Nets Rumors: Kidd, King, Collins
Jason Kidd‘s controversial leap from the Nets to the Bucks this summer is a flashpoint for an issue that new union executive director Michele Roberts would like to resolve, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com details. The union has a rule that bars player agents from representing coaches or executives so that no agent is ever representing people on both sides of the negotiating table, but it’s rarely enforced, as Roberts and agents who spoke with Berger contend. Kidd said that his player agent, Jeff Schwartz, had a role in negotiations for him this summer, as Berger points out. Sources tell Berger that Schwartz kept the Kidd talks separate from discussions surrounding Schwartz clients Shaun Livingston and Paul Pierce, who also left the Nets this summer, but the conflict of interest nonetheless troubles Roberts and others.
“We can’t allow the status quo to remain, i.e. people to act in defiance of the rule because the rule is the rule,” Roberts said. “But I also want to try to do it in a way that makes sense for everyone. If it appears that the rule is not something that we can work around, then it’s time to enforce it.”
There’s more on the Nets and their former coach in the wake of Milwaukee’s three-overtime win Wednesday in Brooklyn:
- Kidd cited rumors that the Nets thought about firing him during last season as reason for his distrust of the organization, but in reality the Nets were highly supportive of the first-year coach, writes Chris Mannix of SI.com.
- Mannix, writing in the same piece, hears from a Nets official who’s curious whether Kidd knew he would join the Bucks when the coach suggested during a meeting of Nets brass in June, while he was still working for Brooklyn, that the Nets trade Brook Lopez for Larry Sanders. In any case, Nets GM Billy King rejected the idea of such a swap.
- Kidd insisted Wednesday that he never tried to convince the Nets to promote him above King, despite reports to the contrary this summer, but the Bucks coach added that he didn’t have much of a relationship with King last year, Newsday’s Roderick Boone observes.
- Jason Collins admits that he knew this past summer that he wanted to retire but decided to wait to make an announcement until Wednesday’s meeting of Kidd’s Bucks and the Nets because of his respect for Kidd, a former teammate and coach, Boone notes.
Poll: Best Fit For Corey Brewer
Corey Brewer can’t single-handedly change the fortunes of an NBA franchise, but he can be a difference-maker in the title race for a team that already has its stars in place. Brewer’s six-steal performance Wednesday for the Timberwolves in a win against the Knicks is testament to the sort of effect he can have defensively. It’s no doubt with that sort of ability in mind that a pair of elite teams are reportedly in talks with the Wolves to acquire the eighth-year swingman.
Cleveland, one of those teams, is supposed to be atop the league after welcoming LeBron James back and trading for Kevin Love this past summer. Instead, the Cavs are just 5-5, allowing the fifth most points per possession in the league, according to NBA.com. Joe Harris, the 33rd overall pick from this year’s draft, is seeing significant minutes at shooting guard, a development that bodes well for the long-term future but doesn’t speak highly of the team’s perimeter depth for this season.
The Rockets, the other club linked to Brewer, are 9-3 after a 9-1 start. The Rockets have begun the season better than might have been expected after a disappointing offseason, but GM Daryl Morey is apparently anxious to use the trade exception he acquired for Jeremy Lin to fortify a rotation that lost much of its depth over the summer. Houston has the best defense in the league in terms of points allowed per possession, NBA.com shows, but if the Rockets can use their exception to acquire Brewer without giving anyone up in return, they stand a better chance of remaining a defensive force all season and into the playoffs.
The Cavs are probably more talented on the whole than the Rockets are, but that doesn’t mean everything when it comes to the acquisition of a specific player. Let us know whether you think Cleveland or Houston is the better destination for the former University of Florida standout, or if you believe he’d better serve another team. Feel free to elaborate on your choice in the comments.
No Deal For Scotty Hopson, Turkish Team
5:56pm: Hopson has decided against signing the deal, agent Eric Fleisher tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link).
11:09am: Small forward Scotty Hopson is close to putting pen to paper on a deal with Galatasaray of Turkey, Ismail Senol of NTV Spor reports (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). A follow-up tweet from Carchia indicates that the sides have already reached agreement and that Hopson is likely to make his debut for the team this weekend. The arrangement only covers a month and a half, though Hopson will have an option to extend it through the end of the season, according to Senol. It’s unclear how much the 25-year-old stands to earn through the pact.
Hopson spent the summer as NBA trade fodder, going from the Cavs, who signed him late last season, to the Hornets, to the Pelicans, to the Rockets, and finally to the Kings, who waived him the week before training camps began. Hopson had a non-guaranteed salary of more than $1.45MM that teams found useful to help them match salaries thanks to Cleveland’s decision to use its prorated room exception to ink him at the end of March. The Cavs would have been able to create an even larger non-guaranteed salary, and thus a more attractive trade chip, had they signed a veteran to a minimum-salary deal, but Hopson came aboard without NBA experience, having played overseas since going undrafted out of Tennessee in 2011. He was with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes when Cleveland came calling last season.
Reports shortly before Sacramento waived Hopson indicated that he was moving close to a deal with Italy’s Enel Brindisi, though the Italian team denied that there were talks, and the sides never wound up coming to terms. The former McDonald’s All-American had his best pro season in 2012/13, when he put up 17.7 points and 5.2 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game for Hapoel Eilat of Israel. He appeared in only two games for a total of less than seven minutes during his stint with the Cavs last season.
Cavs Notes: Varejao, LeBron, Trades, Blatt, Kirk
Anderson Varejao isn’t sure that the Cavs didn’t resist trading him over the past few years in hopes that he might serve a lure to draw friend LeBron James back to Cleveland, but regardless of the Cavs’ intentions, Varejao’s presence paid dividends, reports Ian Thomsen of NBA.com.
“That’s a big part of the reason why I came back: It was because he was still here,” James said. “A lot of people told him he should talk about getting traded or force his way out of here, and he just stuck around, man. And I’m happy that he’s still here. He’s a big cornerstone of this franchise being here for over 10 years, and it wouldn’t be the same without him.”
Varejao will be around for a while longer after signing a three-year $30MM extension last month, and presumably he’ll continue to serve as enticement for James, who possesses a player option for next season, to stay. Here’s more from Cleveland:
- GM David Griffin acknowledges the team’s defensive shortcomings, and he’s not holding back when it comes to finding a solution, as he tells Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group. “No one is untouchable, and you’re never done building a team, so we’re always paying attention to what opportunities are out there,” Griffin said. “My tendency is always trying to do what we can do to improve the roster. But I’m not looking to create one so much as paying attention to what I’m hearing.” Still, the GM cautioned that he wouldn’t put much stock in any player movement rumors involving his team for the time being.
- The Cavs took a chance on David Blatt this summer, and despite a 5-4 start, Griffin remains confident in the first-year head coach, as Haynes relays in the same piece. “I think David has done a tremendous job,” he said. “I think his task is very large. I feel bad in a lot of ways because people have a tendency to want everything to happen right now and when it doesn’t, it has to be someone’s fault when in reality, this adversity is very organic and good for us. He’s renowned for his ability to innovate and make adjustments. I’m glad he’s our partner in this.”
- Rookie Alex Kirk is headed back on D-League assignment, the team announced. The center just returned to the big club Monday from three days with the Canton Charge, as our log of D-League assignments and recalls shows.
Rockets Eager To Swing Trade Soon
The Rockets are in active talks involving 10 or 12 different trade targets in an effort to use their nearly $8.4MM trade exception soon, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. It’s a shift in strategy for the team, which had been expected to wait until closer to the trade deadline, or least December 15th, when most offseason signees become eligible for inclusion in trades, Feigen writes. A report this weekend identified Corey Brewer as one of Houston’s targets, and while there were conflicting reports last month about whether the Rockets were eyeing fellow Timberwolf Chase Budinger, the identities of the other players that GM Daryl Morey and his staff are discussing are unclear.
Houston’s brass believes that quickly acquiring a rotation-level player, regardless of position, would put the Rockets in a stronger position to swing another deal at the deadline, as Feigen details. Houston depleted its depth in the offseason with trades that sent out Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, though it was the Lin deal that netted the trade exception that Houston is eager to use. The exception would allow the Rockets to acquire a player who makes a 2014/15 salary equal to or less than $8,474,646, which is $100K greater than Lin’s cap hit for this season, without giving up any salary in return. It doesn’t expire until July, but it seems as though the Rockets won’t push that deadline.
Houston is in a flexible position, possessing not only the trade exception but roughly $10MM in room beneath the luxury tax threshold. They have 13 fully guaranteed contracts plus a partially guaranteed pact with Tarik Black and a non-guaranteed deal with Patrick Beverley. They owe their 2015 first-rounder to the Lakers as long as they make the playoffs, thanks to the Lin deal, but the Pelicans owe the Rockets a protected 2015 first-rounder from the Asik trade. Houston also has as many as five additional second-round picks coming its way between now and 2017, further lining the team’s nest of trade assets.
Goran Dragic Not Sold On Re-Signing With Suns
Goran Dragic plans to explore his options in free agency next summer and isn’t sure he’ll re-sign with the Suns, sources tell Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Dragic said this past offseason that he plans to turn down his $7.5MM player option for 2015/16. A report at the time indicated that he would do so with the idea of signing a new contract with Phoenix, but he doesn’t necessarily want to commit to the team at this point, Deveney hears, suggesting that the club’s crowded backcourt is playing a role in Dragic’s thinking. The Sporting News scribe seconds a September dispatch from Marc Stein of ESPN.com indicating that the Rockets plan to pursue The Dragon and that the Lakers figure to do so as well.
Suns GM Ryan McDonough said shortly after re-signing Eric Bledsoe that he and his staff “fully anticipate taking care of” Dragic, who’s coming off of a career year in 2013/14. The 6’4″ former second-round pick averaged 20.3 points on 40.8% three-point shooting last season, when he played part of the time alongside Bledsoe, a fellow point guard, and the rest as the team’s lone elite playmaker with Bledsoe hurt. Dragic’s numbers and minutes are down in the early going this year as the Suns have tried to shoehorn him along with Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas, yet another high-level point guard, into their attack. The Suns also possess Tyler Ennis, this year’s 18th overall pick, as a fourth point man, while shooting guard Gerald Green, averaging 20.8 minutes per game this season, eats up playing time in the backcourt. Dragic’s brother Zoran Dragic, a shooting guard whom the Suns signed to a guaranteed two-year deal seemingly in an effort to keep Goran around, has played just two minutes this season.
Goran Dragic, a BDA Sports Management client, plans to give the Suns the first pitch meeting this summer, Deveney writes. Still, it appears that he intends to listen to others, too, and at No. 8 on the initial Hoops Rumors 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more teams join Houston and the Lakers in the mix for the seventh-year veteran who turns 29 in May.
Jason Collins Retires
Jason Collins has decided to retire, detailing his thoughts in a first-person account for Sports Illustrated. Collins made history last season as the first openly gay athlete to play in either the NBA, National Football League or Major League Baseball. The 35-year-old veteran of 13 NBA seasons will make a formal announcement today at the Barclays Center, as he writes in his essay for the magazine.
Collins spent the second half of last season with the Nets, who signed him in February to the first of a pair of 10-day contracts before inking him on March 15th for the rest of the season. The 7’0″ center cites the support of Jason Kidd as key to his tenure, as he writes in Sports Illustrated, and Collins presumably chose to make his announcement today in Brooklyn to coincide with Kidd’s return there for the first time as Bucks coach after he coached the Nets last year.
Kidd put Collins into 22 games last year, including one start, but he saw just 7.8 minutes per appearance, and he didn’t make it into any of Brooklyn’s postseason contests. Collins said in May that he wasn’t sure he wanted to continue his playing career, and an August report indicated that he would likely walk away from the professional game.
Collins came out as a homosexual after the 2012/13 season, one in which he played 38 games split between the Celtics and Wizards. He languished as a free agent throughout the summer and well into the season as speculation swirled about whether any team would sign him and invite the media attention that would follow. Such worries turned out to be unfounded as his presence on the Nets largely became an afterthought soon after the team signed him, as Collins details in a longer piece on his retirement for The Players’ Tribune.
He was never a household name throughout the majority of his playing career despite having played a prominent role on back-to-back Eastern Conference championship teams with the Nets in 2001/02 and 2002/03. Collins didn’t make it back to the Finals after doing so the first two years of his career, but he became well-known to NBA front offices as a rugged defender capable of going toe-to-toe with the league’s elite inside scorers. He played for the Grizzlies, Timberwolves and Hawks in addition to his time with the Nets, Celtics and Wizards, averaging 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in 20.4 minutes per game over his 13 seasons, numbers that belied his work on the defensive end. The Arn Tellem client collected nearly $34.2MM in salary as an NBA player, according to Basketball-Reference.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Lakers To Work Out Dwight Buycks
NOVEMBER 19TH: Buycks is set to work out for the Lakers, among other clubs, Pick reports (on Twitter).
NOVEMBER 12TH: There’s a strong chance that Buycks ends up in China, a source tells Pick (Twitter link).
NOVEMBER 9TH, 7:20pm: Buycks is also under consideration by the Grizzlies, who waived guard Kalin Lucas earlier today, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter link). No signing is imminent, Pick adds.
5:28pm: Buycks had attempted to get out of his contract with Valencia last week in order to land a deal with the Thunder or Pacers, Pick reports (Twitter links). Pick also adds that Buycks is talking with a few NBA teams, but the Lakers aren’t currently one of them.
1:54pm: Buycks and Valencia have officially parted ways, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi).
NOVEMBER 7TH, 12:48pm: Dwight Buycks and his camp have reached a buyout agreement Valencia of Spain and are in discussions with the Lakers and Thunder, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. The Lakers had reportedly invited Buycks to training camp before he accepted a one-year deal with Valencia in July.
The 25-year-old point guard has put up 12.0 and 2.0 assists in a little more than 20 minutes per game in three Euroleague competition contests and 7.6 PPG and 1.4 APG in 16.6 MPG across all eight of Valencia’s games so far. Buycks earned a deal with the Raptors for last season after a breakout performance in the 2013 summer league, as Charania notes, but he made only 14 appearances, and Toronto waived him in July rather than guarantee his salary for another year.
The Thunder just signed Ish Smith to a non-guaranteed deal to become the club’s 16th player, an allowance the NBA has given them to offset their multitude of injuries. Oklahoma City is reportedly poised to seek a 17th player if Perry Jones III is to miss significant time, so perhaps Buycks is whom they’re targeting for that would-be opening.
Point guard is also an apparent need for the Lakers, who are without Steve Nash for the season. Ronnie Price has been seeing backup minutes on his non-guaranteed deal, but that deal becomes partially guaranteed if the Lakers don’t waive him by the end of November 15th. The Lakers have a similar arrangement with shooting guard Wayne Ellington, but all the rest of their contracts are guaranteed, and they haven’t received an allowance for a 16th player.
Eastern Notes: Kidd, Cavs, Early, Raptors
Bucks coach Jason Kidd didn’t have interest in heading to Milwaukee until the team came after him, as he makes clear to Michael Lee of The Washington Post. Kidd remains proud of the work he did in his lone season as coach of the Nets, who received a pair of second-rounders as compensation when the Bucks hired him this summer.
“We felt that we helped a lot of people get better. As coaches, that’s all you ask for,” Kidd said. “There was a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately, management, ownership didn’t [think so], so they got two second round picks.”
Kidd returns to Brooklyn on Wednesday, and while we wait to see that, here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- The relationship between LeBron James and coach David Blatt isn’t fully functional yet, and though Blatt is technically the boss, James perhaps wields greater leverage over him than he has with any of his previous coaches, as Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group examines.
- Knicks rookie small forward Cleanthony Early is set to miss about a month or more after undergoing surgery to remove a “loose body” in his knee, the team announced (Twitter link).
- The size of the role that James Johnson would play for the Raptors wasn’t clear when they signed him this summer, but he’s quickly become a key contributor who’ll be missed while he’s out indefinitely with a severely sprained ankle, as Eric Koreen of the National Post details.
Hoops Rumors Features
Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:
- The new Trade Rumors App lets you stay on top of all of the rumors wherever you go. The App has customizable feeds that let you filter the news from Hoops Rumors and our sister sites MLB Trade Rumors and Pro Football Rumors. Versions are available for both iOS and Android. Best of all, it’s free!
- We’re keeping track of the players eligible for free agency in 2015 as the ability for LeBron James, Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo, Marc Gasol and others to hit the market next year begins to affect the landscape of the league.
- Kevin Durant isn’t the only player set for free agency in 2016. Many NBA front offices are already scoping out the full class of 2016 free agents.
- Our agency database is a handy reference point for determining the representation for virtually every NBA player.
- Several NBA teams can pay no more than the minimum salary to any free agent signee. Our updated list identifies these clubs.
- We’re about midway through our look at how each of the NBA’s 30 teams fared during the offseason with our Offseason In Review series. Every franchise receives in-depth treatment on the complete scope of the offseason, from the draft, through free agency, and up to the October 31st rookie scale extension deadline.
- Teams are already pivoting their focus toward the trade deadline, but many players remain ineligible to be traded for several more weeks. Here’s the date that each offseason acquisition may be traded.
- Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is created, used or expires.
- Some teams have more flexibility than others, and our roster counts show which of them have room beneath the 15-man maximum. It also lets you see which players have non-guaranteed salary, making them more vulnerable should their teams look to make a move.
- Our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker is a team-by-team recap of every player whose 2015/16 rookie scale team option was either exercised or declined before the October 31st deadline.
- Eddie Scarito is looking back on notable trades from the past several years to see how they’ve panned out over time. He recently examined the deals that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers, Deron Williams to the Nets, and Kevin Garnett to the Celtics.
- Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed this year or in any season since the 2006/07. You can sort by player, team, year and other variables.
- We give you a turn in the spotlight when we showcase the best reader comments with our Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback posts.
- On Wednesdays at 3:00pm CT, I answer reader questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of our past discussions here.
- We’re tracking each team’s use of the amnesty clause. Our complete table shows which clubs have used the provision and which still have it available.
- The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. Recently, I added an entry on D-League assignments, which should continue to grow in frequency this season.
- We’ll be keeping track of each of those D-League assignments and recalls throughout the year, categorizing them by team.
- Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere with Hoops Links on Sundays.
- If you’re looking to catch up, our Week in Review posts compile the top news and rumors from the past seven days, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site’s original content for the week. Both roundups are published every Sunday.
- Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we debuted the Hoops Rumors 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings, spoke with Knicks D-League assistant coach and former Bulls guard Craig Hodges, and examined the more than $450MM handed out in rookie scale extensions this year.