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The Sixers‘ standoff with James Harden is the latest challenge for president of basketball operations Daryl Morey as he faces a career-defining season, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Former head coach Doc Rivers took most of the heat for the team’s second-round exit in last season’s playoffs, but the blame for another disappointing finish will fall on Morey, Pompey adds. He made a coaching change this summer, bringing in Nick Nurse, who’s more aligned with Morey’s approach to the game. However, the roster remained largely the same, and the Sixers appeared to lose ground in the Eastern Conference arms race as the Bucks traded for Damian Lillard while the Celtics added Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
“I do believe what Milwaukee and Boston have done is very good,” Morey said, “but this is why we play the games. We’ve got the MVP of the league (Joel Embiid). We have an up-and-coming, star-level player in (Tyrese) Maxey. We’ve got great, great winning-type players on this roster.”
The Sixers’ fortunes will depend heavily on how Morey resolves the situation with Harden, who has been demanding a trade ever since he picked up his $35.6MM option in late June. Harden has indicated that he plans to make things uncomfortable in Philadelphia until he gets his way, and he has already publicly called Morey a liar and stated that he’ll never play for him again. Morey has mostly remained silent about their broken relationship.
“This year, regardless of what happens with James, we’re going to be a very (bleeping) good team,” Morey told Pompey. “If James is here, we’re going to be even better. If James isn’t here or we trade him for something, we’re going to be very good.”
There’s more from Philadelphia:
- Harden is still away from the team and there’s no clarity on whether he will be available for Thursday’s season opener, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
- Embiid believes Maxey is ready to take over the playmaking duties if Harden doesn’t show up, per Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “If he wants to lead the league in assists, he can, but that was great to see,” Embiid said after Maxey handed out 12 assists in Friday’s preseason finale. “I just wanted to get everybody going and just work on our two-man game, the timing of everything. I thought we did a pretty fine job. … The ball wasn’t sticking. It was just moving.”
- Nurse may be the right coach to turn Tobias Harris into a star, just as he did with Pascal Siakam in Toronto, Pompey suggests in a separate story. Nurse wants Harris to have a larger role in the offense, and Harris is enjoying the changes that he’s brought. “Every day we’re in the lab, working on different looks, different reads, different options,” Harris said. “And I think this is probably the most excited I’ve been throughout my whole career of a team and a great situation. Every day that we come on that court, I’m generally being pushed and coached and excited for the opportunity.”
11:37am: The Pistons have confirmed Umude’s two-way contract (Twitter link).
7:58am: The Pistons will convert Stanley Umude‘s Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way deal, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 24-year-old shooting guard signed with Detroit last fall after going undrafted out of Arkansas. He spent most of the season with the team’s G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise, but made a brief appearance in one NBA game after signing a 10-day contract in February. He also played for the Pistons in this year’s Summer League.
Umude earned the two-way slot with a strong preseason, averaging 9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in four games while shooting 45.5% from the field and 43.8% from three-point range.
Detroit now has all its two-way spots filled, with Jared Rhoden and Malcolm Cazalon holding the others. With 14 players on standard contracts, the team has one opening on its 15-man roster.
11:24am: Nesmith’s extension is official, the Pacers announced in a press release.
9:33am: The Pacers have agreed to a three-year, $33MM extension with Aaron Nesmith, agent Mike Lindeman tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The 24-year-old forward thrived in his first season with Indiana, moving into the starting lineup and averaging 10.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 73 games. Today’s extension shows that management considers him part of the team’s young core as it tries to become a playoff contender.
The Pacers acquired Nesmith from Boston last summer as part of the Malcolm Brogdon deal. The Celtics selected him with the 14th pick in the 2020 draft, but he wasn’t able to earn a regular rotation role in his two years with the team.
Nesmith will earn $5,634,257 in the final year of his rookie contract before the extension kicks in next season. Once the deal is finalized, he will be under contract through 2026/27.
Today is the final day for members of the 2020 draft class to sign rookie scale extensions. The deadline is set at 5:00 pm Central time, and you can track them all here.
Nesmith is the 10th player to agree to a rookie scale extension so far this year, as our extension tracker shows.
11:16am: The signing is official, the Wizards announced (via Twitter).
8:32am: Free agent center John Butler will join the Wizards on a two-way contract, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The 20-year-old was waived by the Trail Blazers on Friday. He spent last season with Portland on a two-way deal and appeared in 19 games, averaging 2.4 points and 0.9 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per night.
Butler signed a two-way contract with the Pelicans last October after going undrafted out of Florida State. He was waived after a week and was picked up by the Blazers a few days later.
Washington now has all its two-way slots filled, with the others belonging to Eugene Omoruyi and Jared Butler. The Wizards still have 17 players with guaranteed contracts and will have to make two cuts by 4:00 pm CT today.
Harry Giles was overcome with emotion when he learned that his battle to make an NBA roster was successful, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The 25-year forward has undergone multiple knee surgeries since high school and hasn’t played in the league for two years.
Fighting back from a torn ACL that sidelined him for all of last season, Giles auditioned for several teams this summer before landing an Exhibit 9 contract with the Nets. That earned him an invitation to training camp and the chance to earn a roster spot, and he wasn’t sure that he did until after Brooklyn’s final preseason game. He was in the middle of a workout when general manager Sean Marks broke the news, and Giles had to fight back tears so he could finish.
“Oh, man, it was crazy, bro. I called my mom when I got to the room. I wanted to cry when I first found out, but I was around so many people and I was still lifting,” Giles said. “So I was trying to focus on my lift. I was sweating out hard and I was trying to get through the day. I was still kind of hyped about myself. So once I got to the room, I just laid on the bed and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’
“My mom was like ‘Has it hit you yet?’ I’m like, ‘Nah, it still ain’t hit me. It still hasn’t hit me. I still feel like I’m in camp trying to make the team. That’s a good thing: keep me in that mindset. But I’m happy to be here and this is amazing.”
There’s more from Brooklyn:
- First-round pick Dariq Whitehead, who is recovering from offseason foot surgery, has started playing two-on-two against teammates and assistant coaches, Lewis adds in the same story. “It’s reads, so you’re having him react in a setting that is not controlled,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “You just keep going those uncontrollable settings for him to get him back to five-on-five.”
- Vaughn is installing more plays to create open shots for Mikal Bridges, Lewis adds in a separate story for the Post. Bridges shot just 36.6% during the preseason while mainly being used in isolation sets. Vaughn said isolation made sense when the team had Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but he plans to take a different approach to maximize the skills of Bridges and Cameron Johnson. “We don’t want to put Mikal in pick-and-roll every single time just to grow that part of his game because I’ll always do what’s best for the group,” Vaughn explained. “Now we can grow his game by having sets that put him in position where he’s playing pick-and-roll. … So it’s going to really dictate who’s on the floor of how we grow our guys and challenge them. Grab hold to what we can do and do that well.”
- In a recent appearance on the “2nd Wind” podcast, Johnson talked about having more freedom to create in the Nets’ offense than he did during his time with Phoenix (hat tip to USA Today).
We’re one day away from the start of the NBA’s 2023/24 regular season, making Monday the last day of the 2023 offseason. Today serves as the deadline for a number of contract- and roster-related decisions around the league. Here are the most important ones:
Rookie Scale Extensions
A total of 27 players entered the offseason eligible for rookie scale extensions.
Eight of those players – LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Desmond Bane, Devin Vassell, Isaiah Stewart, Zeke Nnaji, and Payton Pritchard – have already signed new deals, and a ninth (Deni Avdija) has agreed to an extension that will be officially completed today.
That leaves the following 18 players eligible to sign rookie scale extensions on Monday:
- Precious Achiuwa (Raptors)
- Cole Anthony (Magic)
- Saddiq Bey (Hawks)
- Malachi Flynn (Raptors)
- Josh Green (Mavericks)
- Killian Hayes (Pistons)
- Kira Lewis (Pelicans)
- Tyrese Maxey (Sixers)
- Jaden McDaniels (Timberwolves)
- Aaron Nesmith (Pacers)
- Chuma Okeke (Magic)
- Onyeka Okongwu (Hawks)
- Isaac Okoro (Cavaliers)
- Aleksej Pokusevski (Thunder)
- Immanuel Quickley (Knicks)
- Obi Toppin (Pacers)
- Patrick Williams (Bulls)
- James Wiseman (Pistons)
The majority of these guys won’t sign new deals until the 2024 offseason, when they’re eligible for restricted free agency. But it would be a surprise if at least a couple more players from this list don’t finalize rookie scale extensions today.
Bey, Green, McDaniels, Okongwu, and Quickley are some of the best candidates. Maxey would be in that group too, but it sounds like the Sixers will wait until 2024 to lock him up in order to maximize their cap flexibility next offseason.
The deadline for rookie scale extensions is at 5:00 pm Central time.
Certain Veteran Contract Extensions
A veteran player who signed his current contract at least two years ago (or three years ago if it was a five-year deal) is eligible to sign an extension. That means many veterans around the NBA are eligible to sign contract extensions today, but that number will significantly drop as of tomorrow.
Once the regular season begins, only veterans in the final year of their contracts can sign extensions — a player who has multiple years remaining is no longer extension-eligible until the following offseason.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Veteran Contract Extension]
Let’s use the Nets as an example. Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Royce O’Neale are all eligible for extensions right now, but Dinwiddie and O’Neale are on expiring deals while Simmons is not. That means Dinwiddie and O’Neale will be able to sign extensions anytime between now and June 30, 2024, but Simmons’ eligibility window will close after Monday and won’t reopen until next July.
An extension-eligible veteran who has a player option for 2024/25 could still sign a new deal later in the ’23/24 league year, but he’d have to eliminate that option to do so. Picking up the option would make him ineligible to complete an extension between Tuesday and the start of the ’24/25 league year, since it would turn his contract into a multiyear deal, not an expiring one.
With the help of information from Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link), here are the 21 players who have a Monday deadline to sign a veteran extension if they want to lock in a new deal before next July:
- Bam Adebayo (Heat)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)- Davis Bertans (Thunder)
- Malcolm Brogdon (Trail Blazers)
- Clint Capela (Hawks)
- Alex Caruso (Bulls)
- De’Aaron Fox (Kings)
- Rudy Gobert (Timberwolves)
- Devonte’ Graham (Spurs)
- Tim Hardaway Jr. (Mavericks)
- Brandon Ingram (Pelicans)
- Jonathan Isaac (Magic)
- Terance Mann (Clippers)
- Lauri Markkanen (Jazz)
- T.J. McConnell (Pacers)
- Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)
- Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
- Chris Paul (Warriors)
- Ben Simmons (Nets)
- Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
- Derrick White (Celtics)
A few of these players won’t sign extensions this year because they would qualify for more years and more money if they wait until next offseason.
That group includes Adebayo, Fox, Ingram, and Murray, who each could qualify for a super-max extension with an All-NBA berth (or MVP or Defensive Player of the Year award) in 2023/24. It also includes Tatum, who has already met the performance criteria for a 2024 super-max deal, as well as Antetokounmpo and Mitchell.
The deadline for veteran extensions for players on non-expiring contracts is at 10:59 pm CT tonight.
Regular Season Rosters
Most teams around the NBA finalized their roster cuts on Saturday for financial reasons, as we explained over the weekend. However, today is the official deadline to reduce offseason rosters to the regular season limit of 15 players on standard contracts (plus three on two-way contracts).
While it’s certainly possible there will be some additional roster shuffling today as teams tweak their back-end roster spots or fill two-way openings, only five teams – the Rockets, Sixers, Suns, Spurs, and Wizards – absolutely have to make moves, as we detailed on Sunday.
The Suns are expected to waive Keon Johnson to set their regular season roster, while the Spurs seem likely to convert Charles Bediako‘s Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way deal. Philadelphia has 16 players on standard contracts and will need to make just one cut, while multiple moves will be required for Houston and Washington, who still have 17 players on their standard rosters.
These roster moves are due by 4:00 pm CT.
The final day of the offseason is also the last day for teams to convert Exhibit 10 contracts into two-way deals. Daishen Nix, Justin Minaya, Javonte Smart, Cole Swider, Dexter Dennis, Greg Brown, Marques Bolden, Charlie Brown, Jacob Toppin, and Trevelin Queen were all converted in recent days.
It appears that there are just three remaining candidates to have their Exhibit 10 deals converted to two-ways: Stanley Umude (Pistons), Jeenathan Williams (Rockets), and Bediako (Spurs).
Detroit still has an open spot on its 15-man roster, so the club also has the option of leaving Umude in that spot, converting his Exhibit 10 deal to a minimum-salary standard contract rather than a two-way. As for the Rockets, all three of their two-way slots are full, so they’d have to waive either Trevor Hudgins, Darius Days, or Jermaine Samuels to convert Williams.
Finally, Monday is the last day for a free agent to be signed-and-traded. But there’s zero indication that any sign-and-trades are in the works.
10:35pm: The Spurs have confirmed the extension through a press statement.
12:09pm: The Spurs and big man Zach Collins have agreed to a two-year contract extension that will be worth $35MM, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The deal is fully guaranteed, with no second-year player or team option, tweets Kelly Iko of The Athletic.
Collins, who will turn 26 next month, is coming off his healthiest season in four years. Appearing in 63 games (26 starts) for San Antonio in 2022/23, he averaged 11.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 22.9 minutes per game, posting a solid shooting line of .518/.374/.761.
The 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Collins flashed some promise early in his career in Portland, but saw his career derailed by ankle injuries, which limited him to 11 games in 2019/20 and sidelined him for the entire ’20/21 season.
When Collins signed with the Spurs as a free agent in 2021, he received a three-year, $22MM contract, but it was only fully guaranteed for one full season, with a partial guarantee in year two and a non-guaranteed third year. The former Gonzaga standout only played in 28 games in his first season in San Antonio, but ’22/23 was the best season of his career, putting him in position to become part of the team’s future beyond his current contract.
Collins projects to be part of the Spurs’ starting lineup alongside Victor Wembanyama this fall, as the club looks to reduce the wear and tear on its prized rookie by having him play at power forward instead of center.
As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype observes (via Twitter), San Antonio initially projected to have upwards of $60MM in cap room in the summer of 2024, but have now dedicated more than half that space to new contracts for Collins and Devin Vassell, who signed a five-year, $135MM rookie scale extension earlier this month.
The exact terms of Collins’ extension aren’t yet known, but it sounds like the Spurs will give him the maximum possible veteran extension for a player earning less than the NBA’s estimated average salary ($11,958,000). The veteran center is eligible to receive a starting salary worth 40% of that figure in his new deal, with an 8% raise in year two — those terms would put him in line to earn approximately $34.82MM on the extension after making $7.7MM in 2023/24.
Collins’ extension will make him ineligible to be traded for six months, Gozlan notes, so the Spurs won’t be able to move him until the 2024 offseason.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks suggested on the latest episode of The Lowe Post podcast that a deal for Collins could be imminent. Lowe advised keeping an eye on the Spurs center as a potential veteran extension candidate, and Marks responded by saying he had heard that rumor “multiple times.”
Bucks forward Khris Middleton, who recently signed a lucrative new three-year contract to remain in Milwaukee, suited up for his lone game of the preseason against the Grizzlies on Friday. Eric Nehm of The Athletic takes a look at the three-time All-Star’s performance.
The 6’7″ vet played scored five points on 2-of-6 shooting across 12 minutes of play, though he did dish out five dimes.
“Felt like I was myself out there,” Middleton said. “Now I just gotta get used to different spots on the floor, the rhythm of the offense (and) the defensive side, too, moving my feet a little bit better. All in all, I thought it was a great night.”
There’s more out of Milwaukee:
- New Bucks reserve point guard Cameron Payne exited Milwaukee’s preseason finale with a right thigh contusion, the club’s PR team has announced (Twitter link). Payne’s status for the team’s regular season opener is unclear.
- Second-year Bucks forward MarJon Beauchamp is getting a rave review from one very important voice, writes Lori Nickel of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Two-time MVP power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo believes that the Yakima Valley College alum flashed plenty of two-way potential with the team. “Giannis just told me, you have to have that aggressive mentality every time,” Beauchamp said. “Especially on a good team like this … my confidence, it’s up and down. But I heard from the big dog now. I got to stay aggressive. I got to keep working.”
- Former assistant coach Terry Stotts abruptly departed the Bucks bench just days ahead of the club’s season opener. Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com writes that Stotts, who served as the head coach for the Trail Blazers from 2012-21, was expected to be a major contributor to Milwaukee under first-time head coach Adrian Griffin. “It’s not like Boston dropping [Ime] Udoka last year and putting in [Joe] Mazzulla, but Stotts was supposed to have a big role with [the Bucks’] offense,” a source told Bulpett. “It seemed like he was having trouble adjusting to being an assistant again. He was out for two years, he doesn’t need the money. … Maybe it was just a thing where he just wasn’t feeling it.”
7:58pm: The Raptors officially signed and waived Moore, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
11:17am: Omari Moore will be signed and waived by the Raptors as the last Exhibit 10 player for their G League affiliate, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca.
Because the move will occur today rather than Saturday, Moore will receive one day of salary while being on waivers for the first day of the regular season, Murphy adds. That will push the team about $12K closer to the luxury tax, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 23-year-old shooting guard was waived by Milwaukee on Wednesday. He signed a two-way contract with the Bucks in July after going undrafted out of San Jose State.
The Exhibit 10 contract gives Moore an opportunity to earn a bonus worth up to $75K if he spends at least 60 days with Raptors 905.