Eastern Notes: Raptors, Casey, Noah, Pistons
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri can’t envision the team using all of the four of the first-round picks ticketed to come the team’s way in the next two years, as he told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, essentially confirming an earlier report from Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun that the team doesn’t plan to add four rookies.
“We already have so many young players,” Ujiri said to Lowe. “And those extra picks over the next two years — we can’t use all those picks. So [a trade] is always something you’re looking at.”
Still, most signs point to the Raptors standing pat for now, with Ujiri believing that increased parity will reduce the volume of swaps, Lowe writes. See more on the Raptors amid the latest from the Eastern Conference:
- Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are advocates for Dwane Casey‘s continued presence as Raptors coach, Lowe notes in the same piece. Toronto has a team option for next season on Casey’s contract.
- Joakim Noah has returned from his shoulder injury, but he isn’t playing much, and he remains displeased with where he stands in the eyes of the Bulls, a source tells Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, adding that the center isn’t enamored with coach Fred Hoiberg. The source cautioned that Noah hasn’t been a distraction. The Bulls have reportedly made Noah available for a trade, and I examined his trade candidacy last month.
- Reggie Jackson is entrenched as the starter, Brandon Jennings and Steve Blake are on expiring contracts and Spencer Dinwiddie appears poised to stay on D-League assignment for the long haul, but Stan Van Gundy is once more casting doubt on the idea of trading a point guard, notes MLive’s David Mayo. “I think there’s a very good chance that we don’t move any of those guys before the trade deadline,” Van Gundy said. The Pistons coach/executive added that the team still has hopes for Dinwiddie, who said GM Jeff Bower told him he’ll be in the D-League for the rest of the season, but Dinwiddie has to show he’s “better than just being a roster guy,” Van Gundy said, as Mayo relays.
Magic Waive Injured Joe Harris
5:04pm: Orlando has waived Harris, the team announced.
3:43pm: The Magic will waive Joe Harris, whom they just acquired via trade from the Cavaliers, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). The shooting guard had been acquired earlier today from Cleveland along with a protected 2017 pick for a future protected 2020 pick. Orlando will be responsible for the remainder of Harris’ $845,059 salary for 2015/16, though Cleveland reportedly included cash as a part of the transaction.
Harris was thought likely to be out for the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery on his right foot, but his recovery timetable could be in the range of six to eight weeks, Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer relays (via Twitter). The procedure took place today, according to Sam Amico of Amico Hoops (on Twitter). Haynes originally reported that Harris was to miss two or three months because of the injury. Agent Mark Bartelstein had earlier told Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com that his season was in doubt.
The 24-year-old only appeared in five contests for the Cavs this season, averaging 0.6 points in 3 minutes of action per game. His career numbers through 56 regular season appearances are 2.5 points and 0.8 rebounds on 39.5% shooting.
Cavs Trade Joe Harris To Magic
The Cavaliers have traded Joe Harris to the Magic along with a protected 2017 pick for a future protected 2020 pick, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link) and the Cavs and Magic officially announce. The picks going both ways are second-rounders, and the Cavs are also sending cash to Orlando, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (on Twitter). That cash comes to about $1MM, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. The 2017 pick headed to Orlando is Sacramento’s, which Cleveland acquired in a previous trade, while the 2020 pick going to Cleveland is Portland’s, which Orlando had from a prior deal. Both picks are top-55 protected, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).
Harris is likely out six to eight weeks after undergoing right foot surgery, Haynes reports (Twitter link), so it would appear the cash is the main asset going to the Magic, who will release Harris, according to Robbins. The $845,059 salary Harris is making was set to cost the Cavs four times as much in luxury tax payments, so even though Cleveland is sending out cash in the trade, the deal is liable to have saved owner Dan Gilbert between $3MM and $4MM.
The Cavs made Harris available in trade talk last month, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal reported, hoping to land a second-rounder with greater value than one that’s top-55 protected and, most of all, save money against a gargantuan tax bill that’s poised to push Cleveland’s total outlay past the $170MM mark. The injury to Harris made the effort more difficult. The Cavs didn’t end up netting a pick without heavy protection, but they were at least able to find a taker for Harris, as Orlando used its empty roster spot to accommodate the swingman. A desire to keep Jared Cunningham past the date that his contract would become guaranteed also drove Cleveland to put Harris on the block, according to Lloyd, though the Cavs kept Cunningham past last week’s guarantee date anyway, perhaps confident they could make the trade they’ve just pulled off.
The deal gives the Cavs an open roster spot, an asset they’d aimed for with the idea of having the flexibility to add a player in the buyout market after the February 18th trade deadline, as Lloyd wrote. Harris, whom the Cavs drafted 33rd overall in 2014, wasn’t contributing much at the NBA level for Cleveland this season. He appeared in twice as many D-League games as he did NBA games.
The deal allows Cleveland to create a trade exception equivalent to Harris’ $845,059 salary. The Magic likely used the $1,599,619 trade exception they have from offloading Maurice Harkless to the Trail Blazers this past summer, posits Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Orlando had little choice other than to use the exception, since Harris is on a three-year contract and the minimum-salary exception can only accommodate two-year deals, as I explained last month using Harris as an example. The Magic are just barely over the cap, so they could have opened cap room if they renounced the trade exception, a move that would have allowed them to absorb Harris into that cap space. Doing so would have wiped out the entire trade exception, however. Using the trade exception to absorb Harris would preserve a $754,560 sliver of it that could prove useful if the Magic want to trade for a player who’s making the rookie minimum salary on a contract that runs more than two seasons.
Which team do you think makes out better in the deal? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Nets Notes: Free Agents, Brown, Wolf, Zanin
Thaddeus Young said he and Brook Lopez have already begun trying to recruit free agents to the Nets, hinting that they’re trying to get in the ear of some superstars, notes Andy Vasquez of The Record (Twitter link). It figures to be a tough sell, given Brooklyn’s poor on-court performance this season and lack of a 2016 first-round pick. The team was reportedly eyeing DeMar DeRozan and Nicolas Batum, both of whom appear in line for max deals, though those reports emerged before the Nets reassigned former GM Billy King. Young could also try to convince John Calipari to come to Brooklyn, since the power forward has a relationship with the college coach who made a strong push to recruit him before he went to Georgia Tech instead, notes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link), though it’s unclear if Young will indeed make such an effort. Here’s more from Brooklyn:
- Owner Mikhail Prokhorov doesn’t see the Nets as being that far away from the top, touting Lopez, Young and the team’s developing players and saying “we need one or two players to make a championship contender” in a televised interview with YES Network’s Sarah Kustok (transcription via NetsDaily).
- Prokhorov wants interim coach Tony Brown to “find out what we have,” Brown said to reporters, indicating that the young players will get plenty of chances to play, Vasquez tweets.
- Assistant Joe Wolf will serve as Brown’s primary aide, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com.
- Nets assistant GM Frank Zanin is a quiet type with close ties to King and was a strong advocate for acquiring the rights to draft-and-stash prospect Juan Vaulet, as NetsDaily writes in a profile of the man who’s in charge of the front office while the team searches for King’s replacement.
- TNT’s David Aldridge, writing in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com, wouldn’t be surprised if King recommends former Cavs and Hawks GM Danny Ferry, who was King’s teammate at Duke, for the GM job with the Nets. King will reportedly have input on his successor, though Prokhorov downplayed the idea.
Nuggets Sign Sean Kilpatrick To 10-Day Contract
1:15pm: The signing is official, the team announced. Denver has five games in the next 10 days.
8:07am: The Nuggets plan to sign former Timberwolves and Pelicans shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick to a 10-day contract, league sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Denver has an open roster spot, since it waived Kostas Papanikolaou last week. Kilpatrick has dazzled for the D-League affiliate of the Sixers this season, and he tops the D-League player rankings that Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor compiled today.
Kilpatrick, 26, is averaging 27.1 points in 38.5 minutes per game with 45.5% 3-point shooting on 164 attempts with the D-League Delaware 87ers this season. The Wizards reportedly gave him strong consideration for a signing last month. New Orleans signed him in September, but he didn’t shoot well from the outside during the preseason, nailing just six of 25 attempts from behind the arc, and the Pelicans cut him before opening night and before any of his salary became guaranteed.
The undrafted former University of Cincinnati standout grabbed his first NBA contract last season in large measure because he was in the right place at the right time. The Timberwolves needed someone to give them the NBA minimum of eight healthy players for a March game against the Knicks in New York, and Kilpatrick was close enough to get to the game on time. He played a fairly prominent role in his brief stint with Minnesota, which signed him to a 10-day contract, averaging 5.5 points in 17.9 minutes per contest, though he made just four of 13 3-point tries.
Kilpatrick reportedly had auditions with the Lakers, Spurs and Hawks, as well as a summer league stint with the Bucks, before landing with New Orleans in the offseason. The Nuggets, right around league average in 3-pointers made, surely hope his D-League shooting numbers are more indicative of his abilities than his NBA shooting numbers are.
Zach Links of Hoops Rumors spoke with Kilpatrick as he transitioned from college to the pros in 2014.
Kings Pay Settlement To Luc Mbah A Moute
The Kings have given Luc Mbah a Moute a financial settlement stemming from the dispute over his voided contract with Sacramento this past offseason, Mbah a Moute said today to reporters, including Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). The 29-year-old combo forward, now with the Clippers, wouldn’t disclose precisely how much the Kings paid him, other than to joke that it would be enough for a fast-food meal, Bolch notes.
The Kings contract was to have been a one-year deal worth $1.55MM, slightly more than the $1,270,964 seven-year veteran’s minimum salary he’s making on his one-year contract with the Clippers, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. It’s unclear if the Kings deal would have included guaranteed salary. Mbah a Moute’s contract with the Clippers was originally non-guaranteed, but he won a spot in the starting lineup and the team kept him past Thursday, the last day the Clips could have waived him without guaranteeing his salary.
The National Basketball Players Association was reportedly poised to file a grievance regarding the voided contract this summer. Kings GM Vlade Divac cited a shoulder issue discovered during the team physical Mbah a Moute took after signing the contract as reason for nixing the deal. However, Mbah a Moute’s agents at the Wasserman Media Group and union officials pointed to independent medical examinations that showed he was clear to play, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported. Mbah a Moute received the medical OK to take part in an NBA exhibition in Africa on August 1st, about two weeks after the Kings voided the deal, and he dunked right after the tip in that game.
And-Ones: Rose, Lillard, Bazemore, Labissiere
Derrick Rose has said in the past that he wants to play with the Bulls for the rest of his career, and while he raised eyebrows with his comments on media day that indicated he was looking forward to hitting free agency in 2017, he recently told Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com he still intends to stay put. The same is true for Damian Lillard, who said Friday that he plans to remain with the Trail Blazers until his playing days are over, calling his relationship with the organization “a hand-and-glove fit” for the way the Blazers have embraced him as a player and a person, as Jason Quick of CSNNW.com notes. Lillard is fresh off signing a five-year extension in the summer, so the matter of his free agency isn’t as pressing as Rose’s, though Lillard’s remarks are nonetheless soothing for Portland, given its history of star defections, Quick posits. See more from around the NBA:
- Rose also told Friedell for the same piece that he doesn’t have any contact with Tom Thibodeau and doesn’t even think about his former coach, despite having had a “good relationship” with him, because he’s focused on adjusting to new Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg. He also spoke fondly of Jimmy Butler, despite reports of friction between the two, answering affirmatively when Friedell asked if Butler is the most talented teammate he’s ever had.
- The Hawks unsurprisingly view 2016 free agent Al Horford as a building block for the long-term, writes Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, though he’s not the only player the team will have to pay if it wants to retain this summer. Estimates of the starting salary Kent Bazemore will be able to command on his next deal range from the mid-level, which tops out at $5.628MM, to $12MM, according to a dozen league executives to whom Lowe spoke.
- The top three, including LSU combo forward Ben Simmons, are unchanged in the latest 2016 draft prospect rankings from Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider only), but Marquette big man Henry Ellenson is up to No. 4 from No. 6. Kentucky big man Skal Labissiere, who was Ford’s previous No. 4 and once a serious challenger for the No. 1 pick, has dropped to No. 10.
Luke Walton On Nets Coaching Radar
The Nets are eyeing Warriors interim coach Luke Walton, whom they’re likely to consider as they seek a long-term replacement for the fired Lionel Hollins, sources tell Sam Amico of Amico Hoops and Fox Sports Ohio. Other reports have linked the Nets to John Calipari, Monty Williams and, more loosely, Chris Mullin. Nets assistant Tony Brown is serving as Brooklyn’s interim coach in the wake of Sunday’s dismissal of Hollins and reassignment of GM Billy King.
Walton, the NBA’s Western Conference Coach of the Month for November, has the Warriors at 36-2 while Steve Kerr continues to recover from two back surgeries. That’s the best 38-game start in NBA history, and it’s all the more remarkable given Walton’s relative inexperience. He’s just three years removed from having played in 50 games for the Cavaliers in the 2012/13 season, and last season was his first as an NBA assistant. He spent one season as a player development coach for the D-League affiliate of the Lakers in between the end of his playing career and the time Kerr added him to his staff in the summer of 2014.
The 35-year-old has expressed an interest in formally becoming a head coach some day, though it’s “nothing I’m trying to rush into,” as he told Ben Golliver of SI.com in November. Coaching the Nets would seemingly pose a much stiffer challenge than the Warriors do, since Brooklyn is mired in a 10-28 season and without its first-round pick this year. Still, the Nets have $45MM in guaranteed salaries against a projected $89MM cap for this summer, and it would seem likely that the Nets wouldn’t hire Walton until the offseason, though that’s just my speculation.
Walton has a tie to the recently deposed Nets coach. His father, Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton, was a teammate of Hollins’ on the Trail Blazers.
Max Offers Waiting For DeRozan; Likely Batum, Too
Several teams, including the Lakers, are ready to make maximum-salary offers to DeMar DeRozan, and Nicolas Batum is likely to draw max offers, too, writes Zach Lowe of ESPN.com in a piece on the Raptors. Toronto GM Masai Ujiri “has long been connected” to Batum, as Lowe puts it, and Batum’s camp has spoken in the past about his desire to play for the Raptors, as Lowe reported over the summer. However, Batum was vehement in the wake of that offseason report that he wants to remain with the Hornets, and while the Lakers reportedly have a longstanding interest in Southern California native DeRozan, he’s said he’d like to play for Toronto the rest of his career. Indeed, it appears that the most likely outcome for Batum and DeRozan is that they stay put, Lowe concludes, though it appears they’ll be well-compensated to do so.
The pair are eligible for the maximum-salary tier that would give them starting salaries of a projected $24.9MM each. Their incumbent teams can exceed the salary cap using their Bird rights to give them five-year deals with 7.5% raises, while competitors must use cap space and are limited to four-year offers with 4.5% raises. DeRozan was unlikely to command max salaries as recently as a year ago, but improvement in his pick-and-roll play has changed that, as Lowe details. Batum and DeRozan are both in the midst of career seasons that have no doubt enhanced their respective values.
For what it’s worth, both have lists of suitors that reportedly include the Nets, who have $45MM in guaranteed salaries against a projected $89MM cap, leaving not quite enough room to snag both of them. The Lakers have only about $23MM committed, though it’s unclear if they have strong interest in Batum.
Which would you rather have on a max deal, DeRozan or Batum? Leave a comment to tell us.
Pelicans Eye Millsap, Johnson, Dejean-Jones
The Pelicans are expected to consider several wing players for 10-day contracts now that Quincy Pondexter is set to miss the entire season, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, who mentions free agents Elijah Millsap, Orlando Johnson and Bryce Dejean-Jones by name. New Orleans has been carrying an open roster spot since trading Ish Smith to the Sixers last month.
Millsap cleared waivers last week from the Jazz, who cut him rather than guarantee his contract for the rest of the season. The 28-year-old brother of Paul Millsap had seen his minutes dwindle this season, to 8.6 per contest in 20 appearances, after he averaged 19.7 minutes a night in 47 games with Utah last year.
Johnson, who was the 36th overall pick in 2012, has been playing for the D-League affiliate of the Spurs for the past month, averaging 15.5 points in 32.3 minutes per game, with sizzling 50.7% shooting on 73 attempts from 3-point range. The 26-year-old last appeared in the NBA during the 2013/14 season with the Pacers and Kings.
Dejean-Jones signed with the Pelicans in August as an undrafted free agent after winning a spot on the New Orleans summer league team. He averaged 8.8 points in 18.2 minutes per game during the preseason, but a rash of injuries at other positions helped persuade the Pelicans to cut him before opening night. He’s since joined the Jazz affiliate in the D-League and has posted 18.5 points in 31.5 minutes per contest across six appearances.
Which player makes the most sense for the Pelicans, or is there another name they should consider? Share your thoughts with a comment.