Several Teams Eyeing Trade For Clint Capela
9:21pm: Several teams have interest in trading for Swiss power forward Clint Capela, whom the Rockets took with the 25th pick, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
8:33pm: The Rockets are dangling tonight’s No. 25 overall pick in trade talks as they look to unload salary, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The development is no surprise, given Houston’s desire to clear cap room for a run at marquee free agents like Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Kyle Lowry.
The 25th pick in this year’s draft represents a cap hold of $991K. Most first-round draft picks sign for 120% of the rookie scale, which in this case would mean a salary of $1,189,200 for next season, though some toward the end of the round wind up settling for less than that. Andre Roberson signed for the minimum 80% of the scale after Oklahoma City took him 26th last year.
Raptors Seek Trade For Tyler Ennis
The Raptors are working to trade for former Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis, whom the Suns drafted 18th overall, TNT’s David Aldridge tweets.
Warriors Willing To Trade For Jeremy Lin
The Warriors have told the Rockets that they’re on board with trading for Jeremy Lin, reports Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. Chris Broussard of ESPN.com wrote Wednesday that there was a decent chance that Golden State would be willing to accept the point guard via trade as Houston attempts to clear his salary, as long as Chandler Parsons was also part of the deal. Thompson’s report makes no mention of Parsons, however.
Golden State could use a trade exception worth more than $9.8MM left over from last year’s three-way deal with the Jazz and Nuggets to acquire Lin, as Thompson points out. The Warriors tried in vain to find a capable backup point guard to replace Jarrett Jack this past season, and Lin was once a member of the W’s, who waived him before his sudden rise to fame with the Knicks. Still, it’s unclear just what Houston would have to do to entice Golden State to take back Lin and his nearly $15MM salary for next season, one that dwarfs his nonetheless sizable $8,374,646 cap hit.
Kings, Celtics Discuss McLemore, No. 6 Pick
7:29pm: Sacramento isn’t looking to trade Nik Stauskas, whom the team took with the eighth selection, TNT’s David Aldridge tweets. That’s a bit curious, given that he plays shooting guard, just like McLemore.
7:03pm: The Kings will keep their selection at No. 8, Wojnarowski hears (Twitter link).
6:50pm: The Kings and Celtics are discussing a trade that would send Ben McLemore to Boston and the No. 6 pick to Sacramento, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. That comes amid discussion of a pick swap between the Kings and Nuggets involving the eighth and 11th picks, and such a trade may involve current players, too, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
McLemore was last year’s seventh overall pick, so it appears his stock has risen. The Celtics and Kings have been two of the most active teams in chatter leading up to the draft, and the Nuggets have reportedly been shopping the No. 11 pick.
Pelicans Look To Deal Anderson, Rivers?
7:12pm: New Orleans isn’t shopping Anderson to any teams, a source tells John Reid of The Times Picayune (Twitter link).
5:57pm: The Pelicans are shopping Ryan Anderson and Austin Rivers, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That contradicts an earlier report from Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com as far as Anderson goes. Goodman says the Clippers have asked the Pelicans about Ryan Anderson, but the Pelicans aren’t making him available for trades.
Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group has heard chatter about Anderson as a possible Warriors target (Twitter link), but it appears he’s off limits. There is some sentiment with the Clippers organization to pursue Rivers, but coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers has said that he wouldn’t feel comfortable coaching his son, as Goodman writes in his piece.
New Orleans needs to clear salary approximately equal to what Rivers makes to accommodate their agreement to trade for Omer Asik.
Western Rumors: Love, Rockets, Nuggets
Here’s the latest from the Western Conference as the draft gets underway:
- The Wolves spent the afternoon in meetings, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter), and he wouldn’t be surprised to see some major news come out tonight regarding Kevin Love and the Warriors.
- Meanwhile, Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link) believes that the odds are still against a Love trade materializing tonight. However, sources tell him that the two sides continue to talk despite the hangup over whether Klay Thompson is in play.
- Echoing an earlier report from USA Today’s Sam Amick, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) hears from a rival executive that the Rockets already have a Jeremy Lin deal lined up and ready to execute if they need the cap space to sign Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James. It’s likely that the Rockets flip the first-rounder they’re acquiring from the Pelicans in the Omer Asik trade, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
- David Pick of Eurobasket.com has consistently heard that the Nuggets will take Jusuf Nurkic at No. 11 (Twitter link).
- The Thunder will either draft a wing player or trade the 29th overall pick for one, a source tells Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- The Mavs almost certainly won’t trade for a first-round pick in tonight’s draft, Donnie Nelson says, as Jeff Caplan of NBA.com notes (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Cavs Draft Andrew Wiggins No. 1 Overall
The Cavs have drafted Andrew Wiggins with the No. 1 overall pick. The Plain Dealer first reported the pick (Twitter link). Wiggins was reportedly the preference of owner Dan Gilbert, while the front office was said to like Jabari Parker better. Parker will go to the Bucks at No. 2, Milwaukee officials have said, according to Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link). The Cavs don’t intend to trade Wiggins now that they’ve drafted him, tweets Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
The Kansas small forward entered the college season as the consensus No. 1 pick, but an underwhelming showing allowed doubt to creep in, and Cleveland seemed uncertain about Wiggins and Parker until today. Wiggins joins fellow Canadian and now Cavs teammate Anthony Bennett as the only two from their country to have ever been drafted No. 1 overall.
Clippers Shopping Matt Barnes, No. 28 Pick
6:15pm: The Grizzlies have rebuffed the Clippers’ attempts to trade for Allen, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
5:32pm: The Knicks are giving signals that they intend to keep Shumpert rather than dealing him for a pick, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
5:11pm: The Clippers trying to package Matt Barnes and the 28th overall pick as the draft draws near, reports Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Rivers would ideally like to send them to the Knicks for Iman Shumpert, several NBA executives tell Turner. Another possibility is using those assets to acquire Gerald Green from the Suns, Turner hears. The Times scribe also says Rivers has interest in Tony Allen (Twitter link).
Barnes and Shumpert were involved in a rumored trade around the deadline, and it appears that Rivers is after the Knicks swingman again. Sending a would-be fourth first-rounder to Phoenix would cause complications for the Suns, though the executives suggest to Turner that Phoenix could put a few of those picks in another trade. Allen played for Rivers when both were with the Celtics.
The 34-year-old Barnes is set to make nearly $3.4MM in 2014/15. His contract is only guaranteed for $1MM beyond that.
Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Felton, Knicks, Celtics
There’s a “tremendous” chance that the Sixers take Joel Embiid at No. 3, though they’re still deciding, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Still, a source who spoke to Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com threw cold water on the idea that Philly was zeroing in on the Kansas big man (Twitter link). Regardless, it won’t be long until we find out. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Phil Jackson didn’t want to trade Raymond Felton until he had a sense of what might happen with Felton’s legal situation, notes Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal (Twitter link). Felton this week struck a plea agreement to avoid jail time on felony gun charges.
- The Knicks have done their homework on Baylor’s Cory Jefferson, leaving rival execs with the impression that they’re targeting him with the No. 34 pick they acquired from the Mavs, tweets Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
- Any movement the Celtics make from No. 6 will be down, not up, as both A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com and USA Today’s Sam Amick hear (Twitter link).
- The Sixers asked Julius Randle and Noah Vonleh to work out this morning, but it’s unclear whether they accepted the invitation, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
- The Nets are making a strong push to buy a pick later in the first round, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Latest On Mitch McGary, Potential Promise
THURSDAY, 5:36pm: Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders continues to hear that Mitch McGary has a promise from a team (Twitter link). Some believe it is indeed the Hornets, as Kennedy wrote earlier, while Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times hears from some who believe the Bucks, picking 31st, have promised him (Twitter link). The Thunder are “strongly considering” McGary at No. 29, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com.
WEDNESDAY, 8:24pm: A source tells Sean Deveney of Sporting News that McGary has been “all but assured” of being selected by a team in the 20s. Deveney mentions the Hornets and Thunder as possibilities.
TUESDAY, 3:12pm: Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer suggests that the Hornets are also targeting LSU’s Johnny O’Bryant III (Twitter link). That seems to contract the notion that Charlotte has issued a promise to McGary, though Bonnell doesn’t explicitly say so.
2:24pm: The Hornets have given former University of Michigan center Mitch McGary a promise to draft him with the 24th overall pick Thursday, reports Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The 22-year-old has reportedly worked out for only one team prior to the draft, but that club is the Bucks, who are reportedly interested in him for the 31st overall pick. Still, it appears Charlotte has zeroed in on the big man in spite of back surgery that limited him to just eight games this season and a drug test that revealed his use of marijuana prior to the NCAA tournament.
McGary was a potential lottery pick prior to the back injury, so in a sense Charlotte might end up with a steal at No. 24. In any case, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress lists McGary as the 24th best prospect in the draft, suggesting the Hornets would at least receive fair value. He’s 29th in the Insider-only rankings of Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
Still, the promise is no guarantee that the Hornets will draft McGary, and there are no binding agreements involved, even if Ford’s reporting is indeed accurate. Another team could draft McGary earlier, and the Hornets might receive an enticing offer that prompts them to trade the pick, among the possible scenarios.