Western Rumors: Grant, Stotts, Rosenfeld, Fish
The Thunder’s desire to re-sign unrestricted free agent forward Jerami Grant could be hampered by luxury tax issues, Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman points out. Oklahoma City is intent on re-signing Paul George and if that happens, it will be well over the league salary cap. Numerous teams will likely offer Grant their mid-level exception with a starting salary of $8.6MM per year,, Dawson continues. At that level, Grant would cost the Thunder an additional $45MM in luxury tax if George signs a max contract, Dawson adds.
In other developments around the Western Conference:
- The Trail Blazers would prefer to retain coach Terry Stotts for the final year of his contract, Marc Stein of the New York Times relays in his latest newsletter. The team’s stars are supporters of Stotts, as is a good chunk of Portland’s fan base, Stein continues. There’s a general sense that Stotts has gotten the most out of the rosters he’s been handed, despite getting swept by the Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs.
- The Lakers’ director of basketball analytics, Jason Rosenfeld, has left the organization, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Rosenfeld has accepted an MLB-related position, Pincus adds. Rosenfeld joined the Lakers in October.
- Suns strength and conditioning coach Jeff Fish has resigned, Chris Haynes of ESPN tweets. Fish was just hired during the offseason.
Atlantic Notes: Fultz, Knicks, Brown, Crabbe
The Sixers need to make some hard decisions this offseason on where top pick Markelle Fultz fits into their future plans, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Inquirer argues. Now that they’ve established themselves as a playoff team, they have to decide how to get as deep as possible in future seasons with Fultz playing a bigger role. If Fultz isn’t a playoff-caliber two-guard by this time next year, the dream of a championship season could be dashed, Murphy continues. Ideally. Fultz will soon establish himself as a legitimate third option but they have guard against the possibility it never happens, Murphy adds.
In other news and musings around the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry have taken a much more thorough, well-thought-out approach to their coaching search, unlike predecessor Phil Jackson, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post. The amount of candidates interviewed has reached double digits and the duo has traveled across the country and over the Atlantic Ocean in order to find the right fit, Berman continues. They don’t pretend to know everything and that’s a stark contrast to Jackson, who stopped listening and learning, according to Berman.
- Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown vows to play Game 2 of the series against the Sixers on Thursday, as he told A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports. Brown, who was a game-time decision in the opener, is nursing a right hamstring injury. “I’ll be back. I’m playing,” he told Blakely, though he added, “I’m basically trying to come back in two days from a two-week type injury.”
- Nets guard Allen Crabbe promises to improve his efficiency and production in his second season with the club, according to BrooklynNets.com. Crabbe averaged a career-best 13.2 PPG and set the team record for most 3-pointers made, but his long-range percentage dropped from 44.4% to 37.8%. “I didn’t have the consistent season I wanted to have,” Crabbe said. “But I got one year under my belt [in Brooklyn] and I know where I can be effective on this team and what I can bring – what I can do. Just go into off-season and come back a completely different player.”
Free Agent Stock Watch 2018: Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves landed back in the NBA playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons this spring. That comes as no surprise, given that the club has finally paired its stockpile of young stars with a formidable, winning coach and a green light to spend.
The Wolves need not fret that they barely put a dent in the Rockets this postseason as they’ll be back in contention next season and for as long as Jimmy Butler is capable of leading the club’s offense, flanked by Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns.
It’ll get mighty difficult to afford all three eventually but they won’t need to seriously contemplate how to make all the numbers work until the summer after this one.
Nemanja Bjelica, PF, 30 (Down) – Signed to a three-year, $12MM deal in 2015
The Timberwolves are in a much different position now than they were when they inked Bjelica as an international free agent, but the veteran has hung around in large part due to his presence in the locker room. Given that the Wolves already have so much of their 2018/19 payroll tied up in other players, don’t expect them to offer Bjelica much more than the minimum.
Aaron Brooks, PG, 33 (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $2MM deal in 2017
Brooks didn’t exactly take the league by storm in his tenth season but his role and value are clear; he’s a familiar insurance policy for former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. Brooks isn’t likely to have a long list of suitors so it’s well within reason that he ends up back in Minnesota on another veteran’s minimum deal late this offseason.
Jamal Crawford, SG, 38 (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $9MM deal in 2017
Having made over $100MM over the course of his career, including $11MM from a team he didn’t even play for in 2017/18, Crawford won’t accept his $4.5MM player option for next season if he’s not perfectly content playing for Minnesota. I wouldn’t rule out the 38-year-old passing on a second season with the Wolves in order to close out his career as a killer reserve on a team with more realistic short-term title aspirations.
Marcus Georges-Hunt, SG, 24 (Up) – Signed to a one-year, $1MM deal in 2017
There won’t be significant pressure for the Wolves to bring back Georges-Hunt after a solid but modest first year in Minnesota, but they’ll need to fill out their lineup eventually and he’s a tough, defensive-minded player. Expect the club to keep its options open over the course of the offseason but don’t be surprised if the Wolves bring the familiar 24-year-old back on the cheap.
Amile Jefferson, PF, 25 (Up) – Signed to a one-year deal in 2018
The Wolves converted Jefferson’s two-way contract into a standard deal last month despite the fact that he never even suited up for the big league roster. Still, the team had a spot to spare and had no reason not to add the extra layer of depth heading into the postseason. Jefferson is a stud in the G League so the organization may be intrigued by his eventual fit with the parent club, but he won’t earn more than the minimum.
Derrick Rose, PG, 29 (Up) – Signed to a one-year deal in 2018
Prior to signing on with his former head coach late in the regular season, Rose’s value was at a career low. Fast forward two months later, however, and the wayward guard may have actually stumbled into an opportunity to salvage his career. Rose averaged 14.2 points per game for the Wolves in the postseason and could be a valuable rotation piece in the right situation. We’ve seen Rose flame out in a couple of wrong situations, so the fact that he’s found any sort of momentum reunited with Thibodeau and the rest of the Timberbulls bodes well for all involved. Rose didn’t do enough during the first six months of the season to warrant any more than another speculative one-year, minimum deal, but the postseason resurgence may have earned him one last run at meaningful minutes on a competent team.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Nick Calathes Plans To Return To NBA
After two seasons abroad, former Grizzlies guard Nick Calathes is looking to return to the NBA, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN writes. The 29-year-old guard, regarded as an elite playmaker with good size, is expected to attract significant interest as a reserve.
Calathes didn’t make much of an impact during two seasons with Memphis from 2013 to 2015, averaging 4.6 points and 2.7 assist in 129 career games, but he emerged as a EuroLeague MVP candidate this season.
After having averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 assists per game for Panathinaikos Athens in Greece’s top league, Calathes will be one year younger than Milos Teodosic was when he came across as a Euroleague star to ink a two-year, $12MM deal with the Clippers last summer.
The Florida native will be represented of ISE’s James Dunleavy and will follow in the footsteps of other Americans like Anthony Parker and Bobby Brown who turned successful EuroLeague stints into additional NBA opportunities years after they were drafted.
Magic To Interview David Fizdale
The Magic will add David Fizdale to their pool of head coaching candidates, Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel writes, the two parties have a forthcoming interview scheduled.
Fizdale will have at least one leg up on other reported candidates in that he’s served as a head coach in the NBA previously, although there’s no indication that that would necessarily impact the team’s decision. While Jerry Stackhouse, David Vanterpool and Ime Udoka have all logged time as assistant coaches, Fizdale coached the Grizzlies through one and a half seasons until his dismissal last November.
Prior to the head coaching gig in Memphis, Fizdale served as an instrumental assistant coach with the state rival Heat. He’s said to be in the mix for several other vacancies around the league, having been reported to agree to interviews with the Knicks, Hornets, Hawks and Suns.
The Magic remain a forlorn pile of young assets and bloated contracts heading into the second year of general manager John Hammond‘s tenure with the franchise. Adding a passionate young coach like Fizdale could serve the organization eight seasons removed from its last 40-win campaign well.
Community Shootaround: Will Darius Bazley Create A Trend?
As we relayed back at the end of March, McDonald’s All-American Darius Bazley, projected to be a 2019 NBA lottery selection, will forgo his college eligibility and sign a G League contract when’s he eligible to do so this fall.
It’s been nearly 10 years since a player has entered the G League straight out of high school. In 2009, Latavious Williams entered the D-League at just 18 years of age, but as Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days writes, there were just 16 teams back then, of which a small few were even owned by NBA teams.
Next season, the G League is set to tip-off with a record 27 teams, most of which are owned and affiliated with an NBA franchise. Moreover, the league has been trending towards a youth movement for quite some time, with most G League teams filling their roster with undrafted rookies.
Given this infusion of youth, Johnson writes that Bazley’s decision is a watershed moment for the G League, opining that Bazley’s performance next season will determine whether or not other players choose to make a similar leap in future seasons.
Do you agree with Johnson? Do you believe that a successful stint in the G League by Bazley may encourage more high school stars to forgo college and enter the G League or will Bazley’s decision be an outlier regardless of how he handles next season? Could a poor performance hurt the G League’s reputation for developing players moving forward?
Please take to the comments section and let us know what you think.
Central Notes: Bucks, Doncic, Pacers
As we relayed yesterday, Bucks’ interim head coach Joe Prunty is still a candidate to retain Milwaukee’s head coaching position. However, as we also indicated, former Hawks’ coach Mike Budenholzer is just one name circulating as a possible replacement for Prunty, with the Bucks planning to conduct an open and active search for their next head coach.
According to Sean Deveney of Sporting News, the Bucks would be wise to move on from Prunty and seek a head coach who can do a better job of inserting franchise cornerstone Giannis Antetokounmpo into a superstar role. Per Deveney, the Bucks have failed to do so to this point in Antetokounmpo’s young career, and it is negatively affecting both Antetokounmpo and the team.
Deveney mentions Budenholzer, former Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, and former Cavaliers coach David Blatt as worthwhile candidates for the position, but ultimately opines that whoever the Bucks hire, he needs to be able to formulate an offense that runs through Antetokounmpo, creating mismatches and finding options for when teams double team him.
Deveney also touches on what he deems disappointing seasons from role players Tony Snell, Thon Maker, and Matthew Dellavedova, as well as the upcoming free agency of former No. 2 overall pick, Jabari Parker. Deveney feels that the best case scenario for the Bucks, although highly unlikely, is a total lack of suitors for Parker, thereby opening the door for the Bucks to potentially sign Parker to a one-year deal at the value of his qualifying offer.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Regardless of how the Bucks plan on approaching Parker’s free agency, at least one teammate is extremely confident that the former Duke star is not leaving Milwaukee (story).
- As one part of a 10-part series focusing on the upcoming 2018 NBA Draft, Marc Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago argues that the Bulls should select Luka Doncic if he is available when Chicago makes its selection in June, as his elite-level passing ability is a perfect fit for today’s fast-paced NBA game.
- Fresh off a heartbreaking loss to the Cavaliers in Game 7 of the teams’ first round series, the Pacers should be excited about their promising future, writes Michael Marot of The Associated Press. As Marot notes, the Pacers could have their top eight players all back next year if Thaddeus Young and Cory Joseph exercise their player options and the Pacers exercise their team option on fan favorite Lance Stephenson.
Hoops Rumors’ 2018 NBA Award Picks: Executive Of The Year
While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until late in June, we’re making our picks for the year’s major awards over the next two weeks.
The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comments section below to share your thoughts.
We’re kicking things off today with the award for Executive of the Year. Here are our selections:
Clark Crum: Kevin Pritchard (Pacers)
Count me in as one of the many who believed the Thunder fleeced the Pacers last summer when they traded for Paul George and only got Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in return. George, 27, was a perennial All-Star and widely thought of as being one of the best two-way players in the NBA, while Oladipo, 25, had largely underperformed as a former No. 2 overall pick and Sabonis, 21, was still unproven.
Fast-forward 10 months later and Pritchard has made all of us doubters look like fools, as Oladipo was named an All-Star and largely outperformed George during the 2017/18 campaign, while Sabonis averaged 17.5 PPG in Indiana’s last four playoff games against the Cavaliers. Throw in the team-friendly offseason signings of starters Darren Collison and Bojan Bogdanovic – whose non-guaranteed contracts for next season combined total only $20.5MM – and the trade for sixth-man Cory Joseph while giving up essentially nothing in return, and you end up with a team that improved its win total by six games after trading away its franchise cornerstone.
Dana Gauruder: Dennis Lindsey (Jazz)
Losing your best player in free agency usually sets back a franchise for years. The Jazz should have been an also-ran when Gordon Hayward bolted. Instead, Lindsey solved their long-standing point guard issue and made them a playoff team. Trading up for Donovan Mitchell turned out to be a master stroke and Ricky Rubio bridged the gap to the Mitchell era.
Austin Kent: Kevin Pritchard (Pacers)
The 2017/18 Pacers were a breath of fresh air in a barely habitable runaway tankathon and that’s why Pritchard gets my pick for Executive of the Year. Rather than kowtow to the presumed fate of small-market teams destined to lose a franchise player, Pritchard wheeled Paul George to Oklahoma City for an intriguing young big man and an underwhelming former No. 2 pick. We didn’t know it then, but Pritchard had a meaningful plan to continue competing despite the setback. Rather than pass the buck and settle for the safe choice of an ambiguous future draft choice, Pritchard brought home tangible assets. The gamble on Victor Oladipo was a massive success — if he isn’t already as capable as George ever was in a Pacers jersey, he’s definitely more marketable. Domantas Sabonis, on the precipice of his 22nd birthday, looks every bit as promising as he did during his rookie season.
Pritchard didn’t settle there. Even if you chalk the George deal up to a pleasant surprise, the freshly-minted executive doubled down on the strategy to fill the team’s roster with capable adult basketball players. Crazy, right? The acquisition of Cory Joseph was shrewd and the signings of Bojan Bogdanovic and Darren Collison reinforce the notion that the man at the helm in Indianapolis has had a singular plan all along: while half the NBA zigs their way to uninspired combinations of current and former superstars and the other zags their way into the sub-20-win cellar, the Pacers barrelled down the middle.
Arthur Hill: Danny Ainge (Celtics)
Not only did he win the Gordon Hayward sweepstakes and get Kyrie Irving from the Cavaliers, Ainge pulled off a spectacular draft-related trade that looks better with each passing day. Instead of making the safe move by taking Markelle Fultz with the top pick, Ainge sent it to Philadelphia in exchange for the No. 3 choice, which brought Jayson Tatum, and a future first-rounder, which will probably be Sacramento’s in 2019. The Celtics could have been the No. 1 seed in the East if not for injuries to Hayward and Irving, and they still have the ammunition to trade for a star like Kawhi Leonard if he becomes available, giving Ainge a shot to win this award again next year.
Chris Crouse: Daryl Morey (Rockets)
This season’s Executive of the Year’s race was Morey’s to lose ever since he crafted the deal to bring Chris Paul to Houston. The Rockets headed into the 2017 offseason as an over-the-cap team, meaning they had to adhere to salary-matching rules in trades. The problem was that the Rockets had so much of their cap tied up in cap holds, rather than players under contract, that they couldn’t get to Paul’s $24.2MM figure without being creative.
Luke Adams: Danny Ainge (Celtics)
Ainge has taken plenty of criticism over the years for his apparent reluctance to roll the dice on potential blockbuster trades, but his 2017/18 moves vindicated that approach in spades. In signing Gordon Hayward, trading for Kyrie Irving, and flipping the No. 1 overall pick, Ainge swung for the fences to greater effect than than he ever did during his baseball days. The decision to hang onto young players like Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier also paid off in a major way for Ainge and the Celtics, who saw those youngsters – along with Jayson Tatum – enjoy breakout seasons. Under-the-radar additions like Shane Larkin and Daniel Theis were just the icing on the cake.
Who is your pick for Executive of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!
Up next: Coach of the Year.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pistons’ Stan Van Gundy Resisting Adjusted Role
Pistons owner Tom Gores would like to bring back Stan Van Gundy as the team’s head coach for the 2018/19 season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. However, Wojnarowski reports that Gores would like to make structural changes to the front office, and Van Gundy is “resisting” those adjustments for the time being.
As Wojnarowski notes, Van Gundy isn’t just the Pistons’ head coach — he also holds the title of president of basketball operations, giving him full authority over player personnel and staffing decisions.
In recent years, we’ve seen multiple coaches with those dual titles have their responsibilities dialed back, including Doc Rivers with the Clippers and Mike Budenholzer with the Hawks last offseason. However, Van Gundy doesn’t appear to be entirely on board with that idea.
It’s not clear what sort of specific structural changes Gores would like to make, but he and Van Gundy have been discussing a way to move forward together for the last couple weeks, Wojnarowski writes. Some of those conversations have centered on the future role of GM Jeff Bower, who is scheduled to meet separately with Gores this week, sources tell Woj.
While Van Gundy has one year left on his contract with the Pistons, several of his assistants – along with Bower – are currently in the final year of their deals, so the team will have plenty of decisions to make on who will and won’t be back.
After posting a disappointing 37-45 record in 2016/17, the Pistons only improved marginally in 2017/18, finishing at 39-43 and missing the postseason for a second consecutive year. At season’s end, Van Gundy and some Pistons players expressed confidence that the club is capable of taking a step forward next year if it can get healthy seasons from Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin, and Andre Drummond, and it appears Gores would like to see Van Gundy return to coach that core. However, it remains unclear whether the two sides will come to an agreement on possible changes to the front office.
Draft Updates: London, Dixson, Magee, Ahmad
A pair of early entrants who declared for the 2018 NBA draft without hiring agents will keep their names in this year’s pool and go pro, according to reports.
Chattanooga’s Makinde London, who began his college career at Xavier, has signed with an agent, a source tells Jeff Goodman of ESPN (Twitter link). London, who didn’t receive an invite to the NBA draft combine, is coming off a junior year in which he averaged 13.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 1.8 APG.
Meanwhile, Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports reports (via Twitter) that UIC sophomore forward Dikembe Dixson will also be staying in the draft rather than returning to college. That news doesn’t come as a surprise, since Dixson’s initial announcement – in which he talked about wanting to eventually return to UIC to graduate – strongly suggested that he would go pro, forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility.
Here are more draft-related updates on this year’s early entrants:
- Southern Miss guard Dominic Magee will return to the program for his senior year after testing the draft waters, a source tells Rothstein (Twitter link). Magee averaged 11.7 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 2017/18 for the Golden Eagles.
- West Virginia junior forward Esa Ahmad, who announced in early April that he would test the draft waters without an agent, is expected to withdraw his name from the 2018 draft pool, reports Goodman (via Twitter). Ahmad’s WVU teammate Sagaba Konate is also going through the draft process –both players will have to formally decide by May 30 whether to stay in the draft or return to school.
- Junior center Malik Martin won’t be returning to South Florida for his senior year, tweets Rothstein. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean Martin will go pro. According to Rothstein, there’s also a chance that the big man will graduate and transfer.