Suns Notes: Collison, Conley, Davis, Williams
Darren Collison may be the most realistic solution to the Suns‘ point guard problem, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. An unrestricted free agent, Collison spent the past two seasons with the Pacers, averaging 11.9 points and 5.3 assists per game during his time there.
He pushes the ball up court quickly, runs the pick-and-roll well, and is an above average defender, all things Phoenix needs from that position, Rankin states. The Suns should have enough cap room to make an attractive offer to Collison, who earned $10MM this season, and they have a connection, as Collison played for new VP of basketball operations Jeff Bower during his rookie season in New Orleans.
Phoenix could also pursue a couple of high-priced point guards if it wants to take a win-now approach, Rankin notes. The Grizzlies’ Mike Conley is expected to return to the trade market now that his team is in position to draft Ja Morant, while the Rockets may be willing to part with Chris Paul to get out from under his salary commitment.
There’s more tonight from Phoenix:
- The Suns could also try to get involved in the pursuit of Pelicans star Anthony Davis, Rankin adds in the same piece. He speculates they could offer Deandre Ayton and the No. 6 pick, along with T.J. Warren, Josh Jackson and Tyler Johnson to help match salaries. While Davis is no lock to re-sign in Phoenix, Rankin thinks it might be worth the risk to prove the organization is serious about winning and to give Davis a chance to develop a rapport with Devin Booker.
- Monty Williams considered staying out of coaching to care for his family, but his children insisted he give it another try, relays Kevin Zimmerman of Arizona Sports. At his introductory press conference Tuesday, the Suns’ new head coach explained what brought him back to the game after his wife’s tragic death in 2016. “My oldest daughter kind of read me the riot act one day about getting back into coaching,” Williams said. “And then I had a conversation with (Spurs GM) R.C. Buford one day … R.C. looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Your kids won’t be happy if you don’t get back into coaching.’ Those two episodes really pushed me back into the mode of doing what I do well.”
- The reputation Phoenix has as a bad basketball city is an impediment to adding free agents, says Michelle Gardner of The Arizona Republic. Phoenix finished 27th in a recent “Best Cities for Basketball” survey and ranked next to last in attendance this season.
Steve Mills Claims Kristaps Porzingis Gave Knicks Trade Ultimatum
Knicks president Steve Mills offered some insight into the Kristaps Porzingis trade at a fan forum today, saying the Latvian star provided the team with an ultimatum and was very unlikely to re-sign this summer. Mills’ comments are captured in a video tweeted by #Knockstape of a JPM speaker event that Mills and GM Scott Perry attended.
“When he walked into our office, my office, and Scott was sitting there with me, and point blank said to us, ‘I don’t want to be here, I’m not going to re-sign with the Knicks, and I’ll give you seven days to try and trade me or I’m going back to Europe,’” Mills said.
The threat Porzingis was making was to go to Europe to train, not to play. No EuroLeague team could have signed him while he was under an NBA contract.
Porzingis was traded to the Mavericks in late January along with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee in exchange for Dennis Smith, DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and two future first-round picks. He will be a restricted free agent this summer, and the Mavs are expected to offer him a max contract.
The trade was shocking when it was announced, but it appears to have been brewing behind the scenes for several months. Mills told the gathering that Knicks management had been taking offers for Porzingis since last September.
Porzingis sat out all of last season while he recovered from a torn ACL. He was reportedly the victim of an attack recently in Latvia.
Nurse: Leonard OK, Lowry Hurting, Anunoby Out
Raptors coach Nick Nurse had a mixed report on the status of three key players as his team prepares for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, relays Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Even though Kawhi Leonard has been noticeably limping during the past two games, Nurse expressed confidence today in a conference call with reporters that his star forward will be ready for tomorrow night.
“He’s feeling good,” Nurse said. “No concerns at this point. He’s good.”
Leonard was outstanding as Toronto won back-to-back games on its home court to even the series, scoring 36 and 19 points and playing effective defense against Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Kyle Lowry is also expected to play tomorrow, even though he is still feeling the effects of a left thumb injury that he suffered in the series against the Sixers. Lowry has been using a specially designed “oven mitt” to help with the healing process, but he still battles pain every time he takes the court.
“Kyle’s hand is not great,” Nurse said. “You know, he’s — it’s hurt and it’s sore and it causes him a lot of pain. But he seems to be able to manage it through the game and do what he can do. He’s obviously scoring and playing great on top of the other things he always does, and we’re really [seeing] a heck of a lot of toughness and again, the spirit that he just wants to be out there and help his team any way he can.”
Bontemps adds that the Raptors seem resigned to finishing the series without OG Anunoby, who is still recovering after an emergency appendectomy in mid-April.
“OG does not have a timetable for coming back,” Nurse said. “He is being more active every day. I think we are getting closer to a point where we’re — you know, unpack is the next step for him. He’s moving pretty good, he’s shooting, etc., but still a ways away from being able to take hits and contact in the areas that he needs to test out, I guess.”
Heat Notes: Howard, Haslem, Whiteside, Dragic
Former NBA stars have a mixed record when taking over their alma maters, but Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is confident that his assistant, Juwan Howard, will be successful at Michigan, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Howard accepted a five-year deal this morning to coach the Wolverines, who recently lost John Beilein to the Cavaliers.
“Juwan is an absolute star as a person, player and coach,” Spoelstra said. “I feel he is more than ready. He is a terrific leader and mentor, which translates very well to the collegiate level. While we are losing a valuable member of our staff and a great friend, I am happy for him and his family. He will forever be a champion and part of the Heat family and I am excited to see him take the next step.”
Howard has been on the staff in Miami for the past six seasons, and his duties included helping to develop Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo, so the Heat will likely seek a replacement who has experience in working with big men. Jackson notes that the team now only has two assistants, Chris Quinn and Anthony Carter, who have NBA playing experience.
There’s more news from Miami:
- Although Udonis Haslem would be a logical choice to succeed Howard, he has stated numerous times that he doesn’t want to be a coach, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Haslem, who has spent his entire 16-year career in Miami, has morphed into a virtual assistant coach’s role, playing just 16, 14 and 10 games the past three seasons. “I don’t want to do coaching,” he said last year. “The coaching is not for me.” Haslem also hasn’t announced his retirement and may want to stay on the active roster next season.
- Whiteside and Goran Dragic will become instant trade chips if they exercise their options for next season, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Whiteside has a $27MM option, while Dragic’s is $19.2MM, which Winderman believes is too high for either player to opt out. Both must decide by June 29.
- The Heat may take a chance at Oregon’s Bol Bol, whose father Manute briefly played for the organization, with the No. 13 pick, Winderman writes in a separate story. Bol represents a gamble because he’s recovering from a foot injury that limited him to nine games in college.
Warriors Notes: Durant, Thompson, Cousins, Ponds
Kevin Durant‘s agent insists that the Warriors‘ star remains undecided about what he’s going to do in free agency, relays Chris Iseman of USA Today. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s The Future of Everything Festival, Rich Kleiman said Durant won’t begin thinking about his decision until after the NBA Finals.
“That is 100 percent undecided,” he said. “I’m waiting on Kevin. That’s the truth. I think there’s a feeling that this thing is like war games and everybody is playing chess years out. But when somebody gets to the level of basketball that he’s at, you can’t juggle focus like that. There’s so many things he’s juggling too. He’s not scripting his future while he’s playing the way he plays and practicing the way he’s practicing.”
There’s still no timetable for when Durant might return after suffering a strained right calf in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. He has eight days until the championship series begins.
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Owner Joe Lacob is prepared to spend big this summer to keep the team together, but DeMarcus Cousins may not be part of that equation, writes Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. Lacob indicated he will make max offers to Durant and fellow free agent Klay Thompson, even though those would push the Warriors to record luxury tax levels. However, Kawakami doesn’t believe the team can compete financially for Cousins, who will only be eligible for a 20% raise on this year’s $5.337MM contract if he stays in Golden State. He notes that management seems likely to keep unrestricted free agent Kevon Looney and restricted free agent Jordan Bell and is confident they can be an effective center tandem along with Damian Jones. The Warriors will probably have the option of adding Andrew Bogut to the roster again next March when his Australian season ends.
- Health updates on Durant and Cousins are expected Thursday, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. The Warriors will resume practicing tomorrow after taking two days off following the Game 4 win over Portland. Thursday will mark one week since Durant and Cousins were last evaluated.
- St. John’s guard Shamorie Ponds had a workout scheduled with Golden State today, according to Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog. Ponds, who also had a session with the Bulls this week, is projected as a late second-rounder, but believes he can move up. “I think I’m late-first round,” he said. “And that’s my goal, what I’m aiming for.”
Grizzlies Notes: Jasikevicius, Valanciunas, Conley
It looks like the Grizzlies will have to scratch one name off their list of potential head coaches. Lithuanian basketball journalist Donatas Urbonas is reporting that Zalgiris Kaunas is confident Sarunas Jasikevicius will return to coach the team next season (Twitter link). Memphis, the only NBA team currently without a head coach, reportedly has interest in Jasikevicius if he decides to leave Europe.
“Today it seems like everything is OK and Saras is staying in Zalgiris,” team executive Robertas Javtokas said in a TV interview. “I think last year we had even bigger headache due to Saras’ future status. Of course, if [an] NBA offer comes, we will be very glad for him. It would be an issue for us, but we know Saras won’t be here forever and we must be ready for this.” (Twitter link)
Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin was the latest candidate to interview for the Grizzlies’ vacancy. He joins former Suns coach Igor Kokoskov, Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts, Jazz assistant Alex Jensen and Warriors assistant Jarron Collins.
There’s more out of Memphis:
- By conducting a thorough coaching search, the Grizzlies are making up for their mistake last summer when they didn’t talk to anyone outside the organization before giving the job to interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff, writes Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian. Herrington recommends that the team look for someone relatively young who has head coaching experience at some level and a track record of player development.
- Center Jonas Valanciunas recently indicated that the coaching hire will affect whether he decides to opt in to a $17.6MM salary next season, Herrington notes. Valanciunas, who averaged 19.9 points and 10.7 rebounds per game after being acquired from the Raptors midway through the season, has a June 13 deadline to make his decision.
- A Mike Conley trade is more likely to happen after July 1 because more teams will have cap room to absorb part of his salary, Herrington writes in a separate story. The Grizzlies will be well stocked at point guard if they draft Ja Morant and keep free agent Delon Wright, so Herrington expects the club to focus on players who get drafted next month, along with future draft picks and young players with affordable contracts for the next few years. The Timberwolves, Heat, Pistons, Jazz and Pacers are considered the most likely landing spots for Conley, according to Herrington, but the Knicks, Lakers, Clippers and Celtics are candidates to enter the mix depending how free agency turns out.
Pelicans Hire Trajan Langdon As GM
3:33pm: The hiring of Langdon is official, per a release from the Pelicans.
10:40am: Assistant GM Trajan Langdon will leave the Nets to become the new GM in New Orleans, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The move completes a front office makeover for the Pelicans, who hired David Griffin last month as executive vice president of basketball operations.
Langdon impressed Pelicans officials when he interviewed for the top job in the organization, and the team was happy to be able to secure both men, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link).
He has prior experience working with Griffin, serving as director of player administration and basketball operations for Cleveland during the 2015/16 season, notes Andrew Lopez of The New Orleans Times-Picayune (Twitter link).
Langdon has been with Brooklyn’s front office since 2016. He was drafted by the Cavaliers in 1999 and played three seasons in Cleveland, but spent most of his career overseas.
MRI Negative On Andre Iguodala’s Left Calf
1:23pm: Per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the results of Andre Iguodala’s MRI came back negative. He is questionable for Game 4 in Portland, adds Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
9:02am: The Warriors could have a third member of their rotation sidelined as they try to wrap up a fifth straight Western Conference title, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN. Andre Iguodala will have an MRI today on an injured left calf that limited him to 17 minutes last night and caused him to miss the entire fourth quarter.
“He was sore,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the Game 3 victory. “Lower leg, just had some soreness. He’s going to get an MRI tomorrow. We didn’t want to risk anything and put him back in the game. So, when we took him out mid-third, trainer said that’ll be it for him. We’ll know more tomorrow.”
Iguodala was pulled from the game in the first quarter to have the leg examined. He was able to return for a while before the Warriors decided to sit him for the rest of the night. Iguodala was favoring the leg somewhat after the game, Friedell adds, but didn’t seem worried about the injury
The 35-year-old swingman has started nine of the Warriors’ 15 games this postseason and is averaging 30.2 minutes per night. He is posting a 10.6/4.2/4.1 line and is taking on the toughest defensive matchups. Kerr limited him to a career-low 23.2 minutes per game during the regular season to make sure he was rested heading into the playoffs.
Golden State has a chance to sweep the series with Portland tomorrow, which would create a nine-day window for Iguodala, Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins to recover before the start of the NBA Finals.
“We won’t talk about anything other than Game 4,” Kerr said. “What’s after that doesn’t matter, maybe game 5, maybe game 6. So, we just focus on the next game ahead of us. We’ve got some guys banged up, but we’ve done a really good job. I’m really proud of this group for playing through a number of injuries we’ve had. It’s a remarkable group to continue to press and play at this level without so many key guys, so I’m very proud of them.”
Nets Face Management Makeover
Trajan Langdon’s decision to become the new GM in New Orleans represents the third major off-court loss for Brooklyn since the season ended, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
Langdon, the Nets’ former assistant GM and the reigning G League Executive of the Year, has been a popular candidate to move up the management ranks. He recently interviewed for jobs with the Timberwolves and Wizards, as well as the Pelicans.
The time Langdon spent as a player in Europe only adds to his value, Lewis notes. He has wide-ranging contacts throughout the continent and speaks five languages. He also has a scouting background with the Spurs and was responsible for assembling the Nets’ draft board.
Lewis sees Gianluca Pascucci, who serves as the Nets’ director of global scouting, as the leading choice to step into Langdon’s role. However, he is also reportedly a candidate to become GM at Olimpia Milano in the EuroLeague.
Brooklyn’s other offseason losses were G League coach Will Weaver, who left for a job with Sydney in the Australian League after leading Long Island to the championship game, and Chris Fleming, who left the Nets’ coaching staff to become the lead assistant to Jim Boylen in Chicago.
Lewis mentions ex-Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek as a possibility to replace Fleming. Hornacek joined the Nets for training camp, practices and some road trips and may be interested in taking an official position with the team.
Knicks Notes: Durant, Davis, Draft, Ntilikina
The possibility of Kevin Durant signing with the Knicks overshadowed all other topics as NBA executives gathered this week for the annual combine, relays Steve Popper of Newsday. He states that most of those in attendance consider it a “fait accompli” that the Warriors’ star will be coming to New York when free agency begins in July.
The combine was peppered with talk of a secret meeting between the Knicks and Durant and rumors that a “handshake deal” is already in place, along with endorsement opportunities. That would be a blatant violation of NBA rules and a huge risk for the team to take when the opportunity to legally negotiate with Durant is just six weeks away. However, even those who don’t buy into such conspiracy talk seem convinced that a move is on the way.
Explaining why Durant might be willing to leave a potential three-time champion, one unidentified front office executive speculates that he is tired of constant “prodding” from Warriors coach Steve Kerr and believes he will never replace Stephen Curry as the team’s most important player. That opportunity would come instantly in New York, where Knicks fans have been clamoring for a star for years.
There’s more today from New York:
- Knicks president Steve Mills wouldn’t discuss the possibility of including the No. 3 pick in a deal for Anthony Davis, but he insists the team is happy about its position coming out of Tuesday’s lottery, relays Marc Berman of The New York Post. Trade talks for Davis remain on hold as Pelicans executive David Griffin tries to convince his star big man to stay with the team, a source tells Berman. Any trade offer for Davis would have to include the two first-rounders from Dallas that were acquired in the Kristaps Porzingis deal, along with two young prospects from a group that includes Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Frank Ntilikina.
- Berman considers it a”virtual certainty” that New York will take Duke’s R.J. Barrett if the draft proceeds as expected. The Knicks rate Murray State’s Ja Morant slightly higher, but Memphis is likely to grab him with the second pick. New York’s front office met with both players Wednesday at the combine. The Knicks also own the 55th pick and could target a power forward in the second round.
- The Knicks are willing to part with Ntilikina in exchange for another late first round or early second round selection, Berman adds. That would open more cap room to pick up the options on Allonzo Trier and Damyean Dotson without jeopardizing the ability to offer to max deals in free agency.