Eastern Rumors: Jackson, Riley, Muscala
The Eastern Conference’s glut of struggling teams means the worst clubs in the Western Conference have an advantage as they jockey for lottery position, explains Tom Ziller of SB Nation. East teams don’t have to play as many heavies as their Western Conference counterparts do, leading to more wins and fewer ping-pong balls. That helps perpetuate the East’s mediocrity year after year, Ziller writes. Here’s more from the NBA’s weaker side:
- Phil Jackson tells Sam Amick of USA Today that he remains an “unpaid adviser” to Pistons owner Tom Gores. Jackson, who reiterates that he doesn’t want to coach again, helped the team with its search for former coach Maurice Cheeks, who was fired a couple of weeks ago.
- Another championship coach is feeling no urge to get back to the sidelines, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel observes. “I’m six years out of coaching right now,” Heat president Pat Riley said. “Look at me, man, I’m full of vitality to have some fun. Six years ago, when I was coaching, I would wake up 5:00 a.m. and it was dark and I was depressed. Not anymore.”
- The contract that Mike Muscala signed with the Hawks last week is a four-year pact for the minimum salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reveals. This year is fully guaranteed and next season is partially guaranteed for $408K, but the deal otherwise contains no guaranteed salary, Pincus tweets. There’s a team option on the final year.
- Gerald Wallace expressed his displeasure with winding up on a rebuilding Celtics team when the Nets traded him to Boston this summer, but the veteran says he enjoyed his first year in green, as he tells Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe. “I just hope the fans didn’t take offense to me saying I didn’t want to be here as me not wanting to be a part of the organization,” said Wallace, who’s out for the season with a knee injury. “My main thing was the rebuilding process, I didn’t want to go through a whole rebuilding process where you have to start all over 13 years into my career.”
Odds & Ends: Hawks, Raptors, Buyouts
The Hawks are close to adding five investors to their ownership group, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The NBA’s approval process for the addition is underway, and should complete in mid-March. Here’s more from around the league:
- Sources tell Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun that the Raptors are not planning to add any bought out players to the team (Twitter link). This falls in line with earlier reports of Toronto’s lukewarm interest in the buyout market.
- Tim Bontemps of The New York Post takes a look at which buyout players will work out the best for their new team between Glen Davis, Danny Granger, Caron Butler, Jimmer Fredette, and Beno Udrih.
- The Rockets attempted to sign Kostas Papanikolaou mid-season this year, according to Rigas Dardalis of EuroHoops.net. Houston owns the rights of the power forward currently playing in Spain, and will reportedly try to sign him again next summer.
Eastern Notes: Muscala, Jennings, Raptors
Updating an earlier note, former Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo reveals that the 2011/12 season is when he tried to tank the team’s performance for a better draft pick, according to Sam Amick of USA Today. Colangelo says the losing mentality was limited to the roster’s assembly. “I didn’t ‘come out and say, ‘Coach (Dwane Casey), you’ve got to lose games.’ I never said that. I wanted to have him establish a winning tradition and a culture and all of that, but I wanted to do it in the framework of playing and developing young players, and with that comes losing.” Here’s more from the Eastern Conference, home to a few teams suspected of tanking this year:
- Dwane Casey is still the Raptors coach, and declined to comment on the tanking season in retrospect, per Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun (via Twitter).
- Mike Muscala spoke with Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constituation about joining the Hawks earlier than expected. “I was surprised. I was playing in Spain and my agent called me and told me about it last week. My whole thought process was to play the entire year (in Spain) so it was definitely a surprise.” Muscala said he is pushing through nerves, uncertainty, and inexperience in an NBA system to gain the most from the final stretch of the season. “I’m not sure in terms of a role but what I should be focusing on is putting more pressure on the rim offensively and defensively, getting rebounds offensively and defensively, playing with the skill I have in the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop situation.”
- Brandon Jennings doesn’t think fired Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks received a fair shot before Detroit let him go, he tells David Mayo of MLive.com. “You give a coach a half-a-season, with new faces and new chemistry, that’s not enough time, I don’t think. I felt like he was basically in a losing situation.” Jennings is frustrated with Detroit’s struggles this season, after an offseason that was meant to turn them into a playoff team. “It’ll be very disappointing and kind of embarrassing, the fact that with myself coming over here, and Josh coming over here, and us making these moves, and we don’t get it done–it’s going to be real disappointing.”
- Jennings also told Mayo he doesn’t know whether the rumors of Chauncey Billups and Josh Smith playing a part in Cheeks’ firing are true.
Gustavo Ayon Done For Season
Center Gustavo Ayon had surgery today on his right shoulder and he’ll miss the rest of the season, the Hawks announced. The news is a blow to a team that’s perilously thin on the front line as it fights to hold on to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks are already without Al Horford for the rest of the season, and they’re missing Paul Millsap and Pero Antic, who are out with short-term injuries.
Atlanta recently signed bought center Mike Muscala out of his Spanish league contract and signed the 2013 second-round pick Thursday to shore up the team’s inside presence. The team has lost 10 out of 11 games to fall from third place to eighth in the East. The Hawks hold a lead of three and a half games on the Pistons for the final playoff spot, and they’ve been using DeMarre Carroll as a small-ball power forward in the starting lineup, with Elton Brand at center.
The Hawks still have a $5.15MM trade exception for Horford they could use to add a player between now and March 10th. It seems unlikely they’ll use the exception unless an intriguing big man comes available on the buyout market, since most free agents at this point would command no more than the minimum salary.
Ayon has been out since February 18th, when he injured the shoulder against the Pacers. He’s making $1.5MM this season in the final year of a three-year contract, and he’ll be a restricted free agent this summer if the Hawks make a qualifying offer worth $1.875MM.
Eastern Notes: Sixers, Anthony, Johnson
The Sixers wound up with only a second-round pick in return for Evan Turner, thanks to their buyout deal with Danny Granger, but a team offered GM Sam Hinkie a first-rounder for Turner at last year’s draft, according to Tom Moore of Calkins Media (Twitter link). With Granger now waived, the team came away with a significantly lower return for Turner at the trade deadline.
More from the east:
- Carmelo Anthony says whether or not the Knicks make the playoffs this year won’t be among a litany of on-court and off-court factors that will play into his contract decision this summer, as Mark Berman of the New York Post examines.
- The Hawks and Antawn Jamison had mutual interest in a parting of ways when the team waived him shortly after the trade deadline last week, as Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders writes.
- The multiyear contract that Chris Johnson signed with the Celtics was originally reported as a three-year deal, but it’s actually a four-year arrangement that runs through 2016/17. Only this season is guaranteed (Twitter link).
- Mark Montieth of Pacers.com, in his mailbag column, casts the likelihood of Orlando Johnson returning to the Pacers this summer as greater than the odds of Indiana reuniting with Danny Granger.
- The Bucks are eyeing D-Leaguers and the overseas market for someone who can fill Caron Butler’s roster spot on a 10-day contract, tweeted Gery Woelfel of the Journal Times.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Hawks Sign Mike Muscala
THURSDAY, 12:02pm: Atlanta has officially signed Muscala, the team announced. The release of Dexter Pittman cleared a roster spot enabling the move. The team doesn’t specify whether it’s a 10-day contract or a pact for the rest of the season.
TUESDAY, 8:31am: The Hawks indeed bought out Muscala’s deal with Obradoiro, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, though it’s not clear just how much the Hawks shelled out. It’s unlikely that it was more than the Excluded International Player Payment Amount of $575K, since anything over that figure would count against team salary and come out of Muscala’s paychecks from the Hawks. The deal between Muscala and Obradoiro was believed to be a one-year contract, Vivlamore adds.
7:39am: The Hawks will sign 2013 second-round pick Mike Muscala, reports Javier Maestro of Encestando. Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia provides translation and further confirmation from agent Misko Raznatovic that the former Bucknell center is on his way to Atlanta. Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype reported Monday that the Hawks had been speaking with Spanish club Obradoiro, for which Muscala has been playing, but Atlanta had yet to extend an offer at that point.
It’s not clear how much money, if any, the Hawks had to pony up to buy Muscala out of his Spanish contract. Muscala signed with Obradoiro this summer, a few months after the Mavs drafted him 44th overall and traded him to the Hawks on draft night. The deal is likely for at least the rest of the season, probably with one more non-guaranteed season tacked on. If it were just a 10-day arrangement, Atlanta would lose his draft rights and he’d be free to sign with any NBA team at the end of the 10 days.
Muscala has averaged 14.6 points and 7.8 rebounds in 26.7 minutes per game in the Spanish ACB league this year. Other European teams had interest in him, but Obradoiro turned away their pursuit, according to Sierra. Atlanta has the NBA rights to another center playing in Spain, but the Hawks can’t sign Lucas Nogueira, the 16th overall pick from this past June, until this coming summer. That’s because the Hawks took his cap hold off their books to clear cap space before the season started.
The Hawks signed Dexter Pittman to a 10-day contract on Saturday, filling their final roster spot, so they’ll have to wait for Pittman’s contract to run out, cut him loose early, or waive a guaranteed contract to facilitate Muscala’s signing.
Hawks Release Dexter Pittman
The Hawks have terminated their 10-day contract with Dexter Pittman, the team announced. Presumably, the move is to make way for the signing of Mike Muscala, who reportedly agreed to a deal earlier this week. Pittman becomes a free agent immediately, since 10-day signees don’t have to go through waivers.
Atlanta signed Pittman Saturday, and his contract wasn’t set to expire until Monday night. He appeared in two games for a total of just three minutes, missing his only shot. The Impact Sports Basketball client has played more extensively this season with the D-League’s Austin Toros, notching 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game.
Southeast Notes: Muscala, Thomas, Chalmers
The Hawks put in a call last week to Obradoiro of Spain about Mike Muscala, whose NBA rights belong to Atlanta, reports Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype. Still, the Hawks made no offer for the 44th overall pick from the 2013 draft, Sierra notes, adding that Obradoiro has rejected entreaties from other European clubs for the center from Bucknell (Twitter links). More out of the Southeast..
- Tyrus Thomas is not an option for the Wizards due to a back injury, a person close to the situation tells J. Michael of CSNWashington.com (on Twitter). Besides, it looks like Washington has their eye on another 2013 amnesty victim in Drew Gooden.
- Mario Chalmers, a free agent this summer, says that he’s more comfortable than ever with the Heat, writes Shandel Richardson of the Sun Sentinel.
- A fun fact courtesy of Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (on Twitter): the Magic haven’t signed anyone to a 10-day contract since the team signed Seton Hall product Andre Barrett on March 31, 2005.
Hawks Sign Dexter Pittman To 10-Day Deal
5:38pm: The deal has been officially announced in a team release.
5:12pm: The Hawks have signed Dexter Pittman to a 10-day contract, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). The deal hasn’t been officially announced yet, but Vivlamore tweets that Pittman will be available for Atlanta in tonight’s game.
The decision to add Pittman comes along with the Hawks’ decision to waive Jared Cunningham and sign Cartier Martin, although Martin’s contract is a guaranteed deal through the rest of the year. Pittman, a client of Impact Sports Basketball per our Agency Database, stands at 6’11” and will hope to get an opportunity in the frontcourt to earn another deal. The Hawks’ only other active centers are currently Gustavo Ayon and Pero Antic, as Al Horford is out for the season from a torn pectoral muscle.
The 25-year-old center was waived by the Bulls before the regular season this year, and hasn’t played in the NBA since last year, when he was used in 11 total games as a member of the Heat and Grizzlies during the season. His career high in minutes is 8.6, coming in Pittman’s sophomore season with the Heat in 2011/12. He has scored 114 total points over his three-year career.
Hawks Waive Jared Cunningham
The Hawks have requested waivers on Jared Cunningham, the team announced today. Cunningham was selected in the first round of the 2012 draft, but has only seen 48 total minutes in the NBA over the course of two seasons. He’s spent much of his professional career in the D-League, and the team has decided to cut ties with him.
This action might be indicative of another forthcoming move by Atlanta, notes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (via Twitter). We haven’t heard that Atlanta is interested in Glen Davis or any other players who are rumored to be waived in buyout deals, but a signing might make sense, given the injuries to Al Horford, Pero Antic, and John Jenkins.
It’s been a pretty active week for the Hawks, who waived Antawn Jamison after acquiring him from the Clippers at the deadline and shortly after inked a deal with Cartier Martin for the rest of the season. Waiving Cunningham means the team will have to pay the remainder of his $1.2MM salary, but it will give the club an open roster spot and flexibility going forward.