Tyler Herro Unfazed By Rumors, Unsure Regarding Extension
Heat guard Tyler Herro shrugged off questions Tuesday about potentially being traded, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes.
Herro was making an appearance for his foundation in Miami. His name has popped up prominently as the potential centerpiece of a Heat trade package for a star like Kevin Durant or Donovan Mitchell.
“I mean ever since I’ve been here, my name has been in rumors. So rumors, they don’t bother me,” he said. “Whether I’m on the Heat or somewhere else, I’m getting ready for the season.”
Herro’s future with the franchise is cloudy, even if he’s still on the roster when training camp opens. He’s eligible for a rookie scale extension prior to opening night.
Miami could offer him a max five-year deal worth up to a projected $193MM or a four-year deal worth less than the max. If he signs an extension, it will be more difficult for the team to trade the reigning Sixth Man of the Year. Herro professed ignorance regarding the state of any negotiations.
“I mean, I know as much as you know,” he said. “I’m just waiting on my turn and we’ll see what happens. There’s a deadline, but I’m going to let my agent take care of that and see what happens.”
If Herro winds up elsewhere, he vows to remains productive.
“Like I said, whatever team I’m on, I’m ready to play,” he said.
Bulls Confirm Justin Lewis Will Undergo Surgery On ACL
Bulls rookie forward Justin Lewis has injured the ACL in his right knee, the team confirmed today in a press release. According to the announcement, Lewis will undergo surgery at some point in the coming weeks and will be out indefinitely.
Lewis’ knee injury was first reported last Thursday by K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago, who said at the time that there was concern about the possibility of an ACL tear. The Bulls technically didn’t confirm in their statement that Lewis’ ACL is torn, but the fact that he’s going under the knife and being ruled out indefinitely strongly suggests that’s the diagnosis.
It’s a brutal blow for the former Marquette standout, who caught on with Chicago on a two-way contract this summer after going undrafted. Lewis had a breakout sophomore season in 2021/22, averaging 16.8 PPG and 7.9 RPG in 32 games (32.2 MPG) for the Golden Eagles. He played for the Bulls’ Summer League team in Las Vegas last month before injuring his knee last week.
While the Bulls didn’t announce a specific timeline for Lewis’ return to the court, ACL tears typically sideline NBA players for a full year. If Lewis does indeed have a torn ACL, it’s unlikely we’ll see him in action until the 2023/24 season.
It’s unclear whether the Bulls will keep Lewis under contract all season or whether they’ll waive him and use that two-way slot on another player, given that he’s only on a one-year deal. If he’s released, the 20-year-old would likely be given the opportunity to remain around the team and use the Bulls’ facilities during his rehab process.
Knicks, Jazz Re-Engage In Donovan Mitchell Discussions
The Knicks and Jazz have been back in touch about Donovan Mitchell within the past week, according to Shams Charania and Tony Jones of The Athletic, who report that the two teams have had a “fresh trade conversation” about what a deal sending Mitchell to New York might look like.
As Charania and Jones explain, the Knicks and Jazz had serious discussions during the Las Vegas Summer League in mid-July about a Mitchell trade, but those talks reached an impasse and had been dormant for a few weeks.
Although the Knicks have made their interest in Mitchell “abundantly clear” throughout the summer, there’s still no serious traction toward a deal, per The Athletic’s duo. Sources tell Charania and Jones that the Hornets and Wizards remain among the teams in pursuit of Mitchell. Charania reported in late July that those two Southeast teams had recently engaged with New York.
Previous reports have indicated that the Jazz are seeking a return for Mitchell that’s similar to – or greater than – the haul they received from Minnesota in exchange for Rudy Gobert. Although the Knicks have a surplus of first-round picks from previous trades, it’s unclear whether they – or any other suitors – are prepared to meet Utah’s asking price.
According to Charania and Jones, the Jazz have conveyed that they’re comfortable keeping the All-Star guard on the roster this season, since he still has three years remaining on his contract (plus a fourth-year player option). For his part, Mitchell hasn’t made any sort of trade demand and is believed to be fine with with either staying in Utah or being dealt elsewhere, sources tell The Athletic.
We’re still six weeks away from the start of training camps and nine weeks away from opening night, so the Jazz have plenty of time to consider their options before the 2022/23 season tips off.
Pelicans Reportedly Unwilling To Offer Ingram In Package For Durant
The Pelicans are unwilling to include Brandon Ingram in a trade offer for Nets star Kevin Durant, league sources tell Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
New Orleans has been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Durant, who is pushing for a trade out of Brooklyn. Building an offer around Ingram would mean offering up a young forward with an All-Star nod on his résumé — the Pelicans would also be able to dip into their draft pick surplus from the Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday blockbusters to give the Nets the kind of future assets they’re believed to be seeking.
However, according to Clark, the Pelicans want to see how Ingram and Zion Williamson play together in 2022/23, with Williamson on track to return from a foot injury that sidelined him for the entire ’21/22 season. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype previously reported in late July that the Pelicans had yet to put Ingram on the table in trade talks for Durant.
While it’s possible New Orleans will make some minor roster changes before opening night, Clark says not to expect any “earth-shattering” moves, adding that it’s unlikely the club will get seriously involved in the Durant sweepstakes.
In his latest look at the Durant situation, Sam Amick of The Athletic writes that executives around the league view the Celtics as the “unofficial” frontrunners to land the 33-year-old due to their reported willingness to include Jaylen Brown in their offer. However, league sources tell Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe the C’s aren’t close to making a deal for Durant and haven’t even really engaged in any “discussions of substance” with the Nets.
Brooklyn could accelerate the process by lowering the asking price for the former MVP, but there’s no indication that will happen anytime soon, if at all.
“(Nets general manager Sean) Marks is still asking for the world; that won’t change,” one front executive told Amick late last week.
Jalen Harris Reinstated By NBA
Jalen Harris has been reinstated by the NBA, the league announced today in a press release.
Harris, who turned 24 on Sunday, was dismissed and disqualified from the NBA on July 1, 2021 for violating the terms of the league’s anti-drug program. The NBA announced at the time that the former Nevada guard would be eligible to apply for reinstatement in one year.
The 59th overall pick in 2020, Harris spent his first professional season on a two-way contract with the Raptors, then signed with Vanoli Cremona in Italy for the 2021/22 campaign following his suspension from the NBA. This May, he joined the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League as he prepared to apply for reinstatement to the NBA.
Harris averaged 7.4 PPG on .500/.472/.778 shooting in 13 NBA games (13.2 MPG) and put up 17.6 PPG on .457/.500/.667 shooting in seven NBAGL contests (29.4 MPG) as a rookie in ’20/21.
In 18 games in Italy, Harris led Vanoli Cremona with 13.8 points per game, though his shooting percentages dipped to .385/.295/.700. This season in the CEBL, he ranked third in the league with 19.9 points per game and led Scarborough to an appearance in the championship game, which the team narrowly lost.
Because Harris was still under contract with Toronto at the time of his suspension, the Raptors are expected to have 30 days to tender him a one-year offer in order to retain his rights, as Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca tweets.
Latest On Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant‘s situation with the Nets has reached a stalemate, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reports (hat tip to RealGM). On Monday’s episode of Get Up, Windhorst said the Nets haven’t lowered their asking price.
“There hasn’t been an urgency in trade talks,” he said. “There hasn’t been a change in strategy by the Brooklyn Nets.”
Other teams aren’t backing down, either, as they refuse to give up the assets the Nets want. Meanwhile, Durant is stuck since he signed a long-term extension.
“First off, the Nets do not have leverage in trade talks with other teams. They are not giving them the offers that they want,” Windhorst said. “They see no reason to increase them. So, they’re not making any progress there. Kevin Durant clearly does not have leverage with the Brooklyn Nets. He is asking for things: ‘Get me traded. Fire the coach. Fire the GM.’ He is being told no. So, when you have denied leverage, you have a stalemate.”
We have more Durant-related news:
- Durant labeled the notion of him retiring is “comical,” he tweeted. “I know most people will believe unnamed sources over me but if it’s anyone out there that’ll listen, I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon,” he wrote.
- The tweet was a response to a Marc Stein Substack post in which Stein declared that a well-connected executive insisted last month that Durant was more apt to retire than play again for the Nets. Stein downplayed that comment but added that it’s quite possible Durant may refuse to report to training camp. According to Stein, many people around the league believe that if Durant hasn’t been traded when camps open, he’ll continue to cause a “ruckus” behind the scenes in order to force the Nets to lower their trade demands.
- Durant’s former teammate with the Warriors, Andre Iguodala, believes the two-time Finals MVP should withdraw his trade request, according to BasketNews.com. “I think he should stay in Brooklyn, it’s such a big market, it’s good for the game and just figure out how to make it work like everybody grow up and make it work,” Iguodala stated on the Point Forward podcast. “That’s how I feel about the situation.”
Sixers Reach Settlement Agreement With Ben Simmons
Ben Simmons and the Sixers have reached a settlement agreement on the grievance the All-Star guard filed to recoup a portion of the nearly $20MM withheld him as a result of his failure to play last season, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The Sixers maintained Simmons breached his contract upon failing to show up for the start of training camp and refusing to play in preseason and regular season prior to trade deadline swap with the Nets. Simmons cited mental health reasons for his limited participation in team activities. He also was diagnosed with a back injury that prevented him from playing with Brooklyn last season.
Both sides agreed to a confidentiality agreement on the exact financial settlement, Wojnarowski adds.
The Players Association backed Simmons in the grievance, which was shared with the Sixers, the league, and the NBPA in early April. The issue was to be arbitrated, which could have set a precedent on how future matters regarding mental health and contracts might be handled. Instead, the two sides reached an agreement before an arbiter could hand down a decision.
Simmons had a cap hit of just over $33MM last season.
During the season, Sixers officials claimed that team doctors were given limited access to Simmons to diagnose and confirm his mental health issues.
After Simmons was traded, his representatives had several conversations with the 76ers but those talks ended without a resolution.
Beginning last November 15, the Sixers withheld approximately $360K for each game Simmons missed (1/91.6th of his overall salary). Simmons received a $16.5MM advance on his salary during the offseason, thus there wasn’t enough money in each paycheck to cover the per-game deductions.
Along with the amount for escrow that was withheld by the NBA, the Sixers deducted nearly $1.3MM of Simmons’ salary from each pay check.
Giannis: “Everybody Would Love To Play For Chicago”
The Bulls have won just three playoff games in the last seven seasons, but they’re still viewed as a marquee franchise and a desirable landing spot by Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Highlighting the organization’s six championships and the hugely successful career that Michael Jordan enjoyed in Chicago, Antetokounmpo praised the Bulls during an appearance on The Sports Zone on Fox 32 Chicago (video link) when asked about someday playing for the club.
“I think anybody you ask that question that plays basketball, if he said no, he would be a liar,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s a team that won multiple championships; it’s a team that one of the greatest players, if not the greatest player who ever played this game, played for. So it’s a no-brainer. Everybody would love to play for Chicago.”
Giannis is under contract with the Bucks for three more seasons, with a player option for a fourth year, and has shown no inclination to leave Milwaukee. But the two-time MVP drove his point about the Bulls home by suggesting that he wouldn’t close the door on one day playing in Chicago himself.
“Down the line, you never know. You never know how life brings it, maybe I play for Chicago,” Antetokounmpo said. “But right now I’m committed to Milwaukee.”
The Bulls have been a major player in free agency over the last two summers. After landing forward DeMar DeRozan and guard Lonzo Ball in blockbuster sign-and-trade deals a year ago, the team locked up Zach LaVine this offseason to a five-year, $215MM contract, the richest deal in franchise history.
Udonis Haslem Still Undecided On Re-Signing With Heat
Veteran big man Udonis Haslem, who has been with the Heat since 2003, has yet to make a decision on whether or not he’ll re-sign with the team and play a 20th NBA season, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“I don’t know,” Haslem said on Monday during an appearance at Nova Southeastern University. “We’re thinking about it. But either way, I’m always going to be a part of the Heat family. I ain’t going nowhere, whether I play or not. I’m always going to impact that organization.”
The Heat seemingly made their offseason moves with an eye toward saving a spot for Haslem on the 15-man roster. Currently, the team has 13 players on guaranteed contracts and would be able to sign a 14th (but not a 15th) to a minimum-salary contract without surpassing the luxury tax line. That spot will presumably be Haslem’s if he wants it.
Haslem, who turned 42 in June, has spoken in the past about wanting to make it to a 20th NBA season and indicated on Monday that the two-decade mark was something that he and his father used to talk about. Haslem’s father passed away nearly a year ago.
“I had a lot of things that I had to really, really think about,” Haslem said, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “Twenty years was a conversation that I had with my father. But as he passed, we think about now and things change. He’s not here no more and goals change, my vision has changed a little bit. But it’s still something that I battled with because it’s something that we talked about and it’s something that we wanted to do in a specific way.”
As Winderman observes, Haslem made his decision to re-sign with the Heat for the 2021/22 season on August 15, exactly one year ago. Of course, free agency started in early August in 2021 due to the COVID-related changes to the NBA’s offseason calendar, so Haslem’s deliberations are taking a little longer this time around.
While coaching would seemingly be the next step for a veteran who has long served as a mentor to younger Heat players, Haslem hasn’t shown much interest in formally taking on that sort of role. Instead, he has repeatedly spoken about his desire to get involved in Heat ownership.
“Hopefully one day we talk about ownership and being in that situation where I continue to be somewhat of a leader, but more be a hybrid owner,” Haslem said on Monday, according to Chiang. “An owner that gets out there and does more than just sit on the sideline, cross his legs and watch. I want to work. I want to continue to push the culture and continue to impact the next generation of winning for the Miami Heat.”
Latest On Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant‘s standoff with the Nets over his desire to be traded is likely to continue into the start of the season, ESPN’s Bobby Marks said this week in an appearance on “NBA Today” (video link).
Marks theorizes that Durant hurt his cause with an ultimatum in his recent meeting with team owner Joe Tsai, saying he won’t return unless head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks are fired. Bobby Marks notes that the demand was bad for Durant’s image and speculates that he will eventually regret the way he handled it.
“This doesn’t force the issue,” the ESPN analyst said. “For Sean Marks or Steve Nash or Joe Tsai to say, ‘You know what, now we’ve got to trade him. Now we basically have to set an artificial timeline.’ The offers are the offers. We know what the offers are going to be and what they could potentially be, and this is why this is going to linger into the regular season.”
Also on “NBA Today,” ESPN’s Tim Bontemps said Durant’s stipulations will make things more awkward when the Nets gather for training camp next month. He adds that rival teams now have even less incentive to improve their offers because Durant has put Brooklyn in a difficult situation.
There’s more on Durant:
- Appearing in the same segment, Ramona Shelburne said a source told her that a lot more was addressed at last week’s meeting than Durant’s opinion of his coach and GM. The Nets viewed the discussion as “part of the process,” Shelburne adds, as Tsai wanted to better understand what’s making Durant want to leave.
- Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today talked to three executives from rival teams who want to see the Nets stand their ground with Durant and refuse to either trade him or part with Nash and Marks. Regarding possible trade destinations, three executives and agents that Zillgitt spoke to believe the Celtics are no longer involved in the Durant sweepstakes because president of basketball operations Brad Stevens doesn’t want to subject any more players to trade rumors. The Raptors and Heat were mentioned prominently, but only if Brooklyn agrees to lower its asking price.
- A rival executive tells Steve Bulpett of Heavy that the Celtics will probably remain part of the conversation until the Durant situation is resolved because Jaylen Brown is the best player who has been mentioned as part of a potential return.