- Nets guard Dennis Smith Jr., who was battling a sprained ankle in the preseason, has been removed from the team’s injury report and should be ready to go for its regular season opener on Wednesday, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
- Although the Nets are one of two NBA teams with an open two-way slot, they won’t be able to use it to re-sign Darius Bazley, whose four years of NBA experience make him ineligible for a two-way contract, notes Lewis. “I do think Darius Bazley will have a place in this league,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said of the big man, who was in camp with Brooklyn until he was waived last Thursday. “I enjoyed coaching him. He’s still a young dude that can still play in this league and I was able to tell him that face-to-face.”
- Speaking to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, Spencer Dinwiddie said his expectations this season for the Nets are to “make the playoffs and roll the dice from there and see how far we can take it.” Dinwiddie also expressed confidence in Ben Simmons‘ ability to have a bounce-back season and – perhaps most interestingly – weighed in on what Nic Claxton‘s contract as a 2024 free agent might look like. The Nets guard projected a four-year deal in the range of $70-110MM for Claxton.
After confirming last Friday that he has retired as a player, longtime NBA swingman Andre Iguodala has been named one of ESPN’s new studio analysts for the coming season, per Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports (Twitter link).
According to McCarthy, former Knicks general manager Scott Perry, veteran NBA guard Austin Rivers, former Spurs assistant and current Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, and Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White are also joining ESPN as studio analysts. Rivers is still just 31 years old and has given no indication that he intends to retire as a player, so presumably his ESPN gig won’t stand in the way if he gets an opportunity to join a team at some point this season.
In related news, former ESPN analyst Vince Carter will appear on Nets broadcasts on the YES Network in a part-time role this season, reports Andrew Marchand of The New York Post. Carter was part of the ESPN summer layoffs that also affected Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, among others.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The NBA announced on Tuesday that 125 international players are on rosters to open the 2023/24 regular season. That’s a new record, as are the numbers of Canadians (26) and Frenchmen (14) in the league. All 30 rosters feature at least one international player, and 40 non-U.S. countries and territories represented.
- Although the 2023/24 regular season hasn’t quite tipped off yet, the league has already informed teams of its regular season start and end dates for the 2024/25 campaign, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Next season will begin on October 22, 2024 and wrap up on April 13, 2025.
- Marc Stein clarifies in his latest Substack article that the new 65-game minimum for end-of-season awards only applies to MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, All-NBA, and All-Defense. That means a player wouldn’t necessarily have to play 65 games to win Sixth Man of the Year or Rookie of the Year, or to be named to an All-Rookie team.
- Having not claimed a spot on an NBA roster to open the season, will free agent guard Kendrick Nunn head overseas to continue his playing career? Alessandro Maggi of Sportando rounds up the latest rumors linking Nunn to European teams.
As we explain in a glossary entry, Exhibit 9 contracts are generally handed out by NBA teams to players who will only be with the team during training camp and/or the preseason.
The Exhibit 9 clause protects the team in case the player suffers an injury before the season begins. In that scenario, the club wouldn’t have to pay him his full salary until he gets healthy enough to play — it would only have to pay a maximum lump sum of $15K when it waives the player.
While most Exhibit 9 signees were released in advance of the regular season, three NBA veterans who signed Exhibit 9 contracts survived the cut and made their respective teams’ regular season rosters. Here are those three players:
- Ryan Arcidiacono (Knicks)
- Harry Giles (Nets)
- Lamar Stevens (Celtics)
Note: Hornets guard Edmond Sumner was initially included in this list, but Charlotte waived him on Tuesday ahead of its season opener.
These three players will now be on one-year, minimum-salary contracts that will remain non-guaranteed until January 10. In order to secure their full-season salaries, they’ll have to stay under contract beyond January 7 (a player cut on Jan. 8 or 9 wouldn’t clear waivers prior to the league-wide salary guarantee date of Jan. 10).
As our list of non-guaranteed contracts by team shows, Arcidiacono, Giles, and Stevens are three of the 31 players on standard deals whose salaries for the 2023/24 season aren’t fully guaranteed.
Several of these players will receive partial guarantees by remaining on rosters through the start of the regular season, and a few more have November or December trigger dates that will increase their guarantees. However, none of those 31 players will lock in their full salary until Jan. 10.
Here are a few more items of interest about the NBA’s opening night rosters for ’23/24, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link):
- The Spurs have the NBA’s youngest roster, while the Clippers have the oldest.
- Players are earning a combined total salary of $4.8 billion for the 2023/24 season. The Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, Heat, Bucks, Pelicans, Sixers, and Suns are the biggest contributors to that pool, as they’re all currently over the luxury tax line.
- As our roster counts page shows, there are 12 open spots on standard 15-man rosters around the NBA. Those openings belong to the Celtics, Bulls, Cavaliers, Pistons, Warriors (two), Lakers, Heat, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, and Kings.
- The Nets and the Suns are the only two teams that haven’t filled all three of their two-way slots, as our tracker shows. They’re each carrying a pair of two-way players, meaning 88 of the 90 spots around the league are occupied.
Harry Giles was overcome with emotion when he learned that his battle to make an NBA roster was successful, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The 25-year forward has undergone multiple knee surgeries since high school and hasn’t played in the league for two years.
Fighting back from a torn ACL that sidelined him for all of last season, Giles auditioned for several teams this summer before landing an Exhibit 9 contract with the Nets. That earned him an invitation to training camp and the chance to earn a roster spot, and he wasn’t sure that he did until after Brooklyn’s final preseason game. He was in the middle of a workout when general manager Sean Marks broke the news, and Giles had to fight back tears so he could finish.
“Oh, man, it was crazy, bro. I called my mom when I got to the room. I wanted to cry when I first found out, but I was around so many people and I was still lifting,” Giles said. “So I was trying to focus on my lift. I was sweating out hard and I was trying to get through the day. I was still kind of hyped about myself. So once I got to the room, I just laid on the bed and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’
“My mom was like ‘Has it hit you yet?’ I’m like, ‘Nah, it still ain’t hit me. It still hasn’t hit me. I still feel like I’m in camp trying to make the team. That’s a good thing: keep me in that mindset. But I’m happy to be here and this is amazing.”
There’s more from Brooklyn:
- First-round pick Dariq Whitehead, who is recovering from offseason foot surgery, has started playing two-on-two against teammates and assistant coaches, Lewis adds in the same story. “It’s reads, so you’re having him react in a setting that is not controlled,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “You just keep going those uncontrollable settings for him to get him back to five-on-five.”
- Vaughn is installing more plays to create open shots for Mikal Bridges, Lewis adds in a separate story for the Post. Bridges shot just 36.6% during the preseason while mainly being used in isolation sets. Vaughn said isolation made sense when the team had Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but he plans to take a different approach to maximize the skills of Bridges and Cameron Johnson. “We don’t want to put Mikal in pick-and-roll every single time just to grow that part of his game because I’ll always do what’s best for the group,” Vaughn explained. “Now we can grow his game by having sets that put him in position where he’s playing pick-and-roll. … So it’s going to really dictate who’s on the floor of how we grow our guys and challenge them. Grab hold to what we can do and do that well.”
- In a recent appearance on the “2nd Wind” podcast, Johnson talked about having more freedom to create in the Nets’ offense than he did during his time with Phoenix (hat tip to USA Today).
Cameron Johnson was a full participant at Saturday’s practice and the Nets expect him to be ready for Wednesday’s season opener, according to Bridget Reilly of The New York Post. Johnson has been dealing with a strained hamstring since the start of training camp and didn’t play during the preseason.
“I think his progression to get to this point has been pretty methodical and our approach (was) getting him to feel comfortable when he’s back on the floor,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “So he’s done the work behind the scenes, to be in a position to practice today and hopefully he continues to. … We got three more days to get some more comfort and being on the floor and being out there with a different group.”
Vaughn added that he’ll be “smart” with Johnson early in the season and will only use him in short stretches. Saturday marked the first full practice for Johnson, who called the injury a “random” event. He said he was able to play without experiencing any more problems with the hamstring.
“It felt good getting up and down,” he said. “I’ve been watching, observing, seeing what we’re trying to put in, how we’re trying to execute things offensively and defensively. And so being able to get in there and put that observation to practice was fun today.”
There’s more from Brooklyn:
- Teammates continue to rave about Ben Simmons, who seems fully healthy and more aggressive in practice, Reilly writes in another Post story. Vaughn said he isn’t concerned about playing Simmons and Nic Claxton at the same time, even though it means having two non-shooters on the court.“I’ve told this group we have to stop and we can’t look at it as a negative … if we have an open mind. In today’s game, with the five out, we can play five out still with those guys,” Vaughn said. “You saw the other night we had Nic Claxton in the corner. He’s more comfortable playing in the corner than he was a year ago. That’s a weapon for us. We get (Simmons) to play in the pocket. Those two can play together.”
- Lonnie Walker‘s injured wrist is feeling better as opening night approaches, Reilly states in the same piece. The free agent addition is hoping to find ways to contribute in a reserve role. “As far as I know it’s on the more so end of just bringing energy onto that second unit whether it’s running, defensive aggressiveness, rebounding, transition,” he said. “Just doing what I know I can do. Just play by my strengths.”
- Dennis Smith Jr. still wasn’t able to practice Saturday after hurting his ankle last week, Reilly adds, but Vaughn isn’t counting him out for Wednesday night.
October 21: The Nets waived both Chandler and Gardner, the team announced (Twitter link via Spotrac’s Keith Smith).
October 19: The Nets have signed guard Kennedy Chandler and center Patrick Gardner, according to the team (Twitter link via Brian Lewis of The New York Post).
In all likelihood, both players received Exhibit 10 contracts that will make them eligible for bonuses worth up to $75K if they’re waived by Brooklyn and then spend at least 60 days with the Long Island Nets. Neither player’s G League rights are held by another team, so the Nets will be able to make them both affiliate players. Exhibit 10 deals can also be converted to two-way contracts, and Brooklyn does have an open two-way slot.
Chandler, the 38th overall pick in the 2022 draft, signed a four-year contract with the Grizzlies last July that included three guaranteed seasons. However, the team opted to waive him in April to make room on the roster for Kenneth Lofton, eating his salaries for 2023/24 and ’24/25.
As a rookie, Chandler appeared in 36 NBA games, averaging 2.2 points and 1.6 assists in 7.8 minutes per night. He was more effective in 12 G League games with the Memphis Hustle (15.3 PPG, 6.2 APG) and this summer with Brooklyn’s Summer League team (14.0 PPG, 5.4 APG), though he continued to struggle with his outside shot — after hitting just 24.0% of 4.2 attempts per game in the NBAGL last season, he made 2-of-14 (14.3%) in Las Vegas.
Gardner, meanwhile, reached his Exhibit 10 agreement with the Nets back in July after playing for the Heat in Summer League and before representing Egypt at the World Cup. The big man, who transferred to Marist for his final year of college ball, averaged 19.1 points and 6.6 rebounds in 30.9 minutes per game (33 games) in 2022/23. He also had a three-point percentage of 38.3%, an impressive mark for a 6’11” frontcourt player.
Brooklyn had only been carrying 18 players on its preseason roster, so no cuts were necessary to make room for Chandler and Gardner. The club still has one opening on its 21-man squad.
Ben Simmons continues to brim with confidence during training camp. The Nets guard said he’ll be even better than what he showed early in his career, when he was named to the All-Star team three times.
2:00pm: Bazley has been released, according to the Nets (Twitter link).
12:56pm: The Nets intend to waive big man Darius Bazley, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
A former first-round pick (23rd overall in 2019), Bazley signed a one-year deal with Brooklyn this summer as an unrestricted free agent after he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from Phoenix. However, his contract was non-guaranteed, and he was trying to make the Nets’ opening night roster.
With Bazley set to hit the waiver wire, it seems as though Harry Giles and Trendon Watford might have secured roster spots. The three players — all of whom are on non-guaranteed deals — appeared to be competing for the final two spots on the 15-man roster, with Brooklyn having 13 players on guaranteed standard contracts.
A 6’8″ forward/center, Bazley holds career averages of 9.1 PPG and 5.3 RPG on .411/.310/.673 shooting in 228 regular season games (118 starts, 23.6 MPG) with the Thunder and Suns. He averaged 5.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 1.0 SPG while shooting 42.9% from deep in three preseason contests with the Nets and is expected to draw interest as a free agent, according to Charania.
The Nets will have 19 players under contract once Bazley is officially released. They have one two-way slot open.
Nets forward Trendon Watford, who is battling for a regular season roster spot, strengthened his case on Monday by scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds in 16 minutes vs. Philadelphia, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. As Lewis notes, Watford also hit a pair of three-pointers and even operated as a secondary play-maker.
“(Nets coach Jacque Vaughn) is always just encouraging me, telling me little things to get better at and little things he sees. In the time I’ve been here, he’s put the ball in my hands a lot. So he likes how I play-make and stuff,” Watford told Lewis. “So yeah, that’s really it; he just wants me to keep doing that and keep getting better defensively. And I think I’ve took a step forward in that.”
The Nets have 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, plus Watford, Darius Bazley, and Harry Giles on non-guaranteed deals, so those three players may be vying for two regular season roster spots. As Net Income of NetsDaily observes, with one two-way slot still open, there’s a path to keeping all three of those non-guaranteed players into the regular season — giving one of them a two-way contract.
However, while Watford and Giles are both eligible to sign a two-way deal, they can’t be converted directly since their contracts don’t include an Exhibit 10 clause. That means they’d have to pass through waivers and re-sign with Brooklyn in order to receive a two-way contract from the team.
Let’s round up a few more notes from around the Atlantic…
- The Raptors made former Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes “off limits” in trade talks for Kevin Durant last year and Damian Lillard this offseason, league sources tell Zach Lowe of ESPN. Reports that linked Toronto to Durant and Lillard when they were available strongly indicated the team wasn’t willing to include Barnes in its offers.
- 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.
Donte DiVincenzo feels less pressure this season despite signing a four-year, $47MM contract with the Knicks during free agency, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. DiVincenzo was rewarded after a solid season with the Warriors.
“I’m fortunate and thankful to have some stability, to be on a team now on a four-year deal. I can settle down and calm down,” DiVincenzo said. “Last year, I’m essentially on a one-year deal. Your anxiety, that’s more pressure. And you’re playing — when you’re playing with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Draymond [Green], what they’ve done, that’s pressure.”
We have more on the New York teams:
- Former Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers believes the Knicks have become an attractive free agent destination and that they’re currently positioned to trade for a star, he told Ian Begley of SNY and other media members. “I think what has shifted (recently is) … there was a time where I felt like people may not have wanted to play in (New York City). And I think that’s changed,” Myers said. “I think now you’re looking at murmurings, hearing things – ‘Hey, what about the Knicks?’ And the draft capital they have – it’s a realistic thing. It’s not some lay person saying, ‘Well, the Knicks should go get this guy!’ Now it’s viable, it’s possible. And they have what it takes with first-round picks in their cabinet to go do it. They’ve got a lot of good young players on pretty affordable contracts. They’re just another team that you’re kind of waiting for the next big thing.”
- Day’Ron Sharpe provided some good minutes for the Nets in their preseason game against Philadelphia on Monday with nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds in 18 minutes. “He had a really good offseason, really good. And he’s had a really good preseason,” starting center Nic Claxton said to the New York Post’s Brian Lewis. “He’s using his physicality without fouling. He’s a lot more comfortable out there.” It’s a pivotal season for Sharpe, as the Nets hold a $4MM option on his 2024/25 contract, which must be exercised by the end of this month.
- Playing alongside Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie will have a different role this season with the Nets, Zach Braziller of the New York Post notes. He’ll be looked upon for more perimeter shooting — he shot 28.9% on 3s after being reacquired from Dallas, where he made 40% of his long-range attempts. “He has the ability to shoot it at a high level,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “He also has the ability to get downhill into the paint. So we just don’t want him just shooting 3s. But the ability to do both for us [is there].”
- In a subscriber-only story, Newsday’s Steve Popper details that RJ Barrett isn’t under the same load management restrictions that some of his Knicks teammates are facing.