Lakers Notes: Trent, Jordan, Bazemore, Monk, Westbrook
As part of their due diligence exploring the trade market, the Lakers have expressed interest in Raptors wing Gary Trent Jr., league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
The Lakers could theoretically put together an offer for Trent, who is earning $16MM, using Talen Horton-Tucker as the primary salary-matching piece. However, there has been no indication that the Raptors want to move on from the former Duke standout, who is one of Toronto’s most-used players (32 starts, 34.0 MPG), most reliable three-point shooters (.368 3PT%), and most active defenders (1.9 steals and 3.5 deflections per game).
Scotto acknowledges that a deal between the two teams appears unlikely for the time being.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Scotto also confirmed on the latest HoopsHype Podcast that the Lakers have made DeAndre Jordan and Kent Bazemore available, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported last week. According to Scotto, the Lakers aren’t interested in attaching a draft pick to move either player, so they’d likely need to use cash to grease the wheels if teams aren’t interested in Jordan or Bazemore on their own. Los Angeles can still trade up to $4,435,000 in cash during the 2021/22 league year.
- Malik Monk has been a bright spot for an up-and-down Lakers team recently, averaging 20.0 PPG on .523/.475/.900 shooting in his last eight games. However, the better he plays, the more challenging it will be for L.A. to bring him back. As Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report outlines, unless they dip into their mid-level exception, the Lakers will be limited to offering Monk a Non-Bird raise of just 20% more than his minimum salary when he hits free agency.
- Like teammate Carmelo Anthony has done in recent years, Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook has been asked to accept a lower-usage role this season and is still adjusting to it, writes Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group. Westbrook’s 27.9% usage rate would be high for most players, but it’s the first time since 2009/10 that he’s registered a number below 30%.
Lakers Sign Sekou Doumbouya To Two-Way Deal, Waive Jay Huff
The Lakers have made a change to one of their two-way contract slots, announcing today that they’ve signed forward Sekou Doumbouya to a two-way deal and waived big man Jay Huff.
Doumbouya began the season on a two-way contract with the Lakers, but was waived in November while he was recovering from a foot injury. At the time, Los Angeles brought in Chaundee Brown to fill Doumbouya’s two-way slot. Brown has since been replaced by Mason Jones, while Doumbouya is now taking Huff’s spot.
Doumbouya, 21, was the 15th overall pick in the 2019 draft and spent the first two years of his NBA career in Detroit. However, he struggled to score efficiently during his time with the Pistons, averaging 5.6 PPG and 2.8 RPG on .384/.254/.691 shooting in 94 games (17.3 MPG).
The Pistons sent Doumbouya to the Nets in their DeAndre Jordan trade during the 2021 offseason, and the young forward was subsequently flipped to the Rockets, who waived him. In the month he spent with the Lakers earlier this season, Doumbouya averaged 7.0 PPG and 3.0 RPG in two appearances (8.0 MPG).
Huff, who caught on with the Lakers after going undrafted out of Virginia, logged just 20 total minutes with the team across four games. At the G League level, he recorded 10.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 2.3 BPG in eight games (22.1 MPG) for the South Bay Lakers.
Jazz Sign Zylan Cheatham To 10-Day Contract
11:47am: The Jazz have officially finalized Cheatham’s 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. The deal will run through January 21, covering Utah’s next five games.
9:03am: The Jazz are set to sign swingman Zylan Cheatham to a 10-day contract using a hardship exception, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Utah already has three players on 10-day hardship deals, with Danuel House under contract through Saturday, Norvel Pelle through Sunday, and Denzel Valentine through next Wednesday. However, since the Jazz have five players in the health and safety protocols, they remain eligible to continue adding replacement players using hardship exceptions.
Cheatham, 26, has spent most of this season with the Birmingham Squadron, New Orleans’ G League affiliate. In 13 NBAGL games (30.5 MPG), he averaged a double-double (14.2 PPG, 10.4 RPG) with a solid .491/.429/.806 shooting line. That performance earned him a 10-day contract with Miami just before Christmas, but he didn’t play at all for the Heat and entered the COVID-19 protocols before his deal expired. He has since cleared the protocols.
Undrafted out of Arizona State in 2019, Cheatham spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Pelicans, appearing in four NBA games in 2019/20. Those are his only NBA regular season appearances to date.
Cheatham will earn $85,578 over the course of his 10 days with Utah, but that money won’t count toward team salary for salary cap or luxury tax purposes.
COVID-19 Updates: Beal, Gill, Pacers, Pritchard, Young, Sixers
Wizards guard Bradley Beal re-entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols on Tuesday, as Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets. It’s Beal’s second protocol-related absence within the last month — he missed three games between December 23-28 due to contact tracing, Robbins notes.
Unlike last season, when any player determined to be a close contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 was placed in the protocols, those guidelines only apply to unvaccinated players this season. Beal began the season unvaccinated, but confirmed when he returned in late December that he had recently received the vaccine. That could mean his absence this time around isn’t related to contact tracing, and that he returned a positive or inconclusive test.
The Wizards did get one piece of good news on Tuesday afternoon, as forward Anthony Gill exited the protocols, per Robbins (Twitter link). That means Beal is currently the only Washington player affected.
Here are more protocol-related updates from around the NBA:
- The Pacers announced on Tuesday that Caris LeVert and Goga Bitadze have exited the health and safety protocols, as James Boyd of The Indianapolis Star writes. Both players have a chance to be available on Wednesday vs. Boston. They’re listed as questionable for now.
- The Celtics no longer have any players in the COVID-19 protocols, as guard Payton Pritchard has been cleared, according to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston (Twitter link).
- Spurs forward Thaddeus Young is no longer in the health and safety protocols, tweets Paul Garcia of Project Spurs. However, San Antonio still has five players in the protocols, tied with Utah for the highest current total in the league.
- Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey and forward Paul Reed aren’t listed on the team’s latest injury report, indicating that they’ve both cleared the protocols (Twitter links via Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia).
- Of approximately 2,400 “tier 1” staffers working for NBA teams, there have been more than 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 this season, creating major challenges for franchises, writes Baxter Holmes of ESPN. “You’re basically taking an assembly of people who help the athletes and taking a few people off the line every few days for a week or more,” one athletic training official told ESPN. “It has interfered significantly with the regular protocols and people being given responsibilities/duties they don’t normally have or are even qualified to do in order to get the job done. It’s been the Wild Wild West.”
John Collins Discusses Trade Rumors, Frustration With Role
Hawks forward John Collins has been in the news as of late, with Shams Charania of The Athletic reporting on Monday that the big man is dissatisfied with his role in Atlanta, and Charania’s colleague Chris Kirschner adding that Collins has spoken to Nate McMillan about his offensive role but doesn’t feel like his concerns have been addressed. Charania noted within his story that Collins could even become a trade chip if Atlanta makes a serious play for Ben Simmons.
In the wake of those reports, Kirschner caught up with Collins for a more in-depth discussion. During that conversation, the 24-year-old admitted that he has been frustrated this season by both his role on offense and by the Hawks’ struggles. The team is currently 17-22, 12th in the East.
Speaking to Kirschner, Collins pointed out that his usage rate this season is the lowest it’s been since he was a rookie, but explained that he’s not necessarily asking to get the ball more — he wants his role to be more clearly defined by McMillan, who has said he doesn’t really call plays for the big man.
“I’m not sitting here complaining and saying I need more touches of the ball, or I need to score more points or need more shots. I’ve never complained about that,” Collins said. “All I’ve said, specifically, if there’s a way that I feel like is beneficial for everybody — and not just myself — is for us to be used in the correct way. That’s the angle I’m taking. If I’m saying it, it’s for us. I just want to be put in the best position to succeed, and that’s it. I feel like I’ve sacrificed and have continued to sacrifice as much as I can for the team. I just want to make sure that’s clear.”
Collins shared several more candid thoughts with Kirschner in the Q&A, which is worth checking out in full if you’re an Athletic subscriber. Here are a few more highlights:
On whether his frustration with his role is more acute this season because of the Hawks’ losing record:
“Of course. Everything is harder. My lunches and dinners taste worse. Going to sleep is harder. Everything is worse when you lose. When you win, it covers up a lot of s–t. When you lose, it uncovers a lot of s–t. When you lose, you want the situation to be fixed and figure out a way to handle it, but I know a lot of s–t starts to eke out when you lose like we have. That’s the type of s–t that happens when you’re losing. It’s part of the job.”
On why things are more challenging this season for Atlanta:
“Sometimes having success makes things difficult going forward. I think what we’re dealing with now is understanding the pressure of teams coming harder at us than before after seeing us play deep into the playoffs. Everybody is game-planning for us at a higher level, even though we’re in the regular season. Teams aren’t sleeping on us like we traditionally expected, at least for me, since I’ve been a Hawk. It’s a different situation now when teams come in here.
“It’s not saying we’re not ready, but it’s definitely a change of mentality. I think that sort of shocked us in the beginning and didn’t necessarily get us off to the right start. That’s the only issue I can see. It’s hard sometimes when you have success to repeat it. The East got better too.”
On whether he has had second thoughts about his desire to remain with the Hawks long-term:
“No. That’s why it’s frustrating when I’m mentioned in those kinds of (trade rumors). It always makes my fans, teammates and the organization not know where I might stand. I can’t be responsible for how someone feels when they’re processing what they’re reading. What I’m upset about is, sometimes, I can’t control my own narrative. I do my best to do so, but it’s part of the job. In terms of the Hawks and Atlanta, I don’t need to talk about it because I’ve talked about it enough. This is where I want to be.”
Celtics Rumors: J. Green, Schröder, Nesmith, J. Smith, Hernangomez
The Celtics have expressed interest in reacquiring forward Jeff Green, Michael Scotto said on the latest episode of the HoopsHype Podcast. Green was a Celtic from 2010-15 and was coached by Brad Stevens from 2013-15. Stevens is now Boston’s president of basketball operations.
It’s unclear how motivated the Nuggets would be to trade Green after signing him in free agency this past offseason. He has started 24 games and averaged 24.7 minutes per contest in Denver this season while playing primarily at power forward and center. Still, the Nuggets have other options at power forward – including Aaron Gordon, JaMychal Green, and Zeke Nnaji – and are reportedly in the market for a backup center with more size, so it’s possible Jeff Green could be had.
Here are a few more notes on the Celtics:
- In addition to reiterating that Boston would be open to moving Dennis Schröder, Scotto said on the HoopsHype Podcast that he’s heard Aaron Nesmith is also available. Nesmith, 2020’s No. 14 overall pick, had a decent rookie year but has seen his playing time and production decline this season.
- The Celtics have made several trade calls out of due diligence, including inquiring on Suns center Jalen Smith, according to Scotto. Smith had his third-year option for 2022/23 turned down by Phoenix, so he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, but whichever team has his Bird rights won’t be able to offer a starting salary higher than $4,670,160, the amount of that declined option.
- Scotto suggests Oklahoma City is a team to watch if and when the Celtics look to trade Juan Hernangomez to sneak below the luxury tax line. The Thunder are more than $20MM below the NBA’s minimum salary floor, so any team looking to dump a contract will likely call them first.
Clippers Rumors: Leonard, George, Morris, Ibaka, Winslow
In the latest episode of the HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto said the Clippers remain focused on being competitive when Paul George and Kawhi Leonard get back on the floor.
However, despite a recent report stating that Leonard is ahead of schedule in his rehab from an ACL tear, Scotto has heard that some people within the organization believe the star forward is unlikely to return this season. Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report echoes that sentiment, writing that there’s a “healthy dose of skepticism” around the NBA about Leonard playing in 2021/22.
“He’s always played things methodically and cautiously,” a source with knowledge of Leonard’s thinking told Fischer. “I knew he was ahead of schedule [in his rehab], but I wouldn’t bet on it. Kawhi is always focused on the long term. If they’re not in the playoff picture, I think the chances he comes back are slim to none.”
Fischer also shared an ominous update on George, writing that the Clippers are prepared for the possibility that the forward’s elbow injury will keep him sidelined far beyond the three-to-four week timeline the team initially announced for a reevaluation. It’s not out of the question that George’s injury could keep him out of action for the rest of the season, according to Fischer.
If the Clippers believe there’s a chance George and Leonard may both be unavailable for the rest of the season, there’s a reasonable chance they’ll pivot to becoming sellers at the deadline, Fischer adds.
Here’s more on the team from both Scotto and Fischer:
- Following Leonard’s ACL tear in the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers’ front office broached the possibility of treating the 2021/22 season as more of a “gap year” before pushing again for a title in ’22/23, and owner Steve Ballmer was on board with that idea, Fischer says. The team didn’t initially go all-in on that plan, with head coach Tyronn Lue given no mandate to find minutes for young prospects, but George’s injury could push L.A. further in that direction.
- Rival executives believe the Clippers will be willing to discuss many of their veteran players at the trade deadline, per Fischer. “They’re pretty much open for business for anyone except their main guys and Terance Mann. I think they really are fine falling out of the playoffs and regrouping for next year,” a Western Conference official told Bleacher Report. “I think they’re trying to shed the Marcus Morrises of the world, guys that have some value and maybe can replace them with younger talent, maybe cheaper [contracts], to free them to get someone else this summer.”
- The Jazz would be a good fit for Morris, in Fischer’s view, but he cautions that the Clippers may be hesitant to send the veteran forward to a key Western Conference rival like Utah, since even if the Clips are sellers this season, the two teams could face one another again in the playoffs again as soon as next year.
- Serge Ibaka and Justise Winslow are among the players the Clippers have received inquiries about, Scotto said on the HoopsHype podcast. Fischer suggests that Ibaka may be the top trade candidate on L.A.’s roster, since offloading his $9.7MM salary would save the team a ton of money on its year-end tax bill. The Thunder, one of the only teams that can accommodate a salary-dump trade without sending out a player, are a team to watch, per Fischer. The Clippers could incentivize them with cash and/or second-round picks.
Wizards’ Harrell, KCP Had Halftime Altercation On Tuesday
Wizards big man Montrezl Harrell and swingman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had a physical altercation during halftime of Tuesday’s win over Oklahoma City, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.
According to Charania, Harrell was upset that Caldwell-Pope didn’t pass him the ball on a play at the end of the first half, and the two teammates began jawing at one another on their way to the locker room. The confrontation eventually escalated to the point where they took swings at each other (neither player connected) and had to be separated by teammates, Charania adds.
Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington shared video of the play that seemingly led to the incident.
Harrell and Caldwell-Pope played together in Los Angeles last season before being traded by the Lakers to the Wizards in the Russell Westbrook blockbuster over the summer.
The two veterans have had key roles on a 21-20 Washington team that remains firmly in the playoff mix in the Eastern Conference. Harrell is averaging 14.4 PPG and 7.3 RPG in 34 games (25.4 MPG), while Caldwell-Pope has put up 11.6 PPG and a .389 3PT% in 38 appearances (29.7 MPG).
I’d expect the Wizards to downplay Tuesday’s altercation and look to put it behind them. Still, it’s worth noting – with the trade deadline just four weeks away – that both Harrell and KCP have pretty team-friendly contracts and their names could come up in trade discussions if Washington looks to upgrade its roster in the coming weeks. Harrell is on an expiring $9.7MM salary, while Caldwell-Pope is making $13MM this season and has a partial guarantee (about $5MM) on his $14MM salary for 2022/23.
Community Shootaround: Western Conference All-Star Voting
In the sequel to this weekend’s consideration of potential Eastern Conference All-Star starters following the first results of fan voting for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, we’ll take a look today at the players who are in the mix (and deserving to be in the mix) for Western Conference All-Star starting gigs.
During the voting process, players are separated by conference. Three frontcourt players will be selected and two guards will be chosen. Fan votes are weighted as 50% of the total vote. The remaining 50% will be split evenly between players and media members. The league’s head coaches will then pick the All-Star benches after starters are announced.
The All-Star Game is set for February 20 at the Cavaliers’ home arena, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Online fan voting began on Christmas Day 2021, and will conclude at 11:59 p.m. ET on January 22. The fan voting results so far were announced by the NBA on January 6.
Lakers small forward LeBron James received 2,018,725 fan votes to lead all frontcourt players in the West, followed by the reigning MVP, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, with 1,649,809 votes. Clippers small forward Paul George, out with a long-term shoulder injury, is currently in third place with 1,072,591 votes. Surprisingly, Warriors small forward Andrew Wiggins is outpacing his more decorated — and, let’s face it, just plain better — All-Star teammate, power forward Draymond Green.
The 933,355 fan votes for Wiggins are significantly more than the 691,423 fan votes Green received. Wiggins has made far more of a scoring impact than Green has, to be fair, though Green’s passing and versatile, league-best defense make him the more crucial contributor to the Warriors’ 30-10 record.
Lakers big man Anthony Davis (592,281 votes), Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (474,794 votes), Lakers reserve forward Carmelo Anthony (319,128 votes), Jazz center Rudy Gobert (218,819 votes) and Suns center Deandre Ayton (177,115 votes) round out the top 10.
Among this top 10, only Anthony is truly unworthy of consideration, though the notion of the barely-available Davis meriting a look for his contributions as the second-best player on a .500-level club seems shaky. At present, George has played just one fewer game than Davis has, though that is subject to change. Gobert, who along with Green looks to be a favorite to win another Defensive Player of the Year award this season in one of the West’s elite teams, deserves the third starting frontcourt nod over George.
Warriors point guard Stephen Curry leads the West’s guards (and also every other player in the NBA) in fan voting with 2,584,623 votes. Far behind Curry are fourth-year Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic, already a two-time All-Star, with 787,690 votes and third-year Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant with 669,033 votes. Tonight, Morant led the fourth-seeded Grizzlies to a 116-108 statement win over Curry’s Warriors. The victory marked 10 straight for Memphis. The 29-14 Grizzlies occupy the West’s fourth seed, far ahead of Doncic’s fifth-seeded Mavericks at 22-18.
Curry’s Golden State teammate Klay Thompson, who has played a grand total of two games this season, received a nonsensical 367,743 fan votes last week, the fourth-most for any West guard. Thompson far outpaced the more worthy Suns backcourt tandem of Devin Booker (338,526 votes) and Chris Paul (315,912 votes), who in turn are just ahead of Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (217,546). Among this group, Mitchell, Paul and Booker all could make a case to start. The same cannot be said for Thompson.
As of this writing, this fan voter would start Jokic, James, and Gobert for the Western Conference’s frontcourt trio, with Curry and Morant occupying the two starting guard spots.
We want to know what you think! Who deserves to be a Western Conference All-Star starter? Are there any borderline starters you think could be determined based on their play during this last month of voting? Head to the comment section below to weigh in!
And-Ones: Exceptions, Trade Market, Dunn, Ferguson, Roberts
Teams that still have money remaining on their mid-level and bi-annual exceptions saw those exceptions begin to prorate downward by 1/174th per day on Monday, January 10, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
For instance, if a team still had $5MM of its mid-level exception on Monday, that amount has now begun to decrease by $28,736 per day. The daily reduction for the rest of the season is always determined based on the amount of the exception left on January 10. So even if that hypothetical team with $5MM of its mid-level remaining decided to use $2MM of it today, the leftover amount would continue to decrease by $28,736 per day going forward.
Many teams have either already used their mid-level and bi-annual exceptions or don’t intend to. However, this may affect certain teams that want to pursue players on the buyout market or plan to convert players from two-way contracts to standard deals later in the season.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- In an Insider-only story for ESPN, Marks has shared his annual trade deadline guide, providing an in-depth look at what to watch for all 30 teams, including each club’s cap and tax situation, trade restrictions, and top trade candidates.
- After signing NBA G League contracts, two former first-round picks have new teams. Guard Kris Dunn has joined the Clippers‘ affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario, while Terrance Ferguson will be a member of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets‘ affiliate (Twitter links via Marc Stein).
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic spoke to outgoing NBPA executive director Michele Roberts about her tenure with the players’ union, her retirement, the upcoming CBA negotiations between the league and the union, and several more topics. Tamika Tremaglio took the reins as the NBPA’s new executive director on Monday.