- The Bucks season-long struggles showed up against the Nets on Saturday, Eric Nehm of The Athletic writes. Nehm believes the team’s third-quarter performances have been a major issue. Milwaukee lost the third quarter 43-34 and dropped the contest 126-123. “To be honest, man, sh–, they just kicked our butt in the third quarter,” Bobby Portis said. “They scored 43 points. I mean we scored enough just to keep it close, but I mean that’s been our kryptonite the whole year. I’m kind of just tired of talking about it, bro. I don’t know what we can do, what we’re going to do. … we’ve been talking about this since December, man, and in a couple of days, it’s gonna be March, so we gotta figure that out, and soon, man. The season’s about to be over.”
Free agent guard Tyreke Evans will visit Milwaukee to work out for the Bucks in the coming days, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (video link).
Evans was recently reinstated by the NBA following a ban from the league that lasted nearly three full years. Evans, who was dismissed and disqualified from the league back in May of 2019 for violating the anti-drug program, became eligible last Friday to sign with any NBA team.
The fourth overall pick in the 2009 draft, Evans has 10 years of NBA experience under his belt, having played for the Kings, Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Pacers. He last appeared in the league in 2018/19, averaging 10.2 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 2.4 APG in 69 games (20.3 MPG) for Indiana. It was a down year for the veteran, who posted a career-worst .389 FG%.
The Bucks came out of the trade deadline with three open spots on their 15-man roster and have since filled two of them, adding some help on the wing by signing DeAndre’ Bembry, then shoring up their backcourt depth by inking Jevon Carter to a rest-of-season deal. The team still has one last roster opening and could be in the market for another guard after trading Donte DiVincenzo at the deadline and watching Pat Connaughton go down with a hand injury.
Still, it’s unclear how serious Milwaukee’s interest in Evans is — it’s possible the Bucks just want to assess whether the 32-year-old is still in basketball shape to determine whether he should be among the options they consider for that 15th roster spot.
We also don’t know yet if any other teams are exhibiting interest in Evans. As our tracker shows, about half the league’s clubs have a roster spot available.
FEBRUARY 24: The Bucks have officially signed Carter, according to a team press release.
FEBRUARY 22: Fourth-year guard Jevon Carter intends to sign with the Bucks after he clears waivers, agents Mark Bartelstein and Reggie Brown of Priority Sports tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
The Bucks were said to be seriously pursuing Goran Dragic in order to add some depth to their backcourt. Having missed out on the 35-year-old, they’ll instead sign the player who was released to make room for Dragic in Brooklyn. The Nets officially announced earlier today that they’ve waived Carter.
Carter, 26, began his NBA career in Memphis in 2018 and had a couple promising seasons in Phoenix from 2019-21, averaging 4.5 PPG and 1.8 RPG on .418/.397/.789 shooting and playing solid defense in 118 games (14.1 MPG) for the Suns.
He was traded to Brooklyn during the offseason in a deal that sent Landry Shamet to the Suns, but struggled with the Nets. His shooting percentage dipped to 33.3% and he wasn’t a consistent part of the rotation after the first month of the season.
While Wojnarowski’s report says Carter will clear waivers on Wednesday, it looks like it’ll actually happen on Thursday, unless the Nets cut him a day before they officially announced the move. As we observed on Monday, Milwaukee needs to make a roster addition on or before Thursday in order to get back to the league-mandated 14-player minimum — it appears Carter will be the team’s new 14th man.
The Nets will remain on the hook for Carter’s $3.9MM guaranteed salary for 2022/23 after he clears waivers and signs with the Bucks.
Jevon Carter, who was recently released by the Nets in order to sign Goran Dragic, plans to sign with the Bucks after he clears waivers.
It’s the second time the Bucks will have scooped up an ex-Nets player who was cut in the past few weeks, as the same thing happened with DeAndre’ Bembry following the blockbuster James Harden/Ben Simmons trade (Brooklyn received three players but sent out two, necessitating an incumbent player’s release). Eric Nehm of The Athletic explores what Milwaukee will be getting with Carter’s expected addition.
Carter, the 32nd overall pick of the 2018 draft, was the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year in his senior season at West Virginia and his defensive ability is the primary reason he’s in the NBA. Carter is a tough defender with strong instincts who can be a pest to opposing point guards, Nehm writes.
Carter doesn’t provide much offensively, but he’s a career 36.9% three-point shooter (33.1% this season) and the majority of his shots come from beyond the arc. According to Nehm, Carter likely won’t be asked to do much beyond catch-and-shoot. Carter is unlikely to play a large role with Milwaukee, but he should provide capable regular season minutes while George Hill and Pat Connaughton recover from injuries, Nehm opines.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Pistons coach Dwane Casey says the team wants to get a good look at rookies Isaiah Livers and Chris Smith in the latter portion of the season (Twitter links via Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press). Livers has been slow to recover from right foot surgery, while Smith had a torn ACL last summer. Livers recently made his debut with Detroit’s G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise. Smith is on a two-way contract, but Livers has a guaranteed standard contract for this season and next, with a club option in 2023/24.
- Pistons rookie Cade Cunningham, who was recently named MVP of the Rising Stars event during All-Star weekend, said he was eager to prove himself on the big stage, as he told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “All this talent, I wanted to stand out for sure. It’s the All-Star Game weekend. Everyone is going to go out there and try to have fun. But everybody deep down still wants to be that guy. I knew that. I wanted to compete. I wanted to win. More importantly, I was happy to come out with a trophy, some hardware,” Cunningham said.
- New Bulls addition Tristan Thompson believes he’ll fit in well with Chicago, as Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic relays. “I think I’ll mesh pretty well with this group,” Thompson said. He also believes DeMar DeRozan should be the MVP front-runner. “Right now, he’s the league MVP in my eyes, flat-out,” Thompson said, as part of a larger quote.
The Nets and point guard Kyrie Irving got some promising news today, as New York City mayor Eric Adams told reporters that he “can’t wait” to phase out the city’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements for indoor spaces.
Irving has been unable to play home games all season long due to the local regulations that apply to unvaccinated athletes, but the mayor’s comments today suggest those regulations could be adjusted in the coming weeks.
“I’m not going to get ahead of the science,” Adams said (video link via The Glue Guys). “… They gave us benchmarks. We’re going to follow those benchmarks. But I look forward to the next few weeks going through a real transformation. … We’re moving in the right direction. We’re going to do it in a safe way.”
For now, New York City’s vaccine mandate remains unchanged, so Irving will be ineligible to suit up when the Nets host Boston on Thursday night. But if the city plans to phase out the mandate within the next several weeks, that bodes well for Kyrie’s chances of suiting up in the postseason, which begins in mid-April.
Here’s more on the Nets:
- While Goran Dragic is looking forward to playing alongside stars like Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and Irving, his decision to sign with the Nets was ultimately influenced by his relationship with head coach Steve Nash, who assured Dragic he’d be an important part of the team, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “If it wasn’t for Nash, Dragic would be either with the Bucks or Clippers,” a source told Scotto.
- A source tells Scotto that the Nets and Joe Harris will likely make a decision on whether or not the forward needs a second ankle surgery after seeing how things go this week with his recovery process.
- His roster doesn’t look like he expected it to when the season began, but general manager Sean Marks hasn’t adjusted his expectations for the Nets, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. “Championship. That’s it,” Marks said to a group of season-ticket holders. “I’d be doing 17 players and another 60 staff members over there a massive disservice if I said anything other than that, because that’s what we’re all here for.”
The NBA’s roster rules don’t require teams to carry a full squad of 15 players on standard contracts all season long, but they do call for a minimum of 14 players (not counting two-ways).
A club is permitted to temporarily dip below that minimum during the regular season, but can only do so for up to two weeks at a time. Once that two-week grace period is up, the team must get back to having at least 14 players.
With that rule in mind, the Celtics and Bucks will be required to make additions to their respective rosters this week.
In a series of three trades at the February 10 deadline, Boston sent out seven players and took just two back, creating five open spots on its 15-man roster. The Celtics have since signed two players – Luke Kornet and Sam Hauser – but still have three roster openings. Their two-week grace period comes to an end this Thursday, so they’ll have to add a 13th and 14th man at that point.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, entered trade deadline day on February 10 with a full 15-man roster, but made a three-for-one trade, opening up a pair of roster spots. Since then, the Bucks have signed DeAndre’ Bembry, but parted ways – at least temporarily – with Greg Monroe, who had been on a 10-day contract. Because Bembry’s signing occurred after Monroe’s deal expired, the club has had two open roster spots since the trade deadline and will have to fill one of them before the end of the week.
Neither the Celtics nor the Bucks will be forced to sign anyone to a rest-of-season contract this week if they don’t want to.
For instance, Milwaukee has reportedly been “aggressive” in its pursuit of Goran Dragic and would likely happily sign the veteran point guard for the rest of the season. But if Dragic delays his decision or joins another team, the Bucks could simply fill their 14th roster spot with a 10-day signing, temporarily meeting the minimum roster requirement while continuing to weigh their rest-of-season options.
[UPDATE: Dragic is signing with the Nets]
The Celtics, meanwhile, haven’t been linked to Dragic, and there aren’t a ton of intriguing alternatives on the buyout market, so it’s possible they’ll turn to a couple young players rather than veterans. President of basketball operations Brad Stevens has suggested the team may take the Miami Heat route of signing a prospect or two to a late-season multiyear deal for developmental purposes. But if Boston hasn’t yet zeroed in on a specific candidate for that sort of investment, 10-day signings are a viable possibility for the short term.
The Celtics aren’t far off from the luxury tax line, while the Bucks are already in the tax, so the two teams will be cost-conscious as they consider potential roster moves. I’d expect both clubs, for now at least, to simply get to the required roster minimum of 14 players while keeping their 15th slots open.
The Sixers have confidence in coach Doc Rivers to lead the team to a title now that James Harden has been paired up with Joel Embiid, a source tells Marc Stein (Substack link). Philadelphia hasn’t won an NBA championship in 39 years and Rivers has a recent history of playoff disappointments, but team officials believe he can oversee the new partnership.
Shortly after the trade with the Nets was completed, Stein heard rumors that the Sixers might be considering Mike D’Antoni, who coached Harden for four years in Houston. D’Antoni is currently serving as a coaching advisor to the Pelicans after spending last season with Harden as an assistant in Brooklyn.
However, Stein’s source insists that Rivers’ job is safe, saying he gained admiration from ownership and the front office with the way he guided the team through the distractions caused by Ben Simmons‘ absence.
Stein offers more inside information from around the league:
- Goran Dragic met with the Nets on Friday as he considers his next team following a buyout with the Spurs. Coach Steve Nash served as a mentor when Dragic entered the NBA with the Suns and has been the team’s lead recruiter for the free agent guard. Along with Brooklyn, Stein cites the Bucks, Bulls, Warriors and Clippers as the top suitors for Dragic. He’s been “really open-minded” to the offers from each team, a source tells Stein.
- Magic veterans Gary Harris and Robin Lopez haven’t pushed for buyouts so far, according to Stein’s sources, who add that Harris may want to stay in Orlando in hopes of re-signing during the offseason. There was talk that Lopez might join his brother in Milwaukee after a buyout, Stein states, but the recent additions of Greg Monroe and Serge Ibaka may have quelled the Bucks‘ interest (though Monroe’s most recent 10-day contract has expired). Golden State may need another center for the playoffs, and Stein sees Lopez as a potential “home run” for the Warriors if he becomes available.
- Small guarantees for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans in the final year of their contracts motivated the Mavericks to acquire them in last week’s trade for Kristaps Porzingis. Dinwiddie has just a $10MM guarantee on his $18.9MM salary for 2023/24, while Bertans carries a $5MM guarantee on his $16MM salary for 2024/25. Dallas is hoping those limited guarantees will make both contracts easier to trade.
Appearing on NBA Today (video link), ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Bucks have been “aggressive” in their pursuit of Goran Dragic, who reached a buyout agreement with the Spurs on Tuesday.
Dragic has been spending the week speaking to interested teams, and Wojnarowski calls the Bucks the “foremost” team on Dragic’s list. The defending champions find themselves with a hole in the backcourt after trading Donte DiVincenzo to the Kings and losing Pat Connaughton for approximately four weeks after surgery to repair his broken right ring finger.
Milwaukee’s brass, including GM Jon Horst and head coach Mike Budenholzer, has been pitching Dragic on the opportunity to play meaningful minutes and a “pretty significant role,” says Wojnarowski.
However, he notes that the Bulls, Clippers, Nets, and Lakers remain interested in the former All-Star guard. Woj thinks Dragic is getting closer to making a decision on his next team.
Veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein tweets that the Warriors are also in the mix for Dragic, but notably did not include the Lakers on his list of teams vying for Dragic’s services.
The Pistons could wind up with the No. 1 overall pick for the second straight year. In Chad Ford’s Mock Draft 2.0, they’ll take Auburn freshman forward Jabari Smith with the first pick. According to Ford’s sources, Detroit GM Troy Weaver would love to pair up Cade Cunningham with Smith. Ford throws a curveball with the second pick, with the Magic selecting Purdue wing Jaden Ivey. That leaves Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren for the taking at No. 3, where the Rockets snap him up.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Private equity firms have increasingly become a force in NBA ownership, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic notes. Private equity firms have purchased stakes in five teams, and their influence will continue to increase as the value of franchises continues to climb.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks not only takes a look at potential buyout candidates this month, he also turns his attention to the offseason, breaking down the free agent class, teams with significant cap space and significant players eligible for extensions. Regarding cap space, he notes that the Pacers and Trail Blazers have moved onto the list due to their trades. The Pistons, Magic and Spurs were already projected to have cap space.
- The Nets, Sixers and Celtics did the most to upgrade their 2021/22 rosters before the trade deadline, according to The Athletic’s Seth Partnow. The Bucks, Jazz and Suns made slight alterations that could help them in the postseason, in Partnow’s evaluation.
With the All-Star break set to begin after tonight’s games, it’s as good a time as any to check in on the NBA’s playoff race and assess which teams are best positioned to finish the season strong and make a deep postseason run.
We’ll start today with the Eastern Conference, which is more competitive in 2021/22 than it has been in years.
No team has been able to pull away from the pack in the East so far, with the 38-21 Bulls currently hanging onto the No. 1 seed by a half-game. If the season were to end today, Chicago’s .644 winning percentage would be the lowest mark for a conference’s top seed since Detroit went 50-32 (.610) in 2002/03.
However, while the East may lack a dominant team, the conference makes up for it in depth. The top five seeds are all within three games of one another, and the top eight seeds are all at least four games over .500 — the same certainly can’t be said of the West, where the 29-31 Clippers are in the No. 8 spot.
The parity in the Eastern Conference has created a fascinating playoff landscape. Instead of having one or two clear-cut favorites to represent the conference in the NBA Finals, the East has at least five or six teams that could realistically make it.
The aforementioned Bulls have the East’s best record despite having dealt with injuries and COVID-related absences to key players all season long. If they’re healthy in time for the postseason, they’ll be an incredibly tough out, especially with DeMar DeRozan shooting the lights out like he has lately.
The 37-21 Heat have also been affected by injuries, but have been dangerous when healthy. Their preferred starting lineup of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, and P.J. Tucker has a +13.5 net rating for the season.
The Bucks (36-23) are the defending champions, having proven in last year’s playoffs that they can win big games and big series. The upstart Cavaliers (35-23) are on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of postseason experience, but have one of the NBA’s best defenses and added some more offensive firepower at the deadline by acquiring Caris LeVert.
Further down the standings, the Sixers (34-23) and Nets (31-27) made themselves legitimate title threats by completing a deadline-day trade to acquire stars who actually want to play for them. James Harden is expected to make his Philadelphia debut after the All-Star break, while Ben Simmons will play at some point for the Nets, who will also be getting Kevin Durant back in the coming weeks.
The Celtics (34-26) and Raptors (32-25) were out of the East’s playoff picture earlier this season, but have been two of the conference’s hottest teams as of late. Boston’s +5.4 net rating and 104.9 defensive rating both rank first in the conference, while Toronto’s length and defensive versatility has created problems for many of its opponents — the Raps have a 6-3 record against the East’s current top three seeds.
Of course, the Hornets (29-30), the Hawks (28-30), and a couple others teams remain in the mix for an Eastern Conference playoff spot, but unless Atlanta can replicate its late-season success from a year ago, a spot in the NBA Finals is an extreme long shot for any of those clubs.
What do you think? Who’s your current pick to come out of the Eastern Conference? How many teams in the wide-open East do you think have a realistic chance to make the NBA Finals?
Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!