- Although Dwight Howard‘s status for opening night remains unclear, the new Wizards center practiced in full on Monday for the first time, per Candace Buckner of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
4:45pm: The trade is official, according to an announcement from the Bucks (Twitter link). Milwaukee’s announcement notes that Meeks has been placed on the suspended list, allowing him to avoid counting against the Bucks’ roster limit, so it appears he won’t be waived immediately.
3:34pm: The Bucks and Wizards have agreed to a trade that will send Jodie Meeks to Milwaukee along with cash, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). The Bucks will subsequently waive Meeks, Wojnarowski adds.
Previous reports indicated that the Bucks would also receive a future second-round pick as part of the swap, which Woj confirms (via Twitter). According to Jordan Schultz of ESPN (Twitter link), Milwaukee is expected to send out a heavily-protected second-rounder to complete the deal.
The cash the Bucks receive in the deal will likely be enough to cover most or all of Meeks’ salary for 2018/19, so Milwaukee will get a chance to add a second-round pick for essentially nothing. The Wizards already owe their top-55 protected 2020 second-round pick to the Bucks, so the simplest move would be to just remove the protection from that traded pick.
For the Wizards, the motivation is to reduce their projected luxury tax bill — Meeks’ $3,454,500 cap charge would have been partially reduced as a result of his suspension, which still has 19 games left on it, but that contract would still have cost the Wizards exponentially more in tax penalties. By replacing Meeks with a minimum salary player, Washington will save some money, despite sending cash to the Bucks in the trade.
The Bucks will use a $3,384,176 traded player exception created in last November’s Greg Monroe/Eric Bledsoe trade in order to absorb Meeks’ salary. While that trade exception technically isn’t worth as much as Meeks’ cap hit, the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams to trade for a salary worth the value of the TPE plus $100K. That gives Milwaukee just enough wiggle room on Meeks.
A part-time player in D.C. last season, Meeks averaged just 6.3 PPG on .399/.343/.863 shooting in 77 games before being banned 25 games for violating the league’s anti-drug program. Even after serving the final 19 games of that suspension, he wasn’t expected to be a major part of the Wizards’ rotation in 2018/19. He’ll be on the lookout for a new team once he clears waivers.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The Bucks have reached the regular season roster limit by waiving point guard Tim Frazier, the team announced today (via Twitter). The move reduces Milwaukee’s roster to 17 players, including 15 on standard contracts.
Frazier, who will turn 28 in November, has appeared in 186 NBA games over the last four seasons, spending time with the Sixers, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, and Wizards. In 2017/18, he was a backup in Washington, posting 3.0 PPG and 3.3 APG in 59 games (14.2 MPG).
After waiving Tyler Zeller and Shabazz Muhammad, the Bucks’ final roster decision appeared to come down to Christian Wood, D.J. Wilson, and Frazier — the team only had room for two of the three, and Frazier’s non-guaranteed contract certainly contributed to the decision. Because Milwaukee waited until Monday to cut him, Frazier won’t clear waivers until Wednesday, and the team will assume a small cap hit for two days’ worth of his minimum salary.
Although the Bucks could enter the season with their current roster after releasing Frazier, it’s possible that another move is coming before opening night. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reports (via Twitter) that the Bucks and Wizards are in advanced talks on a trade in which Milwaukee would get a player and a draft pick. The Bucks would also get cash in the deal, tweets Jordan Schultz of ESPN.
Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter) suggests that the Bucks would immediately waive that player acquired from Washington and wouldn’t send a player of their own back, so both transactions would have to be completed very soon to beat the roster cutdown deadline.
OCTOBER 15: Shortly after signing Kobets on Saturday, the Wizards waived him, per the NBA’s official transactions log. According to JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (via Twitter), Kobets will play for Washington’s G League team.
Because the Wizards cut Kobets on Saturday, he won’t count against their cap for the 2018/19 season.
OCTOBER 14: After the Wizards cut down their roster over the weekend, the club has signed Oleksandr Kobets, a guard from Ukraine, according to a tweet from agent Michael Lelchitski (hat tip to Sportando). Kobets is expected to play with the Wizards’ G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, per Oleksandr Proshuta (Twitter link).
Kobets played for the Cherkasy Monkeys last season as they became the Ukranian League champions. The 22-year-old guard averaged 14.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists.
The Wizards are taking a look at a young guard with potential after releasing several veterans over the weekend, including Lavoy Allen. Chasson Randle, Chris Chiozza and Tiwian Kendley were the other players waived. Kobets figures to be cut by Monday as well, if he hasn’t been already.
The 2018/19 NBA regular season will get underway tomorrow, which means it’s time to get serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign. With the help of the lines from Bovada and the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division, to have you weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic.
Having already looked at the Atlantic, Central, Southwest, and Pacific divisions, we’re moving onto the Southeast today…
Washington Wizards
- 2017/18 record: 43-39
- Over/under for 2018/19: 45.5 wins
- Major offseason moves:
(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Wizards poll)
Miami Heat
- 2017/18 record: 44-38
- Over/under for 2018/19: 43.5 wins
- Major offseason moves:
- Added: Duncan Robinson, Yante Maten
- Lost: Luke Babbitt, Jordan Mickey
(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Heat poll)
Charlotte Hornets
- 2017/18 record: 36-46
- Over/under for 2018/19: 35.5 wins
- Major offseason moves:
(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Hornets poll)
Orlando Magic
- 2017/18 record: 25-57
- Over/under for 2018/19: 30.5 wins
- Major offseason moves:
(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Magic poll)
Atlanta Hawks
- 2017/18 record: 24-58
- Over/under for 2018/19: 23.5 wins
- Major offseason moves:
(Trade Rumors app users, click here for Hawks poll)
Previous voting results:
- Boston Celtics (59.5 wins): Over (53.63%)
- Toronto Raptors (55.5 wins): Over (56.95%)
- Philadelphia 76ers (54.5 wins): Under (51.19%)
- Brooklyn Nets (31.5 wins): Under (56.04%)
- New York Knicks (28.5 wins): Under (54.13%)
- Houston Rockets (56.5 wins): Over (69.33%)
- New Orleans Pelicans (45.5 wins): Under (53.4%)
- San Antonio Spurs (44.5 wins): Under (60%)
- Dallas Mavericks (34.5 wins): Over (55.16%)
- Memphis Grizzlies (34.5 wins): Under (60.87%)
- Indiana Pacers (47.5 wins): Over (62.04%)
- Milwaukee Bucks (47.5 wins): Over (73.7%)
- Detroit Pistons (38.5 wins): Over (56.36%)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (30.5 wins): Over (55.42%)
- Chicago Bulls (29.5 wins): Over (61.8%)
- Golden State Warriors (62.5 wins): Over (53.45%)
- Los Angeles Lakers (48.5 wins): Over (55.2%)
- Los Angeles Clippers (36.5 wins): Under (55.7%)
- Phoenix Suns (29.5 wins): Under (53.4%)
- Sacramento Kings (25.5 wins): Under (63.87%)
The Wizards have reduced their roster to 16 players, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived four camp invitees: Lavoy Allen, Chasson Randle, Chris Chiozza, and Tiwian Kendley.
Of those four players, Allen is the only one with significant NBA experience. The veteran big man has appeared in 388 total regular season games for the Sixers and Pacers during his six-year NBA career, averaging 4.8 PPG and 4.8 RPG in 17.8 minutes per contest. However, he didn’t play in the NBA last season.
Randle also has a little NBA experience, having played 26 games for the Sixers and Knicks in 2016/17. Chiozza and Kendley signed their first NBA contracts with the Wizards this summer after going undrafted in the spring.
All four players are candidates to join the Capital City Go-Go, Washington’s new G League affiliate.
The Wizards’ 16-player roster count includes 14 players on standard deals and a pair on two-way contracts, so they’re in compliance with regular season roster rules.
Dwight Howard has been shut down since Oct. 6 after he received a second opinion on a buttocks injury, but he could return to the court for light training on Monday, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington writes.
Howard, 32, has yet to practice with his new team as the injury has kept him sidelined for all of training camp the preseason. Given that the Wizards‘ regular season begins on Thursday, it’s highly unlikely their center will be ready to go by then. However, Washington’s plan is to make sure the veteran is healthy and ready before he returns to game action, per head coach Scott Brooks.
“We’re in no rush. It’s a long season and we would love to have him,” Brooks said.
Howard averaged 16.6 PPG and 12.5 RPG for the Hornets last season as he appeared in 80-plus games for the first time since 2009/10.
Check out more Eastern Conference notes below:
- The Knicks will let Allonzo Trier use up all 45 NBA days on his two-way deal in lieu of waiving someone to create room on the 15-man roster, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. “We have 45 days of him working with us to figure out what’s the next move,’’ head coach David Fizdale said of the undrafted guard. “We are in the process of working with that and finding the best way to stretch that out. Obviously the kid has shown he’s an NBA basketball player.”
- The Knicks’ preseason schedule is wrapped up but New York will enter the regular without a defined point guard, Steve Popper of Newsday writes. Frank Ntilikina, Trey Burke and even the aforementioned Trier are all possibilities. “I am definitely undecided going into the first game,” Fizdale said. “I don’t feel a deadline for game one like everybody else does.”
- Hawks big man John Collins underwent a non-surgical procedure on his injured left ankle on Monday and is scheduled for a re-evaluation on Oct. 22, the team announced. In addition to Collins, the Hawks will likely be without Dewayne Dedmon, Justin Anderson and Daniel Hamilton for the regular-season opener, tweets Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Cavaliers swingman Larry Nance Jr. suffered a right ankle sprain on Thursday and will undergo treatment before being re-evaluated, the team announced. Also, Isaiah Taylor received additional imaging on his left leg that revealed a stress fracture. Taylor could miss upwards of a month, putting his hope of making Cleveland’s roster in jeopardy, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com writes.
- Dwight Howard‘s availability for the Wizards to start the season remains in question. Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington wrote earlier this week that Howard had suffered a setback and visited a back specialist, while sources told Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Howard had sustained a piriformis (buttocks) injury. While Howard will reportedly receive an injection to relieve the pain, the injury isn’t considered serious, according to Charania, so Washington should get its big free agent addition on the court before too long.
The Wizards and Kelly Oubre appear unlikely to agree to terms on a rookie scale extension before next Monday’s deadline, multiple people familiar with the situation tell Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. If he doesn’t sign a new deal by October 15, Oubre would be eligible for restricted free agency next July.
[RELATED: Players eligible for rookie scale extensions in 2018]
As Hughes points out, not signing an extension now wouldn’t necessarily mean that Oubre’s days in Washington are numbered. In recent years, the Wizards didn’t get rookie scale extensions done with Bradley Beal or Otto Porter, but ultimately locked up both players to massive long-term deals in restricted free agency.
In the case of Oubre and the Wizards, both sides have reason to be patient, according to Hughes. The Wizards – who are already on the hook for big-money multiyear contracts for Beal, Porter, and John Wall – may want to take a longer look at Oubre in his fourth NBA season before deciding how much they’re willing to invest in him. The club also added depth at the wing over the offseason and could evaluate the potential of first-rounder Troy Brown this year before making a decision on Oubre.
Oubre, meanwhile, would likely improve his stock further if he takes another step forward in 2018/19. The 22-year-old small forward enjoyed his best season as a pro in 2017/18, averaging 11.8 PPG and 4.5 RPG with a .403/.341/.820 shooting line in 81 games (27.5 MPG).
Early in the summer the Wizards traded Marcin Gortat to the Clippers in exchange for Austin Rivers, a move that boosted the team’s backcourt depth and provides another option in small-ball lineups. The trade kicked off a busy offseason for Rivers, who has worked to adjust to life on the East Coast while adding a child to his family.
As Zach Rosen writes for the team’s website, Rivers will look to provide a consistent scoring punch off the bench and be a key cog in lineups alongside John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter and Markieff Morris. That five-man unit will space the floor on offense and should be flexible on defense, which is a priority for Scott Brooks this season as he works to modernize the Wizards on both ends of the floor.
Rivers is coming off a career year in 2017/18, averaging 15.2 points and 4 assists per game while hitting 37.8% of his 3-pointers (he attempted nearly six per game). Rivers can both run the second-unit offense or be a secondary ball-handler when on the floor with the team’s All-Star guards, which will further diversify the Wizards’ attack. As Rosen points out, Brooks’ focus for the upcoming season is on 3-pointers, layups, dunks and defense, which should allow Rivers to fit right in.
As one of the team’s key additions, along with Dwight Howard and Jeff Green, Rivers will play an important role as the Wizards look to bounce back from a disappointing campaign in 2017/18.
- Finally able to go through a healthy offseason, Ian Mahinmi has looked much better in the Wizards‘ first two preseason games. As Chase Hughes writes for NBC Sports Washington, Mahinmi has started in place of Howard throughout the preseason and has had the sort of defensive impact the Wizards hoped for when they signed him during the 2016 offseason.