Kings Likely To Be Buyers At Deadline
The Kings are on a seven-game losing streak and sit in last place in the Western Conference, 11 and a half games out of the final playoff spot. Still, that’s not stopping them from seeking upgrades at the trade deadline, according to Chad Ford’s “Tank Rank” piece for ESPN Insider. Ford hears the Kings are looking to acquire talent rather than sell it off as they attempt a late charge at the postseason.
Ford mentions Marcus Thornton, Jason Thompson, Jimmer Fredette and Carl Landry as players the Kings might dangle in their pursuit of immediate help. A report late last month indicated the Kings would “love to move” Thornton, and Thompson and Fredette have also been a part of multiple trade rumors this season. Landry, who just returned from a hip injury that forced him to miss the first three months of the season, appears to be a new addition to the trade block for Sacramento, which has maintained an aggressive stance on the trade market all year.
The new ownership behind the Kings is eager to give Sacramento a winner as they fend off challenges to a public-funding plan for a new arena. The acquisition of Rudy Gay has helped reinvigorate the small forward’s career, but Sacramento is just 9-15 in games he’s played, a winning percentage of .375 that’s only marginally better than the team’s .319 clip for the season. A push for the playoffs would be doubly puzzling, since Sacramento’s 2014 first-round draft pick goes to the Bulls if it winds up outside the top 12, as our reverse standings show.
Central Rumors: Augustin, Bynum, Cheeks
D.J. Augustin remains the starting point guard for the Bulls even with Kirk Hinrich healthy again, a most unlikely scenario when the Raptors waived Augustin less than two months ago. Still, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau says he isn’t shocked to see the former ninth overall pick enjoy a renaissance, observes Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune.
“We knew he had the capability because he already had done it,” Thibodeau said. “His (four) years in Charlotte told you he was capable of playing well. And I thought he had some really good moments in Indiana (last season). … I knew he was hard to guard.”
The Pacers hope their midseason addition of Andrew Bynum pays off just as well, and there’s news on that amid our look at the Central Division:
- The Heat spoke with Bynum before he signed with the Pacers this past weekend, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who tucks the news into his latest power rankings. Still, Pacers president Larry Bird called the notion that the team inked the center just to keep him from the Heat “about the dumbest thing I ever heard.”
- Pistons owner Tom Gores said this weekend that he doesn’t think the roster is performing up to its capabilities, and coach Maurice Cheeks admits he should be doing a better job of preparing the team to play, notes Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.
- Cheeks has a guaranteed contract through 2015/16 with a team option for 2016/17, but that probably wouldn’t keep Gores from firing him this summer if the Pistons don’t start performing better, MLive’s David Mayo opines. Mayo also senses pressure on president of basketball operations Joe Dumars, who’s in the final year of his deal.
Adam Silver Officially Becomes Commissioner
Adam Silver has officially assumed the role of NBA commissioner, replacing David Stern, who steps down 30 years to the day after he inherited the position from Larry O’Brien. The move was first announced in October 2012, giving Silver ample time to transition from his post as deputy commissioner, which he’s held since 2006. That job now goes to Mark Tatum, who had been serving as the NBA’s vice president of global marketing partnerships.
Stern, 71, oversaw a period of remarkable growth, inheriting the NBA just as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were entering their primes and a few months before Michael Jordan would enter the league. The game has continued to grow since their retirements, despite a pair of lockouts and four franchise relocations. The league’s annual revenue has risen from $165MM to $5.5 billion during Stern’s tenure, while the average player salary has gone from $290K to an estimated $5.565MM. He served longer than any other commissioner in the history of the NBA, National Football League and Major League Baseball.
Silver joined the NBA in 1992 and held numerous executive roles within the league until his appointment as deputy commissioner. There’s widespread uncertainty about just how Silver will govern, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com notes, but his track record suggests he’ll focus on the business and marketing side of the game in an attempt to continue revenue growth. Silver was involved in negotiations with the players union during the 2011 lockout, and the next battle on that front will likely come after the 2016/17 season, when the NBA and the union both possess options to terminate the current collective bargaining agreement.
Odds & Ends: Stern, Nuggets, Marshall
Agent David Falk believes outgoing commissioner David Stern has set the league up for long-lasting labor peace, as he tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
“I think the TV revenues are going to grow dramatically in the next agreement,” Falk said. “And it’s so damaging to the business of the NBA to shut it down. Personally, I think it was irresponsible for Billy [Hunter] to have allowed it to be shut down twice. The players lost $1.25 billion that they’ll never make up and they got nothing for it. And why would the owners shut it down? To get 5 percent more? The potential for where the league should be at the end of the current agreement is so high — if it’s done properly — that to be greedy to try to steal a few percent is foolish.”
Falk also told Berger that Stern said he envisioned drastic changes to the schedule and starting up a separate, NBA-caliber league in Europe or Asia when he took over as commissioner 30 years ago. None of that happened, of course, but Stern did get around to plenty during his tenure, which ends today. Here’s more from the league he helped mold:
- The Nuggets aren’t sure Nate Robinson will play again this season because of an ACL injury, notes Terry Frei of the Denver Post, who believes the team should turn to Andre Miller in his absense. The Nuggets are considering that, but it’s still unlikely that Miller will suit up for Denver again, writes fellow Post scribe Chris Dempsey.
- Kendall Marshall uses slights that date back to his recruitment to the University of North Carolina as motivation, and he finds it odd that so many were quick to label his NBA career a bust, as the Lakers point guard tells Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. “I’m 22 years old. I’m still evolving as a player,” Marshall said. “Look at a guy like Ty Lawson – he’s 26 and he’s still getting better. So much of this is about opportunity.”
- Scouts tell Chad Ford of ESPN.com that they continue to rank Marcus Smart as a better point guard prospect than Syracuse’s Tyler Ennis, but Ennis is nonetheless a fast riser, as Ford and Kevin Pelton examine in an Insider-only piece.
Lakers, Wizards, Bobcats Ask About Taj Gibson
The Lakers, Wizards and Bobcats all made preliminary inquiries about Taj Gibson recently, but the Bulls weren’t satisfied with any of the proposals, reports Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Still, there’s a “growing possibility” the team will deal the power forward before the deadline, Cowley writes, and it’s a signal that the Bulls might be willing to try to clear cap room for a run at Carmelo Anthony.
Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said this week that he’s “not necessarily” going to engineer a pursuit of a star this summer, but he didn’t rule it out. Anthony reportedly sees Chicago as an intriguing free agent destination, but it would take some maneuvering for the Bulls to be able to sign him this summer. Chicago has $63MM in commitments for next season, almost equal to the projected amount of the salary cap for 2014/15. They could amnesty Carlos Boozer‘s $16.8MM salary to clear space, but they’d have to open more room to accommodate a maximum-salary contract for Anthony, which would have a starting salary of $22,458,402 for next season.
Gibson will make $8MM next season, the second year of a four-year extension he signed with the Bulls in the fall of 2012, so depending on how much salary the Bulls take in return, trading him could clear the way for Anthony. Gibson makes $7.55MM this season, and while he’s primarily been a bench player, he’s averaging career highs in minutes (28.6) and points per game (12.2). It’d be a little surprising if he wound up with the Lakers, who have mostly shied away from long-term commitments, but the Bobcats will reportedly be buyers at the deadline, so Gibson would make sense for Charlotte. The same is likely true of the Wizards, who began the season with playoff aspirations but hold only a three and a half game lead on the ninth-place Knicks in the Eastern Conference.
Central Rumors: Irving, Martin, Rose
The leading story in the Central Division, and around the NBA, surrounds Kyrie Irving and his alleged discontent with the Cavaliers. It’s in the team’s best interests to mend fences with the star point guard, as multiple Cleveland-area writers have written, but the Cavs still wield most, if not all of the leverage. Irving would be a “raving lunatic” if he passed up a max extension from the team this summer, opines Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Here’s more on the Cavs and their Central Division rivals:
- The Bulls have no immediate plans to re-sign Cartier Martin, whose second 10-day contract expired this week, but Tom Thibodeau won’t rule out the idea of bringing him back later this season, notes Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
- In the same piece, Thibodeau admits that Derrick Rose could begin practicing with the team later this season. The Bulls have maintained that Rose is out for the season, but Rose has left the door open for a return during the playoffs.
- Executives around the league believe the Cavs are hesitant to send No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett to the D-League because they think it would look like an admission of failure on their part, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com.
- With landing the No. 1 pick seemingly the best-case scenario for the Bucks this year, Matt Velazquez of the Journal Sentinel explains that it’s no panacea.
Atlantic Notes: Rondo, Bargnani, Blue
Rajon Rondo says he hasn’t put much thought into the notion of becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2015, but it nonetheless intrigues him like “college recruitment” did, as he told reporters, including Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Rondo recently indicated he’d like to remain with the Celtics long-term, but it doesn’t sound like it’s a certainty he’ll end up doing that. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks coach Mike Woodson is comfortable with traditional lineups and says that’s part of the reason the team traded for Andrea Bargnani this past summer, observes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Still, Woodson isn’t so sure he’ll stray from small-ball even when Bargnani returns from an elbow injury.
- The Celtics will assign 10-day signee Vander Blue to the D-League, Danny Ainge says, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (Twitter link). Unless they merely plan to send him down for tonight’s game and let him go, since today’s final day of his contract, this appears to signal that the C’s will give him another 10-day deal, though there’s still no decision about that, Blakely notes (on Twitter).
- The Knicks have sent Toure’ Murry to the D-League, the team announced via Twitter. Murry will play with the Erie BayHawks tonight and return to the Knicks on Saturday, the team also tweets.
- The Blazers have dropped Dorell Wright from their rotation, but he’s not pouting, and he’s still glad he signed with Portland this summer after spending last season with the Sixers, as he tells Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. “I’d rather be here, winning, out the rotation right now and back in the rotation later, than in Philly, cold, muggy and ugly,” Wright said. “I’ll take this any day.”
- Khalif Wyatt and the Guangdong Southern Tigers have parted ways, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. The shooting guard spent camp with the Sixers. Royal Ivey, who spent last year with the Sixers, is replacing him.
Trade Candidate: Emeka Okafor
Emeka Okafor probably won’t have any sort of on-court impact this year, since he seems destined to miss the season after suffering a neck injury this past autumn. The 31-year-old center could nonetheless have a significant effect on the Western Conference playoff race and this summer’s free agency, thanks to his outsized expiring contract.
The Suns have been planning to trade Okafor ever since acquiring him from the Wizards just before the regular season began, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote this week. He’s making nearly $14.5MM in the final season of a six-year, $72MM deal on which he’s already been traded three times. Whichever team finally winds up holding Okafor’s hot potato of a contract can renounce his rights this summer and clear significant cap room for a free agent push.
The cost of taking on Okafor’s deal will probably involve at least one veteran who could help the Suns make the playoffs. Phoenix has won five of its last six, including two victories over the Pacers, but while the Suns are in sixth place in the Western Conference, only three games separate them from the ninth-place Grizzlies, who’ve been even hotter since Marc Gasol returned from injury. It’s uncertain when Eric Bledsoe will come back from his torn right meniscus to try to give Phoenix a similar boost, so the Suns, who are determined to make their fairy tale push for the playoffs come true, appear to be seeking outside help.
The current collective bargaining agreement makes it easier for teams to create cap space, so expiring contracts like Okafor’s aren’t as valuable as they used to be. The Suns may have to attach a first-rounder or two with Okafor to find the kind of deal they want. GM Ryan McDonough suggested last month that the team is willing to trade one or more of their four potential 2014 first-round picks for a star player. The Suns are also prioritizing the acquisition of players on short-term deals so they can preserve their cap space, but those might be competing aims.
It seems logical that if the Suns were to acquire a star, they’d want to find someone who wouldn’t simply be a three-month rental. If Phoenix instead receives offers that include second-tier players, it would be difficult for the Suns to trade Okafor and receive only players on expiring contracts, and virtually impossible unless Phoenix includes at least one first-rounder. Perhaps a rival team would be willing to package one or two expiring contracts that would allow the Suns to retain their flexibility going forward along with another deal that ends after next season, but that would also be hard to for Phoenix to pull off.
A workable scenario might exist between McDonough and the Celtics. Boston GM Danny Ainge, McDonough’s former boss, is reportedly anxious to trade Jeff Green and Avery Bradley in an effort to clear cap room. Green, a non-star whose four-year, $36.24MM deal runs through 2016, probably wouldn’t interest the Suns, but Bradley might. The fourth-year guard’s aggressive on-ball defense could help solidify a Phoenix team allows the 12th most points per possession in the league, according to NBA.com, and he could provide backcourt depth while Bledsoe is out. He’s up for restricted free agency this summer, so the Suns can retain him if they want to or renounce him and clear his cap hold from their books. If McDonough could convince Ainge to give up Brandon Bass, and he accepts Keith Bogans from Ainge, the Suns could come away with a pair of useful players and no commitments beyond next season. The cost would probably be Okafor plus draft considerations, and Ainge has spoken about his belief in building through the draft.
The Sixers are looking for first-rounders in exchange for Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Thaddeus Young, so perhaps the Suns could get involved with Philadelphia. Turner would be an upgrade over Bradley, but Phoenix would be in a similar position, since he’s also a restricted free agent this summer. Hawes is on an expiring deal, but Young’s contract, which pays him an average of more than $9MM a year through 2016, could be tough for McDonough to stomach. Still, the salaries would match if the Suns traded Okafor for just Turner and Young, and the Suns could facilitate such a deal with a first-rounder.
Okafor might not bring the sort of return he could have under the old CBA, but he’s nonetheless an intriguing asset who could bring in a return that helps the Suns now and for the future, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Western Conference GMs, fearing Phoenix’s warm-weather, large-market advantages in free agency, are skittish to help the fast-rebuilding Suns along, leaving McDonough to deal chiefly with Eastern Conference clubs. GMs around the league expect the Suns to trade Okafor somewhere, so I’d be surprised if Phoenix doesn’t cash in its Okafor ticket by the deadline.
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Cavs Rumors: Irving, Brown, Grant, Bynum
Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com points to Dan Gilbert’s vow that he’d never again let a star hit free agency as a reason why this summer’s extension negotiations with Kyrie Irving will be critical. Windhorst wonders if the Cavs, frustrated with Irving’s lack of on-court and off-court growth, might be hesitant to commit the maximum salary to the former No. 1 overall pick.
If the Cavs don’t see Irving as a max player, they could lose him in restricted free agency to a team that is willing to give him the max in the summer of 2015. That demonstrates the urgency surrounding the Cavs and their All-Star, and we have more from Windhorst’s piece and others here:
- Irving and coach Mike Brown share a mutual discontent about each other, while Irving’s failure to click with Dion Waiters and the disappointing play of Anthony Bennett have led the point guard to lose confidence in GM Chris Grant, according to Windhorst.
- The Cavs thought they’d resolved their issues with the departure of Andrew Bynum, but the center was clearly not at fault for all the team’s problems, observes Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer.
- Odds are Brown and Irving will both be staying in Cleveland for a while longer, writes Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, who believes it’s incumbent on them to work together to lift the team. Bob Finnan of The News-Herald shares similar thoughts, opining that the Cavs should try to smooth out their differences with Irving.