Sixers Hope Doug Collins Steps Down?
5:52pm: Sixers spokesman Mike Preston offered a no-comment on the situation, but in so doing, implied Ford's story may have been off-base. Moore tweets Preston's statement: "We will not comment on a column loaded with innuendo and speculation."
THURSDAY, 3:49pm: Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com spoke to Collins' agent, John Langel, who says whether or not Collins returns to the Sixers next season will be up to the head coach.
"The relationship with Doug, me and Sixers management has been terrific," Langel said. "What they told me beyond this season and as recently as today and yesterday is how long Doug stays here is Doug’s decision."
Langel also denied that Ford's report originated from Collins' camp. It's worth noting that although Collins' agent downplayed rumors of tension between the coach and the team, his comments don't necessarily contradict what Ford reported.
WEDNESDAY, 10:25pm: Members of the Sixers front office hope coach Doug Collins resigns after the season, and the team has no plans to extend his contract past 2013/14, sources tell Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A source tells Ford he thinks Collins will indeed walk away once the season is over. Ford doesn't specify which executives would prefer Collins to move on, but writes that some members of the organization want a coach who's less demanding not only on players, but with management as well.
The Sixers fell to 31-47 with tonight's loss to the Hawks, a disappointment after playoff appearances in Collins' first two seasons as coach, including last year's push to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Philadelphia seemed poised to climb further up the ladder when they traded for Andrew Bynum in the summer, but the former Lakers center has missed the entire season with problems in both knees.
Part of the reason the team doesn't plan to fire Collins is because it fears a backlash from fans who might side with the coach and stop buying tickets, according to Ford. The decision on whether Collins will return next season is in the coach's hands, just as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote this weekend. The 62-year-old Collins has, at various points this season, given the impression he's ready to leave, and a plurality of Hoops Rumors readers believed in February that Collins would step aside at the end of this season.
If Collins steps down, assistant Michael Curry could be next in line, as Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game wrote earlier this year. Collins could resurface with the Bulls, as Ford suggests, or as an assistant coach with Team USA, a position in which Collins has expressed interest.
Latest On Kings, Sacramento, Seattle
The Maloof family, principal owners of the Kings, made headlines earlier today when they set a Friday deadline for the Sacramento bidders, and there's plenty more on the tug-of-war over the Kings this evening. Here's what we know:
- Commissioner David Stern is pushing Sacramento's bid along and personally seeking new investors, sources tell Chris Daniels of King 5 News in Seattle. That puts him at odds with several owners who have expressed their willingness to approve the team's proposed move to Seattle, according to Daniels.
- Ron Burkle pulled out of Sacramento's bidding group this week presumably because of the conflict regarding his stake in the Relativity Sports agency, but Daniels hears Burkle wasn't that excited about the effort to begin with.
- Daniels also hears the second half of Sacramento's presentation before NBA owners last week fell flat, and that it was based largely on vision rather than facts. A source tells Daniels that Sacramento's offer is still "way off" the $341MM price set when the Seattle group agreed to purchase the team earlier this year.
- Chris Hansen, the point man in Seattle's bid, used his presentation to outline an agreement with the city of Seattle to operate Key Arena while a new building is under construction, Daniels reports. That new arena could open as soon as 2015, Hansen claimed, while also revealing a potential regional televsion deal worth in excess of $40MM a year, much more than a similar deal would be worth in the Sacramento market.
- The Maloofs' deadline for Sacramento is of no real consequence, writes Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com (Sulia link).
Prospect Profile: Michael Carter-Williams
Michael Carter-Williams surely would have wished for a better final impression on the college hardwood. The 6'5" point guard spent the last minute of Syracuse's Final Four loss to Michigan on the bench, having fouled out after a two-point, 1-for-6 shooting performance that included two assists and five turnovers. Yet even as Carter-Williams was struggling mightily on offense last weekend, he was part of a suffocating zone defense that held Trey Burke, another point guard widely projected to go in the lottery, to seven points on 1-for-8 shooting. A longtime NBA scout tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that he thinks Carter-Williams' overall performance in the tournament, highlighted by a season-high 24 points against top-seeded Indiana, has lifted his stock.
Carter-Williams currently checks in at No. 9 on Chad Ford's ESPN.com big board and No. 12 on Jonathan Givony's rankings at DraftExpress.com. It's quite a rise from a year ago, when he averaged just 10.3 minutes per game as a freshman buried behind Dion Waiters and Scoop Jardine. Carter-Williams might not be the best pro prospect among point guards in the draft, as some argued during a hot streak earlier this season, but his superior size allows him to disrupt offenses, having averaged 2.8 steals per game this year. He can play shooting guard, but his passing and ball-handling skills scream "point guard."
The stumbling block that could particularly affect him as a point man is his propensity for turnovers. He gave the ball away 3.4 times per game in 2012/13, negating his takeaways on defense. His shot is an issue as well, as he posted a shooting line of .393/.292/.694 this season. Both problems are correctable over time, however, so neither seems like a deal-breaker. The greater question may surround how well his defensive ability translates to man-to-man schemes from Syracuse's full-time zone, and scouts and executives will probably be looking for answers to that during pre-draft workouts.
That's when Carter-Williams expects to make his case to be the No. 1 overall pick. He believes Kansas shooting guard Ben McLemore would go first if the draft were today, but Carter-Williams thinks he can overtake him, as he tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
"If I go in the pre-draft camp and kill it and do the things I know I can do, I don't see why not," he said.
As with just about every prospect, the order in which teams will be drafting could go a long way in determining when Carter-Williams is selected. Assuming his stock doesn't jump as he's predicting, there might not be much call for a point guard where he's projected to be drafted. The five teams currently in line to pick eighth through 12th all have youthful incumbent point guards. Of the clubs likely to wind up with mid- to late-lottery picks, the Hornets, Kings and Mavs seem likeliest to go after a point guard, though trades could shake that up. The best bet for Carter-Williams is probably a team that can afford to be patient, since he could struggle to adjust defensively and have trouble on offenses as well, given the importance of floor spacing and long-range shooting in today's NBA.
Still, it seems he has the gifts and passing ability necessary to allow him to become better at the pro game than he was at the college game, a feat Carter-Williams told Spears he believes he can accomplish. Given the timing of those comments, made four days after this weekend's nightmare against Michigan, it doesn't sound like that performance has caused him to lose confidence, and that, too, will be an asset at the next level.
Gorgui Dieng To Enter Draft
Louisville center Gorgui Dieng will enter the NBA draft, Cardinals coach Rick Pitino tells Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). Dieng, the 6'11" shot-blocking junior, is fresh off a three-block performance for the victorious Cardinals in the NCAA championship game. Pitino said about a month ago that Dieng would be leaving if he's projected to go in the first round, and he ranks No. 24 on Chad Ford's ESPN.com draft board and No. 18 on Jonathan Givony's list of prospects for DraftExpress.com.
Dieng averaged 9.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game for the champs this year. He missed more than a month with a fractured bone in his left wrist, but his draft stock climbed from early-second-round status after he returned. He's a product of the SEEDS Academy, a development program in Senegal founded by Amadou Gallo Fall, a former Mavericks executive and current vice president of NBA development in Africa. Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors took an in-depth look earlier this season at Dieng and the effect of the SEEDS program.
He went scoreless in the national semifinals against Wichita State, but aside from his lack of offense, the most significant knock on Dieng could be his age, as he's already 23. That makes him significantly older than most of the underclassmen entering this year's draft.
Celtics Rumors: Pierce, Garnett, Christmas
The Knicks have ended the Celtics' five-year reign as Atlantic Division champs, but it's looking increasingly like Boston will have a chance for revenge in the first round of the playoffs. The Celtics are a game and a half behind the Hawks for the sixth spot in the East, but otherwise they and the Knicks appear locked into the seventh and second seeds, respectively. While we wait to see if that matchup becomes reality, the Knicks are set to make a roster move, and there's plenty of news on the C's as well.
- Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports speculated last night that the Clippers and Celtics, who explored a Kevin Garnett trade before the deadline, could revisit talks in the summer, this time centering around Paul Pierce (video link). Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com has a partial transcription of the video. Teams may be wary of trading for Garnett, who has a no-trade clause, because they fear he might retire rather than play anywhere but Boston, as Garnett has suggested.
- Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com runs the numbers to examine the potential impact a Garnett trade could have had on the Clippers, concluding that the move would have given L.A. a better shot at the title (Insider only).
- Dionte Christmas, a training camp invitee with the Celtics last fall, has officially signed to play in Italy with Montepaschi Siena, according to the Italian team (translation via Sportando). Christmas tweeted the news of his signing over the weekend.
Maloofs Set Deadline For Sacramento Bidders
6:25pm: The Maloofs want the Sacramento bidders to include a $30MM non-refundable down payment in their bid, just like the one the Seattle investors paid, according to Sean Cunningham of News10 KXTV in Sacramento (Twitter link). Sources tell fellow News10 reporter Nick Monacelli that Ranadive is willing to cover that payment if necessary (Twitter link).
5:11pm: The current principal owners of the Kings have informed a group of investors seeking to keep the team in Sacramento that they want a binding offer in writing for the team by 5:00pm Pacific Time on Friday, report Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee. If the offer doesn't arrive in time or match the $341MM price that the Maloof family has agreed upon for its share of the team with Seattle-based bidders, the Maloofs say they won't have any more talks with the Sacramento group.
Aaron Bruski of NBCSports.com cautions that the league, and not the Maloofs, is in charge of deciding the Kings' next move, and a source downplayed talk of a deadline, characterizing it as a publicity stunt (All four Twitter links). According to The Bee report, the NBA forwarded a statement of interest from the Sacramento bidders to the Maloofs a few weeks ago, but commissioner David Stern said the amount of that offer was well short of the money the Seattle group has ponied up. Yet, more recently, at last week's presentations from both bidding groups, Stern said the size of the offers was no longer an issue. California State Senate President Darrell Steinberg, who spoke in support of Sacramento during its presentation, assured The Bee that the city's offer is equivalent to Seattle's.
While the deadline may have no bearing on whether or not the league approves the sale of the team to the Chris Hansen-led Seattle group and a subsequent move up the coast, it seems as though it may complicate the matter of what happens to the Kings if the league blocks the Hansen sale. Since the NBA is deciding whether to allow that sale, and not simply choosing between the two competing bidders, there's no compulsion for the Maloofs to sell to the Sacramento group. Indeed, there have been whispers that the Maloofs may hold on to the team if they can't sell to Hansen and company.
Atlantic Notes: Wilcox, Collins, Christmas, Bynum
The Knicks' magic number to clinch the Atlantic Division title is down to two, and while that number might not get any lower with a stern test against the Thunder this afternoon, it seems like New York will soon claim its first division crown since 1993/94. That year just about everything went right for the Knicks, save for an off night from John Starks that kept the team from beating the Rockets in Game 7 of the Finals. Knicks fans wouldn't mind a repeat of all but the final act of that season, and while we wait to see what the rest of 2012/13 holds for the team, here's more on a few of their division rivals:
- The Celtics were going to include Chris Wilcox in the Jordan Crawford swap at the deadline, but wound up sending Jason Collins to Washington instead after Wilcox invoked his right to veto any trade this season, reports Michael Lee of the Washington Post. Collins went from contributing to a playoff team to appearing in just five games thus far for the Wizards, but the 34-year-old center is convinced he has plenty left, and has no plans of retiring.
- Dionte Christmas, who was in training camp with the Celtics this fall, confirmed via Twitter that he's signed to play the rest of the season in Italy with Montepaschi Siena. Il Corriere dello Sport first reported the agreement (translation via Sportando). The deal includes an option for next season as well, though it's not clear whether that's a team or player option, or whether it includes an out should Christmas get another NBA opportunity.
- Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com thinks the Sixers are likely to let Bynum walk this offseason, but Moore believes that the team should consider re-signing the balky-kneed big man to a one-year deal with clauses that could reduce his salary if he misses too many games.
- Despite whispers earlier this season that the Sixers might force out Doug Collins, the coach appears to be in control of his own fate. John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer argues that Collins should be allowed to keep his job.
- Doug Smith of the Toronto Star answers reader questions about the Raptors and other NBA issues.
Net First-Round Draft Pick Debts And Credits
First-round picks were at a premium at the trade deadline this year. None of them changed hands, even though the 2013 draft class might be devoid of superstars. Teams still value the idea of rebuilding through the draft, and perhaps none more so than the Cavaliers, who have stockpiled four future first-round picks without owing any to another team. That gives them the highest net first-round draft pick credit in the NBA. The Magic and Suns follow with credits of three first-rounders a piece, and they're followed by a team that isn't trying to rebuild through the draft as much as they're trying to simply reload — the Thunder. Here's the complete list of teams set to receive more first-round picks than they're giving up:
- Cavaliers: +4
- Magic: +3
- Suns: +3
- Thunder: +2
- Hawks: +1
- Bobcats: +1
- Bulls: +1
- Jazz: +1
On the other side of the equation are the teams that owe first-rounders. Thanks to the Steve Nash and Dwight Howard deals this summer, the Lakers have given up three of their first-round picks, the maximum allowed under the Ted Stepien rule. Here's the list of teams relinquishing more first-rounders than they're getting:
- Lakers: -3
- Grizzlies: -2
- 76ers: -2
- Heat: -1
- Knicks: -1
- Trail Blazers: -1
- Kings: -1
- Raptors: -1
- Mavericks: -1
- Pistons: -1
- Warriors: -1
- Rockets: -1
RealGM was used in the creation of this post.
Kings Rumors: Robinson, Arena, Ranadive
The Kings have the league's seventh-worst record, but they've been one of the most newsworthy teams all year, thanks to the uncertainty surrounding where they'll play next season. They also participated in perhaps the most significant trade at the deadline, sending 2012 fifth overall pick Thomas Robinson to the Rockets. There's more news on both fronts, as we detail here:
- Robinson says the trade shocked him, but added that he doesn't hold it against the Kings, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee documents. "I don't have any regrets," he said. "I'm glad the Kings gave me a chance and drafted me. They put me in the league." That's in contrast to what he told Maurice Bobb of SLAM shortly after the deal, when he said he felt "somewhere between" happy and disrespected. Robinson could be on the move again, as he's rumored as potential trade fodder if the Rockets want to clear space for Dwight Howard.
- Sacramento County officials deny they've agreed to kick in $600K annually to help fund a new $448MM arena for the Kings, according to Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis and Dale Kasler of The Bee. A report circulated by the city of Sacramento stated that the county had agreed to the funding, but representatives from both the city and county say the matter isn't a significant hurdle to the arena plan.
- David Stern's trip to India this weekend had been scheduled long in advance and isn't related to India native Vivek Ranadive's recent emergence as the lead investor of Sacramento's bid to keep the Kings. Still, the connection can't hurt the city's chances in its duel with Seattle, The Bee's Ailene Voisin opines.
- Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe believes the most significant takeaway from this week's owners meeting on the future of the Kings was that Sacramento proved its bidders have the financial wherewithal to match Seattle's effort.
Thunder Recall Jeremy Lamb, DeAndre Liggins
We'll track today's D-League assignments and recalls here, with any additional moves added to the top:
- The Thunder have recalled Jeremy Lamb and DeAndre Liggins from the D-League, the team announced via press release. The pair were sent down just yesterday, and both were in the starting lineup for the Tulsa 66ers last night. Lamb scored 12 points despite missing all seven of his three-point attempts, while Liggins had six points, 14 rebounds and nine assists to help the 66ers close out their regular season with a win. Tulsa qualified for the D-League playoffs, so the Thunder may continue to frequently shuttle players back and forth between Oklahoma City and their wholly owned D-League affiliate as they've done all season.