Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had a fantastic week.
The NBA season is almost upon us! Things officially start on October 22, but even before that, we’ll have media day coming soon at the end of September, and then, before you know it, training camp will be here.
That’s why it’s time to start talking about contract extensions.
Every year, before the season starts, teams must decide whether to sign their up-and-coming players on rookie deals to new contract extensions. The window for negotiations this season was from July 6 and extends to October 21, just a day before the season begins. Once the deadline passes, teams won’t be able to negotiate and their players will enter restricted free agency.
The 2021 draft class is on the clock this season. Three players have already received lucrative extensions: Cade Cunningham, Franz Wagner, Scottie Barnes and Evan Mobley. Everyone else is still looking for a new deal.
That includes big names like Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green (the former No. 2 overall pick), Jalen Suggs, Jonathan Kuminga and Josh Giddey. Those are a lot of key players who could be entering into lame-duck years next season.
A few of them are probably locks at this point. It’d be shocking if the Magic didn’t get a deal done with Suggs, for example. And I’d be surprised if the Bulls didn’t lock Giddey down with a deal after trading for him this summer.
But for names like Green, Sengun and even Kuminga, it feels more likely that their teams will just revisit things next offseason. Those players will get a chance to prove themselves in new, bigger roles and their teams will make determinations from there.
It’s a risky bet. And there’s a chance they may enter a restricted free agency and find money out there that will have them on another team next season. But that seems to be a risk these teams are willing to take.
There’s still just over a month left until the deadline, so these deals could still happen. But with the way things are looking right now, we might be in for a wild finish to the NBA’s offseason.
What’s happening with AJ Griffin?
You rarely see top draft picks flame out of the league after just a couple of seasons, but it seems that might be happening with AJ Griffin.
According to the latest from Shams Charania, Griffin is contemplating stepping away from basketball.
Seeing that was flat-out shocking. Griffin was once considered one of the best high school players in the country and was a top recruit at Duke. Injuries have really derailed his career since.
Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with more:
“Griffin, who was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and the top-rated player in the state of New York, was a McDonald’s All-American. He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils and was named ACC All-Freshman in 2022.
While he missed part of his one-and-done season due to injuries, he was then selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 16 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
After averaging 19.5 minutes across 72 games as a rookie, Griffin did not get as much playing time for the Hawks during his second professional season. It ended with 8.5 minutes per game across just 20 appearances.”
I don’t know if injuries are the problem for Griffin here or if there’s something else we don’t know about going on. All I know is that it stinks to hear that this might be the end of the road for him playing in the NBA. He’s such a talented player.
Shootaround
— A’ja Wilson got high praise from around the sports world for her new WNBA scoring record.
— DeMar DeRozan doesn’t think the Raptors needed Kawhi Leonard to win a title in 2019. Idk about that, DeMar.
— Bam Adebayo and A’ja are definitely a thing, btw.
— Sue Bird isn’t concerned about Angel Reese’s shooting woes.
That’s a wrap, folks! Let’s do this again next week. Until then, peace.
-Sykes ✌️
