Nuggets, Magic Plan To Target Billy Donovan
The Nuggets and Magic plan to target Billy Donovan among other candidates in their respective offseason coaching searches, and the University of Florida coach has an increasing desire to jump to the NBA, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It’s likely that other teams that make coaching changes this year will go after him, too, Stein adds. Rick Pitino, a longtime Donovan confidant, said on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike show today that he believes Donovan feels the pull of the pro game, backing up a growing sentiment around the league that he’s ready to pounce on the right NBA opportunity, according to Stein.
“I don’t recommend it for college coaches to do that unless they know what it’s all about,” Pitino said. “I take someone like Billy Donovan. I think Billy has looked at it, I think he has an urge to coach in the NBA — a strong desire to coach in the NBA — and would like to try it, very similar to Brad Stevens, who is doing a wonderful job with the Celtics. I think people like that with that type of personality will do very well. … If Billy doesn’t do well, he can go back to college. Brad Stevens can go back to college. When you get to be our age, Tom [Izzo] and my age, where are you going back to? The McBurney’s YMCA on 37th Street or 34th Street? If you’re happy where you’re at, it’s a good place to stay.”
Donovan this past December signed a deal that extended his contract with the Gators through 2020 and lifted his average annual salaries from $3.7MM to slightly more than $4MM, according to Kevin Brockway of The Gainesville Sun. He can escape the contract, which makes him the fifth most well-paid coach in college basketball, with a buyout of just $500K, though a one-month window to leave Florida for free just lapsed, as Brockway details. Donovan’s contract didn’t allow him any NBA outs from 2007/08 through 2012/13, a penance for having briefly left the school to take the Magic coaching job in 2007, when he quickly reneged on that decision, as Stein points out.
Donovan indicated this past May that he wouldn’t rule out coaching in the NBA someday, shortly after he said that he had contact with a couple of NBA teams last year. Reports indicated those were the Cavaliers and the Timberwolves, who, according to Stein, made “serious overtures.” Donovan’s Gators went an uncharacteristic 16-17 this season, a year after a Final Four appearance. The coach, who turns 50 next month, has a history of producing high-level NBA talent. No college has produced a greater number of NBA players presently making $10MM or more per year than Florida has, as we pointed out last month, and all of them played for Donovan.
Update On Traded 2015 First-Round Picks
The regular season is down to its final two weeks, and as teams clinch playoff spots and seedings, the draft order is solidifying in much the same way. The final order won’t be set until the NBA’s draft lottery on May 19th, but plenty will be determined by the end of the regular season. That includes the fate of some of the traded first round picks that have protection attached to them.
The Rockets have clinched a playoff berth, which means the Lakers have clinched the rights to Houston’s first-round pick this year. Similarly, it’s already mathematically impossible for the Celtics to receive the first-round picks that could have come their way from the Sixers and Timberwolves, and the Nuggets won’t be getting the Grizzlies’ pick this year.
Likely outcomes are apparent for all but two of the protected first-round picks that were liable to change hands this year, though the Sixers are the would-be beneficiaries of two picks that remain squarely in limbo. The next two weeks will determine whether Oklahoma City’s pick goes to Philadelphia, and the same is true for the Heat’s pick if they make the playoffs. If Miami doesn’t, the lottery will likely decide whether Philly gets that pick.
Our Reverse Standings help you follow the action on a day-by-day basis. The protection attached to each pick that has been traded is outlined at the bottom of the standings. Today, as we’ve done a few times since the start of the season, we’re taking a closer look. The traded first-round picks that involve protection are listed below and categorized by the relative likelihood of the picks going from team to team.
Tossups
Team: Thunder (42-33)
Pick traded to: Sixers
Protection: Top 18
Current position: tied for 18th
Team: Heat (34-40)
Pick traded to: Sixers
Protection: Top 10
Current position: tied for 15th
Traded picks likely to change hands:
Team: Pelicans (40-34)
Pick traded to: Rockets
Protection: Top 3 and 20-30
Current position: 14th
Traded picks that will change hands:
Team: Rockets (51-24)
Pick traded to: Lakers
Protection: Top 14
Current position: tied for 27th
Traded picks likely to stay put:
Team: Mavericks (46-29)
Pick traded to: Celtics
Protection: Top 3 and 15-30
Current position: 22nd
Team: Kings (26-48)
Pick traded to: Bulls
Protection: Top 10
Current position: 6th
Team: Lakers (20-54)
Pick traded to: Sixers
Protection: Top 5
Current position: 4th
Traded picks that will stay put:
Team: 76ers (18-58)
Pick traded to: Celtics
Protection: Top 14
Current position: 3rd
Team: Timberwolves (16-59)
Pick traded to: Celtics
Protection: Top 12
Current position: 2nd
Team: Grizzlies (51-24)
Pick traded to: Nuggets
Protection: Top 5 and 15-30
Current position: tied for 27th
Additional notes:
- The Clippers will send their first-round pick to the Celtics regardless of finish, since there’s no protection on the pick. It’s the No. 26 selection as it stands now.
- The Hawks have the right to swap picks with the Nets, and since Atlanta has already clinched a better record than Brooklyn, the exchange is set to take place. Brooklyn, which is currently tied for the 15th spot in the draft order, is poised to send that pick to Atlanta, which occupies the 29th spot.
- The Heat’s pick is listed in the tossups category even though there’s a five-spot difference between their position and the protected range because they’re separated from the Hornets, who are in the 10th spot, by only two games. By contrast, the Lakers are likely to keep their top-five protected pick even though they have only the fourth worst record because their 20-54 mark is six games worse than the 26-48 mark that the Kings, current occupants of the No. 6 spot, have compiled.
- To see what happens to traded picks that aren’t conveyed this year, check out the database of traded picks by round that Mark Porcaro compiled for Hoops Rumors. It runs down the protection on each pick through 2021.
Kings Sign Sim Bhullar To 10-Day Contract
THURSDAY, 11:01am: The deal is official, the Kings announced.
WEDNESDAY, 1:23pm: The Kings are about to sign Sim Bhullar to a 10-day contract, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). He’ll be the first NBA player from India, as Stein points out, and he’ll play for a team with the league’s first Indian owner, Vivek Ranadive. The Kings have been hoping that the massive 7’5″ center’s conditioning would improve so that they could see fit to bring him aboard, as Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee recently wrote. Sacramento has a full 15-man roster, but David Wear is on the last day of his 10-day contract.
Bhullar, like Wear, was with Sacramento during the preseason, and they both spent most of the year with Sacramento’s D-League affiliate. Bhullar has averaged 10.1 points and 8.6 rebounds in 25.5 minutes per game. He’s seen only 6.0 field goal attempts per game in the D-League team’s go-go offense, which helps explain a scoring output that’s below what most NBA-level prospects put up against D-League competition.
Scoring wasn’t his strong point in college, as the 22-year-old went undrafted out of New Mexico State last year, but he used his size to his advantage, recording 3.4 blocks per game for the Aggies last season. He’s swatted even more shots during his time in the D-League, averaging 3.8 BPG.
Atlantic Notes: Garnett, Robinson, Datome
Nets players aren’t saying so on the record, but they’re a looser, happier bunch since the team traded Kevin Garnett at the deadline, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. It’s an odd juxtaposition, since the Timberwolves made it clear that they brought him in with the idea that he’d be a positive influence on their locker room. The Nets, though they have a number of young pieces, are more a team of veterans than the Wolves are, so that seems as plausible an explanation as any for the split opinions. While the KG-less Nets look to secure a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, here’s more from their Atlantic Division rivals:
- Thomas Robinson has bounced around quite a bit since he became the No. 5 overall pick in 2012, but with unrestricted free agency looming in the summer, he hopes he’s found his niche with the Sixers, and he tells Andy Jasner of Sixers.com that he’s “all in” with the team. “I’m getting a lot of minutes and the coaching staff has shown incredible trust in me,” Robinson said. “I know we haven’t won a lot of games here, but I’m getting my chance. To get this kind of opportunity is a great feeling. I want to be as consistent as possible and hopefully be able to stay here for the long term.”
- Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge was unsure a month ago of how soon-to-be free agent Gigi Datome fit into the team, but it sounds at this point like coach Brad Stevens is sold, notes Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. “He’s our best shooter, and one of the better shooters I’ve seen,” Stevens said. “I hope we can continue to find opportunities for him, because he’s earned that. I really like him. I’m in his corner, and I’ve had that conversation with all of our people in the front office as well.”
- Sixers rookie Nerlens Noel clarified earlier remarks he made about Ish Smith that seemed to serve as an indictment of Michael Carter-Williams, as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer relays. “Nah, I’d never do that,” Noel said of the idea he would take a cut at his former teammate. “He’s a playmaker. There are times when you need a scoring point guard that’s going to get in the lane, create and make scoring opportunities.” Noel’s numbers are up since the team traded Carter-Williams at the deadline and claimed Smith off waivers two days later, Pompey notes.
Chris McCullough Plans To Enter Draft
Syracuse freshman power forward Chris McCullough plans to enter this year’s draft, sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM. That’s somewhat of a surprise, since McCullough tore his ACL in January. Chad Ford of ESPN.com lists him as the 43rd-best prospect, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress is already looking ahead to 2016 for him, listing him 21st in his mock draft for that year.
McCullough’s apparent decision is reminiscent of Spencer Dinwiddie‘s choice to enter last year’s draft after suffering a torn ACL in January 2014. The Pistons took Dinwiddie 38th overall, and he’s averaged 13.4 minutes per game in 38 appearances for Detroit this season. Still, he was a junior in college and had a longer track record of success than McCullough has. McCullough was 19th in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index coming out of high school, but he failed to average double figures in points across 16 games with Syracuse before the injury, notching 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in 28.1 minutes per contest.
The 20-year-old began the season with a more prominent role than he was playing at the time of his injury, and his best performance probably came in November against eventual NCAA Tournament No. 7 seed Iowa, when he had 20 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Syracuse and coach Jim Boeheim have a long track record of producing NBA players, though the recent big men to come out of the school haven’t been stellar, with Hakim Warrick, Fab Melo, Donte Greene and Arinze Onuaku perhaps the most prominent names.
Draft Notes: Jackson, Towns, Okafor
Draft decisions among underclassmen have been coming at a fast pace this week, and we’re tracking all of them with this post. The draft is still nearly three months away, but there’s plenty of focus on it already around the league. Here’s the latest:
- North Carolina freshman small forward Justin Jackson will remain in school rather than enter the draft this year, as he revealed via Instagram (hat tip to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress). Chad Ford of ESPN.com had him listed as the 37th best prospect, though he indicated in a chat with readers Wednesday that he was in line to go in the late first round. Givony already has him slotted at No. 19 on his 2016 mock, so it looks like he stands to gain from another year with the Tar Heels.
- Karl-Anthony Towns has surpassed Jahlil Okafor as the top prospect in Ford’s and Givony’s rankings, but It’s not as if Towns has become the consensus top pick amongst NBA teams, Ford also writes in the chat. A slight majority of teams have Towns on top, according to Ford, and scouts are “praying” that Kentucky and Duke meet in the NCAA final so the two can match up. It’ll probably come down to which player is better in the context of the team picking first, Ford believes.
- An NBA executive who spoke with Zach Braziller of the New York Post agrees with the assessment that the choice between Okafor and Towns is a matter of which player is a better fit for the team with the No. 1 pick. Still, you couldn’t go wrong with either, the exec added.
Northwest Notes: Aldridge, Durant, Contracts
LaMarcus Aldridge feels as though the Blazers didn’t always support him the way they do now, as he explains to Michael Lee of The Washington Post. The soon-to-be free agent, who pledged this past summer to re-sign with the Blazers in the offseason ahead, wonders what it would have been like if he felt they were behind him for his entire career, and if the team still finds him expendable on some level.
“It’s bittersweet,” Aldridge said of his ascendance to a superstar level with the Blazers. “I think God has a plan for everybody. Maybe my plan wasn’t to be loved right away. My role was a little tougher than other franchise players, but it happens. I think it helped me build character and not take anything for granted. I know that I had to really earn it, so it makes me appreciative. It also makes me wonder how easily they can move on, too.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- Kevin Durant recently said perhaps his most encouraging words to date for the Thunder regarding his free agency in 2016, but the matter of which team he’ll sign with remains far from decided, observes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
- The three year, minimum salary deals that Chris Johnson and Jack Cooley inked with the Jazz contain no guaranteed salaries beyond this season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link).
- Tim Frazier‘s two year deal with the Blazers calls for him to make $845,069 for the 2015/16 campaign, and includes no guaranteed salary beyond this season, Pincus tweets.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Lakers Waive Steve Nash, Re-Sign Jabari Brown
The Lakers have waived Steve Nash and re-signed Jabari Brown, the team announced via press release. The team refers to its contract with Brown as a multiyear deal. Brown had been with the Lakers on two 10-day contracts thanks to the hardship provision, which allowed the Lakers to carry him even though they already had 15 players. The league hands out an extra roster spot for only 10 days at a time, and with the team unable to sign Brown to anymore 10-day deals, the Lakers are clearing Nash, who’s already announced his retirement, from the roster.
The team will still pay out Nash’s $9.701MM salary for this season, barring the thoroughly unlikely outcome that another team claims him off waivers. However, there’s little added cost with Brown’s deal, since it has to be merely a prorated minimum-salary arrangement. The lack of any other way aside from the minimum-salary exception to sign Brown means it’s a two-year deal for him, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times points out (Twitter link). Next season’s salary is non-guaranteed, according to fellow Times scribe Mike Bresnahan (on Twitter).
Nash hasn’t played the entire season because of nerve issues that resurfaced during the preseason, and 41-year-old has said that the only reason he delayed his announcement, which didn’t take place until last month, was so the Lakers could use his contract as a trade chip. The team didn’t end up trading him, even though the Lakers reportedly offered him to the Celtics as part of a Rajon Rondo package, and the two-time MVP drew scorn from Lakers fans as he was an infrequent presence around the team during the first half of the season. He also lost fans when he said he was sticking around this season in large measure just so he could collect his salary. Nash was a landmark acquisition for the Lakers in 2012, but his body failed to allow him to live up to his three-year deal worth more than $27.9MM.
Brown, a college teammate of fellow Laker Jordan Clarkson, was with the Lakers during the preseason and spent most of 2014/15 with L.A.’s D-League affiliate. The 22-year-old Brown performed well on his 10-day deals, averaging 9.4 points in 24.5 minutes per game across 10 appearances, and he made 11 out of 24 total three-point attempts.
Mavs Don’t Plan Bidding War For Rajon Rondo
The Mavericks would like to re-sign Rajon Rondo, but there’s a limit to just how much they’re willing to pay him, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. The soon-to-be free agent point guard is expected to ask for more than Dallas wants to give up, and the Mavs wouldn’t compete with other teams that float more lucrative offers, MacMahon writes. That stance could change if Rondo excels in the playoffs, as he’s done in the past, though Rondo acknowledged to MacMahon that he isn’t sure how he’ll perform in the postseason, since he hasn’t played a playoff game since 2012.
Rondo shied away from talk about his free agency this summer in his chat with MacMahon, but he did speak of a need for more time to adjust to his teammates following the December trade that brought him to the Mavs after he’d spent his entire career with the Celtics. The 29-year-old’s production has been off this season for both Boston and Dallas, as he’s averaged 8.9 points per game, his lowest output since he was a rookie. That scoring has increased somewhat since the trade, but his assists, a healthy 10.8 per contest in 22 games prior to the deal, have dropped to 6.4 APG since, and overall he’s dishing fewer dimes on a nightly basis than in any season since 2007/08. His PER with the Mavs is 11.7, which would be a career-worst if extrapolated over an entire season.
Rondo has expressed a willingness to re-sign with the Mavs, even after a public tiff with coach Rick Carlisle. League sources told Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders around midseason that it was unlikely that teams would give Rondo a full maximum-salary contract this summer, though Kyler cautioned that it might just mean they would be willing to give Rondo a short-term max deal. The Lakers have long been likely to pursue the former All-Star, with executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss apparently a fan, just like Kobe Bryant, who’s made no secret of his attempts to recruit Rondo to L.A. The Lakers were reportedly among the teams that made runs at trading for Rondo before the Mavs landed him, a group that also included the Rockets, Nets, Kings, Knicks and Pacers to varying degrees.
Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Knicks, Amundson
Nerlens Noel raised some eyebrows Monday when he complimented Ish Smith seemingly at the expense of former teammate Michael Carter-Williams. The Sixers big man appeared to double down on that Tuesday when Tom Moore of Calkins Media asked him whether he thought the departure of Carter-Williams helped him develop.
“I think there’s a lot more fluidity in the game,” Noel said. “I think there’s more balance. Guys are getting more shots. The ball’s not sticking and guys are having fun playing. When you’re out there having fun, you feel like you can do anything on both ends of the court. … Even when we need a basket, guys know they can get a shot because the ball’s not going to stick, he said. If they’re wide open, it’s going to be given [to them]. When you know you have an opportunity to be a part of the offense and just all-around, it’s just a lot more fun.
Noel has called for the Sixers to re-sign Smith, but while he may have cemented a role as a backup, Smith is an unrealistic option as the team’s point guard of the future, writes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Members of the Knicks front office expect team president Phil Jackson to make changes among their ranks as soon as the coming offseason, and that feeling predates the team’s D-League coaching move, as Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com hears.
- Journeyman Louis Amundson had started seven games in his career before he joined the Knicks, who’ve given him 31 starts in 33 appearances. Unsurprisingly, Amundson tells Jonah Ballow of Knicks.com (video link) that he wants to re-sign with the team when his contract expires this summer. “I think Phil knows, we’ve talked a bit about it, I really appreciate the opportunity they gave me here, and I would love to be here,” Amundson said. “I would love to be a Knick next season. I know they have a lot of decision-making to do, so I’m going to leave that to them, but I think they know that I would love to be here.”
- The lack of a one-to-one D-League affiliate for the Raptors has, at least to a degree, slowed the development of Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira, argues Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. Still, GM Masai Ujiri is working on establishing one that he’d prefer to be close to Toronto, Smith notes, adding that it would cost the Raptors about $6MM to set up the arrangement.