Poll: Should The Raptors Target Canadians?
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri indicated that one of the franchise’s priorities is to add a Canadian player to its roster. There are currently 10 Canadian players in the NBA, and they are responsible for $30,511,748 in cap hits, or an average salary of $3,051,175 for the 2014/15 campaign. Ujiri, who’s in the second year of a five-year contract, promised that the team will have a Canadian player even if he doesn’t have a long tenure in charge of the Raptors.
“We are studying it. I even considered last year hiring somebody to concentrate just on Canadian players and I think I’m going to go through with it because the growth of the game here is so big,” Ujiri said. “It’s the fit. We can maybe take our time and study it a little bit so it is the right fit and not do it just to do it. It’s going to come, there is no doubt in my mind. It’s an obligation that I think we have to fulfil. We are a Canadian team and I think to have Canadian players, I think will be phenomenal.”
It’s understandable that the Raptors would like to add an element of national pride to their roster. Having a Canadian to cheer for certainly couldn’t hurt ticket and merchandise sales, but unless the player added something tangible to the team, the idea isn’t necessarily a wise one given how precious each roster spot has become in this day and age. As far as the players are concerned, one advantage that the team would have in luring Canadian free agents or retaining a Canadian player obtained via a trade is that those players would already be accustomed to Canada’s higher tax rate, something that can be a hindrance when competing dollar-for-dollar for NBA talent with U.S. based teams. Though, representing one’s country on the hardwood on a nightly basis could prove to be a daunting task. A player would need to weigh the added pressure and attention versus the desire to play for his country’s only NBA squad.
What do you readers say? Is it a smart idea for the Raptors to target Canadian players? Cast your vote below and feel free to take to the comments section to expand on the topic.
Should The Raptors Prioritize Signing Canadian Players?
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No. Just sign players who can help the team win regardless of where they are from. 62% (384)
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Yes. National pride is an important aspect of team building. 38% (231)
Total votes: 615
Eastern Notes: Whiteside, Wizards, Teague
There is growing concern within the Heat organization about center Hassan Whiteside‘s maturity and self-control, Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post writes. Whiteside was ejected from Monday night’s game, which was the second time in the last five games the big man was tossed from a contest, and it resulted in a one game suspension. When asked if he was disappointed in Whiteside, Dwyane Wade said, “Very. We all are. As a Heat fan you are. In this locker room we are. Everybody. He’s gonna have to learn and he’s gonna learn the hard way. He’s doing it his own way. Hopefully he changes his mentality pretty quick. Players gotta understand how important they are to an organization and continue to understand that moment when you finally got that call-up, how you felt. You would’ve done anything to get that, just to be here. Sometimes you start feeling yourself a little too much. A lot of us are guilty of that. You’ve gotta humble yourself. Hopefully Hassan gets it.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- With Garrett Temple expected to miss at least a week due to a hamstring injury, the Wizards are likely to fill their final roster spot, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post tweets. The team is currently weighing its options on available players, but no signing appears imminent, Castillo adds.
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was the driving force behind Atlanta matching the four-year, $32MM offer sheet that the Bucks had signed Jeff Teague to back in 2013, Lee Jenkins of SI.com writes. Teague is certainly rewarding his coach’s faith this season, averaging 16.8 points and 7.2 assists in 31.2 minutes per contest.
- The trade for Reggie Jackson cost the Pistons two starting players, but the long-term benefits of the trade should outweigh the short-term setback, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “It’s not like we didn’t think about [the present] this year,” Detroit coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said. “We knew as far as for this year that it was a gamble. Just because of continuity, we would’ve been better off not making moves. We knew that. We thought we could make those moves and still stay right in the playoff race and we were willing to take that gamble because of what we thought it did for the future.“
Western Notes: Jerrett, Kanter, Brown
It took Lakers coach Byron Scott some time to come around to the merits of Jabari Brown, who inked a 10-day deal with Los Angeles earlier today, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes. Scott did not sound as complimentary about Brown when he was on the Lakers’ training camp roster earlier this season, Medina notes. “I thought the first two or three weeks of training camp he wasn’t necessarily going through the motions. But he was trying to find his way,” Scott said. “The last few days and last few games, he started to become a little more aggressive and that’s what I wanted to see from day one. That’s what I told him to when I let him go. I told him, ‘I wished you had started out that way being aggressive. When you’re trying to make a team, that’s what you have to do.’ He didn’t start off that way.”
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- The Jazz have excelled defensively and in the standings since trading Enes Kanter at the deadline, having found an identity, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News examines.
- Though the decision to sign Brown was Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak‘s, Scott is glad to have an extra player on the team’s bench, Medina adds. “I’m all for it if that’s what Mitch wants to do,” Scott said. “We talked about Jabari a few days ago and wanted to bring him. We needed a body or two anyway. But it gives us a chance to see if we’d like to have the guy on our summer league team as well.”
- The Jazz have assigned Grant Jerrett to the Idaho Stampede, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. Jerrett has only appeared in one game for Utah since being acquired from the Thunder on February 19th. He previously appeared in five games for Oklahoma City, averaging 1.4 points in 5.0 minutes per contest.
Atlantic Notes: Williams, Knicks, Green
Raptors guard Louis Williams‘ strong play in the final year of his deal has put him in the running for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award. When discussing his past, present, and future with Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com, Williams relayed that his free agent preference this summer is to remain in Toronto. “Absolutely. I already tried to get them to go do it — get an extension,” Williams said. “But at this point in my career, I want to play somewhere where the fans appreciate you, your team is serious about winning and create something special. We have an identity, and I love it. It’s perfect for my personality. I’ve always been the underdog, I’ve always been overlooked. I’ve always been the guy where it was like we’ll see what he does and then we’ll check on Lou. That’s been my career.”
It should be noted that Williams would have been unable to ink an extension with the Raptors since he is currently on a three-year deal. The collective bargaining agreement stipulates that a player can only ink a contract extension if he is signed to a deal of four years or greater in length.
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- When asked by Mazzeo about the trade that sent him from the Hawks to the Raptors, Williams said, “I knew it was coming. I just knew my experience in Atlanta was coming to an end. It was either gonna be I was leaving after my contract was up or they were gonna trade me, and that’s just how things were going. We had a coaching change and I had missed the first [eight] games of that season, and the Hawks head coach Bud [Mike Budenholzer], he just was very honest and upfront with me and just said, ‘I’ve gotten more comfortable with this other guy and he’s probably gonna play the minutes.’ I had to respect that because the coach has a job to do.“
- The Knicks may have difficulty luring free agents to New York because of the restrictions that the triangle offense imposes on players’ athleticism, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes.
- Jeff Green, who holds a $9.2MM player option for next season, is still very close with his former Celtics teammates, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com relays (Twitter link). Green is especially close with Avery Bradley, Blakely adds. It’s unknown if this camaraderie could lead Green back to Boston, or if the team would have any interest in re-signing the forward if he opts out of his current deal.
NBA Teams With 16 Players In 2014/15
The NBA’s hardship rule was little-known and little used when the season began, but the ability for teams to exceed the 15-man roster limit during the regular season has come into play more frequently in 2014/15. Multiple teams have also used the league’s suspended list to add a 16th player to their rosters. The Lakers became the sixth team to carry 16 players during the 2014/15 regular season when they signed Jabari Brown to a 10-day contract today. Here’s a look back at the five other instances in which teams carried 16 men this season:
- Indiana signed A.J. Price on November 6th into the 16th roster spot created through the league’s injury hardship provision. The team’s initial plan was reportedly to sign Gal Mekel instead, but visa issues tripped up that would-be deal. Mekel’s visa might have been ready by the 7th, but teams only have two days to use the hardship provision once the NBA grants it, so Indiana wasn’t in position to wait. The Pacers waived Price to get back down to 15 players on November 28th, and the Cavs claimed him off waivers. Cleveland ultimately let go of Price on January 7th.
- The Thunder used the injury hardship provision to sign Ish Smith on November 7th. They kept Smith as a 16th man until November 26th, when they elected to waive Sebastian Telfair and hang on to Smith even as they cut back down to 15 players. Oklahoma City finally parted ways with Smith at the trade deadline, sending him to the Pelicans, who promptly waived him. The Sixers claimed him off waivers and still have him on the roster, so a contract that was supposed to be a temporary arrangement persists.
- The Grizzlies were an odd candidate to go up to 16 players on November 19th, since they were carrying only 14 players. However, a stomach virus befell several Memphis players, leaving the team shorthanded. The injury hardship exception would have required that the team have four players who’d already missed multiple games, but that wasn’t the case for the Grizzlies. Instead, they used the league’s 20-game suspension of Nick Calathes to place him on the suspended list and sign both Kalin Lucas and Hassan Whiteside to boost their roster to 16 players. They waived Lucas and Whiteside the next day to return to 14 players, though they probably would have been better served keeping Whiteside as a 15th man, since he went on to sign with the Heat and enjoy a breakout campaign.
- Jeff Adrien became the 16th member of the Timberwolves when he signed with the team on November 29th thanks to the injury hardship provision. Minnesota reduced its roster to 15 players when it completed the unbalanced Corey Brewer trade on December 19th. Adrien stayed on as one of 15 players until the Wolves released him on January 7th.
- The Sixers traded for Andrei Kirilenko on December 11th, but he never reported to the team. Philadelphia quietly exercised its right to suspend him for failing to do so, a move that wasn’t discovered until the team traded for Jared Cunningham on January 7th without giving up a player in the move. The Sixers quickly released Cunningham, but they had 15 players on the roster before he arrived, so they took advantage of the ability to place Kirilenko on the suspended list to squeeze Cunningham onto the team as a 16th player, even if only temporarily. They went back up to 16 players thanks to Kirilenko’s suspension when they signed Larry Drew II to a pair of 10-day contracts in late January and once more when they added Tim Frazier on the first of his pair of 10-day deals after Drew’s second 10-day pact expired. They stayed at 16 players through the trade deadline before waiving Kirilenko to return to 15 players on February 21st. They released Frazier from his 10-day deal early to claim Thomas Robinson off waivers on February 24th.
- A suspension for Larry Sanders allowed the Bucks to add Jorge Gutierrez as a 16th man when they signed him to a 10-day contract in January. The NBA stipulated that the Sanders suspension would last at least 10 games, but they left the maximum length open-ended, leaving some uncertainty about whether the team would be able to re-sign Gutierrez when his contract came to an end. The 10th game of Sanders’ suspension coincided with the final day of Gutierrez’s deal. However, the Bucks evidently received the clarity they were seeking, and they re-signed Gutierrez to another 10-day contract shortly thereafter. Sanders’ suspension ended after 12 games, and Milwaukee didn’t sign Gutierrez to a deal for the rest of the season, bringing a close to the 16-man roster dynamic before the Bucks ultimately released Sanders in a buyout deal.
Celtics, Sixers Made Most Trades In 2014/15
It’s tough to draw too many conclusions from a wild season of trades until more time has passed, but already there’s been at least a slight correlation between success on the court and willingness to trade. The sub-.500 Celtics and Sixers make the case that losing teams were more apt to trade this season, as each team has made a league-high 11 trades since the official start of the 2014/15 season in July. However, the surging Cavs are right behind them, having pulled off nine swaps. The Spurs and Warriors are two of only three teams not to have taken part in a trade this season, but the other is the Pacers, who’ve fallen on hard times without Paul George.
Still, it’s easier to see the link between winning and stability in the scope of last year’s on-court performance as well as this year’s. Only two of the top eight most active teams on the trade market made the playoffs last season, and none of the top four. All three teams that didn’t make a move are coming off playoff berths from last season, while only two of the nine teams that made fewer than two trades this year missed the playoffs in 2013/14.
Regardless, there was plenty of movement, with nearly half the teams in the league having been a part of at least four trades. Even teams that weren’t prolific traders had an impact, with the Heat acquiring Goran Dragic, who was probably the best player dealt at last month’s deadline, in their lone deal of 2014/15.
The number of trades in the 2014/15 season will no doubt swell at draft time, when teams usually execute a flurry of pick swaps, but from now until the end of the regular season, this is where it will stand. We’ve ranked every team by the number of trades they made. You can find details on all of the trades since the start of the regular season here, and details on trades during the 2014 offseason here. Note that the 2014 offseason trades include swaps that took place before July that are technically part of the 2013/14 season. Those deals aren’t reflected in the totals below.
- Celtics: 11
- Sixers: 11
- Cavaliers: 9
- Suns: 7
- Pelicans: 6
- Rockets: 6
- Thunder: 5
- Timberwolves: 5
- Kings: 4
- Knicks 4
- Nets: 4
- Nuggets: 4
- Pistons: 4
- Wizards: 4
- Clippers: 3
- Hornets: 3
- Jazz: 3
- Mavericks: 3
- Bucks: 2
- Bulls: 2
- Hawks: 2
- Grizzlies: 1
- Heat: 1
- Lakers: 1
- Magic: 1
- Raptors: 1
- Trail Blazers: 1
- Pacers: None
- Spurs: None
- Warriors: None
Lakers Sign Jabari Brown To 10-Day Deal
1:55pm: The deal is official, the Lakers announced. The team also confirmed that it used a hardship exception to add Brown without dropping anyone, so the Lakers now have 16 players.
1:19pm: The Lakers have a 10-day deal “in the works” with shooting guard Jabari Brown, as coach Byron Scott told reporters, including Bill Oram of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported that the Lakers planned a 10-day contract with Brown (Twitter link). It appears the Lakers are using the hardship exception they had intended to apply for so that they can add a player to their 15-man roster without dropping someone, though that’s not immediately clear. Brown has been playing for L.A’s D-League affiliate, as Wojnarowski notes.
Brown, who went undrafted out of Missouri this past June, was on the Lakers’ NBA roster during the preseason after signing a non-guaranteed training camp deal, but he played only nine minutes total during the preseason and failed to make it to opening night. The Lakers retained his D-League rights, and the first-year pro has impressed, averaging 24.4 in 34.9 minutes per game with a 39.2% three-point percentage for the L.A. D-Fenders.
The ability to add a 16th player is triggered when a team has four players who are expected to miss significant time, and when Ronnie Price joined Steve Nash, Julius Randle and Kobe Bryant among the long-term wounded for the Lakers, an opportunity sprang forth. Nick Young has also been dealing with swelling in his knee, and Scott indicated that was part of the catalyst for bringing Brown aboard, too, notes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).
Pacific Notes: Rivers, Granger, Divac
Doc Rivers and Flip Saunders hold the dual titles of coach and president of basketball operations for the Clippers and Timberwolves, respectively, but they’ve encountered vastly different jobs, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune explores.
“It’s not been hard, Flip’s had to do a lot more,” Rivers said. “They have a lot more work, far more assets than they have to try to get in and out. He has a ton of [financial] flexibility. When I came here, I looked at our roster and flexibility and there was not a lot we could do. We were more in the minimum contract and mid-level [exception] stuff. You’ve got to have assets and we do, but none that we want to trade. He has had a lot more work to do than I have. He’s trying to rebuild an entire team.”
Rivers signed a new deal worth more than $50MM over five years with the Clippers this past summer. Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Danny Granger says he considered retirement after undergoing knee surgery when he was with the Pacers in 2013, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. He’s never been the same since missing all but five games of the 2012/13 season, but the Suns trainers have told him “it can be fixed,” as Coro details. The 31-year-old with a player option of more than $2.17MM for next season explored options to buy his way off the Suns and join a contender shortly after the deadline-day trade that sent him from Miami to Phoenix, but he decided against it, Coro writes.
- Granger added that he wants to get “extremely healthy” before playing again, and while Suns coach Jeff Hornacek wouldn’t rule out his return before season’s end, as Coro relays in the same piece, the chances don’t appear overwhelmingly strong. “As we go on, if we’re still in the race, yeah, why not get a veteran guy like that in there?” Hornacek said. “If somehow we’re out of it, then maybe it makes more sense to play the young guys. Our thoughts right now are we’re still in the playoff hunt and we’re still going to go after it. If he can give us something toward the end there, maybe that happens.”
- Vlade Divac turned down other opportunities to work in NBA front offices before he joined the Kings as vice president of basketball and franchise operations last week, as he tells USA Today’s Sam Amick.
Update On Traded 2015 First-Round Picks
Only five weeks and one day remain in the NBA’s regular season, and as the playoff matchups become easier to determine, so does the draft order. The final order won’t be set until the NBA’s draft lottery on May 19th, but plenty will be determined by the end of the regular season.
It’s easy to keep up with the first-round order thanks to our Reverse Standings, which you can find anytime under the “Hoops Rumors Features” sidebar. The protection attached to each pick that has been traded is outlined at the bottom of the standings. Occasionally, we take a closer look and highlight the picks that are likely to change hands, those that are unlikely to do so, and still others that seem too close to call.
The stretch run of the season will determine whether four of the 15 traded picks will change hands or stay put. On top of that, the Bulls will have the right to swap picks with the Cavaliers, unless Cleveland somehow fails to make the playoffs. The Cavs have passed the Bulls in the conventional standings, which means the pick swap wouldn’t take place if the season ended today. However, the teams are only separated by a game, so it seems this one will come down to the wire.
The traded first-round picks that involve protection are listed below and categorized by the likelihood of the picks going from team to team. The first category involves cases that are worth keeping an eye on in the season’s final weeks.
Tossups
Team: Thunder (35-28)
Pick traded to: Sixers
Protection: Top 18
Current position: 18th
Team: Lakers (16-46)
Pick traded to: Sixers
Protection: Top 5
Current position: 4th
Team: Kings (21-41)
Pick traded to: Bulls
Protection: Top 10
Current position: 6th
Team: Heat (28-35)
Pick traded to: Sixers
Protection: Top 10
Current position: 12th
Traded picks likely to change hands:
Team: Pelicans (35-29)
Pick traded to: Rockets
Protection: Top 3 and 20-30
Current position: 14th
Team: Rockets (43-20)
Pick traded to: Lakers
Protection: Top 14
Current position: 27th
Traded picks likely to stay put:
Team: 76ers (14-49)
Pick traded to: Celtics
Protection: Top 14
Current position: 2rd
Team: Timberwolves (14-48)
Pick traded to: Celtics
Protection: Top 12
Current position: 3rd
Team: Grizzlies (45-18)
Pick traded to: Nuggets
Protection: Top 5 and 15-30
Current position: 28th
Team: Mavericks (41-24)
Pick traded to: Celtics
Protection: Top 3 and 15-30
Current position: 24th
Additional notes:
- The Clippers will send their first-round pick to the Celtics regardless of finish, since there’s no protection on the pick. It’s the No. 25 selection as it stands now.
- The Hawks have the right to swap picks with the Nets, and they almost certainly will, as Hoops Rumors contributor Mark Porcaro notes (on Twitter), since Brooklyn is in line for the ninth pick and Atlanta is in the No. 29 position.
- The Kings are barely in the tossup category, five games up on the Jazz and Celtics, who are tied for the 10th- and 11th-worst records in the league.
- To see what happens to traded picks that aren’t conveyed this year, check out our database of traded picks by round, which runs down the protection on each pick through 2021.
Atlantic Notes: Jason Smith, Shaw, Datome
Jason Smith said he inked only a one-year deal with the Knicks last summer because that’s all the team offered, and the center made it clear he wants to re-sign with the team in the offseason, as Marc Berman of the New York Post observes.
“I love New York,’’ Smith said. “I like the triangle offense. I wouldn’t have a problem coming back to New York. I think it’s a great market, great basketball organization. [Team president] Phil [Jackson]’s got the team moving in the right direction. It’s tough to say that now because he’s trying to change the culture.’’
The Knicks will have Smith’s Non-Bird rights in the offseason, so they can give him a deal with a salary of no more than $3,933,600 unless they use the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception or open cap room. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Derek Fisher said he’s spoken with Brian Shaw since the Nuggets fired Shaw last week, as Berman notes in the same piece. Shaw has ties to Jackson and speculation has linked the ex-Denver coach to an assistant’s job with New York.
- Gigi Datome was buried on the bench in Detroit, but the Celtics are giving their deadline-day acquisition significant minutes while Avery Bradley heals from a minor injury, as Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com examines. The C’s can match offers for Datome, who hits free agency this summer, if they tender a nearly $2.188MM qualifying offer.
- The Sixers will take a different approach with waiver claim Glenn Robinson III, who won’t see the floor much at first, coach Brett Brown said, according to Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News. That won’t give the team much of a chance to evaluate him before his contract is up at season’s end, but Brown indicated that the team had been keeping an eye on him for a while before acquiring him. Robinson’s qualifying offer will be slightly more than $1.045MM this summer.