2020 January | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: China, Kobe, Noah, Trade Deadline

January 30th, 2020 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

As the World Health Organization declares the coronavirus outbreak a “global health emergency,” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter thread) took the opportunity to explore the impact it has had on the basketball community in China.

According to Givony, the Chinese Basketball Association has postponed games indefinitely, with some CBA teams sending American players home while others prefer to have those players stick around. Although no CBA team plays within 350 miles of the Hubei province (the coronavirus epicenter), there’s talk that the season may not resume until March, if it resumes at all.

As Givony explains, CBA contracts often don’t include the same player-friendly protections that other international contracts do, so some players are nervous about how the league will handle those deals. Late payments or possible voided contracts are among their concerns, Givony adds.

According to Givony (Twitter link), teams in Europe, the G League, and even the NBA are likely keeping an eye on the situation. Many former NBA players are under contract in the CBA and could become free agents if the season is cancelled or their deals are voided.

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

Despite the idea receiving support from some NBA players and a petition that has received nearly three million signatures, the league doesn’t plan on changing its logo to Kobe Bryant or any other individual player, preferring a “generic” design, says Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. As Dan Feldman of NBC Sports explains, it’s widely known that the current logo uses Jerry West‘s silhouette, but the NBA has never formally acknowledged that.
Veteran center Joakim Noah published an Instagram video of him running, suggesting in the caption that he’d like to return to the NBA. “Four months post-Achilles surgery and I’m back on the track,” Noah wrote. “My goal is to get back out there and compete. I’ve had many surgeries but coming back from this would be very rewarding.” Noah’s health status is a little unclear — if the surgery he referred to was for a torn Achilles, he presumably won’t be ready to play anytime soon, but we don’t know the exact details.
A handful of ESPN analysts made their predictions for the trade deadline, identifying which contenders and rebuilding teams most need to make a move. Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps are among those who expect it to be a quiet deadline.

NBA Revises Cap, Tax Projections For 2020/21

January 30th, 2020 at 3:15pm CST by Luke Adams

3:15pm: The NBA’s new projection is a $115MM salary cap and $139MM tax line, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter links). That’s not as significant a drop from the previous projection as some front offices feared, so it shouldn’t have a noticeable impact on teams’ plans at the deadline.

3:07pm: The NBA has informed teams that new projections for 2020/21’s salary cap and luxury tax threshold are on the way, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks of ESPN. Those new numbers haven’t been revealed yet, but teams are expected to receive that info shortly in order to ensure they’re as informed as possible as they consider deadline trades.

When the NBA last updated its projection in September, it called for a $116MM cap and a $141MM tax line in 2020/21. Each of those numbers would represent a substantial jump up from the figures for 2019/20, which are $109.14MM (cap) and $132.627MM (tax).

However, those estimates were issued before Rockets general manager Daryl Morey published a tweet supporting protestors in Hong Kong. That tweet instigated a controversy between the NBA and China that cost the league sponsors and television partners. The ordeal is believed to have cost the NBA approximately $150-200MM, league sources told ESPN.

Although the cap is still expected to increase beyond this year’s figure, front office executives are preparing for a more modest jump, according to Wojnarowski and Marks, who hear that some teams believe the new projection could dip as far as $113MM. Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets that some team executives have referred to the expected drop as the “Daryl Deduction.”

A smaller cap increase than expected may not have a massive impact in free agency, since most teams are expected to be over the cap anyway. Still, every dollar counts when it comes to creating cap flexibility and avoiding the tax. Wojnarowski and Marks point to the Celtics, Nets, Warriors, Rockets, and Sixers as teams that could be taxpayers in 2020/21 and would be on the hook for a larger bill if the tax threshold is a few million dollars lower than anticipated.

Players who have signed maximum-salary contract extensions that take effect for the 2020/21 season will also take note of the league’s new cap estimates, since it will have an impact on their projected earnings.

Sixers guard Ben Simmons and Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, for instance, signed maximum-salary extensions that will start at 25% of the cap next season, assuming neither player earns an All-NBA spot in 2019/20. When they signed those deals in July, the league was projecting a $117MM cap, which would have made them worth $169.65MM over five years. A $113MM cap would reduce their projected value to $163.85MM apiece.

Several other figures – including the rookie scale, mid-level exceptions, minimum salaries, and cash available in trades – are also linked to the percentage the salary cap increases from year to year and would be affected by an adjusted 2020/21 projection.

Luka Doncic To Undergo MRI On Injured Ankle

January 30th, 2020 at 2:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks star Luka Doncic turned his right ankle during a practice on Thursday, according to head coach Rick Carlisle (Twitter link via Bobby Karalla of Mavs.com).

While Carlisle said that Doncic’s status for Friday’s game in Houston is unknown, Marc Stein of The New York Times reports (via Twitter) that the 20-year-old will undergo an MRI exam on the ankle on Friday to determine the severity of the injury. Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link) hears Doncic won’t travel to Houston.

A source who spoke to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link) described Doncic’s ankle injury as similar to the one he suffered earlier in the season. As MacMahon points out, that ankle sprain cost the MVP candidate four games and sidelined him for about 10 days.

With the 29-18 Mavericks in a tight race for playoff seeding in the Western Conference and Doncic on track to be an All-Star starter in Chicago in a couple weeks, the hope is that the injury isn’t serious. If Doncic does miss time, Dallas will lean more heavily on the likes of Jalen Brunson, J.J. Barea, and Delon Wright for ball-handling and play-making purposes.

Atlantic Notes: Hayward, Tatum, Raptors, Nets

January 30th, 2020 at 2:23pm CST by Luke Adams

With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown banged up as of late, Gordon Hayward has taken on a slightly larger role for the Celtics and has played some of his best basketball of the season, averaging 20.7 PPG on .517/.458/.885 shooting in his last six games. Hayward’s strong play may attract interest from teams around the NBA, who could check in with Boston about the forward’s value, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston.

“Teams will do their due diligence when it comes to Gordon… watching him lately, he’s looked really good,” a league executive told Blakely. “But I still don’t think at the end of the day, (the Celtics) will move him.”

Even if Hayward remains with the Celtics through the deadline, as expected, teams figure to keep a close eye on how he finishes the season. He’ll have the opportunity to opt out of his contract this summer and become an unrestricted free agent. For now though, he’s just focused on the current season, telling Brian Robb of Boston Sports Journal that he’s not thinking about trade or free agency possibilities.

“We haven’t talked about that,” the Celtics forward said. “We just try to talk about, at least with me, what can we do now to try to help us win. I haven’t talked about any of the other stuff.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Speaking to ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum admitted that last season “really wasn’t any fun,” pointing to Kemba Walker as a unifying force for this year’s team. “Everyone knows Kemba is great,” Tatum said, “and the rest of us have worked really hard to put last year behind us.”
The Raptors‘ lack of a true superstar could limit their upside this spring, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who notes that it will be very difficult for the team to make a trade that really moves the needle for the postseason.
Terence Davis‘ ongoing positive progress for the Raptors may make the club more inclined to stand pat at the trade deadline rather than pursuing a marginal rotation upgrade, writes Blake Murphy of The Athletic.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider-only link) examines potential trade options for the Nets, concluding that it’s probably more realistic for the club to pursue another piece during the offseason than at next week’s trade deadline.

NBA Changing All-Star Game Format, Adding Kobe Tribute

January 30th, 2020 at 1:09pm CST by Luke Adams

Having made changes in recent years to the way that All-Star rosters are built, the NBA is now tweaking the format of the All-Star Game itself, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The league has confirmed the news in a press release.

As Reynolds explains, each of the first three quarters will essentially function as its own mini-game, with the score reset to 0-0 at the start of the second quarter and again at the start of the third quarter. The team that wins each of those quarters will earn $100K (up to $300K in total) for a Chicago-area charity of its choosing.

At the start of the fourth quarter, according to Reynolds, the cumulative game score will be restored and the team that’s ahead will need to score 24 more points to win the game, a tribute to Kobe Bryant‘s uniform number. For instance, if Team LeBron is leading Team Giannis by a 100-90 margin after three quarters, the first team to 124 points would win the game — and an additional $200K for its charity. Unlike the first three quarters, the final quarter will be untimed.

According to Reynolds, the idea of a target score at the end of the game – a variation of The Basketball Tournament’s “Elam Ending” – is something NBPA president Chris Paul has suggested in the past. The hope is that it will make the game more competitive, since there will be something at stake in each quarter and the losing team will be more incentivized to make defensive stops as the target score nears.

“We’ve been very focused on making it more competitive, making it more exciting and making it fun,” NBA president for league operations Byron Spruell said of the All-Star Game, per Reynolds. “And we’ve had a great collaboration with the union. For this year’s game, we really focused on what new things we could do to make it a really competitive game where each quarter mattered in this case.”

Tying the target score to Bryant’s number is just one of a number of tributes the NBA has planned for All-Star weekend, as the league honors Kobe, his daughter Gianna, and the seven others who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash in California.

According to Reynolds, the format change is just a one-year experiment for now. However, the NBA is hoping that both the quarter-score for charity aspect and the target-score ending will become fixtures in future All-Star Games.

Northwest Notes: Mitchell, Nuggets, Grant, Wolves

January 30th, 2020 at 12:19pm CST by Luke Adams

Team USA fell short of a medal at last year’s World Cup, but a handful of players who represented USA Basketball in China at that event have expressed interest in doing so again at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The latest to convey that interest is Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, as Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com writes.

“I loved playing for (Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich). I loved representing my country,” Mitchell said on Wednesday when the Jazz played in San Antonio. “… Hopefully this summer we can go at it again.”

After a disappointing seventh-place finish in the World Cup, Mitchell would like another shot at a gold medal. He also believes that the international experience played a role in expanding his game. Although he was one of Team USA’s top scorers and is averaging a career-high 25.0 PPG for the Jazz, Mitchell said his time in China helped him improve on the defensive end of the floor.

“He’s gotten more consistent with his focus,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said of Mitchell’s defense. “… Sometimes when you ask someone to carry the load he has assumed offensively, it’s easy to rest on the other end. That’s why two-way players are so unique.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

The Nuggets are one of two NBA teams without their own G League affiliate, but Jarred Vanderbilt, Vlatko Cancar, Bol Bol, and PJ Dozier have all spent ample time in the NBAGL this season. Kendra Andrews of The Athletic explores how the team navigates not having its own affiliate and the challenge of reintegrating players when they’re recalled to the NBA team. According to Andrews, Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas said Denver could get its own G League affiliate as soon as next season, but the club isn’t feeling any urgency to do so.
After being acquired by the Nuggets in the offseason, Jerami Grant had an up-and-down start to the season. However, as Nick Kosmider of The Athletic and Eric Spyropoulos of Nuggets.com detail, Grant has been showing lately why the club was willing to surrender a first-round pick for him. The veteran forward will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Already frustrated by their long losing streak, the Timberwolves were further demoralized by a historic collapse on Monday, writes Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune. “As low as you can get,” Shabazz Napier said. “This is it.” Once 10-8, the Wolves have lost 24 of their last 29 games, including 10 in a row, giving president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas plenty to think about as the trade deadline nears.

Community Shootaround: Western All-Star Reserves

January 30th, 2020 at 10:53am CST by Luke Adams

There was little pushback on the All-Star starter selections from the Western Conference when the NBA announced them last week, and for good reason. All five players voted in as starters from the West – Luka Doncic, James Harden, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi Leonard – could end up being viable MVP candidates this season.

However, it may be a little more challenging to pick the seven Western players who will join those starters at this year’s All-Star Game. Those seven reserves will be announced on Thursday night, with two more guards, three more frontcourt players, and a pair of wild cards filling out the roster.

Before those players are announced, we want to get your thoughts on which players deserve to be included and which players don’t quite make the cut, as we did with the Eastern Conference on Wednesday.

Let’s start in the middle, where a pair of Northwest centers look like strong candidates to be named All-Stars. Nikola Jokic (Nuggets) had a case to be considered as a starter, while Rudy Gobert (Jazz) looks poised to finally earn the first All-Star nod of his career.

Gobert’s teammate Donovan Mitchell has had the best year of his young career and deserves serious All-Star consideration. He’ll face stiff competition among guards though. Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers) looks like a lock to make it, and Devin Booker (Suns), Chris Paul (Thunder), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder), Russell Westbrook (Rockets), DeMar DeRozan (Spurs), and Ja Morant (Grizzlies) are among the other backcourt candidates.

Although they’re long shots, guards like Lou Williams (Clippers), CJ McCollum (Trail Blazers), Jrue Holiday (Pelicans), and De’Aaron Fox (Kings) probably deserve a look too.

While Holiday entered the season looking like the most obvious All-Star candidate on the Pelicans’ roster, Brandon Ingram has emerged as that player instead, enjoying a breakout season in his first year in New Orleans. Danilo Gallinari (Thunder), Bojan Bogdanovic (Jazz), and Kristaps Porzingis (Mavericks) are among the other players who are posting at least borderline All-Star numbers in their first year with a new team.

Injuries will likely have an impact on the Western All-Star selections for 2019/20. If they’d been healthy all season long, Paul George (Clippers) and Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves) would have strong cases, but they’ve only played in 26 and 30 games, respectively — we’ll see if that’s enough. While he’s not quite the star that George and KAT are, D’Angelo Russell (Warriors) is in this boat too. Like Towns, he’s had a good year, but has been limited to just 30 games and plays on one of the conference’s worst teams.

Finally, while I view them as long shots, Montrezl Harrell (Clippers), Jaren Jackson (Grizzlies), and LaMarcus Aldridge (Spurs) have had very good years and deserve at least a passing mention in this discussion.

What do you think? Which seven players are you picking as your Western Conference All-Star reserves?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

Cavaliers Sign Marques Bolden To 10-Day Contract

January 30th, 2020 at 9:49am CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers have signed rookie big man Marques Bolden to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. Cleveland opened up a roster spot overnight when Tyler Cook‘s second 10-day deal expired.

Bolden, who went undrafted out of Duke in 2019, joined the Cavaliers for training camp and was a candidate to be converted to a two-way contract at the end of the preseason. Ironically, it was Cook – having just been claimed off waivers – who beat out Bolden for the team’s second two-way slot in October. Now, Bolden is replacing Cook on the 15-man roster.

After being cut in the fall, Bolden joined the Cavs’ G League affiliate, the Canton Charge. In 28 games at the NBAGL level this season, he has averaged 9.0 PPG, 6.3 RPG, and 1.4 BPG in 18.4 minutes per contest.

Cleveland’s 15-man roster currently consists of 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, along with two – Bolden and Alfonzo McKinnie – on 10-day pacts. McKinnie’s second 10-day deal with the club will expire this weekend, at which point the Cavs could open up the 15th spot on their roster if they don’t re-sign the swingman to a rest-of-season contract.

Bolden will earn $50,752 on his 10-day contract, which will run through February 8.

Grizzlies/Knicks Fight Could Result In Suspensions

January 30th, 2020 at 9:19am CST by Luke Adams

With less than a minute left in Wednesday’s Grizzlies/Knicks game and Memphis leading by 18 points, Grizzlies forward Jae Crowder stole an inbound pass and ran to the three-point line to get a shot up, drawing the ire of Knicks guard Elfrid Payton. As Crowder launched his three-pointer, Payton delivered a two-handed shove to his chest, knocking him over and instigating a scuffle between the players on the court (video link).

As Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal writes, the altercation could lead to fines and/or suspensions for some of the players involved. Payton, Crowder, and Marcus Morris were ejected from the game, with Payton receiving a flagrant 2 foul.

Payton, who seems like the most probable candidate for a suspension, expressed no remorse for his actions after the game, suggesting that Crowder “knows better” than to do what he did with the game’s outcome already decided, per Garrett Stepien and Ian Begley of SNY.tv.

“I’d do it again,” Payton said. “Didn’t matter who took that shot. Don’t disrespect the game like that … you just don’t do that.”

Barnes points out that Grizzlies players Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marko Guduric could also be subject to league discipline, since they left the team’s bench area during the incident before eventually being pulled back by assistant coaches. The NBA’s rules call for a one-game suspension for any player that leaves the bench to enter the fray during an on-court altercation.

The Knicks don’t play again until Saturday, but the Grizzlies are in action tomorrow, so if the NBA plans on handing out suspensions, we’ll hear about them before Friday night.

Here’s more on the Grizzlies/Knicks fracas:

As Mike Vornukov of The Athletic details, Morris faced a backlash after the game for using sexist language while criticizing Crowder’s “unprofessional” play. “He’s just — a lot of female tendencies on the court, flopping and just throwing his head back the entire game,” the Knicks’ forward said. “And like I said, it’s a man’s game and you just get tired of it, man.“
Morris, who may face NBA punishment for his comments about Crowder, later apologized on Twitter: “I apologize for using the term ‘female tendencies.’ I have the upmost respect for women and everything they mean to us. It was a heat of the moment response and I never intended for any women to feel as though in anyway I’m disrespecting them. Again I apologize for my comments.”
Following the late-game altercation, fans at Madison Square Garden aimed a “Sell the team” chant at owner James Dolan for about 20 seconds, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Dolan shouted at security during the chants, and a source tells Berman that the Knicks’ owner also singled out a teenager who was the nearest chanting fan in his vicinity.

O’Connor’s Latest: Lakers, Kings, Wolves, Gordon, More

January 30th, 2020 at 8:21am CST by Luke Adams

When reports surfaced earlier in January suggesting that the Lakers and Kings had discussed a possible deal involving Kyle Kuzma and Bogdan Bogdanovic, there were conflicting accounts on which team instigated the talks and what was offered.

In his latest article for The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor provides some clarity on those discussions, citing sources who say the Kings offered Nemanja Bjelica and a draft pick in exchange for Kuzma. The Lakers countered by asking for Bogdanovic and Sacramento balked, according to O’Connor.

Bogdanovic is one of a handful of players that O’Connor would target in trade talks over the next week, as he explains in today’s article. That piece also features a few more noteworthy tidbits from O’Connor’s sources, so let’s round up some highlights…

The Timberwolves called the Magic about Aaron Gordon earlier in the season, league sources tell O’Connor. If Minnesota made an offer for Gordon, it’s unclear what exactly that offer consisted of, per O’Connor. However, he notes that the Wolves are shopping Robert Covington.
League sources don’t expect any major deals from the Pacers at this year’s deadline, according to O’Connor. However, the club could consider a significant move in the offseason if it’s eliminated in the first round this spring. O’Connor points to Myles Turner as a potential trade candidate down the road, though he acknowledges that Indiana would likely be more inclined to consider moving Turner if rookie Goga Bitadze was closer to being a reliable contributor.
NBA teams have begun to monitor Vasilije Micic‘s situation in Europe, since the Anadolu Efes guard has become one of the world’s best non-NBA players, sources tell O’Connor. Currently, the Sixers hold Micic’s rights. The 26-year-old, who was the No. 52 pick in the 2014 draft, is averaging 14.2 PPG and 5.8 APG in EuroLeague play this season.

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