NBA D-League Assignment/Recalls 1/25/17
Here are Wednesday’s D-League transactions:
- The Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo and Delon Wright to their D-League affiliate, the Raptors 905, according to the team’s Twitter feed. Coboclo has played in 16 D-League contests this season and he’s averaging 8.8 points per game. Wright has only played in one game and he scored 10 points.
- The Clippers have recalled Diamond Stone from the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the team’s website. Stone appeared in six games during his latest assignment and he scored 15.5 points and 10.8 rebound per game.
- The Grizzlies have recalled Troy Williams from the Iowa Energy, per the team’s website. Memphis currently doesn’t have its own D-League affiliate, but that won’t be the case starting next season.
- The Nets have recalled Chris McCullough from their affiliate, the Long Island Nets, according to a team press release. McCullough has played in 25 games for Long Island and he’s averaging 19.0 points per contest.
Latest On Cavs, LeBron, David Griffin
Earlier in the week, LeBron James publicly called for the Cavaliers to add a playmaker with intention of applying pressure to the team’s decision-makers. A team source told Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com that GM David Griffin was disappointed in the manner in which James shared his thoughts.
Griffin intends on sticking to the plan he’s had in place for the several months to add a backup point guard or playmaker and he won’t speed up the search for outside help simply because James made a few comments, McMenamin adds. James and Griffin had a one-on-one meeting earlier today to discuss the star’s comments.
After the meeting, Griffin spoke with the local media, as Brian Dulik of the Medina Gazette passes along in a series of Twitter links.
Griffin said that James’ comments were not “appropriate from a teammate perspective,” and added that the comment about the Cavs being complacent is “really misguided.”
“We’re all frustrated, I get the sentiment,” Griffin said. “I think [LeBron and I] needed it [to talk]. I’m happy.”
Cleveland currently has the largest payroll in league history, but the team is open to adding more salary to win another championship. “We can absolutely increase payroll if it’s the right piece at the right time,” Griffin said before adding that the team has enough talent to go back-to-back. “If we were 100 percent healthy, I feel good about our chances in any [playoff] series.”
Coach Tyronn Lue believes the Cavs can repeat with the players currently on the roster. “We have enough on this team to win a championship,” Lue said earlier today.
A team source told McMenamin that there was disbelief within the front office that James would question the team’s commitment, given its historical payroll. However, another source within the front office told the scribe that the timing of the comments was “brilliant,” as the lashing out could be seen as a motivational tactic designed to get the team back on track.
Heat Notes: Waiters, Bosh, Gay
The Heat are open to keeping Dion Waiters long-term and the shooting guard, who holds a player option worth $3MM for next season, feels like he’s finally found a home in the league, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes.
“Everything, the organization, my teammates, my coach, of course [Pat Riley],” he said. “I feel right at home. Like I said before, when I signed, it wasn’t ever about the money. It was about the opportunity and just having a place you could call home, the enjoyment, and having fun. It’s been good. It’s just been consistent love. I’m happy for the opportunity and I’m just happy to be here.”
Here’s more from Miami:
- Chris Bosh hasn’t definitively decided to resume his basketball career, but the idea of playing alongside Dwyane Wade or LeBron James appeals to him, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. Jackson hears that Bosh, who suffers from blood clotting, has not been working toward a comeback this season. Bosh reached out to the Players Association last season in an attempt to force the Heat to allow him to play, but he has not reached out to the union for that kind of help this season, a source tells Jackson. Jackson also hears that the big man isn’t responding to some of the union’s calls.
- The Heat remain interested in Rudy Gay as a second-tier free agent should the team not be able to sign a star, Jackson writes in the same piece. Jackson notes that Gay, who ruptured his Achilles earlier this month, “loves the idea” of playing for Miami.
- Udonis Haslem will make $4MM in the final year of his contract, but he wants to sign a new deal with the Heat during the offseason, as he tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “My body still feels good,” Haslem said. “I plan on being around at least another year after this year.”
- The MRI on Tyler Johnson‘s shoulder came back negative and the Heat are not expected to request a roster exception from the league, Winderman relays in a separate piece. Johnson has missed the team’s last two games because of the sprained shoulder.
Fantasy Hoops: Lowry, Miles, Rivers
We’ve hit the third quarter of the NBA season and Hoops Rumors is examining the fantasy basketball landscape in order to help you dominate the competition. Check back weekly for more fantasy basketball analysis.
Overlooked Across The Border
With the level of great point guard play this season, it’s easy to overlook Kyle Lowry‘s impressive game. He got off to a slow start and it appeared that it was finally time for DeMar DeRozan to take sole reign of the Raptors franchise. However, with half a season worth of data, it’s clear that Lowry is still the team’s most important player.
Toronto has a -3.9 net rating when Lowry sits and a 9.9 net rating when he’s on the court, per NBA.com. The team actually has a worse net rating with DeRozan on the floor than it does with him off of it, though both ratings are still positive. Lowry ranks 7th in the league in total points added (TPA), a metric provided by NBAMath.com that examines a player’s effectiveness on both sides of the ball on a per-possession basis. On offense, he has the third-best TPA, behind only James Harden and Russell Westbrook, while DeRozan sits at a respectable, but less impressive, 29th-best.
Lowry’s slow start likely contributes to NBA fans overlooking his exceptional season. He was merely above-average for the first few weeks of the season, but since Thanksgiving, he’s done the following:
- Hit 47.5% of his three-pointers, which is the best mark in the league among guards seeing at least 28 minutes per game.
- Made 51.9% of his shots overall, a figure which is tops among guards not named Giannis Antetokounmpo (putting him here as a guard for now).
- Rank in the top-10 among guards in points, assists and steals per game.
- Rank inside the top-10 in rebounds per game among point guards.
- Made more three-pointers per game than any player in the league with the exception being Eric Gordon.
As I wrote last week, savvy fantasy basketball players should always look for an undervalued/overvalued player because there lies an opportunity to improve your squad. Lowry is having a phenomenal season. He’s playing like a top-12 fantasy player overall and the only guards I wouldn’t trade for him are Stephen Curry, Westbrook, Antetokounmpo, and Harden.
If you can trade any of the following for Lowry, you should pull the trigger: Thomas, John Wall, Damian Lillard, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Draymond Green or Kyrie Irving (a player who now starts for the Eastern Conference All-Stars despite averaging fewer assists, rebounds, and steals per game than Lowry and having a lower field goal percentage, three-point percentage, Player Efficiency Rating, Win Share and Assist Ratio than Lowry does. However, we’re not here to talk about an exhibition game).
The 30-year-old point guard will be a free agent after the season and he is setting himself up for a massive payday. Enjoy his production if you have him on your fantasy team and target him in trades if you don’t.
Here’s more fantasy analysis and notes from around the league:
- C.J. Miles is a player worth monitoring. He replaced Glenn Robinson in the starting lineup on Monday, and should be in line for a larger role after Monta Ellis, someone who shouldn’t be rostered in re-draft leagues, sprained his right ankle. Miles could provide nice production for a team that ranks in the top 10 in pace.
- Austin Rivers is taking advantage of Chris Paul‘s absence. He’s averaging 21.0 points per game while shooting 51.1% from the field over his last three contests.
- Looking for a point guard in daily fantasy? Target players going against the Pistons, Nuggets and Nets. Each of those team have given up at least 27.1 points and 7.6 assists per game to opposing point guards over their last 10 games.
Fantasy questions? Take to the comment section below or tweet me at @CW_Crouse.
Community Shootaround: Orlando Magic
The Magic would like to turn the season around and make the playoffs and GM Rob Hennigan said the team would look to be aggressive in its attempts to improve. Hennigan said the front office was disappointed by the team’s play on the defensive end and added that he wouldn’t rule out trading anyone on the roster.
So that leads us to tonight’s topic: How would you fix the Magic if you were sitting in Rob Hennigan’s chair? What moves would you make to improve the team?
Orlando’s defense ranks in the middle of the pack, giving up 105 points per game. That’s an area which could use some help, but it’s the offense that’s in dire need of reinforcements. The Magic are scoring just 99.9 points per game, which is the sixth-worst mark in the league. They have the third-worst shooting percentage from behind the arc and they have the sixth-worst shooting percentage overall. Evan Fournier being sidelined certainly hurts the team, but the problem goes beyond missing the shooting guard’s play-making ability.
The team fell to the Bulls tonight to bring its record to 18-29 on the season. Orlando is 5.5 games behind Chicago for the eighth seed in the conference. However, the team is also just 7.5 games ahead of the Nets for the worst record in the East. The Magic could rally and make a run at the eighth seed, but they could easily fall in the standings and end up with another high-end lottery pick.
Be the GM in tonight’s shootaround. Let us know what moves you would make to get the team into the playoffs in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!
Eastern Notes: Williams, Payton, Biyombo
The Nuggets are waiving Mo Williams for the second time in a week, but this time, the Sixers are not expected to claim him, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Philadelphia is planning to keep Chasson Randle on the roster, so they don’t have a spot open for the retired point guard.
Williams’ contract holds value for the Nuggets and it would for the Sixers as well since both teams are under the salary floor, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors detailed earlier today. The point guard has already been paid over half of his salary, which is worth slightly under $2.2MM, but the whole amount would count toward a team’s salary cap. If the team doesn’t reach the salary floor, the transaction of waiving Williams would save the franchise roughly $1MM this season.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Magic GM Rob Hennigan is “encouraged and excited” about the play of Elfrid Payton this season, as he tells Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. “I think especially over the last few weeks he appears to be gaining a level of aggressiveness and comfort at the position that I think bodes well for our team,” Hennigan said. “I think, like anyone on our team, our goal is to improve. Our goal is to get better. And we need to explore any means necessary to do that. But certainly with E.P.’s play and his work ethic and our belief in how good he can become he’s certainly an integral part of our team and very, very valuable to us.”
- Hennigan said free agent addition Bismack Biyombo has brought the Magic exactly what they were looking for when they signed the big man, as Robbins passes along in the same piece. “I think Biz has brought to our team exactly what we anticipated: his toughness, his energy, his spirit, his ability to be a paint presence defensively. Like most of our players, we think his best basketball is still ahead of him based on his age and his work ethic,” Hennigan said.
- Rookie center Willy Hernangomez is earning a larger role on the Knicks, Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes. “He’s got great knowledge of the game, understanding and feel,” coach Jeff Hornacek said. “He has no fear when he gets out there about who he’s playing against. When you have a guy who knows how to play the game, a lot of good things happen.”
Magic GM Talks Roster, Trade Possibilities, Ibaka’s Future
The Magic have lost 10 of their last 13 games and GM Rob Hennigan said that Orlando will be evaluating all opportunities with an eye on getting the team into the playoffs, as he tells Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.
“The simple answer to that is we need to explore every and all option to improve the team, and so we’re going to be aggressive,” Hennigan said about the possibility of making a trade. “We’re going to be active in our discussions and in the opportunities we seek out. So we’re going to look to be active. I’m not sure it’s a ‘necessity,’ but it’s certainly something that’s in our best interests to explore.”
Hennigan tells Robbins that he’s aware of the league’s small-ball trend and it plays a factor in the transactions he makes. However, his goal was to construct a team that was versatile enough to play against any lineup.
“We built this team to be a defensive-minded team. And we also built this team to have the flexibility to play multiple ways.” Hennigan said. “And while that hasn’t necessarily manifested itself throughout the season, we feel like our vision and our philosophy now and going forward will be to construct a team that can play big, that can play small and vary from opponent to opponent.
“I think certainly — absent an elite player that becomes available — we need to continue to try to add more shooting and shot-making and basketball IQ to the team wherever we can find it. But we need to continue to place an emphasis on rim protection as well because of the way the game’s officiated nowadays.”
He added that the front office is “extremely disappointed and frustrated” with the team’s defensive performance this season. Orlando signed Bismack Biyombo and traded for Serge Ibaka during the offseason with the goal of improving its defense. At times, the duo has been able to elevate the team’s play, though the defense has struggled overall. Ibaka will be a free agent at the end of the season and Robbins asked the GM if he intended to re-sign the big man.
“We don’t comment on those things publicly,” Hennigan replied. “We value Serge a great deal. He’s been really good for us, and he’s certainly someone that we hope is in our future.”
Hennigan said he wouldn’t rule out trading anyone, including Ibaka, and reiterated that the franchise needs to be aggressive when looking for upgrades. That pertains to the roster, as a shake-up in the coaching staff is highly unlikely.
“[Frank Vogel] and I are joined at the hip when it comes to decisions we want to make to improve the team, and we’ll continue to work very closely together with that approach. But overall he’s been really, really good, and we’re lucky to have him,” Hennigan said.
The GM admitted that he feels pressure from the organization to turn the season around, but he said that he’s focused on doing the best he can with the resources he has. The Magic are 18-28 on the season and they currently own the 12th-best record in the Eastern Conference.
Wolves Notes: Rubio, Dunn, Jones
It may be time for the Wolves to trade Ricky Rubio, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders explains (video link). Minnesota isn’t contending for the playoffs this season and Kyler believes it’s likely the team makes a move by the trade deadline. Rubio has long been the subject of trade rumors and according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Wolves are “actively” shopping him. The Bulls and Knicks were recently linked to Rubio and Kyler added that he could envision the Magic making a run a acquiring the point guard.
[RELATED: Trade Candidate: Ricky Rubio]
Here’s more from Minnesota:
- If Minnesota deals Rubio and hands Kris Dunn the starting job, the team should prioritize the rookie’s development, Chip Scoggins of The Star Tribune contends. Scoggins believes the Wolves should resist trading for a stop-gap point guard to replace Rubio and they should give Dunn the minutes necessary to evaluate whether he is the long-term answer for the franchise.
- Dunn nearly had a triple-double in Sunday’s win over the Nuggets and coach/executive Tom Thibodeau believes the point guard is ready for a larger role, as Scoggins passes along in the same piece. “He’s been coming on for a while,” Thibodeau said. “Defensively he’s been good from the beginning. Offensively he’s figuring it out. He understands the speed and size of the game. He wants to make plays for others. Defensively there are a lot of hustle plays he makes. He’ll rebound in traffic. You’re not going to knock him around. Kris has a lot of toughness in him.”
- The Dunn-Tyus Jones backcourt works well for the Wolves, Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune writes. Dunn’s versatile game allows the team to employ several lineups with him at the shooting guard. “Kris has the ability to play two positions. He can defend three positions, actually. So you can use him in that way,” Thibodeau said.
Nets GM: Lin’s Setback Won’t Alter Plans
GM Sean Marks said Jeremy Lin‘s latest setback won’t change the Nets‘ future plans nor will it increase the chances that the team deals Brook Lopez before the deadline, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets. Lin will miss an additional three-to-five weeks after re-aggravating his strained hamstring during a rehab assignment.
The point guard signed a three-year, $36MM deal with Brooklyn during the offseason, but he’s only been able to play in 12 games because of his hamstring troubles. He’s averaging 13.9 points and 5.8 assists in 25.0 minutes per game this season.
Lopez has been the subject of trade rumors for practically his entire tenure in Brooklyn. The Nets would obviously like to evaluate how Lopez and Lin – the team’s two highest-paid players – coexist on the floor, but Lin’s injury has made that difficult to accomplish. The Lopez-Lin pairing has played only 179 minutes together this season and the team has been outscored by 14 points while the duo was on the court.
Lopez has one more year remaining on his deal after this season and the Nets are reportedly looking for at least two first-round picks in exchange for the big man. The Stanford product is averaging 20.5 points and a career-high 2.7 assists per game while shooting 47.0% on the season.
Kevin Durant Discusses Future With Warriors
Kevin Durant shocked the basketball world when he left Russell Westbrook and the Thunder to join the Warriors during the offeason. The 2013/14 MVP signed a two-year, $54.3MM pact, but his contract contains a player option for the second season. He may decide to decline that option, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to leave Golden State, as he tells Sam Amick of USA Today.
“I’m liking it here,” Durant said. “I’m liking everything that’s going on. I know what my contract says, but I didn’t plan on coming here for just a year. I’m in it right now, and I’m also just focusing on day by day.
“I know it’s cliché, and you hear that all the time, but I’m seriously just not thinking about it because I’m like – I’m just in it for the long haul.”
Earlier in the week, owner Joe Lacob said he expects Durant to sign with the team long-term. “I have no angst whatsoever [about re-signing Durant and Stephen Curry],” Lacob said. “I totally am positive [that] I think those guys are going to sign. They’re both free agents. They have a right to do whatever they want. They’ve earned it, and I respect that. If they don’t sign with us for some reason, then shame on me and us. I take responsibility for that. But I don’t see that happening.”
Durant can benefit financially if he declines his player option and hits the market this summer. He would be eligible to receive 35% of the salary cap as his starting salary in a new deal, meaning if he signs a four-year deal, he could make over $150MM.
Durant is enjoying a fantastic first season in the Bay Area. He’s scoring 26.2 points and grabbing a career-high 8.7 rebounds per game. He’s hitting a career-best 54.5% of his shots from the field and he’s only coughing up 2.3 turnovers per game, which is also the best mark of his career.