Jazz Sign Erick Green To Second 10-Day Contract
The Jazz have signed point guard Erick Green to a second 10-day contract, the team announced. His first expired overnight. The latest deal will cover four games, against the Bucks, Suns, Mavericks and Pelicans. It’s set to end before the February 18th trade deadline, leaving Utah to decide whether to re-sign Green for the duration of the season or leave him in free agency and keep an open roster spot. The other 14 Jazz players are signed through at least the end of the season.
Green originally joined the Jazz the day after starting point guard Raul Neto suffered a concussion in a game against the Pistons, but Neto returned to play in time for Utah’s next game and hasn’t missed any time since. Green has only seen six total minutes of playing time with the Jazz, scoring four points, but it appears the team is interested in keeping him around nonetheless. He was the 46th overall pick in the 2013 draft and averaged 26.7 points, 4.4 assists and 1.6 turnovers per game in 23 D-League appearances after the Nuggets let him go earlier this season.
Utah has reportedly considered a pursuit of Hawks trade candidate Jeff Teague, but the Jazz have often gone without a point guard on the floor this season, using a three-wing lineup while Neto and backup Trey Burke sit. Dante Exum, who started 41 games at the position as a rookie last year, is out for the season with a torn ACL, but the team apparently remains 100% committed to him, leaving it unclear where a developing prospect like Green would fit in.
Nuggets Seek Pick In Return For Joffrey Lauvergne
The Nuggets want a late first-round pick in exchange for Joffrey Lauvergne, league sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). It’s unclear just how motivated Denver is to trade Lauvergne, one of three centers under the age of 25 on the roster, though the Nuggets are largely “open for business” outside of Danilo Gallinari and Emmanuel Mudiay, as Chris Mannix of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports said earlier this week. However, coach Michael Malone said last month that the 24-year-old Lauvergne is a major part of the team’s long-term plans.
Lauvergne, the 55th pick in the 2013 draft, is beneath Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic on the Nuggets depth chart after making 15 starts earlier this season. He’s averaging 7.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in 17.6 minutes per game. The 24-year-old who signed as a draft-and-stash prospect in February 2015 is on the books at nearly $1.71MM this season and the same figure next year, though his 2016/17 salary is non-guaranteed.
GM Tim Connelly has the security of a new extension to rely on if he wants to focus on the future at the expense of the present. Denver is already well-stocked with draft assets, as the Rockets, Grizzlies and Trail Blazers all have first-round debt to the Nuggets that comes due as early as this year’s draft, and the Nuggets have the right to swap first-rounders with New York this year. That exchange wouldn’t happen as it stands, with Denver at 19-31, three games worse than the Knicks and four and a half games out of the playoffs in the Western Conference.
Western Notes: Griffin, Howard, Carter, Warriors
The Clippers plan to make a concerted effort to look for Blake Griffin trades if they don’t make a long playoff run this spring, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (video link). That’s regardless of whether an opportunity arises to swap Griffin for Kevin Durant, a move the Clippers wouldn’t hesitate to make, according to Wojnarowski. Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers suggested before the season that he would be open to major changes if the team disappointed in the playoffs, as Zach Lowe of ESPN.com reported, adding that it appears as though Rivers isn’t eager to trade any members of the team’s core before the trade deadline this month. See more from the Western Conference:
- The Celtics aren’t the only team the Rockets have engaged about Dwight Howard, but it’s unlikely a Howard trade happens this season as Houston isn’t shopping him so much as gauging his market value, reports Chris Mannix of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. Three executives from around the league told Mannix they wouldn’t approach the max in an offer to Howard in free agency this summer, and an Eastern Conference GM pegged a fair contract for him at three years and $60MM, Mannix relays.
- Vince Carter plans to play next season, which would be his 18th in the NBA, and while he’s taking a year-by-year approach, he’d like to play 20 seasons, notes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. Carter’s salary of more than $4.264MM for next season is partially guaranteed for $2MM, and fellow Commercial Appeal scribe Chris Herrington suggested recently that the Grizzlies will “almost certainly” waive him this summer and pocket the savings. Still, coach Dave Joerger expressed a fondness for the veteran swingman, as Tillery relays.
- Executives from other teams know that so much as asking the Warriors about any of the key players on their roster would be ill-advised, writes Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports as he analyzes Golden State’s trade assets.
Cavs Interested In Jared Dudley
The Cavaliers are interested in acquiring Jared Dudley and are one of the most active NBA teams on the trade market, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com said in an appearance on ESPN Cleveland radio with Tony Cartagena this morning (Twitter links; audio link). Dudley is making $4.375MM this season on the final year of his contract with the Wizards, who have lost five of their last six games to fall to 21-26.
It’s unclear whether Cleveland would target Dudley with part of its more than $10.5MM trade exception or look for an exchange of salaries instead. The Cavs have reportedly gauged the market for Timofey Mozgov, whose $4.95MM salary would be a close match with Dudley’s, but the Wizards already have two traditional big men in Marcin Gortat and Nene. In any case, Cleveland has reportedly sought a three-and-D wing player to back up Iman Shumpert, and Dudley is displaying a career-best 45.9% 3-point shooting stroke this season. He ranks 19th among all small forwards in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus/Minus metric.
Dudley, 30, has assumed a leadership role for the Wizards in his first season with the team. He supported the trade that sent him from Milwaukee to Washington this past summer and expressed contentment last month with his situation in Washington. Still, he doesn’t have the power to veto a swap to Cleveland. Cavs GM David Griffin worked in the Suns front office when Phoenix traded for Dudley in 2008.
Would Dudley be the right fit for the Cavs? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Manu Ginobili To Miss At Least A Month
Manu Ginobili will miss at least a month after undergoing surgery today to treat a testicular injury he suffered in Wednesday’s game, the Spurs announced via press release. Joe Reinagel of KENS-TV in San Antonio reported earlier that Ginobili would be out for to six weeks, citing a team source. The team is already without Tim Duncan for an indefinite period of time as he recovers from a knee injury. The Spurs, at 41-8 and four games behind the Warriors with two weeks to go before the trade deadline, have encountered some of their most significant adversity of the season lately, losing by double digits to Golden State and the Cavaliers last week.
It’s too late in the season for San Antonio to apply for a disabled player exception, which wouldn’t have been in play anyway unless Ginobili was expected to miss the balance of 2015/16. The team doesn’t have enough injured players to qualify for a 16th roster spot via hardship, either, so the Spurs have limited means to compensate for the swingman’s absence. Ginobili, at 38, has remained a key contributor this season, averaging 10.0 points in 19.7 minutes per game.
The move figures to afford more playing time to Jonathon Simmons, who’s exceeded expectations as an undrafted rookie, and perhaps Rasual Butler, who’s on a one-year contract for the minimum salary. Ginobili has a player option worth nearly $2.941MM for next season.
And-Ones: Morris, Dunleavy, Korkmaz, Labor
Markieff Morris said he “never had a problem” with former Suns coach Jeff Hornacek, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. The incident in which he threw a towel that connected with Hornacek after the pair exchanged words during a game in December, prompting a two-game suspension for the power forward, was “misperceived,” Morris said. With trade rumors continuing to surround the Suns, see more from around the NBA:
- Mike Dunleavy is poised to make his season debut Saturday and play his first game since signing a three-year, $14.4MM deal to remain with the Bulls in the offseason, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. A setback he suffered in November cost him several additional weeks as he fought to return from offseason back surgery. Nikola Mirotic is still targeting a return after the All-Star break in spite of an unexpected second procedure that came in the wake of his recent appendectomy, according to fellow Vertical scribe Shams Charania (Twitter link).
- Euroleague shooting guard and 2016 draft prospect Furkan Korkmaz has a dead-eye stroke from behind the 3-point line and plenty of hops, but he has a long way to go on defense, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and the Vertical on Yahoo Sports examines. Givony ranks him 12th among the players expected to be in this year’s draft.
- Using the lockout as a means to force the players union to make concessions is the true legacy of former commissioner David Stern, SB Nation’s Paul Flannery asserts amid a piece with fellow SB Nation scribe Tom Ziller analyzing the first two years of Adam Silver as Stern’s successor. It’s difficult to envision the union making concessions in 2017 without the threat of a lockout, Ziller writes.
Bucks Open To Trading Monroe, Carter-Williams
The Bucks have let other teams know that Greg Monroe is available for the right price, and the team is also receptive to trading Michael Carter-Williams, reports Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only Bucks player completely off-limits for a deal, though it would take a “crazy” offer to pry Jabari Parker or Khris Middleton from Milwaukee, a league executive said to Woelfel. Several people around the league have said they’d be surprised if the Bucks don’t make a significant trade, with the deadline looming two weeks from today, Woelfel adds.
Bucks GM John Hammond said recently that he “can’t imagine life without” Monroe, whom the team surprisingly landed in free agency on a three-year max deal, though coach Jason Kidd controls player personnel, as Woelfel has heard. It’s unclear what Milwaukee would demand in return for the former Piston. Monroe reportedly met with the Knicks, Lakers and Trail Blazers, all of whom apparently made max offers, before he signed with Milwaukee this past July. He can opt out after next season.
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Carter-Williams, like Monroe, was part of a six-man core that Hammond alluded to this past offseason. He’s nonetheless failed to impress since coming over in a controversial deadline trade a year ago, and Kidd benched him for a stretch of 10 games earlier this season. He’s returned to the starting lineup, but his points and minutes per game are down for a second season in a row since he won the Rookie of the Year award in 2013/14. His 31.7% 3-point shooting is a career best, but he’s taking fewer 3-pointers than in the past, attempting only 41 so far this season.
Milwaukee is 20-31 and in 13th place in the Eastern Conference after making the playoffs a year ago. The Bucks have lost six of their last seven games.
Atlantic Notes: Bargnani, Afflalo, Williams
All four Nets who have player options for next season are planning to opt out, as NetsDaily hears (Twitter links). None of them have particularly lucrative options, with Wayne Ellington‘s nearly $1.568MM topping the list, followed by Shane Larkin at $1.5MM, with Andrea Bargnani and Thomas Robinson at minimum salaries of close to $1.552MM and almost $1.051MM, respectively. Their agents believe the inflated salary cap will yield a market too fertile to pass up, NetsDaily adds. Brooklyn has about $45MM in guaranteed salary on the books for next season against a projected $89MM salary cap, so the opt-outs would allow the team to retain flexibility. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks consider Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams core players, while Robin Lopez and Lance Thomas are also part of the team’s “inner circle,” writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Afflalo and Williams have player options for next season, worth $8MM and $4.598MM, respectively, that the team is hoping they’ll pick up, while Thomas is on a one-year contract. Lopez is in the first season of a four-year deal.
- The Sixers have given executive Brandon Williams more latitude on player development, agent relations, recruiting and other areas as part of a promotion to a new chief of staff position, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. Williams, who had been GM of the team’s D-League affiliate while serving as an assistant GM of sorts to GM Sam Hinkie, will retain his D-League duties and continue to report to Hinkie, as Wojnarowski details. The team has yet to make an official announcement.
- P.J. Tucker might help the Raptors as a stopgap option at small forward, but Markieff Morris isn’t the long-term solution the club’s needs at power forward, opines Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Wednesday that the Raptors are interested in both Suns players.
Latest On Danilo Gallinari, Celtics
The Celtics have aggressively pursued a trade for Danilo Gallinari, but the Nuggets have consistently rebuffed them, Chris Mannix of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports said in a radio appearance on the “Toucher & Rich” show on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston (audio link via CSNNE.com). That confirms a report last week from Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi, who heard that the Celtics were targeting Gallinari and that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge was keen on his shooting ability and leadership skills. The Nuggets are similarly enamored with the Italian-born small forward, and they want to build around him, Mannix said.
Denver has set a high bar for Gallinari offers, demanding at least two first-rounders, according to Cauchi, and he and Emmanuel Mudiay are among the few Nuggets the team would object to parting with, as Mannix explained. The Celtics have no shortage of draft assets, but the unprotected 2016 first-rounder they have from the Nets is “definitely not available,” writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
The Gallinari talks with the Celtics never amounted to more than a conversation, even though the Nuggets are otherwise “open for business,” Mannix said. Gallinari became eligible for inclusion in a trade just this week on the six-month anniversary of the rare renegotiation-and-extension he signed over the summer. That deal gives the 27-year-old salaries that add up to $45.15MM from this season through 2017/18, though he can opt out after next season.
The Celtics have also been linked to Dwight Howard with several conflicting reports. Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who first reported the discussion between Houston and Boston, wrote that the Celtics had engaged the Rockets, but Mannix said Houston initiated the dialogue.
Western Notes: Howard, Morris, Brown, Kilpatrick
Conflicting reports abound on whether the Rockets have explored trading Dwight Howard lately and whether they have a desire to move him. The Rockets have engaged teams about Howard but set a high asking price, league sources told Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), a notion that runs counter to the idea that Houston hasn’t had any Howard trade talk since December, as a source told Calvin Watkins and Marc Stein of ESPN.com and as we passed along Wednesday night. The trade market for Howard is relatively limited anyway, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News hears, and that apparently extends to free agency, at least as far as the Mavericks are concerned. Dallas doesn’t have interest in giving the center a maximum-salary deal, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick, though Howard’s former teammate and recruiter extraordinaire Chandler Parsons spoke to Amick about his desire to play again with Howard, as Amick relays. See more from the Western Conference:
- Marcus Morris said Wednesday that what twin brother Markieff Morris wants hasn’t changed since he made his offseason trade demand, MLive’s David Mayo notes. Marcus has weighed in on his brother’s feelings about the Suns already this season but Markieff, who recanted his trade demand at the start of training camp, largely dismissed his brother’s previous remark.
- Lorenzo Brown is back with the D-League affiliate of the Pistons following the recent expiration of his second 10-day contract with the Suns while Sean Kilpatrick has returned to the Sixers affiliate after his second 10-day deal with the Nuggets lapsed, notes Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter links).
- Erick Green is set to become a free agent tonight after the expiration of his 10-day contract with the Jazz. Keep track of all the short-term deals around the NBA with our 10-Day Contract Tracker.