Western Notes: Brooks, Love, Parsons
Scott Brooks would still be the Thunder coach if Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook had strongly objected to the decision to fire him, David Aldridge of NBA.com opines. While Durant and Westbrook were protective of Brooks, they accepted the decision by Oklahoma City’s management, Aldridge continues. The Thunder could not afford the risk of waiting to bring in a new coach after next season when Durant hits the free agent market, Aldridge concludes.
In other news around the Western Conference:
- Kevin Love‘s shoulder injury, which will keep him out of the Eastern Conference playoff semifinals, could have a major impact on his potential free agency and the Lakers’ offseason blueprint, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report tweets. Love, who holds an approximate $16.7MM player option on his contract for next season, is at the forefront of the Lakers’ rebuilding plans, Ding adds.
- Chandler Parsons might need microfracture surgery on his right knee, which could keep him out of action at the start of next season, sources told Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. That could play a role in the Mavericks’ offseason strategy, considering they signed Parsons last summer to be their starting small forward. Parsons will make approximately $15.36MM next season and holds an option of just over $16MM on the final year of his deal in 2016/17. It’s still possible Parsons would only require arthroscopic surgery on the knee, which has a shorter recovery period, MacMahon adds.
- The Warriors added more depth to their postseason roster by recalling center Ognjen Kuzmic and forward James Michael McAdoo from their D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to the team’s website. Kuzmic and McAdoo helped Santa Cruz win the D-League championship over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, as the duo combined for 31 points and 17 rebounds in the clinching 109-96 victory on Sunday night.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Reggie Jackson
The long-term outlook for Reggie Jackson took a dramatic turn at the trade deadline when he was dealt from the Thunder to the Pistons, who immediately installed him as their starting point guard. By season’s end, Detroit had emerged as the clear frontrunner for Jackson’s services as the restricted free agent enters his prime. Jackson ranks third among point guards on Hoops Rumors’ 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings behind only Goran Dragic and Rajon Rondo, whose stock has dipped after his disastrous partial season with the Mavericks.
There was plenty of uncertainty surrounding Jackson as he entered the 2014/15 season with Oklahoma City, with the expectation that Jackson could command a yearly salary averaging $13MM or $14MM when he entered the free agent market. Given its salary commitments to superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as well as Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City seemed highly unlikely to match an offer sheet for Jackson.
Jackson started just 36 games in his career prior to the season. Even so, the projections of his future value were reinforced by his play when given the opportunity to be a floor leader. With Westbrook sidelined by an injury, Jackson averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds during the month of November. Once Westbrook returned, Jackson found himself in a backup role again and his relationship with his teammates deteriorated. Jackson asked for a trade and got his wish when the Thunder shipped him to the Pistons, who had lost Brandon Jennings to a season-ending Achilles’ tendon injury.
Following a slow start that included a 10-game losing streak which knocked the Pistons from playoff contention, Jackson emerged as an offensive force in coach Stan Van Gundy’s pick-and-roll attack. He developed chemistry with franchise cornerstone Andre Drummond in the final 16 games while averaging 20.0 points, 11.0 assists and 4.8 rebounds and shooting 49% from the field. Van Gundy, who also doubles as the team’s president of basketball operations, made it clear that he views Jackson as his starting point guard going forward and plans to match any offer that may come Jackson’s way. The Pistons will not have any difficult retaining Jackson from a salary-cap standpoint, as they have approximately $27.9MM in guaranteed salary commitments next season.
That may not deter a potential suitor from trying to pry Jackson away from Van Gundy’s grasp. The Nets and Pacers reportedly were close to dealing for Jackson before he wound up in Detroit, and the Kings were also interested. The Knicks are believed to have a strong interest in Jackson as well, though they may be more focused on another Pistons free agent, Greg Monroe.
The Aaron Mintz client has his drawbacks, particularly at the defensive end. Jackson was ranked 41st among point guards on ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus/Minus rankings and has received a minus rating in all four of his seasons in Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus/Minus evaluations.
That won’t deter the Pistons from doing everything possible to keep Jackson, who hinted about his intentions of staying in Detroit right before the season ended. He told the team’s beat reporters he planned to stay in frequent contact with his teammates and organize summer workouts with them. He also feels Van Gundy’s coaching will make him a high-level point guard. It’s possible that Jackson could sign a deal with an opt-out clause to take advantage of the anticipated jump in the salary cap when the league’s new TV contract kicks in during the summer of 2016. In any case, it would be a surprise if Jackson isn’t wearing a Pistons uniform next season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Atlantic Notes: Casey, Knicks, Lopez
Dwane Casey will probably return as Raptors head coach next season even though the team got swept by the underdog Wizards in the playoffs, Eric Koreen of The National Post opines. Casey has one guaranteed year remaining on his contract and Koreen anticipates the team’s management will give him another chance unless a proven coach that GM Masai Ujiri likes, such as the Bulls’ Tom Thibodeau, becomes available. The Raptors will likely cut ties with all of their unrestricted free agents, a list that includes Landry Fields, Amir Johnson, Greg Stiemsma, Tyler Hansbrough, Chuck Hayes and Lou Williams, according to Koreen. The Raptors need to upgrade at the forward spots and improve defensively to become a serious contender, which is why no one on the roster is a lock to return next season, Koreen concludes.
In other news around the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks need more veteran leaders in their locker room even if Carmelo Anthony becomes more of a vocal leader next season, according to Ian Begley of ESPN New York. The Knicks had several of those players, including Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby, in 2013/14 when they won 54 games, Begley points out. David West might fit that description if the Pacers forward declines his $12.6MM player option for next season, Begley adds.
- Brook Lopez‘s strong finish makes his decision on whether to exercise his $16.7MM player option for next season a difficult one, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops.com reports. It might be wise for the Nets center to opt out and seek long-term security this summer, given his rising stock and injury history, Scotto continues. On the flip side, Lopez might be competing for offers with a number of other high-profile centers who will enter the market this summer, including Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, Tyson Chandler and Omer Asik, Scotto adds. One GM who thinks Lopez would put himself at too much risk for injury if he opts in tells Scotto that he believes the center would merit salaries around $16MM on the open market, essentially mirroring the value of his option.
- Luigi Datome made a point of praising the Celtics on his Facebook page Monday, Braden Campbell of Boston.com reports, a strong indicator he hopes Boston will re-sign him. Datome, who will be unrestricted free agent this summer, was dealt to the Celtics by the Pistons at the trade deadline. Datome, who praised everyone from the team’s management to arena workers, added in the Facebook post that he would value every proposal that comes his way this summer. He probably won’t get one from Boston, since Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has already expressed doubt that the team would have a roster spot available for Datome next season.
And-Ones: Awards, Draft, Agents
The media votes on most of the NBA awards, but the players will have their say with their own set of honors this year. The National Basketball Players Association announced today that it will hand out 10 awards in Las Vegas this July, as voted on by players. They’ll select their own MVP, the best rookie, and the best defender, and they’ll also hand out trophies for “Man of the Year,” “Global Impact Player,” “Hardest to Guard,” “Clutch Performer,” “Coach You Would Want To Play For,” “Best Home Court Advantage” and “Player You Secretly Wish Was on Your Team.” While we wait to see if those honors will have the resonance that the traditional ones have, here’s more from around the NBA:
- Combo forward Beka Burjanadze submitted his name for the draft, reports Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). That evidently means the 21-year-old from the nation of Georgia declared before Sunday’s deadline to do so. He’s only the 29th-best prospect from overseas among those born in 1994, according to Givony, who notes in his tweet that Burjanadze is a cousin of Zaza Pachulia.
- Former LSU power forward Jordan Mickey has signed with agents Matt Babcock and Adie von Gontard of the APAA Sports Group, Givony reports (Twitter link). Mickey, who entered the draft this year after his sophomore season, is the 49th-best prospect overall as Givony ranks them and No. 50 in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com listings.
- Rakeem Christmas is going with Stephen Pina of ASM Sports for his representation, according to Cameron Chung of the Sports Agent Blog. Fresh off his senior year at Syracuse, Christmas comes in 52nd in Givony‘s rankings and is 55th with Ford.
Latest On Kevin Love, Free Agency
5:05pm: Love will miss Cleveland’s second-round series because of his shoulder injury, the team says, according to Tom Withers of The Associated Press (Twitter link). It’s a left shoulder dislocation, as the team details.
8:58am: People around the Cavaliers and the rest of the league have been of the belief that Kevin Love wouldn’t hesitate to leave Cleveland, but the shoulder injury he suffered in Sunday’s game throws Love’s future into flux, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Celtics had made up ground on the Lakers on Love’s list of preferred destinations, and while Boston was no certainty for Love, they had a better shot than many thought, Wojnarowski writes. However, the tangle with Kelly Olynyk in which Love was injured, a “bush-league play” as Love described it, left the All-Star with a “legitimate loathing” of the Celtics, as Wojnarowski put it. The Cavs expect Love to miss at least the next two weeks, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported earlier.
Love said in January that he planned to pick up his player option of more than $16.744MM for next season, even though there’s a strong chance he could earn more next year on a new maximum-salary deal. However, teams who’ve investigated the possibility of chasing Love are convinced he’ll “minimally explore” the free agent market this summer, according to Wojnarowski. Love was intrigued with the possibility of playing for the Celtics after visiting Boston last spring, and people who know Love and Celtics coach Brad Stevens believe the Celtics would have become the front-runners once Love took a meeting with the C’s, as Wojnarowski details.
The Yahoo! scribe suggests that the confrontation Kendrick Perkins had with Jae Crowder and the flagrant foul J.R. Smith delivered later on Crowder demonstrated that the Cavs were in Love’s corner and sought a measure of revenge for his injury. Still, none of the Cavs went quite as far as Love did in comments about the play in which Love was hurt, with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving probably going the farthest to support Love in saying that it wasn’t a basketball play, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal writes in his Final Thoughts column.
“I’ve seen a lot of tie-ups in my day and that tie-in was a little different,” James said. “We were very upset that it happened.”
The Celtics would probably need to convince Love that Olynyk’s move, in which he hooked Love’s arm as they chased a loose ball, wasn’t intended to hurt him, Wojnarowski surmises, having heard private suggestions from the Celtics that it happened in part because of Olynyk’s “uncoordinated,” “awkward” nature. Several Celtics went on the record with similar statements to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. Gerald Wallace said it’s simply how Olynyk has to play, and Evan Turner looked at Tyler Zeller and asked, “Tyler? Doesn’t he foul that way every day in practice?” Olynyk denies trying to injure Love, as Murphy also relays.
Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback
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The Lakers loom as a free agent suitor for Goran Dragic, but even as the point guard confirmed he’ll opt out with the Heat, reader Adlaker12 can’t picture the Dragon in purple-and-gold:
- I dont see Dragic here in LA. The Heat have the pieces to still compete in a watered down east. Why would you want to battle Curry, Paul, Parker, Westbrook in the west? There no nights off in the west at the point. Not to mention the competition for making the all star game as the point out west. The East and the Heat have too much to offer.
There’s doubt even among the Blazers that soon-to-be free agent LaMarcus Aldridge will be back, and Dallas will reportedly come calling for the power forward who’s a native of nearby Seagoville, but James Mantil is yet another reader who believes a top-10 free agent will stay put.
- As much as I’d love it if Dallas would get Aldridge, I’m of the belief that he’s going to stay in Portland. I really think the 5th year and more money is going to outweigh playing in his hometown, especially since he likes playing in Portland. I think the other execs are right and Portland is just paranoid about him leaving.
There’s seemingly little chance that Rajon Rondo will be back in Dallas, and reader Z…. doesn’t see any logical destination for him, even if signs point to the Lakers.
- I’m trying to think of any team that Rondo is a fit with in today’s NBA, and I’m having a really tough time. He is a ball stopping PG that can’t shoot, so he doesn’t space the floor. He isn’t as good defensively as he once was either, and then he is a big liability as someone that teams can put on the free throw line, and he doesn’t finish at the rim the way he used to either … he should probably be surrounded by shooters. Look at what him being in Dallas has done to Monta Ellis as well. Monta doesn’t shoot the ball well from 3, but was having a great year before the trade, and it was assumed he would cash out in free agency. Now the narrative is that he is an issue in the locker room, and some guys aren’t so sure it’s too smart for him to turn down his option. Just a bad trade, and as I said before it happened, you could see it coming.
Check out what more readers had to say in previous editions of Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback. We appreciate everyone who adds to the dialogue at Hoops Rumors, and we look forward to seeing more responses like these from you!
Poll: Do Pelicans Need Major Summer Changes?
The Pelicans didn’t win any games in their series against the Warriors, but they showed they could push Golden State at least to a degree, building a 20-point fourth quarter lead in Game 3 while keeping each game against a 67-win juggernaut reasonably close. They have Anthony Davis, a former No. 1 overall pick who’s lived up to his draft position and then some with strong play that’s approaching an MVP level. They won 11 more games than they did a season ago, but the path to the top in New Orleans isn’t clear.
Part of that is because the team plays in the hyper-competitive Western Conference. The Pelicans finished only a game behind the Wizards this year, and Washington just swept the 49-win Raptors in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Still, there isn’t a second star to go along with Davis, unless the team has faith that Jrue Holiday can regain the form that made him an All-Star in his last fully healthy season in 2012/13, much less the third star that so many championship teams have had. There doesn’t appear to be one on the way, either, since the Pelicans haven’t made a first-round draft pick without an agreement in place to trade it since they took Davis and Austin Rivers in 2012. Rivers showed he can compete on a high level for the Clippers on Sunday, but for the most part, he’s been a profound disappointment for a No. 10 overall pick. New Orleans traded him and Russ Smith for Quincy Pondexter and a second-round pick this year, a paltry return on the team’s investment.
New Orleans plans a max extension offer for Davis, and, as I outlined when I looked at the offseason ahead for the Pelicans, there’s little reason to suspect that the ‘Brow’s next deal won’t be a multiyear arrangement of some sort that keeps him in New Orleans. There’s no guarantee that GM Dell Demps and Monty Williams will be around to see the end of the next contract that Davis signs, or even to present him with that extension offer when he becomes eligible to sign it this summer. Whomever is making the decisions in New Orleans will have some tough ones in front of them.
There isn’t much the team can do to find a star to complement Davis in free agency this year, given the lack of max cap flexibility that will exist once Eric Gordon formally opts in for more than $15.514MM next season, as he seemingly plans to do. Still, there are trades, and soon there will be the summer of 2016, when just about every team will have tons of cap space but few will have the sort of star who can attract marquee free agents the way Davis could.
The Pelicans probably would have finished well outside of the playoffs if the Thunder had been fully healthy this year. New Orleans had its share of injuries, too, and even Davis only played in 68 of 82 regular season games, but Oklahoma City is a prime example of how quickly a superstar’s time under contract can pass. The Thunder haven’t won a title in eight seasons with Kevin Durant, and only in the past few months, with Durant’s free agency looming in 2016, are they making aggressive win-now moves instead of concentrating on the future and the bottom line.
So, let us know if you think it’s time for the Pelicans to make bold changes, or if you think they’re on the right track, and elaborate on your choice in the comments.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Bird Rights
The Bird exception, named after Larry Bird, is a rule included in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows teams to go over the salary cap to re-sign their own players. A player who qualifies for the Bird exception, formally referred to as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, is said to have “Bird rights.”
The most basic way for a player to earn Bird rights is to play for the same team for at least three seasons, either on a multiyear deal or separate one-year contracts. Still, there are other, more complicated criteria. A player retains his Bird rights in the following scenarios:
- He changes teams via trade. For instance, Alexey Shved is in the third year of his contract. He has been traded three times since August, from the Timberwolves to the Sixers, the Sixers to the Rockets and the Rockets to the Knicks, but he still has his Bird rights because he hasn’t been waived.
- He finishes a third season with a team after having only signed for a partial season with the club in the first year. If Chris Andersen‘s contract were expiring at season’s end, he would have Bird rights this summer, even though he joined the Heat on a 10-day contract in 2012/13.
- He signed for a full season in year one or two but the team waived him, he cleared waivers, and didn’t sign with another team before re-signing with the club for a third year and remaining under contract through the season. If the Hornets re-sign Jannero Pargo this summer and he remains with the team for all of 2015/16, he’ll have Bird rights even though he cleared waivers from the team earlier this season.
However, a player sees the clock on his Bird rights reset to zero in the following scenarios:
- He changes teams via free agency.
- He is waived and is not claimed on waivers (except as in scenario No. 3 above).
- His rights are renounced by his team. However, his Bird rights are restored if he re-signs with that team without having signed with another NBA team. The Hornets renounced Pargo’s rights in 2013 and 2014, but he’d still be in line to become a Bird player in the summer of 2016.
- He is selected in an expansion draft.
If a player is waived and claimed off waivers, and he would have been in line for Bird rights at the end of the season, he would retain only Early Bird rights, unless he was waived via the amnesty provision.
When players earn Bird rights, they’re eligible to sign maximum-salary contracts for up to five years with 7.5% annual raises when they become free agents. The maximum salary will vary for each player depending on how long he’s been in the league, but regardless of the amount, a team can exceed the salary cap to complete the deal.
Although the Bird exception allows teams to exceed the cap, a team cannot necessarily use free cap room to sign free agents and then re-sign its own players via Bird rights. A team with a Bird free agent is assigned a “free agent amount” or cap hold worth either 190% of his previous salary (for a player with a below-average salary) or 150% of his previous salary (for an above-average salary), up to the maximum salary amount. For players coming off rookie scale contracts, the amounts of those cap holds are 250% and 200%, respectively.
The Trail Blazers, for instance, will have a cap hold of nearly $10.868MM for Wesley Matthews on their 2015/16 books — 150% of his more than $8.775MM salary this season. Portland could renounce Matthews and clear that $10.868MM in cap space, but the Blazers would lose his Bird rights if they did that. That would force them to use either cap room or a different cap exception to re-sign him.
Ultimately, the Bird exception was designed to allow teams to keep their best players. The CBA ensures that teams are always able to re-sign them to contracts up to the maximum salary, assuming the player is interested in returning and his team is willing to go over the cap.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Versions of this post were initially published on April 17th, 2012, and May 2, 2013, and April 24th, 2014.
Celtics Notes: Wallace, Crowder, Free Agency
The Celtics are willing enough to trade Gerald Wallace that to do so, they would part with one of the seven extra first-round picks in line to come their way, sources tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who writes in his NBA AM piece. Wallace’s contract is poised to turn into an expiring deal next season, when it calls for a salary of nearly $10.106MM, and while that would ostensibly make it less costly to move, it appears Boston is ready to give up an asset of value to facilitate a swap. Here’s more from Boston one day after a playoff exit:
- Kyler has heard suggestions that the Mavs will make a run at Jae Crowder, as the Basketball Insiders scribe writes in the same piece. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge made it clear that he’d like Crowder back, and the soon-to-be restricted free agent received an auspicious diagnosis of a left ACL sprain after his injury Sunday, the team announced. That isn’t the serious injury that it appeared Crowder might have suffered, observes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (Twitter link).
- Blakely, in a full piece, examines the relative interest the C’s have in re-signing Crowder, Jonas Jerebko, Gigi Datome and Brandon Bass for next season
- A first-round playoff exit was just the sort of outcome Ainge feared for the Celtics, leaving them without a lottery pick or having had much of a playoff run, writes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. Still, people in the organization are warming to the idea that the postseason berth can help, and they’re hopeful that having been on the playoff stage raises the team’s profile for free agents. Already, Kevin Love had reportedly held Boston in high regard as a free agent destination before a tie-up with Kelly Olynyk left the injured All-Star with a “legitimate loathing” of the C’s, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier.
Raptors Notes: Casey, Ujiri, Valanciunas, Ross
Dwane Casey signed a three-year deal with the Raptors this past offseason, and in response to questions about whether he’d be back for next season after the team’s stunning four-game loss to the Wizards, Casey said he hasn’t heard otherwise, notes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). Players came to the coach’s defense at the team’s season-ending media interviews, with DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and soon-to-be free agent Amir Johnson among those expressing support, as Lewenberg and James Herbert of CBSSports.com relay (All Twitter links). There’s more from Toronto after the team’s playoff collapse:
- Raptors GM Masai Ujiri refused to sacrifice long-term assets for veteran help at the deadline and, aside from Lowry’s deal, he didn’t make commitments this past summer that would compromise the team’s future flexibility, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Ujiri knew the team wasn’t as strong as last season’s run and its early-season play this year indicated, Wolstat writes, adding that while he doesn’t expect Ujiri to completely rebuild from here, the roster is positioned for significant changes.
- Indeed, the team’s brass privately tempered its expectations for this season, knowing that the roster is young and has holes, Lewenberg tweets, expressing his belief that the team will keep Casey around given the low bar the team set.
- Uncertainty looms around Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross, both of whom are eligible for rookie scale extensions this summer, and Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun believes that while each still has much to learn, Valanciunas is the one worth keeping.