Stan Van Gundy On Josh Smith Decision
This morning’s news that the Pistons waived Josh Smith certainly qualifies as one of the more interesting and shocking NBA personnel developments in recent memory. It’s also no surprise that teams around the league are preparing their recruiting pitches for the volatile but talented forward, who is still only 29 years old. Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy spoke to the media this afternoon, including Keith Langlois of Pistons.com, and had the following to say about the team’s jarring decision:
On why the team felt the need to move on from Smith:
“Josh is the guy on our team with the highest usage rate. He’s taken the most shots. He’s a high-assists guy. He’s got the ball in his hands a lot. We would have had to reduce his role offensively. I don’t think he would have been happy with that at this point in his career. I don’t think it necessarily would have been fair to him. But I think it’s something we need to do to try to move on.”
On how access to the stretch provision impacted the deal:
“We gain an advantage the next two summers and then the three years after that, he sits on our cap – but with the cap going up, I think you’re looking at that being a very small percentage of the cap. It helps a great deal.”
On how this move improves the future of the team:
“I think this is about a few things. It’s, No. 1, making significant improvement, particularly at the defensive end of the floor. No. 2, it’s about developing our young core of guys. No. 3, it’s about acquiring as many assets and as much flexibility as we can going forward to make the moves.”
On what the Pistons will do with the open roster spot:
“Maybe find a guy off the waiver wire, a D-League guy, something like that. Or in a trade where you send one guy out and get two guys back. It does give you some flexibility and I think flexibility right now in trying to move things forward is important.”
On why they didn’t move Smith when they had the chance in the summer:
“I would rather be where we are right now than having taken back the players we were offered that would’ve sat on our cap for the next three years. That would have slowed down our rebuilding effort. We went into the season expecting much, much better than this. To just continue on the same course and not do anything differently at 5 and 23 would be pretty bad leadership at this point. Looking back, I would rather have this situation than the opportunity we had in the summer.”
Northwest Notes: Jazz, Stephenson, Garcia
It’s not shaping up to be a banner night for the league’s Northwest Division, with the Nuggets losing big in Charlotte, the Blazers down 20 at the half in Houston and the Jazz facing a 21-6 Grizzles team in Memphis. But that hasn’t affected the buzz coming out of the division on Monday night. Let’s round up the latest news and notes here:
- The Jazz have no interest in pursuing Josh Smith should he hit free agency, reports Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune (via Twitter). This news certainly comes as no surprise, as Utah remains committed to developing their young frontcourt of Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter and Rudy Gobert, as Jones notes.
- Matching Charlotte’s $63MM offer sheet on Gordon Hayward, perhaps the most critical member of the Jazz‘s young core, is looking even better for Utah considering that the Hornets ended up with Lance Stephenson as a result, writes Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. With the Jazz in Charlotte this past weekend, Genessy rehashes the offseason’s festivities with Hayward, who has enjoyed a breakout season for Utah.
- Speaking of Stephenson, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said the much-maligned Hornets guard, who he coached in Indiana, is misunderstood and might be a victim of unrealistic expectations in Charlotte, writes Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post. “Obviously he does some stuff out there on the floor that a lot of people don’t agree with,” Shaw said. “That’s just part of maturity with him. But it’s also part of his edge. You see Kevin Garnett on the court, and he’s always talking sometimes to the opponent, but a lot of times to himself, just trying to do what it takes to get himself pumped up to win the game. Lance is much the same way.” The Nuggets are one of a handful of teams that have been linked to Stephenson.
- The Timberwolves did not put in a waiver claim on Francisco Garcia, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (via Twitter). Garcia was waived on Friday after he declined to be traded to Minnesota, but there were reports that the Wolves may still try to add the veteran off waivers.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Pacific Notes: Kings, Thomas, McLemore, Karl
It’s been a busy Monday in the NBA, with teams lining up to capitalize on the Pistons’ bold decision to cut ties with Josh Smith. Three of those teams — the Clippers, Kings and Lakers — reside in the league’s Pacific Division. For what it’s worth, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun tweets that one Raptors player that remains in contact with the Kings‘ Rudy Gay predicts that Smith will land in Sacramento (Twitter link). While we continue to amass the Smith rumors, let’s take a look at what else is going on in the Pacific:
- The idea of three first-rate point guards all fitting into the same system “didn’t make sense” to Isaiah Thomas at first, as he tells TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Thomas still believes it might not work, but the Suns were nonetheless convincing and “genuine” when they made their case that it would, the former Kings guard said.
- Playoff-bound teams are making numerous calls to the Kings about Ben McLemore, but Sacramento has no intention of relinquishing the second-year shooting guard, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports writes as part of his weekly power rankings.
- There has been no shortage of reports linking George Karl to the Kings’ inevitable head coaching vacancy, though where he stands among other candidates is hard to pin down at the moment. Appearing today on 95.7 The Game, a Bay Area station, Karl indicated he is “interested in any job,” as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group passes along (via Twitter).
- Mitchell Watt has left the Santa Cruz Warriors to pursue other career opportunities, the D-League team announced via its Twitter feed (Twitter link). He’s heading to Ironi Nes Ziona of the Israeli league, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (on Twitter). Watt signed a deal with the Golden State Warriors in September that contained a small guarantee, but the Buffalo product was released by the team prior to the regular season.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Central Notes: Pistons, Love, Bucks, Stephenson
Greg Monroe and agent David Falk have made it clear that they don’t want any trade this season, though the Pistons have asked about Monroe’s willingness to approve a trade, writes Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. Monroe has the right to block any deal because he signed his qualifying offer in the offseason, and he’d lose his Bird rights if he were to be traded. There have been conflicting reports about whether the Pistons are shopping Brandon Jennings, but Goodwill writes that he is indeed on the block. The team’s brass is setting a high price for its assets, but other front offices have yet to meet those demands, according to Goodwill, who wrote his piece before today’s Josh Smith bombshell. We’ve been tracking the latest on Smith all day, and as we continue to do so, here’s more news from the Central Division:
- Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders insists that had it not been for the offer from the Cavaliers, he wouldn’t have traded Kevin Love this year, as Saunders told reporters, including Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (Twitter link). There were simply no other proposals he liked, despite seemingly fevered interest from half of the league’s teams.
- Saunders also seemed to confirm that Love had forced his way off the Wolves, as Krawczynski relays in a full piece. “Minnesota people are pretty loyal,” Saunders said. “When you turn on Minnesota they don’t forgive you.” Still, Saunders added that he has no hard feelings, Krawczynski tweets.
- Bucks owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry saw the Milwaukee franchise as a “blank slate,” Krawczynski writes in another piece, adding that the ownership duo has quickly revamped the business side of the team and is very pleased with how their roster is taking form. “It’s better than the Spurs. Those are the old guys,” Edens told Krawczynski. “Would you trade Giannis [Antetokounmpo] and Jabari [Parker] and all the rest of the young guys for them?”
- While initial reports had Edens and Lasry pledging $100MM towards a new arena in Milwaukee, the actual number the owners have agreed to commit has since grown to $150MM, reports Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Walker reminds us that former Bucks owner Herb Kohl agreed to kick in $100MM himself and that there might be additional private capital coming. Whatever amount on top of that is required to build the arena will come from public financing, Walker says, adding that the team faces an NBA-mandated deadline of fall 2017 to have the new facility in place.
- Pacers players aren’t embracing the idea of bringing Lance Stephenson back to the team, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Indiana’s front office was reportedly cool to the idea as the Pacers engaged in preliminary talks with the Hornets about trading for the shooting guard.
Alex Lee contributed to this post.
Celtics Notes: Randle, Rondo, Trade Exceptions
The refusal of the Lakers to include Julius Randle in a trade for Rajon Rondo helped prevent the Celtics and Lakers from completing a deal involving the point guard, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports amid his weekly power rankings. The teams had harbored mutual interest in engineering a swap involving Rondo, Spears adds. The Lakers took Randle one spot after the Celtics drafted Marcus Smart, Rondo’s replacement, in the draft this year, though Randle played in only one game before suffering a broken leg that’s expected to be season-ending. Here’s more on the Celtics:
- Rondo was never going to re-sign with Boston if it meant enduring more rebuilding, and the presence of the Lakers as a potential suitor for Rondo in free agency this summer worried the Celtics, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
- The Celtics took Jae Crowder‘s $915,243 salary into the $3.8MM Joel Anthony trade exception rather than the $1,334,092 that they had left of the Kris Humphries trade exception, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That was the missing bit of information regarding the C’s deft use of trade exceptions in the Rondo deal, which I explained in detail last week. The Anthony exception, which expires October 17th, 2015, is now worth only $152,757, since Boston used it to take in Jameer Nelson‘s $2.732MM salary, too. Check out our complete list of the active trade exceptions for teams around the league.
- The 2016 second-round pick that the Mavs owe the Celtics as part of the Rondo trade will be the better of Dallas’ own pick and Memphis’, which the Mavs acquired in a previous deal, Pincus also reports (Twitter link).
How The Corey Brewer Trade Worked Financially
The Rockets, Wolves and Sixers appear to have pulled off a rare feat with their trade Friday night. Most NBA teams spend the majority of the season over the cap, so swaps that involve as many as three teams, as Friday’s trade did, usually need to have at least part of the transaction fall within the matching guidelines the NBA sets forth for “simultaneous” trades. Occasionally, as with the Rajon Rondo trade, some elements of deals are “non-simultaneous,” allowing teams to use and create trade exceptions, as the Celtics did last week. But ordinarily at least some salary matching has to come into play. Not so with the Corey Brewer trade.
Friday’s trade allowed the teams to use trade exceptions, the minimum-salary exception, and cap space to avoid salary matching. The trade exception that gained the most notoriety was the one the Rockets used to absorb Brewer. Houston had reportedly been targeting Brewer for several weeks as a player that it wanted to absorb into that exception, which GM Daryl Morey and his staff appeared eager to use. It was an asset left over from the Jeremy Lin trade that allowed the team to trade for a player, or players, who made up to $100K more than Lin’s $8,374,646 cap hit this season. The Rockets had until the one-year anniversary of the Lin trade to use it, but they chose not to hesitate quite so long.
Brewer’s $4,702,500 salary fit within that exception, but it left a sizable chunk. The deadline for the remainder of the exception didn’t change; Houston could have saved it up until the Lin trade anniversary. However, using the rest of it before the end of December 19th meant the team could flip not just Brewer, but another player in a trade at the league’s February 19th deadline that aggregates their salaries, since there’s a two-month window following a trade in which teams may not aggregate the salaries of the newly acquired players in a subsequent trade. Aggregating player salaries is similar to but not quite the same as packaging players in a trade, and there are ways to package players without aggregating their salaries. However, it’s complicated and often difficult to do so, so Morey and company decided to avert that potential stumbling block.
The Sixers under GM Sam Hinkie have proven willing participants when other teams need help making a transaction, as long as Hinkie and company can reap at least one second-round pick from the affair, as they did in this trade. Morey, Hinkie’s former boss, found a player on his protege’s roster who both fit within the remainder of the Lin exception and gives the Rockets another option at backup point guard, the role Lin had played for the team prior to the trade that allowed the Rockets to create the exception in the first place. Hinkie allowed Morey to fold Alexey Shved‘s $3,282,057 salary into the exception along with Brewer, leaving but a $390,089 stub that’s worth less than the rookie minimum-salary, meaning the Rockets have, for all practical purposes, used up the exception.
In so doing, Hinkie also helped facilitate another three-way trade that involved the Timberwolves, just as he did when Minnesota sent Kevin Love to Cleveland, which happened to have been the deal that brought Shved to Philadelphia. This time, the Sixers took in Ronny Turiaf, who’s out for the season and whom the team reportedly intends to waive. His $1.5MM salary represented a sunk cost for the Timberwolves, since he’s on an expiring contract and isn’t expected to be healthy enough to play until his contract expires at season’s end. However, he comes as a savings to Philadelphia, since he makes less than half of what Shved does. So, the deal represents a net gain of cap space for the Sixers, even though that might be a wash if Philadelphia falls short of the league’s $56.759MM team salary floor and has to distribute the difference among the players on its roster at season’s end. It matters not for salary matching purposes that Shved’s pay is so much greater than Turiaf’s, nor that the Sixers didn’t have any trade exceptions. Salary matching and trade exceptions are the concern of teams over the cap, a threshold that Philadelphia is nowhere near.
The Timberwolves wound up the beneficiary of Philadelphia’s cap space and Houston’s trade exceptions in that they allowed Minnesota to create new trade exceptions for Brewer and Turiaf, each one equivalent to their respective salaries. Wolves coach/president of basketball operations Flip Saunders couldn’t otherwise have shed so much salary while taking in only the $816,482 one-year veteran’s minimum salary of Troy Daniels, whom Minnesota can accommodate via the minimum-salary exception. Conversely, the Rockets created a new trade exception equal to the salary for Daniels. It’s not nearly as valuable as the Lin exception that Houston employed, but it’s an asset nonetheless.
Saunders also accomplished another order of business in this trade. The team had been carrying 16 players based on a hardship exception to the 15-man regular season roster limit that the league granted because of the prolonged absences of Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Kevin Martin and Turiaf. The Wolves had used the ability to add a 16th player to sign Jeff Adrien. Relinquishing Turiaf meant that the team would no longer be eligible for that extra roster spot, which requires that no fewer than four players be expected to miss a significant amount of time. So the trade, in which the Wolves gave up two players and acquired one, allowed Saunders to remove Turiaf’s contract, which he was otherwise prepared to waive, without Turiaf’s salary sticking on Minnesota’s books and without having to relinquish Adrien, who rebounded at an impressive rate in nine games prior to the trade, racking up 4.6 boards in just 11.6 minutes per game. That translates to 14.2 rebounds per 36 minutes.
The deal didn’t work perfectly for the Rockets, who wound up having to release Francisco Garcia to satisfy the 15-man limit. Garcia apparently refused to go to the Wolves, as was his right, since he held a de facto no-trade clause by virtue of having re-signed with the Rockets to a one-year contract in the offseason. Agreeing to the trade would have nixed his Bird rights, but those are gone anyway, since the right to veto a trade didn’t give him the right to block Houston from waiving him. His departure completes a trifecta of sorts for the Rockets, who handed out three fully guaranteed one-year contracts for the minimum salary in the offseason only to waive all three. Those deals were with Ish Smith, who’s now a member of the Thunder, Adrien, whom Houston let go at the end of the preseason, and Garcia.
Plenty was familiar about the Brewer trade, which involved former Rockets cohorts Morey and Hinkie, and Saunders, who’s twice involved the Sixers in three-team deals in the space of four months. Yet this was an unusual trade that required flexibility and creativity on all sides. Now, it’s up to Morey to see whether Brewer and Shved work better as complements to Houston’s rotation or as fodder for the acquisition of a third star player, Saunders to use his new trade exceptions in a way that furthers Minnesota’s rebuilding efforts, and Hinkie to continue to seek ways to maximize Philly’s league-leading cap space and turn his stockpile of second-round picks into better than second-rate assets.
Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and the Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Cavs Eye Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez
The Cavs have interest in twins Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez, but their respective salaries mean the acquisition of either is unlikely, reports Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Brook Lopez makes more than $15.719MM and has a player option worth in excess of $16.744MM for 2015/16. Robin Lopez is set for free agency this summer after he earns nearly $6.124MM this season. The Nets are reportedly willing to trade Brook Lopez, who’s also drawn interest from the Hornets, but there are no such rumors surrounding Robin Lopez, who’s set to miss several more weeks with a broken hand. Robin Lopez also recently indicated a contentment with playing in Portland.
Cleveland continues to search for help at center, as the Cavs are one of the teams in the mix for Kosta Koufos, and they tried over a period of months to pry Timofey Mozgov from the Nuggets. However, the Cavs and Nuggets haven’t spoken about Mozgov recently, a source tells Amico. Cavs GM David Griffin and company have reportedly made several passes at the Blazers for Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez’s teammate, but Cleveland doesn’t have as much interest in the shooting guard as previously indicated, Amico writes. The Cavs have used 35-year-old backup center Brendan Haywood sparingly this season, but Amico hears that other teams have expressed their interest in him because of his contract, an unusually valuable asset, as I explained earlier.
The Cavs also had talks about acquiring Corey Brewer, though they never became serious, league sources tell Amico. Minnesota wanted draft picks and likely a player in return, Amico adds, which falls in line with what the Wolves received when they shipped Brewer to Houston instead.
Pistons Waive Josh Smith
The Pistons have waived Josh Smith, the team announced via press release. A source tipped Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press to the news shortly before it happened (Twitter link). The team will use the stretch provision, tweets Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. The stretch provision will spread Smith’s $13.5MM salaries for 2015/16 and 2016/17 in equal $5.4MM amounts each season through 2019/20, but his full $13.5MM for this season is stuck on the payroll, assuming he clears waivers and assuming Smith and the team didn’t agree to a buyout.
“Our team has not performed the way we had expected throughout the first third of the season and adjustments need to be made in terms of our focus and direction,” Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy said in the team’s statement. “We are shifting priorities to aggressively develop our younger players while also expanding the roles of other players in the current rotation to improve performance and build for our future. As we expand certain roles, others will be reduced. In fairness to Josh, being a highly versatile 10-year veteran in this league, we feel it’s best to give him his freedom to move forward. We have full respect for Josh as a player and a person.”
It’s a shocking move, but the team was had been “desperately” seeking to trade Smith and rival teams were insisting that the Pistons attach a first-round pick to him, according to Ellis (Twitter link). The Kings had maintained interest in trading for Smith, though recent reports made it unclear just how warm Sacramento has been to the idea recently after the team appeared to make a strong push for Smith over the summer, when Van Gundy rejected the Kings’ entreaties. Sacramento offered Jason Thompson and Carl Landry, but Detroit said no, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Kings have interest in signing him as a free agent, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter), though they only have the minimum salary to offer.
Smith will surely be a sought-after commodity on the free agent market once he, as expected, clears waivers in two days. The high cost of his contract makes him an unlikely candidate to be claimed off waivers. The Clippers are among the teams with interest, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The forward is close with with new Maverick Rajon Rondo, Chris Mannix of SI.com points out (on Twitter), and the two have spoken many times about playing together, according to Smith. Still, early indications are that the Mavs won’t pursue him and that Rondo won’t press the team to do so, as USA Today’s Sam Amick tweets, though Stein hears that Dallas is interested (Twitter link). The 29-year-old Smith is also close with former AAU teammate Dwight Howard, and the Rockets have had interest in the past, according to Spears (Twitter link). Still, Houston hasn’t decided whether to pursue him at this point, Stein reports (on Twitter). The Rockets would have a financial edge on the Mavs, since they have the $2.077MM biannual exception to offer, while the Mavs, like the Kings and Clippers, are limited to the minimum salary.
The Pistons enticed Smith, a Wallace Prather client, to sign a four-year, $54MM deal in the summer of 2013, but he never worked out in Detroit, and the contract quickly became an albatross as he struggled to fit in with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond. His subtraction ostensibly allows the Pistons to move forward with Monroe and Drummond as their lone marquee big men, but Monroe is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end after signing his qualifying offer this past summer, and he seems to have soured on Detroit. Perhaps letting go of Smith is an appeal of sorts to Monroe, letting him know that he won’t be crowded out of playing time, but that’s just my speculation.
Sixers Consider Re-Signing Malcolm Thomas
Power forward Malcolm Thomas is one of the candidates the Sixers are considering to replace the injured Ronny Turiaf on the roster, a team source tells Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia acquired Turiaf in Friday’s three-team trade with the Wolves and Rockets, and, as Pompey reported earlier, the Sixers intend to waive the 10th-year big man who’s expected to miss the rest of the season as he recovers from right hip surgery. The Inquirer scribe’s latest dispatch indicates that the Sixers have already released Turiaf, though the team has yet to make such a move official.
Thomas was with the Sixers for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season after signing shortly before opening night. He was proficient on the boards, averaging 4.6 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game over five appearances, but Philadelphia waived him November 10th, eating a relatively sizable partial guarantee of $474K, to ink Drew Gordon at his position instead. The 26-year-old who went undrafted out of San Diego State in 2011 has appeared in the NBA with the Spurs, Bulls, Warriors and Jazz in addition to the Sixers over the past four seasons.
Philadelphia has made a habit this season of re-signing players who were previously on the roster, as Gordon, Malcolm Lee and Ronald Roberts Jr. have all had multiple stints with the team. The Sixers continue to have undoubtedly the league’s most flexible roster, with only 10 players in possession of fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster counts show, and a team salary of about $42.5MM, far beneath the league’s $63.065MM salary cap.
And-Ones: Koufos, Brewer, Pistons, Hayward
The Cavs have reportedly expressed interested in Grizzlies reserve center Kosta Koufos, and Memphis coach Dave Joerger can understand why. “The guy’s a starting center in my mind,” Joerger told reporters, including Chris Fedor of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. “I don’t want to say [for] eight teams, 10 teams. That’s not for me to say. But I believe he’s a starting center in this league. He’s absolutely the greatest teammate to be around.” Koufos has been stuck behind Marc Gasol on the Grizzlies’ depth chart this season, so while his minutes have been kept low, he’ll be an intriguing trade candidate going forward. As we wait to see if the 21-6 Grizzlies opt to move the 25-year-old or stand pat, let’s round up more from around the NBA:
- Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders said he decided to trade Corey Brewer when he learned the 28-year-old was planning to turn down his 2015/16 player option, relays Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The improved play of Shabazz Muhammad was another factor that aided in Saunders’ decision to move Brewer, Greder notes.
- In wake of a disappointing 5-23 start to the season, Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy admits that focusing on the future is the highest priority for the team, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com transcribes. “The future certainly is the utmost priority at this point,” Van Gundy said. “The goals haven’t changed. We want to build a contending team. Rather than sacrifice the future to try to get to whatever number of wins is not probably the smart way to go. We’re still going to try to win as many as we can, but in terms of personnel moves, everything’s got to be aimed toward the future.“
- The Hornets offered then-restricted free agent Gordon Hayward a maximum-salary contract last summer, but the Jazz elected to match Charlotte’s offer sheet and bring the swingman back to Utah. Derrick Favors expressed relief that the Jazz re-signed Hayward and believes the new deal has helped his teammate grow as a player, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News details.