Rockets Notes: Motiejunas, Beverley, Smith
The Rockets scored 64 points in the paint in the win over the Suns on Friday night but their strategy isn’t new, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “We push the ball into the paint off the dribble, off of offensive rebounding and off of passing. That’s what we try to do. We try to get the ball into the paint. If you’re pretty committed to getting the ball into the paint, you can get some fouls on your way there or once you get there,” coach Kevin McHale said. Houston, with a record of 30-14, is seventh on the season in scoring, averaging 103.1 points per game.
Here’s more from Houston:
- Donatas Motiejunas is one of the league’s more valuable trade assets, writes Bill Simmons of Grantland.com in part 1 of his nearly annual trade value column. Simmons believes that Motiejunas is one of a few young big men who could play heavy minutes in the playoffs. The Lithuanian power forward is scoring 10.9 points in 27.7 minutes per game this season, both career highs.
- Patrick Beverley has taken it upon himself to carry more of the team’s offensive burden, writes Feigen in a separate piece. “James gets so much attention so just kind of trying to take some pressure off him to make every play. He’s a human being, gets tired sometimes. I take it upon myself to be aggressive and it worked out,” Beverley said. The point guard is averaging 11.5 points per game and sporting a player efficiency rating of 13.4 this season, which is below league average.
- Inconsistent play has plagued Houston in recent weeks but fans should expect better play to come internally rather than from new additions to the team, writes Feigen in a separate piece. “We’ve been up and down the last four or five weeks,” McHale said. “We’ve got to settle in and start playing better basketball. One thing we’ve been the last four or five weeks is wildly inconsistent. We have to shore that up.” The team is 7-6 in January and only 10-7 since acquiring Josh Smith in late December. It seems as if the team needs time to gel with all of its new parts and with a seven and a half game lead over the Pelicans and Thunder, who remain out of the playoff picture, the Rockets’ playoff chances do not yet seem to be in jeopardy.
Latest On LaMarcus Aldridge’s Injury
2:04pm: Aldridge tested his thumb out and made the determination on his own that he wanted to play, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
SATURDAY, 1:34pm: Aldridge is delaying having surgery and is expected to play this evening, the team has announced. (Twitter link). The forward has elected to wait until after the season to have the damage to his thumb repaired, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com tweets.
THURSDAY, 8:17pm: LaMarcus Aldridge has a radial collateral ligament tear in his left thumb and will miss six to eight weeks, according to the Blazers’ twitter feed. He will undergo surgery but it’s unclear when he will have the procedure.
The forward injured his thumb in Monday’s win over the Kings and the injury forced him to miss the game against the Suns on Wednesday. The Blazers are thin in the frontcourt, already missing Robin Lopez and Joel Freeland due to injuries.
The Blazers sit at 31-12 on the season but are only five and a half games up on the Suns, who reside in eighth place in the Western Conference. With such a competitive conference, the team may look to add depth via free agent signing or trade, although that is just my speculation. In any case, Portland can’t apply for a disabled player exception, since the deadline to do so passed a week ago. The team doesn’t have an open roster spot, and only three injuries isn’t enough for the team to warrant a hardship exception to sign a 16th man. If the Blazers manage to open a roster spot through a trade or release, they have a prorated sliver of the mid-level exception left that’s worth close to $437K, but that’s not much more valuable to them than the minimum-salary exception, which is always at their disposal.
Poll: Best Western Conference Move?
Four Western Conference playoff contenders have made major acquisitions over the past several weeks, and 50 wins might be mandatory for entry into postseason in the West this year with the way some of the contenders playing. The West was already stacked, and it’s only becoming more so.
The Mavericks made perhaps the season’s first major move by trading Jae Crowder, Brandan Wright, Jameer Nelson and a pair of draft picks for Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell. Almost two-thirds of Hoops Rumors readers believed Dallas would make it to at least the conference finals when they voted in my late December poll, and the team is 11-5 since making the trade. Dallas still lacks depth but the team boasts one of the best starting lineups in the league and is capable of making a deep postseason run.
The Rockets responded by making a couple of moves of their own. Houston acquired Corey Brewer and Alexey Shved in a three way trade with the Wolves and the Sixers. The Rockets then signed with Josh Smith after the Pistons released him via the stretch provision. The team is 9-7 since acquiring the trio, and six of those seven losses are against teams that made the postseason last year. However, any team with superstars on it, like James Harden and Dwight Howard, shouldn’t be counted out once postseason play begins.
The Thunder sustained injuries to their biggest stars to begin the season and as a result, they ended up falling behind in the playoff race. They hope Dion Waiters, acquired from the Cavs in a three way trade, will help put the team in position to make a late-season push and make the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. By many accounts, Waiters has fit in nicely with the Thunder. They’re 5-2 and Waiters is averaging 11.9 points in 28.3 minutes per game since his arrival in Oklahoma City.
In another three-team trade, the Grizzlies acquired Jeff Green from the Celtics and Russ Smith from the Pelicans in exchange for Tayshaun Prince, a first-round pick and cash. They also sent Quincy Pondexter and a second-round pick to New Orleans in the trade. Green was averaging a career-high 17.6 points per game as the No. 1 scoring option in Boston, but he has only scored 13.0 PPG so far in five games for the Grizzlies. Memphis is 4-1 since Green came to town, but the Grizzlies won’t consider the move a success until the postseason arrives and they win a few playoff rounds. They were 26-11 before the trade and as Grantland’s Zach Lowe points out, when you’re already that good, marginal upgrades become that much harder to accomplish. While giving up that first-round pick hurts, especially since the team already didn’t control its 2015 first-rounder, Memphis has the talent and the right opportunity to go all in on this season.
The Western Conference race is wide open. Which team put itself in the best position to contend after its recent acquisition(s)? Let us know with a vote, and elaborate on your choice in the comments.
Which Contender Made The Best Move?
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Mavericks 50% (467)
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Grizzlies 22% (206)
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Rockets 18% (166)
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Thunder 10% (97)
Total votes: 936
Northwest Notes: Thunder, Nuggets, Wolves
The Thunder may be under pressure to win now because of Kevin Durant‘s impending free agency in the summer of 2016, but coach Scott Brooks doesn’t think about the possibility of losing his star forward, as he tells Jared Zwelling of Bleacher Report. “That’s so many days away. I understand it, but it’s not something I’m even focused on. All coaches focus on day to day, and we worry about what we can do today and keep chopping away,” Brooks said. Oklahoma City sits at 22-20 after a rough start to the season and the team recently acquired Dion Waiters with the purpose of strengthening its bench unit. It’s uncertain whether the Thunder are done dealing this season but Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors looks at how the team could benefit from trading Reggie Jackson in his trade candidate piece.
Here’s more from the Northwest Division:
- The Timofey Mozgov trade will definitely help the Nuggets in the long run, argues Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. Although Dempsey understands that those acquired draft picks will most likely not be lottery selections, he is hopeful that the Nuggets can use the picks in the future as part of a bigger deal that nets them a game changer.
- Erick Green is a very capable player but with Ty Lawson and new addition Jameer Nelson on the Nuggets, playing time will be hard to come by for the Virginia Tech product, writes Dempsey in the same piece. Green is currently on D-League assignment, playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
- The Wolves are concerned about Ricky Rubio‘s ankle sprain but the team believes the point guard is doing everything he can to return to the court, writes Jon Krawczynski of Associated Press. ”It’s a very unique ankle sprain,” coach Flip Saunders said. ”They said at the time it’s going to be worse than a high ankle sprain, and everyone knows those go eight to 12 weeks. So it has nothing to do with him not wanting to play.”
Central Notes: Bulls, Pistons, Cavs
The Bulls are dealing with an identity crisis, writes Michael Lee of The Washington Post. Lee cites the arrival of Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic as well as Jimmy Butler‘s transition from role player to All-Star caliber performer as reason the team has become less blue-collar and slightly more finesse in its on court approach. This is different from the style of play that fans are used to seeing from a team coached by Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls’ recent poor play has led some to wonder if the coach should be fired. Talk of replacing Thibodeau seems drastic as Chicago remains in good position to make the postseason with a record of 27-16; however, the Bulls sit eight games behind Atlanta for the No. 1 seed that many expected the team to earn this season.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Getting Joakim Noah and Mike Dunleavy back from injury will be key for the Bulls to resume contender status in the Eastern Conference, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago. Chicago has gone just 2-6 in its last eight games. “Here’s the thing,” Thibodeau said after Wednesday’s practice. “We’ve had our starters for 15 games. That’s not a lot of games. It’s missing a lot of games. So when the starters have been intact, [the record] has been very good. Our issue has been when they’ve been out, can we hold the fort?” Chicago is 12-3 in games that Noah, Dunleavy, Pau Gasol, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler all start.
- A mutual trust between Stan Van Gundy and Pistons owner Tom Gores has been key to the team’s turnaround, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com. The Pistons are 17-26 on the season and 12-3 since they released Josh Smith. Earlier in the month, I asked if the Pistons could make the playoffs and over half of Hoops Rumors readers believed the team will make the postseason.
- The Cavs are starting to figure out how to play as a team and win games, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today points out in a short video. Cleveland has won four straight games, which includes wins over playoff-caliber teams like the Clippers and Bulls. The team currently resides in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 23-20.
Pacific Notes: Kings, Suns, Clippers, Lakers
A month after the Kings shocked the league by firing coach Mike Malone, the move remains puzzling, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Interim coach Ty Corbin has been tasked with changing the team’s style of play midseason and players feel the strategy is unusual. “With Avery, P.J. pretty much stuck to the script, stuck to what we had been doing—nothing really changed a lot,” said veteran Reggie Evans, who experienced a midseason coaching change earlier in his career while playing for the Nets. “This year is different. We are changing some things and that’s the different part. We have to make it work to the best of our ability. I was surprised when Avery got fired, and I was surprised with this situation, too.” Sacramento is 16-23, which puts the team in danger of missing the postseason for the ninth straight season.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- New addition Reggie Bullock should find himself in a good situation on the Suns, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. The team certainly believes he can become a contributor. “He’s a young player who has shooting ability, who has good size and length,” Suns coach Jeff Hornacek said. “It’s going to be hard in the middle of the season to get him acclimated to everything, but he seems like a smart kid, and I think he’ll pick up things fast just like Brandan (Wright) did.” Bullock was acquired from the Clippers in a three team trade earlier this week.
- The Clippers waived Jordan Farmar with the future in mind, writes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “We think this will be another buyout season for a lot of guys,” coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers said. “You want to have flexibility and it gives us that.” After its recent moves, the team is left with a 13-man roster.
- The Lakers might be in better position to land Kevin Love in free agency than originally anticipated when the forward was dealt to the Cavs in August, speculates Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. Pincus cites the Cavs struggles this season as a reason that Love could move on from the team when given the opportunity either this summer or next. Love reportedly plans to opt in and remain in Cleveland through the 2015/16 season. That will be the same offseason that Kobe Bryant‘s extension, worth $25MM in the final year of the deal, comes off the books for Los Angeles, which could allow the Lakers to have cap space for two maximum-salaried players.
Trade Candidate: Brook Lopez
With a record of 17-24, the season for the Nets doesn’t look promising. The 2014/15 season is the last year for the team to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy in order to fulfill owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s promise of delivering a championship within five years of buying the franchise. The Nets have made numerous moves to put a contending team on the floor that mortgaged the future, including the 2011 trade for Deron Williams and the 2013 trade for Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry and Paul Pierce. As a result of those deals, the 2019 draft will be the next time Brooklyn controls its own first-round pick. Prokhorov was rumored to be looking to sell the team in light of the Clippers’ record-setting $2 billion dollar price tag and the Nets have made their high-priced stars available with the intention of trimming expenses to make the franchise more financially attractive.
With Deron Williams’ latest injury and Joe Johnson’s massive contract, which has two years and almost $48.1MM remaining, including this season, Brook Lopez seems the most likely of the Nets’ stars to be traded. Lopez will make in excess of $15.7MM this year and has a player option worth more than $16.7MM for the 2015/16 season. Uncertainty surrounding his decision to pick up his option will be a potential speedbump for teams looking to acquire the seventh-year veteran, and his injury history might scare some front offices away as well.
However, the market for young centers who can defend the rim is particularly strong and based on the two first round picks that the Nuggets received for parting with Timofey Mozgov, the Nets brass should be salivating at the chance to move Lopez in this environment. Lopez ranked second in the league last season in points saved per 36 minutes, a metric developed by Seth Partnow to identify rim protection. Mozgov ranked 11th last season and his production has slipped all the way to 33rd this year while Lopez has sustained his success on defense this season, ranking fourth best in the league.
That being said, what Brooklyn can net by trading Lopez is only what another team is willing to offer for his services. Although Lopez is widely perceived as the better player, the Nets might need to temper their expectations when comparing the potential return they can reasonably get for him to the bounty that the Nuggets received for their big man. Mozgov only makes about one-third ($4.65MM this season) of Lopez’s salary and the Nets will be hard-pressed to find a team as desperate for a rim protector as the Cavs were.
The Nets shouldn’t be desperate in their attempts to find a trade partner. The team can look across town at the Knicks, as their summer trade of Tyson Chandler provides a cautionary tale. New York reportedly badly wanted to obtain picks in the 2014 draft, and they settled for the best deal at that point. The Knicks traded Chandler, along with Raymond Felton, to the Mavs for Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington and two second-round picks. Dalembert and Ellington have since been waived and the team is reportedly shopping Calderon, who was the only player on Knicks’ side of the deal who was projected to be a starter for a contending team. Still, it’s unknown what the Knicks could have obtained if they were a bit more patient. Chandler, like Lopez, is a rim protector with an injury history, but Lopez is six years younger than the former Defensive Player of the Year. The value of the haul that the Nets would receive for Lopez would likely fall between what the Knicks acquired for Chandler and what the Nuggets received for Mozgov.
Again, the most important ingredient in a trade is finding a suitor. Phoenix would have been a good destination for Lopez based on its salary cap situation and need for an interior presence but the Suns satisfied their need with their trade for Brandan Wright last week. This week, the Thunder were discussing a trade that would have sent Lopez to Oklahoma City in exchange for Kendrick Perkins, as well as a three-team scenario that involved Lance Stephenson going from the Hornets to the Nets. Talks between the teams’ executives have stalled because the Nets have major concerns about taking back Stephenson and don’t want to make a salary-shedding deal that would feature Perkins as the main piece going to Brooklyn. Lopez himself was rumored to be upset about the potential trade.
The Celtics were reportedly interested in acquiring Lopez as part of a Rajon Rondo deal, but it’s unclear whether they remain interested after trading the point guard last month. Lopez has just as much potential if not more than any player on Boston’s roster, but his large contract would take away some of the team’s flexibility, something president of basketball operations Danny Ainge might be hesitant to do at this time. Any deal would most likely hinge on getting Lopez to at least verbally commit past the 2014/15 season, and it’s uncertain whether the Stanford product is interested in joining a team that is not looking to contend right away.
Another potential suitor that will at least be interested in contending next season is the Lakers. Los Angeles may be struggling this season, but all signs point away from any sort of rebuild. The team reportedly dangled a first-round pick last month in an attempt to acquire Rondo and although that pick (originally from Houston) is projected to be a late first-rounder, the Nets would most likely be interested in it, though that’s just my speculation. The Lakers have a pair of point guards with expiring contracts (Steve Nash with a more than $9.7MM cap hit and Jeremy Lin with a more than $8.4MM cap hit) that would allow the Nets to definitively lower their team salary next season.The Lakers also have an intriguing big man in Jordan Hill, but he essentially has a de facto no trade clause in his contract because the deal he signed is technically a one-year pact. If Hill were to agree to be traded to Brooklyn, the Nets would bring back a productive center and possibly still be in contention for a lower playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
Lopez is a good scorer, averaging 14.8 points per game this season, and he provides elite rim protection as well. The center boasts a player efficiency rating of 19.23, which is above league average. Seven-footers with these skills are hard to come by and the current market for centers makes having one very favorable. The Nets shouldn’t have an issue finding a trade for Lopez; it’s just a matter of finding the right team with the combinations of assets to make it beneficial for Brooklyn to part with the seventh-year big man.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Clippers Notes: Prince, Rivers, Jordan
The Clippers have been active recently with the intent of improving their roster. They acquired guard Austin Rivers from the Celtics earlier in the week and earlier, it was reported that they had interest in small forward Tayshaun Prince. The team currently has the fifth best offense in the league, scoring 106.6 points per game, and resides in sixth place in the Western Conference with a record of 26-14.
Here’s more from Los Angeles:
- Coach Doc Rivers believes his son will find success on the Clippers this season, writes Beth Harris of the Star Tribune. “He fits our team,” Doc said. “My job is to do what is best for the team. He’s young. That’s one of the reasons we wanted him.” In his debut for Los Angeles on Friday, Austin Rivers played 11 minutes and missed all four of his shots from the field.
- DeAndre Jordan understands the next contract he signs could last him until he is 30 years old and he wants to be a different player at that point in his career, as he tells Ben Golliver of SI.com in an interview. “I want to be a better player. I want to be more rounded. Defense and rebounding is something that I’m known for. When you get older, you want to expand your game, become an offensive player and threat for your team. Whenever and however old I am, whenever [my contract is] up again, I want to be more of a threat offensively for the team that I’m playing for,” Jordan said. The seven-footer will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2014/15 season.
- Jordan doesn’t believe he will take a short-term contract in order to maximize the benefits from the anticipated rise in cap during the 2016/17 season, Golliver writes in the same piece. “I don’t want to a free agent [over and over]. All of this stuff could be taken away in one second [with an injury]. When you have the opportunity, I feel like you need to do it, get it done, get it over with, so it’s not another year [of the same]. People say they don’t think about it, but in the back of your mind, you kind of think about it. I’d rather not stress two summers in a row,” Jordan said.
Western Notes: Curry, Jackson, Green
Stephen Curry is a legit contender to win the 2014/15 most valuable player award, opines Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. The Warriors have the league’s best record at 29-5 and Curry’s player efficiency rating is 27.13, which ranks fourth best in the league. With those numbers, Curry belongs in the conversation for this season’s MVP award, along with James Harden, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, whose candidacy I briefly wrote about on Sunday.
Here’s more from the Warriors as well as another contender in the Western Conference:
- The arrival of Dion Waiters might mean a further diminished role for Reggie Jackson, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Jackson will be a restricted free agent in the offseason and Mayberry speculates that Jackson will garner a contract worth upwards of $12MM annually. For that price, the Thunder might be interested to see if they can get similar production off their bench from Waiters for a fraction of the cost.
- The Warriors are constructed to contend for a championship this season, opines Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Golden State is the top ranked team in defensive efficiency this season. However, the window for the team to contend as currently constructed might be closing as key piece Draymond Green is set to become a restricted free agent. The team already has $82.6MM in salary commitments for next season and it will likely be forced to make a move if it wants to re-sign Green.
- Warriors center Andrew Bogut says he has no relationship with former coach Mark Jackson, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group writes. “I haven’t heard from him since [his firing]. I know he keeps in touch with some guys on the team, but I’m kind of in a different crowd I think.” The Australian big man has played well this season under new coach Steve Kerr. He is averaging 2.0 blocks per game and sports a player efficiency rating of 16.87.
New York Notes: Knicks, Nets, Melo, Howard
The Knicks own a record of 5-35, which is good for first place in our reverse order rankings. After the trade last week that sent J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cavs, the team clearly won’t be buyers at the trade deadline this season. It’s early in the season for most other teams hovering around .500 to make that kind of decision but Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles (Twitter link) has put the Nets in the conversation about potential sellers in the NBA marketplace.
Here’s more from the Empire State:
- Carmelo Anthony wants to be involved in recruiting players to the Knicks, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork. “This is why I wanted to come back, to be a part of the plan,” Anthony says. New York is projected to have room for the addition of at least one maximum level contract, although the exact amount of cap room will be unknown until the salary cap is calculated during July’s moratorium.
- Dwight Howard will play in Brooklyn for the first time tonight and he reminisces on what could have been if he would have been traded to the Nets, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork writes. “Like I said, everything happens for a reason. There was a point in time where I thought this [Brooklyn] was the best place for me to play basketball. I guess things didn’t happen the way I wanted them to,” Howard said. The Nets were once on the shortlist of teams that the center preferred to be traded to when he was still with the Magic.
- Jason Terry will also return to Brooklyn for the first time since being traded from the team last season. The 15-year veteran thought the Nets were going to achieve more over the last few seasons. “I’m surprised a lot,” Terry told reporters, including Tim Bontemps of The New York Post. “For me, when I came here it looked like they were going to put something together a big run for two or three years down the line. But when there’s that much pressure on you to win, and it doesn’t happen, they’re gonna make changes.” As a member of the Rockets, most would consider Terry to now be in a better position to win another NBA title.