Here are the best potential buyout candidates for NBA teams to look at.
The NBA trade deadline is officially over. There was plenty and wheeling and dealing over the last 48 hours.
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were the headliners of this deadline, but there was plenty more that came after them. If you missed out on any of that, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered here with our trade deadline tracker that has each deal of the day.
In the meantime, teams are moving on to the next stage to try and improve their rosters. It’s buyout season, folks.
Some players who couldn’t get traded will inevitably be waived and end up as free agents. There will surely be a number of legitimate contributors who end up on this list.
We don’t quite know how things will shake out just yet, but here’s a list of the 15 best buyout candidates who could end up on the market.
The NBA trade deadline has passed and now we enter buyout season. Over the next few weeks, we will see several big-name players, usually on expiring contracts, potentially negotiate an early release. Once these players clear waivers, they will …
The NBA trade deadline has passed and now we enter buyout season. Over the next few weeks, we will see several big-name players, usually on expiring contracts, potentially negotiate an early release. Once these players clear waivers, they will likely be pursued by the best teams in the league in hopes of adding extra juice for a playoff run. The deadline for players to get waived and retain playoff eligibility is March 1.
By trading Eric Gordon to Los Angeles, the #Rockets will be able to move up from Milwaukee’s first-round draft pick to that of the Clippers. Here’s a look at immediate reaction to the deal.
Ever since the Rockets traded James Harden to Brooklyn in January 2021, veteran guard Eric Gordon hasn’t been in age alignment with the ongoing rebuilding movement in Houston.
Now, after years of rumors, a trade has finally reached the finish line. Gordon, now 34 years old, is headed to the Los Angeles Clippers in a three-team deal also involving the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Throughout six-and-a-half seasons, Eric did everything we asked of him and more, both on the court and in the community,” said general manager Rafael Stone. “We wish him nothing but the best and want him to know he’ll always have a home here in Houston.”
Though the Rockets acquired veterans Danny Green (from Memphis) and John Wall (from the Clippers) in the trade for salary matching purposes, both could be quickly waived, and neither was the primary incentive for the deal. The incentive was a 2023 first-round swap right acquired from the Clippers, which allows them to move up from the Milwaukee pick that Houston owns (currently at No. 28 in the order) to the Los Angeles selection (currently at No. 18 overall).
As for Gordon, the 2022-23 season was his seventh with the Rockets, where he was by far Houston’s longest-tenured player. In seven seasons with the franchise, the former NBA Sixth Man of the Year averaged 15.7 points (36.0% on 3-pointers) and 2.3 assists in 30.4 minutes while providing steady and capable defense, as well.
Most importantly, he routinely improved his play in the playoffs, where the Rockets consistently found themselves during Gordon’s first four seasons with the team. Postseason performance is no longer a relevant variable in Houston, given the youth movement, but it does explain his appeal to a likely playoff team, such as the Clippers.
Here’s a look at how fans and media members responded to the trade agreement in real-time, along with early analysis of the deal.
HoopsHype ranks the 10 players who have appeared most often in trade rumors over the previous week, led by John Wall and Fred VanVleet.
With just weeks remaining until the 2022-23 NBA trade deadline, we’re ranking 10 players in this edition of our trade rumor rankings series, as there are too many players to discuss to make the cut-off of just five, as we usually do.
We’ve only seen one trade thus far this season, an inconsequential salary dump involving the Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, and Noah Vonleh, who is now a free agent.
We should get some more action prior to the deadline, though, even if it isn’t the most hectic of trade deadlines.
Below, the 10 players who have appeared most often in trade rumors over the previous week, as judged by appearances on our trade page.
John Wall reveals he was not exactly welcomed by James Harden when he was traded to the Houston Rockets.
James Harden is a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, but he was once the leading man for the Houston Rockets and the driving force in everything they did.
Before the situation deteriorated in Houston, the Rockets dealt Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards in exchange for John Wall. When Wall landed in Houston, he expected Harden to be there with him, but he found quickly that wasn’t the case.
Wall sat down on “Run Your Race” on Tidal League, and he opened up about his time with Harden and the Rockets:
Trash. Beyond trash because I’m going there thinking James is gonna be there. You know what I mean? Once I get traded, but he already wants out. When I landed, I’m like ‘Oh, I’m about to land. I’m about to go do my conference (expletive).’ He like ‘Well, I’m on my way to Atlanta for Lil Baby’s birthday.’ I’m like (John stares in disbelief).
He talking about ‘You wanna get on the jet with me?’ Like (expletive), I just got traded here. I gotta be on good terms. Like, I don’t know how the owner is, the GM is, I don’t know nothing. This ain’t like I’m in DC. If I was in DC, I’d be like ‘Hell yeah, we out.’ It’s my show. This ain’t my show over here. … so he don’t come to training camp, none of that. So that news is all toxic. For me, I ain’t played in two years. Mom passed, Achilles, and COVID. So I’m like, ‘I don’t give a (expletive) who playing or not. I just want to hoop. That’s it.
It’s unfortunate Wall felt this way when he arrived in Houston with Harden, but at that stage, the Rockets were going in one direction and it wasn’t where Harden wanted to go.
He wants to win a championship and, after his time with the Rockets and the Brooklyn Nets, he believes the Sixers give him that best chance.
“This is the direction the organization’s going in, and it’s painful,” #Rockets coach Stephen Silas says in response to John Wall’s criticism. “There’s nothing easy about a rebuild.”
HOUSTON — One day after former player John Wall made disparaging comments about the Rockets, head coach Stephen Silas took time during his pregame press conference to respond.
“What John Wall went through here, and the situation that happened, was unprecedented,” Silas said when asked about Wall’s comments. “There was gonna be no easy way for it to go down. There’s gonna be no happiness on either side. We tried to make it as good as possible for him as an organization.”
“Obviously, the organization decided that the rebuild was going to be underway and talked to John about it,” Silas said Wednesday. “I had multiple conversations with John about it and came to the conclusion that him not playing would be the solution.”
Coming off an Achilles tear that had sidelined him since 2019, Wall was traded to Houston in December 2020 for Russell Westbrook and a first-round draft pick. Wall played 40 games in the 2020-21 season and was ready to become a leader in the locker room and on the floor, but the team had other plans.
“How would you feel coming off the bench,” Wall said (via the Run Your Race podcast) of his conversations with Silas. “I said, ‘For who? No offense, but for who? I was your best player last year.’”
“‘This is what the GM wants. He wants you to play 10-15 minutes a game, sometimes don’t play.’ I said, ‘I’m not doing that. Either you’re going to guarantee me some minutes, or I’m not. Let (a player) earn his spot.’ Coach said, ‘You don’t deserve that; you should be a starter. This is what they want to do.’”
Silas reiterated on Wednesday that Wall was not interested in coming off the bench and was very frustrated that he was being included in a rebuild situation.
“I’ve always had a good relationship with John,” Silas said. “Obviously, with the commitment to the rebuild as far as this organization is concerned, that’s a pretty big bold move to eat his salary and decide that we’re gonna go with these young guys and have them learn from mistakes and learn from experience and we’re all in.”
“So, I see it from both sides, for sure. I wouldn’t say I was surprised when John said that, but at some level, there’s frustration. And I get it, I understand it, but this is the direction the organization’s going in, and it’s painful. There’s nothing easy about a rebuild.”
Wall also commented on the podcast about the Rockets’ core of young players — he named Jalen Green, KJ Martin, and Kevin Porter Jr. — and stated that the things they were getting away with in Houston would get them to put out the league on other teams.
“I would say this situation is very different than any other situation I’ve been in with young guys because we have so many,” Silas said of Houston’s ongoing franchise rebuild. “There’s 19- and 20-year-olds who are the ones who drive the bus, basically. As far as holding them accountable, some of it is learning from mistakes, learning through adversity, learning from film sessions.”
General manager Rafael Stone, who Wall mentioned in his remarks, was not available for comment.
Rockets second-year player Jalen Green was asked about the situation postgame and responded with, “I have no comment on that.”
In a new interview, Stephen Silas pushed back on some of John Wall’s harsh criticism regarding the rebuilding #Rockets and their development of young players.
In a new interview, former Rockets guard John Wall had harsh things to say about his two seasons (2020-21, 2021-22) in Houston. Only in the first of those two years was Wall an active player.
Among many accusations, Wall was critical of the ongoing rebuild — which he referred to as “tanking” for draft picks, starting in 2020-21 — and whether the associated team culture has led to bad habits being acquired by young players such as Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green.
One day later, Rockets head coach Stephen Silas addressed those allegations in an interview with Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790. Thomas is also the team’s radio play-by-play broadcaster.
Among Silas’ comments:
When we go out every night, we’re trying to win a basketball game. And we prepare the same way that I prepared when I was working for perennial playoff teams. We have the same expectations for play. We do things in a manner that is putting us in the direction to win every single night that we’re out there.
Is that going to happen? No. We’re a young team, we have 19- and 20-, 21-year-old guys who emotionally they go up and down, and with their games, there is going to be inconsistency.
Here’s @HoustonRockets Coach Stephen Silas on John Wall’s comments pertaining to the team’s culture & what he told Jalen Green & KPJ #Rockets
Silas also elaborated on the difficult conversations he had with Wall regarding his role with the team or lack thereof.
It wasn’t a perfect situation for anybody. There were some things that obviously at the beginning of the season when we decided as an organization we were going to rebuild and build around (Porter) and (Green) as our starting two guards, that made it hard for John. And the conversations I had with John about possibly coming off the bench or being around and being supportive, they were difficult conversations.
But the ultimate decision was that he was going to be here, he was going to work out. He wasn’t going to practice with the team, because, you know, the practice time was the most important thing for those young guards.
Silas and the Rockets (10-34), who entered Wednesday having lost 11 straight games and 16 of their last 17, overall, look to turn things around starting tonight versus Charlotte. The tip in the friendly confines of Toyota Center is 7 p.m. Central.
“The best teacher is experience, and that’s what they’re getting right now,” Silas concluded. “You don’t look at certain guys around the league, and just because they went through a rebuild, they have a losing attitude. There have been teams that have done it before.”
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One scroll through the NBA’s daily injury report and you’ll see a who’s who of all-star caliber players with a designation of “questionable” or “out.” Yesterday, it was Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant ruled out, with Paul George shedding a questionable tag to return from a five-game absence.
Today, it’s Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Haliburton missing time, with Bradley Beal questionable but reportedly expected to return after missing five games. The list goes on.
In a lot of ways, the injuries are to be expected in a sport as taxing on the body as basketball, played just about every other day. But it can also be perplexing to people familiar with the access modern players have to the best in sports medicine. That was the point Stan Van Gundy was trying to make when he had this hilarious exchange with KD on Twitter.
Per Van Gundy, NBA players of the 1990s practiced harder and more often and had more back-to-backs in the schedule, yet they suffered injuries less frequently and missed fewer games than today’s players. It’s hard to know if players today actually are more injured, but KD agreed with SVG’s sentiment.
It certainly seems to be the case when you consider that at least 75 players played in at least 80 games every full season from 1990-99, and that number was down to 13 players last season. Though that could also be part of the modern strategy to reduce injuries. But if SVG is correct, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
As he clarified in his confusion over whether KD was in agreement, Durant’s leg injury was unavoidable — someone fell into him. But in theory, the frequency of soft tissue injuries like Mitchell’s groin and Beal’s hamstring shouldn’t be up from decades ago.
If they are, there’s a flaw either in how teams are training or players are preparing, or both, and it all contributes to a frustrating fan experience when nobody knows who’s going to be available.
— Prince J. Grimes
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
John Wall has been all the talk on NBA Twitter the last 24 hours since the release of his incredibly candid appearance on the Run Your Race podcast.
He made a few eye-opening comments on the show, including the stories of how his time with the Wizards came to an end and this hilariously unpleasant exchange with Tyler Hansbrough that contributed to his decision as a recruit not to attend North Carolina.
The stuff about his recent time with the Houston Rockets especially got my attention just because of how poorly run that organization seems to be. Wall became just the latest player to go on record about Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr.’s need for veteran leadership after Austin Rivers said similar things not long ago.
“I had to tell them, like, the [expletive] y’all getting away with over there, you go to any other team, you’d be out of the [expletive] league. Like, you wouldn’t play.”
It’s no wonder the Rockets are in the middle of an 11-game losing streak and have the worst record in the NBA.
Cleveland Cavaliers (+240) at Memphis Grizzlies (-7.5, -290), O/U 227.5, 8 PM ET
The shorthanded Cavs are about to run into an absolute buzzsaw in Memphis, facing a Grizzlies team that has won 10 straight games. The Cavs are one of the best teams defending the paint, though, which is where Memphis scores the most. I’ll take the underdog to keep it tight and cover the 7.5-point spread.
Shootaround
— Wembenyama Wednesday: Vic might be seeing some future teammates live and in person soon
John Wall discusses how former Net James Harden got traded to Brooklyn.
Before Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden arrived in the city of brotherly love, he left a situation in Brooklyn that was tenuous at best. Harden was traded to the Nets in January of 2021 and played 80 games for the team before being traded to the Sixers.
Similar to why he wanted to leave Brooklyn, Harden was dissatisfied with the direction of the Rockets at the time as they were unable to get over the hump in the Western Conference to get to the Finals. Houston could never find a consistent Robin to Harden’s Batman and once the opportunity came to team up with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Harden did anything he could to convince the Rockets to trade him.
It was the first time that Harden forced himself out of a situation and in a chain of events that may sound familiar to Nets fans, he did the same thing in Brooklyn. Clippers guard John Wall and the rest of the “Tidal League” podcast discuss how Harden got his trade to Brooklyn and what those moments were like:
“Trash. Beyond trash because I’m going there thinking James is gonna be there. You know what I mean? Once I get traded, but he already wants out. When I landed, I’m like ‘Oh, I’m about to land. I’m about to go do my conference (expletive).’ He like ‘Well, I’m on my way to Atlanta for Lil Baby’s birthday’. I’m like (John stares in disbelief). He talking about ‘You wanna get on the jet with me?’ Like (expletive), I just got traded here. I gotta be on good terms. Like, I don’t know how the owner is, the GM is, I don’t know nothing. This ain’t like I’m in DC. If I was in DC, I’d be like ‘Hell yeah, we out’. It’s my show. This ain’t my show over here…so he don’t come to training camp, none of that. So that news is all toxic. For me, I ain’t played in two years. Mom passed, Achilles, and COVID. So I’m like, ‘I don’t give a (expletive) who playing or no. I just want to hoop. That’s it.”
But he also answered something so many people have been itching to know for so long. Why didn’t Wall go to North Carolina?
Obviously, he’s a Raleigh native. He still hosts his own holiday tournament in his home state. It’s pretty clear he’s got a lot of love for Carolina and the people of Carolina still love him, too. With that being the case, it was always weird that he chose to go to Kentucky.
But now we know why, folks. And the answer — at least, in part — is because of Tyler Hansbrough. At least, that’s how Wall put it on the Tidal League pod.
This story on why John Wall chose Kentucky over his “dream school” UNC is wild 🤯
“I go on the visit and Ty Lawson and them there. Tyler Hansbrough got his own section. Him and, like, homeboys. I’m a recruit. I walk up and say what’s up. He said ‘I don’t talk to recruits.’ I’m like ‘F*** you I ain’t coming here.’ That messed it up right there…He did that and I was like ‘I got something for him,’.”
That story is WILD. We’ll never know what Wall had for Hansbrough, really, because the UNC forward left for the NBA in 2009 just a year before Wall started at Kentucky. Look at the beef we missed out on, y’all.
Anyway, Hansbrough straight-up denied Wall’s story on Twitter saying it’s “100% false.” He also threw a shot at John Calipari, sarcastically saying “I’m sure the bank of Calipari had nothing to do with him going to Kentucky.”
The story @JohnWall told on @tpinsonn podcast DID NOT HAPPEN! 100% FALSE! I’m sure the bank of Calipari had nothing to do with him going to Kentucky
