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Author: Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript

By | at November 25, 2015 4:00 pm

4:00pm: We hosted the weekly live chat.

3:00pm: We’re barely four weeks into the NBA season, and only seven teams are more than five games above or below .500. Still, the Hornets and Rockets seem to have already drawn some significant conclusions. Charlotte, at 8-6, agreed to an extension with Steve Clifford a week after the Rockets, then 4-7, fired Kevin McHale. The Mavs also signed their coach to an extension at the beginning of the month, though that was no surprise, as Rick Carlisle had built a reputation as one of the league’s elite coaches in his time with Dallas, and before that with the Pistons and Pacers. Clifford has a sub-.500 record with the Hornets, and McHale was fresh off a Western Conference Finals appearance with the Rockets, so it would appear this season’s results played much more heavily into those moves. It’s fodder for discussion in today’s chat.

 

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Southeast Notes: Wade, Clifford, Porzingis, Oladipo

By | at November 25, 2015 2:15 pm

Dwyane Wade has been trying to preserve his body for the long run the past few years, at 33 years old he was still able to corral a one-year, $20MM deal from the Heat this past summer. Still, the 13th-year veteran has no aspirations of matching Kobe Bryant‘s 20 seasons in the NBA, as he tells Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports.

“That ain’t a goal for me. That’s a long time. I’m sure Kobe didn’t think he’d play 20 years. It’s amazing. And he’s been through a lot. He’s been through a lot of injuries but he’s still out there. And he’s still, you know, Kobe Bryant,” Wade said. “It’s amazing to see a guy who has played 20 years in the league. Makes me feel old, for sure, just watching him. I don’t know how many people come in with the goal, ‘I’m going to play 20 years.’ I think you take it step by step. For years I said, ‘I want to make it to 10.’ I made it to 10 and I was like, ‘I’m solid.’ Then, you keep going from there. But 20? No way.”

Bryant isn’t nearly as effective as he once was, and Lee’s piece examines what Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony are doing to ward off similar declines in their own games. See more from the Southeast Division:

  • Hornets coach Steve Clifford, fresh off agreeing to a three-year extension, thanked owner Michael Jordan and vice chairman Curtis Polk, as well as GM Rich Cho, whose relationship with the coach has reportedly been less than ideal. “I like who I’m working for and wanted this to happen,” Clifford said today, according to the Hornets Twitter account.
  • Kristaps Porzingis said he sensed the Magic would have drafted him with the No. 5 overall pick if the Knicks had passed on him at No. 4, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Porzingis worked out for the Magic shortly before the draft, Berman adds.
  • New Magic head coach Scott Skiles has decided to bench former No. 2 overall pick Victor Oladipo in favor of Channing Frye, who was reportedly available on the trade market for little in return before the season, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel relays. Skiles stressed that the move isn’t punishment or necessarily permanent and said Oladipo handled the news well, Robbins notes. Oladipo is eligible for a rookie scale extension after the season.
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Declined Rookie Options Cast Players Into Limbo

By | at November 25, 2015 1:18 pm

It’s difficult to say any player move is likely until it’s imminent, but the notion that Sergey Karasev won’t be on the Nets for much longer isn’t far-fetched, even though Karasev denied reports that he wants Brooklyn to trade him. No such rumors have surfaced about P.J. Hairston and the Hornets or Solomon Hill and the Pacers, but neither is a strong bet to stick with his team. They were the only three players this fall with pending rookie scale options for 2016/17 whose teams declined to pick them up. There were four players last year whose 2015/16 options went unexercised, and none of the four is still with the team that declined the option. Three of them wound up changing teams before the end of last season.

All players with rookie scale options on their contracts are former first-round picks who carried significant promise at some point. Rookie scale option decisions are due a year in advance, and when those options are declined, it puts the team and the player in an awkward situation, since it signals that the team has essentially abandoned hope that the player will develop into a worthwhile contributor. The team can’t re-sign the player the following offseason to a starting salary greater than the value of the option, further limiting the chances of a continued relationship.

Here’s a look at what happened to each of the four players whose rookie scale team options were declined last year:

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Where Camp Invitees Are Now: Eastern Conference

By | at November 25, 2015 12:05 pm

The Knicks don’t have a reputation as a forward-thinking franchise, but the fate of the five players they waived at the end of the preseason puts them at the cutting edge of a leaguewide trend. All five of them are playing for the team’s D-League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks. New York and Toronto, which released four players last month, are the only teams in the NBA to place all of their camp cuts on their own D-League squads, even as many more such players choose the D-League over playing international ball.

A few of the players waived from NBA camps this year were lucky enough to end up on other NBA teams, and the Pelicans have two — Toney Douglas, cut from the Pacers, and Wizards refugee Ish Smith. The Wizards are one of 11 teams without a D-League affiliate this year, and their other camp invitees are scattered between the affiliates of other NBA teams and free agency. All five of the players the Bucks cut in camp have yet to sign since, and it’s no surprise that Milwaukee is another one of those 11 teams without a D-League affiliate.

Just as we did Tuesday with the Western Conference, we’ve listed each player cut during the preseason from an Eastern Conference team below, along with his current whereabouts:

Bucks

Bulls

Cavaliers

Celtics

Hawks

Heat

Hornets

Knicks

Magic

Sixers

Nets

Pacers

Pistons

Raptors

Wizards

Note: Ryan Boatright and Terran Petteway are each listed twice, since the Pistons and Nets both had Boatright on their preseason rosters this year, and Petteway went through the hands of both the Hawks and the Pacers.

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Northwest Notes: Garnett, Towns, Waiters, Kanter

By | at November 25, 2015 10:47 am

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge admits he was careful about the sort of young players he brought around Kevin Garnett, who “could be intimidating — and destructive — if the player didn’t respond in the right way,” he tells Jackie MacMullan of ESPN The Magazine. That’s evidence that Minnesota’s plan to use Garnett as a mentor for its host of young players isn’t foolproof, but the intense Garnett and No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns have taken to one another, and Garnett has accepted his purpose as a team leader, even giving Towns uncharacteristic advice to ease up at times, as MacMullan details. The edginess that Garnett brings to the Timberwolves has been a positive, GM Milt Newton tells MacMullan, and the late Flip Saunders cited Garnett’s ability to work well under Sam Mitchell when Saunders reacquired Garnett for Minnesota last season, MacMullan notes. See more on the Wolves and other Northwest Division teams:

  • Jahlil Okafor outplayed Towns this week in a matchup of two of the top three picks, but the Timberwolves still chose wisely when they went with the former Kentucky big man, opines Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune. “It was an off-game for Karl,” Mitchell said, “but you look at the other 11, 12 games that Karl has played, he’s been unbelievable.”
  • Kevin Durant lifts the performances of many around him, but that’s especially so with Thunder teammate Dion Waiters, notes Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman. Both are set to become free agents at season’s end, and Waiters has denied rumors that he wants to jump to the Sixers to play in his hometown of Philadelphia, a most unlikely destination for Durant.
  • Enes Kanter elicited questions about his maturity from some executives around the league in the wake of pithy comments he made about the Jazz after they fulfilled his request for a trade last season, but the Thunder big man is contrite these days, The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater observes. “I think that I was a little, you know, harsh,” Kanter said. “But I just want to clear, I have no problem with the players or the fans. I respect the guys and they helped me a lot with my career. They helped me a lot in my first three and a half years.”
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Pacific Notes: Kobe, Lieberman, Walton, Green

By | at November 25, 2015 9:29 am

The Warriors keep on rolling, but the same can’t be said for Kobe Bryant, whose game has fallen off sharply in what figures to be his final season. Bryant matched the worst shooting performance of his career, going 1 for 14 Tuesday as the Lakers fell to the Warriors, 111-77, sending Golden State to the first 16-0 mark in NBA history. Bryant is shooting just 31.1% this season, a career low, but he leads the Lakers in field goal attempts per game.

“I’m not really worried about it, honestly,” Bryant said, according to Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). “My shooting will be better. I could’ve scored 80 tonight. It wouldn’t have made a [expletive] difference. We just have bigger problems. I could be out there averaging 35 points a game. We’d be what, 3-11? We’ve got to figure out how to play systematically in a position that’s going to keep us in ballgames.”

The Lakers are 2-12, but coach Byron Scott said he still has “so much confidence” in Bryant, his former teammate, who remains the NBA’s highest-paid player at $25MM this season, as Bill Oram of the Orange County Register relays. See more from the Pacific Division:

  • An agent with ties to the Kings predicts chaos if the team were to make Nancy Lieberman the interim coach in the event of a George Karl firing, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com, who writes in his Open Floor column. Mannix finds it difficult to envision Lieberman getting the nod, despite a report that owner Vivek Ranadive would favor such a move if he dismisses Karl.
  • Warriors interim coach Luke Walton reached out to Phil Jackson before the 2014/15 season to ask whether he should reach out to Steve Kerr, and Jackson, who’d wanted to hire Kerr for the Knicks, told Walton to do so, notes Marcia C. Smith of the Orange County Register. Kerr wound up hiring Walton as an assistant coach, setting in motion the events that would put Walton in charge of the team’s historic run.
  • Draymond Green is one of the six or seven most valuable players in the NBA, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group observed Tuesday before Golden State’s game. Green re-signed with the Warriors for $82MM over five years this summer, more than $14MM less than his five-year max.
1 comment Golden State Warriors Los Angeles Lakers New York Knicks Sacramento Kings

Hornets, Steve Clifford Agree To Extension

By | at November 25, 2015 7:59 am

Danny La/USA Today Sports Images
Danny La/USA Today Sports Images

The Hornets and coach Steve Clifford have agreed to an extension with guaranteed salary through 2018/19, as the team acknowledged via Twitter and as Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer originally reported. Clifford’s contract had been set to expire at season’s end. It’s unclear how much the extension is worth, but his existing deal, worth $6MM over three years, was one of the NBA’s cheapest for a head coach.

The relationship between Clifford, 54, and GM Rich Cho became chilly after the departure of former president of basketball operations Rod Higgins in 2014, sources told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com this summer, though Clifford and Cho downplayed that idea. Clifford made it clear last month that he wants to stay, and he’s guided the team to an 8-6 mark so far this season, good for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

Charlotte missed the playoffs last season after the disastrous signing of Lance Stephenson in the summer of 2014, knocking the shine off the success Charlotte enjoyed in the 2013/14 season, its first with Clifford as head coach. That year, the then-Bobcats went to the postseason for just the second time in franchise history. It was a quick turnaround for a team that in 2011/12 finished 7-59, the worst winning percentage in NBA history.

The Heat swept Charlotte in the first round of the playoffs in the spring of 2014, and Clifford is only 84-94 in the regular season during his time in charge of the Bobcats/Hornets, who gave him his first NBA head coaching gig. He’d previously served as an assistant for the Knicks, Rockets, Magic and Lakers. He has close ties to the Van Gundy brothers, having worked under Jeff Van Gundy in New York and Houston and Stan Van Gundy in Orlando.

Do you agree with the decision to keep Clifford for the long term? Leave a comment to let us know.

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Where Camp Invitees Are Now: Western Conference

By | at November 24, 2015 3:29 pm

The NBA’s growing connection to the D-League is evident in the whereabouts of this year’s camp invitees. A month ago, teams across the NBA were waiving dozens of players as they cut their rosters from the preseason limit of 20 to the regular season maximum of 15. More have chosen to play in the D-League instead of overseas, in spite of the financial sacrifice that entails, as they hope to remain close at hand for NBA teams in case they’re called upon for regular season action.

Each player cut during the preseason from a Western Conference team is below, along with his current whereabouts:

Clippers

Grizzlies

Jazz

Kings

Lakers

Mavericks

Nuggets

Pelicans

Rockets

Spurs

Suns

Thunder

Timberwolves

Trail Blazers

Warriors

Note: Phil Pressey is listed twice, since the Blazers and Jazz both had him on their preseason rosters this year.

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Warriors Notes: Walton, Kerr, Iguodala, Myers

By | at November 24, 2015 2:00 pm

Steve Kerr still isn’t coaching the Warriors, but he’s a consistent presence around the team, and GM Bob Myers tells USA Today’s Sam Amick he’s grateful that Kerr and interim coach Luke Walton work together as well as they do.

“We’re talking normally a couple times a day now,” Walton said to Amick about Kerr. “And if it’s a home game, we talk at halftime, we talk pregame, we talk at shootarounds. It’s getting more and more.”

The NBA record-tying 15-0 start officially goes on Kerr’s ledger, not Walton’s, but no one on the team is making that an issue, and Walton remains essentially “the same guy” he was when he wasn’t in charge, Stephen Curry said to Amick. See more on the Warriors before they go for an unprecedented 16th straight win to start the season tonight when they play the Lakers:

  • The Warriors have a collaborative front office, and that sensibility extends to the coaching staff as well, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com details. Assistant coach Jarron Collins credits Kerr. “If you have an idea and you’re in our organization, he wants to hear about it and he’s willing to listen,” Collins said to Berger. “Steve values input from everybody. When you’re in an environment like that, it makes for a very, very special environment and atmosphere to learn.”
  • Warriors players, cognizant that Harrison Barnes is headed to restricted free agency this summer, are intent on helping him as much as possible on the court, Andre Iguodala said in a recent postgame interview with Rosalyn Gold-Onwude of CSNBayArea (video link), as Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk transcribes.
  • Before he became Executive of the Year, Myers was an agent at Wasserman Media Group, where he made an impression on chairman and CEO Casey Wasserman, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News writes in a profile of Myers. “He had impeccable relationships with the clients. More importantly, he became a friend and valuable part of the company,” Wasserman said. “His success he’s having now is no surprise to me or to anyone else who [has] worked with him.”
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Eastern Notes: Monroe, Irving, Stoudemire

By | at November 24, 2015 1:15 pm

Greg Monroe believes his departure from the Pistons played a role in Andre Drummond‘s ascension as the NBA’s leading per-game rebounder, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press details. The Pistons replaced Monroe, who averaged 10.2 rebounds alongside Drummond, with trade acquisition Ersan Ilyasova, who’s averaging only 3.6.

“When you have someone you’re playing with that averages 10 rebounds, too, you’re going to get a few less rebounds,” Monroe said. “There’s a lot more rebounds available, so he’s gonna get more. It’s not surprising to me at all. He’s always had that motor. He’s always had that hunger to rebound.”

Drummond’s average on the boards has jumped from 13.5 last season to 17.6 this year. See more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Kyrie Irving is expected to return for the Cavaliers before January, a source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link). Concerns that his absence would linger into the new year existed over the summer.
  • Amar’e Stoudemire calls it a “long shot,” but he won’t rule out playing next season with Hapoel Jerusalem, the Israeli team in which he has an ownership stake, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Stoudemire is on a one-year deal with the Heat. “I had a pretty strong 14-year career so far,’’ Stoudemire said. “Right now I’m taking it one day at a time, one season at a time. I don’t know how much time left I have as a player. I’m just cherishing the moment and try to develop the young guys.’’
  • Offseason trade addition Jared Dudley is a smaller version of Nene in many ways, observes J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com. Dudley insists that Nene, a free agent at season’s end, remains an integral part of the Wizards in spite of his reduced role, as Michael relays. “Offensively, it starts with Nene,” Dudley said. “He’s the one guy [on the second unit] that can get his own shot and then we move the ball. Me being the four, when I get the ball even when I’m open sometimes it’s getting the ball side to side and getting other guys involved.”
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