Bucks Work Out Kenyon Martin; Cavs Eye Him
WEDNESDAY, 10:34am: Kidd acknowledged today that Martin worked out in front of him and Bucks assistant coaches Tuesday, Gardner notes (Twitter links). “He looked good,” Kidd said. “There’s nothing, just a workout. Just to talk to him. We’ll see what happens.” Kidd acknowledged that it’s questionable whether Martin can still perform, but the coach praised Martin’s intelligence and says he believes that a team will sign him at some point, as Gardner shares in a full story.
TUESDAY, 10:11am: Martin will work out in front of Kidd today, Spears writes in a full story, so evidently the Bucks are indeed interested in him for a playing role. The Cavs also have some interest in Martin, Spears adds, so it appears that feeling is mutual, though Cleveland isn’t rushing to replace the injured Anderson Varejao, according to Spears.
9:20am: The discussions are “preliminary,” a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
9:05am: Milwaukee has yet to make any offer to Martin, Spears clarifies (on Twitter).
8:57am: Bucks coach Jason Kidd will meet with free agent big man Kenyon Martin today, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Martin, who turns 37 today, is traveling to Cleveland, where Milwaukee is preparing for Wednesday’s game against the Cavs. Martin recently expressed interest in joining the Cavs, but it’s unclear if he’ll be speaking with anyone in the Cleveland organization while he’s in town. Kidd and Martin have a relationship that dates back to their time as teammates on the Nets in the early 2000s, when they made back-to-back Finals appearances together, Spears notes (on Twitter).
Martin met with the Grizzlies last month and with the Rockets in October, though in each case there were conflicting reports about whether the visits were about coaching positions or playing roles. Spears doesn’t specify what Martin and Kidd will discuss. The Bucks have a full 15-man roster, and every player is fully guaranteed, as our roster counts show. Still, No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker is expected to miss the season with a torn ACL, Ersan Ilyasova is recovering from a concussion, and center Larry Sanders has been out with flu-like symptoms, leaving the team thin up front.
The Knicks put Martin in the starting lineup 15 times last season, and he averaged 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in 19.8 minutes per game across 32 appearances. Still, the former No. 1 overall pick has only played in 50 NBA games since the end of the 2011/12 season.
Pacific Notes: Kings, Heslip, Kobe, Vujacic
It seems as though the top eight teams in the Western Conference are in many ways already set, but the Kings aren’t giving up on the idea that they can find a way into the playoffs this year, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck writes. Sacramento will add an impact player if an opportunity arises, according to Beck.
“This league, it’s a league of injuries, it’s a league of things that happen, chemistry,” Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro told Beck. “And you’ve seen things happen really fast in this league. So I don’t think we buy into the notion of, ‘Well, it’s locked to eight.’ We really don’t believe that. From our perspective, it’s: How are we getting better? How are we pursuing that spot?”
The Kings are 13-18, four games behind the Suns for the last playoff spot. There’s another Kings-related item amid the latest from the Pacific Division:
- Brady Heslip has decided against signing with Banvit of Turkey because he believes he’s close to joining an NBA team, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). David Pick of Eurobasket.com reported earlier this week that Heslip, who’s been playing for Sacramento’s D-League affiliate, had a deal with the Turkish team. The Kings and Clippers have reportedly held interest in adding the sharpshooter to their NBA rosters.
- Kobe Bryant still doesn’t rule out playing beyond his current contract, which expires in 2016, but for now he plans to retire after next season, as he said Tuesday to reporters, including Bill Oram of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). “If you asked me if I’m going to play beyond that, right now the answer is no,” Bryant said.
- Sasha Vujacic is leaving Laboral Kuxta Vitoria (aka Saski Baskonia) of Spain, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). He’s next headed to play for Turkey’s Istanbul BSB, Carchia writes. Vujacic, who spent time on a 10-day contract with the Clippers last season, is one of several among 2013/14 10-day signees who are now playing overseas, as I noted Tuesday.
- Warriors backup center Marreese Speights said he was especially motivated to beat the Sixers, as Golden State did Tuesday, not because of anyone with the team at current but because he harbors ill will toward Doug Collins, tweets Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle. Speights saw a career low 11.5 minutes per game under the former Sixers coach in 2010/11.
2014/15 NBA Reverse Standings
The 2014/15 season is only about two months old, but many scouts and executives around the league are already preparing for the 2015 NBA draft. They’re no doubt cognizant of how their respective NBA teams are doing as they attempt to get an idea of where they’ll be picking, and with the Hoops Rumors Reverse Standings, which list the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, you can easily follow along, too. We update these standings daily to reflect the outcomes of the games that took place the night before.
The Reverse Standings take into account playoff teams in each conference, so they’re essentially a reflection of what the 2015 first-round order would look like with no changes to lottery position. Traded picks are also included via footnotes. For instance, the notes next to the Lakers’ pick indicates that they’ll send it to Phoenix if it falls outside the top five selections. Whether that happens is anyone’s guess at this point, since the Lakers are tied with the Hornets for the fifth spot in the lottery order.
The existence of the lottery means there’s no guarantee that teams atop the Reverse Standings will draft in the order in which they finish, but the worse a club’s record, the better shot it has at landing the cream of the 2015 draft class. This year’s group of prospects, which includes Jahlil Okafor, Emmanuel Mudiay, Karl-Anthony Towns, isn’t as highly touted as the 2014 draftees were, but there’s still plenty of star potential.
Our Reverse Standings feature can be found at anytime on our right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2015. Be sure to check back often!
Trade Rumors App For iOS/Android
Three trades have happened within the past two weeks, and plenty more movement is likely to take place with a pair of key dates set for next week and the February 19th trade deadline drawing ever closer. You can follow all of the latest news and rumors as talks intensify with the new Trade Rumors app for iOS and Android devices!
The Trade Rumors app brings Hoops Rumors together with content from our sister sites, MLB Trade Rumors and Pro Football Rumors. You can easily scroll left to right and click on the image of the article you want to read. You can also filter your feeds to show only the top stories within that category, if you prefer.
Once you’re within a feed, you can swipe to read older or newer articles without going back to the home screen. You can easily share each article via Twitter, Facebook, email or text message.
The Trade Rumors app is highly customizable. You can add feeds for any of the 92 MLB, NBA, and NFL teams, as well as for any of the thousands of players in our archives, by using the settings icon on top for iOS and the pencil icon on top for Android. You can create a multi-sport experience tailored to your specific interests, or you can limit your app entirely to one sport by removing the others.
Best of all? The Trade Rumors app is free! Download it for iOS or Android and leave a review!
Alec Burks Will Miss Rest Of Season
5:36pm: Burks will miss the remainder of the season, the Jazz have announced. “Alec’s long-term health has been our top priority throughout this process, and although it is unfortunate that we will be without his services on the court the rest of this season, we commend Alec’s commitment and continued effort to play through considerable pain to this point,” said Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey. “After continued consultation with our medical staff, Alec and his representation, we have unanimously agreed that it would be most prudent for Alec to have this procedure performed now in order to ensure that he will be healthy and ready for the start of next season.”
3:36pm: The Jazz are concerned that continued shoulder problems for Alec Burks will knock him out for the season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Burks has missed the team’s last two games with a strained left shoulder. He also missed a pair of games earlier this month with trouble in the same shoulder, and there were conflicting reports about whether he would need surgery. The 23-year-old shooting guard signed a four-year, $42MM extension, with incentives that could push the value to $45MM, in October. He’s making a little more than $3.034MM in the final year of his rookie scale contract this season, but the Jazz couldn’t apply for a Disabled Player Exception, which would be worth $1,517,178, since they’re under the cap.
The original injury didn’t appear to have a profound effect on his performance, as his scoring and three-point shooting percentage have both gone up since he missed those two early-December games. His numbers overall this season, his first as a full-time starter, have been similar to the ones he posted last year when he saw 5.2 fewer minutes per game. Burks is shooting a career-worst 40.3%, though that percentage has remained steady since his brief absence earlier this month.
The Jazz are 10-21 and without legitimate playoff hopes in the Western Conference, so the loss of Burks wouldn’t derail any grand plans for this season. Still, the team surely hoped he could develop further under new coach Quin Snyder to help the extension look less like the player-friendly arrangement that it appeared to be when Burks put pen to paper. The Jazz only have 12 players with fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster counts show, so they have flexibility to find a replacement for Burks if they wish. However, all of their contracts would become guaranteed if they’re still on the books come January 10th, the leaguewide guarantee date.
Western Notes: Wolves, Warriors, Varnado
The teams at the top of the Eastern Conference have begun to close the gap on the West, as Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal observes in his latest “Pick and Pop” column. There are as many teams with winning percentages of .700 or better in the East as there are in the West, and the top four Eastern teams have all won at least eight of their last 10 games. The Blazers are the only Western team that can boast that. Imbalance still exists farther down the standings, where the 18-14 Suns cling to the last Western playoff spot while the 14-18 Heat lay claim to eighth place in the East. Here’s the latest from around the conference that still reigns supreme:
- Flip Saunders said the Timberwolves are looking at “all kinds of options” and said the team hasn’t reached a deal with anyone amid conflicting reports of an agreement with Miroslav Raduljica, notes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). Still, Saunders acknowledged there’s “no question” that the team needs to add size, as Zgoda tweets.
- Warriors coach Steve Kerr doesn’t expect his team will make significant changes anytime soon, as he said on NBA TV, notes Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group (on Twitter). “I don’t anticipate us doing a whole lot,” Kerr said. “We’re doing well. We like our team. We’ve got good versatility and depth.”
- The D-League affiliate of the Lakers acquired the rights to Jarvis Varnado in a trade with the Grizzlies D-League affiliate, the L.A. D-Fenders announced (on Twitter). That sort of move usually coincides with or precedes a signing, though it doesn’t appear as though Varnado has a contract with the D-Fenders just yet. Varnado, who was in camp with the Sixers this past fall, was one of a half-dozen players without a deal to play pro basketball after inking an NBA 10-day contract last season, as I noted earlier.
- Former Jazz camp invitee Kevin Murphy has left Utah’s D-League affiliate to pursue a deal overseas, reports Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (Twitter link). The swingman was briefly with the Jazz during the preseason before the team cut him October 10th.
Where 2013/14 10-Day Signees Are Today
A slight majority of last season’s 10-day signees were under new contracts with NBA teams when we last checked on their whereabouts in September. That’s changed significantly in the last few months, with NBA teams set to once more be able to sign players to 10-day contracts beginning Monday. Only eight of the 41 who signed 10-day deals in 2013/14 are still on NBA rosters. Much larger contingents are in the D-League and playing overseas. A few are free agents, and a couple have retired.
It’s quite conceivable that many of those players who are no longer in the NBA will wind up signing 10-day deals again this season. There’s a decent chance that’s also the case for some of the eight who are still in the league, since most of them are on contracts that aren’t fully guaranteed. The leaguewide guarantee date of January 10th, which usually leads several teams to cut ties with players on non-guaranteed deals, looms next week, just days after teams can issue 10-day contracts again.
Here’s a look at what every player who signed a 10-day contract during the 2013/14 season is up to now:
NBA (8)
- Leandro Barbosa — Warriors
- Jared Cunningham — Clippers
- Dewayne Dedmon — Magic
- Drew Gooden — Wizards
- Justin Hamilton — Heat
- Cartier Martin — Pistons
- Darius Morris — Nets
- Shawne Williams — Heat
D-League (12)
- Chris Babb — Celtics D-League affiliate
- Vander Blue — Lakers D-League affiliate
- Seth Curry — Magic D-League affiliate
- Jorge Gutierrez — Cavaliers D-League affiliate
- Manny Harris — Lakers D-League affiliate
- Damion James — Mavericks D-League affiliate
- Mike James — Mavericks D-League affiliate
- Chris Johnson — Rockets D-League affiliate
- Orlando Johnson — Spurs D-League affiliate
- Arinze Onuaku — Cavaliers D-League affiliate
- Adonis Thomas — Pistons D-League affiliate
- Reggie Williams — Thunder D-League affiliate
Overseas (15)
- Hilton Armstrong — Turkey (Besiktas)
- Earl Clark — China (Shandong)
- Shane Edwards — Sweded (Sundsvall)
- Othyus Jeffers — Philippines (Talk N Text Tropang Texters)
- Darius Johnson-Odom — Italy (AV Cantu)
- DeAndre Liggins — Russia (Krasny Oktyabr)
- Tony Mitchell — Italy (Dolomiti Energia Trento)
- James Nunnally — Israel (Maccabi Ashdod)
- Dexter Pittman — Turkey (Aykon TED Kolejliler Ankara)
- Mustafa Shakur — Lithuania (Neptunas)
- D.J. Stephens — Russia (Zenit Saint Petersburg)
- Sasha Vujacic — Spain (Laboral Kutxa)
- Casper Ware — Germany (EWE Baskets Oldenburg)
- D.J. White — China (Fujian)
- Chris Wright — Poland (Turow Zgorzelec)
Free agents (4)
Retired (2)
RealGM was used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Butler, Pistons, Bass, Woodson
Jimmy Butler is keeping up his stellar play, and as he seems poised to cash in during restricted free agency in the summer ahead, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau made it clear on Monday that the team remains committed to keeping him, as Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes.
“I think all of us that have been around him know who Jimmy is and we all value who he is,” Thibodeau said. “Those are business decisions that he [and] his agent have to make. Our organization feels very strongly about him. We want him here for a long time so that’ll all take care of itself in the end.”
While we wait to see how it works out for Butler, who went from unranked to the No. 5 position in the latest Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- The offers the Kings made to the Pistons for Josh Smith weren’t as clear-cut as they’ve been reported, sources have told MLive’s David Mayo. Van Gundy blundered when he gave Smith too much responsibility in the team’s offense, opines Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News, and that he didn’t alter that even as he was mulling the idea of waiving Smith throughout the month of December is even more perplexing, Mayo believes.
- Brandon Bass let it be known that he has no desire to follow Rajon Rondo out of Boston, saying he isn’t “into looking and searching for a team to go to win a championship,” observes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. Bass, on an expiring contract worth $6.9MM this season, nonetheless remains an intriguing trade chip for the Celtics if they wish to move him. His playing time has dipped significantly since the acquisition of Brandan Wright in the Rondo trade, notes Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald.
- Mike Woodson called his time coaching the Knicks a “wonderful experience” as he spoke Monday to reporters, including Marc Berman of the New York Post. Woodson, now a Clippers assistant coach, said he was intent on taking this season off until Doc Rivers, a friend, prevailed on him to join his staff, as Berman also notes.
Nets, Kings Discuss Deron Williams Deal
DECEMBER 30TH: The Nets also expressed interest in acquiring Nik Stauskas as part of a deal, but the Kings were reluctant to give him up, reports Tim Bontemps of the New York Post.
2:27pm: The talks aren’t completely dead, Broussard cautions in a full story, and a source tells the ESPN scribe that he expects the teams to continue their conversation until the February 19th trade deadline.
DECEMBER 23RD, 10:57am: The conversation between the Kings and Nets is “virtually dead,” since Plumlee, and not Williams, was Sacramento’s primary target and Brooklyn is unwilling to give up Plumlee, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
DECEMBER 20TH, 8:24pm: Talks aren’t ongoing for now, according to Alex Raskin of The Wall Street Journal (Twitter link). The Kings made the initial inquiry, according to Raskin and Devin Kharpertian of The Brooklyn Game (Twitter link). Still, the discussion is liable to pick back up, since the Nets are listening to all offers, Raskin tweets, adding that Brooklyn considers none of its players untradeable, an assertion that would seem to conflict with the other reports indicating that Plumlee is off-limits. Sources “emphatically” told Tim Bontemps of the New York Post that Plumlee isn’t going anywhere, however.
5:49pm: The Nets and Kings are in trade talks about Deron Williams, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who cautions that no deal is imminent. A source confirms the talks to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, who nonetheless hears that the sides aren’t at all close to a deal that this point (Twitter link). The discussion involves Darren Collison, Derrick Williams and Jason Thompson from Sacramento’s side, according to Wojnarowski. The Kings would like for Mason Plumlee to be a part of any transaction, and that’s a stumbling block from the Nets’ perspective, Wojnarowski adds. Plumlee is virtually untouchable as far as Brooklyn is concerned, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck tweets, and the same is true of Sergey Karasev and Bojan Bogdanovic, as NetsDaily’s Robert Windrem hears (Twitter link). The Kings are high on Collison and hesitant to give him up, but the Nets want to have a point guard to replace Williams should they give him up, as the Yahoo scribe details.
The relationship between Deron Williams and the Nets has chilled over the past two years, and there’s mutual appeal to parting ways, sources tell Wojnarowski. Conversely, Williams and Kings coach Tyrone Corbin have a relationship that’s persisted since their years together in Utah, where Corbin was an assistant coach while Williams played with the Jazz. The Kings are thrilled with Collison so far this season, Wojnarowski writes. Still, they’ve poked around for an upgrade at point guard since signing Collison over the summer, having asked the Timberwolves about Ricky Rubio before Rubio signed his extension with Minnesota in October, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). The Kings maintained interest in Rajon Rondo, though the Celtics’ demands for him were reportedly too high for Sacramento’s liking.
The Nets have had talks about moving Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson of late as they appear ready to make major changes. They also looked into the idea of trading for Lance Stephenson and spoke to Boston about Rondo before he went to the Mavs, according to earlier reports.
Deron Williams’ salary of more than $19.754MM for this season and the two additional years that remain on his contract make him tough to move, especially considering the decline in his performance since he signed the maximum-salary deal as the marquee free agent in the 2012 market. He averaged 20.1 points and 8.7 assists the season before he signed the max contract and is putting up 15.6 PPG and 6.8 APG this season. Those numbers are similar to the 15.6 PPG and 6.1 APG that Collison is putting up for the Kings this year, as Windrem notes (on Twitter). Collison makes about $4.798MM this season, less than Derrick Williams and his salary of more than $6.331MM and Thompson, who’s getting almost $6.038MM.
Coaching Rumors: Jackson, Corbin, Van Gundy
There’s been only one coaching change in the NBA so far this season, but stability has never been a hallmark of the coaching profession. The Cavaliers are reportedly concerned about David Blatt, and while there’s no sign that his job is truly in jeopardy, the rumors have already begun. Here’s more from around coaching circles:
- Several GMs around the league believe that the Cavs coaching job is the one that Mark Jackson would like to have, as those execs have told Chris Mannix of SI.com, who passes along the tidbit in a video report. People around the league reportedly believe that LeBron James wouldn’t want Jackson to coach the team, though they are both clients of agent Rich Paul. Jackson over the summer denied reports that the Cavs had spoken to him about the job before they hired Blatt, and more recently Jackson said that a meeting he had with Kings brass didn’t have to do with coaching that team, either.
- Tyrone Corbin has signed a new contract that calls for him to be the head coach of the Kings through the end of the season, a source tells James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom. Corbin had been on a two-year deal as an assistant coach for the team. He took over head coaching duties earlier this month when the Kings fired Michael Malone.
- Stan Van Gundy says the Pistons job will be his last coaching position and that he promised his wife he’ll retire at age 60, tweets John Denton of Magic.com. Still, the 55-year-old Van Gundy said he’s leaving the door open to coaching beyond his current contract, according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). His deal with the Pistons runs through the 2018/19 season, and Van Gundy, who runs basketball operations for the team in addition to his coaching duties, will turn 60 in August 2019. Van Gundy also promised his wife that he won’t relocate again, Robbins adds (on Twitter). Still, he thought his job with the Magic would be his last, Denton notes (Twitter link).