Atlantic Notes: Thornton, Calderon, Williams
The Celtics are receiving inquiries about Marcus Thornton, but interested teams are concerned about Thornton’s salary, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Thornton, who will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, is making $8.575MM this year. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics were able to create a trade exception worth $625,280 as a result of the Jameer Nelson for Nate Robinson deal with the Nuggets, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link).
- With Jose Calderon reportedly on the trading block, Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders looks at a number of theoretical deals that the Knicks could make to unload the veteran point guard.
- Point guard Deron Williams is out indefinitely for the Nets with a rib injury, and has no idea when he’ll be able to play again, Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. “I’m still pretty sore. I don’t have a timetable, just taking it one day at a time,” Williams said. “There’s nothing you can do, really. They’re doing some laser and heating it up; just rest. Other than that, there’s nothing really you can do.” Williams also expressed his displeasure with the conflicting medical reports that he has received from various doctors, Lewis adds.
- When Langston Galloway signed his 10-day deal to join the lowly Knicks, his college coach Phil Martelli gave him some sage advice, Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “What I told him on the phone was none of that mattered [the Knicks’ losing ways],” Martelli said. “If his routine was to get there early, then get there early. If his routine was to be active on the bench, then be active on the bench. When you’re a young guy, you end up emulating those who are ahead of you. It’s not his nature to ‘be selfish,’ but in a lot of ways, he had to be who he was and not fall into what the media would say about the Knicks or anything like that. Their request to him was not to save them. Their request to him was to be a professional.”
- Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov failed in his “get a ring quick scheme,” and will leave the franchise far worse off than when he purchased it, Michael Lee of the Washington Post writes in his profile of Prokhorov. The Russian billionaire is reportedly trying to sell his interests in the team.
Eastern Notes: McRae, Stoudemire, Kidd
There’s a possibility that 2014 second-rounder Jordan McRae could join the Sixers prior to the end of the season, Tom Moore of Calkins Media writes. McRae, whose rights the Sixers acquired from the Spurs on draft night, has been averaging 20.9 points in 18 games for Melbourne United of the Australian league this season. Philadelphia coach Brett Brown has kept a watchful eye on McRae’s progress overseas, Moore notes. “We are always paying attention to Jordan,” Brown said. “He’s in a good situation. He’s playing a lot of minutes and continuing to score. Jordan is always in the back of our minds.”
With the Sixers having an open roster spot thanks to Andrei Kirilenko being placed on the suspended list, Brown was asked about the possibility of McRae filling that slot, Moore adds. “It’s a fair question,” Brown said. “How we decide to handle Jordan will be determined — just not now. We have talked a lot about it.”
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Kevin Love‘s comment that he intends to opt in and remain with the Cavaliers for the 2015/16 campaign leaves the team with one less distraction this season, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders writes.
- The Knicks are reportedly not looking to deal Amar’e Stoudemire, but the team has had internal discussions about the possibility of reaching a buyout agreement with him so that Stoudemire could try and catch on with a contender, Mark Woods of ESPNNewYork.com reports.
- Jason Kidd has found a fit as the coach of the Bucks that he didn’t during his time with the Nets, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. Last year’s Brooklyn squad didn’t need a teacher in the way that Milwaukee does, and it’s a role that Kidd is more suited to, Zillgitt opines.
- Cavs coach David Blatt‘s level of comfort in Cleveland would benefit greatly from a stout endorsement from LeBron James, something that hasn’t happened yet, Sam Amick of USA Today writes.
- One of the Knicks‘ biggest issues as a franchise is their poor player development history, Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal writes. “The Knicks have always had the money to spend. But because they saw that as their advantage, it might have also become a reason to put off being patient with a rebuild,” John Nash, a former NBA GM, told Herring. “They may have felt they didn’t have the time to truly develop young players.” New York’s problem isn’t poor drafting, as the franchise has actually had three first-team All-Rookie selections the past four seasons, Herring notes. But those players have all regressed offensively in their second seasons, which is an alarming trend, the Wall Street Journal scribe adds.
Atlantic Notes: Stoudemire, Celtics, Nets
Amar’e Stoudemire isn’t sure that he wants to remain with the Knicks amid a rebuilding effort, as he told reporters, including Marc Berman of the New York Post. The Knicks reportedly have no plans to trade Stoudemire, who’s set for free agency at season’s end.
“It’s a very difficult situation at this point,’’ Stoudemire said. “It’s a hard decision for me to make. My loyalty has always been with New York and the Knicks. So it will be tough right now to make a decision as far as going somewhere else at this point. It’s something I have to think about. I’m sure over time I’ll sit and think about the best scenario for myself. For now, I know I’ve been through injuries throughout my career. I have to make sure I’m able to be strong enough and prepared to play for a team contending for a championship. New York is trying to rebuild. Hopefully that will be sooner than later.’’
Stoudemire laments the departure of now-Cavalier Iman Shumpert, who like Stoudemire is a client of Happy Walters, as Berman notes. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics are receiving $1,319,236 in cash from the Grizzlies as part of the Jeff Green trade, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- Mikhail Prokhorov lost an estimated $400MM in one day in the midst of global economic trouble late last month, an attorney and adviser to Russian oligarchs tells Stefan Bondy and Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News. Russia’s economic downturn is reportedly one of the reasons that Prokhorov has reportedly put the Nets up for sale.
- An industry consultant tells Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com that he believes that the Nets will command a price akin to the $2 billion the Clippers fetched, while a consultant said to Soshnick that he isn’t sure that the Nets are as attractive as the Clippers were.
- Some believe that Andrei Kirilenko is giving up the rest of his salary this season to tend to his wife as she endures a difficult pregnancy, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, Pompey hears from a Brooklyn source who questioned whether that’s indeed the reason the forward hasn’t played in two months.
Mikhail Prokhorov Puts Nets Up For Sale
1:36pm: Broussard’s sources also corroborate the story that the Nets are for sale (Twitter link).
1:23pm: Sources confirm Soshnick’s report to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, who hears the troubled Russian economy is a catalyst (Twitter link).
1:20pm: Nets CEO Brett Yormark, GM Billy King and chief communications officer Barry Baum are denying the report that Prokhorov has put the team on the market, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com.
12:47pm: The Nets aren’t actively looking to sell the club, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post, who adds that nothing appears to have changed, echoing the Prokhorov spokesperson’s statement (Twitter link). Bontemps doesn’t believe there’s any chance the Nets sell before the Hawks do (Twitter link). Still, as Shelburne points out (on Twitter), the spokesperson didn’t explicitly deny Soshnick’s report.
12:29am: A spokesperson for Prokhorov said the owner remains open to listening to offers, but the spokesperson added that no sale is imminent, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter links).
11:46am: Mikhail Prokhorov has put the Nets up for sale and hired the investment banking firm Evercore to help facilitate the transaction, two sources tell Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com. The Nets were reportedly in talks with the Guggenheim group on what would have been essentially a merger of assets late last year, but those conversations stalled. Chris Mannix of SI.com reported during the Nets-Guggenheim talks that Prokhorov was actively looking to cash out, though other reports maintained that Prokhorov, who owns 80% of the franchise, was intent on retaining control of the club even if Guggenheim bought a piece of the team. It’s unclear at this point what, if any, role Prokhorov wants to play with the Nets going forward. The Barclays Center arena, of which Prokhorov owns 45%, isn’t part of the sale, according to Soshnick.
Nets minority owner Bruce Ratner, who owns the majority of the arena, hired Evercore last year to help with the sale of his 20% stake in the franchise, but they found no takers, as Soshnick points out. The ability to control the team through ownership of a majority stake would no doubt make the franchise more attractive, and a valuations expert tells Soshnick the franchise is worth $1.3 billion. Earlier reports indicated that the Nets and Guggenheim were working off a valuation of between $1.2 billion and $1.7 billion, while a later dispatch indicated that the Nets wanted to negotiate off of a $1.8 billion valuation.
In June, Prokhorov denied a report indicating that he was listening to offers for the club, saying he has “no interest in selling the team.” Still, another report shortly thereafter indicated that the owner had pledged to curb his team’s record spending to help Ratner find a taker for his share. Prokhorov and Ratner were reportedly seeking a $1 billion valuation at that point, and Prokhorov said he planned to take the club below the NBA’s luxury tax line by 2015/16. The Nets spent more than $190MM in payroll and luxury taxes in 2013/14, and the team was reportedly projected to have lost a league-high $144MM, both figures far outdistancing any other NBA team.
Brooklyn’s payroll is lower this year, at nearly $90.7MM, though the team would owe roughly $26MM in taxes on top of that unless the Nets further cut spending before the end of the regular season. The Nets are reportedly willing to trade Joe Johnson, Deron Williams and Brook Lopez, their three most highly paid players.
And-Ones: Cavs, Prince, Ferry, Draft, Taylor
David Blatt believes his comment questioning whether Kevin Love is a max player was “misunderstood or misconstrued” by many, but Love says he and the Cavs coach are on the same page, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group relays.
“Kevin Love for me is a player of the highest order,” Blatt said. “Whether you want to define that by max contract or any other thing, he’s one of the best players in the NBA and that’s the way we value him.”
Love can hit free agency this summer if he turns down his player option, but tonight he’ll hit the floor against the Suns and seek to help Cleveland avoid dipping below .500. There’s more on the Cavs amid the latest from around the league:
- The Cavs would be interested in Tayshaun Prince if he and the Celtics strike a buyout deal, tweets Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Cleveland apparently had interest in trading for Prince prior to Monday’s swap that sent him to Boston. Prince and Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge are set to discuss the forward’s situation, and a buyout is on the table, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reported Monday.
- Al Horford would welcome Hawks GM Danny Ferry back from his leave of absence, as the center tells Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link). Ferry has appeared unlikely to return in the wake of racially charged comments he made about Luol Deng.
- Fringe first-round draft prospect Chris McCullough will miss the rest of the season for Syracuse after tearing the ACL in his right knee, the school announced Monday (Twitter link). The freshman power forward is No. 29 in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect rankings and comes in 31st with Chad Ford of ESPN.com. NBA teams saw him as a long-term project even before the injury, Givony tweets.
- Russia’s Dynamo Moscow has let go of former Nets point guard Tyshawn Taylor, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Taylor appeared in 23 games for Brooklyn last season, making three starts, but has been out of the NBA since the Pelicans waived him shortly after the Nets traded him to New Orleans nearly a year ago.
New York Notes: Knicks, Nets, Melo, Howard
The Knicks own a record of 5-35, which is good for first place in our reverse order rankings. After the trade last week that sent J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cavs, the team clearly won’t be buyers at the trade deadline this season. It’s early in the season for most other teams hovering around .500 to make that kind of decision but Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles (Twitter link) has put the Nets in the conversation about potential sellers in the NBA marketplace.
Here’s more from the Empire State:
- Carmelo Anthony wants to be involved in recruiting players to the Knicks, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork. “This is why I wanted to come back, to be a part of the plan,” Anthony says. New York is projected to have room for the addition of at least one maximum level contract, although the exact amount of cap room will be unknown until the salary cap is calculated during July’s moratorium.
- Dwight Howard will play in Brooklyn for the first time tonight and he reminisces on what could have been if he would have been traded to the Nets, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork writes. “Like I said, everything happens for a reason. There was a point in time where I thought this [Brooklyn] was the best place for me to play basketball. I guess things didn’t happen the way I wanted them to,” Howard said. The Nets were once on the shortlist of teams that the center preferred to be traded to when he was still with the Magic.
- Jason Terry will also return to Brooklyn for the first time since being traded from the team last season. The 15-year veteran thought the Nets were going to achieve more over the last few seasons. “I’m surprised a lot,” Terry told reporters, including Tim Bontemps of The New York Post. “For me, when I came here it looked like they were going to put something together a big run for two or three years down the line. But when there’s that much pressure on you to win, and it doesn’t happen, they’re gonna make changes.” As a member of the Rockets, most would consider Terry to now be in a better position to win another NBA title.
Brandon Davies Signs To Play In France
Former Sixers and Nets power forward Brandon Davies has signed with Elan Chalon of France, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Brooklyn waived Davies last week rather than guarantee his minimum salary for the rest of the season. It’s unclear what the 23-year-old will earn with his new club.
The Bill Duffy client played a prominent role with the Sixers this season before last month’s Andrei Kirilenko trade sent him to Brooklyn. Davies averaged 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 19.0 minutes per game and made six starts for Philadelphia this year, an increase from the 11.3 MPG he saw last year as a rookie. Brooklyn used him sparingly, giving him just 6.3 MPG over seven appearances. He was the only one of the four players on the Nets without fully guaranteed salary not to stick with the team through last week’s leaguewide guarantee date.
Davies went undrafted in 2013 and has twice been waived by NBA teams, but this is the first time he’ll suit up for a pro club outside the league. The Clippers released him toward the end of the preseason in 2013, but the Sixers snapped him up a few days later.
Bucher’s Latest: Kings, Pelicans, Cavs
It’s no secret that the Nets trio of Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson are available on the trade market, and they’re among a long list of players that GMs say teams are open to trading as the February 19th deadline approaches, according Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher. Jeff Green, Brandan Wright, Lance Stephenson, Greg Monroe, Brandon Jennings, Goran Dragic, Nik Stauskas, Ben McLemore, Jason Thompson, Arron Afflalo and most of the other Nuggets are also on that list, with Bucher, in many cases, confirming earlier reports. Still, Bucher hears plenty of new rumbles, as he passes along in his piece, and we’ll hit the highlights here:
- Kings owner Vivek Ranadive unilaterally made the decision to fire former coach Michael Malone, sources tell Bucher, even though GM Pete D’Alessandro claimed the decision as his own. Most of the Kings organization was pleased with the direction the team was headed in and believed the team was overachieving, though there were doubts that Malone was the long-term solution, Bucher writes.
- Ranadive wanted to make a splash with Malone’s successor, but Kings front office executives prevailed upon him to keep Tyrone Corbin as head coach, according to Bucher. Ranadive would relish the chance to turn the screws on the Warriors, of whom he used to be a part-owner, by hiring Mark Jackson, the ex-Warriors coach, a source tells Bucher, who nonetheless believes that the team won’t hire Jackson during this season.
- Talk “circulating around the league” suggests that Pelicans owner Tom Benson is eyeing former Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and former Mavs and Nets coach Avery Johnson if he decides to make changes, Bucher writes. Still, Pelicans sources tell Bucher that the club hasn’t contacted either Dumars or Johnson, and that there are no signs that Benson is definitively displeased with either GM Dell Demps or coach Monty Williams.
- Several executives from around the league don’t believe the pair of trades the Cavs made this week assure the team of any more than a second-round appearance, according to Bucher. One exec tells Bucher that the Cavs “overinflated” the market with what they gave up for Timofey Mozgov.
Eastern Notes: Williams, Deng, Thompson
The Nets‘ Deron Williams, who is the subject of trade rumors, will be out indefinitely after an MRI revealed one of his ribs was fractured, Roderick Boone of Newsday reports. “Deron reported some soreness above this area over the weekend and as a result underwent imaging studies on Monday, which were negative,” team physician Riley Williams III said in a statement. “[Wednesday] during the game, he reported a new onset of symptoms below the prior area of soreness. New imaging studies done [Thursday] demonstrated the fracture. There is no timetable for his return.”
Here’s more from the East:
- Luol Deng is rumored to be on the trading block, with the Grizzlies a possible suitor, but despite the Heat‘s struggles this season, Deng insists he doesn’t want out of Miami, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel reports. “I’ve had no issues,” Deng said. “My whole thing I’ve been saying this year is we’ve been trying to get it right, fit everybody in. It’s never that I’m unhappy or anything. Just because they’re trade rumors, I’m not the one asking for trades.“
- Surya Fernandez of FOX Sports Florida examined a number of potentially available players with whom the Heat could upgrade their roster, including Andray Blatche, Samuel Dalembert, Tyler Johnson, Rashard Lewis, and Jameer Nelson.
- When informed that the newly acquired Timofey Mozgov would be taking his place in the Cavs‘ starting lineup, Tristan Thompson handled the news like a true team player, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. “I’ve come off the bench most of the season,” Thompson said. “Whatever it takes for us to win. [I’ll] come out and join the bench mob again. Bring the energy with myself, Delly [Matthew Dellavedova] and all the other guys so that’s a role that I embrace and I’m trying to be the X-factor.“
- One thing that J.R. Smith will miss about being with the Knicks is his friendship with Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Kernan of The New York Post writes. “I was upset that I don’t get to play with my best friend who I’ve played with for the last nine or 10 years,’’ Smith said. “We’ve been together so long and we complemented each other so well from the inside out game. Off the court too, we hung at each other’s houses.”
Atlantic Notes: Wallace, Smith, Sixers, D-League
Gerald Wallace openly criticized the Nets‘ 2013 trade with Boston, where the franchise sacrificed three first-round picks for Paul Pierce, who is no longer with the team, and Kevin Garnett, who is now a shadow of his former self, Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News writes. “It was one of those stories of a get-rich-quick scheme. You either hit it big or you don’t,” Wallace said. “They took a gamble. It backfired.”
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Nets have recalled Markel Brown and Cory Jefferson from the Maine Red Claws of the NBA D-League, the team announced. This was the initial D-League jaunt of the season for both players.
- In a statement that may not please even the most patient of Sixers fans, coach Brett Brown said that Philadelphia’s rebuilding process could take “three to five more years,” Tom Moore of Calkins Media reports (Twitter link).
- Former Knick J.R. Smith wasn’t surprised by the trade that sent him to Cleveland, but he wasn’t thrilled about the timing of it, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. “The way it was done caught me off guard, warming up and stuff like that,” Smith said. “I thought that was a poor decision and then I seen what happened to Dion Waiters where he literally got his name called for the starting lineup, [then] I thought my situation wasn’t so bad.”
- Smith also commented on the difficulties that the Knicks have had since team president Phil Jackson came aboard, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes. “Everybody in the building was pretty much walking on eggshells, so it’s kind of hard to prosper that way, especially when you’re not accustomed to it,” Smith said. “But I’m sure they’ll get it right. I mean, it’s just difficult learning a new system, a new way to play. The whole culture over there pretty much changed. I mean, a lot of guys have certain routines when they get on the court, when they don’t get on the court, and all of that was so flip-flopped and it kind of caught everybody off guard.”
- Knicks coach Derek Fisher didn’t take issue with Smith’s comments, Begley notes. “I think we’ve been very frank about the fact that everyone was learning how to work together and become a team and become a group. Whether that’s eggshells or whether that’s just getting to learn how to win just depends on the person that you’re talking to,” Fisher said.