Although he didn’t play in the Raptors‘ regular season finale on Tuesday night, Kyle Lowry appeared in 65 games in 2018/19, just barely reaching an important threshold for the bonuses in his contract, ESPN’s Bobby Marks observes.
The Raptors have signed Eric Moreland, according to a team press release.
Toronto will play its final game of the regular season tonight, meaning today was the final day for the team to sign a player. The Raptors entered the day with 14 players under traditional contracts and two players under two-way deals, so the team will not need to make a corresponding move in order to accommodate Moreland’s signing.
Moreland inked a 10-day deal with Toronto earlier this season, playing three games with the club. The franchise opted to not offer him an additional 10-day contract when his deal expired.
Moreland will be eligible to play in the postseason, since he has not been released by an NBA team since March 1. However, he’s unlikely to see any real action in the playoffs unless one of Toronto’s two centers – Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka – goes down with an injury.
- Marc Gasol has quickly adjusted to his new role with the Raptors, positively impacting the team on both ends of the floor, Dave Feschuk of The Toronto Star writes. Gasol grew acclimated to his new teammates and play style quicker than most expected, with Toronto holding a 17-8 record since acquiring him. “It’s just weird that he stepped in day one and he was right on point … He doesn’t need a learning curve,” teammate Fred VanVleet said of Gasol. “He stepped in from day one and was able to adjust to pretty much everything we did. So that just speaks to his basketball IQ.”
- The Raptors made a number of cost-cutting moves during the course of the season that saved an approximate $18MM, as Blake Murphy of The Athletic details. Waiving Lorenzo Brown, dumping the salaries of Malachi Richardson and Greg Monroe, trading three players for Marc Gasol, getting Gasol to waive his trade kicker, and signing players to 10-day contracts to meet roster requirements all contributed to a healthier bottom line.
- The Raptors still have an open roster spot heading toward the playoffs and will likely sign a player, Murphy writes in the same story. Guard Jordan Loyd’s two-way contract could be converted to a standard contract and center Eric Moreland, who recently played on a 10-day contract, is another candidate. Veteran center Marcin Gortat could also be in play.
Not every list of 2019’s top 10 NBA free agents will look the same, but it’s a safe bet that all of those lists will include Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard and Celtics guard Kyrie Irving. It’s hard to imagine leaving Sixers forward Jimmy Butler or Tobias Harris out of the top 10 either. And after his first All-Star season, Bucks sharpshooter Khris Middleton deserves a spot in that group too.
In other words, five of the top 10 players expected to reach unrestricted free agency this summer are on the four teams currently atop the Eastern Conference: Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Boston. Throw in veteran marksmen J.J. Redick (Sixers) and Danny Green (Raptors), as well as key Bucks contributors Malcolm Brogdon and Brook Lopez, and you could put together an awfully talented rotation of free-agents-to-be among those four Eastern contenders.
Those four teams have something else in common, besides having standout players in contract years: They’ll all be disappointed if they don’t make it beyond the second round of the postseason.
The Bucks haven’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2001, but this year’s group looks like it has NBA Finals potential. Milwaukee has clinched the NBA’s best record, has a winning record against all its potential postseason opponents, and features the odds-on favorite to win the Most Valuable Player award, in Giannis Antetokounmpo. A second-round exit would be a letdown.
Right behind them are the Raptors, who blew up last year’s 59-win team with an eye toward making a deeper playoff run. With newcomers like Leonard, Green, and Marc Gasol in Toronto to lead the way – and Raptor-killer LeBron James no longer in the picture – this is another team that feels as if it has a real chance of advancing to the Finals. After a season of nagging injuries and load management, Toronto seems to be getting healthy and coming together at the right time.
While Milwaukee and Toronto are the odds-on favorites to represent the East in the Finals, the Sixers and Celtics certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. Philadelphia has gone all-in on its star-studded starting five, and owner Josh Harris has said that the Sixers want to “at minimum” advance deeper in the playoffs than they did last year, when they were knocked out in the second round by Boston. As for those Celtics, they entered the 2018/19 season as the Eastern frontrunners, and still believe they’re the team to beat if they’re playing up to their potential.
The Pacers and the rest of the conference’s still-to-be-decided playoff teams will be looking to play spoiler, but regardless of whether any of those clubs can pull off an upset, no more than two of the Bucks, Raptors, Sixers, and Celtics can advance past the Eastern Conference Semifinals. And the outcome of that round figures to have a significant impact on the NBA’s offseason landscape.
If the Raptors are bounced in the second round, it’s hard to imagine Leonard seriously considering a return. A second-round loss for the Celtics would cast even more doubt on the idea of Irving re-signing in Boston. There’s already some skepticism that the Sixers will bring back both Harris and Butler, and an ECF loss would make that an even less likely scenario. The Bucks, who have exceeded expectations this season, are probably the club least likely to undergo major offseason changes, but Middleton will be a popular target in free agency — if Milwaukee is knocked off in round two, it could increase his willingness to test the open market.
On the other hand, the team that makes a run all the way to the NBA Finals will be in a far more secure position entering free agency. If Irving is on the fence about Boston, winning the East would definitely help convince him that the Celtics are capable of continuing to win going forward. Ditto for Leonard and the Raptors.
The idea that a team’s postseason success can influence a top free agent’s offseason decision is a common one. This spring in the Eastern Conference, we’ll get an opportunity to see just how big a factor that is for a handful of star players, as at least two teams are set to fall short of their playoff goals.
- When the Timberwolves faced the Mavericks last night, Anthony Tolliver could have been playing against the Wolves rather than for them, notes Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News, who tweets that he thinks Minnesota should have accepted Dallas’ trade offer of J.J. Barea and a second-round pick. Wolfson has previously reported that the Thunder and Raptors offered second-round picks attached to Patrick Patterson and C.J. Miles, respectively, for Tolliver, but those deals would’ve taken the Wolves into the tax.
After being named the G League’s Most Valuable Player and the Defensive Player of the Year for the 2018/19 season on Monday, Raptors 905 big man Chris Boucher – now a member of the Toronto Raptors – headlines the All-NBA G League first team, as the league announced today in a press release.
Boucher was joined on the All-NBAGL first team by teammate Jordan Loyd, as well as Capital City Go-Go guard Jordan McRae, Long Island Nets big man Alan Williams, and Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario center Angel Delgado. All four players are currently on two-way contracts with NBA teams.
That’s a common theme for this year’s All-NBAGL teams, as most of the 15 players named to the three squads aren’t currently NBA free agents, having signed two-way or NBA contracts.
The complete list of the 2018/19 All-NBA G League teams, along with the All-Rookie and All-Defensive squads, is below. Players currently on a 15-man NBA roster are marked with an asterisk (*), while players on two-way contracts are noted with a caret (^).
All-NBAGL First Team:
- Chris Boucher (Raptors 905) *
- Angel Delgado (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario) ^
- Jordan Loyd (Raptors 905) ^
- Jordan McRae (Capital City Go-Go) ^
- Alan Williams (Long Island Nets) ^
All-NBAGL Second Team:
- Isaiah Hartenstein (Rio Grande Valley Vipers) *
- Walt Lemon (Windy City Bulls) *
- Note: Lemon wasn’t on an NBA contract for most of the season, but was recently called up by the Bulls.
- Yante Maten (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
- Johnathan Motley (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario) ^
- Theo Pinson (Long Island Nets) ^
All-NBAGL Third Team:
- P.J. Dozier (Maine Red Claws) ^
- Amile Jefferson (Lakeland Magic) ^
- Kalin Lucas (Grand Rapids Drive) ^
- Duncan Robinson (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
- Christian Wood (Wisconsin Herd) *
- Note: Wood spent most of the season on the Bucks’ roster, but was recently released and claimed off waivers by the Pelicans.
NBAGL All-Rookie Team:
- Chris Chiozza (Capital City Go-Go) *
- Note: Chiozza wasn’t on an NBA contract for most of the season, but was recently called up by the Rockets.
- Angel Delgado (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario) ^
- Yante Maten (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
- Theo Pinson (Long Islands Nets) ^
- Duncan Robinson (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
NBAGL All-Defensive Team:
- Kadeem Allen (Westchester Knicks) ^
- Chris Boucher (Raptors 905) *
- Amida Brimah (Austin Spurs)
- Gary Payton II (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
- Norvel Pelle (Delaware Blue Coats)
The All-Defensive team is the only squad that features players who are currently NBA free agents — Brimah and Pelle haven’t been on an NBA roster this season, while Payton only briefly spent time with an NBA team, signing a 10-day contract with the Wizards in January.
Earlier today, the Kings and Knicks filled the final open spot on their respective rosters, signing a 15th man to a rest-of-season contract. With the NBA’s 2018/19 regular season set to come to an end next Wednesday, we can expect to see more teams making that kind of transaction in the next week.
While teams often leave a roster spot or two open during the season to maintain flexibility or to help reduce their projected tax bill, most of those clubs won’t leave any openings at season’s end. After all, the one-day cap hit for a minimum-salary player signed on the last day of the season maxes out at $8,548.
For playoff-bound clubs, that’s a small price to pay to add one more depth piece who might be needed for a game or two in the postseason. For lottery-bound teams, it’s a worthwhile investment to fill that 15th roster spot with a developmental player who could be an option for the 2019/20 roster.
With that in mind, here are the teams that still have at least one 15-man roster spot available:
Teams with two open roster spots:
- Miami Heat
Teams with one open roster spot:
- Brooklyn Nets
- Houston Rockets
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- San Antonio Spurs
- Toronto Raptors
- Washington Wizards
Teams with a full 15-man roster who have one player on a 10-day contract:
- Atlanta Hawks (Deyonta Davis; expires Sunday night)
- Boston Celtics (Greg Monroe; expires tonight)
Raptors big man Chris Boucher has earned a pair of end-of-season NBA G League honors, as the team issued a press release today announcing that Boucher has been named the NBAGL Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year.
Although Boucher is on Toronto’s 15-man roster now, he spent much of the season with the Raptors 905, either on assignment or as part of the two-way contract agreement he had with the team earlier in 2018/19.
Boucher put up huge numbers for the Raptors’ G League affiliate, averaging 27.2 PPG, 11.4 RPG, and an eye-popping 4.1 BPG in 28 games. In the club’s first-round playoff win over the Grand Rapids Drive, the 26-year-old nearly posted a triple-double, with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and nine blocks.
Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days, who selected Boucher’s teammate Jordan Loyd as his MVP this season, tweets that he left Boucher off his own end-of-season awards because he only appeared in 28 games. NBA G League clubs play 50 regular season games, and a player must appear in 25 of them to qualify for the league’s awards.
When Boucher was promoted to the Raptors’ 15-man roster in February, he inked a two-year deal that includes a partially guaranteed salary for 2019/20, so Toronto will have the opportunity to keep him under contract next season at the minimum. If he sticks with the Raps for another season, he’d become eligible for restricted free agency in the summer of 2020.
Joel Embiid will miss the next three games for the Sixers, starting with tonight’s tilt against the Timberwolves, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. The move to leave Embiid home during the three-game road trip is part of pre-determined maintenance.
Embiid missed time following the All-Star break with knee soreness and other players, such as Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons, have also missed time because of injury and rest concerns. As a result, the team’s starting five has only played in 10 games together this season, as I detailed last week.
Here’s more injury notes from around the league:
- Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said there is no timetable for Josh Richardson (left heel) to return to action, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald relays on Twitter. Spoelstra added that he doesn’t believe Richardson is done for the season.
- Patrick McCaw will be in a splint for approximately three weeks, according to a Raptors press release. He will be re-evaluated at that time.
- Kyrie Irving and Al Horford will both miss tonight’s contest against the Nets, Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com passes along. Irving’s nursing a sore back while Horford has a sore left knee. Neither player is expected to miss an extended period of time for the Celtics.