The Trail Blazers did not want to hold back Yongxi Cui after he got a better offer from the Nets, Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report tweets.
Also known as Jacky, Cui officially signed a two-way contract with the Nets on Friday. He had previously agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Blazers, but hadn’t officially signed it.
If he’d come to camp in Portland he would have been competing for a two-way spot, according to Highkin. When the Nets offered him one outright, Portland didn’t want to stand in the way of the undrafted rookie.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- In a subscriber-only piece, Harrison Wind of TheDNVR.com takes a look at how defenses will adjust to the Nuggets’ starting five with third-year guard Christian Braun replacing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Braun appeared in all 82 regular-season games last season but made just four starts and only played 28 regular-season minutes with Denver’s other four starters on the court. Caldwell-Pope signed with the Magic early in free agency.
- There’s been plenty of talk regarding the defensive impact of newcomers Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein on the Thunder. However, their offensive contributions will be just as key, Esfandiar Baraheni of Sportscasting.com writes. Caruso will help the team in the underrated roles of screener and secondary play-making. Hartenstein’s solid screening and short-roll game will also add to the versatility of Oklahoma City’s offense.
- In case you missed it, we took a look at every Northwest Division team’s roster as training camps approach.
Thunder may have be the most complete roster in the league, oozing with young and improving core, but what exacly do they do with all those extra first round picks? Nice “problem”.
OKC could have 5 FRP’s in this upcoming draft (more likely it’s 4.) None are likely to be lottery picks, though, so there won’t be space for them on the roster.
What to do with those picks?
Yeah, it is a pretty good problem to have for sure.
You got to figure that it’s either bundle them up to move up in the draft or use the Knicks example of overpaying with later 1st round picks for the guy that puts the Thunder that much closer to a Chip.
greg1, agree, it makes sense that they’d try to bundle picks for a big time player, but Presti has said publicly that they don’t intend to do that, preferring to retain and pay their current young players. They are the ultimate small market team.
To retain Caruso they’ll likely need to pay him ~$18M more than this year, which uses the available cap space. Presti has said that the biggest priority is signing Holmgren and Jalen Williams to max extensions 2 years from now. So, there’s no $ available for another starter.
So, I believe the excess FRP’s draft picks are either, one, traded for future FRP’s or, two, traded in a bundle to move up this year into a lottery slot, or, three, bundled to acquire a high-value 1st or 2nd year player that will be cheap for 2 or 3 more years.
Trade them for future picks and solid rotation pieces.
Braun is going to be a break out year. He has improved his 3pt shot and should get open looks in nuggets offense
He better because he is making up for the loss of KCP and Brown but Booth thinks he can
IHart is a good offensive reb. And a good passer for a big. Can score down ow too. Caruso and IHart are solid vets. Both make perfect sense for Thunder.
I don’t really see a great team offense system. That can work without a good PG. Good talent doesn’t mean good results.
Thunder are better now on paper. They have to prove it in the playoffs.
Al , I’m with you, I don’t like okc’s offense. But I do like their coach and their culture, so I expect steady improvement.
You nailed it about needing to prove you can win. When a young core, with no veterans, starts from the bottom, there is always the question of when/whether they can break through. It took the Warriors 3 years of playoff failures and the Celtics even longer.
Of course, another path is to go get 4 guys from Villanova.