Here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
Here are Sunday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
Here are Saturday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
Here are Wednesday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
Here are Tuesday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
Here are Monday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
For the 10th time in 12 years, John Schuhmann of NBA.com got the opportunity to ask the NBA’s incoming crop of rookies a series of questions related to their fellow draftees.
Historically, the NBA rookies haven’t been particularly clairvoyant when it comes to their predictions — they haven’t accurately identified a Rookie of the Year winner since Kevin Durant in 2007/08. Still, it’s an interesting exercise, and one that occasionally results in a dead-on prediction, like when last year’s rookie class named Donovan Mitchell the steal of the 2017 draft.
Here are a few of the most interesting responses from this year’s rookies about the 2018/19 class:
Like the Sixers, whose first-rounder Zhaire Smith underwent foot surgery on Thursday, the Grizzlies have been one of the NBA teams hit hardest by injuries in recent years, and are once again dealing with an injury to a young player as training camp nears.
Second-round pick Jevon Carter suffered a torn right thumb ligament while participating in a skills camp this week, a team source tells Peter Edmiston of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. According to Edmiston, the injury will require surgery, but the Grizzlies are confident that Carter will make a full recovery. While a timetable has yet to be provided, Edmiston suggests that – based on similar injuries to other NBA players – the rookie could still be ready to go by the start of the season.
Memphis will hope the injury doesn’t slow Carter’s development, since the club doesn’t have him under contract for long — because they used their full mid-level exception on Kyle Anderson, the Grizzlies could only ink the No. 32 overall pick to a two-year deal. Carter is the only player in the top 12 selections of round two who didn’t receive at least three years on his first NBA contract.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
The Grizzlies are an interesting franchise to keep an eye on moving forward this season and beyond, as they are somewhat in a state of limbo – not quite rebuilding but not close to being a serious contender either – writes Mark Giannotto of The Commercial Appeal.
To be sure, Memphis had a relatively nice offseason. They drafted a potential future franchise cornerstone in Jaren Jackson, they signed Kyle Anderson to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and traded for veteran guard Garrett Temple. By midseason, all three could possibly join Mike Conley and Marc Gasol in the Grizzlies’ starting lineup.
Yet, as Conley says, because of the new pieces learning to fit in and difficulty of the Western Conference, it may turn out to be an “awkward” year in Memphis.
“This season, expectations are still try to be that playoff team, that team that comes out and really makes it tough on everybody. But it is an awkward year with so many teams getting so much better [with] different acquisitions they made in the offseason.”
In addition to adding Jackson, Anderson, and Temple, the Grizzlies also traded away relative disappointments Ben McLemore, Deyonta Davis and Jarell Martin, while adding rookie Jevon Carter, a potential throwback-type player to the Grit ‘N’ Grind era.
Ultimately, it’s probably still going to be difficult for Memphis to make the playoffs in the West, even assuming a 22-win improvement from last year that would see Memphis literally double the amount of victories from a season ago. As such, a rebuild is probably closer to fruition than title contention.
As Giannotto notes, only seven players (not including Gasol’s player option) are signed beyond this season, and only rookie Dillon Brooks had a meaningful role on last year’s team. Accordingly, one would think that most teams would begin rebuilding this season. Only time will tell if the Grizzlies choosing to do otherwise was the right call.
Sixers forward Jonah Bolden has received the largest contract of any rookie second-round pick this summer, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The 36th player taken in the 2017 draft, Bolden spent a season with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel before coming to the NBA. Philadelphia gave him a four-year, $7MM deal with a starting salary of $1.69MM, although the third and fourth seasons are non-guaranteed.
The Nets signed Rodions Kurucs to a similar arrangement, Pincus adds (Twitter link). The 40th pick in this year’s draft, Kurucs will make $1.62MM in his first year and has incentives that could bring the value of his four-year contract up to $6.96MM. The first three seasons are fully guaranteed.
Pincus passes on a few more details about deals signed this summer: