It’s been a busy offseason for former members of the NC State men’s basketball team. With the NBA’s media day and training camp right around the corner, it’s time to take a look at what players ended up where and the stocks of each of those players.
T.J. Warren, small forward, Indiana Pacers
To say it’s been a frustrating calendar year for Warren is understating it. After a downright fantastic 53-point performance in the opening games of the 2019-20 season’s NBA bubble, Warren’s Pacers were swept in the playoffs and underwent a coaching change. That change didn’t work out, as then-hire Nate Bjorkgren was fired after just one season with the team while former NC State player Nate McMillan, who the Pacers fired, took the Atlanta Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals.
As for Warren, the 28-year-old small forward missed all of the 2020-21 season after undergoing surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot. Warren was originally thought to be available at the start of this upcoming season, but his recovery is reportedly moving slower than expected. In an update published by the Pacers a couple of weeks ago, Warren remains out indefinitely.
While it’s highly unlikely Warren will miss the entirety of next season — or even a majority of it — with the same injury, it does appear that the forward will miss training camp and the opening weeks of the season. New head-coach hire Rick Carlisle has several options to replace Warren on the wing such as Justin Holiday, Chris Duarte, Jeremy Lamb or Torrey Craig, but Warren’s scoring chops will certainly be missed.
Stock: Down
Dennis Smith Jr., point guard, Portland Trail Blazers
Since being selected with the ninth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks, Dennis Smith Jr.’s career has been on a downward trajectory. Just a year and a half into his career after an impressive rookie season, the Mavericks selected Luka Dončić in the 2018 draft and then traded Smith to the New York Knicks in exchange for Kristaps Porziņģis.
At first, the move seemed to be a blessing in disguise for Smith. All of his per-game statistics went up after the move, and it seemed as if Smith would be a long-term fixture in New York. Unfortunately, between personal reasons and a coaching staff change, Smith was essentially banished to the end of the New York bench and was held to just 37 games across two seasons in New York after the 2018-19 season.
Smith voluntarily made the move to go to the G League in 2021 to show New York he was ready for a bigger role, but the Knicks made the move to send him to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Derrick Rose at this past year’s trade deadline. Again, it seemed like Smith’s career would benefit from going to a place with little expectations, and again, he had a minor resurgence with his per-game numbers. Smith even recorded a triple-double early into his Pistons career.
Unfortunately for Smith, the Pistons didn’t see enough from the point guard to be convinced to keep him long term, and he remained a free agent for more than a month after the league’s free-agency period began.
As a result, Smith was forced to sign a non-guaranteed training camp deal with the Portland Trail Blazers where he will compete for a spot on the team’s 15-man standard roster. Portland does have two standard spots open, but Smith will be competing against a hefty crowd for those final spots. Patrick Patterson, Quinn Cook and Marquese Chriss will also compete for those spots, and the Blazers have room to add another player to that mix, with some rumors pointing toward former No. 2 overall pick Michael Beasley.
Thankfully for Smith, the Blazers just have two other rostered point guards in Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons. Smith is still just 23 years old and might have the upper hand in the roster battle. But if Smith has learned one thing from his stint in the league, it’s that nothing is guaranteed.
Stock: Down
Omer Yurtseven, center, Miami Heat
Yurtseven had an exciting summer that put him in a global spotlight during the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League. The Heat signed Yurtseven on one of the final days of the 2020-21 regular season, giving him a multi-year contract that gave the club a team option on the upcoming season.
The 7-foot Turkish center joined the Heat’s summer league team in Las Vegas and in Sacramento and put the league on notice. In both the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League, Yurtseven averaged 22.4 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.4 stocks, a metric that combines blocks and steals to measure defensive impact, per game while shooting 50.6% from the field and 36.4% from 3.
Yurtseven’s antics in summer league ensured the Heat that it needed to keep him long term. As a favor to the center, the Heat declined his team option in order to give him a reworked, guaranteed contract that extends two years and will give him over $3.5 million.
Yurtseven was so impressive with the Heat that Miami Heat president and basketball legend Pat Riley directly mentioned him as someone that could play next to star Bam Adebayo in the frontcourt.
Stock: Up
Cody Martin, guard/forward, Charlotte Hornets
The Charlotte Hornets had a busy offseason, jettisoning old-school centers Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo in favor of Mason Plumlee, making big signings in Kelly Oubre Jr. and Ish Smith and making big moves in the draft, selecting three players, James Bouknight, Kai Jones and J.T. Thor, that all had first-round grades.
Of importance to Cody Martin, however, is the fact that the Hornets moved on from Devonte’ Graham, a player whose presence took minutes away from the second-year guard/forward. Cody Martin seemed to earn the trust of the coaching staff even more this past season, notching 10 starts for the team.
Despite this, Cody Martin’s spot on the team is not guaranteed. As a result of the trade of Graham, the Hornets added a 16th guaranteed contract in Wesley Iwundu. Cody Martin will still need to prove himself in training camp so that he doesn’t fall victim to the same fate as his twin brother Caleb, who was released by the Hornets earlier in the offseason. As of now, Cody Martin’s spot on the roster is a safer bet than Iwundu, but anything is possible.
Stock: Neutral, trending down
Caleb Martin, small forward, Miami Heat
After 71 games and four starts across two seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, Caleb Martin was separated from his twin brother for the first time in their collegiate or professional careers after he was waived by Charlotte. As mentioned before, the Hornets had an eventful offseason in which they added too many guaranteed contracts to keep Martin.
That’s when the Miami Heat swooped in, adding Caleb Martin to a two-way contract, making him one of the more experienced two-way players in the league. Typically, two-way contracts are reserved for younger, undrafted players or second-round picks in order to give them ample time to develop in the G League. However, with the expanded eligibility rules for two-way players, the Heat figured it best to snag a soon-to-be 26-year-old that can step into the rotation immediately.
Caleb Martin offers a lot to Miami, and he scored 6.2 points per game last season while shooting 54.1% on 37 total attempts from deep. However, last season, Caleb Martin shot just 24.8% from 3 on 125 total attempts. With the potential for some serious scoring chops, Caleb Martin is exactly what the Heat was looking for.
As for Caleb Martin, the Heat will provide an excellent opportunity for development. In terms of two-way players, Miami has turned Derrick Jones Jr., Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus from two-way players to rotational players. Miami is historically touted as having the best developmental system in the league, so this is a great place for Martin to hone his skills.
Stock: Up
