Kings GM On Knicks Trade, Rookies, Collison
Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro offered some comments on the team’s offseason thus far, including the thought process behind their recent trade with the Knicks, the impression that the rookies have made at this point, and how he expects Darren Collison to significantly contribute next season. D’Alessandro covers several other topics in his recent Q&A session with NBA.com, but you can find some of the interview’s more notable highlights below:
On dealing Quincy Acy and Travis Outlaw to New York and what it meant for Sacramento:
“First, I would say Quincy did a phenomenal job for us – we loved Quincy. I think when we looked at our positioning and the positions we had filled, it became much more difficult. So we worked with Quincy – in a partnership with him – to make something happen that worked for him and worked for us. And we’re really happy for him because I think he’s going to play really well for the Knicks. On our end, we give ourselves a little flexibility. We took some protection off a pick, which we now have in an unconditional manner and we got a young player who has a chance to make our team and who’s an exceptional shooter. So we have flexibility and also we have other players in which we’re negotiating with who we think could fill the role that Travis played, which was a huge role.
Travis is another hard guy to let go – he was such a good citizen and a really good player for us. So overall, it was a broad brush of things that it did for us and cleaned some things up and it put us in position for future [moves]. For Quincy and Travis, we wish them the best and really do thank them – they are great guys and great players.”
On rookie Nik Stauskas:
“We have high hopes for Nik. He’s very young so we’re not going to put a lot of pressure on him this year, but I don’t think we don’t need to. He puts a lot of pressure on himself. We have very high hopes for him as a player, as a shooter, and as a guy who can help us to stretch the floor, so there’s a lot of opportunities for him… (What stands out about him right now is) confidence. If he gets three shots, he feels like he’s going to make all three. If he gets 20 shots, he feels like he’s going to make 20. He’s not a guy that will ever have the ball in his hands and feel like he’s not going to succeed with it and you saw that in Summer League. We didn’t go to him as often as we might have, but nothing really fazed him. He continued to shoot the ball well and do what he does. So we’re looking forward to his development.”
On Deonte Burton:
“…With Deonte we see a guy with a lot of promise. A lot of guys saw him highly ranked, but he didn’t get drafted. And this Draft was such a tough one because it was so loaded and stacked. When you got to the second round you just didn’t know what was going to happen – there were teams who didn’t necessarily want to bring guys in, so they take guys who are stashed. Deonte’s not a guy who wanted to be stashed – he feels like he’s an NBA player and we would like to see what he has…“He [had] a great (draft) workout. He’s a great kid too – I think he fits in with what we’re trying to do. We’re excited that he’ll be part of this process and training camp and he’ll have an opportunity to try to make the team.”
On Eric Moreland:
“I thought [he brought] energy and he had an ability to block shots, but really just how hard he plays…These guys come in and play hard – they play really hard and we expect that out of Eric and that’s what it’s going to take for him to succeed in this league…(Players with his skill set) translate to almost any system because those are the guys who raise the energy of your team and the players around them. To me, you can insert a guy who’s 22-years-old and now it’s up to him. It’s up to him to step in and create a niche for himself.”
On how he expects Darren Collison to have an impact:
“[He’s another guy with a high] motor – a guy who can just go, flat-out go. He can help pick up our pace. He’s a great veteran and he’s a guy we look forward to bringing more than just his skills [to our team]…You’re talking about a guy who has playoff experience – a guy who has an expectation of winning. When I talk to Darren, it’s always ‘how do we make the playoffs? How do we get there?’ That’s something that’s important to me – that you have players that are thinking that way, and more important, acting that way…His ability to pull it together – we talk about the-straw-that-stirs-the-drink analogy and that’s [our] hope for him. We want him to be that guy that brings out the talent from everyone else, while also showing his talent and leadership in the process.”
And-Ones: Carroll, Heat, Humphries, Fernandez
A longer All-Star break just might put the fun back in All-Star weekend, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Each team will have a minimum of seven days between games with the new format, with the majority of the league not resuming play until the Friday after the All-Star Game. However, there is one catch for players. Since the season doesn’t begin any sooner or end any later than usual, there are more back-to-backs in this year’s schedule. Here’s more from around the league..
- With some help from Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report Hawks small forward DeMarre Carroll writes that Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce tried to convince the Celtics to sign him in 2011 after a strong summer. “The Celtics got with my agent, Mark Bartelstein, but that didn’t work out. To this day, [Pierce] always tells Danny, ‘I told you DeMarre was going to be good,'” said Carroll.
- In today’s mailbag, a reader asks Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel if the Heat could conceivably put together a package for Pacers center Roy Hibbert. Winderman explains that the only players the Heat can put into a trade are Norris Cole, Justin Hamilton, and Shabazz Napier since since every veteran free agent signed this offseason cannot be dealt until December 15th. Of course, there’s no guarantee the two sides could be a match for a deal beyond that date.
- Big man Kris Humphries has become a more efficient player and he’s excited to bring his new game to the Wizards, writes Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. Hump’s 8.6 PPG and 5.9 RPG aren’t the double-double figures he was posting for the Nets during his best season, but he got those points and boards more efficiently with the C’s as he played just 19.9 minutes per game.
- Real Madrid announced that they have extended guard Rudy Fernandez through the 2018 season, according to the ACB League’s official Twitter (translation via Sportando). A report in February indicated that Fernandez had attention from the Thunder and other NBA teams, but Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman recently said that there was nothing between the 29-year-old and OKC.
- Former NBA forward Derrick Byars has signed a two-year deal with ACB Baloncesto Sevilla in Spain, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Byars played in two games for the Spurs in 2011/12 and was in training camp with the Grizzlies last season.
DeAndre Daniels Signs With Australian Team
AUGUST 14th: The deal is now official, according to an announcement on the Wildcats’ website.
AUGUST 9th, 6:05pm: Daniels confirmed that he was headed to Australia to reporters including Chris Robinson of Australian paper the Herald Sun. Daniels said he would play overseas for four months and then return to the Raptors, although in what capacity he would rejoin Toronto is unclear. The Wildcats managing director told Robinson that the deal still isn’t finalized.
AUGUST 7th, 9:52am: The 37th overall pick in June’s draft is believed to be nearing agreement with the Perth Wildcats of Australia, reports Shayne Hope of The West Australian (hat tip to Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). DeAndre Daniels would head down under in lieu of joining the Raptors this year. It’ll likely be a one-year deal, Hope writes.
Toronto GM Masai Ujiri signaled a month ago that his team probably wouldn’t sign Daniels for the upcoming season, and the Raptors had reportedly been helping the small forward find overseas work. Daniels would head to the same Australian team that last year employed James Ennis, the 50th pick in the 2013 draft, but it’s unclear if the Wildcats will give Daniels the same NBA escape clause that they afforded Ennis. Perth would have been on the hook for its salary to Ennis had he signed with the Heat, who owned his NBA rights, at any point last season.
Daniels would be the most highly drafted 2014 second-rounder to head overseas for this coming season, though a pair of first-round picks have done so, as our list of draft pick signings shows. The 22-year-old from Connecticut was a somewhat surprising selection at No. 37, since he was just the 59th-best prospect in the rankings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiled, and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress rated him 64th. The 6’8″ Daniels averaged 13.1 points and 6.0 rebounds in 29.0 minutes per game with 41.7% three-point shooting for the national champion Huskies this past season.
Cavs Seriously Considering Chauncey Billups
Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) continues to hear that Chauncey Billups is a serious consideration for the Cavs. Billups, he notes, has been close with associate head coach Tyronn Lue for years.
The guard met with Cleveland last week and was said to look rusty but still productive in his workout. The audition was sparked by Billups’ interest in playing with the Cavs, but it sounds like the interest is being reciprocated, at least to some degree.
Billups, 37, said in March that multiple NBA teams reached out about a front office role and said he would consider such an opportunity with the Pistons should the team make it available. The Pistons and Cavs were both reportedly high on him for a job in the front office, but it sounds as though he’s not ready to trade in his sneakers for dress shoes just yet. The veteran has openly mused about retirement but still stopped short of ruling out a return to the court. Billups also has media opportunities in front of him, according to Zwerling.
Billups played in just 19 games last season for Detroit and averaged just 3.8 PPG and 2.2 APG in that limited run. Over the course of 17 seasons, Billups averaged 15.2 PPG and 5.4 APG while capturing a championship and earning upwards of $100MM in salary.
Western Notes: Aldridge, Asik, Lakers
Earlier today, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders looked at the best free agents in the 2015 class. Among the top names potentially in the group is Blazers big man LaMarcus Aldridge. Two seasons ago it seemed like a foregone conclusion that LaMarcus would be leaving Portland. Today it seems unlikely that he won’t be back on a new long term deal in July. Here’s more out of the West…
- One might think that Omer Asik has some hard feelings towards the Rockets, but he says that’s not the case at all, writes Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle. Asik, now with the Pelicans, was quite vocal about wanting a trade when Houston acquired big man Dwight Howard, relegating him to the bench. “I just really want to thank all the fans and all the support I had in Houston,” he said. “I want to thank everyone in the organization and especially my teammates. I really enjoyed my time in Houston.”
- Eddie Johnson of USA Today Sports (video link) says the Lakers need to stop trying to cover up their holes with band-aids and instead make substantive changes.
- Lakers coach Byron Scott told Mike Trudell of Lakers.com (on Twitter) that he expects to have his coaching staff filled out by the end of the week.
Raptors Eyeing D-League Affiliate
Anyone who has lived with a roommate knows it’s better to have a place of your own. The Raptors, who are currently slated to share the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with a dozen other teams, are looking to do just that. Toronto is in discussions with the Rochester RazorSharks to bring them into the D-League and partner up, according to Time Warner Cable Rochester.
Sources within the RazorSharks front office say that the Raptors are looking to move them from the Premier Basketball League to the NBA’s ever-growing developmental league. The RazorSharks have enjoyed quite a bit of success in the PBL, capturing titles in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2014. The team was founded in 2005 as a member of the American Basketball Association before later moving to the PBL.
There are currently 17 one-to-one affiliation deals between NBA clubs and D-League teams, so it would only make sense for Toronto to look into one of their own. The Mad Ants are the only team in the D-League without a one-to-one deal after Idaho and Erie secured deals with the Jazz and Magic, respectively.
Nolan Smith To Sign With Turkish Club
Former Duke star Nolan Smith will sign with Turkey’s Galatasaray, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (on Twitter). Smith received partially guaranteed offers from the Bulls and the Thunder for next season but he has apparently chosen to spent the year overseas.
Because Smith had serious interest from at least two NBA clubs, it’s possible that his deal will include an NBA out-clause. Smith played in Croatia last year and averaged 17.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 4.1 APG.
The 26-year-old point guard spent 2011/12 and 2012/13 with the Blazers, averaging 3.3 PPG and 1.2 APG in 9.9 minutes per contest. The former No. 21 overall pick in the draft also had interest from the Hawks back in 2013 and picked up interest from the Celtics and Knicks last summer. One would imagine that he’ll continue to have an in with Oklahoma City as well since head coach Scott Brooks is his godfather.
Earlier today, Galatasaray inked another ex-NBA guard in Carlos Arroyo when they re-signed him to a new contract.
Jason Collins Mulling Retirement
After making history last season as the NBA’s first active openly gay player, Jason Collins is likely through with playing professional basketball, writes Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group. In front of a crowd of ~600 people on Monday night at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, the 35-year-old acknowledged that, athletically, his best years are probably behind him.
“I used to be able to jump and touch the top of the white square behind the rim with ease,” Collins said. “As the years go by, you watch your hand go lower and lower on that square. Father Time is undefeated against us all. … I’m really grateful for my Stanford degree now. On the other hand, I can still dunk.”
Collins began his career with the Nets and experienced success right from the get go, helping New Jersey to back-to-back Eastern Conference Championships in his first two seasons. The big man would start 404 regular season games for the Nets in six-and-a-half seasons and also cashed in on a very lucrative second contract with the club. In total, Collins has earned upwards of $34MM over the course of his career (according to Basketball-Reference) and has appeared in 95 playoff games.
In his stint last season with Brooklyn, Collins averaged 1.1 PPG and 0.9 RPG across 22 late season games. Even though Collins was a consummate teammate and a quality low-post defender during his NBA career, his legacy will extend far beyond what he accomplished on the hardwood.
Carlos Arroyo Re-Signs With Turkish Club
Longtime NBA guard Carlos Arroyo has re-signed with Turkey’s Galatasaray, according to an announcement on the club’s official site (partially translated by Sportando). Arroyo, 35, drew interest from NBA clubs this time last year before opting to instead sign overseas.
When Arroyo turned down training camp invites last season, he noted that he wanted to have a larger role than he would with an NBA club. Indeed, he filled a key role for Galatasaray in 2013/14, playing and starting in 25 games and playing 31.7 minutes per contest, which is more burn that he had ever seen in one NBA season.
Over the course of nine NBA seasons with the Raptors, Nuggets, Jazz, Pistons, Magic, Heat, and Celtics, Arroyo averaged 6.6 PPG and 3.1 APG in 18.7 minutes per contest.
And-Ones: Morris, D-League, Kings
The NBA released its schedule for 2014/15, and it’ll feature an All-Star break that will extend longer than a week. Every team will get at least eight days off, as first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That will mean a few more sets of back-to-back games throughout the season, but it’ll be interesting to see the effect on the pre-deadline trade market, since the All-Star break usually falls about a week before the trade deadline. More idle time and a lower risk of injuries that could scuttle a trade might lead to more activity. While we digest the schedule and all of its ramifications, here’s the latest from around the league:
- Darius Morris rejected an offer that would have given him a net $450K from a Serbian team, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com, who speculates that NBA interest was behind Morris’ decision.
- There is no timetable on a decision to install a new D-League president, the league office tells Gino Pilato of DLeagueDigest.com.
- Pilato has heard of some candidates for the job, however, naming Tommy Smith, Shawn Smith, Chris Alpert, and Jerry Murphy, all of whom currently work for the D-League
- The Jazz announced (via Twitter) that Dean Cooper, whom the Rockets let go from their assistant coaching staff after this past season, has been named head coach of Utah’s D-League affiliate.
- Demolition has begun for the Kings new arena, reports Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee. The project is moving forward with the expectation that some remaining legal challenges to the arena’s construction will fail.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.