Raptors Rumors

Exec: I'd Give Up Barnes For KD

  • The Raptors have thus far refused to give up potential All-Star forward Scottie Barnes in trade discussions regarding Durant. However, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on Brian Windhorst’s podcast (audio link) that an executive he respects said he’d give up Barnes to land Durant. That same exec told MacMahon he wouldn’t trade Barnes for Donovan Mitchell.

Raptors Give Jalen Harris Qualifying Offer

The Raptors tendered a two-way qualifying offer to Jalen Harris, according to RealGM’s transactions log. That makes Harris a restricted free agent.

Harris was reinstated by the league earlier this week. He was dismissed and disqualified from the NBA on July 1, 2021 for violating the terms of the league’s anti-drug program, then became eligible to apply for reinstatement last month.

Harris was still under contract with Toronto at the time of his suspension and the Raptors had 30 days to tender him a one-year, two-way qualifying offer.

The Raptors already have 19 players under contract, with second-round pick Christian Koloko still unsigned and a two-way qualifying offer out to another restricted free agent, David Johnson.

Jarrett Culver also might also be added to the camp roster, Blake Murphy of The Athletic tweets. The 2019 lottery pick played 37 regular season and three postseason games for the Grizzlies last season. He became an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Teams are permitted to carry up to 20 players until the day before the regular season begins.

The 59th overall pick in 2020, Harris spent his first professional season on a two-way contract with the Raptors, then signed with Vanoli Cremona in Italy for the 2021/22 campaign following his suspension from the NBA. This May, he joined the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League as he prepared to apply for reinstatement to the NBA.

Harris averaged 7.4 PPG on .500/.472/.778 shooting in 13 NBA games (13.2 MPG) and put up 17.6 PPG on .457/.500/.667 shooting in seven NBAGL contests (29.4 MPG) as a rookie in ’20/21.

More Than 30 NBA Players On Track To Suit Up For EuroBasket

The first EuroBasket tournament in five years will tip off in two weeks and there are currently 34 NBA players on track to participate in the event, representing 17 different countries, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net.

EuroBasket is a 24-team international basketball competition also known as the European Basketball Championship. It historically took place every two years, but that gap was recently adjusted to four years, emulating the FIBA World Cup schedule.

The last EuroBasket tournament was played in 2017 — the next one had been scheduled for 2021, but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. As a result, after being played every two years since 1947, it has now been five years since the last EuroBasket tournament, easily the longest layoff since World War II.

It’s possible that some NBA players will be cut from their teams’ rosters or will have to drop out due to injuries or personal reasons before the event begins on September 1, but in general enthusiasm to participate in the long-awaited event appears high.

Here’s the list of NBAers currently set to play in EuroBasket, per Eurohoops:

There are also multiple NBA free agents on EuroBasket rosters, including French swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and German guard Dennis Schröder.

A number of young NBA players, such as 2022 draftees Jeremy Sochan and Nikola Jovic, have dropped out to focus on getting ready for the 2022/23 season, while others, including Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) and Frank Ntilikina (France), were ruled out due to injuries.

Round robin play will begin on September 1, with each team facing the other five clubs in its group once. The top four teams in each group will advance to a 16-team bracket that begins on September 10. The final will take place on September 18, just over a week before NBA training camps get underway.

Pressure Rising For Anunoby, Flynn?

  • OG Anunoby and Malachi Flynn are among the Raptors facing the most pressure in 2022/23, writes Eric Koreen of The Athletic. As Koreen outlines, if Anunoby can stay healthy and continues to develop on offense, he could become an All-Star caliber player, but he still has to stay on the court and show he deserves that bigger role. Flynn, meanwhile, is entering the third year of his rookie contract and may not be part of Toronto’s future plans if he doesn’t establish himself as a reliable backup this season.

Jalen Harris Reinstated By NBA

Jalen Harris has been reinstated by the NBA, the league announced today in a press release.

Harris, who turned 24 on Sunday, was dismissed and disqualified from the NBA on July 1, 2021 for violating the terms of the league’s anti-drug program. The NBA announced at the time that the former Nevada guard would be eligible to apply for reinstatement in one year.

The 59th overall pick in 2020, Harris spent his first professional season on a two-way contract with the Raptors, then signed with Vanoli Cremona in Italy for the 2021/22 campaign following his suspension from the NBA. This May, he joined the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League as he prepared to apply for reinstatement to the NBA.

Harris averaged 7.4 PPG on .500/.472/.778 shooting in 13 NBA games (13.2 MPG) and put up 17.6 PPG on .457/.500/.667 shooting in seven NBAGL contests (29.4 MPG) as a rookie in ’20/21.

In 18 games in Italy, Harris led Vanoli Cremona with 13.8 points per game, though his shooting percentages dipped to .385/.295/.700. This season in the CEBL, he ranked third in the league with 19.9 points per game and led Scarborough to an appearance in the championship game, which the team narrowly lost.

Because Harris was still under contract with Toronto at the time of his suspension, the Raptors are expected to have 30 days to tender him a one-year offer in order to retain his rights, as Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca tweets.

Latest On Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant‘s standoff with the Nets over his desire to be traded is likely to continue into the start of the season, ESPN’s Bobby Marks said this week in an appearance on “NBA Today” (video link).

Marks theorizes that Durant hurt his cause with an ultimatum in his recent meeting with team owner Joe Tsai, saying he won’t return unless head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks are fired. Bobby Marks notes that the demand was bad for Durant’s image and speculates that he will eventually regret the way he handled it.

“This doesn’t force the issue,” the ESPN analyst said. “For Sean Marks or Steve Nash or Joe Tsai to say, ‘You know what, now we’ve got to trade him. Now we basically have to set an artificial timeline.’ The offers are the offers. We know what the offers are going to be and what they could potentially be, and this is why this is going to linger into the regular season.”

Also on “NBA Today,” ESPN’s Tim Bontemps said Durant’s stipulations will make things more awkward when the Nets gather for training camp next month. He adds that rival teams now have even less incentive to improve their offers because Durant has put Brooklyn in a difficult situation.

There’s more on Durant:

  • Appearing in the same segment, Ramona Shelburne said a source told her that a lot more was addressed at last week’s meeting than Durant’s opinion of his coach and GM. The Nets viewed the discussion as “part of the process,” Shelburne adds, as Tsai wanted to better understand what’s making Durant want to leave.
  • Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today talked to three executives from rival teams who want to see the Nets stand their ground with Durant and refuse to either trade him or part with Nash and Marks. Regarding possible trade destinations, three executives and agents that Zillgitt spoke to believe the Celtics are no longer involved in the Durant sweepstakes because president of basketball operations Brad Stevens doesn’t want to subject any more players to trade rumors. The Raptors and Heat were mentioned prominently, but only if Brooklyn agrees to lower its asking price.
  • A rival executive tells Steve Bulpett of Heavy that the Celtics will probably remain part of the conversation until the Durant situation is resolved because Jaylen Brown is the best player who has been mentioned as part of a potential return.

Cox: Should Raptors Even Be Pursuing Durant?

  • Damien Cox of The Toronto Star considers whether or not the Raptors should be seriously pursuing Durant, given the way the Nets forward’s recent demands have defied the “traditional owner-management-coach-player hierarchy” and the effect that could have on the culture the team has built in Toronto.

No Changes To U.S.-Canada Border Rules For Unvaccinated NBA Players

The NBA informed teams today in a memo that, as things currently stand, players who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 without a valid medical reason will remain ineligible to play games in Toronto for the 2022/23 season, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (Twitter link).

Fischer’s report is missing some key contextual information. For one, the policy that prevents unvaccinated players from playing in Toronto wasn’t implemented by the Raptors or the NBA, but by the Canadian government, which has restrictions against non-residents entering the county without being vaccinated.

Last season, there were no exemptions from this rule for NBA players, and it appears that won’t change going forward.

It’s also worth noting that the United States has a border policy on unvaccinated travelers that’s virtually identical to Canada’s (it’s why, for instance, tennis star Novak Djokovic isn’t expected to be eligible to play in the U.S. Open later this month). However, since most NBA travel takes place domestically within the U.S., that policy doesn’t prevent unvaccinated players from suiting up in any cities besides Toronto unless that city has a specific vaccine mandate of its own, as New York did for much of the 2022/23 season.

There has been no indication that the Canadian government will drop its vaccination requirement for travelers anytime soon, which is presumably why the NBA sent out a memo to teams now reminding them of that policy. But if that requirement is amended or dropped at some point during the 2022/23 season, there’s no reason to believe the NBA would institute any new restrictions preventing unvaccinated players from traveling back and forth across the U.S.-Canada border.

A huge majority of NBA players are vaccinated against COVID-19 — the exact percentage was estimated last season to be around 97%. So only a small handful of players, including Nets star Kyrie Irving, figure to be affected by the border policy.

Nets’ Durant Reportedly Reiterates Trade Request, Gives Tsai Ultimatum

In a face-to-face meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai in London on Saturday, star forward Kevin Durant reiterated his desire to be traded and gave Tsai an ultimatum, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic.

According to Charania, Durant told the Nets owner that he needs to choose between trading him or firing general manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash. Durant said that he doesn’t have faith in the team’s direction, sources tell The Athletic.

Charania says his sources described Saturday’s meeting as “transparent and professional,” adding that the Nets have “direct knowledge of the reasons behind Durant’s request” and have reason to believe he’ll be resolute in his stance. People around the NBA have speculated about the possibility that the two-time Finals MVP won’t report to training camp if the Nets don’t make a deal within the next seven weeks, per Charania.

Sources tell The Athletic that Brooklyn has spoken to nearly every team in the NBA about a possible Durant trade, but no club has met the Nets’ “sky-high” asking price. According to Charania, the Celtics, Heat, and Raptors are widely viewed as the most legitimate suitors for the 33-year-old, who is entering the first season of a four-year, maximum-salary extension.

Charania cites sources who say that Tsai and the Nets have “made clear privately that they will take every last asset from a team that trades for Durant.” However, it’s hard to see how the team has the leverage to make that sort of deal, given these latest developments in the summer saga.

Of course, Marks and Nash held their current positions when Durant signed that four-year extension a year ago, and the star forward was believed to have played a role in Nash’s hiring in the first place, back in 2020. It’s unclear why Durant has soured to such a significant extent on Brooklyn’s leadership group.

It’s possible Durant’s dissatisfaction is related, at least in part, to the team’s handling of his good friend Kyrie Irving. The Nets refused to allow Irving to be a part-time player during the first half of last season when vaccine requirements prohibited him from playing home games. The club then opted against offering Kyrie a lucrative long-term extension this offseason.

While recent reports have indicated that Irving plans to be a Net to start the 2022/23 season, there’s a belief that Brooklyn will seriously consider trading him if and when the team finds a Durant deal it likes.

Checking In Again On Unsigned 2022 Draft Picks

We’re about a month-and-a-half removed from the 2022 NBA draft, and – as our tracker shows – 46 of the 58 players selected on June 23 have signed their first NBA contracts.

The 12 unsigned players are as follows:

  1. Toronto Raptors: Christian Koloko, F/C
  2. Detroit Pistons: Gabriele Procida, G
  3. Cleveland Cavaliers: Khalifa Diop, C
  4. New Orleans Pelicans: E.J. Liddell, F
  5. Denver Nuggets: Ismael Kamagate, C
  6. Indiana Pacers: Kendall Brown, F
  7. Minnesota Timberwolves: Matteo Spagnolo, G
  8. New Orleans Pelicans: Karlo Matkovic, F
  9. Washington Wizards: Yannick Nzosa, C
  10. Golden State Warriors: Gui Santos, F
  11. Cleveland Cavaliers: Luke Travers, G/F
  12. Milwaukee Bucks: Hugo Besson, G

Most of these prospects will likely spend the 2022/23 season playing in non-NBA leagues around the world. Procida, Diop, Kamagate, Spagnolo, Matkovic, Nzosa, Santos, Travers, and Besson are all good bets to be draft-and-stash players.

That essentially just leaves three 2022 draftees in limbo: Koloko, Liddell, and Brown.

A player selected within the first five picks of the second round, like Koloko was, virtually always receives a multiyear contract that includes at least a year or two of guaranteed money. It’s hard to imagine that won’t be the case for Koloko, despite the Raptors‘ roster crunch. Toronto already has 13 players on guaranteed contracts, with three players on partial guarantees vying for a regular season spot, so if Koloko signs, it would leave one fewer spot up for grabs.

It’s worth noting that once Koloko officially signs, he’ll be ineligible to be traded for 30 days, so it’s possible the Raptors are keeping their options open in case their Kevin Durant trade talks with the Nets get serious.

Toronto may also be mulling whether to use a portion of its mid-level exception to sign Koloko to a contract that spans three or four years. Taking that route, instead of signing him to a two-year, minimum-salary contract, would ensure he remains under team control for an extra season or two, but would hard-cap the Raptors for the 2022/23 season, since the club already used $6MM of its MLE to sign Otto Porter.

Liddell, meanwhile, suffered an unfortunate break to begin his professional career, tearing his ACL during the Las Vegas Summer League. Before he sustained that injury, the question was probably whether Liddell would receive a standard contract or a two-way deal. Now, the question is whether New Orleans still willing to sign him to a two-way contract or whether the team wants to use that slot on someone who could actually contribute on the court in 2022/23.

If they fill their two-way slots, the Pelicans would probably like to see Liddell sign a G League contract and spend the season rehabbing with the Birmingham Squadron before he signs his first NBA deal a year from now.

As for Brown, it remains to be seen whether he’ll begin the season on the Pacers‘ standard 15-man roster or on a two-way deal. For now, Indiana could go in either direction, but the club could be waiting to see whether there are any more trades to be made before training camp begins — if the Pacers were to complete a deal involving Myles Turner and/or Buddy Hield, the number of players they receive in that trade would have an impact on whether or not there’s room on the standard roster for Brown.

For example, if Indiana send Turner and Hield to the Lakers in exchange for Russell Westbrook and draft assets, then bought out Westbrook, it would open up two extra spots on the projected 15-man roster. In that scenario, signing Brown to a three- or four-year standard contract would make sense.