Central Rumors: LeBron, Kyrie, Bucks
The Pacers are the Central Division’s remaining horse in the race but for the rest of the gang, the offseason is underway. Here’s the latest..
- The NBA is moving quickly toward approval of Herb Kohl’s sale of the Bucks to Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens, and there’s a chance the league will announce the transfer later this week, a source tells Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- LeBron James gave his thoughts on Mike Brown‘s dismissal before the tip-off of Game 4 against the Nets. “It’s a tough business and Mike Brown got the short end of a tough business,” the Heat star said, according to Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald (on Twitter). The Cavs made the long-expected decision to oust Brown earlier today.
- Meanwhile, Cavs guard Kyrie Irving is “in complete support” of Brown’s dismissal and David Griffin‘s promotion to permanent GM, tweets Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio. There have been rumblings that Irving has been unhappy in Cleveland and the Cavs have him under team control through the summer of 2016, so it’s important for them to keep him satisfied in the long term.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Prospect Profile: Joe Harris
The Virginia Cavaliers didn’t get as far as they hoped in the NCAA Tourney, but they still turned in one of their best seasons in campaign history. Their success was in no small part due to the play of senior Joe Harris, who helped keep defenses honest with his dangerous outside shooting. The senior terrorized the ACC in his final season and he’s anxious to try and do the same at the next level.
“I can shoot the ball and defend at a high level and I think that’s a pretty good combination for any NBA team. You can never enough shooters on any team. i’m fortunate enough to bring that ability to the table,” Harris told HoopsRumors.com. 
Harris, who averaged 12.0 PPG and shot 40% from beyond the arc this season, stands apart from a lot of the other 2014 draft hopefuls. While this year’s class is deep overall and chock full of intriguing athletes, the general feeling is that there aren’t a ton of great shooters in the first round. If you want to come away with a jumper you can count on, you’ll likely have to scour the second round for players like the Virginia star.
Harris arrived on campus with an automatic shot but his play on the other side of the floor left much to be desired. He was tasked with upping his D and, with time, he morphed into a stout defender.
“I think the system that I played in taught defensive principals and the defensive mindset that you need to have. Of course, defense is more than a mindset, you have to have the lateral quickness too, but the principals and that mindset and helped me become a much better defender. Coach [Tony Bennett‘s] program made me better and I’ll carry that with me to the NBA,” said the small forward.
The 22-year-old is confident but knows that there is still a lot of work ahead of him. Harris says he’ll be working to improve his ball handling and overall athleticism, two of his commonly cited weaknesses. He’s currently training alongside fellow Mark Bartelstein clients Doug McDermott, Nik Stauskas, and Sean Kilpatrick in an effort to improve in not just those areas but “all areas.”
As a wing with range, some have been quick to compare Harris to Kyle Korver. Harris, who called the Hawks forward an “unbelievable shooter,” doesn’t see it, but he stressed that they are similar in that both can bring much more to the table than three-point shooting. In the coming weeks, Harris will be traveling to the West Coast for individual workouts with the Suns and at least one of the Los Angeles teams before heading to the Lone Star State for auditions with the Mavs and Spurs. Between those sessions and the combines, Harris is hopeful that he’ll find not only an NBA opportunity, but the “right fit” to help make his transition to the Association a seamless one.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Mitch Kupchak On Draft, D’Antoni, Kobe
After finishing with the worst record in the Pacific Division, the Lakers are looking to turn things around in a major way. The Lakers bid farewell to coach Mike D’Antoni and they could be moving on from free agent Pau Gasol as well. In advance of the NBA Lottery, GM Mitch Kupchak took some time out from his schedule to talk with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com about the road ahead. The whole Q&A is worth reading but we’ll provide a few of the highlights here..
Does having only three players on the roster right now for next season change how you approach the coaching hire?
You do take into consideration the make up of your roster. Although I won’t rule out hiring a coach prior to the lottery on May 20, I think it’s likely that we don’t, because that’s really the first step in terms of additional information for this franchise. Let’s find out what kind of pick we have. That may even help us decide what direction to go with for our coach. It will be a consideration.
Does the search for D’Antoni’s replacement and the uncertainty over where you’ll pick effect your draft preparations?
As you mentioned, May 20 is the lottery, and it’s hard to focus 100% on the draft until you know where you’re drafting. If the stars all line up and you get No. 1 instead of No. 9, there’s a difference, and it’s impossible to schedule workouts because the agents won’t cooperate until they know where you’re drafting. That part of it has proved uneventful, and probably won’t change until the 20th. We are working on setting up some interviews, and we’ve been successful, but you’re not going to really get moving on it until the agents know where you’re drafting.
You’ve been criticized for the contract extension that was given to Kobe Bryant. How does it factor into the way you build this team over the next two seasons, with salary cap implications and so on, and how would things look different if you’d given him less money?
When we gave Kobe the extension, we took a lot of factors into consideration, including the factors you just mentioned. We felt it was the thing to do. We’re still in a position to be a big player in the free agent market. Signing Kobe when we did, we felt, gave us one of the top two or three free agents that would be available this summer. We had the rare opportunity to get that done and not have to wait until July 1. Everybody can debate whether they would have waited or not, but our mindset was: ‘This is somebody we can get done now, and we still have a chance to be a player financially with free agency.’ Cap space is valuable and you don’t want to misuse it. You do have to use it, but you don’t have to use it going forward unless you want to.
Cavs Fire Mike Brown, Name Griffin Full-Time GM
The Cavs have fired coach Mike Brown and removed the interim tag from GM David Griffin‘s title, the team announced. Griffin appeared close to appointment as the team’s GM this weekend, just as doubts about Brown’s future lingered. It’s the second time that the Cavs have parted ways with Brown in the past four years. They hired him for a second stint last summer, but he didn’t last after compiling a 33-49 record in a season in which owner Dan Gilbert expected to make the playoffs.
“This is a very tough business. It pains all of us here that we needed to make the difficult decision of releasing Mike Brown,” Gilbert said in the team’s statement. “Mike worked hard over this last season to move our team in the right direction. Although, there was some progress from our finish over the few prior seasons, we believe we need to head in a different direction. We wish Mike and his family nothing but the best.”
Brown rejoined the Cavs last year on a five-year deal worth between $20-25MM, but it appears the team will have to shell out much of that money for a coach who won’t be on their sidelines. Gilbert was reportedly looking for feedback from the players and the front office staff on Brown as he made his decision about whether to retain the coach, and another report indicated that the players were in Brown’s corner, with Dion Waiters his loudest supporter. Brown was hired under former GM Chris Grant, whom Gilbert axed in February. Griffin has been serving in his place ever since.
The team responded well to the switch from Grant to Griffin, winning six in a row immediately after the change and going 17-16 overall. Griffin acquired Spencer Hawes at the trade deadline, and he meshed well with the team, giving it an outside shooter to balance the floor on the offensive end. Isiah Thomas and George Karl were among those who campaigned for the top front office job, and Gilbert considered other candidates, but Griffin gave the impression he’d be retained in a season-ending press conference last month.
“Our ownership group is looking forward to David Griffin leading the basketball side of our business. We interviewed several strong candidates for the GM position including Griff,” Gilbert said. “We chose David as our GM because we believe he is the best person to lead our franchise at this critical time and into the future. David brings over two decades of experience. He knows the ins and outs of this league as well as anyone and is also an outstanding talent evaluator.”
Griffin joined the Cavs as vice president of basketball operations in 2010, serving under Grant. He’d spent the previous 17 years with the Suns, rising from intern to senior vice president of basketball operations, a role in which he assisted Steve Kerr, now the primary coaching candidate for the Knicks.
Maximum Salary
Superstars like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony are often referred to as “maximum-salary players” as they approach free agency, since they’re likely to command the most lucrative contract offers possible when they hit the market. That holds regardless of whether they’re making less than the max on their current deals, as in the case of James, or have suggested they’ll take less when they next sign, as Anthony has. The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement limits players to salaries based on a percentage of the salary cap, but the maximum varies from player to player. That helps explain why Anthony could sign at a discount this summer and still make a higher salary than James, even if the four-time MVP ends up with the max.
If a player has been in the NBA for six years or fewer, he can earn up to 25% of the salary cap in the first year of his deal. Players with seven to nine years of experience can earn up to 30%, while veterans with 10 or more years in the NBA are eligible for up to 35% of the cap.
Those percentages are somewhat deceiving, since the NBA uses factors to determine the maximum salary that are slightly different than what goes into calculating the salary cap. That’s why James Harden made $13,701,250 on his max deal in 2013/14 rather than $14,669,750, which is 25% of the $58.679MM salary cap for 2013/14. For players eligible for the 30% max in 2013/14, their top salary was $16,441,500, and the 35% max was $19,181,750. These figures will fluctuate from year to year, depending on the league’s projected Basketball Related Income for a given season.
There are a number of exceptions to the maximum salary, as follows:
- The maximum salary only applies to the first year of a multiyear contract. For example, if Eric Bledsoe were to sign a maximum-salary deal this summer, he would be subject to the maximum salary for the first season, with either 7.5% or 4.5% raises, depending on whether he signs with the Suns or another team. So by the third or fourth year of his contract, he could be earning significantly more than the max.
- A free agent’s maximum salary is always at least 105% of his previous salary. For instance, Anthony’s 2013/14 salary was $21,388,954. He is eligible to sign a new contract that will allow him to earn a maximum of $22,458,402 — 105% of his prior salary. That’s why he could take slightly less and still earn more than James, whose salary in 2013/14 was $19,067,500.
- A first-round pick coming off his four-year rookie scale contract is eligible for a maximum-salary contract extension worth 30% of the cap (rather than 25%) if he meets one of the Derrick Rose Rule criteria. That entails winning an MVP award, being voted an All-Star Game starter at least twice, or being named to an All-NBA team at least twice.
There were 16 players who were either playing on some form of max deal or had signed max extensions when I examined the league’s maximum-salary players in August. Those ranks have since swollen to 18 with the additions of Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins, who inked max extensions. The list demonstrates the many caveats and variations involved with max contracts, which ranged in value from slightly more than $57.5MM to nearly $123.7MM in 2013/14. Simply put, it’s difficult to define the NBA’s maximum salary in a broader sense, since it applies to individual players and not the league as a whole.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.
A version of this post, written by Luke Adams, was initially published on May 8th, 2012.
Draft Rumors: Wiggins, Payne, McGary
The NBA has released its list of the participants in this week’s draft combine (link via Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress), and the names of Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins are missing, as expected. Wojnarowski reported Sunday afternoon that Parker and Embiid would skip the combine. He followed Sunday night with confirmation that Wiggins had also withdrawn (Twitter link), hours after Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe reported that Wiggins was unlikely to show up. Here’s more on the draft:
- Payne and McGary are still expected to travel to the combine and take part in interviews with teams, even though they won’t do any physical work, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com clarifies (on Twitter).
Earlier updates:
- Michigan State power forward Adreian Payne and Michigan big man Mitch McGary are on the list of participants, but they’ll miss the combine because of health issues, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links).
- The absences of Wiggins, Embiid and Parker from the combine probably won’t knock any of them from the top three picks, but it presents an opportunity for players further down the rankings to impress, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders.
- South Alabama junior Mychal Ammons entered this year’s draft, but he’s already signed a deal to play in Europe next season, officially inking a two-year deal with KK Feni Indistrija of Macedonia, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia reports. Fellow Sportando scribe Enea Trapani initially reported the agreement. Ammons can withdraw from the draft anytime between now and June 16th, but he’d be automatically eligible for next year’s draft if he were to do so.
Timberwolves Interested In Shaun Livingston
Nets guard Shaun Livingston will be in Minnesota’s sights as his free agency approaches this summer, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. Wolfson points to Livingston’s history with Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders, who coached the former No. 4 overall pick with the Wizards in 2009/10.
Brooklyn GM Billy King has said he’ll make re-signing Livingston job No. 1 this summer, but the Nets only have Livingston’s Non-Bird rights, which provide for no more than 120% of the minimum salary he made this past season. Brooklyn could also use its taxpayer’s mid-level exception, which would allow for a starting salary of $3.278MM and a total of nearly $10.3MM over the course of a three-year deal, as I explained Sunday. That wouldn’t be as much as the Timberwolves are likely to be able to offer. Minnesota is in line to have the non-taxpayer’s mid-level, worth $5.305MM in year one. Livingston could draw a four-year deal worth $22.652MM on that exception.
Livingston recently indicated a contentment in Brooklyn, but this offseason the Henry Thomas client figures to draw more interest than he ever has since a gruesome knee injury knocked him out for the entire 2007/08 season and nearly ended his career. He averaged 8.3 points this season, his most since the injury, but more importantly, his 6’7″ size was critical for Brooklyn once Jason Kidd inserted him into the starting lineup alongside Deron Williams, causing matchup headaches for opponents. Livingston turns 29 in September, so there’s a decent chance this summer represents his best financial opportunity.
Clippers Rumors: Free Agency, Rivers, Sterling
A prominent agent told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that he has clients who don’t intend to sign with the Clippers this summer unless Donald Sterling is “gone completely.” That indicates the Sterling saga will indeed have an effect on free agency, as there’s almost no chance the situation will be resolved by July, as Deveney points out.
“I don’t think the whole thing winds up with Sterling back in charge, that is just hard to imagine,” another agent told Deveney. “There’s the chance, though. There’s a chance you wind up working for Sterling. That’s the problem.”
Here’s more from a team that fought off the Thunder and a media circus to overcome a 22-point deficit in Sunday’s win:
- People around the league feel as though Doc Rivers won’t leave the Clippers even if the league hasn’t completely severed its ties with Sterling by this summer, Deveney writes in the same piece. Rivers hasn’t said definitively that he’ll return to the team for next season after raising questions about his future shortly after the Sterling fiasco began.
- The league believes it can strip Shelly Sterling’s ownership of the team when it does so with her husband, as we passed along last night, though Shelly Sterling intends to fight that interpretation, as she told ABC’s Barbara Walters. “To be honest with you, I’m wondering if a wife of one of the owners, and there’s 30 owners, did something like that, said those racial slurs, would they oust the husband?” Shelly Sterling said. “Or would they leave the husband in?”
- Pierce O’Donnell, the attorney for Shelly Sterling, cited the U.S. Constitution in his rebuttal to the league’s contention that it can take the team from her. Legal experts have emphasized to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News that the Constitution doesn’t apply to businesses like the NBA, and lawyers make it clear that such a defense is flimsy, Medina adds (Twitter links).
- Shelly Sterling also told Walters that she’s been speaking to attorneys for the last 20 years about a divorce, which could further complicate the league’s efforts to remove the Sterlings.
- Donald Sterling attempted to explain his racially charged remarks and asked the league’s forgiveness in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Latest On Warriors, Knicks, Van Gundy, Kerr
The Warriors are coalescing behind Stan Van Gundy as their primary coaching target as their chances of landing Steve Kerr become increasingly remote. A formal interview between Golden State and Van Gundy is “imminent,” as Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets, while it seems as though Kerr is choosing between coaching the Knicks and remaining in broadcasting, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. There remains a slight chance Kerr could end up with Golden State, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes, but the Warriors are moving forward with other candidates.
The Warriors haven’t had serious discussions with Kerr in days, and co-owner Joe Lacob is coming over to the side of his front office staff, who believe Van Gundy is the best option to coach the team, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. A report on Thursday indicated that some of the Warriors players were Van Gundy’s most significant proponents, with the front office sold on Kerr. That suggests the team’s brass is especially sensitive to the players’ wishes following the ouster of Mark Jackson, who was popular among those in uniform, but that’s just my speculation.
Kerr and his representatives are hoping for a resolution with the Knicks soon, Berman writes, a reversal of the dynamic from last week, when it appeared as though Knicks president Phil Jackson was becoming impatient as he waited for an answer from his would-be coach. The Knicks are wary of overpaying Kerr, and they’re reluctant to give him a long-term deal, preferring a contract that accords him more like the coaching neophyte that he is an less like a sought-after commodity, Wojnarowski reports (on Twitter).
Kerr and the Knicks discussed a five-year, $25MM deal earlier this month, Begley hears, suggesting that those terms probably escalated when Golden State became involved. Kerr has reportedly been seeking a five-year deal with money similar to the four-year, $24MM contract that the Knicks gave former coach Mike D’Antoni in 2008. Salaries between $5MM and $6MM on a contract that lasts four or five years would make him one of the league’s most well-compensated coaches, seemingly counter to the Knicks’ desire.
And-Ones: Sterling, Cavs, Brown, Rockets
Donald Sterling’s sit down with Anderson Cooper airs on CNN tomorrow night, but Charles Barkley won’t be among those watching. “We got to work tomorrow night so we don’t have to watch that junk,” the Hall of Famer told his Inside The NBA cohorts as they came back from commercial, as noted by Nina Mandell of USA Today. Here’s tonight’s look around the league..
- LeBron James and other NBA players are concerned about Shelly Sterling taking control of the Clippers, but a statement released this evening by NBA spokesman Mike Bass could put those worries to bed. “Under the NBA Constitution, if a controlling owner’s interest is terminated by a 3/4 vote, all other team owners’ interests are automatically terminated as well. It doesn’t matter whether the owners are related as is the case here. These are the rules to which all NBA owners agreed to as a condition of owning their team,” the statement read (Howard Beck of Bleacher Report on Twitter).
- Shelly Sterling’s attorney released a statement of his own to reporters, including Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com (on Twitter).
- Sources tell Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert will support whatever decision the team’s next GM makes regarding Mike Brown. So, it appears the coach’s fate is in the hands of David Griffin, who’s expected to have the interim tag removed from his GM title soon. People around the league are split on whether Griffin would retain Brown, according to Amico.
- Kostas Papanikolaou, whose NBA rights are owned by the Rockets, says he’s in no rush to make the leap over. “Nothing changed in my thoughts about the NBA. If I get a good chance, I will go. However, I am new in this team [FC Barcelona Regal], they have treated me with respect and I only think about Barcelona. A team that helps me evolve my game and be better. So, I don’t know what will happen, if I will end up in the NBA this summer or the next one,” the Euroleague standout told Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.