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New Details Emerge On NBA’s In-Season Tournament Plans

April 8th, 2023 at 4:13pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The NBA’s newly announced Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NBPA included several fascinating new developments for the next six or seven years of league action.

Most bold among these various changes is the addition of an in-season tournament, tentatively set to begin in 2023/24. Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports unpacks some new revelations about the impending tournament.

Rohrbach writes that there will be six intra-conference pools, containing five teams each, and while he doesn’t clarify exactly how they will determined, he notes that teams won’t necessarily be separated by division.

During the season’s first six weeks, teams will play against each of the other four clubs in their respective intra-conference pools as part of the regular season schedule. Each club will play two home games and two road games in these designated group matchups.

Following these first four games, two wild-card clubs will join the six pool play victors in a single-game elimination tournament. This is all so new that the NBA is still determining how to figure out tiebreakers, Rohrbach writes. A neutral site will host the tournament’s last two rounds.

The round robin, quarterfinal, and semifinal tournament games would count toward the regular season’s results, but the final (which would represent an 83rd game for the two teams involved) wouldn’t count toward the regular season, per Rohrbach.

Every player on the tournament-winning champion is set to earn a $500K bonus for their victory. Given the rate of high-end annual salaries at present, it’s not certain that such coin would incentivize the top players on a hypothetical winner, but it would be a boon for younger players whose salaries are in the low seven figures.

NBA Investigating Mavericks’ Decision To Rest Key Players

April 8th, 2023 at 2:25pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After the Mavericks opted to rest five players during their penultimate game of the season last night, the NBA has announced today that it will be looking into Dallas’ conduct, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press reports.

“The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions,” league spokesman Mike Bass said.

On Friday against the Bulls, Dallas sat All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and key role players Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Green, Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood. The Mavericks entered that game tied with Chicago for the league’s 10th-worst record. All-Star guard Luka Doncic, meanwhile, played in just the game’s first quarter before exiting a minute into the second quarter.

By benefit of losing the contest 115-112, Dallas has been eliminated from a potential play-in berth.

Head coach Jason Kidd revealed after the game that he would sit Doncic and Irving again for Sunday’s season finale, and added that other key role players would probably also be shelved. Dallas would possess sole ownership of the 10th-worst record in the NBA if the team loses its last game.

The Mavericks owe a top-10 protected draft pick to the Knicks, and sitting these key players gives them a better chance of retaining their own first rounder this year.

It is fascinating that the NBA is going after Dallas specifically. The Bulls in the same game sat healthy starters DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Patrick Beverley, having locked up the East’s tenth seed and a play-in berth, and a handful of other play-in contenders haven’t exactly been going all-out to secure playoff appearances in recent weeks.

Grizzlies Promote Lofton, Waive Chandler, Sign Gilyard

April 8th, 2023 at 1:48pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

1:48pm: The Grizzlies have officially announced their series of roster moves, including a two-way deal for guard Jacob Gilyard, which was first reported by Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

An undrafted rookie in 2022, Gilyard spent the season with the Memphis Hustle in the G League and led the NBAGL in assists per game (9.7). He’ll occupy the two-way slot previously held by Lofton, while Lofton moves into the 15-man roster spot that had been held by Chandler.

12:39pm: The Grizzlies are promoting rookie two-way forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. to their standard roster, and will sign him to a four-year, $7MM contract, Lofton’s agent Mike George informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).

Lofton was recently named the 2022/23 G League Rookie of the Year. With the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle, he averaged 20.2 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.2 SPG and 0.6 BPG across 17 games, including 15 starts.

The 6’7″ power forward has appeared in 23 games for the Grizzlies proper, posting modest averages of 3.4 PPG, 1.6 RPG and 0.9 SPG in 5.9 MPG.

Woj notes that Lofton is being inked to Memphis’ standard 15-man roster in part to address the absence of center Steven Adams, who is reportedly likely to miss the entire 2023 postseason due to the lingering effects of his right knee injury. Adams is one of two key big men unavailable for the Grizzlies — reserve power forward Brandon Clarke tore his Achilles in early March.

Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian tweets that Lofton, who would have entered restricted agency this summer if not for his new deal, has impressed the Grizzlies with his development thus far this season.

To carve out roster space for Lofton, Memphis is releasing rookie guard Kennedy Chandler, sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Chandler, 20, was selected with the No. 38 pick in the 2022 draft out of Tennessee. As Charania notes, Chandler had been on a long-term agreement with the club, and should now garner significant attention on the waiver wire or as a free agent if he manages to clear waivers.

Herrington adds (via Twitter) that Chandler flashed promise with his ball-handling and defense this season, and may be a better fit on a team that will have more patience as he develops. The 51-30 Grizzlies are clearly prioritizing win-now pieces.

Memphis will be on the hook for Chandler’s guaranteed cap hits in 2023/24 ($1.72MM) and ’24/25 ($2.02MM) if he goes unclaimed on waivers.

RaiQuan Gray Signs Two-Way Deal With Nets

April 8th, 2023 at 1:22pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Free agent power forward RaiQuan Gray has signed a two-way contract with the Nets, the team announced in a press statement.

The Nets previously drafted Gray with the No. 59 pick out of Florida State in 2021. Ever since, the 6’8″ big man has been playing for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s NBAGL affiliate.

Across 18 regular season games with Long Island this season, all starts, Gray averaged 15.4 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.6 APG, 1.6 SPG and 0.6 BPG. He boasted shooting splits of .578/.382/.629 in those contests.

The Nets had an open two-way roster spot after elevating David Duke to their standard roster on Friday, so no correlating move needs to be executed to accommodate Gray. He will join incumbent two-way player Dru Smith, a 6’3″ shooting guard who has appeared in 14 games with Brooklyn proper this season.

Gray could theoretically be promoted to the playoff-bound Nets’ standard roster until the last day of the 2022/23 regular season, which is tomorrow, but Brooklyn would need to cut a current player to make room for his addition.

Grizzlies’ Steven Adams Likely Out For Postseason

April 8th, 2023 at 12:40pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Starting Grizzlies center Steven Adams will likely miss Memphis’ entire postseason run, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Adams has been sidelined for Memphis since suffering a PCL sprain in his right knee in late January. Last month, he received a stem cell injection to treat the ailment and was ruled out for another four weeks.

As Tim MacMahon of ESPN notes, the Grizzlies initially expected Adams to miss three-to-five weeks with the injury.

Memphis had high expectations for the 29-year-old coming into the season, and accordingly had signed him to a two-year, $25.2MM extension during training camp. The 6’11” Adams had been an integral part of the Grizzlies’ defensive identity when healthy this season, averaging 8.6 PPG on 59.7% shooting from the field, 11.5 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.1 BPG and 0.9 SPG.

The Grizzlies will miss not only his rebounding acumen, impossible screens and defense around the rim, but also his solid play-making from out of the high post.

Memphis, the No. 2 seed in the West at 51-30, will need to lean more heavily on Adams’ backup, Xavier Tillman, who has performed ably in his stead. Across his 29 starts sans Adams, Tillman is averaging 9.7 PPG and 6.7 RPG.

Rookie two-way forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. is being elevated onto Memphis’ standard roster to help address the loss. The Grizzlies are also without key reserve big man Brandon Clarke for the 2023 postseason due to a torn left Achilles tendon.

Atlantic Notes: Maxey, Nurse, Knicks, Bridges, Celtics

April 8th, 2023 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason and has put himself in position for a major payday by averaging a career-high 20.3 points per game on .481/.434/.845 shooting in 60 games (33.6 MPG) this season, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.

Assuming they look to negotiate a new deal with Maxey, the Sixers may want to use recent rookie extension recipients like Jordan Poole and Tyler Herro as points of comparison. Poole signed for four years and $123MM (plus incentives) last offseason, while Herro got $120MM (plus incentives) on his four-year extension. However, rival executives who spoke to Deveney believe the 22-year-old’s value has increased beyond that.

“They might have thought there was room to negotiate there,” an Eastern Conference executive told Deveney. “But look at what the guy has done. He’s gotten better at every turn, his work ethic is really, really amazing from everyone around him. That’s what stands out. This guy is only getting better. Probably, there’s no negotiation, they’re going to have to max him out.”

The exact value of a maximum-salary extension for Maxey would depend on where the 2024/25 salary cap lands, but it could exceed $40MM per year. For what it’s worth, the Sixers could have Tobias Harris and his $39.3MM expiring salary coming off the books in the summer of 2024.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Whether or not Nick Nurse remains with the Raptors beyond this season, he’ll coach Team Canada in the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. Within the same story, Smith points out that this week’s Jeff Dowtin drama could have been avoided if Toronto had done a better job finding a reliable backup point guard instead of having to rely on a player on a two-way contract.
In a pair of subscriber-only stories for The New York Post, Peter Botte explores how president of basketball operations Leon Rose set up the Knicks for future success despite missing out on Donovan Mitchell, while Brian Lewis suggests that Nets forward Mikal Bridges has room to continue getting better even after taking a big step forward since arriving in Brooklyn.
Speaking to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said that he and Jayson Tatum have been “incredibly successful” together despite some calls over the years to break them up. “At this point, we’re part of each other’s destiny,” Brown said. “The only thing that could put the ribbon on top is winning a championship.”
In an interesting feature for The Athletic, Jared Weiss takes a deep dive into the Maine Celtics’ season, focusing on a few of the players who spent time with Boston’s G League affiliate, including Luka Samanic, who eventually earned a call-up to Utah, and Eric Demers, who hopes to work in basketball when his playing days are over.

Western Notes: Markkanen, Lakers, Warriors, Porter

April 8th, 2023 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

A native of Finland, Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen is required by law to serve in the country’s military before he reaches the age of 30. According to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Markkanen intends to fulfill that mandatory service during the coming offseason.

“Lauri has always said he was going to do this,” Markkanen’s agent Michael Lelchitski said of his client. “It’s important for him as a citizen to fulfill his civic duty and not have any kind of preferential treatment just because he is a famous athlete.”

As Shelburne writes, Markkanen has had to postpone his service a couple times already, including last spring when the Cavaliers made the play-in tournament — those games conflicted with his tentative reporting date.

According to Shelburne, Markkanen will complete his service at the Defence Forces’ Sports School in the southern part of Helsinki. She adds that many of the school’s conscripts are professional or amateur athletes, whose primary task during their service is to “train reconnaissance squads for emergency and wartime conditions.”

“Of course I’d rather be working out like I normally do (in the offseason), but I’ve heard they do a good job of combining the two,” Markkanen said. “You’re able to do your job working as an athlete and your basic training at the same time.”

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are proud of their team for clinching an above-.500 finish after getting off to a 2-10 start, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Davis said that he and James credit the team’s in-season additions for helping to lead that turnaround. “We pointed to some guys and were like, ‘We thank y’all. It didn’t look like we were going that way to start the season,'” Davis said. “Man, we just kept pushing and kept grinding. And obviously the guys that were able to come in here helped us get some more wins and ultimately finish above .500.”
Now that Andrew Wiggins is back with the Warriors, the defending champions look like a legitimate threat to win another title, contends Sam Amick of The Athletic. Veteran sharpshooter Klay Thompson agrees with that assessment, despite the fact that Golden State still hasn’t even secured a top-six seed in the West. “I don’t see a team who can beat us in a seven-game series when we’re healthy,” Thompson said on Friday, according to ESPN’s Kendra Andrews.
Considered a wing when he first arrived in Houston, Kevin Porter Jr. has fully embraced his transition to a point guard role, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). Porter feels good about the strides he made in that role in 2022/23 and believes the Rockets showed growth as a whole, even if their 21-60 record doesn’t reflect that. “I feel better about my process this season,” Porter said. “I definitely made improvements. Definitely seeing what I have to work on going into the offseason. I think it was a good year individually for myself. As a team, I definitely don’t think the record shows our improvement.”

Mavs Notes: Elimination, Draft Pick, Luka, THJ, Kyrie

April 8th, 2023 at 9:01am CST by Luke Adams

Entering the day on Friday, the Mavericks could still have secured a play-in spot if they’d won their last two games of the season and the Thunder lost to Memphis on Sunday. However, Dallas essentially decided to throw in the towel on its chase for a postseason berth, sitting a number of regulars (including Kyrie Irving) and limiting Luka Doncic to essentially a quarter of action.

Unsurprisingly, the Mavericks did indeed lose their game to Chicago, officially eliminating them from the play-in hunt. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, head coach Jason Kidd told reporters before the game that the decision was made by team owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison.

“We were fighting for our lives, and understanding this is a situation we’re in, but the organization has made the decision to change,” Kidd said. “So, you know, we have to go by that and that’s something that happens. So the guys that are playing, we got to go out there and put our best foot forward, and we talked about that this afternoon.”

Speaking after the game, Kidd said that the move was less about “waving the white flag” and more about prioritizing the future.

“It’s decisions sometimes are hard in this business,” he said, per MacMahon. “We’re trying to build a championship team. With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward.”

Asked if he agreed with the decision to prioritize the future instead of the present by sitting players on Friday, Kidd replied, “Those are my bosses, so yes.”

Kidd confirmed after Friday’s loss that Doncic and Irving definitely won’t be playing in Sunday’s regular season finale, with other regulars likely to join them on the sidelines (Twitter link via Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News).

Here’s more on the Mavs:

As Tim Cato of The Athletic observes, one more loss on Sunday would ensure that the Mavericks finish with sole control of the NBA’s 10th-worst record. That would give them approximately an 80% chance of hanging onto the top-10 protected first-round pick they owe the Knicks — there would be about a 20% chance of a team near the bottom of the lottery standings leapfrogging them and pushing them out of the top 10, in which case they’d have to send the pick to New York.
Within a separate ESPN.com story about what’s next in Dallas, MacMahon says there’s a “strong sense of urgency” to expedite the process of building a contender around Doncic. Team sources have admitted there’s concern that Luka could request a trade as soon as the summer of 2024 if Dallas doesn’t take a significant step forward by then, MacMahon reports.
Appearing on The Carton Show on FS1 (Twitter video link), Tim Hardaway Sr. said that Doncic and Irving aren’t leaders, and referred to Doncic as a “crybaby” due to his frequent in-game complaints to referees. As Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News writes, Mavericks wing Tim Hardaway Jr. asked to speak to reporters in order to distance himself from those comments. “I disagree with it 1000%,” the younger Hardaway said, stressing that his views both Doncic and Irving as good leaders. “… It’s disappointing that I have to come out here and say (this). I love him to death, like I said, my dad. He made a mistake. It’s his opinion, not mine. We’re two different human beings, so that’s really all I can say.”
In the most recent episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and MacMahon discussed Irving’s upcoming free agency, debating whether or not Kyrie holds most of the leverage as he enters free agency (hat tip to RealGM). MacMahon and Bontemps believe Irving is in a good position to command a long-term maximum-salary deal from the Mavs, while Windhorst questioned whether there are any teams that will have the cap flexibility and the desire to make a play for Kyrie and put pressure on Dallas.

Nets’ Cameron Johnson Meets Starter Criteria

April 8th, 2023 at 8:04am CST by Luke Adams

Nets forward Cameron Johnson started his 41st game of the season on Friday vs. Orlando and has now met the “starter criteria” ahead of his restricted free agency.

As we outlined earlier in the week when Grant Williams achieved the same feat, a player is considered to have met the starter criteria when he starts at least 41 games or plays at least 2,000 minutes in the season before he becomes eligible for restricted free agency (or if he averages 41 starts or 2,000 minutes in the two seasons leading up to his free agency).

Johnson was primarily a reserve last season in Phoenix and then missed most of the first half of this season due to a torn meniscus, so it looked for a while as if he’d fall short of reaching the criteria. However, he started 16 of 17 games as a Sun this season and has started all 25 games he has played as a Net.

Johnson’s qualifying offer this summer will now be worth $8,486,620 instead of $7,744,600. That new figure is the equivalent of what the No. 9 pick in his draft class would receive.

Johnson’s new QO likely won’t have any real impact on his free agency, since the one-year offer will serve as a placeholder until he signs a multiyear contract with the Nets or another team. He reportedly turned down a four-year, $66MM extension offer from Phoenix last fall, so he’ll presumably be seeking a deal even more lucrative than that as a free agent.

Included as part of Brooklyn’s haul in February’s Kevin Durant blockbuster, Johnson has averaged a career-best 16.6 points per game since joining the Nets. He’s also contributing 4.8 RPG, 2.1 APG, and 1.4 SPG with a .468/.372/.851 shooting line in 30.8 minutes per night since the trade.

Johnson will be the last of 2023’s potential restricted free agents to meet the starter criteria, joining Williams, P.J. Washington, Tre Jones, Ayo Dosunmu, Kenyon Martin Jr. and Herbert Jones (Jones will have his team option picked up rather than reaching free agency, and Martin may be in that boat too). No other RFAs-to-be started 41 games or logged 2,000 minutes this season.

Injury Notes: Zion, J. Brown, Middleton, Schröder, Biyombo

April 7th, 2023 at 11:01pm CST by Rory Maher

Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin announced on Thursday that Zion Williamson would remain out indefinitely as he continues to deal with a right hamstring strain that has kept him sidelined since January 2.

According to Christian Clark of NOLA.com, Griffin clarified on Friday that Williamson will not suit up for the play-in tournament, and he might miss a potential first-round playoff series as well.

“I would just say that if you looked at the logistics of where we are at, it’s not possible to get the work in that would put him in a 5-on-5 workout in time for any play-in,” Griffin said. “Based on today, our best possible outcome would be if everything lined up perfectly, maybe you’re in a position to practice prior to a first round. Or maybe during a first round. But it’s going to take more than one, right? It’s really hard. We may never get to that point, either. If it’s not a situation where those things align and he feels the way he needs to feel, we’re not going to let him go to the next phase.”

Williamson had a setback in February, which delayed his return to the court. Griffin said the All-Star forward hasn’t experienced another setback since then, but he lacks confidence in the hamstring.

Here are a few more injury notes from around the NBA:

Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown cut his right hand and had to get five stitches as he was picking up a glass vase he broke while watering his plants on Thursday night, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Brown expects to be ready for the playoffs, Weiss adds.
Bucks forward Khris Middleton had an MRI on Thursday after he aggravated a right knee injury, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic. Nothing showed up on the imaging and Middleton is expected to rehab for the next week “in hopes of being ready” for the postseason, according to Charania. While it’s a positive development that the MRI was clean, Charania’s wording suggests it’s no lock that Middleton will be healthy when the playoffs start on April 15.
Lakers guard Dennis Schröder was ruled out of Friday’s matchup with Phoenix due to “extreme neck soreness” that stemmed from “general wear and tear,” head coach Darvin Ham told reporters, including Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). The team had previously listed Schröder as questionable due to neck spasms.
Suns center Bismack Biyombo was in a lot of pain and needed assistance to leave the court after taking knee-to-knee contact in Friday’s matchup with the Lakers. He was later ruled out for the remainder of the contest with a right knee injury, as Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports relays (All Twitter links).