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Month: April 2015

Western Notes: Suns, Rondo, Asik

By | at April 28, 2015 9:17 pm

The Lakers are reportedly the favorites to land unrestricted free agent Rajon Rondo this summer, but the franchise isn’t as enamored with the mercurial point guard as it once was, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report writes. According to team sources, co-owner Jim Buss is not the believer he was earlier in the season when it comes to Rondo, and GM Mitch Kupchak now sees the player as a worthwhile value only at a lower salary, Ding adds. Despite Kobe Bryant‘s apparent desire to play alongside Rondo, the team has no intention to sign the guard just because the Mamba wants the team to, Ding notes.

Here’s more out of the Western Conference:

  • The Suns haven’t been successful drafting near the middle of the first round the last few seasons, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic notes. Only two players out of the six taken by the team in the first round since 2008 are still with the franchise, which is not a great track record, Coro adds. Phoenix is projected to have the No. 13 pick in June’s draft according to our reverse standings.
  • Pelicans coach Monty Williams values center Omer Asik, and considers him a player that the franchise intends to make a strong push to re-sign this summer despite his inconsistent play, John Reid of The Times Picayune relays. ”As far as Omer, he’s a huge part of what we do,” Williams said. ”If you look at our defensive numbers from last year to this year, we improved in a number of categories and Omer was a huge part of that. So he’s highly valued by this organization and that he’s an asset to this city.” Asik, 28, is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. In addition to Asik, Williams indicated that he wanted all of his core players to return next season, Reid tweets.
  • If the Trail Blazers were to lose unrestricted free agent LaMarcus Aldridge to another team this summer, the franchise would be just fine from a leadership standpoint thanks to the continued presence of Damian Lillard, Jason Quick of The Oregonian opines.
1 comment Los Angeles Lakers New Orleans Pelicans Phoenix Suns Portland Trail Blazers

2014/15 D-League Usage Report: Nuggets

By | at April 28, 2015 8:00 pm

The relationship between the NBA and the D-League continues to grow, and 17 NBA franchises currently have one-to-one D-League affiliates amongst the 18 D-League teams. The remaining 13 NBA teams shared the Fort Wayne Mad Ants this season. We at Hoops Rumors will be recapping each team’s use of the D-League this season, looking at assignments and recalls as well as the players signed out of the D-League. We’ll continue onward with a look back at how the Nuggets utilized the D-League during the 2014/15 campaign…

D-League Team: Fort Wayne Mad Ants

Affiliation Type: Shared

D-League Team Record: 28-22

Number of NBA Players Assigned To D-League: 1

Total D-League Assignments: 1

Player Stats While On Assignment

  • Erick Green: 1 assignment, 2 games, 21.0 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 3.0 APG. .517/.273/.900.

D-League Signings

  • None

Assignment/Recall Log

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Atlantic Notes: Casey, Celtics, Stevens

By | at April 28, 2015 6:45 pm

As the Raptors evaluate coach Dwane Casey‘s job performance, one negative that stands out is the team’s poor defense, Scott Stinson of The National Post writes. Casey, who came to Toronto with the reputation as a defense specialist, places the blame on the team’s offensive woes after DeMar DeRozan injured his groin, Stinson notes. “Where I thought we got discombobulated was, after DeMar went down, our defense took a huge hit, and I take accountability for it,” Casey said. “We kind of got away from some of our defensive principles to hide some weaknesses that we had. Trying to make up for the lack of DeRozan, in other words, despite the team still winning, was creating other problems. That way lies chaos. You kind of get disheveled on the defensive end and you never recover from that.” GM Masai Ujiri hasn’t confirmed that Casey would be retained, though he did indicate that if he had decided against keeping the coach, he would have said so.

Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

  •  Despite being swept out of the playoffs by Cleveland in the first round, the Celtics laid the groundwork this season for future success, Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders writes. “We know we can compete with anybody in the NBA,” said mid-season pickup Isaiah Thomas. “People counted us out and we just kept fighting. We kept believing in ourselves, we kept coming to work every day with our hard hat on and working hard and doing the things that we can control. If we can do that in the summer, next training camp, next season, then we’ve got a bright future with this group of guys.”
  • Guiding Boston to the playoffs this season has proven that Celtics coach Brad Stevens belongs in the league, Ian Thomsen of NBA.com writes. “Where I feel much more comfortable is the understanding of 29 opponents, understanding the schedule, understanding the NBA and the game management,” Stevens said. “Those were all like knock-you-over experiences. Now I feel like I’ve got a handle on all that. Now it’s just about coaching this team as well as we can.“
  • The Celtics‘ abbreviated playoff run has shown that the team badly needs to add a star player, but also demonstrated that rookie Marcus Smart is a cornerstone who the franchise can build around, Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald writes.
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Official 2015 Draft Early Entrants List

By | at April 28, 2015 3:58 pm

College seniors and players from overseas who turn 22 this year are already eligible for the draft, but the NBA announced today that there will be 91 others seeking to hear their names called on June 25th. The league released its official list of early entrants, which is below. The most notable name who wasn’t previously reported to have entered the draft is Robert Upshaw, though the sophomore center was widely expected to end up in the field after the University of Washington dismissed him during the season. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranks him as the 30th-best prospect while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him at No. 34, so he’s a fringe first-rounder.

West Georgia sophomore guard Deonta Stocks is the only other collegian on the list who wasn’t previously reported to have entered the draft. The rest of the new entrants come from overseas. The new names are in bold without links below, while the links on the other names go to our reports from the time they made their respective decisions.

Updated 6-16-15

The following players entered but later withdrew

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Atlantic Notes: Love, Celtics, Brand, Raptors

By | at April 28, 2015 3:13 pm

People around the Celtics were intrigued to hear of what had been Kevin Love‘s growing fondness for the team, and while the C’s plan to pursue him, they believe he’ll back with the Cavs for next season, a league source told Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. That was before Cavs GM David Griffin announced that Love will likely miss the rest of the playoffs and that surgery on his injured shoulder is a possibility. It’s unclear whether the Celtics will land Love or another star, but an active summer is surely ahead, as I wrote today in examining the Celtics offseason, and Murphy has more clues about what’s ahead for Boston amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:

  • Jae Crowder and Jonas Jerebko are among the Celtics who want to re-sign with the team, Murphy notes in the same piece as he looks at the status of every player on the team’s roster. The Celtics are interested in keeping Crowder but haven’t decided on Jerebko or Brandon Bass, whose desire to remain in Boston is well–documented, as Murphy details.
  • The Knicks expressed their interest in Elton Brand to the big man immediately after free agency began last July, and he’d consider signing with them if they pursue him again this summer, the 36-year-old New York native tells Marc Berman of the New York Post. Brand, who’s also pondering retirement, passed on a minimum-salary offer from the Knicks last year to sign a one-year, $2MM deal with the Hawks, as Berman details. Knicks team president Phil Jackson might have had more than Brand in mind last summer, since Brand’s agent, David Falk, also represents Greg Monroe, a rumored Knicks target, tweets Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.
  • Sportsnet’s Michael Grange views Kyle Lowry‘s comments about coach Dwane Casey on Monday as a rather tepid endorsement, though those who know the point guard tell Grange there wasn’t any hidden meaning and that there’s no tension between player and coach. GM Masai Ujiri offered praise for Lowry today but wouldn’t commit to bringing Casey back. Grange argues that Casey couldn’t have been expected to take the Raptors much farther.
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Offseason Outlook: Boston Celtics

By | at April 28, 2015 1:59 pm

Guaranteed Contracts

Non-Guaranteed Contracts

Options

  • None

Restricted Free Agents/Cap Holds

  • Gigi Datome ($2,275,000) — $2,187,500 qualifying offer
  • Jae Crowder ($1,181,348) — $1,181,348 qualifying offer1

Unrestricted Free Agents/Cap Holds

Draft Picks

  • 1st Round (16th overall)
  • 1st Round (28th overall)
  • 2nd Round (33rd overall)
  • 2nd Round (45th overall)

Cap Outlook

  • Guaranteed Salary: $40,406,846
  • Non-Guaranteed Salary: $1,894,552
  • Options: $0
  • Cap Holds: $47,833,785
  • Total: $90,135,183

The Celtics have made 11 trades since July, and while none of them brought the superstar that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has openly pined for, all of those moves resulted in a 15-win improvement from last season to this one. Boston has as many as seven extra first-round draft picks coming its way, more trade exceptions than any other team in the league, and a roster that finished just two games below .500. The difficult calculus facing Ainge now is proving that he can do again what he did in 2007 and convert building blocks into a star-studded contender.

NBA: Boston Celtics at Phoenix SunsIt won’t be as easy this time, since the 2007 Celtics already had a resident star in Paul Pierce. Ainge dealt away the last remaining link to the 2007/08 champions when he traded Rajon Rondo in December, but since the swap, Rondo has hardly looked like the star he used to be, and the Celtics have fairly attractive assets to show for it. Jae Crowder, the only player the Celtics have left from the deal, is soon to hit free agency, too, but the Celtics have control in a way they wouldn’t have had with Rondo, since Crowder’s eligible for restricted free agency. The Rondo deal also gave the Celtics one of the many extra first-rounders they’re owed and allowed them to create a massive trade exception that they could use to take in a player making as much as $13MM without giving up any salary in return, as I examined.

It’s that final asset that will require some real creativity and hard decisions from Ainge. The trade exception expires on the one-year anniversary of the Rondo trade in December, so the Celtics can’t sit on it for long. They won’t even have until December if they want to use any cap space this summer. Trade exceptions go away when teams clear cap room, and the Celtics have a chance to open roughly $25.5MM worth, enough for a maximum-salary free agent, or two or three second-tier signings. They could also use cap room to take in players via trade without sending anyone out, so it’s not as if relinquishing the exceptions would leave the Celtics hamstrung. Still, teams can use trade exceptions to help create new trade exceptions, in essence extending their life, as Ainge did when he used multiple trade exceptions to facilitate the Rondo deal and produce the new, massive trade exception that came out of it.

The decision won’t be made in a vacuum, as more than a dozen legacy cap holds, as listed above and explained here, help ensure the Celtics wouldn’t have to open cap room until they know they can sign the free agent targets they want. Some of the players that Boston would like to sign wouldn’t require the use of cap space, since they’re already on the roster. Ainge has sent clear signals that he’d like to re-sign Crowder, who’s expressed gratitude for the expanded role that coach Brad Stevens has given him. Ainge would surely put Crowder on the back burner if a star became available, but given the swingman’s relatively tiny cap hold of less than $1.2MM, he wouldn’t get in the way unless another team swooped in and signed him to a bloated offer sheet of $5MM a year or more.

The math isn’t as simple with Brandon Bass, who’s expressed his desire to stay with the Celtics on multiple occasions in the past few months. His eight-figure cap hold makes him a prime candidate to be renounced if he and the Celtics don’t come to an agreement for a significantly lower figure during the July Moratorium. He’s a misfit for a rebuilding team with his 30th birthday looming on Thursday, but he’d be valuable for the Celtics if they somehow turned into a contender over the summer, and the Celtics clearly have some level of affection for him, or they’d have traded him at some point over the last two years.

A similar situation is at play with Jonas Jerebko, whose outsized $8.55MM cap hold the Celtics would surely renounce if they decide to open cap room. He aided the depth that marked the Celtics rotation down the stretch of the season and pulled down 9.6 rebounds per 36 minutes with 40.6% three-point shooting. The Celtics would probably welcome him back, but they’d be wary not to read too much into a 29-game sample size and pay much more than the minimum. The same could be said for Gigi Datome, the other player the Celtics acquired in the deadline-day trade that sent out Tayshaun Prince. Datome shot a sizzling 47.2% from behind the arc for the C’s in the regular season, but that came on only 36 attempts, and he saw only 14 minutes total in the playoffs.

That’s still more playing time than the four postseason minutes Gerald Wallace logged, and it’s no surprise that the Celtics are willing to trade him and the more than $10MM coming his way in 2015/16, the only eight-figure salary on the books for the Celtics next season. Boston is willing to attach a first-round pick to him to make it happen, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders reported, and there would certainly be worse uses of one of the many such picks the Celtics have to burn than to clear Wallace’s unwieldy cap figure. Wallace’s deal will finally be up after next season, but while expiring contracts have value, they aren’t as sought after as they used to be, particularly since just about every team already has plenty of cap flexibility for the summer of 2016. The Sixers took on a season and change of JaVale McGee‘s contract for a first-round pick that’s guaranteed never to be a lottery selection, but they might charge a higher price to absorb Wallace from a fellow rebuilding Atlantic Division team.

The primary motivation for trading Wallace would appear to be the chance to open even more cap room this summer, and it came as no shock to see the Celtics connected to Kevin Love again this week. Boston’s path to a Love signing was seemingly growing shorter until Kelly Olynyk injured Love’s shoulder, angering the All-Star and leaving him with newfound ill feelings toward the Celtics, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote. Aside from Love, LaMarcus Aldridge is the next best among this year’s prominent free agents who doesn’t seem overwhelmingly likely to return to his team, but Aldridge would appear far more likely to end up in his native Texas than in Boston. The Celtics will reportedly target Greg Monroe, and while there haven’t been recent links between the C’s and DeAndre Jordan, Boston reportedly spoke to the Clippers about acquiring him in the summer of 2013 and at the trade deadline that year. Omer Asik also looms as the sort of rim-protecting center the Celtics have sought, and they talked to the Rockets about trading for him during the 2013/14 season, though he’s not to be confused with a superstar.

There’s no telling if Ainge and the Celtics will find what they seek this summer, but it appears they’ll be just as aggressive in their star search as they were last summer, if not more so. The only safe bet is that the makeshift roster that qualified for the playoffs this spring won’t last until the fall.

Cap Footnotes

1 — Crowder’s cap hold would be $947,276 if the Celtics decline to tender a qualifying offer.
2 — See our glossary entry on cap holds for an explanation why these players listed in parentheses technically remain on the books.

The Basketball Insiders Salary Pages were used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Draft Notes: Mickey, Kentucky, Walker

By | at April 28, 2015 1:15 pm

Sam Dekker, Tyus Jones and Kevon Looney were among those who had better chances to see their respective draft stocks slip than improve if they were to have stayed in school instead of entering the draft, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com opines in an Insider-only piece. Caris LeVert, who opted to stay out of the draft, has a shot to go in the lottery next season, Goodman writes as he praises his decision. The ESPN.com scribe notes that he’s heard from NBA personnel who think Jordan Mickey goes undrafted as he argues the big man made a poor decision to declare for the draft. It’ll be years before we truly know whether their choices were wise, but less than two months remain before we find out just where everyone will end up on draft night. Here’s more on the draft:

  • The year’s first mock draft from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has Karl-Anthony Towns going to the Timberwolves, Jahlil Okafor to the Knicks and D’Angelo Russell to the Sixers. Givony’s mock shows all seven early entrants from Kentucky getting picked, including Aaron Harrison to the Sixers at No. 60.
  • The mock draft that Sean Deveney of The Sporting News put together is an unconventional one, with Okafor at No. 1 to the Wolves, Russell at No. 2 to the Knicks, and Towns at No. 3 to the Sixers.
  • Former Florida power forward Chris Walker has hired agent Travis King of Relativity Sports, as Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype hears (Twitter link). Walker is the No. 58 prospect according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, while Givony has him at No. 73 in his rankings.
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Masai Ujiri On Valanciunas, Lowry, D-League

By | at April 28, 2015 11:51 am

GM Masai Ujiri accepts responsibility for the team’s late-season collapse, as he made clear today to reporters, including Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star (Twitter link), at his end-of-season press conference.

“The process is sometimes you get kicked in the face,” Ujiri said, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). “We got kicked in the face.”

Ujiri doesn’t regret not having made a trade at the deadline, and he insists he won’t make any knee-jerk reactions in the offseason ahead, notes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). Still, he isn’t committing to coach Dwane Casey for another season, as we passed along earlier, and with many questions surrounding the team following a disastrous end to the season in Toronto, we’ll round up the rest of the GM’s relevant comments here:

  • Jonas Valanciunas is “a huge part of our team” going into the future, Ujiri said, expressing his belief that such big men are still valuable even in an era of small ball, Wolstat relays (Twitter links). “We can criticize Jonas … and it’s a big discussion we’re going to have with coach and the staff, how he was used,” Ujiri also said, as Feschuk tweets.
  • Kyle Lowry didn’t maintain his level of play down the stretch, but Ujiri said he’s “even more confident” in the point guard now than when the Raptors re-signed him last season for four years and $48MM, Lewenberg notes (Twitter link).
  • The Raptors and the NBA are in advanced talks about arranging a one-to-one D-League affiliate that could be a part of the organization as soon as next year, as Lewenberg relays (on Twitter). The Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment company that owns the Raptors have given the OK for the team to purchase a D-League affiliate, Wolstat tweets.
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Raptors Rumors: Casey, Williams, Lowry

By | at April 28, 2015 10:28 am

Raptors GM Masai Ujiri didn’t say whether coach Dwane Casey would be back next year, though he indicated that if he had decided against keeping him, he’d have already said so, notes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). “There’s no doomsday here,” Ujiri said, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (on Twitter). “Initial indications” are that the Raptors will retain Casey, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears, as he writes in the same piece, but league sources tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe that it’s still uncertain whether the coach will be back next season, even though he’s under contract. Casey agreed to a three-year deal last offseason that consists of two guaranteed years and a team option for 2016/17. There’s plenty more on the Raptors, as we detail:

  • The belief is that the Raptors would like to re-sign Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams on a reasonable deal, according to Stein, who writes in the same piece, though Eric Koreen of the National Post suggests that Williams and the rest of the Raptors free agents aren’t strong bets to return. An NBA executive told Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun that he would only sign Williams to a one-year deal, citing his defensive shortcomings.
  • Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas are the only Raptors who should feel confident that they’re likely to remain in Toronto for next season, Stein hears, adding that rival teams would nonetheless be unsurprised if the team makes changes to its core.
  • Casey and Ujiri have no shortage of faith in Terrence Ross, writes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun, who says that chances are that Ross is still with the Raptors next season. A trade of DeRozan would allow Ross into his natural position of shooting guard, and many believe “the winds are blowing” in that direction, Wolstat writes. Ross, a former No. 8 overall pick, is eligible for a rookie scale extension in the offseason.
  • Valanciunas will also be up for a rookie scale extension this year, and Koreen suggests it’s likely that the Raptors will explore the notion of giving him one.
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Eastern Rumors: Aldridge, Russell, Raptors

By | at April 27, 2015 10:36 pm

The Celtics should target LaMarcus Aldridge on the free agent market this summer and coach Brad Stevens could be their biggest selling point, according to Gary Tanguay of CSNNE.com. Stevens is a winner and a player’s coach who is adept at making strategic adjustments and getting his team to play hard, Tanguay continues. That should be attractive to a veteran like Aldridge, who probably realizes he cannot win a championship with the Trail Blazers in the loaded Western Conference, Tanguay opines. Adding Aldridge, along with a couple more solid moves, would make the Celtics serious contenders in the Eastern Conference, Tanguay concludes.

In other news around the Eastern Conference:

  • D’Angelo Russell would be an intriguing addition for the Sixers if they draft the Ohio State freshman guard, Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Russell would address a glaring need since they already have two young post players in Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel but Philadelphia’s draft strategy shouldn’t be based solely on filling that void, Sielski continues. An NBA source told The Inquirer that Russell is the top prospect on the Sixers draft board but Sielski doubts that GM Sam Hinkie has already made up his mind. However, it’s quite possible Hinkie may not be able to pass on a 6’5” point guard with a smooth shooting stroke who averaged 19.3 points for the Buckeyes, Sielski adds.
  • Raptors coach Dwane Casey says DeMar DeRozan must become a more vocal leader, Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun reports. Casey feels that DeRozan can no long sit back quietly when issues arise and the team is struggling, Ganter continues, and the team’s playoff collapse against the Wizards reinforces that notion. “This is his team,” Casey said during a press conference on Monday. “If something is going wrong in the locker room, speak up, say something. Don’t just complain about it. He is at that stage in his career where he can speak up and be a leader, not depend on someone else to do it. If you don’t agree with something, say something.”
  • The Magic might not hire a head coach until after the NBA Finals, a league source told Larry Ridley of NBC affiliate WESH in Orlando (Twitter link). The Magic fired Jacque Vaughn during the middle of the season, then hired James Borrego as interim coach for the final 30 games.
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