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Southwest Notes: Hawkins, Morant, Kawamura, Flynn, CP3, Wemby

October 9th, 2024 at 12:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Although Jordan Hawkins made just 38.2% of his shots from the floor as a rookie, he knocked down a respectable 36.6% of his three-point tries and was a regular part of the Pelicans‘ rotation for much of the season. The team believes Hawkins has more to contribute in 2024/25, with head coach Willie Green giving him the green light to fire away from beyond the arc and teammate Zion Williamson stating that the second-year wing “can bring a lot to this team,” per Christian Clark of NOLA.com.

“He’s special, man,” Green said. “The force and speed he comes off of plays with. His gravity creates a domino effect. We want to incorporate him in our offense. Sometimes we are playing through him.”

Hawkins’ shooting ability made him the 14th overall pick in the 2023 draft and helped him stay on the floor in his rookie year, but he knows he has to perform more consistently on the other end of the court to earn a consistent bump in minutes in year two, as Clark relays.

“I think the defensive end, I’ve trended on the way up since last year,” Hawkins said. “I’m doing a lot more things I’m comfortable with. I know the rotations, the NBA defense. It’s different from the college defense.”

Here’s more from around the Southwest:

Ja Morant, who tweaked his ankle during Monday’s preseason opener, has formally been diagnosed with a “mild’ sprain, according to Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, who said he expects his starting point guard to be ready for opening night (Twitter link via Chris Herrington of Daily Memphian). Still, the team will take a cautious approach, so it remains to be seen whether Morant will play in any of Memphis’ four remaining preseason contests.
Grizzlies camp invitee Yuki Kawamura, a 5’8″ Japanese guard, has earned praise from his teammates for his competitiveness and fearlessness, per Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. While Kawamura won’t make the standard roster, there’s a chance his Exhibit 10 contract could be converted into a two-way deal if the club creates a two-way opening by promoting Scotty Pippen Jr. to the standard roster, Cole adds. “He’s fierce, he’s a competitor and he loves the game of basketball,” Luke Kennard said. “I like what I’ve seen from him for sure. He’s talented. He’s going to make a lot of money playing the game.”
Malachi Flynn isn’t one of the 15 Spurs players with a guaranteed contract for 2024/25 and isn’t eligible for a two-way deal, but he has made a positive impression on head coach Gregg Popovich over the past week, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “He’s had a good camp,” Popovich said after Flynn racked up nine points, two assists, and two steals in eight minutes in Monday’s preseason opener. “He’s a tough nut. He shoots the heck out of the ball. He takes no prisoners. He works very hard. With the limited time he had, I thought he did well.”
Chris Paul will make his Spurs debut and reigning Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama will make his 2024/25 debut on Wednesday vs. Orlando, notes Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com.

Knicks Waive Damion Baugh, Alex O’Connell

October 9th, 2024 at 10:58am CST by Luke Adams

After cutting Boo Buie earlier today in order to sign Moses Brown to an Exhibit 10 contract, the Knicks have parted with two more players, announcing (via Twitter) that Damion Baugh and Alex O’Connell have been placed on waivers.

New York initially signed Baugh and O’Connell to Exhibit 10 deals a week ago. They spent training camp with the Knicks, though neither saw any action in the team’s preseason opener on Sunday.

The plan is likely for both players to report to the Westchester Knicks, where they’ll receive bonuses worth $77.5K apiece if they spend at least 60 days with New York’s G League affiliate.

Westchester acquired O’Connell’s returning rights in a trade with the Stockton Kings last month and will need to do the same with Baugh’s rights, which are still controlled by the South Bay Lakers.

New York now has 19 players under contract, including 12 on guaranteed deals and three on two-ways. It’s possible the club will continue to use those openings at the back end of its roster to shuffle players in and out for G League purposes in the next week-and-a-half. The Knicks must set their regular season roster by October 21.

Bulls Notes: Backcourt, Ball, LaVine, Buzelis, Freeman-Liberty

October 9th, 2024 at 10:02am CST by Luke Adams

Will there be enough minutes to go around for all the players in the Bulls‘ backcourt this season? Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times explores that question, noting that guards Coby White, Zach LaVine, Josh Giddey, and Ayo Dosunmu all figure to have regular roles, with Lonzo Ball, Dalen Terry, Jevon Carter, and Chris Duarte also vying for minutes.

“I think it’s going to be a hard situation from the standpoint of these guys are all highly competitive, work really hard in the offseason to get themselves ready to play,” head coach Billy Donovan said. “And quite honestly in some of these situations with the way our team is, they just may not get that opportunity. I’m not saying it’s Jevon, Chris or Dalen or whoever it is. We’ve got to see how camp plays out.

“We’ve obviously had to deal with the injuries with Josh and Lonzo, but there’s no question that with the number of guards there, I think we’ll have to play with three guards. I think Ayo is a really, really good perimeter defender, who he’s paired with, try and match someone with that. I agree, someone is going to be sitting. We’re not able to play them all.”

The Bulls started three guards in their preseason opener vs. Cleveland on Tuesday, with White, LaVine, and Giddey joining Patrick Williams and Nikola Vucevic in the starting five. As Donovan notes, that look seems likely to carry over into the regular season.

Here’s more out of Chicago:

After spending over a year recovering from his latest knee surgery, Ball wasn’t available for the Bulls’ preseason opener on Tuesday. However, that wasn’t because of his knee, Cowley writes in a separate Sun-Times story. As Cowley explains, Ball dealt with a “nasty” case of COVID just before camp began, which left him several days behind in workouts. He’s still in the process of “getting his strength back,” according to Donovan.
Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune shares six takeaways from the Bulls’ preseason opener, writing that LaVine looked comfortable in his return from foot surgery and that lottery pick Matas Buzelis flashed intriguing potential in his first NBA game. However, acknowledging that one preseason game isn’t enough to draw any definitive conclusions, Poe also notes that Tuesday’s game did nothing to assuage concerns about the team’s potential defensive shortcomings.
After reporting earlier this week indicated that guard Javon Freeman-Liberty was leaving Manisa Basket for the NBA, the Turkish club confirmed the news, publishing an Instagram post that wished Freeman-Liberty luck in the next phase of his career “with the Chicago Bulls.” As Blake Murphy of Sportsnet tweets, FIBA clearance is still required before the guard can officially finalize his new deal with Chicago. It’s unclear whether Freeman-Liberty left Manisa simply to sign a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract with the Bulls or if he’ll get a standard or two-way deal that offers more assurances.

Mavs’ Exum Undergoes Wrist Surgery, Expected To Miss Three Months

October 9th, 2024 at 9:48am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks guard Dante Exum underwent surgery on Tuesday to address a right wrist injury, the team announced in a press release. Reporting last week indicated that Exum had suffered a “serious” wrist injury and that surgery was one of the treatment options being considered.

While the Mavs’ announcement didn’t include an estimated recovery timeline, Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link) reports that Exum is expected to be sidelined for the next three months. That would put him in line for a return sometime in the new year.

Exum, 29, was the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft, but battled health issues early in his NBA career and struggled to develop into a reliable rotation piece. He spent two seasons overseas from 2021-23 and played well for FC Barcelona in Spain and KK Partizan in Serbia, earning another shot in the NBA.

The 6’5″ guard signed a two-year contract with the Mavericks during the 2023 offseason and played a regular role for the Western Conference champions last season, averaging 7.8 PPG and 2.9 APG with a .533/.491/.779 shooting line and strong defense in 55 games (19.8 MPG).

Once again though, injuries have been an obstacle since his return stateside. Exum missed time last season due to foot and knee ailments, then had to sit out Australia’s first game at the Paris Olympics in July due to a compound dislocation of his right index finger. Now he’s expected to be on the shelf for roughly half of the 2024/25 regular season.

With Exum unavailable this fall, the Mavericks figure to lean more heavily on veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie and third-year pro Jaden Hardy for backcourt depth behind superstars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

Hornets Waive Duane Washington

October 9th, 2024 at 8:59am CST by Luke Adams

One week after acquiring him via sign-and-trade in the three-team Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster, the Hornets have waived guard Duane Washington, the club announced today in a press release.

The move had been expected, since Washington was only included in the Towns trade for salary-matching purposes — if he hadn’t been part of the deal, New York would have had to add another player from its active roster to the deal to make it a legal trade. Even though he never actually appeared in a game for them, the Knicks were able to sign-and-trade Washington because he finished last season on a two-way contract with the club.

Prior to being signed-and-traded from New York to Charlotte, Washington had been playing for KK Partizan in Belgrade, Serbia. The Knicks had to pay Partizan a buyout (believed to be worth $850K) to free him up for the Towns deal. The expectation is that the 24-year-old will now rejoin the Serbian club on a new contract.

Washington’s $2,162,607 salary for 2024/25 was fully guaranteed and will remain on the Hornets’ books for the rest of the season. However, Charlotte acquired more than enough cash from New York in the Towns trade ($7.2MM) to cover the salaries for Washington and the two others players sent to the Hornets (DaQuan Jeffries and Charlie Brown).

The second and third years of Washington’s contract were non-guaranteed, so they’ll come off Charlotte’s cap now that he has been placed on waivers.

As a result of the transaction, the Hornets are now carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, with Taj Gibson on a minimum-salary contract that’s partially guaranteed for about $1.08MM. In all likelihood, Charlotte will end up waiving at least one of Jeffries or Brown prior to opening night in order to make room for Gibson on the team’s 15-man regular season roster.

Celtics Sign Jay Scrubb, Waive Tristan Enaruna

October 9th, 2024 at 7:51am CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics have made a change at the back end of their 21-man preseason roster, signing free agent guard Jay Scrubb and waiving forward Tristan Enaruna, according to the official transaction logs at RealGM and NBA.com.

Bobby Manning of CLNS, who first reported during the offseason that Boston was expected to sign Scrubb to an Exhibit 10 contract once he had fully recovered from his ACL injury, confirms (via Twitter) that the 24-year-old did in fact receive an Exhibit 10 deal.

A second-round pick in 2020, Scrubb appeared in 24 games for the Clippers and Magic across his first three NBA seasons. He signed a two-way contract with the Celtics last July, but tore his right ACL during a practice during the preseason and was waived before the regular season began. The 6’5″ shooting guard announced on Instagram on Tuesday that he has been “fully cleared,” approximately a year after sustaining that knee injury.

Scrubb remains eligible for a two-way contract, so his Exhibit 10 deal could be converted before opening night. However, it’s more likely that he’ll be waived and will report to the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate. Maine acquired Scrubb’s returning rights from the South Bay Lakers last month.

If Scrubb is waived and then spends at least 60 days with the Celtics’ NBAGL team, he’ll earn an Exhibit 10 bonus worth up to $77.5K.

Ranking Rookie Scale Extension Candidates From Least To Most Likely

October 9th, 2024 at 7:03am CST by Luke Adams

Four NBA players have signed rookie scale extensions so far in 2024, but if recent history is any indication, that number should at least double - and perhaps triple - by October 21, which is the deadline for those deals to be completed.

In each of the past four offseasons from 2020-23, at least 10 rookie scale extensions have been signed, including a record-setting 14 a year ago.

And while it's not uncommon for the most lucrative of those extensions to be finalized early in the offseason - like the maximum-salary deals for Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, and Franz Wagner were this summer - many negotiations go down to the wire. In each of those last four years, at least six rookie scale extensions have been completed in October (or, in the case of the COVID-delayed 2020 offseason, December).

Based on those figures, it seems safe to assume news will break within the next 10 days about a few more rookie scale extension agreements, but which of the players eligible to sign those contracts are the best bets to actually get something done? That's the question we're considering today.

Listed below are the 20 players still eligible for rookie scale extensions, ranked by the likelihood that they'll finalize new deals by October 21. We're starting with the least likely candidates and working our way up to the most likely.

To clarify, this list isn't ranking these players by value -- the No. 1 player isn't necessarily the one who should get the most lucrative contract. We're just using our best judgment to predict which of them are most likely to have new contracts in hand by opening night, allowing them to avoid going through the restricted free agency process in July 2025.

Let's dive in...

Not happening

20. Chris Duarte (Bulls)
Never say never, but it's pretty hard to envision a scenario in which Duarte signs a new contract with the Bulls before the season begins. He was sent from Sacramento to Chicago in the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade for salary purposes after two disappointing seasons in Indiana and Sacramento in which he averaged just 5.6 points per game on 37.4% shooting (32.9% on three-pointers). Duarte showed real promise in his rookie year in 2021/22 (13.1 PPG, .369 3PT%) and if he can recapture that form, he'd be worth retaining beyond the coming season, but now isn't the time to commit to him.

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Heat Notes: Butler, Adebayo, Jovic, Rozier, Riley, Pullin

October 8th, 2024 at 10:15pm CST by Dana Gauruder

There were some good signs during the Heat‘s preseason loss to Charlotte on Tuesday, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes.

Jimmy Butler played his first preseason game in two years and contributed 11 points in 15-plus minutes. Bam Adebayo made two of his five 3-point attempts as he looks to expand his offensive game. And Nikola Jovic had nine points in 16 minutes while starting alongside Adebayo up front.

“It was good to get that game conditioning in,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the preseason opener. “It always feels a little bit different no matter how many years you’ve played. Our guys have been working extremely hard. But it was good to face somebody else.”

We have more on the Heat:

Terry Rozier projects as the starting point guard on opening night. He battled a neck injury late last season and into the offseason. “This whole offseason, when I first got hurt, I definitely appreciated the game way more than I ever did,” Rozier said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “That’s why I said everything happens for a reason. I really feel like this happened for a reason to make me lock back in, to focus. Now I’m just not looking back.”
All current and future courts at Miami’s home arena will be dedicated to team president Pat Riley, Chiang notes. The Heat’s home court will now be known as “Pat Riley Court at Kaseya Center,” with the new name and Riley’s signature inscribed onto the court. Riley will become just the second coach in NBA history to receive such an honor, Chiang writes, joining Red Auerbach of the Celtics.
Zyon Pullin is participating in camp on an Exhibit 10 contract. The former Florida guard knows he’ll be ticketed to the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. “It’s really just been definitely spend time in Sioux Falls and really just trying that development program, the history and track record it’s had,” Pullin said, per Winderman. “It’s a reason why I wanted to be here in the first place. So I think it’s just continue to lock in once we go down there and keep developing and see where it goes from there.”
In case you missed it, the Heat’s Thursday preseason game vs. Atlanta has been pushed back to next Wednesday (October 16) due to Hurricane Milton.

Clippers Notes: Lue, Harden, Leonard, Mann

October 8th, 2024 at 8:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

There are six new players on the Clippers‘ roster and six players who are 25 or younger. Head coach Tyronn Lue finds himself doing more teaching in training camp and he doesn’t mind the change, he told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.

“I love it,” Lue said. “It gives me something to do. The young guys, just teaching. The new guys, teaching, understanding spacing, understanding how to execute offensively, what we’re looking for first, second, third option. So, it’s been good.”

Lue added that he doesn’t expect everyone to absorb the lessons immediately.

“I have patience,” Lue said. “You gotta have patience with a group. You can’t get frustrated, but the guys are picking stuff up very well. But I like to teach, make sure we’re in our right spots, let them understand why we’re doing certain things and why you got to set the screen here instead of there, why you gotta be here making the pass instead of there. So, it’s a lot of teaching, but it’s good.”

We have more on the Clippers:

With Paul George in Philadelphia, James Harden becomes the second option behind Kawhi Leonard. Leonard said the veteran guard shares the same mentality that he has. “The relationship has been great,” Leonard told The Athletic’s Law Murray. “He came in last year wanting to win and saying that he wanted to sacrifice and do the things we needed to do to win games. So going into this year, he has the same mindset. You just want another guy on your team that is like-minded and is just willing to do anything that it takes for us to win. I think it’s a good relationship so far. We can be transparent to each other about how we’re playing, good or bad. So I think it will be good moving forward.”
The breakdown on Terance Mann‘s extension looks like this — he’ll make $15.5MM in 2025/26; $15.5MM in 2026/27; and $16MM in 2027/28, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets. It’s a fully guaranteed deal with no options, Smith adds. Mann signed the extension on Oct. 2.
In case you missed it, P.J. Tucker is on indefinite leave from the team. Get the details here.

Atlantic Notes: Yabusele, Knicks’ Starters, Shamet, Nets

October 8th, 2024 at 7:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Guerschon Yabusele scored 15 points for the Sixers in their exhibition game against the New Zealand Breakers on Monday and it was a special night for him, Gina Mizell of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.

“I’m not going to lie, it felt amazing,” Yabusele said. “It’s been a long road, but happy to be here.”

Yabusele signed a one-year contract with the Sixers in late August. He was selected in the first round of the 2016 draft and played two seasons with the Celtics from 2017-19, but hasn’t appeared in a regular season NBA game in five years. The power forward excelled overseas before joining Philadelphia.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

The Knicks‘ projected starters played anywhere from 13-15 minutes in their preseason opener against Charlotte on Sunday. It’s just a first step as Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns try to settle in with their new teammates. “First game, some good, some bad,” coach Tom Thibodeau said, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. I figured it would be a little choppy. There are a lot of areas we need to clean up. But there were some good things as well.”
Landry Shamet entered Knicks camp on a non-guaranteed contract but the veteran guard is thrilled to be on a contender after spending last season with the rebuilding Wizards. Shamet scored 16 points, including four 3-pointers, in New York’s preseason opener. “I want to win, I want to compete, we all do. Anybody in the NBA that says otherwise is lying,” he told Braziller. “We all want to compete at the highest level. It’s exciting to be here. Last year was last year. It was what it was. I’m excited to be here and move forward and build with this group.”
With frontcourt players Day’Ron Sharpe and Trendon Watford sidelined by hamstring injuries, the Nets will look at some smaller lineups in the preseason, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “It just forced us to do something that actually we wanted to do sooner or later; so might as well do it the sooner the better,” first-year coach Jordi Fernandez said.