Hoops Rumors Originals: 2/18/17 – 2/25/17
It was a wild week in the NBA, starting with All-Star Weekend and ending with the aftermath of the trade deadline. When not covering breaking news, our writers put together some original content of their own. Take a look at some of our favorite pieces from throughout the league.
- Now that the NBA trade deadline has passed, it’s time to take stock of the aftermath. Luke Adams summarizes all the new TPEs created and new roster openings.
- Speaking of the the NBA trade deadline, Luke Adams wrapped up the whirlwind affair in one comprehensive trade deadline recap.
- Chris Crouse broke down the fantasy basketball impact of the trades that went down in the week prior to the trade deadline.
- Chris Crouse took a closer look at Carmelo Anthony and explored the market surrounding the veteran in the latest edition of our Trade Candidate series.
- Arthur Hill responded to reader questions in our Weekly Mailbag, answering questions about the Raptors, Pistons and Knicks. Send your questions for next week!
- Luke Adams published his Trade Deadline Outlook for the Pacific, Central and Southwest Divisions.
- Milo Taibi examined some of the best features from throughout the basketball blogosphere this week, including Kwame Fisher-Jones’ case against offering Joel Embiid the max.
- We are always looking to hear what our readers have to say about trending topics, here are our Community Shootaround posts from the week:
- Should the league do something about the lack of defense in the All-Star Game?
- Who were the winners and losers of the trade deadline this year?
- Here are our favorite Hoops Rumors Originals from last week, in case you missed them.
Pelicans Waive Omri Casspi, Sign Reggie Williams
February 25: The Pelicans have now signed Williams to a 10-day contract. The club formally announced the addition in a press release on their official website.
February 24: The Pelicans will waive Omri Casspi and use his roster spot to sign Reggie Williams, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (Twitter link). Casspi, acquired from Sacramento alongside DeMarcus Cousins, suffered a broken thumb in his team debut on Thursday.
Justin Verrier of ESPN initially reported Casspi would miss 4-to-6 weeks with the injury (Twitter link). According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Pelicans felt Casspi’s absence would leave them short-handed on the wing in midst of a playoff hunt. The decision to cut Casspi wasn’t an easy one, as GM Dell Demps resisted the temptation to flip Casspi leading up to the deadline (Twitter links).
If Casspi doesn’t play another game in 2016/17, he’ll have finished the year averaging 6.1 points through a career-low 23 games. As Bobby Marks of The Vertical points out, the Pelicans are only responsible for $906K of Casspi’s salary, unless he’s claimed on waivers (Twitter link).
The 30-year-old Williams appeared in five games with the Pelicans in December, recording 25 points in that span. A veteran of five NBA teams, Williams averaged 18.2 points this season with the D-League’s Oklahoma City Blue. A lifetime 36.6% 3-point shooter, Williams will supplant Casspi as a long distance threat off New Orleans’ bench.
Bucks Sign Axel Toupane To 10-Day Deal
February 25: The Bucks formally signed Toupane this afternoon, the team announced via a press release on their official website. Their roster is now full at 15.
February 23: The Bucks will sign small forward Axel Toupane to a 10-day contract, tweets Chris Reichert of The Step Back.
Toupane has been playing for Toronto’s affiliate in the D-League, where he is averaging 16.1 points and 3.9 rebounds through 27 games. His only NBA experience came in 21 games for the Nuggets last season.
Milwaukee has a roster spot open after trading center Roy Hibbert to Denver earlier today. The Bucks received a protected 2019 pick in the deal.
Southeast Notes: Hawks, Porter, McClellan
Some Hawks fans were underwhelmed with Atlanta’s decision to quickly fill their roster vacancies with players they had cut previously in the year but head coach Mike Budenholzer cites their familiarity with the team’s system as the motivating factor, says Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta currently sits fifth in the Eastern Conference, well within reach of home-court advantage in the first-round if things break right in the second half of the season.
The two wings, Ryan Kelly and Lamar Patterson, have had multiple stints with the franchise, Kelly spending time with the club in training camp prior to being waived, later signed again shortly after opening day and waived once more in January and then Patterson playing last season with the franchise, getting cut over the summer and then coming back on a pair of 10-day contracts last month.
“We’ve continued to follow them closely,” Budenholzer told Vivlamore. “We feel like adding them to the group this year, not just this year because there is potential and hope that these are guys who fit us and understand how we play. Lots of time we talk about fit. We feel like Ryan and Lamar have that potential.”
Though the pair have only played in a combined 87 minutes for Atlanta in 2016/17, they’ll round out a lineup in “win-now” mode. Previously it seemed likely that the franchise would trade pending free agent Paul Millsap and embrace a rebuild but they’ve publicly changed course.
There’s more out of the Southeast Division:
- The Wizards freed up cap space to make signing forward Otto Porter to an extension this summer possible. General manager Ernie Grunfeld recently spoke with J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic about just that. “We love the way that he’s developed and how he’s come along. I think Otto fits in very well with what we’re trying to do,” Grunfeld said. “I said he’s part of our core and we want to keep him here.”
- Over the All-Star Break, Wizards rookie Sheldon McClellan announced that he has legally changed his name to Sheldon Mac, says Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic. The guard had thought about it for a while but held off for fear of complicating the scouting and drafting process he went through last year.
- If the Heat want to free up a roster spot for the upcoming buyout market or even just for flexibility down the stretch, they’ll have to first deal with the Chris Bosh situation, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel.
- Recently acquired forward Bojan Bogdanovic was looking forward to the trade that officially sent him to the Wizards. The veteran will come off the bench in Washington and tells J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic that he doesn’t think it will be that big of an adjustment.
- After getting waived by the Hornets, big man Mike Tobey has returned to the Greensboro Swarm of the D-League writes Chris Reichert of The Step Back.
And-Ones: Pelinka, Jackson, Sanders
As the Lakers undergo their own transition as a franchise, recently appointed general manager Rob Pelinka‘s sports agency Landmark Sports is undergoing one of its own. Sports Illustrated’s Jake Fischer explored what the process will entail for Pelinka, the agency in general and, most of all, all of the players who’ve suddenly seen a change in representation.
Currently Pelinka’s clients, like James Harden, have been transferred to other members of the Landmark Sports agency and Fischer wonders if pending free agents like Andre Iguodala and Dion Waiters will seek agencies with sturdier leadership.
The three representatives who’ve inherited the client list, Fischer writes, were previously responsible for salary cap analysis, public relations and marketing at the agency. The Lakers can’t formally hire Pelinka until he is officially divested from Landmark Sports.
There’s more from around the NBA:
- Just four months shy of the NBA Draft, high-profile lottery prospect Josh Jackson has been charged with misdemeanor property damage, writes college reporter Adam Zagoria. The Kansas forward is currently pegged at No. 3 on the DraftExpress mock draft.
- General managers were particularly keen to hold onto their first-round picks in this year’s draft, tweets Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. Of the five first-rounders traded this month, four were No. 22 or worse. Teams are “holding onto picks with dear life,” one general manager told him.
- Prior to the trade deadline, the Timberwolves and Suns inquired about Euroleague center Ognjen Kuzmic, writes international basketball reporter David Pick. The Belgrade star, however, has no outs in his current contract.
- Free agent Larry Sanders still doesn’t have a new home in the NBA. According to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders the Cavaliers remain interested in the center but the Celtics and Lakers were not impressed with what they saw in workouts.
Lowry Out Indefinitely With Wrist Injury
The Raptors will have to wait to see how all of the pieces they acquired at the trade deadline will fit with their existing rotation. Last night, it was announced that All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry will miss an indefinite amount of time with a lingering wrist injury. Prior to the club’s Friday night contest against Boston, head coach Dwane Casey told Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet that “it’s not a one-day thing.”
The guard apparently first injured the wrist prior to the All-Star break but didn’t realize it at the time. “Honestly, I thought I’d slept on it wrong — I thought it would go away,” Lowry said. “It was a little sore, but I paid no attention to it.”
Lowry, who’s averaged a career best 22.8 points per game in in 56 games for the Raptors, participated in both the Three-Point Contest and All-Star Game last weekend but has otherwise rested. The pain, however, continues to plague him now that the club has returned to action with new acquisitions Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker in tow.
As of Saturday morning, an official medical diagnosis hasn’t been announced and may not until after the weekend but the guard has been sent for medical imaging.
Bulls Notes: Valentine, Payne, Wade
The Bulls didn’t end up shipping off Jimmy Butler at the deadline, as had been rumored, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t thinking about their future. General manager Gar Forman spoke with ESPN Chicago Friday about the organization heading forward. Forman noted that the trade the club did make (Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott for Cameron Payne, Anthony Morrow and Joffrey Lauvergne), will free up more time for rookie Denzel Valentine.
In the same conversation Forman reveals that they tried to trade for Payne on draft night last June but were unable to. He mentions that they “absolutely loved” him coming out of the draft and think he’ll be a player for their future.
Later in the discussion, when the topic turned to Fred Hoiberg, Forman said that he foresees the head coach coming back to in 2017/18. For more insights about the Bulls, consider listening to the full 20-minute chat at ESPN.
There’s more out of Chicago:
- Veteran guard Dwyane Wade doesn’t have a clear read on whether or not the Bulls’ front office would want him to pick up his player option this summer and return to the team for 2017/18. “I haven’t had that conversation about next season with the guys,” he told Nick Friedell of ESPN. “[…] I take my option seriously and I always look into what’s the best thing for me to do.” For now, Wade adds, he just wants to play basketball.
- The Bulls will have a better idea of what shape their rebuild will take this offseason, writes Neil Johnson of ESPN Analytics (Insider). Johnson asks if the Bulls can truly rebuild around Jimmy Butler or whether, by retaining him, they’re delaying the inevitable.
- For what it’s worth, Jimmy Butler told K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune that he has faith in the Bulls’ front office and is exactly where he wants to be.
- Newly acquired guard Anthony Morrow caused a bit of a stir when it was announced that he’d wear No. 1 with his new club. The veteran quickly changed course when Bulls fans protested at the thought of him wearing Derrick Rose‘s former number.
Nets Notes: Lopez, Lin, Dinwiddie, Nicholson, McDaniels
Nets GM Sean Marks spoke to the press about Brooklyn’s trade deadline activity. While the team held onto Brook Lopez and Trevor Booker (each of whom have another year left on their contract), Marks was involved in a few lower-profile transactions.
“We’re very familiar with Andrew [Nicholson]…he’s a system fit for us,” Marks said. “He’s a stellar young man and another guy with high character and that’s exactly we’re trying to do.”
The Nets acquired Nicholson along with a first-round pick and Marcus Thornton (who was subsequently waived) in exchange for Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough. Bogdanovic performed well for the 9-47 Nets, but was a restricted free agent-to-be, and was dealt for an invaluable draft pick. Marks spoke about his team’s position in the upcoming draft.
“Now having two first round picks, it all helps,” Marks said. “It helps give us another vehicle where were can be systematic with the draft and see what happens. We obviously value the draft or we wouldn’t have done it. It’s about being strategic and having two picks now gives us an opportunity to move up with those picks, you can hold them where you are if your players are there at the time.”
More from Brooklyn…
- One of the reasons Marks held onto Lopez at the deadline was to see how well he played with Jeremy Lin, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes. Lin has been limited to just 13 games this season due to injury, and hasn’t had an opportunity to be properly assessed by coach Kenny Atkinson. “To have a healthy Jeremy and a healthy Brook out there together with this team, it’ll be nice to evaluate that,” Marks said. “It’s something we started the season off with, and unfortunately, we only got a handful of games under our belt seeing that. We all know what those two bring to the table: They lift everybody else’s play.”
- Nick Kosmider of the Denver Post profiled Spencer Dinwiddie, a former collegiate star at University of Colorado Boulder. Dinwiddie suffered a torn ACL during his junior year at CU, falling to the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft. Still just 23 years old, Dinwiddie has averaged more than 20 MPG for the first time in his career with Brooklyn. “He’s steadily getting better,” Atkinson said of Dinwiddie. “He played pretty well before the all-star break, started shooting it better and getting to the rim. We like his defense. He’s been a pleasant surprise, quite honestly.“
- Nicholson and K.J. McDaniels– each acquired at the deadline- are ready to step in right now for the rebuilding Nets. “I feel like it’s a great opportunity for me,” McDaniels told Greg Logan of Newsday. “I’ll be able to show Brooklyn what I do, and play both ends of the court and just try to bring energy.” McDaniels’ acquisition was commended by writers across the league. Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post gave the trade an “A” grade, describing the transaction as low-risk, high-reward. “If he doesn’t do anything, the Nets can simply decline his option for next season. If he does something, then it’s found money. For a team with no talent or assets to speak of, it’s a good move to make — and saves them money to boot, as they were below the salary floor.”
- Dan Favale of Bleacher Report echoed Bontemps’ sentiments, praising Marks for taking a flier on McDaniels. “Getting K.J. McDaniels for absolutely nothing is a great encore to parlaying Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough into Andrew Nicholson and a first-round pick,” Favale wrote. “Although McDaniels is beyond raw, he has the length and lateral gait to be a lockdown defender across all wing positions.”
NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 2/24/17
Here are Friday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- Rookie point guard Kay Felder has been sent to the D-League by the Cavaliers, per a team press release. It’s just the third assignment of the season for Felder, who has averaged 30.0 PPG in two games for the Canton Charge.
- The Raptors recalled Bruno Caboclo, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet from the D-League today, the team announced (via Twitter). The trio helped lead the Raptors 905 to a Thursday night win, with VanVleet (26 points, 11 assists) and Siakam (15 points, 12 rebounds) recording double-doubles.
- The Warriors have assigned Damian Jones to the D-League, tweets Anthony Slater of The San Jose Mercury News. Jones will likely play for the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s affiliate, tonight in Reno.
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