Nuggets sign Monte Morris to contract extension

The Denver Nuggets have signed guard Monte Morris to a multi-year contract extension.

Morris’ contract extension is reportedly a three-year deal worth $27 million. Per the Denver Post, “the deal, which is fully guaranteed, offers incentives which could push it closer to $9.4 million annually, according to one source. The extension kicks in at the start of the 2021-22 season.”

Morris, listed at 6-foot-3, 185 lbs., averaged 9.0 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 22.4 minutes per game for the Nuggets last season.

And in 2018-19, Morris played all 82 games for the Nuggets, starting six of them, and averaged 10.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists, while shooting .414 from three-point range.

Over the last two seasons combined, Morris boasts the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the NBA at 5.29.

Morris spent most of the 2017-18 season on a two-way contract with the Denver Nuggets. In 37 G League games for Rio Grande Valley Vipers, he put up 17.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 6.5 assists, while shooting 47.2% from the field.

The Nuggets drafted Morris late second round (51st overall) in 2017. He played four seasons of college hoops at Iowa State University.

Thunder sign rookie forward Aleksej Pokusevski

The Oklahoma City Thunder have signed rookie forward Aleksej Pokuševski.

Drafted first round (17th overall) in the 2020 NBA draft, Pokuševski’s draft rights were acquired from the Timberwolves as part of a three-team trade on November 20.

According to the Oklahoman, “the Thunder now has 18 players under contract for this season, not counting its two players on two-way contracts.”

Pokuševski (7-0, 195) averaged 10.8 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.3 steals in 22.6 minutes in 11 games with Olympiacos B in the Greek Second Division, HEBA A2 during the 2019-20 season as the team went 17-4 and earned a second-place finish in A2. At the 2019 U18 European Championships, the Serbian native averaged 10.0 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.7 steals and led with event with 4.0 blocks per game.

Utah Jazz sign guard Shaquille Harrison

The Utah Jazz have signed guard Shaquille Harrison.

It’s reportedly a deal for the league minimum.

Listed at 6-foot-4, 190 lbs., this will be Harrison’s fourth NBA season.

Harrison played for the Chicago Bulls in 2019-20. In 43 games (10 starts), he averaged 4.9 points on 46.7 percent from the field, 2.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 11.3 minutes per game.

Per KSL.com, “He’s been an energy player on bad teams thus far, but his defensive metrics show he may have some true value. Last season, he was 15th in the NBA in Defensive Real Plus-Minus (for reference, Utah’s Rudy Gobert was first). Harrison’s 4.9 deflections per 36 minutes and 2.3 loose balls recovered per 36 minutes were among the league leaders according to NBA.com’s hustle stats. There are worse options for an end-of-the-bench player.”

Harrison has also played for the Suns, as well as in the G League for the Northern Arizona Suns.

Hornets hire Sam Farber as new radio play-by-play broadcaster

The Charlotte Hornets have hired Sam Farber as the team’s new radio play-by-play broadcaster.

“We are pleased to welcome Sam and his family to Charlotte,” said Hornets President & Vice Chairman Fred Whitfield. “He is a talented, young broadcaster who we feel will be a fantastic addition to our organization. We believe our fans will enjoy listening to him call our games and hearing his perspective across our digital platforms. We look forward to having him as part of our Hornets family.”

“I am incredibly excited to join the Hornets organization,” Farber said. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to be part of a great franchise with a passionate fan base. I cannot wait to get to Charlotte and begin to connect with the team and our fans, and along with my wife, Lauren, and our two kids, we look forward to building our lives in this incredible community.”

Per the team, “Farber comes to Charlotte from Southern California and brings a wide variety of broadcasting experience to the Hornets. He regularly calls play-by-play for college basketball, college baseball and high school football for both ESPN and FOX Sports West/Prime Ticket. Farber also serves as a Game Break Update anchor for college football games on FOX and FOX Sports 1, as well as the halftime and postgame host for University of Southern California football. Additionally, he has been a play-by-play announcer for the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League on Spectrum SportsNet since 2016. From 2014-2016, Farber was the pregame host for the Los Angeles Clippers flagship station, The Beast 980, where he also was an anchor, reporter and host.”

Thunder sign rookie guard Theo Maledon

The Oklahoma City Thunder have signed rookie guard Theo Maledon.

Maledon entered the 2020 NBA draft, and was selected in the early second round (34th overall). His draft rights were acquired from the 76ers on December 8.

Listed at 6-foot-5, 180 lbs., Maledon in the 2019-20 season played in France’s Pro A league for ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne. He only started in half the games he played, and averaged 7.3 points, 2.7 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per game.

Over the course of his three seasons playing for ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, Maledon did play in an All-Star game. And in the 2018-19 season he won the Rising Star award.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis may not rush into NBA preseason

Starting Friday, we’ll have NBA games again. Sure, it’ll just be preseason. But just 11 days after that, the regular season tips off, and that’s real basketball right there.

This Friday, the Lakers are one of the team’s taking court. But some key stars may not participate. Via the OC Register:

While the team is slated for a preseason game against the Clippers on Friday night at Staples Center, they probably won’t be at full strength. And after Tuesday’s training camp session, the team’s third as a group, Coach Frank Vogel said of stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, “it’s probably unlikely that they play.”

It’s not a surprise: The team has pitched patience since returning to the court in the last week, given that the Lakers are just two months removed from winning the 2020 title. Normal offseason rhythms have been interrupted, and team trainers and medical staffers have cautioned coaches about diving too quickly into game-ready play.

While Davis said he’s not normally the kind of player who seeks out pick-up sessions in the offseason, he has a routine of working with trainers in smaller settings. After winning a championship with the Lakers in October then taking much of last month to sort out a new contract, he’s gotten little of his normal offseason plan accomplished – the Lakers’ four-game preseason, with just two weeks until the regular-season opener on Dec. 22, now serves as part of the ramp-up to playing shape.

Normally, all key players participate in preseason, but usually play very limited minute But this season’s training camp and preseason period is very brief, so teams will have to develop chemistry in a hurry.

Fortunately for the Lakers, they just won the NBA championship. So while they did make some offseason changes, they have no reason to rush.

The Atlanta Hawks had a busy NBA offseason

Last season’s Hawks won’t be this season’s Hawks. Things changed over the offseason. Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Overall, the Hawks added nine new faces as they revamped their roster this offseason with an eye on winning now, as opposed to gathering assets and rebuilding for the future as they’ve done in recent years. Some of the most notable additions include a handful of experienced veterans (Danilo Gallinari, Rajon Rondo, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kris Dunn, Tony Snell, Solomon Hill) who will be expected to contribute from the get-go, but also share what they’ve learned with the Hawks’ young core of players, most of which is still quite young.

Some of that may be X’s and O’s-related, some of that may be more intangible.

Immediately, though, many returning players have noticed an increased amount of team communication, which is a good sign on a team that often struggled to talk enough on the court last season. Some of that came simply from having quieter players on the roster, and some of it was because the Hawks had several rookies and young players getting heavy playing time while still learning the NBA.

The Hawks finished 20-47 in the coronavirus-shortened 2019-20 NBA season. Trae Young put up 29.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game, but there weren’t a lot of bright spots in Atlanta beyond those numbers. But now, on paper, a squad is emerging.

Pelicans sign Naji Marshall to two-way contract

The New Orleans Pelicans have signed free agent Naji Marshall to a two-way contract.

Marshall, listed at 6-foot-7, 220 lbs., most recently played college basketball for Xavier (OH) University. After averaging 16.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game in the 2019-20 season, he was named to the All-Big East First Team.

Signing a two-way contract with the Pelicans means Marshall will mostly play for the Pelicans’ G League affiliate team, the Erie BayHawks this season.

The Pelicans’ training camp roster now stands at 20 players.

Three members of Raptors organization test positive for COVID-19

During the league-mandated testing period prior to NBA training camp, which began a few days ago, three members of the Toronto Raptors organization tested positive for COVID-19.

From the Raptors: “All three are, and will continue to, self-isolate away from the rest of the organization. Adherence to protocols, follow-up testing and contact tracing has so far revealed no spread to other members of the Raptors organization. We will continue to follow safety protocols, and will update the situation as appropriate.”

And per the Toronto Sun: The team held its first full practice a day earlier and afterward head coach Nick Nurse and point guard Fred VanVleet talked of the challenges of staying safe this season while they are located in Tampa Bay. Florida is, and has been, of course, a COVID hot spot. “My role is to, you know, just constantly be on them and be a reminder constantly of our actions and our behaviour, and how impactful it is not only themselves, their families, our team, the organization, there’s lots on the line if you’re not doing the best you can with the COVID-19 protocols,” Nurse said Sunday.”

Heat star Jimmy Butler sounds ready for the season

Heat small forward Jimmy Butler has a pretty right-to-the-point summary of what went down in the 2020 NBA playoffs. Via the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

“We play this game to win. We didn’t do that, and that’s all that matters. I think we all have things that we want to be better at, what you could have changed. But, in the end, we get another crack at it now, and that’s what I’ll be locked in on, and that’s what we’ll be locked in on is: How can we be better and not let what happened last year happen again?” …

Coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday it very much mattered the way Butler pushed himself to the limit in his first season with the team.

“The image of Jimmy just emptying the tank and being on the basket stanchion,” he said of the iconic Finals photos of utter exhaustion, “that’s an iconic visual that not only we’ll remember, but I think that will be a teaching point. I’ve already heard from a lot of my coaching peers in college and high school, they talk about that, that if you can push yourself to that point as a competitor, that’s when you can find out really what you’re made of.”

The Heat exceeded all expectations, reached the Finals, put up a good fight but fell in six games to the Lakers.