Celtics Recall Rajon Rondo From D-League
1:25pm: The team has recalled Rondo, according to a press release, meaning the assignment lasted less than two hours, apparently just long enough for him to get in the workout that Ainge referred to.
11:28am: The Celtics have assigned Rajon Rondo to the D-League, the team announced. The move had been rumored in recent weeks, but it nonetheless represents one of the most high-profile assignments in the history of the D-League.
“Rajon is progressing terrifically in his rehab and this is the next step,” GM Danny Ainge said in a statement. “This is a brief assignment so that Rajon can participate in a workout this afternoon with the Red Claws and he will be called back up to the Celtics upon the conclusion of the workout.”
Rondo tore his right ACL last season, but he appears close to returning to the Celtics. Boston agreed to trade Jordan Crawford, who had been playing the point in Rondo’s absence, as part of a three-team swap today.
The move required Rondo’s approval, as well as that of the union, since NBA teams can only unilaterally send down players with less than three years of experience. Rondo, a veteran of seven seasons, initially proposed the idea of the assignment, so it doesn’t sound as if the Celtics faced too much difficulty in making it happen. Still, Rondo probably won’t appear in a game for the Maine Red Claws, and will instead just practice with the club, as Amar’e Stoudemire did with the Knicks’ affiliate last season.
Bulls Notes: Thibodeau, Augustin, Teague
Last week’s Luol Deng trade has done nothing to worsen the relationship between Tom Thibodeau and Bulls GM Gar Forman, since the coach understands owner Jerry Reinsdorf must approve every move, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Thibodeau feels that Reinsdorf appreciates him, and the owner is usually supportive of his employees, writes Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald, so it appears as though Reinsdorf’s blessing of the trade has been key to Thibodeau’s acceptance of it. There’s more from Cowley, McGraw and other reporters on the Bulls beat here:
- Thibodeau is unlikely to try to force his way out of his contract, and the fact that the Bulls gave him his first shot to be an NBA coach weighs heavily on his thinking, a source close to Thibodeau tells Cowley. On top of that, Reinsdorf wants to keep Thibodeau around, according to McGraw.
- Recent signee D.J. Augustin has lived through Hurricane Katrina, so his NBA struggles don’t bother him much, and he doesn’t resent the way his tenures with the Bobcats, Pacers and Raptors ended, as he tells Sam Smith of Bulls.com. “Toronto, I really don’t know what happened there,” Augustin said. “When I signed with them I thought it would be a good opportunity. It just didn’t work out. Coming here [to Chicago], it’s been a blessing. I love being here, love the city, love coach Thibs, love my teammates.”
- The Bulls recalled Marquis Teague from the D-League, the team announced. The point guard averaged 12.0 points and 4.8 assists per game in eight contests for the Iowa Energy.
- Cowley writes that the Bulls “would love to nab Lance Stephenson” in free agency, but that probably represents a general observation rather than a reflection of the team’s plans for the summer.
Nuggets Rumors: Miller, Gallinari, Draft
Denver is perhaps the NBA’s streakiest team, having won seven in a row at one point and five in a row at another, with an eight-game losing skid in between. So far, it’s all more or less evened out, as Denver has a 19-18 record. Monday’s loss to the Jazz snapped their five-game win streak, perhaps signaling another string of defeats is on its way. Here’s the latest from the Rocky Mountains:
- The Nuggets have no interest in acquiring J.R. Smith, be it in a trade for Andre Miller or otherwise, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reported earlier this morning, and it doesn’t look like there will be a Miller trade involving the Mavericks, either. In reference to the veteran point guard, Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson told the BaD Radio program on 1310 The Ticket in Dallas that he’s satisfied with his backcourt and won’t be “looking to mess around with that” (transcription via the Dallas Morning News). Nelson also said the notion of Andrew Bynum joining the Mavs is “a long to long-long-long shot.”
- Danilo Gallinari says the thought of missing the entire season has crossed his mind, but it’s still possible that he’ll return this year from his torn left ACL, as he tells Massimo Lopes Pegna of La Gazzetta dello Sport (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). That’s a change from his comments two months ago, when it appeared likely that he would come back at some point in 2013/14.
- Gallinari also told Pegna that the Nuggets are scouting Italian draft prospect Alessandro Gentile, who could be a second-round pick (translation via Carchia). The swingman is No. 69 in the DraftExpress prospect rankings, but No. 127 at ESPN.com.
Latest On J.R. Smith
J.R. Smith is eligible to be traded starting today, and while it doesn’t appear as though any deal is imminent, all is not well between last year’s Sixth Man of the Year and the Knicks. Smith didn’t appear in last night’s game against the Bobcats, even though he says Mike Woodson hadn’t told him he would be benched, observes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Smith didn’t directly answer a reporter’s postgame question of whether he wants to be traded, but he nonetheless hinted at discontent with his situation in New York.
“I’ll figure out what I can do better to help this team and go from there,’’ Smith said, as Berman notes. “If I can’t help the team, no point in me being here.’’
A reporter also asked Smith whether he would try to talk to Woodson about the benching, but Smith replied that, “The communication from my end is over,” Newsday’s Al Iannazzone tweets. The latest discord seems to have started with Smith repeatedly trying to untie opponents’ shoelaces earlier this month, but Smith says it’s “ridiculous” that such pranks have led to so much trouble, according to Berman.
Trading Smith, who signed a three-year contract for nearly $18MM in the offseason, wouldn’t fetch the Knicks much in return, as there’s apparently no market for the swingman. The Knicks have been trying to find a way to trade for Andre Miller, but the Nuggets have no interest in Smith and wouldn’t entertain the idea of a Miller-for-Smith swap, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link).
Clippers Close To Deal With Hedo Turkoglu
WEDNESDAY, 8:09am: The Clippers plan to sign Turkoglu for the rest of the season pending the results of his physical, reports Ismail Senol of NTV SPOR in Turkoglu’s native Turkey (Twitter link). The 34-year-old forward has been seeking more than a 10-day contract, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com, so it appears he’s in line to get his wish.
TUESDAY, 1:23pm: Clippers boss Doc Rivers indicated today that he’d like to sign Hedo Turkoglu soon, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times notes via Twitter, and the move could come before they begin a road trip on Thursday, tweets Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Turkoglu impressed the team Friday during his audition, and shortly thereafter Rivers expressed interest in signing him, though at that point he didn’t give a timetable.
The team is at the 15-man roster limit with a pair of players on 10-day contracts. Their deal with Darius Morris is set to expire Wednesday night, and Maalik Wayns‘ pact expires Friday night. Teams can terminate 10-day deals at any time without owing any extra salary, so neither Morris nor Wayns is necessarily an obstacle to signing Turkoglu.
The Magic waived Turkoglu in advance of the leaguewide contract guarantee date, allowing them to save 50% of his $12MM contract. The 34-year-old is intent on reviving his NBA career with a contender, and while he drew interest from the Hawks and Lakers before the Magic waived him, the Lakers have since cooled on him, and lately there’s been no talk of him heading to Atlanta.
2013 First-Rounders Struggling For Playing Time
Anthony Bennett has been historically unproductive this season for the Cavaliers, whose surprise decision to draft the UNLV forward first overall this past June is looking increasingly worse. He’s bounced between small forward and power forward, averaging 10.4 minutes per game. The native of Canada went 0-for-15 over his first four games and is shooting a miserable 26.9% for the season, leading to calls for the Cavaliers to send him on assignment to the D-League.
He clearly has the highest profile of all of the 2013 first-round picks who are struggling to make their marks, and while his playing time is limited, he’s logging more minutes per game than seven other first-rounders from this past June. Technically, there are 10 other first-rounders, though it’s not really fair to count Nerlens Noel, who’s been out all season rehabbing a torn ACL, and Lucas Nogueira and Livio Jean-Charles, who signed with overseas teams. None of those three have begun their NBA careers.
Bennett and the rest of the underperforming first-round picks probably wish they could go back and get a fresh start to NBA life themselves. Here’s each 2013 first-rounder averaging fewer MPG than Bennett so far, sorted by the amount of playing time they’ve seen:
- 14. Shabazz Muhammad, Timberwolves (3.8 MPG) — The last pick of the lottery is seeing the sort of playing time usually reserved for second-rounders and undrafted signees. He just returned from an eight-day D-League assignment, where he averaged 24.5 points and 9.8 rebounds per contest.
- 21. Gorgui Dieng, Timberwolves (5.3 MPG) — The former Louisville center has been spared a D-League assignment, unlike the other 2013 first-rounder on his team, but he’s hit the court only slightly more often than Muhammad. The draft-night trade that sent Rookie of the Year candidate Trey Burke to Utah for Dieng and Muhammad is looking like an unfortunate one for Flip Saunders and Minnesota.
- 30. Nemanja Nedovic, Warriors (6.4 MPG) — It’s no surprise to see the final pick of the first round on this list, as Golden State apparently isn’t confident he can solve its backup point guard dilemma.
- 5. Alex Len, Suns (6.8 MPG) — Injury has helped keep the center’s playing time to a minimum, as he’s appeared in just nine games so far. The emergence of Miles Plumlee has made it tough for even a healthy Len to find minutes, though perhaps he could work his way into the rotation if the Suns trade Channing Frye.
- 19. Sergey Karasev, Cavaliers (8.1 MPG) — It wouldn’t have taken much for the rookie to stake a claim to the starting small forward spot in Cleveland, but he couldn’t beat out any of the team’s other subpar options prior to the Luol Deng trade. Karasev has averaged 14.7 points per game during a pair of D-League assignments.
- 26. Andre Roberson, Thunder (8.7 MPG) — His minutes have been up and down, and though he’s made four starts, all of which were victories for Oklahoma City, Roberson made his second trip to the D-League last week.
- 23. Solomon Hill, Pacers (9.0 MPG) — The small forward expressed his displeasure with his D-League assignment, and the team probably won’t send him down again, even though he’s appeared in only four NBA games since the start of December.
Bucher’s Latest: Griffin, Anthony, Lowry
A majority of the league believes Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan don’t fit together, and Jordan’s improvement has made Griffin the more obvious trade candidate, according to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report. The consensus is that the Clippers need a big man who can shoot, and even Chris Paul wishes Griffin were more like former teammate David West, sources tell Bucher. A general manager who possesses the sort of power forward who might mesh better with Jordan said to Bucher that the Clippers haven’t contacted his team and added that he hasn’t heard that the Clippers are shopping Griffin at all. The GM thinks owner Donald Sterling would never agree to such a deal, though Bucher hears from a Clippers source confident that Doc Rivers will talk him into it before the trade deadline. Bucher has more on the Clippers and scuttlebutt around the league, as we detail:
- Bucher suggests that if the Clippers were to trade for Carmelo Anthony, there’d be no certainty that they could re-sign him.
- The Warriors decided against trading for Kyle Lowry over concerns about how he’d fit into their locker room. The Raptors have upped their asking price for Lowry in the meantime, and executives around the league aren’t sure whether Lowry, Andre Miller or Kirk Hinrich is the best oversized point guard who might be available.
- Several GMs believe the Bulls will trade Mike Dunleavy for a draft pick, with Chicago setting its sights on a retool for next season. The Rockets are reportedly targeting Dunleavy, and Bucher shares insight from a rival executive on why Houston might be inclined to deal for him.
Pacific Notes: Gasol, Gay, Thompson
The fear of negative feedback from fans persuaded the Lakers not to trade Pau Gasol to the Cavaliers unless the deal involved a scorer, center or point guard in exchange, sources tell Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Andrew Bynum was involved in those talks, but presumably the Lakers felt they needed a more viable option at center. The Lakers are holding out for valuable assets in a Gasol trade, but that may be an unrealistic goal. Here’s more on Gasol and others from the Pacific Division:
- Lee Jenkins of SI.com thinks the time is now for the Lakers to finally trade Gasol, since his presence only hinders the team’s lottery chances at this point. Jenkins thinks a trade would also benefit Gasol.
- Rudy Gay‘s success with the Kings means it’s no longer a given that he’ll decide this summer to opt in for the final season of his contract, according to SB Nation’s Tom Ziller, who points out that a lower usage rate has been part of Gay’s improvement.
- Mark Deeks of ShamSports, writing for the Score, thinks Jason Thompson would be a much better fit on another team than he is on the Kings. Deeks urges the Kings to go ahead and trade the power forward, whom they’ve already put on the market.
- Scott Machado is set to join the D-League affiliate of the Warriors today, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The point guard spent camp with the Jazz after appearing in five playoff games for the Warriors last season.
Southwest Rumors: Motiejunas, De Colo, Hairston
The chances that Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin will be involved in a trade this year appear to be waning by the day, but that won’t preclude Daryl Morey from making some kind of deal between now and the February 20th trade deadline. He’s been the most active GM at the deadline over the past six seasons, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News points out. Many Rockets players aren’t sold on the idea that the team needs to make another deal, feeling the team can win the title as constituted, Deveney reveals. There’s plenty more on the Rockets as we look around the Southwest Division:
- The Rockets are more likely to trade for a shooter than for a big man, Deveney writes in the same piece.
- The Celtics were involved in trade talks for Donatas Motiejunas, but those discussions have since died, as Virginijus Bulotas, the international agent for the Rockets reserve, tells Lithuania’s SportoTV (translation via HoopsHype). The Mavs have also held interest in Motiejunas, who has reportedly been “desperate” for playing time as the Rockets and his U.S.-based agent, Arn Tellem, place calls with other teams.
- Turkey’s Fenerbahce is interested in Spurs guard Nando De Colo, according Javier Maestro of Encestando (translation via Sportando). De Colo has bounced back and forth between San Antonio and the Spurs’ D-League affiliate, but it doesn’t sound like the Spurs have any interest in letting him go. De Colo will be a free agent at season’s end, so perhaps the France native will return overseas then.
- The D-League affiliate of the Mavs has officially acquired P.J. Hairston, the club announced. The move was widely expected once Hairston signed with the D-League, since the Texas Legends had first dibs in the league’s waiver system. The Mavs and all other NBA teams are ineligible to call him up this season, since Hairston has yet to enter the NBA draft. The former North Carolina shooting guard is 32nd on the DraftExpress list of 2014 draft prospects and 41st on the board at ESPN.com.
Hamady N’Diaye To Sign In D-League
Center Hamady N’Diaye will sign a contract with the D-League and play for the affiliate of the Sixers, who hold his D-League rights, as Shams Charania of RealGM.com reports. The Sixers auditioned N’Diaye yesterday for a spot on the big club, but passed him over in favor of Dewayne Dedmon.
N’Diaye spent much of the season with the Kings after making the team out of training camp. Sacramento cut his non-guaranteed contract last week before it would have become fully guaranteed for the season. The 27-year-old was also drawing interest from China and was considering signing there before choosing to go back to the D-League where he’s played in 35 games over parts of three seasons, Charania writes.
The native of Senegal will play for the Delaware 87ers, though every NBA team remains eligible to sign him. Playing in the D-League will give him a better chance to showcase his skills than he had when he was with the Kings, who gave him just 74 minutes of playing time in more than two months. He played 56 total minutes in two D-League games while on assignment from Sacramento earlier this season.