Eastern Notes: Rose, Brunson, Barrett, Wright, Hachimura
Knicks president Leon Rose had his eyes on Jalen Brunson well before the team signed him in free agency, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports. During his first meeting with the team’s scouts in March 2020, Rose named Brunson as one of his future targets. That came as a surprise to some of those scouts, considering Brunson was a second-year player averaging less than 10 points off Dallas’ bench that season.
We have more from the Eastern Conference:
- Knicks wing RJ Barrett is thrilled he signed a rookie scale extension, Berman relays. Barrett was speaking at season ticket holder event hosted by MSG Network’s Monica McNutt. “I feel honored and blessed. This is a place I wanted to be,” Barrett said. “I was happy they first drafted me and now with the extension, to be here four more years, will be great and I’m excited to get to work.’’ Barrett, who received a four-year extension with a base value of $107MM and a maximum value of $120MM, has no worries about blending his talents with Brunson. “Being around him, I’ve gotten to gravitate toward him. When we’re together, we’ll play well, especially with us both lefties.’’
- Free agent addition Delon Wright will make steals while limiting his own turnovers for the Wizards. That’s what analytics indicate about the veteran point guard, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington writes. Wright also excels in isolation plays and open 3-point looks while avoiding mid-range shots.
- It’s a pivotal season for another Wizards player, Rui Hachimura, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The 2019 lottery pick has yet to make a major impact and if he doesn’t receive a contract extension before opening night, he’ll need to improve his game to secure a big payday in free agency next summer. Robbins interviews multiple scouts, who break down the forward’s strengths and weaknesses.
Eastern Notes: Tatum, Herro, Oubre, Thibodeau, Brunson
Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum played with a small non-displaced fracture in his left wrist this past season, he revealed in an interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report. Tatum suffered the injury on February 13 against the Hawks.
In May, Tatum revealed he was dealing with wrist pain after being fouled by Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he wouldn’t go into more detail. He received a cortisone shot for the pain and continued playing.
Tatum sounded optimistic that the wrist won’t be an issue going forward, as he’s no longer dealing with pain. The 24-year-old led Boston to its first NBA Finals berth since 2010 this season, averaging 25.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 6.2 assists in the playoffs.
Here are some other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- Heat guard Tyler Herro unsurprisingly wants the team to run it back with the same group this season, as relayed by Betr (Twitter link). This would require that the team doesn’t acquire Kevin Durant or Donovan Mitchell, both of whom would likely require Herro to be traded. Miami suffered a significant blow when P.J. Tucker signed with the Sixers in free agency, but otherwise looks very similar to last season’s team.
- Hornets forward Kelly Oubre Jr. should be monitored as a potential trade piece this season, an NBA executive told Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. Oubre, 26, averaged 15.0 points on 44% shooting last season. If the Hornets look to improve their center position, it’s possible he could be included in a deal.
- Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau is “ecstatic” about the arrival of Jalen Brunson this season, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Thibodeau believes he can turn Brunson from a B-minus player to a B-plus one, a source tells Berman, which would largely start on the defensive end. Brunson signed a four-year, $104MM deal to join the Knicks this offseason.
Atlantic Notes: Brunson, Grimes, Brown, Williams, Maxey
Who’s the best backcourt partner for Jalen Brunson on the current Knicks roster? According to analytics expert Joseph Gill in an interview with SNY TV’s Ian Begley, Quentin Grimes is the best fit alongside the high-priced free agent acquisition. Grimes is a legitimate threat to space the floor and he doesn’t turn the ball over very often. That makes him a better pairing with Brunson’s skill set than Evan Fournier, RJ Barrett or Immanuel Quickley, in Gill’s estimation.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- What would a Jaylen Brown extension look like? Keith Smith takes a deep dive into that subject in a Spotrac article. With two years left on his current contract, the Celtics wing is eligible to sign a three-year deal this offseason. He could wait until after next season and sign a Designated Veteran Extension or after the 2023/24 season and ink a Designated Veteran contract if he meets certain criteria. He could also sign with Boston or another team as a free agent in 2024.
- Grant Williams has communicated with Brown regarding the trade rumors involving the Nets and Kevin Durant and says Brown is handling it well, Matt John of Heavy.com relays. “I feel like JB is mature in his mindset, and he knows that. I talk to him, texted him, reach out of as often as I can,” Williams said. “It’s one of those things. It’s the league. It’s a business. It’s one of those things that you can’t be discouraged by because we love JB. It also shows how valuable he is.”
- Developing even greater offensive chemistry with Joel Embiid and getting selected to the All-Star team would be aspects of a best-case scenario for Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey in 2022/23, Kyle Neubeck of Phillyvoice.com writes. Not living up to increased expectations would be part of a worst-case scenario for Maxey next season.
Atlantic Notes: Irving, Simmons, Brunson, Harris
Kevin Durant‘s desire to see the Nets get rid of general manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash is shared by teammate Kyrie Irving, a source tells Mark W. Sanchez and Josh Koshman of The New York Post. Irving picked up his $36.9MM option and reportedly doesn’t mind playing in Brooklyn next season, but the source says he shares Durant’s views on the organization’s leadership.
“Kyrie Irving hates these guys. He feels that Nash is terrible and Marks is bad,” the source said, adding that “KD came to the same conclusion.”
Irving has more obvious reasons to hold a negative view of management than Durant does. The Nets were unwilling to offer him a long-term contract if he had opted out and they refused to allow him to be a part-time player last season when he was ineligible for home games because of his vaccine stance. That decision lasted until a short-handed roster forced them to change their minds in December.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Shams Charania of The Athletic disputes a rumor that Ben Simmons pulled out of a Nets group chat when teammates asked if he was going to play in Game 4 of the playoff series against the Celtics. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show (video link), Charania said the incident “never happened” and added that Simmons is “looking good” this summer and the team has “high, high expectations” for him in the upcoming season.
- A few New York fans got to see Jalen Brunson play his first game alongside some of his new Knicks teammates Monday, per Matthew Neschis of The New York Post. Brunson received a standing ovation during introductions as he teamed up with Julius Randle and Obi Toppin in the Nike Pro City playoffs, a summer league in the Bronx. “You have a lot of kids [here] who can’t afford the opportunity to go to a Knicks game,” league director Bernard Bowen said, “so for those guys to come and play in that atmosphere where it’s free for the kids, it’s a blessing.”
- Kyle Neubeck of Philly.com looks at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for Sixers forward Tobias Harris, who moved into a different role last season following the James Harden trade.
Atlantic Notes: Brunson, Irving, Raptors
As the NBA continues its investigation into the timing of the Knicks‘ free agent acquisition of point guard Jalen Brunson, Fred Katz of The Athletic parses through the extant evidence. Rumors ahead of 2022 free agency suggested Brunson would leave the Mavericks for the Knicks to the tune of a fresh four-year, $104MM deal. When that chatter proved to be true, the league opted to look into just what transpired, and when.
Katz notes that it’s difficult to discern just what kind of pre-free agency conversations the NBA will frown upon, in part given the fact that Jalen’s father, former New York point guard Rick Brunson, was hired as an assistant coach under Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau in June. Knicks team president Leon Rose, once an NBA agent representing Rick, has known both Brunsons for decades.
Last year, the league opted to penalize the Bulls and Heat for what it perceived to be tampering violations in their 2021 sign-and-trade moves for Lonzo Ball and Kyle Lowry, respectively. Each team was forced to surrender an upcoming second-round pick. This year, in addition to the Knicks, the NBA is also investigating the Sixers for possible tampering violations.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- When Nets point guard Kyrie Irving returned to his native New Jersey for his pro-am “More Than A Run” All-Star Game at Kean University, Brooklyn made a point to showcase the moment on the team’s official social media platforms. In an effort to read the tea leaves, Adam Zagoria of NJ.com suggests that it appears to be increasingly possible Irving returns to Brooklyn this fall, rather than being offloaded in a trade ahead of the season. Kyrie’s teammates Kessler Edwards, David Duke Jr., and Royce O’Neale were all in attendance at the New Jersey event.
- Heat point guard Kyle Lowry, at some point during his successful run with the Raptors, attempted to lure Vince Carter back to Toronto, Lowry revealed on Carter’s podcast The Vince Carter Show (Twitter video link via Uninterrupted Canada). “I tried to get Vince back with us at one point,” Lowry said. “We had conversations,” Carter confirmed. “We tried to get it done, it didn’t work out,” Lowry continued. “I was one of the biggest advocates that tried to get him back in Toronto and Vince was all-in.” It is unclear exactly when this recruitment transpired, but presumably this came fairly late in Carter’s illustrious career. The Raptors originally drafted Carter with the fifth pick out of North Carolina. The 6’6″ wing was named to his first five All-Star teams while with Toronto, before eventually being traded to the Nets in the midst of what was to be his sixth consecutive All-Star season in 2004/05. An eight-time All-Star overall, Carter would go on to play for an NBA-record 22 seasons. He finally retired at age 43 in 2020, following a two-year stint as a bench role player with the Hawks.
- In case you missed it, 6’11” Serbian power forward/center Filip Petrusev, who was drafted with the No. 50 pick by the Sixers in 2021, expressed confidence in Philadelphia’s developmental plan for him. Petrusev, a native Serbian, will suit up for Serbian club Crvena Zvezda during the 2022/23 season.
Southwest Notes: Brunson, Gelfand, Clarke, Johnson
The Knicks are under investigation by the league regarding potential tampering during their pursuit of free agent Jalen Brunson, but that probe wasn’t instigated by Brunson’s old team. According to Marc Stein’s sources, the Mavericks did not file an official complaint against the Knicks, as he reports in his latest Substack post. The Knicks made a series of salary-dumping moves prior to free agency, then snagged Brunson away from Dallas with a four-year, $104MM contract.
We have more Southwest Division news:
- In the same Substack article, Stein indicates that the Pelicans are making a hard push to hire Pistons analytics expert Sammy Gelfand. Gelfand and Pelicans coach Willie Green previously worked together with the Warriors.
- Brandon Clarke would be a logical choice to replace Jaren Jackson Jr. in the Grizzlies‘ lineup until Jackson is ready to return from foot surgery. However, that would create other issues, Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal notes. Clarke didn’t play much with center Steven Adams last season due to the fact that both operate out of the paint. Coach Taylor Jenkins also liked having Clarke on the second unit due to his scoring ability.
- Keldon Johnson won’t rest on his laurels after signing a four-year, $80MM extension. The Spurs forward told Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express News that he held a little celebration with family and friends, then went back to work. “I was in the gym the next day,” he said. Johnson wants to live up to the contract. “It’s always been full-time basketball,” Johnson said. “I knew as long as I put in the time and the effort, the extension would come. … I’m in some of the best shape of my life, the strongest I have been in my life.”
NBA Opens Tampering Investigation Into Knicks
The NBA has begun an investigation into the Knicks for possible tampering related to the team’s free agent signing of Jalen Brunson, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. According to Haynes, the league will attempt to determine whether New York made contact with Brunson before the free agent period started.
The Knicks signed Brunson to a four-year, $104MM contract last month. Days before free agency opened, word began to trickle out that Brunson was “widely anticipated” to sign with New York for a four-year deal exceeding $100MM, with multiple reports suggesting that the Mavericks had believed for weeks that the point guard was bound for the Knicks.
A June 29 report stated that Brunson planned to meet with the Knicks, Mavs, and Heat when free agency began, but the meetings with Dallas and Miami never took place, with the Heat disputing that they’d scheduled a sit-down at all with the former second-round pick.
We don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but the sequence of events created the impression that the Mavs and Heat knew Brunson would be joining the Knicks and didn’t want to waste their time, while the guard’s camp was trying to create the impression that a final decision hadn’t yet been made.
It’s not unusual for free agents’ presumed destinations to leak before the negotiating period officially begins on June 30. However, it raises eyebrows in the league office when the details of a rival team’s offer to a free agent leaks days in advance and there’s a publicly-reported widespread belief that the player will join that team. The Sixers are facing a similar investigation due to their free agency moves, including a contract agreement with P.J. Tucker that leaked early.
Brunson’s case is further complicated by the fact that he has personal relationships with so many people within the Knicks’ organization. Leon Rose represented Brunson as a player agent before he joined New York’s front office, and his son Sam Rose is now one of Brunson’s reps at CAA. Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father, was hired by the Knicks as an assistant coach several weeks before free agency began.
While the NBA has ostensibly made more of an effort to penalize teams for violations related to tampering and free agency gun-jumping in recent years, it’s not as if Brunson’s contract with the Knicks is in any danger of being voided.
The Bulls, Heat, and Bucks have all been penalized for similar free agency violations since 2020, and all three teams were forced to forfeit a future second-round pick. It will be surprising if the Knicks face a stiffer penalty than that once the investigation into their contact with Brunson is complete.
It will likely take some time for the NBA to announce the results of its probe. Last year, the investigation into the Heat and Bulls was reported on August 7 and the penalties weren’t announced until December 1.
Southwest Notes: Brunson, Finney-Smith, Rockets, Wesley
Former Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson expected to stay with the franchise for a long time, he revealed on JJ Redick’s The Old Man & The Three podcast (Twitter link). Instead, Brunson wound up signing with the Knicks this month, inking a four-year, $104MM deal.
“I loved my time in Dallas. I thought I was going to be in Dallas for a long time,” Brunson said. “I started having a monster season. I went to them before they officially offered it to me, and by the end, it was kind of too late.”
As has been previously reported, Brunson was interested early in the 2021/22 season in the same four-year, $56MM extension Dorian Finney-Smith eventually signed, but by the time the Mavericks offered it after the trade deadline, Brunson had outperformed it.
“The business came knocking at the door, and so it was time to at least look [in free agency]. I had to do my due diligence and look to see what was out there.”
Brunson is coming off a season in which he averaged a career-high 16.3 points per game. He was a secondary creator alongside Luka Doncic, also averaging 4.8 assists and shooting an efficient 50%.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith is aiming to be more of a vocal leader next season, as relayed by Dwain Price of Mavs.com. Finney-Smith is eyeing a ring with Dallas, who’s expected to compete for a title after losing in the Conference Finals 4-1 to Golden State last season. The Mavericks acquired Christian Wood and have a top-tier offense, but they’ll need to give a high-level defensive effort to contend. They ranked seventh in defensive rating (109.1) and 10th in defensive rebound percentage (73.3%) last season.
- Kelly Iko of The Athletic examines several Rockets topics in his mailbag, including next summer’s free agency, new assistant coaches and more. Houston is coming off a 20-62 season and is continuing a full-scale rebuild. The team has a young nucleus of Kevin Porter Jr. (22), Jalen Green (20), Jabari Smith Jr. (19) and others to build around. Houston also recently added Lionel Hollins, Mike Batiste and Mahmoud Abdelfattah to its coaching staff.
- Ethan Fuller of BasketballNews.com interviews Blake Wesley, who was drafted No. 25 overall by the Spurs last month. Wesley appears ready to sharpen his point guard skills. “I see myself as a point guard, so going into the NBA I feel I’m gonna be a point guard,” Wesley said. “A big key to the Spurs is [being] 6-foot-5, long [and] athletic, so to get guys open is gonna be good for me. I’m gonna get to the paint and find guys.”
Knicks Notes: Tampering, Brunson, Wright, Fournier, Rose, Mitchell
There is a strong possibility the NBA will open up a tampering investigation into the Knicks’ recruitment of Jalen Brunson, according to The Athletic’s Fred Katz. A rival team doesn’t necessarily need to file official tampering charges to make it happen, considering that reports of an agreement between the Knicks and Brunson surfaced before the two sides could negotiate. The Knicks also made salary-shedding moves with the confidence Brunson would come aboard if they opened up enough cap room.
We have more on the Knicks:
- Brunson’s college coach, Jay Wright, said the former Villanova star will embrace the pressure of playing in New York City, Zach Braziller of the New York Post writes. “He is very comfortable in having all that pressure on him,” Wright said of Brunson. “When Luka [Doncic] was out, he was very comfortable taking on that responsibility in the playoffs. But he’s really smart and he really knows that he needs good players around him, too. His basketball IQ is off the charts. He will look at the game like a coach and a general manager. His ego doesn’t get in the way. But he’ll never shy from the responsibility. He loves it.”
- If the Knicks don’t trade RJ Barrett or Julius Randle in a blockbuster deal for Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, then either Derrick Rose or Evan Fournier would have to be dealt for salary-matching purposes. SNY TV’s Ian Begley looks at potential combinations of players that the Knicks could send out to Utah.
- Mitchell may be one of the top 10 offensive talents in the league but he’s not considered a top-10 player overall due to his defensive shortcomings. The Ringer’s Dan Devine explores whether Mitchell is the right star for the Knicks to pursue.
Jalen Brunson Talks Knicks, Mavericks, L. Rose, Mentality
After officially finalizing his new $104MM deal with the Knicks, guard Jalen Brunson sat down this week for a wide-ranging interview moderated by Bill Pidto of MSG and attended by season ticket holders (YouTube video link).
“It’s like a whirlwind of emotions for me,” Brunson told Pidto (hat tip to Alex Smith of SNY.tv for some of the transcription). “It’s a lot. This building (Knicks home arena Madison Square Garden) is very special and I’m just happy to hopefully create some new memories here.”
During a breakout 2021/22 season for the Mavericks, Brunson averaged career highs of 16.3 PPG, 4.8 APG, 3.9 RPG, and 0.8 SPG across 79 contests, including 61 starts. He posted shooting splits of .502/.373/.840. Starting in the backcourt alongside All-NBA guard Luka Doncic, Brunson helped Dallas return to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 11 years. The team lost in five games to the eventual champion Warriors.
Here’s more from Brunson’s conversation with Pidto:
- The 25-year-old Brunson, whose father Rick Brunson is now an assistant coach under Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, discussed his familial connections to the club. The elder Brunson, himself a former NBA point guard, also played for the Knicks during the 1999/2000 NBA season. Thibodeau was an assistant coach under Jeff Van Gundy at the time. “It brings everything full circle,” Jalen Brunson said of joining the Knicks organization. “I’ve known them for a long time. It’s family. It’s a comfort level to this and something that I just couldn’t turn a blind eye to. I knew that these guys have my best interests at heart, and… I think Leon (Rose) probably saw me before my dad did, so it’s just one big family for me and I’m just super excited.”
- When asked about his successful tenure with the Mavericks, culminating in the aforementioned trip to the 2022 Western Conference Finals, Brunson reflected on his difficult decision to move on to a new team. “For the longest time, I thought I would never leave Dallas,” Brunson said. “I thought Dallas was my home for my entire career. It’s a great place, it’s a place that I really wanted to be and I’m so thankful that they took a chance on me. It was definitely tough. I’m going to miss my teammates. That organization’s special. The relationships that I made that, it was really special, so I’m definitely going to miss it.”
- The 6’1″ point guard spoke of how his mentality will fit a revamped Knicks roster. “(I’m a) person who’s never going to quit,” Brunson, a two-time NCAA champion while with Villanova, said. “It’s never been in my DNA. Something about me is that it’s about the little things for me. People see the stats and all that stuff, but the things that matter to me most [are] the little things like putting my body on the line for my teammates, diving on the ground, being that person that everyone can turn to saying, ‘That guy is going to do everything he can to help this team win a game,’ and that’s just how I’ve been my entire life.”
- Brunson discussed his evolution as a player, from prep school through the NBA. “Everywhere I’ve gone, since high school it started for me, it’s always been, ‘Jalen Brunson’s good, but’ — it’s always that ‘but,'” Brunson said. “They’re going to say something negative about (me)…. It was ‘too slow,’ ‘not athletic enough,’ ‘too small,’ all those things that don’t measure heart.”