Mitch Johnson Receives Multiyear Commitment From Spurs
Mitch Johnson has agreed to a multiyear contract with the Spurs, agent Andy Miller tells Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Johnson was named the team’s permanent head coach after serving in that capacity on an interim basis most of this season. Gregg Popovich has retired from coaching as he continues to recover from a stroke suffered in November. Popovich has taken a front office job as president of basketball operations.
It’s customary for teams to sign head coaches to multiyear contracts and this confirms Johnson will receive a commitment beyond next season.
Johnson, 38, has been with the organization since 2016 when he was hired as an assistant coach for San Antonio’s G League affiliate in Austin. He became an assistant with the NBA club three years later.
Johnson led the Spurs to a 31-45 record after Popovich’s health issues. Johnson is the third-youngest active coach in the league, behind only Boston’s Joe Mazzulla and Utah’s Will Hardy.
Mobley, Garland, Hunter Ruled Out For Game 2
Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and De’Andre Hunter have all been ruled out for Game 2 of the Cavaliers’ second-round series against the Pacers, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com tweets.
It’s a huge dilemma for the top seed in the Eastern Conference as they try to avoid going 0-2 in the series on Tuesday.
Mobley sustained a sprained left ankle in Game 1. Garland will miss his fourth straight game due to a sprained big toe on his left foot that has nagged him since the end of the regular season. Hunter suffered a dislocated right thumb in the series opener.
During his pregame press conference, coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t confirm that the trio was out, but stated that he and his staff made preparations for all scenarios.
“We’ve got to be ready for plan A, B, and C,” Atkinson said. “We’ve got a great group. We’ve got great leadership. We’ve always responded. Great maturity, great professionalism, and this is part of what we figure things out as a group. These experiences make you better, make you stronger as a group and we obviously have to respond on the floor, but liked our approach leading up.”
Ty Jerome, Sam Merrill, Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade are some of the players who will have to step up with a pair of Cavs starters and a top reserve unavailable.
Hauser Listed As Doubtful For Game 2; Porzingis Probable
The Celtics’ injury report for Game 2 of their second-round series with the Knicks on Wednesday offers a mixed bag.
Key reserve forward Sam Hauser is listed as doubtful due to a sprained right ankle, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets. However, starting big man Kristaps Porzingis is listed as probable for Game 2 after departing Game 1 early with an illness.
According to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com (Twitter link), Hauser limped out of the arena on Monday with a protective boot on his ankle. Hauser played just four minutes in Boston’s overtime loss, missing both of this shot attempts. He scored a combined 16 points in Games 4 and 5 of the Celtics’ first-round series against Orlando.
During the regular season, Hauser played in 71 games (19 starts), averaging 8.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 21.7 minutes per night. He made 41.6% of his 3-point attempts, so Boston, which misfired on 45 of its three-point attempts in Game 1, will be down one of its best long-range shooters if Hauser is sidelined.
Porzingis departed Game 1 after going scoreless in 13 minutes. The Celtics missed his inside presence while giving away a double-digit lead in the second half.
He sat out eight games in February and March due to a viral illness and is apparently still feeling the effects, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com.
“I think since he came back he’s kind of been dealing with it on and off,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Fighting through it, working through it, doing the best that he can. And I think it was just too much for him in that game. So I didn’t know that was going to happen until I found about it in that game but he had been working through it since he’s gotten back. And he’s done a great job of being available and it was just tough for him to continue yesterday so we’ll see kind of how he handles that.”
Knicks Notes: Bridges, Anunoby, Hart, McBride, Robinson
The Knicks raised eyebrows last offseason when they surrendered five first-round picks in a trade for Mikal Bridges, then committed over $212MM in guaranteed money to OG Anunoby. Neither player was expected to be a top-two offensive option for New York in 2024/25, but the team recognized the value of having two of the NBA’s best two-way wings.
Monday’s win over Boston in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals showed exactly why the Knicks were willing to give up such a significant trade package for Bridges, per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com, and why they were comfortable investing so heavily in Anunoby, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post writes.
Bridges scored only eight points on 3-of-13 shooting, but made several crucial defensive plays in his 51 minutes of action, including a late-game steal that prevented Jaylen Brown from attempting a game-tying three-pointer and secured the victory for the Knicks.
“That’s who Mikal is. He’s (gotten) a lot of criticism and he never lets that affect him,” teammate Josh Hart said after the win, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “I don’t know how many games down the stretch that he’s won for us on the defensive side alone — the Brooklyn game, the block, the Chicago game he got a block at the end. A couple in the Detroit series. He’s been a huge part for this team. Sometimes those things get overlooked and people just look at stats and they lose sight of how valuable a player that he is.”
Anunoby, who served as the primary defender on Jayson Tatum, helped limit the Celtics star to a 7-of-23 shooting night while also matching Jalen Brunson‘s team-high 29 points.
“Definitely sparked us,” Brunson said of Anunoby. “And the way he’s been playing all season, I have the utmost confidence in him every time he steps on the floor, on both sides of the ball. So it’s what we expect.”
We have more on the Knicks:
- New York loaded up on wings – adding Bridges to complement Anunoby and Hart – in large part to combat Eastern Conference stars like Tatum and Brown. While that vision was questioned during the regular season as the Knicks lost all four of their matchups with the Celtics, the blueprint is as clear as it’s been all year following Monday’s Game 1 upset, says Fred Katz of The Athletic.
- Reserve guard Miles McBride struggled during the first round of the playoffs vs. Detroit, averaging 3.8 points per game on 26.7% shooting. In Game 1 vs. Boston, he had 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, finally giving the Knicks the kind of boost they’d been hoping for off the bench, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post.
- Knicks center Mitchell Robinson made just 3-of-10 free throws on Monday and is now 7-of-25 (28.0%) in the playoffs. Although the Celtics effectively employed a hack-a-Robinson strategy for a little while in Game 1, the big man downplayed his struggles from the foul line, as Schwartz relays for The Post. “Basketball is not just about free throws,” Robinson said. “You got defense, you got rebounds, offensive rebounds — there’s more to it than just free throws. That’s like the only part I need to work on, my free throws. Everything else, I’m straight.” To Robinson’s point, New York outscored Boston by 13 points during his 21 minutes on the court.
Rockets Notes: Offseason, Durant, VanVleet, Whitmore, Sheppard
Even after winning 52 games and claiming the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, the Rockets didn’t see themselves as a legitimate championship contender this spring, says Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
The Rockets, making their first playoff appearance since 2020, knew the top-seeded Thunder were much further along in their title chase, according to Fischer, who writes that Houston’s goal this season was similar to Oklahoma City’s in the last year or two — evaluating a roster heavy on recent lottery picks to collect data and get a better sense of which players are long-term keepers and which ones might not be.
With their postseason run over, the Rockets will now have to weigh whether or not to pursue a major move on the trade market this summer, Fischer writes, noting that the team is expected to bring back most of its core and “proceed judiciously” going forward. General manager Rafael Stone didn’t contradict Fischer’s reporting when he spoke to the media on Tuesday.
“The business we’re in, nobody’s untouchable,” Stone said (Twitter link via Kelly Iko of The Athletic). “But we deeply value everyone on our roster. We have those (extra draft) picks, we accumulated them so we could draft guys or upgrade our current roster. We’ll see what makes the most sense.”
As Fischer details, pundits figure to repeatedly link Suns forward Kevin Durant to Houston this summer for a number of reasons — the Rockets control several Phoenix draft assets; Durant played college ball at Texas and played in Oklahoma City alongside close friend and Rockets assistant Royal Ivey; and Rockets head coach Ime Udoka was an assistant during KD’s time in Brooklyn. However, Fischer insists that “more indications than not” suggests Houston’s interest in Durant has been overstated.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- After Fred VanVleet and Udoka expressed a desire to keep the point guard in Houston going forward, Stone declined to comment on any contract specifics on Tuesday, but confirmed that the Rockets want to retain VanVleet. “He’s been the person and player that we hoped we were getting and we’re very optimistic he’ll be with us for the foreseeable future,” Stone said, per Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).
- In a story for The Houston Chronicle (subscription required), Lerner poses five burning questions facing the Rockets this offseason, starting with whether or not they keep VanVleet and whether they’ll pursue a star. Lerner also considers whether Houston will extend Tari Eason and Jabari Smith, which of their own free agents they’ll try to re-sign, and how much this year’s draft matters to the team.
- The Magic and Rockets share many of the same strengths and weaknesses, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who suggests that both teams will be in the market for offensive upgrades this offseason. However, there appears to be one key difference between the two clubs, as Hollinger observes — Orlando needs to strengthen its supporting cast around star forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, while Houston still needs to find an alpha dog, either inside or outside of the organization.
- Within his analysis of the Rockets’ future, Hollinger points out that the team may soon need to make decisions on whether a pair of little-used rotation players are keepers. Former first-round pick Cam Whitmore has shown flashes of real promise, but hasn’t played consistently, while last year’s No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard spent most of his rookie season on the bench even though the organization reportedly thinks very highly of him. “We have had in-depth conversations with Cam probably more than anybody,” Udoka said on Tuesday (Twitter link via Lerner). “… Ton of potential there, but consistency is the main thing and he knows that.”
Scotto’s Latest: Jerome, Caporn, Suns, NBAGL Elite Camp, Pelicans
Good health and the opportunity to play for newly minted Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson were the key factors that fueled Ty Jerome‘s breakout 2024/25 season, the Cavaliers guard recently told Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
“Kenny empowers me to be aggressive every time I step on the court and to play my game,” Jerome said. “I’ve got the ultimate green light. He trusts his guards to be yourself with unlimited confidence. When good players are playing with confidence, good stuff usually happens.”
After finishing third in Sixth Man of the Year voting, Jerome appears poised for a nice raise in free agency, but it remains to be seen whether the Cavaliers will be in position to give him that raise. Cleveland’s team salary is on the rise, with the club projected to operate well into second-apron territory even before accounting for a new deal for Jerome.
According to Scotto, that has rival executives wondering whether Jerome will leave Cleveland in free agency or whether the team might make a cost-cutting move elsewhere in order to bring back the standout reserve. For his part, the 27-year-old guard would prefer to stay where he is.
“I think I have an amazing situation here with a coaching staff that empowers me and a team that empowers me,” Jerome told Scotto. “… Everyone wants to see each other succeed and empower everyone. That’s really rare. When you have that in the NBA, you don’t want to take it for granted. Yes, people want to get paid for sure, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but when you have that, you don’t want to take it for granted.”
Here are a few more highlights from Scotto’s latest NBA rumor round-up:
- Scotto adds Wizards assistant Adam Caporn to the list of head coaching candidates expected to receive consideration from the Suns as they seek a replacement for Mike Budenholzer. Caporn, who previously worked in Brooklyn as a G League head coach and NBA assistant, is also the new coach of Australia’s national team.
- Real Madrid big man Eli Ndiaye has declined an opportunity to take part in the NBA’s G League Elite Camp this weekend, according to Scotto, who says Iowa wing Payton Sandfort and Kentucky guard Lamont Butler are among the prospects not included on the initial list of invitees who have since received and accepted invitations. Real Madrid’s season in the Spanish League isn’t yet over, which is likely why Ndiaye is passing on his invite.
- According to Scotto, the Pelicans are hiring Jason Hervey, who previously worked under Joe Dumars in Detroit as a video coordinator and director of player development. Scotto doesn’t provide specifics on Hervey’s new position in New Orleans, but notes that he has worked as an advance scout, a personnel scout, and a quality control coach for various NBA organizations since leaving the Pistons.
Pistons, Malik Beasley Have Mutual Interest In New Deal
The Pistons and wing Malik Beasley have mutual interest in working out a new contract agreement this summer, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
The news comes as no surprise, as Beasley has repeatedly indicated that he’d like to extend his stay with the Pistons on the heels of a career year that saw him rank second in the NBA in made three-pointers (319) and finish as the runner-up in Sixth Man of the Year voting. After the team’s season came to an end last week, he said he had “never had this much fun coming to the gym,” adding that Detroit is “definitely a place I want to be.”
The Pistons, meanwhile, won’t have as much cap flexibility as they have in recent seasons, with Cade Cunningham‘s maximum-salary rookie scale extension set to take effect, so they’ll be hard-pressed to do better in free agency if they let Beasley walk.
According to Scotto, Beasley is expected to draw interest from teams who have the non-taxpayer mid-level exception at their disposal. That exception is projected to be worth up to $14.1MM in 2025/26.
The Pistons got a bargain when they signed Beasley to a one-year, $6MM deal a year ago, but that will limit their ability to make him a competitive offer using his Non-Bird rights — they’ll only be able to go up to a starting salary of $7.2MM using the Non-Bird exception.
As Scotto writes, that means Detroit may have to use cap room or (if the team operates over the cap) its own mid-level exception in order to retain Beasley. The Pistons have an estimated $138MM in guaranteed money committed to 10 players, with a projected cap of $154.6MM, so they could theoretically create cap space. However, unless they plan to let both Tim Hardaway Jr. and/or Dennis Schröder walk for nothing, they’re likely to be an over-the-cap team.
On that note, the Pistons also have interest in re-signing Schröder, according to Scotto, who says multiple members of the team spoke highly of the point guard’s impact as a “veteran leader and floor general.” Detroit has Schröder’s Early Bird rights and he’s coming off a $13MM salary, so there likely wouldn’t be any cap-related roadblocks in the way of bringing him back.
Thunder’s Sam Presti Named Executive Of The Year
Sam Presti, the Thunder‘s executive vice president of basketball operations and general manager, has been named the NBA’s Executive of the Year for 2024/25, the league announced today (via Twitter). It’s the first time that Presti, who has run the Thunder’s front office since 2007, has earned the honor.
Presti, who built the Thunder around a young core led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams, made two notable moves last offseason to fortify the roster. He traded Josh Giddey to the Bulls in exchange for defensive standout Alex Caruso and signed big man Isaiah Hartenstein away from the Knicks in free agency.
Despite some injury woes that prevented Hartenstein and Holmgren from suiting up together until after the trade deadline, the Thunder dominated the NBA’s regular season in 2024/25, racking up a league-high 68 wins and recording a net rating of +12.7, one of the best marks in league history.
Oklahoma City ranked third in the NBA in offensive rating (119.2) and led the league in defensive rating (106.6) by a comfortable margin.
The Thunder, viewed as the heavy favorites to come out of the West this spring, remain well positioned to contend for years to come due not only to the talent already under contract but to their collection of future draft picks.
The Executive of the Year award is voted on by fellow team executives rather than by media members.
According to the NBA, Presti received 10 of 30 possible first-place votes and showed up on 22 ballots overall, earning 74 total points. He narrowly beat out Koby Altman of the Cavaliers (six first-place votes; 58 points) and Trajan Langdon of the Pistons (six first-place votes; 52 points), with Rafael Stone of the Rockets (four first-place votes; 38 points) coming in fourth.
A total of 13 executives showed up on at least one ballot, with Lawrence Frank (Clippers), Rob Pelinka (Lakers), Sean Marks (Nets), and Brad Stevens (Celtics) earning the remaining first-place votes. The full results can be viewed here (Twitter link).
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 5/6/2025
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included whether the Cavaliers and Celtics are in danger of a second-round exit, the Bulls' options with the 12th pick in the draft, the case for the Rockets to trade for a veteran star, the chances of LeBron James heading to Dallas and more! Use the link below to read the transcript.
Celtics Notes: Shot Selection, Porzingis, Waitzkin, Mazzulla, Stevens
The Celtics set an ignominious record on Monday in their loss to New York. As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes, their 60 three-point attempts were the most ever taken by a team in a playoff game, but their 45 three-point misses also represented a new high-water mark for the NBA postseason.
Boston hasn’t been shy this season about firing away from beyond the three-point arc. The team’s 48.2 attempts per game during the regular season were nearly six more than that of second-place Golden State (42.4). After making just 25.0% of their outside shots in a Game 1 loss, they expressed mixed feelings about having attempted 60 three-pointers compared to just 37 two-point tries.
“I look at the process and the shot quality, (and) our shot quality was high,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “There were probably eight to 10 shots that could be better at for sure.”
ESPN’s data backs up Mazzulla’s assertion. According to ESPN Research, 45 of the Celtics’ three-point attempts were “uncontested,” but the team missed 32 of those shots. Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum suggested after the game that they probably should’ve tried to get to the rim more often as those misses piled up.
“In those moments when the other team got momentum you can’t just fire up threes to break up momentum,” Brown said, per Windhorst. “You got to get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, maybe get an easy two. You hit some free throws and then maybe the next three-pointer feels a little bit better.”
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- The Celtics essentially cruised to a title last season, never losing a Game 1 or more than a single game in any playoff series. However, as Jay King of The Athletic writes, Mazzulla predicted ahead of the second round that his team would have to overcome more adversity this time around if it hoped to repeat. “There’s been great teams that have gone down (in series), great teams that have blown leads, kept leads, all that stuff just kind of goes into the nature of the competitive arena that you’re in, and you have to take the good with the bad if you plan on being in it for a good amount of time,” Mazzulla said before the Game 1 loss. “So studying that gives you the perspective you need to get to where you want to get to.”
- Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis exited Monday’s game with 7:34 left in the second quarter and didn’t return due to an illness, as Souichi Terada of MassLive.com writes. Mazzulla said after the game that he hadn’t had a chance to check on Porzingis, who went scoreless in 13 minutes of action. “Obviously it impacts the game with his ability on both ends of the floor, and it obviously changes sub patterns or changes the things that you’re able to do matchup-wise and play-call frequency wise, so yeah, I think we felt it,” the Celtics’ coach said of the big man’s absence. “But it’s no excuse. We had plenty of opportunities to do it, and hopefully he’s ready for Game 2.”
- In an interesting story for The Boston Globe (subscription required), Adam Himmelsbach takes an in-depth look at the impact that former child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin has had on Mazzulla. According to Himmelsbach, Waitzkin – who was featured in the 1993 film ‘Searching For Bobby Fischer’ – was quietly hired by the Celtics as a consultant for this season and has become one of Mazzulla’s “most trusted” confidants. “Josh is great at finding certain segments of the game where it either went really well or it didn’t go well and seeing it from a non-tactical perspective,” Mazzulla explained. “It’s more getting into the mind of an individual fighter or performer.”
- In a feature story for The Athletic, Jay King explores how Brad Stevens‘ time at Butler helped provide a blueprint for him to build the roster that turned the Celtics into champions. “Brad understands the most important thing in any organization, whether it’s the business world or sports world, is people,” said Zach Hahn, a former Butler guard who played for Stevens. “And he surrounds himself and finds people that live by the same standards that he lives by.”