Central Rumors: Rose, Cavs, Crawford
Derrick Rose looked solid in Team USA’s dominating 114-55 victory over Finland today in the opening round of the 2014 FIBA World Cup. The 2010/11 MVP made just three of the eight shots he took, but he scored 12 points and dished out three assists over 22 minutes on the floor. The Bulls are surely crossing their fingers as they watch Rose in tournament play, praying the stud point guard can make it to the regular season injury free. Here’s the latest from the Central:
- The Cavs have been considering signing a point guard before the start training camp, writes Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer. However, Pluto hears that Cleveland doesn’t see adding another guard as a major need and that they won’t bring aboard another backcourt player if they can reach a deal with Ray Allen.
- Former Indiana State big man Josh Crawford will work out for the Pacers next week, reports Enea Trapani of Sportando (via Twitter). Crawford, who has never suited up for an NBA club, currently plays in Bulgaria.
- John Zitzler of Basketball Insiders has a look at the development of young centers from around the league and concludes that Andre Drummond is due for a monster year with the Pistons, while Larry Sanders will need to work hard to restore his image with the Bucks.
Poll: Who Will Win Rookie Of The Year?
The 2014/15 NBA season will be underway in just under two months, and members of this summer’s much-discussed draft class will finally have a chance to prove that they deserve all the hype they’ve received. Plenty of recent draftees will get the opportunity to make an immediate impact on the court, but only one will be named Rookie of the Year. With the uncertainty that injuries, roster shuffling, and varying playing time all carry, it’s tough to pick a clear-cut favorite in the preseason. Still, it’s fun to take a stab at which college studs will have the most success translating their game to the next level.
The Timberwolves received top pick Andrew Wiggins in the deal that sent Kevin Love off to the Cavs, and the Kansas product will likely see more playing time as a result. Minnesota carries a young, exciting roster, and the chance to play with assist machine Ricky Rubio means Wiggins should be in line to get plenty of good looks from all over the floor. Wiggins’ college teammate, Joel Embiid, would also figure to have a pretty good shot at winning the title with the Sixers if he wasn’t entering the season with so many question marks surrounding his health. As it stands, the freakishly athletic center might miss the entire year.
Jabari Parker of the Bucks and Julius Randle of the Lakers are two big men that are often described by pundits as being “NBA ready,” and they’re each in line to be able to see some serious minutes in their upcoming rookie campaigns. Both will suit up for teams likely figuring to be lottery bound next summer, so they’ll have a good chance to make their presence known on the hardwood. However, whether or not they can deliver on expectations as pros has yet to be seen.
Only 4.9% of Hoops Rumors readers who voted in last year’s edition of this poll selected Michael Carter-Williams to win the award, but the lengthy Syracuse point guard put up big numbers for a less-than-stellar Sixers team and ended up receiving the top rookie honor. It’s always tough to predict who will take the title home, especially with such a talented class, but give us your best prediction by voting in the poll below. I’ve included the top eight picks (minus Embiid) and Nerlens Noel, the talented 2013 Sixers draftee who sat out the entire last season with an injury. I’ve also put in the Bulls’ Nikola Mirotic, a 2011 draft pick who’s been playing overseas and been labeled as the best player in Europe. There’s an “Other” option there as well, so let us know if you think someone else should be considered the favorite by sharing your thoughts in the comments section.
Hawks, Elton Brand In Talks
The Hawks are trying to negotiate a deal with unrestricted free agent Elton Brand, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 35-year-old big man spent the 2013/14 season on the back end of Atlanta’s rotation, averaging 19.4 minutes per night over 73 contests.
A report from earlier this month indicated that Brand had engaged in discussions with the Heat but suggested it was unlikely that the former first overall pick would join Miami. The Knicks were another team cast as a potential suitor, but it doesn’t appear there has been much movement on New York’s end.
The Hawks have a pretty well-stocked frontcourt as it stands, but bringing in a veteran to supplement their depth even further would hardly be a shocking maneuver. Although his best years are behind him, Brand could likely still provide some modest production off the bench. His PER dipped to a career low 14.0 last season, but that number isn’t far short of the league average 15.0. The Hawks roster will increase to 15 players if they reach an agreement to re-sign the David Falk client.
Clippers Waive Miroslav Raduljica
FRIDAY, 1:09pm: The move is official, the team announced. It takes place in time for the team to use the stretch provision on Raduljica’s salary, a strategy the team indeed has been planning to pursue, as a report from today on the team’s waiver of Delfino indicates.
THURSDAY, 10:27pm: The Clippers are set to waive Miroslav Raduljica on Friday morning, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (on Twitter). Los Angeles received Raduljica and Carlos Delfino in the trade that sent Jared Dudley packing to the Bucks. Sam Amick of USA Today indicated on Tuesday that the Clips were likely to waive the duo, and the team appears poised to follow through with at least part of that move tomorrow morning.
Raduljica, 26, spent his sole NBA season with Milwaukee last year but didn’t get to spend much time on the floor. In 48 contests with the Bucks, the big man averaged 3.8 points and 2.3 rebounds over just 9.7 minutes per night. The Clippers will be on the hook for the $1,500,000 he’s owed this season, but won’t need to pay his non-guaranteed second year worth $1,567,500.
Waiving Raduljica will put the Clips at 12 guaranteed contracts. Should they choose to cut ties with Delfino as well, the team will roster only 11 players, two short of the league minimum. Los Angeles is reportedly likely to use the stretch provision to shed the injured Delfino’s contract. It’s not entirely clear whether or not they intend to use the same provision when they waive Raduljica, but that will presumably be the case, given the team’s proximity to its hard cap.
By moving Dudley and using the stretch provision on one or both of former the Bucks they acquired, the Clippers will distance themselves far enough away from the hard cap to be able bring aboard a veteran to fill out their roster. The team was recently linked to free agent big man Ekpe Udoh, as well as swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts.
Northwest Notes: Love, LeBron, Morrow
Earlier today, Utah announced that Toure’ Murry had signed with the team on a multi-year deal. With his pact in tow, the Jazz boast a total of at 18 contracts on their books as training camp approaches. Teams can only roster 15 players once the regular season begins, so Utah will need to decide which guys on partially guaranteed deals are worth keeping around. Here’s tonight’s look at the Northwest Division:
- Kevin Love recently made comments indicating that he spoke to LeBron James about teaming up while still a member of the Wolves, but such an admission won’t allow the league to hit Cleveland with a tampering penalty, as salary cap expert Larry Coon explains on SiriusXM NBA Radio (audio link via SoundCloud).
- After being heavily shopped by the Sixers at last season’s trade deadline, Thaddeus Young now feels like he’s “wanted” as a member of the Wolves, as Marc Narducci of the Inquirer details.
- Although Anthony Morrow isn’t exactly a big name, Susan Bible of Basketball Insiders points out that his presence in Oklahoma City should help bolster the Thunder’s weak shooting. Bible says the decision to bring in the former Pelicans swingman could eventually be considered a great move down the road.
Lakers Notes: Beasley, D-League, Davis
The Lakers might not be a championship-caliber team the way they’re currently constructed, but as the team’s Basketball Insiders salary page shows, they’re set to have plenty of cap room next summer that they can use to lure free agents to the ever-appealing purple-and-gold. We’ll round up the latest out of Lakerland below..
- Michael Beasley has worked out twice for the Lakers this offseason, and it isn’t the first time that LA has shown interest in the former second overall pick. Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times looks back at when the Lakers were close to acquiring Beasley in 2012 before pulling the trigger on a trade for Jordan Hill instead.
- Phil Hubbard has been named head coach of the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the team announced (on Twitter). Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News provides some background on Hubbard and lays out the former player’s coaching resume.
- Johnny Davis won’t be part of Byron Scott‘s coaching staff in Los Angeles next season, as Medina hears (Twitter link). Davis, the former head coach of the Sixers, Magic, and Grizzlies, spent last season as an assistant under Mike D’Antoni.
And-Ones: Wiggins, Shved, Mbah a Moute
Now that Andrew Wiggins is in Minnesota, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com thinks there’s a decent shot the Kansas product ends up winning Rookie of the Year. Howard-Cooper didn’t like Wiggins’ chances to take in the award as a member of the stacked Cavs but sees him as one of the five most likely candidates as a result of his move to Minnesota. Here’s more from around the NBA:
- It’s unlikely that the Sixers buy out the recently acquired contracts of Alexey Shved and Luc Mbah a Moute, a source tells Tom Moore of Calkins Media (Twitter links). The duo was shipped to Philly in the Kevin Love deal.
- Acquiring Wiggins is an important step in the right direction, but Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com identifies the needs he thinks the Wolves should address if they want to become true title contenders one day (Insider link).
- The Wolves are close to bringing a Canadian player into training camp, says Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (on Twitter), but he doesn’t specifically identify who that player is. Brady Heslip, a Canadian out of Baylor, played on Minnesota’s Summer League squad and could be the player being referenced, but that’s just my own speculation.
- Chris Andersen is disappointed that LeBron James isn’t returning to the Heat, but the four-time MVP’s decision to leave Miami didn’t affect Andersen’s plans to return to South Beach, as he explains to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
Wolves Notes: Love, Cavs, Bennett, Young
The “Summer of Love” has finally concluded, with Kevin Love officially being shipped to the Cavs after months of rumors and speculation. Plenty of new details and strong reactions to the blockbuster deal have emerged, so let’s have a look at the latest on the Wolves..
- Prior to the two teams reaching an agreement, the Wolves gave Cavs owner Dan Gilbert permission to meet with Love during Summer League play, reveals Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter).
- The Wolves regularly fielded calls from the Cavs front office, who frequently inquired about the availability of Love, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. In all, more than 12 teams made an offer for the former Wolves All-Star, according to Windhorst.
- Flip Saunders reiterated in a press conference that it was a difficult decision to move Love, but explained that any player can be traded if the return has a net benefit on either the short- or long-term quality of the team (video link).
- Early reports suggested Anthony Bennett would be heading to the Sixers in the Love deal, but Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune dismisses such a scenario would’ve occured, saying Saunders wouldn’t have agreed to move Bennett in exchange for Thaddeus Young (video link).
- Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune provides an overview of Love’s tenure in Minnesota and breaks down the various character issues that the big man has been accused of carrying.
- It could be the beginning of a new era in Minnesota, opines Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders, who thinks that the young and athletic core of the Timberwolves should provide for exciting basketball in upcoming seasons.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Dante Cunningham
Dante Cunningham never looked like a player who was going to draw significant attention in free agency this summer, but his arrest for domestic abuse last April seems to have all but eliminated interest from teams around the league. However, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN passed along Monday, the charges filed against the 27-year-old power forward have been dropped, and a report from Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press indicates that Cunningham plans to sue his accuser in an attempt to clear his name. It remains unclear how much the recent development in his legal narrative will influence teams’ perceptions of him, but Cunningham spoke with several clubs this offseason, each of which wanted to wait for the legal process to play out before discussing a contract, as Krawczynski details.
The Joel Bell client just completed a respectable year in which he came off the bench for the Timberwolves, but he still finds himself without a contract heading into the latter part of August. While Cunningham has reportedly been maintaining interest in a return to Minnesota, it doesn’t seem as though the team shares his desire. It could have been the legal issues keeping the Wolves from calling his name, but the more probable road block keeping Cunningham from returning to Minnesota is the club’s likely acquisition of Anthony Bennett and/or Thaddeus Young in the looming Kevin Love trade.
Retaining Cunningham would give the Wolves depth at the power forward position, which would certainly help the team, given that they don’t feature a true four outside of Love as it stands. However, Minnesota is already carrying 15 fully guaranteed contracts, and the team still hasn’t worked out a deal with second-round selection Glenn Robinson III. Unless the pending Love/Andrew Wiggins swap shakes up the Wolves roster more than current reports indicate, Cunningham seems like a long shot to return to the squad with which he’s spent the last two seasons.
As far as we know, the Rockets have been the only team outside of the Wolves who have been in discussions with Cunningham about a possible deal this offseason, as our rumor page for the big man shows. But, like Minnesota, Houston has limited flexibility to bring aboard Cunningham, currently rostering 13 players on fully guaranteed deals and four guys on non-guaranteed pacts. They could waive someone to make room for Cunningham, but they’re already set to open camp with Terrence Jones, Donatas Motiejunas, Josh Powell, Jeff Adrien, Robert Covington, Joey Dorsey and Clint Capela all under contract, each of whom, like Cunningham, mans the four.
Despite a lack chatter surrounding him, there’s more than likely a team out there willing to offer Cunningham a deal with at least a partial guarantee. He was part of the Wolves’ rotation for the past two years, averaging 6.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.0 assists across 20.2 minutes per night this past season, when he appeared in 81 games. His career 12.9 PER is below the league average of 15.0, but he was never expected to put up superstar-caliber numbers when he was drafted 33rd overall out of Villanova.
Now that Cunningham’s legal issues seem to be resolved, it would be especially surprising to see him without a deal when training camps open up in late September. While Cunningham might be hard-pressed to land anything but a deal worth the minimum, his modest production on the hardwood over the past two seasons should at least help him find a home with an NBA club next season, even if it isn’t with the Wolves.
Western Rumors: Suns, Durant, Jackson, Marion
In spite of predicting that the NBA’s salary cap will approach $80MM in 2016/17, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders suggests in his weekly chat the Suns should refuse to give any current member of their core more than $12MM annually. While paying big money to guys like Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic would of course limit Phoenix financially, Kyler thinks the bigger reason the Suns should hold out is because of none of the young talent on Phoenix’s roster looks worthy of being paid along the lines of the league’s most skilled. More from out west..
- Kevin Durant said the decision to withdraw from Team USA this summer was “definitely tough,” and the Thunder forward told reporters, including Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press, that he did it because he needed to “take a step back” and have a break this offseason.
- Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman thinks it’s unlikely the Thunder will manage to reach an agreement on an extension with Reggie Jackson this fall. Tramel thinks the rewards of free agency will be enticing to Jackson, who we recently profiled in our Extension Candidate series.
- After five strong seasons and an NBA title with the Mavericks, Shawn Marion is heading to Cleveland this season to join forces with LeBron James. However, Dallas GM Donnie Nelson doesn’t harbor any ill feelings toward the 36-year-old veteran, as Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram reveals in a series of tweets.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.