Central Notes: Meeks, Antetokounmpo, Plumlee
Jodie Meeks probably won’t return to the court before the end of the season, Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy acknowledged today, according to Aaron McMann of MLive. Meeks hasn’t played since October, and though it appeared recently that he would make his debut, a shoulder injury he suffered in practice last week has made that possibility remote, as McMann details. Meeks had come almost all the way back after suffering a broken foot in the team’s second game of the season. The Pistons activated him for games on March 12th and 14th, though he didn’t see any action in those contests, McMann points out. Van Gundy didn’t have plans to use Meeks in the rotation anyway, so his continued absence shouldn’t be a killer for Detroit, which is just percentage points behind Chicago for the last playoff spot. See more from the Central Division:
- The development of a midrange game and a corner 3-point shot is what stands between Giannis Antetokounmpo and an All-Star selection, GM John Hammond contends to Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. Hammond also told Varlas he sees the former 15th overall pick as a forward, not point guard, the position the team has him playing extensively down the stretch. Antetokounmpo becomes eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer.
- Bucks coach Jason Kidd was reluctant to go with John Henson and Miles Plumlee on the floor together much of the season, but as the season winds down and the coach has become open to experiments, he’s liked what he’s seen with both Henson and Plumlee in the game, observes Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Plumlee, the subject of trade rumors last month, is set for restricted free agency this summer, while Henson is poised to start drawing from the four-year extension he signed in the fall.
- Soon-to-be free agent Solomon Hill distinguished himself as one of Indiana’s best defenders battling Paul George in practice this season, and that’s led Pacers coach Frank Vogel to give Hill a place in the rotation, as Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star details. The Pacers declined their rookie scale team option on him for next season, so they can’t re-sign him to a contract that would pay him more for 2016/17 than $2,306,019, the value of the option.
Knicks Eyeing Evan Turner?
Knicks team president Phil Jackson is a “big fan” of Evan Turner, as Chris Mannix of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports hears. Mannix, speaking in an appearance on Comcast Sportsnet Northeast (video link), said he expects the Knicks to pursue the swingman in free agency this summer and pointed to the relationship that Turner’s agent, David Falk, has with Jackson dating to Falk’s days as Michael Jordan’s representative. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and coach Brad Stevens earlier this month expressed their fondness for Turner, who’s indicated that his preference would be to stay in Boston.
The Nets were also reportedly fond of Turner, though that news came before the team removed Billy King from the GM job. Turner has started fewer games this season than in any since he became the No. 2 overall pick in 2010 and is shooting a career-worst 18.3% from 3-point range, but he’s carved out a niche as a sixth man in Boston and averages 27.4 minutes per contest. His 6’7″ size makes him an intriguing candidate for the Knicks, since Jackson has traditionally favored taller guards for his triangle offense. The Zen Master said around the time New York hired him that smaller guards were more useful now than in the past, however.
It’s unclear if Jackson is enough of a fan to see Turner as a starting-caliber player. Plenty of talk in recent days has surrounded the idea of Rajon Rondo signing with New York. Rondo, the NBA’s leading per-game assist-maker, would probably be a higher priority for the team, though Jackson has spoken about a desire to sign multiple players of consequence this summer. The team’s flexibility to do so likely hinges on what Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams decide to do with their respective player options, which total $12.598MM. The Knicks otherwise have about $55MM in guaranteed salary against a salary cap projected to come in between $90MM and $95MM. Turner is making almost $3.425MM this season, the last in a two-year deal he signed in 2014 after a poor finish to the 2013/14 season with the Pacers, so he seems destined to earn much more in what Mannix expects will be a robust market for him this summer.
Makai Mason To Enter Draft
Yale sophomore point guard Makai Mason will declare for this year’s NBA draft, reports Forbes contributor Darren Heitner (Twitter link). Mason’s father confirmed the news to Pete Thamel of SI Now (Twitter link). The 6’1″ sparkplug averaged 16.0 points per game this season, but he’s a long shot NBA prospect. It seems likely that he’s simply taking advantage of new rules that allow him to work out for NBA teams and later withdraw from the draft while retaining his college eligibility. He’s the 152nd-best prospect in the listings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him outside his rankings.
Mason burst onto the national scene with a 31-point game Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Baylor, leading Yale to the upset. He didn’t fare nearly as well in Saturday’s second-round game against Duke, going 2 for 12 from the floor for eight points to go along with seven assists and four turnovers as the Bulldogs season came to an end.
Questions about his size and his ability to defend will no doubt hamper whatever pro prospects he has, though entering the draft, a move that will allow him to work out in formal sessions against draft entrants with a better shot to hear their names called in June, gives him a chance to see just how large the gap is between his game and the NBA level. Chris Dudley, who played parts of 16 NBA seasons between 1987 and 2003, was the last player from Yale to appear in the NBA.
Nets Sign Henry Sims To 10-Day Deal
THURSDAY, 8:22am: The signing is official, the team announced via press release.
TUESDAY, 2:11pm: The Nets plan to sign Henry Sims to a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The former Cavs and Sixers big man has been out of the NBA since the Suns cut him in the preseason, having joined the D-League affiliate of the Pistons this year. The contract will pay $57,726, with the Nets responsible for $55,722 while the league office picks up the rest for the three-year veteran.
Brooklyn already has Sean Kilpatrick on a 10-day contract, which expires at the end of Saturday, but he’s one of just 14 players on the Nets roster, so the team can make Sims its 15th man without offloading anybody. New Nets GM Sean Marks has said he wants to use 10-day contracts to discover players who can be a part of next season’s roster, and like Kilpatrick, Sims holds promise. The 25-year-old started 32 games for the Sixers last season, averaging 8.0 points and 4.9 rebounds in 19.2 minutes per contest across 73 appearances overall.
Sims put up 15.7 points and 8.9 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per game for D-League Grand Rapids this season after limited preseason court time with Phoenix. It was somewhat surprising to see him linger in free agency this summer before he signed his non-guaranteed training camp contract with the Suns in September, and while he drew attention as one of the top prospects in the D-League, it was just as perplexing to see him without an NBA job for most of the season.
Nate Robinson Signs With Israeli Team
THURSDAY, 8:00am: The signing is official, Pick tweets.
MONDAY, 1:51pm: Nate Robinson has agreed to a deal with Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The three-time dunk champion who began the season with the Pelicans had been trying to make a run at the National Football League, but it appears he’s put that effort on the shelf for now. The 31-year-old has remained unsigned since the Pelicans waived him shortly after opening night, failing to hook up with China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers after reportedly working out for them in January.
The diminutive guard has had a tough time finding NBA work since he did a buyout deal with the Celtics in the middle of last season, after Boston acquired him in a trade with the Nuggets. The Clippers signed him to a pair of 10-day contracts last March, but he suffered a bone bruise in his left knee that prompted the Clippers to turn to Lester Hudson instead.
Robinson was on the opposite end of injury luck this fall, when the banged-up Pelicans signed him to a non-guaranteed contract during the preseason, and when the team made him its opening-night starter at point guard, it appeared Robinson had a place in the NBA for at least a while longer. Instead, New Orleans jumped on Toney Douglas, who’d shaken free from the Pacers, and cut Robinson after only two regular season games.
This would be the first overseas excursion for Robinson, who’s played in parts of 11 NBA seasons, including this one. He’s not far removed from decent production, having averaged 10.4 points in just 19.7 minutes per game for the 2013/14 Nuggets, so a strong closing stretch in Israel is liable to help him back to the game’s highest level.
Do you think we’ll see Nate Robinson in the NBA again? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Knicks Sign Tony Wroten To Mulityear Deal
MARCH 16TH, 5:40 pm: The signing is official, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN.com.
MARCH 7TH, 12:10pm: The deal isn’t yet done and the Knicks are still evaluating Wroten, according to Beck (Twitter link), while Berman indicates that the sides are continuing to negotiate
11:51am: The contract is expected to cover only this season and next without a full guarantee on next year’s salary, league sources tell Begley (Twitter link). Marc Berman of the New York Post also hears the deal is only a two-season arrangement (Twitter link). Berman’s source reiterates the notion that Wroten might not appear in a game this season because of his health.
11:19am: “Minimal” guarantees exist on the salary in year two and year three, Beck also reports (Twitter link). Still, the Knicks appear to be unable to sign any outside free agent to a three-year deal until July. It’s theoretically possible, given the doubts about his ability to play this season, that the sides are planning to wait until then, but Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com hears the signing is expected to take place sometime this week (Twitter link).
10:57am: It’s highly unlikely Wroten appears in a game for the Knicks this season in spite of their deal, as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck hears. Beck cites concerns about Wroten’s health, though he’s 14 months removed from his torn right ACL (Twitter link).
10:26am: The Knicks and Tony Wroten are finalizing a multiyear contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Charania refers to it as a three-year deal in his tweet, but the Knicks don’t have the power to sign any outside free agent for more than this season and next, since they’re limited to the minimum salary exception, so it’s unclear where talk of the third year is coming from. In any case, the Knicks have an open roster spot, so they don’t have to let anyone go to bring in Wroten, the ex-Sixers combo guard whose 16.9 points per game in an injury-shortened 30-game stint last season were more than anyone else on his team.
It’s somewhat of a surprise to see New York go for Wroten, despite longstanding mutual interest, since Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported last week that Tim Frazier and Ray McCallum were considered more likely options for the Knicks roster vacancy. The team reportedly had concerns about Wroten’s defense and unfamiliarity with the triangle offense. Still, the Knicks visited recently with him, as Isola also reported, and the team put him through a “workout/physical/interview,” Isola tweets this morning.
The Heat did their due diligence with a check-in on Wroten earlier this season, but the 22-year-old has nonetheless remained unsigned since the Sixers waived him on Christmas Eve. His lingering free agency raised eyebrows, since he has the pedigree of having been the 25th overall pick in 2012. He made his case that he had recovered from a January 2015 torn right ACL when he returned to game action a few weeks before Philadelphia cut him, though he wasn’t quite the same, shooting just 33.8% from the field in eight games, well beneath his 41.3% career mark.
Clippers Sign Jeff Ayres For Rest Of Season
WEDNESDAY, 3:27pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 1:57pm: The Clippers will sign Jeff Ayres to a contract that covers the rest of the season, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The Grizzlies had reportedly been eyeing the veteran big man following the expiration of his second 10-day contract with the Clips, but instead L.A. and Ayres are apparently circling back to one another for the balance of 2015/16. It’ll have to be a prorated minimum-salary deal, since that’s all the Clippers can hand out.
Ayres, 28, appeared for just 14 total minutes spread over five games with the Clips on his pair of 10-day deals, which he signed January 23rd and February 2nd. L.A. later turned to rookie Alex Stepheson, who also signed two 10-day contracts with the team, the last of which ran to term last week. Memphis snapped him up the next day, furthering the idea that the Clippers and Grizzlies, who would meet in the first round of the playoffs if they started today, are trolling the same free agent waters. The teams also pulled off a deadline-day swap, exchanging Lance Stephenson and Jeff Green.
A roster spot is open for the Clippers, who won’t have to make a corresponding move to usher Ayres back onto the team. Just how much he’ll make depends on when he signs, but, as a veteran of five previous NBA seasons, he’d get $194,224 if the deal becomes official today. The Clippers would only have to pay him $167,166, with the league picking up the tab for the difference, but the Clips are above the tax threshold, so the signing would add $417,915 to their projected tax bill.
Stepheson, who’d make less money based on his lack of experience, would have been a cheaper option for the Clippers, but Ayres gives the team some veteran know-how, particularly about the Spurs, a potential playoff opponent who had Ayres on their roster for the two seasons prior to this one. He averaged 13.0 minutes per game and made 10 starts for the title-winning 2013/14 San Antonio team.
And-Ones: Horford, Howard, LeVert, Simmons
Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey is unsurprisingly a major fan of soon-to-be free agent big man Al Horford, as Jason Quick of CSNNW.com tweets. Horford will reportedly prioritize the fifth year that the Hawks, and no one else, can offer him in a new contract this summer, but he hasn’t made any commitments despite his fondness for Atlanta, and he reportedly has a degree of interest in the Magic. Portland wouldn’t offer the geographical advantage of no state income tax and proximity to his college home of the University of Florida that the Magic could, but the Blazers have an intriguing backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum to showcase to Horford and other free agents this summer, when the team will have only about $47MM in guaranteed salary on the books against a salary cap expected to be twice that amount. See more from around the league:
- Rockets GM Daryl Morey was mum when ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan asked him whether he planned to re-sign Dwight Howard this summer, as Matt Dollinger of SI.com notes in a roundup of last week’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Agent David Falk regards Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf as the toughest negotiator he’s ever gone against, Dollinger notes in the same piece.
- Positional versatility and a strong overall package make Michigan swingman Caris LeVert an intriguing prospect, but he looks ill-suited to become a go-to guy, and his history of injuries is a concern, write Josh Riddell and Mike Schmitz of DraftExpress.
- Sean Deveney of The Sporting News sides with LSU combo forward Ben Simmons in the debate over whether Simmons or Duke small forward Brandon Ingram is the top prospect in this year’s draft, listing Simmons atop his first mock draft. Ingram follows, with European power forward Dragan Bender at No. 3.
Looming Player Option Decisions: East
The NBA regular season ends in less than a month, so time is running short for players to make their final impressions. The stakes are higher for those whose contract situations for next season are unresolved. Player options are a coveted contractual feature, but the decisions players make often depend on how other teams regard them. Players do well to gauge the potential free agent market for their services, lest they follow the path of J.R. Smith, who turned down a $6.4MM player option last summer and wound up languishing in free agency for two months until accepting a deal from the Cavs that pays him only $5MM this season.
Most option decisions aren’t due until late June, but as the season winds to a close, we’ll examine the likelihood of each player opting in or out, starting in the Eastern Conference, where no one seems a lock to opt in. We’ll follow later with a look at the West.
Likely to opt out:
- LeBron James, Cavaliers ($24,004,173) — The more lucrative path is for James, who’ll continue to command the max, to opt out and take advantage of a new, much higher, max.
- DeMar DeRozan, Raptors ($10,050,000) — The amount the option would pay him pales in comparison to the max offers that reportedly await, so even as DeRozan has spoken time and again of his fondness for Toronto, he almost certainly won’t be staying under this contract.
- Pau Gasol, Bulls ($7,769,520) — He’s said repeatedly that he’s likely to opt out.
- Wayne Ellington, Nets ($1,567,500) — He’s planning to opt out, at least as of last month, NetsDaily reported.
- Shane Larkin, Nets ($1,500,000) — He’s planning to opt out, at least as of last month, NetsDaily reported.
- Thomas Robinson, Nets ($1,050,961) — He’s planning to opt out, at least as of last month, NetsDaily reported.
Toss-up:
- Arron Afflalo, Knicks ($8,000,000) — Afflalo told Marc Berman of the New York Post just a few days ago that he’s not sure what he’ll do about his option. An up-and-down season makes it tough to predict, but his 38.7% 3-point shooting and the rising salary cap will tempt him to turn down the $8MM.
- J.R. Smith, Cavaliers ($5,375,000) — This one is tough to call in part because of the unusual structure of the contract. Smith can pick up the option, but even if he does, his salary would be only partially guaranteed for $2.2MM until September 7th, when a full guarantee would kick in. Smith is in the midst of switching agents, which would suggest he’d opt out, but he reportedly plans to sign with Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, the agency of LeBron James, Smith’s close friend. That suggests Smith would opt in, or at least stay with the Cavs.
- Derrick Williams, Knicks ($4,598,000) — Williams said recently that he’s undecided. His scoring and rebounding averages are better than last season’s even though he’s seen fewer minutes per game, but his deal was player friendly from the start.
- Bismack Biyombo, Raptors ($2,940,630) — He’s made it clear he loves the Raptors, but he’s a 23-year-old defensive stalwart who’s scoring and rebounding as well as he ever has.
- Jeremy Lin, Hornets ($2,235,255) — Lin has fit in much better as a backup for the Hornets than as a starter in recent seasons for the Lakers and Rockets, but many of his numbers are either equivalent to or worse that what he put up last year.
- Mo Williams, Cavaliers ($2,194,500) — The 13th-year veteran in January called this season the most difficult challenge of his pro career but said he’s not interested in playing for another team. His 8.9 points and 19.7 minutes per game are his fewest since the 2003/04 season, his rookie year, so the market for him doesn’t figure to be robust.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Central Notes: Vasquez, Harris, Harper, LeBron
Greivis Vasquez is determined to return to game action before season’s end, calling the Bucks a “class act” for their assistance as he rehabilitates from the right ankle surgery he had three months ago today, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details. Vasquez, who hired agent Alex Saratsis of Octagon earlier this year, is headed for free agency this summer and argues the injury didn’t have a net effect on the contract he’ll be able to command.
“I feel I didn’t lose value, but I didn’t gain value,” Vasquez said. “I feel people know what I can do. My game is not based on athleticism. I’m not jumping over guys. It’s an IQ game. I wasn’t able to do what I usually do, being limited with my injury. Surgery was needed. Now I feel much better. The team I want to show that I’m healthy is this team. Because every team I’ve been with, I got that team better. I was in Toronto; we got better. New Orleans, we got better. Memphis, we got better.”
Vasquez, an offseason trade acquisition, has appeared in only 16 games for the disappointing Bucks this season. See more from the Central Division:
- Stan Van Gundy expected it would be challenging to integrate Tobias Harris into the Pistons, as the coach usually expects in the wake of a trade, but it’s been a smooth transition so far, Van Gundy told Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports. That’s been especially so after Van Gundy switched Harris to power forward after a brief experiment with him at small forward, the coach also said. “He’s unselfish. He’s been efficient,” Van Gundy told Zillgitt. “He hasn’t needed an inordinate amount of shots to get his stuff done. He moves the ball pretty well. It’s actually been pretty easy.”
- Justin Harper‘s second 10-day contract with the Pistons expired overnight, so the backup power forward is now a free agent. The Pistons would have to sign him for the rest of the season if they were to bring him back, since two 10-day deals are the limit.
- LeBron James usually doesn’t make comments that cast a harsh light on fellow members of the Klutch Sports Agency, but he praised Cavs deadline pickup Channing Frye for his willingness to tangle with Klutch client Trey Lyles in Monday’s game, an incident that prompted ejections for both Frye and Lyles, notes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com.