Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included the Bulls' options for keeping their current roster together, Cooper Flagg's status among the top draft picks of the last decade, Quentin Grimes' prospects on the free agent market, the surprising coaching change in Memphis and more! Use the link below to read the transcript.
April 1, 10:59 am: Tucker has officially re-signed with the Knicks, the team confirmed today in a press release (Twitter link).
March 31, 5:28 pm: The Knicks plan to sign Tucker to a two-year deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link). The contract will include a team option for next season.
March 31, 8:58 am: Even though he barely played during his two 10-day contracts, P.J. Tucker remains a “strong candidate” to re-sign with the Knicks by the end of the season, a source tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.
Tucker’s second 10-day deal expired over the weekend, making him a free agent again and opening a spot on New York’s 15-man roster. With eight games remaining, Bondy suggests the Knicks might consider signing another player to a 10-day contract, but Tucker is expected to get a standard deal at some point to make him eligible for the playoffs.
The 39-year-old forward made just one game appearance during his time with New York, playing two minutes without collecting any points or rebounds. It was his only NBA action of the season, as he reached an agreement in October to be away from the Clippers while they tried to trade him. He was eventually sent to Utah and then Toronto before last month’s deadline, but he didn’t suit up for either team before being waived February 28.
Bondy’s source added that Tucker understood he wouldn’t be guaranteed any playing time when he joined the Knicks, but they view him as valuable because of his locker room leadership and playoff experience.
“A lot of times when you become a vet and be in the league, like young guys and stuff on the bench, they’re not going to (encourage and motivate teammates). They’re not going to have your back like that,” Tucker said after joining the team. “So it’s always good to have vets and like-minded guys that just have each other’s back. And that’s what really makes a team strong — just knowing that they have people there and I support you whether you’re playing good or bad. We’re in it together.”
Bondy adds that Tucker’s signing prompted veteran forward T.J. Warren to leave New York’s Westchester affiliate. Warren, who had been hoping for an NBA call-up, was the G League team’s leading scorer.
Former NBA star Pau Gasol is gaining momentum to become the CEO of the NBA’s proposed European league, according to a report from Eurohoops. Citing Gasol’s “strong links” to both the NBA and European basketball, a league source tells Eurohoops that the idea of the Spaniard taking on the CEO role for the new league has “universal approval” among the NBA’s governors.
A six-time All-Star and two-time champion in the NBA, Gasol played for FC Barcelona at the start and the end of his professional career, winning Spanish League championships in 1999, 2001, and 2021. He also compiled a lengthy list of accomplishments in international tournaments, winning three Olympic medals (two silvers, one bronze), a World Cup title, and three EuroBasket championships with Spain’s national team.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The Grizzlies and Kings currently employ interim head coaches and will be looking to name a permanent coach after the season. Tim Bontemps of ESPN breaks down the pros and cons of the jobs in Memphis and Sacramento, while Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report considers which other head coaches might be on the hot seat this spring, including Willie Green of the Pelicans and Chauncey Billups of the Trail Blazers.
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic is the latest NBA writer to propose suggestions for how the league could address its tanking problem. Vorkunov’s ideas include having the lottery determine the top eight picks (instead of four), further flattening the lottery odds, and automatically assigning the two worst teams the fourth and fifth overall picks.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks highlights some incentive clauses in player contracts to keep an eye on during the season’s final two weeks, including Rockets forward Dillon Brooks ($1MM) and Timberwolves forward Julius Randle ($1.4MM) getting bonuses for their teams making the playoffs. Magic forward Jonathan Isaac must appear in at least four of Orlando’s final six games to reach the 70-game threshold, which would assure him of a $2.6MM bonus, Marks notes.
Josh Giddey faced his former team for the first time back in October, when the Bulls hosted the Thunder during the first week of the regular season. But Monday’s contest represented the first time that Giddey had returned to Oklahoma City since the two teams completed the trade sending him to Chicago in exchange for Alex Caruso last June.
Giddey was a former lottery pick who had started all 210 of the regular season games he played for the Thunder through his first three NBA seasons, but his unreliable three-point shot and inconsistent defense resulted in him being pulled from the starting five during the second round of the playoffs last spring. He was traded about a month later.
“No player wants to be in the position where you’re the one that’s getting adjusted to in the playoffs,” Giddey said ahead of his return to Oklahoma City, per Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune. “That was a tough pill for me to swallow, but it was probably what I needed at that point of my career. It’s better to learn that lesson as you get deeper into your career.
“Looking back in hindsight, it was probably the best thing for me. Most of the time you feel like, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go through that.’ But … they made the right decision in what they did, in terms of the playoffs, that whole series, and matchup-wise they did it for the right reasons. I don’t ever look back in anger or whatever towards OKC. I had nothing but great things to say about OKC.”
Given that Giddey was coming off a playoff demotion and Caruso had just earned his second consecutive All-Defensive nod, the trade was widely viewed as a steal for Thunder general manager Sam Presti, with fans and analysts alike calling out the Bulls for not getting more in return for one of their top trade chips.
However, as Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman writes, Presti didn’t necessarily view it that way. His comments at the time of the deal suggested that he hadn’t really wanted to move Giddey and only did so because the former No. 6 overall pick asked about the possibility of a trade after he was informed that he’d likely be coming off the bench in 2024/25. According to Mussatto, Giddey’s play in Chicago during the second half of this season has shown that Presti was right to be hesitant.
Since the All-Star break, Giddey has averaged 21.3 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 8.9 assists per game with a .507/.470/.805 shooting line, leading the Bulls to a winning record during that stretch and bumping his full-season averages to 14.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 7.0 APG on .464/.376/.776 shooting. Giddey’s usage rate, which was 19.9% prior to Chicago’s deadline-week trade of Zach LaVine, has jumped to 24.4% since then and the fourth-year guard has thrived in his increased offensive role.
The Thunder believed Giddey was capable of playing like this — in the press release announcing the trade, Presti referred to him as having “All-Star potential.” But Presti’s front office knew it was unlikely to happen in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder were at their best with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander serving as the team’s lead ball-handler.
Caruso’s offensive numbers this season (6.9 points and 2.6 assists per game on .447/.354/.814 shooting) pale in comparison to the ones Giddey are putting up, and the veteran combo guard is playing a relatively modest rotation role, averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game. But his defensive impact has been exactly what the Thunder were hoping for.
Oklahoma City’s 106.0 defensive rating leads the NBA by a wide margin and Caruso has played a key role in that unit’s success. Among players who have appeared in at least 40 games and logged at least 500 total minutes, only Dyson Daniels has averaged more steals per 36 minutes (3.3) than Caruso (2.9). And Caruso is actually slightly ahead of Daniels in deflections per 36 minutes (6.4 to 6.3).
Nearly a year after the trade was finalized, it looks like a clear win-win, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman and Rylan Stiles of SI.com. The Thunder got the type of role player they needed, while the Bulls landed their potential long-term point guard.
It seems like the deal should be a win-win for the two players involved as well — Caruso signed a four-year, $81MM extension in December, while Giddey has taken on the sort of primary play-making role that best suits him and appears poised to cash in as a restricted free agent this summer.
As Lorenzi points out, there can sometimes be hard feelings or bitterness when a player returns to his former home city for the first time, but there was none of that on display on Monday when Giddey played his first game as a visitor in OKC, a testament to the fact that everyone involved was happy with last June’s one-for-one trade.
It’s still fair to wonder if the Bulls could’ve extracted an extra asset or two from the Thunder in their negotiations last June or what the return might have been if they’d sought a return heavier on draft picks. But there’s certainly no guarantee that any of the other deals Chicago could have made would have netted the team a more valuable potential cornerstone than Giddey.
Xavier Tillman has had the worst year of his NBA career in 2024/25 and has been out of the Celtics’ regular rotation since October. Entering Monday’s game in Memphis, he hadn’t seen any action at all since March 6. However, facing his former team, Tillman was given the opportunity to start by head coach Joe Mazzulla, who explained his decision after the game, as Jonah Dylan of The Memphis Commercial Appeal relays.
“He can still impact winning,” Mazzulla said of Tillman. “I just appreciate who he is as a person and I think you’ve got to validate the roster at times. I know that he can still help us, and there may be an opportunity where he does. I was grateful that we were able to give him that opportunity to be able to do that.”
Tillman spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career in Memphis before being traded to Boston at the 2024 deadline. He played a limited role down the stretch last season and has struggled mightily in his limited minutes this season, making just 12-of-51 (23.5%) of his total shots, including 5-of-32 (15.6%) of his three-point tries.
Tillman wasn’t especially effective on Monday either — he missed all five of his shot attempts and the Celtics were outscored by six points during his eight minutes on the floor. But Mazzulla praised the big man for getting a pair of quick fouls on Grizzlies center Zach Edey and Tillman spoke positively after the game about his experience in his first game back in Memphis since last year’s trade
“It’s crazy because I was more so focused on seeing my old teammates and checking on them,” Tillman said. “The fans, when I got here and even the staff members and security people, when I walked by, they showed me so much love. It’s pretty amazing.”
The Celtics defeated the Grizzlies to complete the first 6-0 road trip in franchise history and are now 32-7 on the road this season, putting them two wins away from tying the 2015/16 Warriors for the best single-season road record of all-time (34-7), as ESPN details.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Quentin Grimes has been a revelation since joining the Sixers, averaging 26.6 points per game on 50.4% shooting in 14 March outings as he proved he’s capable of scoring and playing strong perimeter defense, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the season’s final games, head coach Nick Nurse hopes to see how the restricted-free-agent-to-be handles more point guard responsibilities. “I’d like to start him at the point here, coming up in a little bit. I’d like to have him play it during the games, even if he doesn’t start it,” Nurse said. “I’m just curious — I mean, he’s not a point guard. But can he play a serviceable backup possibility in the NBA as a backup point guard? Can he get us into offense? Can you say, ‘See the pass, see the plays, get the offense started, handle the ball versus the pressure in the backcourt,’ all those kinds of things?”
- The Sixers are putting on a “tanking masterclass” in the season’s final weeks as they attempt to do all they can to retain control of their top-six protected 2025 first-round pick, Pompey writes in another story for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Following Brooklyn’s win over Dallas on Monday, there’s now a 1.5-game gap between the Sixers and Nets, putting Philadelphia in a strong position to finish the season with the NBA’s fifth-worst record. That would give the team a 64% chance of hanging onto its protected first-rounder.
- Given the fact that a significant portion of their revenue is in Canadian – rather than U.S. – dollars, how might the Raptors be impacted by the fact that the Canadian dollar has dipped in value in recent months? Eric Koreen of The Athletic explores that topic, speaking to several experts about how the Raptors may navigate the issue.
According to the oddsmakers, the Sixth Man of the Year award boils down to two Eastern Conference guards.
The Celtics’ Payton Pritchard is the solid favorite under the current Bet MGM betting lines. Pritchard has spent his entire five-year career with Boston, though he was in and out of its rotation two seasons ago and nearly got traded. The late 2020 first-round pick eventually received an extension and has become an essential and durable part of the Celtics’ second unit.
Pritchard appeared in every game last season and has only missed two games this season. He has posted solid numbers across the board, averaging 14.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 0.9 steals per night. He’s shooting 46.6 percent from the field and 41.3 percent on 3-pointers with a high volume — an average of eight per game.
Pritchard has exceeded the 20-point mark 21 times, including a 43-point eruption against the Trail Blazers.
Pritchard’s main challenger for the award is the Pistons’ Malik Beasley. Entering Sunday’s action, Beasley had made a league-high 292 three-pointers, which is somewhat remarkable for a reserve.
Part of the reason is Beasley’s availability — he hasn’t missed a game for the league’s most surprising team. Beasley has posted averages of 16.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals per contest. He’s shooting 43.6 percent overall while averaging just 3.7 two-point attempts per game. He’s taking an average of 9.2 threes per contest and hitting at a 42.3 percent success rate.
Beasley started regularly for the Bucks last season but didn’t attract a lot of interest in the free agent market. He signed a one-year, $6MM contract with Detroit, which has proven to be a huge bargain.
Pritchard has a more versatile role as a combo guard, while Beasley is mainly relied upon for instant offense. Pritchard has the advantage of playing for one of the league’s premier teams. Beasley has been a major reason why Detroit has become just the second team in NBA history to triple its win total from the previous season.
That brings us to today’s topic: Who’s your selection for the Sixth Man of the Year award – the Celtics’ Payton Pritchard or the Pistons’ Malik Beasley? Or is there another player more worthy of that honor?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Not only did five players get ejected for a brawl between the Pistons and Timberwolves on Sunday night, but Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Timberwolves assistant coach Pablo Prigioni also got the boot.
It wasn’t a coincidence as the two coaches had a verbal altercation, according to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and Hunter Patterson.
“There was things said by their assistant coach and I’m in the same boat our guys are in,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re going to defend each other. I’m not going to let people say belligerent things about my guys. It’s that simple. He said what he said, he knows what he said.”
Prigioni reportedly made comments about Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart, who was one of the players ejected. Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo and Stewart had some verbal exchanges shortly before the brawl that spilled into the stands.
“From my understanding, he was trying to have a conversation with the referee about one of their players who’s kind of prone to these situations,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “And then their bench, J.B. in particular, had an issue with it, and they exchanged words.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson felt his team got a little complacent during the last couple of weeks. Atkinson let off some steam prior to their game against the Clippers on Sunday, according to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, and the team responded with a 127-122 victory. “There was a very (explicit) message with a lot of choice words from Kenny that got us fired up,” center Jarrett Allen said. Atkinson commented, “We needed to, maybe for psychological reasons, get this game and get it in a good manner.”
- Tre Jones‘ return from a sprained left foot has apparently hit a roadblock. The Bulls guard was still experiencing pain and wearing a walking boot over the weekend, according to The Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley. Jones hasn’t played since March 20. After the injury occurred, the Bulls announced Jones would be out for at least two weeks.
- The Bucks had an embarrassing outing against the Hawks on Sunday, allowing 82 first-half points and 145 overall. A familiar problem cropped up, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm writes. They were consistently broken down by dribble drives. “They had a simple game plan (Sunday). Spread the floor, catch it and just put your head down and force a drive. And we just could not keep the ball in front of us,” coach Doc Rivers said. “Is that scheme? Is that ability? I gotta watch (to see). I never fall on the old coaching (adage) ‘We didn’t play hard’ because I don’t believe that. But we didn’t play well defensively and we got beat off the dribble a lot. And that’s not good for us.”
The Pelicans have shut down guard CJ McCollum and big man Zion Williamson for the remainder of the 2024/25 season, the team’s PR department tweets.
McCollum, who was diagnosed with a right foot bone contusion after sustaining the injury on March 23 at Detroit, will continue his rehabilitation program which includes rest and treatment.
Williamson, who suffered a low back bone contusion during a fall on March 19 at Minnesota, will continue his recovery plan which includes rest and treatment.
The injury-ravaged Pelicans are among the lottery-bound teams jockeying for the best odds to get the top pick. Shutting down two of their top players could move them closer to that goal. They currently have the league’s fourth-worst record at 21-54 — the bottom three teams each have a 14% shot at the No. 1 overall pick.
New Orleans has seven games remaining after losing 10 of its last 14 contests.
McCollum, 33, finishes the season with averages of 21.1 points, 4.1 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 56 games. He has one season left on the two-year, $64MM extension he signed in 2022.
Williamson, 24, completes his 2024/25 campaign with averages of 24.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists in just 30 games. He missed two months of action due to a hamstring strain. The former top pick has three years remaining on his five-year max extension.
Hawks star guard Trae Young announced on ESPN’s NBA Today (video link) that he has accepted the position of assistant GM for the Oklahoma Sooners basketball program, as Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution relays. Concurrently, Young announced that he would donate $1MM to the program to aid efforts to put together a championship team.
Young only played one year of college ball for the Sooners during the 2017/18 season but made a huge impact. He averaged 27.4 points and 8.7 assists per game, leading all Division I players in both categories that season. He then declared for the NBA draft and was selected fifth overall, which traded him and a future first-rounder to Atlanta for Luka Doncic.
He’ll now be involved in his former college program in a much different capacity.
“It’s exciting to be a part of this and being from Norman and playing there, obviously, it’s exciting times and I’m looking forward to being in this new role,” he said during his ESPN appearance.
The school issued a press release confirming Young’s administrative position and donation. According to the announcement, Young will “lend support in OU player personnel and strategic roster management planning, and will serve a critical role in helping build student-athletes’ brands and maximizing their potential.”
Young’s responsibilities will include assisting with the evaluation of high school and transfer portal prospects, as well as helping negotiate player contracts in accordance with NCAA and conference rules and the team’s revenue share budget. He will also assist with university fundraising initiatives to help grow support for OU’s men’s basketball program.
“This is a really big day and incredibly exciting,” Sooners head coach Porter Moser said. “First, just a huge thank-you to Trae for the $1 million gift to our program. What an unbelievably gracious offering. It will be put to effective use as we continue on our path toward sustained high-level success. We are extraordinarily grateful for the generous contribution.
“Second, Trae’s addition as assistant general manager is going to pay significant dividends for our program on multiple levels. He is a basketball junkie in so many ways,” Moser added. “He’s obviously one of the biggest and most recognizable on-court talents in the world, so he brings immediate credibility with younger players. But I can tell you that Trae also pays close attention to the national basketball landscape and is dialed in to all levels of the sport. His knowledge, coupled with his desire for our program to be the best it can be, will absolutely move us forward.”
Young is the second high-profile active NBA player to take a similar role at his former college. Stephen Curry was named the assistant GM for Davidson’s basketball programs three weeks ago.
Rutgers freshman Dylan Harper, one of the top prospects in this year’s draft class, announced on ESPN’s NBA Today on Monday that he’ll be entering the 2025 NBA draft (Twitter video link).
The decision comes as no surprise, as Harper has long been considered a strong bet to be one of the first players off the board this June. He ranks second overall on ESPN’s board behind only Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, notes draft expert Jonathan Givony.
A 6’6″ point guard and the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper, Dylan averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.4 steals in 32.6 minutes per game in 29 outings during his first and only college season. He posted a shooting line of .484/.333/.750 and was named to the All-Big Ten third team.
Harper broke Rutgers’ freshman scoring record and finished fifth in the Big Ten in points per game, according to Givony, who says the 19-year-old has drawn comparisons in NBA circles to a young James Harden.
“NBA teams saw I am an all-around player,” Harper said. “I can do whatever it takes to win. Whether it’s score, defend or facilitate. Anything coach needs me to do.”
Here are a few more prospects entering the 2025 draft:
- St. John’s junior forward RJ Luis is declaring for the draft while maintaining his remaining college eligibility and entering the NCAA’s transfer portal, agent Sam Permut tells Givony (Twitter link). Luis had a big year as a junior, averaging 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game en route to Big East Player of the Year honors. He ranked 72nd overall on ESPN’s top-100 list as of last week.
- Oregon senior big man Nathan Bittle will be testing the draft waters while retaining his final year of college eligibility, he announced on Instagram. The No. 96 prospect on ESPN’s board, Bittle averaged 14.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks in 27.7 minutes per game across 35 starts this season, earning spots on the All-Big Ten third team and the conference’s All-Defensive team.
- Following his junior season, Vanderbilt guard Jason Edwards is heading back into the transfer portal while testing the NBA draft waters, he tells Joe Tipton of On3 Sports (Twitter link). Edwards, who transferred from North Texas a year ago, averaging 17.0 points per game for the Commodores in 2024/25.
- Jacksonville State senior guard Jaron Pierre will test the NBA draft waters while entering the transfer portal, tweets Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. Pierre isn’t on ESPN’s top-100 list but ranked first among all Conference USA players with 21.6 points per game in 2024/25. He knocked down 38.2% of a career-high 7.6 three-point attempts per game.