Mike Dunleavy To Miss Significantly More Time
The setback Mike Dunleavy suffered in his recovery from offseason back surgery will cost him an additional four to six weeks, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The timetable is merely for the small forward to resume on-court activity, Wojnarowski writes, so game action is even farther away, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Dunleavy had targeted mid-to-late December for a return to the Bulls lineup, Johnson adds, and the idea is that the four-to-six-week timeframe will bring him back to the point in his rehab where he had been before the setback, as Johnson tweets. That would indicate that he’s anywhere from six to 10 weeks away from playing in games again.
Tony Snell and Doug McDermott have filled in capably, each having gone an identical 24 for 52 from 3-point range, as Johnson points out in his story. Long-distance shooting was a key weapon Dunleavy brought to the Bulls, as he’s nailed 39.2% of his attempts from behind the arc in his two seasons with Chicago.
The availability of Nikola Mirotic (concussion) and Kirk Hinrich (hip) for Saturday’s game is in question, but Dunleavy is the only Bull expected to miss significant time, so Chicago doesn’t meet the criteria for a 16th roster spot via the hardship provision. Dunleavy cast a degree of doubt about his ability to return at any point this season when he spoke to reporters on media day, but he quickly backed off that talk, so the Bulls don’t qualify for a disabled player exception, either. Chicago uncharacteristically began the season with a full 15-man roster, though Cameron Bairstow and Cristiano Felicio don’t have fully guaranteed salaries.
Dunleavy signed a three-year, $14.4MM deal in July, though less than half the salary for the final season is guaranteed. He underwent his back surgery on September 25th and the team announced a timetable of eight to 10 weeks at that point, though Dunleavy shortly thereafter threw the accuracy of that schedule into question, Johnson notes. Today marks precisely 10 weeks since his surgery, as Johnson points out.
Do you think the Bulls need to make a move to make up for the loss of Dunleavy? Leave a comment to let us know.
Willie Cauley-Stein Out Four To Six Weeks
Kings rookie center Willie Cauley-Stein will miss about four to six weeks because of an open dislocation of his right index finger he suffered late in Thursday’s loss to the Celtics, the team announced. This year’s sixth overall pick has started 14 of Sacramento’s 20 games so far and averaged 4.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 18.9 minutes per contest.
The injury seems unlikely to spur a move, since Sacramento is well-stocked at the center position with DeMarcus Cousins and offseason signee Kosta Koufos, though the tumult that has long surrounded the Kings organization makes it difficult to predict what the team will do. Minor ailments and a suspension have cost Cousins eight games this season, but he returned to action this week. The Kings have a degree of flexibility if they do decide to offset the temporary loss of Cauley-Stein, since Eric Moreland‘s salary is only partially guaranteed for $200K.
Sacramento has 15 players on its roster, and since Cauley-Stein’s injury is the only one expected to cause a lengthy absence for the Kings, the team doesn’t qualify for a hardship provision of a 16th man. So, Moreland or another Kings player would have to go if the team wants to sign a new center. A disabled player exception isn’t in play either, since Cauley-Stein’s injury isn’t expected to be season-ending, so the Kings are limited to spending no more than the $2.814MM room exception.
Jack Cooley Signs To Play In Spain
FRIDAY, 8:28am: The deal is official, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
WEDNESDAY, 8:51am: Former Jazz and Cavs big man Jack Cooley has reached agreement to play the remainder of the season with Unicaja Malaga of Spain, reports Adolfo Romero Arana of the Spanish outlet Solobasket. A formal signing is close, according to a HoopsHype translation, and the club is expecting Cooley to put pen to paper shortly, according to a translation from Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. Unicaja Malaga chose him over former Mavs power forward Maurice Ndour, another big man the team targeted, according to Arana. Cooley signed a contract with the D-League affiliate of the Jazz last month, so he’ll have to pay a buyout of $40-50K to escape that deal, unless the D-League team waives that fee.
Cooley finished last season on the NBA roster for the Jazz, who inked him to a pair of 10-day contracts that preceded a multiyear deal. The 6’9″ power forward from Notre Dame saw action in 16 regular season games, but his playing time was sharply limited, and he posted only 1.7 points in 5.4 minutes per game. His deal didn’t include any guaranteed salary for this season, and the Jazz waived him in mid-October. The 24-year-old hooked on with the Cavs shortly thereafter as Cleveland sought a big man to compensate for Tristan Thompson‘s holdout, but Thompson’s signing shortly before opening night spelled the end for Cooley’s time in Cleveland, and the Cavs cut him before the start of the regular season.
It’s unclear whether the deal for the Pensack Sports Management Group client includes an NBA out, but the path from an overseas team to the NBA is usually more difficult than it is from the D-League to the NBA. It’ll be the second time Cooley will have played in Europe, as he spent 2013/14, his first pro season, with Trabzonspor of Turkey.
Pau Gasol ‘Very Likely’ To Opt Out In 2016
Pau Gasol said he’s “very likely” to opt out of his contract this coming summer, as he told Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com late Wednesday, and the Bulls plan to make a hard push to re-sign him, Goodwill heard from a source within the team’s front office. Gasol’s player option would give him slightly less than $7.7MM next season, well beneath the standard for a starting center.
“As long as I keep playing like this,” Gasol said to Goodwill. “I know I’ll have some options.”
Gasol looked rejuvenated last season after signing with the Bulls in the summer of 2014, but his scoring is down from last season’s 18.5 points per game to 14.4 this season, which would be a career low. Still, the 35-year-old told Goodwill that he feels fine physically and attributed his slow start this year to the downtime he took in the offseason with the intention of preserving himself for the rigors of 82 games and the playoffs.
Marc Gasol, who re-signed with the Grizzlies on a five-year deal this past summer, has said he’ll try to convince his brother to join him in Memphis but conceded that it will be tough to pry him from Chicago. The Gasol brothers are looking for new agents after Arn Tellem, their former agent, left the Wasserman Media Group for a job with the Pistons organization earlier this year.
The Bulls would have only Early Bird rights on Gasol if he indeed opts out, meaning they’d have to use cap room if they’re to give him a starting salary on his next deal that’s more than 175% of his nearly $7.449MM salary for this season, a figure that would come to $13,035,330. The Bulls have more than $64.75MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $89MM cap, though many league executives and agents told Sean Deveney before the start of the season that they believe the cap will end up around $95MM. That guaranteed salary number for Chicago doesn’t include a cap hold for fellow center Joakim Noah, whose contract expires at season’s end.
The dynamic involving Noah, who’s also averaging a career low in points per game, is a tricky one for the Bulls, as Hoops Rumors readers discussed in Wednesday’s Community Shootaround. New coach Fred Hoiberg broke up the starting big man tandem of Gasol and Noah prior to the season when he moved Noah to a bench role, and Nikola Mirotic, Taj Gibson and 2015 first-round pick Bobby Portis are other big men crowding Chicago’s frontcourt mix.
Gasol chose the Bulls over more lucrative offers to re-sign with the Lakers in 2014, and the Thunder, Spurs, Knicks and Hawks were reportedly among the contenders for him that summer. Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News speculates that the Spurs would make a strong fit if Tim Duncan retires, since LaMarcus Aldridge is reluctant to play center (Twitter links).
Where do you think Gasol will be playing next season? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Several Recent Top 10 Picks No Longer In NBA
Martell Webster became the latest former top 10 draft pick to find himself out of the NBA when the Wizards released him Monday, and he has plenty of company. More than a quarter of all top 10 picks drafted between 2005 and 2011 aren’t currently under contract with an NBA team. Webster, the No. 6 pick in 2005, stands a decent chance to find his way back to the NBA once he recovers from hip surgery, but the same can’t be said for many of the rest. Jonny Flynn, who like Webster was once the sixth overall pick, hasn’t played an NBA regular season game since 2012. It shows the capriciousness of the draft, since the player drafted immediately after Flynn in 2009 is Stephen Curry, the reigning MVP.
The latest two players in the NBA to hit waivers are both former top 10 picks. The Pelicans cut Jimmer Fredette, the 10th selection from 2011, a couple of weeks before the Wizards split with Webster. All the players who’ve become top 10 picks since Fredette are still in the NBA, though not coincidentally, the vast majority of the top 10 picks from 2012 forward remain on their rookie scale contracts.
Here’s a look at every top 10 pick chosen since 2005 who’s no longer in the NBA:
2005
- 6. Martell Webster
- 9. Ike Diogu
- 10. Andrew Bynum
2006
- 3. Adam Morrison
- 4. Tyrus Thomas
- 5. Shelden Williams
- 6. Brandon Roy
- 9. Patrick O’Bryant
- 10. Saer Sene
2007
- 1. Greg Oden
- 6. Yi Jianlian
2008
- 2. Michael Beasley
- 8. Joe Alexander
2009
- 2. Hasheem Thabeet
- 6. Jonny Flynn
2010
- 6. Ekpe Udoh
2011
- 6. Jan Vesely
- 10. Jimmer Fredette
Lakers Notes: Kobe, Russell, Scott
Kobe Bryant said this week that he’s not considering a midseason retirement, and three longtime executives from opposing teams don’t think he will, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reports. Bryant is prepared to endure the pain of playing with reduced physical capacity on a woeful Lakers team, notwithstanding his 31-point performance in a Lakers win Wednesday, as he told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports.
“Take it all in, man,” Bryant said. “One thing about it, if you’re going to win championships and you want to be a champion inside and out, you can’t run from very, very tough times. You can’t run from the criticism. You can’t run from the fact that you’re not playing as well as you want to be playing. You’ve got to stand up and face that stuff, just like when everybody was singing your praises and winning championships and everything is fine. You’ve got to be able to take it all in, with the same demeanor as you would when you’re winning.”
See more on Kobe and others who wear the purple-and-gold:
- Bryant and the Lakers and haven’t had any talks about him assuming a non-playing role with the team after he retires, and rules prevent them from doing so until he’s no longer on a playing contract, but Bryant is open to the possibility, writes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. It would presumably have to be a front office gig, since Bryant has dismissed the idea of coaching. Coach Byron Scott figures the Lakers would welcome him in such a position, Bresnahan adds. “Me and the Buss family, we grew up together,” Bryant said. “Jeanie and Jimmy, they’ve known me since I was a kid. It would be an honor to help them make that transition and help them try to get back to the top.” Bryant also expressed receptiveness to the idea of owning a team, as Bresnahan relays.
- D’Angelo Russell is improving, Scott said before Wednesday’s game, but Scott again held the No. 2 overall pick out of crunch time and wants him to improve his defense, Bresnahan notes in a separate piece.
- Building around Russell and soon-to-be free agent Jordan Clarkson, finding two-way players to plug in at center and small forward, and exercising restraint in free agency are a few of the keys to the Lakers’ rebuilding, as Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com argues in an Insider-only piece. Pelton also suggests replacing Scott with a coach who specializes in player development, but it’s extremely unlikely that the Lakers will fire Scott anytime soon, a source told USA Today’s Sam Amick.
Max Deal Back In Play For Rajon Rondo
Rajon Rondo‘s free agent stock plummeted last season after his trade to Dallas, but multiple executives tell Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that his performance thus far for the Kings has lifted his value back into maximum-salary territory. The 29-year-old took a one-year, $9.5MM deal from the Kings this past summer, a figure in excess of $10MM less than the $19.689MM maximum salary for which he was eligible this season. His projected maximum salary for next season, when he’ll be a 10-year veteran, is $29.3MM. However, uncertainty over just what his precise max will be when the league reveals the number in July has an Eastern Conference GM who spoke with Deveney unsure of whether the Bill Duffy client will score whatever the max number is.
Still, the GM believes that if Rondo, who leads the NBA in assists per game this season with 10.7, keeps playing as well as he has, he’ll at least come close to the max, particularly given the relative dearth of max-level 2016 free agents and the expected boom in the salary cap. The other executive Deveney heard from wouldn’t be surprised if Rondo gets the max, but he thinks a three-year max deal is more likely than one that runs for five seasons, and he cautions that the season is still young.
The Kings are the only team eligible to sign Rondo for more than four years, and he said this week that he finds the team a fit and that playing with his new teammates has helped his game, according to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. He appears to have formed a bond with DeMarcus Cousins, who made it clear to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports recently that he’ll do whatever he can to keep Rondo in Sacramento.
“I was in a contract year last year [too],” Rondo said, as Murphy relayed. “I just want to win. I’m not playing to get on the radar. If I do what I have to do on the court, I feel I’m still one of the best, if not the best, point guards to play the game. I’m a pass-first point guard, I know how to run the show, and [Kings coach George Karl] has given me the keys to run the show.”
The Kings are notoriously difficult to predict, with trade rumors having swirled around Cousins for most of the offseason. Rondo hasn’t been receptive to questions about what he’d like to do when he hits free agency again in the summer, and he and Duffy are unlikely to make any public pronouncements about Rondo’s market value, Deveney writes. Still, it shouldn’t be entirely surprising to see Rondo back in the conversation for a max deal. He was No. 5 in our 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings as late as November 2014.
Do you think Rondo will end up with a max deal next summer? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Pistons Notes: Jennings, Johnson, Morris, Tolliver
Brandon Jennings, set for free agency at season’s end, is willing to accept a bench role upon his return from a torn Achilles, which is reportedly three or four weeks away, writes Terry Foster of The Detroit News. Reggie Jackson‘s five-year, $80MM deal has firmly entrenched him as the starting point guard.
“Always in my head [I am a starter],” Jennings said. “But sometimes you’ve got to take the back seat and do what is best for the team.”
Jennings said he’d go after the Sixth Man of the Year award if he can’t find his way into the starting five at some point, Foster adds. See more from the Motor City:
- Stanley Johnson made winning a starting job at the beginning of the season a priority, but now he, too, is OK with coming off the bench, MLive’s David Mayo notes. He’s seeing 21.3 minutes per game so far this season but came close to 30 minutes in a win against the Rockets this week. “I’m always competing for a starting position,” Johnson said. “Since I got here, I’ve always said that I’m always competing for a starting position. But I’m not going to be the player who comes off the bench and says, ‘Aw, I should start.’ Thirty minutes is 30 minutes; 35 minutes … it doesn’t matter what minutes you’re playing as long as you’re still getting your minutes. If I can have starter’s production in my bench minutes, I think I’m doing the same thing as starting.”
- Wednesday’s game against the Suns didn’t evoke much emotion for Marcus Morris, who was upset this summer after Phoenix traded him to the Pistons. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press has the details. “Like I said before, I’m in Detroit,” Morris said. “No thoughts of being in Phoenix come to my mind anymore.”
- It’s a key season for Anthony Tolliver, who’s poised to hit free agency this coming summer, as Mayo examines in a separate piece. The 30-year-old Larry Fox client has carved out an NBA career in large measure because of his outside shooting, but he contends that he can do more than just nail 3-pointers, as he tells Mayo. He’s been an important scorer off the bench for the Pistons since they traded for him nearly a year ago, Mayo writes, but his points per game, as well as his vaunted shooting, are off this season.
First-Round Pick Debit, Credit Totals
The Celtics and Sixers have a bunch of extra first-round picks coming their way, but they’re not the only ones. Seven other teams have traded for more first-rounders than they’ve traded away, including the Nuggets and Suns, who have three extra first-rounders apiece. The Nuggets also have the more favorable side of a pick swap, since they have the right to exchange their first-rounder for New York’s in 2016 if they want to, a vestige of the Carmelo Anthony trade.
Conversely, perhaps no team is in worse draft position than the Heat, who have to give up three first-rounders, including an unprotected 2021 pick. The Kings and Nets may also lay claim to the league’s least favorable draft position, since they have to give up two first-rounders and are on the short end of possible pick swaps, too.
Draft pick credits and debits become relevant as trade season unofficially begins December 15th, the date when most offseason signees become eligible to be traded. Boston and Philadelphia have draft assets to spare, while Miami, Sacramento and Brooklyn are limited, especially given the stipulations of the Stepien Rule, which prohibits teams from trading consecutive first-rounders.
Keep in mind that not all first-round picks are created equal. Many first-round picks are protected, and some of those protected picks are conditional; that is, the team that owes the pick could wind up never conveying the pick in certain circumstances. Sometimes the obligation converts into second-round picks. For instance, if the Timberwolves wind up with a top 12 pick this year, they don’t have to give up the first-rounder they owe the Celtics and would instead have to relinquish two second-rounders.
The conveyance of some first-round picks is contingent on others. The Kings would only have to swap first-rounders with the Sixers if they don’t give up their pick to the Bulls. That’s why there are five pick swap “plusses” and only four “minuses.”
These are the teams that have more first-round picks coming their way than they owe:
- Celtics: +5 (+1 pick swap)
- Sixers: +4 (+3 pick swaps)
- Nuggets: +3 (+1 pick swap)
- Suns: +3
- Jazz: +2
- Raptors: +2
- Bulls: +1
- Hawks: +1
- Magic: +1
This is the break-even group, with a net zero first-round pick debt:
- Bucks: 0
- Hornets: 0
- Pacers: 0
- Pelicans: 0
- Pistons: 0
- Spurs: 0
- Wizards: 0
These teams owe more first-rounders than they have coming their way:
- Cavaliers: -1
- Clippers: -1
- Knicks: -1
- Mavericks: -1
- Rockets: -1
- Trail Blazers: -1
- Warriors: -1 (-1 pick swap)
- Grizzlies: -2
- Lakers: -2
- Thunder: -2
- Timberwolves: -2
- Nets: -2 (-1 pick swap)
- Kings: -2 (-2 pick swaps)
- Heat: -3
The RealGM traded draft pick details database and Mark Porcaro’s list of traded draft picks by round were used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Okafor, Porzingis, Clifford
The Sixers weren’t aware of the second altercation that allegedly involved Jahlil Okafor on the night of November 25th, coach Brett Brown told reporters, but the team maintains its faith in the No. 3 overall pick even as it suspended him for two games beginning with Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks, as Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv details. Brown said Okafor is “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” but Mike Krzyzewski, the former Duke center’s college coach, maintains that Okafor is of high character even amid a tide of disturbing reports.
“Let’s make our point. There is hard luck,” Brown said. “There are mistakes that have been made, he does own it, and nobody’s proud of this right now. And so we will support him, he’s ours and we will move on.”
Okafor reportedly plans to give strong consideration to signing his qualifying offer at the end of his rookie scale contract, so time will tell how he’ll regard the way the Sixers organization is treating him now. Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Knicks team president Phil Jackson sees a “magical element” to Kristaps Porzingis, but in Jackson’s first public comments of the regular season Wednesday on SiriusXM NBA Radio with Rick Fox (audio link), he deflected credit for having taken the 7’3″ Latvian sensation with the No. 4 pick in June. Marc Berman of the New York Post provides a partial transcription. “It’s not me, it’s all on him,’’ Jackson said. “This is the young man that’s done it. You sit in those spots [in the draft] and analyze what you can do and have control of. … We made a choice, a logical choice, and not having seen him but once in person, just in a shooting exhibition, I felt comfortable making the choice. I’m just happy the personality, drive and work ethic goes along with that talent level.’’
- Hornets GM Rich Cho cited a desire for continuity and Steve Clifford‘s organization, work ethic and rapport with his players in a statement from the team that confirmed Clifford has put pen to paper on the extension they agreed to last week.
- Hassan Whiteside appears to be a lock to sign a maximum-salary contract when he hits free agency in July, opines Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, who takes a look at the rapid ascent of the Heat big man who’s in the final season of a two-year, minimum-salary deal.