Hessellund Hamilton (wormgilliam4)
NBC Sports’ Dan Feldman is grading every team’s offseason based on where the team stands now relative to its position entering the offseason. A ‘C’ means a team is in similar standing, with notches up or down from there.The Knicks are a wounded animal.They have now gone three straight offseasons without doing anything monumental.* Between, they traded their young star franchise player, Kristaps Porzingis. I’m not sure who’s less tolerant of this morass, New York fans or Knicks owner James Dolan. Both apply pressure that could provoke something drastic.In a vacuum, this path could be fine. New York will be lousy and get a high draft pick. New Knicks president Leon Rose isn’t responsible for previous misses. He deserves an opportunity to build up.
Mitchell was obviously getting a max rookie-scale extension, but Utah conceded on every key point. Mitchell will get the full super-max if he makes even All-NBA third team this season. He also has a player option for the final season.Gobert’s $205 million extension looks high. Yes, he probably would’ve drawn max offers in 2021 unrestricted free agency. But even if fully fully backloaded, the extension would have higher salaries in the first four seasons than he could’ve gotten on a max contract elsewhere. And then that’d still leave a massive, near-$47 million salary in the fifth season. I’ve been fueling the Gobert-is-underrated train for years. But even I’d be apprehensive about paying him so much for his for age-29 through age-33 seasons.Clarkson did wonders for the Jazz’s bench last season, providing a much-needed scoring spark. But his arrival coincided with other issues taking care of themselves. Paying Clarkson 51.52 million over four years is quite steep, and he even got a player option.
During a Zoom press conference Monday, Harden shot down any attempt to bring up his trade request or his missing the start of training camp as a message to the franchise, according to the Associated Press. When Harden was asked if he feels better about the team now that he has practiced with it for more than a week his response was, “next question.”Is being in camp where he wants to be, considering he missed the start of it?“We keep talking about what I missed,” Harden said. “I think everybody, the entire league is in catch-up mode in a sense of we only had a short time for training camp, so everybody’s trying to get into game shape because obviously the season just ended a few months ago.”
The Collective Bargaining Agreement states:When a player is convicted of (including a plea of guilty, no contest, or nolo contendere to) a violent felony, he shall immediately be suspended by the NBA for a minimum of ten (10) games.A different section of the CBA defines “violent conduct” to include “any conduct involving the use or threat of physical violence or the use of, or threat to use, a deadly weapon.”It’s unclear whether this qualifies as a violent felony, including because the charge would be reduced to a misdemeanor if Beasley successfully completes his probation.But Beasley seemingly faces a 10-plus-game suspension.If Minnesota advances in the playoffs, a 120-day confinement could run into the the start of the 2021-22 season. Obviously, the Timberwolves are unlikely to go that far. But even if they miss the postseason entirely, that’d cut into Beasley’s offseason training.Beasley was also accused of pointing a gun in the general direction of his son.He signed a four-year, $60 million contract this offseason.
Unfortunately, this team does not appear to be as good as Glen Taylor expects.WASHINGTON — Howie Kendrick is retiring after 15 major league seasons that included earning NLCS MVP honors during the Washington Nationals’ 2019 World Series run.Kendrick announced his retirement on Instagram, saying he’s “forever grateful for the many life lessons” learned over 32 years in baseball since beginning to play at age 5.The Nationals decided in October not to pick up their side of Ken
