Nets Consider Karnisovas, Rosas For GM Job
Nuggets assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas and Rockets executive VP of basketball operations Gersson Rosas have become serious candidates for the Nets GM vacancy, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. They join Bryan Colangelo and Danny Ferry, whom earlier reports identified as candidates. Karnisovas and Rosas have separated themselves from other candidates, Wojnarowski writes, but the Yahoo scribe also indicates that Colangelo and Ferry remain in “prominent consideration.” Owner Mikhail Prokhorov has so far not shown a willingness to lay out the 10-year, $120MM contract that John Calipari is seeking, according to Wojnarowski.
The Nets want to hire a GM before the February 18th trade deadline, which is three weeks from Thursday, and they plan to begin formal interviews early next month, Wojnarowski hears. Nets officials want a greater emphasis on international scouting, feeling as though the team lacked that under former GM Billy King, as Wojnarowski also reports, detailing the history that Karnisovas and Rosas have with players from overseas.
Karnisovas just signed an extension with Denver, though teams generally don’t stand in the way if someone in the organization seeks a higher-level job elsewhere. Rosas thought that’s what he was doing when he left the Rockets to become Mavericks GM in 2013, but Dallas envisioned him as a clear subordinate to president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, and Rosas resigned just three months into the job. He returned to the Rockets two months after that. Karnisovas has strong relationships with Prokhorov associates, while Rosas is tight with coaches Tom Thibodeau, who’s already reportedly a candidate to become Brooklyn’s next head coach, and Jeff Van Gundy, according to Wojnarowski.
Clippers Sign Jeff Ayres To 10-Day Contract
SATURDAY, 4:55pm: The Clippers have officially announced the signing.
FRIDAY, 11:18am: The Clippers will sign Jeff Ayres to a 10-day contract, filling the roster spot they’re poised to open with the Josh Smith deal, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Ayres spent the past two seasons with the Spurs and has been playing this year with the D-League affiliate of the Jazz, who made him the No. 1 pick of the D-League draft in the fall.
Ayres, formerly known as Jeff Pendergraph, has averaged 16.3 points and 9.5 rebounds in 32.7 minutes per game with the D-League Idaho Stampede this season. He’s otherwise carved out a modest five-year NBA career, averaging 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds in 10.1 minutes per contest over 220 total appearances with the Spurs, Pacers and Trail Blazers. He’ll give the Clippers depth on the front line with Smith headed back to Houston via trade.
The signing temporarily mitigates the tax savings the Clippers are achieving in the Smith swap. Ayres will cost the Clippers $55,722 in payroll, the same amount Smith would over the 10-day period, plus tax penalties if they’re still above the $84.74MM threshold at season’s end. However, the Clippers, who’ll be at about $95.5MM in team salary following the trade and prior to the Ayres signing, aren’t obligated to re-sign Ayres after the 10 days are up, a luxury that Smith’s contract didn’t afford them.
Nuggets Sign Sean Kilpatrick To Second 10-Day
SATURDAY, 10:34am: Denver officially announced via press release that Kilpatrick was inked to a second 10-day pact.
FRIDAY, 2:46pm: The Nuggets are expected to bring back Sean Kilpatrick on another 10-day contract, reports Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post (Twitter link). His first 10-day pact expired Thursday. Denver will face a decision about whether to keep Kilpatrick for the balance of the season when his second 10-day stint expires, since teams can’t sign any player to more than a pair of 10-day contracts in a single season.
The second-year pro has totaled nine points on 2 of 9 shooting in 24 minutes over the course of four appearances thus far with the Nuggets. All of his shot attempts have been 3-pointers, which isn’t entirely surprising, given the 44.5% clip at which he hit treys while with the D-League affiliate of the Sixers earlier this season. He averaged 27.1 points in 38.5 minutes per contest in the D-League, staking his position as a prime contender for a call-up.
Denver has 14 players on contracts that run through at least the end of the season, leaving one open spot for Kilpatrick to re-sign. Kostas Papanikolaou, who was previously in that roster spot, signed this week with Olympiacos of Greece.
Cavs Fire David Blatt, Replace Him With Tyronn Lue
3:42pm: GM David Griffin was the catalyst for the change, a source tells Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link). He didn’t consult any of the players, according to Haynes (on Twitter), and he convinced the owners that the team wasn’t performing up to expectations, Lloyd adds.
2:54pm: The Cavs have fired head coach David Blatt and reached agreement on a three-year deal with Tyronn Lue to replace him, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links here). Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported that Lue, who had been serving as the team’s lead assistant, would take over the head coaching job (Twitter link). The timing of the move is a surprise, coming off the team’s win against the Clippers on Thursday, one that helped erase at least some of the memories of the team’s blowout loss to the Warriors on Monday. Discontent had been growing in the Cleveland locker room, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, noting that the dissatisfaction dates back nearly to the beginning of Blatt’s tenure last season. Owner Dan Gilbert had been a fervent supporter of Blatt, Windhorst adds (Twitter link), but it appears the owner has finally seen fit for a change.
Chatter that LeBron James and others on the Cavs were done with Blatt had been building recently, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick, but the team’s brass didn’t consult James on the decision, according to Windhorst (on Twitter). Still, the organization knew that James likes Lue and has wanted to have a former NBA player as coach, Windhorst adds (Twitter link). James and agent Rich Paul have been strong advocates of Lue taking over for Blatt since last season, league sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Windhorst suggested earlier this week, after the Warriors loss, that Blatt’s job hung in the balance of how well the team performed the rest of the season. Blatt said dire assessments of the team’s future in the wake of the blowout were overstated, but it appears the coach was in an even more tenuous situation than most realized.
The Cavs made Lue the highest-paid NBA assistant coach ever when they hired him to Blatt’s staff in 2014. He reportedly interviewed twice for the head coaching job before the team instead gave it to Blatt. Lue played 11 seasons in the NBA, the last of which was 2008/09. He joined the Celtics staff the next season and followed Doc Rivers to the Clippers where he continued as an assistant coach before heading to Cleveland. This will be his first job as a head coach.
Blatt went 83-40 in the regular season and 14-6 in the playoffs during his season and a half in charge of the Cavs, a team with the highest of expectations. James returned to Cleveland from his time with the Heat just weeks after the Cavs hired Blatt, and that drastically changed the nature of the job, which became a win-or-else proposition as the team moved away from rebuilding and positioned itself to win immediately.
The relationship between James and Blatt drew close scrutiny, but Blatt’s brusque personality rubbed many the wrong way, and James was far from the only one who had issues, notes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter links). Still, Blatt has seemed on much more solid footing this year than he was early last season, when the Cavs started 19-20, a sluggish beginning that reportedly prompted worry from the team’s brass about the coach’s job performance.
Is changing out Blatt for Lue the right move for the Cavs? Leave a comment to tell us.
Reaction To Josh Smith Trade
Josh Smith is the NBA’s version of an acquired taste, observes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com in a piece that explains why the 12th-year veteran didn’t mesh with the Clippers, even under a reputed player’s coach like Doc Rivers, nearly as well as he did in his first stint with the Rockets. Smith was frank in his interaction with James Harden, pushing the shooting guard to become a better player and locker room leader, and Harden accepted that guidance, Watkins writes. Smith also mentored Terrence Jones and Clint Capela, and Corey Brewer and Jason Terry were enamored with him, according to Watkins. That sort of chemistry simply didn’t exist in L.A., as we examine amid more reaction to today’s trade that sent Smith from the Clippers to the Rockets.
- Smith, who today cited a desire to play a leadership role on the Rockets, also wanted to do the same with the Clippers when he signed with them, but the Clippers already had their leadership structure in place, making him a poor fit in the L.A. locker room, writes Dan Woike of the Orange County Register.
- Smith’s shot selection was one reason he fell out of favor with Rivers, writes Barry Stavro of the Los Angeles Times, and his defense was another, according to fellow Times scribe Ben Bolch.
- Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff gushed about what Smith can bring to the Rockets, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston relays (on Twitter). “It’s huge,” Bickerstaff said. “It gives us a leg up. We don’t have to start all the way over with him. We don’t have to teach him everything that we do. He knows what we do. He’s familiar with how his teammates like the ball. He’s familiar with how to play pick-and-roll with Dwight [Howard]. He knows how to play pick-and-roll with James. So that gives us a huge advantage.”
- Bickerstaff isn’t the only Rocket who’s glad to have Smith back, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle details. “It’s great news,” Terry said. “It’s more than his skill, which is what he brought to the table last year, but it’s the intangible of his personality. It’s infectious. The chemistry he and Dwight had together was something you can’t make up. It’s natural. He was a huge part of our success last year.”
Steve Kerr Returning To Coach Warriors
Warriors coach Steve Kerr will make his season debut on the bench tonight, returning from his leave of absence for Golden State’s game against Indiana, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The team confirmed the news via press release. Kerr missed the first 43 games of the season after undergoing two back surgeries. Assistant coach Luke Walton has led the Warriors to a sterling 39-4 record as interim coach, though the team hasn’t played quite as well of late after a 29-1 start.
Kerr has maintained a presence, attending practices throughout the season and more recently traveling with the club. Golden State begins a three-game homestand tonight before heading east for a three-game road trip that begins with a January 30th tilt at Philadelphia.
The Warriors won 67 regular season games and the NBA title in Kerr’s first season as an NBA coach last year, and they’ve carried that level of success into this season without a hitch under Walton, who is in just his third year of coaching, including a gig as a player development coach for the D-League affiliate of the Lakers in 2013/14. The team’s strong performance under Walton has put him in the conversation to formally become a head coach for another NBA team in the near future. The Nets are reportedly eyeing him for their vacancy.
Walton had said he didn’t imagine Kerr’s absence, which began shortly after the start of training camp, stretching nearly as long as it did, but Kerr maintained confidence that he’d return at some point this season. Both the Warriors and Kerr were, as of last week, 100% certain that he would coach before season’s end, tweets Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group.
Will the Warriors be even better under Kerr than they were with Walton as interim coach? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Central Notes: Blatt, Van Gundy, Bulls
Cavaliers coach David Blatt isn’t a fan of the idea that Monday’s blowout loss to the Warriors signaled deep-running problems for his team, as Tom Withers of The Associated Press details. Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com suggested that Blatt’s job security depends on the team’s performance in the second half of this season, and other columnists have opined that the Cavs face a crossroads. Blatt said he doesn’t appreciate “far-reaching conclusions,” Withers notes.
“It’s about my team,” he said. “It’s about my guys and I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. My guys are out there fighting for the Cavaliers and doing the best job they can in a tough NBA — very tough — especially because this is a team that night after night has a target on its back. They go out there and they fight and they play and they deal with adversity like we’ve had to deal with all year. We are far from perfect and we are still not at our best, but it’s not for lack of effort.”
See more on the Cavs and other Central Division teams:
- SB Nation’s Tom Ziller also suggests the ramifications of the loss aren’t as severe as they’ve otherwise been portrayed, since it isn’t a given that the Warriors will get to the Finals and because the Cavs have little recourse to affect roster changes that would help them better match up with Golden State anyway.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores has committed more money and energy into the Pistons than it initially seemed reasonable to expect, and he’s made strong hires, particularly with coach/executive Stan Van Gundy, opines Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News. “There’s still gonna be a lot of ups and downs, but I don’t think there’s any doubt we’re on the right path and making progress,” Van Gundy said. “There’s also no doubt there’s still a long, long way to go.”
- The Bulls might not be a title favorite, but they’re still close enough to that level that they need not tear down the roster, contends Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding.
Rockets Acquire Josh Smith From Clippers
12:18pm: The deal is official, the Rockets and Clippers announced. It’s Smith, the rights to Lishouk and cash to Houston in exchange for the rights to Leunen.
10:24am: The teams still haven’t made any formal announcements, but Rockets GM Daryl Morey gave confirmation of the deal via Twitter.
“Welcome back Josh Smith! #bandbacktogether,” Morey tweeted.
9:31am: Josh Smith is headed back to the Rockets via trade from the Clippers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Wojnarowski indicates the deal has already taken place, though the teams have yet to make an announcement. The Clippers are sending Smith along with enough cash to cover Houston’s salary obligation to the veteran big man, who’s on a one-year deal for the minimum, and the Rockets are sending draft-and-stash prospects to the Clippers, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter links). One of those is Maarty Leunen, the 54th overall pick from 2008 who plays for Sidigas Avellino of Italy. Draft-and-stash prospect Sergei Lishouk, the 49th overall pick from 2004 who’s with Murcia of Spain, is going from the Clippers to Houston, the Yahoo scribe also reports (Twitter links).
The Clippers had thought about waiving Smith, Wojnarowski writes in a full story, and he’s wanted off the team for a while, having feuded with coach/executive Doc Rivers about his role, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com (Twitter link). His personality was also a poor fit with his Clippers teammate, Watkins adds, though he was well-respected in the Houston locker room after playing for the Rockets last season (Twitter links). James Harden and Dwight Howard are particular fans, according to Watkins, and several Rockets players wanted him to return, league sources told Wojnarowski. Smith thought he would have to take a reduced role this season if he re-signed with the Rockets this past summer, leading him to sign with the Clippers instead, Watkins tweets, but he has regretted that decision, Wojnarowski writes.
The deal would be legal with Smith as the only NBA player changing hands, because Houston can absorb him via the minimum-salary exception, though it would bring the team within $1MM of its $88.74MM hard cap. The Rockets have been carrying an open roster spot, so no corresponding move would be necessary. Conversely, the deal would open a roster spot for the Clippers, who’ve been at the limit of 15 players. Both the Rockets and Clippers are taxpaying teams, though Smith represented a greater tax obligation to L.A. than he will for Houston, since the Clippers are further above the tax threshold and thus subject to additional penalties. Sending out Smith without taking an NBA player in return would allow the Clippers to create a $947,276 trade exception, equivalent to the portion of Smith’s salary paid by the team. Smith’s actual salary is $1,499,187, and the league is paying the difference. Leunen and Lishouk aren’t expected to play in the NBA, according to Wojnarowski, so the essential components of the deal for the Clippers are the tax savings, the open roster spot, and the ability to move on from Smith.
The Clippers have considered either trading or releasing Smith for most of the season, according to Dan Woike of The Orange County Register (Twitter link). Rivers in December denied a report from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports that the Clippers gauged trade interest around the league in Smith and Lance Stephenson during November. Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops reported last week that the Clippers were making Smith available. Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher said earlier this week that the Clippers felt as though they’d be better off in the long run if they could trade Smith and Stephenson, which lines up with his report from December.
Is Smith the right addition for the Rockets? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Texas Notes: Lawson, Smith, Aldridge, Mavs
The Rockets expect to hang on to Ty Lawson through the trade deadline, as USA Today’s Sam Amick hears (Twitter link). The Bucks have been linked to Lawson of late, as Amick says, echoing a recent report from Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who said a trade to Milwaukee was nonetheless unlikely. Houston had reportedly been exploring the market for Lawson as the point guard’s camp sought a way for him to see more playing time elsewhere, but the market proved slow. Houston instead struck a deal to acquire Josh Smith from the Clippers. See more on that amid the latest from Texas:
- Smith called the idea of returning to the Rockets “amazing” and said in an interview with Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston that he hopes to deliver leadership to the Rockets and relieve pressure from James Harden and Dwight Howard (All Twitter links here). “I look at that team as being right there, just missing a couple of pieces and I feel like I’m one of those missing pieces,” Smith said to Berman.
- LaMarcus Aldridge confirmed that the Suns were the last team other than the Spurs that he considered in free agency this past summer and said that while he enjoyed being the focal point of the Trail Blazers, he’s undergone a change that allows him to take a back seat on the Spurs. Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio News-Express has the details. “I don’t see myself being that guy here,” Aldridge said. “This is more Kawhi [Leonard]’s team, and we all fit in around him and try to make his life a little easier. If I was trying to be that guy still, I should have not come. I’m OK trying to help Kawhi be great every night.”
- The Mavericks have recalled Justin Anderson, Jeremy Evans and Salah Mejri from the D-League, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. The team had just sent the trio on assignment Thursday.
Pistons Interested In Al Horford?
The Pistons might have interest in someone like Al Horford to offset a lack of leadership, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press hears (Twitter link). Brandon Jennings pointed to a leadership void after Thursday’s blowout loss to the Pelicans, saying that he and fellow point guard Reggie Jackson should give their teammates more direction, as Ellis writes in a full story. It’s unclear whether the Pistons are indeed eyeing the Hawks big man or if the idea would be to pursue him via trade or after his contract expires at season’s end. Horford is No. 5 in the latest Hoops Rumors 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings.
A free agent pitch would appear more likely than a trade, since the Hawks would no doubt be reluctant to break up a team that’s just two games behind second place in the Eastern Conference with a deal that sends out a player they reportedly view as a building block for now and the future. Horford is a longtime client of the Wasserman Media Group, the firm that was home to super agent Arn Tellem before he left this past summer to become vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Pistons. The former third overall pick dumped the Wasserman agency for Bill Duffy of BDA Sports after Tellem’s departure but quickly backtracked and rejoined Wasserman. Jason Glushon of Wasserman is Horford’s primary representative, according to RealGM.
The Pistons are reportedly keen on acquiring a power forward who would bump Ersan Ilyasova to the bench and plan to target Ryan Anderson and Donatas Motiejunas this summer. Horford, who turns 30 in June, has swung between power forward and center for much of his career. He’s added a 3-point shot to his game this season, nailing 32.6% of his 129 attempts. That’s a modest percentage, but the sudden addition of this component to Horford’s game (he’s taken more 3-pointers this year than his first eight seasons put together) makes him more of a fit for Stan Van Gundy‘s preferred one-in, four-out style.
Van Gundy clearly wasn’t pleased with his players after Thursday’s game, describing the performance as “deplorable” and saying the Pistons “look like a team that is firmly committed to trying to be mediocre,” as Ellis relays. Jennings pointed to the leadership role he assumed in the wake of Van Gundy’s decision to waive Josh Smith last season, Ellis notes, though that was when Jennings was the starting point guard, a job Jackson holds now.
“We’ll say things here and there, but mostly it’s just coach talking and it has to come from the players and we have to police ourselves,” Jennings said, according to Ellis. “Guys get into it, guys tell how they feel. We don’t have any of that. Maybe it needs to be done. Just let it out and let’s go on from there.”
The Pistons are 23-20, tied with the Heat for sixth place in the East. Detroit has only about $48MM in guaranteed salary committed against a projected $89MM cap for next season, but that doesn’t include $8MM in non-guaranteed salary for Ilyasova, whom the Pistons reportedly intend to keep, and a cap hold of about $8.180MM for Andre Drummond. That would give the Pistons roughly $64MM in commitments, not counting other, smaller cap holds, which would make it a tight squeeze to fit in Horford. He’s eligible for a projected $24.9MM maximum salary.