- In a conversation with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram spoke about his contract situation, being the subject of trade rumors last season, his reaction to being dealt, and his first impressions of New Orleans, among other topics.
On Tuesday, we published a poll asking which of the NBA’s four remaining undefeated teams would be the last to lose. The Nuggets received nearly 40% of the vote, making them the top choice, then promptly lost their first game about 12 hours later.
Today, we’ll shift our focus to the NBA’s three winless teams and see if we have more success forecasting their short-term futures. After eight days, there are three teams around the league that have yet to win a game. The Pelicans and Kings each have 0-4 records while the Pacers are 0-3.
The Pelicans were a popular dark horse playoff pick during the preseason, but they’ve been hit with injuries early on this year — they’re playing without star rookie Zion Williamson, and key veterans Jrue Holiday and Derrick Favors have missed time as well. Still, it’s not as if they’ve been blown off the floor in the first week. Despite a pretty tough schedule, New Orleans hasn’t lost by more than 11 points.
The same can’t be said of the Kings, who have been disastrous on the road so far, losing by 29 points in Phoenix and 32 in Utah. They’ve also dropped home games to the Blazers and Nuggets, digging an early hole for themselves as they look to improve upon last year’s 39-43 record and compete for a postseason spot.
De’Aaron Fox (.392 FG%), Buddy Hield (.351), and Bogdan Bogdanovic (.275) haven’t been making shots so far, and the team has missed Marvin Bagley III, who suffered a thumb fracture on opening night. The Kings have too much talent to be this bad, but so far they have the NBA’s worst net rating by a substantial margin, ranking in the bottom five on both offense and defense.
The Pacers, meanwhile, are trying to adjust to having four new players in their starting lineup and are without star guard Victor Oladipo. They can’t blame their schedule for their slow start, as they’ve dropped two games to a Pistons squad without Blake Griffin and one to the Cavaliers. Indiana also hasn’t shown yet that it has the firepower necessary to fight back from a defect, ranking 29th in the NBA in pace and dead last in made three-pointers per game.
These three teams have the following games on tap as they look to get in the win column:
- Pelicans: vs. Den (10/31), @ OKC (11/2), @ Bkn (11/4), vs. Tor (11/8), @ Cha (11/9)
- Kings: vs. Cha (10/30), vs. Utah (11/1), @ NYK (11/3), @ Tor (11/6), @ Atl (11/8)
- Pacers: @ Bkn (10/30), vs. Cle (11/1), vs. Chi (11/3), @ Cha (11/5), vs. Wsh (11/6)
New Orleans probably has the most challenging short-term schedule, and would become this season’s last winless team by default if Sacramento and Indiana both win tonight. But the Pels have arguably looked the best of the three teams so far, and Holiday and Favors appear close to returning.
What do you think? Which of the NBA’s three winless teams will be the last to earn a victory?
Vote in our poll, then head to comment section below to weigh in!
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
A disabled player exception can be granted when an NBA team has a player go down with an injury deemed to be season-ending. The exception gives the club some additional spending flexibility, functioning almost as a cross between a traded player exception and a mid-level exception.
We go into more detail on who qualifies for disabled player exceptions and how exactly they work in our glossary entry on the subject. But essentially, a DPE gives a team the opportunity to add an injury replacement by either signing a player to a one-year contract, trading for a player in the final year of his contract, or placing a waiver claim on a player in the final year of his contract.
Because the rules related to disable player exceptions are somewhat restrictive and the exceptions themselves often aren’t worth a lot, they often simply expire without being used. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on which disabled player exceptions have been granted, just in case.
We’ll use this space to break down the teams with DPEs available for the 2019/20 league year, updating it as the season progresses. Teams have until January 15 to apply for a disabled player exception and until March 10 to actually use them.
Teams that have been granted disabled player exceptions:
- Detroit Pistons: $9,258,000 (Blake Griffin) (story)
- Orlando Magic: $4,629,000 (Al-Farouq Aminu) (story)
Washington Wizards: $4,365,079 (C.J. Miles) (story)- Used to acquire Shabazz Napier.
- New Orleans Pelicans: $3,625,000 (Darius Miller) (story)
- Portland Trail Blazers: $2,859,000 (Rodney Hood) (story)
Los Angeles Lakers: $1,750,000 (DeMarcus Cousins) (story)- Used to sign Markieff Morris.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1,017,900 (Dylan Windler) (story)
- Brooklyn Nets: $839,427 (David Nwaba) (story)
Many of the teams that have been granted disabled player exceptions have full 15-man rosters, so they would have to open up a roster spot in order to use their DPEs.
So far, only the Lakers and Wizards have used their disabled player exceptions. Now that the trade deadline has passed, the remaining exceptions are less likely to be used, since teams like the Pistons, Magic, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, Cavaliers, and Nets are unlikely to be in the market for free agents who require more than minimum-salary investments.
Teams/players ineligible for disabled player exceptions:
- Orlando Magic (Jonathan Isaac) (story)
- Washington Wizards (John Wall) (story)
The Wizards applied for a disabled player exception for Wall during the first week of the 2019/20 league year. Word that the NBA had denied that request didn’t surface until October, but the league’s decision makes sense. After all, Wall underwent Achilles surgery all the way back in February.
In order for a DPE to be approved, the injured player must be considered substantially more likely than not to be sidelined through June 15 of that league year. Recovery from Achilles surgery is generally viewed as an 11-15 month process, whereas June 15 would’ve been more than 16 months since Wall underwent that procedure.
The Magic are in the same boat with Isaac. His knee injury apparently isn’t serious enough that the NBA is willing to count on him being sidelined through June 15, so Orlando’s DPE request was denied.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
- With Zion Williamson out to start the season, new Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram is prepared to carry more of the offensive burden, as he tells Mark Medina of USA Today. Ingram also views New Orleans as a better fit for him than the Lakers were. “I would say this is a better environment,” he said. “There are a lot of genuine people here that are pretty solid. No shame to the Lakers because they are a high-class organization. They do everything well and have a good fan base. But I like this spot.”
Trevon Duval has signed a G League contract and is eligible for this Saturday’s draft, Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days tweets. Duval was a two-way player for the Rockets last season and became a free agent when the team didn’t give him a qualifying offer this summer. He was claimed by Houston in March after the Bucks waived him. The former Duke guard made three cameo appearances with Milwaukee.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Journeyman center Hasheem Thabeet, former Lakers guard Vander Blue, and forward Trey Mourning, son of Alonzo Mourning, are some of the more interesting names on the list of players eligible for the G League draft, according to a league press release. The Northern Arizona Suns have the first pick.
- There are 108 international players from 38 countries and territories on current NBA rosters, according to a league press release. The most-represented countries among the 108 international players on opening-night rosters are Canada (16 players), Australia (nine players), France (eight players), Croatia (seven players) and Serbia (six players). The Mavericks lead the league with seven international players.
- Zion Williamson‘s knee injury created disappointment for the NBA’s TV partners, as Joe Vardon of The Athletic explains. TNT and ESPN wanted nationally-televised games featuring the Pelicans during the opening week of the season to showcase Williamson. They were stuck showing the Pelicans without the top pick in the draft on the court because it was too late to make a change. Vardon goes in-depth on how the national TV schedule is designed and notes that the Lakers play 21 of their 30 nationally -televised games after New Year’s Day because the networks wanted to feature LeBron James and Anthony Davis during the team’s playoff push.
- Amida Brimah, the former UConn center who was in training camp with the Pacers, has suffered a torn right ACL, Scott Agness of The Athletic tweets. He was slated to join Indiana’s G League team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Brimah will undergo surgery next week, Agness adds.
OCTOBER 25: The Pelicans officially exercised their 2020/21 options on Ball and Hart on Friday morning, a source tells Lopez (Twitter link).
OCTOBER 22: The Pelicans are expected to exercise their team options for the 2020/21 season on Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart, tweets Andrew Lopez of ESPN. The moves will likely become official soon, Lopez adds.
Ball, who will turn 22 on Sunday, was one of the key pieces in the blockbuster trade that sent Anthony Davis to Los Angeles this summer. In two seasons with the Lakers, Ball averaged 10.0 PPG, 6.4 APG, and 6.2 RPG, but shot poorly (.380/.315/.437) and battled injuries, appearing in just 99 games.
He’ll get a chance at a fresh start in New Orleans this season, and the Pelicans are prepared to lock in his $11,003,782 cap hit for 2020/21. The move will make Ball eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2020 offseason. He’ll reach restricted free agency in 2021 if he doesn’t sign a new deal next year.
Hart also arrived in New Orleans as a result of the Davis trade. Like Ball, he was a first-round pick in 2017 and is entering his third season. He saw his shooting numbers dip to .407./.336/.688 last season after posting a .469/.396/.702 line as a rookie, but will be counted on to help the Pelicans space the floor. His fourth-year option for 2020/21 is worth $3,491,159.
We’re tracking all of this year’s rookie scale option decisions for ’20/21 right here.
- Pelicans wing Josh Hart has signed with CAA Sports for representation on and off the court, according to Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal, who tweets that Hart will be repped by agents Leon Rose and Aaron Mintz. The 24-year-old will have his 2020/21 option picked up by New Orleans, which will make him eligible for a rookie scale extension next year.
Zion Williamson is slated to miss six-to-eight weeks with a torn meniscus in his right knee. While some have speculated that Williamson’s injury occurred because of his weight, GM David Griffin made it clear he doesn’t buy into that theory.
“The notion that this happened because Zion is in poor condition is asinine,” Griffin said of Williamson (via Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com). “He wasn’t in poor condition when he went 12 of 13 last week against Utah. That’s not what it is. He’s just a very unique body type and certainly from a physics perspective.”
Exactly when Williamson sustained the injury is unclear. He let the team know of knee discomfort in mid-October, a couple of days after the Pelicans’ preseason game against the Spurs.
The team’s medical staff is working with the No. 1 overall pick to learn more about his body, as there have been few players with Williamson’s particular type of athletic build.
“He can be 274 pounds with 8.5% body fat and he can be 280 pounds with 9% body fat,” Griffin said. “As we have gone through the process for our medical team, learning how to keep him lean and give him the core strength and stability and control he needs to handle all that torque he generates, typically that means you are going to do things to strengthen those areas.
“In this case, he gains muscle mass so fast and gains weight so fast, no one has ever dealt with anybody like him. He’s 19 and it’s going to be a learning experience for all of us.”
Williamson played in four preseason games this fall. He averaged 23.0 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 71.0% from the field.
While the team has set Williamson’s recovery timetable at six-to-eight weeks, Griffin said today that he expects the former Duke star to try to make it back sooner than that.
There was never any real doubt that Kenrich Williams would make the Pelicans‘ regular season roster, but doing so will give him some financial security. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), Williams is one of three players who will have his salary for 2019/20 fully guaranteed today, barring any last-minute roster moves.
Williams, 24, emerged as a rotation player for the Pelicans last season, averaging 6.1 PPG and 4.8 RPG in 46 games (23.5 MPG). He’ll likely see regular minutes to start this season too, as New Orleans doesn’t have a ton of depth at the forward position now that Darius Miller is out for the season and Zion Williamson will miss six to eight weeks.
Williams’ $1,416,852 salary for ’19/20 had already been partially guaranteed for $200K, per Basketball Insiders’ contract data. After today, he’ll become the 14th Pelican with a fully guaranteed contract for this season, leaving Jahlil Okafor as the only player on a non-guaranteed deal.
[RELATED: 2019/20 Non-Guaranteed Contracts By Team]
Here are the other players who will receive salary guarantees if they remain under contract through today, per Marks:
- Chris Boucher (Raptors): $125,000 partial guarantee increases to full guarantee of $1,588,231.
- Malcolm Miller (Raptors): $150,000 partial guarantee increases to full guarantee of $1,588,231.
- Ryan Anderson (Rockets): $250,000 partial guarantee increases to $500,000 partial guarantee (full salary is $2,564,753 with a $1,620,564 cap hit).
It sounds like Zion Williamson‘s much-anticipated NBA regular season debut won’t happen until at least December.
According to a press release issued today by the Pelicans, the No. 1 overall pick underwent arthroscopic surgery to address a torn right lateral meniscus. Williamson is expected to be ready to return in approximately six to eight weeks, per the team.
It’s a tough blow for the Pelicans, for Williamson, and for the NBA, which scheduled New Orleans for several nationally televised games in the first few weeks of the season, including Tuesday night’s opener in Toronto. Of course, it’s also bad news for NBA fans, since the former Duke forward is entering the league as one of most exciting rookies of this century.
If Williamson were to miss exactly six weeks, he’d be out for New Orleans’ first 20 games and would be on track to return on December 3 against the Mavericks. An additional two-week absence would cost him at least seven more games, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Pelicans lean toward that option, since they’ll treat his recovery with an abundance of caution, as we heard last week.
With the star rookie on the shelf, the Pelicans could use some combination of Brandon Ingram, Nicolo Melli, and Kenrich Williams to fill the available minutes at the four. The Pelicans’ depth at forward will be tested early, as sharpshooter Darius Miller is out for the season with a torn Achilles.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.