And-Ones: Durant, Noah, LeBron, Draft
Kevin Durant fielded the first direct questions in more than two months about his upcoming free agency today as the Thunder prepare to play the Knicks in New York, and his answers revealed little, with mostly boilerplate responses surrounding his sentiments for playing at Madison Square Garden, as The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater transcribes. Still, he dismissed the notion that a large market would be any better for his business profile than small-market Oklahoma City and said his main focus is on the court, anyway. He spoke fondly of New York basketball culture, but that’s standard fare, as Durant himself essentially suggested.
“They link everybody with New York City,” Durant said, according to Slater’s transcription. “One of the greatest cities in the world. They link everybody with this city. So it’s not a bad thing. Great city. Great place to visit, great place to live, I’m sure. They link everybody, it’s not just me.”
See more from around the NBA:
- Joakim Noah, another soon-to-be free agent, hopes he’ll be back with the Bulls next season, as he told reporters, including Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com (Twitter link). It’s not uncommon for players to say that about their incumbent teams as they approach free agency, but he has reportedly been displeased with how the team has viewed him this year, one in which he played mostly in a backup role before suffering a shoulder injury that’s likely to have ended his season.
- Heat minority share owner Ranaan Katz is among those who say that LeBron James engineered the firing of former Cavaliers coach David Blatt, adding that James tried and failed to oust Erik Spoelstra when they were together in Miami, according to international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Spoelstra is currently the NBA’s second longest-tenured coach.
- Ben Simmons goes to the Sixers, Brandon Ingram to the Lakers and Dragan Bender to the Celtics in the top three picks of the latest mock draft from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
Eastern Rumors: Love, Smith, Valanciunas
The Cavaliers are not engaged in trade talks involving power forward Kevin Love, GM David Griffin said Monday during a radio interview, according to ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst. Love’s production has dropped since point guard Kyrie Irving returned to the lineup last month following his recovery from a knee injury. But Griffin believes he won’t find a deal for Love that would improve their chances of winning the title, Windhorst adds. “You’d have to go a long way to convince me that we’re a better team winning in the Finals without a player like Kevin on our team,” Griffin said on ESPN 850 AM in Cleveland. “We’ve never once put together an offer involving Kevin, nor have we taken a call on an offer for Kevin.”
In other news around the Eastern Conference:
- Sixers GM Sam Hinkie should have been fired long ago for the way he’s gone about rebuilding the team, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Dick Jerardi opines. Hinkie should have never drafted injured center Joel Embiid or acquired the rights to power forward Dario Saric, who is still in Europe, Jerardi explains. He also left coach Brett Brown without a competent point guard this season until Jerry Colangelo was added to the front office and Ish Smith was re-acquired from the Pelicans, Jerardi continues. All the first-round picks that Hinkie has stockpiled are just a marketing ploy, Jerardi adds.
- Smith’s impact on the Sixers shows up in advanced statistics, as Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders demonstrates. In the first 14 games Smith has played with the Sixers this season, their offense has scored 98.5 points per 100 possessions, compared to a league-worst 91.8 points per 100 possessions prior to his arrival, Taylor points out. The defense has also shown improvement, allowing 102.9 points per 100 possessions, which is 10th in the league since December 26th, Taylor adds. “I think we’re growing up – knowing what are good shots and what are bad shots, knowing the defensive schemes, what Coach [Brown] what really wants for us,” Smith told Taylor. “Offensively, moving the ball [and] playing off of each other. I think just overall, we’re playing good basketball.”
- Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas has shown improved passing skills this month, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun reports. Valanciunas averaged 1.7 assists in the team’s first 10 games this month, compared to his 0.5 average last season. “Our key of success is moving the ball, so I just want to be part of it,” Valanciunas told Wolstat. “I don’t want to just be the guy who is holding the ball too much. I’m trying to make everybody happy.”
David Blatt Top Priority In Nets Coaching Search?
David Blatt is “priority one” for the Nets as they seek a new head coach, a source told Russia’s TASS news agency, which identifies the fired Cavs coach as one of the leading candidates for the Brooklyn coaching vacancy. Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders first reported that the Nets are interested in Blatt, though Fred Kerber of the New York Post this weekend referred instead to Tom Thibodeau, reportedly an object of strong interest from the team, as Brooklyn’s probable top target. Regardless, owner Mikhail Prokhorov reportedly wants to hire a GM before he hires a coach, and the team’s goal is apparently to have a GM in place before the February 18th trade deadline.
Blatt has also been linked to the Lakers and Timberwolves, but those teams appear committed to Byron Scott and Sam Mitchell, respectively, through at least the end of the season. Tony Brown has been serving as the interim coach of the Nets since the team canned Lionel Hollins earlier this month. TASS correctly predicted, after one of its reporters spent time in Brooklyn with Nets management, that the team would fire Hollins once it found a replacement for him, though the Nets denied the story, as NetsDaily points out. Prokhorov, like TASS, is from Russia, and Blatt used to coach the Russian national team, which has received significant financial backing from Prokhorov in the past, as NetsDaily also notes.
Earlier reports have linked the Nets to Luke Walton, John Calipari, Monty Williams and, more loosely, Chris Mullin, but Mikhail Prokhorov has so far reportedly balked at Calipari’s price tag. The owner has also expressed a preference for a separate GM and coach, which runs counter to the dual role that the Kentucky coach would apparently seek.
Central Notes: Blatt, LeBron, Dunleavy, Boatright
David Blatt‘s camp believes that LeBron James was the sole catalyst for the Cavs coaching change, and the belief is much more than simply a fringe theory among people around the league, reports TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip for NBA.com. Still, plenty of other reasons for Blatt’s dismissal exist, including the team’s poor performance against top Western Conference contenders and the need for immediate results, that suggest that the team isn’t simply serving LeBron’s wishes, Aldridge contends. Regardless, the Cavs cast Blatt back onto the job market, and while the Timberwolves have been linked to Blatt, the team has no intention of pursuing him for a job on interim coach Sam Mitchell‘s staff, league sources tell Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Twitter link). See more from the Central Division:
- Mike Dunleavy is targeting a return sometime next month from the back injury that’s kept him out all season so far, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. He’s essentially at the same point in his recovery that he was before suffering a setback in late November, but he’s more confident this time that he’ll be able to take the final steps toward getting back to game action for the Bulls, according to Johnson.
- Ryan Boatright impressed with the Nets during the preseason, but he didn’t carry that level of performance over to his tenure with the D-League affiliate of the Pistons, which waived him last week. Boatright is now poised to sign with Orlandina of Italy, La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. The Pistons briefly had Boatright on their NBA roster on the fall, a maneuver designed to secure his D-League rights.
- The Pacers have recalled Shayne Whittington from the D-League, the team announced. He’s played in just two games at the NBA level this season but has appeared in 19 contests for Indiana’s D-League affiliate after re-signing with the Pacers this past summer.
Eastern Notes: Thibodeau, Allen, Durant, Sixers
The Cavs would have given strong consideration to hiring Tom Thibodeau if they’d made a coaching change this past summer, a league source told Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com, but now, management has faith in Tyronn Lue, McMenamin writes. They’ve seen him manage to remain loyal to David Blatt while developing relationships of his own with the team’s stars, and they’re confident that Lue will command a level of effort from the team that they believe wasn’t always present under Blatt, McMenamin adds. See more from the Eastern Conference:
- The Heat have had a standing offer to Ray Allen since the 2014 offseason, but he remains unmoved and that’s no surprise, given his frustration with the team during the 2013/14 season, his last one in Miami and last to date in the NBA, writes Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald. All of the former teammates and other acquaintances of Allen’s to whom Skolnick has spoken expect him to remain out of the game, though Allen said this past summer that he had no plans to officially retire.
- Agents from around the league insist that the Nets are “in the mix” for soon-to-be free agent Kevin Durant, even though they look like long shots, writes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com. Durant’s free agency, expected to be one of the major storylines of the 2015/16, has largely been a backburner issue in large measure because Durant has spoken little about it and has rarely given any indication that he wants to leave the Thunder.
- Meddling from owners who aren’t basketball personnel experts is most damaging when it affects draft decisions, which is why a report that Sixers ownership was worried about how fans would react to Kristaps Porzingis and pushed the team to draft someone else instead is troublesome, contends Derek Bodner of Philadelphia magazine. Sixers CEO Scott O’Neil says the report isn’t true, however (Twitter link).
And-Ones: Cavs, Wiggins, Nets
The Cavs will add veteran assistant Mike Longabardi to new head coach Tyronn Lue‘s staff, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports. Lue and Longabardi spent four seasons together on Doc Rivers‘ staff in Boston, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic notes (on Twitter). Longabardi is expected to take over the defensive specialist role that Lue held, Windhorst adds. The Suns fired Longabardi, who is known as a defensive specialist, from his role as assistant coach in late December.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Andrew Wiggins has not spoke candidly about his feelings regarding the Cavs, the team that shipped him to the Wolves as part of the deal for Kevin Love, and instead has preferred to let his play speak for itself, Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune writes. Wiggins has performed particularly well against the Cavs, as Youngblood points out.
- One of the top assistants in the league, like Sean Sweeney of the Bucks, would be a sensible fit for the Nets‘ coaching vacancy because it would be wise for Brooklyn to avoid the long term implications of a flashy hire, Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders argues.
- Center Salah Mejri, who was recently coming off the bench in the D-League, found himself starting for the Mavs in place of the injured Zaza Pachulia and is making the most out of his opportunity, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News relays.
- Arinze Onuaku, who was with the Wolves at the end of last season, will be signing with the D-League, international journalist David Pick reports (on Twitter). Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv released Onuaku, Pick adds.
Eastern Notes: Blatt, Anderson, Hawks
Echoing the sentiment expressed by many around the league, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra expressed concern and seemed shocked over the firing of former Cavs coach David Blatt, of the Miami Herald relays. It is uncommon for Spoelstra to make any sort of comment that has any connection to LeBron James, as Skolnick points out.
“It’s very disturbing for the coaching profession,” Spoelstra said. “Look, you have to be able to go through collective adversity and accountability together, for you to make strides, and have breakthroughs in this league. It’s really a shame. He had an incredible run, a great record. It just doesn’t make any sense to any of the coaches around the league, and hopefully it doesn’t make sense to a lot of people in our league.”
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Alan Anderson, who has yet to play for the Wizards after signing a one-year, $4MM deal in the offseason, has increased his workload and that suggests his first full practice with Washington is not too far away, J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com details. Anderson is still wearing a soft cast, however.
- The Sixers are 5-8 and have experienced an uptick in scoring since acquiring Ish Smith and Celtics coach Brad Stevens isn’t surprised the point guard has provided Philadelphia a lift, Kevin O’Connor of CSNNE.com relays. “He’s always been a guy that gives people fits because of his speed and because of his ability to get inside the teeth of the defense,” Stevens said to reporters Sunday. “He’s really ignited their offense here. That’s clear.”
- Hawks point guard Jeff Teague attributed his down season, which he is experiencing one year after he made his first All-Star appearance, to an ankle injury, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Teague has lacked consistency and over the past seven games he has 34 assists and 18 turnovers, Vivlamore points out.
Central Notes: Cavs, Bulls, Pistons
Knicks reserve center Louis Amundson, who spent time with the Cavs last season, in citing a poor locker room atmosphere, wasn’t overly surprised that Cleveland fired coach David Blatt, Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. Amundson said Blatt lacked the experience of coaching in the NBA, which he added is necessary to succeed. The Knicks’ locker room felt more like a team than the Cavs’ to Amundson, Berman writes.
“It didn’t feel like it should feel,’’ Amundson said. “A team with championship aspirations, that’s not how it was supposed to feel. Teams go through ups and downs, but I just think the atmosphere and energy wasn’t there. It wasn’t a healthy atmosphere. Teams go through issues, but it still feels you work through stuff being productive. In that disagreement, it didn’t feel like that. But they did manage to get it together.’’
Here’s more out of the Central Division:
- Taj Gibson is the most likely player to be traded from the Bulls because Chicago would already have a replacement in rookie Bobby Portis, Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com details (Insider subscription required). It is still unclear if the Bulls view themselves as buyers or sellers as the trade deadline nears, Doolittle adds. If Chicago is looking to add, Luol Deng or Joe Johnson would be sensible targets, Doolittle writes. With Joakim Noah out with an injury, he is almost certainly off the market, according to Doolittle.
- It isn’t crazy to think that the Pistons will be playing in their own arena in downtown Detroit in less than 10 years, David Mayo of MLive opines. Pistons owner Tom Gores confirmed last week that such a move is being considered, but everything is still in the preliminary stage. In the short-term, however, the Pistons are committed to The Palace of Auburn Hills because they own it debt-free and attendance has been consistent, Mayo writes.
Eastern Notes: Knicks, Cavs, Jackson
Lou Amundson wasn’t surprised when he heard the news of Cleveland’s firing of coach David Blatt, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. “It’s hard for a rookie coach to come in and be in a situation like that where one guy [LeBron James] is such a big influence on a whole organization,’’ said Amundson, who was with the Cavs last season before being traded to the Knicks. “It didn’t feel like it should feel. A team with championship aspirations, that’s not how it was supposed to feel. Teams go through ups and downs, but I just think the atmosphere and energy wasn’t there. It wasn’t a healthy atmosphere.”
As people along the East Coast shovel their sidewalks and dig out their cars as a result of the snow from Blizzard Jonas, stay warm and check out some notes from the Eastern Conference:
- Derek Fisher isn’t surprised that his former teammate, Tyronn Lue, was promoted to head coach, Berman adds in the same piece. “I think relationships are his strong point,” Fisher said. “He communicates well and is clear and articulates what he wants and expects. I think he’ll do a good job. I’m very happy for him, even though it’s an unfortunate situation for coach Blatt.’’
- The record-setting five year, $60MM deal that the Knicks handed team president Phil Jackson is paying dividends, Berman argues in a separate piece. Berman cites the team’s drafting of Kristaps Porzingis and the rookie’s ability to mesh with star Carmelo Anthony in Jackson’s infamous triangle offense as reason for optimism.
- Back in July, Jackson was adamant that new addition Robin Lopez would be a better fit for the Knicks than Greg Monroe, and the prediction is turning out to be correct, Berman contends in that same piece. Monroe chose to sign with the Bucks last summer rather than signing with New York.
Cavs Notes: Lue, James, Smith
The Cavs lost to the Bulls on Saturday night and Cleveland’s new coach Tyronn Lue had some sharp words for his team, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. “I don’t think we’re in good enough shape,” Lue said. “I think early, we wanted to push it, we wanted to open the floor, and I think we came out and did that, and then I think we just dropped off the map. I think we got tired. I just don’t think we’re in good enough shape right now to play in the style that we want to play.”
The team understands the criticism and the players are embracing the first time head coach. “Got to get used to that pace that coach Lue wants us to play at,” Kyrie Irving said. “It’s exciting, it’s an exciting brand of basketball that is tailor-fitted for the players that we have on our team.”
“Yup, we got to get in better shape,” LeBron James added. “Coach wanted to play faster, so we need to start doing stuff on off days, doing stuff at practice, during shootarounds, getting up and down the floor, getting our heart rate going, because he wants to play faster, play with more pace than we’ve done in the past. Try to get up and down the court before the defense is set on us. So we all need to be in better shape.”
Here’s more out of Cleveland:
- J.R. Smith has been cleared of wrongdoing in the alleged choking incident outside of a New York night club back in November, Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. “After a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding this case, we have concluded that the evidence does not support criminal charges against Mr. Smith,” Patrick Muncie, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said. Haynes notes that the Cavs believed all along that Smith would be exonerated.
- James shouldn’t be considered a coach killer, Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal opines. While Ridenour admits that the firings of Paul Silas and Mike Brown were decisions that owner Dan Gilbert likely made to appease James, she argues that the coaches that Gilbert has hired in first place have simply been poor choices for the team.