{"id":743324,"date":"2026-06-18T00:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/743324\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T00:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:05:09","slug":"eastern-notes-raptors-splitter-sixers-ball-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/743324\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Notes: Raptors, Splitter, Sixers, Ball, Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Luke Adams<\/a> |
\n at June 17, 2026 5:00 pm <\/p>\n

When Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman spoke to reporters on Tuesday ahead of the 2026 NBA draft, he didn\u2019t offer a ton of juicy tidbits. As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca relays (via<\/a> Twitter<\/a>), Tolzman suggested the draft is fairly wide open after the first 10 or 12 picks, said the cost to move up would be high and that the Raptors are happy at No. 19, and indicated that the team will take a \u201cbest player available\u201d approach to that pick.<\/p>\n

However, the assistant GM did acknowledge that Toronto in recent years have been lacking a frontcourt player who can be a lob threat on offense and protect the rim on defense, Lewenberg notes. While Tolzman said the Raptors are \u201ctaking a close look\u201d at players who fit that bill, that hole doesn\u2019t necessarily need to be addressed in the draft \u2014 it could also be an area the team focuses on in free agency or on the trade market.<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n

Tiago Splitter\u2018s new contract as the head coach of the Bulls includes three guaranteed seasons and a team option for a fourth year, according to longtime Portland-area reporter Dwight Jaynes, who tweets<\/a> that Splitter\u2019s salary is believed to be around the league average for a head coach.
\nThe Sixers have started bringing in potential targets for their No. 22 pick for pre-draft workouts, with Koa Peat<\/a> (Arizona), Dailyn Swain<\/a> (Texas), Chris Cenac<\/a> (Houston), Allen Graves<\/a> (Santa Clara), Isaiah Evans<\/a> (Duke), and Zuby Ejiofor<\/a> (St. John\u2019s) all scheduled to have visited the team by the end of the week, per Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link<\/a>). Philadelphia is also lining up Zoom meetings with certain first-round prospects who won\u2019t be visiting the team in person, adds Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link<\/a>).
\nHornets guard LaMelo Ball<\/a> has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused him of running over and breaking a 12-year-old\u2019s foot with his vehicle, reports Julia Coin of The Charlotte Observer<\/a>. The child\u2019s family had been seeking $3.75MM in damages in the suit, which was filed in 2024. The terms of the settlement agreement aren\u2019t known.
\nUConn forward Alex Karaban<\/a> (No. 30 on ESPN\u2019s big board<\/a>) and St. John\u2019s forward Dillon Mitchell<\/a> (No. 42) visited the Knicks on Wednesday for a pre-draft workout, sources tell Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link<\/a>). New York controls the 24th, 31st, and 55th overall picks in next week\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Luke Adams | at June 17, 2026 5:00 pm When Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman spoke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[110374,302849,64,63,726,289929,71657,358055,71668,71686,183974,12998,85,145838,739],"class_list":["post-743324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-alex-karaban","tag-allen-graves","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-chris-cenac","tag-dailyn-swain","tag-dan-tolzman","tag-dillon-mitchell","tag-isaiah-evans","tag-koa-peat","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-sports","tag-tiago-splitter","tag-zuby-ejiofor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}