Dwight Buycks To Play In China
TUESDAY, 9:06am: Buycks is joining the Tianjin Steel, a source tells Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia (Twitter link).
MONDAY, 10:25am: Former Raptors point guard and recent Lakers workout participant Dwight Buycks has struck a deal with a Chinese team, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The identity of the team is unclear. It’s the second time since Toronto waived him in July that he’s decided to take a deal to play overseas, though there appears to have been persistent interest from NBA clubs.
The Relativity Sports client has been a free agent since engineering a buyout from Valencia of Spain, the team that had signed him to a one-year deal over the summer. The Lakers and Clippers had non-guaranteed contracts on the table for Buycks when he went to Spain, Pick reported then, telling Hoops Rumors that Buycks and the Nuggets had been close to a deal. Sportando’s Enea Trapani identified the Suns as an interested party in July. Buycks was in talks with the Thunder in November, and the Grizzlies reportedly gave him a look around that time, though a source told Pick even then that there was a strong chance that the 25-year-old would end up in China. Still, the Lakers worked him out twice, both times head-to-head against Gal Mekel, though neither landed a deal with the purple-and-gold.
Last season was the first in the NBA for Buycks, who put up 3.1 points in 10.4 minutes per game across just 14 appearances, even though he was on Toronto’s roster all season. The Raptors let him go this summer just days before his non-guaranteed minimum salary would have become fully guaranteed for the season.
Southeast Notes: Heat, Wizards, Stephenson
The two best Eastern Conference teams outside of Canada reside in the Southeast Division, where the Wizards and Hawks are separated by only a game atop the division. Still, there’s turmoil elsewhere in the Southeast, where the Hornets are apparently engaged in trade talks regarding Lance Stephenson and the Heat are suffering from injury woes. Here’s the latest:
- The Heat are thinking about bringing in another big man with Josh McRoberts sidelined perhaps for the rest of the season, writes Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald.
- John Wall insisted this past offseason that the Wizards retain coach Randy Wittman, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Wittman’s job security was reportedly still in limbo until Washington dispatched the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs last season, and the Wizards signed him to an extension in June.
- Miami has recalled Shabazz Napier and Hassan Whiteside from the D-League, the team announced. The team sent them down to Sioux Falls on Saturday in advance of the Skyforce’s game that day. Napier scored 22 points and Whiteside put up 21 points and 12 rebounds in a win for the Heat‘s affiliate.
- The Hornets are finding out that Stephenson is more attractive from a distance than he is as a day-to-day presence on the team, as Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star believes.
Kings Coaching Rumors: Mullin, Jent, Malone
The Kings’ head coaching job appears to be George Karl‘s if he wants it, and it seems like he does. Still, the job would be Chris Mullin‘s if he wanted to take it, an opposing GM tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), and Mullin is indeed a possibility, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Tyrone Corbin is expected to take the job on an interim basis once the Kings make their decision to fire Michael Malone official. Here’s more on a time of uncertainty in California’s capital:
5:28pm update:
- Ranadive finds the prospect of Mullin coaching the team “very intriguing,” sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
4:48pm update:
- It was a mutual parting of ways for Jent and the Kings, D’Alessandro told reporters, including Jones (Twitter link).
4:06pm updates:
- Jent won’t be on the staff going forward, Corbin confirmed to reporters, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee notes (on Twitter).
- Cousins said the news of Malone’s departure, which he heard via Twitter, evoked an emotional reaction among the players and called the day’s rainy weather a fitting backdrop, as Amick and Jones relay (Twitter links).
4:00pm updates:
- DeMarcus Cousins said the Kings didn’t consult him about the apparent coaching change, but he trusts the team to work it all out, as he told reporters today, including USA Today’s Sam Amick (Twitter link).
- The Kings and assistant coach Chris Jent are expected to part ways, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who indicates that the team plans to make its decision to fire Malone official on Tuesday.
- Sacramento’s front office didn’t believe Jent, who served last season as the team’s top assistant, was the right man for the job, so they interviewed Alvin Gentry and Kurt Rambis for the position, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes in a full piece. Malone suspected at the time that the team was trying to hire his successor, and so he pursued Corbin, who landed the assistant coaching job and has been loyal to Malone. Gentry was uncomfortable with the notion that the Kings were setting him up as a head-coach-in-waiting, sources tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who says the Kings deny that they had that in mind.
- There’s more than $4MM that Malone is still to receive under the terms of his contract with the Kings, Wojnarowski writes in the same piece.
- The falling out between Malone and Kings management began late last season when Malone wanted the team to add a point guard and the front office instead signed Royce White to a pair of 10-day contracts and pushed Malone to play him, as Wojnarowski details.
- GM Pete D’Alessandro was merely the messenger in many cases as he passed along orders from Ranadive that Malone didn’t like, though D’Alessandro and Malone never formed any mutual trust, according to Wojnarowski.
- People around the team believe the Kings were waiting for an opportunity to fire Malone and used the team’s struggles of late as an excuse to do so, in spite of the absence of Cousins during the team’s 2-7 stretch over the last nine games, Wojnarowski hears.
- The presence of Malone was a major reason why Rudy Gay signed his three-year extension with the team last month, Wojnarowski also writes.
Kings Fire Mike Malone, Eye George Karl
4:54pm: The Kings have formally announced that they’ve fired Malone and installed Corbin as head coach, though there’s no mention of the word “interim” regarding Corbin in the team’s statement.
“This was an extremely difficult decision, but one we feel is in the best interest of the franchise moving forward,” D’Alessandro said. “Michael made significant contributions to the organization on many levels and helped foster cultural changes that positively impacted our team. We’re thankful for the commitment he exhibited during his time in Sacramento and wish him and his family the very best in the future.”
4:19pm: The team hasn’t issued a formal announcement of the move, but D’Alessandro confirmed that Corbin has replaced Malone as he spoke to reporters in an impromptu press conference that the team is streaming on its website. D’Alessandro refused to answer whether Corbin would hold the job for the rest of the season, as USA Today’s Sam Amick notes (on Twitter).
8:30am: The Kings told coach Michael Malone on Sunday night that they’ve decided to fire him, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Assistant coach Tyrone Corbin will assume the head coaching job on an interim basis and is likely to serve in that capacity for the rest of the season, Wojnarowski writes, though the team has yet to make any formal announcement of a coaching change. Many around the league strongly believe that Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro will pursue George Karl, with whom he worked in Denver, but any such move probably wouldn’t take place until the offseason, Wojnarowski hears. Still, Corbin is expected to be replaced eventually, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick.
The timing of the news is shocking, coming as it does with DeMarcus Cousins having missed the past nine games with viral meningitis. The Kings (11-13) were 9-6 before Cousins fell ill, and had wins over the Spurs, Clippers and Bulls during that stretch, as Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com points out (Twitter link).
Still, tension between Malone and the Kings brass has been building for the past year, as Wojnarowski details. D’Alessandro and owner Vivek Ranadive want a faster style of play, Wojnarowski writes, as does consultant Chris Mullin, tweets Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Mullin, who holds the title of advisor to the chairman, is an influential force within the front office, Amick notes. Management was disappointed with Malone’s player development, game plans and adjustments, a source tells fellow Yahoo! Sports scribe Marc J. Spears (Twitter link). Malone and D’Alessandro didn’t communicate much over the offseason, Amick hears. The front office interviewed candidates for the lead assistant coaching job, but it was Malone who decided to hire Corbin for that role, according to Wojnarowski, who adds that Malone doesn’t believe Corbin attempted to undermine him.
Malone let Ranadive know he was no fan of the Kings’ pursuit of Josh Smith this summer, Wojnarowski reports. Still, Ranadive, who was involved in those talks with the Pistons, and D’Alessandro forged ahead, though Detroit wasn’t biting, as Wojnarowski adds on Twitter.
Karl, who’s been out of coaching since his tenure with the Nuggets ended in the summer of 2013, just weeks after he won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, is a major fan of Cousins, and the Nuggets attempted to trade for the center during Karl’s time there, The Bee’s Jason Jones tweets.
Wojnarowski identifies Vinny Del Negro as another possible candidate for the job, while Mullin and Mark Jackson are tight, as Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group points out (on Twitter). Still, it’s unclear if the Kings are seriously considering either Del Negro or Jackson.
Ranadive’s first move after assuming ownership of the team in 2013 was to hire Malone, as Jones notes via Twitter, even before D’Alessandro or Mullin came aboard, in a departure from normal convention in which the coach is hired after the management team. Malone, who had been an assistant under Jackson in Golden State before he joined Sacramento, has gone 39-67 in his time with the Kings. Sacramento had given the well-regarded assistant his first NBA coaching job. He’s in the second season of a four-year deal worth approximately $9MM, though the final season is a team option that hasn’t yet been exercised, Amick notes.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Beck’s Latest: Kings, Knicks, Suns, Nets, Rockets
There will be chatter aplenty between now and the February 19th trade deadline, but not all of it will truly constitute trade rumors, as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck cautions. However, when multiple voices speak in unison, there’s usually a grain of truth involved, and Beck has plenty of tidbits he’s heard from a variety of sources around the league. We already passed along the news that the Pistons are putting Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings on the block, but that’s not the only item of note. We’ll pass along the rest of the highlights here and encourage you to read Beck’s full piece for more:
- The Kings head coaching job is George Karl‘s if he wants it, as both Beck and Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee hear (Twitter links). Alvin Gentry and Mark Jackson are also “prime candidates,” according to Beck, though it’s not clear if the Kings are targeting either of them. Karl said to Tom Byrne of SiriusXM NBA Radio today that, “If they’re interested in me, I’m interested in them (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first identified Karl as the front-runner for the job, which Tyrone Corbin is expected to assume on an interim basis.
- Executives around the league tell Beck that the Knicks are making all of their players except for Carmelo Anthony available, as Beck writes in his piece. A similar scenario is in place for New Orleans, where the Pelicans are open to trading everyone outside of Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Omer Asik and Ryan Anderson, Beck hears.
- Many executives expect the Suns to trade one of Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas, according to Beck.
- The Nets would probably only move one or two of Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, team sources tell Beck. The Rockets asked Brooklyn about Andrei Kirilenko before the Nets traded him to the Sixers last week, Beck also hears.
- There’s conflicting intel on the Nuggets, whom many executives view as top candidates to become sellers, while one Western Conference exec tells Beck that the Nuggets like their team and aren’t inclined to move anybody. In any case, there’s plenty of interest in Wilson Chandler and Timofey Mozgov, executives have said to Beck.
- Many executives and scouts identified Thaddeus Young, Mo Williams and David Lee among likely trade candidates, Beck writes.
Raptors Eye Marc Gasol
The Raptors are growing increasingly intrigued by Marc Gasol, according to Cathal Kelly of The Globe and Mail (hat tip to TNT’s David Aldridge). That’s not altogether surprising, since the No. 3 player in the latest Hoops Rumors 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings has been putting up career numbers in Memphis and looms as a seismic figure on next summer’s market. It’s unclear whether Toronto regards him as a free agent target or a possible trade acquisition, though Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger suggested this weekend that the Grizzlies, at 19-4, have no intention to make any moves for the time being. Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace has made it clear that re-signing Gasol is the first priority for the team.
Kelly identifies a dominating inside presence as Toronto’s most prominent need, though the team had placed high hopes in center Jonas Valanciunas, who’s in only his third NBA season after the Raptors drafted him fifth overall in 2011. Bryan Colangelo was in charge of basketball operations for the Raptors when they selected Valanciunas, and the interest in Gasol seems like a subtle hint that current GM Masai Ujiri isn’t as high on the ability of Valanciunas to develop into an elite center, though that’s just my speculation.
The Knicks are reportedly pessimistic about their chances to land Gasol, who’s said that he places a high value on playing for a winning club. Speculation has linked the Spurs to Gasol, but only if Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili retire. The Raptors are atop the Eastern Conference with an 18-6 record. Still, they have more than $49MM committed to nine players for next season, so accommodating the max contract that the Arn Tellem client would surely command next summer beneath a projected $66.5MM salary cap would be difficult.
Western Notes: Kings, Thomas, McGee, Grizzlies
Improvements in the performance and temperament of DeMarcus Cousins and a flawed roster unfit for the style Kings management wants to play are among the reasons SB Nation’s Tom Ziller believes the Kings erred in their apparent decision to fire coach Michael Malone. Cousins was one of Malone’s most enthusiastic supporters, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). Carl Landry has had high praise for Malone, too, according to Jones, who adds that Malone’s players have almost universally held the coach in high esteem (Twitter links). While we wait to see what happens next in Sacramento, here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Isaiah Thomas has fired agent Andy Miller of ASM Sports for reasons both personal and professional, sources tell Darren Heitner of the Sports Agent Blog (Twitter link). The agency confirmed the move, as Heitner notes via Twitter. The Suns guard intends to pick a new agent before the holidays, Heitner adds. Miller negotiated a new four-year, $27MM deal this summer for Thomas, the last pick in the 2011 draft.
- JaVale McGee will miss a “significant” amount of time after aggravating a muscle near the tibia in which he suffered a stress fracture that kept him out most of last season, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said Sunday to reporters, including Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. “I heard six weeks at one point,” Shaw said. “I don’t know. I don’t think he’s anywhere close to coming back right now.”
- Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger downplayed the notion that the team would make changes in spite of rumors indicating that the Cavs have their eyes on Tayshaun Prince and Kosta Koufos, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes. The Grizzlies are reportedly interested in Ray Allen, though there’s no indication that he would consider signing with Memphis, Tillery points out.
Central Notes: Stephenson, Josh Smith, Bulls
The Central Division hasn’t been the hub of many roster moves so far this season, aside from A.J. Price‘s Cavs-to-Pacers-to-Cavs odyssey and Will Cherry‘s brief tenure in Cleveland. That figures to change before too long, since today is the first day that most offseason signees are eligible for inclusion in trades. The Cavs apparently have their eyes on a pair of Grizzlies, while the Pacers are reportedly one of multiple teams in talks to trade for Lance Stephenson, though Indiana doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to make such a move. There’s more on Stephenson amid the latest items trickling out of the Central Division:
- The chance the Pacers have to bring back their old core for another run in 2015/16 and erase the mistakes they and Stephenson made in free agency this summer should lead Indiana to trade for its former shooting guard, opines Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. Buckner thinks, after having spoken with league sources, that Stephenson would welcome a Pacers reunion.
- Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press doesn’t foresee a Josh Smith trade happening soon, figuring that teams would want the Pistons to attach a first-rounder to Smith’s contract, worth $40.5MM between this season and its expiration after 2016/17 (Twitter links). Kings management tried to trade for Smith this summer over the objections of soon-to-be former coach Michael Malone, but the Pistons didn’t like what Sacramento was offering.
- The Bulls‘ decision to deal Luol Deng turned out to be a prudent one, as Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes. In the short term, the cap flexibility that Chicago freed up in the Deng deal took them out of luxury tax territory. From a broader perspective, the deal (plus the amnestying of Carlos Boozer‘s contract) gave the Bulls enough wiggle room to land Pau Gasol.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Clippers, Grizzlies, Warriors In Hunt For Ray Allen
8:18pm: Doc Rivers said the Clippers are also interested in Allen, tweets Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. Los Angeles had expressed an interest in Allen over the summer, but Rivers said in October that Allen wasn’t a candidate to join the team.
SATURDAY, 3:28pm: Allen’s agent, Jim Tanner, confirmed that their is a wide range of interest in his client around the league, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. In addition to the previously mentioned teams, the Grizzlies have also expressed interest in the veteran free agent, Charania notes.
4:00pm: Warriors GM Bob Myers told 95.7 The Game today that Golden State did reach out to Allen’s representatives, but Allen isn’t sure about what he wants to do, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group tweets.
THURSDAY, 9:01am: Ray Allen‘s name has drawn mention as the Warriors have engaged in internal discussions about their roster, according to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). The Warriors have been evaluating their options regarding their backcourt, Kawakami also tweets, though it’s unclear if they’re looking at bringing in someone new or just thinking about giving more minutes to players who are already on their roster. Golden State is a league-best 19-2, so it doesn’t seem there’d be much of a rush to make changes, though the Warriors’ position as a legitimate title threat no doubt gives them a leg up with sought-after free agents.
The 39-year-old Allen has lingered on the free agent market since July as he’s mulled whether to play again or retire. The Cavs, Wizards, Bulls and Spurs were among seven teams that still reportedly had interest in signing Allen as of late last month. Multiple reports from the past few weeks have cast the Cavs as the favorites to land the league’s all-time leading three-point maker should he decide to return to the NBA, echoing similar reports since the summer and an apparent belief that Cleveland’s front office had maintained into the fall. Still, Allen and agent Jim Tanner have shot down several rumors and have consistently maintained that Allen has yet to make up his mind. A report last week indicated that Allen has let teams know that he’ll entertain offers in January and decide about his future in February.
Allen said this summer that he wanted to play for an experienced coach, and while he didn’t rule out playing for the minimum salary, he made it clear that he’s not keen on the idea. That would appear to put the Warriors at a disadvantage should they pursue him, since Steve Kerr is in his first season as a head coach and Golden State is limited to the minimum salary. Kerr is nonetheless the first rookie coach in NBA history to win 19 out of his first 21 games. The Warriors are also one of the few teams in the NBA with an open roster spot. Leandro Barbosa and Justin Holiday are on partially guaranteed deals that are de facto non-guaranteed arrangements, since both have earned in excess of the amount of their partial guarantees. Holiday has seen little playing time this season, and Barbosa, who’s averaged 13.6 minutes per game this year, didn’t see action in the second half Wednesday, Kawakami notes (on Twitter).
Sixers Veteran Trade Acquisitions Rarely Stick
It’s no secret that draft considerations have served as the centerpiece for many of the trades that Sam Hinkie has made during his tenure as Sixers GM, which began in May 2013. His deal with the Pelicans in June 2013 that netted the rights to Nerlens Noel was the first significant signal of the rebuilding effort that Hinkie has undertaken in the nearly 18 months since. Still, what’s happened with the 15 players who were already on NBA contracts when the Sixers acquired them is as instructive as any other measure of the scope of Philadelphia’s future-focused approach.
Nine of those 15 players wound up on waivers, including Jorge Gutierrez, whom the team released today after having acquired him Thursday in the Andrei Kirilenko trade. Kirilenko seemed destined to join those ranks, too, though the Sixers are holding on to him for now, making him one of five veterans whom Hinkie’s Sixers still retain post-trade. One other player the Sixers traded for, Byron Mullens, became a free agent this summer and signed to play in China.
Royce White is the only trade acquisition in the Hinkie era whom the Sixers waited more than a month to release, as Philadelphia brought him to camp last year after acquiring him during the summer. It’s been much more common for players to hit waivers within days of having been traded to the Sixers, as was the case with Gutierrez. The Sixers released Travis Outlaw and Earl Clark on the same day that they traded for them.
Hinkie clearly didn’t intend to keep many of the veteran players he’s acquired through trade, as he’s allowed teams to unload guaranteed salaries they no longer wanted into the cap space that the Sixers have kept over most of this season and last. For this service, the Sixers have usually charged the price of a second-round draft pick or two, as even many of Hinkie’s veteran acquisitions are made with an eye on tomorrow. That was the case in the Kirilenko-Gutierrez trade, one in which Philadelphia wound up with a second-rounder from the Nets and the right to swap second-rounders with Brooklyn in another draft.
Here’s a list of all 15 players who were signed to NBA contracts when the Sixers traded for them, along with an explanation of what happened next:
- Keith Bogans — Acquired September 27th from Cavaliers. Waived October 7th, 2014.
- Earl Clark — Acquired February 20th, 2014 from Cavaliers. Waived February 20th, 2014.
- Danny Granger — Acquired February 20th, 2014 from Pacers. Waived February 26th, 2014.
- Jorge Gutierrez — Acquired December 11th, 2014 from Nets. Waived December 12th, 2014.
- Andrei Kirilenko — Acquired December 11th, 2014 from Nets. Still with team.
- Eric Maynor — Acquired February 20th, 2014 from Wizards. Waived March 17th, 2014.
- Luc Mbah a Moute — Acquired August 23rd, 2014 from Timberwolves. Still with team.
- Byron Mullens — Acquired February 20th, 2014 from Clippers. Left as free agent for China in summer 2014.
- Travis Outlaw — Acquired October 27th, 2014 from Knicks. Waived October 27th, 2014.
- Alexey Shved — Acquired August 23rd, 2014 from Timberwolves. Still with team.
- Henry Sims — Acquired February 20th, 2014 from Cavaliers. Still with team.
- Marquis Teague — Acquired October 24, 2014 from Nets. Waived October 27th, 2014.
- Hasheem Thabeet — Acquired August 26th, 2014 from Thunder. Waived September 1st, 2014.
- Royce White — Acquired July 13th, 2013 from Rockets. Waived October 24th, 2013.
- Tony Wroten — Acquired August 22nd, 2013 from Grizzlies. Still with team.