- Suns guard Landry Shamet was unable to practice on Friday due to a left foot injury, according to a report from The Associated Press. “Injuries are a part of it,” coach Monty Williams said. “We’re not sure the severity of it. He just didn’t practice today and that’s all we have to report. But we’re built for situations like this. … We just have to deal with stuff as it pops up.”
Earlier on Thursday, reports surfaced that Warriors star guard Stephen Curry was on track to return from his foot injury for Game 1 against Denver on Saturday. That didn’t change after the team’s scrimmage today.
Afterward, coach Steve Kerr said that Curry is “optimistic he’ll play Saturday,” Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Curry wouldn’t say it’s a given he’ll play, but that’s his expectation, Kendra Andrews of ESPN writes.
“Everything has been positive in terms of getting back out there and understanding I’ll be ready to play whenever that time is. I’m hoping it’s Saturday,” he said. “I’ll try to be the best version I can be having missing a little bit of time … I have high confidence I can go out there and help our team win.”
Curry will be on an unspecified minutes restriction, Andrews adds.
We have more postseason-related injury news:
- The Clippers are listing swingman Luke Kennard as questionable for Friday’s do-or-die play-in game against New Orleans, Scott Kushner of NOLA.com tweets. Kennard tweaked his right hamstring during the regular-season finale on Sunday.
- While Luka Doncic reportedly will miss Game 1 of the Mavericks’ playoff series against Utah, the team has yet to officially rule him out, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News reports. Coach Jason Kidd said Doncic is “progressing” from the calf strain he suffered in the regular-season finale. “He’s doing good,” Kidd said. “Didn’t practice, but is in good spirits, and had a good day.”
- It’s very unlikely Dario Saric will suit up for the Suns during the playoffs. However, he left the door open a crack, telling the media he could return in an emergency situation where multiple Suns big men get hurt and he’s feeling healthy enough to play, according to Kellan Olson of ArizonaSports.com. Saric tore the ACL in his right knee last July during Game 1 of the Finals.
- Celtics center Robert Williams continue to “ramp up” his left knee rehab, according to coach Ime Udoka, though he’s still not cleared for contact, Jared Weiss tweets. “He’s getting on court basketball drills, mixing in pretty much everything,” Udoka said. “Not contact, but any basketball drill. Getting a lot of shots up, weight-bearing, strength, agility. It’s low level, but he’s ramping up day by day and feeling good about it.”
Suns head coach Monty Williams has won the Michael H. Goldberg award for the 2021/22 season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. It’s the second consecutive year in which Williams has been named the National Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
This award, introduced in 2017 and named after longtime NBCA executive director Michael H. Goldberg, is voted on by the NBA’s 30 head coaches, none of whom can vote for himself. However, it isn’t the NBA’s official Coach of the Year award, which is voted on by media members and is represented by the Red Auerbach Trophy. The winner of that award will be announced later in the year.
Williams led the Suns to an NBA-best 64-18 record this season, despite missing All-Star point guard Chris Paul for an extended stretch in the second half. Phoenix finished the year ranked in the top five in both offensive and defensive rating — the team’s +7.5 net rating was the league’s best mark.
A year ago, Williams won the Coaches Association’s award and then finished second to Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau for the official Coach of the Year award. This season, Williams will face stiff competition for the Red Auerbach Trophy from Taylor Jenkins, Erik Spoelstra, Ime Udoka, and J.B. Bickerstaff, among others.
According to Wojnarowski, Jenkins (Grizzlies), Spoelstra (Heat), Willie Green (Pelicans), Tyronn Lue (Clippers), and Gregg Popovich (Spurs) were among the other coaches who received votes for this season’s Michael H. Goldberg award.
During the final three days of the regular season, five NBA players who had been on two-way contracts were promoted to their respective teams’ 15-man rosters.
[RELATED: 2021/22 NBA Two-Way Contract Conversions]
Three of those five players – Jazz guard Trent Forrest, Suns forward Ish Wainright, and Cavaliers Moses Brown – received straight conversions, having their contracts turned into one-year, minimum-salary contracts, Hoops Rumors has learned. Forrest, Wainright, and Brown will be eligible to play in the postseason with their respective teams, but won’t be under contract beyond the 2021/22 season.
The other two – Lakers forward Wenyen Gabriel and Nets forward Kessler Edwards – signed two-year, minimum-salary deals that include team options for the 2022/23 season. Their clubs will have the opportunity to bring them back for another year if they pick up those options before the June 29 deadline. Gabriel’s salary will remain non-guaranteed even if his option is exercised.
Here are a few more details on contracts signed in recent days:
- The Magic used a portion of their mid-level exception to give Devin Cannady a three-year deal and a $100K rest-of-season salary on Sunday, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. A minimum-salary contract would’ve been limited to two years and would’ve resulted in a rest-of-season salary of just $8,558. Smith adds that Cannady’s second- and third-year salaries (worth the minimum) are non-guaranteed, with a team option on the 2023/24 season.
- The Bucks dipped into their mid-level exception in order to give Rayjon Tucker a three-year, minimum-salary deal, according to Smith (Twitter link). The contract is non-guaranteed beyond this season.
- Juwan Morgan‘s new two-year deal with the Celtics includes a minimum-salary team option for 2022/23, tweets Smith. Morgan’s salary will remain non-guaranteed even if the option is exercised.
- Chaundee Brown‘s new two-way contract with the Hawks is a two-year deal, while the two-ways signed in recent days by Mac McClung (Lakers) and RJ Nembhard (Cavaliers) were just rest-of-season agreements, Hoops Rumors has learned. The majority of the players on two-way deals will be free agents this summer, but Brown is one of 13 who is also under contract for 2022/23, as our tracker shows.
- Suns wing Mikal Bridges recently made his case for why he should be Defensive Player of the Year in an interview with Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, explaining why he believes big men win the award too often. “I would never discredit anybody, and obviously bigs have been winning that award for a while and they do a hell of a job, but the amount of times a big has won over a guard is just crazy,” Bridges said as part of a larger quote. “I think people take it for granted how tough it is to guard the top perimeter players in this league and not be able to really touch them because they’re going to get the foul call.”
2:23pm: The Suns have officially converted Wainright’s contract from a two-way to a standard deal, the team confirmed (via Twitter).
1:28pm: The Suns are converting the two-way contract of rookie forward Ishmail Wainright into a standard deal, making Wainright eligible for the playoffs, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Wainright has seen action in 44 Suns games this season, averaging 2.1 PGG and 1.2 RPG in 7.4 MPG. The 27-year-old signed his two-way contract in October after being waived by Toronto during training camp.
It’s unlikely that Wainright will see much action in the playoffs, but he might be employed as a defensive specialist in certain situations.
Wainright, who went undrafted out of Baylor in 2017, played for a number of international leagues prior to this season.
- Suns head coach Monty Williams said “it was tough decision for us” to part with Frank Kaminsky, who was released on Thursday. “He meant a lot to us, and me personally, I’m grateful for everything he did for us. I just wish he could’ve gone on with us, but these are tough decisions that we have to make. The cool part was, he totally understood and it just says a lot about who he is as a person,” Williams said (video link from Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic).
A player who has no more than six years of NBA experience is typically eligible for a maximum salary starting at 25% of the salary cap; a player with between seven and nine years of NBA service is eligible for a max deal starting at 30% of the cap; and a player with 10 or more years of experience can earn a starting salary worth up to 35% of the cap.
However, the NBA’s super-max rules, which we explain in a pair of glossary entries, allow players who don’t yet have 10 years of experience to move into higher maximum-salary tiers. By meeting certain criteria, players with seven to nine years of experience can become eligible for salaries worth up to 35% of the cap, while players with six years (or less) of service time can qualify for up to 30% of the cap.
The super-max performance criteria is as follows (only one of the following must be true):
- The player was named to an All-NBA team and/or was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
- The player was named the NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.
A player who has seven or eight years of NBA service with one or two years left on his contract becomes eligible for what is known as a “Designated Veteran” extension if he meets the required performance criteria and hasn’t been traded since his first four years in the league. A Designated Veteran contract can also be signed by a player who is technically a free agent if he has eight or nine years of service and meets the required criteria.
Nuggets star Nikola Jokic met the super-max performance criteria a year ago when he won his first MVP award. However, since he still only had six years of NBA experience under his belt at the time, he couldn’t actually sign a Designated Veteran extension with Denver until the summer of 2022. The expectation is that Jokic will sign a five-year contract extension with a starting salary worth 35% of the 2023/24 cap this offseason.
Players who are coming off their rookie contracts and meet the super-max performance criteria become eligible for what is colloquially known as a “Rose Rule” contract, starting at 30% of the cap instead of 25%. The rule is unofficially named after Derrick Rose, who won an MVP award in 2011 while he was still on his rookie deal.
Mavericks star Luka Doncic qualified for a Rose Rule super-max deal by earning All-NBA honors in his second and third NBA seasons in 2020 and 2021. Even if he doesn’t make an All-NBA team this season (he will), he already met the performance criteria by being named an All-NBA player in two of the three seasons before his new contract will take effect. When the Mavs signed Doncic to a rookie scale extension last offseason, they agreed it would start at 30% of the 2022/23 cap. Currently, that five-year deal projects to be worth over $212MM.
Not every player is as fortunate as Jokic or Doncic though. Most of the players who have a shot at becoming eligible for a super-max contract this year will need to earn a spot on one of the 2021/22 All-NBA teams in order to qualify.
Here’s a closer look at some of the players who have a lot riding on this season’s All-NBA picks from a financial perspective:
Trae Young (Hawks)
When Young signed a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension with the Hawks last August, the two sides agreed to include Rose Rule language in the agreement, opening the door for Young’s starting salary to be worth 30% of the cap (instead of 25%) when the deal begins in 2022/23. In order for that to happen though, Young has to earn one of 15 All-NBA spots this season.
It looked in the first half, as Atlanta got off to a 17-25 start, like Young would be a long shot to make an All-NBA team. However, as they did a year ago, the Hawks have played much better in the second half and Young has been leading the team’s push for a playoff spot.
Young’s season-long averages of 28.3 PPG and 9.7 APG in 74 games (34.9 MPG) make him a legitimate All-NBA candidate, even if he’s penalized a little for his subpar defense. While Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, and Ja Morant are probably ahead of him among potential All-NBA guards, Young looks like a strong Third Team contender, especially if voters consider DeMar DeRozan to be a forward.
Based on the NBA’s latest cap projections, Young would be in line for a $212.3MM payday if he’s named to an All-NBA team or $176.9MM if he isn’t. That’s a difference of more than $35MM, so voters will have to think carefully about which players they select as their six All-NBA guards this spring.
Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves)
Devin Booker (Suns)
Unlike Young, Towns and Booker have yet to lock in extensions with their respective teams and aren’t facing do-or-die All-NBA decisions this spring. However, both players would become eligible for super-max contract extensions (worth 35% of the cap instead of 30%) if they’re named to an All-NBA team this season.
The current contracts for Towns and Booker are virtually identical, and if they both earn All-NBA nods, their next deals could be too. With seven years of NBA experience and two years left on their respective contracts, they’d be eligible to sign four-year, Designated Veteran extensions this offseason.
Those deals wouldn’t go into effect until 2024/25, so it’s difficult to pin down exactly how much they’d be worth. We don’t yet have solid cap projections for that season. But if we assume a $130MM salary cap for that ’24/25, a four-year contract starting at 35% of the cap would work out to approximately $204MM.
First though, Towns and Booker will need to earn All-NBA spots. Booker looks like a lock, having been the go-to offensive option for the league’s best team.
Towns’ spot isn’t quite as certain, since he’ll be behind centers Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, and Rudy Gobert‘s defensive dominance always makes him an All-NBA threat. But I think voters will favor Towns over Gobert and other centers (such as Bam Adebayo). There’s even a possibility that both Jokic and Embiid could end up on the First Team if voters put one of the two stars at forward, which would leave both the Second Team and Third Team center spots up for grabs and make Towns a slam-dunk choice.
Zach LaVine (Bulls)
LaVine will have eight years of NBA service under his belt when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this offseason and will be eligible for a maximum salary starting at 30% of the cap. An All-NBA nod would bump that number up to 35%, but that doesn’t look nearly as realistic for LaVine as it did earlier in the season.
Slowed by knee pain, LaVine has seen his numbers dip a little in the second half, and while they’re still strong overall (24.4 PPG on .475/.389/.852 shooting), his teammate DeRozan is more likely to earn All-NBA accolades. And after slipping to sixth in the Eastern Conference standings, Chicago is unlikely to be rewarded with two All-NBA selections.
Assuming LaVine doesn’t make an All-NBA team, his projected five-year maximum contract with the Bulls will be worth $212.3MM instead of $247.7MM.
The rest
The players listed above aren’t the only ones who have super-max eligibility on the line with this year’s All-NBA vote. But they’re the only ones among that group who are realistic candidates to actually make one of those All-NBA teams.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Porter Jr., for instance, signed rookie scale extensions with Rose Rule language last offseason and would be eligible for higher max salaries if they make an All-NBA team, but obviously they won’t. Suns center Deandre Ayton, a restricted free agent this summer, would qualify for a 30% max salary with an All-NBA spot, and he certainly has a better case than Gilgeous-Alexander or Porter. But he’ll fall short too.
When this season’s All-NBA teams are eventually announced, Young, Towns, Booker, and – to a lesser extent – LaVine are the best candidates to benefit financially.
6:02pm: The Suns have officially waived Kaminsky, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets.
4:28pm: As the playoffs approach, the Suns are waiving veteran forward Frank Kaminsky, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Kaminsky hasn’t played since November 15. He suffered a stress reaction in his right knee, which later required surgery.
The defending Western Conference champions, who own the league’s best record, can now add a free agent or promote one of their two-way players to the 15-man roster, making Kaminsky’s replacement eligible for the postseason.
Kaminsky was headed to unrestricted free agency this summer even before he was let go. He re-signed with the Suns on a minimum contract last offseason.
Kaminsky appeared in 96 regular-season games with Phoenix in a three-season span after spending four years with Charlotte.
Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry knows his days in Sacramento may be numbered, but he declined to speak about his future this week, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee writes. Gentry became the team’s interim head coach when Luke Walton was fired back in November.
“There would be no reason whatsoever to discuss it right now,” Gentry said. “The season is going to be over in the next two weeks and then from there, we’ll sit down and talk and figure out the direction that everything should be taken.”
Sacramento owns the 12th-best record in the West at 29-49 and is on the verge of being eliminated from play-in contention. Gentry joined the franchise in 2020 after a five-year stint as the Pelicans’ head coach. His coaching career began as an assistant at Baylor during the 1980/81 season.
There’s more out of the Pacific Division today:
- The Lakers lost a marquee game against the Pelicans at home on Friday, recording its fifth consecutive loss. The team now trails San Antonio by one game (and a tiebreaker) for the No. 10 spot in the West. “The big picture is it was pretty much a must-win for us, and we didn’t get the job done,” LeBron James said, according to Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group (Twitter link).
- The Suns plan to rest three starters against the Thunder on Sunday, Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic tweets. Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Jae Crowder all won’t play. Phoenix is coming off a 122-114 loss to the Grizzlies on Friday. Memphis was missing Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Steven Adams in the contest.
- Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports hosted a wide-ranging interview with Lakers star Russell Westbrook, who’s in the midst of a tumultuous season with the team. When Westbrook was asked why he hasn’t taken time off despite being scrutinized by fans, he replied, “Because it’s bigger than me, man. I’m super blessed to have a platform to be able to help show and help other people. So I’m very prideful in showing people on the outside that regardless of the situation, the circumstances that I may be going through, there are ways to be able to get through it. I strongly believe that if I’m healthy, then I’ll be able to play and go out and compete.”