Unless an NBA team is ravaged by injuries, it likely won’t use the 15th man on its roster very often. Many teams dedicate that spot to a prospect who spends much of his time in the G League rather than with the NBA squad. Other teams don’t even bother carrying a full 15-man roster, creating modest savings by not having to pay a player in that final slot.
Still, by the end of the regular season, most teams have filled their 15 roster spots in one way or another. If a club signs a player with one or two days left in the season, the money owed to that player for the current year is extremely minimal. Additionally, those deals often include non-guaranteed salaries for the following season, allowing a team to take an extended look at the player during the summer.
With six days left in the 2017/18 season, several teams still have open roster spots, but there’s a good chance that most – or all – of these clubs will fill those slots with free agents by next Wednesday.
Here are the teams that still have an open roster slot and are worth watching in the coming days:
Charlotte Hornets
Cleveland Cavaliers
Note: The Cavs have two open roster spots and will need to sign at least one player before the regular season ends.
Both Los Angeles teams may be without key players for the rest of the season, according to various reports. For the Clippers, Danilo Gallinari is once again back on the shelf. Having recently returned from an 18-game absence due to a hand injury, Gallinari re-aggravated that hand injury during a fall in Sunday’s game against Indiana.
According to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times, the Clippers are simply calling Gallinari’s injury a sore right hand for now, and the forward will travel with the club for Thursday’s game in Utah. However, the club doesn’t expect to get Gallinari back during the regular season after his latest setback, Turner says.
Three teams in the Western Conference have clinched playoff berths, with the Rockets, Warriors, and Trail Blazers likely locked into the top three seeds, in that order. However, after those top teams, the race for the conference’s final five postseason spots remains hotly contested.
The Spurs (45-32) are ostensibly in the driver’s seat for the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round, but a late-season slide could still put their playoff spot in jeopardy. San Antonio has back-to-back road games against the Clippers and Lakers on tap this week, followed by home games against Portland and Sacramento, and a regular season finale in New Orleans. While it’s still possible that Kawhi Leonard could return for one or more of those games, the club isn’t counting on that.
While the Thunder (45-33) remain in contention for the No. 4 spot too, they’re also one bad week away from slipping out of the playoff picture, particularly since they hold virtually no tiebreakers against their Western competitors. You can probably pencil OKC in for a win at home vs. Memphis next Wednesday, but before that game, the Thunder will have to deal with the Warriors at home, and the Rockets and Heat on the road.
The Jazz (44-33) have won 27 of their last 34 games, but that hasn’t been enough to pull away from the pack in the West. A home-and-away set against the Lakers this week bodes well, but Utah will also have to host the Clippers and Warriors before finishing the season in Portland. Holding tiebreakers over the Spurs, Pelicans, and Clips could come in handy.
The Timberwolves (44-34) could badly use Jimmy Butler in their lineup down the stretch, and he’s still expected to be back before the end of the season, but his exact return date remains up in the air. Home-and-away games against Denver may ultimately decide Minnesota’s playoff fate, though the Wolves will also face a pair of lottery teams in the Lakers (road) and Grizzlies (home). Minnesota’s tiebreakers over the Thunder, Jazz, Pelicans, and Clippers look big now.
The Pelicans (43-34) have lost four straight games, putting their playoff spot at risk, but those losses came against four very good teams. They’ll have a chance to turn things around this week when they host the Grizzlies and visit the Suns. After that, the schedule gets tough again — the Pelicans close out by visiting the Warriors and Clippers before hosting the Spurs.
If any of those five teams falter, the Nuggets (42-35) and Clippers (41-36) will be ready to take advantage, though neither team has it easy down the stretch. In addition to facing Minnesota twice, the Nuggets also host the Pacers and Trail Blazers. The Clippers have one road game left in Utah, and will host the Spurs, Pelicans, and Lakers. The Nuggets and Clippers will also face one another in L.A. on Saturday.
Got all that? Great. Now, we want to know what you think. How will the season’s final nine days play out? Which two of the top 10 teams in the West will end up missing the playoffs? Vote below in our poll and jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts!
Asked on Sunday for the latest on Kawhi Leonard‘s status, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said there has been no word on the star forward since he headed to New York last week for rehab purposes. “I don’t know when he and his group are going to feel like they are ready to go,” Popovich said, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “If I knew, he’d be here. When he and his group feel he’s ready, then he’ll be ready.” Leonard has already been ruled out of San Antonio’s Tuesday game against the Clippers (Twitter link via Jeff McDonald of The Express-News).
Jawun Evans‘ rookie year with the Clippers has come to an early end, according to head coach Doc Rivers, who said today that Evans will undergo sports hernia surgery and won’t play again this season (Twitter link via Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times). Evans averaged 4.8 PPG and 2.1 APG in 48 games for L.A. this season.
A ton of 2018’s first- and second-round picks have been included in trades already, and many of those traded picks have protections on them. In those instances, the pick only changes hands if the protection conditions are met — for example, the Hawks traded their second-round pick to the Clippers, but included top-55 protection on it, meaning L.A. would only receive it if it falls between 56 and 60. Given Atlanta’s record, that obviously won’t happen.
For many of this year’s traded picks, there’s not much drama left related to those protections. Either they definitely won’t change hands, like that Hawks second-rounder, or they definitely will — like the Rockets‘ first-round pick, which is headed to Atlanta with top-three protections on it.
However, there are a handful of traded draft picks whose status remains up in the air. The season’s final few games will determine which teams end up with those picks, or whether they change hands at all.
Let’s dive in and take a closer look at five of those protected picks worth watching down the stretch…
The Pistons are likely to finish the season 12th in the lottery standings, so this pick is extremely likely to end up with the Clippers. But that could change if Detroit lucks out in the lottery — at No. 12, the Pistons would have a 2.5% chance of jumping into the top three and keeping their pick.
Bucks‘ first-round pick (to Suns; top-10 protection and 17-30 protection)
As of today, the Bucks’ 41-36 record has them tied with the Heat for the 15th or 16th pick in the draft. That would mean the Suns receive Milwaukee’s selection. That could change though, if the Bucks get hot to finish the season, pushing the pick back to 17th or 18th overall. Milwaukee has games left against Boston, Philadelphia, and three lottery teams, so that scenario is in play. If it happens, Milwaukee would keep its 2018 first-rounder and owe the Suns a protected first-rounder (protected for 1-3 and 17-30) in 2019.
At 44-34, the Timberwolves are up one game in the loss column on the ninth-seeded Nuggets, and two on the tenth-seeded Clippers. The Wolves’ remaining two games against Denver will be crucial for determining whether they make the playoffs and lose their pick or miss the playoffs and keep it (they’d owe their 2019 lottery-protected first-rounder to Atlanta in that case).
The 45-33 Thunder are slightly better positioned than Minnesota to clinch a playoff spot, but that could change quickly — Oklahoma City has games against Golden State, Houston, and Miami on tap, and doesn’t hold a tiebreaker edge over most of the other Western Conference playoff contenders. I expect the Thunder to hang onto a playoff spot, but if they don’t, they’ll keep their 2018 first-rounder and owe their 2019 lottery-protected first-rounder to Minnesota. Interestingly, if the final playoff spot comes down to the Thunder and Wolves, Minnesota could end up with two first-round picks for 2018 or none.
Bucks‘ second-round pick (to Nets if in 31-47 range; to Suns if in 48-60 range)
As is the case with their first-round pick, the Bucks’ second-round selection is right on the edge here, currently projected to be 45th or 46th. A strong finish for the Bucks could mean that second-rounder lands with Phoenix, but for now it seems more likely to head to Brooklyn.
Clippers forward Danilo Gallinari still had pain in his right hand as he returned to the court Friday, writes Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. He played 24 minutes and scored 11 points, but played with black tape wrapped around the hand. Gallinari had missed 18 games with a non-displaced fracture. “Listen, he was OK,” coach Doc Rivers said. “He was better in the second half. I thought his rhythm may have upset other rhythms. You never know. We need him, and we’re going to use him.”
It looks like Milos Teodosic‘s rookie season may be coming to an early end. The Clippers announced today that the point guard suffered a tear of the plantar fascia in his left foot. According to the club, Teodosic will be sidelined “indefinitely” and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
The Clippers’ playoff hopes remain very much alive — with seven games left to play, the team is only a game behind the Jazz, 1.5 games behind the Timberwolves, and two games back of the Pelicans. Still, if the Clips are unable to sneak into the postseason, Teodosic’s season figures to be over — the regular season comes to an end on April 11, and he’s due to be re-evaluated on April 13.
While Teodosic’s season is over, the Clippers will get injured forward Danilo Gallinari back on Friday night, per Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Gallinari, the team’s prized 2017 free agent acquisition, has been bothered by injuries all season and has been out since February 22 with a hand issue.
Celtics guard Marcus Smart is making progress in rehabbing a torn ligament in his right thumb and hopes to be available for the second round of the playoffs, writes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.
A cast on his hand was recently replaced by a splint with an opening at the top that allows him to move his thumb, and he has been able to do some light exercises with the injured digit. Smart tore the ligament earlier this month and underwent surgery March 16. His original prognosis had him out six to eight weeks, which sets a potential return about the time of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“Definitely right now, that’s what we’re shooting for,” he said. “The way it’s going now, we’re on the right path. Hopefully nothing happens where it gets delayed.”
There are more injury updates from around the NBA:
Kevin Love has been placed in concussion protocol and will miss tonight’s game, the Cavaliers announced on their website. He suffered a front tooth sublexation last night and experienced concussion-like symptoms at halftime.
After missing nearly four weeks with a strained groin, Lakers forward Brandon Ingram expects to return tonight, tweets Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum Sports Net.
Coach Luke Walton says Lakers rookie Josh Hart has looked good in three-on-three games and may be cleared to play Friday, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link).
John Wall, who has been sidelined since having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in late January, may be able to return tomorrow, according to a tweet from the Wizards. Coach Scott Brooks said Wall will participate in the team’s shootaround and a decision will be based on how the knee responds. He is officially listed as questionable.
Clippers forward Danilo Gallinari is targeting Friday to return from a fractured right hand, relays Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. “I hope to play a few minutes against Portland [Friday],” Gallinari said in an interview with Italian outlet Sky Sport. “The hand is not completely healed, but we’ll see how I can help the team in the games left in the regular season. I will try to bite the bullet for the playoff race. The franchise asked me to grit my teeth and play. I will try to do that.”
After re-injuring his right ankle Monday, Celtics forward Marcus Morris will sit out tonight’s game, according to a tweet from the team. He will probably return Saturday, according to Himmelsbach (Twitter link).
Celtics coach Brad Stevens provided an another update on Gordon Hayward, saying he’s still limited to the Alter-G treadmill and hasn’t been cleared to run on the court (Twitter link). “There will be nothing more exciting for him than being able to get back out on the basketball court,” Stevens said (Twitter link).
Cavaliers forward Cedi Osman may be cleared to return to action after a hip flexor injury. He tweeted an image of himself accompanied by the word, “finally.”
Jazz center Tony Bradley has cleared concussion protocol, tweets Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News.
The feeling around the NBA is that Jeff Hornacek won’t return as the Knicks’ head coach for the 2018/19 season, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. According to Berman, people around the league view Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson as a pair of potential top targets for the Knicks if they seek out a new coach.
Hornacek’s spot on the hot seat is nothing new — since the Knicks fell out of playoff contention earlier this season, rumors have swirled about the possibility of a head coaching change in New York. Rivers and Jackson have even been mentioned as possible candidates before, including by Mitch Lawrence of The Sporting News and Marc Stein of The New York Times.
Still, Hornacek’s hold on his job appears more precarious than ever over the last week, according to Berman, who points to a handful of recent incidents to illustrate that Knicks veterans probably don’t expect to be playing for the current head coach much longer. As Berman observes, Hornacek handing Tim Hardaway Jr. the clipboard during one timeout and Trey Burke waving off Hornacek’s attempts to call another timeout were both unusual moments that took place during Monday’s loss to the Hornets.
Additionally, Kyle O’Quinn screamed profanities at his head coach during Friday’s game in New York, and a confrontation between Hornacek and veteran center Joakim Noah earlier this season ultimately led to Noah’s dismissal from the team. According to Berman, big man Kristaps Porzingis also “cursed out” Hornacek during a practice late last season, not long before Porzingis skipped his exit meeting.
The Knicks are expected to wait until after the regular season to make any announcements regarding their coaching situation, but at this point, Hornacek’s days in the position appear numbered.
Danilo Gallinari, identified this week by head coach Doc Rivers as the player the Clippers have missed the most this season, is targeting Tuesday’s game against Milwaukee for his potential return, according to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times, who passes along comments Gallinari made to Italian outlet Sky Sport. The veteran forward indicated that he hopes to get back on the court after the Clippers’ current road trip ends, but before the end of this month.
Gallinari, the Clippers’ major free agent addition of 2017, has been limited to 19 games this season as he has battled a variety of injuries. His latest ailment, a right hand fracture, has sidelined him for the last month.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo left Wednesday’s game against the Clippers with a right ankle sprain. While no recovery timetable has been announced for Antetokounmpo, the Bucks figure to play it safe with their franchise player. He is considered doubtful to play on Friday vs. Chicago, according to the team (Twitter link).