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Northwest Notes: Thunder, McDaniels, Edwards, Towns, Jazz

September 28th, 2023 at 3:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Thunder have plenty of draft assets and young players to dangle for a proven star. However, general manager Sam Presti doesn’t believe this is the right time to make that kind of trade, according to Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman.

Presti wants to see his young team develop more with what they have before taking that route.

“I don’t think you can make a rational case for it now,” Presti said. “Perhaps at some point when we have a little more information, the team has demonstrated its capability and played in high-performing games and we see what our limitations are, potentially. But I don’t know that there’s a lot of good rational thinking behind that other than impulse and following content creation. That is just part of the world that we live in.”

We have more from the Northwest Division:

  • The Timberwolves are hopeful of reaching a rookie scale extension agreement with forward Jaden McDaniels in the coming days, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tweets. “Yeah, certainly. … Had some constructive conversations with his agents and fingers crossed we’d like to get something done,” president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. McDaniels will be a restricted free agent next summer if he doesn’t sign an extension.
  • Who is the current team leader and face of the franchise the Timberwolves — Karl-Anthony Towns or Anthony Edwards? According to Edwards, that’s not even an issue, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes. “That’s what people try to do, man,” Edwards said. “They try to, like, break you up. Who’s the best player, you or KAT? Or who should take the last shot, you or KAT? And I don’t think it’s about any of that.”
  • The Jazz have finalized their coaching staff, according to a team press release. Chad Forcier, Rick Higgins, Scott Morrison, and Mike Williams are the newcomers to Will Hardy‘s staff. Evan Bradds, Chris Jones, Sean Sheldon, Lamar Skeeter and Jason Terry are the returning assistants.
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Wolves’ Connelly Talks Gobert, KAT, Edwards, Milton

September 22nd, 2023 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

As we relayed on Thursday, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly spoke during an appearance on The Jon Krawczynski Show about the team’s desire to keep Jaden McDaniels around for the long term, telling Krawczynski that he’d love to get an extension done with the young forward before the season begins.

Connelly’s comments about McDaniels weren’t the only interesting takeaway from that conversation. As Krawczynski writes for The Athletic, the Wolves’ lead decision-maker also addressed several other topics related to the club’s offseason and expectations for the 2023/24 season, including why Minnesota is more optimistic about the pairing of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns heading into their second year together.

“We don’t have too much video, but we have enough video to understand where we were wrong and where we were right and kind of drill down on those things that were working and say, ‘Maybe we were wrong with this is how things potentially could work,'” Connelly said. “So I just think collectively, knowing all the actors is going to make things a whole lot easier.”

Here are a few more highlights from Connelly during his interview with Krawczynski:

On whether the Wolves viewed 2022/23 as a down year for Gobert:

“I think at times we kind of don’t appreciate how impactful it can be (for a player) to make a big move. And the first one. So I think Rudy was very good last year by NBA standards. I thought by his standards, I don’t think he played up to his standards. I think he’d be the first to tell you. He was coming off a brutal European championship where I think he played until maybe eight days before the season. Nobody works harder than Rudy. Nobody pays more attention and detail to every single aspect of his game, his body, his mental approach. And he’s super, super excited to have a more comfortable season both on and off the court.”

On why he has big expectations for Anthony Edwards this season:

“I think he’s primed to have a monster year. … His work ethic has been insane this offseason. I mean, the guy’s in the best shape of his life. He’s so excited to take the next step, excited with the guys on this team and what they can do as they grow together. But I think with him, anything that’s not sincere or not kind of true to who he is, I think he smells it out quickly. So him forging his path, I think is the challenge that we’ve given him. And how can we help ensure he’s doing it in a way that’s reflective of who he is?”

On the role the Wolves envision for free agent addition Shake Milton:

“We view Shake as a point guard. He’s started enough NBA games at that position where we feel confident that he can handle that load. He’s a guy that, when given the opportunity, he always produced and produced for good teams. Philadelphia has won as many games as anybody in the last three or four years. So we were excited to get him in. I think it gives us a different look with size at that position, his ability to score around the paint and his ability to be a good match for our bigs. He can make some of the passes that, at 6’5″, 6’6″, he’s allowed to make that maybe smaller guards can’t make. So we’re excited about him.”

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Timberwolves Notes: Payne, Payton, Chandler, Edwards, Towns

September 16th, 2023 at 9:12am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Timberwolves are “kicking the tires” on free agent point guard Cameron Payne, reports Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). However, as of Friday morning, the team hadn’t extended an offer to the veteran guard, per Wolfson.

Payne, 29, averaged 10.3 points and 4.5 assists in 48 games with the Suns last year, becoming a reliable rotation point guard for Phoenix. The 6’1″ guard closed out his Suns tenure with a 31-point game in the playoffs against Denver. Phoenix traded him to San Antonio this offseason in order to open up a roster spot, then he was waived by the Spurs on Monday.

Minnesota has also had a couple point guards – Elfrid Payton and Kennedy Chandler – in for workouts during the last few weeks, according to Wolfson. However, neither guard was offered a contract following their respective workouts.

Payton, 29, holds career averages of 10.1 points and 5.7 assists in 500 NBA games. The 6’3″ guard hasn’t appeared in a game since the 2021/22 season. Chandler, 21, spent last season with Memphis after being drafted with the No. 38 overall pick in the 2022 draft. However, the former Tennessee guard was waived in April. He averaged 2.2 points in 36 appearances in his lone NBA season so far.

We have more from the Timberwolves:

  • Anthony Edwards‘ ascension from young star to potential superstar was obvious during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, though one of his most impressive moments came off the court, Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer opines. Fischer writes that Edwards was asked a question about which teammate he’d rather trade: Karl-Anthony Towns or Rudy Gobert. After initially ignoring it, Edwards circled back to the question. “Neither one, man,” Edwards said. “I like all my teammates. I love them. They my brothers. I wouldn’t trade neither one of them.” In his journey to superstardom, Fischer writes, Edwards’ leadership shined this summer.
  • In his annual NBA player tier rankings, The Athletic’s Seth Partnow placed Towns in his Tier 4B, defining him as a “sub-elite” big. The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski joined Partnow to go through his logic for placing Towns between the 55th and 66th-best players in the league in his ranking. Partnow reasons that while Towns’s offensive production is tremendous, his defense and availability leave much to be desired.
  • In case you missed it, the Timberwolves signed guard Vit Krejci to a training camp deal on Thursday.
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And-Ones: Team USA, Prospects, Load Management, Porter

September 15th, 2023 at 8:32pm CST by Rory Maher

It was reported earlier this week that LeBron James was recruiting stars for the 2024 Olympics, with several players planning on joining the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in Paris.

Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider link) recently crafted a 12-man roster for Team USA next summer by following three criteria: An ideal team, not necessarily the best individuals; prior success with USA Basketball; and young players who can continue with the national team in the future.

Pelton’s starting five features Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, James, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid, with Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, Mikal Bridges, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo and Evan Mobley coming off the bench. Donovan Mitchell was “perhaps the single toughest cut” from Pelton’s ideal roster.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

  • John Hollinger of The Athletic attended the G League Fall Invitational between G League Ignite and the Perth Wildcats to scout prospects for the 2024 NBA draft and beyond. While next year’s class isn’t considered particularly strong, Hollinger writes that several players stood out at the event, including Ron Holland, Alexandre Sarr and Izan Almansa. Ignite forward Tyler Smith was another standout who may have moved up draft boards, according to Hollinger, who notes that Perth guard Ben Henshall will be closely monitored going forward as well, perhaps for 2025 or 2026.
  • NBA commissioner Adam Silver has a difficult balancing act when it comes to star players resting, with fans, revenue, and player health among the key factors to consider. But the new player participation policy is a step in the right direction, contends Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. Having more stars on the court should make for a more compelling regular season, and Silver said at his press conference he had been weighing the advice of retired players, Goodwill notes. “You know, a lot of older players — by that I mean now, at this point, retired players — when I first came in the league, used to believe that they were more likely to get injured if they took nights off, that they would get out of rhythm,” he said. “In some cases, maybe (they) played fewer minutes, but they played. That’s something we want to look at as well.”
  • Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested this week on felony charges of assault and strangulation, but he’s far from the first NBA player to be accused of domestic violence. If the horrific allegations are proven true, Porter’s career in the league could be over, considering his history of off-court incidents. Chris Herring of Sports Illustrated believes the NBA should have a zero-tolerance policy for violence against women, though he concedes it would be a challenging rule to implement and would likely take several years. According to Herring, since salaries are rising across the board, players should be held to “extremely high behavioral standards.”
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Super-Max Candidates To Watch In 2023/24

September 14th, 2023 at 7:30am CST by Luke Adams

Note: This is an updated version of an article that was sent exclusively to our Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers in June. Click here for more information on Trade Rumors Front Office.

The NBA’s Designated Veteran rule, as we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, allows players to qualify for a maximum salary worth 35% of the cap before they gain the required NBA service time.

Typically, a player is ineligible to receive a maximum contract that starts at 35% of the cap until he has at least 10 years of experience, but the Designated Veteran rule gives a player with between seven and nine years of experience the opportunity to do so if he meets certain performance criteria. This has become colloquially known as signing a “super-max” deal.

The performance criteria are 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.

Since the NBA introduced the concept of the Designated Veteran contract in 2017, 12 players have signed them across seven offseasons. Celtics wing Jaylen Brown became the latest player to join that group this summer when he signed a five-year super-max deal that could become the NBA’s first $300MM contract.

Brown will be the only player who signs such a contract this offseason, but it’s worth taking a peek down the road to see which players are the best candidates to join the list of super-max recipients in 2024 and 2025.

We can start by penciling in another Celtic, Jayson Tatum, for 2024. Although he doesn’t yet have enough years of NBA service to sign a Designated Veteran extension, Tatum met the performance criteria in the spring by earning his second consecutive All-NBA berth.

That means that even if he doesn’t make an All-NBA team in 2024, he’ll have received an All-NBA nod in two of the previous three seasons when he meets the service time criteria next summer, making him super-max eligible. It seems likely the Celtics will offer him a Designated Veteran extension at that time.

Here are some other candidates to watch during the 2023/24 season:

2024

Because a player become ineligible for a Designated Veteran extension if he’s traded after his first four years in the NBA, prime candidates like Donovan Mitchell and Domantas Sabonis won’t be able to qualify. Still, there’s an intriguing group of candidates in play for next summer.

Ingram, Murray, and Siakam, members of the 2016 draft class, would have become super-max eligible if they had made an All-NBA team this year. They’ll get another chance in 2024.

Ingram averaged a career-best 24.7 points and 5.8 assists per night in 2022/23, but injuries limited him to just 45 games. While he’s not one of the best 15 players in the NBA, it’s not impossible to imagine the 26-year-old earning an All-NBA spot if he stays healthy and helps lead the Pelicans to a top-four seed in the West. He’s probably a long shot, but we can’t rule him out entirely.

Murray was making his way back from an ACL tear last season, which meant he was subject to load management and wasn’t necessarily at his best from day one. But his postseason performance – 26.1 points per game on .473/.396/.926 shooting en route to a championship – served as a reminder that he has All-NBA upside.

Siakam made the All-NBA Second Team in 2020 and the Third Team in 2022 and received some votes in 2023. However, he still needs one more All-NBA nod in 2024 to become eligible for a Designated Veteran deal. He’ll be a candidate to watch as long as he remains in Toronto for the 2023/24 season. A trade – which would make him ineligible – still looms as a possibility.

Adebayo and Fox are 2017 draftees with just six years of NBA experience, which means that Fox didn’t meet the Designated Veteran performance criteria by earning All-NBA honors in May — he’ll need to do it again in 2024 to qualify for a super-max deal. His performance this past year showed that he’s capable of it.

Adebayo’s path to an All-NBA berth is complicated by the fact that the All-NBA teams will become positionless beginning in 2024. That means voters won’t necessarily have to choose three centers, which may reduce his odds of making the cut.

Still, the field of All-NBA candidates may be more wide open than usual in 2024, since the league is also requiring players to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for one of the 15 spots. That means a player who misses a few weeks with an injury might be out of the running. If Ingram, Murray, Siakam, Fox, and Abebayo can stay healthy and play at least 65 times, their All-NBA odds will increase.

It’s worth noting too that being named Defensive Player of the Year is another way to qualify for a super-max. Adebayo has finished in the top five in voting for that award in each of the last four seasons and is a legitimate candidate to win it at some point.

2025

Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jackson were drafted in 2018 and have just five years of NBA experience, so they’re still two years away from having the service time required for a Designated Veteran contract — none of them would be able to sign a super-max extension until 2025. However, they all have an opportunity to meet the performance criteria in 2024.

Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander made up the All-NBA First Team backcourt in 2023, so if they make an All-NBA team again next year, they’ll have done so in at least two of the three years leading up to the 2025 offseason.

As for Jackson, he missed out on All-NBA honors in 2023, but was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. It’s a tall order, but if he can win a second DPOY award in either of the next two seasons, he’ll make himself eligible to sign a super-max contract in 2025.

The rookie scale extension recipients

Ball, Edwards, and Haliburton have all signed five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extensions this offseason that project to start at 25% of the 2024/25 cap. If we assume the cap will rise by the maximum allowable 10%, those deals would be worth just shy of $217MM.

However, all three extensions include Rose Rule language. This is another form of the super-max — we can call it the “mini” super-max, paradoxical as that may sound. Unlike a player who signs a Designated Veteran contract, which starts at 35% of the cap instead of 30%, a player who meets the Rose Rule criteria can receive a starting salary worth 30% of the cap rather than 25%.

The performance criteria for a Rose Rule salary increase are essentially the exact same as for a Designated Veteran bump, but must be achieved by the end of the player’s four-year rookie contract. That means Ball, Edwards, and Haliburton would have to make the All-NBA team in 2024 in order to increase the projected value of their respective extensions to $260MM over five years — an All-NBA berth in 2025 or 2026 would be too late.

Each of these three players has an All-Star berth under his belt, so making the leap to All-NBA certainly isn’t inconceivable. Edwards may be the best bet of the three to qualify for the mini super-max, but if Ball and Haliburton can lead their teams to playoff spots, they’d certainly have a case.

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World Cup Notes: F. Wagner, Schröder, Top Players, Banchi

September 11th, 2023 at 10:28am CST by Arthur Hill

Germany’s Franz Wagner was thrilled not only to win a gold medal at the World Cup, but to be able to accomplish the feat while playing alongside his brother, writes Cesare Milanti of EuroHoops. Franz and Moritz Wagner are also teammates on the Magic, but their undefeated run through the World Cup field is the highlight of their careers.

“It’s special,” Franz Wagner said after Sunday’s win over Serbia. “Special to have our parents here too. This is so surreal, it doesn’t make sense that we are both on this team and we can enjoy it.”

Wagner appears to be fully recovered from a sprained ankle he suffered in Germany’s opening game. Although he missed the rest of pool play, he was back for the knockout round, scoring 22 points and grabbing five rebounds in a semifinal win over Team USA, then posting 19 points and seven rebounds in the gold medal contest.

“There were so many moments this year in so many games that the other team made a run, this game, the game before against the States,” he added. “We never let it slip, we just kept playing and kept staying together. That made a huge difference in all these games.”

There’s more from the World Cup:

  • Tournament MVP Dennis Schröder hopes Germany’s success will lead to more exposure for basketball in his home country, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops. The German team has become more successful in international competitions, but the games aren’t widely available to the public. “We first thought the tournament was going to be on the TV. Only the final was on the TV,” Schröder said. “Basketball is a great sport and I hope we can get our respect for what we are doing the last two years. I wish that every single game is on TV. Ten years ago when I started, we had Dirk Nowitzki but nobody knew who were the other guys on the team. Now we go to Japan and the Philippines and they know us. We hope to get this respect also in our country and get recognized.”
  • Schröder was a first-team selection by Brian Windhorst of ESPN on his list of the best players at the World Cup. Joining him on the first team are Team USA’s Anthony Edwards, Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Slovenina’s Luka Doncic and Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanovic. Making up Windhorst’s second team are the USA’s Mikal Bridges, Australia’s Josh Giddey, South Sudan’s Carlik Jones, Serbia’s Nikola Milutinov and the Dominican Republic’s Karl-Anthony Towns.
  • Luca Banchi was honored as the tournament’s best coach after leading Latvia to a fifth-place finish in its first-ever World Cup.
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Germany Wins Gold Medal, USA Fourth At World Cup

September 10th, 2023 at 10:29am CST by Arthur Hill

Germany wrapped up an undefeated World Cup by topping Serbia, 83-77, in Sunday’s gold medal game. Team USA, which had been favored to win the gold, left without a medal after falling to Canada in an overtime thriller in the bronze medal contest.

Dennis Schröder led the Germans with 28 points in the finals and Franz Wagner added 19. Germany was able to take down all challengers in the tournament despite playing much of it without Wagner, who suffered a sprained ankle in the opener against Japan.

Schröder was named World Cup MVP (Twitter link) and was joined on the All-Star 5 by Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, USA’s Anthony Edwards, Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanovic and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic (Twitter link).

Canada’s victory was noteworthy as it marked the nation’s first-ever medal in World Cup competition and only its second win against the U.S. in a senior men’s tournament. The Canadians were led by 31 points and 12 assists from Gilgeous-Alexander and 39 points from Dillon Brooks, who continues to rebuild his reputation following a playoff embarrassment and an unpleasant separation with the Grizzlies in free agency.

“It was so enjoyable. Obviously the hate doesn’t stop, it keeps going,” Brooks told reporters, including Brian Windhorst of ESPN. “It’s hard to battle against the world and a team.”

Before earning their medals, the Canadians had to survive a miracle finish from Team USA that sent the game to overtime. Trailing by four points with 4.2 seconds remaining, Mikal Bridges hit his first free throw and purposely missed the second before chasing down the rebound in the right corner and hitting a spinning three-pointer with 0.6 left on the clock. Bridges, who scored 19 points and battled Gilgeous-Alexander on defense, may be one of the members of the World Cup roster with a strong chance of returning for the Olympics.

However, Canada controlled play in the overtime to capture a 127-118 victory that sent the U.S. home without a medal for the second straight World Cup. The Americans dropped three of their last four games as defense and rebounding became persistent issues.

“We just didn’t defend well enough against Germany (in the semifinals) or against Canada, and that’s the bottom line,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Every year when you try to build a team, you try to build the best two-way team you can and be able to get stops and score, and everybody’s trying to do that.”

Windhorst points out that the Americans have now lost seven combined games over their last three major tournaments, creating a wide open race for the gold at the Paris Olympics next summer. The U.S. may have to reconsider the type of players it wants to invite, although Kerr said USA Basketball officials felt good about the World Cup roster they put together.

“We’ve really studied everything about FIBA and the history of United States basketball when we’ve won, what has been the reason and when we’ve lost what has been the reason,” Kerr said. “So we study all that stuff, and what it comes down to for us in this tournament, we put ourselves in a great position. We got to the semifinals and were right there.”

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Team USA Notes: Reaves, Haliburton, Anthony, Curry

September 9th, 2023 at 5:26pm CST by Arthur Hill

Team USA will leave the World Cup without a gold medal, but it may have developed a few players who will be useful in future international competitions, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. This version of the American squad was built around young talent than established stars, and many of them could return for future World Cup or Olympic tournaments.

Vardon points to Lakers guard Austin Reaves as one of those players. The 25-year-old is third in scoring for the U.S. at 12.4 PPG and second in steals at 1.3 per game. He has also regularly been on the court late in close games.

“I think I’ve been able to learn a lot from a lot of really good players, a lot of really good coaches, and basically just see that I belong,” Reaves said.

International play has often been the springboard for players to assert themselves as future stars, such as Kevin Durant in the 2010 World Championship, Vardon notes. Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards appears ready to move into that role, and Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton may be as well.

“I think being the point guard with other great scorers, other great players and understand that they want to be on the court at the same time as me, they want me to be in there to get them involved,” Haliburton said.

There’s more on Team USA:

  • Friday’s loss to Germany was among the topics addressed by global ambassadors Pau Gasol, Luis Scola and Carmelo Anthony during an appearance on a talk show, relays Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops. Anthony, one of the most accomplished international players in American history, considers the result an “upset,” but not a huge surprise. “You have to take your hat off to Germany, and for Serbia as well,” Anthony said. “That’s good for the sport, everybody has to think differently when approaching these competitions. The game has grown globally. Everybody has an opportunity to go there and win a gold medal.”
  • Lack of size was an issue for the U.S. not only against Germany but throughout the World Cup, observes Brian Windhorst of ESPN. He notes that in three games against larger European teams, the Americans gave up 53 offensive rebounds and 64 second-chance points.
  • Stephen Curry is Team USA’s “must-have guy” for the Paris Olympics, according to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Instead of turning to LeBron James and Durant again, Rankin would like to see the 2024 roster built around Curry with Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Devin Booker, De’Aaron Fox, Anthony Davis, Julius Randle, Bam Adebayo and Jarrett Allen all in prominent roles.
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World Cup Notes: USA, Edwards, Germany, Canada

September 8th, 2023 at 5:31pm CST by Rory Maher

Head coach Steve Kerr once again stressed the high level of international competition following Team USA’s upset loss to Germany, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.

“This is not 1992 anymore,” Kerr said. “Players are better all over the world. Teams are better. It’s not easy to win World Cup or Olympic games.”

Kerr also gave the Germans credit.

“Congrats to Germany, they were fantastic,” he added. “Every time we made a run, they got a great shot, an offensive rebound, a big play. I am proud of my guys, they fought and gave us a chance in the end, but we couldn’t exactly get it.”

Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards said the team lacked toughness in the semifinal loss, but he refused to use lack of size as an excuse, relays George Efkarpidis of Eurohoops.

“We got out-rebounded all night. … They were more physical than us,”  Edwards said.

Here’s more from the 2023 World Cup, which concludes Sunday:

  • German head coach Gordon Herbert got a three-year commitment from his roster, which is filled with experienced veterans. The group’s continuity showed in the victory, writes Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. “I think that helped us immensely,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said. “From the first day we got together this summer, we believed that we’re a special group and we can win against any team.”
  • Could the three-year blueprint be something the Americans emulate going forward? As Fischer notes, former USA Basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski got three-year commitments from players when he took over in 2005. “I’m not sure how you would do that,” Kerr said. “If you wanna ask the same 10 guys to play every summer, I think that’s very unrealistic. Part of the deal with USAB is you pass the baton to the next coaching staff, the next group of players. It’s different than most countries. But we’re unique in that we have a deep talent pool and a lot of very worthy players. And I think those players and coaches all deserve to have the honor of wearing that USA jersey.”
  • Despite dropping its semifinal to Serbia, which will face Germany for a chance at gold, the Canadian national team is still determined to defeat the U.S. and claim the bronze medal, according to Barkas of Eurohoops. “It’s very important for the country, the players, the program,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “We are very emotional right now, but getting a medal will be very important for us and we know we can still get better. We want to leave this tournament hungry and thirsty for more.”
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Northwest Notes: Small-Market Stars, Henderson, SGA, Edwards

September 7th, 2023 at 10:45pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Current Sixers guard Patrick Beverley sent a ripple through the NBA when he suggested Timberwolves star guard Anthony Edwards should leave Minnesota when he gets the chance. Stars of small-market teams are often subject to trade rumors and to that point, the Trail Blazers look poised to send franchise icon Damian Lillard to a “bigger market” after years of speculation.

The Trail Blazers have an heir apparent to the point guard spot in 2023 No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, but Henderson recognizes that he has plenty of work to do to help offset a potential loss of Lillard, he said in an interview with The Oregonian’s Bill Oram. Part of that starts with being an active member of the Portland community, which Lillard was, according to Oram.

“I can definitely learn from that and seeing how he goes out his way to do certain things for the fans here,” Henderson said. “That’s something I’ve seen and heard about. That’s who I am as a person as well.”

Henderson said Lillard has been in communication with the former G League Ignite guard, and he’s been giving him pointers on living in Portland, per Oram. Whatever way the Lillard situation ends, Oram writes, Henderson is prepared to help get the Blazers back to the playoffs.

“I’m here to work,” Henderson said. “I’m here to come here and win some games. Never been focused on anyone else’s situation, ever.”

Oram believes Henderson has a real chance to connect with Portland fans in a similar way to Lillard, but knows sentiments like Beverley’s will persist through Henderson’s career if he’s a breakout star. However, Oram believes Henderson is well-situated to become the franchise’s next staple, and the guard appears to have similar plans.

“It’s probably the best situation I could possibly be in, ever,” Henderson said. “I’m here to stay.”

We have more Northwest Division notes:

  • While Portland has a star on the way out, the Thunder‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is poised to stick around for a while. According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, rival executives who hoped Gilgeous-Alexander would want out of Oklahoma City less than a year ago appear to have given up on those hopes. Amick writes that organizational excitement is at an all-time high, and that Gilgeous-Alexander has a chance to take the young Thunder to the playoffs — he’ll get a chance to play with last year’s No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren this season.
  • Responding to Beverley’s comment about Edwards, The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski pushed back on the notion that Edwards should leave the Timberwolves. Krawczynski echoes the point that small-market fans are used to hearing people say their players should or will depart for bigger markets, but to hear it from Beverley, who played for the team in 2021/22, is different. Krawczynski writes that Minnesota is a bigger market than given credit for and can push to keep Edwards around, though the team will need to continue to build around the star guard.
  • In case you missed it, free agent Javonte Cooke is reportedly signing an Exhibit 10 deal with the Timberwolves.
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