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Poll: Which Team Will Stay Undefeated Longest?

October 24th, 2018 at 2:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Eight days into the NBA season, 25 teams have lost at least one game, leaving just five clubs unscathed. In the Eastern Conference, the Raptors (4-0), Bucks (3-0), and Pistons (3-0) remain undefeated, while, the Nuggets (4-0) and Pelicans (3-0) have yet to lose in the West.

All five of those teams were expected to be, at the very least, playoff contenders in 2018/19, but they’ve still exceeded expectations to some extent in the early part of the season.

The Raptors, Bucks, and Pistons all entered the season with new head coaches in place, but there has been no learning curve for those coaches so far. Kawhi Leonard and Blake Griffin have played like their old selves after battling injuries last season, helping Toronto and Detroit get off to fast starts, while Mike Budenholzer‘s offense in Milwaukee has the Bucks looking like a new team.

In the West, we knew that the Nuggets would be terrific on offense, but they’ve been better than advertised on the defensive end of the court, and that has played a big part in their hot start. As for the Pelicans, they still look like the team that made quick work of Portland in the first round of the playoffs last season, having not skipped a beat after losing Rajon Rondo and DeMarcus Cousins in free agency.

Here are the upcoming schedules for the NBA’s five remaining undefeated teams:

  • Toronto Raptors: vs. Min (10/24), vs. Dal (10/26), at Mil (10/29), vs. Phi (10/30), at Phx (11/2)
  • Milwaukee Bucks: vs. Phi (10/24), at Min (10/26), vs. Orl (10/27), vs. Tor (10/29), at Bos (11/1)
  • Detroit Pistons: vs. Cle (10/25), vs. Bos (10/27), at Bos (10/30), at Bkn (10/31), at Phi (11/3)
  • Denver Nuggets: at LAL (10/25), vs. NOP (10/29), at Chi (10/31), at Cle (11/1), vs. Uta (11/3)
  • New Orleans Pelicans: vs. Bkn (10/26), vs. Uta (10/27), at Den (10/29), at GSW (10/31), at Por (11/1)

All five clubs have tough matchups on tap, including some with each other — next Monday night should be especially interesting, as the Bucks host the Raptors while the Pelicans visit the Nuggets.

Based on what you’ve seen so far, as well as each team’s upcoming schedules, we want to know which team you believe will be the NBA’s last undefeated squad. Will it be the Raptors, Bucks, Pistons, Nuggets, or Pelicans that stays out of the loss column for the longest?

After placing your vote, head to the comment section below to weigh in on how long you expect each of these teams to keep winning and whether their hot starts have changed your views on them at all.

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Pelicans To Get G League Affiliate For 2019/20

October 24th, 2018 at 1:25pm CST by Luke Adams

OCTOBER 24: In their press release officially announcing their new G League affiliate, the Pelicans indicate that the club isn’t expected to begin play in Birmingham until 2022/23, meaning it will spend three seasons in Erie.

OCTOBER 23: The Pelicans will launch a G League affiliate that will begin play in the 2019/20 season, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, the new G League franchise will eventually play in Birmingham, Alabama, but will start in Erie, Pennsylvania, while arena renovations are completed in Birmingham.

Rumors of a potential G League affiliate for the Pelicans have persisted for multiple years now. Back in March 2017, we heard that New Orleans was expected to have an NBAGL team of its own in place for the 2018/19 season, but the club took longer than anticipated to finalize the location and the details.

Later in 2017, the Pelicans were said to be leaning toward Shreveport, Louisiana or Pensacola, Florida as the eventual home of their G League team, having apparently ruled out various cities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. However, Alabama will be the home of the new franchise after all, once Birmingham’s arena is ready to go.

Currently, Erie is home to the BayHawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate. The Hawks, who took over the Erie squad in 2017/18, are spending one more year in Pennsylvania while work on their new G League arena in College Park, Georgia is completed. When the Hawks’ affiliate moves out of Erie at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, the Pelicans’ new expansion affiliate will be ready to move in.

[RELATED: NBA G League Affiliations For 2018/19 Season]

The Pelicans will become the 28th of 30 NBA teams with their own NBAGL affiliate. The Nuggets and Trail Blazers are the only other NBA clubs without G League teams of their own, though ESPN’s Jonathan Givony suggests (via Twitter) that the Nuggets may also look to have an affiliate in place for the 2019/20 season, perhaps in the northwest suburbs of Denver. If that happens, Portland would be the lone holdout.

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2019/20 Rookie Option Decisions Due In One Week

October 24th, 2018 at 10:00am CST by Luke Adams

Unlike player and team options on veteran contracts, which generally have to be exercised or declined by the end of June, rookie scale contracts include third- and fourth-year options that teams must decide on a year early. The deadline for those decisions is October 31, which means that clubs have one more week to pick up or turn down those rookie scale options for the 2019/20 season.

While several teams have already announced their rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20, there are 14 clubs that will need to decide one way or the other on those options within the next week.

Below, we’ve listed the outstanding rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20, sorting them by their likelihood of being exercised. The first list features options that are certain to be exercised, such as Ben Simmons‘ or Jayson Tatum‘s. The second list features the rest of the options, which may still be picked up, but aren’t necessarily locks.

Let’s dive in…

Locks to be exercised:

Not necessarily locks to be exercised:

Because rookie scale salaries are typically so affordable, many of the options that we don’t view as locks to be picked up will still be exercised. For instance, even if Labissiere barely has a role in the Kings’ crowded frontcourt at the moment, Sacramento doesn’t have much guaranteed money on its books for 2019/20 and may view a $2,338,847 cap hit for the big man as a worthwhile investment.

Still, many of the players in that second list don’t currently have sizable rotation roles, so teams will have to decide whether it’s worth it to continue trying to develop those players in 2019/20, or if it makes more sense to simply replace them with minimum-salary veterans. That could be an especially tricky question for teams that project to be over the luxury tax line next season — in those cases, every saved dollar matters.

For a full list of the rookie scale options for 2019/20, including the ones that have already been picked up, check out our tracker.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Nuggets’ Will Barton To Miss At Least Six Weeks

October 23rd, 2018 at 9:23am CST by Dana Gauruder

OCTOBER 23: Barton has undergone successful surgery to repair core and hip muscle injuries, according to the Nuggets, who noted in a press release that the veteran swingman will be re-evaluated in six weeks.

OCTOBER 22: Nuggets swingman Will Barton will have surgery for an adductor muscle injury on Tuesday and is expected to miss 5-6 weeks, ESPN’s Marc J. Spears tweets. The injury is in the right hip area.

Barton was off to a solid beginning as the team’s starting small forward. He averaged 16.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 3.0 APG during the team’s first two games before he felt something pop during the second half against Phoenix on Saturday. He missed Denver’s victory over Golden State on Sunday.

Barton, 27, averaged career highs in points (15.7) and assists (4.1) last season.

It’s unlikely Denver will pursue trade options unless the timetable for Barton’s injury changes. With the 6’6” Barton on the shelf, Torrey Craig, Juan Hernangomez and Malik Beasley will see an uptick in minutes.

The undrafted Craig, 27, broke into the league last season and started on Sunday. Hernangomez, a 2016 first-rounder, is a career 37.1% 3-point shooter. Beasley, another 2016 first-round pick, appeared in 62 games in reserve for Denver last season.

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Pacific Notes: Lakers’ Lineup, Green, Cousins, Crawford

October 22nd, 2018 at 8:57am CST by Arthur Hill

Lonzo Ball will take over Rajon Rondo‘s starting spot while he serves his suspension, but Lakers coach Luke Walton is still deciding who will fill in for Brandon Ingram, relays Mike Trudell of NBA.com. L.A. will be shorthanded for a while after suspensions were announced yesterday for Saturday night’s fight against the Rockets. Rondo has been docked three games for his role in the incident, while Ingram will miss four.

Walton has several options to slide into the starting lineup, with Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma and Lance Stephenson all being considered. Hart, who is second on the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game and is hitting 40% of his threes, seems like the most likely choice, Trudell writes. Ball has been playing limited minutes in the wake of offseason knee surgery, but Walton said the coaching staff will consider changing that.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • Warriors forward Draymond Green was critical of the short suspensions, telling Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News the league has a “double standard” in handing down punishments. Green suggested he would have been out longer if he had been involved and referred to his suspension in the 2016 NBA Finals. “I’m never in favor of guys losing money,” he said. “But I got suspended in the NBA Finals for attempting to punch somebody. Guys punching each other are getting two games or three games. I attempted to punch somebody, and not in the face, either.”
  • Nuggets coach Mike Malone, who had plenty of experience with DeMarcus Cousins when they were together in Sacramento, thinks he will benefit from joining an established winner like the Warriors, Medina writes in a separate story. Malone calls Cousins “misunderstood” and says he was always professional in his approach to the game. “If the jump ball went up, I never had to worry about if he was going to be ready to play,” Malone said. “My challenge to him was to get him to be the best version of himself.”
  • Devin Booker is thrilled that the Suns were able to add Jamal Crawford, according to Cody Cunningham of NBA.com. Phoenix signed the former Sixth Man of the Year last week to help stabilize its backcourt. “Somebody that I idolized growing up,” Booker said of Crawford. “People just all see his handles, but he’s a player… He’s a good veteran, good guy. He loves basketball. So I think we’ll relate very well.”
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WNBA Star Sue Bird To Meet With Nuggets

October 21st, 2018 at 3:22pm CST by JD Shaw
  • WNBA star Sue Bird is meeting with the Nuggets executive staff this week, which could turn into a job with the team, Chris Dempsey of Nuggets.com reports (Twitter link). Bird is still an active WNBA player, meaning she cannot work full-time with the organization.
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Will Barton Suffers Hip Injury

October 21st, 2018 at 10:57am CST by Arthur Hill
  • An MRI is scheduled today for Nuggets guard Will Barton, who had to be taken off the court in a wheelchair after hurting his hip Saturday, according to an ESPN report. Barton fell to the floor after making a layup in the third quarter and said he heard a pop when he started to jump. Barton signed a four-year, $54MM deal over the summer and entered this season as a full-time starter for the first time in his career.
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Nuggets, Michael Malone Agree To Extension

October 17th, 2018 at 1:29pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nuggets have extended the contract of their head coach, announcing today (via Twitter) that they’ve reached on a new deal with Michael Malone. Details of the extension weren’t disclosed by the team, but ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets that it adds two years to Malone’s current contract, locking him up through the 2020/21 season.

“I never had any doubt that this would get done,” Malone said today, per Chris Dempsey of Altitude Sports (Twitter link). “My conversations and relationship with [president of basketball operations] Tim [Connelly] and [owner] Josh [Kroenke] throughout the summer have been nothing but positive.”

Malone, who served as the Kings’ head coach for a season and a half before joining the Nuggets, has helped the franchise improve its record in each of the last three years. After moving on from Brian Shaw and interim coach Melvin Hunt in 2015, Denver increase its win total from 30 to 33 in its first season under Malone, then won 40 games in 2016/17 and 46 in 2017/18.

In total, Malone has a 119-127 record for the Nuggets. Although he has yet to lead the team to the postseason, the organization is trending in the right direction. Denver missed out on a playoff spot by losing to Minnesota on the last day of the regular season in 2017/18, but is viewed as a probable playoff team for the coming season.

Malone’s original contract with the Nuggets was a three-year deal with an option for a fourth year. Denver picked up that fourth-year option for 2018/19 over a year ago, so Malone would have been on an expiring contract this season if not for his new extension.

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Nuggets Have One Of NBA's Youngest Rosters

October 16th, 2018 at 3:15pm CST by Luke Adams
  • Bobby Marks of ESPN.com passes along some interesting data on the NBA’s opening-night rosters, tweeting that the Nuggets, Knicks, and Trail Blazers have the youngest rosters, while the Rockets, Heat, and Mavericks are on the other end of the spectrum. Meanwhile, the NBA announces that the opening-night rosters feature a total of 108 international players from 42 different countries and territories.
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2018/19 Over/Unders: Northwest Division

October 16th, 2018 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

The 2018/19 NBA regular season gets underway tonight, which means it’s time to get serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign. With the help of the lines from Bovada and the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division, to have you weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic.

Having already looked at the other five divisions, we’re moving onto the Northwest today…

Utah Jazz

(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Jazz poll)

Oklahoma City Thunder

(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Thunder poll)

Denver Nuggets

(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Nuggets poll)

Portland Trail Blazers

(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Trail Blazers poll)

Minnesota Timberwolves

(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Timberwolves poll)

Previous voting results:

Atlantic:

  • Boston Celtics (59.5 wins): Over (53.63%)
  • Toronto Raptors (55.5 wins): Over (56.95%)
  • Philadelphia 76ers (54.5 wins): Under (51.19%)
  • Brooklyn Nets (31.5 wins): Under (56.04%)
  • New York Knicks (28.5 wins): Under (54.13%)

Southwest:

  • Houston Rockets (56.5 wins): Over (69.33%)
  • New Orleans Pelicans (45.5 wins): Under (53.4%)
  • San Antonio Spurs (44.5 wins): Under (60%)
  • Dallas Mavericks (34.5 wins): Over (55.16%)
  • Memphis Grizzlies (34.5 wins): Under (60.87%)

Central:

  • Indiana Pacers (47.5 wins): Over (62.04%)
  • Milwaukee Bucks (47.5 wins): Over (73.7%)
  • Detroit Pistons (38.5 wins): Over (56.36%)
  • Cleveland Cavaliers (30.5 wins): Over (55.42%)
  • Chicago Bulls (29.5 wins): Over (61.8%)

Pacific:

  • Golden State Warriors (62.5 wins): Over (53.45%)
  • Los Angeles Lakers (48.5 wins): Over (55.2%)
  • Los Angeles Clippers (36.5 wins): Under (55.7%)
  • Phoenix Suns (29.5 wins): Under (53.4%)
  • Sacramento Kings (25.5 wins): Under (63.87%)

Southeast:

  • Washington Wizards (45.5 wins): Over (56.28%)
  • Miami Heat (43.5 wins): Under (57.42%)
  • Charlotte Hornets (35.5 wins): Over (56.73%)
  • Orlando Magic (30.5 wins): Under (68.41%)
  • Atlanta Hawks (23.5 wins): Under (58.38%
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