- Tyrese Haliburton only needed to watch Pacers teammate Andrew Nembhard play one game during Summer League to know he was too good for the competition, according to an Indianapolis Star story. “Y’all can send Andrew home,” Haliburton told president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard and general manager Chad Buchanan after watching Nembhard dominate the team’s first game in Las Vegas. “He don’t need to be here.” Although Nembhard appears ready for a larger role in his second NBA season, Indiana’s offseason moves may complicate that. The Pacers signed Bruce Brown and drafted Ben Sheppard, and coach Rick Carlisle may decide to promote Bennedict Mathurin to a starting job in the backcourt alongside Haliburton.
- Obi Toppin never averaged more than 17.1 minutes per game during his three seasons with the Knicks, but he’s the Pacers‘ presumed starter at power forward, The Indianapolis Star adds in a projection of the team’s depth chart. Lottery pick Jarace Walker, who was impressive during Summer League, will probably be Toppin’s primary backup.
Jarace Walker underwent “minor” surgery to remove loose bodies from his right elbow, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Pacers forward is expected to be completely healed when training camp opens in the fall, per Wojnarowski.
Walker spent his lone college season with the Houston Cougars, averaging 11.2 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.0 SPG and 1.3 BPG on .465/.347/.663 shooting in 36 games (27.6 MPG) in 2022/23. Known as a strong defensive player, Walker was the eighth pick of last month’s draft.
The 19-year-old appeared in four Summer League games for Indiana in Las Vegas, averaging 14.3 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.3 SPG and 1.3 BPG in 30.1 MPG. While those all-around stats are quite solid, he struggled mightily with scoring efficiency, posting a .343/.179/.444 shooting line. It’s safe to assume his elbow was affecting him, considering he reportedly underwent surgery to correct the ailment.
Assuming no other major roster moves are made, Walker will likely be vying with Obi Toppin and Aaron Nesmith for the starting power forward job entering ’23/24. Nesmith spent much of last season as the small-ball starting four, but he’s only 6’5″ and the Pacers were obviously focused on adding talent at the position this summer.
The action on the NBA’s free agent market has slowed since the start of July, but there are still many FAs seeking new deals, including a notable group of under-the-radar players whose situations will need to be resolved in the coming days, weeks, and months.
A total of 12 two-way restricted free agents are still available, as our up-to-date list shows. Those players are as follows:
- Trent Forrest (Hawks)
- Theo Maledon (Hornets)
- Terry Taylor (Bulls)
- Lester Quinones (Warriors)
- Kendall Brown (Pacers)
- Jamal Cain (Heat)
- Matt Ryan (Timberwolves)
- Trevor Keels (Knicks)
- Duane Washington (Knicks)
- Dominick Barlow (Spurs)
- Jeff Dowtin (Raptors)
- Ron Harper Jr. (Raptors)
That group doesn’t include a 13th player, Neemias Queta, who is also a restricted free agent after finishing last season on a two-way deal. Although he remains eligible to sign another two-way contract, Queta was ineligible for a two-way qualifying offer after having played on a two-way with the Kings for consecutive seasons — his QO is a one-year, minimum-salary contract with a small ($75K) partial guarantee.
For the rest of these players, their qualifying offer is simply another one-year, two-way deal, which limits their leverage to negotiate a more lucrative standard contract.
Some two-way RFAs have managed to earn standard deals this offseason. A.J. Green of the Bucks was one. Julian Champagnie of the Spurs was another. Ty Jerome (Warriors) and Jack White (Nuggets) received standard contract offers from the Cavaliers and Thunder, respectively, that their former teams were unwilling to match, so Golden State and Denver simply withdrew their respective qualifying offers, making Jerome and White unrestricted free agents.
Offer sheets for two-way restricted free agents essentially never happen though. And in general, unless a team has earmarked a 15-man roster spot for a two-way free agent, it’s an uphill battle for these players to earn offseason promotions.
As a result, the majority of the dozen restricted free agents listed above will likely end up accepting their qualifying offers and hoping that their play in 2023/24 forces their clubs to find 15-man roster spots for them later in the season.
Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on this group to see if any of them can do better than another two-way — and to see how long some of them might be willing to wait in the hope of earning that opportunity.
- Jannero Pargo is the Pacers’ Summer League coach and has aspirations to get a head coaching job in the league. “It’s a little nerve-racking for me but it was a challenge that I was up for and I really enjoyed it,” he told Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files.
After spending much of his rookie season getting used to the NBA, the Bucks‘ MarJon Beauchamp appears ready to make a bigger impact, writes Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Beauchamp reported to Summer League noticeably stronger than he was last season, and his teammates have seen a different approach to the game.
“His confidence and feeling comfortable out there, and kind of understanding what he does best and how he can do that and execute that and kind of just like putting his impact on the game, on both ends of the floor, getting to the rim, making plays defensively,” A.J. Green said. “He just looks so much more like ‘I’m here. I belong here’ comfortable out there.”
Beauchamp took a lead role in Milwaukee’s offense during Summer League, scoring 23 and 20 points in the first two games. He plans to spend part of the offseason working out in Greece with Giannis Antetokounmpo and hopes to carry his newfound aggressiveness into the upcoming season.
“Going into camp, I just want to show my ability where I’ve grown and I read the game better,” Beauchamp said. “I’m here to take that leap. I am. It starts Day 1 of training camp so I can’t wait.”
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Javon Freeman-Liberty was impressive enough during Summer League to warrant an NBA contract, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago states in an overview of the Bulls‘ performance in Las Vegas. Freeman-Liberty averaged 21.2 PPG in five games while shooting 49.3% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc. Johnson suggests the Bulls might give him their last open two-way spot if he doesn’t get offered a standard deal by another team.
- The Bulls‘ front office hasn’t shown an ability to identify talent in recent drafts, contends Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Second-year guard Dalen Terry might be the latest disappointment after a lackluster Summer League showing in which he shot 33.8%. Cowley rates Chicago’s last four drafts, giving the team grades of C, C-minus, D and C-plus.
- Tyrese Haliburton believes the Pacers are ready to take another step forward after signing Bruce Brown and trading for Obi Toppin, per The Indianapolis Star. “I think we have a lot of guys that fit the right way and fit our style of basketball,” Haliburton said. “Bruce, Obi, on top of the guys that we already have there with the way we played last year, those are two guys who just add to that. That’s going to help us keep playing fast.”
The Suns, Pacers and Knicks recently had exploratory trade talks on a deal that would have sent Cameron Payne to New York, T.J. McConnell to Phoenix, and Evan Fournier and draft picks to Indiana, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Other iterations of the deal included Jordan Nwora, according to Scotto, though it’s unclear where the Pacers forward would have ended up in that framework.
However, the talks on the three-team trade have stalled, Scotto reports. Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports was first to report the Suns and Pacers discussed a deal involving Payne and McConnell, and suggested the Knicks may have been involved as well.
Here’s more from Scotto’s latest article for HoopsHype:
- League sources tell Scotto that the Hornets are on the hunt for a backup point guard after Dennis Smith Jr. signed with the Nets in free agency. As Scotto previously reported, Charlotte had interest in Aaron Holiday, but he wound up signing with the Rockets. According to Scotto, one player on Charlotte’s radar is Wizards guard Delon Wright, who will make $8.2MM next season in the final year of his contract. The Wizards traded for Tyus Jones and Jordan Poole, and Wright was signed by the previous front office regime. The 31-year-old has already seen his name pop up in a few other trade rumors this offseason.
- Scotto recently spoke to a handful of second-round picks at Summer League about their goals entering their rookie seasons. Those players are Nuggets guard Jalen Pickett, Celtics forward Jordan Walsh, and Mouhamed Gueye and Seth Lundy of the Hawks. Walsh, the No. 38 pick of the 2023 draft, has high expectations for himself, he told Scotto. “If I get a chance to play with these guys and help the team, I want to be on the All-Defensive First or Second Team or Defensive Player of the Year,” Walsh said. “My goals are defensively oriented and winning a championship, which is No. 1. If I’m able to accomplish any of those things, I’d feel my rookie year went pretty well.”
- In case you missed it, we passed along some Raptors rumors and free agent rumors from Scotto as well.
Of the 58 players who were selected in last month’s draft, 50 have signed their first NBA contracts during the first two weeks they’ve been permitted to do so.
As our tracker shows, the breakdown is as follows:
- First-round picks signed using the rookie scale exception: 29
- Second-round picks signed using the new second-round pick exception: 13
- Note: Of these 13 players, 12 received four-year contracts, while one (Rayan Rupert) signed a three-year deal.
- Second-round picks signed to two-way contracts: 8
That leaves eight players from the 2023 draft class who have yet to sign with their respective NBA teams. Those players are as follows:
- Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Mavericks
- James Nnaji, Hornets
- Tristan Vukcevic, Wizards
- Sidy Cissoko, Spurs
- G.G. Jackson, Grizzlies
- Mojave King, Pacers
- Jordan Miller, Clippers
- Tarik Biberovic, Grizzlies
Not all of these players will sign an NBA contract in 2023/24. King and Biberovic are each expected to spend at least one season playing overseas before coming stateside. Vukcevic is another candidate to become a draft-and-stash prospect.
It’s also unclear whether the Hornets plan to sign Nnaji right away or let the 18-year-old big man continue developing his game in Europe. For now, Charlotte only has 12 players on guaranteed contracts for 2023/24, but depending on which restricted free agents (P.J. Washington, Theo Maledon) and players on non-guaranteed deals (JT Thor, Kobi Simmons) return, there might not be a spot for Nnaji, who remains under contract with FC Barcelona and – as a No. 31 overall pick who would require an international buyout – wouldn’t be a candidate for a two-way deal.
Prosper is the only unsigned first-rounder in this year’s class, but the delay doesn’t seem like anything to worry about. The Mavericks, who continued this past week to explore the trade market and consider how to fill out their roster, have taken their time getting around to signing a handful of players, with deals for free agents like Seth Curry and Dante Exum only becoming official on Friday. I’d expect Prosper’s contract to be finalized soon.
That leaves Cissoko, Jackson, and Miller, each of whom look like candidates to receive two-way contracts. Some of the other players drafted in their range, including No. 41 pick Amari Bailey and No. 46 pick Seth Lundy, have received two-way deals, and the Spurs, Grizzlies, and Clippers all have roster logjams, meaning there may not be room on their 15-man rosters for their unsigned second-rounders.
The Spurs will have 17 players on standard contracts once they officially re-sign Tre Jones and Sandro Mamukelashvili. The Grizzlies also have 17 players under contract and would have a full 15-man roster even if they trade or waive Josh Christopher and Isaiah Todd. The Clippers have 16 players on standard contracts (15 guaranteed). However, all three teams have at least one two-way slot available.
Entering the offseason, the Pacers knew they’d have to take a “unique” angle in order to sign their top free agent target, swingman Bruce Brown, as general manager Chad Buchanan recently explained to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
“What other teams are willing to pay him? And what we were willing to pay him is a big, significant gap,” Buchanan told The Athletic. “We knew that maybe it’s a little more than the market would say, but it was the way we as an organization and as a team have to approach free agency sometimes. We got to be a little creative. We got to maybe go deeper with a pay to get a guy, but it was the guy we wanted.
“We wanted to do what it took to get him, and working with his agents, right at the strike of free agency and talking about ‘OK, where were the other teams at? Where would we need to come in to get Bruce to turn down some of these other options from other more established teams than us?’ We’re a young team, and for Bruce to come in and leave a championship team and some other teams (that) are after him to come to play for a young team, we realize it was gonna probably take a unique way to approach luring him to us.”
Brown almost certainly took less total money to sign with the Pacers, inking a two-year, $45MM contract. However, a short-term deal allows him to hit the open market sooner, which could be a plus. And as Buchanan alluded to, Indiana was willing to give him more money in 2023/24 than rival clubs, and his contract includes a team option in year two, giving both sides flexibility — the Pacers could free up cap space next summer if things don’t work out.
The 26-year-old’s strong defense, willingness to “do the dirty work,” and overall versatility appealed to Indiana, according to Buchanan. The team knows it needs to improve defensively to reach its goal of a postseason berth next season.
“If we can become a top-20 defense, I think we would make a pretty good jump, have a chance to make a good jump. And competing for a playoff spot, I think we’d love to be in that position this year,” Buchanan said as part of a larger quote. “If it’s a play-in, playoff, wherever it is.”
Indiana has been linked to Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, a two-time All-NBA member, a couple times over the past week. However, when Vorkunov asked Buchanan if the Pacers were finished were their offseason moves, he replied that while they’re always looking to improve the roster, they’re not yet ready to push their chips in the middle in a major win-now move.
“I don’t think a team’s done until you’re done,” Buchanan said. “We’ll always try to be opportunistic when we can on anything. But I don’t think we’re like aggressively pursuing anything right now. … Obviously, some big names out there … could get moved still this offseason, and if that filters down and impacts other teams, if it impacts us, we’ll consider it. But, if it doesn’t, we’re also happy with this group now.
“We’re not going to rush things to try to jump and go all in right now. I don’t think that’s where we’re at. We don’t have that. We’re not one player away from being a championship-caliber team. I think we realize it takes time and it takes guys developing and growing.”
After opting to retain their core free agents this summer and also make some cheap veteran signings, the Bucks are deftly navigating their present while trying to maintain some longer-term flexibility, writes Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“There is, without a doubt, an intentionality to try make sure that we maximize where we’re at right now with this team and always having an eye toward the future to try to figure out what the next version of this team looks like,” Milwaukee GM Jon Horst told Owczarski.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s major changes to the roster [upcoming] or there is or there isn’t, it just means that we gotta have an eye toward that and continue to look at how we’re going to build this two, three, four, five years down the road because the whole goal has always been to sustain our success over a long period of time,” Horst continued.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- The rebuilding Pacers theoretically have the attributes to trade for Raptors All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam, but Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star wonders if the negatives of such a move would outweigh the positives, specifically with regard to how much the team would possibly need to surrender to Toronto.
- Chicago native Jevon Carter is hoping to help elevate his new team, his hometown Bulls, both on the hardwood and beyond it this season, writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. To wit, Carter is already prepping to host a local youth camp this weekend. “Anytime I dreamed about going to the NBA as a kid, it was always in a Chicago Bulls uniform,” Carter told Johnson. “So getting that call and hearing, ‘Congratulations, you’re going to be a Chicago Bull,’ like, I don’t even know what to say. My feelings are all over the place.”
- Maximum-salaried Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine does not believe he will be traded by Chicago in the near future, per Ryan Taylor of NBC Sports Chicago. “I always rep my city whichever team I’m playing for to the best,” LaVine said. “And Chicago’s loved me and called me one of their own since I’ve been there. I don’t see anything happening anytime soon. But if it does, Chicago always has my love.”
Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin didn’t appear to be posturing when he recently commented on the status of Damian Lillard‘s trade request, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, who writes that there wasn’t any buzz at Summer League about progress between the Blazers and the Heat on a possible deal.
Based on the way Portland has patiently handled the situation thus far, Fischer believes the process could indeed take months. The Blazers are said to be looking for something in the neighborhood of a Kevin Durant-type return in exchange for Lillard — a couple of very good young players and four first-round picks.
Here’s more from Fischer:
- The Nets have been linked as a possible third team trade partner in talks between Portland and Miami (with rumored interest in Tyler Herro), but league sources tell Fischer that Brooklyn hasn’t had any serious talks involving Ben Simmons on that front. As Fischer points out, the Nets are surely aware that Simmons’ value has cratered, but they also seem “genuinely intrigued” by pairing a healthy Simmons with a much different roster in 2023/24 after trading Durant and Kyrie Irving.
- The Suns have been involved in trade talks regarding point guard Cameron Payne, with Phoenix targeting Pacers point guard T.J. McConnell, perhaps in a multi-team deal, Fischer reports. Payne recently had his expiring $6.5MM contract fully guaranteed, while McConnell will earn $18MM over the next two seasons, $13.7MM of which is guaranteed.
- The Knicks continue to actively explore Evan Fournier trades and are open to multi-team scenarios, sources tell Fischer. Fournier was pulled from New York’s rotation fairly early last season, only appearing in 27 contests and struggling with his shot in limited minutes. The 30-year-old will earn $18.86MM in 2023/24 and has a $19MM team option for ’24/25 that is highly likely to be declined.