miss at least three more.
The good news is that forward T.J. Warren is targeting a Friday return, so his presence should help make up for the size lost from Simmons and Watanabe being sidelined. The Nets are currently 11-11, the No. 9 seed in the East.
Wizards Among Potential Suitors For Jae Crowder
The Wizards appear to be among the trade suitors for Suns forward Jae Crowder, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on his latest Hoop Collective podcast. Crowder has sat out the entire 2022/23 season as Phoenix has looked to move him, and Washington is in the market for a three-and-D type player.
“There’s been some chatter about them looking at a guy like Jae Crowder,” Windhorst said of the Wizards (hat tip to RealGM). “I’m pretty confident there’s been some discussions between the Wizards and Suns. We’ve been talking about Jae Crowder now for about two months. It’s obvious it’s a hard trade to pull off. The Wizards have a bunch of guys who make decent salaries on their roster that they can use in trades.”
A number of Eastern Conference playoff contenders have already been linked to Crowder, with the Heat, Hawks, and Bucks among the teams said to have interest. There was a sense a couple weeks ago that Phoenix might be on the verge of completing a deal involving the 32-year-old, but nothing has come of those rumors to date.
The Suns are one of the NBA’s best teams and will be looking for win-now pieces – rather than draft picks or prospects – in any Crowder trade, which has made it challenging for them to make a straight-up trade with another contending club. They’ve reportedly explored multi-team scenarios in an effort to get the sort of player(s) they’re targeting.
According to Windhorst, Phoenix would like to acquire a power forward in a Crowder trade. A previous report indicated the Suns have interest in Kyle Kuzma, but the Wizards are presumably looking to supplement Kuzma in their frontcourt rather than give him up, given the year he’s having. Former lottery picks Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija could be trade candidates, as Windhorst observes.
“What Phoenix has been looking for in return for Jae Crowder is a power forward,” Windhorst said. “So you can look at the (Wizards’) roster and you can identify that maybe Hachimura would be a guy. But they haven’t made the deal yet, so there hasn’t been a connection there.
“… To be honest with you, if I was Phoenix – now again, this is me speaking, this is not what I’ve heard, to be clear – I’d be interested in Avdija. I am interested in what he can do defensively. But I haven’t heard that. I’ve just heard that those two sides have talked.”
Crowder ($10.18MM) and Hachimura ($6.26MM) are on expiring contracts, while Avdija ($4.92MM) has one more year left on his rookie deal after this one.
James Harden Targeting Monday Return
Sixers star James Harden is targeting Monday’s game against his former team in Houston for his return from a right foot injury, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported (via Twitter) that Harden is aiming to make it back at some point on Philadelphia’s current three-game road trip, which begins on Wednesday in Cleveland. The team will play in Friday in Memphis before heading to Houston for Monday’s matchup. Charania – like Pompey – says a Monday return is most likely for Harden.
The Sixers have been significantly shorthanded as of late, particularly in their backcourt, where Harden has been on the shelf since November 2 and Tyrese Maxey has been out since Nov. 18 with a foot injury of his own. Star center Joel Embiid also missed some time before rejoining Philadelphia’s lineup on Monday.
Despite the health issues affecting their top players, the 76ers have held their own in recent weeks. They’re 8-4 since Harden went down, including 3-1 in the games that Harden, Maxey, and Emibid all missed.
Maxey’s return is likely a little ways off yet, but the Sixers will be in position to begin solidifying a spot near the top of the Eastern Conference standings if Embiid and Harden are both healthy for the foreseeable future beginning next week. At 12-9, the club currently ranks fifth in the East.
Knicks Waive Feron Hunt, Sign DaQuan Jeffries To Two-Way Deal
4:57pm: The signing of Jeffries to a two-way deal is official, the team announced in a tweet.
3:14pm: The Knicks have waived forward Feron Hunt, the team announced today (via Twitter). Hunt had been on a two-way contract with the team.
New York will fill its newly opened two-way contract slot by signing free agent wing DaQuan Jeffries, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Hunt signed a two-way deal with the Knicks last March and appeared in two games for the club down the stretch. Because his contract included a second year, he continued to occupy one of New York’s two-way spots into 2022/23, though he had yet to see any playing time at the NBA level this season.
In eight G League games (34.5 MPG) for the Westchester Knicks this fall, Hunt filled up the box score with 16.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.6 blocks per contest. He made 53.8% of his field goal attempts, albeit just 28.6% of his three-pointers and 63.6% of his free throws.
Jeffries, who was in training camp with the Knicks this fall, has also been a mainstay in the Westchester lineup in the early part of the NBAGL season, averaging 14.6 PPG and 4.2 RPG in five appearances (30.2 MPG). Like Hunt, he has made more than half his shots from the floor (50.8%), but has been less efficient from beyond the arc (21.4%) and at the foul line (60.0%).
Jeffries, 25, has appeared in a total of 47 NBA games for Sacramento, Houston, and Memphis since going undrafted out of Tulsa in 2019. He has also represented Team USA in several qualifying games for the 2023 World Cup.
Assuming he signs within the next couple days, Jeffries will be eligible to appear in up to 38 regular season games for the Knicks as a two-way player. That’s a prorated portion of the 50 games that players on full-season two-way deals can play.
Hunt, meanwhile, will become an unrestricted NBA free agent if he clears waivers on Thursday. Westchester would still hold his G League rights if he chooses to remain with the team.
Mavericks Sign Kemba Walker, Waive Facundo Campazzo
NOVEMBER 29, 4:02pm: The Mavericks have officially signed Walker, the team announced (via Twitter).
Walker’s prorated minimum-salary cap hit will be $1,392,895. He’ll earn $2,204,438 if his salary becomes guaranteed for the season.
NOVEMBER 29, 9:01am: Walker’s one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Mavericks will be non-guaranteed, Stein reports (via Twitter). The veteran point guard isn’t expected to play immediately after having sat out for nine-plus months, Stein adds.
NOVEMBER 28, 12:43pm: The Mavericks have officially waived Campazzo, the team announced (via Twitter).
Dallas’ cap hit for Campazzo will be $464,299, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That’s 44/174th of his $1,836,090 salary, since he spent 42 regular season days on the Mavs’ roster and will be on waivers for two more.
NOVEMBER 28, 7:12am: The Mavericks are in “advanced talks” with veteran guard Kemba Walker, Marc Stein reports in his latest Substack story. Dallas plans to sign Walker and waive Facundo Campazzo, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Mavs are hoping that Walker can provide another long-distance shooter and ball-handler off their bench, Stein adds. Dallas, which reached the Western Conference finals last season, has lost four straight games and dropped into 11th place in the West at 9-10.
Walker, 32, has been searching for another team since the summer, when the Knicks agreed to a deal to send him to the Pistons on draft night. Walker was expected to reach a buyout agreement with Detroit right away, but he was unable to find a guaranteed offer from another team. He was ultimately waived on October 17, shortly before the start of the regular season, and is being paid his full $9.17MM salary for this year.
Aa four-time All-Star, Walker was thrilled about the chance to play for his hometown Knicks after signing with New York in free agency last summer. However, lingering knee issues and a drop in production soured the relationship, and Walker wound up playing just 37 games and averaging 11.6 points and 3.5 assists per night.
Stein points out that Dallas planned to pursue Walker as a backcourt partner for Luka Doncic when he became a free agent in 2019. The Mavericks were originally viewed as the top threat to sign Walker away from the Hornets before the Celtics entered the bidding and ultimately landed him.
Walker was an All-Star during his first season in Boston, but the knee problems limited his effectiveness and he was traded to the Thunder in a salary dump in the summer of 2021. He reached a buyout with Oklahoma City two months later.
Campazzo, 31, signed a non-guaranteed deal with Dallas in mid-October after spending his first two seasons with Denver. He got into just eight games and averaged 1.3 points in 6.5 minutes per night.
Karl-Anthony Towns Sidelined 4-To-6 Weeks With Strained Calf
A right calf strain that Timberwolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns suffered Monday night will force him to miss approximately four-to-six weeks, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. He’s expected to make a full recovery and return to the court sometime in January, Wojnarowski adds.
Towns underwent an MRI on Tuesday morning that showed no structural damage to his Achilles, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Towns left Monday’s game in the third quarter after being injured on a non-contact play. He grabbed the back of his leg and needed help walking to the locker room.
Although there were fears that it could have been worse, the injury is still a major loss for the Wolves, who are off to a 10-11 start after losing Monday. Towns, a three-time All-Star, is averaging 20.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists through 21 games and is a major component in the team’s offense.
Towns has been adjusting to a new position after Minnesota traded for center Rudy Gobert during the summer. Their on-court partnership has gotten off to a rocky start, and Towns’ absence will provide another setback.