- While it’s a massive investment, Zion Williamson‘s maximum-salary extension with the Pelicans was something the team simply couldn’t pass up, Scott Kushner of NOLA.com writes. Williamson has only played 85 games in his three NBA seasons, but he has shown in his limited NBA action that he’s a special player, says Kushner. It’s still unclear how much of Williamson’s new five-year deal will be fully guaranteed.
Free agency has stalled as teams wait to see what will happen with Nets star Kevin Durant, but the situation could be resolved when general managers gather this week in Las Vegas for Summer League, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Owner Joe Tsai and GM Sean Marks are making their way through a flood of offers and are focused on getting the best package in return rather than making a quick decision.
The Heat and Suns are reportedly Durant’s preferred destinations, and while Lewis says the Nets are willing to work with Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman on finding the right deal, they won’t be “held hostage” by Durant’s wishes.
The Pelicans and Raptors may provide the best options to trade Durant without having to rely on a third or fourth team to make the deal work, Lewis adds. Both teams have full control of their future draft picks and they have young stars in Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes to build a trade package around.
There’s more news from Brooklyn:
- Durant made his first public comment since his trade request, Lewis states in the same piece, with a tweet on Saturday that read, “The ones who were locked in that gym with me know what it is, they know what I’m about. If u haven’t been in there with me, ask around.” Robin Lundberg of Sports Illustrated responded with specific questions about Durant’s intentions, but Durant answered, “Keep dreaming robin lmao.”
- The Nets pulled their qualifying offer to Kessler Edwards this week, but they still have interest in bringing him back, Lewis adds. Brooklyn holds Edwards’ Non-Bird rights and is talking to the 21-year-old forward about a new deal.
- Other teams have little interest in trading for Kyrie Irving because they know he wants to end up with the Lakers, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Twitter link from Hoop Central). “In talking to league executives over the last couple of hours, the value of Kyrie Irving in a trade has absolutely plummeted,” Windhorst said. “They know he’s going to be a pure rental. If he doesn’t want to go to the situation he is [traded] to, it’s unclear what he’ll do.”
After ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski suggested on Friday that Toronto is “lurking” as a team to watch in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes today that the Raptors believe they can put together the best package for Durant that the Nets are likely to receive.
Grange describes the Raptors as “optimistic” rather than “confident,” noting that there’s a sense Durant is at least open to the idea of playing in Toronto, even if the team is not atop his wish list.
However, Grange cautions that the Nets may not agree with the Raptors’ assessment that they can offer the best package for Durant. Additionally, Grange’s story suggests Toronto has remained opposed to making reigning Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes available so far.
While the Raptors have all their future draft picks and have several solid veterans on good contracts – including All-Stars Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, as well as OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. – it’s unclear if they’d be able to make a deal for Durant without putting Barnes on the table.
“That’s the billion-dollar question,” one source said to Grange.
Here’s more on Durant:
- In the latest episode of ESPN’s Hoop Collective podcast (video link), Tim Bontemps said he believes “Toronto thinks it’s in the game” in the Durant sweepstakes, while Brian Windhorst said he still considers the Suns the favorites, since it’s rare for superstar players not to end up where they want to go.
- Windhorst (video link) has heard that the Pelicans view head coach Willie Green – an assistant in Golden State during Durant’s Warriors years – as an asset in the chase for the former MVP. As Windhorst explains, the hope would be that if the Nets like what the Pelicans have to offer, Green would get the opportunity to sell Durant on New Orleans.
- With New Orleans being mentioned as a possible Durant landing spot, Scott Kushner of NOLA.com wonders whether or not the Pelicans should seriously pursue the 34-year-old.
- Within his latest look at the Durant situation, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype confirms that the Nets would want more than Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges in a trade with the Suns and says that any Heat package built around Tyler Herro “wouldn’t scratch the surface of what the Nets want.”
- Brooklyn is seeking teams’ best assets, Scotto writes, including All-Stars, rising young players, and “substantial” unprotected draft picks and swaps.
Spurs general manager Brian Wright said it was tough to see Dejounte Murray go after the team helped him develop over the past six years, writes Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News. The Spurs drafted Murray with the 29th pick of the 2016 draft.
“We’ve watched him grow from his rookie year to being an All-Star last year,” Wright said in a news conference to announce the finalization of the trade that sent Murray to Atlanta. “You wish this job was full of easy decisions. The reality is, there’s a lot of hard decisions.”
Murray enjoyed a breakout season in 2021/22, averaging 21.1 PPG, 9.2 APG, 8.3 RPG, and a league-leading 2.0 SPG with a shooting line of .462/.327/.794 in 68 games (34.8 MPG). The 25-year-old was the runner-up for the Most Improved Player award.
San Antonio received three first-round picks and a pick swap in the deal, and while Wright certainly wasn’t in a celebratory mood, he said the offer from the Hawks was too good to pass up.
“We just got to the place where the deal was the right thing to do,” Wright said.
Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Jae’Sean Tate‘s new three-year contract with the Rockets contains a team option in the final year, sources tell Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link). Tate will earn $7MM in 2022/23 and $6.5MM in ’23/24, and the deal also includes a bonus tied to how many games the team wins, Iko reports. The 26-year-old Tate averaged 11.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 2.8 APG on .498/.312/.707 shooting in 78 games (26.4 MPG) this season.
- Rafael Stone, the general manager of the Rockets, chose to acquire multiple unprotected first-round picks and pick swaps when he sent James Harden to the Nets. That decision looks like a wise one now that Kevin Durant has requested a trade out of Brooklyn, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, who details why he thinks the move might pay off for Houston — depending on what the Nets get in return for the superstar forward.
- The news that the Pelicans are nearing an agreement on a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension with Zion Williamson brings welcome stability to New Orleans, per William Guillory of The Athletic. As Guillory writes, the Pelicans have dealt with all kinds of turmoil over the years, the most recent being the rampant speculation that Williamson would request a trade or decide against signing a rookie contract extension, which obviously isn’t the case. Once the deal is officially inked, the franchise will have all of its core players signed for the next few years, and the terrific rookie class from ’21/22 to grow alongside them.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Suns guard Devin Booker, Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns, and Grizzlies guard Ja Morant are all expected to reach verbal agreements with their respective teams on new long-term contract extensions soon after the NBA’s new league year begins tonight, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link).
Pelicans forward Zion Williamson and Cavaliers guard Darius Garland are also “widely expected” to receive extensions this offseason, Stein notes (via Twitter).
Morant, Williamson, and Garland will be eligible for rookie scale extensions, with the exact figures yet to be determined. Rookie scale extensions are available for former first-round picks entering their fourth seasons. The three players’ offers will likely include Rose Rule language that allows them to earn a starting salary of up to 30% of the 2023/24 salary cap (instead of 25%) if they meets certain performance criteria.
Even though Morant, for example, earned an All-NBA spot this year, he would have to make an All-NBA team again next season to qualify for the higher max — the Rose Rule criteria require a player to make All-NBA in either the season before his new contract goes into effect or in two of the three prior seasons.
Williamson’s extension could take a little longer to figure out, given that he’s appeared in just 85 career games and missed all of last season after setbacks following foot surgery last summer. Still, Pelicans executive VP of basketball operations David Griffin said he was “confident” that an agreement would be reached, the only question is how much money will be guaranteed up front.
Jokic, Booker, and Towns will all be eligible for super-max extensions, also known as Designated Veteran Extensions, worth up to 35% of the salary cap. At least one of the following must be a true for a player to be eligible for a Designated Veteran Extension:
- He was named to an All-NBA team in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
- He was named NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.
- He was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
Booker and Towns both made All-NBA teams this past season, and Jokic was named the back-to-back MVP in addition to making All-NBA teams the past four seasons.
Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard is also likely to receive a two-year extension worth in excess of $100MM once the new league year begins, as relayed by Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report and Stein (Twitter links).
JaVale McGee could wind up with another Western Conference contender next season. The Mavericks are very interested in the veteran free agent center and could offer him the two-year deal he’s seeking, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM tweets. McGee, 34, averaged 9.2 PPG and 6.7 RPG for the Suns last season while appearing in 74 regular season contests.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- The biggest priority for the Timberwolves this summer is to lock up Karl-Anthony Towns with an extension, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic reports. Towns is eligible for an extension of up to four years and roughly $211MM. “I can’t wait to sit down with him and his representation ASAP and keep this thing going,” new president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. “He’s special and deserves everything that is going to come his way.”
- James Wiseman would actually benefit if the Warriors are able to re-sign free agent Kevon Looney, Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. Their skill sets would mesh as the team’s center duo and it would ease the pressure on Wiseman, allowing him to focus on his development.
- The Pelicans’ extension talks with Zion Williamson could take some time to sort out, as Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times Picayune explains. The two sides need to figure out is how much of the extension will be fully guaranteed. Clark’s sources believe there is a possibility that negotiations could drag on longer than anticipated due of this issue. Williamson sat out last season due to a foot injury.
- The Jazz have expressed interest in Raptors guard Gary Trent Jr., according to Ian Begley of SNY TV. Trent’s cap hit for next season is $17.5MM and he has an $18.5+MM option for 2023/24. He averaged 18.3 PPG in 35 MPG last season.
- Point guard Jared Harper will be playing with the Pelicans, Hoops Rumors has learned. Harper signed a two-way deal in March and will soon become a free agent. He averaged 21.2 points and 7.2 assists in the G League this season, shooting an efficient 50% from the floor.
- Former Alabama guard John Petty Jr. will also play with the Pelicans during summer league, Hoops Rumors has learned. The 23-year-old signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the franchise last fall.
- The Pelicans were holding their breath that G League Ignite guard Dyson Daniels would still be on the board with the No. 8 pick, according to William Guillory of The Athletic. They weren’t sure what the Trail Blazers would do at No. 7 — not only which player they wanted, but whether they would deal the pick. Portland wound up taking Shaedon Sharpe, leaving Daniels available for New Orleans. “We had a couple guys we liked that went after, but Dyson was the guy,” Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon said. “We had some intel that Portland liked Dyson and they liked Shaedon. So, there was a chance they could’ve taken (Dyson) at (No. 7). When they took Shaedon, the room exploded.”
- Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell was projected in mock drafts as a first-rounder and that’s where the Pelicans had him rated, Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times-Picayune tweets. Liddell slipped down to New Orleans’ second-round pick at No. 41. The Buckeyes forward averaged 19.4 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 2.6 BPG over 33.2 MPG last season.
- Even though pre-draft rumors swirled regarding a potential trade of their lottery pick, Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon said the team didn’t have serious conversations about moving down from the No. 8 spot, Will Guillory of The Athletic tweets. They chose G League Ignite guard Dyson Daniels.
- Pelicans draft-and-stash second rounder Karlo Matkovic is close to signing with Slovenia’s Cedevita, according to Antigoni Zachari of EuroHoops.net. The Crotian forward/center, selected 52nd overall, is expected to join New Orleans’ Summer League roster.
Iowa State guard Izaiah Brockington has agreed to join the Pelicans on an Exhibit 10 contract, according to Richard Stayman of MavsDraft.com (Twitter link).
Brockington played four collegiate seasons for three teams. He started out at St. Bonaventure, spent two seasons with Penn State and finished up with the Cyclones. In his senior year, Brockington averaged 16.9 PPG and 6.8 RPG. The 6’4” guard also made 36.1% of his 3-point tries and was second on his team in steals.
An Exhibit 10 is a one-year, non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract that counts toward a team’s 20-man offseason roster limit, but doesn’t count against the cap unless the player makes the regular season roster.
A player on an Exhibit 10 contract can earn a bonus of up to $50K if he’s waived and then joins his team’s G League affiliate.