And-Ones: Wolves, Lakers, Pacers, Celtics
Several players and agents suggested to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that any given Eastern Conference team would be more attractive than a comparable one from the Western Conference given the disparity between the conferences. One agent told Kennedy that players “absolutely” want to be the East and that he hopes his draft clients are taken by Eastern teams, though an executive cautioned that the presence of LeBron James might dissuade free agents from jumping out of the West. James is set to represent the East for the fifth straight time in the NBA Finals, and while we wait more than a week for tip-off, here’s more from around the NBA:
- Chad Ford of ESPN.com hears D’Angelo Russell is in the mix for the Timberwolves at No. 1, says Karl-Anthony Towns, but not necessarily Jahlil Okafor, would be a lock for the Lakers at No. 2, and also writes in his chat with readers that the Pacers and Celtics would love to move up. Ford has heard chatter among GMs that the Thunder have promised Cameron Payne they’ll take him at No. 14, but he isn’t sure just how much truth there is to that, as the ESPN scribe writes in the same piece. Sources have suggested to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that Payne has a promise from some team. Our Eddie Scarito has Payne going to the Thunder in the Hoops Rumors Mock Draft.
- UNLV shooting guard Rashad Vaughn had an especially impressive workout this past weekend, Ford observes in an Insider-only piece, and Vaughn also opened eyes in his workout Tuesday for the Heat, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Ford adds in his piece that scouts have told him that French center Alpha Kaba is willing to stay in the draft rather than withdraw by the June 15th deadline if he receives a promise from a team.
- The Bulls and Pelicans have interest in former 16th overall pick Royce White, reports Shams Charania of RealGM, though it’s not clear if they’re yet considering him for any sort of deal that would go beyond summer league.
Melvin Hunt Front-Runner For Nuggets Job
Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt is the front-runner to take the job on a formal basis, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter link). The chances that Hunt would fill the vacancy have improved since season’s end, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported last week, and while Stein wrote that Mike D’Antoni was still in the mix, the long-ago Nuggets coach has yet to interview for the vacancy Denver created when it fired Brian Shaw, Zwerling adds.
The Nuggets are “not an option” for Tom Thibodeau, sources told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com last week, even though it had earlier seemed as though he would be the favorite once the Bulls let him go, as they finally did today. Alvin Gentry is reportedly a candidate for the Denver job, but reports have linked him to all four current NBA head coaching vacancies. Michael Malone, Scott Skiles, Fred Hoiberg and David Vanterpool are others who’ve been in contention, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Denver’s brass sees Hunt as a viable coach for a rebuilding team, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote this week. The Nuggets are apparently contemplating major changes, but Hunt drew strong support from existing Nuggets players after he took over the team for the stretch run. That included plaudits from Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried, who are otherwise losing confidence in the team and have let the Nuggets know that unless they make the right kind of coaching hire or pull off a significant trade, they’d rather be traded themselves than go through rebuilding, Kyler wrote.
Southwest Notes: Gasol, Calathes, Draft
One comment that Marc Gasol made to Spanish media should be encouraging for the Grizzlies, while another appears to fuel Spurs hope. Gasol said that he hasn’t thought about changing teams and once more cited his deep roots in Memphis, according to Adriano Correal of Gigantes del Basket (translation via HoopsHype). Still, he called the Spurs a model franchise and expressed his admiration of Tim Duncan, as Abraham Romero of Diario As passes along (translation via Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News). The Spurs are the team the Grizzlies fear the most among Gasol’s suitors, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com recently reported. Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Nick Calathes told Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype that his primary goal is to remain in the NBA and denied a report from Javier Maestro of Encestando.es that he wanted to leave the NBA and that his camp had offered his services to Barcelona of Spain (translation via HoopsHype). Calathes, whose contract with Memphis expires at the end of next month, is nonetheless expected to draw pursuit from several European teams, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia, who says the 26-year-old stands to make more money overseas than he would remaining in the NBA. The Grizzlies can match competing NBA bids for him if they tender a qualifying offer worth more than $1.147MM.
- The Mavs on Wednesday were set to work out Florida shooting guard Michael Frazier, Villanova small forward Darrun Hilliard, Nebraska swingman Terran Petteway, Arkansas shooting guard Michael Qualls, Baylor small forward Royce O’Neale and Incarnate Word combo guard Denzel Livingston, a source told Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link).
- Terrence Jones questioned whether he would ever play again after suffering a nerve injury earlier this season that knocked him out for nearly three months, so he’s not too upset that the Rockets benched him during the playoffs, as Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle examines. Jones is eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer.
Bulls Fire Tom Thibodeau
The Bulls have fired coach Tom Thibodeau, the team announced via press release. K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reported overnight that resolution to the long-running drama between Thibodeau and Bulls management was expected no later than Friday.
“When Tom was hired in 2010, he was right for our team and system at that time, and over the last five years we have had some success with Tom as our head coach,” Bulls GM Gar Forman said in the team’s statement. “But as we looked ahead and evaluated how we as a team and an organization could continue to grow and improve, we believed a change in approach was needed.”
Owner Jerry Reinsdorf also made a lengthy comment in the statement that spoke to a breakdown in cohesion among the coach and management, essentially confirming a well-documented storyline that’s persisted for more than a year. The Bulls let Thibodeau know his fate at a meeting today, but the coach knew the news was coming, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). The Bulls are still on the hook for the nearly $9MM they owe Thibodeau for the rest of his contract, which covered the next two seasons, but that would be offset if he takes a coaching job elsewhere within two years.
The Magic and the Pelicans are known to have interest in talking to Thibodeau, Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote Wednesday, but as of last week, no team had contacted the Bulls to ask permission to hire Thibs, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Thibodeau wasn’t willing to meet with teams or talk to them about their vacancies while he remained under contract with the Bulls, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders heard. The Nuggets are not an option for Thibodeau, sources told Berger. The Bulls reportedly wanted to hold off on firing Thibodeau and seek compensation in return for allowing another team to hire Thibs, but teams didn’t appear willing to give it up for a coach whom Chicago was well-known not to want back.
Multiple reports have cast Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg as Chicago’s top choice to succeed Thibodeau, but the Bulls are interested in Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry, too, Kyler reported, and one source who spoke with Howard Beck of Bleacher Report considers Gentry the favorite for the job. Bulls lead assistant coach Adrian Griffin is also in the mix as a potential Thibodeau replacement, as Stein reported. Hoiberg had open heart surgery last month to replace his aortic valve, and Kyler and Beck have heard doubts that he’ll jump to the Bulls this year. The Nuggets and Magic appeared to have interest in Gentry at various points this spring, and the Pelicans interviewed him.
Thibodeau had plenty of on-court success in his five seasons with the Bulls, who gave the longtime assistant his first NBA head coaching job. He went 255-139 in the regular season, winning the 2010 Coach of the Year award, though he was just 23-28 in the playoffs, and Stein heard that the Bulls were displeased with his team’s inability to get past a banged-up Cavs team in the second round this year.
Knicks Eye Paul Millsap, DeMarre Carroll
The two way games of soon-to-be Hawks free agents Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll have Knicks president Phil Jackson intrigued, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post. Still, the Hawks are “supremely confident” that they can retain both, according to USA Today. A source close to Carroll tells Berman he’d like to play with Knicks coach Derek Fisher, his former workout partner. Berman reported last month, when Carroll responded affirmatively to a question about whether he would have interest in playing in New York, that Fisher was similarly high on Carroll. Carroll nonetheless said in the wake of Tuesday’s season-ending loss to the Cavs that he’s prioritizing a new deal with the Hawks, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“In the end my agent is going to do all the work,” Carroll said. “He understands [the] situation for me. Right now, I’m a Hawk until the Hawks don’t want me any more — that’s the way I look at it.”
Carroll’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, is believed to be looking for an average annual value of $12MM in his client’s next deal, Berman writes. The forward who blossomed on the two-year, $5MM deal he signed with the Hawks in 2013 admits that money will play a role in determining where he goes next but said city, team and fit would also be factors, Vivlamore notes. Reporters have heard estimates from executives and other sources ranging from $8-9MM to $9-12MM to $12.5MM or more about what Carroll can expect to receive each year in his next contract. The Lakers, in particular, and the Celtics and Pistons are also interested in Carroll, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
There are whispers that Millsap, ostensibly even more valuable, might need surgery on his sprained right shoulder, as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck heard. Speculation suggests Millsap will command the max, or close to it. Still, Atlanta seems more confident in re-signing Millsap than Carroll, as USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt said recently, and the power forward’s recent comments and remarks from agent DeAngelo Simmons support the idea that the Hawks need not fret.
The Knicks are armed with plenty of cap flexibility, since they only have about $32.4MM in commitments for next season, not counting the No. 4 overall pick. The Hawks have only Early Bird rights on both Millsap and Carroll, but with just approximately $39.3MM in guaranteed salaries for 2015/16, they can also use cap room to re-sign their talented forwards.
Bulls Warming To Idea Of Outright Thibs Firing
9:36am: Thibodeau isn’t willing to meet with other teams or talk to them about their coaching vacancies while he remains under contract with the Bulls, sources tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders for his NBA AM piece.
THURSDAY, 8:37am: A resolution is expected no later than Friday, sources tell K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, and the Bulls are set to fire Thibodeau unless owner Jerry Reinsdorf intercedes. Some players, during exit meeting interviews with the team, didn’t endorse the return of Thibodeau, as Johnson also hears from sources. Thibodeau and executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson haven’t spoken since January, Johnson adds. Still, Johnson heard from three sources who refuted the report that the Bulls tried to hire Collins as an assistant to Thibodeau. Instead, Collins was the one who came up with the idea of joining the Bulls, and he approached Thibodeau about it in 2013, not 2014, according to Johnson’s sources. Bulls management didn’t find out about it until months later, Johnson hears.
4:18pm: Some Bulls players and personnel have already been informed that Thibodeau won’t be returning next season, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News relays.
WEDNESDAY, 3:30pm: The Bulls are considering firing coach Tom Thibodeau without attempting to garner compensation from another team and simply absorbing the resulting financial hit, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports. The chances that the franchise fires Thibodeau is growing increasingly likely as the days pass, Stein adds. Thibodeau’s contract with the team still has two more years and nearly $9MM left, which Chicago obviously would prefer not to fork over if Thibs was no longer calling the plays.
The relationship between the coach and the front office has grown increasingly contentious and the team was reportedly waiting for all the remaining coaching vacancies to fill up before parting ways with its coach, thus potentially freezing Thibodeau out of the NBA for the 2015/16 campaign. This is a curious tact for the team to take if it truly desires to avoid compensating Thibodeau, since the coach’s contract contains a set-off clause which could allow the Bulls to recoup as much as 100% of his salary if the franchise fires him and he ends up with another job.
According to Stein’s sources, there is more to the front office’s displeasure with Thibodeau than a difference in philosophies and opinions. Team management is reportedly frustrated with the team’s inability to defeat the injury-depleted Cavaliers in the second-round of the playoffs this season, as well as with the squad’s continued lack of flow on the offensive end of the court, the ESPN scribe adds. The team had reportedly tried to get Thibodeau to hire Doug Collins to help revamp the Bulls’ offense, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun Times notes.
The only remaining coaching vacancies are with the Magic, who are reportedly looking at Scott Skiles as the front-runner, and the Nuggets, who may simply promote interim coach Melvin Hunt to fill their vacancy. So unless another coaching position unexpectedly opens up, it is looking increasingly likely that Thibodeau will be a spectator, albeit a well-paid one, when the 2015/16 season tips off.
Pelicans Interview Jeff Van Gundy
THURSDAY, 9:34am: League sources tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that they expect Van Gundy would require an arrangement similar to the one that brother Stan Van Gundy has with the Pistons in which he coaches and runs the front office, as Kyler writes in his NBA AM piece. That’d be a tough sell in New Orleans, where GM Dell Demps and executive VP of basketball operations Mickey Loomis both have degrees of front office power.
WEDNESDAY, 6:40pm: The Pelicans interviewed Jeff Van Gundy on Tuesday regarding the team’s vacant head coaching position, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. The two sides had previously spoken over the phone, but this was their first face-to-face meeting, Wojnarowski’s sources relayed. For now, New Orleans’ officials and Van Gundy are just beginning the process of getting to know each other, the Yahoo! scribe notes.
New Orleans GM Dell Demps had previously met with another candidate, Warriors assistant coach Alvin Gentry, in the Bay Area prior to the start of the Western Conference finals, Wojnarowski writes. It remains possible that Demps will schedule another meeting with Gentry in the near future, Wojnarowski adds. The Warriors will only grant permission for Gentry to interview between playoff series.
The former head coach and current broadcaster admitted that he was intrigued by the idea of coaching young superstar Anthony Davis, John Reid of the Times Picayune writes. ”There is no one who ever coached that wouldn’t want to coach a great player with great character,” Van Gundy said during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show. “And so I’ve been able to do that in my life. I’ve already coached a player with a great character and you know how important that is if you want to win big in a situation. I had Patrick Ewing, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady in Houston, Charles Oakley and all these guys. Anybody who that says, nah … I wouldn’t want to coach [Davis] who is a top-five player and a great person, I wouldn’t believe that if someone said that.”
Van Gundy reached the playoffs nine times as coach in New York and Houston, including a trip to the NBA Finals, the Eastern Conference finals, and he made three trips to the conference semifinals. He won 50-plus games twice in four seasons with the Rockets. His career coaching record is 430-318.
Magic Interview Mike Woodson
Magic GM Rob Hennigan met with Clippers assistant Mike Woodson this past weekend in Southern California, but the team is focused instead on Scott Skiles, whose status as the front-runner for the Orlando job has only strengthened, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Pelicans have also interviewed Skiles, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported late Wednesday, so ostensibly Woodson remains in the hunt for the Magic job as a fallback option.
Woodson spent the past season as an assistant to Doc Rivers after the Knicks fired him last year. He’d meet the Magic’s desire for candidates with NBA head coaching experience, as he’s spent parts of nine seasons as the bench boss for the Knicks and the Hawks, going a combined 315-365 in the regular season and 18-28 in the playoffs. Rivers earlier reportedly called the Magic to endorse the hiring of Tom Thibodeau, a former assistant of Rivers.
Resolution to the drama between Thibodeau and the Bulls is expected no later than Friday, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reported, with a firing seemingly the likely outcome. So, Thibs could become available to the Magic and other teams without the requirement that Orlando send compensation to the Bulls. Several reports have indicated that the Magic have had interest in Thibodeau, but many have overstated the level of that interest, Johnson wrote last week.
Pelicans Interview Scott Skiles
The Pelicans’ search for their next head coach continues, and the latest person to interview with the team is Scott Skiles, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports. It comes as a bit of a surprise that Skiles sat down with New Orleans, since it had been previously reported that he was the front-runner to replace interim coach James Borrego in Orlando. Pelicans GM Dell Demps, who played for Skiles when he coached in Greece, is an admirer of his, Stein notes.
The 51-year-old Skiles is reportedly the preferred choice of the Magic’s ownership, which has been enamored with him since his stint as a player for the franchise back in the 1990s, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The former point guard also fits the criteria that Magic GM Rob Hennigan has set for the team’s next head coach, which includes having a successful résumé as a coach, and having a strong background on emphasizing defense and accountability. Skiles owns a career regular season coaching record of 443-433, and has a career playoff record of 18-24. He has been a head coach for the Suns, Bulls, and most recently, the Bucks.
New Orleans has also reportedly interviewed Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry, as well as former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy, in its search to replace former head coach Monty Williams. The meeting with Van Gundy had been described as very preliminary, with both sides just beginning to get a feel for the other. The Pelicans are reportedly intending to schedule a second meeting with Gentry once the Warriors’ playoff series against the Rockets has been completed. Current Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has also been mentioned as a possibility for the vacancy, though the Pelicans are reportedly reluctant to give up draft pick compensation in return for Thibs, and the Bulls have been rumored to be waiting for all the available coaching positions to be filled before parting ways with him.
Draft Notes: Spurs, Grizzlies, Payne
Hoops Rumors has a full log of 2015 draft news that you can see anytime at the link here. You can also set that page up as an RSS feed to receive constant updates. All you’d need to do would be to add /feed to the url, like so: hoopsrumors.com/2015-nba-draft/feed. Other draft-related resources include our latest Mock Draft, the full list of early entrants, as well as our ongoing Prospect Profile series. Here’s more news regarding the 2015 NBA Draft:
- League sources have suggested to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) that Murray State guard Cameron Payne has a draft promise from a team, and that there is a very good chance he is going to be a lottery pick. If Payne has indeed been targeted by a lottery team, his most likely destination is the Thunder, whom I predicted would be selecting the guard in my latest mock draft, though this is merely my speculation of course.
- The Spurs brought in Syracuse forward Chris McCullough for an interview today, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops tweets.
- Scheduled for workouts this Friday with the Grizzlies are Josh Richardson, Ky Madden, Aaron Thomas, Pat Connaughton, Chris Walker, and Brandon Ashley, Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal (subscription required) relays.
- Arkansas forward Bobby Portis has workouts scheduled with the Thunder, Heat, Pistons, Raptors, Pacers, Hornets, Bucks, Suns, and Jazz, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe tweets.
- Former Colorado guard Askia Booker worked out for the Suns on Tuesday, and has upcoming workouts scheduled with the Lakers and the Jazz, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post relays (Twitter link).
- Booker said that he was asked about his refusal to play in this year’s College Basketball Invitational tournament by the Sixers, and also expects the subject to come up in other interviews, Dempsey relays in a series of tweets. “It’s something I’m willing to address no doubt. I have no issue addressing that. When the question comes I’ll be able to answer it,” Booker said. “It was a mutual decision. We came to an agreement, and the decision was made.” Booker reportedly passed on playing in the tourney to prepare for the upcoming draft instead.