2023 June | Hoops Rumors

Northwest Notes: Wolves, McDaniels, Jazz, K. Johnson

June 24th, 2023 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Having traded away so many first-round picks a year ago to acquire Rudy Gobert, the Timberwolves know they have to get “creative” if they hope to add young talent to their roster, president of basketball operations Tim Connelly told reporters during his post-draft press conference, per Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. Minnesota entered Thursday night with a single second-round pick and acquired a second one that was used to draft Leonard Miller.

“We’re out a bunch of first-round picks, so we’re probably a bit more aggressive trying to find guys that are maybe a year early, or guys that have slipped for an injury, for example, like (No. 53 pick) Jaylen (Clark),” Connelly said. “I don’t think we can just follow too many trends. We’ve got to be creative and kind of cross our fingers.”

Clark, who injured his Achilles earlier this year and underwent surgery after the season, isn’t expected to be ready for the start of his rookie year. However, the Wolves are optimistic about what he’ll be able to bring to the team once he’s healthy, with Connelly referring to him as “the best perimeter defender in the draft,” according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

“We’re going to be very patient with him,” Connelly said. “Prior to the injury we thought the guy was an easy first-round pick.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

The Timberwolves received “a ton” of trade interest in forward Jaden McDaniels this week, league sources tell Krawczynski. Minnesota rebuffed inquiries from teams “all over the draft board,” Krawczynski adds.
Armed with first-round picks at No. 9, No. 16, and No. 28, the Jazz were a candidate to make a consolidation trade on Thursday. Instead, they hung onto all three picks and were thrilled to land Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Brice Sensabaugh, writes Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. “The way the draft board fell took a really fortunate turn for us,” general manager Justin Zanik said. “We got two of the guys that we had in our top 10 — players that we were, frankly, debating out which one to take at 9, and we ended up getting both of them. And at 28, getting a player that we had in our top 18.”
Hendricks, George, and Sensabaugh are all 19 years old, so the fact that the Jazz were willing to add all three to their 2023/24 roster is a reflection that they’re not in any hurry to accelerate their timeline for contention. Still, Tony Jones of The Athletic believes all three first-rounders are capable of playing rotation roles as rookies, noting that none of them are projects. “It’s not like we’re leaning into youth, we’re leaning into talent,” Zanik said, per Walden.
The Thunder‘s plan is for former Kansas State forward Keyontae Johnson, the 50th pick in Thursday’s draft, to sign a two-way contract, head of basketball operations Sam Presti said on Saturday (Twitter link via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman).

Central Notes: Pacers, King, LaVine, DeRozan, Livingston, Bucks

June 24th, 2023 at 2:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pacers were active on and before draft night, making a pair of trades that involved their 2023 draft picks. They also discussed several more potential deals that they couldn’t get across the finish line, as Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star relays.

General manager Chad Buchanan told reporters that Indiana tried to use a future first-round pick to move up from both No. 7 and No. 26, but didn’t have any luck. According to Buchanan, the Pacers wanted to get into the top 20 from No. 26 — he added that “the player we were chasing was who everybody else was chasing,” which may have been a reference to Cam Whitmore, who slid to No. 20.

“We tried very hard from 10 until about 20,” said Buchanan. “Using the future pick that we’d gotten. Using 26. Using the other picks that we’d received. We had a player we were trying to get and just couldn’t get anybody to budge. Everybody liked where they were at. They wanted to hang on to their pick and their price was just too exorbitant for us. We tried in that range from 10 to 20.”

In the days leading up to the draft, the Pacers were connected in trade rumors to a handful of NBA wings, including OG Anunoby, De’Andre Hunter, Jonathan Kuminga, and Tobias Harris. Buchanan didn’t confirm specifically that those players were targets, but did say the team explored adding a veteran, ultimately deciding that the short-term gain might not outweigh the long-term implications of such a move.

“(We considered) opportunities that were veteran wings out there that were potentials for us that probably gave us four to five more wins next year, but probably limited us in the long run, limited our ceiling. We had to weigh that, is that really worth sacrificing keeping our powder dry?” Buchanan said, per Dopirak.

“Some of the opportunities we had were guys that had one year left on their contract. Does it make sense to give up the seventh pick in the draft for a guy who may walk after one year? That’s very, very risky in our business. (No. 8 pick) Jarace (Walker) was a guy we had targeted. He was a guy that we wanted. You weigh all that, and this is the guy that we’ll have for a long, long time and we’ll build him and develop him into the piece that the players that were offered to us are now today.”

Here’s more from around the Central:

The Pacers don’t intend to sign No. 47 pick Mojave King right away. The plan is for King to become a draft-and-stash prospect, as reported by iPacers.com and confirmed by Dopirak (Twitter links). King, a member of the G League Ignite in 2022/23, is a new New Zealand native who previously spent several seasons in Australia’s National Basketball League.
Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times hears that the Bulls discussed Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan with “multiple” teams leading up to the draft, but he describes those talks as mere due diligence rather than anything substantial.
Kentucky’s Chris Livingston likely had no problem being the final player picked in the 2023 draft — it sounds like his camp intentionally steered him to the Bucks at No. 58. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), Livingston’s agent Rich Paul was calling teams picking earlier in the second round during the draft to ask them not to draft his client.
The Bucks view Livingston and Andre Jackson Jr. as players with length, energy, and defensive versatility who will fit the style of new head coach Adrian Griffin, writes Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We’re not trying to build a roster like we have in the past — he’s a different coach, we’re going to have a different system,” general manager Jon Horst said on Friday. “There are core, non-negotiable things we’re always going to care about and he’s very aligned in those things. But we also weigh on his opinions, use his opinions in trying to build this out.“

Suns, Wizards Officially Complete Bradley Beal Trade

June 24th, 2023 at 1:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns and Wizards have issued press releases confirming that the Bradley Beal trade is official. Word of the agreement first broke last Sunday afternoon, with further details trickling out on Monday and Thursday.

The Wizards’ trade with the Pacers that moved Washington up from No. 8 to No. 7 in Thursday’s draft is also being folded into this transaction, making it a three-team deal. The full terms of the blockbuster deal are as follows:

Suns acquire Beal, Jordan Goodwin, and Isaiah Todd.
Wizards acquire Chris Paul; Landry Shamet; the draft rights to Bilal Coulibaly (No. 7 pick); the Suns’ second-round picks in 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2030; first-round pick swaps in 2024, 2026, 2028, and 2030; and cash (approximately $3.5MM; from Suns).
Pacers acquire the draft rights to Jarace Walker (No. 8 pick), the Suns’ 2028 second-round pick, and the Wizards’ 2029 second-round pick.

Because the Suns’ 2028 second-rounder, originally committed to the Wizards as part of the Beal trade, is being rerouted to Indiana, all three teams satisfy the NBA’s “touching” rules for three-team deals.

The Wizards have now traded away their top two leading scorers from the 2022/23 season on consecutive days, having formally finalized their deal sending Kristaps Porzingis to Boston very early on Friday morning.

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and new president of basketball operations Michael Winger issued statements within today’s trade announcement, wishing Beal well after he spent the first 11 years of his NBA career in D.C.

“Bradley leaves a legacy and impact that will continue to be felt by those he helped during the 11 seasons we watched him develop into a cornerstone of our on-court and off-court efforts,” Leonsis said. “We appreciate and respect the place he holds in our franchise’s history and we’re proud that he established himself as a star player, community leader and family man in Washington, D.C.”

“From afar, I’ve admired Bradley as an All-NBA player and a difference-maker in his communities,” Winger said. “We were pleased to work together to find a deal that moved us closer to our goal of eventually competing for championships while getting Bradley to a place where he’ll be able to do so immediately. We wish Bradley and his entire family the best of luck in Phoenix and thank him on behalf of the organization, the fans and the city of Washington for his immeasurable contributions.”

The Suns issued a statement of their own expressing excitement about the acquisition of Beal.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bradley, Jordan and Isaiah to the Phoenix Suns as we continue to build one of the premier organizations in all of sports,” Suns owner Mat Ishbia said. “Bradley Beal is one of the best players in the NBA and brings so much to our team including incredible work ethic, great character, and the mindset of a champion. Jordan and Isaiah add talent and versatility to our roster that will continue to make this team among the league’s best. We are committed to bringing an NBA championship to Phoenix and I could not be more excited about how this organization is coming together heading into the upcoming season.”

The Wizards have already agreed to a separate trade that will send Paul on to Golden State for a package headed by Jordan Poole, but referred to Shamet within today’s press release as someone who will be a “valuable contributor to our organization,” which suggests they plan to hang onto him.

For more details on the Beal trade, you can read our original story here and our Thursday follow-up here. We also have separate full stories detailing the Wizards’ move up to No. 7 and their trade agreement with the Warriors involving Paul and Poole.

Stein’s Latest: Porzingis, Jazz, Hawks, Mavs, Pistons, Johnson

June 24th, 2023 at 1:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Rival teams were “convinced” the Jazz were going to make a run at Kristaps Porzingis in free agency if he had declined his $36MM player option, Marc Stein writes at Substack. As Stein details, the threat of losing Porzingis for nothing may have motivated the Wizards to find compensation for him before his opt-out deadline. They found a way to send him to his preferred destination — the Celtics — despite an initial roadblock after the Clippers had concerns over Malcolm Brogdon‘s health.

The Celtics are “strongly expected” to sign Porzingis to a contract extension this offseason, Stein adds.

Here’s more from Stein:

The Hawks and Mavericks, who held frequent talks about deals involving the 10th and 15th overall picks leading up to the draft, couldn’t find common ground because Atlanta wanted to include John Collins in a proposed deal, while Dallas preferred Clint Capela. According to Stein, the Hawks told the Mavs they’d move No. 15 and Capela for No. 10 and Davis Bertans if Josh Green was also included in the package, but Dallas didn’t go for it.
The Hawks remain active in trade talks and appear most motivated to move Collins, but Capela and De’Andre Hunter are drawing more interest, per Stein. The Hawks, who have been trying and failing – so far – to convince the Raptors to part with Pascal Siakam, had talks with the Pistons and Pacers prior to the draft about deals involving Hunter and the Nos. 5 and 7 picks.
With the additional flexibility they created by dumping Bertans’ salary, the Mavericks are in a better position to use their mid-level exception to pursue a wing, according to Stein, who names Bruce Brown as a possible Dallas free agent target.
Having previously reported that the Pistons are expected to be as suitor for Cameron Johnson in free agency, Stein says the Nets RFA forward continues to be cited by league sources as an “increasingly likely” target for Detroit. The Pistons will have the cap space necessary to put pressure on Brooklyn with a substantial offer sheet if they so choose.

Rory Maher contributed to this story.

Knicks To Decline Derrick Rose’s Team Option

June 24th, 2023 at 11:53am CST by Rory Maher

The Knicks plan to decline Derrick Rose‘s $15,596,339 team option for 2023/24, reports Steve Popper of Newsday (subscriber link).

As Popper writes, Rose was beloved throughout the organization, particularly by head coach Tom Thibodeau, but his on-court role in ’22/23 was virtually non-existent after December. He appeared in just one regular season game after the calendar flipped to 2023.

Still, the Knicks valued his leadership and the way he handled being benched, and a reunion on a minimum-salary deal is still a possibility if Rose is unable to find an opportunity for more playing time, Popper adds.

New York had until midnight on Saturday to make a decision on Rose’s option, per Popper.

Overall, Rose averaged career lows in points (5.6) and minutes (12.5) per game across 27 contests. He posted a .384/.302/.917 shooting line in his limited opportunities this past season.

Fred Katz of The Athletic confirms the news (Twitter links), noting that it may not have been as obvious a decision as it might appear on the surface. As Katz previously wrote, picking up Rose’s option could have given the Knicks an opportunity to use him as a salary-matching piece in trades, but now that has been eliminated as a possibility.

The 2010/11 league MVP and former No. 1 overall pick will become an unrestricted free agent and will be able to sign with any team. He was previously linked to the Bulls and Bucks.

The Knicks project to have access to the full mid-level exception in free agency after declining Rose’s option, tweets Ian Begley of SNY.tv.

Kings Reportedly Offer Contract To Sasha Vezenkov

June 24th, 2023 at 10:50am CST by Rory Maher

Reports over the past month have indicated that the Kings are determined to bring Sasha Vezenkov stateside and would renew contract talks with the EuroLeague MVP once they were permitted to following the draft.

According to Harry Stavrou of Greek outlet Sport24.gr, now that the draft has come and gone, the Kings have offered Vezenkov a contract worth part of the full mid-level exception — “slightly lower” than the $8.4MM Keegan Murray will make in 2023/24 (hat tip to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee).

Sacramento acquired Vezenkov’s draft rights from the Cavaliers in exchange for the 49th overall pick in the 2022 draft. He was originally selected 57th in 2017. The Kings negotiated with him last summer but couldn’t reach an agreement.

While I have no doubt that the Kings want to sign the Olympiacos star, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they have indeed offered him a new deal, I’m a little skeptical that they’ll operate as an over-the-cap team and have access to the full mid-level exception. That would require the Kings to re-sign Harrison Barnes and at least one more of the team’s free agents, and would rule out some other interesting possibilities.

However, they could offer Vezenkov a contract in the range of the figure cited ($7.6MM+) using the room exception, which would see the Kings operating with cap room. That may seem like semantics, but it’s worth clarifying that they don’t necessarily have to use the MLE (or their cap room) to sign Vezenkov.

Vezenkov, 27, is under contract with Olympiacos through ’24/25, but has a buyout clause believed to be worth approximately 1.5 million Euros. He talked about being “ready for new challenges” after his Greek club lost in the EuroLeague final.

Anderson previously wrote that an offer for Vezenkov was expected to start in the $3-4MM range annually, so the reported figure would obviously be a significant increase over that. The 6’9″ Bulgarian forward averaged 17.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists on a sparkling .546/.398/.857 shooting slash line in 33 EuroLeague games this past season (28.7 MPG).

Pete Nance To Sign Exhibit 10 Contract With Cavaliers

June 24th, 2023 at 10:21am CST by Rory Maher

Pete Nance has agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Cavaliers after going undrafted on Thursday night, sources tell Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscriber link).

As Fedor writes, Nance has ties to the organization — he’s the son of former Cavs legend Larry Nance and the younger brother of Larry Nance Jr., who spent parts of four seasons with Cleveland.

After spending four seasons with Northwestern, Nance transferred to North Carolina for his final “super senior” season in 2022/23, averaging 10.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on .422/.320/.816 shooting in 30 games (30.1 minutes) for the Tar Heels. He had a larger offensive role with the Wildcats in ’21/22, posting 14.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 blocks on .497/.452/.768 shooting in 30 games (27.2 minutes).

Nance is expected to play for the Cavs’ Summer League squad, Fedor adds, and will be present for training camp. His Exhibit 10 contract could potentially be converted to a two-way deal, but if he’s waived by the Cavs before the 2023/24 season starts, he’ll be eligible for a bonus worth up to $75K if he spends at least 60 days with the Cleveland Charge, the team’s G League affiliate.

Magic’s Paolo Banchero To Play For Team USA In World Cup

June 24th, 2023 at 9:31am CST by Rory Maher

Magic forward Paolo Banchero, the reigning Rookie of the Year and the No. 1 overall pick in 2022, has committed to play for Team USA during the FIBA World Cup this summer, league sources tell Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic.

According to The Athletic, Banchero said a year ago that he would play for the Italian national team this summer, but Team USA managing director Grant Hill continued to recruit Banchero throughout the season and evidently convinced him to change his mind. Both Hill and Banchero played for Duke in college.

Banchero was born and raised in the United States but he has an Italian passport due to his father’s ancestry. As Charania and Vardon write, the 20-year-old originally planned to play for Italy during the 2020 Olympics, but the event was delayed due to the pandemic, and he wound up missing the competition a year later.

After meeting with Banchero in December, Italian Basketball Federation President Gianni Petrucci believed there was a “60% chance” the young forward would suit up for Italy internationally. However, last month he expressed pessimism about the possibility.

Banchero averaged 20.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists per game in 72 starts this past season. He’s the 11th player to commit to Team USA’s 12-man roster, per The Athletic.

The Americans will start training camp for the World Cup in early August, with their first game scheduled later that month in the Philippines.

Warriors Notes: Paul, Curry, Jackson-Davis, Baldwin

June 24th, 2023 at 12:01am CST by Rory Maher

Chris Paul‘s deliberate, often ball-dominant style seems like a strange fit with how the Warriors operate offensively, but it could be just strange enough to work, opines Seerat Sohi of The Ringer.

As Sohi details, the contrasting styles between Paul and Golden State were on display multiple times in the Western Conference playoffs, with the Warriors prevailing on two of those three occasions (Paul’s Clippers defeated the upstart Warriors in the first round in 2013/14).

However, the Warriors have also had success with high IQ veterans who can control the tempo, Sohi notes, particularly former swingman Shaun Livingston. Paul may be able to help get Golden State’s young players easy shots on the second unit, according to Sohi, and allow Stephen Curry to play more off the ball when they’re paired.

Obviously it’s a risk since Paul is 38 years old and he could be backing up another older player who has been injured a lot the past few seasons in Curry. But the Warriors might be better next season with Paul instead of Jordan Poole, and shedding Poole’s long-term contract while picking up Paul’s non-guaranteed deal for ’24/25 gives the team financial savings in the future, Sohi writes.

Here’s more on the Warriors:

Paul and Curry are excited to be teammates, with the two-time MVP blessing the blockbuster trade, sources tell Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. Thompson takes a look at the shared history between the two former rivals.
New general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. says the team plans to have Trayce Jackson-Davis on the 15-man roster, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter video link). The Warriors traded cash considerations to Washington to land the No. 57 pick in last night’s draft, which they used on the Indiana big man. “We’re not overly loaded in the frontcourt,” Dunleavy said, adding the Warriors had him much higher on their draft board.
As Slater writes for The Athletic, agreeing to include 2022 first-rounder Patrick Baldwin in the Poole/Paul trade created considerable tax savings, but it was also a bet on Jackson-Davis being more ready to contribute next season. Dunleavy’s brother, James Dunleavy, is Jackson-Davis’ agent, and the sides worked together to ensure he wouldn’t get picked until the Warriors could select him. Getting a guaranteed minimum-salary contract is rare for a player chosen late in the second round, Slater notes, but that’s the intention for the forward/center.

Pascal Siakam Hopes To Spend Entire Career With Raptors

June 23rd, 2023 at 11:05pm CST by Rory Maher

Raptors forward Pascal Siakam hopes to finish his career with the only NBA team he’s ever known, a source close to the 29-year-old tells Doug Smith of The Toronto Star.

Smith is confirming — and expanding on — Chris Haynes‘ recent report about Siakam warning off potential trade suitors by suggesting he’d refuse to re-sign with them if he was dealt. Haynes also wrote Siakam wanted to remain with Toronto long term.

General manager Bobby Webster acknowledged the Raptors saw the report, per Smith, though obviously that doesn’t necessarily mean it will impact the team’s decision-making.

“It popped right before the draft and we kind of just had a quick chat about it,” Webster said Thursday. “But, no, generally we’re not going to talk about any of that stuff publicly.”

Siakam will be entering a contract year in 2023/24, so a club that gives up a significant package to acquire him would likely want assurances that he’d be willing to stick around for more than one season, even if he doesn’t agree to an extension right away. The Hawks and Blazers are among the teams rumored to have interest in Siakam.

It’s worth noting that Siakam would qualify for a super-max contract – worth 35% of the cap instead of 30% – if he makes an All-NBA team in 2024, but would become ineligible for the super-max if he’s traded. That’s not to say that his reported desire to remain in Toronto isn’t genuine, but he’d also have contract-related reasons to want to stay put.

As Smith writes, the Raptors seem to have a “new era of enthusiasm” — seemingly due to their coaching change — and that may have played a factor in Gary Trent Jr.‘s decision to pick up his player option. New head coach Darko Rajokovic has been meeting with players individually to get to know them, Smith adds.

Having a two-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA member like Siakam putting word out that he wants to stay with the Raptors is a rarity for the organization, Smith notes, with players often spurning Toronto in free agency. It also shows the star forward believes in the team and thinks the 2022/23 season was an “aberration.” Toronto went 41-41 and was eliminated from postseason contention in the play-in tournament.

Smith argues retaining Siakam would be a prudent choice, because the Raptors could move him in the future even if he gets a lucrative extension. He also thinks having one of their best players already seemingly bought in for next season is important if the team wants more on-court success.

Siakam appeared in 71 games last season, leading the league in minutes per game (37.4) for the second straight season. He averaged career highs in points (24.2) and assists (5.8) while pulling down 7.8 rebounds and posting a .480/.324/.774 shooting line.

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