- Third-year wing Bennedict Mathurin and second-year forward Jarace Walker were among the standouts in the Pacers‘ preseason victory over Cleveland last Thursday, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Both players were highly efficient offensively, with Mathurin scoring 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting in 19 minutes, while Walker had 12 points on just three field goal attempts in 18 minutes.
Now through June 2025, writers across the globe will eagerly anticipate an exciting upcoming draft class headlined by Duke forward Cooper Flagg, alongside other top talents. Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN recently paired to provide an early look at the top 100 prospects before the college season tips off (Insider link).
Flagg ranked first, but Rutgers guards Ace Bailey (No. 2) and Dylan Harper (No. 3) aren’t far behind. Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe (No. 4) and France’s Nolan Traore (No. 5) remain among the top options as well, while Duke’s Kon Knueppel (No. 6) is an early riser after an impressive offseason and preseason.
UNC’s Drake Powell, Duke’s Khaman Maluach, Spanish guard Hugo Gonzalez and UConn’s Liam McNeeley round out the remainder of the top 10.
Collin Murray-Boyles is the draft’s highest-ranked returner after making the decision to come back to South Carolina, with the ESPN duo ranking him at 12.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- The top five of Sam Vecenie’s recent mock draft for The Athletic matches ESPN’s big board to a tee, with Brooklyn being slated to be the ones to land Flagg’s services in June’s draft. However, Vecenie’s mock draft deviates from there, with Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis coming off the board at No. 6 due to his ball and scoring skills. Vecenie mocks Georgia’s Asa Newell to the Hornets at No. 7 and Ratiopharm Ulm’s Ben Saraf at No. 8 to the Raptors, while ESPN has those players at No. 31 and No. 16, respectively.
- With such a talented draft class on deck, The Athletic’s John Hollinger suspects teams will return to tanking in 2024/25. While some teams greatly underperformed in 2023/24, as in any year, there wasn’t as much incentive to lose since there wasn’t a consensus top pick like in next year’s draft. Hollinger likens the 2025 class to the 2018 class that produced the likes of Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson and Trae Young in terms of the depth of talent. Hollinger’s story addresses this, but I’d contend that while teams may be blown away by the talent of the 2025 class, the Hawks had a better record than nine teams but still landed the No. 1 overall pick. Meanwhile, the Pistons had their worst season in franchise history but didn’t pick until No. 5.
- The Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s G League affiliate, executed a six-team trade on Wednesday, per the team (Twitter link). Several picks swapped hands, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll focus on the player rights that were moved. The Vipers acquired the returning player rights to Jermaine Samuels, who is currently in camp with the Rockets. The Valley Suns acquired Cassius Stanley‘s rights, the Indiana Mad Ants (Pacers) received Dakota Mathias‘s rights, the Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies) got both Malachi Smith and Devin Cannady‘s rights, the Mexico City Capitanes obtained Loudon Love, and Gary Clark‘s rights were re-routed to the Wisconsin Herd (Bucks). Mathias was already signed and waived by the Pacers, so this is an indication he’ll play for the Mad Ants this season as an affiliate player. It remains to be seen whether Stanley, Smith, Cannady or Clark will sign camp deals to be later waived and set up as affiliates. The Capitanes aren’t an NBA team’s direct affiliate, so while Love could still sign anywhere as an NBA free agent, his rights being moved aren’t directly correlated with him potentially being an affiliate player.
Pistons owner Tom Gores is pleased with the way that new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon identified three-point shooting and veteran leadership as priorities in his first summer on the job and made moves to address those areas, according to Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press. Langdon and the Pistons’ front office signed Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley, and Paul Reed as free agents and traded for Tim Hardaway Jr.
“The core of the way we thought is we have this young group of players that need to be developed and also need to be complemented with the right players,” Gores said. “I feel really good about the veterans we’ve added. Tobias, who I’ve known for a long time, we have Beasley and Hardaway and Reed that’s come in. I feel very good about the offseason with the veterans.
“We knew these young men were good, they have a lot of potential. All of them. You see (Jaden) Ivey‘s really coming along well. But all of that said, we needed to complement them with the right thing so they could grow properly. I’m pretty excited. That’s how we approached it. We have a core that we believe in and we’ve got the veterans added in.”
The other major move that Gores signed off on during Langdon’s first offseason was the decision to part ways with Monty Williams even though the veteran head coach had five years left on the lucrative contract he signed with Detroit a year ago. Gores has no regrets about approving that coaching change after seeing the way J.B. Bickerstaff has handled the job so far.
“I think J.B.’s doing an incredible job communicating with the players and getting us organized,” Gores said. “I feel good. Everybody knows we have a lot of work to do, but we turned the page and we’re ready to go.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- Bucks head coach Doc Rivers shared some positive health updates on Tuesday, telling reporters – including Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – that Gary Trent Jr. will be “fine” after hyperextending his left elbow and may even play on Thursday and that Khris Middleton, who is recovering from surgeries on both ankles, could suit up for a game or two before the end of the preseason.
- Bucks newcomer Taurean Prince spoke this week about the role he expects to play in Milwaukee, expressing that he believes his ability to play power forward “can serve the team very, very well.” Eric Nehm of The Athletic has the details.
- Vincent Collet, the former head coach of the French men’s basketball national team, is reuniting with Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson, according to reporting from L’Equipe (hat tip to Eurohoops). After Atkinson worked under Collet as an assistant coach for the French team over the summer, Collet will reportedly serve as a consultant for Atkinson and the Cavs this season.
- Speaking to James Boyd of The Athletic, Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton discussed what he learned from his summer experience with Team USA and explained why he’s so excited about the continuity Indiana has established heading into the 2024/25 season. “We have the same coaching staff, let alone the same group of guys,” Haliburton said. “So, this is really refreshing, really exciting, because it’s less about teaching and more of the detail work and complex stuff and getting to those (stages) quicker. That’s been so refreshing and so fun for me, and I think that’s gonna make us so good moving forward.”
The Thunder made the best roster moves during the 2024 offseason, according to the NBA’s general managers. Within his annual survey of the league’s top basketball decision-makers, John Schuhmann of NBA.com writes that 37% of his respondents picked Oklahoma City as having the best summer, with the Sixers coming in second place at 33%. The Knicks got 20% of the vote share, while no other club received more than a single vote.
It was one of many favorable outcomes in the survey for the Thunder, who were overwhelmingly selected as the team with the best young core — 60% of GMs selected OKC, compared to 20% for the second-place Magic.
New Thunder guard Alex Caruso was chosen by general managers as the most underrated offseason acquisition, receiving 23% of that vote share, while last year’s Most Valuable Player runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was picked as this year’s MVP favorite (40%), narrowly edging Mavericks star Luka Doncic (30%).
The Thunder also received a handful of votes from the league’s GMs as the team that will win the 2025 NBA Finals, but at 13%, they finished a distant second to the Celtics, who earned a whopping 83% of the vote. Besides those two clubs, only the Mavericks (3%) received a vote to become this season’s champions.
Here are a few more interesting results from Schuhmann’s GM survey, which is worth checking out in full:
- New Sixers forward Paul George got 60% of the vote as the offseason acquisition who will have the biggest impact in 2024/25, followed by new Knicks Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns at 13% apiece. The Towns trade, meanwhile, was named the most surprising offseason move, eking out George leaving Los Angeles for Philadelphia (27% to 23%).
- Unsurprisingly, Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama was the overwhelming choice (77%) for which player the GMs would most want to start a franchise with. Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic each earned three votes in that category, while Doncic got one.
- The league’s general managers are high on No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard — the Rockets‘ guard is their pick to win the Rookie of the Year award (50%) ahead of betting favorite Zach Edey of the Grizzlies (30%). Sheppard also comfortably received the largest vote share (43%) when the GMs were asked which rookie will be the best player in five years. Spurs guard Stephon Castle (17%) and Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher (13%) were the runners-up in that category.
- There was no consensus among the GMs on which 2024 draftee was the biggest steal. Wizards guard Carlton Carrington, Kings guard Devin Carter, Pacers wing Johnny Furphy, Lakers forward Dalton Knecht, Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon, and Thunder guard Nikola Topic each received three votes to lead the way.
- Among newly hired head coaches, Mike Budenholzer of the Suns is the one GMs feel will have the biggest impact on his new club. Budenholzer received 40% of the vote, beating out Kenny Atkinson of the Cavaliers and J.B. Bickerstaff of the Pistons (20% apiece). Meanwhile, Spurs guard Chris Paul (30%) and Raptors guard Garrett Temple (20%) are the active players that GMs feel would make the best head coaches down the road.
- Asked what they’d change about the NBA, 20% of GMs said the rules related to the tax aprons, trades, and roster construction are too restrictive and/or should be “indexed to (a) team’s market,” per Schuhmann, making it the top response.
Gary Trent Jr.‘s preseason debut for the Bucks didn’t go well. The former Toronto guard suffered a hyperextension of his left elbow when he ran into the Pistons’ Jalen Duren, who was setting a screen late in the first half, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm notes. Trent, who made two of his three shot attempts before he exited, signed a one-year deal with Milwaukee in July.
The Bucks didn’t provide any official updates on Trent after sharing the initial diagnosis, so it remains to be seen how long the injury might sideline him for, Nehm adds.
We have more from the Central Division:
- During a Pacers scrimmage game on Sunday, James Wiseman scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds in just eight minutes of action. The Indianapolis Star’s Dustin Dopirak believes Wiseman will push Isaiah Jackson for the backup center spot. Wiseman was signed to a two-year, minimum salary contract in July after playing for division rival Detroit last season.
- Early in training camp, new Bulls point guard Josh Giddey has been even better than advertised in terms of his court vision and passing ability, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. Getting on the same page with his teammates is the next challenge for the former Oklahoma City guard. “I’ve got where maybe there are passes I can’t make but I think I can in my head and I try to make them that are probably not there in the moment,” Giddey said. “I guess it’s just a confidence. As a passer you can’t live on the edge.”
- Nikola Vucevic knows that the Bulls‘ front office has explored trades for him. The veteran center says he ignores the possibility of being dealt. ‘‘I honestly don’t think about it,’’ Vucevic told Cowley. ‘‘It’s stuff that’s out of my control. My focus is on this team and to help this team be the best team we can be. Changes and all that, that’s not my job. That’s the front office’s job.” Vucevic has two years left on his contract. The Bulls have not shown a willingness to include draft capital to shed his contract, Cowley adds.
Bennedict Mathurin had a hand in the Pacers‘ regular season success in 2023/24, but his season ended in early March due to a labrum tear, meaning he had to watch from the sidelines as his team won two playoff series and got within four wins of the NBA Finals.
“It was kind of tough to see that,” Mathurin said at the Pacers’ media day on Monday, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. “It was good for the team, and it was good because it puts me back to myself and it kind of humbled me a little bit because we had such success.”
Mathurin started the first 12 games of the ’23/24 campaign before moving to the bench for most of the rest of the season. Given that the Pacers played some of their best basketball with the former lottery pick in the second unit, he’ll likely come off the bench again this fall, which he says is just fine.
“I don’t think I have any expectations for a role,” Mathurin said. “I’m not going to be joining the team back and saying, ‘This is my role on the team.’ It’s pretty much, whatever I can do to help my team win, whatever it is, so be it. That’s the main thing for me, just help my team win.”
Whether Mathurin is part of the starting five or a key part of the second unit, star Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton is looking forward to having his teammate on the court again this fall.
“I’m so excited to get him back,” Haliburton said. “I think an interesting part of last year is it was presented as a lot of teams (in the playoffs) were hurt, as if our best bench scorer was not. I’m excited to get him back. I think seeing him get that success and knowing how competitive he is and he wasn’t playing lights a fire under one of the most hard-headed, motivated people I know.”
Here’s more out of Indiana:
- Pacers center Myles Turner has been involved in trade rumors off and on since arriving in Indiana and has never felt totally secure on the roster, so he’s not stressing about the fact that he’s entering a contract year without the ability to extend his contract prior to free agency in July, Dopirak writes for The Indianapolis Star (subscription required). “I can’t help but laugh,” Turner said. “I’m gonna keep it a stack. Every year at Indiana has been a contract year at this point, whether you’re fighting rumors or staying true to your grind and what not. I don’t really feel too much different.” General manager Chad Buchanan said last week that the Pacers are “big believers” in Turner and want to retain him beyond 2024/25.
- Noting that Jarace Walker showed up to camp slimmer and in better condition than a year ago, Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) explores what last year’s eighth overall pick will have to do to earn playing time in his second NBA season. With Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin at power forward, Walker’s best chance to earn minutes could come at small forward, barring injuries.
- Offseason addition James Wiseman has been limited during the early days of training camp due to a groin issue, while second-round pick Johnny Furphy tweaked both of his ankles, according to Dopirak (Twitter links). The Pacers will take a day off from practicing on Thursday to help allow some of the players with minor ailments to heal, per head coach Rick Carlisle.
The Pacers have announced in a press statement that they’ve waived guard Josiah-Jordan James just ahead of training camp.
The 6’6″ Tennessee alum agreed to an Exhibit 10 training camp deal with Indiana shortly after he was skipped over in this year’s draft, but the deal wasn’t officially completed by the team until this week.
James enjoyed a successful 144 contests in Tennessee from 2019-24 and was a key part of the Vols’ Elite Eight squad this past spring. Across 36 contests (all starts) in 2023/24, James averaged 8.4 points, 6.4 boards and 1.9 assists per contest, with a shooting line of .402/.341/.831.
Reporting in June indicated James would have a chance to earn a two-way contract with the Pacers, but now that he’s been cut, it seems likely he’ll suit up for the team’s NBAGL affiliate squad, the Indiana Mad Ants.
As an Exhibit 10 signee, James will be able to earn a bonus worth as much as $77.5K should he stick with the Mad Ants for at least 60 days.
Jahlil Okafor has reached an agreement with the Pacers on a training camp contract, agent Daniel Hazan of Hazan Sports tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 28-year-old center, who was selected by Philadelphia with the third pick in the 2015 draft, gets a chance to return to the NBA after three years away. Pacers officials watched him in workouts over the summer and were impressed by his conditioning level, Charania adds.
Okafor has been out of the NBA since the 2020/21 season, when he appeared in 27 games with Detroit. He was traded to Brooklyn that summer and later signed with Atlanta, but wasn’t able to win a roster spot with either team.
Okafor resumed his basketball career overseas, playing in China and Spain before signing with a Puerto Rican team in February. He also spent time in the G League and was among the players selected by Phoenix’s new affiliate at the expansion draft in June. The Pacers’ affiliate, the Indiana Mad Ants, acquired Okafor’s rights in a G League trade on Friday.
Okafor averaged 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds in his first season and finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting, but he wasn’t able to sustain that level of success. He was traded to Brooklyn after a little more than two seasons with the Sixers, and played two years in New Orleans before moving on to Detroit.
The Pacers only have 12 players in camp with fully guaranteed contracts, so Okafor should have an opportunity to compete for a roster spot. They will be at the offseason limit of 21 players once his signing becomes official.
The Pacers have waived forward Tyler Polley and guard Keisei Tominaga, according to a team press release.
Polley signed an Exhibit 10 contract on Thursday and Tominaga inked a similar deal this week. Assuming they clear waivers, they’ll be eligible for bonuses worth up to $77.5K if they spend at least 60 days with the G League’s Indiana Mad Ants.
Polley, a former UConn forward, has spent his first two professional seasons playing in the Greek Basketball League. He played last season for Kolossos, averaging 9.4 points and 4.6 rebounds on .442/.347/.795 shooting in 21 games (25.6 minutes).
Tominaga, an undrafted guard, averaged 15.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 26.1 minutes per game across 32 outings (all starts) for Nebraska in 2023/24.
In an additional move, the team signed guard Josiah-Jordan James to an Exhibit 10 contract. The Pacers agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with James shortly after he went undrafted out of Tennessee.
James appeared in 144 games with the Volunteers and helped Tennessee reach the Elite Eight this year for the second time in program history. He appeared in 36 games last season, averaging 8.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 29.2 minutes per night while shooting 40.2% from the field and 34.1% from three-point range.
Reporting in June suggested James was expected to compete for a two-way deal. However, Indiana has already filled all three spots and say in today’s release that he’ll be joining the Mad Ants, which suggests he’ll be waived before the NBA season begins.
The Suns‘ and Pacers‘ G League affiliates have completed a trade involving a former No. 3 overall NBA draft pick, per a press release from the Valley Suns. Phoenix’s new affiliate acquired the returning rights to guard David Stockton from the Indiana Mad Ants in exchange for the returning rights to forward Garrison Brooks and former lottery pick Jahlil Okafor.
Brooks and Okafor were among the Suns’ picks in June’s expansion draft, but it’s unclear if either one intends to play in the G League at all in 2024/25 — they both competed overseas last season.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Free agent swingman Oshae Brissett is believed to be drawing interest from a EuroLeague team, according to a report from Sportske.net. As Dario Skerletic of Sportando relays, the Serbian outlet says that the Belgrade-based club Crvena Zvezda has its eye on Brissett as a potential target. The five-year NBA veteran, who won a title last season with the Celtics, has been on the lookout for a new home since he turned down his player option with Boston in June.
- ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, Bobby Marks, and Tim Bontemps (Insider link) have published the latest installment of their annual “future power rankings,” which are based on each team’s projected on-court success for the next three seasons. The Thunder top this year’s version of the list, while the Celtics drop from No. 1 to No. 2 despite their 2024 championship, since their salary cap situation may get untenable in the near future. The Knicks (third) Sixers (fourth), Mavericks (fifth), Rockets (seventh), Timberwolves (eighth), and Spurs (10th) each rose five or more spots to claim a place in ESPN’s top 10.
- Howard Beck of The Ringer sorts the NBA’s 30 teams into six separate tiers based on how clear their plans are going forward. The Nets and Wizards, in full-on rebuilds, are among the teams in the “ever-clear” top tier along with championship hopefuls like the Mavericks and Sixers, while clubs with less obvious goals, like the Hawks, Bulls, and Raptors, find themselves in the lowest “fun-house mirror” tier.
- ESPN has laid off senior writer Zach Lowe, sources tell Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. Lowe is the second noteworthy NBA reporter to depart the network in recent weeks, joining Adrian Wojnarowski, who unexpectedly announced his retirement from the news industry last week.