And-Ones: Temple, Powell, Vucevic
Unlike Orlando’s past star big men such as Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard, Nikola Vucevic is determined to be a member of the Magic for his entire career, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel writes. “Yeah. I’m here for the long haul,” Vucevic said. “I love it here. I really love the city. I’ve improved a lot as a player. I’d love to stay here for a long time and make something special happen. If it takes years, it takes years. I ain’t going anywhere.” The big man will have a few years before his loyalty to Orlando will be tested since his current deal runs through the 2018/19 season.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Wizards swingman Garrett Temple began running and participating in drills this week and said he is at 80% strength, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post notes. Temple, who strained his right hamstring back on March 9th, was projected to be out approximately four to six weeks, putting his return date within the original prediction.
- The Mavericks have re-assigned center Dwight Powell to the Texas Legends, their D-League affiliate, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com tweets. This will be Powell’s 13th trek of the season to the D-League.
- The 2015 NCAA tournament is winding down and only four teams remain standing. Chris Mannix of SI.com looks at the draft prospects who have the most to gain from standout performances in the Final Four and beyond. Mannix’s list includes Justise Winslow (Duke), Willie Cauley-Stein (Kentucky), Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin), and Devin Booker (Kentucky).
2015/16 Salary Commitments: Trail Blazers
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Blazers’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Nicolas Batum — $12,235,750
- Meyers Leonard — $3,075,880
- Damian Lillard — $4,236,287
- C.J. McCollum — $2,525,160
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- Allen Crabbe — $947,276
- Tim Frazier — $845,069
- Chris Kaman — $5,016,000 ($1MM Guaranteed)
Players with options:
- Arron Afflalo (Player Option) — $7,750,000
- Steve Blake (Player Option) — $2,170,465
The Blazers’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $23,073,077
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $15,728,810
- Total: $38,801,887
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Pacific Notes: Robinson, Bullock, Ellington
The Clippers are keeping close tabs on the health of guard Nate Robinson, and if he is healthy enough to play by next week the team will consider re-signing him, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com tweets. Robinson has already had two 10-day contracts with the team, so any new deal would need to cover the remainder of the season. Los Angeles currently has 15 players on its roster, so a corresponding personnel move would be required. The most likely candidate to go would be Lester Hudson, who is inked to a 10-day pact that expires on Tuesday.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Reggie Bullock is finally getting some playing time for the Suns, and the swingman is using the exposure to show Phoenix why he should be part of its plans for next season, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “I wanted to play when I first got here but I’m still a young player in this league,” Bullock said. “The coaches know what I’m capable of, defending and shooting the ball. I’m just staying ready for when my name is called and continue to build and take this confidence to next season.“
- Injured Lakers guard Wayne Ellington is done for the season courtesy of a separated right shoulder, and will become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Los Angeles’ coach Byron Scott says that the team’s rebuilding plan hinges on the NBA draft and pursuing marquee free agents, but the Lakers’ front office would “absolutely” consider re-signing Ellington, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes.
- When Sim Bhullar signed his 10-day deal with the Kings he made history as the first NBA player of Indian descent, the significance of which is not lost on the big man, Antonio Gonzalez of The Associated Press writes. “It’s a big moment in the history of the NBA and the history of my country in India,” Bhullar said. “I know my family’s going to be proud of me and everybody’s going to be proud of me and cheer me on the court.”
Lakers Sign Dwight Buycks To 10-Day Contract
7:54pm: The Lakers have officially signed Buycks, the team announced.
1:47pm: Scott specified that it’s a D-Leaguer the team is close to signing, as Medina notes in a full story. So that’s seemingly further indication that Buycks is the guy, though it appears we’ll soon find out definitively one way or the other.
FRIDAY, 1:41pm: The Lakers are close to signing a player, according to coach Byron Scott, though he didn’t say who, Medina tweets. The Lakers announced Thursday that Ellington will miss the remainder of the season, so that’ll help the team’s case for a hardship exception.
THURSDAY, 2:05pm: The Lakers are waiting for approval from the NBA for a hardship exception, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, who argues that it should be an open-and-shut case with Bryant, Randle, Young and Price all out of action (Twitter link). Wayne Ellington was also scheduled to undergo an MRI on his right shoulder, to which he suffered a mild separation during Wednesday’s game, according to Pincus and Medina (Twitter links).
12:46pm: There’s “nothing definitive” about any potential Lakers signing, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).
11:21am: The Lakers are signing point guard Dwight Buycks to a 10-day contract, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Charania’s tweet indicates that the signing has already taken place, though the team has yet to make a formal announcement. The team already has 15 players under contract, but there’s a chance the Lakers won’t have to clear another player to sign Buycks thanks to the hardship provision. The league had earlier granted the team an extra roster spot via hardship to carry Jabari Brown on a pair of 10-day deals. The Lakers couldn’t use that temporary roster relief to sign Brown to his two-year deal Wednesday, so the team waived Steve Nash to make room. Even without Nash, the Lakers have four players who’ve been out at least three games and who are seemingly expected to miss significantly more time, so the hardship remains a possibility.
Kobe Bryant and Julius Randle are done for the season, and there’s a decent chance that’s the case for Ronnie Price, too. Nick Young hasn’t played since February 22nd with a small fracture on his left kneecap. The Lakers are thin at the point with Jordan Clarkson and Jeremy Lin the team’s only healthy players at the position.
Buycks has been on the Lakers’ radar for the while, having reportedly worked out for the team in November in a head-to-head audition with Gal Mekel. The 26-year-old Buycks has since played for China’s Tianjin Steel and has been with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate for the past month. He’s a one-year NBA veteran thanks to having spent last season with the Raptors, though he played in only 14 games for Toronto, averaging 3.1 points and 0.7 assists in 10.4 minutes per contest. The 6’3″ Buycks, who went undrafted out of Marquette in 2011, has shown an all-around game in the D-League the past few weeks, adding 6.8 rebounds per game to go with averages of 18.2 PPG and 6.2 APG in 34.4 MPG. He was a scoring force in China, producing 26.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 5.1 APG in 37.4 MPG.
2015/16 Salary Commitments: Suns
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Suns’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Michael Beasley (Stretch Provision) — $777,778
- Eric Bledsoe — $13.5MM
- Reggie Bullock — $1,252,440
- Archie Goodwin — $1,160,160
- Alex Len — $3,807,120
- Marcus Morris — $5MM
- Markieff Morris — $8MM
- P.J. Tucker — $5.5MM
- T.J. Warren — $2,041,080
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- None
Players with options:
- Danny Granger (Player Option) — $2,170,465
The Suns’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $41,038,578
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $2,170,465
- Total: $43,509,043
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Prospect Profile: D’Angelo Russell
While he entered the school year not as highly touted as some of the other members of the 2014/15 freshman class, D’Angelo Russell emerged as one of the top players in college basketball. The sky would appear to be the limit for the young player, who has shot up draft boards as quickly as anyone this season. Russell played shooting guard in college, but many pro scouts are projecting him as a point guard in the NBA, which has definitely helped increase Russell’s overall draft stock. He is currently ranked as the No. 4 prospect by both ESPN.com and DraftExpress.com, No. 3 by NBA Draft.net, and No.2 by CBSSports.com. In 35 games this season Russell averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.6 steals in 33.9 minutes per outing.
The 6’5″ guard was named to the AP All-America team. He also made first team All-Big Ten, and was the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year as well. Russell led his Ohio State squad to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament, but the Buckeyes lost to No. 2 seed Arizona. He was stifled on the offensive end of the court by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, whose aggressive defense helped hold Russell to a 3-for-19 shooting night, including going just 1-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Russell is not a super athletic player, instead relying more on skill, feeling, and instincts, writes Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com. His great size for a guard, and his shooting ability, give Russell an intriguing versatility since he can be paired alongside many different styles of guards and wings, Givony opines. This should allow the team that drafts him to use Russell to exploit mismatches and for his coaches to get creative with their lineups.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) broke down his thoughts on Russell’s offensive game, saying, “There are a number of things that Russell has done well. He has proved to be a terrific, efficient scorer despite the fact that defenses in the Big Ten keyed in on him every night as Ohio State’s only real weapon on offense. Russell took 45% of his shots from 3-point range and hit a terrific 41% . His 2-point jumpers are a little low at 40%, but his field goal percentage at the rim jumps back up to 65%. In short, he can score from anywhere on the floor.”
“There’s so much to love about his game,” an NBA GM told Ford about Russell. “Even when he has a bad game, it looks like a good one because every time the ball leaves his lands, it looks like it’s going in. He plays with such great confidence and has a terrific feel. I think he could be a James Harden-type player at the next level. That’s what kind of scorer and playmaker he could be.”
Like the majority of young players, Russell has a number of things he needs to work on in order to transition to a successful professional career. Offensively he needs to learn to attack the basket more instead of settling for long range shots. Russell also needs to improve upon his finishing ability close to the rim, and he also could stand to get to the free throw line more often. His lack of elite speed and athleticism will make this a bit of a challenge in the NBA, but Russell’s basketball IQ should help him overcome this deficiency. As a ball-handler Russell also needs to learn to be more careful, as his turnover rate of 2.9 per game is a touch high. The 6’5″ playmaker is also an effective rebounder, though he’ll need to bulk up if he wants to be a factor on the boards in the NBA.
The guard is a capable defender, though he’ll struggle at first with the bigger, faster players in the NBA. Russell doesn’t have great lateral quickness, which he’ll have to compensate for with his smarts. One big knock on Russell is that he does tend to be a touch passive on the defensive end, and the player has been known to coast and take a number of possessions off, Givony notes.
Russell’s limitations make him a player who is unlikely to be able to carry an NBA team on the offensive end his rookie season, which could place the guard in a difficult situation. He will need talent around him to best utilize his complementary skills, which isn’t something that lottery teams generally possess an abundance of. Russell isn’t a player who will be capable of turning around a franchise on his own, but he is a fantastic prospect who should continue to improve as he matures. A number of scouts have compared Russell’s upside to that of Harden and Manu Ginobili, both of whom are crafty, intelligent scorers who get by quite well in the NBA without being freakishly athletic. If Russell approaches the production level of either of those players, the team that drafts him will likely be overjoyed.
While Russell may not end up being the first guard selected in June’s draft, he’s a lock to be taken amongst the top five picks. His main competition is Emmanuel Mudiay, who is ranked No. 3 overall by both Givony and Ford. Mudiay is almost sure to blow away scouts with his athleticism once individual pre-draft workouts begin, something Russell won’t necessarily do. Russell isn’t as flashy a player, and his NBA upside may not be quite as high as Mudiay’s thanks to their physical differences. But Russell is most certainly a noteworthy talent who should improve any franchise that selects him.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Northwest Notes: Lawson, Wright, Robinson
Most executives from teams around the league expect the Jazz to gauge the market for their first-round pick this year, and while front offices usually don’t give much thought to trading lottery picks before the lottery happens, Grantland’s Zach Lowe tosses out some hypothetical scenarios. The Nuggets asked for multiple first-round picks in Ty Lawson trade talks leading up to the deadline, sources told Lowe at the time, and the Grantland scribe speculates that he’s a possible fit for the Jazz. Lowe also names the Kings and Celtics as teams to watch in regard to Lawson, though it’s unclear if that’s also merely speculation. In any case, here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- Dorell Wright is expected to miss the next four to six weeks with a broken left hand, the Trail Blazers announced (Twitter link). That’s a blow for Portland, which will seemingly be without him for at least the first round of the playoffs, though the team’s deadline acquisition of Alonzo Gee, who’ll likely see more minutes, and Arron Afflalo continues to pay dividends, tweets Jabari Young of CSNNW.com. Wright will be a free agent at season’s end.
- The Nuggets and Thomas Robinson mutually decided against having Robinson stick around Denver for the rest of the season after the midseason trade that brought him aboard, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes in his mailbag column. The Sixers claimed Robinson off waivers from the Nuggets in February.
- Enes Kanter has been more productive following the trade that sent him to the Thunder than he ever was with the Jazz, and that’s in large measure because of the on-court chemistry he has with Russell Westbrook, as Josh Kopelman of Daily Thunder examines.
Atlantic Notes: Sullinger, Crowder, Amundson
The Celtics received an unexpected boost to their playoff hopes today, as the stress fracture in Jared Sullinger‘s left foot that was to have kept him out for the rest of the season has healed so that he can return to game action, at least on a limited basis, beginning tonight, the team announced. The surprising news helps Sullinger, who’s up for a rookie scale extension this coming offseason, as well as his team, which is tied with the Heat for the final postseason berth in the Eastern Conference. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Jae Crowder is grateful to the Celtics for giving him a more prominent role than he had in Dallas before the Mavs sent him out in the Rajon Rondo trade, as he tells Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The swingman is content in Boston as restricted free agency looms this summer, Bulpett details, arguing that the swingman has done enough to warrant as long of a commitment as possible from the Celtics.
- Knicks team president Phil Jackson praised Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas on Thursday amid his comments about the future to season ticket holders, as Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com points out (Twitter link). The pair will be free agents this summer, and Amundson has said he’d like to re-sign.
- Trading for Thaddeus Young and putting rookie Markel Brown in the starting lineup have combined to help Deron Williams play better since the All-Star break, Nets coach Lionel Hollins asserted in an appearance with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts on WFAN-AM (transcription via NetsDaily).
Pistons Interested In Re-Signing Joel Anthony
Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy said he wants to have soon-to-be free agent Joel Anthony back with the team next season, tweets Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. Van Gundy and company clearly have higher priorities, Ellis cautions, but it’s nonetheless a strong endorsement for the eighth-year veteran who’s seen just 8.3 minutes per game in 43 appearances this season.
Anthony is making $3.8MM this season, the last of a five-year, $18.25MM pact he signed with Heat in 2010. He’ll seemingly have to take a pay cut, and with the Pistons poised to be able to dip under the salary cap with less than $28MM in guaranteed salary for next season, it wouldn’t be altogether surprising to see Detroit renounce his Bird rights to clear his bloated $7.22MM cap hold. The Pistons can avoid that issue if they agree to terms with him before the July Moratorium ends and reduce that cap hold to his new salary.
The Mike Higgins client has seen his most significant playing time of the season since Greg Monroe went down with a strained right knee in mid-March, as he’s compiled 4.4 points and 3.5 rebounds to go along with an impressive 2.7 blocks in 16.5 minutes per game. Monroe is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, so perhaps the past few weeks are a glimpse of the future with Anthony absorbing the backup center minutes behind Andre Drummond.
Anthony quickly warmed to the Pistons when they traded for him during the preseason, and he said in November that he wanted to re-sign with Detroit. The Pistons will be busy, with Monroe and Reggie Jackson also hitting free agency, but it seems as if there’s mutual interest between the team and Anthony.
Cavs Notes: LeBron, Shumpert, Blatt, Harris
LeBron James wouldn’t mind seeing the Heat in the first round of the playoffs, as he made clear before Thursday’s Cavs-Heat game, notes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. Cleveland is more or less locked into the second spot in the Eastern Conference, while the Heat are a half-game out of the seventh seed. It would be an odd coda to two of the most momentous free agency decisions in NBA history, the ones that bookended LeBron’s tenure with Miami. James can once more hit free agency again this summer, though unlike the last two times, it seems he’ll almost certainly stay put. Here’s more from Cleveland:
- Knicks team president Phil Jackson said he’s disappointed with how it turned out with Iman Shumpert, also saying that the numerous injuries in the swingman’s past played a role in the decision to trade him to the Cavs, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter links). Shumpert is set for restricted free agency this summer.
- David Blatt hadn’t held an NBA job of any kind when the Cavs hired him, and he came under pressure earlier this season, but he’s shown growth in his first year in charge of the team, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group examines. James as well as soon-to-be restricted free agent Tristan Thompson are among those who praise Blatt, as Haynes relays.
- The Cavs have assigned Joe Harris to the D-League, the team announced. It’s the ninth assignment for the rookie, who has a guaranteed minimum salary next season, and all of his trips to the D-League have come since Cleveland’s pair of midseason trades netted Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Timofey Mozgov.