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Quarterfinals Set For NBA’s Inaugural In-Season Tournament

November 29th, 2023 at 5:33am CST by Luke Adams

The last set of round robin games for the NBA’s first-ever in-season tournament took place on Tuesday night, and the eight quarterfinalists are now known.

In the Eastern Conference, the Bucks and Celtics joined the Pacers as group winners, while the Knicks claimed the wild card spot.

With a road victory over Miami on Tuesday, Milwaukee secured a 4-0 record in group play, and the Bucks’ +46 point differential was better than Indiana’s +39 mark, making them the No. 1 seed in the conference, with the Pacers coming in at No. 2.

A 124-97 victory over Chicago ensured that the Celtics finished group play with a 3-1 record and a +27 point differential. Orlando and Brooklyn also won three games in East Group C, but their respective point differentials (+22 and +20) weren’t quite good enough to match Boston’s.

The Magic and Nets were still in play for the wild card spot, but the Knicks’ 115-91 win over Charlotte on Tuesday increased their overall point differential to +42, giving them the edge over their fellow 3-1 Eastern clubs, including Cleveland.

Over in the Western Conference, the Lakers – who previously won their group – clinched the No. 1 seed based on Tuesday’s results. They’ll be joined in the quarterfinals by the 4-0 Kings and the 3-1 Pelicans and Suns.

The only other Western team to go undefeated in round robin games, Sacramento secured its spot with an impressive comeback win over Golden State, 124-123. The Kings’ overall point differential of +30 wasn’t anywhere close to the Lakers’ mark of +74, so Sacramento will enter the quarterfinals as the West’s No. 2 seed.

Because Houston fell to Dallas on Tuesday, the Pelicans finished as the only 3-1 team in Group B, clinching the West’s No. 3 seed.

The Suns, like New Orleans, were off on Tuesday, but benefited from the results of the action. Although the Timberwolves defeated Oklahoma City and matched Phoenix’s 3-1 record, Minnesota finished with a +0 point differential, far off the +34 mark posted by the Suns, who will be the West’s wild card team.

Here’s the quarterfinal schedule, per the NBA (Twitter link):

Monday, December 4:

Boston Celtics at Indiana Pacers (7:30 pm Eastern)
New Orleans Pelicans at Sacramento Kings (10:00 pm ET)

Tuesday, December 5:

New York Knicks at Milwaukee Bucks (7:30 pm ET)
Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Lakers (10:00 pm ET)

The winners of those games will face one another in the semifinals on Dec. 7 in Las Vegas, with the finalists squaring off on Dec. 9. The quarterfinals and semifinals will count toward each club’s regular season record, but the final won’t.

The eight teams that have qualified as quarterfinalists have already earned bonuses worth $50K apiece for each of their players. Advancing to the semifinals would increase those bonuses to $100K per player, while making the final would bump the figure to $200K. The inaugural in-season tournament champion will receive bonuses of $500K per player.

Mark Cuban To Sell Majority Stake Of Mavs, Retain Control Of Basketball Ops

November 28th, 2023 at 6:29pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mark Cuban is selling a majority stake of the Mavericks franchise but in an unusual arrangement, he’ll retain full control of basketball operations.

The casino tycoon Adelson family is in the process of buying a major share in the franchise, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link). Cuban is selling the majority stake to billionaire Miriam Adelson – widow of late businessman Sheldon Adelson – and the Adelson family for a valuation in the range of $3.5 billion, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Cuban bought the Mavericks for $285MM in 2000.

In an SEC filing, Sheldon Adelson’s family said it is selling $1.9 billion in Las Vegas Sands stock to buy a “majority interest in a professional sports franchise.” It also stated that a deal is in place, pending league approval, Eben-Novy Williams of Sportico tweets. The sale of the Mavs would have to be approved by the league’s Board of Governors.

Earlier this year, Mat Ishbia and his group paid $2.28 billion for a 57% stake of the Suns. That’s the equivalent of a $4 billion valuation.

Cuban and the Las Vegas Sands Corporation had already planned to form a partnership to build an arena and casino in the Dallas area if gambling is legalized in Texas, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News notes.

“My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino,” Cuban said last year. “That’s the mission.”

Cuban, 65, is one of the most recognizable owners in any professional sport. He’s got a variety of business ventures and is the star of the TV show “Shark Tank,” though word broke on Monday that he’ll be leaving the ABC show next year.

Monty Williams: Pistons Lacked “Fight” In 14th Straight Loss

November 28th, 2023 at 11:10am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons‘ season hit a new low point on Monday.

After winning two of their first three games, they’ve lost 14 in a row, and Monday’s defeat was a 19-point blowout at home to a Washington team that entered the night riding a nine-game losing streak of its own.

Pistons head coach Monty Williams expressed his displeasure after the game in a post-game press conference that was his “angriest and shortest” of the season, according to Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (subscription required). Williams initially referred to it as a “very” disappointing night before launching into a more in-depth assessment.

“It’s just a level of growing up on this team, maturity, understanding what game plan discipline is,” Williams said. “All the stuff we talk about all the time. Enough talking.

“That wasn’t fight on the floor. That wasn’t Pistons basketball by any stretch of the imagination. That’s what this is. We have to have people that honor the organization and the jersey by competing at a high level every night. Not talking about execution. Just competing. That wasn’t it. And that’s on me.”

Williams told reporters prior to the game that the Pistons had a players-only meeting following their 13th consecutive loss on Friday. However, whatever was discussed in that meeting clearly didn’t translate on the court on Monday, Sankofa observes.

Big man Isaiah Stewart acknowledged after Monday’s loss that the vibe in the locker room isn’t “the best,” but stressed that no one is pointing fingers at one another.

“We’re still a family, we’re still together,” Stewart said. “We know we’re going through a test right now. Me personally, I think it’s a test. I know we will get over this hump. It looks bad, the record looks bad. It’s just stuff that we can fix ourselves. We all know that. Everybody in the locker room is frustrated because we all want to win. We’re not happy or smiling. As a whole, we’re all just trying to find … we know the answers. We know what we gotta do. We gotta go do it. That’s all.”

This was supposed to be the year that the Pistons, who haven’t won more than 23 games in a season since 2018/19, took a step forward and entered the play-in conversation, but that looks more and more like a long shot. While the team is hoping to get Bojan Bogdanovic back from a calf injury soon, it would be unrealistic to expect the veteran forward to turn things around on his own.

James L. Edwards III of The Athletic suggests that management should be worried about the losing habits Detroit is developing, noting that the lack of hope around the club right now is a sign of a rebuild heading in the wrong direction.

Edwards adds that a “shake-up of sorts” seems inevitable, given that it’s only November and the Pistons can’t throw the towel in on the season yet. It’s unclear what that sort of shake-up might look like, but it’s safe to assume it won’t involve Williams, who signed a record-setting six-year contract with the organization earlier this year.

Groups, Hosts Announced For 2024 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments

November 28th, 2023 at 7:56am CST by Luke Adams

The 2024 Olympic qualifying tournaments will take place in Spain, Latvia, Greece, and Puerto Rico and will be played from July 2-7, FIBA confirmed on Monday.

A total of 12 men’s basketball teams will compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and eight of those spots have already been claimed. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan, and the U.S. have punched their tickets to Paris.

Twenty-four nations will compete in four six-team tournaments this July for the right to secure one of the final four Olympic basketball berths. In addition to confirming the host cities, FIBA also completed the draw for each of those tournaments on Monday. Here are those results:

Valencia, Spain

Group A: Angola, Lebanon, Spain
Group B: Bahamas, Finland, Poland

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Group A: Ivory Coast, Lithuania, Mexico
Group B: Bahrain, Italy, Puerto Rico

Riga, Latvia

Group A: Georgia, Latvia, Philippines
Group B: Brazil, Cameroon, Montenegro

Piraeus, Greece

Group A: Croatia, New Zealand, Slovenia
Group B: Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece

Each team will play two round robin games against the other teams in each group. At that point, the third-place teams in each group will be eliminated, while the first-place team from Group A will face the second-place team in Group B — and vice versa.

The winners of those semifinal matchups will then play one another in the final and the winner of that game will clinch a spot in the Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on July 26, 2024.

Filip Petrusev Officially Signs With Olympiacos

November 28th, 2023 at 7:21am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, former Sixers and Kings big man Filip Petrusev has returned to the EuroLeague, officially signing with Olympiacos, according to a press release from the Greek club.

Petrusev’s deal with Olympiacos was reported when he was waived by Sacramento last week. As we relayed over the weekend, the Serbian agreed to a three-year contract from the team. It reportedly includes a third-year club option and NBA outs.

The 50th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Petrusev remained overseas for two seasons before signing a two-year, minimum-salary contract with the 76ers during the 2023 offseason. He received a partial guarantee (approximately $560K) and survived a preseason roster crunch, but was sent to the Clippers in the James Harden blockbuster just eight days into the regular season and then flipped to the Kings in a separate deal.

Petrusev, 23, ultimately appeared in just three games in his NBA rookie season — one for Philadelphia and two for Sacramento. As Eurohoops relays, the forward/center said this week that Kings teammate and former Olympiacos star Sasha Vezenkov helped convince him to return to Europe and join the Greek club, which will give him a chance to play more regularly.

According to Eurohoops, Petrusev isn’t ruling out the possibility of playing again in the NBA down the road, but believes it will be better for his growth to take on a key role in the EuroLeague rather than sitting on the bench in the NBA. And if he does decide to return stateside eventually, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent, rather than having a single team control his rights.

“I didn’t give up on the NBA dream because it didn’t go well this year,” Petrusev said. “I’m young, there’s time for everything. I might come back in two or three years. If I want to return to the NBA, I can go anywhere and not just to the Sixers, where it was my only choice.”

Petrusev joins an Olympiacos roster that features many former NBA players, including Isaiah Canaan, Ignas Brazdeikis, Nigel Williams-Goss, and Naz Mitrou-Long, among others. He previously played in the EuroLeague from 2021-23 as a member of Anadolu Efes and Crvena Zvezda.

Knicks Waive Duane Washington, Sign Jaylen Martin

November 27th, 2023 at 2:19pm CST by Rory Maher

2:25pm: The moves are official, per the Knicks (Twitter links).

2:19pm: The Knicks plan to waive guard Duane Washington Jr. in order to sign wing Jaylen Martin, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Washington, who is out six-to-eight weeks with a right thumb injury, is on a two-way contract with New York. Martin will be taking that spot once Washington is released, according to Charania.

Martin has impressed the Knicks “with his play and approach to the game,” tweets Ian Begley of SNY.tv. The rookie signed a two-way contract with New York over the summer after going undrafted out of the Overtime Elite league, but he was waived before the 2023/24 season began. He’ll receive a one-year deal, sources tell Begley. His previous agreement covered two years.

Martin, 19, has averaged 10.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in six appearances with the Knicks’ G League affiliate in Westchester this fall (22.6 minutes per game). New York still has a full 18-man roster after the transactions, with 15 players on standard deals and three on two-way contracts.

Karnisovas, Donovan Appear To Be Safe In Chicago

November 27th, 2023 at 10:03am CST by Arthur Hill

Despite the Bulls‘ miserable start, president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and head coach Billy Donovan don’t seem to be in danger of getting fired, meaning any changes to turn the season around will have to focus on the roster, writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.

Karnisovas “has been given the green light to try to fix the current mess,” according to Johnson, who notes that ownership is typically slow to make changes to its front office. Karnisovas received an extension in the spring, which indicates the organization still has confidence in him.

Donovan is “liked and respected by both ownership and management,” Johnson adds, plus he still has multiple years remaining on his contract extension. Johnson points out that the Reinsdorfs don’t like to pay fired coaches, so Donovan isn’t likely to be dismissed, although changes may be made to his coaching staff.

Chicago dropped to 5-13 with Sunday’s loss at Brooklyn, which marked its fourth straight defeat and the seventh in its last eight games. The players understand that they’re underperforming, according to Johnson, and they know that a quick turnaround is the only way to prevent a roster shakeup.

“Rumors come with the territory,” Nikola Vucevic said. “If you’re playing well, everything is great. Everybody is talking positive about you. If you’re losing, you get criticized and rumors start. We have to deal with that. The only way to deal with it is for us to play better. That’s the only way for that to stop.”

Johnson suggests the Bulls’ core problem may be a flawed roster built around Vucevic, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. He points out that those three players have been on the court together for 370 minutes so far this season and they have a net rating of minus-13.9.

Reports earlier this month indicated that LaVine and the organization are both open to finding a deal to send him elsewhere. However, the team has placed a high asking price on the 28-year-old guard and his pricey salary and injury history are limiting interest around the league.

DeRozan, who has an expiring $28.6MM contract and reportedly hasn’t made much progress in extension talks, is also considered to be a trade candidate, along with Alex Caruso, a defensive standout with a team-friendly deal. Most of the free agents who signed contracts this summer will become eligible to be traded on December 15, so that’s when the Bulls might become active if their record hasn’t improved.

The team’s stars are hoping that won’t happen, Johnson adds, but they know the only way to keep the current roster together is to start winning.

“We all get along,” LaVine said. “Nobody wants to be 5-13 or lose multiple games in a row. It doesn’t feel good. It didn’t feel like we’d be at this point now. But that’s our reality. So we have to figure out how to get out of that hole. Try to get a win. That’s all we try to worry about.”

LaMelo Ball’s Status Uncertain After Ankle Injury

November 27th, 2023 at 7:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Hornets star LaMelo Ball had to be helped off the court after injuring his right ankle in Sunday’s loss at Orlando. The team announced (via Twitter) that Ball strained the ankle and wouldn’t return, but didn’t provide any further update after the game.

As Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer describes, Ball attempted a left-handed layup shortly before halftime and got tangled up with Paolo Banchero. Ball landed awkwardly and fell to the court in pain before hopping toward the locker room with assistance, unable to put much weight on his right foot.

Boone points out that it’s the same ankle that Ball had surgery on in March, which led to a long recovery that prevented him from being cleared for full basketball activities until a few weeks before training camp. Ball has been wearing ankle braces since then for extra support, Boone adds.

Injuries have plagued the talented point guard since Charlotte drafted him in 2020. Boone notes that he hasn’t made it through a full season in any of his four years in the league, and he was limited to 36 games last season because of four ankle injuries.

The injury comes at an especially bad time because Ball has been putting up some of the best numbers of his career, averaging 33.8 PPG over his last five games. According to Boone, he’s posted at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists in seven straight contests and he’s one of seven players throughout the NBA who are averaging at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal per night.

Already off to a disappointing start at 5-10, the Hornets are in danger of sliding further out of the Eastern Conference play-in race if the injury causes Ball to miss significant time. Ball was hurt on the same night that Terry Rozier returned after missing nine games with a groin strain, and coach Steve Clifford talked about the impact of injuries on the team.

“You can’t worry about who is not there, because at the end of the day, it’s a long season,” he said. “We are just starting. The other part is you better know, though, why you are winning and why you are losing. For us, we’ve done some good things. Our lack of depth has been a major, major problem. People talk about bad starts — it’s actually not our starters. Because of so many injuries, we break the lineup quicker than most teams do and it hasn’t been good for us. … I think our record is not where we hoped it would be, but again you have to know why that happens. If you overreact, you are never going to make the best of situations going forward.”

Hawks’ Jalen Johnson Out At Least 3-4 Weeks

November 26th, 2023 at 1:53pm CST by Luke Adams

1:53pm: While Charania’s reporting (detailed below) suggested that testing on Johnson’s wrist didn’t show a fracture, the Hawks stated in a press release that the forward has been diagnosed with a left distal radius fracture.

However, the team’s announcement doesn’t necessarily contradict the recovery timeline provided by Charania. According to the Hawks, Johnson will be reevaluated in about three or four weeks.

11:30am: Hawks forward Jalen Johnson is expected to miss four-to-six weeks due to a left wrist injury, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

While Atlanta will have to get by without one of its most important players until at least late December – and possibly until sometime in January – there’s some good news, according to Charania. Testing on Johnson’s wrist showed no fractures or a need for surgery, which would’ve sidelined him for even longer. Charania refers to it as a “best-case scenario” (Twitter link).

As we outlined earlier today, Johnson left Saturday’s game vs. the Wizards about two-and-a-half minutes into the second quarter after taking a hard hit from Kyle Kuzma as he attempted to complete a fast-break dunk (video link). Johnson fell into the stanchion and landed on his left hand, which he immediately grabbed in obvious pain. After taking his free throws, he exited to the locker room and didn’t return.

Johnson had gotten off to an extremely strong start for the Hawks this season, establishing himself as a dynamic two-way player after having been known primarily for his defense in his first two NBA seasons.

Entering Saturday’s contest, the 21-year-old had averaged 14.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 31.4 minutes per night (14 games), with a .590/.421/.774 shooting line. He came off the bench a few times early in the season, but had started Atlanta’s past 10 games.

In Johnson’s absence, the Hawks figure to lean more heavily on De’Andre Hunter and Saddiq Bey, with second-year forward AJ Griffin moving up the depth chart and perhaps playing more regular minutes.

Heat Contacted NBA To Express Concerns About Cavs’ Court

November 26th, 2023 at 9:00am CST by Luke Adams

The Heat got in touch with the NBA’s league office to express their concerns about the drop-off on the sidelines of the Cavaliers‘ court at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, reports Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel confirms the Heat contacted the league, though he notes they didn’t file “a formal complaint, per se.”

The drop-off from the playing floor to the sidelines at the edge of the Cavs’ home court is about 10 inches, per Vardon, who says multiple sources confirmed there’s no other NBA arena with that sort of drop.

It came into play on Wednesday when Heat guard Dru Smith contested a Max Strus three-pointer along the sidelines and landed awkwardly near the edge of the floor (video link). Smith’s fall resulted in a season-ending ACL injury.

“I remember during walk-through, when I sat there to get ready for shootaround, just kind of thinking like, ‘Oh, this court’s kind of weird, the drop-off, just the separation between the bench and the court,'” Smith said on Saturday, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required). “But, you know, when you’re playing, you’re not thinking about where I was going to land or if I was going to miss the court.

“… When I flew by (on the shot contest), my left foot landed and my right foot went between the chair and the bench. As soon as it happened, I knew what happened. I knew I just fell into that little hole. … I would say I knew right away it wasn’t good. I didn’t know exactly obviously what was going on. But I just knew it wasn’t good.”

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke after Wednesday’s game about the dangers of the court design. And, as Vardon details, when the Lakers visited Cleveland on Saturday, head coach Darvin Ham and multiple players echoed Spoelstra’s concerns. Guard Austin Reaves said the sideline drop-off is “a little scary, to be honest,” while former Cavs star LeBron James said “they should address it.”

“It’s something that definitely needs to be looked at,” Ham said. “Any time … you have a situation where someone’s getting hurt and the potential to get hurt, and in this particular case it’s the floor, I think they need to take a look at it and see if there are ways things could be better.”

Of course, as Vardon points out, the design has been in effect since the arena opened nearly 30 years ago. Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said his players are “comfortable” around the sideline area and that there have been no incidents involving Cleveland players.

That’s little solace for Smith. And while he acknowledged that it’s good news that his $1.8MM salary – previously partially guaranteed for $425K – will become fully guaranteed as a result of the season-ending injury, that’s not his primary concern at the moment.

“That’s not really what I’m here for. I’m here to play basketball and prove that I belong in this league and that I can have an impact in this league,” Smith said, according to Winderman. “… I feel like I was in a good spot. I was just looking forward to just continuing to be trusted with the minutes here and there, wherever that was going to be. And I think the more I was playing, the more comfortable I was getting. So I was just really comfortable with that.”

“But that’s not how this year is going to go for me.”