Year: 2024

Magic Sign Jeremiah Tilmon, Waive Jon Teske

October 7th, 2021 at 4:48pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Magic have signed undrafted rookie center Jeremiah Tilmon and waived center Jon Teske, the team’s PR department tweets.

The 6’10” Tilmon played in 24 games last season as a senior at Missouri, averaging 12.4 PPG, 7.3 RPG and 1.42 BPG in 27.6 MPG. He appeared in one summer league game at Las Vegas for Orlando.

Teske, who went undrafted in 2020 out of Michigan, played in two preseason games. He was signed by the Magic on September 8 to a camp deal.

Tilmon won’t be on Orlando’s opening-day roster. Both players are expected to wind up on the Magic’s G League team in Lakeland, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link). Teske started 12 of 15 games for Lakeland at the Orlando bubble last season, recording 6.7 PPG and 3.4 RPG in 19.8 minutes per contest.

Denzel Mahoney Signs Camp Deal With Spurs

October 7th, 2021 at 4:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

OCTOBER 7: The deal is now official, per RealGM’s transactions log.

OCTOBER 6: The Spurs have agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with undrafted rookie guard Denzel Mahoney, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.

Mahoney spent the last two seasons at Creighton after a two-year stint with Southeast Missouri. He averaged 12.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG and 1.7 APG for the Bluejays last season.

Mahoney participated in the mini-combine in Minneapolis prior to the draft and was on the Hornets’ summer league team in Las Vegas. He appeared in three games there, posting modest numbers.

Given the terms of his deal, Mahoney will likely wind up with the G League’s Austin Spurs. The Exhibit 10 language in his contract would put him in line for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with San Antonio’s G League squad.

The Spurs are below the 20-man limit in training camp, so Mahoney can be added without immediately shedding another player.

Atlantic Notes: Iverson, Sixers, Watanabe, Raptors, Celtics

October 7th, 2021 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Former Sixers star Allen Iverson would be interested in working for an NBA team, he said during a conversation with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report (video link; hat tip to RealGM). Iverson told Rooks that he’s “forgotten more basketball than some people know” and would love to put his expertise to use by helping current NBA players — especially if he could so in Philadelphia with his old team.

“I’m a Sixer for life. I’ve got Sixer blood pumping through me. Everybody knows that I want to help that organization,” Iverson said. “I’ve been retired, what, 11 years? I don’t know how I’m not a part of that staff (in) some kind of way.”

Iverson added that he’s not necessarily interested in being “the guy that’s right up front” (ie. a head coach) and that even just being a consultant for the Sixers would make him happy.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Addressing reports that the Sixers and Pacers have discussed a potential Ben Simmons trade, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer says that if the 76ers can get Malcolm Brogdon, Caris LeVert, and a future first-round pick in exchange for Simmons, they should pull the trigger. Philadelphia and Indiana have reportedly discussed both Brogdon and LeVert, though it’s unclear if either club has made an offer along those lines.
Raptors forward Yuta Watanabe is battling a left calf strain and won’t be available for Thursday’s game in Philadelphia, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic. As Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca tweets, the injury is considered minor, so hopefully it won’t affect Watanabe’s standing as he fights for a spot on Toronto’s 15-man regular season roster.
While Scottie Barnes is drawing far more interest, the Raptors‘ “other” rookies – Dalano Banton and Justin Champagnie – are also vying for playing time, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca details. Given the team’s roster turnover and injury issues, there are opportunities in the rotation available for the taking, Grange writes for Sportsnet.ca.
Al Horford‘s return to Boston reunites him with Robert Williams, who considered Horford a veteran role model during his previous stint with the Celtics. Jared Weiss of The Athletic spoke to the two big men about their relationship during Williams’ rookie year in 2018/19 and how they can help one another going forward.

2021 NBA Offseason In Review: Dallas Mavericks

October 7th, 2021 at 2:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves, examine what still needs to be done before opening night, and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Dallas Mavericks.

Free agent signings:

Note: Exhibit 10 deals aren’t included here.

Tim Hardaway Jr.: Four years, $75MM. Re-signed using Bird rights.
Reggie Bullock: Three years, $30.04MM. Third year partially guaranteed. Includes 5% trade kicker. Signed using mid-level exception.
Boban Marjanovic: Two years, $7MM. Re-signed using Early Bird rights.
Sterling Brown: Two years, $6MM. Signed using bi-annual exception.
Frank Ntilikina: Two years, minimum salary. Second year non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception.
JaQuori McLaughlin: Two-way contract.
Eugene Omoruyi: Two-way contract.

Trades:

Acquired Moses Brown from the Celtics in exchange for Josh Richardson.
- Note: The Mavericks created a $10,865,952 trade exception in the deal.

Draft picks:

None

Contract extensions:

Luka Doncic: Five years, maximum salary. Projected value of $207,060,000. Includes fifth-year player option and 15% trade kicker. Starts in 2022/23.

Departing players:

Tyler Bey
Nate Hinton
Nicolo Melli
J.J. Redick
Josh Richardson

Other offseason news:

Hired Jason Kidd as head coach to replace Rick Carlisle.
Hired Nico Harrison as general manager/president of basketball operations to replace Donnie Nelson.
Hired Igor Kokoskov, Jared Dudley, Sean Sweeney, Greg St. Jean, and Kristi Tolliver as assistant coaches; lost assistants Jamahl Mosley, Jenny Boucek, Zach Guthrie, and Mike Weinar.
Hired Dirk Nowitzki as special advisor.
Promoted Michael Finley to assistant GM/VP of basketball operations.
Did not retain front office executive Haralabos Voulgaris.

Salary cap situation:

Remained over the cap and below the tax line.
Carrying approximately $120.2MM in salary.
Hard-capped at $143MM.
Full mid-level exception ($9,536,000) used on Reggie Bullock.
$732,000 of bi-annual exception still available ($3MM used on Sterling Brown).
Two traded player exceptions available, including one worth $10.9MM.

Lingering preseason issues:

The Mavericks have 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts and one (Moses Brown) on a partially guaranteed contract. One of those 16 players will have to be traded or released before opening night.
Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber are eligible for veteran contract extensions until October 18.
Jalen Brunson and Dorian Finney-Smith are eligible for veteran contract extensions all season.

The Mavericks’ offseason:

Before they’d added or lost a single player, the Mavericks had already endured a more eventful, tumultuous offseason than at least half the NBA’s clubs.

Entering the summer, head coach Rick Carlisle and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson were two of the longest-tenured team leaders in the NBA, having worked together in their current roles since 2008. In the span of just two days in June, however, both Carlisle and Nelson left the franchise.

The team classified their exits as Carlisle stepping down and Nelson and the Mavs agreeing to go their separate ways, so it’s not as if owner Mark Cuban necessarily planned on cleaning house over the summer. Still, even if they departed the Mavs on relatively good terms, Carlisle and Nelson likely wouldn’t have left at all if things were running perfectly smoothly in Dallas.

One report in June suggested that Nelson’s influence in the front office wasn’t as strong as it had once been, while another story indicated that Carlisle’s abrasive personality had a tendency to rub some players – including superstar Luka Doncic – the wrong way. Those reports didn’t exactly portray an organization in disarray, but Cuban and his team still likely felt some pressure to get their GM and head coach choices right in order to bring some stability to Dallas going forward.

Replacing Nelson in the front office will be longtime Nico Harrison, who has drawn interest from NBA teams in the past but has spent the past two decades working at Nike. That role allowed him to establish strong connections with players throughout the league, though he has no history of making key personnel and roster decisions for an NBA franchise and may lean on the more experienced executives in the Mavs’ front office during his first year on the job.

The new head coach will be Jason Kidd, who won a title with the Mavericks as a player and has received rave reviews as a Lakers assistant coach during the last two seasons.

Kidd doesn’t have an unblemished résumé — his head coaching stints in Brooklyn and Milwaukee were up and down, and he has a history of legal issues, having pleaded guilty to a domestic abuse charge in 2001 and a misdemeanor DWI charge in 2013. But after going through the interview process, the Mavs felt confident that Kidd’s legal troubles were behind him and believed he was the man for the job.

Given that Doncic occasionally clashed with Carlisle and was said to have a “strained” relationship with former team executive Haralabos Voulgaris, the Mavs almost certainly made it a top priority to make their franchise player happy with their coaching and front office hires. Doncic knows Harrison from his time at Nike and will now get an opportunity to learn from a Hall-of-Fame point guard in Kidd.

In addition to factoring into the Mavs’ organizational hires, the presence of Doncic dictated how the team approached its roster moves this summer. It was imperative to surround the All-NBA guard with enough shooting to space the floor and give him plenty of room to operate, so Dallas committed major long-term money to bring back Tim Hardaway Jr. and to land Reggie Bullock and Sterling Brown in free agency.

Once viewed as a somewhat low-efficiency scorer, Hardaway has improved his three-point shot in recent years and become a more reliable option on the wing, hitting 39.4% of his attempts from beyond the arc over the last two seasons. Bullock has always been a knock-down outside shooter, making 40% of his threes since 2015. Brown played a career-high 24.1 minutes per game in 2020/21 and bumped his three-point conversion rate to an impressive 42.3% in the process.

Shooting doesn’t come cheap — the Mavs will pay Hardaway and Bullock a combined $30MM or so per year for the next three seasons, and acquired Brown by becoming the only team in the NBA willing to use its bi-annual exception this season. Still, improving in that area was a must for a team that finished in the bottom half of the league in three-point percentage in 2020/21, and the new additions – Bullock and Brown – won’t hurt the Mavs on defense either.

Outside of those signings, the Mavs had a fairly quiet summer in terms of roster moves. Boban Marjanovic was re-signed and Dallas took a flier on former lottery pick Frank Ntilikina, but the club didn’t have any draft picks and its only trade was essentially a salary dump, with Josh Richardson sent to Boston in exchange for a player who isn’t a lock to make the regular season roster (Moses Brown).

Dallas will remain on the lookout for opportunities to further upgrade its roster around Doncic, but for now the hope is that Kidd can coax a bounce-back season out of Kristaps Porzingis and that the new three-and-D wings in the rotation can make an impact on both sides of the ball.

The Mavericks’ upcoming season:

Dallas’ 2020/21 season (42-30, first-round loss to the Clippers) looked awfully similar to the team’s ’19/20 outcome (43-32, first-round loss to the Clippers). It’s clear by now that as long as Doncic stays healthy, the Mavs’ floor is high, and they should be back in the playoffs again in ’21/22. What remains to be seen is how high this group’s ceiling is.

Doncic is fully capable of being the best player on the court in any playoff matchup, but he’ll need more help from his supporting cast, starting with Porzingis. The optimal version of KP – a big man who can hit threes and protect the rim – is an ideal partner for Doncic, but leg injuries have limited his impact in recent years, especially on defense.

Kidd has talked about empowering Porzingis more on offense this season rather than just having him stand in the corner, and that sounds good in theory. But ultimately Porzingis’ ability to become a legit co-star for Doncic will hinge on his health. If it’s an issue again in 2021/22, the Mavs may have to reevaluate his long-term future with the franchise. If it’s not, Dallas’ potential upside is intriguing.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.

Clippers’ Jason Preston Undergoes Right Foot Surgery

October 7th, 2021 at 1:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Clippers rookie guard Jason Preston underwent surgery on his right foot on Thursday in Los Angeles, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who hears from sources that Preston is expected to miss a “significant” portion of the 2021/22 season.

The team confirmed the procedure, announcing in a press release that Preston had ligaments in his foot repaired. He’ll miss an “extended” period of time and has no timetable for a return.

It’s a tough blow for the Clippers and for Preston, who was the 33rd overall pick in the 2021 draft and signed a three-year contract with two fully guaranteed seasons. He reportedly sustained the injury in a group workout prior to the start of training camp.

A 6’4″ guard, Preston played his college ball at Ohio University, where he averaged 15.7 PPG, 7.3 APG, and 7.3 RPG in 20 games (34.6 MPG) as a junior in 2020/21. The Clippers are high on his passing skills, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link), and thought he had made strides since playing for the team in Summer League, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).

Preston joins Kawhi Leonard as the Clippers players who are expected to miss a substantial chunk of the season.

Wolves Notes: Gupta, Finch, Durisic, Ehambe, Outlook

October 7th, 2021 at 1:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Just hours before word broke that the Timberwolves had fired head of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, team executive Sachin Gupta was meeting with Rosas to smooth things over in advance of the upcoming season, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

As has been previously reported, Gupta explored leaving the organization this summer when he received a job offer from the Rockets. He was blocked by Rosas from accepting that opportunity, since it technically would’ve been a lateral move based on his title, though Krawczynski suggests that it would have come with a “substantial” pay raise. That situation was said to have considerably strained the relationship between the two executives, but Gupta is diplomatic now when he discusses it.

“Those types of things happen around the league,” Gupta said. “I was just focused on doing the best that I could for everyone here in this building and for the team. I’m excited about the decisions that we were all able to make together. Really excited about where we’re at now and about moving forward.”

As Krawczysnki details, after meeting with Rosas to bury the hatchet, Gupta was summoned to meet later in the day with team owner Glen Taylor, who gave him control of the Wolves’ front office following Rosas’ dismissal.

“I’ll be honest, it was definitely a whirlwind that first day,” Gupta told Krawczysnki. “But now that we’re in camp and everyone’s ready to go, definitely everyone’s moved past what’s happened and is really focused on our goals for this year. There’s a lot of good energy in the building and a lot of excitement.”

Here’s more on the Wolves:

Gupta is close with Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, who says the two franchise leaders talk twice a day and are “leaning on each other a lot right now,” per Krawczynski. “I think we’re completely aligned, not just in terms of basketball philosophy, but in terms of our values and the kind of culture we want to build here,” Gupta said.
Zarko Durisic, a popular longtime Timberwolves scout who was let go by Rosas, is back with the team, according to Krawczynski (Twitter link). Durisic will have the same title (senior player personnel scout) and duties as he did before, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News.
After spending last season on Nate Bjorkgren‘s staff in Indiana, Moses Ehambe has joined the Timberwolves as the team’s director of player programs, a league source tells Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link).
While the Timberwolves are close to the tax line and likely won’t take on any extra salary this season, they have more flexibility going forward, opening the door for them to swap expiring deals for multiyear contracts, John Hollinger of The Athletic writes in his season preview. Hollinger likes some of the Wolves’ talent, but thinks they need another reliable forward or two and projects them to finish 12th in the West with a 36-46 record.

L.A. Notes: Vaccine Mandate, Clippers’ 15th Man, Lakers, Gasol

October 7th, 2021 at 12:25pm CST by Luke Adams

New York and San Francisco won’t be the only NBA cities with local COVID-19 vaccine mandates in place this season. According to Christopher Weber of The Associated Press, the Los Angeles City Council voted on Wednesday to approve one of the country’s strictest vaccine mandates. The ordinance will bar unvaccinated individuals from many indoor venues – including sports arenas – unless they receive a medical or religious exemption.

According to Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link), L.A.’s vaccine mandate – which goes into effect in November – will include the same non-resident performer exemption that is included in New York’s and San Francisco’s executive orders. That means, for NBA purposes, the mandate will apply to players on the Lakers and Clippers, but not to visiting players.

Fortunately for the two Los Angeles teams, no players currently on their rosters appears likely to be impacted. Both the Lakers and Clippers indicated during training camp last week that their rosters will be fully vaccinated for the start of the 2021/22 season. Still, the mandate is worth keeping in mind when the L.A. clubs are signing free agents or considering potential trades.

Here’s more out of Los Angeles:

Big men Isaiah Hartenstein and Harry Giles, who are with the Clippers on non-guaranteed contracts, are fighting to earn the team’s final roster spot, and head coach Tyronn Lue has made it clear what he wants to see from them, writes Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. “Defensively, (are) they able to pick up our defense foundation and what we’re trying to do, being in the right spots, being a rim protector?” Lue said on Wednesday. “And offensively just being able to roll, get to the dunker (spot), understand what we’re trying to do offensively, and be able to execute. I think it’s our biggest thing.”
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel would like to settle on a starting lineup for the regular season and not change it from game to game, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Finding that starting five remains a work in progress, with Trevor Ariza‘s ankle injury taking one option off the table.
Now that Pau Gasol has officially retired, the Lakers confirmed this week that they intend to retire his No. 16 jersey, tweets Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register. The team has yet to announce when that ceremony will take place.
The Lakers are no longer suffering from the post-bubble burnout they experienced last season after such a quick turnaround between their 2020 championship and subsequent training camp, Goon writes for The Orange County Register. “There isn’t that ‘I can’t believe we’re starting training camp already’ cloud over us (now),” Vogel said. “That was real and it stayed with us throughout the year.”

Hawks Sign DaQuan Jeffries, Waive A.J. Lawson

October 7th, 2021 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

12:00pm: In order to make room on the roster for Jeffries, the Hawks have waived guard A.J. Lawson, who had been on an Exhibit 10 contract, per a team press release confirming both transactions. Lawson could end up playing for the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate.

10:57am: The Hawks have agreed to sign free agent wing DaQuan Jeffries, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Jeffries will get a partially guaranteed contract.

Jeffries, 24, made his NBA debut with the Kings during the 2019/20 season and saw limited minutes for the team across two seasons before being released this past April. He was claimed off waivers by the Rockets and ended up averaging 4.1 PPG and 2.3 RPG in 31 games (15.9 MPG) for Sacramento and Houston in 2020/21.

The Rockets cut Jeffries during the final week of the regular season and he was once again claimed off waivers, this time by the Spurs. However, he didn’t appear in a regular season game with San Antonio and the club opted not to pick up his option for the 2021/22 season, making him a free agent.

The Hawks have a full 20-man roster and will have to trade or waive a player in order to officially add Jeffries. As for whether he has a chance to make the regular season squad, that remains to be seen — the size of his partial guarantee could provide a hint, once it’s reported.

Atlanta has 14 players on fully guaranteed salaries, so the 15th spot appears up for grabs. A player who spent training camp with the team might have a leg up for that spot, but camp invitees Jahlil Okafor and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot haven’t been particularly effective in the preseason so far. Of course, the Hawks may also elect not to carry a 15th man to start the season.

18 Former NBA Players Charged For Allegedly Defrauding League’s Benefit Plan

October 7th, 2021 at 10:37am CST by Luke Adams

Eighteen former NBA players face charges in New York federal court over allegations that they defrauded the NBA’s health and welfare benefit plan, according to a report from Jonathan Dienst and Tom Winter of NBC. The players each face a count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.

As Dienst and Winter outline, the indictment alleges that these players engaged in a scheme from 2017-20 to defraud the NBA’s benefit plan by submitting false claims for dental and medical expenses that were never incurred. According to the indictment, the fraudulent claims totaled about $3.9MM, and the defendants received approximately $2.5MM in proceeds.

While none of the players who have been charged were household names, many won titles and/or had long NBA careers, and most will likely be recognizable to Hoops Rumors readers. They are as follows:

Williams was named in the indictment as the one who orchestrated the scheme, according to Dienst and Winter, who say the former lottery pick is accused of having recruited other participants by offering them fake invoices. He allegedly received payments totaling $230K in exchange for those fake documents, per NBC’s report.

Allen’s wife, Desiree Allen, was also charged in the indictment. As John Hollinger of The Athletic tweets, the Grizzlies had been planning to retire Allen’s number in January — they may decide to postpone their ceremony honoring the six-time All-Defensive swingman.

Community Shootaround: Eastern Conference Outlook

October 7th, 2021 at 9:40am CST by Luke Adams

The Nets and Bucks will enter the 2021/22 season as the clear favorites to win the Eastern Conference next spring. The betting odds at sites like BetOnline reflect Brooklyn’s and Milwaukee’s standing atop the conference, as does the analysis of experts like ESPN’s Zach Lowe, who places the two teams first and second overall in his rankings of all 30 teams for the ’21/22 season.

As Lowe acknowledges, Kyrie Irving‘s availability – or lack thereof – is a major wild card that could affect the Nets this season, but every non-Irving critique of the club essentially “amounts to nit-picking.” The Bucks, meanwhile, have been the NBA’s best regular season team across the last three seasons and reached new heights in the 2021 postseason. With a healthy roster heading into this season, they look like a safe bet to be one of the East’s top seeds.

After those top two teams, Lowe’s next tier of Eastern clubs includes four talented clubs with some question marks: the Sixers, Heat, Celtics, and Hawks.

The Ben Simmons standoff hangs over Philadelphia’s season — if Simmons’ holdout extends into the regular season and the 76ers still haven’t found a trade they like, they’ll essentially be down an All-Star for the foreseeable future, which will limit their ceiling. The Hawks, the team that eliminated the Sixers from the playoffs in 2021, are deep and should be able to count on continued growth from their young players, but a team’s improvements aren’t always linear. As for the Celtics and Heat, they’ll be looking to bounce back after relatively disappointing 2020/21 seasons that ended with quick postseason exits.

While those four teams may be the favorites on paper to fill out the top six in the East, Lowe expects at least one of them to slip into play-in territory. He identifies the Knicks, Bulls, and Hornets as the next-best bets to crack the East’s top six.

The Knicks, of course, were the No. 4 seed in the East last season and will bring back a very similar group, along with new additions like Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier. They outperformed expectations in 2020/21 and may experience some regression, but they’re a deep, well-coached team looking to prove that last season’s breakthrough was no aberration.

The Bulls are one of the East’s most fascinating teams — they could have one of the NBA’s best offenses, but there are concerns about their defense and depth, so a wide range of outcomes are possible. As for the Hornets, Lowe acknowledges there are some red flags, but views young cornerstones LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and P.J. Washington as good candidates to take another step forward in 2021/22.

The Pacers, Wizards, and Raptors are part of the next tier for Lowe, who consider all three clubs legit contenders to make the play-in tournament. Early-season injuries may hold back Indiana (T.J. Warren, Caris LeVert) and Toronto (Pascal Siakam, Chris Boucher), but both clubs were perennial playoff teams up until 2021 and still have plenty of talent on their rosters. Washington lost some star-power by trading away Russell Westbrook, but the team’s depth is stronger than it has been in years.

Lowe places the Cavaliers in a group of their own, noting that executives around the league have wildly varying opinions on Cleveland’s roster. Some people are high on the Cavs’ collection of young talent, while others think they could be the very worst team in the NBA. Although they’re not a clear play-in contender, they could be in that mix if things break right.

The Pistons and Magic, meanwhile, project to be the East’s bottom two teams, despite the presence of rookie guards Cade Cunningham and Jalen Suggs.

After we broke down the Western Conference on Wednesday, I’m curious to get your thoughts today on the Eastern Conference. Do you view the Nets and Bucks as the East’s clear top two finishers? Which clubs will clinch top-six playoff seeds, and which four will end up in the play-in tournament? Of the 12 teams with realistic playoff expectations, which two (or more) will finish outside of play-in range?

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

Load More Posts