Bucks Open To Trading Larry Sanders
The Bucks locked up Larry Sanders to a four-year, $44MM extension in the offseason, but now it appears that maybe “no NBA player is as available” in a trade as he is, writes Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Milwaukee believes it can get decent return for him, and the Bucks don’t want to move anyone else from their relatively well-stocked front line.
Milwaukee isn’t rushing to move him, according to Amico, but executives around the league believe the Bucks would be willing to send him out if they received the right offer, which may be centered on draft considerations. Such an offer might not be forthcoming, since an executive recently indicated to Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times that teams around the league aren’t too high on Sanders right now.
Further complicating any trade is the Poison Pill Provision, which would come in to play since Sanders signed a rookie scale extension that hasn’t kicked in yet. His $3.053MM salary for this season would count as his outgoing salary for Milwaukee, but he’d represent about $7.027MM in incoming salary for the team that acquires him. That figure is the average between Sanders’ 2013/14 salary and the average annual value of his extension. So, any trade would have to include additional salary going out on both sides, or a third team.
The 6’11” defensive stalwart has been out for most of the season with a broken hand suffered in a nightclub brawl, and the Bucks haven’t updated his status recently, even as the original timetable for his return draws to a close. Amico wonders if the Bucks are bringing him along slowly in an effort to reduce their chances of winning games and hurting their draft lottery chances, though Milwaukee owner Herb Kohl usually wants his team to stay competitive.
Central Notes: Pacers, Varejao, Deng
The Pacers aren’t looking for Danny Granger trades, but they wouldn’t be averse to such a move if they came across the right deal, as we passed along yesterday. Team president Larry Bird can envision re-signing both Granger and Lance Stephenson in free agency this summer, as Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star noted in his piece, but that could be a tight squeeze unless owner Herb Simon relents on his no-tax pledge, a change of heart Bird seems to hope for. Here’s more on the teams looking up at the first-place Pacers in the Central Division standings:
- The Cavs would have had to relinquish either Anderson Varejao or a first-round pick to acquire Jeff Green if they had acted as a facilitator in a rumored three-way trade, and that’s a price they were unwilling to pay, as Bob Finnan of The News-Herald notes in his weekly column. Finnan also suggests that Asik’s agent, Arn Tellem, wouldn’t have been on board with any trade that sent Omer Asik to Cleveland, where he would back up Andrew Bynum.
- Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com is convinced the Bulls will trade Luol Deng before the deadline if the right offer comes along, in spite of a report that the team is determined not to deal him. Still, Friedell admits Deng’s $14.275MM salary makes him tough to fit into a swap.
- The Bulls are giving recent signee D.J. Augustin heavy minutes, and that indicates that the team will keep him around as the backup point guard this season, Friedell writes in a separate piece.
- Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer checks in with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who’s emerging as a contributor for the Bucks just months after Milwaukee used the 15th overall pick on the then-18-year-old small forward.
- Schmitt Boyer talks trades and other Cavs-related topics in her latest mailbag column.
Southwest Rumors: Mavs, Ajinca, Rockets
Southwest Division teams have been at the center of headlines this weekend, as the Grizzlies have added the younger brother of Stephen Curry while news about the Rockets‘ attempts to trade Omer Asik continues to leak. Here’s the latest from the Southwest:
- Point guard Devin Harris suffered another toe injury and won’t return for at least a couple more weeks, but Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the team isn’t looking to add a replacement, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News observes.
- The Pelicans are optimistic about Alexis Ajinca‘s upside after signing him this week, but the 25-year-old acknowledges he has to deliver on his promise soon to have a lengthy NBA career, writes Nakia Hogan of The Times-Picayune. “This is my second chance,” Ajinca said. “I know there is not going to be a third chance. I know for sure that it is going to have to happen this year or next year. I’ve been working real hard overseas to get back here. Now I can’t wait to have that opportunity to be on the court and show the world that I have been improving those couple of years.”
- Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley will miss four to six weeks with a broken hand suffered last night against the Pistons, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle notes via Twitter. Even though Jeremy Lin appears ready to return from back spasms, the team plans to call up Isaiah Canaan from the D-League to bolster its depth, according to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston (Twitter link). Canaan has been on D-League assignment for more than six weeks.
Nets, Rockets Had Talks About Asik, Lin
Plenty of teams have been linked to Omer Asik of late, but it appears the Rockets also had discussions with a team that hadn’t been rumored to be in the mix. Houston had preliminary talks with the Nets involving Omer Asik as well as Jeremy Lin, a source tells Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com. Youngmisuk describes the conversations as due diligence on the part of the Rockets, and apparently Houston asked for Deron Williams in return. The Nets weren’t receptive to trading Williams since his presence in Brooklyn was one of the reasons Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett gave their blessing to the trade that brought them to the Nets this summer, Youngmisuk writes.
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com brought up a similar notion yesterday, and though it appeared that his mention of a Nets-Rockets deal for Asik was merely speculative, he might know more than he let on. Berger suggested the Nets could offer Paul Pierce and a first-round pick in return, though I doubt the Rockets would go for that.
The Rockets abandoned their efforts to trade Asik by a self-imposed deadline this week, and while GM Daryl Morey says Asik will probably remain in Houston “for quite a long time,” it still seems there’s a strong chance the Turkish center is on a new team by the trade deadline. He’d make more sense for the Nets now that they’ve lost Brook Lopez for the season. Asik’s nearly $15MM balloon payment for 2014/15 that dissuaded many teams from trading for him wouldn’t seem to be an issue for high-rolling Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, even though Lin is due the same amount next season. That would mean $30MM in actual salary, plus luxury tax penalties, for two players whose combined salary cap hits are about half that amount. Williams is due close to $18.5MM this year and $19.75MM in 2014/15, though his salary aligns with his cap hit.
The most popular response from Hoops Rumors readers in last night’s poll suggested the Nets should trade for someone in response to Lopez’s injury. It sounds like Nets GM Billy King was thinking of a trade even before the injury happened.
Jeff Taylor To Miss Rest Of Season
5:03pm: Bobcats coach Steve Clifford says that he’s OK with the players the team has until Kidd-Gilchrist returns, Bonnell tweets, so it doesn’t sound like he’s pushing for a roster move.
3:04pm: Another Bobcats small forward is hitting the shelf, as Jeff Taylor will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his right Achilles tendon last night against the Pistons, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Taylor had taken over as the starter at that position when Michael Kidd-Gilchrist went down earlier this month with a broken hand. Kidd-Gilchrist likely won’t be back until sometime next month.
Taylor, the first pick of the second round in 2012, wasn’t having much of a positive impact offensively, averaging just 8.0 points on 37.6% shooting in 24.2 minutes per contest. The Bobcats are also statistically a better team defensively when Taylor isn’t playing, giving up 5.7 fewer points per 100 possessions when Taylor sits, per NBA.com. Anthony Tolliver, Gerald Henderson and the newly signed Chris Douglas-Roberts are other options for the team at small forward, as Bonnell points out.
The Bobcats, in the mix for a playoff spot with a 13-14 record, wouldn’t gain much flexibility if they applied for a disabled player exception, since Taylor is making only the minimum salary for a one-year veteran. Charlotte is carrying a full 15-man roster, so the team would have to release someone to make room for a replacement.
Pacers Open To Trade Offers For Danny Granger
Pacers team president Larry Bird isn’t putting Danny Granger on the trade block, but he’s willing to listen to offers from other teams, as Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star observes. Bird doesn’t want to add salary for next season in any such deal, since Granger is on an expiring contract and Lance Stephenson is also hitting free agency in the summer.
“I’ve talked to Danny, talked to his agent; I’m not looking to trade him,” Bird said. “But you never know. If the right thing came along that would help the franchise, I would have to look at it, but I’m not out there looking at deals.”
Granger made his regular season debut Friday after recovering from a strained calf, and he missed all but five games last year with knee trouble. When healthy, he’s given to slow starts, something Bird believes is a product of Granger not preparing hard enough in the offseason. The soon-to-be free agent says he wants to stay in Indiana, where he’s played ever since becoming the 17th overall pick in the 2005 draft.
“It’s really important for me to remain a Pacer,” Granger said. “I feel like I’ve been a big part of the building, gone through a lot of the bad years and now the good. I’d love to stay, but I understand the business of basketball and I understand that I might be a trade commodity.”
The Pacers are less than $2MM shy of the luxury tax threshold, limiting their flexibility for any trade. They have more than $60MM in commitments for next season already on the books, which explains Bird’s reluctance to take on any long-term salary. Bird acknowledged that owner Herb Simon doesn’t want to pay the tax, though the Hall-of-Famer suggested that he’d welcome a dialogue on the issue if Simon were to approach him.
D-League Moves: Jazz, Spurs, Nets
Today marks the end of the first month of the D-League season, and so far 13 NBA teams have sent players on assignment, as our tracker shows. Four of those 13 made moves involving seven players today, as we detail:
- Ian Clark and Rudy Gobert are back from their D-League assignments, the Jazz announced. Utah sent both to the Bakersfield Jam a week ago, and Gobert had the more impressive performance, averaging 14.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 4.3 blocks over three games.
- The Spurs have sent Nando De Colo and Malcolm Thomas to the D-League, according to the team. De Colo is making his third trek to the Austin Toros this season, while Thomas, whom the Spurs signed less than three weeks ago, heads to Austin for the second time.
- Tyshawn Taylor and Tornike Shengelia are back on D-League assignment, the Nets announced. Both second-year players are familiar with the Springfield Armor, having spent time there last season and during training camp this year.
- The Warriors recalled Nemanja Nedovic from the D-League today, as we noted earlier.
Sixers Considering Move To New Jersey?
Sixers owner Josh Harris bought the New Jersey Devils of the NHL this summer, leading to speculation that he would look to move his basketball team to the same Newark, N.J., arena where the Devils play The idea seemed far-fetched before the season, when Sixers GM Sam Hinkie and Harris himself denied any interest in such a move, but Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News hears that the idea is still alive among Sixers executives.
It’s unclear just how serious the talk of taking the Sixers to Newark is, and any relocation would require league approval, which isn’t a given, as we saw this year with the Kings’ aborted plan to move to Seattle. Harris owns the six-year-old Prudential Center, where the Devils play, but the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia is owned by the Comcast-Spectator company, which sold the Sixers to Harris in 2011. The Philadelphia arena is only 17 years old, but there’s precedent for NBA teams moving out of even newer buildings; the Spurs were only in the Alamodome for nine seasons.
Newark is about 85 miles from Philadelphia, but it’s only 17 miles from Manhattan, and a team in Newark would give the New York metropolitan area three NBA clubs. Anaheim has made a play for an NBA team on multiple occasions despite the presence of the Lakers and Clippers in Los Angeles, so the notion of a third team in a single market isn’t a new one.
Pacific Links: Young, Marshall, Nedovic
All five Pacific Division teams are in action tonight, and the slate includes a matchup between the Lakers and the disappointing Warriors. Golden State could fall to .500 with a loss, despite preseason thoughts of challenging for the Western Conference title. Here’s the latest from the Pacific:
- The injury-hit Lakers haven’t had much to celebrate, but Nick Young is nonetheless having fun in purple-and-gold, and he tells Tracy Weissenberg of SLAM Online that the experience is better than the half-season he spent with the Clippers in 2011/12. “The Clippers got a lot of hype with all the highlights they do. Obviously, they got a better record than us right now, but Lakers is tradition,” Young said. “I grew up being a Laker fan. The city always being Lakers fans. I remember going to the Laker parades after winning championships. It’s nothing like being a Laker. It changed my view of the NBA right now, being a Laker.”
- Kendall Marshall has longstanding connections to a few Lakers, and that had him keeping a close eye on the team before he signed with L.A. this week, observes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “They look like they really enjoy playing together,” the former Suns lottery pick said of his new team. “Any team that plays together, you want to be a part of.”
- The Warriors have recalled Nemanja Nedovic from the D-League today, just one day after sending him down, the team announced. The rookie scored 29 points for the Santa Cruz Warriors last night, and he’ll be back with Golden State in time for tonight’s tilt with the Lakers. The Warriors are keen on one-day assignments, as I noted earlier this month.
Odds & Ends: Jefferson, Carroll, Kobe
It’s a lighter-than-usual Friday night slate in the NBA, with only nine games this evening, but it’s been plenty eventful off the court the past couple of weeks. Hoops Rumors readers have pegged Kyle Lowry as the most likely centerpiece of the next major deal, and as we wait to see whether that will be the case, here’s more from the Association:
- Richard Jefferson wouldn’t retract Thursday’s comment that he’ll have “no loyalty” as he seeks to play for a contender, but he told reporters Friday that he’d be “more than ecstatic” to remain with the Jazz, notes Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune. Jefferson will be a free agent at season’s end.
- Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll was surprised that he and the Jazz couldn’t work out a way for him to return to Utah this summer, but he’s still fond of the organization, Falk observes in a separate piece.
- Kobe Bryant‘s latest injury has turned his extension into a disaster of a deal for the Lakers, who seem unlikely to have what it takes to lure LeBron James this summer, as Mark Heisler opines for Forbes.com.
- Stephen Graham has signed with the Venezuelan team Guaros de Lara, the club announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Francisco Vega of El Impulso first reported the story (on Twitter). The six-year NBA veteran was in camp this fall with the Bucks.
- The Warriors have sent Nemanja Nedovic to the D-League, the team announced. It’s the third assignment to Santa Cruz this season for the 30th overall pick this past June.