Ranadive On Gay, Malone, D’Alessandro, Cousins
Jared Dubin of ESPN.com’s TrueHoop Network scored a one-on-one interview with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, who shared a broad range of insight on the team he bought nearly a year ago. The technology magnate makes no bones about his enthusiasm for analytics, and told Dubin about the way extra layers of data convinced the team to trade for Rudy Gay, upon whom advanced metrics have often shed an unflattering light.
“What we did is, we looked at all six years of data, we looked at spatial data, we looked at what happened with a big guy, and what would happen if he was the second or the third option,” Ranadive said. “We concluded that his efficiency would go up dramatically, and sure enough, it’s gone up 20 percentage points.”
It’s not quite clear how Ranadive is measuring efficiency in this context, but most measures demonstrate that Gay has indeed performed better in Sacramento than he had with the Raptors. Dubin’s entire piece is worth your attention, particularly if you’re a Kings fan, but we’ll share some of the highlights here:
On hiring coach Michael Malone:
“He was the 21st century kind of coach that I wanted. The style of play — we want to be like the Spurs, but exciting. We want to create a winning franchise that is a perennial contender, and we also want a strong defense, combined with up-tempo play. Malone is a coach’s son, and there was high demand for him. I knew that I wanted him, so I made a deal with him that once I bought a team, he would be my coach.”
On hiring GM Pete D’Alessandro:
“When I spoke to Pete, I told him, ‘I’ve got three other candidates that are finalists for this job, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get job. I will interview you, and most likely it will be for an assistant GM [position]. If you want to come out, come out, but the chances of you getting it are 1%.’ He came out, and the night before I gave him a call and said, ‘There are just five questions I have for you,’ and then he just absolutely blew me away. Blew me away. He was the kind of 21st century GM that I was looking for. Looking at that, we don’t hold the fact that you haven’t done something against you. Mark Zuckerberg was 21 when he invented Facebook. That’s just how we think.”
On signing DeMarcus Cousins to a maximum-salary extension:
“He plays really hard. I know that he’s had issues with his temper and so on, but when I took over the franchise, the first thing I did was I texted him and I said, ‘Hey, my friend Steve Jobs likes to say ‘Let’s go to the end of the universe.’ So let’s do that in the NBA.’ And just like one of my kids, he sent me a three-word text back just saying, ‘Sounds good, boss.’ That was the start of my relationship with him and his mom. Before we gave him the contract, it was over the summertime, and I said, ‘Look, I just want one thing from you. I want you to be the first guy in and the last guy out. As long as you do that, we’re good.’ And he did. He lost a bunch of weight; he was the hardest-working guy in practice. The coaches have done a great job with him, and his numbers reflect it. He’s had amazing numbers. There’s still more work to be done, but I am very pleased with where he is.”
On his plan for changing the draft lottery, which he dubs the “V Plan.”
“There’s two parts to it. Part one is that you freeze the draft order at the time of the All-Star break. Then, everything [pertaining to the current lottery system] remains the same, but it’s frozen based on the standings at the All-Star break. Then there’s no gain in not playing at the highest level for the remainder of the season. That’s part one. Part two is that at the end of the season, the top seven teams from the Eastern Conference and the top seven teams from the Western Conference make the playoffs. Then for the eighth playoff spot, the remaining eight teams have a sudden-death, college-style playoff in a neutral venue, like Vegas in the West and Kansas or Louisville in the East.”
Steve Kerr Front-Runner To Coach Knicks
Steve Kerr is indeed the favorite to coach the Knicks in 2014/15, a source tells Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Frank Isola of the New York Daily News first suggested earlier this month that there was a decent chance Kerr would replace Mike Woodson after the season, and there’s been plenty of speculation surrounding the TNT broadcaster and former Suns GM since. Many around the organization quickly came to believe that Kerr would take over on the bench with his former coach, Phil Jackson, installed as team president, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported.
The latest news is a further blow to Woodson, though there has long been little hope of him continuing to coach the team beyond 2013/14, even though the Knicks picked up his 2014/15 option before the season. New York is just a game and a half out of the playoffs, but Woodson’s charges have spent much of the season plumbing the depths of the Eastern Conference after a 54-win season and a trip to the conference semifinals last year.
Kerr hasn’t given his broadcasting colleagues the sense that he’s ready to leave his gig, and he’s refused to discuss the possibility of taking the Knicks job, but he said prior to the season that he could envision becoming a coach and he recently reiterated that point. Jackson, who would have run basketball operations for the Kings had they moved to Seattle last year, had reportedly convinced Kerr to coach the team in that circumstance. The Zen Master also strongly encouraged Pistons owner Tom Gores to hire Kerr last summer, though Detroit wound up picking the since-fired Maurice Cheeks instead.
The Warriors apparently would also target the 48-year-old Kerr, who’s never coached before, if they part ways with Mark Jackson this summer, so the Knicks may have some competition. Speculation has linked many other names to the New York job, so if Kerr decides against taking it, the team probably won’t be short on alternatives.
Wolves Rumors: Love, Adelman, Hoiberg, Rubio
There’s more uncertainty surrounding the Timberwolves than with any other team in the league, Grantland’s Zach Lowe concludes. The future of Kevin Love is at the center of it, and Lowe and Marc Stein of ESPN.com examine that and other issues on which the franchise could pivot in the months ahead. We’ll highlight their pieces here:
- The Wolves have already let some teams know that they’re uninterested in trading Love, who’s set for free agency in 2015, and Minnesota has indirectly given that signal to other teams, too, Lowe writes. Owner Glen Taylor is intent on convincing Love to stay and the Wolves are optimistic about their chances of keeping him, Stein reports, adding that Taylor is determined not to trade Love unless the time comes when he feels he must.
- There are many close to the Wolves who are convinced Rick Adelman will retire after the season, Stein writes. The Wolves and Adelman each have two weeks to decide whether to exercise the mutual option on his contract, notes Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune suggests via Twitter that even if Adelman doesn’t opt out, the Wolves will.
- There have been no signals that president of basketball operations Flip Saunders wants to take over on the bench, but Stein hears the Wolves will make a strong pursuit of Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg if Adelman isn’t coming back.
- Ricky Rubio will be up for a rookie scale extension in the offseason, and the sense around the league is that agent Dan Fegan will ask for eight-figure salaries, according to Lowe. The point guard is undeserving of that much money, Lowe argues, noting that teams nonetheless have widely varying opinions of Rubio’s worth.
Dario Saric’s Agent Wants Him To Enter Draft
The agent for Dario Saric is confident that his client is ready to play in the NBA and tells Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today that he disagrees with the Croatian prospect’s apparent decision to sign a new deal in Europe and remain there through at least next season. Robert Jablan asserts that Saric’s father is exerting undue influence on his son, who turns 20 next month and had been in line to become a lottery pick this year.
Jablan said Saric’s father may prompt him to cut ties with his client, though Saric has been expected to hire a new agent for a while. Sporando’s Emiliano Carchia believes Saric will sign with Misko Raznatovic, another prominent European agent (Twitter link). Saric’s apparent deal with Efes Pilson in Turkey would give him $8.27MM over three years, an unusually high sum for a European pact and more than he would likely make over the same timeframe on an NBA rookie scale contract. The deal would include an escape clause that would allow him to head to the NBA in 2016, when he’ll be automatically eligible for the draft.
Saric is ninth on Jonathan Givony’s top prospects list at DraftExpress, and No. 14 on the Big Board that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles. He’s averaged 15.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists overall this season for the Croatian club KK Cibona. He declared for the draft in 2013, only to withdraw before the deadline to do so. He has until April 27th to change his mind about the Turkish contract and enter this year’s draft.
LaQuinton Ross Declares For Draft
FRIDAY, 2:11pm: Ohio State has formally announced that Ross is headed for the draft this year.
3:27pm: The announcement has been delayed until Friday, Zagoria hears (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 12:06pm: Ohio State has a statement ready and will likely announce today that Ross is headed for the draft, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
MONDAY, 3:29pm: Ross says via Twitter that he has yet to make up his mind about whether to enter the draft (hat tip to Connor Kiesel of Fox Sports Ohio).
2:13pm: Ohio State small forward LaQuinton Ross will declare his intent to enter this year’s draft, sources tell Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Ross is not to be confused with former NBA player Quinton Ross, whose name was in headlines today after the New York Post incorrectly identified him as the victim of an apparent murder. The Buckeye standout just completed his junior season, but there’s a wide split on how well he’ll perform in the NBA. Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks him 32nd overall among this year’s prospects, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him at No. 65.
Ross became a starter at Ohio State just this season, putting up 15.2 points and 5.9 rebounds in 29.0 minutes per game. He was a career 36.4% three-point shooter, though he finished two for 21 behind the arc over his last eight games. Still, he has an impressive background, having been the top prospect of the 2011 high school class in the eyes of many recruiting analysts, as Givony points out.
The 21-year-old Ross found himself behind Deshaun Thomas, the 58th overall pick in last year’s draft, on the Ohio State depth chart after academic issues delayed the start of his collegiate career. His college playing days met an apparent end Thursday when the Buckeyes lost their opener in the NCAA tournament.
Coaching Rumors: D’Antoni, Warriors, Stotts
Mike D’Antoni was exasperated when reporters asked him Thursday about an ESPN.com report that Marshall University, his alma mater, wants him to coach its team. He appeared to downplay the idea, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News observes, but he didn’t completely dismiss it.
“I hear from them all the time,” D’Antoni said. “I’m the head of their capital [fundraising] campaign. I’m close friends to them. Whatever they need, I try to do. But who knows.”
It’s obvious that D’Antoni would prefer to coach the Lakers, Medina writes, though his continued employment in L.A. is uncertain, given his unpopularity with Kobe Bryant and other Lakers players. Here’s more on the coaching market:
- Steve Kerr “could make Warriors owner Joe Lacob’s dreams come true” if the team lets go of coach Mark Jackson in the offseason, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link). Lacob held Kerr in high regard as an executive when Kerr left his post as Suns GM in 2010, as Amick notes in a second tweet. Grantland’s Zach Lowe also believes that Kerr could be in the mix to coach the Warriors (on Twitter).
- The Warriors would be unlikely to seek a big-name, established coach, tweets Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Warriors brass wanted more of an X’s-and-O’s coach to take over as lead assistant when Michael Malone left, but Jackson, who’s sensitive to the notion he’s not strong at in-game tactics, chose Pete Myers instead, Kawakami writes in a full piece.
- The Blazers and Terry Stotts haven’t had any talks about an extension, nor have they discussed the team picking up its 2014/15 option on his contract, according to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com, who explains that it’s no surprise. GM Neil Olshey has a longstanding policy against negotiating contracts during the season, Haynes writes. Olshey, then Clippers GM, retained Vinny Del Negro when he was at precisely the same point in his contract in which Stotts now finds himself.
Kings Sign Willie Reed
FRIDAY, 11:26am: The Kings have signed Reed to a deal for the rest of the season, the team announced. The team’s statement doesn’t make mention of it being a multiyear arrangement, as had previously been reported, so perhaps it only covers the balance of 2013/14. In any case, the team has also assigned Reed to the D-League, as Pilato reported they would.
THURSDAY, 6:24pm: The move was made in part to help the Reno Bighorns (Sacramento’s NBDL affiliate) as they make a late season push for the playoffs, reports Gino Pilato of DLeagueDigest. As Pilato explains, there is a rule that states that if an NBA team assigns any player called up within 21 days of the end of the NBA regular season or at any subsequent point during the NBDL regular season or playoffs, the player will return to the D-League team that he was previously playing for.
The Kings barely made the deadline to sign Reed with the option of sending him to their own affiliate, and that’s exactly what the team plans on doing, a source tells Pilato.
9:08am: The Kings are signing D-Leaguer Willie Reed for the rest of the season, agent Joel Bell tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The team has yet to make an official announcement. Charania’s full story indicates that the deal includes a team option for 2014/15, though I suspect that’s simply a non-guaranteed season, since team options are rare outside of rookie scale contracts.
Reed also inked a multiyear deal with Memphis in mid-April last year, but he never made it into a game, and the Grizzlies cut him and his non-guaranteed contract in training camp this past autumn. Reed appears to represent Plan B for the Kings, who were reportedly set to sign Chris Johnson on Wednesday before the deal fell through.
The 6’9″ Reed has been playing with the D-League affiliate of the Nets this season, averaging 14.8 points and 10.1 rebounds in 31.8 minutes per contest. Rebounding is his most significant area of improvement over last year, when he averaged 7.8 per contest in similar minutes for the same D-League club.
The Kings gave Reed his first NBA contract in 2012, but he failed to make the team out of camp. Still, Sacramento is high on his activity and athleticism, Charania notes, though most of the team’s management has changed since Reed’s first stint with the Kings.
Zach LaVine To Declare For Draft
UCLA shooting guard Zach LaVine will enter this year’s NBA draft, his father tells Jack Wang of the Los Angeles Daily News. The freshman is the second Bruin to disclose his intent to turn pro, after Kyle Anderson did so late Thursday night following UCLA’s loss in the NCAA tournament. Lavine is No. 27 in Chad Ford’s rankings at ESPN.com, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him 36th.
LaVine wasn’t on Givony’s preseason list of the top 100 prospects, but he zipped up draft boards early this season, mirroring his rapid ascent in the eyes of recruiters late in his high school career. Still, he slumped down the stretch, shooting just 23.5% from the floor over his last seven games. He was UCLA’s sixth man this season and his shots were limited, as he averaged just 9.4 points and 7.8 field goal attempts in 24.4 minutes per contest.
He, Anderson and Jordan Adams are all UCLA perimeter players who could wind up as first-round draft picks in June, though it’s unclear whether Adams, a sophomore, will follow the other two into the draft this year. The 6’5″ Lavine, who just turned 19 earlier this month, is capable of playing both guard spots, and he has a height advantage at the point.
Thunder Re-Sign Reggie Williams To 10-Day Deal
The Thunder have signed Reggie Williams to a second 10-day contract, the team announced. Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman first reported the news via Twitter. Williams was with Oklahoma City earlier this month, but when his first 10-day contract expired, the team gave his roster spot to Mustafa Shakur, who signed a 10-day contract of his own, as our tracker shows. Shakur’s deal expired Tuesday, and it looks like the club has turned back to Williams, at least for now.
The 27-year-old Williams saw just five minutes of action in his first stint with Oklahoma City, his only NBA burn this year after having been a part of the league for the previous four seasons. The Rockets cut him before opening night even though his minimum-salary contract was 50% guaranteed, and the Bulls and the Grizzlies had interest in him earlier in the season. The swingman has spent most of 2013/14 with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate, and he returned to the Tulsa 66ers after his first 10-day deal expired. He averaged 20.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game with 35.5% three-point shooting in the D-League this year.
The return of the Interperformances client gives the Thunder a full 15-man roster, though bringing Williams back on another 10-day affords the club a bit of flexibility between now and the end of the season.
Kyle Anderson To Enter Draft
Versatile UCLA sophomore Kyle Anderson has decided to enter this year’s NBA draft, his father tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Anderson played point guard for the Bruins this season, but he appears more equipped to play small forward or power forward in the NBA. He’s the 20th-rated prospect on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress list, and he’s No. 24 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
The 20-year-old led UCLA in rebounds (8.8) and assists per game (6.5), and his 14.6 points per contest were second to fellow potential first-round pick Jordan Adams. He showed significant improvement over his performance as a freshman, allowing him to surge from 79th in Givony’s preseason rankings. Critics most often point to his lack of athleticism, though he compensates for that with his wide range of skills.
UCLA’s season ended Thursday with a loss to Florida in the NCAA tournament. Anderson has until April 15th to withdraw and return to the Bruins.