Kevin Love Reportedly Interested In Blazers
Multiple sources have informed The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor that pricey Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love would prefer to be traded to his hometown Trail Blazers. Love, a native of Lake Oswego, Oregon, is in the first year of a four-year, $120.1MM contract.
The big man, 31, missed 60 games last season with various maladies. Injuries also hindered his availability during the 2017/18 season. Love missed 23 games that year, his last All-Star season.
O’Connor opines that the expiring contracts of center Hassan Whiteside (who is earning $27.1MM) or wing Kent Bazemore ($19.3MM) could be used in a deal with Cleveland. Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson, currently earning $18.5MM in the final year of his deal, could also be a good fit in Portland, O’Connor notes. Injured center Jusuf Nurkic is expected to return to the floor for Portland well before the playoffs commence.
The 10-15 Blazers are seeded 11th in the competitive Western Conference at present, but they are just two games back of the 11-12 Suns, the current No. 8 seed in a crowded race for the bottom of the playoff bracket.
Even with the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference fairly open (the 11-12 Magic currently occupy that position), the 5-18 Cavaliers face an uphill battle to make the playoffs. Anonymous leaks suggest player dissatisfaction with new head coach John Beilein, and their young guards, Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, have both struggled to perform thus far this season. With Love apparently wanting out, too, the Cavs may be best served cutting their losses and stockpiling whatever assets they can extract from an interested trade partner.
O’Connor notes that the Suns and Nuggets may also be candidates for Love’s services ahead of the February 6th trade deadline.
Gordon Hayward To Return On Monday
DECEMBER 9: Hayward went through the Celtics’ Monday shootaround with the intention of playing tonight, per head coach Brad Stevens (Twitter link).
DECEMBER 8: In a bit of surprising news, Celtics forward Gordon Hayward told reporters today that the fourth metacarpal fracture in his left hand has healed, according to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston.
Hayward would not rule out a return to game action tomorrow night against the embattled Cavaliers. He did not partake in 5-on-5 scrimmaging with teammates in today’s practice. “Tomorrow’s a possibility,” Hayward said. “See how I feel when I wake up, go through shootaround, see how it goes.”
After signing a four-year, $127.8MM contract with Boston in 2017, Hayward violently broke his tibia and fractured his ankle five minutes into the Celtic’s first game of the 2017/18 season. He returned in the 2018/19 season a far cry from his old All-Star form. His contract began to look like an albatross as Hayward was relegated to a more modest bench role, averaging 11.5 PPG (on 46.6% shooting from the floor), 4.5 RPG and 3.5 APG.
Before his injury this season, Hayward was looking ready to earn a second career All-Star nod. This season, he is averaging 18.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists a night while shooting 55.5% from the field. Hayward is connecting on 43.3% of his 3.8 triples per contest.
A return this week would be two weeks ahead of the projected six-week recovery time from the surgery he underwent for the fracture on November 11.
The Celtics are 9-4 without Hayward in the lineup, and 16-5 overall. They currently boast the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Boston’s official Twitter account listed Hayward’s status for tomorrow as “questionable.”
“Motion and strength [are] going to take a little while to get back; it’s whether or not you can play through that and still be effective,” Hayward stressed. “That’s kind of what we’re determining but the bone is healed.”
Northwest Notes: Jazz, Culver, Gallinari, ‘Melo
Despite a middling start to the NBA season, the Jazz remain steadfast in their belief that they are championship contenders. Utah is currently 13-10 and seeded at No. 6 in the tough Western Conference. The Athletic’s Michael Lee appraised Jazz stars Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley‘s feelings about the team’s underwhelming start to the season.
Conley exuded confidence, saying, “It’s great to have pressure. Great to have expectations.” Though frustrated with a recent 1-4 road swoon for the Jazz, Mitchell stressed patience. “We’re all making adjustments,” he said. “We’re all finding ways to get to know each other. And when you’ve got guys who are unselfish, it makes it easier.”
Here’s more from out of the Northwest:
- Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune assessed rookie shooting guard Jarrett Culver‘s uneven start for the Timberwolves. Culver is shooting 36.9% from the field, 25.9% from three-point range, and just 43.5% from the free throw line. At 10-11, Minnesota harbors legitimate playoff aspirations in the West, where the team is currently seeded seventh. Improvement from Culver could make a significant difference in a playoff push, and he remains optimistic that his shooting would stabilize. “I’ve put in a lot of work,” Culver said, “so I trust it and I know it’s going to fall.”
- Thunder head coach Billy Donovan spoke with reporters about the likelihood of a Danilo Gallinari trade this season. “I’ve had no conversations with anybody about that,” Donovan said, per Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. “My feeling has always been that all these guys that are here, that they’ll be here… If you’re focused on things that are out of your control, you’re not gonna necessarily be able to do anything well.” A free agent in 2020, Gallinari is a versatile stretch forward on the last season of a three-year, $64.8MM contract.
- New Trail Blazers starting power forward Carmelo Anthony spoke with reporters after a Tuesday shootaround at the Staples Center. ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reports that Anthony was enthused about his fit with Portland, and the early returns have backed up Anthony’s sentiments. “Man, when you feel wanted,” Anthony said, “it settles a lot of things.”
Southwest Notes: Forbes, Porzingis, Rivers, Zion
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News wonders if Spurs shooting guard Bryn Forbes can retain the deft stroke he employed in the team’s recent 135-133 double overtime defeat of the Rockets. Forbes racked up 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field, including a sparkling five-of-six from deep.
If Forbes can shoot well enough, he should remain entrenched as the Spurs’ starting two guard, McDonald writes. Forbes himself expressed confidence that he could: “I’ve put in a lot of work, and I don’t do it to miss shots.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Kristaps Porzingis, the Mavericks‘ 7’3″ sharp-shooting, shot-blocking “Unicorn,” has adapted his game since being traded from the Knicks. The explosive offensive fire power of his triple-doubling teammate Luka Doncic has impacted how KP can best help in Dallas. The Athletic’s Shams Charania unpacks how the 24 year-old has adapted his shot profile and playmaking in Dallas, upon signing a five-year, $158MM extension in July. “Some nights I get more opportunities and some nights I don’t get as many opportunities,” Porzingis told Charania. “But most nights, we give Luka the ball and let him f***ing go.”
- Ahead of what would become a 115-109 Rockets victory last night, guard Austin Rivers had high praise for current Suns coach Monty Williams. Williams served as Rivers’ first head coach when both were with the Pelicans (then the Hornets). “I’ll tell you, in terms of on-the-ball defense, I think I’m as good as anybody,” Rivers said, per The Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen. “I really do give credit to Monty. He was so on me about defense, it’s all I thought about.” Rivers re-signed with the Rockets this summer on a two-year,$4.5MM veteran’s minimum contract.
- Much-ballyhooed Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson, the 2019 No. 1 pick, has started partaking in light on-court team work recently, but he had yet to begin on-court work as of December 4. Williamson will not make the original six-to-eight-week knee surgery recovery window projected by Pelicans brass. William Guillory of The Athletic opines that New Orleans’ cardinal sin, though, is a lack of defensive effort or hustle, and Zion won’t be able to solve that issue on his own.
L.A. Notes: Davis, Clips Arena, Harkless, Lakers’ Pace
The Lakers are off to a terrific 20-3 start, and seemingly in the thick of the hunt for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. All-Star power forward Anthony Davis has been making an early case for some hardware all his own: the Defensive Player of the Year award. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin spoke with Davis about the prospect.
“A couple of years ago, I feel like I should have won it,” Davis told McMenamin, who notes that Davis finished third to Jazz center Rudy Gobert in 2017/18. The Lakers big man has made three All-Defensive teams.
“I think he can and will win Defensive Player of the Year this year,” McMenamin cites Lakers head coach Frank Vogel as saying on Davis earlier in the week. “There’s no one in the league like him defensively in terms of being able to guard all positions, protect the rim the way he does and deflect the basketball,” Vogel said.
Bench point guard Rajon Rondo noted his own high confidence in Davis, with whom he has played on both the Pelicans and Lakers. “I got him as MVP and Defensive Player of the Year,” Rondo said.
There’s more out of Los Angeles:
- Following a year of negotiations, the Clippers‘ proposed new 18,500-seat Inglewood arena has just been given a fast-tracked green light by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Jason Henry of The Orange County Register reports. Now that CARB has ruled that the new arena will not yield a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the $1.2 billion project should be ready in time for the 2024/25 NBA season. Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to stand by CARB’s decision and approve the project. Owner Steve Ballmer has long been pushing to move his team to its own arena and away from the Staples Center, located in downtown LA.
- Clippers forward Maurice Harkless has been making his own impressive defensive impact, albeit on a smaller scale than Anthony Davis. The versatile, 6’7″ forward takes pride in guarding multiple positions, as Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register observes. The Clippers landed Harkless and his expiring $11MM contract as part of the four-team sign-and-trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Heat. Head coach Doc Rivers tells Swanson that Harkless’ defensive range even surprised the seasoned coach. Before the season tipped off, “I thought he was gonna be a defender on the bigs, like the fours and the threes,” Rivers said. “But what’s surprised me is his ability to guard ones and twos.”
- The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor tweets that the Lakers and Bucks (each 20-3) are both currently on pace to win at least 70 games a quarter of the way through the 2019/20 NBA season. O’Connor mentions that this marks just the fourth time in the last 40 years that a team in each conference has been on such a lofty trajectory at this point in the year. In each of the last three instances, one of the teams on this win pace wound up an NBA Finals champ.
Heat Notes: Butler, Adebayo, Nunn
In an excellent piece, SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell takes a look at Heat superstar Jimmy Butler‘s sterling start for his new squad. O’Donnell contends that Butler has been everything the Heat wanted him to be when they inked him to a four-year, $141MM maximum contract in a sign-and-trade with the Sixers this summer.
Butler has been the rising tide to lift all ships on the Heat’s lengthy, defensive-oriented roster. As of this writing, Miami has leapt from No. 26 last year to No. 11 in offensive rating. The Heat are rated No. 8 on defense. Their 16-6 record is good for the third seed in the East, and they remain perfect (9-0) at home.
The 6’8″ wing has been stuffing stat sheets in every traditional and advanced category. Butler is averaging 20.5 PPG, plus career highs in rebounds (6.3 RPG) and assists (6.8 APG). In a 112-103 win over the Wizards last night, Butler recorded his second triple-double over the past three games. He scored 28 points (on 9-of-16 shooting from the field), pulled down 11 boards, and dished 11 dimes.
Following his Friday output, Butler currently ranks No. 5 in Player Impact Plus-Minus and No. 5 in FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR (“Robust Algorithm (using) Player Tracking (and) On/Off Ratings”) metric. He also sits at No. 6 in box score plus-minus, No. 5 in win shares per 48 minutes, and No. 7 in Value Over Replacement Player. Butler’s impact on the team can be felt on both ends of the court.
There’s more news out of South Beach:
- David Furones of the South Florida Sentinel reports that Butler might be giving at least one player an additional financial incentive to expand the breadth of his offense. After scoring a career-high 24 points in a win against the Wizards (in addition to blocking two shots and pulling down 14 rebounds), Bam Adebayo apparently owes Butler $500. Why? Because he didn’t shoot a triple during the game. Apparently, Adebayo owes Butler money for every contest in which he does not attempt a three, a fact that Adebayo only discovered “literally before the game,” according to the Heat center. Though this new arrangement appears to be all in good fun, Adebayo might want to keep his checkbook handy: he has only attempted six threes in 22 games this season.
- After going undrafted in 2018 out of Oakland University, Kendrick Nunn has earned some early Rookie of the Year buzz this season. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson details how the Heat’s vice president of basketball operations Adam Simon and general manager Andy Elisburg landed Nunn. As a backup guard for the Warriors’ G League affiliate last season, Nunn averaged 19.3 points. Miami inked Nunn on the final day of the 2o18/19 regular season, which equipped Nunn with full Bird rights for the moment his $3.1MM two-year-plus-one-day contract expires in 2021.
- Nunn, his fellow Heat rookie Tyler Herro (the No. 13 pick in the 2019 draft), and the team’s other new veteran additions haven’t just been impressing fans and NBA writers with their play this season. They’ve been impressing their longer-tenured teammates, too. The Athletic’s Andre Fernandez and Manny Navarro spoke with 17-year Heat vet Udonis Haslem about his new teammates’ obsessive ambition. “We have a lot of guys that have a chip on their shoulder, something to prove, so naturally it’s in a lot of these guys’ DNA,” Haslem said.
Pacers Notes: Depth, Social Media, McDermott, McConnell
As the Pacers‘ All-NBA guard Victor Oladipo continues to recover from his ruptured quad tendon, coach Nate McMillan has had to turn to his team’s depth to win. And win they have, in resounding fashion: the Pacers are currently 14-8 in the East (and will be playing the Knicks tonight, so… we can go ahead and call it 15-8).
Summer addition Malcolm Brogdon and incumbent big man Domantas Sabonis have been the team’s standout players this season, but they’re not doing it alone.
Swingman Jeremy Lamb, another new summer signing, lauded the Pacers’ unselfish, equal-opportunity play as the reason behind their current resilience. Lamb, T.J. Warren, and Aaron Holiday have all made significant contributions as the Pacers have weathered injuries to Oladipo and Myles Turner (though Turner is healthy now). Their balanced scoring has the Pacers firmly entrenched in the East’s playoff hunt.
“It doesn’t always require a guy having a big night,” Lamb told Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star. “I looked up toward the end tonight and saw everyone on the floor had, like, 15 points. When you’ve got a really deep team, going through an 82-game season can be very taxing on your body, and the more able bodies you have is good.”
There’s more out of Indianapolis:
- Mark Montieth of Pacers.com breaks down the long road to the NBA for Pacers backup point guard T.J. McConnell, who signed a two-year, $7MM deal this past summer. The Pittsburgh native rose from 5’8″ embattled coach’s son his freshman year in Bridgeville (he was once grounded for excess showmanship to his father/head coach Tim), averaging just 10 points for Pennsylvania’s Chartiers Valley High School, to a slash line of 34.2 PPG/8.2 RPG/9.1 APG, first-team all-state honors and being voted the Associated Press’ 3A Player of the Year, all while securing a 29-2 record plus a conference championship in his senior year. For more on McConnell’s path to the league, check out Montieth’s full story.
- Following a choppy first season in Indiana, Pacers forward Doug McDermott has been settling in much better in year two, according to The Athletic’s Scott Agness. McDermott, who signed a three-year, $22MM contract with Indiana in 2018, is taking 1.9 more field goals per game than last season, 1.0 more triples a game (and converting at a healthy 43.9%), and staying on the floor for three more minutes a night (20.4 minutes instead of 17.4). McDermott has enjoyed being used more as an offensive weapon for longer stretches this season. “Nate rides the hot hand a little now this year and it’s good to have the trust from him to be able to stay out that long,” McDermott added. “To help change the momentum of the game is something I take a lot of pride in.”
- Another positive change in the injury-depleted Pacers’ locker room appears to have come about via some addition by subtraction. Scott Agness of The Athletic, in a separate piece, details why two of the three T.J.’s in the Pacers locker room (T.J. Leaf and McConnell) have recently gone relatively dark on social media. Myles Turner recently deactivated his Twitter account and deleted all his photos off his Instagram. Malcolm Brogdon recently deleted his Twitter account and primarily uses his Instagram account for branding, not for personal posts.
Community Shootaround: Knicks Chaos
Tonight, the Knicks suffered their second consecutive blowout defeat (and eighth straight loss overall), falling 129-92 to the Nuggets. Head coach David Fizdale‘s job appears to be in jeopardy.
In a postgame presser, Fizdale called the loss “sickening,” according to the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy. Soon after the loss, USA Today’s Chris Iseman and Newsday’s Steve Popper both commented on Fizdale’s increasingly shaky vocational security in separate pieces. Fizdale’s record as the Knicks’ head coach is 21-83.
But how much blame should really be allocated to Fizdale for the team’s lackluster 4-18 start to this 2019/20 season? Rookie RJ Barrett and second-year big man Mitchell Robinson have flashed significant promise under his tutelage. Fizdale remains respected across the league thanks to his time as an assistant coach on Erik Spoelstra‘s championship-winning Heat staff.
This summer, the Knicks whiffed on adding future Hall of Famers Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, who opted to join New York’s crosstown rivals, the upstart Nets. Instead, the team issued a public apology and signed four replacement-level power forwards to exorbitant-but-short contracts, by the front office twosome of Scott Perry and Steve Mills. Yes, Taj Gibson and Bobby Portis can play some center, and yes, Marcus Morris can log some time as a small forward, but ultimately, all three players are best served at the four, as is their fellow free agent addition Julius Randle.
Perry and Mills also traded All-Star center Kristaps Porzingis in a package to the Mavericks for disappointing point guard Dennis Smith Jr., a few middling months of DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews, and an underwhelming pair of future first-round picks that ought to be well clear of the lottery.
Owner James Dolan has stirred the pot plenty himself, rotating through a seemingly endless series of coaches (12, and counting) and front office heads (nine) since taking over the team in 1999. There’s no need to get into the bevy of on- and off-court disasters logged by Dolan and his Knicks associates in the intervening 20 years, but let’s just say… it’s not pretty.
Ultimately, the buck stops with Dolan. His conduct as Knicks owner has led to Durant noting that the Knicks have lost their cache in a recent interview with Hot 97’s Ebro Darden. “I think a lot of fans look at the Knicks as a brand and expect these younger players [to view the Knicks the same way] who, in their lifetime, don’t remember the Knicks being good,” Durant told Darden.
The onus for the league’s first $4 billion team losing its sheen falls squarely at Dolan’s feet, in this writer’s opinion. Coaches and front office management may come and go, but until Dolan sells his team, basketball in the Mecca will remain a mess.
What do you think? Who should bear the brunt of the blame for this lost season — the players, Fizdale, management, or Dolan? Or just all of the above?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in!
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 12/5/19
Here are Thursday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the league:
- The Knicks have recalled rookie forward Ignas Brazdeikis from the Westchester Knicks, according to a tweet from the team’s PR department. The 6’6″ Michigan forward has appeared in six games for New York.
- The Celtics have assigned rookie center Vincent Poirier to their G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, the team tweets. The seven-foot French rookie has seen sparse action in Boston, averaging just 4.6 minutes across seven games.
- The Hornets have assigned rookie small forward Cody Martin to the Greensboro Swarm, the team tweets. Martin has appeared in 16 games for the Hornets, averaging 11.8 minutes. He is shooting just 35.7% from the floor.
- The Thunder have assigned center Justin Patton to the Oklahoma City Blue, a team press release reports. The well-traveled Creighton alum is averaging 10.3 points, 7.5 boards, and 2.0 blocks across eight games for the Blue. He has suited up for two games with the Thunder this season.
- The Pistons have assigned rookie wing Sekou Doumbouya to the Grand Rapids Drive, Rod Beard of The Detroit News reports. The 18 year-old Doumbouya, the N0. 15 pick in the 2019 draft, is averaging 16.6 PPG and 5.4 RPG for the Drive, while shooting 39% on his long-range attempts. He has made four NBA appearances for the Pistons to date.
Thompson, Clarkson Receiving Interest From Contenders
In an illuminating look at the state of the Cavaliers, Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amico revealed that two Eastern Conference contenders could be destinations for a tandem of Cleveland veterans on expiring deals.
The 2018/19 champion Raptors have a “high interest” in Toronto native Tristan Thompson ahead of this season’s trade deadline, according to Amico. Thompson, an unrestricted free agent this summer, is playing on an expiring $18.5MM contract. Toronto has enough appealing assets to potentially entice Cavaliers GM Koby Altman into making a move. As of this writing, Toronto stands at 15-5, good for third in the Eastern Conference. They are playing the Rockets tonight.
Thompson is currently averaging career highs of 13.9 points and 10.6 boards per contest. The 28 year-old center would presumably replace one of the Raptors’ two-headed center corps, 34 year-old Marc Gasol or 30 year-old Serge Ibaka. Both former All-Defensive players are also on expiring deals, and both are on the athletic downslopes of their careers. Gasol is making $25.6MM this season, while Ibaka is earning $23.3MM. Thompson, a starter on the 2015/16 champion Cavaliers, would make more sense as a springier Ibaka replacement than a substitute for the passing maestro Gasol this year.
Amico also reports that the Sixers are said to be interested in adding Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson, on an expiring $13.4MM deal. After the 76ers lost significant offensive firepower with the 2019 summer departures of Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick, Clarkson could add provide some shooting help off the bench. He is connecting on 35% of his 5.0 long range attempts this season. Clarkson is also knocking down 88.6% of his looks from the charity stripe. Philadelphia sits at fourth in the East with a 15-6 record, though the team is in danger of dropping a game to the Wizards this evening.