Rick Carlisle Denies Interest In Bucks’ Job
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle issued a statement to the media denying that he’s a candidate for the head coaching vacancy in Milwaukee, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.
“Rumors that I have interest in the Milwaukee Bucks’ job are completely inaccurate,” he wrote. “I work for Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks.”
Carlisle is responding to a report from Gery Woelfel this week suggesting that the Mavs coach might have interest in coaching the Bucks, Stein adds (Twitter link). Woelfel identified Mike Budenholzer and Monty Williams as the top two candidates for the job.
Carlisle just completed the first year of a five-year extension in Dallas that runs through the 2021/22 season. He has a 437-367 record in 10 seasons with the Mavericks.
Knicks Notes: Fizdale, Woodson, Ntilikina, M. Bridges
Knicks coach David Fizdale is confident he can make New York a popular free agent destination again, but he knows it will take time and success, relays Marc Berman of The New York Post. Fizdale isn’t addressing questions about the top free agent on the market, LeBron James, whom he worked with for four years as an assistant coach in Miami, but he knows the city can be a strong selling point if the Knicks get competitive again.
“[Free agents] are not just going to go there to live in New York City,’’ Fizdale said. “You’re going there to be in a culture. When you start showing that through action, players are going to come. New York is a special place.”
During a series of media appearances, Fizdale promised that once that culture is instilled, the team will be able to attract “the right players here to take us to another level.’’
There’s more tonight out of New York:
- During an appearance on MSG Network, Fizdale singled out Clippers assistant Mike Woodson as one of his most important influences, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN. Woodson, who hired Fizdale as an assistant in Atlanta, has expressed interest in joining Fizdale’s staff if Doc Rivers isn’t retained in L.A. “Mike Woodson was really the person who instilled a work ethic,” Fizdale said. “Understanding that no matter what’s going on around you, you have to bring a certain work ethic and really check your ego at the door because when you’re going through 13-win seasons, 26-win seasons [in Atlanta] and getting to places like that, there’s no room for ego.”
- Fizdale is excited to begin working with last year’s first-rounder, Frank Ntilikina, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. Ntilikina saw time at both backcourt positions last season, which isn’t an issue for Fizdale, who envisions “positionless basketball” with Ntilikina possibly sharing the court with fellow point guards Emmanuel Mudiay and Trey Burke.
- Fizdale made a couple of eye-opening comparisons during an appearance today on WFAN, Bondy tweets. He said he coached players like Mudiay before, citing Dwyane Wade and Tyreke Evans as examples, then compared Lance Thomas with Draymond Green.
- Villanova’s Mikal Bridges would enjoy having Madison Square Garden as his home court if he gets drafted by the Knicks. In an interview tweeted by DraftExpressContent, Bridges says he enjoyed the surroundings during the Wildcats’ frequent trips to the Garden. “Great atmosphere, great venue, lot of great things happening here,” he said.
Hornets Notes: Borrego, Batum, Howard, Zeller
Nicolas Batum may benefit more than anyone from the Hornets’ coaching change, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Spurs assistant James Borrego is expected to install the motion offense used in San Antonio, which plays to Batum’s strengths of handling the ball and making quick decisions.
Charlotte’s approach under Steve Clifford this season was heavy on postups for center Dwight Howard, which restricted Batum’s effectiveness. His scoring average dropped to 11.6 points per game, the lowest in his three years with the Hornets, and Bonnell speculates that he needs a new approach on offense to become productive again.
Bonnell addresses more Hornets topics in a mailbag column:
- New GM Mitch Kupchak would like to move at least one big contract this summer to provide cap relief, but the organization might be wise to hold onto Howard. Bonnell states that the team may be in a better long-term position by allowing Howard’s $23.8MM contract to expire next summer rather than trading it for other expensive assets. However, he questions how much Howard will play next season, especially if the Hornets fall out of contention early.
- Of the five players with large contracts, Cody Zeller may be easiest to trade. Zeller is signed for the next three seasons at an average of about $14MM per year, but he is only 25 and could develop into an effective center if he can overcome his injury history.
- Young players Malik Monk, Willy Hernangomez and Dwayne Bacon may get a better chance to prove themselves under Borrego than Clifford. Bonnell says all three will be closely watched and supervised over the offseason, although Hernangomez will spend a large part of the summer with the Spanish National Team.
- Borrego may try to add a former NBA head coach to his staff, just as Clifford did with Bob Weiss and Eddie Jordan.
- The most pressing offseason need is finding a point guard to back up Kemba Walker. Monk played there late in the season, but Bonnell notes that it’s too early to say if that’s his best position. It’s also a long-term concern because Walker is headed for free agency in 2019.
Southwest Notes: Fizdale, Wallace, Mavericks, Benson
Former Grizzlies coach David Fizdale believes Marc Gasol is getting too much blame for his dismissal in Memphis, relays Marc Berman of The New York Post. Fizdale, who was introduced Tuesday as the new coach of the Knicks, had a rocky relationship with Gasol during his brief stay with the Grizzlies, but says there were other issues involved.
“We had some moments I pushed too hard,’’ Fizdale admitted. “I probably should’ve done more research and spent more time to getting to know the person, knowing what ticks and what doesn’t tick and how to get through to him. … I did a lot of things wrong. I was a rookie coach. I screwed up timeouts, when to call timeouts. I made bad subs. … I don’t want to blame [Gasol] for getting me fired. I don’t think that’s fair.’’
Memphis had six straight playoff appearances before Fizdale arrived last season. He took the team to the postseason again, losing in the first round, but was let go in November after a 7-12 start. Berman notes that Knicks president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry did extensive interviews with many of Fizdale’s former players and employers before deciding to hire him.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace believes the combination of events that affected the team this year sets it up well for the future, relays Michael Wallace of NBA.com. Memphis’ season soured early when Mike Conley suffered a heel injury that limited him to 12 games. Now the organization has proven veterans to build around, along with a high lottery pick. “I think we’re going to be good next year,” Wallace said. “It’s rare to have a team that’s been in the playoffs for seven straight years, still have their key players coming back and several more years of productive play in front of them and get a chance to make a top five pick.”
- The Mavericks are ahead of schedule in their investigation into alleged workplace misconduct, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. Chief executive officer Cynthia Marshall said most of the scheduled interviews have been completed and the process could wrap up by the end of the month. The coaching staff was the latest group to complete a 3 1/2-hour diversity training session. “I thought it was great,” said head coach Rick Carlisle. “There was a lot of good discussion about the world we live in. I think every company ought to have it.”
- A day after being eliminated from the playoffs, Pelicans owner Gayle Benson released a statement congratulating the players for their success and emphasizing her commitment to “building a team that could compete for championships,” relays William Guillory of The New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Paul George Undergoes Knee Scope
Paul George will have to delay offseason activities for six to eight weeks after having a left knee scope performed today, tweets Marc J. Spears of ESPN. He will be permitted to resume playing basketball right around the start of free agency on July 1.
George is expected to opt out of a $20,703,384 salary for next season and become one of the hottest names on the free agent market. The 28-year-old just completed his first year in Oklahoma City, averaging 21.9 points per game after being traded there last summer.
George has expressed a desire to play in his home town of Los Angeles and will be among the Lakers’ priorities once free agency gets under way. The Thunder want to keep the five-time All-Star and are willing to pay the luxury tax to do so.
Earlier today, George posted an Instagram photo of himself in a hospital bed with the words “Good spirits” and no other explanation.
Jazz Notes: Favors, Sefolosha, Jerebko, Udoh
A summer decision on Derrick Favors will shape the Jazz roster going forward, writes Bobby Marks of ESPN. Favors, who has spent more than seven years in Utah, will be an unrestricted free agent after earning $12MM this season. The team received offers for him at the trade deadline, according to Marks, but never came close to pulling the trigger.
Favors played 77 games this year after battling injuries the past two seasons and raised his numbers in points, rebounds and blocks. He was an effective fill-in for Rudy Gobert while the starting center missed 26 games with knee injuries.
The market may work against Favors, Marks cautions, because few teams have significant money to spend and the draft appears to be loaded with big men. He sees a compromise that would keep Favors in Utah for $45MM over three seasons with a 2020/21 player option. Marks notes that would allow the Jazz to use their full mid-level exception on another player – or players – without going over the luxury tax.
There’s more from Utah on the first day of the offseason:
- The Jazz also face decisions on three non-guaranteed contracts, Marks adds in the same story. After free agent Gordon Hayward left for Boston last summer, Utah signed three veterans — Thabo Sefolosha, Jonas Jerebko and Ekpe Udoh — without the guarantee of a second season. Marks states that their fates will be determined by the free agency pool at their positions, the need to open roster spots and the anticipated cost of keeping Favors. Jerebko and Udoh were barely used in the playoffs, while Sefolosha missed the end of the season with a knee injury and will start next year with a five-game suspension.
- After becoming a surprising Rookie of the Year candidate, “nonstop work” is on Donovan Mitchell‘s agenda for the summer, relays Christopher Kamrani of The Salt Lake Tribune. Mitchell had his left foot in a walking boot during today’s exit interview, a result of an injury that forced him out of Tuesday’s closeout game with the Rockets. “He’s special because he has that look in him that he wants to be the best,” teammate Ricky Rubio said. “You either have it or you don’t have it. He has something. We can enjoy it.”
- The Jazz plan to use their system as a selling point to free agents this summer, according to Royce Young and Tim MacMahon of ESPN. The pitch will be that players will be put into a role where they can excel, just as Joe Ingles has.
- Links to today’s exit interviews are available on the Jazz website.
Lloyd Pierce Optimistic About Chances With Hawks
Sixers assistant Lloyd Pierce feels good about his chances to become the next head coach in Atlanta after going through a second interview Tuesday, relays Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Pierce, who had a dinner meeting with Hawks ownership, is among four finalists for the vacancy, along with Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts, Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, and Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga. Pierce added that he isn’t sure when Atlanta officials will make their decision, but said his experience in Philadelphia prepared him for the opportunity.
“The main reason is just looking at their young players,” he said. “They got four guys in the draft. They got a couple of young players that are on their roster. So what’s most important when you are dealing with young players and young talent, it’s the development and relational side of that. It’s kind of my track record. It’s anybody’s track record of how do you communicate, how do you work with players, how do you develop, what does that mean?”
The Hawks will add to their young talent base in the draft, Pompey notes, holding the fourth-best odds at the top pick heading into next week’s lottery, along with two more first-rounders at No. 19 and 30 and a high second-rounder at No. 33.
After making the decision to start rebuilding, Atlanta fell to the bottom of the Eastern Conference at 24-58. It’s familiar territory for Pierce, who joined the Sixers in 2013 and has been through the darkest days of “the Process.” He is also considered to be a candidate for the opening in Milwaukee, but the Bucks haven’t contacted him yet, according to Pompey.
Ricky Rubio Will Not Play For Jazz In Game 4
4:00pm: Rubio will not be available for the Jazz against the Rockets for Game 4 tonight, the Jazz announced (via Twitter).
8:52am: The Jazz are hopeful that Ricky Rubio will be back on the court for today’s Game 4 against the Rockets, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Rubio missed the first three games of the conference semifinals with a strained left hamstring he suffered nine days ago in the closeout game with the Thunder. He will get treatment on the hamstring this morning, and the Jazz will decide on his availability based on how he responds.
With Rubio sidelined, point guard duties have fallen to Donovan Mitchell, whose numbers across the board have fallen off as he tries to handle an unfamiliar role. He’s shooting just 32.2% from the field against Houston while averaging 16 points, 6.3 assists and 3.3 turnovers per game.
“We’re asking Donovan right now to be a point guard, and it’s different,” Utah coach Quin Snyder said. “There’s a lot of things when you take someone out of your lineup as instrumental as Ricky that you have to adjust.”
Rubio is officially listed as questionable for tonight’s contest, as is power forward Derrick Favors, who left Game 3 with a sprained left ankle. Favors has been a strong frontcourt presence in the playoffs, averaging 10.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per night.
Weekly Mailbag: 4/30/18 – 5/6/18
We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.
Will my Wizards target DeAndre Jordan to bolster our frontcourt to give us the athletic big we need to compete in the East? — Jermaine, via Twitter
If Jordan opts out of his $24.1MM salary for next season and becomes a free agent, the Wizards won’t have a chance. They are already over the cap for next year and have no realistic way of opening up enough space to make a near-max offer. However, if Jordan opts in and the Clippers want to shake up their roster, the Wizards might be in the running. Kelly Oubre and Tomas Satoransky both have bright futures, but they will be due for extensions soon and Washington has to be careful about adding any expensive long-term contracts to John Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter. The Wizards could match salaries by offering both players and Ian Mahinmi, who is owed nearly $31.5MM over the next two seasons. When Marcin Gortat‘s deal expires next summer, they would be in position to re-sign Jordan.
Would there be any chance the Pacers make a big grab in the offseason? — Adam Harris, via Twitter
Not only has Indiana assembled one of the NBA’s best young rosters, there aren’t any bad contracts to restrict the team from being aggressive in free agency. The Pacers won’t know how much cap room they have until Thaddeus Young [$13,764,045] and Cory Joseph [$7,945,000] decide on their player options for next season, and choices have to be made on non-guaranteed contracts for Bojan Bogdanovic [$10.5MM], Darren Collison and Al Jefferson [$10MM each]. Indiana could be in position to upgrade its front court with a nice offer to a restricted free agent like Aaron Gordon or Julius Randle.
With the hiring of David Fizdale, do you agree this is the Knicks’ best coaching hire in quite some time? Because I do! — Deven Parikh
It’s not an especially high bar to clear, considering that the franchise has been through 11 coaches in 14 seasons, but Fizdale feels like the next step in a new era in New York. There’s a reason he was on the interview list for nearly every head coaching slot that opened. Fizdale was a highly respected assistant for years, he has a rapport with many star players and there was a feeling that he got a raw deal in Memphis. He was due to get another chance soon and he seems like the right man to lead the Knicks back to the playoffs, if team president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry can stick to their pledge to remain patient.
Raptors Notes: Casey, Valanciunas, Lowry, DeRozan
Rival executives expect the Raptors to make a coaching change if they can’t rally from a 3-0 deficit against the Cavaliers, writes Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer. Dwane Casey is a Coach of the Year candidate after leading Toronto to a 59-win season, but his lack of playoff success may have caught up to him.
Toronto has three qualified replacements in its organization in assistants Nick Nurse and Rex Kalamian and G League coach Jerry Stackhouse. Nurse, who recently interviewed with the Suns and Hornets about their head coaching vacancies, would be the favorite to take over if Casey is dismissed, according to O’Connor, who adds that Nurse played a bigger role than Casey in the changes the Raptors made to their offensive system.
There’s more today out of Toronto:
- The series with the Cavaliers is displaying the problems with Toronto’s roster, O’Connor notes in the same story. The Raptors are short on defenders at the wing and forward, their big men aren’t versatile enough for the modern NBA game and they don’t have a superstar who can be the best player on the court in a playoff series. O’Connor states that even if LeBron James heads to the Western Conference in free agency, the Raptors will have difficulty getting past the Celtics or Sixers in the future.
- With Toronto already in tax territory for next season and this year’s draft picks dealt away, O’Connor points to trades as the only realistic way to improve. He notes that the Raptors had interest in DeAndre Jordan before this year’s deadline and may explore that route again if he opts in. O’Connor states that a young player like Jakob Poeltl or Delon Wright would have to be included along with Jonas Valanciunas to get the Clippers’ interest. He suggests offering Lowry, C.J. Miles and Pascal Siakam to the Wolves for Jeff Teague and Andrew Wiggins. That would free Minnesota from the cap-clogging contract it gave to Wiggins, and it would pair Lowry and Jimmy Butler, who became friends during their Olympics experience.
- DeMar DeRozan had his worst postseason game Saturday with eight points on 3-of-12 shooting and was benched for the final 14 minutes, notes Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Casey told reporters not to read too much into the move and expressed confidence that DeRozan will get back to normal. “He had a tough night,” Casey said. “He wasn’t the reason we lost. We are professionals, he’s a pro. He has had tough games before, he’ll bounce back. But we have one more game, our pride is on the line, basically our season is on the line, but I think he’ll bounce back.”