NBA 2024-2025: Celtic Pride

[M2]

Two furious 4th quarter comebacks tonight. The Cavs stayed undefeated with a 35-18 4th against a game Nets team. Evan Mobley had a 23-16 night. The Bulls hung a 35-15 4th on the Hawks. Ayo Dosummu (19 pts, +11) and Julian Phillips (10 pts, +14) had big nights off the bench.

[RedTeamGo!]

The people of Cleveland are calling stretches like the 4th quarter tonight “Cavalanches”

[Kingspoint]

Denver's won four straight (last two against OKC and Miami). Russell Westbrook's also settling in - 18.7/5.3/7.3 over his last three games. He's not going to keep up a .700 eFG% (yes, you read that right, .700 eFG% over his last 3 games), but Denver needs depth. Russ being feisty (he's playing his tail off on defense) will help. Also helps that Jamal Murray and Michael Porter have woken up. In fact, that surely helps more.

Side note, Denver let Jay Huff (stretch 5 putting up 10.2 ppg in 15.3 min/g for Memphis with a .754 eFG%) walk during the summer. That's looking like a mistake. Makes you wonder how many more guys like him are lurking out there. Probably more than a few. The NBA ought to expand just because the player pool is so deep.

Westbrook's continuing to put up stats (he always has), but the team is still better with him off the floor than on the floor, even with him playing with the Starters.

[Kingspoint]

Durant is out for at least a couple of weeks.

Morant is going to miss multiple weeks.

Zion is out indefinitely.

Pelicans possibly getting Trey Murphy back Monday.

[Kingspoint]

Players who recently signed as free agents or had their two-way contracts converted:

A player who signs a free agent contract typically becomes trade-eligible either three months after he signs or on December 15, whichever comes later. That means a player who signs on September 1 would become trade-eligible on Dec. 15, but one who signs on Sept. 22 wouldn’t be eligible to be dealt until Dec. 22. Similarly, players who have two-way pacts converted to standard contracts can’t be dealt for three months after that happens.

Here are the affected players, who signed free agent contracts or were converted from two-way deals after Sept. 15, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:

December 17:

Isaac Okoro (Cavaliers)

January 2:

DaQuan Jeffries (Hornets)

January 15:

Scotty Pippen Jr. (Grizzlies)

January 16:

Doug McDermott (Kings)

January 28:

Jay Huff (Grizzlies)

January 31:

Malevy Leons (Thunder)

February 3:

Jaylen Nowell (Pelicans)

February 5:

Ariel Hukporti (Knicks)
Matt Ryan (Knicks)

Players who sign free agent contracts or have their two-way deals converted to standard contracts after November 6 this season won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2025 trade deadline, which falls on February 6. That restriction doesn’t yet apply to any players, but we’ll update this story as needed to list the recently signed free agents who won’t become trade-eligible this season.

Players who recently signed veteran contract extensions:

A player who signs a veteran contract extension can’t be dealt for six months if his new deal exceeds the NBA’s extend-and-trade limits by meeting any of the following criteria:

Includes a first-year raise greater than 20% (or greater than 20% of the estimated average salary, for players earning below the average).
Includes a subsequent annual raise greater than 5%.
Includes a renegotiation of the player’s current salary.
Secures the player for more than four total seasons (including both his current deal and the extension).

A player can sign a veteran extension and remain trade-eligible as long as his new deal doesn’t meet any of those criteria. Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert, for instance, remained eligible to be traded after signing a three-year extension that featured a pay cut in the first year and raises below 5% in the second and third years.

Here are the players whose recent veteran extensions exceed the extend-and-trade limits, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:

January 6:

Bam Adebayo (Heat)
Jonathan Isaac (Magic)
Derrick White (Celtics)

January 7:

Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)

January 12:

Jalen Brunson (Knicks)

January 23:

Sam Hauser (Celtics)

January 26:

Andrew Nembhard (Pacers)

February 2:

Jarrett Allen (Cavaliers)

Ineligible to be traded before this season’s February 6 deadline:

Wendell Carter Jr. (Magic)
Joel Embiid (Sixers)
Aaron Gordon (Nuggets)
Lauri Markkanen (Jazz)
T.J. McConnell (Pacers)
Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
Ivica Zubac (Clippers)

Additionally, when a player signs a super-max contract extension, he becomes ineligible to be traded for one full year. That means Celtics forward Jayson Tatum won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2025 deadline despite signing his extension in July. Tatum is the only player who signed a super-max (designated veteran) contract this summer.

[Redsfaithful]

The people of Cleveland are calling stretches like the 4th quarter tonight “Cavalanches”

This has been a fun year already, I'm not usually watching this much NBA until late winter/spring.

[M2]

This has been a fun year already, I'm not usually watching this much NBA until late winter/spring.

I find the skill level in the modern game to be amazing. There's big guys with guard ballhandling ability and the ball movement and shot-making is off the hook. Every team is watchable at some level. Every game features some outrageous athleticism. No lead is safe. Basketball is a really great game and it's being played at a super high level.

[Revering4Blue]

All right, injuries have wiped out the Pelicans. They have Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Jordan Hawkins are all on the shelf. By the time this crew gets healthy it's going to be functionally eliminated. Their season is over. However, they could make waves in the trade market. There's a lot of teams that could use Brandon Ingram. FWIW, I think he'd be a good fit next to Giannis. Memphis or Houston could be interested.

And it's time to shop Zion. There's teams that will talk themselves into him. Murray, Jones, Murphy and Hawkins give them a perimeter crew to build on. What they need is skilled bigs, and some plain old rim-protecting/running bigs as well. Have a bad season, get a good draft pick in what looks like a great draft, add players that make for a more rational roster.

I’d normally suggest the they will wind up as a play-in team. But the West is a gauntlet. Too bad they’re not in the Eastern Conference (Where I expect them to be after the next round of expansion).


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[Revering4Blue]

Denver's won four straight (last two against OKC and Miami). Russell Westbrook's also settling in - 18.7/5.3/7.3 over his last three games. He's not going to keep up a .700 eFG% (yes, you read that right, .700 eFG% over his last 3 games), but Denver needs depth. Russ being feisty (he's playing his tail off on defense) will help. Also helps that Jamal Murray and Michael Porter have woken up. In fact, that surely helps more.

Side note, Denver let Jay Huff (stretch 5 putting up 10.2 ppg in 15.3 min/g for Memphis with a .754 eFG%) walk during the summer. That's looking like a mistake. Makes you wonder how many more guys like him are lurking out there. Probably more than a few. The NBA ought to expand just because the player pool is so deep.

The Nuggets letting Huff go for sure looks bad. But they certainly shouldn’t didn’t expect to lose their first round pick big man Holmes from Dayton to a torn ACL in the Summer League. That said, keeping Nnaji - who could have been dealt for a future 2nd for salary relief - over Huff looks indefensible now.

And an emphatic YES from me on expansion. It’s simply mind-boggling how far we’ve come globally talent-wise since 1995, when adding two teams before the worldwide infrastructure was strong enough almost single- handedly lowered the quality of play. In fact, from ‘96 - ‘13, only in one season - I believe it was ‘09 - did average team scoring reach 100 points or above.
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[texasdave]

Nikola Jokic tonight - 37/18/15.

[M2]

- Today's Celtics game was one of those contests where Jrue Holiday won the thing without it showing up in the boxscore. He shuts dudes down and accelerates the ball circulation. He tilts the floor.

- In his third game back, Paul George became the team's primary playmaker (9 assists) and it got the 76ers their second win of the year. Their leading scorers were Jared McCain (27 pts) and Guerschon Yabusele (20).

- Bennedict Mathurin (38 pts, 8 reb) and Tyrese Haliburton (35 pts, 14 assists) scored 10 and 9, respectively, in a 40-point 4th quarter to get a win over the Knicks. This is an example of why I continue to think the Pacers have a high ceiling. They've got firepower few teams can match. Specifically, they outgunned Brunson and KAT tonight, and that's not easy.

[M2]

Big games in the West tonight with the Warriors beating the Thunder (36 from Steph), the Kings beating the Suns (DeRo with 34) and the Nuggets beating the Mavs (Jokic going 37-18-15)

[KoryMac5]

I love Doncic but a 30 footer as time expires might not be the best option especially with the game Kyrie was having.

[M2]

Chet Holmgren's out for 2+ months with a hip fracture. Ouch. Also not great news for the Thunder, which lack size, rebounding and rim protection without him.

[Kingspoint]

Chet Holmgren's out for 2+ months with a hip fracture. Ouch. Also not great news for the Thunder, which lack size, rebounding and rim protection without him.

Of all those 1st Round picks that OKC has acquired over the last half a dozen years, I believe they have only traded away 1 or 2 of them. They should be buyers, but I don't think they'll be buying anything that includes giving up a 1st Round pick.

With the expansion being brought up again in this thread, remember that each team can only protect 8 players. So, any of the young teams that have been collecting assets will lose one good player with potential. I assume that Seattle is one expansion team. Who is the other?