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Raptors Notes: Lowry, Leonard, Small Lineup, Nurse

May 5th, 2019 at 10:15am CST by Arthur Hill

Kyle Lowry is facing a critical point not only in the Raptors‘ current playoff series, but maybe in his future in Toronto, writes Eric Koreen of The Athletic. A loss in the conference semifinals would likely lead to major changes for the organization, which could include moving on from Lowry, who will make $33.5MM next season in the final year of his contract.

The Raptors need more offense from Lowry, who made just two shots from the field and finished with seven points in a Game 3 loss. With Pascal Siakam listed as doubtful for today because of a calf contusion, Toronto will need someone to provide extra scoring punch.

“I passed up a lot of shots (in Game 3), and (I need to focus on) not anything but trying to make the next play, and the right play is me shooting sometimes,” Lowry said. “And overthinking that is trying to get everybody involved or get an easier shot or get someone else going. It’s kind of been one of the things where I shouldn’t have done (that) as much. But I’ve done it, but next game, and for the games going on, I’ve got to be a little bit more assertive.”

There’s more this morning from Toronto:

Toronto may be at a crossroads regarding its future, writes Tom Ziller of SB Nation. A loss today would put the Raptors in a 3-1 hole, making it unlikely that they’ll win the series, which in turn makes it harder to imagine that Kawhi Leonard will stay in Toronto, Ziller notes. Leonard is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract this summer and is rumored to want to play in Los Angeles. Siakam looks like a future star, but if Leonard leaves, the Raptors will be left with an aging core of Lowry, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.
The Raptors may move away from their smaller lineups after being dominated inside in Game 3, according to Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. That means the trio of Lowry, Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell may not take the floor together in today’s game, which could result in more minutes for Leonard and Patrick McCaw. “Obviously you look at — jeez, they just look bigger, and the size problem, and with Kyle-Fred-Norm out there we get a little small, right?” coach Nick Nurse said. “But there’s some things we can do with the rotations. We’ll take a look at that, but we can get bigger out there.”
Max Whittle of Sky Sports examines Nurse’s journey from the British Basketball League to the NBA playoffs.

Raptors’ Pascal Siakam Doubtful For Game 4

May 4th, 2019 at 12:30pm CST by clarkcrum

In what some are describing as a karmic turn of events, Raptors’ forward Pascal Siakam, the team’s second-best player throughout this postseason, suffered a right calf contusion in Toronto’s Game 3 loss to the 76ers and is subsequently being listed as doubtful for Sunday’s Game 4, reports Adrian Wojnarowki of ESPN (h/t to Hoops Rumors’ own JD Shaw).

Siakam maintains that he is unaware of when the injury occurred, but as Tim Bontemps of ESPN and others have noticed, Siakam appears to have used his right calf to trip Sixers’ big man Joel Embiid during the fourth quarter of Toronto’s loss on Thursday night. A closer look at the video appears to show Embiid’s left knee colliding with Siakam’s calf, and Siakam did not return to the game after the collision.

A top-candidate for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, Siakam is averaging 22.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game this postseason. Should he miss tomorrow afternoon’s game, Toronto will look for both Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol to step up their games in his absence to help Kawhi Leonard and the rest of the team even up the series with Philadelphia at 2-2.

Free Agent Stock Watch 2019: Eastern Conference

May 3rd, 2019 at 9:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Every week, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents next offseason. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. With the playoffs in full swing, we turn our attention to the Eastern Conference:

Marcus Morris, Celtics, 29, SF/PF (Up) – Signed to a four-year, $20MM deal in 2015
Unlike his brother Markieff, who played sparingly for the Thunder during their annual first-round flame-out, Marcus remains a valued member of Boston’s rotation. Other than a goose egg in Game 2 against Indiana, Morris has delivered steady production. He’s shooting 49.1% overall and 40.7% from distance while ranking second on the team in rebounds (6.7). He posted a +11.1 net rating on NBA.com’s postseason advanced stats entering Game 3 against Milwaukee. He had 16 points, eight rebounds and two blocks on Friday. Morris’ toughness and ability to play both forward positions will make him attractive in the free agent market.

Jimmy Butler, Sixers, 29, SF (Up) — Signed to a five-year, $92.3MM deal in 2017
Butler hurt his reputation by whining his way out of Minnesota. After forcing the Timberwolves’ hand, he got a chance to chase at least a conference title in Philadelphia. Following some ho-hum performances against Brooklyn, Butler has performed like a max-level player against Toronto the last two games. He’s averaged 26.0 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 7.0 APG and 2.0 SPG in those victories. You can put up with his abrasive style when he produces like that. He remains firmly entrenched as the third-best free agent wing — and perhaps overall player — behind Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard.

Sterling Brown, Bucks, 24, SG (Up) – Signed to a three-year, $3.8MM deal in 2017
Brown’s contract for next season becomes guaranteed if he’s still on the roster at the beginning of July, when free agency begins. That in itself seems to be a near guarantee. With Malcolm Brogdon sidelined, Brown has received rotation minutes for much of the postseason. His most noteworthy performance came in the series clincher against Detroit when posted nine points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Brown also plays with a little bit of an edge and can get under opponents’ skin. Brown sat in Game 3 of the series with Boston but he’s already done enough to stay on the roster, especially with Brogdon a restricted free agent and Khris Middleton unrestricted.

Danny Green, Raptors, 31, SG (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $40MM deal in 2015
Green’s contributions to the scoring column are predicated on knocking down threes. A whopping 69% of his field-goal attempts during the regular season came from beyond the arc and he made a career-high 45.5%. It’s been a lot rougher in the postseason. He shot 31.8% from deep in the Orlando series and has made 30.6% in the first three games against Philadelphia. Green should still find a starting job this summer, whether he re-signs with Toronto or a team seeking veteran help. But his lack of versatility will limit the size of those offers.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Simmons Assesses Fine, Foul For Striking Lowry

May 3rd, 2019 at 5:26pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Sixers guard Ben Simmons has been assessed a Flagrant One foul and fined $20K for striking Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry in the groin on Thursday, according to a tweet from the league’s PR department. The incident occurred during the second quarter of Game 3, which Philadelphia won 116-95. Simmons, who had 10 points, seven assists and seven rebounds in the game, was whistled for three common fouls.

Five 2019/20 Player Option Decisions To Watch

May 3rd, 2019 at 12:40pm CST by Luke Adams

As ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported this morning, Nets guard Allen Crabbe became the latest veteran to exercise a player option for the 2019/20 season. Crabbe is one of six players who has opted into the final year of his contract since the regular season ended, joining Jeff Teague, Dwight Howard, Kent Bazemore, C.J. Miles, and Bismack Biyombo.

That group of players picking up their options figures to grow in the coming weeks. Marvin Williams has already indicated he’ll opt in, and guys like Hassan Whiteside ($27.1MM), Tyler Johnson ($19.2MM), and Patrick Patterson ($5.7MM), among others, figure to do so too.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are a handful of star players who are locks to opt out. All year, we’ve talked about Kevin Durant ($31.5MM), Kawhi Leonard ($21.3MM), Kyrie Irving ($21.3MM), Jimmy Butler ($19.8MM), and Khris Middleton ($13MM) as if they’re free-agents-to-be, since it wouldn’t make sense for them to pick up their player options instead of securing more lucrative, longer-term deals in free agency.

Not all of the players with 2019/20 options are facing easy decisions though. In some cases, it’s not entirely clear yet whether or not those options will be exercised.

Let’s take a closer look at several of the player option decisions that will be worth monitoring before free agency officially gets underway:

Al Horford, Celtics ($30,123,015): Only a handful of NBA players earn salaries in excess of $30MM, and on the surface, it doesn’t seem like Horford necessarily belongs in that group — he’ll turn 33 in June, battled nagging injuries this season, and put up relatively modest numbers for a starting center (13.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 4.2 APG). However, his performance in the postseason has shown once again why Horford is so valuable to the Celtics. His versatility and high basketball IQ makes him one of the few players capable of slowing down Giannis Antetokounmpo. And besides being a linchpin on defense, he’s a tremendous weapon in the pick-and-pop game on offense. If he were to opt out, he wouldn’t get $30MM per year on a long-term deal, but it wouldn’t be at all shocking to see him get, say, $20MM annually on a three-year contract. That could be a win for both him and the cap-strapped Celtics.
Jonas Valanciunas, Grizzlies ($17,617,976): Valanciunas doesn’t have the same sort of hidden value as Horford – or as pricey an option – but he’ll face a similar dilemma. Does it make more sense to pick up a player option that locks in a favorable one-year salary or to opt out to secure a longer-term deal with a higher total value? Valanciunas was probably the most important asset the Grizzlies acquired in their trade of longtime franchise center Marc Gasol, so I think they’d be willing to invest long term in the former lottery pick.
Marc Gasol, Raptors ($25,595,700): Like Horford, Gasol’s value on the court extends beyond his numbers — particularly the ones he has put up since his trade to Toronto. Plus, if he believes Kawhi Leonard will leave the Raptors in free agency, it might make sense for Gasol to look for the exit ramp as well by declining this option and trying to secure one last multiyear deal. On the other hand, at age 34, Gasol might have trouble exceeding his option salary even over the span of a new two-year contract. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t opt in and force the Raptors to make the decision on what to do with his expiring deal.
James Ennis, Sixers ($1,845,301): Ennis signed a minimum salary contract with the Rockets last summer, then was traded to Philadelphia in a salary-dump deal at the deadline. Despite that unflattering series of events, he’s now playing a key rotation role for the Sixers in the postseason and has made 57.1% of his shots in seven playoff games, including a staggering 82.6% of his two-pointers. Ostensibly a three-and-D wing, Ennis should have no problem securing offers on the open market this summer, so it would probably be in his best interest to opt out to see if he can do better than the minimum. The same thinking applies to Thunder center Nerlens Noel, another veteran who has a minimum salary player option for 2019/20.
Dwight Powell, Mavericks ($10,259,375): Powell enjoyed his best season in 2018/19, recording 10.6 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and a .597 FG% in a part-time role for the Mavericks. His $10MM+ option looks fairly player-friendly for someone who has never averaged more than 21.6 MPG, but team owner Mark Cuban suggested in a radio appearance last month that Dallas plans to extend Powell for multiple seasons. If he knows that sort of Mavs offer will await him in free agency, Powell could have reason to opt out (opting in and signing an extension would also be a possibility).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Community Shootaround: NBA Finals Match-Up

May 1st, 2019 at 10:49pm CST by clarkcrum

The NBA’s conference semifinals are underway and that means we’re down to eight teams as the Warriors, Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Rockets, Bucks, Raptors, Sixers, and Celtics each won their first-round series. The Warriors have taken control of their series with a 2-0 lead but the remaining series are all tied up at 1-1 and the Rockets are heading home for games 3 and 4. As such, every club still has a realistic shot of moving forward to the conference finals.

As everyone is well aware, the Warriors are the two-time defending NBA champions and winners of three of the last four. They are also the prohibitive favorites again this season and perhaps the one team that could be classified as league villains, while the other three Western Conference teams haven’t been to an NBA Finals since the Rockets in 1995.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers and Heat (via LeBron James) have controlled the Eastern Conference playoffs for the last decade or so, with Milwaukee and Toronto never having won the East and Philadelphia and Boston not having been conference champions since 2001 and 2010, respectively.

With that all said, there are certain to be a bevy of opinions on what would be the best finals match-up, so we’re asking you that very question. Which NBA Finals match-up do you want to see? Is that the match-up you expect as well? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Latest On Wizards’ Front Office Search

May 1st, 2019 at 9:35am CST by Luke Adams

After the Wizards fired Ernie Grunfeld with eight days left in the regular season, updates on their search for a new head of basketball operations were few and far between for the next several weeks. However, that changed this week.

According to various reports, three candidates to replace Grunfeld were in Washington to interview with the Wizards on Tuesday. According to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post (via Twitter), those candidates apparently met with the team one after another. They are as follows:

Danny Ferry: Formerly the GM of the Cavaliers and the Hawks, Ferry saw his time in Atlanta come to an end after he read an offensive comment from a scouting report on Luol Deng out loud during a conference call. Ferry is a Maryland native, and his father Bob Ferry was the Washington Bullets’ GM for much of the 1970s and ’80s. Most recently, Danny served as the Pelicans’ interim GM following Dell Demps‘ ouster.
Gersson Rosas: A longtime Rockets executive, Rosas currently serves as the team’s executive vice president of basketball operations. He has drawn interest from multiple teams with front office openings this spring, including the Pelicans and Timberwolves — he remains in the running for the Minnesota job.
Troy Weaver: The VP of basketball operations for the Thunder, Weaver was linked to the Pistons’ head of basketball operations position in 2018, and to Kings and Hawks jobs in 2017. Interestingly, Weaver was mentioned as a potential candidate to replace Grunfeld way back in 2016.

Current Wizards interim general manager Tommy Sheppard is also a contender to claim the permanent job, and according to both Buckner and Ben Standig of NBC Sports Washington, Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly is still very much on the Wizards’ radar.

Named a top candidate to run the Wizards’ front office in the wake of Grunfeld’s departure, Connelly was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and previously worked for the club. Sources tell Standig that personal considerations make the idea of returning to D.C. attractive for Connelly, with one source describing the position as Connelly’s “dream job.” However, given Denver’s ongoing success, it’s not clear if he’d want to leave the Nuggets at this time.

Finally, Standig provides one more interesting tidbit, citing sources who say that Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri is “intrigued by the idea of moving to Washington.” Ujiri’s wife is from the D.C. area and the city would provide him with a larger platform for his “Basketball Without Borders” program, Standig notes.

Still, a league source tells NBC Sports Washington that Toronto is unlikely to grant rival teams permission to interview Ujiri.

Raptors Notes: Adjustments, Anunoby, Leonard

April 30th, 2019 at 9:20pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Raptors came out flat in Game 2 of their series with the Sixers, though Toronto nearly crept back into the contest during the second half. Still, changes could be coming for the team up north.

“We’re going to probably look at many different things and try to attack them on every front,” Danny Green said (Gregory Strong of The Canadian Press). “But the biggest key for us is to do what we do — our identity — and that’s play fast-paced basketball.”

It’s possible that either Jeremy Lin or Patrick McCaw may take Jodie Meeks‘ playing time going forward, Strong adds. Meeks, who inked a deal after the trade deadline, hasn’t played much all that much in the playoffs, totaling just 38 minutes of action over the team’s seven games.

Lin, who signed with Toronto after the franchise traded away some of its depth in the Marc Gasol acquisition, saw three minutes of garbage time action during the Raptors’ Game 1 win over the Sixers. McCaw, who signed with Toronto earlier this season after a standoff with the Warriors and an extremely short stint with the Cavaliers, saw the same amount of time during the contest.

Here’s more out of Toronto:

Raptors coach Nick Nurse indicated that OG Anunoby is still a long ways away from returning to the court after his emergency appendectomy. “I don’t think there’s anything close at all,” Nurse said via Blake Murphy of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Toronto’s “load management” strategy appears to be paying off for Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors, Eric Koreen of the Athletic writes. Leonard, who previously praised the franchise for how it has handled his injury risk this season, has scored 80 points over the first two games in the team’s series with the Raptors.
Green, who played with Leonard in San Antonio, said he understood the need for the Raptors to manage Leonard’s risk throughout the season, as Koreen passes along in the same piece. “We’ve said the bigger picture is April, May and June from the start,” said Green. “We need him at his highest level and healthiest right now. Hopefully, he’s that. He’s showing it, anyway.”

Marc Gasol Eager To Represent Spain Again

April 29th, 2019 at 9:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Raptors center Marc Gasol is excited about the prospect of playing for Spain once again in the World Cup at China this summer, according to a FIBA press release. Spain is ranked No. 2 by FIBA. In his last international appearance, he helped Spain to a third-place finish at FIBA EuroBasket 2017.

“I’m closer to the end of my international career than to the beginning, but the motivation is the same that I’ve had since I started playing with the national team,” the Raptors’ big man said. “I enjoy the moments with the guys, from the practice to the camaraderie and the competition. I want to help the national team try to have good runs and win more medals and titles before I retire from international duty. I take it step by step and my first focus after the NBA season is on the next FIBA World Cup.”

Marc Gasol Quickly Becoming Raptors' Final Puzzle Piece

April 28th, 2019 at 5:32pm CST by JD Shaw

Philadelphia wound up losing the game 108-95, holding just a 39% shooting mark with 14 turnovers. They can still steal homecourt advantage by bouncing back for Game 2 on Monday, though the team recognizes how important is is to slow down the Raptors’ top two offensive threats.

Marc Gasol is the long-awaited final piece to the Raptors‘ puzzle, Michael Pina of SB Nation contends. Toronto made a surprising deal for Gasol prior to the trade deadline, acquiring a veteran center capable of giving strong play on both ends of the floor. Head coach Nick Nurse has sported a starting lineup that consists of Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam and Gasol this postseason.