Heat Notes: Bosh, Wade, Team Needs
The Heat have been painfully inconsistent thus far this season, and the team has yet to establish a solid identity that it can count on night in and night out, writes Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. “It depends on what day we’re talking,” Miami shooting guard Dwyane Wade said. “We have certain days where you see that we’re one of the best defensive teams in the league, and you see days where the ball is really moving and everyone’s into it and we’re very unselfish. Then you have other days where both of them go the opposite way. We know where we need to get to. We’ve just gotta figure out a way to get there.”
The team is looking ahead to its six-game West Coast swing next month, and the Heat believe that stretch will be critical in their quest for the playoffs, Lieser adds. “We don’t want to wait until that point, but all is not lost if we’re not consistent by that time,” Bosh said. “After the smoke clears, it’ll be All-Star break and you know when you get there, there’s only so much higher you can go. It’s going to be very important between now and the road trip to get some continuity and comfort in our identity.”
Here’s more from Miami:
- As the February trade deadline looms ever closer, the Heat’s biggest roster need is to land a wing who can handle the ball and create his own shot, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel opines. Acquiring depth at the wing is vital given the shaky health of Goran Dragic and the reckless abandon that Tyler Johnson exhibits on a nightly basis, Winderman adds.
- It has been a bounceback season for Chris Bosh after appearing in only 44 games during the 2014/15 campaign because of blood clots in his lung, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. But despite his efforts, Bosh still remains underappreciated around the league according to his teammates, Dempsey notes. “He’s one of the best basketball players in the world. He may not sell a lot of jerseys, like some guys, but it doesn’t matter to him,” Wade said of Bosh. “He enjoys being great at the game, and we enjoy him being great.”
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround: 12/27/15
The positive momentum the Suns gathered from nearly landing LaMarcus Aldridge this past summer was short-lived. Markieff Morris demanded a trade later in the offseason, and though he seemingly recanted that at the start of training camp, Phoenix has apparently engaged in serious talks about dealing him away, and coach Jeff Hornacek is reportedly in danger of following him out the door. Eric Bledsoe isn’t going anywhere, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be on the court anytime soon, as the initial belief is reportedly that he’ll be out until the All-Star break is through with an injured left knee.
Suns ownership and management has been reluctant to fire Hornacek, but owner Robert Sarver and GM Ryan McDonough had one-on-one meetings with Suns players today to try to understand why the team has fallen to 12-20, a record that includes an ugly home loss to the Sixers on Saturday, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Assistants Mike Longabardi and Earl Watson are possible replacements if the Suns oust Hornacek, Wojnarowski writes. A source with ties to the Suns who spoke with Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck a few weeks ago speculatively predicted that the Suns would get rid of Hornacek and go after Warriors interim coach Luke Walton in the offseason (Twitter link). Morris is in the middle of a two-game suspension the team handed down after he threw a towel that connected with Hornacek during Wednesday’s game, though Morris says he didn’t mean to hit the coach.
It all leads to our question for the day: What do the Suns need to do to fix their issues? Should they fire Hornacek? If so, with whom should they replace him for the short term and long term? Should they trade Morris? If so, who or what should they realistically try to obtain in return? If they keep Hornacek and Morris, what’s the solution to their problems?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.
Hoops Links: Raptors, 76ers, Carmelo
Every Sunday, we link to some of the very best work from around the basketball blogosphere. Do you have a link to a great basketball blog post – either your own or someone else’s – that you want to see featured on Hoops Rumors? Then you should send it to us at HoopsLinks@gmail.com. Here’s this week’s rundown…
- Raptors Rapture looked into Toronto’s cap situation.
- Total Sports Live feels bad for the 76ers.
- The Sports Quotient wonders if Carmelo Anthony is really a lockdown defender.
- The Hardwood Nation wonders if Kristaps Porzingis will start in the All-Star game.
- Nets Daily discussed Mr. Whammy’s run-in with the refs.
- Posting And Toasting reflected on a bad night of shooting.
Please send submissions for Hoops Links to Zach at HoopsLinks@gmail.com.
Maximum Salaries For Select 2016 Free Agents
The NBA’s maximum salary isn’t just a single number. It’s an individualized figure that depends on a player’s years of experience and prior salary. That’s why it’s quite conceivable that Andre Drummond will receive a maximum-salary contract this summer that gives him less money for next season than what Al Horford gets for a starting salary on a new deal, even if Horford signs for less than the max. Drummond will enter the offseason with four years of experience against nine years of experience for Horford. Kevin Durant and LeBron James will both almost certainly sign for the max, but Durant is in line for less than James because of the difference in their respective levels of experience.
The NBA’s maximum salary jumps from a figure of about 25% of the cap to one that’s approximately 30% for players who have between seven and nine years of experience. It goes up even farther, to about 35%, for those with 10 or more years in the league. A player can sign a new contract with a starting salary of up to 105% of what he made in the final season of his previous deal, regardless of experience, but with the salary cap projected to surge to $89MM, if not higher, it’s likely that maximum salaries, which are tied to the cap, will surge beyond the threshold necessary for the 105% rule to come into play.
The maximum salaries, like the salary cap, depend on league revenues, but the NBA uses a formula for determining the maxes that’s different from the one that produces the cap. So, that’s why the 25%, 30% and 35% figures don’t line up precisely with those corresponding percentages of the cap. In most cases, the maxes are less than the true cap percentages. For instance, 35% of this season’s cap is close to $24.5MM, but the 35% maximum salary is $22,970,500.
We’ve put together a list of some of the top free agents for next season, categorized by the maximum salary bands in which they’ll fall. That’s not to suggest that all of these players will necessarily be in play for the max this summer, but we’ve tried to cast a wide net, given the heavy volume of teams that are expected to have maximum-salary cap flexibility come July.
The following players are eligible for the 25% max next season, which came in at $16,407,500 for this year. That figure is projected to surge to $20.4MM this summer, so that’s the number these players are shooting for.
- Harrison Barnes (restricted)
- Kent Bazemore
- Bradley Beal (restricted)
- Andre Drummond (restricted)
- Festus Ezeli (restricted)
- Evan Fournier (restricted)
- Terrence Jones (restricted)
- Donatas Motiejunas (restricted)
- Timofey Mozgov
- Chandler Parsons (player option)
- Jared Sullinger (restricted)
- Dion Waiters (restricted)
- Hassan Whiteside
This next group of players are some of those eligible for the 30% max, which is $19,689,000 this season. The projection for this summer’s 30% max is $24.9MM.
- Arron Afflalo (player option)
- Ryan Anderson
- Nicolas Batum
- Mike Conley
- DeMar DeRozan (player option)
- Kevin Durant
- Eric Gordon
- Jeff Green
- Roy Hibbert
- Al Horford
- Brandon Jennings
- Joakim Noah
These players can receive the 35% max, which the league set at $22,970,500 for this season. The projection for 2016/17 is $29.3MM.
- Luol Deng
- Tim Duncan (player option)
- Pau Gasol (player option)
- Dwight Howard (player option)
- LeBron James
- Al Jefferson
- Joe Johnson
- Kevin Martin (player option)
- Dirk Nowitzki (player option)
- Rajon Rondo
- Dwyane Wade
- David West
- Deron Williams (player option)
The following soon-to-be free agents are subject to the Gilbert Arenas Provision, limiting their maximum-salary earning potential, as I explained last week.
- Jordan Clarkson (restricted)
- Dwight Powell (restricted)
Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Southwest Notes: Thornton, Benson, Leonard
- Pelicans owner Tom Benson has no intention of selling the team or the NFL’s Saints, as he made clear in a statement responding to a front-page editorial from Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune that argued Benson, 88, should sell the teams because of the legal fight over whom should inherit them upon his death.
- Kawhi Leonard won the Defensive Player of the Year award shortly before signing his new five-year max contract this past summer, and he’s further justifying the pact with surprisingly strong offensive contributions this season, as Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News examines. “He’s an amazing defender and now he’s turning into the same kind of player on the offensive end,” Spurs coach/president Gregg Popovich said. “He’s a pretty special young man.”
- Nick Johnson will play for the D-League affiliate of the Spurs, a source told Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor, as we passed along earlier. Click here to see more.
Nick Johnson To Play For Spurs D-League Team
SUNDAY, 7:55pm: The affiliate of the Spurs has claimed Johnson off D-League waivers, a source tells Reichert (Twitter link).
SATURDAY, 5:00pm: Nuggets camp cut Nick Johnson has signed with the NBA D-League, Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor reports (Twitter ink). Johnson will be subject to the league’s waiver process to determine which franchise he is assigned to. NBA teams can begin signing players to 10-day contracts on January 5th, and this move by Johnson should make him a more attractive option for teams seeking backcourt help, though that is merely my speculation. Johnson is still collecting a NBA paycheck thanks to his contract with the Nuggets being fully guaranteed for this season and the next. He is making $845,059 for 2015/16 and is owed $980,431 for the 2016/17 campaign by Denver.
The combo guard is no stranger to the D-League having made 20 appearances in 2014/15 for Rio Grande Valley, the Rockets’ affiliate. He averaged a solid 18.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 33.9 minutes per contest for the Vipers. His shooting numbers were .428/.283/.789.
Johnson, 22, had been acquired by Denver from Houston as part of the Ty Lawson trade. The 2014 42nd overall pick appeared in 28 NBA games last season, averaging 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per game, and he owned a slash line of .347/.238/.680.
Eric Bledsoe Likely Out For Six Weeks
7:49pm: Bledsoe is expected to miss about six weeks, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, largely confirming what Windhorst reported earlier. Six weeks from today is February 7th, and the Suns play their final game before the All-Star break February 10th. The surgery will repair the meniscus, according to Wojnarowski.
7:26pm: Bledsoe will have surgery Tuesday to repair a torn meniscus in the knee, the Suns say, according to Windhorst and Coro (Twitter links). The team didn’t give a timetable and didn’t say whether the surgery would remove the meniscus, which usually entails a shorter recovery time than an attempt to repair it.
2:26pm: The initial belief is Suns point guard Eric Bledsoe will be out until after the All-Star break because of a left knee injury, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic first reported that Bledsoe will likely miss a significant amount of time (Twitter link). Bledsoe is set to have an MRI after leaving Saturday’s game against the Sixers, Coro adds.
Any time Bledsoe, Phoenix’s leading scorer, misses would be obviously be a significant blow to the Suns, who are already nosediving at 12-20. Bledsoe, in his sixth year in the league, is enjoying the best season of his career. His 20.4 points per game, 6.1 assists per game and two steals per game are each career highs.
The Suns made headlines during the summer when they re-signed Brandon Knight to a five-year, $70MM contract. Many at the time were skeptical that the backcourt tandem of Bledsoe and Knight would work, but it was recently beginning to show promise. There were also reportedly talks that Bledsoe was expendable after the Suns inked Knight, but those conversations seemed to disappear as the season drew closer.
Sixers Notes: Okafor, Hinkie, Colangelo, D’Antoni
Jahlil Okafor‘s camp didn’t want him to end up with the Sixers before Philly drafted him in June, sources tell Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. GM Sam Hinkie wasn’t allowed to interview Kristaps Porzingis at his predraft workout in Las Vegas, Pompey also hears. An agent told the Inquirer scribe in October that he wouldn’t want his maximum-salary clientele signing in Philadelphia and would advise mid-tier clients to play for the Sixers only if the team offered to overpay them. It all points to Hinkie’s difficult dealing with agents, though the GM says to Pompey that new executive Jerry Colangelo is changing that.
“Yeah, he’s helped there, too,” Hinkie said. “I think he’s had lot of good advice and I had lots of questions there about ways in which we could do things better. And he’s helped on that front already.”
See more from Philly:
- Colangelo implied that he doesn’t have as much power with the Sixers as some might assume, saying that this experience is different from his time with the Suns “because in the past, the buck always stopped with me,” notes Arizona Republic columnist Paula Boivin. Of course, Colangelo was in charge of the Suns as an owner, and he’s merely advising Sixers owner Josh Harris, so the comment isn’t necessarily about his role in Philly’s basketball operations.
- Mike D’Antoni said he’s “happy as heck” to be back in coaching as the lead assistant for the Sixers, and referred to head coach Brett Brown as the top draw for him to come to Philly, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
- Nerlens Noel explained some of the reasons why he’s such a fan of Sixers trade acquisition Ish Smith, who also played with the team at the end of last season. Brian Seltzer of Sixers.com has the details. “I think it’s his experience,” Noel said. “Him being as athletic as he is at the point guard position, and being able to create. Just a willing passer. He makes things a lot easier for the people around him. He makes them better.”
Hoops Rumors Weekly Mailbag 12/20/15-12/27/15
In addition to our weekly chat, which Chuck Myron facilitates every Wednesday, we have a second opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap, or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com. Here are this week’s inquiries:
Is Danny Granger giving up on getting back to sufficient health and likely to be announcing his retirement, or, instead, is he biding his time, intending to be a mid-season or late-season spark plug for some contender with an open roster slot? — Stewart
HR: It’s been a while since we’ve heard Granger’s name floated around. The Pistons waived Granger in late October and he hasn’t been relevant since. It sounds obvious, but only Granger knows for sure how healthy he is, and that will likely dictate whether he still has anything left to give. In my opinion, it would be surprising on multiple fronts to see Granger back on the court. One reason is that he was dealing with plantar fasciitis before Detroit cut him. As many of us know, that is a nagging injury that oftentimes does not go away. Granger also has a history of knee problems. At 32, there is really no reason for a team to offer him a spot. Granger has not had a productive season since the 2011/12 campaign, which was the last time he appeared in more than 30 games over the course of a single season.
What are some possible moves or signings for the Mavs? — Rob
HR: Well, for better or worse, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently said he likes the current roster. Cuban also added that the media and public are never really in the know when Dallas is about to make a move, so take that for what it’s worth. Prior to that, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle made comments about making changes to the roster only to backtrack from them afterward. Recent history tells us that the Mavs are not exactly timid when it comes to making deals involving big names. If he can be obtained without giving up much, I’d speculate that the Mavs could trade for Joakim Noah. Dallas will likely give up less, given Zaza Pachulia‘s production. Our own Chuck Myron recently viewed Noah as a trade candidate. Speaking of the Bulls, Taj Gibson looked like a good fit for the Mavs prior to the season. I strongly believe the Mavs will pick up some bench options, but with the team enjoying a solid season so far with a bunch of new parts, I wouldn’t expect significant changes to alter chemistry even more.
Which potential trade candidate do you think is the most underrated? — John
HR: David Lee strikes me as the perfect player as an answer to this question. The Celtics are making Lee available to teams that would like to trade for him, according to TNT’s David Aldridge. As someone who grew up a Knicks fan, I still have fond memories of Lee. At 32, Lee’s best years are behind him, but as his statistics per 36 minutes (16.9 points) indicate, he still more than a serviceable option. Lee, who is on an expiring contract, is an underrated player right now because he is seeing the fewest minutes per game of his career. That has more to do with the success of Jared Sullinger, Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk than any shortcomings Lee might have, in my opinion.
D-League Notes: Hardaway Jr., Ennis, McCallum
The Hawks have assigned Tim Hardaway Jr. to the D-League, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Atlanta does not have its own affiliate so Hardaway will likely join the Austin Spurs, based on the league’s flexible assignment system and the fact that the Hawks have an on-going relationship with the D-League franchise this season, Vivlamore writes. Hardaway played for the Canton Charge in his previous D-League stint.
It will be the second D-League stint for Hardaway, who has been a non-factor for the Hawks this season after he was acquired in a trade from the Knicks in June. Hardaway has appeared in only four games this season with Atlanta. Still, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer seems to remain optimistic about Hardaway’s development, as Vivlamore writes.
“I can promise you he is doing well and he is in a good place,” Budenholzer told reporters, including Vivlamore on Saturday. “A lot of it has been his approach to it. He’s been very professional. There is a real emphasis on player development with us and we’ve seen guys who have come in and maybe not started out gangbusters but through work, time and effort they find a way. I was say he is following that path in a very good way.”
Here are more moves and notes regarding the D-League:
- The Grizzlies assigned James Ennis to the D-League three days after recalling him, the team announced in an emailed press release. This will be Ennis’ sixth stint with the Iowa Energy, Memphis’ D-League affiliate.
- The Spurs assigned Ray McCallum to the Austin Spurs, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This marks McCallum’s third stint with the Austin Spurs this season.
- The Kings have recalled power forward Duje Dukan from the Reno Bighorns, their D-League affiliate, the team announced (on Twitter). It was Dukan’s fourth stint with Reno on the season.
- The Mavericks recalled Justin Anderson and Salah Mejri from the D-League, the team announced in an emailed press release. Anderson has played sparingly in 18 games, including one start, while Mejri has seen action in only five games for Dallas this season.