Joshua Primo Accused Of Exposing Himself To Women
7:28pm: A league source confirms to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News that Primo has multiple allegations of exposing himself (Twitter link).
7:01pm: Primo allegedly exposed himself to a former Spurs female employee, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. She has hired attorney Tony Buzbee, who represented the women involved in the sexual misconduct lawsuits against NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson.
6:10pm: The Spurs‘ release of 2021 lottery pick Joshua Primo was related to multiple allegations that he exposed himself to women, according to Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Those accusations help to explain the team’s unexpected decision to part with a player it valued so highly. San Antonio selected Primo with the 12th pick last year and recently exercised its $4.3MM option for the 2023/24 season, even though the deadline for such a move isn’t until Monday.
In a statement to Wojnarowski after the release was announced Friday, Primo cited “previous trauma” that he suffered. He also promised to focus on his mental health treatment so he would eventually be able to discuss the issues that are affecting him and “help others who have suffered in a similar way.”
Numerous teams are investigating Primo’s situation and have expressed interest in submitting a waiver claim for him, sources tell the authors. To claim him off waivers, a team would need enough cap space or a traded player exception large enough to cover his $4.1MM salary. If a team does claim him, it would also be obligated to pay the $4.3MM option for 2023/24 that the Spurs picked up.
Primo, 19, was the youngest player drafted in 2021, but he played 50 games as a rookie and made 16 starts. He was used off the bench in four games this season, averaging 7.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 23.3 minutes per night.
Deandre Ayton Out At Least One Week With Ankle Sprain
Suns center Deandre Ayton, who sprained his left ankle in Friday’s win over New Orleans, has been ruled out for Sunday’s game vs. Houston and will be reevaluated in one week, the team announced today (Twitter link via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic).
As Rankin notes, Ayton sustained the injury when he landed on Jonas Valanciunas‘ foot after attempting a shot during the first quarter on Friday. The former No. 1 overall pick left the game and didn’t return, with Bismack Biyombo and Jock Landale handling center duties for the rest of the night.
Both Biyombo and Landale figure to play increased roles for Phoenix during the next week while Ayton remains sidelined. He’ll likely miss at least Sunday’s game vs. Houston, Tuesday’s contest vs. Minnesota, and the first half of a back-to-back set vs. Portland next Friday and Saturday. It’s unclear at this point whether the 24-year-old might be cleared for the second half of that back-to-back.
After having his four-year, maximum-salary offer sheet from Indiana matched by the Suns this offseason, Ayton had gotten off to a strong start, averaging 18.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game in his first four appearances (30.7 MPG). He had four points and three boards on Friday before exiting the game.
Magic Decline R.J. Hampton’s 2023/24 Option; Exercise Four Others
The Magic will decline to exercise their 2023/24 rookie scale option on guard R.J. Hampton, multiple sources tell Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required). The third-year combo guard will now be an unrestricted free agent in 2023.
Hampton, 21, was the No. 24 pick of the 2020 draft. He was technically drafted by the Bucks, but was traded to the Nuggets shortly thereafter. During his rookie season, he was sent to Orlando along with Gary Harris as part of the Aaron Gordon trade.
In 94 games (22.4 MPG) with the Magic, Hampton has averaged 8.4 PPG, 3.5 RPG and 2.5 APG on .402/.343/.649 shooting. His declined option was worth $4,220,057, which means the Magic will be prohibited from offering him a first-year salary worth more than that in free agency next summer if he finishes the season on the roster.
Price also reports that the Magic have exercised their 2023/24 options on guards Jalen Suggs and Cole Anthony, as well as forwards Chuma Okeke and Franz Wagner. The team confirmed the news (via Twitter).
Suggs, the No. 4 pick of last year’s draft, will earn a guaranteed $7,252,080 in his third season, while Wagner, the No. 8 pick last year, will earn $5,508,720. Anthony (No. 15 in 2020) and Okeke (No. 16 in 2020) will make guaranteed salaries of $5,539,771 and $5,266,713 for their fourth seasons, respectively.
Wagner, Suggs, Anthony and Okeke have all been rotation players for the Magic when healthy, so it was expected that their options would be picked up. Hampton, however, is only averaging 11.0 minutes per night in four games this season despite several injuries to the backcourt (including Suggs and Anthony) after averaging 21.9 minutes last season.
The deadline for ’23/24 rookie scale team options is October 31. The full list of those decisions can be found right here.
Spurs Waive Joshua Primo
9:30pm: “I know that you all are surprised by today’s announcement,” Primo said in a statement to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). “I’ve been seeking help to deal with previous trauma I suffered and will now take this time to focus on my mental health treatment more fully. I hope to be able to discuss these issues in the future so I can help others who have suffered in a similar way. I appreciate privacy at this time.”
6:32pm: In an absolutely stunning move, the Spurs announced that they have waived second-year guard Joshua Primo, the No. 12 overall pick of last year’s draft (Twitter link via Andscape’s Marc J. Spears).
“It is our hope that, in the long run, this decision will serve the best interest of both the organization and Joshua,” said Spurs Sports & Entertainment CEO RC Buford.
“The Spurs organization, including front office executives, coaching staff and players, will have no additional comments to share at this time.”
When asked about releasing Primo prior to Friday’s game against the Bulls, head coach Gregg Popovich declined to elaborate, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link).
Primo, 19, averaged 5.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 50 games (16 starts, 19.3 minutes) as a rookie last season, but struggled with efficiency, posting a .374/.307/.746 shooting slash line. He was the youngest player drafted last year and won’t turn 20 years old until December.
Through four games this season (23.3 minutes), Primo is averaging 7.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists on .346/.250/.778 shooting.
The Spurs exercised their 2023/24 team option on Primo a couple weeks ago, so he will earn a guaranteed $4.1MM this season and $4.3MM in ’23/24. Unless he’s claimed on waivers, San Antonio will be on the hook for both of those figures over the next two seasons.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, a rival team could claim Primo using cap room or an exception, but obviously would have to be pretty confident about what transpired given he was so abruptly cut. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), the Spurs had been “excited” about Primo’s development and future.
“Joshua has an uncanny maturity about him, kind of a steady demeanor,” Popovich said in January. “He is not awed by the NBA or anything like that. He makes good decisions. He definitely knows how to play. It’s just a matter of getting stronger and aware that these are men and they are coming after your head, so to speak. He just has to get used to that physicality and all that sort of thing.”
Many NBA executives are scrambling to get to the bottom of what might have prompted the Spurs to waive last year’s lottery pick, especially after already guaranteeing his salary for next season.
“He’s a talent,” one executive texted Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated (Twitter link). “Everyone is trying to find out what the hell happened.”
Prior to releasing him, the Spurs had listed Primo as out due to left glute soreness for Friday’s contest, as Tim MacMahon of ESPN relays (via Twitter).
Primo, a native of Ontario, Canada, spent one year at Alabama prior to turning pro.
Joel Embiid Misses Friday’s Game With Sore Right Knee
Sixers center Joel Embiid was ruled out for Friday’s game at Toronto, with the team announcing (via Twitter) that he wouldn’t be in the starting lineup.
As Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca notes (Twitter link), Embiid had previously been listed as questionable due to “injury recovery — right knee.” Prior to tip off, head coach Doc Rivers told reporters that Embiid’s is experiencing knee soreness, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets.
The MVP runner-up each of the past two seasons, Embiid hasn’t quite looked himself during the Sixers’ 1-4 start to the 2022/23 season. His numbers look great on paper — he’s averaging 27.6 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.4 BPG on .521/.278/.814 shooting in five games (35.0 MPG) — but he’s been unusually sluggish, especially on defense.
Rivers said Embiid dealt with plantar fasciitis over the summer that impacted his ability to train. While he says he’s no longer dealing with the foot issue, he’s still trying to get his conditioning back to normal.
It’s unclear how severe Embiid’s knee soreness is at this time. The five-time All-Star has a lengthy injury history, so hopefully it’s nothing serious. The Sixers opted to go small with the Cameroonian big man sidelined, starting guard De’Anthony Melton in his place and sliding P.J. Tucker up to center.
The Sixers currently lead the Raptors 68-56 in the third quarter. Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey is leading the way with a game-high 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting, along with a game-high plus-18.
Lakers’ Anthony Davis Out Friday With Back Tightness
Lakers big man Anthony Davis will miss Friday’s game at Minnesota with lower back tightness, the team announced (Twitter link via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin).
Davis was considered a game-time decision leading up to the contest. He was able to participate in the team’s Friday shootaround, but he has now been ruled out.
According to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link), Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said back issues are “tricky” because Davis felt fine Friday morning, but Ham implied he may have slept on it wrong and tweaked it. However, Ham is hopeful that it will be a one-game absence.
“We feel good about him being available the next game,” Ham said. The Lakers’ next game is Sunday vs. Denver, followed by Wednesday vs. New Orleans.
As Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times tweets, the Lakers also announced that Russell Westbrook (left hamstring) and LeBron James (left foot soreness) are available for Friday’s game against the Wolves.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier today that Ham planned to bring Westbrook off the bench against Minnesota, but that was contingent upon Davis playing. However, Wojnarowski tweets that the Lakers still plan to transition Westbrook to a reserve play-making role — it just might be temporarily postponed due to Davis’ absence.
For his part, Ham said he was undecided on whether Westbrook would start tonight, per Kyle Goon of The Southern California News Group (via Twitter).
Davis, an eight-time All-Star, has struggled with various injuries throughout his career, but particularly the past two seasons. From 2020-22, Davis only appeared in 76 of a possible 154 games.
The Lakers are still looking for their first win of the season, and now they’ll be without the former No. 1 overall pick for at least one game. Davis is averaging 24.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.8 steals and 2.3 blocks on .527/.182/.762 shooting through four games (35.0 minutes per contest).
NBA Pushing For League-Wide Hard Cap; NBPA Strongly Opposed
The NBA is pursuing a league-wide hard cap as part of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, according to Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN and Marc Stein at Substack. However, the idea is viewed as essentially a non-starter by the National Basketball Players Association, per Wojnarowski and Stein.
“There will be a lockout before there’s a hard cap,” a source from the players’ side told Stein.
Currently, individual teams can hard-cap themselves if they acquire a player via sign-and-trade, use their bi-annual exception, or use more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, as we outline in our glossary entry.
In that scenario, the team are prohibited from surpassing the threshold known as the “tax apron,” which is several million dollars above the luxury tax line. In 2022/23, the tax apron is $156,983,000, while the tax line is $150,267,000.
[RELATED: NBA Teams With Hard Caps For 2022/23]
However, teams that only use the taxpayer portion of the MLE – and don’t acquire a player via sign-and-trade or the BAE – technically have no limit on how much they can spend on payroll. A club faces increasingly punitive luxury tax penalties the further its team salary goes beyond the tax line, but as long as ownership is willing to pay those penalties, there’s no spending limit.
The league is looking to change that by essentially replacing the current luxury tax system with a hard cap for all teams. According to Stein, the NBA is referring to the concept as the “upper spending limit” (USL) in an attempt to avoid the stigma associated with the term “hard cap.”
As Wojnarowski explains, the NBA believes that the current system creates imbalance by allowing for such a disparity between the league’s highest- and lowest-spending teams — the thinking is that a hard limit would help even the playing field, with the league arguing that a more competitive field would result in higher revenues.
According to both Stein and Wojnarowski, support for the idea isn’t unanimous among the NBA’s 30 teams. Some are concerned that an “upper spending limit” would prevent teams from keeping well-constructed rosters together long-term, even if team ownership is willing to pay a luxury tax penalty to avoid breaking them up.
As Stein observes, the Warriors‘ ever-growing payroll is considered a major factor in spurring these discussions. After paying a record-setting $170MM+ in tax penalties last season, Golden State is on pace to break that record in 2022/23 and shatter it again in ’23/24.
While the divide between the NBA and NBPA on the issue of a hard cap is ominous, Wojnarowski points out that the two sides often use the early stages of CBA negotiations to “float wish lists.” It’s possible that the league doesn’t seriously expect to get the players union’s approval for this concept and will ultimately relent, perhaps if the union agrees to give ground on another issue.
The league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement runs through the 2023/24 season, but the NBA and NBPA each have the ability to opt out by December 15 of this year. If one side opts out, the CBA would instead expire on June 30, 2023. The two sides’ goal is to reach an agreement sometime in the next month-and-a-half.
Here are a few other points of emphasis for the NBA in the early stages of CBA negotiations, according to Wojnarowski:
- Finding a way to incentivize top players to sit out fewer regular season games.
- Working out a cap “smoothing” plan in advance of the NBA’s next television deal to avoid another big single-year spike like the one that occurred in 2016.
- Instituting rules that prevent agents from picking and choosing the teams to whom they supply a prospect’s physical and medical information during the pre-draft process.
- Implementing some “minimal requirements” related to participation and presence in the draft combine for top prospects.
Lakers Expected To Bring Russell Westbrook Off Bench
The Lakers are expected to bring Russell Westbrook off the bench when he returns to action following a hamstring-related absence, allowing him to be the primary play-maker for the team’s second unit, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Westbrook, who missed Wednesday’s game in Denver, was originally listed as questionable for Friday’s contest in Minnesota, but has since been upgraded to probable, tweets Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group.
Anthony Davis continues to be listed as questionable for Friday due to low back tightness and is considered a game-time decision. If Davis misses the game, that could keep Westbrook in the starting lineup, Wojnarowski notes (via Twitter).
However, Davis did participate in the Lakers’ Friday shootaround. According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link), the team used a starting five of Davis, LeBron James, Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker, and Damian Jones during that shootaround.
The Lakers attempted to bring Westbrook off the bench in their preseason finale two weeks ago, but the experiment lasted just five minutes before he left the game due to a hamstring injury. The former MVP later said that he thought not being in the starting lineup was a factor in his injury, since he didn’t have the same pregame routine he has grown accustomed to.
Still, it sounds like the Lakers and head coach Darvin Ham still believe the idea of Westbrook joining the second unit has merit. Even if it doesn’t happen on Friday, it appears L.A. will try it again sooner or later — if it works, the team intends to stick with it for the foreseeable future, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Pelicans Pick Up Options For Kira Lewis, Trey Murphy
The Pelicans have announced in a press release that they have picked up their 2023/24 rookie scale contract options on third-year guard Kira Lewis Jr. and second-year swingman Trey Murphy III.
Lewis, a 6’1″ point guard out of Alabama, was drafted with the No. 13 pick in 2020 by the Pelicans. He continues to recover from a torn ACL and sprained MCL, which he suffered in December 2021. In his 24 games last season prior to the injury, Lewis posted averages of 5.9 PPG, 2.0 APG, and 1.6 RPG across 14.2 MPG as a bench player. As far as his rehabilitation goes, Lewis has progressed to 3-on-3 scrimmages with his teammates.
Lewis’ 2023/24 option is worth $5,722,116. He’ll now be eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2023 offseason.
The 6’9″ Murphy was selected with the No. 17 pick out of Virginia in 2021. Thus far this season, the 22-year-old has taken a significant leap from his rookie output in 2021/22. Murphy’s minutes have more than doubled, from 13.9 MPG to 30.0 MPG. His other counting stats have taken major jumps, too. In four games this season, during which he has mostly operated as a reserve behind star forwards Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, Murphy is averaging 15.5 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.0 APG, and 1.0 SPG.
Murphy’s $3,359,280 salary for 2023/24 is now fully guaranteed. The Pelicans will have to make a decision on his fourth-year option for ’24/25 next fall.
New Orleans is young and deep this season, and has gotten off to a terrific 3-1 start against some tough competition. Murphy at least has emerged as a big part of head coach Willie Green‘s rotation.
Teams must make a determination on their eligible players’ rookie scale contract options by this coming Monday, October 31. A full list of players whose teams have exercised their rookie scale contract options is viewable here.
Hornets Exercise Options On Ball, Bouknight, Jones
The Hornets have picked up their 2023/24 rookie scale team options on third-year All-Star point guard LaMelo Ball, as well as second-year players James Bouknight and Kai Jones, reports Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer.
Boone notes that the decision was widely expected. While Ball, the No. 3 draft pick in 2020, has already emerged as the focal point of Charlotte’s offense, 6’5″ shooting guard Bouknight has worked his way into the team’s rotation under returning head coach Steve Clifford, thanks in part to injuries incurred by Terry Rozier and Cody Martin. The 6’11” Jones, a power forward/center, is the team’s third-string five behind Mason Plumlee and Nick Richards.
Ball, 21, has yet to play for the 2-2 Hornets this season as he continues to work his way back from an ankle injury. The 6’7″ guard posted averages of 20.1 PPG, 7.6 APG, 6.7 RPG, and 1.6 BPG across 75 games last year, and was named an All-Star injury replacement by the league. In 2021/22, Ball posted .429/.389/.872 shooting splits. His 2023/24 option is worth approximately $10.9MM.
Across four games thus far in his sophomore season, Bouknight is averaging 5.8 PPG, 1.8 RPG and 1.5 APG in 15.5 MPG. The No. 11 pick in 2021 out of Connecticut has been coming off the bench for Charlotte. His stint with the Hornets thus far has not been without its off-the-court issues. Just prior to the start of the 2022/23 season, Bouknight was arrested for a DWI, making him the third Charlotte player overall to be arrested during the 2022 offseason. His $4.57MM salary for 2023/24 is now locked in.
Jones, the No. 19 pick out of Texas in last year’s draft, has seen spot minutes in two contests this season, averaging just 3.0 MPG. Richards, the No. 42 pick out of Kentucky in 2020, has had a robust start to his third NBA season. His minutes averages have leapt up from 7.3 in 2021/22 to 21.8, and he is averaging 13.0 PPG and 7.8 RPG for the Hornets, effectively squeezing Jones out of the team’s rotation for now. He’ll still earn a guaranteed $3.05MM in ’23/24.
All NBA clubs have until this coming Monday, October 31, to exercise their team options on players’ rookie scale deals. All of those decisions are listed here.