Atlantic Notes: Lopez, Williams, Celtics, Garnett
The Nets and Celtics discussed Brook Lopez and Deron Williams when the teams spoke about Rajon Rondo prior to the trade that sent Rondo to the Mavs, league sources tell NetsDaily’s Robert Windrem. The Nets have been open to trading Lopez and Williams, as well as Joe Johnson, and some reports have indicated that they’re actively seeking trades for the trio, though that matter is unclear, and it’s unknown whether the Celtics had or maintain interest in either Lopez or Williams. While we wait to see how Boston and Brooklyn try to shape themselves back into contenders, there’s more on those teams amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics and Nets talked about Mirza Teletovic and “some of the younger pieces” that Brooklyn has, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com, who spoke on CSNNE’s Celtics Pregame Live (video link). However, Windrem hears that wasn’t the case, as he notes in the same piece amid his transcription of Mannix’s remarks.
- Kevin Garnett has been telling people this season is his last in the NBA, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald hears, but they haven’t necessarily believed him, and one unidentified person tells Bulpett that Garnett is having more fun playing than he has in a while. The 20th-year vet, whose contract expires at season’s end, said publicly this week that he’s not sure about whether he’ll play next season, Bulpett notes.
- Landing Jahlil Okafor in the 2015 draft would help the Knicks attract free agents, as Marc Berman of the New York Post opines amid a look at New York’s woes. The Knicks are just a half-game back of the top slot in the draft lottery, our Reverse Standings show. Okafor, a center, tops the prospect rankings of Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, Chad Ford of ESPN.com and our own Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors.
Heat Have Interest In Andray Blatche
The Heat are eyeing Andray Blatche, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The 28-year-old big man is committed to China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers through the end of their season, a stumbling block considering that the Heat are in need of an inside player immediately, as Stein points out (on Twitter). Josh McRoberts is expected to miss the rest of the season and Chris Bosh is out indefinitely, but the regular season for the Flying Tigers doesn’t end until February 1st, and Blatche could be stuck in China until mid-March if Xinjiang makes the CBA finals as the team did last season.
Miami has been hesitant to sign Blatche in the past because of his maturity level and his behavior, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald wrote over the summer. Blatche was absent from the Nets for what the team called personal reasons over a four-game stretch a year ago, but the break was reportedly a product of then-Nets coach Jason Kidd having essentially suspended him because of what Kidd saw as a lack of conditioning and preparation. Still, Miami wasn’t definitively ruling out the Andy Miller client as of August. The Raptors reportedly met with Blatche over the summer, and while another report indicated he would work out for the Clippers, Miller said that dispatch was false. Blatche was apparently telling many folks around the league that he would end up signing with the Pelicans, but he instead signed his Chinese deal in late September.
The Heat gained a disabled player exception worth precisely $2,652,500 because of the McRoberts injury, as Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald reported late Friday, so they can offer significantly more than the prorated minimum salary. However, that exception expires March 10th, a date that might precede the end of Blatche’s obligations in China. Miami is carrying 15 players, as our roster counts show, so the team would have to let someone go to create a spot for Blatche. He was productive off the bench for Brooklyn the past two seasons, averaging 11.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game last year, and he’s been an overall plus on the court, as I noted when I examined Blatche’s free agent stock in August.
Ray Allen Leaning Toward Retirement
Sought-after free agent shooting guard Ray Allen is leaning toward retirement, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com told ESPN Cleveland radio host Jason Gibbs on Friday (Twitter link; audio link). It would be a disappointment to several teams if the 39-year-old were to retire, and particularly to the Cavs, who have seemingly been the front-runners to land him since the summer even as Allen and agent Jim Tanner repeatedly insisted that no decision had been made. The Clippers, Grizzlies and Warriors were the most recent teams to jump in the fray for him, while Cleveland was among a group that maintained interest as of late last month that also included the Wizards, Bulls and Spurs.
Allen spent last season with the Heat, but he’s seemingly ruled out the idea of returning to play in Miami. The league’s all-time leading three-point shot maker appeared to show his age last year, averaging 9.6 points per game, the first time he put up fewer than 10 PPG in his 18 NBA seasons. The career 40.0% three-point shooter connected on just 37.5% of his attempts from behind the arc in 2013/14. Still, that rate put Allen among the better outside shooters, and his experience as a two-time champion gives him extra value to contenders. He indicated a strong preference for playing for more than the minimum salary this summer, and since many teams, including the Cavs, can pay him no more than that, it’s quite possible that’s a factor in his decision-making. A prorated minimum-salary contract would give Allen the lowest salary of his career, one in which he’s accumulated more than $184MM in earnings, as Basketball-Reference shows.
The 10-time All-Star has enjoyed a decorated career that’s likely Hall-of-Fame worthy regardless of whether he comes back to pad his total of 2,973 three-pointers, more than 400 more than the next player on the list and more than 900 more than Jason Terry, the active leader in that category. Still, he was much more than just a spot-up shooter, averaging 21.8 PPG or better eight times, including 2006/07, when he put up a career-high 26.4 PPG for the SuperSonics. That was the season before a trade sent him to Boston, where he earned his first championship. He left the Celtics in somewhat acrimonious fashion in 2012 to join the Heat, and he picked up title No. 2 in Miami. He didn’t make it to the Finals with either Seattle or his original team, the Bucks, but he was on a Milwaukee team that fell in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals in 2001.
Josh Smith Signs With Rockets
FRIDAY, 11:23am: The deal is official, the Rockets announced.
WEDNESDAY, 5:15pm: Smith officially cleared waivers Wednesday and is looking forward to joining Howard in Houston, reports Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. Smith said the Rockets expressed interest in acquiring him even before he was waived. “Now we came together, and being able to be wanted by a team with so much dynamics as far as having a chance to win the title is very special and very humbling,” Smith said.
1:05pm: The updated version of Wojnarowski’s story indicates that Smith is signing a one-year deal, in line with what Feigen says, and seconds Feigen’s report that the team is in talks about a trade that would open a roster spot. Those talks could be complete as soon as later today, Wojnarowski writes.
1:01pm: The Rockets are working on a swap to create a roster spot, Feigen tweets. Feigen also indicates that Smith’s deal is for just one season, conflicting with Wojnarowski’s earlier report.
12:52pm: Smith will receive the full $2.077MM value of the biannual exception this season, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).
12:03pm: Josh Smith has committed to signing with the Rockets once he clears waivers at 4pm Central today, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The move is no surprise, since Houston became the favorite Monday after the Pistons waived him, and the Rockets only strengthened that position Tuesday. Houston had promised a starting job, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported overnight (Twitter link), and close friend Dwight Howard was recruiting him. Smith will receive a two-year deal for the biannual exception with a player option for next season, Wojnarowski reports in a full story.
That exception, which gives him $2.077MM this year and a 4.5% raise on that salary for next season, assuming Houston is giving him the full amount, is an advantage the Rockets had over many other suitors limited to the minimum. The Sixers have the cap space necessary to claim Smith off waivers and forestall Houston from signing him, but they reportedly have no intention of doing so. Still, perhaps the most important edge the Rockets had was the willingness to offer a starting role, as Smith had narrowed his choices to only teams that would give him that, Stein tweets. The Heat were one of those teams, but they evidently came up empty, as did other contenders reported to have varying levels of interest in signing the 29-year-old forward, including the Mavericks, Cavaliers, Grizzlies, Lakers, Clippers and Kings. Memphis made a strong push for him late, as Wojnarowski reported earlier today (on Twitter), but the Grizzlies fell short.
The client of agents Brian Dyke and Wallace Prather saw his stock surge as his price point dropped. Detroit, at 5-23, saw fit to eat the remaining guaranteed money on the four-year, $54MM contract he signed in the summer of 2013, using the stretch provision to spread the money so that the Pistons will pay just $5.4MM each season from 2015/16 through 2019/20. That number figures to go down further thanks to set-off rights, depending on the value of the contracts that Smith signs for the seasons ahead. His deal with the Rockets will save the Pistons $630,259 this season, presuming Smith is receiving the full value of the biannual.
The Rockets have a full 15-man roster, as our roster counts show, so a corresponding move will be necessary. They have two players without fully guaranteed contracts, but one of them is starting point guard Patrick Beverley. The other is backup center Tarik Black, but he’s played a key role and started 12 games in place of an injured Howard. Black had a partial guarantee of $50K on his minimum-salary contract to begin the season, but he’s already earned more than that amount.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Heat Rumors: LeBron, Cavs, Wade
The Cavs and Heat both go into Thursday’s LeBron James reunion game in Miami on rather profound down notes. The Heat lost Tuesday to the lowly Sixers, while the Cavs learned today that Anderson Varejao has a torn Achilles tendon and is expected to miss the rest of the season. Still, Miami would probably trade the position it’s in for Cleveland’s troubles. Here’s more on the after-effects still rippling from James’ decision to leave the Heat:
- What bothers people within the Heat who believe that James knew he would return to Cleveland well before he met with Pat Riley in July was that James’ failure to let Miami’s brass know his choice hurt the team in free agency, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald hears. James publicly announced his decision on July 11th, after many prominent free agents had committed to sign or had narrowed their options. Those Heat insiders think James’ chief concern was how his decision-making process would play from a public relations standpoint and question whether James wanted more say in personnel decisions and more accommodations for his friends, Jackson writes.
- The Cavs hired Randy Mims, James’ personal assistant, this season, but they complained to the league when the Heat attempted to hire him shortly after James signed with Miami four years ago, claiming it would circumvent the salary cap, a league source tells Jackson.
- Dwyane Wade has no hard feelings, and he told reporters today that James made the right decision when he returned to Cleveland, adding that he didn’t attempt to prevail upon the four-time MVP to stay in Miami. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports and Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post relay Wade’s thoughts in a pair of tweets.
Rockets Sign Kevin McHale To Extension
1:10pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
10:36am: 
The Rockets and coach Kevin McHale have agreed to a three-year extension, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. McHale entered the season in the final year of his contract and under a degree of pressure after last season’s first-round exit from the playoffs. However, Houston has started the season 20-7 in spite of the absence of Dwight Howard for a dozen games and an offseason that saw the Rockets purge much of their depth. The extension will be worth nearly $13MM over the three seasons, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link). There are no team options involved, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com, unlike the previous arrangement between the team and McHale (Twitter link).
“He’s done a great job and I think can take us very far in the playoffs,” Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston tweets.
Houston picked up McHale’s option for this season shortly after its playoff ouster last spring, a hedge between an immediate change at the helm of a still-fluid roster and the long-term commitment that the team is making now. Alexander said in November that he wouldn’t judge McHale solely on the team’s performance in the playoffs, and it seems the club’s strong start to the regular season was enough.
The Hall of Fame forward/center took over the Rockets before the lockout-shortened 2011/12 season, when the franchise was stringing together mediocre seasons just outside the playoffs in the Western Conference. Houston finished outside the postseason at 34-32 in McHale’s first year, but the Rockets have been a playoff team each of the last two years following the acquisition of James Harden in the fall of 2012 and Howard in the summer of 2013. The team has improved its winning percentage in each season since McHale’s first as coach, including this season, as the team is on pace to win 61 games.
McHale has gone 153-104 in the regular season over his time with the Rockets, who lost in six games in the first round of the playoffs in 2013 and 2014. He’s 192-159 in the regular season overall, including his time on the bench for the Timberwolves. McHale began the season as the only coach in the NBA on the final year of his contract, as Stein notes (on Twitter).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pistons, Suns Swap Tolliver, Mitchell
The Pistons have acquired Anthony Tolliver from the Suns in exchange for Tony Mitchell, the teams announced via press release. It’s a straight one-for-one swap. The Suns are expected to waive Mitchell, reports Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Both teams had cap space going into the deal, and both remain under the cap, so there was no salary matching necessary. Detroit is just a sliver under the cap after taking on Tolliver’s $3MM salary, while the Suns open up nearly $2.184MM in additional cap room in the exchange, even though Mitchell’s guaranteed minimum salary will stick on Phoenix’s books if he indeed hits waivers.
Tolliver, a 6’8″ combo forward, helps make up for the loss of Josh Smith, whom the Pistons shockingly waived Monday. He’s a much more proficient outside shooter than Smith is, having nailed 38.5% of his three-point attempts so far this season and 35.5% for his career. He shot 41.3% on three-pointers last season, helping him earn a two-year, $6MM deal with the Suns, who needed to replace Magic signee Channing Frye. Tolliver nonetheless saw only 11.3 minutes per game for Phoenix, which clearly saw him as expendable. Only $400K of next season’s $3MM salary is guaranteed for Tolliver, so the Pistons largely preserve their cap flexibility for the summer ahead.
Mitchell, a power forward not to be confused with the former Bucks small forward by the same name, had been on his fourth D-League assignment of the season since December 12th. The 37th overall pick in the 2013 draft had yet to appear in a regular season game this season for new coach/executive Stan Van Gundy after seeing only 79 minutes spread over 21 games as a rookie last year.
Anderson Varejao Suffers Torn Achilles
Tests revealed that Anderson Varejao has suffered a torn Achilles tendon, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The injury to his left leg is indeed expected to knock him out for the rest of the season, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets. All signs were pointing to the injury having been a torn Achilles, as Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio heard shortly before the news broke (Twitter link). An MRI this morning revealed the tear, as Wojnarowski notes in a full story. The 32-year-old couldn’t put any weight on the leg when he exited Tuesday’s game after the injury occured.
It’s a tough blow for the Cavs, who guaranteed his nearly $9.705MM salary for this season when they signed him to a three-year extension in the fall. Cleveland can apply to the NBA for a disabled player exception worth 50% of his salary, or more than $4.582MM. The Cavs had inquired about the possibility of signing Josh Smith before Varejao went down, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group (Twitter link), but that was chiefly a matter of the team doing its due diligence, Haynes cautions. The Knicks are making Samuel Dalembert available, according to Wojnarowski, but his acquisition would be a “last resort” for the Cavs, Wojnarowski tweets.
Cleveland has been in talks with the Celtics in recent days about Boston’s willingness to participate in a trade as a third team, as Windhorst and ESPN colleague Marc Stein wrote overnight. The Cavs have long been looking for a rim-protector, and they appear poised to intensify that search now that they’ll be without their only starting-caliber center.
Nets Rumors: Johnson, Lopez, Williams
Brooklyn appears steadfast in its desire to keep Mason Plumlee, who just a few weeks ago was behind minimum-salary signee Jerome Jordan and in third place on the team’s depth chart at center. Plumlee has quickly roared back into prominence, averaging 18.1 points and 10.6 rebounds in 35.0 minutes per contest over his last seven games. He’s been starting in place of an injured Brook Lopez, who returned in a limited role Tuesday. Lopez has been in several trade rumors of late, and we’ll pass along more on him and his teammates here:
- The Nets decided months ago that they needed to break up their core, writes Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. The team is reportedly willing to deal Lopez, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, but Johnson is likely to stay, according to Beck. Johnson’s salaries of nearly $23.181MM for this season and almost $24.895MM for next year would make any trade challenging to construct, as Beck notes later in his piece, though it’s unclear if that’s the primary reason he’ll probably stay in Brooklyn. In any case, Nets officials are confident that they can deal Williams and Lopez, build around Johnson and remain a playoff-caliber team throughout the process, Beck reports.
- Many executives around the league expect Lopez to turn down his player option for next season, worth more than $16.744MM, Beck writes. That appears to contradict a report last week from Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who wrote that most execs believe Lopez will opt in.
- Brooklyn is more likely to deal Williams than either Lopez or Johnson, and talks with the Kings date back to last season, a source tells Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. That conversation might be on the back burner, but it isn’t truly finished, Bondy hears, which jibes with the latest reports on that discussion.
Cavs, Celtics Discuss Three-Team Trade Ideas
9:28am: Varejao’s injury “does not look good at all,” a source close to the big man told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
8:47am: The Cavaliers have spoken with the Celtics over the past few days about three-team trade scenarios as Cleveland continues to seek an inside player, report Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Cavs’ enduring quest to add to their front line will likely intensify if an MRI Wednesday reveals a torn Achilles for Anderson Varejao, a potential outcome that has Cleveland’s brass worried after he left Tuesday’s game and was unable to put any weight on his left leg, Windhorst and Stein write.
The Cavs have been looking to add a center, and specifically one who can provide rim protection, since a summer pursuit of Timofey Mozgov. Still, it’s apparently been a while since Cleveland and Denver have discussed him, and Kosta Koufos has seemingly been a more recent target. The Grizzlies have “kicked around” the idea of relinquishing Koufos, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote Tuesday, but the Cavs would reportedly have competition from the Kings, if not others, for the Memphis backup center. Koufos has an expiring contract worth $3MM this year that would fit into Cleveland’s nearly $5.286MM trade exception, just as Mozgov’s salary would, one of the reasons that the team sought them both, according to Windhorst and Stein.
Boston stands to net as many as 11 extra draft picks from 2015 through 2018 thanks to previous transactions, so they have plenty of assets to facilitate a swap. The Celtics have been aggressive recently in attempts to stockpile draft picks, Windhorst and Stein write, though it’s unclear if Boston continues to take that approach or if that’s a reference to their efforts prior to the Rajon Rondo trade, a deal in which they acquired two picks. The C’s also have frontcourt depth, bolstered by the acquisition of Brandan Wright in the Rondo trade, as the ESPN scribes point out. Wright’s $5MM salary would fit within the trade exception, which would make it somewhat easier for him to be traded, since Boston can’t aggregate his salary in a trade until February 19th, the day of the trade deadline. However, it’s unknown whether Wright’s name has come up in discussions between Cleveland and Boston. The teams appear to be talking about a three-team trade in which the Celtics would act as a facilitator, according to Windhorst and Stein, so that would seemingly indicate that Cleveland’s primary targets are not on the C’s.
The loss of Varejao to a torn Achilles, almost certainly a season-ending injury, would be devastating for the title-contending Cavs, who guaranteed Varejao’s salary of nearly $9.705MM this season when they signed him to an extension in October. He’s been the starter at center for Cleveland, which doesn’t possess another starting-caliber center on its roster.