Atlantic Rumors: Lowry, Sixers, Wyatt, Celtics
The Raptors continue to be aggressive in their search for the right Kyle Lowry trade, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, who echoed his own late-January dispatch on the subject as he answered reader questions in a chat. Ford also says the Sixers are still leaning toward taking Andrew Wiggins over Jabari Parker if they have the opportunity at draft time. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Blazers had talks with the Sixers in December about Spencer Hawes, tweets Jake Fischer of Liberty Ballers, who wonders if Portland will reignite those discussions now that Joel Freeland is sidelined for at least the next month with a sprained right MCL.
- Sixers camp invitee Khalif Wyatt has signed to play in the D-League, reports Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (Twitter link).
- The Celtics are keeping an eye on Turkish league center Colton Iverson, whom they took 53rd overall this past June, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia observes.
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com goes over the likely scenarios for the Celtics at the deadline, writing that it’s more likely the team trades Keith Bogans in the summer than in the next eight days.
- We rounded up news on the Knicks in a separate post.
Knicks Notes: Carmelo, Faried, Shumpert
The Knicks are once more eyeing Kenneth Faried and Kyle Lowry, dredging up trade chatter from earlier this season. New York seems to be ramping up efforts to make a move with the deadline just eight days away and a summer of uncertainty ahead. Here’s more from Madison Square Garden:
- Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has made a few public comments this season regarding Carmelo Anthony‘s free agency, and Anthony admits he leans on his ex-college coach for advice, as Peter Botte of the New York Daily News observes.
- Faried would give the Knicks a young, cheap power forward who fits short-term and long-term needs, but the team might regret letting Iman Shumpert continue to develop elsewhere, argues Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.
- The Knicks shouldn’t be looking to trade any young players of value, argues Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal, who examines what Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr. bring to the team.
NBA Unlikely To Expand To Seattle Soon
Concerns about the future of the Bucks in Milwaukee, pending TV negotiations, and dilution of on-court talent have prompted commissioner Adam Silver to tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com that the league has no plan in place to put an expansion team in Seattle. Silver lauded Seattle as a “wonderful” market and says that it would be beneficial to the league to have a team there, but he’s maintains that the league is nonetheless holding off on any expansion.
“I and the owners will look at not only dilution of economic opportunities with one more partner to divide national and international money but also dilution of talent,” Silver said. “Right now are already making comments about the (Eastern Conference), so is the ideal time to be adding another 15 or 30 players to the league? Ultimately I’m responsible for the financial and competitive health of a 30-team league and while we made tremendous strides in the last collective bargaining agreement, we’re still not there yet. We don’t have 30 profitable teams in the NBA and while we’ve made progress, there are still teams that aren’t competitive enough.”
It’s unlikely Silver and the league will seriously consider expansion to any city until the situation in Milwaukee is resolved, Windhorst writes. City leaders have been reluctant to fund maintenance to the Bucks’ existing arena, and it could be an uphill battle for the Bucks to secure public money for a new building. The team’s lease at the Bradley Center expires in 2017.
The willingness of a Seattle investment group fronted by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer to pony up $800MM in their pursuit of the Kings has Mavs owner Mark Cuban eager to infuse their money into the league. Still, the NBA is set to begin negotiations on a new national TV deal, and until it’s known just how much networks are willing to pay for broadcast rights, teams will likely be unwilling to let a new team in on a share of that revenue, Windhorst explains.
Kyler’s Latest: Carmelo, Magic, W’s, Kings
Lottery picks will be hard to come by at the deadline, which means there’s a strong chance that clubs, like the Sixers, with hopes of trading for one will have to settle for less, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Kyler has a lot more from around the league in his latest NBA AM piece, as we detail:
- Knicks executives have had a “very open and candid dialogue” about the notion that Carmelo Anthony could leave as a free agent this summer, but they remain confident enough in re-signing him that they’re not looking to trade him at the deadline, Kyler writes. New York appears intent on adding to its roster rather than selling off assets, Kyler observes, though the Knicks are still reluctant to include a draft pick in a deal for either Kenneth Faried or Kyle Lowry.
- The Magic are open to moving Glen Davis, but there’s essentially no market for him because of concerns about his attitude and his contract, which pays him $6.6MM next season, Kyler writes. Orlando is listening to offers for Jameer Nelson, too, but the Magic’s unwillingness to take back long-term money makes it a long shot he’ll be dealt. Nelson’s deal, which gives him $8.6MM this season, is an impediment to a deal, too, according to Kyler, even though it’s partially guaranteed for just $2MM next year. Orlando also continues to rebuff offers for Arron Afflalo.
- The Warriors are interested in acquiring players who are either on expiring contracts or relatively short-term deals, and in spite of last month’s trade for Jordan Crawford, they continue to look around for point guard help, according to Kyler. They’re also looking to acquire draft picks, Kyler adds.
- The Kings remain the front runners for Andre Miller, Kyler says, though Miller’s lack of value on the market is making Denver hesitate. The Basketball Insiders scribe also reiterates that Marcus Thornton and Jimmer Fredette are prime trade candidates for Sacramento and adds Aaron Gray to that list.
- Executives from the Magic, Wizards, Pacers and Grizzlies are downplaying their willingness to make deadline trades, but all of those teams are nonetheless on the lookout for some kind of deal between now and next Thursday.
Spurs Re-Sign Shannon Brown To 10-Day Deal
The Spurs have re-signed Shannon Brown to a second 10-day contract, the team announced via press release. The timing isn’t quite as curious as it might seem with the All-Star break looming, since Brown’s contract will cover four games, just as many as it would have if San Antonio had signed him right after the break. That’s in contrast to Atlanta’s decision to ink Cartier Martin to a second 10-day deal last night, since the Hawks have six games in the 10 days following the break.
The new deal for Brown isn’t a surprise, since he traveled with the team for tonight’s game in Boston, as Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News observes (Twitter link). Injury-riddled San Antonio made Brown a starter in his first game with the team, but he’s only played 50 minutes total over six games, averaging 2.2 points per contest.
The Mark Bartelstein client will have a few more opportunities to impress the Spurs brass before they have to decide whether to make him the team’s 15th guaranteed contract or let him go. The Spurs can’t trade Brown at the deadline, but they could unilaterally cut ties with him before his latest 10-day contract expires if they need to use his roster spot to accommodate an unbalanced swap.
Warriors Owner On Jackson, Thompson, Barnes
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob didn’t necessarily expect to contend for a title this year, but he did envision the team becoming a “serious competitor” for a top-four finish in the Western Conference, as he tells Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Golden State is in sixth place, four games back of the Clippers and Rockets, who are tied for fourth. The Warriors are just two and a half games up on ninth place Memphis. It’s left Lacob a “little disappointed,” but “not overly concerned yet,” he says. With plenty of trade rumors surrounding the Warriors, Lacob had much more to say to Kawakami, and while the entire piece is worth a read, we’ll share the highlights here:
On coach Mark Jackson:
“Of course there’s pressure on him. Just like there’s pressure on the players, there’s pressure on Mark, too. There’s on me, pressure on (GM) Bob Myers … and you know what? We should all be happy we have that pressure, because the truth is that means we’re relevant. If there’s no pressure and no expectations, that means we’re in rebuild mode and still coming. I don’t think that’s the case. We’re good. Whether we are achieving our expectations or not, we’ll look at the end of the year and see what we did. Maybe he is feeling it a little and he should be feeling pressure. That’s a good thing. I feel the pressure for this team to perform. We’ve invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of thinking, a lot of effort, and we’re going to continue to do so. I certainly feel pressure and some weight of expectation and I’m very happy to feel those things because it means we’ re getting somewhere.”
On how he’ll assess Jackson and others:
“I think you’re always evaluating everybody, whether it be the players, the coaches … it’s hard to know, if you don’t quite win a few games you should, is it the coach’s fault? Is it the players’ fault? It’s hard to say. I think we’ll have to look back on a body of work at the end of the season and look at that and make an evaluation. I do think our coach has done a good job; we have had some big wins, a lot of wins on the road, and that’s usually a sign of good coaching. But some things are a little disturbing; the lack of being up for some of these games at home, that’s a concern to me.”
On the team’s approach to the trade deadline:
“Very aggressive. I don’t think I would answer that differently any year. Honestly, I don’t even know how you think about it any other way. You should always be very aggressive, should always be looking to improve your team. Now it’s not clear we’ll be able to do that. There’ve been a lot of discussions, that’s what I hear around the league, but we’ll just have wait and see. We’re not going to make a move just to make a move. Certainly there are certain parts of the roster that we’d like to improve. No matter how good we are, we’d probably have that attitude. There’s no real limit on what we can do. Bob Myers has the ability, he knows, to propose anything to ownership, even if it means going into luxury tax, if means using those trade exceptions. We’ll consider all things.”
On the assertion that everyone except Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut is available for a trade:
“That specific statement has been out there. But I think we’d be very reluctant to trade any of our core pieces; we like our core. And our young core players–Curry, Klay (Thompson) and (Harrison) Barnes — a lot of teams like them because we’re getting specific trade proposals on a daily basis about those players. We are not anxious nor are we likely to make a move involving those players. Everyone wants what we have, young pieces. And we also have some important veteran players in our core and you need a mix of the two. … It’s obvious we need to get a little better, need a little more bench production and we need to jell a little more. We just haven’t quite hit our stride. Hopefully we hit that; we’ve got 30 games left to do it and make a strong run to the playoffs.”
Hawks Re-Sign Cartier Martin
The Hawks have given Cartier Martin a second 10-day deal, the team has announced via press release. The timing is a little odd, given that the All-Star break will take up half the length of the contract, but perhaps Atlanta wants to keep the small forward from other teams. He had a pair of 10-day deals with the Bulls earlier this season, and Tom Thibodeau is high on him.
Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that the team was likely to re-sign Martin, though at that point there wasn’t a timetable. He appeared in only two games on his first 10-day with the Hawks, but he’s played 27 games for them this season overall, since he was with the club from camp until January 7th, when Atlanta elected to waive him rather than guarantee his contract for the season. The Hawks will again face a decision of whether to guarantee the Andrew Vye client‘s deal for the balance of the year once his latest 10-day deal expires.
Atlanta can’t trade Martin at the deadline, as I explained earlier today, but the team could terminate his deal early to open up a roster spot for an unbalanced trade if need be. The Hawks have 14 guaranteed contracts, so Martin occupies the team’s only open roster space.
Trade Candidate: Evan Turner
The Sixers are in an unusual position with Evan Turner, their No. 2 overall pick from 2010. He’s by no means developed into an All-Star, but he began his career as a versatile sixth man and turned into a starter bearing a healthy share of the team’s offensive responsibilities. He’s first on the team in points per game, albeit by a small margin, and second in shot attempts and assists per contest. Still, that production is for a 15-38 Sixers club that just became only the second team in NBA history to lose by 40 points in back-to-back outings.
Most players of value who are in the fourth year of a rookie scale contract, like Turner, have either already been signed to extensions or face a summer of limited leverage in restricted free agency. That’s not the case for the former Ohio State Buckeye, since there are serious doubts about whether the Sixers would be willing to extend the more than $8.7MM qualifying offer required to make him a restricted free agent in the offseason. If they did retain the right to match offers, they’d have to contend with agent David Falk, who has a knack for matching his restricted free agent clients with the club willing to make the highest offer, as he did when he found max money for Roy Hibbert in 2012.
There’s no shortage of teams with interest in Turner as the deadline approaches. The Suns, Clippers, Hawks, Bobcats, Mavs, Timberwolves and Spurs have all been linked to the 25-year-old since a report on February 3rd that the Sixers were amping up their effort to trade him. Philadelphia GM Sam Hinkie is seeking a first-round pick in return, preferably one that’s likely to wind up between tenth and 15th in this year’s draft. That’s given many of Turner’s suitors pause, as has the notion that he could become available as an unrestricted free agent in a few months. At least one GM told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that he’d be hesitant to give up assets in a trade for Turner if he could simply sign him outright in the summer.
Of course, not every team going after Turner is set to have a ton of cap room in the offseason. The Clippers and Timberwolves have commitments for 2014/15 that will put them over the cap come July. The Wolves are on the fringes of the picture for Turner, since they reportedly have no desire to give up a first-round pick, and they can’t trade a first-rounder for any draft before 2018. The Mavs have similar draft limitations thanks to the Ted Stepien Rule.
The first-rounder is slightly more in play for the Clippers, since they can trade their first-round picks for 2017 and beyond. L.A. has Jared Dudley on the trade block, so Doc Rivers and company are clearly seeking an upgrade at small forward, the position Turner has played most frequently the past three seasons. Still, Dudley makes $4.25MM each year through 2015/16, and the Sixers might not be willing to take on that sort of long-term commitment.
The Spurs are another Western Conference contender who could make Turner a key piece of a championship run. San Antonio might be willing to trade Kawhi Leonard for a “fabulous” return, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, but Turner probably doesn’t qualify as fabulous, and the Spurs certainly wouldn’t surrender a first-round pick in that scenario. The Spurs would probably be more inclined to give up an expiring contract like Boris Diaw or Matt Bonner, but the Sixers are reportedly cool on taking back a “lesser player” for one of their veterans.
Turner wouldn’t make the Hawks contenders, but if GM Danny Ferry is high on the idea of acquiring him, the versatile Turner could take a turn at point guard for a team that reportedly isn’t enamored with Jeff Teague‘s contract. The Sixers already have their point guard of the future in Michael Carter-Williams, but former Sixers Louis Williams and Kyle Korver could make for intriguing additions instead.
The Bobcats appear to be making a strong push for Turner, and Charlotte could wind up with a 2014 first-rounder from the Pistons that falls into Hinkie’s desired 10-15 range. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller and Kemba Walker are young players with varying degrees of upside who could interest the Sixers, and Philadelphia could also consent to absorbing Ben Gordon‘s bloated expiring deal if Hinkie wants to take back several of Charlotte’s recent lottery picks.
A majority of Hoops Rumors readers think Turner is worth a first-round pick, and if NBA executives agree, it looks like there are more than enough teams with interest for a deal to get done. The question might not be whether Turner is traded, but just what Hinkie is able to extract for him.
Odds & Ends: Silver, Nets, Hill, Draft
We’re 11 days into Adam Silver’s reign as NBA commissioner, and if no one’s noticed much of a difference from before, that’s by design, as Silver tells Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press.
“I’m not coming in with a five-point plan,” Silver said. “I’m not an outsider coming into the league. I’ve been part of this league for a long time and if there was something that I thought should’ve been done markedly different than the way it’s done now, I think David and I would have pushed each other to do it.”
Here’s more from Silver’s status-quo league:
- A source puts the chances of the Nets making a trade between now and the deadline at less than 10%, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). That echoes what we heard from Grantland’s Zach Lowe earlier today.
- Grant Hill is still drawing NBA interest during his first year of retirement, but the 41-year-old tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that he’s definitely not making a comeback.
- The top 10 prospects are unchanged on the latest Insider-only draft board from Chad Ford of ESPN.com, though Swiss power forward Clint Capela jumps to No. 20 from outside the top 30.
- Wizards camp invitee Xavier Silas has signed with a team in Argentina, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The deal includes an escape clause that will allow him to ink an NBA deal at any point this season.
- Udonis Haslem has never played for an NBA team other than the Heat, and the 11th-year vet doesn’t intend for that to ever change, as he tells Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick. Haslem has a $4.62MM player option for next season.
Kings Take Cautious Approach In Search Of PG
The Kings have already made a pair of trades this season, and they’ve remained one of the most active teams on the trade market. They’re still open to making a deadline deal, and they’d particularly like to find another point guard, but they’re not willing to give up draft picks, and they’d only take on long-term salary in certain trades, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter links).
Sacramento’s brass likes incumbent point guard Isaiah Thomas, but they started the season envisioning him as a scorer off the bench and they have concerns about his transition to a playmaking role, as Jones explains. The Kings reportedly remain in the mix for Andre Miller, and they apparently made a few proposals last month without extending a formal offer.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com last week identified the Kings as trade deadline buyers, listing Marcus Thornton, Jason Thompson, Jimmer Fredette and Carl Landry as players whom the team might dangle in talks. A late January report indicated the Kings would “love to move” Thornton, and while he and Fredette frequently come up in trade chatter around the league, rival teams have shown little interest in either of them.