And-Ones: Wolves, Knicks, Draft
If the Wolves win the lottery and land the top pick in the NBA draft, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor are the only players whom the team should seriously consider using the selection on, opines Joel Brigham in a collaborative piece for Basketball Insiders. Point guard may be a position of need, considering Ricky Rubio‘s history of injuries, but the team has already indicated it will take a best-player-available approach when using its selection rather than drafting for need.
“I think when you’re a lottery-type team, you have to take the best player available,” President of Basketball Operations Flip Saunders said. “If you’re there, you probably got there because you lost, and you’re probably still a little ways away. There’s not probably one player, really, that you think, wherever you’re at, ‘Hey, if I take that position, he can help me.’ The better chance you have of improving the team is to take whoever the best player you evaluate is there.”
Minnesota finished the season with a record of 16-66, which gives the team the best chance at winning the lottery and a 46.5% chance at landing one of the top two picks, as our 2015 Lottery Odds page indicates.
Here’s more from around the league:
- If the Knicks win the lottery, Towns should be the selection, Tommy Beer opines in the same piece for Basketball Insiders. Beer believes Towns could be the defensive anchor that New York hasn’t had since it traded Tyson Chandler to the Mavs. The Kentucky product averaged 2.3 blocks while playing only 21 minutes per game during his lone college season.
- The Warriors have recalled Ognjen Kuzmic from their D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to a team press release. To date this season, the center has appeared in 16 games for Golden State, averaging 1.3 points and 1.1 rebounds in 4.5 minutes per game.
- The Magic showed flashes of potential, but ultimately they turned in another sub-par season. Center Nikola Vucevic believes it’s time the team takes the next step, Denton writes in a seperate piece. “Now, we’ve got to accept the fact that we’ve got to change this and turn this thing around. Rebuilding was fine for two or even three years, but we’ve got to find a way to turn it around because [youth] is not an excuse anymore,” said Vucevic, who led the Magic in points and rebounds this season. “So we’ve got to find a way to turn this thing around quickly.’’
Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Knicks, Salary Cap
The Raptors will face some difficult decisions this offseason, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet. Amir Johnson, Lou Williams and Jonas Valanciunas will be free agents and Terrence Ross will be eligible for a rookie extension. Toronto won 49 games this season, one more than last year’s total, but the team went 12-16 over its final 28 games and didn’t look like a playoff-caliber team at times. GM Masai Ujiri has the challenge of figuring out if the young roster is still growing or if the team has plateaued as currently constructed.
“We’ll learn that as time comes,” Ujiri said. “This playoffs will help. We will continue with what we are preaching, we will continue to learn. It’s like at the trade deadline, if we added an older player, that would take away something from these guys showing themselves … [But] It’s going to take the playoffs, it’s going to take time to see [if] you keep this group or do you add in a player here or there. But they are building the stage and that’s what you want.”
The Raptors, who lost the first game in their series with the Wizards earlier today by a score of 93-86, haven’t won a playoff series since they beat the Knicks in the 2001 playoffs. Here’s some notes from Toronto’s rival in the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks need to improve in almost every facet and Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal examines a few areas that deserve the most attention. Herring identifies the point guard situation as an area the team should invest resources in this offseason. He believes Jose Calderon, who was the subject of trade discussions during the season, could be a contributor to the team, but as part of the second unit instead of a starter. Herring also identifies adding athleticism to the roster and working to improve coach Derek Fisher‘s game management among the areas the team should focus on.
- The projected salary cap increase over the next two seasons should help the Knicks land marquee free agents, opines Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork. League executives expect the salary cap to increase from its current $63.1MM figure to $67.1MM next season and $89MM during the 2016/17 season. Begley also cautions that the team should be careful when adding free agents this offseason; although the team will have roughly $22MM more to work with next offseason, the maximum salaries for players will also rise significantly since they are a product of the salary cap.
Magic Notes: Coach, Hennigan, Harris
Hiring a head coach outweighs everything else for the Magic during the upcoming offseason, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.
“It’s essential for us,” GM Rob Hennigan said. “We’re at a critical point now. Again, we believe in the talent on this team. We know we’re a young team. We know we have a long way to go. But, again, finding that right coach, that right person to push us in the right direction, to prod us in the right direction — it’s imperative.”
Robbins notes that the team is strongly inclined to hire someone with extensive NBA head-coaching experience. While the Magic haven’t named any potential candidates, Robbins names Scott Skiles and Tom Thibodeau as likely candidates this offseason.
Here’s more from Orlando:
- All indications are that a contract extension for Hennigan will be in place relatively soon, writes Robbins in the same piece.
- The team should generate additional cap space and make a simultaneous run at Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge, opines Robbins in the same piece. Orlando has slightly under $38.9MM in guaranteed salary on the books for the 2015/16 season, as our Salary Commitment page indicates.
- Tobias Harris, who scored 17.1 points per game this season, will be a restricted free agent this offseason. The 22-year-old has tried to not worry about his future, John Denton of NBA.com writes. “You get a little nervous at times, but I think everything is going to work out for me I wanted to go out and have a successful year and a great year and I think I’ve put in the work. It’s in the teams hands with whatever wants to be done,’’ Harris said. “All I can do is really sit back and be patient at this time.’’ The forward has been linked to the Knicks, but if Orlando extends him a qualifying offer, it can match any offer sheet he signs.
- Elfrid Payton played in every game this season and the rookie has shown he belongs in the NBA, opines Denton in the same piece. Payton averaged 8.9 points per game and sported a 13.8 player efficiency rating this season.
Central Notes: Butler, Monroe, Wiggins
Caron Butler, whose salary ($4.5MM) for the next season is non-guaranteed, would like to remain with the Pistons next season, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. Butler adds that if he is released, he would only consider signing with true contenders.
“I’m in a good situation,” Butler said. “So it’s a great opportunity to come back and continue the thing on. Or, if not, obviously the best thing for me is to contend. It’s either one or the other. But I won’t be looking for another situation to start over with some guys and stuff like that again. It’s either do this or contend for it all.”
While President of Basketball Operations and coach Stan Van Gundy has praised Butler for adjusting to his role on the Pistons, he was non-committal about whether the the team will bring back the 35-year-old next season. “A lot of things will determine that, where we think we’re going to be salary structure-wise and everything else,” Van Gundy said. The Pistons only have slightly more than $27.8MM in guaranteed salary on the book for the 2015/16 season, as our Salary Commitment page indicates.
Here’s more from Detroit
- President of Basketball Operations and coach Stan Van Gundy reiterated that he and Greg Monroe have stayed away from business discussions during the season, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. “Greg and I have not spent any time talking about that,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think it would be appropriate, number one, to be focusing on anything beyond the rest of the season until the season’s over.”
- Monroe was slightly surprised he wasn’t able to sign an extension under Detroit’s old regime, Mayo writes in the same piece. “I thought I did enough and conducted myself in a way to at least get an offer. As people always say, it’s one thing if the player says no. But if I was never even offered anything, that says more to me than any explanation. I don’t really need an explanation once you get to that point where there wasn’t even an option for me,” Monroe said.
- Andrew Wiggins appears to be the front-runner for the Rookie of the Year award and Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer reviews his season as well as the seasons for some of the players whom the Cavs have traded away this year.
Eastern Notes: Celtics, Monroe, Bass
The Celtics will rely on the reputation of the franchise and the current framework in place to build a contender as their selling points in free agency, as team owner Wyc Grousbeck tells Jared Weiss of SB Nation.
“This whole thing that we have to beg people and we have our hat in our hand and we’re telling people to please come; well if you don’t want to be a Boston Celtic, you’re not going to be a Boston Celtic. We’re not going to drag you here. We want you to be here and we want you to [choose] us. You’ve got a chance potentially to join a team that is on the way back, hopefully, to being a contender. Hopefully in not very long. We actually want people asking us to possibly consider them,” Grousbeck said.
Boston has surpassed expectations this season and currently owns the seventh seed in the conference. If the playoffs started today, the team would play the Cavs in the first round and the Celtics would welcome that matchup. “I would love to play [LeBron James] in the playoffs somehow and I would love to beat him,” Grousbeck added.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Greg Monroe says neither he or his agent, David Falk, has a deal in place with the Knicks, according to David Mayo of MLive.com (Twitter link). “Y’all have to go ask Frank Isola what he thinks he knows,” the Georgetown product said. Monroe was referring to the Saturday’s report in which a league executive told Isola that a deal between New York and the 24-year-old was “about as close to a done deal as you can get.”
- Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald believes Brandon Bass‘ consistency has been key to the Celtics’ success. Entering today’s game against the Cavs, Bass, who will become a free agent at the end of the season, has played in 276 straight games.
Western Notes: Hudson, Anderson, Kanter
The Clippers’ decision to re-sign Lester Hudson came down to what the guard brought on the defense end, writes Rowan Kavner of NBA.com. “I liked his toughness,” President of Basketball Operations and coach Doc Rivers said. “I like his defense. He has a chance to be a really good defensive player in our program.” Rivers also said that Hudson and Nate Robinson were both options for the roster spot and he added that he didn’t believe Robinson was 100% healthy.
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- The Spurs have recalled forward Kyle Anderson from their D-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, according to the team’s website. To date, Anderson has appeared in 31 games for San Antonio, averaging 2.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
- Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders wonders if the Thunder should re-sign Enes Kanter. Blancarte cites Kanter’s defensive struggles as reason Oklahoma City should hesitate to offer the center a lucrative contract.
- DeAndre Jordan has had an impressive season and the center believes coach Doc Rivers was an integral part of his success, as he tells Jim Rome of CBS Sports Radio. “So much respect, so much respect,” Jordan said of Rivers. “He’s helped me out so much, he really believes in each and every one of us 150 % and when you have a guy like that who believes in you and really thinks you can get it done and knows you can get it done, your confidence is so high you will run through a brick wall for a guy like that.” Last month, Will Joseph of Hoops Rumors examined the market for Jordan, who will become a free agent at the end of the season.
Executive Of The Year Candidate: David Griffin
The Cavs’ season got off to a rocky start, but the team rounded into form and looks like the favorite to win the Eastern Conference. The success this season is a far cry from the team’s results last year. The Cavs still have three games remaining this season, but with a record of 51-28, they already improved their win total by 18 games over last season’s and locked up the second seed in the conference. LeBron James returning to Cleveland was a huge factor in this year’s success, but that shouldn’t exclude GM David Griffin from winning the Executive of the Year award. Pat Riley was the co-winner of the award in 2011 after he successful recruited James in free agency, so there is some precedent involving James. Still, Griffin’s candidacy goes beyond The Decision 2.0.
Griffin was named the acting general manager of the Cavs in the middle of the 2013/14 season. His first trade brought Spencer Hawes to Cleveland in exchange for Earl Clark, Henry Sims and a pair of second round draft picks. Ownership clearly wanted to make the playoffs that season. While the move didn’t bring the Cavs closer to that goal, Griffin was able to follow the ownership’s directives without sacrificing crucial assets that would hinder the team’s ability to make moves in the future.
Leading up to James’ decision, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported that he would insist upon a maximum salary contract. In order for the Cavs to have the means necessary to make the offer to James, they needed to unload salary. Griffin traded Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev to the Nets and Tyler Zeller to the Celtics in a three-way deal. Getting out of Jack’s contract was crucial to Cleveland’s long-term plan regardless of whether James ended up signing with the team or not. The move did carry an additional cost as the team had to send a first-round pick to Boston in the deal. However, given Cleveland’s likelihood of finishing with a strong record again next season, it is unlikely to be that valuable of an asset.
The day after the trade became official, James announced that he was signing with Cleveland. The news would dramatically shift the team’s objectives from hoping to become playoff-bound to winning the franchise’s first championship. That goal seemed to be in jeopardy during the early part of the season. The Cavs were struggling and James missed a stretch of eight games due to neck and back injuries. During that stretch, Griffin made two trades that turned the Cavs’ season around.
The Cavs shipped Dion Waiters to Oklahoma City in a three-way deal that netted the team J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and a future first-rounder from the Thunder. Griffin sent the Oklahoma City pick, along with Memphis’ first-rounder, which the team acquired in the 2013 Marreese Speights trade, to Denver for Timofey Mozgov and a second-round pick. Mozgov helped solidify the team’s defense and Smith and Shumpert gave it the depth necessary to compete with the league’s contenders. The Cavs have gone 32-9, which includes a 12-game win streak, since James returned to play alongside his new teammates.
The wildcard in Griffin’s case for the Executive of the Year award is the Kevin Love trade. The Cavs surrendered Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a future first-round pick to acquire the UCLA product. Wiggins looks like a future star for the Wolves, while Love still doesn’t look completely integrated into Cleveland’s game plan. Love previously expressed his intention to opt in and stay in Cleveland during the 2015/16 season. However, there has been speculation that he will depart Cleveland in the offseason and over half of Hoops Rumors writers who voted in a recent poll believe he will leave town after the season. If executives around the league, who vote for the Executive of the Year award winner from among their ranks, believe that Love will leave in the offseason and Griffin gave up a potential star for a one-year rental, it will no doubt hurt his chances to take home the award.
The race for this year’s Executive of the Year award is unique in that the would-be front-runner for the award is ineligible for the honor. Because of his racially charged comments about Luol Deng, Danny Ferry, whose candidacy I previously examined, has not been nominated by the Hawks. Instead, Mike Budenholzer will be on the ballot for Atlanta, and a league source told Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors that some GMs have spoken about abstaining from the vote because they won’t have the chance to vote for Ferry.
Regardless, some executive will win the award, and with perhaps the strongest candidate out of the running, and the potential that votes that would have gone to Ferry will simply not be cast, the door is open for another candidate to seize the award. Over the 14 months that he has held the GM position for the Cavs, Griffin has adapted to changing objectives, put together a team that has a good chance to win the Larry O’Brien trophy, and cemented himself in the conversation for the Executive of the Year award.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Knicks Notes: Monroe, Thomas, Draft
It’s no secret the Knicks plan to target Greg Monroe this offseason and one league executive called it “about as close to a done deal as you can get,” Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports. While Isola notes that a done deal is illegal under the terms of the CBA, he points out that a more likely scenario is that representatives of both parties have made their interest known. Monroe’s agent, David Falk, has had a relationship with Phil Jackson for over 20 years, going back to when Falk represented Michael Jordan. Falk is looking for a maximum salary contract for Monroe and Isola suggests the Knicks will offer him one.
Here’s more from the Big Apple:
- Monroe is one of the players whom Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders believes would be a realistic free agent target this offseason. Beer also names Wesley Matthews, Patrick Beverley, Draymond Green and Tobias Harris among other potential targets.
- Coach Derek Fisher said Lance Thomas and Langston Galloway have changed the team’s culture and Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork (Twitter link) believes it’s more evidence that the Knicks will want the forward back next season. Thomas will be a free agent at the end of the season.
- Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork looks at how prospects whom the Knicks could select with their first-rounder fared in the NCAA tournament and suggests that Karl-Anthony Towns would a better choice than Jahlil Okafor if New York landed the top pick in the draft.
Texas Notes: Beverley, Mavs, Spurs
Patrick Beverley hopes to return to the court if the Rockets make a deep playoff run, Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston writes. “Very strong possibility,” the 26-year-old said about his possible return. “Very strong. Let’s hope everything goes right.” Beverley, who will become a free agent at the end the season, also expressed his interest in returning to the team. “I want to be in Houston. I want to be a part of this whole thing that we’ve built since me and James first got here, but that’s not under my control. That’s up to my agent and [general manager] Daryl Morey of the Rockets. It’s going to be interesting this summer. I’m just happy I put myself in a position where I can play basketball and earn enough money to take care of my family,” the point guard said. “The culture, the city is me. A hard-working blue-collar type of city. I embrace that and they embrace me. I will definitely enjoy being here again.”
Here’s more from Texas:
- Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News believes this season won’t be Dirk Nowitzki‘s last. Cowlishaw also adds that he could see Tyson Chandler, who will be a free agent this offseason, leave the Mavs. Despite the uncertainty surrounding Dallas’ frontcourt, I’d speculate the team will have both players back for the 2015/16 season.
- San Antonio has assigned Kyle Anderson to its D-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, according to the team’s website. This will be Anderson’s sixth trip to the D-League this season.
- The Spurs are ready to pass the torch to Kawhi Leonard, writes Andrew Keh of The New York Times. “It’s going to be Kawhi’s team, anyway,” 32-year-old Tony Parker said. “[Tim Duncan] transitioned to [Manu Ginobili], Manu transitioned to me, and now it’s going to be transitioned to Kawhi.” Leonard will be a restricted free agent during the offseason and it was reported that the team would almost certainly match any offer sheet that he signs.
Central Notes: Meeks, Pistons, George
Pistons president of basketball operations and coach Stan Van Gundy has not soured on Jodie Meeks despite Meeks’ inconsistent season and expects the shooting guard to be much improved next season, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com reports. Meeks suffered a stress fracture in his back during training camp and it affected his conditioning even after he returned on December 12th, Langlois continues. Meeks, who was signed to a three-year, $18.81MM contact as a free agent last summer, has shot 34.5% on 3-point attempts after making 40.1% of his long-range attempts with the Lakers last season. “With a good summer, there’s no reason he can’t get back to the level that we thought he could play at,” Van Gundy said to Langlois.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- The Pistons have some tough decisions to make on a number of players whose contracts are non-guaranteed next season, Brendan Savage of Mlive.com writes. “We know some that fit into the long-term plan,” Van Gundy said. “Others, we have to figure out where they fit into the long-term plan. We know we’re going to draft two people, at least, in June. And then free agency starts and that also brings trade responsibilities. So we will not come back with the same roster.” The contracts of Caron Butler, Anthony Tolliver, Shawne Williams and Quincy Miller contain non-guaranteed salary for the 2015/16 season.
- Van Gundy is impacting the team more as an executive than as a coach, Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press opines. Sharp cites the Reggie Jackson trade as one that will shape the team for years to come, provided he re-signs with Detroit.
- Paul George played a significant behind-the-scenes role for the Pacers while he recovered from his broken leg, according to Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders. George, who has played three games since returning to action, gave his teammates insights on how to defend certain opponents and the optimal ways to score against them. “He’s always giving input on how to guard people,” center Roy Hibbert told Camerato. “His IQ is pretty high just because he’s been able to excel at a high level on both ends.” George also gave advice to his teammates through in game observations, Camerato adds. “He’s out there teaching us, in huddles, and it’s important,” guard Rodney Stuckey said in the story.
Dana Gauruder contributed to this post