- Ryan Rollins will be evaluated weekly for a right knee strain, the Wizards announced via Twitter. The second-year guard has missed the past two games, and the team explained that it is opting to handle the injury conservatively. Rollins has appeared in eight games, averaging 4.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 6.1 minutes per night.
Magic starting point guard Markelle Fultz has missed seven straight games with left knee tendinitis, and it appears for now he’s still being limited to individual workouts, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).
“We’ll continue to evaluate him on a daily basis to see how he responds to the treatment that he’s getting,” head coach Jahmal Mosley said. “…[We’ve] practiced once, which I think you saw him the other day on the court, [he was] doing some individual work with our guys. That’s the extent of what he’s doing.”
When healthy, the 6’4″ vet has produced, averaging 11.4 PPG, 4.0 APG, 3.4 RPG and 1.2 SPG across five games for Orlando.
There’s more out of the Southeast Division:
- Magic rookie lottery pick Jett Howard starred in his first game with Orlando’s NBAGL affiliate, the Osceola Magic. He notched 34 points, including seven made triples, per Alex Kennedy of Basketball News (via Twitter). “The G League is a lot of fun,” Howard said. “My teammates made the game easy for me. Getting reps in with these guys during Orlando’s training camp made it a seamless transition. It’s been great to be part of winning teams with the Magic.”
- Wizards rookie forward Bilal Coulibaly‘s growth is already impressing head coach Wes Unseld Jr., writes Ava Wallace of The Washington Post. “He’s done really well with the amount that we’ve thrown at him,” Unseld said. “The opportunity is probably something he’s dreamed of, so he seems like he’s in a great place. We always talk about the potential of a rookie wall, whether that’s physically or mentally, but he’s not showing any sign of that. He’s just attacking each day. He’s showing a lot of consistency in his work, and that’s paying dividends on the floor.” The 6’6″ wing was selected with the seventh pick in this June’s draft. He’s averaging 8.4 PPG on .506/.439/.619 shooting, along with 3.6 RPG, 1.9 APG, 0.9 SPG and 0.8 BPG.
- Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo and swingman Duncan Robinson are both questionable to suit up against the Knicks on Friday, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link). Adebayo is dealing with a hip injury, while Robinson is suffering through a thumb ailment.
The first two quarterfinalists for the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament were determined on Tuesday, as the Pacers‘ win over Atlanta and the Lakers‘ blowout of Utah ensured that both clubs will advance to the knockout round of the tournament.
Indiana, the winner of East Group A, is 3-0 in round robin play and holds the tiebreaker over the 2-1 Cavaliers due to their head-to-head record. Cleveland remains in the hunt for the East’s wild card spot.
As for the Lakers, they’ve played their full round robin slate in West Group A and won all four games, with a +74 point differential. The club has secured home court advantage for the quarterfinals and is in strong position to claim the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed.
Only two other undefeated teams are left in the West and those two clubs – the Kings and Timberwolves – will have to face each other this Friday. If either Sacramento or Minnesota finishes with a 4-0 record in group play, point differential would be the tiebreaker to determine seeding — the two clubs are only +16 and +10, respectively, through two games and would probably need a pair of blowout victories to pass the Lakers.
By making the quarterfinals, the Pacers and Lakers have clinched per-player bonuses worth at least $50K. The value of those bonuses would increase to $100K if they advance to the semifinals, $200K if they make the final, and $500K if they win the entire tournament. The Lakers haven’t been shy about referring to that prize money as a motivating factor, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN notes.
“It’s not a run-of-the-mill regular-season game,” Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said after Tuesday’s win. “They’re well aware. That purse is pretty attractive. … Guys like money. … Not like it, they love it. That incentive right there — it’s huge.”
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton and head coach Rick Carlisle said this week that they appreciate the fact that the in-season tournament has given a young club – which hasn’t made the playoffs since 2020 – a chance to compete in meaningful games.
The Pistons, Wizards, Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, and Spurs have been eliminated from quarterfinal contention, but every other team technically remains alive. The full in-season tournament standings can be found here.
- Wizards center Daniel Gafford has started a majority of the games he’s appeared in the past two seasons but this is the first season he’s the unquestioned starter. Gafford is enjoying that comfort zone while playing a career-high 24.1 minutes per game, he told Chase Hughes of Monumental Sports Network. “They’re putting all their trust in me,” he said. “For me to be trusted with this role, it’s something I’ve always wanted. It’s on my side and my part to keep up that trust and confidence in me. They threw me in the fire, so I’ve gotta put the fire out.” Gafford is in the first year of a three-year, $40.2MM contract.
Wizards guard Jordan Poole, who is off to an inconsistent start with his new team, had his worst game of the season on Friday, scoring just eight points on 2-of-11 shooting and committing five turnovers in a 21-point loss to New York. His scoring average for the season is at 15.5 PPG on .392/.278/.813 shooting, well below the marks he posted during his last two seasons in Golden State.
After the loss, Tyus Jones said that he and the rest of the Wizards are trying to make sure that Poole stays positive, and expressed confidence that things will turn around before long for his backcourt partner.
“I think he’s probably putting a little too much pressure on himself,” Jones said (Twitter video link via Hoop District). “But it comes from a place of caring and wanting to be great and wanting to succeed, wanting to play well for not only himself but for his teammates, for the city, for the organization. It’ll work itself out. He’ll be good.”
Veteran forward Kyle Kuzma took to Twitter to voice his agreement with Jones’ assessment, responding to his teammate’s quotes with the “100” emoji.
Here’s more out of D.C.:
- Speaking to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, Jones said he’s trying to make the Wizards’ front office “look good” for acquiring him and giving him an opportunity to be a starting point guard for the first time in his career. He also said he’s trying not to focus on his 2024 free agency as he plays out a contract year. “I like where I’m at. I like what we have here in D.C.,” Jones said. “I like the future and what this could be. I want to be a part of that. I’m looking forward to doing so.”
- Scotto also spoke to Danilo Gallinari about the veteran forward’s desire to represent Italy in the 2024 Olympics and how much longer he’d like to continue his NBA career. “As long as my legs are underneath me, I want to play,” the 35-year-old said. “When you love basketball so much, in your head, you want to play until you’re 70, but of course your legs are not going to be there. As long as my legs are there, my mind is always going to be ready to go and be competitive. I just need my legs, and I’ll be good.”
- Rookie forward Bilal Coulibaly has impressed the Wizards with his defensive effort this season and passed another big test this week when he held his own against Luka Doncic in Wednesday’s loss to Dallas, per Chase Hughes and Bijan Todd of Monumental Sports Network.
- In a separate story, Hughes takes a look at what Landry Shamet – acquired from Phoenix in the summer’s Bradley Beal blockbuster – has brought to the Wizards, noting that his quick release has added a new element to the club’s second unit.
After finishing with a 35-47 record in each of the last two seasons, the Wizards are off to a 2-9 start in 2023/24. However, third-year head coach Wes Unseld Jr.‘s job with the organization isn’t in any immediate danger, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
Given that Washington missed the playoffs in Unseld’s first two years with the team and then overhauled the front office this past offseason, there was a sense that it may just be a matter of time before the new decision-makers, including team president Michael Winger and general manager Will Dawkins, bring in their own coach.
However, Robbins says that management is prepared to give Unseld “significant leeway” this season, since player development – rather than winning games – will be the main goal in the short term. Although the Wizards have lost nine of their first 11 games, key young players such as rookie wing Bilal Coulibaly and recently extended forward Deni Avdija have taken steps forward in the first few weeks of this season, Robbins observes.
Coulibaly is shooting the ball well (.523 FG%, .471 3PT%) and handling challenging defensive assignments while logging 25.7 minutes per night. Avdija, who received a four-year, $55MM contract just before the season began, has been a full-time starter and is averaging career highs in PPG (12.7), APG (3.9), FG% (.519), and 3PT% (.412), among other statistical categories.
Winger and Dawkins have also asked Unseld to help Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma get comfortable with being Washington’s go-to offensive options, Robbins says. While Poole’s play has been shaky so far this season, the front office didn’t expect his transition from complementary player in Golden State to primary scorer in D.C. to be seamless, so they’re willing to be patient.
As Robbins acknowledges, the pieces on the Wizards’ roster don’t all fit together smoothly, especially from a defensive standpoint, which may make it more challenging for management to evaluate Unseld’s performance and determine whether he’s the long-term answer as the club’s head coach. The team has no desire to make a change in the near future, but Unseld’s future in Washington beyond the 2023/24 season isn’t assured, Robbins adds.
Even though the Wizards have exercised Unseld’s option for 2024/25, that only guarantees that he’ll be paid next season — not necessarily that he’ll still be on the sidelines, Robbins writes. That decision may come down to how the Wizards’ youngsters develop and the strides that players like Poole and Kuzma make in their new roles during the rest of this season.
Jordan Poole has already become a target for criticism in his first season with the Wizards, writes Ava Wallace of The Washington Post. Beyond Poole’s penchant for questionable shots and high-risk plays, controversy erupted this week via a video clip from Sunday’s loss at Brooklyn. The guard appears uninterested in the play that coach Wes Unseld Jr. was designing, Wallace notes, focusing his attention elsewhere until a teammate taps him on the shoulder.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Unseld said he hasn’t watched the video and isn’t concerned about Poole’s level of commitment.
“There’s a thousand moments, I think, during the game, and there are times where coaches are talking to players, players are talking to players,” Unseld said. “That happens. I think right now for him, he’s probably under a little bit of a microscope. People are looking for things. So I don’t know the exact sequence of the events, but it’s not a big deal until it becomes a big deal.”
Poole became a leader for a rebuilding Washington franchise when he was acquired in a trade with Golden State this summer. It’s not a role that he’s used to after entering the league with a veteran Warriors team, and Unseld said that has resulted in extra attention from fans who are monitoring his behavior.
Poole also dismissed concerns about the video, saying he understood the play from Unseld and it was “a very normal timeout.”
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Hornets released a statement (via Twitter), indicating that Miles Bridges will return to action Friday after serving a 10-game suspension regarding his domestic violence case. “We are comfortable with Miles returning to play based on our current understanding of the facts of the recent allegations and remain in contact with the NBA as that matter proceeds through the court process,” the statement reads.
- Bridges’ return will be welcome for a Hornets roster that has been depleted by injuries, notes Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. The team only had 10 available players for Tuesday’s game, as Gordon Hayward, Brandon Miller, Terry Rozier, Cody Martin and Frank Ntilikina were all sidelined. “He’s going to be great,” P.J. Washington said of Bridges. “I just can’t wait for y’all to see him. I know he’s excited to play and we are excited to play with him. So, I’m just happy for him to be back on the floor and I can’t wait for him to come out there and help us, because we need it for sure.”
- Magic power forward Jonathan Isaac was able to play both games of a back-to-back this week for the first time since December of 2019, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. Isaac is finally healthy after missing more than two years with leg injuries. “The guys have so much confidence in him,” coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Him being at that rim, whether it’s blocking the shot or just changing and alternating shots — it’s what he’s capable of doing.”
French team ASVEL confirmed that it has parted ways with former NBA guard Frank Jackson, terminating his contract with the club (Twitter link).
The expectation is that Jackson will move from France to China, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando, who hears that the 25-year-old will sign a lucrative contract with a team in the Chinese Basketball Association. Jackson appeared in 214 total NBA games for New Orleans, Detroit, and Utah from 2018-23.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA players Glen Davis and Will Bynum are the latest to be convicted in relation to a scheme to defraud the league’s health insurance plan, according to a report from The Associated Press. While their sentences likely won’t be as lengthy as that of Terrence Williams, who was deemed the ringleader of the plot and given 10 years in prison, Davis and Bynum will “probably” face some jail time, says Michael McCann of Sportico (subscription required).
- Sam Vecenie of The Athletic takes a look at which NBA draft prospects were most impressive at this year’s NCAA Champions Classic, identifying three Kentucky players – freshmen Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham and sophomore Adou Thiero – as a few of the youngsters who have improved their stock at the start of the college season.
- Former Wizards forward Xavier Cooks received multiple two-way contract offers before deciding to sign with a Japanese team, sources tell Olgun Uluc of ESPN.com. According to Uluc, the belief is that Cooks prioritized “significant” guaranteed money overseas rather than trying to work his way up the NBA ladder.
- Within the same ESPN story, Uluc says that the Cavaliers, Pistons, Jazz, Kings, Clippers, and Wizards are among the teams who have had representatives in Australia this fall to scout the draft prospects in the country’s National Basketball League.
The term “poison pill” doesn’t actually show up in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, but it’s used colloquially to refer to a provision in the CBA that affects players who recently signed rookie scale contract extensions.
As we explain in our glossary entry, the so-called poison pill provision applies when a player who signed a rookie scale extension is traded before the extension takes effect.
In that scenario, the player’s incoming value for the receiving team for matching purposes is determined by averaging his current-year salary and the salaries in each year of his new extension. His current team, on the other hand, simply treats his current-year salary as the outgoing figure for matching purposes.
For instance, Spurs wing Devin Vassell is earning a $5,887,899 salary in 2023/24, but signed a five-year, $135MM extension that will begin in ’24/25.
Therefore, if San Antonio wanted to trade Vassell this season, his outgoing value for salary-matching purposes would be $5,887,899 (this year’s salary), while his incoming value for the team acquiring him would be $23,481,317 (this year’s salary, plus the $135MM extension, divided by six years).
[RELATED: 2023 NBA Rookie Scale Extension Recap]
Most of the players who signed rookie scale extensions aren’t realistic candidates to be traded anytime soon. But even in the event that a team does want to look into trading one of these recently extended players, the gap between the player’s incoming trade value and outgoing trade value could make it a real challenge to find a deal that works for both sides.
The “poison pill” provision applies to 14 players who signed rookie scale extensions in 2023. Here are those players, along with their outgoing salaries and incoming salaries for trade purposes:
| Player | Team | Outgoing trade value | Incoming trade value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Edwards | MIN | $13,534,817 | $36,573,920 |
| LaMelo Ball | CHA | $10,900,635 | $36,134,889 |
| Tyrese Haliburton | IND | $5,808,435 | $35,286,189 |
| Desmond Bane | MEM | $3,845,083 | $33,512,589 |
| Devin Vassell | SAS | $5,887,899 | $23,481,317 |
| Jaden McDaniels | MIN | $3,901,399 | $22,483,567 |
| Onyeka Okongwu | ATL | $8,109,063 | $14,021,813 |
| Isaiah Stewart | DET | $5,266,713 | $13,053,343 |
| Deni Avdija | WSH | $6,263,188 | $12,252,638 |
| Josh Green | DAL | $4,765,339 | $11,441,335 |
| Cole Anthony | ORL | $5,539,771 | $11,159,943 |
| Aaron Nesmith | IND | $5,634,257 | $9,658,564 |
| Zeke Nnaji | DEN | $4,306,281 | $7,261,256 |
| Payton Pritchard | BOS | $4,037,278 | $6,807,456 |
Once the 2024/25 league year begins next July, the poison pill provision will no longer apply to these players. At that time, the player’s ’24/25 salary would represent both his outgoing and incoming value.
Until then though, the gap between those outgoing and incoming figures will make it tricky for several of these players to be moved, though it affects some more significantly than others.
The small difference between Pritchard’s incoming and outgoing trade figures, for instance, likely wouldn’t be very problematic if the Celtics decide to trade him. But the much larger divide between Bane’s incoming and outgoing numbers means there’s virtually no chance he could be dealt to an over-the-cap team in 2023/24 — given that the Grizzlies have no desire to move Bane, that’ll be a moot point, but it’s still worth noting.
Even after Dru Smith was promoted from a two-way contract to the Heat‘s standard roster at the end of the preseason, he wasn’t considered a great bet to have a consistent role — the modest guarantee ($425K) he received on his new deal suggested his roster spot wouldn’t even necessarily be secure for the entire season.
However, injuries to some rotation players, including guard Tyler Herro, have created a path to regular minutes for Smith as of late. In Miami’s past three games – all victories – he has averaged 7.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 steals in 23.1 minutes per night, impressing head coach Erik Spoelstra in the process, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required).
“Dru was good throughout all the stuff that he does,” Spoelstra said after Sunday’s win. “Ninety percent of it doesn’t show up in the box score, but coaches and teammates understand what he does.”
For his part, the 25-year-old guard indicated that he’s happy to do the dirty work necessary to help the Heat win games. For instance, he’s averaging 6.7 deflections per 36 minutes, which ranks second in the NBA among players who have logged at least 50 total minutes.
“Just trying to continue to impact winning more than anything else,” Smith said. “Really, whenever I get out there that is all I’m trying to do, is trying to make plays that are helping inch us close to wins.”
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald shares 10 observations from the Heat‘s first 10 games of the season, including the fact that the team is 5-0 since Haywood Highsmith replaced Kevin Love in the starting lineup. As Chiang notes, one offseason goal for the team was to add a backup center who could help the team hold its own in the non-Bam Adebayo minutes, but Thomas Bryant hasn’t been the answer so far — Miami has a -10.6 net rating with Bryant on the court, prompting Spoelstra to start using Love as the backup five.
- Many of the “league observers” that Marc Stein (Substack link) has spoken to about the subject believe the Wizards‘ acquisition of Jordan Poole this offseason was more about trying to rebuild his value for a future trade than making him a long-term franchise cornerstone. If that’s the goal, it will take some more time to come to fruition — Poole is off to a slow start in D.C., with his shooting percentages dipping to 41.2% from the floor and 30.3% threes in the early going this season.
- Veteran guard Isaiah Thomas continues to seek an NBA roster spot and suggested on social media that he has contacted at least one of his former teams to gauge their interest. Replying to a fan who advised him to call up Hornets president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak about a possible deal, Thomas tweeted, “I did lol.”