Texas Notes: McHale, Harden, Howard, Aldridge
The poor play of the Rockets to start the season struck a chord with owner Leslie Alexander, but he admits changing coaches from Kevin McHale to interim boss J.B. Bickerstaff isn’t guaranteed to fix the team’s problems, as Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle relays.
“You don’t know for sure, right?” Alexander said. “But when you watch your team play and you know you’re going to lose … I knew I was going to lose the Boston game. I knew I was going to lose the Golden State game. I knew I was going to get crushed. I knew the way the players were playing, the way they were playing defensively. They weren’t playing hard, they weren’t running back. And they were sloppy. Their movements were sloppy. I knew we were going to lose.”
Still, myriad reasons, from injuries to poor shooting to roster moves that haven’t panned out, exist for Alexander to have drawn a different conclusion about the best way to turn the team around, Solomon posits. See more on the Rockets amid the latest from the Texas Triangle:
- The respective camps around James Harden and Dwight Howard each went into the 2014 offseason “whispering” about their desire to get rid of the other, and the stars have never truly meshed, writes Fran Blinebury of NBA.com. That neither has become a strong locker room leader is central to the Rockets‘ issues, Blinebury believes.
- The Spurs‘ offense has lagged alarmingly when the starting five has played, and while LaMarcus Aldridge, averaging only 14.8 points per game, rejects the notion that he should demand the ball more often, the Spurs didn’t sign him to reprise Tiago Splitter‘s role, argues Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Spurs coach/executive Gregg Popovich believes the ex-Blazer must find a balance between fitting in the team’s egalitarian system and rediscovering his own high-scoring game, McDonald notes.
- Trade acquisition Zaza Pachulia has meshed with Dirk Nowitzki on the inside, and that’s helped offset the sluggish 3-point shooting of the Mavs guards so far, fueling the team’s surprising 8-4 start, observes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
Central Notes: Drummond, Thompson, Monroe
Andre Drummond‘s game has taken another leap this season, and while the challenge for him is to become more consistent, the soon-to-be restricted free agent is impressing many, including Pistons owner Tom Gores, as Rod Beard of the Detroit News examines.
“He’s developing incredibly and I’m not surprised. We knew it from the first time he got on the floor,” Gores said. “He worked so hard this summer to develop some other skills and right now it’s showing on the floor and his character is reflecting on the team. You can talk about it, but then you have to do it. Andre’s doing it and he’s also developing great chemistry among all the players. You can say it or you can do it.”
Gores already referred to Drummond as a “max player” this spring, and with the Pistons and Drummond working in concert when they tabled extension discussions with the idea of allowing the team more cap flexibility in the summer, it doesn’t appear as though the big man’s free agency will carry much suspense. See more from the Central:
- Consistency might be the last hurdle for Drummond, but it’s a hallmark for Tristan Thompson, who played his 300th consecutive game Thursday, not counting the preseason games he missed while holding out this fall for his new deal with the Cavs. Thompson’s willingness to always be ready helped endear him to LeBron James, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.
- The decision to trade Brandon Knight didn’t clear the way for the Bucks to lay a five-year, $70MM contract on Khris Middleton, as Jason Kidd suggested, as much as it gave them the opportunity to sign Greg Monroe, argues Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. Milwaukee struggled offensively last season after shedding Knight, but bringing Monroe in as the remedy to that has knocked a hole in the team’s defense, Bontemps points out. Kidd remains confident, chalking the poor play up to the team’s youth, Bontemps notes.
- Free agent signee Monta Ellis is bouncing back after a slow start and the remade Pacers roster has the look of a playoff team, even if Indiana isn’t in 50-win territory, opines Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders.
Pelicans Waive Jimmer Fredette
The Pelicans have waived Jimmer Fredette, the team announced. The team signed the former BYU star to a non-guaranteed contract November 10th using a 16th roster spot the league granted them via the hardship rule. That provision for an extra player lasts only 10 days, and though the Pelicans are still dealing with copious injuries, Fredette’s release is a signal that the league won’t be giving the team another 10-day exception, likely because one of the injured players is poised to return, as John Reid of The Times Picayune speculates (on Twitter).
Letting go of Fredette is also a financial savings for the Pels, who only used him for a total of 13 minutes spread over four games this month. His prorated minimum salary cost them $5,572 a day. Fredette is also collecting money this season from the Spurs, who guaranteed him $507,711 before cutting him at the end of the preseason. He remains under contract with the D-League affiliate of the Knicks, who drafted him after he inked a D-League deal late last month.
Omer Asik and Anthony Davis are questionable for Friday’s game against the Spurs, but four others have been out with long-term injuries, which gave New Orleans enough to qualify for the extra roster spot. Kendrick Perkins is just a couple of weeks into a three-month recovery timetable and Tyreke Evans still appears to be about two weeks away, judging by the timeframe that Reid reported a month ago, so Norris Cole and Quincy Pondexter, who’ve yet to play this season, look like the candidates to return soon.
What do you think comes next for Fredette? Leave a comment to let us know.
Grizzlies Notes: Conley, Joerger, Chalmers, Gasol
Mike Conley doesn’t seem anxious to leave Memphis, just as Marc Gasol wasn’t last year, but Gasol didn’t make any promises until he re-signed in July, and Conley isn’t either, observes Chris Mannix of SI.com.
“It’s easy to feel obligated; it’s easy to want to stay,” Conley said to Mannix. “This is where I’ve had my whole career. At the same time I understand this is a business. I have to weigh my options just like [Gasol] did. Hopefully it will be an easy decision, whatever it is.”
Since Conley, No. 3 in our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings, is apparently thinking along the same lines as Gasol, even if he’s reluctant to say he’ll draw the same conclusion, check out what Gasol had to say about what went into his decision to re-sign this past summer amid the latest from Memphis:
- Dave Joerger‘s job wasn’t in jeopardy at any point earlier this month in spite of the rumors, and no indication came forth that owner Robert Pera had grown impatient, writes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. Joerger pushed for the team to trade for Mario Chalmers, and the team did so, indicating the sway Joerger still has within the organization, Tillery notes.
- The Chalmers trade has been a boon for the Grizzlies, opines Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal, who examines what he brings to Memphis, the emergence of JaMychal Green in the rotation, and more in his weekly Pick and Pop column.
- The feeling that he had unfinished business with the Grizzlies helped lead Gasol to re-sign, as he told Mannix for a separate piece. “I think every conversation always led to that. About how much the city means to me, how much my teammates mean to me, how much this franchise means to me,” Gasol said in part. “At the end of the day, I felt responsible for that. There was a lot of attention and a lot of people wanted to talk, but this is where I wanted to be.”
Jordan Crawford To Play In China
Jordan Crawford is returning to play in the Chinese Basketball Association following his bid to return to the NBA with the Bulls earlier this fall, as the former first-round pick is joining the Tianjin Steel, tweets international journalist David Pick, who indicates that Crawford has already put pen to paper. The combo guard put up 29.4 points per game in five appearances during a stint with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers last season.
Crawford, 27, played sparingly in the preseason for Chicago after he signed a non-guaranteed contract, averaging 3.2 points in 7.2 minutes a night over five contests. The Bulls waived him before opening night. He started 35 of the 39 games he played for the Celtics in 2013/14, the last season in which he saw regular season action in the NBA, but the Warriors reduced his role following a midseason trade, and an eye injury shelved him for much of last season. He played well for the D-League Fort Wayne Mad Ants in eight games to end 2014/15, averaging 22.6 points in 35.7 minutes per contest, but he only managed 10.2 points in 25.1 minutes per game during summer league play this year for the Mavs squad.
The four-year NBA veteran will again likely have a chance to try to return to the league as soon as February, when the Chinese regular season ends. Tianjin is 1-5 so far, so the team would have to turn its season around to make the playoffs and keep Crawford from re-entering the market by the NBA All-Star break.
Heat Notes: Wade, Stoudemire, Whiteside
Dwyane Wade parlayed 21.5 points per game last season into a one-year, $20MM contract this summer, but even as he faces free agency again in the coming offseason, he’s not worried about his individual accomplishments, notes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. Wade is averaging just 10.8 points per contest in his last four games.
“This year, this team is about trying to win. This is not a year where I’m worrying about scoring,” Wade said.
The Heat aren’t doing too much winning so far this year, at 6-4, but they have an opportunity to improve their record at home tonight against the Kings. See more from Miami:
- Amar’e Stoudemire has only played in one game for the Heat this season, thanks in part to sore knees, but he’s not complaining and not looking for a trade, agent Travis King tells Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Stoudemire signed a one-year deal for the minimum salary with Miami in the offseason. “He’s fine with it; he’s a team player and is glad to be with the organization,” King said of his client’s lack of playing time. “… He talked to [Erik Spoelstra about the situation]. He has made his money. He doesn’t have to play for another contract. He just wants to win.”
- Hassan Whiteside has maintained his strong play from the second half of last season into this season, as Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald examines, and he’s meshed well on both ends of the floor, as Matt Lurie of RealGM details. All of it is liable to add up to a maximum-salary deal this summer for last year’s minimum-salary signee, Skolnick writes.
- Wade and Chris Bosh see plenty of depth on the Heat this year thanks to the infusion of youth that Justise Winslow and Tyler Johnson represent, observes Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald.
Offseason In Review: Golden State Warriors
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
- Leandro Barbosa: One year, $2.5MM. Signed via taxpayer mid-level exception.
- Ian Clark: One year, $947K. Signed via minimum salary exception. Partially guaranteed for $474K.
- Draymond Green: Five years, $82MM. Signed via Bird Rights.
Extensions
- None
Trades
- Acquired Gerald Wallace and Chris Babb from the Celtics in exchange for David Lee. Babb was subsequently waived.
- Acquired Jason Thompson from the Sixers in exchange for Wallace, $1MM in cash, and the right to swap Golden State’s 2016 first-round pick with the lesser of the 2016 first-round picks that the Heat and the Thunder owe Philadelphia.
Waiver Claims
- None
Draft Picks
- Kevon Looney (Round 1, 30th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
Camp Invitees
- Jarell Eddie — Waived.
- Ben Gordon — Waived.
- Xavier Henry — Waived.
- Tony Mitchell — Waived.
- Juwan Staten — Waived.
- Chris Udofia — Waived.
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- None
Teams that win 67 regular season games and the NBA championship usually have little room to improve. The 2015 offseason and the start of the 2015/16 season provide strong evidence that the Warriors are the exception to the rule.
Golden State has started 12-0 in spite of the absence of Steve Kerr, who was perhaps the team’s most significant offseason addition in 2014. That Luke Walton, who was no better than third in command last season behind Kerr and former top assistant Alvin Gentry, has been able to pilot the Warriors without a hiccup thus far is testament to the system Kerr put in place but more so to the Warriors front office, a collaborative group with GM Bob Myers in the lead role. Myers, the reigning Executive of the Year, delivered an encore performance as the team accomplished the two most critical player personnel tasks it faced this past summer.
The first was to secure Draymond Green for the long term. Little doubt existed, even amid rumors that tied him to his home-state Pistons, that the B.J. Armstrong client would remain with the Warriors, by dint of Golden State’s ability to match all competing bids in his restricted free agency. The questions were whether he would sign directly with the Warriors or with another team on an offer sheet, and just how close he would come to the maximum salary. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports raised the notion that the Warriors would prefer that if he signed for the max, he do so via offer sheet, thus absolving themselves of first-hand blame if Green were to end up making more than Thompson, who conceded to slightly less than the max on the extension he signed in 2014.
The Warriors wound up avoiding such a thorny scenario when Green somewhat surprisingly agreed to a deal with the Warriors that totals some $12MM less than the max over five years. Green was willing to take a discount to help keep the team together in the face of a mounting tax bill, as Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group heard shortly before the start of free agency, but apparently the former 35th overall pick and the Warriors had their differences about just how much he should sacrifice. Regardless, Green’s value continues to escalate. He’s shooting 40.4% on 3-pointers after last season’s career-best 33.7% mark, and he’s suddenly become the team’s leader in assists, with 6.9 per game, almost double last season’s average of 3.7. Time will tell if those numbers are sustainable, but the 25-year-old has shown vast improvement with each passing year, and it looks like that trend will continue. He’s no longer the colossal bargain he was when he was making the minimum salary, but the Warriors are probably still underpaying him.
The opposite was true for the man Green replaced in the starting lineup last season. An offseason David Lee trade seemed inevitable as he disappeared from the rotation. If his sudden re-emergence in the Finals cast any doubt on that idea, it vanished mere hours after the Warriors won the title, when Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the Warriors and Lee’s reps had agreed to work together to find a new home for him. ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported shortly thereafter that the team’s cut of gate receipts from its run to the Finals were vast enough that the team would see fit to trade him and take a lesser salary in return rather than simply trading him into another team’s cap space and taking no salary back. That was fortuitous for the Warriors, since apparently no one made them an offer that would have taken his entire salary of almost $15.494MM off their hands. The Knicks and Lakers reportedly considered trading for the Mark Bartelstein client, but ultimately it was the Celtics who did so in a deal that took nearly full advantage of the salary-matching cushion and cleaved about a third of Lee’s salary from Golden State’s books. That was only step one, however.
It seemed almost obvious in the immediate wake of the deal that the Warriors would waive Gerald Wallace, whom they acquired in the Lee trade, and spread his salary via the stretch provision, a tool they couldn’t use with Lee because he signed his deal prior to the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. Stretching Wallace would have pushed the majority of his salary, and the associated tax burden, off to future seasons, when the tax threshold will be higher in accordance with the rising cap. Instead, the Warriors clung to Wallace and deftly flipped him to the Sixers in a trade that achieved the dual ends of lowering the payroll and adding a productive player. Essentially, the Warriors parlayed Lee into Jason Thompson through a pair of moves that saved Golden State nearly $8.6MM in salary and an estimated $22.1MM in luxury tax payments. The collateral costs were minimal: $1MM in cash to the Sixers plus a pick swap that only comes into play if the Heat or the Thunder end up with a better record than the Warriors do. Chris Babb came in the deal with the Celtics, but his salary was non-guaranteed and he didn’t make the Warriors out of training camp.
The primary benefit was financial, as Golden State has yet to find much of a need for Thompson in its already-stacked rotation, even though Andrew Bogut missed time with a concussion. Still, Thompson is at the ready, and while he lacks the offensive pop of Lee, the ex-King was a double-figure scorer three times with Sacramento and can capably perform should the need arise. He ultimately represents an insurance policy with a more sensible premium for Golden State. His salary also makes him a handier trade chip if such an opportunity presents itself.
The Warriors weren’t quite as frugal when they brought back Leandro Barbosa for $2.5MM this season. Clearly, Myers and company wanted to keep as much of last season’s roster as possible, even if it meant shelling out more than what it was worth for a 32-year-old who was out of the league for much of 2013/14, the season before he first joined Golden State. Barbosa saw just 14.7 minutes per game in the regular season and 10.9 in the playoffs last year. It’s possible that the Pelicans, reportedly likely to have interest thanks to Gentry, drove up his price, but even so, the Warriors might have found a better use for the roughly $1.5MM difference between what they’re spending on Barbosa and what they would be shelling out on a minimum-salary deal. That $1.5MM triggers an estimated $5.625MM in extra taxes.
First-round pick Kevon Looney, by contrast, costs only slightly more than the veteran’s minimum this season, so it made sense for the Warriors to keep their pick and use it on a player who would sign this year rather than going the draft-and-stash route. Looney is expected to miss about half the season after August hip surgery, but the Warriors nonetheless have a prospect they can develop once he gets healthy, and Green is a conspicuous reminder of how players drafted with a pick in the 30s can blossom.
The Warriors mastered the elusive art of building a championship roster. The task that began this summer is to sustain it, and they’ve so far proven just as adept.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.
Josh Howard Plans To Sign In D-League
Former All-Star Josh Howard plans on signing to play in the D-League, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). It’s part of an NBA comeback attempt for the 35-year-old who nonetheless remains open to an overseas deal, Spears adds. Howard, who averaged 19.9 points per game for the Mavs in 2007/08, was last under NBA contract with the Spurs, who signed him and quickly waived him in 2013 to grab his D-League rights.
The Spurs still have those D-League rights, since he played for their affiliate within the past two seasons. Howard averaged 14.7 points in 29.5 minutes per game for San Antonio’s D-League team over 24 appearances in 2013/14, decent numbers that nonetheless signaled that his game was far from its peak. He last saw NBA regular season action with the Timberwolves in 2012/13, when he put up 6.7 points in 18.8 minutes per contest over 11 appearances before he suffered a torn right ACL.
Howard might be best known for admitting in 2008 that he used marijuana in the offseason. Still, he was a key part of the Mavericks before and after that remark. His career took a downturn when he tore the ACL in his left knee four games into his brief tenure with the Wizards, who acquired him from Dallas in a trade midway through the 2009/10 season. He’s played in only 76 NBA games since then.
Chris Babb Signs To Play In Germany
Former Celtics and Warriors shooting guard Chris Babb has signed with Germany’s Ratiopharm Ulm, the team announced (on Instagram). first reported the move. Babb was on the Warriors roster for the preseason after he went to Golden State in the David Lee trade, but the team waived his non-guaranteed contract before opening night.
Babb, 25, averaged 2.2 points in 11.4 minutes per game across six preseason contests for the Warriors this fall. It’s the third straight year he’s been in an NBA training camp, as he’d joined the Celtics the previous two autumns, but he’s yet to make an opening night roster. Boston signed him at midseason in 2013/14 and 2014/15, though he only played in regular season games during the first of those years, notching 1.6 points in 9.5 minutes a night over 14 appearances.
The Greg Lawrence client has spent much of his pro career in the D-League after going undrafted in 2013 out of Iowa State, where he played under now-Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg. Babb is instead bound for international ball this season, and he’s a strong fit for the European game with his floor-spacing ability and two-way game, observes Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link). It’s unclear if the deal gives him the power to return to the NBA later this season if an opportunity presents itself.
Rockets Notes: Harden, Bickerstaff, Lawson, Howard
James Harden admits responsibility falls on him to play better defense, and getting him to stick to that notion is job one on a daunting list of tasks for Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff, as Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle believes.
“That’s probably one of the reasons why the [team] energy has been so low,” Harden said. “Making shots or missing shots, I’ve got to bring my game.”
See more on the Rockets one day after they fired Kevin McHale:
- Bickerstaff understands the impatience around the franchise and his limited window of opportunity, and he plans to push the team harder than McHale had, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports examines. Still, Bickerstaff feels he owes a debt of gratitude to his predecessor, who brought him to Houston, promoted him, and gave him raises, Wojnarowski writes. “He did everything in his power to protect me, to protect my family,” Bickerstaff said of McHale. “He went out on a limb to support me.”
- The Rockets moved Ty Lawson to the bench for Wednesday’s game, just as McHale said before his ouster that he was thinking about doing, and it’s a move that the point guard said he’s on board with, as ClutchFans relays on Twitter. “Whatever for the team to win, I’m ready to do,” Lawson said.
- Lawson, who called for Tuesday’s players-only meeting, has been dreadful thus far for Houston, symbolizing the team’s sluggish start, writes Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
- Dwight Howard believes he had a strong relationship with McHale and feels down about the team’s decision to let him go, as Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle relays. “We can’t control what ownership does,” Howard said. “If they want to get rid of a player or a coach, that’s their decision. None of us had a clue what was going on. That [players-only] meeting was all about us. We didn’t even mention the coaches.”
- Corey Brewer feels responsible for the firing, and said the blame shouldn’t be on McHale for the team’s slow start, as Creech notes in the same piece. “I don’t think [McHale] lost the locker room,” Brewer said. “This isn’t a fractured locker room. We just haven’t been playing like we should be. We have new pieces, different things to put together, but right now it’s about being men, looking in the mirror and coming out and playing hard every night.”
- Owner Leslie Alexander’s fervent desire for a title has driven the Rockets to become overeager to find solutions, like the hasty decision to fire McHale, an old-school denizen whose open-mindedness to GM Daryl Morey‘s analytics had made their working relationship function, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding opines.