- Kevin Durant and the Nets have smoothed over their differences for the time being and Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report delves into the question of whether they can continue to maintain a peaceful relationship. It’s likely the team will keep an awkward status quo while hoping to make a deep playoff run, Pincus writes. If things go awry, they can revisit offers for Durant at the trade deadline or next offseason.
- Speaking of the Nets, former Euroleague standout J.R. Holden is expected to be named GM of their G League affiliate in Long Island, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando tweets. Holden would replace Matt Riccardi, who accepted a front office position with Dallas this summer.
The Nets are engaged in “advanced” discussions with free agent forward Markieff Morris, according to veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein (Twitter link).
Morris, who will turn 33 this Friday, was limited to just 17 appearances last season in Miami due to a neck injury that sidelined him for much of the year, but he has a strong overall NBA résumé, having appeared in over 700 regular season games for six teams since entering the league in 2011.
In his last full season, Morris averaged 6.7 PPG and 4.4 RPG in 61 games (19.7 MPG) for the Lakers in 2020/21. He’s known for his toughness and defensive versatility, and can also stretch the floor a little on offense — he has posted a .341 career 3PT%.
Brooklyn’s interest in Morris was reported last week, with a subsequent report from Stein indicating that the division rival Sixers also had an eye on the veteran forward.
Morris’ last couple contracts have been minimum-salary deals and he seems unlikely to earn a raise after losing most of the 2021/22 season to an injury. As such, he and the Nets could be discussing whether the team’s offer would be fully guaranteed and/or what sort of role he might play in Brooklyn.
The Nets currently have 12 players on fully guaranteed standard contracts, with Edmond Sumner on a partially guaranteed deal and Yuta Watanabe on a non-guaranteed pact.
- While the Nets have been rumored as a possible suitor for Donovan Mitchell, members of the organization like Brooklyn’s roster and don’t feel a sense of urgency to pursue Jazz guard, Ian Begley of SNY.tv reports. With Kevin Durant and the Nets recently agreeing to move forward together, it doesn’t seem like Brooklyn will be eager to make a major trade ahead of the season — even though Mitchell listed Brooklyn as a trade preference.
- Nets center Nic Claxton knows his time is now, according to NetsDaily. With Brooklyn allowing Andre Drummond to sign with the Bulls — and LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin no longer on the roster — Claxton has an opportunity to establish himself at center. The Nets may test Ben Simmons at the five, but Claxton can still be valuable as a rebounder, rim protector, screen-setter and lob threat at 6’11”.
The Nets have signed free agent Yuta Watanabe, the team announced in a press release. The terms of the agreement weren’t revealed, but Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reports (via Twitter) that Brooklyn signed Watanabe to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.
A 6’8″ forward, Watanabe has played in 121 NBA games across four seasons with the Grizzlies and Raptors. He appeared in 38 contests with Toronto last season, averaging 4.3 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per outing. He also shot 41% from the floor and 34% from three-point range.
Brooklyn has 15 players on its 20-man offseason roster. One of those players (Alondes Williams) is on a two-way deal, while the other 14 are on standard contracts — in addition to the 12 with fully guaranteed salaries, Watanabe is now on a non-guaranteed deal and Edmond Sumner has a partial guarantee. Watanabe will presumably join the team for training camp with a chance to earn a roster spot this fall.
The Nets are coming off a tumultuous summer headlined by Kevin Durant‘s trade request. With Durant and the team recently agreeing to move forward with their partnership, the club is now focused on competing for a championship.
With Nets forward Kevin Durant off the table as a trade target for the time being, the Heat could look elsewhere for All-Star reinforcements. In a mailbag, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel discusses alternatives, including Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. Winderman does not consider the undersized shooting guard to be worth a package centered around reigning Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro and future draft picks.
Winderman also notes that the Heat should be cautious when it comes to trading forward Duncan Robinson, who will earn $16.9MM in 2022/23 after falling out of the club’s rotation near the end of last season due to his defensive shortcomings. Winderman notes that Robinson’s contract could be crucial as an inclusion for a trade to acquire a maximum-salaried superstar. Herro remains on his rookie deal, and will make just $5.7MM this season.
There’s more out of South Beach:
- In another mailbag, Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reflects on the recent decision by the Heat’s NBAGL affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, to offload Micah Potter to the Pistons’ G League club, the Motor City Cruise. Winderman writes that the decision ultimately came down to which players Miami is prioritizing developing, noting that other prospects – including Orlando Robinson – took priority over Potter.
- Now that the Nets are, at least for now, stabilizing and whole heading into the 2022/23 season, Winderman wonders if Brooklyn has leapfrogged Miami in the Eastern Conference pecking order and explores just how dangerous the Nets coul dbe.
- Even beyond the departure of starting power forward P.J. Tucker, the Heat’s rotation could look markedly different than it did during the 2021/22 NBA season, when a top-seeded Miami club pushed the Celtics to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals, Winderman writes in another Sun Sentinel story. As Winderman observes, 6’5″ Caleb Martin appears to be the current leader in the competition to become Miami’s new starting power forward, though that situation remains fluid with training camp still ahead of the team. Miami’s internal search for its starting swingman next to point guard Kyle Lowry and small forward/shooting guard Jimmy Butler also remains fairly open, with several intriguing candidates on the roster.
Veteran free agent power forward Markieff Morris is under consideration as a reserve acquisition for the Sixers in addition to the Nets, writes Marc Stein in a new article for Substack.
Stein notes that the 32-year-old was known to be a vocal locker room presence while on a star-studded 2019/20 championship-winning Lakers club, and could be a good fit for a Brooklyn team fielding several at-times angsty superstars.
Morris missed most of his 2021/22 season with the Heat due to a major neck injury after entering the season as a key reserve. In his 17 available regular season games with Miami, Morris averaged 7.6 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.4 APG. The 6’9″ big man out of Kansas posted a shooting line of .474/.333/.889.
Here’s more from Stein:
- As the Hornets consider reserve point guard options behind developing All-Star LaMelo Ball, the team has broadened its list of potential targets to include former Suns point guard Elfrid Payton, according to Stein. Isaiah Thomas, who fulfilled the role adequately last season, is still being looked at, as is Pistons point guard Kemba Walker, a three-time All-Star while with Charlotte whom Stein expects to be bought out of his current deal.
- The Lakers‘ 2027 and 2029 first-round draft selections, along with the expiring contract of incumbent point guard Russell Westbrook, could be used to help complete a three-team Donovan Mitchell trade for the Jazz, either with the Knicks or even another suitor. Stein writes that the draft picks could hold significant appeal for Jazz team president Danny Ainge, who earlier this summer received quite a bounty in future draft equity as part of his blockbuster deal that shipped former Utah All-Star Rudy Gobert out to the Timberwolves.
- Stein cautions that the Lakers, who leveraged a lot of future draft picks in their trade for Anthony Davis, remain fairly protective of the 2027 and 2029 picks. Given that L.A. is fielding a team with (currently) three maximum-salaried veterans all with at least 10 years of experience, one would expect the club to very much be in win-now mode, but the team only wants to make a move if it values the returning players as being worth the sacrifice. Stein defines that as players who can help the team return to its standing as a championship contender, following a disappointing 33-49 season that saw the Lakers on the outside of the play-in tournament looking in.
Kevin Durant reportedly listed Miami as one of his preferred destinations when he demanded a trade from the Nets, but the Heat didn’t make a strong effort to acquire him, Shams Charania of The Athletic said in an appearance on the Stugotz podcast.
Heat officials believed it would cost too much of their roster to trade for Durant, added Charania, who said that the last contact between the two teams regarding Durant occurred either before or during Summer League.
Charania noted that Miami reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season and didn’t see a need for major changes. He pointed to hypothetical trades involving Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro or Adebayo, Max Strus and another player and asked whether that really gets Miami any closer to winning a title.
On top of that, any consideration of trading Adebayo would have been limited by the designated rookie extension rule, which would have prevented the Nets from having both him and Ben Simmons on their roster at the same time. A third team would have been needed to complete a deal, which made the prospects of a trade even less realistic.
Durant also was interested in joining the Suns, but Charania hears that Brooklyn didn’t want Deandre Ayton in return. Ayton became ineligible for a sign-and-trade this summer after Phoenix matched his offer sheet from the Pacers.
Charania said there were opportunities to deal Durant, but no one was willing to meet the Nets’ asking price. The Celtics wouldn’t part with Marcus Smart or Robert Williams along with Jaylen Brown, while the Raptors weren’t willing to include Scottie Barnes in trade talks. Charania said Brooklyn could have made a deal that was heavy on draft compensation with the Suns, Grizzlies or Timberwolves before they sent their assets to Utah for Rudy Gobert, but the Nets were only interested in trades that would keep them competitive.
- Brian Lewis of the New York Post examines the Nets‘ mentality with Kevin Durant now returning to the team. Brooklyn is expected to compete for a title this season, sporting a roster that includes Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Joe Harris and others. The team is clearly hoping to move past its off-court issues and focus on contending.
Free agent guard David Duke Jr. will likely rejoin the Nets on his second two-way contract, sources tell Chris Milholen of NetsDaily.
The Nets tendered a two-way contract offer to Duke earlier this summer. Duke had initially passed on the proposal and was reportedly eyeing a spot on Brooklyn’s 15-man standard roster, but it sounds like he’s prepared to accept the two-way offer.
Duke would be Brooklyn’s second two-way player, joining former Wake Forest guard Alondes Williams. As Milholen notes, the 6’5″ guard will earn about $502K (half the rookie minimum) on the deal, and could have his two-way deal converted into a standard contract later on in the season.
After going undrafted out of Providence, Duke averaged 4.7 PPG, 3.0 RPG and 1.8 APG in 22 games with Brooklyn for the 2021/22 season. In Summer League play this year, he put up 19.0 PPG on 50% shooting, along with 4.6 RPG and 4.0 APG.
Duke’s return to the fold would bring the total sum of Nets players to 15 ahead of training camp. The team has 12 players inked to fully guaranteed deals, along with the partially-guaranteed contract of Edmond Sumner and the aforementioned duo of two-way players.
Brooklyn can still sign up to five players to its 20-man offseason roster and is reportedly considering some veteran big men for bench depth.
With the dust settled (for now) on a dramatic summer full of trade and personnel demands from Nets superstar Kevin Durant, Zach Harper of The Athletic has compiled a list of the five “winners” and five “losers” following a torrid two months in Brooklyn.
Team president Sean Marks and the young players mentioned as possible centerpieces in Durant trades score high marks from Harper, while Celtics wing Jaylen Brown and Brooklyn head coach Steve Nash are among the folks involved in the rumor mill who suffered in the saga, with Nash’s long-term future with the Nets and Brown’s standing in Boston now less certain than they were at the start of the summer.
Net Income of NetsDaily penned a similar piece unpacking the winners, losers and “innocent bystanders” of the Durant chatter. Nash fares more favorably in Net Income’s appraisal.
There’s more out of Brooklyn:
- With Durant seemingly in the fold at least to start the 2022/23 NBA season, Brooklyn’s title odds instantly improved at various sportsbooks, per Lance Pugmire of USA Today. Pugmire writes that Tipico Sportsbook projects the Nets as having the third-best odds to win the championship among Eastern Conference teams, behind only the 2022 finalist Celtics and 2021 champion Bucks.
- Net Income of NetsDaily wonders if star Nets teammate Kyrie Irving‘s decision to opt in to the final year of his contract with Brooklyn – and a subsequent truce between Irving and the team – helped the club quell its issues with Durant for the time being.
- In case you missed it, the Nets are considering free agent big men Markieff Morris and Tristan Thompson as possibilities to shore up their frontcourt.