Derrick

Favors

Favors and Whitney are joining the Bulls on camp deals, so there’s no guarantee that either will be on the Opening Night roster. In the case of Whitney, he was likely signed with the franchise’s G League affiliate in mind, as he’s bounced around since struggling in his lone season at Kentucky. As for Favors, the veteran’s NBA resume is well-known at this point, but the Bulls already have Nikola Vucevic and Andre Drummond at the center position. The plan is for Favors to be with the Windy City Bulls, so his signing won’t impact fantasy basketball unless either of Chicago’s top two centers suffer an injury.

Favors has been a free agent since mid-October when he was waived by the Rockets just before the end of training camp. With Clint Capela (calf) sidelined, the veteran big man will give the Hawks additional depth at the five. This won’t significantly impact fantasy basketball as long as Capela doesn’t experience any setbacks in his recovery.

They needed to do this to open up a two-way slot for Darius Days. Favors will likely join a contending team in a limited role, but he’s safe to ignore in fantasy hoops.

This may be the furthest thing from a blockbuster deal, but it helps get OKC $10 million under the luxury tax while acquiring two trade exceptions, and Houston got a second-round pick for only taking on $1 million in cap space. This move was simply about moving money around for these teams. Nwaba was solid for Houston two years ago, but his role dwindled last season. Now, he’ll get a fresh start in OKC, but it probably won’t result in a huge role. Leave him off your draft board, though he could make an impact later in the season if OKC benches all of their starters again.

For fantasy purposes, this trade is about as inconsequential as it gets. Favors will compete with Willie Cauley-Stein, Usman Garuba, and Boban Marjanovic for the role of Alperen Sengun’s backup. The fact that he’s competing with those guys should be enough to leave him alone in fantasy hoops. The reports already suggested that Favors wouldn’t remain with the team this season, and now it is official.

The Thunder are three standard contracts over the limit at the moment and will need to sort out their roster crunch by the end of training camp. While Favors obviously isn’t in OKC’s long-term plans, the Thunder may be hesitant to outright waive him because his $10.2 million expiring contract could be useful to facilitate a trade.

Favors is owed a guaranteed $10.1 million this season, but it’s an expiring deal and a buyout could be on the horizon. The 31-year-old center played in 39 games for the Thunder last year, including 18 starts, but he’s an awkward fit with a rebuilding/tanking franchise. In the context of a Q&A mailbag, Mussatto did suggest another scenario where Favors could be useful. “If the staff doesn’t think Holmgren can handle the five this season,” he wrote, “then maybe you keep Derrick Favors around to bear some of that load.” Whether or not he remains in OKC for 2022-23, Favors will not be a fantasy asset.

As expected, Favors chose to take the $10 million option instead of taking a veteran minimum elsewhere. He likely won’t provide much for fantasy managers next season, especially lucks out in the draft lottery.

As expected, Favors will pick up his $10 million player option. He didn’t play after February 24th, but he was in and out of the lineup before that. He’s proven he can be a very good rebounder when he gets the minutes, but that’s not a guarantee. He should be a solid streaming option if he sees some spot starts next season, but he won’t provide much more than that for fantasy managers.

We’re surprised this didn’t happen weeks ago. Favors has very little left in the tank so we’d be stunned if he declined his $10M player option this summer.