Central Notes: Hill, Cunningham, Antetokounmpo
Solomon Hill is one of Pacers coach Frank Vogel‘s favorite players because of his versatility and work ethic, writes Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. That’s in spite of a report last week that Indiana has made the swingman available for a trade and the lack of playing time Hill has seen since the team declined his rookie scale option for next season.
“He knows the fact that he’s not in the rotation to start the season does not mean his days are numbered here,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “We made that very clear that we’re going to give some other guys looks at that position to give us an offensive boost. We’re trying to improve on the offensive end this year and he’s got to stay ready. There are going to be times when he’s needed and he’s going to have an opportunity to get back into the rotation at some point.”
Hill’s best work comes on defense, so the notion that at least some of the Pacers braintrust isn’t sold on him is another sign of the team’s shift toward more offense, Buckner posits. Here’s more from the Central Division:
- LeBron James has quickly formed a bond with Jared Cunningham off the court, but it’s unlikely to play much of a role when the Cavs must decide next month whether to guarantee Cunningham’s salary for the rest of the season, writes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
- The Bucks gave Greg Monroe a max deal and Khris Middleton a new five-year, $70MM contract, but the executives and scouts who spoke to Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times are higher on Giannis Antetokounmpo than any other player on the Milwaukee roster. Antetokoumpo, making slightly less than $1.954MM this season, becomes eligible for a rookie scale extension in the summer ahead.
- Bulls management basically said this summer that they believe they have a roster with a real chance to win the championship this year, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes in a mailbag column, one in which he says he doesn’t think the team will make a trade this season.
Familiarity Led To Multiple Trades Between Teams
Suns GM Ryan McDonough and Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge have a history together, and it shows. Phoenix and Boston have made three trades with each other in the past year, meaning they’ve hooked up on deals more often in that timeframe than any other two NBA teams. McDonough, who spent several years working under Ainge in the Celtics organization before the Suns hired him in 2013, called on his old boss frequently, most notably sending Isaiah Thomas to Boston on deadline day. Ainge and McDonough also got involved with Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers, whom they worked with when he was Celtics coach, with the Celtics funneling Austin Rivers to L.A. with the help of Phoenix, which absorbed Reggie Bullock‘s contract.
Bullock later resurfaced when McDonough and the Suns pulled off their second trade of the year with the Pistons. McDonough doesn’t have the sort of history with either Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy or GM Jeff Bower that he does with Ainge, but that didn’t prevent Phoenix and Detroit from twice trading with each other. The Suns cleared cap space in both cases, with the first swap helping facilitate Phoenix’s acquisition of Brandan Wright from Ainge and the Celtics. The second deal was the controversial trade that sent Marcus Morris, along with Bullock and Danny Granger, out of Phoenix and away from twin brother Markieff Morris. Time will tell if it leads to yet another Suns-Pistons trade, since Detroit is reportedly interested in Markieff, too.
A McDonough-Ainge scenario was at play as the Sixers and Rockets collaborated on a pair of trades. Philly GM Sam Hinkie helped his former boss and Rockets GM Daryl Morey bolster his roster for a Western Conference Finals run when he sent Alexey Shved to Houston as part of a three-team deal that also saw the Timberwolves ship Corey Brewer to the Rockets. Morey in turn helped Hinkie recoup value for K.J. McDaniels, who signed a one-year deal in 2014 instead of accepting Hinkie’s long-term offer. The Rockets sent Isaiah Canaan, who’s started 11 games so far this season for Philadelphia, to the Sixers in return for McDaniels, and Morey chipped in a second-round pick in that deal, too.
Here’s a breakdown of the assets changing hands among trade partners who made multiple deals with each other in the past calendar year:
Suns-Celtics (3 times)
- January 9th — Suns get Brandan Wright. Celtics get Minnesota’s 2015 first-round pick (top-12 protected).
- *January 15th — Suns get Reggie Bullock (from Clippers). Celtics get Shavlik Randolph.
- February 19th — Suns get Marcus Thornton and Cleveland’s 2016 first-round pick (top-10 protected). Celtics get Isaiah Thomas.
Pistons-Suns (2 times)
- December 24th — Pistons get Anthony Tolliver. Suns get Tony Mitchell.
- July 9th — Pistons get Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger. Suns get Detroit’s 2020 second-round pick.
Rockets-Sixers (2 times)
- *December 19th — Rockets get Alexey Shved. Sixers get Houston’s 2015 second-round pick, and the rights to Serhiy Lishchuk.
- February 19th — Rockets get K.J. McDaniels. Sixers get Isaiah Canaan and the less favorable of Minnesota’s and Denver’s 2015 second-round picks.
* — Trades marked with asterisks also involved third teams.
Southwest Notes: Cole, Anderson, Pachulia, Jenkins
John Reid of The Times Picayune suggests that it’s doubtful that either Ryan Anderson or Norris Cole will re-sign with the Pelicans as unrestricted free agent this coming summer. The qualifying offer that Cole received from the Pelicans in restricted free agency this past offseason was the best he had, according to Reid, who points out that it still took him until the middle of September to agree to come back to New Orleans. The team is making Anderson available to other teams for a trade, Reid confirms, advancing a report from Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports that said the Pelicans would consider dealing Anderson to the Suns for Markieff Morris, especially if Anderson signaled he wouldn’t re-sign. The team is looking for a quick fix after starting 5-16, Reid adds. See more from the Southwest Division:
- DeAndre Jordan‘s flip-flop on his decision to sign with the Mavericks led Dallas to trade for Zaza Pachulia, and while Pachulia is no Jordan, he’s had success this season and has won over a key teammate, as Ian Thomsen of NBA.com details. “After we didn’t get DeAndre we moved on pretty quick, and getting Zaza was a really good move,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “He is one of the smartest centers I ever played with. He can pass, he can shoot a little bit, he can put it on the floor. He may be undersized some nights, but he’s got a big heart, he fights and he is very, very smart. He will compete for us and I love him to death.”
- Mavs offseason signee John Jenkins hasn’t put up the same flashy numbers in the regular season that he did during the preseason, but the opportunity Dallas gave him to excel during exhibitions was a key boost, he tells Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was huge,” Jenkins said. “I knew I had that in me. I was just showing everybody else. For me to do that was a lot of fun. They gave me the ball and said ‘Do what you do.’ Which is different. I enjoyed it a lot.”
- Boban Marjanovic credits his recent D-League stint with helping his game, and his Spurs teammates are urging the free agent acquisition to use his 7’3″ size to his advantage on the court, observes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News.
Jorge Gutierrez Joins Cavs D-League Team
7:17pm: Gutierrez has officially joined the Charge, the team announced.
10:40am: Former Nets, Sixers and Bucks point guard Jorge Gutierrez has signed with the D-League affiliate of the Cavaliers, a league source tells Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link). The team has yet to make an official announcement. Milwaukee waived his non-guaranteed contract in October, before the start of the regular season. He remains eligible to sign with any NBA team.
Cleveland’s D-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, has had Gutierrez under contract for part of each of the last three seasons, so the Charge are able to sign him directly. Gutierrez would have been subject to D-League waivers and up for grabs among all 19 affiliates if not for the Charge’s returning player rights on him.
The former University of California standout who turns 27 later this month has played a limited role during his two NBA seasons, compiling 3.3 points, 1.5 assists and 0.7 turnovers in 12.0 minutes per game across 35 total appearances. Friday is the one-year anniversary of the trade that sent him, along with Andrei Kirilenko, from Brooklyn to Philadelphia, but the Sixers waived Gutierrez the next day, reportedly while he was sitting on the team bus and even though they’d assured him that they’d keep him. He resurfaced in the NBA later in the 2014/15 season on a pair of 10-day contracts with Milwaukee, which ultimately signed him to a deal that covered the balance of the season with a non-guaranteed salary for 2015/16.
Gutierrez averaged 13.5 points, 5.1 assists and 2.5 turnovers in 29.7 minutes per game across 15 appearances for Canton last season in between his NBA stints. Those numbers aren’t eye-popping, but he’s made his mark on defense. He was a D-League All-Defensive First Team selection in 2013 and 2014 and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, his final collegiate season.
And-Ones: Sixers, Stephenson, Anderson
No one in the NBA expects Sixers GM Sam Hinkie will have the ability to overrule chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo on the team’s personnel decisions going forward, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. It was around the time of Jahlil Okafor‘s autumn off–court incidents that Sixers owner Josh Harris and commissioner Adam Silver first spoke about what one source described to Berger as a “course correction” for the team. Harris asked Silver for advice, and the commissioner gave him a list of people, with Colangelo’s name on top, to consider for the new front office role the owner was considering, Berger explains. Silver reached out to Colangelo to measure his interest in joining the Sixers, introduced him to Harris, and let them work it out from there, league sources said to Berger. We passed along more earlier today on the Colangelo hiring, and we’ll share news from around the league here:
- Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers denies that he’s reached out to any teams about trading Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith, but Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher (video link) hears the Clippers are anxious to move the two. Stephenson and Smith are frustrated with their roles, Bucher adds. “That’s silly talk. Nothing. No truth,” Rivers said, according to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times, in response to an initial report that the Clippers had gauged the interest that other teams have in trading for them.
- Virtually no trade market exists for Stephenson, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes in his NBA AM piece, and the Clippers would have to attach another player to him in any viable trade proposal, one league source said to Kyler. A feeling exists that the Clippers would be willing to take on a sizable contract via trade, so Stephenson’s $9MM salary could come in handy for matching purposes, but for now, the Clippers’ trade talks are exploratory in nature, Kyler hears.
- The Pelicans‘ first preference would be to keep Ryan Anderson instead of trading him, but the power forward’s upcoming free agency may force their hand, Kyler adds in the same piece. New Orleans would think about trading Anderson for Markieff Morris, especially if Anderson signals he won’t re-sign with the Pelicans when his contract expires this summer, as Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reported this week.
Players Who Gave OK To D-League Assignments
Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy admits he’s contemplating the idea of sending Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks to the D-League in what would amount to rehab assignments as they work their way back from their respective injuries, but that decision isn’t entirely up to him. Players who have at least three prior seasons of experience don’t have to go on D-League assignments if they don’t want to, and even if they give their OK, the players union also has to sign off on it. That used to be the rule for everyone except first- and second-year players, but the ability for teams to unilaterally assign players to the D-League was expanded to third-year players for the 2013/14 season.
Eight veterans since then have gone down to the D-League with the consent of the team, the union and the player himself. Most notable among them was Rajon Rondo, who was with the D-League Maine Red Claws for all of one practice before Boston recalled him to the NBA. That was a rehab assignment of the sort the Pistons are thinking about for Jennings and Meeks, as Rondo was making his way back from a torn ACL.
Rehab was the reason that three veteran Sixers went to the D-League earlier this year. Carl Landry, in his ninth season, and Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten, both fourth-year veterans, gave their OK to go to the Delaware 87ers so they could ease their way into NBA action as they return from injuries. Still, the rule doesn’t apply only for players who are recovering.
Here’s a look at each of the players who, along with the union, gave their consent to D-League assignments since 2013/14, the season the rule was adjusted:
- Carl Landry, Sixers (2015/16)
- Kendall Marshall, Sixers (2015/16)
- Tony Wroten, Sixers (2015/16)
- Xavier Henry, Lakers (2014/15)
- Rajon Rondo, Celtics (2013/14)
- Cole Aldrich, Knicks (2013/14)
- Reggie Williams, Thunder (2013/14)
- Austin Daye, Spurs (2013/14)
Pacific Notes: Mbah a Moute, Scott, Warriors
It appears a mere formality that the Clippers will retain Luc Mbah a Moute past the date next month when his non-guaranteed contract would become fully guaranteed, writes Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. He made his sixth straight start in Wednesday’s victory over the Bucks, and while Doc Rivers indicated that he’ll probably move him in and out of the starting lineup, the Clippers coach/executive is nonetheless impressed, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays. He’s not the only one.
“He does all the different things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Chris Paul said, according to Bolch. “He makes the cuts, he does the box outs, and that’s why he’s so valuable for us.”
Still, not everyone is a fan. The Clippers won’t win the title if Mbah a Moute remains the starting three man, posits Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, who calls on the team to bench the “safe, known commodity” of Mbah a Moute in favor of the higher risk-reward proposition of either Lance Stephenson or Wesley Johnson. See more from the Pacific Division:
- The voiding of the contract Mbah a Moute signed with the Kings in July led to uncertainty about his future that didn’t end until he signed with the Clippers in late September, and he called the past summer a difficult one, according to Gardner. “I like to usually go into the summer knowing where I’m going to be, training at the facility. All that stuff was out the window,” Mbah a Moute said. “God works in mysterious ways. I’m here now and trying to make the best out of it, trying to help the team.”
- Lakers executives Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss still support Byron Scott and plan to keep him through at least the end of the season, though Kupchak, Buss or both will likely meet with Scott next week to get a read on his plan for player development, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. The execs understand the difficulty of the position Scott finds himself in — a “no-win situation,” as a team source described it to Medina — as Kobe Bryant‘s farewell season chafes against the need to foster young talent.
- A group opposing the Warriors‘ plan for a new arena will file suit to block construction in the wake of the project having cleared its final political hurdle Tuesday, when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to green-light the new building, reports J.K. Dineen of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Atlantic Notes: Colangelo, Okafor, Lee, Ross
The Sixers decided to hire Jerry Colangelo because they felt GM Sam Hinkie mishandled negative publicity surrounding Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor in recent months, Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says in a video. Owners with minority stakes in the Sixers pressured primary owner Josh Harris to make the move, Bucher adds. It’s inaccurate to say that the hiring came about in part because of pressure from owners who complained to the league about the Sixers’ rebuilding and its negative financial ripple effects, league sources told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who writes at the bottom of a larger piece. Still, commissioner Adam Silver was indeed involved in the move, Pompey adds. See more from the Atlantic Division:
- The NBA continues to investigate the recent incidents involving Okafor and it hasn’t decided whether it will mete out punishment on top of the two-game suspension the Sixers issued last week, league officials told TMZ Sports. Colangelo has a strong relationship with agent Bill Duffy, who represents Okafor, as Bucher points out in his video. “Based on what we currently know, we support the 76ers’ approach in this matter,” an NBA spokesperson said to TMZ Sports. “The league office is continuing to investigate the events of that night.”
- David Lee doesn’t regret the trade that brought him to the Celtics and ended his time with the Warriors, even as Golden State has embarked on a 23-0 start, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group relays. Lee’s representatives reportedly cooperated with the Warriors as they sought a new home for him this summer. “This is a business, and because of the salary cap and things like that, it was time for me to move on, and that’s what I did,” Lee said. “It couldn’t have ended any better.”
- Terrence Ross is much the same player he was a few weeks after the Rudy Gay trade two years ago, and that’s perhaps the glaring issue for the swingman who signed a three-year, $31MM extension with the Raptors last month, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. His game grew more in the immediate wake of the trade than it has since, and inconsistency has plagued him, Lewenberg asserts.
Paul Pierce Mulling Retirement After Season
Retirement at season’s end continues to be a consideration for Paul Pierce, who said Wednesday that he’d make his decision about whether to play next season in the summer ahead, according to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. Pierce thought about quitting at the end of last season and said in September that he’d likely retire if the Clippers win the championship, but his latest comments indicate that a decent chance exists that the 38-year-old will walk away even if he doesn’t add to his ring collection in June. He said the thought of retirement has come into his mind as he’s endured a slump this season, one that has him averaging a career-worst 4.1 points per game, as Bolch relays.
“The older you get and the less and less you’re able to do things that you could do before,” Pierce said, “you start thinking about maybe it’s that time.”
Pierce is under contract with the Clippers through 2017/18, with a fully guaranteed salary of nearly $3.528MM for next season and a partial guarantee worth about $1.096MM for the final season of his deal. The Clippers don’t have to let him out of the obligations of his playing contract, so if they press the issue, Pierce could file official retirement papers with the league, a move that would force him to give up his remaining salary, thus taking the money off the team’s books. Official retirement would bar Pierce from making a comeback at any point for one year, unless he receives unanimous approval from all 30 teams, according to Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ.
It seems unlikely that the issue would become contentious, given the close relationship between Pierce and Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who doubles as the team’s president of basketball operations. It wouldn’t have a drastic effect on the team’s cap flexibility if Pierce were to give up his salary for next season, but with more than $77.7MM worth of 2016/17 salary guaranteed to just six players, including Pierce, the Clippers can use all the financial relief they can get, even with the salary cap projected to hit $89MM.
Regardless, Pierce isn’t ready to make the call on retirement just yet, despite having produced five scoreless games this season, an ignominious feat he pulled off just twice in his previous 17 NBA seasons, Bolch notes. Rivers continues to have faith that he’ll bounce back.
“I want him to keep shooting it the way he’s shot it for 17 years, and eventually, it’ll go in,” Rivers said, according to Bolch. “I really believe that.”
Do you think this season should be Pierce’s last? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
NBA Suspends Al Jefferson For Drug Violation
THURSDAY, 7:58am: Marijuana is the drug that prompted the suspension, a source confirmed to Bonnell, who writes in a full piece.
WEDNESDAY, 2:03pm: The NBA has suspended Al Jefferson five games for a violation of its anti-drug program, the league announced via press release. Neither the league nor the Hornets have specified the nature of the violation, but the program calls for a five-game suspension upon a player’s third positive test for marijuana. A suspension of at least 20 games is mandated when a player tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs, so it appears that’s not the case for Jefferson. He’ll serve the suspension once he returns from the strained left calf that’s kept him out since the end of last month, notes Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (on Twitter).
“We are disappointed in Al’s decisions that led to this suspension. As an organization, we do not condone this behavior,” the team said in its announcement of the punishment. “We have addressed this with Al. He is regretful and understands that we expect him to learn from this mistake.”
Jefferson, a Jeff Schwartz client, is poised to hit free agency in the summer, so the suspension is ill-timed. The 30-year-old is making $13.5MM this season in the final year of the three-year, $40.5MM contract he signed with Charlotte in 2013. NBA suspensions are generally unpaid and cost players 1/110th of their salary for each game they miss. So, it looks like Jefferson will be out $613,636.
“I want to apologize to the Hornets organization, our owner, my teammates and my coaches for the poor decision that I made,” Jefferson said in a statement that the team released. “I know I have let people down, especially the Hornets fans that have been so supportive of me since I arrived in Charlotte two years ago. I am blessed to be able to play the game that I love for a living and I do not take that for granted. From the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry, and I am committed to making smarter decisions in the future.”
Jefferson has already missed three games because of his injury, which he suffered in the team’s win over the Bucks on November 29th. The Hornets said the next day that he was expected to miss between two and three weeks. Charlotte, a surprising 12-8, has started Cody Zeller in his absence. The team is without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist for the rest of the season but is otherwise without long-term injury concerns.