{"id":836760,"date":"2026-09-16T17:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/836760\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:57:15","slug":"eastern-notes-konchar-heat-powell-bulls-kolek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/836760\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Notes: Konchar, Heat, Powell, Bulls, Kolek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confirming that the Heat have interest<\/a> in John Konchar<\/a>, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald<\/a> cites a league source who says the team has internally discussed whether to make the free agent wing a contract offer.<\/p>\n

As Jackson details, the Heat have spoken to Konchar\u2019s representatives about the idea of having him come to training camp and compete for a roster spot with Myron Gardner<\/a>, whose minimum salary is only partially guaranteed for $500K. Konchar would reciprocate the Heat\u2019s interest but might be waiting for a guaranteed contract offer, Jackson explains.<\/p>\n

Jackson suggests that the Heat may be willing to offer Konchar a non-guaranteed deal that would become fully guaranteed if he makes the opening night roster, which would be similar to the contract Nick Richards<\/a> signed with the team. While a source who spoke to the Herald was \u201cvery skeptical\u201d about the idea of Konchar accepting a non-guaranteed offer, that source didn\u2019t rule out the possibility.<\/p>\n

Miami currently has 11 players on guaranteed standard contracts, while a 12th player \u2013 Pelle Larsson<\/a> \u2013 is a lock to make the regular season roster. Gardner and Richards don\u2019t have fully guaranteed salaries and the Heat have enough room below their first-apron hard cap for a 15th man, so those back-end roster spots could undergo some changes before opening night. According to Jackson, the idea of keeping the 15th spot open until closer to the trade deadline \u201cholds some appeal\u201d within the organization.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from around the Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n

New Bulls guard Norman Powell<\/a> may have created the impression that he was second-guessing the Heat\u2019s offseason roster decisions when he spoke last month<\/a> about how the team\u2019s cap situation made it impossible to re-sign him. However, Powell stressed during a recent appearance on a YouTube stream<\/a> that he thought Miami made \u201cgood moves\u201d over the summer, singling out the additions of Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> and Klay Thompson<\/a>. \u201cThey got some dawgs,\u201d Powell said, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/a>. \u201cShout out my man D-Mitch (Davion Mitchell<\/a>), \u2018Off Night,\u2019 and Bam (Adebayo)<\/a>. They\u2019re gonna be good. I\u2019m excited to see how it all comes together.\u201d
\nPreviewing the Bulls\u2019 backcourt for 2026\/27, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times<\/a> writes that Powell\u2019s presence has been \u201cbeyond positive already\u201d and suggests the veteran may be just as important off the court as on it for a young Bulls team. Cowley adds that former No. 8 overall pick Rob Dillingham<\/a> has spent time working out with Powell this offseason and is determined to take a step forward after struggling in his first two NBA seasons.
\nTyler Kolek<\/a> has averaged just 9.9 minutes per game in his first two seasons with the Knicks and it\u2019s unclear whether a larger role will be available for him in 2026\/27. Still, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post<\/a> relays, Kolek is hoping to show this fall that he deserves a spot in the team\u2019s rotation, indicating that he\u2019s focused on being aggressive when given opportunities to play. \u201cEarly on in the (2025\/26) season, I was finishing at a high level. And then later on in the year, I was getting in there, maybe I was looking a little too passive,\u201d the third-year guard explained. \u201cSo just looking for my shot, being more aggressive in the paint, and then that opens everything else up. Having the defense collapse, and then finding sprays for our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Confirming that the Heat have interest in John Konchar, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald cites a league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,8396,30690,6,7797,558,977,1254],"class_list":["post-836760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-bulls","tag-basketball","tag-bulls","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-chicagobulls","tag-john-konchar","tag-myron-gardner","tag-nba","tag-nick-richards","tag-norman-powell","tag-rob-dillingham","tag-tyler-kolek"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117282016020727988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836760","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=836760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}