Dwight Howard Interested In Knicks?
Some friends of Dwight Howard indicated recently that he would have interest in signing to play in New York if he opts out from the Rockets this summer, league sources told Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Begley shares the tidbit within a larger piece about Phil Jackson‘s approach in free agent pitch meetings, so presumably it’s in reference to the Knicks and not the Nets. It’s unclear whether the Knicks have mutual interest, according to Begley, and it also remains to be seen just how highly the former All-Star center regards the Knicks compared to other free agent destinations that appeal to him. Bucks broadcaster Gus Johnson said Howard told him he likes Milwaukee and wanted to join the Bucks at the trade deadline.
Talks between the Bucks and Rockets reportedly fell apart because Howard wouldn’t agree to opt in, and Howard is expected to turn down his player option in search of a more lucrative max deal. Just what happens when he hits free agency is much more difficult to predict, and not just because of the big man’s history of back-and-forth decision-making. Howard recently fired agent Dan Fegan and has yet to name a replacement. The Rockets were apparently in touch with the Mavericks, Bulls, Hawks, Celtics, Hornets, Heat, Bucks and Raptors about Howard as they engaged teams in trade talks about Howard but found the market for the 30-year-old underwhelming.
The nature of Howard’s relationship with the Rockets is also tough to discern. He’s widely expected to leave in free agency, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com wrote last month, but he’s denied that he asked to be traded and said he wants to be successful in Houston. Howard has downplayed rumors of discord between him and James Harden.
The Knicks have only about $55MM in guaranteed salary for next season against a salary cap projected to come in between $90MM and $95MM, though that doesn’t include player options for Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams. New York wouldn’t have the cap flexibility necessary to pay Howard his max of some $30MM for next season if Afflalo and Williams opt in.
Central Notes: Lawson, LeBron, Irving, Moore
The Rockets were willing to replace Ty Lawson with Michael Beasley, which underscores the risk the Pacers assume with their new point guard, according to Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star. Taylor nonetheless believes Lawson and Indiana need each other. Much depends on how Lawson performs down the stretch, Taylor believes, and his debut for the team Monday was inauspicious, since he left after five minutes with a sprained foot, as Taylor notes in a separate piece. Lawson is day-to-day, coach Frank Vogel said, according to Taylor. See more from the Central Division:
- LeBron James and Kyrie Irving don’t have a personality conflict, but a disconnect exists between their games on the floor, said several scouts and coaches who spoke with Chris Mannix of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. It’s one of many challenges facing the Cavaliers who face a situation James couldn’t have envisioned when he returned, with a stacked roster that still hasn’t found a groove, Mannix writes.
- The Bucks are giving Giannis Antetokounmpo minutes at point guard, but they probably don’t envision him as a full-time solution at that position, as the key for the team down the stretch is simply to see how Antetokoumpo and Jabari Parker can continue to mesh together, Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says in a video. Injured starting point man Michael Carter-Williams has a “murky” future with the team, leading Gardner to believe Milwaukee will look for a point guard this summer.
- E’Twaun Moore delivers at both ends and at both guard positions, making him indispensable for the Bulls as he enters free agency this summer, opines K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
Pelicans Get 16th Roster Spot, Eye Guards
1:42pm: The Pelicans are expected to use the roster spot on a guard, just as they did in December, the last time they had a hardship exception, Kushner writes. They signed Jimmer Fredette then, as Kushner points out. Fredette is once more a free agent following the expiration of his 10-day contract with the Knicks.
1:16pm: The NBA has given the Pelicans a 16th roster spot via hardship to offset their injuries, sources tell Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate (Twitter link). The team has two days from the time the league formally grants the provision to use it. The roster spot lasts 10 days, though the team can apply to renew it.
It appears the latest injury to Eric Gordon triggered the hardship. Gordon is reportedly having surgery today after breaking his right ring finger for the second time in less than two months, and the Pelicans fear the soon-to-be free agent will miss the rest of the season. Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter and Bryce Dejean-Jones have already suffered season–ending injuries. The hardship comes into play when at least four players are likely to miss two or more weeks, and with Gordon under the knife, that appears to be the case for New Orleans.
Injuries have ravaged the Pelicans throughout the season, capsizing what appeared to be a team on the rise, and Coach Alvin Gentry this past weekend acknowledged the need to shift the focus to the long-term future rather than an 11th-hour bid for a playoff spot. Thus, with six and a half games separating them from a playoff spot, the Pelicans seem more likely to go after players with upside than older veterans. Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports linked the team to Orlando Johnson and Elijah Millsap in a January report that also mentioned Dejean-Jones, who eventually joined the team. Millsap just reached a buyout agreement with Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, sources told Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi (Twitter link),
Suns Sign Alan Williams To 10-Day Deal
TUESDAY, 11:39am: The signing is official, the team announced. The contract will cover five games, against the Knicks, Nuggets, Warriors, Timberwolves and Jazz.
MONDAY, 2:59pm: The Suns plan to sign Alan Williams to a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The big man who went undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara this past summer is a Phoenix native who led the Chinese Basketball Association in rebounding, as Charania points out. The 23-year-old Williams posted 20.8 points and 15.4 rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game for Qingdao in the months after making summer league appearances for the Rockets and Hornets. Phoenix has two open roster spots and is in line to save money with the Sixers reportedly poised to claim Sonny Weems off waivers, so the Suns have no shortage of flexibility for the Williams deal, which would cost a paltry $30,888.
Williams impressed on Houston’s Las Vegas summer league team, earning All-Tournament Second Team honors after putting up 20.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per contest over four appearances. It was a breakout performance after Charlotte gave him only 8.1 minutes per game in the Orlando summer league. Still, he was on NBA radars before that. He posted double-figure rebounding averages in each of his final three seasons in college and worked out for the Suns, among other NBA teams, before the draft.
Phoenix is dabbling heavily in short-term deals with only 12 players signed through at least the end of the season. The Suns already have point guard Phil Pressey on his second 10-day contract, which expires Thursday night. Williams is about to become the sixth player to sign a 10-day contract with the Suns this year, as our 10-day Tracker shows.
Western Notes: Augustin, Gordon, Barton, Varejao
Nuggets deadline trade acquisition D.J. Augustin has quickly taken to his new surroundings and says he’d love to re-sign with Denver when he hits free agency this summer, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post relays. Coach Michael Malone is a fan of the point guard, particularly his offense, as Dempsey relays.
“I would love to be here,” Augustin said. “It’s a great city, great fans. I love the coaching staff and organization. Everything is great. So, I would love to find a home here.”
Augustin hoped for a chance to join a team that would give him more playing time as he faded from the Oklahoma City rotation this season, and while he expressed his appreciation to the Thunder for facilitating such a deal, he said he didn’t ask for a trade, Dempsey notes. See more on the Nuggets amid news from the Western Conference:
- Eric Gordon is having surgery today on his broken right ring finger, a source told Scott Agness of VigilantSports (Twitter link). No timetable exists for the soon-to-be free agent who suffered the injury Saturday, though the Pelicans reportedly fear it’s a season-ender. It’s the same finger Gordon broke in January, an injury that forced him to miss about five weeks. The final day of the regular season is five weeks from Wednesday.
- Malone knew little about Will Barton when the coach took over the Nuggets in the offseason, but the 25-year-old shooting guard is team’s second leading scorer this year, the first on a new three-year, $10.6MM deal, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee examines. “I’d be lying to you if I said I expected him to play as well as he has this year,” Malone said. “He’s a hard worker. He committed himself to getting better, coming back as an improved player and, like all players, I feel he’s taken full advantage of the opportunity given him. We play him 25, 30 minutes a night, put the ball in his hands and allow him to make plays and he’s done a great job of doing that, especially in the open court.”
- Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk acknowledged that recent signee Anderson Varejao isn’t what he used to be, but Schlenk said in a radio appearance with Matt Steinmetz on 95.7 The Game’s “NBA This Week” show that Varejao and Joakim Noah were the best centers in the NBA three years ago. The 33-year-old Varejao only twice averaged double-figures in either points or rebounds, peaking in 2012/13 at 14.1 points and 14.4 rebounds per game, though he played only 25 games that season because of injury.
Nets Hire Trajan Langdon As Assistant GM
The Nets have named Cavs front office executive Trajan Langdon as their assistant GM, Brooklyn announced via press release. The 39-year-old Langdon had just joined Cleveland as director of player administration and basketball operations this past September. He’ll rejoin new Nets GM Sean Marks, his former colleague in the Spurs front office, where Langdon worked as a pro scout from 2012 to 2015. Marks indicated via Brooklyn’s statement that the Cavs green-lighted the in-season move.
“We are very pleased to welcome Trajan and his family to the Brooklyn Nets,” Marks said in the statement. “Trajan is someone I worked with closely at the Spurs, and he brings a unique combination of NBA and European experience to the position. Trajan’s recent front office post with Cleveland added to his professional resume, and I want to thank the Cavs for their cooperation in this effort. The Nets look forward to Trajan’s contributions.”
Langdon is most well-known for his time playing at Duke, the alma mater of former Nets GM Billy King. The native of Alaska has further connections with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, board member Sergey Kushchenko and rumored coaching candidate Ettore Messina, all of whom were affiliated with Russia’s CSKA Moscow when Langdon had a successful run as a player for that team, NetsDaily notes (on Twitter).
The Cavaliers drafted Langdon 11th overall in 1999, though he spent three only seasons as an NBA player, all of them with Cleveland. He was with the Clippers for training camp in 2004 but didn’t appear in the regular season for them.
Frank Zanin already holds the title of assistant GM for the Nets, who previously carried two assistant GMs when they employed Zanin and Bobby Marks, with whom the team parted ways last spring. It’s unclear what the hiring of Langdon means for the future of Zanin, who ran the front office while the team searched for King’s replacement.
Mavs Notes: Jordan, Lee, Pachulia, Parsons
DeAndre Jordan initially committed to Dallas in part because he sought a larger offensive role, and while he’s averaging as many field goal attempts this season as he did last year, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle believes the Clippers are getting him more involved than in years past, notes Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers agrees.
“He does have a pretty big offensive role and people don’t get that per se,” Rivers said. “I think everything in this day and time is the exact number of points, that’s all people look at instead of who creates offense.”
For what it’s worth, Jordan is averaging 12.4 points per game, a career high and nearly a point better than last season. He padded that average Monday, deepening the Mavs’ wounds, as we detail:
- The Mavs have failed to deliver more than a mediocre cast around Dirk Nowitzki the past four years, and the Clippers, with erstwhile Mavs targets Jordan and Chris Paul, showcase the Mavs’ free agent failures, opines Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. Jordan’s 23 points and 20 rebounds in L.A.’s win Monday at Dallas served as a painful reminder for Chandler Parsons, as MacMahon chronicles (ESPN Now link). “It’s frustrating,” Parsons said. “I still think he would have been much better here, but he’s having a good year and he’s on a very good team that’s going to make a run, so you can’t blame him for that. He didn’t do anything illegal, and he’s playing well.”
- David Lee has made a strong impression so far in his stint with the Mavericks, but Carlisle is committed to keeping Zaza Pachulia as his starter at center, observes Reece Waddell of the Dallas Morning News. Pachulia, whom the Mavs acquired as a fallback option after Jordan flip–flopped, is headed to free agency this coming summer, while Lee has a non-guaranteed salary for next season worth $2,502,805, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
- Parsons is the best player on the Mavs right now as he heads toward free agency, contends Michael Pina of RealGM, who speculates on potential fits for the 27-year-old who looms as an intriguing plan B for teams that fall short in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes.
Sixers Claim Sonny Weems, Release Christian Wood
5:06pm: The moves have taken place, the Sixers announced via press release.
3:40pm: Philly is claiming Weems to have a look at him, tweets Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, suggesting that the team plans to keep him around, at least for a while.
2:31pm: The Sixers plan to claim Sonny Weems off waivers from the Suns today and release Christian Wood from his 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The move appears to be geared toward lifting Philadelphia’s team salary, currently at about $60.4MM, to the league minimum of $63MM. Weems makes $2.814MM, which would push the Sixers over the salary floor by about $200K. However, Weems is only due a few more paychecks that will total about $660K, notes Bobby Marks of The Vertical (Twitter link). So, even though Weems’ full salary would hit Philly’s cap, the Sixers would only pay him a fraction of that amount. Philadelphia would have had to shell out the difference between its team salary and the salary floor to the players on its roster if it hadn’t made up the gap by the last day of the regular season.
A claim would help the Suns, too, since it would save them from having to pay the remaining $660K obligation to Weems and erase his entire salary from their cap. Phoenix would be just barely above the cap if Philly indeed comes away with the swingman.
Wood signed a 10-day contract just this past Friday, but the Sixers will owe him the full $30,888 value of the deal regardless of whether he remains on the roster. He would immediately become a free agent once the Sixers release him, since 10-day contracts don’t go on waivers. This would be the second time this season that Philadelphia has relinquished Wood, who hit waivers in January when the team decided to sign Elton Brand.
It’s unclear whether the Sixers intend to keep Weems, since they’ve often quickly waived players after taking on their salaries in the past. His contract includes a non-guaranteed salary of nearly $2.941MM for next season, so his contract could help serve as ballast for offseason trades even if the Sixers don’t envision a future with him. The 29-year-old was in and out of the Phoenix rotation this season, averaging 11.7 minutes per game in his return to the NBA after four years playing overseas. In any case, it’s no surprise to see Philadelphia in line to claim him, as Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors speculated this weekend that such a move would take place.
Southeast Notes: Dragic, Satoransky, Dedmon
Goran Dragic is pleased with the Heat‘s shift to more of an up-tempo attack in the wake of Chris Bosh‘s latest blood-clot issues, though he believes the team would have resolved its issues even if Bosh were healthy, as Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald examines. The point guard’s improved play amid the faster pace has made it far less likely the team seeks to trade him and pursues Mike Conley to replace him this summer, The Herald’s Barry Jackson posits. The Heat aren’t better simply because Bosh isn’t there, Jackson cautions, writing that they nonetheless must figure out why they didn’t play better with Bosh in the lineup. See more from the Southeast Division:
- Wizards draft-and-stash prospect Tomas Satoransky has signed a four-year extension with Barcelona of Spain, the team announced (Twitter link). It’ll keep him from the NBA until 2017, as international journalist David Pick reports the deal includes NBA outs for each year from then on (Twitter link). Rumors of such a deal have been around since January, though a report in August indicated that the Wizards expected they’d be able to sign him in the summer of 2016, which evidently won’t happen.
- The Wizards aren’t enamored with analytics, and coach Randy Wittman has a particular lack of fondness for them, but their traditional approach isn’t hurting them, argues Quinten Rosborough of SB Nation’s Bullets Forever. Owner Ted Leonsis has the coach’s back in this regard, Rosborough notes.
- The Magic have recalled Dewayne Dedmon from the D-League, the team announced (Twitter link). The big man had asked for the assignment so he could get some playing time, notes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (on Twitter).
Grizzlies Eye Jeff Ayres, Others
4:11pm: Andersen is out for at least another three to five days, and Mike Conley is also set to miss that amount of time with a sore left foot, the Grizzlies announced.
1:05pm: The Grizzlies are looking for depth amid a rash of injuries, with recent Clippers 10-day signee Jeff Ayres among their big man targets, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Memphis is without Marc Gasol for the rest of the year and backup center Brandan Wright is liable to miss another seven weeks, which would finish him for the season. Fellow big man Chris Andersen is dealing with a shoulder issue that has him questionable to play tonight while Tony Allen and Jordan Adams are out indefinitely with knee injuries.
Memphis doesn’t have an open roster spot, but if doctors determine four or more players are likely to miss two weeks or more, the team could apply to the NBA for a hardship provision to sign a 16th man. Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal suggests that’s precisely what the Grizzlies have in mind (Twitter link).
Ayres, formerly known as Jeff Pendergraph, scored six points and pulled down three rebounds in 14 minutes total minutes over five appearances with the Clippers on a pair of 10-day contracts earlier this year. The 28-year-old has otherwise been out of the NBA this season following the expiration of a two-year deal with the Spurs. The sixth-year NBA veteran has spent most of his time this year in the D-League, recently having joined the D-League affiliate of the Lakers following a trade that took him from the Jazz affiliate, which picked him first overall in this year’s D-League draft.