- Reggie Jackson re-signed with the Nuggets last month and the veteran point guard expects to play a significant role as they look to defend their title. “This is a big season for me and for us in general,” Jackson told The Athletic’s Tony Jones. “The understanding that we have to go into the season with is that we have a mark on our backs collectively as a team. But, also, I have to do my part and do everything I can to try and make us as successful as possible.”
Forward Vlatko Cancar, who sustained a torn ACL in his left knee earlier this month, recently underwent ACL reconstruction surgery, the Nuggets announced (Twitter link via Mike Singer of The Denver Post).
While Cancar is officially out indefinitely, ACL tears typically have a recovery timeline of 12-plus months, so it seems highly likely that he’ll be sidelined for the entire 2023/24 season.
Cancar suffered the injury while playing in an exhibition game for Team Slovenia as it prepares for the 2023 World Cup. The 26-year-old has had strong international showings for his native country in recent years, including during the 2020 Olympics and last year’s EuroBasket.
It’s a very unfortunate setback for both Cancar and the Nuggets, who lost some bench depth this offseason and now will be without Cancar as well.
A former draft-and-stash second-round pick (49th overall in 2017), Cancar emerged as a semi-regular rotation player in 2022/23, averaging 5.0 PPG and 2.1 RPG on .476/.374/.927 shooting in 60 games (14.8 MPG). He was not in the team’s shortened postseason rotation, however, playing 10 total minutes over five games during Denver’s championship run.
Cancar will make a guaranteed $2.2MM in ’23/24, and the Nuggets hold a $2.3MM team option on his contract for ’24/25.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray won’t play for Team Canada in the 2023 World Cup, Canada Basketball announced today on its official website.
Murray reported to training camp for the Canadian national team, but his status for the FIBA World Cup was always considered to be up in the air due to his lengthy postseason run in Denver this spring. He was ruled out for Canada’s first few exhibition games in Germany and now won’t be part of the squad that travels to Indonesia to begin its group play schedule on August 25.
“When I came into training camp, I wanted to see how my body would respond after a long and demanding season and if I would be physically able to compete at the highest level required for the World Cup,” Murray said in a statement. “In consultation with medical staff and the team, it is clear that additional recovery is required, and I have made the difficult decision to not participate in the tournament.
“It’s still a dream of mine to represent Canada at the Olympics, and I will support the team every step of the way as they pursue this goal.”
Canada would qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris – and give Murray a chance to suit up for the club next summer – by placing as one of the top two teams from the Americas in the World Cup. Obviously, Team USA will be Canada’s top competition in that field, but several others – the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil – will be vying for one of those top two spots.
Although the Canadian team – led by NBA players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, and Luguentz Dort – is a deep and talented one, the group doesn’t have much experience playing together in international competitions, so clinching an Olympic berth next month is far from a lock. The first step will be reaching the knockout stage of the tournament with a top-two finish in a group that also features France, Latvia, and Lebanon.
- What player needs to step up the most for the Nuggets to repeat as champions? Harrison Wind of DNVR Nuggets believes Christian Braun fits that description with the anticipation that Braun can expand his offensive contributions.
The full Christmas Day game schedule is now known thanks to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). As usual, the holiday features five games, including a matchup between the rival Lakers and Celtics in Los Angeles.
Additionally, the Knicks host the Bucks, the Sixers and Heat play in Miami, the Mavericks and Suns square off in Phoenix, and the Nuggets host the Warriors.
Both the Celtics and the Lakers are expected to be title contenders next season. The Lakers revamped their roster, while the Celtics did the same. Boston made a huge switch-up when they moved longtime Celtic Marcus Smart in a trade that brought in Kristaps Porzingis. By moving Smart, the Celtics committed to playing a bigger lineup, with Porzingis, Al Horford and Robert Williams all expected to have major roles. The Celtics also lost Grant Williams but added Oshae Brissett to help fill the void.
The Bucks and Knicks are both interesting players in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee fell to the Heat as the No. 1 seed last year, but brought back the majority of their roster, including Brook Lopez to a two-year, $48MM deal and Khris Middleton to a three-year, $98MM deal. Jae Crowder also re-signed. Robin Lopez and Malik Beasley joined Milwaukee in free agency while the team drafted Andre Jackson Jr. and Chris Livingston.
New York didn’t have many moves to make in free agency, with most of their roster under contract. Josh Hart recently extended with the Knicks and they brought in Donte DiVincenzo, who will be squaring off against the team who drafted him. While the Knicks might not end up winning the chip, there’s thought that they improved on a roster that was the No. 5 seed last season.
The Heat and the Sixers may look vastly different by the time Christmas rolls around. Both teams are facing trade requests, but on different sides. Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard asked Portland a trade, with Miami as his preferred destination. There’s no telling when or if the Heat and Lillard will unite. If they do, the Heat immediately become one of the best teams in the NBA, pairing Lillard with Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. If not, they’re likely worse off. Even though they added Josh Richardson, Thomas Bryant and Jaime Jaquez Jr. to their roster, the Heat lost Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, two key playoff contributors. The Heat did make the NBA Finals last season but did so after scraping past the play-in tournament.
Meanwhile, the Sixers saw James Harden request a trade out of Philadelphia and reportedly express a desire to be sent to the Clippers. That hasn’t happened yet, and Harden remains a member of Philly. There’s a chance the Sixers could bring Harden to camp and into the season, but it would be surprising if he was a member of the team by the time Christmas arrives. The Sixers won 54 games last season but losing Harden would hurt. Their best move this season has been to re-sign Paul Reed, but they have no avenue to adding additional talent and any Harden trade to the Clippers is unlikely to bring back a star return. That means an even bigger plate for last year’s MVP Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris. Additionally, Patrick Beverley and Mohamed Bamba signed with the Sixers this offseason.
Any matchup between the Sixers and Heat is of note, considering Butler’s history in Philadelphia and the unofficial rivalry between the two teams.
The Suns added a new star to their roster while the Mavericks kept their co-star this offseason. While Dallas finished last year outside of the playoffs after trading for Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks doubled down on his pairing with Luka Doncic by signing him to a new three-year, $120MM contract. Dallas fleshed out the rest of the roster by adding Grant Williams, Seth Curry, Richaun Holmes and Derrick Jones Jr. while drafting Dereck Lively II and Olivier-Maxence Prosper.
The matchup between the Suns and Mavericks features a battle between former Nets teammates Kevin Durant and Irving.
We went over the new-look Warriors and defending-champion Nuggets in a previous story.
Charania revealed the opening day matchups earlier today, which likely means the full schedule will be revealed sometime in the near future.
Four heavyweights in the Western Conference will play on opening night of the 2023/24 season, according to Shams Charania (Twitter link). The defending-champion Nuggets will host the Lakers on Tuesday, October 24, while the Warriors host the Suns. Both matchups will be aired on TNT.
The Nuggets and Lakers squared off in the Western Conference Finals last season, with Denver winning via sweep before going on to win the NBA Finals. Denver’s roster is similar to last season’s. The Nuggets lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, though Green only averaged 4.1 points in 17.2 minutes in the playoffs last year. Losing Brown is huge, but Denver has several players who can help take over with larger roles, such as Christian Braun. Denver also drafted Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson while adding Justin Holiday in free agency.
While the Lakers lost to the Nuggets last year, they only lost one game by double digits. Their average margin of defeat was by six points. Los Angeles moved quickly to bring back several key rotation pieces from last year’s team, such as Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura. While they lost the likes of Dennis Schroder, Malik Beasley and Lonnie Walker, the Lakers brought in multiple free agents, including Gabe Vincent and Taurean Prince. Los Angeles also drafted Jalen Hood-Schifino in the first round.
Both the Warriors and the Suns made it to the second round last season, but both teams opted for major offseason shake-ups. The Suns made headlines when they acquired three-time All-Star Bradley Beal to their roster, giving them one of the most top-heavy and expensive teams in the league. Phoenix was active in the opening days of free agency, re-signing Josh Okogie, Ish Wainright and Damion Lee, while bringing in a multitude of minimum-contract players, like Yuta Watanabe, Eric Gordon and Keita Bates-Diop.
The Warriors also turned heads when they traded young scorer Jordan Poole in a move to acquire Chris Paul, who had been involved in the aforementioned Beal deal, from the Wizards. The Oct. 24 matchup marks Paul’s first against the Suns since the trade. Paul spent three seasons in Phoenix.
While rumors circulated about Draymond Green potentially moving on in free agency or Jonathan Kuminga being traded, both players remain on the team (Green courtesy of a new four-year, $100MM deal). Golden State brought in Cory Joseph and Dario Saric in free agency and drafted Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis, both of whom could play their ways into rotation spots.
More schedule news will trickle in in the coming weeks. The Christmas Day games, as well as other marquee matchups, are typically leaked before the full schedule release, which happened on Aug. 17 last year.
It’s still unclear whether or not Nuggets guard Jamal Murray will play for Team Canada when the World Cup tips off later this month, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, who reports that sources in Murray’s camp say the matter remains undecided.
Due to his championship run with Denver that extended into mid-June, the expectation was that Murray would be brought along slowly after reporting to the Canadian national team. But he’ll likely have to play in at least one or two of the team’s pre-World Cup exhibition games in order for Canada to feel comfortable having him suit up in Indonesia, Grange writes.
The Canadian team is currently in Germany for a series of three tune-up contests, then will travel to Spain to play two more exhibition games before continuing on to Jakarta. Murray didn’t accompany the team to Germany.
Here are a few more World Cup notes:
- Within his Sportsnet.ca story, Grange says that new Celtics forward Oshae Brissett experienced some tightness during Team Canada’s practices and was held out as a precautionary measure, but didn’t suffer a knee injury as some reports suggested. Brissett simply wants to play it safe and focus on getting ready for training camp with a new team.
- Raptors guard Dennis Schröder, a member of the German national team, is still recovering from an Achilles issue that he dealt with at the end of last season and isn’t 100%, he told reporters (story via BasketNews.com). However, he believes he’ll be ready to go for the World Cup.
- Joe Vardon of The Athletic takes a closer look at the role that Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton is playing for Team USA and the feedback Haliburton got from Chris Paul, who visited the club’s training camp in Las Vegas. “The way he plays just empowers everybody,” Austin Reaves said of his backcourt mate, lauding Haliburton’s ability to get everyone else involved.
- Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who will play for Slovenia in the World Cup, already looks to be in midseason form. He poured in 34 points to go along with 14 assists and 13 rebounds in an exhibition win over Montenegro on Tuesday, as The Dallas Morning News relays.
Trendon Watford‘s one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Nets is non-guaranteed for the time being, but the third-year forward could earn partial guarantees if he makes the opening night roster and holds his spot on the team for at least a couple months.
Watford will receive a partial guarantee of $200K if he isn’t waived on or before the first day of the regular season in October, Hoops Rumors has learned. That partial guarantee would increase to $700K if he remains under contract through December 19.
Watford’s full $2.02MM salary would become guaranteed if he isn’t cut on or before January 7. That’s the date that all players on non-guaranteed contracts must be waived by if their teams want to avoid paying their full salaries.
Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts:
- The one-year, minimum-salary deal that Frank Ntilikina signed with the Hornets is partially guaranteed for $200K, Hoops Rumors has learned. Ntilikina would have to remain under contract through the league-wide salary guarantee deadline of January 7 in order to earn his full $2.53MM salary.
- Souley Boum‘s non-guaranteed training camp contract with the Nuggets includes Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Boum would receive a bonus worth $75K if he’s waived before the regular season begins and then spends at least 60 days with the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s G League affiliate.
- In case you missed it, Anthony Davis‘ three-year, maximum-salary contract with the Lakers includes a third-year player option for the 2027/28 season, as Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported on Sunday when the deal was officially finalized.
Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. was named the standout of training camp in a straw poll of Team USA players taken by Joe Vardon of The Athletic. The American World Cup team wrapped up camp on Sunday in advance of tonight’s first exhibition game, and Jackson made a strong impression on his teammates.
“Jaren, particularly (Saturday), his energy and the way he went to the glass and went to the foul line every other possession,” Jalen Brunson said. “He was just really a force (in the Saturday scrimmage against the Select Team).”
As its best rim protector and most versatile big man, Jackson will be important to Team USA’s chances of capturing a gold medal. He’s looking forward to the international competition, noting that it’s conducive to his style of play, which often gets him into foul trouble in the NBA.
“It’s more physical in FIBA,” Jackson said. “You can use your chest a lot more. You can’t really use your hands, so that’s the similarity (with the NBA), but you can use your chest in FIBA just to get him off you or whatever the case. The defense gets a lot of benefit of the doubt, for the most part.”
There’s more World Cup news to pass along:
- Even after a breakout season, Austin Reaves was surprised to receive an invitation to join the Team USA roster, per Steve Carp of The Sporting Tribune. Entering the league as an undrafted player, Reaves doesn’t have the credentials of his more heralded teammates, but his performance with the Lakers caught the attention of USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill. “I was shocked,” Reaves said. “As a kid, you watch (USA Basketball) and you fantasize taking that last shot to win the gold medal. Now I’m here and with a chance to contribute and be part of it. It’s a tremendous honor personally and to also represent the Lakers.”
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray will miss Team Canada’s exhibition games in Europe as his status for the World Cup is evaluated, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. The Canadians will play three times this week in Germany and twice next week in Spain before the actual tournament begins August 25. Canada will also be without newly signed Warriors guard Cory Joseph, who experienced an issue with his back during training camp, Kassius Robertson, who will report to his new EuroLeague team instead, and Oshae Brissett, who is rehabbing an injury (Twitter link).
- Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic tells Eurohoops that he’s optimistic about Serbia’s chances even though it won’t have NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic or new Thunder guard Vasilije Micic. “Given that it’s a relatively young team, we’ve managed well,” Bogdanovic said. “… We play a fast and attractive style of basketball.”
The Nuggets have signed free agent guard Souley Boum, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. It’s a training camp contract with no guaranteed money, a source tells Smith. The signing was completed on Thursday, per RealGM’s transaction log.
Boum, 24, went undrafted out of Xavier this year after averaging 16.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists as a super senior. He began his college basketball career at San Francisco before transferring to UTEP for three seasons.
Boum played for the Kings during Summer League, averaging 7.3 PPG in three games.
The defending champions are now at the summer maximum with 21 players under contract.