Shams Charania:
Just in: Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has sustained a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee and is expected to miss multiple weeks, sources tell ESPN. Results showed Edwards avoided any ligament damage, but he will now miss time.
https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/48ae8d6c475bc
[Charania] Free agent guard Lindy Waters III has agreed to a one-year deal with the San Antonio Spurs, agents Shy Saee and Winston Nelson of Klutch Sports tell ESPN. Waters has shot 37% from 3 in his first four NBA seasons in Oklahoma City, Golden State and Detroit.
Source: https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/63532e7a5aa19
Bought a large lot of clothing and this tuxedo was in there. The jacket, vest and pants all have the tag that says made exclusively for Jaylen Brown!
I definitely agree with the prevailing idea that we shouldn’t pay 2 supermaxes at once unless they are good enough players and with the salary cap only going up so much every year having them both signed is gonna be a detriment to team building.
But then I gotta wonder why no one is on Derrick whites case about his contract. He makes 30 million a year and his playoff numbers the last few seasons haven’t been great even his advanced numbers. His regular season last year was bad but he had 2 good regular seasons with Boston before that. I feel like there should be a sentiment that this is a make or break year for Derrick simply bc of the new cba salary rules. I
If he has a similar regular or postseason to last year it’s very hard to justify keeping him on the team imo his skill set is replaceable at this point if he’s not a near 40% 3pt shooter. He’s a good team defender in the regular season but hasn’t really been one in the playoffs ( statistically) and he isn’t a high level passer or rebounder. Another thing to consider is other players needing new contracts as well too such as Pritchard Walsh and Hugo soon. What do u guys think would the Celtics move on from Derrick if he replicates last season this upcoming year?
Full quote via the Greg Hill Show for the 24th annual WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon
>"I truly believe we have the best front office in the NBA, and I think it's a source of advantage for us every day. So I definitely have a level of trust in Brad and his team. But man, as a fan, that was tough. I really needed to be convinced to take the fan passion out of it, because I'm a super fan, was tough. You have to be a sociopath if you don't worry a little bit about what other fans are going to think... We've got the best brains in basketball, and this was something they had conviction around."
I’m a Boston Celtics fan, and I think one of the biggest keys to our success has been Payton Pritchard bringing a lot of offensive power off the bench. Even in the early part of last season when we moved Payton into the starting lineup, we had Anfernee Simons being that hot scorer off the bench.
As we move into this new season, it seems that Pritchard will be back in the starting lineup again, with 39-year-old Mike Conley being the lead guard off the bench, along with the other young wings in Baylor, Walsh and Hugo.
I’m concerned that we won’t have someone who can score consistently off the bench, but then I looked around the league last season and not many of the top teams have a prolific or consistent scorer on the bench.
While the Celtics (as above) and the Spurs (in Keldon Johnson) had offensive firepower on the bench, the Pistons (who won the East) and the Knicks (who won it all) didn’t. Jordan Clarkson was the Knicks player with the highest PPG off the bench - a meagre 8.6 compared to Simons’ 14.2.
The Knicks as a team were also 28th in the league in total bench scoring, only 31.6 points per game, compared to the Thunder and the Spurs (both in the top 10) with 41 points per game coming from the bench.
So, what do y’all think? How important really is bench scoring in today’s NBA? If you have a starting 5 that can consistently give you buckets like the defending champions, is that the most important thing?
I’m gonna get this out of the way now; I really really disagreed with the process of the brown trade. I completely understand the way the current CBA works, I completely understand the potential value of draft picks and how valuable these picks could potentially be, I promise I fully understand this situation completely because I desperately dug into it trying to make it make more sense to me; it never did. I still don’t agree with it, I’d be happy to share with anyone interested why I feel that way, but that’s not what I wanted this post to be about.
The fallout of this stance I have is this is the hardest time I’ve personally ever had as a fan trying to get excited about the future of the team. We’ve had the jays for the last decade, no matter what, we always had the jays and that fact alone meant everything would be okay. That safety blanket is now gone, and the future to me feels far more uncertain.
My question to you guy, is what do you personally feel excited about over the next 5 years? Maybe you’re high on some young guys you think will pop? Maybe you think that clippers swap in ‘28 becomes a crazy valuable pick? Maybe it’s something else?
Genuinely just want to conjure that excitement I’ve felt every summer for the last decade or so, that I’ve been unable to feel this summer, hoping someone has some good stuff to share.
I will say one thing im very excited about and bullish on; Hugo Gonzalez. I’m absolutely certain he’s gonna at least be a good starter, and probably more. I just think he’s lightning in a bottle, sometimes you can just see it with some guys where you’re like “yeah this is gonna be something special”. I think Hugo starts this year and Pritchard stays a 6th man, and he takes a big leap. I also really like Cenac and thought it was a great pick, but I think he’s really gonna have to commit to playing as a big 4 to get nba minutes right now because of how deep our center rotation is currently and his lack of bulk.
So what good things do you think are coming to this team?
I think the weirdest part of the Gordon Hayward what-if is that the injury that wrecked Boston’s plans also helped create what came next.
The Celtics won 55 games without him that year and then took LeBron to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals (Scary Terry going 2-for-14 and 0-for-10 from three will haunt me forever), largely because Tatum and Brown were forced into roles nobody expected them to have that soon.
If Hayward stays healthy, maybe Boston is playing Golden State in the 2018 Finals. But maybe the Jays don’t develop quite as quickly. Maybe 2018-19 doesn’t become such a chemistry disaster with a healthy All-Star Hayward. Maybe Kyrie’s entire Boston tenure looks different.
Nine years later, there are still a ridiculous number of dominoes to follow from those first five minutes of the 2017 season.
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The NBA has found no evidence showing LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard in order to circumvent the salary cap, according to three people with knowledge of discussions between the two sides in recent days.
Instead, the NBA is focused on whether the team's introduction of Leonard to team sponsors constitutes a violation of the league's rules prohibiting salary cap circumvention, two of the sources said. The league is examining whether the Clippers are guilty of "failure to supervise" employees, though it's unclear what specific rule the team would have violated or what the penalties would be, two of the sources said.
…
Two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said Leonard has maintained to the NBPA, league and Wachtell Lipton that he had no involvement in salary cap circumvention, and so far conversations around potential consequences have centered on him paying restitution for potential improper benefits from the Clippers, such as travel and lodging, for his representative and uncle Dennis Robertson.
If the case goes to arbitration, the arbitrator could compel document production, witness testimony and order discovery. After a hearing, the arbitrator's ruling would be subject to an appeals panel made up of three people jointly appointed by the NBA and NBPA. The appeal panel decision is binding. Only after that process could Silver be authorized to issue any potential punishment.
If they knew they could give no show deals and ask them to take pay cuts they would've just done that.
Trade season is done and rosters are mostly set for the upcoming season. That being said, im bored af, so lets talk about some Sam Hauser trades!
Hauser is solid, but between his medium contract, and the 3 young wings needing minutes, hes the easiest salary crunch casualty.
Luckily its pretty easy to gauge Hauser's trade value, as 2 very similar players were just traded for salary flexibility. OKC just flipped Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins for 2 2nd round picks each, establishing an obvious value.
So with all that, here are 4 trades for Sam Hauser.
Sam Hauser to Indiana for TJ McConnell
Indiana - Indiana is getting Haliburton back, and have Andrew Nembhard who just had a solid season being the primary playmaker. TJ McConnell doesn’t bring enough off the ball value to play significant minutes, with Indiana likely needing to have either Hali or Nembhard running point at all times. On the wing Indiana has Nesmith (health issues), Sheppard (3rd stringer), and Oubre (extremely streaky), and could really use some solid pure shooting from outside.
Boston - The Celtics have a glut of bench wings all really needing more time. Scheierman, Walsh, and Gonzalez all made a case last season for more minutes. Tatum returning and Paul George coming in more than eats up JB’s minutes, and Mitchell Robinson makes some of those big man minutes disappear as well. What we could use is another ball handler who isn’t absolutely washed. McConnell is a guy I’ve wanted for a long time, he’s a hustle defender and can set the table for teammates. Our only PG’s right now are Prichard (score first guy) and Mike Conley (borderline unplayable). It’s not bad relying on Tatum to run point, but there are situations where you want to rest Tatum and not start hemorrhaging points. A guy like McConnell can come in for 15ish minutes a game and keep the ship steady, and get guys like Robinson involved in the offense.
Sam Hauser to Houston for Clint Capela, future 2nd rounder
Houston - Houston pretty desperately needs shooting. Looking at their roster construction they’re running Sengun (30%), Thompson (22%), Marcus Smart (33%), Tari Eason (36%), Jabari Walker (36%), and Steve Adams (-1000%) all heavy minutes next season. They should be pretty interested in adding pure shooting to this lineup.
Boston - I don’t think Capela is worth much at this point in his career, but trading Capela leaves Houston really light at the rim, so I doubt we could squeeze 2 2nd’s. Even at Capela’s advanced age, he’s recording a 19.4 OREB% which is way up there, and he played 75 games last year. The big bonus right now is that the trade would give Brad some wiggle room. Capela for Hauser would give Brad 3.8m of space to play with this year, and 4.28m next year, while getting out of the 3rd year entirely. Also, PG13 + Capela’s salaries for next season put us at 63.88m, with Nikola Jokic’s salary for next year being 62.84m. So this trade gets Brad some play money at the bottom of the roster, while also keeping the contracts he needs to be a player with Denver, if shit hits the fans there, and also scoops up a 2nd round pick.
Sam Hauser to Chicago for Rob Dillingham, 2 future 2nds
Chicago - Similar to Houston, Chicago is looking to play heavy minutes to some non shooters, Josh Giddey (36%), Claxton (16%), Williams (35%), Buzelis (35%), Okoro (33%). Powell is more of a scorer than a 3 point shooter. Chicago really needs to invest in some spacing.
Boston - Honestly, its the perfect time to invest in Rob Dillingham. He only has 6.8m committed for next season, and a team option after that. He’s either proved he’s worth re-signing to a small deal similar to PP’s deal right now, or he’s trash and can go. Either way it creates a 4m buffer for Brad Stevens to make other smaller moves, and comes with a 2nd round pick or 2. I wouldn’t hate having a PG prospect while opening up some cap space and minutes for our young wings. I like Boston's development team over Minny or Chicago.
Sam Hauser to Chicago for Jalen Smith, future 2nd
Chicago - Same team, same logic, different player. Chicago just added Caleb Wilson and Nic Claxston. They have a glut of guys who will play PF and may prefer to have a guy like Hauser shooting from a wing position than a Caleb Wilson backup.
Boston - Jalen Smith has long been he poor man’s Miles Turner. He seemingly is always available in trade discussions and for some reason teams aren’t ever really bought in. On paper he’s a routine 9ppg, 5rpg, 1bpg with 36%+ 3 point shooting, which is solid. He’s an expiring deal, where Hauser is a cost controlled 12m-ish for the next 3 seasons.
Because his family is here to enjoy them, paying him externally in assets around New England through "casual introductions" will be of higher return value to him than other big stars. It gives us a serious leg up in these new negotiation tactics. What does he care about DFW assets when El Nino is the worst it's ever been and he has no family roots in the area? The Mavs should be sweating bullets.
Seems pretty obvious to do this now that you can just indirectly funnel money to players and have no consequences.
Have you guys thought of any targets we could do this for?
Can someone explain it? I get the basics - the money committed to the player evaporates, freeing up money for someone else. But if a team is well above the cap, an equivalent salary can't simply be added after the first expires.
It's also salary-matching, but the acquiring team has the same problem. Unless it creates significant space under the cap, the post-expiration benefits are lessened.
Is someone willing to explain how PG's near-max contract expiring in two years is notably better than JB's super-max contract expiring in three years? (I know there's a thread on Jokich, so "timing" is a real consideration.) Can the PG expiration benefits extend for a year if needed? For two?
Is there a recent Celtics example where they maximized the value of an expiring contract? I don't think KP counts since they HAD to get his salary off the books. Is there any league example that remains relevant with this CBA?
(There are differences of opinion on JBs value, contract value, usage, attitude, tax room versus PGs value, contract value, usage, attitude, tax room. I am seeking a concise explanation of the "one-year" difference in these two players contract, ideally in a way that explains "why now, not a year from now." But I know conversations go how they go.)
Welcome to the daily discussion thread! You can use this space to discuss little things that don't need their own post. This is also the perfect space for pictures, videos, and links that would otherwise go against the sub's rules. Just don't be jerks and don't break any Reddit-wide rules. Have at it.