Grizzlies Notes: Joerger, Wallace, Hollinger
Jason Levien is no longer CEO of the Grizzlies, but he does retain a small minority ownership share of the team, as Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal notes via Twitter. It’s just one piece of an odd-looking puzzle in the wake of the Grizzlies’ announcement Monday that Levien and assistant GM Stu Lash are no longer at the controls. Calkins gives a fuller picture in a pair of subscription only pieces, pointing out that owner Robert Pera only let one of the Grizzlies’ multitude of minority owners, other than Levien, know about the shakeup ahead of time. Joe Nicosia and Pitt Hyde, speaking for a group of Memphis-based minority owners, issued a press release minutes ago.
“We would like to thank Jason for his contributions to Memphis and wish him well in his future endeavors,” the statement reads. “We fully support Robert in his building of a world-class organization and look forward to continuing to work in concert to achieve our ultimate goal of bringing a championship parade down Beale Street. We are confident that as the 2014/15 season draws near, all of Grizz Nation will share in our excitement regarding the future of this organization.”
Here’s more from Calkins’ pieces:
- Coach Dave Joerger hasn’t met with Pera, but he did meet with Pera’s attorney, Joe Abadi, who assured him that he’ll remain as coach, according to Calkins.
- The last time GM Chris Wallace set foot in the Grizzlies offices was last summer, as he tells Calkins. Wallace had been marginalized under Levien’s regime.
- Wallace is fully confident that vice president of basketball operations John Hollinger will stay with the organization after speaking with him, as Wallace tells Calkins, and the organization would like to retain the former ESPN.com writer, Calkins adds. Still, Calkins casts doubt on Hollinger’s willingness to stick around.
- Neither Levien, Lash or Joerger saw Monday’s developments coming, Calkins hears.
- Calkins’ sources are split on whether Levien’s rancorous history as part of the Sixers and Kings organizations repeated itself in Memphis, leading Pera to oust him.
- Levien’s supporters allege that David Mincberg, whom Levien hired as a protege of sorts, helped force Levien out, Calkins reports.
Bucks Rumors: Mayo, Stauskas, Young, LaVine
The new owners of the Bucks have broached the subject of a front office purge, but it appears unlikely they’ll follow the path of Grizzlies owner Robert Pera and oust GM John Hammond and assistant GM David Morway this year, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote earlier today. We’ll pass along more from Milwaukee here:
- The Bucks would be willing to trade O.J. Mayo, but finding fair value will be a tall order, given the two years and $16MM remaining on his contract, according to Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. It’s unclear whether the team is actively shopping the 26-year-old, or if he’s just one of many Bucks who aren’t off-limits to a deal.
- Still, Milwaukee is almost certain to draft a shooting guard, even if it entails acquiring a pick via trade to select one, Woelfel writes, adding that the team is eyeing Nik Stauskas, James Young, Zach LaVine, Joe Harris, Jabari Brown and Devyn Marble.
- There’s a distinct chance that whomever Milwaukee selects with its lottery pick, and perhaps to a lesser degree, its trio of second-rounders, won’t be pleased, as Mark Heisler of Forbes.com details. “What the Clippers used to be, that’s what the Bucks are now,” an NBA GM told Heisler. “The place every agent says, ‘I don’t want my player there.’”
Charlotte Officially Adopts Hornets Nickname
The Charlotte Bobcats have officially become the Charlotte Hornets, the team announced in a press conference today. The franchise will assume the statistical history of the original Charlotte Hornets from 1988 through 2002, when they moved to New Orleans, and those records will also encompass everything the Bobcats did from their inception in 2004. The franchise unveiled its new website and Twitter feed with the Hornets nickname.
So, Hoops Rumors will refer to the team as the Hornets from now on. You can find a link to our Hornets rumors page on the right sidebar, just as you can do with every NBA team, and we’ve updated our Facebook and Twitter feeds, too.
Lowe’s Latest: Bucks, Knicks, Grizzlies, Pelicans
Grantland’s Zach Lowe looks at instability in the executive suite, profiling the NBA’s six most volatile front offices in the wake of yesterday’s shakeup in Memphis. As usual, Lowe’s work is required reading, but we’ll hit some highlights here:
- Bucks owners Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens have held preliminary talks about potential replacements for GM John Hammond and assistant GM David Morway, but the more likely outcome appears to be that they stay for at least one more year, Lowe writes.
- Former Raptors and Suns GM Bryan Colangelo is open to once more becoming an NBA GM, Lowe hears, but that’s no surprise, given that he was reportedly a candidate for the Cavs and Pistons front office searches. Lowe mentions him within his look at the Bucks, which is coincidental given an earlier report that linked him to an ownership group looking to buy the franchise when it was for sale. Still, it doesn’t appear as though there’s any particular link between the Bucks and Colangelo at this point.
- The Knicks will likely hire someone within the next year to replace Steve Mills as general manager and shunt Mills off into some other role with the organization, according to Lowe.
- Some high-level executives on teams around the league hadn’t heard about Grizzlies attorney David Mincberg, who’s reportedly assumed some power in the basketball operations department, Lowe hears.
- The job of Memphis GM Chris Wallace, whom the team has restored to a prominent role after the departures of CEO Jason Levien and assistant GM Stu Lash, is safe “until he wants to leave,” Lowe writes.
- There have been few reports alleging that GM Dell Demps is on shaky ground to return next year, but people around the league have been curious about whether the team would bring him back for 2014/15, according to Lowe. There have been disagreements between Demps and coach Monty Williams, and the team’s owners favor Williams, Lowe hears. In any case, he’ll probably return, though there will be pressure on him for the team to improve and perhaps make the playoffs next season, Lowe writes.
- Louisiana native Joe Dumars is close to executives with the New Orleans Saints, the NFL franchise that Pelicans owner Tom Benson also owns. That would make him a likely candidate for Pelicans GM job should the team decide to oust Demps, Lowe asserts.
- Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy says that the team’s ownership will have just as much say as he does in whom they hire as GM, as he tells Lowe.
Each Team’s Odds For Top-Three Picks
The NBA’s draft lottery is set to take place tonight, with the league’s 14 non-playoff teams vying for a chance at the first overall pick and the opportunity to select a player from a crop of prospects that includes Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker and others.
The odds at landing the first overall pick are cited frequently, from the Milwaukee’s 25% all the way down to Phoenix’s 0.5%. But what chance does each team have to land a top-three pick? Listed in the chart below are the odds each lottery team has at the first, second, and third overall picks, as well as each team’s overall odds at landing in the top three, with explanation where applicable.
The first number you see here is the team’s odds for the first pick. The second is the odds for the second pick, and the third the odds for pick No. 3. The final number is the odds for any top-three pick.
- Bucks — 25%, 21.5%, 17.7%, 64.2%
- Sixers — 19.9%, 18.8%, 17.1%, 55.8%
- Magic — 15.6%, 15.7%, 15.6%, 46.9% — These percentages reflect the Magic’s odds of landing a top three pick with their own selection. They stand a .0076% chance of earning two top-three picks, since they get the less favorable of the Nuggets and Knicks picks, as University of Florida statistics professor Larry Winner tells Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Winner also calculates the odds that the Magic end up with a top-three pick from the Nuggets and Knicks but fall outside the top three with their own pick as .044%.
- Jazz — 10.4%, 11.2%, 12.1%, 33.7% — The Jazz and Celtics tied for the fourth-worst record, and the Jazz won the random drawing to have the fourth-best lottery odds. Utah’s odds are only slightly better than Boston’s, however, since they take the average of the odds for the fourth and fifth worst teams and give the winner of the random drawing the extra ping-pong ball combination if, as in this case, the number of combinations works out to an odd number. The amalgamated odds for the Celtics and Jazz are courtesy of Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren and Celtics.com.
- Celtics — 10.3%, 11.1%, 12.0%, 33.4%
- Lakers — 6.3%, 7.1%, 8.1%, 21.5%
- Kings — 4.3%, 4.9%, 5.8%, 15.0%
- Pistons — 2.8%, 3.3%, 3.9%, 9.9%
- Cavs — 1.7%, 2.0%, 2.4%, 6.1%
- Pelicans — 1.1%, 1.3%, 1.6%, 4.0%
- Nuggets — 1.5%, 1.7%, 2.2%, 5.4% — These are the combined odds of Denver and New York, which gives its pick up to Denver in every scenario. The Nuggets in turn owe the less favorable of their pick and New York’s pick to the Magic, as explained above.
- Knicks — 0% (owes its pick to the Nuggets).
- Timberwolves — 0.6%, 0.7%, 0.9%, 2.2%
- Suns — 0.5%, 0.6%, 0.7%, 1.8%
And-Ones: Love, Sterling, Nets
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck tells Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe that Boston won’t start any serious trade discussions until the lottery is over. “Nothing has been discussed until we see the pick,” Grousbeck said. “When we see what pick it is, the phones will start ringing and we’ll start answering the phones.” Here’s more from around the league:
- The Wolves “gently probed” trade options for Kevin Love last season, league executives tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com.
- In the same piece, Windhorst outlines three strategies the Wolves can implement to either retain Love or retain leverage with trade partners.
- The Rockets think they will have a shot at Love with a package built around Omer Asik and Chandler Parsons, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com.
- The Warriors don’t want to give up Klay Thompson in a trade package to land Love, a team source tells Marcus Thompson of Bay Area News Group.
- The NBA has released a summary of the charges against Donald Sterling announced earlier today (H/T Jeff Caplan of NBA.com).
- Donald Sterling’s attorney has demanded that the NBA give his client three months to respond to the charges, reports Michael McCann of SI.com. The league will reject the request and move forward with the deadline of May 27th for Sterling’s response.
- Shelly Sterling’s lawyer weighed in as well, decrying the move to strip her stake in the team along with her husband’s as unlawful, according to a transcription of the statement by Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times.
- Tim Bontemps of The New York Post looks at five questions facing the Nets this offseason.
- In a separate piece, Bontemps recaps Alan Anderson‘s season with the Nets, writing that he envisions Anderson remaining with Brooklyn regardless of whether he picks up his $1.1MM player option for next season.
Draft Notes: Ennis, Love, Sixers, Jazz
The draft lottery is just a day away, and in addition to finding out which teams have the best shot at a franchise-changing talent, the results could help foster a pre-draft trading spree. Here’s the latest on the draft front:
- Tyler Ennis has been invited to the NBA’s Draft Lottery Show, tweets Fran Fraschilla of ESPN.com (H/T Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv). The invitation reinforces the perception of Ennis as a lottery pick.
- Sean Deveney of The Sporting News looks at how favorable lottery results could help the Lakers, Celtics, and Suns boost their chances of landing Kevin Love.
- Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer looks at the strategy of Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who has made a multitude of moves to tank the roster and acquire draft picks for the coming years. While the severe measures might not pay off and have raised some eyebrows in a league built on competition, Ford writes that Hinkie has been justified in his approach considering Philadelphia’s limitations and the league’s lottery system.
- The Jazz will work out Melvin Ejim and Niels Giffey, among other players, on Tuesday, according to Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune.
- Randy Hollis of Deseret News writes that the next few weeks could be the most critical time in the history of the Jazz, starting with how the team fares in the draft.
Coaching Rumors: Joerger, Scott, Lakers
The recently fired Mark Jackson returned to ESPN for the NBA playoffs and he’s not the only talker turned coach/GM turned talker again, the Detroit Free Press staff writes. Longtime Bears coach Mike Ditka was fired in 1992, signed on with NBC, left to coach the Saints in 1997, and eventually came to ESPN. Staying in the NBA, Doug Collins, now with ESPN, knows a thing or two about going back and forth from the booth to the sidelines as well. Here’s more from around the league:
- The sense in coaching circles is that Dave Joerger would become a head coaching candidate for the Wolves if he were to be let go by the Grizzlies, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Stein notes that Joerger is a long-time associate of Minnesota president of basketball operations Flip Saunders.
- Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times has heard that the Lakers haven’t and won’t open formal talks with any coaches before the lottery, but they have put out feelers for some (Twitter link).
- In another tweet, Pincus says it’s safe to consider Byron Scott a fallback coaching option for the Lakers, presuming that Scott will be around no matter how lengthy L.A.’s process becomes.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Latest On Grizzlies Turmoil
Grizzlies CEO Jason Levien and assistant GM Stu Lash parted ways with Memphis earlier today, and the potential exists for the shakeup to extend even further. Here’s the latest:
- Chris Mannix of SI.com tweets that the turmoil in Memphis is surprising everyone around the league. Levien represented the Grizzlies in GM meetings as recently as a week ago.
- Grizzlies owner Robert Pera has been operating in an abnormally hands-on manner for an owner of late, a person with knowledge of the situation tells Sam Amick of USA Today. Pera conducted his own end-of-season player interviews independent of the Memphis front office and coaching staff, per Amick.
- Amick adds that the ouster of Levien and Lash were tied to the increased influence of Grizzlies lead attorney David Mincberg, who has been granted involvement in duties normally reserved for front office personnel.
- Levien and Pera have been at odds for over a year, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
- Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com insinuated in a tweet that former Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins could be a candidate to return to the Memphis bench just a season removed from being fired.
Cavs Rumors: Love, D’Antoni, Hollins
The Cavs are in the lottery again, after declaring last year the end of their lottery run. While Cleveland is certainly disappointed to be watching ping pong balls yet again, they would still be thrilled in the unlikely case that they find themselves vaulted to the top-three in tomorrow’s lottery. Here’s more from Cleveland:
- Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal looks at the likelihood that the Cavs join in on the Kevin Love sweepstakes.
- Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio tweets that Cleveland will “undoubtedly” try to leverage their assets into trade discussions for Love.
- Mike D’Antoni is not a candidate for the Cavs’ coaching job, tweets Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. D’Antoni and new GM David Griffin were together in Phoenix, but there are no reunion plans in the works.
- An NBA source says there’s mutual interest between the Cavs and Lionel Hollins regarding the coaching vacancy, but there’s no interview scheduled yet, tweets Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer.
- Earlier, we passed on news that Cavs coaching candidate Kevin Ollie won’t be leaving his college job this season.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.