Cavaliers Notes: Okoro, Playoffs, Green, Mitchell
Isaac Okoro will miss his sixth straight game on Sunday with soreness in his left knee, but there’s hope that he might be ready for the Cavaliers‘ playoff opener, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. After today’s practice, Okoro went through an on-court workout, which Fedor described as set shots followed by movement-based jumpers from 18 to 23 feet.
Okoro hasn’t played since March 26, and coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he’s being considered day-to-day. A source tells Fedor that Okoro has a bone bruise that’s causing the soreness, but adds that he probably could have played in the past few games if they had been more meaningful.
Okoro will be part of a long injury list when the Cavs wrap up their regular season tomorrow. Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Caris LeVert and Dylan Windler are all listed as out, while Jarrett Allen is questionable.
There’s more from Cleveland:
- After being eliminated in the play-in tournament last season, the Cavaliers are enjoying the security that comes with clinching the fourth seed, Fedor adds. The team will open the playoffs next Saturday or Sunday at home against the Knicks. “We are looking forward to it and I think it’s going to be a very, very fun series to play,” Cedi Osman said. “This is what we worked for. We worked really hard for this and I’m happy we achieved and we deserve to be in the playoffs. Now, going to go out there, try to do our best and try to go as far as we can.”
- Danny Green is the Cavaliers’ most experienced playoff veteran, but he may not be part of the rotation when the postseason begins, Fedor observes in another Cleveland.com story. Green signed with Cleveland in mid-February after reaching a buyout with the Rockets, but he has only played 71 total minutes in seven games with his new team. “Not up to me to decide,” Green responded when asked about his potential playoff role. “They had been winning before I got here so I know they had that rotation of guys that were playing well and they earned their minutes and the right to be in the playoffs and in the rotation. So, it’s up to me to earn my minutes and showcase to the coaching staff that I’m able to help and be ready when my number is called.”
- Mitchell and Jalen Brunson both had huge scoring outbursts in the regular season meetings between the Cavs and Knicks, Zach Braziller of the New York Post notes in an analysis of the upcoming series. Mitchell averaged 31.8 points per game in the four contests, while Brunson was at 25.3 PPG.
Wizards Notes: Kuzma, Porzingis, Gafford, Future
Kyle Kuzma knows he’ll get a huge contract wherever he goes in free agency, so that won’t be the main factor when he makes his decision on where to play, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. Keeping Kuzma, who held an exit interview with team president Tommy Sheppard on Saturday, will be one of Washington’s top offseason priorities. The 27-year-old forward plans to listen to offers from all interested teams and will reach a final decision based on what he believes is best for his future.
“It’s not about money, I’m going to get paid regardless anywhere [I go] and here, too,” Kuzma said. “It’s about can I come into work every day and be the best version of myself, can I help lead guys, can I make other players better, can I light up rooms. All those things matter when you’re trying to be successful.”
Hughes notes that Kuzma has achieved his greatest NBA success during the two years he has spent with the Wizards. His stats have improved compared to his four seasons with the Lakers, and his overall game has expanded. Kuzma told reporters he has enjoyed his time in Washington and indicated that two years of losing might not cause him to seek a more successful franchise.
“I think you have to have patience,” he said. “I believe to certain extents what guys like (Damian Lillard) and even (Bradley Beal have said), those guys where they talk about how the grass is not always greener and stuff. Just because you go to a contender doesn’t mean you’re going to win a championship right away because health can be a factor.”
There’s more from Washington:
- Kristaps Porzingis, who’s involved in extension talks with the Wizards, said he can foresee a long-term future with the team, per Ava Wallace of The Washington Post. Porzingis posted career highs in scoring and field goals percentage this season while appearing in 65 games, his largest total since 2016/17. “This was a great opportunity for me last season when I got traded here,” he said. “This was one of the places that I was looking at and I thought I could fit there very well, and, yeah, it’s been great. I believe this is a great place for me also, going forward.”
- The Wizards will add center Daniel Gafford to their lengthy inactive list for the season finale on Sunday, tweets Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
- Failing to reach the play-in tournament marked another disappointing season in Washington, states Candace Buckner of The Washington Post, who adds that a late-season tank left the team with only a remote chance to land one of the draft’s top prizes. Buckner reviews the season to determine what went wrong for the Wizards and whether there’s reason to believe the future will be any brighter.
New Details Emerge On NBA’s In-Season Tournament Plans
The NBA’s newly announced Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NBPA included several fascinating new developments for the next six or seven years of league action.
Most bold among these various changes is the addition of an in-season tournament, tentatively set to begin in 2023/24. Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports unpacks some new revelations about the impending tournament.
Rohrbach writes that there will be six intra-conference pools, containing five teams each, and while he doesn’t clarify exactly how they will determined, he notes that teams won’t necessarily be separated by division.
During the season’s first six weeks, teams will play against each of the other four clubs in their respective intra-conference pools as part of the regular season schedule. Each club will play two home games and two road games in these designated group matchups.
Following these first four games, two wild-card clubs will join the six pool play victors in a single-game elimination tournament. This is all so new that the NBA is still determining how to figure out tiebreakers, Rohrbach writes. A neutral site will host the tournament’s last two rounds.
The round robin, quarterfinal, and semifinal tournament games would count toward the regular season’s results, but the final (which would represent an 83rd game for the two teams involved) wouldn’t count toward the regular season, per Rohrbach.
Every player on the tournament-winning champion is set to earn a $500K bonus for their victory. Given the rate of high-end annual salaries at present, it’s not certain that such coin would incentivize the top players on a hypothetical winner, but it would be a boon for younger players whose salaries are in the low seven figures.
NBA Investigating Mavericks’ Decision To Rest Key Players
After the Mavericks opted to rest five players during their penultimate game of the season last night, the NBA has announced today that it will be looking into Dallas’ conduct, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press reports.
“The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions,” league spokesman Mike Bass said.
On Friday against the Bulls, Dallas sat All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and key role players Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Green, Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood. The Mavericks entered that game tied with Chicago for the league’s 10th-worst record. All-Star guard Luka Doncic, meanwhile, played in just the game’s first quarter before exiting a minute into the second quarter.
By benefit of losing the contest 115-112, Dallas has been eliminated from a potential play-in berth.
Head coach Jason Kidd revealed after the game that he would sit Doncic and Irving again for Sunday’s season finale, and added that other key role players would probably also be shelved. Dallas would possess sole ownership of the 10th-worst record in the NBA if the team loses its last game.
The Mavericks owe a top-10 protected draft pick to the Knicks, and sitting these key players gives them a better chance of retaining their own first rounder this year.
It is fascinating that the NBA is going after Dallas specifically. The Bulls in the same game sat healthy starters DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Patrick Beverley, having locked up the East’s tenth seed and a play-in berth, and a handful of other play-in contenders haven’t exactly been going all-out to secure playoff appearances in recent weeks.
Grizzlies Promote Lofton, Waive Chandler, Sign Gilyard
1:48pm: The Grizzlies have officially announced their series of roster moves, including a two-way deal for guard Jacob Gilyard, which was first reported by Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
An undrafted rookie in 2022, Gilyard spent the season with the Memphis Hustle in the G League and led the NBAGL in assists per game (9.7). He’ll occupy the two-way slot previously held by Lofton, while Lofton moves into the 15-man roster spot that had been held by Chandler.
12:39pm: The Grizzlies are promoting rookie two-way forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. to their standard roster, and will sign him to a four-year, $7MM contract, Lofton’s agent Mike George informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).
Lofton was recently named the 2022/23 G League Rookie of the Year. With the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle, he averaged 20.2 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.2 SPG and 0.6 BPG across 17 games, including 15 starts.
The 6’7″ power forward has appeared in 23 games for the Grizzlies proper, posting modest averages of 3.4 PPG, 1.6 RPG and 0.9 SPG in 5.9 MPG.
Woj notes that Lofton is being inked to Memphis’ standard 15-man roster in part to address the absence of center Steven Adams, who is reportedly likely to miss the entire 2023 postseason due to the lingering effects of his right knee injury. Adams is one of two key big men unavailable for the Grizzlies — reserve power forward Brandon Clarke tore his Achilles in early March.
Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian tweets that Lofton, who would have entered restricted agency this summer if not for his new deal, has impressed the Grizzlies with his development thus far this season.
To carve out roster space for Lofton, Memphis is releasing rookie guard Kennedy Chandler, sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Chandler, 20, was selected with the No. 38 pick in the 2022 draft out of Tennessee. As Charania notes, Chandler had been on a long-term agreement with the club, and should now garner significant attention on the waiver wire or as a free agent if he manages to clear waivers.
Herrington adds (via Twitter) that Chandler flashed promise with his ball-handling and defense this season, and may be a better fit on a team that will have more patience as he develops. The 51-30 Grizzlies are clearly prioritizing win-now pieces.
Memphis will be on the hook for Chandler’s guaranteed cap hits in 2023/24 ($1.72MM) and ’24/25 ($2.02MM) if he goes unclaimed on waivers.
RaiQuan Gray Signs Two-Way Deal With Nets
Free agent power forward RaiQuan Gray has signed a two-way contract with the Nets, the team announced in a press statement.
The Nets previously drafted Gray with the No. 59 pick out of Florida State in 2021. Ever since, the 6’8″ big man has been playing for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s NBAGL affiliate.
Across 18 regular season games with Long Island this season, all starts, Gray averaged 15.4 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.6 APG, 1.6 SPG and 0.6 BPG. He boasted shooting splits of .578/.382/.629 in those contests.
The Nets had an open two-way roster spot after elevating David Duke to their standard roster on Friday, so no correlating move needs to be executed to accommodate Gray. He will join incumbent two-way player Dru Smith, a 6’3″ shooting guard who has appeared in 14 games with Brooklyn proper this season.
Gray could theoretically be promoted to the playoff-bound Nets’ standard roster until the last day of the 2022/23 regular season, which is tomorrow, but Brooklyn would need to cut a current player to make room for his addition.
Grizzlies’ Steven Adams Likely Out For Postseason
Starting Grizzlies center Steven Adams will likely miss Memphis’ entire postseason run, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Adams has been sidelined for Memphis since suffering a PCL sprain in his right knee in late January. Last month, he received a stem cell injection to treat the ailment and was ruled out for another four weeks.
As Tim MacMahon of ESPN notes, the Grizzlies initially expected Adams to miss three-to-five weeks with the injury.
Memphis had high expectations for the 29-year-old coming into the season, and accordingly had signed him to a two-year, $25.2MM extension during training camp. The 6’11” Adams had been an integral part of the Grizzlies’ defensive identity when healthy this season, averaging 8.6 PPG on 59.7% shooting from the field, 11.5 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.1 BPG and 0.9 SPG.
The Grizzlies will miss not only his rebounding acumen, impossible screens and defense around the rim, but also his solid play-making from out of the high post.
Memphis, the No. 2 seed in the West at 51-30, will need to lean more heavily on Adams’ backup, Xavier Tillman, who has performed ably in his stead. Across his 29 starts sans Adams, Tillman is averaging 9.7 PPG and 6.7 RPG.
Rookie two-way forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. is being elevated onto Memphis’ standard roster to help address the loss. The Grizzlies are also without key reserve big man Brandon Clarke for the 2023 postseason due to a torn left Achilles tendon.
Atlantic Notes: Maxey, Nurse, Knicks, Bridges, Celtics
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason and has put himself in position for a major payday by averaging a career-high 20.3 points per game on .481/.434/.845 shooting in 60 games (33.6 MPG) this season, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.
Assuming they look to negotiate a new deal with Maxey, the Sixers may want to use recent rookie extension recipients like Jordan Poole and Tyler Herro as points of comparison. Poole signed for four years and $123MM (plus incentives) last offseason, while Herro got $120MM (plus incentives) on his four-year extension. However, rival executives who spoke to Deveney believe the 22-year-old’s value has increased beyond that.
“They might have thought there was room to negotiate there,” an Eastern Conference executive told Deveney. “But look at what the guy has done. He’s gotten better at every turn, his work ethic is really, really amazing from everyone around him. That’s what stands out. This guy is only getting better. Probably, there’s no negotiation, they’re going to have to max him out.”
The exact value of a maximum-salary extension for Maxey would depend on where the 2024/25 salary cap lands, but it could exceed $40MM per year. For what it’s worth, the Sixers could have Tobias Harris and his $39.3MM expiring salary coming off the books in the summer of 2024.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Whether or not Nick Nurse remains with the Raptors beyond this season, he’ll coach Team Canada in the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. Within the same story, Smith points out that this week’s Jeff Dowtin drama could have been avoided if Toronto had done a better job finding a reliable backup point guard instead of having to rely on a player on a two-way contract.
- In a pair of subscriber-only stories for The New York Post, Peter Botte explores how president of basketball operations Leon Rose set up the Knicks for future success despite missing out on Donovan Mitchell, while Brian Lewis suggests that Nets forward Mikal Bridges has room to continue getting better even after taking a big step forward since arriving in Brooklyn.
- Speaking to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said that he and Jayson Tatum have been “incredibly successful” together despite some calls over the years to break them up. “At this point, we’re part of each other’s destiny,” Brown said. “The only thing that could put the ribbon on top is winning a championship.”
- In an interesting feature for The Athletic, Jared Weiss takes a deep dive into the Maine Celtics’ season, focusing on a few of the players who spent time with Boston’s G League affiliate, including Luka Samanic, who eventually earned a call-up to Utah, and Eric Demers, who hopes to work in basketball when his playing days are over.
Western Notes: Markkanen, Lakers, Warriors, Porter
A native of Finland, Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen is required by law to serve in the country’s military before he reaches the age of 30. According to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Markkanen intends to fulfill that mandatory service during the coming offseason.
“Lauri has always said he was going to do this,” Markkanen’s agent Michael Lelchitski said of his client. “It’s important for him as a citizen to fulfill his civic duty and not have any kind of preferential treatment just because he is a famous athlete.”
As Shelburne writes, Markkanen has had to postpone his service a couple times already, including last spring when the Cavaliers made the play-in tournament — those games conflicted with his tentative reporting date.
According to Shelburne, Markkanen will complete his service at the Defence Forces’ Sports School in the southern part of Helsinki. She adds that many of the school’s conscripts are professional or amateur athletes, whose primary task during their service is to “train reconnaissance squads for emergency and wartime conditions.”
“Of course I’d rather be working out like I normally do (in the offseason), but I’ve heard they do a good job of combining the two,” Markkanen said. “You’re able to do your job working as an athlete and your basic training at the same time.”
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are proud of their team for clinching an above-.500 finish after getting off to a 2-10 start, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Davis said that he and James credit the team’s in-season additions for helping to lead that turnaround. “We pointed to some guys and were like, ‘We thank y’all. It didn’t look like we were going that way to start the season,'” Davis said. “Man, we just kept pushing and kept grinding. And obviously the guys that were able to come in here helped us get some more wins and ultimately finish above .500.”
- Now that Andrew Wiggins is back with the Warriors, the defending champions look like a legitimate threat to win another title, contends Sam Amick of The Athletic. Veteran sharpshooter Klay Thompson agrees with that assessment, despite the fact that Golden State still hasn’t even secured a top-six seed in the West. “I don’t see a team who can beat us in a seven-game series when we’re healthy,” Thompson said on Friday, according to ESPN’s Kendra Andrews.
- Considered a wing when he first arrived in Houston, Kevin Porter Jr. has fully embraced his transition to a point guard role, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). Porter feels good about the strides he made in that role in 2022/23 and believes the Rockets showed growth as a whole, even if their 21-60 record doesn’t reflect that. “I feel better about my process this season,” Porter said. “I definitely made improvements. Definitely seeing what I have to work on going into the offseason. I think it was a good year individually for myself. As a team, I definitely don’t think the record shows our improvement.”
Mavs Notes: Elimination, Draft Pick, Luka, THJ, Kyrie
Entering the day on Friday, the Mavericks could still have secured a play-in spot if they’d won their last two games of the season and the Thunder lost to Memphis on Sunday. However, Dallas essentially decided to throw in the towel on its chase for a postseason berth, sitting a number of regulars (including Kyrie Irving) and limiting Luka Doncic to essentially a quarter of action.
Unsurprisingly, the Mavericks did indeed lose their game to Chicago, officially eliminating them from the play-in hunt. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, head coach Jason Kidd told reporters before the game that the decision was made by team owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison.
“We were fighting for our lives, and understanding this is a situation we’re in, but the organization has made the decision to change,” Kidd said. “So, you know, we have to go by that and that’s something that happens. So the guys that are playing, we got to go out there and put our best foot forward, and we talked about that this afternoon.”
Speaking after the game, Kidd said that the move was less about “waving the white flag” and more about prioritizing the future.
“It’s decisions sometimes are hard in this business,” he said, per MacMahon. “We’re trying to build a championship team. With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward.”
Asked if he agreed with the decision to prioritize the future instead of the present by sitting players on Friday, Kidd replied, “Those are my bosses, so yes.”
Kidd confirmed after Friday’s loss that Doncic and Irving definitely won’t be playing in Sunday’s regular season finale, with other regulars likely to join them on the sidelines (Twitter link via Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News).
Here’s more on the Mavs:
- As Tim Cato of The Athletic observes, one more loss on Sunday would ensure that the Mavericks finish with sole control of the NBA’s 10th-worst record. That would give them approximately an 80% chance of hanging onto the top-10 protected first-round pick they owe the Knicks — there would be about a 20% chance of a team near the bottom of the lottery standings leapfrogging them and pushing them out of the top 10, in which case they’d have to send the pick to New York.
- Within a separate ESPN.com story about what’s next in Dallas, MacMahon says there’s a “strong sense of urgency” to expedite the process of building a contender around Doncic. Team sources have admitted there’s concern that Luka could request a trade as soon as the summer of 2024 if Dallas doesn’t take a significant step forward by then, MacMahon reports.
- Appearing on The Carton Show on FS1 (Twitter video link), Tim Hardaway Sr. said that Doncic and Irving aren’t leaders, and referred to Doncic as a “crybaby” due to his frequent in-game complaints to referees. As Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News writes, Mavericks wing Tim Hardaway Jr. asked to speak to reporters in order to distance himself from those comments. “I disagree with it 1000%,” the younger Hardaway said, stressing that his views both Doncic and Irving as good leaders. “… It’s disappointing that I have to come out here and say (this). I love him to death, like I said, my dad. He made a mistake. It’s his opinion, not mine. We’re two different human beings, so that’s really all I can say.”
- In the most recent episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and MacMahon discussed Irving’s upcoming free agency, debating whether or not Kyrie holds most of the leverage as he enters free agency (hat tip to RealGM). MacMahon and Bontemps believe Irving is in a good position to command a long-term maximum-salary deal from the Mavs, while Windhorst questioned whether there are any teams that will have the cap flexibility and the desire to make a play for Kyrie and put pressure on Dallas.