Odds & Ends: David Griffin, Deng, Mbah a Moute
Since drafting Kyrie Irving in 2011, ex-Cavaliers GM Chris Grant made one draft mistake after another in the following years and spent his final months in Cleveland offering overvalued young players in lopsided proposals for LaMarcus Aldridge, Anthony Davis, and Andre Drummond, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Eventually, Wojnarowski says, few NBA executives had the inclination to listen to Grant’s one-sided offers.
Now that the Cavs have elevated David Griffin into the role of interim GM, the team may have a chance to make some improvements through trades based on Griffin’s superior standing with other executives from around the league. Wojnarowski reports that until the deadline, Griffin will be working the phones with a mandate to keep pushing for the playoffs.
You can find tonight’s miscellaneous news and notes below, including more from the above piece:
- Though one Eastern Conference executive views Griffin’s current situation as an opportunity to impress Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, Wojnarowski writes that Gilbert’s plan nevertheless is to search the NBA landscape for Grant’s replacement.
- Wojnarowski says that in order to keep Luol Deng in Cleveland after this season, the Cavs would likely have to exceed his market value; letting him walk would be too embarrassing after paying such a steep price to acquire him, the Yahoo! scribe adds.
- Timberwolves forward Luc Mbah a Moute could be the most likely to be dealt from Minnesota right now, says Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune (via Twitter).
- Knicks head coach Mike Woodson said on ESPN 98.7 FM’s “The Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco Show” that if New York makes a deal between now and the trade deadline, he expects to be involved in the discussion: “I would like to think that if something goes down, I’m sure they will include me…It’s been that way since I’ve been here and I don’t see that changing. We just have to let it play out and see what happens” (Ian Begley of ESPN New York). Woodson’s job security has been a hot topic as of late on Hoops Rumors, and multiple reports over the last week suggest that his days in New York could be numbered.
- Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders outlines several potential trading partners and scenarios for the Knicks if they were to trade Carmelo Anthony.
Texas Notes: Spurs, Parsons, Cuban
Here’s what we’ve rounded up out of Texas tonight:
- It’s unlikely that the Spurs can find a trade solution that would be worth tampering with their depth and chemistry, opines Dan McCarney of Spurs Nation. Though San Antonio recently hasn’t been at full strength, McCarney thinks the smartest option would be to wait until the team becomes fully healthy and give them an opportunity to recapture their form from last year’s postseason.
- The Rockets are faced with two scenarios with regard to Chandler Parsons‘ contract status; they either can choose to decline is $964K team option for 2014/15 and let him hit restricted free agency this summer, or exercise that option, pay him that aforementioned amount next season, and let him reach unrestricted free agency. Houston would be best suited to delay his free agent payday another year, argues SB Nation’s Tom Ziller, who adds that the worst case scenario would involve Parsons playing 2014/15 on a cheap contract.
- Compared to all of the starting centers that have been paired with Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, Samuel Dalembert has been the best bargain for the Mavericks as far as numbers are concerned, explains Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas. Things might not have gotten off to the right start for Dalembert this year, but the 32-year-old center is averaging 12.5 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and shooting nearly 69% from the field over his last five games.
- NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had some kind words for Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who was partly known for butting heads with former commissioner David Stern on more than one occasion: “There has been some public stuff around the edges between Mark and the league…but Mark’s input has been hugely beneficial to the league in so many areas the public will never hear about” (Darren Rovell of ESPN.com).
- Silver had more to say about Cuban: “Mark epitomizes the new generation of owner who is all-in to his franchise and is involved in every aspect of the team…It’s not necessary that that be the model for others, but we welcome it. While you won’t hear this from many owners directly, Mark has attracted many of the new generation owners to the league.”
Eastern Notes: Magic, Cavs, Knicks
Magic GM Rob Hennigan tells Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel that he’s not actively looking to pursue deals right now: “We’re exploring all options that may improve our team…But in terms of aggressively, actively trying to do something? I would say no [we’re not].”
In that same piece however, Robbins adds that Orlando could make at least one move before the deadline, and much of the trade speculation has revolved around Arron Afflalo, Jameer Nelson, and Glen Davis. Afflalo – whose 19.6 PPG and 5.0 FTA this season represent career bests – is likely drawing the most interest at this point.
Here’s more out of the Eastern Conference this evening:
- Looking at what he calls a “mess” in Cleveland, Ric Bucher of the Bleacher Report revisits some of the Cavaliers’ roster decisions since Kyrie Irving‘s arrival in order to describe how they got to this point, including their decision to bypass Jonas Valanciunas in the 2011 draft, hiring Mike Brown, and failing to provide a veteran mentor for Irving. In spite of this, he believes there’s still time to right the ship, especially if the front office- led by interim GM David Griffin – can piece together a roster that compliments rather than saddles Irving.
- Frank Isola of the New York Daily News doesn’t buy speculation about Knicks owner James Dolan considering a Carmelo Anthony trade to the Bulls, and thinks that the seven-time All-Star will ultimately stay in New York beyond this summer. Even if Anthony were to bolt, Isola doesn’t believe it’d be the end of the world; with Andrea Bargnani, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Tyson Chandler coming off the books in 2015, New York could target a star like Kevin Durant with their ample cap space (All Twitter links).
- ESPN New York’s Ian Begley weighs in on the rumblings surrounding Iman Shumpert and Kenneth Faried from the Knicks’ persepctive, saying that acquiring Faried – though he’d be a plus – doesn’t address their backcourt needs and cuts into their 2015 cap flexibility.
- As for the Wizards’ reported interest in Beno Udrih, Begley notes that a one-for-one swap for either Glen Rice Jr. or Al Harrington is feasible, but only from a salary-matching standpoint. Regardless, I think Begley would agree that Washington probably wouldn’t be open to giving up a 23-year-old prospect like Rice Jr. in order to solely acquire a 31-year-old backup point guard.
Hawks Re-Sign Cartier Martin
The Hawks have given Cartier Martin a second 10-day deal, the team has announced via press release. The timing is a little odd, given that the All-Star break will take up half the length of the contract, but perhaps Atlanta wants to keep the small forward from other teams. He had a pair of 10-day deals with the Bulls earlier this season, and Tom Thibodeau is high on him.
Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that the team was likely to re-sign Martin, though at that point there wasn’t a timetable. He appeared in only two games on his first 10-day with the Hawks, but he’s played 27 games for them this season overall, since he was with the club from camp until January 7th, when Atlanta elected to waive him rather than guarantee his contract for the season. The Hawks will again face a decision of whether to guarantee the Andrew Vye client‘s deal for the balance of the year once his latest 10-day deal expires.
Atlanta can’t trade Martin at the deadline, as I explained earlier today, but the team could terminate his deal early to open up a roster spot for an unbalanced trade if need be. The Hawks have 14 guaranteed contracts, so Martin occupies the team’s only open roster space.
Trade Candidate: Evan Turner
The Sixers are in an unusual position with Evan Turner, their No. 2 overall pick from 2010. He’s by no means developed into an All-Star, but he began his career as a versatile sixth man and turned into a starter bearing a healthy share of the team’s offensive responsibilities. He’s first on the team in points per game, albeit by a small margin, and second in shot attempts and assists per contest. Still, that production is for a 15-38 Sixers club that just became only the second team in NBA history to lose by 40 points in back-to-back outings.
Most players of value who are in the fourth year of a rookie scale contract, like Turner, have either already been signed to extensions or face a summer of limited leverage in restricted free agency. That’s not the case for the former Ohio State Buckeye, since there are serious doubts about whether the Sixers would be willing to extend the more than $8.7MM qualifying offer required to make him a restricted free agent in the offseason. If they did retain the right to match offers, they’d have to contend with agent David Falk, who has a knack for matching his restricted free agent clients with the club willing to make the highest offer, as he did when he found max money for Roy Hibbert in 2012.
There’s no shortage of teams with interest in Turner as the deadline approaches. The Suns, Clippers, Hawks, Bobcats, Mavs, Timberwolves and Spurs have all been linked to the 25-year-old since a report on February 3rd that the Sixers were amping up their effort to trade him. Philadelphia GM Sam Hinkie is seeking a first-round pick in return, preferably one that’s likely to wind up between tenth and 15th in this year’s draft. That’s given many of Turner’s suitors pause, as has the notion that he could become available as an unrestricted free agent in a few months. At least one GM told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that he’d be hesitant to give up assets in a trade for Turner if he could simply sign him outright in the summer.
Of course, not every team going after Turner is set to have a ton of cap room in the offseason. The Clippers and Timberwolves have commitments for 2014/15 that will put them over the cap come July. The Wolves are on the fringes of the picture for Turner, since they reportedly have no desire to give up a first-round pick, and they can’t trade a first-rounder for any draft before 2018. The Mavs have similar draft limitations thanks to the Ted Stepien Rule.
The first-rounder is slightly more in play for the Clippers, since they can trade their first-round picks for 2017 and beyond. L.A. has Jared Dudley on the trade block, so Doc Rivers and company are clearly seeking an upgrade at small forward, the position Turner has played most frequently the past three seasons. Still, Dudley makes $4.25MM each year through 2015/16, and the Sixers might not be willing to take on that sort of long-term commitment.
The Spurs are another Western Conference contender who could make Turner a key piece of a championship run. San Antonio might be willing to trade Kawhi Leonard for a “fabulous” return, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, but Turner probably doesn’t qualify as fabulous, and the Spurs certainly wouldn’t surrender a first-round pick in that scenario. The Spurs would probably be more inclined to give up an expiring contract like Boris Diaw or Matt Bonner, but the Sixers are reportedly cool on taking back a “lesser player” for one of their veterans.
Turner wouldn’t make the Hawks contenders, but if GM Danny Ferry is high on the idea of acquiring him, the versatile Turner could take a turn at point guard for a team that reportedly isn’t enamored with Jeff Teague‘s contract. The Sixers already have their point guard of the future in Michael Carter-Williams, but former Sixers Louis Williams and Kyle Korver could make for intriguing additions instead.
The Bobcats appear to be making a strong push for Turner, and Charlotte could wind up with a 2014 first-rounder from the Pistons that falls into Hinkie’s desired 10-15 range. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller and Kemba Walker are young players with varying degrees of upside who could interest the Sixers, and Philadelphia could also consent to absorbing Ben Gordon‘s bloated expiring deal if Hinkie wants to take back several of Charlotte’s recent lottery picks.
A majority of Hoops Rumors readers think Turner is worth a first-round pick, and if NBA executives agree, it looks like there are more than enough teams with interest for a deal to get done. The question might not be whether Turner is traded, but just what Hinkie is able to extract for him.
Odds & Ends: Silver, Nets, Hill, Draft
We’re 11 days into Adam Silver’s reign as NBA commissioner, and if no one’s noticed much of a difference from before, that’s by design, as Silver tells Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press.
“I’m not coming in with a five-point plan,” Silver said. “I’m not an outsider coming into the league. I’ve been part of this league for a long time and if there was something that I thought should’ve been done markedly different than the way it’s done now, I think David and I would have pushed each other to do it.”
Here’s more from Silver’s status-quo league:
- A source puts the chances of the Nets making a trade between now and the deadline at less than 10%, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). That echoes what we heard from Grantland’s Zach Lowe earlier today.
- Grant Hill is still drawing NBA interest during his first year of retirement, but the 41-year-old tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that he’s definitely not making a comeback.
- The top 10 prospects are unchanged on the latest Insider-only draft board from Chad Ford of ESPN.com, though Swiss power forward Clint Capela jumps to No. 20 from outside the top 30.
- Wizards camp invitee Xavier Silas has signed with a team in Argentina, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The deal includes an escape clause that will allow him to ink an NBA deal at any point this season.
- Udonis Haslem has never played for an NBA team other than the Heat, and the 11th-year vet doesn’t intend for that to ever change, as he tells Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick. Haslem has a $4.62MM player option for next season.
Kings Take Cautious Approach In Search Of PG
The Kings have already made a pair of trades this season, and they’ve remained one of the most active teams on the trade market. They’re still open to making a deadline deal, and they’d particularly like to find another point guard, but they’re not willing to give up draft picks, and they’d only take on long-term salary in certain trades, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter links).
Sacramento’s brass likes incumbent point guard Isaiah Thomas, but they started the season envisioning him as a scorer off the bench and they have concerns about his transition to a playmaking role, as Jones explains. The Kings reportedly remain in the mix for Andre Miller, and they apparently made a few proposals last month without extending a formal offer.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com last week identified the Kings as trade deadline buyers, listing Marcus Thornton, Jason Thompson, Jimmer Fredette and Carl Landry as players whom the team might dangle in talks. A late January report indicated the Kings would “love to move” Thornton, and while he and Fredette frequently come up in trade chatter around the league, rival teams have shown little interest in either of them.
Players Ineligible For Deadline Trades
The collective bargaining agreement has an assortment of rules governing trades that can make it quite a headache for NBA executives to pull one off. Teams have to be cognizant of where they stand relative to the salary cap and structure the deal so it fits the league’s salary-matching requirements. Further complications exist with players who can veto trades.
Other players simply can’t be dealt at all. Players can’t be traded until three months after they sign a new contract, and with the trade deadline set for February 20th, that puts the following players who signed after November 20th off-limits for a deal:
- Chris Douglas-Roberts, Bobcats
- D.J. Augustin, Bulls
- James Johnson, Grizzlies
- Kendall Marshall, Lakers
- Alexis Ajinca, Pelicans
- Jeremy Tyler, Knicks
- Leandro Barbosa, Suns
- Hedo Turkoglu, Clippers
- Chris Johnson, Celtics
- Andrew Bynum, Pacers
- Luke Babbitt, Pelicans
Teams can’t trade a player for 30 days after they claim him off waivers. The Jazz claimed Malcolm Thomas off waivers from the Spurs on January 25th, but he was already ineligible to be traded because he signed with San Antonio on December 3rd.
Players claimed off amnesty waivers are ineligible to be traded for an entire season, but no one fits that description this year. All of the players waived via the amnesty clause this past summer became free agents, so the Knicks can trade Metta World Peace and the Grizzlies can trade Mike Miller, since they signed as free agents.
Any players who signed 10-day contracts this season are ineligible to be traded, regardless of whether they followed up the 10-day with a contract for the rest of the season. So, Sasha Vujacic, Darius Morris and Shawne Williams, the only players currently on 10-day deals, won’t be changing hands next Thursday. The same goes for any player who signs a 10-day contract between now and the deadline.
There are also three players who CAN be traded at the deadline but can’t be traded now because three months have yet to elapse since they were signed. The trio includes a pair of Sixers who won’t become trade-eligible until the day of the deadline:
Diante Garrett, Jazz (becomes trade-eligible February 13th)
Lorenzo Brown, Sixers (becomes trade-eligible February 20th)
Elliot Williams, Sixers (becomes trade-eligible February 20th)
Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Central Rumors: Cavs, Pacers, Mirotic
It shouldn’t be too much longer until the Pacers clinch the Central Division title. They’re up 14 and a half games on the second-place Bulls, and the only team with a realistic shot at passing the Pacers for the best record in the Eastern Conference is the Heat. Here’s more from a division that, outside of Indiana, is one of dysfunction:
- The relationship between Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters was reportedly a rocky one when trade rumors swirled around Waiters early this season, but Irving now refers to Waiters as a friend, as Bob Finnan of The News-Herald observes. Finnan has more on the on-court and off-court dynamic between the two Cavs guards.
- The Pacers reached out to Nuggets coach Brian Shaw, a former Pacers assistant, for advice about whether to sign Andrew Bynum, whom Shaw had worked with as a Lakers assistant, notes Scott Agness of Pacers.com. Shaw gave the center an endorsement, and, “I woke up the next morning to see that they had signed him,” the coach said.
- Nikola Mirotic is eager to sign with the Bulls this summer, but Real Madrid, his Spanish team, is intent on offering him a sizable new deal to convince him to stay, according to Javier Maestro of Encestando (translation via Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype).
- The dismissal of Maurice Cheeks was tough on Brandon Jennings, who calls the former Pistons coach a “father figure,” as Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News examines.
Lowe’s Latest: Granger, Ariza, Turner, Warriors
The Pacers have been actively looking to deal away Danny Granger, but have had little success, and the same is true for the Wizards and their attempts to unload Trevor Ariza‘s expiring contract, writes Grantland’s Zach Lowe. The Grantland scribe also seconds a report from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that Washington is looking for a backup point guard. Lowe’s latest column focuses on the trade deadline, which is just nine days away, and we’ll pass along the highlights of a rumor-packed piece here:
- The Bobcats are “absolutely serious” about their pursuit of Evan Turner, Lowe writes, pointing to the connection between David Falk, who serves as Turner’s agent, and Bobcats owner Michael Jordan, a former Falk client. The Sixers are a lock to be “super active” as the deadline approaches, according to Lowe.
- Sources tell Lowe that the Warriors aren’t ready to trade Klay Thompson or Harrison Barnes, in spite of the team’s struggles.
- Executives around the league are high on Alexey Shved, but the Timberwolves probably wouldn’t be able to get a game-changer in return for him.
- The Heat are ready to waive either Roger Mason Jr. or Toney Douglas to open up a roster spot so they can acquire a player via trade or in the post-deadline buyout market.
- Lowe continues to hear that the Nuggets are making Kenneth Faried available for the right return, even as Denver consistently denies such talk.
- Hawks GM Danny Ferry isn’t enamored with the four-year, $32MM deal that the team committed to Jeff Teague when it matched his offer sheet from the Bucks this past summer.
- The Nets seem to be leaning toward not making a move at the deadline, according to Lowe.