Draft Notes: Hernangomez, Cauley-Stein, Holmes
Today’s the big day for teams in the lottery, as the drawing takes place tonight. Check out the odds that each team ends up in each position, and read our Hoops Rumors Glossary item on the lottery for a glimpse at how it works. As we wait to find out who wins, here’s the latest on the draft:
- Overseas draft entrant Guillermo Hernangomez, also known as Willy Hernangomez, is likely to play for Real Madrid in his native Spain next season, according to the Spanish outlet Marca (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The 6’11” center is the No. 45 prospect in this year’s draft as Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks them, and he’s No. 49 with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. He can withdraw from the draft by June 15th or stay in and either become a draft-and-stash selection or go undrafted.
- Willie Cauley-Stein took an unusual path, staying at Kentucky for three years. A lottery prospect this year, he feels the extra college experience gave him a leg up, as he tells Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. “[Playing more than one year there] helped me a lot mentally,” Cauley-Stein said. “I’m now one of the older dudes in this draft, which is cool. I went through a lot at Kentucky, so staying there another year didn’t do anything but make it better for me to enter the draft now.” Dana Gauruder of Hoops Rumors profiled the center on Monday.
- Richaun Holmes wasn’t on the NBA radar as recently as six weeks weeks ago, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in an Insider-only piece, but his stock has risen fast, and Ford believes he did enough at the combine last week to get drafted. The power forward from Bowling Green spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors a few weeks ago.
- Ford, in the same piece, lists former Kentucky combo guard Andrew Harrison as a prospect who helped his cause at the combine and twin Aaron Harrison, a shooting guard, as one whose stock fell. John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com seconds the notion that Andrew Harrison impressed at the combine amid his insights from the event.
Clippers Notes: Rivers, Roster Plans, Paul
Doc Rivers‘ failure to improve his bench last offseason was the biggest reason why the Clippers squandered a 3-1 series lead to the Rockets, Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk opines. Fatigue and a lack of quality role players contributed significantly to their collapse and that falls on Rivers, who holds the dual role of coach and president of basketball operations, Helin continues. Spending the team’s entire mid-level exception on Spencer Hawes, who fell out of the rotation late in the regular season, was a mistake. That killed their chances of a Paul Pierce-Rivers reunion, while Rivers’ other offseason signings — Jordan Farmar, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Jared Cunningham and Ekpe Udoh — made no impact, according to Helin. Along with re-signing DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers need more depth to take the next step, Helin concludes.
In other news involving the Clippers:
- Rivers acknowledged to Sam Amick of USA Today the challenge the Clippers face to upgrade their roster with limited resources, given their constraints against the cap. “I want to fix it,” Rivers told the USA Today scribe. “I want to win. That’s why I came here. I knew when I came here that roster-wise it was going to be very difficult. The first thing I did before I took this job, I looked at the roster and we laughed. I was like, ‘What the [expletive] can we do with this?’ It was more the contracts. But we have to try to do it somehow. I don’t know how yet, but something will work out.”
- The Clippers could open some flexibility via trade, but Rivers seemed to indicate a preference for keeping the core together, as Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com relays. “You don’t rule out anything, but I like our group,” Rivers said. “I really do. Teams that have stuck it out, in the long run if you look at sports history, have done better than teams that have blown it up. We’re really close, clearly. It might be a defensive guy; it might be one more guy. I don’t know yet.”
- Rivers affirmed he has no desire to overhaul the roster since the team was so close to making the Western Conference Finals, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times tweets.
- Trading Chris Paul would allow Blake Griffin to expand his game, refresh the team’s talent base and give it a new identity, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report speculates. The team gets overly emotional and loses its composure in the most difficult of situations and a radical step might be needed to change that dynamic, Ding concludes.
Clippers Want New Deal With Austin Rivers
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers would like to re-sign son Austin Rivers this summer, as Doc made clear during his end-of-season press conference and as Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com relays. Doc Rivers said he regretted putting up resistance to GM Dave Wohl‘s urging that he trade for Austin Rivers this past summer before finally allowing Wohl to win him over in January, when the Clips acquired him from the Celtics in a three-team trade with the Suns.
“People who want to criticize him don’t [realize he’s 22],” Doc Rivers said of his son. “That’s the way I always look at them. He’s young and he clearly helped us, I think we all have to agree with that. And I think he loved it here. I even think he liked the coach at times. You know, it’ll be interesting. I really want him back and I think it would be great to have him back and I think he’s a great fit for this team. But business is business and it’ll be an interesting thing this summer.”
Doc Rivers quipped that his son will be the easiest of the team’s free agents to re-sign since it would simply require putting in a call to Austin Rivers’ mom, but the Clips are financially hamstrung in part by a decision they didn’t make. Before the season, the Pelicans declined the team option on his rookie scale contract, worth $3,110,796, for 2015/16. New Orleans traded Austin Rivers to the Celtics, who flipped him to the Clippers, but the Clips are nonetheless barred from re-signing him to a contract with a starting salary of any more than that option amount.
Austin Rivers, who reportedly split with agent David Falk earlier this season, had his moments in the playoffs, but it’s nonetheless unclear if the former No. 10 overall pick would warrant a salary greater than what the Clippers could pay him. Still, Doc Rivers seemed to indicate Sunday in comments to Sam Amick of USA Today that his son is in the team’s long-term plans, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe observes (Twitter link).
“You’ve got to give [Chris Paul] just some more support, you know?” Doc Rivers said to Amick. “I think bringing Austin here helped us. We’ve got a 22-year-old [Austin], and now to me we’ve got to get another guard who’s in the middle age group. So now you’re growing with Austin and C.J. [Wilcox], and we need another defensive guy, too.”
Spurs Expected To Pursue Aldridge Before Gasol
The Spurs are widely expected to focus their attention on LaMarcus Aldridge first before turning their attention to fellow free agent target Marc Gasol, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The understanding as of two months ago was that Gasol would be San Antonio’s No. 1 target, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported then, though that was before a series of reports that made it clear that Portland’s star is strongly considering a move elsewhere. Stein indeed deems Aldridge as the more “gettable” free agent, though it’s not entirely clear whether San Antonio would prefer Aldridge over Gasol, all things being equal.
The Spurs are the team that Memphis fears most, Stein writes, cautioning that it’s premature to anoint San Antonio the most likely non-Memphis destination for the Spanish center given the expectation that the Spurs will attempt to woo Aldridge first. Most teams around the league predict that Gasol will wind up re-signing with the Grizzlies given his strong ties to the city of Memphis and his desire to win a title, according to Stein. Still, Gasol has given little precious little indication of his thinking, Stein notes.
The Knicks have long been linked to Gasol as a suitor, but former Knick and current Gasol teammate Beno Udrih recently posited that New York is out of the running. Many of Gasol’s comments about Memphis have made his love for the city undeniable, but Gasol in February refused to rule out the Knicks or any other team.
Memphis has Gasol’s Bird Rights and can give the 30-year-old a five-year deal with 7.5% raises, while other teams are limited to four-year contracts with 4.5% raises. Still, the expected leaps in the salary cap over the next couple of years stand to mitigate that advantage if the Arn Tellem client is confident he can still warrant maximum-salary consideration in another year or two. The Spurs will have the flexibility to make a maximum-salary bid on Aldridge, Gasol or another sought-after free agent this summer, but it may well require Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili to retire or take drastically reduced salaries, as I explained.
The Spurs believe they can sign Aldridge, who’s considering them as well as the Mavericks and a new deal with the Blazers, as Stein recently reported. The Knicks and Lakers are apparently planning to become Aldridge suitors, too, as are the Celtics.
Latest On Clippers, DeAndre Jordan
1:50pm: Rivers more or less confirmed that the Clippers will offer Jordan a max deal when asked at the team’s season ending press conference today, as Markazi relays (Twitter link).
“Yeah, I think I can say that,” Rivers said.
12:51pm: Reiter expands on the alleged rift between Jordan and Paul in a full story.
12:31pm: Jordan and Chris Paul have had a falling out this season, sources tell Bill Reiter of Fox Sports 1, who suggests it’s a factor that’s liable to sway the center to sign elsewhere (Twitter link).
9:16am: It’s “obvious” that the Clippers will do whatever it takes to retain DeAndre Jordan this summer, coach/executive Doc Rivers said postgame Sunday to reporters, including Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. The Clippers are expected to offer Jordan a five-year max contract, sources tell Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. It’ll take such an offer to bring him back, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, and chatter has persisted for a while that Jordan is anxious to move someplace where he wouldn’t be seen as the third cog, according to Sam Amick of USA Today.
“DJ loves us, but you’ve always got to be concerned,” Rivers said to Amick. “DJ would be great. We’ve got to try to do whatever we can. He’s obviously a free agent, and he has earned that right to be free. I don’t want to say much on it, but we love him.”
Jordan, who comes in eighth in the latest Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, has expressed through back channels that he’ll be “extremely interested” in signing with the Mavs this summer, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reported last month. The center, a Texas native, told Amick and USA Today colleague Jeff Zillgitt in March that the Clippers weren’t necessarily the favorites to retain him, despite their ability to offer five years and 7.5% raises while other teams, the Mavs included, are capped at four years and 4.5% raises. Still, in that same interview, Jordan called Rivers “my biggest supporter and the best coach I’ve ever had” and expressed his satisfaction with playing for the Clippers. Jordan said after Sunday’s loss that free agency wasn’t on his mind, as Woike notes.
“I’ve been here for seven years, so this is what I’m used to,” Jordan said Sunday. “But I’m not thinking about that, man. [The loss is] still so fresh tonight. It’s tough.”
Rivers cited Jordan’s affection for the franchise to Wojnarowski, injecting a level of optimism into the team’s pursuit to retain the defensive stalwart and league-leading rebounder, who’ll turn 27 in July.
“You can’t take anything for granted, but DJ loves being a Clipper,” Rivers said to Wojnarowski. “DJ loves being here. We have an amazing relationship.”
The Clippers are under pressure to re-sign Jordan, since they already have more than $58MM in guaranteed salary for next season against a projected $67.1MM salary cap. It would cost the Clips almost $6.72MM in salary that’s currently non-guaranteed to keep Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes under contract. All that means is that the team wouldn’t have the resources to come up with a center anywhere as valuable as Jordan if he were to walk.
Hawks Optimistic They’ll Re-Sign Paul Millsap
The Hawks are quietly optimistic about their chances to sign Paul Millsap when he hits free agency this summer, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today says on the A to Z podcast (audio link at 21:31 mark; hat tip to fellow USA Today scribe Sam Amick, on Twitter). Zillgitt and Amick implied in a January podcast that the sides had mutual interest in a return, and that jibed with comments that Millsap and acting GM Mike Budenholzer made earlier in the season. There is no such confidence from Atlanta with fellow soon-to-be unrestricted free agent DeMarre Carroll, as Zillgitt details, though there’s no indication that Carroll is leaning toward playing elsewhere, either.
Budenholzer said before this season that the team wanted to keep Millsap, and even though most of the 30-year-old’s numbers have either declined or held steady, it would seem surprising if the coach/executive’s stance had changed, particularly given Atlanta’s rousing success this year. Still, there’s uncertainty about whether Budenholzer will continue to have the final say with Tony Ressler leading a group that finalized a deal to buy the franchise last month, pending NBA approval. Millsap, a DeAngelo Simmons client, said in November that he intended to look at his options this summer but made it clear that remaining with the Hawks was his top choice.
Millsap signed a two-year, $19MM deal with Atlanta in 2013 and turned down the team’s offer of a four-year, $36MM contract with the thought that he’d have a better chance to secure a more lucrative deal this summer than he would two years from now, according to Zillgitt. It’s not clear whether Millsap is indeed better off hitting free agency this year, since the salary cap is projected to spike to $108MM by the summer of 2017, but it nonetheless suggests that Millsap is ready to cash in after having spent the past two seasons as a relative bargain.
The Hawks have Early Bird rights on Millsap and Carroll, so they won’t be able to go all the way to the max to re-sign either of them without using cap space to do so. Atlanta can go as high as $16.625MM with Millsap via Early Bird, while the most they could give Carroll using those rights will be 104.5% of this season’s average player salary, a figure that won’t be known until the end of the July Moratorium but which figures to come in around $6MM.
Wiggins, Mirotic, Noel Lead All-Rookie Teams
Andrew Wiggins was a unanimous All-Rookie First-Team selection, the league announced as it revealed the media voting results for the honors. Nikola Mirotic was the second-leading vote-getter, followed by Nerlens Noel, Elfrid Payton and Jordan Clarkson, all of whom comprise the first team. Marcus Smart, Zach LaVine, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jusuf Nurkic and Langston Galloway make up the second team.
Wiggins far outpaced all other contenders for Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 16.9 points in 36.2 minutes per game this season for the Timberwolves, who acquired the 2014 No. 1 overall pick in the Kevin Love trade. Minnesota, which finished with the league’s worst record this season and has a 25% chance to win the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, is the only team to place two players on the All-Rookie teams, with LaVine on the second team despite having garnered 22 first-team votes. Every member of the second team received at least three first-team votes.
Payton, the 10th overall selection, is the only first-round pick from 2014 to appear on the first team. Mirotic was a draft-and-stash selection from 2011, Noel was the sixth overall pick in 2013 but qualified as a rookie this season because he sat out all of 2013/14 with injury, and Clarkson was the 46th pick last year, having gone overlooked through all of the first round and half of the second.
Galloway made the second team despite having gone undrafted and not having made his debut until January 7th, after he had signed a 10-day contract with the Knicks. New York followed up with another 10-day deal and finally a multiyear pact for the surprisingly effective point guard.
Draft Notes: Upshaw, Russell, Payne, Young
Several NBA executives told Chris Mannix of SI.com they wouldn’t dare draft Robert Upshaw in the first-round, leading Mannix to conclude that it’s unlikely that any team guarantees the troubled center any salary. Two seasons of guaranteed salary come with the rookie scale contracts that go to first-round picks. People from three different teams with lottery picks told A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com that Upshaw would be a certain lottery pick if not for his troubles in the past, which have involved drugs, but none of those teams are willing to draft him that highly, Blakely adds. Upshaw, who tells Blakely that he’s working with Bill Walton, among other mentors, is 29th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings but 38th with Chad Ford of ESPN.com. Here’s more on the draft, which takes place just a week and a month from tonight:
- Multiple executives told Mannix for the same piece that they think D’Angelo Russell plans to accept workout invitations only from the teams that hold the top three picks. Mannix also cites multiple execs who told him that they believe former Kentucky sharpshooter Devin Booker will go within the top 10 picks.
- Cameron Payne, who spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors, is quickly lifting his stock, having become a strong candidate for the lottery, according to Mannix. Rakeem Christmas, J.P. Tokoto and Jordan Mickey were standouts in the five-on-five drills at last week’s combine, Mannix adds.
- Jabari Young of CSNNW.com adds the Blazers to the list of the teams that have interviewed Oregon shooting guard Joseph Young, and he’ll also be working out with Portland, as the CSNNW.com scribe has reported. Still, Young the writer suggests it’s nonetheless unlikely that the Blazers will end up drafting Young the player.
Clippers Interested In Wesley Johnson
The Lakers would love to lure DeAndre Jordan across Staples Center from the Clippers this summer, not surprisingly, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, and the Clips meanwhile have their eyes on convincing a Laker to switch sides. The Clippers, who are reportedly expected to float a max offer to try to retain Jordan, are also interested in swingman and soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Wesley Johnson, sources tell Shelburne.
Johnson, the fourth overall pick in 2010, has expressed a desire to remain with the Lakers, but he’s made it clear he’s seeking a multiyear deal as he hits free agency for the third year in a row. The Lakers are reportedly intrigued with his potential, but Johnson has struggled with inconsistency that Byron Scott has attributed to an issue “between the ears.” Johnson chalks up that inconsistency to a whirlwind of changing roles during his NBA career, but the Lakers are on the fence about retaining the 27-year-old who’s made 121 starts for the purple-and-gold over the past two seasons, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
The Octagon client averaged a career-high 9.9 points this past season, but even that demonstrates that Johnson has yet to live up to his lofty draft position. The Clippers aren’t set for significant cap room regardless of whether Jordan re-signs, and if the center does come back, the Clips would likely be limited to the $3.376MM taxpayer mid-level exception to sign anyone for more than the minimum. Johnson has made the minimum in each of his two seasons with the Lakers. The taxpayer mid-level limits teams to handing out three-year deals, while the Clips can’t give anyone more than a two-year deal with the minimum-salary exception.
The Clippers aren’t going to bring in another maximum-salary player, as coach/executive Doc Rivers acknowledged, according to Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com, but the Lakers certainly can, and they no doubt aim to do so. They’ve been linked to a laundry list of marquee names, from Kevin Love to LaMarcus Aldridge to Goran Dragic to Rajon Rondo, and it’s not clear exactly where Jordan would fall in the hierarchy of their priorities. Still, it seems as though the market will be strong for the third-place finisher in Defensive Player of the Year voting, whom the Mavs also reportedly plan to pursue.
Tom Thibodeau Rumors: Friday
The Bulls have been out of the playoffs for less than a day, but already plenty of rumors about Tom Thibodeau the future of their head coaching job are flying. We’ll round up today’s latest here, with any updates that come in added to the top:
- Chicago won’t even begin to discuss what compensation they would require in exchange for Thibodeau until a clear succession plan is in place, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reports. The Bulls want to find a coach who is not only the right fit, but also dynamic enough to justify letting Thibodeau out of his deal, Berger notes.
7:03pm update:
- Several NBA executives believe that the Bulls will have difficulty getting compensation in return for Thibodeau since teams are aware of the dynamic between the coach and front office, K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune tweets.
5:24pm update:
- The consensus opinion amongst rival NBA executives at the draft combine is that the split between Thibodeau and the Bulls is going to be a protracted, and possibly ugly affair, Chris Mannix of SI.com tweets. One executive likened the situation to a “game of chicken,” Mannix adds.
12:05pm update:
- Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck says that the same source who called Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry the favorite to succeed Thibodeau in Chicago expects a quick ending to the Thibs/Bulls drama, adding that the source pegs New Orleans as Thibodeau’s likely destination (Twitter link).
- If Thibodeau isn’t coaching in Chicago next season, he’ll most likely be coaching the Pelicans, a source tells Johnson, largely echoing what Beck heard (Twitter link).
10:17am update:
- Chicago will “absolutely” try to reap compensation for Thibodeau, with management viewing him as an asset, according to Johnson, who writes in a full piece. The Tribune scribe expects the Pelicans and Magic to request permission to talk with the coach and for the Bulls to grant that permission.
8:59am update:
- One source put it bluntly to Marc Stein of ESPN.com: “Thibs is gone. They know it and he knows it.” Most people around the league have similar feelings, Stein adds, having heard from one source who indicates that Thibodeau and GM Gar Forman have barely talked since November.
- The Bulls are optimistic about their chances to land Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg, in spite of his heart ailments, Stein also writes.
- Thibodeau won’t quit and walk away from the money in the remaining two years of his contract, a source close to him told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com Thursday night. That jibes with what K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune surmised last month when he wrote that he believed Thibodeau would stay if the choice were up to the coach.
- Derrick Rose is rumored to be in Thibodeau’s corner, and he essentially confirmed that Thursday, making it clear he backs the coach, as David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune relays. “It’s not up to me, but if it was, he would be back,” Rose said. Taj Gibson also said that he wants Thibodeau to stay, as Berger notes in his piece.
- Anthony Davis‘ “family and friends are already salivating at the idea” of Thibodeau joining the Pelicans, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says (video link). Stein, in his report, emphasizes that Thibodeau’s interest in New Orleans is strong. Still, Bucher suggests that Mike D’Antoni and Mark Jackson are other coaches who would meet with the approval of Davis, and the Pelicans know that Davis is an unassuming type whom they don’t have to keep in the loop as they navigate their coaching search, Bucher says. New Orleans is confident that if it makes the right choice, Davis will be on board, according to Bucher.