Top Bloggers: Ethan Rothstein On The Rockets
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 Sixers with Jake Pavorsky, who is the managing editor of SB Nation’s Liberty Ballers. Click here to see the entire Top Bloggers series.
Next up is Ethan Rothstein, the managing editor of SB Nation’s The Dream Shake, a Rockets blog. You can follow Ethan on Twitter at @ethanrothstein. Click here to check out his stories.
Kings Sign Vlade Divac To Extension
12:01pm: The extension is official, the team announced.
“My commitment to the Sacramento Kings goes back to my days as a player and I’m grateful to continue playing my part in creating a winning future for the Sacramento Kings,” Divac said in the team’s statement. “I know that we have what it takes to be a successful franchise and I look forward to continuing to improve and build on the progress that we’ve made.”
10:05am: The Kings are putting the finishing touches on a multiyear extension for Vlade Divac, who runs the front office as GM and vice president of basketball operations, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The team is also close to adding an experienced front office hand, with former Pacers and Bucks executive David Morway the leading candidate for that role, Stein adds. The team doesn’t have a deal with Morway yet, USA Today’s Sam Amick cautions, nonetheless suggesting that he’s the only candidate and that it’s only a matter of time before he joins the team (Twitter link). Presumably, he’d report to Divac.
It’s been a bumpy ride for Divac, who’s in his first job as an NBA executive, as he’s reportedly struggled to grasp salary cap concepts and the Kings have fallen short of their goal of the postseason this year. Ranadive has reportedly mulled replacing him with John Calipari on occasion, but the extension for Divac appears to cut off the idea that Calipari, who’s insistent on a dual coach/executive role, would join the organization. Divac decided against firing coach George Karl in February after nearly doing so, but the team is widely expected to search for a new coach this summer, Stein writes, pointing out that Sacramento hired Karl before bringing in Divac last year.
Turmoil surrounding DeMarcus Cousins has been the primary storyline for the Kings under Divac, with Karl reportedly going behind Divac’s back to negotiate potential trades, though Divac has insisted on several occasions that he doesn’t intend to trade the center. Divac and Cousins grew close, though Divac was enveloped in Cousins’ tirade against Karl earlier this month.
Divac’s time in the Kings front office appeared to begin innocuously when the team named him vice president of basketball and franchise operations a year ago. It wasn’t publicly known until a month later that Divac’s arrival usurped GM Pete D’Alessandro‘s player personnel power, though Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee noted when the hiring took place that Divac was above D’Alessandro on the organizational chart. Still, Divac and owner Vivek Ranadive were the only ones in the Kings brass who knew the implications of the move for a few days after it took place, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller reported.
D’Alessandro left the Kings this past summer for a job with the Nuggets, and assistant GM Mike Bratz has essentially been the only seasoned voice in the Sacramento front office since then. The Kings gave Divac the GM title in late August following the departure of D’Alessandro. Morway would bring more than a decade of experience under Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh in the Pacers front office as vice president of basketball administration and later GM. Morway resigned from the Pacers in 2012 and joined the Bucks as assistant GM in 2013, but Milwaukee declined to renew his contract last year.
It’s not the first time Morway has been connected to the Kings. He reportedly interviewed for the GM job in 2013 before it went to D’Alessandro. More recently, the Kings interviewed former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks for the role that Morway is apparently poised to fill, but Marks made it clear that the Kings job wouldn’t be a good fit for him, Amick tweets.
Rift Develops Between D’Angelo Russell, Teammates
11:58am: Russell didn’t mean for the video to become public, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) and Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding (video link). Russell posted the video to Snapchat and quickly deleted it, thinking no one would ever see it, according to Ding, but sources tell Kennedy that Russell’s Snapchat account was hacked.
8:44am: Lakers players are furious with D’Angelo Russell over what one team insider described as a prank gone wrong, report Baxter Holmes and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Teammates are ostracizing Russell, who recorded a private conversation in which Nick Young spoke about being with women other than his fiancee, the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, according to Holmes and Stein. It’s a disconcerting situation that builds on existing trust issues within the locker room, a team source told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com for the story.
Some within Lakers brass are upset with Russell, too, but they’ve left the matter to the players thus far, Holmes and Stein write. Coach Byron Scott has notoriously harped on Russell’s maturity, work ethic and attitude, and several team sources who spoke with Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News levied the same criticisms even before the video. Team officials see the video controversy as an example of the 20-year-old rookie’s immaturity, writes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, though a source told Bresnahan that Lakers players have been pulling pranks on each other throughout the season. Russell shot the video a couple of months ago, Bresnahan hears, but it didn’t surface publicly until the gossip website Fameolous.com posted it a few days ago.
Young and Russell were friends, with the swingman at times publicly sticking up for last year’s No. 2 overall pick, but sources who spoke with Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News believe the now-strained friendship is beyond repair. Young went out of his way to avoid crossing Russell’s path at Staples Center before Friday’s game, according to Medina. No Lakers would sit with Russell for a recent breakfast meeting, Holmes and Stein hear. Another time, Lou Williams stood up and walked away when Russell sat next to him in the locker room, according to Holmes and Stein.
Young hasn’t played in the last 10 Lakers games, though the two most recent absences were because he was suffering from gastroenteritis. The first eight were coach’s decisions, with the ninth-year veteran suffering through a career-worst season. He’s under contract through 2017/18, though he can opt out in the summer of 2017. Russell is in the first season of a four-year rookie scale deal.
Knicks, David Lee Spoke About Potential Deal
The Knicks and David Lee had talks about a would-be reunion while Lee was in the midst of a buyout with the Celtics earlier this season, as Lee said today to reporters, including Marc Berman of the New York Post and Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter links). Lee instead wound up signing with the Mavericks on a deal that gave him more than $2MM for the rest of this season. The Knicks, who are limited to the prorated minimum salary, couldn’t have paid him that much. Still, the veteran big man is poised to become a free agent this summer, when he’ll ostensibly have another chance to join the Knicks, the team for which he played his first five NBA seasons.
Lee was one of the players in an apparent trade proposal involving Carmelo Anthony that would have sent Lee from the Celtics to the Knicks last month. The Celtics and Lee’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, cooperated to try to find a new home for the two-time All-Star, but the buyout path proved more lucrative than a trade would have been. Lee gave up just $458,575 in the buyout, much less than Dallas is paying him on his new contract.
The thought of returning to the Warriors has crossed Lee’s mind, but he was ineligible to sign with Golden State during the buyout period because the team traded him to Boston just this past summer. He’ll be able to rejoin the Warriors as soon as July if he wants, but he recently told Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com that he’d moved past any thought of returning to the Bay Area, and he’s spoken on multiple occasions about his contentment with Dallas.
The Mavs will have only Non-Bird rights on Lee, sharply limiting their ability to go over the cap to re-sign him, though Dallas, like the Knicks, will have the chance to open plenty of cap room in the summer ahead. The same isn’t true of the Warriors, who already have $73MM in guaranteed salary commitments with Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli headed for restricted free agency.
Demetrius Jackson To Enter Draft
TUESDAY, 9:22pm: Jackson intends to hire an agent, Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com tweets. If Jackson does indeed secure representation, it would eliminate his ability to return to Notre Dame next season.
MONDAY, 7:58am: Notre Dame junior point guard Demetrius Jackson will enter his name in the draft but hold off on hiring an agent, as Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv confirms (Twitter link). Coach Mike Brey indicated as much after the Fighting Irish’s loss Sunday to North Carolina, though Jackson stopped short of stating his intentions, according to Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune (Twitter links). No final decision is due until May 25th, the deadline for early entrants to withdraw from the draft and retain their college eligibility.
Projections are split for the 21-year-old who ranks No. 11 in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress listings but just 25th with Chad Ford of ESPN.com. A shallow point guard crop and Jackson’s intriguing set of tools led to his high DraftExpress ranking, Givony tweets. Jackson no doubt helped himself Sunday when he scored 26 points against the top-seeded Tar Heels. He’s averaging 15.8 points, 4.7 assists and 2.2 turnovers per game, but it’s his capabilities, including his explosiveness, strength, scoring ability, playmaking and defense, that make the case for him rather than production, according to Givony and DraftExpress colleague Mike Schmitz.
Jackson’s numbers nonetheless steadily improved throughout his college career. He averaged just 6.0 points per game as a freshman after entering college as the No. 33 prospect in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.
UConn C Amida Brimah To Test Draft Waters
Connecticut junior center Amida Brimah has declared for the draft, league sources told Shams Charania of The Vertical. He has no immediate plans to sign with an agent, and he’ll retain his college eligibility as long as he doesn’t hire representation and withdraws by the May 25th deadline. Brimah is just 123rd in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress lists him at No. 57 in his 2017 mock draft. That lends credence to the idea that the 7’0″ 22-year-old will be back with the Huskies next season, though he’ll work to draw the attention of NBA teams this spring, Charania writes.
Brimah was second in NCAA Division I with 3.5 blocks per game during the 2014/15 season, but he swatted only 2.7 per contest this past season as his minutes declined and he fell out of the starting lineup. He nonetheless found a way to up his rebounding despite seeing less time on the court, but his 4.6 boards per game were still low, considering his size. The 7-footer blocked five shots and collected seven rebounds against Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, one of his better performances of the season.
He was outside the Recruiting Services Consensus Index top 100 coming out of high school in 2013, but he was still a part-time starter on UConn’s 2013/14 national championship team as a freshman. He went scoreless with four rebounds and one block in the title game that year.
Western Notes: Walton, Pelicans, Gallinari, Paul
Warriors assistant Luke Walton is reportedly poised to become a top candidate for the Knicks coaching vacancy, and the Lakers, Suns, Rockets and Kings are expected to target him, too, but former colleague Alvin Gentry thinks Walton still doesn’t gets the credit he deserves, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Gentry, now head coach of the Pelicans, was on Golden State’s staff last year with Walton, who inherited Gentry’s role as lead assistant and guided the Warriors to a 39-4 record while head coach Steve Kerr recovered from back surgeries. “Luke did an unbelievable job of managing egos, of rotations he played,” Gentry said. “Everything that happened there, he pushed the right buttons, so I was disappointed when people said anybody can coach that team. That’s not true at all. He has an unbelievable understanding of the game. I think [Knicks president] Phil [Jackson] knows that. [Luke] stayed in the league for a long time because of the basketball IQ he has. He gets along great with players. He’s going to be a terrific coach in the league – I really do think that.”
See more from the Western Conference:
- Jrue Holiday and Alonzo Gee are out for the rest of the season, which ends two weeks from Wednesday, the Pelicans announced. That means seven New Orleans players are finished for 2015/16. Holiday, who fractured his orbital bone, and Gee, who ruptured a right quadriceps muscle, join Anthony Davis, Quincy Pondexter, Eric Gordon, Bryce Dejean-Jones and Tyreke Evans on the shelf for the year. Ryan Anderson and Norris Cole are also dealing with less severe injuries, the team said.
- Danilo Gallinari doesn’t expect to play again this season for the Nuggets, as he said in an interview with Sky Sport of Italy (video link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Coach Michael Malone told reporters early this month that the team was thinking about shutting him down even if he recovered before season’s end from the two torn ligaments he suffered in his right ankle February 26th. Denver has since signed Axel Toupane for the balance of the season and beyond.
- Chris Paul won’t play for Team USA in the Olympics this year, telling Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins that he’s withdrawing his name from consideration for the squad. “I feel my body telling me that I could use the time,” the 30-year-old said. Paul can opt out of his contract with the Clippers after next season.
Trevon Bluiett To Test Draft Waters
Xavier sophomore small forward Trevon Bluiett will enter this year’s NBA draft but hold off on hiring an agent, thus retaining his college eligibility should he elect to withdraw by May 25th, sources told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Bluiett is a fairly well-regarded prospect, but the general belief has been that he’ll stay in school for another year. He’s the 19th-best sophomore in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings, but Givony lists him on his 2017 mock draft, at No. 52, rather than his 2016 mock. Chad Ford of ESPN.com doesn’t have the 6’6″ 20-year-old among this year’s draft prospects.
Bluiett took on more of the offensive burden for the Musketeers this season and handled it capably, averaging 15.1 points on 11.8 shots per game with 39.8% accuracy from behind the 3-point line. His turnovers remained steady despite his increased role, and he rebounded well for his size, pulling down 6.2 per contest.
It’s been an up-and-down March for Bluiett, who tied a career high with 24 points against Marquette in the Big East tournament and scored only seven versus Wisconsin in a season-ending NCAA Tournament loss. He averaged just 5.2 points in five NCAA Tournament games the past two years after entering school at No. 38 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.
Wayne Selden Declares For Draft
Kansas junior shooting guard Wayne Selden is entering this year’s draft and plans to sign with an agent in the coming weeks, he announced through the school. He’ll lose his college eligibility once he hires representation. The 6’6″ 21-year-old is a second-round prospect, checking in at 44th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and 55th with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
Selden’s stock has declined since he entered school at No. 13 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, one spot above Bobby Portis, whom the Bulls drafted 22nd last year. This season was nonetheless a renaissance of sorts for Selden, who put up 13.8 points per game, his first double-digit scoring average with the Jayhawks, and shot 39.2% on 3-pointers. He delivered a landmark 33-point performance against Kentucky on January 30th and averaged 17.8 points per contest in the NCAA Tournament this month.
This season was the first during Selden’s tenure that he wasn’t overshadowed by a first-round prospect on his own team. Andrew Wiggins, the 2014 top pick, and Joel Embiid were on the Jayhawks during Selden’s freshman year, and Kelly Oubre was there last season.
Some Players Parlay 10-Day Deals Into Longer Stays
Players who sign 10-day contracts aren’t assured of sticking around for very long, but some of them do. Saturday, Tim Frazier became the 10th player this year to sign for at least the rest of the season following a 10-day contract. Six of them had to pass through two 10-day contracts with their respective teams before they scored longer-term arrangements, and some, like Jordan McRae, signed 10-day contracts with multiple teams before landing greater security.
No one had to sweat through more 10-day deals to nail down a more permanent place on a roster than Sean Kilpatrick did. He signed two 10-days with the Nuggets and another two with the Nets, who richly rewarded him for his patience. Kilpatrick is the only 10-day signee to snag more than the minimum salary on a follow-up deal this year, as the Nets are paying him about twice the prorated minimum on the multiyear contract he signed earlier this month. He’s also the only 10-day signee this year with a fully guaranteed salary for next season.
Kilpatrick and others who signed multiyear deals are marked with asterisks below on this list of players who’ve parlayed 10-day contracts this year into deals that cover at least the rest of the season.
- Jeff Ayres, Clippers (two 10-day contracts) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season.
- *-Bryce Dejean-Jones, Pelicans (two 10-day contracts) — mid-level exception signing worth the minimum salary for the rest of this season, with non-guaranteed minimum salaries for next season and 2017/18.
- Jorge Gutierrez, Hornets (one 10-day contract) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season.
- Tim Frazier, Pelicans (one 10-day contract) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season.
- Ryan Hollins, Grizzlies (two 10-day contracts) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season.
- *-Sean Kilpatrick, Nets (two 10-day contracts; also had two 10-day contracts with Nuggets) — mid-level exception signing worth $221,176 for rest of this season, with fully guaranteed minimum salary for next season and non-guaranteed minimum salary for 2017/18.
- *-Jordan McRae, Cavaliers (one 10-day contract; also had two 10-day contracts with Suns) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season and next season, with a team option on next season.
- Greg Smith, Timberwolves (two 10-day contracts) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season.
- *-Axel Toupane, Nuggets (two 10-day contracts) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season and next season, with next season non-guaranteed.
- *-Alan Williams, Suns (one 10-day contract) — minimum-salary signing for the rest of this season and next season, with next season non-guaranteed (source).
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.