With the NBA season finale eight days away — starting with a must-see tripleheader on NBC and Peacock — the league’s focus is on the court. However, the NBA rumor mill never stops, especially with rookie contract extensions coming up next week. Here are some of the latest stories.
Is Brandon Miller a $200 million man?
It was clear how much the Charlotte Hornets believe in Brandon Miller (and Kon Knueppel) when they traded LaMelo Ball this summer. They see Miller as the face of freedom. Now the Hornets are going to bet big money on that stake, as they say, offering a rookie contract extension for Miller at or beyond the five-year, $208 million deal Houston just gave Amen Thompson, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of the Stein Line report.
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“Miller is still being projected by various league observers to finally agree with the Hornets on an extension that would exceed Amen Thompson’s new five-year, $200 million deal with the Rockets. In conversations with office executives around the NBA this week, there seemed to be a growing consensus among the decision-makers that Miller’s potential ceiling is higher for the nod.”
Miller can take buckets at all three levels, and averaged 20.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, shooting 38.3% from 3-point range. He is a reformed and honest defender. The knocks on his game are turnovers – a 12.5% turnover rate each of the past two seasons, or 2.5 a game last season – and a lack of physicality and pressure on the rim. But the things that the sauce in. And Charlotte needs to be the guy they want to keep building around.
Cason Wallace, OKC extension spokesperson
Keeping the Thunder’s core together as they all come to new contracts will require a high-level puzzle to be solved by Sam Presti (and the owners going to the second court for a couple of years), but one guy they want to keep is Cason Wallace.
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The Thunder and Wallace, OKC’s starting two-point guard and key defender, are talking about a $25 million annual extension, Stein reports at Stein Line. While Alex Caruso has two critical ways to guard the Thunder, especially in the playoffs, his regular season minutes should be limited as he prepares for the season. Vallas absorbs those minutes and plays at or near Caruso’s level.
It’s going to be tough to get all of the Thunder’s guards — Lou Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins already had to go this summer — but Wallace seems to be the priority.
Other NBA news
• Antonius Black’s extension in custody. The Magic are in a make-or-break season with the NBA’s third-highest payroll, and one way or another they will have a lot of decisions to make moving forward. With this, do not touch the extension of the point guard of Anthony Black, Stein reports. Black took a step last season, he showed about 15 games, but the Magic face tough decisions, and one of them can be Black or Jalen Suggs.
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• Lonnie Walker gave the Nuggets IV Who is now free? He played in Europe the past two seasons and could return there.
• The Nuggets, Spurs, Pacers and Nets share the ABA double jersey.
These are just for fun, but the video stimuli show that they are by far the best.
• Maybe Zachary Risacher just needed a change of venue (and to get out of there under No. 1 cloud pick), as he has looked pretty good this preseason for Dallas. On Sunday, he finished with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting. It’s just the preseason, but Risacher was only 21 and counting smart ankles by Dallas. Just something to watch this preseason.