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Knicks

The Knicks have waived veteran Wayne Selden Jr.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/1478061656789991428?s=20">Fred Katz/The Athletic</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp;The Knicks needed to waive Selden Jr. in order to make room for Denzel Valentine, though they are also unlikely to keep him.&nbsp;
Selden Jr. appeared in just three contests for the Knicks, scoring 5 points.
For his career, the Kansas product has averaged 7.2 points per game with stops in Memphis, New Orleans, and Chicago.

The Knicks have waived veteran Wayne Selden Jr.

Knicks waive Wayne Selden Jr.

TORONTO (AP) &mdash; Fred VanVleet scored 19 of his season-high 35 points in the third quarter, Pascal Siakam had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors extended their home winning streak against the Knicks to 11 games by beating a depleted New York team 120-105 on Sunday.
OG Anunoby scored 14 points, Scottie Barnes had 13 and Chris Boucher 12 as the Raptors won back-to-back games for the first time since home wins over New York and Sacramento on Dec. 10 and 13.
&ldquo;I thought we were pretty locked in for most of the game,&rdquo; VanVleet said.
Barnes returned after missing Friday&rsquo;s win over the Clippers because of a sore right knee. He sat out the previous two games while in the health and safety protocols.
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&ldquo;I felt pretty good out there,&rdquo; Barnes said. &ldquo;I really had my wind. I wasn&rsquo;t so tired.&rdquo;
Toronto, which had 10 players in the protocols for a Dec. 26 loss at Cleveland, had its eight most-used players available for the first time all season.
&ldquo;This is kind of where you want to be,&rdquo; VanVleet said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to continue to get better individually and collectively. I think we&rsquo;ll be a tough team to beat if we can keep growing towards the end of the year.&rdquo;
VanVleet shot 11 for 17 and made a season-high seven of his 13 attempts from 3-point range. He went 6 for 6 at the free throw line and finished with five rebounds and five assists.
&ldquo;It makes us tough to guard when he&rsquo;s coming down, hitting in transition, coming off screens,&rdquo; Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.
Evan Fournier scored 20 points and RJ Barrett and Obi Toppin each had 19 for the Knicks, who lost their second straight after winning the previous three.
&ldquo;Overall, I thought some guys stepped up and played good but you&rsquo;re short-handed, your margin for error is small, and we didn&rsquo;t get it done,&rdquo; Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Fournier returned after missing Friday&lsquo;s loss to Oklahoma City because of a sore right ankle, but the Knicks were without starters Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson, who joined Nerlens Noel, Jericho Sims, and Wayne Selden in health and safety protocols.
Another starter, guard Kemba Walker, sat for the second straight game because of a sore left knee.
&ldquo;We have three starters down,&rdquo; Fournier said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a lot.&rdquo;
Toppin&rsquo;s point total equaled his career high. He also had 19 against Toronto on Dec. 10.
&ldquo;It means something,&rdquo; Toppin said of matching the milestone, &ldquo;but obviously the loss sucks. We&rsquo;re just going to learn from this game and get better.&rdquo;
After scoring a season-low 80 points Friday, New York topped 100 for the first time in four games.
The Raptors played before a mostly empty arena for the second straight game after Ontario&rsquo;s provincial government reduced capacity limits to a maximum of 1,000 people in an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19. No tickets were sold, and only friends and family were allowed entry.
Toronto led 56-45 at halftime and used a 40-point third to take a 96-74 lead to the fourth.
SHARP SHOOTING
The Raptors shot 15 for 22 in the third. That was one fewer made baskets than the Knicks had in the first half. VanVleet had six made baskets in the quarter, while the Knicks had seven.
SHORT STINT
Rookie G Miles McBride started for the Knicks but was subbed out after five minutes and didn&rsquo;t return until the fourth quarter. Alec Burks started the second half.
&ldquo;Just the way the game was going, I felt we probably needed a little more offense to try to get things going,&rdquo; Thibodeau said.
TIP-INS
Knicks: Associate head coach Johnnie Bryant and assistant coaches Kenny Payne and Daisuke Yoshimoto were absent after entering the health and safety protocols. &ldquo;Everyone has added responsibility right now,&rdquo; Thibodeau said. &hellip; Play eight of their next 10 at home.
Raptors: Siakam finished with seven assists but had six turnovers. &hellip; F Isaac Bonga exited health and safety protocols but was not available (conditioning). &hellip; Outrebounded New York 44-30.
UP NEXT
Knicks: Host Indiana on Tuesday.
Raptors: Host San Antonio on Tuesday.
___
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Fred VanVleet scored 19 of his season-high 35 points in the third quarter.

Fred VanVleet scores season-high 35, Raptors rout Knicks 120-105

Basketball has evolved into a truly global sport, and the NBA pulls talent from all over the world. That&rsquo;s great for the overall quality of play, but it means that there is more competition for NBA roster spots, which are harder than ever to earn.
With Media Day in the rearview mirror and training camp underway, competition to make the final cut is heating up. Teams enter camp with as many as 20 players, but must trim the roster down to 15 by opening day (excluding the pair of two-way contracts allowed in addition for players who can move between the G League and NBA rosters).
While every team has important decisions to make, it&rsquo;s not as if every roster spot is up for grabs. On the contrary, most spots are taken by players who are signed to guaranteed contracts. It&rsquo;s the players on training-camp deals who have the most to prove this time of year; sometimes, it can be the occasional (and unlucky) guaranteed player who has underachieved so badly that his team is considering paying him to play elsewhere.&nbsp;
The last guy on the bench rarely has a great impact on his team&rsquo;s success, but it can happen &ndash; and it surely impacts the individual players. Considering the ramifications of these decisions, let&rsquo;s examine the three most interesting roster situations in the Eastern Conference.&nbsp;
Brooklyn Nets
The Nets are intriguing because &ndash; while it might look as if they don&rsquo;t need much from the end of their bench on paper &ndash; their situation is more complicated than it appears. Depending on where Kyrie Irving ultimately lands with his decision to get the COVID vaccine or not, he could miss all of his home games (and games against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden). In total, Irving could miss as many as 43 regular-season games if he stands firm on being unvaccinated. And while there is more than enough star power in Brooklyn to get by, removing a key player from the rotation for half of the season puts more pressure on a team&rsquo;s depth.
So what exactly will Brooklyn look to address with its final roster spot? The team's backcourt is in relatively good shape thanks to a combination of James Harden, Patty Mills, Jevon Carter and rookie Cam Thomas, but there are other needs to address. The Nets' frontcourt could use a youth infusion, and there&rsquo;s a limit on swingmen beyond Joe Harris and Bruce Brown. After cutting Jahlil Okafor last month, Brooklyn's decision should come down to DeAndre&rsquo; Bembry or Sekou Doumbouya. No disrespect to Bembry, but Doumbouya is a 6-foot-8 <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/detroit-pistons-moving-on-from-sekou-doumbouya-is-a-headscratcher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former first-round pick who is 20 years old</a>. He fills multiple needs, and his youth gives the added benefit that if he works out, he could be part of the team&rsquo;s future.&nbsp;
Prediction: Sekou Doumbouya makes the cut.
New York Knicks&nbsp;
The Knicks are in an interesting spot. They just cut Luca Vildoza, who signed a four-year, non-guaranteed contract with the team at the end of the 2020-21 season. He was seen as someone who would make the team as recently as June, but things happen fast in the NBA. Considering New York will start the season without its presumptive starting center, Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks might want to add another big man. Nerlens Noel is more than qualified to hold down the fort, and Taj Gibson is a valuable, albeit slightly undersized backup, but does New York want to kick off the season without any other options? What if one of those two suffers another injury?
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The Knicks have two rookies on their training camp roster who could fill that need in Jericho Sims and Aamir Simms. The former is a freakish athlete, similar in nature to Robinson, who is an above-average defender and rim-runner. Conversely, Simms possesses <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/aamir-simms-eager-to-exhibit-a-side-of-his-game-we-havent-seen-at-the-next-level" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a more polished offensive game</a>, but he lacks the burst and leaping ability of Sims. There&rsquo;s also Dwayne Bacon and Wayne Selden, who are actively competing for the team&rsquo;s final roster spot. Bacon looked good with Orlando last season, and I expect him to make the cut. The Knicks do have a two-way contract remaining, so maybe they'll use that on one of the Sim(m)s, while keeping Bacon on the main roster.&nbsp;
Prediction: Dwayne Bacon makes the cut.
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors are also in an interesting position, but more so because they have multiple spots to fill. Toronto has 12 guaranteed contracts, and both two-way deals are spoken for. That means Toronto can keep three of the following six players: Isaac Bonga, Sam Dekker, Freddie Gillespie, Reggie Perry, Ishmail Wainright and Yuta Watanabe. Gillespie and Watanabe are known commodities north of the border, having played with the Raptors last season, and Dekker is a former first-round pick with plenty of NBA experience. All but Perry have partial guarantees for 2021-22, but a partial guarantee will not secure you a spot in the NBA.
Bonga and Perry are both 6-foot-8 and 21 years old. Perry has just one year of NBA experience, whereas Bonga has three &ndash; but neither has made their mark yet. Beyond Goran Dragic, Fred VanVleet has the most experience of all Raptors with five professional seasons. With that in mind, expect Dekker &ndash; who has four years of NBA experience &ndash; to make the cut. Additionally, the Raptors will probably stick with the guys they know, meaning that Gillespie and Watanabe are likely to be in Toronto for the 2021-22 season, too.
Prediction: Sam Dekker, Freddie Gillespie and Yuta Watanabe all make the cut.
NBA roster decisions aren&rsquo;t entirely fair. Sometimes, players are cut because of an injury or other circumstance-related issues. But it really is just a business (rarely personal), and front offices do what they feel is in their best interest.
And at the end of the day, that&rsquo;s about as objective as it gets.&nbsp;

Drew Maresca examines the three most interesting final roster spot situations in the East.