Thunder Notes: Caruso, Gilgeous-Alexander, McCain, Accountability
The Thunder boast a two-time MVP guard, an All-Star big man, and an All-NBA wing, but through two games of the Western Conference Finals, 32-year-old backup guard Alex Caruso has been the key to unlocking the team’s potential on both ends of the court, Kelly Iko writes for Yahoo Sports.
A year after showing his versatility by defending Nikola Jokic in the playoffs, Caruso has been tasked, at times, with guarding Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Even more importantly, he has shown no fear in attacking the first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year on offense, even as some of his teammates shied away from the large barrier Wembanyama represents.
“He’s got an unbelievable focus and is a monster competitor,” said coach Mark Daigneault said of Caruso. “It seems like the bigger the moment, the bigger the game, the more he wants to compete in it. And he’ll fail and not blink, and he’ll be aggressive in the next possession, next game and he was huge again tonight. His minutes were massive for us.”
With Jalen Williams limited by injuries and Ajay Mitchell and Chet Holmgren working themselves into a rhythm, Caruso has stepped up offensively. Through two games, he is the series’ third-leading scorer behind the two teams’ respective MVP finalists, averaging 24.0 points per contest while hitting 11 of his 18 threes.
Caruso’s ability to guard up in the lineup also has downstream effects on the Thunder’s offense, as they are able to play more guards alongside him, thereby injecting much-needed shooting and ball-handling as the team searches for creases in San Antonio’s imposing defense.
“His leadership is over the roof, honestly, especially on the [defensive] end of the floor,” Luguentz Dort said. “He communicates a lot. He’s really smart as a player and watches a lot of basketball as well. So he knows a lot of plays and the tricks we need to get stops defensively. Able to read the game well and he’s been amazing.”
Whether he can keep up the hot shooting remains to be seen, but with Williams being listed as day-to-day after leaving Game 2 early with a hamstring injury and Mitchell also suffering an injury scare, Caruso’s responsibilities are unlikely to decrease as the series progresses.
We have more from the Thunder:
- After an uncharacteristically quiet performance in the Game 1 loss, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put together the kind of MVP performance fans have come to expect from him in Game 2, Joel Lorenzi writes for The Athletic. “I guess I just have sucked when I get too long of a break,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anything other than that. I don’t know. I guess I gotta do a better job with my breaks, especially during the playoffs.” Instead of playing into the Spurs’ coverages, Gilgeous-Alexander found ways to get to his spots and stopped letting Stephon Castle‘s rugged defense get to him. “We just had no choice but to play to our strengths,” he said, “or else.”
- If you just looked at the efficiency, it would be easy to miss Jared McCain‘s impact on Game 2, Lorenzi writes. Although McCain made just 4-of-14 shots from the floor, his energy and hustle were clearly infectious as he played his way to 12 points, six rebounds, and two steals in 26 minutes. This is nothing unusual for a player who has quickly ingratiated himself with his Thunder teammates due to his outsized personality, Marc J. Spears writes for Andscape. “The first week or two that he was here felt like he had been here the whole season,” Dort said of McCain. “That is the type of guy he is. That is the type of locker room we have. Really funny and really loud, and he blended in with everyone really quick.” It’s not just about his off-court personality, though. “That translates to his game as well,” Caruso added. “He is constantly moving on offense, which is manipulating the defense. He’s starting to pick up some of our other principles. He picked up a big offensive rebound tonight.”
- The Thunder have built a juggernaut based on the principles of precision, attention to detail, and accountability, writes Dan Woike of The Athletic. On a roster as loaded with NBA-level talent as Oklahoma City’s, players have had to find roles they can thrive in, even if that feels like a sacrifice. Cason Wallace is a good example of that trait: there are 20 players from the 2023 draft class that are averaging more points per game than the former 10th overall pick, but those guys aren’t playing critical minutes in the Western Conference finals, as he is. Even when Wallace isn’t on the floor, though, he knows what is expected of him. “Honestly, you just go out there and be who you are,” the defensive-minded point guard said. “If it’s your night then, you know, it’s your night, and we’re all gonna be excited, and we’re all gonna put our best foot forward. But when it’s somebody else’s night, we also understand that and we cheer them on.”
- While that sounds good in theory, Daigneault and the players know that it’s one thing for players to talk about accountability, but quite another to buy into it. “There’s a collective understanding of where the bar is,” Holmgren said, per Woike. “And it’s human nature is to be imperfect. Nobody’s gonna be perfect. I might shoot a shot where it’s ‘S–t, I ain’t shot one in a while.’ Human nature is ‘OK, let me get one up’ … But there’s an understanding that there’s human nature, that nobody’s gonna be perfect. But there’s also an understanding if somebody sees you drifting, hey, we’re gonna pull you back in.”
Jalen Williams Day-To-Day With Hamstring Injury
Jalen Williams is day-to-day with a left hamstring injury and will be reevaluated by the Thunder one game at a time, Shams Charania reports for ESPN (via Twitter).
This is the second time in the last month that Williams has dealt with a left hamstring issue, and his return will be largely dependent on how the injury responds to treatment. The previous injury caused him to miss approximately three weeks, including the entire second-round series against the Lakers.
Williams returned from that injury for a brutally taxing double-overtime Game 1 against the Spurs, in which he played over 37 minutes and scored 26 points while often taking the Victor Wembanyama defensive assignment.
Whether or not that game took a toll, the All-NBA wing left Game 2 after just seven minutes to receive treatment on the leg and was later ruled out for the rest of the night. It was subsequently reported that he would undergo an MRI, as would Spurs guard Dylan Harper, who also left the game early.
While Charania’s update doesn’t offer any sort of concrete return timeline for Williams, it may be an encouraging sign that he’s being considered day-to-day rather than week-to-week, as was the case after he sustained his previous hamstring injury.
Game 3 will take place on Friday in San Antonio, with Game 4 to follow on Sunday.
Early NBA Salary Guarantee Dates For 2026/27
An NBA player who has a non-guaranteed salary for a given season will, by default, receive his full guarantee if he remains under contract through January 7 of that league year. Because the league-wide salary guarantee date is January 10, a player must clear waivers before that date if a team wants to avoid being on the hook for his full salary.
However, a number of players who have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts for 2026/27 have earlier trigger dates. Those players will receive either their full guarantee or a partial guarantee on certain dates before January 7, assuming they’re not waived.
These dates are fairly malleable — if a player and team reach an agreement, a salary guarantee deadline can be pushed back.
For example, if a player’s contract calls for him to receive his full guarantee on June 27, his team could ask him to move that date to the first or second week of July to get a better sense of what will happen in free agency before making a final decision. The player doesn’t have to agree, but it might be in his best interest to push back his guarantee date rather than simply being waived.
Those agreements between a player and team aren’t always reported right away, so our list of early salary guarantee dates is a tentative one. If a player’s salary guarantee date passes without him being waived, our assumption is that he received his guarantee, but it’s possible he and his team negotiated a new guarantee date that simply hasn’t been made public yet. We’ll update the info below as necessary in the coming months.
Here are the early salary guarantee dates for 2026/27:
(Note: More players, including some whose team options are exercised, will likely be added to this list as the offseason progresses.)
June 25
Buddy Hield (Hawks): Partial guarantee ($3,000,000) increases to full guarantee ($9,658,536).
June 28
- Jonathan Isaac (Magic): Partial guarantee ($8,000,000) increases to full guarantee ($14,500,000).
- Dru Smith (Heat): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,584,539) becomes fully guaranteed.
June 29
- Bronny James (Lakers): Partial guarantee ($1,258,873) increases to full guarantee ($2,296,271).
June 30
- Jamison Battle (Raptors): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,296,271) becomes fully guaranteed.
- Cam Christie (Clippers): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,296,271) becomes fully guaranteed.
- Kris Dunn (Clippers): Non-guaranteed salary ($5,684,800) becomes fully guaranteed.
- Kyle Filipowski (Jazz): Non-guaranteed salary ($3,000,000) becomes fully guaranteed.
- Kam Jones (Pacers): Partial guarantee ($1,075,459) increases to full guarantee ($2,150,917).
- Ajay Mitchell (Thunder): Partial guarantee ($1,500,000) increases to full guarantee ($2,850,000).
- Svi Mykhailiuk (Jazz): Non-guaranteed salary ($3,850,000) becomes fully guaranteed.
July 3
- Scotty Pippen Jr. (Grizzlies): Partial guarantee ($350,000) increases to full guarantee ($2,461,462).
July 4
- Pete Nance (Bucks): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,497,812) becomes fully guaranteed.
July 7
- Adem Bona (Sixers): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,296,271) becomes fully guaranteed.
July 8
Jonas Valanciunas (Nuggets): Partial guarantee ($2,000,000) increases to full guarantee ($10,000,000).
July 15
- Sidy Cissoko (Trail Blazers): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,497,812) becomes fully guaranteed.
- Quenton Jackson (Pacers): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to full guarantee ($2,584,539).
August 1
- Vit Krejci (Trail Blazers): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,667,944) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
First day of NBA regular season
- Oso Ighodaro (Suns): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
- Jaylen Wells (Grizzlies): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to full guarantee ($2,296,271).
First day of team’s regular season
- Moussa Diabate (Hornets): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,461,462) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
- Vit Krejci (Trail Blazers): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to full guarantee ($2,667,944).
Lakers Notes: LeBron, Friedman, Zaidi, Pelinka, Senior
Discussing his future on the latest episode of the Mind the Game podcast with co-host Steve Nash (YouTube link), Lakers forward LeBron James said he’ll need to take some time before he decides whether or not to continue his career and what the 2026/27 season might hold for him.
“I haven’t even really thought about it too much,” James said, per Khobi Price of The California Post. “Obviously, I understand that I’m a free agent and I can control my own destiny — being here with (the Lakers) for a foreseeable future or if it’s going somewhere else. But like, I haven’t even really even got to that point. I haven’t even taken my family vacation yet, which is going to happen after Memorial Day. That’s kind of the thing at the forefront of my mind.
“But, I think at some point in June, late June, as July rolls around, free agency starts to get going and as July rolls around and maybe into August, we start to kind of get a feel of what my future may look like. If it’s continuing to play the game that I love, which I know I can still give so much to the game and play at a high level, or if it’s not. But I have not gotten to that point yet.”
As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, James also addressed Los Angeles’ second-round loss to the Thunder during his discussion with Nash, suggesting that the Lakers – going up against the defending champions without top scorer Luka Doncic – were simply facing a talent deficit.
“We were not outworked, they didn’t out-physical us, they didn’t outsmart us,” LeBron said. “I feel like we were just out-talented by OKC. … At the end of the day, we failed in talent. OKC just possessed so much more talent than us. You can tip your cap to them, obviously, in understanding that. But you can’t get caught up in that, especially when you know you were undermanned.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- In an interesting story for Yahoo Sports, Yaron Weitzman examines how new Lakers owner Mark Walter has tasked the same two executives – Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi – who helped turn the Los Angeles Dodgers’ front office into one of MLB’s most sophisticated and successful operations to follow a similar blueprint with the Lakers. While Rob Pelinka and Kurt Rambis have led the search for a pair of new assistant general managers, Friedman and Zaidi have also been involved, Weitzman says, with at least one of them sitting in on most interviews.
- There has been some speculation about the involvement of Friedman and Zaidi leading to the Lakers replacing Pelinka as their head of basketball operations, but that’s not currently the plan, according to Weitzman, who notes that Pelinka is the one leading discussions with player agents in contract discussions and has told people he’s working “in collaboration” with the Dodgers execs.
- The Lakers offered Timberwolves assistant GM Steve Senior an executive VP of basketball operations role, but Senior opted to remain in Minnesota, multiple league sources tell Weitzman.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) takes a closer look at the Lakers’ upcoming offseason, explaining what the team could do with its projected cap room and exploring what sort of contracts their free agents might get. Gozlan projects a deal in the neighborhood of $35-40MM per year for Austin Reaves and believes Rui Hachimura could receive a salary in the range of the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($15MM+).
Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu Withdrawing From Draft
After testing the NBA draft waters this spring, big man Rueben Chinyelu is returning to Florida for his senior season, the Gators announced today (Twitter link).
Chinyelu, who won a national championship as a sophomore in 2024/25, averaged a double-double as a junior, scoring 10.9 points and grabbing 11.2 rebounds in just 24.5 minutes per game. The Nigerian 6’10” center won the Naismith and NABC Defensive Player of the Year awards and earned a spot on the All-SEC second team.
As ESPN’s Jeff Borzello wrote last week, Chinyelu performed well at the draft combine in Chicago, racking up 14 points and 15 rebounds in his second scrimmage on Thursday and registering impressive wingspan measurements. However, he still wasn’t viewed as a probable first-round pick, coming in at No. 50 on ESPN’s big board at No. 48 in Jeremy Woo’s most recent mock draft.
Chinyelu is the latest notable prospect to announce that he’ll be returning to the Gators for the 2026/27 season, joining frontcourt teammates Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon. Florida will likely enter the fall as the top-ranked team in the nation, Borzello notes (via Twitter).
NCAA early entrants who are testing the draft waters have until the end of the day on May 27 (next Wednesday) to withdraw their names if they want to retain their college eligibility. The NBA’s own withdrawal deadline, which is the key date for international prospects, is June 13. The full list of early entrants can be found right here.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Qualifying Offer
Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. In order to make a player a restricted free agent, a team must extend a qualifying offer to him — a player who doesn’t receive one becomes an unrestricted free agent instead.
The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s service time and previous contract status.
If a player reaches free agency with three or fewer years of NBA service time under his belt, his qualifying offer is worth whichever of the following amounts is greater:
- 135% of his prior salary (or 125% of his prior salary, if he signed his contract before the 2023/24 league year).
- His minimum salary, plus $200K.
For instance, after earning $1,955,377 this season, Knicks big man Ariel Hukporti will be eligible for a qualifying offer this season if New York wants to make him a restricted free agent. What would that qualifying offer be worth?
Well, 135% of Hukporti’s prior salary would be $2,639,759. Hukporti projects to have a minimum salary worth $2,450,000 in 2026/27. Adding $200K to that figure gets us to $2,650,000. His qualifying offer would be worth the greater of those two amounts: $2,650,000.
Hukporti’s minimum-salary projection is based on an estimated $165MM cap. If the cap were to only increase to $163MM next season, his projected minimum salary would dip to $2,420,018. Adding $200K to that figure would work out to $2,620,018, so in that scenario, 135% of his prior salary would be the larger amount of the two and would be his qualifying offer.
Conversely, Hukporti’s teammate Mohamed Diawara earned just $1,272,870 last season and his minimum salary for 2026/27 is projected at $2,185,633. Adding $200K to that projected minimum gets us $2,385,633, whereas 135% of his previous salary is just $1,718,375. While the exact amount of Diawara’s qualifying offer will depend on precisely where the salary cap lands, we know it’ll be based on his minimum salary plus $200K, since there’s zero chance that figure will come in lower than 135% of his prior salary.
It’s not a certainty yet that the cap will increase to $165MM, so Hukporti’s and Diawara’s qualifying offer projections are tentative for now.
The qualifying offer for a former first-round pick coming off his rookie scale contract is determined by his draft position. Under the previous CBA, the qualifying offer for a first overall pick was 130% of his fourth-year salary, while for a 30th overall pick it was 150% of his previous salary — QOs for the rest of the first-rounders fall somewhere in between. Those numbers will increase to 140% and 160%, respectively, under the new CBA, beginning when the 2023 draft class reaches restricted free agency in 2027.
The full first-round scale for the draft class of 2022, whose first-rounders will be hitting free agency this summer, can be found here, courtesy of RealGM.
A wrinkle in the Collective Bargaining Agreement complicates matters for some RFAs-to-be, since a player’s previous usage can impact the amount of his qualifying offer. Certain players who meet – or fail to meet – the “starter criteria,” which we break down in a separate glossary entry, become eligible for higher or lower qualifying offers. Here’s how the starter criteria affects QOs:
- A top-14 pick who does not meet the starter criteria will receive a same qualifying offer equal to 120% of the amount applicable to the 15th overall pick.
- Note: In 2026, the value of this QO will be $8,774,590.
- A player picked between 10th and 30th who meets the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to 120% of the amount applicable to the ninth overall pick.
- Note: In 2026, the value of this QO will be $9,615,393.
- A second-round pick or undrafted player who meets the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to 100% of the amount applicable to the 21st overall pick.
- Note: In 2026, the value of this QO will be $5,910,257.
Clippers guard Bennedict Mathurin is one example of a player who falls into the first group, since he didn’t meet the starter criteria this year. The No. 6 overall pick in 2021, Mathurin will be eligible this offseason for a QO worth $8,774,590 instead of $12,256,222, the amount for his draft slot.
Conversely, Suns center Mark Williams (a former No. 15 overall pick) met the starter criteria and will now be eligible for a QO worth $9,615,393 instead of $8,774,590.
A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then has the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club.
A player can also accept his qualifying offer, if he so chooses. He then plays the following season on a one-year contract worth the amount of the QO, and becomes an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, assuming he has at least four years of NBA experience. A player can go this route if he wants to hit unrestricted free agency as early as possible, or if he feels like the QO is the best offer he’ll receive. Accepting the qualifying offer also gives a player the right to veto trades for the season.
Here are a few more details related to qualifying offers:
- A team that issues a qualifying offer can unilaterally withdraw that offer anytime up until July 13.
- A player who receives a qualifying offer has a deadline of October 1 to accept it. He and the team can agree to extend that deadline, but if the deadline passes with no resolution, the player remains a restricted free agent without having the QO as a fallback option.
- A different set of rules applies to players coming off two-way contracts. For most of those players, the qualifying offer would be equivalent to a one-year, two-way salary, with a small portion (known as the “maximum two-way protection amount”) guaranteed. For 2026/27, that partial guarantee projects to be worth $91,000.
- A player who is coming off a two-year, two-way deal; has already been on two-way deals with his current team for at least two seasons; has spent parts of three seasons with his current team on two-way deals; or has accumulated four years of NBA service would be eligible for a qualifying offer equivalent to a standard, minimum-salary NBA contract, with a small portion (known as the “two-way QO protection amount”) guaranteed. For 2026/27, that partial guarantee projects to be worth $109,200.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 5/21/2026
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included whether the Magic or Mavericks offer a better coaching opportunity, the Pistons' offseason roster needs, the Cavaliers' commitment to James Harden, potential pre-draft trades involving Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard and more!
Cavs Notes: Game 1 Loss, Harden, Atkinson, Mitchell
After coming back from a 22-point deficit to defeat the Cavaliers in overtime in Game 1, the Knicks weren’t shy about discussing their late-game offensive strategy, as Vincent Goodwill of ESPN writes.
“It was no secret,” head coach Mike Brown told reporters. “We were attacking (James) Harden.”
As Zach Kram of ESPN details, the Knicks player who was being defended by Harden set a screen an incredible 16 times in the fourth quarter, with the team using the strategy at one point to ensure Harden was defending Jalen Brunson on 10 consecutive possessions. After going scoreless on the first two of those possessions, the Knicks scored 18 points on the next eight, including 13 from Brunson alone, Kram writes.
Still, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, head coach Kenny Atkinson said during his post-game media session on Tuesday that he never considered removing Harden from the game as the Cavaliers’ lead slipped away: “He’s been one of our best defenders in these playoffs. I trust him. Smart. Great hands. I didn’t think about that.”
Atkinson doubled down on those comments on Wednesday, placing the blame for the collapse on the Cavaliers’ team defense as a whole rather than on Harden specifically.
“One thing about James: I’ll just defend him,” the Cavs’ coach said, per Zach Braziller of The New York Post. “He’s a good isolation defender, always has been. He’s super smart. I said it [Tuesday] night, he has great hands.
“… Without you, we’re knocked out in the first round,” Atkinson said of his message to Harden. “We’re in a great position, you’ve played great. Sometimes micro experiences get exaggerated. Keep being yourself.”
Here’s more on the Cavs ahead of Game 2:
- Atkinson only used one timeout as the Knicks made their fourth-quarter comeback and still had two left when the fourth quarter concluded, notes Jamal Collier of ESPN. He defended that decision after the game and cited bad luck when he discussed the Cavs’ blown lead. “They hit some really tough shots in that fourth quarter,” Atkinson said. “We got a little unlucky, quite honestly. My only regret, and this can happen when you get a little fatigued, I think it just stopped moving. We were pinging the ball all over the place, great ball movement, and then it just got a little stagnant.”
- Atkinson should have more than just one regret about the way Game 1 played out, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required), who argues that the head coach was one of the “primary culprits” of the improbable late-game collapse. In Fedor’s view, Atkinson should have taken a “clearly exhausted” Harden off the floor or at least adjusted his defensive scheme to stop letting the Knicks switch so easily onto him.
- While Atkinson spoke about getting “unlucky,” Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell offered a harsher assessment of his team’s performance down the stretch, according to Jenna Lemoncelli of The New York Post. “We f–king blew it,” Mitchell said during his post-game media session. “… That can’t happen. But it did. We play in two days. We can’t sit here and let it kill our momentum, kill what we’ve been doing. It’s not a good loss.”
- As discouraging as the Game 1 loss was, Atkinson believes that his team – which has won a pair of elimination games and came back from a 2-0 deficit in the second round against Detroit – has what it takes to bounce back and put it behind them, Braziller writes for The New York Post. “You live between misery and awesomeness in the playoffs, and this is of course misery,” Atkinson said. “But this is probably the fourth miserable game we’ve had in the playoffs. It’s like, ‘OK, get back on the horse.'”
Eastern Notes: Sixers, Nelson, Giannis, Wizards, Nets
After Marc Stein reported that Sixers assistant general manager Jameer Nelson is a candidate for an “expanded role” following Daryl Morey‘s exit and Jake Fischer confirmed that Nelson has many supporters within the organization, Tony Jones of The Athletic hears from multiple league sources that the former NBA point guard is a legitimate candidate to become the next president of basketball operations in Philadelphia.
Nelson is the strongest internal candidate in the Sixers’ front office search, and even if he doesn’t take Morey’s spot atop the basketball operations department, he appears likely to receive a promotion, league sources tell Jones.
Although Nelson was technically third in the 76ers’ front office hierarchy under Morey and GM Elton Brand this past season, he had more responsibilities than a “typical” No. 3, Jones explains, adding that Nelson is viewed as a rising star and is expected to get an opportunity to run a team sooner or later, even if he doesn’t happen this offseason.
Brand also confirms several previously reported details related to the Sixers’ search for Morey’s successor, writing that Mike Gansey, Nick U’Ren, Trent Redden, and Matt Lloyd are considered candidates and noting that Atlanta denied Philadelphia’s request to speak to Hawks GM Onsi Saleh last week.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Appearing earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show (YouTube link), ESPN’s Shams Charania reiterated that while he hasn’t explicitly requested a trade, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has “believed for a period of months” that a deal sending him to a new team is ultimately in both his and the Bucks’ best interests. “Giannis’s stance has not changed from what I’ve reported over the last several months,” Charania said.
- Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears and Miami (OH) guard Peter Suder were among the prospects in for a pre-draft workout with the Wizards this week, tweets Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. Washington controls two of the last 10 picks in this year’s draft, at No. 51 and No. 60, while Fears currently ranks 67th on ESPN’s big board and Suder comes in at 101st.
- The Nets took point guards with their first two picks in the 2025 draft, but Arkansas’ Darius Acuff could still make sense for Brooklyn with this year’s No. 6 overall pick, writes C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News (subscription required). Neither Egor Demin nor Nolan Traore made an All-Rookie team, and while there are concerns about Acuff’s size and defense, he offers star potential as a scorer.
Jalen Williams, Dylan Harper To Undergo MRIs After Game 2 Exits
Thunder forward Jalen Williams and Spurs guard Dylan Harper both left Game 2 of the Western Conference finals early on Wednesday due to hamstring injuries, according to reports from Tim MacMahon of ESPN and Michael C. Wright of ESPN.
Williams was on the floor for just over seven minutes in the first quarter before checking out and receiving treatment on his left hamstring. The Thunder announced in the third quarter that Williams wouldn’t return to the game due to hamstring tightness.
The hamstring in question is the same one that Williams strained earlier in the playoffs, forcing him to miss the last two games of Oklahoma City’s first-round series vs. Phoenix and the entire second-round series vs. the Lakers. The 25-year-old, who scored 26 points in 37 minutes in his return to action on Monday, will undergo an MRI to determine whether he has strained the hamstring again, a source tells MacMahon.
“He’s going to get checked out,” head coach Mark Daigneault told reporters after the game. “I don’t deal in like hypotheticals, especially when doctors are involved. … We’ll see where he’s at. We’ll update him accordingly.”
While Ajay Mitchell made six starts in place of Williams earlier in the postseason, it was Cason Wallace who opened the second half of Game 2 alongside the rest of Oklahoma City’s usual starters. Both players could be in line for increased roles if Williams is forced to miss more time. Mitchell went down late in the fourth quarter with an apparent leg injury and received medical treatment on the bench, but he said after the game that he just got hit in the thigh and should be fine going forward, per Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Spurs, meanwhile, had already been without starting point guard De’Aaron Fox due to a high ankle sprain and are now in danger of his replacement, Harper, missing time too. The rookie standout exited in the third quarter and didn’t return due to what appeared to be a right hamstring injury. He’ll undergo an MRI on Thursday in San Antonio, sources tell Wright.
Harper was excellent in Game 1 in Fox’s place, racking up 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and seven steals in a season-high 47 minutes of action. In Game 2, he registered 12 points, three assists, and two rebounds in 25 minutes before being forced to the sidelines.
As for Fox, he took part in pregame warmups prior to each of the first two games of the Western finals and the Spurs were said to be hopeful about his chances of returning for Game 2, but he was ultimately held out of both contests in Oklahoma City.
“He’s just trying to play every day,” head coach Mitch Johnson said. “It’s a tough injury that he wouldn’t be playing with in the regular season. So, he’s trying to tough it out. He did that in Minnesota. He had an awkward landing. So, he reaggravated it. We’ve just got to make sure he’s in a place that he can be out there and compete to the level that he would need to in the game that we’re playing.”
If Fox and Harper are both unable to play on Friday, the Spurs would have to lean more heavily on Stephon Castle and veteran reserve Jordan McLaughlin. Castle has struggled to maintain control of the ball against the Thunder, turning it over 11 times in Game 1 and nine times in Game 2. Still, the Spurs remain confident in his ability to operate as the team’s primary ball-handler.
“Steph is a dog,” teammate Keldon Johnson said. “He’ll figure it out. We support him every step of the way. [He] turned the ball over. We all turn the ball over. It’s not just on Steph.”
As for McLaughlin, he averaged a career-low 6.4 minutes per game in 44 regular season appearances and hasn’t been in the playoff rotation, but his teammates aren’t concerned about the possibility of him playing an expanded role, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). The veteran point guard had six points in seven minutes in Game 2.
“Every single time J-Mac comes in, he makes the right play, hits a big shot,” Spurs forward Devin Vassell said after Wednesday’s game. “As soon as he came in (tonight), he wasn’t even warm yet and he hits a three. He’s steady. If he needs to come in and play, I don’t think anybody is worried or concerned.”