Jaylen Brown Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eastern Notes: Dinwiddie, Kuzma, Giannis, J. Brown, Hawks

April 13th, 2023 at 8:02am CST by Luke Adams

Former Wizards teammates Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Kuzma traded a couple barbs back in January after Washington defeated Dinwiddie’s Mavericks, with each casting doubt on the other’s commitment to playing “winning basketball.” Now a member of the Nets, Dinwiddie was asked during an appearance on FanDuel TV (Twitter video link) about that exchange and didn’t hesitate to reignite his beef with Kuzma, questioning whether the Wizards forward has his priorities straight.

“There’s a lot of guys in the NBA that really pour their heart and soul into basketball, are willing to do whatever it takes to win,” Dinwiddie said. “There are a lot of guys that have different things that drive or motivate them. I think if we look at him and the way he approaches life, fame, all that stuff, we can see that his priorities tend to vary. That’s why he dresses the way he does, he approaches basketball the way he does, the comments he makes.

“Like I said with the Draymond (Green) quote, ‘Insecurity is loud.’ You know that you’re there shooting shots to try to get a contract. You’re probably not even a third star really on a good team, because if you were, the Lakers would’ve kept you.”

Several hours later, Kuzma fired back in a Twitter thread, writing that he and the Wizards have “so much real estate on Dinsh–tie island.” Kuzma criticized Dinwiddie for being traded just months after he signed a three-year, $54MM contract in D.C. and suggested that his Nets are only in the postseason because of the pre-Dinwiddie success the team had with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

Dinwiddie and Kuzma won’t face each other until sometime next season, but the latest grenades lobbed in their back-and-forth war of words should make things all the more interesting when that happens.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo tells Lori Nickel of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he legitimately considered the possibility of walking away from the NBA due to the mental health toll he was dealing with in 2020. “I had that conversation – yes – with the front office,” Antetokounmpo said. “And, you know, very normally, everybody is looking at me like I was crazy. ‘You just signed the largest contract in NBA history and you want to walk away from the game and all that money?’ … But I don’t care about that. I care about joy. I’m a joyful person.”
Jaylen Brown would become eligible for a super-max extension if he makes an All-NBA team this spring, and Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens is hoping that happens, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “I think both Jayson (Tatum) and Jaylen should be on the All-NBA team,” Stevens said. “I think what they’ve done throughout the course of this year — and you asked about Jaylen so I’ll talk about Jaylen in particular — he’s also really played his best basketball, I think, in the last couple of months, and he was an obvious All-Star right out of the gate.”
Former Octagon agent Chris Emens has joined the Hawks‘ front office in an advisory role, reports Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (Twitter link). Emens represented Hawks general manager Landry Fields during Fields’ playing days, Vorkunov notes.

And-Ones: Jenkins, Rivers, Perry, Attendance, Incentives, More

April 11th, 2023 at 3:50pm CST by Luke Adams

Taylor Jenkins of the Grizzlies and Doc Rivers of the Sixers were named the NBA’s March/April Coaches of the Month for the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, the league announced today (via Twitter).

Jenkins’ 14-8 record in March and April was the West’s second-best mark behind the Lakers (14-6). The Grizzlies’ head coach perhaps earned extra marks for dealing with some Ja Morant-related drama and Brandon Clarke‘s season-ending injury during that time.

Meanwhile, no NBA team won more games in March and April than Rivers’ Sixers, who went 15-7 to lock up the No. 3 seed in the East.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Reggie Perry, a 2020 second-round pick who appeared in 36 games for the Nets, Trail Blazers, and Pacers from 2020-22, has signed with South Korea’s LG Sakers, the team announced on Instagram (hat tip to Sportando). Perry is headed overseas after spending most of the 2022/23 season with the Raptors 905 in the G League.
The NBA announced in a press release that the league set a new single-season record for total attendance in 2022/23, establishing new high water marks for both league-wide attendance (22,234,502) and average attendance per game (18,077). Both of those records were previously set in 2017/18.
In a pair of tweets, Bobby Marks of ESPN identifies several of the players who earned bonus money by achieving regular season incentives, led by Knicks forward Julius Randle ($2.4MM) and Celtics wing Jaylen Brown ($2.1MM)
Is the concept of “voter fatigue” a myth? For the most part, yes, as Howard Beck explains in an interesting piece for GQ Sports.
Agent Raymond Brothers – who represents Markelle Fultz, Immanuel Quickley, and Precious Achiuwa, among others – has left Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports and returned to his former agency, IAM Sports, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Brothers said in a statement that he holds Roc Nation in the “highest regard” and wishes them well.

Atlantic Notes: Maxey, Nurse, Knicks, Bridges, Celtics

April 8th, 2023 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason and has put himself in position for a major payday by averaging a career-high 20.3 points per game on .481/.434/.845 shooting in 60 games (33.6 MPG) this season, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.

Assuming they look to negotiate a new deal with Maxey, the Sixers may want to use recent rookie extension recipients like Jordan Poole and Tyler Herro as points of comparison. Poole signed for four years and $123MM (plus incentives) last offseason, while Herro got $120MM (plus incentives) on his four-year extension. However, rival executives who spoke to Deveney believe the 22-year-old’s value has increased beyond that.

“They might have thought there was room to negotiate there,” an Eastern Conference executive told Deveney. “But look at what the guy has done. He’s gotten better at every turn, his work ethic is really, really amazing from everyone around him. That’s what stands out. This guy is only getting better. Probably, there’s no negotiation, they’re going to have to max him out.”

The exact value of a maximum-salary extension for Maxey would depend on where the 2024/25 salary cap lands, but it could exceed $40MM per year. For what it’s worth, the Sixers could have Tobias Harris and his $39.3MM expiring salary coming off the books in the summer of 2024.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Whether or not Nick Nurse remains with the Raptors beyond this season, he’ll coach Team Canada in the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. Within the same story, Smith points out that this week’s Jeff Dowtin drama could have been avoided if Toronto had done a better job finding a reliable backup point guard instead of having to rely on a player on a two-way contract.
In a pair of subscriber-only stories for The New York Post, Peter Botte explores how president of basketball operations Leon Rose set up the Knicks for future success despite missing out on Donovan Mitchell, while Brian Lewis suggests that Nets forward Mikal Bridges has room to continue getting better even after taking a big step forward since arriving in Brooklyn.
Speaking to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said that he and Jayson Tatum have been “incredibly successful” together despite some calls over the years to break them up. “At this point, we’re part of each other’s destiny,” Brown said. “The only thing that could put the ribbon on top is winning a championship.”
In an interesting feature for The Athletic, Jared Weiss takes a deep dive into the Maine Celtics’ season, focusing on a few of the players who spent time with Boston’s G League affiliate, including Luka Samanic, who eventually earned a call-up to Utah, and Eric Demers, who hopes to work in basketball when his playing days are over.

Injury Notes: Zion, J. Brown, Middleton, Schröder, Biyombo

April 7th, 2023 at 11:01pm CST by Rory Maher

Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin announced on Thursday that Zion Williamson would remain out indefinitely as he continues to deal with a right hamstring strain that has kept him sidelined since January 2.

According to Christian Clark of NOLA.com, Griffin clarified on Friday that Williamson will not suit up for the play-in tournament, and he might miss a potential first-round playoff series as well.

“I would just say that if you looked at the logistics of where we are at, it’s not possible to get the work in that would put him in a 5-on-5 workout in time for any play-in,” Griffin said. “Based on today, our best possible outcome would be if everything lined up perfectly, maybe you’re in a position to practice prior to a first round. Or maybe during a first round. But it’s going to take more than one, right? It’s really hard. We may never get to that point, either. If it’s not a situation where those things align and he feels the way he needs to feel, we’re not going to let him go to the next phase.”

Williamson had a setback in February, which delayed his return to the court. Griffin said the All-Star forward hasn’t experienced another setback since then, but he lacks confidence in the hamstring.

Here are a few more injury notes from around the NBA:

Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown cut his right hand and had to get five stitches as he was picking up a glass vase he broke while watering his plants on Thursday night, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Brown expects to be ready for the playoffs, Weiss adds.
Bucks forward Khris Middleton had an MRI on Thursday after he aggravated a right knee injury, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic. Nothing showed up on the imaging and Middleton is expected to rehab for the next week “in hopes of being ready” for the postseason, according to Charania. While it’s a positive development that the MRI was clean, Charania’s wording suggests it’s no lock that Middleton will be healthy when the playoffs start on April 15.
Lakers guard Dennis Schröder was ruled out of Friday’s matchup with Phoenix due to “extreme neck soreness” that stemmed from “general wear and tear,” head coach Darvin Ham told reporters, including Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). The team had previously listed Schröder as questionable due to neck spasms.
Suns center Bismack Biyombo was in a lot of pain and needed assistance to leave the court after taking knee-to-knee contact in Friday’s matchup with the Lakers. He was later ruled out for the remainder of the contest with a right knee injury, as Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports relays (All Twitter links).

Eastern Notes: T. Antetokounmpo, McConnell, Celtics, Trent Jr.

April 1st, 2023 at 2:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Bucks forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo has been suspended one game without pay for headbutting Boston big man Blake Griffin, the league’s PR department tweets.

Antetokounmpo was ejected late in the fourth quarter for the head butt, which occurred during the Bucks’ 41-point loss on Thursday. He’ll serve his suspension on Sunday when the Bucks host Philadelphia.

We have more Eastern Conference news:

T.J. McConnell is still pushing hard as the Pacers’ season winds down, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star notes. McConnell has hit double figures in six consecutive games, including a 21-point performance against Oklahoma City on Friday in which he also added nine rebounds and eight assists. “He’s a unique player that has a unique style of play, but I just think he’s one of the most unusual competitors that I’ve ever seen in the NBA,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He just brings an exuberance and a defiance that is a big part of what we’re doing and what we’re building.”
How will the new CBA affect the Celtics? Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston explores that topic, noting that reported increase in veteran extensions from 120 percent to 140 percent is unlikely to impact Jaylen Brown, who is seeking a super-max extension.
Gary Trent Jr. missed the Raptors’ game on Friday but it wasn’t the related to the elbow injury that kept him out of the previous four games. Trent was sidelined by back spasms, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports tweets.

Atlantic Notes: Brown, Harden, Nurse, Barrett

March 31st, 2023 at 8:05am CST by Luke Adams

Celtics forward Jaylen Brown earned more than $2MM in bonus money on Thursday when he played in his 65th game of the season, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

As Marks explains, Brown’s contract with the Celtics includes a bonus of $518K for simply appearing in 65 regular season games. That was considered a likely incentive since he appeared in more than 65 contests last season. Brown’s deal also includes a $1.55MM bonus for making the All-Star team and playing in 65 games, Marks adds. That incentive was considered unlikely, since he wasn’t an All-Star a year ago.

Brown can earn an additional $1.1MM in incentives this spring based on certain individual honors and how far the Celtics advance in the postseason, Marks adds (via Twitter). Reporting from the time that Brown signed his contract suggests he’d have to earn an All-NBA spot and have the Celtics win at least one series to earn that bonus money.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Sixers star James Harden, who returned to action on Wednesday after missing four games due to Achilles soreness, admitted that the injury has been an issue for a while, per Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com. “I don’t know where it came from. It’s been bothering me for some months, I would say,” Harden said. “I just wanted to continue to play on it, and there was one point to where the last game I played, (it was) just really unbearable so I couldn’t even go out there.”
There has been no shortage of speculation from scouts, front office executives, assistant coaches, and other people around the NBA about the coaching situation in Toronto, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. Smith cautions that there haven’t been “loud whispers” around the Raptors themselves, and any decisions involving head coach Nick Nurse wouldn’t be made until after the season. It’s very possible Nurse will be back for the final year of his current contract, according to Smith, who notes that roster construction and injuries may be more to blame for Toronto’s underwhelming season than Nurse’s performance.
RJ Barrett is prepared to play more minutes at power forward during Julius Randle‘s injury absence if the Knicks ask him to, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News relays. “I’ve done it before. I’m comfortable with it,” said Barrett, who has played mostly at the three this season. “With the way the NBA is now, it makes it kind of easier.”

Atlantic Notes: Brown, Pritchard, Embiid, Simmons

March 29th, 2023 at 9:01am CST by Luke Adams

After having recently made some noncommittal remarks about his future in Boston, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown told reporters that he’s “thinking about clarifying some of the things that have been recently said,” according to Jay King of The Athletic. Asked what he wanted to clarify, however, Brown opted not to explain further.

“Right now the only thing I want to clarify is that the Celtics need to play better and win more games,” Brown said. “If I want to say something in the future about the kind of things that have been floating around I will. But in terms of right now, I like when people hear things from the horse’s mouth and you can see my reaction, my face and everything how I feel about what I’m saying. Sometimes those things can get lost in translation, you know? So if I feel the need to do so I will.”

Brown would be eligible to sign a contract extension anytime during the 2023/24 league year, starting in July. However, because he’s earning well below his maximum salary and would be limited to a 20% raise in the first year of a veteran extension, the Celtics wouldn’t be able to offer him a maximum-salary deal until free agency.

That would change if Brown earns a spot on an All-NBA team this spring, in which case he’d become eligible for a super-max contract extension (worth 35% of the 2024/25 cap) entering the final year of his current deal.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Celtics guard Payton Pritchard returned to action on Tuesday following a nine-game absence due to a left heel injury. According to Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link), Pritchard said he had plantar fasciitis and a bone bruise in the heel.
In an interview with Shams Charania of The Athletic, Sixers center Joel Embiid discussed his health, the MVP race, and why he won’t necessarily take a “title-or-bust” mentality into this year’s postseason. “People have been talking about who has the most pressure to win. People want to mention me,” Embiid said. “I’m not at the top of that list. I’m not a two-time MVP, I’ve never made first team All-NBA, I’ve never won anything. So why is there pressure on me to do something when there are guys that have won two MVPs, a bunch of MVPs and haven’t done anything either?”
Speaking to Ian Begley of SNY.tv and Andrew Crane and Brian Lewis of The New York Post, Ben Simmons‘ new agent Bernie Lee said that Simmons’ back issues are part of the recovery process from the microdiscectomy he underwent last May, adding that the Nets guard/forward won’t require additional surgery and is on track to be ready for training camp in the fall. “Ben is a 26 year-old-guy who is just starting his career and clearly there have been some challenges recently,” Lee told Begley. “But like every truly great person I’ve observed, Ben is motivated internally to continue to develop himself and his talent and test his ability and, most importantly, compete. He simply needs to gain the opportunity to be healthy which we believe we’ve found.”

Brandon Ingram, Jaylen Brown Named Players Of The Week

March 27th, 2023 at 2:36pm CST by Rory Maher

Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram and Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown have been named the NBA’s players of the week, the league announced on Monday (Twitter link).

In three games last week, all victories, Ingram averaged 32.3 points, 10.0 assists and 6.3 rebounds on a stellar .525/.462/1.000 shooting line. It looked for a while like New Orleans was in serious danger of falling out of the playoff race, but the team is now 37-37, the No. 8 seed in the West.

Brown, the East’s winner, averaged 31.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists on a similarly excellent .559/.391/.714 shooting line. Boston blew out the Kings, Pacers and Spurs last week to go 3-0. The Celtics have the second-best record in the league at 52-23, trailing the top-seeded Bucks by 1.5 games.

According to the NBA (Twitter link), the other nominees in the West were Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jaren Jackson Jr., Nikola Jokic and Naz Reid, while Zach LaVine, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Franz Wagner were nominated in the East.

Atlantic Notes: Johnson, Tatum, Brown, Pritchard, Harris

March 26th, 2023 at 4:10pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

New Nets forward Cameron Johnson is convinced Brooklyn has enough quality players to make some noise in the postseason, per Jared Schwartz of The New York Post.

“Obviously, combining a couple players, there’s some things we have to iron out,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “But I think the core of what we have, and what we’re trying to do, I think it’s pretty special. We’ve got guys that compete, guys that play hard and you’re gonna start seeing us build this thing together.”

Across his 18 games with his new team, Johnson is averaging 16.2 PPG on .438/.358/.824 shooting. He’s also chipping in 4.7 RPG, 1.9 APG and 1.4 SPG.

The Nets have gone 8-12 since trading All-Star forward Kevin Durant, and have slid to the East’s sixth seed with a 40-34 record.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

Asked this week about the conversation he had last summer with teammate Jaylen Brown while rumors circulated that Brown could be involved in a trade for Durant, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum explained what he said during that phone call. “Just re-sharing the obvious that we need him and he’s a big part of this team and this franchise,” Tatum said, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link). “Without him, we can’t reach our goal.”
Celtics reserve point guard Payton Pritchard had his status upgraded to questionable to play ahead of today’s contest with the Spurs, Weiss tweets. A heel injury has kept Pritchard unavailable for the past three weeks’ worth of games.
Sixers power forward Tobias Harris has accepted that he is generally the fourth scoring option for a talented Philadelphia team, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s just staying patient in the flow of everything,” Harris said. “There’s going to be nights where the ball finds me more than others. There’s going to be nights where [it doesn’t]… Really, I just have to be OK with that, and just really do other things on the floor and do things that’s going to help the team win, and stay ready and stay patient.”

Celtics Notes: Brogdon, Pritchard, R. Williams, Brown

March 24th, 2023 at 7:46am CST by Luke Adams

Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon is making 45.1% of his three-point attempts this season, which represents a career high and places him third in the NBA. Speaking to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Brogdon suggested that his strong shooting performance is a result of his complementary role, as well as having teammates like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to draw the attention of opposing defenses, which wasn’t the case in Indiana.

“I think I’m less run down,” Brogdon said. “When I was with the Pacers, I had to do a lot. I had to run the show, I had to guard the best player, I had to do a lot. Here, I don’t have to do that. I don’t have all the responsibility. I have a role to play and I specialize in that role.”

Brogdon’s numbers in both Milwaukee and Indiana suggest there may be something to his theory. During his three years as a Pacer, he had a 25.3% usage rate and knocked down a respectable 35.2% of his three-pointers. The last time he had a usage rate lower than this season’s 22.5% was with the Bucks in 2018/19, when he converted 42.6% of his attempts from beyond the arc.

Here’s more on the Celtics:

Celtics guard Payton Pritchard, who has been out since March 6 due to a left heel injury, went through a live workout on Thursday and has a chance to return to action before the regular season ends, according to head coach Joe Mazzulla (Twitter links via Jared Weiss of The Athletic). Pritchard was upgraded from out to doubtful for Friday’s game vs. Indiana.
Boston held the No. 1 seed in the East for much of the season, but has slipped to second and is just a half-game ahead of the No. 3 Sixers. Still, guard Derrick White said the Celtics – who made last year’s NBA Finals as a No. 2 seed – aren’t too concerned about where they end up. “If we get the one seed, it’s cool,” White said, per Souichi Terada of MassLive.com. “If we don’t, it’s the same. We didn’t have it last year so we just want to keep playing the best basketball going into the playoffs, whether we are the No. 1, 2 or 3 (seed). It doesn’t matter.”
Robert Williams came off the bench in his return to action on Tuesday following an eight-game injury absence. While Williams may reclaim his starting spot once he gets up to speed, Mazzulla isn’t willing to commit to that plan quite yet, according to Terada. “It’s just going to depend on who we’re playing, who else is healthy and what the matchups are,” the head coach said. “So Grant (Williams) has started, Derrick has started and Rob has started. … So putting our team in a bind like, ‘This is our starting lineup,’ just doesn’t maximize our roster and the lineups that we can play. So we just have to see.”
In the wake of Jaylen Brown‘s noncommittal comments about his long-term future in Boston, Sean Deveney of Heavy.com spoke to some rival executives to get their thoughts on which teams might make sense as landing spots for the star wing if he doesn’t re-sign with the Celtics. Brown’s current contract runs through 2024.