- Opponents are sagging off Josh Giddey and the Thunder guard is learning how to adjust to that strategy, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman. Giddey is a 30.4% three-point shooter during his three-year career. He’s averaging 14.4 points on 11.6 shot attempts this month. “Sometimes it can be a confidence killer. Seeing a big guard gap you and daring you to shoot the ball,” he said. “But you have to stay confident. You have to trust it because the second you don’t, they win and it falls into their hands.”
In a memo obtained by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA told teams the league office “did not deliver a directive to reduce scoring” during a competition committee call earlier this week, but the post-All-Star break trend “will continue to be monitored.” As Wojnarowski writes, teams are scoring about four fewer points per game on average since resuming play at the end of February.
“Slower pace, style of play, competitive intensity, officiating focus have been contributing factors identified so far,” the NBA said.
According to Woj, the league also stated one focus area for the meeting was centered on offensive players “hunting for fouls and veering off paths into defenders.” That has also been a point of emphasis for officials — and a “contributing factor” in the reduced scoring output of late.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- The NBA also informed teams that it was considering a couple of changes to tiebreakers for next season’s NBA Cup, which was called the In-Season Tournament during its debut in 2023/24, Marc Stein reports (via Twitter). Changes under consideration would impact tiebreakers for point differential and head-to-head results, per Stein.
- Unlike in 2023, when there was a consensus No. 1 overall pick for well over a year, there’s a huge variance in where players are projected to be drafted in 2024, as Michael Scotto relays in the latest aggregate mock draft for HoopsHype. Scotto spoke to several NBA executives to get a feel for some of this year’s top prospects, including Alexandre Sarr, who is ranked No. 1 in aggregate but as low as No. 7. “I think Sarr has everything to his game,” one executive said. “He needs to go somewhere that’s patient with him. He can be a really good two-way player you can build around in two years. I believe in his shooting and shot blocking.”
- Frank Urbina of HoopsHype ranks the most successful players who have previously been signed to two-way contracts. Austin Reaves (Lakers), Duncan Robinson (Heat), Alex Caruso (Bulls), Naz Reid (Timberwolves) and Luguentz Dort (Thunder) make up the top five of the 15-player list.
- Former NBA player and assistant coach Juwan Howard has been fired as head coach of Michigan, the school announced in a press release. Howard compiled a 82-67 record in five seasons at his alma mater, making the NCAA Tournament twice (in 2021 and ’22), but the Wolverines went just 8-24 this season and were eliminated in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played in his 65th game of the season on Thursday, meaning he now officially qualifies for end-of-season awards such as Most Valuable Player and All-NBA, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
If Gilgeous-Alexander makes an All-NBA team this year – which is a virtual lock – he’ll become eligible to sign a super-max extension with Oklahoma City during the 2025 offseason. He’ll have met the performance criteria by having earned an All-NBA spot in each of the past two years, but will remain one season shy of the service time requirement — he’ll have six years of service after this season, and a super-max deal (which starts at 35% of the cap instead of 30%) can’t be signed until a player has at least seven seasons under his belt.
Given that Gilgeous-Alexander has been performing at an MVP level this season and shows no signs of slowing down, it seems safe to assume that super-max offer will be waiting for the two-time All-Star on July 1, 2025.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- The terms of Darius Bazley‘s new three-year deal with the Jazz are virtually identical to those of Kenneth Lofton‘s contract, Hoops Rumors has learned. Bazley will make $500K the rest of this season via Utah’s room exception, with various trigger dates on non-guaranteed minimum salaries in 2024/25 and ’25/26. Because this is Bazley’s fifth NBA season, his minimum salaries are worth more than Lofton’s, so the overall value of his contract is approximately $5.74MM, whereas Lofton’s is about $4.9MM. The other difference between the two deals is that Bazley’s final year is simply non-guaranteed, rather than a team option.
- Isaiah Thomas, who is playing with the Salt Lake City Stars as he pursues an NBA comeback, credited Jazz CEO Danny Ainge for pulling the strings to get him a shot with the team’s G League affiliate, per Jay King of The Athletic. “Danny helped make this thing happen,” Thomas said of the veteran executive who previously had the guard on his roster in Boston. “He connected the dots.”
- Nuggets guard Reggie Jackson has been struggling with his shot in recent weeks, making just 36.8% of his attempts from the field and 25.5% of his three-pointers since February 4. However, he appreciates the fact that his teammates and coaches have encouraged him to shoot his way out of the slump, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required). “They want me to continue to be myself. Continue to be aggressive. They’ve been kind of upset at me for not playing my game the last few,” Jackson said. “So then I started playing aggressive. Even still in the midst of missing shots. … But just hearing the encouragement from my teammates … once you have a great group like that — front office, coaches, teammates — believing in you like that, you can’t do anything but start believing in yourself again.”
The Jazz used a portion of their room exception to sign Kenneth Lofton Jr. to a three-year contract that includes a $500K rest-of-season salary, Hoops Rumors has learned. Lofton’s deal is worth approximately $4.9MM in total, with minimum salaries in the second and third seasons.
However, the agreement doesn’t currently include any guaranteed money beyond this season. If Lofton remains under contract through July 25, he’d be assured of a $400K partial guarantee for 2024/25, and that partial guarantee would increase to $600K on the first day of the regular season, but if he’s waived on or before July 25, the Jazz won’t be on the hook for any ’24/25 salary.
If Lofton plays out the first two years of the contract, the Jazz would face a team option decision for the 2025/26 season.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- The fact that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a legitimate MVP candidate while Chet Holmgren is in the running for Rookie of the Year is emblematic of how unique the young, contending Thunder are, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who notes that an NBA club hasn’t had a top-two finish in both MVP and Rookie of the Year voting since the 2001/02 Nets. Before that, the last time it happened was in 1979/80, when Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won MVP while Magic Johnson finished second in ROY voting.
- Monday’s game between the Nuggets and Raptors marked the first time that brothers Michael Porter Jr. and Jontay Porter shared an NBA court for meaningful minutes, writes Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette. In honor of the occasion, Benedetto looks back at the role that Michael played in convincing Jontay not to give up on his NBA dream despite recurring injury issues.
- Jrue Holiday was only a member of the Trail Blazers for a few days last fall between stints in Milwaukee and Boston, but he tells Jay King of The Athletic that a discussion he had with Chauncey Billups during that time “meant a lot” to him. Billups gave Holiday advice on how to handle the transition period and assured the veteran guard that the team wanted him to end up in a favorable landing spot.“I love Jrue, man. I love Jrue,” Billups said. “And we got him very briefly obviously. And I had a conversation — a long, good conversation with him — just about I know it was a little tough spot for him, being traded, kind of being blindsided by that. I’ve been there before. So just being able to rap with him like that because I know him. And it was important for me that a good person like him, who’s been great on every team and every community that he’s lived in, for him to be treated properly and be put in a great position and a great spot.”
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander believes the Thunder have the talent to compete for an NBA title this season, telling ESPN (video link), “I think we’re capable of anything.”
There was a scary moment on the sidelines during the first half of the Thunder‘s victory in Portland on Wednesday, as big man Bismack Biyombo collapsed without warning as his teammates were coming to the bench for a timeout (Twitter video link via Clemente Almanza).
Biyombo eventually got up and walked to the locker room under his own power, and head coach Mark Daigneault said after the game that the big man was doing OK, per Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman.
“He’s fine,” Daigneault said. “He just fainted, basically. But he was in the locker room at halftime, laughing and joking. And he stayed back there, but he’s doing fine.”
Biyombo, who has played limited minutes in four games since signing with the Thunder nearly a month ago, has been cleared of any serious medical issue, but will undergo further evaluation on Thursday, tweets OKC sideline reporter Nick Gallo.
Here’s more on the Thunder:
- Speaking to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Thunder wing Luguentz Dort shared his thoughts on the Thunder, the Canadian national team, and his approach on defense, among other topics. While he’d like to make an All-Defensive team, Dort made it clear that goal is secondary to helping his team win as many games as possible. “That’s just accolades,” he said. “I feel like the best thing I can do is to do anything to help my team win. I’m doing this for my team. I’m not doing this to make an award. So I don’t really go out there and think about it. I try to be the best player that I can be on the court.”
- While the current iteration of the Thunder has drawn plenty of comparisons to the previous Oklahoma City team that featured rising stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, Chris Herring of ESPN sees a connection between this season’s group and the Warriors circa 2012-16. In an interesting Insider-only story, Herring breaks down the similarities between how the two clubs use (or used) guard-to-guard screens to fuel dynamic offenses.
- Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman examines Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s case for Most Valuable Player and considers what it would take for the superstar guard to surpass Nikola Jokic as the frontrunner for the award.
- As expected, both Shake Milton (Knicks) and Mike Muscala (Thunder) signed rest-of-season, minimum-salary contracts with their new clubs.
- Thunder center Jaylin Williams has been diagnosed with a sprained left knee, head coach Mark Daigneault said on Friday (Twitter link via Rylan Stiles of Locked on Thunder). There’s no word yet on the severity of the sprain, but it’s often a week-to-week injury, so one of the team’s recent frontcourt additions – Bismack Biyombo and Mike Muscala – may get an opportunity to claim a rotation role.
MARCH 2: Muscala has officially signed with the Thunder, the team announced today in a press release.
MARCH 1: Veteran center Mike Muscala intends to sign with the Thunder for the rest of the season after he clears waivers on Friday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Muscala was bought out and placed on waivers by the Pistons on Wednesday.
The move represents a reunion for the two sides, as Muscala played in Oklahoma City from 2019-23. He initially joined the team as a free agent in 2019, then re-signed in ’21 and again in ’22 before being sent to Boston at last season’s trade deadline.
Muscala appeared in 168 games during his initial run with the Thunder, averaging 7.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per contest. He’s a big man who is capable of stretching the floor, having made 37.6% of his career three-point attempts, including 39.2% during his three-and-a-half seasons in OKC.
After being traded from the Celtics to the Wizards in the three-team deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Boston last summer, Muscala began this season in D.C. and then was on the move again in January when the Wizards dealt him to Detroit.
In 37 total games for the two lottery-bound Eastern Conference clubs prior to this week’s buyout, the 32-year-old averaged 3.8 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 13.8 MPG. Although Muscala’s three-point percentage on the season is just 31.8%, that number has been on the rise in recent weeks — he made 38.2% of his attempts from beyond the arc in 13 games with the Pistons.
The Thunder have an open spot on their 15-man roster, so they won’t need to cut anyone to make room for Muscala.
It will be the second move made in recent weeks by the team to bolster its frontcourt — Oklahoma City also added Bismack Biyombo via free agency last month. Biyombo and Muscala will provide depth and bring different skill sets to a frontcourt led by Rookie of the Year candidate Chet Holmgren.
The NBA’s 2023/24 Rookie of the Year race has arguably been the best in recent memory, with Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama and Thunder center Chet Holmgren both enjoying incredible debut seasons.
It was Wembanyama who got the upper hand in the latest chapter of the budding rivalry between the two young bigs on Thursday night. The No. 1 overall pick, who led the Spurs to an upset win over the Thunder, became the first player in NBA history to record at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, five blocks, and five 3-pointers in a game, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN.
Wembanyama helped seal San Antonio’s victory by making a highlight block on a Holmgren shot attempt in a late-game possession (Twitter video link).
Asked after Thursday’s game whether the performance locked up the Rookie of the Year race for his star teammate, Spurs wing Devin Vassell said he believed Wembanyama had already earned that award.
“I feel like it’s been over, but I mean, night in, night out, the stuff that he does, the impact that he has on both ends of the floor, big shot after big block, after whatever the case may be, I mean he doesn’t even look like a rookie,” Vassell said, per Lopez. “The shots that he shoots, the confidence that he has in his game is second to none, truthfully.”
In their recaps of Thursday’s game, Mike Monroe of The Athletic and Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News each also declared the Rookie of the Year race all but over, contending that Wembanyama has it in hand. The 20-year-old has increased his season-long averages to 20.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals in just 28.7 minutes per game across 54 appearances, with a shooting line of .467/.327/.814.
Still, Wembanyama, who has stated that winning Rookie of the Year is important to him, wasn’t as eager as Vassell or those local reporters to declare the race over, according to Lopez.
“No, because there’s still 22 games left,” Wembanyama said. “So no, it’s not over.”
While the Spurs’ young star has repeatedly showed signs this season that he’s on his way to becoming a generational talent, Holmgren has made a compelling case of his own for Rookie of the Year honors by anchoring the defense of one of the NBA’s best teams while scoring effectively and efficiently on the other end of the floor. In 59 games (30.2 MPG) for the Thunder, he has put up 17.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.7 APG, and 2.6 BPG on .544/.398/.784 shooting.
Even after Thursday’s loss to San Antonio, the Thunder are 29.5 games ahead of the Spurs in the standings, which may be a factor voters weigh when they make their Rookie of the Year choice. Holmgren’s .617 effective field goal percentage is also substantially stronger than Wembanyama’s .518 mark.
In the latest episode of The Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link), ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggested that Holmgren might be having the best rookie season of any non-Wembanyama player of the past decade besides Luka Doncic in 2018/19. Tim Bontemps argued that Holmgren has been even better this season than Doncic was as a rookie.
However, both ESPN reporters, along with colleague Brian Windhorst, agreed that Wembanyama is the obvious frontrunner for this season’s award.
For what it’s worth, while an injury to either player would obviously impact the race, the NBA’s new 65-game minimum for end-of-season awards doesn’t apply to Rookie of the Year, so there’s no risk of either Wembanyama or Holmgren becoming ineligible.
We want to know what you think. Is Wembanyama your Rookie of the Year pick? If so, what would it take for Holmgren to overtake him in the season’s final six weeks? If not, why do you feel as if Holmgren’s case is stronger?
Head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!