- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was impressed by Rookie of the Year candidate Luka Doncic‘s conditioning in a recent workout with coach Rick Carlisle, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News reports. “He’s definitely in better shape,” Cuban said, adding jokingly that Doncic is finally showing abdominal muscles.
Four NBA teams have been selected to participate in The NBA Mexico City Games 2019, the league announced today. The Mavericks, Pistons, Suns and Spurs will all play regular-season games at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico, located in Mexico City.
Dallas and Detroit will square off on December 12, with Phoenix and San Antonio meeting two days later. These will be the 29th and 30th games that Mexico will host since its partnership with the league began in 1992.
“NBA games in Mexico City are a core part of our efforts to reach and engage basketball fans throughout Mexico and Latin America,” commissioner Adam Silver said. “With a record four NBA teams visiting Mexico City next season, we expect an unprecedented level of interest and excitement around these games and our surrounding community events.”
ESPN Deportes, Televisa and NBA League Pass in Mexico will all show the games, which will be available in more than 200 countries and territories. Ticket information will be announced later. The games will be accompanied by NBA Cares community outreach projects.
“It’s an honor for the Spurs organization to be able to represent South Texas and the NBA by, once again, playing in Mexico City,” said team president R.C. Buford. “The relationship between our community and Mexico is important and impactful on many levels. We look forward to a wonderful experience and are excited to share Spurs basketball with all of our fans in Mexico.”
The trade that will send Allen Crabbe‘s salary to the Hawks is the first step in the Nets‘ “dream scenario” of signing both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant this summer, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Woj cites “strong mutual interest” between Irving and the Nets, who will have $46MM in cap space once the trade becomes official in early July and can nearly put themselves in position to sign both players by renouncing D’Angelo Russell‘s cap hold.
The Knicks are also interested in an Irving-Durant pairing, but Irving now seems more intrigued about the possibility of playing in Brooklyn, Wojnarowski adds. He states that the Nets haven’t ruled out the idea of signing just one free agent and keeping Russell if Plan A doesn’t work out.
There’s more this morning on Irving and the Nets:
- Other teams with interest in signing Irving are now operating as though Brooklyn is the favorite to land him, according to Ian Begley of SNY.TV. An anonymous GM told Begley it’s unlikely that a team would give up two first-round picks without a solid reason to expect that it was signing at least one top-level free agent. “(Brooklyn GM) Sean (Marks) is going for it. The Nets are all in,” the GM said after the trade was announced. Brooklyn is sending the 17th pick in this year’s draft plus a lottery-protected first-rounder in 2020 to Atlanta. Sources tell Begley that the chances of Irving returning to Boston are now “low.” Those close to the All-Star point guard continue to insist that he hasn’t ruled out any potential destination.
- The upcoming fight for free agents has finally ignited the Knicks-Nets rivalry, notes Mike Vorkunov of The Atheltic. Both will be in position to offer two max salaries, and the consequences if either team doesn’t hit the jackpot could be felt for years. It’s also more than a two-team race, as the Clippers can also open up a second max slot, the Lakers still have LeBron James to offer and the Mavericks have a promising core built around Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.
- ESPN’s Zach Lowe explains the protections on the 2020 first-round pick the Nets are sending to the Hawks in the Crabbe deal (Twitter link). It will remain lottery protected for three years, then will convert to a pair of second-rounders.
1:00pm: Tim MacMahon of ESPN confirms (via Twitter) that Powell will opt in and sign an extension, adding that the Mavs view the big man as a “core piece” who can be a good fit besides Kristaps Porzingis.
12:18pm: After a May report indicated that Dwight Powell would turn down his player option for 2019/20, the Mavericks‘ big man said this week that he’s not sure “where the information came from.” He stopped short of calling the report false or announcing that he’d opt in, but a source tells Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link) that Powell does, in fact, plan to pick up his player option by June 29.
Exercising his ’19/20 option would put Powell in line for a salary worth $10,259,375 next season, as Basketball Insiders’ data indicates. According to Townsend, the 27-year-old intends to subsequently sign an extension with Dallas that would keep him under team control beyond next season. Team owner Mark Cuban spoke at season’s end about a three-year extension for Powell, though it’s not clear if he meant three new years or three years in total.
As we’ve noted multiple times when discussing Powell’s situation this offseason, there are two paths he could choose if he wants to stay with the Mavs. Opting out and negotiating a brand-new contract is one path — the other would be opting in, then signing a contract extension, as Townsend suggests. The fact that both scenarios are viable may have contributed to the confusion in recent weeks over his option decision.
Assuming Townsend’s source is correct and Powell intends to opt in, the Mavs should enter the free agent period with at least $29MM in cap room available, as we detailed in April. Meanwhile, Powell would be eligible to sign an extension that takes effect in 2020/21 with a starting salary worth up to 120% of his previous salary.
Dwight Powell has until June 29 to decide what he wants to do with the player option on the final year of his contract. Yahoo! Sports previously reported that the big man would decline that $10.26MM option and hit the open market. However, Powell addressed that report today and didn’t exactly confirm it.
“I did not have any conversation prior to that article coming out with whoever wrote it. So I don’t know where the information came from. I didn’t have any conversation with anybody about that,” Powell said via Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News.
There was speculation among NBA observers and insiders that, despite apparently planning to turn down his option, Powell intended to sign a new contract with a lower annual salary but more overall money. There’s still a chance that Powell goes that route.
“There’s no place I would rather be than Dallas,” Powell said. “I think I have done everything to show that I love it here. This team gave me my shot. They’ve treated me extremely well, as an athlete and as a man. I love the Dallas Mavericks.”
If the Mavericks intend to carve out salary cap space for a max contract player, they’ll need to make at least one or two moves. The team is currently projected to have roughly $29.3MM in available space if Powell opts in. Working out an arrangement with Powell that lowers his annual salary is just one of the ways that Dallas can create additional cap space, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors recently detailed.
Point guard J.J. Barea‘s recovery from a ruptured right Achilles tendon is going well and he’s hopeful of playing for Puerto Rico in the FIBA World Cup this summer, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon tweets. The Mavericks veteran suffered the injury on January 11th and underwent surgery three days later.
“The way I feel right now, it looks pretty good,” Barea told MacMahon. “But I’m not going to make a decision until it gets closer.” Barea is doing non-contact basketball activity under the supervision of Mavericks staff members, MacMahon adds, and took 600 shots in an hour last week.
Barea, an unrestricted free agent this summer, is expected to re-sign with the Mavericks.
- The Hawks, Spurs, Mavericks and Kings are possible destinations for center Clint Capela if the Rockets deal him, Frank Urbina of HoopsHype opines. The Rockets reportedly have made everyone on the roster available at the right price.
The Hornets remain Kemba Walker‘s “first priority” in free agency, he tells Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
Walker will be among the most sought-after names on the market this summer after averaging a career-high 25.6 PPG and earning third-team All-NBA honors. That recognition qualifies him for a “super-max” contract and enables Charlotte to increase its five-year offer from $189.7MM to $221.3MM. Other teams will be limited to four years at $140.6MM, but Walker says his desire to remain with the Hornets is about more than money.
“That’s where I’ve been for eight years and that’s all I know,” he said. “Not many people get a chance to play for one NBA team throughout their career. When I go on my Instagram, I see, ‘Kemba leave! Kemba get out of Charlotte!’ People don’t understand, when they say you need to go ‘here’ and win, that winning is not guaranteed anywhere.”
Making that offer won’t be an easy decision for Charlotte, as Weiss explains. With several other hefty salaries already on the roster, giving Walker a super-max deal could push the Hornets into luxury tax territory for a roster that missed the playoffs. There wouldn’t be much room to maneuver until some of those contracts start to expire after next season.
Walker has heard that the Knicks and Mavericks may be planning to make a run at him, and more suitors will probably emerge if the Hornets don’t act quickly to lock him up on June 30. He brushes off the advantages of playing in a larger market, saying he doesn’t “need people to know what I’m doing all the time” and he’s not concerned with his “brand.”
Walker has built a strong connection with Charlotte since the Hornets traded up to draft him eight years ago. The security of a five-year deal will also be a strong selling point.
“I think at my age (29), whoever is my age in this situation, I think the fifth year is always important to them,” Walker said. “So yeah, it’s important for sure. But I don’t know, we gon’ see if we’re gonna work something out and figure it out. Hopefully, things work out, but it’s all about that God knows where I’m gonna go. He’s the only one who knows where I’m going right now, honestly. So I’m just going to let this thing play out.”
A pair of reports on Wednesday indicated that the Rockets are open to the idea of shaking up their roster this summer. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that general manager Daryl Morey is aggressively scouring the market for potential upgrades and is open to trading just about any draft pick or any player not named James Harden, including Chris Paul. Marc Stein of The New York Times followed up on that story by adding that Houston has specifically gauged Clint Capela‘s trade value.
Today, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders continues to flesh out the story, tweeting that Eric Gordon is also among the players being made available by the Rockets in trade talks. According to Kyler, Houston is looking to “change up the locker room” and may be looking to add a lottery pick. Kyler has heard teams like the Celtics, Hornets, Magic, and Mavericks linked to the Rockets as potential trade partners.
Assuming the Warriors win another title, the Rockets could convince themselves for the second straight year that they were the NBA’s second-best team, and there’s no telling whether Golden State will bring back the same roster next year. That’s an argument in favor of not doing anything too drastic this offseason. Still, Morey has long been one of the NBA’s most aggressive executives when it comes to finding upgrades and avoiding complacency, so if he can find a way to extend the Rockets’ window of contention, the team has to seriously consider it.
Here’s more out of Houston:
- In his latest mailbag, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle takes an extended look at the shakeup on the Rockets’ coaching staff, writing that the changes stemmed from the fact that Morey “decided the Rockets could do better.” Within that same article, Feigen pushes back on a report linking Tyronn Lue to Houston. According to Feigen, the Rockets had interest in Lue last October, but didn’t make him an offer then and haven’t shown any interest in him since the season ended.
- According to Feigen, the Rockets are preparing as if they’ll have the taxpayer mid-level exception available, rather than the full mid-level exception. Unlike last season, when Houston spread its MLE around among multiple players, the club would rather try to use its 2019/20 MLE on a player who could be considered a “significant addition,” filling out the rest of the roster with minimum-salary players or trade acquisitions, Feigen writes.
- In case it wasn’t clear from Wednesday’s reports – or from owner Tilman Fertitta‘s previous comments about doing anything possible to improve the team – Feigen cites a source with knowledge of the Rockets’ plans who suggested this week that the club is open to making major changes to upgrade its roster. “‘Run it back’ is not what (the Rockets) do,” that source said.
- Fertitta reiterated that message this week as well, per Feigen: “Wherever we can improve coaching or players, let’s do it. But let’s not change to change. We have to know we can improve in that position whether it’s a coach, film guy or a trainer.”
- Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News examines whether it’s time for the Mavericks to bring Julius Randle back home in free agency this summer. Randle, who’s expected to decline his $9MM player option to become an unrestricted free agent on June 30, was born in Texas and could fit with the young duo of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Dallas could also pursue a point guard on the open market, such as Charlotte’s Kemba Walker.
Tobias Harris might be the best free agent fit for the Mavericks, according to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. The Sixers forward fills a glaring need for a scorer who can swing between both forward positions. With Luka Doncic providing the playmaking and Kristaps Porzingis spreading the court, Harris would get plenty of scoring opportunities, Townsend notes. Harris isn’t an elite defender but that wouldn’t stop the Mavs from offering him a max deal, Townsend adds.
We have more on the Mavericks:
- Dallas doesn’t necessarily have to win in free agency this summer to have a bright future, ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out in his offseason preview. The team could have even more cap space the next two summers, when other top-level free agents hit the market. However, the Mavs must retool their bench with so many of their second-unit players becoming free agents.
- Klay Thompson would be the ideal backcourt partner with Doncic, given his ability to space the floor, catch and shoot or create off the dribble, Townsend notes in a separate story. It must be pointed out that Townsend’s story appeared before Thompson failed to make an All-NBA Team, so the Warriors don’t have to offer the shooting guard a super-max deal to retain him. A more realistic target would be Magic swingman Terrence Ross, who would provide much-needed outside shooting, Townsend adds.
- The Mavs’ frontcourt needs should be a prioritized over pursuit of a pricey point guard, Townsend argues in another overview of free agents. Townsend still takes a look at how players like Kemba Walker and Patrick Beverley could fit into the equation.