Kris Humphries Wants To Stay With Celtics
Kris Humphries seemed open to a trade earlier this season, around the time a report indicated the Celtics would “love to move” the 10th-year big man. A few more months around the team appears to have changed Humphries’ attitude, and now he tells Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe that he’d like to stick around.
“I want to be a part of this whole, building this team and doing all that stuff with the new coach and all that, I want to be here,” he said. “You never know if they want you or they don’t want you or what their plans are, but I like Boston, my teammates. I’m just getting a chance to play with [Rajon] Rondo a little bit now.”
Humphries, a free agent at season’s end, has developed a friendship with Rondo, and teammates have grown to respect the willingness of Humphries to play hurt, Washburn writes. Increased minutes have no doubt played a role in the newfound contentment Humphries has found in Boston, as he’s seen his minutes gradually escalate over the course of the season. He’s spent most of the season as a bench player, but he’s started the team’s last seven games.
Execs Think Jabari Parker Won’t Enter Draft
TUESDAY, 8:18am: Parker’s father, Sonny Parker, tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that his son has yet to make up his mind about the draft and will wait until after the college season to announce his intentions. The elder Parker says he doesn’t think his son spoke to Smith, though Smith’s news appears to have come from conversations with NBA executives and not Jabari Parker himself. Still, an executive tells Zagoria that he thinks there’s no way that Parker will stay in school. “Please,” the exec said. “He’s going top 3 and he’s coming out. Anything to the contrary is the ramblings of someone who couldn’t fit his column inches.”
MONDAY, 3:40pm: Executives around the NBA increasingly believe that ballyhooed draft prospect Jabari Parker will choose to stay an extra year at Duke rather than enter the NBA draft this June, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com. Parker, who grew up in Chicago, is No. 3 on both the DraftExpress and ESPN Insider prospect rankings, and his absence from this year’s draft would deal a blow to teams banking on a top pick in what’s supposed to be one of the best classes in years.
The presence of Jahlil Okafor, a former AAU teammate of Parker’s who’ll enter Duke next season, is weighing heavily on Parker’s mind, the executives believe. Parker also places a high value on education and feels he owes it to Duke to contribute to a better season than the Blue Devils are having so far this year, Smith hears. Parker has also seen the benefits that staying in school has provided to NBA stars in the past.
Recruiting analyst Tom Konchalski told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv in November, when Okafor revealed he would go to Duke, that he thought the decision might influence Parker to stay in college another year so they could play together. The idea seemed far-fetched at the time, but now it appears it could indeed come to fruition. Parker, a 6’8″ freshman forward, won’t have to make his call on this year’s draft until the spring, so there will be plenty of time for him to go back and forth.
Covington Tops List Of Long D-League Stints
Robert Covington didn’t really know what he was missing while he toiled away on a 72-day assignment to the D-League, by far the longest any NBA player has endured this season. The power forward from Tennessee State had yet to make his NBA debut, so when the Rockets finally called him up to the big club on Saturday, the moment had to be extra sweet. He got into Houston’s 10-point win over the Bucks that night for a scant 54 seconds, but that was still no doubt a welcome appearance for the 23-year-old.
Covington at least had someone to commiserate with for most of his time with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Teammate Isaiah Canaan spent 45 days there until the Rockets called him up last month. Now that Patrick Beverley is ready to return from his broken hand, Houston has once again assigned Canaan to the D-League, the team announced today via Twitter.
Canaan would surely like to avoid joining Jared Cunningham of the Hawks as the only player to have two separate D-League stints of more than two weeks this season, as noted in the list below. Cunningham’s second lengthy assignment is still active, as he’s been with the Bakersfield Jam since New Year’s Day.
Here’s every D-League assignment of 15 days or longer this season, ranked by number of days:
- 72 — Robert Covington, Rockets (November 7th to January 18th)
- 45 — Isaiah Canaan, Rockets (November 7th to December 22nd)
- 37 — Ricky Ledo, Mavericks (November 30th to January 6th)
- 35 — Jared Cunningham, Hawks (November 11th to December 6th)
- 29 — Chris Smith, Knicks (November 18th to December 17th)
- 20 — Marquis Teague, Bulls (December 26th to January 15th)
- 19 — Jared Cunningham, Hawks (January 1st to present)
- 18 — Tony Mitchell, Pistons (December 26th to January 13th
- 18 — Peyton Siva, Pistons (December 26th to January 13th)
- 16 — Malcolm Thomas, Spurs (January 3rd to January 19th)
The Hoops Rumors list of D-League Assignments and Recalls was used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Bogans, Bucks, Nets, Rice
A source tells Steve Bulpett of the Boston Globe that Keith Bogans intends to “stick it out” with the Celtics this season, seemingly indicating the guard isn’t thinking buyout (Twitter link). The C’s and Bogans agreed to have the 33-year-old stay away from the team as Boston pursues takers for him via trade. It wouldn’t really be a surprise if Bogans doesn’t want to do a buyout, since that would mean giving up some of his more than $5MM in guaranteed salary for the season, the largest take of his career. Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Bucks owner Herb Kohl is signaling to the team’s management that he’s ready to give up the pursuit of a playoff berth this season, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his latest Insider-only “Tank Rank” column. That contradicts what we heard earlier from Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, who says the team would be “more than willing” to trade for veteran help.
- Mark Deeks of ShamSports breaks down the trade agreement between the Bulls, Nets and Pelicans in a piece for SB Nation, noting that the cash Brooklyn is sending to New Orleans will be enough to cover the rest of Tyshawn Taylor‘s contract, which expires at season’s end. He also says the Nets briefly looked into a deal for Jazz point guard John Lucas III, echoing a report from July.
- The Wizards assigned Glen Rice Jr. to the D-League today, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s a rehab stint for the rookie as he makes his way back from a fractured right wrist, coach Randy Wittman says, according to Michael Lee of The Washington Post. Wittman also says it’s possible the team will send No. 3 overall pick Otto Porter to the D-League at some point, too.
- The Sixers will decide within the next two or three days whether to bring back Dewayne Dedmon on a second 10-day deal, coach Brett Brown told reporters, including Tom Moore of Calkins Media (Twitter link). The center’s deal expires after Thursday night.
Bulls Re-Sign Cartier Martin
11:17am: The Bulls hope to sign Martin for the season once his second 10-day deal expires, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link).
10:30am: Martin’s deal with Chicago is official, the team has announced.
8:00am: The Bulls and Cartier Martin have agreed on a second 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. His first 10-day expired last night.
Martin appeared in three games for an average of 13.7 minutes on his first deal with Chicago, averaging 5.0 points per game with a 15.9 PER over that diminutive sample size. The 29-year-old small forward spent most of the season with the Hawks, for whom he averaged 6.6 PPG in 17.5 MPG, with a 10.1 PER. Atlanta waived him on the final day before his contract would have become guaranteed for the entire season.
The Bulls have only 12 other players, so they’d have had to bring on someone else within 14 days if they weren’t re-signing Martin. Teams can carry fewer than 13 players for no more than two weeks at a time. Martin says he had interest from other clubs before he initially signed with Chicago, so it behooves the Bulls to strike quickly to retain the ASM Sports client.
Pelicans Looking To Trade For Big Man
Power forward Ryan Anderson is likely done for the season and center Jason Smith is out indefinitely, and that’s prompted New Orleans to look for a trade that would net the team a big man, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports amid his weekly power rankings. The Pelicans have been starting Anthony Davis and Greg Stiemsma on the front line, and their only other healthy big men are rookie Jeff Withey and the recently signed Alexis Ajinca.
New Orleans is set to acquire point guard Tyshawn Taylor for draft considerations from the Nets, so assuming the Pelicans don’t throw a player into that deal before it becomes official, they would have to include a player in a trade for a big man to stay at the 15-man roster limit. Everyone but Davis and Jrue Holiday is reportedly a candidate to be traded, according to a weekend report from Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News, so perhaps GM Dell Demps is willing to engineer a shakeup. The Pelicans are 15-24 in a season that began with playoff aspirations.
Spears also mentions in his report that 6’11” Drew Gooden is working out in hopes of finding a spot on an NBA roster, so the 11-year veteran could be an option for New Orleans if the team goes the free agent route. Still, it doesn’t sound like the Pelicans have any interest in the 32-year-old.
Bucks Rumors: Trades, Sanders, Smart
The Bucks are the only team in the league without at least 10 wins, and they sit atop our Reverse Standings with the NBA’s worst record. Teams in their position usually start thinking about the future at this point in the season, but that’s not the case for Milwaukee, which notoriously avoids bottoming out. The Bucks would be “more than willing” to trade for vets who could help them sneak into the playoffs in the moribund Eastern Conference, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, who has more from Milwaukee:
- Bucks management is still “very open” to trading Larry Sanders before the deadline, Amico writes in the same piece, echoing his report from last month. Milwaukee would want to make draft picks the centerpiece of the package it receives in exchange. The team would still have to absorb a significant amount of salary in a deal for Sanders, thanks to the Poison Pill Provision that was triggered when the Bucks signed Sanders to his extension this past summer.
- Milwaukee is enamored with Oklahoma State point guard Marcus Smart, Amico says, adding that it would nonetheless be tough to envision the Bucks taking him first overall.
- O.J. Mayo, like many on the Bucks, has seen his minutes go up and down, and he tells Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel that the inconsistent rotation is partly to blame for the team’s struggles. “It’s hard to get a rhythm when you don’t know what’s going to happen for you night in and night out,” Mayo said. “You may get six minutes, 30 minutes. There’s no staple to what we’re doing. You can hang in there, compete and keep it close.”
- Gary Neal left San Antonio this past summer to sign a two-year, $6.5MM deal with the Bucks, but he misses the winning he enjoyed with the Spurs, as he says to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. “When you’re evaluating job choices, the financial aspect comes into it,” Neal said. “I think I made the best decision for me and my family.”
- Darington Hobson, whom the Bucks selected 37th overall in the 2010 draft, has reached a deal with Migdal Haemek, a team in an Israeli minor league, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. Hobson has appeared in just five regular season NBA games, all with the Bucks in 2011/12.
Suns Plan To Keep Leandro Barbosa For Season
Leandro Barbosa has jumped right into the Suns rotation after signing a pair of 10-day contracts, and it sounds like he’s impressed enough to earn more than a brief stay in Phoenix. The Suns plan to re-sign him to a deal for the rest of the season once his second 10-day deal expires, as the Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro writes in a story for USA Today.
The 31-year-old Barbosa signed his second 10-day contract with the Suns on Saturday, right after his first one had expired. A third deal with the team would have to cover the balance of the season, by rule. Phoenix is missing point guard Eric Bledsoe, and Barbosa, a combo guard, has filled in with 10.0 points in 22.6 minutes per night. Those numbers are close to the averages of 12.6 PPG and 25.1 MPG that Barbosa posted in seven seasons with Phoenix at the beginning of his NBA career.
The Clippers and Lakers both had interest in the client of Excel Sports Management in the weeks leading up to his latest stint with the Suns. Phoenix has 14 guaranteed contracts on its roster, so adding Barbosa for the season would give the Suns 15, limiting their flexibility.
Poll: Which Sixer Is Likeliest To Be Traded?
The Sixers are clearly in rebuilding mode, with a bargain payroll and just four players making more than $3.2MM this season. One of them is Jason Richardson, who’s been out all year with injury. Philadelphia would surely like to find a taker for his albatross of a contract, but most of the trade talk around the team this season has focused on the other three: Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young.
GM Sam Hinkie is reportedly prioritizing the addition of first-round picks as he scours the market, and apparently he won’t take on a “lesser player” unless the Sixers receive such draft considerations in return. Those sorts of constraints might make it more difficult to pull off a deal, but the consensus around the league seems to indicate that Philadelphia will make a move. The Sixers have begun to more aggressively engage other teams in conversations about Young, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who adds that most executives think it’s a “lock” that Hinkie will try to trade Turner. There’s been less talk about Hawes, but when the Rockets were shopping Omer Asik, they appeared to make Hawes, and not Turner or Young, their primary target.
Hawes will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, while Turner’s free agency this summer will be restricted. Young is under contract through 2015/16, as I noted when I examined his trade candidacy earlier this week. Each plays a different position with a different skill set, offering the Sixers, and other teams, an array of choices. So, let us know which of the three you think is most likely to leave Philly by the February 20th trade deadline, and elaborate on your choice in the comments.
Odds & Ends: Embiid, Bynum, Kings, Petro
Many talent evaluators around the NBA wish the talented but raw Joel Embiid would stay in school for another year, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, who debates the freshman Kansas center with fellow ESPN.com scribe Kevin Pelton for an Insider-only piece. NBA teams usually want to see intriguing collegians enter the draft, so the stance on Embiid is an unusual one, as Ford explains. The 19-year-old is the No. 1 prospect on Ford’s Big Board. Here’s more from the Association:
- Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star doesn’t get the sense that the Pacers will sign Bynum just to keep him away from the Heat, but Kravitz believes Indiana should take a low-risk flier on the big man regardless of where he might otherwise end up.
- An Eastern Conference scout didn’t think the trade that brought in Rudy Gay would go as well as it has for the Kings, telling Marc Stein of ESPN.com that the move has made the team “relevant again.”
- Johan Petro announced via Twitter that he’s left the Guangsha Lions of China, so it appears he’s free to sign with any team (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The 27-year-old center spent each of the past eight seasons in the NBA.
- The Bulls had next season in mind when they signed D.J. Augustin, but it’s unclear whether the team or the point guard will want to continue their relationship beyond 2013/14, as Sam Smith of Bulls.com writes in his latest mailbag column.
- Former 11th overall pick Jerome Moiso has retired, reports L’Equipe (translation via Carchia). Moiso spent five seasons in the NBA after the Celtics drafted him in 2000. He finished last season with Piratas de Quebradillas in Puerto Rico.
- Louisiana-Lafayette point guard Elfrid Payton is a fast riser in the eyes of many NBA teams, tweets Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. Ford has the 6’4″ junior at No. 54 in his ESPN.com rankings, while Payton is No. 64 for Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.