- Several Warriors players have labeled the Celtics as the biggest threat in their quest to a three-peat this season, according to The Athletic’s Sam Amick. Players such as Kevin Durant and Draymond Green recognized the strengths of Boston, including the team’s ability to switch on defense and their depth off the bench.
- With Daniel Theis expected to be sidelined for the next few weeks with a foot injury, Celtics first-round pick Robert Williams is ready to take on an increased role if asked to do so, per Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. As Forsberg relays, coach Brad Stevens praised the rookie’s work ethic and upside, suggesting that he has “no doubt [Williams] could be thrown in when it’s all on the line.”
The Celtics have picked up their 2019/20 team options on three players, according to an official announcement from the club (Twitter link). Jaylen Brown‘s fourth-year option has been exercised, as have the third-year options for Jayson Tatum and Guerschon Yabusele.
The decisions on Tatum and Brown come as no surprise. Tatum has looked like a rising star since being selected third overall in the 2017 draft, and the decision to lock in his $7,830,000 cap hit for 2019/20 was a no-brainer. Brown hasn’t flashed the same sort of star potential as his fellow No. 3 overall pick, but the starting shooting guard continues to improve on both ends of the court, and guaranteeing his $6,534,829 cap charge for next season was also an easy call for the Celtics.
Boston’s decision on Yabusele is a little more surprising. The former 16th overall pick has played in just 38 games for the Celtics since joining the team last season, and hasn’t made an impact, with 2.2 PPG and 1.5 RPG in 6.7 minutes per contest.
Al Horford, Aron Baynes, Robert Williams, Daniel Theis, and Semi Ojeleye are all in Boston’s frontcourt mix, and the team sometimes plays Tatum or Gordon Hayward at the four, leaving few opportunities for Yabusele. Nonetheless, the Celtics apparently still value him highly enough to lock in his $3,117,240 cap hit for 2019/20. The C’s will end up paying a higher price to retain Yabusele if they’re well over the tax line next season, as is expected.
All of the rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20 can be tracked right here.
The Celtics may be without big man Daniel Theis for the next few weeks, head coach Brad Stevens acknowledged today (Twitter link via Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston).
While Stevens said Theis’ injury won’t require surgery and isn’t necessarily as bad it sounds, the 26-year-old is dealing with a torn plantar fascia in his right foot and has been ruled out indefinitely (Twitter links via Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald and the Celtics’ official account).
Theis doesn’t play a major role for the Celtics, but has been productive in limited minutes. So far in his second season with the franchise, he has averaged 6.0 PPG and 3.4 RPG in just 12.2 minutes per contest.
The Celtics have three more days to decide whether to pick up the third-year-option on Guerschon Yabusele, writes Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald.
The team’s other option decisions are easy, with Jayson Tatum sure to get $7.83MM in his third season and Jaylen Brown $6,534,829 in his fourth. Committing $3,117,240 to Yabusele, who isn’t part of the rotation, is a tougher call, especially with the team projected to be well into luxury tax territory if Kyrie Irving and Al Horford both opt out and re-sign as expected.
Adding in tax payments, the final cost for Yabusele would be in excess of $6MM, which is a high price tag for a player who is only playing 3.8 minutes per night and got into just 33 games as a rookie.
Yabusele said he hasn’t heard anything from team officials about their plans, but his preference is to remain with the franchise.
“I would love to be back here with the team,” he said. “The Celtics are a great organization, so if I have a chance to be back here, I would love to do that.”
The Celtics’ other choice is to decline the option now and take their chances on re-signing Yabusele as an unrestricted free agent in July. There’s risk involved because Yabusele could become much more expensive if he has a productive season. Other teams would also have an advantage because Boston would be limited to the $3,117,240 figure as a starting point for any new offer.
Bulpett notes that if the Celtics decide to pick up his option, they will face the same decision again next fall when he will have a fourth-year option of $4,781,846.
Kyrie Irving is one of several big-name players projected to reach unrestricted free agency during the summer of 2019, but it appears his free agency will be a mere formality. During the preseason, Irving announced to an arena of Celtics fans that he intends to re-sign with Boston next July. According to reports, the star point guard has privately conveyed a similar sentiment to C’s management.
Despite Irving’s proclamation, executives around the NBA still have Irving’s name on their free agent big boards for 2019, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported earlier this week. Windhorst notes that verbal commitments are just that, and that they don’t come with any guarantees — there’s nothing stopping Irving from changing his mind between now and July 1.
While that’s true, it undersells the explicit and public nature of the commitment Irving made this fall. Typically, when free-agents-to-be are asked about their futures, their answers are evasive. Some refuse to address the subject at all, telling reporters that they’re focused on the season or that they’ll let their agents handle the business side. Others express interest in re-signing with their current teams, but add a caveat or two — they “know it’s a business” or they “hope the team feels the same way” or they’ll “see what happens.”
In Irving’s case, his declaration didn’t leave any ambiguity: He intends to re-sign with the Celtics, and is only waiting to do so because signing an extension now wouldn’t make sense from a financial perspective. It’s the sort of vow that we rarely hear from top free agents, many of whom prefer to keep their options open and don’t want to risk angering a fan base by making a promise they might not keep.
Still, we’re more than eight months away from July. If the Celtics struggle to meet expectations this season, will Irving be as enthusiastic about signing a long-term deal next offseason? If he suffers another knee injury, will the C’s be eager to put a massive multiyear off on the table? While Boston certainly wants to keep Irving, the team hasn’t made any promises of its own. It’s possible that the situation could change significantly in the coming months.
In my opinion, it would be very surprising if Irving and the Celtics don’t eventually finalize a new deal. However, it can’t be considered a total lock until he puts pen to paper next July.
What do you think? Does it make sense to essentially cross off Irving’s name from 2019’s list of free agents, or will he and/or the team have second thoughts within the next eight months?
Vote below in our poll and jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!
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Celtics forward Gordon Hayward has admitted that he’s still feeling the ill effects of the horrific ankle injury he suffered on opening night that season, writes Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. As a result, he recently sat out the second night of a back-to-back.
“There’s soreness in my ankle every time I play right now. I think there will be soreness for a little while,” said Hayward. “That’s why I’m on a minutes restriction… they don’t want any overloading issues, so there is some load management stuff basically.”
That being said, Hayward still hopes that he won’t be forced to miss any future back-to-backs. “That was just the plan for that game. I want to play in every single game and every single minute but my game is not there yet. I trust our staff.”
There’s more from the Atlantic Division this evening:
- In another piece for NBC Sports Boston, Forsberg writes how head coach Brad Stevens gave a blunt assessment of the Celtics after the team’s recent loss to the Magic. “I’ve said it, that we’re not as good as everybody thinks we are. (This is) just another reminder how much we have to work.”
- Sixers All-Star big man Joel Embiid has been issued a warning from the league office for flopping against Andre Drummond and the Pistons last night, reports Ian Begley of ESPN. There is no fine involved, but there will be if violates the NBA’s anti-flopping rules again.
- Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that J.J. Redick is an even more integral piece of this year’s Sixers team than last year’s because of the lack of quality shooting around him with the losses of Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli in free agency.
The Celtics have yet to hit their stride so far in 2018/19, and while their depth figures to be a strength over the course of the season, it may also be a source of frustration when things aren’t going well for players who would like more minutes. Asked after Monday’s loss to Orlando about embracing a fluid role, backup point guard Terry Rozier admitted that it’s “not the easiest,” as Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston writes.
“Me being a competitor and me being who I am, I wake up every day and want to be the best I can be, want to win and everything,” said Rozier. “It’s tough when I don’t get the minutes that I may want. [Monday] night, for example, I didn’t play that many minutes.”
Beyond simply being a competitor and wanting to win, Rozier has another important reason to prefer a regular, prominent role this season. After having failed to reach an extension agreement with the Celtics, he’ll be a restricted free agent in 2019, so his play on the court in the coming months will go a long way toward determining what his next contract looks like. Still, he made it clear that he’s not unhappy and he understands the challenge facing head coach Brad Stevens.
“Coach does not have the easiest job. He has the toughest job out of all of us,” Rozier said of Stevens. “And I can respect that. I control what I control. I still come in every day and I bust my butt because I know it may be different on Thursday. I just have to stay ready. And it’s tough because, like I said, I’m competitive. But [Stevens] has a tough job.”
As Forsberg notes, Monday was likely the exception for Rozier and the Celtics rather than the rule. After seeing at least 23 minutes of action in each of the team’s first three games, Rozier played only 15 on Monday — Stevens used 12 different players in an effort to find the best lineup combination for a C’s team that came out flat. Those 15 minutes were the fewest Rozier had played in a game since last November, and that’s unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.
Still, a report prior to this month’s rookie scale extension deadline suggested that Rozier would likely seek the “minutes and money” of a starter on his next contract after averaging 36.6 minutes per contest in the postseason for the Celtics last season. As long as Kyrie Irving remains healthy, Rozier won’t be playing starter’s minutes in Boston this season, and as long as Irving and the C’s remain on track for a long-term deal next summer, it’s not clear if the club will be willing to offer Rozier a lucrative multiyear contract too.
If and when the Celtics start piling up wins, Rozier will certainly find it easier to accept his fluid role, but this is still a situation worth keeping an eye on over the course of the season as his free agency nears.
Unlike player and team options on veteran contracts, which generally have to be exercised or declined by the end of June, rookie scale contracts include third- and fourth-year options that teams must decide on a year early. The deadline for those decisions is October 31, which means that clubs have one more week to pick up or turn down those rookie scale options for the 2019/20 season.
While several teams have already announced their rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20, there are 14 clubs that will need to decide one way or the other on those options within the next week.
Below, we’ve listed the outstanding rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20, sorting them by their likelihood of being exercised. The first list features options that are certain to be exercised, such as Ben Simmons‘ or Jayson Tatum‘s. The second list features the rest of the options, which may still be picked up, but aren’t necessarily locks.
Let’s dive in…
Locks to be exercised:
- Markelle Fultz, 76ers (third year, $9,745,200)
- Ben Simmons, 76ers (fourth year, $8,113,930)
- Dario Saric, 76ers (fourth year, $3,481,986)
- Kris Dunn, Bulls (fourth year, $5,348,007)
- Lauri Markkanen, Bulls (third year, $5,300,400)
- Denzel Valentine, Bulls (fourth year, $3,377,569)
- Ante Zizic, Cavaliers (third year, $2,281,800)
- Jayson Tatum, Celtics (third year, $7,830,000)
- Jaylen Brown, Celtics (fourth year, $6,534,829)
- Malik Monk, Hornets (third year, $4,028,400)
- De’Aaron Fox, Kings (third year, $6,392,760)
- Buddy Hield, Kings (fourth year, $4,861,208)
- Justin Jackson, Kings (third year, $3,280,920)
- Harry Giles, Kings (third year, $2,578,800)
- Jamal Murray, Nuggets (fourth year, $4,444,746)
- Juan Hernangomez, Nuggets (fourth year, $3,321,030)
- Luke Kennard, Pistons (third year, $3,827,160)
- Pascal Siakam, Raptors (fourth year, $2,351,839)
- OG Anunoby, Raptors (third year, $2,281,800)
Not necessarily locks to be exercised:
- Furkan Korkmaz, 76ers (third year, $2,033,160)
- Thon Maker, Bucks (fourth year, $3,569,643)
- D.J. Wilson, Bucks (third year, $2,961,120)
- Guerschon Yabusele, Celtics (third year, $3,117,240)
- Skal Labissiere, Kings (fourth year, $2,338,847)
- Malik Beasley, Nuggets (fourth year, $2,731,714)
- Tyler Lydon, Nuggets (third year, $2,190,720)
- Henry Ellenson, Pistons (fourth year, $2,856,804)
- Malachi Richardson, Raptors (fourth year, $2,581,597)
- Marquese Chriss, Rockets (fourth year, $4,078,236)
- Dragan Bender, Suns (fourth year, $5,896,519)
- Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Thunder (fourth year, $2,529,684)
- Terrance Ferguson, Thunder (third year, $2,475,840)
- Justin Patton, Timberwolves (third year, $3,117,240)
- Damian Jones, Warriors (fourth year, $2,305,057)
Because rookie scale salaries are typically so affordable, many of the options that we don’t view as locks to be picked up will still be exercised. For instance, even if Labissiere barely has a role in the Kings’ crowded frontcourt at the moment, Sacramento doesn’t have much guaranteed money on its books for 2019/20 and may view a $2,338,847 cap hit for the big man as a worthwhile investment.
Still, many of the players in that second list don’t currently have sizable rotation roles, so teams will have to decide whether it’s worth it to continue trying to develop those players in 2019/20, or if it makes more sense to simply replace them with minimum-salary veterans. That could be an especially tricky question for teams that project to be over the luxury tax line next season — in those cases, every saved dollar matters.
For a full list of the rookie scale options for 2019/20, including the ones that have already been picked up, check out our tracker.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Front office executives around the NBA, even on probable playoff teams, are already looking ahead to 2019’s free agent period, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, who notes that next summer’s group of star free-agents-to-be is generating plenty of early interest.
As Windhorst details, executives believe that many of the top players in 2019 free agency are viable candidates to change teams. In 2018, LeBron James signed with a new team, but most of the league’s other elite free agents, such as Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and Paul George, re-signed with their current clubs. In 2019, Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, and DeMarcus Cousins are all viewed as at least decent bets to change teams, particularly since there will be so much cap room available around the NBA.
Teams are also keeping a close eye on Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, per Windhorst. Davis can’t reach free agency until 2020, but will be eligible for a super-max extension in 2019. If the Pelicans struggle at all this season or if Davis doesn’t immediately sign that extension with New Orleans, potential trade suitors for the star big man will be calling the Pelicans.
As for Irving, he has verbally committed to re-signing with Boston, but nothing is set in stone yet — plus, the Celtics would likely be reluctant to put a five-year max offer on the table if the star point guard battles injuries again, which could change the equation.
Circling back to Durant and the Warriors, Windhorst also observes that many people around the league think 2018/19 will be the last season that the team’s current core remains together. Durant is considered more likely to leave than Klay Thompson, but execs also wonder about Draymond Green‘s future, Windhorst notes.
Green will be extension-eligible again next offseason in advance of his 2020 free agency, and could even qualify for a super-max extension if he earns All-NBA honors. The versatile big man has talked about having taken a discount on his last deal and suggested that he doesn’t intend to do so again this time around.
We’re still more than eight months away from the 2019 free agent period getting underway, but with so much cap room available and so many big-name free agents potentially in play, it figures to be the subject of a ton of speculation throughout the 2018/19 season.