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Month: July 2015

Wolves Notes: LaVine, Miller, Garnett

By | at July 29, 2015 8:35 pm

The staff at ESPN.com ran down a number of topics for the upcoming NBA season, including a debate on who the top breakthrough player will be, and J.A. Adande chose Wolves youngster Zach LaVine.  LaVine, he feels, will go from a guy known just for his dunks into someone who will be recognized as a legitimate player.  The Wolves made LaVine a full-time starter for the final stretch of is rookie year and he averaged roughly 20 points, 6 assists, and 5 boards in that time.  Here’s more on the Wolves..

  • Former Nets exec Bobby Marks (on Twitter) opined that if he were a young player, he would want to join up with the Wolves to play with Kevin Garnett and Andre Miller.  The Wolves signed Miller on Wednesday, presumably in large part because of his basketball IQ and the wisdom he can impart on the team’s younger players.  Before signing Miller, Marks notes (on Twitter) that the Wolves had the eighth-youngest team in the NBA at an average of about 25 years old.  Nine of those Wolves players are under the age of 25.
  • Wolves coach/exec Flip Saunders may still add another veteran between now and the start of the season, Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press tweets.
  • Jerry Zgoda of the Star-Tribune (on Twitter) also believes that the Wolves could add another vet to their young roster.  Another roster move involving Damjan Rudez or Anthony Bennett could make room for a free agent signing, Zgoda says.
  • Miller “was sold on the direction of the [Wolves] and the veteran leadership he could provide,” agent Andy Miller told Krawczynski (on Twitter).
0 comments Minnesota Timberwolves

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, 76ers, Raptors

By | at July 29, 2015 7:00 pm

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has put together an interesting roster and it’s now up to head coach Brad Stevens to figure out who fits where, Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe writes.  At this point, Washburn writes that a starting five could be comprised of Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Amir Johnson, and David Lee, though that leaves Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, and Isaiah Thomas on the outside, not to mention the likes of Evan Turner, Jonas Jerebko, and Tyler Zeller.  While Stevens attempts to figure out that puzzle, here’s a look at more items out of the Atlantic Division..

  • All signs continue to point to No. 58 overall pick J.P. Tokoto remaining unsigned this season, according to Jake Fischer of SI Now (Twitter link). Tokoto let the Sixers know he was open to playing in the D-League or overseas before Philadelphia drafted him, as Fischer previously reported. Fischer added at that point that Tokoto would have a chance to impress the team during summer league and claim a roster spot anyway, but with summer league in the books, the chances of that happening are apparently slim.
  • Former Nets exec Bobby Marks (Twitter links) wouldn’t be surprised if Richaun Holmes‘ contract with the Sixers is similar to what Jerami Grant received last year.  Grant inked a four-year deal with Philly in which the first two years were guaranteed and the last two were non-guaranteed.  Marks gives the Sixers credit for controlling the process for second-round picks and he says that the player is somewhat at the mercy of the team in these situations.
  • The Raptors announced that they have hired Jerry Stackhouse, Rex Kalamian, and Andy Greer as assistant coaches.  The hiring of the trio completes head coach Dwane Casey‘s staff.  Stackhouse, who played 18 years in the league, is coaching for the first time in the NBA.
  • Earlier today we rounded up more news out of the Atlantic.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

4 comments Boston Celtics Philadelphia 76ers Toronto Raptors

Northwest Notes: Durant, Thunder, Blazers

By | at July 29, 2015 3:59 pm

The Blazers acquired Mike Miller from the Cavs earlier this week but he’s probably not sticking around for long.  The veteran is a “strong candidate” to negotiate a buyout with Portland, Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears, and the Grizzlies, Thunder, and Mavs already appear to be interested.  While we wait for more on that, here’s more from the Northwest Division..

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

1 comment Boston Celtics Dallas Mavericks Golden State Warriors Houston Rockets Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Lakers Miami Heat New York Knicks Oklahoma City Thunder Portland Trail Blazers Washington Wizards

Mavs, Spurs Lead In Volume Of Free Agent Deals

By | at July 29, 2015 1:20 pm

Texas is known for going big, and this year, NBA free agency is no exception. The state boasts not only the most celebrated free agent to change teams in LaMarcus Aldridge, but also the two teams that corralled more free agents than any other in the league. The Spurs and Mavericks have reached deals with 11 free agents each over the past month.

Aldridge is one of them, of course, as the suburban Dallas native eschewed the Mavs to instead sign with the Spurs. Dallas almost convinced the free agent who might have been the next most sought-after to change teams, but DeAndre Jordan skipped out on his deal with the Mavs to return to the Clippers, who’ve had a fairly sizable haul of their own, with eight free agent agreements so far.

Part of the reason for the heavy volume of deals in San Antonio and Dallas has to do with both teams getting an early start on building their training camp rosters, and the number of expiring contracts that they were carrying at the end of last season obviously plays a role, too. Still, to put the scope of their free agent activity in perspective, the entire Northwest Division has only reached agreement with 13 free agents so far. That includes the Jazz and Timberwolves, who’ve struck deals with just one free agent apiece.

Both Utah and Minnesota have signed draft-and-stash prospects and players taken in this year’s draft, so it’s not as if they’ve been dormant this month. Indeed, teams across the league have engaged in trades, extensions and even rare renegotiations, as the free agent market represents only a portion of the player movement around the league.

Still, it’s worth wondering whether factors like the lack of a state income tax, relatively mild weather, and track records of success have helped the Spurs and Mavs to the top of the list below, even if the Rockets lag behind in this category. Note that the numbers here, drawn from our Free Agent Tracker, include agreements to sign that haven’t become formal signings yet.

Number of free agent deals by team:

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Kings Waive Eric Moreland

By | at July 29, 2015 1:15 pm

1:15pm: The move is official, the team announced.

12:08pm: The Kings are placing Eric Moreland on waivers rather than guarantee his salary, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). His minimum salary would become fully guaranteed if the Kings don’t release him by the end of Saturday, as the schedule of guarantee dates shows.

The big man who went undrafted out of Oregon State in 2014 saw only two minutes of NBA regular season action before a labral tear in his left shoulder knocked him out for the rest of the season around New Year’s Day. Sacramento had signed him to a three-year partially guaranteed deal for the minimum salary before the season, but no guaranteed money remains on the pact. The 6’11” 23-year-old put up fairly impressive rebounding numbers in seven games while on D-League assignment, averaging 12.7 boards in 28.7 minutes per contest.

The news of Moreland’s impending release is probably an auspicious sign for Kings point guard David Stockton, even though he plays a different position. Sacramento is carrying 14 fully guaranteed contracts, and Moreland would have become the 15th if the Kings had kept him this weekend. That means Stockton, whose salary wouldn’t become guaranteed until January, has an opening on the regular season roster to fight for.

Who do you think has a better shot to stick in the NBA, Eric Moreland or David Stockton? Leave a comment to let us know.

1 comment Sacramento Kings Transactions

Florida Notes: Napier, Johnson, Richardson

By | at July 29, 2015 11:29 am

This past spring was the first without either the Heat or the Magic in the playoffs since 1993. Florida figures to have at least one postseason representative this coming season, with Chris Bosh set to return from the blood clot ailment that prematurely ended last season, and Goran Dragic and Dwyane Wade, each of whom signed new deals, will be back, too. The outlook is murkier for the Magic, but they added No. 5 overall pick Mario Hezonja and re-signed Tobias Harris. Here’s the latest from the Sunshine State, where both teams hooked up on a trade earlier this week:

2 comments Miami Heat Orlando Magic

Bucks Sign Chris Copeland

By | at July 29, 2015 11:23 am

JULY 29TH, 11:23am: Copeland has officially signed with the Bucks, the team announced.

JULY 23RD, 2:24pm: The Bucks and Chris Copeland have a verbal agreement on a one-year deal, reports Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Tuesday that the sides were finalizing a deal, but the Spurs and Thunder remained in the mix, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports revealed shortly afterward. The John Spencer client will see in excess of $1.1MM on his contract, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). That indicates that he’s receiving a slice of Milwaukee’s $2.814MM room exception, since the minimum salary for the three-year veteran is $981,348.

Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times first identified the Bucks as an interested party nearly two weeks ago, and he heard last week from some higher-ups around the league that Milwaukee had become the front-runner for him. The sides met on Tuesday, Woelfel later reported, and he worked out for the team that day as well, according to Spears.

Copeland just finished a two-year deal with the Pacers that he signed after a surprising season as a rookie for the Knicks in 2012/13. He and Bucks coach Jason Kidd were teammates in New York. The Pacers elected not to make a qualifying offer of more than $3.9MM, so Copeland has been an unrestricted free agent this month.

The 31-year-old was the victim of a stabbing outside a New York nightclub in April that left him with injuries that curtailed his season, one in which he’d fallen out of the Pacers rotation after injuries to others thrust him into use. Normally a strong outside shooter, he made just 31.1% of his three-pointers in 2014/15, and he never made the sort of impact in Indiana that he did with the Knicks.

Do you think Copeland will be a part of the rotation for the Bucks this year? Leave a comment to let us know.

4 comments Milwaukee Bucks Oklahoma City Thunder San Antonio Spurs Transactions

Underclassmen In The 2015 Draft: How They Fared

By | at July 29, 2015 10:24 am

Every year, it seems like more college underclassmen declare for the NBA draft than there are jobs available for them. A total of 45 players who left U.S. colleges with NCAA eligibility remaining were available for selection last month, representing three-fourths of the 60 draft slots. On the whole, they made the most of their opportunities.

The majority of them heard their name called on draft night, and they represented nearly half the draft field, comprising 29 of this year’s 60 draftees. Seven of the 16 who went undrafted have since secured deals with NBA teams, and two months still remain for others to join them before the start of training camp. Not all of the players drafted beyond the first round have guaranteed salaries, but the vast majority of the underclassmen who made themselves eligible for this year’s draft have at least found opportunities to prove they can play in the NBA.

These were the drafted underclassmen, listed in order of selection:

The rest of the underclassmen are listed alphabetically below, with information on those who’ve found pro deals:

0 comments 2015 NBA Draft Hoops Rumors Originals

Atlantic Notes: Ndour, Boozer, Celtics, Prokhorov

By | at July 29, 2015 8:58 am

The Knicks tried to make Maurice Ndour the latest to back out of a deal with the Mavericks this summer, but Ndour wouldn’t break his commitment to Dallas, a source told Marc Berman of the New York Post. The undrafted power forward stuck to a three-year pact that will give him a fully guaranteed salary worth more than the rookie minimum, according to Berman. The Knicks had only been offering a $200K partial guarantee until the Mavs swooped in, and New York’s attempt to win over Ndour after he gave his word to Dallas came up short, Berman writes. Still, if Ndour becomes a free agent again soon, he’d love to return to the Knicks, for whom he played in summer league, the Post scribe says. Already, DeAndre Jordan and Richard Jefferson have turned their backs on the Mavs, but Jefferson did so with owner Mark Cuban’s blessing. In any case, there’s more out of New York amid the last from the Atlantic Division:

  • New York’s interest in Carlos Boozer is “tepid,” Berman writes in the same piece, and that jibes with his report from two weeks ago that the team held internal conversations about the free agent power forward but hadn’t made a move on him. In any case, Knicks team president Phil Jackson would still like to sign a big man, Berman adds.
  • The offseason has been a success for the Celtics because they acquired depth that vastly improved the team while still maintaining the copious draft assets that they can use in future trades, opines Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. That’s doubly so because the C’s acquired players with motivation to play to their fullest, Washburn adds. We asked you to weigh in Boston’s offseason so far right here.
  • Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov struck an upbeat tone in brief comments Tuesday, but conspicuous by his absence from Prokhorov’s remarks was Deron Williams, the marquee free agent signing of the Prokhorov era whom the Nets let go in a buyout deal this month, notes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. “First of all, we had a really good offseason – better than a lot of people expected,” Prokhorov said. “Without a lot of noise, we got a lot done. Brook [Lopez] and Thaddeus [Young] are staying with us, which gives us continuity in our frontcourt. Joe Johnson stays as a core player. We also have high expectations for Bojan Bogdanovic, who showed us real flashes of brilliance in his first year on the Nets.”
2 comments Boston Celtics Brooklyn Nets Dallas Mavericks New York Knicks

Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 7/28/15

By | at July 28, 2015 11:00 pm

The Hornets could have had four first-round picks if they’d just been willing to give up the ninth selection to the Celtics, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe detailed earlier today. Boston also offered four first-rounders to the Heat for pick No. 10, as Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald and ESPN reported last month. Both Charlotte and Miami said no and kept their top 10 picks.

The Heat and the Hornets had no guarantee from the Celtics that any of the four picks would be as high in the order as the ones they already held. Still, the ninth and 10th selections aren’t generally places where superstars come from. Justise Winslow looks like a steal at No. 10 for Miami, but Frank Kaminsky, whom Charlotte took at No. 9, has a limited ceiling. Neither is certain to pan out.

Thus, the question for today: Would you rather your team have one pick in the back half of the lottery, or four picks later in the first-round? Kawhi Leonard, a former No. 15 pick, and Jimmy Butler, once the last pick of the first round, signed deals this month that will give them maximum salaries this coming season, proving that top-flight talent can come from any point in the round. Still, the outlook for lottery picks is generally better than it is for anyone else, and teams picking higher in the order have the power of choice. But sometimes, the best choice involves a trade.

Tell us what you would do if you had a late lottery pick and received an offer for four first-rounders. To comment, simply enter your name and email address, write what you want to say, and submit it; there’s no need to become a registered user. Just make sure you comply with our commenting policy.

18 comments Boston Celtics Charlotte Hornets Community Shootaround Hoops Rumors Originals Miami Heat
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