Southwest Notes: Williams, Randolph, Bairstow
Deron Williams has no issue with Rick Carlisle‘s desire to call plays from the bench, as Rajon Rondo did last season, and that’s led to a smooth relationship for a coach and player who seemed to enter the season with a strong chance of clashing, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com examines.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him and working with him,” Carlisle said of Williams. “I’ve always had great respect for his game. Two months into this, he’s flat out one of the best players I’ve ever coached.”
Williams signed a two-year, $11MM deal with the Mavericks in the summer, but he can hit free agency again in 2016 if he opts out. See more from the Southwest Division:
- The five games the Grizzlies played without Zach Randolph because of injury last month provided encouraging signs about the team’s ability to function with Randolph in a reduced role in seasons to come, writes Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal. Still, Memphis, which went 3-2 over that stretch, doesn’t have the caliber of wing players necessary to thrive without a fully engaged Randolph yet, Herrington posits. In the immediate future, with a shortage of big men, Herrington expects the Grizzlies to look to add a big if Brandan Wright‘s injury turns out to be a long-term affair.
- The acquisitions of JaMychal Green, Matt Barnes and Mario Chalmers over the past 11 months were positives for the Grizzlies that represent a change in style toward more 3-pointers, fast breaks, steals and free throws, Herrington writes in the same piece.
- The acclimation of Cameron Bairstow, who’s with the Spurs affiliate on D-League assignment from the Bulls, hasn’t been without a hitch, but it’s nonetheless an example of how the flexible assignment system benefits San Antonio’s affiliate, as Spurs D-League coach Ken McDonald detailed to Adam Johnson of D-League Digest.
Columnists On Kobe Bryant’s Retirement Decision
Kobe Bryant‘s decision to retire at season’s end sent ripples throughout the NBA, even though it’s no real surprise that this will be his last year in the familiar purple-and-gold. Just about every NBA writer has weighed in on the news, and while it’s impossible to share everyone’s opinion in an easily digestible form, we’ll provide a healthy cross-section of perspective here:
- No one in the Lakers organization was 100% certain that Bryant would walk away at season’s end until he said so on Sunday, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com. Bryant doesn’t want a mawkish farewell tour, so instead it seems he’ll fade away without much fanfare, just as Michael Jordan did in his Wizards days, which is fitting, since no one has ever come closer to copying Jordan’s game than Bryant did, Mannix writes.
- Bryant’s willingness to play through pain transcended that of Jordan, but it also precipitated the end of his career, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding believes.
- A strong bounceback from two injury-marred seasons and fast growth from the Lakers around him might have convinced Bryant to come back next season, but neither factor materialized, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports details.
- Disregard for the draft, failure to reap trade assets for Pau Gasol, bungled decisions about who should coach the team, and free agent failures put the Lakers in the position they’re in now, not Bryant’s sizable salary and lagging performance, contends Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
- Retiring at season’s end is the only realistic ending for the broken-down Bryant, argues Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
- Bryant wanted to become the best player ever, and while he fell short of that, he’s easily in the top five all-time, posits Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News.
- Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca sees it differently, concluding that Tim Duncan‘s career has been better than Bryant’s in almost every respect. Duncan, enmeshed in the Spurs’ egalitarian, ball-moving offense, embodies a changed NBA landscape that casts the individualistic Bryant as a vestige of a bygone era, Grange opines.
Wizards Sign Ryan Hollins
11:57am: The signing is official, the Wizards announced.
10:57am: It’ll be a minimum-salary contract, as J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com hears (Twitter link), so the Wizards won’t have to use the disabled player exception they’d like to get in return for Webster’s injury.
10:40am: The deal for Hollins will be non-guaranteed, according to Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (on Twitter). The Wizards will release Webster to make room on the roster, as Charania also reported and as we covered in more detail here.
7:57am: The Wizards and nine-year veteran center Ryan Hollins have agreed to a deal, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Washington already has 15 players, and while the team has planned to apply for a disabled player exception for Martell Webster, who’s out for the season, that doesn’t provide for an extra roster spot. Alan Anderson, who’s still recovering from left ankle surgery, is the only other injured Wizard who isn’t at least questionable for Tuesday’s game. That would mean Washington doesn’t have the four long-term injuries required for a hardship provision, which would allow the team a 16th man. Thus, it would appear that the Wizards must let go of one of their 15 fully guaranteed salaries to accommodate Hollins, unless some of their injuries are more serious than reports have thus far indicated.
Hollins, 31, was with the Grizzlies in preseason before Memphis cut him prior to opening night. The Wizards, Kings, Clippers, Mavericks and Pelicans all reportedly had interest in him over the summer, and the Kings, for whom he played last season, still had their eyes on him when the Wizards snapped him up, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. Hollins was efficient with Memphis during the preseason, averaging 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game across seven appearances.
The Wizards, expected to make a run in the Eastern Conference playoffs as they’ve done the past two seasons, are 6-8 and in 12th place in the East. Garrett Temple, who’s on an expiring contract worth slightly more than $1.1MM, would make for the least expensive cut if the Wizards let go of someone.
Do you think Hollins can help the Wizards? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Wizards Waive Martell Webster
11:56am: Webster’s release is official, the team announced.
“Martell, with his contributions on the court and ability to connect with the fans and the community off the court, has been a great example of the type of player we want to represent our organization,” Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld said. “He worked extremely hard to fight through his injuries but unfortunately was not able to make a healthy return. We appreciate everything he contributed to the team and wish him and his family nothing but the best.”
9:42am: The Wizards plan to waive Martell Webster, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The move clears a roster spot for the team to sign Ryan Hollins, a pending transaction that Charania reported overnight. Webster is out for the season with a hip injury. His salary is fully guaranteed for $5.6135MM this season and partially guaranteed for $2.5MM next year, the final year of his contract. Washington will have to pay both unless another team claims him off waivers, though a claim would be a highly unlikely outcome. Webster would have been in line for a full guarantee on his salary worth more than $5.845MM next season if he’d have played in at least 70 games this season, but he’s already missed too many.
Webster said when he elected to have surgery on his right hip that it would knock him out for four to six months, a timetable that might have him back in time for the end of the season. Other reports indicated that recovery could take as long as 10 months, and the Wizards ultimately announced that they expected him to miss the entire season. The small forward whose 29th birthday is this week had employed balance-correcting glasses and other measures in an ill-fated attempt to try to rehabilitate the hip without surgery.
Injuries have long plagued the former sixth overall pick, though he missed a total of only 10 regular season games his first two seasons with Washington, in 2012/13 and 2013/14. That changed last season, when he missed 50, and he appeared only once in the 2015 playoffs. Still, he’s no longer pondering retirement as he did a year ago. He averaged 9.7 points in 27.7 minutes per game with 39.2% 3-point shooting in 2013/14, his last healthy season.
Do you think Webster can return from injury next season to play a significant role for another NBA team? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
NBA Grants Disabled Player Exception To Wizards
The NBA has granted the Wizards a disabled player exception to offset the loss of Martell Webster to a season-ending hip surgery, a source tells Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (Twitter link). J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com reported when Webster elected to undergo the hip procedure that the team would apply for the exception, which is worth $2,806,750, precisely half of Webster’s salary.
The Wizards can use it to sign a player to a contract that pays up to that amount and that covers the rest of the season, but they can’t use it for any multiyear arrangement. Alternatively, they can claim a player off waivers who’s on an expiring contract for that amount or less. They may also trade for a player on an expiring contract who’s making as much as $2,906,750, which is $100K more than half of Webster’s salary.
Washington is not using its disabled player exception to sign Ryan Hollins, since he’s reportedly set to make the minimum salary, and the team can simply use the minimum salary exception for that. Instead, the disabled player exception is a tool the team can use to acquire another player between now and March 10th, when it expires. The Wizards already had a $1.464MM sliver of the mid-level exception they could use to sign players for more than the minimum, so they have more flexibility to upgrade their roster than many other teams do.
Still, whether they use the disabled player exception, the mid-level exception or the minimum-salary exception to sign a player other than Hollins, it’ll require a corresponding move, since the substitution of Hollins for Webster, whom the team intends to waive, will keep Washington at the maximum 15 players. The disabled player exception doesn’t grant an extra roster spot the way the hardship provision does. The Wizards haven’t officially waived Webster yet, but once they do, they’ll still be able to use the disabled player exception.
Still have questions about how the disabled player exception works for the Wizards? Leave a comment and we’ll provide answers as best we can.
Atlantic Notes: Okafor, Porzingis, Brown, Ross
Jahlil Okafor addressed his recent off-court trouble with a statement on Twitter that pointed the finger at himself (All four Twitter links). The Sixers rookie has overshadowed his strong early-season play with transgressions that made tabloid headlines.
“I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else ever could and I’m not proud of some of my decisions over the last few months,” Okafor wrote. “I own my choices both personally and now publicly. At this point I am cooperating and respecting the process I have to go through. Going forward I don’t want to be a distraction for my team and am grateful for the support and guidance those close to me are giving. I am 100% focused on my responsibility to the League, my teammates and fans.”
See more on this year’s No. 3 overall pick amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:
- Okafor indeed bears responsibility for his own actions, but the Sixers set him up for failure when they surrounded him with a roster that features only one player, Carl Landry, with more than three years of experience, argues Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. That’s in contrast to the Knicks and Kristaps Porzingis, who quickly connected with ninth-year veteran Sasha Vujacic and has publicly credited 11th-year veteran Jose Calderon for his friendship and mentorship, Isola notes.
- Brett Brown has said he’s willing to bear the weight of mentorship that would usually fall to veteran players, but Sixers management is putting too much strain on the coach, as Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News believes. Cooney points to previous incidents, including one involving Sixers players and marijuana two years ago and a separate set of missteps that saw Nerlens Noel rack up around $25K in fines during his rookie season.
- Terrence Ross has gone scoreless four times this season, including Sunday’s game, and the three-year, $31MM extension to which the Raptors signed him less than a month ago is already looking like a mistake, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
More Reaction To Kobe Bryant’s Retirement Plans
The finality of Kobe Bryant‘s decision to make this season his last dates back to this past summer, when he reached out to Michael Jordan to tell him, “This is it,” as Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com relays.
“We had some laughs, went back and forth about it,” Bryant said to reporters about his conversation with Jordan. “But the important thing for him, he said, ‘Just enjoy it. No matter what, just enjoy it. Don’t let anybody take that away from you, no matter what happens, good or bad. Enjoy it, man.'”
Bryant is enjoying even the difficult parts of the experience, telling reporters that he’s not considering a midseason retirement “because there is really beauty in the pain of this thing,” tweets Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. We rounded up some of the early reaction Sunday, and now see more as the countdown begins for Bryant’s final game, scheduled to come at home against the Jazz on April 13th:
- The idea that this season would be Bryant’s last is no shock, as Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak reiterated that it’s been his understanding for a while that this would be the end, Holmes notes in a separate piece. The executive admits that it’s less than ideal for Bryant to play his final season on a losing team, but said “there was really no other way to go about it,” as Holmes relays. “Now we were hopeful that we would get off to a better start this year,” Kupchak said in part. “We think we added a couple veterans, along with a bunch of young players, and I thought we’d be better than two wins into the season. That’s not to say that we’d be on pace to win 50 or 60 games. But I thought we’d be a little bit better. But clearly we’re not playing at the kind of level that a player of Kobe’s age and experience finds challenging.”
- Former Lakers teammate Sasha Vujacic, who’s now playing for the Knicks, isn’t quite sure that Bryant is really in his final season, notes Howie Kussoy of the New York Post. “He’ll be bored with retirement, so he might come back,” Vujacic said. “You never know … He can always come back.”
- Dwight Howard complimented Bryant on Sunday, calling him “one of the greatest to play the game” and citing his “amazing career,” but he couldn’t keep a straight face when asked if he learned something from the legendary shooting guard, observes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Howard, who famously failed to mesh with Bryant during their lone season as teammates, laughed for five seconds before asking for the next question, as Bondy details.
David Stockton Joins Kings D-League
Former Kings point guard David Stockton, son of Hall-of-Famer John Stockton, has rejoined Sacramento’s D-League affiliate, as the team announced and Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor reports (Twitter link). The team released Kings camp cut Marshall Henderson to make room, Reichert also reports (Twitter link). Stockton was originally with the Kings D-League team, the Reno Bighorns, in between his release from the Wizards and his time with the big club in Sacramento last season. The Kings inked Stockton to a 10-day contract and later a multiyear pact, but that deal didn’t include any guaranteed salary for this season, and they cut him at the end of the preseason.
Stockton, 24, impressed while in the D-League the first time around, notching 20.1 points, 9.9 assists and 3.4 turnovers in 30.5 minutes per game. He was unable to duplicate that success at the NBA level, appearing in only three regular season games last season and three preseason games this fall, with limited minutes.
The 25-year-old Henderson was a surprise preseason signing for the Kings and appeared in only one exhibition contest. The shooting guard averaged 6.8 points in only 11.1 minutes per game with 9 for 22 3-point shooting across four appearances for the Bighorns after the Kings allocated him to Reno as an affiliate player.
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Suns Sign Bryce Cotton
7:30pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
2:31pm: The Suns are in the midst of calling up point guard Bryce Cotton from the D-League affiliate of the Spurs, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Signing Cotton to an NBA contract wouldn’t require a corresponding move, since Phoenix has an open roster spot beneath the 15-man limit. Phoenix already has three point guards, with Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Ronnie Price, but Bledsoe is questionable for tonight’s game with sore right knee. Bledsoe missed Monday’s game, when coach Jeff Hornacek gave lottery pick Devin Booker his first start since high school in Bledsoe’s place, notes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
Cotton, 23, finished last season with the Jazz after signing a pair of 10-day contracts and a three-year deal. However, that three-year contract didn’t include any guaranteed salary beyond last season, and Utah released Cotton during the preseason last month, choosing to give more time to wing players instead of carrying a third healthy point guard. He joined the D-League shortly thereafter, heading back to the Spurs affiliate, which had acquired his rights when San Antonio designated Cotton as an affiliate player in 2014.
The undrafted former Providence player averaged 5.3 points, 1.0 assist and 0.8 turnovers in 10.6 minutes per game across 15 NBA appearances with Utah last season. He’s been impressive against D-League competition in his two seasons as a pro, piling up 22.4 points, 4.7 assists and 2.5 turnovers in 39.8 minutes per contest during 38 total games, four of which have come this month.
Do you think Cotton can help the Suns? Leave a comment to let us know.