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Celtics: Grant Williams Signed/Traded

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BOSTON -(Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Dallas Mavericks agreed to a four-year, $53 million deal with restricted free agent Grant Williams as part of a three-team sign-and-trade agreement that includes the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs will receive forward Reggie Bullock and an unprotected first-round pick swap in 2030 from the Mavericks. The Celtics and Mavericks will each receive two second-round draft choices.

Williams, 24, spent four seasons with the Celtics since being a first-round pick in 2019 out of Tennessee. He averaged 8.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 79 games (23 starts) last season.

Williams has career averages of 6.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in 288 games (58 starts). He underwent surgery on his left hand last month and is expected to be fine before the start of training camp.

Williams is the second key player Boston has traded this offseason. The team previously dealt guard Marcus Smart, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year for 2021-22, to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Teams officially can’t sign free agents or formally announce trades until Thursday.

Bullock, 32, spent the past two seasons of his 10-year NBA with the Mavericks. He averaged 7.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in 78 games (55 starts) last season.

Bullock made 151 3-pointers last season, second most in his career behind the 163 he made for the New York Knicks in the 2020-21 campaign. He has made 852 career treys in 512 games (294 starts) with six teams.

–Field Level Media

Report: NBA’s “In-Season” Cup at Vegas

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LAS VEGAS – The NBA’s first in-season tournament will conclude with the semifinals and final in Las Vegas, ESPN reported. The semifinals are scheduled for Dec. 7 and the final for Dec. 9, and stats from the event, with the exception of the title game, will be included as part of the regular season, per ESPN.

The league will unveil details of the event at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, part of the NBA Con Fanfest being held at the site of the league’s most visible summer league.

ESPN will conduct a live show for the announcement, with NBA commissioner Adam Silver scheduled to be joined on the broadcast by others including the league’s past four No. 1 overall draft picks: the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, the Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero, the Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards.

Some details of the tournament format were previously reported when the National Basketball Players Association agreed to the event as part of a labor deal.

Teams will be separated into six groups, three per conference, not necessarily by division. During group play, each club will have two home games and two road games. The six group winners and two wild cards will advance to the quarterfinals.

Players who are part of the championship team reportedly will get $500,000 apiece.

–Field Level Media

NBA Free Agency Round-Up

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MIAMI – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Once the NBA’s free agency negotiation period began Friday, plenty of reported deals — including Kyrie Irving staying with the Dallas Mavericks and Draymond Green remaining with the Golden State Warriors — made the headlines, but there were several other moves worth noting.

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The contract agreements with free agents become official July 6, per NBA free agency rules.

Here’s a look at several deals that were reportedly agreed to on Friday:

–The Miami Heat re-signed forward Kevin Love and added guard Jason Richardson, according to ESPN. The Athletic also reported that the Heat were set to trade Victor Oladipo to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Love, who will turn 35 before next season, turned his career around with Miami and played a key role in the team’s run to the NBA Finals.

A second-round pick of the Heat in 2015, Richardson, 29, gives his original team depth after Gabe Vincent reportedly joined the Los Angeles Lakers.

Oladipo, 31, spent 2 1/2 seasons in Miami. He previously played for Oklahoma City in 2016-17.

—Joe Ingles landed a deal with the Orlando Magic.

A key contributor off the bench for the Milwaukee Bucks last season, the 35-year-old forward is getting a two-year, $22 million contract with the Orlando Magic, per ESPN.

–Former MVP Derrick Rose is set to join the Memphis Grizzlies. The 34-year-old guard was a bit-part player for the New York Knicks last season.

–Forward Herb Jones is sticking with the Pelicans. Jones, 24, had declined his option on a minimum salary, opting instead to agree on a four-year, $54 million deal to stay with New Orleans, per an ESPN report.

–Veteran guard Dennis Schroeder is joining the Raptors. After losing star guard Fred Van Vleet to the Houston Rockets, Toronto landed Schroeder, 29, with a two-year deal worth a reported $26 million.

–Guard Reggie Jackson, 33, and center DeAndre Jordan, 34, will stay with the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets. Jackson’s deal is reportedly for two years and $10.25 million.

—Seth Curry, 32, is back for a third stint with the Mavericks, landing a two-year contract. The former Nets guard, one of the NBA’s best 3-point shooters, Curry played for Dallas in 2016-17 and again in 2019-20.

–The Minnesota Timberwolves are signing guard Shake Milton and forward Troy Brown. Milton, 26, formerly of the Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a two-year, $10 million deal, per an ESPN report. Brown, 23, played for the Lakers last season.

–The San Antonio Spurs retained forward Julian Champagnie with a four-year, $12 million contract. Champagnie, 22, signed with the team in February after he was waived by the Sixers. He averaged 11 points per game for San Antonio last season.

–The Boston Celtics agreed to a deal with forward Oshae Brissett, 25. According to ESPN, Brissett will get a player option for the second year of the contract.

–Field Level Media

Celtics: Pressey New Assistant Coach

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Celtics are set to hire former guard Phil Pressey as an assistant coach, according to multiple reports Monday.

Pressey is the third addition to Boston’s coaching staff this month, joining former Philadelphia 76ers assistant Sam Cassell and former Milwaukee Bucks assistant Charles Lee as the Celtics attempt to revitalize head coach Joe Mazzulla‘s bench.

Boston still plans to add at least one more assistant in the coming weeks, per the report.

In three NBA seasons, the 32-year-old Pressey posted career averages of 3.2 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 148 games (11 starts). He signed with the Celtics as an un-drafted free agent in 2013 and spent the first two seasons of his career with Boston, later also playing briefly with the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns.

Pressey served as an assistant at Missouri during the 2022-23 season but has no coaching experience in the NBA. In addition to his two seasons with the Celtics, Pressey also established Massachusetts ties by attending two high schools in the state.

–Field Level Media

Beal for Paul: Wizards, Suns Dump Contracts

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PHOENIX – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – You take my problem and I’ll take yours.

The Phoenix Suns are finalizing a deal to acquire All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards in exchange for veteran point guard Chris Paul, shooting guard Landry Shamet and multiple second-round draft picks and pick swaps, The Athletic and ESPN reported Sunday.

The Suns — who had no first-round picks available to move in a trade — nevertheless managed to land Beal to pair with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.

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Over the weekend, reports indicated the Beal sweepstakes were down to the Suns and the Miami Heat. Beal, who’s long stood firm about wanting to make things work in Washington, has to waive the NBA’s only no-trade clause in order to approve the deal.

Paul, a 12-time All-Star and 11-time All-NBA selection, could attract an interested third party to the deal as he’s expected to ask the Wizards to move him to a contender, multiple reports said. One of Paul’s old teams, the Los Angeles Clippers, is likely to pursue a reunion with him, according to Bleacher Report.

Beal, who turns 30 this month, played in just 50 games (all starts) last season. He averaged 23.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game and shot 36.5 percent from 3-point range. Injuries and multiple stays on the COVID-19 reserve list have limited Beal to just 90 games over the past two seasons.

In his 11-year career since the Wizards made him the third overall draft pick out of Florida in 2012, Beal has averaged 22.1 points, 4.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game over 695 games (661 starts). He was an All-Star in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 and finished second in the NBA in scoring twice (30.5 ppg in 2019-20, 31.3 ppg in 2020-21).

Paul, 38, averaged 13.9 points, 8.9 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals across 59 starts for the Suns in 2022-23. He has career averages of 17.9 points, 9.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 1,214 games with the New Orleans Hornets (2005-11), Clippers (2011-17), Houston Rockets (2017-19), Oklahoma City Thunder (2019-20) and Suns (2020-23).

Paul led the NBA in assists just two seasons ago when he averaged 10.8 per contest in his second campaign with the Suns.

Phoenix posted a league-best 64-18 record that season after falling to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals in 2021. But the Suns were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round in both 2022 and 2023. New team owner Mat Ishbia fired veteran coach Monty Williams and hired former NBA champion Frank Vogel as his replacement earlier this month.

Shamet, 26, has played in 302 games (92 starts) for four teams since the Philadelphia 76ers drafted him in the first round (No. 26 overall) in 2018. He has career averages of 8.9 points and 1.7 assists per game with a 38.8 percentage from 3-point range for the 76ers (2018-19), Clippers (2019-20), Brooklyn Nets (2020-21) and Suns.

–Field Level Media

Bah, Morant: NBA Docks Ja for 25 Games

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Grizzlies Guard Suspension w/o Pay Will Cost $10m

NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The hammer finally came down.

The NBA suspended Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant for 25 games without pay for brandishing a handgun in a viral video for the second time.

The suspension for conduct detrimental to the league covers the first 25 games of the 2023-24 regular season and includes conditions for reinstatement. He is ineligible to participate in any public league or team activities, including preseason games, during the course of his suspension.

“Ja Morant’s decision to once again wield a firearm on social media is alarming and disconcerting given his similar conduct in March for which he was already suspended eight games,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “The potential for other young people to emulate Ja’s conduct is particularly concerning. Under these circumstances, we believe a suspension of 25 games is appropriate and makes clear that engaging in reckless and irresponsible behavior with guns will not be tolerated.

“For Ja, basketball needs to take a back seat at this time. Prior to his return to play, he will be required to formulate and fulfill a program with the league that directly addresses the circumstances that led him to repeat this destructive behavior.”

Morant issued an apology and said he is working on his “mental health and decision making” in order to prove that he’s “a better man than what I’ve been showing you.”

“I’ve had time to reflect and I realize how much hurt I’ve caused,” Morant said. “I want to apologize to the NBA, the Grizzlies, my teammates and the city of Memphis. To Adam Silver, Zach Kleiman (Grizzlies vice president and general manager) and Robert Pera (Grizzlies franchise owner) — who gave me the opportunity to be a professional athlete and have supported me — I’m sorry for the harm I’ve done. To the kids who look up to me, I’m sorry for failing you as a role model. I promise I’m going to be better. To all of my sponsors, I’m going to be a better representation of our brands. And to all of my fans, I’m going to make it up to you, I promise.

“I’m spending the offseason and my suspension continuing to work on my own mental health and decision making. I’m also going to be training so that I’m ready to go when I can be back on the court. I know my teammates are going to hold it down and I’m so sorry I won’t be out there with you at the beginning of the season.

“I hope you’ll give me the chance to prove to you over time I’m a better man that what I’ve been showing you.”

The Grizzlies offered the following statement shortly after the suspension was announced:

“We respect the League’s decision to suspend Ja Morant following this latest episode. Our standards as a league and team are clear, and we expect that all team personnel will adhere to them.”

The National Basketball Players Association, however, took issue with the length of Morant’s suspension and its conditions on Friday.

“Ja has expressed his remorse and accepted responsibility for his actions, and we support him unequivocally as he does whatever is necessary to represent himself, our players and our league in the best possible light,” NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio said.

“As to the discipline imposed, which keeps him off the court until December and requires some unstated conditions to be met before he can return, we believe it is excessive and inappropriate for a number of reasons including the facts involved in this particular incident, and that it is not fair and consistent with past discipline in our league. We will explore with Ja all options and next steps.”

Nike also released a statement:

“We are pleased that Ja is taking accountability and prioritizing his well-being. We will continue to support him on and off the court.”

Based on his $33.5 million salary for 2023-24, the suspension will cost Morant approximately $10.2 million.

The video, which was on Instagram Live, featured Morant waving a gun while sitting in the passenger’s seat of a car while listening to rap music. The clip was released on May 13, and the Grizzlies suspended the guard from all team activities the following day.

It was the second time in three months that Morant was caught with a firearm on social media. He previously was suspended eight games and sought counseling after a March 4 incident in which he filmed himself holding a gun at a Denver strip club following a 113-97 loss to the Nuggets.

Ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Silver said the “history of prior acts” and “the individual player’s history” would be taken into account when the league made its decision on Morant’s punishment.

Morant, 23, is coming off his fourth season with Memphis after the Grizzlies selected him with the second overall pick in the 2019 draft. A two-time All-Star, Morant averaged 26.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists in 61 games (59 starts) in 2022-23.

–Field Level Media

Nuggets Open as NBA Faves in 2024

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LAS VEGAS – Fresh off capturing the first NBA championship in franchise history on Monday, the Denver Nuggets were installed by sportsbooks as favorites or co-favorites to repeat as champions.

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The Nuggets closed out the NBA Finals in Game 5, defeating the visiting Miami Heat 94-89 to end the best-of-seven series. Finals MVP Nikola Jokic amassed 28 points and 16 rebounds in the title-clinching win.

DraftKings listed Denver as a +500 favorite to win the championship again in 2024. The nearest followers per DraftKings are the Boston Celtics (+550), the Milwaukee Bucks (+650) and the Phoenix Suns (+850).

FanDuel posted Denver and Milwaukee as co-favorites at +460. The Celtics (+500) and the Suns (+700) are the only other teams with odds better than +1200, which is the number listed for both the Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers.

BetMGM has the Nuggets at +500, followed by the Celtics (+550), the Bucks (+600) and the Suns (+850).

Others among the favorites according to FanDuel are the Cleveland Cavaliers (+1900), the Los Angeles Lakers (+1900), the Los Angeles Clippers (+2100), the Heat (+2500), the Dallas Mavericks (+2700) and the Memphis Grizzlies (+3000).

Per DraftKings, the other favorites aside from the top four are the Lakers (+1200), the Warriors (+1200), the 76ers (+1300), the Mavericks (+1300), the Clippers (+1500), the Heat (+1800) and the Grizzlies (+1900).

BetMGM’s other top contenders are Dallas, Golden State and the Lakers, all at +1200; the Clippers and Philadelphia, both at +1400; and Memphis and Miami, both at +2000.

The biggest longshots according to FanDuel are the Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz, Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons, all at +50000. DraftKings has the Hornets at +40000 and the Pistons alone at the bottom at +50000, while BetMGM has Charlotte and Detroit bringing up the rear at +50000.

Neither of this year’s finalists were among the top five favorites in odds posted right after the Golden State Warriors won the 2022 NBA Finals.

NBA Finals TV Ratings Tick Downward

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BRISTOL, Conn – (Staff Report from ABC, ESPN and TNT averaged 5.47 million viewers per game during the NBA playoffs, the most-watched playoffs in five years, the networks announced Tuesday.

As for the NBA Finals, ABC brought in an average of 11.64 million viewers — a decrease from 2022, when a six-game series between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics averaged 12.402 million.

The 2023 Finals concluded Monday night with the Denver Nuggets defeating the Miami Heat in five games for their first NBA title in franchise history.

Game 5 averaged 13.084 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That was a four-year high, slightly beating out than last year’s NBA Finals Game 5 between the Warriors and Celtics (13.016 million).

Though Denver and Miami are large markets with teams in all four major North Americans sports leagues, some skeptics believed a Nuggets-Heat series would not garner as much interest as a potential matchup between the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, historic rivals who each lost in their respective conference finals.

Denver led the nation with an average household rating of 21.55 for the length of the series, according to the blog Sports TV Ratings.

NBA Finals: Nuggets, Jokic Stagger Heat

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DENVER – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Well aware of their opponent’s penchant for fast starts, the Denver Nuggets treated their first-ever NBA Finals game as if everything were on the line.

Even with the Game 1 urgency, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic never panicked, finishing off another triple-double with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists as the Nuggets rolled to a 104-93 victory Thursday against the visiting Miami Heat.

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Jamal Murray scored 26 points and handed out 10 assists for the Nuggets, Michael Porter Jr. added 14 points and 13 rebounds and Aaron Gordon had 16 points as Denver won the series opener without having to lean heavily on Jokic, even as he ended up leading the way.

“Right now, the most important thing is to win a game, and I’m trying to win a game in any possible way,” Jokic said on the ABC broadcast. “I don’t need to shoot and I know I don’t need to score to affect the game, and I think I did a good job today. Everybody contributed.”

Jokic wound up 8 of 12 from the field after taking just five shots through three quarters. He extended his NBA single-year record with his ninth triple-double of the playoffs.

Denver, the Western Conference’s top seed, shot 59.5 percent from the field in the first half and 50.6 percent for the game while improving to 9-0 at home in the playoffs. The Nuggets were sharp, even after a nine-day wait between their conference-final sweep and the start of the NBA Finals.

Bam Adebayo amassed 26 points and 13 rebounds for the Heat, but Jimmy Butler was held to 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting. The No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference failed to win the opener of a series on the road for the first time in four tries.

“I reminded our group, if they didn’t know, that Miami went into Milwaukee (in the first round) and won Game 1,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said. “They went into the Garden in New York City (in the second round) and won Game 1. They won Game 1 up in Boston (in the Eastern Conference finals). So we did not want them coming in here, taking control of the series on our court.”

Gabe Vincent scored 19 points while Haywood Highsmith added 18 for the Heat, who shot 37.5 percent in the first half and 40.6 percent on the night. Miami was 2 of 2 from the free-throw line, an NBA Finals record for least number of free-throw attempts in a playoff game.

“They were in a pretty good rhythm, especially in that first half,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Nuggets. “Our disposition, the efforts, the resolve in the second half was much better. But (when) you get to this level, it has to be complete games of that disposition.”

Jokic was content to occupy the role of playmaker in the first quarter, not taking his first shot from the field until 3.3 seconds remained. He made the close-range attempt as Denver took a 29-20 lead at the end of the opening period.

The Nuggets opened their first double-digit lead at 32-22 on a 3-pointer by Murray with 10:31 remaining in the first half, and the hosts led 59-42 at halftime.

Denver grabbed its first lead of at least 20 points at 81-60 with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter, on a pull-up jumper from Bruce Brown. The Nuggets went into the fourth quarter with an 84-63 advantage.

The Heat opened the final period on an 11-0 run to get within 84-74 with 9:29 remaining. The Nuggets seized control again, taking a 90-74 lead with 7:16 left on a layup from Jokic, and closed out the victory from there.

“I definitely think (the Nuggets) came out with a lot of physicality, and we have to be able to match that,” said Butler, who insisted he was not affected by the effort expended to win the Eastern Conference finals in seven games. “They did their job on their home floor. You have to say that. But we will be ready, we will adjust and do things differently.”

–Field Level Media

What Will Brown Do For You?

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Jalen Brown was the talk of the town.

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Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown owned up to his lackluster performance in the team’s season-ending loss against the Miami Heat on Monday in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Brown finished with 19 points and eight rebounds in the second-seeded Celtics’ 103-84 setback to the eighth-seeded Heat in Boston. However, he made just 8 of 23 shots from the floor — including 1 of 9 from 3-point range — to go along with eight turnovers.

“Just a terrible game. When my team needed me most, like (Jayson Tatum) hurt his ankle, first play of the game, and you could see it like swelling up on him,” Brown said. “He couldn’t move out there. It was tough for him. My team turned to me to make plays and I came up short, I failed. It’s tough. I give credit to Miami, but just a terrible job.”

All eyes now turn to the summer for Brown, who is eligible to sign a supermax contract extension worth $295 million over five years.

Brown, however, said he was just focused on Game 7 and nothing more.

“I expected to win today and move on,” he said. “That’s what my focus was on and that’s my focus has been on. We failed. I failed. It’s hard to think about anything else right now, to be honest. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Brown, 26, recorded career-best averages in points (26.6) and rebounds (6.9) to go along with a personal best-tying 3.5 assists per game.

A two-time All-Star and named to the 2023 All-NBA Second Team, Brown averaged 17.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 470 career games (363 starts). He was selected by the Celtics with the third overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft out of California.

–Field Level Media