- The NBA formally announced on Wednesday that it will be headed back to Abu Dhabi in the fall of 2024, with the Celtics and Nuggets set to play a pair of preseason games on Friday, October 4 and Sunday, Oct. 6 in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city. It will be third consecutive year that the league has played exhibition games in Abu Dhabi.
As we detailed on Tuesday, 17 players that had been on two-way contracts received promotions to standard deals between last month’s trade deadline and Monday’s two-way signing deadline.
However, even though those 17 players filled standard roster spots around the NBA and no team currently has an open two-way slot, there are still several openings on 15-man rosters across the league.
[RELATED: 2023/24 NBA Roster Counts]
Here’s a rundown of the teams that still have at least one standard roster spot available, along with some brief observations on how they might fill those openings:
Teams with two open roster spots
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New York Knicks
- Philadelphia 76ers
Teams are permitted to dip below 14 players on standard contracts for up to 14 days at a time. Currently, there are three teams taking advantage of that rule: the Timberwolves, Knicks, and Sixers.
There’s no real urgency for any of these clubs to sign a player in the short term — Philadelphia doesn’t have to re-add a 14th man until March 15, while New York’s and Minnesota’s deadlines are March 16 and 17, respectively.
Still, I’m not sure any of the three will wait that long to make a move. The Sixers and Knicks have a crowded injury list and could use some additional depth, while the Timberwolves have already reportedly reached an agreement on a 10-day deal with T.J. Warren — it just hasn’t been officially finalized yet.
[Note: Warren officially signed with the Wolves shortly after the publication of this story.]
Philadelphia could still use another frontcourt body with Joel Embiid on the shelf. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Taj Gibson eventually makes his way back to the Knicks, though he’s under contract with Detroit for the next 10 days. Marcus Morris was linked to Minnesota last month, though it remains unclear whether a union for the two sides remains in play.
Teams with one open roster spot
- Boston Celtics
- Detroit Pistons
- Note: The Pistons’ 14th man (Gibson) is on a 10-day contract.
- Golden State Warriors
- Phoenix Suns
- Utah Jazz
There’s no timeline for any of these teams to fill their 15th open roster spot. I’d expect the Pistons and Jazz to be a little more proactive about making a move though, since they’re both well below the luxury tax line and could potentially benefit from taking a look at some young players on 10-day deals for developmental purposes down the stretch.
The Celtics, Warriors, and Suns are all well above the tax threshold and aren’t in desperate need for depth pieces at the moment, so they’ll probably be patient when it comes to adding a 15th man.
Neemias Queta (Celtics) and Saben Lee (Suns) are candidates to be promoted from two-way contracts near the end of the season. The Warriors already elevated their most obvious candidate for a promotion (Lester Quinones), so it’s unclear what they may have in mind for their final roster move. Given how deep they are, it’s unlikely anyone the Dubs add would play at all in the postseason.
Teams whose 15th man is on a 10-day contract
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Toronto Raptors
- Washington Wizards
The Cavaliers will open up a roster spot on Thursday when Sharife Cooper‘s 10-day contract expires. The Wizards (R.J. Hampton) and Pelicans (Izaiah Brockington) will follow suit next Wednesday, with the Raptors (Jahmi’us Ramsey) opening up their 15th roster spot next Thursday.
Each of those four players would be eligible for a second 10-day deal with his respective team. However, all four clubs seem to be rotating players in and out of that slot, so it’s possible that the Cavs, Pelicans, Raptors, and Wizards all finish the season with a different 15th man.
Toronto and Washington won’t make the playoffs and will likely eventually settle on a prospect who can be signed to a team-friendly multiyear contract. The Cavs and Pelicans could ultimately go the same route, though they’ll want to fully scour the buyout market in case there’s a veteran who could help in the postseason.
The left lower back nerve impingement that is currently keeping Ben Simmons on the shelf is the same issue that affected him earlier this season, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv and Brian Lewis of The New York Post, who confirm that the Nets guard/forward didn’t suffer a new impingement.
Simmons’ agent Bernie Lee, referring to his client as day-to-day, said he continues to seek answers on how to get Simmons past this health issue, which has affected the former No. 1 overall pick for multiple seasons.
“We continue to try and find non-surgical options to allow Ben to move forward on a permanent basis and that is where this is my responsibility and I am (the) one to blame,” Lee said. “When I began working with Ben I made a commitment to him that I would do everything I could to find the right answers and specialists for him to work with (in order) to move forward from the issues he has been having. Clearly it hasn’t happened, and that’s my responsibility.
“… Come the offseason, we’re going to implement some processes and outside input that’ll allow him to finally move forward from this ongoing issue and resume his career at the levels he’s established prior to being injured.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- The Knicks aren’t surprised by the strides that Miles McBride has made as a shooter this season, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic, who notes that the third-year guard is making a strong case for rotation minutes even when everyone is healthy. As Stefan Bondy of The New York Post observes, the signing of Shake Milton will give New York another option in an increasingly crowded backcourt. However, Katz suggests that Milton is viewed as a depth piece and that McBride’s performance should keep him ahead of Milton – and Alec Burks – on the team’s depth chart.
- Celtics newcomer Xavier Tillman has made a positive impression on his new teammates, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com and Jay King of The Athletic. Tillman played just three total minutes in his first seven games as a Celtic (he missed four of those games while recovering from a knee injury), but has scored 13 points across 33 minutes and been a +26 in Boston’s past two games. “X looked good out there, man,” Jaylen Brown said after Friday’s win over Dallas. “It’s like, he fit right in. He came right in and made contributions on defense, got a few rebounds, got some stops. Offense, you could tell he got a good feel for the game. A good screen setter.”
- The Celtics‘ offensive success this season stems in large part from the fact that their top eight players are all reliable three-point shooters on relatively high volume, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic. Hollinger considers whether it’s just a matter of time until the NBA features several more teams that look like the Celtics or whether Boston is an anomaly due to the difficulty of building a roster that has that many shooters and still plays strong defense.
Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and Celtics forward Jayson Tatum have been named the NBA’s Players of the Month for games played in February, the league announced (Twitter link).
Doncic, the Western Conference’s winner, continues to put up eye-popping statistics in 2023/24, averaging 33.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, 10.3 assists, and 1.8 steals on .517/.398/.787 shooting in 11 games last month (37.2 MPG).
He helped guide Dallas to an 8-3 record in February, though the Mavs have since lost two straight and currently hold a 34-27 record, good for the No. 8 seed in the West.
Tatum, meanwhile, led the way for a Boston team that was 9-1 in February, averaging 27.2 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 6.7 APG and 1.1 SPG on .480/.351/.887 shooting in 36.0 MPG.
Tatum is the first repeat Player of the Month winner this season, having also earned the honor for October/November. After claiming spots on the All-NBA First Team each of the past two seasons, the 26-year-old appears on track for another all-league spot in 2023/24, with the Celtics currently 48-12, the No. 1 seed in the East (and the NBA).
The other nominees in the West were Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Domantas Sabonis, while Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner and Franz Wagner were nominated in the East, per the NBA (Twitter links).
Lakers forward LeBron James and Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown have been named the NBA’s Players of the Week, the league announced on Monday (via Twitter).
James, the Western Conference’s winner, helped guide L.A. to a 2-1 record last week, averaging 30.3 points, 8.7 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks with a .569/.500/.600 shooting line in his three appearances (37.6 MPG). The four-time MVP also eclipsed 40,000 career points in Saturday’s loss to the Nuggets, expanding his lead as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Brown, who won for the East, had a strong week as well, averaging 28.3 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 3.0 APG and 1.0 SPG on .623/.471/.846 shooting in 29.3 MPG in convincing victories over Philadelphia, Dallas, and Golden State. The Celtics, who have won 11 straight games, hold (by far) the best record in the NBA at 48-12, six games ahead of the Thunder.
According to the NBA, the other nominees in the West were Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Brandon Ingram, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama, while Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paolo Banchero, Tyrese Maxey, Evan Mobley, and Brown’s teammate Jayson Tatum were nominated in the East (Twitter links).
- Jaden Springer didn’t anticipate getting traded at this stage of his career, he admitted to Gina Mizell of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was dealt from the Sixers to the Celtics earlier this month. “I wasn’t expecting that,” the 2021 first rounder said. “But I [didn’t] really think about it too much. It happened, and I was OK with moving on to the next thing. I’m here [in Boston] now, and that’s what I’m really focused on.” Sixers exec Daryl Morey didn’t view Springer as a rotation player in the postseason for the next few seasons, Mizell explains, which is why he was shipped out for an asset — a 2024 second-rounder — that could potentially be flipped for a veteran role player.
- The Celtics are eligible to sign Mike Muscala but it doesn’t seem likely, Brian Robb of Masslive.com writes. Muscala was bought out by the Pistons this week after he was acquired in a trade with Washington in mid-January. However, teams like the Knicks and Sixers would appear to be better fits, given that Muscala could get immediate playing time in their frontcourts. Boston would not be able to offer him any regular minutes while the team is healthy, and the C’s added a big man at the trade deadline in Xavier Tillman.
Despite being involved in countless rumors in the months leading up to the trade deadline, the Hawks‘ front office decided to stand pat. As John Hollinger of The Athletic writes, Atlanta hasn’t made any type of significant move since trading John Collins to Utah last June in a salary dump.
It’s strange for a middling team to be so inactive, especially since the Hawks had high hopes after trading for Dejounte Murray a couple years ago. But pairing him with Trae Young hasn’t worked out over the past two seasons, particularly on the defensive end, Hollinger notes.
However, Young underwent successful hand surgery on Tuesday and will be sidelined for at least four weeks, giving Murray an opportunity to play his natural position — point guard — while Young is out. As Hollinger observes, despite his relatively diminutive stature, Young has been quite durable over the course of his career, so it will be the Hawks’ first real opportunity in several years to see what they can do without the three-time All-Star.
If the Hawks play well without Young, Hollinger wonders if they’ll be more inclined to trade the 25-year-old this summer instead of Murray, who is on a less expensive long-term contract. Either way, Hollinger argues the Hawks shouldn’t continue their transactional inactivity, as the current roster is too good to bottom out but not good enough to contend for anything meaningful.
Here’s more from the Southeast:
- John Collins had an emotional return to Atlanta on Tuesday, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. The former Hawks big man spent his first six seasons with the team before being traded to the Jazz last offseason. “I was aware it was going to be very emotional for me. I was doing my best to not let it, but it did,” Collins said.
- After previously reporting a few “prime” contenders to become the Hornets‘ new lead basketball executive, veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein adds another name to the list of possible candidates (via Twitter): Celtics assistant GM Austin Ainge, the son of Jazz CEO Danny Ainge. Austin has been with Boston in various roles for well over a decade.
- The NBA will allow Heat backup center Thomas Bryant to receive his 2023 championship ring on Thursday in Denver, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link), who notes that suspended players are not normally permitted inside arenas on game days. However, the league decided to make an exception for Bryant, who will have to leave after the pregame ceremony. Bryant was a role player last year for the Nuggets.
- Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald takes a look at what the Heat are expecting from trade acquisition Terry Rozier, who returned to action on Tuesday after battling a knee sprain. Rozier says he’s still trying to find the right balance now that he’s not the top offensive option like he was for part of the season in Charlotte. “For sure,” Rozier said. “Not trying to do too much, but you got guys over there screaming at me, telling me I need to shoot the ball. Just trying to figure it out. Wins is all we really care about.“
Celtics guard Jrue Holiday is expected to be a part of the Team USA roster that competes in the 2024 Olympics in Paris this summer, sources with knowledge of the situation tell Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. According to The Athletic’s duo, there’s a belief that Holiday has made a commitment to USA Basketball officials in recent weeks.
Holiday is one of several players who are considered locks for the 12-man U.S. roster as long as they remain healthy and interested. Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and Jayson Tatum also fall into that group, per Charania and Vardon.
Holiday holds a player option for the 2024/25 season, but he’ll become eligible to sign a long-term extension with the Celtics on April 1 (he’s technically extension-eligible already, but can only currently sign a short-term deal). Getting an extension done this spring would put the veteran guard in position to compete with Team USA this summer without having to worry about an unresolved contract situation.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Jaylin Galloway, a 21-year-old forward who played for the Sydney Kings in Australia’s National Basketball League this season, is generating NBA interest and is a candidate to sign with a team before the end of the 2023/24 season, Marc Stein writes in his latest article at Substack. Galloway played in last July’s Las Vegas Summer League with the Timberwolves, who are one of many teams around the NBA with an open roster spot.
- LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George sit atop a list of the top 25 free agents of 2024 compiled by Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. James and George are considered likely to remain with their respective teams in Los Angeles, while Maxey will be a restricted free agent and will almost certainly sign a lucrative long-term deal with Philadelphia.
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic takes a look at the NBA’s new rule requiring players to appear in at least 65 games for award consideration, noting that it was a priority for the league ahead of negotiations for its next media rights deal. As Vorkunov writes, before the rule was implemented, at least one the NBA’s major television partners had expressed frustration to the NBA about star players sitting out marquee broadcasts.
After appearing in 41 games for the Celtics last season, Blake Griffin hasn’t been on an NBA roster at all in 2023/24. However, if it were up to the Celtics’ players, Griffin would still be in Boston.
As Brian Robb of MassLive.com writes, guards Derrick White and Payton Pritchard said during an appearance on the Pardon My Take podcast that several Celtics players tried to get Griffin to sign with the team earlier in the ’23/24 league year.
“I think the whole team has been begging him to,” White said.
“I texted him actually a week ago or two jokingly being like, ‘Coming back for one last ride?'” Pritchard added. “He says he’s enjoying his life.”
According to Robb, multiple Celtics players reached out to Griffin during the team’s West Coast road trip in December to ask about a possible return. However, the six-time All-Star has opted to sit out this season to spend more time with his family, Robb writes.
“He told me at the end of last year that his family was the most important thing and I stopped talking to him about it,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said when asked on Monday about White’s and Pritchard’s comments about Griffin (Twitter link via Jared Weiss of The Athletic).
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- The Celtics have held the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference for all but six days this season and appear highly likely to keep the top spot the rest of the way, according to Jay King of The Athletic, who explores whether any conference rivals could realistically catch Boston. The Celtics have a 7.5-game lead on the No. 2 Cavaliers, with just 25 games left to play.
- With Joel Embiid unavailable and players in and out of the rotation this month due to injuries and trade-deadline moves, the Sixers have struggled to find a rhythm, losing nine of their past 13 games, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription required). “There’s a lot of different combinations of guys,” head coach Nick Nurse said, “and we’re trying to make sure when we’re doing stuff that we can figure it out and get more on the same page. It’s just a bit disjointed at times when it gets tough.”
- While Gary Trent Jr.‘s 41.4% three-point percentage is excellent, his season as a whole has still felt like a bit of a letdown, according to Eric Koreen of The Athletic, who considers whether or not that assessment is fair and whether the Raptors will re-sign Trent, who is a free agent this summer. A multiyear offer worth somewhere between the mid-level exception and $20MM annually might be reasonable for the 25-year-old, Koreen suggests.
- Zulfi Sheikh of Sportsnet.ca identifies six storylines to watch for the Raptors down the stretch this season, including whether the team actually has a shot at a play-in berth and RJ Barrett‘s progress in his first few months with his new team.
Being named MVP is one of Jayson Tatum‘s career goals, but leading the Celtics to an NBA title ranks higher on his list, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Tatum said at All-Star Weekend that he believes voters look at him differently based on a subpar performance in the 2022 Finals, Washburn adds. Although Tatum averaged 21.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 7.0 assists in that series, he shot just 31% on two-pointers and had difficulty scoring inside against Andrew Wiggins.
“Of course you want to win those things,” Tatum told reporters last weekend in Indianapolis. “But you can’t take precedence over playing the right way and doing the things that you have to do in order for your team to essentially be the best team in the league and have a chance to win a championship. Would I love to win? Yes. But apparently us losing the Finals two years ago affects what people think of me now, so I guess I’ve got some ground to make up.”
Tatum’s MVP case is boosted by the dominance of the Celtics, who won their eighth straight game Saturday in New York. Boston holds the league’s best record by a wide margin, but its roster is so talented that Tatum doesn’t have to carry the team, which often limits the stats that voters tend to look at when casting their ballots. Coach Joe Mazzulla made that point after Tatum’s 19-point performance against the Knicks.
“I thought today was a beautiful display of basketball from Jayson that will go underlooked and will not go into the most valuable category,” Mazzulla said. “But his ability to control the game with his pick-and-roll pace, his pick-and-roll passing; his defense, he put himself on ((Jalen) Brunson. And the poise of welcoming the two-on-ones (double teams) and creating for others was great.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Kristaps Porzingis, one of Boston’s major acquisitions last summer, gives credit to the front office for its bold moves in assembling the current roster, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. “When the opportunity presented, for me at least, I said this is gonna work, 100%,” Porzingis said. “Or we’re gonna figure it out sooner than later. And it just worked right away because of the fit, because of where I am in my career, and adding Jrue (Holiday). … So just overall great players but also great people and that makes the team connect very easily.”
- With an eight-game lead for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, Mazzulla will have the opportunity to rest players for the remainder of the season to keep them fresh for the playoffs, notes Brian Robb of MassLive. He adds that it’s a luxury for a team that may have worn itself out by chasing seedings in past years.
- Senior consultant of basketball operations Jeff Van Gundy has stayed out of the spotlight, but he has been a welcome addition to the Celtics’ management team, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “One of the best things he does is he’s just a great listener,” Mazzulla said. “And so you don’t realize how long he’s been in the NBA. You don’t realize the playoff series that he’s been in, the experiences that he’s had, because he waits for the opportunity to come up and almost waits for you to ask him. So he’s very patient. He’s a great listener. And then just a guy that you can bounce ideas off of.”