Grizzlies Waive Mamadi Diakite

11:24am: The move is official. The Grizzlies have formally announced that Diakite has been waived (Twitter link).


11:21am: After acquiring him from Brooklyn last month, the Grizzlies will waive big man Mamadi Diakite, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Diakite, 27, finished last season with the Knicks, then was traded to Brooklyn in the Mikal Bridges blockbuster last month. He was flipped from the Nets to the Grizzlies in a subsequent deal that sent Ziaire Williams to Brooklyn and allowed Memphis to re-sign Luke Kennard while staying out of luxury tax territory.

A 6’9″ forward/center who played his college ball at Virginia, Diakite has appeared in a total of 55 regular season games for the Bucks, Thunder, Cavaliers, Spurs, and Knicks since making his NBA debut in 2021. He holds career averages of 3.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per contest.

Diakite has a $2,273,252 cap hit for the 2024/25 season, but only $1,392,150 is guaranteed, so the Grizzlies will be on the hook for that partial guarantee if he goes unclaimed on waivers. While they have the option of carrying the full amount on this season’s cap, they instead intend to stretch it across three seasons at a rate of $464,050 through 2026/27, according to Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (Twitter link).

Using the stretch provision on Diakite’s partial guarantee will create a little extra spending flexibility below the luxury tax line, giving Memphis enough breathing room to sign a 15th man without becoming a taxpayer, as we recently noted in our look at the club’s offseason.

Once the move is official, the Grizzlies will have 17 players under contract — 14 on guaranteed standard salaries and three on two-way deals.

Longest-Tenured NBA Players By Team

Since we last checked in on the NBA’s longest-tenured players by team one year ago, many of the players on that list have remained with their respective teams despite reaching free agency (e.g. LeBron James, Miles Bridges, Nic Claxton) or being considered trade candidates (e.g. Zach LaVine, Trae Young, Darius Garland, Jae’Sean Tate).

As a result, we don’t need to make a ton of changes to this year’s list, though a few notable names have been removed for the 2024 version. That group starts with Damian Lillard, who had been with the Trail Blazers since being drafted in June 2012 before he was traded to Milwaukee last September.

The Raptors are one of the other teams with a new longest-tenured player this season after parting ways with Pascal Siakam in January. Siakam had been with the franchise since 2016 before being dealt to Indiana midway through the 2023/24 season. With the 2024 departures of Killian Hayes and Deni Avdija, the Pistons and Wizards also have new names on the list below.

The top name on our list remains unchanged, as Stephen Curry – a Warrior since 2009 – is still the player who has been with his current club for the longest period, having cracked the 15-year mark this summer.

Because our list includes just one player per team, Draymond Green doesn’t show up in the space below, but if we were simply listing the players who have been with their current clubs the longest, he’d own the No. 2 spot behind Curry, having been in Golden State since being drafted in 2012.

Khris Middleton (a Buck since July 2013), Kevon Looney (a Warrior since June 2015), and Jamal Murray (a Nugget since June 2016) are among the others who would place highly on that version of the list.

Here is each team’s longest-tenured player, along with how he was acquired:


(Note: This is a snapshot as of August 2024 and won’t be updated throughout the season. Because this list only features each team’s longest-tenured player, one player per team is listed.)

  1. Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry (draft), June 2009
  2. Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo (draft), June 2013
  3. Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid (draft), June 2014
  4. Denver Nuggets: Nikola Jokic (draft), June 2014
  5. Dallas Mavericks: Dwight Powell (trade), December 2014
  6. Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns (draft), June 2015
  7. Indiana Pacers: Myles Turner (draft), June 2015
  8. Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker (draft), June 2015
  9. Boston Celtics: Jaylen Brown (draft), June 2016
  10. Sacramento Kings: De’Aaron Fox (draft), June 2017
  11. Orlando Magic: Jonathan Isaac (draft), June 2017
  12. Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo (draft), June 2017
  13. Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine (draft trade), June 2017
  14. Memphis Grizzlies: Jaren Jackson Jr. (draft), June 2018
  15. Atlanta Hawks: Trae Young (draft trade), June 2018
  16. Charlotte Hornets: Miles Bridges (draft trade), June 2018 (*)
  17. Portland Trail Blazers: Anfernee Simons (draft), June 2018
  18. New York Knicks: Mitchell Robinson (draft), June 2018
  19. Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James (free agent), July 2018
  20. Toronto Raptors: Chris Boucher (free agent), July 2018
  21. New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson (draft), June 2019
  22. Cleveland Cavaliers: Darius Garland (draft), June 2019
  23. Brooklyn Nets: Nic Claxton (draft), June 2019
  24. Los Angeles Clippers: Ivica Zubac (trade), February 2019
  25. San Antonio Spurs: Keldon Johnson (draft), June 2019
  26. Oklahoma City Thunder: Luguentz Dort (free agent), July 2019
  27. Utah Jazz: Jordan Clarkson (trade), December 2019
  28. Detroit Pistons: Isaiah Stewart (draft trade), November 2020
  29. Houston Rockets: Jae’Sean Tate (free agent), November 2020
  30. Washington Wizards: Anthony Gill (free agent), November 2020

* Note: Bridges was a free agent for the entire 2022/23 season, but the Hornets retained his RFA rights during that time and brought him back for the following season, extending his tenure with the team. If we don’t count Bridges, Charlotte’s’ longest-tenured player is Cody Martin, who was selected in the 2019 draft.

While it’s a safe bet that many players on this list – especially a few near the top – will remain the same when we check in again during the summer of 2025, it’s a lock we’ll see some changes too. For instance, I’d be a little surprised if LaVine and Boucher are still members of the Bulls and Raptors, respectively, at this time next year. Clarkson and Tate are a couple others worth watching.

Which players do you expect to change teams and come off this list in the next 12 months?

NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: Minnesota Timberwolves

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Minnesota Timberwolves.


Free agent signings

  • Luka Garza: Two years, minimum salary ($4,512,184). Second-year team option. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Joe Ingles: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • PJ Dozier: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($1MM). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • Acquired the draft rights to Rob Dillingham (No. 8 pick) from the Spurs in exchange for the Timberwolves’ 2031 first-round pick and the right to swap their 2030 first-round pick for the Timberwolves’ 2030 first-round pick (top-one protected).
  • Acquired the Grizzlies’ 2030 second-round pick (top-50 protected; from Grizzlies) and cash ($1MM; from Raptors) in a four-team trade in exchange for Wendell Moore (to Pistons) and the draft rights to Bobi Klintman (No. 37 pick; to Pistons).
  • Acquired either the Nuggets’ or Sixers’ 2025 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable; from Hornets/Nuggets), the right to swap their own 2031 second-round pick for the Warriors’ 2031 second-round pick, and cash (from Warriors) in a six-team trade in exchange for Kyle Anderson (sign-and-trade; to Warriors).

Draft picks

  • 1-8: Rob Dillingham
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $28,491,575).
  • 1-27: Terrence Shannon
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $13,076,519).

Two-way signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Salary cap situation

  • Operating over the cap ($140.6MM), over the luxury tax line ($170.8MM), and above the second tax apron ($188.9MM).
  • Carrying approximately $205.6MM in salary.
  • No hard cap.
  • No form of mid-level or bi-annual exception available.
  • One traded player exception available (worth $2,537,040).
  • Two traded player exceptions frozen/unavailable (largest worth $8,780,488).

The offseason so far

The Timberwolves’ proximity to the second tax apron hampered their ability to make roster moves this offseason, limiting them to minimum-salary offers for free agents and preventing them from aggregating contracts or taking back more salary than they sent out in trades.

Moving out of second-apron territory likely would’ve required the Wolves to part with one of their highest-paid impact players, an unappealing option after a run to to the Western Conference Finals. Instead, the front office decided to live with those second-apron restrictions and figure out how to replace three departing ball-handlers – point guards Monte Morris and Jordan McLaughlin, along with versatile wing Kyle Anderson – using limited resources.

Minnesota made its biggest offseason move on draft night, using its unprotected 2030 first-round pick and a lightly protected 2031 first-round swap to move into the lottery and then selecting Rob Dillingham with the No. 8 overall pick. It was a creative deal that cleverly circumvented the second apron restrictions — because the Wolves were acquiring Dillingham’s draft rights before he signed his rookie contract, he counted for $0 in incoming salary.

The Wolves also used their own pick – 27th overall – to select Terrence Shannon, another guard. Once viewed as a potential lottery pick, Shannon saw his stock affected by sexual assault allegations during his final college season, but he was found not guilty of all charges ahead of the draft.

Dillingham and Shannon won’t provide the sort of veteran savvy that Morris and McLaughlin brought to the table and may not be ready to play regular roles right away, but their youth, athleticism, and scoring ability will give the Wolves some real upside off the bench going forward.

While there’s hope that they’ll get something out of their rookies in 2024/25, the Wolves needed another insurance policy behind starting point guard Mike Conley, who will turn 37 before the regular season begins. The club turned to the free agent market and landed veteran forward Joe Ingles, who will be reuniting with former Jazz teammates Conley and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota.

Ingles’ skill set bears some similarities to Anderson’s — both players have the size to guard wings and forwards and can serve as secondary play-makers on offense. Even if the rookies don’t contribute immediately, the Wolves should have enough alternatives to Conley at the point, with Anthony Edwards, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Ingles all capable of operating with the ball in their hands.


Up next

The Timberwolves currently have 13 players on guaranteed salaries, with PJ Dozier penciled in as their 14th man on a partially guaranteed deal. With Dozier’s salary not fully locked in yet and one additional roster spot still available, Minnesota certainly has the flexibility to bring in one more player to fill out its regular season roster.

Still, the Wolves are way over the luxury tax line, so adding a 15th man or eating Dozier’s $1MM partial guarantee would cost them exponentially more in tax penalties than it would in base salary. With that in mind, I’d expect Minnesota to enter the season with Dozier as the 14th man and be prepared to make a change or add a 15th man only if it’s needed.

Gobert is the most notable extension candidate to monitor ahead of opening night — he holds a player option for the 2025/26 season, so he could reach unrestricted free agency as early as next summer.

Gobert is coming off a Defensive Player of the Year season, but I imagine the Wolves will approach extension talks cautiously rather than jumping headlong into another multiyear deal in the range of his current salary ($43.8MM in 2024/25). Minnesota’s cap situation is already somewhat precarious, with Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns on maximum-salary deals, and Gobert wasn’t exactly dominant in the Western Finals vs. Dallas or at the Paris Olympics, where he played limited minutes in a couple of France’s best wins.

Gobert will remain extension-eligible all season as long as his player option is replaced as part of a new deal, so the Wolves aren’t facing an October deadline to get something done.

Finally, while it’s worth keeping an eye on the Timberwolves’ ownership fight, the next step in that battle between Glen Taylor and the Marc Lore/Alex Rodriguez group won’t happen until after the season begins. An arbitration hearing is scheduled for November.

Bruno Caboclo Reportedly Working Out With Warriors

Former NBA forward Bruno Caboclo is working out with the Warriors this week as he continues to seek a new opportunity in the league, agent Daniel Hazan told Sports Channel in Israel (hat tip to BasketNews.com).

“He will train with the Golden State Warriors until Thursday with the aim of signing a contract, and he believes he will succeed,” Hazan said of his client.

The 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Caboclo spent parts of seven seasons in the NBA, but appeared in just 105 total games for the Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, and Rockets from 2014-21. He averaged 4.2 points and 2.6 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per contest.

Caboclo has been more effective on the international stage, winning a German League (BBL) title in 2023 with Ratiopharm Ulm and earning All-EuroCup Second Team honors that season. He also represented Brazil in this year’s Olympics, leading the national team with 17.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game across four outings.

Although Caboclo said during the Olympics that he expected to return to KK Partizan for another season after playing for the Serbian club in 2023/24, it now sounds like he may end up elsewhere.

The Warriors could offer him a potential path to a regular season roster spot, since they only have 12 players on guaranteed salaries, with Lindy Waters and Gui Santos (both on non-guaranteed deals) currently penciled in as the 13th and 14th men. Golden State doesn’t currently have enough room under its hard cap to carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season, but could replace Waters or Santos with Caboclo.

If he doesn’t receive an NBA offer, the 6’9″ forward may pursue a deal with Hapoel Tel Aviv. The Israeli team made him an offer earlier this month, and while reporting at the time suggested Caboclo had a small window to accept that offer, his agent told Sports Channel that Tel Aviv remains a possibility.

“We are in negotiations, we are making good progress,” Hazan said. “It’s definitely an option worth keeping.”

Jokic Tops Poll For Best Player; Gilgeous-Alexander Gets Nod For 2024/25 MVP

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is the best NBA player right now but he’s not going to win another Most Valuable Player award next season.

That’s the majority opinion of the 18 NBA coaches, scouts and executives that ESPN’s Tim Bontemps polled. All but three of them believe Jokic is the league’s top player.

However, when the subject of next season’s MVP came up, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received seven votes. A handful chose Mavericks guard Luka Doncic with Jokic only receiving two votes.

The Thunder and Celtics are the solid favorites to emerge from their respective conferences and square off in the Finals. Boston received 13 votes to win the East, while Oklahoma City picked up 14 votes to emerge from the West. The Celtics received eight votes to repeat as champions, while the Thunder were chosen by seven members of the group.

There was no love for the top pick in the draft, Zaccharie Risacher.The Hawks big man didn’t receive a single vote for Rookie of the Year. The same goes for the topic of best player from the 2024/25 rookie class in five years. Grizzlies center Zach Edey garnered a panel-best eight votes for ROY, while Rockets guard Reed Sheppard was chosen by eight of them to be the best of the bunch in five years.

Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama got two-thirds of the vote for top overall player in five years.

Western Notes: Sabonis, Monk, DeRozan, Spencer, Prosper, James

Kings big man Domantas Sabonis admits he expected sixth man Malik Monk to sign elsewhere in free agency. Monk stayed put on a four-year, $78MM contract.

“I was actually very surprised,” Sabonis said, per James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link). “I was talking to him a lot during the year and I thought we really lost him, but I’m happy he stayed.”

Sabonis believes the addition of DeMar DeRozan, acquired in a sign-and-trade, will diversify the offense, according to Logan Struck of Sports Illustrated.

“I think it’s going to be good for us,” Sabonis said. “It’s going to make us think differently on the court, move differently, and really read each other. We are used to playing one style but he does something at a Hall of Fame level that we’re going to have to play around and it’s going to make it so much harder for teams to guard us because we can basically score from anywhere.”

We have more Western Conference news:

  • Grizzlies guard Luke Kennard said the addition of former UConn guard Cam Spencer, who was drafted in the second round and signed on a two-way deal, gives the club another offensive option. “He can shoot, man,” Kennard said, per Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “He really can. I think he’ll be really close in our shooting competitions. Well let him get in a couple and see how he can hang.”
  • Olivier-Maxence Prosper spent most of last season in the G League after the Mavericks drafted him in the first round. He’ll have a tough time cracking the rotation in his second year with the additions of Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, and Quentin Grimes. However, the club is still optimistic about his future and the wing’s development remains an intriguing element to monitor, according to Grant Afseth of Dallas Sports Journal.
  • The Lakers re-signed LeBron James on a two-year deal this summer but the franchise seems poised to waste the future Hall of Famer’s remaining years, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times opines. The team needs another star to compete with the other Western Conference contenders and the front office has done very little to upgrade the roster this offseason, Plaschke adds.

And-Ones: Klutch Lawsuit, 2025 Prospects, Hewitt, Contenders

Klutch Sports Group has issued a response to a lawsuit filed in federal court by longtime NBA agent Mark Termini. Klutch, headed by super-agent Rich Paul, has asked the federal judge overseeing the case to let the Players’ Association arbitrate this dispute, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets.

Klutch contends that Termini ignored NBPA rules to “publicly advance a tale where he (and not Paul) is responsible for Paul’s and Klutch’s unprecedented success.” Klutch also asked the federal judge to dismiss parts of complaint if it is not granted arbitration.

Termini, a former associate of Klutch, is suing for $4.9MM plus interest for an alleged breach of contract. Termini claims Klutch began paying him less than he was owed as the “lead negotiator” on several contracts from 2018-20.

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • Cooper Flagg, the top prospect in next year’s draft, has a skill set that compares to the Magic’s star, Paolo Banchero, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report writes. The Rutgers’ duo of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey — considered the No. 2 and 3 prospects — have comparable skills to Coby White and Brandon Miller, respectively. Wasserman draws suitable comparisons for all projected lottery picks in his story.
  • Paul Hewitt has been named head coach of the NBA G League United team in the upcoming Fall Invitational and FIBA Intercontinental Cup, the league tweets. Hewitt is currently the head coach of the Clippers’ G League squad, the San Diego Clippers.
  • The Bleacher Report staff takes a look at 10 wild card NBA title contenders who could make noise in the postseason. The teams are all outside FanDuel’s current top 10 in the odds for the NBA championship next season. Among those teams are the Clippers, Cavaliers and Magic.

Pacers Sign Dakota Mathias To Exhibit 10 Contract

The Pacers have waived Kyle Mangas and Cameron McGriff, the team announced in a press release. Indiana has also signed Dakota Mathias to an Exhibit 10 contract.

Both Mangas and McGriff were signed to Exhibit 10 contracts, and both finished last season with the Mad Ants, the Pacers’ NBA G League affiliate. Now that they’ve been released, Mangas and McGriff will receive bonuses worth up to $77.5K on top of their standard NBAGL salaries as long as they spend at least 60 days with the Mad Ants once the 2024/25 season begins.

Mathias played four years of college ball in Indiana at Purdue prior to going undrafted in 2018. He has appeared in 14 regular season games with Philadelphia and Memphis, last playing for the Grizzlies during the 2021/22 campaign. He has averaged 3.9 points in 9.9 minutes per contest during his brief NBA career.

A 6’4″ guard, Mathias is an excellent outside shooter, having converted more than 40% of his three-point tries in both college and the G League. In addition to his time in the NBA and NBAGL, the 29-year-old has also played professionally in Spain. He spent part of last season in Germany with Ratiopharm Ulm.

As with Mangas and McGriff, the Pacers’ announcement specifies that Mathias’ Exhibit 10 deal was designed for him to join the Mad Ants for the upcoming season. That means he will be waived at some point before the ’24/25 campaign begins.

Ziaire Williams Talks Trade, Joining Nets, More

Speaking to Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype, former lottery pick Ziaire Williams said he wasn’t surprised to be traded from Memphis to Brooklyn last month. It was a salary-dump move for the Grizzlies, who were focused on staying out of the luxury tax and re-signing Luke Kennard.

It didn’t catch me off guard. The GM [Zach Kleiman] was kind of letting me know a little bit, just so I wouldn’t be completely shocked,” Williams said. “But when it happens, it’s always like, ‘Damn, it’s real now.’ Like I said, man, I’m happy for the opportunity, and I’m grateful for what I experienced in Memphis, and I’m just looking forward to this next chapter in my life.”

Williams’ interview with HoopsHype covers several topics, including his excitement about joining the Nets and playing for Jordi Fernandez, dealing with injuries the past two seasons, and what skills he brings to a team. Here are a couple more highlights.

On adjusting to Brooklyn:

It’s been crazy, man. I can’t lie. There’s been a lot, but I got a great supporting cast with me – my mom, my dad, and a bunch of others on my team that are making it a lot easier. Finding new places, meeting new people, learning new plays – everything is super new. It almost feels like I’m a rookie again. To be honest with you, I love it, man. I love this opportunity, and I think it’s really a blessing in disguise for me.”

On what he’s been working to improve this summer:

Definitely, first and foremost, my body. They say availability is the best ability. I had a nasty little back injury last year, so I’ve been really just every day in the weight room, treatment, just really trying to prioritize my body. And then on the court, just doing all the simple things, man – fine-tuning my shot, reading off closeouts, trying to be great at two or three things rather than trying to be good at a bunch of different things. We, me and the rest of my team, came up with a great plan this summer, and I’ve definitely gotten a lot better. I can’t wait to go out on the main stage and showcase the work I’ve put in the dark.”

A 6’9″ wing who turns 23 years old in a few weeks, Williams is eligible for a rookie scale extension until October 21, the day before the 2024/25 regular season begins.