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Bulls Waive Henri Drell, Max Heidegger

October 13th, 2023 at 3:51pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have cut a pair of players from their preseason roster, announcing (via Twitter) that they’ve waived forward Henri Drell and guard Max Heidegger. Chicago, which had a full 21-man roster, now has two open spots available.

Drell, 23, has spent the last two seasons playing for the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s G League affiliate. He didn’t have a major role in 2021/22, but became a starter last season, averaging 11.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 31.3 minutes per night (29 regular season games). He posted a shooting line of .486/.341/.750.

Heidegger, 26, has been playing professionally in Europe since going undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara in 2020, spending team with teams in Israel, Germany, Turkey, and Spain over the last three seasons. He was a lights-out three-point shooter during his college career, making 44.0% of 568 total attempts from beyond the arc, including 67-of-125 (53.6%) as a senior.

Neither Drell nor Heidegger saw much action in the Bulls’ first two preseason games — they each logged five minutes in the team’s opener vs. Milwaukee on Sunday, then didn’t play on Thursday vs. Denver.

In all likelihood, both Drell and Heidegger will join the Windy City Bulls, where they’ll earn Exhibit 10 bonuses worth $75K apiece, assuming they spend at least 60 days with the G League club.

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Magic Sign Miye Oni, Waive D.J. Wilson

October 13th, 2023 at 3:43pm CST by Luke Adams

OCTOBER 13: The Magic have officially signed Oni, the team announced today in a press release. To make room on the 21-man roster, which is full, Orlando waived D.J. Wilson, who had been on an Exhibit 10 contract.

AUGUST 22: The Magic have reached an agreement on a one-year contract with free agent wing Miye Oni, reports Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).

According to Beede, it will be a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 agreement. A contract with Exhibit 10 language can be converted to a two-way deal or can put a player in line for a bonus worth up to $75K if he’s waived in the preseason and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate.

A former Yale standout who was drafted 58th overall in 2019, Oni appeared in 80 games for the Jazz across three seasons from 2019-22, but never developed into a consistent, reliable NBA rotation player. He averaged just 1.8 PPG and 1.4 RPG in 8.4 minutes per contest in those three years.

Oni, 26, was traded in January 2022 from the Jazz to the Thunder, who subsequently waived him. He signed a 10-day hardship contract with New Orleans later that season, but didn’t appear in a game for the Pelicans.

After reaching free agency last summer, Oni signed with the London Lions of the British Basketball League and had a strong season in England, helping the Lions claim a BBL championship and a spot in the EuroCup playoffs.

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Pacers Exercise 2024/25 Options On Mathurin, Jackson

October 13th, 2023 at 3:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pacers have guaranteed a pair of salaries for the 2024/25 season, announcing today in a press release that they’ve picked up their rookie scale team options on wing Bennedict Mathurin and big man Isaiah Jackson.

The sixth overall pick in the 2022 draft, Mathurin made the All-Rookie first team this past spring after averaging 16.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 28.5 minutes per contest. The 21-year-old appears poised to become a full-time starter this fall after coming off the bench in 61 of his 78 games last season.

Mathurin’s $6.92MM salary for the coming season had already been guaranteed. As a result of the option pick-up, his $7.25MM cap hit for the ’24/25 season is locked in as well. Indiana will have decide a year from now whether to exercise his $9.19MM option for 2025/26.

As for Jackson, the 22nd overall pick from the 2021 draft has appeared in 99 games in his two seasons as a Pacer, averaging 7.6 PPG and 4.4 RPG in 16.0 MPG. He’s in the mix for backup center minutes behind Myles Turner this season, but will face competition from Daniel Theis and Jalen Smith.

Now that is has been exercised, Jackson’s 2024/25 team option will pay him a guaranteed salary of approximately $4.44MM. He’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension next July as he enters the final year of his rookie deal.

We’re tracking all of year’s rookie scale team option decisions right here.

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Southwest Notes: Sochan, Kyrie, Lively, Chandler, Rockets

October 13th, 2023 at 2:04pm CST by Luke Adams

No Spurs frontcourt player has appeared in all 82 games in a season since DeJuan Blair did it in 2009/10, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). Second-year forward Jeremy Sochan, who welcomed the NBA’s declaration that its data doesn’t support load management, is hoping to end that streak.

“I think it should be a culture of playing every game that you can, and if your body is not 100%, then I understand,” Sochan said, per Orsborn. “But if you are fit and healthy, I don’t see why not playing 82 games or as many games as you can play.”

Appearing in all 82 games in 2023/24 would represent a major step forward for Sochan, who was limited to 56 contests as rookie due in large part to quad and knee issues.

Here are a few more notes from around the Southwest:

  • While his Mavericks backcourt mate Luka Doncic placed fourth overall in ESPN’s annual rankings of the NBA’s top players, Kyrie Irving isn’t putting much stock in the decisions made by ESPN’s panel, which ranked him 34th. “Rankings don’t mean a damn thing in the league, especially not from ESPN or any of these other media platforms,” Irving wrote in an Instagram comment (hat tip to The Dallas Morning News). “Majority of the analysts are not credible sources in my eyes and I don’t respect them or their opinions.”
  • Former Mavericks big man Tyson Chandler is working with rookie Dereck Lively II, referring to the young center as a “little brother,” according to Brad Towsend of The Dallas Morning News. Lively is welcoming the mentorship of Chandler, who is back for a third year as a part-time assistant in Dallas. “At first I wasn’t really familiar with Tyson’s game, until I started to do my homework,” Lively said. “Then I realized, ‘Wow, we really do play the same.’ We have the same demeanor. He’s 40-something and he has the same energy as me. We kind of reflect off of one another, you know?”
  • While the Rockets are hoping that veteran additions like Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks help the team take a step forward this season, they’re also counting on reaping the benefits of “trading” the rookie versions of Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason for more seasoned second-year versions of those players, says Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). “They had an opportunity last year to play through mistakes and I think they’re obviously going to take a natural step,” head coach Ime Udoka said of the duo. “They’ve shown that.”
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Harden: I Wanted To Retire A Sixer But Lost Trust In Front Office

October 13th, 2023 at 1:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to reporters on Friday for the first time since reporting to training camp, Sixers guard James Harden offered an emphatic “no” when asked if he believes his relationship with the front office and the franchise can still be repaired (Twitter video link via PHLY Sports).

“This is not even about this situation, this is in life,” Harden said when asked to explain why he didn’t see a path to reconciliation. “When you lose trust in someone, it’s like a marriage. You lose trust in someone, you know what I mean? It’s pretty simple.”

While Harden hasn’t been shy about specifically calling out Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey since requesting a trade in June, he didn’t do so during today’s brief media session. He did, however, allude to having his trust betrayed by people that he’d “known for over a decade,” which appeared to be a reference to Morey (Twitter video link via Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports).

“When I got traded here, my whole thing was, I wanted to retire a Sixer,” Harden said. “I wanted to be here and retire a Sixer. And the front office didn’t have that in their future plans.”

As has been reported throughout the offseason, Harden reportedly expected to receive a lucrative multiyear offer from the 76ers in free agency this summer, but when he got no assurances that such an offer was coming, he opted to go in a different direction, picking up his player option and asking for a trade.

Based on Harden’s comments today, it’s clear he won’t be rescinding his trade request anytime soon. However, the former MVP also doesn’t seem inclined to hold out again after skipping media day and showing up a day late to training camp.

Harden has yet to play a preseason game, but said today that he’s still ramping up and plans to play in the Sixers’ preseason finale and beyond, according to Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia (Twitter link).

We passed along a couple updates on the Sixers’ Harden trade talks with the Clippers earlier this week.

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Jazz Sign Josh Christopher To Two-Way Contract

October 13th, 2023 at 11:49am CST by Tristan Tucker

OCTOBER 13, 11:49am: The Jazz have officially signed Christopher to a two-way contract, the team confirmed today in a press release.

OCTOBER 12, 8:24pm: Utah has waived Hauser to open up a two-way slot for Christopher, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.

OCTOBER 12, 6:32pm: The Jazz are signing former Rockets first-round pick Josh Christopher to a two-way contract, according to Shams Charania and Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Christopher, 21, was selected with the No. 24 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. The former Arizona State wing averaged 6.9 points in 138 games (four starts) in his first two seasons in the league.

The 6’5″ Christopher was waived by the Grizzlies at the end of September after the team acquired him in an earlier offseason trade. Now, he’s heading to Utah after showcasing the ability to score in bunches at the NBA level. He holds career highs of 30 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals.

Christopher can provide immediate wing and scoring depth for the Jazz and could look to carve out a role on the bench. He averaged 5.8 points per game last season.

The Jazz already have three players signed to two-way contracts – Joey Hauser, Johnny Juzang and Micah Potter – and will have to waive one to bring in Christopher. Utah has a full 21-man roster as of this moment.

Christopher joins Usman Garuba and TyTy Washington as recent former Houston first-round picks to sign two-way deals with other teams this offseason. Houston traded away the young trio in the same five-team deal that brought Dillon Brooks to the Rockets via sign-and-trade.

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Sixers Notes: Harden, Green, Oubre, Korkmaz

October 13th, 2023 at 11:48am CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on NBA Today on Thursday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski expressed a belief that the James Harden saga may continue to be “slow-going, well into the season” (Twitter video link).

As Wojnarowski explains, if the Sixers are going to trade Harden to the Clippers, they want to be able to quickly flip the assets they get from L.A. – and perhaps one or two of their own pieces – for an “All-Star level guard” who would replace Harden in their lineup. But that kind of player is unlikely to become available until closer to the trade deadline.

“The problem for this time of the year is who is that player – or players – out there that are available in the preseason, in training camp?” Wojnarowski said. “Those kind of players, they emerge as you get deeper into the season (and) teams start to maybe look at going in a different direction. Maybe they’re not going to re-sign a veteran player, they want to move off of him.

“The asking price this time of year for the players you might like to get to replace James Harden is going to be really high. So there’s not great motivation in Philadelphia necessarily to think that a deal with the Clippers now gets them the best value they can, the best player who might be available later in the year.”

As Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire relays, Wojnarowski also said that the Clippers continue to engage other teams to gauge the trade value of their 2028 first-round pick – and possibly a first-round pick swap for another year – to see if they’ll be able to acquire different assets that would appeal more to Daryl Morey and the 76ers. The expectation is that they’ll soon take some of those potential scenarios back to Philadelphia.

Here’s more on the Sixers:

  • Danny Green could have decided to retire when he tore his ACL and LCL in May 2022, a month before he turned 35 years old. But he was determined not to let his career end that way, and now finds himself fighting for a roster spot in Philadelphia on a non-guaranteed contract this fall. “I didn’t do all that rehab for no reason,” Green said, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, adding that he believes he can still provide value as a three-and-D player and veteran leader: “I don’t want to be somewhere that they’re doing me a favor. I want to be a part of something that needs me. … If [the Sixers] feel that I can help them, then they’ll keep me along. I’m here to do my job and do it efficiently. I can still do that, and they think that I can. They think that I can help this group. And I believe that I can.”
  • Speaking to Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer, new Sixers forward Kelly Oubre said he has had to “kill my ego” and “find who I am deep down inside” over the last couple years, which is one reason why he was comfortable accepting a minimum-salary contract after averaging 20-plus points per game last season. “I didn’t care about the money,” Oubre said. “I know what I’m worth and I know what I deserve. But if I have to protect my peace and my soul over the money, I’m going to do that any day of the week.”
  • Sixers guard Furkan Korkmaz continues to be affected by a hamstring strain, according to Pompey (Twitter links). Korkmaz has missed both of the team’s preseason games so far and didn’t take part in practice on Thursday.
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2023/24 NBA Over/Unders: Southeast Division

October 13th, 2023 at 10:29am CST by Luke Adams

With the 2023/24 NBA regular season around the corner, we’re getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign and continuing an annual Hoops Rumors tradition.

With the help of the lines from a series of sports betting sites – including Bovada and BetOnline – we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division. In a series of team-by-team polls, you’ll get the chance to weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic.

In 2022/23, our voters went 16-14 on their over/under picks. Can you top that in ’23/24?

We’ll keep our series going today with the Southeast Division…

Miami Heat

Atlanta Hawks

Orlando Magic

Charlotte Hornets

Washington Wizards

Previous voting results:

Northwest

  • Denver Nuggets (53.5 wins): Over (52.0%)
  • Minnesota Timberwolves (44.5 wins): Over (53.1%)
  • Oklahoma City Thunder (44.5 wins): Under (53.6%)
  • Utah Jazz (35.5 wins): Over (55.5%)
  • Portland Trail Blazers (28.5 wins): Under (50.9%)

Central

  • Milwaukee Bucks (54.5 wins): Over (76.9%)
  • Cleveland Cavaliers (50.5 wins): Under (52.0%)
  • Indiana Pacers (38.5 wins): Over (64.1%)
  • Chicago Bulls (37.5 wins): Under (61.9%)
  • Detroit Pistons (27.5 wins): Over (53.8%)

Southwest

  • Memphis Grizzlies (46.5 wins): Under (52.1%)
  • New Orleans Pelicans (44.5 wins): Under (60.8%)
  • Dallas Mavericks (44.5 wins): Under (50.3%)
  • Houston Rockets (31.5 wins): Over (59.2%)
  • San Antonio Spurs (28.5 wins): Over (54.4%)
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New York Notes: Giles, Simmons, DSJ, Brunson, Hart

October 13th, 2023 at 8:59am CST by Luke Adams

It has been over two years since Harry Giles last appeared in an NBA game, so he isn’t taking his opportunity with the Nets for granted, writes Dan Martin of The New York Post. Sidelined since 2021 due to knee problems, Giles is vying for a roster spot on a non-guaranteed training camp deal.

“It’s amazing,” Giles said on Wednesday after making his preseason debut on Monday. “A dream come true. The whole game, I was just like in a different world, man. I was out there competing and having fun. Just smiling, man. It’s great to be back. It’s been a long time coming, so I’m blessed.”

Giles’ comeback efforts haven’t been lost on his teammates, who admire his perseverance to get back to the NBA. Starting center Nic Claxton referred to Giles’ return as “pretty motivating,” per Martin.

“Knowing his story, knowing where he’s coming from [and] seeing a guy like Harry sticking around and still grinding,” Claxton said. “He’s been physical and obviously he knows how to play. He’s been in the league, been around the league, for a while. I think we could definitely use him this year.”

With only 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, the Nets could have two regular season roster spots up for grabs this fall and Giles strengthened his case for one of them on Thursday, scoring 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds (six offensive) in 21 minutes in Brooklyn’s victory over Maccabi Ra’anana.

Here’s more on the NBA’s two New York teams:

  • Nets point guard Ben Simmons, coming off the back injury that ended his 2022/23 season, had another encouraging showing in Thursday’s preseason game, racking up six points, nine assists, and six rebounds in 22 minutes. “As he continues to stack days and games together, then his instinctive nature comes out,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said after the game, according to Martin.
  • Within the same New York Post story, Martin notes that Nets guard Dennis Smith Jr. left Thursday’s contest due to a sprained left ankle. X-rays were negative, but Smith will undergo additional testing on Friday, per Vaughn.
  • Discussing his desire to win an NBA championship, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson told reporters that he doesn’t keep any of his awards – including his NCAA championship ring – around his house, since he doesn’t want to let those reminders of his past success make him complacent, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. “You never want to be too into yourself and think too highly of yourself,” Brunson said. “You want to be able to keep growing as a player and that’s just how I’ve been.”
  • Although the Knicks are bringing along Josh Hart slowly this preseason, he and the team insist he’s healthy and that the approach has just been about make sure his body feels good after a “long summer.” Braziller has the story and the quotes from Hart and head coach Tom Thibodeau.
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Wizards Notes: Coulibaly, Gill, Avdija, Omoruyi, Lineup

October 13th, 2023 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

It raised some eyebrows around the NBA when the Wizards traded up to No. 7 in June’s draft to nab French forward Bilal Coulibaly, who played second fiddle to Victor Wembanyama for the Metropolitans 92 last season. But Coulibaly, the NBA’s third-youngest player, has impressed the team with his poise and maturity so far this fall, writes Josh Robbins of The Athletic.

“I think that’s unique for a teenager,” head coach Wes Unseld Jr. said of Coulibaly’s mindset. “It doesn’t seem like he gets rattled. He’s not overly demonstrative in any way, but I think he’s got the right approach.”

Third-year wing Corey Kispert said that Coulibaly has had to learn a lot in his first NBA training camp and preseason, joking that the rookie has been forced to “drink out of a fire hose” in taking in all the information the Wizards are throwing at him. However, Kispert added that he has been “nothing but impressed” with Coulibaly so far.

According to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, Unseld said this week that the plan for Coulibaly this season is to give him a “steady diet” of meaningful minutes in games. That might happen in the NBA with the Wizards or in the G League with the Capital City Go-Go. The franchise doesn’t want to rush the developmental process with the 19-year-old, and he’s on board with that plan.

“I know I’m young,” Coulibaly said. “I’ll take the time that it will take.”

Here’s more out of D.C.:

  • The Wizards announced on Thursday that forward Anthony Gill has suffered a strained left hamstring and will be sidelined for the next two or three weeks, tweets Wallace. That means Gill likely won’t be available when the club’s regular season begins on October 25.
  • Deni Avdija, who has missed the Wizards’ first two preseason games due to back tightness, was a full participant in practice on Wednesday and could’ve played on Thursday if needed, tweets Robbins. It’s sounds like Avdija will be good to go for the start of the regular season, barring a setback.
  • Wallace shares some takeaways from the Wizards’ first two preseason games, singling out two-way player Eugene Omoruyi as an under-the-radar standout and observing that the club’s starting lineup is beginning to take shape. Tyus Jones, Jordan Poole, Coulibaly, Kyle Kuzma, and Daniel Gafford have started both preseason contests for Washington, though Wallace suspects Avdija may supplant Coulibaly in that five-man group once he returns.
  • With Bradley Beal no longer in Washington, which player or players might emerge as the locker room leader(s) in 2023/24? Candace Buckner of The Washington Post explores that topic, writing that those leadership roles will come down to stature and won’t simply fall to the highest-paid players by default.
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