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And-Ones: Rebuilding Teams, Free Agency, Flagg, NBL

March 21st, 2025 at 9:44pm CST by Luke Adams

Among 11 NBA teams in various stages of their respective rebuilds, the Spurs are best positioned for the long run, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Insider link). San Antonio’s place atop the rankings has a lot to do with the presence of Victor Wembanyama on the roster, but Bontemps points to Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and recently acquired point guard De’Aaron Fox as other likely core pieces for the Spurs, who could end up with two more lottery picks this spring.

Interestingly, Bontemps places the Hornets and Wizards at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, on his rebuild rankings, praising Charlotte in particular for its promising collection of young talent. The Trail Blazers and Bulls come in at 10th and 11th on Bontemps’ list, largely because there are questions about whether either team has a franchise player to build around and whether they’ll be in position to land one in the draft anytime soon.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

John Hollinger of The Athletic highlights several of the challenging situations that teams will face in free agency this summer, including the Cavaliers with Ty Jerome, the Nuggets with Russell Westbrook, the Kings with Jake LaRavia, and the Sixers with Quentin Grimes and Guerschon Yabusele. Many of those clubs will be limited in what they can offer their free agents, either due to a lack of full Bird rights or tax/apron concerns.
Meanwhile, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) looks ahead to 2026 and explains why next year’s star-studded free agent class will likely be something of a mirage, given all the contract extensions likely to be signed between now and then.
ESPN draft experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo (Insider link) spoke to 10 NBA executives about projected No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, surveying those execs on the Duke freshman’s strengths and weaknesses, his odds of winning a title with the Blue Devils, and whether there’s any chance he decides to stay in school for another year. “I can’t remember a No. 1 pick deciding to go back to school,” one Eastern Conference scout told ESPN.
Ahead of the NBA playing its first games in Australia this fall, a battle over the ownership of the country’s National Basketball League appears to be brewing. Olgun Uluc of ESPN Australia has the story.

Kings’ Isaac Jones Reaches Active Game Limit

March 21st, 2025 at 2:20pm CST by Rory Maher

Rookie big man Isaac Jones, who is on a two-way contract with the Kings, has been active for the maximum of 50 NBA games this season and is no longer eligible to play for Sacramento in 2024/25, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.

Jones reached the 50-game limit in Wednesday’s victory over Cleveland when he played four minutes. He has appeared in 31 games this season and been active for 19 more, averaging 3.7 points and 1.5 rebounds in 8.3 minutes per contest.

Although he ultimately wasn’t selected, Jones was among the players who boosted their stocks with strong performances in last year’s pre-draft process. The former Washington State standout quickly reached an agreement on a two-way deal with the Kings shortly after going undrafted.

As Marks notes (via Twitter), Jones can continue to practice with the Kings, but he won’t be able to play again unless his two-way contract is converted to a standard deal. A report back in January suggested that Jones was a candidate to be promoted if the Kings still had openings on their standard roster after the trade deadline, and they do — they’re tentatively carrying 14 players, with Terry Taylor on a 10-day contract that runs through March 27.

Jones, who was named to the NBA G League’s Up Next event at All-Star weekend, has also appeared in 15 total games this season with the Stockton Kings. His role has been more significant at the G League level, averaging 21.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.0 block on .567/.300/.745 shooting in 32.3 minutes per contest.

Several other players on two-way contracts are also nearing their active game limits, according to Marks. Kessler Edwards (one) and Brandon Williams (five) of the Mavericks, Hornets wing Wendell Moore (five) and Sixers guard Jeff Dowtin (five) will soon be ineligible to appear in NBA games. All three of the Lakers’ two-way players — Jordan Goodwin (three), Trey Jemison (eight) and Christian Koloko (nine) — are close to their limits as well, as we noted on Thursday.

Players on two-way contracts are ineligible for the postseason, including the play-in tournament.

Atlantic Notes: Scheierman, Brunson, Knicks, Walker

March 20th, 2025 at 10:55pm CST by Earnest Marshall

Celtics rookie Baylor Scheierman scored a career-high 20 points against the Nets on Tuesday, giving the Celtics their 50th win. As Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe notes, 17 of Scheierman’s 20 came in the second half and he only missed one garbage-time shot.

“Obviously it’s a lot of fun when [the game] slows down and it feels like you’re just out there playing free, playing loose,” Scheierman said. “Coach [Joe Mazzulla] has got a lot of confidence in you, players have got a lot of confidence in you. That’s what the game is all about, and that’s how I enjoy playing.”

Scheierman hasn’t played much at the NBA level this year, but he’s contributed to a pair of wins in the past couple weeks. The 2024 No. 30 overall pick is getting more comfortable by the day.

“Confidence is kind of an overused term,” Mazzulla said. “I think in reality, it’s like, this kid just got here. He’s been here for three months. Like, what do you expect him to look like 10 games in playing sporadically? He’s always had that confidence. I think a lot of it is a matter of timing. A lot of it’s a matter of opportunity. And a lot of it is the moments that you get, you’ve got to deliver and you’ve got to impact winning.”

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Jalen Brunson was out of his walking boot and has progressed to doing “light shooting,” according to Newsday’s Steve Popper (Twitter link). New York is hoping to get him into some game action before the playoffs begin. He hasn’t played since March 6 due to an ankle injury.
New York wing Josh Hart ripped the Knicks after they lost to the 18-win Hornets on Thursday, according to the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy. “The way we’re losing games is embarrassing,” Hart said, “… It’s extra effort, and we’re not doing that, and that’s what’s embarrassing, especially for this team, especially for a Thibs-coached team, a New York-based team. That’s not what we should be doing. That’s not what we’re supposed to be built on.” New York is 3-4 without Brunson during this stretch.
Sixers guard Lonnie Walker IV hasn’t played since March 12 after suffering a concussion. He’s probable for Friday’s game against the Spurs, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. Walker is averaging 8.2 points and 3.3 rebounds this season.

And-Ones: Morris, Morey, NCAA Tourney, 2025 Draft

March 19th, 2025 at 2:14pm CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show podcast, veteran forward Marcus Morris, who is currently a free agent, was asked by Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports about Daryl Morey‘s recent comments about using AI in Sixers decisions. The question prompted some pointed comments from Morris about the longtime NBA executive.

“I don’t trust Daryl Morey. I just don’t trust him,” Morris said (Twitter video link). “I think he’s thinking too far ahead of the way basketball needs to be played. He’s trying to do a whole new team. He’s trying to bring guys in, flipping them in and out, in and out, in and out. Does he even understand the dynamic of being in Philadelphia (and) what guys you need to play in Philadelphia?”

“… You tell my guy (James Harden) that you’re gonna do something for him, a guy that you brought from all these teams, and then you don’t. Like, did AI tell him not to pay James Harden this amount of money? Does the AI tell him to go get Paul George, hire Nick Nurse?

“Does AI tell you to get the guy from Miami, Caleb Martin, because he played well in the Boston series? He can’t shoot the ball. You got three dominant guys that need the ball in their hands. Why is that the first guy that you go get? How did you come up with picking a team? Why do you want to start a brand-new team and try to win a championship? I haven’t seen any team that has 10 new guys be really good the following year. I don’t even know if any team has ever done that.

“I’m just not a fan of how he goes about choosing players and flipping players in and out. It’s kind of like he’s trying to outsmart the game too much.”

Morris, a Philadelphia native, has played under Morey multiple times over the course of his 13-year NBA career and acknowledged that those experiences influence his views on the former Rockets and current Sixers president. Morris said Morey sent him to the G League during his rookie season “for no reason” and then traded him off the 76ers last season for a “bag of chips,” even though he was playing well for his hometown team.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Draft experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN.com (Insider link) identify the top 50 prospects to watch during this year’s NCAA Tournament, starting with Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Baylor’s V.J. Edgecombe, and Texas’ Tre Johnson. The Blue Devils lead the way with six prospects on the top-50 list, as Kon Knueppel (No. 4), Khaman Maluach (5), Isaiah Evans (28), Tyrese Proctor (33), and Sion James (35) all join Flagg.
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has updated his 2025 mock draft ahead of the NCAA tourney, moving South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles into his top 10 at No. 8. Murray-Boyles’ stock is “all over the map,” Vecenie explains, with some scouts viewing him as a top-six player while others consider him more of a top-20 prospect. The 6’8″ forward ranked 18th in ESPN’s last big board update.
Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) notes that several traded 2025 draft picks have a chance to land in the top half of the first round this June and points out that six of the year’s most valuable traded picks have something in common — they were all initially dealt more than two years ago.

Sixers Notes: Grimes, Yabusele, Butler, Nurse, Injury Report

March 18th, 2025 at 5:42pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Quentin Grimes, a trade deadline acquisition, continues to shine for the Sixers. The combo guard — a restricted free agent after this season — erupted for a career-high 46 points against the Rockets in an overtime loss on Monday. Grimes, who also finished with a career-best 13 rebounds, has scored 30 or more points in five separate games since coming to Philadelphia.

“It’s cool,” Grimes told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “But I had a costly turnover that cost us the game late in the fourth. I have to be better in those situations, probably on the ball, try to get fouled. It’s cool and all, but we probably should have just ended the game, ended it with a win.”

We have more on the Sixers:

While they have been decimated by injuries, big man Guerschon Yabusele has continued to play despite battling knee soreness. Yabusele sat out Monday’s game, but he’s appeared in 62 of 68 games and has served as a few of the few constants in Philadelphia this season. “That’s just who I am,” he told Pompey. “I always try to keep playing no matter what. You know that’s just me. I just want to compete. I want to be out there and help the guys. I hate just being on the bench and looking at the guys over there, struggling or losing. It’s something I don’t like to be a part of.” Yabusele has some extra incentive to stay on the court — he will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
The Sixers had only nine players available on Monday, yet nearly knocked off one of the better teams in the Western Conference. “I think it’s just outside of our nature to go out there and try to lose,” guard Jared Butler said, per Pompey. ”I can’t see myself playing like that in any kind of way.”
While some fans might be unhappy with head coach Nick Nurse, he shouldn’t be the scapegoat for the team’s dismal season, Pompey argues. Nurse has been forced to juggle the rotation throughout the season due to the rash of injuries, using 44 different starting lineups, Pompey points out.
Kelly Oubre Jr. is doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Thunder due to a sprained right knee, Pompey tweets. Yabusele is questionable, while Tyrese Maxey, Andre Drummond, Adem Bona, Kyle Lowry and Lonnie Walker remain out.
In case you missed it, Paul George has been ruled out for the season. Get the details here.

Sixers Rule Out Paul George For Rest Of Season

March 17th, 2025 at 5:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Sixers have declared that Paul George will miss the remainder of the season due to adductor and knee injuries, officially announcing the decision on Monday (via Twitter).

“George has received injections in both his left adductor muscle and left knee,” the team said in its statement. “Following the procedure, George is medically unable to play and will be out for at least six weeks.”

It’s a fitting conclusion to a lost season for both George, last summer’s top free agent, and the Sixers. The 34-year-old was limited to 41 starts this season due to his injuries. When he did play, it wasn’t up to his usual standards. He averaged 16.2 points per game in 2024/25 after having averaged at least 21.5 PPG in each season since 2015/16. He also put up 5.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 32.5 minutes per night.

George’s last appearance came on March 4, when he scored just seven points in 30 minutes against Minnesota.

George was Philadelphia’s top target as it hoarded salary-cap space prior to last offseason. He signed a four-year max contract worth approximately $211.6MM in July. He’s due to make $51,666,090 next season and $54,126,380 in 2026/27. He holds a $56,586,670 option for the final year of his contract when he’ll be 37.

The Sixers can only hope that George stays on the court for longer stretches in the next few seasons and the contract doesn’t become an albatross. He was supposed to be the final piece of a championship puzzle, giving the team a high-level wing to join dominant center Joel Embiid and star guard Tyrese Maxey.

Embiid’s lingering knee issues limited him to 19 games before he was ruled out for the rest of the season late last month.

Sixers Notes: Hood-Schifino, Reed, Bona, George, Embiid

March 17th, 2025 at 9:00am CST by Arthur Hill

Considering their lottery situation, the Sixers really didn’t need a win Sunday afternoon in Dallas, but that didn’t matter to Jalen Hood-Schifino or the other players trying to prove themselves at the NBA level, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Hood-Schifino, who signed a two-way contract on March 1, came off the bench to sink five three-pointers and score 19 points in 23 minutes. He also hit a pair of foul shots with four seconds left that put the game out of reach.

“For me, just focusing on my breath and saying calm, and knowing if I get those two free throws, the game is over,” Hood-Schifino said. “So for me, it was about relaxing and knocking those shots down.”

Pompey notes that while the Sixers snapped a three-game losing streak and won for just the fourth time in 21 games, it wasn’t the best outcome for a team that will surrender its first-round pick to Oklahoma City if it falls outside the top six. Brooklyn also won on Sunday while Toronto lost, leaving Philadelphia with the sixth-worst record in the league, a half-game behind the Nets in the lottery standings and a half-game ahead of the Raptors.

“Listen, we are going to prepare this group to go out there and have some success,” coach Nick Nurse said. “Again, they played very well tonight. … Again, we just want to prepare them well and give them a chance to show what they can do and have some success.”

There’s more on the Sixers:

Pistons center Paul Reed, who was waived by Philadelphia in July, took a shot at his former team on social media Saturday night, posting, “They thought I was the problem,” Pompey adds. Asked to comment on Sunday, Nurse replied, “I don’t have a response. We certainly didn’t think Paul Reed was a problem.”
The Sixers’ list of inactive players for Sunday grew to 10 when center Adem Bona was declared out due to a sprained left ankle, Pompey tweets. There’s no word on how much time Bona is expected to miss.
The Sixers were counting on Paul George to lift them into title contention when he signed as a free agent last summer, but their best move might be to try to unload his hefty contract during the offseason, Pompey states in a separate story. The nine-time All-Star has been limited to 41 games this season and hasn’t played since March 4 because of groin and knee injuries. He’ll turn 35 in May and still has three years and $162.3MM left on his contract.
The Sixers won’t be able to make real progress until they move on from Joel Embiid, Pompey argues in another piece. He notes that Philadelphia’s front office keeps making personnel moves to build around Embiid, but the star center’s constant injuries prevent them from being effective. Pompey adds that with Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey using up virtually all the team’s cap space over the next several seasons, there’s little room to improve if they all remain on the roster.

Sixers Sign Chuma Okeke To Second 10-Day Contract

March 16th, 2025 at 10:32am CST by Arthur Hill

March 16: Okeke’s second 10-day contract with Philadelphia is now official, per the team.

March 15: Chuma Okeke, who played one game for the Sixers on a 10-day contract last month, will return to the team on another 10-day deal, sources tell NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link). Stein adds that Okeke will be available for Sunday afternoon’s game at Dallas.

The 26-year-old combo forward inked his first 10-day contract on February 7, but was waived after just six days when the team promoted two-way player Jared Butler to the 15-man roster. Okeke saw two minutes of action in his only appearance, finishing with no points and one rebound.

Apart from his brief NBA appearance, Okeke has spent the season with the Knicks’ G League affiliate in Westchester, averaging 18.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 25 regular season games.

Okeke was mentioned as a potential addition for New York when the team became financially eligible to add a 15th player in late February. New York opted to sign P.J. Tucker to a 10-day deal instead.

The Sixers have a full roster, but they are able to make additions through 10-day deals under the hardship exception because they have several players who have missed at least three consecutive games and are expected to remain sidelined for at least two more weeks.

Free agent forward Oshae Brissett signed a 10-day hardship contract with the team on Friday. Assuming the Sixers don’t plan to release Brissett in order to sign Okeke, they’ll need to have at least five players who meet the hardship criteria in order to make a second 10-day signing. Joel Embiid, Eric Gordon, Jared McCain, Paul George, and Kyle Lowry may all fit the bill.

If Okeke’s deal becomes official on Sunday, he will be eligible to appear in six games before it expires on March 25. Players are limited to two 10-day contracts per team in a season, so the Sixers would have to give him a standard deal to keep him any longer.

Bontemps/Windhorst’s Latest: Nets, Sixers, Zion, Wizards, Raptors

March 14th, 2025 at 11:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets project to have significantly more cap room than any other NBA team this offseason — they’re in position to open up more than $60MM in space. However, they’re unlikely to take the same approach as last year’s top cap-room team, Philadelphia, which spent big on win-now free agents.

As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes in an Insider-only article, the Nets signaled when they reacquired control of both their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks that they might require at least a two-year rebuild. Some rival teams believe Brooklyn will end up rolling much of its 2025 cap room over to the 2026 offseason, according to Windhorst.

“They’re going to use it in trade because they’re not going to have anyone to pay in this free agent market,” one executive said of the Nets’ cap space. “They could end up right back in this spot next year.”

Here are a few more items of interest from Windhorst and his ESPN colleague Tim Bontemps:

While the hope in Philadelphia is that better health luck next season will result in a bounce-back year for the Sixers, there’s still no update on what the treatment plan for Joel Embiid is and no assurances that he’ll be back to 100% in 2025/26, as Windhorst and Bontemps note. “Until they know what is happening with Embiid, there is no way to project what they will be next year,” a league executive told ESPN. “They will have a hard time changing that roster.”
The Pelicans are just 9-19 in games that Zion Williamson has played this season and project to have an expensive roster next season, so even though Williamson has been healthy and performed well as of late, rivals continue to wonder if he’ll end up on the trade block, Windhorst writes. “The question about the Pelicans is whether they would consider trading Zion,” a rival general manager told ESPN. “It hasn’t really been an option over the last couple of years because he’s been injured, and his value hasn’t been high enough. Even now, I don’t think they could get great value. So they will probably see if he can carry this play over into next year.”
Multiple executives who spoke to Bontemps lauded the Wizards for their work at the trade deadline, including bringing in veterans like Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart while taking a flier on 2024 first-rounder AJ Johnson. “I like what they are doing,” an executive said. “They’re doing things the right way.” Conversely, there’s some skepticism around the league about the way in which the Raptors – who traded a first-round pick as part of a package for Brandon Ingram – are attempting to accelerate their rebuild, says Bontemps. “I don’t like what Toronto is doing,” one exec told ESPN. “Trying to flip it quick is dangerous.”

NBA Looking At Thunder, Sixers For Possible Player Participation Policy Violations

March 14th, 2025 at 9:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA is investigating the Thunder and the Sixers for possible violations of the league’s player participation policy, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN.

According to Charania, the NBA is looking specifically at the Thunder’s March 7 game vs. Portland, in which the team sat its entire starting five: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (rest), Chet Holmgren (lower leg contusion), Jalen Williams (wrist sprain), Luguentz Dort (patellofemoral soreness), and Isaiah Hartenstein (nasal fracture re-injury). Cason Wallace (right knee contusion) also missed the game, which wasn’t part of a back-to-back set.

While Holmgren sat out Oklahoma City’s March 5 contest too, the other five players who missed the Portland game were available on both March 5 and March 9.

Gilgeous-Alexander is the only Thunder player who meets the “star” criteria as defined by the player participation policy, but there’s a precedent for teams being penalized for sitting several “non-star” starters in the same game — the Nets were hit with a $100K fine last season for making a similar move.

Still, Rylan Stiles of SI.com (Twitter link) and Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link) are among the reporters to question the necessity of investigating the Thunder for their approach to the Portland game, given that they’ve had a strenuous post-All-Star schedule and still won the game by 18 points. Marks suggests that the league should be focused more on lottery-bound teams who may be flaunting the policy in an effort to improve their draft odds.

The Jazz, one such lottery-bound team, were fined $100K two days ago for a player participation policy. The Sixers, who have also seemingly pivoted to prioritizing lottery position in recent weeks, ruled out 11 players for Friday’s game vs. Indiana.

According to Charania, the league is looking at the Sixers due to the recent absences of Paul George (knee/back/finger) and Tyrese Maxey (back/finger). George has missed the past five games, while Maxey has been out for the past six, though head coach Nick Nurse said after Friday’s loss that Maxey should return at some point during Philadelphia’s upcoming six-game road trip (Twitter link via Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports).

The league may determine that the absences of George, Maxey, and the rest of the inactive Sixers players are legitimate, but if the club is determined to have violated the player participation policy, it could face a fine of $250K. That’s the amount for a second violation, and the 76ers already received a $100K fine earlier this season.

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