Odds & Ends: Union, Turner, DiLeo, Nowitzki
The NBPA has retained Reilly Partners Inc. to help conduct a search for a new executive director to replace Billy Hunter, the union announced today (link via The Associated Press). Steve Mills was reportedly the leading candidate for the position before he accepted the Knicks' GM job this week. According to Brain Mahoney of the Associated Press (via Twitter), the union may want to build a list of about 10 candidates before making a decision. That's far from the only position up for grabs around the league as training camps open. Here's the latest:
- Evan Turner told reporters at Sixers media day today that he "was ready" to be traded at one point and was just hoping it would be to someplace warm, tweets Tom Moore of Calkins Media (Twitter link). It appears as though Turner was bracing for the possibility, rather than hoping for it.
- Former Sixers GM Tony DiLeo is set to become a scout for the Wizards, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
- Dallas GM Gersson Rosas indicated today that Dirk Nowitzki could play another four or five years in a Mavericks uniform, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. "The vision for us is we want to maximize Dirk's career here,'' Rosas said.
- Rosas, who has experience as the GM of the Rockets D-League affiliate, also wants to make the D-League a key component of his strategy with the Mavs, Price notes.
- Jared Jeffries tells Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld that multiple NBA teams offered him the chance to continue his playing career, but the former lottery pick decided to take a scouting job with the Nuggets that puts him "on the fast track" to becoming a GM.
- Three NBA clubs have shown interest in guard Tre Kelley, agent Giovanni Funiciello tells Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Kelley is without official NBA experience, but he went to camp with the Thunder in 2009 and the Grizzlies in 2010.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
International Moves: McNeal, Telfair, Wright
NBA training camp spots are filling up fast, and that's prompting a few hopefuls to cast their eyes overseas. Sometimes a relatively fat contract with an international team is too tempting to pass up for a mere training camp invitation, and that appears to be the case for a former member of the Jazz, as we detail:
- Jerel McNeal arranged for his release from the Jazz this week so he could sign a lucrative deal overseas, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reveals that the shooting guard is heading to play in China (Twitter link). Wojnarowski simply says McNeal has a deal with Zhejiang, so it's unclear whether he means the Zhejiang Chouzhou Golden Bulls or the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions.
- Several NBA teams have had interest in Sebastian Telfair during the offseason, but he's thinking about signing a deal to play in Europe, HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy reports in the same piece.
- Chris Wright will join France's ASVEL Villeurbanne, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (via Twitter). The Chris Wright from Dayton is in camp with the Raptors for the next month, so this is presumably the guard from Georgetown.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Pacific Rumors: Kuzmic, Seth Curry, Kings, Clips
The Clippers, Warriors and Lakers all made roster moves today, but by far the most significant story involving a Pacific Division team to break in the past 24 hours is the Kings' decision to give DeMarcus Cousins a four-year max extension. When I examined Cousins' extension candidacy, I predicted that he'd hit restricted free agency next summer. If he had, the Kings could have matched another team's four-year max offer sheet, one that came with raises of no better than 4.5% of the starting salary. Instead, Cousins will get 7.5% raises for signing with the Kings directly, a more expensive outcome for Sacramento. Here's more from the Pacific:
- Center Ognjen Kuzmic's deal with the Warriors is a two-year, minimum-salary arrangement, reports Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group.
- Seth Curry is confident that he'll make the Warriors opening night roster, and his faith that GM Bob Myers and company will give him a fair shot prompted him to turn down other offers to head to Golden State, as Antonio Gonzalez of The Associated Press examines. Of course, the presence of brother Stephen Curry also surely helped influence him to accept his partially guaranteed contract with the Warriors.
- California Gov. Jerry Brown today signed into law a bill designed to remove legal hurdles to a new Kings arena in Sacramento, explains Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee.
- Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com takes a stab at predicting the Clippers opening night roster and writes that Byron Mullens is the most likely candidate to emerge as the team's most unheralded signing from the summer.
Poll: Did Knicks Err In Hiring New GM?
The Knicks pulled off a surprise this week, removing Glen Grunwald from the GM position and giving that job, as well as the title of team president, to former Madison Square Garden boss Steve Mills. The move inspired a stream of reaction that prompted us to use multiple posts to round it all up, and much of the chatter paints the Knicks in a negative light. Mills is inexperienced in player personnel matters, while Grunwald acquired Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith, helping to construct the roster that this spring gave the Knicks their first division title since 1994, and their first 50-win season since 2000.
Mills seems to possess a superior personal appeal with players, and, as Howard Beck of Bleacher Report wrote today, his connections to the Creative Artists Agency surely endear him to a Knicks franchise that's full of CAA clients. His backers include commissioner David Stern and former Knicks president Donnie Walsh, as Marc Berman of the New York Post points out.
So, would the Knicks have been better off keeping their architect from the past two seasons, or did they make the right move to bring in a new GM? Let us know with your vote, and share more of your thoughts on the changes in New York in the comments.
Did Knicks Err In Hiring New GM?
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Yes, they should have kept Glen Grunwald. 77% (230)
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No, Steve Mills is the right man for the job. 23% (70)
Total votes: 300
Rockets Notes: Morey, Asik, Howard
For the Rockets, "Everything is all-in on right now," GM Daryl Morey said to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle and others as training camp begins, hinting that more moves are to come after a summer in which Houston landed Dwight Howard. Here's more from the Rockets boss and other news on the team as it begins training camp:
- "Our young guys have to step up," Morey also said. "We’re not there. We’re not a finished team. We’re not a finished product. We’re focused on we want to be great come mid-April. That’s our focus. We need to get ourselves homecourt in the first round and making sure we’re humming come mid-April with guys stepping up or whatever is needed."
- Omer Asik's summer trade request seemingly makes him a candidate for the team's next move, and the 7-footer offered up a "no comment" today, telling Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com and others gathered for media day that he just plans to do his job (Twitter link).
- The happy-go-lucky James Harden and the rest of the Rockets are a much better fit for Howard on and off the court than the Lakers and straitlaced Kobe Bryant, opines USA Today's Sam Amick.
Brian Cook Agrees To Camp Deal With Jazz
Veteran big man Brian Cook will join the Jazz for training camp, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. He'll be the 19th player on Utah's preseason roster as he seeks to play a 10th NBA season.
The Wizards waived Cook at the end of training camp last year, and he spent the season with the Piratas de Quebradillas in Puerto Rico, as our International Player Movement Tracker shows. The Puerto Rican deal had an NBA out, but Cook didn't exercise it before he became a free agent this summer. He switched agents in August, hiring Herb Rudoy of Interperformances.
Cook's last official NBA action came in 2011/12, when he split 32 games between the Wizards and Clippers, totaling just 81 points and 276 minutes. He had a more significant role with the Clips in 2010/11, averaging 4.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per game. The former first-round pick has a decent shot at making the Jazz opening night roster, since the team has only 12 fully guaranteed contracts and Ian Clark's partially guaranteed deal.
Hedo Turkoglu Won’t Be With Magic For Camp
While most updates this time of year are about non-rostered players who will be with teams for camp, there's one player currently on a roster who won't be with his team in October. The Magic and Hedo Turkoglu have agreed to have the veteran small forward sit out of camp while both sides work toward a buyout agreement, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. The arrangement effectively ends Turkoglu's tenure with the Magic, though he technically remains on the roster, as Robbins clarifies via Twitter.
"Our organization has a great deal of respect for Hedo and the contributions he’s made to the team over the years," Magic GM Rob Hennigan said. "We’ve made an organizational decision to move in a different direction. During the pendency of our buyout negotiations, we’ve mutually agreed to have Hedo remain with his family while we work toward an agreement."
Turkoglu's contract calls for him to earn $12MM this season, but a few years ago he agreed to reduce the guaranteed amount on this season to just $6MM. The Jim Tanner client may wind up accepting even less than that to get out of the contract early and take an offer reportedly worth about $3.4MM from Fenerbahce Ulker in his native Turkey.
The Magic have made it clear for a while that they don't see Turkoglu as part of their future, and Turkoglu said in the spring that he'd be surprised if he played for the team in 2013/14. The Magic have yet to waive Turkoglu in part because they hope to find a team willing to trade for him, Robbins writes.
Turkoglu, 35, has spent seven and a half seasons with the Magic over two separate stints. He played in only 11 games last season because of injury and a 10-game suspension that stemmed from a positive test for methenolone.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Daniel Gibson
The man affectionately known as "Boobie" seemed destined for a lengthy NBA career when he started a pair of NBA Finals games as a rookie for the Cavs in 2007. Daniel Gibson had enough staying power with the Cavs to remain with the team longer than nearly everyone else on that Finals roster, but the 27-year-old's NBA career stands at a crossroads now that he and Cleveland have finally parted ways. The Sixers are the only NBA team that's been reported to have interest in Gibson this month. The Rockets abandoned their pursuit from the summer, and while the Knicks, Pacers and Bucks were mentioned in connection with Gibson in July, they appear no closer to signing him more than two months later.
Gibson's role in the Cavs offense has declined precipitously the past two seasons, even though he didn't play too many fewer minutes per game last season than in 2010/11, when he poured in a career high 11.6 points per contest on nearly 10 shots a night. He averaged only 5.4 field goal attempts in 2012/13, eliminating his penetration game in favor of three-point shooting. He took only 29 shots all season from less than 10 feet away from the basket, according to Basketball-Reference. Alas, he shot just 34.4% from three-point range last season, the worst mark of a career in which he's made 40.7% of his treys. He wound up scoring fewer points per minutes played last season than in any of his seven NBA seasons.
Gibson has proven a valuable team defender for most of his time in the league, but last season, the Cavs gave up fewer points per 100 possessions with Gibson on the bench than they did with him in the lineup, per NBA.com. That's only been the case during one other season in his career, as Gibson generally remained attentive to the defensive end even after the Cavs replaced coach Mike Brown with the more offensively oriented Byron Scott.
Some teams may perceive last season's performance as a warning that Gibson's quickness is dissapating, even though he's still two and a half years shy of his 30th birthday. At 6'2", he's too short to guard many of the league's shooting guards, so he must display the ability to keep up with point guards. The Cavs have played him extensively at both guard positions, but he's never been the pass-first sort. Still, he showed he was capable of efficiently distributing the ball during the season after LeBron James left, averaging 3.0 assists and 1.2 turnovers per game, the only year in which he's approached a 3-to-1 ratio. If he demonstrates in workouts that he's capable of duplicating that level of efficiency, he'll significantly improve his chances of finding another NBA job.
I can't imagine there won't be another NBA team that gives him a shot, even if he isn't someone who can embrace the role of a passing point guard. Front offices probably give last season's defensive slippage more credence than his off year from behind the arc, since it would be odd for his touch to vanish long-term, even though his three-point percentage has declined in each of the last three seasons. Perhaps that has to do with where those three-point shots are coming from. In 2009/10, when he made a career-best 47.7% of his three-pointers, he clustered his attempts in the left corner. He began taking them from all around the arc under Scott, and last season he made significantly more from the right corner than he did from the left. Finding the right coach with the right system that can get Gibson to where he's most comfortable on the floor will be key.
Guys who can stick 40% of their threes are a commodity in the NBA, so Gibson and his representatives at ASM Sports shouldn't go without an offer this season. He might not receive a training camp invitation, but if he stays in shape and doesn't sign an overseas deal without an NBA out, he'll likely find himself back on an NBA roster at some point this year. He said in the spring that he'd be open to returning to the Cavs, and even though the team has no apparent interest, that doesn't rule out a reunion between Gibson and Brown, who coached him for four seasons. Hawks GM Danny Ferry, who drafted Gibson in the second round in 2006, is another who could give him a shot, though that's just my speculation.
Eastern Rumors: George, Pierce, Celtics
Paul George informed Michael Pointer of the Indianapolis Star this week that he's certain he'll sign an extension with the Pacers, and George's comments in Pointer's latest piece make the deal sound like a fait accompli.
"It’s almost like now that I have this contract, I’ve got to do more work," George said."I’ve got to go out and play at the level the guys that are making this much money are playing at."
Andrew Perna of RealGM.com cautions that there's no deal yet (on Twitter), so we'll have to wait awhile longer to see whether the player that an overwhelming majority of Hoops Rumors readers believe will be the next to sign a rookie-scale extension actually ends up signing one. Here's more from the Eastern Conference:
- Paul Pierce tells Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe that he doesn't think the Celtics will continue to have the trouble they've always had attracting free agents. "The city of Boston has changed so much since I’ve been here," Pierce said. "There are so many more things to do and the city has grown. I think it would be a great place to play."
- Pierce isn't upset with the Celtics for trading him, and he can envision himself working for the C's once his playing days are over, as he also says to Washburn.
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel discusses the false hope that cap space gives some teams and addresses Heat-related issues in his mailbag column, while Doug Smith of the Toronto Star gives the Raptors the mailbag treatment in his latest dispatch.
Discarded Trade Acquisitions
Knee injuries kept Andrew Bynum from ever playing a game for the Sixers after they traded for him in the Dwight Howard swap last August, and though that garners a lot of attention, it's not uncommon for players to fail to appear in a game for the team that acquired them. In fact, Bynum wasn't the only player in that trade not to play for his new team. Christian Eyenga went from the Lakers to the Magic, but Orlando wound up cutting Eyenga before the end of training camp last year.
Since then, 16 other players have either been waived, injured, bought out or traded again before checking into a game for the team that originally traded for them. Salary concerns are behind many of these instances, but in some cases, teams simply found they didn't have a use for one of the guys included as part of a larger package. In other cases, players agreed to give back part of their salaries to extract themselves from a team they didn't want to play for.
This accounting doesn't include trades involving draft rights, since those commonly change hands multiple times in short order on draft night. Sometimes, the rights to "draft-and-stash" players who are unlikely to ever appear in an NBA game are used as trade ballast, so such swaps aren't included here. The list starts with a swap that involved two players last month, neither of whom will be playing for the teams that traded for them.
- Donte Greene, Celtics: Boston waived Greene this week, a month after sending Fab Melo and cash to the Grizzlies for him.
- Fab Melo, Grizzlies: It took only 15 days for the Grizzlies to waive the player from their end of the Melo-Greene trade.
- Kris Joseph, Celtics: The Celtics waived Joseph three days after acquiring him as part of the Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett blockbuster with the Nets.
- D.J. White, Nets: Brooklyn also quickly dispatched of one of the players in that deal, waiving White six days after the trade.
- Caron Butler, Suns: The Bucks were one of the participants in the three-team trade that sent Butler to Phoenix in July, and they hooked up on another swap with the Suns in August to acquire the Wisconsin native.
- Marcus Camby, Raptors: The veteran center almost immediately expressed his displeasure with winding up in Toronto as part of the Andrea Bargnani trade, and Camby and agent Rick Kaplan engineered a buyout a week after the trade became official.
- Quentin Richardson, Raptors: The veteran swingman wound up with a three-year contract in a sign-and-trade as a component of the Bargnani deal, but only the first season was guaranteed. The Raptors will pay him that salary even though he won't be on the roster, since they waived him earlier this month.
- Kevin Murphy, Warriors: Golden State waived Murphy two weeks after acquiring him to avoid triggering a partial guarantee on his contract.
- Malcolm Lee, Warriors: The two-year veteran was one of the tools the Warriors used to spend a net of only $600K to acquire a first-round draft pick and secure the rights to Nemanja Nedovic. Golden State acquired Lee from the Warriors on draft night and, minutes later, sent him to the Suns.
- Leandro Barbosa, Wizards: Barbosa was already out for the season with an injured knee when the Celtics and Wizards made him a part of their deadline-day trade for salary purposes. His contract expired at the end of the 2012/13 season.
- Tyler Honeycutt, Rockets: The Kings sent their former second-round pick to Houston in the Thomas Robinson trade, and before the Rockets used Honeycutt in a game, they waived him to accomodate the signing of Aaron Brooks.
- Hakim Warrick, Magic: Orlando acquired Warrick at the deadline with the apparent intention of waiving him. The Magic did just that two days later.
- Hamed Haddadi, Raptors: The 7'2" center was traded twice last season, and though he spent nearly a month on the Raptors roster after they acquired him in the Rudy Gay trade, Toronto never put him in a game before shipping him to the Suns at the deadline.
- Josh Selby, Cavaliers: The former Kansas Jayhawk was one of three players who went to Cleveland in a salary-clearing move for the Grizzlies, but the Cavs wound up stashing Selby with their D-League affiliate in Canton before waiving him in March.
- Matt Carroll, Pelicans: An early-season swap sent Carroll to New Orleans, but the Pelicans bought him out a week later.
- Lazar Hayward, Rockets: The James Harden swap left the Rockets with an excess of players as opening night approached, and Hayward was one of the casualties as Houston trimmed its roster to meet the 15-man limit.