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Pacific Notes: Jerome, Lakers, Westbrook, M. Brown

April 4th, 2023 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

Although Ty Jerome was a candidate to be promoted from his two-way contract to the Warriors‘ standard roster, that honor ultimately went to fellow two-way player Anthony Lamb, who had his deal converted last month. As a result, Jerome has been inactive since March 11 as the team looked to preserve his final three games of eligibility, writes Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area.

With just three games left in the Warriors’ regular season, Jerome is in position to be reactivated on Tuesday. However, unless the team waives someone else to make room for him on the 15-man roster, he won’t be eligible to play in the postseason. Speaking to Johnson, the 25-year-old guard said he understands the situation and has “zero hard feelings” toward Lamb or the organization about it.

“They were very open about it with both me and Anthony,” Jerome told NBC Sports Bay Area. “In the heat of it, we were both playing leading up to that decision. Steph (Curry) was out and a few other guys were out, and it really wasn’t on the forefront of my mind at the time. I was really locked in. I’m just trying to win games.

“We had a good stretch of like five in a row. We won some good games, and that was kind of more on the forefront of my mind, and then with Andre (Iguodala) being out for the year and (Andrew Wiggins) not being here, it just came down to positional depth.”

Assuming Jerome’s contract remains unchanged during the final few days of the regular season, he’ll be on track to become a restricted free agent this summer.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Within a larger story about the Timberwolves‘ duo of Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports looks back at how the trade deadline blockbuster involving the Wolves, Lakers, and Jazz came together, noting that Utah significantly dropped its asking price for taking back Russell Westbrook as the deadline neared. While those negotiations initially involved just the Jazz and Lakers, they expanded to include Minnesota in part because “some factions” of the Lakers’ front office preferred to acquire a point guard younger than Conley and zeroed in on D’Angelo Russell, Fischer writes.
Westbrook, who joined the Clippers after being bought out by Utah, is fitting in much better with his new L.A. team than he did with his old one, as Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times outlines. Several people within the organization have expressed both privately and publicly that the union has gone better than expected, Greif writes, adding that the former MVP has been a “popular addition in the locker room.”
Kings head coach Mike Brown earned Mark Daigneault‘s vote for the Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award, the Thunder coach said on Monday (Twitter link via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman). “There was an external stigma that existed around that team,” Daigneault said of Sacramento. “I really admire the energy he brought to that job … He’s really brought a swagger and confidence.”

Andrew Wiggins Nears Return To Warriors

April 3rd, 2023 at 12:56pm CST by Arthur Hill

12:56pm: Wiggins plans to attend (not play) Tuesday’s game against the Thunder, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Sources tell Charania that Wiggins has been away from the team because his father has been dealing with a “serious” health problem.

11:49am: Andrew Wiggins is expected to rejoin the Warriors in the next few days, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Wiggins has missed 22 games while attending to a personal matter, but team officials said repeatedly that they hoped he could return before the end of the season. The front office and his teammates frequently expressed their concerns for Wiggins without providing any specifics about his situation.

Wiggins was an All-Star for the first time last season, averaging 17.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in 73 games. He has put up similar numbers this season, but has only been available for 37 contests.

Wiggins played a huge role in Golden State’s title run, bringing a strong defensive presence that has largely been missing this year. His return should help spark a Warriors team that is currently tied for fifth in the West at 41-38 and is hoping to avoid falling into the play-in tournament.

Wiggins hasn’t played since February 13, although the team said he continued to work out while he was away. He will presumably see some game action this week to help him prepare for the playoffs.

Curry Hopes Core Will Stay Together; Still No Clarity On Andrew Wiggins

April 3rd, 2023 at 9:04am CST by Arthur Hill

After being drafted while the franchise was still in Seattle, Durant blossomed into a star during his eight years in Oklahoma City. He led the Thunder to the NBA Finals in 2012 and was named MVP in 2014, but he alienated the city when he signed with the Warriors as a free agent after the 2015/16 season.

Changes could be coming to the Warriors this offseason, including the loss of potential free agent Draymond Green and general manager Bob Myers, but Stephen Curry believes the current core can be retained both on the court and the front office, relays Angelina Martin of NBC Sports Bay Area. “I think we can all acknowledge and keep it real that had we not won a championship last year, then those questions would have been a lot more … everyday, I guess?” Curry said in a radio show appearance Friday. “But when you prove that you can win, then you kind of hold off the dogs in terms of how hard it is to do what we’ve done and keep this together for as long as we have.”
The Warriors are still hoping that Andrew Wiggins will return from his leave of absence in time for the playoffs, but time is running out for him to make an impact, observes Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

Warriors’ Steve Kerr Talks GPII, Kuminga, Myers, More

April 2nd, 2023 at 10:58am CST by Luke Adams

Two longtime members of the Warriors organization could become free agents this summer. President of basketball operations Bob Myers is on an expiring contract, while former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green holds a player option for 2023/24.

Despite some uncertainty about whether Myers and Green will still be in Golden State in the fall, head coach Steve Kerr isn’t viewing this season as a “Last Dance” for this version of the Warriors, as he told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic this week on The TK Show, referencing the 1997/98 Bulls team that he played for.

“That was made clear in Chicago (in 1997), that that was going to be it, Phil (Jackson) was done and everybody’s contracts were up. That was going to be it,” Kerr said. “That’s not the case here at all. I know that (Warriors owner) Joe (Lacob) would love to keep this thing going. He’s been incredible in his financial commitment to keep this team strong and relevant for a decade. He’s always committed to that. So I think there’s a really good possibility that we keep things going here.”

As Kawakami points out, the idea of bringing the entire gang back for 2023/24 would presumably look more appealing to Warriors ownership if the team makes another deep playoff run. Golden State’s up-and-down performance this season has created some doubts about the viability of such a run, but Kerr feels like the team has played some of its best basketball of the season as of late, crediting Gary Payton II‘s return and Jonathan Kuminga‘s emergence as a reliable rotation piece as key factors.

“We look more like a two-way basketball team more often now than we did even a few weeks ago,” Kerr told Kawakami. “We’re not there yet, obviously. I mean, we’re not consistent enough. But I think we know we’re capable of getting where we need to be.”

Here are a few more highlights from Kawakami’s conversation with Kerr, which is worth checking out in full if you subscribe to The Athletic:

On whether he’s concerned that Myers won’t be back with the Warriors next season:

“Yeah, for sure. The fact that he doesn’t have a contract, the possibility is there that he won’t be back. I think that’s obvious. I’m not breaking any news. I can tell you without a doubt everybody wants him back.

“Bob is amazing at his job. His job goes so much further than just drafting or signing players or trading for players. It’s the overall management of the organization. The way he helps me navigate the season through his communication with our players is so valuable for me. Bob is a masterful communicator in every direction and he’s a great friend. He and I have so much trust in one another. So I hope he’s back, and I think everybody feels that way, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

On why it has been challenging for young players (like James Wiseman) to crack the Warriors’ rotation on a consistent basis:

“The hard part for any fan or anybody to realize is just how much knowledge and wisdom you need in this league to really impact winning. I remember early in the season I had dinner with Steph (Curry) and Draymond on the road and I asked them each how long it took them early in their NBA careers to feel like they could directly impact winning. Draymond said three years, Steph said four. And Draymond played four years at Michigan State. Steph played three at Davidson.

“So for each of them, they were talking about seven seasons after they left high school was when they could impact winning in the NBA. You’re talking about Hall of Fame players. So when we get 19-year-old guys like Kuminga or (Moses) Moody or Wiseman, who are really gifted, it’s just not going to click right away. … There are exceptions. But the rule is generally young players have a long way to go to really figure out how to win and to absorb everything you need to know to play at this level.”

On whether the Warriors are capable of winning a title if Andrew Wiggins doesn’t return from his personal absence for the postseason:

“I think so; I really believe in this team. I think the fact that we traded for Gary and the way that JK has stepped up in Wigs’ absence. If you look at last year’s team, we had the two on-ball defenders in Wigs and Gary. And you plug JK into that Wigs spot now. It’s not as seamless as it was a year ago because we had a whole season together and we had all that rhythm and continuity, but I do feel good about our chances just with the talent that we have and the experience that we have.”

Mavericks Notes: Play-In Tournament, Doncic, Protest

April 1st, 2023 at 8:40pm CST by Arthur Hill

With most of their early-season goals now out of reach, the Mavericks are focused on trying to earn a spot in the play-in tournament, writes Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. It’s a far cry from where the team expected to be after last year’s run to the Western Conference Finals, but the players realize they still have a chance to salvage their season.

“Obviously the rankings don’t look great,” Maxi Kleber said. “But we’ve just got to do our job, have good practices, improve and stay together as a team.”

The Mavs entered tonight in 11th place at 37-40, just a half-game behind Oklahoma City for the final play-in spot. Townsend cites a Basketball-Reference playoff probabilities report that shows Dallas with just a 1.7% chance of finishing seventh and a 5.9% shot at eighth. The more likely scenarios are ninth (14.7%) or 10th (22.4%), which means having to win two play-in games just to make the playoffs.

“We know where we realistically are,” Kyrie Irving said, “and our destiny is in some other teams’ hands losing games.”

There’s more on the Mavericks:

Past mistakes are more to blame for the team’s downfall than the decision to trade for Irving, claims Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. Goodwill says the organization erred by trading for Kristaps Porzingis, who turned out to be a poor fit alongside Luka Doncic, and in not recognizing the value of Jalen Brunson before he became an unrestricted free agent.
Doncic is committed to playing for Slovenia in exhibition games Aug. 11 against Spain and Aug. 12 against the United States, even though the dates conflict with Dirk Nowitzki‘s Hall of Fame induction, Townsend adds in another Dallas Morning News story. Doncic said he hates to miss the ceremony, but he’s committed to helping his nation try to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. “I think everybody knew he was gonna make it,” Doncic said of Nowitzki. “He was really very, very excited for it. I’m really happy for him.”
Friday was the deadline for the Mavericks and Warriors to submit information to the league office regarding Dallas’ protest of its March 22 loss, Marc Stein tweets. The league will have up to five business days to make a final ruling.

Latest On New Collective Bargaining Agreement

April 1st, 2023 at 7:40pm CST by Arthur Hill

We learned overnight that the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement will introduce a second tax apron that imposes more severe restrictions on the league’s highest-spending teams. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski explains (via Twitter) what some of those restrictions will be.

Teams that exceed the second apron won’t be permitted to send out cash in deals, trade away first-round picks seven years in the future or sign players who become free agents in the buyout market, sources tell Wojnarowski. The new apron will reportedly be set $17.5MM above the luxury tax line, and ESPN reported earlier that teams in that category will also lose their mid-level exception in free agency.

Teams exceeding the second apron will also be prohibited from taking back more salary than they send out in a trade, sources tell Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link).

Bobby Marks of ESPN points to the Suns’ acquisition of Kevin Durant in February and the Nets’ trade for James Harden in 2021 as deals that would likely have needed to be altered if the new rules were in place at the time they were made (Twitter link).

There’s more on the new CBA agreement:

Positions will no longer be taken into consideration in voting for All-NBA teams, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Under the current rules, voters must pick two guards, two forwards and a center for each of the three teams. Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid were the top vote-getters in the MVP race last year, but because they both play center, Embiid had to settle for second-team All-NBA honors.
Draymond Green isn’t a supporter of the new agreement, claiming the union didn’t get enough in negotiations. “Players lose again…. Smh! Middle and Lower spectrum teams don’t spend because they don’t want to,” he tweeted. “They want to lose. So increase their spending capabilities, just to increase them. They continue to cut out the middle. And this is what we rushed into a deal for? Smdh! Never fails.” In an exchange with fans, Green pointed out that the Warriors sold for $500MM shortly before he arrived and claimed that the team is now worth $8 billion. “Never seen someone go to a table with the assets that makes an entire machine go, and lose EVERY time! Blasphemous,” Green added.
The one-and-done rule that prevents players from entering the NBA draft directly out of high school remains in place, but Devin Booker believes it will eventually be changed, writes Dana Scott of The Arizona Republic. “I think most kids are still finding their way out or they’re not even going to college and their spending a year removed training somewhere at a prep school or something of that such,” Booker said. “So with the NIL, I think that’s a step forward. Those players are able to get paid now off their name and likeness, so that’s really important. But we’ll see. I think it will eventually get back to no college.”

Grizzlies’ Lofton Named G League Rookie Of The Year

March 31st, 2023 at 11:57am CST by Luke Adams

First-year forward Kenneth Lofton Jr., who is on a two-way contract with the Grizzlies, has been named the G League Rookie of the Year for the 2022/23 season, according to the NBA (Twitter link).

Lofton has appeared in just 19 games and averaged only 5.5 MPG at the NBA level in his first professional season after signing with the Grizzlies as an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana Tech. However, he played a major role for the Memphis Hustle, the team’s G League affiliate.

In 17 regular season games for the Hustle, Lofton averaged a double-double (20.2 PPG, 10.5 RPG) despite logging a modest 28.6 minutes per night. He shot 53.9% from the floor and also chipped in 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals per contest. Lofton’s performance helped the Hustle secure the No. 2 seed in the NBAGL’s Western Conference with a 23-9 record.

Lofton will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer, since his two-way contract only covers the 2022/23 season.

According to the NBA (Twitter link), Warriors two-way guard Lester Quinones and Rockets two-way forward Darius Days finished second and third, respectively, in Rookie of the Year voting.

Quinones averaged 21.8 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 4.8 APG in 31 G League regular season games (32.0 MPG) for the Santa Cruz Warriors, while Days put up 24.4 PPG and 9.7 RPG on .486/.371/.857 shooting in 29 contests (35.6 MPG) for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Warriors Notes: Green, Myers, Rotation, Wiggins

March 29th, 2023 at 7:54am CST by Luke Adams

Warriors forward Draymond Green received his 17th technical foul of the season on Tuesday vs. New Orleans, meaning he’ll be subject to another automatic one-game suspension if it’s not rescinded and he earns one more technical before the team’s finale on April 9.

While he believes Tuesday’s tech should be rescinded, Green also expressed no regrets about the confrontation with Brandon Ingram that led to it (Twitter video link), referring to it as a spark for the team, as Kendra Andrews of ESPN writes. At the time that Ingram and Green were assessed double T’s in the second quarter, the Warriors trailed by nine points. They eventually won by 11.

“It was perfect. Perfectly executed,” Green said. “We looked dead those first 18 minutes. We had to find some energy somewhere. It wasn’t just going to come, especially after losing the game like we did last game; that can carry over. I felt like it did. I knew we had to do something and do it fast before the game got out of hand.”

Head coach Steve Kerr didn’t disagree with Green’s assessment, crediting the veteran’s energy for keying the comeback win.

“Draymond willed us to victory tonight,” Kerr told reporters. “Just the intensity, the frustration early with the way we were playing. Mad at the world, yelling at everybody — their bench, our bench, me — and frankly, we deserved it.”

Here’s more on the Warriors:

Green and Stephen Curry, who have heaped praise on Bob Myers in the past, once again expressed admiration for the Warriors’ president of basketball operations on Tuesday after Myers helped calm Green down after he received his fifth personal foul in the fourth quarter (Twitter video link). “Y’all don’t always get to see Bob’s work, other than putting the team together. But he’s so important to everything that we do,” Green said, per Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. “… GMs don’t keep a pulse on the team like Bob keeps a pulse of this team. Maybe two other GMs in the league right there would come down to the bench and say something. And that’s also someone who I have the utmost respect for. If Bob comes and tells me something, that’s Bible to me. I’m going to listen to that.”
Gary Payton II‘s return to action this week has rotation ramifications for the Warriors, observes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Moses Moody will likely be one player affected — he logged just three total minutes in Payton’s first two games back. Anthony Lamb, Donte DiVincenzo, and Jonathan Kuminga are among the other players whose minutes could dip slightly with Payton back, Slater adds.
Andrew Wiggins remains away from the Warriors, having missed a 20th straight game on Tuesday as he deals with a personal matter. However, the idea of ruling him out for the rest of the season “hasn’t been discussed,” Kerr said on Tuesday (all Twitter links via Slater). Kerr, who expressed hope that Wiggins will return this spring, also noted that the veteran forward has been working out every day during his absence.

Payton II Available To Play Sunday

March 26th, 2023 at 7:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

As expected, Gary Payton II was available to play for the first time since the Warriors re-acquired him from the Trail Blazers at the trade deadline, Kendra Andrews of ESPN tweets. He had been sidelined by a right adductor injury.

Pacific Notes: Payton, Westbrook, Lue, M. Brown

March 25th, 2023 at 11:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

Gary Payton II‘s long wait to get back on the court with the Warriors will end on Sunday, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Payton has been listed as probable to play against the Timberwolves, and sources tell Haynes that he’ll be ready to go.

Payton was able to scrimmage on Friday and participated fully in Saturday’s light practice, writes Kendra Andrews of ESPN. An official decision may not be made until after warm-ups, but it appears the intention is for Payton to play.

“I’m starting to feel like myself,” he said. “I missed a lot of games this year, so I’m just ready to get back out on the court with the guys and wrap this up for the homestretch.”

After being an important part of Golden State’s title team last season, Payton signed with the Trail Blazers over the summer. The Warriors reached an agreement to bring him back at the trade deadline, but the deal was delayed for three days because Payton had an adductor injury that Golden State claimed the Blazers didn’t disclose. Payton, who hasn’t played since February 8, says he feels good now and he’s ready to contribute.

“Every day getting my body right, a little maintenance, fine-tuning, we had a little extra time to do all of that and get (my body) where it needs to be,” he said.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Russell Westbrook has taken on a mentorship role since signing with the Clippers, according to Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. Westbrook’s main students are young guards Terance Mann and Bones Hyland, who are eager to learn from a future Hall of Famer. “I got so much love and just, just everything for Russ, man. I love watching him play, his energy,” Hyland said. “… He gives it his all. So just being alongside Russ, I learned so much and he’s always in my ear telling me the good things, what he sees out there for me. I’m glad to be a teammate alongside Russ.”
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue could “remove himself” from the team if things don’t go well in the playoffs, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports suggested in the first episode of his “No Cap Room” podcast. However, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype that Lue, who has multiple years left on his contract, hasn’t engaged in any discussions with management about an early exit.
Mike Brown, who’s among the favorites for Coach of the Year honors, said the award would be important because of the recognition it would bring to the Kings and the city of Sacramento (video link).