Amar’e Stoudemire Still Considering Buyout
5:44pm: Stoudemire reiterated that he will use the upcoming NBA All-Star break to decide whether or not to ask the Knicks to work out a buyout arrangement with him, Josh Newman of SNY.tv notes. “We’ll discuss that after the break,” Stoudemire said. “Right now, I’m focused on the rest of the season. We’ve got four games before the break, so I’m focused on that right now. I’ll keep you guys posted, man. Right now, we’ve got games in front of us today and tomorrow. We’ve got a lot going on, so I’ll keep you guys posted.”
9:32am: The Knicks have yet to speak with Stoudemire about a buyout, sources told Ian Begley of ESPN.com earlier this week.
12:54am: Amar’e Stoudemire‘s recent comments seemed to engender the belief that he wouldn’t ask the Knicks to agree to a buyout deal, but he tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he plans to think about doing so over the upcoming All-Star break. The 32-year-old, who’s in the final year of a massive five-year contract worth nearly $99.744MM that pays him almost $23.411MM this season, nonetheless emphasized to Spears his strong affection for the Knicks organization and living in New York. Meanwhile, the Knicks are more focused on talking buyout with Andrea Bargnani, a league source tells Spears.
“All possibilities at this point are still open,” Stoudemire said of his own buyout possibility. “The door is still open for that. But at the same time, I am with the Knicks now. I got to stay optimistic about things and what we are doing here. I can’t really focus on the future because it’s not here. We still have a couple weeks left before it’s all said and done. It’s a decision I have to make with my family to figure out the best scenario for the near future.”
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers has spoken of his intention to fill the team’s pair of open roster spots with players who come free during “buyout season,” as Spears points out, speculating that they could become candidates to sign Stoudemire if he hits the market. The Mavs and Blazers are also looking for big men, Spears notes. Marc Berman of the New York Post wrote that it’s “quite possible” that Stoudemire would return to the Suns this summer and speculated that the Magic would have interest in the central Florida native this summer. It’s not entirely clear whether any of those teams would have interest in Stoudemire later this season, but if the Happy Walters client is willing to accept the minimum salary, he’d surely have no shortage of teams in pursuit.
Stoudemire is averaging 12.2 points and 7.0 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per game for the Knicks this season, and the rebounding average is by far his best since 2011/12. A 19.4 PER shows he’s still efficient in the playing time he sees, which persistent knee trouble and other ailments have limited in recent years. The Knicks have nonetheless been appreciative of his professionalism throughout his health struggles and the team’s woes on the court, Spears writes. Stoudemire tells Spears that he’s interested in playing several more years and said earlier this week that he expected to soon have a conversation with Knicks officials about a future with the team beyond this season.
“My heart always lies with the Knicks,” Stoudemire tells Spears. “My loyalty is with [Knicks owner] Mr. [Jim] Dolan. I feel like New York is my home now. I feel like I’m a New Yorker for sure.”
The Knicks reportedly engaged in internal discussions about a buyout for Stoudemire earlier this season. Team president Phil Jackson and company apparently spoke with the Sixers this summer about a trade, but it’ll be “virtually impossible” for the Knicks to find a taker for his bloated salary before the February 19th trade deadline, according to Spears. The Knicks have reportedly shopped Bargnani recently, though it has appeared as though the team was putting off buyout talks with him until after the deadline passes. The last day that either Stoudemire or Bargnani could hit waivers and still be eligible to appear in the postseason for another team is March 1st. That effectively sets the date as a buyout deadline, since there’d be little reason for either to give up salary if they couldn’t join another club for the postseason.
Hawks Trying To Woo Ray Allen
4:56pm: The Hawks have indeed had discussions with Allen’s representatives about coming to Atlanta, but nothing appears to be imminent at this time, Vivlamore tweets.
8:27am: The Hawks are trying to convince Ray Allen to consider signing with them when and if he decides to play in the NBA this season, though the Cavs remain the favorites to land the 39-year-old, tweets Ryen Russillo of ESPN Radio. Still, coach Mike Budenholzer, acting as the team’s GM in place of Danny Ferry, who’s on a leave of absence, said he’s reluctant to tinker with a roster that’s won 34 of its last 37 games, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes.
“For us to be open to improving the group and adding more depth, with Thabo [Sefolosha] healthy or without Thabo healthy or without Thabo having this injury, it’s kind of the same mindset,” Budenolzer said. “We really like our group. You are hesitant to do anything. There is a little more opportunity for a six- to eight-week window but I don’t think it changes much if at all.”
Sefolosha, who plays the same position Allen does, is about a week into a six-to-eight-week timetable for recovery from a strained calf. Still, Sefolosha plays a much different style than the sharpshooting Allen, the league’s all-time leading three-point shot-maker. The Hawks have a full roster of 15 players signed through the end of the season, as our roster counts show, so they’d have to eat someone’s salary to accommodate Allen. Still, they have slightly more than $3MM worth of cap space to throw at the Jim Tanner client, who this past summer signaled a strong desire for more than the minimum salary should he return to the NBA this season.
Cleveland only has the minimum to give, and the same is true of the Wizards, who are reportedly Allen’s most aggressive suitor. Russillo wrote in December that he’d heard that Allen would make his decision in February, though Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote last week that people around the league increasingly believe that Allen knows the team he’d like to play for, and is simply deciding whether he wants to play at all. The Clippers, Grizzlies, Bulls and Spurs are other teams linked to Allen within the past few months. The Warriors seemed to have abandoned their earlier interest.
Wolves Sign Lorenzo Brown To Second 10-Day
4:45pm: The deal is official, the team has announced.
8:00am: The Timberwolves and Lorenzo Brown have agreed upon a second 10-day deal, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The point guard’s first 10-day expired at the end of Thursday. This will be the last 10-day deal Brown can sign with the Wolves, who’ll have to either sign him for the season or let him sit in free agency once the deal runs to term.
Minnesota is keeping Brown in spite of this week’s return of starting point guard Ricky Rubio. Backup Mo Williams, whom the team is rumored to be willing to trade, has a sore hip that has him listed as questionable for tonight’s game, but it nonetheless appears as though there isn’t as much call for Brown as there had been when the team signed him. Brown started and played all but five seconds of Minnesota’s game against the Cavs on Saturday, but he saw only a minute and a half of action the next time out, which was the game in which Rubio came back, and Brown didn’t play at all in the Wolves’ last game.
The Pistons were also reportedly interested in the 24-year-old Joel Bell client before the Wolves snapped him up. Minnesota is at 15 players with Brown on the roster, and the other 14 players are signed through the end of the season.
Central Notes: West, English, Gutierrez
There was less acrimony Thursday when the Magic fired Jacque Vaughn than there was when they ousted Stan Van Gundy in 2012, but the current Pistons coach and executive nonetheless has plenty of sympathy for the latest ex-Magic coach. “There’s no such thing as a longtime Magic coach,” Van Gundy contends, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press relays.
“All those things are the same,” Van Gundy said. “You get in the press conference, they loved Jacque. He did a great job. You listen to all that, and then I listen to [GM] Rob [Hennigan] say it doesn’t fall on Jacque, but he takes full responsibility. I laugh, obviously, because that’s not true. You’re still sitting there with a job, and Jacque doesn’t have one, so I don’t know what full responsibility means. But I would say they left the full responsibility on Jacque.”
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Grantland’s Zach Lowe heard six weeks ago that the Pacers had become open to trading David West for a first-round pick, but such chatter has quieted, Lowe adds, suggesting teams aren’t willing to pay that price for the power forward.
- Bulls camp invitee Kim English has signed with Guaros de Lara in Venezuela, the team announced (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The 26-year-old who played in 41 regular season games with the Pistons in 2012/13 had played in France earlier this season after the Bulls cut him loose prior to opening night.
- Coach Jason Kidd admits that the indefinite length of Larry Sanders‘ latest drug-related suspension complicates Jorge Gutierrez ‘s future with the Bucks, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines. Gutierrez’s 10-day contract expires tonight, when the Bucks play the 10th game of Sanders’ suspension. The ban was to last a minimum of 10 games, but the league still hasn’t revealed just how long it will last, and once Sanders comes back, the 16th roster spot the Bucks created when they placed Sanders on the suspended list goes away. “We understand this is Jorge’s 10th day,” Kidd said today. “We’ll go back and evaluate and see if we can do another 10-day.”
Trade Candidate: Goran Dragic
The Suns stuck with Goran Dragic at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, when Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote that there was a “growing expectation” around the league that Phoenix would try to unload Dragic in a move similar to their acquisition of a first-round pick for Marcin Gortat. Holding on to Dragic then proved wise, as he had a career year and nearly lifted the team into the playoffs in spite of the prolonged absence of Eric Bledsoe, who was supposed to supplant Dragic as the team’s No. 1 point guard. The Suns instead used them alongside each other when Bledsoe was healthy, and it worked well enough for GM Ryan McDonough and his staff to make a radical bet on the long-term feasibility of a roster heavy on point guards.
McDonough began the offseason with the selection of Tyler Ennis, a point guard from Syracuse who drew top-ten buzz last season, at No. 18 overall in the draft. He ended it with a five-year, $70MM commitment to Bledsoe. In between, he made a pair of moves that serve as mixed signals about Dragic’s long-term future in Phoenix. McDonough and the Suns signed-and-traded for Isaiah Thomas, giving him a four-year deal worth slightly more than $27MM. They also signed Zoran Dragic, Goran’s brother, to a pact with two seasons of fully guaranteed salary. The Pacers and Kings were seemingly Phoenix’s strongest competitors among the several who gave chase for Zoran, but the 25-year-old shooting guard isn’t regarded as a future NBA star, and he’s made it off the bench for a total of 12 minutes all season. Goran insists that he didn’t push the Suns to sign his brother, but it’s clear that Goran was the impetus for the move, even if only unwittingly so. Zoran’s presence on the roster seems an enticement for Goran to re-sign when the All-NBA Third Teamer turns down his $7.5MM player option for next season, as he plans to do.
Still, Thomas is quite possibly the third starting-caliber point guard on the roster behind Goran Dragic and Bledsoe, and Ennis looms as a potential fourth. That, put together with Dragic’s looming free agency, apparently convinced the Suns to become willing to trade Dragic earlier this season. Yet another report indicated that McDonough and company would be more willing to part with Thomas or Bledsoe than Dragic. The Suns, it seems, continue to confound.
Dragic surprised last season enough to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, but his numbers are off this year. Still, his 16.3 points per game this season would be a career high if not for last season’s 20.3 PPG. His assists are somewhat predictably down to 4.0 per game, and a career-low 4.4 per 36 minutes, as he contends for control of the ball with Bledsoe, Thomas and others. His PER has dipped to 16.7, his lowest mark since he became a full-time starter, and another advanced metric, ESPN’s real plus-minus, shows him with a negative rating and at No. 29 among the league’s shooting guards, the position at which Dragic has seen the most time this season. The Suns are nonetheless 4.0 points per 100 possessions better with Dragic on the floor this season versus when he sits, according to NBA.com.
The conflicting numbers hint that Phoenix might not be the most fertile ground for his game, given the backcourt crowding, and surely Dragic and agent Rade Filipovich know that he could be putting up better numbers elsewhere. Dragic reportedly intends to take a broad look at free agency and isn’t committing himself to the Suns, so Phoenix will have to sell him on the idea of returning when they pitch the long-term deal they’ve apparently been planning for him. McDonough has said he’ll take care of Dragic when the time comes, but Dragic has seemingly hinted that he’s not so willing to tether himself to the Suns for the long term. Still, a source recently told Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype that Dragic feels more comfortable in Phoenix this year than he did last year, and that he’s nonetheless confident that he’ll see strong offers in free agency this summer.
The Rockets and Lakers have already been linked to Dragic as potential free agent suitors, and reports since then have suggested that those teams would also like to trade for him. The Lakers have a glaring hole at point guard, where only 2014 second-round pick Jordan Clarkson is signed past this season, but Sean Deveney of The Sporting News wrote this week that the team lacks the assets necessary to swing a deal for Dragic. The Lakers already owe the Suns their first-round pick this year as long as it’s not in the top five, and unless the team was willing to part with Julius Randle, L.A’s lottery pick from this past year, it’s tough to see how the Lakers could wind up with Dragic by the deadline.
The Rockets’ cupboard is more well-stocked, but they’ve come up short in previous attempts to trade for Dragic this season, as Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today wrote earlier this year. Houston’s front office is familiar with Dragic from his year and a half with the team in between his stints in Phoenix. Yet unless the Suns are deeply concerned that they’ll lose him to Houston in free agency, it seems logical that McDonough would have reservations about trading him to another Western Conference playoff contender without receiving strong value in return. Houston has a pair of former first-round picks at power forward in Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones, the position Josh Smith also occupies. The Rockets could toss in Kostas Papanikolaou and a few minimum-salaried players for salary-matching purposes to send one of them off to Phoenix, should the Suns have interest. However, the loss of Dwight Howard for at least a month complicates any move involving Houston’s frontcourt.
There are no guarantees that Dragic will play for any team beyond the end of the season, so it’s possible his status as a rental lowers his trade value. Surely any team that comes close to trading for him will try to gather intel about whether he’d like to re-sign with them this summer, even though they wouldn’t be able to speak with him directly before a trade became official. Much is unknown regarding Dragic and Phoenix’s experiment with multiple point guards, and Phoenix is just a game in front of New Orleans and a game and a half up on Oklahoma City for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. The deadline will be a key pivot point in the short term and long term for McDonough, and what he does with Dragic between now and February 19th will say plenty about where the team heads next.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Atlantic Notes: Garnett, Hollins, Raptors, Knicks
Grantland’s Zach Lowe suggests that Kevin Garnett will be the subject of trade discussions between now and the deadline. The 20th-year vet is appealing to teams looking for a either bench upgrade, an expiring contract or both, according to Lowe, identifying the Warriors, Hornets and Raptors in that group. However, it doesn’t appear from Lowe’s report that those teams are indeed going after Garnett, who has one of the NBA’s few true no-trade clauses. There’s more on the Nets amid the latest from around the Atlantic Division:
- Nets GM Billy King denies that Lionel Hollins‘ job is in jeopardy in the wake of a report that the team had upped its scrutiny of the coach, observes Johnette Howard of ESPNNewYork.com. “I don’t know where that story came from about Lionel, but it’s not true,” King said. That report indicated that Hollins’ criticisms of Nets players had rankled ownership, but King says he likes the coach’s demanding approach, Howard writes.
- Raptors GM Masai Ujiri said Thursday that he’s always listening to trade proposals but added that he doesn’t have a lot going on for now, notes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. The team has reportedly been looking for an upgrade at power forward and has been linked to David West, Taj Gibson and Kenneth Faried.
- Langston Galloway says he received “pretty significant” offers from multiple European teams but turned them down to play with New York’s D-League affiliate this season, as he tells Chris Mannix of SI.com, who writes in his Open Floor column. The Knicks signed Galloway out of the D-League last month to a pair of 10-day contracts before inking him to a multiyear pact.
- If the Triangle Offense fails to work for the Knicks by next season and Phil Jackson continues to insist that coach Derek Fisher use it, that puts Fisher in a compromising position not just in New York but for any coaching job he’d want to take in the future, opines Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal.
- The Celtics have recalled Phil Pressey from the D-League, the team announced (Twitter link). Pressey’s first career assignment to the D-League lasted but one day, long enough for him to record 34 points, nine assists and six turnovers in a single game for Boston’s affiliate.
And-Ones: Borrego, Smart, Draft
Magic interim coach James Borrego has played a major role in developing Nikola Vucevic into a dangerous low-post player, John Denton of NBA.com writes. “J.B. is my guy and that’s who I have worked with on a daily basis, watched the film with and talked about games with,’’ Vucevic said. “He’s a guy that I have a great relationship with and he’s a great guy. He always stays positive and brings energy to practice to pump us up. I know this will be tough for him because he was close with Jacque [Vaughn], but it’s on us as players to support [Borrego] and help him the best that we can.’’
Here’s more from around the league:
- Rookie Marcus Smart is beginning to earn the trust of the Celtics‘ coaching staff, and the team has shown improvement since Smart took over as the starting point guard after Rajon Rondo was dealt to Dallas, Julian Edlow of WEEI 93.7 FM writes.
- While the prospects for the 2015 NBA draft aren’t getting the hype that last year’s class did, there are still a number of intriguing players heading into the league. Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com ran down the top 30 prospects according to the league insiders he has spoken with. The top three players available in the 2015 draft according to Howard-Cooper are Jahlil Okafor, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
- Amid Syracuse’s subpar season, senior Rakeem Christmas has worked his way from relative obscurity to being a potential first round draft pick this June, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv writes. “He wasn’t on the board before,” one veteran NBA scout told Zagoria. “He’s averaging 18 points and 9 rebounds, he shoots over 72% from the free-throw line. There aren’t a lot of big guys who do that. He’s an example of a guy staying four years made all the difference. He would’ve made a mistake if he came out; he wasn’t going to the NBA. But you stay in all four years and work it…It’s interesting. I think he’s a bubble guy now, end of the first, beginning of the second [round].”
Ed Davis Intends To Opt Out For 2015/16
Lakers forward Ed Davis intends to opt out of his contract for next season, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News reports. The big man’s deal contains a player option worth $1,100,602 for 2015/16. Davis prefers to secure his long-term future rather than opting in for short-term security, Medina notes. “I’m hoping for a long-term deal,” said Davis, who has until June 25th to make his final decision regarding his option. “I’d love to return here [Los Angeles]. I know this will turn around eventually.”
Davis had previously rejected a long-term rookie scale extension offer from the Grizzlies back in October of 2013 that would have paid him $5MM to $6MM annually, according to Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal (subscription required). The big man decided against signing an extension with Memphis because he was reportedly displeased with his playing time, Tillery notes. This led Davis to leave Memphis as a free agent and to ink a two-year, $2MM deal with the Lakers last July.
Los Angeles may still elect to try and re-sign Davis, but its priorities this offseason revolve around the NBA draft and trying to attract a max-level free agent, Medina notes. But Davis’ future with the Lakers will likely hinge on what sort of free agent market will develop for his services, Medina adds. The 25-year-old told Medina that he “definitely” understands the financial risk that turning down his player option will entail.
The 6’10” former first-rounder out of North Carolina is enjoying a solid season for the floundering Lakers, and has benefited from the season-ending injury to 2014 lottery pick Julius Randle. Davis is averaging 8.0 points and 7.3 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game. His career numbers are 7.1 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 1.1 BPG. His career slash line is .549/.000/.584.
Eastern Notes: Sixers, Early, Magic
Scott Skiles has been mentioned as a candidate to take over as coach of the Magic, but he has a reputation as being difficult for players to get along with, Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype writes. Keyon Dooling, who played for Skiles when both were with the Bucks, thinks that Skiles will do better in his next coaching job, Sierra notes. “Skiles is a high-pedigree coach,” Dooling said. “A lot of times when coaches get fired, they get better at wherever they were weak. [If he gets the Orlando job] I think he’ll be better in how he deals with players this time. During my time in Milwaukee, he had an average relationship with the players. I don’t think it was great, I don’t think it was bad. His work ethic, X’s and O’s and game-planning were his strengths. Where he fell short is maybe with people.”
Here’s the latest from the Eastern Conference:
- The Knicks have assigned Cleanthony Early to their D-League affiliate in Westchester, the team announced. This will be Early’s second trip of the season to the D-League.
- Tobias Harris says that the Magic need to rally around interim coach James Borrego, John Denton of NBA.com writes (Twitter link). “We have to have his back. We have to want to win and play hard and do all that we can do to help [JB].“
- The Sixers were pleased with the production that they received from Larry Drew II, but the rookie was caught in an unfortunate numbers game that prevented Philadelphia from signing Drew for the remainder of the season, Max Rappaport of NBA.com writes. “Flexibility,” coach Brett Brown said when asked why the team didn’t sign Drew for the rest of the 2014/15 campaign. “The trade deadline is coming up, and we need flexibility. We may see [Larry] again. Who knows? What I do know is he was an ‘A’. He did everything and some, and it doesn’t prohibit us from revisiting him [in the future] at all.”
- Jacque Vaughn became the fall guy for the Magic, who are in the third season of their rebuilding project and appear to be heading in the wrong direction as a franchise, Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel writes.
- One of the issues that the Magic‘s front office had with Vaughn was his inconsistent use of Harris and Maurice Harkless, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel writes. Both players received sporadic playing time under Vaughn, which didn’t sit well with Orlando’s GM Rob Hennigan and CEO Alex Martins, Schmitz notes.
Western Notes: Burke, Smith, Pelicans
Trey Burke has embraced his new role of coming off of the bench for the Jazz, and the change has benefited both the player and the team, Chad Mobley of NBA.com writes. “There’s this fixation with the bench and starting and to me what Trey has embraced is not so much the bench. I don’t want him to embrace the bench, I don’t want him to embrace starting, I want him to do what’s best for our team,” coach Quin Snyder said. “He’s embraced becoming a better player. I don’t want it to be about the bench for him. If he starts again I want him to keep getting better.”
Here’s more from the West:
- The Benson family’s legal squabble over the control of the Pelicans and Saints threatens to ruin the clan’s sports legacy in New Orleans, Margaret Cronin Fisk and Laurel Brubaker Calkins of Bloomberg News write.
- Josh Smith is a big fan of playing for the Rockets, and he views his time in Houston this season as a chance to revitalize his career, Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston tweets. “It [Houston] does have a home feel. I can’t stop smiling because I’m in such a good position with a great opportunity in front of me,” Smith told Berman.
- Rookie Andrew Wiggins is the Wolves‘ lone ray of hope for a better future, and he is providing Minnesota with an acceptable return for dealing away Kevin Love to the Cavs, Pat Borzi of USA Today writes.
- Suns center Alex Len is essentially a rookie after missing most of the 2013/14 campaign due to an injury, and the big man is starting to feel the effects of logging heavy minutes, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “There is going to be some adjustment for him for playing these big minutes,” coach Jeff Hornacek said. “Eighty-two games is a lot of games. You’re traveling and doing all this and you kind of get worn down. You have to get used to playing like that.“