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And-Ones: E. Okafor, Perkins, S. Brown, Wood

November 16th, 2017 at 1:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Two NBA veterans have been among the most impressive G League standouts early in the season, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Emeka Okafor, 35, has spent the past four years recovering from surgery on a herniated disc in his neck. He joined the Sixers for training camp and opted to stay with the organization’s affiliate in Delaware. He is averaging 14.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per game and is shooting better than 60% from the field.

Kendrick Perkins was the Cavaliers’ final roster cut and went to Cleveland’s affiliate in Canton. He is averaging 13.0 points and 10.3 rebounds through three games. He has dropped weight and may still be able to help an NBA team at age 33.

There’s more news from the NBA and the G League:

  • Today is an important day for four players who were claimed off waivers during the offseason, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Bulls‘ David Nwaba and Kay Felder, the Hawks‘ Nicolas Brussino and the Bucks‘ DeAndre Liggins are all now eligible to be traded.
  • The Sixers used the remainder of this year’s cap space for the renegotiation/extension with Robert Covington, leaving just eight teams with cap room, according to Marks (Twitter link). They are the Bulls [$15.1MM], Mavericks [$12.5MM], Suns [$8.9MM], Pacers [$6.1MM], Kings [$4.3MM], Nets [$3.4MM], Hawks [$589K] and Magic [$549K].
  • Veteran guard Shannon Brown has been claimed from the G League player pool by the Wisconsin Herd, tweets Chris Reichert of 2 Ways and 10 Days. The 31-year-old last played in the NBA in 2014, when he appeared in five games with the Heat.
  • Christian Wood has joined the Delaware 87ers as a returning player, according to Reichert (Twitter link). He played 13 games for the Hornets last year and ended the season in the G League.
  • International stars are having a greater impact on the NBA than ever before, writes Tom Ziller of SB Nation. Many of the league’s best young players hail from overseas, such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porzingis, both considered early-season MVP candidates, along with Ben Simmons, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic. Ziller credits former commissioner David Stern for his focus on expanding the league to overseas markets. That strategy not only created more revenue, it exposed the NBA to an international audience and created a new reservoir of players.
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2018 Salary Cap Outlook: Southeast Division

November 15th, 2017 at 9:37am CST by Luke Adams

NBA rosters will undergo some changes over the course of the 2017/18 season, particularly around the trade deadline, and those changes may have an impact on teams’ cap sheets for future seasons. Based on the NBA’s current rosters, however, we can identify which teams are most and least likely to have cap room in the summer of 2018, which will dictate the type of moves those clubs can make in the offseason.

We’re taking a closer look at each of the NBA’s 30 teams by division this week. Today, we’re tackling the Southeast division. With the help of salary information compiled by Basketball Insiders, here’s how the summer of 2018 is shaping up for the five Southeast teams:

Miami HeatTyler Johnson vertical
Guaranteed 2018/19 team salary: $117,444,952
Projection: Over the cap

Since the start of the 2016 offseason, the Heat have handed out lucrative long-term contracts to Hassan Whiteside, James Johnson, Dion Waiters, Kelly Olynyk, and Josh Richardson. It will be Tyler Johnson‘s deal that will be the toughest to swallow in 2018/19 though. Because of the way his 2016 offer sheet from the Nets was structured under the old CBA, Johnson’s cap charge will jump from about $5.88MM this season to $19MM+ next year.

Barring major cost-cutting moves, the Heat will be well over the cap in 2018/19, and may end up surpassing the luxury tax line too.

Charlotte Hornets
Guaranteed 2018/19 team salary: $116,377,251
Projection: Over the cap

The Hornets have six players on their roster set to make at least $12MM apiece in 2018/19, including two – Nicolas Batum and Dwight Howard – earning about twice that. Most of those contracts won’t be easy to move, and Charlotte won’t want to dump the more team-friendly salaries from that group, like Kemba Walker‘s $12MM expiring deal. As such, we can expect the Hornets to head into the 2018 offseason as an over-the-cap club.

Washington Wizards
Guaranteed 2018/19 team salary: $115,896,497
Projection: Over the cap

Despite the fact that John Wall‘s super-max extension won’t go into effect until 2019/20, the Wizards have nearly $116MM committed to just eight players next season. Even if the team were to trade a non-core player on an eight-figure salary, such as Ian Mahinmi or Marcin Gortat, it wouldn’t be enough to create meaningful cap space.

Orlando Magic
Guaranteed 2018/19 team salary: $78,180,655
Projection: Up to approximately $19.5MM in cap room

The summer of 2018 will be a good test for just how attached the Magic’s new front office is to the old regime’s top draft picks. Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton will be restricted free agents, and if Orlando intends to retain both players – or even just Gordon – the team’s cap room will disappear. Letting Gordon and Payton walk and waiving Shelvin Mack and his non-guaranteed salary would get the Magic up to nearly $20MM in cap space.

Atlanta Hawks
Guaranteed 2018/19 team salary: $56,232,915
Projection: Up to approximately $41MM in cap room

The Hawks’ maximum available cap space for 2018 will hinge in part on whether Dewayne Dedmon and Mike Muscala decide to pick up their respective player options. Those options being exercised would reduce the Hawks’ max cap room to about $31MM, which would still be more than enough to make a major addition or two — or to take on a couple undesirable contracts along with picks or young players, if Atlanta isn’t ready yet to accelerate its rebuilding timeline.

Previously:

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Cavs, LBJ Attempted To Add Jonathon Simmons In Free Agency

November 14th, 2017 at 7:34pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Jonathon Simmons believes he can be an elite player in the league and that mindset forced him to say no to LeBron James when the four-time MVP attempted to bring him to Cleveland.

“I even talked to LeBron James over the phone, and he was like, ‘We want you in Cleveland.’ And I said, ‘No, I want to play against you.’ I want to be able to play against elite guys and be able to, in a couple of years down the line, be just where they are,” Simmons said (via Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel).

Salary also played a role in turning down the opportunity to join the defending Eastern Conference champs. “It wasn’t enough money, anyway. I have a family. I expressed that to him, which he kind of already knew. He said, ‘I respect that and I’ll see you soon,’” he added.

Cleveland has been over the salary cap since its first offseason with James back in town and because of cap constraints, the franchise was limited in what it could offer free agents this past summer. The most the Cavs could have offered Simmons was the taxpayer’s mid-level exception — it’s worth roughly $5.2MM, and the club used about half of it to sign Cedi Osman. Any deal with Simmons would also have come with serious tax implications for the Cavs since the team is a repeat offender.

Simmons, who’s been a solid fantasy basketball option this season, inked a three-year, $20MM contract with the Magic in July. He’s played 25.3 minutes per game this season and he owns a 25.5% usage percentage, a figure that ranks second on the team.

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Magic Pace And Space Like Reigning Champ Warriors

November 12th, 2017 at 8:58pm CST by Austin Kent
  • While he’s sure to clarify that the Magic don’t boast the same caliber of elite level talent that the Warriors have, John Denton of the team’s official site writes that Orlando has played rather Golden State-ish so far this season. The Magic have benefited from the same pace-and-space tactics that the historically dominant reigning champion Warriors have for the past several seasons.
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NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/9/17

November 9th, 2017 at 6:32pm CST by Austin Kent

Here are the G League transactions for Thursday:

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Magic Recall Khem Birch, Wesley Iwundu From G League

November 8th, 2017 at 2:33pm CST by Luke Adams
  • The Magic have recalled rookies Khem Birch and Wesley Iwundu from the G League, per a team announcement (Twitter link). Lakeland doesn’t play its next game until Friday, so perhaps Birch and/or Iwundu will be re-assigned before then.
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Magic Taking Advantage Of Simmons' Versatility

November 6th, 2017 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams
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Adreian Payne Eager For Opportunity With Magic

November 3rd, 2017 at 9:18pm CST by Austin Kent
  • After going 15th overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, Adreian Payne‘s NBA opportunities have come few and far between. Now a member of the Magic, the Michigan State product is excited to earn another shot. “I haven’t really gotten a chance to play the whole time I’ve been in the NBA,” Payne told Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. “Being able to spend some time down in the G League, to work on my game, to get better, to just be able to become a better person and a better player, on the court and off the court. I think it is going to help me grow, and then when I get called up and be able to play with the Magic team, I’ll be that Adreian that I was when I was in college.”
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Lowe: Could Magic Be Landing Spot For Bledsoe?

November 3rd, 2017 at 2:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League season will tip off on Friday night, with a record-setting 26 teams set to compete this year. While that still leaves a handful of NBA clubs without affiliates of their own, G League president Malcolm Turner tells Sam Amick of USA Today that he’s confident the number of teams in the league will increase to 30 within the next couple years.

“It’s not out of the question that we may find ourselves launching another four teams for [the 2018/19 season] to get us to 30. But I think the realistic timeframe is ’19/20,” Turner said. “Washington is already confirmed for ’18/19. It’s been well reported that New Orleans, where they stand in the process. We expect they will announce within the next month or two, and Portland and Denver are also well down the road in the process of doing it as well, and so we’re excited about that.”

Turner is also encouraged by the fact that the average distance between NBA teams and their affiliates has come down significantly in recent years, allowing franchises to make better use of those affiliates. According to Turner, as recently as five years ago, the average distance between an NBA team and its G League affiliate was about 550 miles — now it’s approximately 120 miles.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Rather than holding the 2018 draft lottery in New York next spring, the NBA will have the event take place in Chicago on May 15, followed by the combine – also in Chicago – from May 16-20, the league announced on Thursday.
  • Within his latest article for ESPN.com, Zach Lowe wonders if the Magic could be a viable landing spot for Eric Bledsoe, and takes a look at how the Kings‘ veteran free agent acquisitions have underachieved so far.
  • Former Rockets forward Kyle Wiltjer signed a one-year deal this week to play with Olympiacos in Greece, as Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net details. Wiltjer was in camp with the Raptors this fall and was set to play for Toronto’s G League team before deciding to head overseas instead.
  • Veteran big man Glen Davis, who recently signed a G League contract, wasn’t claimed by a team on waivers and will now enter the available player pool, a source tells Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days (Twitter link). G League teams set their opening-night rosters this week and likely aren’t looking to make changes right away, so Davis may have to be patient as he waits for an opportunity.
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