Evan Turner Talks Hawks, Possibility Of Buyout, More
Since he told reporters on January 4 that the Hawks would be making him and Chandler Parsons inactive going forward, Evan Turner hasn’t played a single minute for Atlanta. The Hawks have focused on their youth movement, which has essentially made Turner an afterthought — unless his expiring $18.6MM salary can be used in a trade that nets the club a future asset.
It’s a new experience for Turner, a former No. 2 overall pick who has appeared in more than 700 career regular season games and had never averaged fewer than 22 minutes per contest entering this season. Still, he tells Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, he understands the Hawks’ position and is remaining positive even as his role has disappeared.
As Turner continues to work out and stay in game shape in the hopes of eventually getting an opportunity to return to the court in Atlanta or elsewhere, the 31-year-old spoke to Kirschner about his experience with the Hawks this season, whether or not he’ll seek a buyout next month, and his outlook on the team’s future.
Here are a few highlights from the discussion, which is worth checking out in full if you’re an Athletic subscriber:
On why he thinks things didn’t work out after the Hawks brought him in to be Trae Young‘s backup:
“I’ve been injured some, and being Trae’s backup means he’s averaging 36 (minutes) per game, so what would I be playing? Like three minutes at a time? That’s not like any type of diss or anything like that. If you don’t know the conversation we’re having, you get a bitter individual. That’s not the case. You say Trae’s backup, and that’s 12 minutes, maybe. I also understand that it’s about development. Like Brandon (Goodwin), he’s gotten a great opportunity to continue to vibe in this league, and I’m excited for him for that.”
On how long it took him to accept his role – or lack thereof – in Atlanta:
“To be completely honest, when we started the season, you could see that we had already broken down, and we’re rebuilding, rebuilding. You see signs pointing toward it. I try not to dwell on that stuff. I do my best to try to control what I can control. When it comes down to it, the one thing I try not to do, as a man, is I don’t like the front-running s–t. ‘When s–t is going well for me, I’m happy, and when it’s not going well for me, I’m b—hing.’ Nah. For me personally, there’s never been a moment where I’ve been like that.”
On whether he might seek a buyout in search of a new opportunity next month:
“You just walk out and say, ‘Look, bruh, this little buyout means I’m going to get all my bread, right?’ If he says no, you say, ‘Well, you might as well learn my favorite color.’ You let your agent worry about that stuff, though. I think (GM) Travis (Schlenk) is a classy dude. I’ve never gotten the sense from him where he’s not going to be honest or do you right. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a haggle. I’m not saying he owes me anything, and I don’t owe him anything, but I just think I’ve never gotten the sense from him where we’ll be arguing over a few pennies. I’m not going to worry about that, and wherever it takes me, it’s all good. It’s all going to be OK.”
On the Hawks’ long-term potential:
“I think the biggest thing is if they have established roles and figure it out, I think we could be dangerous. These aren’t little kids. You have a guy like De’Andre (Hunter), who’s 6’8″ and like 220 (pounds). You have a kid like Cam (Reddish), who’s had up and down moments but when he gets going, he has All-Star written on him. … You have dudes like Trae, who can do what we needs to do and is a possible All-Star this season. John Collins is going to be legit. I think if they turn the right corner, they have pieces you can trade for. I think they’re going to be OK.”
Jabari Parker Out At Least Two More Weeks
After being re-evaluated by the team, Hawks forward Jabari Parker has been cleared to move onto the next stage of his rehab process, but his return from a shoulder injury still isn’t imminent, according to the team.
The Hawks announced in a press release that Parker’s next steps will include “controlled movement and gradual reloading of his rotator cuff.” The former No. 2 overall pick will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the club said.
Parker, who had been Atlanta’s third-leading scorer this season, has been limited to just 15 total minutes since Christmas due to his shoulder ailment, which will now sideline him into February. When healthy, he has been a solid contributor for the Hawks, averaging 15.0 PPG and 6.0 RPG on 50.4% shooting in 32 games (26.2 MPG).
With Atlanta out of the playoff race and headed for a top spot in the lottery, Parker looked like a potential trade candidate. Now that there’s no guarantee he’ll be back on the court in time for the February 6 deadline, the odds are against him being involved in a deal.
Assuming he finishes the season with the Hawks, the 24-year-old will face a decision this offseason on whether to remain in Atlanta, since he holds a $6.5MM player option for the 2020/21 season.
Pacific Notes: Kuzma, Clippers, Frank, Kings
When his name popped up in Anthony Davis-related trade rumors a year ago, Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma followed the NBA rumor mill with interest, but ultimately stayed put even when the team swung a deal for Davis in the summer. Kuzma has once again been identified as a potential trade candidate this season, but he believes he has gotten better at blocking out that speculation this time around, per Bill Oram of The Athletic.
“I consumed it more last year,” he said. “This year is different I don’t care at all, but last year it was new and foreign, so it was like more of a can’t-really-escape-it thing. But for me it’s a little bit easier now. I don’t really have my Twitter like that. I don’t really use it.”
As Oram notes, the Lakers are no longer in developmental mode like they were in Kuzma’s first year or two in the league, and the third-year forward is one of the only young players left on the roster. As such, the club needs Kuzma to be on its timeline, which has put some added pressure on him this season. He has done his best to live up to those expectations.
“Everybody knows that I’m a learner and I want to become a good player,” Kuzma said. “So everybody’s helping me. I think it reflects in my game all the way down from my defense learning from Avery (Bradley), Dwight (Howard), A.D. and offensively just slowing down, develop my pick-and-roll game from other guys.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- The Clippers have moved into a tie for second place in the Western Conference with a 30-13 record, but it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for the franchise in the first season of its new super-team era, writes ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. After a first half that saw players express frustration about a lack of cohesion and Doc Rivers express annoyance at inconsistent effort, the club will be looking to put it all together in the second half as the postseason approaches.
- Chris Iseman of NorthJersey.com provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how Lawrence Frank ascended to the top of the Clippers‘ front office after a long career as a coach. As Iseman details, the Clippers’ current president of basketball operations was initially reluctant to take on the role due to his lack of management experience.
- The Kings have already made one significant trade this winter, sending three players to Portland for Kent Bazemore, Anthony Tolliver, and two second-round picks. However, they may not be done. James Ham of NBC Sports California previews the trade deadline for Sacramento, exploring what moves could be coming next.
Checking In On NBA’s Projected Taxpayers For 2019/20
Following their cost-cutting trade with the Kings, the Trail Blazers no longer project to have the NBA’s highest tax bill for the 2019/20 season. That honor instead belongs to the Warriors, one of a small handful of teams that will be subject to the league’s more punitive repeater penalties if they’re in the tax at season’s end.
These numbers are fluid and will almost certainly change in the coming months, but here are the current projected luxury tax bills for teams this season, via ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link):
- Golden State Warriors: $14.99MM
- Portland Trail Blazers: $9.65MM
- Miami Heat: $6.65MM
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $2.3MM
- Houston Rockets: $372K
As Marks point out, the projected payouts for non-taxpaying teams are lower than usual — based on the current figures, non-taxpayers would receive approximately $680K apiece (50% of the total tax payments, split among 25 teams). By contrast, non-taxpayers received about $3.1MM each in 2018/19.
This season looks like it could end up looking more like the 2016/17 campaign, which featured the lowest tax payouts of the decade due to the infamous ’16 cap spike. That cap spike left the Cavaliers and Clippers as the NBA’s only clubs in the tax for that year, resulting in payouts of about $507K apiece for the 28 non-taxpayers.
[RELATED: Recent History of NBA Taxpaying Teams]
The end-of-season payouts for non-taxpayers this season will actually probably end up being even lower than $680K. None of the five projected taxpayers listed above are more than about $6.2MM above the luxury tax threshold, so many of them have a path to potentially getting out of tax territory altogether.
The Thunder and Rockets, in particular, look like candidates to sneak below the tax threshold by moving low-cost trade chips like Justin Patton and Nene. The Blazers could theoretically get there too with a bigger deal involving a player like Hassan Whiteside. It’ll be more of a challenge for the hard-capped Warriors and Heat, but not impossible.
For every team that gets out of the tax, the amount of the league-wide tax payments at season’s end will decrease and the number of non-taxpaying clubs will increase, resulting in a smaller pot to be split among a greater number of franchises. In other words, no non-taxpaying NBA team should be counting on a major windfall from taxpayers at the end of the ’19/20 campaign.
Northwest Notes: Crabbe, Paul, Blazers, Nuggets
As one of three Hawks veterans with a big expiring contract, Allen Crabbe entered the season as a trade candidate and it didn’t come as a huge shock when the team moved him last week. Still, the new Timberwolves swingman admits he was caught off guard by being dealt, as Chris Hine of The Star Tribune writes.
“I was taken aback,” Crabbe said on Monday. “I didn’t hear anything leading up to this. … It definitely was a shock to me, but it’s not my first time being traded. It’s the business side. The only thing you got to try to do is pack up, get to your new team, get implemented and show up and go to work.”
It remains to be seen whether Crabbe will see an uptick in minutes – or in his team’s playoff odds – in Minnesota, but as a player who likes to shoot from outside, the 27-year-old believes the Timberwolves will be a good fit for his skill set.
“I mean, it’s a match made in heaven,” Crabbe said, per Hine. “They like to shoot threes, I love to shoot threes. So I can’t ask for anything better than that.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- When Chris Paul was first traded to the Thunder, there was an expectation that he wouldn’t be satisfied to stay in Oklahoma City. However, Paul has found happiness in OKC as the team has exceeded expectations this season, writes Rohan Nadkarni of SI.com. Within Nadkarni’s feature, CP3 also made it clear he has no interest in waiving his 2021/22 player option to accommodate a trade: “No chance. That’s not happening. Nope.” Paul’s player option is worth $44.2MM for his age-36 season, so the idea that he’d give it up to be traded was never a realistic one.
- As part of their trade with Sacramento, the Trail Blazers used Anthony Tolliver‘s outgoing salary to match Caleb Swanigan‘s incoming contract rather than taking on Swanigan using their disabled player exception, tweets Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights. As a result, Portland won’t create a $1.62MM traded player exception, but will still have its $2.86MM disabled player exception available. The DPE will expire on March 10, while the TPE would’ve been available for a year.
- With Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, and Paul Millsap all banged up and the Nuggets not looking to rush them back, the team’s depth is coming in handy, according to Kyle Fredrickson of The Denver Post. Players who have been in and out of the rotation – such as Juan Hernangomez, Malik Beasley, and Torrey Craig – have all seen regular action with those starters sidelined.
Kings, Trail Blazers Complete Five-Player Trade
JANUARY 21: The trade between the Kings and Trail Blazers is now official, according to press releases issued by both teams.
JANUARY 18: The Kings and Trail Blazers have agreed to a trade that will send Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver to Sacramento in exchange for Trevor Ariza, Wenyen Gabriel, and Caleb Swanigan, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported (via Twitter) that the Blazers are trading Bazemore to Sacramento.
The Kings will also receive Portland’s second-round picks in 2024 and 2025 as part of the deal, a source tells Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link). ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter) that the swap can’t be officially completed until Tuesday, when Gabriel’s trade restriction lifts.
For Portland, the deal represents a cost-cutting move that shouldn’t impact the team’s on-court performance too drastically, if at all. Both Ariza and Bazemore have had down years so far, but Bazemore’s drop-off has been more precipitous — he has posted a career-worst .347 FG% to go along with a .327 3PT%. Ariza is at least still knocking down his threes (.352 3PT%) at his usual career rate, even as his role was reduced in Sacramento.
Tolliver had been a rotation player for the Blazers, with 16.8 minutes per game in 33 contests, but hasn’t been at his best either — his .368 FG% is his worst mark since he was a rookie in 2008/09.
Bazemore and Tolliver are earning a combined $20.89MM, compared to a total of $15.68MM for Ariza, Swanigan, and Gabriel. Besides trimming more than $5MM off the Blazers’ team salary, the deal will also reduce the organization’s projected tax bill by $12.6MM, according to Marks (via Twitter).
Additionally, the Blazers will create a pair of traded player exceptions, including one worth just over $7MM, since they have a disabled player exception available to acquire Swanigan. The team will have the opportunity to keep Ariza for the 2020/21 season if he finishes the year strong. His $12.8MM salary for ’20/21 is partially guaranteed for $1.8MM, per Basketball Insiders.
It’s not clear if Swanigan and Gabriel fit into Portland’s plans, though it’s worth noting Swanigan was originally drafted by the Blazers before being traded to the Kings a year ago. Both players are on expiring contracts. Portland won’t need to cut anyone to make room to accommodate the three incoming players, since the club already had an open roster spot.
As for the Kings’ side of the deal, Amick observes (via Twitter) that it opens up a roster spot immediately and also creates slightly more flexibility moving forward, since Bazemore and Tolliver are on expiring contracts. The Ariza signing hadn’t worked out like the franchise had hoped, so Sacramento will hope that Bazemore can bounce back and that Tolliver looks more he did when he was a member of the Kings in 2016/17 and shot .442/.391/.744.
There are no plans to buy out Bazemore, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who tweets that the veteran swingman has a “great relationship” with head coach Luke Walton and the Kings’ front office.
Even if the Kings’ new additions keep slumping, the team will come away with a pair of future assets in the trade by picking up the Blazers’ 2024 and 2025 second-round picks. Sacramento had already acquired multiple extra second-rounders for 2020 and 2021, so the team is building up quite a stash of draft picks, which could be useful in future deals.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
2019/20 NBA Reverse Standings Update
Throughout the 2019/20 NBA season, Hoops Rumors is maintaining a feature that allows you to keep an eye on what the 2020 draft order will look like. Our 2019/20 Reverse Standings tool, which lists the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, is updated daily to reflect the outcomes of the previous night’s games.
Our Reverse Standings are essentially a reflection of what 2020’s draft order would look like with no changes to lottery position. We’ve noted each club’s odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick, based on the league’s current lottery format.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Draft Lottery]
In instances where two non-playoff teams or two playoff teams have identical records, the order in our standings isn’t necessarily definitive — for draft purposes, the NBA breaks ties via random drawings, so those drawings would happen at the end of the year. Of course, the 14 non-playoff teams all draft before the 16 playoff teams, even if some non-playoff teams have better records than playoff teams. Our reverse standings account for that.
Traded first-round picks are included via footnotes. For example, the note next to Cleveland’s pick says that the Cavaliers will send their pick to the Pelicans if it’s not in the top 10. As of today, Cleveland is tied for the NBA’s third-worst record, meaning that pick wouldn’t change hands, even if several teams were to leapfrog the Cavs in the lottery.
When we last checked in on the reverse standings, the Hawks were in the driver’s seat for the NBA’s worst record, but they’ve been at least a little frisky since then, winning four of their last 11 games. During that same stretch, the Warriors have won just a single game and now sit “atop” our reverse standings.
Golden State’s 10-35 record is a half-game worse than Atlanta’s 10-34 mark, with the Knicks (12-32) and Cavaliers (12-32) also within striking distance of the top spot in the lottery.
Although the league’s bottom three teams will all have an equal chance at the No. 1 overall pick (14.0%) and a top-four selection (52.1%), finishing atop the reverse standings would still benefit teams like the Warriors or Hawks — the NBA’s worst team can’t fall further than the No. 5 pick, while the third-worst team could end up selecting as low as No. 7.
Our Reverse Standings tracker can be found at anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features” on our desktop site, or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu. It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2020. So be sure to check back often as the season progresses!
Note: Mobile users are advised to turn their phones sideways when viewing the Reverse Standings in order to see team records and lottery odds.
New York Notes: Fizdale, Knicks, Kyrie, Nets
Appearing on ESPN’s The Jump on Monday, former Knicks head coach David Fizdale said the toughest part about being fired a year and a half after joining the franchise was fulfilling the goal of turning things around and giving fans a winner. However, Fizdale still believes that the club is well-positioned to improve going forward.
“I think that they have really good young talent and those young guys are going to keep getting better, Fizdale said of the Knicks, per Steve Popper of Newsday. “They have to continue to draft well because they have a lot of draft picks over the next few years. Then with the veterans that they did sign, they have to figure out which guys they want to retain and which guys they want to move on from. But they do have a lot of cap space there and they will have an opportunity to get back in the free-agency market this summer.
“So I really think they’re in a good position,” the ex-Knicks coach added. “I know a lot of people don’t and a lot of people are down on them. But I actually think that they’re in a good position to make some good things happen for the organization.”
Here’s more out of New York:
- While a segment of Knicks fans may prefer to see the team’s young players get some of the minutes currently going to veterans, the team “clearly has a showcase mentality” with those vets, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Berman suggests there will be plenty of time for New York to increase the youngsters’ roles after the trade deadline.
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic identifies a few players and potential trades that could be of interest to the Knicks at the deadline. Jerome Robinson, Kris Dunn, and Bogdan Bogdanovic are among the players Vorkunov thinks might be logical targets.
- After Kyrie Irving was a late scratch on Monday due to a tight hamstring, Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson explained that the team is just being “cautious” with the star guard, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post. However, Atkinson did acknowledge that the issue had been nagging Irving for a few days.
- Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News says it’s ridiculous to claim the Nets are better without Irving and argues that some of the criticism Kyrie is facing for recent comments is unfair.
Community Shootaround: Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose is suddenly a hot commodity again. A Yahoo Sports report on Monday indicated that the Lakers, Sixers and several other playoff contenders were interested in dealing for Rose, who is enjoying a career rebirth after nearly retiring a couple of years ago due to knee pain.
Rose had a bounce-back season in Minnesota last year, averaging 18 points in 51 games before his season was cut short by another injury. But he didn’t attract a lot of attention in the free agent market before signing a two-year, $15MM contract with the Pistons.
While the Pistons have floundered due to injuries, particularly to star forward Blake Griffin, Rose has been an offensive juggernaut. He’s averaging 18.3 PPG in 25.8 MPG and shooting a career-high 50.2%. At an age where most guards have lost a step, Rose has seemingly found the fountain of youth. He’s consistent breaking down defenses with quickness and guile and finishing at the rim.
He’d certainly help nearly any of the contenders, either as a starting guard or sixth man, a role he filled with the Pistons until he was inserted into the lineup three games ago. The Lakers have plenty of point guards on the roster but Rose would be an upgrade over any of them. He’d give the Sixers a change of pace option to take pressure off Ben Simmons and dramatically improve their bench.
The Clippers reportedly have only mild interest in Rose, perhaps because they gave up so many assets to secure Paul George‘s services. The Nuggets haven’t publicly been named as a suitor but he could be the piece that puts them on par with the Los Angeles teams. And he’d make marginal contenders like the Heat and Mavericks a lot more dangerous in the postseason.
The Pistons could just hold onto Rose, who has stated he’s happy where he is, and hope for better results next season if Griffin comes back healthy. But it’s more likely they’ll try to cash in and get a future asset or two while Rose is in a groove.
That leads us to our question of the day: If Derrick Rose is traded, where do you think he’ll wind up?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Northwest Notes: O’Neale, Covington, Timberwolves
The fourth and final year of Royce O’Neale‘s extension is partially guaranteed, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets. The Jazz signed the forward to a four-year, $36MM extension on Sunday. O’Neale’s first three years during the extension, which kicks in next season, are fully guaranteed. He’ll receive $8.5MM in 2020/21, $8.8MM in 2021/22 and $9.2MM in 2022/23, according to The Athletic’s John Hollinger, who notes that the partially guarantee on O’Neale’s $9.5MM salary in 2023/24 will be $2.5MM.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- O’Neale’s ability to guard four positions makes the extension a worthwhile investment for the Jazz, Ben Dowsett of Forbes.com opines. O’Neale is the fastest player on the team and also the best rebounder other than the team’s centers, Dowsett continues. The forward might have received offers at or above the four-year, $51MM maximum extension Utah could have offered him if the team had allowed him to enter restricted free agency, Dowsett adds.
- Robert Covington has heard his name bandied about in trade rumors but the Timberwolves forward is trying to block out the speculation, as he told Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Rockets were reportedly pursuing Covington, who is signed through the next two seasons, though their interest has apparently waned. “I’m not even focused on that,” Covington said. “My main focus is this team and what I do every day. I’m not going to get caught up in rumors or hype or what not.”
- Covington, Gorgui Dieng and Andrew Wiggins are some of the players who have exceeded preseason expectations for the Timberwolves, Britt Robson of The Athletic writes while handing out his midseason grades.