- Wizards All-Star John Wall is still on crutches as he recovers from the minor knee surgery he underwent in late January. Wall is still a long way from being back on the court and still likely has another week left on crutches, Candace Bucker of The Washington Post writes.
- Wall made several media appearances recently where he defended himself and made some controversial remarks in regard to his Wizards teammates, prompting coach Scott Brooks to weigh in on his superstar player and his importance to the team, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington writes. “For people to think that we’re not better with John, that’s for clickbait,” Brooks said. “It’s unfortunate that he had to defend himself. You wish he wouldn’t have to. Sometimes you have to.”
- The Hawks cannot take on any more money after the team received nearly $688,000 from the Wizards in the Sheldon Mac deal, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Wizards guard Tim Frazier, who suffered a nasal fracture during Saturday’s game, will undergo surgery today, tweets Chris Haynes of ESPN. There is no word yet on how long he will be out of action.
Frazier is in his first season with Washington after being acquired from the Pelicans in an offseason trade. He is averaging 3.3 points and 3.7 assists through 43 games and recently got an increase in playing time after starting point guard John Wall was sidelined by knee surgery.
The 27-year-old is making $2MM this season on an expiring contract and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Yesterday, we told you the Wizards had interest in Derrick Rose, who recently waived by the Jazz. They are also talking to another veteran point guard about filling the void left by John Wall‘s injury.
The team has been in contact with Ramon Sessions ever since he was waived by the Knicks last month, according to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Sessions has recent experience in Washington, spending a season and a half there after being traded to the Wizards in 2015.
The 31-year-old signed with New York in August, but was released when the team needed a roster spot to add former Wizards guard Trey Burke. Sessions appeared in just 13 games for the Knicks, averaging 3.7 points and 2.1 assists. He has been with eight teams in an 11-year career.
The Wizards may need to act quickly, as their top two active point guards were both banged up in Saturday’s game. Tim Frazier suffered a nasal fracture and Tomas Satoransky was taken to the locker room after a violent collision that resulted in an ejection for Chicago’s Bobby Portis. Satoransky offered a social media update on his condition this morning, saying he’s “relatively OK despite the hard crash.” (Twitter link)
Washington is more than $3MM above the luxury tax line, so it needs to economize in its search. That will probably discourage a claim on Rose, who will be on waivers through tomorrow afternoon. ESPN’s Bobby Marks explained (via Twitter) that a waiver claim would cost the Wizards $2.4MM in tax penalties, opposed to $800K by waiting to sign him as a free agent. There could be competition for Rose in the free agent market, though, as the Timberwolves are also rumored to be interested.
John Wall had knee surgery at the end of January and isn’t expected back until mid- to late March.
Another team said to be interested in potentially signing newly-waived point guard Derrick Rose is the Wizards, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. According to Wojnarowski, the Wizards may feel that Rose could help fill the hole caused by the injury to John Wall, who will remain out several more weeks while he rehabs his knee following surgery.
Rose will remain on waivers until Monday afternoon, and the Wizards could put in a waiver claim for Rose’s minimum salary contract before then. But, as Bobby Marks of ESPN details, Washington may be wise to wait until Rose becomes a free agent before acquiring him, as putting in a waiver claim would cost the Wizards $2.4MM in tax penalties, while a rest-of-season contract would only increase the tax by $800K.
In any event, the Wizards appear to have some competition for Rose’s services. As we relayed earlier this week, the Timberwolves and Rose’s former coach, Tom Thibodeau, are in the mix to sign Rose as well — Marc Stein of The New York Times is now reporting that Minnesota may look to make a waiver claim.
Rose, still only 29, has had a once-promising career devastated by injuries. The former MVP played only 19.3 minutes per game for the Cavaliers this season, a career-low by far, and has now been both traded and released in the last few days.
Before NBA teams started reaching trade agreements on Thursday, we published the latest entry in our Hoops Rumors Glossary, focusing on the traded player exception. As we explain in our breakdown, the traded player exception can allow over-the-cap teams to receive more salary than they send out in “simultaneous” trades.
The more common form of traded player exception is the one generated in a “non-simultaneous” trade, when a team send out a single player and takes back less salary – or none at all – in return. The team then has one calendar year to use that newly-created exception to acquire one or more players whose salaries fit into that exception.
For instance, the Raptors created a $11,800,000 trade exception in last July’s DeMarre Carroll trade with the Nets, meaning that on Thursday they could have acquired a player earning, say, $11MM without sending out any salary in return.
Not many teams took advantage of their outstanding trade exceptions on Thursday, but at least a couple teams appear to have completed trades with previously existing trade exceptions, or with disabled player exceptions. Nearly every trade completed on Thursday also generated at least one new trade exception, so we’ll round up those newly-created TPEs below.
With the help of tweets from cap experts Albert Nahmad and Bobby Marks, along with information from RealGM’s official transactions log, here’s a breakdown of the new TPEs, sorted by value. Not all of these exceptions have been confirmed with 100% certainty, but this is what we believe they’ll look like. These TPEs will expire if they’re not used by February 8, 2019:
- Utah Jazz: $3,708,883 (Joe Johnson to Kings)
- Portland Trail Blazers: $3,505,233 (Noah Vonleh to Bulls)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $3,028,410 (James Ennis to Pistons)
- Note: If the Grizzlies didn’t use their existing $3.4MM TPE to absorb Brice Johnson‘s salary, this TPE would instead be worth $1,697,250.
- Toronto Raptors: $2,451,225 (Bruno Caboclo to Kings)
- Utah Jazz: $2,386,864 (Rodney Hood to Cavs)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $2,300,000 (Dante Cunningham to Nets)
- Brooklyn Nets: $1,889,040 (Rashad Vaughn to Pelicans)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1,471,382 (Dwyane Wade to Heat)
- Detroit Pistons: $1,471,382 (Willie Reed to Bulls)
- Los Angeles Lakers: $1,471,382 (Larry Nance to Cavs)
- Chicago Bulls: $1,429,818 (Jameer Nelson to Pistons)
- Detroit Pistons: $1,331,160 (Brice Johnson to Grizzlies)
- Miami Heat: $1,312,611 (Okaro White to Hawks)
- Washington Wizards: $1,312,611 (Sheldon Mac to Hawks)
- Dallas Mavericks: $1,107,552 (Devin Harris to Nuggets)
- Note: This TPE is not listed by RealGM.
Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions has been updated, and will be adjusted if necessary once we’re able to confirm all the TPEs listed above.
If you have any corrections or questions, please let us know in the comment section.
4:38pm: The trade is now official, according to press releases issued by both the Wizards and Hawks. The heavily-protected second-rounder acquired by Washington in the deal is a 2019 pick.
3:18pm: The Hawks sent the Wizards a heavily-protected second-round pick in the swap, tweets Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That pick likely won’t ever change hands, and was simply included because of the requirement that Washington receive something in the deal.
Cunningham adds that Atlanta plans to waive Mac.
3:08pm: The Wizards are sending guard Sheldon Mac to Atlanta in a deal with the Hawks, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Atlanta will also receive cash in the trade, tweets Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
Mac, 25, spent his rookie season with the Wizards in 2016/17 and had a non-guaranteed salary for 2017/18. However, before Washington made a decision on whether to keep him on the regular season roster, Mac suffered a torn Achilles, essentially guaranteeing his salary for the year.
By moving Mac, the Wizards will reduce their projected luxury tax bill and will open up a spot on their 15-man roster in case they want to get involved in the buyout market. The Hawks, meanwhile, will likely receive enough cash in the deal from Washington to cover the remaining portion of Mac’s salary.
Tyreke Evans was considered one of the most players most likely to change teams by today’s NBA trade deadline, but when the dust settled, the standout guard remained in Memphis.
In the hour leading up to the deadline, we heard from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the Grizzlies still hadn’t been able to secure a first-round pick in exchange for Evans, and were considering trying to re-sign him with their mid-level exception this summer if they couldn’t work out a deal.
So what did the offers for Evans look like? ESPN’s Zach Lowe and HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy have some details….
- The Nuggets gave the Grizzlies their choice of two offers, according to Lowe — one offer included Emmanuel Mudiay and a second-round pick, while the other featured an expiring contract and multiple second-round picks. However, Memphis was seeking more, and didn’t want to take on any 2018/19 salary, says Lowe (Twitter link).
- The Wizards were in on Evans and likely would’ve parted with two second-round picks, but the Grizzlies once again made it clear they were looking for more, per Lowe (Twitter link).
- As we noted earlier this afternoon, Kennedy passed along details on the Celtics‘ offer for Evans, tweeting that Boston offered two second-round picks and young big man Guerschon Yabusele.
- Kennedy didn’t have specifics on the Sixers‘ offer for Evans, but said the Grizzlies asked for Dario Saric at one point during those talks (Twitter link). Philadelphia, understandably, wasn’t interested in surrendering the young forward for a rental.
While it has been overshadowed by the drama in Cleveland, there has seemed to be some uneasiness in Washington this season. After a team meeting earlier in the year, multiple Wizards players admitted that the meeting might have had a negative impact on the locker room, which is something we almost never hear.
Now, with John Wall sidelined for several weeks as he recovers from knee surgery, the star point guard appears to have felt slighted by the notion that his team might be moving the ball better without him in the lineup. Last week after a win in which the Wizards racked up 30 assists, Marcin Gortat tweeted that it was a great “team” victory. Wall addressed that comment during an appearance this week on SportsCenter, as Candace Buckner of The Washington Post details.
“I know I’m a team player. I average almost 10 assists a game,” Wall said. “I’m very prideful in finding my teammates and getting guys easy shots. Even more just shocking hearing it from him and understand he gets the most assists from me and gets the most spoon-fed baskets ever.”
As we attempt to determine how real the apparent tension in the Wizards’ locker room is, here’s more out of D.C.:
- Responding to Wall’s appearances on SportsCenter and NBC Sports Washington – during which Wall said that “any guys [who] have a problem with me can talk to me face-to-face as a man” – Gortat insisted that neither his comment nor one made by Bradley Beal last week were intended to attack or frustrate the All-Star point guard. “I talked to him a few days ago,” Gortat said, per Buckner. “I thought we verified that. I told him that it was nothing personal and I definitely didn’t think about him when I was writing that or whatever I was saying. We never thought about attacking him and I thought we had this verified.”
- Beal offered another defense of his his “everybody eats” comment from last week too, as Buckner details. “I keep telling everybody it’s not a shot at John,” Beal said. “I’m sure Gortat didn’t mean anything by his [tweet]. We understand — nobody is sitting here saying we’re a better team without John. That’s just nonsense. I’ll say it a thousand times if I have to. I’ll go on every media outlet if I have to to get that point across: we’re not a better team without John. I want to nip that in the bud ASAP. He’s a tremendous player. He’s our leader. We need him back but we want him to be 110% before that happens.”
- Despite the Wizards’ impressive ball-movement numbers over the last few games, the idea that the team might be better without Wall is ridiculous, writes Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
- Tomas Satoransky‘s play in Wall’s absence may have an impact on the Wizards’ trade deadline plans, says Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. Hughes’ piece was published when Satoransky was averaging 11.0 PPG and 5.8 APG in place of Wall — in the two games since, those averages have dipped to a more pedestrian 5.5 PPG and 4.5 APG.
- On Tuesday, we learned that the Wizards have engaged in some trade talks involving Gortat. That story is right here.
The Knicks are still reeling from Tuesday’s news that Kristaps Porzingis has suffered a torn ACL and will be sidelined for the rest of the season. While Porzingis’ injury essentially eliminates the Knicks from the playoff race in the East, team ownership can at least find some solace in the fact that the organization remains the highest-valued franchise in the NBA, according to a report from Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes.
For the first time, all 30 NBA teams have a perceived worth of $1 billion or more, per Forbes’ annual report. In 2017, 18 teams had a valuation exceeding $1 billion, which was up from 13 teams in 2016 and just three teams in 2015.
The league-wide average of $1.65 billion per team is also a record, with franchise valuations up 22% in total over last year’s figures. NBA franchise values have tripled over the last five years, according to Badenhausen.
Here’s the full list of NBA franchise valuations, per Forbes:
- New York Knicks: $3.6 billion
- Los Angeles Lakers: $3.3 billion
- Golden State Warriors: $3.1 billion
- Chicago Bulls: $2.6 billion
- Boston Celtics: $2.5 billion
- Brooklyn Nets: $2.3 billion
- Houston Rockets: $2.2 billion
- Los Angeles Clippers: $2.15 billion
- Dallas Mavericks: $1.9 billion
- Miami Heat: $1.7 billion
- San Antonio Spurs: $1.55 billion
- Toronto Raptors: $1.4 billion
- Sacramento Kings: $1.375 billion
- Washington Wizards: $1.35 billion
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1.325 billion
- Portland Trail Blazers: $1.3 billion
- Phoenix Suns: $1.28 billion
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $1.25 billion
- Orlando Magic: $1.225 billion
- Utah Jazz: $1.2 billion
- Philadelphia 76ers: $1.18 billion
- Indiana Pacers: $1.175 billion
- Atlanta Hawks: $1.15 billion
- Denver Nuggets: $1.125 billion
- Detroit Pistons: $1.1 billion
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1.075 billion
- Minnesota Timberwolves: $1.06 billion
- Charlotte Hornets: $1.05 billion
- Memphis Grizzlies: $1.025 billion
- New Orleans Pelicans: $1 billion
For comparison’s sake, Forbes’ 2017 valuations can be found right here.
The Wizards have explored the possibility of moving their starting center, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who hears from multiple sources that the club has engaged in trade discussions involving Marcin Gortat.
Windhorst reports that several teams have shown interest in Gortat, adding that the Wizards are looking to improve their roster in the short term without taking on additional money in the long term.
Gortat, who will turn 34 later this month, has seen his role reduced a little this season, averaging 26.3 minutes per contest, his lowest mark since joining the Wizards in 2013. However, he has remained productive, recording 8.9 PPG and 8.0 RPG with a .537 FG% in 53 games (all starts) so far in 2017/18. The big man’s contract pays him about $12.78MM this season and $13.57MM in 2018/19 before expiring in the summer of ’19.
While Windhorst doesn’t specify any trade targets for the Wizards, his ESPN colleague Zach Lowe reported this week that Washington is one club that has looked into the possibility of acquiring DeAndre Jordan. A trade for the Clippers center is probably a long shot, but Gortat would be one logical outgoing piece in such a deal, given his position and his salary.