Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Lamb, Young
Nuggets GM Tim Connelly admitted that his team is “very, very aggressive” as it seeks changes to the roster, and team president Josh Kroenke hinted that it’s a matter of when, not if, Denver will make a move, as Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post details after speaking with both execs. Kroenke said he and the front office understand the problems and how to address them, as Hochman relays.
“Tim and the rest of our staff are working their tails off,” Kroenke said. “And I know exactly what they think and where everything stands with our coaches and players. From my chair, it’s just a matter of time when to make decisions [on possible moves]. A good portion of deals is timing, and unfortunately our time frame has been drawn out due to different circumstances, mostly injuries. But I must say it again, our current state is not acceptable and our fans deserve better.”
There’s more on the Nuggets amid the latest from around the Northwest Division:
- Nuggets GM Tim Connelly told Hochman for the same piece that management is “firmly behind” coach Brian Shaw. Still, Hochman argues that Shaw’s ineffective lineup choices and public criticism of players should be grounds for termination if the team doesn’t become more competitive soon.
- Jeremy Lamb would have been merely a “throw-in” if the Thunder, Hornets and Nets had emerged last month from their three-team talks regarding Brook Lopez with a deal, tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Lamb wasn’t a player the Hornets necessarily wanted, Bonnell cautions, adding that the main thrust of the discussion from their end was to find a way to “gracefully” bring an end to Lance Stephenson‘s time in Charlotte (Twitter links).
- Nets GM Billy King said Monday that he’s taking calls, not making them, but the Timberwolves would contend that Brooklyn initiated talks regarding Thaddeus Young, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Still, given the volume of routine calls that take place between executives from opposing teams, just who made the initial call isn’t necessarily an indication of the relative strength of interest that the respective teams have in doing a deal, argues Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders.
- The Thunder have assigned Mitch McGary to the D-League, the team announced via press release. It’s the third time the No. 21 pick from the 2014 draft has gone to the D-League, but it’s his first assignment since December, as he’s been sidelined with left tibia inflammation.
Phil Jackson On Triangle, Free Agency, ‘Melo
Knicks president Phil Jackson was frank when he sat down last week to speak with Harvey Araton of The New York Times, telling him that, “So far, my experiment has fallen flat on its face.” The team has won five of its last seven, but New York is still only 10-38 and just a half-game in front of the last-place Sixers in the Eastern Conference. Still, Jackson told Araton that he has spent “not one moment” lamenting the offseason trade that sent away Tyson Chandler and brought in Jose Calderon, whom Jackson and the Knicks are reportedly shopping.
The Zen Master said that a chance to advocate and popularize the Triangle Offense was one reason he took the job, and while he admitted that the system could hinder the team as it tries to recruit free agents, he argued that it is nonetheless appealing. Under no circumstances will Jackson coach the team, Araton writes, and the Times scribe hints that Jackson, who’s nearly a year into a five-year contract, isn’t planning on staying with the Knicks long-term. There’s plenty more in Araton’s full interview with Jackson, which is worth a read, and we’ll pass along a few noteworthy tidbits that relate to player movement here:
On the idea that the triangle with keep free agents away:
“Of course it’s a concern of mine, the perception that it’s too difficult to learn or too difficult for today’s players to embrace. But I think anyone that believes he’s a total basketball player is going to want to do it. A sound offense incorporates all the basic skills of any player you have, whether you’re a center, a power forward, whatever. There are isolation spots in the triangle, but the only thing that precludes a player really fitting in is someone who has to have the whole side of the court to go one on one.”
On the pursuit of stars in free agency versus going after players who fit:
“You do need great players to win the championship, but having to always chase the best talent in free agency eventually becomes a mindset of, well, the best talent wins as opposed to who plays the best team basketball — which is what San Antonio showed last season. Their play was special, a team that really values passing, a system where they’re not just standing around, spacing out shooters. That’s also what Atlanta and a couple of other teams are showing this year.”
On re-signing Carmelo Anthony:
“He’s responsible, there’s a character base there that I’ve acquainted myself with, where I feel he has the nerve for the job, he’s not afraid. He has the capability of being a fourth-quarter guy who is going to make the shots. You need that kind of guy when you’re in the playoffs to win close games. You can run your triangle for three and a half quarters and it still comes down to having someone who is a little extra special down the stretch.”
D-League Moves: Mavs, Warriors, Cavs, Magic
Mavs reserve point guard Ricky Ledo was in a three-way tie for the most D-League assignments this season when I examined D-League trends last week, but he’d been stuck on eight assignments for a while. He’d spent the early part of the season pinging back and forth between the Mavericks and the D-League Texas Legends, but his latest assignment stretched nearly a month. It’s over as of today, as the Mavs have recalled him, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. The end of the stint, which began January 9th, is likely tied to Rajon Rondo‘s broken nose and orbital bone that will sideline the All-Star for at least three games. Ledo is far from the only one on the move today, as we detail:
- Festus Ezeli has returned to the Warriors from his first D-League assignment of the season, the team announced. The former 30th overall pick blocked a total of six shots over 42 minutes in two games with the Santa Cruz Warriors, but he averaged only 10.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest.
- The shuttle continues for Joe Harris, whom the Cavaliers have recalled from his fourth D-League stint in the past two weeks, the team announced. The rookie swingman has put up 18.8 PPG and 6.0 RPG in 34.3 MPG in four D-League appearances this season, all of them since January 21st.
- The Magic have assigned Devyn Marble to the D-League for the second time this year, the team announced. The 56th pick from the 2014 draft, who’s started seven NBA games this season, spent nearly a week in the D-League a month ago, averaging 20.0 PPG in 38.0 MPG.
- Former first-round picks Reggie Bullock and Archie Goodwin are officially back with the Suns after twin D-League assignments that began January 29th, the team announced. Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reported Sunday that the recalls would take place.
- The Clippers will reassign C.J. Wilcox to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, a source tells Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (Twitter link). Wilcox has appeared in five games for Fort Wayne this season, averaging 13.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per contest.
Eastern Notes: Lowry, Pistons, Heat, Kidd
DeMar DeRozan stayed in touch with Kyle Lowry this summer but didn’t try to pressure him into re-signing with the Raptors, and the soft-sell approach worked, as the point guard tells TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Lowry confirms that the Rockets met with him on the first day of free agency but suggests that the Heat only made contact via email, as Lowry also says to Aldridge. Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Pistons GM Jeff Bower looked into trade possibilities as the team sought a point guard, but no amenable deal emerged that would have allowed Detroit to acquire a player on an expiring contract, as president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy told reporters today. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press has the details. Detroit, which temporarily filled its vacancy with a 10-day deal for John Lucas III today, reportedly had interest in Norris Cole, who’s on an expiring deal, but the team evidently couldn’t work out a deal for him.
- Lucas is willing to stick around if the Pistons want him beyond his 10-day contract, though he acknowledges that the team has made no promises for after the 10 days, as Ellis observes in the same piece.
- Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called 10-day signee Tyler Johnson “the model of player development” today, as Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald tweets, leading Goodman to wonder if the club has long-term plans for the guard. Miami can’t sign Johnson to anymore 10-day deals this season after this one expires at the end of Saturday, so a season-long commitment would be required if he’s to remain with the Heat.
- Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders makes the case that Jason Kidd should be a leading candidate for Coach of the Year thanks to the job he has done in his first year with the Bucks. Kidd is no stranger to surprising turnarounds as a player, since he helped take the Nets from a 26-56 team in 2000/01 to the Eastern Conference title in 2001/02 upon his arrival. We’re only just past the midway point of the season, but Hamilton has Kidd as his top coach of the 2014/15 season, ahead of Steve Kerr and Mike Budenholzer.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Warriors Willing To Pay Luxury Tax In 2015/16
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob told Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group that he’s willing to pay the luxury tax in 2015/16, acknowledging that it’s very likely the team’s payroll will be “substantially” over the tax line. The Warriors have more than $77.5MM in salary committed to just eight players for next season, and that doesn’t include a new deal for soon-to-be restricted free agent Draymond Green, along with other variables. The league won’t set the tax threshold for next season until July, but Sean Deveney of The Sporting News wrote in December that the latest projection pegged it at $81MM.
And you know what? We’re OK with that,” Lacob said to Kawakami about the likelihood the team will pay the tax. “I tell [GM] Bob [Myers] all the time; he keeps asking me, ‘Are you sure?’ We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to win a championship; I’ve said that before. You want to do it when the timing is right. Maybe the timing’s right, right? We’re pretty good. And so, I think we need to take advantage of that and go for it. Our fans, that’s what they want to hear. And the truth is, it’s what I want to hear. And what I want to think. And what our management and ownership … there isn’t one owner that I know of or one person in management here that doesn’t think this way. Luxury tax? It’s not something you want to do, it’s very penal. But [we] can’t be worried about that right now. That is really not the issue. The issue is being the best team we can be and we’re going to do whatever it takes.
Lacob was reluctant this fall to commit to the tax for next season as he negotiated an extension for Klay Thompson, as Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com wrote in October. The owner nonetheless consented to an extension that will pay Thompson up to $15.5MM next season. However, Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today wrote last month that all signs pointed to the Warriors matching any offer for Green, even if it forced them to pay the tax. Green is a bargain on the minimum salary this season amidst a career year in which he’s overtaken the starting power forward spot from David Lee, who’s on the books for nearly $15.494MM next season, the final year of his deal.
The owner told Kawakami that he couldn’t say whether he would re-sign Green or how hard he would pursue a new deal with him, citing NBA rules. Still, Lacob offered that Green was “born to be a Warrior,” as Kawakami notes. “And we love him,” Lacob added. “I certainly think today as we look at our team, he’s part of our core and can’t imagine it being otherwise.”
Most executives around the league assume the salary cap will spike to $90MM for 2016/17, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote recently, and Lacob believes the rising cap, which lifts the tax line with it, will prevent the Warriors from having to pay the tax beyond next season, as he told Kawakami. The Warriors aren’t taxpayers this season and never have been, so they’re in no immediate danger of triggering the onerous repeat taxpayer penalties that would kick in after three years in the tax. Still, Lacob left the door open to continued tax payments if necessary.
“I can just tell you that the team is performing at a very high level here and as long as we have great players that we can hold onto, we’re going to do it,” he told Kawakami. “You don’t try to do these things for one year. We want to be a great team that hopefully wins a championship soon and that can sustain that over a long period of time. So it is our intention to do that no matter what.”
Golden State already has more than $53.9MM on the books for 2016/17, which is the final season on the contracts for Stephen Curry, Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala. The next year, the Warriors only have about $17.8MM committed.
Warriors Re-Sign James McAdoo
1:22pm: The signing is official, the team announced via press release.
11:27am: Agent Jim Tanner confirms the deal to Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.
11:13am: The Warriors and James McAdoo have agreed upon a second 10-day deal, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM. The rookie power forward had gone back to Golden State’s D-League team after the expiration of his first 10-day contract last week, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr spoke at that time of McAdoo as someone he hoped would be a part of the club’s future. The Warriors have an open roster spot, so there won’t be a need for a corresponding move.
The 22-year-old was the sixth-ranked player in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index coming out of high school in 2011, but his stock gradually slipped during his three years at North Carolina, and he went undrafted this past summer. The Warriors had him on their summer league team and gave him a $35K partial guarantee on his contract for camp. McAdoo failed to make the opening-night roster, but the Warriors retained his D-League rights, and he’s averaged 19.3 points and 9.6 rebounds in 32.9 minutes per game over 24 appearances for Golden State’s D-League affiliate.
This second arrangement will be the final 10-day contract the Warriors are allowed to give McAdoo this year, so at the end of it, Golden State will either have to sign him for the season or let him sit in NBA free agency and risk another team snapping him up. McAdoo spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors shortly before the draft.
Spears On Prince, Plumlee, Kings, Kenyon
It’s no surprise to see the Hawks and Warriors atop the latest power rankings from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, but Spears doesn’t just list the NBA’s 30 teams from top to bottom. He passes along several tidbits of note with the trade deadline just two and a half weeks away. He seconds an earlier report from Marc Stein and Ian Begley of ESPN.com that the Knicks are shopping Jose Calderon, but much of what Spears has is new information, and we’ll hit the highlights here:
- Boston is unlikely to find a trade for Tayshaun Prince before the deadline, Spears hears from a source. Prince reportedly plans to push for his departure the Celtics, though he’s publicly said that he’s committed to playing for Boston, at least for the time being. A buyout deal appears likely should the Celtics fail to garner the draft pick they’re looking for in a swap, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald wrote last month, though coach Brad Stevens hopes to keep Prince for the balance of the season.
- The Suns aren’t garnering much interest as they try to trade Miles Plumlee, a source tells Spears, though that’s not a shock, since the team is reportedly looking for at least one first-round pick.
- Sacramento continues to pursue an “athletic big man” to pair with DeMarcus Cousins, according to Spears’ source. The Kings are reportedly shopping Derrick Williams, and Jason Thompson is among the Sacramento players the team is apparently open to trading.
- The Knicks didn’t re-sign Kenyon Martin this summer after he spent the previous two seasons with them because the team felt he wouldn’t be a fit for the triangle offense, Spears says. Martin and the Bucks followed a pair of 10-day contracts with a deal for the rest of the season.
Atlantic Notes: Garnett, Lopez, ‘Melo, Sampson
The Raptors have a whopping 14-game lead in the Atlantic Division, leaving the intrigue for the bottom of the division. The Knicks and Sixers are tied for last place in the division and, as our Reverse Standings show, for the second spot in the draft lottery. The future is the focus for those teams, but time may be running short for another prominent name in the Atlantic, as we detail:
- Kevin Garnett says he’s “all in” with the Nets, and while he downplayed the idea of buying out his contract, he won’t rule it out, as Alex Raskin of The Wall Street Journal writes. “I don’t know what management is going to do,” Garnett said. “When my situation comes up, I’ll obviously give it some attention. Other than that, my attention is trying to get us on a winning streak, get us on a road where everybody’s playing together.”
- Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post believes JaVale McGee would be part of any Nets-Nuggets swap involving Brook Lopez, no matter the other parts involved.
- The “prevailing theory” is that Carmelo Anthony will sit out for the balance of the season once the All-Star break is over to rest his sore knee, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. For what it’s worth, the Knicks star won’t commit to playing in mid-March, Berman notes.
- The Sixers had considered sending JaKarr Sampson on D-League assignment a couple of weeks ago, but two strong defensive games led the team to move him into the starting lineup instead, coach Brett Brown said, as Max Rappaport of Sixers.com writes. Sampson, an undrafted rookie, is in the first year of a four-year contract that doesn’t include any guaranteed money beyond this season.
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The Nets and Hornets reportedly had talks about a proposed trade that would have sent Joe Johnson to Charlotte for Lance Stephenson, Gerald Henderson and Marvin Williams. That discussion has apparently ended, at least for now, but reader
- While those three players only cost a tad less than $3MM under what Johnson will make next season, that puts the Nets in a much more manageable position for getting under the tax line next season. Further, having three players making that money saves them from having to fill those spots with other players, shaving another $1-2MM. Finally, each one of those contracts individually would be easier to move than Johnson’s $25MM, and the chances are better that at least one of them rebounds to regain some trade value. Assuming the Nets aren’t attaching a sweetener, this is a pretty good salary dump, even if on the surface it doesn’t appear to dump that much salary.
The Magic are reportedly close to firing Jacque Vaughn, but Billy Winters doesn’t think that would solve the problems in Orlando.
- I really really … really don’t get the point of firing and bringing in a new coach midseason. Let Jacque finish the season. Hire a new coach and put into place the new system in the offseason. Try and trade [Ben] Gordon and [Channing] Frye and play the young guys as much as possible. This will give you time to evaluate the talent more so now and gives the team a chance for a higher pick in the draft.
Jose Calderon is a prominent trade candidate as the February 19th deadline nears, and barnzi19 has an idea that would involve another player who’s apparently on the block.
- What about Calderon to the Kings for Derrick Williams? Kings need a solid backup PG and Williams has underperformed at the PF spot for the Kings. Williams’ contract expires this season so it is a low risk to the Knicks.
Check out what more readers had to say in previous editions of Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback. We appreciate everyone who adds to the dialogue at Hoops Rumors, and we look forward to seeing more responses like these from you!
And-Ones: Silver, China, Crawford, Draft, Owners
Commissioner Adam Silver said the year ahead is the time for decisions on changes to the playoff format and the draft lottery, and he expressed his support for expanded All-Star rosters as he spoke today on ESPN Radio’s NBA Lockdown show, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Silver acknowledged that larger All-Star rosters could mean more money for players who have incentives in their contracts, Stein notes. The commissioner also spoke of the labor negotiations on the horizon for 2017, as Stein relays.
“I’d like to think that calmer heads will prevail and we’ll all realize that we have a great system here and that we shouldn’t screw it up,” Silver said in part.
Here’s more from around the NBA:
- Andray Blatche, Toney Douglas and Earl Clark are among the NBA veterans who are once more free agents after having signed to play in China this season, as Sportando’s Enea Trapani points out with a list of players finished with their Chinese obligations. The Chinese regular season ended today, putting a number of intriguing names on the market, though many others, like Will Bynum, who’s reportedly drawing interest from the Cavs and Wizards, are on playoff teams and might not be available until late March.
- Jordan Crawford is drawing strong interest from NBA teams in the wake of his experience in China, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. Crawford isn’t on Trapani’s list, since he suffered an eye injury and hasn’t played since November, but he would have returned to Xinjiang had the club made the playoffs, according to Charania.
- French swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot will enter the 2015 NBA draft, sources tell Charania, who writes in a separate piece. The 19-year-old wouldn’t be automatically eligible until the 2017 draft, and unlike collegians, who are bound by the NCAA’s stricter timeline, he’ll have a chance to withdraw his name from this year’s event shortly before it takes place. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress lists him as No. 34 in his mock draft for 2016.
- The NBA will limit new ownership groups to no more than 25 members, none of whom will be able to hold less than 1% of the team, several sources told Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Existing ownership groups, including Milwaukee’s 37-person contingent, are allowed to remain as structured.