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Atlantic Notes: Barnes, O. Porter, Harden, Beverley, Celtics

October 21st, 2023 at 7:02am CST by Luke Adams

Third-year Raptors forward Scottie Barnes exited Friday’s preseason finale against the Wizards with a sprained right foot and was ruled out for the remainder of the contest, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca.

The former Rookie of the Year appeared to roll his ankle/foot on a non-contact play, as Esfandiar Baraheni of SDPN relays (Twitter video link). However, after the game, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic downplayed the injury, telling reporters that Barnes is “completely fine,” per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link).

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

  • After missing most of last season due to a foot injury, Raptors forward Otto Porter Jr. returned to action on Friday, playing for the first time since November 14, notes Lewenberg (Twitter link). As Murphy tweets, Rajakovic is enthusiastic about Porter’s fit on the roster, but said the team will be “careful” about how it uses him following his extended layoff, prioritizing his long-term health.
  • Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription required) suggests that the Bulls and Heat could be potential trade partners for the Sixers if their James Harden negotiations with the Clippers remain at an impasse. However, Pompey isn’t citing any sources saying that Chicago or Miami is actually talking to Philadelphia, so it sounds more like speculation than anything solid. Harden remained away from the 76ers on Friday and missed the preseason finale due to what the club is calling a personal matter.
  • Patrick Beverley, who joined the Sixers as a free agent this summer, has taken on a familiar role of veteran leader and defensive spark-plug, Pompey writes in another article for The Inquirer. Beverley’s leadership has impressed his new head coach. “He’s putting in a tremendous amount of work pre- and post-practice,” Nick Nurse said. “He really, really does a good job of organizing, and that’s important. We need a veteran guy that can get us organized, settled down, and all those kinds of things and then he’s a got a little bit on the other end, too.”
  • In a mailbag for NBC Sports Boston, Chris Forsberg considers what the Celtics‘ regular season rotation might look like, evaluating which players beyond the team’s top eight might emerge as reliable contributors.

Rory Maher contributed to this post.

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Celtics Sign, Waive James Banks, Reginald Kissoonlal

October 20th, 2023 at 6:19pm CST by Rory Maher

The Celtics have signed and waived free agent centers James Banks and Reginald Kissoonlal, according to NBA.com’s official transactions log. Both players will likely be heading to Maine to play for Boston’s G League affiliate.

Banks went undrafted in 2020 out of Georgia Tech. After spending 2020/21 — his first pro season — playing in Israel, the 25-year-old returned stateside and has been playing in the G League the past two seasons.

In 41 career regular season contests with the Birmingham Squadron (Pelicans’ affiliate) and the Texas Legends (Mavs’ affiliate), Banks has averaged 6.3 PPG, 5.7 RPG and 1.4 BPG in 19.0 MPG.

Kissoonlal, meanwhile, went undrafted in 2019 out of Marian University. He spent his first three professional seasons in Europe prior to signing an Exhibit 10 deal with the Celtics last fall. He was waived the same day. The 27-year-old averaged 5.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG and 1.2 BPG in 18 regular season games with the Maine Celtics in 2022/23 (10.6 MPG).

Boston now has 17 players under contract.

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Celtics Waive Wenyen Gabriel, DJ Steward

October 20th, 2023 at 5:40pm CST by Luke Adams

5:40pm: Both Gabriel and DJ Steward have been officially waived by the Celtics, per NBA.com’s transactions log.

9:56am: The Celtics are placing big man Wenyen Gabriel on waivers ahead of the regular season, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

A four-year NBA veteran, Gabriel spent last season with the Lakers, appearing in 68 games and averaging 5.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per night.

Gabriel signed with Boston at the start of training camp after the team included Robert Williams in its trade package for Jrue Holiday. Given the hit the Celtics’ frontcourt depth took in that deal, it appeared the 26-year-old had a path to a regular season roster spot.

However, Gabriel only received a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract, which offered no assurances beyond training camp and the preseason, and he was outperformed by two-way player Neemias Queta this month. Boston has also typically kept a 15-man roster spot open into the regular season in recent years, notes Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link).

In addition to their 10 players with guaranteed salaries, the Celtics have Luke Kornet, Svi Mykhailiuk, Dalano Banton, and Lamar Stevens on partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed deals, with DJ Steward on an Exhibit 10 pact. It seems likely that Steward will be cut when Boston sets its regular season roster, with the other four making the team, though that has yet to be confirmed.

As for Gabriel, it’s unclear where his next stop might be. Since his contract with Boston didn’t include an Exhibit 10 bonus, he’s not an obvious candidate to join the Maine Celtics, the club’s G League affiliate.

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Celtics Sign James Banks To Exhibit 10 Deal

October 20th, 2023 at 2:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Free agent center James Banks has signed with the Celtics, according to the Real GM transactions log.

It’s an Exhibit 10 contract, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac, who adds that Banks will ultimately be sent to Boston’s G League affiliate in Maine. The team recently completed a trade for Banks’ returning player rights. The Exhibit 10 language gives Banks an opportunity to earn a bonus up to $75K if he spends at least 60 days with Maine.

Banks, 25, has played the last two years in the G League with the Birmingham Squadron and the Texas Legends. He averaged 5.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in nine regular season games with Texas last season.

With the addition of Banks, the Celtics have 19 players on their preseason roster.

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Celtics Notes: Porzingis, Salary Issues, Starting Lineup

October 19th, 2023 at 12:48pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics are facing a massive payroll in upcoming seasons, but they’re willing to spend big to compete for a title, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. After coming close several times over the last seven years, including last season’s Game 7 loss to Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston is committed to hanging another banner in the rafters.

The front office began overhauling the roster in late June when it acquired Kristaps Porzingis from Washington in a three-team deal. Porzingis provides coach Joe Mazzulla with the low-post threat he has been lacking, as Bontemps notes that Porzingis posted up 263 times last season, which was more per game than the entire Celtics team.

“Especially when (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) are playing, I felt like all the doors are open for me,” Porzingis said. “They take so much attention on themselves. For me, it was just like, honestly, it’s very, very fun to play, play like this and, and also emphasize the ball movement and, and getting everyone involved. I think once we click on all those things, it’s gonna be so hard to stop us.”

The Celtics gave Porzingis a two-year extension worth $60MM and signed Brown to a record-setting super-max deal that could pay him $300MM+ over five years. With Tatum eligible for an extension next summer and Jrue Holiday headed for free agency, Boston is committed to spending whatever it takes despite the second apron penalties contained in the new CBA.

“You’ve got to pay a good price for things, right?” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said. ” That’s the way it goes. We’re trying to win a championship.”

There’s more from Boston:

  • Mazzulla has been experimenting with Porzingis during the preseason to see all the ways he can impact the offense, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Mazzulla is also trusting his players to figure out how they can benefit from the attention Porzingis draws from defenses. “I don’t know if you saw, one of the timeouts, all five guys on the floor were communicating with each other. That stuff is more important,” the head coach said after Tuesday’s game. “The more they can understand who’s guarding them and how to get each other the ball and where they need to get it, that really will help us.”
  • With the season opener less than a week away, the Celtics don’t have a set lineup, observes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. Holiday came off the bench in the team’s first preseason game, and Al Horford filled that role on Tuesday. Mazzulla stated that he will often let matchups determine his starting five.
  • John Hollinger of the Athletic puts the Celtics at the top in his ranking of the best teams in the East with a projected record of 57-25. He notes that the team already had a solid foundation in place before adding Porzingis and Holiday, and now it has the versatility to adapt to almost any style of play. Boston also has two future first-round picks to trade, along with its 2031 first-rounder next summer, so there’s flexibility to keep improving.
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And-Ones: All-Star Game, Porter, Breakout Candidates, More

October 18th, 2023 at 2:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league is weighing the idea of reverting to the East vs. West format for its All-Star Game, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

Since the 2017/18 season, 12 players from each conference have been named All-Stars, but in order to set the two rosters, the top vote-getters in each conference have drafted teams from pools of eight starters and 14 reserves.

“We’re looking at some potential changes in format in Indianapolis this year,” Silver said, referring to the 2024 All-Star Game. “Maybe a return to something more traditional in terms of how the teams are presented. We went to sort of this captain and draft notion, but clearly historically it was East vs. West. So that’s maybe something we are looking at.”

Back in June, Silver didn’t close the door on the possibility of introducing an All-Star format that would pit U.S. players vs. international players. However, he downplayed the likelihood of that change on Wednesday, noting that the international player pool isn’t currently as deep as the U.S. one, which could result in skewed rosters.

According to Bontemps, Silver also reiterated during his First Take appearance, following up on the league’s recent statements on load management, that he views the idea of shortening the regular season as non-starter.

“None of us believe that,” Silver said. “None of the data supports that. As I was saying, back to this issue about load management, we don’t see more injuries later on in the season. Guys aren’t more likely to be injured after they’ve played 40 games as opposed to the first week of the season. I mean, unfortunately, injuries happen.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

  • Former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick has disputed Manhattan prosecutors’ characterization of Kevin Porter Jr.‘s alleged assault, telling Priscilla DeGregory and Emily Crane of The New York Post that Porter “never balled his fists up and hit me” and “definitely didn’t punch me in the face numerous times.” A second-degree assault charge against Porter was dropped this week after it was determined that Gondrezick’s vertebra fracture was a congenital defect and not caused by the former Rocket, who still faces third-degree assault and second-degree strangulation charges after being traded and waived on Tuesday. “It happened very fast, not to the degree of what was reported,” Gondrezick said of the incident. “And it was an argument that occurred in the room for not even 10 seconds.”
  • The Athletic’s NBA writers named a breakout candidate for all 30 NBA teams, with their picks ranging from popular choices such as Pistons guard Cade Cunningham and Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton to less obvious selections like Celtics wing Sam Hauser.
  • Jonathan Givony and Jeff Borzello of ESPN (Insider link) identify the top international freshman in the NCAA this season, starting with center Aday Mara and forward Berke Buyuktuncel of UCLA.
  • In an entertaining article for FOX Sports, Melissa Rohlin reveals that a Clippers employee – who happens to be a Lakers fan – was the original source of the erroneous offseason rumors linking Lakers guard Austin Reaves to Taylor Swift.
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Holiday Reciprocates Team USA Interest; White Not Stressing Role

October 18th, 2023 at 11:46am CST by Luke Adams
  • A report earlier this month suggested that USA Basketball is aggressively pursuing Jrue Holiday for its 2024 Olympic roster. The Celtics guard said on Monday that he hasn’t heard directly from Team USA yet, but expressed interest in playing in Paris, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “Why not?” Holiday said. “I want to see what we can do out there.”
  • After starting 70 of the 82 games he played for the Celtics last season, Derrick White isn’t necessarily guaranteed a spot in the starting five following the acquisitions of Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. White said this week that he’s fine with starting or coming off the bench and will go with the flow, tweets Weiss.
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Pacific Notes: D-Lo, Vanderbilt, Duarte, Huerter, J. Green

October 18th, 2023 at 9:08am CST by Luke Adams

Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell is a talented scorer, shooter, and passer, but has been targeted on the defensive end of the court over the years, a fact that he’s aware of and is making an effort to remedy, as Jovan Buha and Jay King of The Athletic write.

“Last year they found a way to get me off the floor by not playing defense, I guess,” Russell said. “So, try to be a reason to eliminate that. Not give them a reason to not have me on the floor. Try to be as dangerous as I can on offense and try not to be a liability on defense. So, that’s what I’m working on. I’m trying to do it now before the season so I continue to practice those good habits.”

Interestingly, Russell named Derrick White as a role model, praising the Celtics guard for making “all the winning plays,” even if he doesn’t necessarily get credit for them. According to Russell, that’s the type of player he aspires to be.

“I woke up to it and I was shocked, really,” White said when asked by The Athletic about Russell’s endorsement. “Obviously D-Lo’s an All-Star, has done a lot of great things in this league, a highly talented player. So it’s cool to get recognized like that, especially by a guy who’s done so much in the league like he has.”

Here are a few more notes from around the Pacific:

  • Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who is battling left heel soreness, will be reevaluated on Friday, head coach Darvin Ham told reporters earlier this week (Twitter link via Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group). Vanderbilt hasn’t played since the team’s preseason opener on October 7.
  • The Kings still haven’t made a decision on whether to start Kevin Huerter or Chris Duarte on the wing in their regular season opener, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. However, a left knee injury for Duarte may give Huerter a leg up — Duarte has been diagnosed with a bone bruise and will miss the remainder of the preseason, as Anderson writes.
  • The non-guaranteed contract that swingman Javonte Green signed with the Warriors includes Exhibit 9 language, but not an Exhibit 10 clause, Hoops Rumors has learned. Green is one of three veterans on the roster – along with Rudy Gay and Rodney McGruder – whose camp contract isn’t an Exhibit 10 deal. That means those vets may not be candidates to join the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League if they don’t make Golden State’s regular season roster.
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2023/24 NBA Over/Unders: Atlantic Division

October 17th, 2023 at 2:39pm CST by Luke Adams

With the 2023/24 NBA regular season around the corner, we’re getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign and continuing an annual Hoops Rumors tradition.

With the help of the lines from a series of sports betting sites – including Bovada and BetOnline – we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division. In a series of team-by-team polls, you’ll get the chance to weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic.

In 2022/23, our voters went 16-14 on their over/under picks. Can you top that in ’23/24?

We’ll wrap up our series today with the Atlantic Division…

Boston Celtics

Philadelphia 76ers

New York Knicks

Brooklyn Nets

Toronto Raptors

Previous voting results:

Northwest

  • Denver Nuggets (53.5 wins): Over (52.0%)
  • Minnesota Timberwolves (44.5 wins): Over (53.1%)
  • Oklahoma City Thunder (44.5 wins): Under (53.6%)
  • Utah Jazz (35.5 wins): Over (55.5%)
  • Portland Trail Blazers (28.5 wins): Under (50.9%)

Central

  • Milwaukee Bucks (54.5 wins): Over (76.9%)
  • Cleveland Cavaliers (50.5 wins): Under (52.0%)
  • Indiana Pacers (38.5 wins): Over (64.1%)
  • Chicago Bulls (37.5 wins): Under (61.9%)
  • Detroit Pistons (27.5 wins): Over (53.8%)

Southwest

  • Memphis Grizzlies (46.5 wins): Under (52.1%)
  • New Orleans Pelicans (44.5 wins): Under (60.8%)
  • Dallas Mavericks (44.5 wins): Under (50.3%)
  • Houston Rockets (31.5 wins): Over (59.2%)
  • San Antonio Spurs (28.5 wins): Over (54.4%)

Southeast

  • Miami Heat (46.5 wins): Under (59.0%)
  • Atlanta Hawks (42.5 wins): Under (61.1%)
  • Orlando Magic (37.5 wins): Over (60.7%)
  • Charlotte Hornets (31.5 wins): Under (65.8%)
  • Washington Wizards (24.5 wins): Over (53.3%)

Pacific

  • Phoenix Suns (52.5 wins): Under (52.6%)
  • Golden State Warriors (48.5 wins): Over (52.7%)
  • Los Angeles Lakers (47.5 wins): Over (57.2%)
  • Los Angeles Clippers (46.5 wins): Under (64.6%)
  • Sacramento Kings (44.5 wins): Over (71.3%)
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Stevens Thrilled To Have JVG As Consultant

October 15th, 2023 at 8:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder
  • Jeff Van Gundy, who was hired by the Celtics as a senior consultant, has a longtime admirer in president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. “Jeff has been an unofficial consultant for so many of us that grew up in coaching for a long time,” Stevens told Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe. “He’s so humble and approachable, and has always gone out of his way to spend time helping others.”
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