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Western Notes: Porter Jr., Randle, Lakers, Kings

May 26th, 2019 at 9:55pm CST by JD Shaw

Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. remained extremely active with the team during his rookie season despite missing the entire campaign due to injury, staying vocal on the bench and doing his part in helping the team succeed.

Porter, 20, underwent a second back surgery last summer that ultimately cost him his rookie season. He was selected by Denver with the 14th overall pick in the draft last June.

“To be honest, going into the season, I didn’t really expect myself to be able to play at 100 percent if I was to come play,” Porter said last week, according to Mike Singer of the Denver Post. “But like, the way I feel now, it’s leaps and bounds beyond where I thought I’d be at this point. I feel so good. … I feel like I’m a better player than I’ve ever been.”

Despite not seeing any NBA action yet, Porter has impressed his teammates with his confidence, swagger and character during his rookie season. The next four or five months will be important for him, as Singer notes he’s expected to make his professional debut at the Las Vegas Summer League in July.

“What I’ve seen from Michael this year in flashes, is a guy with tremendous size and length, that’s got deep range, that can shoot the ball, that can put the ball on the floor and has great athleticism to finish at the rim,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “This will be a really big summer for Michael.”

There’s more out of the Western Conference tonight:

  • 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.
  • The Lakers have hired Judy Seto as director of sports performance, the team announced on Friday. Seto, who served as the team’s head physical therapist from 2011-16, will oversee the medical care and optimize the health and performance of Lakers players while reporting directly to general manager Rob Pelinka.
  • The Kings have expressed interest in Thunder assistant coach Bob Beyer, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. Beyer has been an NBA assistant since 2007, making stops with Orlando, Golden State, Charlotte and Detroit before joining Oklahoma City last year. He also served as an assistant with the Raptors during the 2003/04 season.
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Nikola Jokic Expects To Play For Serbia In World Cup

May 24th, 2019 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who earned All-NBA First Team honors this season, expects to play for Serbia this summer in the 2019 FIBA World Cup and is confident the club can win a medal, as he tells Serbian outlet Tanjug (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Jokic wasn’t on Serbia’s roster for the 2014 World Cup, but he did join the squad for the 2016 Olympics. In both instances, Serbia lost the championship game to Team USA and took home silver medals.

  • The Nuggets are attempting to balance optimism and caution when it comes to 2018 first-rounder Michael Porter Jr., who is expected to make his professional debut in Summer League play this July, writes Alex Labidou of Nuggets.com.
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NBA Announces 2018/19 All-NBA Teams

May 23rd, 2019 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has formally announced the All-NBA First, Second, and Third Teams for the 2018/19 season, with Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden leading the way as the two unanimous selections for the First Team.

The full All-NBA teams are listed below, with their vote totals in parentheses. Players received five points for a First Team vote, three points for a Second Team vote, and one point for a Third Team vote, so Antetokounmpo and Harden scored a perfect 500 — First Team nods from all 100 voters.

All-NBA First Team

All-NBA Second Team

All-NBA Third Team

As we detailed in March, this year’s All-NBA selections have significant financial implications for several players. Here’s a breakdown of how several All-NBA candidates were impacted:

  • Giannis Antetokounmpo is now eligible for a super-max extension with the Bucks, which he can sign in 2020. It would start at 35% of the cap in 2021/22 and would extend his contract by five years.
  • Damian Lillard is now eligible for a super-max extension with the Trail Blazers, which he can sign in 2019. It would start at 35% of the cap in 2021/22 and would extend his contract by four years.
  • Kemba Walker is now eligible for a super-max contract with the Hornets, which he can sign in 2019. It would start at 35% of the cap in 2019/20 and would be for five years.
  • Bradley Beal, Klay Thompson, Nikola Vucevic, and other super-max candidates who didn’t earn All-NBA honors aren’t eligible for super-max contracts (or a super-max extension, in Beal’s case). Thompson’s and Vucevic’s maximum contracts this summer would start at 30% of the cap.
  • Karl-Anthony Towns‘ extension with the Timberwolves, which goes into effect in 2019/20, will start at 25% of the cap, rather than 30%, because he didn’t earn All-NBA honors.

Beal and Thompson received the most All-NBA votes of any guards who missed out on the All-NBA teams, receiving 34 and 27 points respectively. Sixers guard Ben Simmons got seven points, while no other guards had more than four.

LaMarcus Aldridge (Spurs) and Danilo Gallinari (Clippers) were the runners-up at forward, receiving 17 and seven points, respectively. Pascal Siakam (Raptors) had four points, while no other forwards had more than three.

At center, Towns received 20 points, followed by Vucevic at four and Pistons center Andre Drummond with three.

Interestingly, the 15 players named to the All-NBA teams for 2018/19 were the same 15 players that Hoops Rumors readers voted for in our end-of-season All-NBA polls last month. The only differences were George swapping places with Durant and Irving flipping spots with Westbrook.

The full and official All-NBA voting results can be found right here.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Nuggets Notes: Millsap, Connelly, Karnisovas, Offseason

May 22nd, 2019 at 12:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nuggets are optimistic they’ll retain veteran forward Paul Millsap, though not necessarily by picking up his $30.1MM option for next season, Sean Keeler of the Denver Post reports. “Our goal and Paul’s goal is to have him back with us,” Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. The easiest way to do that would be to pick up the option by the June 29 deadline but that would hamper the team’s ability to make upgrades.

It already has more than $90MM in guaranteed salary commitments for next season. A more likely scenario would be to decline the option and sign Millsap to a multi-year deal in free agency at a lower annual salary. “We both want the same thing,” Connelly said. “We’ll figure out the best way for the organization and Paul to make sure that’s achieved. I fully expect Paul to be back in a Nuggets uniform.”

We have more on the Nuggets:

  • Connelly downplayed his interview with the Wizards for their top front office job, Mike Singer of the Denver Post tweets. “We just had a conversation. It was not much more than that,” Connelly said. There are conflicting reports on whether the Wizards formally made Connelly a four-year contract offer but he ultimately decided to stay put.
  • Head coach Michael Malone said the organization “wouldn’t have skipped a beat” if Connelly had taken the Wizards job and the Nuggets replaced him with GM Arturas Karnisovas, Nick Kosmider of The Athletic tweets. However, Malone is happy Connelly decided to stay since they and owner Josh Kroenke have a strong working relationship.
  • The Nuggets can’t continue to rely on developing their young players alone to bridge the gap between them and the other championship contenders, Kosmider writes. The moves that Connelly makes this offseason will be crucial and viewed with intense scrutiny, Kosmider adds.
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2019 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Denver Nuggets

May 21st, 2019 at 11:03am CST by Luke Adams

After narrowly missing the playoffs in 2018, the Nuggets expressed confidence in their core by bringing back virtually the same group, and that bet paid off to the tune of 54 regular-season victories, the No. 2 seed in the West, and the club’s first playoff series win since 2009. The Nuggets will count on continued improvement from some of their young players going forward, but the team may also have a little flexibility to add more reinforcements.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Nuggets financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

Non-Guaranteed Salary

  • None

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000

Offseason Cap Outlook

  • Cap room projection w/Millsap: $0
  • There are few wild cards on the Nuggets’ books this offseason, but Millsap is a big one. Even if his $30MM option for 2019/20 is declined – which is a safe bet – re-signing him to a more modest deal would likely eat up any available cap room and make Denver an over-the-cap team. In that scenario, the Nuggets would have the mid-level ($9.25MM) and bi-annual ($3.62MM) exceptions available, along with a series of trade exceptions, detailed below.
  • Cap room projection w/o Millsap: $17MM
  • On the other hand, if Millsap is renounced, the team could create up to about $17MM in space without shedding any other salaries. That’s not enough to contend for maximum-salary free agents, but the players a notch or two below that tier could be within reach.

Cap Exceptions Available

  • Trade exception: $12,800,562 (expires 7/8/19)
  • Trade exception: $13,764,045 (expires 7/15/19)
  • Trade exception: $5,919,961 (7/15/19)
  • Mid-level exception: $9,246,000 4
  • Bi-annual exception: $3,619,000 4

Footnotes

  1. The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap, but their cap holds do during the offseason.
  2. Because Lydon’s fourth-year rookie scale option was declined, the Nuggets are ineligible to offer him a starting salary greater than his cap hold.
  3. The cap hold for Jefferson remains on the Nuggets’ books because he hasn’t been renounced after going unsigned in 2018/19. He can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
  4. These are projected values. In the event the Nuggets use cap room, they’d lose these exceptions, plus their trade exceptions, and would instead would gain access to the $4,760,000 room exception.

Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders, ESPN.com, and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Tim Connelly To Remain With Nuggets

May 20th, 2019 at 8:55am CST by Luke Adams

Despite reportedly receiving an offer from his hometown Wizards to run their front office, Tim Connelly has elected to remain in Denver as the Nuggets‘ president of basketball operations, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).

Connelly was long rumored to be Washington’s top candidate to replace Ernie Grunfeld this spring, and after his Nuggets were eliminated from the postseason, Connelly agreed to meet with the Wizards. There was a sense that the veteran executive wouldn’t have been receptive to overtures from any other team, but his ties to the D.C. area made the Wizards’ job intriguing.

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and advisor Mike Forde reportedly met with Connelly on Friday, and reports indicated that the team offered a four-year contract that was in the ballpark of what Connelly was seeking financially. However, there are conflicting reports on that front, with some sources telling Candace Buckner of The Washington Post (Twitter link) that the Wizards never extended a formal offer, despite discussing the job with Connelly.

According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Connelly was impressed with Leonsis’ vision for the Wizards, but Nuggets president Josh Kroenke made an “aggressive case” to retain his president of basketball operations over the weekend. As Chris Dempsey of Nuggets.com tweets, Connelly has been big on finishing what he started in Denver and wants to try to keep improving a team that came within a game of reaching the Western Conference Finals this season.

Connelly has been the Nuggets’ head of basketball operations since Masai Ujiri‘s departure in 2013. After first assuming the role of general manager, he was later promoted to the president of basketball operations position, with right-hand man Arturas Karnisovas sliding into the GM job. Karnisovas was viewed as Connelly’s likely replacement if he had accepted the Wizards’ offer, but it appears both men will continue on with the Nuggets.

As for the Wizards, they have interviewed several other candidates for their head of basketball operations job. Thunder executive Troy Weaver and former Hawks and Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry have each reportedly met twice with Washington. Tommy Sheppard, who is running the Wizards’ front office on an interim basis, is also a candidate to secure the position on a permanent basis.

Wojnarowski tweets that the Wizards will likely turn back to that short list now that Connelly is out of the running.

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Deveney, Singer Preview Nuggets' Offseason

May 18th, 2019 at 11:16am CST by Luke Adams
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Wizards Offer Tim Connelly Top Front Office Post

May 17th, 2019 at 4:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Wizards have offered their top front-office job to Nuggets president Tim Connelly, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets in conjuction with The Athletic’s David Aldridge and Fred Katz.

The Wizards have offered Connelly a four-year contract that is in the ballpark financially of what Connelly was seeking, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated tweets. Connelly was looking for a five-year deal but is seriously mulling the offer, Mannix adds. Connelly met today with Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and advisor Mike Forde.

The four-year offer would coincide with the timeline for John Wall‘s super-max deal, Michael Lee of The Athletic notes in a tweet. Connelly or whoever takes the job will have to be creative in their roster construction due to the uncertainty of Wall’s health and his ability to return to All-Star status, Lee adds.

The Washington Post’s Candace Buckner speculated earlier on Friday that Washington would likely have to offer Connelly $4MM+ annually over five years to get him to leave Denver.

The Nuggets granted the Wizards permission to interview Connelly because of his ties to the Mid-Atlantic region and some extenuating family considerations, according to an ESPN report.

Denver could replace Connelly with GM Arturas Karnisovas if Connelly accepts the Wizards’ offer. It’s possible that draft-pick compensation could be involved if the Wizards hire Connelly away from the Nuggets, as Fred Katz of The Athletic points out.

The Wizards dismissed Ernie Grunfeld in early April. Tommy Sheppard has been running the front office on an interim basis.

Connelly has been running the Nuggets since the summer of 2013.

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Wizards Meeting With Nuggets’ Tim Connelly

May 17th, 2019 at 9:32am CST by Luke Adams

9:32am: Connelly will meet today with Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and advisor Mike Forde, tweets Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. As Buckner explains, there has been a belief that Connelly didn’t want to interview for the job like a traditional applicant would, which is a signal that this meeting is serious.

Buckner adds (via Twitter) that Washington would likely have to offer Connelly $4MM+ annually over five years to get him to leave Denver.

7:32am: The Wizards have requested and received permission to meet with Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to discuss their own head of basketball operations vacancy, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. League sources tell Wojnarowski that the two sides could meet as soon as Friday.

NBA teams have the right to deny their executives permission to interview for a job with a rival club, particularly if it would be perceived as a lateral move. However, as Wojnarowski explains, Connelly has “deep ties to the Mid-Atlantic region and some extenuating family considerations,” so the Nuggets won’t stop him from exploring the opportunity. The Baltimore native likely wouldn’t have considered overtures from any team besides the Wizards, Woj notes.

The Nuggets are confident in the ability of general manager Arturas Karnisovas to assume control of their basketball operations if Connelly does decide to leave Denver, sources tell Wojnarowski. Connelly was initially elevated to his position after Masai Ujiri left for Toronto under similar circumstances, so the Nuggets have been in this position before.

It’s possible that draft-pick compensation could be involved if the Wizards hire Connelly away from the Nuggets, as Fred Katz of The Athletic points out.

The Wizards, who have been in the market for a new head of basketball operations since dismissing Ernie Grunfeld before the end of the regular season, will likely have to offer a substantial raise to lure Connelly away from Denver, as Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link) and Katz observe. He’s believed to be earning a salary in the range of $2MM per year with the Nuggets.

While the Wizards have been conducting their search for Grunfeld’s replacement, Tommy Sheppard has been running the front office on an interim basis. Sheppard is under consideration for the permanent job, as are Thunder VP of basketball operations Troy Weaver and veteran executive Danny Ferry. Both Weaver and Ferry met with the Wizards for second interviews, according to reports from Katz and Shams Charania at The Athletic and Candace Buckner of The Washington Post.

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Draft Notes: Reddish, Clarke, Paschall

May 16th, 2019 at 10:47pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Cam Reddish met with the Lakers during the draft combine, Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Los Angeles owns the No. 4 overall pick and the organization apparently sent all stakeholders to the meeting. When asked who was there, Reddish replied, “Everybody, you name it.”

Reddish also sat down with the Bulls this week, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweets.  He has a meeting set up with the Cavaliers on Friday, as we passed along earlier today.

There are more draft notes to pass along:

  • Brandon Clarke (Gonzaga) met with the Timberwolves today and the forward feels like they had a “really, really good talk,” as Dane Moore of Zone Coverage tweets. “Obviously, I think I would love playing with KAT,” Clarke said. The 22-year-old will work out for Minnesota in June.
  • Clarke’s first workout will be with the Hornets and Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports (Twitter link) that the team “clearly” has interest in him. Clarke, who met with Charlotte during the combine, will also meet with the Suns, per Gina Mizell of The Athletic (Twitter link).
  • Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe tweets that Clarke will work out for the Celtics. The forward also has a workout set up with the Heat, per Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).
  • Villanova’s Eric Paschall is performing some personal PR, checking through his social media to make sure he hasn’t tweeted out anything a team might deem as a red flag. “I thought I was in the clear… In today’s age, social media is everything,” Paschall said, as Mike Vorkunov of the Athletic passes along (Twitter link). Paschall has met with the Suns, Wizards, Spurs, Warriors, Nuggets and Lakers. He’ll add the Pacers to that list on Friday.
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