Rockets, Others Interested In Zoran Dragic
The Rockets are the leaders among many NBA teams interested in Spanish league shooting guard Zoran Dragic, reports Lefteris Moutis of Eurohoops.net. Unicaja Malaga is likely to pick up its team option on Dragic this summer, but the contract includes a $500K NBA buyout. That figure is within the NBA’s Excluded International Player Payment Amount of $600K for next season, so the buyout probably won’t be a stumbling block. An NBA deal is more likely to hinge on playing time for the brother of Suns guard Goran Dragic, as Zoran Dragic is seeking a significant role right away, Moutis writes.
Dragic played for Houston’s summer league team in 2012, around the time his brother left the Rockets to sign with the Suns. It’s unlikely he’ll play in an NBA summer league again this year, Moutis writes. He’s set to undergo hernia surgery after the Spanish league playoffs, and that will knock him out for a month. Once healthy, he’ll join the Slovenian national team as it prepares for this summer’s World Cup of basketball, as Moutis documents.
An enhanced role in Unicaja Malaga’s offense allowed Dragic’s numbers to jump this season, as he put up 10.6 points on 8.1 shots per game after posting just 4.9 PPG on 3.9 shots a contest in 2012/13. He also improved his three-point stroke, going from woeful 22.5% accuracy last year to 32.7% this season, but that still makes him a below-average shooter who’d seemingly have trouble fitting in with Houston, which places a premium on the trey. He went undrafted in 2011 and turns 25 in June, so it’s worth wondering just how much potential he possesses. Perhaps teams are considering him with an eye toward his brother, who can become a free agent next summer.
Jazz Eyeing John Stockton For Coaching Job
The Jazz plan to contact legendary point guard John Stockton to see if he’s interested in filling the team’s head coaching vacancy, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The 52-year-old is just one of perhaps 20 or so candidates the Jazz are considering in a wide-ranging search. Stockton helped the Jazz scout some players while he was at the Portsmouth Invitational last month to watch his son, and he wants some level of involvement, but it’s unclear whether he wants to coach, according to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter links).
Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey told Genessy this week that the team is “getting closer to moving to the part where we’ll reach out” to coaching candidates. Stein hears that the team is likely to conduct a few introductory interviews with potential coaches at the Chicago draft combine this week. Spurs assistant Jim Boylen emerged as the front-runner in the immediate wake of the team’s decision not to renew Tyrone Corbin‘s deal. The Jazz are reportedly interested in Steve Kerr, but it doesn’t appear as though that feeling is mutual. Other rumored candidates include European coaching great Ettore Messina, Bulls assistant Adrian Griffin, Jazz assistant Brad Jones and Hawks assistant Quin Snyder. Lindsey cautioned in his interview with Genessy that “all the speculation is very premature” regarding the team’s search.
Many around the league that believe Stockton would be reticent to coach, given his desire for privacy, but others think the Hall-of-Fame point guard would be a natural on the bench, Stein writes. Stockton has largely remained away from the game since his retirement as a player following the 2002/03 season.
Pistons, Stan Van Gundy Reach Deal
WEDNESDAY, 8:02am: Van Gundy and the Pistons have a signed contract, reports Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press, and a formal announcement is set to come this morning, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links).
TUESDAY, 8:37pm: The deal will be signed in a few hours, tweets Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News.
8:28pm: Van Gundy has reached an agreement in principle to become the Pistons’ head coach/president of basketball operations, sources tell ESPN’s Marc Stein. Stein also reports that an official announcement is expected this week and confirms that the deal is worth an estimated $35MM over five years.
7:43pm: Per Wojnarowski, the Pistons and Van Gundy are nearing an agreement centered on five years and $35MM.
2:45pm: Van Gundy hasn’t entirely ruled out the Warrors yet, according to Wojnarowski. Gores is ready to do whatever it takes to land Van Gundy, Wojnarowski hears, and while Detroit’s offer trumps Golden State’s willingness to pay Van Gundy $25-30MM on a five-year deal, money isn’t Van Gundy’s primary concern, according to Wojnarowski. The chance to control a front office and build a roster is what’s luring Van Gundy to Detroit, Wojnarowski writes.
2:15pm: Van Gundy and the Pistons are working toward a five-year, $35MM deal, Wojnarowski tweets.
1:55pm: Smith is only one of several names in the mix for the Pistons GM job if Van Gundy ends up overseeing basketball operations for the team, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press (on Twitter).
1:36pm: The Pistons are merely waiting on Van Gundy to sign their offer, and he’s likely to do so, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
1:30pm: The Warriors met with Van Gundy on Monday in Florida and emerged convinced that Van Gundy was leaning toward the Pistons job, Wojnarowski tweets.
1:27pm: If he reaches a deal to run the Pistons front office and coach the team, Van Gundy’s thinking about hiring Otis Smith to work under him as GM of the Pistons, Wojnarowski reports (on Twitter). Smith, the former Magic GM, oversaw Van Gundy when they worked together in Orlando.
1:21pm: Van Gundy was impressed with Golden State’s management structure and ownership when he spoke with the team recently, Wojnarowski notes in the latest version of his piece, though the Pistons intrigue him as well.
1:16pm: The Pistons and Van Gundy are close to a deal, tweets Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News, who hears there’s a chance it’s finalized in a day or two.
12:09am: Van Gundy is undecided between the Pistons and the Warriors, Wojnarowski tweets. He’s seriously considering Detroit’s offer, but he’s torn between taking that and coaching the Warriors, according to Wojnarowski.
11:33am: The Pistons are pitching Stan Van Gundy on becoming both coach and the team’s top basketball office executive, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Warriors appeared to be progressing swiftly toward an agreement with Van Gundy to coach their team, but a report minutes earlier indicated that no deal was imminent between Golden State and the former Heat and Magic coach.
Van Gundy has strong interest in the Warriors, Wojnarowski writes, though it’s unclear how much the Pistons intrigue him. It would be a lucrative arrangement in Detroit, according to Wojnarowski, although just what sort of terms the Pistons are floating is unclear. Van Gundy spoke on NBC Radio recently of his desire to have a strong working relationship with the front office in whatever coaching job he would take, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group notes. The Pistons gig, which would give him complete control of the team’s basketball ops, Wojnarowski says, would give Van Gundy no one other than owner Tom Gores looking over his shoulder. Van Gundy said when he left his job as Heat coach that he wanted to spend more time with his family, but widespread speculation suggested that Heat team president Pat Riley forced him out so he could take over coaching duties instead.
Van Gundy asked the Warriors for total control over their basketball operations, but they declined to give him that, reports Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). The Warriors put heavy pressure on former coach Mark Jackson, and with activist co-owner Joe Lacob, GM Bob Myers and adviser Jerry West, among others, in place, Van Gundy would seemingly have little room for personnel input if he were to take the Golden State job.
Pistons interim coach John Loyer has been a candidate to retain his job on a more permanent basis. Pistons assistant GM George David and director of basketball operations Ken Catanella have assumed the responsibilities of former president of basketball operations Joe Dumars, and they have also been in the running to formally replace Dumars atop the team’s front office.
Former Raptors and Suns GM Bryan Colangelo and Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren appeared last week to be the front-runners for the top Pistons front office job. Cavs GM David Griffin was a candidate before Cleveland removed the interim tag from his job. NBA senior vice president of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe, Magic assistant GM Scott Perry and Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk were also reportedly in the running. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo seemed to be in the mix for the Pistons coaching job.
Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today first noted a few weeks ago that the Pistons were considering hiring someone in a dual coaching/front office role. Detroit reached out to Van Gundy earlier, according to Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News, but Van Gundy’s request for a degree of control over personnel decisions closed those brief talks. It seems the Pistons have had a change of heart.
Clippers/Sterling Rumors: Tuesday
Donald Sterling hinted in his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he might not put up the legal fight he’s been expected to mount to keep the Clippers, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding observes. Ding asserts that Sterling’s wife, Shelly, doesn’t pose as significant a stumbling block to the NBA’s plan to strip the team from the family as reports have indicated. Once the Clippers emerge from the mess, they’re poised to become a glamour franchise, Ding writes, noting that some around the Lakers are “hugely worried” about the success of the Clips and the specter that Magic Johnson or another celebrity will soon own them. Here’s more on the Clippers:
- Magic shared his thoughts with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about Donald Sterling’s reluctance to let the Clippers go: “He’s a man who’s upset and he’s reaching. He’s reaching. He’s trying to find something that he can grab on to help him save his team. And it’s not going to happen” (passed along by Shelby Grad of the Los Angeles Times, hat tip to the Chicago Tribune).
- The NBA Advisory/Finance committee held a conference call on the Clippers and will reconvene next week (first passed along via tweet from RealGM). Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today passed along that the committee discussed Donald and Shelly Sterling’s recent TV appearances, interim CEO Dick Parsons, and the ownership termination process (Twitter link).
Earlier updates:
- Earlier today, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin recoiled at Donald Sterling’s claim that the Clippers players still love him, notes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
- Pierce O’Donnell, Shelly Sterling’s attorney, says they’re “ready to go to war” over the league’s contention that it can remove her from ownership of the team at the same time it votes her husband out, as O’Donnell tells Scott Cacciola of The New York Times.
- In the same interview, O’Donnell threatened to depose owners and personnel from other teams around the league in a potential lawsuit against the NBA. “To answer your question, of course I’ll ask for discovery. But it’s in everybody’s best interests to avoid Armageddon,” O’Donnell said.
- Shelly Sterling tells Cacciola that she hasn’t spoken to other owners in the league since her husband was banned, but she suggests owners around the NBA would stick up for her husband if they weren’t afraid of a player backlash.
- We passed along the latest on Magic Johnson’s bid to buy the Clippers earlier today.
Eastern Notes: Cavs, Pistons, Knicks, Nets
Cavs GM David Griffin was especially vehement when he told reporters today that Kyrie Irving wasn’t behind the team’s decision to fire Mike Brown, pounding the table in front of him as he spoke, observes Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer. People close to Irving weren’t pleased with Brown, but Irving himself expressed a mix of positive and negative feelings on the former coach, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal details. Here’s more on the Cavs and the rest of the Eastern Conference:
- Former Raptors and Suns GM Bryan Colangelo and Bucks assistant GM David Morway were rumored to be in the mix for the Cavs front office job before the team removed GM David Griffin‘s interim tag, according to Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores was torn on what to do about Greg Monroe and Josh Smith in addition to how to fill his coaching and front office vacancies before Stan Van Gundy entered the picture, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets. In any case, Gores has been looking to hire a “name,” according to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News (Twitter link).
- The Knicks are seeking to trade cash for a pick late in this year’s draft, as Marc Berman of the New York Post reports amid a story on the team’s pursuit of Steve Kerr. New York is without a pick in either the first or the second round.
- The Nets hold the draft rights to Bojan Bogdanovic, but they don’t expect to sign him anytime soon, and Bogdanovic is nearing a new deal with Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker that will cover two or three seasons, reports Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. The pact will likely include a lower NBA buyout price than the $2MM called for in his existing contract with the team, Varlas adds.
- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel thinks the Magic should consider trading up to pick Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker or Joel Embiid if Orlando misses out on one of the top three picks in the lottery. The Magic are in line for the No. 3 pick but could fall as low as No. 6.
Warriors, Van Gundy Talks Stall; Kerr Back In Mix
4:37pm: A source tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com that it would be shocking if Kerr wound up turning down the Knicks, and the reason they haven’t reached an agreement yet is because Kerr and team president Phil Jackson are otherwise occupied. Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com passes along the details (all Twitter links).
1:44pm: The Warriors are heading to Oklahoma City today to meet with Kerr, in town to broadcast tonight’s game for TNT, and make another push to hire him as coach, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link)
1:34pm: Kerr is still more likely to take the Knicks job than to end up in Golden State, even as the Warriors maintain hope that they can sway him, Stein tweets.
12:57pm: Golden State is prepared to pay market rate or higher for Kerr or any of the team’s coaching targets, according to Kawakami (Twitter links).
12:46pm: The Warriors plan another aggressive push at Kerr if Van Gundy takes the Pistons job, Wojnarowski tweets. Kerr and the Knicks are hung up in negotiations over the length of his would-be deal to coach New York, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Kerr is seeking a five-year deal, while the Knicks only want to give him four.
12:04pm: Kawakami suggests the Warriors and Van Gundy are no longer talking, and that it doesn’t sound as if they’ll restart the conversation (Twitter link). The report is in the wake of a report of the Pistons’ interest in Van Gundy for a dual coach/executive role. The Warriors were unwilling to fulfill Van Gundy’s request of total control over basketball decisions, as Kawakami noted.
11:28am: The Warriors aren’t on the verge of hiring Van Gundy or anyone else, reports Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. The team is indeed high on Van Gundy, but it appears the Warriors aren’t finished with their search, Kawakami adds, pointing to Golden State’s last coaching search, in which there were premature reports about leading candidates (All four Twitter links). The news would appear to indicate that the team’s interview with Hollins is still on for Thursday, though that’s just my speculation.
9:02am: The Warriors have come to regard Stan Van Gundy as the clear-cut top choice for their head coaching position, and talks are intensifying as they progress toward a deal, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com. Marc Stein of ESPN.com and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported early Monday that Golden State was zeroing in on Van Gundy, and it appears the sides are moving swiftly as the chances of Steve Kerr ending up in Golden State continue to fade.
Van Gundy drew support from several in the organization soon after the Warriors fired Mark Jackson, and Warriors players, many of whom were strong supporters of Jackson, appeared to be among the first ones in Van Gundy’s corner. The front office and co-owner Joe Lacob eventually shifted their support from Kerr to Van Gundy, too. The Warriors reached out to Van Gundy last week as the team eyed an experienced coach to help foster its continued growth toward title contention.
Van Gundy, who in March deemed himself highly unlikely to return to the bench next season, downplayed his interest last week. The former Heat and Magic coach nonetheless acknowledged his connection to the Warriors, whom he’d grown up rooting for as a child in Northern California.
Golden State reportedly has an interview scheduled with Lionel Hollins on Thursday, but it’s unclear whether that remains on the agenda. Others linked to the job include Jerry Sloan, David Fizdale, George Karl, Mike D’Antoni, Nate McMillan, Kevin Ollie, Alvin Gentry, Fred Hoiberg, Tom Thibodeau. Van Gundy, Kerr, Hoiberg and Ollie appeared to be in the upper echelon among those candidates.
Bulls Targeting Devin Harris
The Bulls appear to have Mavs guard Devin Harris in their sights, as a source tells Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com that Harris has “been connected” to the team. Harris and the Mavs have mutual interest in a return, so it seems like it will be somewhat challenging for Chicago to convince him to come north and back up Derrick Rose. Harris is seeking a long-term deal, so perhaps Chicago will be willing to give him more security than the Mavs, though Dallas was ready to sign him to a three-year, $9MM deal this past summer before a toe injury scuttled those plans.
That same injury forced Harris to miss half of this past season after Dallas circled back and signed him to a one-year deal for the minimum salary, and once he returned, he took on a less prominent role than he’s accustomed to. Still, his 4.5-to-1.5 assists-to-turnover ratio this season was the best of his 10-year career, as the 31-year-old remains efficient.
Chicago appears poised to choose between soon-to-be free agents D.J. Augustin and Kirk Hinrich, who split point guard duties in Rose’s absence this year. The team has the flexibility to go in many different directions this summer, as I detailed last week, with Carmelo Anthony and Nikola Mirotic the primary targets. The Bulls will no doubt seek resolution with Anthony and Mirotic before moving on to Harris, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the team merely sees him as a fallback in case Augustin or Hinrich signs elsewhere. Chicago’s interest is nonetheless indication that the Excel Sports Management client is still well-regarded as a rotation-caliber player even if his days as an All-Star are long gone.
Wizards Interested In Re-Signing Trevor Ariza
The Wizards have made it clear for the past several months that they intend to pursue a long-term deal with soon-to-be free agent Marcin Gortat, but the team is also interested in re-signing Trevor Ariza, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Most league executives expect both to ink new contracts with Washington this summer, Lowe reports. Those execs from around the NBA believe that Ariza and Gortat will make $15-20MM combined in annual salary on deals that cover three or four years.
Ariza has expressed a desire to re-sign with the Wizards, though he prefaced that by telling Michael Lee of The Washington Post that he’ll go “wherever I’m wanted.” The Wizards and Cavs spoke about Ariza in trade talks involving Luol Deng at the deadline, but the team had little luck as it sought to unload Ariza’s expiring contract. It appears that Ariza has grown on Washington since then, though the Wizards probably hope his market value drops between now and July, when rival suitors can make offers, Lowe writes. That’s a possibility if other teams are wary of how he’d play for them when he’s not in a contract year and doesn’t have John Wall to set him up with corner three-pointers, Lowe suggests.
The Wizards are at a fork that presents a number of routes toward a shot at a title, as Lowe examines, noting the team’s long-held fondness for Jeff Green as a possible trade target. Washington has about $43.5MM in commitments for next season, and while new deals for Gortat and Ariza would erase the team’s cap flexibility, the Wizards would still have a chance to use the non-taxpayer’s mid-level, Lowe notes. Largely staying the course and bringing back the starting five from this year’s team is seemingly GM Ernie Grunfeld‘s preferred course for now amid rampant mediocrity in the Eastern Conference, but there will be opportunities to pivot, as Lowe points out.
Suns To Have Own D-League Affiliate
MAY 13TH: The Suns have officially partnered with the D-League’s Jam on a one-to-one affiliation, the league announced.
MAY 8TH: Paul Coro of Azcentral.com reports that the Suns are expected to finalize an agreement with Bakersfield next week, and that it will indeed be a hybrid one-to-one relationship as previously reported.
APRIL 30TH: Sources tell Gino Pilato of D-League Digest that they expect the Suns will partner with the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam next season (Twitter link). It would be a “hybrid” arrangement in which the Suns would control the basketball operations for the club while the Jam would continue to be independently owned.
Phoenix only made a pair of D-League assignments this season, as our log shows, having shared the Jam with the Hawks, Clippers, Raptors and Jazz. Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby and GM Ryan McDonough would apparently like to make more frequent use of the D-League next year. That stands to reason, given that the Suns are set to have four or perhaps five draft picks in June, with the potential for another extra pick coming their way as early as next year.
The Jam were one of only three D-League teams aligned with more than one NBA franchise this season. It appears as though there will be just two D-League squads to cover the NBA clubs without one-to-one affiliations for next season, even as the Knicks are creating a new D-League team that will be the league’s 18th. The Magic are taking over the Erie BayHawks, the Knicks’ former affiliate, and there’s a strong possibility that the Jazz will partner with the Idaho Stampede, with whom the Blazers are ending their partnership. That means the Nets, who lost their one-to-one affiliate to the Pistons, will join the Hawks, Clippers, Raptors, Bobcats, Pacers, Grizzlies, Bucks, Bulls, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Wizards and Blazers in sharing D-League teams in 2014/15, unless one of them strikes a new agreement.
Cavs Rumors: Coaching Search, Irving, Brown
New Cavs GM David Griffin spoke about the team’s head coaching vacancy this morning, less than 24 hours after the team fired Mike Brown and removed the interim tag from Griffin’s title. We’ll round up the highlights from Griffin’s press conference and pass along more on the Cavs coaching search here:
- Griffin will lead the search, but he says owner Dan Gilbert will have input, as Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer notes in a live blog of the press conference.
- The GM hinted at change, saying that there are pieces that don’t fit on the Cavs roster, as Valade chronicles.
- Griffin says he may Interview coaching candidates later this week at the draft combine in Chicago, Valade notes.
- Kyrie Irving didn’t have anything to do with Brown’s firing, and the star point guard won’t be involved in any decisions regarding the next coach, Griffin insists. Bob Finnan of The News-Herald and Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio tweet the details.
- The Cavs have no timetable for selecting their next coach, Griffin says, as Lloyd tweets.
- The Cavs have yet to compile a list of coaching candidates, but it appears that when they do, Mike D’Antoni‘s name won’t be on it, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd suggests that Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry is in better position than other would-be candidates given Griffin’s fondness for him.
- Brown’s firing had nothing to do with his ties to former GM Chris Grant, whom the team fired in February, as Lloyd writes in the same piece.