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And-Ones: Maluach, 2024 Draft, Abu Dhabi, 40K-Point Club

March 6th, 2024 at 3:57pm CST by Luke Adams

Khaman Maluach, the top big man in the 2024 recruiting class, has committed to Duke, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Maluach had been playing at the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal.

The 7’2″ center, who is projected by ESPN to be the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, will join projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg as part of a star-studded recruiting class for the Blue Devils. He chose Duke after also visiting Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA and receiving offers from the G League Ignite and Australia’s NBL Next Stars program, per Givony.

“Duke is home, that’s where I belong.” Maluach said. “This was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. I felt like I could succeed anywhere, but I was most comfortable going to Duke. All the schools that were recruiting me are big-time programs, but in terms of my development and the relationships I built with the coaches, they were the best.”

Maluach became the third-youngest player in World Cup history last summer when – at age 16 – he played for a South Sudan squad that qualified for the Olympics for the first time ever.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Insider link) have updated their rankings of 2024’s top draft prospects, while Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has published a new 2024 mock draft. ESPN’s top five now includes two Kentucky prospects – Rob Dillingham at No. 3 and Reed Sheppard at No. 5 – while French forward Zaccharie Risacher still holds the top spot. Another French prospect – Alexandre Sarr – is atop Wasserman’s mock draft, which features two G League Ignite prospects in the top five: Ron Holland at No. 4 and Matas Buzelis at No. 5.
The NBA formally announced on Wednesday that it will be headed back to Abu Dhabi in the fall of 2024, with the Celtics and Nuggets set to play a pair of preseason games on Friday, October 4 and Sunday, Oct. 6 in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city. It will be third consecutive year that the league has played exhibition games in Abu Dhabi.
Will any active NBA player join LeBron James in the 40,000-point club? Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press explores that question, suggesting that the only current players with career scoring averages higher than LeBron’s – Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, and Luka Doncic – are long shots, given the durability and longevity required.

Southwest Notes: Sengun, Zion, Mavs, Lawson, Grizzlies

March 6th, 2024 at 2:05pm CST by Luke Adams

He hasn’t gotten the same sort of press this season as Rookie of the Year candidates Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren, but going up against Wembanyama on Tuesday, Rockets big man Alperen Sengun provided a reminder that there’s another young center on the rise in the Western Conference.

As Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) details, Sengun didn’t just get the best of Wembanyama on Tuesday — he dominated him, pouring in a career-best 45 points to go along with 16 rebounds and five steals, both personal season highs. After the game, he admitted that he was motivated to go up against the Spurs‘ young star, who went scoreless in the second half and had just 10 points on the night.

“I didn’t play that good last game against him, I can say,” Sengun said. “And I didn’t see that much double-teams. They just leave me one-on-one with Wemby. I just did what I do.   When you score, and score and score at some point, you get some emotion. It was great for me. He is so tall, he’s really tall, but he’s not that strong, yet. So, I was going at his chest and put him under the rim.”

Sengun, who is still just 21 years old (and younger than Holmgren), has taken his game to new heights in his third NBA season, averaging 21.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 32.4 minutes per game across 60 starts. He’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2024 offseason.

Here’s more from around the Southwest:

Asked on Tuesday if he could see himself participating in the NBA’s annual slam dunk contest at some point, Pelicans star Zion Williamson didn’t rule out the possibility. “I gotta do my part and make the All-Star game,” Williamson said with a smile (Twitter video link via Pelicans Film Room). “If I’m in the All-Star game, I’ll do the dunk contest. But if I’m not, not doing it.”
On Tuesday, for a third straight time, Luka Doncic had a triple-double and scored 37+ points in a game the Mavericks lost. It’s a troubling trend for the Mavs, who are running out of time to prove they’re better than they’ve shown as of late, according to Tim Cato of The Athletic and Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Dallas has – by far – the NBA’s worst defensive rating since the All-Star break, and Doncic isn’t sure how to reverse that trend. “I don’t know, honestly,” he said. “We know we got to fix it.”
Mavericks wing A.J. Lawson had a hard time playing it cool when he found out he was being promoted to the team’s standard roster on a new four-year contract that will guarantee him $1MM for the rest of this season, writes Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. “I was trying to keep my emotions down at the gym. I didn’t want anybody to see me super-excited or tear up or anything,” Lawson said. “But I got to the crib and I just said ‘Thank God.’ And I screamed off my balcony. Probably the whole uptown area heard it. It was a great feeling and definitely something I’m going to remember the rest of my life.”
It has been over a year since the Grizzlies announced on the same day (March 4, 2023) that Brandon Clarke had suffered a torn Achilles and that Ja Morant would be away from the team after a video on social media showed him brandishing a firearm in a Colorado nightclub. As Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal writes, the impact of those events carried over to 2023/24 and were factors in derailing the team’s season before it really got going.

Timberwolves Sign T.J. Warren To 10-Day Contract

March 6th, 2024 at 1:05pm CST by Tristan Tucker

MARCH 6: Warren has officially signed his 10-day deal with the Timberwolves, according to a press release from the team. It will run through next Friday, March 15, covering Minnesota’s next four games.

MARCH 2: The Timberwolves are going to sign forward T.J. Warren to a 10-day contract, pending a physical exam early this week, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). Warren hasn’t played in a game this season but according to Charania, the Wolves have monitored him throughout the year.

Minnesota has been targeting wing depth, per The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski (Twitter link), which is why the team landed on Warren. Majority owner Glen Taylor told Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and Skor North (Twitter video link) earlier this week that a small forward was the Wolves’ greatest area of need.

Warren has averaged 14.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for his career while shooting 50.6% from the floor and 35.4% from beyond the arc. He had a strong start to his career after being drafted with the 14th overall pick in 2014, averaging 15.5 points per night in his first seven seasons.

The N.C. State alum was a major part of the Pacers’ 2019/20 playoff squad, averaging 19.8 PPG. That year featured a memorable stretch for Warren, who averaged 31.0 points and shot 52.4% from three in the 2020 NBA bubble, including a 53-point outing.

However, a foot injury limited Warren to just four games over the following two seasons, derailing his career. He signed with the Nets ahead of ’22/23 before being traded to Phoenix at the deadline. In 42 games between Brooklyn and Phoenix last season, Warren averaged 7.5 points.

Justin Jackson‘s 10-day deal expires tomorrow, so the Wolves are presumably replacing Jackson with Warren. Minnesota will still have an open standard roster spot once Jackson’s deal expires and Warren’s deal is finalized, though the team doesn’t have a ton of breathing room below the luxury tax line and may prefer to delay signing anyone to a rest-of-season contract.

NBA Teams That Still Have Open Roster Spots

March 6th, 2024 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

As we detailed on Tuesday, 17 players that had been on two-way contracts received promotions to standard deals between last month’s trade deadline and Monday’s two-way signing deadline.

However, even though those 17 players filled standard roster spots around the NBA and no team currently has an open two-way slot, there are still several openings on 15-man rosters across the league.

[RELATED: 2023/24 NBA Roster Counts]

Here’s a rundown of the teams that still have at least one standard roster spot available, along with some brief observations on how they might fill those openings:

Teams with two open roster spots

Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers

Teams are permitted to dip below 14 players on standard contracts for up to 14 days at a time. Currently, there are three teams taking advantage of that rule: the Timberwolves, Knicks, and Sixers.

There’s no real urgency for any of these clubs to sign a player in the short term — Philadelphia doesn’t have to re-add a 14th man until March 15, while New York’s and Minnesota’s deadlines are March 16 and 17, respectively.

Still, I’m not sure any of the three will wait that long to make a move. The Sixers and Knicks have a crowded injury list and could use some additional depth, while the Timberwolves have already reportedly reached an agreement on a 10-day deal with T.J. Warren — it just hasn’t been officially finalized yet.

[Note: Warren officially signed with the Wolves shortly after the publication of this story.]

Philadelphia could still use another frontcourt body with Joel Embiid on the shelf. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Taj Gibson eventually makes his way back to the Knicks, though he’s under contract with Detroit for the next 10 days. Marcus Morris was linked to Minnesota last month, though it remains unclear whether a union for the two sides remains in play.

Teams with one open roster spot

Boston Celtics
Detroit Pistons
- Note: The Pistons’ 14th man (Gibson) is on a 10-day contract.
Golden State Warriors
Phoenix Suns
Utah Jazz

There’s no timeline for any of these teams to fill their 15th open roster spot. I’d expect the Pistons and Jazz to be a little more proactive about making a move though, since they’re both well below the luxury tax line and could potentially benefit from taking a look at some young players on 10-day deals for developmental purposes down the stretch.

The Celtics, Warriors, and Suns are all well above the tax threshold and aren’t in desperate need for depth pieces at the moment, so they’ll probably be patient when it comes to adding a 15th man.

Neemias Queta (Celtics) and Saben Lee (Suns) are candidates to be promoted from two-way contracts near the end of the season. The Warriors already elevated their most obvious candidate for a promotion (Lester Quinones), so it’s unclear what they may have in mind for their final roster move. Given how deep they are, it’s unlikely anyone the Dubs add would play at all in the postseason.

Teams whose 15th man is on a 10-day contract

Cleveland Cavaliers
New Orleans Pelicans
Toronto Raptors
Washington Wizards

The Cavaliers will open up a roster spot on Thursday when Sharife Cooper‘s 10-day contract expires. The Wizards (R.J. Hampton) and Pelicans (Izaiah Brockington) will follow suit next Wednesday, with the Raptors (Jahmi’us Ramsey) opening up their 15th roster spot next Thursday.

Each of those four players would be eligible for a second 10-day deal with his respective team. However, all four clubs seem to be rotating players in and out of that slot, so it’s possible that the Cavs, Pelicans, Raptors, and Wizards all finish the season with a different 15th man.

Toronto and Washington won’t make the playoffs and will likely eventually settle on a prospect who can be signed to a team-friendly multiyear contract. The Cavs and Pelicans could ultimately go the same route, though they’ll want to fully scour the buyout market in case there’s a veteran who could help in the postseason.

Patty Mills Signs With Heat

March 6th, 2024 at 11:55am CST by Luke Adams

MARCH 6: The Heat have officially signed Mills and waived Smith, the team announced today in a press release.

MARCH 5: Free agent point guard Patty Mills plans to sign with the Heat, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). It will be a rest-of-season deal, adds Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link).

A 15-year NBA veteran, Mills was traded three times during the 2023 offseason, from the Nets to the Rockets to the Thunder to the Hawks. Atlanta envisioned him as a player who could provide reliable veteran depth behind Trae Young and Dejounte Murray in the backcourt, but Mills didn’t end up playing much for his new club, averaging 2.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per game across 19 appearances.

The Hawks opted to waive Mills last Thursday in order to open up a spot on the roster to promote two-way player Trent Forrest. The 35-year-old cleared waivers over the weekend and didn’t immediately catch on with a new team, but has reached an agreement a few days later with a veteran Heat club that appears playoff-bound.

Although Mills’ production has dropped off in the past couple years, his NBA résumé includes 95 postseason contests and a championship (in 2014 with San Antonio). He’s also not far removed from being a productive regular contributor — he averaged 11.4 PPG with a .400 3PT% across 81 games for the Nets in 2021/22.

Mills will join a Heat backcourt that has been impacted by injuries over the course of the season but features several intriguing options when everyone’s healthy, including Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, Josh Richardson, and Delon Wright. The move will provide some insurance in the event that Richardson’s absence due to a shoulder injury extends into the spring, tweets Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link), guard Dru Smith, who is out for the season due to a torn ACL, will be waived to make room on the 15-man roster for Mills.

Mills will earn $18,370 per day on his prorated minimum-salary deal with the Heat. His exact salary will depend on when he officially signs, but if the deal were to be finalized before the end of the day on Tuesday, he’d make $753,186 and Miami would take on a cap hit of $475,908.

Cavs Notes: Mitchell, Wade, Mobley, 15th Man

March 6th, 2024 at 11:30am CST by Luke Adams

When they announced on Monday that Donovan Mitchell had received a platelet-rich plasma injection to treat his left knee injury, the Cavaliers ruled him out for their next three games. However, there’s no guarantee that Mitchell will be ready to return following those three games, as head coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters on Tuesday before his team faced the Celtics.

“I expect him to be back before a month,” Bickerstaff said, per Tom Withers of The Associated Press. “I don’t like to overstep my bounds, but at the end of the three games, they’ll reevaluate and then we’ll make a decision from there. I’m hopeful and do not expect this to be a long break, but we will always do what’s best by our guys to make sure they’re healthy.”

The Cavaliers have referred to Mitchell’s injury as a bone bruise, but Bickerstaff suggested that it’s an issue that has developed over time and got to the point where it didn’t make sense for the star guard to play through it.

“It’s more of a wear and tear thing,” the Cavs’ coach said. “It was like a tendinitis-type thing that kind of just flared up. So it’s not something that just happened, but something that just built over time.

“… He couldn’t move going certain directions because of the pain and how it was limited. I’m not a doctor, but from everything that I’m hearing, the time, the rest and the process should get him back to full strength.”

As we noted on Monday, while Mitchell has put up All-NBA numbers in Cleveland this season, leading the team with 28.0 points and a career-best 6.2 assists per game, he’s in danger of falling short of the 65-game minimum required to qualify for end-of-season awards. After Friday, he’ll have missed 16 games this season — he can’t miss more than 17 if he hopes to be eligible for All-NBA consideration, but getting him healthy for a playoff run figures to be the priority.

Here’s more on the Cavs:

An unlikely hero led the Cavaliers past Boston in a stunning comeback win on Tuesday, as Withers writes in a separate Associated Press story. Forward Dean Wade, who has been coming off the bench since January 26 after starting earlier in the season, made five three-pointers and scored 20 points in the fourth quarter as Cleveland erased a 22-point deficit and pulled out a one-point upset victory. “The rim looked like a swimming pool,” Wade told reporters after the game.
The good vibes in the locker room after Tuesday’s win were diminished somewhat by the fact that Evan Mobley exited the game in the third quarter due to a left ankle sprain, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. According to Fedor, Mobley was seen leaving the arena on crutches and likely won’t be available on Wednesday vs. Atlanta. It’s unclear how much more time the big man might miss beyond that.
The Cavaliers will open up a roster spot after Wednesday’s contest when Sharife Cooper‘s 10-day contract expires. It’s unclear if the Cavs intend to sign Cooper to a second 10-day deal — he has yet to appear in an NBA game through his first nine days under contract. The club wouldn’t necessarily have to fill that open 15-man roster spot immediately.

Trae Young Discusses Trade Rumors, Future With Hawks

March 6th, 2024 at 10:05am CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report in the latest episode of her podcast (YouTube link), Hawks guard Trae Young said that he’s not bothered by the fact that his name has popped up in trade rumors in the weeks since last month’s deadline.

“Some of the best players ever have been traded,” Young said. “So who am I to be here mad or feeling unwanted or feeling a certain way?”

It’s worth noting that those recent rumors haven’t stemmed from sources within the Hawks, but from rival executives who came away from their pre-deadline conversations with Atlanta believing that the club will explore trading Young this offseason.

It was Dejounte Murray, rather than Young, who was the subject of frequent trade rumors in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline, but the Hawks opted not to make a move involving Murray, whose contract extends a year beyond Young’s and is far less lucrative. Young is owed $89MM over the next two years, with a $49MM player option for 2025/26, while Murray will make $82.6MM over the next three seasons and holds a $31.5MM player option for ’26/27.

Although there’s a sense that it may just be a matter of time before the club breaks up its star backcourt duo, Young told Rooks that he has no desire to leave Atlanta. Asked whether he believes he’ll still be a Hawk next season, he replied, “Hopefully,” before going on to link his NBA home with his decision on where to play college basketball.

“I could have went to Kentucky, I could have went to Kansas, but I chose to be different and went to Oklahoma to try to win a championship,” Young said. “I wanted to go there to win for my hometown, be different.

“They’ve never won a championship in Atlanta. Me getting drafted there felt like it was a match made in heaven. Like, this is something I wanna do. I can defeat the odds here too. So for me, my whole vision was to always be here. My whole goal is to win here. Win championships, bring people here with me and build this championship here and dynasty here.

“But who knows? It’s year six now and who knows? (But) for me, I want that.”

Young is currently on the mend after undergoing surgery to repair a tear of the radial collateral ligament (RCL) in the fifth finger of his left hand. An All-Star this season for the third time in his career, he was averaging 26.4 points and a career-high 10.8 assists this season in 51 games (36.5 MPG) prior to the injury, with a shooting line of .426/.371/.856.

With Young unavailable for the time being, the Hawks continue to battle for a spot in the play-in tournament. Atlanta is currently 10th in the East at 27-34, two games behind the No. 9 Bulls and 2.5 games ahead of the No. 11 Nets.

Pistons Sign Taj Gibson To 10-Day Deal

March 6th, 2024 at 10:01am CST by Luke Adams

10:01am: Gibson’s 10-day contract is now official, the Pistons confirmed in a press release (Twitter link). It will run through next Friday, March 15.

8:42am: The Pistons are set to sign veteran big man Taj Gibson to a 10-day contract, agent Mark Bartelstein tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Gibson, 38, spent a portion of this season with the Knicks, having signed a non-guaranteed contract with the team in December.

He was waived on January 7 before his full salary could become guaranteed, then returned to New York on a pair of 10-day deals in January and February. However, the club opted not to bring him back on a rest-of-season contract when the second of those deals expired.

At this point in his career, Gibson is most valued more for his veteran leadership and presence in the locker room, which is presumably why the Pistons want to add him to their young roster. However, he did appear in 16 games for the Knicks this season, averaging 1.0 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 10.3 MPG.

The Pistons recently opened up a pair of roster spots by waiving Mike Muscala and Shake Milton, so they’re only carrying 13 players on standard contracts. Even after signing Gibson, they’ll still have an opening on their 15-man roster.

Gibson will earn $183,704 over the course of his 10 days with Detroit, while the club carries a cap hit of $116,075.

Assuming the deal is finalized on Wednesday or Thursday, he’ll be under contract for the Pistons’ next five games before the team would have to decide whether to re-sign him or let him go.

Jakob Poeltl Undergoes Finger Surgery

March 6th, 2024 at 7:52am CST by Luke Adams

Raptors center Jakob Poeltl has undergone surgery to repair a ligament tear in the fifth finger of his left hand, the team announced late on Tuesday night in a press release. The injury occurred in the second quarter of Sunday’s victory over Charlotte.

The Raptors didn’t provide any sort of recovery timeline for Poeltl, simply stating that his status will be updated as appropriate.

Any type of finger surgery typically results in a multi-week absence, and while the big man could end up being healthy enough to play before the end of the season, Toronto is falling out of the postseason race and may simply decide to shut him down.

After getting blown out at home by the Pelicans on Tuesday, the Raptors are 4.5 games back of the No. 10 seed in the East. They’re also missing Scottie Barnes, who underwent a hand surgery of his own earlier this week and might not be back before the end of the regular season.

Poeltl, who was acquired from San Antonio by the Raptors at the 2023 trade deadline, signed a four-year, $78MM contract with the club during the offseason. In his first season back with the Toronto team that originally drafted him in 2016, the 28-year-old averaged 11.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 26.4 minutes per game across 50 appearances (all starts).

The Raptors traded for another veteran center – Kelly Olynyk – at this season’s deadline and extended him this week, but that deal shouldn’t have a real impact on Poeltl’s future in Toronto, since the two big men have different skill sets. While Olynyk excels at stretching the floor, Poeltl serves as a pick-and-roll partner for the team’s guards and is more of a rim protector on defense.

Contract Details: Lawson, K. Brown, Forrest, Barlow, Bouyea, More

March 6th, 2024 at 6:54am CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks used a portion of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to give A.J. Lawson a $1MM rest-of-season salary and a four-year contract when they promoted him to their standard roster, Hoops Rumors has learned.

While Lawson’s 2023/24 salary of $1MM – which is well above his prorated minimum – is guaranteed, he’s not necessarily assured of any money beyond this season. His minimum salaries for the following three years are fully non-guaranteed. If he plays out the full contract, the Mavericks wing would earn approximately $7.91MM.

Here are more details on recently signed contracts around the NBA:

The three-year contract that Kendall Brown signed with the Pacers features a starting salary of $1.1MM, which came out of the team’s room exception. This season is the first year that the room exception can be used to sign players for up to three years instead of just two, and Indiana took advantage of that flexibility to give Brown non-guaranteed minimum salaries in 2024/25 and ’25/26, with a team option on that final year. He’ll receive a partial guarantee of $250K if he makes the Pacers’ regular season roster in the fall.
The new contracts for Hawks guard Trent Forrest and Spurs forward Dominick Barlow are just rest-of-season, minimum-salary deals, which suggests that those two players just got standard conversions from their two-way contracts rather than negotiating new terms. Forrest will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, while Barlow will be eligible for restricted free agency.
As expected, both Shake Milton (Knicks) and Mike Muscala (Thunder) signed rest-of-season, minimum-salary contracts with their new clubs.
Like fellow San Antonio newcomer RaiQuan Gray, Jamaree Bouyea signed a two-year, two-way deal with the Spurs, so his new contract runs through the 2024/25 season.
The two-way deals recently signed by Jeff Dowtin (Sixers), Jacob Gilyard (Nets), Jacob Toppin (Knicks), Ish Wainright (Suns), Quenton Jackson (Pacers), Harry Giles (Lakers), and Dylan Windler (Hawks) are all one-year (rest-of-season) contracts, so those players will be eligible to become restricted free agents this summer.