Coaching Rumors: Thibodeau, Ollie, Dunleavy
Ken Berger of CSBSports.com thinks the the path for Tom Thibodeau to move from the Bulls to the Lakers is complicated and unlikely, but says that the precedent set when Doc Rivers joined the Clippers while under contract with the Celtics has caused many in the coaching ranks to expect more pseudo-trades of coaches to take place. Here’s more on the league’s coaching front:
- Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com says that if Thibodeau were to leave the Bulls, it would imply that he doesn’t expect Derrick Rose to come back strong enough to make Chicago a true contender.
- Friedell thinks Chicago fans would be very unhappy with a deal, since the best the Lakers can offer in return for Thibodeau would be draft assets and/or to absorb Carlos Boozer‘s contract.
- While we’ve noted that the requested meeting with the Lakers is unlikely, the ESPNChicago.com scribe adds that the Bulls might be forced to consider it if they can’t come to an agreement on an extension with the coach.
- Steve Kerr‘s TNT broadcasting partner Reggie Miller tweets his opinion that Kerr should weigh his options before settling on the Knicks (H/T Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com).
- Mike Dunleavy Sr. said he was interested in the Lakers coaching opening on his SiriusXM NBA Radio show (transcription via Mark Medina of Los Angeles Daily News.) “If I had an opportunity to interview with them I would definitely be interested,” said Dunleavy, who is reportedly on the Lakers’ list.
- Dunleavy also said he has a good relationship with Kobe Bryant, of whom he spoke highly. “I recruited [Bryant] a number of years ago to come to the Clippers,” Dunleavy said. “I think at the time I had a good argument for it and I think we were very close to getting him to shift at that time.”
- Kevin Ollie is open to hearing from the Lakers, but is very committed to UConn, a person familiar with Ollie’s thinking tells Medina in a separate piece.
- Nuggets coach Brian Shaw tells Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post he isn’t interested in either the Knicks or Lakers coaching vacancies. “I have a job here in Denver that I’m happy with,” said Shaw. “Though the season didn’t turn out how any of us would have liked, I’m happy where I am and I’m looking forward to coaching a full complement of healthy players.”
Offseason Outlook: New York Knicks
Guaranteed Contracts
- Tyson Chandler ($14,596,888)
- J.R. Smith ($5,982,375)
- Raymond Felton ($3,793,693)
- Iman Shumpert ($2,616,975)
- Pablo Prigioni ($1,662,961)
- Tim Hardaway Jr. ($1,250,640)
Options
- Amar’e Stoudemire ($23,410,988, Early Termination)
- Carmelo Anthony ($23,333,405, Early Termination)*
- Andrea Bargnani ($11,500,000, Early Termination)
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
- Lamar Odom ($1,448,490)
- Shannon Brown ($1,310,286)
- Jeremy Tyler ($948,163)
Free Agents / Cap Holds
- Toure’ Murry ($1,016,482 — QO)**
- Cole Aldrich ($915,243)
- Kenyon Martin ($915,243)
- (Earl Barron $915,243)
- (Mike Bibby $915,243)
- (Baron Davis $915,243)
Draft Picks
- None
Cap Outlook
- Guaranteed salary: $29,903,532
- Player and early termination options: $58,244,393
- Team options: $0
- Non-guaranteed salary: $3,706,939
- Cap holds: $5,592,697
- Total: $97,447,561
This summer will have a lot in common with the winter of 2010/11. That was the last time the courtship of Carmelo Anthony took center stage, and the specter of Anthony’s free agency this summer figures to once more dominate the back page headlines in New York and our pages here at Hoops Rumors. Anthony made it clear before the season that he intends to decline his lucrative player option for 2014/15 and hit free agency, and he’s maintained that stance ever since. He said at the All-Star break that the Knicks were his preference and that he’d be open to the idea of taking a discount to remain in New York, but he added that he wants to hear the team’s plans to return to contention before making his final decision.
Anthony has repeated those remarks as well, though it seems that he’s more concerned with what the team can do next season than in the long term. That puts pressure on Knicks president Phil Jackson, just weeks into his first job as a team executive. Anthony and the Zen Master met this week to discuss ‘Melo’s free agent plans for the first time and talk about Steve Kerr, whom Jackson has zeroed in upon for the team’s coaching vacancy. Kerr would be a first-time coach, meaning that he and Jackson, neophytes in their jobs, would have the task of squeezing a significant improvement out of a 37-win team that offers precious little roster maneuverability.
The Knicks have less than $30MM in guaranteed salary for next season, but that number is almost certain to more than double, since Amar’e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani appear to be locks to opt in. That would bring the team’s commitments to about $64.8MM, roughly $1.6MM more than even the new, more optimistic projections for next season’s salary cap. That means the team would be capped-out regardless of where or for how much Anthony decides to play next season. Anthony’s return would almost certainly bring the team over the tax threshold for a third straight season, putting them in line to pay sharply escalating repeat-offender tax penalties in future years.
Such expenditures matter little to the high-revenue Knicks, who gave Jackson a five-year, $60MM contract, making him the most highly paid basketball executive in the league’s history. Where paying the tax hurts the Knicks is with the loss of the full mid-level exception, the bi-annual exception, and the chance to accept players who agree to a sign-and-trade. New York will only have the $3.278MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception at its disposal, and the minimum salary, to attract free agents from other teams.
The Knicks are also without either a first- or second-round draft pick this year. The earliest first-round pick that Jackson can offer teams in a trade is the Knicks’ 2018 selection because of the Stepien Rule. New York has little in the way of intriguing young players to offer outside of Iman Shumpert, whom the team dangled at multiple points this past season, nearly sending him to the Clippers at the deadline. Shumpert is eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer, but he doesn’t appear to hold the promise of turning into a star as most of the players who receive such extensions do. Jackson seems higher on Shumpert than the front office did under GM Steve Mills, who gave up his title of president when Jackson came aboard. Of course, Jackson, who made a habit of manipulating his team through the press when he was a coach, might have planted the assertion that he values Shumpert to better leaguewide perception of the 23-year-old as a trade asset, but that scenario is probably far-fetched. Still, the prospect of trading Shumpert represents one of the team’s clearest avenues for an upgrade.
Tyson Chandler, Cole Aldrich, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Toure’ Murry are also reportedly among Jackson’s favorites. Chandler suffered an injury early this season, and his play dropped off when he returned. He was a frequent critic of former coach Mike Woodson this year, fueling speculation that he might ask for a trade, but the arrival of Jackson and a new coach presents an opportunity for Chandler to reset. The question is whether the 31-year-old can resuscitate his game and again provide the elite defensive presence that was so critical to New York’s 54-win season in 2012/13. If Jackson senses he can’t, Chandler would become a trade chip whether he wants to leave New York or not. It might not be too hard to find takers for him, since he’s only under contract for one more season, and the risk of taking him on wouldn’t be too severe.
Hardaway would be another attractive trading piece after a strong rookie season. Still, given Jackson’s rumored affection for the guard and his potential for growth, he’d probably help the team more than whatever he could net in a trade, unless a team is willing to overpay for him. J.R. Smith began to play better toward the end of the season, but for the most part he was an albatross whose trade value bottomed out. Unless Jackson wants to send him out for little in return just to remove him from the locker room, Smith seems destined to remain a Knick.
New York’s late-season signing of Lamar Odom was clearly tied to Jackson’s history with the troubled forward, but it also signals what lies ahead in the offseason. His non-guaranteed contract is worth the minimum salary, but it’s the minimum for a veteran of 10 or more seasons in the league, worth more than $1.448MM. Odom’s chances of becoming a useful NBA player again seem remote, but that won’t matter if Jackson needs to use him to make the salaries match in a trade this summer. He can insert Odom into a trade, and the team that acquires him can simply waive him without owing him a cent. The Knicks can also cut him loose before opening night without him counting toward the team’s salary, so it’s a low-risk investment.
Jackson and, if hired, Kerr may hold out hope that the triangle offense will significantly help a team that’s too often reliant on Anthony’s isolations, but for Anthony to get his wish of an improved roster by next season, Jackson probably knows that trades are his best option. His assertion that Anthony should be “true to his word” and give the Knicks a hometown discount matters little for the team’s 2014/15 math. Jackson must exhibit the same aplomb with executives from opposing teams that he did with his players in his years as a coach to help the Knicks make a quick return to prominence.
Cap footnotes
* — Anthony has said repeatedly that he intends to opt out and become a free agent. In that case, his cap hold would be $22,458,402.
** — Murry’s cap hold would be $816,482 if the Knicks do not tender a qualifying offer.
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Union, KJ, Bulls, Young, Huestis
Adam Silver’s response to the Donald Sterling fiasco united the players association, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, and it also facilitated a stronger relationship between the union and the league, as acting union executive director Ron Klempner sees it.
“The league and the players recently have been working more closely together across the board, not just through this event,” Klempner said. “Our player programs staffs have experienced something of a thaw. Everyone feels more secure and confident, knowing that we can work together with the league on projects that will benefit the players.”
Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher has a different take, believing the players’ response to Silver’s ruling was an act of capitulation, and that they missed an opportunity to boycott games until Sterling was officially stripped of Clippers ownership. Just how the Sterling mess plays out remains to be seen, and there’s more on the union amid our latest look around the NBA:
- Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, who’s serving the players in an ex-officio capacity, isn’t a candidate to take the union’s full-time executive director position, given his rising stock as a politician, Windhorst writes in the same piece.
- It seems the Bulls will have to make a choice between Kirk Hinrich and D.J. Augustin, but GM Gar Forman isn’t ruling out the possibility of bringing them both back, as Sam Smith of Bulls.com notes.
- Kentucky shooting guard James Young, one of 75 early entrants for the draft, has chosen Jay Z and his Roc Nation Sports agency for his representation, notes Zach Braziller of the New York Post.
- The Jazz will likely work out fellow draft prospect Josh Huestis, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. The small forward from Stanford told Hoops Rumors about his preparation for a chance in the NBA, as we detailed in this morning’s prospect profile.
- Terrence Williams didn’t last long in Puerto Rico, as Brujos de Guayama has released him just a few weeks after he joined the team, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The former 11th overall pick last played in the NBA with the Celtics in 2012/13.
Lakers Intend To ‘Make A Splash’ With New Coach
3:18pm: The Bulls are likely to deny the Lakers permission to speak with Thibodeau, according to USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt (Twitter link).
1:43pm: The Lakers will ask the Bulls for permission to interview Tom Thibodeau, reports Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com (on Twitter).
1:08pm: The Lakers will interview George Karl, Jeff Van Gundy, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis, Ollie and Calipari, tweets Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times.
11:44am: The Lakers are going after marquee names and want to “make a splash” with their coaching search, with Connecticut’s Kevin Ollie and Kentucky’s John Calipari at the forefront, report Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. They apparently plan to reach out to Calipari even though he denied interest in the vacancy this morning. The Lakers nonetheless intend to hold back and focus on the draft and free agency while they gauge the coaching market, Stein and Shelburne write.
The Lakers are also considering the notion of holding off on a decision in case a high-profile free agent signals he wants to join the team, sources tell the ESPN scribes. In that case, the free agent would be able to influence the team’s choice of coaches.
Stein and Shelburne say the Lakers are also considering Derek Fisher, for whom the job reportedly holds “tremendous appeal.” Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who passed along the news of Fisher’s interest earlier, wrote that Kobe Bryant would not be the decision-maker for the team, but the Lakers are expected to consult with their 35-year-old star, according to Stein and Shelburne.
The Lakers plan to interview Mike Dunleavy Sr., who held the head coaching job for the team in the 1990s. Stein and Shelburne also mention the team’s interest in a number of candidates Shelburne listed earlier today. While the team is going after the two coaches from this year’s title game, Stein and Shelburne say the Lakers don’t have plans to reach out to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, whom they’ve targeted when the position has come open in the past.
L.A. Notes: Magic, Rivers, Farmar, D’Antoni
Magic Johnson earlier this week denied interest in buying the Clippers, but he’s apparently changed his mind, judging by his remarks Wednesday, as Ben Bergman of 89.3 KPCC reports (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
“I will be owning an NBA team sometime,” Johnson said. “Is the Clippers the right situation? Of course. It’s one of the premiere franchises.”
The teams of Johnson’s past and perhaps his future have been most prominent in news across the league this week, and there’s more this afternoon on both the Lakers and the Clippers:
- Doc Rivers hasn’t made it entirely clear whether he intends to return to the Clippers, but he says he has no interest in making the jump across Staples Center to coach the Lakers, observes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
- Jordan Farmar was a fan of Mike D’Antoni, but the soon-to-be free agent point guard doesn’t find the Lakers any less attractive now that the coach has resigned, as Farmar tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “I want to be a Laker,” Farmar said. “I like playing for Mike. Whether it’s Phil Jackson, Mike D’Antoni or whoever else coaches this team, that won’t deter me from wanting to be a Laker.”
- D’Antoni reportedly would like another NBA coaching job, but the general sentiment leaguewide is that his success with the Suns was an aberration, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. A GM who spoke to Deveney called D’Antoni a “one-trick pony.”
- There seems to be a decent chance that the Clippers will sell for more than $1 billion, but It will take more than money to buy the team, as James Rainey and Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times examine.
- Cavs guard Jarrett Jack believes every player in the league should boycott practices and games next season if Donald Sterling still owns the Clippers by then, as Jack said today on 95.7 The Game, tweets Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.
Cap Holds
The Lakers have committed only about $34.1MM in guaranteed money to player salaries for 2014/15, but that doesn’t mean the team will have nearly $30MM to spend on free agents. Each of the Lakers’ own free agents will be assigned a free agent amount or “cap hold” until the player signs a new contract or the Lakers renounce his rights.
The following criteria are used for determining the amount of a free agent’s cap hold:
- First-round pick coming off rookie contract: 250% of previous salary if prior salary was below league average; 200% of previous salary if prior salary was above league average
- Bird player: 190% of previous salary (if below average) or 150% (if above average)
- Early Bird player: 130% of previous salary
- Non-Bird player: 120% of previous salary
- Minimum-salary player: Two-year veteran’s minimum salary, unless the free agent only has one year of experience, in which case it’s the one-year veteran’s minimum.
A cap hold for a restricted free agent can vary based on his contract status. A restricted free agent’s cap hold is either his free agent amount as determined by the criteria mentioned above, or the amount of his qualifying offer, whichever is greater. Kent Bazemore and Ryan Kelly are set for restricted free agency this summer. Both earned the minimum salary this year, so if they were unrestricted free agents, their cap holds would only be worth next year’s minimum. Their status as restricted free agents bumps their cap holds to the amount of their qualifying offers — $1,115,243 and $1,016,482, respectively. The Lakers can knock their cap holds down to the minimum if they elect not to tender qualifying offers to them, making them unrestricted free agents.
No cap hold can exceed the maximum salary for which a player can sign. That’s why Pau Gasol‘s cap hold will be less than 150% of his salary this season even though the Lakers hold his Bird rights. Gasol made slightly more than the maximum salary for a veteran of 10 or more years this past season. There’s a decent chance that the maximum salary for 2014/15 could be higher than $20,250,143, which is 105% of what Gasol makes now, but it certainly won’t go high enough to allow for a cap hold worth 150% of Gasol’s pay from this season.
The Lakers have an even more unusual case in MarShon Brooks, who was traded twice this season. They have his Bird rights, but the Celtics declined the fourth year team option on his rookie scale contract before the season, so the Lakers can’t pay him more than what he would have made in the option year. That rule is in place so a team can’t circumvent the rookie scale and decline its option so it can give the player a higher salary, and it applies even if the player is traded after the option is declined, as in the case of Brooks. The Lakers faced a similar dilemma with Jordan Hill two years ago. In these cases, the cap hold is equal to the amount of the fourth-year team option.
If a team holds the rights to fewer than 12 players, cap holds worth the minimum rookie salary ($507,336) are assigned to fill out the roster. So, if Nick Young opts out of his contract and the Lakers choose to renounce their rights to all of their free agents and players on non-guaranteed contracts, the team would have three players and about $34.1MM left under contract. However, nine holds worth $507,336 would be added to the team’s cap, reducing its total cap space by about $4.6MM.
Cap holds aren’t removed from a team’s books until the player signs a new contract or has his rights renounced by the club. For instance, since John Salley never signed elsewhere after reaching free agency after the 1999/00 season, and the Lakers have never renounced him, the Lakers still have a minimum salary hold for Salley on their cap. It’s been so many years since the Lakers have gone under the cap that there’s been no reason for them to renounce their rights to players who retired long ago. Keeping those cap holds allowed the Lakers some degree of cushion to help them remain above the cap and take advantage of the mid-level exception and trade exceptions, among other advantages afforded cap teams. There’s a strong chance that Salley, Mitch Richmond, Brian Shaw, Karl Malone and others will disappear from the Lakers’ list of cap holds this summer with the team finally poised to open cap space.
The general purpose of a cap hold is to prevent teams from using room under the cap to sign free agents before using Bird rights to re-sign their own free agents. If a team wants to take advantage of its cap space, it can renounce its rights to its free agents, eliminating those cap holds. However, doing so means the team will no longer hold any form of Bird rights for those players — if the team wants to re-sign those free agents, it would have to use its cap room or another kind of cap exception.
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 was initially published on May 1st, 2012, by Luke Adams.
Coaching Rumors: Kerr, Messina, D’Antoni
There are four head coaching vacancies in the NBA, or five, if you count the Pistons, for whom John Loyer finished the season as interim coach. Others may follow once the first round of the playoffs concludes in a few days, so the coaching market is in full gear. Here’s the latest:
- Steve Kerr won’t use other openings as leverage against the Knicks and team president Phil Jackson, sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Lute Olson, Kerr’s former college coach, rejects the notion that Kerr prefers a West Coast job and thinks he’s more than likely to accept an offer from the Knicks, as Olson tells Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- Sources tell Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net that Ettore Messina has already told CSKA Moscow that he’ll leave this summer, but Varlas hears Messina is more likely to wind up as a Spurs assistant than an NBA head coach next season. Messina has drawn mention as a candidate for head coaching jobs with the Lakers and Jazz this year.
- Mike D’Antoni is still interested in coaching, a source tells Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. Bresnahan writes that the portion of next year’s $4MM salary that the Lakers agreed to pay him even though he resigned is less than $2MM, but Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com hears that it’s more than that (Twitter link).
- Reports have indicated that Mark Jackson and the Warriors never engaged in extension talks, but Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group hears that they briefly discussed the subject this past summer. Jackson is set to enter the final year of his contract next season, though it’s unlikely he’ll return for 2014/15 barring a long playoff run.
Lakers Rumors: Calipari, Scott, Snyder
There’s no immediate favorite for the Lakers head coaching job, vacant following Mike D’Antoni‘s resignation Wednesday evening. The team hasn’t reached out to many potential candidates yet, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, and Bill Oram of the Orange County Register paints it as a wide open race (Twitter link). The Lakers aren’t in a hurry to choose D’Antoni’s replacement, unless they feel like they’re about to miss out on someone they really like, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, who says the draft and free agency are greater priorities for the team. Still, there’s news about a few intriguing candidates, as we detail:
- Kevin Ollie, Alvin Gentry, Mike Dunleavy Sr., George Karl, Kurt Rambis, Calipari, Scott, Fisher, and Jeff Van Gundy are on the Lakers’ initial list, Shelburne tweets.
Earlier updates:
- Kentucky coach John Calipari took himself out of the running via his own Twitter account (hat tip to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv). “Before it starts, I’m totally committed to helping this group of young men reach their dreams,” Calipari wrote. “I wouldn’t and couldn’t leave this group!”
- Byron Scott, in an interview with Time Warner Cable Sports Net, confirmed a report that he’s interested in the job (video link). He’s a favorite of the Buss family, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding notes.
- GM Mitch Kupchak and Kobe Bryant share respect for Hawks assistant Quin Snyder, Ding writes in the same piece.
- The Lakers have been fond of Jeff Van Gundy, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com points out (video link).
- The job holds “tremendous appeal” to Derek Fisher, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Thunder guard is likely to retire after the season.
- Bryant likes Scott, Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy and Ettore Messina, but the Lakers star won’t drive the team’s search, Wojnarowski writes in the same piece.
- Messina, the elite European coach who spent 2011/12 as a Lakers assistant, downplayed the idea that he’ll become coach, and he said the Lakers haven’t contacted him, Pincus reports.
- Lionel Hollins is among those interested in the job, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
Prospect Profile: Josh Huestis
Every year, the second round is full of project picks, but you’ll also find players who come ready to hit the ground running. Stanford’s Josh Huestis is out to show teams that after four years of facing tough competition, he has the experience necessary to make an immediate impact. Tough defense is the 22-year-old’s calling card but his mission is to show teams that he can be a factor on the other end of the floor as well.
“I’m definitely somebody who can be aggressive on the boards. I see offensive rebounding as my strong suit. I averaged 2.5 offensive rebounds per game in college,” Huestis told Hoops Rumors, referring to his numbers in his senior year. “I can shoot the ball better than people think, too, and with more opportunities, I can do more than people think. I’m working on ball handling and by the time the season rolls around I’ll be more comfortable attacking the basket.”
The 6’7″ forward believes that because he was asked to be a defensive anchor for the Cardinal throughout his time there, he didn’t get many chances to show what he can do with the basketball. Some scouting reports, including a recent writeup from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, have knocked Huestis’ shooting range, but he’s determined to shed that rap over the next few months. An improved shooting stroke will help inflate his stock for sure, but his value will continue to lie primarily in his defense.
“I feel like I can guard whoever anybody wants me to,” said Huestis, who has great size for the small forward position and could conceivably play the four in a smaller lineup. “I can be somebody who can guard twos and threes and fours. I think I’m a really versatile defender.”
Huestis is coming off a performance at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament where he feels that he displayed his trademark D but didn’t do as much as he wanted to offensively. Even though things didn’t go perfectly, a number of teams reached out to Huestis and showed active interest over the course of the week. Since then, he’s been refining all parts of his game at the Impact Basketball Academy in Las Vegas and going up against stiff competition. Every day, Huestis works out with and against training partners like Pittsburgh product Lamar Patterson and former All-American Mike Moser.
Draft sites are quick to offer up NBA comparisons for prospects, and when asked to come up with his own, Huestis said that his game most closely resembles that of Kawhi Leonard. Like the Spurs swingman, the Stanford standout can guard multiple positions on the floor, be a “really good glue guy,” and grab the tough rebounds. While using a second-round choice on a draft-and-stash candidate may be enticing, it’ll be hard for teams to take a pass on a player like Huestis who can help fortify a bench immediately.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.