KZ Okpala Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Baldwin, Thompson, Russell, Okpala

February 26th, 2023 at 5:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Warriors rookie forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. is getting some playing time and coach Steve Kerr sees a bright future for the first round pick, C.J. Holmes of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.

“When I watch Patrick I see a future rotation player,” the Warriors coach said. “He fits. You can see it. He makes shots from the perimeter with ease. He shoots it from such a level of extension that you can barely challenge the shot.”

Baldwin contributed 11 points in 10 minutes for the Warriors against the Lakers on Thursday and 11 more points in 16 minutes against Houston on Friday.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

Klay Thompson has four rings and a contract that runs through next season. The Warriors shooting guard says he’s still hungry at this stage of his career, according to Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Thompson became the first player in NBA history to make 12 three-pointers in multiple games in a season while scoring 42 points against Houston. “I did something that no one else has ever done before,” Thompson said. “I looked at (Stephen Curry) immediately when I did it because, I mean, that man’s got all the records, so it’s fun to push the game forward with him. I’m still so hungry to be great. I’ll never be satisfied.”
Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell went through pregame warmups but was ultimately ruled out of the team’s game against Dallas, according to Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register (Twitter links). Acquired from Minnesota at the trade deadline, Russell suffered a sprained right ankle against Golden State on Thursday.
The Kings still believe KZ Okpala can be a defensive factor in his NBA career, but chose to waive him after determining that he needed knee surgery, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reports in a subscriber-only story. Okpala, who appeared in 35 games after signing as a free agent, has been sidelined with bilateral knee soreness and is now expected to undergo season-ending surgery. The team consulted with multiple medical professionals to evaluate Okpala’s injury, Anderson adds.

Kings Waive KZ Okpala, Bring Back PJ Dozier

February 25th, 2023 at 7:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

7:55pm: The Kings have officially signed Dozier and waived Okpala, the team confirmed in a press release.

8:30am: The Kings will waive forward KZ Okpala and sign veteran wing PJ Dozier for the rest of the season, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links).

Okpala, who has been dealing with bilateral knee soreness, plans to undergo surgery that will end his season. The 23-year-old power forward has appeared in 35 games, averaging 1.3 points and 1.0 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per night, and hasn’t played since January 28.

After spending his first three seasons in Miami, Okpala signed a two-year deal with Sacramento last summer that carried a partial guarantee. His $1.9MM salary for this season became fully guaranteed when he remained on the roster through early January, and his $2MM salary for 2023/24 was non-guaranteed.

Dozier returns to the Kings after signing two 10-day contracts in January. He saw limited playing time in four games and wasn’t immediately re-signed when the second deal expired at the end of the month. The 26-year-old guard has also played for the Thunder, Celtics and Nuggets.

KZ Okpala’s Contract Guaranteed By Kings

January 6th, 2023 at 9:42pm CST by Rory Maher

The Kings are keeping KZ Okpala on their roster, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link), who hears from a source that the forward had his contract guaranteed for the rest of the season.

The 32nd overall pick of the 2019 draft, Okpala spent his first two-plus seasons with the Heat. However, Miami traded him to Oklahoma City last February and he was subsequently waived by the Thunder.

The 23-year-old signed a two-year, $4MM deal with the Kings ahead of training camp, but it was only partially guaranteed for $250K. The guarantee increased to $500K when he made Sacramento’s regular season roster.

Okpala started the Kings’ first three games in 2022/23, but he hasn’t played a whole lot since. Overall, he’s appeared in 25 games for an average of 7.8 minutes per night. Head coach Mike Brown is a fan of Okpala’s defense.

Pacific Notes: Warriors, Klay, Kawhi, Clippers, Kings

January 4th, 2023 at 7:10pm CST by Rory Maher

The Warriors provided updates (via Twitter) on several injured players on Wednesday evening. Star guard Stephen Curry will have his left shoulder reevaluated on Saturday, which is in line with what the team previously announced.

Starting forward Andrew Wiggins has begun practicing and is ramping up his conditioning after missing the past 14 games due to a strained right adductor and then an illness. He will be reevaluated later this week, per the team.

The Warriors also announced that JaMychal Green (right lower leg infection), Jonathan Kuminga (right foot sprain) and James Wiseman (left ankle sprain) will all be out at least one more week — that’s when they’ll be reevaluated.

Here’s more from the Pacific:

Klay Thompson missed two-plus seasons after a couple of major injuries, first a torn ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals, followed by a torn Achilles tendon. On Monday, he scored a season-high 54 points in the Warriors‘ double-overtime victory over the Hawks, a performance he doesn’t take for granted. “It’s a huge accomplishment for me,” Thompson said, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “There were some hard days for me when I didn’t know that this would be possible in real time. I am just going to embrace the heck out of it.”
After missing Monday’s loss to Miami with a non-COVID illness, Kawhi Leonard is no longer on the Clippers‘ injury report for Thursday’s contest in Denver, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Paul George, who tweaked his hamstring on Monday, is listed as questionable, while Nicolas Batum is out with a left ankle sprain.
Can Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue find lineups that work whether or not Leonard and/or George are in the lineup? Law Murray of The Athletic explores that topic, writing that if Lue is unable to optimize the current group, trades could be in order for a team that hopes to compete for a championship.
The Kings have three players — Matthew Dellavedova, Chima Moneke and KZ Okpala — on partially guaranteed deals, and none are locks to have their salaries guaranteed for the rest of the season, writes James Ham of TheKingsBeat.com. It’s possible one or more might be released in the next few days (the deadline to waive partially and non-guaranteed deals before they become fully guaranteed is January 7) in order to create roster flexibility ahead of the trade deadline, according to Ham, who says the Kings figure to be aggressive in their push to break their lengthy playoff drought.

Pacific Notes: Sabonis, Bridges, Lamb, Thompson

December 3rd, 2022 at 9:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings improved to 12-9 with a rout of the Clippers Saturday afternoon and they seem to have added another element to their already dangerous offense, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Domantas Sabonis continued his hot shooting from three-point range, connecting on both of his shots from beyond the arc. After starting the season 1-of-12 on three-pointers, Sabonis has hit 8-of-14 in his last 10 games.

“It’s big,” he said. “The more I can keep shooting them and knocking them down, teams are eventually going to have to respect it, which is going to allow me to be even more of a play-maker. A lot of times, I can’t thread the needle because the big is so far down. Now, he has to be up, to open the room up for everybody.”

Sacramento had everyone available today as Trey Lyles returned after missing two games with an illness, Anderson adds. Coach Mike Brown likes having the extra option among his reserves and cited the performance of Terence Davis and KZ Okpala while Lyles was unavailable.

“That just makes our bench deeper,” Brown said. “Trey was playing well when he was playing. Obviously, TD stepped up and played big minutes for us. KZ played some pretty good minutes in the last game. So, it makes my decision making harder, but (Lyles) has been playing his behind off and it’s great to see.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Suns forward Mikal Bridges, who hasn’t missed a game since entering the league, believes he can continue that streak despite tweaking his right knee Friday night, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Phoenix will travel to San Antonio on Sunday, and Bridges is listed as probable. “I think I just hyperextended it a little bit, but I’m all right,” he said.
Anthony Lamb has become an important part of the Warriors‘ second unit, according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. When Lamb joined Golden State in October, it marked his fourth two-way contract in less than two years, along with one 10-day deal. “He’s a versatile player,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s a quick catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter. The ball doesn’t stop when it hits his hands. When he’s open, he usually gets it off quickly. And he’s shooting it really well. He does a lot of things well that contribute to winning.”
Warriors guard Klay Thompson sat out tonight on the second game of a back-to-back, but Kerr doesn’t expect that to continue all season, Poole tweets.

Pacific Notes: Okpala, Lakers, Clippers, Crowder

October 31st, 2022 at 7:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Heat are happy that KZ Okpala has found a new home in Sacramento, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes.

Okpala was traded by Miami to Oklahoma City last season. The Thunder then waived him. Okpala signed with the Kings in September and earned a spot on the regular season roster.

“We’re rooting for him,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “because he really put in a lot of time with us and we saw improvement, and that’s a tough thing to do in this league is to carve out a niche, where you can see a vision of where you can make an impact. You also have to have the right fit and a coaching staff that values what you bring, and that’s clearly what he has there with (Mike Brown).”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

Could the Lakers’ win over Denver on Sunday be a turning point for the season? First-year coach Darvin Ham certainly hopes so, Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes. “We needed to prove something to ourselves,” Ham said. “Not to the world. Not to the media. We had to prove it to ourselves — and I felt great about how we responded.”
The Clippers enter their game against Houston on Monday with a 2-4 record. They were very displeased with their effort in a 21-point loss to New Orleans in their previous game, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “Right now, I think we are just showing up,” forward Marcus Morris said. “And thinking we can win because of the talent we have, because of all the things we have on this team. That’s just not the case.”
Jae Crowder remains away from the Suns as the veteran forward awaits a trade. Crowder posted a hopeful message on his Twitter page that the situation will be resolved soon. “YEA NO WORRIES STAY PATIENT COMING SOON I PROMISE!” he wrote.

Pacific Notes: Murray, Wall, Westbrook, Crowder

October 25th, 2022 at 6:55pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Kings head coach Mike Brown has indicated that 6’8″ rookie forward Keegan Murray, the No. 4 pick out of Iowa, could be moved into the team’s starting lineup soon, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

“Yeah, he started the second half [of the team’s Sunday loss against the Warriors], so there’s a chance he could start going forward,” Brown said.

The 0-3 Kings will next have the opportunity to start Murray against the 2-1 Grizzlies on Thursday. As Anderson writes, current starting power forward KZ Okpala seems most likely to be moved to the bench in such a scenario.

There’s more out of the Pacific Division:

Clippers reserve guard John Wall is hoping for a larger role with Los Angeles, per Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. The 6’4″ vet has been limited by his team to 25 or fewer minutes a night as a backup. Across 23 MPG in two contests thus far, Wall is averaging 16 PPG on .519/.250/.250 shooting splits, plus 3.5 APG, 2.0 RPG and 1.0 SPG. “There’s no recovery process for me,” Wall said. “It’s just a program, a plan [the Clippers have] for me… I was fully healthy last year; I just didn’t play because of the situation [with the Rockets]. So, I’m not on like on a recovery process.”
The 0-3 Lakers are struggling to start the season, and still seem to be considering offloading the expiring $47.1MM contract of current starting point guard Russell Westbrook. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report identifies six potential outcomes for the team’s future with Westbrook, including standing pat and not executing a trade.
Estranged Suns power forward Jae Crowder remains in limbo as both he and Phoenix hope to work out a deal to send Crowder away from the Suns for a hopefully larger role elsewhere, per Chris Haynes of Turner Sports (Twitter video link). “Both sides, his agent and the Suns, they though they were going to come to an agreement on a trade before the season started, and things have been prolonged,” Haynes said. “He’s in the best shape possible of his career and he’s just ready to get back out there on the court.”

Several Players Set To Receive Salary Guarantees

October 19th, 2022 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Most players who are still on non-guaranteed contracts as the NBA’s regular season begins won’t have their salaries for 2022/23 fully guaranteed until January. The league-wide salary guarantee date is January 10, and teams must waive players on non-guaranteed contracts on or before January 7 in order to avoid being on the hook for the full-season salaries.

However, a number of players on non-guaranteed deals have language in their contracts that calls for them to receive full or partial guarantees if they’re not waived before their team’s first game of the regular season. Those players are as follows:

Full guarantees:

Dalano Banton (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,563,518).
Keita Bates-Diop (Spurs): Non-guaranteed salary ($1,878,720) becomes fully guaranteed.
Justin Champagnie (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($325,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,637,966).
Tre Jones (Spurs): Partial guarantee ($500,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,782,621).

As our full list of early salary guarantee dates shows, Isaiah Joe (Sixers), Josh Jackson (Raptors), and D.J. Wilson (Raptors) also would’ve had their salaries become fully guaranteed if they had remained under contract through their teams’ first regular season games. However, they were all waived within the last week. Joe has since signed with the Thunder on a deal that includes a guaranteed first-year salary.

Partial guarantees:

Matthew Dellavedova (Kings): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,628,597) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
Haywood Highsmith (Heat): Partial guarantee ($50,000) increases to $400,000.
Luke Kornet (Celtics): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to $1,066,639.
Chima Moneke (Kings): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
Markieff Morris (Nets): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,905,581) becomes partially guaranteed ($500,000).
KZ Okpala (Kings): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
Edmond Sumner (Nets): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.

Guarantee dates are a matter of negotiation between a team and a player, so there’s nothing stopping a club from approaching a player and asking him to agree to push that date back. If a player feels as if he’ll be waived if he says no, he may agree.

This happened last season, for instance, when Isaac Bonga‘s and Sam Dekker‘s contracts with the Raptors called for their salaries to be fully guaranteed as of opening night. Both players assented to moving their guarantee dates back to November 6. When that new deadline arrived, Toronto opted to retain Bonga and guarantee his full salary while waiving Dekker.

In other words, it’s not yet a sure thing that all the players mentioned above will get the guarantees described here, even if they remain under contract through Wednesday (or Tuesday, in Kornet’s case). We may get word in a day or two that a couple of them agreed to postpone their salary guarantee dates.

For the most part though, we should count on this group of players receiving some added security, with a handful of names coming off our list of players who still have non-guaranteed salaries.

California Notes: Jackson, Wall, Zubac, Kings, Poole

October 16th, 2022 at 10:23pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has claimed that a report indicating that Reggie Jackson had won the L.A. starting point guard gig over John Wall did not come from him, and that he has yet to make a final decision, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles will play its first regular season contest this Thursday.

“Both guys are in a great position, and their mindset is in the right place,” Lue said. “It is about winning. It is not about who’s the starter, who’s the best player. It’s about the right fit and trying to win, and both of those guys are on board with that.”

Here’s more out of California:

Clippers center Ivica Zubac spoke with Mark Medina of NBA.com for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the team’s hoped-for title contention this season, its stars’ injury woes, the development of Zubac around the rim, and more. Zubac also gave head coach Tyronn Lue a rave review. “Ty has been around the team and me for a while, even before he became a head coach,” Zubac noted. “He’s been seeing the progress for a while. It’s in big part thanks to him. He’s been pushing us. Last season, he asked me to do some things on the court that he hadn’t asked me to do in a while. He involved me more offensively. I think that was a big part of my progression.”
Following a rigorous training camp, the Kings opted to retain point guard Matthew Dellavedova, forward Chima Moneke, and power forward KZ Okpala into the regular season. Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee breaks down how the new Sacramento additions made the grade. All are currently signed to non-guaranteed deals with the team. “As training camp has gone on, [Moneke] is trending upwards,” head coach Mike Brown said. “I think the initial shock of being in the NBA and the speed and athleticism and all that stuff caught him off guard a little bit, but he belongs on this level and he can help us. I think KZ, too. Both of those guys were two of my first calls, even before I really got the job.” Brown also raved about Dellavedova’s effort on defense. “If Davion [Mitchell] ain’t going hard, he will get embarrassed by Delly… If [De’Aaron] Fox isn’t going hard, he will get embarrassed by Delly. To have a guy like that raises the level of intensity.”
Warriors reserve guard Jordan Poole signed a four-year contract extension with Golden State worth up to $140MM. Now, new details have emerged about the contract’s various incentives. Anthony Slater of The Athletic unpacks the deal, revealing that – beyond the guaranteed $123MM – Poole will make an extra $1.25MM per year (i.e. $5MM across all four seasons) depending on how far the team gets in the playoffs. He will net an additional $1MM for each year he wins the league MVP award (so a very, very hypothetical total of $4MM), plus $1MM annually per every Defensive Player of the Year award. Considering his skillset, earning either honor even once seems fairly far-fetched. Poole could earn $500K per season should he qualify for an All-NBA team (there are a total of 15 such slots available) and another $500K annually should he qualify for an All-Defensive Team (there are 10 available openings). Slater notes that it is possible Poole grows into being an All-NBA talent, but is skeptical he could ever be an elite defender or named the league MVP.

Kings Waive Sam Merrill, Set Roster For Season

October 15th, 2022 at 4:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova and forwards KZ Okpala and Chima Moneke have claimed the final three spots on the Kings‘ 15-man roster to open the regular season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Veteran wing Sam Merrill had also been vying for a regular season roster spot, but the Kings have opted to waive him, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee tweets.

The team also cut Jeriah Horne and Alex O’Connell, per James Ham of ESPN 1320 Sacramento (Twitter link), who says the plan is for both players to join the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate.

Okpala earned some starts at power forward for Sacramento this preseason and always seemed like a safe bet to make the roster. Dellavedova, meanwhile, looked like a logical keeper after the team waived another veteran point guard, Quinn Cook. Moneke has spent the last several years playing in international leagues and will be getting his first shot in the NBA as a 26-year-old rookie.

Okpala and Moneke currently have partial guarantees worth $250K and will earn another $250K if they remain on the roster through Wednesday. Dellavedova is on a non-guaranteed contract and will also get $250K for sticking through Wednesday.

Merrill’s contract included a $150K partial guarantee. The Kings will be on the hook for that amount unless he’s claimed on waivers on Monday.