Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript
4:02pm: We hosted the weekly live chat.
3:00pm: Trade talk, as expected, has picked up across the league, with Tuesday the day that most (but not all) offseason signees became eligible to be dealt. A pair of the most significant stories from the past week nonetheless involved stability, as the Sixers and coach Brett Brown struck a deal on an extension to keep him under contract through 2018/19, while Andrew Bogut told USA Today’s Sam Amick that he and the Warriors are planning to talk extension in the offseason. Still, if the moves of the past year are any indication, it won’t be long until some players start changing teams.
Pacific Notes: Kerr, Monroe, Kobe, Lieberman
Steve Kerr isn’t thinking at all about sitting out the entire season and believes he’ll return from his leave of absence at some point before it’s over, as he said to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. The progress the Warriors coach has made of late in his recovery from two back surgeries is plain to see, observes Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle.
See more from the Pacific Division:
- The Lakers focused on basketball in their free agent pitch to Greg Monroe, unlike their ill-fated business-oriented approach to LaMarcus Aldridge, Byron Scott said Tuesday, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News relays (Twitter link). “There wasn’t anything they did wrong. I just made the best decision for me,” Monroe said to Medina about his choice of the Bucks over the Lakers and others. “It wasn’t anything they didn’t do or did do.”
- Kobe Bryant is playing much better of late, and that has to do with his greater comfort with the Lakers‘ young players, Scott believes, as Bill Oram of the Orange County Register details. No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell is also looking improved, and that has Scott looking smart, at least for now, Oram writes. “So [Kobe]’s kind of … stepping to the side a little bit and letting them have a little more say in what they do out there,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of times in the game where he just kind of defers to those guys.”
- George Karl had thought about hiring a female assistant coach for years before he and the Kings brought Nancy Lieberman onto the staff this past summer, notes Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. “I think it’s been good,” Karl said. “Sometimes I think we [head coaches] have been too macho about this for too long. Everybody connects with people differently, and some players communicate better with women. That’s why you want three or four assistants. With Nancy, obviously she knows the game. But the best thing she does is connect one-on-one with the players. She can take hard subjects and go to a player, and that’s very unusual in a young coach.”
Ranking Teams By Number Of Trades In Past Year
Nearly half the teams in the league have been involved in five or more trades in the past calendar year, as the Celtics lead the way with 10 swaps while the Bulls are the only team that failed to swing a deal. The unofficial opening of trades of trade season was Tuesday, when dozens of players became eligible for inclusion in trades, and that December 15th date opened the gates to a whirlwind of activity a year ago. One trade this season preceded the date, as the Grizzlies and Heat hooked up on the Mario Chalmers deal last month, the earliest trade to take place in the month of November since 2008.
Chicago hasn’t made a trade since July 14th, 2014, when the Bulls shed salary in a pair of deals with the Mavericks and Magic, offloading Greg Smith and Anthony Randolph, plus future draft picks and cash, for draft-and-stash players.
All but the Bulls and the Lakers have participated in multiple swaps over the past year. It’s tough to conclude that either activity or inactivity breeds success, since the three teams that made the most trades — the Celtics, Sixers and Suns — have combined for a record of 26-51 while the Lakers and Bulls have gone 18-29 put together. However, four of the five teams that made only two trades have winning records this season, and that group includes the Warriors and Spurs, the teams with the best records in the league so far.
Here’s a look at the number of trades each team has executed since December 15th, 2014:
- Celtics: 10
- Sixers: 8
- Suns: 8
- Hornets: 6
- Pistons: 6
- Thunder: 6
- Timberwolves: 6
- Trail Blazers: 6
- Bucks: 5
- Cavaliers: 5
- Grizzlies: 5
- Knicks: 5
- Nuggets: 5
- Clippers: 4
- Magic: 4
- Hawks: 4
- Heat: 4
- Nets: 4
- Pelicans: 4
- Rockets: 4
- Kings: 3
- Pacers: 3
- Wizards: 3
- Jazz: 2
- Mavericks: 2
- Raptors: 2
- Spurs: 2
- Warriors: 2
- Lakers: 1
- Bulls: 0
Central Notes: Jones, LeBron, Love, Scola, Jackson
LeBron James‘ affection for James Jones runs deep, and the same is true for Kevin Love, who said Jones may well be his best friend in the NBA, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com details. Jones re-signed with the Cavaliers this summer on a one-year, minmum salary deal.
“I told J.J., as long as I’m playing, he’s going to be around,” James said last week. “He’s not allowed to stop playing basketball. So, I’m going to make sure I got a roster spot for him. I love him. He’s the greatest teammate I’ve ever had.”
Jones is 35 and James turns 31 later this month, so it would be tough for Jones to hang in the league for the rest of LeBron’s career, but it’s nonetheless clear that the two are close. See more from Cleveland amid the latest from the Central Division:
- It was watching his Cavaliers teammates doggedly pursue a championship during the finals last summer that served as the last bit of convincing Love needed to make up his mind to re-sign with the team, Love says, according to McMenamin, who writes in separate piece.
- The Pacers and Luis Scola talked a couple of times while he was a free agent in July, but the team didn’t make an offer for him to re-sign, and Scola and agent George Bass got the impression the team didn’t intend to make one, the power forward told Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports. Scola, 35, signed instead with the Raptors for one year and $2.9MM, and he said to Agness that he’s pleased with Toronto so far.
- Reggie Jackson drew motivation from the commitment that the Pistons showed when they gave him a five-year, $80MM deal this summer, and the deal signaled that the team’s executives “did their homework,” Jackson told TNT’s David Aldridge for his NBA.com Morning tip.
Heat, Bulls, Celtics Make Pitches For Cousins?
WEDNESDAY, 10:51am: The Celtics and Kings still haven’t had any conversation about Cousins, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. Kings GM Vlade Divac indicated that he hasn’t received a ton of calls about Cousins and again signaled that he has no intention of trading the star center, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter).
3:37pm: Heat sources who spoke with Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel deny any link between Whiteside and Cousins (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 2:19pm: The Heat, Bulls and Celtics are actively pursuing DeMarcus Cousins, though the Kings have no plans to make a deal, league sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops. The teams are nonetheless actively pursuing the Sacramento center, and Miami is offering Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, plus others with enough salary to make a deal work, according to SheridanHoops founder Chris Sheridan. Miami would have to give up significantly more salary than the $3,463,068 that Whiteside and Winslow make to reel in Cousins, who makes nearly $15.852MM, however. The Heat are a taxpaying team, so they can’t take in any more than 125% plus $100K of what they give up in a swap.
A source tells Scotto that the Bulls are looking to find more playing time for rookie Bobby Portis, who’s stuck in a crowded frontcourt that features Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol, who can both become free agents this summer, along with Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic. Noah and Gibson are available, according to Scotto, though Bulls sources insist to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that a Noah trade is not a consideration. The Celtics have copious draft assets, with as many as five extra first-round picks coming their way, though it’s unclear exactly what they’re willing to put on the table.
Cousins is signed through 2017/18, unlike Whiteside, who’s poised for free agency this summer. The Heat only have Early Bird rights on Whiteside, so they can’t exceed the cap to pay him more than the estimated average annual salary for next season, an amount that’s likely to come in far beneath his market value. Sacramento or any team that would trade for Whiteside would inherit those rights, so the Kings wouldn’t necessarily have any easier time re-signing him than the Heat would.
The Kings have held steadfast to Cousins in recent months after a flurry of rumors over the summer. They would have taken D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle and a late first-rounder from the Lakers in exchange for Cousins in the offseason, but the Lakers were unwilling to do such a deal, according to Sheridan.
Southwest Notes: Howard, Anderson, Wright
Dwight Howard denies that he’s “extremely unhappy” in Houston and said to reporters Tuesday that he hasn’t expressed any discontent with playing a secondary role to James Harden, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle relays. Howard, taking his fewest shots per game since he was a rookie, said last week he’s not worried about his part in the Rockets offense and that he believes his role will increase, Feigen points out.
“I want us to win,” Howard said Tuesday. “We had two upsetting losses. We’re all frustrated because we know we can play better. I haven’t said anything to any reporter or to anybody about being unhappy. That’s only noise. All the other stuff is lies.”
See more from the Southwest Division:
- The Pelicans have listened to teams that have called with interest in trading for Ryan Anderson, and while they’re actively exploring trade possibilities and engaging teams on other matters, they’re not shopping the power forward, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter links). The Rockets have reportedly “kicked the tires” on potential deals involving Anderson, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, while the team would consider giving up Anderson for Markieff Morris, as Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reported. The Suns and Pelicans have had preliminary talks about Morris, Wojnarowski and Charania wrote, and Anderson’s name is involved in that discussion, too, writes John Reid of The Times Picayune.
- An initial timetable has Grizzlies big man Brandan Wright back in six to eight weeks after a knee surgery he’s scheduled to undergo Thursday, reports Chris Vernon of 92.9 FM in Memphis (Twitter links). Wright, a key offseason free agent signee for Memphis, hasn’t played since November 7th as he and the team held out hope that his sore right knee would heal without the procedure, Vernon adds.
- Jonathon Simmons made the D-League affiliate of the Spurs through an open tryout in 2013, but he averaged fewer than 10 points a game in 2013/14 and thought about quitting pro basketball in the summer of 2014, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News details. Now, the 26-year-old is in the Spurs rotation after signing an NBA deal this past summer that includes a fully guaranteed salary for this season.
Kaplan Moving Toward Deal For Stake In Wolves
Private equity investor and Grizzlies minority owner Steve Kaplan is progressing toward a deal with Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor that would see him purchase a 30% share of the Wolves and eventually take over a controlling interest from Taylor, reports Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. The sides have reached agreement on the 30% stake and the purchase price for it, Zgoda writes, but Taylor cautioned to Zgoda that the deal is not yet done. Kaplan’s side must complete its vetting process, and the sides still need legal documentation and NBA approval, Taylor said to Zgoda. Kaplan must also sell his portion of the Grizzlies, Zgoda adds.
The 30% share is larger than the approximately 20% that the sides were talking about last month, when Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports first reported the discussion, though that’s no surprise, since the idea of a higher percentage came up in the conversations around that time, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. Taylor said shortly thereafter that he was also speaking to other prospective buyers, but he’s negotiating solely with Kaplan and his group now, Zgoda reports. Taylor has said that anyone who would take controlling interest from him must agree to keep the team in Minnesota, as Zgoda points out. It’s unclear when Kaplan would take over controlling interest as part of any would-be deal.
Kaplan had interest in buying the Hawks earlier this year before Antony Ressler purchased the franchise, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Forbes magazine pegged the value of the Wolves at $625MM, second lowest in the NBA, in January, though that number has likely changed since then.
Cavs Want Second-Round Pick For Joe Harris
The Cavs are making Joe Harris available for a trade, a source tells Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal, and they would like to obtain a second-round pick in exchange, Lloyd writes. It appears they’re looking for more than a token, top-55-protected selection, as Lloyd adds that they haven’t explored the option of simply dumping Harris for one of those. Cleveland is showcasing the swingman in the D-League, according to Lloyd, having assigned him to Canton for the fourth time this season on December 2nd.
Fueling the motivation to explore trades for Harris are the emergence of Jared Cunningham and the team’s looming luxury tax bill, as Lloyd explains. Cunningham, who has a non-guaranteed contract, won his way onto the regular season roster with an impressive preseason and has crept onto the fringes of the rotation in the regular season, averaging 13.4 minutes per game in 20 appearances. Harris has seen only 15 total minutes of playing time all season at the NBA level. Trading Harris for a pick and no salary in return would remove his entire, fully guaranteed $845,059 salary from the team’s payroll and roughly four times that amount from the team’s projected tax payment.
The Cavs could also reduce their payroll and tax risk if they waive Cunningham before the end of January 7th so that his salary doesn’t become guaranteed, but it appears they’d like to keep him instead of Harris. LeBron James and Cunningham have become tight off the court, as Lloyd observed earlier this month, though Lloyd posited that it wouldn’t have an effect on whether the Cavs kept Cunningham.
Harris was the 33rd overall pick in 2014 but has yet to make much of an impact in the NBA. He’s averaging 17.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 33.9 minutes per game with 31.7% 3-point shooting in nine D-League appearances so far this season. His contract runs through next season, when his salary of about $980K is non-guaranteed.
Western Notes: Howard, Rondo, Kaman, Payne
Dwight Howard is “extremely unhappy” as a secondary option to James Harden on the Rockets, league sources tell Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops, but a source tells Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com that “everybody is unhappy” (Twitter link), with everybody presumably a reference to all of the Rockets. Houston has played better since last month’s coaching change, but the team is still just 12-13. Howard and Harden have never truly meshed, as Fran Blinebury of NBA.com wrote last month, adding that members of each other’s camp went into the 2014 offseason “whispering” about their desire to get rid of the other. Sheridan speculates about trade scenarios involving Howard, but no indication exists that the Rockets would indeed entertain any deals for the 30-year-old who has a player option worth more than $23.282MM for next season. Howard is No. 6 in our latest 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings. See more from the Western Conference:
- Rajon Rondo apologized to referee Bill Kennedy today in the point guard’s second statement in response to the controversy surrounding the homophobic slur he used during a game earlier this month as an insult to Kennedy, who is gay. Some took issue with his first statement, which he issued Monday via two tweets, for its lack of a direct apology, and executives who spoke with Ken Berger of CBSSports.com offered split opinions on whether the matter would affect Rondo’s free agency this summer.
- The Trail Blazers are making Chris Kaman available for trades, league sources told Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops. Kaman is pulling down $5.016MM this season, the last one on his contract. A sprained right ankle has helped limit him to just three appearances so far in 2015/16.
- Timberwolves power forward Adreian Payne is also available, league sources said to Scotto for the same report. Payne, who’s earning almost $1.939MM in the second season of his rookie scale contract, was the 15th overall pick of the 2014 draft, but he’s played sparingly since. He’s averaging 3.5 points in 10.3 minutes per game across 15 appearances for Minnesota so far this season, though the team committed to him financially less than two months ago when it picked up his 2016/17 team option.
Pelicans Make Omer Asik Available
The Pelicans have made Omer Asik available to potential trade suitors, league sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops, who writes within a larger piece. New Orleans just re-signed the 29-year-old center over the summer to a five-year deal worth nearly $52.978MM in base salary, but he’s averaging a career-worst 2.2 points in 13.9 minutes per game so far this season after suffering a right hamstring strain in early October. He’s missed seven games so far this season, and new coach Alvin Gentry has moved him in and out of the starting lineup of late.
Asik’s struggles have symbolized the trouble the Pelicans have experienced as they dealt with a slew of injuries that led to chaotic roster movement throughout the preseason and left the team shorthanded at times during a disappointing 6-18 start. The Pelicans have struggled to pick up Gentry’s offense, no surprise given the lack of practice time for many players.
New Orleans originally acquired Asik in a trade with the Rockets in the summer of 2014. The Celtics were reportedly expected to make a run at the B.J. Armstrong client during free agency this past offseason, but it’s unclear whether they did, as Asik and the Pelicans were already finalizing a deal on the first day of free agent negotiations in July, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
The Pelicans are over the cap and less than $4MM shy of tax territory, so they don’t have a wealth of flexibility to take on additional salary. They have a trade exception worth about $507K, but that’s likely too small to help facilitate any deal. Trade rumors have also surrounded soon-to-be free agent Ryan Anderson in recent weeks.
What should the Pelicans look for in a trade involving Asik? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.