Suns Unlikely To Keep Greg Monroe Through Season
The Suns acquired Greg Monroe in the Eric Bledsoe trade earlier today, but according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com, the team will likely explore trading the big man.
Wojnarowski hears that it’s unlikely Monroe remains on the Suns’ roster through the season. Phoenix has not yet had conversations with Monroe about a buyout agreement, preferring to parse the trade market in order to get something in return for the center.
CBA rules don’t prohibit the Suns from flipping Monroe immediately after acquiring him from the Bucks. If Phoenix intends to aggregate Monroe’s salary with another player’s salary for matching purposes, the team would have to wait two months to make a deal, but that shouldn’t be an issue, given Monroe’s sizable contract and the Suns’ excess cap room.
Monroe, 27, remains sidelined with a calf injury and he isn’t expected to return to the court until next week. During the five games he played with the Bucks, he saw a total of 79 minutes where he accumulated 34 points and 25 rebounds.
Monroe, who will make $17.88MM this season, is in the final year of a three-year, $50MM pact in which he signed with Milwaukee back in the summer of 2015.
John Jenkins To Play In Spain
Free agent shooting guard John Jenkins is headed to Europe for the 2017/18 season, having signed a contract with San Pablo Burgos of Spain’s ACB League, the team announced today (via Twitter). International basketball journalist David Pick first reported (via Twitter) that Jenkins was nearing a deal with the Spanish club.
The 23rd overall pick in the 2012 draft, Jenkins spent his first three NBA seasons with the Hawks, then had stints with the Mavericks and Suns. In 145 career regular season NBA games, the 26-year-old has averaged a modest 5.1 PPG with a .448/.364/.849 shooting line.
Having been waived by the Suns in January before his 2016/17 salary became guaranteed, Jenkins caught on with the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate, to finish last season. He averaged 20.9 PPG in 16 games for Westchester, earning another training camp invite this fall, but was cut last month by the Hawks. Rather than returning to the G League, Jenkins will ply his trade overseas this season.
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/7/17
Here are Tuesday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
5:23pm:
- The Magic have assigned Wesley Iwundu to the Lakeland Magic of the G League, the team announced on Twitter.
3:32pm:
- The Spurs have recalled Tony Parker from the G League, the team announced today in a press release. Parker has been bouncing back and forth between San Antonio and the Austin Spurs as he recovers from surgery on his quadriceps.
1:33pm:
- The Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo to the G League, the team announced today (via Twitter). Because this is Caboclo’s fourth NBA season, the move required his approval.
- Second-year forward Derrick Jones has been sent to the Northern Arizona Suns, according to a press release issued today by Phoenix. The Suns’ affiliate doesn’t play its next game until Thursday, so we’ll see if Jones’ assignment lasts that long.
- The Jazz have assigned a pair of rookies, Tony Bradley and Royce O’Neale, to their G League affiliate, according to a press release.
- A day after sending him to the G League, the Rockets have recalled rookie big man Zhou Qi, the team announced (via Twitter). Zhou scored 15 points on Monday for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
- The Nets have recalled Isaiah Whitehead from the G League, the club announced in a press release. Whitehead last played for the Long Island Nets on Saturday, when he racked up 26 points and grabbed seven boards.
Suns Trade Eric Bledsoe To Bucks
The Suns and Bucks have finalized a trade that sends Eric Bledsoe to Milwaukee in exchange for Greg Monroe, a 2018 first-round pick, and a 2018 second-round pick. Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe of ESPN first reported the deal, which has now been officially confirmed by both the Suns and Bucks.
Bledsoe had been publicly on the trade block since the first weekend of the season, when he published a tweet that read “I don’t wanna be here” after the Suns lost their first three games. The veteran point guard had previously – and privately – expressed a desire to be traded, and Phoenix had explored potential deals at that time. However, Bledsoe’s tweet forced the issue, and the team responded by sending him home and pursuing deals more aggressively.
Bledsoe, who will turn 28 next month, is coming off a career year for the Suns in 2016/17. He recorded 21.1 PPG, 6.3 APG, 4.8 RPG, and 1.4 SPG in 66 contests (all starts) before the team shut him down as part of its tanking effort down the stretch. The Suns’ handling of Bledsoe at the end of the season is likely one reason why the former first-round pick wasn’t thrilled with his situation this year.
As trade rumors swirled around Bledsoe, the Bucks were frequently cited as a potential suitor, with Milwaukee and Denver viewed as the most likely landing spots for the disgruntled point guard. So far this season, Malcolm Brogdon has been playing regular minutes at the point guard spot for the Bucks, with Matthew Dellavedova getting the backup minutes and Giannis Antetokounmpo also assuming some ball-handling duties in a point forward role. With Bledsoe entering the mix, Brogdon may begin to see more action at the two.
From an on-court perspective, Monroe doesn’t seem like a fit in Phoenix, considering the team’s frontcourt is already pretty crowded. Alex Len and Tyson Chandler are the Suns’ current centers, though Chandler is a trade candidate. Even if the club hangs onto Chandler, the unbalanced roster isn’t a major issue, since the Suns aren’t in win-now mode. It will be more interesting to see if the Bucks’ frontcourt holds up without Monroe, who played well last season. Milwaukee has been leaning more heavily on John Henson, Mirza Teletovic, and Thon Maker while Monroe has been sidelined with a calf injury.
Monroe is earning $17,884,176 this season and is in the final year of his contract, while Bledsoe is making $14.5MM and has one additional year left at $15MM. The deal will reduce Milwaukee’s team salary by more than $3MM, moving the club comfortably away from the luxury tax threshold. The Bucks will also get a trade exception worth $3,384,176.
However, the team now has about $106MM on its books for 2018/19, without taking into account a qualifying offer or a new contract for Jabari Parker, who will be a restricted free agent. If the Bucks hope to re-sign Parker, they may need to move another contract to avoid becoming a taxpayer.
As for the Suns, they won’t mind taking on a little extra money in the swap, since they still have a significant chunk of cap room. The deal should get their team salary above the required floor for 2017/18, and by trading Bledsoe for Monroe, the Suns also remove $15MM in guaranteed salary from their books for 2018/19, increasing their flexibility to make moves next summer.
Finally, the two draft picks included in the deal include some unusual protections. As first reported by Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link), the second-rounder is top-47 protected. If the second-rounder doesn’t change hands in 2018, it appears the Bucks’ obligation relating to that pick would be extinguished.
As for the first-rounder, the Suns have confirmed the details initially reported by John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter links), who describes the protection on that pick as follows:
- Suns receive pick in 2018 it falls between Nos. 11 and 16.
- If Suns don’t receive 2018 pick, they’ll receive pick in 2019 if it falls between Nos. 4 and 16.
- If Suns don’t receive 2019 pick, they’ll receive 2020 pick (top-7 protected).
- If Suns still haven’t received pick after 2020, they’ll receive unprotected 2021 pick.
In addition to potentially landing Milwaukee’s pick in 2018, Phoenix will have its own first-rounder and Miami’s (top-seven protected) for next year’s draft.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Northwest Notes: McCollum, Wolves, Sefolosha
In a conversation with TNT’s David Aldridge at NBA.com, Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum discussed his club’s performance so far, his shoe deal with Li Ning, Jusuf Nurkic‘s impact on the Blazers, and several other topics. Among those topics? Portland’s relatively quiet offseason. While McCollum has confidence in the Blazers’ core group, he acknowledged to Aldridge that he did make an effort to recruit Carmelo Anthony when the All-Star forward was on the trade block.
“I mean, I figured why not? Why not recruit someone you think can help your team?” McCollum said. “I just told him the truth. … I told him one time how he could help [the Trail Blazers], and that was basically the end of it. I felt like when someone’s a free agent and you know them and you’re around them, you need to share how you think they can help you and how you think you can help them. They have the right to make their own decision, and I think he’s happy where he’s at, and I wish him the best except when they play us.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- After making a series of veteran additions in the offseason, the Timberwolves entered the 2017/18 campaign with the ninth-oldest roster in the NBA. So far, in the view of Jim Souhan of The Star Tribune, that veteran leadership has paid major dividends in Minnesota. Souhan refers to the roster as not only the best in franchise history, but “the most mature.”
- Speaking of veteran leadership, the Jazz feel like they’re benefiting from the presence of free agent signee Thabo Sefolosha, with coaches and teammates alike referring to the swingman has a strong leader. “Leadership is something that can’t be forced,” head coach Quin Snyder said, per Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News. “I think people have to want to follow you. You have to be able to lead them a direction that’s productive and [Sefolosha’s] experience and intelligence allow him to.”
- After playing just 165 total minutes in his rookie season, Malik Beasley has been a more regular part of the Nuggets‘ rotation early this season. As Gina Mizell of The Denver Post details, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone likes the confidence and aggressiveness he’s seeing from 2016’s 19th overall pick.
Edy Tavares To Play In Spain
Less than a month after being waived by the Cavaliers, center Edy Tavares has elected to return overseas, agreeing to a three-year contract with Spanish team Real Madrid, per a Marca report. Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic has confirmed that report, with international basketball reporter David Pick supplying the financial details (via Twitter).
Tavares will return to the country where he began his professional career — he was under contract with Gran Canaria in Spain from 2009 to 2015. Drafted by the Hawks in 2014, the 7’3″ center headed to Atlanta a year later and has bounced around the NBA and G League since then, playing for a handful of different teams.
Signed by the Cavaliers at the very end of the 2016/17 regular season, Tavares’ season came to a premature end when he fractured his hand in May, sidelining him for the rest of the playoffs. Although his contract included a non-guaranteed salary for 2017/18, Tavares became expendable when the Cavs added three extra players to their roster late in the offeason, trading Kyrie Irving for Jae Crowder, Isaiah Thomas, and Ante Zizic, then signing Dwyane Wade. Tavares was waived by Cleveland in mid-October.
Tavares had initially joined the defending G League champs, the Raptors 905, for the 2017/18 season, but appeared in just one game for Toronto’s G League affiliate before striking his new deal with Real Madrid. The Raptors 905 have now lost two key players – Tavares and Kyle Wiltjer – to international teams.
Trade Notes: Suns, Bucks, Bledsoe, Monroe, Okafor
Major early-November NBA trades are rare, but the Suns and Bucks are on the verge of completing one, having agreed in principle to a trade that will send Eric Bledsoe to Milwaukee. Greg Monroe is heading to Phoenix as part of that deal, along with the Bucks’ 2018 first-round pick and 2018 second-round pick.
Gery Woelfel of The Racine Journal Times (Twitter link) expressed some surprised that Tyson Chandler wasn’t involved in the trade, since he’s a good friend of Jason Kidd, who has wanted Chandler on his roster in the past. However, Chandler is earning $13MM and is under contract next year as well, so the Bucks would have had to add another substantial salary to the deal to make that happen.
Meanwhile, Chris Haynes of ESPN observes (via Twitter) that the Suns finalized the agreement just when Bledsoe was about to return to the club’s facility to work out, which was either a fortuitous coincidence or a sign that the team really had no interest in having him around.
Here’s more on the Bledsoe trade:
- Monroe and his $17MM+ contract appear to be functioning primarily as salary filler to complete this deal, but the Suns have yet to decide whether to keep, trade, or release him, tweets John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7. If Phoenix buys out Monroe, the big man would be an “obvious candidate” to sign with the Celtics or Thunder, says Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
- After trading Monroe, the Bucks look like a match made in heaven for Jahlil Okafor, argues Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype.
- While Bledsoe didn’t have a strong preference for where he ended up, Milwaukee was at the top of his wish list, according to Gambadoro, who says the point guard is looking forward to playing with Giannis Antetokounmpo (Twitter links).
- Because today’s trade is a one-for-one swap in terms of players, the Suns will still have to open up a roster spot within the next month in order to convert Mike James‘ two-way contract to a standard NBA deal, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
- The acquisition of Bledsoe doesn’t come without a good deal of risk for the Bucks, given the point guard’s injury history, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
Poll: How Will Bucks Do With Bledsoe?
Heading into the 2017/18 season, the Cavaliers and Celtics were viewed as the heavy frontrunners to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals in the spring. However, the Cavs look vulnerable so far, having endured several bad losses already. And while the Celtics have been great, they’re not expected to get All-Star forward Gordon Hayward back this season, which may limit their upside.
The Wizards and Raptors are considered contenders in the East, and teams like the Pistons and Magic have been unexpectedly successful early in the season. But in the wake of reports that the Bucks are finalizing a trade to acquire Eric Bledsoe from the Suns, Milwaukee may have emerged as the most intriguing challenger for the conference crown.
The Bucks have gotten off to a modest start, losing five of their first nine games, but Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA’s leading scorer at 31.0 PPG, looks ready to compete for an MVP award; reigning Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon has taken another step forward this season; and Khris Middleton has been productive and healthy, recording 19.0 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 4.9 APG so far despite struggling with his shot.
Now, the Bucks are set to add another explosive playmaker to their roster with the acquisition of Bledsoe, and the veteran point guard isn’t the only notable mid-season addition Milwaukee will make in 2017/18.
The Bucks will also welcome back former second overall pick Jabari Parker at some point in the new year. Even though the Bucks played their best ball last season after Parker went down with his ACL injury, there’s no reason to believe he’d have a negative impact on the team if he’s willing to play a complementary role when he gets back on the court.
With Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Parker, Brogdon, and Bledsoe joined by a group of role players that includes Thon Maker, John Henson, Tony Snell, Matthew Dellavedova, and Mirza Teletovic, the Bucks have an intriguing mix of talent. Mitch Lawrence of Forbes makes the case that they’re capable of earning a top-four seed in the East. And if the Bucks get hot at the right time in the postseason, they’re a squad no team will want to face.
What do you think? Is this Bucks team capable of making a deep playoff run, or are they still a year or two away from taking that next step? Vote below in our poll and jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!
How will the new-look Bucks do this season?
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Win one playoff series 53% (777)
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Make it to the Eastern Conference Finals 25% (365)
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Make the playoffs, but won't win a series 16% (229)
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Make it to the NBA Finals 5% (75)
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Miss the playoffs 1% (21)
Total votes: 1,467
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Kuzminskas, Noah On Trade Block For Knicks
With the clock ticking on their 16th roster spot, the Knicks will have to make a roster move of some sort in the coming days, and the team’s preferred option would be to trade a player rather than eating a guaranteed salary, writes Ian Begley of ESPN.
To that end, the Knicks have been making calls to gauge potential trade interest in Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who recently expressed dissatisfaction with his reduced role in New York. Additionally, the club has made Joakim Noah available in trade conversations with several teams since the end of the 2017/18 season, but hasn’t found a viable deal, league sources tell Begley.
Marc Berman of The New York Post had previously reported that Kuzminskas’s representatives were gauging possible trade interest in their client, so it comes as no surprise that the Knicks are involved in those discussions too.
The 28-year-old Lithiuanian forward had modest overall numbers last season, but played well when given the chance to crack the starting lineup, recording 14.0 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and a .511/.391/.929 in his five starts. Kuzminskas is only earning about $3MM and will be a restricted free agent next summer, so it shouldn’t be overly difficult to move him if there are teams with interest.
The same can’t be said of Noah, whose contract is fully guaranteed through 2019/20 at a rate of approximately $18.5MM annually. As Begley notes, a trade involving Noah is highly unlikely, given his exorbitant salary and his declining production. With Enes Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn off to solid starts, it’s not even clear if Noah will have a place in the rotation when he returns from his suspension, says Begley.
If the Knicks haven’t lined up a suitable trade by the time Noah’s suspension ends, the team may get back down to 15 players by waiving Ramon Sessions, according to Begley. The point guard’s 2017/18 salary is fully guaranteed, but it’s only worth the minimum, and Sessions isn’t a part of the rotation, with Jarrett Jack and Frank Ntilikina currently handling point guard duties.
Bulls Rumors: Portis, Grant, Lopez, Markkanen
Bobby Portis will jump into the Bulls’ rotation when his eight-game suspension ends on Tuesday, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com. Portis, who was punished for punching and injuring teammate Nikola Mirotic during a scrimmage scuffle, will back up rookie Lauri Markkanen at power forward. “We do plan on Bobby being the backup four,” coach Fred Hoiberg told Smith and other media members. “We’ll see how the flow of the game is going and see if we can slide him down to the five and allow he and Lauri to play together for a stretch.” Hoiberg said the second unit needs the boost that Portis can provide. “Every time he steps on the floor and we need a jolt of energy, he can provide that for us,” he said. “He needs to continue to do those little things that have made him successful when he’s been on the floor his first couple years in the league.”
In other items concerning the Bulls:
- Jerian Grant is looking more comfortable at point guard and has emerged as a true competitor to Kris Dunn for the starting job, as Smith examines in a separate piece. Grant posted a near triple-double against the Pelicans on Saturday with 13 points, eight rebounds and nine rebounds while Dunn played only 17 minutes and shot 2-for-9 from the field. “I was able to push the ball and find my teammates,” Grant told Smith and other reporters. “If I continue to do that we can win some games and be in a game with a team like that.”
- Center Robin Lopez believes the team’s younger players shouldn’t simply be handed playing time, as he expressed to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s something to be said for earning minutes,’’ Lopez said. “It kind of builds character. It’s just not going to work out perfectly all the time, but I’m a proponent of that.’’
- Markkanen ranks second only to the Sixers’ Ben Simmons as a Rookie of the Year candidate, according to Mark Schanowski of NBC Sports Chicago.