Los Angeles Notes: Shumpert, Gasol, Lakers
The Knicks and the Clippers went back and forth on a deal involving Iman Shumpert, but ultimately they couldn’t come to an agreement. The final discussion between the two clubs was a deal that would have sent Darren Collison, Willie Green, and Matt Barnes to New York for Shumpert and Raymond Felton, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Meanwhile, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com hears that it was the Clippers and not the Knicks who backed out of the swap (Twitter link). More from L.A…
- Lakers big man Pau Gasol is “pretty confident” there will be desirable offers after the season when he’s a free agent, tweets Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. Gasol added that he’s not holding any grudges against the Lakers over being in trade rumors, tweets Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times.
- Gasol says that he wanted to stay with the Lakers, so he’s happy to have seen the trade deadline come and go, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
- Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said that a major factor in the Steve Blake trade was freeing up playing time to evaluate Jordan Farmar and Kendall Marshall, McMenamin tweets.
Wizards Acquire Andre Miller In Three-Team Deal
The Wizards have acquired disgruntled Nuggets guard Andre Miller in a three-team trade involving the Sixers. Washington gets Miller, the Nuggets receive Jan Vesely, and Philly receives Eric Maynor plus two second-round picks. The Sixers will receive the Nuggets’ 2016 second-round pick and the Pelicans’ 2015 second-round selection.
Miller, 37, is earning a $5MM salary and makes $4.625MM next year in the final year of his deal, but that’s only partially guaranteed for $2MM as long as he’s waived before July. Before his clash with Denver coach Brian Shaw, Miller was averaging 5.9 PPG and 3.3 APG in 19 minutes per contest. Heading into this season, Miller boasted career averages of 13.8 PPG and 7.1 APG in 33.4 minutes per game.
Maynor, the former VCU hero, now joins his fifth team in four years. Washington inked the guard to a two-year deal worth the bi-annual exception with a player option for year two over the summer.
Vesely, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2011 draft, has averaged just 3.5 PPG and 3.4 RPG over the course of his NBA career. Washington declined its $4.2MM option on the big man for the 2014/15 season so he’ll be a free agent after the season is through.
The future-minded 76ers now have a whopping nine second round picks in the second round of this year’s draft.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter) first reported that Miller was Washington-bound. Additional details came from CBSSports.com’s Ken Berger and Sam Amick of USA Today (both links go to Twitter).
Kings Waive Roger Mason Jr.
The Kings announced that they have waived Roger Mason Jr. Sacramento acquired the veteran from the Heat earlier today and the move was expected.
Mason is earning the minimum salary this year after making the Heat out of training camp. He’s receiving close to $1.4MM, but his cap hit is only $884,293. The latter number will remain on Sacramento’s books, since his salary is guaranteed for the season.
The 10th-year veteran is averaging just 3.0 points in 10.4 minutes per game. but he’s made a pair of starts this season in place of an injured Dwyane Wade. Mason has also been a major force within the National Basketball Players Association during his time in the league, but that hasn’t kept him from securing NBA work despite having been only a fringe rotation player for most of the past four seasons.
Atlantic Notes: Stevens, Rondo, Udrih
Celtics GM Danny Ainge thought the Suns were going to hire Brad Stevens over the summer before he got the chance, writes the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett. “When Ryan McDonough went to Phoenix, you know, Ryan and I had talked a lot about how much we liked Brad Stevens,” said Ainge. “I thought Ryan was going to hire Brad to go coach the Suns, but he didn’t and he got a great coach in Jeff Hornacek.”
- The Celtics have “just valued Rajon Rondo” more than any other club over the last eight years, Ainge told reporters, including Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe (on Twitter). Of course, the C’s got a ton of calls on their star guard but wound up holding on to him through the deadline.
- Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (on Twitter) wouldn’t be surprised to see the Knicks negotiate a buyout with seldom-used guard Beno Udrih in the coming days.
- The Knicks wound up standing pat at the deadline and Begley has the goods on what happened or, rather, what didn’t happen.
Clippers Considering Ivan Johnson
The Clippers are thinking about giving Ivan Johnson a 10-day deal and recently worked him out, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (on Twitter) reported earlier today that the forward was a possible free agent for the Clips.
Johnson’s Chinese team, the Zhejiang Golden Bulls, waived Johnson in late January, allowing him to pursue NBA opportunities. Johnson was averaging 26.0 points and 9.9 rebounds in China and picked up interest from multiple NBA clubs, including the Clippers and Knicks.
The Clippers shipped big men Antawn Jamison and Byron Mullens to the Hawks and Sixers, respectively, and there is playing time to be had if Johnson comes to L.A.
JaVale McGee Out For Season
The Nuggets just can’t catch a break. JaVale McGee had surgery this morning to repair his fractured left tibia, the team announced. Nuggets GM Tim Connelly indicated in the release that the procedure is season-ending.
It’s just yet another difficult blow to the Nuggets, who also saw Danilo Gallinari and Nate Robinson go down with season-ending injuries. Ty Lawson has also struggled to stay healthy this season and Andre Miller‘s situation has been a further complication for the hard-luck 2013/14 Nuggets.
McGee, 26, has been out of action since November and saw just five games of action this season. The athletic big man averaged 9.1 PPG and 4.8 RPG last season for Denver.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Deadline Rumors: Hill, Nelson, Bulls, Kaman
The latest from around the league as we inch closer to the deadline..
- All is quiet for the Bulls, Grizzlies, Warriors, Mavericks, and Pelicans at the moment, according to Sam Amick of USA Today.
- Meanwhile, the Mavericks have interest in Lakers big man Jordan Hill but the proposal is problematic because of L.A.’s desire to move both Hill and fellow big man Chris Kaman in order to get under the luxury tax, Amick writes.
- The Kings are still shopping anyone not named DeMarcus Cousins from the Maloofs regime, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
- The Magic and Wizards were discussing a deal involving Jameer Nelson before the Andre Miller deal was agreed upon, tweets Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders.
- The Bulls, who are $678K under tax, are comfortable standing pat, a source tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. They believe they can stay under the threshold even with bonuses and 10-day deals.
- The Cavs were never in on Lakers big man Chris Kaman, despite reports to the contrary, tweets Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio.
- More from Amico, who tweets that Cavs acting GM David Griffin was unwilling to give up a first-round pick and a player for Rockets big man Omer Asik. The Cavs went out and got Spencer Hawes instead.
Pistons Shopping Josh Smith, Want Assets
12:28pm: The Cavs are not interested in Smith, tweets Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.
11:20am: Other teams say Pistons indeed shopping Josh Smith, but they’re demanding more than just dead expirings, tweets Zach Lowe of Grantland.com. It has been reported that Joe Dumars & Co. have been eager to deal the veteran forward but, so far, they have been unable to find a taker.
It’s safe to say that the Pistons are having a bit of buyer’s remorse when it comes to Smith. Detroit signed Smith to a hefty four-year, $54MM deal that could reach $56MM through incentives. After Dwight Howard and Chris Paul – universally regarded as free agents 1A and 1B came off the market – Smith was the top prize to be had for clubs with cap space. Today, they’d like to move on from the 28-year-old, but they want more than a salary cap reset.
While Smith is averaging a respectable 15.9 PPG and 7.0 RPG, he’s putting up career lows in field goal percentage (41.7%) and PER (14.8).
Pacers Haven’t Found Suitable Granger Deal
The Pacers have tested the trade market for Danny Granger over the last 24 hours but haven’t found a deal they like, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Indiana has long been expected to seek out a trade for the pending free agent but it doesn’t sound like they’ll have a deal worked out in the next few hours.
Granger, 30, missed the bulk of the 2012/13 campaign and didn’t make his debut this season until the week of Christmas. In 29 games this season, the former face of the Pacers has averaged 8.3 PPG and 3.6 RPG in 22.5 minutes per contest. That’s a significant dropoff from the numbers he put up from his rookie year in 2005/06 through 2011/12 – 18.2 PPG and 5.2 RPG in 33.3 minutes per game.
ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard reported in late January that the Pacers would only move Granger if they were “blown away” by an offer. It would appear that Indiana held true to that stance. Granger is earning $14MM in the final year of his contract.
Magic Working On Glen Davis Buyout
The Magic are working on a contract buyout with forward Glen Davis, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). Orlando was dangling the big man at the deadline but they were unable to find a taker. The buyout must be OK’d by the player’s union before it becomes officlal, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.
Davis is due to earn the remainder of his $6.4MM salary this season and $6.6MM in 2014/15. The 28-year-old is coming off of a year in which he averaged 15.1 PPG and 7.2 RPG with a 15.0 PER in an injury-shortened season. So far in 2013/14, Davis has been bitten by the injury bug once again. He’s putting up 12.1 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 30.1 minutes per contest this season.