{"id":182771,"date":"2025-07-20T04:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T04:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/182771\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T04:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T04:44:09","slug":"southeast-notes-sexton-aj-johnson-richardson-saleh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/182771\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast Notes: Sexton, AJ Johnson, Richardson, Saleh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collin Sexton<\/a> feels reinvigorated by the offseason trade<\/a> that sent him from Utah to the Hornets, writes Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer<\/a> (subscription required). Sexton is only 26, but he\u2019ll be a veteran leader in Charlotte, where he hopes to help mold his new teammates into a playoff contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper excited,\u201d he said. \u201cSuper grateful for the opportunity. Ready to come in and help build the culture and just be a leader right away. I feel like the last couple of weeks practicing and stuff, it\u2019s been a lot of fun but also getting used to the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sexton, who will make $18.9MM in the final year of his contract, should bring more scoring punch to the offense. He averaged 18.4 PPG in 63 games last season while shooting 48% from the field and 40.6% from three-point range. He also brings a high level of competitiveness, which coach Charles Lee is happy to add to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times he would stare me down during games as the opposing coach or scout coach, and he\u2019s always looking for some fuel to get him going,\u201d Lee said. \u201cSo, when he first got here, I made sure to remind them of that, \u2018Like, don\u2019t be looking at me crazy like that anymore or your minutes are going to suffer now.\u2019 \u201cBut it\u2019s great. I\u2019m so glad to have him on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from the Southeast Division:<\/p>\n

The Wizards limited their top Summer League players to two games, which put a larger spotlight on AJ Johnson<\/a>, observes Varun Shankar of The Washington Post<\/a> (subscriber link). Johnson finished the season strong after being acquired from Milwaukee in February, and he welcomed the chance to showcase his skills in Las Vegas. \u201cI think it would be hard for us to find anybody who\u2019s not wearing a Wizards uniform out here that can stay in front of AJ Johnson,\u201d coach J.J. Outlaw said. \u201cSuch a talented player; he can settle for his midrange, but getting downhill is his thing.\u201d
\nEven though the Magic were winless in Summer League play, they\u2019re encouraged by the performances of rookies Jase Richardson<\/a> and Noah Penda<\/a>, as well as second-year player Tristan Da Silva<\/a>, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel<\/a> (subscription required). Richardson, a first-round pick out of Michigan State, served as Orlando\u2019s lead ball-handler and averaged 16.5 points and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 50% from three-point range. \u201cHe played two really tough, physical teams and he did a heck of a job commanding our offense, getting his teammates involved when he needed to and looked to score when he needed,\u201d coach Ameer Bahhur said. \u201cDefensively, for his first taste of NBA minutes, he did a great job of matching physicality and battling.\u201d
\nHawks general manager Onsi Saleh talks about adapting to his new job and the importance of Summer League for the team\u2019s young players in an interview with Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a> (subscriber link).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collin Sexton feels reinvigorated by the offseason trade that sent him from Utah to the Hornets, writes Roderick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[4008,7,1585,960,48,6,3544,4193,47,76,3883,1253],"class_list":{"0":"post-182771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-aj-johnson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-collin-sexton","11":"tag-jase-richardson","12":"tag-magic","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-noah-penda","15":"tag-onsi-saleh","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-orlando-magic","18":"tag-orlandomagic","19":"tag-tristan-da-silva"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114883740526081139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}