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Victor Wembanyama Officially Enters 2023 NBA Draft

April 21st, 2023 at 2:21pm CST by Luke Adams

Projected No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama has entered the 2023 NBA draft, he announced today during an appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today (link via ESPN’s Jonathan Givony).

“Declaring for the draft…it’s something crazy I’m not realizing yet,” Wembanyama told ESPN. “I realized pretty young I wanted to play in the NBA but it becomes a reality more every day. I’m so lucky to have this dream within the reach of my hand.”

The announcement is a formality, since Wembanyama has long been considered the top prospect in the 2023 draft class. In fact, the 7’5″ French phenom has widely been viewed as the NBA’s best prospect since LeBron James entered the league 20 years ago.

Playing this season for the Metropolitans 92 in France as a 19-year-old, Wembanyama has averaged 21.4 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.1 blocks, and 2.3 assists in 32.2 minutes per game across 29 LNB Pro A appearances. He has led the club to a 19-10 record, good for second place in France’s top basketball league, and is the favorite to earn MVP honors.

Wembanyama’s combination of size and length, as well as his shooting and rim protecting ability, makes him a unique prospect whom every lottery team would love to build around.

The draft lottery, which will be known this year as the Wembanyama sweepstakes, will take place on May 16.

Latest On Pistons’ Head Coaching Search

April 21st, 2023 at 1:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons began conducting interviews for their open head coaching position earlier this week, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, who reports that a trio of candidates have emerged as potential frontrunners in the early stages of the process.

Former Overtime Elite head coach Kevin Ollie, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, and Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins are the top three candidates for Detroit’s coaching vacancy so far, says Edwards.

The Pistons had Ollie and Lee high on their list entering the process, according to Edwards, and have now interviewed both of them. Marc Stein identified the duo earlier this week as possible favorites of general manager Troy Weaver, though he noted that vice chairman Arn Tellem would also have “considerable influence” in the search.

As for Collins, the Pistons were “very interested” in the veteran assistant when they began their search, says Edwards. League and team sources tell The Athletic that Collins’ interview with the club was “stellar.”

None of Detroit’s early frontrunners have previously served as NBA head coaches, though Collins and Ollie played in the league.

Lee, who competed in international leagues as a player, has been a longtime assistant under Mike Budenholzer in Milwaukee and Atlanta, while Collins was on Steve Kerr‘s staff for seven years in Golden State before moving to New Orleans under Willie Green in 2021. Ollie lacks any sort of NBA coaching experience, but coached at UConn for eight seasons (six as head coach) and led the Overtime Elite program for two years.

The Pistons have no definitive timetable to make a hire and will take their time to evaluate candidates, according to Edwards, who says that more contenders could emerge over the course of the search.

NBA Team Option Decisions For 2023/24

April 21st, 2023 at 12:53pm CST by Luke Adams

Having already created a space to track this offseason’s player option decisions, we’re turning our attention today to team options. Over the next couple months, we’ll use the space below to keep tabs on all the team options for 2023/24, making note of whether they’re exercised or declined.

True team options are different than non-guaranteed salaries, which aren’t listed in the space below. Non-guaranteed salaries are less restrictive and provide a little more flexibility than team options, which clubs must act upon by a specific date (June 29) each year.

However, team options can be useful at the end of a contract, since turning down that option allows the team to retain some form of Bird rights on the player — waiving a player with a non-guaranteed salary doesn’t present that same opportunity. Additionally, a handful of contracts still don’t become fully guaranteed once an option is picked up, giving teams an extra level of flexibility.

The list below doesn’t include rookie scale team options for 2023/24, since those third- and fourth-year options function differently than team options on standard veteran contracts. Those ’23/24 rookie scale team option decisions were made during the 2022 offseason, and can be found here.

The standard team options for 2023/24 are listed below. This list – which can be found anytime under the “Hoops Rumors Features” menu on the right sidebar on our desktop site or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu – will be updated throughout the fall to note the latest decisions as they’re reported and/or announced.

Unless otherwise indicated, a player’s salary will become guaranteed once his team option is exercised.

Boston Celtics

Mike Muscala ($3,500,000): Exercised
- The Celtics exercised Muscala’s option in order to trade him to the Wizards.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Lamar Stevens ($1,930,681): Exercised
- Note: Stevens’ salary remains non-guaranteed.

Detroit Pistons

Alec Burks ($10,489,600): Exercised
Eugene Omoruyi ($1,927,896): Exercised
- Note: Omoruyi’s salary remains non-guaranteed.
Isaiah Livers ($1,836,096): Exercised

Houston Rockets

Kenyon Martin Jr. ($1,930,681): Exercised

Los Angeles Lakers

Malik Beasley ($16,524,106): Declined

Memphis Grizzlies

Xavier Tillman ($1,930,681): Exercised

Minnesota Timberwolves

Nathan Knight ($1,997,238): Declined

New Orleans Pelicans

Willy Hernangomez ($2,559,942): Declined
Naji Marshall ($1,930,681): Exercised
Herbert Jones ($1,836,096): Declined

New York Knicks

Derrick Rose ($15,596,339): Declined
Miles McBride ($1,836,096): Exercised

Oklahoma City Thunder

Lindy Waters III ($1,927,896): Declined

Orlando Magic

Michael Carter-Williams ($3,051,144): Declined
Goga Bitadze ($2,066,585): Exercised
Admiral Schofield ($1,997,238): Declined

Phoenix Suns

Ish Wainright ($1,927,896): Exercised
- Note: Wainright’s salary remains non-guaranteed.

Portland Trail Blazers

Kevin Knox ($3,000,000): Declined

Sacramento Kings

Kessler Edwards ($1,927,896): Exercised

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Hoops Rumors Originals

Northwest Notes: Murray, MPJ, Thunder, Clarkson

April 21st, 2023 at 11:34am CST by Luke Adams

Jamal Murray‘s breakout on a postseason stage occurred during the 2020 playoffs in the Orlando bubble, when he averaged 26.5 points and 6.6 assists with a .505/.453/.897 shooting line in 19 games as the Nuggets made the Western Conference Finals.

Between then and now, Murray has had to endure a lengthy recovery process from an ACL tear, but he’s off to a great start in the 2023 postseason, putting up 32.0 PPG and 6.5 APG on .500/.500/.909 shooting in his first two games against Minnesota. Teammate Michael Porter Jr. told reporters this week that Murray “looks better than ever,” as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN relays.

For his part, the star guard is eager to prove that “Bubble Murray” isn’t just a moniker to live up to — it’s a level he believes he can surpass.

“People say, ‘Oh, that’s like vintage (Murray),'” he told Youngmisuk, referring to the “Bubble Murray” term. “It’s like, I haven’t even hit my best. … I feel like people are making that to be the best that’s been seen. And I’m thinking that was just the beginning.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

Like Murray, Porter has had to overcome injury issues to get to where he’s at with the top-seeded Nuggets this spring, as Nick Kosmider of The Athletic details. Porter has undergone multiple back surgeries, including one procedure that wiped out his rookie year and another that limited him to nine games in 2021/22. “Injuries have definitely made my basketball career a little different path than I would have wished for growing up,” Porter said. “But I’m here in the playoffs, and it is a dream come true. I’m playing for the No. 1 team in the West. I’m playing a lot of minutes for the No. 1 team in the West and we’re up 2-0 in (the first round of) the playoffs. It’s all you can ask for.”
Speaking to local reporters on Thursday in his end-of-season presser, Thunder head of basketball operations Sam Presti didn’t rule out the possibility of last year’s No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren playing for OKC’s Summer League squad and stressed that he wants to see the team become more physical going forward, per Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. “A lot of people think about physicality, and they think about one side of the ball, they think about defense,” Presti said. “Offensively I think there’s room for us to get more physical. You can see that at the free throw line. We were last in the league of getting into the bonus before our opponent. That’s not a place you want to be.”
If Jordan Clarkson declines his player option for 2023/24, the opportunity to play for a winning team will be a top priority as he weighs his options in free agency, writes Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. However, that doesn’t mean Clarkson would rule out the retooling Jazz, who exceeded expectations this past season and are well positioned to keep improving. “Everybody this year really took steps super fast and grew super fast,” Clarkson said. “I think next year we’ll be back to our winning ways, with a chance to compete for something.”

Latest On Rockets’ Head Coaching Search

April 21st, 2023 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets, who kicked off their head coaching search very early in the offseason, are progressing toward a second round of interviews with some of their candidates, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski, Frank Vogel and Ime Udoka are expected be involved in that second round, which will also see newly available Nick Nurse be introduced to the process.

While Wojnarowski suggests a second round of interviews is around the corner, it doesn’t appear the Rockets have completed their first round yet.

According to Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link), Sixers assistant Sam Cassell – whose candidacy was previously reported – will interview with Houston on Sunday. Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle says that the club also still plans to meet with Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson in the coming days.

Both Cassell and Atkinson are employed by teams that are competing in the first round of the playoffs, so I imagine it’s more logistically challenging for the Rockets to schedule interviews with those candidates than the ones who are between jobs.

Here’s more on the Rockets’ coaching search:

In addition to Vogel and Udoka, the Rockets have also completed their initial interviews with James Borrego, Adrian Griffin, and Kevin Young, Feigen confirms. Adding Cassell, Atkinson, and Nurse to that group would give Houston a total of eight candidates, which was the number initially reported at the time the team parted ways with Stephen Silas.
Iko and Eric Koreen of The Athletic teamed up to take a closer look at Nurse’s style of coaching, to break down his performance with the Raptors, and to consider how he might fit with the Rockets.
The Rockets are overdue to get a head coaching hire right, Jerome Solomon writes in a column for The Houston Chronicle, arguing that the franchise hasn’t hit a home run on that front since bringing in Rudy Tomjanovich way back in 1992.

Raptors Part Ways With Nick Nurse

April 21st, 2023 at 8:40am CST by Luke Adams

Nick Nurse won’t be returning to the Raptors next season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the team is parting ways with its head coach.

A Raptors assistant under Dwane Casey beginning in 2013, Nurse was promoted to be Casey’s replacement in 2018 and has spent the last five seasons in that role. His NBA head coaching career got off to a fast start, as he led Toronto to its first-ever championship in 2019, then earned Coach of the Year honors in 2020.

Since 2020, however, Nurse’s Raptors have been up and down, winning just 27 games while playing their home games in Tampa in 2020/21 and then finishing with a disappointing .500 regular season record in ’22/23 before being eliminated in their first play-in game. Toronto won 48 games in ’21/22, but was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.

In total, Nurse had a 227-163 (.582) regular season record and a 25-16 (.610) playoff mark as the Raptors’ head coach.

While Nurse was a strong tactician and was willing to experiment with unique ideas and strategies, some key relationships with players, coaches, and management became strained during the 2022/23 season, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. After rumors about his future began to swirl in March, Nurse directly addressed those reports and provided no assurances about his long-term commitment to Toronto, telling reporters that he’d evaluate his future after the season.

Nurse’s contract had one more year left on it, but there was a belief that even if the Raptors wanted to bring him back, he wouldn’t be comfortable returning without an extension. He and president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri met multiple times after the team’s season ended last week to discuss possible paths forward, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Those conversations presumably made it clear to the team that a breakup was in its best interest.

According to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link), the lack of development for bench players, overly taxing workloads for starters, and a desire for more structure and accountability were factors the Raptors considered in dismissing Nurse.

Ujiri will hold a media session later on Friday, where he’ll certainly be asked to discuss management’s thinking in more detail. For now, he has issued a statement in a press release confirming the decision to seek a new head coach — the Raptors framed the move as Nurse having been “relieved of his duties.”

“The decision to make a change like this is never arrived at easily or taken lightly, especially when it comes to a person who has been an integral part of this franchise’s most historic accomplishments, and who has been a steady leader through some of our team’s most challenging times,” Ujiri said. “As we reflect on Nick’s many successes, we thank him and his family, and wish them the best in future. This is an opportunity for us to reset, to refocus, to put into place the personnel and the players who will help us reach our goal of winning our next championship.”

As previously reported, former Celtics coach Ime Udoka is expected to receive serious consideration from the Raptors as Nurse’s replacement, tweets Wojnarowski. Udoka led Boston to the NBA Finals in his first year as head coach in 2021/22, but was suspended and then let go after reportedly having an extramarital affair with a member of the organization.

Hiring a new head coach will be just one important part of a busy offseason for Ujiri and the Raptors, who will likely have Jakob Poeltl, Fred VanVleet, and Gary Trent Jr. heading to unrestricted free agency.

Meanwhile, despite no longer coaching Canada’s only NBA club, Nurse will continue to lead the country’s national team through at least the 2024 Olympics, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca.

As for Nurse’s next NBA job, Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter) that he’s expected to become a “prominent” candidate in the Rockets‘ head coaching search, which has also been previously reported.

Atlantic Notes: Harden, Claxton, Brogdon, Raptors

April 21st, 2023 at 8:02am CST by Luke Adams

While the Sixers were able to hold on and win Game 3 without him, James Harden was fuming after the game about the flagrant foul 2 and ejection he was given near the end of the third quarter on Thursday (Twitter video link).

As Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes, the game’s referees ruled that Harden made “excessive” contact to Royce O’Neale‘s groin while trying to create space against the Nets defender. The Sixers star referred to the decision as “unacceptable” and said he didn’t get an explanation from the officials during the game.

“First time I’ve been ejected. I’m not labeled as a dirty player, and I didn’t hit him in a private area. Somebody is draped on you like that defensively, that’s a natural basketball reaction,” Harden said. “I didn’t hit him hard enough for him to fall down like that. But for a flagrant 2, it’s unacceptable. This is a playoff game. We’ve seen around the league, things are much worse than what that play was. Honestly, I didn’t think it was a foul on me. But that’s unacceptable. It can’t happen.”

While Harden was ejected, his Sixers teammate Joel Embiid avoided a similar fate early in the first quarter. After falling to the floor, Embiid kicked Nets center Nic Claxton when Claxton tried to step over him (Twitter video link). The star center was assessed a flagrant foul 1, but was permitted to remain in the game, much to the chagrin of Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my career before,” Vaughn said. “For a guy to intentionally kick someone in an area that none of us want to be kicked at or towards, for him to continue to play, I’ve never seen that before in a game and a guy continues to play. Intentional.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Claxton’s energy and fight helped keep the Nets in the game on Thursday, but his exuberance got the better of him when he picked up his second technical for taunting Embiid (Twitter video link) and was ejected from the game in the fourth quarter, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “Yeah, when I watched it, it was a little excessive. I got to keep my emotions in check,” Claxton said after the game. “They need me out there. So that’s part of my growth, just keeping my emotions like that when I’m playing well and my emotions are really high. I got to look myself in the mirror and just be smarter in those situations.”
Shortly after arriving in Boston last summer, Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon stressed that he was focused on team – rather than individual – success. He reiterated that message earlier this week, just a couple days before being named the NBA’s Sixth Man of The Year, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “All these awards are team awards,” Brogdon said when asked about the possibility of earning Sixth Man of The Year honors. “It takes a team for anybody to get an award because there’s always five guys on the floor. It would be great for the organization, the Celtics, to have me win the award.”
Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri will hold his end-of-season media session on Friday, over a week after the team’s season came to an end. Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca wonders if Ujiri may have delayed his usual spring presser a little this year in the hopes of gaining more clarity on the team’s coaching situation.

Southeast Notes: Heat, Wizards, Leonsis, Hawks

April 20th, 2023 at 11:13pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Ahead of a 138-122 Game 2 loss against the Bucks, necessity dictated that the Heat use a rare starting five, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Starting shooting guard Tyler Herro has been ruled out for the next four-to-six weeks after breaking the ring and middle fingers of his right hand, so head coach Erik Spoelstra had to make a change.

Miami started its 27th different five-man lineup of 2022/23, with Gabe Vincent running the point, Duncan Robinson in for Herro at shooting guard, Max Strus at small forward, Jimmy Butler at the four, and Bam Adebayo manning the middle. Though Robinson was inserted into the starting lineup due to his three-point shooting acumen, he only scored in fourth quarter garbage time with the contest already out of hand.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

After the Wizards fired team general manager Tommy Sheppard yesterday, David Aldridge of The Athletic believes Washington’s path back to contention must start with the club admitting it needs to embrace a full rebuild. Aldridge believes that team owner Ted Leonsis needs to look to add a starry front office name, with Raptors vice chairman Masai Ujiri and Warriors president Bob Myers at the top of his list.
Letting Sheppard go was a surprisingly proactive move from Leonsis, who had just inked Sheppard to an extension at the start of the Wizards‘ 2021/22 season, writes Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Buckner is less optimistic that poaching Ujiri or Myers from their respective gigs would work, but is excited that Leonsis is receptive to such a key change at a position that has stewarded the Wizards to zero play-in appearances in the last two years. In a terse press statement, Leonsis indicated that he would look outside the organization for a new top executive.
Though the Hawks have lost to the Celtics by 13 points per game in a series they trail 2-0 and may be headed for a sweep, Jeff Schultz of The Athletic writes that the experience is still preferable to tanking. Beyond the marginal difference in selecting a draft pick right outside of the lottery and choosing one around its fringes, new head coach Quin Snyder believes the playoff series will have value as a teachable moment for a generally young Atlanta club. “Similar to the regular season, close games, the more you’re in those situations, you learn from them, and in the playoffs you’re learning to adjust to situations by how a team plays you,” Snyder said. “There’s the physicality of the playoffs, so many things you take from it. The experience is an indirect benefit of the playoffs.”

Warriors Notes: Green, Game 3 Prep, Looney, Role Players

April 20th, 2023 at 9:06pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Warriors have put on a brave public face following the news that forward Draymond Green has been suspended for a game after bruising Kings center Domantas Sabonis‘ sternum late in Golden State’s 114-106 Game 2 loss to Sacramento. However, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN confirms that the team didn’t agree with the ruling. Green was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the contest.

“We are livid,” an anonymous source told Shelburne. “We paid the price already [when Green was ejected] in Game 2. We get that. No problem there. But this suspension was unnecessary.”

Warriors team president Bob Myers, who like Green could become a free agent himself this offseason, spoke to Shelburne about how Green and his occasionally over-the-top passion function within the larger team concept.

“There’s so many positives, but when you play with so much emotion, sometimes it runs over,” Myers told Shelburne. “But for the most part it’s been a tremendous driver of success.”

There’s more out of Golden State:

With Green sitting out tonight for a critical Game 3 in their series against the Kings, Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle believes the situation once again highlights the cold hard reality that it might be easiest to part with him this summer. Thanks to an even more punitive incoming CBA, Golden State may need to move on from at least one of its pricier players. Letourneau writes that the behavior that got Green suspended proved that his ultimate selfishness may just make him the most expendable part of the club’s championship core.
Starting Warriors center Kevon Looney must limit his fouls tonight, now that Green won’t be able to give his team any help as its small ball center, per Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. The 6’9″ big man out of UCLA was whistled for two quick fouls in the first quarter of Golden State’s last game in the series on Monday. “I can’t be out there fouling like I was last game as much, because we don’t have Draymond to back me up,” Looney noted on Wednesday night. “I don’t think my minutes are going to change too much. I just got to go out there and play a little bit smarter.”
Trailing 2-0 in their current series, the Warriors have been hoping that the team’s young role players can help prop up their stars. That hasn’t been the case thus far, argues Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. Specifically, reserve guards Jordan Poole and Donte DiVincenzo and backup swingman Jonathan Kuminga didn’t provide enough of a spark and proved too unreliable for head coach Steve Kerr to give them big minutes in the first two games.

Atlantic Notes: Barnes, Knicks, McClung, Bridges

April 20th, 2023 at 7:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Second-year Raptors forward Scottie Barnes faces a critical summer following some minor regression in 2022/23, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. According to Lewenberg, there was a sense within the organization that Barnes, the 2022 Rookie of the Year, “could have worked harder and smarter” last offseason.

“I put my highest expectations on myself. I put a lot of [thought] into what I really want to become, what I really want to be,” Barnes said last week. “That’s how I look at things, how I see myself as a player. I know how I want to get better. I just want to consistently try to develop in each and every way and make it to the top of the league, be one of those better players in the league. It’s just going to take a different level of mindset, of work.”

This season, the 6’9″ forward out of Florida State averaged 15.3 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 4.8 APG, 1.1 SPG and 0.8 BPG across 77 games with the 41-41 Raptors.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

Young Knicks role players RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes will have to contribute more in the ongoing playoff series against the Cavaliers if the team hopes to advance, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Braziller notes that Quickley, who has enjoyed a breakout 2022/23 season and was the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up, has been passive in the team’s first two playoff contests, and has logged as many made field goals as he has turnovers (four apiece). Barrett’s shooting and passing have been lackluster, while Grimes has struggled to score.
Despite wowing audiences in Utah en route to a Slam Dunk Contest championship in February, two-way Sixers point guard Mac McClung continues to work toward becoming an NBA rotation player, writes Howard Beck of GQ. McClung spent most of his time this year as the starter for Philadelphia’s NBAGL affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. A scout tells Beck that, while McClung is a terrific athlete, he needs to refine his on-court skillset. “The cerebral aspects of the game are way more important,” the scout said. “He’s proven people wrong every step of the way… but I’d say he’s got a hill to climb.” In his 31 games for Delaware this season, McClung averaged 19.8 PPG, 4.9 APG, 2.7 RPG and 0.8 SPG.
Nets forward Mikal Bridges thrived with the Suns during his first few NBA seasons, but has taken on a major role as Brooklyn’s scorer since Phoenix flipped him as part of its blockbuster Kevin Durant trade. Though Bridges didn’t plan on such an outsized role on offense, he has embraced it so far, writes James Herbert of CBS Sports. “I’m not overcomplicating nothing,” Bridges said. “I didn’t drink nothing different, I didn’t eat nothing different, I didn’t change nothing. I just kept getting better and kept working. And I think that’s what people try to overthink. All you gotta do is just get better.” The 6’6″ swingman out of Villanova logged 26.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.0 SPG and 0.6 BPG in 27 contests for his new club this season.

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