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Western Notes: Conley, Wolves, Mavs, Suns, Billups, Warriors

May 22nd, 2024 at 11:21am CST by Luke Adams

The calf/Achilles issue that sidelined Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley for Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals hasn’t gone away — he’s listed as questionable for Game 1 of the Western finals. Conley will play on Wednesday, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link), but the team will keep a close eye on that injury going forward.

“It honestly depends on if you can get through the game without having any small setback,” Conley said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “You have some movements that really kind of jar it or cause the pain to go up really quickly and kind of stays there for a little while. Some games I get through the whole game and you don’t have any setback and so you just kind of keep building upward and forward. So I’m just trying to stack as many of those days together as I can.”

Keeping Conley healthy will be crucial for the Wolves as they look to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. In the series vs. Denver, the team had a +13.6 net rating in the 196 minutes he played, compared to a -6.7 mark in the 140 minutes he wasn’t on the floor.

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

The early returns on their blockbuster trades for Rudy Gobert and Kyrie Irving weren’t great, but the Timberwolves and Mavericks saved those deals and raised their respective ceilings by returning to the trade market, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. Hollinger points to Minnesota’s deal for Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dallas’ acquisitions of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford as follow-up moves that made those original trades look better and helped propel the two teams to the Western Conference finals.
When the Suns were preparing to fire Frank Vogel earlier this month, some of their players – including Kevin Durant – lobbied team owner Mat Ishbia to hire Chauncey Billups away from the Trail Blazers, sources tell Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report (subscription required). There’s no indication that Portland would have let Billups get away, despite his uncertain long-term future with the franchise. In any case, the Suns’ decision-makers had already “zeroed in” on Mike Budenholzer by the time they let go of Vogel, Highkin says.
Tim Kawakami of The Athletic evaluates the plausibility of several possible trade targets who might be on the Warriors‘ offseason wish list, ranging from the extreme long shots (like Paul George and Lauri Markkanen) to the more plausible (including perhaps Jarrett Allen and Brandon Ingram).

Latest On NBA’s Media Rights Negotiations

May 22nd, 2024 at 10:16am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA is expected to formalize written contracts this week with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBC, and Amazon for their media rights, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, who provides the following tentative details on the three deals:

ESPN/ABC (“A” package): $2.8 billion per year; likely to include NBA Finals, one conference final, weekly prime-time games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.
NBC (“B” package): $2.6 billion per year; likely to include “Basketball Night in America” on Sundays, two prime-time windows per week, conference semifinals, and one conference final.
Amazon (“C” package): $1.8-2 billion per year; likely to include the in-season tournament, the play-in tournament, first-round playoff games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.

The parties are in the process of tweaking their agreements, says Friend, explaining that once the terms are finalized, the networks will take them to their respective boards to have the bids ratified. At that point, the NBA is expected to circle back to longtime television partner Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports) to see if WBD wants to exercise its matching rights on NBC’s offer.

According to Friend, the expectation is that the NBA will argue that TNT doesn’t have the right to simply match NBC’s bid from a dollar-for-dollar perspective, since TNT lacks the over-the-air broadcast infrastructure that NBC can offer. Previous reporting stated that the league would want at least $300MM more from Warner Bros. Discovery for the same package of games that NBC is bidding on.

As Friend details, if Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t want to lose the NBA and isn’t willing to pay that added cost for the “B” package, the company could take the NBA to court and contest the league’s definition of what constitutes a matching offer. Sources tell the Sports Business Journal that the NBA is preparing its lawyers for a potential inquisition or lawsuit.

Disney was more proactive than WBD during the exclusive negotiating window that ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports were afforded earlier this year, per Friend, increasing its offer to $2.8 billion per year after paying $1.4 billion in its last deal with the NBA.

WBD, meanwhile, believed it would only have to bump its offer from $1.2 billion in the previous media deal to about $1.8-2.1 billion this time around, according to Friend, who says that’s a key reason why the NBA took that package of games to the open marketplace and found a more appealing offer from NBC.

The league’s current media rights deal will expire after the 2024/25 season, with the new agreement taking effect in ’25/26.

Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, Bojan Bogdanovic Undergo Surgery

May 22nd, 2024 at 8:28am CST by Luke Adams

All-Star guard Jalen Brunson has undergone surgery on his broken left hand and veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovic has undergone surgery to address a left wrist injury, the Knicks announced today (Twitter links). According to the team, both players will be reevaluated in approximately six-to-eight weeks.

Brunson suffered his hand injury during the final game of the Knicks’ postseason run in New York on Sunday. He was forced out of the Game 7 loss to Indiana early as a result of the fracture. While today’s announcement doesn’t provide any specifics on Brunson’s recovery timeline beyond the six-to-eight-week reevaluation, he’ll presumably be good to go for training camp in the fall.

The star guard had his best season as a pro in 2023/24, averaging a career-high 28.7 points and 6.7 assists per game on .479/.401/.847 shooting in 77 starts (35.4 MPG). He finished fifth in MVP voting and will be extension-eligible this offseason. According to Steve Popper of Newsday, “all indications” are that Brunson will be open to signing a new four-year, $156MM deal with the Knicks this summer rather than putting it off in the hopes of maximizing his earnings.

As for Bogdanovic, this is the second time he has gone under the knife since his season ended on April 28. The Knicks confirmed on April 30 that the 35-year-old was undergoing surgery on his injured left foot, announcing at that time that he’d be reevaluated in three months. That suggests the recovery timeline for his foot will extend beyond the one for his wrist procedure.

After averaging 20.2 points per game on .468/.415/.779 shooting in 28 appearances for the Pistons earlier in the season, Bogdanovic saw his production drop off as a Knick. He averaged just 10.4 PPG with a .430/.370/.800 shooting line in 29 games for New York and didn’t make a significant impact in the playoffs, making 7-of-24 shots (29.2%) in a limited role during the first four games of the team’s first-round series vs. Philadelphia.

Bogdanovic is under contract for one more season, but his $19MM salary for 2024/25 is only partially guaranteed for $2MM, so the Knicks will have a decision to make on him by June 28. His salary would become fully guaranteed if he remains under contract beyond that date.

Atlantic Notes: Holiday, Porzingis, Raptors, Sixers

May 22nd, 2024 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics eked out a 133-128 overtime thriller in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals vs. Indiana on Tuesday. Jayson Tatum led the team in scoring with 36 points and Jaylen Brown hit the biggest shot of the night, a three-pointer with five seconds left in regulation to tie the game. However, it was Jrue Holiday who earned the loudest praise from both locker rooms late on Tuesday night.

Holiday, who was named to the All-Defensive Second Team earlier in the day, filled the box score with 28 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, and three steals in a team-high 48 minutes while serving as the primary defender against Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton had 25 points and 10 assists in the game, but he did his damage against other Celtics players — he was 0-for-3 with zero points, three assists, and two turnovers when Holiday was guarding him, per NBA.com.

“He’s the best defender in the NBA,” Haliburton said of Holiday (Twitter video link). “He has been for a long time.”

“Jrue was fantastic,” Brown said, per Brian Robb of MassLive.com. “Jrue was exceptional. Shout out to Jrue. Jrue came out and balled, man. He’s the reason why we won his game. I think he just was poised, he took advantage of his matchups. He just was so, so elite in that. It’s a lot. And he’s guarding Haliburton, picking him up, chasing him around. That was special from Jrue Holiday.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

There’s “growing optimism” that Kristaps Porzingis could return to action for the Celtics as soon as Game 4 on Monday, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. According to Wojnarowski, Boston wants to take a cautious approach with Porzingis, who has been out since April 30 due to a right calf strain, but he has been ramping up his basketball activities as of late. If the C’s keep winning, it could buy Porzingis some more recovery time, since there would be no urgency to bring him back on Monday if the club had a 3-0 series lead.
Outlining what the Raptors‘ offseason might look like, Eric Koreen of The Athletic suggests that extending Scottie Barnes, re-signing Immanuel Quickley, and adding backcourt depth are the most important items on the team’s to-do list. Koreen identifies Bobi Klintman and Ryan Dunn as possible targets with the No. 19 and No. 31 picks in the draft and points to Monte Morris as a veteran point guard who might make sense in free agency.
Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer poses 10 general NBA offseason questions that will help shape the Sixers‘ offseason, including whether Paul George will sign an extension with the Clippers and whether the Heat would consider trading Jimmy Butler.

And-Ones: Ball Lawsuit, McCollum, Australia’s Olympic Team

May 21st, 2024 at 10:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

LaMelo Ball and the Hornets are being sued by a North Carolina woman who claims Ball allegedly struck her son with his vehicle during an attempt to obtain Ball’s autograph, according to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday. The alleged incident occurred in October 2023, when the Hornets hosted a fan event at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

A number of fans, including the woman’s 11-year-old son, approached Ball’s vehicle at a traffic light. According to the lawsuit, when the light turned green, Ball drove “in a grossly negligent and reckless manner in that he accelerated his vehicle forward suddenly and without warning and struck” her son, “severely injuring him.” She claimed that Ball then left the scene.

The youngster suffered foot and back injuries due to the incident, according to the lawsuit.

We have more from around the basketball world:

The Pelicans’ CJ McCollum was chosen for the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award by the Pro Basketball Writers’ Association (Twitter link). The honor is presented annually by the PBWA to a player, coach or athletic trainer who shows outstanding service and dedication to the community. McCollum was honored for his extensive community work in and around New Orleans, with a focus on education, social-justice reform and efforts to provide equitable resources and opportunities for youth.
The Australian National Team recently announced a 17-man roster that will take part in the official training camp in late June, before two games against China in Melbourne on July 2 and 4. The roster will then be pared to 12 players for the Paris Olympics. ESPN’s Olgun Uluc breaks down the roster player by player to determine who will make the cut. Josh Giddey, Jock Landale, Josh Green and Dante Exum are among the NBA players Uluc considers locks to make the squad.
Kendrick Nunn is thriving overseas but he has not ruled out an NBA return. Get the details here.

Thunder Notes: New Arena, Wiggins, Biggest Need

May 21st, 2024 at 10:09pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Thunder took a major step toward the construction of a new arena. The Oklahoma City city council approved a development agreement with team ownership for a new downtown arena on Tuesday, Jessie Christoper Smith of The Oklahoman reports.

Oklahoma City voters previously overwhelmingly approved a 72-month, one-cent sales tax to fund construction of a new arena at a $900MM minimum cost.

Per the new agreement, the city would first invest $78MM originally meant to be spent on improving the current Paycom Center. Then, the city would spend $50MM contributed by the Thunder ownership, before using a minimum of $772MM via the sales tax.

The city will work with the team on an earlier target schedule, outlining a possible completion of the arena as early as June 2028. City officials often have said they hope to complete the arena ahead of the 2029/2030 season. Thunder ownership can terminate the agreement if the city does not meet the 2030 deadline.

We have more on the Thunder:

They have an interesting decision to make involving Aaron Wiggins, who has become a valuable rotation piece. They hold a $1.99MM option on his contract for next season but they could choose to decline Wiggins’ team option in order to make him a restricted free agent. Then, they could sign him to a long-term pact, Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated notes, similar to the way they locked up Luguentz Dort.
With some key players still on rookie contracts, the Thunder have the opportunity to use their assets and find one more impact player, John Hollinger of The Athletic opines. The postseason showed that their most glaring is a secondary play-maker with size, though identifying and acquiring the right player to fill that void will be difficult.
In case you missed it, Gordon Hayward was unhappy over his lack of playing time in the postseason.

Pacific Notes: Lue, Little, Roddy, Suns’ Front Office, Kings

May 21st, 2024 at 8:20pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Tyronn Lue has a year left on his contract and the Clippers reportedly want to extend him, but The Athletic’s Shams Charania said on the Up & Adams show (video link) that the parties are not close to any agreement.

“To my knowledge there hasn’t been any progress in those conversations,” Charania stated. Lue stated shortly after the Clippers were eliminated from postseason contention that he’s eager to sign an extension.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

The Suns are hamstrung by reaching the second luxury tax apron, which severely limits what they can do in terms of personnel moves. Gerard Bourguet of PHNX Sports explores potential trades involving Nassir Little or David Roddy, noting that Little’s $6.75MM could force the Suns to explore three-team deals if they try to deal him to another team above one of the tax aprons. That’s because apron teams can’t take back more salary than they’re sending out. Roddy’s modest $2.8MM contract includes a team option but they might have to add a draft pick to trade him.
The Suns are making some changes to their front office. Assistant general managers Morgan Cato and Trevor Bukstein have not been retained, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.
The Kings have the No. 13 pick but that didn’t deter them from interviewing some of the top prospects at the recent draft combine, according to Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. The list of players who met with Kings representatives included Alexandre Sarr, Donovan Clingan, Dalton Knecht, Ja’Kobe Walter, Cody Williams and Sacramento native Jared McCain. Sarr is the considered the favorite to be chosen No. 1 overall, while many draft experts have Clingan in their top three.

Northwest Notes: Porter Jr., Nuggets, McDaniels, Reid, Ownership Dispute

May 21st, 2024 at 7:21pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Michael Porter Jr. pins the blame on himself for the Nuggets‘ second-round loss to Minnesota, according to Bennett Durando of the Denver Post. Porter struggled to make offensive contributions, averaging 10.7 points per game on 37.1% shooting from the field. He scored just 25 points in the last four games of the Western Conference semifinals.

“This was a terrible series,” Porter said. “I felt like I might’ve had one or two good games out of the seven we played. Part of it was the way they were guarding. Part of it was (that) my shot wasn’t falling. It’s just tough because I know if I would have played up to par with how I normally play, we would have won this series. And there’s a lot of things that could have been different as a team, but I know if I had played my part, we would have won the series. And I’ve gotta live with that.”

We have more from the Northwest Division:

A lack of quality depth led to the Nuggets’ demise, in the estimation of Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. He notes that only rookies and journeyman veterans were added last offseason to fortify the bench, which took huge hits with the loss of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green. Salary cap issues were a primary reasons for the approach but O’Connor notes that only one bench player logged more than 10 minutes in Game 7, while five players under the age of 25 never shed their warmups.
Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid missed last year’s playoffs due to injury but they played massive roles in the Timberwolves’ ascension to the Western Conference Finals, Chris Hine of The Star Tribune notes. McDaniels scored 44 points in the last two games of the second-round series, while Reid — the league’s Sixth Man of the Year — scored eight of his 11 points in Game 7 during the fourth quarter and blocked two Nikola Jokic shot attempts.
Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore made an interesting proposal to Glen Taylor in the ownership dispute engulfing the Timberwolves franchise. The duo proposed last month that the loser of their battle over ownership of the franchise should cover the legal costs of the winner, Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico reports. However, Taylor’s legal team has chosen to continue with the binding arbitration, as laid out in the purchase agreement, where parties are responsible for their own fees. That process is slated to happen in the coming months, Novy-Williams adds.

Morant Showing Good Progress From Shoulder Surgery

May 21st, 2024 at 5:49pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ja Morant appears to be ahead of schedule in his recovery from shoulder surgery, Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

According to Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, Morant and several other players who suffered significant injuries are making good progress. Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., Ziaire Williams, Vince Williams and Marcus Smart were among the other Grizzlies players who missed chunks of time due to injury this season.

“Everything is going well,” Jenkins said on Tuesday. “Ja is the only one when June rolls around, he’s going to be pretty close to full go on the court. Everything that everyone was dealing with towards the end of the season is in a good place right now.”

Morant’s season was essentially a washout. He missed the first 25 games of the season due to an NBA suspension, then averaged 25.1 points, 8.1 assists and 5.6 rebounds in nine games after the suspension, including a game-winning shot against New Orleans on Dec. 19 in his return to action.

Morant was then diagnosed with a labral tear in his right shoulder after a training session. At the time of his January surgery, the recovery process was outlined as a six-month process.

Grizzlies head of basketball operations Zach Kleiman said in April that there wasn’t a timeline on Morant’s full availability, but that he was “expected to be fully cleared for basketball activities maybe halfway through the offseason.”

Morant will be entering the second year of his five-year, max contract.

Draft Notes: Clingan, Risers, Buzelis, Withdrawals

May 21st, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The “buzz and excitement” surrounding former UConn center Donovan Clingan seems to be growing, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report writes in a post-combine update of his 2024 mock draft. Wasserman had Clingan coming off the board at No. 7 overall in a mock earlier this month, but has bumped the big man up to No. 3 this week after he made a strong impression on NBA evaluators in Chicago.

Zaccharie Risacher (No. 2 to No. 1), Dalton Knecht (No. 10 to No. 7), Tidjane Salaun (No. 21 to No. 12), and Devin Carter (No. 18 to No. 13) are among the other notable lottery risers in Wasserman’s latest mock draft, while Matas Buzelis slipped from No. 5 to No. 11. Opinions are mixed on the G League Ignite forward, according to Wasserman, who says workouts with teams will be “extra important” for Buzelis.

Here are a few more draft updates:

Guard Xavier DuSell, who declared for the draft following his senior year at Fresno State, has decided to remove his name from the 2024 poll and take advantage of his extra year of eligibility, tweets Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. DuSell will be transferring to Nevada for his super-senior season.
Following a strong freshman season at Georgia Tech (12.4 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 1.1 BPG), forward Baye Ndongo will withdraw from the draft and return to the Yellow Jackets, per Rothstein (Twitter link).
Jacksonville guard Robert McCray will head back to school for his junior season rather than keeping his name in the draft, tweets Rothstein. McCoy had a breakout season in 2023/24, averaging 18.4 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 2.9 APG.
Guard Keyshawn Hall is pulling out of the draft and will transfer to his third college in three years, according to Rothstein (Twitter link). After playing at UNLV as a freshman and George Mason as a sophomore, Hall will head to UCF for his junior season in 2024/25.
VCU sophomore forward Toibu Lawal has officially withdrawn from the draft and will transfer to Virginia Tech for his junior year, tweets Rothstein.
As a reminder, the deadline for college early entrants to exit the draft pool and retain their NCAA eligibility is next Wednesday, May 29.