Northwest Notes: Wolves, Mudiay, Stone, Jazz
Flip Saunders built this year’s Timberwolves in an unusual way, with a seasoned veteran for every position group, notes Lee Jenkins of SI.com. Big man tutor Kevin Garnett, mentor wing player Tayshaun Prince and experienced point guard Andre Miller all signed contracts during the offseason before the late Saunders had to leave the job because of his ailing health. Now, they’re serving as guides through a difficult time as the team mourns Saunders’ death. Minnesota opened the season Wednesday with a one-point win over the Lakers.
“Coach brought us all here for a reason,” coach Sam Mitchell said, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. “And he would expect nothing less than us coming out and being focused and doing the very best job.”
See more from around the Northwest Division:
- New coach Michael Malone wants to win, but he acknowledges that so much of this season for the Nuggets is about the education of No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay, as Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post relays. “If we’re getting our butts kicked, I’m not going to just sit there and say: ‘Well, this is good for Emmanuel’s development,'” Malone said. “But, overall, I want to be able to say at the end of Year 1 that we gave Emmanuel every chance to succeed and learn going into Year 2, because that’s only going to accelerate the growth of this roster and this organization.”
- Thunder camp cut Julyan Stone has signed with Gaziantep of Turkey, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
- The Jazz named Linda Luchetti the team’s vice president of basketball operations this week, a position that will have her reporting directly to GM Dennis Lindsey, the team announced. The move makes her one of the most highly ranking female basketball executives in the league, though her responsibilities will be focused on the business side of the team, according to The Associated Press.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript
4:03pm: We hosted the weekly live chat.
3:00pm: The regular season is underway, but a few offseason matters remain. Monday is the deadline for rookie scale extensions, and while major names like Harrison Barnes and Andre Drummond have stopped extension talks, several players are still eligible. No deadline looms over the Mavericks and Rick Carlisle as they reportedly move close to an extension of their own. We can talk about extensions, signings, rosters and more in this week’s chat.
Camp Invitees Who Made Opening Night Rosters
Roughly 100 players signed NBA contracts in the offseason and went to training camps without fully guaranteed salaries, hoping they could win a spot on the regular season roster. Only 23 accomplished that goal.
The math makes it simple as rosters swell to 20 players during the offseason, since at most, only 15 per team can make it to opening night. As the regular season begins, no team has more than two players who signed deals in the 2015 offseason that included non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salary for this season. Most of those players continue to sweat it out, knowing their salaries won’t be fully guaranteed for the season until January, with some exceptions.
The list below shows the preseason survivors for all 30 teams. It doesn’t include players still on contracts they signed before this summer, though we have counted Eric Moreland and Matt Bonner, holdovers for their respective teams who signed new contracts during the offseason. J.R. Smith technically qualifies, since his deal with the Cavaliers was only partially guaranteed for a few days after he signed it, but for clarity’s sake, we’ve omitted him.
76ers
Bucks
- None
Bulls
Cavaliers
Celtics
- None
Clippers
Grizzlies
- None
Hawks
Heat
- None
Hornets
Jazz
Kings
Knicks
- None
Lakers
Magic
- None
Mavericks
Nets
Nuggets
- None
Pacers
- None
Pelicans
Pistons
- None
Raptors
- None
Rockets
- None
Spurs
Suns
Thunder
- None
Timberwolves
- None
Trail Blazers
Warriors
Wizards
- None
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Major Surgery In Play For Martell Webster
1:19pm: The injury is a “bone spur that’s rubbing up against my labrum,” Webster said, according to Michael, and Webster said that it’s a caused a tear in the labrum, as Castillo relays within his full story.
12:38pm: The Wizards aren’t planning to apply for a disabled player exception if Webster ultimately opts for surgery, Michael hears (Twitter link).
10:42am: Martell Webster told reporters today that he has a hip injury that would knock him out for four to six months if he undergoes surgery to repair it, note Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post and J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com (Plus Twitter links). The 28-year-old small forward said he’ll try to play through it with the use of balance-correcting glasses, as Michael details. Michael nonetheless added that the injury flared up during practice Tuesday, according to Castillo, who termed it a partially torn labrum in Webster’s right hip, while Michael called it a bone spur on the hip. The $2.5MM partial guarantee on Webster’s salary for 2016/17 would jump to a full guarantee of more than $5.845MM if he plays in 70 games this season, a prospect that appears decreasingly likely.
The failure of Webster to lock in his extra guaranteed money would grant the Wizards added flexibility for their pursuit of Kevin Durant and others next summer, though surely they’d like to have Webster available for much of the season. Webster dealt with the injury throughout the preseason as he failed to appear in any of Washington’s exhibitions. Back surgery helped limit him to only 32 games last season, and while he pondered retirement a year ago, he backed off that idea this past summer, saying that he wants to play beyond the expiration of his contract at the end of the 2016/17 season.
A six-month timetable would mean he’d miss all of the regular season, so if he elects surgery, it’s possible that the Wizards would apply for and receive a disabled player exception worth nearly $2.807MM, a figure equivalent to half of Webster’s salary for this season. Alan Anderson is also out for the Wizards with an ankle injury, challenging the team’s depth at the wing, but Washington hasn’t suffered enough major injuries to make a hardship provision for an extra roster spot a possibility at this point.
Atlantic Notes: Jackson, Joseph, Nets
Talk about a scenario in which Knicks team president Phil Jackson would return to work for the Lakers and fiancee Jeanie Buss has resurfaced in NBA circles over recent weeks, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Jackson can reportedly opt out of his five-year deal with the Knicks after this season, Isola notes. Speculation emerged earlier this year that Jackson won’t finish out his contract, though he said in June that he wanted to stay around long enough to help the Knicks turn around their fortunes. While we wait to see what the Zen Master does, see more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Raptors offseason signee Cory Joseph is planning to play a role for Toronto that’s similar in some ways to the one his former Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili has long embodied for San Antonio, as Sportsnet’s Donnovan Bennett details. “There was no big exchange when that first and second group switched off the court because of him,” Joseph said of Ginobili. “That’s what I want to do here. I want to bring energy with that second unit and uplift because that’s what we are going to need. Manu brought energy, but also a sense of calmness to the second group and managed time and score.”
- Nets GM Billy King didn’t factor Andrea Bargnani‘s long history of injuries into his decision about whom to keep for the opening night roster, observes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Twitter links). Bargnani is healthy for now, as is shooting guard Markel Brown, so King didn’t feel the need to keep power forward Justin Harper and swingman Dahntay Jones, whom the Nets waived, as Bontemps explains.
- Fellow Nets power forward Willie Reed‘s partial guarantee of $500K increased to a fully guaranteed $947,276 when he stuck on the Nets roster for opening night, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (Twitter link) and as our leaguewide schedule of salary guarantee dates shows. Reed is about two weeks into a six-to-eight-week timetable for recovery from thumb surgery.
And-Ones: Paul, Agent Changes, Leonard
Chris Paul rejects the notion that he’s a poor teammate, an idea that rumors of a rift between Paul and DeAndre Jordan helped fuel this summer, writes Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. Jordan has downplayed any tension, citing a mutual desire to win, and that’s just what Paul is thinking about as he envisions playing the rest of his career with the Clippers, as Woike details.
“Hell, I never imagined I’d leave New Orleans, but there’s no question this is where I want to be,” Paul said to Woike. “I want to win. Here.”
The earliest Paul can elect free agency is the summer of 2017. See more from around the NBA:
- Agent Michael Tellem, the son of former agent turned Pistons organization executive Arn Tellem, is leaving the Wasserman Media Group for the Creative Artists Agency and taking high-profile client Danilo Gallinari with him, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Mario Hezonja, Bojan Bogdanovic and Nemanja Bjelica have dropped Tellem and will continue with Wasserman, Pick adds (on Twitter). The loss of Arn Tellem has proven tough for Wasserman, which also lost Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge and Joe Johnson over the offseason. Gallinari, Hezonja and Bjelica all signed new deals earlier this summer, while Bogdanovic remains on a deal with the Nets that runs through 2016/17.
- Extension talks between the Trail Blazers and Meyers Leonard are off to a late start, but Leonard’s preference is to stay in Portland, observes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. The deadline for the sides to reach a deal is Monday. “I really, really like and love this city,” Leonard said. “I love the organization and now that a greater opportunity has presented itself, I think a lot more people are embracing me. I’d love to be here. That’s my hope. But I don’t know if I’ll get an extension. I don’t know what will happen after this year. We’ll have to wait and see.”
- Al Harrington said in March that he was retiring, but instead the 16-year NBA veteran is joining the Sydney Kings of Australia on a four-week deal, league sources told Olgun Uluc of Fox Sports Australia.
Kings, Blazers Lead West, NBA In Newcomers
Lost amid the turmoil and apparent reconciliation for DeMarcus Cousins, George Karl and the Kings front office was the overhaul of the team’s roster. Nine of the team’s 15 players to start the season weren’t on the roster at the end of 2014/15, a level of turnover that only the Trail Blazers can match in the Western Conference and no team can match in the East. New front office chief Vlade Divac used the draft, trades and free agency this summer to change 60% of his roster this summer, clearly putting his stamp on the team.
Still, the Trail Blazers would have eclipsed them had Tim Frazier not beaten Phil Pressey in their preseason battle for the third point guard job. The departure of LaMarcus Aldridge touched off an exodus of all seven of Portland’s free agents, and by the time Aldridge left, GM Neil Olshey was already active in trades, sending out Nicolas Batum and Steve Blake for four of his team’s nine newcomers.
Meanwhile, as the focus in Oklahoma City turned to Kevin Durant and his 2016 free agency, the Thunder were quiet on the 2015 market, adding only a pair of draft picks, including draft-and-stash signee Josh Huestis. Like the Bulls, the only other team in the NBA this year to have only two new players this season, the Thunder did change coaches, replacing Scott Brooks with Billy Donovan.
See the newcomers in the Western Conference and how the teams stack up in terms of roster turnover:
Kings (9) — Quincy Acy, James Anderson, Marco Belinelli, Caron Butler, Willie Cauley-Stein, Seth Curry, Duje Dukan, Kosta Koufos, Rajon Rondo.
Trail Blazers (9) — Cliff Alexander, Al-Farouq Aminu, Pat Connaughton, Ed Davis, Maurice Harkless, Gerald Henderson, Luis Montero, Mason Plumlee, Noah Vonleh.
Clippers (8) — Cole Aldrich, Branden Dawson, Wesley Johnson, Luc Mbah a Moute, Paul Pierce, Pablo Prigioni, Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson.
Lakers (8) — Brandon Bass, Anthony Brown, Roy Hibbert, Marcelo Huertas, Larry Nance Jr., D’Angelo Russell, Lou Williams, Metta World Peace.
Mavericks (8) — Justin Anderson, Jeremy Evans, John Jenkins, Wesley Matthews, JaVale McGee, Salah Mejri, Zaza Pachulia, Deron Williams.
Suns (7) — Devin Booker, Tyson Chandler, Cory Jefferson, Jon Leuer, Ronnie Price, Mirza Teletovic, Sonny Weems.
Spurs (6) — LaMarcus Aldridge, Rasual Butler, Boban Marjanovic, Ray McCallum, Jonathon Simmons, David West.
Timberwolves (6) — Nemanja Bjelica, Tyus Jones, Andre Miller, Tayshaun Prince, Damjan Rudez, Karl-Anthony Towns.
Jazz (4) — Trey Lyles, Raul Neto, Tibor Pleiss, Jeff Withey.
Pelicans (4) — Alonzo Gee, Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson, Ish Smith.
Rockets (4) — Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, Ty Lawson, Marcus Thornton.
Grizzlies (3) — Matt Barnes, Jarell Martin, Brandan Wright.
Nuggets (3) — Nikola Jokic, Mike Miller, Emmanuel Mudiay.
Warriors (3) — Ian Clark, Kevon Looney, Jason Thompson.
Thunder (2) — Josh Huestis, Cameron Payne.
Central Notes: Lopez, Pistons, Bulls, Petteway
Bucks coach Jason Kidd confirmed reports that the team had interest in Robin Lopez and Brook Lopez in free agency this summer, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Neither ended up in Milwaukee, with Robin going to the Knicks and Brook re-signing with the Nets, though the Bucks did well enough, landing Greg Monroe.
“We liked both of those guys,’’ Kidd said. “They both do something and they’re very productive. I think both teams got maybe the guy they wanted. Looking at the Lopezes, I’ve coached one of them and recruited another. They’ve always played the game the right way. The Knicks ended up with [Robin] Lopez, which is a good pickup for them.”
See more from the Central Division:
- The Pistons have no shortage of players with contractual motivation to prove their worth this season, making “the disease of more” and the potential for selfishness a concern in Detroit, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press details.
- Other Eastern Conference teams improved their rosters in the offseason, but short of adding Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio, the Bulls stood pat, making it fair to wonder about Chicago’s apparent determination that the most pressing need for change was at head coach, opines David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune.
- The contract that Terran Petteway was briefly on with the Pacers was non-guaranteed for the minimum salary and covered one season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Indiana absorbed a small cap hit for signing him after Saturday’s deadline to remove non-guaranteed salary without it counting against the cap. The Pacers inked Petteway on Sunday and waived him on Monday to secure his D-League rights.
Pacific Notes: Barnes, Chandler, Clark, Lakers
Warriors GM Bob Myers didn’t express trepidation as he told reporters today that Harrison Barnes has chosen to end extension talks, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group relays (Twitter link). Golden State will have the right to match offers for Barnes in restricted free agency next summer.
“We ended discussions in a very healthy place if that’s possible, and I say that in all sincerity,” Myers said.
See more on the Warriors amid the latest from the Pacific Division:
- Tyson Chandler is hopeful that he can remain with the Suns for the duration of his four-year contract and finish his career with Phoenix, as he said in a response to a question from Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. “It’s been tough. I want to, honestly,” Chandler said. “I wanted to do it in Dallas. Now I want to do it in Phoenix. It’s a lot of stress on kids and the family, even myself. I would love to continue to grow with this franchise and try to elevate it, especially with these young players. I think I can be huge here as far as the impact I can make. That’s my goal.”
- Ian Clark picked up a $473,636 partial guarantee that’s worth half his full-season salary Monday, when the Warriors made him part of their opening night roster. His contract had been non-guaranteed. He’d lock in the full amount on the leaguewide guarantee date in January. Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders first reported the terms of his deal.
- The Lakers upgraded their roster over the summer, but co-owner and executive VP of basketball oeprations Jim Buss indicated to USA Today’s Sam Amick that improvement in the standings this season isn’t his goal. “[Jerry Buss] taught me for all these years, we’re always looking three to five years ahead,” Buss said, referring to his late father, the longtime Lakers owner. “Right now, I’m not looking at this season … I don’t care about making the playoffs and getting eliminated in the playoffs. What I care about is getting the core players, because we want to get to the top, and the only way we can get to the top is to have the core players, get the free agents, have flexibility in our [salary] cap, and we’ll be there within three years. Not a problem. Boom.”
Southeast Notes: Schröder, Stoudemire, Marble
The Hawks are among the six teams in action as the 2015/16 regular season gets underway tonight, though they’ll be hard-pressed to match the 60 wins they had last season. They also face a stiff challenge simply to win the Southeast Division, where the Heat and Wizards loom. See news on the Hawks and elsewhere from the Southeast as we count down the last few hours before tip-off:
- The relationship between Jeff Teague and Dennis Schröder is solid, and people close to the situation tell Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders that they don’t anticipate locker room problems developing even in light of Schröder’s public desire for a starting job. Schröder recently told Sport Bild magazine in his native Germany that he would “explore other possibilities” if the Hawks don’t give him a chance to start, though he made it clear that he likes playing in Atlanta.
- The Heat don’t plan to push Amar’e Stoudemire‘s body any more than the Knicks and Mavs did the past two seasons, when he missed a combined 32 games because of injury or rest, and the veteran big man will essentially be on a maintenance program, as Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald details. Miami invested only a one-year deal for the minimum in the former All-Star who turns 33 next month, far from the $20MM-plus he earned each of the last two years.
- Devyn Marble made the opening night roster for the Magic, so the full guarantee on his minimum salary kicks in, as our schedule of salary guarantee dates shows. The 56th overall pick from 2014 still has a non-guaranteed minimum salary for 2016/17 left on his deal.
- The arrival of new coach Scott Skiles places the pressure squarely on the players and the front office in Orlando, opines Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. The Magic “desperately” need to attract an All-Star in free agency but stand little shot of doing so if they don’t improve their win-loss record this year, Schmitz believes.