Kyle Anderson To Enter Draft
Versatile UCLA sophomore Kyle Anderson has decided to enter this year’s NBA draft, his father tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Anderson played point guard for the Bruins this season, but he appears more equipped to play small forward or power forward in the NBA. He’s the 20th-rated prospect on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress list, and he’s No. 24 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
The 20-year-old led UCLA in rebounds (8.8) and assists per game (6.5), and his 14.6 points per contest were second to fellow potential first-round pick Jordan Adams. He showed significant improvement over his performance as a freshman, allowing him to surge from 79th in Givony’s preseason rankings. Critics most often point to his lack of athleticism, though he compensates for that with his wide range of skills.
UCLA’s season ended Thursday with a loss to Florida in the NCAA tournament. Anderson has until April 15th to withdraw and return to the Bruins.
Atlantic Links: Sixers, Knicks, J.R. Smith, Celtics
The Sixers went most of last summer without signing a free agent, and that’s the plan again this time around, coach Brett Brown told reporters, including Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“No free agent is going to want to come to Philadelphia at this stage,” Brown said, explaining that the team is instead focused on developing young talent. “Why would a good free agent want to come in and be a part of a rebuild?”
The Sixers plan to wait another couple of years before attempting to make a splash on the market, Brown added, so it seems like they’ll be looking up at their Atlantic Division rivals for a while longer. Here’s the latest on a couple of them:
- James Dolan and Steve Mills have already concluded that the Knicks roster requires a shakeup, despite the team’s run at a playoff spot, observes Marc Berman of the New York Post, who believes Phil Jackson‘s recent comments suggest the Zen Master agrees.
- The desire for changes in New York doesn’t necessarily mean the Knicks will look to unload J.R. Smith, Berman writes in a separate piece.
- With the Celtics in line for the fifth overall pick, as our Reverse Standings show, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge shares insight on how he scouts prospects, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald details.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Greg Monroe
Most restricted free agents as valuable as Greg Monroe is are virtual shoo-ins to return to their teams. That’s not the case with the 6’11” former Georgetown Hoya whose departure would appear to offer the Pistons the easiest way to dismantle their clumsy, super-sized frontcourt. Much hinges on just who the Pistons will have running their basketball operations this summer, with the job security of Joe Dumars in doubt. Most would probably conclude that the teaming of Monroe, Andre Drummond and Josh Smith has been a failed experiment, but even if Smith and Drummond continue to be unmovable assets, for completely different reasons, it doesn’t necessarily mean Monroe is a goner.
The Pistons could sign Monroe this summer and trade him at the deadline, although his statistical decline this season suggests that his value would take a hit if Detroit continues to play him with its current set of misfit parts. His points, rebounds and assists per game — and per minute — are all down, and his PER is at a career-low 17.9. Monroe no doubt bears some responsibility for his own declining numbers, but it seems most logical to suggest that playing out of position and amid tight offensive spacing has been the primary reason behind his regression. He might not be all that enthusiastic about playing under these conditions for another year, but the Pistons wield the power to match any offer Monroe takes from another club.
Still, part of what makes Monroe such an intriguing case is the strong possibility that other clubs find him significantly more valuable than whoever will be making basketball decisions for Detroit does. Agent David Falk is averse to extensions for less than the maximum salary, and it never appeared as though the Pistons were willing to go that high. Still, Monroe is only 23 years old, and with averages of 15.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game with a 19.8 PER over the past three seasons, there’s plenty of reason to believe that at least one team would be willing to give him the max. That’s especially true since Monroe qualifies for a max that’s equivalent to only 25% of the salary cap, significantly less than the max salaries that more experienced players can make. The precise amount won’t be clear until after the July Moratorium, but it will likely entail a starting salary close to $14MM a year.
Falk has mastered the art of linking a client with the team that holds him in higher regard than most, having done so most recently with Roy Hibbert of the Pacers. Hibbert, who like Monroe is a former Georgetown big man, wasn’t widely considered worthy of a max deal when the Blazers agreed to sign him to an offer sheet for that amount in 2012, forcing the Pacers to quickly swoop in with an identical offer to retain him.
Five Eastern Conference teams are reportedly already planning to pursue Monroe, and one of them is probably the Wizards, who would apparently like to bring him back to the same city where he played his college ball. The Bobcats and Warriors had interest in trading for Monroe at the deadline, an idea that Detroit resisted short of an extraordinary offer. The resistance to part with Monroe in advance of his free agency indicates that Dumars and company are by no means anxious to see him go. The Pistons are hoping to re-sign him to a contract similar to the four-year, $49MM deal the Thunder gave Serge Ibaka in 2012, as TNT’s David Aldridge wrote in February. Aldridge believes the team will settle for paying the max if another club makes him such an offer, but given Detroit’s inability to find a taker for Smith, it’s not unreasonable to believe otherwise. A max deal for Monroe would require a commitment of nearly half the salary cap to two parts of a three-man unit that simply hasn’t worked.
The possibility of a sign-and-trade is in play. The Pistons could use their ability to match offers as leverage to gain assets from Monroe suitors. Dumars was on the other end of such a transaction this summer, when he acquired Brandon Jennings for three players including Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton, a pair of inexpensive young talents with upside. Detroit can’t expect to receive a player of Monroe’s caliber in this sort of swap, but the big man’s status as a restricted free agent means the club could reap assets more valuable than the ones conveyed in many sign-and-trades.
Monroe is certainly no superstar, but a young, productive interior player who stands 6’11” needn’t be a marquee name to command a max deal. His down year this season raises legitimate concerns, but I think he’ll nonetheless be able to sign a max contract in the summer. Whether it’s the Pistons or another team that winds up shelling out the money depends on just who is running the front office in Detroit. If the new GM is a confident, aggressive sort who feels like there’d be an avenue to solve the team’s frontcourt mess even with Monroe on the books for max money, the big man will stay put. If owner Tom Gores installs someone who wants to play it safe and take the path of least resistance, Monroe will be wearing a different uniform.
Pacific Notes: Young, Meeks, Hornacek, Kings
It appears likely that Nick Young will opt out of his contract, writes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, though there’s mutual interest in keeping him in purple-and-gold. The team also likes soon-to-be free agent Jodie Meeks, Bresnahan adds, and while Meeks has spoken of his desire to remain a Laker, the Times scribe believes the shooting guard will probably command a tidy raise from his $1.55MM salary this season. Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Within a story noting that Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg must pay the school $500K if he accepts an NBA head coaching or GM job, Randy Peterson of the Des Moines Register reveals that Jeff Hornacek is making $2MM as coach of the Suns this year. Hornacek reportedly has a four-year deal with a club option in the final season.
- The Kings are debating whether to re-sign Royce White for the season, and they’re enamored with his play, professionalism and the way he’s meshed with teammates, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. White’s second 10-day contract with Sacramento expires tonight.
- Sean Cunningham of News 10 Sacramento hears it was a failed physical that derailed Chris Johnson‘s deal with the Kings (Twitter link). The team is reportedly adding Willie Reed instead.
Tyler Ennis To Declare For Draft
Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis will enter this year’s NBA draft, sources tell Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. The freshman will probably be a late lottery pick, with fellow ESPN.com scribe Chad Ford slotting him ninth in his prospect rankings and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress pegging him 15th. The Orange’s upset loss to Dayton this past weekend in the NCAA tournament appears to have been his final college game.
Ennis is frequently mentioned along with Dante Exum and Marcus Smart as one of the top three point guards expected to be in this year’s draft, though it appears he trails both of them in the eyes of most teams for now. The 6’2″ Ennis averaged 12.9 points, 5.5 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 35.7 minutes per game this season, one in which Syracuse raced to a 25-0 start. The team won just three times in its final nine games, and perhaps that’s hurt the stock of the 19-year-old.
Still, Ennis made strides during the 2013/14 season. The Canadian native started the season just 45th in Givony’s rankings, and he wasn’t among the top 20 on Ford’s list, either. He was No. 27 on the Recruiting Services Consensus Index for the top 2013 high school prospects.
Warriors Rumors: Jackson, Barnes, O’Neal, Green
Impatience from the ownership suite is at the root of much of the tension surrounding the Warriors, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes in his NBA AM piece. The front office is under pressure, and that affects coach Mark Jackson and his coaching staff, according to Kyler, who says the owners often push for roster changes when the team isn’t performing well. The principal owners of the Warriors are Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, but Kyler doesn’t specify whether it’s one or both of them or someone else within the ownership group who is putting the squeeze on. Still, Kyler has other specifics about the uneasiness in Golden State, as we detail below amid our look at the latest from the Pacific Division:
- Harrison Barnes was the subject of trade rumors before the deadline, and Kyler hears that Warriors ownership started those talks in hope of flipping Barnes for a veteran big man who could help the team win in the short-term. For what it’s worth, Lacob said in February that he wasn’t anxious to move Barnes.
- Jackson previously denied that there’s dysfunction within the Warriors, and Wednesday he also tried to shoot down the idea that he sought head coaching jobs with the Clippers and Nets, among other teams. Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com has the details.
- Jackson is an ordained nondenominational Christian minister, and that’s a draw for many players, including Jermaine O’Neal, who said it was one of the primary reasons he signed with the Warriors, and Draymond Green, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News observes.
- The Warriors expected to contend for the Western Conference title this year, and if they reach the conference finals, Jackson will “almost certainly” return as coach, but if they lose in the first round, he’s a goner, Deveney believes.
Sixers Re-Sign James Nunnally To 10-Day Pact
THURSDAY, 12:08pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 11:44am: The Sixers are set to sign James Nunnally to a second 10-day contract, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The small forward’s first 10-day deal expires tonight. Nunnally also went through a pair of 10-day stints with the Hawks this year, and his goal at this point is presumably to convince Philadelphia to sign him for the season, which Atlanta decided not to do.
The 6’7″ Nunnally went undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara in 2012 and played last season in the D-League, but he was a sought-after camp invitee after a strong summer league performance with the Heat in 2013. He joined the Suns for the preseason but failed to make the opening-night roster and returned to the D-League, where he’s spent the bulk of this season aside from his brief time with the Hawks and Sixers. He’s averaging 12.4 minutes per game in five contests for Philadelphia, putting up 2.2 points and 1.0 rebounds a night.
The Sixers also have Casper Ware on a 10-day contract that runs until a week from tonight. A new deal with Nunnally would keep the team at the 15-man roster limit. Philadelphia has given 10-day contracts to five players this season, as our 10-Day Tracker shows.
Spurs First-Rounder To Stay Overseas In 2014/15
Spurs 2013 first-round draft pick Livio Jean-Charles will remain with French team Asvel Villeurbanne next season, according to Tony Parker, the Spurs point guard who owns part of Asvel, as Catch-and-Shoot reports (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). The 20-year-old forward hasn’t played this season because of a knee injury.
San Antonio took Jean-Charles with the 28th overall pick last year after an impressive performance in the Nike Hoop Summit in which he competed against many of this year’s premiere draft prospects, including Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and Noah Vonleh. Still, the 6’9″ forward put up underwhelming numbers with Asvel in 2012/13, notching just 3.3 points in 14.0 minutes per game.
The extra year overseas isn’t altogether surprising, given that the injury kept him from using this season to improve his game. If he had signed this summer, the Spurs would have given him a rookie scale contract worth the equivalent of what this year’s 28th overall pick is set to receive. There might be some degree of pressure for the Spurs to sign Jean-Charles in the summer of 2015, the last year he’d be subject to the rookie scale. Still, he’d be unlikely to command more money unless he shows significant improvement in his game, and Parker, who’s buying a majority stake in Asvel, probably wouldn’t attach an exorbitant buyout to Jean-Charles’ deal with the French team.
Joel Embiid To Enter Draft?
11:09am: Embiid says via Twitter that he has yet to make a decision (hat tip to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders).
8:08am: Potential No. 1 overall pick Joel Embiid has decided to enter the draft, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, with a formal announcement to come soon. The Kansas freshman center hasn’t played since March 1st with a stress fracture in his back. Jayhawks coach Bill Self maintained that Embiid could have played in the later rounds of the NCAA tournament if Kansas had advanced, but NBA teams have some concern about the injury, which will undergo close scrutiny during predraft medical evaluations.
Embiid was widely considered the slight favorite to become the top pick before the injury. The native of Cameroon is the No. 2 pick on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress board and Chad Ford of ESPN.com rates him third. The 20-year-old is a raw talent and came off the bench for the first eight games of the season, but he has shown vast potential on both sides of the ball. He averaged 11.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 23.1 minutes per game this year.
The 7-footer gave indication in January that he wasn’t sure about heading for the draft, but it appears the chance to go in the top three picks, if not first overall, is too appealing to pass up. A loss to Stanford this weekend knocked Kansas out of the tournament, likely ending his college career. He has yet to select an agent, but this week he’s made progress toward a decision, according to Wojnarowski.
Metta World Peace Seeking Return To Knicks
Metta World Peace asked for and received a buyout from the Knicks last month, but he’s said he wouldn’t have done that if he knew Phil Jackson, who coached him with the Lakers, was going to become New York’s president of basketball operations. A source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post that World Peace yearns to return to the Knicks and would love to re-sign with the team. The Knicks have an open roster spot, though Berman makes it seem as though a reunion with World Peace is more likely in the offseason. World Peace met with Jackson during New York’s game with the Lakers on Tuesday, and it was tantamount to a job interview, Berman says.
Jackson is high on the former Ron Artest, and he’s praised the defensive-minded forward’s practice habits, Berman writes, while pointing out that the Zen Master was more critical of World Peace in his latest book. The Marc Cornstein client will be seeking a minimum-salary deal this summer, according to Berman. World Peace gets $250K from the Knicks as part of his buyout arrangement, Berman notes, though it’s not quite clear if that’s all he’s receiving or if the Knicks are paying his full salary for 2013/14, too. His contract with the team originally called for him to make $1.59MM this season with a player option worth more than $1.66MM for next year.
World Peace has said he requested his buyout when coach Mike Woodson apparently asked him not to attempt to become a locker room leader. There’s a strong chance Woodson will be let go in the offseason, so perhaps his replacement will find World Peace a better fit. The 34-year-old World Peace, who suffers from arthritis in his knees, said in December that he wanted to play through 2018/19, but he scaled that back to 2015/16 in recent comments to the Post.