Bucks Interested In Reggie Jackson
The Bucks are among the teams with interest in trade candidate and soon-to-be restricted free agent Reggie Jackson, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher. Teams around the league expect the Thunder to trade Jackson by Thursday’s 2pm Central time deadline, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com wrote late Tuesday. Bucher suggets that the Bucks could offer either Jerryd Bayless or John Henson in return, but it’s unclear whether Milwaukee is actually considering either of them.
Oklahoma City had found the market for Jackson weaker than they expected, but it appears to be picking up. Sacramento has reportedly held preliminary talks with the Thunder about Jackson, and the Knicks have seemed likely to make another run at him after Jackson thought he was headed to New York amid erroneous reports last month. The Heat apparently find Jackson intriguing, too.
A stumbling block to any trade would seemingly be Jackson’s looming restricted free agency, with some teams apparently having believed at the beginning of this season that he would command offers between $13MM and $14MM on the market this summer. That’s raised tax concerns for the Thunder, as Berger indicated in his report, but it’s also seemingly a complicating factor for the Bucks, who, as Berger also wrote, aren’t biting on the offers they’ve fielded for fellow restricted free agent guard Brandon Knight. For now, Jackson is a relative bargain, making only slightly more than $2.204MM in the final season of his rookie scale contract.
Suns Intend To Trade Goran Dragic
WEDNESDAY, 7:55am: The Celtics are jumping into the Dragic sweepstakes, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who indicates that they have an outside shot at this point (All four Twitter links). They have attractive assets and, like the Rockets and Kings, are willing to trade for Dragic without assurances he’d re-sign this summer, Stein adds. Part of the reason all three are on board with doing so is their belief that the chance to offer him a five-year deal this summer instead of one that covers only four seasons is a crucial edge, according to Stein. Only teams with a player’s Bird rights may offer a player a five-year deal, as Stein points out, and any club that trades for Dragic at the deadline inherits his Bird rights.
11:51pm: The Kings want Dragic “bad,” a source told Spears (Twitter link). Sacramento could conceivably deal Jason Thompson and Nik Stauskas to clear enough cap space to make Dragic a max contract offer this summer, the Yahoo! scribe adds.
11:45pm: The Rockets have an interest in acquiring Dragic, but he has privately expressed the fear that Houston would later deal him if he signed with the franchise long-term, Wojnarowski relays.
10:17pm: The Pacers are also a possible destination for Dragic, Wojnarowski reports.
9:50pm: There are a total of seven teams listed that Dragic would prefer to play for, Amick tweets.
9:34pm: Dragic’s preferred teams also include the Knicks and the Heat, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link).
9:30pm: The Rockets, despite their interest in Dragic, are not one of the teams likely to secure a long-term commitment from the guard, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.
9:26pm: Dragic’s agent Bill Duffy provided the Suns with a list of teams that Dragic would prefer to be traded to, which included the Lakers, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports adds.
9:21pm: When asked if there was any scenario in which Dragic would stay in Phoenix, a source close to him told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), “Don’t think so.”
9:17pm: The Suns have informed Dragic that the team will accept his request for a trade and will work to move him before the deadline, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). Dragic’s agent had informed the team that his client would not re-sign with the Suns this summer, Sam Amick of USA Today reports.
2:03pm: Dragic’s discontent with the crowded Phoenix backcourt is growing, and several league sources tell Wojnarowski they believe that the Suns have to move Thomas before July to have a chance at re-signing Dragic. Still, there’s a “strong belief” that Dragic will re-sign with Phoenix if he once more finds the comfort he used to have there, Wojnarowski writes, citing Dragic’s strong relationship with coach Jeff Hornacek and GM Ryan McDonough as well as his enjoyment of playing with his brother, Zoran. It’s not out of the realm of possibility the Suns will trade Dragic before Thursday’s deadline, but it’s extremely unlikely, according to Wojnarowski.
TUESDAY, 11:20am: An opposing team would have to give up a young player with All-Star potential and a draft pick for the Suns to even consider trading Dragic, sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter links). It’s far more likely the Suns would deal Thomas or Gerald Green, Wojnarowski hears. Phoenix is making Green available, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote earlier this morning when he identified the Knicks as a team with interest in Dragic.
3:37pm: Dragic’s agent has plans to meet with the Suns on Tuesday, but Phoenix remains determined to re-sign the guard this summer, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
2:52pm: The “sense” is that the Suns are ready to deal Dragic rather than see him walk in free agency this year, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck tweets.
MONDAY, 1:18pm: Phoenix is inclined to keep Dragic, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports writes in his weekly power rankings column.
SATURDAY, 7:50am: The Suns are more apt to try and trade Isaiah Thomas than to deal Dragic prior to the deadline to restore their roster balance, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).
1:49pm: The latest version of Stein’s story backs off the assertion that the Lakers plan a max offer to Dragic, saying only that the team intends to propose a four-year deal that would be worth as much as $80MM if it approaches max territory. In any case, Stein also passes along comments Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby made to Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic indicating that Phoenix will be proactive at the trade deadline.
“I would take the fifth, generally, on any of these specific trade rumors,” Babby said. “What I would say is I expect us to be active. And what I mean by that is we’re not going to just sit here and wait for the phone to ring. We’ll be initiating calls to every team, and taking the temperature of what’s out there and what’s available. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we do something between now and next Thursday.”
FRIDAY, 11:08am: The Heat are the latest team rumored to have interest in Goran Dragic, but the Rockets and Lakers, who’ve been eyeing him for months, appear poised to take another go at him before Thursday’s trade deadline, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Houston hopes to talk seriously with Phoenix about a deal in the coming days, sources tell Stein, while the Lakers presumably would like the same as they plan a max offer for him in free agency this summer, Stein also hears. Phoenix has been turning away suitors for Dragic of late, but sources tell Stein that the Suns have been trying to get a read all season on whether the reigning Most Improved Player will re-sign when them this summer. Dragic plans to turn down a $7.5MM player option for next season and hasn’t ruled out leaving Phoenix.
The 28-year-old acknowledged this month that he’s felt frustration with Phoenix’s crowded backcourt, according to Stein. His numbers, including minutes and shot attempts, are down this season after a career year in 2013/14. GM Ryan McDonough acknowledged fault this week for overloading the team’s backcourt, which also includes Eric Bledsoe and Thomas, both of whom the Suns signed to long-term deals this summer, and 2014 first-round pick Tyler Ennis.
Rockets GM Daryl Morey and company would still like to make another significant addition this season after adding Corey Brewer and Josh Smith, Stein writes. Dragic, whom the Rockets have already tried to trade for this season, as Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today wrote last month, would be the biggest boost of the season for Houston, which is without Dwight Howard for at least another three weeks. The Rockets no longer have a trade exception of $1MM or more to use, but they have a better store of trade chips than the Lakers do, as I wrote when I examined Dragic’s trade candidacy.
The Suns are reportedly seeking a first-round pick in return for Dragic. They already have the Lakers’ first-rounder this year unless it falls within the top five selections. The Rockets will send the Lakers their first-round pick if they make the playoffs this year, but Houston has a protected first-rounder coming from the Pelicans.
Berger’s Latest: Jackson, Kings, Nuggets, Lee
Reporters make a habit of emptying their notebooks as the deadline draws near, when rumors that would normally make headlines wind up buried beneath the deluge of news. We already passed along highlights from a jam-packed piece that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports authored tonight, and we’ll do the same with a dispatch from Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who’s also heard plenty:
- Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group provides some clarity on Lee, saying that the Warriors have always been willing to trade him for assets of value but that the team almost certainly won’t find what it’s looking for on the market. Golden State isn’t likely to simply give away the veteran, a favorite of co-owner Joe Lacob, unless it’s forced to in the offseason, Kawakami adds (All Twitter links).
Earlier updates:
- Teams around the league expect the Thunder to trade Reggie Jackson before Thursday’s 2pm Central time trade deadline, Berger writes, indicating that they believe tax concerns would be the catalyst for Oklahoma City to make a deal.
- Sacramento is intent on making an upgrade at the deadline in an effort to please DeMarcus Cousins, sources tell Berger, who identifies Arron Afflalo as the team’s No. 1 target. The Kings are dangling Nik Stauskas to the Nuggets as they seek Afflalo, to the puzzlement of some executives from other teams, Berger hears. The Kings continue to dangle Stauskas to other teams as well, according to Berger.
- The Nuggets are in “full-on firesale mode,” and, notwithstanding Sacramento’s focus on Afflalo, Ty Lawson and Wilson Chandler are the players on Denver’s roster who are drawing the most interest from other teams, Berger writes.
- Berger indicates that the Warriors are trying to trade David Lee, which conflicts with an earlier report that the team would like to keep him through the season to avoid disrupting chemistry. The CBSSports.com columnist also includes Kevin Martin on a list of players that teams are trying to trade, but Flip Saunders is reportedly showing little interest in doing so. Martin would be destined for a buyout if the Wolves don’t trade him, Berger hears.
- Milwaukee has fielded offers for Brandon Knight, but the Bucks aren’t biting, sources tell Berger.
- The Wizards are more likely to sign a free agent who would fill their desire for backcourt help than to make a trade, the CBSSports.com scribe hears.
- The Clippers are still the front-runners for Tayshaun Prince should he and the Celtics do a buyout deal, according to Berger, who adds that Boston is trying to trade Brandon Bass.
Trade Candidate Series
The trade deadline is less than 48 hours away, but Hoops Rumors has been preparing for months. Part of that effort has entailed in-depth looks at several players who’ve emerged as likely trade candidates. One of them, Jeff Green, already wound up in a deal. The rest of them aren’t players who necessarily will be traded by the deadline, but each of them has been the subject of trade rumors, and if their teams aren’t shopping them, they’ve at least been open to the idea of sending them out.
Our Trade Candidate pieces explore why a trade might happen, the likelihood of a deal going down, and potential suitors, along with other relevant details. Last season, we profiled guys who were moved by the deadline, such as Danny Granger, Evan Turner and Andre Miller, along with others who were eventually dealt over the summer, including Arron Afflalo, Thaddeus Young, and Omer Asik.
These pieces lend perspective to the stream of rumors and reports flying around this week, and they give you a fuller scope of the market as Thursday’s 2pm Central time deadline draws ever closer. A complete list of the players we’ve examined is below, in alphabetical order, with a link to each profile on the names.
Draymond Green Interested In Pistons
3:46pm: Warriors executives have given every indication that they’ll match any offer for Green, according to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link).
2:34pm: Saginaw, Michigan native Draymond Green has “significant interest” in signing an offer sheet with the Pistons this summer, when he’s set for restricted free agency, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Green loves playing with the Warriors, Wojnarowski cautions, adding that Golden State is intent on keeping him, which jibes with recent statements from Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob. Lacob also signaled a willingness to pay the tax, but Wojnarowski says that for the team to retain Green, “they’ll have to” move David Lee, a point seemingly based on the idea that the Warriors won’t be taxpayers.
Team politics at play are liable to prompt Green to sign an offer sheet with the Pistons rather than an outright deal with the Warriors, even if the Warriors plan to match, as Wojnarowski explains. The Warriors are hesitant to pay Green more than Klay Thompson will make next season, Wojnarowski writes. Thompson won’t earn more than $15.5MM, the projected 2015/16 maximum salary for a player of his experience at the time when Thompson signed his extension in the fall. If the max salary exceeds that amount, the Pistons or another team could float Green an offer sheet that would give him more than Thompson will make.
It would be easier for the Warriors to match an offer sheet for that kind of money than to come to Green directly with a deal that would give him more than the All-Star shooting guard, according to Wojnarowski. Green, who played at Michigan State, still spends much of his off-time in Michigan, but for the Pistons to have a legitimate shot at him, they’ll need to make an offer at or near the max, Wojnarowski writes.
The Warriors don’t want to deal Lee at the deadline and upset their chemistry, though there are teams with interest in acquiring Lee if he were attached to other assets, likely draft picks, Wojnarowski hears. The big man is set to make nearly $15.494MM next season, with the Warriors already at more than $77.5MM in commitments for next season. The luxury tax line is projected to come in at around $81MM, which means Golden State would likely go deep into the tax if it retained Green and Lee and didn’t make other significant changes.
Kings Remove Tyrone Corbin, Hire George Karl
FEBRUARY 17TH: The team has followed with a formal announcement of Karl’s hiring after acknowledging the agreement earlier.
“We’re fortunate to be taking a step towards returning this franchise to prominence with one of the best coaches in basketball on our sideline,” D’Alessandro said in the statement. “George knows how to win, as evidenced by a lifetime track record of success and ability to maintain consistency throughout his three decades in the game. We’re excited to welcome him to Sacramento.”
FEBRUARY 12TH: The Kings have acknowledged that they’ve reached an agreement in principle with George Karl for their head coaching position, as the team announced in a statement. Sacramento has reassigned Tyrone Corbin, who had occupied the position since the Kings fired Michael Malone in December, the team also announced. Corbin will serve as an adviser to the front office, the Kings say.
“I have the utmost respect for Tyrone as a coach and person,” D’Alessandro said in the statement regarding Corbin. “He’s a man of great integrity, a consummate professional that managed a difficult situation with class and professionalism. I look forward to continuing to work with Tyrone moving forward.”
D’Alessandro didn’t address Karl in either of the team’s statements. Sources told Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday that Karl had struck a deal to become the team’s next head coach, at about the same time that Bee colleague Ailene Voisin indicated the deal was done (All Twitter links here). Sources later that day insisted to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that there was no deal as the sides haggled over terms including potential compensation in case of a lockout in 2017 (Twitter link). A source told Antonio Gonzalez of The Associated Press that there was an agreement in principle even though the sides were still negotiating, and Wojnarowski reported early Thursday that the sides had finally struck a deal.
Karl will make his debut when the Kings return from the All-Star break on February 20th, and he’ll receive $1.25MM for the rest of this season, according to Wojnarowski. The contract calls for him to make $3.25MM in 2015/16 and $5MM in each of the final two seasons, with the last year of the deal partially guaranteed for $1.5MM, Wojnarowski hears.
It’s the second coaching change in two months for the Kings, who fired Michael Malone in mid-December. GM Pete D’Alessandro had said that he would keep Corbin, whom the team elevated from assistant coach to the head coaching position upon Malone’s dismissal for the season. The abrupt turnaround alarmed Dan Fegan and Jarinn Akana, the agents for DeMarcus Cousins, though Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that they weren’t opposed to the idea of bringing Karl aboard. Still, Cousins seemed upset with the turmoil as he spoke with reporters on Sunday, and issued a statement Tuesday saying that he would support Karl but hoped the team would quickly resolve the situation. Still, Jones heard Monday that multiple Kings players would oppose the hiring of Karl.
That same day, owner Vivek Ranadive reportedly gave D’Alessandro the authorization to make whatever coaching move he saw fit. Ranadive wanted to bring in a coach other than Corbin at the time of Malone’s dismissal, but the front office talked him out of it, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher reported last month, and the owner asked D’Alessandro to meet with Karl last week, Jones reported within the past couple of days. Still, D’Alessandro and Karl have close ties from their time together with the Nuggets.
Karl has been connected to the Kings job since the time that Malone was fired, and D’Alessandro admitted that he spoke to Karl around that time. Still, he was seemingly a secondary candidate at that point, as Wojnarowski wrote when the team was apparently considering the idea of shifting adviser Chris Mullin to coach, a move that Mullin proved reluctant to make. D’Alessandro denied that a meeting he had with Mullin, Cousins and Mark Jackson, another rumored candidate, had anything to do with the coaching position, and Jackson apparently had “no chance” at becoming coach, as Aaron Bruski of NBCSports.com reported in December.
Karl publicly campaigned for the Magic coaching job last week, and he’s kept a high profile as talks with the Kings have progressed, which perturbed some, according to Jones. It’s been a back-and-forth process for Karl and the Kings, spurred in part by the Magic’s opening, with opposition reportedly coming from owners who hold minority stakes in the team and negotiations seemingly petering out before picking up steam again. Alvin Gentry, Nate McMillan, Vinny Del Negro and Tom Thibodeau were other names connected to Sacramento’s opening.
Karl has been out of coaching since 2012/13, the 25th season that he spent at least part of as an NBA head coach and the only one in which he won the Coach of the Year award. He’s 63 and twice a cancer survivor, and Ranadive and D’Alessandro have sought assurances about his health. Still, Karl is one of only nine coaches to amass more than 1,000 regular season victories, compiling a record of 1,131-756 with the Cavs, Warriors, SuperSonics, Bucks and Nuggets. The Kings are expected to hire Sixers assistant Vance Walberg, who worked with Karl in Denver, for Karl’s staff, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group reported this week.
Corbin departs the coaching job after going 7-21 in his brief time in charge of the Kings. It’s the second time in less than 10 months that an NBA head coaching tenure has ended for Corbin, whom the Jazz elected not to re-sign after last season. The 52-year-old is 119-167 in parts of five seasons as an NBA head coach.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Knicks, Lakers Interested In Miles Plumlee
The Knicks and Lakers are eyeing Miles Plumlee as the trade deadline approaches, reports Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter links). Amick suggests that Plumlee would welcome a trade from the Suns, which seems in line with the notion that agent Mark Bartelstein has been working with the team to try to find a trade partner, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported last month. The Suns have also sought a first-round pick for the center, Stein also heard, a return they’ve seemed highly unlikely to obtain. It’s unclear whether the Knicks and Lakers are willing to pay that price.
Neither New York nor Los Angeles wants to compromise cap flexibility for the future, but Plumlee is due to make only about $2.109MM next season in the final year of his rookie scale contract, as Amick points out. He’ll nonetheless be extension-eligible this fall, meaning he could command a significant raise for 2015/16 depending upon his performance.
Phoenix recently took the starting center job away from Plumlee to give it instead to former No. 5 overall pick Alex Len after Plumlee started 78 times last season. He’s seeing just 18.6 minutes per game this season.
Magic Open To Trading Andrew Nicholson
FEBRUARY 17TH: The Magic are hesitant to give up Nicholson if they can’t get much in return, as sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who writes amid a larger piece.
10:44am: It’s unlikely a trade partner will emerge, but Dallas owner Mark Cuban was at one point high on Nicholson, according to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel, who suggests it’s possible the Mavs will pursue him before the deadline (Twitter links).
FEBRUARY 12TH, 9:23am: The Magic are making Andrew Nicholson available to other teams if they want to trade for him and are working with agent Mark Bartelstein to try to find a new home for the 25-year-old power forward, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Nicholson’s playing time is down sharply this year, and he hasn’t played since January 10th. He’s seen only 8.9 minutes per game across 18 appearances this season as he sits behind Channing Frye and Kyle O’Quinn on the team’s depth chart at power forward, with Tobias Harris and Aaron Gordon jockeying for playing time at both forward positions.
Nicholson is making close to $1.546MM on year three of his rookie scale contract, which calls for him to receive nearly $2.381MM next season in the final year of the deal. He’ll be eligible for an extension this summer. The 19th overall pick in the 2012 draft was in the rotation for the Magic his first two seasons, averaging 16.0 MPG, but offseason additions Frye and Gordon have crowded him out. However, it’s somewhat surprising that GM Rob Hennigan and company would seek to pivot on Nicholson with the team’s coaching situation in flux, since a new coach might value him more than former coach Jacque Vaughn or interim boss James Borrego have.
The Magic are about $7MM under the cap, so they have plenty of flexibility to make a trade. They have all their own first-round picks plus one coming their way from the Lakers in 2017, and at least one second-round pick in each upcoming draft, though it would seem unlikely they’d have to send Nicholson out with a pick unless it was part of a larger deal.
Several Trade Exceptions Set To Expire
Thursday’s 2pm Central trade deadline is the final chance teams will have to make trades this season, and for some clubs, the opportunity cost is even larger. The Pacers have been sitting on a trade exception worth nearly $4.282MM since last year’s Danny Granger trade, but unless they use it before Thursday’s trade deadline, the exception vanishes. It’s unlikely they’ll use the majority of it, since they’re relatively close to the tax threshold, a line the team has long vowed not to cross, but they’ll lose the chance to expend even a portion of it unless they act this week. Indiana is one of seven teams with trade exceptions that expire with the trade deadline.
Four of those seven have trade exceptions worth in excess of $1MM, including the Nuggets, who have two exceptions valued at about $1.659MM and $1.169MM, respectively. Neither is the sort of powerful weapon that the Celtics have in their $12.9MM-plus Rajon Rondo exception, but they’re assets nonetheless. A trade exception allows a team to take in one or more players who make up to the value of the exception plus $100K. That means that two more of the seven teams with expiring trade exceptions can take back players with salaries of more than $1MM, since the Clippers and Kings have exceptions worth more than $900K. That leaves only the Wizards, who only have $16K left on the Eric Maynor trade exception they created last year, meaning their exception is effectively useless.
The trade deadline also compromises the value of disabled player exceptions, which five teams around the NBA possess. Those clubs will only be able to use those exceptions for a signing or to claim a player off waivers once Thursday passes. They won’t even be able to do that after March 10th, when disabled player exceptions fully expire.
Borrowing from our complete list of outstanding trade exceptions, here are the exceptions that will lapse at this week’s trade deadline:
Denver Nuggets
Amount: $1,659,080
Obtained: Andre Miller (Wizards)
Amount: $1,169,880
Obtained: Jordan Hamilton (Rockets)
Golden State Warriors
Amount: $1,210,080
Obtained: MarShon Brooks (Lakers)
Amount: $788,872
Obtained: Kent Bazemore (Lakers)
Indiana Pacers
Amount: $4,281,921
Obtained: Danny Granger (Sixers)
Los Angeles Clippers
Amount: $947,907
Obtained: Byron Mullens (Sixers)
Amount: $884,293
Obtained: Antawn Jamison (Hawks)
Sacramento Kings
Amount: $973,809
Obtained: Marcus Thornton (Nets)
Initial amount: $2,424,687
Used: Scotty Hopson ($1,450,878)
San Antonio Spurs
Amount: $1,463,000
Obtained: Nando De Colo (Raptors)
Washington Wizards
Amount: $16,000
Obtained: Eric Maynor (Sixers)
Initial amount: $2,016,000
Used: DeJuan Blair ($2,000,000)
Magic To Keep James Borrego For Season
1:06pm: The general belief is that Borrego will have a chance to have the interim tag removed and stay beyond the end of the season if he performs well down the stretch, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The team has hired Igor Kokoskov, a former assistant with the Clippers, Pistons, Suns and Cavs, to serve as Borrego’s lead assistant, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reported and as the Magic later formally announced.
11:57am: The Magic told Borrego today that he’ll remain the interim coach through the end of the season, reports John Denton of Magic.com (Twitter links).
10:31am: There’s increasing chatter that the Magic intend to let interim head coach James Borrego finish the season in that position, preferring a slow-paced search for his eventual replacement, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Brian K. Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel suggested that was the case earlier this morning, following up on his assertion from last week that the timing at play and the Magic’s track record indicated that Borrego would stick until season’s end. Borrego last week said that the Magic hadn’t told him their plans and said he took that as a sign that he’d remain in the job. Still, there’s widespread belief that the Magic will ultimately fill the position with a proven coaching veteran, as Schmitz also wrote last week.
Scott Skiles had drawn the most prominent mention as a candidate for the vacancy created when the team fired Jacque Vaughn, and Skiles indeed has interest, according to Schmitz. Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders had heard earlier that Skiles wouldn’t take the job without personnel control and that his candidacy was a phenomenon driven by Magic ownership. Mark Jackson, Michael Malone, Vinny Del Negro and, if he were to shake loose from the Bulls, Tom Thibodeau have also drawn mention in connection with the Magic coaching job since the team let go of Vaughn. So, too, did George Karl, who publicly expressed interest in the position, helping prompt the Kings to hire him before the Magic had a chance to snap him up.
Borrego had been an assistant coach with the Magic throughout Vaughn’s tenure, and he previously served as an assistant for the Pelicans and Spurs. He began his NBA career in 2003 as an assistant video coordinator for the Spurs, aligning him with GM Rob Hennigan, as well as Vaughn, as part of San Antonio’s sphere of influence. Borrego has gone 2-2 so far as interim head coach for the Magic.