Pacific Notes: Messina, Rivers, Walton
Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina declined comment Monday on a report that the Kings plan to speak with him this week about their head coaching vacancy, other than to make it clear that he’s content in San Antonio, as Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News relays. Sacramento has no shortage of other candidates for its vacancy, but Kings GM Vlade Divac is said to be especially fond of Messina. “There is nothing more I can tell you other than that I am very, very happy [with the Spurs],” Messina said.
See more from around the Pacific Division:
- Austin Rivers has a strong draw to the Clippers as he approaches free agency this summer, since his dad is Doc Rivers, the coach and president of basketball operations, but he also feels a kinship with Jamal Crawford, as Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com details. Crawford is likewise heading into free agency but has said he’d like to re-sign with the Clippers. “He’s the best teammate I’ve ever had, man,” Austin Rivers said of Crawford. “A lot of people doubted me when I came to L.A. a year ago. People thought I was just getting a chance because of my father. Jamal believed in me, man.”
- The performance Austin Rivers put forth for the Clippers in Friday’s Game 6 despite a gruesome eye injury was a strong final impression that stands to increase his free agent value, contends Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
- Luke Walton‘s track record is short, but he gives the Lakers hope, and it won’t take much for him to top the performance of Byron Scott, opines Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com, who calls Scott one of the worst coaches in recent memory.
Kris Jenkins Pulls Out Of Draft
MAY 3RD, 10:22am: Jenkins has withdrawn from the draft as planned, the school announced.
APRIL 15TH, 8:16am: NCAA Tournament hero Kris Jenkins plans to withdraw from this year’s draft and return to Villanova, as he said to Stephen Rocco Disangro this week at the Philadelphia Big 5 Banquet (YouTube link; hat tip to Chris Lane of SB Nation’s VU Hoops blog and Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com). The junior combo forward confirmed he’s decided to go through the predraft process, as new NCAA rules allow him to do, but he’ll pull out before the May 25th NCAA draft withdrawal deadline and won’t hire an agent. That will allow him to retain his college eligibility even as he participates in workouts with NBA teams and, if invited, the NBA combine.
Jenkins wouldn’t stand much chance of getting drafted if he were to stay in. He’s the 128th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com listings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress doesn’t include the junior in his rankings. The 6’6″ 22-year-old was 78th in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index coming out of high school, and while he overhauled his conditioning during his three years at Villanova, he’s yet to emerge as a top-level pro prospect.
Still, the buzzer-beating shot he made in the NCAA Tournament final to give the Wildcats the national championship earlier this month earned him no shortage of name recognition, and he played a major role for Villanova throughout the season, his first as a starter. He put up 13.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 28.4 minutes per game with 38.6% 3-point shooting. The Wildcats won the title despite a highly unusual lack of surefire NBA talent.
Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Detroit Pistons
It’s no secret by now that the Pistons will keep Andre Drummond officially unsigned as long as they can to maintain his relatively paltry cap hold instead of a max-salary figure on their books. The maneuver will give the Pistons an opportunity to open cap space, but it won’t be a massive amount. They’ll most likely have less than $20MM to spend against a projected $92MM cap, which wouldn’t be enough for even the lowest tier of max salaries, and with eight players on the roster who have fully guaranteed salaries, not including Drummond, don’t expect drastic changes unless they come by trade. The Pistons have nearly $5MM in non-guaranteed salary to four players, giving them plenty of trade ballast, if necessary. See how Detroit’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed salary
- Tobias Harris ($17,200,000)
- Reggie Jackson ($14,956,522)
- Aron Baynes ($6,500,000)
- Jodie Meeks ($6,540,000)
- (Josh Smith $5,331,729) — Salary remaining from release via stretch provision
- Marcus Morris ($4,625,000)
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($3,678,319)
- Stanley Johnson ($2,969,880)
- Reggie Bullock ($2,255,644)
- Darrun Hilliard ($500,000) — Partial guarantee; non-guaranteed portion listed below
- Total: $64,557,094
Player options
- None
Team options
- None
Non-guaranteed salary
- Joel Anthony ($2,500,000)
- Lorenzo Brown ($1,015,696)
- Spencer Dinwiddie ($980,431)
- Darrun Hilliard ($374,636) — Partial guarantee; guaranteed portion listed above
- Total: $4,870,763
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- Andre Drummond ($4,433,683/$8,180,228)
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Anthony Tolliver ($3,900,000)
- Steve Blake ($2,821,605)
- Total: $6,721,605
Other Cap Holds
- No. 18 pick ($1,420,100)
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Northwest Notes: Stotts, Kaman, Donovan
Agent Warren LeGarie will make a hard push to secure a long-term extension for Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts, and he hinted that he won’t be afraid to shop his client to other teams if Portland doesn’t show interest, as Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune relays. Stotts has one more year left on his contract, but it’s a team option that the Blazers have yet to pick up.
“You would hope his body of work says it all,” LeGarie said to Eggers. “This time, we’re probably going to take a bit of a stand. You can’t keep putting him in [a lame-duck] position. I’m hoping [Blazers owner Paul Allen and GM Neil Olshey] feel the same way. I’m always optimistic. If they’re not interested, there are a lot of teams that will be.”
LeGarie represents both Stotts and Olshey but insists that isn’t an issue, as Eggers details. Olshey has insisted that no contract talks will take place during the season even though he received an extension from the Blazers in January 2015, Eggers points out. Stotts doesn’t seem too concerned, acknowledging that many coaches end up in lame-duck situations as he expressed his affection for the city and the organization.
See more from Portland amid the latest from the Northwest Division:
- Soon-to-be free agent Chris Kaman has clashed with his coaches before, but the Blazers veteran is a strong advocate for Stotts, as Eggers chronicles in the same piece. “They should rip up his contract and give him a five-year deal — in player terms, a max deal,” Kaman said. “That’s my guy. He does a great job, and honestly, who thought we’d get 30 wins with this team, let alone 44? It’s a testament to what him and his staff are doing, and also to the players. We have a good group of guys. Everybody fits well. It’s been a pretty good year for everybody.”
- The Thunder often struggle down the stretch in close games and it took new coach Billy Donovan time to calibrate his rotation and substitutions, but the first-year NBA bench boss succeeded at incorporating more ball-sharing into the offense and overcame absences from two veteran assistants, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt details.
- The Nuggets are in favorable position to contend for a playoff spot next season, as Bobby Marks of The Vertical opines in his Summer Agenda series. The franchise has hit the mark on building its roster and finding a long-term head coach but shouldn’t get impatient with the process, Marks continues. The team has three of the top 19 picks in the draft but must exercise caution in parlaying those picks for an immediate impact player, Marks adds.
Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.
Frank Vogel’s Status With Pacers Uncertain
5:34pm: Bird said he’ll speak with owner Herb Simon at an undetermined point to figure out whether to re-sign Vogel, as Bird told Doyel. Finding a way to generate more offense is the key, Bird insisted. “We need to score more points,” Bird said. “If Frank comes back, what can we do to get better offense? It’s on all of us. Frank’s a great guy. He’s going to be fine no matter what happens. If he’s back, he’ll be fine here. If he’s not, he’s not. We’ll see.”
8:45am: Pacers coach Frank Vogel‘s contract expires this summer, and he and the Pacers have yet to discuss an extension, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post heard that Vogel might have been coaching for his job Sunday, when the Pacers lost the deciding game of their first-round series to the Raptors (Twitter link). President of basketball operations Larry Bird declined to answer a question after Sunday’s game about whether Vogel would return for next season, saying, “Come on, man, the game just ended,” according to Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).
Bird spoke in January about a philosophical difference between himself and Vogel, saying that he preferred an up-tempo attack with Paul George at the power forward while Vogel favored a more conventional approach with two traditional big men. George put up resistance to playing the four at the beginning of the season and Indiana largely abandoned the idea.
That Vogel is on an expiring contract is a surprise, since the Pacers announced in October 2014 that the extension he signed then was for multiple seasons, notes Scott Agness of VigilantSports (Twitter link). Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported shortly after the extension that indications were that it ran through the 2016/17 season. However, it appears in the wake of today’s news that the multiple years to which the team referred included the 2014/15 season, which had already been a part of Vogel’s pact.
The 42-year-old Vogel would become an intriguing candidate on the coaching market were he and the Pacers to part ways, as Wojnarowski points out (Twitter link). He’s 250-181 in parts of six seasons with Indiana, his only NBA head coaching stop. That doesn’t include a 31-30 record in the playoffs, where Vogel guided the Pacers to back-to-back appearances in the Eastern Conference finals in 2013 and 2014. The Kings, Rockets and Knicks are the NBA teams looking for head coaches at present.
Do you think Vogel will be coaching the Pacers next season? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
And-Ones: Bosh, Hill, Carroll, Draft Workouts
Chris Bosh and his family are trying to get the players union involved as he pushes the Heat to allow him back in the lineup, but the doctors the Heat have consulted fear he could die on the court if plays this season, as ESPN Radio’s Dan Le Batard said on his show today and as Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post transcribes (audio link). Bosh feels fine, unlike the way he felt when he suffered from a similar blood clot issue last year, according to Le Batard, and a doctor the big man independently commissioned reportedly said Bosh would be OK if he plays. The 32-year-old will still have three years and more than $75.868MM remaining on his contract at the conclusion of this season.
See more from around the NBA:
- One NBA GM thinks Solomon Hill warrants between $7MM and $9MM a year on his next contract, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (ESPN Now link). That would be a problem for Indiana if it wants to keep him. The Pacers can’t re-sign the combo forward for a salary greater than $2,306,019 next season because they declined the team option for that amount on his rookie scale contract.
- DeMarre Carroll indicated Sunday that his season was indeed in jeopardy a month ago as he recovered from right knee surgery. Carroll, Toronto’s prize free agent acquisition from this past summer, instead returned to play in three of the Raptors‘ final five games of the regular season and all seven games of the team’s first-round ouster of Indiana. “Words can’t even explain how big it is … ,” Carroll said after the victory Sunday, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). “A month ago I thought I wasn’t even going to be playing in the playoffs.”
- Draft prospect Jaron Blossomgame will work out for the Jazz on Thursday, the Celtics on Saturday and the Grizzlies on May 16th, as the former Clemson small forward tells Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
- Former Iona combo guard A.J. English went through a predraft workout Saturday with the Jazz and has workouts scheduled for Tuesday with the Spurs and Wednesday with the Rockets, he told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
Kings Rumors: Blatt, Turner, Messina, Cousins
The Kings plan to speak with Spurs assistant Ettore Messina this week, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). It’s not entirely clear whether it’ll be a formal interview, as San Antonio has just begun its second-round series against the Thunder, though the series will be in hiatus between tonight’s Game 2 and Friday’s Game 3. Sacramento reportedly reached out to Messina weeks ago, suggesting that the Spurs have granted Sacramento permission to at least contact their assistant. San Antonio granted the Lakers permission for an interview, and one was scheduled for the gap between Games 2 and 3 of the Spurs-Thunder series before the Lakers called it off and hired Luke Walton instead, a league source told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. The European coaching legend apparently holds particular appeal to Kings GM Vlade Divac.
See more from the California capital:
4:06pm update:
- David Blatt‘s interview with the Kings is today, as USA Today’s Sam Amick hears, advancing a Sunday report from Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
- Elston Turner is a candidate for the job of lead assistant for the Kings, Amick tweets, which suggests that he isn’t in the running for the head coaching job. Turner, a Grizzlies assistant, emerged among the many in the mix for Sacramento last week, and Memphis has reportedly granted the Kings permission to interview him.
10:26am update:
- DeMarcus Cousins indicated that he’d prefer to stay with the Kings as he spoke in an interview with Carmichael Dave of CBS Sacramento (audio link; scroll to 6:24 mark). People in the Kings organization reportedly believe Divac will test the trade market for Cousins this summer. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve grown an attachment to the city, like, the way these people treat me, the love they give out to me, and vice versa,” Cousins said to Dave. “I feel like I have an attachment, and it’s something that I do owe to this city. I want to be the person to bring this city back to the glory days. I want to grow myself and this city all together. I want to bring us back to those glory days. So, that’s where I’m at with it. This is like a personal vendetta for me.”
- Seth Curry said he wants to return to the Kings next season and that it would be difficult to do otherwise, but he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of moving on as he spoke at a basketball camp in India to Akash Khanna of Follow Your Sport. Curry reportedly intends to turn down his player option and hit free agency this summer.
- Curry also told Khanna that he doesn’t want to sign with the Warriors and play with brother Stephen Curry, preferring to compete against him instead. The Currys were teammates with Golden State during the 2013 preseason.
Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Memphis Grizzlies
The key for the Grizzlies this summer is re-signing Mike Conley, but if Memphis can quickly secure a verbal commitment from the point guard, the team can manipulate his relatively small cap hold to sign other free agents into cap space before circling back to formally sign him. It’s much the same strategy the Spurs employed when they used Kawhi Leonard‘s minuscule cap hold to create room to sign LaMarcus Aldridge last summer and the Pistons plan to execute with Andre Drummond‘s cap hold this summer. Conley isn’t a restricted free agent like Leonard was and Drummond will be, but because he’s on such a bargain contract, his cap hold is much cheaper than the estimated $26MM maximum salary he’s eligible to sign for. So, look for the Grizzlies to keep him unsigned as long as possible, thus maintaining a roughly $14MM cap hit instead of one nearly twice as large. See how the Grizzlies’ cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed salary
- Marc Gasol ($21,165,675)
- Zach Randolph ($10,361,445)
- Brandan Wright ($5,709,880)
- Tony Allen ($5,505,618)
- Vince Carter ($2,000,000) — Partial guarantee; non-guaranteed portion listed below
- Jordan Adams ($1,465,080)
- Jarell Martin ($1,286,160)
- (Jamaal Franklin $163,296) — Salary remaining from release via stretch provision
- Total: $47,657,154
Player options
- None
Team options
- Lance Stephenson ($9,405,000)
- Xavier Munford ($874,636)
- Total: $10,279,636
Non-guaranteed salary
- Vince Carter ($2,264,057) — Partial guarantee; guaranteed portion listed above
- JaMychal Green ($980,431)
- Total: $3,244,488
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- Bryce Cotton ($1,180,431/$1,180,431)
- Xavier Munford ($1,074,636/$1,074,636) — Pending team option
- Totals: ($2,255,067/$2,255,067)
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Mike Conley ($14,082,639)
- Lance Stephenson ($11,700,000) — Pending team option
- Chris Andersen ($9,500,000)
- Matt Barnes ($6,730,750)
- P.J. Hairston ($1,253,160)1
- Jordan Farmar ($980,431)
- Total: $44,246,980
Other Cap Holds
- No. 17 pick ($1,494,800)
- Nick Calathes ($1,180,431)
- Keyon Dooling ($980,431)
- Total: $3,655,662
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
Footnotes:
- The Grizzlies can’t re-sign Hairston to a contract with a starting salary worth more than the amount listed here because the Hornets declined their team option on his rookie scale contract before the start of the season. Charlotte subsequently traded Hairston to Memphis, which inherits the restriction.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Clippers Rumors: Griffin, Paul, Jordan, Crawford
Doc Rivers hinted before the season that he would consider breaking up the team’s core if it fell short in the playoffs again, and trade speculation has surrounded Griffin for much of the year, but Rivers seems to maintain belief in what Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan can do, writes Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The coach/executive said today that he doesn’t think the team’s window for title contention is closed, Markazi tweets.
“I like our team,” Rivers said after Friday’s season-ending loss to Portland. “Our bench was fantastic this year. The problem is we have a lot of free agents on our team and I think a lot of them are going to be attractive, and so we have to fight to keep our own first and then try to build from that point. We’re going to have a difficult time. It’s going to be tough.”
See more on the Clippers:
- Rivers can’t envision any player in the league picking up his player option for next season, given the sharp escalation of the salary cap that’s poised to create a player-friendly market this summer, notes Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Rivers confirmed that means he expects Cole Aldrich, Wesley Johnson and son Austin Rivers to opt out from the Clippers this summer, and the coach/executive also believes Paul and Griffin will opt out in the summer of 2017, Bolch relays (Twitter links).
- Doc Rivers said today that he wants to re-sign as many of the team’s free soon-to-be free agents as possible this summer, according to Bolch (Twitter links). “They all want to come back, but they’ve all played well and so they’ve all made it more difficult,” Rivers said. Jeff Green, Jamal Crawford, Luc Mbah a Moute, Pablo Prigioni and Jeff Ayres are the Clippers on expiring contracts, and presumably the same sentiment applies to the trio with player options.
- Crawford said after Friday’s game that he’d like to re-sign with the Clippers, tweets Jen Beyrle of The Oregonian. The 36-year-old Crawford and J.J. Redick, who turns 32 next month, both said on Redick’s podcast for The Vertical that they’d like to play five more years, and Redick would like to sign a four-year deal when his existing contract expires in the summer of 2017, as Markazi relays via Twitter.
- Paul Pierce has one more year left in him, Rivers believes, according to Bolch (Twitter link). Pierce, 38, is signed through the 2017/18 season but is 50-50 on whether to retire this summer.
- The creation of a Clippers D-League affiliate will be a matter of discussion this summer, Rivers said, cautioning that it remains uncertain whether a team will be in place in time for next season, tweets Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com. The Clips are reportedly exploring the idea of starting a D-League team in Bakersfield, California.
Hornets Rumors: Jefferson, Lin, Batum, Williams
Nicolas Batum isn’t entirely sure whether he’ll re-sign with the Hornets when he hits free agency this summer, but he feels he has unfinished business in Charlotte and the Hornets will be the first team he talks to when free agent negotiations are allowed to begin July 1st, as he said today to reporters, including Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Coach Steve Clifford confirmed Batum is the team’s top priority among its free agents, Bonnell notes.
“When I came here they let me know they wanted me to be one of the [top] two options with Kemba [Walker],” Batum said. “I liked that. I like that they trusted me. It was a pretty cool year. First time I got to play like I want to in eight years in the NBA.”
- Al Jefferson gave perhaps the strongest endorsement of the Hornets among Charlotte’s soon-to-be free agents who spoke today following Sunday’s playoff ouster, telling the gathered media that he’d like to spend the rest of his career with the team and that money won’t be an issue, notes Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). Jefferson recorded his lowest scoring and rebounding averages in 10 years amid a season marred by injury and a suspension for marijuana use, but Clifford believes the big man can still produce and thinks he looks healthier and more capable than he has in two years (Twitter link).
- Jeremy Lin is enthusiastic about a return, too, saying he’d take a discount to remain in Charlotte and doesn’t care so much about money, Boone relays. Lin has a player option worth more than $2.235MM for next season, but he’d prefer to opt out and sign a long-term deal with the Hornets, having grown tired of moving, as Boone passes along (All five Twitter links here). “I’ve been paid on the lower end and had a blast, and I’ve been paid on the higher end and not enjoyed it at all,” Lin said.
- Marvin Williams planted himself firmly among those who’d like to re-sign, as the Hornets relay (on Twitter). “There’s no question. I want to return,” Williams said. “I’ll let it be known right now this is the most fun I’ve had in a season.”