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Eastern Notes: Council, Celtics, Lillard, ’24/25 Standings

August 21st, 2024 at 1:23pm CST by Luke Adams

As he prepares for his second NBA season, Sixers swingman Ricky Council has been participating this summer in the private runs held in Los Angeles by Sixers assistant Rico Hines, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Council is working on fine-tuning his game in the hope of earning rotation minutes in Philadelphia in 2024/25.

“This summer has been a whole lot of work, maybe even more than last year,” Council said. “Keeping my shooting touch up, working on different finishing moves, just learning the game, playing against good competition every day. All that’s going to help me in the long run.”

Having spent most of his rookie season in 2023/24 on a two-way contract, Council didn’t see a ton of action at the NBA level, but he impressed in his limited minutes, averaging 5.4 points in 32 outings (9.0 MPG), with a shooting line of .482/.375/.746. He knows that in order to get more playing time in ’24/25, he’ll have to show he can excel in a complementary role.

“We have Paul George. We have Tyrese Maxey and we have Joel Embiid,” Council said. “I don’t expect they’ll need much off the dribble in that nature. So I just need to be able to hit open shots and guard people.”

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • There’s “zero truth” to rumors that billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is interested in bidding on the Celtics, a source close to Bezos tells Nick Wingfield of The Information. As Kurt Helin of NBC Sports notes, there has been speculation in league circles that Bezos may have interest in being involved in an expansion franchise in Seattle, but it doesn’t sound like he’s looking to gain control of the defending champions, whose majority ownership group put its stake up for sale earlier this summer.
  • Appearing on the Club 520 Podcast (YouTube link), Bucks guard Damian Lillard admitted that his first year in Milwaukee last season was a “harder transition” than he expected. In addition to going through a tumultuous period in his personal life at the time, he also found it challenging to adjust to playing alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton after being traded from Portland to Milwaukee just days before training camp. “I’m having to get used to playing with two (great) players and I don’t want to stop them from doing what they do,” Lillard said (hat tip to HoopsHype). “But I got to find how to be the best version of me within this too, so it was just a lot of moving parts. It was more difficult than I thought it would would be.”
  • The Celtics sit atop ESPN’s predictions for the 2024/25 Eastern Conference standings, followed by the Knicks, Sixers, Cavaliers, and Bucks, in that order. The Magic round out ESPN’s projected group of top-six playoff teams, followed by the Pacers, Heat, Hawks, and Bulls in the play-in group. For what it’s worth, ESPN’s panel sees a big disparity between the the top two and bottom two play-in teams, projecting 46 wins for Indiana and 45 for Miami, compared to 31 for Atlanta and 30 for Chicago.
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And-Ones: Whitehead, West Playoff Race, Holiday, Schröder

August 19th, 2024 at 11:13pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Former Nets shooting guard Isaiah Whitehead is reportedly joining Polish club Slask Wroclaw, according to Karol Wasiek of ZKrainyNBA.com (hat tip to Dario Skerletic of Sportando).

The 6’4″ swingman spent the 2023/24 season plying his trade for Israeli club Ironi Ness Ziona B.C., notching averages of 14.0 points, 4.6 assists per game, and four rebounds a night.

Whitehead was selected with the No. 42 overall pick by the Nets out of Seton Hall in 2016. Across two seasons with Brooklyn, the 29-year-old averaged 7.2 points on a .411/.305/.788 slash line, along with 2.4 boards and 2.4 dimes. He has been playing internationally since 2018.

There’s more from around the NBA world:

  • In a new piece, The Athletic’s Zach Harper takes stock of a wide-open Western Conference, projecting which clubs have a realistic shot at winning it all in 2024/25. Harper also lays out a Hall of Fame case for Celtics guard Jrue Holiday. The 6’4″ vet has now won two NBA and Olympic titles as a key contributor, has racked up a pair of All-Star accolades and has earned six All-Defensive Team honors.
  • Nets point guard Dennis Schröder recently took umbrage with Suns forward Kevin Durant’s critical post-Olympic tweet, seen as a shot at an initial Schröder comment, writes Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily. Schröder, who recently starred in the Paris Olympics for Team Germany, praised European basketball as “straight IQ basketball,” while he called the U.S. brand of the game as “entertainment.” After winning a gold medal for Team USA, Durant attached the caption “ENTERTAINMENT & IQ” to a photo of the gold-winning team on his personal Twitter account. “You’re that type of a star and have to say something to a person like me, who [didn’t] even mean it to be negative, just what I see from both sides. I didn’t appreciate it — not even appreciate it, I don’t care,” Schröder said on Twitch (Twitter video link). “… To say that tells me how weak he is as a person, you know what I’m saying? … It is what it is. Not everybody is strong, not everybody is in a good place.”
  • In case you missed it, we recently published projections for the maximum salaries, minimum salaries, and mid-level/bi-annual exceptions for the 2025/26 season.
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Celtics Notes: Tatum, Centers, Griffin, Schedule

August 17th, 2024 at 6:32pm CST by Arthur Hill

Will Celtics star Jayson Tatum turn his Olympics experience into motivation for the upcoming season? That’s the opinion of one of the anonymous NBA coaches and executives who talked to Steve Bulpett of Heavy about Tatum’s surprisingly small role with Team USA.

“It’s going to be really interesting to see how Tatum reacts to all of this,” said one former player who’s now in an NBA front office. “From everything I’ve seen and know, he’ll use it as motivation. The great ones always do. They perceive slights even when they’re not there. [Michael Jordan] took everything personal. That’s how a great player becomes a beast.”

Tatum seemed like a good bet to be one of the stars of the U.S. team when the roster was announced. However, his limited role turned out to be one of the few controversies for coach Steve Kerr as the Americans captured the gold medal. Tatum didn’t play at all in the two games against Serbia, and he was often used as the 11th man on a talented roster.

Another executive suggested to Bulpett that Tatum could be the star of Team USA if he decides to return for the 2028 Olympics.

“He got the gold. He didn’t get the role he wanted,” the executive said. “But next time he’ll probably be in the role he wants, with no (Kevin Durant) and no LeBron (James) and no (Stephen Curry) playing. He’ll be the next generation of them.”

There’s more on the Celtics:

  • Coach Joe Mazzulla will likely stagger the rest nights for Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis once Porzingis returns from offseason surgery, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. He notes that Mazzulla took a similar approach last season, with Luke Kornet performing well whenever he was asked to start. Robb expects Kornet, Xavier Tillman and possibly Neemias Queta to see regular minutes during the first half of the season.
  • Blake Griffin, who officiated Payton Pritchard‘s wedding last week, remains close with his former Celtics teammates, but doesn’t seem likely to join the team as an assistant coach, Robb adds in the same piece. Griffin’s desire to spend more time with his young children played a role in his decision to retire last season instead of re-signing with Boston, so Robb doesn’t believe he would be interested in any job that requires heavy travel.
  • In the wake of Thursday’s schedule release, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe looks at the most intriguing matchups for the Celtics on this year’s slate.
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And-Ones: Marquee Matchups, Cap Room, Spending, Most Improved Teams

August 16th, 2024 at 7:55am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA revealed its full schedule for the 2024/25 regular season on Thursday, and while there generally aren’t any surprises on that schedule (it’s not like the NFL, where a team plays fewer than half of the league’s other clubs), it’s still worth circling specific dates and marquee matchups.

Zach Harper of The Athletic, Chris Mannix of SI.com, and ESPN did just that, with Harper highlighting 35 games he’s looking forward to, Mannix naming 10 games to watch, and ESPN identifying 23 games not to miss.

Unsurprisingly, the Knicks/Celtics regular season opener (October 22), Paul George‘s return to Los Angeles with the Sixers (November 6), and Klay Thompson‘s return to Golden State with the Mavericks (Nov. 12) made all three lists.

The other two matchups that showed up on all three lists? Wizards at Hawks on Oct. 28 in the first regular season matchup between this year’s top two draft picks (Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr) and Spurs at Thunder on Oct. 30 in this season’s first Victor Wembanyama/Chet Holmgren showdown.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • A total of seven NBA teams operated under the cap and used room to make moves this offseason. As Keith Smith of Spotrac writes, those clubs used their cap space in very different ways, with some – like the Sixers and Thunder – making splashes in free agency, some (such as the Hornets) focusing on taking in salary in trades, and one (the Jazz) using most of its room to renegotiate a star player’s contract.
  • Which NBA teams have been the “cheapest” in recent years and which have been most willing to spend? Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report explores that questions, ranking each team by its spending from 2017-24 and considering whether clubs should have been willing to invest more on those rosters. The Warriors, Clippers, and Bucks have been the biggest spenders over the last seven years, while the Bulls, Pistons, and Hornets are at the other end of the list.
  • In a three-part series for The Athletic, David Aldridge ranks all 30 NBA clubs based on how much they improved their rosters with their offseason moves. Aldridge’s list, which is sorted by which teams improved most in the short term rather than which clubs made the “best” moves, features the Thunder, Sixers, and Magic at the top. Not coincidentally, those clubs made three of the summer’s biggest free agent signings, adding Isaiah Hartenstein, Paul George, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, respectively.
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Celtics Notes: Tillman, Bench, Second Apron, White

August 14th, 2024 at 7:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

Xavier Tillman not only won his first championship ring with the Celtics last season, he got to play an important role because Kristaps Porzingis missed most of the playoffs with an injury. Appearing on X Spaces, Tillman recalled some of his favorite memories from the title run, including a three-pointer in Game 3 of the NBA Finals that helped Boston pull away, relays Souichi Terada of MassLive.

“I made it and I looked right at the bench because I think Dereck Lively was right behind me when I shot it and he was like, ‘(expletive) no,’” Tillman said. “So when I hit it, I looked right at him and smiled and was like, ‘Yep.’ That was a pretty cool moment because the art and the love and the passion of basketball is all about being competitive. So for me to be able to back up how I was playing and feeling and talking trash, that was an amazing feeling.”

Tillman, who was acquired from Memphis at the trade deadline, re-signed with the Celtics shortly after the start of free agency. He figures to be in the mix for heavy minutes early in the season with Porzingis still sidelined after surgery and Al Horford typically not playing in back-to-back games.

There’s more on the Celtics:

  • Tillman is part of a bench unit that may be asked to contribute more this season, Jared Weiss of The Athletic states in a mailbag column. Tillman and Luke Kornet will handle the majority of the center minutes when Horford is resting, and Weiss suggests that Tillman can claim a regular rotation role with a strong start to the season. He notes that Tillman had to adjust after being traded in February and should benefit from having a full offseason in Boston. Weiss also sees possible expanded roles for Jaden Springer and JD Davison, while first-round pick Baylor Scheierman should get an opportunity to play because of his outside shooting.
  • In the same piece, Weiss cites sources who say Celtics ownership hopes to keep the core of the roster together for several years, even though it will mean large tax bills and second apron restrictions. He points to the four-year extension for Jrue Holiday as evidence that the organization views its championship window lasting well beyond the upcoming season.
  • Derrick White was a late addition to the U.S. Olympic team, but he said it was easy to adapt because he was asked to do virtually everything he does with the Celtics, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “I didn’t know what my role was going to be,” White said. “I was just going to do what I do, compete at a high level and just try to help us any way we can.”
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Pagliuca Celebrates Two Titles

August 13th, 2024 at 9:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

However, a number of other Eastern Conference elites — including the Celtics and Knicks — thrived in the regular season and playoffs with lineups that didn’t include traditional power forwards. With that in mind, the Sixers could employ Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr or Caleb Martin at that spot, Pompey suggests.

  • Celtics manager general partner Steve Pagliuca is also co-owner of Atalanta, an Italian Serie A soccer team. Atalanta prevailed in the Europa League this season, giving Pagliuca two championships to celebrate. “I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again,” Pagliuca told James Horncastle of The Athletic. “I just have to be grateful that I was able to be a part of that with all the great people at the Celtics and all the great people at Atalanta.”
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Yabusele Isn't An Option For Celtics

August 12th, 2024 at 8:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Yabusele played two seasons with Boston after being drafted in the first round in 2016. Yabusele has a $2.5MM buyout in the final year of his contract with Real Madrid. The Celtics already have a similar player in Xavier Tillman and even minimum deals would result in a hefty luxury tax penalty for a franchise above the second tax apron.

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Knicks/Celtics, Wolves/Lakers To Play On Opening Night

August 12th, 2024 at 12:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s opening night schedule will feature home games for the league’s two most accomplished franchises, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the Celtics will host the Knicks in the early game, while the Lakers will host the Timberwolves in the late game.

The Celtics, who won their record 18th NBA title in June, will receive their championship rings on opening night, which will take place on Tuesday, October 22. That game will be the first for the new-look Knicks, featuring Mikal Bridges.

The game between the Lakers and Timberwolves will feature several stars who participated in Saturday’s gold medal game in Paris, including LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Lakers and Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert of the Wolves.

Both games will air on TNT Sports, which will be distributing NBA games for one final year in 2024/25, assuming their lawsuit against the league doesn’t result in a new broadcast rights deal that begins in ’25/26.

The full regular schedule for the 2024/25 NBA season is expected to be released later this week, according to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. In the meantime, here are a few more notable matchups, courtesy of Charania:

  • The new-look Sixers, led by former MVP Joel Embiid, reigning Most Improved Player Tyrese Maxey, and free agent addition Paul George, will host the Bucks on October 23 to open their regular season (Twitter link).
  • The first regular season game at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood will be played on October 23, when the Clippers host the Suns (Twitter link).
  • Klay Thompson and the Mavericks will visit the Warriors on November 12 in Thompson’s first trip back to the Bay Area (Twitter link). That will also be the first game of the in-season tournament (NBA Cup) for both Dallas and Golden State (Twitter link).
  • The NBA Finals rematches between the Celtics and Mavericks will take place on January 25 in Dallas and February 6 in Boston (Twitter link).
  • In case you missed it, 2024’s Christmas Day matchups were reported last week.
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NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: Boston Celtics

August 12th, 2024 at 7:55am CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Boston Celtics.

Free agent signings

  • Neemias Queta: Three years, minimum salary ($7,180,128). Second year partially guaranteed ($1,174,789). Third-year team option. Re-signed using Non-Bird rights.
  • Xavier Tillman: Two years, minimum salary ($4,784,366). Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Luke Kornet: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Tristan Enaruna: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Ron Harper Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • None

Draft picks

Two-way signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other moves

  • Signed Jayson Tatum to a five-year, super-max contract extension that begins in 2025/26. The deal includes a fifth-year player option and has a projected value of $313,933,410.
  • Signed Derrick White to a four-year, $118,048,000 contract extension that begins in 2025/26. The deal includes $7,840,000 in incentives and a 15% trade kicker.
  • Exercised Sam Hauser‘s 2024/25 team option ($2,092,344); signed Hauser to a four-year, $45,000,000 contract extension that begins in 2025/26.

Salary cap situation

  • Operating over the cap ($140.6MM), over the luxury tax line ($170.8MM), and above the second tax apron ($188.9MM).
  • Carrying approximately $196.6MM in salary.
  • No hard cap.
  • No form of mid-level or bi-annual exception available.
  • Two traded player exceptions frozen/unavailable (largest worth $2,019,706).

The offseason so far

The Celtics dominated the 2024/25 campaign, posting the NBA’s best regular season record (64-18) and net rating (+11.7) by a wide margin, then losing just three playoff games (no more than one in any series) en route to a league-record 18th championship.

It’s no surprise then that the front office’s strategy this offseason was simply to keep this group intact, especially since the team’s position relative to the tax aprons made it difficult to bring in outside help.

Of the seven Celtics players who reached free agency this offseason, five are back under contract with the team — big men Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta each returned on minimum-salary contracts, while Drew Peterson and JD Davison signed new two-way deals.

Little-used wing Svi Mykhailiuk is the only free agent to join a new team (Utah), while another reserve wing, Oshae Brissett, is the only one who remains unsigned. The Celtics still have one open 15-man roster spot, so it’s not out of the question that Brissett returns, but it looks like the team will be happy adding a pair of draft picks (Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson) to the back of the roster and entering the fall with that last spot still open.

Besides re-signing most of their own free agents, the Celtics agreed to long-term extensions with All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum, All-Defensive guard Derrick White, and sharpshooting reserve Sam Hauser. With the exception of 38-year-old big man Al Horford, the Celtics’ top eight rotation players are now under contract for multiple seasons, with five of them locked up for at least the next four years.

It hasn’t been a perfect offseason in Boston. Top assistant Charles Lee left Joe Mazzulla‘s staff to take the head coaching job in Charlotte, and the Celtics’ majority ownership group put control of the franchise up for sale, raising some questions about the long-term feasibility of maintaining one of the NBA’s most expensive rosters, which will only get pricier in 2025/26 as many of those aforementioned extensions take effect.

For now though, the outlook in Boston remains overwhelming positive, with the Celtics poised to enter the 2024/25 season as the favorites to repeat.

Up next

It’s possible the Celtics’ offseason business is over. The team has 14 players on standard guaranteed contracts and three on two-way deals, so the roster is regular-season-ready.

The only remaining extension-eligible player is fourth-year guard Jaden Springer, who probably hasn’t shown enough to warrant a long-term investment at this point. He logged just 7.6 minutes per game across 17 regular season appearances with the Celtics after being acquired from Philadelphia at the 2024 trade deadline, and only saw garbage-time action in four playoff contests.

With two open spot on Boston’s 21-man offseason roster, the team will probably bring in a couple more camp invitees on Exhibit 10 contracts. And maybe those players will even get the opportunity to compete for one of the two-way spots currently held by Davison or Peterson (I wouldn’t expect Watson, who holds the third two-way, to be cut before his rookie season).

But for the most part, a quiet fall should be in store for the Celtics, who will be eager to get their title defense underway this October.

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