Isaac Bonga Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Partizan Belgrade Confirms Additions Of Pokusevski, Other Former NBAers

August 19th, 2024 at 2:41pm CST by Luke Adams

The Serbian club KK Partizan, which is based in Belgrade and competes in the EuroLeague, held an event on Monday to formally introduce its roster for the 2024/25 season, according to Eurohoops.

Partizan’s squad features several players with NBA experience, including guards Frank Ntilikina and Gabriel Lundberg, whose deals were previously announced.

On Monday, the team also confirmed several signings which had been reported earlier in the summer but hadn’t yet been officially confirmed, such as Aleksej Pokusevski, Sterling Brown, Isaac Bonga, Duane Washington, and Brandon Davies.

Pokusevksi is perhaps the most notable name in the group. The 22-year-old forward was the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft and spent most of the past four seasons with the Thunder before being waived in February. He finished the season in Charlotte, averaging 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 19.2 minutes per game across 18 outings down the stretch for the Hornets.

Brown has 268 NBA regular season appearances under his belt, while Bonga has 143, Washington has 79, and Davies has 78. However, none of the four played in the league in 2023/24.

As Eurohoops notes, former NBA guard Carlik Jones will also play for KK Partizan this season, but wasn’t at Monday’s event — his flight was delayed, according to a report from Mozzart Sport, which indicates that Jones will be at the team’s first practice of the season this week.

Former NBA first-rounder Bruno Caboclo is also under contract with Partizan, but wasn’t in attendance on Monday and isn’t a lock to return to the club. He has reportedly received an offer from Hapoel Tel Aviv, a team in Israel.

Olympic Notes: Murray, Yabusele, Giddey, Barrett, More

August 14th, 2024 at 8:44pm CST by Arthur Hill

There are concerns about Jamal Murray following a lackluster Olympic performance with Team Canada, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic. After dealing with injuries during the latter part of the season, the Nuggets guard was limited to 36.6% true shooting and a 4.7 PER in four Olympic games.

While Hollinger admits that’s a small sample size, he notes that Murray wasn’t any better in Canada’s exhibition contests and didn’t look like the same player he was during Denver’s 2023 title run. Hollinger observes that Murray played without “zip” while having a hard time getting separation from his defender and finishing at the rim. If there’s a physical issue affecting Murray, it could be a significant story heading into training camp and the start of the season, Hollinger adds.

A report in late June stated that the Nuggets and Murray were nearing agreement on a four-year, $208MM extension. Hollinger wonders if the team might be reconsidering that offer in light of Murray’s recent downturn.

Hollinger shares a few more thoughts on the Olympics:

Guerschon Yabusele helped his NBA prospects tremendously with his Olympic performance, but Hollinger is skeptical that he’ll join the league this season. A league source confirms to Hollinger that Yabusele has a $2.5MM buyout in his contract with Real Madrid. Any NBA team that signs him would have to pay that amount, which would count against the cap above the $850K maximum international buyout, along with Yabusele’s salary. Hollinger sees a better chance for Yabusele to return to the NBA next summer when he’ll be a free agent.
Australia used Josh Giddey as its primary ball-handler, a role he’ll assume with the Bulls this season. Hollinger points out that although Giddey could have used better outside shooting around him, he was effective running the offense. He made 11 three-pointers in four games, easing some of the concerns about him in Oklahoma City, while taking on a 30% usage rate.
Hollinger believes Raptors swingman RJ Barrett could be headed for a breakout season. Playing for Canada, Barrett ranked fourth in the Olympics in scoring at 19.8 PPG with 58/44/84 shooting splits. Hollinger adds that Barrett was impressive after being traded to Toronto last season and should have a high-usage role on a rebuilding team.
Khem Birch may have sparked NBA interest after being Canada’s top center in France, per Hollinger. Birch will be 32 by the time training camps open, but Hollinger suggests he could fill a role as a third center.
Mathias Lessort, who helped France reach the gold medal game, could be a “last-resort option” for the Knicks next summer if they still haven’t found a reliable backup center, Hollinger states. The 29-year-old big man is under contract with Panathinaikos in Greece this season.
Isaac Bonga is a free agent after wrapping up a strong Olympics with Germany. Hollinger notes that Bonga is only 24 and could return to the NBA and a three-and-D specialist, even if it doesn’t happen right away.

Atlantic Notes: Pritchard, D. Green, Ross, Harden, Raptors

February 11th, 2023 at 9:44pm CST by Arthur Hill

Payton Pritchard was a little surprised and disappointed to still be with the Celtics when the trade deadline passed Thursday afternoon, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. The third-year guard has proven he can contribute when he gets the opportunity, but he’s only averaging 12.6 minutes per game this season, the lowest figure of his career.

“I definitely was expecting and hoping (for a trade),” Pritchard said. “But you know, I (have to) look at the good things. We’re the best team in the NBA right now and we have a great team with really great players, so for me it’s an opportunity to learn and to keep growing.”

The Celtics were open to trading Pritchard and reportedly explored the market to see what they could get in return for him and Danilo Gallinari. One report said Pritchard was part of Boston’s offer to the Spurs for Jakob Poeltl, but San Antonio opted to send Poeltl to the Raptors.

Pritchard, a four-year college player, is already 25 and is hoping to find a situation soon that offers consistent playing time. The Celtics already picked up his option for next season, so there’s little he can do about his situation until the summer of 2024.

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Danny Green and Terrence Ross are probably the most realistic targets for the Celtics in the buyout market, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. He points out that the $3.2MM disabled player exception that Boston received for Gallinari puts the team in position to outbid most competitors.
James Harden played his first game in Brooklyn tonight since being traded to the Sixers at last year’s deadline. Harden offered his thoughts about what went wrong for the Nets‘ Big Three and said he was glad to get out when he did, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPN. “I don’t look like the crazy one,” Harden said. “I don’t look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media want to call me. I knew what was going on and I just decided to … hey, I’m not built for this. I don’t want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun.”
The Raptors had to renounce their rights to six former players to complete the Poeltl trade, tweets Spotrac contributor Keith Smith. They are Isaac Bonga, Jeremy Lin, Jodie Meeks, Lucas Nogueira, Jason Thompson, and longtime restricted free agent Nando De Colo.

Isaac Bonga Signs With Bayern Munich

August 19th, 2022 at 7:38am CST by Luke Adams

Free agent forward Isaac Bonga is headed back overseas, having signed a two-year contract with Bayern Munich, the German team announced today in a press release.

The 39th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft, Bonga spent time with the Lakers, Wizards, and Raptors over the past four seasons, averaging 3.1 PPG and 2.2 RPG in 143 total games (13.1 MPG).

Although he spent the entire 2021/22 season in Toronto, Bonga played an extremely limited role, logging just 69 total minutes in 15 appearances. He saw more action in the G League, putting up 12.7 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 3.5 APG in 25 regular season contests (26.9 MPG) for the Raptors 905, Toronto’s NBAGL affiliate.

According to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com, who first reported Bonga’s agreement with Bayern Munich, the 22-year-old drew some NBA interest as a free agent this summer. However, given how little he played at the NBA level last season, Bonga presumably recognized that a return to Europe would be his best chance at guaranteed money and a more expansive role.

Bonga was born in Germany and began his professional career in his home country, playing for Skyliners Frankfurt’s reserve team from 2016-18. This time around, he’ll be competing in a pair of Europe’s top leagues — Bayern Munich is a member of both Germany’s Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and the EuroLeague.

Atlantic Notes: Irving, Nets, Celtics, Bonga

January 2nd, 2022 at 11:00am CST by Arthur Hill

Nets coach Steve Nash said Kyrie Irving “looks great, considering” and is “getting close” to making his season debut, according to Peter Botte of The New York Post. Irving, who can only play in road games because he hasn’t complied with New York City’s vaccination requirement, could return Wednesday at Indiana, although Nash hasn’t committed to that date.

“He was in isolation for however many days, 10-plus days, I think. For him to come out of that and look as good as he has playing with the stay ready group and getting his rhythm back has been exciting,” Nash said. “We have to give him time to really get his feet under him, but as far as how he looks, he looks very gifted.”

Irving rejoined the team for practice last week after clearing health and safety protocols. If he doesn’t play Wednesday, the next opportunity will be January 12 at Chicago.

“I think he’s on his way. It’s getting close,” Nash added. “We’ve just got to make sure we don’t make a hasty decision, but it’s coming.”

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Nash experimented Thursday by starting LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Claxton on the front line alongside Kevin Durant and he may use that super-sized lineup again, Botte adds in a separate story. “That was really my first time being out there with L.A. (Aldridge). We’ll definitely adjust to it once we get more reps in. Hopefully, we go to it a lot in the near future,” Claxton said. “The biggest adjustment is just having another big on the court.”
The Celtics will have to decide soon whether to be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline, and the team isn’t making the decision easy for president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, writes Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. After going 6-9 in December, Boston closed out the month by routing the Suns, who have the second-best record in the league. The Celtics are currently in ninth place, part of a logjam of teams between fifth and 12th that are just three and a half games apart.
With Isaac Bonga clearing protocols, the Raptors aren’t currently eligible for any more 10-day hardship contracts, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca. The team’s latest injury report lists Bonga as out for today’s game due to conditioning, rather than the health and safety protocols. Today marks the end of Daniel Oturu‘s 10-day deal.

COVID-19 Updates: Celtics, Lakers, Raptors

December 25th, 2021 at 12:27pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Celtics reserve point guard Dennis Schröder has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols and will not play in today’s Christmas game against the Bucks, the team has announced (Twitter link). He joins eight other Celtics in the protocols.

In a more positive twist, Juancho Hernangómez, Jabari Parker, and Brodric Thomas have exited the league’s COVID-19 protocols and are available for today’s game, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic (via Twitter). Guards Marcus Smart, who has been dealing with a hip injury, and Romeo Langford, who has missed time due to an Achilles injury, are also available. Boston center Al Horford is out of the league’s coronavirus protocols but is still working on his conditioning and has been ruled out for the contest.

Here are more COVID-19 protocol updates from around the NBA:

Lakers guards Avery Bradley and Malik Monk have left the league’s COVID-19 protocols and will be able to suit up today for Los Angeles against the Nets, per Bill Oram of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Raptors players Khem Birch, Isaac Bonga, and Justin Champagnie have entered the league’s COVID-19 protocols, though Dalano Banton has apparently exited, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN (Twitter link). A total of 10 Toronto players are now in the protocols. Toronto’s previously-scheduled game on Wednesday, against the Bulls, was canceled as a result of the Raptors not having enough players available. The team’s next game is scheduled for tomorrow against the Cavaliers. Lewenberg adds (via Twitter) that Raptors rookie shooting guard David Johnson (calf) and veteran point guard Goran Dragic (personal) also continue to be unavailable.
Keep track of all the NBA players within the league’s health and safety protocols on our tracker here.

Raptors Notes: Anunoby, Dragic, Bench, Boucher

November 30th, 2021 at 9:48am CST by Luke Adams

Raptors forward OG Anunoby appeared to be nearing a return from his hip injury last week, having been listed as questionable for multiple games. However, he still hasn’t played and was held out of practice on Monday, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.

As Lewenberg explains (via Twitter), Anunoby hasn’t suffered a setback, but he has “hit a wall” in his recovery process, per head coach Nick Nurse. An MRI didn’t show any significant concerns, but the injury isn’t healing as rapidly as the team hoped and remains very sore, according to Lewenberg. There’s still no timeline set for Anunoby’s return.

Here’s more on the Raptors:

Goran Dragic‘s personal absence from the Raptors figures to increase speculation about him moving on to a new team, but league sources tell Marc Stein that the big picture remains unchanged for the veteran point guard — a trade market hasn’t materialized for Dragic, and it’s still too early in the season for the two sides to have a productive buyout discussion. While it’s possible Dragic has played his last game for the Raptors, it sounds he’ll probably remain on the roster for at least a few more weeks, if not all the way to the trade deadline.
It looked briefly last week as if the Raptors might soon have a fully healthy roster, but that hasn’t materialized, and the team’s depth continues to be tested, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, who notes that Toronto ranks last in the NBA in bench scoring. The Raptors’ reliance on their reserves is highlighting the inexperience and inconsistency of that group, Lewenberg adds.
Chris Boucher was pulled from the rotation for Sunday’s game vs. Boston, with his minutes going to Isaac Bonga, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. As Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun observes, Boucher looked like a major success story last season, but he’ll be a free agent in 2022 and the Raptors will have to listen if he draws trade interest before then.

Atlantic Notes: Simmons, Brown, Schröder, VanVleet, Bonga, Claxton

November 10th, 2021 at 9:34am CST by Luke Adams

A report stating that the Celtics have interest in Ben Simmons prompted Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe to explore whether Boston should aggressively pursue a deal for Simmons, and Jay King and Rich Hofmann of The Athletic to discuss whether the 25-year-old would make the C’s a better team.

Simmons’ play-making ability would make him an intriguing fit for the Celtics and Washburn hears from a league source that the three-time All-Star would be interested in coming to Boston. However, the general sense is that it would be very difficult for the two division rivals to find an agreement that works for both sides. The Sixers are unlikely to accept an offer that doesn’t include Jaylen Brown, whereas the Celtics are unlikely to include Brown in any offer.

In fact, multiple league sources who spoke to Brian Robb of MassLive.com were “adamant” that the Celtics don’t have any interest in moving Brown at all, either for Simmons or in any other deal. I’m sure Boston would reconsider that stance if a player a tier above Brown became available, but presumably the team doesn’t view Simmons as that sort of player.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

The Celtics intend to keep Dennis Schröder in their starting lineup while Brown recovers from his hamstring strain in order to have Josh Richardson and the club’s young wings remain in their bench roles, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
Besides wanting to get back to the playoffs, Raptors guard Fred VanVleet has a series of individual goals that he’d like to achieve, as he said on The Raptors Show with Will Lou (link via Sportsnet.ca).“I definitely would like to be an All-Star,” VanVleet said. “I want to win all the awards. I want to be All-Defensive … Those are all goals that I have. The good thing for me is that I probably won’t achieve any of those if we aren’t a good team or a top team.”
Raptors forward Isaac Bonga has accepted a G League assignment, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter links). Because he’s in his fourth NBA season, Bonga had to sign off on being sent to the NBAGL. The 22-year-old has only logged seven minutes across three games in Toronto so far, but should get a chance to play a starring role for the Raptors 905 when they open their season on Thursday.
The Nets recalled center Nicolas Claxton from the G League on Tuesday, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Despite being back with Brooklyn, Claxton has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game and there’s still no indication he’s closer to returning from the illness that has sidelined him since October 25.

Raptors Notes: Dekker, Bonga, Siakam, Barnes

November 6th, 2021 at 5:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Raptors‘ decision to waive Sam Dekker came down to Isaac Bonga having more of the qualities that the organization values, writes Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca. Both players were signed to partially guaranteed deals and had agreed to delay their guarantee dates until today, but keeping both would have inhibited Toronto’s ability to get below the luxury tax threshold.

Dekker improved his outside shot while playing in Turkey last season, but Bonga is 6’8″ with a 7-foot wingspan and can play several positions. At 21, he’s five-and-a-half years younger than Dekker and may be a better investment for the future. Even though Dekker only got into one game for the Raptors, coach Nick Nurse said it wasn’t an easy choice on which player to keep.

“It was pretty close all the way,” Nurse said. “Isaac probably just kind of filled the role that we want. He’s got size, he’s kind of a versatile defender, he’s on the offensive glass. He’s kind of a real role-playing guy that we think we can throw in there at any time. He’s good enough to get into games right now, to be honest with you, but we can’t play everybody. … We were real close on it. Sam was awesome. He spent a lot of time with us from the moment, all the way back from when we first looked at him in the sort-of open run situation, and he spent a lot of time working the job. But it’s the tough side of it, man. Tough side. Sorry to see him go.”

There’s more from Toronto:

Bonga has only played seven total minutes this season, but the Raptors believe he can handle a rotation spot, Murphy adds. He got consistent playing time during his two years with the Wizards, and Toronto identified him as a low-cost target in free agency. Murphy believes the best move for Bonga is to get consistent playing time in the G League, but he and the players union would have to sign off on the move because he’s in his fourth NBA season.
Pascal Siakam is ready for his season debut Sunday after recovering from shoulder surgery and he likes what he has seen from the Raptors in their 6-4 start, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. “I wanted to be out there throughout the whole process,” he said, “but I’m excited to be back out there and just be with your teammates and do whatever I can to help.”
Friday’s game with the Cavaliers featured a matchup between two early favorites for Rookie of the Year, and both Scottie Barnes and Evan Mobley looked like worthy candidates, according to Steven Loung of Sportsnet.ca. While scoring has a major effect on the voting, Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff notes that Barnes and Mobley are special because of what they provide on defense. “Both of those guys are uniquely framed,” he said, “they’re mobile and agile and it gives them an opportunity to be impactful defensively.”

Raptors Waive Sam Dekker

November 6th, 2021 at 10:47am CST by Rory Maher

NOVEMBER 6: The team has officially waived Dekker, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports tweets. Bonga’s $1.67MM contract has been fully guaranteed, Lewenberg adds.

NOVEMBER 5: The Raptors are waiving forward Sam Dekker, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca. Dekker was on a partially guaranteed deal, so he will still earn $350K, the guaranteed portion of his contract.

Dekker had been in a battle with Isaac Bonga for the 14th spot on the roster. Both players previously agreed to push back their guarantee date to November 6.

Dekker only appeared in one regular season game for the Raptors, logging one minute, though he had some nice performances in the preseason. He last played in the NBA in 2018/19, having spent the past two seasons playing in Europe.

The move allows the Raptors to stay under the luxury tax threshold, as was mentioned in our previous articles.

Assuming he clears waivers, Dekker will become an unrestricted free agent.

As for Bonga, it’s unclear if the Raptors intend to guarantee his minimum salary for 2021/22. It’s possible the two sides could agree to push his guarantee date back. He could even be waived too, though the team would have to get back up to 14 players within two weeks in that scenario. For now, his spot on the roster at least appears safer than Dekker’s.