If there’s a move to be made, league sources tell IndyStar, the Pacers aren’t shopping Turner. Understand, however, the trade market can change on a dime. When they shipped Victor Oladipo to the Houston Rockets two months ago for LeVert, that kind of deal wasn’t there before the season tipped.
If there's a move to be made, league sources tell IndyS…
August 1, 2021 | 9:39 am EDT Update
Nets to tender qualifying offer to Reggie Perry
Michael Scotto: The Brooklyn Nets will tender a qualifying offer to forward Reggie Perry, league sources told @hoopshype. Perry will become a restricted free agent. He was a two-way player for Brooklyn last season.
Hollinger: I’ve heard a lot of different stuff, but if I had to bet on one outcome, I think it ends with an offer sheet from the Bulls that the Pelicans decide to match after Kyle Lowry signs with the Mavericks. At the end of the day, Ball is both young and good, and having him on a multiyear deal on the same timeline as Zion and Ingram is still New Orleans’ best option. Keeping him also lets them re-sign Hart and use their full mid-level exception — and hopefully build the team in a more organic way than relying on the cap-space fairy to save them.
With Ball’s ties to the Los Angeles area, there will always be speculation about him making a potential return to the West Coast. With Russell Westbrook going to the Lakers, the Clippers are obviously the only team we should focus on here. There have been some rumors about the Clippers having interest in Ball to fill their hole at point guard. Reggie Jackson was incredible during their playoff run last year, but I’d imagine the Clips have some interest in getting younger and a little more athletic in the backcourt.
Tatum is healthy now and is also coming off his best game in a Team USA uniform, with 27 points and five 3s in a 35-point win over the Czech Republic Saturday night. Tatum was terrible in that exhibition win over Spain (3-of-9 shooting) and in the Olympics-opening loss to France (3-of-9 shooting); he scored 17 but was 2-of-7 from 3 in the 54-point win over Iran. “I don’t know,” Tatum said Saturday night, when asked why he thought he’d gotten off to a slow start. “New environment, new basketball, different style of basketball, the rules are different, playing on a new team, it’s a lot of things. But I was never worried, never concerned. I knew that shots would fall eventually and start to feel good about yourself, and then it’s just basketball.”
Spain is much closer in that department and has the discipline to run an offense that could exploit some of Team USA’s defensive switches. Unless Tatum is back to his old self, and the Americans we’ve seen in the last two games are the collective pieces of a set that is not going to suffer another setback. Any more of those, and the gold medal chase is over. These games really count now. “Our confidence never wavered,” Tatum said. “We understood that it wasn’t gonna be easy. We didn’t have our full team until four days ago, five days ago, so we knew that we had a lot of challenges ahead of us. And we also know that we would continue to get better every day, we would get better from each game, each practice, just the more time that we spent together, we were never going to be the same team, from day one, that we are now. And hopefully we’re better this time next week than we were today.”
August 1, 2021 | 7:33 am EDT Update
Team USA vs. Spain in quarter finals
Ben Golliver: 2020 Tokyo Olympics men’s basketball bracket is set. USA will face Spain, the reigning FIBA World Cup champions, in quarterfinals. If USA wins, would face Australia or Argentina in semis. – France vs. Italy – Slovenia vs. Germany — – USA vs. Spain – Australia vs. Argentina
Minnesota an option for Lauri Markkanen?
The Chicago Bulls and forward Lauri Markkanen are open to a sign-and-trade deal, league sources told HoopsHype. One team to keep an eye on in the sign-and-trade market for Markkanen is the Minnesota Timberwolves, who’ve been searching for an upgrade at the power forward position.
