Goran Dragic To Replace Kevin Love In ASG
The Heat finally have an All-Star, with the NBA announcing today in a press release that Miami point guard Goran Dragic has been named to the All-Star Game as a replacement for injured Cavalier Kevin Love. Dragic will join LeBron James‘ squad for this month’s event.
In addition to being the first All-Star appearance for Dragic, it will be the first All-Star nod for any player on the Heat’s roster. Miami is currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with a 29-22 record, despite not having any players who had been All-Stars at any time in their NBA careers — until today.
Dragic, 31, is enjoying another productive season for the Heat, averaging 17.0 PPG, 4.8 APG, and 4.1 RPG, with a .437/.351/.757 shooting line. He’s the third injury replacement named to the All-Star Game, joining Paul George, who replaced DeMarcus Cousins, and Andre Drummond, who will sub in for John Wall.
Dragic beat out the likes of Ben Simmons and Kemba Walker, among others, for the right to be one of this year’s 12 Eastern Conference All-Stars. As the NBA’s announcement explains, the Heat point guard “received the most voting points from NBA head coaches among Eastern Conference players who were not selected as reserves or already named as an injury replacement.”
Pistons Rumors: Failed Trades, S. Johnson, Love
The Pistons had originally planned to approach this season’s trade deadline by aggressively pursuing upgrades on the wing, writes Jake Fischer of SI.com. League sources tell Fischer that Detroit looked into several potential trade candidates around the NBA, including Danny Green, Jordan Clarkson, Tyreke Evans, Rodney Hood, and Courtney Lee. The Magic also called to discuss a deal that would have included Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton, and Luke Kennard, per Fischer.
As a result of all that research and legwork on wing players, the Pistons came to a realization that prompted them to change direction. “It’s becoming a wing league, and not many teams are willing to move those players,” a Pistons source told Fischer. “We were willing to give up ours.”
Rather than looking to build up on their own wing depth, the Pistons decided to part with Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris in a deal that would bolster their frontcourt instead. It remains to be seen whether that approach will pay off, but the team will start to find out tonight, with Blake Griffin set to make his Pistons debut. “It’s time to make a run now,” one team source told Fischer, who notes that seven of Detroit’s eight remaining games before the All-Star break are at home.
Here’s more on the Pistons from Fischer:
- The Pistons, who explored trading for Eric Bledsoe last summer, circled back to him in November and came “within inches” of acquiring him in a three-way deal with the Suns and Pelicans, according to Fischer. That trade, which would have included Reggie Jackson, fell through.
- The Pistons will continue to keep an eye out for opportunities to acquire wing players, and Fischer hints that Stanley Johnson is more likely than Kennard to be included in such a deal.
- Detroit’s front office worked with Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank and GM Michael Winger on the Griffin deal. Head coach Doc Rivers, who served as the Clippers’ head of basketball operations until this past offseason, didn’t find out about the deal until Sunday — by that point, every detail except the first-round pick protections had already been agreed upon, a league source tells Fischer.
- If the Pistons had been unable to finalize a deal for Griffin, they were planning to shift their focus to Kevin Love, says Fischer. Obviously, that was before Love suffered his hand injury, though there’s no indication that the Cavaliers would have seriously considered moving him.
Nuggets Have Serious Interest In Darren Collison
With this season’s trade deadline just a week away, the Nuggets are known to be in the market for a veteran point guard, writes Sam Amick of USA Today. Two sources with knowledge of the situation tell Amick that one guard on Denver’s radar is Darren Collison, who is drawing “serious interest” from the Nuggets.
Collison, 30, has served as the Pacers’ starting point guard this season and has played well, averaging 12.9 PPG and 5.3 APG in 50 games (30.2 MPG). His .497 FG% and .432 3PT% are career highs.
Indiana is currently tied for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, with a 29-23 record, so it’d be surprising if the team moves its starting point guard. Amick’s report indicates the Pacers have rebuffed the Nuggets’ trade efforts so far. Still, the team has a little depth at point guard — Cory Joseph has been solid as Collison’s backup and could slide into the starting lineup. Joe Young‘s role could be expanded if necessary, and Victor Oladipo and Lance Stephenson are capable of handling the ball too.
The Nuggets currently have Jamal Murray starting at point guard, with Will Barton spending some time at the one as well; Emmanuel Mudiay has seen his role reduced this season. According to Amick, Denver would like to be able to return Barton to his “super sixth man” role rather than relying on him for point guard duties.
Amick suggests that Kings point guard George Hill, who drew interest from the Nuggets in the offseason, might be another potential Denver target at the deadline. However, Hill’s $20MM cap hit and his guaranteed money beyond this season would be a deterrent. Collison is on a more team-friendly contract, at $10MM this season — only $2MM of his $10MM salary for 2018/19 is guaranteed.
According to Amick, the Nuggets also hope to find a way to clear a 15-man roster spot for two-way player Torrey Craig at some point.
Joe Johnson Angling For Trade?
Veteran forward Joe Johnson is “angling behind the scenes” for a trade that would send him out of Utah, league sources tell Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). It’s not the first time we’ve heard rumblings about the possibility — Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) said last week that he was told Johnson wants out.
Johnson, 36, has racked up more than 20,000 over the course of a long and impressive NBA career, but he has struggled mightily in his second season with the Jazz. In 29 games so far this year, Johnson has averaged a career-worst 7.3 PPG on a shooting line of .422/.267/.826. His 3PT% also represents a career low.
Johnson’s expiring contract may intrigue teams looking to create cap flexibility for the coming offseason, but it’s not cheap — his cap hit for 2017/18 is $10.5MM, an unappealing figure given his production. If the Jazz are unable to find a taker for Johnson prior to next Thursday’s trade deadline, it will be interesting to see whether the team is willing to buy him out, Stein notes.
Given Utah’s reported interest in Nikola Mirotic, sending Johnson and a protected first-round pick to Chicago in a deal for Mirotic could be one potential avenue for the Jazz to consider. However, the club has thus far been unwilling to surrender a first-round pick in exchange for Mirotic.
Danny Ainge ‘Pretty Sure’ Celtics Will Use DPE
Appearing today on radio show Toucher & Rich in Boston, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said that he’s “pretty sure” his front office will use the team’s disabled player exception before the March 12 deadline (Twitter link via A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston). The $8.4MM exception could be used to acquire a player in a trade or to sign a player who is bought out by his current team.
“We’re on the phone all the time,” Ainge told NBC Sports Boston. “We don’t have to do a deal. We’ll do a good deal. We don’t feel we have to do something because we have some glaring weakness. We know our team is not perfect, but I like the guys on the team.”
As we detailed on Wednesday, several teams around the NBA hold disabled player exceptions after having players go down with season-ending injuries. But none of those exceptions is worth more than Boston’s $8.4MM DPE.
Since the disabled player exception can only be used once, the size of the Celtics’ exception wouldn’t give them an advantage over, say, the Heat – who have a $5.5MM DPE – if both clubs were pursuing a player like Tyreke Evans (who is earning $3.29MM). However, the Celtics’ exception can accommodate a wider range of players. For instance, Boston is the only team capable of acquiring Lou Williams‘ $7MM salary using a DPE.
[RELATED: Celtics among teams to express interest in Tyreke Evans]
Adding a scorer like Evans or Williams would make sense for the Celtics, as would bolstering their frontcourt with another big man — Greg Monroe, who reached a buyout agreement with the Suns, would be one candidate. Still, Ainge tells NBC Sports Boston that he’s not focused on a specific position or need as he considers his team’s options.
“It’s not like other sports where we need a defensive back that does this one thing, or we need a second baseman,” Ainge said. “Basketball is different. There’s lots of different ways we can play. It all depends on the ‘who’ more than the actual needs.”
LeBron James Open To Talking To Warriors In Free Agency
If the Warriors could make a maximum salary contract work within the NBA’s cap rules, LeBron James would be open to meeting with the team as a free agent this summer, according to Chris Haynes of ESPN. Haynes cautions that there’s no indication at this point that Golden State is exploring ways to land James, but suggests that the four-time MVP would listen to a Warriors pitch out of respect for the team’s “winning culture.”
As Haynes observes, James and his business team are known to “covet structure,” and the Warriors’ management group – from head coach Steve Kerr to GM Bob Myers to Joe Lacob‘s ownership group – epitomize that sort of structure. It also goes without saying that no other NBA team would provide a better opportunity to win multiple more titles over the next few years.
While no one knows where James will end up playing in 2018/19, the idea that he would make the leap to his already-stacked rivals in the Bay Area seems awfully far-fetched. Of course, the thought of Kevin Durant doing the same seemed just as unbelievable when those rumors first started surfacing two years ago.
Still, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), the summer of 2016 posed a unique opportunity for the Warriors to create maximum salary space due to an unprecedented cap spike and the fact that Stephen Curry was still on a very team-friendly contract. Creating a path for James to get to Golden State this offseason wouldn’t be nearly as simple.
Within his article, Haynes suggests that a sign-and-trade deal, perhaps built around Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala, would be the most realistic scenario to get James to the Warriors. However, even that would be a challenge, since Durant would have to take another discount and the club would likely need to move Shaun Livingston, filling its bench with minimum salary players.
In Marks’ view (Twitter links), the only realistic scenario would be having James go the Chris Paul route, exercising his player option for 2018/19. That way, Durant’s free agency wouldn’t be affected and the Warriors wouldn’t be hard-capped as a result of completing a sign-and-trade. LeBron would also be in line to earn the same amount in ’18/19 that he’s expected to on a new contract, and he could sign an extension six months later that could essentially mirror a free agent deal (Twitter link via Marks).
I suspect any debate over the cap machinations of such a deal will ultimately be moot. While Haynes’ report confirms that James isn’t ruling out Golden State out of hand, the odds of LeBron ever donning a Warriors uniform still seem very low.