The Hawks were interested in making runs next summer at Pacers power forward Domantas Sabonis and Celtics forward Jaylen Brown if they had become restricted free agents, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports. Atlanta is one of four teams, along with Charlotte, Cleveland and Memphis, that will have significant cap space in the offseason and thus could have put together a big offer sheet for either player. Sabonis signed a four-year, $74.9MM extension with the Pacers while Brown inked a four-year, $115MM deal with Boston.
1:02pm: Young will miss Thursday’s game vs. Miami and will be re-evaluated on Monday, per an official update from the Hawks.
11:46am: The Hawks got some good news, as Young won’t need an MRI on his ankle after all and is being considered day-to-day for now, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The 21-year-old could return as soon as next week, tweets Wojnarowski.
8:35am: Hawks guard Trae Young, the NBA’s second-leading scorer entering play on Tuesday, was limited to just 11 minutes in his team’s loss in Miami, having been forced out of action early due to a sprained right ankle. After the game, Young was on crutches and admitted that the sprain was “painful,” as Sarah Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets.
“It’s definitely something they want me to stay off it as much as possible right now,” Young said.
While Young is undergoing an MRI on the ankle, X-rays were negative and there’s optimism that it’s not a serious injury, says ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), Atlanta will be cautious with the second-year guard, who could be sidelined for a couple weeks. The team should be able to set an official recovery timetable once it gets the MRI results.
Young poured in 38 points in the Hawks’ opener against Detroit last week and 39 two nights later vs. Orlando, with Atlanta winning both games. He scored 25 more in a Monday loss to the Sixers before being held to five in 11 minutes against the Heat.
Assuming Young has to miss some time, Tyrone Wallace, DeAndre’ Bembry, and Jabari Parker are among the top candidates to take on additional ball-handling responsibilities for Atlanta. Evan Turner is in that mix as well, but missed Tuesday’s game with an Achilles injury.
Besides Young, only John Collins (18.3 PPG) and Parker (11.5 PPG) have averaged double-digit points so far this season, so the Hawks will have to get creative to find ways to score.
Hawks owner Tony Ressler has no regrets about trading Luka Doncic for Trae Young and would make the same decision again, relays Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Atlanta shook up the 2018 draft by agreeing to a deal that enabled Dallas to move up to No. 3 and select the eventual Rookie of the Year. The Hawks received Young, who also looks like a star after a slow start, along with a 2019 pick that was used to add Cam Reddish.
“I have to be honest, but I didn’t think Luka would be this good,” said Ressler, who admitted to being nervous about the gamble. “I didn’t think Trae was going to be this good. They are both better than I expected. I think they’re both really special players and have a shot to be for a really long time if they stay focused. I think this trade is going to have a nice, long history of discussion. I wouldn’t completely, again, declare success or whether we won it or lost it today because I do think both teams have someone they can really help build around for years and years to come.”
The Hawks are in the third step of the plan that Ressler developed to build a title contender after purchasing the team in 2015. Step one was a $200MM renovation to State Farm Arena. Next came a new management team with Travis Schlenk as general manager and Lloyd Pierce, who had experienced rebuilding with the Sixers, as head coach.
“The third step, we don’t know when and we want to do it intelligently, but is spending the money that it will take to add greatness to what we hope is existing greatness,” Ressler explained. “That is how you become a contender.”
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- Isaiah Thomas had a promising debut with the Wizards Saturday night, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. After missing his first four shots, Thomas finished with 16 points, five assists and three rebounds in 20 minutes. The performance offered hope that he can become productive again after two injury-plagued seasons.
- Years of early-morning workouts with his father helped prepare rookie Tyler Herro for the Heat culture, notes Lori Nickel of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. When Herro was taken with the 13th pick in this year’s draft, he was ready for Miami’s emphasis on fitness and hard work. “We say it all the time: We’re not for everyone. You have to be the right kind of player,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So, for a young player you’re checking to see if there’s any kind of entitlement. And there’s zero with that kid. He has a whole lot to his game, because you can tell he’s put in a lot of hours and sweat equity behind the scenes when no one was watching. He’s extremely driven, very ambitious. We love that.”
- Even though the Magic are coming off a playoff season, outside shooting remains an area of concern, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
Danuel House credits Rockets assistant coach John Lucas for helping him to stay focused when it appeared his NBA dream may not work out, writes Sean Deveney for Forbes. House reached out to Lucas after being waived by the Wizards in March of 2017. A broken wrist had sidelined him for more than two months and he had gotten into just one game – less than a minute of playing time – with his first NBA team.
“Shut your mouth,” said Lucas, who first met House at age 13 at a Houston basketball camp. “Shut your mouth and get ready for your next opportunity.”
That came the following year with the Suns, but House found a more permanent home last season with the Rockets. He spent most of the year as a two-way player, but started 13 NBA games and eventually earned a three-year contract.
“I also told him he would be an NBA player,” Lucas recalled. “You could see he was good enough for that. I just never imagined we’d be together with the same team.”
There’s more from Houston:
- Mike D’Antoni was among the first coaches to successfully challenge a call, but he doesn’t believe teams should keep their right to challenge if they’re correct, relays Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Under the newly adopted rule, coaches get to use the challenge once per game, whether they’re right or wrong. “Then you could have 20 or 30 challenges a game,” D’Antoni said. “I could see why they don’t do it.”
- The Rockets’ G League affiliate has traded for Jaron Blossomgame, who was with Houston during the preseason. Blossomgame’s returning player rights were held by the Canton Charge, who agreed to give him up in exchange for Gary Payton II. Blossomgame impressed Rockets coaches during camp, and he was considered as a candidate for one of the team’s two-way slots.
- The Rockets weren’t able to hold onto Ronshad Shabazz after signing and waiving him last weekend. Shabazz was selected by College Park, the Hawks‘ affiliate, with the 13th pick in Saturday’s G League draft.
The Hawks submitted a successful waiver claim for former Timberwolves point guard Tyrone Wallace, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Wallace was Minnesota’s final cut on Monday as the Wolves trimmed their roster to the league limit.
Atlanta will inherit his $1.6MM non-guaranteed contract, which comes with a daily cap hit of $8,973, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link). The Hawks are now up to 15 players and will have $3.7MM in remaining cap room as long as Wallace stays on their roster. His contract will become fully guaranteed on January 7, which is the league-wide guarantee date.
Wallace, 25, spent the past two seasons with the Clippers, averaging a 5.5 PPG in 92 combined games. He had a promising rookie season, but fell out of the rotation last year and saw his playing time cut to 10.1 minutes per night. The Wolves claimed him in July after he was waived by L.A.
As of Monday’s roster cutdown deadline, no NBA team is carrying more than 17 players in total — 15 on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. However, not every team is making use of all 17 roster spots available to them.
Currently, a third of the league’s 30 teams have at least one open roster spot, either on their regular roster or in their two-way slots.
For most clubs, that decision is financially motivated — teams like the Magic and Nuggets are getting dangerously close to the tax line and prefer to avoid moving even closer by paying an extra player or two. The Thunder and Trail Blazers are already over the tax and won’t want to push their projected bills higher.
For teams like the Heat and Warriors, the decision not to carry a 15th man is dictated by the hard cap — neither club currently has sufficient room under the hard cap for more than 14 players.
Teams’ reasoning for retaining an open two-way spot is less clear. Those players earn very modest salaries and don’t count against the cap, so finances shouldn’t be a factor. Perhaps the teams with two-way openings are still considering their options before G League training camps begin next week, recognizing that any two-way player they sign now is unlikely to actually play for the NBA team this week.
Listed below, with the help of our roster counts breakdown, are the teams that aren’t carrying full rosters.
Teams with an open 15-man roster spot:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Denver Nuggets
- Golden State Warriors
- Miami Heat
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Orlando Magic
- Note: The Magic have two open roster spots, giving them two weeks to get to the required minimum of 14 players.
- Portland Trail Blazers
Teams with an open two-way slot:
- Brooklyn Nets
- Phoenix Suns
The Hawks waived forwards Kenny Gabriel and Mark Ogden Jr., according to a team press release.
Atlanta signed Gabriel on Friday and inked Ogden Jr. earlier on Saturday with the intent of making them affiliate players for the College Park Skyhawks, their G League squad.
Gabriel, 30, has spent his professional career playing in a handful of international leagues since going undrafted out of Auburn back in 2012. Most recently, he played for Turkish club Turk Telecom in 2018/19, averaging 9.2 PPG and 5.6 RPG in 43 games.
The 6’9” Ogden has spent the past three seasons overseas with the Georgian team Olimpi (2017-19) and in Luxembourg with Racing Lux (2016-17). Ogden went undrafted after playing his last two college seasons at Dixie State.
Both will be eligible for a bonus worth up to $50K if they spend at least 60 days with the Skyhawks.
The Hawks have signed forward Mark Ogden Jr., the team announced in a press release on Saturday.
Ogden has spent the past three seasons overseas, spending time with the Georgian team Olimpa (2017-19) and in Luxembourg with Racing Lux (2016-17). the Spring Valley native spent two years at Grossmont College before he transferred to Dixie State for two seasons. Ogden’s time at Dixie State included Pac West Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Atlanta’s signing of Ogden is geared toward getting his G League rights rather than adding him to the regular-season roster. Ogden will likely suit up for the College Park Skyhawks.
The Hawks have picked up their fourth-year option on John Collins and their third-year options on Trae Young and Kevin Huerter, officially announcing the moves today in a press release. All three players are now locked up for the 2020/21 season.
[RELATED: Decisions On 2020/21 Rookie Scale Team Options]
Collins, 22, enjoyed a breakout season in 2018/19, averaging 19.5 PPG and 9.8 RPG in 61 games (30.0 MPG) for the Hawks. The former 19th overall pick will have a cap hit of $4,137,302 in 2020/21 and will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2021 if he doesn’t sign a rookie scale extension during the 2020 offseason.
Young, the runner-up to Luka Doncic in last season’s Rookie of the Year race, had a big second half and finished with averages of 19.1 PPG and 8.1 APG in 81 games (30.9 MPG). He’ll have a $6,571,800 cap charge in ’20/21. The Hawks will have to decide on his $8.33MM option for 2021/22 by October 31 of next year, though it’s a safe bet that option will be exercised.
Huerter, a member of the 2018 draft class like Young, averaged 9.7 PPG with a .385 3PT% as a rookie. The 21-year-old has a relatively modest $2,761,920 cap figure for ’20/21.
After being traded from the Hawks to the Trail Blazers in the offseason, Kent Bazemore has become rejuvenated, writes Jason Quick of The Athletic. As Quick writes, the veteran wing had become frustrated playing in Atlanta last season as the team – which won 60 games during his first year as a Hawk – fully embraced its youth movement.
“The game is changing with the young guys coming in and getting an opportunity right away,” Bazemore said. “It wasn’t like that when I first came in. I’m old school in that respect. All you have to do is be respectful, work your way up. But the league is changing in that respect, and that frustrated me.”
According to Quick, before Bazemore was traded, he provided the Hawks with a list of preferred destinations. The Blazers were number one on that list. Now, his new teammates can see that Bazemore is enjoying the opportunity to get a fresh start in Portland.
“The environment here will light him up,” Rodney Hood said. “And you can already tell with him, coming from Atlanta and not playing competitive basketball, that he wants to taste it again, that he’s hungry, prepared and ready. He was telling me last year he was so frustrated that he got a lot of technicals. But we can all see he’s excited about the season.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Before Kyle Lowry signed an extension with Toronto, the Timberwolves looked into his availability, tweets Darren Wolfson of SKOR North. There has been no indication that the Raptors were considering moving their All-Star point guard, so it may have been as simple as an inquiry that went nowhere. Still, as Wolfson points out, it shows that new president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas will kick the tires on every potentially available impact player — even those that don’t necessarily fit Minnesota’s timeline.
- The battle for the Nuggets‘ starting small forward job appears to be down to Will Barton and Torrey Craig, writes Nick Kosmider of The Athletic. Barton, who was more effective in Denver’s final preseason game on Thursday, has said he’d “prefer to start,” as Mike Singer of The Denver Post relays.
- Joe Ingles may have emerged this preseason as the de facto backup point guard for the Jazz, says Tony Jones of The Athletic. Dante Exum is still making his way back from knee surgery and Emmanuel Mudiay hasn’t shown the ability to consistently run an NBA offense, so Ingles figures to take on some ball-handling responsibilities for the second unit, Jones explains.