San Antonio Spurs Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Notes: Jackson, Hawkins, Paul, Rockets

July 21st, 2024 at 3:01pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Grizzlies forward GG Jackson is already making strides as a rebounder in Summer League play, writes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Jackson notched two straight double-doubles in scoring and rebounding during his first four Summer League contests. Cole notes that Memphis is frequently tasking the second-year forward with some of the team’s toughest defensive assignments.

On Thursday, Jackson helped the Grizzlies stay undefeated, showing off his improved play-making skills with a six-assist performance, adds Cole in another story. Memphis beat the Clippers in their Summer League semifinal matchup Sunday, and on Monday will square off against the winner of an ongoing Heat-Warriors playoff semifinal.

Jackson was selected with the No. 45 pick out of South Carolina in last year’s draft. The 6’9″ forward quickly emerged as one of the most impressive players in the 2023 class, earning an All-Rookie Team berth for his efforts. Across 48 games (18 starts), Jackson averaged 14.6 points on a .428/.357/.752 shooting line while also chipping in 4.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.5 blocks per night.

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

Second-year Pelicans shooting guard Jordan Hawkins departed his last game of Summer League with an ankle injury, but X-rays on the ailment were negative, reports Christian Clark of NOLA.com (Twitter link). The No. 14 pick out of UConn, Hawkins averaged 7.8 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.0 assists during his 2023/24 rookie season.
In a new interview with Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype, third-year Spurs guard Blake Wesley reflected on the club’s decision to add 12-time All-Star veteran Chris Paul in free agency over the summer. “He’s a great dude,” Wesley said. “We just worked out with him not too long ago at Summer League. Yeah. So it’s good. He’s a great dude. He’s talking to me, coaching me, telling me to go handle the ball. So I’m enjoying it so far, and I can’t wait to learn and get the knowledge. Really take what he has. So I’m excited.” One of the great facilitators and shooters in the history of the game, Paul has shown an ability to help develop younger guards, so his addition could greatly abet Wesley.
The Rockets enjoyed an active Summer League run, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle in a piece unpacking his takeaways from the event. No. 3 draft pick Reed Sheppard has already impressed as a scorer, averaging 20 points per game, though he has struggled with protecting the ball.

Spurs Notes: Castle, Collins, Bouyea, Cissoko

July 20th, 2024 at 7:32pm CST by Arthur Hill

Stephon Castle‘s Summer League experience was cut short by a sprained wrist, but the Spurs had already seen enough of the No. 4 pick to know he’s a good fit for the organization, writes Kelly Iko of The Athletic. The poise and defensive intensity Castle displayed at UConn looks like it will translate into the NBA, and coach Gregg Popovich indicated that he seems ready for a rotation role.

“It gives me a lot of confidence,” Castle said. “Pop is a legendary coach, so to hear that from him means so much more. He has a lot of belief in my abilities, and he’s expressed that pretty early on when I got drafted. It’s going to be a fun season. I’m ready to learn a lot from him.”

The Spurs appear ready to trust Castle with play-making duties, Iko adds, which was a question heading into the draft. Castle said he considers himself a point guard, but that wasn’t his usual role in college. He registered 12 assists in three Summer League games, and Iko notes that he showed an ability to create shots for himself as well as his teammates.

“I think I’ve been handling it pretty well,” Castle said. “I’m pretty comfortable in pick-and-rolls, and my teammates and coaches have a lot of belief and confidence in me. That instills confidence in myself when I’m going out there trying to make reads.”

There’s more on the Spurs:

Zach Collins hopes he’s moved past the shooting problems that plagued him early last season, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Even though his shooting numbers improved after the All-Star break, it was still a rough season for Collins, who was limited to 32% from beyond the arc after connecting at a career-high 37.4% the year before. Collins also provided an update on his right shoulder after undergoing surgery to fix a torn labrum after the season ended. He has been working out with some of his teammates in Las Vegas and expects to be ready for the start of training camp. “Everything has healed up, so everything is on pace,” Collins said. “I am checking in with my doctor every month or so, and he seems happy with everything.”
Jamaree Bouyea hit two clutch shots in the final 41 seconds of Tuesday’s win over New Orleans, Orsborn states in the same story. The 25-year-old point guard is hoping to make an impact in the second season of a two-year, two-way deal he signed in March. “I just attack every day, taking every opportunity I get and making the most of it,” said Bouyea, who has spent time with three other teams in the last two seasons. “I can’t worry too much about decisions about my future, so I just give it my all every day, whether it’s a practice or a game.”
Sidy Cissoko has been a defensive standout this summer, shutting down first-round picks Zaccharie Risacher and Yves Missi, Orsborn adds. “(Defense) has been his focus throughout,” Summer League coach Ken Trevino said after the New Orleans game. “We don’t want him to score 20 points. … His job is to defend and rebound. And did he do that tonight? My goodness. Crazy.”

Hawks Notes: Young, Capela, Gueye, Djurisic, Risacher

July 18th, 2024 at 4:45pm CST by Luke Adams

As expected, the Hawks moved one of their two starting guards this offseason, sending Dejounte Murray to New Orleans while hanging onto Trae Young. Veteran center Clint Capela also remains on the trade block, sources tell Zach Lowe of ESPN (Insider link).

If the Hawks end up trading Capela, the 25-year-old Young could become the oldest member of a starting lineup that also features Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher, and Onyeka Okongwu, Lowe suggests, noting that Daniels’ secondary play-making and elite defense could pair well with Young’s skill set, allowing Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter to lead the second unit. In that scenario, the three-time All-Star could “lead a fun, up-tempo team that might be ready to peak by the middle of his prime,” Lowe writes.

Still, Lowe wonders if that path to eventual contention might progress too slowly for Young’s liking, especially since the team doesn’t control its own first-round picks for the next three years, hindering its ability to continue adding young talent. On the other hand, going all-in by trading their 2029 and 2031 first-round picks for veteran help would probably be too aggressive an approach for the Hawks.

If Atlanta remains stuck in the middle of the Eastern Conference, it could lead to an “inevitable decision point” with Young, Lowe says. The star guard is under contract for at least the next two seasons, with a player option for 2026/27, and trade interest from teams like the Spurs and Lakers has “cooled” in recent months, sources tell ESPN, so it’s a safe bet he’ll open the 2024/25 season with the Hawks. But depending on how the coming year plays out, it may just be a matter of time before Young is once again the subject of trade speculation.

Here’s more on the Hawks:

Atlanta is optimistic about Mouhamed Gueye‘s chances of earning a rotation spot as early as this fall, sources tell Lowe. The 2023 second-round pick was limited to just six games as a rookie, largely due to a lower back stress fracture and a UCL sprain, but the team remains high on his potential.
Agent Misko Raznatovic has provided an update on his client Nikola Djurisic, who sustained a left foot fracture in Summer League play. According to Raznatovic (Twitter link), Djurisic is undergoing surgery this week and the plan is for him to get back on the court by the end of September. That timeline suggests the 2024 second-rounder could be ready for training camp in the fall if he signs an NBA contract, though I’d expect the Hawks to take a patient, cautious approach with his recovery.
Marc J. Spears of Andscape spoke to Zaccharie Risacher and his father Stéphane about the elder Risacher’s long, successful career as a basketball player in Europe and the impact it had on his son. “That was the first player I ever watched,” Zaccharie said. “When I started to grow and I got my first iPad and iPhone, I would go to watch my father’s highlights on YouTube.”

Offseason Observations: Apron Impact, Rockets, Spurs, Okogie

July 18th, 2024 at 11:52am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA's offseason is far from over. As we saw last summer, when Damian Lillard was traded to Milwaukee in late September and Jrue Holiday was flipped from Portland to Boston on October 1, the trade market stays open into the fall.

We also could still see impactful moves on the free agent market occurring much later in the offseason, as was the case a year ago when Derrick Jones and P.J. Washington - two key members of the Mavericks' team that made the NBA Finals - signed their respective contracts during the second half of August (Washington signed with the Hornets before being traded to Dallas later in the season).

Still, the pace of the offseason action has certainly slowed down since the start of July, giving us an opportunity to look back and reflect on all that's gone down in the last few weeks.

From one of the biggest storylines of the summer (the impact of the new tax apron rules) to some under-the-radar developments (like the structure of Josh Okogie's new deal with the Suns), we're taking a closer look today at some of the more curious offseason subplots.

Let's dive in...

Has the impact of the new apron restrictions been overstated?

The concept of the tax apron has existed in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement for years, and a second apron was implemented in 2023, but the 2024 offseason is the first time all the new apron-related restrictions introduced in the current CBA have been in place. Those new restrictions affect the trade market most significantly, with teams operating over the first tax apron not permitted to take back more salary than they send out and teams over the second apron prohibited from aggregating player salaries.

While it's true that these rules have made it challenging for teams with high payrolls to make moves as easily as they used to, I think they've also become a convenient scapegoat for teams to justify certain roster decisions.

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Spurs Re-Sign Charles Bassey On One-Year Contract

July 17th, 2024 at 3:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 17: Bassey’s new deal has been officially completed, the Spurs announced in a press release.

JULY 16: The Spurs are re-signing center Charles Bassey to a fully guaranteed one-year, $2.2MM contract, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Bassey has played with San Antonio the past two seasons. The addition of Bassey will give San Antonio a full 15-man roster. San Antonio also reached an agreement with Sandro Mamukelashvili on Tuesday.

San Antonio waived Bassey earlier this month in order to complete the three-team trade with the Kings and Bulls highlighted by DeMar DeRozan and Harrison Barnes.

Bassey, 23, suffered a torn left ACL in December while playing for San Antonio’s G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs. Bassey was averaging 3.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per game with the NBA club in 19 appearances prior to the injury. He made $2.6MM last season.

There haven’t been any updates on Bassey’s condition but obviously the Spurs felt comfortable enough about his rehab to give him a guaranteed deal. The terms reported by Charania suggest it’ll be worth the minimum — for a player with Bassey’s three years of service, that would be $2,162,606.

The big man was drafted by the Sixers in the 2021 second round and spent one year in Philadelphia.

Jazz’s Sensabaugh, Spurs’ Castle Out For Rest Of Summer League

July 15th, 2024 at 1:07pm CST by Rory Maher

An MRI has revealed that second-year forward Brice Sensabaugh sustained an extensor tendon tear in his left middle finger during the second quarter of Saturday’s game vs. Dallas, the Jazz announced in a press release (via Twitter).

Sensabaugh’s finger will be splinted and reexamined in about six weeks, which means he’ll miss the remainder of Las Vegas Summer League. Based on that timeline, he’d be reexamined around late August, before training camp begins in the fall.

The 28th pick of the 2023 draft out of Ohio State, Sensabaugh made just four NBA regular season appearances in Utah’s first 53 games leading up to the February trade deadline. After the Jazz traded away veterans for the second consecutive year and tanked down the stretch, the 20-year-old averaged 8.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists on .392/.292/.902 shooting while appearing in 28 of the team’s final 29 games (20.5 MPG).

Sensabaugh, who is known for his shooting and scoring but isn’t a great defender, also appeared in 29 games for Utah’s G League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars, as a rookie in 2023/24. He averaged 19.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.2 steals on .467/.365/.758 shooting in 29.5 MPG.

Spurs guard Stephon Castle, the fourth pick of last month’s draft out of UConn, will also miss the remainder of Summer League, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required).

Castle suffered a right wrist sprain in Saturday’s win over Portland — his Spurs debut — in which he recorded 22 points, five rebounds and four assists. The injury is considered minor, but the team didn’t want to risk aggravating it.

“I feel like they have my best interests in mind,” Castle said, per Orsborn. “I feel like it’s smart to take the caution route.”

Southwest Notes: Dudley, Lawson, Popovich, Hawkins

July 14th, 2024 at 2:58pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Mavericks assistant coach Jared Dudley has made no secret of the fact that he’s hoping to one day serve as a head coach in the league, per Joey Mistretta of ClutchPoints (Twitter video link).

“I want to head coach, that’s my dream and ambition is to be able to do that,” Dudley said. “But at the same time as you can have that, some us aren’t J.J. Redick and get to go right away. I’ve got to be able to do two, three years, four or five years as an assistant. We all have different years, and my time will come later on. My time will eventually come.”

Redick, a one-time former Maverick, took over as the Lakers’ head coach this offseason without any assistant coach experience at the NBA or college level.

Dudley, a 14-year combo forward as a pro, has served as an assistant coach under Jason Kidd since the 2021/22 season. During that window, the Mavericks have appeared in a pair of Western Conference Finals and one NBA Finals. Currently, Dudley is the head coach of the Mavs’ Summer League squad.

There’s more out of the Southwest:

High-flying Mavericks wing A.J. Lawson is looking to show he belongs in the league as a regular rotation player, writes Eddie Sefko of Mavericks.com. Though he’s now on a standard contract, Lawson is still trying to prove his mettle on the club’s Summer League team. “The emphasis for me is definitely going to be defending,” Lawson said of his focus this summer. “I want to show I can defend one through four (point guards to power forwards). And also to be able to knock down the open shot. Everybody knows I got speed.”
Longtime Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich discussed San Antonio’s offseason roster additions Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes in a courtside conversation with ESPN’s Doris Burke and Mark Jones (YouTube video link). “I think [Paul’s] going to teach everybody a whole lot better than I did,” Popovich said. “Having he and Harrison come into the fold at this stage in their career is really wonderful for the youth that we have.” Popovich also raved about No. 4 draft pick Stephon Castle: “I love his seriousness for such a young kid. I love his pace – you see his expression never changes – he doesn’t go too fast, doesn’t go too slow. He reads the situations. The more minutes he gets, the better he is going to be. He seeks contact, he is an excellent defender and he makes wonderful decisions.”
Second-year Pelicans shooting guard Jordan Hawkins, the No. 14 pick out of UConn in 2023, knows exactly where he wants to improve his game this offseason, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “Definitely the defensive end,” Hawkins said. “I think that’s what held me back a little bit. Not being able to guard. So I think my big focus is going to be on guarding. Trying to guard wings. Trying to get bigger. Shooting. Being a 40% three-point shooter for our team. We have guys who can penetrate, get to the hoop. I just have to be able to knock shots down.”

Castle Plans To Learn From Paul

July 12th, 2024 at 10:48pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Spurs lottery pick Stephon Castle has aspirations to be a starting point guard but it probably won’t happen this year with Chris Paul signing with the club. Castle says he’s looking forward to the experience of playing with and learning from the future Hall of Famer. “I’m super happy about that,” Castle told Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. “To have a guy like that and play alongside him and have him mentor me a bit, it’s going to be fun.”

Groups Revealed For 2024 NBA Cup

July 12th, 2024 at 7:28pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The NBA has announced the five-team groups for this year’s in-season tournament, now renamed the Emirates NBA Cup, the league announced in a release on Friday (Twitter link).

Like last year, there are six groups — three each from the Western Conference and Eastern Conference — and each conference was split into five groups based on last year’s standings. One team was selected at random from each group to determine the group round matchups.

The results are:

West Group A: Timberwolves, Clippers, Kings, Rockets and Trail Blazers
West Group B: Thunder, Suns, Lakers, Jazz and Spurs
West Group C: Nuggets, Mavericks, Pelicans, Warriors and Grizzlies
East Group A: Knicks, Magic, Sixers, Nets and Hornets
East Group B: Bucks, Pacers, Heat, Raptors and Pistons
East Group C: Celtics, Cavaliers, Bulls, Hawks and Wizards

The NBA Cup begins with group play, which runs from Nov. 12 to Dec. 3. Each team plays one game against each of the four opponents in its group. The NBA released a matchup matrix to help fans follow along (Twitter link).

Just like last season, the winner of each group advances to a knockout round alongside the team with the best record in each conference that didn’t win a group. The semifinals and finals will again be played in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Last year, the Lakers won the inaugural in-season tournament over the Pacers. LeBron James was named the tournament MVP after dropping 24 points in the title game.

The full game and broadcast schedule for group play will be announced next month.

Paul Valued PT Over Ring

July 11th, 2024 at 9:16am CST by Dana Gauruder

After getting waived by the Warriors, Chris Paul chose the Spurs despite his lack of a championship ring. Paul will likely return to a starting role with San Antonio and that was a deciding factor, according to Andrew Lopez on ESPN. “I want to play more than anything,” he said. Newly-acquired Harrison Barnes had a 10% trade bonus that he waived in order to help facilitate the deal involving the Kings, Spurs and Bulls. Barnes called it “a pretty easy decision,” adding, “It’s funny, with the new CBA, the trade kicker became more of a play than I was expecting, but I think the opportunity just to come here and to be able play for Pop (Gregg Popovich) and play with this group I think is exciting.”