Wolves Notes: Rubio, Dunn, Jones
It may be time for the Wolves to trade Ricky Rubio, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders explains (video link). Minnesota isn’t contending for the playoffs this season and Kyler believes it’s likely the team makes a move by the trade deadline. Rubio has long been the subject of trade rumors and according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Wolves are “actively” shopping him. The Bulls and Knicks were recently linked to Rubio and Kyler added that he could envision the Magic making a run a acquiring the point guard.
[RELATED: Trade Candidate: Ricky Rubio]
Here’s more from Minnesota:
- If Minnesota deals Rubio and hands Kris Dunn the starting job, the team should prioritize the rookie’s development, Chip Scoggins of The Star Tribune contends. Scoggins believes the Wolves should resist trading for a stop-gap point guard to replace Rubio and they should give Dunn the minutes necessary to evaluate whether he is the long-term answer for the franchise.
- Dunn nearly had a triple-double in Sunday’s win over the Nuggets and coach/executive Tom Thibodeau believes the point guard is ready for a larger role, as Scoggins passes along in the same piece. “He’s been coming on for a while,” Thibodeau said. “Defensively he’s been good from the beginning. Offensively he’s figuring it out. He understands the speed and size of the game. He wants to make plays for others. Defensively there are a lot of hustle plays he makes. He’ll rebound in traffic. You’re not going to knock him around. Kris has a lot of toughness in him.”
- The Dunn-Tyus Jones backcourt works well for the Wolves, Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune writes. Dunn’s versatile game allows the team to employ several lineups with him at the shooting guard. “Kris has the ability to play two positions. He can defend three positions, actually. So you can use him in that way,” Thibodeau said.
Nets GM: Lin’s Setback Won’t Alter Plans
GM Sean Marks said Jeremy Lin‘s latest setback won’t change the Nets‘ future plans nor will it increase the chances that the team deals Brook Lopez before the deadline, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets. Lin will miss an additional three-to-five weeks after re-aggravating his strained hamstring during a rehab assignment.
The point guard signed a three-year, $36MM deal with Brooklyn during the offseason, but he’s only been able to play in 12 games because of his hamstring troubles. He’s averaging 13.9 points and 5.8 assists in 25.0 minutes per game this season.
Lopez has been the subject of trade rumors for practically his entire tenure in Brooklyn. The Nets would obviously like to evaluate how Lopez and Lin – the team’s two highest-paid players – coexist on the floor, but Lin’s injury has made that difficult to accomplish. The Lopez-Lin pairing has played only 179 minutes together this season and the team has been outscored by 14 points while the duo was on the court.
Lopez has one more year remaining on his deal after this season and the Nets are reportedly looking for at least two first-round picks in exchange for the big man. The Stanford product is averaging 20.5 points and a career-high 2.7 assists per game while shooting 47.0% on the season.
Poll: Should The All-Star Voting Process Change?
The NBA unveiled a brand new voting platform for the 2016/17 All-Star Game, giving fans 50% of the vote while players and a media panel accounted for 25% each. This was regarded as a breath of fresh air in some respects, as fans previously held a unanimous vote for All-Star Game starters.
The process had its shortcomings, however. As the league’s player voting results reveal, several players appear to have used the opportunity to exclusively vote for their teammates. What’s more, over 100 players neglected to cast a ballot. Warriors coach Steve Kerr used his platform to sound off, chastising certain players for not taking their vote seriously.
“I am very disappointed in the players,” Kerr told Anthony Slater of The Bay Area News Group. “They asked for the vote and a lot of them just made a mockery of it…I saw the list. I saw all the guys who got votes. Were you allowed to vote for yourself? I don’t know. Were guys voting for themselves? There were 50 guys on there that had no business getting votes. But a lot of guys wrote in their buddies for the presidential campaign. So maybe that was their own way of making a statement. But I think if you give the players a vote, they should take it serious.”
While the league’s #NBAVote strategy was a success on social media, some work needs to be done in revitalizing the voting process. So what do you think: should the league continue fan voting in 2017/18? Give the media a higher percentage of the vote? Or do you have a different idea entirely?
Vote below, and share your ideas in the comments section!
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Ownership Of Jazz Transferred Into Legacy Trust
The Jazz will remain in Salt Lake City for “generations to come,” as owner Gail Miller announced the team’s ownership and arena would be moved to a legacy trust. The legacy trust will be “managed by current and future generations of the Miller family,” the Jazz announced through its team website.
“As a family, we have always considered the Utah Jazz a community asset and it has been our privilege to serve as stewards of this team for more than 30 years,” Miller said at a press conference on Monday. “There have been many opportunities to sell and move the franchise, but from the day Larry and I purchased the Jazz our goal was to keep the team in Utah. The Legacy Trust will help to ensure this commitment is kept for generations to come.”
The Jazz moved from New Orleans to Utah in 1979, winning eight division titles from that point on. The Jazz have been subject to relocation rumors in recent years, but Monday’s announcement will quash those discussions for the foreseeable future.
As noted by The Associated Press (link via ESPN.com), this is believed to be the first legacy trust for a professional franchise in any of the four major U.S. leagues.
Nuggets Claim Mo Williams Off Waivers
Mo Williams has been claimed off waivers by the Denver Nuggets, Marc Stein of ESPN reports (Twitter link). Denver is expected to immediately waive Williams, opening up a roster spot to retain Alonzo Gee on a 10-day contract, per Stein (Twitter link).
Williams, thought to be retired, has been involved in a number of transactions over the last month. The 34-year-old was dealt from Cleveland to Atlanta as a part of the Kyle Korver trade, and then flipped to Denver for the draft rights to Cenk Akyol. Williams was then waived, claimed by Philadelphia on January 20, and claimed once more by Denver today.
If the Sixers want to claim Williams off waivers again this week, they’ll have to either terminate Chasson Randle‘s 10-day contract early or waive one of the other 14 players on their roster — the team no longer has an open roster spot at its disposal.
As Bobby Marks noted in an article for The Vertical, the newly agreed upon CBA would make this type of transaction obsolete. As of July, the player’s days of service will determine his cost against the minimum team salary; not his full cap hit. Williams’ circumstance is the type of “loophole,” Marks describes, in which teams will keep low payrolls on the roster only to make waiver claims or trades in an attempt to reach the salary floor.
NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 1/23/17
Here are Monday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- Bruno Caboclo and Delon Wright have been sent to the Raptors‘ D-League affiliate, the team announced today (via Twitter). The duo figures to be in action for the Raptors 905 tonight against the Texas Legends.
- The Pacers have recalled Rakeem Christmas and Joseph Young from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, according to a press release issued by the club. Both players have played sparingly for Indiana this season.
- Rookie forward Joel Bolomboy has been recalled to the NBA by the Jazz, per a press release. Bolomboy put up 19 points and nine rebounds for the Salt Lake City Stars on Sunday.
- The Trail Blazers are sending 2016 second-rounder Jake Layman on an assignment with the Windy City Bulls, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Portland doesn’t have a D-League affiliate of its own, so Layman will play for Chicago’s team via the flexible assignment rule.
- The Nets have recalled Chris McCullough from Long Island in advance of Brooklyn’s game against San Antonio tonight, the team announced in a press release.
Grizzlies, Wolves To Control New D-League Affiliates
Two NBA teams have made major announcements this afternoon regarding their partnerships going forward with D-League affiliate. The Grizzlies, who are affiliated with the Iowa Energy this season, have acquired an expansion NBADL franchise which will be owned and operated by the Grizz. According to Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com, Memphis’ new D-League franchise doesn’t yet have a name, but the team will play its home games at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi.
“It’s a complete game-changer,” said Grizzlies EVP of basketball operations John Hollinger. “Our affiliation with Iowa has been very effective for several years, both in terms of player development and basketball ops to both cities. To operate our own D-League team in your backyard – the direct access to the development process of our player talent – makes the process so much more efficient.
Meanwhile, with the Grizzlies set to end their partnership with the Energy, the Iowa franchise will be bought and controlled by the Timberwolves, who had been without a D-League affiliate up until now. While the acquisition isn’t officially finalized, an agreement is in place between the two sides, as the Wolves announced today in a press release.
“We’re thrilled to bring the Iowa Energy into the Timberwolves family,” said Wolves owner Glen Taylor. “It’s great knowing that we can develop our young players so close to home and enjoy all the other benefits that come with owning a D-League team. We look forward to growing our relationship with the greater Des Moines area, the state of Iowa and basketball fans across the Upper Midwest.”
The D-League continues to grow each year as the majority of the NBA’s 30 teams move toward controlling and operating their own affiliates. In addition to expanding the number of NBADL teams, NBA clubs have increasingly been focused on making their affiliates more geographically accessible — NBA teams whose affiliates play nearby – like the Nets and Lakers – have been able to make certain players active for both NBA and D-League games in the same day at times this season.
[RELATED: NBA D-League affiliations for the 2016/17 season]
Unlike some of those teams, the Grizzlies haven’t used their D-League affiliate to frequently assign and recall players this season, since the Energy’s Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines is located more than 600 miles from the FedEx Forum in Memphis. Memphis’ new NBADL affiliate will be located about 20 miles away, while the Wolves will be located less than 250 miles from their new affiliate in Iowa — still a trek, but not nearly as significant as the distance between Des Moines and Memphis.
Today’s announcement ensures that there will be at least 23 teams in the D-League next season, and a recent report from Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com suggested that the league expects at least one more new franchise for the 2017/18 season.
The Hawks, Nuggets, Clippers, Bucks, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, and Wizards are the remaining seven teams without an affiliate lined up for ’17/18, though Atlanta will control and operate its own team by the 2019/20 season and the others are reportedly exploring their options.
NBADL teams figure to be more important than ever beginning next season, since the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement will permit teams to sign two players apiece to two-way contracts. NBA teams will be able to freely shuttle players on those two-way deals back and forth between the NBA and D-League, paying them at one rate in the NBA and at a lesser rate in the NBADL.
Community Shootaround: Bargain Trade Targets
Nikola Mirotic‘s career-worst three-point percentage (.311) is “troubling,” but even with an inconsistent long-range shot, the Bulls big man has been about a league-average player this year, writes Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com (Insider-only link). In Pelton’s view, that makes Mirotic an intriguing trade candidate — if shots start to fall for the former first-round pick, he’d be a bargain at his current salary, making him a potential buy-low target for teams scouring the trade market.
Within his latest piece for ESPN.com, Pelton identifies a few more possible bargain trade targets in addition to Mirotic. Kenneth Faried, Jared Dudley, Tim Frazier, Richaun Holmes, and Tyus Jones also make the cut. In most cases, these players are on teams that have more than enough depth at their respective positions, which could make them expendable, or at least make them available at a modest price.
With the 2017 trade deadline just a month away and many contending teams looking to upgrade their rosters without shaking things up too significantly, the idea of buying low on a solid rotation player will be very appealing to those clubs.
Today’s discussion question, then, is this: Which players around the NBA do you think buyers should target as a potential buy-low trade candidates? Are any of Pelton’s suggestions particularly appealing, in your opinion, or are there other players flying under the radar that would be affordable and would benefit from a change of scenery?
Jump into the comments section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
2016/17 NBA Reverse Standings
Throughout the 2016/17 NBA season, Hoops Rumors will be maintaining a feature that allows you to keep an eye on how the 2017 draft order will look. Our 2016/17 Reverse Standings tool, which lists the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, will be updated daily to reflect the previous night’s outcomes.
Our Reverse Standings take into account playoff teams in each conference, so they’re essentially a reflection of what 2017’s draft order would look like with no changes to lottery position. In addition to not considering the results of the lottery, our tracker lists teams in random order when they have identical records. At the end of the year, those ties would be broken via random drawings.
Traded picks – and conditionally traded picks – are included via footnotes. For instance, the note next to the Kings‘ pick says that Sacramento will send its pick to the Bulls if it’s not in the top 10. If the Kings’ pick is in the top 10, the 76ers would have the right to swap selections, so that footnote is included next to the Sixers’ pick as well. As of today, the 16-27 Kings have the league’s eighth-worst record, which means they’d keep their own selection, though they’re neck-and-neck with the 15-27 Sixers.
Our Reverse Standings tracker can be found at anytime on our right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2017. So be sure to check back often!
Bulls, Knicks Among Potential Ricky Rubio Suitors?
The Bulls and Knicks are among the teams that have interest in Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio, multiple sources tell Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net. A report out of Spain also linked Chicago and New York to Rubio, who is reportedly being “actively” shopped by the Wolves.
A report surfaced on Friday suggesting that the Wolves and Pistons had engaged in discussions that involved Rubio and Detroit point guard Reggie Jackson. However, Stan Van Gundy downplayed those rumblings over the weekend, and indicated that if such a deal was discussed, it may have happened because Minnesota called about Jackson.
If the Wolves are indeed shopping Rubio, it makes sense that the team would have called clubs like the Pistons, Bulls, and Knicks, who have had some questions at the point guard spot this season. In Detroit’s case, Jackson struggled out of the gate following an injury, but has played better as of late, explaining the Pistons’ reluctance to move him. In Chicago and New York though, the long-term outlook at point guard is a little less clear.
The Bulls signed Rajon Rondo to a short-term contract last summer, but he hasn’t been an ideal fit in Chicago, and the odds of him sticking with the team into the 2017/18 season don’t look great — his salary for next year is partially guaranteed for just $3MM. As for the Knicks, they made a major offseason trade to land Derrick Rose, but Rose’s performance in New York has been up and down, and his contract expires this summer.
Rubio, under contract through the 2018/19 season, would represent a more stable long-term option at the point for the Bulls or Knicks, but it’s not clear if either team’s interest is strong enough to make a deal. To date, the Wolves haven’t received the kind of offer they’re seeking for Rubio.