California Notes: Stephenson, Hibbert, Warriors
Many around the league believe the Lakers can quickly return to the NBA elite, with one executive telling Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com that they’re just “one big deal” from a favorable position. Still, Holmes heard pessimism from many others, including an agent who called them “hopeless” and “the West Coast Knicks,” and those who had pointed criticism for Mitch Kupchak, Nick Young and especially Byron Scott. Legendary Laker Shaquille O’Neal, now a Kings part-owner, pointed to the roster as a whole.
“They need to do the same thing Sacramento did — get new players,” O’Neal said to Holmes.
Little can be done about the top of the roster this time of the year, but the Lakers and other Pacific rivals face multiple decisions about how to fill out their bench, as I examined earlier. See more from California’s NBA teams:
- Clippers trade acquisition Lance Stephenson believes Doc Rivers and the Clippers are giving him a better chance at success than he had in Charlotte, where he didn’t feel the team used him properly last season, as he tells Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. “I was just sitting in the corner. That’s not trying to be a star. A star normally gets the ball,” Stephenson said.
- Roy Hibbert, set for free agency at season’s end, has impressed in his first action since the offseason trade that took him to the Lakers, observes fellow Orange County Register scribe Bill Oram. “He’s been absolutely solid,” Kobe Bryant said of Hibbert. “Defensively he’s been great. Offensively he’s been great and he’s another great passer on this team. We look forward to playing off him a lot.”
- The Warriors purchased the land for their new privately funded arena in San Francisco, the team announced. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but team indicated the entire project will cost in excess of $1 billion. “We’ve been the Bay Area’s team for more than 50 years, and this plan keeps us in the Bay Area for the next 50 and beyond,” Warriors president and COO Rick Welts said. “If there were any lingering doubts about our commitment to Mission Bay, purchasing this land should put them to rest. We love this neighborhood – nobody else is getting this land.”
Eastern Notes: Oubre, Watson, Sloan, Johnson
Kelly Oubre is off to a rough start in his first preseason action, but despite their status as an upper-tier Eastern Conference team, the Wizards view this year’s No. 15 overall pick as a long-term project, writes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post.
“He’s a young kid, a rookie, first time out, and he’s learning,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. “And I love his attitude. He hasn’t put his head down. He hasn’t, I’m sure, got off to the start that he would want to get off, in terms of numbers and how he’s playing. But he’s out there fighting. He hasn’t put his head down or anything like that so that’s a good thing. And he’s in here every day. He’ll be in here tomorrow ready to get better.”
See more from the Eastern Conference:
- The Magic had tried multiple times years ago to try to acquire C.J. Watson, and while new coach Scott Skiles wasn’t around for those attempts, recommendations from two of his assistants have him excited about the backup point guard who signed with Orlando this summer, as John Denton of Magic.com chronicles. “We just felt like his ability to shoot the three and play behind Elfrid [Payton] would be good for us because he’s always been a solid, heady player,’’ Skiles said. “A couple of our coaches – Adrian Griffin has had him before and Mario Elie has been around him and they swore by the kind of person that he was. We were able to go and get him and we’re glad to have him.’’
- Judging by their relative performances and playing time so far, Donald Sloan appears to have the edge on Ryan Boatright for the third point guard job on the Nets, observes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Sloan’s partial guarantee is $50K and Boatright’s is $75K.
- Four of the five rookies among those Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders singles out as the most impressive so far in the preseason hail from the Eastern Conference, including Stanley Johnson of the Pistons, who leads all rookies in preseason scoring even though he was a surprise pick at No. 8 overall.
Battle For Roster Spots: Pacific Division
Hoops Rumors will be taking a team-by-team look at the battles for regular season roster spots going on around the NBA this month, the last before rosters shrink from the offseason limit of 20 to the 15-man regular season maximum. Last week, we checked out the five Northwest Division franchises, and now we’ll do the same for the Pacific:
LAKERS
12 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Jordan Clarkson — $845,059; Anthony Brown makes smaller salary this year but has 2016/17 fully guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Metta World Peace
- Jabari Brown
- Tarik Black
- Robert Upshaw — $35K partial guarantee
- Marcelo Huertas
- Jonathan Holmes — $100K partial guarantee
- Michael Frazier — $50K partial guarantee
Analysis: An intriguing battle is going on for the purple-and-gold, who boast a mix of veterans and intriguing undrafted players among their camp invitees. Black, who made 39 starts last year, including 27 after joining the Lakers, seems like as safe a bet as any to stick. Huertas, a 32-year-old Brazilian point guard who comes by way of Spain, has impressed his teammates, but a strained right hamstring has kept him from seeing any preseason action. World Peace admits he’s not in shape but the team likes his mentorship of Julius Randle. Holmes would appear to have an economic advantage, given his partial guarantee is twice as large as anyone else’s. Upshaw offers high potential, but he carries baggage, too. The guess here is that Black, Holmes and either Upshaw or World Peace make it to opening night, but much remains up in the air.
CLIPPERS
14 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Branden Dawson — $525,093)
Non-guaranteed players
Analysis: The Clippers would appear to have the one of the simplest camp battles in the entire league, with one open regular season spot and two players gunning for it. Hayes and Mbah a Moute have divergent games, with girth and muscle the hallmarks of Hayes’ career so far while Mbah a Moute’s attack is built more on athleticism. It could come down to the qualities the Clippers feel they need as opposed to the level of performance from either. They’ve seen roughly equivalent preseason playing time so far. It would cost the Clippers less than $1MM in cap hits to cut one of Dawson, Pablo Prigioni or Josh Smith if they wanted to keep both Hayes and Mbah a Moute, but that seems unlikely, especially since the Clippers are a tax team.
KINGS
14 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Duje Dukan — $525,093)
Non-guaranteed players
- Eric Moreland — $200K partial guarantee
- David Stockton
- Marshall Henderson — $35K partial guarantee
- Vince Hunter — $35K partial guarantee
Analysis: The Kings are notoriously hard to predict, but the organization seems to like Moreland, having signed him as an undrafted free agent last year and again this year a few weeks after waiving him to avoid guaranteeing his full salary. Vlade Divac has replaced Pete D’Alessandro as the top decision-maker in the front office since Moreland’s first signing, but he nonetheless wound up with a partial guarantee several times larger than anyone else on the team for this year’s camp. He leads all Kings camp invitees in minutes per game so far this preseason. Neither Henderson nor Hunter has made his way into a preseason game yet, suggesting their $35K partial guarantees were designed as enticements for them to sign with Sacramento’s D-League affiliate after an end-of-preseason cut from the NBA roster.
SUNS
13 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Ronnie Price — $947,276)
Non-guaranteed players
- Kyle Casey
- Cory Jefferson
- Henry Sims
- Terrico White
Analysis: Jefferson and Sims, both of whom were on NBA rosters all of last season, would appear to have the inside track on Casey and White, neither of whom has ever played an NBA regular season game. Sims, especially, seems in a strong position, having started 32 games for the Sixers in 2014/15. Jefferson is little more than a year removed from having been the final pick of the 2014 draft, though he cracked double-digit minutes per game, at 10.1, last year with the Nets. Both Sims and Jefferson can play power forward, as can Casey, though Phoenix’s need at that position is unclear with Markieff Morris having apparently gone back on his trade demand.
WARRIORS
13 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Brandon Rush, $1,270,964; Kevon Looney makes smaller salary this year but has 2016/17 fully guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Chris Babb
- Ian Clark
- Ben Gordon
- Jarell Eddie
- James Michael McAdoo — $100K partial guarantee
- Tony Mitchell
- Juwan Staten
Analysis: Steve Kerr is fond of McAdoo, and despite Kerr’s absence, McAdoo’s status as the only returning player among the seven Warriors without fully guaranteed salaries and his partial guarantee, the only one on the team, puts him in strong position. Golden State wants to add another shooter, and all but Mitchell offer at least some skill in that area. Clark, Gordon and Babb are the only ones to see preseason action so far, though Clark, Gordon and Eddie have sizable chunks of salary that lock in if they make the opening night roster, a financial disadvantage if the taxpaying Warriors want to have some flexibility early in the season.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
The Beat: Jerry Zgoda On The Timberwolves
Nobody knows NBA teams better than beat writers, save for those who draw paychecks with an NBA owner’s signature on them. The reporters who are with the teams they cover every day gain an intimate knowledge of the players, coaches and executives they write about and develop sources who help them break news and stay on top of rumors.
We at Hoops Rumors will be chatting with beat writers from around the league and sharing their responses to give you a better perspective on how and why teams make some of their most significant moves. Last time, we spoke with Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer about the Sixers. Click here to see all the previous editions of this series.
Today, we gain insight on the Timberwolves from Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. You can follow Jerry on Twitter at @JerryZgoda, and check out his stories right here.
Hoops Rumors: In what way will the absence of Flip Saunders most profoundly affect the Timberwolves?
Jerry Zgoda: In every way, probably. He’s not only head coach and president of basketball operations, but he owns a small piece of the team, too. Probably the most powerful non-majority owner in the league and the guy who put this roster together with a vision. Now it’s up to GM Milt Newton and coach Sam Mitchell to carry on. The most interesting thing to watch is the older guys – Flip went and signed Kevin Garnett, Andre Miller, Tayshaun Prince to mentor what he has called the Young Pups and they still have Kevin Martin, too – now that Mitchell has said again that the team’s future is two, three years down the road. Hence his decision announced already to start Zach LaVine over Martin, at least for now. Some Wolves fans understandably are tired of always waiting for three years down the road.
Hoops Rumors: Trade rumors about Ricky Rubio popped up on occasion during the offseason, though Rubio, Saunders and Newton all seemed to do their best to bat them down. Do you think that either Rubio or the team will push for a trade between now and the deadline in February?
Jerry Zgoda: And play who there? They’d trade him if they could upgrade at the position and get more of a scoring point guard, since the league has really gone that way with the likes of Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, Derrick Rose, John Wall, etc., etc. But don’t believe it if you hear they’re going to trade him because they signed Andre Miller and traded for rookie Tyus Jones on draft night. That’s nonsense. If they could swing a deal – probably would have to be a three-team trade – and get a guy like Eric Bledsoe, they’d probably do that. But something like that is unlikely at this point, at least until Rubio (injured again these first couple weeks) shows he can stay healthy.
Hoops Rumors: What are the chances we see the team’s other two mid-career veterans, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic, on the block at some point this season?
Jerry Zgoda: Pekovic is virtually untradeable. They would if they could, but who’s going to take three years left on his contract at nearly $36MM owed? Their best hope probably is to get him back on the court for games by the New Year and hope he can give them 20-25 minutes a night, off the bench. If he can stay on the court, he’s valuable or at least he becomes tradeable at some point.
One of two things will happen with Martin: Either they trade him by February before he opts out next summer on the final year of his contract, or they decide he’s good enough at what he does – efficient scorer, best three-point shooter on a team that really lacks them – to keep either as a reserve or starter. But it’d take some kind of contract extension to keep him here. Otherwise, he opts out and signs elsewhere for next season.
Hoops Rumors: What went wrong with Anthony Bennett? What made the Wolves conclude that they were better off with a buyout after he’d spent only one season in Minnesota and two in the NBA?
Jerry Zgoda: Well, for starters he never should have been the No. 1 overall pick. That created unrealistic expectations. But forget that. He couldn’t stay healthy and when he was, he wanted to stay outside and prove he could shoot and they want him to go to work inside and do more of the dirty work. No question he has major talent. I wouldn’t have traded him, but they were already so loaded at that spot: they have Euroleague MVP Nemanja Bjelica, Adreian Payne (who they still owe Atlanta a first-round pick for) and Gorgui Dieng, Karl-Anthony Towns and Damjan Rudez all can play there, too. And that’s not even counting KG. Bennett’s agent wanted him out of there and in Toronto, so the Wolves saved $2MM-plus on the deal and it cost Bennett a little more than $1MM to get out of Minnesota and back home. It was arrangement both sides consider mutually acceptable, but will the Wolves regret the decision someday? Probably.
Hoops Rumors: Speaking of former No. 1 overall picks, Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns have no shortage of potential. Aside from them, which of the other young Wolves has the best chance to become a star?
Jerry Zgoda: The Wolves are hoping LaVine is that guy. No doubt he has great athleticism and an underrated shot. But he’s got a whole lot of learning to do. He struggled big time trying to learn point guard as a rookie and now has been moved to shooting guard, but there he’s going to have to learn to play without the ball in his hands all the time. Another guy you shouldn’t sleep on is Shabazz Muhammad. He got himself in great shape coming into camp and could get himself into the Most Improved Player conversation as a scorer off the bench if he can stay healthy. He might have gotten there last year if he hadn’t missed the season’s last six weeks or so.
Hoops Rumors: Do you think the Wolves have any true aspirations of contending for a playoff spot this season, or is the focus solely on player development for now?
Jerry Zgoda: No, not if they’ve already given a starting job to LaVine. That message seems to be clear: They’re in it for another high lottery pick this season and the hope their young guys progress like Kevin Durant and Westbrook did that season the Thunder started 3-29 and then started to grow into what they are today.
Pelicans, Greg Smith Deal Nixed
11:59pm: The sides had a signed contract, and the Pelicans voided it, according to the RealGM transactions log.
9:30pm: Smith has failed his physical, which means the pending agreement between the two sides has been canceled, John Reid of The Times-Picayune reports.
2:29pm: The Pelicans are bringing aboard four-year NBA veteran Greg Smith, sources tell Scott Kushner for The New Orleans Advocate, who indicates that the big man has already put pen to paper on a non-guaranteed contract. The team has yet to make an official announcement, but the Pelicans yesterday revealed that starting center Omer Asik is set to miss three weeks with a right calf strain, and they’re also without backup center Alexis Ajinca for about four to six weeks as he deals with a strained right hamstring. The move will give New Orleans 19 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees, as our roster count shows.
Smith, 24, didn’t appear to generate much interest in free agency this summer after he saw little playing time for the Mavs, who didn’t re-sign him in spite of their need at center. He failed to impress in a workout last month for China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers, as international journalist David Pick reported. He’s spent most of his time in the NBA with the Rockets, who gave him 15.9 minutes per game in 70 contests, including 10 starts, during the 2012/13 season, but they waived him shortly before the 2014 playoffs. The Bulls snapped him up just days later and signed him to a deal that included a fully guaranteed 2014/15 season, but he never made it into a game for Chicago before a trade sent him to the Mavs.
The Pelicans focused on the backcourt with their camp invitees, as power forward Jeff Adrien had been the only frontcourt player without a full guarantee on the New Orleans roster. Shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones is the sole Pelican with a partial guarantee, as he’s assured of $50K, so Smith would appear to have a decent chance to hang around into the regular season.
Do you think the Pelicans should keep Smith into the regular season even if Asik is back for opening night? Leave a comment to tell us.
Hoops Rumors On Social Media/RSS
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Western Notes: Martin, Clippers, World Peace
The Timberwolves are planning to start Zach LaVine at shooting guard instead of Kevin Martin, even though interim coach Sam Mitchell admits Martin is better than Lavine is at this point, notes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. The team is focused on player development, and Minnesota believes LaVine will move past his on-court rookie mistakes from last season, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe examines. Lowe also speculates about a variety of potential trade destinations for Martin, though it doesn’t appear there’s any movement on that front for now, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities tweets. The Mavericks, who were reportedly among the teams interested in him around the trade deadline in February, have backed off, Wolfson adds (via Twitter link).
- Metta World Peace says he turned down an offer from the Clippers in the summer of 2014 before he signed to play in China last season, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News relays. He reportedly worked out at the Clippers practice facility that summer, but Clips coach/executive Doc Rivers appeared to downplay the idea that his team was eyeing World Peace for a late-season deal. “In China, I had to get my game back,” World Peace said. “Doc asked me to come to the Clippers. I told him, ‘I’m going to China first. When I come back, I’ll come to the Clippers.’ I want to get my game back on.”
- World Peace never did play with the Clippers, instead signing a non-guaranteed deal with the Lakers, who’ve allowed him to fulfill his wish for a reunion with Kobe Bryant, even if it’s only for training camp, Medina notes in the same piece. “Kobe is the main reason why I worked so hard in the last couple of years,” said World Peace, who, despite that work, admits he’s not in shape. “I always wanted to come back and play with Kobe. I remember playing with Kobe, the sacrifices he made, playing hard, making unbelievable shots and showing unbelievable fundamentals. People can say he’s selfish all they want. But in the game, he’s so fundamentally sound. That’s tough to be fundamentally sound under all that pressure.”
Battle For Roster Spots: Northwest Division
Hoops Rumors will be taking a team-by-team look at the battles for regular season roster spots going on around the NBA this month, the last before rosters shrink from the offseason limit of 20 to the 15-man regular season maximum. First, we’ll check out the five Northwest Division franchises:
JAZZ
13 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Grant Jerrett — $947,276; Raul Neto makes smaller salary this year but has 2016/17 fully guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Jack Cooley
- Bryce Cotton
- Treveon Graham — $75K partial guarantee
- Christapher Johnson
- Elijah Millsap
- J.J. O’Brien — $75K partial guarantee
- Jeff Withey — $200K partial guarantee
Analysis: Utah’s opening night roster is tough to predict. Withey ostensibly seems as safe a bet as any among the seven without full guarantees, given his $200K partial guarantee and his status as a recent former second-round pick. Graham and O’Brien have partial guarantees, too, but theirs seem more like enticements to sign with Utah’s D-League affiliate after an end-of-preseason release from the NBA roster. The guess here is that Cotton gets the nod, since the Jazz only have two other healthy pure point guards, but the team could go in a different direction if it decides it’s OK with Alec Burks handling some point guard duties.
NUGGETS
15 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Mike Miller — $947,276; Nick Johnson makes smaller salary this year but has 2016/17 fully guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Erick Green — $100K partial guarantee
- Matt Janning
- Oleksiy Pecherov
- Devin Sweetney
Analysis: Green was a second-round pick in 2013 and Denver signed him just last year, so it’s somewhat surprising the Nuggets put the squeeze on him when they inked Miller, whom the team almost certainly won’t release. The Nuggets don’t have anyone among their 15 full guarantees whom they’d owe less than $1.5MM in the event of a waiver, so it would appear that if Green is to make the regular season roster, a trade will have to take place.
THUNDER
15 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Andre Roberson — $1,210,800; Josh Huestis makes smaller salary this year but has 2016/17 fully guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Michael Qualls
- Julyan Stone
- Dez Wells
- Talib Zanna
Analysis: No real competition exists here, as no obvious cut candidate exists among the 15 fully guaranteed players. Stone, the only camp invitee with NBA regular season experience, holds some intrigue, but he, like the other three with non-guaranteed contracts, seems destined for the Thunder’s D-League team.
TIMBERWOLVES
15 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Andre Miller, Tayshaun Prince, tie — $947,276)
Non-guaranteed players
- Lorenzo Brown — $75K partial guarantee
- Kleon Penn
- Nick Wiggins
Analysis: The Wolves made it easier on themselves when they completed a buyout deal with Anthony Bennett, since they had 16 full guarantees prior to that. It would be odd to see them waive either Miller or Prince, since they just signed them this summer, or offseason trade acquisition Damjan Rudez, who has the next lowest amount of guaranteed money coming his way, so Brown, a holdover from last season and 2013 second-round pick, is in a tough spot. He probably saved his spot on the camp roster when he adjusted the amount of partially guaranteed money that was to kick in on certain offseason dates. His contract originally called for him to have locked in $375K if he were still on the roster at this point, a price Minnesota likely wasn’t willing to pay. The affiliate of the Pistons owns Brown’s D-League rights, further complicating any future he might have with the Wolves organization.
TRAIL BLAZERS
12 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Allen Crabbe — $947,276; Pat Connaughton makes smaller salary this year but has 2016/17 fully guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Cliff Alexander — $100K partial guarantee
- Tim Frazier
- Omari Johnson
- Luis Montero — $100K partial guarantee
- Phil Pressey
Analysis: So much is unsettled in Portland, and that extends to the opening night roster. The partial guarantees to Alexander and Montero give them an advantage, but $100K isn’t much, and if either of them fails to impress this month, it wouldn’t be a shock to see them hit waivers. Frazier is averaging 19.4 minutes per game in the team’s two preseason contests thus far, and he has incumbency on his side. Pressey’s right behind him with 18.7 MPG, and he looked sharp at times the past two seasons with the Celtics. The playing time that Frazier and Pressey are getting might be the product of a desire on the part of the team to see if one or the other distinguishes himself, since they’re both point guards, and the Blazers already have Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum at the position.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Southwest Notes: Parker, Anderson, Lawson, Mavs
Tony Parker has let the Spurs know that he wants another three-year deal when his three-year extension that kicks in for this season expires in 2018, as the point guard said to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. That would give him 20 years in the NBA, and after that he’d be ready to retire, Parker told Spears, adding that he’s confident he’ll have a bounceback season after struggling last year.
“It’s very rare for any player in any sport – soccer, football, baseball – to play their whole career with the same team,” Parker said. “So it would definitely mean a lot to me to do like David Robinson and Timmy [Duncan] and Manu [Ginobili]. It would be great to be a part of the history of being with the same team. My time will come soon. But I definitely want to enjoy my last years in the NBA.”
Parker also mentioned to Spears that he sought advice from Steve Nash this summer about how to sustain his body. See more from around the Southwest Division:
- Ryan Anderson is entering a contract year and thinks the arrival of new Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry will be beneficial for him, as the stretch four explained to Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. “His up-tempo pace is perfect for this group, and it’s great for me personally,” Anderson said. “[We’re] able to spread the floor, play naturally and go with the flow of the game rather than being really precise and running specific plays or getting over-organized and over-thinking things. There are players that can do a lot of different things and we want to take advantage of that. I think I fit into that category, that there’s a lot of things that I can do in this offense. We’re pushing it up the floor and pushing the pace. That’s good for me.”
- James Harden finished second in MVP voting last season, but the Rockets traded for Ty Lawson in part to change Harden’s role in the offense in a way that Harden called for prior to the deal, as Jonathan Feigen writes for Bleacher Report. “With Ty, I think we can take the ball out of [Harden’s) hands, let him play off the catch, let him play a little more free, not having so much ball responsibilities. I think that will help him. I think he’s harder to guard like that,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “We talked about that. That was kind of our goal.”
- The Mavericks are at a potential turning point for their franchise as they slip farther from the elite, and even Dirk Nowitzki admits, as he enters his age-37 season, that the team doesn’t have a superstar anymore, observes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
Jury Clears Thabo Sefolosha
A Manhattan Criminal Court jury found Thabo Sefolosha not guilty on all three charges levied against him for his involvement in an April incident with New York City police, tweets Robert Silverman of The Daily Beast. The Hawks swingman faced up to a year in jail, as Rebecca Rosenberg of the New York Post noted this week, on charges of misdemeanor obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The April scuffle left Sefolosha with a broken leg that prematurely ended his season and limited the Hawks in the playoffs, where a 60-win Atlanta team fell in the Eastern Conference Finals. Sefolosha expects to be 100% recovered in time for the season, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution relayed at the start of training camp (Twitter link).
The verdict allows Sefolosha and the Hawks to put the incident behind them, though it’s possible that Sefolosha will file a civil suit against the police, whom he claims unlawfully injured him, as Michael McCann of SI.com posited. Sefolosha sought to clear his name as he rejected a plea deal that would have seen the charges dismissed and punishment limited to a single day of community service, Rosenberg points out. Prosecutors earlier dropped their case against former Hawks big man Pero Antic, who was with Sefolosha at the time of the incident. Antic signed with Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey this past summer.
Hawks coach and president of basketball operations Mike Budenholzer took the stand in Sefolosha’s trial, testifying to the character of the now 31-year-old whom the Hawks acquired via sign-and-trade in 2014, as Danny Knobler passes along in a story for the Journal-Constitution. Sefolosha’s contract calls for him to make $4MM this season and $3.85MM next season, all of it guaranteed.
“All teams do things differently, but character is our most important thing,” Budenholzer said under oath. “Thabo was someone I personally very much wanted and sought. I felt he was exactly the type of person and player we wanted in Atlanta, that I wanted in Atlanta.”
Then-Pacers combo forward Chris Copeland, who has since signed with the Bucks, was stabbed outside the same club on the same night that Sefolosha and Antic were arrested. Prosecutors alleged that the arrests took place when Sefolosha and Antic would not move away from the crime scene after police asked them to do so six times, but sources told Greg Hanlon of SI.com that Sefolosha and Antic were walking back to a car that was to take them to their team hotel when an officer began to chase after them, leading to the arrests.