- The Magic finished dead last in the East with a 22-60 record, but they were encouraged by the progress they made this season from a developmental perspective, writes Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel. “I know the record doesn’t always show what’s grown and progressed, but this group of young men stayed together,” head coach Jamahl Mosley said. “There’s been a spirit on the court every single night and that’s just going to turn up another level as we walk into next year. Our guys are excited about it and the fans should be extremely excited about it because they see the way in which these young men play for one another and battle no matter what’s happening.”
- Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman agreed with Mosley’s assessment, telling Mike Bianchi during an appearance on FM 96.9 The Game’s Open Mike that the club “accomplished a lot of our goals” in 2021/22. Dan Savage of OrlandoMagic.com passes along several more of Weltman’s comments from that interview, including his thoughts on Mohamed Bamba‘s upcoming free agency.
- The Magic used a portion of their mid-level exception to give Devin Cannady a three-year deal and a $100K rest-of-season salary on Sunday, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. A minimum-salary contract would’ve been limited to two years and would’ve resulted in a rest-of-season salary of just $8,558. Smith adds that Cannady’s second- and third-year salaries (worth the minimum) are non-guaranteed, with a team option on the 2023/24 season.
Would less be more? When it comes to the NBA schedule, Warriors coach Steve Kerr believes so. He’d like to see the NBA cut its regular season from 82 games to 72, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. That would encourage coaches to play their regulars more often, instead of giving them nights off, particularly as the season winds down.
“What makes the most sense is cutting back to maybe a 72-game schedule,” Kerr said. “Take 10 games off and get more time to rest in between games. I think you’ll get buy-in from the teams to play their guys more often.”
We have more tidbits from around the basketball world:
- Magic forward Admiral Schofield was fined $20K, while Magic center Robin Lopez and Hornets center Montrezl Harrell were fined $15K for their roles in an on-court altercation on Thursday, the NBA announced (Twitter link). All three were ejected during the fourth-quarter scuffle (video link).
- Commissioner Adam Silver likes the way the play-in tournament has encouraged teams on the playoff bubble to remain competitive but might tweak it in future years, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets. Executive VP of basketball strategy and analytics Evan Wasch suggested the league would consider a scenario where the ninth- and 10th-place finishers in each conference would have to win a certain number of games to qualify for the play-in.
- Guard Mac McClung was named NBA G League Rookie of the Year after averaging 21.6 PPG and 7.6 APG for the South Bay Lakers, the league tweets. The Lakers rewarded McClung with a two-way contract on Saturday.
- Free agent guard Shaquille Harrison has been named G League Defensive Player of the Year, according to a league press release. Harrison averaged 1.93 steals per game for the Delaware Blue Coats.
The Magic have used their open roster spot to sign guard Devin Cannady, the team announced in a press release.
Cannady, 25, just completed a 10-day contract with Orlando that he signed in late March. He appeared in four games during that deal, averaging 8.8 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 27.8 minutes per night. He spent much of the season with the Magic’s G League affiliate in Lakeland, putting up 15.8 PPG in 16 games.
Cannady also played eight games for Orlando last season after signing a 10-day contract and then a two-way deal in April. He was in training camp with the team before the start of this season.
Big man Wendell Carter Jr. is having the best season of his young career with the Magic, according to Mark Schindler of BasketballNews.com, who takes an in-depth look at Carter’s breakout season and interviewed him for the article. Carter is averaging career-highs of 15.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists this season in 62 games (29.9 minutes per night). He boasts a shooting line of .525/.327/.691, including a career-best 61.5% on two-pointers.
Carter said the team’s coaching staff has empowered and challenged him to improve his game.
“They’ve kind of instilled in me like, ‘Man, you’re a great player. We’ve seen plenty of flashes. We know what Wendell can really be. Can we see you do this for a whole 48-minute game? Can we see you play like those little spurts we’ll see every now and then? Can you do that more often?’”
Here’s more on the Magic:
- Devin Cannady, who signed a 10-day contract last week, is grateful for his second chance with Orlando, per Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel. Cannady had a 10-day and then a two-way contract with Orlando last season and appeared in eight games, but his season came to an early end in April of 2021 when he suffered a significant ankle injury and underwent surgery. “I remember what it felt like laying on that floor less than a year ago. A lot of thoughts went through my mind. I remember praying on the floor that day. A lot of late nights, early mornings, frustrations, excitements and just to be back here is a testament to the work I put in. Whether I made it back here or not, I was going to be fine, but this is where I believe I belong,” Cannady said.
- Rookies Jalen Suggs (right ankle bone bruise) and Franz Wagner (left ankle sprain) returned for Tuesday’s win over Cleveland after absences of 10 games and one game, respectively. However, Wagner suffered a right ankle sprain in the game and didn’t return (Twitter links).
- Bobby Marks explores the team’s options for the offseason in his guide for ESPN (Insider link). Much of Orlando’s financial flexibility is tied to Mohamed Bamba, who would be a restricted free agent this summer if the team tenders him a qualifying offer of $10.1MM.
With just six days left in the 2021/22 season, no more standard 10-day contracts will be signed this spring.
Teams looking to fill open 15-man roster spots will do what the Pistons did with Carsen Edwards or what the Bucks are doing with Luca Vildoza, signing players to rest-of-season contracts, ideally with at least one extra non-guaranteed year tacked onto those deals.
It is possible that one or two more “10-day” contracts will be signed by teams eligible for hardship exceptions. Those clubs have full 15-man rosters but are hardship-eligible either because a player tested positive for COVID-19 or because several of their players are injured.
Those hardship 10-days, like the one the Thunder completed with Georgios Kalaitzakis on Monday, are technically just rest-of-season contracts that don’t give the team any form of Bird rights this offseason. Kalaitzakis will become a free agent immediately after the season ends, and Oklahoma City won’t be able to use the Non-Bird exception to re-sign him in the summer.
Here are the remaining active 10-day contracts, which will expire in the coming days:
- Utah Jazz: Greg Monroe (standard — runs through 4/6)
- Boston Celtics: Juwan Morgan (standard — 4/6)
- Indiana Pacers: Justin Anderson (standard — 4/6)
- Dallas Mavericks: Brandon Knight (COVID hardship — 4/7)
- Portland Trail Blazers: Reggie Perry (injury hardship — 4/8)
- Orlando Magic: Devin Cannady (standard — 4/9)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Jaylen Hoard (injury hardship — 4/10)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Georgios Kalaitzakis (injury hardship — 4/10)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Zavier Simpson (injury hardship — 4/10)
- Portland Trail Blazers: Kris Dunn (injury hardship — 4/10)
- Portland Trail Blazers: Drew Eubanks (injury hardship — 4/10)
The Mavericks, Thunder, and Trail Blazers have full 15-man rosters, so they won’t create any openings on their respective rosters when their current 10-day agreements expire.
However, the Jazz, Celtics, Pacers, and Magic are each using a roster spot on a 10-day player. When those contracts expire, those clubs could either bring back the same player on a rest-of-season contract or use that 15th slot on someone else. For instance, Utah might want to promote two-way player Trent Forrest to its standard roster to ensure that he’s playoff-eligible.
Nearly any free agent signed to a rest-of-season deal using a 15-man roster spot will be playoff-eligible, so the Jazz and Celtics will have plenty of options. Semi Ojeleye, Kyle Guy, Joel Ayayi, Luka Samanic, and Chris Smith are the only players who have been placed on waivers since March 1, making them ineligible for the postseason.
The Lakers aren’t technically out of playoff contention yet, but after falling two games (and a tiebreaker) behind San Antonio in the Western Conference standings on Sunday, their odds of claiming a spot in the play-in tournament are increasingly slim — in fact, the Lakers could be officially eliminated as soon as Tuesday if they lose in Phoenix and the Spurs win in Denver.
Following Sunday’s loss, Anthony Davis sounded like someone who recognized that L.A.’s season is all but over, as he reflected on “what could have been” if the team had been healthier.
“I think the biggest thing that I think about personally is what we could have been, had we stayed healthy all year,” Davis said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “What could we have been. … Guys feel like, ‘OK, what could we have been if I was healthy all year, [LeBron James] was healthy, [Kendrick] Nunn was healthy.’ You think about those things. We put this team together and it looked good on paper, but we haven’t had a chance to reach that potential with guys in and out of the lineup.”
Davis, who has only played in half of the Lakers’ 78 games so far this season, has been bothered throughout his career by injuries, but he bristled at the perception that he’s fragile, telling Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times that he hasn’t been sidelined due to “little ticky-tack injuries.”
“This is what I’ve learned about injuries,” Davis said. “Last year when I wasn’t playing, people were saying, ‘AD’s giving up on his team. It’s the playoffs. AD has to play. He’s got to play.’ And when I went out there to play, got hurt again, they said, ‘Who was his trainer? Who let him play?’
“So, what the [expletive] do you want me to do? When I play, it’s a problem. It’s a problem when I don’t play. At the end of the day, I’ve got to do what’s best for me and how my body feels. And we go from there. I’m not worried about who’s saying what or who thinks this about me because none of them have stepped on the floor and played. And the ones that did play, they should understand.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- A source familiar with James’ status told Dave McMenamin of ESPN that the star forward is “unlikely” to play on Tuesday vs. Phoenix. However, according to McMenamin, the source said there’s still a chance that could change if LeBron’s ankle improves more than expected by tomorrow night.
- Jovan Buha of The Athletic and his colleague John Hollinger both pushed back against the idea that injuries have been the primary cause of the Lakers’ disappointing season. Buha observed that even in games when Davis and James played, the team was just 11-11, while Hollinger said the team’s offseason plan needs to be better than simply running it back and hoping its two superstars stay healthy in 2022/23.
- Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up and First Take on Monday, former Lakers president Magic Johnson criticized the club for not acquiring DeMar DeRozan last offseason instead of Russell Westbrook (link via Jenna Lemoncelli of The New York Post). While that’s not an unreasonable take, given that DeRozan had interest in playing for his hometown team, Johnson’s assertion that the Lakers could’ve had DeRozan, Buddy Hield, Alex Caruso, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope instead of Westbrook is a fantasy that doesn’t pass muster. Unless DeRozan had been willing to sign for the taxpayer mid-level exception (which wasn’t viewed as a viable option at the time), L.A. would’ve become hard-capped by acquiring him and would have had no way of carrying all those contracts in addition to James’ and Davis’ maximum salaries. Acquiring both DeRozan and Hield without giving up Caldwell-Pope also likely wouldn’t have been possible due to salary-matching rules.
10:38pm: The signing is official, the team announced in a press release.
9:25pm: Guard Devin Cannady is signing a 10-day contract with the Magic, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Cannady has been playing for Orlando’s G League team, the Lakeland Magic.
Jeff Dowtin‘s 10-day deal will expire at the end of the day on Thursday, so it’s logical to assume Cannady will replace him on the 15-man roster.
Cannady was waived by the Magic during training camp. Undrafted in 2019, Cannady has spent most of his three professional seasons in the G League.
He had a 10-day deal and two-way contract with Orlando last season and appeared in eight games. However, his season came to an early end in April when he suffered a significant ankle injury and underwent surgery.
In 16 G League games this season, he’s averaging 15.8 PPG and 1.9 APG in 26.5 MPG while making 47% of his 3-point attempts.
Dowtin appeared in four games since signing his 10-day.
Fans of the Magic, Rockets, and Pistons won’t be especially invested in the playoff and seeding races taking place near the top of the NBA’s standings during the last two weeks of the regular season. However, they’ll be closely monitoring their respective teams’ place in the standings for lottery purposes.
Entering action on Monday, Orlando, Houston, and Detroit have identical 20-55 records, meaning they’re all tied for the top spot in the NBA’s draft lottery, as our Reverse Standings show.
Because the lottery format dictates that the league’s bottom three teams all have identical odds for the No. 1 overall pick (14%) and a top-four pick (52.1%), this year’s race to the bottom isn’t quite as consequential as it would have been a few years ago under the NBA’s old lottery system.
Still, since each bottom-three team has a 47.9% chance of falling outside of the top four, its position entering the lottery is crucial — the league’s worst team can’t fall any further than No. 5 on lottery night, whereas the third-worst team could slip all the way to No. 7.
The Magic have played some of their best games of the season in recent weeks, winning home games vs. Minnesota and Golden State and picking up victories in New Orleans and Toronto earlier this month. They’re 4-5 in their last nine games, but have the NBA’s ninth-hardest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon.
The Rockets looked a week ago like the odds-on favorite to finish the season atop the lottery standings, but with three wins in their last four games, that’s now far from a certainty. Their remaining schedule is the league’s sixth-easiest, per Tankathon, and includes five home games, with just two on the road.
The Pistons, meanwhile, are 8-10 in their last 18 games, but just 2-8 in their last 10. Their remaining schedule is the league’s 11th-hardest, per Tankathon, and they have more games on the road than at home.
Of course, we shouldn’t exclude Oklahoma City from this conversation. At 21-53, the Thunder are just 1.5 games ahead of the three aforementioned clubs after losing 11 of their last 12 games. They’ll host the Pistons on Friday in what should be an important game — the winner of that contest could put itself out of the running for the No. 1 spot in the lottery standings.
The Thunder have the NBA’s ninth-easiest remaining schedule, with an equal split of home and road games. Of course, it’s worth noting that two of OKC’s upcoming games are against a tanking Portland team that is probably the NBA’s actual worst right now (even if the Blazers’ full-season record doesn’t reflect that). It would be a little surprising if the Thunder manage to lose both those meetings.
What do you think? Which team will finish the season with the NBA’s worst record and claim the top spot in the draft lottery standings? Will any of these clubs lose the rest of their games? Will there be a tie for the No. 1 spot, necessitating a coin flip?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with yours thoughts on this season’s race to the bottom.
- Magic guard Markelle Fultz is starting to feel more comfortable just one month after his return, Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel writes. Fultz missed more than a year due to a torn ACL, making his debut on February 28 against the Pacers. He most recently finished with 16 points, three assists and three steals in 19 minutes against the Kings on Saturday, showing potential on both sides of the ball.