Cavs Rumors: Love, Trade Options, Porter
The Cavaliers may have a difficult time trading Kevin Love this season for a couple reasons, as Jason Lloyd of The Athletic explains. For one, Love has a massive contract that will pay him more than $91MM over the next three seasons, not counting his $29MM cap hit for 2019/20.
Additionally, there may be a significant divide between what the Cavaliers want for Love vs. what other teams are willing to offer. A source with knowledge of the situation tells Lloyd that Cleveland is seeking a first-round pick. However, some potential trade partners want to acquire a first-rounder themselves for absorbing the final three-and-a-half years of Love’s contract.
One league executive believes the Cavs may eventually get the first-round pick they want in a Love trade, but it depends how much salary they’ll be willing to take back, Lloyd writes. It doesn’t help the Cavs’ case that there aren’t many truly toxic multiyear contracts left on teams’ books around the NBA that they could absorb.
Here’s more out of Cleveland:
- Following up on Love, Lloyd acknowledges that the five-time All-Star has been the subject of trade rumors for years, but says this time feels “a little more real.”
- Here’s how Love responded when asked by Lloyd if he re-upped with Cleveland because the team was willing to pay him more money than he could’ve received in free agency: “Maybe more years. And honestly it was like the last one I signed. I could’ve done a one-plus-one and waited, and got $40MM more. But I think I felt comfortable here, I didn’t know what the future was going to hold, but they believed in me after my first year after I got hurt and they believed in me then. And it’s really hard to say no when the money is right there. From a strictly financial standpoint, if it’s right there in front of you, you’re like, ‘S–t.'”
- The Cavaliers had made it known that they’re ready to discuss trades, according to Lloyd, who hears from one source that the team has made “basically everyone but Darius [Garland]” available. The Cavs’ veterans on expiring contracts are the club’s most logical trade chips, but Lloyd is unconvinced that any of those players will be worth a first-round pick on the trade market.
- According to Lloyd, the Cavs have been “quietly impressed” with what they’ve seen so far from No. 30 overall pick Kevin Porter Jr. Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com took a closer look at Porter after the rookie scored a career-high 24 points vs. Houston on Wednesday, writing that the 19-year-old has been the “brightest light in a gloomy season” for the franchise.
Projected Lottery Pick R.J. Hampton Out With Hip Injury
Just days after we heard that LaMelo Ball would be sidelined into the new year due to a foot injury, the other top prospect playing in Australia’s National Basketball League has been ruled out until 2020 with an injury of his own. According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, New Zealand Breakers point guard R.J. Hampton will miss approximately four weeks due to a hip flexor injury.
Hampton, who opted to play in the NBL rather than spend a year at college leading up to the 2020 draft, has had an up-and-down year for the Breakers. In 12 games (22.1 MPG), the 18-year-old has averaged 9.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 2.5 APG with a .430/.324/.654 shooting line.
Despite his modest NBL production, Hampton is still considered a likely lottery pick for the 2020 draft. Givony, who notes that the youngster is currently ranked seventh on ESPN’s big board, has lauded Hampton’s versatile offensive game and his potential to become an explosive combo guard.
As Givony details, NBA scouts and decision-makers had been making plans to scout Hampton and Bell in the coming weeks, particularly with their teams set to face each other on December 22. It sounds like those plans will have to be postponed — both players are expected to get healthy and rejoin their teams before the NBL regular season ends in mid-February.
Lakers Waive Zach Norvell Jr., Sign Devontae Cacok
7:30pm: The Lakers have officially signed Cacok to a two-way contract and waived Norvell, the team announced in a press release.
3:38pm: The Lakers are making a change to one of their two-way contract slots, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the club is waiving guard Zach Norvell Jr. and signing big man Devontae Cacok.
[RELATED: 2019/20 NBA Two-Way Contract Tracker]
Norvell, who went undrafted earlier this year, signed a two-way contract with the Lakers on the first day of the league year in July. He has logged just five minutes in two games with the NBA club this season, spending most of his time with the South Bay Lakers. In 23 G League games (24.7 MPG), he averaged 13.3 PPG on .353/.340/.867 shooting.
Cacok, meanwhile, was in camp with the Lakers this fall on an Exhibit 10 contract but was cut at the end of the preseason when the team set its regular season roster. He reported to South Bay as an affiliate player and has been productive as a member of the Lakers’ G League squad, recording 16.3 PPG and 11.7 RPG with a .669 FG% in 12 games (22.8 MPG).
Because he’s signing his two-way contract partway through the regular season, Cacok will be eligible to spend up to 33 days with the Lakers, a prorated portion of the usual 45-day limit.
Kostas Antetokounmpo is the Lakers’ other two-way player. His status remains unchanged.
Kevin Durant: “I Want To Own And Run An NBA Team”
Count Nets forward Kevin Durant among the NBA superstars who is interested in transitioning to team ownership once his career as a player is over. According to Steven Bertoni of Forbes, Durant expressed interest in overseeing an NBA franchise in a role similar to the one Michael Jordan has in Charlotte.
“I want to own and run an NBA team,” Durant said. “Run day-to-day operations and impact young players coming through the league.”
Bertoni’s profile of Durant focuses more on his business interests than his on-court NBA career, detailing how the two-time Finals MVP took advantage of his time with the Warriors to pursue investment opportunities in Silicon Valley. Bertoni suggests that KD will ultimately make well over $500MM from his basketball contracts and sponsorships by the time his playing career ends and wants to increase that number further through his “expanding collection of startups and media plays.”
“I started down here,” Durant said, gesturing to the floor. “I know there’ll be kids popping up in my family, and I want them to start above this roof. The only way to get there for your family is to create money, and I want to do it in a cooler way, not just being greedy and accumulating as much as I can.”
Durant isn’t the only NBA star that has talked about following in the footsteps of Jordan, who is the controlling owner of the Hornets and oversees the basketball operations department as well. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are among those who have also shown interest in owning NBA teams.
Wizards Apply For Extra Roster Spot Via Hardship Provision
The Wizards are requesting permission to add a 16th player to their roster via the hardship provision, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic. According to Katz (Twitter link), the team is readying its application now and would have 48 hours to make a move if the request is granted.
The NBA can grant a team a hardship exception when that team has at least four players who have missed three or more games due to injury or illness and are expected to miss at least two more weeks. A hardship exception allows the club to add an extra player to its 15-man roster, increasing its roster limit to 16.
In Washington’s case, John Wall and C.J. Miles are expected to be out for the season and Thomas Bryant and Jordan McRae are also on the shelf with multi-week injuries. Isaiah Thomas has also missed the Wizards’ last four games due to a calf injury, though he appears slightly closer to a return than the team’s other injured players.
The extra roster spot would be a temporary measure, allowing the Wizards to add a 16th man on a non-guaranteed contract. The exception would expire and Washington would have to make a roster move to get back down to 15 players once its injured players start to return. It’s not yet clear which player the team will sign if and when its request is granted by the NBA.
Marvin Bagley III Ready To Return For Kings
Marvin Bagley III is ready to return to action for the Kings, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee, who writes that the big man is listed as probable for Sacramento’s Wednesday night game vs. Oklahoma City.
Bagley, the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, has been sidelined since opening night as a result of a broken right thumb suffered in the Kings’ first game of the season. The club initially estimated that Bagley would be out for four to six weeks, but his absence extended to seven weeks and 22 games.
When the Kings opened the season, Bagley and Dewayne Dedmon were the starters in the frontcourt. Richaun Holmes and Nemanja Bjelica have taken over those roles in recent weeks. As James Ham of NBC Sports California observes, it’s unclear how exactly Bagley will fit back into the rotation now that he’s healthy, since Holmes has been one of the team’s best players and Bjelica has been on fire as of late, averaging 17.4 PPG, 7.2 RPG, and 3.4 APG on .515/.448/1.000 shooting in his last five games.
Bagley is one of the Kings’ key building blocks, so the club will certainly find minutes for him. Still, he’ll be brought along slowly and head coach Luke Walton will likely try to stick with the Bagley/Bjelica pairing in certain lineups.
De’Aaron Fox (ankle) remains on the shelf for the Kings and is expected to be re-evaluated within the next week or two.
Southwest Notes: Murray, J. Jackson, Iguodala, Ball
After missing the entire 2018/19 season due to an ACL tear, Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray began the 2019/20 campaign on a minutes restriction and then was removed from the starting lineup. However, head coach Gregg Popovich didn’t necessarily view that move as a demotion — the team believed that removing the responsibilities of running the first-team offense might allow Murray to play a “freer, more instinctual game,” writes Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News.
While Murray’s play for the second unit has been up and down, he had one of his best games of the season last Friday in a Spurs win over Sacramento, with 14 points, seven rebounds, and three steals in 32 minutes. That last number may be the most important of the bunch, as it suggests Murray’s minutes restriction is no longer in effect. With no more nightly cap on his playing time, Murray is eager to show what he can do.
“I know it takes time,” the Spurs’ guard said. “There was the minute restriction, a lot of stuff going on. It is what it is. I’m going to bust my tail, continue to work, continue to learn. I’m just ready to be unleashed.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- After being held out of Monday’s game, Josh Jackson once again won’t play for the Memphis Hustle on Wednesday, the Grizzlies announced today (via Twitter). Jackson, who reportedly missed a team meeting, has essentially received a two-game suspension for violating team rules.
- What sort of trade options might the Grizzlies have for Andre Iguodala? Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian takes a deep dive and explores several hypothetical scenarios, labeling the Mavericks as Memphis’ most logical trade partner and the Nuggets and Raptors as possible wild cards.
- Lonzo Ball was one of the key pieces acquired by the Pelicans in their blockbuster trade with the Lakers over the summer, and New Orleans is doing all it can to get the most out of the former No. 2 overall pick. Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com takes a closer look at how the Pelicans have worked on rebuilding Ball’s jump shot.
Central Notes: Thompson, George, Pacers, Valentine
Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson wasn’t happy about the fact that a report surfaced last week anonymously quoting three of his teammates who were critical of John Beilein‘s head coaching style. Thompson came to Beilein’s defense over the weekend and fired back at the teammates quoted in that report, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
“Y’all better find them names ’cause I’ll pull up on ’em right now,” Thompson said. “You can’t do that s–t. At the end of the day if you’re going to build a culture and a family, you can’t have that Chatty Patty s–t going on. That s–t is whack to me.
“Everyone’s got to look in the mirror, there’s only so much coach can do and there’s only so much we can do,” Thompson continued. “Do we have the best roster in the NBA? No. But we’re going to go out there and compete every night. Guys got to look in the mirror. So I hope whoever reported that was just bulls——g and blamed it on a player.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- After getting a rough reception from Pacers fans on Sunday, Paul George said he’s not the one those fans should be booing. What exactly did he mean? “The belief in Indiana is that he’s referring to Larry Bird,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said this week on an episode of The Jump (video link). Bird, now an advisor in Indiana, was formerly the team’s president of basketball operations and pushed George to move from small forward to power forward, something PG13 didn’t want to do, as Windhorst details.
- Speaking of the Pacers, they look like they could become a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference once they get Victor Oladipo back in their lineup, writes Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer.
- It has been up-and-down season so far for Denzel Valentine, who was out of the Bulls‘ rotation until late November. As Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago notes, Valentine has been playing his best ball of the year recently, making at least three 3-pointers and scoring in double-digits in each of his last three games. The 26-year-old shooting guard will be a restricted free agent at season’s end.
Several Teams Monitoring Derrick Favors
With the Pelicans off to a 6-18 start to the 2019/20 season, veteran center Derrick Favors is one player being monitored by several teams around the NBA, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.
Favors, 28, has been limited to just nine games so far this season due to knee and back injuries and the death of his mother. He rejoined the team this week, but won’t be active on Wednesday night as he continues to work on his conditioning after a lengthy absence, tweets Will Guillory of The Athletic.
Although there’s no indication yet that the Pelicans are prepared to become sellers in advance of February’s trade deadline, Favors would be a logical trade candidate if the team goes in that direction. The big man has been a reliable contributor for years and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, with a $17.65MM expiring contract.
“He was in Utah for just about all his career and it looks like he struggled to adjust in New Orleans and that is something you worry about,” one league executive told Deveney. “But look, he is a dependable big guy. He can play better defense than he’s played this season. He is a good rebounder. He can give you 12, 15 points. Defenses can’t afford to lose him, he can make you pay. There’s going to be teams looking for a guy like that. But if you’re New Orleans, you’ve got a young guy you want to have those minutes.”
As that exec notes, the Pelicans have a young center in Jaxson Hayes who may see even more significant minutes if the team falls further out of playoff contention. Additionally, Zion Williamson might spend time at the five once he’s healthy and ready to make his NBA regular-season debut. With Jahlil Okafor also in the mix at center, Favors could make more sense as a trade chip — especially if the Pels don’t expect to retain him beyond this season.
Given his struggles so far this season and his sizeable cap charge, the Pelicans shouldn’t expect a major return for Favors, Deveney writes. Still, it was just five months ago that New Orleans surrendered a pair of future second-round picks for the right to take on the center’s contract. If the Pels take back some money in a deal, they could reasonably ask for one or two second-rounders.
Details On Wolves’ FA Offer To D’Angelo Russell
While D’Angelo Russell ultimately landed with the Warriors in free agency as part of a complicated sign-and-trade deal involving Kevin Durant, reports at the time indicated that the Timberwolves made the All-Star point guard their top offseason priority. Anthony Slater of The Athletic confirms as much in an in-depth piece on Russell, citing sources who say Minnesota’s initial offer to Russell was worth about $107MM over four years.
The Wolves and Warriors were two of three serious bidders in the mix for Russell, according to Slater. The Lakers were also in play and would potentially have been willing to make an offer in the $100MM range, but were in a holding pattern as they pursued Kawhi Leonard.
Minnesota “desperately wanted” to pair Russell with Karl-Anthony Towns and had spent much of June planning their recruiting pitch for the 23-year-old, Slater writes. However, when the Warriors put a maximum-salary ($117MM) offer on the table for D-Lo near the start of free agency, it didn’t take him long to choose Golden State.
As Slater details, word of Russell’s tentative agreement with the Dubs broke when D-Lo was being transported back via helicopter from his meeting with the Wolves. “The mood in the cabin changed” when that news came out, Slater writes.
“An awkward goodbye on the tarmac,” a source told The Athletic.
In addition to the fact that the Warriors’ offer was more lucrative financially, Russell was intrigued by the idea of teaming up with two potential Hall-of-Famers like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Speaking to Slater, Russell said he was excited about the idea of getting to “take a year and just learn from all these guys” — he caught himself when he realized he was talking as if expecting a trade.
“Well, we signed a four-year deal,” Russell said. “Hopefully, four years.”
According to Slater, Russell would like to remain with the Warriors for the entirety of his contract, but recognizes the team faces certain roster and cap constraints and knows nothing is guaranteed.
“Yeah, you know, that’s what sucks more than anything,” Russell said of not being able to settle in for the long-term. “Like, it sucks more than anything. That’s kind of what I’m doing now though. I’m kind of just putting two feet into the house that I’m in now.
“… I can’t control if (Warriors president of basketball operations) Bob Myers is like, yo, let’s go get such and such for this and make this pick,” D-Lo added. “That’s his job. I can’t control it or say anything about it, especially if I’m a part of it. So I don’t waste energy worrying about it.”