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Valley Suns Announced As Phoenix’s G League Affiliate

May 22nd, 2024 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

Phoenix’s new NBA G League affiliate will be known as the Valley Suns, the team announced today in a press release. In addition to revealing the team name, the franchise revealed the Valley Suns’ colors and logo, which can be viewed here.

The Suns ran an online contest that gave fans the opportunity to submit ideas for the G League team’s name. According to today’s announcement, more than 12,000 fans submitted ideas, with “dozens” of those respondents suggesting the Valley Suns.

“The Valley Suns is the community’s team and will provide fans an energetic and family-friendly atmosphere while developing aspiring talent on and off the court,” Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein said in a statement. “We’re excited to launch the new G League team with a name and identity chosen by our fans and inspired by the unique desert landscape that we call home.”

The team will play its home games at Mullett Arena at Arizona State University. The facility is about an 11-mile drive from the Footprint Center, where Phoenix plays its home games, so the NBA and G League Suns will have no problem shuttling players back and forth frequently during the season.

The Suns had been the last NBA franchise without a G League affiliate. They announced in February that they’d acquired the right to own and operate an NBAGL team and that it would debut in 2024/25, which will be the first season in which all 30 NBA teams have G League affiliates of their own. The league will have 31 teams in total, including the unaffiliated Mexico City Capitanes.

Phoenix actually had a G League affiliate known as the Northern Arizona Suns from 2016-21, but former team owner Robert Sarver sold the franchise to the Pistons, who relocated it to Michigan and rebranded it as the Motor City Cruise. Current owner Mat Ishbia stated shortly after officially assuming majority control of the Suns in 2023 that reestablishing a G League team was a priority.

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Latest On NBA’s Media Rights Negotiations

May 22nd, 2024 at 10:16am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA is expected to formalize written contracts this week with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBC, and Amazon for their media rights, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, who provides the following tentative details on the three deals:

  • ESPN/ABC (“A” package): $2.8 billion per year; likely to include NBA Finals, one conference final, weekly prime-time games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.
  • NBC (“B” package): $2.6 billion per year; likely to include “Basketball Night in America” on Sundays, two prime-time windows per week, conference semifinals, and one conference final.
  • Amazon (“C” package): $1.8-2 billion per year; likely to include the in-season tournament, the play-in tournament, first-round playoff games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.

The parties are in the process of tweaking their agreements, says Friend, explaining that once the terms are finalized, the networks will take them to their respective boards to have the bids ratified. At that point, the NBA is expected to circle back to longtime television partner Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports) to see if WBD wants to exercise its matching rights on NBC’s offer.

According to Friend, the expectation is that the NBA will argue that TNT doesn’t have the right to simply match NBC’s bid from a dollar-for-dollar perspective, since TNT lacks the over-the-air broadcast infrastructure that NBC can offer. Previous reporting stated that the league would want at least $300MM more from Warner Bros. Discovery for the same package of games that NBC is bidding on.

As Friend details, if Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t want to lose the NBA and isn’t willing to pay that added cost for the “B” package, the company could take the NBA to court and contest the league’s definition of what constitutes a matching offer. Sources tell the Sports Business Journal that the NBA is preparing its lawyers for a potential inquisition or lawsuit.

Disney was more proactive than WBD during the exclusive negotiating window that ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports were afforded earlier this year, per Friend, increasing its offer to $2.8 billion per year after paying $1.4 billion in its last deal with the NBA.

WBD, meanwhile, believed it would only have to bump its offer from $1.2 billion in the previous media deal to about $1.8-2.1 billion this time around, according to Friend, who says that’s a key reason why the NBA took that package of games to the open marketplace and found a more appealing offer from NBC.

The league’s current media rights deal will expire after the 2024/25 season, with the new agreement taking effect in ’25/26.

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Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, Bojan Bogdanovic Undergo Surgery

May 22nd, 2024 at 8:28am CST by Luke Adams

All-Star guard Jalen Brunson has undergone surgery on his broken left hand and veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovic has undergone surgery to address a left wrist injury, the Knicks announced today (Twitter links). According to the team, both players will be reevaluated in approximately six-to-eight weeks.

Brunson suffered his hand injury during the final game of the Knicks’ postseason run in New York on Sunday. He was forced out of the Game 7 loss to Indiana early as a result of the fracture. While today’s announcement doesn’t provide any specifics on Brunson’s recovery timeline beyond the six-to-eight-week reevaluation, he’ll presumably be good to go for training camp in the fall.

The star guard had his best season as a pro in 2023/24, averaging a career-high 28.7 points and 6.7 assists per game on .479/.401/.847 shooting in 77 starts (35.4 MPG). He finished fifth in MVP voting and will be extension-eligible this offseason. According to Steve Popper of Newsday, “all indications” are that Brunson will be open to signing a new four-year, $156MM deal with the Knicks this summer rather than putting it off in the hopes of maximizing his earnings.

As for Bogdanovic, this is the second time he has gone under the knife since his season ended on April 28. The Knicks confirmed on April 30 that the 35-year-old was undergoing surgery on his injured left foot, announcing at that time that he’d be reevaluated in three months. That suggests the recovery timeline for his foot will extend beyond the one for his wrist procedure.

After averaging 20.2 points per game on .468/.415/.779 shooting in 28 appearances for the Pistons earlier in the season, Bogdanovic saw his production drop off as a Knick. He averaged just 10.4 PPG with a .430/.370/.800 shooting line in 29 games for New York and didn’t make a significant impact in the playoffs, making 7-of-24 shots (29.2%) in a limited role during the first four games of the team’s first-round series vs. Philadelphia.

Bogdanovic is under contract for one more season, but his $19MM salary for 2024/25 is only partially guaranteed for $2MM, so the Knicks will have a decision to make on him by June 28. His salary would become fully guaranteed if he remains under contract beyond that date.

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Morant Showing Good Progress From Shoulder Surgery

May 21st, 2024 at 5:49pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ja Morant appears to be ahead of schedule in his recovery from shoulder surgery, Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

According to Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, Morant and several other players who suffered significant injuries are making good progress. Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., Ziaire Williams, Vince Williams and Marcus Smart were among the other Grizzlies players who missed chunks of time due to injury this season.

“Everything is going well,” Jenkins said on Tuesday. “Ja is the only one when June rolls around, he’s going to be pretty close to full go on the court. Everything that everyone was dealing with towards the end of the season is in a good place right now.”

Morant’s season was essentially a washout. He missed the first 25 games of the season due to an NBA suspension, then averaged 25.1 points, 8.1 assists and 5.6 rebounds in nine games after the suspension, including a game-winning shot against New Orleans on Dec. 19 in his return to action.

Morant was then diagnosed with a labral tear in his right shoulder after a training session. At the time of his January surgery, the recovery process was outlined as a six-month process.

Grizzlies head of basketball operations Zach Kleiman said in April that there wasn’t a timeline on Morant’s full availability, but that he was “expected to be fully cleared for basketball activities maybe halfway through the offseason.”

Morant will be entering the second year of his five-year, max contract.

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NBA Announces 2023/24 All-Defensive Teams

May 21st, 2024 at 1:03pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially announced its All-Defensive teams for the 2023/24 season (Twitter link).

A total of 99 media members voted on the All-Defensive awards, with players receiving two points for a First Team vote and one point for a Second Team vote. This year’s All-Defensive teams are as follows:

First Team

Second Team

Gobert, who won this season’s Defensive Player of the Year award, was the only unanimous First Team selection, earning all 99 possible First Team votes.

No other players showed up on every ballot, though Wembanyama appeared on 98, receiving 86 First Team nods. Wembanyama is the first rookie in NBA history to claim a spot on an All-Defensive First Team, according to the NBA (Twitter link). Five rookies previously made a Second Team.

All-Defensive voting was positionless for the first time this season, which is why four big men – Gobert, Wembanyama, Adebayo, and Davis – were permitted to be named to the First Team. Jones, a forward, was the only non-center to earn First Team recognition, whereas the Second Team was made up entirely of guards and forwards.

The Timberwolves and Celtics – who ranked first and second, respectively, in regular season defensive rating – were the only teams to have more than one All-Defensive player in 2023/24. McDaniels was a Second Team selection, joining Gobert, while the Celtics’ backcourt duo of White and Holiday also made the Second Team. Both White ($250K) and Holiday ($139,200) earned bonuses as a result of making an All-Defensive team, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

The rookie scale extension McDaniels signed last fall actually includes an All-Defensive bonus as well, Marks tweets, but since that contract doesn’t go into effect until this July, the Timberwolves’ perimeter stopper won’t cash in on that $431,035. That incentive is now considered “likely” instead of “unlikely” for next season though, as Marks notes, increasing McDaniels’ cap hit to $23,017,242.

Outside of the top 10, the players who received the most All-Defensive votes were Thunder wing Luguentz Dort (34 points, including six First Team votes), Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (29 points), Thunder center Chet Holmgren (21 points), Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (20 points), and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (19 points).

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (six), Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown (three), and Kings teammates Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox (one apiece) were the other players who received First Team votes. In total, 34 players earned at least one First Team or Second Team vote.

Players were required to meet the 65-game criteria in order to qualify for All-Defensive honors this season. Knicks forward OG Anunoby, Warriors big man Draymond Green, and Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley – each of whom made an All-Defensive team last spring – were among the standout defenders who didn’t reach that games-played minimum in 2023/24.

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Lakers Meet With J.J. Redick, James Borrego, Sam Cassell

May 21st, 2024 at 8:23am CST by Luke Adams

The interview portion of the Lakers‘ head coaching search is underway, according to Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic, who report that the team has had formal meetings in recent days with ESPN analyst J.J. Redick, Pelicans assistant James Borrego, and Celtics assistant Sam Cassell.

The Lakers also intend to meet with Micah Nori (Timberwolves assistant), David Adelman (Nuggets assistant), and Chris Quinn (Heat assistant), per Buha and Charania.

Of those three, Nori is the only one whose team’s season isn’t over. He has also taken on a larger role on Minnesota’s bench during the postseason due to a knee procedure that has rendered Wolves head coach Chris Finch immobile during games, so scheduling an interview with him will be a little trickier than lining up meetings with Adelman and Quinn.

The Athletic previously referred to Redick, Borrego, and Cassell as the Lakers’ “initial leading targets” in their head coaching search. Since then, multiple reports have indicated that people around the NBA view Redick as the frontrunner for the job.

League sources tell Buha and Charania that the Lakers are “infatuated” with Redick’s potential as a head coach, despite his lack of experience. They view him as a “Pat Riley-like coaching prospect” who could thrive both in the short and long-term, The Athletic’s duo adds.

Redick co-hosts a podcast with Lakers star LeBron James, resulting in speculation that his relationship with LeBron is driving his candidacy in Los Angeles. However, James’ agent Rich Paul has insisted that’s not the case, as we relayed this morning. Redick also reportedly received consideration for the Hornets’ coaching job earlier this spring and interviewed with the Raptors in 2023.

Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney have also been mentioned as possible Lakers candidates in recent weeks, but neither was mentioned in The Athletic’s latest report.

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Porzingis Won’t Play In Game 1 Of Conference Finals

May 20th, 2024 at 5:20pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kristaps Porzingis won’t return for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics big man has been listed as out for the opener against the Pacers on Tuesday, the team’s PR department tweets.

Another frontcourt player, Xavier Tillman, is listed as questionable due to personal reasons.

It’s no surprise Porzingis will remained sidelined. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported over the weekend that Porzingis would likely miss at least the first two games of the conference finals, but there’s optimism he’ll return sometime during the series.

Porzingis has been out with a calf injury since Game 5 of the first round against the Heat on April 30, missing the entirety of Boston’s second-round series against Cleveland. Porzingis has been making progress in his recovery and is increasing his on-court activity.

In 57 regular season games, Porzingis averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest and shot 51.6% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc while helping the Celtics to an NBA-best 64 wins. He was traded by the Wizards to Boston in a three-team blockbuster last summer.

Tillman has only appeared in three postseason games, logging a total of 25 minutes.

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NBA Announces 2023/24 All-Rookie Teams

May 20th, 2024 at 1:07pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA officially unveiled the two All-Rookie teams for the 2023/24 season on Monday (Twitter links). The teams are as follows:

First Team

Second Team

Unsurprisingly, Wembanyama and Holmgren were unanimous selections to the first team (Twitter link). Last year’s No. 1 overall pick, Wembanyama was also the unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year, with Holmgren receiving all but one second-place vote for that award.

The entire first team mirrored the Rookie of the Year balloting, with Miller, Jaquez and Podziemski coming in third through fifth. Lively received the most points for the second team, followed by Thompson, George, Wallace and Jackson.

Jackson is the only All-Rookie member who wasn’t drafted in the first round; he was selected 45th overall in 2023 and initially signed a two-way contract. He was converted to a standard contract in February.

The current youngest player in the NBA, Jackson didn’t start receiving regular minutes until mid-January. The 19-year-old put up some big numbers down the stretch though, including 31 points and 44 points in the final two games of the season.

Jackson beat out Warriors big man Trayce Jackson-Davis for the final spot on the second team by a single point. Jackson actually received fewer overall votes (38 vs. 42 for Jackson-Davis), but earned the nod by receiving five first-team votes, which were worth two points apiece (second-team votes were worth one point each).

A total of 22 rookies received at least one vote. Aside from Jackson-Davis, the other top finishers who didn’t make the cut were Pistons forward Ausar Thompson (35 points), Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson (33), and Wizards wing Bilal Coulibaly (14). Ausar is Amen’s identical twin brother.

All-Rookie was one of the awards that didn’t require players to meet the newly instituted 65-game minimum. Jackson, Lively, Thompson, and Wallace didn’t meet that criteria, but they were still eligible for All-Rookie honors.

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Dan Craig Joins Billy Donovan’s Bulls Staff

May 19th, 2024 at 5:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Dan Craig is leaving the Clippers staff to become one of Billy Donovan’s top assistants with the Bulls, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link).

Craig, 43, spent the past four years on Tyronn Lue‘s staff in Los Angeles, having been named the team’s associate head coach in November 2020. He spent the previous four seasons under Erik Spoelstra with the Heat, where he also had a stint as the head coach of the G League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce.

He’ll team with former Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. as top assistants for Chicago. Unseld’s decision to join the Bulls was reported on Saturday.

The Bulls’ staff was been in a state of flux since the end of the regular season. Josh Longstaff departed to join the Hornets’ staff. Last month, a report surfaced that Chris Fleming would not be retained while Maurice Cheeks would transition to a different role in the organization.

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Jalen Brunson Suffers Fractured Left Hand

May 19th, 2024 at 4:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jalen Brunson fractured his left hand during Game 7 of the Knicks–Pacers series, New York PR department tweets.

It was a brutal end to a brilliant season for the Knicks guard. Brunson carried his club throughout the first two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs, averaging 33.7 points and 7.3 assists per contest. He had 17 points and nine assists in 29 minutes before retreating to the locker room during the second half.

New York also lost forward OG Anunoby early in the contest. Anunoby made an early departure after trying to come back from a hamstring strain. He only lasted five minutes.

The Knicks were ravaged by injuries late in the regular season and in the playoffs. Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic were all ruled out for the season due to a variety of ailments. Anunoby had missed the last four games prior to his brief return on Sunday.

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