Western Notes: Doncic, Brunson, Bamba, Vassell, Sochan, Popovich
With the Mavericks seemingly headed for postseason elimination, Luka Doncic acknowledged that he misses former backcourt partner Jalen Brunson “a lot,” Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News reports.
“I mean, amazing guy, amazing player. For sure,” the Mavericks’ franchise player added.
Doncic describes the Mavericks’ season as “very disappointing” due to chemistry issues, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “I think you don’t see that chemistry we had before — I mean, especially last year,” Doncic said. “I think that chemistry was at the top, everybody. But chemistry builds not just not right away. It’s a long process.”
We have more from the Western Conference:
- The Lakers could have another frontcourt option as soon as Tuesday. They have upgraded Mohamed Bamba to doubtful for their game with Utah, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. Bamba has been sidelined since March 5 with a left ankle sprain. In a Late Night Lake Show podcast, Buha said he “would not be surprised if (Bamba is) back by the end of the week.” (video link).
- Spurs swingman Devin Vassell has been out since March 26 with a knee ailment. Jeremy Sochan has been sidelined since March 22, also due to a knee issue. It’s likely both are done for the season. Sochan has far exceeded the number of games he played last season at Baylor, while Vassell is coming off surgery performed in January, so the Spurs are playing it cautious, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News tweets.
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said that hearing he’d been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame was an “out of body experience,” Orsborn writes. Popovich got the news Saturday in a phone call from Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo. “Sort of a phone call you never think about or expect,” Popovich said “It’s like somebody telling you the earth is flat, some weird feeling that you have, an out-of-body experience, because it’s not what you grow up thinking.”
Southeast Notes: Young, Wizards, Heat Arena, Magic
Trae Young will miss the Hawks’ showdown with the Bulls in Chicago on Tuesday due to a non-COVID illness, the team tweets. The Hawks are currently tied with Toronto for eighth place in the East at 39-39 with Chicago right behind at 38-40. Seedings for the play-in tournament are up for grabs and finishing seventh or eighth provides teams with an advantage.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- The Wizards will retain their 2023 first-round pick by virtue of missing the playoffs, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington notes. The pick this year was lottery protected, stemming from a 2020 trade with the Rockets. The Knicks are now owed the Wizards’ 2024 pick, which is top-12 protected — that protection decreases to top-10 in 2025 and top-eight in 2026. If none of those convey, the Knicks would receive two second-round picks in 2026 and 2027.
- The Heat’s home arena is now called Kaseya Center, the team announced in a press release. The building was called American Airlines Arena from 1999-2021 and FTX Arena from 2021-23. Kaseya is a global provider of unified IT management and security software for managed services providers and IT professionals.
- The Magic have faint playoff hopes — they need to win their remaining four games and hope Chicago goes 0-4 this week. However, Orlando is energized by the fact it has hung around the postseason picture this long, Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel writes. “Regardless, we’re going to continue playing to win,” guard Jalen Suggs said. “I said it last week before our road trip; I’ll say it again: we’re not playing this game to just go out there. … We’re going out to win, night in and night out.”
Blazers Sign Justin Minaya For Rest Of Season
The Trail Blazers have called up forward Justin Minaya from the G League to finish the season with the team, according to Steve Popper of Newsday (Twitter link).
The son of veteran baseball executive Omar Minaya, Justin Minaya went undrafted out of Providence in 2022 and spent most of his first professional season playing for the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League. In 27 NBAGL regular season appearances (35.1 MPG), he averaged 12.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.1 steals with a shooting line of .487/.339/.472.
The NBA’s transaction log confirms that the Blazers have officially signed Minaya to a 10-day contract. There are fewer than 10 days left in the regular season, but 10-day deals can still be signed if a team is granted a hardship provision due to an excessive number of injuries.
Portland has already added two extra players to its roster on 10-day contracts via the hardship provision, but qualified to sign a third. Damian Lillard, Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, and Cam Reddish have all missed the last three or more games for the team due to injuries. A team can become eligible for a hardship signing when it has just four players who fit that bill, then can qualify for an extra replacement for each additional injured player.
Minaya’s hardship 10-day deal will expire when the regular season ends. He’ll immediately become a free agent at that time and Portland won’t hold any form of Bird rights on him this summer. The Blazers are now carrying 20 players, including two-ways.
Duke’s Dereck Lively Among Draft’s Recent Early Entrants
Duke center Dereck Lively II announced on Tuesday that he’s entering his name in the 2023 NBA draft, confirming his decision in a video on Twitter. There’s no mention in Lively’s statement or a press release from the school about him preserving his remaining NCAA eligibility, so it sounds like he intends to go pro.
A 7’2″ center, Lively doesn’t have much of an offensive game, having averaged just 5.2 points in 20.6 minutes (34 games) during his first and only college season. However, his defensive upside is significant and he’s considered perhaps the best shot blocker in this year’s draft class, having averaged 2.4 BPG for the Blue Devils.
John Hollinger of The Athletic recently wrote that the floor spacing at the NBA level should give Lively more room to operate as a rim runner. He has shown some passing ability and the potential to make corner threes, according to Hollinger, so there’s reason to be hopeful that he could develop a passable offensive game to go along with his game-changing defense.
Lively is the No. 22 prospect on ESPN’s big board.
Here are more updates on early entrants declaring for the draft in recent days:
- Indiana senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis will forgo his final year of college eligibility and enter the 2023 NBA draft, he announced on Instagram. A possible first-round pick, Jackson-Davis is the No. 31 prospect on ESPN’s board after an impressive 2022/23 season in which he averaged a double-double (20.9 PPG, 10.8 RPG) to go along with 4.0 APG and 2.9 BPG in 32 contests (34.5 MPG).
- Arkansas junior guard Ricky Council IV has declared for the draft, making his announcement on Twitter. Based on his statement, it sounds like Council will forgo his remaining college eligibility. The No. 43 prospect on ESPN’s top 100, Council transferred to the Razorbacks after two years at Wichita State. His shooting percentages dipped a little in 2022/23, to 43.3% from the floor and 27.0% on threes, but he averaged 16.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, and 2.3 APG in 36 games (34.1 MPG) and has “an NBA-caliber frame and exceptional explosiveness,” per ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.
- The following players are also entering the draft and will maintain their NCAA eligibility unless otherwise noted:
- Boo Buie, G, Northwestern (senior) (Twitter link)
- Jalen Carey, G, Rhode Island (senior) (Instagram link)
- Note: Carey also entered the transfer portal.
- Wendell Green, G, Auburn (junior) (Twitter link)
- Note: Green is expected to forgo his remaining eligibility.
- Olivier Nkamhoua, F, Tennessee (senior) (Twitter link via Jeff Borzello of ESPN)
- Note: Nkamhoua also entered the transfer portal.
- Tylor Perry, G, North Texas (senior) (Twitter link)
- Note: Perry also entered the transfer portal.
- Antonio Reeves, G, Kentucky (senior) (Instagram link)
- Tolu Smith, F, Mississippi State (senior) (Instagram link)
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 4/4/2023
The transcript of our weekly Tuesday can be accessed here.
Join Luke Adams for our next live chat on Thursday.
Wizards’ Jay Huff Named G League Defensive Player Of The Year
Big man Jay Huff, who is on a two-way contract with the Wizards, has been named the G League’s Defensive Player of the Year, the NBA announced today (via Twitter). Thirty NBAGL head coaches and general manager voted on the award.
Huff, 25, began the G League season playing for the South Bay Lakers before joining the Capital City Go-Go when he signed his two-way deal with Washington in early March.
In 46 total games for South Bay and Capital City across both the Showcase Cup and the NBAGL regular season, Huff blocked an incredible 145 shots, which works out to a league-leading 3.2 per game.
The Go-Go had the G League’s 12th-best defensive rating before adding Huff and had the third-best mark following his arrival. Conversely, South Bay ranked No. 7 in defensive rating following Huff’s last game with the team and were just 14th the rest of the way.
Huff’s two-way contract only covers the 2022/23 season, so he’ll be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. He has only logged 15 total minutes in four appearances at the NBA level for the Wizards this season.
Veteran guard Kris Dunn, who was briefly teammates with Huff on the Go-Go, finished second in G League Defensive Player of the Year voting, while South Bay Lakers guard Shaquille Harrison was third (Twitter link). Dunn is now with the Jazz; Harrison is on a 10-day deal with the Trail Blazers.
Injury Notes: Zion, Luka, Sexton, Markkanen, Avdija, Barrett
As the Pelicans move closer toward securing a place in the postseason, forward Zion Williamson is still pushing to return to action before his team’s season ends. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Williamson – who has been sidelined since January 2 due to a right hamstring strain – has progressed to participating in some “low-intensity” 3-on-3 with coaches, but hasn’t yet been cleared for 5-on-5 scrimmages or full contact.
Sources tell Charania that New Orleans, unsurprisingly, will take a cautious approach with Williamson’s ramp-up process and won’t rush him just because the playoffs are around the corner. Based on Charania’s reporting, it sounds like the Pelicans would have a chance to get Williamson back on the court if they play a full first-round series, but shouldn’t necessarily count on having him available for any play-in games.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Despite a report stating that the slumping Mavericks are seriously considering shutting down Luka Doncic for the season, the star guard told reporters that he intends to suit up on Wednesday vs. Sacramento, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “When there’s still a chance (to make the playoffs), I’m going to play,” Doncic said. The Mavs have officially listed both Doncic ((left thigh injury recovery) and Kyrie Irving (right foot injury recovery) as probable for Wednesday (Twitter link).
- With the Jazz‘s play-in hopes still on life support, guard Collin Sexton (left hamstring strain) will be available on Tuesday for the first time since February 15, according to the team (Twitter link). However, star forward Lauri Markkanen has been ruled out for the game vs. the Lakers due to his left hand contusion.
- The Wizards‘ injury list continues to grow, with the team announcing today in a press release that forward Deni Avdija will miss at least the next two games due to left elbow bursitis. The team isn’t yet ruling out Avdija for its final two games of the season.
- Knicks forward RJ Barrett has been cleared to return in Indiana on Wednesday after missing Sunday’s game due to a non-COVID illness, tweets Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
Heat Notes: Adebayo, Robinson, Cain, Love
Heat big man Bam Adebayo, who missed Saturday’s game due to a right hip contusion, should be back in action on Tuesday when the team visits Detroit. Adebayo has been upgraded to probable for tonight’s contest, tweets Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Additionally, since the Sioux Falls Skyforce’s season came to an end on Sunday with a playoff loss to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Heat’s two-way players – Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain – are back from the G League and will be available on Tuesday vs. Detroit, per Winderman.
Robinson piled up 28 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, and three blocks in Sunday’s NBAGL Western Conference Finals loss, but Cain struggled, scoring just four points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- With Adebayo sidelined on Saturday, Kevin Love came off the bench for the first time since arriving in Miami and had his best game as a member of the Heat, scoring 18 points in 19 minutes. Now it’s up to head coach Erik Spoelstra to determine whether Love should be reinserted into the starting five or whether keeping him a reserve role makes more sense, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. For his part, Love expressed no preference. “Whatever coach wants,” he said. “I told him that even before I got here. I said, ‘Listen, I’m not tripping about starting, coming off the bench. I just love to play my minutes extremely hard and try to make an impact.'”
- The Heat have a history of signing developmental prospects to multiyear contracts late in the season and still have their mid-level exception available if they want to do so this week, says Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. However, Miami doesn’t have any openings on its 15-man roster to promote Robinson or Cain or to sign an outside free agent, and it’s unclear whether the club would be willing to cut any of its current players to accommodate such a signing.
- Nine of the 15 players on the Heat’s standard roster went undrafted, which has been a factor in the team’s tendency to play with a chip on its shoulder in recent years, Jackson notes in the same story. But guard Tyler Herro and Spoelstra feel as if this year’s group hasn’t consistently drawn on that source of motivation. “Having a monster-size chip on our shoulders has always been a big part of guys’ identities,” Spoelstra said. “That could be a chip on the shoulder or could just be savage competitiveness. At our core, that’s who we are. That’s not who we have been consistently the last 12 to 15 games. In pockets, we’ve done that.”
What To Watch For In NBA Season’s Final Week
The NBA’s 2022/23 regular season will wrap up on April 9, which means we now have just six days left in the season. Here are a few things worth keeping an eye on during those six days:
Play-in races and playoff positioning
Eastern Conference
Frankly, the race for the playoffs in the East would have been more exciting under the NBA’s old system, where only the top eight seeds at the end of the regular season made the playoffs. Currently, the Hawks and Raptors are tied for the No. 8 spot at 39-39 (Atlanta has the tiebreaker advantage), while the Bulls are one game back at 38-40. It’s a safe bet that all three teams will make the play-in tournament, whereas in past years they would’ve been fighting for a single playoff spot.
Of course, there’s still some intrigue related to which team finishes in which slot. The No. 8 team at the end of the regular season gets two chances to win one play-in game to earn a playoff berth, whereas the Nos. 9 and 10 teams need to win two games to make the playoffs. The No. 10 club would have to win two play-in games on the road.
Further up the Eastern Conference standings, there’s currently a gap of at least two games between each of the top seven teams, so even though those seeds aren’t set in stone yet, they’re getting close to being locked in, barring some late surges or slumps.
Most notable remaining intra-conference games:
- 4/4: Celtics at Sixers, Hawks at Bulls
- 4/5: Raptors at Celtics, Bulls at Bucks
- 4/6: Heat at Sixers
- 4/7: Sixers at Hawks, Raptors at Celtics
- 4/9: Hawks at Celtics, Sixers at Nets, Bucks at Raptors
Western Conference
As has been the case for months, the Western standings are more tightly bunched than the East’s. The Nos. 5-8 seeds are only separated by a half-game, for instance, and 12 teams technically remain in the playoff picture or play-in hunt.
The Clippers and Warriors are both 41-38 and currently hold the fifth and sixth spots in the Western Conference standings, but if they want to avoid the play-in tournament, they’ll have to hold off the surging Lakers and Pelicans, who are both 40-38.
The No. 10 Thunder (38-41) are currently in the driver’s seat for the final play-in spot. They have a one-game lead over the 11th-place Mavericks (37-42) and a 1.5-game cushion on the 12th-place Jazz (36-42) and hold the tiebreaker over both teams. Oklahoma City’s remaining schedule is no cakewalk though, with road games in Golden State and Utah following by a home game vs. Memphis.
Most notable remaining intra-conference games:
- 4/4: Kings at Pelicans, Lakers at Jazz, Thunder at Warriors
- 4/5: Grizzlies at Pelicans, Kings at Mavericks, Lakers at Clippers
- 4/6: Thunder at Jazz, Nuggets at Suns
- 4/7: Warriors at Kings, Suns at Lakers
- 4/9: Pelicans at Timberwolves, Grizzlies at Thunder, Kings at Nuggets, Jazz at Lakers, Clippers at Suns
Lottery positioning and traded draft picks
There are important races happening at both ends of the standings as the season winds down. At the bottom, the Pistons (16-62) are on track for the No. 1 spot in the draft lottery standings, with the Rockets (19-60) and Spurs (20-58) vying for the No. 2 spot.
The Hornets (26-53) comfortably hold the No. 4 lottery spot, but the race for No. 5 is a tight one — the Trail Blazers (33-45), Pacers (34-45), Magic (34-44), and Wizards (34-44) are separated by a single game.
The lottery odds for each team in the top 14 can be found here.
Additionally, a handful of traded draft picks remain up for grabs as the season winds down. For instance, the Mavericks will trade their first-round pick to the Knicks if it’s not in the top 10, which appears increasingly likely but is far from certain. Dallas and Minnesota could both end up surrendering lottery picks, as the Timberwolves owe their unprotected first-rounder to the Jazz.
It appears the Wizards and Trail Blazers will hang onto their top-14 protected first-rounders rather than sending them to the Knicks and Bulls, respectively. But it’s still worth keeping an eye on Chicago’s own pick — it’s top-four protected, so the Bulls will have an outside shot at keeping it instead of sending it to the Magic if they lose in the play-in tournament.
Award races
Some of this year’s awards look like they’re all but sewn up, including Rookie of the Year (Paolo Banchero) and Coach of the Year (Mike Brown).
But one of the most fascinating Most Valuable Player races in years remains very much up in the air, with Sixers center Joel Embiid and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo prepared to submit their closing arguments in the next few days. Could the ongoing injury absence of Nuggets center Nikola Jokic cost him his third consecutive MVP?
Defensive Player of the Year also isn’t a foregone conclusion, with Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson and Bucks center Brook Lopez among the leading candidates.
Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are among the players who continue to make strong cases for the Most Improved Player award, while Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley and Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon look like the top two candidates for Sixth Man of the Year.
Roster moves
With just six days left in the season, this year’s period of 10-day contract signings is essentially over. A team filling its final open roster spot will sign a player to a rest-of-season or multiyear deal at this point, rather than a 10-day pact.
The one exception is 10-day hardship deals, which can still be completed during the final week of a season by teams dealing with several injuries.
Why wouldn’t those hardship contracts just take the form of rest-of-season deals too? Well, this way, teams can’t gain certain offseason rights to more players than the standard roster limits allow. A rest-of-season contract would give the club a player’s Bird, Early Bird, or Non-Bird rights for the offseason, whereas a 10-day deal won’t.
As we outlined on Sunday, here are the teams that still have an open roster spot with six days left in the season:
- Boston Celtics *
- Brooklyn Nets **
- Charlotte Hornets **
- Houston Rockets
- Los Angeles Lakers
- New York Knicks
- Phoenix Suns ***
- Utah Jazz ****
* The Celtics are expected to fill their open roster spot by signing Justin Champagnie.
** The Nets and Hornets each have a player on a 10-day contract filling their 15th roster spot. Those deals will expire before the season ends.
*** The Suns have a full 15-man roster but have an open two-way spot.
**** The Jazz have one open 15-man roster spot and a player on a 10-day contract filling their 14th spot, so they’ll have two openings before the end of the week.
And-Ones: More CBA Notes, Sportsmanship Award, A. Johnson
One major reason the one-and-done rule for draft prospects wasn’t changed in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was that neither the NBA nor the NBPA was particularly gung-ho about adjusting it and both sides wanted the other to give something up in exchange for scrapping it, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on his Woj Pod. According to Wojnarowski, one idea the league proposed during the one-and-done discussions was to tack a year onto rookie scale contracts for first-round picks.
“I think the league wanted the rookie scale to go another year so it would be another year before players could get their rookie extension or restricted free agency,” Woj said (hat tip to RealGM). “That was something that obviously they didn’t get in talks, but I think was tied a little bit to one-and-done.”
Current rookie scale contracts cover four seasons and give players the ability to sign extensions after three years, so it sounds like the NBA proposed the idea of bumping those numbers to five and four years, respectively.
Later on his podcast, Wojnarowski said that he views the new rule requiring postseason award winners to have played at least 65 games as a “ceremonial” one designed to make it look as if the NBA is doing something to reduce load management.
“I don’t know that this is going to change much behavior,” he said (hat tip to RealGM). “… I’m rolling my eyes a little bit at that one… I just don’t see this impacting star players playing in any more or less games than they would have before.”
Wojnarowski’s ESPN colleagues Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps also questioned the rule, with Marks pointing out that teams – not players – are generally the ones dictating load management plans, while Bontemps observed that most players who suit up for fewer than 65 games are doing so because of actual injuries, not load management.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter links) provides some more information on the investment opportunities that NBA players will have in the new CBA, clarifying that individual players won’t be able to directly invest in NBA teams — the NBPA will have the ability to passively invest in teams on behalf of all players. Individual players will have the ability to directly invest in WNBA teams, but there will be restrictions: They can’t invest in WNBA teams that an NBA owner controls a stake in, an individual player can’t own more than 4% of a franchise, and players can’t collectively control more than 8% of a franchise.
- The NBA has announced six finalists – one from each division – for its 2022/23 Sportsmanship Award (Twitter link). Those players are Heat big man Bam Adebayo, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, Kings forward Harrison Barnes, Timberwolves guard Mike Conley, and Rockets big man Boban Marjanovic.
- Big man Alize Johnson, who has been an NBA free agent since being waived by the Spurs in December, has new representation. He has signed with agent Bernie Lee of Thread Sports Management, according to HoopsHype (Twitter link). Johnson joined the Austin Spurs of the G League following his short stint with San Antonio, then was dealt to the Wisconsin Herd in January.