Northwest Notes: Nowell, Reid, MPJ, Billups, Jazz
After Shams Charania of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the Timberwolves have engaged in talks with center Naz Reid and guard Jaylen Nowell about possible contract extensions, Keith Smith of Spotrac decided to examine what extensions for the two 23-year-olds might look like.
As our Luke Adams wrote on Monday, veteran extensions for players on minimum-salary contracts like Reid and Nowell can begin at 120% of this season’s estimated average salary of $10,792,000, so 120% of that amount is $12,950,400. Therefore, a maximum four-year extension that includes 8% raises would be worth about $58MM.
It would behoove Nowell to wait until unrestricted free agency next summer rather than sign an extension, according to Smith, who believes Nowell could receive $15-20MM in annual average salary on a new contract if he has a breakout fourth season, as several teams are expected to have a significant amount of cap room in 2023 (it’s worth noting that Charania reported that Nowell was likely to opt for unrestricted free agency). Smith compares Nowell’s situation to Jalen Brunson‘s, who wound up signing a four-year, $104MM contract with the Knicks in free agency after a big season with Dallas in ’21/22.
As for Reid, Smith thinks a three-year, $22MM descending contract makes sense for the Wolves and Reid, comparing it to the three-year, $18.5MM extension Dean Wade received from the Cavaliers. Since Minnesota will be over the salary cap for the next handful of years, Smith says the Wolves should aggressively pursue extensions for both Nowell and Reid.
Here’s more from the Northwest:
- Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. explained what happened when he suffered a back spasm during Monday’s game vs. Portland, which caused him to miss Wednesday’s game against the Lakers, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post (subscription required). “I couldn’t really move the same as I wanted to in the second half, so that’s when we were just like, ‘Let’s just calm it down for a couple of days,’” Porter said on Friday. “But it was just a little tweak in a muscle. It wasn’t anything related to a prior injury.” Despite the minor setback, Porter says he still expects to play the “vast majority” of Denver’s games in ’22/23 after appearing in just nine contests last season after undergoing a third back surgery.
- Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups says that Damian Lillard missing most of last season after undergoing core muscle surgery forced Portland to acknowledge that the team around the star guard wasn’t good enough. The Blazers revamped their roster over the past year, adding Josh Hart, Jerami Grant, Gary Payton II, Justise Winslow and No. 7 overall pick Shaedon Sharpe, among others. “He’s the guy,” Billups told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “He’s our guy. We’re always gonna play through him. But we want to be good enough that when he goes 5-for-18 (from the field), that we can win a game. They’ve never been able to do that, you know what I’m saying? So it gives him confidence to know that (he doesn’t) have to be the best player in the league every night.” Lillard is currently sidelined with a right calf strain and will be reevaluated in one-to-two weeks, though he said he didn’t think the injury was serious.
- The Jazz have gotten off to a surprising 4-1 start, but the “general consensus around the league” is that opposing teams will take them more seriously going forward, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. Head coach Will Hardy is telling his players to keep proving people wrong. “He’s tired of looking at media or even his friends telling him, ‘Wow, you guys are winning, this is crazy,’” Malik Beasley said of Hardy’s message. “It’s not crazy. We’re not even playing well and we’re still winning.”
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).
Warriors Notes: Atkinson, DiVincenzo, Kuminga, Iguodala
Kenny Atkinson agreed to become the Hornets’ head coach in June before backing out of that agreement and remaining with the Warriors as an assistant coach. Speaking to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, Atkinson admitted he “didn’t love how it went down,” but feels very strongly that he made the right decision for him and his family.
“This isn’t my first rodeo; I’ve had a lot of experience in this league,” Atkinson said. “But from a leadership standpoint, top to bottom, plus 1-through-15, we have a great group. Usually, there’s something that doesn’t work. Something staff-wise that’s not always perfect. But this is kind of perfect.
“Well, nothing’s perfect, but this is as close to perfect as you can get. I’m not just saying that to blow smoke. Everything kind of comes together here, from a staff and front-office leadership standpoint. It’s all impressive. And probably the most important thing, it’s led by Steph (Curry).”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Donte DiVincenzo, who continues to deal with a hamstring injury, is “unlikely” to play during the Warriors’ upcoming five-game road trip, head coach Steve Kerr said on Thursday (Twitter link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic). If he’s ruled out for that trip, the earliest possible return date for DiVincenzo would be November 7, against his old team, the Kings.
- After playing between seven and 15 minutes in each of Golden State’s first four games, Jonathan Kuminga was a DNP-CD on Thursday vs. Miami. Kerr said after the game that it’s difficult to play more than 10 players a night, but he believes that “Jonathan’s time will come” and that the young forward is continuing to develop and grow even without consistent playing time (Twitter video link via Slater).
- Speaking on Thursday to reporters, including ESPN’s Kendra Andrews (Twitter link), Andre Iguodala said that he and the Warriors have a target date in mind for him to make his season debut, but he doesn’t want to disclose it yet. Iguodala has yet to scrimmage with the team, but thinks he’s getting close to doing so.
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).
2023 NBA Draft Pick Swaps To Monitor
It’s far too early in the 2022/23 NBA season to look at the standings and draw sweeping conclusions about which teams are headed for the postseason and which are lottery-bound.
Still, Victor Wembanyama‘s impending arrival casts a long shadow over this season — having even an outside shot at landing the best NBA prospect since LeBron James may prompt some struggling teams to pivot to tank mode midway through the year rather than pushing for a play-in spot.
Since any prolonged slump could make a team’s fans wonder if tanking for Wembanyama is the smart play, it’s worth noting up front which clubs would and wouldn’t realistically have a shot at him if they finish in the lottery. A team could go 0-82 and still have a 0% chance of drafting Wembanyama if that team has already traded away its unprotected 2023 first-round pick.
Here are a few of the unprotected draft-pick swaps and trades worth keeping in mind as the 2022/23 season progresses:
Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers have faced a challenging set of opponents during their 0-4 start and seem likely to bounce back sooner or later, at least to some extent. But if you’ve watched the team look inconsistent and out of sorts on offense while making three-pointers at a record-low rate, you can’t be blamed for wondering if it might be in the franchise’s best interest to tank for a shot at Wembanyama and reload for next season, when Russell Westbrook‘s $47MM cap hit comes off the books.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, that’s not an option. As part of the Anthony Davis trade, the Lakers gave the Pelicans the ability to swap first-round picks in 2023. So if the Lakers miss the postseason and win the draft lottery, that No. 1 overall pick would go to New Orleans, not L.A.
Brooklyn Nets
The Nets haven’t looked much better than the Lakers so far this season. They’re off to a 1-4 start and have the NBA’s worst defense (120.2 defensive rating), with new addition Ben Simmons looking uncomfortable on the court. Again, it’s unlikely they’ll play this poorly all season, but if things continue to go downhill, would tanking be an option for the Nets?
Brooklyn’s draft-pick situation is an unusual one. Theoretically, the Nets could secure the No. 1 pick in 2023, but only if Philadelphia misses the playoffs and wins the draft lottery, since Brooklyn controls the Sixers‘ pick.
The Rockets have the ability to swap their own first-rounder with the Nets’ pick, so if Brooklyn finishes in the lottery and the Sixers don’t, the highest pick the Nets could get would be No. 2 overall (if they and the Rockets earned the top two spots via the lottery).
Given that the Rockets are a good bet to be at or near the bottom of the NBA’s standings, a poor season from the Nets would still probably ensure a strong draft pick, even if they have to swap picks — but it wouldn’t give them a shot at Wembanyama.
Philadelphia 76ers
The 1-4 Sixers haven’t looked right so far this season, especially defensively. There’s too much talent on the roster for them to continue losing games at this rate, but it’s worth noting that they won’t have their first-round pick at all in 2023. That first-rounder will be sent to the Nets, unless it’s worse than Brooklyn’s and Houston’s picks, in which case it will be rerouted to the Jazz.
Los Angeles Clippers
Like their Crypto.com Arena cohabitants, the Clippers have a first-round pick in 2023, but it’s not guaranteed to be their own. As part of the Paul George trade, L.A. gave the Thunder the ability to swap first-rounders in 2023.
The odds of the Thunder finishing ahead of the Clippers in this year’s standings are virtually nil, but this swap is still worth mentioning on the heels of Oklahoma City defeating L.A. in consecutive games this week. Both teams are currently 2-3.
Minnesota Timberwolves/Milwaukee Bucks
The Timberwolves and Bucks have both traded away their 2023 first-round picks without protections. Minnesota’s pick is headed to the Jazz, while Milwaukee’s will be sent to the Rockets.
If the Wolves and Bucks live up to their expectations this year, those picks should land somewhere in the 20s and be well removed from the Wembanyama sweepstakes.
The rest
Several more 2023 first-round picks will likely change hands next spring, but all of the rest of the traded picks for ’23 have some form of protection on them. For instance, Chicago’s 2023 first-rounder will likely be sent to the Magic, but it has top-four protection, so if they were to win the draft lottery, the Bulls would keep that pick.
A full list of the traded 2023 first-round picks can be found right here.
Southeast Notes: DSJ, Beal, Haslem, F. Wagner
Dennis Smith Jr. didn’t have a ton of personal or team success during his stint as a Knick from 2019-21, but he said on Wednesday that the adversity he experienced in New York “helped me grow as a person,” as Zach Braziller of The New York Post relays.
“Without going though what I went through, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I’m thankful for that whole time I was here, the good and the bad,” Smith said before his new team, the Hornets, faced the Knicks. “The thing I learned is nobody gave me my happiness or my job, so I can’t let anybody steal it. I came in, found something to be grateful for every day, and I started to make the most of every situation I was in. That really prepared me for where I’m at now.”
A free agent for most of the 2022 offseason, Smith said he told his agent he wasn’t interested in playing overseas and indicated that he mulled the possibility of trying to compete for a spot in the NFL as a defensive back, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
Smith ultimately landed in Charlotte, and while his deal with the Hornets remains non-guaranteed, he has played well in LaMelo Ball‘s absence, including registering 14 points and 11 assists against his old team in New York on Wednesday. Head coach Steve Clifford likes what he has seen so far from the former lottery pick.
“His defense is just, I mean, it’s terrific,” Clifford said, according to Braziller. “His individual defense, his pick-and-roll defense, his team defense. He’s competing at an incredibly high level at that end of the floor. Some guys figure it out late, some guys figure it out right away. He’s a talented guy. Even though with the injuries he’s not the athlete he was, but he’s still a really good athlete even for this league. I don’t see that he’s doing anything that he can’t continue to do, frankly.”
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- After signing a record-setting $251MM contract in the offseason, star guard Bradley Beal is now trying to lead his teammates by example, especially on the defensive end, writes Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The 3-1 Wizards have a top-five defense in the NBA early on in the 2022/23 season. “I know that … if I’m engaged and locked in and energetic and ready to go on the defensive end, that speaks volumes to the rest of the team, and everybody else follows suit,” Beal said. “We almost have a saying: ‘If Brad can do it, everybody can do it.’ So if I can get down in a stance and get after it, everybody can. It’s something that we hold each other accountable to do, starting with me.”
- Having appeared briefly in the Heat‘s Wednesday victory in Portland, veteran big man Udonis Haslem has now officially played in 20 NBA seasons, fulfilling a vow he made to his late father. Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel has the story and the quotes from Haslem.
- In a conversation with Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, Magic forward Franz Wagner spoke about his long-term goals, his early impressions of No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero, and getting to play with brother Moritz Wagner in Orlando.
And-Ones: Wembanyama, 2023 Draft, Tanking, More
The NBA will give fans an opportunity to take a closer look at 2023’s projected No. 1 pick over the next several months, announcing on Thursday that all of this season’s Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 games will be available to watch for free on the NBA app. The Metropolitans 92 are, of course, Victor Wembanyama‘s team in France.
The Metropolotians 92 compete in the LNB Betclic ELITE, France’s top basketball league. According to the NBA’s announcement, the French games included on the NBA App will include the All-Star Game on December 29 and the Leaders Cup (playoff) games from February 17-19. The league has a preliminary broadcast schedule right here, though it only includes October and November games for the time being.
The buzz around Wembanyama reached a new level when his French team faced off against the G League Ignite for a pair of exhibition games earlier this month. The NBA is clearly hoping to capitalize off of the increasing level of interest in the 7’3″ super-prospect as he prepares to enter the league in 2023.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- While Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson remains locks to be the first and second players off the board in the 2023 NBA draft, there are plenty of questions behind them in the lottery, according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. Vecenie has published an updated version of his ’23 mock draft, projecting Amen Thompson of Overtime Elite to be the No. 3 overall pick, followed by Arkansas’ Nick Smith Jr., Villanova’s Cam Whitmore, Baylor’s Keyonte George, and Duke’s Dariq Whitehead.
- Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports suggests that the NBA should attempt to curb tanking by prohibiting teams from getting a top-three pick in back-to-back years. He hears that a version of that rule was proposed by the NBA in talks with teams and was resisted by a “small handful” of general managers, despite being favored by commissioner Adam Silver.
- Suns center Jock Landale and Hornets big man Nick Richards are among the under-the-radar players who are worth getting to know based on their performances in the first 10 days of this NBA season, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger notes, both Landale and Richards will be restricted free agents in 2023.
Nets’ Cam Thomas Frustrated By Limited Role
Through the Nets‘ first five games of the season, including four losses, second-year guard Cam Thomas has logged just 14 total minutes. Thirteen of those minutes came in the season opener on October 19 — since then, he has been a DNP-CD three times and played the final minute of Wednesday’s game in Milwaukee when the score was out of reach.
Asked after Thursday’s game whether his lack of playing time is frustrating, Thomas replied, “Of course,” according to Ethan Sears of The New York Post.
The Nets have dealt with some injuries in the early going this season — Seth Curry still hasn’t suited up for a game as he returns from ankle surgery, and Joe Harris has been in and out of the lineup, coming off his own ankle injury. Still, Thomas finds himself behind Edmond Sumner and Patty Mills, among others, on the depth chart and isn’t part of Brooklyn’s regular rotation, Sears writes.
The former first-round pick, who appeared in 67 games and averaged 17.6 MPG as a rookie in 2021/22, said that he wasn’t given a sense in training camp that he wouldn’t play regular minutes to open the season, adding that his role – or lack thereof – has been “very” surprising.
“Ain’t had no conversations (with Nets head coach Steve Nash),” Thomas said. “Just not playing at the moment. … It is what it is.”
Thomas is a prolific scorer who led all freshman during his lone college season at LSU with 23.0 points per game and put up 27.4 PPG in the Las Vegas Summer League this July.
While the Nets’ middle-of-the-pack offense could perhaps benefit from Thomas’ scoring punch, putting the ball in the basket hasn’t been the team’s main problem so far this season. Brooklyn’s 120.2 defensive rating ranks dead last in the NBA, so if Nash and the Nets’ coaching staff aren’t confident that Thomas can help improve the team on that end of the floor, his limited role makes some sense.
Brooklyn picked up Thomas’ third-year rookie scale option earlier this month, so he’s locked up through at least the 2023/24 season. The Nets also hold a team option on him for ’24/25.