NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 1/14/17
Here are the D-League transactions for the day:
10:32pm:
- The Spurs recalled guard Bryn Forbes from their D-League affiliate in Austin before today’s game with the Suns.
- The Lakers sent center Ivica Zubac to the D-Fenders following their afternoon game, giving him a chance to play for both teams in the same day, tweets Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News.
2:56pm:
- The Warriors recalled Kevon Looney and Patrick McCaw from their D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, the team has announced in a press release. Both were assigned on Friday. In a victory over Salt Lake City, Looney dropped 18 points and 20 rebounds.
- The Rockets have assigned rookie center Chinanu Onuaku to their D-League affiliate, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Onuaku has averaged 11.8 points and 10.5 rebounds in 19 games for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers so far this season.
- The Cavaliers have assigned point guard Kay Felder to the D-League, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The rookie expected to be back with the big league club as soon as Sunday.
- After clearing waivers last week, former Hawks forward Ryan Kelly has rejoined the Maine Red Claws, tweets Chris Reichert of The Step Back. Kelly was called up by the Hawks before suiting up for Maine, but they still held his returning rights.
Cavs Send $750K To Hawks In Kyle Korver Deal
- The Cavaliers are sending $750K in cash to the Hawks as part of the Kyle Korver trade, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. As our Salary Cap Snapshot for the Cavs shows, the team has now sent out cash in three separate trades during the 2016/17 league year. Cleveland is eligible to send out another $750K.
Cavs GM Talks Korver, Roster, Trade Possibilities
Speaking to reporters for the first time since completing the trade that sent Mike Dunleavy, Mo Williams, and a first-round pick to Atlanta for Kyle Korver, Cavaliers general manager David Griffin admitted that his club had been eyeing the veteran sharpshooter for a while. According to Griffin, the Cavs looked into landing Korver last season, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.
During his conversation with reporters, Griffin also addressed LeBron James‘ recent public comments about Cleveland needing a point guard and a backup big man. Although he agrees with James on the subject of a point guard, Griffin isn’t convinced that the current roster needs more frontcourt depth. As the GM observed, the Cavs are often at their best when they’re using a smaller lineup with the Finals MVP at the four, reducing the need to add more traditional bigs to the lineup.
Here are a few more of Griffin’s most notable comments from the presser, via McMenamin and Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
On potentially adding a “playmaker” rather than simply targeting a backup point guard:
“It’s something where we’re all pretty keenly aware that it would help take some burden off of Kyrie [Irving] and LeBron as our primary playmaker, so if we could get somebody else that could do it … and it really doesn’t even have to be a point guard; it’s just we need playmaking. … Obviously [Tyronn Lue] has done some creative things with Kevin Love to make offense run through him as well. But all season long, we’ve known we need more playmaking and just more intelligence at times on the floor in terms of the decision-making. We’ll continue to try to improve.”
On using their $9.6MM traded player exception (expiring 2/18/17) to acquire Korver, reducing its value to $4.4MM and creating two new TPEs, when the team could’ve held onto the full $9.6MM TPE instead:
“The reason we did it is it’s highly unlikely a team that’s running our cap and tax numbers is going to be able to use the full bandwidth of that number ($9.6MM), and the number of players that fit was really small in terms of people we had any realistic expectation we could acquire. We wanted to do something where we reset the deck with a couple [trade exceptions] that were going to be usable for another year.
“It gives us the most flexibility that we can have moving forward into the summer. We’ve got a couple other [trade exceptions] that are going to expire in July. With the minimum [salaries] changing and everything else moving forward, it’s going to be hard to use those small ones because I think they are probably going to be smaller than minimum, but [team counsel] Tony Leotti and [planning director] Brock Aller are just amazing with what they do and everything with cap space. Essentially that was their creation.”
On the fact that not many teams currently view themselves as sellers:
“The teams that are identified as sellers probably didn’t have what fit us real well, so I think there are far fewer opportunities right now to make trades than there have been in the past for our team, just in terms of fit. … Hopefully that picture clears itself up a little bit by the trade deadline. Maybe some teams that are still playing for right now may end up being in a situation where they start to set the deck for the future, but we need more teams to be out of the playoff picture to really be able to get business done.”
Shumpert To Replace Liggins In Starting Lineup
- The Cavaliers will insert Iman Shumpert into the starting lineup in place of DeAndre Liggins, says Sam Amico of NEO Sports Insiders. Liggins and Shumpert have shared time at the position since starter J.R. Smith broke his thumb.
Stein’s Latest: Rockets, Cavaliers, Blazers, Pistons
ESPN.com’s Marc Stein takes a swing at picking the All-Star starters from each conference and passes along some trade rumors in his latest column. He lists four teams that could be active with the deadline less than six weeks away:
- The Rockets‘ hopes of acquiring Mike Dunleavy Jr. fell through this week when the Hawks committed to keeping him, but Houston is still looking for another shooter. GM Daryl Morey tried to get involved when Atlanta was searching for a third team in its deal with Cleveland, and he had interest in acquiring Dunleavy when it looked like he might not report to the Hawks. Sources tell Stein that K.J. McDaniels has surpassed Corey Brewer as the Rocket most likely to be traded. McDaniels has one season left on his current deal at more than $3.3MM, while Brewer is signed for one more more season at $7.6MM.
- The Cavaliers have $4.4MM left from their Anderson Varejao trade exception, which will expire February 20th. That means a trade for a backup point guard may be just as likely as a veteran free agent signing such as Mario Chalmers, Jarrett Jack or Norris Cole.
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has moved ahead of Reggie Jackson on the list of untouchable Pistons in possible trades. Caldwell-Pope is now atop that list alongside Andre Drummond. Detroit is well below .500 since Jackson returned from tendinitis in his left knee in early December. Jackson, whose 5.5 assists per game are the lowest during his time in Detroit, still has three seasons and more than $51MM left on his current deal.
- Three Trail Blazers who signed huge offseason deals will become eligible to be traded on Sunday. Keep an eye on whether Portland tries to unload some of the salary it committed to Allen Crabbe, Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard.
Adding Point Guard Remains Top Priority
Acquiring a veteran backup point guard will be the next move the Cavaliers make, but there could be others in store, Joe Vardon of the Cleveland Plain Dealer speculates in his latest mailbag column. The team doesn’t trust that rookie Kay Felder can run the offense and defend for 8-12 minutes in postseason games as Kyrie Irving‘s backup, pushing the need for a backup point to the top of the wish list, Vardon continues. The club would also like to add another big man and perhaps an additional wing player, Vardon continues. GM David Griffin could open up roster spots by dumping the contract of injured Chris Andersen and moving a bench player like Jordan McRae for a draft pick, Vardon adds.
Cavs Create Trade Exceptions With Korver Deal
- In the aftermath of the Korver trader, the $9.6MM trade exception that the Cavaliers gained in the trade that sent Anderson Varejao to the Trail Blazers last February has been reduced to $4.4MM, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical tweets. That exception will expire on February 20, Wojnarowski continues. The Cavs created two more exceptions worth $4.8MM and $2.2MM in the deal that also shipped Mo Williams and a protected 2019 first-round pick to Atlanta. Those exceptions will expire on February 7, 2018, Wojnarowski adds.
Mike Dunleavy Jr. labelled reports that indicated he wanted a buyout from the Hawks “pretty inaccurate” and believes he’ll fit right in with the team, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports. The Hawks were hoping to find another team for the 36-year-old swingman when he was included in the deal that delivered sharpshooter Kyle Korver to the Cavaliers, Vivlamore continues. Dunleavy has since received assurances from coach Mike Budenholzer that he’ll get some playing time, though he will not immediately become part of the rotation. “I fit in as far as the way I play,” Dunleavy told Vivlamore. “I move, cut, shoot, pass. That’s the way this team is structured. It’s not a matter of what are you going to do for me or how am I going to fit in. It didn’t take much explaining.”
GM David Griffin's Contract Expires At Season's End
Within a piece exploring a handful of David Griffin‘s underappreciated moves for the Cavaliers, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com writes that the Cavs general manager will get right back to work after consummating a pair of deals last week. Having landed a veteran sharpshooter in Kyle Korver, Griffin will move on to the next item on the team’s wish list: a backup point guard.
Here’s more out of the Central on the Cavs and some of their division rivals:
Within a piece exploring a handful of David Griffin‘s underappreciated moves for the Cavaliers, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com writes that the Cavs general manager will get right back to work after consummating a pair of deals last week. Having landed a veteran sharpshooter in Kyle Korver, Griffin will move on to the next item on the team’s wish list: a backup point guard.
Perhaps more interestingly, Windhorst also passes along a detail on Griffin’s contract, reporting that it’s set to expire at season’s end. Given the fact that he won a championship last year and has built a roster that looks capable of contending for years to come, Griffin shouldn’t be in any danger at all, so it will be interesting to see if he and the Cavaliers work out an extension anytime soon.
- Korver didn’t have a memorable debut for the Cavaliers on Tuesday night, scoring just two points in 18 minutes. Still, he’s excited about his new home, calling Cleveland the “most talented team I’ve ever been on,” as Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal details. LeBron James gave some advice to his new teammate this week, telling Korver he wants to see him shoot early and often, per Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com.
Timofey Mozgov Admits He Misses Cleveland
- Few players made out better on the free agent market in 2016 than Timofey Mozgov, who parlayed a championship win with the Cavaliers into a four-year, $64MM deal from the Lakers. However, as Matt Medley of NEO Sports Insiders relays, Mozgov admits in a conversation with 60smol.com that he misses Cleveland.
Cavs Notes: Korver, Liggins, McRae
The Cavs figure to make at least one or two more transactions before the playoffs begin in April after acquiring Kyle Korver Saturday in a trade, Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal writes. It was a shrewd deal for the Cavs because the game has evolved into focusing more on small-ball and relying on three-pointers, Lloyd surmises. Trading a future first-round pick for a veteran comes with risk, especially since LeBron James could bolt in the 2018 summer, Lloyd cautions.
Here is more out of Cleveland:
- Korver is with the Cavs in Phoenix for the game against the Suns, but cannot play or be on the bench because Mike Dunleavy Jr.‘s physical hasn’t been completed yet, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com reports (ESPN NOW link). The Cavs hope the medicals will be completed by Monday so that Korver can go through his first practice with the team, McMenamin adds.
- There was virtually no chance DeAndre Liggins would have been waived prior to his salary becoming fully guaranteed Saturday, but Jordan McRae‘s situation wasn’t as predictable, Joe Vardon of Northeast Ohio Media Group relays. The Cavs kept both players; they’re salaries are approximately $1MM each. While Liggins is a starter as a top-notch defender, McRae was a fringe rotation player and the latter’s chances of staying on the Cavs grew when Mo Williams was traded, as Vardon explains. Cleveland could’ve waived McRae to avoid paying his full salary (along with the tax penalty on his salary) and freed up a roster spot, as Vardon notes.