Clippers/Sterling Rumors: Tuesday
Donald Sterling hinted in his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he might not put up the legal fight he’s been expected to mount to keep the Clippers, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding observes. Ding asserts that Sterling’s wife, Shelly, doesn’t pose as significant a stumbling block to the NBA’s plan to strip the team from the family as reports have indicated. Once the Clippers emerge from the mess, they’re poised to become a glamour franchise, Ding writes, noting that some around the Lakers are “hugely worried” about the success of the Clips and the specter that Magic Johnson or another celebrity will soon own them. Here’s more on the Clippers:
- Magic shared his thoughts with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about Donald Sterling’s reluctance to let the Clippers go: “He’s a man who’s upset and he’s reaching. He’s reaching. He’s trying to find something that he can grab on to help him save his team. And it’s not going to happen” (passed along by Shelby Grad of the Los Angeles Times, hat tip to the Chicago Tribune).
- The NBA Advisory/Finance committee held a conference call on the Clippers and will reconvene next week (first passed along via tweet from RealGM). Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today passed along that the committee discussed Donald and Shelly Sterling’s recent TV appearances, interim CEO Dick Parsons, and the ownership termination process (Twitter link).
Earlier updates:
- Earlier today, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin recoiled at Donald Sterling’s claim that the Clippers players still love him, notes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
- Pierce O’Donnell, Shelly Sterling’s attorney, says they’re “ready to go to war” over the league’s contention that it can remove her from ownership of the team at the same time it votes her husband out, as O’Donnell tells Scott Cacciola of The New York Times.
- In the same interview, O’Donnell threatened to depose owners and personnel from other teams around the league in a potential lawsuit against the NBA. “To answer your question, of course I’ll ask for discovery. But it’s in everybody’s best interests to avoid Armageddon,” O’Donnell said.
- Shelly Sterling tells Cacciola that she hasn’t spoken to other owners in the league since her husband was banned, but she suggests owners around the NBA would stick up for her husband if they weren’t afraid of a player backlash.
- We passed along the latest on Magic Johnson’s bid to buy the Clippers earlier today.
And-Ones: LeBron, Hollins, T’Wolves, Klimenko
During an interview on Jim Rome on Showtime, NBPA vice president Roger Mason said that the players would boycott next season if Donald Sterling is still in place, adding that he had spoken about it with Heat superstar LeBron James:
“If it’s not handled (by) the start of next season, I don’t see how we’re playing basketball…Leaders of the teams, they’re all saying the same thing, ‘If this man is still in place, we (are not) playing’…LeBron and I talked about it…He (isn’t) playing if Sterling is still an owner.” (interview transcribed by James Herbert of CBS Sports).
Here are some more noteworthy links to pass along this evening:
- With Stan Van Gundy and Steve Kerr looking like distinct possibilities for the Warriors’ head coaching position, the team should shift their focus toward Lionel Hollins, says Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. As we noted a few days ago, Hollins is scheduled to interview with Golden State on Thursday.
- The Warriors are reportedly seeking an offensive-minded coach, and although Hollins’ defense-first mentality wouldn’t make him the most ideal fit for the job, Thompson hears that Hollins would look to bring on a respected offensive mind as one of his assistants, and would likely consider former Kings coach Paul Westphal for that particular position.
- The Timberwolves haven’t had any contact with Kerr and don’t seem to be considering him for their head coaching opening, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN.
- Agent Bill McCandless says that draft prospect Artem Klimenko has reached a buyout agreement with Avtodor of the Russian Super League. The 7’1 center is scheduled to travel to the U.S. next week to work out for six to eight teams before the start of Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy (Twitter links via Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype).
- 2013 summer league standout Jack Cooley will participate in mini-camp workouts with the Spurs, Nets, Cavaliers, and Jazz, says RealGM’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
- Elston Turner has received an invite to work out for the Warriors in June and will participate in the upcoming NBA Summer League, writes Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (H/T to Il Messagero).
- Suns guard Archie Goodwin was arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in his hometown of Little Rock, according to a report from the Associated Press. Goodwin recently completed his rookie season in Phoenix and will be due in court on June 3.
Eastern Notes: Cavs, Pistons, Knicks, Nets
Cavs GM David Griffin was especially vehement when he told reporters today that Kyrie Irving wasn’t behind the team’s decision to fire Mike Brown, pounding the table in front of him as he spoke, observes Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer. People close to Irving weren’t pleased with Brown, but Irving himself expressed a mix of positive and negative feelings on the former coach, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal details. Here’s more on the Cavs and the rest of the Eastern Conference:
- Former Raptors and Suns GM Bryan Colangelo and Bucks assistant GM David Morway were rumored to be in the mix for the Cavs front office job before the team removed GM David Griffin‘s interim tag, according to Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores was torn on what to do about Greg Monroe and Josh Smith in addition to how to fill his coaching and front office vacancies before Stan Van Gundy entered the picture, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets. In any case, Gores has been looking to hire a “name,” according to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News (Twitter link).
- The Knicks are seeking to trade cash for a pick late in this year’s draft, as Marc Berman of the New York Post reports amid a story on the team’s pursuit of Steve Kerr. New York is without a pick in either the first or the second round.
- The Nets hold the draft rights to Bojan Bogdanovic, but they don’t expect to sign him anytime soon, and Bogdanovic is nearing a new deal with Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker that will cover two or three seasons, reports Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. The pact will likely include a lower NBA buyout price than the $2MM called for in his existing contract with the team, Varlas adds.
- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel thinks the Magic should consider trading up to pick Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker or Joel Embiid if Orlando misses out on one of the top three picks in the lottery. The Magic are in line for the No. 3 pick but could fall as low as No. 6.
Warriors, Van Gundy Talks Stall; Kerr Back In Mix
4:37pm: A source tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com that it would be shocking if Kerr wound up turning down the Knicks, and the reason they haven’t reached an agreement yet is because Kerr and team president Phil Jackson are otherwise occupied. Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com passes along the details (all Twitter links).
1:44pm: The Warriors are heading to Oklahoma City today to meet with Kerr, in town to broadcast tonight’s game for TNT, and make another push to hire him as coach, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link)
1:34pm: Kerr is still more likely to take the Knicks job than to end up in Golden State, even as the Warriors maintain hope that they can sway him, Stein tweets.
12:57pm: Golden State is prepared to pay market rate or higher for Kerr or any of the team’s coaching targets, according to Kawakami (Twitter links).
12:46pm: The Warriors plan another aggressive push at Kerr if Van Gundy takes the Pistons job, Wojnarowski tweets. Kerr and the Knicks are hung up in negotiations over the length of his would-be deal to coach New York, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Kerr is seeking a five-year deal, while the Knicks only want to give him four.
12:04pm: Kawakami suggests the Warriors and Van Gundy are no longer talking, and that it doesn’t sound as if they’ll restart the conversation (Twitter link). The report is in the wake of a report of the Pistons’ interest in Van Gundy for a dual coach/executive role. The Warriors were unwilling to fulfill Van Gundy’s request of total control over basketball decisions, as Kawakami noted.
11:28am: The Warriors aren’t on the verge of hiring Van Gundy or anyone else, reports Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. The team is indeed high on Van Gundy, but it appears the Warriors aren’t finished with their search, Kawakami adds, pointing to Golden State’s last coaching search, in which there were premature reports about leading candidates (All four Twitter links). The news would appear to indicate that the team’s interview with Hollins is still on for Thursday, though that’s just my speculation.
9:02am: The Warriors have come to regard Stan Van Gundy as the clear-cut top choice for their head coaching position, and talks are intensifying as they progress toward a deal, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com. Marc Stein of ESPN.com and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported early Monday that Golden State was zeroing in on Van Gundy, and it appears the sides are moving swiftly as the chances of Steve Kerr ending up in Golden State continue to fade.
Van Gundy drew support from several in the organization soon after the Warriors fired Mark Jackson, and Warriors players, many of whom were strong supporters of Jackson, appeared to be among the first ones in Van Gundy’s corner. The front office and co-owner Joe Lacob eventually shifted their support from Kerr to Van Gundy, too. The Warriors reached out to Van Gundy last week as the team eyed an experienced coach to help foster its continued growth toward title contention.
Van Gundy, who in March deemed himself highly unlikely to return to the bench next season, downplayed his interest last week. The former Heat and Magic coach nonetheless acknowledged his connection to the Warriors, whom he’d grown up rooting for as a child in Northern California.
Golden State reportedly has an interview scheduled with Lionel Hollins on Thursday, but it’s unclear whether that remains on the agenda. Others linked to the job include Jerry Sloan, David Fizdale, George Karl, Mike D’Antoni, Nate McMillan, Kevin Ollie, Alvin Gentry, Fred Hoiberg, Tom Thibodeau. Van Gundy, Kerr, Hoiberg and Ollie appeared to be in the upper echelon among those candidates.
Bulls Targeting Devin Harris
The Bulls appear to have Mavs guard Devin Harris in their sights, as a source tells Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com that Harris has “been connected” to the team. Harris and the Mavs have mutual interest in a return, so it seems like it will be somewhat challenging for Chicago to convince him to come north and back up Derrick Rose. Harris is seeking a long-term deal, so perhaps Chicago will be willing to give him more security than the Mavs, though Dallas was ready to sign him to a three-year, $9MM deal this past summer before a toe injury scuttled those plans.
That same injury forced Harris to miss half of this past season after Dallas circled back and signed him to a one-year deal for the minimum salary, and once he returned, he took on a less prominent role than he’s accustomed to. Still, his 4.5-to-1.5 assists-to-turnover ratio this season was the best of his 10-year career, as the 31-year-old remains efficient.
Chicago appears poised to choose between soon-to-be free agents D.J. Augustin and Kirk Hinrich, who split point guard duties in Rose’s absence this year. The team has the flexibility to go in many different directions this summer, as I detailed last week, with Carmelo Anthony and Nikola Mirotic the primary targets. The Bulls will no doubt seek resolution with Anthony and Mirotic before moving on to Harris, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the team merely sees him as a fallback in case Augustin or Hinrich signs elsewhere. Chicago’s interest is nonetheless indication that the Excel Sports Management client is still well-regarded as a rotation-caliber player even if his days as an All-Star are long gone.
Wizards Interested In Re-Signing Trevor Ariza
The Wizards have made it clear for the past several months that they intend to pursue a long-term deal with soon-to-be free agent Marcin Gortat, but the team is also interested in re-signing Trevor Ariza, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Most league executives expect both to ink new contracts with Washington this summer, Lowe reports. Those execs from around the NBA believe that Ariza and Gortat will make $15-20MM combined in annual salary on deals that cover three or four years.
Ariza has expressed a desire to re-sign with the Wizards, though he prefaced that by telling Michael Lee of The Washington Post that he’ll go “wherever I’m wanted.” The Wizards and Cavs spoke about Ariza in trade talks involving Luol Deng at the deadline, but the team had little luck as it sought to unload Ariza’s expiring contract. It appears that Ariza has grown on Washington since then, though the Wizards probably hope his market value drops between now and July, when rival suitors can make offers, Lowe writes. That’s a possibility if other teams are wary of how he’d play for them when he’s not in a contract year and doesn’t have John Wall to set him up with corner three-pointers, Lowe suggests.
The Wizards are at a fork that presents a number of routes toward a shot at a title, as Lowe examines, noting the team’s long-held fondness for Jeff Green as a possible trade target. Washington has about $43.5MM in commitments for next season, and while new deals for Gortat and Ariza would erase the team’s cap flexibility, the Wizards would still have a chance to use the non-taxpayer’s mid-level, Lowe notes. Largely staying the course and bringing back the starting five from this year’s team is seemingly GM Ernie Grunfeld‘s preferred course for now amid rampant mediocrity in the Eastern Conference, but there will be opportunities to pivot, as Lowe points out.
Suns To Have Own D-League Affiliate
MAY 13TH: The Suns have officially partnered with the D-League’s Jam on a one-to-one affiliation, the league announced.
MAY 8TH: Paul Coro of Azcentral.com reports that the Suns are expected to finalize an agreement with Bakersfield next week, and that it will indeed be a hybrid one-to-one relationship as previously reported.
APRIL 30TH: Sources tell Gino Pilato of D-League Digest that they expect the Suns will partner with the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam next season (Twitter link). It would be a “hybrid” arrangement in which the Suns would control the basketball operations for the club while the Jam would continue to be independently owned.
Phoenix only made a pair of D-League assignments this season, as our log shows, having shared the Jam with the Hawks, Clippers, Raptors and Jazz. Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby and GM Ryan McDonough would apparently like to make more frequent use of the D-League next year. That stands to reason, given that the Suns are set to have four or perhaps five draft picks in June, with the potential for another extra pick coming their way as early as next year.
The Jam were one of only three D-League teams aligned with more than one NBA franchise this season. It appears as though there will be just two D-League squads to cover the NBA clubs without one-to-one affiliations for next season, even as the Knicks are creating a new D-League team that will be the league’s 18th. The Magic are taking over the Erie BayHawks, the Knicks’ former affiliate, and there’s a strong possibility that the Jazz will partner with the Idaho Stampede, with whom the Blazers are ending their partnership. That means the Nets, who lost their one-to-one affiliate to the Pistons, will join the Hawks, Clippers, Raptors, Bobcats, Pacers, Grizzlies, Bucks, Bulls, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Wizards and Blazers in sharing D-League teams in 2014/15, unless one of them strikes a new agreement.
Cavs Rumors: Coaching Search, Irving, Brown
New Cavs GM David Griffin spoke about the team’s head coaching vacancy this morning, less than 24 hours after the team fired Mike Brown and removed the interim tag from Griffin’s title. We’ll round up the highlights from Griffin’s press conference and pass along more on the Cavs coaching search here:
- Griffin will lead the search, but he says owner Dan Gilbert will have input, as Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer notes in a live blog of the press conference.
- The GM hinted at change, saying that there are pieces that don’t fit on the Cavs roster, as Valade chronicles.
- Griffin says he may Interview coaching candidates later this week at the draft combine in Chicago, Valade notes.
- Kyrie Irving didn’t have anything to do with Brown’s firing, and the star point guard won’t be involved in any decisions regarding the next coach, Griffin insists. Bob Finnan of The News-Herald and Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio tweet the details.
- The Cavs have no timetable for selecting their next coach, Griffin says, as Lloyd tweets.
- The Cavs have yet to compile a list of coaching candidates, but it appears that when they do, Mike D’Antoni‘s name won’t be on it, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd suggests that Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry is in better position than other would-be candidates given Griffin’s fondness for him.
- Brown’s firing had nothing to do with his ties to former GM Chris Grant, whom the team fired in February, as Lloyd writes in the same piece.
NBA Eyeing Sale Of Clippers To Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson has gone back and forth in public statements about whether he wants to buy the Clippers, but many around the NBA believe commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s owners want to sell the team to him, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners, who together as a consortium own baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, are willing to pay in excess of $1 billion to buy the Clippers, Wojnarowski writes. Banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling fears that the league is steering the team toward Johnson, and that’s part of the reason why Sterling keeps assailing Johnson in racially charged rants, according to Wojnarowski.
The Yahoo! scribe first noted the interest of Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners last month, even before Silver issued Sterling’s lifetime ban and the league began to formally move toward forcing the sale of the Clippers. Johnson denied any such interest, but Wojnarowski continued to hear that the Hall-of-Famer wanted the team, and Johnson ultimately acknowledged his desire a couple of weeks ago.
Several groups and investors have made their designs on purchasing the Clippers known, but it appears as though Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners have the inside track. Silver issued an apology to Johnson on Monday after Sterling’s latest verbal attack. Still, legal challenges loom not only from Sterling but also from his wife, Shelly, who jointly owns the team as part of a family trust. There’s little chance that the matter will reach resolution anytime soon, so it could be a while before Johnson or any new Clippers owner takes control of the team.
And-Ones: Beilein, Sterling, Wizards, Nets
Two college coaches are intriguing NBA executives, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Michigan’s John Beilein and Virginia’s Tony Bennett seem to be drawing interest from clubs – some who have openings and some that don’t, according to Wojnarowski. Here’s more from around the league..
- NBA commissioner Adam Silver released a statement in response to Donald Sterling’s interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN (from Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe on Twitter). Within the interview, Sterling made several disparaging comments about the iconic Magic Johnson.
- The Sterling saga is unlikely to come to full resolution anytime soon, and players union vice president Roger Mason Jr., speaking to Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling, once more raised the specter of widespread protest if Sterling isn’t ousted. “We could definitely boycott if that happens,” Mason Jr. said. “I could see not only Clippers players, but the league banding together.”
- Clippers interim CEO Dick Parsons says he has not yet spoken with either of the Sterlings, tweets Jack Wang of the Los Angeles Daily News. He added that he will likely speak with Shelly, but not with Donald.
- Parsons also said he thinks “the outcome is inevitable” that the Clippers will eventually move into new ownership (link).
- The Wizards think they’ll be able to re-sign Marcin Gortat and Trevor Ariza this summer, but bringing both of them back won’t be easy, as TNT’s David Aldridge observes amid his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
- A real estate development company that has a 20% stake in the Nets is putting its share of the team up for sale at $200MM, meaning its valuation of the full franchise is a record $1 billion, reports Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal. There’s been speculation that the Clippers could sell for more than $1 billion.
- Eric Griffin, who was a late cut last pre-season with the Heat after playing for their Summer League team, will join the Raptors‘ Summer League squad, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM. Griffin attended Campbell and played this season in Puerto Rico.
- The Nuggets are seeking a long, defensive-minded shooting guard and locker room leadership this summer, as Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post details.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.