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Thunder Waive Malevy Leons

November 15th, 2024 at 10:55pm CST by Rory Maher

The Thunder have waived forward/center Malevy Leons, the team announced.

Leons, who went undrafted in June out of Bradley, initially signed an Exhibit 10 contract with Oklahoma City in September. He was waived on Oct. 19, but was re-signed on Oct. 31, when the Thunder cut Alex Reese.

Leons’ contract was a non-guaranteed one-year deal worth the prorated rookie minimum. OKC will carry a relatively small dead-money cap hit for waiving the 25-year-old, who was born in the Netherlands.

Leons appeared in five games for the Thunder, playing a total of 17 garbage-time minutes. He recorded two points, two rebounds and one assist in those contests.

It’s unclear why exactly the Thunder decided to sign and waive both Reese and Leons so early in the season, but from a big-picture perspective, it doesn’t change much about their cap outlook. They’re still $10MM+ below this season’s luxury tax line, which is set at $170,814,000.

The Thunder now have 14 players on standard contracts, with all three two-way spots filled.

Injury Notes: Knicks, Hawks, Pelicans, DeRozan, Carter

November 15th, 2024 at 10:36pm CST by Rory Maher

Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns was ruled out of Friday’s win vs. Brooklyn after initially being listed as questionable, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. Towns sustained a left knee contusion after bumping into Zach LaVine on Wednesday.

Backup guard Miles McBride was also downgraded from questionable to out on Friday due to an illness. McBride has been battling knee soreness as well, Bondy adds.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau provided another injury update on Precious Achiuwa prior to Friday’s contest. As Bondy notes, Achiuwa is nearing the four-week mark on his hamstring strain, which has prevented him from suiting up in 2024/25. Thibodeau said on Wednesday that Achiuwa still hasn’t been cleared for practice.

“He’s reevaluated every day,” Thibodeau said. “So yes, he has been reevaluated. The depth of it, I’m not sure. I know they’ve increased his activity. I think that part is good. With the hamstring, we just want to make sure it’s not a problem that will linger.”

Here are some more injury notes from around the NBA:

A trio of injured guards — Bogdan Bogdanovic (hamstring), Kobe Bufkin (shoulder) and Vit Krejci (adductor) — were assigned to the Hawks‘ G League affiliate on Friday to get some practice reps in, tweets Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. All three players are expected to travel with Atlanta for the team’s upcoming four-game road trip, which begins on Sunday in Portland and ends on Friday in Chicago, so there’s a chance they could return next week.
The Pelicans finally received some good injury news on Friday, according to Christian Clark of NOLA.com, who tweets that CJ McCollum has progressed to playing 5-on-5 and is getting close to returning from a right adductor strain. However, the news wasn’t all positive, as second-year guard Jordan Hawkins (low back strain) and defensive stalwart Herbert Jones (right shoulder) have not yet been cleared for contact work.
Kings forward DeMar DeRozan missed his first game of the season on Friday vs. Minnesota due to lower back tightness, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. DeRozan exited Wednesday’s game with the injury, was unable to practice on Thursday (Twitter link via James Ham of The Kings Beat), and also did not participate in Friday’s shootaround, per Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 KTXL (Twitter link).
Magic big man Wendell Carter Jr. missed his seventh straight game on Friday due to plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Head coach Jamahl Mosley said Orlando’s starting center has been receiving treatment and is “progressing,” albeit “slowly,” according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). “(Carter’s) been on the bike. He’s doing some spot shooting,” Mosley said.

Wizards Notes: Poole, Wembanyama, Stock Watch, Rookies

November 15th, 2024 at 8:18pm CST by Rory Maher

After a forgettable first season with the Wizards, Jordan Poole is off to a much better start in year two, writes Varun Shankar of The Washington Post. Despite losing Wednesday’s game in San Antonio, Poole was terrific, recording 42 points on 15-of-22 shooting, six assists, two rebounds and two steals.

As Shankar notes, Poole opened last season as the starting shooting guard, but after struggling for much of 2023/24, head coach Brian Keefe moved him to the bench to be a primary play-maker. Poole returned to the starting lineup as point guard late last season when Tyus Jones was injured, and he’s happy to have more on-ball opportunities again in ’24/25.

“I think [this game] is the perfect example [of the benefits of switching to point guard],” Poole said after Wednesday’s 42-point outburst.

Through 10 games (30.7 MPG), the 25-year-old is averaging 22.2 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 4.4 APG, 2.3 SPG and 0.7 BPG, with an efficient shooting line of .457/.444/.923. Several of those statistics represent career highs.

Here’s more on the Wizards:

In the draft lottery in 2023, the Wizards were one ping-pong ball away from landing the No. 1 overall pick and the chance to select French phenom Victor Wembanyama. On Wednesday, he showed them what they missed by pouring in a career-high 50 points on 18-of-29 shooting, including going 8-of-16 from long distance, Shankar writes for The Post. While they have some promising young talent, Washington lacks a clear-cut star to build around like Wembanyama, Shankar notes.
Poole and second-year forward Bilal Coulibaly are among the Wizards whose stock is up through 10 games, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who says Alex Sarr and Kyle Kuzma are trending in the opposite direction early on in ’24/25. Washington’s 2-8 record is actually good thing for the future, Robbins adds, as the team needs to secure another high lottery pick for a 2025 draft class that is viewed as having plenty of high-end talent.
Chase Hughes of Monumental Sports Network shares some early statistical trends for the Wizards’ trio of rookie first-round picks — Sarr, Carlton Carrington and Kyshawn George.

Lonzo Ball Out At Least One More Week With Wrist Sprain

November 15th, 2024 at 7:04pm CST by Rory Maher

Bulls guard Lonzo Ball has been sidelined since Oct. 28 due to a right wrist sprain. While he was hopeful of returning on Sunday vs. Houston, head coach Billy Donovan was less optimistic about that target date.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, including K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Sports Network (Twitter links), Donovan said Ball had a strenuous workout earlier this week when the team was in New York, calling it a “struggle.” Ball will be sidelined at least one more week because he’s having a tough time catching passes without pain, per Donovan.

According to Johnson, when Ball was initially evaluated by doctors, he was told his return timeline could range anywhere from two-to-six weeks, depending on how his wrist was healing. Chicago has not yet tested Ball’s injured wrist with contact drills defensively, Johnson notes.

Ball went through a pregame workout on Friday, tweets Johnson. The former No. 2 overall pick was dribbling with both hands, but when he was practicing drives, he was shooting left-handed layups and floaters.

With Ball out at least a few more games, Donovan will likely continue to lean heavily on Ayo Dosunmu as the primary guard off the bench, with Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips soaking up minutes on the wing.

NBA Considering Turning All-Star Game Into Tournament

November 15th, 2024 at 5:45pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA is seriously considering turning the All-Star Game into a four-team tournament, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN.

The proposed changes would take effect starting with this season’s All-Star weekend, which will take place in San Francisco at the Chase Center, Golden State’s home arena, from Feb. 14-16.

Instead of the typical two teams with 12 players each, the 24 All-Stars would be separated into three teams of eight players apiece, Charania explains. The fourth team would be the winner of the Rising Stars competition. The tournament would feature two rounds, with the victors of round one (Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4) advancing to the final.

While the plans have not yet been finalized, all signs point to the league eventually implementing the changes, two sources tell Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link).

According to Charania, NBA officials discussed the proposed format on Friday with the Competition Committee, which consists of team governors, executives, coaches, players and union personnel. The league has been discussing format changes with team officials and players for several months, and the four-team tournament quickly became the most popular plan.

Commissioner Adam Silver stated a couple weeks ago that the league was looking for a new All-Star format after last season’s contest in Indianapolis was universally panned for its lack of defense and abundance of long three-point shots. The East defeated the West 211-186 in a listless affair despite a plea from league executive Joe Dumars to take the game seriously and put forth a better effort.

“We’re looking at other formats,” Silver said. “I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”

As Reynolds writes in a full story, the new format is similar to what has been used for the Rising Stars event in recent years. That four-team tournament features a target score for both the semifinal and final.

What’s less clear is how the All-Star voting process would work, according to Reynolds, who notes that at least one more coach would likely be needed as well.

Charania hears the most popular All-Star event from last season, the first-ever NBA vs. WNBA three-point shootout between Warriors guard Stephen Curry and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, will likely return in February, though it may be tweaked to include more players. Sources tell Charania that Mavericks wing Klay Thompson and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark are among the candidates to join Curry and Ionescu.

Grizzlies Notes: Jackson, Morant, Edey, Bane, Williams

November 15th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

After winning over 50 games in back-to-back seasons, the Grizzlies were decimated by injuries in 2023/24 and finished with a 27-55 record. As demoralizing as that season was, the team was able to find some silver linings. One was the offensive emergence of big man Jaren Jackson Jr., the only starter to remain relatively healthy — his 30.4% usage rate in ’23/24 dwarfed his previous career high.

“It was just a huge opportunity,” Jackson told Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “I haven’t ever been put in a position to be that offensively free in probably my life. Just getting those experiences, I can take that to any year that I have going forward.”

“Last year was a huge boost in his growth offensively,” head coach Taylor Jenkins added. “It was definitely an unintended opportunity, obviously as unfortunate as last season was, but his development was one of the brightest spots I could see.”

Jackson has carried those offensive strides over to ’24/25, matching his career-high 22.5 points per game through his first 10 outings and scoring much more efficiently (.547 FG%, .392 3PT%) than he did a year ago (.444/.320).

Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant, meanwhile, served a 25-game suspension to start the season, then was active for just nine games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury that kept him out of action for the next 10 months. Obviously, that wasn’t an ideal outcome for the rising star, but he believes the experience could benefit him in the long run.

“I’d say it was for the better,” Morant said, per MacMahon. “It allowed me to lock in mentally, focus more. I was able to be around my family a lot during my recovery process, being able to travel, feel human again, go to my AAU teams’ games, watch them win, watch the joy that they have being out there playing. It had me itching to get back on the floor.”

Here’s more on the Grizzlies:

Morant is still on crutches and is considered week-to-week as he recovers from a right hip subluxation and pelvic muscle strains, according to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal, who spoke to sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon Michael Gerhardt about Morant’s diagnosis and potential recovery timeline. “Based on what the reports are, I’d say it could be anywhere from three-to-six weeks for a return to play,” Gerhardt said, noting that the injury is an uncommon one for basketball players.
Ahead of this year’s draft, some teams didn’t have Zach Edey on their first-round boards, sources tell MacMahon. However, the Grizzlies were happy to select him with the No. 9 overall pick and made him a day-one starter. Edey has come off the bench in Memphis’ past three games, but Jenkins said that move wasn’t meant to be a demotion for the rookie and that it was designed to let the team evaluate different lineup combinations. Mark Medina of Athlon Sports has more on the Grizzlies’ belief in Edey and the early stages of his NBA career.
Vince Williams (left tibial stress reaction), who has yet to make his season debut, isn’t the only injured Grizzlies player who is close to returning. Desmond Bane (right oblique strain) is also listed as questionable to play on Friday in Golden State after missing Memphis’ past seven games, tweets Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com. Both Williams and Bane participated in today’s shootaround and their availability vs. the Warriors will be determined after pregame workouts, Wallace adds.

Northwest Notes: Jokic, Collins, Filipowski, Flagler

November 15th, 2024 at 2:36pm CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic has been ruled out for Friday’s game in New Orleans – Denver’s first NBA Cup matchup – for personal reasons, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes.

The Nuggets have a +11.3 net rating in Jokic’s 381 minutes on the court this season, compared to a -28.5 mark in the 109 minutes he hasn’t played. While that doesn’t bode particularly well for tonight’s contest, they’ll be facing a banged-up Pelicans squad that’s missing six rotation players, so it’s still a winnable game.

Zeke Nnaji, Dario Saric, and DeAndre Jordan are among the candidates to play frontcourt minutes in Jokic’s absence.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

Although some of John Collins‘ numbers, including an identical 37.1% three-point rate, look similar to the ones he posted last season, the veteran big man looks more comfortable so far in his second season with the Jazz, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune, who points to Collins’ increased usage rate, improved assist rate, and better on/off numbers as positive signs. After deploying him as their starting center for much of last season, the Jazz are using Collins more as a power forward – primarily off the bench – this fall and the role seems to suit him better, says Larsen. Collins still probably still isn’t a positive trade asset, but his value is moving in the right direction, Larsen adds.
Jazz rookie Kyle Filipowski played well in his fourth career start on Thursday, registering 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and holding his own when switched on Luka Doncic, Larsen writes. Of the six players Utah has drafted over the past two seasons, Filipowski was the lowest pick (No. 32 overall in 2024), but he has looked like the promising prospect of the bunch so far this season, Larsen contends.
Former Baylor standout Adam Flagler, who has been in the Thunder‘s system since going pro in 2023, has logged just 25 total minutes across seven appearances at the NBA level since signing a two-way contract in February, but he continues to develop in the G League, where he has emerged as a leader this season for the Oklahoma City Blue, per Rylan Stiles of SI.com. “I have always been a guy that has led by example but wanting to be more vocal, especially for the team,” Flagler said. “Being here for a second year now, knowing what to expect is big for me to put guys in place and let them know they not out there by themselves.”

NBA Repeater Taxpayer Tracker

November 15th, 2024 at 1:13pm CST by Luke Adams

As we outlined in our glossary entry on luxury tax penalties, an NBA team is subject to more punitive “repeater” tax rates if it finishes a season in luxury tax territory after having also done so in three of the previous four seasons.

If a team is a taxpayer after having stayed out of tax territory for at least two of the previous four seasons, it pays the “standard” tax rates. In 2024/25, those standard tax rates start at $1.50 per dollar in the first tax bracket and increase as a team moves deeper into the tax. By comparison, the repeater rates begin at $2.50 per dollar and are always one dollar higher than the standard rates.

In practical terms, this means that when the Warriors finished over $40MM above the luxury tax line in 2023/24 and were subject to the repeater rate, their tax bill was worth an estimated $177MM. If they had been paying the standard tax rates, that bill would have come in a little under $137MM, saving them $40MM+.

The gap between the standard and repeater rates will further increase beginning in 2025/26, when the NBA tweaks its rates to implement more punitive penalties for repeater taxpayers and teams that operate deep in tax territory. If those new rates had been in place for the 2023/24 Warriors, their tax bill would have exceeded $260MM.

With all that in mind, it’s worth keeping tabs on which teams are subject to the repeater penalties in each NBA season.

In the space below, we’ll monitor which NBA teams have been taxpayers in each of the previous four seasons, updating the list each offseason to ensure the four most recent seasons are accounted for. If a team shows up three of these four lists, they’ll be subject to the repeater tax rate in the current season, as noted at the bottom of the article.

This list can be found anytime under the “Hoops Rumors Features” menu on the right sidebar on our desktop site, or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu.

Here are the taxpaying teams for the past four seasons:

Note: Teams marked with an asterisk (*) paid the repeater tax rate for that season.

2023/24:

Boston Celtics
Denver Nuggets
Golden State Warriors *
Los Angeles Clippers *
Los Angeles Lakers *
Miami Heat
Milwaukee Bucks *
Phoenix Suns

2022/23:

Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
Dallas Mavericks
Denver Nuggets
Golden State Warriors *
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks
Phoenix Suns

2021/22:

Brooklyn Nets
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks
Philadelphia 76ers
Utah Jazz

2020/21:

Brooklyn Nets
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks
Philadelphia 76ers
Utah Jazz

Based on the lists above, the following teams will be subject to the repeater rate in 2024/25 if they finish the season in the tax:

Brooklyn Nets
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks

Of those five teams, only the Nets are operating below the tax line at the time of publication. It’s possible that could change later in the season as a result of in-season trades — the Warriors and Clippers are currently better positioned than the Lakers or Bucks to duck the tax.

The Nets were a taxpayer in 2021, 2022, and 2023, but because they stayed out of tax territory in 2024, they can reset their repeater clock and avoid paying the more punitive rates until at least 2029 if they avoid the tax this season. It’s a safe bet they’ll do so.

Having been in tax territory in both 2023 and 2024, the Celtics, Nuggets, and Suns are the teams currently projected to become new repeater taxpayers during the 2025/26 season if they finish the ’24/25 season in the tax, which is highly likely.

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Nets’ Claxton Out At Least One Week With Back Strain

November 15th, 2024 at 11:47am CST by Luke Adams

Nets center Nic Claxton has been diagnosed with a lower back strain and will receive an epidural injection later today, according to the team (Twitter link via Ian Begley of SNY.tv).

The plan is to reevaluate Claxton in one week, meaning he’ll miss at least Friday’s and Sunday’s games against the Knicks, as well as Tuesday’s contest vs. Charlotte. In a best-case scenario, he’d make it back for next Friday’s matchup with the Sixers in Philadelphia, but it’s certainly possible he’ll remain sidelined for longer than a week.

Claxton missed the entire preseason due to a hamstring injury and was rounding back into form in recent weeks, having reclaimed his spot in Brooklyn’s starting lineup last Monday (November 4). The big man has averaged 8.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, a career-high 2.5 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 24.8 minutes per game across his first 11 appearances (five starts) this season.

Until Claxton returned to the starting five, Ben Simmons had gotten the nod as the Nets’ starting center. Simmons has been coming off the bench as of late and head coach Jordi Fernandez spoke this week about the former No. 1 pick looking comfortable in his natural point guard position, but it’s possible Simmons will rejoin the starters until Claxton gets healthy.

Nets reserve center Day’Ron Sharpe has yet to make his season debut due to a hamstring injury. Noah Clowney, who earned one start earlier this season when Simmons was out and Claxton was still on a minutes limit, would be another option for Brooklyn at center.

The Nets have gotten off to a respectable 5-7 start this season, but they’ve been at their best with Claxton on the floor. His +5.7 net rating ranks first among Brooklyn players; the club has been outscored by eight points per 100 possessions when he’s not on the court.

And-Ones: TNT Lawsuit, Diamond Sports, Handy, Johnson, More

November 15th, 2024 at 11:12am CST by Luke Adams

Rumors began to circulate on Wednesday that the NBA and TNT Sports have opened settlement talks in an attempt to resolve the lawsuit Warner Bros. Discovery filed against the NBA earlier this year, according to Michael McCarthy and A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports.

“I know [both sides] want to solve this,” one source told Front Office Sports.

“It has to be soon,” another source said. “They don’t want to let it drag on.”

Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT’s parent company, sued the NBA after the league refused to recognize its matching rights and argued that TNT’s offer didn’t match the specific terms of the league’s deal with Amazon Prime. A settlement has always been considered the most likely outcome, since neither the NBA nor TNT is believed to be seeking a lengthy trial process that results in confidential details becoming public.

As McCarthy and Perez note, settlements are typically financial, but it’s not out of the question that the league could award TNT a smaller broadcast rights package after leaving the network out of its latest round of media rights deals with Disney, NBC, and Amazon.

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of the FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports), will emerge from bankruptcy following a federal judge’s ruling on Thursday, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic. Viewers will have the option of subscribing on a season-long, monthly, or per-game basis to their local Diamond Sports network to watch NBA broadcasts, per The Associated Press. Diamond, which broadcasts games for 13 NBA teams, will also offer subscriptions through Amazon Prime Video, though the exact details of that arrangement have yet to be announced, Drellich adds.
Phil Handy, a veteran NBA assistant coach who won titles with the Lakers, Raptors, and Cavaliers, will be the head coach of a team in Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 professional women’s basketball league debuting in January, says Marc J. Spears of Andscape. Handy became a coaching free agent in the spring when the Lakers fired all of their assistants after letting go of head coach Darvin Ham. Handy is one of six Unrivaled head coaches announced on Friday by the league (Twitter link).
In the wake of rumors that Anadolu Efes wing Stanley Johnson is exploring other professional options, the former NBA lottery pick stated on Twitter that he’s “very happy” with Efes and doesn’t plan on leaving the Istanbul-based club anytime soon. Johnson has had a very modest role in EuroLeague competition so far, averaging just 2.4 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game across seven outings.
John Hollinger of The Athletic takes a closer look at 10 relatively unheralded role players who have gotten off to strong starts this season, including Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, Grizzlies big man Jay Huff, and Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome, among others.