Tag: 2024 nba free agency

Chris Paul admitting he chose playing time with the Spurs over chasing a ring was refreshing to hear

Chris Paul still wants to play and contribute.

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.

Chris Paul’s fit on the San Antonio Spurs was obvious the first time it was ever mentioned the team might be interested in acquiring his services this offseason. What wasn’t always obvious was how the Spurs fit Paul’s own personal timeline.

At 39 years old, the only thing missing from Paul’s 19-year career is an NBA championship. So, most people assumed being able to compete for a title would be high on his list of priorities when choosing his next team.

As we found out when he signed with the Spurs last month, it wasn’t the most important factor.

Maybe it was his experience with the Golden State Warriors last season — coming off the bench for the first time in his career — or maybe it was injuries limiting him to just 58 games, but Paul said during his introductory press conference news Tuesday, he just wanted an opportunity to play.

In this era of ring-chasing, it was refreshing to hear.

“I love nothing more than the opportunity to play and contribute and hoop,” Paul said.

Surely, he could have take a minimum deal elsewhere — like the Los Angeles Lakers, who reportedly had interest — to join a team people might consider a more serious contender than the young Spurs. And there would have been absolutely nothing wrong with that. That’s what we ask of our athletes. To actually care about the same things us fans do, which is winning.

But Paul doesn’t want to win if it means riding the bench or doing the bare minimum. He’d rather be a significant contributor on a team with a promising future that may not be quite there yet (the Spurs are +15000 to win a championship at BetMGM). He’d rather help speed the progress of the potential next face of the NBA, Victor Wembanyama. He’d rather spend his time playing for another legend of the game, coach Gregg Popovich.

And I, for one, can’t wait to see what that trio does together.

Just because the Spurs might not be ready to compete for a championship doesn’t mean they can’t be better than anyone is expecting and push for the playoffs. Paul gives them a chance to do that if he has anything left in the tank. We saw him do it with the young Oklahoma City Thunder in 2019-20 and with the Phoenix Suns the following year.

For Paul, helping a young team overachieve seems to be more rewarding at this point in his career than doing the bare minimum on a team already stacked.

Kawhi Leonard out. Derrick White in.

(Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Kawhi Leonard withdrew from Team USA for the Paris Olympics, it was announced Wednesday, and though the news was hardly surprising, it’s not exactly what anyone wanted to hear.

The concept of the country’s best players coming together to take on the world is always fun — even if many of them are past their primes now — and that doesn’t exist without Leonard. When healthy, he’s easily one of the best players in the world.

Regardless, health has always been a part of his story, and as a result he’ll be replaced on the team by Derrick White of the NBA champion Boston Celtics. And if that sounds like a significant downgrade, it is. But then again, anyone would be.

That doesn’t make White any less the right pick for this team. And FTW’s Bryan Kalbrosky has three reasons why: White has prior experience with Team USA, he was already in the player pool of potential options for this team and he has the right style of game to fit alongside his more accomplished teammates.

“Per dunksandthrees, the Boston guard finished 92nd percentile in Offensive Estimated Plus-Minues (oEPM) and 91st percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (dEPM) last season.

It was the fourth season in a row he ranked in the 90th percentile or better in overall EPM. Yet he has accomplished all this while maintaining a low usage rate, which suggests he is able play well within his role next to ball-dominant teammates.

White doesn’t need the ball in his hands to make an impact and he can play in various different lineup styles. He also feels unlikely to complain if he has a smaller role or has minimal playing time, which may not be as true for some of the other players above.”

BK makes a solid argument for why White makes sense on this team.

Related: Jaylen Brown seems salty Derrick White was chosen over him

Shootaround

— The NBA’s new broadcast deals are reportedly settled. Here’s Mike Sykes on what that may mean for TNT

— Jayson Tatum, A’ja Wilson and Vince Carter are your NBA 2K25 cover athletes

— Steph Curry mic’d up during Team USA practice was good stuff

— We might have figured out why people were betting on Bronny James to be drafted No. 1 overall… and it kind of makes sense

Celtics Lab 272: Assessing the post-free agency East with Ky Carlin

Get up to speed on the new landscape of the East and how threatened the Celtics should be by it.

The vast majority of action in NBA free agency for the 2024 offseason has gone down, with rosters around the league looking more or less finished barring any unexpected trades. So with that in mind, we can begin to assess how the order of the league will look when opening night finally arrives for the 2024-25 season.

And to get a handle on how movement in the Eastern Conference may have shifted the plate tectonics on which the order of the East will be forged around the Boston Celtics, the hosts of the CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast sat down with Sixers Wire editor Ky Carlin. 

We get into which teams (or is it the singular team?) have elevated their games to contender status, which have fallen out of it, and even touch on the conference’s emerging middle class. So, to get up to speed on the new landscape of the East and how threatened the Celtics should be by it (if at all), make sure to tune in to this episode.


The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by Prize Picks and Gametime.


If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” “Celtics Lab,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Who are some potential free agency targets for the Boston Celtics?

If they do not leave it open, might they be up to add a big man like Dario Saric or Daniel Theis?

Who are some potential free agency targets for the Boston Celtics? The Celtics currently have an open roster spot they could use to add talent to the ball club. But there is a chance that the team will leave it open for at least some of the 2024-25 NBA season ahead to save the ownership group some cash as the team gets increasingly costly.

If they do not leave it open, might they be up to add a forward like Saddiq Bey or a big man like Dario Saric or Daniel Theis if they can be had on a veteran minimum deal?

The hosts of the CLNS Media “How Bout Them Celtics!” podcast, Jack Simone and Sam LaFrance, took a closer look at the best possible options for Boston at positions of need. Check them out below!

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” “Celtics Lab,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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The NBA’s second apron rules have already made free agency boring

Only 4 NBA teams are in the second apron. That speaks volumes.

We anticipated that the NBA’s second apron rules would have a major ripple effect on the league landscape. I don’t think anyone, sans some general managers, saw what they would do to free agency.

Roughly two days into the NBA’s open market period, we’ve seen most squads around the league approach their spending cautiously. Rather than throw around money willy-nilly like in years past, it is clear that teams are noticeably more gunshy about throwing around monster contracts, especially to non-star players.

While most of the big fish are off the board — like Paul George with the Philadelphia 76ers and Klay Thompson with the Dallas Mavericks — there is a glut of “middle-class” talent still waiting for new commitments. It’s made the whole familiar free agency exercise, once a highly-anticipated staple of the NBA calendar, a bit rote and anticlimactic.

What happened to the game we love?

Perhaps most importantly, as it stands, just four NBA teams have willingly stayed in the NBA’s second apron. Here they are, as follows, with their unique ownership situation in parentheses:

Everyone else, including recent NBA champions such as Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks, have trod lightly when it comes to the second apron. That speaks volumes.

It’s worth noting that the second apron isn’t technically a hard cap, even though the discussion has veered that way. Teams currently sitting in the second apron can keep extending players already on their roster as much as they please. It’s more that sitting in the second apron for an extended period is a calculated risk that NBA squads have to be prepared for, given the lack of on-the-fly flexibility it presents in here and now and the future.

Because once you’re in the second apron, most maneuverability is gone, and you’re at the mercy of hoping that life doesn’t get in the way.

(Hint: It often does.)

Teams like the Nuggets and Bucks may well enter the second apron in the near future once they recognize it’s time to really maximize the primes of Jokic and Antetokounmpo. They just weren’t going to do it for names like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, even with him being as dependable as he is. I’m also not sure what it means that the four current second-apron NBA teams all have chaotic ownership situations to some degree, but it has to have some kind of correlation.

In the end, as basketball fans, we all lose here.

There will be less player movement on the macro, and great teams will be more cautious with their spending. That, in turn, will reduce some of the wonderful drama we’ve come to expect from the NBA offseason. So, don’t expect the second-apron group to meaningfully expand in scope anytime soon.

In the name of forced, frustrating artificial parity, this is exactly what the NBA wanted. It’s a lot less entertaining, that’s for sure.

Who are some potential Boston Celtics big man free agency targets?

Who are some options Boston should be looking at?

If the Boston Celtics decide to go the free agency route to add a little big man depth to the roster after hearing that star Boston bog man Kristaps Porzingis will be out until the start of the new year, give or take a month, who are some options Boston should be looking at?

Should the Celtics pursue a ring-chasing veteran big man to fill the role? Or would it make more sense to try to find a young, under-appreciated talent to help eat up some regular season minutes until the Latvian center returns to the court some time this winter?

The hosts of the CLNS Media “How Bout Them Celtics!” podcast, Jack Simone and Sam LaFrance, took a closer look on a recent episode. Take a look at the clip embedded below to hear what they had to say.

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” “Celtics Lab,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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The Nuggets may waste a season of Nikola Jokic’s prime after losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

The Nuggets are putting Nikola Jokic’s prime in the hands of Peyton Watson and Christian Braun.

The Denver Nuggets Nuggets entered NBA free agency likely knowing that the remains of their 2023 championship roster would once again see significant changes.

This intuition proved correct as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope bolted for the Orlando Magic. He had played a very valuable role as a three-and-defense shooting guard for the last two seasons.

The Nuggets should remain confident because they have three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. He is someone good enough to potentially maximize an elder statesman like Russell Westbrook if the former MVP signed in Denver. As long as the generational point center is on their side, they will always be considered a top championship contender.

But after losing two important members of their first championship rotation in the last two offseasons — Caldwell-Pope and former Swiss Army Knife Bruce Brown — Denver is now in danger of potentially committing an NBA cardinal sin:

Wasting a season with the best player in the world on your roster in his physical prime.

To be fair to the Nuggets, they prepared for this exact scenario.

Denver general manager Calvin Booth knew the NBA’s new harsh second apron penalties would eventually force good teams to make audacious, tough decisions about keeping (or losing) contributors of their respective cores.

In response, they’ve added names like Julian Strawther (a microwave shooter) and DaRon Holmes (a versatile and switchable big man) to bolster their bench firepower.

But the most important pieces are 2022 draftees Peyton Watson and Christian Braun.

Watson is a lanky, athletic shot-blocker with a promising (but untested) mid-range jumper. Braun is a twitchy, tough-nosed slasher and “winner” who helped lead his team to a national title at Kansas while in the NCAA. The two could ideally replace what Caldwell-Pope and Brown brought to Denver.

In the immediate future, the Nuggets’ outlook is predicated mostly on Watson and Braun. In due time, both may well become household names. By virtue of playing with Jokic, most diligent NBA fans could know who they are by the end of next season.

All of this is to say the cupboard isn’t bare. The Nuggets have pieces in the pipeline to stay relevant as an elite team that can hang with the league’s big boys.

The issue is that the Nuggets’ most optimistic outlook over the next year or so is all based on inexperienced projections.

Watson is already a lockdown defender, but his offensive game remains sloppy. He needs a lot more time in the lab and more opportunity to make mistakes in real games before he can be fully trusted on the other end of the court. As it stands, Watson getting any meaningful playoff minutes means opposing teams can sag off him and pack the paint against Jokic.

Braun has now been a core member of Denver’s playoff rotation over the last two years. He has shown he can make the little “hustle” plays that sometimes flip tight postseason matchups. Still, he has his own limits offensively, especially as a shooter, which leaves much to be desired and probably puts a cap on his ceiling.

The only way for Braun to really mitigate the loss of Caldwell-Pope would be for him to become a quality 3-point shooter at a high volume. He may well get there eventually in his career, but it’s a lofty ask for him to do so in roughly five months as he enters his third NBA season.

With Watson and Braun still needing fine-tuning, their ongoing critical development suggests that the Nuggets could take a gap year before rising again. Mind you, this gap year will happen during Jokic’s age 29 season (he turns 30 next February).

That’s far from ideal when a franchise is rostering likely the best player it’ll ever have.

Throughout his already iconic career, Jokic has shown an uncanny ability to consistently elevate his teammates more than the sum of their parts.

There have been select seasons where the Nuggets really had no business hanging around the top of the NBA standings — last year probably qualifies — and they were mainly only there because of Jokic’s brilliance.

But Jokic won’t be this good forever. In fact, I’d venture to say that there are only a few more seasons left, at most, of Jokic being an unguardable offensive machine who is always a few steps ahead of the competition. He will eventually decline, making it imperative that the Nuggets waste as little time as possible while they still have him firing on all cylinders.

Jokic’s presence alone might accelerate Watson’s and Braun’s respective timelines. And that, in turn, could help the Nuggets climb the NBA’s tallest summit again soon enough. They just have to be prepared to potentially lose a year of Jokic at his absolute best at the expense of their roster’s much-needed internal growth.

Something tells me they’ve already made their peace with that deal with the salary cap devil.

Nikola Jokic reportedly wants the Nuggets to sign Russell Westbrook, which … might work?

Nikola Jokic seems to know something we don’t.

As rival teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder load up in an arms race, the Denver Nuggets have kind of been caught holding the bag.

They already lost valuable starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on the first day of NBA free agency. Furthermore, they’ll now be relying on a host of mid-to-late first-round picks to become major contributors in another title run. That’s not an impossible ask, but for the time being, it is a lofty bet.

Though, if Nikola Jokic has anything to say about it, it seems Denver will soon be adding a living NBA legend to hopefully help its title ambitions.

According to Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports, Jokic has reportedly been pushing the Nuggets behind the scenes to add veteran point guard Russell Westbrook. The 35-year-old former MVP is in the middle of the ring-chasing era of his career and is seemingly more than willing to take on a support role (with a cheaper salary) in the right situation if it means he can finally win a title.

The Nuggets, with the three-time MVP in Jokic, would obviously potentially qualify as that right situation:

Candidly, when I had heard the Nuggets were interested in Westbrook, I was skeptical of the fit.

As good as Westbrook can be, even in a complementary role, he remains one of the more ball-dominant players in the NBA. If he were to, say, run the Nuggets’ young bench unit, there was little doubt in my mind that the bench would effectively take the identity of Westbrook continually driving to the rim and taking mid-range shots. That’s not good for a championship contender seeking more depth and offensive balance.

Now that I hear Jokic is the one pulling the strings for Westbrook, I wonder what the angle is. If I were to guess, I’m betting Jokic thinks he can maximize Westbrook’s trademark explosiveness as a cutter and driver and that he’d be unselfish enough to be an offensive Swiss Army Knife for the Nuggets. He’d run the bench. He could share the floor with Jamal Murray as another ball-handler. He’d make the dirty “hustle” plays. Think Bruce Brown — a key member of Denver’s 2023 title team — but with less defense.

Far be it from me to question Jokic’s thought process too much on this front.

From Brown to Aaron Gordon and even Caldwell-Pope, Jokic has a well-established precedent of helping wring out every last drop out of talented, if misused, NBA veterans. If the Nuggets get the version of Westbrook that Jokic thinks he can coax out, they will remain amongst the NBA’s true small handful of heavyweights.

So, if he thinks Westbrook can help the Nuggets win another title, I have no choice but to see the vision.

The winners (76ers, of course) and losers (Clippers, naturally) of NBA free agency Day 1

Some winners and losers from Day 1 of NBA free agency in 2024.

Sunday marked the opening day of NBA free agency in the 2024 offseason, and while there weren’t a ton of surprises, there were some moves that changed the landscape of the league.

Of course, there was the Paul George to the Philadelphia 76ers move, which we probably all saw coming after we saw what Joel Embiid did on ESPN during the NBA Finals. There was also the news that the Splash Brothers were no more.

Now that we’ve had a day to take it all in, let’s dive in with the winners and losers so far, with more moves sure to come soon.

Winners: Paul George and the 76ers

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

PG13 gets his contract, gets to contend in the weaker East and gives the Sixers another star, even though George is getting older. It’s a swing for the fences, and after watching what Tobias Harris did last season, Philly fans must be over the moon to see who replaced him.

Winner: Chris Paul

Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

Follow my thinking here. Why would CP3 want to join a young, emerging team instead of a contender? Here’s my thinking: he can tutor Victor Wembanyama and Co. before he’s dealt to a contender by the deadline. That way, he sees the lay of the land in the NBA before finding that one last shot for a ring.

Winner: The NBA salary cap rules

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

You can see how the rules about the first and second apron are wreaking havoc on teams. When the Denver Nuggets have to lose a vital player like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope just so they can avoid certain cap ramifications, you know it’s having an effect.

Losers: Los Angeles Clippers

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Hey remember that time the Clippers got Kawhi Leonard and George together and didn’t ultimately contend? Yikes.

Losers: Denver Nuggets

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Losing Caldwell-Pope is HUGE. Not great for Nikola Jokic and Co.

Losers: The Warriors dyansty

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Reminder: The Dubs last won a title in 2022! Even with Klay Thompson on the decline, they were contenders. Now? Things are in disarray. We’ll see where they go from here, but it’s not great.

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Brian Windhorst revealed how the Clippers may have strained their Paul George relationship with Kawhi Leonard’s extension

No wonder Paul George is unhappy with the Clippers.

The writing has been on the wall for months.

Barring something unexpected coming into play, it sure seems like Paul George will leave the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency, potentially for greener pastures with the Philadelphia 76ers.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the timing of Kawhi Leonard’s latest contract extension may have set George’s Clippers departure into motion. That’s because when the Clippers re-signed Leonard, effectively committing to him for the long term, they reportedly never even told George about their plans.

Under normal circumstances, I fail to see why this is a big deal. What they plan to do with Leonard shouldn’t necessarily be privy to George.

When the Clippers have been simultaneously trying to negotiate with George while probably saying they have to fit him on their books under their terms, I can then see the vision:

NBA stars are driven by ego.

If you want to appease your franchise guys, you have to make it seem like they’re wanted and appreciated. I’m not entirely sure I would’ve taken a lack of knowledge about Leonard’s extension so personally, but George is a perennial All-Star caliber player. He’s a guy who likely wants another max deal at 34.

Every gesture probably counts here.

The Warriors reportedly rebuffed the Bulls over a Zach LaVine offer and moved on really quickly

It’s kinda unbelievable how no one wants Zach LaVine.

NBA free agency began with rumors that there wasn’t much of a market for Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine. It appears those were rumors that were completely founded.

As the new NBA league year officially kicked, TNT’s Chris Haynes reported that the Bulls offered to trade LaVine to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Chris Paul and Andrew Wiggins. The Warriors apparently wanted no part of LaVine — at least for that proposed deal — and pivoted to eventually waiving the veteran Paul.

Am I the only one who thinks that would’ve been a good trade for the Warriors? Oof. At any rate, tough break, Bulls:

The Warriors are in the process of trying to revitalize the Steph Curry era. And I know LaVine’s skill set isn’t the most enticing for a team trying to compete for a championship, but I think he would’ve actually fit perfectly in the Bay Area. Unless Golden State has grander ambitions (Paul George?), declining a deal for LaVine that included a player it would wave anyway doesn’t make much sense.

From the rebuilding Bulls’ perspective, if they really can’t trade LaVine, they are locked into at least two more years of the scorer if he doesn’t exercise a player option two years from now. With the way free agency and the trade market are already unfolding, that would be a disaster for a team apparently trying to tear it all down. It would effectively put their hopeful rebuild on hold.