Southeast Notes: Heat, Riley, LeBron, Korver, Kaman
Last night, Heat president Pat Riley released an official statement to the press that wasn't fit to print regarding Celtics president Danny Ainge. Ainge said that it was "almost embarrassing" that LeBron James complained about the hard fouls he received during the club's loss to the Bulls, and Riley fired back in defense of his star. "[Ainge] needs to shut the [expletive] up and manage his own team. He was the biggest whiner when he was playing, and I know that because I coached against him," said Riley, according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Was there more to that comment than meets the eye? Here's more on that and other notes out of the Southeast..
- The aim of Riley's comment was to show his loyalty to James, who can become a free agent in the summer of 2014, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. While the image-conscious James was reluctant to attach himself to Riley's profane language, he was clearly appreciative of the gesture. "It was big-time to see that," James said after the Heat's win over New Orleans.
- The Hawks' Kyle Korver will be a free agent in demand, writes Stephen Brotherston of HoopsWorld. The veteran believes that he has a good four or five years left and wants to spend them with a winning team.
- Chris Kaman could have been a free agent target for the Heat this summer, but it won't happen after recent comments made in a radio interview, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. "I’m not much of a Dwyane Wade fan, but I’m a [James] fan..I just never really got along with (Dwyane Wade). I guess I just don’t like his style or whatever. I didn’t like the year the Mavs lost when he got all the foul calls. I didn’t like that," Kaman told 104.1 FM The Ticket.
Hawks Re-Sign Shelvin Mack For Season
Following the expiration of his second 10-day contract, the Hawks have re-signed Shelvin Mack for the remainder of the season, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). Vivlamore had reported yesterday that the two sides were in talks about a rest-of-season deal for Mack.
Mack, 23, had his best game with the Hawks in last night's loss to the Pacers, recording 10 points, four assists, and a pair of rebounds to go along with two three-pointers. Since joining the Hawks following stints with the Wizards and Sixers, Mack has appeared in nine of the club's 12 games.
With Mack now under contract for the rest of 2012/13, the Hawks are at the maximum 15 guaranteed contracts, meaning we likely won't see any more roster moves from the club before season's end.
As our 10-day contract tracker shows, Mack is the ninth player this season to be signed for the season following two 10-day deals with a club.
Hawks In Talks To Re-Sign Shelvin Mack
The Hawks are scheduled to play the Pacers in Indiana tonight, and for Shelvin Mack, it will be the last game he's eligible for under his second 10-day contract with Atlanta. However, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the team is in talks with Mack to re-sign him for the season when his 10-day deal expires.
Since joining the Hawks, Mack has appeared in eight of the club's 11 games, though he has played five minutes or less in most of those contests, averaging just 1.6 PPG and 0.9 APG. Still, the 23-year-old's eight appearances for Atlanta exceed the amount of games he played for the Wizards (seven) and Sixers (four) earlier this season.
Signing Mack for the season would ensure that the Hawks have 15 players on guaranteed contracts, leaving no room to make any other late-season additions without waiving someone.
Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Sixers, Bynum, Acy
Over at Grantland.com, Zach Lowe checks in with the early favorite for the week's most interesting NBA piece, delving into the SportVU camera-tracking system and explaining how it's employed by the Raptors. I highly recommend checking out Lowe's story, which includes some fascinating details that, frankly, I'm surprised the Raps were willing to share publicly. Here are a few more notes from out of the Atlantic Division:
- Multiple NBA executives tell Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld that they wouldn't be surprised if a "desperate" club offers Andrew Bynum a max contract this summer. Kennedy expects the Hawks, Mavericks, Rockets, and Trail Blazers to be among the interested teams (Twitter links). I'd imagine that the Sixers will at least have to kick the tires on re-signing Bynum as well.
- Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld also looks ahead to Bynum's free agency in the wake of news that the big man will undergo season-ending surgery. According to one executive who spoke to Kyler, if Bynum is willing to agree to injury exclusions in his contract, teams likely won't hesitate to make him big offers. It remains to be seen whether Bynum would be more interested in a deal like that or a smaller offer made up entirely of guaranteed money.
- Although a report last week suggested that the Raptors would likely recall Quincy Acy from the D-League, Doug Smith of the Toronto Star says the team likes having Acy getting consistent playing time with the Bakersfield Jam. For now, there's no rush to bring him back to Toronto, where he'd receive limited minutes.
Hawks Want To Re-Sign Josh Smith, Kyle Korver
Among the items in Sam Amico's leaguewide roundup for Fox Sports Ohio today, he passes along that "word is" the Hawks will make re-signing Josh Smith and Kyle Korver their top priorities in the summer. If they prove to be out of Atlanta's price range, the team is likely to try to sign-and-trade one or both of those players.
Smith made headlines earlier this season when he said he felt he was deserving of a maximum-salary contract, but more recently clarified that his statements were in response to a question and not meant as a pronouncement ahead of this summer's negotiations. Nonetheless, it seems likely he'll go after a max deal, which would be worth nearly $100MM from the Hawks and a little more than $74MM if he signed with another team. Since Amico's report indicates there's a limit on how much they'll spend to retain Smith, it doesn't look like they're willing to give him the full max. They might be open to structing the deal so that Smith gets more than the $74MM he could get from another club, however, retaining their financial advantage over the rest of the league, but that's just my speculation.
Korver isn't nearly the player Smith is, but he leads the league with a 45.9% three-point percentage, and figures to have no shortage of suitors this summer. The Nuggets are already reportedly targeting Korver, who's expressed a willingness to consider a return to the Jazz and Bulls, two of his former teams. When Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors examined Korver's free agent stock earlier this month, he wrote that an offer somewhere in the neighborhood of the full mid-level exception, which includes a first-year salary of $5.15MM, might get a deal done.
The Hawks will have plenty of room under the cap to sign Smith, Korver and others this summer, when they'll have little more than $18.5MM in commitments. It appears GM Danny Ferry and company plan to be judicious with that room and aren't dead-set on re-signing any of their players if they're putting a limit on how high they'll go for the two men they count as their top priorities. That they would consider a sign-and-trade for both Smith and Korver could suggest that they don't want to rely completely on building next season's roster with free agents from other teams.
Hawks Re-Sign Shelvin Mack
The Hawks announced via press release that they have re-signed Shelvin Mack to a second ten-day contract. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound point guard has appeared in five games for the Hawks, totaling eight points, four rebounds and three assists in 30 total minutes.
The Hawks are the 23-year-old's third NBA team this season. He was with the Sixers on a pair of 10-day contracts, but Philadelphia opted not to keep him for the rest of the year after he totaled just seven minutes during stay there. The Wizards, who drafted him 34th overall in 2011, waived him at the end of training camp and brought him back on Christmas.
The Butler product averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 assists in 20.1 minutes per game in seven contests this year for Washington but they dropped him in January, just before his contract would have become guaranteed for the rest of the season.
Hawks Likely To Re-Sign Shelvin Mack
There's a "good chance" the Hawks will re-sign point guard Shelvin Mack to a second 10-day contract after his first deal expires this weekend, a source tells Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). Vivlamore says Mack's contract is up Sunday, but the Hawks announced his signing on March 6th, meaning the 10-day deal would expire after tonight. Either way, it appears the point guard will be with Atlanta for at least a little while longer.
Mack has appeared in four games for a total of 28 minutes so far with the Hawks, his third NBA team this season. He was with the Sixers on a pair of 10-day contracts, but Philadelphia opted not to keep him for the rest of the year after he totaled just seven minutes during stay there. The Wizards, who drafted him 34th overall in 2011, waived him at the end of training camp and brought him back on Christmas. The 23-year-old Butler product averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 assists in 20.1 minutes per game in seven contests this year for Washington, which dropped him in January, just before his contract would have become guaranteed for the rest of the season.
Mack is occupying the 15th and final roster spot for Atlanta, so if the Hawks do what the Sixers and Wizards have resisted doing and keep him for the rest of the season, they couldn't pick up anyone else this year without waiving someone on a guaranteed contract.
Odds & Ends: Korver, Magic, Stoudemire, Balkman
A few Tuesday evening odds and ends from around the NBA:
- Kyle Korver will hit unrestricted free agency this summer, and he's looking forward to going through the process, as he tells Lang Greene of HoopsWorld. "It’s nothing to dread about it," Korver said. "Your wife wants to know where she’s going to live next year and I do too, obviously…. It’s an exciting time but right now you have to take care of the games you have in front of you and let July take care of July." I examined Korver's free agent stock last week.
- With Dwight Howard returning to Orlando for the first time since being traded last August, Tom Ziller of SBNation.com notes that the package acquired by GM Rob Hennigan and the Magic in that deal is no longer being questioned.
- As David Lee and the Warriors faced the Amare Stoudemire-less Knicks last night, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News tweeted that ex-Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni wanted the team to re-sign Lee in the summer of 2010 rather than pursuing Stoudemire.
- Pointing out that Robert Sarver and the Suns were also willing to offer Stoudemire a max contract in 2010, but only if he met certain minutes-played thresholds, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic says the Suns made the right call.
- Renaldo Balkman's lifetime ban from the Philippines' professional basketball league has been reduced to one year, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando writes.
Poll: Will Josh Smith Land A Max Deal?
Hawks forward Josh Smith surprised many around basketball earlier this year when he said that he believes he should be in line for a max contract this summer. While the 27-year-old is undoubtedly in line for a lucrative deal, hoping for that amount of money seems overly optimistic. Our own Luke Adams recently crunched the numbers on max contract scenarios for this summer's top free agents and showed that a max deal from the Hawks could pay him $99.7MM over five years and a topped-out deal from another club could be worth $74MM over four years, depending on how much max salaries increase this summer. Smith is a welcome addition to any club, but will he get an annual average of about $20MM from the Hawks or $18.5MM from another team?
So far, the Hawks have maintained that they will not be giving the forward a max contract. Then again, the fact that they held on to Smith at the trade deadline means that there is at least a little room for a change of heart. The high-flying veteran has a better chance of getting a max deal elsewhere and while the chances of that may seem remote as well, there will be a number of teams with cap space to burn this summer. And with all due respect, more than a few of these clubs might be desperate to make waves. The Bucks, Pistons, Cavs, Bobcats, and Jazz are just some of the clubs that will have the breathing room necessary to make a major pickup. Will an advantageous market be enough to net Smith the max deal that he seeks?
Will Josh Smith Land A Max Deal?
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No 63% (557)
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Yes 37% (333)
Total votes: 890
Josh Smith On Trade Rumors, Max Deal, Atlanta
Josh Smith was perhaps the most talked-about target prior to the trade deadline, and though he remained with the Hawks, speculation about his future won't end anytime soon, since he'll be an unrestricted free agent this summer. If Dwight Howard and Chris Paul remain in Los Angeles, there could be no more sough-after commodity on the market than Atlanta's athletic power forward. He recently opened up about where he stands with his career seemingly in transition, and Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe and Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News shared some of his comments. We'll pass along the highlights here:
On his inclusion in trade rumors at the deadline:
"It was total chaos, for two or three weeks. It’s good just to concentrate, knowing where I’m at, at least until the end of the season, and now we can focus on what we can do to make a playoff push and jockeying for position, knowing that it’s a real tight race. It’s good to be able to focus on basketball."
On his worth as a player:
"I’m respected in the NBA as far as the players are concerned. I know I’m a highly attractive player and all I can do is keep playing confident, hold my head high, and not really worry about what the naysayers and haters say."
On his assertion that he deserves a max contract:
"I didn’t just come up and make the statement that I was (a maximum player) — it was a question that I was asked. I gave an honest answer. It’s not added pressure. I’m not going around just stating that. It was definitely a question."
On his impending free agency:
"I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to look ahead. I focus on the present. As long as we do special things during the season or during the postseason, I don’t look into the future. I’ll think about (free agency) when it gets here."
On playing in Atlanta, a city with laid-back fans:
"It is a little difficult. Last year like I was telling everybody, we were ranked No. 1 worst sports town in the United States. It was just the whole city, baseball, football – but football always has a crazy fanbase – it is a little bit difficult. But hopefully we can turn it around sooner than later."