Cavaliers Notes: Love, Trades, Hood
The Cavaliers will need Kevin Love to post the type of numbers he put up regularly in Minnesota for them to remain a playoff contender after the departure of LeBron James, writes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Love had an eventful off-season, highlighted by his 30th birthday last week and a four-year, $120MM extension in July.
Love was an All-Star with the Timberwolves before a trade brought him to Cleveland to be part of a Big Three with James and Kyrie Irving. That trio reached three straight NBA Finals and won the 2016 title before Irving was traded to Boston last summer.
Love played 59 games last season and made his fifth All-Star appearance, but he was sidelined for much of the year by a broken hand. He has become the face of the franchise now, Vardon notes, and the Cavaliers will be expecting much more than the 17.6 PPG and 9.3 RPG he averaged last year.
There’s more news out of Cleveland:
- The Cavaliers should ignore calls to trade Love and accelerate the rebuilding process, David Aldridge of TNT writes in a mailbag column. Cleveland doesn’t have a great history of attracting free agents, Aldridge argues, and that path would be much more difficult without an elite player on the roster. Love can keep the Cavs competitive for the next couple of seasons, then be traded if the organization decides to commit to a youth movement.
- Rodney Hood will be competing against a talented group of shooting guards when he becomes unrestricted free agent next summer, notes Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report. After failing to get a contract he liked as a restricted free agent, Hood opted to accept Cleveland’s $3,472,887 qualifying offer, reportedly turning down a three-year deal from the team in the neighborhood of $21MM. Also hitting the open market next summer will be Klay Thompson, J.J. Redick, Tyreke Evans, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Austin Rivers, Mario Hezonja, Danny Green, Terrence Ross and Jeremy Lamb.
- Hood’s body of work through his first four seasons suggests his best days might still be ahead of him despite his playoff struggles, Joe Gabriele of the team’s website opines. Hood could have a breakout season since he’ll have more of a scoring and leadership role with the James-less Cavs, Gabriele adds.
Wizards Sign Tiwian Kendley To Camp Deal
The Wizards have signed undrafted guard Tiwian Kendley to a training camp contract, according to RealGM.
Kendley, 23, played two college seasons at Morgan State and averaged 25.7 PPG, 4.0 RPG and 2.2 APG in his final year.
Kendley averaged 9.0 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 2.0 APG in four summer league games with Washington. While it’s unlikely Kendley will make the 15-man roster, the camp deal would allow the Wizards to designate the 6’5” Kendley as an affiliate player in order to retain his G League rights if he’s waived before the regular season.
The Wizards reached an agreement with guard Chris Chiozza on a similar deal earlier on Monday. The Kendley signing gives them 19 players on their camp roster, one shy of the limit.
Extension Candidate: Stanley Johnson
Twenty-three players became eligible for rookie scale extensions when the 2018/19 NBA league year began in July. One of those 23, Devin Booker, quickly finalized a new deal with the Suns, leaving 22 other players who could sign rookie scale extensions before the October 15 deadline.
In the weeks leading up to that deadline, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the strongest candidates for new contracts.
[RELATED: 2018 NBA Extension Candidate Series]
Our examination of this year’s candidates for rookie scale extensions continues today with Pistons swingman Stanley Johnson. Let’s dive in…
Why the Pistons should give him an extension:
The ability to guard multiple positions has become an increasingly valuable skill in the current NBA. With so many teams going with smaller lineups, defenders must be able to switch onto smaller, quicker players and bigger, stronger opponents alike and still hold their own. Therein lies Johnson’s calling card.
The No. 8 overall pick in the 2015 draft, the 6’7” Johnson has proven he can defend four positions. He’s got the strength to mix up with a LeBron James and the athleticism and quickness to match up with a Kyrie Irving.
For the most part, Johnson is assigned to the other team’s top wing player. Given the composition of the Pistons’ roster, Johnson serves as a complimentary piece to the team’s other top wings, Reggie Bullock and Luke Kennard. Bullock and Kennard are known for their perimeter shooting but aren’t considered noteworthy defenders.
New coach Dwane Casey has indicated he’d like to play Johnson at power forward at certain times, which would allow him to attack taller, slower defenders off the dribble.
Why the Pistons should avoid an extension:
If Johnson has shown any growth offensively, it’s been a very gradual process. In his rookie season, he averaged 8.1 PPG while making 37.5% of his shots and 30.7% from long range in 23.1 MPG.
He experimented with a new release in his second year and regressed even from those subpar figures. Johnson’s offensive woes and questions about his work ethic led to a dip in playing time, as he averaged 4.4 PPG while shooting 35.3% from the field and 29.2% on 3-point tries in 17.8 MPG.
He got back in former coach Stan Van Gundy’s good graces last season but remained a work in progress offensively. Johnson averaged 8.7 PPG on 37.5% shooting whiile making just 28.6% of his threes in 27.4 MPG.
Points of comparison:
Among recent recipients of rookie scale extensions, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist may be the best point of comparison for Johnson. In 2015, the Hornets gave Kidd-Gilchrist a four-year, $52MM deal, mainly due to his reputation as a lockdown defender.
Kidd-Gilchrist has been a fixture in the team’s starting lineup during the first two years of the extension but his offensive numbers have actually gone down compared to his first three seasons in the league. He doesn’t even attempt 3-point baskets, which makes it easier for defenders to load up on Charlotte’s shooters.
Johnson at least provides some hope of developing into a perimeter threat. In six April games last season, he averaged 12.0 PPG and made 36% of his long-distance tries.
Cap outlook:
Due to the acquisition of Blake Griffin and some poor decisions by the previous regime, the Pistons won’t have a lot of flexibility in terms of their payroll next summer.
The trio of Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson alone will eat up $79.6MM of their cap space. The Pistons will still be on the hook for the final years of Jon Leuer‘s and Langston Galloway‘s deals, chewing up another $16.8MM in cap room. And the stretch provision used on Josh Smith will wipe out an additional $5.33MM.
Handing Johnson a deal comparable to Kidd-Gilchrist, i.e. in the $13MM annual range, would leave the Pistons with very little wiggle room to upgrade the roster. They’d have to be convinced that Johnson could expand his game offensively while remaining a bulldog on the defensive end.
It’s not far-fetched, considering Johnson exited college after his freshman season at Arizona. He’s still only 22 and could thrive under the guidance of Casey.
Conclusion:
Under a different set of circumstances, the Pistons might consider locking up Johnson at the right price. He can contribute without being a major offensive factor and the Pistons probably don’t need him to become a 15- or 20-point scorer.
They’ve got two All-Star level frontcourt talents in Griffin and Drummond, an offensively-gifted point guard (when healthy) in Jackson, and some quality 3-point shooters dotting the roster. It’s still difficult to make a long-term commitment to Johnson until he becomes at least enough of an offensive threat that defenders have to pay some attention to him.
It’s even more difficult for the Pistons to lavish Johnson with a multi-year deal given their salary constraints next summer. They can still extend a qualifying offer and see how the market plays out when Johnson becomes a restricted free agent.
It’s unlikely Johnson will develop so dramatically that other teams will be beating down his door with lucrative offer sheets. Better to see if Johnson can make the necessary upgrades in his game before giving him long-term security.
Will Johnson get extended by October 15?
Our prediction: No.
Our estimate: RFA in 2019.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Timberwolves Work Out Paul, Rush, Johnson-Odom
Brandon Paul, Brandon Rush and Darius Johnson-Odom are among the free agent veteran guards the Timberwolves brought in for a workout on Monday, Darren Wolfson of KSTP tweets. Monta Ellis is also on the list of players Minnesota is looking at, according to Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Paul, a 27-year-old shooting guard, made his NBA debut last season and appeared in 64 total games for the Spurs, averaging 2.3 PPG and 1.1 RPG in 9.0 minutes per contest. He was waived on July 31.
Rush, a 33-year-old shooting guard, played with the Timberwolves in 2016/17, appearing in 47 games, including 33 starts. Rush signed a 10-day contract with the Blazers last season but did not appear in a game and the team declined to give him a second 10-day deal.
Johnson-Odom hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since the 2013/14 season. Johnson-Odom, 28, played in Italy last season.
Ellis, 32, was out of the league last season after the Pacers waived him in July 2017.
With the addition of forward Luol Deng, the Timberwolves have 13 players with guaranteed deals and James Nunnally‘s partially guaranteed pact and are holding open auditions for last spot or two if they don’t retain Nunnally. They brought in wing players Nick Young, Arron Afflalo, and Corey Brewer last week.
They also reportedly would have interest in Joakim Noah should the center hit the open market. Like Deng, Noah previously played under coach Tom Thibodeau when he was coaching in Chicago.
Heat Re-Sign Udonis Haslem
SEPTEMBER 10: Haslem has officially re-signed, according to a team press release. “It’s great to have our captain back,” Heat president Pat Riley said. “We’re looking forward to having UD back for his 16th season with the Heat.”
SEPTEMBER 6: Veteran forward Udonis Haslem will return for another season with the Heat, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. He agreed to a one-year contract at the veteran’s minimum of about $2.4MM.
The contract will include an “implicit” no-trade clause, notes salary cap expert Albert Nahmad, but it’s almost unthinkable that Miami would try to include Haslem in a deal (Twitter link).
Haslem has spent 15 years in the NBA, all with the Heat, but has transitioned into a mentor’s role in the past two seasons. He got into just 14 games last year, played about five minutes per night and averaged less than a point and a rebound per contest.
Haslem originally signed with Miami in 2003 after going undrafted out of Florida. He became a starter in his second season and averaged close to a double-double in points and rebounds for several years. He provided toughness and leadership as a part-time starter during the Big Three era when the Heat made four straight trips to the NBA Finals.
Miami has been holding two roster spots open throughout the summer for Haslem and Dwyane Wade. Today’s signing brings the Heat’s training camp total to 19 with Wade expected to announce a decision soon. Thirteen players have guaranteed contracts with Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten holding two-way deals and Briante Weber, Marcus Lee, Malik Newman and Jarnell Stokes all having Exhibit 10s (Twitter link).
Devin Booker Undergoes Surgery, Out Six Weeks
Suns shooting guard Devin Booker underwent surgery on Monday to repair his broken right hand and will require approximately six weeks to recover, the team announced in a press release.
With Phoenix’s regular-season opener scheduled for October 17 against the Mavericks, Booker is unlikely to be available at the start of the campaign. The second or third week of the schedule is a more reasonable target.
Technically, Booker had fifth metacarpophalangeal joint in his right hand fixed by Dr. Steven Shin in Los Angeles.
Booker initially injured the hand last March, causing him to miss the final 12 games of the 2017/18 season. It’s uncertain why Booker waited until the brink of training camp to get the hand repaired.
Booker, who inked a five-year contract extension this summer for an estimated $158MM, averaged a team-high 24.9 PPG, 4.5 RPG and 4.7 APG in his third season, though he only played 54 games due to injuries.
Unless they swing a deal before opening night, the Suns will have an unimposing assortment of options at the guard spots until Booker returns. Phoenix has been hunting for a point guard since it dealt Brandon Knight to the Rockets.
The Suns have Elie Okobo, Shaquille Harrison and Isaiah Canaan competing for the point guard job until further notice. Rookie Mikal Bridges, Troy Daniels, Davon Reed and two-way George King are potential fill-ins for Booker at shooting guard.
Community Shootaround: Heat Rotation
There’s still a lot of uncertainty regarding Dwyane Wade‘s status for the upcoming season. A report late last month indicated that Wade was ‘inclined to play’ another season and if he does, it will be with the franchise he’s played for most of his career.
Even if Wade doesn’t return, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will have a lot of tough decisions to make regarding his rotation during the upcoming season. Miami’s roster is filled with solid but unspectacular players and Spoelstra will have to sort out which are most deserving of steady minutes.
Thanks to team president Pat Riley basically standing pat with his roster this summer, there aren’t a lot of players with clearly defined roles.
Point guard Goran Dragic seems like the only sure thing in terms of the backcourt. Tyler Johnson is the listed backup but Dion Waiters could get some playing time there, as well as Wade if he re-signs.
The shooting guard spot has a major logjam whether or not Wade is added to the equation. Along with Waiters coming back from an ankle injury, the Heat have Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Wayne Ellington and Josh Richardson vying for minutes there.
Richardson could start at small forward but Justise Winslow will also be in the mix, along with summer league star Derrick Jones. Richardson led the team last season in minutes played per game but that was partly due to the injuries sustained by Waiters and McGruder, who started 65 games two seasons ago. Ellington led the team’s rotation players last season with his 39.2% shooting from beyond the arc.
Winslow will also play the ‘four’ in smaller lineups but Spoelstra also has to figure out a way to juggle Hassan Whiteside, Kelly Olynyk, Bam Adebayo and James Johnson at the center and power forward positions. Whiteside brooded about his reduced playing time last season and he won’t be happy with the status quo. But Adebayo’s role should expand in his second season while James Johnson, Olynyk and Winslow all played between 23-27 minutes on average last season.
That’s an awful lot for Spoeltra to sort out.
That leads us to our topic of the day: If you were the Miami Heat coach, what would your starting lineup look like? Which players should get the most minutes off the bench and which should be out of the rotation?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Luol Deng Signs With Wolves
3:23pm: The signing is official, the team’s PR department tweets.
1:37pm: Minnesota has reached a one-year, $2.4MM agreement with free agent forward Luol Deng, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Deng becomes the latest member of a group that has been dubbed the “Timber-Bulls,” made up of coach/executive Tom Thibodeau and former Chicago players Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson. Deng reached his career peak playing for the Bulls under Thibodeau with a pair of All-Star appearances.
The low point of Deng’s career came last season with the Lakers, when he played 13 minutes on opening night and was benched for the rest of the year. Deng didn’t have any physical problems that kept him off the court, but he didn’t fit in with the youth movement launched by team president Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka.
Deng agreed to a buyout last week that affects the final two seasons of the four-year, $72MM contract he signed in 2016. To get his freedom from the Lakers, Deng agreed to give back $7.5MM of the $36.8MM remaining, with 48.9% coming from this year’s salary and the rest from the 2019/20 figure.
Before being sidelined last year, Deng was coming off a disappointing debut season with the Lakers, posting a 7.6/5.3/1.3 line in 56 games while shooting 39% from the field. His last good season came with Miami in 2015/16 when averaged 12.3 PPG and 6.0 PPG in 74 games.
Minnesota has just 12 guaranteed contracts, so finding space for Deng won’t be an issue. The Wolves had their full $3.382MM bi-annual exception available, but Deng agreed to sign for the veteran’s minimum. The agreement doesn’t come with any guarantee of playing time, Wojnarowski adds.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Nuggets Adding Mark Price To Coaching Staff
Former NBA star Mark Price will join the Nuggets’ coaching staff, according to a post by Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN Now.
Price has held a variety of coaching positions since his playing career ended in 1998. His last job was as a college coach with Charlotte before being let go in December of last year. He has previous NBA experience with the Nuggets, Hawks, Warriors, Magic and Hornets.
One of the league’s most accomplished shooters during his 12-year playing career, Price served as a shooting instructor with the Hornets, which will also be part of his job in Denver.
Earlier today, the Nuggets added Charles Klask to their coaching staff (Twitter link). Klask has been an NBA assistant since 2011 and most recently worked for Stan Van Gundy in Detroit.
Atlantic Notes: Musa, Dudley, Knicks, Bird
Nets first-rounder Dzanan Musa has been bulking up since the draft in hopes of being physically prepared for the NBA, relays NetsDaily. In a weekend interview with with Radiosarajevo in Bosnia, Musa said he has been focused on “physical progress” and has gained 15 pounds this summer.
“As far as my physical predisposition is concerned, no one has to worry,” he said. “I have put on seven kilograms in a 25-day period, so I do not have to have any disadvantages by the start of the season, and I will try to give my team immediate input.”
The 29th overall selection has spent most of the summer at the Nets’ training facility, but recently returned home to Bosnia to participate in a pair of FIBA World Cup qualifying games.
There’s more news from the Atlantic Division:
- Trade restrictions on the Nets‘ Jared Dudley will expire September 20, according to a separate story on NetsDaily outlining important upcoming dates for the team. That date will mark the two-month anniversary of the trade that sent Dudley from Phoenix to Brooklyn, and it will lift the restriction that he can only be dealt in one-for-one trades.
- The Knicks picked up a pair of promising young players on one-year deals while preserving their cap space for next summer, writes Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders in the season preview for New York. The Knicks signed Mario Hezonja for $6.5MM and Noah Vonleh for a non-guaranteed $1.6MM, giving them a year to see how much they can contribute before making long-term decisions. Blancarte also believes David Fizdale was the right choice to take over as coach.
- Jabari Bird is under guarded watch at a Boston-area hospital following his arrest Friday on a “domestic incident,” tweets A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. Bird is expected to be released from the hospital today or tomorrow and will be officially charged for his role in the incident.
- The Raptors have scheduled a press conference for September 21 to introduce Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports (Twitter link). Both were acquired from the Spurs in a mid-July trade.