Eastern Notes: Lin, Novak, Mayo, Vasquez, Jefferson
Jeremy Lin was convinced he would sign with the Mavericks for the room exception this past summer, as he told Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk, but Dallas turned away when DeAndre Jordan reneged on his commitment to the Mavs, leading the point guard to turn to the Hornets instead. “Charlotte came out of nowhere,” Lin said. “Had I known it was going to go down the way it went down, I would’ve definitely planned things a little differently.”
Lin enjoys his Hornets teammates, but no guarantee exists that he’ll be back with them next season, since he can opt out of his contract. No team gave a higher percentage of its minutes after the trade deadline to players who can hit free agency this summer, Feldman points out, but Charlotte has been successful because of an unusual bond between the players, as Feldman details. Al Jefferson conceded that he probably wouldn’t have accepted a reduced role during a contract year if he were younger but said he’s never been on a team quite like this one in Charlotte.
See more from the Eastern Conference:
- Steve Novak wants to re-sign with the Bucks after a brief, injury-shortened time in Milwaukee this season, and coach Jason Kidd indicated that the feeling is mutual as the team seeks to improve its shooting, notes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Novak is a guy we thought was going to help in that [shooting] department,” Kidd said. “Hopefully we can re-sign him. We liked what he did briefly on the floor, but we also enjoyed what he did for us off the floor, even being hurt. That’s what a vet does. We would all love to have him back. That kind of threat is what we need as a team to have any kind of success.”
- Gardner suggests in the same piece that the Bucks want to move on from O.J. Mayo and Greivis Vasquez but have better regard for Jerryd Bayless. All three will hit free agency in July.
- Richard Jefferson‘s contribution in Game 1 was subtle but important and showed the value of his signing this past offseason for the Cavaliers, observe Michael Beaven and George Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal.
Atlantic Notes: Walton, Carmelo, Brown
Knicks team president Phil Jackson took to Twitter this morning to address reports regarding Luke Walton and the Knicks coaching job, writing, “Press accounts of coaching actions are untrue. Nobody has been asked nobody said no.” Marc Berman of the New York Post reported Sunday that the Knicks had interviewed Walton, and while Frank Isola of the New York Daily News confirmed that Jackson and Walton spoke by phone, it would be a stretch to call it an interview, Isola said (Twitter links). Walton told Jackson that he isn’t interested in the job as of now, according to a league source who talked to Isola (Twitter link), but Berman hears the Warriors assistant hasn’t completely ruled out the idea of taking the New York gig. Still, Berman calls Walton “a big long shot” to take the job.
See more on the sought-after Walton amid news from the Atlantic Division:
- Walton interviewed for the Nets job and pulled out of the running for that before Brooklyn hired Kenny Atkinson on Sunday, league sources told Berman. Walton appears to be leaning toward staying with the Warriors for next season but is nowhere near a decision, one league source said to Berman.
- Carmelo Anthony is concerned that the Knicks front office and ownership are more focused on simply making the playoffs rather than building a championship-caliber squad, Berman writes in a separate piece. “What’s successful for us?’’ Anthony said. “That’s the question you have to ask ourselves as a whole organization. Not just winning another 15 games like we did this year and playing for the eighth seed. Is that success? Or is being a top seed in the Eastern Conference, a top team in the NBA? Winning a championship is always the ultimate success. We have to put things in perspective. What’s success mean to this organization? A championship for me is always the ultimate success — not us slotting in and barely getting into the eighth seed. That’s not success for me. Having prominence in the postseason. That’s success.’’
- Sixers coach Brett Brown is a major fan of Nicolas Batum and would also like to see Philadelphia acquire a stretch four, according to Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, who looks at ways the team with the league’s worst record can improve.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Xavier PF Jalen Reynolds Will Remain In Draft
APRIL 17TH, 6:54pm: Reynolds will remain in the draft and has hired Mike Silverman and Brandon Grier of Athlete Management Group as his agents, according a Facebook post from Shams Charania of The Vertical.
MARCH 29TH, 3:03pm: Xavier junior power forward Jalen Reynolds will enter the draft without an agent, sources told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). He’ll have the chance to return to college ball if he withdraws before the May 25th deadline. That seems likely, as Reynolds is a long-shot NBA prospect, coming in just 161st overall on Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. He’s outside the top 100 with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, who simply lists him as the 21st best junior.
Reynolds only averaged 19.6 minutes per game despite starting in all but two of his appearances this season, in part because of foul trouble. He led the Big East with 115 personal fouls. Still, the 6’10” 23-year-old made the most of his time on the boards, pulling down 6.5 per contest to go with 9.6 points per game. He had one of his best outings in Xavier’s season-ending loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament, notching 13 points and nine rebounds.
Teammate Trevon Bluiett is also reportedly testing the draft waters this year. Unlike Bluiett, Reynolds entered Xavier unranked in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, so he’s less likely to have been on the radar for NBA teams.
Kings Get Lift As Drawings Break Ties For Draft
The Kings were the most significant winners and the Bulls the biggest losers as the NBA resolved ties for the draft order in a drawing today shown on NBA TV and NBA.com. Sacramento won a three-way drawing that gives the team the eighth spot in the lottery order, meaning three teams from the bottom four in the lottery would have to beat long odds and move into the top three for the Kings to fall out of the top 10. The Bulls would get Sacramento’s pick if that happened, but it’s tough to envision that coming to pass, since none of those teams has more than a 3% chance to move up. The Kings could have fallen to 10th in the drawing, meaning only one of the bottom four teams would have had to move up for the Bulls to get the pick. The pick will be top-10 protected again next year, but if the Bulls don’t get it then, they’ll instead receive Sacramento’s 2017 second-rounder.
The NBA has a complex set of tiebreakers for playoff position, but when two teams tie in the draft order or for lottery position, the league leaves it to random drawings. The order is now set for picks 15 through 60. The lottery, set for May 17th, will determine the top 14 picks, as always.
The NBA essentially splits the lottery odds among teams that tie for those positions, though in many cases an even split is impossible. In those cases, a slight edge will go to the team that wins the drawing. The drawing results are reversed for the second-round order, so the teams that end up with better position in the first round have less favorable second-round position.
There were four ties this year. Two were simple and involved only a pair of teams each. The Celtics, who inherited the Mavericks’ pick via the Rajon Rondo trade, won a tiebreaker with the Grizzlies for No. 16, while the Pistons won a tiebreaker with the Nuggets, who previously traded for the Trail Blazers’ pick, for No. 18.
Sacramento won a three-team draw with the Nuggets and Bucks to get the eighth position in the lottery, and Denver then won a draw against Milwaukee for the ninth lottery slot. Most complex of all was a four-team tie involving the Hawks, Hornets, Celtics and the Sixers, who acquired the Heat’s pick through an earlier trade. Atlanta won a draw involving all four teams for the 21st pick, and the Hornets then beat the Celtics and Sixers for No. 22. Boston won out over Philadelphia for No. 23, sending the Sixers to No. 24.
Here’s a look at the first-round draft order as it will stand going into the lottery:
Lottery order and odds of landing top pick
1. Sixers — (could send pick to Kings; see note 1 here) — 25%
2. Lakers — (could send pick to Sixers; see note 2 here) — 19.9%
3. Celtics (via Nets) — 15.6%
4. Suns — 11.9%
5. Timberwolves — 8.8%
6. Pelicans — 6.3%
7. Knicks (will send pick to either Nuggets or Raptors; see note 5 here) — 4.3%
8. Kings (could send pick to Sixers or Bulls; see note 7 here) — 1.9%
9. Nuggets (could send pick to Raptors; see note 6 here) — 1.9%
10. Bucks — 1.8%
11. Magic — 0.8%
12. Jazz — 0.7%
13. Wizards (likely to send pick to Suns; see note 8 here) — 0.6%
14. Bulls — 0.5%
Remainder of first round
15. Nuggets (via Rockets)
16. Celtics (via Mavericks)
17. Grizzlies
18. Pistons
19. Nuggets (via Trail Blazers)
20. Pacers
21. Hawks
22. Hornets
23. Celtics
24. Sixers (via Heat)
25. Clippers
26. Sixers (via Thunder)
27. Raptors
28. Suns (via Cavaliers)
29. Spurs
30. Warriors
Second round
31. Celtics (via Sixers)
32. Lakers
33. Clippers (via Nets)
34. Suns
35. Celtics (via Timberwolves)
36. Bucks (via Pelicans)
37. Rockets (via Knicks)
*38. Bucks
*39. Pelicans (via Nuggets)
*40. Pelicans (via Kings)
41. Magic
42. Jazz
43. Rockets
44. Hawks (via Wizards)
45. Celtics (via Grizzlies)
46. Mavericks
47. Magic (via Bulls)
48. Bulls (via Trail Blazers)
49. Pistons
50. Pacers
51. Celtics (via Heat)
52. Jazz (via Celtics)
53. Nuggets (via Hornets)
54. Hawks
55. Nets (via Clippers)
56. Nuggets (via Thunder)
57. Grizzlies (via Raptors)
58. Celtics (via Cavaliers)
59. Kings (via Spurs)
60. Jazz (via Warriors)
* The order of picks 38 through 40 depends on the lottery. The Bucks’ second-round pick and the second-rounders originally belonging to the Nuggets and Kings will go in the reverse order of the picks originally belonging to each team in the first round.
Pacific Notes: Scott, Russell, Karl, Clippers
Lakers coach Byron Scott struck a defiant tone in his end-of-season interview with the media today, lashing out at his critics, defending his approach with the team’s young players and saying that he “absolutely” believes he’ll be back to coach the team next season, even though he conceded GM Mitch Kupchak hasn’t given him any assurances. Skepticism has surrounded his long-term job security much of the season, but reports in recent days indicate Scott has a strong chance to stick around. Primary owner Jeanie Buss is making the case for Scott behind the scenes, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com heard. Scott said he thinks the team’s young players responded well to his communication style, which was often blunt and drew the ire of fans and the media. “To be honest with you, I‘m much smarter than all of them when it comes to basketball,” Scott said of his detractors. Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com, Bill Oram of the Orange County Register and Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News relayed Scott’s remarks (All four Twitter links).
See more from the Pacific Division:
- The controversy surrounding D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young hurt the Lakers, Scott said, citing the trust issues it created, and while he said the two players have to work it out among themselves, he also expressed belief that the passage of time will help smooth out the situation, as Medina and Los Angeles Times scribe Eric Pincus relay (Twitter links). Still, Scott is high on Russell, Pincus tweets. “We love that kid,” Scott said.
- George Karl, whom the Kings fired Thursday, has already been in contact with UNLV about its coaching job, and mutual interest exists between Karl and the school, which initiated the dialogue Thursday night, reports Dan Wolken of USA Today. The UNLV job is once more open after Chris Beard left Friday for Texas Tech less than two weeks after taking the Vegas job, Wolken notes.
- The Clippers are exploring the idea of starting a D-League affiliate in Bakersfield, California, for next season, sources tell Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor. A void exists in Bakersfield, as the Suns this week announced they bought out the local owners of the D-League Bakersfield Jam and are moving their affiliate to Arizona, but the Bakersfield owners, Stan Ellis and David Higdon, are reportedly eager to partner with another NBA team. D-League president Malcolm Turner said the league would help them in that pursuit, Reichert notes. The Clippers are one of eight NBA teams remaining without a D-League affiliate. Startup costs would run an estimated $7MM, according to Reichert.
Hawks Plan Max Offer For Al Horford
The Hawks plan to offer the maximum salary to Al Horford when he becomes a free agent this summer, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed on the CSNNE.com Celtics Talk podcast Thursday in advance of Atlanta’s first-round playoff series against Boston (audio link; scroll to 17:10 mark). That’s no surprise, though whether the Hawks are prepared to make a full five-year max offer to the big man who turns 30 in June remains to be seen.
Atlanta likes rim protection at the center position, but other teams like him for his floor-stretching capabilities, Vivlamore observes. Horford reportedly places a high priority on signing for five years, which he can only do with the Hawks, but just about every other team in the league is nonetheless eyeing him, Vivlamore says, mentioning the Cavaliers, Raptors and Celtics specifically. Vivlamore makes similar remarks in a video with CineSport’s Noah Coslov on the Journal-Constitution site.
The Magic and Horford apparently share a mutual interest, but the Jason Glushon client enjoys playing in the Atlanta system, according to Vivlamore, who believes his fondness for Atlanta’s schemes will play a role in his decision. Vivlamore pegs the chances of Horford re-signing with the Hawks at 90%.
The starting salary in a max deal for Horford, a ninth-year veteran, will be around $25MM, with a salary cap expected to be at least $90MM. The Hawks, with close to $52MM in guaranteed salary already committed, would have a tight squeeze to re-sign fellow soon-to-be free agent Kent Bazemore if they bring back Horford at the max, since they only have Bazemore’s Early Bird rights. The swingman is poised for an outsized payday after a breakout season.
Horford is No. 5 in the latest 2016 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, one spot ahead of Atlanta native Dwight Howard. Kris Willis of Peachtree Hoops discussed Horford’s free agency with Hoops Rumors in an interview we posted earlier today.
Top Bloggers: Kris Willis On The Hawks
Anyone can have a blog about an NBA team, but some set themselves apart from the rest with the dedication and valuable insight they bring to their craft. We’ll be sharing some knowledge from these dialed-in writers on Hoops Rumors with a feature called Top Bloggers. As with The Beat, our ongoing series of interviews with NBA beat writers, it’s part of an effort to bring Hoops Rumors readers ever closer to the pulse of the teams they follow. Last time, we spoke about the Magic with Zach Oliver, managing editor of SB Nation’s Orlando Pinstriped Post. Click here to see the entire Top Bloggers series.
Next up is Kris Willis, managing editor of SB Nation’s Peachtree Hoops, a Hawks blog. You can follow Kris on Twitter at @Kris_Willis. Click here to check out his stories.
Hoops Rumors: The Hawks can open up approximately $20MM in cap room if they let Kent Bazemore walk as a free agent this summer. Bazemore is certainly in line for a decent raise over the $2MM he earned this season, which means Atlanta will have a difficult call to make. Do you think the team should re-sign him, and if so, how much will it need to pony up to keep him?
Kris Willis: There are a lot of similarities in Kent Bazemore’s situation and that of DeMarre Carroll‘s last offseason. Unfortunately for the Hawks, it could play out the same way with Bazemore signing a more lucrative deal elsewhere. Atlanta values its continuity, so I am sure they would like to keep Bazemore. However, the asking price is going to be high and that may limit what the Hawks can do in other areas to improve the club. Since Bazemore is on the final year of a two-year deal, the Hawks don’t have full Bird rights. Re-signing him will mean cutting into a good portion of what cap space they will have available.
Carroll ended up getting around $15MM a season. I still don’t have a good feel for what the cap explosion is going to mean for contracts. I have seen things that suggest that Bazemore could get anywhere from $12-15MM annually which to me seems high and may ultimately lead the Hawks to go searching for the next Kent Bazemore.
Still I think there is interest from both sides to keep him in Atlanta. If the Hawks do invest heavily in Bazemore, I’d like to see him playing more at the shooting guard position with the team bringing in a bigger option to help at small forward.
Hoops Rumors: Both Dennis Schröder and Jeff Teague are under contract for two more seasons. Which point guard should the team focus on retaining and building around? Why?
Kris Willis: Next to Al Horford‘s free agency, I expect this to be one of the biggest storylines of the offseason. The Hawks were rumored to be gauging the value of both players at the trade deadline. While Teague and Schröder are a solid one-two punch for the team, this is an area of strength and might be a way the team can shore up deficiencies in other areas.
Teague has been the engine that drives the Hawks for the last two seasons. He was an All-Star in 2015 and was the driving force behind the team’s good play down the stretch this season. He is still young enough to have some value but is going to be looking for a big contract when his current deal expires at the end of next season.
I think the smart choice is to pick Schröder, whose upside is higher than Teague’s and is currently a younger and cheaper option. He has been inconsistent at times, but he may not realize his potential playing as a backup. The Hawks could opt to deal him as well, but his smaller salary will limit the return. At any rate, this is an area of strength that the Hawks have, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see one of Teague or Schröder dealt this summer.
Hoops Rumors: Horford’s numbers this season are remarkably similar to what he put up in 2014/15, which is a positive omen as he heads into free agency this offseason. Given the expected salary cap surge and likely competition from other teams, should the Hawks break the bank if necessary to keep him, considering big men don’t traditionally hold up well once they enter their 30s and he turns 30 in June?
Kris Willis: I have felt for a while now that this summer will be a pivotal offseason for the Atlanta Hawks franchise. The biggest decision they have to make is what to do with Horford. I have no doubts that he is going to get a max offer, and if Atlanta wants to keep him, that is most likely what it is going to take. His value goes beyond the stats. He is still today the single most important player on the team and is the team’s anchor on the defensive end of the floor. If the Hawks don’t keep Horford, then they are going to take a sizeable step back next season, and I have argued that it would be time to clear the deck if that happened.
Still, is it smart to pay max money to a big man who will be 30 in June? Probably not, but if the team wants to continue to retool on the fly and maintain their recent success, I think that it is likely that they will give Horford whatever it takes to keep him.
Hoops Rumors: The draft-night trade for Tim Hardaway Jr. didn’t quite pay off for the Hawks this season as he was buried on the bench for much of the year. What are your thoughts on the trade, given the benefit of hindsight, and what can Atlanta expect from the swingman next season?
Kris Willis: I was intrigued with the move on draft night simply because I wanted to know what Mike Budenholzer and Wes Wilcox saw in Hardaway that the rest of us didn’t. I was very high on Bobby Portis in last year’s draft, but it was pretty obvious that the Hawks weren’t blown away by anyone.
Hardaway has had an interesting season. I thought he’d likely get multiple chances early simply because they paid such a high price to acquire him, but he opened the season on the inactive list and had to earn his way on the court. The results, particularly in the second half of the season, have been positive.
I think it is still kind of hard to say if it was the right move or not, but I believe Hardaway will have the opportunity to play a much bigger role for the team next season.
Hoops Rumors: The Hawks are one potential destination for Dwight Howard, especially if Horford departs as a free agent. Would Howard be a good fit in Atlanta, and if not, whom should the team target in the event Horford doesn’t re-sign?
Kris Willis: The Dwight Howard rumors were circulating around the trade deadline but I never bought into them very much. I think Howard would be a very risky investment due to his age and his injury history. Horford has been hurt as well, but Howard has had issues with his back and knee, and I think that raises a few more red flags.
Some in Atlanta clamor for a more traditional center, and Howard’s presence alone would help with the Hawks’ rebounding issues. However, I question the fit offensively and think the risk is too high to heavily invest in a player like Howard.
Hoops Rumors: Venturing into the purely hypothetical for a moment, if you were given the opportunity to reverse one decision (signing/draft pick/trade) the Hawks have made over the past three years, what would you change?
Kris Willis: There are a couple of things that come to mind. When Danny Ferry signed Paul Millsap and Carroll to short two-year deals, we celebrated the contracts for the value and the flexibility. However, it turned out that both players outperformed the deals to such a degree that the team couldn’t keep both due to not having their full Bird rights. I don’t know if it was possible to get either Millsap or Carroll on a longer deal but that would have made a big difference last offseason and would have likely kept a 60-win club together.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this interview.
Chinese Center Zhou Qi To Enter Draft
11:30am: Zhou remains under contract with his Chinese team for at least one more season with no NBA buyout clause, Pick tells Hoops Rumors.
10:34am: Chinese center Zhou Qi will enter this year’s draft, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical. Tony Leng, a representative for the 7’2″ 20-year-old, confirmed the news to international journalist David Pick, who hears Alex Saratsis of Octagon will serve as Zhou’s NBA agent (Twitter link). Opinions are split on Zhou’s potential, with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress pegging him the 28th-best prospect in this year’s draft while Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks him only 68th.
Zhou averaged 15.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocks in 34.2 minutes per game for Xinjiang Guanghui in the Chinese Basketball Association this season. The same team featured current and former NBA players Andray Blatche, Andrew Goudelock and Bryce Cotton, and several NBA teams saw Zhou in action, Pick notes (Twitter link). He had two points, three rebounds and two blocks in just over 12 minutes of play at last year’s Nike Hoop Summit, a premiere showcase that pits international talent against top U.S. high schoolers.
No guarantee exists that Zhou will remain in the draft, as international early entrants can withdraw as late as June 13th, since they don’t have to worry about NCAA eligibility. By NBA rule, he wouldn’t become automatically eligible for the draft until 2018, the year he turns 22. However, NBA scouts have questioned Zhou’s age, with some saying he’s already 22 and others saying he’s 24, as Pick reported in February (Twitter link).
Oregon SF Dillon Brooks To Test Draft Waters
FRIDAY, 7:36am: Boucher won’t enter the draft “as of now,” Oregon coach Dana Altman told Goodman, but Brooks confirmed to the ESPN.com scribe that he’ll test the waters.
THURSDAY, 3:22pm: Oregon junior power forward Chris Boucher and sophomore small forward Dillon Brooks will enter this year’s draft but hold off on hiring agents, sources told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Boucher is listed as a senior in some places, but Oregon has him down as a junior, so it appears the community college transfer has one year of eligibility remaining. He’s the 63rd-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings, though he’s outside the top 100 for Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. Brooks is just No. 175 in Ford’s listing, but Givony classifies him as a 2017 prospect and has him 37th in his 2017 mock draft. Both forwards will be able to return to school as long as they don’t hire agents and withdraw by May 25th.
Boucher, a 6’10” 23-year-old, averaged 12.1 points and 7.4 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game this year during his first season of Division I college ball. He displayed a touch of range, nailing 33.9% of his 3-pointers on three attempts per game. Brooks had almost precisely the same accuracy from 3-point range, hitting on 33.8% of his 3.7 attempts per contest, though that isn’t quite as impressive for a small forward. The 6’7″, 20-year-old Brooks compiled averages of 16.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.3 turnovers.
Both prospects came to Oregon from Canada, though Boucher is originally from Castries, St. Lucia. Neither appeared in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index top 100 as they came out of high school.
Wizards Notes: Grunfeld, Dudley, Wittman
Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld will head the team’s search for a new coach in the wake of Randy Wittman‘s dismissal today, as Grunfeld told reporters, a remark that appears to remove lingering doubt about the executive’s future with the team, observes J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Earlier reports conflicted about Grunfeld’s job security, though he’s under contract through next season.
See more from Washington, where the Wizards reportedly have strong interest in Scott Brooks and others, as we passed along in our Wittman story.
- Wizards players concluded that they couldn’t rely on the team’s coaches when they held a players-only meeting in January that veteran Jared Dudley organized, and Dudley criticized the coaching staff’s lack of adjustments in March, Michael notes, suggesting Wittman changed Dudley’s role in retaliation.
- John Wall wants to see the Wizards re-sign soon-to-be free agents Dudley, Alan Anderson and Garrett Temple, Michael writes in a separate piece. Anderson is enthusiastic about a new deal with the team, and while Dudley is open to returning as long as Wittman isn’t around, he’s looking for the security of a long-term contract, according to Michael, who speculates Dudley is unlikely to be back.
- The partial guarantee on Wittman’s salary for next season is $500K, sources tell Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (Twitter link), so the Wizards are still responsible for paying that much to the fired coach.
- Wittman issued a statement in which he said he believes the team is headed in the right direction as he thanked the organization for the opportunity to coach, as Castillo relays via Twitter.