Toronto Raptors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: NBA Academies, Free Agents, M. James, More

November 8th, 2024 at 5:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA intends to close its Global Academy in Australia and its Latin America Academy in Mexico at the end of their respective seasons, reports Jonathan Givony of ESPN. As Givony explains, the league’s intent is to reallocate more resources to “larger, non-traditional basketball countries” that don’t have strong existing infrastructure.

The league will focus on markets that are “deemed most essential for globalizing the NBA,” according to Givony, who points to China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan as examples. The plan is to open a new Global Academy hub in a more central country relative to those markets, with Asia or the Middle East viewed as the most probable locations, Givony continues.

“Our goal is to grow the game globally, increase the level of play around the world, and help those who need it most,” the NBA’s head of international basketball operations Troy Justice told ESPN. “We want players from 80 countries to be represented on NBA rosters, not 43, like we have now. There’s so much talent out there. We just need to help support their growth.”

As Givony points out, recent lottery picks like Josh Giddey (Australia), Dyson Daniels (Australia), Bennedict Mathurin (Latin America) developed their skills at the two NBA Academies that are shuttering.

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

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report lists five veteran free agents that he believes could help virtually any NBA team right now. Pincus’ list includes Markelle Fultz, Justin Holiday, Robert Covington, and Bismack Biyombo, along with Lonnie Walker, who technically isn’t a free agent but has an NBA opt-out clause in his deal with Zalgiris Kaunas.
A longtime star in Europe, veteran guard Mike James has only made 49 career NBA appearances with the Suns, Pelicans, and Nets. The AS Monaco standout and reigning EuroLeague MVP said during a recent appearance on SKWEEK’s Best In Class podcast (hat tip to BasketNews.com) that he thinks NBA teams view him as “a risk” due to his success overseas. “Every time I talk with them – not me personally but my representatives – they kind of feel like, ‘Yeah, but if it doesn’t go well for you, you just get mad and leave and go back to Europe,'” James said. “Everybody just kind of thinks that if I’m not playing as much as I want, I’m going. Everybody kind of considers me like I’ve outgrown the role that they want to put me in, but they need to put me in that role for me to get a bigger role. So, it’s like a give-and-take at some point.”
In an Insider-only story for ESPN.com, Jeremy Woo takes a look at some of the early-season standouts among first- and second-year NBA players, highlighting the breakout potential being shown by Raptors guard Gradey Dick and Wizards forward Bilal Coulibaly and identifying Grizzlies second-rounder Jaylen Wells as one of the most impressive 2024 draftees so far.

Raptors Notes: Agbaji, Mitchell, Walter, Mogbo, DeRozan

November 7th, 2024 at 10:12pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The Raptors acquired Ochai Agbaji alongside Kelly Olynyk at last season’s trade deadline, and he’s looking like a steal while he blossoms in his third season in the league, Sportsnet.ca’s Michael Grange writes. In nine games (seven starts), Agbaji is averaging 13.0 points and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 56.8% from the field and 42.4% on three-pointers. He’s impressing as a two-way option on the wing.

“He’s been really good for us on defense. I’d say that’s his biggest strength, his activity there, his versatility there,” teammate Jakob Poeltl said. “He’s filling a kind of little-bit-of-everything role on offence for us, where he’s doing a lot of good cutting, spacing the corners for threes and stuff like that. Being aggressive in the fast break. So, yeah, we need more of that.”

According to Grange, the Raptors liked Agbaji in the 2022 draft, but he was selected 14th overall and Toronto didn’t control its own first-round pick. Equipped at last season’s trade deadline with the projected No. 31 overall pick in 2025 from the OG Anunoby trade, Toronto was prepared to give up the draft capital necessary (No. 29 overall) to acquire Olynyk and take a shot on Agbaji.

Agbaji’s current scoring average is more than double what he posted last season and Grange writes that he put in a ton of work this offseason in mini-camps and alongside Gradey Dick.

“Everyone had their own path,” Agbaji said. “Some guys figure it out in two minutes, some people it’s two years, three years or even longer. But I feel like the work I put in this off-season has prepared me for this moment and the work I continuously put in is for the rest of my career, really. This is just the starting point, and I’m going to try and keep it going and stay focused on what I need to do every single night to get myself to that level I’m capable of playing.”

We have more from the Raptors:

Davion Mitchell‘s ultimate fit with the Raptors is still yet to be determined, but he’s making the most of his opportunities so far, Grange writes in a separate story. Acquired in a trade that sent Jalen McDaniels to Sacramento, Mitchell has been one of the team’s more productive players through the early part of the season. He has started the past eight games with Immanuel Quickley out, averaging 10.0 PPG and 6.3 APG. Once is Quickley back – and with rookie Jamal Shead impressing early on – it’s unclear what Mitchell’s role will look like, Grange writes, but the fourth-year guard has graded out as the best perimeter defender in the league so far this fall.
Both Ja’Kobe Walter and Jonathan Mogbo, the Nos. 19 and 31 overall picks in this year’s draft, respectively, exited the Raptors’ Wednesday game against the Kings with injuries. Walter re-aggravated the shoulder injury that caused him to miss training camp and the first five games of the season, with leaves him with a day-to-day designation, Grange details in the same piece. Mogbo suffered a hip pointer, and the duration of his injury is unclear.
Despite an awkward ending to his Raptors tenure that saw him traded to the Spurs in 2018, Kings forward DeMar DeRozan still feels a strong bond with the franchise, The Athletic’s Eric Koreen writes. “I just feel like it, I’m embedded there — it’s a second-nature thing,” DeRozan said. “Anything the Raptors need [from] me, I feel like I’m an extension of that family for the rest of my life.“

Atlantic Notes: Claxton, Simmons, Boucher, Brown

November 5th, 2024 at 9:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nets center Nic Claxton received his first start of the season on Monday. Claxton, who signed a four-year deal worth up to $100MM during the summer, had 10 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in a win over Memphis. He missed the preseason due to a hamstring injury.

“It’s just still getting back into the swing of things. I had like one stint where I was really tired, but other than that, I was good. Just trying to communicate, just find my balance again,” Claxton told Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Ben Simmons sat out Monday in the second game of a back-to-back. Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez wants Simmons to shoot more often — he’s taken five or fewer attempts in his six games, Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post notes. “He is physically getting where he’s supposed to be, and those attempts need to go up,” Fernandez said. “Because then we are all going to benefit from it. I don’t care about makes-misses. I just want to see shots going up. He’s more than capable of doing it, so he’ll get there for sure.”
Chris Boucher was in and out of the Raptors‘ rotation last season. He came back this season determined to reestablish himself as a reliable reserve. So far, so good. He’s averaging 9.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 17.3 minutes per game. “I think there was a lot of stuff that I was doing that I kept saying I gotta do better, but I never changed it,” Boucher told Josh Lewenberg of TSN. “Obviously, when things are going well and you’re playing all the time you [think], well, I’m just going to keep doing what I’m going. But by the time I wasn’t playing, I was like, all right, well, now I’ve gotta figure it out or I won’t be here no more.” Boucher will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Celtics forward Jaylen Brown will miss his third consecutive game on Wednesday, Tim Bontemps of ESPN tweets. Brown is dealing with a hip flexor strain. He’s averaging 25.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest in the early going.

Atlantic Notes: Kolek, Queta, Dick, Barnes

November 5th, 2024 at 10:58am CST by Luke Adams

After playing a rotation role in each of the Knicks‘ first five games, veteran point guard Cameron Payne was unavailable on Monday in Houston due to a hamstring strain. That resulted in rookie guard Tyler Kolek seeing his first meaningful minutes of the season for New York.

Kolek was only on the court for 5:32 and was a minus-four in his limited playing time. Still, he knocked down his only field goal attempt (a three-pointer) and has made a positive impression on a head coach who typically doesn’t make a habit of playing rookies.

“I really like (Kolek) a lot,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. “I think he’s learning like most young guys coming into the league. He’s a gym rat. Works extremely hard. Puts a lot of time into film study. Extra work. Practice. He’s around really good veterans. That helps move it along in terms of how you learn. And then a big part of it is the trial and error of getting out there and doing it. So I think he’s putting everything he has into it. So we’ll see.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Having seen his rotation role increase over the past week, Celtics center Neemias Queta earned his first career start on Monday in Atlanta and delivered with 10 points, seven rebounds, and a plus-31 mark in just 23 minutes. As Brian Robb of MassLive.com writes, Queta’s transformation into a rotation player gives Boston more insurance up front behind veterans Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. “He’s grown a lot as a player and quite honestly he doesn’t know how good he can be,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Queta after Monday’s win. “He’s got a great ceiling and so the standard is very high and I thought he did some great things for us tonight.”
Following an up-and-down rookie season, Raptors sharpshooter Gradey Dick is showing early signs of breaking out in his second year, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca, who takes a closer look at how 2023’s No. 13 overall pick is thriving so far this fall. With a 26-point outing on Monday in Denver, Dick is up to 21.6 PPG on .473/.383/.929 shooting in his first eight games as an NBA sophomore.
After a meeting with doctors on Monday, the Raptors determined that injured forward Scottie Barnes won’t require surgery to repair the right orbital fracture he suffered last week, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. A surgical procedure likely would’ve extended the recovery timeline for Barnes, who will be reevaluated in about two weeks.

Injury Notes: Curry, Melton, Wiggins, Raptors, Clarkson, More

November 1st, 2024 at 7:13pm CST by Luke Adams

Warriors guards Stephen Curry (left peroneal strain) and De’Anthony Melton (strained lower back) have been ruled out for Saturday’s contest against Houston, the team announced today (via Twitter), and Melton will remain sidelined for at least two games beyond that before being reevaluated a week from now.

However, the injury news from Golden State isn’t all bad. As Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets, Curry has been cleared to participate in parts of Friday night’s practice and will be reevaluated on Sunday, so it’s possible he could return to action as soon as Monday vs. Washington.

Additionally, forward Andrew Wiggins is on track to suit up on Saturday after missing two games due to a low back strain. He’ll be immediately reinserted into the starting lineup upon returning, according to head coach Steve Kerr (Twitter link via Slater).

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

After missing the first five games of his rookie season, Raptors first-round pick Ja’Kobe Walter was cleared to make his NBA debut on Friday vs. the Lakers, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. Elsewhere on the Raptors injury front, forward Scottie Barnes (orbital fracture) has a doctor’s appointment on Monday, which could help determine the treatment plan for his injury, while big man Kelly Olynyk (back/lumbar strain) is still at least a “couple more weeks” away from playing, per head coach Darko Rajakovic (Twitter links via Lewenberg). Guard Immanuel Quickley (pelvic contusion) isn’t far off from returning, but he remains out on Friday and will likely miss Saturday’s game vs. Sacramento too, tweets Lewenberg.
Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson has been diagnosed with left plantar fasciitis and will be reevaluated in a week, the team announced today (via Twitter). Collin Sexton, who figures to play an increased role with Clarkson out, suffered a left fourth finger distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint avulsion fracture on Thursday but will attempt to play through the injury, according to the Jazz.
Hornets center Mark Williams is doing a “good amount of individual work,” per head coach Charles Lee, but he hasn’t been cleared for full team drills or scrimmages yet, writes Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer. Williams has yet to play this season due to a sprained tendon in his left foot.
Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who is recovering from offseason surgeries on both feet, has experienced some “minor discomfort,” but that’s a normal part of the recovery process, head coach J.J. Redick told reporters on Friday (Twitter link via Jovan Buha of The Athletic). Redick added that Vanderbilt is “progressing” but that his return isn’t imminent. “We’ll have another update in a week or so,” he said.

Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Raptors, Barnes, Queta, Watford

October 31st, 2024 at 10:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Sixers star Joel Embiid has participated in multiple 5-on-5 scrimmages in recent days as he takes steps toward making his season debut, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania.

According to Charania, with the 76ers not in action again until Saturday, the expectation is that Embiid will be evaluated ahead of that game vs. Memphis after working out on Thursday and Friday. The former MVP has missed the first four games of Philadelphia’s season, but hasn’t yet been ruled out for Saturday’s contest against the Grizzlies.

The Sixers were fined $100K this week for inconsistent statements about Embiid’s health status. Pressed on Wednesday about the team’s lack of transparency, head coach Nick Nurse declined to offer any specific details about where things stand for the big man or Embiid’s co-star Paul George, who has yet to make his 76ers debut due to a bone bruise in his knee.

“They are making progress,” Nurse said, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “They’re going to have workouts tomorrow, Friday. We hope to have a better indication where they are by then. I’ll update you then.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca and Eric Koreen of The Athletic write, the orbital fracture that will sideline star forward Scottie Barnes for at least the next few weeks will make it even more difficult for the Raptors to evaluate their core, which has been hit hard by injuries this fall. However, there are some silver linings, Lewenberg and Koreen note. The Raptors will have more minutes available for their younger players and are increasingly unlikely to be on the hook for an extra $45MM for Barnes, who would become ineligible for an All-NBA spot if he misses at least 18 games this season. The five-year rookie scale extension he signed in July would be worth a projected $269MM instead of $224MM if he earns All-NBA honors in 2024/25.
Neemias Queta provided the Celtics with some quality minutes in Wednesday’s loss to Indiana, pulling down nine rebounds as Boston outscored Indiana by 18 points in his 14 minutes of action. While Queta has played sparingly behind Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman so far this season, Brian Robb of MassLive.com makes the case that – with Kristaps Porzingis still out for a while – the time may be right for the Celtics to take a more extended look at Queta, who signed a three-year contract with the team in July and may be better suited for certain matchups and situations than Kornet or Tillman.
Nets forward Trendon Watford, on the shelf since early October due to a left hamstring strain, has been upgraded to probable for Friday’s game vs. Chicago, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. It’s unclear whether Watford will be part of Jordi Fernandez‘s rotation, but he should soon be available to make his season debut if needed.

Eastern Notes: Ball, Holland, Raptors, Hornets, G League

October 30th, 2024 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

After the Bulls announced on Tuesday that Lonzo Ball has been diagnosed with a sprained right wrist and will be sidelined for at least 10 days, the veteran point guard spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the injury, explaining that it falls between a Grade 1 and Grade 2 sprain, according to Jamal Collier of ESPN.

“If I play on it right now while it’s still swollen, it could get to a Grade 3. That would require surgery,” said Ball, who had a brace on his right wrist. “Trying to avoid that obviously. Let the swelling down, hopefully tape it up and get back to it.”

It’s an unfortunate setback for Ball, given that his comeback from two-and-a-half lost seasons due to knee surgeries had been off to as good a start as he and the team could have hoped for. Although Ball’s early-season numbers (4.7 points, 3.7 assists, and 2.7 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game on 35.7% shooting) don’t jump off the page, he hasn’t experienced any setbacks related to his left knee and the team has a +20.3 net rating in his 47 minutes of action.

“An unfortunate moment, but it happens,” Ball said. “Hopefully I get over it as fast as possible and get back to business.”

Here’s more from across the Eastern Conference:

No. 5 overall pick Ron Holland has played a modest role so far for the Pistons, averaging 13.3 minutes per night through his first four NBA games and contributing 5.3 PPG and 3.3 RPG. Still, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has liked what he’s seen from the 19-year-old rookie, writes Spencer Davies of RG.org. “The thing that’s been most impressive is he’s just fearless,” Bickerstaff said recently. “You watch some of the guys that he’s gone after defensively, gotten in a few skirmishes already. But (he) just hasn’t backed down from anybody. To be a rookie and young at that, to come in and take on challenges of these proven, veteran guys, I just have a ton of respect for that.”
Once lauded for the rises of unheralded prospects like Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, the Raptors‘ player development program hasn’t had nearly as many wins in recent years. However, that could be changing this season, per Eric Koreen of The Athletic, who takes a look at the promising early-season progress Toronto is seeing from rookies Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead, and Jamison Battle.
James Jordan, who had been serving as the Hornets‘ executive vice president and chief operating officer, will move into a senior advisory position beginning this weekend, as Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer details. The older brother of former Hornets owner Michael Jordan, James Jordan has been employed by the franchise since 2013.
The Bulls‘ and Pistons‘ G League affiliates are among the teams to announce their training camp rosters this week. The Windy City Bulls’ roster includes veteran NBA guard Ryan Arcidiacono and former lottery pick Joshua Primo, while wings Lamar Stevens and Dereon Seabron are among the former NBA players on the Motor City Cruise’s squad (Twitter link).

Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Claxton, Raptors, Knicks, Towns

October 30th, 2024 at 2:30pm CST by Luke Adams

Following up on the NBA’s announcement that the Sixers were fined $100K for violating the league’s player participation policy, Sam Amick and Joe Vardon of The Athletic attempt to parse the somewhat vague language of the NBA’s statement, which said the team was penalized not for resting Joel Embiid but for “public statements inconsistent with Embiid’s health status.”

One league source told The Athletic duo that Embiid didn’t re-injure his surgically repaired left knee during the Olympics, but that there were concerns about the stability of the knee and the possible risk of further damage if he had played last week. In other words, the big man is dealing with a legitimate knee issue despite the team’s insistence that there were no offseason setbacks.

One significant factor in the league’s decision to fine the Sixers was the team’s messaging that the playoffs were a top priority and that the regular season wasn’t, per Amick and Vardon. Sixers president Daryl Morey, head coach Nick Nurse, and Embiid all spoke publicly this fall about their plan to rest the star center frequently – including in back-to-back sets – in order to ensure he’s ready to go for the postseason.

We have more from around the Atlantic:

Nets center Nic Claxton, who is still ramping up his conditioning after missing the entire preseason with a hamstring injury, will sit out Wednesday’s game against Memphis, the second of a back-to-back set, writes Ted Holmund of The New York Post. Claxton hasn’t experienced any setbacks, according to head coach Jordi Fernandez. “It’s basically part of the return to play with his minutes, back-to-back, being cautious with his body and this was part of the plan,” Fernandez said. “So he did a great job. He played those, those extra minutes at 26 (on Tuesday vs. Denver). Right now, we need a good rest and recovery, and then we’ll take the next step. So again, very, very happy with him.”
After officially announcing their training camp roster on Monday, the Raptors 905 – Toronto’s G League affiliate – made a trade to acquire Charlie Brown Jr.‘s returning rights, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca. The deal sent the rights to Marques Bolden and three future G League draft picks, including a 2025 first-rounder, to the Osceola Magic in exchange for Brown, who was cut by Charlotte earlier this month.
The Westchester Knicks (New York’s G League affiliate) also announced their training camp roster this week. The squad has no shortage of players with NBA experience, including forwards T.J. Warren, Chuma Okeke, and Matt Ryan, guard Landry Shamet (who is rehabbing a dislocated shoulder), and center Moses Brown.
The Knicks essentially never ran plays on offense for big men Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein over the past couple seasons, so they’re still trying to figure out how best to get new center Karl-Anthony Towns involved on that end of the court. Peter Botte of The New York Post takes a look at those efforts.

Raptors’ Barnes Out At Least Three Weeks With Orbital Fracture

October 30th, 2024 at 12:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors will be without star forward Scottie Barnes for at least the next three weeks, the team announced today in a press release.

According to the release, Barnes has been diagnosed with a right orbital fracture after taking a Nikola Jokic elbow to the face late in Monday’s overtime loss to Denver (Twitter video link).

Barnes will be reevaluated in three weeks, so it’s possible he won’t be ready to return at that point and will remain on the shelf beyond that date.

As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca tweets, even if Barnes is cleared to return after three weeks, he’ll miss at least Toronto’s next 11 games, including nine against teams who made the postseason last season. It will also be at least late November before he, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett, three of the Raptors’ core players, get the chance to play together, according to Lewenberg, who notes that the trio hasn’t shared the court since March 1.

Barnes, who signed a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension with Toronto in July, was rounding into form after putting up just nine points on 3-of-14 shooting in last Wednesday’s opener. In his last three games, he had averaged 22.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.7 steals in 36.1 minutes per night, with a 53.1% field goal percentage.

Barnes’ injury is the latest in a long line of health issues for the Raptors this fall. The club has also been without Bruce Brown (right knee surgery), Kelly Olynyk (lumbar strain), and first-round pick Ja’Kobe Walter (AC joint sprain) for the entire season so far. Additionally, Quickley has been out since opening night with a right pelvic contusion and Barrett just made his season debut on Monday after being sidelined with a shoulder injury.

With Barnes unavailable, rookies Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo, and Jamison Battle are among the candidates for increased roles, along with forward Chris Boucher.

Atlantic Notes: Nets Big Lineup, Simmons, Towns, Barnes

October 29th, 2024 at 6:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nets have experimented with a bigger lineup and thus far, the results are promising, Bridget Reilly of the New York Post notes. The frontcourt of Nic Claxton, Ziaire Williams and Noah Clowney has posted a plus-24.3 net rating.

“It’s great because Noah was committed to shoot the three. Ziaire will let it fly. And if you look at those three guys it’s like a lot of length, size,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “We’ve been talking about how small we’ve been, but right now, you see those three guys on the court and you’re like, wow, there’s no room. They’re flying around. Their effort has been amazing. They’re long, so very, very happy to see those guys working well together and doing the right things for the team.”

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Ben Simmons didn’t suit up for Tuesday’s game against Denver. Simmons was ruled out on Monday due to lower back injury management, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets. The former No. 1 overall pick has posted modest stats in three outings this season — 5.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game. Simmons, who is making over $40MM this season, will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer.
What does Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson think of the Knicks’ acquisition of Karl-Anthony Towns? A whole bunch, according to Peter Botte of the New York Post. “What an incredible pickup for the Knicks. I mean, as soon as I saw that, I said they are championship contenders, because he’s that good,” Atkinson said. “I think he’s really improved. His defense has improved since his first couple of years [in the NBA]. Heck of a player.”
The Raptors won’t have their top player against the Hornets on Wednesday. Scottie Barnes didn’t travel with the team on Tuesday to Charlotte. He’s undergoing medical assessments after taking an elbow to his right eye in the fourth quarter of Monday’s loss to Denver, Marc J. Spears of ESPN tweets. His condition will be updated on Wednesday.