Eric Gordon Opts In With Pelicans
THURSDAY, 4:48pm: The Pelicans have officially announced that Gordon has opted in for next season.
WEDNESDAY, 7:50pm: Eric Gordon has decided to exercise his player option for the 2015/16 season and return to the Pelicans, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The move was widely anticipated, as Gordon would likely have had a difficult time topping the $15,514,031 he is scheduled to make next season on any new deal. This sets up Gordon to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and a strong 2015/16 campaign could serve to inflate his value just in time for the salary cap to increase courtesy of the league’s new television deal kicking in. John Reid of The Times Picayune had previously reported that Gordon was likely to opt in.
Besides the obvious payday associated with opting in, Gordon will also have the opportunity to play for Alvin Gentry, who was coach of the Suns when Gordon signed Phoenix’s offer sheet back in 2012, which New Orleans matched, and Gordon is still fond of Gentry, according to Reid. Gentry is known for his offensive expertise, and Gordon could become revitalized in an up-tempo attack. The negative regarding Gordon opting in, is that it defeats any chance that New Orleans had to open max-level cap room for next season without making significant salary clearing trades. New Orleans now has more than $56MM in guaranteed salary committed against a projected $67.1MM cap for next season, which includes Gordon’s option amount.
Gordon appeared in 61 contests for the Pelicans last season, averaging 13.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in 33.1 minutes per game. His career numbers are 16.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per night. His career slash line is .437/.383/.809.
Tom Benson Wins Trial, Will Stay Pelicans Owner
A judge has ruled Pelicans owner Tom Benson mentally competent, stymieing an effort from one side of his divided family to strip him of control of the team and the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, reports Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune (Twitter link). Daughter Renee Benson and grandchildren Rita and Ryan LeBlanc had asked a civil court to declare Tom Benson mentally unfit to run his sports holdings, as Katherine Sayre and Andy Grimm detail in a full story for The Times-Picayune. The maneuver was similar to the one that allowed Shelley Sterling to seize control of the Clippers from husband Donald Sterling and sell the team to Steve Ballmer, though in this case, the effort was unsuccessful. It’s not immediately clear whether an appeal is forthcoming, Sayre and Grimm write.
Duncan reported in January that the family members had filed suit against the owner, shortly after Benson restructured his succession plan for the teams so that wife Gayle Benson would take control upon his death. Rita Benson LeBlanc had previously been in line to inherit control.
The Pelicans have moved forward despite the controversy, hiring coach Alvin Gentry after making the playoffs under former bench boss Monty Williams. The ruling will ostensibly remove some of the question marks hanging around the franchise, and the timing is fortuitous for the Pelicans, as Anthony Davis becomes eligible for a rookie scale extension on July 1st.
For more on how the judge’s decision affects the Saints, see this story at Pro Football Rumors, our sister site.
Jeff Green Opts In With Grizzlies
3:03pm: Green has indeed opted in, the team announced via press release.
12:01pm: Jeff Green is picking up his player option worth $9.2MM to stay with the Grizzlies for next season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The move is a key decision for Memphis, as it would lift the team to about $47MM in guaranteed salary commitments for next season, likely closing off any possibility for the team to open cap space if it re-signs Marc Gasol.
The working assumption in Memphis had been that Green would opt in, though the presence of skilled agent David Falk made that less than a foregone conclusion, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote a month ago. Green came to the Grizzlies from Boston in a mid-January trade, though he didn’t have a game-changing impact and at one point during the regular season brought up the idea of moving to the Memphis bench. He nonetheless appeared as a starter for all but eight of his 45 regular season games in a Grizzlies uniform, but coach Dave Joerger used him chiefly off the bench in the playoffs.
The Celtics apparently traded Green in part because they were worried that he would opt out. It’s unclear whether he would have been more likely to opt out if he had stayed with the Celtics, though staying in Memphis does give him a better shot at winning than staying in Boston likely would have. In any case, Green will have another decision to make next summer when his contract expires.
Assuming Green officially opts in, the Grizzlies will likely have only the $5.434MM mid-level exception to use to sign free agents for more than the minimum salary if Gasol returns, since they used their biannual exception on Beno Udrih last year. I looked at that and other issues when I examined the offseason ahead for Memphis.
Northwest Notes: Malone, Russell, Bjelica
Michael Malone sought Wednesday to dismiss the idea that he and Pete D’Alessandro had a poor relationship during their time as coach and GM, respectively, of the Kings, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes from Malone’s introductory press conference as coach of the Nuggets. D’Alessandro, whom the Nuggets hired to a front office position shortly before they hired the coach, and Malone reportedly weren’t on speaking terms before Malone’s firing in Sacramento, but Malone insists they’ve maintained a consistent dialogue, as Dempsey relays.
“Pete and I have always respected each other, have always gotten along,” Malone said. “It was just that sometimes, the environment that we were working in was not conducive to a healthy relationship.”
That apparent jab at the Kings aside, there’s more on the Nuggets amid the latest from around the Northwest Division:
- Ohio State playmaker D’Angelo Russell is working out for the Timberwolves today, a visit that the team pushed for as its maintained that he’s a consideration for them with the No. 1 overall pick, reports Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
- Wolves draft-and-stash prospect Nemanja Bjelica has told the manager of his Turkish team that he wants to head to the NBA, and the Fenerbahce Ulker team official assumes that Bjelica, the Euroleague MVP, won’t be back with the club (video link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
- Joel Freeland doesn’t expect the Blazers to tender him the nearly $3.767MM qualifying offer it would take for the club to make him a restricted free agent this summer, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group hears (Twitter link). If that’s the case, he’d become an unrestricted free agent, but while the native of England is reportedly drawing interest from overseas, he’s said he’d prefer to stay in the NBA.
- Nuggets team president Josh Kroenke, with duties that entail the work of ownership as well as those usually assigned to a GM, is clearly the man who calls the shots in Denver, as Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post observes.
Pistons Notes: Ilyasova, Free Agency, Draft
Stan Van Gundy was looking for shooting, defense, toughness, defense and high energy as he sought a stretch power forward for the Pistons, and the Pistons coach/executive believes that he has all of that in Ersan Ilyasova, Van Gundy said Tuesday, as Terry Foster of The Detroit News relays.
“That was our plan for the entire summer, not really thinking we would get all of those things in one guy,” Van Gundy said. “That is why this deal was really exciting for us. We didn’t just get a stretch four. We got someone who can add a lot more for us.”
Part of what Ilyasova brings is the ability to complement Andre Drummond the way Van Gundy had his Orlando teams play around Dwight Howard, as Foster examines in his piece. Drummond, whom owner Tom Gores has called a “max player,” is eligible for a rookie scale extension starting July 1st. Here’s more from Detroit:
- Van Gundy had been inquiring about Ilyasova ever since he took over the Pistons last month, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press writes.
- The Pistons executive hinted that small forward will be a priority for the team in free agency even if the team uses the No. 8 pick on a player at that position, as MLive’s David Mayo relays within a piece looking at Detroit’s roster holes. Finding a backup big man will be Detroit’s second priority after the three spot, Mayo writes. “We’ve got to go get a small forward we can count on to play,” Van Gundy said. “We’ve got to get backup big guys that we can count on to play. The draft picks — not even talking about 38 [the Pistons second-round pick], even at eight — the draft pick’s a guy that we hope can play, but hopefully can come along slowly a little bit, not be forced to have a lot of pressure on him.”
- Shooting guards Devin Booker of Kentucky, Tyler Kalinoski of Davidson, Royce O’Neale of Baylor and Aaron Thomas of Florida State are in a predraft workout for the Pistons today, the team announced (Twitter link).
Southeast Notes: Pierce, Hornets, Grant
Kemba Walker and Gerald Henderson benefit from Monday’s trade because Lance Stephenson isn’t there any more to take away touches and minutes and challenge the team’s chemistry, opines Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Henderson decided Wednesday to pick up his $6MM player option, though whether Stephenson’s departure played into that decision remains unclear. There’s more on the Hornets amid the latest from the Southeast Division:
- Wizards owner Ted Leonsis affirmed the notion that the Wizards want to retain Paul Pierce, who faces a decision on a $5.544MM player option for next season as rumors connect him to the Clippers, as Leonsis said on the team website (video link; transcription via Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post). The owner said that the organization “loves” the 37-year-old who’d be “welcomed with open arms” if he decides to stay in Washington.
- Hornets GM Rich Cho said he’d “love” to trade up in the draft, though whether that happens will depend on how much Charlotte would have to relinquish to do so, Cho added, as Bonnell relays (Twitter links). “We’ve been talking to a lot of teams about moving up, moving backward, moving the pick all-together,” Cho said.
- Notre Dame point guard Jerian Grant will work out for the Hawks, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Grant spoke recently with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors, and our Chris Crouse looked at what makes him an intriguing prospect.
Western Notes: Lakers, Duncan, Ginobili, Wolves
Mitch Kupchak admits that finding someone who can make an immediate impact as Kobe Bryant nears retirement factors into his approach to the offseason, as the Lakers GM tells Chris Mannix of SI.com. Climbing merely to mediocrity would be a dangerous proposition, Kupchak cautions.
“To some degree,” Kupchak said. “We feel we want to make significant progress from this year to next year. And if we can do that and not mortgage the future — in other words, with a player who is in free agency that’s a veteran — then yeah. It’s a factor because we do want and we need in this city to show progress. And we’ve not made the playoffs for two years running, I suppose you can do it a third year, but our fans are impatient, and they’re used to a good product, and that’s not what we want to do. And we know Kobe is not as happy when the town around him is not enough to win. But, we’ve got to be careful that we don’t do something that puts us in the middle of the pack for the next six or seven years. Because all that does is get you the eighth seed in the playoffs and a draft pick that’s not very good.”
There’s more on the Lakers amid the latest from the Western Conference:
- Tony Parker is optimistic that both Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili will return to the Spurs for next season, though he admits that his hope that they indeed come back may cloud his ability to accurately predict what they’ll do, as Parker tells Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Regardless, Duncan said to Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com that the loss of more than $20MM that he alleges that a former financial adviser swindled him out of won’t play a role in his decision whether to return.
- Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor dismissed any lingering doubt Wednesday, declaring that president of basketball operations Flip Saunders will continue as coach of the team for next season, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities relays (on Twitter).
- The Pelicans would like to add former Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt as an assistant coach, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
- The Lakers have interest in trading the No. 27 pick to clear the salary that goes with it, and talk has also centered on the team packaging the pick with other assets in an offer for another pick higher in the order, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes within his mock draft.
- Notre Dame swingman Pat Connaughton, N.C. State shooting guard Trevor Lacey, Iowa State shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones, Tennessee Tech center Charles Jackson and UC Santa Barbara center Alan Williams were among those who worked out for the Wolves this week, Wolfson reports (Twitter link).
Q&A With NBA Draft Prospect Ryan Boatright
Leading up to the draft, Hoops Rumors will be talking with some of the most intriguing prospects in this year’s class. Today, the Hoops Rumors Draft Prospect Q&A series continues with UConn guard Ryan Boatright, who is ranked No. 84 in this year’s class by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and No. 96 by Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
At 5’11” and 170 pounds, UConn’s Ryan Boatright packs a lot of punch for his small size. Over the course of his four years in college, Boatright made a name for himself as a tenacious pick-and-roll point guard on offense and a pesky perimeter defender on the other side of the floor. In 2014, Boatright and backcourt mate Shabazz Napier helped lead UConn to a national championship. While there was some talk of Boatright going pro early, he opted to stay in school for his senior season to show that he can lead a team all by himself. Boatright, a client of Aaron Goodwin, spoke with Hoops Rumors last week about the workout trail, his draft stock, and much more.
Ryan Boatright: I spoke with my agent and he told me a lot of people were impressed. The funny thing is though, I normally do a 44-inch vertical. So, that 41-inch jump was good, but it wasn’t my best.
ZL: What would you say to critics who fear that you’re too small for the NBA?
RB: Everyone is going to have their opinion. I’ve been doubted my whole life. No one thought I’d go to UConn, let alone start and win a national championship. The same people I’m playing in college, those are the same people I’m going to be playing in the NBA. Even if they’re bigger and stronger, I’m going to get bigger and stronger. I’ve held my own my whole life. I came up in Chicago playing against pros. If a team takes a chance on me, I’m going to hold it down for the guys that are 6’0″ and under.
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 6/17/15
Some of the greatest joys of being a sports fan, besides your favorite team winning the championship, are the debates that arise between fellow sports nuts along the way. It’s with this in mind that we have begun providing a forum for basketball fanatics to voice their opinions, debate trending topics, and simply hang out with like-minded hoops aficionados. We’ve begun been posting a new topic for readers to discuss each weeknight, which we hope that this will become a regular part of your sports day. If you missed our previous discussions you can view them here, or simply head over to the sidebar and select “Hoops Rumors Community Shootarounds.”
Of course, there will be differing opinions from time to time. While we absolutely encourage lively discussion and debate, we do expect everyone to treat each other with respect. So, please refrain from inappropriate language, personal insults or attacks, as well as the other taboo types of discourse laid out in our site’s commenting policy. Speaking of commenting: we’ve made it much easier to leave a comment here at Hoops Rumors. Just put in your name, email address, and comment and submit it; there is no need to become a registered user.
Now that the fine print is out of the way, let’s get to the topic of the day: What moves do the Cavaliers need to make this offseason in order to return to, and win, the NBA Finals? We’ll never know what the outcome would have been had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love been able to play versus the Warriors. If Cleveland had been at full strength, would LeBron James and company be raising a banner to the rafters of Quicken Loans Arena, or was the roster flawed enough that Golden State would have still triumphed? Do the Cavs need Love to return next season to contend, or would Tristan Thompson be a more effective starter at the four spot for the long-term? Would Andrew Wiggins have been a better fit, especially against the Warriors’ small lineups? All these topics and more are open for discussion. Head to the comments section below and share your thoughts and opinions with the world. We look forward to what you have to say.
And-Ones: Stephenson, Oubre, Asik
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers didn’t acquire Lance Stephenson from the Hornets for the swingman to step into a starting role, Arash Markazi of ESPN.com writes. Instead, Rivers envisions Stephenson as a role-player who can be utilized off the bench, and the team will look elsewhere to add a starting small forward this offseason, Markazi adds. “I like that [Stephenson] can play multiple positions — really 2, 3 and 1 — because he’s a terrific passer,” Rivers told The Beast 980. “I don’t know if I made the trade for him to be a starter, per se; I look at him really more to be a utility player that can come in and play literally three different positions for us. When you look at us, we needed toughness and more athleticism and we get that.”
Rivers believes that Stephenson’s defense will be a valuable asset to the team, Markazi adds. “I like what he can bring for us on the defensive end first,” Rivers said. “I like his body type. I think he’s a tough kid and a very competitive kid. And that has gotten him in trouble at times, but the one thing he has shown in major playoff games is that he can be a top-tier defender, so that’s where we start with him is on the defensive end.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- Kansas swingman Kelly Oubre has turned down an invitation from the Bucks to work out for the team, Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times relays. Oubre is convinced that he’ll be off the board by the time the Bucks pick at No. 17, Woelfel notes.
- The Lakers are expected to bring back Nebraska guard Terran Petteway for a second workout, Woelfel adds. Petteway could be in play for Los Angeles with the No. 27 overall selection.
- Unless he is willing to accept a significant pay cut, the Pelicans would be best served to let center Omer Asik leave as a free agent this summer, Jimmy Smith of The Times Picayune opines. Smith cites Asik’s offensive limitations, spotty defense, and occasional lack of hustle on the break as reasons why New Orleans shouldn’t consider paying the big man a salary north of $10MM, which Asik will likely be seeking as an unrestricted free agent.